One shots

KOTLC Oneshot 5: Grizel and Sander

This was requested by @THATglitterstars here on Wattpad. I hope you like it! As always, I don't own the characters. Happy reading loves!

Sander had always known his duty. His job as a bodyguard came first, and everything else was secondary. He wasn't meant to get attached—no matter how much time he spent watching over Sophie, no matter how often he found himself arguing with her stubborn streak. And especially not when a certain other goblin kept invading his thoughts.

Grizel.

She was everything he was not. Bold, teasing, unpredictable. She didn't just take her job seriously—she enjoyed it, treating every moment like a chance to prove herself. She had the skill to back up her confidence, too, a fact she reminded him of far too often.

"You're getting slow, Sander," she had said the last time they sparred. He still felt the sting of her wooden practice sword against his ribs.

"You cheated," he had grumbled, earning nothing but a sharp grin in return.

"Because you let me."

Maybe that was the problem. He wasn't supposed to let anyone in, but Grizel had a way of breaking through his defenses. It didn't help that she seemed to enjoy making him flustered. Every time she called him "sweetheart" or winked at him across Havenfield's grounds, he could feel his carefully controlled exterior slipping.

But Sander was not interested in romance. He was a warrior. A protector. Not some fool who let emotions cloud his judgment.

So why did it bother him so much when Grizel started pulling away?

It wasn't obvious at first. She was still Grizel, still taunting him during training and making sarcastic comments whenever Sophie or Keefe did something reckless. But there was a distance now, a hesitance that had never been there before.

She stopped calling him sweetheart.

At first, Sander tried to tell himself it didn't matter. Maybe she had just gotten bored of the joke. Maybe she had realized he wasn't interested.

Except he was interested. And that was the problem.

So he did what any responsible goblin would do: he ignored it.

Until one night, when he found her alone at the training grounds, her usual smirk replaced with something quieter, something almost... sad.

"Are we really doing this?" he asked, stepping closer.

Grizel glanced up at him, her dark eyes unreadable. "Doing what?"

"Pretending like nothing's wrong."

She huffed a laugh, shaking her head. "You're imagining things."

"No, I'm not." He crossed his arms, holding her gaze. "Did I do something?"

For a long moment, she said nothing. Then, with a sigh, she turned away, staring out at the moonlit field. "We're bodyguards, Sander."

"Obviously."

She shot him a look, but there was no real heat behind it. "We're supposed to be focused on our jobs. And if we... if I let myself get distracted—"

"You think I'm a distraction?" He hadn't meant for his voice to sound so gruff, but the words stung more than he expected.

Grizel exhaled sharply, running a hand through her short silver hair. "I think I'm starting to care too much."

Sander stared at her, his brain short-circuiting for a second. "That's a bad thing?"

"It is when it makes me hesitate," she said, her voice quieter now. "When I'm with you, I don't feel like a warrior first. And that's dangerous."