The sound of roosters and the smell of coffee woke Sieglinde the next morning.
"What the hell…" she whispered to herself as she tried to cover her head with the pillow to block out the noise. Unfortunately her plan failed and she eventually had to roll out of bed. She slipped on some shorts and a bra under her large t-shirt, brushed her teeth, and headed downstairs.
"Good morning, Sieglinde," Glen said, greeting her with a smile as he read the newspaper.
"How did you sleep?" Martha asked, pouring her a cup of coffee.
"I slept great, thank you," Sieglinde took a seat across from Glen and watched Martha cook breakfast. She felt her mouth watering as she watched the pancakes pile up on a plate near the stove.
Waver eventually came down the stairs and yawned, taking a seat next to Sieglinde.
"Good morning, grandpa, grandma, Lindley…"
"Waver why do you wear a suit to bed?" she asked, snickering at his pajamas.
"Will you shut up? It's comfortable," he snapped.
At the sound of "murder" on the TV Sieglinde couldn't help but turn her attention to the news.
"Fuyuki's getting bad these days…" Glen said, setting down his newspaper to watch the TV. "Also, Martha, did you hear the roosters this morning?"
"They're in the front yard…I don't know how they got there…" Martha said, pouring Waver a cup of coffee.
"Oh yeah, I heard them too. I thought they belonged to you two," Sieglinde said.
"They aren't ours. I wonder where they came from…" Martha continue, setting some plates on the table. She noticed something on Waver's hand and gasped. "Waver, what happened to you?!"
Sieglinde looked at her friend. There was definitely a huge red mark on his hand that wasn't there before.
"Did you go and get a tattoo last night or something?" she asked, staring at it. It totally looked like a tattoo.
"What? A tattoo?" Glen asked.
"Crap!" Waver cried, immediately trying to hide his hand.
"That wasn't there yesterday. Let me see young man," Martha said, reaching for his hand.
Waver snatched his hand away from her and sighed.
"I wish you two hadn't noticed," Waver sighed, pouring some milk into his coffee and pushing the cup towards the grandparents. "Here, don't you guys like coffee?"
Sieglinde gasped as Martha immediately fell to the floor and Glen slumped over the table.
"WAVER WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"
She got out of her seat quickly and rushed to Martha's side, gently propping her up against the bar.
"Calm down, they're okay. I just have to start their hypnotism over again and re-alter their memories," Waver said, taking a sip of the coffee.
"You can't just do that. Oh my god, what if they broke something?" she said angrily. "Just because they aren't your real grandparents doesn't mean you can treat them like crap, Waver."
"Whatever."
Sieglinde grabbed the cup of coffee in front of him and splashed it into his face.
"If I had known you were going to be this much of an asshole I wouldn't have come with you."
She stormed back upstairs and quickly threw on some different clothes and stuffed her makeup in her purse. She put her long hair up in a ponytail and marched downstairs, completely ignoring Waver's attempt to talk to her. She vaguely heard something about summoning the servant today and how he needed her help but she could care less and just walked out the door. She needed to cool off. As she left she heard "Fine, I'll do it myself!"
Eventually she ended up at a park and sat under a tree, pulling out her mirror and makeup to cover up the dark circles under her eyes. She knew Waver could be bratty, but to completely disregard the well being of two elderly people just because he needed a place to stay seemed cruel to her. They deserved better. They at least deserved to be treated nicely. After setting her under eyes with powder and throwing on some mascara, Sieglinde felt her stomach growl.
"Right, I didn't eat breakfast…" she said to herself, getting up from her spot on the ground. She had two choices. She could either return home to deal with Waver or find something to eat. The only problem? She had no money. She could definitely use her magic to get money from someone, but it felt somewhat wrong to exploit them after she'd just gotten upset about someone else doing the same thing. She'd take her chances with facing Waver back at the house.
To her surprise Waver wasn't there when she returned. Glen and Martha acted as if nothing had happened earlier and were watching TV in the living room.
"Oh, you're back. Waver left his card on the table for you, he said he'd be back later," Glen said, glancing up from the TV and pointing to the kitchen.
Probably loaded with their stolen money, no doubt… Sieglinde thought, staring down at the red, Japanese bank card on the table and the tiny note that said "Sorry – W." Her stomach growled again and she sighed, picking up the card and stuffing it in her purse.
"Thank you, I'll be back later. Have a good day!" she said, exiting through the front door. It was time to find some food.
Sieglinde had never seen so many shops in her life. London had wonderful shopping centers, but the one in Fuyuki had them beat by a long shot. Everything was so colorful and the amount of trendy clothing stores seemed endless. She tore herself away from the shops and found a cute café to eat at. As soon as she entered she was greeted and immediately stepped back out.
Crap, crap, crap…she thought. She'd forgotten to activate her language spell and couldn't speak Japanese. Glen and Martha had spoken to her in English, so there had been no need to activate it yesterday. She tapped her wrist twice.
"Oratio," she spoke. Nothing happened.
"Here goes nothing…" she said, stepping back into the restaurant and attempted to apologize to the host. To her surprise he understood her, and escorted her to a table. She ordered some food and finished quickly, wanting to go explore the shops.
It was around 9 pm when Sieglinde returned home only to find that Waver still wasn't back and the McKenzies had gone to bed early. At this point she wasn't upset anymore and had decided to just ask Waver to be nicer to the McKenzies whenever he was around them. She stuck the bank card in her shorts pocket and tossed her purse upstairs before heading out to find Waver. The night air felt good against her skin and she tapped her wrist again, activating a locating spell. She closed her eyes and thought of her friend and within moments her feet were leading her in the direction he was at.
I wonder why he's at a museum…she thought as she walked. As she got a little closer her locator spell indicated that Waver wasn't alone. Stopping by the convenience store she bought two boxed lunches as an apology for the argument and continued on her way.
"I hope whatever spirit Waver summoned likes curry…" she mumbled to herself. She hoped he'd been able to summon the spirit, that is. She didn't know who was with him.
Her locator spell led her (oddly) through some bushes and towards the back of the museum.
I hope he's not doing anything sketchy... She thought. As soon as she reached the area where the spell told her he would be she heard a loud crash as the metal door to the museum storage was torn off. She blinked as a huge man appeared from within, carrying some books.
"Rider, what are you doing!? Why did you break the door!?" she heard Waver's voice call from the bushes.
"What the….." she said, looking at the large man and then Waver.
"I got the books like you requested, but I can't use my spirit form to carry them," the large man said, stepping into the light. He looked like he'd just walked off the set of a movie, with flaming red hair and rippling muscles under a red cape.
"Waver can you please explain what you and your friend are doing?"