The Selection (Troyler AU)

♔Part IV♔

"Well, Troye, thank you," he said, a smile slowly taking up his entire face. "What can I do to make it up to you?"

I waved my hands in front of me, insisting,"Oh, n-no, that's not necessary, Caspar."

"Of course it is. I may not have known your name before today, but that doesn't mean that all of us servants," he paused, waving his arm around the rest of the staff in the kitchen, all blissfully ignorant of our conversation,"Aren't in this together. Plus, you did me a favor. And as charming and gorgeous as I am, Sivan, I don't get many favors these days." His lips spread in a cat-like grin. "So, yeah, I want to make it up to you. And it's because I want to, not because I feel obligated to. Trust me, I've had plenty of doing things I'm supposed to do, whether I want to or not," he muttered disdainfully.

I thought over his words, looking at it from his view, and slowly nodding in appreciation. I haven't thought much of Caspar Lee, but he clearly had more substance to him than I originally thought. He just... Got it, I guess I should say. He really understood.

"Alright," I said finally.

"So you'll let me?" he asked with barely congealed surprise. I guess he didn't expect me to agree so easily. Knowing me, I didn't blame him.

"Yeah, I mean, if you want. I don't know what I want you to do, though." I sighed over-exaggeratedly, looking down at my shoes. "But if the Caspar Lee is going to do me a favor, I guess I have to make it a good one, then, huh?"

He grinned even wider, if possible, nodding in respect. "Not we're talking. What do you got in mind?"

I glanced toward the ceiling in thought, tapping a finger to my chin for emphasis, and finally decided. "How about... Since I did your job, you do mine?"

"Done," he said without hesitation, and held out his hand. "Shake on it?" I looked at him in confusion, taken aback by the odd gesture. I've never seen it before, at least among the servants. "You shake my hand. It means we agree on a deal. Before I was a servant, and I lived back in Carolina, people did this all the time. The servants just don't do it much because they're supposed to do everything they're told, no matter what."

I raised my eyebrows at the explanation, still dumbfounded by the idea of it all. Still, I tentatively reached a hand out and grasped his hand in my own, swinging our arms up and down. "No, Troye," he said, attempting to hold back his laughter. "Softer, and just with your wrists. Like this," he told me, demonstrating once I stopped moving. I blushed, feeling like an idiot, but Caspar didn't seem fazed by it.

Once he let go of my hand, and clapped a hand on my back, and said,"Alright, get out of here, I'll handle it from here."

Looking back on it, I wonder if everything would've turned out differently, had I not done Caspar the favor that got me out of the kitchen earlier.

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I went over a mental checklist of what I was meant to do after my kitchen duties were taken care of, and felt strangely at ease once I went through it. I'd only done a small portion of what I was meant to do, but my next job was a relaxing one, and one that I probably won't get to do much in the future, once the Selection is over and done with.

I had to go to the Courtyard, and pick flowers to send to the maids to arrange in bouquets for the Selected girls' bedrooms.

It seemed like an almost degrading job on the surface - I was picking flowers for God's sakes - but any job that wasn't physically or emotionally taxing was one that I welcomed with open arms.

A small smile flitted across my face at the fact that I was going to get to go outside; I honestly can't remember the last time I was permitted to do so. Everyone was required to stay inside but the guards, unless given special permission ( or was in the Royal Family ), and since the gardens had watering systems installed, and garbage chutes inside the palace, there wasn't much cause for the servants to go outside.