Author's note : After a long time of no ideas, I finally have one (smirk). Christmas sure brings many ideas. This story is dedicated to my friend in lj, les-lenne. Hope you like it, sweetie. Enjoy.
A Nightmare on the Manor
Chloe had never liked Christmas.
Not because she liked darkness and silence very much.
Well, yes she adored them, but it wasn't the reason. There were horrible memories in her past which sticked to her brain as tightly as if they just happened.
And that's why, two days before Christmas this year, noone especially Altena wondered where Chloe had gone-or rather escaped.
The purple-haired girl showed up behind a brick wall in Paris one day before Christmas.
It didn't mean that she suddenly showed up out of nothing behind the wall. It had just been a long time after she slipped into the shadow of the wall at midday.
Chloe walked stealthily like a cat toward her destination place. To the place where her sweetheart lived with her biggest enemy. A dog barked terrified as she clenched her fists. She thought she accidentally kicked the dog, though.
After some walk, she finally arrived. Full of expectations, trying her best to conceal her blushing face, she knocked on the apartment door.
She waited.
Nothing happened.
Chloe knocked again.
Nothing happened, except that some laughing kids passed by her.
Chloe didn't like laughters, especially if the laughters seemed to happen whenever she didn't expect them. And so she glared at the children. The children screamed in horror, and ran away from her sight. Chloe had never known how come she could always make people disappear from her sight whenever she wanted to, but she had no objection to it.
After some more knocks on the door, Chloe gave up. It looked like noone was at home. Not even the eyesore of Mireille Bouquet. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Another kid shrieked and scurried away.
Chloe sighed.
She didn't like the idea of waiting in front of the door alone. Being The True Noir, she was sure she deserved more respect and warm welcome greets. And so Chloe trotted back to the streets, in search of nothing.
And exactly at this moment, the fortune goddess winked at her. Kirika hurried down the alley, holding three big paper bags. Chloe forgot to be cool and opened her mouth to say "Hello". She had never achieved it, anyway. Kirika muttered a quick "Hi" as she saw her and ran past her in light velocity. As Chloe turned to look at her, she only caught the last bit of her shadow disappearing behind a wall.
Not yet recovered from her shock, Chloe fell down because someone bumped to her.
"Can't you look to the front while you are walking, stupid!" yelled a very familiar voice to her.
Chloe and Mireille glanced at each other the same second, and they didn't look happy to see each other as well.
"Oh, it's you," grumbled Mireille, displeasure in each word.
Chloe just mumbled something, which might be some rude words. But noone could prove it, right?
Mireille left as quickly as she came, although not as quickly as Kirika did. Chloe didn't care what Mireille was up to, but noticing that she headed the same direction as Kirika, Chloe followed them—no, Kirika, anyway.
Mireille and Kirika disappeared inside the same, tall building. After a while the light was lit in a room, and there was a cheerful cry coming from inside the room.
Chloe had expected something like "AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!" or "NOOOOOO!" but they seemed to be out of the story this time.
Disappointed and yet curious, Chloe decided to peek from outside a window to see what's going on. And she felt sick all of a sudden. That, what went on inside the room was so horrible. It awakened a terrible, no several terrible memories in her past.
That's why her instinct told her to ran away this time, despite her wish to spend the time with Kirika this year.
And yet Kirika's instinct worked wonderfully at the wrong moment, and that led to Chloe's doom.
"Chloe."
Chloe froze upon hearing her name called, and feeling her hand held tightly by someone.
"Chloe, it is cold outside. Do you want to join in?"
Kirika was smiling! She never had a huge smile but she smiled! And she had a cute santa claus costume on! She was just adorable!
"Uh… no, no.." Chloe shook her head frantically. Cold sweats ran down her face despite the low temperature.
"It is okay, Chloe. Mireille was drunk already, she wouldn't mind."
But that's not the reason!
Too late for Chloe, three seconds later she was already inside the house, surrounded by little children and elderly people. Everyone was grinning at her evilly. They all had such big eyes and they looked like they wanted to eat her up!
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" yelled Chloe inside her head.
As far as Chloe could remember, she had always been in the Manor. She couldn't remember the time before she arrived in the Manor. And it had always been a very nice time there, except for some occasions… Christmas, Christmas, and Christmas!
When Chloe was five years old, exactly after Kirika left, for the first time in her life Altena brought her down to the village to meet the Soldats families and paid a visit there.
Many times she had met them already. Some times with Kirika, and some times alone when she walked around. That's why she didn't have any bad premonition as they entered the village.
Outside the houses, everyone still showed her some respect for being a "Noir" candidate. Inside the house, suddenly everyone had gone mad!
It began with some shameless people who messed up her hair saying "Awww look at tha-a-t, our cutey cutey pumpkin pie Chlououououeeyy!"
Chloe was so shocked that she couldn't even bring out a cry. She just gaped at Altena but the latter didn't seem to notice her expression. Then more and more people gathered around her and continued to abuse her in diverse ways. They interpreted Chloes' screaming as cute, joyful cries though.
As she was older, Chloe found out that it had been a custom for the villagers to get drunk every Christmas event. And drunk people normally did things they didn't do while they were "sane". It didn't make her less scared, though.
Eversince then she was afraid of Christmas. She was afraid of people's craziness when the celebrating mood drew nearer. And she had always tried to make up any possible excuse to skip the party down in the village. Unfortunately without any success.
This year she thought she finally would be able to avoid some crazy crowds and spend the Christmas Eve in solemnity. Unfortunately, once again, she didn't know that Mireille was very generous during Christmas time. Every Christmas she would celebrate a party together with the people and children from orphanages. Good drinks and delicious foods, a big treat from Mireille.
So that night Chloe was mostly abused by children who were apparently too naïve to understand what Chloe's clenched fists and gritted teeth meant. They tugged at her coat, some even made a big effort to pull her hair, and they spun her around.
For the first time in her life Chloe was stuffed with so many foods. She came to know how much she hated cakes with so many cream layers on it, and too many candy canes made her want to scream.
And how come these children didn't understand what Noir meaned? It was a general knowledge!
On top of that, the drunk, sexyMireille in red and white stripesforced her to drink some wine and brandy. Despite Chloe's yells and screams, Kirika didn't notice how much she suffered because she was too busy preparing foods for the others.
After three hours of suffering, all drunk people including Mireille lied on the floor, snoring. Children were all asleep, some slept on Chloe. Chloe herself used all of her left powers to let go off some kids and sit straightly on the chair at the table, face to face with Kirika. The black-haired girl was more than exhausted. As exhausted as Chloe, although in different ways.
Kirika giggled upon seeing some children hanging on Chloe, and the latter thought that it was embarassing.
"The children like you very much, Chloe." Kirika praised her.
Chloe mumbled something to express her suffering, but Kirika understood it as a shy reply.
"They are all so tired that they fell asleep on the floor," remarked Kirika. "I will fetch some blankets."
Chloe hurried after her.
"Thank you, Chloe." said Kirika as Chloe helped her to put blankets on the people lying on the floor (Chloe forgot to give Mireille her blanket deliberately, fortunately Kirika didn't notice it as well). Afterwards it seemed that Chloe's early intention finally came true.
Kirika cut out two pieces of Christmas cake and handed Chloe one piece on a plate plus a fork. They ate the cakes together in moonlight, and Chloe was more than happy. This time even Mireille wasn't there to disturb (except her snoring—but that wasn't unrelevant, right?) Even the cake with million layers of cream tasted great.
If only the light was on, Kirika would be able to see Chloe blush. Chloe was really thankful that Kirika agreed on switching off the light.
Going back to the Manor that night, Chloe was glad that she had survived the party in Paris. And according to her calculations, if she departed now, she would arrive at the Manor exactly two hours after Altena and all nuns had left for the party in the village. At least this year she wouldn't be abused by the village people. This thought made her smile.
The smile faded exactly 24 hours later, as she arrived at the Manor.
"Since the big hall in the village is renovated for the time being, I suggested to celebrate the party here," explained Altena smilingly. "Okaeri nasai, Chloe. I am glad you can join again this year.."
"Couhlouououououeyyyy!"
"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH!"
Another Author's Note : Ideas for Mireille and Kirika's clothes came from a certain image, in which they are celebrating a Christmas party, lol.