Sasha Irina Volkov

A lot people told him that must be so great to be rich, but he honestly didn’t see himself as a rich guy, the money wasn’t his, it was his parents’. Sure, if they died, he and his siblings would still have it, but if they decided that he didn’t deserve the money, then he wouldn’t have any of it. He wouldn’t have where to go, and how to pay the bills, “I’m not rich, my parents are, there’s a difference, even if it may like seems it doesn’t,” he pointed out, he doubted they would be happy with him just going around spending their money with no care in the world, but he doubted she would take a no, “But okay, I will pay.”

“That is like, the same thing,” she replied, waving a hand dismissively. Besides, either way, he was the next king of a country, it’s not like growing up cash had every really been a worry of his. It wasn’t a fight she was particularly in the mood to start though, which was odd considering she’d normally be all for it. Tonight was about having a good time though. Taking the drinks from the bartender, she pressed on into Cathal’s hand and kept the other. “За счастье,” Sasha exclaimed as she raised her glass, the native Russians echoing it  as she tipped back the shot. “Now, we dance?” she asked, taking his hand and leading him back before he could answer. Between the prince and the rest of the people in the club things actually went rather well for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the next morning when she’d wake up with a massive hangover and some very embarrassing memories. 

The princess didn’t look up until Sasha was nearly right in front of her and even then her attention was back to her ankle and the sharp pain before long. She could hear Sasha talking, but it sounded like everything was far away and underwater. Fear and pain were the only thigs she could think about until she felt a gentle pressure of a hand cupping her cheek. Eden looked at the other woman with wide, nervous eyes, but it was much easier to focus on her this time. The Blonde nodded, pushing sweaty hair back from her forehead while trying to take deep breaths. When someone rushed up to ask if Eden was okay and if she needed a doctor, Eden couldn’t answer. Her mouth was dry and all she could think to do was reach up to squeeze Sasha’s wrist lightly.

Alright, so she wasn’t doing great or being super responsive, but she seemed to focus a little more as Sasha cupped her face. That was at least a little bit of progress. It took a second to register the person who’d run over though, her mind racing with thoughts of guilt until a squeeze from Eden brought her back. “Go get a doctor, I’ll stay with her,” she snapped to the other person. An unwavering glare was all it took to get them to skip the follow-up questions and just leave. After a moment she softened again though, gazing at Eden. “You’re probably freezing.” Even as she muttered the words she was pulling her own jacket off and laying it around the woman’s shoulders. “How’re you feeling?”

“They may like you better but I’m the one that has the power.” It instantly felt weird to him to flaunt such a thing and his resolve to continue being petty towards her started to falter. Matthias had never once waved his status in front of anyone like this, even when he was angry, so those words had been a surprise even to him. “But I’m not the person who would try to get you fired just because you don’t like me. It’s your opinion to have.” He was deflating and fast, the prince starting to sit back in his seat as he thought about what he’d just said to her and the question she had just asked. Despite him starting to realize just how bad his temper was getting he still couldn’t stop his mouth. “Do you really think any of us want to impress you? I can assure you that your opinion of us means nothing.” A laugh escaped with her last comment and the Dutch nodded without looking at her. “Maybe I should.”

“There we go. I knew sooner or later you’d drop the I’m the one in charge card, pretty boy. Turns out all it took was a few drinks for you to show your true colors.” Sasha’s frown deepened as he seemed to back track. He’d actually been interesting for a second there, but it seemed like now they were back to spineless and shallow people pleasing. “Nice sentiment, but I don’t believe it for a second. If your ass was on the line you wouldn’t hesitate to throw me overboard.” And he’d justify it by saying he was needed as a future world leader. Sasha supposed, if she thought about it that was the root of her hatred; the fact that they all seemed to think their veins ran with twenty-four karat gold and not human blood. “I’d like to think you lot would seek public approval, but maybe that’s me overestimating your abilities.” As the boat docked back on the shore by the castle though Sasha didn’t hesitate standing up to disembark. “Do me a favor though, pretty boy,” she added, turning back to him. “See at least three more people before you accidentally drown yourself in whiskey tonight. I don’t want to be the last to see you alive, I hate talking to the cops.” 

“No, not a maid,” he spoke with a few shakes of his head. “I’m a guard. If you want the technicalities, I’m someone’s security detail. Which means I spend my day in the company of a princess,” Klaus explained, without giving any more details to the situation. Sometimes the courtesy extended to the princess’ immediate family as well, but he imagined that would only make the description even less appealing in the woman’s eyes. The German found himself nodding at her words. Normally, such circumstances meant family or a loved one, but he had to consider the possibility of her reasons being the same for him to also wound up there. Quietly, he wondered which one of those was more likely, and he picked up the phone she offered. “Thanks,” he acquiesced, then chuckled at her words. “I don’t go snooping around, though I have to wonder whether this means you think there’s something here that I might enjoy,” Klaus trailed off and input the address to the webpage.

“So the legit babysitter then,” she replied with a bit of a smirk. She’d met some of the princess’ around the palace, and could honestly say she had no desire to spend 24/7 in their service. “Clearly you have more patience than I do. I’m pretty sure I would have hit at least one of them by now if I had your job.” She watched as he took the phone, arms crossing over her chest. She didn’t like the idea of something so personal being in the hands of a stranger. She kept a watch on him though, her eyes glancing between what was on the screen and his face. “Well, you’re not setting off my gay-dar, which I would like to think works perfectly. So I’m going to go ahead and say, yeah. You’d probably be into just about all of them. There is that unspoken rule about not sharing the pics that some sent you though.” That, and even though she hadn’t seen the French woman in a couple years, her pictures still made up a vast majority of the one’s on Sasha’s phone. Ever the jealous type, she didn’t like the idea of this man ogling her. 

Eamon had quickly settled into a routine on arriving at the castle that allowed him to avoid most meal times in the dining room. He had never been a huge fan of breakfast, so he usually skipped that one, sometimes just pilfering some fruit to nibble on. Then he would either drop by the kitchen or send a maid with an order for lunch and dinner to be delivered to his room. On the rare occasion he actually ate in he tended to aim for the very start or end of meal time so there were less people.

Today he decided as he was near to the kitchen anyway to drop in with his dinner choices for that night. With the words that met him though his brows knitted together and he spun around, looking for said sign which he admittedly hadn’t noticed for a while. “Oh…um, maybe you should think about putting up a bigger one? Should I just stand at the door?” Taking a few steps back he hovered right at the doorway, before properly turning his attention to the chef. “I was hoping I could place my dinner order now to be delivered later?”

“Not my job, but trust me, I’ve requested one several times,” she replied, finishing what she’d been texting. Putting the phone back in her pocket she considered the suggestion. It’s not like there wasn’t anyone else in the kitchen though, and if staff did try to come or go he’d just be in the way. “Your already in, may as well not block the exit. Just don’t touch anything.” Though they were properly stored, there were enough knives around that an untrained or careless person could hurt themselves quickly. 

She knew this guy through reputation. An Irish prince that usually had meals brought to his room. The gossip was that he didn’t like eating with the others, which honestly, Sasha wouldn’t be too thrilled about either. The sous chef huffed slight, but at least luck brought him here while she had time. “What do you want?” The question was curt and not at all friendly. 

@sasha-volkov

Admittedly, Alexi had been distracted lately. Most of his time was spent working or at the castle with someone he knew he should not be spending time with and lately he’d been feeling a little guilty for not  being around his family or his best friend much. So when his mother had suggested having Sasha over for a family night he’d jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately his little sister had to work and his father seemed to be having a bad night but the remaining three started taking over the kitchen as soon as his best friend had walked through the door.

With his mother leading the charge on their Picadillo, Alexi leaned back against the tiny bit of counterspace next to Sasha and nudged the girl with his elbow, smile brightening his features. “I feel like I have not seen you in ages. Which is probably my fault. What have you been up to lately?”

Sasha had never been a stranger to inviting herself over to Alexi’s home, but when he’s actually asked her to come over she jumped at the idea. She was more like family than a guest, but it seemed rare that she got see see all of them at one time. While she’d been hoping, it seemed tonight wouldn’t be much different, but it was still a blessing to spend time in the kitchen with him and his mother. Not to mention it felt like she hadn’t actually gotten to see the man in forever. 

Mixing the masa for the fresh pressed tortillas she couldn’t help the small grin at his nudge. “Oh, it’s absolutely your fault,” she teased without malice. “Not like I’ve had a ton of free time either though, that dinner party didn’t make itself. I’ve been...alright though.” Her tone was slightly hesitant, remembering Eden at the guilt she felt when the woman had twisted her ankle. Or maybe there was more than just guilt there, but she didn’t want to think about that. “What about you? You seem to have been pretty absent lately.” 

Eden wasn’t a fan of the dark on the calmest of nights for fear something might be hiding, but at the moment the darkness itself seemed dangerous. The princess picked up her pace, calling after Sasha. “I am-” Her word turning into a yelp as her foot caught on a branch and she tripped over herself, somehow landing on her bum with a thud. She pressed her hands against the damp ground, shivering as quickly tried to scramble back up to her feet. Her attempt resulted in a painful shriek and the blonde back on the ground, gripping at her ankle. She hadn’t noticed she’d hurt it until she put weight on it. The world felt slightly muffled and out of focus. Eden’s vision shaking with each ragged inhale.

The Russian head the yelp and watched her silhouette tumble to the ground. In retrospect she probably should have mentioned the root looping out of the ground in the middle of the path. She’d had to step over it herself after barely noticing it in the low-lit dark. With a slight huff she decided to at least go over and help her up. When she heard the shriek though was when the guilt started to seep in. Jogging lightly she made it back to the blonde in only a couple seconds. Kneeling beside the princess she reached out before hesitating and pulling the hand back. “Look, um, I lied about the cabin murders, okay? And the mountain people. There’s no bad juju or cannibals waiting for us, so just like, take a deep breath.” Working in kitchens for years had at least taught her how to remain calm under stress and pressure, which was handy right now. Unfortunately, while there weren’t cannibals around, there really wasn’t much of anyone else either. Especially not a doctor, and Sasha didn’t think her rudimentary first aid training was going to cut it. Finally breaking her own reservations she reached hand out placing it on the woman’s cheek and tilting her head to face her, the only thing that could make this worse is if she passed out. “Just look at me, okay? In through the nose, out through the mouth.”

Klaus heard her words. It made that small place sound a lot like what he remembered from his hometown, even though it felt as if he’d only lived there during a different life. “I imagine you would love what I do,” the guard mentioned though he purposefully avoided giving an opinion on the matter. If she already had such strong ideas on cooking for the royals, he could imagine how bad it would be if she had to spend the course of her day following one of them around. “If you knew this was coming, would you have left as well?” he asked. “I’m gonna go ahead and assume wherever it landed, it also won’t have a signal,” he shrugged. “I have to try logging into it through their website. I just have to hope for a semblance of an internet connection,” he stated. Then, he’d probably have to hope the satellite location services would work on that hellhole, but Klaus should only afford one pessimistic thought at a time. “Do you have an internet connection right now that I could, maybe, borrow for a few minutes?”

“I guess it depends on what you do.” In the kitchen she was somewhat closed off from having to deal with the royalty regularly. Sasha couldn’t imagine how the housekeepers and maids did it, having to constantly clean up after all of them. It had been over a year and she still thought Alexi was crazy. “I’m going to assume you’re not a maid.” Thinking about his question for a moment Sasha shrugged. “I did know. I could have gone to Moscow, but there were important reasons to stay.” Frowning Sasha hesitated for a moment. If she hadn’t been the reason he’d dropped it in the first place she would have walked away by now. Then again, could she really be blamed for his butter fingers? With a soft sigh the guilt got the better of her. Opening the browser app she pulled up a new tab before holding it out to him with a warning. “Any nudes you find on my phone you went looking for and it’s your own damn fault.” 

Her words made his eyes widden a bit, because he was not expecting it. He could only imagine how she would feel if she remembered what she said when she was sober, he wondered if she would be embarrassed about it. He have said a few things while drunk, that he wished that he could go back and smack himself in the head, “That’s… Flattering in an odd way, I guess,” he let out a small laugh, not really sure how else to react to what she said, but not wanting her to think that he was uncomfortable, he was just surprised, “Oh, of course not, just like Irishes don’t either,” he winked at her in a playful way, before walking right behind her, as she started to pull him, “Do I have a choice?”

“It was meant to be,” she replied with a wave of her hand. Really it had just been a round about way of saying he had nice eyes. Could she have found a better way of saying it? Maybe so, but that probably would have required a lot more filter than what she had while she was drunk. “Not really, but you are rich, so it’s whatever, da?” Again, not really a question as she pulled him up to the bar. Climbing on her knees onto one of the stools she leaned over the bar to get the busy staff member’s attention. “Two double Vodkas, top shelf. The prince is paying.” Looking back at him she grinned. “Yes?”