A/N: It's been a few days! Sorry for the wait but school is kicking my butt and I'm super tired. At least project season is over!
You'd started to see the prince around a lot more now. Although that made sense because you were now tasked with caring for his horse. Sometimes he would just watch you work, which had slowly become less unsettling.
He wasn't hostile or rude to you anymore, even if you'd found him strange at first. Not that you would ever admit that out loud. The last thing you needed was for the king and queen to find out. While the prince might not dislike you, the king and queen were infamously short tempered.
Something you realized the princess had inherited after she broke the peaceful silence one day.
It had been a normal day. You had done your chores before starting to personally care for the prince's horse. You were midway through brushing the fine stallion when the prince had shown up with two apples. He placed one of them on the small table you only ever cleaned for him. The other he started snacking on.
You were starting to enjoy the company, now that Mister Riley was letting you do more alone. It was almost something you waited for.
You'd just finished brushing the horse and the prince had just finished his apple. You were about to go get the bucket of feed and water when the stable doors slammed open. You dropped the brush, startled as the amount of force used. You could hear some of the other horses getting a little spooked in their stalls.
"Gaston! You useless cowardly brute!" You peeked around the corner of the stall in time to watch the princess stride up to the crown prince, fuming. She was holding something in one of her hands that she thrusted into his face.
"I know it was you! You broke it and then you came out here to hide!" She hissed. The crown prince seemed generally uninterested until she smacked his spare apple off the table. It hit the wall with a dull thud and instantly his calm demeanor melted away into one of anger.
"I didn't break your stupid hairpin." He spat, glaring down at her. "But you can bet that I will break every single stupid hairpin of yours-!"
"Hairpin?" Suddenly all eyes were on you and you felt yourself blanch.
"Who is that?!" The princess demanded. The prince rolled his eyes but gestured you out of your hiding place.
"This is Y/N. The stable hand." The prince introduced. You bowed in greeting to the princess who brushed you off with an eye roll. Now that you were closer you could see the issue the princess was talking about. A pretty fabric flower that looked to be embroidered with golden thread had fallen off the body of the hairpin. Seeing as the hairpin was covered in fabric, the stitches had likely come loose.
"I could fix it, your highness." You said, gesturing to the hairpin. The princess opened her mouth but the crown prince snatched the hairpin before she could say anything, thrusting it into your hands.
"You have five minutes." The princess eventually said. Her voice was cold and you ran off into the side room to fetch a needle and some thread.
˚˖°.𓃗⊹ ࣪ ˖
A very stressful five minutes later and you emerged from the backroom holding out the repaired hairpin. The princess looked it over before accepting it with a huff.
"What is a child doing as a stable hand anyway?" She eventually bit out. You shrugged, finally returning to the prince's stallion and your duties.
"They help to assist the stable master." The prince answered, heading for the stable doors. The princess followed behind him and you could hear the two bickering until they were out of sight. You shared a look with the prince's stallion before you started feeding the rest of the horses.
Little did you know that you just gained a new regular visitor to the stables.