STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

31. YOUNGESTS

"I don't want you at the palace," Coachman Leon decided firmly. "There will be a meeting between the young nobles and the Crown Prince, but I will bring the Young Master there myself. Along with Sir Ron and Sir Hillsman. You will stay home."

South didn't protest this.

He celebrated this, actually. He didn't need to work, he could spend all day with the horses. Sleep.

"If you see the Coachman of the Stan house, be sure to laugh as loud as you can in his face!" Hans called from a slight distance away, helping Cale get ready.

"I will!" Coachman Leon declared with so much conviction it was actually very improper.

Oh, right, South realized, that's why they don't want me there.

Honestly he kind of forgot that the Stans would be there. That's very fair, actually, South would want to kill that guy, but let's maybe not do it at the palace.

"So take care of everything here," Coachman Leon ruffled South's hair. "If you go out, take someone with you."

"I'm not a kid," South started, petulantly.

And Leon chuckled, "you're the youngest, so you get treated like one."

-

"This is Ponychael, and Pengallope," South introduced the horses in turn. "They're siblings. Pengallope is very proud, and Pengallope is playful."

Hong and On hummed from various spots on South's shoulder and arm.

Behind them, Lock looked through the horses, trying very hard to tell the difference between all the horses. They looked the same to him, except that some had slight colour variations in their coats.

"This is Christallion. He's very old and calm, so you can run to him if you're in trouble. He doesn't have a mate, but he hangs out with Mama Northford, since she doesn't have a mate too," South told them. "You can also run to Mama when you're in trouble. She's the warmest at night."

Hong was already finding a way up to Christallion's back, cuddling into his mane. Mama came by to curiously sniff at him, and On was trying to get up there too.

"She is the Mama?" Lock asked, curious but too nervous to actually approach any of the hroses. He may be quite tall, but he's still only thirteen, like Young Master Basen.

"She is everyone's Mama," South declared, miserably. "And no one can stop her from her conquest of adopting more children."

"Huh?"

"Oh yes, and she's the one that helped you that day. Go on and thank her," South urged him forward with a light hand on his back. "Don't worry, she's very gentle."

It was very cute.

Lock jumped when Mama reached for him first, but by then it was too late, and she was pulling him by the shirt closer to him, and then she threw him into the hay and sat down beside him. The kittens leapt down to join them down in their impromptu cuddle pile and that was it. Lock was trapped there forever.

"Hah," South was very amused, "sentenced to cuddle."

Lock whined, buried under the kittens, hay, and half of Mama's head. "Please help me out of here..."

"Nahhh," South said. "You got claimed by Mama. Technically you're my dongsaeng now, and that means you're the youngest. The youngest gets cuddled against their will, it's family law."

"Whaaaaat?"

South chuckled. It was so endearing. He used to struggle too, but maybe Lock deserved getting treated like the younger brother. He apparently had ten younger siblings, so this treatment would only be when he was here with South, Choi Han, and Rosalyn.

Also, he was a little annoyed by Leon and Hans treating him like a kid all the time.

"Well, maybe if you call me hyung I'll save yo—Eeeekk!!"

South shrieked when someone neighed with a barking order behind him, and he jerked forward and stumbled right into Mama's side with a fright.

He turned around shakily, "wha— Joycequine!" he wheezed, scandalized, "Mama did you see what she did just now? You saw right? She's bullying me!"

Mama Northford proceeded to sigh and plant a leg over South's figure.

"Oh come on..."

South turned over to Lock and Lock's face grew with a mischievous grin. Even the kittens looked like they were about to burst out laughing.

"Well, South-hyung," he emphasized the name teasingly, "looks like you're trapped, too!"

"You..." South's face flushed with embarrassment, and he lunged for the wolfboy, reaching for the cheeks, "you'll pay for this, you impudent dongsaeng!"

"KyahH! Bully! Hyung's bullying me, Mama! Help!"

Meanwhile the kittens were climbing all over South, "get him! Defeat the wolf!!" they declared playfully, laughter mixed into their warcries.

-

"What, no fair!" You guys left me out of the fun!"

Hans was so sad when he found them asleep in the stables. One of the other stablehands came by to tell him about it because they didn't know what to do, and Hans made a noise like he was witnessing the most precious scene in existence.

"Oh dear," Rosalyn looked at the scene with a fond adoration.

"Ah, of course," Choi Han sighed.

Hans brought a blanket, and they laid it over them all as they slept soundly, watched over by Mama Northford. He supposed that the kids played themselves to exhaustion, and South just had the timely narcoleptic attack.

It was all a good thing that they were resting well like that. They've all been through enough and Mama knew that strongly.

"I guess we can leave them be until dinnertime," Hans said. "North is around, so I don't recommend trying to remove them from their spots."

And so they slept there until dinnertime.