Oto VI
Anna wakes with a start. She sits up in bed, gasping for breath, eyes wide. Holding her hands out in front of her, she finds them shaking. She holds them tight to her chest and pulls her legs up to her forehead. She bites her lip, choking back tears. A whimper escapes her lips and she holds herself tight. "Odette…" she whispers.
She sits there for a few silent moments before looking up. It's the time of night that's too late to be considered early and too early to get up and do anything. Even so, she crawls out of bed. She doesn't want to return to sleep.
She changes into her uniform, tie and all. She looks down at her right hand after she tightens the tie. She can remember the feeling of glass cutting and gnashing her skin. There's no scar. She hates that there's no scar. She didn't want the wound to heal but her body reacted before she could. They call her a Master Healer because she can heal herself. It's so much harder to heal yourself than another person and Anna can do this flawlessly. So much so that her body heals automatically. The Magic Assembly had never seen such power in such a young girl, they called her a prodigy. The whole thing irritates Anna to no end.
She slides on her shoes and quietly walks down the stairs to the café. The others are still sleeping and it's still dark out. She doesn't want to do anything that might wake the others.
She wonders into the back of the kitchen and finds a room with two machines. She thinks they're for washing clothes but she can't read anything written on them. She finds them to be rather strange. On a counter in the room sits a bag with everyone's original clothes. Fai had mentioned washing them yesterday so everyone brought their clothes out. Anna ruffles through the bag and pulls out the clothes, setting them in their respective piles. They're covered in dirt and grime from their traveling. She pulls her sweater to her nose and frowns. Fai's clothes seem to have some stains from the snow of Jade country. Picking up Kurogane's torso armor, she finds very little damage but a few blood stains. She wonders if she should even clean it. Maybe he wants the stains. She sets it down with a sigh. She never really could understand the inner workings of fighters.
She frowns at the machines and puts the clothes back into the bags and hauls them outside. The air is cool and there's no breeze. There are laundry lines in the back yard. Returning inside, Anna folds the sleeves of her shirt up above her elbows. She finds a large bucket in the room with the machines and fills it with cold water outside. This isn't really how she'd do it at the cabin but this is the only away she thinks she can. She washes every piece separately without soup and in cold water. She leaves Kurogane's armor aside. She'll ask him later if he wants her to wash it or not.
After everything is hung, the sun begins to rise. She wipes her forehead and tips the water out of the bucket and into the yard. She returns it to the room and heads back into the main part of the house. Everyone is still asleep she thinks. She doesn't hear any movement upstairs.
She decides to open the curtains, letting the warm sunlight fill the room. Once done, she leans against the bar, eyes looking at the ground. Odette's blood covered face flashes in front of her and her knees grow weak. She shakes the image from her mind and heads behind the bar. She brews a pot of tea, just as Fai showed her. She'd rather have coffee but she thinks the others would prefer tea.
She begins to hum one of the songs her mother would sing. Her mother would write songs about wishing for happiness and loving someone that'll take her to it. Mother would talk about how songs have a profound effect on some people, like they reflect what a person truly feels and can't say out loud. Anna was too young to really understand at the time and still doesn't totally understand now. Neither she nor Odette sang or worked with music like their mother. Odile studied healing and Odette worked with horses and the palace fashion house. Odile danced and Odette would watch; that's the closest either of them came to working with music.
Anna slides off her shoes and sings the song in her head, mouthing the words. She glides to the front of the bar and twirls away from it, stopping in the middle of the open space of the café setup.
"To find happiness with you…" Anna whispers, reaching one hand in the air, forming the efface devant position. She stretches her arms out at her sides, bending her kneels and coming back up with a spin. "Take me… A place not reachable alone…" She bends over, reaching her left leg up as far as the skirt will allow. Reaching both her arms in the air in the fifth position, she bends the knee of her right leg. "Take me away… I don't want your past." She moves her arms down into the first position then up into the fourth position. "I seek your present… Retrace my broken future… I wish for happiness…" She twirls one last time before resting in the third position. She lets out a breath.
"Bravo! Bravo, Wifey Bird-chan!"
Anna turns on her heels, shock on her face. She finds Fai standing in the doorway to the stairs and Kurogane behind him. Anna doesn't look at them long. "Morning," she mumbles, irritated. She didn't hear them come down.
"I didn't know you danced!" coos Fai.
"I didn't know you were there," she retorts. With a sigh, she walks around the bar and puts her shoes back on.
Fai smiles. "We didn't want to interrupt you. You looked like you were enjoying yourself." He takes a seat at the bar. Kurogane walks into the room and stands by the front windows. "Don't you think so too, Big—"
Anna puts a finger to Fai's lips. He looks at her, smiling but confused. She explains that it's still too early to be pissing him of. It's simply because she doesn't want to deal with it right now, but she doesn't say this out loud. He nods and Anna offers him a cup a tea. He accepts. "Would you like one, Kurogane?" she asks him.
He grumbles under his breath but walks to the bar. Anna smiles half-heartedly and pours the two of them cups of tea.
