Chapter 14: Mine (part II)
It was the 25th, the day of Christmas! Finally, this day had arrived. I'd always waited for a full year just so this holiday would come. And this year was special, because instead of staying home alone, I was staying with Slender and his brothers.
Speaking of which… To my surprise, the Slender Brothers were actually working very hard to get everything nice and ready for the holiday, despite Slender's protest. Splendor was in charge of decorating the house, and I thought he was doing a pretty good job. The walls had lights hanging on them, along with some cute little mistletoes. The Christmas tree was a little small comparing to the size people normally preferred, due to Slender's complaints about big tree not being able to fit in the house, but it still looked good with colorful tinsels and lights, shiny bubbles and of course, a big bright star on top. Meanwhile, Trender was secretly working on something. Smexy surprisingly had something to help too. He was very good at setting the atmosphere with some flowers on the dinner table and at a few places around the house, he also used some herbs to make the house smell very good. I guessed he was good at making the scent because he needed it for his… "business"? To set the right mood? ... I'm not gonna talk about it. Anyway, last but not least, Slender! He… uh… did complain all the time- I mean somtimes. But I could see that he wasn't like what he seemed outside. He was actually trying to help his brothers by cleaning the entire house from the floor to the ceiling on every floor, which was very impressive. But he was… pretty clumsy at that, so I decided to give him a helping hand.
I decided to make each of the brothers their own breakfast today. I woke up earlier than usual, around half past six, and carefully tip-toed down the stairs without making any noticeable noise. I got to the kitchen and started my work. Opening the cupboard, I was happy to find a decent amount of ingredients, which was a lot of flour, five eggs, a bag full of sugar, some baking soda, a little of salt, a bottle of milk and a half bottle of vegetable oil, just enough. I made the pancake batter carefully and heat up the pan. I was planning on pouring the batter onto the pan, but decided not to do it since I'd made a mess so many times by doing that, and I'd learned my lesson. So instead, I used a big spoon to scoop the batter onto the pan, slowly but surely. While waiting for the pancake to brown on both sides, I got the strawberries and other decorating sweets ready and whipped the cream until it was fluffy. Once all the pancakes were done, I divided it equally onto each of the five plates. Then, I put some cream on top of each stack, put some berries around the plates and carefully pour maple syrup on all stacks of pancakes. Looking at my handy work, I smiled as I wiped my forehead.
As I was cleaning up and setting the table, I heard footsteps coming from afar. I wondered who it might be.
"Good morning-"
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
Before I could finish my sentence, a loud shout was heard and Splendor jumped at me and gave me a tight hug. Startled, I let out a yelp, which I guessed made him release me.
"Ah! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Are you hurt?! Do you want me to check your back, your leg? Or do you want me to-"
"I'm fine, Splendor! I'm fine!" I cut him off, knowing that if I hadn't, he would try to do something weird to help me. "You just startled me, that's all."
"Thank goodness!" He returned to his cheery self. "I just want to wish you a Merry Christmas!"
"Thanks, Merry Christmas to you to, Splendor." I gave him a smile and he returned it by nuzzling me gently, and I did the same. After a short while, we stopped and he looked at the table, impressed.
"Wow! Did you make all of these?!" He gasped.
I chuckled. "Yeah. I want to make something special, so I woke up a little earlier today."
"They all look so goooood! Look! There's even the one with a reindeer face on top!"
"I'm glad you like it, because it's for you."
"Yay! You're the best, Konna!" He hugged me again with excitement, jumping up and down.
I smiled. He was such a child sometimes. I remembered him telling me that one of the things he liked the most was reindeer, so I decided to make a reindeer face on his pancake stack. I used a spoon to spread the cream into a circle and used chocolate pieces for its antlers and eyes, chopped strawberries for its ears and nose.
"Good morning." Smexy walked in. "I heard loud voices, so I thought I would come down."
"Konna is so great! She made special breakfast for all of us!" Splendor excitedly said.
"Is that so?" He smirked. "Let's me see if I can guess which is mine…" He rubbed his chin as he inspected each of the plate. Finally, he pointed to one. "It's this one, am I right?"
Damn sure he was right. It was a very… romantic-looking, you could say. I knew he was into these stuff, so I put cream and chopped strawberries in between each layer of his stack. I then used the strawberries to form a heart on top, pour the syrup over and topped it with whipped cream. I even formed a heart around the stack with chocolate pieces.
"You're correct, Smexy. It's yours."
"Haha, I know I'm smart." He chuckled.
"Morning, everyone." Trender walked in.
"What's up down here? It's so fucking loud." Slender groaned.
"Slender, language." Trender looked at Slender and scolded, although he probably had already known that his younger brother wouldn't even care.
"Come on Slender, don't be so sour." Smexy chuckled. "Because these dishes are so sweet your sourness wouldn't fit."
Slender face-palmed at the pun.
"A- Anyway!" I decided to change subject. "Come and sit down! I made breakfast."
I signaled Trender and Slender to sit at their plates. Trender's plate was very fancy, since I knew he was a fashionable guy. I melted the jam a little bit and pour it over his stack, topped it up with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, some small pieces of chocolate and sprinkled some sugar on top. For Slender's plate… well… I didn't know what his preference was, so I just topped it with some cream, stick in a few chocolate sticks to make it look like leafless tree and just… add some fruits around the stack to decorate.
You might think that his was the plainest, but mine was actually the plainest. It was just topped with maple syrup, cream and a few strawberries around.
"Alright, is everyone ready to open the present?"
"Me! Me!" Splendor was the fastest to answer me.
"Haha, I can't wait to see your faces when you see my gifts for all of you." Trender chuckled proudly.
"We'll see." Smexy said as we walked to the living room where the gifts were. We all promised that no one would even peak inside the presents until it was time, although Splendor seemed so eager he could possibly break the rule, which he luckily didn't.
Speaking of the same one, Splendor dived to the gifts first, searching for his gifts. I tried to hold back my giggles when I saw him jumping all over the place when he could finally hold his gifts in his own hands. We started opening our own. It turned out that Trender was spending every minute of his free time to made each of us a beautiful, well-made knitted scarf. Splendor's scarf was blue, Smexy's was crimson red, Slender's was gray and mine was autumn orange.
Wait- There was more?
Inside the present box, underneath the scarf was something else. I lifted the scarf up to reveal a full set of outfit. More surpringly, it was the set of clothes Trender and I talked about!
"T- Trender, you m- made this for me?!" I gasped.
"Absolutely dear. Did you think I was joking when I told you that I would make it for you?"
"I- I…"
While I was speechless, Trender pulled me up until I was standing and solved me upstairs. "Go change, dear! I made it just for you and want you to wear it today!"
"B- But-"
"No but! Just go!"
I had no choice but to try it on. Honestly, he was a great designer. The set consisted of a dark brown, off-shoulder and long-sleeved sweater, a thigh-length red skirt, black stockings and of course, the orange scarf. When I went downstairs, all eyes were on me.
"You look gorgeous, dear!" Trender said proudly.
"It looks so nice on you, Konna!" Splendor squealed.
"My my, you're just like an angel from above~" Smexy smirked.
Feeling embarrassed, I played with my hair and mumbled a small thank. But one thing I noticed that Slender was staring at me non-stop the whole time, ignoring everything around him. He has been really quiet too. Not just now, but from yesterday as well. I wondered what was up with him…
It was evening and I was sitting on the floor playing checker with Splendor again. I had changed into a more comfortable sweater and jeans, but I still kept the scarf Trender gave me because I liked it a lot. It might have become my favorite scarf. Beside each of us was a cup of hot chocolate and wrapped around me was a thick blanket.
"Ha! I won again!" Splendor excitedly claimed the king piece on my side.
"You're so good, Splendor." I said as I chuckled sadly, admitting my third time losing.
"I don't know what I was doing that night and let you beat me the entire time, but this time I get my revenge! Hahaha-"
"Everyone, it's eleven at night." Trender had looked away from his book and looked at the clock, saying the time.
"Really?!" Splendor looked at the clock as well to confirm it. "Oh crap! It's that late?! I better off to bed then."
I yawned. "Yeah, me too. Night, Splendor. Night Trender." I said and headed to my room. I didn't need to wish goodnight to Smexy because he had already gone to bed before us.
… Speaking of that, Slender went to his room even earlier than Smexy. He said he was too tired and needed to rest early, but I could tell that it was just an excuse to lock himself in his room. He seemed unusually quiet and extremely troubled, and that worried me a lot.
That was it. I had to know what was happening.
To be continued…