Aro Week: Smith

 

It's Aro Week! I'm going to spend it talking about some of my published aromantic characters.

Today: Smith from

Catch the World's Desire (out later this year): Star-crossed lovers makes a grand tale, but when it's over, someone has to pick up the pieces. That 'someone' is usually Rhoda.

Smith (Sometimes called Hephaestus, Vulcan, or Weyland) is thoughtful, patient, determined, and hard-working. He is a crafter, and sees everything through that lense, whether it's crafting a relationship, a necklace, or the hinge for a door. Married to Rhoda, and foster parent to all the hurt, grieving, and traumatised kids that pass through their family, Smith is the calm centre of things. Demi-romantic and asexual, he's more interested in building relationships slowly and surely into something that lasts, than in falling in love at first sight.

A short sample: Smith barely looked up when Rhoda stalked into his forge. Instead, his focus remained on the fire as he worked the bellows and coaxed the coals to the temperature he wanted.

"I need to work off some frustration," she said, twisting her long hair up into a thoroughly practical, but no less beautiful, bun. She slipped a leather apron over her dress and looked up. "What can you offer?"