I swear to god, you all made me want to work on the next chapter before anything else |D I love you guys. You get my inspiration flowin'! I'll see what I can do for you guys. =w= Also, don't be surprised by what I call this world they live in. It makes perfect sense to me, I'll see if you guys like it. REVIEW RESPONSE!

Lilyrose225: I had a couple of ideas but another review put it in place. Be sure to have fun reading for me ^^

SoulReaper Rukia: omg, I would love a Richter cookie...lol I wonder what type he'd be? A strong flavor with a bit of another thrown in XDD you know how he is. Maybe you all should answer that lol and I'll put them in the next chapter lol

Queen-of-Bakas: Thank you -w- lol I think I'll have a treat for you in this chapter owo

AntiSora: Glad I could give you some relief ^^ that's a good thing. Lol and I decided, because of you, to mess with Emil in the morning. What oh what have you made me do...

Well, well, let's be on with this. And for dividers I'll be using characters for a while ^^ enjoy~

~Emil~

Heavy ink...lamp oil...and something like...cinnamon...what is that...? It's warm though...what could do that. Mmn...it's nice though...The teen's mind wandered through his half aware state. His sense of smell was working, sure enough but it was just to see where it came from that made him wonder. He fell asleep after cleaning the hall in the middle of talking with the others, that much he remembered but that wouldn't explain any of those scents. He hadn't really been around ink except when he was in Richter's room but he hadn't been there since the man himself left. Well, this estate did have a library but that wouldn't explain the smell of the spice. Well, besides the fact that they wouldn't let him step foot in that particular room either. So what could this be? Well, time to stop being a coward and just look, is what he psyched himself for. What he saw though, wasn't a thing of what he was suspecting.

What he was met with was the face of another that he not only would not have been expecting but also that he would rather not wake up to. Just yesterday, that man terrified him, leading to his current freak out that he was reducing to a mere whimper in fear of waking the other in bed with him. His eyes were widened considerably due to the little space between them. And now that his senses were back, he could even feel the hand that was rested gently against the high of his back.

He slowed his breath, for calming himself and not waking the other. He blinked a couple times, finally taking a good look at the man in front of him. The mahogany bangs of his lay flaccid against his forehead as the usually cold eyes were closed, making the man look almost nice in his sleep. Then he began to stare even harder at the man. This way, well sleeping, it was something enchanting about the way he looked at the moment. The sun bouncing off the red of his hair, highlighting his already sun-kissed skin and defining his features.

Shifting his feet, he began sliding back before he got too much more absorbed into the other. That was the bad thing about it. He was actually being drawn in by just the sight of this man, god forbid if he would've tried something at that moment. Emil would've been thrown to the wolves if that had happened. Before he knew it, he ended up tumbling backwards off the bed, landing back first against the floor with a pretty undignified yelp. And right after doing it, he knew he was most likely to be caught seeing as he instantly covered his mouth once he'd done it. And sure enough, not even moments later, the groggy red head soon met gazes with him as he looked down from the bed.

"Just what in the hell are you doing?"

"I-uh-you-uhm..." and after that he just settled for a muffled whimper, seeing as he still hadn't removed his hand from his mouth. The redhead grabbed his ankle, startling the boy even more. It was then that he clasped his knees together and put both hands against the skirt of the dress he'd fallen asleep in. The man, irritated at being woken up the way he had. Then again, the man didn't really like being woken up in the first place.

"Speak now, properly if you may..."

"You were too close..." he mumbled, unfortunately, too low for Richter's taste. The man sat up, reaching down and grabbing one of his wrists, yanked the boy up. Unfortunately because he wasn't expecting that, he didn't exactly land with grace let alone a decent position. He landed straddled over the other. The arm he held was above their heads as the boy himself was leaned against the chest of the other, his face flushed in light pink due to the vicinity of the face very close to his own. The dress didn't help either.

"What was that?" The teen couldn't help but stare for a moment. He felt a bit breathless in the man's gaze. His eyes were a bit cold but they were also dazzling to say the least. It was when he arched his brow at him that he found the slight ability to talk again.

"...too...close..." he murmured, now that he was close enough Richter could hear him. He stared the boy back in the face for a moment, his hand now resting on the blonde's lower back, catching his attention even more so. He blinked, questioning what the other was doing because his voice still proved to be failing him.

"Emil..."

"Hu-"

"Master Richter, I've brought your coffee-" the maid stopped after opening the door. She froze, just staring at the two males on the bed. Although she stood there as if she were petrified, she had an odd smile plastered on her face. It was clearly stuck there from a mix of disbelief and amusement. Emil's face flamed by this point, and yet Richter hadn't let go. Richter's eyes narrowed on the femme in the doorway.

"Adrienne...how many times have I told you to knock before you come in here?"

"I'm sorry but.." she smiled a bit more, "It's not my fault I come in during...certain types of moments..."

"Of course. Leave that and be on your way, would you?" she giggled, did as she was told and left for a moment before sticking her head back in. "What is it?"

"Just taking another look for the memory."

"Out." she laughed once more before leaving in all honesty. He sighed, releasing the boy in his lap as well as having a good yawn. The teen climbed out of his lap quickly, thankful that the other wasn't really fussy about him doing so and he headed towards the coffee. By the time the man grabbed his glasses and put them on, Emil was holding a cup o'joe out for him to take.

"I just added what was already on the tray. It only looked like enough for you anyway so I assumed that was what you preferred..."

"...smart..." he took the cup, sipping from the piping hot liquid. As he placed it down, he added: "But you leaving the room last night like I specifically told you not to was not. What were you doing anyway?"

"Oh that...well...you see..."

~Richter~

Not too long after the lord of the house left, the new maid boy found himself already bored to the point of nosing around the room. Suddenly, he heard a bunch of fuss in the hallway. He knew he wasn't supposed to leave but something sounded wrong. Then one of them shrieked.

"Ah well, I'll just get in trouble..." he yanked open the door and began to run down the hall.

"She's gonna fall!" one of them screamed.

"I just need to get the cat!" the apparent one called down as she reached for the creature hissing at the back of the cabinet. The little furball was hissing at her, a clear sign to leave it alone but so far as they knew it, Richter didn't like cats so they had to get it out of the mansion. It ran in when they had opened the door for the very person to leave. When Emil got there, he finally saw why they were screaming at her. The road she built up to get that high was not stable in the least, it was a surprise she'd even gotten up there in the first place without someone holding it still, the stacks of things she'd used. A table, a smaller table, a chair, a stool and a bunch of thick books. And she had her foot slightly braced against the last book as she was reaching for the feline, the entire stack shaking from her reaching. It all happened so quickly though. The stool slid, the books tumbled and seconds later from hanging, so did the maid that was on top of them.

Quickly running to her aid, Emil found himself breaking her fall, he as the apparent cushion for her to land on. The woman quickly realized that she wasn't hurt, turning to check on him (not knowing that it was actually a "him" and not a "her") in a bit of a panic. An inner thought on his part that the action he took wasn't exactly the greatest but in the end she wasn't hurt so it was good enough.

"Oh I'm sorry! Are you alright?" she quickly scrambled to her feet and helped him up in turn. He just smiled and tilted his head at the woman while laughing lightly. To their surprise, the kitten hopped down onto his head before climbing down unto his shoulder. The fallen girl had smiled at that, seeing as they could get it out of the place now but it also looked rather cute when she got a good look at the gray feline.

"Ah, yeah, I'm just glad you didn't hurt yourself while doing that."

"Oh, she's always doing stupid stuff like that..." one of the others but in. "Glad you were around though...oh, hey. Look at that uniform! You're one of the master's personal maids. Are you new?"

"Uh...not...really...its, well...its hard to explain..." he mumbled back the last part, causing them to look at him a bit strange.

"Well then, what's your case? You seem sweet enough to me." she blinked. At this point, he wondered if he could tell her without her freaking out as Aqua did. Or maybe they weren't as bad as her, who knows. He didn't just want to flat out say it but then again, there's no way he could know. He mentally sighed.

"He wants to return me. There are complications to me being here..."

"Oh my. Well, if it were me, I'd keep you. Why can't you stay here anyway?" she inquired. Another question he didn't want to answer. It was the one of the reason he was avoiding it in the first place.

"Umm...well...I don't think I really want to say..." he mumbled, looking down and avoiding their gazes. That proved hard with them beginning to crowd him.

"It can't be that bad. What is it hun?" one of the older ones asked, placing a hand on his back. He looked up at her for a moment before sighing.

"Well...don't you know how the black market steals maids and then sell them again?"

"Yes. What about that?"

"Well...I ended up protecting a maid at my house and got taken instead...but the girl there, because of rules, had to sell me anyway but she promised to find me somewhere good to go. Unfortunately, he didn't quite like what he ended up with so..."

"Aww, Master Richter could deal with you I bet. I still don't see why he doesn't want you here..." one of the other ones commented.

"Well...most maids are girls as you very well know..." it was when he said that that a silence started. They all just stared at him for a moment before one exclaimed:

"Oh goddess, you're a boy?" he face palmed but he was snapped to attention by one of the women grabbing his shoulders. The very one that had yelled that. She turned his head both directions as well as down the stepped a quick circle around him. "I just can't believe that! You look too cute to be a boy! I had no clue. How did he find out?"

"Ah well...he didn't...Aqua did..."

"Oh!" they all exclaimed at the same time. Well, apparently they weren't surprised by this statement. He raised a brow, wondering what exactly was the deal with that girl. "Ok, that girl is extremely dramatic. Any man besides Master Richter freaks her out on first impulse. You didn't do anything wrong on purpose."

"That and well, I wasn't even conscious when it all happened. I couldn't have done a thing about it..."

"Oh no...that's terrible...well, hopefully you can get all this mess sorted out..."

"Knowing that girl, I don't think he'll be having an easy time. She seems the stubborn type to me. She was pretty nice though. She said that she'd make sure I had somewhere good to go and it looks like she kept her promise to me. She never promised I could actually stay there once I got there so she hasn't broken her side of the deal. Can't hold her to that either."

"A...girl? Hmm..." the one surprised earlier on pondered. After a moment a smirk crossed her face. Clapping her hands together, she gathered all their attentions. "Well, well, what's done is done and nothing can be changed from that. The question is what do we do with you for the time being?" They all stared at the boy in front of them, not a single one of them saying a word but exchanging ideas through glances. They apparently came to an agreement because they all had similar smiles on their faces. "I just guess you'll be sticking with us. We can't leave you in there all day. You'll be bored stiff."

"Ah! But he-" he wasn't supposed to leave in the first place and that was bad enough. If he were to stay there...he didn't know what exactly that man would do. Sure, he's nice to the maids but they were females. He, a boy on the other hand, that was completely unknown territory to all of them. The girls seemed to think nothing of it but he didn't know what would happen in the least...

"Oh, we'll get you back in there before he steps foot on the property. And even if he did, it'd still take him ten minutes to get to the front door."

"Almost thirty if you're going by foot..." the older lady slightly chuckled. 'THIRTY MINUTES? Where on Teth'lerant am I?' In that case, he had to belong to one of the most prestigious traders in the country or maybe even the whole world to have a land that large. He quickly snapped back to the present as he was grabbed by both arms and led down the hallway, his complaints and worries ignored by the maids that just had to have his attention...

~Aster~

"This is the foyer..." the energetic one commented as she showcased the room. They were walking at a quick pace, requested by the group of girls before him, and they continued to show the rest of the house. Most of the place seemed spic and span, it was only some places that made him want to stop and just...help out best he could. Like the kitchen for example. There were so many dishes and the women in there were just dead tired of cleaning them. Dish after dish was cleaned until before they knew it, there was nothing left but dirty water and a cat covered in suds from falling in the dishwater when trying to play with the bubbles. Besides the kitchen, he attacked quite a good amount of the other rooms as well. Of course, this took hours but, who's counting?

"Oh, I see...so...hypothetically, that's the way out, right?" The little blonde boy asked, pointing a finger at the door. She threw him a sly look while pulling him out of the room.

"You won't be going out that door anytime soon if I have a thing to say about it. Now, let's continue. This way is the maid's quarters. The opposite way of the living quarters of the master and his personal maids such as Aqua and yourself. You guys are so lucky...it's much better over there you know..." she sighed as he gave a bit of a sympathetic face. There was nothing he could do about that anyways. He wouldn't be here long enough for as far as he knew.

"I wasn't really planning on it." he laughed weakly. "So is there anywhere else to show me? We've been all over this place and I can't even take account of it all."

"Well, the only other real places of any importance are places you can't go into and the one room you already know." she smiled, looking around the room to see if there was in fact anything else they could do. "Let me guess...you actually want to do something other than be toured around...?"

"Well it would be nice to actually do some work now. I'm kinda bored and well...I'm guessing you four have just been playing hooky today?" all of them laughed lightly, knowing they'd been caught.

"Well, we were supposed to be cleaning the dining room and well...she kinda got into that thing with the cat. You want to come help us? That room is a mess after all..."

"Sure. You didn't show me that room now that I think of it..."

"That's cause it was dirty..." she admitted as she a bit sheepishly. He did nothing but smile at her.

"Well how about we do that now. And you don't have to worry, I'm actually pretty good at cleaning."

~Ratatosk~

"Emil! You lied to us!" one of the maids laughed. He was about to ask what she meant until she chimed in: "You said pretty good, that's a high underestimation! What did you used to do at your house?" The reason for her saying that? Well, after the boy decided to work, work he did. He cleaned the dining room nearly alone, went to the kitchen, helped the cook, ate with everyone, helped the kitchen staff clean the dishes and such, dusted most of the walls in the maids quarters as well and mop the halls to try and make it better for the rest of them since one had complained earlier.

"I did exactly what I'm doing now. Why?" he was genuinely surprised by that. It was normal to him so he didn't see the big deal about it.

"...you had a maid didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"So what did she do?"

"Uh...follow me around to learn most of the time."

"Wait...so...your maid...does nothing?"

"...basically..." he added with a weak laugh. Marta would be so mad if she heard that...

"...If he sends you home, I'm coming with you. I want to sit around all day. Even following you around doesn't sound bad to sitting in this great big silent building all the time..." she groaned, looking up at the ceiling.

"Since Emil came out here, we've been lounging around anyway." one of the other girls added. They all laughed. "Man, if he could stay we could just take it easy for most of the day..."

"And helped out when he runs himself ragged like he is now. You should really rest now Emil." said boy yawned, quickly stopping it and shaking his head.

"No, no, I'm fine. Really..." he tried to assure but seeing as his eyes were beginning to droop, that wasn't very convincing. The high spirited maid smiled, not a word but going over to a record player. She switched the one that was currently there for something else and began to let it play. It was a small melody, played on something like a piano coupled with a xylophone and a stringed instrument. Seeing as they caught on to what was happening pretty quickly, they just closed their eyes and sat back, taking in the sounds. After that, he couldn't really remember much. Just hearing random laughing and a few murmurs here and there.

~Marta~

"The only thing I know of after that is this morning..."

"...I see. Well go find Aqua and accompany her for the day. And if you'd like, go find the others that you were with yesterday. I need to get to work since I neglected it yesterday..."

"Ah. Well okay. I can take that too the kitchen if you're done with it." he forwarded to the cup. Richter dismissed the item, waving his hand at the boy. He gave a small bow and headed for the cooking area. Once he got into the hall, he sighed, a frown present on his features. It still didn't know what would happen and the man just wanted him away. Suddenly, one of the women from the previous day was walking toward him in a quickened pace.

"Emil! Emil! I'm so glad to see you!" the highly energized girl beamed. He blinked at her.

"It's good to see you too."

"No, what's good is you don't have to leave!"

"...what? H...how do you even know that!" he was genuinely surprised. The lord of the house seemed nothing more than annoyed with his presence so why in the world would he be allowed to stay there?

"Aqua's a bigmouth you know. That is why you got in trouble to begin with but anyway... Oh, you were going to the kitchen?" she asked, noticing the tray in his hand. He nodded and she hooked her arm with his as they now headed to the predestinated room. "So yesterday after we carried you back to the room, which you are surprisingly light, you know, but we were making sure you were fine and then Master Richter came back and was annoyed that we were all in his room and not doing anything productive..." she giggled as they turned the corner...

~Aster~

"...what is this?" they heard master of the house as he returned to his room. Although, they knew very well they should've left by now, they got distracted. At first, all they were going to do was put him back in the room like he never left at all but it was until he started mumbling in his sleep that they all got curious and just began to listen. He said a few names. Tosk. Ast. Marta. They made mental notes to ask who they were later. He also was rambling about someone being angry, he said no to something and began groaning and some other things but that's what basically led to them all being caught in the room that they weren't supposed to be in at all. "I'll ask this again, what are you-"

"Master Richter, he's sleeping!" The brown haired girl answered. Even as she did this. None of them dared to turn around so instead of risking a glance at the glare they knew was waiting for them, they looked at Emil just a little while longer.

"Why are you in here ogling the boy in his sleep?"

"Oh...well...you see, he was a big help while you were gone and went and tired himself out. He's just adorable though. You found a hard worker. We barely had to do a thing!" it was right then, she caught what she said, remembering that earlier on, Emil had said something about him not leaving the room. Whoops...

"That still doesn't explain why you're in here right now, now does it?" They finally turned to see his annoyed stare and simply smiled weakly. Oh, they were in trouble...they all were in trouble...

"Well, he tuckered himself out so we brought him back in here because...well...it was our fault to begin with. We're sorry..." they all bowed and filed the room slowly, wanting to look back but a bit worried of the consequences. It was when they did sneak a peek, they noticed Aqua coming out of the room right behind them. She simply shut the door and sighed, shaking her head and walking the opposite way of them. "Aquaaaaa."

"...huh?" before she could fully turn around, the group was around her.

"So? So? What happened at that place?" one of the older ones questioned.

"And who was that girl Emil told us about?" the youngest asked.

"Is he in trouble or what?"

"Uh..." Aqua found herself looking from each worried expression to the next. She let out another sigh. "Let's see... we got there, found her, talked to her and found out everything was a moot point. The girl's name is Ruri and she's actually a good friend of mine too and no, he's not in trouble. At least he personally didn't do anything to get himself in trouble."

"Well...does he have to..." the usually chipper girl looked down for a second and looked her dead in the face, "Is Emil leaving?"

"Ruri wouldn't let him. She's making Master Richter keep him for a month because not only was it apparently unfair to try and return him in a day but it would break their policy if we did so he's got a month to see if he's gonna be permanent." Judging by the smiling faces, she guessed this was good news to them. "Anyway, you all should go to bed. The Master might be in a bad mood. G'night..." and with that, she continued on towards her room on the other end of the hall.

~Aqua~

"So yeah, that's how everything went down. I say once he sees how more efficient and easy things'll go when you're here, he'll never want to let you leave."

"I...I see...but he didn't say a word about my staying earlier. He just told me to go help Aqua or you guys while he worked on some things that he didn't do."

"That was it!" seeing that she received a strange look, she laughed. "That way his way of telling you to work. A.k.a. You're staying so do your job. So congratulations Emil!"

"Oh, I see. Well thanks...uh...I never got your names..."

"You...oh my goddess we're so stupid...imagine trying to look for us in this place... I am Chocolat. The others will tell you who they are once we get around to finding them too."

"Oh. Well thank you Chocolat and sure. I'd really like that..." he smiled. In this new place he was at least glad to have already made some friends...

A/N: Don't kill me...don't kill me...PLEASE don't kill me... I am very very sorry. I forgot that I had started this chapter and never finished it. I finally took the time to go look in my folder for this story and I saw the label for chapter for but I was wondering why I never remembered what it was about. I finally open it and it dawned on me that I never finished it so here you guys go! A late late LATE chapter for this and I hope to work on something other than My Silent Hero because THAT'S what's been taking up my brain this whole time. The next chapter I'll be sure to put up before anything else is either a oneshot or Don't Bring Books to the Beach. And again, I'm sorry...

~Ruru out