Chapter Text
It was only midday when the town’s boy was standing in front of the palace gates. He had heard rumours that the palace were looking for new workers and Hinata was in desperate need of a job. He had been going through job after job, never staying too long at once place. There was always someone who could do his work better and would replace him by the next month. The palace was truly his last hope.
He wasn’t the only one there. Crowds of people were strolling into the palace, guards lining both sides of the pathway in. All he had to do was hand in his application form and leave but just the thought shook Hinata to his core. He took small, shaky steps in, trying to keep a poker face to calm his raging thoughts.
The entrance to the castle was outstanding. Gold lavished all around the edges carved into intricate patterns that weaved into each other. Hell, the doors itself was plated in gold and extremely thick. The sturdy door was currently wide open, letting the stream of citizens pour in.
Stepping through the doorway, it lead to a hallway that was a few meters long. A dozen guards stood at the door at the end of hallway, staring threateningly at the people leaving their applications on the wide table in the middle of said hallway.
Hinata hurried to the table, left his forum on one of the many piles and left even faster. Once he walked back out, he felt like he could breathe again. The stiff guards, the gold the lined every wall and the polished marble floor really screamed ‘poor’ at him.
He walked back out the gate and down the bridge connecting the castle and city together, until he saw a familiar face.
“Makoto?” He called out, the boy looked up.
“Hinata! I’m so glad you’re here.” He shot Hinata with a gleaming smile that could make any of the stone guards nearby smile.
“I’m happy to see you too, but I must ask why are you here?”
“Same reason you are I suppose.” Makoto shrugged.
“Well I hope you get the job. If we both get it we can hopefully see each other more often.” Makoto lived in the city with his girlfriend Kyoko while Hinata lived on the outskirts of the city with his parents and sister Nanami.
“I’m sure you’ll get it! You always get the job!” Makoto beamed. ‘If I don’t get kicked off by winter’ Hinata mumbled to himself. He didn’t need to bring down Makoto’s high with the painful truth.
“When you’re done, do you want to go to a café? I haven’t been to the city in a while, it’d be nice to enjoy my time while I’m here” Somehow, Makoto smiled even brighter.
“I’d love to go! Wait at the end of this bridge, I won’t take long.” Makoto then ran past Hinata, way more eager than he was before. Hinata strolled down to the end of the bridge. When Makoto came back, the pair picked back up their conversation as they walked down to a nearby café.
~~
It was around a week since Hinata had handed in his application form and go to hang out with Makoto when a letter slipped through the door.
“Hinata, It’s for you!” Nanami had called out to Hinata who was cutting up some vegetables in the kitchen. He left his half cut cucumber and knife on the table and walked to the front door where Nanami stood, yawning, with the letter in her hand.
“It’s quite fancy…did you anger a nobleman?” Hinata smirked at her comment.
“I promise you I didn’t; I’d like to live a little longer.” Taking the envelop from her hands, he finally understood what she meant by ‘fancy’. His address was written in such a curly handwriting he could barely read it and there was a wax seal holding it closed. Breaking the red seal, he pulled out a folded letter that was written in a much clearer handwriting.
“What does it say?” She leaned on Hinata’s shoulder to try and get better view of the letter even though Hinata was the only one in the family who could read.
“I signed up to work at the palace, seems like I’ve gotten through.”
“Good job Hinata, I’m sure this one will work out.” She gave him a supporting smile, even if she yawned in the middle of it.
“We’ll see how it goes.” Their mother came down to hear the news and congratulated him as well. Leaving the letter in the living room, he went back to the kitchen and started cutting his forgotten cucumber. He hoped Makoto got through too, he could always brighten up a rooms atmosphere in seconds with just a few words.
~~
Less than a week later, Hinata was standing in front of the same gates that lead to the very same castle. There were still as many guards as there was before but the amount of people walking in was significantly less than last time. In the middle of the gate there was a man checking if everyone that was walking in had a letter from the palace.
Hinata handed him his letter and shortly gave it back. He kept walking forward into the very same door as last time. This time, there were only two guards present and they were holding the door at the end of the hallway open. The table from last time was also gone. He walked on unsteady feet through the newly open door and was amazed at the sight before him.
It seemed to be a ballroom based on the size. Paintings with angles and clouds covered the celling as even more gold encased everything in sight. Pillars stood tall and proud as multiple chandeliers glowed above them. If there’s one way to show how wealthy the country was, it was clearly this. Not a single surface wasn’t graced with Midas’s touch.
Around 150 people were crowded in one side of the room, making comments about the ballroom they were in. The other side had crates upon crates of clothing, supposingly uniforms. Joining with the rest of the group, a large man in a suit stood near the crates and started to speak in a booming voice.
“Good evening everyone. My name is Byakuya Twogami. I will be supporting you as you get accustomed to working at the palace.” Everyone went silent as they watched ‘Twogami’ speak.
“You’re first month here will be seeing how well you work. If you don’t meet our expectations you will be stripped of your job and thrown out,” Hinata winced, “If you make it through the first month, you will be settled into different work groups. Whether it be helping in the kitchen, laundry, checking inventory, general cleaning or as a servant for the king.” Hushed voices spoke quickly too each other at the mention of the king until Twogami loudly coughed, silencing everyone again.
“Making past the first month doesn’t mean you’re safe from being kicked off, slacking is not tolerated in a place like this. Now please step forward to collect your uniform and take a booklet of the palace rules. If you cannot or struggle to read, please wait on the side and I will announce the rules.”
Everyone hurried over to the crates to find their size. Hinata luckily found his size quite quickly and grabbed a booklet before walking off to read it far away from the commotion. Around ¼ of the people there took a booklet while the rest stayed on the sides. As Twogami started reading the rules, a worker hushed him and a group of other people with a booklet to a different room to get changed.
As the worker led them there, he kept reading through the booklet. It stated mostly obvious things like ‘don’t litter’ and ‘be respectful to all royalty’. They shortly arrived at a reasonably sized room and were told to start changing.
Their uniform consisted of black trousers, a white dress shirt and a green tie with the country’s flag embodied into it. Hinata asked the worker that led them originally if he could leave and he agreed, telling him to make his way back to the ballroom.
Hinata thanked him and made his way back to the ballroom, he rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt so they sat more comfortable above his elbows. When he made it back, it seemed that Twogami had surprisingly finished telling the rules and almost everyone there was changed. He then heard a familiar voice call out his name.
He turned around to see Makoto, already in his uniform, running over to him. Hinata smiled brightly at him, happy to see a familiar face.
“Hinata! I’m so happy you’re here!”
“Me too.” He softly laughed.
They talked for a while before Twogami took the newly employed workers around the palace, showing them where supplies were and places they weren’t allowed to enter. They were introduced to some other people but Hinata’s mind was numb at that point. The overly decorated and extravagant castle was too much for him to handle at that point. He missed the comfort and familiarity of his home, it wasn’t as clean or polished as this place but it was home and it felt so much livelier then the castle. Even if there were people bustling up and down the hallways, it still felt like the palace was just a display case. Just meant to look pretty, not to be lived in.
By the time Twogami was done, most people were exhausted of going up multiple staircases and never ending hallways. When he dismissed everyone, a sigh of relief left Hinata. He quickly made his way back outside, breathing the fresh night air.
“Hey Hinata, what did you think?” Makoto had managed to catch up with Hinata even though he ran a little too quickly outside.
“It’s…nice, I guess. It’s a lot to take in at once.” Makoto nodded.
“I think it’s nice. The place is already so clean I doubt the work will be difficult.”
“True, but we have to impress Twogami enough that he’ll let us stay.”
They kept a comfortable silence as they walked back to the city, the lanterns hanging from the posts above them giving just enough light for them to see. Once the two boys made it to Makoto house, they bid each other goodbye and Hinata made his trek home.
He knew Nanami would be eager to hear his tales about the castle. She isn’t as interested as other people he’s seen but it’s quite a natural reaction to be curious about the place where the King lived. Once he left the city border, it was practically pitch black. The moonlight not providing even a crumb of light for the human eye to see.
When Hinata made it home, as expected, Nanami asked how the palace was. She was slightly annoyed at his very basic answer but she could see the sleepy threatening to overtake him. She bid him goodnight as Hinata made his way to his room. He slumped over to his bed, stumbling as he stripped of his uniform.
Tomorrow he had to walk all the way back to the palace so he knew he needed as much sleep as possible to make that journey and work throughout the day. At least Makoto was there to keep his spirits high and keep him company. One month of goody-two-shoes Hinata.