Your wish is My Command

Haru was startled out of her peaceful dream by the ringing of her cell phone. "No," she moaned, not bothering to open her eyes before patting around her bedside table until her fingers located their target.

Flicking her thumb against the usual place, she sleepily held the phone to her ear. "Hello?" she mumbled almost unintelligibly.

"Um, hey, Haru. Did I wake you up?"

Her large brown eyes snapped open as she swiftly sat up in her bed. "No, no, of course not!" she panicked, smiling nervously even though her crush couldn't see it. Then she coughed a bit, wondering what to say first.

"Oh, okay. Listen, I know this is a little strange to just call you out of the blue, but you're still into Egyptology, right?" Machida asked like he was hoping for a 'yes'.

"Oh yeah," Haru affirmed, tickled pink that he knew about her biggest interest. "It's a highly competitive field, but I'm doing what I can to prep for it."

"I thought so. Could… you look at something for me? I found something while cleaning out the attic, and I don't know if it's a set of artifacts or a knock off."

Haru turned on the speaker so that she could start trying to pick out what to wear. "Where do you want to meet up?"

Machida hummed a bit. "You know that one café close to the theatre Tsuge's dad runs?"

"I'll hang out on one of the outside tables," Haru promised, deciding on her favorite green shirt with a cream skirt. Understated but classy.

"I'll race you there," he promised before ending the call.

Haru could hardly believe her good luck as she hurriedly threw the clothes on and took a brush to her hair while staring at herself in the long mirror next to her door. A little too understated? Haru reached over to her dresser and opened the jewelry box for her gold Bast necklace. To most people, it was just a cat necklace, and honestly, Haru had grown tired of explaining anything else to people that weren't all that interested.

Deciding that she was presentable enough, Haru slid her phone into a cream purse that matched her skirt and ran out of her room, down the stairs, and through the living room.

"I'll be back soon, Mo-" Haru started before cutting herself off.

Right. Her mother had mentioned an early business meeting today. Hence why the teenager was getting away with sleeping in this morning.

Haru shook the thoughts off and forced herself to put on the white sneakers next to her door instead of the nicer flats since it was a bit of a walk and she didn't want the flats pinching her toes while she was trying to concentrate.

'This is it,' she exulted as she tried to force herself not to jog to the café so that her hair wouldn't get messed up. After almost a year of watching the boy of her dreams walking down hallways with this or that pretty classmate, it was finally going to be her turn! All she had to do was show him how smart she is, and everything else would align at last.

She knew the café Machida meant very well. It was one of her and Hiromi's favorite spots to relax and enjoy each other's company.

Her heart was pounding as she finally made it to her favorite table and carefully checked the white chairs before choosing one.

A white cat with a giant brown spot over one ear opened on eye lazily to glare at her.

"I saw you this time, didn't I?" Haru defended herself as she set her purse on her lap and looked around for Machida.

No sign yet.

"What, going solo today?" the familiar waiter asked with a familiar smirk on his lips as he approached her.

"Just for now, Toto. I think I'd like a raspberry limeade while I'm waiting, and a tuna sandwich for you-know-who," Haru added with a head tilt toward the fat cat on the other chair.

His ears perked up a bit, making him poke his head above the table to give Haru his best 'I'm starving please help me,' expression.

Toto sighed. "We'll never get rid of him if people like you keep giving him handouts," he informed her while going back inside with her order.

"At least he's quieter than a lot of your guests," Haru called after him with a smile, though she wasn't all that used to talking to the man other than orders. Normally Hiromi would be the one to talk- and flirt- with him while giving their orders, but she was visiting relatives for the weekend.

Which left Haru all on her own. She nervously twisted her fingers underneath the table, barely noticing when the fat cat reached over one little paw to touch her knee as if he could tell she was scared. The teenager smiled at him and rubbed his ears affectionately.

"Hey, Haru," Machida suddenly greeted as he came up behind her with a box and set it on the table. "I had to go slow so I wouldn't break anything."

"Good idea," Haru agreed, nearly ready to jump out of her skin from the combined excitement of her crush talking to her and the possibility of finally getting to handle an actual relic.

Haru stood up to examine the contents as Machida took the seat across from her at the table.

First, she took out a dusty tea kettle that was mostly pale cream with hieroglyphs, pictures, and designs that looked surprisingly authentic. "This is not from Egypt," she stated while barely giving it a glance. "The design is all wrong for any time period further than two centuries ago, but it's old enough that it might be worth something." She carefully placed it on the table before helping herself to the equally dirty teacups, two of which were broken. "Same as these. It looks like some enthusiast with money to burn designed this whole set to look Egyptian."

"All of it?" Machida asked with disappointment as the fat cat sniffed and curled up for another nap.

It was looking like it. Haru withheld her opinion as she carefully set out everything, subconsciously setting it in what she remembered as a traditional English setting to compliment the style of the pieces, though she left the broken bits in the box.

Then a slightly different color in the box caught her eye. Intrigued, she reached down for what appeared to be the sugar bowl.

It was beautiful, in the same design as the rest of the tea set and yet…

"This one could be from Egypt," Haru told Machida excitedly as she sat back down. "Look at the details, it's much clearer than the rest of the set, and I recognize the style. My guess is that someone rich came across this in an auction or something similar, and decided he liked it enough to commission a whole tea set to match!"

She pulled a handkerchief from her purse in order to wipe the dust off to see more of the craftsmanship. It was almost without thought that she took her Bast necklace and held it side by side with the image on top of the circular lid. It was heavier than the rest of the set, save the tea kettle, and the paint job was just breathtaking. She didn't blame the rich guy at all for wanting to make sure as many people as possible could see this. "How did your family get this?"

Machida shrugged, though he seemed a bit tense. "I don't know. I had a fight with Dad, he told me to go clean up the attic, and I found that set just before accidentally breaking everything else in the box. So, as a random guess, how much would you say the sugar bowl alone is worth?"

"That's difficult to say," Haru admitted as she turned the bowl enough to study the hieroglyphics on the rounded sides. "I don't think this box started life as a sugar bowl, but I don't think it was used for embalming, either. It might be a jewelry box." She briefly peeked inside the sugar bowl and saw nothing but tiny granules. More than likely sugar from some long-forgotten tea party. She capped the box again to really study the picture words on the sides to see if they had a clue.

Her lips felt clumsy as she read off the phrase in Egyptian first, and then repeated it in Japanese for Machida's benefit.

"I am thy servant."

Machida scrunched up his face in confusion. "Is that really what it says?"

"As a matter of fact, it is."

Both Haru and Machida jumped in surprise, since it had been a fairly quiet morning, and nobody had passed all that close to their table.

There was now a fourth companion sitting with them.