yan!knight x lady in waiting!reader
yan!knight x lady in waiting reader, enemies to lovers esque? mentions of blood + injury, implied thoughts of killing someone.
Yan!knight was of a more humble lineage. He grew up modestly with his two parents and younger brother. While he never considered his heritage to be a set-back, yan!knight knew he had to work twice as hard to achieve what others could get with a snap of a finger.
He became a mercenary at a young age, usually consisting of hunting down betrayers of the nobility and slaying those who are potential threats to powerful houses.
It brought food on the table and allowed for him to support his aging parents, but he hated his job. Haughty aristocrafts who would seek a dog like him out, to do all of their dirty laundry without getting their hands wet. Despite his assistance to maintain the prestige of these houses, they all scrunched up their noses when they looked at him.
Yan!knight was able to climb up the ranks quickly, with his agility and strength overshadowing even imperial knights. With his growing popularity in the mercenary world, the empire decides to take him in as an imperial knight.
He was reluctant, as this meant he was going to be forced right into the world of aristocrafts, those who treated servants like breathing furniture and used their power to exploit, however the amount of gold he was offered.. It would go a long way.
Yan!knight was never fully welcomed into the imperial army due to his commoner origins, he struggled with finding others to spar with and was made to do tasks that weren't expected for an imperial knight. He preferred that these so-called protectors wouldn’t try to act all buddy-buddy with him, but at times the reminders of the difference between him and them, stung.
Eventually, he was selected as the princess’s personal knight during the annual initiation ceremony. This was a gilded title, as coveted as it was, felt demeaning. All of his years of hard work and grit were minimised to following around a spoiled girl, decorated with frills and pearls.
Now in the palace and not in the knight’s area, he was expecting a slight change. However, noblewomen aren’t any better. They’re pampered and coddled from a young age, the only thoughts that occupy their mind are the latest gossip and the current trends in the season. If anything, they’re worse. They’ve never had to experience any kind of strain on their frail bodies, and all of their needs are aided by their personal maids.
You were a lady-in-waiting, a higher class title for basically a maid. Your job was to attend to the princess’s needs and to accompany her through banquets or when she goes to town. He deemed you no better than him, a dog. You were called whenever the princess wanted, and was expected to fulfil her every whim. The only difference between you and him is that you were a noble.
Whenever he got slightly too close to the princesses, you would glare and scrunch up your nose like all the others. He thought you were worried that his common blood would somehow corrupt this pure princess.
He hated you. He hated that you blindly served these norms, that you were comfortable staying in the princess’s shadow because of what? When your blood is the same crimson red as hers, why is yours considered to be lesser?
On a warm, sunny day, the princess insisted that she went out to town, complaining that she’s grown tired of the palace walls. That’s how you ended up trailing two steps behind her highness, while yan!knight is watching the two of you from a distance.
The princess takes her time to fully examine the ornate dresses or jewellery on display from each store, before she rushes into one specific one that catches her eye. Her status allows for her to be personally attended to by the shop’s employees, leaving you to browse the rest of what the store offers.
Yan!knight follows the two of you into the store, as expected of him. He stands diligently, scoping out the store for any potential threats to the princess’s safety.
That’s when his gut flairs up, something’s wrong. His senses intensify, eyes rapidly darting across the store. He’s strong and able, but this sense of impending dread weakens his rational thinking.
That’s when he spots you. You’re reaching for something on a shelf that towers over you, using the first shelf as a stepping stool, causing it to slightly sway at even your smallest movements. When you reach for what seems to be a small porcelain trunk, you’ve lost your footing and reel for the floor.
Instead of feeling the cold wood against your skin, you feel a firm yet inviting embrace enveloping your body. His heartbeat thumps erratically against your skin, as his eyes that usually match the sharpness as yours are now wide in panic.
The context of the situation dawns on you, and you leap out of his arms, afraid of any misinterpretations. You begrudgingly look up to him with the intent of thanking him, but you notice a deep red seeping into his hair. A vase was also sent to the floor with you, but he took the hit.
After her highness deemed herself ready to retire back to the palace and went to lounge in her quarters, you took the time to attend to yan!knight’s wounds. It was only a superficial gash, but you still used steady hands and deliberate moves when applying creams or band-aids.
Yan!knight eyes bore into yours the whole entire time, noticing that sharpness in your eyes has softened into something more vulnerable, yet your breathing mirrored the caution that you still felt.
Your kindness wasn’t a trait that was usually given to nobles like you, but yan!knight welcomed it nonetheless. His image of you that he had shaped, yet another noble who’d look down on those below him, was slowly being distorted in his mind. He had no idea who you truly were. The ambiguity of you, almost scared him. His training as both a knight and a mercenary was meant to help him categorise those around him, to weed out threats, but you couldn’t fit in the boxes he’s created.
As you guys are constantly in proximity to each other, he takes the opportunity to study you. To understand why your role simply came so naturally to you. You would constantly tame her hair throughout the day, murmur sweet words of affirmations in her ear and you would carefully select her attire daily while keeping the trends in mind.
But he also noticed that you would take the blame for the mistakes of lower-born servants, assist the kitchenmaids during imperial banquets and never once denied the opportunity to get your hands dirty despite your noble status.
He couldn’t comprehend you, and that only made him more fixated on you. He considered your beauty to rival your liege’s, with soft luminous skin highlighted by the sun when you setting up her outdoor picnics and eyes that softened at the disadvantaged. If it were up to him, it was you who deserved to shine.
When the princess would order you to do things like setting up her tea party or organising her jewellery with her shrill voice, it would make his skin crawl. A silent rage that he’s left stifled in his body, threatens to bubble over.
He feels that your life would be much better if he could take you away from the social conforms that chain you. He believed that he could pamper you just as much, if not more, than any princess out there. Even if you didn’t have a crown, his worship would reflect that of an entire kingdom.
He’s desperate to see the real you, the woman who doesn’t just exist in the trail of perfume that the princess leaves, but he wants to unravel you completely, exposing the whole of what you have to offer to just him. The you in the world when the princess doesn’t exist.
