"My lady, it's time to wake up. Lauren and I have much work to do yet before tonight's festivities."
"Five more minutes Mommy... The unicorns haven't even gotten up yet..."
"He he he! (Y/n) is hilarious when she it tired! Can we try to wake her up again later? I want to hear her say more funny things!"
"No Lauren. We have to prepare her for this evening, and if we ever want a chance at finishing on time we must start now."
"Aww. Come on Anna, let her sleep for a few more minutes! It's not really going to effect us that much."
"Fine, we can let her sleep for five more minutes, but that is all I will allow."
Lauren fist pumped into the air silently, giving a little jump to go along with it. Anna sighed at her childish friend and left your side to let you sleep. You soon started to shift in your sleep. What seemed like small and harmless movements turned into violent thrashing. Anna and Lauren grew increasingly concerned the more sporadic your movements became. The young blond had finally had enough of seeing you in clear agony and took to your side. She put a hand on your forehead and closed her eyes, trying to make a mental connection with you but to no avail. You calmed down ever so slightly, just enough to stop your crazy movements to only twitches every so often.
Lauren pulled your head into her lap and whispered kind words to you as she stoked her fingers through your hair. You began to whimper in your sleep. A few mumbled words, garbled by your sleeping state, escaped your lips. The more you mumbled, the clearer the words you spoke were.
"Daddy... Mommy... Please... Don't fight... No... No... NO!"
With the last "no" you jolted awake and clung to the nearest object, which was Lauren. You had as bit of a cold sweat forming on your upper brow and your breathing was labored from panic. Lauren sat with you, continuing to brush her fingers through your locks of (h/c) and holding you close. Anna stood to the side, impressed by how incredibly motherly Lauren was without having children of her own. It was like someone had pulled a switch. The blond was carelessly childish one moment, and the next she was a soothing woman with motherly instincts.
A few more moments passed, and you had fully calmed down. You detached yourself from Lauren's petite form and pulled yourself out of the bed. You walked yourself to the bathroom of the room and splashed cold water from the sink onto your face. A soft (f/c) hand towel was handed to you by Anna. You used it to pat your face dry and turned your attention to the bathtub, which was filled with water and bubbles. Lauren joined the two of you in the bathroom and turned her back so it was facing you. Anna followed suit. This was their way of silently telling you to undress and get in the tub. You did so without any hesitation and let out a soft sigh as you lowered yourself fully into the warm water.
The two maids took that as their sign to get to work and moved over to the tub. Lauren sat behind you outside of the tub on a wooden stool while Anna sat on one close to your side. The blond pushed you forward a bit and tilted your head back. She poured water of the same temperature of that that was in the bath onto your hair. She then took a bottle of (f/s) scented shampoo and squeezed some of the liquid into her hand before rubbing them together. She then moved her hands through you hair, causing an adequate amount of suds to form. Her hands massaged your scalp before she rinsed the suds away with more warm water. She pinned any loose hair you had up and started to massage your shoulders once you moved your back to rest against the backing of the bathtub.
Anna soon fished the hand on her side of the tub out of the water and dried it off. The raven haired girl grabbed a bottle of hand lotion and put some on your hands before rubbing it in. She then grabbed a nail file from a pocket in her apron and began to file away any sharp, jagged, or rough edges on your nails.
"Would you like to talk about whatever was plaguing your dreams?" Lauren asked in a soft voice.
"Hmm?" you responded, clearing enjoying being pampered.
"You were tossing and turning and mumbling about your parents fighting. Would you like to talk about it?" the blond asked once more.
"Not really."
"Are you sure? You seemed extremely upset."
You sighed but began to tell the tale of your dream as Anna started to apply a glossy coat of clear nail polish to your nails to give them a shine.
"My parents didn't fight often. In fact, I've only ever heard them fight once, but these parents, the ones from my dream, were nothing like my parents. They talked of me fondly until my father, or what I assume was meant to be a representation of my father, brought up sending me off. To where, they never mentioned, but my mother seemed distraught by the mere thought of it. They were dressed funny too, almost like a king and queen, but I know that my parents were not royals. My father was a merchant and my mother was a seamstress. These representations though, they really disliked the idea of letting me go, like some force, or rather someone, was driving them to push me away for my own safety. During their argument, I kept trying to disrupt them. I called out for them, I tugged on their clothing, but they ignored me. It was like I was nonexistent to them. Then, out of nowhere, this cradle shows up. It just appeared out of thin air, and inside this thing was a baby. These two hooded figures in dark cloaks showed up and took the cradle with a nod of their heads. My mother sunk down and cried, repeatedly yelling at my father and telling him that he was making a huge mistake. He kept screaming back at her, saying that what he just did was necessary. Their yelling kept getting louder and louder with each word. I couldn't take it anymore, and I guess the fear that they were going to hurt one another woke me up, despite them not being my parents."
The maid duo remained silent for a long while. You thought you had upset them somehow with your dream story. You looked to Anna's face, which looked as normal as ever, no facial expression to tell you her emotions. You tilted your head as best you could to see Lauren. She looked calm and at ease as she continued to kneed her fingers into the skin of your shoulders.
"That was quite a dream," Anna finally said.
"Yeah. Who would have guessed something like that was causing you distress?" Lauren added.
Since the blond's question was rhetorical, the three of you stayed silent once more before Anna gave you a wash cloth and some soap to was yourself with. They turned around to give you privacy once more. After another minute you told them your were ready to get out of the tub. Lauren handed you a towel and went back to looking away so you could let the water of the tub drain and you could dry off. You did so quickly and let the two women lead you to a vanity.
They got to work, rubbing lotion on your arms and lower legs, drying your hair and fashioning it. They applied no make up since they didn't think you needed it. Then, it was time to pick out your outfit. The two hauled in a massive rack of dresses and shoes. A smaller rack was then wheeled in that contained various colors and styles of jewelry. You gawked at the beauty of the fabric master pieces. Each dress had a different style and color, even if it was just one shade off. There had to have been at least thirty dresses, each with a pair of shoes and a set of jewelry to match.
"All of these were made by the prince's brother," Lauren giggled out.
"That blond guy I met earlier made all of these?! What was his name? Flavio was it?"
"That's right my lady."
You shot Anna a look for calling you "my lady".
"My apologies (y/n). It slipped out."
"It's alright. I forgive you."
"Thank you. I must warn you that we will have to call you that when in the presence of others since it is a form of insubordination to not address higher ranking individuals as "my lady" or "my lord" here."
"Thanks for the heads up."
"You're welcome."
"Come one (y/n)! You've got dresses to try on!"
You groaned at the thought of trying all of them on. The girls handed you a strapless nude color bra and underwear to put on before trying on the garments. You got through half of them when you laid eyes of the most beautiful dress you had ever seen. That was saying something since you were more of a tomboy if anything. This dress was a (f/c) Victorian ball gown with off shoulder sleeves. The bodice and a quarter of the upper sleeve had designs of gold etched onto it. The rest of the dress was made from a solid (f/c) fabric, with the train of the dress being longer than the front and having a mesh like fabric of the same color in two loose ruffles hanging from where the bodice and train met. The part of the sleeves under the (f/c) and gold fabric were bell sleeves.
Lauren and Anna saw how much you loved the dress and helped you into it right away. It looked much better on you than it did the hanger. Anna wanted to complete the look with the dress's complementary pair of white ballet flats and jewelry. You thought that the dress had too much jewelry to go with it, which wasn't an understatement. It did have a necklace, three rings, and seven bracelets to go with it. You settled on just the necklace, which had a three and a half carat round diamond in the center, accompanied by smaller diamonds branching out to either side.
The maids looked to you in approval as you gave them a twirl. Lauren squealed at how amazing you looked, and Anna smiled brightly as she clasped her hands together by her chest. Anna checked the time and gasped, noticing that they were going to be behind schedule if they didn't get a move on. Her and the blond quickly tidied up the room, putting all the discarded back on their appropriate hangers and the shoes and jewelry in their rightful places. The girls ushered you out of the room and back down to Luciano's. Anna knocked on the door and had you hide behind them. You rolled your eyes at this. You weren't trying to impress him, so why try to hide you? That's right, you spilled the beans about your conflicting feelings for the prince to them, and now they were trying to play matchmaker.
Both doors were opened by two butlers from the inside to reveal Luciano in the midst of adjusting his cravat in a full body mirror that had been wheeled into the room during the time you had been absent. His back was turned to you and the girls, whom he didn't seem to notice. He tugged his dark purple waistcoat down and readjusted the cufflinks of his shirt. He smoothed his black trouser legs out and made sure his black dress shoes looked fine before turning around. The prince raised an eyebrow at your two maids.
They kept goofy smiles on their faces as they parted to reveal you in all your fabulous glory. You kept you eyes shifted down as Luciano smiled while taking your your appearance. He strode over to you and tilted your chin up so your eyes could meet his. His other hand settled on your waist and pulled you closer to him.
"You look stunning (y/n)," he complemented.
"Thanks," you mumbled. "You don't look horrible either."
Luciano chuckled at how you worded you complement. It was adorable to him in every way. He moved in to give you a kiss, but you put a hand to his mouth to stop him. He frowned once you moved your hand and tried again, only to end in the same result.
"Why won't you let me kiss you?"
"It's simple, I don't love you."
"Oh, but I love you."
"I know, and it's weird."
"And why is it weird mio tesoro?"
"Because you are a lot freaking older than me! You're like a million years old compared to me! That's gross!"
"I'm not that old!"
"Then how old are you, you male cougar?!"
"I am not a male cougar! I'm only 2,099!"
The two butlers and Lauren and Anna moved to stand away from the two of you. Lauren sighed and whispered to Anna that it was cute how the both of you were already bickering like an old married couple. The blond then received a thump to the back of her head from the raven haired female. The four of them watched as you and Luciano stared each other down.
"Well, you're still old to me," you said under your breath, just loud enough for Luciano to hear.
The prince glared at you and then to the four onlookers. The four scampered out of the room and let the doors slam closed behind them. Luciano directed his attention back to you and pulled you even closer to his body. He put his mouth close to your ear and began to speak.
"Listen and listen well because I am not going to say this again. I am hosting a ball tonight to announce our engagement," he said in a hostile tone.
"We are not engaged," you replied in a tone to match his.
"Hush. You didn't let me. Yes, I know that we are not engaged as of the moment, but during the ball I am going to propose to you. You are to say yes and be excited about it. Cry of happiness or some shit to make it look real. You also need to act like you love during the event. There are no if, ands, or buts about this. You will do as I say. Do I make myself clear?"
"I'm not doing that!"
Luciano sighed. "I'll make you a deal. If you play along with my plans, I'll leave you to your own devices for three days. You may leave the castle, but Matthieu must accompany you."
"Four days, and my own room during this time."
"Three days and not a day more. Do we have a deal?"
You hesitated but grabbed his hand to shake it, closing the agreement in silence. Luciano smiled and hugged you, which caught you off guard. You awkwardly hugged him back and waited for him to let go.
"I don't say this often, but grazie. You don't know how much this actually helps me."
"Yeah, yeah, you're welcome and all that jazz, but how does this help you?"
"That will be a chat for another time amore mio. Right now, we have a royal engagement to make."
~Author's Note~
DreamsForDays here! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry if it's not as good as the other chapters. Midterms are starting for me tomorrow and I've been trying to reteatch myself a few things before then. But enough about me, we have a deal between Reader-chan and Luciano. The question is, will everything go as smoothly as Luciano hopes? Also, Luciano is back to being his possessive old self, at least he was for a little bit. Translation time!
Translations: Italian
Mio tesoro - My treasure
Grazie - Thank you
Amore mio - My love
I believe that is all the translations for this chapter. Also, I feel like I made Reader-chan a bit tsundere, don't you think? Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for reading! Feedback in the comments is always appreciated! Until next time!