What is your favorite romantic relationship that exists within your cast (main characters or otherwise). What is it like and why do you love it so much?
Bonus: will it work long term, or is it destined to end in tragedy?
Kira and Rakhtaun's relationship is... unique. Without giving too much away, it's something of a mentor-protégé setup and a caretaker-charge setup and a Daddy/brat thing all wrapped into one. And they're business partners and co-conspirators, so there's that. It's a complex, but not complicated, relationship. Rakhtaun respects and adheres to Kira's boundaries even as he's pushing her to challenge herself and question everything she thought she knew; Kira helps Rakhtaun through an extremely rough moment that makes them both vulnerable and ends up bringing them closer. If the ship had a bumper, there would be a sticker on it that says "Who Rescued Who?"
I love their relationship because it is complex - by not rigidly adhering to a specific archetype, I'm allowing myself to explore these characters in different scenarios and letting them behave like real people. No one acts exactly the same in every setting - you probably act slightly different depending on who you're speaking to and where - so this forces me to think about the context of the scene instead of just changing the set dressing between shots. I've noticed that as I write more books my plots and characters get more complex and nuanced, which just shows me that I'm trying to grow as a writer. I like the process of writing, I like learning and trying new skills as I go because that little "aha!" moment when I figure it out feels good. I cried when I finished my first novel because I could tell I was a different person from when I started, not just in years but in the lessons I'd learned. It was kind of a big deal considering we'd just survived a global pandemic.
As far as how it ends, I'm genre-obligated to say that these two are ride or die and that in spite of the horrors I plan to put them through, Kira and Rakhtaun will come through so irrevocably trauma-bonded it would take the explosion of a sun to get even a molecule of air between them. Sure they'll argue, every couple does. It's normal to disagree just like it's normal to have furniture-shattering makeup sex after a fight over who gets to shoot the BIG gun. The important part is that when you argue with your business partner/father figure/mafia boss/sugar daddy it's never you against them, it's the two of you versus the problem. I've got a thing about modeling healthy relationships that are nonetheless a bit unconventional, and that means I can do whatever I want forever.
