Disclaimer: Nope. I don’t have ties to Malice Mizer. Though, if they wanted to be friends or something, I wouldn’t object. ^_^
Mana: *hiding in corner*
Puff: *watches Mana out of the corner of her eyes*
Gackt: Ehehehe… Puff, you don’t want to hurt me.
Puff: You’re right. I don’t want to hurt you.
Mana and Gackt: *relieved sighs*
Puff: But, if it comes down to it, I will.
Gackt: O_O
Mana: Is there a room around here where I could hide *cough* I mean go lay down? I’m not quite feeling well.
Chapter Nine
“For the position of the maid, we’ve decided on Britney. For the chef, Allison, and for the butler, Adam,” Gackt said summarily, his cerulean eyes darting over each person that they had picked to see their reactions. The newly hired trio looked around at the applicants who hadn’t been picked, once again holding mixed emotions over the fact they got to stay.
“I believe you six,” Mana said, addressing those who didn’t get hired, “Can show yourselves to the door. Please do so.” The four women and two men quickly vacated their seats, hurrying out into the shadowy hallway and out through the front door.
“We’ll now explain your separate duties and what will be expected of you,” Mana stated, picking a small piece of lint off of his sleeve before glancing back up at the newly hired servants.
“Um, I hate to seem rude, but when are we going to find out about our pay?” Adam questioned nervously, his blonde hair catching in the candlelight.
“After everything else has been addressed,” Mana said tersely, hating the fact he had all but been interrupted, “You won’t be disappointed and you shouldn’t worry about it at the moment.” At the very least, Adam had managed to get the two women thinking about their salary as well.
“The duties for each job are rather obvious. Allison, you will prepare whatever food we want and bring it to us where every we want. Britney, you will, of course, keep the house tidy and organized. As things arise, you’ll get instructions on how we would like things. Adam, you will answer the door, take phone messages, and fetch things, amongst other duties,” Gackt explicated, hoping that he had managed to say everything that he wanted to say. The three seated in front of him nodded to show that they understood.
Mana vaguely smiled at Gackt, glad that he didn’t have to add anything to the vocalist’s explanation. He pushed a long dark curl over his shoulder, the lock shimmering a midnight blue as the light hit it just right.
“Should we show them the rest of the house?” Mana asked in Japanese, his head turned towards his friend.
“Probably. Then we don’t have to worry about giving them a tour later,” Gackt responded, switching to English when he looked back at the three servants, “We’re going to show you the rest of the house. Follow us.” They led the servants out into the hall, ignoring the arched double doorway that was open to the living room.
“In through this door is the kitchen,” Mana said as he gestured them in after him, “That door against the back wall leads to a pantry/ storage room and, through the pantry, a laundry room.” He waited for a moment to pass, to allow the three to look around, before he went back into corridor.
“You have, of course seen the spare room on this floor,” Gackt stated, stepping past that particular door and opening the one just down from it, “This is the first floor bathroom, obviously. And through those two doors is the backyard.” He gestured offhandedly at a pair of curtained glass doors, the shimmering silver lace hanging over black crepe silk to block the outside view.
The three nodded, carefully memorizing every sparse detail offered to them. Mana and Gackt hurried up the stairs, each smiling softly at the way the many mirrors reflected the flames from the candles placed just opposite of them.
“This is certainly nice,” Britney commented softly, whispering to the other two, “It looks better once your eyes adjust and you can see everything, don’t you agree?” She tossed her wavy brown hair over her shoulder, hurrying up the stairs a bit to catch back up to Mana and Gackt.
“That’s true. But there are so many things that look really expensive and that could be broken,” Adam said to Allison, warily watching the slender silver candleholders mounted on the wall every few inches. Allison nodded, snatching a stray lock of her red hair away from one of the flickering flames right before it began to sizzle.
“We definitely got ourselves an interesting job. I bet we’ll never have to worry about a dull day of work,” Allison said apprehensively, grabbing Adam’s wrist and quickly dragging him up the stairs the rest of the way. They managed to rejoin the three before the two musicians noticed their rather obvious absence from the group.
“Through this set of doors, we have a balcony,” Mana said, waving his lace-covered hand vaguely at the black-and-silver covered glass doors as he walked down a few feet to another door, “This is my sewing room. I have to ask that you stay out of this particular room whenever you can, because I have a lot of projects that could be damaged very easily.”
“What kind of projects?” Britney asked cheerfully, smiling widely at Mana, “I’m really good at sewing and could probably help you with a few things.”
“That wouldn’t be necessary. Mana wouldn’t require much help at all and I could help then,” Gackt said suddenly, not wanting the servants to discover what was really hidden beneath all of the piles of dark material and sewing things. That would, most likely, entail a very quickly planned trip back to Japan with no hope of return.
“Okay,” Britney said in the same tone, only for a brief second looking dazed over Gackt’s some what snappish voice. Allison and Adam were staring slightly, their eyes continually darting from their bosses to the sewing room door.
“I think we just managed to make them very curious, don’t you?” Mana sighed, speaking in Japanese, “This might be bad for our vacation.”
“They’ll do as we asked them. Mana, remember, we can always just use those keys we have to each door in the house and simply lock the door from out here. We can get in when we need to and we won’t have worry about them,” Gackt said evenly, grinning as Mana nodded his head at him.
“This is the master bathroom,” Gackt stated, resuming speaking in English as he opened a door further down the hall. The room revealed held every single thing a person could possible desire in their bathroom from a bathtub so deep you could practically swim in it to the brilliant lit row of mirrors. Glistening white and black tiles coated the floor, while fluffy throw rugs covered the tiles in spots. Pale gray wallpaper was indistinctly printed with light pink cherry blossoms.
The three servants stared with wide eyes, rather amazed at the attention to detail. Every article in the room matched perfectly with everything else. That and the wallpaper was actually printed silk.
“The last two doors lead to bedrooms. The one on the right is the master bedroom and the other is simply a guest room,” Mana explained, pointing to each entry in turn as he spoke. His blue eyes flicked over to the trio, the orbs dancing with a laughing light when he realized that they were still entranced by the bathroom. He turned and smiled at Gackt, who was also amusedly watching the three people.
“Shall we head downstairs again and finish up our discussion?” Mana questioned, his voice slightly louder than what was normal for him. As if emerging from a daze, the three turned towards the guitarist and the vocalist and gazed blankly at them. A single moment passed before they all snapped out of it and nodded in unison.
They all wandered back to the dining room, without any incidents. Well, without any incidents that Mana and Gackt took note of. A lock of Britney’s hair caught fire when she tossed it over her shoulder in the stairwell. Luckily, Adam and Allison managed to snuff the flames out before it burned more than the very tips.
“Now, you don’t get any health insurance with these jobs,” Mana stated, continuing his speech without pausing for a moment, “And we’re going to pay you in cash. You’ll have to sign a form when we pay you, saying that you received your money on time and in full amount. Before I go on, do you have any questions?”
“Well, why are you going to pay us in cash?” Allison asked seriously, rather curious.
“It would be better for all parties involved,” Gackt explained simply, pushing a lock of auburn hair out of his crystal blue eyes.
“Now that’s been explained, how much are we going to be paid?” Adam questioned, grinning broadly at Mana and quite certain that he would do his job for any price that the guitarist named.
“I was getting to that. $10,000 a month, with the amount split into two. So, each pay day, you’ll get $5,000,” Mana said, smiling softly when the trio’s eyes widened to nearly teacup size.
“Each?” Adam managed to choke out, staring in disbelief and honestly expecting one of his new bosses to just start laughing. Mana and Gackt exchanged a quick glance; they knew the amount was rather high but they didn’t expect such a stunned reaction.
“Yes, each. I hope that you all realize that you’re being paid not only for your work but for your complete and utter loyalty as well. That means that anything you see, hear, or have happen to you in this house and on this property won’t be mentioned outside of here. We highly value our privacy and we won’t tolerate betrayal of any sort. You have our trust now; don’t lose it,” Gackt warned darkly, his azure eyes shadowing over forebodingly.
The three gulped and stared, slowly nodding their heads to show that they completely understood what Gackt had said. Their eyes were lit with slight fear of what might happen if they would happen to betray Mana and Gackt.
“Now that’s been explained,” Mana said after a few minutes of tense silence, “Do you need anything else to be explained?”
“When do we start?” Britney asked, smiling nervously. She was toying with the singed lock of hair, not noticing the crisp and blackened ends wound around her finger.
“As soon as is humanly possible. Tomorrow morning if it can be arranged,” Mana responded, trying not to grimace at the burned lock of brown hair in Britney’s hand.
“Tomorrow works for me,” Britney chirped, almost completely relaxed again.
“I can be here after eight,” Allison said calmly, happy that they were once again talking about something normal.
“I’ll be here whenever you want me,” Adam stated, beaming at Mana before he quickly added, “To show up for work.”
“Around eight is fine, then,” Mana said, looking over at Gackt to be sure that he agreed with him. They all said their goodbyes, the three servants wandering out the front door and to their waiting cars.
“I’m hoping that this goes smoothly,” Gackt sighed, sinking down into one of the dining room chairs. Mana quietly perched himself on the edge of the table, smoothing the dark material of his dress with the palm of his hands.
“It probably won’t,” Mana said flatly, grinning when Gackt looked up with shocked eyes.
Author’s Note: Hehe, for this chapter, my lovely floor plans really came in handy. Yes, I drew up floor plans for the house. ^_^ I knew that I would mess up here and there if I didn’t have set locations for everything in the house. *laughs* It’s actually rather nice, the way I have it set up. Oh, and only the doors going outside are glass; except the front door. It’s a really heavy wooden door, but you knew that. *grins* I thought I should clear that up.
*sigh* Poor Mana; all the neighbors and servants think that he’s a girl. ^_^ It’s kind of amusing, now that I think about it. But it might lead to a little confusion, for you as a reader, about who I’m referring to. If you don’t quite know when I use ‘she’ or ‘he’ for Mana, just email me and I can explain. (I don’t think I made any ‘she’ references this chapter…but future ones will have plenty) And one last thing for my author’s note; they’re paying them in cash because something might be found out about the pair if they were to give checks. There, I’m done.