crankgameplays imagines

[20] blooming (pt. 4)

You yawned, stretching as you woke up the next morning. A couple of beams of light streamed through your room, allowing you to see just enough to get ready for the day. Opening the door, you saw that most of the staff was waking up to prepare the royal family's breakfast. You quietly ducked into the stairwell and rushed down the steps. Why were you so excited to meet with Prince Ethan? He was a pain most of the time. But at least he was giving you an opportunity to make flower arrangements, one of your favorite things.

Apparently, you had gotten to the fork in the path first, which was to be expected, you got the impression that the Prince didn't regularly wake up this early. Sighing, you sat against the base of the large oak tree to watch the sunrise. You were unsure of which you preferred, sunrise or sunset. Their colors were unique but similar, different but so alike.

A painfully familiar voice caused you to wince. "Whatcha doing down there, Y/N?"

You stood up, a grimace on your face. "Hello Oliver. I'm waiting for Prince Ethan. We're gathering flowers for the arrangements this morning."

You noticed that the servant had a stack of clothes in his hands. He must be the servant Prince Ethan was borrowing clothes from. Now that you thought of it, Oliver was only a slight bit bigger than the prince and probably the same age too.

Before Oliver could say anything, Prince Ethan walked up to you two sleepily. "Here you are, sir." Oliver presented the clothes to the Prince with a deep bow. Although the servant's face wasn't visible to you, you knew it had an annoyed look across it.

"Thank you, Oliver." Prince Ethan said, then gestured between you and Oliver. "Have you met Y/N yet? She's in charge of flower arrangements for the ball."

"Yes, we met in the greenhouse yesterday." The other man grinned an unsettling smile full of malice.

The memories of what occurred in the greenhouse made you flinch, and instinctively bring your opposite hand to cover the bruise on your upper arm. The Prince seemed to notice this, as he snapped to full attention, angling himself between you and Oliver as he spoke. "Good, Y/N is accompanying me to town today. Well, we should be departing then, shouldn't we, Y/N?"

Your eyes were wide as Prince Ethan offered his arm out to you. Hesitantly, you linked your arms with his, and he gently led you away from the servant. You fully expected him to let go of you as soon as you were out of view of Oliver, but instead, Prince Ethan held tight to you until you reached his room.

"Thank you." You said quietly, looking down at your feet.

"Was he the one who?" He didn't even need to finish his question, you were already nodding, eyes filling with the tears you didn't want to show Oliver.

A set of arms softly enveloped you in them, and you stood frozen as the Prince whispered calming words in your ears. "You won't have to worry about him ever again, okay? Please stop crying, you're safe now."

Forcing your tears to stop, you took a step back to regain a proper distance between you and the prince. "Well go on, you need to change, don't you?"

He flashed you a slight grin at your returning attitude before disappearing into his room. When he reappeared, he was in a simple peasant's shirt and pants. In fact, the only signs of nobility left on him were his clean face and the expensive looking sword in a sheath on his hip.

"Is that really necessary?" You eyed the weapon with a scoff.

"Unless you're hiding a sword somewhere, then I'm bringing mine for your protection."

You rolled your eyes, knowing that he only felt the need to protect you because of your breakdown from Oliver earlier. "My dagger is in my house that I was dragged from yesterday."

He looked at you in disbelief. "Really?"

"Yeah, used to be my mom's, and her mom's before, and so on. A well-used family heirloom, I guess."

"Well-used?"

With a mischievous grin, you began leading the way out of the castle just a step ahead of the Prince. "Yep."

As you two descended into town, you couldn't help but have a giddy pep in your step at the familiar place. The market wasn't busy yet, just a few vendors setting up shop early. You said hello to each of them as you went by, and they didn't seem to pay any attention to the man with you. Further down the street, you cut behind the bakery, a shortcut to the meadow you found early on.

"Where are we going, Y/N?" Prince Ethan asked, ducking behind the buildings with you.

"To the meadows behind the town, the best flowers are there." You explained, coming upon a fence. After quickly hopping over it, you turned to beckon your companion over. "What? Can't hop a fence?"

"I've never needed to." He frowned, and awkwardly mimicked your movements. This was probably the first time he'd ever done a task ungracefully. And honestly, it was pretty funny, you had to cover your mouth with your hands to avoid laughing audibly.

"Shut up." He muttered, and so you flashed him a quick smile before guiding him further away from town.

Finally, you two reached the meadows, and you couldn't keep the grin from spreading across your features. This was by far your favorite place. Flowers of every color sprawled across the ground just made your heart swell.

"Beautiful." Prince Ethan breathed out in awe.

When you turned to agree with him, you could've sworn you saw his eyes flicker down from your face to the landscape. Shaking it off, you believed your eyes were tricking you. "Yeah, I found it when I was a kid. Now come on, we need lots of flowers."