Author's note: Yes, I'm back! Haha.. Sorry for the hiatus. Everything just has been so crazy the last few months, and so will it be the next few months. So unfortunately, I might have to say that I can't promise you how much longer I can post a new chapter after this. I just really have to focus on my future plan right now. But I promise you I will post a new chapter as soon as I can. Hopefully you guys are still following the story... Review if you do! I'll give you some electronic cookies! :D

Disclaimer: GH is not mine...


Chapter 12: Encountering a New Light

I felt somewhat drained as I came to. Not that I was hurting or anything, but I just couldn't feel any energy in my body. I opened my eyes tentatively and I could see a shadow of a face hovering above my head. I blinked my eyes into focus and the image of Luthena's face was becoming clearer.

She squealed in delight at my wake. "Mai-sama! Oh, thank heaven you're awake! We were so worried! Are you feeling alright?"

I grunted a little as I shifted my body to examine my surroundings. I was in my room, laying on my bed that was in the middle of the room, with Luthena standing right beside it looking over me. It was already night and the moon was high in the sky, its light seeped through the huge balcony doors and lit up the candle-lit room. It seemed like I passed out for quite some time. There was no one else in there beside the both of us. I turned my attention back to Luthena who was still looking at me with an expectant look.

"Yes, I'm fine, Luthena. Just feeling a little tired…" I managed to whisper the words. How do I feel so tired? I feel like all of the energy in my body is drained.

Luthena sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, it really is just a fatigue. I have prepared some food for you. It should help regaining your energy. I'll go fetch it from the kitchen. You should rest some more now, Mai-sama."

I nodded lightly, couldn't bring any power to resist or even reply. I lay back to the bed as Luthena made her way out of the room. Just as I closed my eyes for a rest, the door was knocked. I frowned. Did she forget something? Pulling out every bit of the power I had left, I said, "Come in."

The door swung open, revealing Naru and Koujo-san behind it. That startled me. I hadn't in the least expected them to be the one knocking on my door this time at night. I tried to sit or show some sort of a sign as a greeting but my body failed me. So instead, I breathed out, "Naru…"

He stepped into the room, dismissing Koujo-san with a nod as he did. Koujo-san gave us a last bow before retreating outside, closing the door behind him. I watched as Naru walked toward me, stopping right at the side of my bed. He asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Just somehow feel like I'm out of energy," I said.

He nodded. "I suppose it is a tiring day for you. I have cancelled your evening class so you can rest as you like. But tomorrow's classes will begin as scheduled."

I nodded. "Thank you."

There was a silent fell between us. It was a bit awkward, what with had happened in the black door room earlier. I had entered the room without permission because I saw Gene went in and Naru had found me there alone. He was displeased and I was irritated to find that he still couldn't trust me so I acted harshly to him before I went out to the door only to find Gene there and fainted at his touch. Later on I found out that Gene was a ghost somehow connected to Naru and was lingering behind to make sure that Naru was away from harm. And I also found that unknowingly to me, I had some sort of ability to see and communicate with ghosts, and even go to this sort of ghost world or dimension by leaving my body behind. My head was starting to ache. How should I ever explain this to him? I wondered. I guessed I should start with an apology.

"I'm sorry."

I was startled as the voice was not mine but instead, Naru's. I looked at him, perplexed. "What?" I asked. Naru is apologizing to me? I must be dreaming.

Naru was looking a bit unsure, but he continued. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize how much of this whole thing has put you in strain, with the moving and the classes and the Duchess Candidate test. But I keep on pushing you nonetheless to the point of you fainting. I'm sorry."

It took me a minute to process the whole thing. Naru thought that I had fainted because of all the fatigue that I got from the recent events. Sure the sudden moving was tiring, and the classes was stressing, and the whole my becoming Naru's wife and the possible future Duchess, and the Duchess candidate eligibility test were making me anxious and restless, not to mention the thing about my past; but it was not enough reasons for me to fall. Not with what I had had to go through every day with my life in the orphanage; the anxiety of not being able to maintain the orphanage, the unpaid debt, the increasing difficulties in getting money and food for the children—this was not quite a challenge really. At least now that I knew the orphanage was taken care of, I could relax and face those other problems more positively. But Naru didn't know that, and he was feeling guilty for putting up so much pressure on me that he thought I had fainted from all of that. While the actual truth was because a ghost touched me; a ghost who was now haunting him to keep him safe. Now it was even harder to explain things to him.

My eyes wandered to observe his face. His usually stoic and full with confidence face was now looked hesitant and unsure. As if he wasn't comfortable with what he was doing. As if he didn't know whether he was doing the right thing or not. As if he was the teenager that he really was instead of the mature and powerful son of the Duke. It partly made me want to laugh partly disbelieved that he could actually make that kind of face, but it mostly made me feel sympathetic towards him as I realized how hard it had been for him too with his life that he wasn't able to act his own age in front of others. So I decided to give him the mercy from my actual unearthly experience and said, "There's no need for you to apologize. This is at my risk after all, when I have accepted your offer. So if I fainted because of this, it means that I should do better next time. Right?" I offered him a smile.

Naru gave me a judging look, as if he was trying to decide whether to agree with me or not, but then he sighed. "If you say so," he said. "Just… don't push yourself too much."

I smiled wider, feeling somewhat happy with his concern, and replied, "Yes, of course." After thinking about it for a second, I added, "And I'm sorry too. About the incident earlier in the other room. I didn't mean badly when I went into the room. I just didn't want anything bad happening by letting the little boy went there. And I know you have every right to be suspicious of me, what with you found no one was there beside me, but I just want you to know that I have told you the truth, and that was what I saw there, so I'm just hoping that you could at least trust me in this."

Naru didn't say anything as he was thinking through what I had said. His face has returned back to its expressionless state so I couldn't quite judge what he was thinking. I waited anxiously until he voiced out a question, "Do you know whose room is that room?"

I frowned. Why would Naru ask that to me? How should I know whose room is it? I answered nonetheless. "No. No, I don't. Why?"

He sighed. "That's my room, so I'd really like you to not wander in to it as you like. That is why I was a little upset when I found you there today. Nothing else to it."

I felt a blush crept in to my cheeks in embarrassment. What an embarrassing thing to do, accusing him like that while instead I was the one who made the mistake and distrusting him! I felt a sudden need to crawl into a hole deep in the ground to get away from his steady gaze and just wailing over my stupidity. But unfortunately no such hole existed in my room nor did I have any energy left to crawl out of my bed so I pulled my quilt up to my eyes and whispered another apology. I heard him chuckled.

I found myself peered at him in amaze, as he surprised me for the second time that night with his reaction, and felt something fluttered in my stomach as he tried to contain himself from laughing. Another blush added to my face, though this time I wasn't quite sure if it was from embarrassment or not. His smile though, I noticed, reminded me of someone.

Naru stopped his chuckle, and still with an amuse smile on his lips, he gently patted my head. "Get a good rest," he said. It was such a short words, but I could feel the kindness that overflowing in it. I smiled back at him before I knew it.

He turned back and went out of the room after he threw me a last approving look. At the same time, Luthena who had arrived with a tray of food was a bit taken aback when she noticed the smile on Naru's face but didn't forget to give a bow as he passed her by the door. When the door closed though, she looked at me as if she had just seen a dragon passed by.

"I have never seen the young lord smile like that for like, years perhaps," Luthena said as she set down the tray on the drawer next to my bed. She smiled excitedly at me. "What happened?"

I couldn't seem to be able to stop myself from smiling either, despite of how lack of power I had been. "I'm not quite sure myself," I admitted. "Perhaps he finds my stupidity and embarrassment as entertaining."

Luthena looked a little confuse at this, but she kept on smiling nonetheless. "Well, whatever the reason was, I'm sure it's thanks to Mai-sama that Davis-sama is becoming more relax and able to smile like that. And even perhaps becoming more like he was before."

The last statement of hers made me frowned a little. "Like he was before? What do you mean by that?"

"Well," she said as she started to prepare a small table for my meal. "Years ago, perhaps when Davis-sama was still an 8 or 9 years old child, he was a different person than he is now. He has never been a very active or cheerful boy but he was kind and gentle to everyone. I was around 6 years old, I think, when I first came here and got to know the young lord. He was really nice to me and all the other servants, and we all love him very much." Luthena paused here and let out a sigh, a faraway look in her eyes. "But then he changed."

"What happened?" I asked in a whisper.

"There was a fight," answered her with a shake on her head, as if she didn't really want to remember it. "A huge fight between the Duke and the Duchess, and apparently it also involved the young lord. I wasn't quite sure what the problem was but Davis-sama was punished quite severely after that fight. It wasn't physical, but he was sent to confinement for a long time. And after that, he just changed. He no longer talked to a lot of people, or laughed or smile, he no longer showed much of an expression even. He became absorbed with his study and always put his duties as his first priority. It was as if he turned into an adult in just those few days and he lost whatever resemblance of a child he used to be. It was such an unfortunate thing really."

I was silent. I didn't know what to say. I wouldn't have had expected that sort of a past from Naru. He was just always so sure, so confident, so powerful that I even had had thought that he bore no doubt in himself. But after my conversation with him tonight, and the past that Luthena told me, I was not so sure anymore. He might be a Duke's son, and he might be arrogant and cold to people, but maybe he was more than just that. Maybe he really was a gentle person who couldn't express himself because of what happened when he was a child. But what could be so problematic, so horrible that it would make the Duke and Duchess fight, and punished Naru to the point that he changed himself?

I eyed Luthena who was already back to her job in preparing my dinner. She had put a bowl of warm soup on the small table in front of me. Chicken, from the smell of it. There was also a plate of salad on the tray she placed on the top of the drawer, and she was neatly arranging two small rolls onto a platter before putting the platter too on the small table. The smell was so good and inviting that my stomach was aching for it, but I put my hunger aside and asked her the question that had been bugging me all along. "What was the cause of the fight?"

Luthena paused a second from my sudden question before answering, "I don't know… I don't think there's anyone who knows… Except maybe some of the personal servants who were there when the fight happened. But they are being very secretive about it and would never say a word no matter how curious the other servants are. Personal servants are, after all, the most loyal servants of the Duke and his family. Even if they are tortured for it, I doubt they will ever utter a single word."

"Is that also include Koujo-san?" I asked. "The personal servants, I mean. Is Koujo-san also one of them?"

"Yes, he is. Though I'm not quite sure if he was one of the witness of the fight. But he is part of the personal servants since as long as I can remember." Luthena said. "I think his family has been serving for the Duke's family from generation to generation. Maybe that's why he was assigned as the young lord's personal butler in such young age."

I nodded in understanding as I pondered about it. So the only possibility to know more about that fight was by either asking Naru directly, or Koujo-san, or I would have to look for the other personal servants of the Duke. None of the options was very promising to get an information out of from, but I had a feeling that I needed to know more about the fight, and especially the reason behind it. It could hold some important information that I needed. Maybe I should try asking the other servants too about it. Maybe some of them would know more about the matter.

But my train of thoughts was interrupted by the smell of the meal that Luthena had finished arranging on the table. She helped me sitting up on my bed, supporting my back with a couple more pillows. I looked at the foods before me, still felt quite disbelieved with the luxury of even a simple meal like this. My mind wandered voluntarily back to the orphanage, where the kitchen was still not fixed yet. Is everyone alright there? I wondered. Do they still have their meals properly? They should have, because Naru had promised me that he'd take care of them. But I still couldn't stop worrying about them. It just felt wrong being in a big quiet mansion like this without the sound of the children's laughing and fighting. I missed them so terribly, and I would do anything just to get back there and spend my days peacefully with them. But I had to stay strong. I had to stay here and finished what I had started. For their sake, and for my sake too. I let out a soft sigh before I started eating. Hopefully, tomorrow would be better than this…, I prayed silently.


So, did you enjoy it? Is there anyone who just might have a clue of what's going on? Review for your comments or ideas then! Thanks again!