It's been a while since I updated. Too many things to distract me from writing is not a good thing. Originally planned as a part of a longer chapter, but I don't want to keep people waiting (for quite a long time).
Please enjoy reading and please review. All criticism, comments, thoughts, and questions are welcome.
"I presume your name is Klaus, is it not?"
"Yes, Senshiro Klaus, Master... John?"
"Such a boring name, but yes I am John." John confirmed with the butler. His pupils eyed a letter that he was handed a few moments ago. He continued, "Your colleagues speak very highly of you. They say you served with the Sanzenin for a very long time."
"Yes. I did. Thank you," Klaus nodded in agreement.
John turned the letter envelope over. The writing that included the address on the previous side was handwritten. However the lettering was monotonous, the person who had to write it probably had many more left on the pile. The fact that it was written by quill pen would suggest that a high level of care was given into each and everyone in an age where it would be a lot more commonplace for any lettering to be done quickly in mass by printer.
The letter was sealed by more modern methods. A layer of glue held the flap shut tightly. Feeling that fingernails would be inadequate, John handed it to the butler without a word said.
Instinctively, the butler was eager to show how handy his was and seemed to pull a letter opener out of thin air and effortlessly opened it's contents. The letter quickly found itself back in John's hands.
After a brief look, he folded up along the creases that were already present on the letter and handed it back to the butler.
"What do you say about it sir?" Klaus asked.
"I don't know. Please explain it to me," John said.
"It's an invitation to a social gathering," the butler attempted to explain.
"Another one of those?" John sighed, "I don't feel the slightest inclination to go."
"This is the fourth one you've refused to go to this month sir," Klaus said. "It's best for you to go to at least a few, unless you want people to start... assuming things."
"Assume what?"
"That you're a person who would rather stay holed up in a mansion."
"Well, that doesn't sound good."
"Yes it does." Klaus explained. "We've managed to excuse from the previous few meetings with an explanation like 'It's held in France, it's too far,' but this upcoming meeting is scheduled to be held at a hotel down-town. It would be difficult to find an excuse."
"Seems I don't have much of a choice do I?" John sighed, "I seem to have a few, duties and responsibility to uphold as a head of a house. So what is the date and time for this upcoming meeting?"
"This invitation was actually sent out a few days ago." The butler read the letter, "If you actually took the effort to read it, the scheduled date would be today evening."
"Today?" John quickly gestured the butler to hand the letter back to him. With another glance at it he realized that the butler was correct. "How did I miss that?"
"Please ask yourself that question." Klaus adjusted his glasses, "I cannot help you with that."
"I wonder," John asked. "What do the servants think of me?"
"In that case, why not just ask them directly?" Klaus answered.
"Good point. What do you think of me?"
"Me? Well..." Klaus sweated as he thought. "I honestly don't know what to think yet. The exchange of power was very abrupt. Master Mikado suddenly disappeared and you appeared claiming that you have fulfilled the 'conditions' to inherit the Sanzenin estate. I just hope the mistress is okay."
"You're talking about Nagi?" John said. "She'll be fine. Her personal butler remained with her."
"That boy? I guess some of my worries have been consoled."
"Mistress! Please wait!" Hayate called out. He quickly finished cleaning the last of the dishes and wiping the chrome on the sink to a pristine finish.
"Don't worry!" Nagi rebutted, "There's no need for you to hurry to send me off. I can find my own bag myself. Isn't it 5 minutes past seven already? Where's Hinagiku? It's strange of her to be late."
"There's no need to worry." Hayate said as he finished his work on the sink. He gave a sigh of relief as he patted himself on the back for a job well done. "She won't be coming this morning. I will be accompanying you to school today, and probably every weekday from now on as well."
"What?" Nagi seemed confused. "Don't you have work to go to?"
"There's no more need." Hayate explained, "I'm making enough money now."
"All of a sudden?" Nagi asked in surprise, "You were saying that we were short of money yesterday! Did you suddenly win the lottery?"
"I'm not that lucky." Hayate said, "Although the way opportunity presented itself, I guess the twist of fate can be described as lucky."
"You're speaking in a metaphorical sense again." Nagi needed a few moments to ponder to understand what Hayate meant. "If I recall did you exited the school with Sakuya and Maria."
"Yes, we did." The butler agreed, "I must thank Miss Sakuya for offering me such a well paying job."
"And how much is well paying?" Nagi inquired about the amount.
"That much!" Hayate tried to convey the very large sum of digits.
"If it pays that well," Nagi said. "Maybe I want to see what kind of job it is."
"There's no need!" Hayate was quick to refuse. "Mistress should focus on her school studies!"
"That statement again?" Nagi thought of another way to get the truth out of Hayate. "Maybe I should ask Sakuya directly..."
"Ask... I can't really stop you can't I," Hayate sweated. "If you really must pay a visit. Please leave it until after school. Feel free to invite your friends as well."
"Sure, I'll bring a few friends then, if they can come." Nagi looked around searching for the household maid who should be around. "Where's Maria? I saw her for a brief moment when I woke up. Where is she?"
"She went to buy some groceries," Hayate answered. "She'll come back later to finish housework and head off for work. I doubt we'll see her until the evening."
"I see," Nagi said. "It feels so much more lonely already."
"Shall we get going mistress?" Hayate beckoned Nagi out the door. "We have wasted enough time chatting already. It would be nice if we could get there early."
"Why do you speak as if you are going to school with me. Aren't you going to just drop me off there and head off to work?"
"Like I said earlier mistress, I am going to school with you." Hayate tried to explain again. "My shift starts during the afternoon so I can attend morning classes with you. It was lonely sitting in class without me wasn't it?"
"Really?" Nagi shot up in excitement. "You're going to school with me again?"
"Yes, yes." Hayate spoke as he calmed her down. "We should get going."
Hayate sighed while he emerged from the dressing room, fully disguised as the other gender. He thought of the few hours of the morning periods that have passed.
It was a bit of a hassle to draw up enough courage during the period before lunch break. The thought of thinking up of a reason to excuse himself from class and not return was embarrassing enough. Luckily, the teacher for that period was none other than Ms. Katsura. She was kind enough or just way too lenient that she just allowed Hayate to leave the class room without much explanation. He did not escape some snarky comment about her deduced reason why Hayate was leaving. 'You're going out on a secret lunchtime date?" was far from the truth.
For the first half of his shift for that day, Chiharu who usually acts as a supervisor would still be at school. Maria would also be on break since she would have been working since morning. That left Hayate and a few other employees that he had not acquainted with yet. There was a void for the role of mentor that Hayate suddenly had to fill.
A female co-worker walked past by. She quickly took the opportunity to ask Hayate about a previous incident with a customer.
"I heard a scream from a customer the other day," she asked. "It was from a table you were serving and happened while you were at that table. What happened?"
Hayate took a moment to think of a response. Could he tell the whole truth?
"I was serving tea," Hayate answered, who tried his best to hide the lie. "My hand slipped and he accidentally got some on his face. I'm terribly sorry about it. He's fine though. I quickly apologized to him afterwards and he was fine with it."
"Really? He was fine after that kind of scream?" The girl did not believe Hayate's story. "You don't seem like the clumsy type either."
"Please believe me," Hayate pleaded. "I can really be clumsy at times."
A loud shatter rung above and louder the general noise in the restaurant. The high pitch and shrillness of the sound reminded the listener that it was likely glass. A few employees gathered around to look at what had happened.
"See! That was my fault. I'm terribly sorry!" Hayate quickly apologized.
"No it wasn't," the maid glared at Hayate before walking off. "I'll check the mess. You watch the floor."
"Sure..." he nodded.
"It sure seems quiet today," Hayate thought to himself. The incident with the broken dishes provided something to do, but otherwise it was a very slow day. There were quite a few customers during lunch, but in the afternoon period the number of patrons quickly dried up.
Hayate found himself at the cash register in front of the store, waiting for any new customers. Passing the time, he entertained himself with one of the manga from the bookshelf.
The doorbell from the doors sliding open pulled his concentration away from his reading. As he looked up, Hayate saw a sight he did not want to see.
"It's this café I think," Nagi turned around as she walked through the sliding doors and spoke to her two friends in tow.
"You sure?" Ayumu asked.
"Why not look and see?" Hinagiku pointed straight ahead of her at the maid at the cash register. "I'm sure you can see for yourself."
"It's a maid café al right," Nagi confirmed.
Hayate's mind raced and scrambled as he tried to think of his next action. He remembered the conversation with his mistress that morning and how she mentioned that she might pay him a visit at work during the afternoon.
Mixed emotions confused him further. He was happy that Nagi kept to her word and was paying him a visit. She even managed to bring along or convince her friends to come as well.
In contrast, he was also distraught about his own situation. Nagi only knew that Hayate worked at Sakuya's maid café, but she did not know that he was also forced to cross dress.
It was by no means the first time he was forced to cross dress in his life. In fact, it would not be an uncommon occurrence ever since he met Nagi and Maria. Still, being discovered was the last thing he wanted to happen.
Nagi impatiently rang the receptionist bell on the desk. The brown haired maid in front of her seemed slightly flustered and panicked. She was incredibly unresponsive despite any loud noises or cries made to get her attention.
"Please Nagi," Ayumu begged. "That's quite rude."
Hayate snapped back to the present. It was clear that he shouldn't keep Nagi and her friends waiting for much longer, it would only raise suspicion. He cleared his throat and tried his best to disguise his voice.
"Hello. How may I help you?" The maid put on her best smile.
"Table for three please," Nagi requested.
"In a moment," the maid smiled back.
She called out and projected her voice for the rest of the staff to hear, "We got new customers!"
"Yes! I heard the bell! No need to shout!" A male voice shouted back.
"I need someone to show them to their seats!"
"You're there already! You do it!"
The maid looked back at the new customers, all of them looked perplexed at the shouting exchange.
"You seem to be avoiding us for some reason," Hinagiku asked.
Hayate became frozen solid with fear as he bit his lip hard. A small element of suspicion was all it could take for his entire disguise to be rendered useless. They can throw enemy butlers, giant robots, or supernatural spirits at him, there was nothing that can shake him to the core like the fear of being caught cross-dressing.
"No, no you got it all wrong!" The maid quickly shook her head to decline. "I'm terribly sorry. I'm nervous. I'm still very new here."
"I guess nervousness is part of being new to the job," Nagi said. "If you're really that unnerved we won't stop you backing out and letting one of your seniors handle it. You can learn from watching her."
"Please, now you're misunderstanding even further." Hayate quickly shook his head repeatedly to assure them no.
He gave a small sigh as he realized that there was little way that he was going to avoid his friends. Trying to shift back in character as he gestured, "Mistresses, welcome. Please allow me to show you to your seats."
Hayate stood watching from the sidelines as he got a brief reprieve from work. Contrary to what he had hoped, his encounter with Nagi and company did not end with just showing them to the table they're currently sitting at. He had to continue the façade with taking their sole order of jasmine tea, and even pouring them the tea with the most fake smile he could make.
His woes did not end there. He did not choose to fully retreat from sight, instead he remained a little close. Perhaps the urge to listen or eavesdrop was too strong.
"So why did you drag me out of school right after the school bell" Hinagiku asked and pouted, unsatisfied with the lack of an explanation earlier. "You did not give me an adequate reason either."
"Reason?" Nagi replied, "You'll see once you hear about what we have showed you what we have planned." She turned towards the third person sitting at the table. "Ayumu, so what do you have in store for us?"
"I'll be glad to explain but..." Ayumu looked around. "Not everyone is here."
"Everyone is here," Nagi glanced around. "You, me, Hina..."
"Where's Hayate?" Ayumu inquired."
"You're right! Where is Hayate?"
"Eep!" Hayate gulped upon hearing that they were now looking at him. There was no way that he would allow his friends to see him in this cross-dressed state. He slowly started to creep away, but to no avail.
"Have you seen Hayate?" The maid heard a familiar high pitch voice calling towards him.
Hayate did not budge from the spot where he stood. Instead, he gazed around to see if there was the slightest possibility that Nagi was calling for someone else instead. Of course, he should had already known that he was the only employee on duty serving customers right now, and he only had one table to serve. A table filled with people he knew very well.
"You're spacing out again..." Nagi waved at the maid, hoping to grab her attention from unknown whereabouts.
"Yes? How may I help you?" Hayate snapped back, realizing that he had no choice on the matter. He still tried to keep a little distance from the group though. Anything to help maintain the disguise.
"Have you seen Hayate?" She asked again.
"Who's Hayate? Never heard that name before," the maid responded.
"I believe he's a new employee," Nagi attempted to explain. "Blue hair, very nice, very handsome."
"Umm..." Hayate mumbled as he searched for a response. He was quite flattered with all the compliments that Nagi unintentionally gave to him. "I'm terribly sorry, but I haven't seen anyone named Hayate here."
"Odd," Nagi rubbed her chin thinking. "Hayate told me that he would be here today and I can pay him a visit.
"I did not quite think this one through did I," Hayate cursed at himself internally. "Why was I so mesmerized by work that I forgot to think of what to do if she actually paid me a visit?"
"If he's not here then he's not here," the maid kept disagreeing. "Few employees are on duty today, and I believe I've seen everyone at least once and not a person named Hayate was here."
"Can you at least look once more?" Nagi asked once more, "Or better yet..."
She pulled out her mobile phone, "I should just call him and ask where he is."
"No no!" Hayate quickly became more desperate to stop Nagi with this line of thought. If she called, it would surely trigger his own mobile phone to ring.
"Please just leave your worries behind." He pleaded, "Just relax and I'll handle your problem for you Mistress Nagi."
"Nagi?" She picked up on that single word. "How do you know my name?"
"I... err..." Hayate quickly squirmed for an answer. "I heard you friend mention your name so..."
"And you picked up on that. You sure have amazing hearing."
"Yes... Maybe I do... but... Let's just relax. How about I pour you some more tea. Your cup is empty."
"I don't want more tea!" Nagi attempted to block the maid. "I just want to see Hayate!"
Her hand accidentally came across a tuft of hair from the wig and it so happened at that very moment she apparently pulled a little.
When the small struggle had finally stopped, the maid's hair seemed a little... unnaturally displaced to the side as one could describe it.
"Wait a minute..." Nagi pointed at the now very crooked hairstyle, which included a tuft of blue hair opposite to the mess of brown hair.
"Oh... this?" Hayate noticed that his wig was on the verge of falling off. "Well... I... er...well..."
"That blue hair looks familiar," Nagi smirked. "I wonder whose it is..."
This time, Nagi took a firm grip of the fake brown hair and pulled sharply, revealing short blue hair.
"Ah yes... about the blue wig," Hayate attempted to explain, still keeping his girlish demeanour.. "I'm really embarrassed about my blue hair, so I decided to hide it so..."
"Sure," Nagi agreed with sarcasm. "I don't think blue hair is that embarrassing at all Hayate."
"Erm..." Hayate stood still. He tugged slightly at the maid costume he was wearing as he slowly took in that he was pretty much discovered. A gust of cold wind from the air-conditioner stroked his now exposed hair and sent chills running. "Hello Mistress Nagi."
"Hello Hayate," she smiled back.
"What are you doing?" Hinagiku asked with a very puzzled look on her face, her conversation with Ayumu interrupted by the sudden revelation.
"Why are you dressed like that?" Ayumu followed on.
"It's just something we occasionally do together." Nagi explained with a great degree of joy. "Seems he's finally decided to do it himself."
"Care to explain yourself?" Hinagiku sternly inquired, almost making it like an interrogation.
"This is the uniform here," Hayate answered with haste when he believed he had found an adequate answer. "So I have to dress up like this..."
"Really? For males too?" Hinagiku disagreed. "What about him?" She pointed to a male cook who walked past the eyes of everyone at the table, carrying a few large boxes. He stopped and gave a glance back at all the eyes that were staring emptily at him before shrugging and continuing on. Needless to say, he was dressed appropriately as a cook, was male, and was certainly not dressed as a maid.
Hayate the maid was left blank eyed and smiling sheepishly as he was left at a loss of words or a response. He slowly started to creep towards the changing room, "I'll... bring this up with Miss Sakuya later."
Hayate the butler felt much more comfortable in clothes much more suitable for his gender. He faintly hoped in his mind that it was the last time she saw that maid dress, which fitted him a little too well.
He eagerly poured the three a new batch of tea as Ayumu finally got the chance to speak what she had been holding back.
She started, "I'm sorry to call you all on short notice, but I just won two incredible coupons!"
"Tone down the eagerness a little," Hinagiku said. "What coupons are they for?"
"I won a little contest for them." Ayumu explained. "They're for a huge discount in a restaurant in a famous hotel nearby. I couldn't wait long, so I wanted to redeem them today."
"You got coupons for a restaurant?" Hinagiku predicted, "I thought you would invite... you know..."
"Yes..." Ayumu confessed, "I originally thought of inviting just Hayate, but since I received two of them. Each is for a dinner for two, so that's for four people in total and I thought of you guys."
"Really?" Hinagiku eyes lit up, "Such generosity. Are you sure you don't want it just for the two of you. You and Hayate?"
"No!" Nagi interjected, "Don't turn down her offer like that! I can't let her hog Hayate... I mean we shouldn't waste a good coupon."
"I suppose we can go..." Hinagiku looked at her watch. "It's almost 4 PM. We should get going."
Nods followed.