Regiphobia

The Servant

"I love you, s-see you soon," Goda smiled up at Juan, giving him one last soft kiss on the cheek.

"I love you too, Goda," Juan said, "Stay safe, see you tomorrow!"

He walked out of the room as another guard he knew, Officer Sanmenroppi, walked in. The woman gave a quick nod, before stopping and saying, "Hold on, Cazado. Someone wanted you down in the kitchen I think."

"Oh, sure thing!" Juan nodded. He waved back before starting to jog down to the first floor, down some halls, then he walked into the dining hall, strolled through, and ended up in the kitchen. He looked around for a minute before a few people ran up to him.

"Cazado! Great, you're here!" one said, "I'm Alexis, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Alexis, you can call me Juan," he said.

"Nice to meet you too!" Alexis said, "You have a boyfriend, right?"

Juan had mentioned that he was dating someone to a few coworkers when the topic was brought up. He supposed it had gotten around. "Yeah, why?"

"OK, so I was cleaning up, right?" another one, a girl he remembered helping with some new dishes once, said, "And I overheard the Head Servant- his name is Mikael, he doesn't really like us calling him by his last name, dunno why- Anyway, I heard him talking to that one guard, the one I told to send you here, and afterward I looked over at him, and he was all red and blushy and making googly eyes at her as she walked off."

"He has a crush on her?" Juan blinked.

"Yep!" the third said, a girl with long brunette hair and sparkling eyes, "And since you have a boyfriend and you seem to reeeeeally like him and you're probably the easiest guard to talk to in this whole palace, we were wondering if maybe you'd help us set them up on a date or something?"

Juan was a little bit in shock. He went from spending time with Goda behind closed doors, where no one could know he was, to being asked to set two people he hardly knew up on a date. Well, that was a lie, he talked to Officer Sanmenroppi often enough. She'd never seemed like the kind of girl to have a crush, much less go on a date with a guy. She reminded him of his brother in that way. He ignored that thought before smiling and shrugging, "I'm off until dinner, might as well try!"

The three cheered, which made him smile a little wider. He was making someone happy, hopefully, and that was all the motivation he needed.

"OK, so you just want to get them on a date?" he asked. The three nodded, "Alright, I'll do my best."

The three went back to work, and Juan got thinking. What did he know that Officer Amuyu Sanmenroppi liked? He knew she had a little brother she supported. He knew she was often cold and closed off. He knew....

How did he not know anything she liked after so long of talking to her? He furrowed his brow but brushed it off. Now to find the Head Servant. Where would he even be?

Mikael, at the moment, was walking into the kitchen. That was a pleasant coincidence. Juan walked over. "Hey, Mikael!" he said, "Got a moment?"

"Hardly," the man said. He was much shorter than Juan, barely an inch taller than Goda, in fact. "What do you need?"

"Just wondering when your next break is," Juan said.

"Five thirty, why?"

"Someone asked if I could tell you to go out to the center of the maze during your break. You should probably bring flowers," Juan gave Mikael a wink before walking off. Had he turned to look back, he might see Mikael blink in confusion, then gain a bit of a blush and scamper off. Next up: to get Amuyu in the same place at the same time!

He jogged down the hall again, then had an idea. He turned a corner, ducked into the guard's quarters, then into his own room. He grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote out a note to give the other officer.

When the note said 'Please meet me at the center of the hedge maze. I'll be there just after 5:30 tonight. ~Your Secret Admirer,' he folded it up neatly, wrote 'To A. Sanmenroppi,' hope he spelled her last name right, and left his room.

He headed into the armory, up the stairs, and knocked on Goda's door, knowing Amuyu would still be there. When she opened up the door and Goda was standing in front of it, Juan smiled a little wider.

"Hello Your Highness, I have a letter for Officer Sanmenroppi," Juan said, holding out the note to Amuyu. She blinked in surprise, taking it with a nod. "That's all, have a nice afternoon!"

He smiled a bit more to Goda, who smiled back, lifting his hand just a tiny bit and waving to him. Juan gave a small, mostly hidden wave back and walked off. Mission complete! He went on dinner duty at six, so he was going to try and see what happened. For now, he wanted to keep himself busy somehow for the next... almost two hours.

He walked around for a while, talked to his brother for a short time, helped the kitchen clean some stuff up, helped sort through a storage room, and then sat in his room for about ten minutes. He then glanced at the clock. 5:24. He got up, trying not to smile too widely with excitement.

He left his room, jogged out into the yard, made it to the maze, and started running through it. He got turned around once or twice but made it to a little nook where he could wait for the two to meet up. He took a seat and waited. Soon enough, he heard a set of footsteps. Then another. Soon after, a gasp.

"Oh- h-hi Amuyu-" he heard Mikael's voice first, kind of stuttery.

"Oh. It's you," Amuyu responded, "Is this... What is this?"

"Well- um- I got you this!" Juan hears a bit of rustling.

"...Where am I supposed to put these?"

"I don't know- Just thought- since your favorite color is tan I tried to find flowers as close to that as I could."

"You remembered my favorite color...? I told you that like two months ago."

"Of course I remembered! Why wouldn't I?"

As the two kept talking, Juan silently congratulated himself before walking out of the maze, as silent as he could. As soon as he was out, he jogged back to his room to go get ready for his next shift.

Unbeknownst to him, Mikael and Amuyu spent almost a full hour out there, talking and somehow not even approaching the topic of Juan telling them to meet there. By the end of it, he'd somehow managed to get Amuyu to agree to go get lunch with him sometime. As she walked off, her break almost over, he silently cheered to himself. It hadn't quite been a confession of his undying love, but it was a step!

He walked back into the palace, smiling like the lovestruck idiot he was. He was heading towards the armory to get upstairs when he noticed a cracked open door.

Now, normally he wasn't the type to stick his nose where he wasn't supposed to, but this was one of the King's personal rooms. Always shut, locked, and completely off-limits, with one key that the king had on him at seemingly all times.

So as any rational person would do, Mikael looked around and quietly pushed the door open a little more. It was completely silent when he did. He slipped through the door, and his jaw practically dropped.

It was only a few moments before he got out of the room, shut the door, and backed away from it. There had been pictures. Dozens, maybe hundreds. All hung on the wall as if they were masterpieces when all they had on them was the soon to be Prince Consort, usually covered in blood. They had to be fake. That's what Mikael told himself.

They had to be fake.

Mikael shook his head, white as a sheet, and kept walking towards the stairs. This sort of kinky shit was not in his fucking job description.