Meiling leaned back against her chair and stretched her arms out behind her . With a sigh she leaned forward and her chair returned to four legs with a clack.
Steam rose up from the bowl in front of her. The sweet yet spicy aroma filled the kitchen. In the back of her head Meiling began to mentally plan her route for the day – bring the soup to Sakuya, snacks to the library and maybe even get get around to some cleaning if she felt like it.
Meiling glanced at the clock on the wall as the minute hand continued on its endless expedition round the clock face. Aside from the tick of the clock the mansion was quiet, the fairy maids were still asleep tucked into their beds, Flandre was in her room on her bed likely settling down to sleep through the day and Remilia had adjusted her schedule so would be asleep until noon. The only movement (rather ironically Meiling thought) came from within the library. It was one of the most consistently active places in the mansion. Be it day or night, Patchouli and her familiar seemed to be working on something or other. At some point in the future Patchouli would probably have managed to amass a complete collection of all the knowledge that the world has to offer. Would that make her content? Doubtful. Meiling thought Patchouli would probably just continue to work on her own theories conducting various complicated experiments to prove the effect of some far away planet on elemental spells. Or something along those lines. Meiling wouldn't know as apparently all it took was one breakage of one singular glass test tube, to receive a lifetime ban from contributing in Patchouli's studies. Years had passed and Patchouli still refused to let it slide or trust Meiling with glassware again though it wasn't really the end of the world. Meiling had decided a long time ago that whilst she could see how powerful knowledge is, academia wasn't her calling in life.
The old-fashioned alarm clocks that lurked within the fairies bedroom rang suddenly. Whilst the mansion was thankfully large enough to spare Meiling's ear's she could still sense the alarm clock's as they twicthed erratically with enough force that a good chunk of them would fall of the bedside tabletops. Sakuya had been responsible for the purchase, placement and repair of the alarm clocks. Meiling and Koakuma often joked that she had modified some of the clocks as some of them seemed impossible to turn off. She had even been kind enough to offer Meiling one although Meiling had quite firmly declined her offer.
Personally, Meiling thought that whatever else could be said about fairies you couldn't really argue that they were not amusing.
She could sense the different reactions the fairies were having to the alarm clocks. Some were quick to go on the offensive and strike the clocks whilst others took the defensive route and curled up further beneath their blankets, pillows over their ears. Some incredibly talented fairy maids appeared to be immune to the assault and only began to stir when they were nudged by their comrades.
'What a way to start the day,' Meiling thought to herself.
Most of the fairies seemed to have successfully subdued the alarm clocks and had begun to prepare for the day prompting Meiling into action. She picked up the soup, ensured the fairies meals were set out and began down the lengthy corridor.
Her mind wandered again as some of the fairies seemed to be having difficulty with a certain spirited alarm clock that continued to fight the good fight against the peace and quiet. Meiling altered her course towards the fairies.
As she drew closer, Meiling could heard raised voices arguing and as she reached the door the ringing of the valiant little alarm clock could be heard.
Meiling rapped on the door, "Do you need a hand?"
A few whispered conversations before Meiling received a resounding "yes" from one of the bolder fairies. 'Placing my bets now Sandy will be involved,' Meiling thought as she gently turned the doorknob and let herself into the room. She looked at the scene.
Meiling sighed. "Who put the clock in the fire?"
The room quickly broke into a heated debate as Margaret and Sandy (and some of the other louder fairies) fought to explain their side of the story as loudly and as quickly as possible. Somehow the clock just seemed to adapt, the sound getting louder as the argument grew in volume as well.
"It-wasn't-me-Meiling-I-was-just-"
"No way I literally just watched you stomp on it"
"Liar I saw her chuck it at the ceiling and when that didn't work she lobbed it across the room"
"It was a good throw"
"Oh yeah definitely ten outta ten"
"Don't point your finger at me you guys I-"
Sandy tapered off as she came to realise most of the fairies were pointing at her. "Traitors! Why you-"
Meiling walked around the commotion, crouched next to the fire, rolled her sleeves up and then reached into the fire and squeezed the clock until it finally stopped shrieking and settled for sputtering weakly and emitting smoke. Meiling held the clock up so the fairies could see the death of their foe with their own eyes.
The fairies cheered at the last clock's demise and began their celebratory dance or was it a ritual? Meiling could never be sure.
"Girls I hope we've all learnt a valuable lesson today – the clocks are one hundred percent fireproof, flames aren't even going to muffle them" Meiling said, "And Sandy there a very few problems that can be solved – long term at any rate – by putting them in a fire. So stop putting Miss Sakuya's clocks in the fire alright?"
Sandy muttered something about how she hadn't met many problems that couldn't be solved with a little bit of fire but joined the celebration quite amicably all the same.
"Right I'm not going to be chasing you around all day, but try and be sensible and stick to your chores okay?" Meiling had to raise her voice to be heard over the fairies. "If you make a mess it's your responsibility to clean it up alright girls? None of you better make extra work for anyone."
After plenty of resounding 'yesmisses' and a couple of 'yessirs' Meiling smiled and held the door open for them as the fairy maids trooped out to get their breakfast. She had to admit she was pretty fond of the little guys although she often felt guilty that she struggled to remember all their names. Apart from a few troublemakers and some of the especially competent ones she tended to have some difficulty with their names. She hated having to watch their little faces fall in disappointment so she'd had Sakuya write their names down for her (though it as pretty useless since she couldn't match the names to any of the excited faces). But a single compliment also cheered them up pretty quickly so it wouldn't ruin their day at least.
"Meiling when's Miss Sakuya coming back to work?" asked one of the fairy maids (was it Georgia perhaps?).
"Well Georgia, the doctor said to rest for a week," Meiling sighed, "so she'll probably start working again in a couple or a few days knowing her". The little fairy seemed satisfied and ran to catch up with the other maids whilst Meiling silently celebrated that she'd got her name right.
Meiling picked up the alarm clocks that were damaged by fairies, then closed the door and began to make her way towards Sakuya's room that was conveniently far enough away that she couldn't hear the morning commotion.
'Never thought I'd end up working with fairies as colleagues,' Meiling wondered,'Times sure have changed'.
Sakuya was still sleeping when Meiling arrived outside her door so she left the soup and the broken clocks on the table outside and instead backtracked to the kitchen to collect the snacks for the library.
Suddenly, Meiling sensed movement outside one of the windows. She flew down the hall ignoring the fact that it was a pretty much an official unwritten rule not to. One more sharp turn and a final burst of speed and she was able to reach for the window and just managed to pull it open in time before Marisa was able to push it open herself.
"Ah an honoured guest arrives," said Meiling as she beckoned her inside with a flourish and a smile.
Marisa, to her credit, only looked confused for a second before she swept her hat of her head and jumped dramatically from the windowsill to the floor next to Meiling.
"I actually have got a proper meeting with Patchouli today, but I just thought I'd pop in through the window, you know since Alice has been on my case about using the front door recently", said Marisa with a grin.
"All I said was I hope you would have learnt to use the front door, especially after yesterday," said Alice as she floated up to be level with the window.
"Oh just because I saw a perfectly good ward on your window. It was just begging for a bit of attention, and I'm sure you spent a lot of time on, so I thought I'd give it a test run for you, you're welcome for that by the way," said Marisa.
"Marisa obviously I have already tested all my wards sufficiently I don't enjoy it when my runes blow up in my face. My point was I specifically asked that you-"
"Sorry but Patchouli really won't be pleased if you guys are late," Meiling interrupted, "so if you don't mind escorting yourselves to the library . . . "
"Ah yes hello Meiling I didn't see you at your post or in the gatehouse so we just ended up admitting ourselves in", said Alice as she and her doll glided in the open window. "I was planning to use the front door but despite my attempts to operantly condition Marisa, she still insisted that this was a shortcut." Alice finished with a pointed look at the offending witch. Marisa seemed to be about to open her mouth to respond to this so Meiling quickly jumped in.
"That's . . . not Shangai?" questioned Meiling "Hourai right?"
"Yes I'm impressed you remembered her. It's been a while since I've taken her here", said Alice proudly as the doll waved and then curtsied to Meiling. "Well I suppose we really ought to go and greet Patchouli now before we're actually late. I'm sure she wouldn't stop bringing it up all day,"
With a flourish, Marisa swept her hat back onto her head. "Lets us adjourn to the library then" Marisa said as she marched dramatically down the hall followed by Alice and Hourai.
"I'll be bringing some food and drink down in a minute", Meiling called after the pair who had begun their back-and-forth again. "At least they're bickering whilst on the move now".
Meiling strode to the kitchen, quickly, not wanting to be late herself, there were a few fairies that cleaning up after breakfast whilst the others maids, Meiling sensed, had already flittered off to complete their different chores.
She began to heat the tea up that she'd prepared earlier and grabbed some cookies and fruits. Meiling placed the cookies down on the tray and waited for the tea to be ready. Patchouli probably wouldn't be impressed but she'd likely be entertained enough by the other magicians. Their debates could get pretty passionate. Meiling's mind drifted away from the task in hand whilst she subconsciously noted Marisa and Alice had settled down at the main desk in the library. Koakuma was on her way up to the kitchen probably sent to ask about the food. Everything really seemed to have changed since settling into life in Gensokyo.