There was a lovely rose garden, gracing the presence of the mansion overlooking it. It was a solemn looking mansion, giving off a sense of loneliness. Very few people lived on this island, but the people on the island where happy with the way things are. Jessica was content with being with her friend Shannon, and the boy she loved, Kanon. Natsuhi was happy to just be around her husband Krauss, and her father in law Kinzo. Genji was fine spending his time with Kinzo, his life has always been simple like that. Kanon liked to spend his time talking to Shannon, and trying to hide his feelings for Jessica.

Both Jessica and Kanon loved each other, Kanon knew that Jessica liked him, and he knew he should run up to her, hug her, and yell "I love you too, Jessica!". But he was never confident enough to do that. Kanon was a scaredy cat at heart, afraid that whenever he actually unleashes his true feelings upon Jessica, that then she will stop loving him. That wasn't true though, no matter what, Jessica would always like him.

"Shannon, what has Madam told us to do today?"

Kanon and Shannon were out in the rose garden, it was still early in the morning. Roughly 7 am, and the mist was still spread low on the ground, making the roses glitter with light droplets of water.

"I'm going to take care of the rose garden, and you'll be cleaning around the mansion."

"Okay."

After waving goodbye to Shannon, Kanon went on to the mansion. Cleaning the mansion was a big chore for him alone, but there was always something about cleaning the mansion that motivated him to do his best. The prize at the end of the tunnel, cleaning Jessica's room. He would always save it for last, so he could accomplish everything much faster and thoroughly

"Right! Let's get started!"

Kanon started on the opposite end of the mansion from Jessica's room. His first step was to clean up the kitchen, and then slowly work his way through the hall ways. Just getting halfway through the mansion took until noon. About half an hour into cleaning, he saw Jessica standing in the rose garden talking to Shannon. Today was a Monday, and she was heading off to school. Her expected time back was, as usual, roughly 5pm.

The hours he spent cleaning up the first half of the mansion was a tough one, but Shannon came to help him. With their forces combined, they cleaned the last half by 2:30pm. As they were approaching the door, Kanon came up with an idea.

"Shannon, you should take a rest. You've been working too hard, I'll clean up the next part of the mansion by myself."

"No no, you've been working too hard Kanon. Please, let me do it."

"I'll take my rest break after this, please, go make yourself a nice cup of tea."

"If you insist…. I'll be leaving then!"

Shannon ran off slightly giggling. She knew what Kanon was planning, and didn't want to get in his way. She wants them to get together, if she can get with George, what's stopping Kanon from getting with Jessica? Nothing.

Kanon pushed open the door to Jessica's room, and stepped inside. When he walked in, Jessica's smell blew into his nose. He blushed a little, but was a little excited too. He tries to clean the room weekly, even if he's never told by anyone to do it. It was a guilty pleasure of his, and he didn't want Jessica to sleep in a dirty room where she could get sick easily.

The first thing he did was take off the sheets of her bed. He carried them down to the washers, and started them. While they were washing, he headed back up to Jessica's room, and started cleaning the two big windows standing right across from the door. They were lined with purple, Jessica's favorite color. She had specifically asked her mom to order purple window frames.

After the windows, he set on his way to clean all four walls. This took him about half an hour, and throughout all that time, he didn't know Jessica was on her way home. She had fallen sick about half-way through the school day, and threw up in the middle of her classes because the teacher wouldn't let her leave the room. Her boat back had just arrived on the island, and she was slowly walking her way up, with a 101 degree fever.

Footsteps rebounded off the walls of the hallway, and the door was slowly pushed open. Kanon at first thought it was Shannon, but then when he noticed it was Jessica he became flustered. Jessica didn't know how much attention he paid to her room specifically.

"Milday, what're doing home so early?"

"Kanon….? Why are you in my room…?"

Jessica was a little dizzy after the hike up to her room, and she made her way to the bed.

"Hey, where did my blankets go…?"

"My apologies, Milady, I was cleaning your room and I put the bed sheets in the washer just an hour ago…."

"How long will they take to dry?"

"An hour… I do apologize for my ignorance, Milady, I didn't know you were sick."

"Shannon didn't tell you? I told her this morning that I was feeling a little sick."

"It must have slipped her mind when we were talking earlier. I will be right back, I'm going to get you a fresh pair of bed sheets."

"Thanks, Kanon."

Kanon slipped out of her room and headed down to the laundry room. He switched the sheets to the dryer, and picked up a fresh pair of sheets. They were pink, and kind of matched with Jessica's room. Kanon liked to pay attention to these sorts of details.

On his way back up to Jessica's room, he met with Shannon. They had a quick conversation about how Jessica was sick, and Shannon became worried. Kanon reassured her by saying he was going to take care of her. Shannon agreed to his proposition.

"Milday, may I enter?"

"Kanon? Did you get me new sheets? You did? Thanks so much!"

Jessica was lying down on the bed, and Kanon put the sheets over her, and tucked her into the bed like she was a little girl going to sleep. Jessica fell asleep almost immediately. Kanon stood watching her a little longer, and then he left to go to the kitchen. He got her a glass of cold water, and then set it on her desk. Kanon pulled up a chair, and sat at her desk.

He looked through a collection of books that were on her desk. Most of them were textbooks, except one. It was a murder mystery novel recently re-translated into Japanese. And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie. He's heard of it before, because Kinzo had talked about it once. Kanon was never really interested in reading though, he never had the time. But since he had time to kill, he decided to read it.

Every 10 pages Kanon would steal a peak over at Jessica sleeping. She was cute when she was sleeping, but he was more focused on the state of her health more than anything else. She was breathing heavily, and sweating on the forehead quite a bit. Every once in awhile Kanon would get up and wipe up the sweat with a towel, while trying to resist the urge to kiss her cute little forehead.

Jessica laid in her bed so long that Kanon was able to finish the entire novel by the time Natsuhi came into the room looking for her sick daughter.

"Kanon, why are you here?"

"My apologies, Madam, I was watching over Jessica until she got better."

"Thank you, but your services are no longer needed. Please retire to the servants' room."

"Yes, Madam."

Kanon solemnly left the room, looking at Jessica's face before leaving. Natsuhi watched him leave, and clearly saw that he cared for her daughter. She just brushed it off as the duty of a servant though.

He took slow steps down the hallway, trying to hear what was going on in the room. Nothing could be heard from the room though, and all was quiet in the mansion, as usual. Such a lonely mansion to live in, but at least Kanon has Jessica. At least Jessica has Kanon. At least they have each other.

The night ended as so, with Kanon and Shannon going off to their small bunk beds in the servants room. Time passed, but Kanon couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about Jessica. It was just a small case of a fever, but he was still very concerned. Kanon would get concerned every time Jessica would fall sick, which rarely ever happened. He would clean her room thoroughly.

After hours of thinking, he finally fell asleep and his dreamland welcomed him. Nothing special happened in his dream. But then he woke up, and that was the most exciting part of the day to Kanon. Waking up to another day of seeing Jessica.

Kanon got his schedule for the day, and found out he was going to tend the rose garden, like Shannon the day before. He would have preferred the mansion again, but when he looked at the schedule yesterday he found something out. Shannon was supposed to work in the mansion yesterday and Kanon the rose garden. Shannon was like that a lot, trying to move the two of them closer.

While smiling a little, Kanon walked out to the rose garden, pushing a wheel barrel full of garden supplies. While he's setting up for the day's work, Shannon showed up and asked him a question.

"Want to switch jobs? Gohda's parading inside the mansion again like he owns the place… I think you can handle it better than me."

"Of course, anything for you Shannon."

Kanon blushed a little, because he knew the true reason why Shannon wanted to switch places with him. Sadly, when he got inside the mansion, Gohda was parading about like he owned the place. He just made some fancy French breakfast for Natsuhi and was trying to brown-nose her into giving him a raise, like always. Money didn't matter to Kanon though; his pay was being able to live on the island.

As usual, he started on the opposite end of the mansion, and slowly worked his way through. Shannon didn't join him this time though; she must've been busy with the garden. Natsuhi loved to have the garden perfect for everyone, so each guest that makes their way through the garden can be amazed. Not that many people ever show up in this island. Just them.

Around 5pm he finally finished cleaning the mansion, and arrived at his target destination. Today, Jessica went to school because she was feeling much better, so she should be home anything now. He wanted to finish it as quickly as possible. He also thought it would be rather nice for Jessica to see the effort he goes through just for her. She might appreciate it more than everybody else in this house, who just treats them as meaningless furniture.

The room was still perfectly clean from yesterday except for one place, Jessica's bed. It had germs all over the place, the pillows, the blankets, and the mattress. He took them all out into the hallway, and carried them one by one to the laundry room. The mattress would have to be thoroughly cleaned, he thought. They have plenty of spares.

It took him awhile to carry them all down; Kanon had a slightly weaker body than others. Not exactly frail, but he was definitely not as strong as most other people. Shannon would tell him occasionally that whenever he hits puberty, which he should've hit quite some time ago, that he'll grow muscles and be as strong as everyone else. Kanon waited for that day, but no visible effects have been shown on his body.

The first things to go into the washer were the sheets, and the mattress was set aside for later. He dug out a new mattress and carried it up to Jessica's room. He dragged it on the floor, and now Shannon shows up to help him. They both carried it and sat it down on Jessica's bed frame. It was 5:30 now, and Jessica still wasn't home.

"Shannon, do you know where Milday is? It's getting pretty late."

"She had some duties to attend to after-school today. It must be tough to be the class president."

"I wonder what her schools like…"

"Don't you remember the time you went with Jessica to her festival?"

"Yes, I do… but…"

"You actually want to attend school with her, don't you?"

"…"

"You know we can't go to school anymore, it's our duty as servants to stay here and take care of everything."

"But don't you want to live a normal life! As furniture we can't… but I still want to! I want to ride the boat with you and Jessica to school every day, I want to wear the same clothes as everyone…"

"I do too, but you know that's not how it works Kanon…. We're can't do anything like that."

Their conversation about the hopes and dreams they had that will never be fulfilled, when Jessica finally came home.

"Yo, what are you guys doing in front of my room!"

"Nothing, Milady, we just finished cleaning it."

"You don't have to clean it daily, ya'know. I can clean it myself anyways."

"Madam would get mad at us if we let you clean your own room, Milady."

"You're such a kill-joy at times Shannon! Let me clean my room just once! I don't think I've ever even done it!"

"I will talk to Madam about it…."

"Mom won't let me! Just don't tell her! It's only right for me to clean my own room! I don't want to be a burden on you guys."

Kanon spoke up then.

"It's not a burden at all, Milady!"

"I don't believe you. Pleeeeaaaassseee can I clean it just once?"

Jessica persisted, and finally, Shannon consented, as long as Natsuhi doesn't find out.

"This weekend then, okay? Sneak in some supplies for me to clean with! Oh, can you teach my how to clean, Shannon? Mom never lets me clean, so I really don't know how…"

"It's very simple. I'll gladly show you the correct methods on how to clean."

"Good!"

Jessica went into her room, leaving Shannon and Kanon behind. A few more days passed, and then it was the weekend, the day Jessica was going to clean up her own room… by herself. It can't be all that bad. Jessica thought.

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