- Turtle-chan
“Hey. Sebastian. What’s on today’s agenda?” Bard asks, mussing
his hair and looking around with bleary eyes as he walks into the foyer and
comes to a stop next to Mey-Rin and Finny.
“I was
preparing to inform you all. Unfortunately,
you did not deem it necessary to arrive on time, as usual,” Sebastian replies
with a frustrated sigh.
Bard
straightens up and tries to put on a serious face and the other two servants
look on anxiously. They all know that it
does not take much for Sebastian’s annoyance to erupt into a lecture. Tanaka looks on in amusement from his
position on the floor, drinking his tea.
“Hohoho,” he chuckles, taking another sip.
“Now,
the young master has a guest today: Lady Elizabeth. We all must pitch in to ensure that the young
mistress is perfectly comfortable throughout her stay. Mey-Rin, your task is to clean the manor from
top to bottom. I want no speck of dust
to go unnoticed. Finny, you are to care
for the garden and I beg of you, do not destroy anything. Plants are delicate, remember? As for you, Bard. You are to prepare tonight’s supper. Do not forget that explosives and
flamethrowers do not qualify as
cooking utensils,” Sebastian says, going through each person’s jobs. “Mr. Tanaka, carry on as usual. That will be all.”
“Alright! Let’s try our best!” Finny exclaims, pumping
a fist in the air.
“We’ll
help Mr. Sebastian out this time, we will!” Mey-Rin adds enthusiastically.
“Move
out!” Bard concludes, slipping a cigarette between his teeth.
The
three all break off to go do their respective jobs and Tanaka continues
drinking his tea. “Hohoho!”
~~~
Bard is
in the kitchen, doing all of the preparation work to cook. He meticulously chops the vegetables into
even sized pieces and scoops them up off of the cutting board to throw them
into the pan where some hot oil awaits them.
They make a satisfying sizzling sound as they hit the hot metal and Bard
grins.
“Ya
know, I bet this would cook faster if I used a stick of dynamite… But no. Sebastian said no explosives, and I’m gonna
show him I can cook without usin’ explosives,” he says to himself, replacing
the dynamite.
Bard
stands there for a few moments, watching the vegetables cook before
exclaiming,” Ahh! Why does it take so darn long?”
“U-um,
everything is alright, yes?” a quiet voice says from the door.
Bard
turns around and sees Mey-Rin standing in the doorway, looking over at him
shyly. “Oh, Mey-Rin. Yeah, it’s fine. I’m just not a patient man,” he responds with
a jaunty grin.
“We
know, yes we do,” Mey-Rin giggles. “Now,
I must set the table, yes.”
Bard
stirs the vegetables absently while watching Mey-Rin pull the china down from
the cabinet. He knows she can’t see very
well with her glasses on and she seems to be having trouble with all of the
plates. “Hey, need a hand?” he asks her
casually.
She
starts and looks down at the plates in her arms. “I’m fine, yes,” she responds, her cheeks
turning pink. Bard watches her
indecisively as she starts off down the hall.
Should I help her or not?
He
decides to go help her. Abandoning his
vegetables, Bard starts off down the hall just in time to hear Mey-Rin let out
a shrill yelp. He runs into the closest
room to him and makes it just in time to catch Mey-Rin. He looks up and sees Sebastian with all of
the plates balanced in one hand.
“You
alright?” Bard asks Mey-Rin, looking down at her.
She
looks up at him and blushes, turning her face away. “I’m alright, yes I am,” she tells him
quietly.
“Here,
let me help ya up,” Bard says, offering her a hand. She takes it and he pulls her to her feet.
“I
thought I warned you to be more careful, Mey-Rin,” Sebastian sighs, frowning
slightly as he goes to set the plates out on the table, which he does with
remarkable speed.
“I-I’m
sorry, Mr. Sebastian,” Mey-Rin says sadly.
“Just
don’t break anything,” Sebastian responds, leaving the room. “And Bard, don’t burn anything. “
“Yikes! I forgot about the vegetables!” Bard
exclaims, his eyes widening. “Are you
alright on your own?”
Mey-Rin
nods. “I’m sorry for interrupting you,
yes I am,” she tells him, shooing him out the door.
Bard
sprints back into the kitchen to find his vegetables smoking lightly. He quickly stirs them and assesses the
damage. “Hmm… I think they’re still edible,” he says,
surveying the blackened chunks in the pan.
He scoops some up and takes a bite, promptly spitting it out into the
trash. “Or not. Looks like I’ll have to start over.”
Mey-Rin
walks back into the kitchen to retrieve the silverware as Bard starts to cut
the fresh vegetables. She can’t help but
watch him work, marveling at how quickly his hands move. I never
knew he could do that… They seem to
fly and within moments what used to be a whole vegetable is nothing more than a
pile of perfect little cubes. He picks
up the cutting board and swipes everything into a clean pan with a quick flick
of the wrist. When he looks up, Mey-Rin
is still watching him and she blushes and looks away, focusing on pulling out
the silverware.
So Bard
watches her. She’s always been so
clumsy, but he can’t figure out why. He
knows she can fight. He’s seen the
result of that. Her accuracy is always
deadly, which is impressive from a little lady.
That’s why he can’t fathom the reason for her clumsiness outside of
battle. The best idea he can come up
with is those glasses of hers making it hard to see.
Mey-Rin
catches him staring as she makes her way out of the room and she looks at him
curiously. It’s Bard’s turn to blush and
look away, stirring his vegetables attentively.
Mey-Rin leaves the room and continues with her work and Bard tries to
make himself focus on the task at hand.
And
that’s when he hears the signal. Three
quick rings on the servant’s bell and then one long one. There’s trouble at the manor. Bard turns the stovetop off and sets his
spoon down before charging down the hall and up the stairs into the foyer where
Tanaka is waiting. Mey-Rin and Finny
join him shortly afterward with grim looks on their faces.
“We
have been informed that there are intruders on the grounds. Mistress Elizabeth is scheduled to be here
any time now, so it is your job to protect her as well as the young
master. Sebastian and I will take care
of things with the young master and mistress once they are inside the house, so
everything else is up to you. We’re
counting on you,” Tanaka says seriously, looking each of the servants in the
eyes by turn.
“Yes
sir,” they all respond and Bard gives a crisp salute.
“You
know what to do,” Bard tells the other two gruffly, turning back toward the
kitchen.
Finny
nods and goes back outside and Mey-Rin runs up the stairs to the roof, taking
her glasses off as she goes. Bard makes
a dash for the storage room and carries the supplies he needs back with him
into the heart of the kitchen. He sets
everything out carefully, lights a cigarette, and stands near the speaking horn
that allows people within the house to communicate. He selects the horn that should lead to
Finny’s station. “Ready?” he shouts into
the horn.
“Ready,”
Finny responds.
He
moves to the horn that should contact Mey-Rin.
“Ready?” he asks.
“Yes,”
she responds. Her voice sounds serious
and tough. It makes Bard’s heart skip a
beat. He ignores it, though, and moves
to Tanaka’s horn. “All operatives are in
their places. We’re ready to party,” he
says with a grin.
“Keep
in touch,” Tanaka replies. “And
remember, we will have no mercy.”
“Roger
that. Over and out,” Bard says. He cracks his knuckles and stretches his arms
out in anticipation. Let’s do this.
Up on
the roof, Mey-Rin sees the men coming first.
She leans over and speaks into the trumpet without taking her eyes, or
her shotguns, off of the men. “I count
nine of them. Male. Looks like they have weapons.”
“Good. There should be just enough for everyone to
have a little fun then,” Bard chuckles back.
Mey-Rin
laughs a little. “Right,” she says. “I’ll go first. Over and out.”
The men
are almost in range now. She keeps
watching them as they run, futilely trying to duck behind greenery and
such. In just a few steps she’ll be able
to take them out. As soon as they enter
her range, she starts to shoot, dual wielding shotguns as though they were
pistols. She narrows her eyes against
the smoke and spray of bullet casings flying around her, seeing through to her
targets.
She
already has two down and one wounded when Finny rushes out at them. A large stone statue comes flying out of
nowhere and the wounded man is crushed beneath it. Three
down, six to go. Finny takes up a
large bundle of split wood and hurls it at another man, but he misses. Finny shrugs and tries again with a different
bundle, hefting the huge stack over his head as though it weighed no more than
a feather. Mey-Rin continues shooting,
taking out one more in the process, but two of the men get into the house.
“Two
heading your way, Bard,” she shouts into the speaking trumpet.
“Roger
that,” he responds.
Finny’s
next throw hits its mark and another man is down. Only four more and two are outside. Mey-Rin discards two more guns and replaces
them from the hundreds she has set up around her. She keeps firing at one of the running men,
taking him out at the knees and then putting a bullet through his head and
chest, effectively killing him. Finny
takes out the last one and they both run indoors. Mey-Rin slings two extra guns across her
back, just in case. As she runs, she
notices a carriage pulling up to the front of the manor and Sebastian going
outside to greet it.
Downstairs,
Bard is ready and waiting, excited to get in on the action. He has a great plan and he hopes he can use
it. As if on cue, he hears footsteps
approaching the door and soon two men run in, pointing silly little pistols at
him.
“Welcome
to my kitchen,” he grins. “I’m the chef
and everyone knows the chef is the one in charge in here.”
The two
men exchange a look with each other and start to approach him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he
warns. “You never know what secrets I
might have hidden in here and the chef knows all the kitchen’s secrets!” With that, he whips out a huge machine gun
and starts to laugh. The intruders go
pale and they look shocked, too scared to even scream. “How do you like my newest baby? She’s a beauty, isn’t she? The latest invention from America, actually,
and I’ve been dying to try her out.”
He
opens fire on the men and they run, trying to dodge or get away. He sprays the whole room with fire, laughing
heartily the whole time. After dousing
the room three or four times, he stops shooting and looks around. The two men are on the floor, one on top of
the other. The one on top is bloody and
not moving and the one on bottom looks horrified.
“Brother?”
he says in a high pitched voice.
“No! You killed him!”
When he
looks up, Bard realizes that it’s not a “he” at all, but a woman wearing men’s
clothing. A very angry woman, at
that. “Sorry. All’s fair in love and war, ya know,” is all
Bard has to say, giving her a grin. Her
face turns bright red and she fumbles for the trigger on her pistol, but it is
knocked out of her hand by a bullet.
Bard looks up to see Finny and
Mey-Rin standing in the doorway, Mey-Rin’s gun still smoking. He nods at them and turns back to the
woman. “Well, I wish we could have met
under better circumstances, but you see, we servants are very grateful to our obnoxious
little master and we don’t take kindly to people that want to hurt him. I’m sure you understand, right?” he says with
mock sympathy as he pulls a flamethrower out from beneath a couple of bags of
flour. “See ya in Hell,” he says as he
pulls the trigger, releasing a huge tongue of flame. The woman screams shrilly for a few moments
as she is burned alive, but soon the screams stop and there is nothing left but
a charred corpse. Bard releases the
trigger and blows the smoke from the end of the barrel before turning back to
face Mey-Rin and Finny.
Finny looks happy and Mey-Rin is
still in her serious mode, but she begins to soften again when she sees that
the threat is neutralized. “Everyone
okay?” Bard asks them both. They both
nod and he grins. “Well, we did it
again!”
“Yes we did!” Mey-Rin agrees,
slipping her glasses back on.
“Yay! Everyone’s safe again!” Finny exclaims.
“Good job, guys. Now let’s clean this mess up,” Bard says,
grinning and ruffling Finny’s hair.
“Right!” they both exclaim. As they turn to go, Sebastian appears in the
doorway and they skid to a stop.
“Good work. You have served your young master well,
however you have left an unsightly mess on the lawn and Lady Elizabeth desires
to take a stroll. I suggest you hurry
and clean things up. Mr. Tanaka and I
shall divert her for as long as we can,” he tells the three servants, turning
on his heel and leaving as quickly as he came.
They all look at each other and
nod, taking off at a run up the stairs.
Bard grabs some of his explosives and his flamethrower on the way out
and Finny slings the two bodies from the kitchen over his shoulders. Once outside, they split off and start
dragging the bodies into the woods.
Finny carries four at a time, the two over his shoulders and one in each
hand. Bard carries three, with one over
his shoulder and one in each hand.
Mey-Rin takes one man in each hand and drags them. Finny throws his men into a hole that they
had dug a while previously for situations like this and Bard follows with his
three. Finny runs back into the woods to
check for any carnage they missed and Bard turns back to Mey-Rin.
“Here, let me help,” he says,
taking one of the bodies from her hand.
“O-oh. Thank you, yes,” she stammers, throwing the
body she is left carrying into the hole.
Bard does the same and then slips
his goggles on as he pulls out his flamethrower and dynamite. He throws a couple of bundles into the hole
and then pulls out a cigarette and holds it between his teeth. “Get back and close your eyes,” he tells
Mey-Rin who moves to stand behind him.
Then, he pulls the trigger on the flamethrower and lights his cigarette with
it before directing it into the hole.
“Fire in the hole!” he exclaims, laughing. They both cover their ears.
There is a loud explosion, a wave
of flame, and then nothing but smoke.
Bard leans over and looks into the hole, seeing nothing but charcoal and
smoke. “Mission accomplished,” he says,
turning to Mey-Rin and giving her a thumbs up and a wink after taking his
goggles off.
She looks at him and starts to
giggle, hiding her mouth behind her hands.
“What? What’s so funny?” Bard
asks her, confused.
She shakes her head and lifts the
glasses from her eyes. Her brown eyes
are full of mirth. “Your hair,” she manages
to get out before lapsing into another fit of giggles.
Bard reaches up and pats his head,
sighing. Every time. The explosion
had given him a bad afro again. He does
his best to smooth it back down and takes a drag on his cigarette. Mey-Rin has put her glasses back on and is
looking away from him, her hands behind her back and her toe tracing patterns
in the dirt. She managed to keep her
uniform clean by standing behind him, which is good. Bard doesn’t want her getting yelled at by
Sebastian again. It’s not her fault that
none of them have any real skill in their jobs.
It’s just a cover for their being bodyguards anyway. He takes another drag and notices a smear of
soot on Mey-Rin’s cheek. Without
thinking about it, he reaches out and brushes it away with his thumb.
Mey-Rin looks up at him and
blushes, her eyes wide behind her glasses.
Bard looks surprised himself and pulls back quickly. “Uh, sorry.
There was some dirt. Didn’t want
ya gettin’ in trouble for it,” Bard says, rubbing the back of his neck and
looking away from her.
“O-oh. Thank you, yes,” she says shyly. “We should go back to the manor, yes we
should.”
Bard releases a stream of smoke
from his mouth and discards the butt of his cigarette, stamping it out on the
ground. “Yeah,” he says. “Can’t let Finny do all the work.”
Mey-Rin nods and starts walking
through the forest. Bard follows her and
watches as she tries to pick her way around all of the fallen limbs and
holes. She should just take her glasses off.
As if on cue, Mey-Rin trips in a
hole and starts to fall. Bard dashes
forward and catches her by the waist with one arm before she hits the ground. “Are you alright?” he asks her worriedly.
“Ah. Y-yes, I’m fine,” she says. “But I dropped my glasses.”
Bard sees them on the ground in
front of her and he picks them up with his free hand. He straightens up, pulling Mey-Rin with him
and hands the glasses to her. She puts
them on and he notices that her cheeks are flushed. Then he realizes that he’s still holding onto
her. He moves to let her go, but she
puts a small hand over his and her blush deepens. Somewhat surprised but by no means unhappy,
Bard gently draws her nearer to him. She
leans into him and rests her head against his chest and he wraps his other arm
around her, holding her close.
They stand like that for a little
while, just enjoying the closeness and warmth, before Bard speaks up. “Mey-Rin?” he says softly.
“Hmm?” she replies.
“U-um. Well, ya see, I know you have a thing for
Sebastian and all, and I get that, but um.
Well, what I’m tryin’ to say is, is there any way you could give me a
chance? I may not be as handsome or as
talented as Sebastian, and I know I ain’t as polished, but I care about ya and
that’s gotta count for somethin’,” he says, embarrassed at himself and almost
afraid of how she’ll respond.
She’s quiet for a moment and he
feels her body shake as she laughs.
“Well, I certainly respect Mr. Sebastian and I think he’s an amazing
butler. I aspire to be able to do my work
as well as he does his someday. But the
one I ‘have a thing for,’ as you put it, is you, Bard,” she says, lifting her
head to look up at him.
Bard looks down at her and realizes
she has taken her glasses off and is smiling up at him with rosy cheeks. He can’t believe he heard her correctly. That
can’t be right. “A-are ya sure?” he
asks her.
She giggles a little and nods. “Why do you seem so surprised?” she asks him
flirtatiously.
“W-well it’s just that you’re
always goin’ on ‘bout how great Sebastian is an’ I know I can’t compete with a
guy like that. He’s got the looks and
the skill and the charm that I don’t have and never will. It just doesn’t make sense,” he says, rubbing
the back of his neck again.
“Hm. I guess you’re right, but you’re not as bad
as you think you are,” she tells him with a smile. “You have great instincts, you’re a good
leader, you always make us laugh even if you don’t mean to, you’re… creative,
you actually do show some talent for cooking if you weren’t so impatient,
you’re kind, and then there’s always your rugged good looks.”
Now Bard is blushing and he looks
away from Mey-Rin. “I don’t know about
all that,” he says quietly.
Mey-Rin giggles and rests her head
against Bard’s chest again with a smile.
Bard gazes down at her in wonder.
Sure, he has thought about something like this happening, but he never
imagined it actually would. Standing
there, feeling how soft and delicate she is in his arms, all he wants to do is
to protect her so that she can always smile like this. Bard leans down and plants a soft kiss on the
top of Mey-Rin’s head. She looks up at
him with flushed cheeks and her lips slightly parted. She reaches up and brushes her fingers
against the stubble on his chin and cheek and he leans into her touch, closing
his eyes. As she pulls her hand back,
her fingers brush against Bard’s lips and he opens his eyes.
“Mey-Rin,” he murmurs, leaning down
to her height.
She stands on her toes, bringing
her face to his and their lips meet softly.
Bard pulls back a little, trying to judge her reaction, but she wraps
her arms around his neck and pulls him back down toward her. They kiss again, a little deeper but still
nothing more than the soft, sweet kiss of new lovers. When they break apart, Bard kisses her on the
forehead and she smiles. He rubs his
thumbs gently against her upper arms, giving them a quick squeeze before
letting go.
“We should go,” he says quietly,
looking down at Mey-Rin as she slips her glasses back over her eyes.
“If we don’t, they might worry,
yes,” she says cheerfully.
“Here,” Bard says, offering her his
arm. She takes it and they set off
through the forest for the manor, both happy and anticipating what is to come.
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