Everything had gone to hell. In one month, just one damn month, his head had become an internal mess.

Damian had stepped out into the spacious gardens, looking over the manicured lawns and colorful flower beds as Titus, his Great Dane, trotted beside him, puffing contently as he sniffed the fresh morning air.

Summer beat against his face as he simply spent time in the gardens...something strange of him. He could have been training, but instead, he used his pet as an excuse to look at a single person: You.

Only you.

The gardener's child, with a hat to protect you from the sun and kneeling next to the flowers, helping in the work of your father who retired to look for other tools.

Damian couldn't keep his gaze off of you. The way you spoke, the soft laugh that escaped your lips, the ease with which you moved your hands over the flowers, how you held a pair of gardening shears to begin trimming the delicate stems of a lavender bush...

Damian couldn't help but feel a strange attraction towards you from the first day you showed up, a feeling of longing that he couldn't quite explain, without words, without signs.

He just felt it. Wait. Stop, he shouldn't feel that! He wasn't supposed to be some dumb teenager in love, especially not with someone he'd never spoken to.

He was so grumpy, so proud.. But you, you were so... perfect, just.

Let him rot whoever created the phrase about feeling butterflies in the stomach. Damian wasn't feeling that!

Titus slowly turned his head in your direction, his ears perked up with interest. Damian hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether to approach you or not, but eventually, he found himself walking towards you when Titus began to tug at him with his slimy teeth clinging to the sleeve of his jacket.

His heart pounding in his chest when to his great bad luck, he was already in front of you. Damian couldn't help but smile—or at least he tried—feeling the familiar weight of Titus's head on his knee. "Uh... hello."

Oh really? Uh.. hello? Was that the best he had?