Once I'm done writing out this story in these bite-sized pieces, I'll fold it back into one. Figure I might as well release what I have if I'm not going to write it all at once :D
Rean x Towa: The Lost Chapters
A Short Story Series by Novem's Natural Roll
New Minor Event 2: Love Unspoken – Part II
Takes Place During: Trails of Cold Steel I – Finale
Second Draft
The next morning, Towa wakes up to the need to face a much stiffer challenge. Nothing had been settled last night about how the school would respond to the building national crisis, and due to her role as Student Council President… she would have a seat at the table as far as it came to making that decision. As she'd been told the previous night when she'd been pulled aside by Instructor Sara to be briefed on the situation by Principal Vandyke, there would be a faculty meeting at noon with every staff member from the academy there to decide what would be done. To decide whether classes would be cancelled, or even if everyone was going to be sent home. And so as the student's representative as to how that decision would be made, she had a huge responsibility.
But she also had another responsibility, one that she woke up early to thrust herself into. Festival clean-up. While the janitor's job was to deal with all of the garbage, it was the student council's job to address all of the other detritus, this year even more than most. Due to the secretive nature of the faculty meeting, only the Student Council was being allowed onto campus, and so classes couldn't be expected to pick up after themselves. Packing everything up securely would be quite a task then, given the limited staff present to handle the job. So despite the events of last night, Towa had no choice but to pull a very particular card from her deck.
Standing on the threshold of Class VII's dorm leaves her with no shortage of anxiety... and the gray, dreary, morning sky hanging over Trista doesn't help her mood in the slightest. She's worried that if anyone sees her, they might be able to pick up on the secret she's carrying. More than anything else, she's worried Rean will pick up on it, maybe even catch up and talk to her as she's slipping student council tasks into his mailbox.
Oh, come on! Towa slaps her own cheeks, the chilly morning air numbing the sting a little as she tries to psych herself up. Just do it like you always do President Herschel! If you keep acting weird, someone's going to figure out that something's wrong!
Thanks to that, she finally stops hesitating. Though the trek feels astronomically longer than usual, the actual length of time that passes between her starting towards the door and stepping inside is no different than usual. She's relieved to find no one inside, and is happy that she's able to slip the envelope into Rean's mailbox no differently than usual. At least until a chill passes over her and she shivers dramatically, unconsciously reaching for her weapon as the hairs on the back of her neck stand up with someone's presence.
"Hello there President Towa. I assure you that won't be necessary." Says a pleasant female voice. It freezes her in place. "I'm sorry, did I shock you? Hehe, I apologize ever so much."
Towa flips around to find the dorm's maid, Sharon Kreuger, standing behind her. The brown-haired girl stammers, unsure of what to say, and moreover completely unsure of where exactly Sharon had come from or how she'd gotten behind her so quickly. This stammering and what she'd been here to do says all that the violet-haired professional needs to know in order to twist the knife.
"Oh, I think I understand. Were you trying to use your usual task delivery as a way to disguise slipping our illustrious Mr. Schwarzer a love letter or two? How scandalous, the festival must have gone quite well for you last night. I did hear that you managed to secure the dance…"
The girl turns as red as an acerbic tomato and extends her arms out in front of her in protest.
"Th-Th-Th-Th-That's not it at all!"
"Ah, but it seems you wouldn't be opposed to doing such a thing, how sweet!"
"Unghhh, how did you get from one thing to the next there Miss Kreuger!?"
Sharon giggles.
"I'm sorry, just a tease. How about as forgiveness for playing with your feelings so, I serve you some breakfast and tea? I can tell you haven't had anything this morning."
"H-How!? W-Wait, a-anyway, n-no, I couldn't… I don't want to impose, and there's so much work to do!"
"But then how am I to make it up to you?" Sharon makes sure to layer this protest on quite dramatically, meaning Towa cannot resist assenting to the maid's demands. The girl never stood a chance, really.
"Oh, then I can't possibly turn you down then, haha…" As she sags in defeat, Towa additionally thinks, This must be how a fish on the end of a line feels. Even if it knows that it's bait, it can't resist biting… Aw…
And neither can Towa, who follows Sharon into the kitchen and sits at the table. The pleasant smells of breakfast drift over from the kitchen, the maid had clearly already been preparing it since before she arrived to serve Class VII. Despite the young girl showing up extremely early for breakfast time, Sharon has something prepared for her within seconds. The pleasant aroma of chamomile reaches her nose as the maid sets down a cup in front of her, along with a small plate of Cinnamon-flavored French Toast. It's as if she'd known Towa was coming from the beginning...
"I'm sorry, the full-course breakfast isn't ready quite yet, so I hope this will sate your appetite, teehee!"
Towa can't help but have her mouth water a bit. This was already quite a bit more than she'd been expecting to eat this morning to begin with. She picks up the tea first.
"Oh, no, this is already so much more than I could've asked for! Thank you, Miss Kreuger."
She tips her head a bit as she begins to sip on the tea. Sharon does the same from her own cup. Towa has to stop herself from saying "mmm" out loud... she'd been making tea for a long time, but had never made anything close to this good. As if reading her mind, Sharon giggles and says, "The secret ingredients are soy milk and fresh, pure spring water. But it's our secret, so make sure not to share that without anyone else!" Towa nods as she drinks in more of the tasty, steaming, yellow-brown liquid. "Eat some of the French Toast too, it'll taste even better!" Towa's not surprised that when she follows the command, it's exactly as the woman said… rounding out the taste of the tea with a buttery cinnamon-flavor which any reasonable person would describe as "to die for". For a person who almost never ate breakfast like the student council president of Thors Military Academy, it's a particularly wonderful and relaxing experience. All the nerves she'd been nursing just… fade away.
Towa's next expression of appreciation is wholly genuine.
"Thank you, Miss Kreuger, I didn't realize how much I needed something like this…"
"It's no trouble. I was a young girl myself once, a long… long… time ago. I know how it feels for a young maiden to be rejected by someone they adore. Or, at least, I understand the idea, hehe…" Towa's jaw drops a little bit, it seems Sharon really did know the score. She's about to speak, but she's keenly interrupted. "Don't worry about saying that's not it Miss Herschel, it's – of course – a little secret between us girls. This is something you'll need to sort out for yourself, but everyone needs a little helping hand to get back on their feet sometimes. A girl especially needs some help from someone who… understands, if you will, hehe… It's truly nothing to be ashamed of at all."
Towa can't help but smile at that, especially at the realization she's essentially being give a taste of her own medicine. In the end, she chooses to – rather than respond – sip further at her drink. Sharon smiles a little wider at that, taking a long drink of her own. She even manages to empty her cup so subtly that she never breaks the illusion of a refined and respectable lady. With that done, she stands, and the door behind Towa cracks open.
"Ah, but it seems the man of the hour has arrived, hehe…" Sharon whispers just loud enough for her younger companion to hear. Luckily, Towa had relaxed enough that the realization of who was standing behind her didn't bother her. "I'll leave the two of you alone to engage in your intimate relations in peace, just remember the others could show up at any time! So try to keep the more passionate bits brief." As the maid heads to the closet in the back of the kitchen with a devious giggle, both Towa and Rean watch on with mild embarrassment. They both had the same thought at the same time.
She did this on purpose.
But as per usual, neither will admit what that means, or how necessary it was. They both just watch Sharon go with a look of absolute bewilderment. Once the door closes behind the maid, the moment hangs for a bit. Eventually,Rean speaks first, rounding the table to sit across from her after saying, "Oh, hey Towa… surprised to see you here so early. Sorry about her…"
"Hehe, it's okay. Anyway, usually I'd be gone by now after slipping the student council tasks into your mailbox…" Towa takes a bite out of her food, smiling at the taste. "…but Sharon knew I didn't eat breakfast somehow, so here I am… hehe…"
"Yeah, sounds like Sharon alright…" Suddenly, Rean frowns and scratches the side of his head awkwardly. "I'm…" He clears his throat. "…glad… that she noticed…"
"Aw, thanks for worrying about me Rean." She says it truly. Somehow, even after everything, him expressing that concern just makes her happy rather than regretful. Though, the actions of a certain violet-haired maid certainly had a lot to do with that. Not that Sharon had said anything outright, but Towa got the message pretty clearly… "don't give up". It was a message that resonated with her pretty deeply too. After all, one of the things she admired about Rean was that he never really did, and he'd even told her something along those lines too… "if you don't confront your problems, you'll never move past them" were his exact words. She'd taken them to heart, everything last night had just blinded her to them for a moment. She's glad she can see them clearly again, what she has to do today would be a lot harder without them.
Of course, she's still running away from the deeper problem… that unconscious, untruthful realization she'd come to… that he could never love her back. And so she doesn't try again to make him tell his truth, despite Sharon's message. Instead, she focuses on finishing her food.
"Though, it's also a good thing she got me to stay…" Towa says, wiping her mouth off with a handkerchief that had been laid out for that purpose. "…I forgot to write down that you'd need to wear the Student Council armband you got at the festival while taking care of the tasks I gave you today."
"Oh, yeah, I heard that the campus was on lockdown for everyone but the Student Council today, for that faculty meeting…" Rean looks down. "I know they're just trying to avoid causing a panic, but I can't help but feel changing things up like this just makes everyone even more uncertain. Me, I still can't believe that Garrelia is just… gone. And there's probably a lot more going on in Erebonia and Crossbell right now too."
She's still processing it all as well, but she doesn't have the option to keep doing so like him. It's up to her to project confidence for everyone to make sure they don't panic regardless of what the teachers do. Though he'd even kept it together anyway until now, sitting here with her. They'd worked together just the previous night to make sure the festival got closed up without any panicked stampede, handling crowd control in the face of such devastating news hadn't been an easy task. A lot of people had questions that there were no answers for just yet. That was yet another reason the campus had been barred for today, to make sure the civilians didn't come around asking when the school still didn't know how they would respond. Towa at least tries to cut through that tension for Rean.
"Well, I'm sure it'll be okay in the end. And if it isn't, we'll all figure it out together. Us and the entire student body."
He smiles, genuienly reassured by her words. She can tell it's truly sunk in too, with how well she can read the windows of his soul staring back at her. But then he asks a question that gives her pause.
"So, have you thought about what you're going to say in that faculty meeting today? You're the only student invited, right?"
"Hm…" She looks down to her meal. Closing her eyes, she says, "I'm not sure Rean. First, I need to figure out what our priority should be. I can't help but wonder if, in light of everything, it might be best to recommend everyone go home for now. We don't know what's going to happen, and we don't want everyone to get separated from their families if things go south…"
Rean crosses his arms over his chest and closes his eyes. He responds, "But, Towa… that's not what you want, is it?"
She looks up.
"But… it's not really about what I want, Rean."
"You're wrong." He smiles at her. "You're a student here just like the rest of us. And you'd be surprised, but I think most of us want the same thing you do, especially after all the fun we've had for the past two days."
"But, you don't even know what I want silly, hehe…"
He grins.
"Maybe not exactly, but I believe in you. And moreover, what you said to me yesterday, the promise you had me make… it has to mean you care about this school as much as I do. Since both of those things are true, I think that deep down, we agree on what has to be done here."
Towa positively gleams as she smiles up at him, realizing what he means. In no uncertain terms, he's simply saying… "We both love this school. We both want to protect it. So fight for it, since I can't and you can!" And she wants to live up to that. So, after taking her final bite for tasty good measure, she stands up and pumps her fist.
"I understand!" She declares. "I'll trust you and the rest of the student council to take care of cleaning the campus so classes can start again, and I'll do whatever I can to make sure the school finishes out this year!"
Rean stands up too.
"I'll do whatever I can. So you can believe in us, and focus on what you need to do."
She nods, then giggles.
"Thanks Rean, I'll do just that!"