This prompt is based off two characters in one of my stories who’s situation is created due to the world they are in, a world I did not create though both characters are mine. In their line of work one of the most important rules seems to be don’t fall in love. It is unclear in the original series if this is don’t fall in love at all or if you are simply forbidden from falling in love with specific people. When I made these characters I went with the first idea.
When you first meet the younger of these two characters he is having a hard time keeping everything in his life running. He’s been around for over a century and a half and for the last few decades he has been basically doing the job of two people after being assigned to work with a not so young woman who had lost her ability to use certain powers they both should have had access to.
As for her she has around four centuries under her belt and a lot more experience with her powers than he does. She is good at what she does and she has a lot of people who depend on her even after she lost the ability to use a rather important power. And that is why he was assigned to help her. Those in charge made a decision that it was more important to keep her working if they could than it was him, so he is sent to aid her which creates a weird power dynamic between them.
He has the power, but she has the experience. It’s not as if his century plus on the job is worthless, just not worth as much as hers. Most likely at first he did resent her for this, but by the time you meet him in my story, that is long past.
Decades of working in close quarters have brought the two of them close. In fact they are so close that she is pregnant with their child. Considering the ever important rule about not falling in love, this is a problem and under normal circumstances far more dire than either of them know. Had certain things not worked out in their favor, they would all be dead, but someone who knew her as a child found out about this situation far enough in advance that he was able to do something to protect them all.
As you might be able to tell, I quite like these characters. After rereading what I have of their story, I think I like them even more and since they are my characters, that’s probably a good thing. If I don’t like them, how is anyone else supposed to. My liking them doesn’t guarantee other people will like them, but if not even their creator likes them, well, they doomed.
In the prompt itself, I tried to keep gender out of it. Technically I also didn’t state that it has to be a romantic love, though I certainly meant for it to mean that. If you can see a way to use it for a different kind of love and you want to, by all means do. If you want to tell this story of two people who love each other, whatever kind of love that might be, who are not supposed to, I would love to hear how you use the prompt. What is their relationship like? And what was the power that one of them loss that causes trouble for them?
