Hooray! Naomi finally has a purpose in this story! But oh my gosh… I really hope that you don't expect the rest of the chapters from now on to be so long… because they won't be. But I will try to make them longer than they normally are ^_^ Now sit back and Enjoy chapter 15!
Sen and Haku were awoken by Naomi, already dressed, who had come to Sen's room with a question for her. She noticed that Haku was there, but didn't think anything of it at the moment.
"Did you put these in my room, thinking that I would get all soft for that idiot of a prince?" Naomi asked, thrusting a bouquet of lilies, which happened to be her favorite, into Sen's face.
"Huh…? No, I was here all night… so was Haku… we didn't go in your room at all," Sen replied, rubbing her eyes.
Haku grunted when he saw the lilies that Naomi was holding. "I told him he didn't have to do flowers…," he said more to himself than Naomi.
"You had to give him advice on how to treat me?" Naomi demanded with a hint of frustration in her voice.
"Yeah…"
Naomi stared blankly at him until a few seconds later, when realization hit her. "Well, by the looks of things, I guess I should be thanking you for that," she said, grinning knowingly at the two who were still in bed.
Sen, who had been in a (from Naomi's perspective) suspicious position with her head on Haku's chest, jumped out of bed. Haku stayed where he was, sitting up against a pile of pillows, and crossed his arms. "Nothing happened. Sen was worried so I came in here until she fell asleep. But then I fell asleep too before I could leave," he said with a shrug.
"Mhmm… and Boh isn't a glutton," Naomi said sarcastically. "But whatever… I guess I'll just go find something to put these in…," she said as she left the room.
Neither of the two remaining said anything for a while, when Haku turned to look at Sen and said with a grin, "You know, you're cute when you've been caught."
"Oh, be quiet," Sen replied playfully as she threw a pillow at him. "Now go back to your own room so I can get dressed. You should change, too."
Haku laughed to himself as he watched her get her clothes out of a dresser, then he got up and disappeared through the balcony door.
Meanwhile, Naomi was walking back into her room with her bouquet of lilies and a vase she had swiped off a cart, which had carelessly been left unattended by a servant, already filled with water. She entered her room, and walked over her dresser to put the flowers down, not seeing that she wasn't alone.
"Stealing is wrong, you know."
Naomi nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the voice, then turned around and saw the prince, of all people, sitting merrily on her bed.
"But since the vase is still in the castle, I guess it can stay. Not to mention that I owe you."
"You owe me? For what?"
"For gracing me with your presence," he said happily.
"Feh… am I gonna have to keep an eye on every dark corner I come across? This is the second during my entire stay here that you startle me like that for no reason."
"Oh really? Which was the first time?"
"When you found me in the woods," she said, putting the lilies into the vase.
Prince Miruto gave a snort as he remembered, and said, "Well, if you think I was rude then, you should see yourself now. This entire time I've been in here, I haven't heard so much as a 'thank-you' from you."
"You mean for finding me a room besides your own to sleep in?" she asked with a laugh. "If it was really that difficult, then thanks."
"Well no, I meant for the flowers," he said, standing up and taking a few steps towards her.
Naomi blushed slightly and turned from the dresser to face him. "Oh, well… thanks."
The prince smiled warmly at her. "No problem. You know what's interesting though is that I found them along the path that I took to carry you here."
"Are you sure you didn't get them from Haku?" she asked in a teasing manner.
"Ha! So you know! Well just because I got advice from him doesn't mean that I get my material from him."
"Where do you get it, then?" she asked, taking a seat on her bed.
"From listening. I got up early to take a walk this morning and came across those lilies. Then I remembered last night that you said they were your favorite," he said simply while he thought of whether or not to sit next to her.
'He actually remembered that?' Naomi thought. 'I thought he was just low on things to talk about…' "You take walks?" she asked, not wanting to let him see what she was really thinking.
"Sure I do. It's a great day, after all, and it's good to get out once in a while."
"I'm surprised that you think like that. How do you manage to be so pleasant all the time?"
Prince Miruto finally decided to have a seat, since Naomi didn't seem frustrated or angry with him. "Well, lately I've been able to look forward to seeing, you," he said nervously. "And when I don't have that to look forward to, then it means that you're already around, so it's easy to be happy."
Naomi felt blood rushing to her face as she looked at the prince, whose grin was getting hopelessly broader by the second. To her relief, he spoke again before she had to think of something to say.
"But anyway, I should go talk to my parents. We still haven't worked out a way for you and your friends to get to wherever you were going when we found you."
"You haven't? And here I was beginning to think that you were actually responsible," she said with a hint of sarcasm, yet with a smile on her face.
"Don't you get fresh with me, or I'll have to lock you up in the dungeons," he said with his normal cheeriness as he stood up.
Naomi closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue in an attempt to be… well, fresh. The prince just laughed, saluted her as he did when Naomi was leaving him for a bath the day before, and left.
After Sen finished changing, she decided to go wake up Boh. As she entered his room (after passing the ever-cheerful prince Miruto), she saw Haku already there and had gotten Boh up and dressed. Dayu was scampering around the carpet, acting like a helpless victim
"You're fast," she said to him as she dodged a stuffed dinosaur, which had been hurtled her way after being hit by Boh in his motorized mini-truck. Haku nodded, too winded from laughing at Boh to give a verbal response.
He finally caught his breath. "Chihiro, the prince came into my room just before I left to come here, and he asked if there was anything I wanted. I hope you don't mind that I asked him to bring some breakfast for all of us into your room."
"No, that's okay," she replied. Then she turned to Boh and said, "Did you hear that, Boh? We're going back to my room for breakfast."
He nodded enthusiastically as he drove over more toys.
"Well I guess I'll go get Naomi and tell her about it," Sen said, heading for the door.
"Okay, I'll get Boh and Dayu in there as soon as they get hungry, which shouldn't take long."
"Hey Naomi? We're having breakfast in my room," Sen said as she opened the door a bit.
"What was that? Come in here, I can't here you."
Stepping into the room, Sen repeated her announcement.
"Okay," she said with a smile from her current position on her bed. "Oh I almost forgot to apologize," she began, now sitting up, "for the flower thing. They were from the prince." She blushed and pointed to the vase on her dresser.
"Forget about it. I'd be angry too if one of my other friends back home tried to set me up with some goon from school," Sen said. "….Not that the prince is a goon," she added hastily when she saw the slightly offended look on Naomi's face.
"Yeah, well, he actually is," Naomi replied with a laugh.
"Oh, come on. Just admit that you like him," Sen teased.
"Feh. But I will admit that after last night, he's at least been decent."
"Hehe… well, do you want to go wait for the food in my room?"
"Sure."
The five guests of the castle met each other in the hall on their way to Sen's room, and all entered at the same time, when they saw that their food was already spread across the table.
"Wow… the service here is really fast," Naomi commented.
They all sat down around the food (Dayu, or course, next to Sen's plate again) and were about to dig in, when the prince came through the door in quite a rush. He stopped abruptly in the doorway when he saw them, and they noticed that his left sleeve was smoking a bit, his hair was frazzled, and his front was soiled with a thin later of soot. He smiled nervously at the five of them, who were looking at him, not knowing what to say.
He gave a weak, nervous laugh and straightened up, saying, "Um… it seems that your departure has been delayed by a few… weeks."
"What?" they asked in unison.
"Well… you remember my psychotic grandmother, right?"
They nodded.
"Yes, well her magic is very powerful when she can figure out how to use it for a while… and she let herself out of her room, and… well… she sort of… destroyed the train…"
"Does that mean we get to stay here longer?" Boh asked.
"Yes, for three weeks… until everything is repaired."
"Why would it take three weeks? Can't they use magic to fix it?" Sen asked.
"Well yeah, but it takes quite a lot of it, and if they worked all day every day then they'd literally die from fatigue. Plus, they have to re-build two miles of the track and get a whole new load of fuel from the next region over. That crazy woman did quite a bit of damage… she nearly blew up the entire station… she only got half though, because she started wandering down the track… that's why two miles of it is missing."
They were stunned. What were they supposed to do with themselves for three weeks while they waited anxiously to return to the bath house, only to be greeted by a furious Yubaba who would have their heads? They had already probably gotten her furious by taking Boh with them… but now, being gone for so long, she's probably ! Especially Sen… she was in trouble.
"Isn't there any other way to get us there?" she asked weakly.
"I'm sorry, but the train was out only form of traveling long distances like that."
"Could we just walk the rest of the way like we planned before this all happened?"
"That would take you nearly as long, I'm afraid. And with there being an entire sea between this castle and your destination, you wouldn't really be able to stop for the night in the water…"
How could they have overlooked that at Zeniiba's house? …Did No-Face ever sleep??? But that wasn't important right now…
"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, but maybe if you try to think of something good that could come of this, then it might not seem so bad."
That was true… If they were going to be stuck somewhere for three weeks, there probably wasn't a better place… Plus, if they explained everything right, Yubaba might not be as angry as they feared… But what about Sen's and Naomi's parents? They were probably worried sick… plus there was the fact that they'd already been there longer this time than before… But when they did go back home, they would be too happy over their safety to worry about where they had been. So yeah, it didn't seem so bad anymore… In fact, now they were looking forward to it.
The prince, who had been standing in the doorway as they contemplated their situation, noticed how they seemed to be more relaxed than when he first announced this predicament.
Relieved that they weren't about to tear his head off, he continued. "So of course, you'll just keep the rooms you have now. Er… is there anything else you need?"
They all shook their heads and Haku said, "No… but did you manage to get her locked away again?" referring to insane woman who had previously been rampaging around the castle.
"Yes, she's back in her room and sleeping."
"…Sleeping? After all that?" Sen asked.
"Well yeah, we had to knock her out to stop her from using any more magic…"
Nobody said anything. They just nodded. Then Naomi asked, "Is everyone okay?"
"Everyone's fine. I probably suffered the worst, actually, and it isn't even that bad. It's very fortunate that nobody was in the station… I think she must have scared them all off," he added with a chuckle. "But anyway… I should go clean up. Just flag down a servant if you need anything." He gave a salute, which was mostly directed towards Naomi, as he swung the door closed.
After a few minutes of silence, Boh finally spoke up through a mouthful of waffle. "I'm glad we're staying. I like the toys here."
This caused an almost involuntary reaction from the rest of them, and they all said the things they would most look forward to during their prolonged stay there.
"It's very peaceful here; it'd be nice to have some time to relax," Sen said.
"Yeah, and I wouldn't mind to get out of work at the bath house for a bit longer," Haku agreed.
Although nobody could understand him, Dayu gave a brief string of squeals, just to get his two cents in.
Naomi was silent. She was thinking that it's be nice to start knowing the prince better… then she noticed everyone looking at her, waiting for her to say something as if it were mandatory.
"Huh? Oh, well I guess with three weeks of free time, I'd start training myself with my sword… you think they have some sort of court for that here?" she asked nobody in particular.
"Oooh… I hope so. It would be useful to get in some practice before we end up needing it," Sen replied.
"Nah, you don't need practice, Chihiro. After that whipping you gave Kosho, I'd say you're pretty well off," Haku said, grinning.
Sen laughed and replied, "I would hardly call that a whipping. Besides, he was already missing an eye! The only thing I did was knock him out for a few seconds."
Relieved that their usual state of pleasantness was restored after the somewhat unfortunate news, they continued eating in a less tense state.
As soon as they were getting up from their seats though, the prince entered the room yet again with another announcement.
"I'm sorry to interrupt anything, but I have to warn you about something… While servants were cleaning up the station, one of them noticed a spell that had been written on the wall. Its contents are rather ancient…. But anyway, it said that a few temporary changes would occur for a day at a time, and completely at random. It's nothing serious; the spell is more or less like a prank… So if you wake up one morning and notice anything abnormal, then you know the reason."
Everyone looked at him uncertainly. "What kind of things?" Haku asked.
"Well… stuff like… one day, there might be mud covering everything in the castle; something along those lines. But then the next day, everything would be as clean as it should be."
Haku snorted. "Well at least now we can expect it, I guess…"
"Yeah... Well I'll just be off then. Unless you all would rather finish your tour of the castle? There's still the seventh floor to go, which has some very interesting things there… and then there's the roof and everything outside which you haven't seen yet…"
"Actually, we were just wondering before you came in if there's a place around here we could use to practice using our weapons," Naomi said.
"You mean like a training court? There's one out behind the southern wing. You're welcome to use it any time."
"Can you show us there after we finish the tour?" Sen asked.
The prince was all too happy to comply, having another chance to start winning Naomi practically given to him. He smiled with his usual cheerfulness and said, "Of course! Just fallow me then; we can start with the seventh floor, go to the roof, and then see outside, where I'll show you to the training field. Are you all ready to leave or do you need to do anything before we head out?"
"Nope, we're fine," Boh said for everyone, too excited to wait for them to reply on their own. "Let's go!"
They all left the room, scrambled into the elevator not too far down the hall, and were on their way.
"If you want to go up, pull the lever to the right."
Yeah… that was a pathetic way to end it. But hey, I needed a quote to match, and I'm running out. I hope to get the next chapter up sooner than this one did. Please review, and thanks! ^_^