Chapter Text
“Seriously? You still haven’t found a suitor you like?”
Ben shot Donna a quick glare for the comment, to which Donna only rolled her eyes.
“Don’t give me that look!” Donna retorted, “You’re gonna be 18 soon. I’m just trying to look out for you, better I were to realize you can’t find someone to marry before mom does.
Ben sighed despite himself. Donna was right. Ben was going to be 18 next year— if he didn’t find someone to marry before then, the kingdom would refuse to crown him king.
“I’m working on it. I’m sure I’ll find a nice girl I’d like to settle down with soon, these princesses are just so…” Ben grimaced, recalling past encounters, “snobby.”
“You said that last time. I really don’t want to put pressure on you or anything. Trust me, I know that you can’t force love, but I just want whats best for you, we all do.” Donna rested her hand gently on Ben’s shoulder, only receiving a small nod in response. Satisfied with this reaction, Donna lifted herself up off of one of Ben’s chairs and exited the room quietly, leaving him only with silence and time to recollect the conversation that had just ended.
Ben had meetings and galas with countless suitors throughout his life. It had always been the same story. No matter how kind, how beautiful, how smart, how good of an impression she’d leave on the kingdom; nothing ever clicked.
In his defense, he was most definitely not the only person with this problem. Donna had been sneaking around with a knight— Brady— since they were 13. Stuart had fallen hopelessly in love with a peasant from the village. The difference between those two and Ben was that they’d found someone, sure, it was practically a sin to be an heir to a thrown and fall in love with a commoner, but it was most certainly better than not having anyone at all.
Ben let out a groan, flopping lazily onto his mattress. Something had to have been wrong with him. He was 16 years old, and hadn’t met a single person in his whole life who caught his eye. True love might’ve been asking for too much, but damnit at this point all he wanted was someone he could pick out of a crowd!
Just as Ben was about to finish basking in his silence and go find something productive to do, he caught a glance at someone outside his window, followed by a curse from an unknown voice and the unfamiliar character quickly sliding down a rope and onto the ground.
It took a moment for Ben to process what had just happened. Before he could truly realize what was going on, he heard the sound of metal crashing somewhere near his room, followed by another figure he didn’t recognize rapidly sprinting through the halls and multiple guards closely chasing after.
Ben immediately sprung into action, quickly sliding off his bed and chasing the commotion outside his bedroom door. As soon as he stepped out of his room he could hear yelling coming from all directions.
“They’re getting away!”
“Thieves!”
“One of them has the crown!”
Ben ran as fast as he could to the entrance of the palace, where he found Donna, his mother, and dozens of other knights and guards crowding the door.
“What the hell is going on?” Ben asked, observing his surroundings.
“I’m pretty sure there was supposed to be a heist,” Donna replied, staring right into the direction of the chaos, “it doesn’t look very successful, though.”
The pair quickly shuffled through the crowd to see what was going on. Almost exactly in the center of the entrance to the castle were four commoners standing sheepishly in a line with their hands tied behind their backs.
Ben caught a quick glance of the one on the far right, he quickly recognized him as the man he’d seen outside his window. The young man had wavy black hair and blue eyes so sharp it felt like they could have pierced right through Ben’s skull. They made eye contact for maybe a second, before the black haired latter quickly adverted his gaze and lowered his head. The man next to him, who looked to have been the leader of the gang, mumbled something to him Ben couldn’t quite make out; the young man only rolled his eyes in response.
Queen Diana— Ben and Donna’s mother— stood right in front of the band of peasants, her face practically drowning in disgust.
“Have you no shame?” She started, “This is absolutely ridiculous! You four are extraordinarily lucky you haven’t been executed yet!”
The thieves stood in silence, only passing each other concerned glances at the thought of being killed. Not one of them dared to utter a word. Ben continued to specifically study the culprit he’d caught outside his window not long before.
The man in question wasn’t the tallest out of the band, maybe second or third. He was dressed in worn, dark brown boots, a leather jerkin that had clearly seen better days with a long white shirt underneath, baggy beige pants, and on top of it all was covered from head to toe in soot. Either he had snuck into the palace through one of the many chimneys, or just happened to roll around in cinder for fun. Ben was leaning towards the former.
Queen Diana continued on with her lecture, “All four of you will be working within the palace, cooking, cleaning, and doing whatever I see most fit.”
One of the thieves let out a loud relived sigh and hung his head on the back of his neck in solace, to which the other three shot the young man various glares. He didn’t seem to notice, as he quickly repositioned his head to look at the queen once more, blowing a strand of blonde hair out of his eyes as he did so.
“I don’t trust that any of you will be on good behavior if I let you go back to the village, so you will be quartered here until further notice. I expect nothing but absolute silence out of each and every one of you, next time I won’t be so generous.” The queen finished.
Queen Diana directed a few knights to haul the thieves inside, Ben and the boy from the window shared one more quick glance before he was taken inside by a knight. Ben hadn’t meant to stare, not that intensely, at least. Something about him had just felt… Familiar. Ben was positive he’d never seen the young man once in his life, but something about him made him stand out from the other three burglars. He almost seemed more recognizable, like someone Ben could have easily picked out from a crowd despite knowing nothing about him. Whatever it was, Ben wasn’t eager to find out. He’d nearly managed to rob the palace. No matter how intriguing Ben had found him, he knew better than to go trying to befriend a delinquent who’d almost skipped off with thousands of dollars worth of precious heirlooms.
“We should head inside,” Donna said, wrecking Ben’s train of thought, “there’s no reason to just stand around out here.”
Ben nodded silently, as his sister led them inside through a less crowded entryway.
Ricky was humiliated.
Not only did he completely ruin the group’s entire heist, but they all saw it happen, and they were livid.
“Nice going asshole,” Bobbie snapped, “we could’ve gotten out of here easy and made bank but since you couldn’t stop giving the prince goo-goo eyes we’re gonna be stuck here scrubbing the floors.”
“Goo-goo eyes” was definitely an exaggerated term. Ricky had simply caught a quick glimpse of the prince when trying to exit the castle grounds and got caught off guard. They couldn’t have made eye contact for more than a second or two. In his defense, he’d never actually seen any of the royal family for himself before. He’d always expected the prince to have been fairly good-looking, but actually seeing his face for himself was almost bothersome. To say the prince was simply “handsome” would have been a major understatement. He was breathtaking.
Unfortunately, this mere encounter had completely foiled everything the gang had going for them.
“It’s not like we were going to actually get away with it anyways,” Ricky deflected, “we had guards coming after us from all directions and would’ve been detained the second we got onto the ground.”
The four were currently being held in a cell in the castle’s dungeon. No knights were currently keeping guard of them, they were so far from any exit that it didn’t even matter. The only sign of light came from a small, sad “widnow” on the back walk of the cell. Until one of the guards came to let them out and make them get to work, they were stuck.
“I bet Heather is really living it up right now,” Nancy murmured from the corner of the cell, “probably gets treated like an actual princess by prince whats-his-face all the way out there.”
Heather was another member of the gang, or, at least used to be before she moved to another kingdom not too far from this one. Apparently, she’d secretly been going out with the prince of said kingdom— Prince Stuart— and decided to go work for his palace so there wouldn’t a distance between them. According to the rest of the gang, she didn’t even like the poor guy and in reality was just using him for his riches and status. Ricky hadn’t met Heather nor Prince Stuart for himself, as Heather left the kingdom shortly before he joined the gang. However, from the looks of it, it sounded like she had it made. Ricky couldn’t help but envy her, especially right now. Each time he sneezed from the amount of dust in that cell, the closer he got to losing his mind.
A few moments later, a knight entered the dungeon and unlocked the cell.
“I was instructed to not let you all out at the same time, or else you guys would try and make a run for it,” the knight started, blocking the cell’s exit with his body, “instead, I’m releasing you depending on what the queen wants done with you. Starting with the two of you.”
The knight pointed to Bobbie and Kenny, both of whom were leaned against the cell’s left wall next to the exit.
“You two. Follow me. I want you both training so we can have you as guards.” The knight instructed, motioning Bobbie and Kenny out of the cell. Bobbie mumbled something under his breath before he left, the knight didn’t seem to hear.
The cell was a lot quieter without Bobbie and Kenny. Kenny talked a lot by himself, but when him and Bobbie were together there was practically never a second of silence. They bickered like there was no other way to interact.
Nancy was currently sitting on a wooden plank attached to the wall, calling it a “bed” would’ve been generous.
“I don’t blame you,” Nancy yawned, waving her hand in front of her mouth, “the prince is hot.”
Ricky scowled, his ears got hot almost immediately. If there was anything worse than getting screamed at for that whole ordeal, it was getting approval.
It didn’t take long until another knight came to collect Nancy, informing her she’d be cleaning for the palace. Ricky was the last one left in the cell, the silence was almost worse than having to listen to Bobbie and Kenny fight with each other. Almost.
Eventually, a knight came to let Ricky out of the cell, this one in particular seemed a bit less stern than the previous knights who’d let the others out. This one had a more gentle demeanor, with blonde hair neatly nestled on his head and soft blue eyes laying comfortably on his freckled face. He looked way too normal to be a knight, he came off as way friendlier too.
“Her majesty said she wanted you specifically in the kitchen,” the knight started, carefully sorting through keys to find the correct one to open Ricky’s cell, “she said she wanted me to escort you to the kitchen and introduce you to our head cook. She’s great, you’ll be in good company.”
Ricky gave a polite nod and followed the knight out quietly. Considering he’d almost gotten away with the queen’s crown, he seemed to have been treated fairly well. He still had his hands tied behind his back, walking through the palace was the most embarrassing thing he’d ever done. For a moment, Ricky was worried he was going to be executed from the amount of staring and whispers about him coming from the maids.
The entrance to the kitchen was behind a big wooden door with a window near the top. Ricky could see several cooks scurrying around, some with dishes and others with plates of food. The knight opened the door and motioned Ricky to come inside. Upon entering, there was a shorter woman standing near the door, she must’ve been waiting for them. Her hair was tucked carefully behind a rag, and her apron looked like it had been marinating in flour. She was definitely the head chef.
“I have a new recruit for you!” the knight chuckled, untying the rope from Ricky’s hands.
“Thanks, Brady,” the chef replied, sticking out her hand for Ricky to shake, “the names Skeeter. Nice to meetcha.”