royally arranged

Changing [chapter 8]

You had been at the Todoroki palace for 3 days now. You hadn't left the place since your first day, learning that you only had school on Saturdays.

You were currently sitting on the floor in the library, reading through a fantasy novel you had never seen before. You had your back propped against one of the book shelves with your legs placed flat down on the floor in front of you. A nest of books surrounded you, a bowl of fruit being placed on top of one of the piles of the books.

"Do you plan on spending the whole day here?" Fuyumi asked. She checked up on you every single day that you had been there at least 5 times, wanting to make sure you were comfortable.

She had on clothes for archery, a satchel placed over her shoulder. Her hair was let down today, glasses being placed neatly on her face. She wore a pleasant smile, hands delicately laced together as she looked at you with much curiosity.

"Probably," you offered a nod.

"Well in case you want to come find me, I'll be practicing my archery skills with Natsuo," Fuyumi began walking off before she remembered something, making her turn around to face you, "Actually you can't stay in here the whole day again. You have combat training along with the rest of my siblings. Sorry."

You let out a sigh, marking the page you left off at before shutting the book. You placed it on top of one of the book stacks surrounding you, grabbing your bowl of fruits before standing up.

"What time does training typically begin?" you asked her, fixing your dress so you looked a bit more presentable.

Fuyumi started leading you out of the library with a smile still present on her features, "Around noon. It's almost ten thirty now."

You nodded, both of you parting and going your separate ways once exiting the library. You walked down the corridor and passing by many rooms, most of which had the doors closed to them. You skipped by all of them, turning corners when you needed before eventually making it to the room you shared with Shoto.

Opening the doors, you looked around the place.

The bed had been remade by a maid, the spot you slept in at the window seat being neatly cleaned up with the blankets folded tightly. There was a folded piece of paper along with an envelope on the blanket, drawing your attention to the two objects.

You slowly made your approach, unfolding the sheet of paper first. When doing so, you read the note that had been left for you.

Dear y/n,

I hope you are doing fine. I know your relationship with sir Shoto is complicated, and I assume you are sleeping in the window seat. I have folded the blanket, as you can see, and would like to know if you have anything you need. Anything at all. Just leave me a note in the morning and I will fulfill your wishes.

—Sincerely, Diana (your maid)

You let a small smile cross your face from reading the note. As far as you could tell, the Diana person seemed nice. Though she might've just been doing her job as a maid...

Your eyes then landed on the envelope that was sealed with red wax. Upon getting a closer look at the seal, you saw it had your kingdom's official symbol printed into the wax. Your eyes lit up at this, flipping over the envelope to see it was from Nikos.

You eagerly ripped open the envelope, unfolding the piece of paper inside of it with a huge smile on your features.

Big sis,