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The first time he held your hand, it was simply to offer you help in getting up after scaling a cliff.
Your hand was obviously slightly smaller than his, considering your shorter stature. Disregarding the size though, your grip and the calluses and blisters on your fingers and palm indicated the hardships you’ve gone through. They were an indication of how hard you strived to ensure humanity’s continuation. They were the proof that you were pushing yourself beyond your limits - breaking everyone’s expectations and surpassing your own.
Yet despite all of that, it was filled with a warmth and gentleness that he felt conveyed regardless of the situation they were currently in.
***
The first time Arthur had pulled you to his side to avoid danger, he was surprised by how perfectly you fit against his frame.
But what he was surprised was your physique. Everyone always made fun of you for not being strong enough. They would tease you, that someone of your size, of your frame, would not be able to trek through certain locations. Yet you had scaled mountains, withstood snowstorms and sandstorms, crossed lands and oceans that few would ever even be able to dream of. You had proven them all wrong, and the fire that burned within you only grew stronger.
You cast your light upon others, encouraging them to follow you in your footsteps as you paved your own road. You may have been trembling at that very moment when you had a brush with death, but Arthur thought you were amazing to have burned through all of that and continued on.
***
The first time Arthur squished your cheeks was after you refused to listen to him and many other servants.
Everyone advised you to sleep, to get rest - anything if it meant that you wouldn’t push yourself beyond your limits, again. They were tired of you and your stubbornness. Arthur knew better than most of the servants that had left to this singularity with you that it was too dangerous for you to do anymore. The entire time he had lectured and nagged at you, repeating the same things that Merlin would say to him, he had squished and rubbed circles into your cheeks teasingly. Little did he realize that he was enjoying the sensation of your squishy cheeks, and you were relaxing from the circular movements he was creating.
Nonetheless, the warmth that spread over both of your cheeks was one to remember for days.
***
The first time he got to hold you in his arms was during a banquet.
Your hands had fit so perfectly in his hands, and his arm rested comfortably on your waist. It was too perfect, an ideal that physically could not be real. Yet here you two were, lost in each other’s eyes while swaying to the music. All he could think of and sense was you. Your perfume, the slightly hitched breath as you stumbled to calm yourself, and how you would nervously glance at him and then away. And though he wanted nothing more than to get lost in your gaze, he too felt the warmth that seemed to suffocate and fill him.
At that point, he wasn’t sure what to do, but all he knew was that he wanted more.
***
Now on these cold wintry days in Chaldea, the sole master in charge of saving humanity can be found curled up against a certain saber in bed. Their fingers would be intertwined with each other’s sharing a warmth that only the two of them could savor together.