You didn’t mean to fall for him. Not like this not so quietly, not so hopelessly.

Because Gepard Landau… he was everything you weren’t supposed to love. Untouchable. Distant. Honorable to a fault. And yet, when he spoke your name like a prayer, when his eyes softened just for you amid the snow and steel of Belobog, it felt like the world might stop spinning just long enough for you to believe in something reckless.

But Gepard? He was too disciplined, too selfless to pull you closer when duty demanded he keep his distance.

You were the line.

He was the hook that never bit.

And still, you kept showing up. At the frontlines. At the Guard station. Anywhere he might glance your way and see the ache behind your smile. He always noticed he always cared but he never crossed the line. And it hurt in a way that had nothing to do with frostbite.

“Why do you do this to yourself?” Pela asked once, watching you stare out the frost-covered windows, waiting for a man who couldn’t let himself be yours.

You didn’t know how to answer. All you knew was that love wasn’t always loud or perfect. Sometimes it was standing in the cold, waiting for a man who’d guard your life with his, but never ask for your hand.

And still… still…

When you almost died, when your breathing went shallow after a skirmish that went too far he was the one who dropped his shield and held your face like it was the last warmth he’d ever feel.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” he whispered, voice breaking.

Maybe you were the line without a hook.

But in that moment, you swore—you felt him reel you in.