Trash Panda

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow settled down at Penelope’s side, leaving a small gap between them even though he would have liked to close the distance completely. Again, he thought of the irony of their situation; about how Naida was pushing them to be together when they secretly were very much in love. He wished they could just admit it, so they could stop skirting around each other, but until the uproar in the castle settled down and the other nobles accepted his new position among them, they would have to keep it to themselves. After all, he had no intention of dragging her name through the mud, especially since she was working so hard to gain the respect of high-ranking nobles to end the war.

When Naida mentioned that she had been hoping to see him, Crow looked up at her curiously and then down at the box she revealed to him. He leaned forward slightly with interest, trying to get a better look at it. No one had ever given him a gift like this before. Occasionally, he and the other thieves would steal things and pass them off to whomever they thought would appreciate them the most—as he had done with the gold bracelet that he had given to Alistair—but this was an actual gift, neatly and intentionally packaged in a small box. He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, suddenly feeling a bit bashful that they had gone out of their way to do something like this for him on their trip.

As the two noblewomen spoke with each other about who was responsible for the decision, Crow snuck a glance at Penelope. Finding out that she was the one who had picked out the gift, he was even more curious to see what it was. A smile threatened to take over his lips, and he turned away, relieved that the servants were coming back with their food at that moment. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself, since he had never been in a situation like this before, so watching his and Naida’s attendants test their breakfast gave him a little time to stall.

He turned back to his sister when she pushed the box over to him, telling him to open it. “Alright,” he let the persistent smile free as he reached out to take the package from her. Though he was eager to see what was inside, he took a moment to look over the box itself first. It was a bit of a habit he’d developed throughout his life as a thief, examining containers to guess what was hidden within. When he’d been on rushed raids, it had been a useful skill to pick out boxes filled with valuables without having to waste time opening them first. Of course, he didn’t care about the value of the gift Penelope and Naida had chosen for him. It was just hard to let go of old habits.

This particular box was thin and didn’t weight very much. If he had actually found it on a raid, it wouldn’t have been something that caught his eye. He glanced at Penelope again. Whatever she had found probably wasn’t overly valuable, but knowing that just made him more eager to find out what it was. She knows I’m not interested in expensive things, he thought with a burst of affection for the knight.

“Gods, just open it already,” Naida laughed from across the table. “With the way you’re acting, you’d think the box was the whole gift.”

“Patience,” Crow said sagely as he fingered the edge of the box. “You can learn a lot about the contents of a package if you take the time to look at it.”

“You can learn a whole lot more if you open it,” Naida snickered.

Crow rolled his eyes. “Just let me do this my way, okay?” he prodded her arm teasingly. “I find it fun to try and figure out what’s inside before I open it.”

“Then what do you think we got you?” his sister grinned challengingly.

Crow looked down at the box again and tilted it slightly to the side. “Well,” he mused. “It sounds like there are two things.” He paused, taking a moment to think before he went on. “Just based on the shape, I think one of them is… a book?” He looked up to search Naida’s gaze. She was biting her lip to suppress a smile.

“No,” he smirked. “That’s not it.” He drummed his fingers on the table, studying the box intently. He was certain that one of the objects was book-shaped, but what would the second one be…? Suddenly, a grin spread across his mouth as he had an idea.

“What?” Naida eyed him curiously. “You think you figured it out?”

“I know I did,” Crow said confidently. “It’s a writing journal and a quill, isn’t it?”

Naida gawked at him, “How did you know?”

“I’m a thief,” he winked at her slyly. “Figuring out what’s hidden inside containers like this is part of the job.” That, and he just happened to recall the journal and quill Hazel always carried with her for her work. But he chose to keep that detail to himself.

“Show off,” Naida stuck her tongue out at him.

Crow shrugged. Now finished with his guessing game, he finally opened the lid on the box and looked inside. When he did, he let out a whistle. “This is nice,” he commented as he pulled out the journal and traced his fingers over the leather cover. It was clearly well-made and had a paper smell to it that he found rather pleasant. He glanced down again and laughed amusedly when he saw the quill Penelope had chosen for him. It was made of a feather from a crow’s wing.

Lifting the quill from the box, he spun it between his fingers. “My namesake,” he grinned at the knight. “I like it.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I can't wait to read it, haha

Naida's still pulling the same tricks xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

The next morning, Crow woke up to find that he wasn’t alone. Preston sat at the table in the room, thumbing through one of the books on the table. The viceroy sat up, resting his weight on the palm of one hand while he used the other to rub the sleep from his eyes. As he did, he noticed that the attendant had already set out new clothes for him at the bottom of the bed.

“You’re here early,” he commented, studying the boy curiously.

“You’ve been waking up early,” Preston replied with a shrug as he looked up from the book.

“Touché,” he yawned and slid down from the bed, pulling his linen shirt over his head and tossing it aside to change into the day clothes the servant had so neatly laid out for him. When he finished getting dressed, he glanced at the boy again. “I didn’t know you were literate.”

“I’m not,” Preston closed the book he had been looking at and gently set it back down with the others on the table.

Crow frowned, “Then what were you doing with that?”

“I just like the art,” the attendant shrugged. “A lot of the books in this castle have detailed illustrations. They’re interesting to look at.”

“I see,” Crow smirked amusedly as they headed into the corridor.

Preston hesitated for a moment before he added, “I like to draw. I’m not nearly as good as the artists who made the pictures in those books though.” He looked up at the viceroy a bit sheepishly. “I just use charcoal on stone… Looking at the work of people who are better than me gives me reason to try to get better.”

“Oh really?” Crow raised a brow. He’d had no idea that his attendant had such a skill. Since the peasants in the outer villages didn’t have much time to develop hobbies, he’d never met anyone else of his own class that had dabbled in art before. “You should show me some of your drawings sometime,” he went on with a grin. “I’d like to see what you’ve made.” Even though he didn’t know anything about art, he had enjoyed looking at pictures in books when he was a child, so he could at least appreciate them to a degree.

Preston’s eyes widened in obvious surprise. “Alright, I will,” he nodded, standing up a bit straighter. The eagerness in his voice made Crow wonder if anyone had ever asked to see his work before. However, sensing that it could be a sore spot for the boy, he decided not to ask.

They spent the rest of the walk talking idly until they reached the Great Hall. As soon as he stepped inside, Crow scanned the room excitedly in search of Penelope. He couldn’t wait to see her again after spending all of yesterday apart and was elated when he spotted her at a table with his sister. He didn’t bother to wait for Naida to wave to him before he made his way through the crowd to sit with them. The princess would probably just assume he was eager to see them after being alone before anyway.

“Morning, Collin,” Naida greeted him cheerfully when he reached the table.

“Morning,” Crow smiled back at her, relieved to finally be among friendly faces again. He moved to sit down next to his sister, but then paused when he noticed that she was resting her hands at her sides, preventing him from getting close. He rolled his eyes as he caught the devilish look on her face but said nothing as he stepped around to the other side of the table to sit next to Penelope instead.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I threw a little bit in with the Fishbachs again cx

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

As he had done at breakfast, Crow searched for an empty table away from the crowds that had gathered in the Great Hall for supper. Knowing that Naida and Penelope were probably going to be gone for the whole meal, he didn’t bother looking for them anywhere. Instead, he made his way over to the empty edge of a long table near the east side of the room. When he reached it, he sat down to wait for Preston to return from the kitchen with his food, letting his eyes sweep over the other people around him as he did.

Though the day had been lonelier to him than usual, it also brought him a sense of relief. Just a few days ago, he hadn’t known if Penelope would be able to return to the castle with him, and now that he’d experienced what the palace would have been like without her around, he was all the more grateful that her baroness had let her come back with him. He supposed he still had Naida, but he knew he still would have missed the knight dearly if she had stayed with her battalion. It was much better to only lose one day with her than months.

Leaning forward, Crow folded his arms against the table and let out his breath in a long exhale. As he continued to watch the noblemen and women eating and conversing with one another, he wondered if he would ever fit in well enough to do the same among them. It was a strange desire, especially since he had never wanted the approval of nobles before, but now that this place was his home, he found himself wishing that he fit in more—or at least that he felt more comfortable here. He could handle their constant disapproval up to a point, but he dreaded to think what his life would be like if the rest of the inner kingdom continued to despise him the way they did now. It was difficult to go about every day surrounded by people who glared and whispered behind his back.

After some time passed, Preston reappeared by his side with a plate piled high with food. The boy seemed to have learned quickly that the viceroy preferred to fill up on large portions, and for that, Crow was glad. He leaned back from the table as the attendant went about the usual routine of testing his food for poison, watching him with a hint of curiosity in his eye. “You’re surprisingly calm about eating food that could supposedly be tainted,” he commented.

Preston glanced at him as he took a small bite of bread. “It’s just part of my job,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, I’ve never seen anyone get poisoned in all my years at the castle. It seems unlikely that anyone would be killed that way now.”

“Then why do it?”

“Well, suppose someone did want to kill you,” Preston said.

“I’m sure there are plenty here who do,” Crow smirked.

“Right,” the boy nodded, unfazed. “If you do have an enemy here who wants to kill you, they would be much more likely to try poisoning your food if they saw you eating without a taste tester. I’m just here to keep someone like that from trying in the first place.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Crow admitted, looking over the crowd once more. It was unsettling to think that there could be someone in the Great Hall at that very moment who was biding their time to kill him. However, he wouldn’t put it past any of them. He could think of plenty of people who hated him enough to want him dead. It was why he still kept his guard up around them all, despite the fact that he was now their equal in rank. Nobles were deceitful and manipulative. If they were determined to get rid of him, it was going to take more than just the king’s opinion to stop them.

Almost as if on cue, Crow felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he got the sudden impression that he was being watched. His eyes flicked between the faces of the other people in the room until they landed on a man on the far side who was glaring at him venomously. The viceroy studied the stranger warily. He remembered this man from his titling ceremony—he was the one who had spoken out so adamantly against his father when it had been announced that he was going to be the next ambassador. He narrowed his eyes. Perhaps there was a reason for Preston to continue inspecting his meals after all.

When the attendant finished his task, he took a step back from the table and bowed before turning to leave the viceroy to eat his supper alone.

Crow watched him for a moment and then called after him, “Hang on.”

“Yes?” Preston turned back to him with a bemused look.

“Why don’t you have your dinner with me tonight?” Crow suggested. “I’ve seen where you go—that corner in the back by yourself. Why not just stay here?”

Preston’s eyes flickered toward the other people in the room before returning to the viceroy’s face. “It wouldn’t look good for you to be seen sharing a table with a servant,” he said leerily. “I don’t want to damage your reputation.”

“What reputation?” Crow laughed. “You mean the one where I’m hated as the most wanted thief in the kingdom?” He waved a hand at the open bench across from him. “Sit, sit. I don’t give a damn what those arrogant fools have to say about me.”

Preston wavered for a moment longer before he nodded, “A-Alright. I’ll just get my own food and be right back.”

“You’d better,” Crow grinned as the attendant hurried away.

--

For the rest of the evening, Crow spent his time with Preston. They didn’t speak much—mostly because the attendant was so soft-spoken—but the viceroy enjoyed it. Of course, the other noblemen and women in the Great Hall casted him more foul looks whenever they caught him dining with his own servant, but he didn’t mind. To him, the boy was much better company than any of them would ever be.

When he finished his meal, he waited for Preston to eat the last of his bread before they headed out of the Great Hall together. The attendant held his head low as they walked past the other nobles, seeming uncomfortable beneath their scrutinizing glares, so Crow rested a hand on his back to usher him along in much the same way as he would have done for any friend. Naturally, the familiar gesture only served to disgust the nobles more, but it seemed to encourage the attendant, who walked with his head a little higher by the time they reached the door.

Eventually, Crow returned to his bed chamber for the night and settled down to sleep. Feeling good about how he had treated his servant and excited about the prospect of finding Penelope tomorrow, it didn’t take long before he drifted off into a content slumber.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Nice. I think it would be interesting if she actually meets Crow later xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

“Today, I’m going to begin teaching you how to read.”

Crow sat at the table in his room, staring at the pile of books and scrolls in front of him with wide eyes. He had shown up to his lesson on time for once and had just finished reviewing his etiquette under Udolf’s instruction. The tutor had been satisfied with his performance and announced that they would be moving forward with his lessons, onto other skills that he would find useful as the king’s ambassador. Apparently, today that meant he would be teaching him to be literate.

Though he was eager to learn this skill, Crow couldn’t help but find all the books a bit intimidating. There were so many of them, filled with pages that were covered from top to bottom in strange characters that he didn’t understand. It was overwhelming just to think about them, and part of him wondered how he would ever learn to understand them all.

It not so different than the languages I’ve already mastered, he thought, trying to reassure himself. I’ve even got a head start, since I know what words the characters spell. Feeling more confident in his ability, he turned to look up at Udolf, “Alright, so where do we start?”

The old man smiled. “It’s good to see you finally taking your lessons seriously,” he said with a hint of amusement. The tutor reached for an old, worn out scroll that was sitting at the top of the pile on the table and unraveled it. “This,” he explained. “Is the parchment I have used to teach children for years before you.” He laid the open scroll in front of the viceroy for him to see.

Crow rolled his eyes, unappreciative of being compared with a child. However, he said nothing. There was nothing he could do to change the fact that it had taken him so long to be educated, and it made sense that the tutor would have only needed to teach children in the past, since all nobles learned young. The most he could do now was prove that he was more competent than those children by learning to read and write quickly.

Turning his attention to the parchment, Crow was mildly surprised to see that it was decorated with the same letters Penelope had shown him before. The characters were laid out in one long row with the addition of a second, shorter row of symbols he had never seen before. Curious, he pointed out the second row to Udolf, “What are these?”

“Those are numbers,” the old man explained patiently. “I’m going to be teaching you math later, so you will need to learn to recognize them. For now though, just focus on the top.” He gestured to the letters and then handed the viceroy a feathered quill. “To start, you must memorize all of these characters. Practice copying them individually until you can recognize each one by its shape. As you do, try to remember what sounds they represent. I will tell you what they are as we go.”

“Okay,” Crow nodded, accepting the quill from him. He looked over the paper again. In the empty space around the two rows, there were other letters and numbers haphazardly scrawled by what he guessed had been past students. They were messy and hard to read. Privately, he determined that he wanted to write his characters more neatly. After all, he was going to prove to Udolf that he was more capable than the children he had taught before.

So, with renewed resolve, he dipped the quill in the ink and found a clear spot to practice, following the tutor’s instructions as he worked.

--

The lesson took most of the day, with a few breaks in between in which Udolf had Crow recite some of the etiquette he’d been taught. However, it didn’t feel nearly as long this time. Since he was learning something that was more interesting to him, Crow found that he enjoyed this lesson more than the last. He was determined to master reading and writing quickly, both because he considered it a skill that was actually useful and because he knew that once he was able to write, he could begin sending letters back and forth to Hazel to keep up with the rest of his companions. The thought of being able to reach out to them without traveling three days to their camp was exciting.

By the time the lesson was over, Crow was in a better mood than he usually was for supper. He was still tired from the effort of memorizing so many different letters, but he also felt accomplished. He had learned each and every character on the parchment and could copy them well now. All that was left was to learn how to use them to form words and sentences, and he felt confident that he could do so quickly. After all, he already had a large oral vocabulary. How hard could it be to learn how to read and write a language he already knew?

“Good work today,” Udolf said as he gathered his supplies. “If you keep up with this pace, you might actually have some potential as the king’s viceroy.”

“I’ve always had potential,” Crow snorted. “You just didn’t want to see it until now because I was a peasant.”

“Perhaps,” the tutor shouldered his bag. “But you are, in fact, the first peasant I’ve come across with an aptitude for any sort of meaningful skill.”

Crow scoffed at that. He knew plenty of peasants with a variety of useful talents. Hazel and Evelyn were even literate—self-taught, too. Of course, he also knew there was no changing the stubborn old man’s mind once he had made it up, so he didn’t bother trying to defend his people. He knew the value of the people of the outer villages, and that was enough for now.

“I’m going to have my supper now,” he announced instead, gesturing for Preston to follow him as he turned to the door.

“Of course,” Udolf walked after him. “We will continue tomorrow.”

Crow nodded without response and exited the bed chamber with Preston close at his heel. After working so hard on his lesson that day, all he wanted to think about was filling his empty stomach. So, he headed down the corridor with the attendant, leaving his tutor behind on his way to the Great Hall.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I decided he would talk to John xD

Oof lol

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

The next morning, Crow woke up on his own again. He sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm, yawning tiredly and looking over the empty room. It still seemed rather early, based on both the soft light coming in through the window and the fact that Preston had yet to show up to wait on him. Suddenly, he blinked. Preston wasn’t here yet. That meant he still had a chance to get ready for the day without the attendant’s unnecessary help.

Encouraged by the thought, he climbed down from the bed and ambled over to the large wardrobe, where he had seen Hunter and Preston get his clothes before. However, when he opened the door, he paused. Having lived with just one set of clothes on his back for most of his life, it was overwhelming to have so many choices available. There was a variety of different garments—tunics, vests, surcoats, et cetera—that he had never worn before. It was strange to think that he had so many expensive shirts and trousers in his room, while there were some families in the outer villages who were dressing their children in burlap sacks.

“I’ll help you with that.”

Crow startled at the sound of a voice and turned around to see Preston walking toward him from the door. Apparently, in his distraction, the attendant had had enough time to show up in his bed chamber. He glanced back at the open wardrobe once more before taking a step away from it. Though he preferred to dress himself, he didn’t know enough about the clothes of nobleman to put together an ensemble that the other people in the castle would find acceptable. Normally he wouldn’t have cared if they approved or not, but he didn’t want to draw more attention to himself than he already did. Plus, it was just easier for the servant, who already knew what he was doing, to do the simple task for him.

Oh, gods. Am I becoming like them? He thought with a grimace as he realized he was actually starting to accept Preston’s help. Not wanting to dwell on it, he focused instead on paying attention to the clothes his attendant selected for him from the wardrobe, so he would be able to get better at doing the menial job for himself in the future.

When the boy handed the articles over to him, the viceroy changed clothes quickly and put on his boots to get ready for breakfast. However, he hesitated before heading for the door as his conversation with Naida and Penelope suddenly came back to him. When he went to the Great Hall today, neither his sister nor the knight was going to be there. The thought of spending a meal in the company of people who hated him made him reluctant to leave the room.

“Is there a problem?” Preston asked, noticing that he was lingering.

Crow shifted his weight. Despite his discomfort, he didn’t want to admit to the attendant that he was nervous about eating in the Great Hall without the two people he was familiar with. “No,” he lied, forcing himself to walk to the door. “I just remembered something. It’s not important though. Come on, I want to eat.”

Luckily, the boy didn’t question him any further, and Crow made it to the Great Hall without having to explain himself.

When they arrived, the viceroy wavered by the door, taking a moment to look for an empty table that was as far from the other nobles as he could get. When he found one, he wasted no time heading over to sit down. As always, the nobles he passed casted him dirty looks, and he avoided their gazes, in no mood to start a fight with anyone when he was so severely outnumbered. To his relief, he made it to the spot he’d been eyeing without any trouble.

Preston studied him curiously, and Crow didn’t doubt that the attendant was wondering why he was keeping to himself today. Fortunately, the boy had enough sense not to ask him about it. “Should I bring you your food?” he offered instead.

“Yeah,” Crow nodded, casting the servant a smile. “Thanks.”

Preston bowed and walked away, leaving him alone. Meanwhile, Crow propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand as he gazed out over the crowd of noblemen and women in the Great Hall. As he’d expected, the bustling castle felt much lonelier without Penelope and Naida around to keep him company. He hoped the day would go by quickly, so he wouldn’t have to be alone for much longer.

In a strange way, he got his wish.

“You look like you could use some company.”

Crow turned around in surprise as a familiar voice caught his attention. Penelope’s father, John, was approaching him from another part of the room. He shuffled his feet beneath the table, unsure how to act around the stoic man. After their last encounter had ended so badly, he wanted to restore his image to the older knight. “I guess so,” he shrugged, trying to act nonchalant despite the discomfort he felt about being alone with his lover’s father.

If John noticed his unease, he didn’t comment on it. The knight sat down across from him and folded his arms on the table, “I’ve been meaning to find you.”

“You have?” Crow swallowed nervously. He couldn’t think of very many reasons why Penelope’s father would be looking for him, and he doubted the knight had shown up to give him his blessing.

“Yes,” John nodded. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but I’m going to be in charge of some of your training. In order for me to do a thorough job, I’m going to need you to tell me a few things, so I’ll be better prepared to teach you.”

Crow felt his shoulders fall with relief. It seemed that the knight hadn’t come to reprimand him after all. “Oh,” he managed a weak smile. “What did you want me to tell you?”

“I need to know what skills you already have, as well as what you lack,” John said curtly. “To start, tell me a bit about what you know of fighting. Penelope told me you already have an understanding, but I’d like to know to what degree you can handle different weapons.”

“Well,” Crow drummed his fingers on the table as he thought. “I do know how to fight fairly well, in my own opinion. I’ve used a lot of different weapons too, like swords, daggers, bows… I even practiced a little with a flail that I stole from a knight once.”

“That’s good,” John said contemplatively. “And would you say you’re skilled with these weapons?”

“Not all of them,” Crow admitted. He felt a bit strange speaking about his weaknesses to a knight, and he had to remind himself that it was just for the purpose of getting better. “I find bows the easiest to use, but I prefer to fight up close with my enemies, so I’ve also spent a lot of time learning how to use daggers.”

“And how would you compare your skill with a knight’s?”

“It’s hard to say,” Crow shrugged. “I can usually hold my own in a fight, but I also rely on surprising my opponent to get ahead. It’s often worked for me during this war, since all the knights are just looking out for enemy colors. They never expect a peasant like me to swing a blade at them.”

John studied him thoughtfully, “And in a fair fight?”

Crow shifted his weight as he confessed hesitantly: “It’s harder for me to win when knights are prepared for my attack.”

“Then we’ll work on that,” John said matter-of-factly.

“Alright,” Crow glanced to the side as Preston brought out his food. The boy tested it quickly and walked away again, leaving the two men alone.

As they ate their breakfast, the viceroy snuck occasional glances at the older knight. It was still strange to him that the man had decided to join him for a meal. He supposed he should have been happy, since it seemed to mean that Penelope’s father was giving him a chance, but he couldn’t shake his worry that he was one tongue-slip away from setting John off again. Deciding to err on the side of caution, he kept his mouth shut and finished his food in tense silence.

When he was done eating, Penelope’s father stood up from the table, “I’ll start integrating physical training into your regimen sometime in the next few days. If I don’t see you again before then, Udolf will let you know when to expect it.”

“Okay,” Crow nodded, hesitating for a moment before he added: “Thank you.”

John just grunted in response and turned to walk away, leaving the viceroy behind as he left the Great Hall without another word. Once he was gone, Crow let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and got up as well. With no reason to stick around, he headed back to his room, hoping he wasn’t late for his next lesson with his ornery tutor.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I'm thinking Crow will end up either talking to John or dealing with some of the nobles who don't like him cx