Disclaimer: I don’t own Malice Mizer. ^_^ But you get that by now, don’t you?
Puff: *twitching on the floor*
Gackt: My God! It’s been four hours, Puff! You aren’t burned at all; it didn’t even get through the first layers of your dress.
Mana: *sigh* That was a nice dress, too.
Puff: *kicks Gackt* Listen, I love you but I won’t refrain from hurting you, Gackt.
Gackt: o_O
Mana: Ah, you’re one of those people?
Puff: *glares* I’m going to ignore that.
Mana: I’ll just go watch from that corner over there… *edges away*
Gackt: This can’t be good when Mana leaves. >_<
Pre-chapter note: Um, I don’t know if they could be considered time warps, but I thought that I should warn you about the fact that I’m going to be omitting certain repetitive events. It was the best thing for everyone involved. You don’t have to read over basically the same things over and over again, and I don’t have to try and find new ways of wording them. You’ll know when I start to omit stuff. ^_^
Chapter Eight
“Why don’t we start with a name?” Gackt suggested, tracing the dark patterns on the bedspread with the tip of his finger.
“My name is Britney. You can call me Brit, though if you prefer,” Britney said cheerfully, pushing the ends of her wavy brown hair over her shoulder as she gave her name, “But you probably knew that, since I wrote both my real name and my nickname on the application.” She lightly shook the papers clutched in her hands.
Mana reached out a lace-gloved hand, gesturing for Britney to hand him the packet of papers that she held. She, of course, willing gave over her application to the doll-like man. His blue eyes flicked over the meticulously curled handwriting, noting the name he hadn’t previously paid attention to.
“Okay, Britney, why do you think you’d be good for the job?” Mana questioned casually, folding his small hands in his lap.
“Well, first off, I’m really good at cleaning. Details are always taken care of when I’m around. I can handle just about anything that you ask of me. I’m friendly and polite. I just really think that I would be the perfect person for you to hire,” Britney chirped, dark brown eyes flashing as she spoke. Gackt looked up from the comforter, glancing over at Mana to see his reaction. The guitarist stared, blinking twice to clear his mind before turning his attention to his friend.
“If you’ll give us a moment, Gackt and I need to discuss a few things” Mana said quickly to Britney, immediately switching to Japanese when he addressed Gackt, “What do you think of her?”
“She certainly cheerful. A little too happy, though,” Gackt said, watching Britney out of the corner of his eyes, “She could get annoying after a while.” Mana nodded slowly, lightly biting his lower blue lip.
“While that may be true, I don’t think the other two women would be right for us. They looked rather nervous and they were the least upset out of the group,” Mana countered, a black-blue curl wound around one of his slender fingers.
“You’re right, but we can’t eliminate the other two without interviewing them,” Gackt stated, “Let’s just bring them in here and do the exact same things. We can see if they’re still uptight or if it was the stress of waiting to see who got cut from the running.” Mana and Gackt smiled deviously at each other, knowing quite well why everyone was on the edge.
“Britney, we’re done with you,” Gackt said flatly as he stood up, his blank sapphire eyes hiding all clues from the woman, “You are going to wait in the dining room while we conduct the other interviews.”
“That was a short interview,” Britney commented, her worry clearly scrawled across her features.
“Don’t worry. We learned all that we need to learn that quickly,” Mana said calmly, watching uninterestedly as the apprehensive look on Britney’s lightly made-up face grew worse. She hurried out in to the hallway, waiting in the shadows until Mana and Gackt caught up to her.
“I’ll go get the next one,” Mana cooed, rather enjoying seeing all the applicants so nervous. The vocalist nodded once, showing that he understood, and led Britney into the dining room. He sat her down in a chair and stared directly into her dark brown eyes.
“Don’t move,” Gackt ordered simply, whirling around and striding out of the elegantly decorated room. Britney sat still, her eyes darting over every piece of furniture and artwork that she hadn’t noticed when she was filling out her application.
“Name, please,” Mana said plainly, holding his hand out for the next woman’s application packet.
“Danielle,” she said in a rushed voice, wringing her hands tensely.
“Why do you think you’d be good for the job?” Mana questioned, his cerulean eyes lazily focused on the uptight woman as he set her application on the bed next to his full black skirt.
“I think I could accomplish any tasks that you asked me to do,” Danielle stated, her eyes wide as she waited for a reaction.
“You’d just do what we asked? You mean you wouldn’t do something that needed to get done just because we didn’t ask?” Gackt asked sharply, smirking when she jumped slightly.
“I would do stuff that need to be done. I guess I didn’t word that right,” Danielle sighed, her head drooping vaguely. Mana and Gackt looked at each other, quickly shaking their head negatively. They didn’t have much luck with the other woman who had applied to be the maid, as she kept asking timidly where her two friends were.
“We hire Britney for the maid,” Gackt stated, watching the guitarist crumple up the other two applications and disgustedly toss them into the wicker wastebasket.
“Gackt, are we really that scary?” Mana asked, pushing his black headpiece lightly back with the tips of his fingers.
“No, now lets start on interviewing the three for the position of chef. This is beginning to get tedious and I want to get it over with as quickly as is humanly possible,” Gackt stated with annoyance, running a hand through his streaked auburn hair.
“Name,” Gackt snapped, sighing when Mana glared darkly at him with perfectly painted eyes.
“I’m Grace,” the older woman stated, turning her attention to Mana, “I assume that you want my application back so you can look over the answers and address certain things that you’re unsure of, right ma’am?”
“Yes,” Mana said coldly, not liking how she ignored Gackt, “What makes you think that we should hire you?” He sat the papers, which she had promptly handed him, in the space between his skirt and Gackt’s right leg.
“In my younger days, I spent five years at culinary school. After I left the school, I cooked for my family and did catering for fifteen years. My cooking skills are advanced and I can adapt to any cooking style that you’d like. Maybe I could put a little meat on the two of you; it’s only obvious someone hasn’t been feeding you properly,” Grace commented, her eyes quickly darting over them.
“We have to interview the other two applicants and then we’ll make our decision,” Mana said icily, his tone colder than liquid nitrogen.
“A lot of luck you’ll have with them. Both of them are just straight from cooking school. Barely even any real world experience. Not either of them can compare to my skills, even if they teamed up against me,” Grace crowed, readjusting herself in her seat as she crossed her legs and attempted to settle into the small vanity chair.
“I need your application and for you to tell me your name,” Gackt stated, looking at the next woman who they were interviewing. Mana was still upset over Grace’s rather rude comments and had immediately deemed himself unfit to ask questions for a little while. Therefore, Gackt had to take over for the time being.
“Why do you need to ask for my name? It’s right on top of the application anyway,” she pointed out, the tip of her finger settling above her name as she gave the papers to the vocalist, “Unless you can’t read or something.” Gackt narrowed his eyes, his blue eyes frosting over as he glared dangerously.
“Of course I can read,” Gackt said irritably, his eyes dancing over the lettering until he spotted her name, “It was a test to see just how well you could follow directions, no matter how odd they may see, Simone.”
“I’ve had problems with instructions all my life but I’m getting better,” Simone quickly explained, gulping when she realized she said something she ought not had said, “I won’t have problem, if you hire me.”
“Yeah, we still have one more applicant to talk to. We’ll make our decision then,” Gackt stated, cutting right to the chase as he pulled Simone to her feet and led her out into the corridor. She protested slightly, objecting that it didn’t seem like she got much of a chance to prove herself worthy of the job.
“Name, please,” Gackt said calmly as he held out his hand for the next application, forcing himself to remain civil.
“Allison,” she said sweetly, politely placing the papers into Gackt’s hand. Her eyes darted towards Mana, who was still sulking slightly on the edge of the bed.
“So, Allison, tell us why you think that we should hire you,” Gackt ordered, placing his elbows on his knees and leaning his head on his hands.
“I have excellent cooking skills. I think I would be able to fit in with anyone else that you hire for the other two positions you have to fill. I would respect you and your wishes completely,” Allison said carefully, measuring their reactions to her well-chosen words.
“How far would you respect our wishes?” Gackt questioned darkly, his blue eyes twinkling with a dangerous light.
“I suppose as far as my life wasn’t at risk,” Allison responded warily, wringing her hands together as she quickly added something else, “Well, maybe a little risk could be fun.” Mana smirked slightly, straightening his back and sitting up properly.
“I’m glad you think that way,” Mana said enigmatically, batting long lashes over sky blue orbs. Allison gulped discreetly, her healthy pink color fading slightly from her cheeks as the multiple ways Mana’s comment could have been taken settled into her already jumpy mind.
“Let’s go put you in the dining room,” Gackt said, standing up and gesturing for Allison to follow suit.
Mana and Gackt interviewed the three men who were there for the job of the butler, both becoming even more annoyed over the lack of suitable candidates even after they had trimmed off all of the really bad choices. The interviews went smoothly, though Gackt quickly noticed that not a single one of the guys was looking at him.
“You know, that seemed like it was one of the longest hours of my life,” Mana commented wearily, leaning against the kitchen doorframe, “I’m just happy that we’re almost done with it. This was a stressful idea.” They had just placed the last applicant into the dining room and now had to decide whom they wanted for the jobs.
“That’s for sure. But it will be worth it,” Gackt said hopefully, sounding just slightly unsure of his last sentence.
“We’re already certain that we want Britney for the maid, right?” Mana asked needlessly, crossing his arms loosely over his chest as Gackt nodded, “What about for the butler and chef?” Gackt leaned close to his friend, whispering in his ear. Even though they were speaking in Japanese, they didn’t want any names being over heard.
“We’ve made our decisions,” Gackt announced, striding into the dining room with Mana right behind him. They arranged themselves in front of the nine applicants, their eyes dancing over the edgy people.
Author’s Note: ^_^ Can you tell I got tired of writing out the interviews? Well, I warned you at first. And, besides, this saved you from falling into a repetitive state. *laughs* I hope that you enjoyed the interviews I did write out.