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Technicolour Eyes

Prompt #025: Dandelion

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It's a gorgeous, sunny day outside, with warm breezes alreadly filtering through the spring air. The sky is such a vast, clear blue that it doesn't seem real. And after hours spent staring longingly out the kitchen window, the head chef finally shooed Dimitri out, insisting that a boy his age should not be cooped up inside on such a glorious day.

So Dimitri found himself sitting on the grass outside the palace, unsure of what to do with himself. After all, it would be more fun if there were some children to play with, but the only ones around were the Romanov children, and it wasn't as if Dimitri would ever even get close enough to look at one of them up close, nevertheless play with them.

And so he sat there, twiddling his thumbs and ripping pieces of grass out of the ground, collecting little piles beside him, enjoying the warm sunlight, when a bright dandelion popped into his view.

He glanced up and was more than startled to see that one of the Romanov daughters -- the youngest one, perhaps, was standing over him, smiling widely and holding out the plant to him in an offerring. He stood and bowed immediately, feeling very embarrassed about his appearance and his status. Suddenly, all he wanted to do was be back in the noisy kitchen, getting scolded for missing a spot on a dirty dish.

"Your grace," he spat out, nervously. "I apologize. I will be out of your sight at once!" Just as he tried to get away, he felt a warm hand on his arm, pulling him back.

"No, no!" she said, and her voice was like whipped cream, fluffy and sweet. "You don't have to go inside on account of me! I just wanted to give you this; you looked so bored around here that I wanted to cheer you up!"

She presented the dandelion out to him again, still smiling. He glanced down at it, and in spite of himself, raised an eyebrow.

"But your grace," he started carefully. Maybe she hadn't learned this in school yet; she did appear to be at least a couple of years younger than him. "You know those aren't flowers; they're just weeds."

The duchess stared at him and blinked. "So? I don't care if it's a weed or a flower or a dead leaf! It's pretty and it brightens my day! What does it matter what it's classified as?"

Taken aback, he couldn't help but stare. "But, Your Grace, I--"

"Just take it," she said, clearly getting a little annoyed. "It's a present. From me to you."

And so he reached over and received the plant from her small hands and took it in his own. Shyly, he bowed. "Thank you, Your Grace."

She sighed and smiled. "It's about time," before skipping off back to her siblings, who were all giving their nanny a good workout.

Dimitri tried to keep the dandelion alive in a cup of water beside his cot, but he was dismayed, and not surprised to find it withered and dead the next morning.

Despite what she said, dandelions were still weeds and he was still a kitchen boy and when it came down it to; it really did matter.