Our hope

The Prince was first concerned when he woke up to the Rebel spilling tears all over the bed crying in their sleep. It was something that he had never seen from the rebel. After a few tight cuddles they settled, and the Prince was able to fall back to sleep.

The next day was going to be hard, and they both needed all the sleep they could get. That was when they were both awaken by a knock at the door. They woke up slowly as a servant came in telling the Prince that it was the middle of the day, and the staff was just a little bit worried.

“Nothing to be worried about. I would like you to inform all the head supervisors that I request their presents in the war room in an hour if they have the convenience of time.” The Prince said having much more consciousness than the Rebel who was still half dead to the world beside him.

“Yes sire.” The servant left fast as the Prince and Rebel extracted themselves from the bed.

“And now we are going to deal with all the paperwork stuff that I really wanted to avoid.” The Rebel complained getting dressed by the bed.

“No, you are going to stand by my side looking pretty while I do all the paperwork stuff that needs to be taken care of. Besides I would like to get to know the heads of staff and what they all do.”

“It is something that I want you there for to if we are going to be running things.” The Prince answered on the opposite side of the room. He stepped out from the changing wall throwing on his own coat while the Rebel pulled on their boots.

“We should get you something in blue.” The Prince contemplated only after realizing that he suggested it out loud.

“I thought you liked the red on me?” The Rebel looked down at their coat before looking back up at the prince.

“No, no, I do. It’s just the royal color is blue and having you in a different colour would seem, a bit not good. Otherwise I think the contrast of our taste suit first impressions rather well.

Me in the white and you in the black, showing out different methods and backgrounds. The blue to represent not only our allegiance but the common goal we work towards.”

The Prince walked towards the door as the Rebel thought it over. The Rebel could be seen running after the Prince as he had left room without waiting. They were early to the war room with the Prince jotting questions down on the parchment he had brough along with him.

It would seem that the prince carrying around parchment and a piece of charcoal would become a regular occurrence. How well that would go over with his normally white clothes would not be hard to guess.

The Rebel was walking around the room inspecting it for any hidden doors. The Prince had made it a point to take out a pocket watch to keep the time. Something he should invest for each of the heads of staff as well.

There was no way of hearing the clock tower from inside the depths of the castle. Ten minutes to the appointed time was the head cook. She was a short woman that looked like she had a mean temper with a long fuse.

“Hello dear, you must be the Prince we have been hearing rumors about.” She said coming into the room closing the door behind her.

“Yes, Rigel. This is my partner Ace.” The Prince gestured over his shoulder to the general area that Rebel was.

“Partner, it has been a long time since we had someone like that in the castle.” She said sitting down to the Prince’s left.

“What do you mean?” the Prince asked, “I thought that the royals didn’t like anyone who wasn’t pure in the castle.”

“It seemed to skip a generation with your grandfather. They were the youngest of your grandfathers siblings. Got married off to one of our allies after meet a very gorgeous Dutchess.

It was nice small wedding, kept pretty quiet at the couples request. I was surprised when your mother ordered that you be excluded from everything and even silence from conversations.”

The Prince sunk into his chair a little while mumbling, “I wonder the same thing.” The next person to arrive was seven minutes ahead of schedule. The head of the servants that roams the castle came in next.

These were the people that did most of the boring jobs in the castle such as keeping all the candles lit. They cleaned up after banquets, making sure everything was in its place or got to it’s place. She was slightly taller then Ace but just as thin.

“Hello sire; Jasmine.” She said bowing to each respective. Both bowing their heads as she takes the place to the left of the Prince. The Prince called to the Rebel drawing their attention to the table that now had two other people in the room with them.

“Ace, darling you can inspect the castle later can you come here and sit?”

“Oh, yeah sure.” They took the chair to the right of the Prince as three and four entered the room. They were twins that were head of cleaning. They both had different color eyes.

As in one had the left eye blue and the right eye green while the other had the left eye green and right eye hazel. The Prince looked in shock as they took seats across from each other two down from the prince.

“James, Jack, I didn’t know you two had time to be here?” The girl said looking between the two that had a scowling look on both their faces.

“Yes well it’s not everyday you are called to meet with the long lost child, Coraline.” The blue/green twin said before green/hazel finished in pretty much the same voice, “We didn’t exactly want to loose out jobs.”

“Or our heads.” They seemed to be able to finish what the other was saying. It was something that happened in the Princes books. That twins would be on the same level as each other to this point. It was amazing to see it in real life. Coraline giggled before turning to the prince.

“This is James,” She gestured to blue/green, “He runs the laundry. Anything that’s fabric and smaller objects are under his cleaning duty. And that,” Gesturing to green/hazel,

“Is Jack. He cleans the general room. Spills, dust, and tiding up rooms is what he resides over.” The last was the man that came into the princes room earlier that day.

“Sorry I am a touch late. Had something unexpected come up that needed my attention.” The captain of the royal guard came into the room being the last that needed to attend.

“That is alright. I understand that you are all very busy. I just wanted to check in. See if there is any major spots that we need to fill for a smooth transition of leadership.”

The Prince said getting ready to write down the requests, shorthand of course. All the heads of the castle just looked at each other both in confusion and caution.

“Are you serious?” James asked.

“Of course I’m serious. If you are having trouble with your jobs and I have a way to make it easier then why wouldn’t I fix it. I see no reason why we can’t start changes right here in the castle.”

The Prince started losing confidence as he talked longer starting to shrink back into his chair. The Rebel was leaning with their feet kicked out towards the wall. They repositioned their head to lay on the princes arm. It was the best they could do subtly when they wish the Prince didn’t feel the need to be nervous at all.

“I think it’s a great idea. I think some more stable ladders would make my section of responsibilities a great deal safer.” Coraline said looking around the table as she tested the waters of the conversation. The Prince took a small breath before going back to the parchment.

“How many are you needing?” He asked looking up at her. She looked a but stunned at the request.

“Yeah we get it. The last rulers were shit. We just need a number lady.” The Rebel interjected after a considerable silence. The Prince nudged the rebels head getting them to sit up. There was an unspoken chastising from one to the other for behaviour that would probably not come up later.

“Well, I would say fifteen then. The ones we have should have be replaced ages ago.” Coraline spoke slowly to make sure she was heard over the other quiet conversation that was happen around the table.

“Right.” The Prince said turning back to the table with a small smile.

“Fifteen is more then I would like to hear. Hopefully we are able to replace them in smaller numbers in the future.” The Prince jot down the numbers.

“Anything for anyone else?” James and Jack leaned forward on the table also having a silent conversation.

“We don’t need anything in the kitchen.” Jasmine said looking around the table.

“We actually have more then enough.”

“Right, I will need to be down in a few days to discuss the food we have been getting. This is a full reshuffling of things, but I believe you are the only one that the shakes ups will have a major impact on.”

The Prince marked down what he needed to ask now thinking about going down tomorrow.

“We need ne-”

“Nothing,” Jack interrupted his brother. “We don’t need anything from over here.”

“We need new soaps.” Jack put his head in his hands as James leaned to make sure the Prince could see him.

“The last king was making us use this cheep soap that is just awful. Me and my staff have been getting something different because it’s so bad to use. It’s more expensive but worth the difference.” The Rebel rolled their eyes sitting back as they were.

The Prince grimaced, “Not surprising, I will add it to the list then. We should have plenty for it if the rebels haven’t done anything drastic with the treasury. Is it local or imported from somewhere else?”

Jack looked a little taken a back by the questions but answered. “Imported.”

“I would ask you to try and find something local that you can use as replacement instead. In three days if you can’t find a suitable local replacement for what the king has been giving you to use then you can go ahead and get the one you have be using.”

The Prince jotted down the topic of conversation to check up on in a few days.

“That is actually what I was dealing with before coming here. The rebels were causing trouble with the treasury. Not much if anything went missing but they were getting unruly. The Rebel leader is locked up in the dungeon.”

The captain of the guard said this being the first thing since he came in. The Rebel sighed as they dropped their head back of course their mother couldn’t have gone quietly.

“Right. I will go have a talk to her tonight then.”

“I will have the guard expecting you then.” The captain said. The Prince also nodded slightly thinking of the head ache that was the rest of the rebel faction.

“If you come to think of any more things that we should know about we will be in the throne room most of the time. Just send a message and we will try to get to it depending on what else we have to deal with at the time.” All the staff agreed right before the clock bell could be heard through the large doors.

“I do believe that is the signal to get back to work. If you would all excuse us we have other things to check up on.” The Prince and Rebel get up walking out of the room. They started towards the throne room.

“What are we going to go do now?” The Rebel asked after they realised where the couple was walking.

“I need to find that scroll your mother took from me. I have a smaller one that were laws that my father did not make up that I think could use a few revisions. We also need to check up on the farmers.”

“See if they are to be needing any help getting crops into the ground before everyone settles into their old and new rolls.” The Prince said continuing down the large halls.

They walked in silence until getting to the throne room. It was empty except for one guard that was standing near the far wall. The Prince didn’t notice as he was going for the thrones.

“It had to be here somewhere. This was the only other place besides her room that I could be.” He said looking around, under, in the thrones. There was nothing out of place or to find.

“Yeah over here.” The Rebel said disappearing into a wall. There was a comparatively small door hidden behind curtains. It went into a small room that had a fire stove, desk, a table with four chairs around it, and a small cabinet behind the best that was locked.

“Darling do you think you could that open with minimal damage?” The Prince asked going for the desk first. There was four drawers that could have held the scroll with the middle one being to small.  After a few seconds the Rebel was looking through papers. The Prince was also looking through papers.

“We should go through all of these and see if there is anything important in here.” The Prince commented as he looked through the papers not really looking at any of them.

“Yeah.” The Rebel said distractedly as they were looking at the papers. Something that went unnoticed by the Prince as he found the scroll in the third drawer he looked through.

“Got it.” The Prince said picking up the scroll. The Rebel stuffed a envelope into their pocked turning around the same time as the prince.

“Now we should head back to the room so I can get everything in order. I also have to find out where we are going to get ladders from.” The Rebel nodded hands behind their back.

“Leave the ladders to me love. As soon as you are back at the room I am going to go talk to my mother, then supper and early to bed.” The Prince thought this was a great idea. They had a lot of restless nights. A good night sleep to celebrate their new era.

“Quite right dear. Sounds like an excellent plan.” The Prince was feeling lighter as they walked through the halls. After only a few days things were finally falling into place. Maybe this wouldn’t be that hard after all.