AND SO IT BEGINS TO BEGIN AGAIN.

[therealkaichan]

First Chapter


Stephane opened his eyes, and sadly realized that he was still exactly where he had been last night, sandwiched between Lady Melikov and the Prince, and in a very advanced state of undress. Ever since becoming the Prince’s Knight, these mornings had become more common than he liked or cared to admit, and the more it happened the more he grew used to them.

He sighed and moved a little, trying to avoid waking the Lady up, and he heard another sigh from behind him. The Prince was awake.

“Stephane?”
“Yes, Prince?”
“I want to leave. I want to go back to my room.”
“Of course, Prince.”

Stephane was quick to get up and put his pants and underwear back on. Once done, he walked back to the bed, to help the Prince up. With the Prince already dressed, there was nothing to do but leave. He opened the door to let him trough, and followed wordlessly.

The Prince’s room was as clean and large as ever, and Stephane just thought that he would never really get used to it. He told himself that it was because he saw the other room far more often, but he wasn’t quite sure if that was the full reason.

The Prince walked to one of the fancy chairs, and dropped there with a heavy huff. Seeing that, Stephane walked to the small bar wordlessly, to fill a glass with water.

“What should we do with the Lady Melikov?”
“I don’t care, I hate her, drop her off a bridge for all I care.”
“I will return her to her house then.”
“Whatever you want.”
“Good.” The Knight smiled, coming back to offer the half full glass to the Prince, who took it with a frown.
“Are you leaving now?”
“Once you dismiss me, of course.”
“I hate Sundays.”
“I quite enjoy them.” Stephane grinned, kneeling to start undoing the shoelaces of the Prince’s boots. “I get to laze around and I can check on my sisters or my old classmates.”
“And you don’t have to put up with me.”
“That too.” The Knight’s grin only widened a bit at that, as he removed the first boot. “It’s incredible how relaxing it is.”
“And how about her?”
“Her?”
“Your fiancee. Don’t you spend time with her?”
“I do, but I don’t care much about her.” Stephane moved to continue undoing the shoelaces of the second boot.
“She should just kick you out.”
“She knows how I feel. My work comes first.” The Knight shrugged a bit.
“See? This is why I would love being a female. I could marry you, and you would make a terrible Regent.”
“And a terrible husband as well.”
“And still, it would be easier than finding a suitable wife.”
“Who knows.” The second boot joined the first one in a corner, and Stephane made sure of removing both socks before letting his fingers carefully massage the soles of the Prince’s feet.

“Stephane?” The Knight knew very well that tone.
“Yes?”
“Was it my fault?”
“It wasn’t, you were a pretty big asshole to her. I would’ve slapped the hell out of you in her place.”
“Then? Why do they keep on doing the same? I’m tired, Stephane.”
“I know you are, but things aren’t always easy.”
“Don’t give me that!”
“It’s but the truth. I’m not sure what else you want me to say.”
“Nothing is ever easy for me!”

The sound of the glass shattering against the floor was the only thing that could be heard, and after that there was only silence, as they stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

“You are being childish, Alain.”
“I don’t care, shut up.”
“Yes, my Prince.”

The Prince got up from his chair, to pick up the shattered pieces, but before he could even kneel Stephane was already there to stop him.
“I can do it, Stephane.”
“In your state you will only hurt yourself.”
“I’m not a child. Stop treating me like one.”
“I’m not. But my duty is to take care of you, and this includes these things.”
“Fine.”

Alain moved back to the chair, quietly, watching Stephane pick up the shards of glass. The maids would take care of the wet carpet later in the day, but he really didn’t care about that.

“Stephane.”
“Yes, Prince?”
Silence.
“It’s nothing.”

The Knight smiled. He knew well what that meant.

“Stephane.”
“Yes?”
“Help me with my bindings.”
“Of course.”

Stephane had gone trough quite a bit of drama to win the doubtful privilege of being one of the few persons who could help the Prince change in and out of his clothes. It made sense that they would be so wary of that of course, considering the Prince had been born a female and females weren’t allowed to inherit the Regency, but still it was strange all in all.

Not that anything were much normal when you worked with Alain, he told himself as he helped the Prince out of his jacket and shirt so he could undo the bandages. They both worked in silence in changing him out of the semi formal clothes and into his usual pajamas, and once done, Stephane stepped back to let the Prince walk to the bed.

“Do you think things will change soon?”
“Who knows.”
“It’s a stupid question I suppose.”
“A bit, but you’ve done worse.”
“I’m not even in the mood to get angry at you.”
“I don’t mind that. You should rest.”
“I will.”

Stephane walked back to the door, waiting to either be dismissed or for new orders.
“This is good. You may leave.”
“Rest well, Alain, I will see you on Monday.”
“Good night.”


The Knight opened the door to show himself out of the room without ever looking back. As he walked to the other room, he sighed. He had a long day ahead, first returning Lady Melikov to her parents, where he would have to apologize for her late return even when the parents had initially been the ones who wanted their daughter to spend a night at the Prince’s chambers. Next he’d go back home, where Rose Anne would probably chew him up for staying all night unless he remembered to bring a present for her as an apology. And only then he’d be able to do what he usually did on Sundays.

It wasn’t exactly his idea of a good weekend, especially the part that included a fiancee full of complaints, but it was better than having to put up with Council meetings and any other Sunday activities that Alain decided on. As much as he complained, the Prince was a true workaholic, always making sure to stay involved in whatever parts of the Regency politics he decided to work on.

His phone rang taking him out of his thoughts, and he picked up without checking who it was.
“Yes?”
“Stephane!” That voice Stephane knew well, it was Brynne, the youngest out of his five sisters.
“Hello Brynne. Isn’t it a little too early?
“Maybe. But I wanted to help!”
“Are you checking my route?”
“Already did.” Her giggles showed just how amused she really was. Brynne had been the lucky sister in their family, having been born with the ability to see the Currents of Causality. She had always been a natural at that, but ever since she started her training course in one of the schools under the Ministry of Forthcoming Affairs she also started making this kind of calls.
“How does it look?”
“Take the west route when you come back home. You should find a good gift for someone who is angry with you too.”
“A gift sounds great, what color?”
“Red as always. You should know by now she likes red.”
“Red sounds good. I should leave now.”
“All right, will you come for lunch?”
“I’ll try. If I’m not there you should go ahead without me.”
“Fine. See you later!”

Stephane looked at the phone and sighed, putting it back in his pocket. He then knocked in the room’s door, hoping that maybe Lady Melikov wouldn’t take things out on him.

“Who is it?” Came the female voice from inside.
“It’s Stephane Benjamin.” He answered with the usual formalism expected towards a lady. There was no answer at first, only the sound of footsteps. But after a moment the Lady’s voice came.
“Do come in.”

The Knight opened the door and took a look inside. The only new thing was the fully dressed Lady fixing her hair in front of the full body mirror.
“Good morning.” He greeted with the usual bow. “Do you want me to call the maids?”
“No, this is good.”
“The Prince has offered my services as your escort, milady. Will that be good?”
“Perfect. I will leave as soon as I am done with my hair.”
“I will wait outside, please take your time.”

Stephane had escorted half of the young noble ladies in the Regency by now. It really was a terrifying thought that out of all of them, not one had been good enough for Alain, and yet he could see why. Alain’s situation wasn’t easy, he needed someone he could trust his secret on after all, and it was a secret big enough to endanger not only his family but the whole Regency.

But that was a pointless thought. As they drove in the limo to the Lady’s house, Stephane decided that she was a type three. That type contained all the ladies who clearly knew what they wanted out of this. She wanted political contacts, she wanted to be able to say she had a relationship with the Prince. She believed that even with Alain’s reputation as a ladies’ man, she would be able to get some leverage if she slept with him.

What Stephane liked the most about type three ladies was that they made things truly easy. He just needed to escort them and then he was free of problems. There was no explaining that she had failed a secret test, no need to explain that the Prince’s reputation had a reason to be, or that she had just missed the once in a lifetime chance to become the Lady Regent.

With how things were, Stephane had learned to love any lady that wasn’t a dreaded type four. He hated seeing people cry, and he hated having to explain to them that Alain was like that and that nothing could be done to fix that.



Fortunately everything was as procedure usually went for type threes. He dropped Lady Melikov, introduced himself in the good old formal way, thanked her parents for their support to the Regency, and then offered them his apologies since he had to leave.

Once out, he dismissed the limousine driver. This place was close enough to the Lancaster household to ensure he would get there in time for lunch even if he walked. That was the good part about the Prince almost always choosing girls from the Inner City, with the bad part being that Stephane had to put up with their families. Most nobles were like that after all, really pretentious and believing they had some kind of superior station to normal people. As a child of the Lancaster family, Stephane rarely got to see their most terrible side, but he saw enough to dislike them.


Stephane took the west route, as he had been advised by his half-person half-gps sister, and stopped by the jewelry store to get her a pair of earrings with rubies. She likes Rubies, Stephane, said the Prince’s voice, who seemed to know his fiancee better than Stephane himself did. Good thing Brynne had mentioned the red thing, or he’d be stuck here forever.

She’d like these, he was sure, and he’d be safe from the extreme berating that came with him forgetting to get her something after a saturday of bedroom duties. Stephane really wasn’t interested in their inevitable marriage, he got how arranged marriages worked pretty well, and it made sense that the Fiennes family wanted to better their reputation by having a successful marriage after the conflict with their oldest son, the three maids, and the butler. Fortunately, Rose Anne was pretty fine with their arranged thing, and while she didn’t demand that he love her or anything like that, she did demand that Stephane at least pretended to do so with his actions.

In short, she loved expensive gifts. And as long as the blessed Knight Only Credit Card allowed it, Stephane really didn’t mind their arrangement. The Prince’s account rarely saw any movements other than what Stephane bought, and the Regency didn’t even pay for these things in the end. So it was good.

It took him a little more to reach his house, but all in all his time was pretty good. The butler opened the door for him, and he greeted him as usual. He also greeted three of the maids, which he thought was amusing since he had been thinking about the Fiennes incident just half an hour ago, and walked to Rose Anne’s room, where she was certain to be getting ready for lunch with the family.

He knocked, and he could feel the aura surrounding the room entering in the usual “you got here late” mode before the door opened. Rose Anne was impeccable as always, her image the perfect noble lady, from her carefully styled auburn hair (in a casual yet complex look) down to her lunch time dress. Sometimes Stephane felt a little bad about keeping this kind of perfect lady from meeting an equally perfect gentleman so they could have perfect children who would eventually ruin their perfect reputations by doing something perfectly idiotic.
“Why if it isn’t my fiance. I thought you wouldn’t be coming back this year.”
“Work is work, Rose Anne.” Stephane shrugged, leaning against the door’s frame.
“You could at least be subtle about it. Or pretend to be sorry.”
“Pretending takes a lot out of me, I don’t want to get tired on my free day.”
“It figures you wouldn’t.”
“Oh. I got you something.” He added, offering the small box.
“It was about time, I’m starting to think you enjoy this treatment.” She smiled, opening the box to check the contents. “Rubies, huh? You really tried today.”
“Trying a lot is one of my best qualities.”
“Along with being really terrible with words, right?”
“Of course, milady.”
“Good, I’ll take this one, you are safe today.”
“Bless you, future wife.”
“You better, I’m not sure what other woman would put up with your creepy devotion.” She rolled her eyes, stepping back from the door.
“None better than you, I’m sure.”
“Now go and get changed for lunch, your sisters are all here, and I don’t want to sit next to you while you reek of cheap perfume.”
“I’m going, I’m going.”


And so, another normal Sunday started. But somehow, somehow, Stephane had this strange feeling that some day soon, normal Sundays wouldn’t be so normal as they were now.




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Notas:

Este capitulo por alguna razon termino siendo solo una oracion en mi planning, y las cosas que planeaba que pasaran aca no me dio el tiempo para que pasen porque llevaba mas de 2500 palabras.

Y en otras notas...

Rose Anne. Que carajo. Rose Anne no.

El resto es todo as planned, pero. Pero. Rose Anne. Wut. Don't you dare become an actual character. Don't you dare.