💚: how does my muse feel about love? about falling in love? about being in love?
In his younger days Antolio despised the idea of love, he thought it was all one set up to inevitable failure like he had seen in his own family. He has only taken the chance on romantic love twice, the first being with Lantha. When it came to falling in love romantically in his younger days, he was a bundle of sweaty nerves, his mind would work double time to function, and he would blush constantly. With Lantha, he was a mess of teenage ego, but the two had a deep friendship that helped the two to navigate the complexities of young love. After he intially thought Lantha passed, he swore he'd never love again, since he had worked hard to know and love her. He began to entirely avoided most women all together... Which is where things got tricky for Lio.
Lio had never thought about any real preferances, he fell in love with Lantha, and that was that. He stopped talking to most women when she was gone to be safe, because he thought that would keep him in the clear, after all he never imagined himself with anyone after her.
But when he laid eyes on Kravitz him mind when static. Battle nerves, he chalked it up to a silly banter of course, he was just full of adrenaline, and thats why his heart pounded in his chest. Right? But when he laid in his bed after having fought with the reaper, his brain replayed that same silly banter, over and over. After a few long, hard, confusing days for him he caved and sat down with his friends, when he brought up Kravitz, and a date, it sounded more like a joke when he said it out loud. But when he asked Kravitz for some of his time it felt hard, and scary. In his head he was screaming "god he's beautiful", and he started wondering stupid things like "how do I look from a 6ft perspective?". Falling in love with Kravitz was like sailing on the open sea with only the stars to guide him. It felt entirely different then with Lantha, since they already had a bond and mutual understanding. Plus he had grown since his time in Cape Shipwright, he wasn't a young man sailing out to war anymore. It was all so new again, he hadn't even considered his biggest threat to his no-love pact would be a tall, handsome reaper.
After they began dating, Antolio treasured Kravitz, he felt waves of relief coming home to him, he loved how serious conversations seemed to be second nature to Kravitz, and how unserious he would get when hw finally relaxed. Lio learned to brew tea just right, Kravitz learned to be more patient, the two felt like mismatched cutlery some days, but by some fate (thank you Istus) they seemed to be a destined pair. He stopped looking at love as the thing that like with Lantha, could make him weak. After all, Kravitz was already dead, and likely one of the strongest opponents he ever faced. When the two went to pick up Pearls in Thunderbay he was reminded of a love he lost, family. This new found familial love made the two even stronger and made Lio so warm and happy.
Lio loved to be in love, Lio adores the bonds he made, his friends were worth so much more than gold to him and his daughter and boyfriend were his anchor.