royally arranged

Crush [chapter 36]

"Can we go to the kids' room?" Shoto asked excitedly, eyes sparkling as he sat down beside you at a chair in the library. In his hands he held the first book from your favorite series.

"Sure," you replied, not once looking up from the book you were reading considering you were in the middle of reading a sentence. After finishing said sentence, you marked the page with a book mark that Shoto chose to make one night and then shut the book.

You stood up from your chair, pushing it in before turning to Shoto. He handed you the book, not giving you a single reason as to why he even had it. A simple shrug came from you in return as you took it. Then you proceeded to head to Shoto's favorite room in the palace, walking hand in hand down the long corridors.

It was silent, nothing that really put you on alert since the halls looked the same as always. That was until you recognized a third sound of footsteps, Shoto seeming to have heard the same. The two of you looked at each other before looking behind you too see who the fast paced foot steps belonged to.

"Mealonie," Shoto said with a small smile, "Hello. Are you lost?"

Mealonie quickened her pace, stopping when she stood right beside the two of you. She was panting very lightly, a look of embarrassment on her face, "Yeah, a little."

"Oh, we'll that's alright," you reassured. You placed a hand (the one that wasn't holding Shoto's) on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze after you put the book under your arms so your hand was free. For what reason? 'Twas unknown. "You can walk with us to the kids' room if you don't have anything urgent to do."

The maid nodded her head, "I don't. I was just looking for something to do and got lost in the halls while I was at it."

"That's alright," you told her.

"Yeah," Shoto added on, "Y/n used to get lost all the time when she first came here."

"You weren't supposed to tell anybody about that," you whispered in a harsh manner.

This caused both Mealonie and Shoto to laugh. You only gave a pout in return, crossing your arms and sticking your nose up in the air.

Mealonie accepted your invitation to join your walk. With that, the three of you continued walking down the barren corridors. Each turn revealed the same thing. It made everything seem boring. The castle had a sort of cold feeling to it, but so did the king and he probably redecorated everything.

"I would like to welcome you to the third best room in the castle," you said as you opened the door to the room with the hand you were using to hold the book. The one you didn't know why you were holding in the first place...

Mealonie nodded her head as a sign of thanks for you holding the door for her. She was the first to walk in only to be followed by Shoto and then you. Just about everybody else was there. Touya, Diana, Nikos, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Emily. It was like they were only waiting for you three.

"Hello Shoto and y/n," Diana waved from the couch she was sitting on with a warm smile. She had been the first to notice your entrance. "And, uh..."

You looked towards your maid who always seemed calm, however things seemed to be different this time. Her mouth hung slightly agape and her eyes were on Diana. She blinked a couple of times before gulping, "I'm uh— I'm Mealonie."

"Pleasure to meet you Melaonie," Diana smiled. "I like your name. It's really pretty."

Mealonie's eyes widened in the most subtle of ways, "Th-thank you."

Her stuttering made you furrow your brows. It was very very rare for something like that to happen to Mealonie. The only time you'd ever seen it happen was when you were with your mother and she would occasionally do it after your mother thanked her or complimented her. It was like her way of saying she was flustered...

Wait a minute—

An evil grin slowly started to take place on your face. However, you quick to wipe it off when you made eye contact with Touya who held a somewhat confused yet jealous facial expression. Touya narrowed his eyes at you. He was suspicious of you because he thought you knew something he didn't. Which wasn't 100 percent accurate.

You averted your gaze from Touya and turned it to Shoto. Grabbing his hand once again, you lead him away from the door and towards one of the window seats. Natsuo and Nikos shared one, leaving the second and only other window seat open for you and Shoto.

Emily shared a couch with Fuyumi who was braiding her hair. They seemed comfortable around each other in the little time they got to know one another.

"Hey," Nikos called out, gaining the attention of the others in the room. They had mostly been talking quietly amongst themselves, so it wasn't very hard to capture everyone's attention. "About that having a crush on an older person thing... Has that actually happened to everyone?"

"Yes," Emily nodded immediately before taking a glance at you and Shoto who were getting situated in the window seat. "Well, most people."

"We get it," your brows furrowed while you grabbed a pillow in the window and chucked it at the maid, "We're not normal. Stop bringing it up!"

Emily let out a low chuckled, dodging the pillow and letting it fall over the back of the couch with a soft thud. "Sorry, princess."

"The topic at hand?" Nikos redirected the conversation.

"Oh, right!" Emily nodded. "I'm pretty sure everyone else has had a crush on somebody older than them because they found that person cool. I highly doubt it was anything more, but I like to think it's part of their character development."

"Who did you have a crush on?" Nikos asked.

The maid blushed, turning her face away so it was hard to see her reaction, "A butler that used to help me when I was first learning the ropes of being a maid."

"I used to have a crush on a guard that trained me in place of my father!" Fuyumi spoke up.

"Touya used to have a crush on lady in a painting at our school," Natsuo exposed his older brother. A small giggle followed his statement when he saw Touya's cheeks paint a dark shade of red.

Touya cleared his throat, avoiding Diana's eyes. She was looking at him with heavy amusement, and Touya definitely felt embarrassed. "Yeah, well you had a crush on the head chef when we were younger!"

Now it was Natsuo's turn to blush.

"What about you, Mealonie?" Nikos looked over to the maid who had been silently watching everything.

The woman made eye contact with him before taking a quick glance at you and then looking back at your brother. "I liked your mother quite a lot." She spoke with such nonchalance. It would've made her sound so cool if it weren't for the specific news she had chosen to deliver.

You and Nikos held blank looks for a moment before everything clicked in your brains.

"You what?!"

"Seriously!?"

The attention was on her, but she didn't care. A simple shrug was all it took for the attention to be split in between you and Nikos who were still on a state of shock.

"Talk about a turn of events..."

"Now's not the time, Dabi!"