Chapter Text
Walking down the hallway of the Hiveria Sporting Association, Alex listens attentively as the Director keeps talking to him. Alex keeps a polite smile on his face the entire time, always conscious of the TV cameras that are recording his every move and all the people around him who have their phones out, taking pictures. He waits for an opportune time to ask questions, carefully adding in the information he’d memorized the night before when his butler Gary had helped him prep for the engagement.
As they round the corner, a young girl breaks away from her parents and comes running up to him, holding up a hockey stick. Out of his peripheral vision, Alex notices his bodyguard, Prakash, stepping forward to gently intervene, but Alex discreetly holds out a hand towards him as he smiles at the little girl and crouches down to greet her. “Hello, there. What’s your name?”
She’s shaking from excitement. “Leslie. Do you like my hockey stick?!”
Alex gently takes it out of her hands and inspects it. Right away, he’s reminded of his dom and as always, his cock stirs a bit, pressing up against the metal cage he’s wearing. Alex has never played hockey in his life and has no interest in it, but his dom goes to a recreation center every Sunday morning to play a casual game with others. His dom also follows their national hockey team’s progress every year and loves ranting about various things to Alex. Despite not being that interested in it, Alex loves how enthusiastic his dom is about it and learning about hockey has made their friendship grow right alongside their BDSM relationship so Alex is always happy to further his education about his country’s national sport.
“It’s a wonderful stick,” he tells the girl. “It’s got good balance and it’s very good quality.”
Silently, he sends a mental thank-you to his dom. He’s the only reason Alex can turn this conversation into something genuine.
The little girl nods. “Yes, it is! My old one broke and I couldn’t play hockey anymore, but they gave me one for free!”
Alex knows she’s referring to the center, which has a department that provides free sporting equipment to those less fortunate. “That’s very nice of them, isn’t it?”
“Yes!” She’s beaming and everybody around them chuckles. Alex is providing a beautiful public relations moment for the monarchy, but he’s also making this little girl’s day, so everything is good.
“You’ll be playing for Team Hiveria in no time,” he tells her.
She giggles, sounding delighted. Then her parents come forward and Alex returns Leslie’s stick and stands up to speak to her parents, keeping his smile firmly on his lips.
As they’re talking, he has to shift discreetly to readjust his cage when it starts pinching a bit, but he’s so used to it by now that it only takes a little hip twist to get it sitting properly again. Thank God that he lives in a country that has winter year-round because Alex couldn’t get away with wearing the cage in public if he had to wear thinner pants.
His dom had been very concerned when Alex had wanted to start wearing a cage in public, especially a bulky metal one, but Alex loves this one so much more than the plastic versions they’d tried and he’d rather spend a little time worrying about keeping it hidden than live with another version—or no cage at all. His metal cage has a nice weight to it that the plastic ones didn’t have and it’s a wonderful, constant reminder that he’s keeping his cock nicely contained until it’s time to play with his dom. It’s not something his dom had insisted on but when Alex had found out such cages exist, the submissive nature of them had immediately appealed him. Months later, he’s still thrilled to wear the cage six days a week, only taking it off on Sundays when it’s time to let his cock out to play.
Once his time in the center is finished, it’s time to head outside for the walkabout. Keeping that constant smile on his face, Alex takes his coat back from Gary and slips it on before stepping outside. As usual, it’s snowing a little bit and it’s chilly, but he’s used to it.
The crowd that has been patiently waiting for him outside is bundled up in winter layers but they all come alive when he emerges; shouting, waving and cheering. One person is wearing a very warm looking hat and Alex gets a little jealous. Having grown up in Hiveria, he’s used to the cold but he also loves putting on warm layers, especially when there’s a cold snap. Unfortunately, wearing hats or thick scarves isn’t permitted on engagements. They make it difficult for people to get the perfect photo and that’s an understandable no-no. Wearing gloves is also a no-no because it makes handshakes less personal.
Smiling, Alex hurries to one end of the crowd and starts greeting people, always determined to get through as many people as possible before he has to go. Dozens of hands are stretched out towards him, almost everybody is holding a phone to record the occasion and the piercing screams of some girls can be heard over everybody else’s shouts.
“Oh, my God! Prince Alex! Oh, my God! Over here!”
“Prince Alex! Can I get a selfie with you? Please, please?”
“Your Highness! I have a present for you! Over here, please!”
With Prakash behind him and Gary one step behind and one step to the side, Alex reaches for the first set of hands and briefly shakes them, smiling at the screaming, enthusiastic crowd.
Doing the walkabout is an art form that took him a few months to perfect, but now that he’s been doing it for nearly ten years, it’s no longer stressful. The rules are very straight-forward. Only stop for short conversations. Don’t ask open-ended questions that will invite lengthy conversations but ask questions that let people know he’s listening. Always ask for people’s names so they feel like he really cares about them personally. And always, always, always smile.
Unlike some members of his family, Alex really enjoys doing the walkabouts. Not because he’s overly keen on meeting dozens of strangers every single day who he’ll never see again, but because it’s the right thing to do. Years ago, walkabouts hadn’t been a normal part of Royal engagements—his grandparents had started the practice decades before Alex was born—and it always made Alex uncomfortable to watch videos from that time when the older generation would come out of a building and walk stone-faced to their waiting vehicle and drive away, ignoring the enthusiastic crowd who had waited for hours just to say hello to them. His great aunt Grand Empress Melinda calls that practice ‘proper’ while Alex privately calls it ‘rude’. But whatever. Alex has happily continued the tradition that his grandparents had introduced and he cherishes his reputation as a more relatable and warmer Royal than his great aunt. He loves his great aunt dearly, but they’ll always have slightly different views of how to conduct their duties. But that’s okay.
One of the first hands he gently shakes is an older woman’s. She’s standing with a teenage boy, who’s busy filming the whole thing with his phone. “Hello! What’s your name?”
The woman quickly does a shaky looking curtsy, vibrating from excitement as she keeps clutching his hand. “Oh, wow, oh, wow, oh, wow. It’s—it’s Marley, Your Royal Highness. This is my grandson, Tom.”
Alex gently extricates his hand from Marley’s grip and shakes Tom’s hand too, whose eyes are huge and he looks like he’s about to pass out as he nearly drops his phone. “It’s wonderful to meet you both.”
This over-the-top excitement that some people have when they meet him used to freak him out when he was younger, but now he’s used to it. He knows it’s not really him they’re reacting to, but what he represents. He’s a walking and talking part of Hiveria’s history and traditions, not to mention that he’s an actual Prince and lives in an actual castle. It’s romantic and exciting and a bunch of other things that don’t reflect reality, but it’s Alex’s job to maintain that illusion. Being born a Wallace means being born with a set of responsibilities and duties which have to be properly fulfilled in order to earn the privileges that come with his title. That’s the way things have always been and that’s the way things will always be. It’s one of the Great Empress’ principles that Alex has always fully supported.
“We’re from Glace, sir,” Tom pipes up.
“Oh, is that right? You’ve come a long way.”
Marley’s nodding enthusiastically. “Yes! We came down to Neige for a visit and can you believe our luck that we were right around the corner from here when we found out you’d be here? Oh, this is fantastic!”
“I’m very happy I could make your day, ma’am. I’ll actually be in Glace in...May?” He doesn’t know his entire schedule by heart—doing hundreds of engagement a year makes that impossible—but he always loves going out to the smaller towns on the outer regions of the country and he scans through his preliminary annual itinerary in January to see how many he’ll get to do in the coming year. He knows he’s supposed to be going up to Glace some time in May.
Her eyes light up. “Oh! That’s wonderful! Are you coming up to see the glass factory, sir?”
Alex smiles. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll keep an eye out for you two when I’m up there.”
She looks delighted by the news. “We’ll be there!”
“Have a safe trip back home.”
Conscious of time slipping by and the rest of the enthusiastic people who have been waiting for hours in the cold to see him, Alex keeps walking, shaking more hands and greeting people as snow flakes fall around them and his breath clouds up in the cool air. The tips of his nose and ears and his hands are a bit chilled, but Alex barely notices. Some people have brought him flowers and other gifts, which Alex discreetly hands back to Gary so his hands stay free to keep shaking hands.
When Gary gives him the signal that his time is coming to an end, Alex speeds up a bit, picking out the faces in the crowd who look especially desperate to see him versus the ones who are more focused on freaking out with their friends. Him being gay has been public knowledge since his teens, but that doesn’t seem to stop women from always freaking out at the sight of him. It’s something he’s used to, but what they mostly care about is getting pictures of him and telling their friends about seeing him, so he won’t be disappointing them too much if he doesn’t stop for a chat. But talking to the children is always quick and easy, and he makes it a point to speak to anybody elderly who clearly shouldn’t be outside braving the cold anymore but their love for the monarchy has brought them out onto the freezing sidewalk just to talk to him.
Once he reaches the end of the line, he gives the crowd another wave and heads over to his waiting car. He keeps smiling and waving as Gary opens the door for him and he slips inside. He only allows himself to stop smiling and relax once the car is at the end of the block. Smiling constantly isn’t official protocol, but Alex has seen way too many photos of himself captured sitting in a car when he’s busy thinking about something and he’s frowning and looking displeased with the world. That always results in cruel headlines with bullshit claims over Royal drama and Alex doesn’t like giving the tabloids any ammunition.
But as they join the normal flow of traffic, Alex can finally relax. “Well, I think that went very well. Good job, team.”
Prakash and his driver chuckle as Gary’s sorting through his bag filled with gifts. “Yes, it was a lovely engagement, Your Highness.”
Smiling, Alex shifts in his seat to adjust his cage.
“You know, if you keep this up, they might make you a Duke before you turn thirty, sir,” Gary muses.
Alex chuckles. “That’s not protocol.”
“No, but given the circumstances...”
Alex feels that familiar twinge in his gut which happens whenever his parents are mentioned. They had passed away in a car accident when Alex was five years old and the situation’s always been strange. He barely remembers them but since his daily life and job both revolve around his family, he’s used to his parents being brought up in all sorts of ways that often aren’t related to them being Alex’s parents. Gary’s comment has little to do with Alex’s parents having been his parents and more to do with his little section of the Royal Family tree missing an essential part of the normal hierarchy.
Since Alex is tenth in line to the throne anyway and that position wouldn’t change if he were promoted from Prince to Duke, not currently having the Duke position filled in his direct line of succession isn’t an urgent matter, but it does mean his grandfather and the other Dukes and Duchesses in the family have to take on some responsibilities that would have been his parents if they were still alive. But everybody will have to wait a few more years for the situation to change because his great aunt had made it clear that she wouldn’t bend the rules to make Alex a Duke early.
“Empress Tanisha may bend those rules for me, but we all know the Grand Empress won’t,” Alex says. “At the end of the day, her word is the law in the palace.”
His great aunt Tanisha has always been a lot more relaxed about Royal protocol since she’d married into the Royal Family and hadn’t grown up with all the protocols drilled into her head. She comes from one of the oldest and riches families in Hiveria and she’s much easier to get along with than her wife. But his great aunt Melinda is a stickler for the rules and traditions of the Royal Family and her wife’s opinion or anybody else’s opinion is irrelevant. Besides, while it annoys Alex that his grandfather and others have to take on additional responsibility that Alex knows he could handle, it’s pointless to argue with his great aunt over such things. There are certain things he’s fought with her about and won, but he’s careful not to push her too much.
Gary chuckles. “Then you’ll have to wait three more years, sir. But I think you meet all the qualifications of being a Duke already.”
Alex grins. “Thank you, Gary. That’s high praise, coming from you.”
Gary has been a butler for the Royal Family since before Alex was born and the older man had trained Alex since his teens. If Gary’s telling him he’s doing his job right, that really means something.
“You’ve earned it,” Gary says as he keeps sorting through the bags of gifts. “Would you like to keep any of the gifts, sir?”
Thinking it over, Alex remembers two of the gifts which he’d like to keep. “The key chain and one of the pucks.”
Gary fishes them out and hands them over. Grabbing them, Alex inspects them as he smiles. The key chain is a little silver colored hockey stick with his name on it, which is adorable and also practical. He’ll put it on his car keys chain. The puck isn’t practical for Alex, but he knows his dom will like it.
Staring at the puck and thinking of his dom’s reaction reminds him that it’s Saturday and after lunch, he has one more engagement to get through and then it’s time for his weekend.
As soon as he gets back to the palace in the afternoon, he’ll get his weekend started by texting his dom and exchanging ideas of what they’re in the mood for. Last week, his dom had been sore from colliding with the boards during his hockey game and he hadn’t been in the mood for a vigorous spanking session, but Alex is hoping he’ll be in the mood tomorrow. If not, there are a hundred other wonderful things that they can do together, but Alex’s ass has lost any trace of soreness from their last spanking session and that’s always disappointing.
Saturday evening will be spent playing cards with his grandfather, Sunday morning and afternoon will be spent relaxing and going down to his little workshop to work on his newest ice sculpture and on Sunday evening, it’ll be time to meet with his dom.
A shiver of excitement runs through him and his cock stirs in his cage again. He can’t wait! But for now, he has to take deep breaths, calm down and stay focused. He still has a bit of his work day remaining.
* * *
Standing in front of his bathroom mirror above the small sink, Jeffrey checks that his hair and uniform jacket are perfect. It had been snowing quite a bit during the Grand Duke’s afternoon engagement and Jeffrey’s hair always does silly things when it gets wet. But a bit of glaring and re-organizing gets his hair to cooperate again. His white bowtie has gotten a little askew, so that needs some fixing. His stiff red jacket looks fine but one of the gold buttons has a smudge on it, which is quickly buffed away with a hand towel.
Once he’s happy with his appearance, he steps into his small bedroom and grabs a fresh pair of white gloves from his dresser and slips them on. Then it’s time to head to the kitchen to get the Grand Duke his dinner before he’ll go to the staff dining room to have his own dinner, which will bring Saturday to a close and pull Sunday within reach.
Saturdays are always the hardest days to get through because the end of his six-day work week is within sight. Unlike Monday through Friday, Jeffrey doesn’t have to devote every free moment to thinking about what tasks he needs to do. He still needs to check his phone messages constantly to see if any of the Grand Duke’s engagements for next week have changed or if any other urgent matters pop up. But in general, the whole palace works like a well oiled machine and surprises are few and far in between.
So unlike Monday through Friday, on Saturdays he can look forward to his hockey game on Sunday morning, and that’s followed by his favorite time of the week: meeting up with his sub on Sunday evening.
Shiverinng a bit from excitement, Jeffrey clenches his gloved hands and takes a shaky breath, trying to stay calm as his cock twitches. After being knocked into the boards by an overly aggressive player from the opposing team—who has been banned from their future games for not understand that all the players have full time jobs that require them to stay in one piece—Jeffrey hadn’t felt he could give his sub a proper spanking session and doing a lackluster job wasn’t in either of their best interest. Instead, he’d tied his sub to the hotel bed and spent hours teasing him; putting their favorite clover nipple clamps on him and alternating teasing his cock with his tongue and vibrating toys, and fucking him whenever Jeffrey felt like it. It had been fantastic, but it’s been two weeks since he’d turned his sub’s pale ass into a gorgeous, fiery work of art and that’s way too long. Now that he’s completely recovered from last week, he’s ready to give them both what they’ve been missing.
Right on cue, his personal phone buzzes in his pocket before he’s about to step out of his room to head to the kitchen. Smiling, he digs his phone out of his pocket and sees that he got a message from his sub.
‘How are you feeling???’
Jeffrey smirks and types a reply. ‘What you’re really curious about is if I’m healthy enough to spank you right?’
His sub replies immediately with a string of laughing smiley faces. ‘You know me too well.’
Grinning, Jeffrey chuckles quietly. After being together for a year, one would hope that Jeffrey would know his sub very well. He wouldn’t be a very good dom if that weren’t true. Leaning against his door, Jeffrey quickly responds. He has to get the Grand Duke his dinner, but he can’t resist chatting a bit more. ‘I know your ass particularly well and don’t worry, it’ll get what it’s craving tomorrow...as long as you’re in the mood for it.’
He’s always careful to keep himself and his sub on equal footing when they’re planning their scenes. Making his sub happy is one of the most important things in his life and Jeffrey always works hard to give his sub an equal voice. Just because his sub likes being submissive in bed doesn’t mean Jeffrey considers himself above his sub. They’re equal partners who just happen to like opposite things in the bedroom.
‘I’m very much in the mood!’
Smiling, Jeffrey’s excitement comes rushing back, but he takes a deep breath. Not yet. ‘I gotta go but we’ll chat tonight.’
‘Okay!’
Stuffing his phone back into his pocket, Jeffrey hurries out of his room and walks as fast as protocol allows him to as he winds his way down the narrow, twisting servant hallways to the kitchen to get the Grand Duke his dinner. The whole time, his heart continues racing and he can’t stop thinking about tomorrow.
He’s had subs before, but his relationship with his current sub is by far the best one he’s ever had. Their kinks and play styles are very compatible but Jeffrey’s had that before. What makes this relationship different is that they’re the same age and they’ve developed a wonderful friendship right alongside their BDSM relationship. Jeffrey’s had other subs where conversations would die out as soon as they weren’t talking about BDSM stuff. That’s fine but it meant those relationships never had the potential to be anything more. When Jeffrey had randomly connected with his sub through the online BDSM dating website he uses, he hadn’t expected their relationship to become anything more than just casual play partners. But to his surprise, they ended up getting along very well and a friendship had developed between them without either of them really trying.
But unfortunately, that’s as far as their relationship will ever be able to go. Having to stay anonymous with each other means there are certain lines they’ll never be able to cross and that’s something both of them accept.
Making the situation more complicated is that Jeffrey’s heart doesn’t seem to be on the same page as the rest of him. Not even a little bit. He adores his sub in all ways and despite his best efforts, he’s falling harder and harder for him every single day. It’s ridiculous because Jeffrey doesn’t even know his sub’s name and probably never will, but that doesn’t really matter. He feels like he knows everything about his sub that he needs to know and he’s slowly falling in love with the person he’s come to know.
Unfortunately, making his sub aware of his rapidly changing feelings for him would probably freak him out and Jeffrey would end up getting dumped within seconds. Keeping his feelings for his sub hidden is far preferable to not having his sub in his life at all, so Jeffrey does everything he can to keep his true feelings to himself. When he and his sub had started doing scenes together in person, Jeffrey had taken steps to protect his heart as much as possible by setting strict limits on physical intimacy and that seems to be working out well so far.
His sub has no idea that Jeffrey’s in love with him, Jeffrey gets to spend time with his sub nearly every day and their relationship isn’t impacting Jeffrey’s job or the monarchy’s reputation. Things are as good as they’ll ever get and Jeffrey’s thrilled.
* * *
Arriving at his grandpa’s room, Alex clutches his keys in his hand as he presses the door buzzer. He waits patiently, knowing his grandpa’s butler is clicking on the video display on the other side of the door to see who’s outside and asking if he should open the door.
Sure enough, the door clicks open after a few seconds and Alex smiles at Jeffrey. Alex is so used to being around Gary all day that it’s always strange to see Jeffrey wearing the exact same uniform and having the exact same job, despite being decades younger than Gary. But it’s also nice to see somebody who’s Alex’s age and takes their job as seriously as he does. The staff pay isn’t great and many of the young people who join the staff as junior butlers decide the job isn’t for them. That position provides very little contact with the Royal Family and junior butlers have to spend years learning the intricate details of their job before they’re promoted to butler and allowed to serve a member of the Royal Family. Most people are too impatient for that. But unlike so many others, Jeffrey not only loves his job enough to still be here but Alex knows he’s one of the youngest people to ever be promoted to butler, which says a lot.
“Hello, Jeffrey.”
“Good evening, sir.” Jeffrey bows his head before taking a step back from the door and turning to face his grandpa as Alex waits in the doorway. “Sir, may I present; His Royal Highness, Prince Alexander.”
His grandpa is already coming towards him, a bright smile on his face. “Hello, Alex.”
“Hi, grandpa.” Stepping inside, Alex walks as fast as protocol allows him to and hugs his grandpa tightly. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, thank you.”
Pulling back, Alex studies the old man with concern. His grandpa’s in his seventies and Alex is always blown away by the fact that he’s still doing over 400 engagements a year, despite his age. Alex hasn’t gone beyond 300 engagements a year yet and he’s five decades younger than him. “It was a little cool out there today. Were you warm enough?”
His grandpa waves a dismissive hand. “Oh, it was fine. The engagements were all indoors, the walkabouts went quick and Jeffrey had my favorite hat and gloves waiting for me when I got back into the car.”
Alex shoots Jeffrey a smile. “That’s very thoughtful, Jeffrey.”
Jeffrey’s busy putting his grandpa’s finished dinner dishes back on the silver tray, but he smiles at Alex. “It’s all part of the job, sir.”
“No, it’s really not.”
His grandpa laughs softly. “We need to clone Gary and Jeffrey and staff the entire palace with them.”
Alex laughs. “Be careful what you wish for. We wouldn’t be able to keep up.”
Still laughing, his grandpa waves him over to the card table to sit down. Once they’re sitting, Jeffrey brings over their set of playing cards and the small notebook where Alex and his grandpa have been recording their scores since Alex was old enough to understand how to play.
Once he’s put everything down, Jeffrey steps back, his hands clasped behind his back and addresses his grandpa. “Would you like a drink, sir?”
His grandpa grabs the stack of cards and shuffles them expertly, which is a skill Alex still can’t replicate after years of trying. “Yes, please. The usual.”
Jeffrey glances at Alex. “And for you, sir?”
Watching his grandpa shuffling the cards, Alex shifts a bit to adjust his cage but he smiles at Jeffrey. “Yes, thank you. I’ll have my usual too.”
Already knowing what they prefer to drink during their card games, Jeffrey goes to the drinks tray to prepare their drinks.
“So how was the sporting association?” His grandpa asks as he deals out their first hand.
“It went very well. An adorable little girl was showing me her hockey stick.” That reminds Alex that he’d wanted to show his grandpa the key chain. “Oh, I almost forgot! I wanted to show you what they gave me.” Digging his car keys out of his pocket, he hands it to his grandpa, the silver hockey stick dangling from it.
The old man puts down the cards and takes the key chain, inspecting it closely. “Oh, that’s lovely! And they engraved your name on it. HRH Prince Alexander Wallace. How thoughtful.”
Alex laughs. “I’m just glad they didn’t try to write out the whole ‘His Royal Highness’ or add my middle names to it.”
“They’d have to use an actual hockey stick to get all that on there,” his grandpa says, chuckling.
Jeffrey brings their drinks and sets them on the table on small coasters, making sure the square coasters are exactly 2 inches from the edge of the table. Alex doesn’t have to measure it and neither does Jeffrey.
His grandpa holds up the key chain. “Jeffrey, look at this little hockey stick.”
Taking the chain with his white gloved hands, Jeffrey smiles at Alex’s new addition. “It’s lovely, sir,” he says as he hands the key chain back to Alex. “It reminds me of the ice sculpture you finished a few months ago. The hockey skates one.”
Alex smiles when Jeffrey mentions his art, but his heart twists a bit. The decision to make a sculpture featuring a pair of hockey skates had been purely influenced by his dom. While working on that piece, Alex had come very close to telling his dom details about his art, but that would be taking a massive risk.
He loves posting pictures of his finished pieces to his personal social media account and the big argument he’d had with his great aunt over his decision to use his real name on the account—without any references to him being a Royal—had been worth it. But sadly, it means telling his dom about any of his art pieces could result in his dom figuring out who he is. While being an ice or snow carver in Hiveria is about as rare as playing hockey or owning a scarf, he’d want to talk to his dom about the pieces he’s currently working on and that would be taking too big of a risk.
His grandpa is nodding. “Ah, yes! I remember that one. They were beautiful, Alex.”
“The laces on the skates were my favorite parts. They looked so realistic,” Jeffrey says, smiling softly.
Alex blushes a bit at their praise and remembering that he does get to share his art with other people who are important to him goes a long way to making him feel better about the situation. “Thank you.”
“Are you going to continue working on that book sculpture tomorrow?” his grandpa asks.
Alex grins. “Yes. I decided I don’t like how the random scribbles look when I carved them on the open pages part so I’m going to melt them away and actually carve some lines from a book.”
“Do you have a book picked out yet?”
Making a face, Alex shrugs. “Not really. I’m open to suggestions.”
His grandpa frowns and glances at his bookshelf. “I’ll spend some time tomorrow looking through what I have. How many lines do you want to do?”
“Hand carving the letters is a pain so short and sweet is better.”
“I’ll find something, don’t worry. I’ll call you once I have some options for you.”
Alex grins. “Thanks.”
His grandpa smiles back, his eyes shining. “I can’t wait to see it when it’s finished.”
Jeffrey steps back from the table and clasps his hands behind his back again while addressing his grandpa. “Is there anything else, sir?”
His grandpa smiles and waves a hand. “No, no, we’ll be fine for the rest of the evening. Go and have a wonderful weekend. I’ll see you bright and early on Monday morning.”
“The same to you, sir. Have a good night.” He bows his head at his grandpa and then at Alex, following proper protocol. “Have a good night, sir.”
Alex picks up his hand of cards and starts sorting them as he struggles not to make a face. It’s a terrible hand to start with. “You too, Jeffrey.”
Picking up the dinner tray, Jeffrey quietly walks out of the room as Alex reaches for his drink and downs half of it.
His grandpa laughs when he sees it. “I take it you don’t have a good hand to start with?”
“You wouldn’t want to re-deal, would you?”
“I have a superb hand, so no.”
Alex smiles, sending him a mock-glare. “You’re supposed to be taking it easy on me.”
The old man chuckles as he sorts his own hand. “I remember a certain somebody having a big tantrum at the age of sixteen when he discovered that I had been taking it easy on him. You can’t have it both ways.”
Sighing dramatically, Alex tries keeping his glare on his face, but it eventually dissolves into a grin. No matter how stressful and difficult his work week is, he loves starting out his weekend routine like this. And after playing a few rounds, Alex will get to finish his Saturday by talking to his dom and figuring out exactly what naughty things they’ll be doing together tomorrow.
