Chapter 26: CHAPTER 26: FEELINGS (2)

The next day pushes yesterday aside with an even more energetic aid running to my side.

"My Lady, it's time to wake up and get ready for school," says the gentle whisperer.

I turn over to find Alex towering over me with the usual smile on his face. It takes a minute, but I manage to sit up and wipe my eyes.

"It looks like you have gotten some of your strength back, my Lady."

I glance at Alex and raise my arms up. "Carry me, please."

Surprised but unwavering, Alex complies and takes me in his arms, bringing me over to the bathroom in order to wash me. He undresses me and helps me into the tub. Rinsing my body with the showerhead, Alex treats my body with more care than one would have with a thin sheet of ice. When Alex turns my body around to rinse my chest, I throw my arms around Alex's neck.

"Why am I the only one naked?" I ask, dragging Alex down closer to my chest. "Why don't you join me in the tub?"

Alex quickly escapes my grasp and turns me back around. "It's too early to be joking around, my Lady? Did you hit your head while you were sleeping?"

"Hmm? I'm perfectly fine," I sing. "I'm better than I've ever been."

I try to face Alex again, but he firmly holds my shoulders down so that I don't move. "Did you get sick last night? Xander should have dressed you warmly instead of in that thin dress."

"I'm not sick silly," I giggle, peeking over my shoulder. "You like me. Don't you?"

"I respect and admire you, my Lady. Even if I did have romantic feelings for you, I would never show you." Alex glances down my back. "It's not a servant's place to fall in love with their master," he whispers, sounding defeated from his own claim.

I turn my head around to see Alex's moping face. I stand from the bathtub and embrace Alex in my chest. "I know you like me, Alex. Don't try to hide it. Your scent gives you away."

"My scent?" Alex questions from between my breasts.

"Foxes have keen noses and are sensitive to the smells around them. We can tell when one is telling the truth, joyful, or angry just from how he smells. Right now, you're lying and in love. From how thick the smell is, you have been in love with me for a while."

Alex tries to push himself off of me, but I hold him tighter with every push.

"My Lady, You aren't acting like yourself," he says as he finally escapes my chest. "What has gotten into you?"

"What do you mean? I am acting like myself," I declare, getting out of the tub. I walk closer and closer to Alex as he inches his way into a corner. "Why aren't you acting like yourself? You know you want to do something, but you're holding yourself back just because I'm your master. Don't be afraid. I won't say anything to the others."

"Master, are you almost-" Xander freezes at the door when he sees me against his little brother in the corner.

"Xander! Help me! Something is wrong with the Young Lady," Alex pleads, keeping his hands in the air.

"Something's wrong? What do you mean?" Xander asks as he walks over to Alex and me.

"I don't know, but she isn't acting like herself!" Alex comments while trying to hold himself together as I trace my finger along his chest.

Xander grabs me from under my arms and picks me up, releasing Alex from the corner. At that moment, Alex runs over to the door behind Xander.

"Let me go!" I protest as I kick my feet in the air. "You just had to come in and ruin the mood!"

"What mood? What was going on in here anyways?" Xander questions, placing me back in the tub.

"I was just washing her when she suddenly became very touchy," Alex responds.

"What do you mean 'very touchy'?" Xander asks as he rinses me off with the showerhead.

"She... well... the Young Lady hugged me by putting my head in her chest," mumbles Alex, looking down and twiddling his thumbs.

"She what?!" Xander exclaims, almost dropping shampoo in my eyes.

"I think something came over her or something. She's just not acting like herself. I mean, I know she teases us and stuff, but this was different. Very different," Alex asserts, sneaking peeks at me.

"I am perfectly fine, you know. Nothing is wrong with me," I comment, crossing my arms and pouting. "But somethings wrong with you, Xander."

"Me? Nothings wrong with me," Xander says, washing the shampoo from my hair.

"Something is wrong. I can smell it." I pause for a moment and take in Xander's scent. "You are having conflicting feelings about me, aren't you?"

"What do you mean conflicting feelings?" Xander asks as he rubs the conditioner in my hair.

"You don't know if you admire me or love me," I blatantly state. "The thought of loving me is very recent, though. You know that you like me but just don't know to what degree yet."

"That's absurd! Why would I fall in love with someone like you?" Xander quickly defends.

"That's a lie. Your scent changed. You can't hide from my fox nose," I say as the condition runs down my hair from the showerhead's rain. "Would you care to elaborate what you mean by someone like me?"

Xander looks over to his brother that is still hiding in the doorway. "Is this how she was with you?" Alex nods.

"You still haven't answered my question," I remind Xander as he helps me out of the tub.

"Ah... well... you see..." Xander stumbles over his words trying to catch the words that are flying away.

"You don't have to explain. I was just showing you that you are lying to yourself. You have feelings for me like your brother does, but you are trying to hide it behind admiration. You brother likes me through and through, but he's just not going to show it."

The twins stare at each other baffled. No one said another word in that bathroom.

—

"You're still going to take care of me today right, Alex?" I ask the younger brother that sits next to me.

"It seems like you can handle yourself, but I will be next to you in case you need extra help today," Alex responds, nervously eating his breakfast sandwich.

I smile brightly at him and rub his leg. "I look forward to your close care!"

"Hey, Xander," Delic whispers to the boy next to him. "Is Master feeling okay?"

"I don't know. She has been acting differently all morning, but we can't seem to find anything wrong with her," Xander whispers back, hiding his mouth behind his cup of coffee.

"Do you think something went wrong in the mind link ritual?" Delic asks.

"I don't know. We were able to use the mind link just fine yesterday, so maybe it's nothing to do with me. Then again, she was too weak to do anything by herself," Xander remembers, slouching in the chair as he recalls the day of embarrassment.

"I will see if I can look into it a bit more. Something from the ritual must have caused her to be like this," Delic says, biting into his sandwich.

"Hey, you two," I call out pointing at Xander and Delic. "What are you whispering about over there?"

"Nothing important, Master," answers Delic as he finishes his sandwich. "It is about time to head out to school. We will clean this up and come get you when the car is ready."

"Alex stays with me!" I declare as I grab onto Alex's arm. "You two can clean this up."

"My Lady, I think I should help out in the cleaning. It is part of my job," Alex persuades.

"So you're going to leave a lady by herself as she watches three handsome men clean? Wouldn't that make you jealous if I was looking at the other two men here who love me. Especially that one over there." I point over at Delic who is astonished by the behavior I'm displaying. "He has such deep feelings for me that it puts your love to shame."

"What is she talking about?" Delic asks Alex as he collects the plates.

"Apparently, her fox nose can smell our emotions," Alex responds, getting the cups and putting them on the cart.

"You have loved me from the very beginning, Delic. The smell is so thick it's almost suffocating," I say as I walk over to the bed.

"Well, of course I do, Master," Delic confirms as he stands in front of me. "I am not ashamed to say that I love you very dearly; however, I won't let my love for you get in the way of work. I also made the offer to lay with you in bed if you ever need me, but you declined."

Coughing, Xander tries to recollect himself. "You offered what?!"

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"I offered to sleep with the Lady since I am her servant. If she so wishes for me to lay next to her, I am in no position to refuse since she is my master," Delic proclaims. "Even so, I will not abuse the situation that my master is in right now just to fulfill my own desires."

"Now, now, everyone. As much as I love to watch three men fight over me, we mustn't be late for school," I mention as I sit on the bed. "Alex, can you put my school shoes on me, please?"

"Right away, my Lady."

—

"Sir Xander," Mrs. Giselle calls out. "You have been called to the guidance counselor's office. Please go there immediately."

"Yes, Mrs. Giselle," Xander responds, standing from his desk.

Meanwhile, in the guidance counselor's office, Delic is pacing back and forth biting the tip of his thumb.

"How did I manage to overlook this? It was right there, but Master was in such a rush that I couldn't stop to read the origins."

"You called for me, Delic?" Xander asks as he opens the door.

Delic spins around and tells Xander to sit down in the chair in front of his desk.

"I found out what's wrong with Lady Viola," Delic starts off.

"What did you find?" Xander pries.

"The sulfur that Master used for the ritual is made from Cinnabar Butterflies."

Cinnabar Butterflies. It is a rare species of butterfly that lives at the top of volcanoes. They survive by collecting the sulfur that the volcano creates and turning it into their source of food since there are no flowers or vegetation at the top of volcanoes. They are known as the Volcano's Angel because despite the harsh environment of the volcano, something as beautiful as a butterfly makes it their home.

To collect sulfur from Cinnabar Butterflies, one must catch them right after a volcanic eruption when the butterflies have the most sulfur in and on them. After a successful capture, one must then crush the butterflies in a mortar and pestle at night when the moon is at its highest; otherwise, the sulfur that is collected in the end will be of low purity and ineffective in rituals. Due to the meticulous nature of collecting sulfur from such methods, it makes the sulfur that is produced at the end very expensive.

There is a catch when using the sulfur from the Cinnabar Butterflies, though, which increases its value. The butterflies' sulfur is widely known to have slight aphrodisiacal side effects since the butterflies tend to bask in the moonlight instead of in the sun. The nocturnal nature of the butterflies comes from the butterflies' patron Selene, the moon goddess. Since she always went out at night to meet her mortal lover, the butterflies would come out at night to find love as well. Whoever performs a ritual using sulfur from Cinnabar Butterflies have a fifty-fifty chance of having aphrodisiacal side effects.

"So you're saying that Master caught the one and only side effect the sulfur has?" Xander questions with his head in his hands.

"Since she performed it twice, she had a larger chance of getting it," Delic adds as he takes another sip from his water bottle. "She saw Alex first this morning, so she is more attached to him, but that doesn't mean that the two of us are in the clear."

"But why wasn't she like this yesterday when she was with me?

"It's probably because she was too weak. Her mind was still jumbled up from taking in two mind links in one day, so the slight aphrodisiacal effects couldn't take hold of her thoughts. Now that she is capable of thinking clearly, the effects must have latched on somewhere in his mind."

"How long do you think it will last?"

"That's the thing about it. I don't know if she got the side effects from both rituals or just one of them. Each ritual comes with a fifty-fifty chance. She could have gotten it from both rituals which will mean that the effects will last a while, or she could have gotten it from one of the rituals meaning the effects should wear off by the end of the day."

"Let's just hope that they wear off at the end of the day," Xander says as he stands up. "I'm going to let Alex know about this. The two of them should be having lunch by now, so I will just meet up with them in our usual spot. You wanna join?"

"I would love to, but I have a meeting with a student, so I have to stay here."

"Wow~ You really are taking your counselor job seriously," Xander laughs as he closes the door.

After a few minutes of walking, Xander rounds the corner where we normally have lunch to find me on top of Alex.

"Come on. No one is here."

"My Lady, it is inappropriate to do these kinds of things even if we are alone."

"Don't be a wus! I'm Student Council President. Who's going to stop us if I'm involved."

"I will," Xander answers as he pulls me off of Alex. "Jeez, I take my eyes off of you for a few minutes, and you're already trying to take my brother's chastity away."

"I wasn't going to go that far with it!" I yell, trying to wiggle my way out of Xander's arms.

"You were definitely going to do something if someone didn't come to stop you," Alex says as he sits up.

I cross my arms and turn away from the two. Xander just sighs and shakes his head as he fixes the picnic blanket.

"Come on, Master," Xander beckons. "Your lunch is going to get cold."

"I don't want it," I say, still facing away from them.

"I will feed you if you come over here," Alex offers as he pats the empty area next to him.

"Really?" I ask slightly, twisting around just enough to see Alex's face.

"Yes, really, so please come over here to eat," Alex pleas.

"Okay!" I respond, dashing over to Alex's side. "Will you feed me with your mouth instead of a spoon?" Alex looks down to see my glowing blue eyes. "You know you want to."

"No, I will not. You have an image to uphold in school. Plus, I'm not going to have my or your first kiss ruined by some frivolous request. Here," Alex says, holding out a fork with a piece of sausage on it.

"Are you implying something with this?" I ask as I slowly bite onto the sausage.

Just about ready to drop his lunch box, Xander chokes on a piece of his rolled egg, trying to revive himself by coughing it back up.

I look up at Alex with a smile full of carnal desires showing. I proceed to take another bite from the sausage and giggle at the cherry face looking back down at me.

—

"I don't think I'm going to last the rest of the evening," Alex complains as the four of us enter the house.

"The aphrodisiacal effects should hopefully wear off by tomorrow morning. Just hang in there a little longer," Xander encourages giving his brother a pat on the back.

Night falls, and the twins excuse themselves to go to sleep.

'Delic, come to my room,' I command over the mind link.

By the snap of my fingers, Delic appears next to my bed. "You called for me, Master."

"It's just the two of us here. Call me Viola like you always do when we're alone." I pat the empty space next to me on the bed. "Will you lay with me tonight?"

"If you wish for it, I will," Delic replies as he makes his way over to the other side of the bed. He turns into his fox form and hops into the bed since that's the form he normally takes when I call for him to sleep next to me.

"No, in your human form. I want to feel your natural warmth."

"But Viola, if I do that, I am unsure if I can hold myself back from you."

"Are you going to disobey a direct order from your master?" I ask almost tyrannically.

Delic notices that my eyes are glowing the purest of blue hue and knows that he can't say no when I'm like this. "No, Master. I will turn back."

"Good," I praise, innocently smiling as if I didn't just mentally threaten him a moment ago. "Come closer. I want to hug you."

Delic hesitates. He knows he won't be able to hold back. He knows his carnal instincts are going to get the best of him. However, he also knows that an order is an order. He scoots closer to me, and I tuck his head in my chest.

The night was bliss.

---

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