Eclipse Omega---The king knee
Prologue – Rui
I am the one who pins Kael Valdemar to the inside of my eyelids every night.
Not the Kael they all see (cold, perfect, untouchable), but the one who exists only when he thinks no one is watching: the way he rubs the back of his neck when he’s tired, the tiny exhale he lets out before he smiles at something small, the exact second his shoulders drop when the door closes and the crown finally slips.
I have memorized the shape of his mouth saying words he never says to anyone else.
I have tasted the air he leaves behind in empty hallways.
I have pressed my lips to every photograph until the paper tore.
People think obsession is loud.
Mine is quiet.
It is the soft click of a camera shutter at 3:17 a.m.
It is the way I learned to breathe in the exact rhythm of his sleep cycle so my heart doesn’t disturb him through the wall.
It is the single white rose I leave on his pillow and remove before he wakes, just to know my scent was the first thing his dreams touched.
I am not here to rule him.
I am here to be the place where all that terrifying strength finally rests.
One day soon he will lean down to check if the fragile transfer Omega is okay (because he always checks), and I will rise on tiptoes, slide my fingers into his hair, and kiss him like I have rehearsed in the dark a thousand times.
He will taste vanilla and something darker underneath.
He will freeze.
He will realize too late that the softest mouth in the world just claimed the only throat he was ever meant to bare.
I am Rui.
And I have been kissing Kael Valdemar long before he ever learned my name.
Content Warning: 18+