Sitting in front of a mirror, rather fucking fancy mirror too, sat a child who couldn’t be older than maybe fourteen, and that was pushing it because the kid looked too thin. Though as he pulled at his face and bared his teeth checking every which way in the mirror staring at the face with tired acceptance, he realized that yes, he was in a different body, and yes he was fucking annoyed.

“I fucking died and this is what I get…”

He sighed slumping backwards onto the rug covered ground, it was nice, plush even and felt like money on his skin. He remembered, he thinks, he witnessed this kid's life like it was a badly directed lifetime movie, he has no idea how he got here, but shit if he’s supposed to be here and nothing bad was gonna happen.

A truly devilish smirk tore across his face, raising his arms as he jumped up,

“FUCK YEAH!!! I DON’T HAVE TO PAY OFF MY STUDENT DEBT!!! OR MY MEDICAL BILLS!!!”

He ran around the room in glee, he hadn’t been able to move around this easily in months, it was nice, then the realization hit, as he fell to the ground, knees slamming hard on wooden floors, “Ah shit~... did I kill a kid… I’m never gonna see my family again… aw man~!”

Curling into a ball of despair he looked off into the distance with a deadened expression, “Ah~... I just started this life and I’m already a murderer, that’s gotta be like a record or something.”

He sighed as he pushed around the dust on the cold hard ground, he stayed like for a good few hours before someone knocked on the door and opened it rather rudely, “Young Sir the Master and Mistress have asked for you in the Northern study.”

He looked at her from his prone position on the ground and she barely even twitched before her eyes just said she was going to ignore it.

“Do they need me now?”

“Certainly, I shall accompany you there if you wish to change into more appropriate clothes.”

He grimaced, as he looked at her she had slammed the door and didn’t even wait for his response, “Ah… man this kid really had like no respect going for him… well might as well put on some pants.”

He stood up and started putting away all those complicated and annoying feelings in a nice little box which he then proceeded to throw away into the abyss, standing in front of his closet he sighed as he chose the most practical and plain clothing he could find.

The water basin had filled automatically, but the water was cold, he washed his face and cleaned under his arms just the minimum before changing and heading out.

The maid raised an unimpressed brow at him and turned dress swishing as she walked in front of him.

‘Honestly I’m kind of glad, cuz I have no idea where I’m going…’

Even he knew that the staff was supposed to walk behind the people they worked for, he’d watched Downton Abbey.

He’d watched one episode of Downton Abbey.

Still as he took in his surroundings with alarmingly sharp and glaring eyes he memorized where he was going, then the maid stopped abruptly so much so that he nearly ran into her. She turned and moved out of the way barely bowing as he walked in, once he reached for the door handle she turned to leave.

“Thanks!”

She barely paused, but nodded.

He sighed as he rolled back his shoulders and donned a stoic and uninterested expression.

He walked in.

He forgot though that Aster Rosewood had a rather unfortunate kind of face.

Not ugly, just…

Well he looked like murder was on his mind, and he was about to commit.

From the memories he saw the northern study was mainly used for less important matters and was rarely used in general, he felt a being popping in his hand as his fist tightened before he relaxed, he bowed a greeted the older man respectfully, “Greetings Father, may your day be fruitful and-”

The older man waved him off mid-sentence, “This won’t take very long. I am simply here to oversee your staff's assignment and contracts, here are the contracts, make any changes that you find fit and she’ll be your staff for the foreseeable future.”

Aster blinked slowly, taking a calming breath, bowing his head, “Of course father.”

He took the papers proffered and standing he fell into a rather relaxed position as he looked them over, taking the proffered pen he marked off some of the more outrageous demands and blinked in surprise as the ink wiped out the words and moved the letters together like a computer document when you backspace.

By the end he was glad he had taken those few contract management classes in college, ‘I knew they’d come in handy… maybe not like this, but I knew they would.’

“That's all the changes-”

The door was knocked and the older man raised a brow as he spoke over the boy, Aster was getting real tired of that.

“Come in.”

In walked in the maid who had brought him and behind her was a girl who looked to be the same age as him, though she was taller than him and had pointed ears and a greyish tint to her skin.

“Ah, thank you, you're right on time as always.”

The woman bowed deeply raising her skirts in a conservative curtsy, “Certainly, Master. I have brought the newest member of our staff.”

“Thank you, you are excused.”

The girl looked vaguely nervous, but held herself well, as she was standing in a pose very reminiscent of a soldier’s resting stance. She bowed suddenly, “Thank you very much for taking me in! I will endeavor to work dutifully and rightly in this Rosewood Manor! You honor me with the ability to have this work!”

“Relax little one, your father has been a loyal contributor for many years. It is no trouble that we take in their eldest daughter. This here will be your master, he will be in charge of you from now on, take care of him well.”

Though he played the role of warm hearted older gentleman well even the girl knew that by the end he had an almost threatening tone to his words.

She looked up and nearly jumped at the glare the teen had, ‘Oh… he looks mean… shit.’

Aster looked at her with understanding eyes, “Here look this over and tell me if there’s anything you don’t agree with, we can change it once we discuss and reach a compromise.”

His tone though she realized was rather docile and kind, at least more real than the Master, she nodded hesitantly and looked it over. She had to study contracts with her father back home so she knew when things were good or bad, fair or unfair. As she looked it over she realized with an almost dazed understanding that this was a very fair contract.

Rare for maids, rarer still for personal maids who had starling ancestry like her and her family did.

She nodded, “Is it fine?”

“O-oh! Yes! I agree with it!”

The teen in front of her was still glaring, but his shoulder she noticed settled a little, “Then let’s sign.”

He let her sign first and then he followed, the Master looked it over and had a barely there frown, but sighed as he reached for a small elegantly decorated dagger he pierced his thumb and the words on the contract glowed.

“The contract is sealed, this will last for ten years if you wish to continue working here, after that you will have to revise the contract and resign it again.”

After that he left, leaving Aster and Belle alone.

“Come on then, I’ll show you where you’ll stay.”

“Uh, what?”

She scrambled to follow, picking up her suitcases that she had left outside the study, “You don’t have to do that young master! Someone else can take care of it, I’m sure you're busy!”

Aster looked at her weirdly before he blinked in realization, “You don’t know, do you?”

She looked at him in confusion, “Know what, young master?

“You just became the personal maid to the middle child of the Rosewood Marquisate, you’ve practically written away any chance of advancement in this household by tying yourself to me, jeez I thought since you agreed you’d have known… if you’d like I can talk to father maybe he can undo the contract-”

“No, no young master, it’s- it’s alright… I didn’t know, but I think I’d rather be put in your care than anyone else's if that’s alright with you?”

She had scrambled to stop him, she… she wasn’t exactly glad, she normally would have wanted a chance for advancement, but… it was unlikely she would get such a good contract with anyone else. Plus as she looked at the boy in front of her she couldn’t help, but be charmed and curious about her master.

“If you're sure… fine then I’ll explain to you some things on the way to my wing…”

She was sure, as she listened to the the other talk, that she had made the right decision, he was considerate as he told her generally what to expect, he was kind as he offered her any help she needed, and he was stern, in the way that he laid out firm rules that neither would break.

‘Yes, this is nice… this is the right choice.’

He showed her the servants quarters of the wing, it was a hidden stairwell behind a painting of a landscape and a reading woman, “This is yours I generally kept my room and the kitchen clean, and just dusted the hallways so the quarters may be… well dusty to say the least, but generally no one has been in here since the nanny left.”

“Wait! Young Master cleans!”

The boy froze and nodded to her, “I do. I also cook and manage my own allowance, like I said before no one will help you and if they do as they’d likely use it against you so if you need anything you come to me understood. I’ll be heading to my study to look over some paperwork. If you have any requests please give them to me by the end of the day. Weekly orders should be sent out before sunday morning.”

He turned and left and she scrambled to bow before he left, but just missed it as the door closed behind him.

She sighed and sneezed looking over the quarters she realized had there been more than just her she’d have to share the room, it had a living area and two doors that lead to different open concept rooms probably meant for male and female staff, then each room had a rather spartan bathroom.

It was decent honestly, sparsely decorated, but it had all the necessities so she was happy.

She picked up her luggage and nodded to herself as she walked forward.

This was the start of her new life, she would not fuck it up!

.

Aster rubbed the furrow between his brows he sat heavily in his chair and groaned, “Shit. I forgot about this girl… I thought the old man said she’d be coming by the end of the week, the guy probably did it this early just to not have deal with it any longer than he had to, fucking asshole, shitty ass dad god I wanna punch the shithead…

He sighed leaning forward rubbing his neck as he slumped over the desk in thought, ‘I guess… this is my life now huh… well might as well look things over the management of allowances was actually not that big of a thing in the movie of this kids life… not surprising the teen was more concerned about the emotional and physical neglect these parents dealt him…’

He sighed as he opened up the ledger, “But jeez this kid was smart, I mean I had to pay bills and shit, but this is… oh wow,  that’s a lot of zeros.”

He stared at it with wide eyes.

Then looking up and off into the distance there was silence.

Then he started chuckling, and from the chuckling he started laughing, then he started cackling…

“KAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! BEING RICH IS THE BEEEEST!!!!”

He was glad that he got reborn here. Now if he could just get rid of the niggling feeling that something about this place was strangely familiar he would be a-okay.

“Man and this is just his yearly allowance…”

He set himself to work.