I sat in the gardens, surrounded by the wilting flowers. I sighed, fingering a single shriveled petal on a dying rose bush. The fragile bloom snapped beneath my touch, and drifted like dry paper to the ground. Replacing my hand to my lap, I leaned back against the archway and closed my eyes.
It was the end of summer, when the flowers should have been ripe and blooming. But in an outburst, Shion had sent away all of the grounds keeping staff, claiming that they were incompetent to take care of simple plants. For months, they had been dying away, so I sat on the grassy floor of a path, saying goodbye to the blooms.
A shout caught my attention, and my chest erupted into panic. I quickly scurried to my feet, and ducked behind the bushes of a hidden cove. Down the path came the powerful voice I had heard before. I recognized it, and my body began to quake with fear. I peered around the bush, and my suspicions were confirmed.
Shion stood proudly in a dress made of violet lace, the plumes of her skirts swirling viciously as she stomped along the path. Her smooth face curled back into snarls, pink lips peeled back to reveal her grit teeth, and her blonde hair swirling down her back.
"Honestly," she hissed, "those gardeners were imbeciles. Just look at these flowers!" She reached out and snatched a crumbling bud in her hands, her long fingernails twisting at the fragile petals and turning them to ash. "This whole garden will have to be rebuilt."
"Then we shall tear it down and begin again, Your Majesty," said a looming man behind her. My body shrunk back even further at his deep, rocky voice. Kinshiki Osutsuki was a beast of a man, made of solid brick and empty of all feelings inside. The staff liked to call him Frankenstein, because his looming form made it seem as if some mad scientist had taken the most ferocious pieces of a dozen humans, and sewed them together to create the monstrosity of the queen's advisor. He had come with Shion from her homeland.
"No," she spat, rolling her eyes.
She ripped another flower from the hedged walls, and dropped it on the ground to press it under the toe of her boot. It crackled under her foot, and she smiled. "I want it burned to the ground."
My heart sank in my chest, knowing that it really would be the last time I saw this place. I kept the small sigh from escaping my lips so as not to be heard.
Shion snapped her fingers. "Butler."
I peered out again, and saw the final figure step into view. "Yes, Your Highness."
My eyes widened. The young man now bowing politely before the queen was young, possibly no older than I. When he stood up straight again, his blonde hair fell away and I could see his bright, blue eyes glittering in the summer sun. His whiskered face was a serious, but when he spoke his lips trembled into something like a smirk.
Shion spun on her heel, speaking to him directly. "Don't you think that's a good idea?"
The butler only bowed again. "Whatever pleases you, Your Highness."
Shion tapped a finger to her lips. "Kinshiki," she said, almost sweetly. "Can you leave Naruto and I alone for a moment?"
Kinshiki bowed stiffly, and turned around to leave the gardens. Only a moment after he had left, Shion pulled on Naruto's lapels and yanked him down to her lips.
She kissed him forcefully, smashing her mouth onto his, and he only closed his eyes and accepted it.
Shion pulled away from him, batting her eyes and giggling. "Good boy, Naruto. Always the obedient little servant."
I watched her hands move down to Naruto's slacks, and gasped when she slipped her fingers beneath his waistband. As quickly as the noise had escaped, I slapped my hand over my mouth and sunk against the shrubbery.
"Did you hear something," Shion said.
I closed my eyes, squeezing them shut and trying not to breathe.
"I heard nothing," Naruto replied flatly.
"I could have sworn I- hm!"
The garden fell silent, and I opened my eyes. Peering around the corner again, I expected to see the queen staring down at me with daggers in her eyes. Instead, I saw Naruto's hands fisted in her hair, kissing her passionately. My eyes followed the trail of his pointed nose down to where their lips worked together, noting how soft and smooth the tug of his lips pulled on hers. I swallowed heavily; flushing at how intimately they interacted, feeling as if I were intruding.
Naruto pulled away from the queen slowly, his eyes hazy. Shion played with the bow at his neck, voice dripping with lust. "Did I order you to kiss me?"
"No," Nimaruto said cheekily. "I thought perhaps you would enjoy having a disobedient servant for once."
Shion smiled slowly, and pushed away from Naruto, any thought toward my subtle noise long gone. "Perhaps this once, I will forgive this. But," she said, gracefully sliding around him to walk toward the palace, "you will be punished tonight."
Naruto nodded, "Yes, Your Majesty." He turned to walk away, but before he did, he looked directly to where I was hiding behind the bush. He met my eyes, and quickly nodded in the opposite direction to where he and the queen were walking.
I ducked behind the cove, clutching my chest. Could he see me the whole time? I thought back to the passionate kiss I had witnessed.
Did he know I was watching?
When the footsteps receded and I knew I was alone again, I shuffled away in the direction Naruto had gestured. I hurried through the gardens, and did not exhale until I was safely behind a closed door in the servant's quarters.
-----
"Hinata," someone said in a distant echo. "Hinata?"
I blinked rapidly, dropping the rest of the sheet into the washbasin. I quickly scooped it up again, and continued brushing the fabric.
"Hinata," Sakura said from beside me. "Did you hear a word I just said?"
"Uh," I said, clearing my throat, "Of course. You were talking about-"
"The new butler," Sakura said excitedly, washing her own sheet in the basin next to me. "He's so handsome! And so young too, I wouldn't have thought for a second he was actually a butler."
"That's because he isn't," Ino said, bustling past us with a basket of freshly dried towels. "He was only hired to sleep with the Witch of Konoha."
"Ino!" Sakuro shushed the blonde woman. "You can't talk like that! Anyone could tell on you these days."
"I could care less what that woman does to me," Ino shot, setting down the basket and placing her fists on her hips. "She's the reason our good king is dead, I tell ya. She killed him in his sleep."
"Ino," I said, this time. "It's dangerous to speak that way, with so few of us left. Think of your parents."
Ino bit back her lip, looking solemnly around us. Right now there were only a dozen or so maids, the rest having been sent off months ago. She knew that if she were to even breathe out of turn, she could be sent off and her parents would lose the little income the maids received, despite having to do three times the work we typically were assigned. Ino said nothing, but nodded evenly, and buried herself in the folding of her towels.
The room fell uncomfortably silent, only the sloshing of the sheets in the soapy water. Until Sakura whispered, "So have you seen him or not? I asked you and you went completely silent."
"Oh," I said, thinking about the boy with the golden eyes in the gardens, his lips pulling at the queen's. "No."
"Well," Sakura said. "The moment you do let me know."
"All right," I said quietly, returning to my work.
Sakura and I gathered the washed sheets from the other maids, and lugged out the baskets to the lawn to string them up.
It was a beautiful day; slightly cloudy, the wind pulling at my hair nicely in the golden light of the setting sun. I handed Sakura a basket, and she took to the line at my left. We had finished hanging about half when a bell rang from inside.
"Oh," Sakura said, "I didn't realize how late it was. It's almost time for supper."
"Go," I said. "You'll be needed in the kitchens. I can finish these."
Sakura didn't argue, thanking me with a kiss on the cheek. I stuck my tongue out to her, wiping away at the spot where her lips had smacked against my face.
"Disgusting."
"That's why we're best friends, Hinata!" Sakura picked up her skirts and ran inside, leaving me smiling to myself as I hung another sheet.
Sakura and Ino truly were my best friends, perhaps even my sisters. We had been raised together by the other women who worked in the palace, our shared age giving us an instant connection. They had spent their days in the same joyful work as I did, Sakura parents living in the town, working at a bakery while Ino's family own a little flower shop. When Sakura and Ino were offered the same position as I, they took it gratefully, and visited their parents often. But when the queen took over and the town disintegrated into madness, their parents warned them not to leave the safety of the castle. I knew the two must have been terribly homesick, stuck in such a cruel place that was once so warm, not to see their family.
I sighed, thinking about my own family. It had been a few years now since I received the news of my mother's death. It was no one's fault; the doctor said that after all her years of hard work, her body simply couldn't fight the sickness that had consumed her. It was only because of the kindness and generosity of the palace staff that I was able to grieve in peace.
Now, if the same news were to reach Sakura and Ino, I don't know how they would cope. That frightened me more than anything.
I continued my work, consumed by thought. As the white sheets flapped in the wind, I caught sight of a figure peeking through the material wings. I tried to peer through the now massive maze of fluttering fabric, strung along the ropes in the yard. I peered through a row, pulling back the sheets to step between them, but no matter where I looked no one was there. When I turned around, I was face to face with someone.
"Ah!" I shrieked, stumbling backward.
"I'm so sorry!" Naruto reached out, catching my shoulders before I could trip. "I didn't mean to scare you." His plump lips curled up into an apologetic smile, and I couldn't stop my eyes from drifting toward them.
"Well then don't go creeping around like that," I said, brushing him off me and trying to hide the blush on my cheeks.
"So you're the girl in the gardens," Naruto said, his voice light. "That was very risky of you to go wandering about the queen's territory."
I pressed my lips tight. So he had seen me. I turned on my heel, pushing back the sheets to the open yard. "I didn't think anyone would go there."
"That was a poor assumption," Naruto said, following my movements.
I shuffled toward the basket of sheets, reaching in to hang another up to dry. "Well thank you for not telling on me, either way," I said, trying not to face him, afraid of staring at his lips too much.
"You're welcome," he said, reaching down into the basket and pulling out a sheet.
"Oh, no," I said, snatching it from him. "You don't have to help me."
Naruto snatched the sheet back, unfolding it in his hands. "No, but I want to." He tossed the sheet over the line, smoothing it until it buffeted easily in the breeze.
I shook my head. "Shouldn't you be off... tending to the queen," I said, my voice quivering more than I had intended.
Naruto's eyes widened, before his expression softened into a teasing smirk. "You mean, tending to her?" His lips brushed against my ear before I could register how close he was to my side. His breath fanned over my cheek, hot and husky, and I immediately jolted backward.
Naruto laughed openly, his voice shifting back to that of a child's. "I'm only teasing, I promise." He reached back to the basket, pulling out the last sheet. "The queen and I have a complicated relationship," he said, snapping the sheet.
"She pays me well, and I tend to her needs. It's nothing more. Just a job."
I pressed my hands to my steaming cheeks. Quickly, I gathered the basket in my arms and curtsied.
"Thank you for helping me, Naruto," I said. "I'll be going now."
"Hey, wait," he said, reaching out to catch my arm. He pulled me back harder than I had expected, his arms unusually strong, and I dropped the basket as I hit his chest. I looked up into his eyes, glowing softly in the sunshine, like they were filled with summer itself.
Naruto smiled slowly, "I never got your name."
I stuttered, still captured by his eyes. "H-Hinata."
Nico smiled. "Hinata, it's nice to meet you then! I'm Naruto" He held out his hand to me, stepping away to allow me out of his arms.
I took his hand awkwardly, and shook it. "I need to go now, the queen will be needing dinner soon."
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I should be there too. I will see you around, then."
Naruto waved at me, and I scuttled back to the palace. But I didn't go to the kitchens to help with the meal; instead I hurried back to my room and buried myself on my bed.
I bit my bottom lip, thinking back to the way Naruto had smiled so brightly at me. His eyes were so much lighter than before, so cheerful and warm. I closed my eyes, thinking of his strong arms, so much tauter than he appeared, as if well trained muscles were hiding beneath his boyish exterior.
My cheeks flushed. I couldn't believe I had a crush on the butler in only the first day of us meeting. It had been years since I had felt something for a boy, and it had never felt quite this visceral.
I clutched my pillow to my chest, rolling over in bed. The sun was nearly set, just a flicker of golden light on the blue horizon, and I couldn't help the peace that fell over me. I closed my eyes to sleep, a tiny smirk appearing. I would have much to tell Sakura and Ino now.