The Lady's Butler

The Proposal Arc {Part 7}

(Part 7)

Kyrano woke up to the start of new day groggily, dizziness swimming through his head even as he stirred awake to find himself slumped against the bathtub. It was another night that he had spent beside the bathtub inside the bathroom; it seemed. This phenomenon had become so normal that Kyrano didn't even try pulling himself back to his own bed anymore. The routine once more set itself straight in Kyrano's head, and he allowed his duty-driven self to take over.

With the heart and mind of a capable, perfect, emotionless and almost-thoughtless butler, Kyrano picked himself slowly up to his feet, swaying a little before finding his balance. The blood rush from his head to his feet as he stood threatened to pull him into a darkness that he knew he would have a hard time waking up from, and thus Kyrano clung to the side of the bathtub, holding on to his balance for dear life. If he allowed himself to lose balance and fall to the floor, he might very end up closing his eyes and submitting himself to the blackness that beckoned at him.

The sense of vertigo took almost too long to clear, but eventually he found strength and courage to move once more, opening his eyes to peek into the bathtub.

As usual, the mess was there. With a soft disdainful sigh despite the fact that the mess was his own doing, Kyrano reached into the tub and grabbed the handle of the penknife. Turning the tap of the bathtub on, he watched with sick fascination as water mixed with the thick crimson liquid resting on the bottom of the tub, swirling before the red-tinged liquid was washed off. Kyrano ran the blood-coated penknife under the tap, doing his best to wash off the stains.

Then, leaving the tap on to rinse the floor of the tub, Kyrano walked silently from the bathroom to his bedroom, reaching for the lighter that sat on his table. The disinfection by heat process was done quickly and professionally until Kyrano was satisfied, and kept the penknife once more into his drawer safely.

And since his lady was yet to be awake, Kyrano allowed himself to roll up his sleeves of casual shirt, revealing the marks of redness on both arms, as well as the fresh red ones that glistened underneath the light. Making back for the bathroom, Kyrano made sure to clean the tub thoroughly with soap, removing all traces of the metallic smell of blood. Cleaning up the rest of the bathroom was a daily affair, though Kyrano made extra effort to spray a refreshing scent of lemons before he left the room to attend to his other duties.

It was soon that his lady was awake, done with breakfast and once more preparing for school.

"I need to talk to Brandon today before lunch, Kyrano." Louise informed passively as Kyrano stood before his mistress, buttoning her blouse carefully with skilled fingers before tying her ribbon and ending her appearance with the badge of the rose pinned on her collar.

"I will approach him to make an appointment." Kyrano answered respectfully, knowing not to touch more than he should, stepping back to signify that he was done with dressing his mistress, and that she was free to move once more.

Louise grabbed her bag from beside her on the bed, looked around to check that her butler had –once more –kept perfection of the place, before she made for the door. However, she paused at the door, spinning around to look suspiciously at the butler who appeared the same as always.

No, Louise corrected herself. Kyrano no longer looked the same. For some reason, her butler now looked strangely sallow and haggard. It was something that Louise could not exactly put her finger on, yet something she could see. Kyrano seemed to be suffering from something that she couldn't see –but she wasn't sure if it was psychological or physical.

"Keyron told me to check you beneath your gloves and sleeves, Kyrano." Louise found herself speaking her thoughts, surprising both him and her. Her hesitation wiped away quickly as she decided to take a jump into the deep end of the pool. "But I'm not going to do that, because I trust you, Kyrano. You are my butler. I trust that you will tell me what is wrong with you. I won't press you to say them until you volunteer to."