Part III: Of Spilled Tea, Stir Fry, and Smalltalk
As soon as you entered the kitchen, you wished you hadn't. The two boys you saw briefly at the beginning of your last visit were fighting. Again. The shorter of the two was standing on the tea table waving his spear in the bluenette's face, his spike considerably larger than the day before. The bluenette was holding a teacup as if it were a grenade. They were both yelling simultaneously, so it was slightly difficult to understand what was coming from either of their mouths. Seeing a vein rising on Anna's forehead and sensing the coming danger, you stepped back a few paces and into the hallway. Lyserg, who's face had resumed its natural color, had just entered the kitchen and saw Anna glaring the bickering pair, and promptly stepped back out of the room.
After tightening the sash on his robe, he nudged you slightly with his elbow, then nodded for you to follow him into another room. Silently, you obeyed, and he led you into the living room. Just as soon as you finished stepping through the doorframe, you heard Anna's very angry voice echoing throughout the inn. A pair harsh smacking sounds, and two yelps to accompany them. Then heavy footsteps stomping down the hall, and Anna appeared in the doorway, holding one of her hands as it began to turn red. Lyserg looked like a deer caught in the headlights, but quickly snapped out of it and scooted out of the room through a different door. He left you!
"Now that that's taken care of, feel free to start making breakfast at any time," Anna said sternly. You were sure that "any time" meant "right now," but wait a minute! You were the maid! Maids don't cook! Chefs cook! Maids clean up after people!
"Anna-san," you protested quietly. "You hired me to clean this place, not cook. I can't cook. The last time I tried to cook something other than instant ramen, I caught the stove on fire." Anna looked slightly annoyed.
"You're just going to have to learn to--" Anna was cut off by a rapid knocking on the door, followed by a muffled "Ohayô, Yoh-kun!" She huffed a bit before stomping over to the door and throwing it open, revealing a very small blonde boy.
'This is nuts,' you thought. 'This house is like a circus!'
"Is Yoh-kun around?" the tiny boy asked, sounding slightly nervous with Anna around.
"Upstairs," Anna said grumpily. Then she turned to you. "Katsumi, this is Manta. I figure that you should be acquainted since you two will be spending quite some time together in the kitchen. And Manta, this is Katsumi; the new maid."
Polite hellos were exchanged, than Manta ran off up the stairs in search of Yoh.
"Okay, back to breakfast," Anna stated. "Make it. And feel free to scold the idiots hanging around the kitchen."
Soon enough, you found yourself back in the kitchen, this time trying to chop vegetables amidst a shouting match. You wouldn't have minded the boys' fighting too much, except for the fact that the were throwing things, causing them to shatter or spill. After hearing the third tea cup smash against something, you turned around, staring at the duo.
"Would you two mind not causing so much destruction?" you asked as nicely as you could. The two boys stopped to listen to you. "Just you know, I'm the one who's going to have to pick up after you, and cleaning up broken glass is really a pain. I don't care if you fight, but just don't break stuff."
"Yeah, okay," the bluenette said thoughtfully after a moment of silence. Just as he finished speaking, he grabbed a full, unbroken teacup off the table, promptly flinging the scalding contents all over the shorter teen. The latter let out a shriek, then a colorful string of curses as he tried to fan the heat away from himself. You huffed and walked over to the tea table, arms crossed.
"That's not what I meant!" you almost yelled. "You!" You pointed to the bluenette, then to the door. "Out!" He trudged out of the room in the same manner as he had the previous day. You glared after him for a moment before turning to the other teen, who was now trying to wring out the sleeves of his sopping wet robe. You could see the steam rising from his bumbling form as you began to pick up the remains of the three broken teacups under the table.
"Kisama…" he growled under his breath, flapping the weighed-down sleeves around. You poked your head up from under the table.
"Excuse me?" you asked innocently.
"Nothing…" he muttered, and you went back to picking up the largest earthenware pieces. An awkward silence took over momentarily before the still-steaming boy decided to break it. "What's your name, woman?" A little surprised that he called you "woman," you shot your head up from under the table to look at him angrily.
"I-I'm sorry?" you asked with a tiny tone of annoyance. If he was going to refer to you as "woman," this definitely wouldn't work.
"I take it you're working here now, so it would be nice if I knew what to call you." You blinked.
"Oh, my name's Miryoku Katsumi. And you are…?"
"Tao Ren," he stated simply. He didn't really seem like he wanted to talk about anything more at the present moment, even though his robe was no longer steaming. You finished picking up the ceramic debris, then went back to cutting the vegetables. After a while of chopping, you had your first encounter with a hot frying pan in quite a while. You began to grow a little nervous looking at the scorching oil in the bottom of the pan, but put the vegetables in despite your fear. Surprisingly, it wasn't a disaster area like you had expected it to be. After the sizzling vegetables began to quiet down, you grew more and more relaxed until you actually felt comfortable in this setting.
Okay, almost comfortable. No one could really be comfortable under the heated stare of a tea-soaked superior. Also, the lace ruffles underneath the skirt were getting to be very annoying and tickly, and you had a feeling that the almost nonexistent skirt was showing more to the opposite sex than should be seen before 2:30 in the morning. Feeling Ren's stare was becoming slightly annoying, so you decided to start a conversation between the two of you.
"Who was the blue-haired guy you were fighting with, Ren-san? A friend of yours?" you asked politely. Ren snorted.
"That was just Horohoro." Even though you had your back to Ren, you could tell he had a look of extreme dislike on his face.
"Yeah? Tell me about him," you said, trying to keep this conversation from hitting a rock wall.
"He's an idiot."
"Keep going."
"He's a bigmouth snowboarder who couldn't sit still if his life depended on it." Pause.
"Mm-hmm. I'm still listening."
"He makes fun of me a lot for reasons I can't even understand. It really pisses me off -- wait a minute. Why am I telling you all this?"
"Because I asked you, now keep going."
End Part III.