au where everything is the same but the girls don't reveal their identities (Philipe isn't caught and Louis' birthday is like..months away lol) and louis is one of the bLINDEST people ever because we all know he lowkey is (somewhat based on miraculous! Tales of ladybug and n chat noir.)

Most of the girls, save for Aramina, absolutely despised valentines day. Not because they couldn't find a love interest and hated how everyone had someone but them, but because of the major cleanup waiting in store; fireworks, as beautiful as they are, create such a mess. Same as confetti thrown from high above. Tiny pieces of decorative fabric or parchment, very much troublesome to sweep in hard-to-get areas. And the banners as well as the tables which should, ahem, be covered with only the finest silk available, imported from China itself in the most blooming shade of rose.

And to make matters worse; by demand of DeBossè, the tables needed roses, seven, for symbolic reasons on each, and that required fiddling with prickly thorns and cuts that we're sure to come, and that also meant planting new rose bushes as to make the courtyard seem as lovely as possible.

To add to the misery, one of the chefs had come down with a yellow fever, turning the girls into apprentices; meaning, washing and chopping, slicing, dicing duties.

To top it off, it had to be done in one week, and Madame Bourgeois was going to check in to make sure every detail was perfect. How wonderful.

While Renèe, Viveca and their temporary assistant, Emma VonDeut (yes that was her last name, creative thinking on behalf of her grandfather) were on kitchen duties with Madame Helène learning how to create soupe de mariage italien, a lovely chicken and chickpea soup.

And Aramina and Corinne were left with west wing sweep up, how charming. Note the ever laying sarcasm. To add to the delight, the library, study, and suites were in the west wing.

By the time they were half done with the study, Aramina suggested that they snoop around a bit and see what the heckity was being written here and there, saying that they might find some of Trevilles colorful insults directed at various people, but that wasn't the only interesting but they found.

"Someone's smitten with Paris' heroines!" The girl chortled, waving the extremely crumpled up paper as if she'd struck gold. After the ballroom scenario, the girls had patrolled, surveyed, and protected Paris in their free time, after turning their getup into something more casual, easy to run in, and with some added security features such as bulletproof fabric. And they've shown up quite a lot, under the names of barbecue, lettuce, party, and birthday. Ridiculous, but they got the job done.

"Oh really?" Her companion drawled with somewhat an amused smile. "Who would've thought?" She commented dryly. Along with fame, came adoration, romantic adoration from some of the people they'd saved. She wouldn't be surprised if Pierre, quite a lovable goof on the force, had written what Aramina was reading as she threw some crumpled papers from the desks and under the tables, off to one side.

"Don't do that!" She shrieked. "Are you insane?" And with that, she shoved the nearest one to her chest, "Read." She commanded. When the country girl gave her the why? Look, she said, "Maids are supposed to know everything. Why else do you think they're so good at advice?"

Corinne shrugged, and unfolded the parchment, noticing that it hadn't gone yellow, and assumed that it was rather recent, despite the torn parts and the scratched out bits. The ink looked far too fresh. And when the saw the organized sentences, she recoiled. And faux gaged. "Poem, romanticized nut job loose in the castle!" She called out, holding it at arms length with her thumb and forefinger as if someone had blown their nose into it causing her friend to giggle.

"Read it out!" She whisper-yelled leaning across her shoulder. Corinne made a face at the hard to decipher writing.

"My Lady," She slowly read out, causing her friend to claim that it's directed at her, since they did go under various statuses, hers being Lady. "I can't really read this, lettuce." She said, turning it this way and that. "Oh, um, something something, your eyes are as blue as the heavens," That earned an excited squeal from her friend.

"I want to ask who you are behind your mysterious mask. I see you every day and I would like you to give me a sign, I shall love you 'til the end of my days, will you be my Valentine?" She read out, raising an eyebrow. The writing style looked familiar.

"Oh my goodness, that's his highness' writing, I'd recognize those precise swirls anywhere!" Aramina crowed. And then a smile spread out on her face like acne. "Corinne, do you realize what this means?" She chirped.

Deciding that it'd be too obvious for it to be Lady Barbecue, she decided that it was, "Probably someone he's ridiculously in love with and wants to know better?"

The other girl nodded her head. "Yeah, but it's you, dummy!" She stated.

"Tons of girls have blue eyes though," Corinne pointed out, if there was anything she learned while training, is that it was too obvious.

"Yes," Aramina agreed. "But blue as the heavens?" She quoted with a bright smile. And from how the other girl tried fighting the smile itching it's way on her face; she knew that Valentine's Day would be a blast.

Especially if there was patrolling and guarding the palace involved.

After all, what could possibly be better than missing out on washing dishes because of a 'flu' while having the time of your life? Dancing and maybe dueling always equaled to wonderful for the girls.

Smirking, the girls slipped some of the letters (varying from Trevilles opinions on the masked wonder women and the musketeers to his view on his own love life) into the pockets of their dresses, pausing to snicker at a scandalously flirtatious reject letter from Edwardo Philip, who just turns out to be the type of guy who wiggles his eyebrows and has roses in his mouth far too may times and also had a thing going on for their rather sassy friend, Viveca Romere.

"She is either going to swoon, or punch him in the guts and I don't know which one would be funnier." Aramina commented in between giggles that left her face matching her hair.

Raising an eyebrow, Corinne added, "Aren't you the one who was almost slapped with a book after throwing silk rose petals onto your sisters bed in the shape of a heart when she got married?" She got a wink in return.

"Yes, but onto what's more important;" She let out a dreamy sigh, holding her letter close to her heart. "Pierre. He loves me." She breathed, a can you believe it? Look on her face. She looked at the letter again to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. "Mon cœur vous aime, pour toujours et toujours, mi amore." A glazed look of pure affection was plastered on her face. "He's so romantic."

Corinne smiled and pet her friend on the back. "Now that," She motioned to the letter. "Is a rare species we call The Keeper." She said, causing her friend to giggle.

"Girls!" A harsh voice cut from the doorway. They looked to find De Bosse scowling. "I believe a maid is supposed to clean and not float around like brainless airheads." She seethed, and when the girls barely flinched, she barked. "Get to work!"

They rolled their eyes.

xxx

"So," Corinne started, a devilishly mischievous smile on her face as she bu,led her shoulder against the Princes, catching his attention. "I heard you have a thing for the barbecue chick."

Louis' face paled before a panicked expression exploded on his face as if he caught fire before he tried playing it off, coughing into his hand. "What?" He tried pshh no -in his way out of it, but from the way his friend raised an eyebrow with the 'do I look like I was born yesterday?' Look on her face, he relented, pursing his lips in a borderline pout at the fact that he was a lousy actor. He hung his head in defeat like a kicked puppy. "Was I that obvious?" He asked, sending her a miserable, pleading look.

Corinne there her head back and laughed for a good fifteen seconds before realizing that her friend was actuall truly upset about it. She placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to smother the chuckles. "Obvious as an eight legged cow eating a steak." She snorted, before realizing that it could have offended him. Face softening, she asked, "What's wrong, bud?"

Instead of looking at her, Louis shrugs his shoulders half heartedly. "It's just...if Philipe knows..he'd probably do anything in his power to ban them from Paris, France, even.." He let out a dejected sigh. "Who knows?"

Corinne stiffened, "Why would he do that?" She tentatively asked. Playing dumb usually ended up giving her essential information, so she just went along with it.

LouisL let out a humorless laugh. "A lot like Treville, he doesn't really believe that women are capable of more than slaving in the kitchen and baring children." Then he looked at her and grinned like a fool when she clutched the shoulder pad in a death grip, face reddening with boiling rage. "You're ...really offended by that, aren't you?"

'Would you enjoy a demonstration?' read the look in her eyes as her jaw locked. He looked away in barely hidden amusement. "That littl ungrateful pig better eat his words before I make him." She growled.

Smiling, Louis said, "At times like this, I wouldn't be surprised if you were one of those girls that hide behind their masks." When she turns around to meet his gaze with a shocked, almost insulted look, he gawks. Then frowns. "Sorry," He apologized. "I didn't know you hated being compared to them. I just thought you'd find it funny, considering you both believe that women can fight and should be able to join the security force." He reasoned while his friend gave him a blank stare.