I'm flying now! This'll be a breeze! Just lay back and enjoy the ride!

"Tama, please! Stop this!" Hayate yelped as Tama lunged.

"I was enjoying my catnap very well until you came along!" Tama, the Sanzenin Tiger, roared at him. It was a long withstanding gag that Tama could speak, but only Hayate knew this.

"You were reading that yaoi magazine in the corner! You weren't napping!" Hayate pointed out the obvious.

Tama glared at him, nails extended.

Tama huffed, but still decided to maul Hayate.

"Won't you please join our plot?" Hayate begged.

"To ruin the new maid?"

"She's replacing Maria." Hayate added coyly.

"She's a goner."

Tama joins the party!

Tama immediately became docile, and began questioning Hayate about this plot.

"What would you have me do, precisely?"

"You're a tiger. I don't know, how did you react when I appeared in the mansion?"

"You attacked me. Oh that was a good fun day, until I hurt Maria's flowers... I miss her." Tama whined. "If I kill this new not-Maria made, then Maria will surely come back."

Surely, Tama's logic was indisputable.

Hayate gave the smile one gives when they think the people around them are taking things too far. "Well, maybe killing her is a bit much?"

"NOT AT ALL!" Tama roared. "She thinks she can replace Maria? Never!"

Tama lay on the bed, pondering what he should do next. "I've got it. I'll attack you, and when this new maid comes up, I'll kill her! Mistress Nagi will certainly reward me for the girl's head."

Hayate nodded his head in agreement until he realized what this entailed.

Tama lunged, and their bestial tussle began again.

"Milady! Help!" Hayate cried out, partially acting.

"Milady! Help!" A cry was heard somewhere near the second floor of the mansion. Nagi panicked for a moment worried for her Hayate, but then remembered that he was practically invincible.

She figured it must be a signal to begin the next phase in getting rid of Veronica.

"Veronica!"

"Yes, Mistress Nagi?" Veronica appeared.

"We need to get Hayate. Something tells me that he is in trouble."

"Hayate? He seems so misleadingly strong though! Very well. I shall assist you in getting there quickly. Second floor, which room?"

"It is one of the ones next to mine, I'll show you." Nagi smirked inwardly.

The door was opened to a dreadful scene. Hayate was bleeding profusely, Tama's take on 'fun' no doubt, the room was a wreck, unintentionally in all honesty, and a large White Tiger glowered menacingly at the two new interlopers.

"Eek!" Nagi managed, jumping away from Veronica, leaving the girl defenseless against the ferocious beast. In the next moment, Tama dove at the new maid, claws outstretched.

"Ooh, kitty." Veronica smiled, holding out a single hand.

The next moment was a complicated one for both Nagi and Hayate, and Tama, to a lesser extent.

Tama froze instantaneously, and began purring. All Veronica had done was placed a hand under his chin. Gently scratching at it, she used her other hand his chest, immediately beginning a tantalizing massage that Tama could only continue purring at.

Nagi and Hayate could no longer control their dropping jaws.

"How-?" Nagi stammered, falling backwards looking at the new maid with fear and awe.

"All maids should come equipped with the proper massage techniques for White African Tigers, didn't you read my resume?"

"But there are no tigers in Africa!" Nagi noted in protest.

Veronica smiled as she began petting more of Tama. "Even so." She giggled.

Hayate cringed in pain and defeat. He spilled his blood for nothing.

"Tama, get out of here." Nagi barked, pointing out the door.

Tama, though immobilized, rolled to his side and trudged away.

"So I take it he is a luxury pet of the estate?" Veronica asked.

"Yes."

"I see. Good thing I didn't utilize my final move on that poor tiger. There wouldn't have been much left of him!" She giggled once more, and rolled to Hayate. "I imagine you've seen worse. Let's get you fixed up." She picked up Hayate with relative ease, and gently began roller skating alongside Nagi.

Nagi was relatively worried. The fact that the new maid managed to defeat Tama with one hand was distressing, but even more distressing was that somehow Hayate had become unresponsive.

"Hayate! Speak up!" She demanded, unwilling to cry.

"He'll be good. He only lost so much blood. He doesn't even need an IV right now. He just needs a little bed-rest and some stitchery."

"You're not going to send him to the hospital?" Nagi wondered.

"Why should I? I am licensed in America by the Emergency Medical Services. First Aid is second nature to me." Veronica affirmed.

Once the trio entered a room with a first aid kit, Veronica immediately went to work. Kneeling on the bed next to Hayate, refusing to stand for this precarious task, she pulled out a needle and some surgical thread, along with some gauze and isopropyl alcohol.

She closed one eye and bit her tongue.

She swabbed the edge of the needle with the alcohol, sterilizing it. She threaded it, and went to work. She'd use more alcohol to swab the wounds, cleaning them, and gently pulled the deep gashes of Hayate's skin back together almost seamlessly. This fact is so that the audience can imagine Hayate scarless, as if he had never been mauled by a large White Tiger.

Hayate winced in pain as the alcohol went into his wounds. It burned.

"Don't contract any muscle Hayate, relax." Veronica commanded.

Hayate tried his best not to move.

"Sleep Hayate, just rest for a little bit." Nagi recommended.

"Do you want me to knock him out?" Veronica asked sweetly, finishing up her stitchery.

"Well if he's done... I don't see a need for that."

"Very well. Shall I continue cleaning the floors?"

Nagi sighed, Hayate was safe, and her own reckless plans to get rid of this maid had nearly killed him. What was worse, was that the maid really wasn't that bad. She was great. She cooked deliciously, she was genuinely friendly, always smiling, never complaining, and she was devilishly fast at everything she did. She couldn't find a reason to fire her. She saved Hayate, after all. Veronica was staying, whether or not she liked it or not.

"Yes, go do that." Nagi answered, dejectedly.

"With pleasure, Mistress Nagi." And Veronica left Nagi and Hayate to one another.

Nagi paused for the door to shut as she looked at Hayate regretfully.

"She's really good." He let out after an eternity of silence.

"I know. She can't replace Maria, but... we have to find her though..." Nagi determined.

"Milady..." Hayate sighed, "thank you for staying by my side."

Nagi turned red. "W-well," Nagi could not convey that she was worried for him. That was weakness. "I couldn't just stand to let my main butler get mauled by a tiger."

Somewhere in the mansion, an elderly man gasped in agony as his presence was disregarded.

"Milady..." Hayate saw straight through her guise. He knew that she was worried, and her failed attempts at hiding it only made him smile inwardly even more.

Even if I don't have Maria, Milady will always be there. This thought was comforting in a strange sort of way. The smile he gave was not one that most see in their lifetimes. It was the elated contraction of oral muscles, heavily restricted due to recent stitching, reflecting not only one's mindset, but also the innermost workings of their soul. Hayate's very essence was smiling at his mistress.

And Nagi absorbed all of it.

POORBOY used SMILE.

And she turned red, as she always did. She couldn't control it. She wanted to tell him how she felt, but couldn't bring herself to do it. She wanted to kiss him and force him into loving her, but lacked the guts to let her mouth move on its own.

So she found a way out.

It's super effective!

"I-I'm going to go write my manga, see you Hayate."

Wild RICHGIRL fled!

Hayate smiled all the same, and laid his head back to rest for just a moment. He fell asleep shortly after.

Nagi was in her study, working furiously on a new manga. Recently, her adoration for Hayate was not something she could get away from easily. The manga became a form of diary, a fantasy book of how she wanted the relationship to function.

Of course, there were explosions, wild romance, and evil villains that never stayed dead in her manga that didn't really appear in real life the way she liked them too, but she didn't really care. Hayate openly showed his affection for her here.

Sort of, he wasn't really Hayate in the manga. He was some form of samurai warrior with technological superpowers that made him nearly invincible.

It was just a drabble really, nothing much, just an unnamed little thing between a girl and a boy who were oddly reminiscent of Hayate and herself.

Nagi sighed, unable to come up with any wild ideas for her and Hayate. She threw her head back her chair as her pen laid fell flat on the table. It wasn't coming to her.

Rolling her head back and forth, she agonizingly pulled at her hair.

Why won't it come to me?

Nagi focused inwardly, attempting to find something within herself that would ease her manga.

Her stomach rumbled.

Her hands darted to her abdomen, morbidly embarrassed by her humanity.

"Fine, I'll have a snack..." Nagi wandered off, knowing a walk might jog her brain for some ideas.

She left the door wide open.

Veronica happened by the door soon after. She began mechanically cleaning each square inch of the floor, but stopped around the desk. Nagi's pen had fallen off the desk when she stormed out, and the new maid decided to place it back on the table.

"Now what might this be?" She asked aloud, picking up the grossly unfinished work.

Nagi walked in and spilled her milk on the floor. She gritted her teeth in furious rage as she saw the new maid reading her private Hayate fantasy manga.

"What. The hell. Do you think. You're doing?" Nagi demanded, dropping her entire snack on the floor. There were flames sparking out of her eyes.

"Oh, reading this manga." She admitted. "Fairly well written, a touch of action, a touch of comedy, centered around the tenuous relationship of a super hunky dude and a lovely maiden, and their trips around the universe." She twirled on her skates, "Makes me a bit bubbly."

Nagi fell to the floor, shocked. No one had blatantly liked her stories like that, the last one was a robot, and that didn't count because he was programmed to be the perfect replacement for Hayate.

"At first, I thought it was storebought, which shocked me because I myself don't have it." Nagi started bubbling inside, another manga fan in her life, neither Maria nor Hayate truly understood, "but then I saw that there was no ending. This leads me to believe that you either are that obnoxiously rich, to buy the hardcopy before it is finished, or are that talented at writing."

Her breathing intensified. It was almost like falling in love.

"So, what happens next?" Veronica begged.

The fire in Nagi's eyes was replaced with stars, and she gleamed at Veronica.

"Well," Nagi began, constraining herself, "I guess I have this plan where-"

"They embrace passionately and make love?" Veronica clapped excitedly.

Nagi broke down, her reserved demeanor melted away, "No! They can't do that so soon!" she was blushing like mad, "First, they must have an epic fight together against an evil space alien-"

As Nagi and Veronica fangirled onwards, a blue blur picked up the spilled milk and cookies that Nagi had dropped, and cleaned the floor.

Hayate looked at Veronica and Nagi chatting away like best friends about her manga. He smiled for her, and closed the door quietly.

Klaus bowed at the Belle family as the exited the mansion's front doors, back to their car.

"I apologize for you not being able to say goodbye to your daughter. It appears that she and the mistress have become very good friends." It had been only an hour since Veronica had entered the room and began talking with Nagi, fantasizing alongside her all of the story ideas she had for her manga.

"It is perfectly reasonable. I knew it would work out between all of you. You'll find her to be an invaluable worker. It pains me to see her working so far away from home," he almost looked about to cry, "but I know she's in good hands, and vice versa as well. She will treat you all very well." Matthias opened his mouth to say more, but was cut off.

"But certainly you must be concerned without saying goodbye?" Klaus interjected.

"Not in the slightest. She is a big girl now."

"Her age is terribly misleading..."

"I assure you, she is well over 16 years old." Matthias affirmed.

"If you insist. Well, Juliana, Matthias, is has been a pleasure."

"It certainly has Mr. Klaus. We will drop by sometime in a few months or so to check up on her." Matthias spoke.

Julie attempted a formal goodbye in Japanese, "Your services have pleasured me."

Klaus coughed nervously into his sleeve.

"Julie, honey, let's get in the car before you attempt anymore Japanese, ok?" Matthias said in perfect English.

"Did I say something wrong?" Julie asked, being shooed into the car.

"No no, not exactly, I'll tell you later." Matthias said, getting into the driver's seat. He called out to Klaus once more in Japanese, "Farwell sir. It definitely has been a pleasure."

The small black side-door shut and the car drove away.

"Man, that was tiring." Julie sighed, lying back in the seat, running her hands through her hair.

"I know, you did well." Matthias craned his neck, as if loosening something.

"I got to be married to you for a day! Naturally I did well! This-"

"Is the happiest day of your life. I know, my fair Julie." The man patted her hair, smiling warmly.

She beamed, and then was silent, resting her eyes. "This jet-lag is killing me. It's nearly 4:00 in the morning back home... But I wouldn't trade an adventure with you for anything."

Matthias seemed to hum.

He looked at her, eyes glowing in the dim of the cab. "She says thank you, by the way." He blinked, thinking, "For the idea to wear the roller skates, by the way."

"Did she just tell you that?"

"Yep."

"Did she tell you not to tell me?"

"Yep."

Julie smiled her boyfriend's daughter was adorable in her own respects.

"Just sleep, you'll be home in a couple hours, and then it's back to work with me."

Julie whimpered. "That's not very fair."

"I'll tell you all about my latest triumph once it's over." He affirmed.

"Ooh goodie, another story." Julie sighed with her eyes closed. "That girl and that boy... they did seem very nice." She pondered allowed.

"It is so much more complicated than that, Julie," Matthias chuckled, "my little daughter is going to have her work cut out for her."

And the two drove off into the dusking night.

I am a little iffy on some of the references in this particular chapter, but otherwise I'm good. One more remains.

Chapter added 17:55, 2/20/2012