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It was snowing outside and you watched through the window as the snowflakes fell in delicate swirls outside, blanketing your corner of Linkon in a quiet kind of winter magic. The streetlights had just turned on, casting a golden glow against the dark empty street. You stood in the living room alone, watching the snowfall in silence, lost to your thoughts.
The sound of familiar steps approaching you from behind made you smiling to yourself, nearly purring in pleasure as you felt Zayne’s strong arms wrap around you, slipping beneath yours as he pulled you into his chest. He rubbed his chin gently over the top of your head, his body radiating a welcome heat against yours, protecting you from the winter chill in the air. Your hands trailed over his forearms, fingers traced over the scars along his hands, feeling the soft fabric of his sweater, letting yourself sink away into the steady warmth of him.
He rocked you in his arms, a slow lulling rhythm, and your body went lax as he held you.
“What are you thinking about?” he whispered after a moment, breaking the quiet atmosphere.
Instead of answering immediately you closed your eyes, letting yourself fall into the gentle movement. The snowfall, the quiet music playing in the background, the glow of the fireplace, the slow swaying of your bodies - all of it made the moment feel suspended in time, like a scene from a fairy tale, which pulled you back to your earlier musings.
“I was thinking about a story from when I was little,” you began, voice soft. “It was about a little fairy princess who fell in love with a quiet emperor. He was greatly feared by the members of his court due to his stern face, and so he had no friends. Despite this, he took great care of his people. At the end of every day, after all his meetings and important work, the emperor would retire to sit in his garden alone. The fairy princess would watch as he tended to the flowers and she fell in love with his gentle nature. One day, when she finally worked up the nerve to show herself to him…”
Your voice trailed off, the words slipping into the crackling of the fire.
Zayne gave you a small squeeze and pressed a kiss to the side of your head, his nose brushing against your ear as he breathed you in. You giggled at the sensation, squirming against him, but he only chuckled and tightened his arms around you, holding you even closer.
“What happens next?” he asked, and you could hear the smile in his voice.
“I forgot…” you admitted with a sheepish smile of your own, tilting your head to smile up at him.
He hummed, his chest vibrating softly against your back. “Well… why don’t you make it up now, then?”
You thought for a moment, then smiled again, snuggling deeper into his arms. “Hm, I think she’d wait until nighttime, when the moon is high in the sky and he’s alone, sitting by the water and the flowers. Then, she would appear to him, perched on one of the blossoms just as he went to tend to it.”
A smile played at Zayne’s lips as he placed them against your temple. “That sounds beautiful… and then what happened?”
You tilted your head back slightly, glancing up at him. “Well… what do you think would happen next?”
He exhaled slowly, resting his chin atop your head again, considering your story. “I think,” he began, his thoughtful voice resounding through you, “ that he would fall in love with her at first sight. And once he felt what it was like to receive the warmth of her smile, he would realize that she had been there with him in that garden all along - watching over him, sharing that very same warmth with him. That he hadn’t ever been alone at all.”
Your breath caught at the reverence in his words, at the way they settled so deeply within you, wrapping around your heart, so much more than just a kids fairy tale.
You turned in his arms, tilting your face up to his. His arms lifted as you went, slipping around your shoulders, and you brought your hands up wrap around his neck, holding him close.
He dipped his head down, resting his forehead against yours. Neither one of you spoke or moved, enjoying the closeness, the love in the air.
“And then,” he murmured, barely above a whisper, “he’d pick her up, just like this - ”
Before you could react, he scooped you up and into his arms, drawing a startled laugh from your lips as you clung to him. Instinctively you locked your legs around his waist, still giggling.
Zayne carried you off, presumably to his bedroom, easily, his grip confident and familiar, as he had done this 100 times before and probably would 100 times again.
“And he would take her home with him,” he continued, entrancing you now, casting his own winter magic right here inside your home, “and they’d spend every day from then on tending to their garden, together.”
Your arms tightened around his neck as you laid your head against his shoulder, memorizing the steady rise and fall of his breathing, the sound of his heartbeat.
“Together?” you echoed, your own voice full of emotion, an unspoken but unnecessary question hanging in the air.
Zayne pressed a gentle kiss to the crown of your head, his lips lingering as he whispered, “Always.”