Another chapter. Enjoy!

When Genius Meets Cyras

The air was less thick and smelt sweet from the cooking that came from the houses in Lhant. It had only been three days ago that he was sitting in a stuffy office filled with mountains of endless work and now he had stepped into what obviously had turned out to be a festive for the town. Hubert smiled and acknowledged people as he made his way towards the manor and to see his brother. Over the many years the town never seemed to change. With the exception of the influx of flowers, probably on Sophie's part, it looked the same it did the last time he was there. He even found the purple haired young woman sitting next to the flower beds nursing a newly planted flower as he came upon the manor.

"Hello, Sophie." He greeted her.

"Hubert!" Sophie squealed. "You're here! Oh, you are early too. Asbel! Asbel! Hubert is here!"

The young woman bounced up off the ground and whirled around him a few times before taking off inside the manor in search for her adopted father. Hubert smiled as he followed her inside with his luggage. He handed it to the servant and followed Sophie's cheerful voice to the office. Both Asbel and Cheria were there waiting for him.

"Oh, Hubert! We are excited that you came early!" Cheria grinned her usual smile. "Pascal said that you may be early but you weren't sure."

Hubert blushed. They must think I came early to see Pascal. Asbel smiled along with his fiancé. "I'm glad you are here brother. At least now my sanity will be somewhat intact by the time the wedding actually happens."

"Tch, only you would be slightly detached for a situation like that, big brother." Hubert teased. "I assume I will be in our old room?" He had figured by then their mother would be letting them ready their new bedroom as the head of the manor. Although he was quite sure only Asbel stayed there for now.

"You're quite right."

"You must be tired from your journey." Cheria pointed out. "Go rest, we will send someone to get you when diner is ready."

Hubert thanked them both and took himself up the stairs towards his old room. He was ready to rest and was glad that the temperature in Lhant was much milder than in Stratha. Although, he knew that his old room was still a bit warm compared to the rest of the house but was glad to be away from the constant humidity. Knowing this he was completely taken by surprise when he was met with a cool breeze when he entered the room.

"Wha?"

"Hey, shut the door or you will let out all the cold air!" A voice from the back of the room chimed in. Hubert shut the door behind him without a second thought. A head of white bobbed up out from behind the furthest bed and glanced over that the door. "Hu!" Pascal pounced up excitedly. "You made it early!"

"I-I did." He was a bit shocked at the fact that she was in his bed room. "What… did you do to the room? It's much cooler than it normally is."

"Oh, it's some of my research that I've been doing over the past few months! Isn't it great? No more having to worry about the temperature inside when it is not so great outside! Just a few bidity bobities with controlled eleth and wham! Temperature at your fingertips!" Pascal snapped her figures and smiled.

"Yeah, it's defiantly nice." He managed to say.

"Oh wait to you see what else I've been doing!" Pascal spun around and danced in front of him. He opened his mouth to ask what she was doing in his room when he saw that his luggage was not the only luggage there. "I am going to have the whole house cooled just like this room. I did this one first because I figured you'd be all tired of the heat from being in Stratha all year. I know I can't stand all that heat!"

"Ah, so that's why you're in my room."

"You're room?" She blinked. "Well, I'm going to be staying in here too silly! Yay for roommates!"

Hubert all but lost his balance and stumbled over his luggage. "W-wha?"

"Don't get all wonky, Hu. There are two beds." She pointed out to him standing a couple of feet from him with her hands on her hips. "Besides, in a few days everyone else will be here and it will be crowded."

"Yeah." He muttered under his breath. "I guess you're right."

It was going to be an interesting couple of weeks having to share the same space as her when he had not even seen her in months. What was he thinking? On their long travels over the past two years he had spent many times closer to her than the space that was provided between these two beds in the Lhant Manor. He sighed a pulled his luggage up on the bed closest to the door and started to unpack. Even though he was tired enough to sleep through the next two days he was a stickler for having things done correctly and did not want any of the servants pawing through his things to put them up for him. He had all but unhinged his luggage when Pascal reminded him that she was still standing in the same room.

"Whatcha think you're doing?"

Hubert rose an eyebrow at her. "Unpacking, what does it look like?"

"That can wait." Pascal closed the distance between them and grabbed his wrist. "Common, I want to show you what else I've been doing!"

"W-wait… Pascal!" He clawed at the air towards his things and tried to keep his feet planted in place without success. "Pascal, I am quite tired and would like some rest."

She dragged him out the door and across the landing. "That can wait. You've got to see this."

Hubert sighed and let her lead him towards the master bedroom. If there was one thing he knew he could not stop was Pascal on a mission. If he indulged in her process he found that he could get things done a lot quicker and with less hassle. So a few minutes walking around and letting her show him what she had been up to would mean she would probably leave him be for the rest of the day about it. Not that spend some time with her was something he was trying to avoid, but he just wanted to be less tired when he did. He quickened his pace to match hers and took notice when she elected not to let go of his wrist. That was when he noticed that her skin felt softer than he remembered and…

"Pascal?"

"Yeah?" she did not even turn to look at him.

"You smell…" that caught her attention. "… nice."

It was true. Not that it ever mattered to him what she smelled like. But there was a certain lack of random odder and a hint of soap. Pascal stopped and let go of his wrist and smiled with her eyes closed and scratched the top of her head. Just like I remember, he thought.

"Heh, you noticed." Hubert nodded and started to blush. He rubbed his arm and looked off to the side trying not to meet her gaze. "Well, that's something I wanted to show ya!" Pascal opened the door to the master bathroom and Hubert looked inside but did not see anything that stood out.

"Uh… I do know what the inside of the bathroom looks like, Pascal." He was trying not to be rude but he did not get what she was showing him.

"Yeah, but look silly." She went on a bit obliviously like normal and pointed at the tub.

Hubert started to open is mouth to make another remark when he saw that there was something different about the bathroom. The tub had some odd metal pipe sticking out up above it and there was a curtain on a rod as well. He leaned in to inspect it, adjusting his glasses to keep them from falling, and could not figure out what it was supposed to be.

"Ok, I give up. What did you do?"

"Well, you know how everyone is always complaining about how I don't bathe often?" Hubert just gave her a look and she continued without pause. "It's not because I don't want to. It just takes up sooo much time and I lose getting to work on my research. So when I was visiting Richard I got to thinking that what if there was a way to bathe without taking much time? I had just finished with the temperature control unites in Barona and Richard suggested that why I didn't use water cryas like I was using the air cryas; something similar like I was doing in Fendal with the water pipes to take hot water to all the homes there. So I bashed and banged up some stuff and stuck it together and this is what I got!"

Hubert was impressed he was actually able to follow what she was saying. It was probably the first time he had been able to, ever. Although they both knew he would probably get lost with any other finer details but he was getting a good idea of where it was going. He leaned in again and looked at the pipe.

"So, how does it work?"

"Uh well, the cryas thingy will eventually be hooked up to a pipe system like in Fendal, but for now it's coming from the river next to the manor. It just rushes up the pipe with like so with the help of the eleth and gets heated by a fire cryas and you turn this little doodad and shazam! Water comes out of the pipe and falls down on you and you can clean off in a jiffy."

While he only got half of what she said this time, it was enough to understand that Pascal had found a way to harness water like they did in Stratha but use it in a way to bathe instead of beauty. "Hmm, I think I get it. You use a lot less water while you are at it too. Stratha could really benefit from this since we sometimes have water shortages in the summer. I'm impressed, Pascal."

It was Pascal's turn to blush. She looked down at her feet and dug her right toes into the ground. "Awe shucks, Hu. It is a lot easier to get all cleaned up since it only takes a few minutes instead of an hour. Kind of like sticking your head under a waterfall for a second then being done. That and Cheria has stopped chasing me around the place trying to stick me in the tub since I installed this."

Hubert chuckled. "I bet. At least it is good to see that you have taken my advice that you don't need help to bathe." He started to blush again and looked away but kept his gaze on her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Yeah… well…" Pascal almost never stuttered so it was odd hearing it from her. "Y-you should defiantly try it out and see if it works right. That is while you are here."

"Oh don't worry." Hubert smiled. "I'm sure everyone will want to try out your new invention so it will get plenty of use. Also, I'm sure the President would love to hear about this. It could solve a few problems in Strata."

"You think?" Pascal sounded a bit excited.

"Yeah, I will send him a message with the communicator later."

"Y-you left your communicator at home?"

"Well, yeah." Hubert did not understand why she would sound slightly sad. "You were here so I found that it would have been redundant to bring it along when I was going to see you. Besides, I left it with the President so I could keep in touch in case of an emergency."

Pascal made an "O" with her mouth in understanding. "W-well, I've got some more work to do. I'm sure you're tired and that Asbel will want to spend time with you later."

Before he could stop her Pascal turned and left him standing alone in the bathroom looking rather silly. He glanced and the tub. She really is brilliant though. Hubert sighed; he was going to be there for a little while so there would be plenty of time to talk with her. And maybe she will even be coming with me back to Stratha. He smiled at the thought and pushed his glasses back into place. I really do need to get these resized too.