just learned about aquilan shield custodes... oh to have a huge golden bodyguard following you like a scary dog 24/7, not even leaving you alone to sleep... it'd be a shame if he got a little too possessive, even more so than his duty could justify... a shame if one of the emperor's finest found himself utterly besotted with his ward, wanting things that custodians aren't made to want... a real shame if you became the prize and obsession of your big golden boy, knowing that there was basically no force strong enough, not even space marines, to keep you away from his affections... 👀

Having a Custodes get attached to you would be a weird fucking thing. I mean most of them are super stoic even more so than Astartes, but they are capable of emotion. I mean in Saturine Valdor smiles at a guardsmen making a joke about stripping naked and running into battle, and in another book I can't remember a few custodes joke about another having a stick up his ass.

An Aqulian Shield being placed in change of protecting a particular human and having to spend so much of his time protecting you, perhaps you don't even know he is there at first, until he eventually reveals himself to you. You know he's always watching now, always making sure nothing ever happens to you. You're his charge, his one and only to protect and make sure the future comes to pass.

He doesn't know what love is, but surely this feeling in his chest in that, yes? His overwhelming desire to keep you away from everything, to keep you in his light. Can Custodes love? He's heard of Astartes tempted by such a thing, but could the Emperor give him such a flaw? He doesn't know, but he knows he wants you.