From Midnight On

The Stables

Yuuri finally finished cleaning the stables after working from dawn to near afternoon. That should be enough for today, Yuuri thought. He made his way to his room when he heard a knock upon the front door. He checked the peephole and saw a royal guard there, looking rather annoyed. He opened the door and barely got to greet him before he was handed an invitation.

"The King is having a ball in honor of the prince's wedding, he requires everyone's attendance." After that, the knight got back on his horse and made his way home.

Yuuri was trying to process what had happened and what the man had just. He said everyone, as in, everyone everyone? Including me? Yuuri thought this over and began to grin from ear to ear, happy he might actually get to go have fun. "Yuuri! Who was at the door? Hurry up here!" a voice sounded throughout the house, bursting Yuuri's bubble.

He made his way towards his stepmother's room and handed her the invitation without another word, waiting for his next instruction.

"A royal ball?" she questioned,"'Everyone invited...tonight at the Nikiforov castle...'" she closed the letter and threw it in Yuuri's general direction. "Well, Yuuri, wake up your siblings and help them get ready, we have somewhere to be soon." and with that Yuuri rushed out the room, quickly walking to room to room, delivering food and obeying orders.

While fixing his sibling's dress, he overheard the others discussing the ball.
"It says, everyone is invited, as in...?"
"Yes, everyone everyone..." a voice said with displeasure.
"But Mother we can't invite him! He's a pig who will ruin everything!" exclaimed one of the twins.
"Who said we were going to invite him along too? I doubt he'd even want to go since the farthest he's ever explored is the market." The mother chuckled sinisterly.
Yuuri knocked gently on the door, pretending he wasn't eavesdropping on them. "I fixed your dress, sister. Is there anything else you may need?" everyone replied with different tones of "no," in unision. As Yuuri walked away, he said aloud,"I-I would like to join you when you go to the ball, if that is alright?"
His mother and siblings gave him blank stares before snickering and laughing aloud at him. Yuuri felt himself go red and looked down at his shoes as if they were the most interesting thing there.
"Yuuri! You don't even own anything remotely related to fancy!" one of his siblings teased. He realized that and snapped back,"B-But I can make something nice!" to which his siblings cracked up more. Their mother silenced them as she walked towards Yuuri.
"Listen here, young one, if you can find something nice to wear AND finish all your chores before 7 o'clock, you may join us." she said, forcing Yuuri's head up. Yuuri said silently agreed and made his way to finish his chores for the day.
The siblings looked at their mother in disbelief."Mother, you said that pig wasn't coming with us!" one said high pitched. The mother silenced her and said,"That is why we shall add more chores so he may not have time to come along."

❀.°•*•°✾.* • °♡ °•❀

Viktor sat on the balcony outside his room, counting down the hours before he was forced to greet every guest invited. He heard yelling across the hall, most likely Yuri complaining about something wrong with his outfit. He wasn't sure what his outfit was but he knew there would be some sort of animal print involved.
Viktor sighed and looked down on the town, seeing all the town and people now and then coming through the castle gates. He tapped his fingers and suddenly remembered his flower, the one Yuri had given him this morning. He twirled it between his fingers, pondering who he could give this to. One of the maids? He smirked as he imagined the poor girl's reaction.
He put the flower in his front pocket and began thinking of tomorrow's plans. The question was, was he ready to be with someone he disliked just to please his family?