Chapter 4
"Master Demyx! We were worried behind nothing! How could you not send us a note that you won't come back yesterday?!" Those were the first words that greeted them as they entered the beautiful three storied house in one of the richer districts of London.
After the actions at the docks, Demyx had halted a coach and they made their way in silence to the place the vampire called 'home'.
Now he threw the woman an apolitical smile. "I'm very sorry, Madam Mireille, but I really didn't have any time to do so. The actions rushed overhead." Madam Mireille seemed pleased with this explanation and smile now at her master. "Very well then, I prepared a bath, but I fear I have to add some more hot water since I didn't know when you would arrive. Albert's been so nice to help me." The portly appearing man who stood a little behind the small woman nodded slightly.
Again Demyx flashed her his sorry smile. "Ah, Madam Mireille, you're so good to me and yet I have to disappoint you again. I fear I have to go out once again. But please would you take care of young Zexion here? I recruited him as the new errand boy, " he shoved Zexion from behind his back in front of the two. The Madam flashed him a motherly warm smile, while Albert just observed him from head to toe.
"Oh, Master Demyx, what beautiful hair he has!" She purred. All in all she reminded Zexion somewhat of a big mother hen who accepted everybody, even Demyx, as one of her chickens under her wings.
"Zexion, these are Artur and Madam Mireille. Artur is the caretaker of this house and I have him in service as my butler. Madam Mireille is the good soul here. She's cooking and cleaning and I fear I can never pay her enough."
"You're very right here, sir." She said with a playful scowling look. She leaned down to Zexion and offered her hand. "Hello Zexion, my name's Madam Mireille. Say would you like to have some sweet semolina pudding after the bath?" Somewhat dumb he took the offered hand, it was very warm.
"Yeah," Demyx clapped in his hands, "like I said, I've gotta go-"
"Not in this coat, Master Demyx!" Mireille cut him short. The mighty vampire sighed in defeat and let himself getting dragged to the closet next to the entrance hall.
"I want you to be gentle with the boy, Mireille. I fear he's not only physically exhausted but also in a very unstable state of mind. He just saw his sister dying yesterday.," he whispered to her, as she helped him in the new coat. Her eyes widened.
"Oh my, the poor child. No wonder he's so calm. But don't worry, Master, I'll take care of him."
After Demyx had left Madam Mireille guided him upstairs into a luxurious bath and asked him to strip down and already sit into the tub while she got some more hot water. As he sat in the mildly warm water he really didn't know what he had expected as he first entered the coach with the vampire. Everything but not this kindly offered warmth. Yet his mind was still in a haze, his eyes felt hot from all the crying, which started now again without his control.
His sobs echoed back from the plain white and blue tiles that covered the walls of the neat bathroom. Zexion had come to an end. All alone in the world and chained to a monster from hell. He had no outlook for the future and nobody to back up him for the present.
She was gone.
"Oh, no, honey, shu shu shu, don't cry," Madam Mireille had entered the room, attracted by the low sobs. She knelt down to the tub and embraced Zexion quickly, muffling his cries in the fabric of her blouse. "Hush, hush, dear. No need to cry know. Nothing will harm you here." She stroke his head and waited patiently until his sobs had come down. Then she filled the hot water into the tub and put some oil into it. The hotness and the scent of the herbs entered his body and he felt debility and relaxation at once enter his mind.
"Here, my little plum, I'll wash your hair. And then we will get you a huge cup of warm milk. I already prepared your bed. You don't have to worry any longer, my dear." Her fingers did magic on his scalp as she massaged the flowery smelling shampoo into his hair. Zexion felt his swollen eyes fallen shut. He dried himself off, feeling like a ghost. The bed Madam Mireille had talked about was a neat and clean one in a small room on the second floor of the house.
She ushered him into the bed, made him drinking half of the milk and stroke gentle over his hair. Madam Mireille took the candle from his night stand and pecked a kiss on his forehead after she pulled the sheets again into a comfortable position.
Somewhat Zexion felt like he had a mother and his sister back again before the finally dreamless sleep swept over him.
"Wake up my little plum. The morning is nearly over and you've nothing done till now!" The chirpy voice caught him out of his slumber and he moaned slightly at the throbbing headache that entered instantly his head. Obviously a result from the crying. He froze and stood stock still until the smiling face of Madam Mireille appeared in his field of vision.
"Stand up, stand up, dear. Perhaps I will now find something for you for breakfast, but I don't know how it'll be in some minutes!" Now he realized how hungry he indeed was, so he covered a yawn with his hand and followed the small woman down the stairs into the well equipped kitchen.
She loaded tons of semolina pudding, eggs, rolls, sweet jam and milk on the big wooden table where she normally prepared the meals. While Zexion tried his best to behave himself as he raved the food down, she danced around the kitchen, adding some herbs into the soup, cleaning dishes and hummed a happy tune.
"Master Demyx came back early this morning and he gave me the instructions what you're duties are in the next time. Today you help me with the housework. Dusting, scrubbing, taking care of the plants and so on. I've been the only one, who'd cleaned here from time to time, so a helping pair of hands is a positive surprise."
When Artur, he takes care of the money, or Master Demyx have some messages to deliver you'll be in charge, ok? You'll always get enough money for a coach, so you won't have to run around alone. Such a little kid like you-"
"I'm no child," he interrupted her after he'd gulped down a huge mouth of pudding. She stopped in her motion.
"How old are you, dear?"
Her eyes on him made him fidgeting uncomfortable, he wasn't used that the whole attention from somebody lay on him.
"...15 years old, Madam Mireille." She gasped and looked somewhat funny with her big round eyes and equally open round mouth.
"My! 15 years already! My little plum, you have to forgive me, but you look like 10! My, so you're nearly a grown man then. My, my, my..." She started moving again, hushing him into "his" room and waited for him to get dressed. Somewhat some new clothes had found their way into the household, his size and likings. Perhaps the vampire could read minds?
"Sooo," she stated as the two of them were gathered in the great entrance hall. "You see, this is the hall, this door here leads to the saloon," she pointed at a well decorated door to her right. It was a white cream, like the rest of the hall, with golden ornaments painted on it. "And that one leads down to the kitchen and the basement, " said door behind the big stairway, which lead to the second floor, was also white but lacked the ornaments. "The second floor holds your room, mine and the one of Artur. There are also the guest quarters. The third floor is Master Demyx realm. I've already cleaned there while you were still asleep. So all we need to do today are to dust the guest quarters, the saloon, the hall and to scrub the bath." Like a lost puppy he followed Madam Mireille, the rest of the day he just listened to her, never said something on his own. She praised how good she lived with such a noble and kind master. Zexion wondered if she knew what her master was. While they were scrubbing the white tiles on the ground of the bathroom she just told him how much she'd been able to send some money to her younger brother, because of the wealth Master Demyx offered them.
"You do know that your master is a monster?" It slipped between his lips. Mireille froze, turned slowly and smacked him a light slap on the cheek.
"I'm sorry Zexion, but I won't allow that Master Demyx is insulted in his own house. We, Artur and I, do well know the truth about our Master. But believe me he is much better than most humans are these days and Artur and I owe him so much. So if I hear ever such dirty words from your mouth again I will have to wash it out with soap and, being 15 or not, make sure you won't be able to sit for a week. Understood?" Zexion was just able to nod somewhat dumb folded, still cupping his rosy cheek. Until the afternoon they were done with their work. Artur spoke to him for the first time and told him when he'll be able to read and write he has to help him with the paperwork as well.
He didn't know what to do for the rest of the day and the evening, so he hushed back into the room that was given to him and curled under the sheets into a tiny ball.
As Madam Mireille was about to enter the room in search for Zexion, her Master had asked her to take care of the boy after all, she was stopped by the muffled tiny sobs. With a sigh she let her hand fall back to her side. Her poor little plum. How confused he has to be. Demyx hadn't told her how he lost his sister, but even if it's been a calm death she'd been the only one he had left. And now he has to feel so alone in the world. The little 9 years old Mireille in her could feel with him. She had felt his pain, too.
Zexion found soon out that Madam Mireille's universal cure was warm milk with a spoon of honey in it. Whether he got a twisted ankle as he tripped over a pot in the garden or a cut in the finger or a cold during the winter. She always was there to bandage him and to force a cup of milk into his mouth. He once even had the un luck to witness how she forced Master Demyx and Artur to drink said wonder-mixture. She nearly choked them -not that a vampire can choke at all, but still.
So it was no wonder that her first reaction and action was it to prepare a cup of said liquid. She knocked gently at the door and entered after she got no response for some moments.
"Zexion?" She asked with her gentle tone and saw the pile of sheets freezing. "I brought you a cup of milk. Dinner will be at seven. Try to get some rest, I'll fetch you then." As she left the room Zexion relaxed. She was so painful motherly, he nearly couldn't bear it.
Madam Mireille and Artur are original characters. But I didn't want to "waste" the KH characters as Dem's servants, if you can understand what I mean. And I really got attached to those two, there's a beautiful story behind their relationship with Demyx. In my mind it's always kinda funny how Demyx, the really old and mighty vampire gets shooed around by a little grey haired old woman XD
I have to admit that I havn't wrote anything for the last month. My laptop made a nose dive and deleted two freshly written chapters. So I have to rewrite them but my motivation's not that high about it. I'll have about two month of summer break in some weeks, but I'm going to write an actual novel (soemthing new: in my mother language!) in that time. so just prey I'll find enough time and muse during that time between writing and working .
and btw: this chapter's that short because I wanted the following actions happen in one chapter. so the next one'll be more than long ;)