Shadows within darkness

Thank you Golden Kitsune (hehe, yes just let´s forgive him, he didn´t know any better :)), Kerianya (Thank you so much, knowing that my story matters to you is the best compliment an author can get!), Lamica (I thank YOU :))and DTDY (I´m glad you liked it!) for reviewing!

And again I also would like to thank my beta j.sakurachan1 for betaing this!

8

“Good morning,” Aeris said gaily, as had become her habit. She did not anticipate an answer though and didn´t get one. Setting the tray aside, she went to the window and opened it widely, smiling at the warm sunlight and the birds singing happily in the branches of the old oak tree in the garden.

“Isn´t it just a wonderful day?” she chatted to fill the heavy silence.

Inwardly sighing, she looked over to the bed where her troublesome patient rested with his back against the cushions she had arranged so he could lie in a half sitting position. He kept his silence, as he had the day before. All he did was stare apathetically at the baldachin.

She didn´t let any of her concern show on her youthful face and went over to sit next to the bed. With one white hand she reached over to the bowl of chicken soup and held it in his direction, hoping against all hopes that he maybe would do her the favour and eat something. It seemed that there was one merciful deity that had listened to her prayers though, because to her unspeakable surprise, a slim, slightly shaky hand shot out and snatched the bowl out of her grip. Not even bothering to wait for Aeris to offer him a spoon, Yazoo guided the pot to his lips and slurped down the hot liquid, a thin trail of soup running down his chin.

“What?” he asked grumpily as he noticed the bright, happy smile radiating from Aeris´ features.

“Nothing. I´m just glad you´re feeling better!” she beamed, adding with a wink “Master Vincent sure is an amazing man, isn´t he,” causing the boy to roll his eyes in annoyance.

“Oh!” She suddenly exclaimed, clasping her hands together with eagerness, “You´ll have to tell me about everything you like to eat, so I can go to the market and buy everything necessary! You know, Master Vincent is a horrible eater.” She sighed with an indignant huff, but returned to cheerful in an instant. “But first I´ll bring you something good!”

With that, the maid rushed out of the room, eager to exploit the chance while it lasted. The boy might change his mind soon if she didn´t convince him of her cooking or something.

Watching the woman leave with little bouncing steps, Yazoo shook his head slightly. Why the hell was she all giddy about him eating something?! Honestly, she wasn´t his friggin´mother or something and even his old woman hadn´t given a damn if he had been eating or not.

Strange woman.

She reappeared soon enough, a hot steaming cup in her hands and offered it to him with a smile.

Reluctantly, but a bit curious, Yazoo carefully took the hot item and sniffed at it, instantly making a face. “What da hell´s dat shit?! I ain´t eatin´ dis!”

“Young man! This is my famous, omnipotent herbal tea, people would go to great lenghts to get it! Now drink it!” Suddenly the nice maid was gone, and a frighteningly dominating woman with her arms stemmed into her hips frowned at him much like Kadaj just before one of his infamous hissy fits. Hurriedly, Yazoo mechanically gulped down a large sip of the disgusting tea.

“See? It wasn´t that bad now, was it?” The warm smile was back again and she clasped her hands together, looking for excitement and praise.

“Uh-uh,” the boy choked, not daring to tell her what he really thought of her famous tea. He made a mental note to be very cautious with her from now on, it seemed that she had great potential of becoming very troublesome if she wanted to. Better stay on her good side…

“Aww, you´re so cute,” she drawled, gazing at him with transfigured adoration. Yazoo looked at her as if she´d grown another head, blinking. He´d been called a lot, but ‘cute’ had never been an adjective associated with his person. Frowning he decided that she had one or another screw loose. Even more reason to stay cautious…

“But,” she said, looking thoughtful, “you´d look even better after a nice long bath, don´t you think? ” The maid winked at him, and turned around to leave and prepare his bath, saying over her shoulder “Please finish the tea before I come back.”

Yazoo managed an affirmative nod and even summoned a wry smile that vanished as soon as she had left. Rubbing his temple, he poured the obnoxious tea into the flowerpot next to his bed.

This wasn´t good…

Maybe he should have just stayed with his decision to follow his brothers. Not that this Vincent guy had anything to do with this, like hell he would listen to that creepy fella! No, what had altered his mind was a dream he had, following their conversation.

Normally he didn´t remember his dreams, but this one had been especially vivid and… touching perhaps, even though little concerned him these days. It was just like a thick layer of ice stood between him and the world, making everything look distant and fuelling his devil-may-care- attitude. However, as he had drifted into sleep, he had found himself sitting at the piers.

~Flashback~

He was settled on one of the big, grey rocks, and instead of the normally clouded sky, the sun shone brightly and seagulls filled the air with their chattering. The sea was calm for once, little waves sweeping around the stone he was sitting on and droplets of fume sprinkling on his dangling, bare feet. The unflinching feeling of the presence of his brothers sitting at either side of him made him feel relaxed and at ease, though he could not see them; He just knew that they were there, like it sometimes happened in dreams. For once they weren´t troubled with trying to find something to eat, and the notorious ache of his empty stomach was absent. Instead of that unloved, but necessary ragged dress he was usually wearing, soft woollen clothes flattered his skin, and everything was just so damn perfect…

“Oy, look dat seagull shitted on da fellas head!” Loz suddenly roared with laughter, making Kadaj snort with amusement. A tiny smile graced Yazoo´s lips, though he didn´t turn his head to take in the sight of the unfortunate guy. Instead he leaned back, watching the sky with his head tilted, declaring quietly and more to himself. “Dat fella must be nuts thinking, ´I´d go back all ta myself…”

“Da hell ya talkin ´bout?” Kadaj´s angry voice reached his ears, making his smile only growing larger. Just as ever, annoying and demanding…

“Ya ain´t gonna die!”

Yazoo´s smile vanished. “Why nat?”

“Cause I say so,” came the cranky reply.

“Yeah,” Loz agreed, “ya can´t do dat.”

“Oh yeah? We´ll see ´bout dat,” the middle brother retorted icyly.

“Listen pal,” Kadaj huffed, voice carrying a dangerous undertone “ya really can´t do dat.”

“Why nat?”

“Cause,” Loz stated matter-of-factly, “of the fish heads.”

“What?”

“Yeah. An nat ta faget da ribbon.” Kadaj agreed with the oldest.

What did fish heads and ribbons have to do with his death?!

As if sensing his brother’s growing confusion, Kadaj added in that ordering, no-objection-allowed voice of his, “An if ya tryin anythin´I´m gonna com an hound ya friggin soul, ya hear me?!”

~Flashback end~

Before Yazoo could point out to him that a dead soul couldn´t hound another dead person, the pier had been gone and he had woken up to another sunny day.

Fishheads and ribbons… If that was what death was doing to your brains he´d rather not be dead!

A soft rapping at the door threw him out of his revery. Aeris entered the room with another smile, asking “Did you drink your tea?”

He just nodded and she flashed him an approving look. “What a good boy you are! Look I brought you a little reward!”

She held a tiny little translucent ball into his direction. Hesitantly he took the offered item, refraining from sarcastically pointing out to her that theoretically there was no need for a reward if she thought her friggin tea was such a blessing to mankind anyway.

Holding the ball in his hand unenthusiastically, he nodded at her again, making his ´gratefulness´ apparent.

“You have to eat it,” she smiled at him, hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her heels expectantly.

Trying to hide his crestfallen look as good as he could, Yazoo eyed the ball with much more wariness than before.

Eventually he gathered enough guts to grin and bear it and plopped the suspicious ball into his mouth, waiting for the disgusting taste to take over his mind.

His face went blank and his eyes widened however, as the inevitable urge to gag failed to grace him with a visit. Instead the thing in his mouth tasted… like nothing he had ever had before. Rolling the ball around with his tongue, a concentrated look on his face, Yazoo tried to locate the taste.

It was just… amazing!

Seeing the blissful look on the youth´s face, Aeris smiled her gentle smile and teased, “I see you like my candies.”

He blinked at her and rolled the ball to the other side of his mouth.

“Now, let´s have a bath, shall we?”

The maid reached under his arms and helped him up, taking advantage of his distracted state. Since his legs were still a little shaky she supported his frail figure and slowly they made their way into the backyard where a large wooden tub, filled mid way with warm water was waiting for him. After she had helped him out of his nightgown, Yazoo settled down in the tub, letting the warm, pleasant water surround him.

One thing Aeris had learned quickly about her master was that he was very picky about hygiene. This had been a very foreign concept to her in the beginning, since everyone she knew, including her former employees had all been what she now recognized them as ‘dirty’. But after she had once gotten used to it, it didn´t bother her anymore to keep herself clean and bath at least once a week, though it was a lot trouble heating the water. Sometimes, especially in the summer, she just settled with cold water, but she had thought that maybe the boy would appreciate it warm. Aeris had completely locked Yazoo in her heart, she didn´t really know why herself, but she felt that he had great potential despite his rather gruff and unrefined behaviour. Vincent had mumbled something about uncut diamonds under his breath once as he had exited the boy´s room.

Sighing, she rolled up her sleeves and started to rub some soap against her hands. The boy endured the procedure rather well (since he was still appeased because of the candy) and willingly let her wash his hair and his upper body. But when she came close to his more intimate parts he stffened and roughly shoved her hands away. She couldn´t blame him, though. He was approximately 12 to 13 years old, on the verge of manhood, and she was a complete stranger. Besides, it seemed that he had some rather unpleasant experiences and so she handed him the soap with a good natured look, telling him to wash himself properly and vanished into the kitchen.

When she came back, the boy was hanging in the tub in an awkward angle, trying to reach his black feet with a strained expression, but failing to succeed quite spectacularly.
“What´s so friggin´funny, uh?” He snarled at the maid as she held her stomach, laughing, and wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye.

Aeris just shook her head and, trying to get her breathing back under control, walked over to the tub.

“Here, I´ll help you if you don´t mind.” She held out her hand, and after a short moment of contemplating, the boy gruffly smashed the piece of soap into her palm, looking to the side haughtily and grumpily rolling the considerably shrunken candy around in his mouth.

Chuckling, Aeris watched him crossing his arms over his chest and giving her his best cold look, but it vanished as soon as she made contact to the sole of his foot. As caloused as it was one may have assumed that it would have been quite immune to any sort of touch, but on the contrary it seemed to be rather sensitive.

Yazoo made that much clear as he suddenly yelped, his arms flailing in the air and bursting into choked breaths.

“Oh,” Aeris said sweetly, “did that tickle?” She evilly rubbed the soap against the sensitive skin again.

“S-stop!!!” Clinging desperately to the tub, the boy tried to free his foot from her grip, but she was surprisingly strong. And obviously had fun torturing him.

“Ah, stop struggling or we won´t finish this ever!” She laughed. She had to let go immediately when he suddenly started coughing and bent over, his hands flying to his throat.

“Oh, there there, you shouldn´t swallow up your candy!” Concerned, she battered his back until he had spit the candy chunk into the water, where it sank down and slowly evaporated. Effectively ignoring the glare that was sent her way from beneath soaked tresses - it had all been her fault damnit!-, the maid smiled at the boy again, saying,

“Better now?”

The only response she got was a gust of water into her face, and the satisfied smirk of one gloating Yazoo.

He looked a little troubled however, when he noticed her challenging grin and soon after the water war was at full mode, scaring some birds that, chirping indignantly, left the old oak tree.

Eventually they ran out of energy and everyone hung in their corner of the tub, soaked and panting.

“You´re good,” Aeris breathed, wringing out her wet braids.

“Ya ain´t dat bad either,” the boy admitted, one elbow hanging over the rim.

“Were did you learn that flip?” she laughed, getting out of the tub and frowning a little at her drenched dress. Oh well, it was still warm enough that it would dry quickly.

“Me an ma brothas had lotsa-” He suddenly became silent as the memory of his siblings also brought the realisation of their absence.

“I see,” Aeris said softly, not pushing any further. “Then how about I take care of your hair?”

The defensive aura was back around him again but he didn´t object. She walked around the tub and beside him, fingering with something in the pocket of her dress. Eventually she held out a scissor and attempted to cut the tangled knots from his hair, but she couldn’t even get started as the boy had leapt to the other side of the tub holding his arms over his face like a shield and breathing heavily.

Aeris was by his side instantly, the scissor lying forgotten in the grass, and was stroking over his head with shaking hands as he tried to flinch away from her.

“It´s alright, sh, I´m sorry, I didn´t mean to scare you,” she soothed until he had relaxed a bit and let his arms sink down but eyeing her warily still.

She let go of his head, resting her hand on his cheek gently instead, and said with a serious tone and sad, but determined eyes. “Listen Yazoo. You haven’t known me for very long now and I do not expect you to trust me yet. But I will never, you hear me,” she grabbed his face a little harder and trapped his eyes with her own intense gaze, “never ever hurt you!”

The blank face of the boy didn´t tell if he believed her, but when she reached for the scissor again, explaining to him that he had to cut off the knots in his hair, he took the sharp object and after a minute, bunches of silver hair met the surface of the now cold and muddy water in the tub. When he was done he handed the scissor back to her wordlessly, white fingers slipping through his still long but considerably less matted hair.

Smiling, Aeris handed him a towel and went inside to gather the clothes Vincent had left for him the night before.

It was nothing fancy, just a white linen shirt and a pair of loose trousers of the same fabric. Vincent had also left a pair of soft leather shoes, but mentioned that Yazoo might not wear them.

After she had helped him dress Aeris guided Yazoo to an old wooden trunk near the tub and asked him to sit down.

Not looking too enthusiastic, the boy wondered what she had in store for him now and he soon found out, when a rough jagged comb rushed through his hair, making him wince.

“Ah, fuck! Didn ya say sumthin bout not hurtin me an shit?!”

“I´m sorry,” came the reply from behind, sounding truly apologetic. “But we have to do this once. If you take good care of your hair from now on, this won´t be necessary again. You have really stunning hair, I´ve never seen that colour before. It´s beautiful.”

Snorting, Yazoo kept his mouth shut but decided to do as she had advised from now on because this really wasn´t funny.

Eventually she was done and the comb was waved in Yazoo´s direction with a smile.

“Keep it. Or,” she looked at him eagerly and summoning her most charming smile “do you want me to do it for you from now on?”

She barely felt the comb being snapped out of her hand and brought to a safe distance out of her range.

“It wasn´t that bad…” the maid pouted, wiping her hands on her wet and smeared apron.
Yazoo shot her a look that said otherwise and let the comb vanish beneath his clothes.

“Alright,” she said with a final air and looking him up and down. “We´re done. Would you like to take a look?”

He tilted his head in question, but before he could answer she had already decided for him and eagerly dragged him back into the house.

“You know, Master Vincent is a little picky about certain things and he banished them from the house entirely, but one day when I told him that the whole market laughed at me because I had sauce sticking to my nose, he allowed me to keep one in my room if I promised to not leave it elsewhere or in the open. He even got me a really beautiful, expensive one,” she chattered on, finally stopping in front of a door next to the kitchen. After she had opened the door she pushed the confused boy inside, and placed him in front of a big object that was hidden under a large, black cloth.

After she had fumbled with some ribbon, Aeris finally lifted the blanked and it sunk soundlessly to the floor. Whatever Yazoo had expected, it certainly wasn´t another person. One eyebrow lifted, he eyed the young man opposite him. He had long hair, just like himself, but it was a little fringy. It looked very soft and silky though.

It framed an angelic face with marble like white skin. Two big, emerald eyes stared back at him, surrounded by long, black lashes and bridged by thin, graceful brows. An even little nose stuck out from the face, hovering over full, pouting lips that were a light shade of rosé.

The figure was clad in white linen (also like him, he noticed absent-mindedly) that elegantly fell down his delicate frame.

The person reminded him of something he had once heard an old woman telling about in a crowded tavern on a cold winter evening. The tale had been about mysterious creatures living in the forest, dancing in the pale moon light and seducing wanderers with their ethereal beauty. Elves, the old hag had called them. Though Yazoo had never seen one himself, he thought that they must look somewhat like that fella in front of him. Just why was one of them here in Aeris room? She hadn´t fallen for his trick, had she?!
Snarling at the creature, that dared to snarl back instantly, he made a step closer towards a smiling maid, asking lowly “Who da hell is dat?!”

Her smile grew even wider, becoming strangely warm as she said gently, “That´s you, Yazoo.”

A silver head snapped back at the mirror and a shocked, dumbfounded face stared straight back at him.

“Da hell?!”

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This was soooo much fun to write and actually it´s one of my favorite chapters. I aplogize for the shameless fangirlism towards the end, I couldn´t restrain myself XD

Hope you liked it though, I felt like a change after all the angsting in the previous chapters.

I wish you a nice weekend everyone!