Chapter Text
Mornings, in Ash's humble opinion, were the worst. In the morning, as the sun peeked just over the courtyard trees, hardly a sound could be heard in the castle. It was a silence Ash had never quite learned to deal with, even before the time of his reign. It always left him with his own thoughts, unable to do anything but sit with the static in his mind. He hated it.
Mornings, in Squiddo's very correct and not-at-all-biased opinion, were the best part of her day. In the early hours of the day, before the sun dared to breach the windows of the servant's quarters—before anyone truly began to work—they were free to laugh and converse. Eventually, the peace would be broken by the King stirring and work would continue again, but mornings? Those were theirs.
"Redd!" Squiddo jumped up on the counter that Reddoons was sitting at. She craned her neck towards him and grinned teasingly. "The King's right-hand finally decided to join us, hm?"
"Squiddo," Redd acknowledged her presence with a nod, a smirk ghosting his face. "’His highness’ hasn't left his room yet."
Squiddo gave no reaction to that, instead plucking Reddoons' mug out from in front of him. They brought it up to their face, grimacing at the smell. "Black?"
Redd nodded. Squiddo tipped her head back and took a gulp. She jokingly retched at the taste, pulling an amused huff from the man.
"I don't know how you drink that," she laughed, placing the mug back down on the counter. It was swiftly snagged by Redd, who held it close to his chest.
"Need, mostly," he drank the rest of it down in a gulp. "It's faster than dressing it up."
"I guess," Squiddo hopped down from the counter, rounding the island and walking further into the preperation station. She nodded towards some of the cooks who were sitting conversing. They smiled back. "D'you want toast?"
Reddoons hummed noncommittally, leaning back where he was seated. "Yeah, sure."
Squiddo unwrapped the bread from its cloth, slicing out two pieces for each of them. She buttered a pan and placed it over a lit burner before placing both pieces in either corner of it.
"Jam?" Reddoons shook his head. Squiddo shrugged, "Your loss."
They continued with the preparation of the toast, placing a piece in front of Redd. The sun had began to shimmer through the quarter's windows, bringing natural light to the room. It was their first clue that the King would rise soon. Unfortunately.
Squiddo spread honeyed jam over her toast before taking a bite. She glanced over towards the doors that led into the banquet hall before turning to Reddoons with a sigh.
"Any plans?" She asked through a mouth full of food.
"No one to entertain, if that's what you mean." Redd looked at her knowingly.
"Just His Majesty." Squiddo glanced off to the side.
"Just Ash," Kaboodle popped in next to them, grinning. "But I have a feeling that's exactly what you don't want."
"Kab—" Squiddo attempted to interject.
"She's right. You've been acting weird around him." Reddoons cut in.
"Weird? Have you seen the way she looks at him? She's head-over-heels!" Kaboodle threw her head back dramatically, draping a hand over her head. "Oh, Ash! I am your humble servant! Please, order me around, again!"
"I do not sound like that!" Squiddo shrieked, tugging Kaboodle's arm from her head. They fell into a fit of giggles around Redd, with Kaboodle continuing to mock her friend with dramatized kissing noises.
"Ashswag and Squiddo sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-"
Reddoons cleared his throat behind them; the girls turned. King Ashswag, in all of his glory, was entering the doors of the banquet hall. Their king's face was neutral, like he was just observing the going-ons of ants, rather than real people.
”His Majesty, Ashswag Raja, ruler of Melior,” Redd, Ash’s head advisor, announced; hoping to warn the others of his approach.
Squiddo and Kaboodle both dipped into a bow, embarrassment flooding into the faces of both of them. The surrounding servants had gone silent. No one expected His Majesty to walk all the way down to the kitchen. Most of the time, he had his breakfast delivered.
"Your Majesty," Kaboodle greeted. The sun had not yet risen far enough to breach the upper windows of the castle.
Servants began to bustle around the kitchen with a renewed sense of urgency—work was starting early today. Ashswag gestured for them to stand while glancing off to the side to overlook everything.
“I didn’t realize there was such bustle down here in the mornings,” Ashswag muttered. Redd stepped forward and held out an arm, trying to coax him back into the banquet hall.
“It’s quite boring, really.” Reddoons attempted to persuade Ash into leaving, very aware of the tension of the cooks and waitstaff. The king, either oblivious or unbothered, continued to stare. “Nothing you should concern yourself with, Your Majesty.”
Ash waved off his concern, stepping further into the room. “No, no, I’m curious.”
Squiddo stepped back, fully intending on running off to change into her motley, but it seemed she would not escape notice so easily.
“Squiddo.” The king turned towards her, dipping his head in greeting. It was a nonsensical and unnecessary action, seeing as he held a much higher title than she could ever hope for.
Nonetheless, the jester bowed in response, the motion fit for their respective statuses.
”Your Majesty,” Squiddo welcomed, schooling her face into her usual grin. “You’re up early!”
Ash paused for a moment, eyes tracing over her before he nodded curtly. “Your presence is not necessary today.”
With that, he turned and left, beckoning Reddoons behind him.
Once everyone could be sure that their monarch had left for good, they began to relax. They didn’t go back to lounging, but there was an obvious relief of stress from much of the help at hand. Squiddo, on the other hand, was visibly tense, much to Kaboodle's worry. The blue-haired girl stepped forward, placing her hands on Squiddo's shoulders.
"Hey, Squidster?" She tilted her head, trying to get her friend's attention. "Are you... okay?"
Squiddo snapped to attention before her expression melted into a semi-forced smile. "Yeah! 'Just wondering what I'm going to do with this day off, now."
Kaboodle nodded slowly before relinquishing her hold on the shorter girl and stepping back. "Alright, well... come have lunch with me this afternoon? Near the training grounds? We can invite Jumper, too. It'll be nice to have all three of us together again."
"Yeah," Squiddo agreed. "That would be nice. I can even pick up some stuff from town today since I'm off, I guess."
"Ooh! While you're out," Kaboodle seemed to remember something, fishing a piece of paper from her messenger bag. "Could you deliver this to that fancy science building? It's for Clown."
Squiddo perked up, happy to be of assistance. "Clown? Did he actually manage to get hired?"
"Yup!" Kaboodle beamed. "He's aiding one of the top scientists too. That Branzy guy."
There was something else in her voice, something more sinister, but Squiddo, wisely, chose not to comment on it.
"Why don't you just text him?" She takes the letter from her blue-haired companion and slips it into her pocket.
"I like this more, it makes me feel like we're in an old spy movie." Kaboodle giggled, snapping the top of her bag closed. "Plus, I get to save his letters back as memories, sometimes I put them in scrapbooks."
Squiddo shrugged. They weren't really one to judge.
"Alright, I'll get it to him. Any other special requests?"
"Toffees?" Kaboodle did her best impression of a puppy begging for steak; jutting her bottom lip out and raising her eyebrows.
"Yeah," Squiddo snorted. "I'll get toffees."
"What was that?" Reddoons asked, picking up his pace to match Ashswag.
"What was what?" Ash maintained a neutral disposition, unwilling to give anything away.
Reddoons stopped. He grabbed Ashwag's shoulder, forcing the curly-haired man to face him. They had a stare off for a second before Ash relented with a sigh, gesturing for Redd to follow him.
"I wanted to give her a break; she's the only jester, as unneeded as the role is."
"That sounded less like a break and more like she was being fired." Reddoons pulled his sunglasses down, his eyes settling on the back of Ash's head.
"I didn't mean it like that. She knows that," Ashswag pulled his cape up with one arm as he climbed the stairs. Redd pivoted to his other side.
"Do they? Seems like they were pretty surprised back there," Redd hinted, thinking back to the expression on Squiddo's face.
Ash stopped dead in his tracks, staring up to the top of the stairs. "She thinks I fired her?"
"Maybe not fired yet, but you dismissed her without reason." The logical man pointed out. "She must, at least, be confused."
"I should go back." Ashswagg turned to descend the stairs, but Redd stopped him with a tug on his sleeve.
"Knowing Squiddo, they've already made a contingency plan." His right-hand nodded upwards, towards the king's office. "You'll just have to clarify yourself tomorrow."
Ash nodded in understanding. "Right."
"And don't come down to the servant's quarters, you freaked everyone out today."
Ash looked at Redd with a quizzical expression. "Me? I was just visiting."
"It was weird."
If Squiddo ignored the alarm blaring in her head—the one telling her she was going to be laid-off—her day was going fairly well. She had donned her favorite cardigan, which she didn't get to wear often since she hardly left the castle grounds, and set off on an adventure into the main town of Melior.
She spent most of her time staring into the windows of shops and blatantly ogling at pretty clothes she saw. At one point, she had stopped in a bakery and bought a golden apple scone, along with a couple of other things for their picnic.
It was high noon by the time she had made her way back to the castle grounds, her floral-patterned tote in hand. The knights had lunch around 1, and, if Squiddo hurried, she could have everything set up by the time Kab escaped her duties. Jumper would be late, she always was, as she worked on the other side of the castle.
With this in mind, Squiddo picked up her pace and hurried towards her room. From the bottom of her cupboard, she pulled out her spare blanket. It was a square orange one, a gift from Kaboodle back when Squiddo had first been hired. She had handed it to the other girl with a relaxed posture, commenting on how it matched the travel bag Squiddo had arrived with. They had been friends ever since that day nearly 4 years ago.
Squiddo gathered the blanket into her arms and walked to the kitchen. A couple of servants shot her pity-filled looks as she passed and, as much as she tried to ignore them, it hurt. She didn't want to lose them. They had made friends with almost everyone on staff, and now they were under fire. They hadn't even thought they were doing that bad of a job, but, clearly, Ash— His Majesty, thought otherwise.
Squiddo pulled a spare wicker basket from a cupboard and loaded it with her acquired goods. All that was left was to set up which, considering she had upwards of half an hour, was not terribly pressing. Even so, she began her trek to the training grounds, stopping just outside to drop the picnic supplies. She plopped onto the ground unceremoniously, spreading the blanket over the green summer grass. She laid on her back, staring up through the leaves of the trees with a sigh.
Squiddo wasn't sure of how much time had passed before they heard the thud of footsteps approach. They turned their head to face Kaboodle, who wore a lazy grin.
"Jumper's late," Kaboodle commented.
"Jumper's always late." Squiddo sat up with a laugh, folding her legs together. The blue-haired woman lowered herself to sit near the corner of the picnic blanket, stretching her legs out towards the grass.
"She's the worst white rabbit, we ought to get her a pocket watch," Kaboodle joked, pulling her hairtie from her ponytail.
"If she's the white rabbit, what does that make us?"
"I'm the Cheshire Cat, obviously. You'd be, like, one of the talking flowers or something." Kab took Squiddo's wheeze as encouragement, continuing, "Or perhaps the jabberwocky. Or, honestly? I think you could pull off the Mad Hatter look."
"You're so mean," Squiddo said teasingly, giggling at Kaboodle's antics.
A voice interrupted their joking. Jumper had finally arrived.
"Guys! I'm here! Oh— Squiddo, I heard what happened." Jumper's shoulders slouched. "Did you really get fired?"
"No! No—" Squiddo shook her head, beckoning for Jumper to sit down. "I didn't get fired, he just... said I wasn't needed today."
"It was a whole thing, he came down to the kitchen and everything." Kaboodle nodded solemnly.
"The kitchen?" Jumper gasped. Squiddo opened the picnic basket and pulled out a soda with a sigh.
"It was crazy," Kaboodle continued, "He practically ogled at her one moment and dismissed her the next."
"He didn't ogle at me, he was just staring. He always does that, it doesn't matter who it is." Squiddo cut in.
"I don't know, Squidster, he doesn't even make eye contact with me." Jumper leaned back, grabbing a sandwich from the picnic basket.
"Maybe he has feelings for her," Kaboodle teased, a grin spreading across her face.
Jumper nodded in agreement. "Don't worry, Squid; as your wife, I approve of your relationship."
"It's not a relationship!" Squiddo objected.
"It totally is, you're both just too oblivious to realize it." Kab shot back. "It's okay, I'll officiate the wedding."
"There's not a wedding!" Squiddo dramatically threw herself back on the grass, much to the amusement of the other girls.
This was going to be the longest picnic of Squiddo's life.