Chapter Text
If Nathalie saw what the Crown Prince to the French Throne was doing right now, Adrien would be in so much trouble. Yes, he was delivering his steward Wayhem’s salary to his family who lived in town, and yes, that was an honourable and good deed. It was also one that stewards do for princes, not the other way around.
Adrien did feel a little bad for putting Wayhem in that position, but he promised the poor guy that he wouldn’t get in any trouble, because he would be going in disguise anyway. Adrien knew how hard he worked to provide for his family, and he was in no position to be riding out several miles with how sick he had been for the past week. And well, it wasn’t like Adrien wasn’t getting anything out of it. The stuffy atmosphere of his father’s study was too much to bear, especially today.
Several members of parliament were coming to the palace today, to review the mid-year accounts of the kingdom’s wealth. The officials were going to act shocked that the returns were going to be two times lesser this year, as if they didn’t wage a war on Italy three months ago. He had a bet running with Nino on that.
Adrien’s horse neighed impatiently, and he rubbed his black mane soothingly. “Hey, it’s fine, boy.” The forest path they were taking was admittedly not one that his steed was used to, but Nino had recommended this path to him as a shortcut back to the palace. Some “shortcut” it was, he had been on this path for over an hour.
His horse whinnied again, rearing on his hind legs for a moment. “Woah, woah,” Adrien exclaimed. “Hey, what is up with you today? Why are you so restless? Is something coming? What’s scaring you?” Those words did nothing to comfort him, who was now refusing to move another inch.
Adrien sighed as he dismounted his horse. Maybe he was just hungry again. He was always a bit of a glutton for food since he was given to him as a child. “Okay, okay, I’ll get you your apples. I’ll be surprised if there’ll be any left since you ate ten of them on the way here.” he grumbled.
“Hey, you! Stop right there!” Adrien was startled out of his wits when he heard a harsh scream from the left of the path.
The next thing he knew, a whirlwind ran past him and turned into the right thicket of trees, and he stumbled backwards against a tree. He didn’t see much, but he did recognise that whatever ran past him was bright red. Was it a person? He hadn’t seen anyone run that fast, and he had been trained to do so since childhood.
He heard the clip-clop of horses, and Adrien quickly mounted his horse, ready to run away and avoid suspicion. He was a tad bit too late, because two guards stopped their horses upon seeing him. For a second, Adrien froze. Were they from the palace? Were they here to collect him because his father found that he had snuck out?
“Hey, you!” one of the two men gruffly asked him, and though Adrien had never experienced such rudeness in all his life, he was relieved. His mask was doing its job. “Did you see a girl run past here?”
A girl? That was the one who ran past him? Why were they even chasing the poor thing?
“Why? What do you want with her?” he asked suspiciously, scowling at them. Were they thieves? Bandits? Had she run away from them?
“None of your business.” he barked.
“Are you sure? How do I know you are not harassing the young lady?” Adrien snapped back, blocking their path with his horse. “You could be kidnappers or bandits trying to rob her.” His hand hovered over his sword, ready to pull it out.
“You fool, that girl is the thief! She stole from the Countess Bourgeois! Now tell us where she went or move out of our way!”
“She’s probably escaped by now.” the other one muttered under his breath.
“Oh!” Adrien feigned remorse. He still fully didn’t believe them, but they were guards working for a noble. “Oh, uh, sorry, gentlemen. I was mistaken, I believe I saw her going to the left.” he lied, pointing in the wrong direction.
Without another word, they geared up their horses and followed the direction Adrien pointed them in. “You’re welcome, I guess.” he muttered to himself before taking off towards the right. He wasn’t sure if the runaway girl was someone who should be caught, but his conscience didn’t want to throw her under the bus like that. If she was dangerous, he could still catch her in the act.
He stopped in his tracks when he heard a rustle from the woods. “Wait here.” he tied his angry horse to a tree for now. He couldn’t have his position being given away.
“Okay, come out wherever you are.” he warned. “I know you’re here.”
Silence.
“The longer you hide, you’ll only make yourself more guiltier - if you just owned up, I’m sure you’ll be let off with a less harsh punish-” Adrien didn’t get to finish his sentence, because something had jumped on him from above and pinned him to the ground.
“Ow!” he yelped from the pain. He tried to fight back, but he realised his attacker had held his hand above his head, and the other one was twisted painfully behind his back.
“Let me go!” Adrien demanded, kicking against his bounds, but upon opening his eyes, he found that the woman above him had a very strong grip.
“And here I was thinking I should offer you my gratitude for confusing those guards.” she had a voice that would normally belong to demure gentlewomen he’d meet in the palace.
Her blue eyes from behind her red mask were staring him down, and her pink lips were letting out short, breathless gasps. She was glaring at him, probably for daring to try to capture her too.
“You’re just like them, aren’t you? Who sent you? Was it the Lady Bourgeois? Did she promise you a dance at her next ball? You’re not getting one, buddy, even if I let you go, which I’m not going to.”
Adrien nearly laughed at that thought, not because Chloe was his childhood friend, but because even this stranger was well aware of her notorious reputation to charm men and lead them on with false promises. “No, don’t worry, no one sent me.” he grinned, trying to charm her into releasing him.
Her dark hair fell over her face and tickled his cheek, and involuntarily, Adrien felt his cheeks heat up. “Uh, miss, I don’t intend to exactly harm you but-”
“Not another word.” she growled, and he was struck by how pretty she was when the midday sunlight sparkled off of her eyes.
“Please, you must let me explain. I’m sure if you just returned whatever you stole, you won’t be-”
“I won’t be punished?” she held his collar with her free hand. “You are more naive than I thought.”
“Excuse me?” Adrien said, mildly amused.
“Now here’s what you’ll do. You are going to co-operate while I make sure you don’t rat me out.” she pulled him up by his shirt while pulling out a knife and holding it in her other hand.
“I...I’m sorry, I can’t help but notice that your hold on your knife is completely er, backwards?” Adrien remarked, pointing to her hand. “You’re holding it like an ice-cream cone, not a-”
“Shut up.”
“-knife.” Adrien finished weakly. He really didn’t want to lay hands on a woman, Adrien would never go against his code of chivalry, mortal danger or not. “Okay, okay, here’s my deal. You give me whatever you stole, and I’ll return it to the Bourgeosies. And you get to go free. How does that sound?”
“What makes you think I’m giving the money back?” She retorted. “I didn’t steal anything.”
In the moments she took to defend herself, Adrien twisted his arm out of her grasp and pushed himself away. Pulling out his sword, he clapped back. “Oh and I suppose the big pouch at your side is just birdseed?”
To his surprise, he caught her biting the inside of a cheek to hold back a laugh. “Funny, aren’t I?” he grinned.
She was half a head shorter than him, but she stared him down like she was ten times his size.
“I told you, I’m not a thief! It’s the nobles who are! My friend works for them, and they haven’t paid her in over six months! Do you know how long she has worked for them? For half her life! Her father is sick and her ‘job’ is giving her nothing! Oh but they’re not the thieves, are they?”
Adrien was stunned. In all his life, when it came to the nobility, everything he had been taught was to know their entire family tree, how to greet them and appropriate conversation topics. He’d never even considered that they’d be treating whoever worked for them so unfairly.
“Wait,” he said, lowering his sword. “So you’re just helping your friend,” he repeated.
“Yes…?” she replied uncertainly. She hadn’t expected his answer anymore than he had expected hers.
“Wow, I-” suddenly, his entire worldview changed. “Does this...happen a lot? Do the Bourgeoisies not pay their staff? Are they in debt or something?” Chloe hadn’t mentioned anything like that to him.
“As if.” the lady rolled her eyes.
“But if they have the money, why wouldn’t they be able to pay everyone working for them?”
“‘Able’” she mocked him, and Adrien couldn’t help but like how she challenged him, word for word. “I’m guessing you’re not from around here.”
A lot of funny things had happened to him, but this (really pretty) girl calling him, the crown prince, a foreigner had to take the cake.
“None of the people serving under the nobility get paid more than the bare minimum or what was promised. And on top of them the king keeps on taxing them more than half their pay. Who are the thieves, sir, me or them?” she accused angrily, and Adrien felt like he had been slapped.
“I...didn’t know.” he stammered. Suddenly, every meeting he had to attend and every princely duty he had to fulfill felt meaningless. Were his people suffering this much?
“Oh and I suppose you didn’t know that there is a war happening too.” she sneered, but this time Adrien could see the righteous fury in her words, even if he was well aware of said war.
“You-” he cleared his throat. “You can go.”
“What..?” she gasped.
Adrien dropped his sword on the ground as a show of solidarity. “Escape, quickly, before they come to get you.”
She opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to believe what she was hearing. Slowly putting her knife back into her belt, she backed away. “I don’t know why you changed your mind but-”
“You opened my eyes, Miss..?” he motioned for her name.
“You’re not getting my name.” she said abruptly. “Thank you.”
He was disappointed, but he understood. He nodded, but quickly asked. “Can I ask you for a favor?”
“Depends on what it is.” she quirked an eyebrow at him. In all this time, she hadn’t flinched at anything, not his sharp sword, not his words or even him. He was sure he wasn’t going to be able to get her out of his thoughts for quite a while.
“Could you please tell me the quickest way out of the woods? I have been following that path for over an hour now and I can’t find my way out.” he asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
She burst out laughing at his innocent request. “Continue down the path for one more mile and you’ll reach a river and a bridge, cross that and you’ll find signposts towards the city.”
She looked no less beautiful now when she was smiling than when she was pinning him to the ground defiantly. Adrien blinked twice, clearing his throat to clear his red cheeks. “Thank you, stay safe.” he quickly turned away.
He heard her footsteps run away from him, and he snuck a peek at her, running away into the woods. She had really risked her reputation (because there was no way she wasn’t from a respectable family) and her life to help her friend. Adrien hadn’t known a lot of genuine people like her.
Turns out there was a lot more that he didn’t know.