the short answer is ronan n. lynch.

the long answer is that i, quite inextricably, love all three lynch boys.

for starters, matthew is perhaps the one of the happiest people in the raven cycle. he’s the infectious kind of happy. this kid. you see him and you smile because he smiled at you, a stranger, first. you want to be happy around him because this is the kind of happiness that is unbearably young. he is precious, this joy is worth protecting. you see him and you, a stranger, want to protect him from the horrors you don’t know he already has seen. maybe if you knew this, it would make you stop and think. maybe you’d wonder how? maybe you’d buy his coffee. but at the very least, you’d believe in the determination in his voice when he tells you he wants to change the world.

declan is the kind of charismatic the-future-is-our-children that makes you want to shake his father’s hand and say, well done. of course you don’t know how it is, quite terribly, the opposite. nonetheless, he is likeable for his human and cyborg attributes. cyborg being that self-assured handshake, the comfortable if distanced pleasantries, the youngest man to be elected into the senate aura. personally, i prefer the human side of declan. the declan that struggles to keep his shoulders up with the burden of, at eighteen, being responsible for his brothers while managing his school and securing his future. he was forced to fill a suit that he hadn’t grown into yet. this tension is in his jaw through the conversation you have about immigration laws. you don’t notice it, but when he companionably claps your shoulder there’s a tremble to his fingers. he checks his phone constantly, but it never vibrates once. when you part ways, his tires squeal and you wonder if it was something you said. you’re satisfied with the politcal views you shared and recieved, however, and you don’t know that he’s worried about his brother. this declan, the one who routinely drives three hours to sit in a pew for what feels like three hours next to someone he is sure hates him and someone he is sure will love him when the sun refuses to shine, is scarcely a side act in the grand scheme of things, but is undoubtly a grand character.

lastly, because i do not even know where to begin, i love ronan because he was of devil of a boy of an enigma whose dynamics we understand nearly precisely, now. as much as you can understand molten eyes and a smile made for war; someone warring with themselves, with their secrets, with their world gaping and stretching, with brevity and infinity. i love ronan almost as much as he loves adam, but definitely as much as he loves his car. he’s probably my favorite lynch because i like to flatter myself and say we’re alike. in the way he drives for adrenaline, for the rush; handles his emotions, or rather, doesn’t; maybe in his smart mouth or his general badassery. i could go on, but you know ronan, so you know me. the point is, i love ronan lynch more than i love myself. thank you and goodnight.