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Language:
English
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Published:
2025-07-24
Updated:
2025-10-14
Words:
48,129
Chapters:
16/?
Comments:
34
Kudos:
158
Bookmarks:
17
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3,155

Where the Crown Cannot Follow

Summary:

Grian is a prince.
Raised on ceremony and silence, groomed for rule, watched from birth. He wears his crown like a burden, his smile like armor. But at night, he slips away — just a boy in the shadows, chasing something he can’t name.

Scar is a town boy.
A woodcarver with sun-warmed laughter and pockets full of stories. He builds joy with his hands, lives wide open, and never meant to fall for someone untouchable.

But fall he did.

They meet in secret — garden walls, quiet alleys, windchimes singing softly in the dark. In stolen moments, they are almost free. Almost enough. Almost real.

But a crown cannot follow where love has led.

Not without breaking.

Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter Text

Prologue


They said the prince never smiled in court.

Not the kind of smile that reached the eyes, anyway. He had the polite one, the distant one, the one carved for portraits and parades. But there was another smile — rare, real, unpracticed — and Scar had seen it. Once. In a rain-slick alley behind the baker’s, where the wind carried the scent of cinnamon and secrets. That was the night Scar stopped calling him “Your Highness,” and started calling him something else entirely: his.