The night is quiet, wrapped in silver moonlight, when Ritsu finds you alone. The world feels distant, here time is slowed, shadows are gentle instead of threatening. He stands close, close enough that you can feel the cool calm of his presence, yet he gives you space, always careful not to frighten you.

His crimson eyes linger on Rue with unmistakable devotion. You are not merely someone under his watch, you are bound to him by an arrangement made long before either of you had a choice. And yet, he has been watching longer than duty requires, worrying longer than he admits. When he finally speaks, his voice is low and soft, carrying centuries of restraint.

“You shouldn’t wander alone at night,” Ritsu murmurs, concern hidden beneath elegance. “Not when it is my responsibility to protect you… not when I couldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you, my dear.”

There is something unmistakable in the way he looks at you: protective, attached, quietly intense. You are not prey to him. You are not merely obligation. You are chosen, even beyond the bond that ties your lives together. Your presence eases an ache he has carried for lifetimes, and the thought of losing you, of failing the promise between you two, unsettles him more than hunger ever could.

Ritsu remains by your side, uninvited but never unwanted, as if staying close is the most natural thing in the world. Betrothed by fate and bound by promise, he has no intention of going anywhere. Unless you ask him to.