A few more chapters to go!! :)

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Chapter Ten

"Good morning, miss," Yin said as she entered her room with a tray.

"Good morning. I wish he wouldn't make you do this. I'm perfectly fine."

"No, I'm sorry. I can't let you leave your bed until master says so."

"But I'm fine! You tell him that for me," Misaki stated.

"I have, but he doesn't believe me."

"Why ever not? They were only slight injuries, not even as major as his."

"Even so, I can't let you leave your bed," she responded. "I... Please don't try. Master will be angry with me when he finds out. Just let me know what you need and I shall fetch it for you."

"What I need is to get out of this room!" exclaimed Misaki. "I'm going crazy in here and I refuse to stay in here for another day! You tell that to your master."

"Yes miss. In the mean time, please have your breakfast."

Misaki sighed, but nodded in reply. Her master could be quite unreasonable, as he had blamed Yin the first time that she had tried to leave her room. If only he took it out on her instead. But she didn't want the others to be troubled by her actions. It was like he could see through her; hence why he purposely punished the others for what she did, if she disobeyed him.

***

Misaki was reading in bed when the door to her room opened. She glanced up to see the master of the house enter her room. She shrank back a little, still a little scared of him because of that creepy mask. She didn't dare to ask him why he wore it, but she did know that he wouldn't purposely hurt her, despite his original response to her entry into the west wing.

Instead, since her return, he had been the one to find her books from the library. He had even carried her to the bathroom each time she needed to use it... It was quite more than she could handle. He stopped beside her bed, and she noticed that he didn't wear the jacket anymore. Her eyes glanced at him briefly before turning away, a blush creeping into her cheeks as he was really well-toned... Which made her curiosity that much stronger regarding what he looked like.

"I heard from Yin that you would like to go outside."

"That's right," she stated. "If not outside, at least outside of this room! You can't keep me locked up in here forever!"

"I was attempting nothing of that sort. I merely hope that you will allow yourself to heal completely before you start to walk around again."

"I'm fine," she retorted. "And you know that just as well as I do, but you continue to terrorize your own servants. I won't let you punish them for my actions."

"Well then... I suppose you'll just have to find out for yourself what I might do if you try to disobey me again."

Misaki glanced at his eyes, trying to gauge how he was feeling when he said that. She had no other indication of his mood as his mask effectively covered any change in expression he might have. It was like dealing with three dolls, almost. Except that the master was the most difficult of all. Eventually, she put away her book and pulled back the cover as she slipped closer to the edge of the bed. Her eyes never left his as she moved her feet closer and closer to the floor.

"Eek! Put me down!" she exclaimed when he finally lifted her into his arms in one fluid motion.

"No, I don't think I should."

"Put me down!"

"I thought you wanted to leave your room," he replied calmly.

"I do, but I can walk by myself!"

"If I say you're not ready, then you're not ready. Now stop wiggling around before I drop you on the floor. Then I suppose you'll just have to stay in bed even longer if that happens."

"You wouldn't!" she gasped.

"I might if you keep moving around. Now behave."

Pouting as she could never win against him, Misaki finally sighed as she did the only thing she could – wrap her arms around his neck to hold on. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she didn't notice that. Every time he held her close like this, she was aware of her traitorous heart that seemed to pitter-patter at his close proximity. It was quite unnerving to react this way, especially when he insisted on doing so every single time.

When she could calm herself enough to ignore her increased heart rate, she noticed that she was going down a different hallway than the one to the library. He knew she liked to read, so she figured that he would bring her there... But she didn't know where they were going and he didn't share what was on his mind.

Eventually, they reached a doorway at the end of the hall. He opened the door, carefully shifting her in his arms before he turned on the light. Misaki turned to glance at the room, surprised to find a workshop. There were tools carefully organized on one wall. Tables were in the middle of the room with half-worked projects lying on top. Drawers and cabinets were lined up along another wall.

He carried her to one of the tables and gently put her down. Misaki looked around curiously and she figured that this was what her father had wanted to see. Smiling softly, she remembered how he would sit in front of the computer all day, searching for information. When he had gathered enough, he would take it to his own workshop and try to recreate someone's creation.

"What's wrong?" he asked, gently touching her cheek as a single tear rolled down.

"Um... It's nothing. I'm fine."

"I don't believe you."

"I... I was just thinking of my father," she replied honestly.

He pulled away from her as if he was burned and Misaki wondered what had caused that reaction. Without looking at her, he said something about grabbing a chair for her and left the room. Curious to know what he was thinking, Misaki quietly slipped off the table as he hadn't said anything about staying where she was.

She walked around the room slowly, looking at the things he had displayed. He was an organized man; that much she understood. Everything had its rightful place and he always put things back where they belonged. Not knowing what the tools were for, she finally made her way towards one of the drawers.

The door opened behind her, just as she was pulling open one of the drawers. She turned around in surprise to glance at him, worried that he would force her to sit down again. But to her amazement, he didn't say anything. Instead, he placed the chair by one of the tables and turned towards his work, papers laid out in front of him.

"Um... I was just looking around."

"That's fine," he replied distractedly.

He didn't speak to her again and Misaki found herself distracted by the one-eighty he had pulled on her. Just that morning, he had been overly concerned about her well-being. Now, it was almost as if she wasn't even there anymore. Giving up on looking around, she took a seat on the chair that he had placed close to him.

Her eyes followed his movements, but he didn't turn to look at her even when she joined him. Concerned that something had happened, Misaki tried to decide what the best question to ask was. He was behaving oddly and she wanted to know why.

"What are you working on?" she asked softly, trying to draw him into conversation.

"My latest project."

"But what is it?"

"I don't really want to talk about it," he replied, finally turning to glance at her briefly.

"Oh..."

She felt stupid for her reaction, but she didn't know what else to say in response to the way his eyes had pierced hers, straight to her heart. His coldness hurt, especially when he had been unusually kind the days before. The questions were left to linger unanswered in her mind as she figured he wouldn't want to answer when he didn't even want to talk about something like his work.

"I..."

Misaki looked up expectantly, thinking he had something to share with her. She smiled softly, waiting. He glanced at her for a moment, again, that look in his eyes. Eventually, he turned away once more. Even so, Misaki didn't prompt him to speak.

"I think, maybe you should go for lunch," he stated. "I'm sure Yin has the food ready."

"What about you?"

"I'll come later."

"You should come with me," she insisted. "We can have lunch together."

"No. Please, just go."

Confused by this treatment of his, Misaki opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out as she didn't know what to say. Ashamed that tears prickled her eyes, she finally stood up and dashed out of the room. She thought that maybe... Shaking her head, she refused to dwell on the thoughts that swirled around in her head.