#frederic.001

Against his better judgement, Frédéric smirked. The Lithuanian princess was, at the very least, not boring. The ineffable air of tragedy she’d once worn like an overwhelming perfume had faded somewhat, leaving behind something he could only describe as ‘not giving a fuck.’ As controlled as he was, the prince could enjoy and even encourage chaos in others, as long as it didn’t mess with his carefully crafted image and plans.

“My crime would never be something so common,” he scoffed in return, another little joke with himself - although he hadn’t exactly been punished for that particular crime all those years ago. “And you mean to tell me that you don’t believe we were gathered here for our own safety?” Frédéric raised an eyebrow, the mocking evident in his tone. Safety in numbers was bullshit when the entire future of most monarchies could be wiped out with one targeted attack. “What was your crime, then?”

"Ah," Rasa smiled derisively at the words. "Never something as pedestrian as that," she shook her head, and a heavy exhale surpassed her lips. Pushing a book far into a shelf, the Lithuanian stood to her full height and smoothed out the skirt of her black dress. "No. With you, it must be something far more egregious," she teased, and light footsteps made their way towards the surly Swiss man in a chair.

Her life had been punctuated by bad decisions, this might only add to her list. Plucking the book from the prince's fingers with a hand and set it down on the end table closest to them. "So, what is it? What have you done to tarnish your flawless reputation and end here?" she wondered, eyes slightly narrowed towards him as she sat across his lap, pulling her legs up the chair's arm. "I don't know about you, but I came here to avoid having to hear my parents pitiful whispers behind my back when they thought I wasn't listening. I got tired. And don't be foolish. We all know you think that is beneath you. Safety is nothing more than an illusion.

Perhaps he was spoiled (many would argue that this was, in fact, true) but at home most of the staff knew better than to bother the prince when he was reading, and if they did not, they learned fairly quickly. His quick temper was so notorious that people tended to avoid the library in the Swiss Palace when he was there. It would foolish to think he’d be able to get away with such a reputation here, nor would his sister allow it.

“Are you always this careless with your work?” Frédéric allowed just a hint of cruelty to seep into his controlled, aloof tone. He glanced across this part of the library, and spotted a cloth that clearly did not belong draped across a reading lamp. “Is that it?”

.

Bee bit back her tongue not to argue back. No good could ever come to her in such situations. So, she lowered her head and gulped the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry,” she worried her lower lip between her teeth.

It wasn’t a habit of hers to leave her belongings behind, and she blamed the scattered state of her brain on the added workload that came after the avalanche. The maid hadn’t been able to have a proper night of sleep in days. Moving her gaze back up, then in the direction the prince mentioned, the blonde’s blue eyes widened in their orbits, her lower lids emphasizing her lack of sleep with a purpling shade. Turning abruptly to both retrieve her cloth and hide the color that crept up her cheeks, Bee scurried off to the lamp, and she should have been done with nothing more than a swift tug to the cloth, but the peevish piece of fabric seemed to have a mind of its own, getting caught in the lamp and nearly toppling the object. Gasping, Bee was able to kneel and avoid its contact with the ground, needing both hands to hold it up. It was heavy enough that she couldn’t move afterward. Glancing over her shoulder, she didn’t have the guts to ask for the prince’s help.