Quarantine Day Four Part Four
Avery was over the moon.
Metaphorically of course. Christ, could you imagine space travel? Avery thought with horror. No thank you! He was quite used to the luxury of planet Earth, even if it was sucking slightly more than usual thanks to those nasty New Asians trying to kill them all.
What did we even do to you? Avery thought angrily as he walked towards his rooms. I would very much like to take my new boyfriend frolicking in the flowers but noooooo someone had to go make the air toxic!
Still, life was great. More than great, it was amazing! Everything was finally starting to make sense: the years of sexual frustration and constant rejection from women (mostly Addy's friends who Avery was sure were poisoned against him, but he digressed), all the time he spent focusing on JR, countless hours on a Billie Eilish mix tape. It was all love. Of course it was! Billie was the queen of love, everyone knew that! How could he have been so blind for so long?
There was so much love - and sex - he had to make up for.
After all, he was no longer a sad virgin. He was a man! And real men were allowed to share their feelings with the world. Avery wanted to profess his in a huge way, in a gesture that would make JR his forever. He just had to figure that out first...
"Hello darling." Avery turned to see he had passed the formal dining room, his mother and sister already sitting around the table. Mom waved him forward. "Come, join us."
"Oh, I uh, no thanks. I already had dinner."
Still, Avery walked into the room and took his unassigned-assigned seat. Like he couldn't deny a direct request from his mother. What could he say? He loved his mommy. She was the best woman in the whole world, the only woman he would ever love, he realized.
(And yes, that included Addy. To say he loved Addy would be a complex and painful lie, and he tried not to make a liar of himself).
"That's right, your last minute date. How did that go?"
Mom was just trying to be nice. She had no idea her son was a raging, deviant homosexual who engaged in blowjobs over dinner. She probably thought he was going to marry this mystery girl and give her grandchildren by next Christmas.
Oh my God...he was going to break her heart! How could he do this?!
"Well. Yeah it went...uh...well."
"I'm glad. I can't wait to hear all about her."
Actually, Avery couldn't do this to himself. He owed it to his newfound sexuality and to the LGBTQIA community everywhere to live his truth and become an outspoken leader in the community. Boys and enbys everywhere would be looking to him for guidance, and he could not let them down by denying himself any longer. What message would that send them?
"Uh, actually Mom...I didn't have dinner with her. I had dinner with him."
"Oh. I see." Mom placed her napkin on her lap, her expression much more serious. Avery had her whole attention. "What's his name then?"
"You still love me?"
Avery was only slightly embarrassed about his voice wobbled. Mostly because he could see Addy mocking him out the corner of his eye, but he ignored her. Right now, his heart was too full of love to care.
"Darling boy, come here." Avery practically crawled into his mother's lap, sniveling as the stroked his hair. "I will always love you. All I want is for you to be happy."
"I love you, Mom."
"Let's hold off on telling your father, though. He's got enough on his plate, and I think this deserves his full attention."
There was a lot of sense in that idea. Dad was a tough cookie to read and impossible to please. Avery would have be ready for all his questions. perhaps he would get Seth to muster up some talking points or a PowerPoint presentation. The last thing Avery wanted was to give Dad any reason to doubt he was the Best Gay Possible.
Still, Avery couldn't help but pout. Now that he'd accepted himself, he wanted the whole world to know he was gay and in love with JR! It was something he wanted to shout from the rooftop (if the guards would let him outside thanks to this stupid pandemic). It was something he wanted to drop in every casual conversation, even when no one asked nor cared. It was just that important.
"Woohoo, Avery's into dudes. Let's bake him a fucking cake," Addy snipped, her face buried in her phone.
Avery, for one, would have loved a cake. Mom didn't think the idea was as good as he did.
"Be kind to your brother. It took a lot of courage for him to say what he did."
"Are you serious, Mom? How could you not know Avery is a raging homosexual?" she shouted, standing up from the table and pointing at Avery accusingly. "He stole my Barbies when I was eight and used all the lipgloss in my Lisa Frank make up kit! Now, he takes half my wardrobe and parades around in my heels when he thinks I'm not looking!"
"Addison Louise! Mind your tone!" Mom chided, her brow furrowing in distaste. She always hated it when he and Addy fought. It upset her 'delicate sensibilities', as Dad would always say. Whatever that meant. Usually it just made her lie down early to bed with a headache.
Conversation was cut off abruptly by Dad entering the room.
He had this presence about him, this intimidation factor that made Avery slink back into his chair and scurry right back into the closet. Avery was the only one affected this way. Addy wiggled in her seat like an impatient puppy doing the potty dance. Mom merely stood to let Dad kiss her on both cheeks.
"Henry, how was the meeting?" she asked.
"Productive." Dad said, dragging his chair behind him as he sat. He was meat and potatoes kind of guy, so this dinner did not disappoint. He cut a huge chunk of steak and shoved it in his mouth. "We may have actually made headway on the New Asia front, but I still have to reach out the the Duke of Windsor's parents and explain to them why their son won't be making it home."
"Oh, darling."
"Sometimes I hate this job, Deirdre." He reached out and twined their fingers together. "You make it worthwhile."
Public displays of affection between old people were repulsive. If they started kissing, Avery might vomit. Which was a shame because today had been such a nice day. Quarantine excluded, of course.
But what would his life be without this quarantine? He would not have had the most mimd-altering blow job of his life. He would not have found his beautiful Adonis of a soulmate. In truth, Avery owed every good thing in his life to this mysterious virus. He changed his mind; he hoped the virus would never go away, that way JR would have to stay in the palace forever and they could live happily ever after.
"I like this, having the whole family together at the table," Mom said with a smile, picking at her veggies. Her plate was mostly full. Didn't she know there were servants starving in the halls? "We should do this more often."
"Yay, just what we need: more family bonding," Addy snarked.
Mom ignored her.
"I do hope there are no more parties in your future," she said, giving Addy them both a pointed look. "Seth will be taking you to the tailor early in the morning, so rest up."
"Ugh, but whyyyyyyy?"
"We need to have you both fitted for hazmat suits."
"Ew, Mom! No way! Yellow is so not my color," Addy complained. "Can't I have Talis make me something?"
"I'm sure Talis has great talent, but this is not a matter of fashion. It is a matter of safety. You will be getting hazmat suits and that's final."
It was rare Mom stuck her foot down for anything. It made Avery want to curl up in her lap and cry. All he wanted was some love and support after his very taxing and enlightening day, but now he had to comfort his own mother as tears welled in her eyes. He was such a giver.
Mom reached out and took each of their hands in her own, giving them a squeeze.
"You two are all I have in this world, the most precious gifts I have ever received, and I want you safe. Always."
Avery beamed with pride. He was a precious gift. Of course he already knew this; he said it to himself every morning in the mirror, but it was nice to have the validation.
Rhaena Salisbury trudged down the servant's stairs into the hot, humid kitchen.
It had been another horrible day. Were all the days going to be this way? It was bad enough collecting food she couldn't eat, washing sheets for beds she couldn't sleep in. But to be forced to see things...parts of your employer's children that would you would rather never see...she had to be entitled for some kind of compensation.
Compensation! Ha! That was a good joke. The only compensation coming her way were a few hours of sleep and snuggles with her kids.
Rhaena hoped and prayed that her twins turned out alright. Not like the royal children. Not like the girl who walked around naked singing hymns or any of the other crazy party guests. Not like the girls she passed on the stairs in full costume: One with fairy wings and another in an honest to God llama suit (where did she even get that?). She just hoped her kids turned out completely normal and not traumatized.
A tall order, she knew. Especially because her trauma was racking up by the second.
"You don't look so good," Saori said upon seeing Rhaena's bedraggled state.
"You wouldn't believe the mess I just had to clean up."
She was going to need to clean her whole body, scrub herself down with hydrochloric acid and finish it off with bleach. That would be the only way she could ever feel clean again. There was no amount of therapy in the world or money she could ask for worth the trauma of having to clean up the Prince of Illéa's spunk off the dining room parquet.
After all was said and done, when the gloves were peeled from her hands and the waste disposed of, Rhaena puked in the nearest available trash can. Which just so happened to be a one of a kind Ming vase. But that wasn't her problem. Someone else could clean that up. She had suffered enough.
Saori tutted. "Mind your tongue now, we have guests."
Over at the servant's table sat an unlikely group of people. Rhaena recognized a couple people: the royal event coordinator, the guard Sosa, the Duke of Venice's valet. Others were unrecognizable, yet they all sat together with the same grim faces, talking amongst themselves like they were survivors of some long and terrible war.
"What's that about?"
"Dunno, but Seth's been on my ass about making something for them. As if we haven't got a food shortage."
"Of course he is. Wanker."
Rhaena wasn't sure why that was the first insult to pop into her head. She had too much sex on the brain. Unwanted sex. Between her employer's child and his clone. It made her want to gag just thinking about.
"You've been watching too much BBC," Saori said with a laugh.
"Better than watching The Report."
That much was true. How King Henry could say so much yet so little was astounding. At least when she tuned into another channel, there were actual things to learn. Instead, her country made itself look like a laughing stock with its incompetence.
"How are the kids taking it?"
"They're fine. They're...they're kids. They don't understand what's really going on. They think it's some kind of extended sleepover."
"That's good." Rhaena failed to see how this was a good thing, but she didn't correct her friend. Everyone had different ways of coping. Denial certainly wasn't the craziesst. "Maybe, when it's all over, this will be a fond memory."
"Doubtful."
Saori grunted and turned back to the oven. When it opened, the most heavenly scent wafted towards Rhaena's nose. It made her mouth water and stomach growl. Saori smiled knowingly, taking out her brush to butter up the golden crusts.
"I made a few extra sweet rolls just for you."
"Saori, you shouldn't have!"
"You all need to eat. Kids shouldn't have to suffer because of the actions of adults." Saori took four of the thickest, puffiest buns and put them in a dish towel that she tied with a knot, then handed it over to Rhaena. "You'll make it through this."
Tears smarted at Rhaena's eyes. This was exactly the care she needed after such a long day.
"I love you."
"I love you too," Saori said with a pat to Rhaena's hand. "Now get out of my kitchen. You don't want to watch me filet Seth like a flounder."
"Taking 'eat the rich' a little too seriously, are we?"
Rhaena watched as Saori pulled out her long knives and started to sharpen them with expert speed. The sound of metal on metal should have been grating, but tonight it was soothing. They had gotten a work out tonight carving up a chicken dinner that the prince and his clone barely touched. Rhaena didn't tell Saori that, doubtless she had already seen the plates come back. Such waste was hateful, especially when everyone else went hungry. But there was nothing any of them could do...not that it stopped any of them from complaining about their entitled employers.
"You are right. He is much too skinny. Not enough fat on those bones to last very long." Saori paused, scanning the kitchen for her next victim. "We should filet Sosa instead. Lots of muscle and bone broth to go around."
"Careful, say that loud enough and people will start to think you're the killer."
"Oooooo beware my utensils of death!"
Rhaena laughed, feeling lighter than she did when she entered the kitchen. That was the magic of Saori, and Rhaena was forever grateful for her friend. She would have stayed in the kitchen, her safe haven, forever but she had responsibilities other than her one to the crown. She had two small children waiting on her, and the buns would get cold if she didn't hurry.
She took the stairs two at a time on the way back up to her living quarters. It was hard not to resent the palace at times like these. She knew she should be grateful not to have been evicted from her quarters, but she felt like a terrible mother for having to lock her children away in what constituted as no more than a closet. A large closet, sure, but that was no space for children to grow. She prayed that Saori was right, that they would look back on these days and laugh. Right now, everything seemed bleak.
Half way up the stairs, Rhaena heard a scream.
So much screaming these days. Rhaena would never be able to get the sound out of her head.
Rolls forgotten, Rhaena dashed towards the sound. It was down one of the guest corridors, not far from where everyone was staying.
"Help me!" the voice cried, high-pitched and frantic.
In these moments, the palace felt truly haunting. Tall walls and dark moldings bearing down on Rhaena as she turned each corner sharply. Sets of eyes from the portraits on the wall followed her every step, monarchs long gone judging her as she passed. Their shadows fell upon her, casting chills down her spine.
What would she find when she got to the scene?
Please don't be another body. Please don't be another body. Please don't -
Rhaena stopped short, nearly running into someone. It was the same girl from earlier: the one with the obnoxious accent and annoying friend. Mascara streaked down her cheeks now, staining the splotchy red with black. The head to her llama suit was gone, grey cotton tufts shaking all over her body.
"What's going on, miss?"
"We were partying - end of the world stupid shit - just drinking and doing some stuff we got from a friend, you know? It's always fine and we always have fun. But now...now she won't wake up!" the girl blubbered, a fresh wave of sobs overtaking her. "Why won't she wake up?"
It was then Rhaena noticed the second figure on the ground, lying upright with wide eyes focused, unseeing on the ornate ceiling. Her skin was too pale. Her chest was too still. Her lips curled in a sickening smile. And on her back was a familiar pair of holographic fairy wings.
"I-"
"Oh god...is she dead?"
As if on cue, the girl on the floor started bubbling blood from her mouth, a thin trickle running down her throat to pool in her collar bone. She didn't even flinch.
Rhaena couldn't take anymore.
She fainted.
