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The thrill, the buzz, all the euphoric tingles from the prior nightly escapades were slowly beginning to dry up… and what took their places, exhaustion, dread for a tiring morning shift ahead wasn’t as fun to think about.

Know what else wasn’t fun to think about? Nick, Hayley, Harry; think about one thing, and it’ll lead to another… and since I thought about work, there really was no else for this train of thought to turn to than this utter trainwreck of a dilemma.

As thing stands, both the brother-sister duo had vehemently made it clear that I really ought to just mind my own business. But if only they knew how much of their business had inadvertently become my business over the span of a few pivotal days…

Maybe for now it was for the better that I take their advice. Hang back, and let things unfold on their own, because right now nothing was gonna happen with any of them until something somewhere suddenly happens.

Speaking of things happening… lookie here, I’ve actually almost managed to do what I once thought was literally impossible: I got everyone a present that more than satisfied the imaginary bar I placed succession on.

Amanda with her ring that I’ve no doubt amassed thousands of likes on her feed already, Adalia with an unforgettable Christmas day… and night. Irene with a less grander, yet just as poignant simple box of chocolate.

I’d feel bad about getting her something less extravagant than what the others received if I weren’t also terrified about how she’d react if I expressed this exact sentiment to her. Too late to sneakily try to compensate now either, she’d sniff me out like a hellhound of ulterior intentions and chew me out with a stern lecturing as to how size didn’t matter or whatever.

It ain’t the gift you give, it’s why you give it right?

.....

Which brings me to Ash, the only gift that was still left pending… and the one I was probably the most apprehensive for.

We’ll be going off to someplace different, someplace new, and someplace all alone with just us two… something that’s become an increasing rarity with all the time I spent occupied with something… or someone else. I can barely even remember the last instance when we were able to spend more than a night or a few measly hours during the day together.

Compare that to when we first started out, living together in a dingy little apartment, teaching her the basic ABCs and 123s of this world and then some.

It says a lot about my life as it currently was, that being roommates with an Elf from another world can be considered a much simpler time… and soon enough, for a time, for a day, we’ll be able to relive those first few peaceful days of yore.

A decelerating right lean, and before long, I was paddling my legs into the shallow snow – having finally reached the driveway, high beam lights making spotlights at the front porch still pointing me, guiding me till the end toward home sweet home.

With a good third of the residents in this house having the hearing of… of whatever animal’s a good comparison, I made extra sure not to squeak or creak any of the floorboards on my way up the front door. There was really no need to announce my presence, especially this late in the night.

Then I paused for a moment, noticing a faint glow bleeding through the curtains in a window close by which was… curious to say the least. Ash should be fast asleep, and lightbulbs are just a redundant waste for the resident vampire, which leaves only…

I opened the door, slightly rattled that I didn’t have to rattle my keys at the knob, and entered – immediately there was a scuffle in the inky distance, in the kitchen, a pair of golden eyes snapped at me over the parted door of a wide open pantry.

It stared for a moment, it blinked for a second, before it decidedly decided to continue doing what it did before I so rudely barged in… which was stealing. Now, either a life-sized raccoon somehow got into my snacks, or whoever I was seeing and watching pile chocolate biscuits high in their arms was really there… in which case…

“You’re back,” I said, more stunned than anything else. “Welcome back.”

A packet of oreos fell onto the floor with an ugly splat, and on an even sourer note, I then heard an aggravated groan filling the silence in the air. I suppose oreos are more important than your hello’s, huh?

I slipped out of my shoes, unzipped free of my jacket, and stepped deeper inside, taking a closer, clearer look at the bundle of purple rummaging around my shelves.

“Did Irene bring you back here?” I asked, glancing briefly at the couch and noticing it vacant of its usual sleepy potato once again. Either up or out, I’m guessing. “Does this mean you’re finally done with whatever she was having you do?”

“Master?”

At the sound of that familiar voice, that familiar call, I glanced up, finding Ash peering over by the second-floor railings, her stark appearance bared in the bright lights flashing continuously from her opened bedroom door accompanied by the distant blare of speeding engines.

Suddenly it made sense; the exorbitant amount of snacks wobbling precariously in Sera’s baggy sleeves, the screeches and zooms reverberating across the hall…

Girls’ movie night?

“You’re back,” Ash said, racing down the stairway breathlessly, then composing herself at the last few steps down, she slowly came up at me, smiling, her green eyes glittering, as always, as delighted as ever to see me. “You’re early.”

I returned her delight, smiling back at her.

“Early?”

“Ah… simply my own false presumptions, Master, nothing more,” she shook her head dismissively. “Though I must still confess myself slightly bewildered – I would have thought you’d favor spending tonight with Lady Amanda rather than…”

“Come home?” I finished, already knowing what she was thinking, and to that, there was but a simple answer to satisfy. “Well, I have work in the morning.”

“I see…”

“Plus,” I reached out, giving her wild cloud of hair a loving stroke. “I thought you might miss me.”

Her ears gave a bashful wriggle.

“I wouldn’t have minded.”

“Of course not,” I made it to the top of her head where light gentle pats became my sole obligation to fulfill. “That being said, I’m sure you’d still rather me here than there, wouldn’t you?”

“Wherever you desire, Master,” Ash answered. “That is where I would wish you to be.”

“Wish granted, then,” I said. “Here I am.”

Ash just stared silently, and I can and will never, ever get used to the way she looks at me.

A fondness, tenderness that just seemed far too much for one person to hold for someone, for me… and every day and every second, there’s always just more and more every time I peer into her eyes and find only myself reflecting back whole.

“Anywhere, though?” I raised her a questioning brow. “You really got nowhere specific as to where you want me to be? A million miles away, you’re still fine with that?”

Ash let out a sigh, a relenting, confessing breath that curled the end of her lips.

“Alright, Master,” she muttered, drawing a bit closer. “I am as selfish as you think me to be.”

And with the truth finally out, I patted her on the head even more for her honesty.

“That’s my Knight.”

There was a loud rustle from behind, and I heard another loud smack of cookies hitting the floor… ending this moment, our little time together, regrettably as always, much too soon.

“Ah, Sera,” Ash hastily directed her focus to the purple burglar, alarmed slightly at the fact she was practically carrying half the pantry in her arms. “I believe one of each would prove more than sufficient, please… return the rest.”

Unusually compliant, Sera quietly did as told of her… and briefly I felt a surge of injustice, ’cause if I had opened my mouth instead that’s me up against increasingly vocal growls until one of us decides to throw in the towel.

Nine out of ten times, it’ll probably be me too.

“Lady Irene came by a few hours prior to your return,” Ash said, responding to the question that was probably swirling around in my eyes. “She said that she has no more need for Sera’s aid and returned her here with her thanks and utmost gratitude.”

“Why didn’t you send me a message about it?”

“I thought it best to leave you and Lady Amanda undisturbed,” she answered. “A gift, a moment, such as hers… I, myself, would have loathed distractions of any sort, should it have been me in her stead. Everything else, any pressing news that might call for your attention, I believed it can wait until the following morning instead.”

Probably the right call too. News like this, it’d probably eat away at my mind hungry for answers if she had messaged me back then… just as it was right now.

“So, do you have any idea why Irene needed her in the first place?”

At that, Ash gave a frown.

“I’m afraid I do not,” briefly again, she glimpsed back around at Sera, who was slowly clambering up the flight stairs with a much smaller pile in her swaying sleeves. “And she would not say either.”

“Why not?”

“Because she knows that I will tell you should she impart me with that knowledge,” Ash said. “And she would much rather you see it for yourself than hear about it from anyone instead.”

That’s a little… worrisome? foreboding? Why the need for such unnecessary secrecy?

Before Irene said she hadn’t a clue why she needed Sera, had no clear estimation as to when she’ll bring her back… and then now, it seems both questions had been clearly answered, and yet the most pressing one is still left deliberately up in the air for me.

“Lady Irene had also left me with a message to relay to you as soon as you returned from your outing.”

“She did?” I felt my eyes widen, my hand slamming lightly against the phone in my pocket. “Why didn’t she just – ?”

“Message you?” Ash smiled again. “I believe you may already know the answer to that question yourself, Master.”

Right…

“What’s the message, then?” I asked.

“Don’t forget,” Ash said, almost perfectly replicating Irene’s stern intonation, which was just simply uncanny. Then she blinked, and nearly matched her scowl as she repeated, demanded, “Ria needs her present too.”