Disclaimer: Do you think that if I owned any part of Malice Mizer that I’d be writing fan fiction? No, I wouldn’t have time. I’d be much too busy fawning over whomever I owned. ^_^
Mana: Gackt, seriously, what’s wrong with the soup?
Gackt: *shakes head*
Mana: Puff isn’t around.
Gackt: I don’t really care. She’s insane.
Mana: She’s not that bad…just a little touched in the mind.
Gackt: Yeah, a little; like walruses are little.
Playing House
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Do you think that our resident idiot will wander into our trap?” Gackt asked in Japanese, smirking at the fact that the three servants were desperately trying to figure out what he was saying by tone alone, “Or do you think that all our careful planning will be wasted because of his stupidity?” He watched Mana drop an almost completely melted ice chip back into the bowl and select a fresh one.
“In truth, I really think it could go either way easily,” Mana explained, brushing a few strands of his dark hair away from his eyes with his free hand, “Adam doesn’t have much dedication so it’s possible that he could simply give up after a while.” The doll like guitarist attempted an awkward shrug, giving up before he made himself look weird.
“That wouldn’t be much fun at all,” Gackt whined, pouting slightly as he realized that his planned entertainment for the day might be lost.
“No, no it wouldn’t,” Mana agreed, squinting his blue eyes to get a closer look at a few of Gackt’s many and very tiny stab wounds, “Look at it this way, though; this particular method of torture is reusable if we choose to do so in the future.” Mana put the ice back into its container and dried his hands on one of the cloth napkins that were always folded in the middle of the table. He stood up, grabbed one of Gackt’s wrists, and pulled the confused vocalist out of his chair.
“Where are we going?” Gackt questioned as he was led down the hallway, glancing around nervously. His question was answered when Mana walked into the bathroom and started rummaging around in the cabinets.
“I noticed that quite a few of those wounds looked like they went quite deep into your flesh,” Mana explained, gathering up the items that he needed and setting them noisily on the countertop, “So, I’m going to put a little bit of antibiotic cream on them and wrap your fingers with gauze. That is if you don’t mind.” Without waiting for Gackt to say a word, Mana set himself to the task at hand.
“When I help you with a sewing project in the future, Mana, do you think it could be possible for me not to have to work with any pins or needles?” Gackt asked jokingly, smiling at his pretty friend who was so gently tending to him.
“That can be arranged quite easily. I can have you cut the material and the trim. If you can find a way to injure yourself doing that, I’m afraid that you’ll just have to sit and watch,” Mana teased, cutting the gauze strips to the appropriate length, “Either that, or I’ll simply have to stop distracting you with plans to torment the hired help.” He grinned when Gackt chuckled at the joke that only they would have been able to appreciate at the time. The blue-haired man proceeded to wrap up the vocalist’s damaged fingertips while a discussion began in the kitchen.
“I think they were purposely ignoring me,” Adam cried, looking like he was about ready to cry, “If they were ignoring me, that means that they have to be mad at me. Adair got me in trouble!” The butler bashed his head loudly on the table, his limp blonde hair catching on the rushing air with every downward swing. Allison and Britney watched him with horror in their eyes for a few seconds before they dashed forward and held their friend back.
“What do you mean?” Allison asked matter-of-factly, determined to have every detail perfect straight before she drew any conclusions, “I don’t see how your brother could have gotten you in trouble with your employers, unless he pretended to be you and did something terribly wrong.” Adam blushed and sheepishly smiled, pushing his hair off of his face to buy himself precious time. He chewed on his lip nervously until Britney became too impatient and slapped him across the side of his skull.
“Well, Adair repeated a few things that I had said to him,” Adam said slowly, his green eyes darting around the room to avoid the pair of women’s stares. Britney grabbed his chin and forced him to look straight ahead.
“What kind of things did Adair repeat to our employers?” Britney hissed, her teeth clenched so tightly it seemed like she had a severe case of lockjaw, “And you’d best tell the truth, Adam, because things could get messy if you don’t. I want to know if any of this is going to reflect back to Allison and I.” Adam shook his head as vigorously as he could, which was basically reduced down to a slight wiggle due to the maid’s death grip.
“He just said things that I had told him about Mana. That’s all, I swear!” Adam exclaimed, sighing with relief when he was released. He knew quite well that if he had taken a second longer with his response, Britney’s manicured fingernails would have been smeared with a thick coat of fresh blood. The red-haired chef sighed with disappointment and rolled her vivid blue eyes, finally becoming annoyed with her co-worker.
“You have to learn that Mana is married to Gackt; happily married, as it would seem. Therefore that means that Mana isn’t available and never will be available,” Allison explained coldly, snidely adding the final flourish, “At least not for you.” Adam nodded sadly, wringing his hands together.
“I know that. I was just dreaming. I really didn’t think that Adair would ever meet them, let alone divulge most of the details of what I had said to him,” Adam whimpered, relaxing a miniscule amount when he came to a realization, “I suppose that I should consider myself lucky that he wasn’t alone with them and didn’t get to anything too inappropriate.” Allison and Britney instantly groaned with disgust and put the maximum amount of distance between themselves and the butler.
“You should go apologize,” Allison suggested, waving him out of her kitchen, “To Mana, for objectifying her, and to Gackt, for cutting him out of the picture. Go on; get out of here. Scoot!” He ran out of the room while watching Britney warily over his shoulder, eyeing the rather large rolling pin that she was waving around violently. Adam looking cautiously around the hallway and darted into the living room, where he thought that he would be safe for a little while.
“Ah, our prey approaches,” Mana whispered into Gackt’s ear, leaning more heavily on the vocalist, “This should be very fun, especially after our other two servants got upset at him.” He smiled evilly and held the glossy magazine he was reading a bit higher to hide his amusement. Gackt nodded his head vaguely and directed his attention at the page that had just been turned over.
“Hello,” Adam said in trepidation, a weak and apologetic smile pinned onto his otherwise fear-filled face as he approached them, “I was wondering if you would listen to me so that I could explain what happened yesterday.” He waited while the pair of musicians cheerfully chatted in Japanese, each occasionally pointing at an interesting picture or article.
“I guess that’s a really good magazine,” Adam said tensely, even though he was desperately trying to be casual, “Could you tell me what it’s about?” The butler peered at the cover, praying that he’d see something that he could try and discuss intelligently, but shrank backwards when he noticed that everything was written in Japanese and there wasn’t a single image that he recognized. Adam settled for standing in the middle of the living room, figuring that they’d have to stand up eventually and walk past him on the way out.
“He’s persistent,” Gackt chirped, gesturing at the last page, “I didn’t think that he’d still be watching us after an hour.”
“Neither did I,” Mana agreed, over-zealously nodding his head and sending his loose midnight blue ringlets bouncing, “It’s almost like he appreciates his job and doesn’t want to lose it.” The auburn-haired man shrugged and reached for one of the other magazines that lay arranged on the coffee table.
“Maybe he’s finally gotten to that point in his mental development,” Gackt said, smirking when Mana had to bite his lip to keep from giggling, “All this stress has been good for him, in the long run, it would seem.”
“How long do you think we should let him stand there?” Mana asked, watching the blonde butler out of the corners of his eyes. Adam hadn’t moved for the past forty minutes and his head was hung sadly, letting strands of his bright hair fall over his eyes.
“I think another hour or two would be good,” Gackt stated calmly, reading over the index to find the most appealing articles, “If he’s waited this long, he’s going to wait until we speak to him. We might as well enjoy watching him suffer.” Mana grinned and let his attention slip back to the shiny pages in front of him.
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