X: A drop of blood...
Ritsuka slowly made her way back to her room after performing for Alois and his guests. She held the violin within one hand and held the bow in the other. As she drew closer to her room, she carefully put the bow under her arm and opened the door.
"Welcome back, Mistress!" Ningyou said as Ritsuka walked into the room.
"Hello, Ningyou." Ritsuka said as she went over to the case left on the table. She first set the violin down in it before putting the bow back in its place.
"Did they like the performance, Milady?" Ningyou asked.
"They loved it." Ritsuka said, not sounding all too enthusiastic about it. She closed the violin case before picking it up and walked over to her bed.
"Does that not please you, Milady?" Ningyou asked. "It usually does."
"Not this time, Ningyou." Ritsuka said as she put the case carefully under her bed. "The praises for my performance have lost their luster. It does not give me hope anymore."
"Hope? What do you mean, Mistress?" Ningyou asked.
"It it nothing, Ningyou." Ritsuka said, getting up and walked toward her wardrobe. "Even I do not know what it was I was implying there."
"Are you sure, Mistress?" Ningyou asked as Ritsuka changed out of her maid uniform and into her nightgown. "You know very well that you can tell me anything. Anything at all."
"I know I can, Ningyou." Ritsuka said as she closed the wardrobe. "But I feel that no matter how many times I say it out loud, nothing will change."
"Say what, My Lady?" Ningyou asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"...Hope for a way out of this," Ritsuka said quietly under her breath before walking back over to her bed. "Let us retire for the night now. I need all of the sleep I can get."
"As you wish, Mistress." Ningyou said as Ritsuka got under the covers. "Good night,"
"Good night, Ningyou." Ritsuka said, looking at her doll before closing her eyes and falling asleep.
The next few days went without much incident at the Trancy Estate. Ritsuka had even gotten used to the routine of waking up, putting on her uniform with help from either Ningyou or one of the triplets and setting out to do her daily chores. However, those generally consisted of Ritsuka either sweeping or mopping, much to her dislike.
Today, however, instead of doing either of those jobs, Ritsuka was busy tending to the garden with Thompson. Alois had decided to throw a costume party later that week and wanted everything to be perfect, even the garden. Ritsuka didn't mind doing the new job, but she did mind all of the labor she was supposed to do.
"I have a newfound respect for the gardeners throughout the world." Ritsuka thought as she struggled with lifting a bag of fertilizer into a wheelbarrow. "This job of theirs is harder than I have ever thought!"
After a few more seconds of struggling with the bag, she had somehow managed to put it into the wheelbarrow.
"Finally…." Ritsuka said as she collapsed to her knees and tried to catch her breath.
A few minutes or so passed before Ritsuka regained her composure and carefully stood to her feet again. She stumbled a bit but quickly regained her balance with the help of the wheelbarrow. She then grabbed hold of its handles and carefully wheeled it out of the shed.
"Here is the fertilizer that you asked for." Ritsuka said as she pushed the wheelbarrow up to Thompson as he tended to a rose bush.
Thompson turned to look at her and nodded. Ritsuka took it as a sign to stop pushing the wheelbarrow and set it down. Once she had done that, she went over to Thompson's side and watched him do his work. Thompson took notice of this and looked toward her once more, this time having a look in his eye that was asking if she wanted to try her hand at this.
"Are you sure it will be all right if I try?" Ritsuka asked as if the triplet had actually spoken to her. Even though she mentally complained about the new workload she was forced to undergo, she was still curious about how to do things such as gathering fresh roses for the flower vases within the mansion.
Thompson nodded his head and handed her the pair of gardening scissors while moving to the side for her. Ritsuka took them from him and took his place as well. She reached her hand into the bush to cut a rose for one of the bouquets, trying her best to be mindful of their thorns. However, one of the thorns did managed to scratch her, making her hiss slightly in pain and quickly retract her hand from it. That only caused her to get scratched more by the plant.
"It certainly looks like I was not cut out to be a gardener." Ritsuka said to herself as she looked at her slightly bleeding hand.
She turned to Thompson and was about to hand him back the scissors when he grabbed her wounded hand instead. This made Ritsuka jump and look at him with curiosity as he took out a bandaged and began to wrap her hand in it. A few moments of silence passed before Ritsuka spoke again.
"Thank you for taking care of me," she said.
Thompson nodded his head as a response before finishing up bandaging her hand. Once he let go of her hand, Ritsuka looked it over for a bit before smiling.
"I guess this will teach me to be even more cautious, do you not agree?" she said, looking at Thompson once more.
Thompson once again nodded in response. Ritsuka returned it with a nod of her own before looking at her hand again. Thompson stared at her for a moment longer before turning back to the rose bushes. However, just as he was about to cut another rose from its steam, he noticed a small droplet of Ritsuka's blood on his finger. Thompson quickly took a sideways glance at the young girl as she was carefully putting the already cut flowers together in bouquets. Once seeing that she wasn't paying any attention to him, he carefully brought his hand to his mouth and licked the drop of blood off. A shiver ran down his spine and his eyes glowed red for a moment at the taste of Ritsuka's blood.
"Are you all right, Thompson?" Ritsuka asked, noticing the shiver from the man.
Thompson quickly regained his composure and nodded, looking at her. Ritsuka stared at him for a moment before nodding as well and returned to her work. Thompson continued to stare at her for a few more moments before getting back to work. However, he couldn't help but take another glance at her, mainly at her bandaged hand as the taste of her blood lingered in his mouth.