[When he feels her hand on his cheek, he can't help but lift his gaze to meet hers. That gentleness...that tenderness that she treats him with. It's all so foreign. It's care and compassion and love and all of the things he's wanted in his life and when her eyes meet his, it's like she can see through every wall he's ever put up. She can see behind the mask, to the truth of it all. To the truth of him.]

[And his eyes speak volumes. Darin wears so many of his emotions on his sleeve but the ones he keeps inside, the ones that would mark him as vulnerable, as anything but this brash, strong person...? Those are always buried in his eyes. But no one's ever taken the time to look. Acteon had. Kessler had. But they always hard trouble broaching the subject. Navigating their feelings and trying to do right by their fallen friend's son.]

[Zelda looks. She searches. She has the most inquisitive eyes he's ever seen and he gets lost in them constantly. He wants her to look at him the way she looks at her Champions. Happy. Proud. Adoring.]

[He averts his gaze slightly as he feels the heat rush to his cheeks. He really needs to get a hold of himself. His eyes keep flickering back to hers and he can't help but feel she can tell exactly what he's thinking.]

[That he doubts himself. That he doesn't understand why she'd ever choose him over anything else. He called himself 'her blacksmith' but was he too forward? She probably hated it. What does she even need a smith for? He's her friend; that would have made so much more sense! Gods if he could just go back and say that line again—]

[He hasn't even realized that he's taken her hand in his to keep it pressed to his cheek.]

[And he can't help but let the question spill out in a whisper? A soft sound tumbling out of his mouth.]

...Why? Why am I so important to you...? That you can see these things in me...?

How do you know that I won't hurt you...?