Slave whumpee being gifted to a royal that they haven’t seen yet. They clean empty rooms, tend fires for no one, dust knock knacks for no one to look at.
It’s both the safest they’d felt in a long time and also the most afraid. Dread haunts them for when the royal finally does show up, but in the meantime, they’re taking orders from someone else, someone without the authority to really hurt them.
They try not to let themselves slack, but one day, they struggle to keep up. Their head is pounding, everything aches, and they find themself curling up on the floor in front of the fireplace “for just a moment, swear it” because they’re just so cold…
Waking up to a blanket draped over them, a pillow tucked under their head, the royal they’d been given to sitting in an armchair watching them thoughtfully.











