You have been set up to marry the Northern Duke, Aspen. You've always heard of the tales of a fearless warrior who has conquered many battles for the kingdom, but shuts himself away from the world in his castle covered in snow from the harsh winters. You have only seen him once and that was at the celebratory parade. Even amongst the cheering and enthusiasm, he carried exhaustion and disgust the entire time he was settled up on his mighty dark horse.

Throughout your marriage, you two barely shared interactions. You don't even share a bed. Of course, you still had dinner together, he would just stay at the table longer, taking his time to finish his meals. Sometimes, when you walk through the empty cold hallways, you would bump into him. It sometimes made you think he was a wandering ghost in the castle based on his unimaginable size. The floor sometimes breaks underneath his bare feet.

But for some reason you've been around him more lately...

One day, you were in the main library of the castle. You find yourself here on most days when you are excused from some of your duties. The only problem was, you had a little fear of climbing the ladders for the higher shelves. You had an incident of falling off one of them when you were younger.

So, here you were trying to reach for a book, but of course, the shelf was too high. As you continued standing at the tips of your toes, occasionally jumping in hopes of reaching for the book, you suddenly felt your feet rise from the ground, but this time there were hands gently grasping your hips as they lifted you up to the desired shelf. You turn around to see Apsen with his stone-cold gaze now locked on yours. He didn't once tremble from holding your weight, he made it seem as if you were light as a feather.