Royals and Rule-breakers

Hierarchy and Hesitation

"Klaus! Have you seen Sunny?"

"Huh?" Klaus drowsily rubbed his eyes; he had only been asleep for a couple of minutes, and he felt a bit annoyed by the disturbance- until what his sister said finally registered with him. "Wait, what about Sunny?"

Violet frantically grabbed his arm, dragging him out of bed as he grasped around for his glasses. "I went to say good night to her, but she's not in her bed! Didn't you tuck her in before going to sleep?"

"Er, I'm pretty sure..." Klaus pushed the door to Sunny's room open, eyes widening as they landed on her empty bed. "Should we tell a guard?"

"No, no, they'll get mad at her if the find her..." Violet frustratedly tugged at her hair as they sped down the halls. "I've already checked the kitchens. That would be the first place I would think she'd go, and I noticed a few cookies missing from the trays, but she wasn't there."

"Do you think she'd be in a drawing room? Or the gardens?" Klaus offered, and Violet groaned at the thought of having to search the palace grounds in the middle of the night.

"I would hope she's not."

Klaus thought for a moment. "What about the library?"

"I suppose that would be out next best option." Violet sighed, making a sharp turn into the sprawling library room. It didn't take the siblings long to spot the warm glow of a table lamp, and they headed straight for it before coming to a halt.

"... Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! 'I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud-" Y/N stopped reading as Sunny, who was nestled in her lap, tugged on her shirt.

"They found us!" The little girl whispered, and Y/N bit the inside of her cheek.

"Yeah... I can tell."

"Sunny! What are you doing?" Violet scolded, the child pouting stubbornly.

"You never want to read Alice in Wonderland to me like Mother and Father did, but Ms. L/N will read it to me. Right Ms. L/N? She even let me have cookies!"

Y/N's words got caught in her throat at Sunny's vendetta and the sorrow that crept into her siblings' eyes. "I- I'm sorry, I didn't know why she asked- I thought she just wanted a bedtime story-" her usually cynical tone was now one of mild panic.

Violet let her face soften. "It's alright. You didn't do anything wrong." She turned to Sunny and frowned a little. "But you, young lady, are keeping up a hard worker who needs to be up bright and early in the morning. She needs to be asleep, not reading to you."

"Oh, no, it's alright, really-"

But Violet just cut Y/N off with a shake of her head. "Come on Sunny, let Ms. L/N get some rest."

"Fine, fine." The little girl sighed dramatically as she climbed off Y/N's lap. "Bye bye Ms. L/N."

Y/N smiled a little and offered the child a small wave as she reluctantly made her way to her older sister. 

Violet firmly took Sunny's hand before turning back to Y/N. "I apologize for her behavior. If she ever bothers you again, you can tell us."

"She wasn't bothering me, really, it's okay-"

"You don't have to excuse her ma'am. Thank you for looking after her." Violet responded with finality before ushering her younger sister out of the library, leaving Klaus to awkwardly linger by the almost disappointed looking artist.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to help her fall asleep." She whispered after a moment, setting the book down on the side table.

"It's fine." Klaus seemed to hesitate before asking, "Did she come to your room to wake you?"

Y/N shook her head. "She came to the ballroom. I was still working, but I figured I'd call it quits for the night. She wasn't an annoyance at all, I swear. She just wanted a bedtime story."

"She hasn't asked for someone to read to her in ages." Klaus sighed somewhat heavily as he tenderly picked up the book Y/N had just set down. "Our parents used to read this to us all the time." His voice got even quieter as he added, "It's my favorite."

Y/N nodded, unsure of what to say. After a few more moments of silence, she softly offered, "Your parents were good people. I may not like your country's system, but at least your parents seemed to care a bit about the common people, regardless of their level of power."

Klaus was quite in response, and Y/N took a deep breath and stood up. "Well, I should be getting to bed now." As she began to walk out of the library, Klaus stopped her, as he often seemed to do.

"Wait."

"Yes?"

"What do you mean by you don't like this country's system?"

"Ah." Y/N raised an eyebrow as she turned around. "I knew all the history books in this library only came from domestic publishers for a reason."

Klaus frowned with confusion as Y/N's eyes sparked with their oddly amused glimmer, and in his perplexed silence, Y/N turned and slipped out into the darkened halls.

***