Lion !!MyZwtjMQtj 2009/12/10 (Thu) 06:03 No. 23397 ▼ File 12604250094.jpg - (23.79KB, 328x450 , 20080706122954.jpg)
“I…” I open my mouth to speak, but instead I find a lump in my throat that makes it painful to speak. Swallowing hard, I avert my gaze from Kana, looking to the floor instead. With a still shaken voice, I force myself to continue, “I… I don’t know. I want to know, but…”
“But you’re scared,” Kana finishes for me, adopting an empty smile. “That’s understandable, master. If you feel that you’re not ready to take in the truth, then there’s no need to rush. You’ll be safe inside, and I’m sure Miss Yuuka and Miss Elly would be willing to fill you in when they return.”
“Y-yeah, I guess…” I say, rubbing the back of my neck with my dry hand. On a whim, I look over to Ellen, who’s still staring at me with a worried gaze. I urge myself to put on a smile, false as it might be. “I’m okay now,” I say, smiling so hard that the muscles around my mouth feel strained, “Sorry you had to see that.”
“I’m still not sure what happened, but it’s okay…?” Ellen says, confused as she tilts her head to the side while still scrutinizing you.
“Thanks.” I keep smiling as I lift my hand to pat her on the head. It’s strangely calming, like the way people relieve stress by stroking a cat or a dog. Well, not that I’m trying to compare her to a pet, but…
“You should rest in your room now, master,” Kana says to me, her hands neatly folded together on top of the apron of her maid uniform.
“Yeah, I should.” I nod, and try to get up. My legs still feel pretty weak, so I nearly fall back onto the couch, but Kana catches me by the arm. With her wrapping both of her arms around mine and supporting me, I’m finally able to take a step forward.
“Thanks,” I say to her as I break away, confident that I can stand alone now. She responds with only a serene smile. It’s a bit disturbing how calmly she can smile all the time.
She follows me to my room without any urging, and as I head in, she steps inside with me. She walks up behind me, and begins lifting the bottom of my shirt.
“Wha-!?” I’m startled as she pulls the shirt up and off of me.
“I’ll wash this before it gets stained,” she says punctually as she drapes my shirt over her arm. “Oh, you spilled some on your new pants. That’s terrible.” Without shame or hesitation, she reaches for the zipper of my jeans.
“Whoa, hey!” I object, my face flushing. “I-I’ll change on my own.”
“Yahaha, are you embarrassed master?” Kana laughs at me. “Do you want me to turn around?” she asks in a teasing manner.
“Yeah…”
Obediently, she turns her back to me, as do I to her. Damn, that really is a shame, spilling beer on my new jeans the first day I get ‘em. Well, I suppose it could have been worse. I could be dead right now. I give another involuntary shiver as I change out of my jeans and into my shorts and another shirt. I fold up the pants and hand it over to Kana, who places it on her arm along with my shirt.
“I’ll go put these in the wash,” she says as she walks out of the room.
Now that I’m alone, I sink onto the bed, sprawling myself out. The whole experience’s left me pretty tired, and I think if I shut my eyes right now, I’ll fall asleep. Actually, that sounds like a good idea. Slowly, I close my eyes…
“Going to sleep already, master?”
I heave myself up, sitting up on the bed. With a drowsy head, I look over to Kana, who steps in through the door and stands next to the bed.
“You can’t go to sleep like that, master,” she scolds, wagging a finger at you, “You’ll catch a cold if you don’t tuck yourself in properly.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say with a weary smile. Sliding on over, I slip under the cover of my blanket, resting my head comfortable on my pillow. Leaning over me, Kana pulls up the sheets a little higher, and flashes me a smile.
“Don’t dwell too much on what happened,” she says soothingly, placing a hand on my forehead, “Or you’ll have nightmares.”
“Geh,” I groan. “I wouldn’t have thought about it if you hadn’t reminded me,” I say with a little bit of bitterness.
She giggles, hearing this. “Then shall I reassure you?” She asks, tilting her head. Crouching down, she looks under the bed. “No monsters here,” she reports as she stands back up. She walks over to the closet in the room, and flings the door open.
“…Oh no, a monster!” she says with a shriek.
Har har, very funny, Kana. I roll my eyes as she looks back at me with a sly grin, stepping aside. “Well, it’s a monster of a mess, anyway,” she says, pointing inside the closet, where heaps of crumpled articles of clothing lie, "I'll have to clean it up later."
“Yeah, that’s not helping,” I sigh.
“Cheer up, master. You’re safe here,” she says, stepping back to me. “Then, how about a story?”
“…Eh?”
“A story for the evening,” she repeats, sitting down on my bed.
“What am I, a kid?”
“That doesn’t matter right now, master,” she says, “Would you like to hear it or not? It has a happy ending, I promise. You’ll like it.”
“…Alright, fine.”
Kana giggles, looking happy. Shifting herself a little closer to you and placing her hands on her lap, she clears her throat before beginning.
“A long, long time ago, there was a girl living in a mansion. Let’s say her name was…” she trails off, taking a moment to think before continuing. “Ana. Her name was Ana.”
“Ana was a really pretty girl, and her mansion was very, very big. Ana was smart and learned. She was kind and caring. She lived in the mansion together with her vastly wealthy and popular parents.”
“For those reasons, Ana herself was very popular as well. Would-be suitors would line up in front of the mansion just for a chance to talk to her, though she would admit none inside.”
“But Ana was also a very ill girl. She was constantly sick in bed, and her body was frail. But her parents loved her very much, and spent fortunes to care for her health.”
“One day, Ana felt much better than usual, and called her father. She wanted to request only one thing from him. “Father, I would like to see the sea,” she said to him.”
“Ana’s father replied to her, saying “Of course, my dearest daughter. I will take you wherever you wish. I shall arrange a vacation to the beach, and you will see the sea.” Ana was, of course, very happy about this.”
She stops there, her expression difficult to read. One hand seems to unconsciously drift to the brim of her hat, affectionately running her fingers across it.
“The End,” she says, standing up from the bed.
…huh?
“H-hey, what kind of an ending is that?” I say in an annoyed tone of voice.
“A happy one,” Kana replies with a smile, “She’s going to get what she wants. Isn’t that a good end?”
“That’s not a proper ending,” I retort.
“Yahaha~” she laughs it off, “Forgive me, master, but that’s all I can remember about the story at the moment.”
“…You forgot it?”
“Well, maybe I just don’t want to tell the rest right now,” she says, “I’ll tell you the rest some other time.”
I decide not to argue with her, silently settling back on my pillow. Kana heads on over to the door, and before she steps out, she flicks the light switch off.
“Good night, master,” she says as she heads out the door.
…
I wake up much earlier than usual the next morning, probably because I went to sleep much earlier than usual. Stifling a yawn, I step outside the door.
“You’re up early, master,” Kana greets me as I walk into the hallway connecting the bedrooms. “I’m afraid I haven’t even started on breakfast yet,” she says apologetically.
“Nah, that’s fine,” I reply, “I’m not hungry right now anyway.”
“Miss Yuuka and Miss Elly returned late last night,” she helpfully informs me. “I was just on my way to wake Miss Elly and Ellen, actually.”
“Right…”
“That said, could you go wake Miss Yuuka for me, master?”
“Bwuh?”
“I leave it in your hands,” she says, bowing to me before heading for Fluffy and Curly’s room.
A little dumbly, I rub the back of my neck. Why do I have to go wake her up? What if she’s not a morning person, huh? She’ll kill me, that’s what.
…I wonder what her sleeping face looks like.
[ ] Go wake her up.
[ ] Leave her alone.
