Royals and Rule-breakers

Impunity and Impatience

Y/N paced back and forth in the kitchen, Bridget silently watching, and Klaus busying himself by pulling some cookies out of the oven.

"Miss Y/N, please sit down." Bridget pleaded suddenly, wringing her hands, "You're making me just a tad nervous dear."

She sat with a small huff as Klaus set a plate of cookies in front of her and poured her a cup of tea.

"Let's just find a place to start." Klaus started, sitting beside her with a deep breath. "I don't think jumping to any conclusions will get us very far, and it will do little to help with anxiety."

"So we start with a check up," Y/N decided, breaking apart a cookie to keep her hands moving, "Assess the damage, see what we can do from our end, or if it would be best to do nothing at all."

Klaus nodded. "I think that needs to come first, then we can make more of a plan."

It was quiet for a minute, the prince knowing what was coming next as Y/N finished a cookie.

"I'll go alone." She said with finality after draining her teacup. Glancing at Klaus, she clarified, "You can't come with me."

He nodded firmly once more. "I know."

It was quiet for a moment, Bridget taking a breath and quietly piping up, "I don't know if you should go either, Miss Y/N."

Y/N tilted her head. "Why so?"

The servant did not seem to be so nervous and timid anymore; it was, afterall, not something Y/N had wanted her to feel in her presence. "You could not disagree that your rashness, too, was part of the spark that caused this bonfire. If you do not think you can keep your tongue to yourself and be a bystander long enough to gather the information you need, I will gladly go and report back to you." She awaited some kind of response, Y/N soaking in her words. "You know well enough that inaction is too, an action, and I know we both speak ill of those who watch but do not interfere. But sometimes it is necessary- now, I think, it is necessary."

Y/N silently filled her cup again, filling it with more honey and sugar than tea it seemed. Her actions were absent-minded, thoughts thinking of anything but what she was doing. "I do not trust my own judgment." She said suddenly, with a sense of self-consciousness that did not come often anymore. "I was going to object on the account that I worry for your safety, Bridget, for what if you are caught far from the palace when you are to be working- when you are never to leave? I will have risked your life because of my own past recklessness. But what if that is merely an excuse, and I only wish for you not to go, because I feel inclined to fix that which I have broken, and do not trust another to do the job? But... I cannot go, you have said it yourself- I just do not think I have let myself accept it." She was done with her speech, going to drink her tea once again; it was too sweet. "I would like to ask you for your opinion," she said to Klaus, "But I cannot trust you to be unbiased."

Klaus held up his hands and bowed his head slightly. "This is not my issue to speak on anyways."

Bridget sighed, directing the conversation back to Y/N. "Do you not trust me, Y/N?"

The painter creased her brow, quickly shaking her head. "That is not what I meant- but I could never risk your life, Bridget, you are too dear."

"Perhaps that is your problem, Y/N- if you'll forgive me for saying so: you know that a revolution is not a burden for one person to carry, yet you cannot stand to lose a life when they have volunteered to sacrifice themself for the cause. I know what I am doing, Y/N." She sighed again, taking Y/N's hands in her calloused, wrinkled ones. "I have lived this fight longer than you, dear. That does not mean that I know any more than you, or that you know less- but the reality of sacrifice has hit me long ago."