disillusioned knight!Sabo x highborn!reader - the two of you grew up together, in as much of the way a sheltered lady of your standing could with the son of one of your father’s loyal guards.
His path was always to be your knight, the loyal protector of your lovely, gilded world; how eager the two of you had been for that future.
The rebellion had been but a little blip to you, 3 months that were filled with annoyance, disappointment, and loneliness; your newly knighted childhood friend sent off and all the balls and festivities that were supposed to happen when you came of age canceled due to the unruliness happening in the capital.
3 months that were easily forgotten with your father’s confident, easy words, the continued splendor of your life and the swift return of your beloved knight-now fully able to be your most loyal companion.
His smile just as lovely as you had remembered, perhaps even more so now. Everything just as it should be.
But, for Sabo, that so called ‘fleeting rebellion’, the ‘spring craze’ your father and the other nobles laughed about over wine, had been so much more than that.
Those 3 months were blood, fire, death, and cruelty. So much cruelty. Innocent lives trod down upon, men he thought were admirable and honorable no different than the disturbing monsters of childhood tales he had once swore to slay for you.
Those 3 months were perhaps the longest of his life and by the end, he had carved for himself a new path. One of coded letters and secret comrades, carefully planned infiltrations, assassinations, and fire.
The mark of the rebels might not been inked upon his skin yet but it was tucked away safely in that locket you had gifted him during one of his name days back when he was a naive, starry-eyed squire, the locket that always pressed against his chest, his heart.
He returned to you, yes, and perhaps he still loved you. But your world will burn.