Countervail

Chapter 10

Someone snickered, furthering her embarrassment and causing her lips to curl inwards. "We have the beach, a lodge at the lakes up north, or a skiing trip at a mountain resort."

Well skiing certainly wasn't her thing, and she didn't much care for camping—lodge or not. She hesitated slightly, sensing that everyone's stare was still on her. It was unbearably silent for some odd reason. "Th-the beach."

A few groans came from throughout the table and Dakedei raised his hands slightly. "Well that settles it; the beach it is."

Still the idea seemed abrupt and odd, as if nothing was wrong for the family and it was like any other day. Although Meo couldn't really fathom any sort of normal day for them. Not to mention going during winter. It wasn't entirely unheard of before, but Meo still hadn't ever expected to actually go during such a cold season. Who cared if there were less people? She just cared about the sun and warmth—and cold water was something she certainly didn't enjoy swimming in.

With that the family began to disperse, and Meo stood along with them, already planning on retreating back to her room for the night and reading. Dakedei stood and stayed in his place, waiting for everyone else to file out and spread to their usual places. Meo was one of the last to leave, and he stopped her with a light hand on her shoulder. She stayed back in the room, already wondering what was wrong now. Kazuna cast her a curious glance before continuing out of the room. When they were finally entirely alone and the room was quiet, Dakedei fully faced her. He leaned back against the chair and gave his usual polite smile.

Meo clasped her hands together and stiffened her fingers so that she wouldn't fidget nervously.

"How are you holding up, Meo?" he asked directly in a light tone.

"I'm fine," she automatically responded. She thought she had been putting in more effort to appear entirely settled within the family, but apparently it was transparent. "I'm just naturally nervous."

He grinned. "Well that I know, but I thought that since you gave us a second chance you might be feeling either much better or much worse."

Something about Dakedei's personality calmed her. She felt she could entirely relax—after all she knew he was reliable and trustworthy. She returned his smile and exhaled silently in relief. "It's honestly still the same. Maybe a bit better. Mihael seems to have turned around."

"Well that's good; the kid needs to stop penning stuff up like that. You'd think he'd take that from me . . . ." he trailed off before continuing. "But you're still free to come and go as you like. You don't absolutely have to live here, you know. Most of the members stay because they don't have anywhere else to go."

"I can understand that," she responded. "And I don't think it'd be very fair to just leave with the privilege they don't have."

Here Dakedei laughed. "Meo, they aren't stuck here. They choose to stay. No, they don't have another home like you do, but they could easily make their own."

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come off as prude."

He waved a hand in reassurance. "Oh don't worry about that. You think too much, you know that?"

His comment made her silent, but she smiled and looked down at her feet. So it was noticeable, apparently. Or perhaps Dakedei was just that observant. She nodded, feeling like a young little girl all over again. Her whole life she had been told that, and it had certainly gotten in the way of plenty of things. Some would even say she was hard to deal with.

He told her not to worry and gave her a clap on the shoulder before leaving the room. She shortly followed behind, already silent and withdrawn back into her mind. Trying to focus on not thinking so much was a rather difficult thing to do, and it was something she didn't even know how to manage. She started up the stairs, focusing instead on her feet, left right, left right, step step. She appreciated that Dakedei at least cared- but that was kind of his job, wasn't it? She shrugged to herself, not caring if anyone saw. They probably thought she was weird anyways. Meo reached the second floor and shuffled to her room, trailing her fingers lightly over the wall. She hesitated in the doorway, staring around at the lilac-colored room that still had Foxfire written all over in the atmosphere of the place, even though she probably hadn't picked the color.