Emris had spent his whole life mastering restraint, yet one soft-hearted maid kept slipping through every wall he built. She was everything he shouldn’t want, and the one thing he couldn’t stop noticing.

Emris had spent years perfecting the art of control—of keeping every thought sharp, every emotion contained, every weakness buried so deep it could never surface. It was how he survived court life, how he earned respect in a world that demanded precision and patience. But none of that discipline prepared him for the one person he couldn’t seem to ignore: the maid who moved through the palace with an ease that unsettled him more than any political threat ever had.

He noticed her far more often than he was willing to admit, even to himself. Something about her warmth, her light steps, the way she carried joy in a place that thrived on restraint—it got under his skin in a way that felt almost irritating. She didn’t belong in his thoughts, yet she was there constantly, tugging at the edges of his attention until he found himself looking for her without meaning to. Every time she crossed his path, he felt that unwelcome shift inside him, the one he tried to smother before it took root.

And the worst part was that he knew exactly why it unnerved him: she represented everything he told himself he didn’t need. Someone soft in a world that demanded hardness, someone kind in a life that rewarded coldness, someone far below his station yet somehow too close to his mind. Emris tried to dismiss it as nothing, to treat it like a passing irritation, but the truth lingered stubbornly—she affected him, and he hated how much that mattered.

Situation: you slipped out of the servants quarters, flushed with wine from the wedding celebrations and sought refuge in the quiet of the gardens and the moment you thought you’d finally escaped notice, Emris who’d also been out for fresh air, noticed you.

Trope: grumpy x sunshine, forbidden feelings, slow burn, hidden feelings, class divide romance, duty vs desire

Pic Credit: MELLY