The Bread Thief | Percabeth | Victorian Era AU

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕺𝖓𝖊: 𝓗𝖔𝖚𝖘𝖊𝖇𝖔𝖞

Annabeth is doing her homework at the old kitchen table. Percy is wiping down counters. Percy is the Chase's houseboy. Usually, a girl takes care of household chores, but Annabeth's father, Frederick has Percy helping around the house as a servant as his punishment for stealing bread from the market. He was to be hung but Fredrick has a soft heart. If Percy commits another crime, Fredrick won't be able to protect him, though. He is on thin ice with the Magistrates. He is the head of deciding punishments but he has been going soft lately. Hermes Castellan warned him he would be taking his position if he didn't toughen up.

To soothe the tension, Frederick gave his daughter to Hermes's son, Luke. They were to wed in three months time.

Luke walks into the kitchen and sits with Annabeth at the table while Percy mindlessly wipes counters, forcing himself not to listen.

"You study too hard," Luke says. "Let's go walk around town for a while."

Annabeth shakes her head. "I can't. I have an exam this week in history class."

Luke sighs. "Okay." He leans over and kisses her cheek. "You're lucky I'm not the other guys my age, they wouldn't let you turn them down like that."

Annabeth put her pencil down. "Luke, we've been over this. I'm my own person even though I'm to marry you. Legally, I'm still my dad's until we wed," she says. "Even then, I won't be yours. Not truly. I won't let you use me as some object."

"And I would never use you as an object," he says. "I just worry about you."

Annabeth smiles softly. "You don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself," she says. She returns her gaze back to her book. "Aren't you to be in the courtroom today?" she asks. "Mr Castellan was not jesting. He was quite serious when he said he wanted you to follow in his footsteps."

Luke groans. "The courtroom is so boring. All he deals with is the petty crimes in town."

Annabeth laughs under her breath. "The second offence for theft is hanging. There's nothing boring about that," she says. "Is there?"

He frowns. "I never get to go to the executions anymore. Ever since they stopped doing them in public no one is allowed to be there. It was the ratbags who decided that rule."

"Don't let your father here you use that language," Annabeth warns mindlessly. "You are not a man yet. You aren't permitted to speak of people like that."

Luke stands up and kisses Annabeth's head. "I should be going. Have fun with your history."

"Thank you, Luke," she says, mind still in the books.

Once Luke was out of sight, Annabeth glanced up at the houseboy. "How are you doing today?" she asks him. She isn't supposed to acknowledge him as a person but she couldn't help herself. Annabeth got lucky and was part of the upper-class of society but people like Percy often went weeks without food. Annabeth took care of him when she could.

"I am doing fine, Ms Chase," he replied softly. "Is there anything else I can get for you?" He was dressed in his work clothes. Usually, he wore rags but Fredrick insisted that no servant of his would look anything less than his or her best when working for him.

Annabeth tilts her head. "You don't have to ask me if I need anything," she reminds him. "I am perfectly capable of doing things myself. I do not need a servant to do things for me. Just because my father and Luke believe they are above you, does not mean I believe the same." She smiles. "We are equals, Percy. We are both people, therefore as long as I am around, I will not ask much of you, if anything."

Percy brings her a glass of water despite her saying not to do anything for her. "Thank you. I'm just not used to..." His voice trails off as he tries to find the right words.

"Kindness?" Annabeth adds helpfully.

He nods. "Yes, kindness."

Annabeth stands from her chair and mentally curses her father and all the other men who believe women should wear dresses as she lifts her dress and walks to the cupboard. She pulls out a piece of bread and smears some butter on it before bringing back to the table on a plate. "Here," she says. "You haven't had anything to eat all day. You need something in your stomach or you will get sick."

Percy gratefully takes the plate. "Thank you," he says again. "Even after I'm gone, I won't forget you."

Annabeth nods and goes back to her schoolwork, feeling guilty because Percy doesn't know that her father plans to keep him working here for a lot longer than just his six months.

Every evening before Percy left, Frederick erased a mark from the chalkboard that hung in the living room to say that Percy worked another day, but right as Percy walked out the door, Frederick redrew the mark. He only left the marks off enough times that Percy would not notice what he was doing.

If Annabeth said anything, she would be hung, so she kept quiet and tried to be as kind as she could to her family's houseboy.

When everyone else called him "Houseboy" she called him by his name when no one was watching. When her family demanded food from him, Annabeth set some of hers aside and slipped it into his bag before he left for the evening. When her family or guests commented on how something wasn't clean enough, Annabeth told him to take a break when they were alone and she cleaned for him to let him rest.

One day Annabeth hopes that Percy will catch on to what her father does, but she doubts he will. Servants from the town never went to schools. Often if children were caught doing something they shouldn't or unattended, workers from the Workinghouses would catch them and they would never be seen again.

Women never took their children to town if they could avoid it because the risk was too high that they would get out in one of the coal or cotton Workinghouses and be worked to death.

Annabeth was only allowed to leave once a week and the only place she was permitted to go was the bookshop and the bakery, then she came straight home.

When she was a child she would sneak away from home when no one was watching and she would go to town and freely wander the streets. She quickly learned where to stay away from and which merchants would give her bread or cheese. Often she sat under the tables in the Place, which was a shop where the sailors or travellers hung out with their alcohol, always top-heavy, and told the tales of where they went.

Annabeth was ten when she started getting responsibilities and could no longer sneak away to listen to the stories of the sea and instead began to read books. She got private lessons where everyone was keeping a close eye on her as she learned how to be a proper lady.

Sixteen was when her father started trying to pick a husband for her, but she rejected them all, refusing their marriage proposals, until Luke. He was a good person, but she didn't love him. She was friends with him but he didn't know that.

He treats her well, but Annabeth doesn't want to wed him, so she kept delaying the date until her father set one in stone and had the maids start planning it.

She and Luke were to be married in three months.