The Castle's Cleaning Lady - Twisted Wonderland Reader insert

Chapter 15: Stop being nice!

"Red, red... There! Gaaaaaah! It turned blue..."

"Change color... Take that! Gyaaa! The roses are on fire!"

[Name] laughed in amusement as Deuce and Grim miserably failed at painting the roses it's famous deep red utilizing magic, depositing her paintbrush into the steel paint can as she finished her last tree - rather proud at her handiwork. She joined Cater and Ace's sides as they began finishing up as well.

She often daydreamed about what it would like to have magic and the many interesting but improbably questions lingered in her mind - would she be any good at it? What would she do with it? And what career pathways would it open up for her in this strange and peculiar world? Despite her profound interest, she thought it was for the best she was magicless, imaging the burden of the responsibilities and possible dangers that came with it would be too much to handle, even if she did yearn to fly with a broom and was gravitated towards witchcraft like many young women her age innocently do.

"You guys are really more terrible at this than I could've imagined." Cater laughed at them, albeit with a hint of judgment lacing his brow. His attention spanned to [Name's] trees and smiled at her. "Well done, [Name], you did a splendid job...Hm?"

"What is it?" [Name] blinked up at him. She pressed her lips tightly together, everyone was so much taller than her and from what she could recall she wasn't that small... for a girl but she was in an all-boys school, where boys naturally were lean, lanky and all things long. She was taller than a few other students and around the same height as Ace and Deuce but still.

"You have something in your hair. I'll get it."
A green leaf was intertwined in the roots of [Name's] [Colour] hair, he noticed. Cater plucked it from her silky locks, flicking it to the side but his hand seem to idle overhead. A grin overcame his face. He sensed her tense and watched in delight as her face erupted into a ball of a darker shade as he let his hand fall on her head and stroked the soft tresses.

"Oh." That was all she could pronounce.

"You're hair is lovely."

"I-Thank you but you are a scoundrel," [Name] started, heavily emphasizing each word; pulling, but not slapping, his hand away as he was about to begin to stroke her head. She exclaimed. "I spent 10 minutes on my hair this morning!"

"Hmm, doesn't look like it," Cater chuckled airily as [Name] gave him a weak shove. Crossing her arms, she refused to look at him. It seem to urge him on more as he bit his lip, revelling in the girl's easy fluster-ability. "I'm just being helpful, little freshman~"

"Damn, are all Heartslabyul boy's this annoying?..."

"Why are we painting them anyway? Aren't the roses fine being white? They're pretty." Ace grumbled beside them, urging a change in subject as Cater's amused look in his eyes never seemed to deter from [Name] even when she wasn't looking.

"This is our tradition. Roses are red for the Unbirthday Party. And we use flamingos in seven different colours for croquet with hedgehogs as the balls." Cater explained. "But, y'know, the spring garden concert of the flowers uses white roses. That's an important point, too."

"Those are all strange rules!" Grim blurted. [Name], meanwhile, was drooling from imagining the adorableness of little pink and blue hedgehogs.

"They say these rules were all decided by the Queen of Hearts from the Great Seven. Riddle is particularly passionate about following the rules even compared to other strict dorm leaders. I won't deny he goes too far sometimes, though..." Cater said, rubbing the back of his neck as his eyes settled on the ground. What had made Riddle so adherent to all these strict rules? And the lengths he seemed to go to abide by them honestly unnerved [Name] slightly. Not all rules were good rules. How could someone so threatening also be so quaint and small...