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The sounds of an obnoxious argument could be heard all throughout the mansion, or so, that is what Natsuhi’s migraine tricks her into believing. Truthfully her raging stomps towards the kitchen are louder, only being beaten by a door slamming open. It appears Kanon and Gohda are at each others’ throats again for the third time this week and it is finally time for Natsuhi to put an end to it.
Despite the parade of noise Natsuhi just conducted, the boys in the kitchen don’t even notice her dramatic entrance. After a brief moment of observation, Natsuhi interrupts them, “Just what is it you two are arguing about now?!” Kanon and Gohda both stop mid sentence and shoot each other a surprised, fearful look before turning their attention towards Natsuhi. Before either one of them can make up a single excuse, she continues interrogating, “How many more times are you going to continue to bicker this week?! Despite being nothing but servants, both of you are embarrassing the pride of the Ushiromiya name! It’s utterly ridiculous!” Natsuhi continues aimlessly ranting like this for a good minute or so before stopping to clutch her head and wince her eyes shut.
Without a second’s notice, Kanon takes this opportunity to be petty and win one over Gohda. “M-madam, my apologies, let me retrieve your medicine for you to make up for Goh- erm, for our bickering,” he states softly before glancing at Gohda with frigid resentment. Natsuhi fails to notice Kanon’s stuttering jab towards the chef.
Before Natsuhi can even reply Gohda harshly speaks up, “Nonsense! We’re already in the kitchen! Madam, a-allow me to prepare fresh tea for you! You can’t trust a deceitful little brat like Kanon to handle your medication!”
“...Gohda...Why in the world is a child acting more mature than you?” Natsuhi hisses, unable to bear the chef’s panicked noises, “Get out of my sight. Dinner is done for the evening, your duties are done for the day, begone, begone!”
“A-are you firing me, m’lady?!”
Natsuhi quietly cringes and sighs in exhaustion, “...Completely Baffling...Unless you retire to a spot where I cannot see you nor hear you, yes.” That’s all Gohda needs to hear to realize he’s overstayed his welcome, but before absconding for the evening, he sneakily shoots Kanon a grimace that’s drooling with hate.
Kanon smiles gently at his successful gohding, he understands it won’t be long until Gohda gets his revenge on him, but for now, Kanon will savor this rare victory. Truthfully, the servant hates sucking up towards Natsuhi like this, but it is well worth the clown wig and makeup he must adorn if it meant Gohda will come out looking worse than him. He turns his attention back to Natsuhi, “Allow me to take my leave too, M-.”
“Medicine,” Natsuhi interrupts abruptly, too pained and tired to maintain any sense of composure by this point.
“R-right. I shall be gone for only a moment, madam.” Before allowing Kanon to scurry off, Natsuhi informs him she’ll be in the parlor.
Quite some time passes before Kanon enters the parlor, medicine, an ice pack and a cold glass of water in hand. To his relief, Natsuhi appears to be asleep on a couch. For the first time all day, he feels like he’s not walking on eggshells. He loosens up his composure a bit before quietly attempting to place the items on a coffee table within her reach. Afterwards, however, he takes a moment to stare at the woman who’s basically his boss. To him, Natsuhi is a cruel woman, specific and demanding; but she’s also the mother he’ll never have. The mother who let her sinful pride and selfishness corrupt her love, who ended up gifting Kanon with this broken, unloveable body of his. He wants to hate her so badly, but instead he can only pity her and her sad, pathetic life for some reason. It seems all his hate is reserved for himself. And Gohda. His yearning for what could’ve been turns to self depreciation. Who could ever care for someone born under such vile circumstances?
With an audible sigh and a shake of the head, Kanon attempts to do Natsuhi one last favor for the night. He takes the ice pack and awkwardly props it on the side of her forehead. Natsuhi groans then opens up her eyes, “Huh, Kanon, what do you think you’re doing?” She grabs the ice pack and sits up, cocking her head at the boy with expectations of a good answer.
Kanon tenses back up as he hurriedly thinks of an explanation, “The ice pack...I hear it can help relieve headaches, so I…” Naturally, he fails and trails off while feeling absolutely pathetic.
Before he can think of what to say next, Natsuhi replies in a scolding manner, “You do realize how cold these are when they’re laid bare on you, correct? Next time, wrap it in a cloth. Is this what took you so long? Kanon, I only desired my medicine, nothing else.”
Instead of responding, he simply seethes in place. After going out of my way to be helpful, this is what I get? The absolute nerve of that stuck up wench! The servant’s mind floods with thoughts of violence, his face reddens… And then...tears start to glide down his burning cheeks? Kanon’s emotions overflow, and his cold demeanor is publicly executed. The situation goes from awkward to more awkward. Natsuhi stares at her servant in bewilderment before it clicks. He’s just a child, a lonely orphan.
“...Um, but I deeply appreciate the gesture, Kanon, it’s very sweet of you.” She adds on, solemnly, “I always do appreciate your hard work and dedication, even when I don’t express it…” Natsuhi pauses to work up the strength to apologize to a servant of all people, “And...and I apologize for, um, for how I treated you just now. And all the other times as well. I often forget to realize that you’re just a child. Younger than my very own...I’m sorry, Kanon…” As her apology went on, the more sincere it became; it was even relieving for the woman to say it all aloud. Yet despite her words, the boy only continues to cry and shake, steeping in hatred. Natsuhi rubs her forehead gently, predicting things will only get louder from here. She contemplates if it would be in poor taste to down her medicine at the moment.
Through his sobs, Kanon manages to deflect everything, “A child!? I have never been a child, just a burden. I’m useless...incompetant. Nothing but furniture to you and everyone else!! What a wretched thing I am.”
This elicits a woeful expression from Natsuhi and her eyes begin to conjure tears of their own. Quickly, she wipes her eyes with her sleeve, not wanting to show weakness during this. And then, the woman rises to her feet to embrace Kanon in a tight hug. “Oh, Kanon, what are you saying? You are and always will be a person! No one person can be a burden...or furniture. I’m truly sorry for treating you as anything other than human.” She holds him closely until the crying subsides and then returns to the couch, placing Kanon beside her. “Here, take this,” Natsuhi says while offering her cup of water and medicine to the boy. “All that crying will make your head throb harder than mine.”
Remaining silent, Kanon accepts the offer and quickly downs the meds. After he places the empty cup back onto the coffee table, his face gets ambushed by one of the cuffs on Natsuhi’s dress. His confusion doesn’t last long as it would appear all she’s doing is gently drying it off. Natsuhi looks disgusted at her sleeve coated in various face liquids, so she shamefully wipes it on the side of her dress. Seeing this action makes Kanon subtly smile for just a brief second. Natsuhi losing her composure like this is always a comedic sight to behold in all honesty.
Moments of silence pass before it’s broken by the servant, “... … ...I’m sorry Mo-, Madam. My actions and behavior were uncalled for and frankly embarrassing, I cannot nor will not allow it to happen in your presence again.” It seems by now his emotions have dwindled and Kanon becomes his cold, quiet self once more. “If you excuse me, I’ll leave you be for the rest of the night. Thank you……...for everything today...” And yet he remains in his current position while wallowing. As it would appear, sometime during one of the long moments of silence, Kanon found himself resting his head on a throw pillow that was resting itself on Natsuhi’s lap. How the boy got there is a mystery in itself. He is hopelessly pinned down by 2 hands, one that’s rubbing his upper arm up and down slowly, and another that’s softly scratching his scalp. Certainly, it is impossible to get out of a brutal grapple such as this.
Natsuhi continues her nurturing assault. She murmurs, “There’s nothing to apologize for, I dearly hope you understand that. Besides, as you might be aware of by now, I too have been known to get possessed by my own emotions. It would be hypocritical to hold you accountable for that.” She then sighs, “It’s been a long day for you, just rest right here for the evening. And, um, if you’d like, we can simply pretend I’m your mother to lessen the bizarreness of this scenario.”
Kanon rolls his eyes, “Don’t make this any more awkward for our sake. If anyone were to see us like this we would already easily die from embarrassment as is." With this fact stated, Kanon accepts his fate and readjusts himself to get more comfortable. “...Goodnight...mom…” A couple minutes later and he’s sleeping soundly.
Natsuhi’s migraine finally dissipates.