🌹 certified 20 lorenz hellman gloucester 🌹 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hotproblems) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
dumbshow2024-01-05 02:11 pm
hotproblems) wrote in dumbshow2024-01-05 02:11 pm
servant au for massochism
[When his father tells him they're going to be taking in a new member on the staff, Lorenz merely nods his acknowledgement and moves on. Their house takes on new servants all the time, that's how having a staff works, and so he misses a few key details, like the new man's coming from across the border, and how this is a favor to an old (old, old) friend of the family, and how he's going to be Lorenz's personal valet.
He is surprised, then, when he's introduced (or rather, when Olivine is introduced to him, as these things go) and suddenly has a valet all his own. He's been accustomed to staff, yes, but no one servant has waited on him more than the rest since, well, youth? When he had a nanny? What to do with a valet is almost a mystery.
But he works it out. Olivine is polite and well-mannered and has never once rolled his eyes when he thought Lorenz wasn't looking, and Lorenz is... charmed. Olivine is handsome, yes, and pleasingly-shaped, yes, and his big doleful eyes are so... well. When Lorenz is alone at night and conjures an image to feel less so, it's Olivine's pretty eyes that always float to the surface of his mind first.
Not that he can ever mention that. How wildly inappropriate.
So life with a valet now proceeds smoothly, for the most part, which is nice. Olivine is easy to speak to and confide in, although most of Lorenz's need for a confidant is to complain about his fellow nobles who just do not understand what basic human decency is-!! That doesn't matter. It's nice! It's fine! He dissociates only a little whenever Olivine helps him dress and undress, because if he thinks too long about clever fingers undoing all of his buttons in a quick row too much, he will have a nightmare of an explanation to wade through.
It's smooth. It's nice. He's dealing.
They find themselves out on a visit to one of the smaller villages in Gloucester territory that would be routine if not for the threat of bandits, or the alleged threat of bandits, as he's yet to see any one lurking criminal since they've ridden out here. The villagers seem convinced the threat is real, and waste hours of Lorenz's time talking to the local leaders (in this small of a village, also the local priest) and providing no actual evidence of bandit presence. Now in the dimming light of late afternoon he stands with his back to the surrounding forest, squinting into the setting sun at the village's incredibly boring proceedings and feeling like he hasn't helped at all. He sighs.]
Olivine, have I missed something? Have we truly, madly spent our entire day out here, and are now facing the long and dreadful ride home, having found nothing at all and wasted away these many hours, while the people can hardly glance in our direction? I am trying to do right by the commoners in new and more attentive ways, but for every imaginary bandit in the woods...
[He gestures, like, he is only one man and there are a lot of villages, and if his revolutionary new policies of actually seeking out and listening to commoners' concerns leads to his failing to help then the people will not be pleased, augh-- And surely no bandits are actually here. Surely.]
Be honest with me. You have my complete permission. Are my efforts in vain?
He is surprised, then, when he's introduced (or rather, when Olivine is introduced to him, as these things go) and suddenly has a valet all his own. He's been accustomed to staff, yes, but no one servant has waited on him more than the rest since, well, youth? When he had a nanny? What to do with a valet is almost a mystery.
But he works it out. Olivine is polite and well-mannered and has never once rolled his eyes when he thought Lorenz wasn't looking, and Lorenz is... charmed. Olivine is handsome, yes, and pleasingly-shaped, yes, and his big doleful eyes are so... well. When Lorenz is alone at night and conjures an image to feel less so, it's Olivine's pretty eyes that always float to the surface of his mind first.
Not that he can ever mention that. How wildly inappropriate.
So life with a valet now proceeds smoothly, for the most part, which is nice. Olivine is easy to speak to and confide in, although most of Lorenz's need for a confidant is to complain about his fellow nobles who just do not understand what basic human decency is-!! That doesn't matter. It's nice! It's fine! He dissociates only a little whenever Olivine helps him dress and undress, because if he thinks too long about clever fingers undoing all of his buttons in a quick row too much, he will have a nightmare of an explanation to wade through.
It's smooth. It's nice. He's dealing.
They find themselves out on a visit to one of the smaller villages in Gloucester territory that would be routine if not for the threat of bandits, or the alleged threat of bandits, as he's yet to see any one lurking criminal since they've ridden out here. The villagers seem convinced the threat is real, and waste hours of Lorenz's time talking to the local leaders (in this small of a village, also the local priest) and providing no actual evidence of bandit presence. Now in the dimming light of late afternoon he stands with his back to the surrounding forest, squinting into the setting sun at the village's incredibly boring proceedings and feeling like he hasn't helped at all. He sighs.]
Olivine, have I missed something? Have we truly, madly spent our entire day out here, and are now facing the long and dreadful ride home, having found nothing at all and wasted away these many hours, while the people can hardly glance in our direction? I am trying to do right by the commoners in new and more attentive ways, but for every imaginary bandit in the woods...
[He gestures, like, he is only one man and there are a lot of villages, and if his revolutionary new policies of actually seeking out and listening to commoners' concerns leads to his failing to help then the people will not be pleased, augh-- And surely no bandits are actually here. Surely.]
Be honest with me. You have my complete permission. Are my efforts in vain?