"Good morning, Master." A giggly group of voices chorused to me as I opened my eyes. I turned to my right, then to my left. Over the course of the night, it seemed half my staff had flocked to my bedsheets, each trying to spend their own personal moment under my outstretched arms. I sighed. No matter how many times I locked my doors, they would always find their way in. Always.
"Uh, good morning, ladies," I slightly groaned as the words spilled lazily from my mouth. I wasn't in the mood for this so early. Why couldn't they just leave me alone?
A uniformed maid approached me from the center of the crowd. "Master, your breakfast is waiting for you in the dining hall," She announced, folding her hands together and bowing to me. At least this one seemed a little interested in working, unlike the others, who were all just massive flirts. A lot like I could be at times, though never intentionally to start any meaningful relationships. Usually just to stir a little excitement. For my own sinister entertainment.
"Alright then," I grunted, "I'll eat it later. Right now, I need to go to my study to think." All of the girls started whispering in an ominous cloud of comments as I exited the room. I knew they wanted to follow me, but they were smart enough to realize I wasn't in the mood for their silly games.
As I casually strolled through the massive corridors, I peered out the windows. Crocuses were sprouting here and there. Cherry blossom were smothered across the tree branches like jam. Early spring. Almost April. Life had moved so fast ever since I had won, to me it was only yesterday that snow blanketed the landscape, and I was standing strong on that battlefield. I was the Mauve Night. I was the strongest, the toughest, the fiercest. Nothing could stop me. I was on fire.
"If only he could of seen," I whispered, touching my hand to my fingers delicately. These hands, they had done so much. But for some reason, the only time I remembered using them to make myself truly happy was at the tag battle in Hearthome city, nearly ten years ago. On that day, I had held in those hands the Soothe Bells of victory. But I had also held them with... him.
I shook my head, trying to disperse these thoughts away from my presence. It was only a matter of time before they consumed me. Though it wasn't as if they were truly 'evil'. It was more the fact that they upset me. They reminded me of him, the one thing I blew it with after all these years of non-stop success. He had been the most important thing, the one thing I was truly set on attaining. But he was also my biggest failure, more unattainable than anything else in my life, but at the same time, the thing that truly made me happy.
Just thinking about him gave my stomach a fluttering sensation, though it also made me feel like someone had dropped a rock down my throat. I needed to level out my emotions. I needed to reminisce.
As I approached my office, several maids passed me. They seemed to be chatting, but went silent as I waltzed by, not even acknowledging they were there. In an instant after I had turned the corner, they all blushed and fainted, giddy that I had simply been there. I needed some new maids.
The study was cold, dark, and musty. The air felt stale, so I decided to open up the windows behind the desk. That ought to bring the room back to life a little, I thought. When I touched the glass gently, I could feel it creak. It was old and needed to be replaced. A layer of dust was spread around evenly like icing on a cake. I smiled, gently gliding my finger across it, drawing a pokeball shape in the soot. It seemed so childish at first, just like how he used to be, when we first battled outside Professor Rowan's laboratory. I never had really considered it until later on in life, but it had been a lovely day for a battle.
Still smiling, I walked over to the bookshelf and scanned it with my eyes until I found a photo album. The photo album. The one with all of my winnings recorded in pictures. Slowly, I flipped it to the very back. And I found it. That picture. Of us, holding the soothe bells after winning the Hearthome city Tag Battle. I looked so annoyed by his constant goofy grin as we stood there, sharing the moment. Seeing this made me grin so wide my cheeks started pinching. I set the book down on the desk, then plopped down in the old chair and took some time to stare at it. On the page before the tag battle photo was something terrifying that I wasn't ready to look at, so I just kept it on that last page as long as I could, hoping that it would soak up all my bad thoughts.
But it just wouldn't go away. That image of his struggle, his pain. It was all too much for me to take, so I took that Tag Battle photo out of the book and set it on my desk. I knew it didn't belong in there, and neither did my memories belong so etched in my brain.
*Flashback*
"Torterra, finish him!" Paul roared, commanding his super-strong grass type to use frenzy plant on their opponent: a pikachu. The great forest turtle ripped up the playing field with his angry vines, blasting the pikachu high into the sky. And since what goes up, must come down, said pikachu came down with a massive thud, landing in a hole of its own creation, completely KO'd by the grassy creature and its massive attack.
"Pikachu is unable to battle, and that means our amazing Mauve Haired Knight, Paul Shinji, is the victor!" Cheered the announcer. The crowd seemed thrilled that their hero had finally defeated his nemesis. It was as if, to them, this was all just some game that was to be played with no hard feelings. No hatred. No love. Only a passion for victory.
"Hey Ash, are you... okay?" Paul muttered. On the other side of the field, Ash was staring down at his shoes, his infamous cap making it hard to tell that he was actually crying. "Are you, alright!" Paul shouted it this time, reaching out towards Ash, trying to catch him as he ran away. Paul could tell he needed a moment to get away from it all, so he could come to terms with his loss and start anew. Little did Paul realize, Ash wouldn't be starting anew anytime soon. This loss, was just too massive. The mauve haired knight had no idea how much that boy with the pikachu cared about him. The only reason Paul ever tried to defeat Ash was to impress him. To show him his skills. But now he had gone too far. He had blown it with Ash, and Ash was ready to give up. On his dream to be a master. On his dream to show the world how good he could be. On his dream to show Paul how amazing he was, and to love him, and hold him.
Paul thought Ash desired non of his silly requests for love and affection. But he did, and was now convinced that his chance to receive affections from Paul was over. Now it was just him, and what was left of his pride. And after that pathetic of a loss, he didn't have much of it to show for.
*End Flashback*
Thinking about the first annual National Mauve Knight Day sent chills down my spine, like someone had just barely missed slicing it with their sword. I regained my composure, then exited the office, heading down the corridor to the breakfast hall for some smoked salmon and a baguette. Maybe the chefs even made me some homemade oatmeal. I needed all of my energy to go meet Reggie at noon to talk. Once again, it was time to employ a new work staff, and when it came to hiring maids, Reggie was very helpful (somehow). Hopefully the next group wouldn't be as lovesick as the last had been. That would be just plain awful. Because, to be honest, I had never really been fond of women. I mean, I was always known to be a ladies-man, but that didn't mean I enjoyed it. The way they would slather themselves all over me was just disgusting. Maybe this time, I would hire a couple of butlers to balance out the hormones a little bit.
"Hey little brother, long time no see," Reggie waved me towards the cafe table he had chosen. We were currently in downtown Floaroma, seeing as Reggie was visiting on business and I was planning on moving out to my villa in the countryside as soon as the weather got warmer. It all worked out just perfectly.
"Yeah, to you too," I chimed back. I was always good at talking to Reggie. Probably because he was my brother, after all, but as I grew older, he had become more of a mentor and a friend than anything else. No matter how many times I shot him down, he was always confident, and he would never, ever, reject me. I liked that about him.
He took a sip of his lemonade before looking back up to speak to me. "So," he began in that sly tone of his, "I hear you're looking for a new maid staff that can start working at the villa this summer."
"Yup," I sighed, memories flashing in my brain of countless of half-nude housekeepers piling on top of me like an army of ants on a cake, "I think the old staff's gotten a bit worn out by my charms. This morning I woke up to half of them cuddled up to me in their underwear."
Reggie chuckled, "Boy, there are some times when you're so lucky Paul. Too bad you don't exactly fly that way." Most of the world didn't know I was gay. Only my friends and family did, and even so, a lot of them seemed so in-denial about it, I tried not to bother them too much about my sexuality in the first place. It seemed like the whole world had fallen under the assumption that I was perfectly straight and perfectly good at picking up chicks -the latter being completely true, unfortunately. Luckily my disguise was quite heavy seeing as I couldn't bear to fall in love after he turned around and walked out of my life.
"So, you know anyone for hire?" I asked, continuing the conversation after a sip of my latte, "Preferably of the Y chromosome, thank you very much."
After my question, Reggie seemed quite excited, so I let go of my drink and listened. "Actually, there's this new website one of my friends set up where you can hire housemaids and butlers in groups and individually from all over the world," He told me, handing me a slip of paper, "Here's the URL and the guy's phone number, just in case you have any questions or anything."
I smirked, as Reggie continued to go into detail about the site. It sounded a lot like an online dating site to me, except for hiring the people that clean up after you. It seemed relatively new, but Reggie informed me there is a catalog of users there already, including attractive male ones. Smirking again, I payed the bill on our drinks, then departed back to the villa as soon as possible, hoping to get online the minute I arrived.
"Vivian, fetch me my computer," I snapped my fingers as I gave the command to the infatuated housemaid. She was too blinded by my sex appeal to realize that her fetching my laptop would eventually be the cause of her soon-to-be-unemployment. I was sitting at the head of the table in the dining hall, enjoying a plate of grapes cut from a vine overlooking the waters on a cliff above Alto Mare. Housemaids were placed in each corner, watching my every move like a flock of Murkrow ready to grab something shiny to add to their nest. Except their nest were their (thin) reputations, and I was the something shiny, and I did shine, at least in their blinded-by-love eyes, anyways.
"Here you go, master," Vivian curtsied to me as she handed me the device. I swiftly opened it and typed in the site's name. The first thing it asked of me was that I made an account, which included a name. Deciding to be discreet, I put my username as my initials P.S. That way, it would be a lot easier to lure unsuspecting butlers into my trap.
"Damnit, these women are all useless!" I shouted, sounded a bit like I was scanning pornography, when in reality, I was searching for a new set of slaves to replace my old, worn out, intensely pornographic ones. And that's when I stumbled upon him. My previous reason for living and my current reason for ever becoming aroused. It was like a dream come true, a perverted dream mind you, but still a dream after all. There it was, in black and white and all the other colors of the rainbow (making up his adorably annoying smiley profile picture), proclaiming that retired trainer Ash Ketchum was looking for a job as a maid, previously trained by his mother's Mr. Mime (a professional, apparently), willing to move regionally and immediately. I deviously cackled to myself as I clicked the "request service" button at the bottom of the page. I had a feeling that my life, not to mention his life as well, were about to get a whole lot steamier.
