11.

Love was something neither suddenly realised, nor gradually incubated. It was an ever-present connection that neither one explicitly expressed, but conveyed silently through exchanged glances. It was two months into their relationship before she worked up the courage to tell him. He reciprocated; his legs shaking.

12.

As hard as such a high maintenance girlfriend was to live with, it was much harder without her. He lies on her old bed staring blankly at Merry's ceiling, growing horribly sick of the knots in the wood that he aimlessly studies hour after sleepless hour. The room that had once been filled with words he could have used to compose a sonnet, was now ambiguously empty, as though she had never once graced it with her presence.

13.

When he re-introduces himself as the masked hero, she's overcome with conflicting emotions. For now she remains a perfect portrait of calm; she will later take him aside, her heart screaming as she fiercely scolds him and tenderly caresses him until he promises that he'll never leave again.

14.

While she wasn't much of a fan of roleplay, she finds herself enjoying the moments when he dons his disguise and plays the part of the dominant partner; strong and passionate until she slips off his mask and he looses his confidence. And she takes over.

15.

Tip-toeing past glamourised truths, he spares her empty sentiments for fear of sounding insincere. He does not tell her stories of red haired princesses, blonde, sickly maidens or long nosed princes, instead he tells her that he has never before loved anyone in this way, to which the red haired princess proclaims his declaration suffice with an embrace.