Chapter Two

Kaoru tugged on her baggy clothing until it was as tight as…well, as tight as she dared without fear of the material tearing.

This was how it always was. Waiting all day long.

Waiting waiting waiting waiting…

Mr. Aoshi and his cheerful, if not hyper, assistant would leave the planet for places unknown, and Kaoru would stay in the library all day, with nothing to do but read and wander about the mansion and hope against reality that they'd return before she got bored enough to do something stupid.

For, while Kaoru was most certainly not stupid, boredom is an unkind companion, and pointy things are just so interesting…

Kaoru sighed, and gave her hoodie a sharp jerk.

She was all alone here, and—with the exception of those few days when Misao would stay home instead of swooning over her employer—she usually was. Mr. Aoshi had been her legal guardian as long as she could remember, and Misao always seemed to have been around too.

They were a family, dysfunctional, yes, but a family nevertheless.

Kaoru, much to the relief of her two holders, never wonder what her original family was like. If Mr. Aoshi and Misao didn't think that she needed to know, well, Kaoru would just have to trust them.

Fourteen years is a long time to look after someone, and plenty of time to form trust.

"Waiting waiting waiting waiting…"

All her work was done. There was nothing to do. Still.

It wasn't that Kaoru was Mr. Aoshi and Misao's maid, and she certainly wasn't their cook, but she wasn't really anything else either.

Sometimes she'd clean, but usually Mr. Aoshi'd have her organizing and cataloging the books. Mostly he had her practice her hacking and her programming. Then he'd make her fix his computer.

Kaoru grinned.

She honestly couldn't figure out how such a brilliant scientist could crash his computer so many times in a single day.

"Kaoru?"

About time.

"MISAO!" Kaoru bolted from her window seat, vaulted over a stack of encyclopedias, and threw herself at the small figure in the white lab coat. "I've been so bored. I tried to get a copy of government passwords—you know, just for the fun of it and everything—but they, the government, weren't very nice about it at all. They gave my computer a virus, and it won't finish filtering itself for another four hours, so I couldn't even play Tetris."

"Bummer," Misao said sympathetically.

"Kaoru," Mr. Aoshi greeted her. Then he paused, Kaoru assumed, because he was trying to process the last part of the conversation. "Government passwords?"

"Just—"

"—for fun?"

"Yeah."

"You were that bored?"

"Um…well…heh…"

Mr. Aoshi rubbed his forehead tiredly. "We really need to get a dog."

---------------

Misao was worried.

Misao, being the bright and happy being that she usually is, was annoyed with herself and the world. Why did there have to be so many things to worry about? It was all such a bother.

"We need to do something," she announced to Aoshi.

"We need to do nothing. Doing something is far more dangerous than doing nothing, and now is not the time to be doing anything dangerous, let alone 'something.'"

"The poor girl is trapped in the house all day—"

"I'd hardly call this castle a mere 'house.'"

"—she has absolutely nothing to do—"

"She has her work. She has everything she's always had for fourteen years."

"—and I think it's time we did something."

"Misao," Aoshi gave her a look that made her face flush, and leaned toward her in his chair. They were alone in the library together, having had let Kaoru out to walk in the gardens, and this fact that had not escaped the delighted Misao.

"Yes?"

"Misao, Shishio is still looking."

The girl visibly froze.

"How—how do we—know?"

"Do you remember—" Aoshi was interrupted by a loud sound coming from outside.

Both sprang from their chairs and darted to the window.

"What the heck was that?" Misao demanded.

Aoshi's reply was cut short by another sound, and what sounded suspiciously like laughter.

---------------

Yahiko was lost, and he wasn't above admitting that.

But he was above asking for directions, especially from this angry dark-haired lady in front of him.

"You know you're trespassing, right?"

He'd tried to be quiet, he really had.

It seemed like ages since he'd last had a good meal, and all he was looking for was a house to rob.

Not a poor house, understand, but a relatively well-off looking home that wouldn't miss a few loafs of bread.

But he couldn't very well tell this lady all that.

"Go away." Yahiko tried to go around her, but she took a step to the side every time he tried to move.

"What are you doing here anyway?" The lady stuck her face close down toward his. Their noses almost touched. "You don't look like a trespasser. I've seen lots 'n lots of trespassers here before, but you don't look like any of them." She cocked her head to the side. "You hungry?"

"Y…y…yeah, thanks," Yahiko stuttered. Nervously he rearranged his backpack, and took a step in the lady's direction.

His boot caught on a vine, and he pitched forward, yelping loudly as he hit the ground.

"Not very graceful, are ya?" The lady pretended to trip, yelped in a pretty good imitation of him, and grinned in the dirt. "That's okay. Grace is nice, but falling is fun."

"Um," he didn't know what to say. This lady was weird.

She started laughing. "I'm Kaoru."

"Yahiko."

Kaoru grabbed his hand. "Come on, Yahiko!"

She pulled him through the garden and up the steps and into the house.

She didn't stop pulling, in fact, until they were in a big library, and were standing in front of a serious-faced man.

He looked Yahiko up and down doubtfully. The lady next to him giggled, and nudged the man.

"So much for getting a dog."