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At your Service | Kaedehara Kazuha (mildly NSFW)

"Princess?"

Your butler, Kaedehara Kazuha, whispers softly to get you out of your trance. His voice is as gentle as the summer breeze that caresses your face. It's not deep, but his mid-range pitch is just as comforting as tea that isn't too hot nor too cold.

Lukewarm.

Just like his expression. Kazuha's expression is welcoming and soft, but a small amount of restraint tenses his brows.

Perhaps it is because the two of you are in public that he cannot freely relax his face and let loose his toothy grin. Of course, this is expected of a butler: to be professional, stoic, and prepared at all times. And Kazuha, who was found in the rain attending to stray cats by the castle gardens even though he was worse for wear, was taken in by the King, your father, and assigned to be your personal butler. You were told that Kazuha used to be of high nobility, as are many of those serving you, and it is evident in his poise and decorum that he has had an impeccable upbringing.

"Princess, please do not space out, or your mother will cut your dessert supply short." He coaxes your attention to the briefing of military strategies with a brush of his gloved hands to your shoulder. You make haste and snap your head towards the board, your face concentrating hard. Kazuha's polite smile, one that a maid or butler must wear at all times, goes slightly wry in amusement to his warning.

Even when you were both young, you had always possessed a sweet tooth. Cakes, ice cream, sweets, fluffy pancakes coated in syrup, souffles and creamy hot chocolate all had you drooling. Your stoic, severe and princess-like elegance would always dented by them. Even when your tutor had told you to "eat healthily, we cannot present a member of the royal family in poor health", Kazuha would sneak small cubes of fudge into your room with a white gloved finger to his smiling lips and sleepy eyes. If you ever got nervous about your weight gain, he would console you and sternly reprimand you for going on diets when you "didn't need them". He even informed you that there were video compilations of the beloved princess enjoying desserts, so the general public adored that soft, sweet side of you that you had to conceal in order to be taken seriously as a member of the royal family.

Kazuha enjoys all of the sides of you: even when you're cranky and overworked, you never mistreat him and even if you snap at him you apologise almost immediately. All seasons of you have a special place in his heart. The giggly and energetic summer you; and the curious and youthful spring you; the calm and ambitious winter you. But his favourite is autumn: a state where you are comfortable and curled up with a book and your head on his lap, only his soft hums and the flipping of pages are audible. It is silent, but even in this silence, you both find solitude. Perhaps he should view you as his superior, because your statuses are miles apart even though he has a title to his name, but how can he when you treated him like a dear friend the moment he came into your life?

'Dear friend' is a bit of an understatement now. When Kazuha was to serve you at your boarding school, where he gave you shoulder massages as you typed away at your desk or wiped your tears away with a clean embroidered handkerchief and coddled you if you were in peril (which was most of the time, it is school after all) with words of affirmation or cuddles, your relationship blossomed into something else. Soon enough, Kazuha would adjust your uniform tie and follow it up with a kiss on your forehead, or you would wrap your arms around his neck as you took a stroll through the school's gardens as he explained the meaning of each flower. At one point, you told him that he was your favourite flower and he went scarlet, hiding his face with the back of his palm. To get you back, he tickled your waist whilst you were reading and you tumbled off your bed in shock. That took a lot of apologetic kisses on your lips, cheeks and nose to remedy. Of course, people weren't blind: they saw the hovering hand around your waist as he escorted you to classes, or the way your expression softened upon seeing him, but this display of pure love could not be tainted by even the most scornful nobles. At one point, when articles began to spread and Kazuha was stressed to the point of tears, you kneeled in front of his seat and promised him that no one would ever interfere with your relationship and that status and money were irrelevant. Your love might be pure, soft and so sweet that it is painful if one of you is hurt, but you keep a wall of ice between those who scorn the both of you. A strong, robust and cool wall that you two both erected and maintain to this day. Any nobleman or noblewoman hoping to marry for the title would be politely but sternly rejected.