[Continued from Act 8.A.]

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Frowning, Mipsacri immediately turned, folding her arms. “Fine. Go away. I’ll be down later.” She scolded, the amused Lecra still standing at the door behind her, a smirk glazed over his childish attitude, “Alright then. I’ll see you there soon.” He said sharply, giving her somewhat of a mock salute, then turning and walking slowly down the hall, probably laughing to himself at this whole ordeal. Scorning under her breath, she stepped away from the entrance to her room, still glancing back at the seals Sir Greynol had set all over it. “So stupid..” She snapped out loud, walking over to her closet to find some clothes, snapping the door open in her anger.

—

Meanwhile, there was quite a scuffle going on in the kitchen downstairs, and from first glance it was difficult to make out what was going on. Amongst the standard black and white linoleum floor, something was going on between two people; short ones at that, occasionally bumping into a counter here and there. Looking closer, it was something between Meriako and Lecra, she wrapped her arms around both of his shoulders from behind, leaning quite close to his face, much to Lecra’s discomfort. “Leccrraaaa…” She whined into his ear, “You need to wear this, since you’re making cookies with Mip and I.” She giggled backing up and holding up a bright blue, rather over ruffled apron, which was somehow identical to hers. Lecra frowned at this, turning around to face her, then backing up and folding his arms stubbornly. “No, Meriako! I’ve been watching over you since you were five, and somehow you still think you can dress me up like when we were little!”

Meriako blinked slowly, clutching the girly apron in her tiny hands, staring at him curiously, a moment of silence taking over as though she was actually considering this, before finally speaking up with something that completely disregarded any previous thoughts of slight maturity. “Why not…?” Lecra’s brow twitched as he attempted to keep his anger in check, still standing across from her. “Because! I’m not your little pet anymore! I’m three times stronger than you now, and I’m not a little kid! QUIT TREATING ME LIKE ONE!” He finally yelled angrily, since as he was speaking, Meriako had already come towards him in an attempt to pin the apron on him, as though she wasn’t listening to him at all. Grasping Meriako’s wrists that were already close to him, in a flash the archer shoved her away, knocking her backwards, landing firmly on her butt, the apron she was holding slid away from her across the floor. She sat there bewilderedly for a moment, as she had never been treated this way before, while Lecra simply stood there in silence, dropping his shoulders, their two sets of eyes connecting for only a moment. This was going to get him fired for sure, hurting Grendal’s granddaughter, even mildly, was enough bounds to get him expelled from almost anywhere.

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His fists clenched, his eyes caught Meriako’s expressions, which were filling up with tears of confusion and sadness. Suddenly, a pang of guilt struck through Lecra, but the boy was too prideful to apologize, nor did he really know what to do with that feeling, so he simply turned away from her. “Just leave me alone, Meriako. I’m not your friend. I’m just hired to protect you.” He said harshly, the cleric’s pale blue eyes widening with each word, sitting there in stunned silence. At that moment, the door creaked slightly, Mipsacri stepping into the room, humming gently to herself, she seemed in a fairly decent mood. But as she entered, shutting the door behind her, her humming ceased as she had stopped directly in front of Lecra, who’s head was hanging low, his fists still clenched. Before she had a moment to figure out the situation, Lecra, in his anger and frustration, shot a glare up at Mipsacri, his green eyes glittering with an anger she had never seen before and snapping. “This is your fault! I hate you, Mipsacri!” These words that came so easily from his mouth, but he didn’t really mean them. She was simply the first one he ran into, and he was still a child, no matter how grown-up he acted, his words came out of frustration at himself.

Shoving past her in a flurry, he slammed the door open and ran out, taking a sharp corner down the hall. ”Best to leave him alone… I wonder what happened though?” The thief pondered, all she could do is stand aside in surprise, but before she could ask Meriako, she had scrambled to her feet, tears streaming from her eyes. “Lecra! Wait!” She ran to the door, whimpering, in her hurry, she tripped over the apron she had dropped and fell over to the floor again. She’d never catch up with him now, she knew, so she simply curled up in a tiny ball, her chest heaving in silent sobs. The girl didn’t understand why Lecra, her best friend in her opinion, was so mad at her, nor had she ever been yelled at before. Mipsacri had absolutely no clue what was going on, so she simply slowly approached Meriako, getting down on her knees to sit beside the huddled form of a girl. “Meriako… are you alright?” She whispered, reaching her hand out to gently put it on Meriako’s sobbing shoulder. As the cleric felt the touch, she slowly lifted her pale-blue eyes, streaked with tears, to focus on Mipsacri’s, then a whisper slowly formed from her lips.

“Please don’t leave me, Lecra.”

Those words struck through Mip like a knife. Those words, that exact expression, she had seen it before. She had seen it all before in her dream! Why!? Why was this happening? Things were all piling up, starting to make sense. A puzzle was unfolding before her, she just had to straighten the pieces. Leaning closer, she took Meriako in a warm embrace, but the cleric took no effort to accept it, she simply pulled away, standing up again, her voice quiet and hurt, her eyes fixed on the door. “I’m going to go rest for now… please tell me if you see Lecra here again.” Mipsacri nodded slowly as Meriako left the room with slow trudging steps, dragging the apron silently behind her.

Getting up from where she was kneeling, she could only stare in silence as the cleric left. What now..? She had to leave soon, to save Hana, that very evening to be exact, but she didn’t want to just leave things like this. Nor could she tell anyone that she was leaving, if it was possible; it would just cause too many problems for the Greynol household. Lifting a hand to rub her weary temples, she let out another long sigh, placing her free hand upon the counter to rest. This was all getting far too complex. But before her mind could go into details, the door opened with a loud creak, and Eriatic stepped into the room, apparently unaware of absolutely everything. “Eh?” He tiled his head confusedly, “I was going to go get you to ask if you wanted to work on table manners this morning… but I see you’re already waiting for me.” The tall young man smirked jokingly, flicking a bit of shaggy marmalade-hued hair from his handsome face.

However, Mipsacri had completely forgotten what she had said the previous evening that she was indeed interested in such lessons. Everything going on had filled her mind so, she hardly took any remembrance to it. “Ah.. that’s.. right.. isn’t it?” She mumbled nervously, lifting her gaze to fix with Eriatic’s, before the wizard grinned, snapping his fingers. “There’s really nothing to it. It’s mostly all in your presence..” He said sharply, walking over to her and standing behind her, placing a hand on her back so she’d stand up straight, then beginning to go from there.

—

Outside the room, a figure leaned towards the door, eavesdropping on their conversation, began speaking out loud to herself. “Ah, last chance, old man.. Master won’t be happy with this.” The voice whispered, almost a gleeful tone to her mumble, before disappearing all together.

[To be continued..]

[Hello everyone! Been looking foward to this? xD From now on, I’ll be posting again in whole act format, hopefully it won’t be quite as long as these two were. I’ve been so busy lately, with it being a holiday weekend and all, but hopefully my schedule will go back to normal soon. <3

~Mip]

(OST used:
Mahou Sensei Negima OST 1
.hack//SIGN OST 1)
(MaskOfSmak pwns you.)