TCF:Like a Flower in Spring (You'll Bloom Beautifully)

Picked it Up...

Chapter Summary:

Cale resists the urge to jump the protagonist and instead finds release in an unlikely person.

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Notes:

Pairing: Hans/Cale
Warnings: None
Chapters: Parts of 'Picked it Up' 8-13

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"He slept with a beta commoner?"

Count Deruth frowned as he stared down Deputy Butler Hans, who was standing frozen still as he gave his report.

He had been a little nervous to come to the Count with this, even if it was part of his job. Count Deruth had always been rather touchy when it came to his oldest son, especially as the son was an omega. Hans had personally aided in declining multiple courting requests from alpha nobles who would inevitably move the teen out of the territory if things went well, and had been the one to send the final refusal to the Wheelsman family when they demanded either a void in their children's heat partnership or a marriage. The returned letter, begging for Deruth to reconsider, had made the two smile for days.

Hans had listened to his lord grumble over and over about how other selfish nobles simply wanted his child's rare gender as a prize, and didn't care about the man himself. Then he more openly went on to complain about how he refused to let Cale waste away as someone's marriage partner just to be kept on display.

"Yes, sir." Hans agreed, "The Flynn Merchant's illegitimate son, Billos. He owns the tea shop Cale visited."

"I don't understand." Deruth ranted. "Why was he left alone? If he was still feeling his heat it wasn't as if he didn't have options here. Why that man?"

Hans hesitated between the choice of simply agreeing with Deruth in whatever he spoke or to try and reason with him. It wasn't as if sleeping with people of different social classes was a new thing, but Deruth had always kept everyone who wished to proposition Cale as far away as possible in hopes of protecting him. As he had personally escorted Eric out of their territory this afternoon, Cale had no more partners to relieve any stress with.

A good butler always reasoned with his master, Hans decided.

"Perhaps he's experimenting, sir."

"Experimenting?"

Deruth didn't seem to like the idea of that, but was listening.

"He's only had one partner, after all. The only other person who has offered him any relief in the past was Ron, and that was strictly for quick release situations." Hans explained as carefully as possible.

It wasn't abnormal for personal servants to aid their masters, some even specialized in it. Hans had never needed to do so before as his employers were bonded and exclusive. It was a rather rare thing in this world, true monogamy. He couldn't personally understand it. Ron had always been Cale's preferred aid in times of struggle, and Basen had recently found enjoyment with a recently hired maid. Said maid had begun to be retrained to better suit her new station, and took her position with great pride.

He wouldn't pretend as if he didn't know the majority of the staff intimately in one way or another. Just last week he'd found Beacrox in a frustrated state after having found out their stocked vegetables had begun to mold. If said frustrated alpha then bent him over the crate, causing Hans to grip at the chipping wood holding the useless vegetables while he relieved both of their pent up stress, that was no ones business but their own.

"Still, there are better options." Deruth grumbled, tapping an annoyed finger against his desk. "Cale has changed."

Cale had never really branched out when it came to sex, far too aware of how some people simply wished to 'try him out'. He was a boy who preferred true partnerships, just as his mother always had. Even if he was going through some new experimental phase, wasn't Billos too much of an unknown to him?