(That's perfectly fine.)
River returned Lloyd's wave, then shooed Lily away. He had planned to finish before lunch, and if he was going to stick to that plan he had to increase the pace at which he worked. Slowly, River stood up to brush the dirt off his pants and stretch. The next 30 minutes were going to be difficult, but if he was successful in planting the rest of the roses, he'd be able to add 20 minutes to his lunch break.
(Cool lol)
Lloyd watched for a couple minutes, noticing that River was rushing himself. He frowned a bit and stretched out his wings, hopping off the balcony to glide down to the gardens. "What's the hurry for, River?" He asked, cocking his head slightly to the side in confusion. He flirted his wings once to settle the feathers before folding them tightly against his back.
"If I finish this quickly enough, I'll get extra time for lunch, and maybe even the rest of the day off, assuming I've not any duties for after lunch," River replied, not even sparing the prince a glance as he worked. His face was covered in dirt, and he'd die before letting the prince see him looking so unruly.
Lloyd hummed softly as he watched River for a few more seconds. "May I help you?" He asked, cocking his head the other way a bit. He stepped a bit closer to see what River was doing more closely. It intrigued him considering that he never did this type of work.
River's shoulders hiked up towards his face as he felt Lloyd come closer. "Your Highness, no offense, but I don't believe you're suited for this type of work, not to mention the king would have my head," he replied, giving a slightly nervous chuckle as he spoke.
"No he won't, and I'm sure I can figure it out. Perhaps you can teach me?" He moved around so he was facing River. "How difficult could it be?" He asked. After all, it's just planting flowers, isn't it?
"I'm sure you can also leave me to do my work in peace, Your Highness. If you're really that interested in gardening, I'll go buy some low-maintenance plants and we'll plant them near the woods later, but for the time being, it's important to me that I finish planting these roses without any sort of incident. I'll have you know roses can be quite particular about how they're planted in many ways," River said, quickly turning his face away from the prince's view. He wished it were safe to just stick his head into a rose bush in order to hide his dirt-covered face, but he'd never disgrace himself by pretending there had been a problem with his work in gardening.
Lloyd sighed softly. "I just don't want you to have to rush yourself in order to eat, River. I want you to have as much time as you need. You know I want the best for you, right?" He asked, moving again in an attempt to be facing River. He didn't care about the dirt. River worked in the gardens, after all. He had to expect a little dirt.
River dropped his gardening tools so he could cover his face with his hands and groan. "Don't you have a fencing lesson soon, Your Highness? Maybe calligraphy lessons? Something like that?" he asked, spreading his fingers so he could look Lloyd in the face from his position on the ground. "I've only got four more bushes to go and then you can ask me as much about gardening as your heart desires. It'll take 15 minutes at most, I swear."
Lloyd looked away, fidgeting a bit. "I… I take it that you want to be left alone?" He asked softly. His wings puffed up a bit as he grew gradually more uncomfortable. He wanted to help River, of course, but he also didn't want to make the other angry by doing so. "You're right, I'd probably just slow you down anyways…" He sighed and turned away, taking off from the ground to fly back to the balcony.
(How old is River by the way? Obviously they're both adults but like, out of curiosity. Lloyd is 18)
(River is 22, and I hope that's somewhat reflected in his behavior. I tried to avoid having him make naive statements whenever he speaks.)
(Sounds good lol)
"Your Highness, I didn't mean-" River started to speak, but Lloyd was already gone. "Ah, shit." River let out a deep sigh, picking up his tools so he could return to his work. "Whatever, I'll try and make it up to him later. He can't be that upset over it as though he's never asked to be alone when working on something," he reassured himself, digging a new hole in which to place the next rose bush.
Lloyd flew into his room and flopped down on his bed, sighing softly as he stared at the ceiling. He wasn't too deeply offended, but he was a little annoyed and upset. Sure, he may not be fantastic at planting flowers, but he wasn't stupid. He generally spent his days studying after all, and he'd been at war. He could figure out how to dig a hole and plant some flowers. He was mostly annoyed at how little River seemed to think of him and his abilities, but also that his attempts to make River's life easier had just been pushed away.
As River finished planting the roses, he took a step back to admire his handiwork. "Maybe once these have bloomed I can place some in Lloyd's room as a sort of secret apology," he mused to himself, taking a good look at the yellow buds on the bushes which hadn't yet opened. "Aaah, but more importantly, I can finally take my lunch break."
River was quick in gathering and storing his tools, only for a guard to stop him in his tracks and ask if he'd still be joining them in sparring after lunch (to which he said yes). Upon arriving inside the servant's quarters, he noticed things were very busy. 'Is there some big celebration coming up? Did I forget an important event?' he thought to himself.
Lloyd eventually went back downstairs at some point and noticed the busyness. He'd already been forced to look at suitors today, so he wasn't sure what all the commotion could be around. He wandered around a bit, bewildered, but couldn't get any answers from anyone.
"Ah, I know! If I can find Lily, she'll know everything!" River said to himself as he rounded a corner, "She's nosy as all hell, so there's no way she'd be clueless about this event."
It took a bit of effort, but he finally found Lily amongst all of the preparations. "What in the Lord's name is going on here?" he hissed, pulling her aside.
"Ah, the king decided that since prince still hasn't found a suitor he's satisfied with, he's expanding the options beyond other royalty and high-ranking nobility~!" Lily replied, giving River an innocent bat of her eyelashes- a sign she'd somehow caused this. "Anyways, this banquet means you now have a chance at Prince Lloyd. You can thank me at your wedding."
"Lily. There won't ever be anything close to a wedding because I'm still a servant." River said, grabbing her by the shoulders. "What you need to do now is try to convince the king to call all of this off," he finished his sentence by gesturing to everything going on around them, a look of mild annoyance on his face. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to choose which roses I'll be delivering to Prince Lloyd tonight."
"Father, what's going on?" Lloyd asked the king when he finally managed to find him. The king waved him away off to a couple servants, why eventually explained what was going on with some prompting. Lloyd sighed and nodded a bit. At least I won't be forced to marry some stuck up asshole… maybe even River would show up?
He shook his head a bit at himself and ran his fingers through his hair. His wings fluttered a couple times as he considered his options, but he couldn't know anything concrete yet. As much as he hated it, he'd just have to wait.
River was pissed as he stormed off to the garden. Thanks to Lily, he and a few others had been ordered to cut hundreds of flowers-creations of his own hard work-for this banquet, which would probably result in his own misery.
"The bushes are going to be so bare and probably screwed up from incompetents handling them, and on top of that I've still got to keep up delivering the flowers to Lloyd's room," River grumbled to himself, flower clippers and basket held tightly in his hand as he approached a bush of rhododendron. "With my luck, I'll be part of the wedding party when the prince gets married to some random," he said, gritting his teeth as he began clipping away at the bush.
Lloyd was ordered to sit in his throne and wait, but wasn't given any further information. He huffed and crossed his arms, but obeyed.
He figured that he'd just have to sit here and wait for countless people to be brought in and out for his consideration. No matter how many times he told his father that he didn't want to marry, he was ignored. He had no choice at this point.
River had a very unpleasant look on his face as he came into the throne room with a basket of flowers for maids to arrange.
"Please be careful with these. They are the closest things to children that I will ever have," River said to the maids, pouting as he handed over the basket. "And don't put the cool colors with the warm colors for this bunch! They'll clash far too much."
Taking notice of Lloyd sitting on a throne, River made his way over to the prince. "Fun stuff, isn't it? Banquet preparation is… a lot to take in if you ask me."
Lloyd sighed and nodded, fidgeting with his wings a bit. "Indeed it is… I keep telling them that I don't want to get married, but my father insists that I find a suitor. I'm just not sure how to feel about it all, to be honest… I mean, I'm going to become king within the month, probably. I'm only eighteen, and yeah, I've been training for this my whole life, but… I still don't feel ready. It doesn't seem real, you know?"
"I get what you mean," River said, giving the prince a cheeky grin, "On the bright side, you can slowly poison your spouse if they don't make you happy and nobody will dare question you for it. If I'm still the gardener in that case, I'll gladly help you bury their body."
River sighed, looking down at his feet. "Anyways, if I don't get back to destroying my hard work soon, I'll probably get yelled at. If only there was a prince who could dismiss me from my painful duties so we could go plant a tree or something."
Lloyd paled a bit at the prospect of poisoning someone, but smiled weakly at River's second proposition. "Mm… I'm not sure Nathaniel will be distracted from his training long enough to do so. Although, I may be able to. Sitting here for hours is dreadfully boring anyways." He stood up and stretched, his wings splaying out to either side of him. "Where do you want to plant the tree?"