greedy people never win

The weather was warm, the sun was out, and people were busy. The kingdom was busy daily, specifically, the castle where King Sutcliffe and the rest of his family resided. Soldiers prepping for any war that might come across, servants tending to any and every need of the infamous family.

The Sutcliffes had ruled the Kingdom of Aradia for generations—King after King, heir after heir. One King would marry an allied family of a Kingdom nearby, they'd have a good-sized family, and when it was time - the heir would take over the Kingdom. They would make their own decisions and have loyal servants to do anything asked of them without the question they were being betrayed, and the people of Aradia loved it.

Well, most. Some of the townspeople disliked the family, all due to their negligence of the poor. They cared more about the material things - buildings, balls, and allyships - rather than the people who had little to none. Some people begged on the streets all day, whereas some worked day and night to barely get by.

They were ignored, however, as the town thought there were more important matters at hand. Keeping war little to none was their most concerning 'problem', despite the fact that that wasn't even an issue needing to be tended to. It was their excuse for not doing anything for the poor, ones the town fed into and joined in on very quickly.

Nicollette walked through the grass, not caring that little bits of dirt gathered on the hem of her dress. She just watched her feet as she walked toward the stables - a place she liked to spend most of her time if her parents weren't forcing her to do something.

The sounds of the animals were heard the closer she got, a small smile growing on her face as she saw the door opening. Holding a hand over her face to prevent the sun from shining in her eyes, she smiled wider as her best friend exited the stables with a saddle.

"I thought you needed to do some work?" Charles Langston asked as he saw the girl approaching, his voice loud enough for her to hear from the distance apart they were.

"Did it," Nicollette responded, moving her hand as she stepped into the shade. "Thought I'd come to help you."

"You know I don't need any help, right?" Charles asked as he wiped the saddle with a rag he pulled from the back of his pants. "This is my job, not yours."

"So? You just not wanting to spend any time with me or anything, Charlie?" Nicollette walked past him and into the stables anyway, quickly greeting each of the horses.

She stopped as she got to the midnight black one, leaning her arms against the door to the stall. "Well hello, Mr. Maximus, did you sleep well?" She cooed at the horse, touching the tips of her fingers to the bridge of his nose.

"I've got thirty minutes to finish my duties, are you going to be a distraction again?" Charles asked as he came back into the stables, putting the saddle away.

Nicollette glanced at her friend with a look before back at the horse in front of her, pulling a giant carrot from her pocket. "Here's a treat for being so cute." She cooed again, petting his mane as he gratefully took the snack. "Charles, I wouldn't be a distraction if I were to help you, now would I?"

Charles bit the inside of his lip, thinking. "You're quite the distraction. Especially when you're feeding the animals before it's feeding time."

"It's just a snack, Maximus appreciates the gesture," She mumbled, putting her attention back on the horse in front of her.

"Matthias is going to be mad when he finds out you fed his horse... again." Charles scolded slightly, beginning to work on some of the other small jobs he needed to finish.

"Not unless he doesn't find out," She mumbled, smiling at the horse. "Did you enjoy the treat?"

"I'm sure he did, but unfortunately for him that will be the last one," A voice different from Charles' echoed through the stables.

Nicollette glanced over to see the Prince himself standing at the entrance of the stables, his hands folded behind his back. She just rolled her eyes, putting her attention back to the horse in front of her.

"Prince Matthias," Charles immediately bowed, forgetting all about the work he'd been doing only seconds before.

Matthias sent a curt nod to the boy to acknowledge him, although didn't bother to give him a second glance. His focus was purely on Nicollette, who didn't bother with the quick introductions. This only upset him more, almost causing him to forget he'd caught her feeding his horse... again.

"Your stare is annoying," Was all Nicollette told the prince, barely giving him a second glance. "You should find something else to look at."

"You should find something else to do than sticking your button nose in other people's belongings." Matthias was quick to respond.

Charles glanced between them, knowing this wouldn't end well. Matthias and Nicollette were constantly throwing petty insults at each other, and it slowly got more and more intense unless someone was there to break it up. However, he knew Nicollette was too stubborn to listen to him, and Matthias would just shoo him away if he went to say something. And considering he has to listen to everything the Sutcliffe's say, there was no point. 

"You think I have a button nose? That's so nice of you to say," Nicollette sent a smug smirk toward Matthias, causing his to fall into a deep frown.

"Shouldn't you be off scrubbing something?"

"Shouldn't you be off minding your own business?" Nicollette retorted.

"The business of the staff is my business," Matthias countered.

"Last I checked, Matthias, I wasn't your staff." Nicollette pulled her body away from the horse, turning to the boy.

"You may as well be, considering your entire life revolves around us and you still do all the dirty work," Matthias remarked, moving his hands from behind his back to the pockets of his pants.

"The work wouldn't be dirty if you learned to-"

"Okay!" Charles finally exclaimed, having more than enough of their banter.

Both Nicollette and Matthias looked over at him, similar looks of frustration coming across their features. Charles sighed as he shoved his rag back into his pocket, resting his hands on his hips. "I'm getting absolutely no work done with you two bickering in here. Please leave if it's going to continue."

"Are you... the stable boy, asking me to leave my stables?" Matthias asked, "Just wanting to make sure I'm hearing you correctly."

"They aren't yours, they're your daddy's." Nicollette snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Soon to be mine. You wouldn't know what that's like, would you?" Matthias asked, his head snapping toward Nicollette.

"You're right, I wouldn't, neither do I care as I'm not an egotistical-"

"Enough! Once again, I'm asking you guys to leave." Charles said, much louder than before. "I have fifteen minutes to finish my work for the day, and I'd rather not have to explain to King Sutcliffe why my work wasn't done. Nic, you're being too much of a distraction. Please just go."

Charles - of course - didn't want Nicollette to leave. That's the last thing he wanted. However, he simply didn't want to get in trouble for them preventing him from doing work, nor did he really want to sit and listen to their bickering any longer.

Nicollette sighed but listened as she didn't want to frustrate Charles any longer. She just dropped her hands to her sides, stalking past the other horses in the stable and toward the door.

Matthias glared at Charles, who just looked down at the ground. He knew he was already pushing it by sending Matthias away, he didn't want to make it any worse. Matthias just followed after Nicollette, watching with a smug smirk as the girl stomped her way through the grass.

"Crazy how the stable boy of all people can tame you," He told her.

The simple statement caused Nicollette to turn around angrily, glaring up at Matthias. He'd stopped abruptly behind her, not realizing how close he'd been walking to her. He looked down at her, watching as she stared at him with anger.

"You're despicable and you take your life for granted," She spat. "You think because you're some preppy prince you can treat anyone and everyone around you so shitty as if we should all worship the ground you work on."

"And you're some snotty little servant who thinks acting big and tough will help her reach her way to the top. I see right through you, Nicollette Terilow, and I know you're just faking whatever this is to grow closer to the family." He snapped back.

They looked at each other after this, neither of them denying each other's accusations. Of course, this wasn't true for either of them, but they didn't know that. Instead of saying anything, Nicollette just took a few steps away as she noticed how close they were to each other.

Then, Matthias smiled. It was a faint smile, showing just a little bit of his teeth. It was still enough to throw Nicollette off, confused as to why he was suddenly looking much happier than before. "Same time tomorrow?" He mumbled.

"What?" She asked, her nose scrunching. "You're annoying."

"And so are you," He told her, "But neither of us seem to be leaving, are we?"

Nicollette huffed, her jaw tensing. With one last look, she blinked a few times as she shook her head, stepping further away. "Unbelievable."

Matthias' smile slipped as he watched her leave, the same emotionless expression from before resting on his features. He just watched as she walked, making her way away from the castle and toward her house that stayed on the Sutcliffe residence.

"A mystery, you are, Nicollette." He mumbled to himself as he finally began to walk again, except instead of heading in the direction she'd walked off to, he went toward the castle. "A mystery indeed."

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I'm sorry if this sucked <3