(A Girl's Love)

(Part 1)

Keyron Reyes often enjoyed taking morning runs in the early hours before the sun rose to get his spirits for the day up. The refreshing morning air, paired with the dimly lit surroundings always gave him a sense of a new beginning. His route often brought him around the perimeter of the school and dormitory, and occasionally, he met a butler or two, doing their morning runs as well.

What met Keyron Reyes this morning as he rounded the corner of the school building to run back towards the dormitories was not a butler. Instead, Keyron found a young girl with midnight-black hair, standing right at the open gates underneath the lamp lights, looking into the school with a worried expression.

Butler instincts made Keyron slowdown in his jog, and he unconsciously found himself hiding behind a tree as he assessed the young girl who looked as if she were thinking about her next course of action.

From his distance, Keyron could easily tell that the girl was much younger than the expected age of ladies studying in St. Clair Academy. Her simple frilly dress and worn-out walking boots seemed to suggest that she was not one of the dignified members of society as well. Without a butler hovering close beside her, as well as the fact that she seemed to be carrying a well-worn backpack, Keyron quickly confirmed that the young girl definitely did not belong as a lady in the academy.

Still, the morning was dark, and it was dangerous for a girl of such a young age to be standing in the half-darkness, looking as if she were trying to look for someone in the academy.

Keyron checked his watch to decide on his course of action. He had gone out for the morning run slightly later than normal, for he had almost overslept. He had tried to make up for the lost time by going faster during the run, but he clearly needed to dash back to the dormitories soon if he wanted to wake his master up on time. Considering the fact that Brandon slept like a pig and was a terrifying sleepyhead monster when he woke up, Keyron knew that he needed to get back on time if he didn't want his master to be late for lessons.

Still, Keyron could not bear to leave a young girl like that alone at the gates. It was still too early for anyone else to spot her, and something might easily happen to the girl if she remained standing there.

Making up his mind to quickly deal with the girl, Keyron stepped out from behind the tree and made towards the young girl in a brisk run.

Her shock at his sudden appearance before her was easily recognisable in the way she jumped a little, getting into a defensive position in a bid to protect herself. Keyron breathed a silent sigh of relief to know that at least the young lady knew to be cautious of anyone who approached in the wee hours of the morning in the darkness.

"Young lady, it isn't safe for you to be out here in the early morning." Keyron addressed respectfully, offering a half-bow out of sheer instincts. "May I ask what are you doing here at the gates of the academy?"

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but closed it before a word could come out, blinking her soft brown eyes at him in surprised silence for a long time.

"I'm here to see you!" She suddenly broke out in a bright grin, throwing out her arms in welcome. Keyron instantly got the sense that the young girl seemed to be demanding a welcome hug from him, but froze instead of complying.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Keyron asked in frozen surprise, but the one who froze at his statement was not only him, but the girl as well. The grin seemed to turn brittle in a single moment, and tears seemed to glint in the soft brown eyes. The child-like quality of the young girl did not fade even as the conflict and confusion seemed to appear across her face.

"Y-You don't recognise me?" The initially bright voice had toned down now, sounding obviously hurt. "I came all the way from home to see you. I took the bus and walked for so long that my feet hurts, and now you say you don't want to see me?"

Keyron knew immediately that he was screwed given the way that the tears were already leaking from the corner of the girl's eyes.

"Don't cry." He cooed, immediately softening from his butler persona. If Brandon knew of this, his master would definitely tell him that he was a sucker to young girls crying. But Keyron knew that the both of them had grown up the same way –both of them were extremely weak towards crying girls, particularly young vulnerable girls. "Look, I'm sorry that I sounded so stiff. Don't cry."

"But you... You don't want to see me!" The girl now cried, screwing her pretty little cute face up as she rubbed her eyes the way only little girls did.

Alarmed, Keyron looked around guiltily to see if anyone had caught sight of him making a poor young girl cry, but it appeared that it was still too early for anything to happen at all.

"I'm sorry, okay? Please don't cry. It's not like I don't want to see you. You are pretty cute, so don't spoil your cute face by crying like that, okay?" Keyron did his best to placate the girl, kneeling so that he was eye level to the crying girl who now refused to tilt her head up to him, simply sobbing and rubbing her eyes in denial.

Keyron's mind swam with ways to cheer the girl up, but was interrupted by a loud beeping. A little startled at his own watch's alarm, Keyron checked his watch again, cursing softly. He was late, and he would be so much later if he didn't leave now.

"Little girl, I'm so sorry. I have to go wake my master up, or I'll be skinned alive. Please, don't cry anymore. Dry those tears, and go straight down this path, okay? Go into the building through the front doors, and go into the first door on the left from the hallway. There will be a nice lady to address you there if you wait long enough. Don't stand out here in the dark; it's really dangerous for you." Keyron apologised, feeling guilt settle in his heart. Somehow, his morning run had turned into his making a young girl cry, and now he was leaving this young girl to cry alone.

Sometimes, he really hated his job. But he hated his master being punished because of his own mistakes even more. And thus, with the painful trade-off that he had to do, Keyron wiped the young girl's tears with his hands, giving her an encouraging smile.

"I've got to go, but you stay safe, okay? If I see you around later today, I'll help you find whoever you are here to find." Keyron promised, for it was the only thing he could do for the crying girl. Then, before she could tug on his heartstrings anymore with her sobbing, Keyron picked up his feet and dashed back to the dormitories to wake his master up.

The young girl's tears still rolled even as she turned around to watch the running back of the butler. Her mind swam with a million questions: why he did not recognise her, why he acted as if he didn't know her at all, why he said that he had to wake his master up, why he left at all.

But she was just so tired. She had gone to school as per normal the previous day, and then had gone for her appointment. Afterwards, she had gone straight home, and told her mother that she was going to stayover at a friend's place. She had made her mother dinner, and then left home.

She had been travelling ever since then, taking the bus, and then walking the long distance between the bus stop and the academy. After all, St. Clair Academy was supposed to be for prestigious ladies that arrived to school in their limousines or cars. She had walked the deserted road for almost the whole morning, and had reached sore and tired.

And then he had appeared, and she had been so happy for a moment, only to have her hope crashing down.

The little girl was simply too tired to continue anymore. Even though she knew it was not good for her body, she didn't care anymore.

The girl wiped her tears away and walked down the path as the butler had told her. She would find someplace quiet to catch a wink for the day, then wake up and deal with things again. She needed to find him again. He would know what to do. He always did. He, after all, had been so capable when he had been in her life.

The end of the path led to the magnificent building that the girl knew was the school building of St. Clair. Her own school building was not comparable to this; this was definitely the school for the prestigious St. Clair students. There was just no way a prestigious High School like St. Clair could compare to her own Junior High.

The little girl tried the double doors, but they didn't budge a single bit at all. She frowned, and tried a little more strength at the doors, except that they didn't relent. She was locked out.

The little girl was too tired to think of much more. Walking back down the path to the bench that she had seen deviating a little ways from the main path, the little girl climbed onto the bench that had been set out to admire the beautifully kept garden. But she was in no mood to care about the garden.

The girl put her bag on the bench, rested her head on the bag, said a soft prayer for a better new day, and closed her eyes, falling into quick sleep.

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Miss Louise, please do remember to give the Greaves family a call by this week." Kyrano advised as he deftly threaded his fingers through the soft silky material, making a perfect black bow. Setting evened strength on both sides, he adjusted a little more to ensure that his mistress's appearance was perfect and stepped back once he was done.

"Run it by me once more; what have I agreed with Brandon to tell his father?" Louise asked. It was rather unusual for the woman to forget things like that, but Kyrano was slowly getting used to the way his mistress was now acting –asking him more questions. What Kyrano didn't know about was the fact that Louise had begun taking to asking questions like these in a bid to hear her butler's voice more, to open more conversations with him to know him even better than she already did.

Louise could afford no more if Kyrano ever fell back into the trap of a loss of loyalty or faith.

"Most of the truth: that you were completely unaware of Brandon's role as your fiancé. However, you must also promise to help keep him in check while in school, and that you will not reveal the nature of your marriage to anyone else in the school." Kyrano informed, collecting his mistress's bag and opening the door for his lady.

"Right. Keeping Brandon in check isn't exactly the easiest thing to promise."

"Given enough help from Keyron, controlling Brandon is not exactly the hardest thing to do." Kyrano offered with the slightest hint of a smile.

"Yes, but your brother is capable of shooting himself in the foot sometimes, particularly when he forgets that Brandon is the master, and he is still a butler." Louise answered.

"Keyron still has much to learn when it comes to duties." Kyrano announced as they passed the dormitory entrance, facing the clear morning air. It was still a short walk towards the school building, but there was no rush at the moment. "But for all that is worth, he is still a capable butler for someone like Brandon."

"I hear my name. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that I'm being discussed here?" The light-hearted voice intruded on the short conversation, and both the butler and his lady turned to find the men of topic approaching them from their own dorm.

"When your name appears on Miss Louise's lips, it's hard to imagine them spoken in praise." Keyron answered his own master, earning an indignant protest. Louise giggled softly at the previous statement about Kyrano's brother shooting himself in the foot, surprise to find it coming true so quickly as Brandon announced haughtily that Keyron should cook a feast up for lunch to make up for the rude words spoken.

"What's up today? Are you free for a date?" Brandon struck up a new conversation entirely as the lady and gentleman fell into step beside each other, the butlers taking their pace slightly slow behind them.

"Hey, you doing well today?" Keyron asked in a casual gesture, and Kyrano's compulsion to hang a polite façade was almost too strong to resist.

"If I were dishonest, I would say that I am perfectly fine." Kyrano answered. "But you are my brother, and I have promised you to tell you the truth. I am still weak, and will continue to humble myself to ask help from you in caring for Miss Louise."

Keyron grinned at the brutal honesty that he knew was hard to ask from Kyrano.

After Kyrano's hospitalisation, the brothers had sat down for a serious talk, in which Keyron told his brother everything from his life with the Greaves all to his feelings towards the Reyes family. The talk had been long and undisturbed, and the end of the long talk came a strong promise between the men that no secrets would be kept from each other, except those concerning the safety of their respective master and mistress.

"Good boy." Keyron could not help but say, earning a stiff helpless glare from the sterner of the twins.

"By the way, if we are still in the mood of 'not keeping secrets', I have something to confess." Keyron continued as if he hadn't received a glare at all, looking around the path as if looking for something. "I made a little girl cry this morning."

Kyrano's surprise was easily seen. "What?"

"I know, I'm not proud of what I did as well. I was going on my morning run, and I saw her at the gate. I asked her what she was doing so early in the morning, then she said something about coming to the academy for me. I think she wanted me to recognise her or something, but I didn't. Then she broke out in tears. I was running late to wake Brandon, so I gave her directions to get to the main office to wait for the secretary."

"You left a crying girl at the school early in the morning?" Kyrano repeated, not sure if surprise at Keyron's luck, or soft disgust at his brother's leaving a crying young girl alone was stronger.

"You don't have to repeat it, you know." Keyron sighed in obvious guilt. "But I was wondering if it might be someone you knew, because she seemed to recognise me, but I don't know her. She could have easily mistaken me for you, considering that it was still pretty dark out at that time."

"I don't know anyone who could be visiting at the moment. But if it is anyone here to find me, the school would notify me soon." Kyrano admitted, finding his brother's concern a legit one. It was still taking the academy some time to get used to Keyron's presence, though the ladies knew to recognise Kyrano by his eye-patch.

"Well if you see her again, tell her that I'm really sorry I had to leave." Keyron continued as they followed their master and mistress around the corner towards the entrance gate of the school. Keyron briefly remembered how the young girl had still been standing there and crying a few hours ago, the guilt still heavy in his heart. Looking around gave him no results in finding the cute young girl, though he spotted a strange crowd of ladies and butlers a little further down the path close to the garden.

"What's going on over there?" The conversation that had been bouncing between Louise and Brandon was interrupted when the man turned his eyes over to the crowd that they were now nearing.

"If you expected me to have X-ray vision, it's not working." Keyron answered rather uselessly, changing directions to make a beeline towards the crowd rather than the school. It slowly became clear to the four of them that the crowd was a circle around the bench that was placed to face the garden.

As they neared the bench, both butlers stepped forth ahead of their master and mistress to scope the situation out.

"What's going on?" Keyron's question towards the crowd was met quickly with whispered hushes, and Kyrano found a few familiar faces of the ladies of the school of varying levels along with their butlers.

"Keep your voice down. The little angel is sleeping." The lady that Kyrano recognised as the chairman of the photography club warned Keyron, who looked rather appalled at having been hushed by a member of the crowd.

"A little angel?" Kyrano repeated softly as he gently pushed his way through the crowd so that he could get a sense of what was the object of everyone's attention.

It took only the briefest moment for everything to fit into place.

A gasp escaped Kyrano before he could help it, and he had already lurched forwards to the bench, falling to his knees before the peacefully sleeping face. Careful to put a gentle hand on her, Kyrano stroked the black hair that was currently messy, taking in her thin clothes, her walking boots and the bag on which she slept upon.

"Kyra, are you okay?" Kyrano called in his gentlest voice, definitely shocking the crowd. As if sensing someone close by, a touch on her hair, the little girl stirred slightly from her deep sleep.

"Kyra," Kyrano called once more, still keeping his voice gentle and soft. "Kyra, please wake up."

"Kyrano, what is this?" Louise's voice surprised him, and he looked up to find both his mistress and her fiancé behind him, Keyron looking as if he were trying to deal with the shocked crowd.

"Miss Louise, I apologise for leaving you." Kyrano spoke humbly, still stroking the girl's hair carefully. "I don't know what she is doing here."

"You know her?" It was Brandon's turn to ask, and even Keyron stilled for a short while, turning in anticipation of his brother's answer. Even with Louise, Keyron had not seen his twin act so gentle before. For a little girl to make Kyrano behave even more gently than the way he treated Louise, the girl definitely had to be someone important.

And if the girl was important to his brother, then it meant that Keyron was screwed, because it was also the same girl that had burst into tears in front of him a few hours earlier.

Kyrano moved to sit on the bench, pulling the girl's head carefully to rest on his lap instead of the stiff bag. The girl shifted restlessly once more, but seemed to enjoy the new heat pressed against her face, because she snuggled her cheek against Kyrano's warm lap, curling towards him.

A collective "Awww" whisper waved through the crowd of ladies that were particularly weak towards the cute vulnerable little girl.

"She is my sister, Kyra Reyes." Kyrano declared softly, still stroking softly.

"She is?" Keyron froze. "Kyrano, she was the same girl who was crying in the morning!"

"I figured that out when I saw her, Keyron." The short reply came from the preoccupied butler, and Kyrano turned his attention to his little sister, his fingers coming to tickle the sleeping girl slightly under her chin.

"Kyra, wake up."

"Hmmm... Let me sleep a little more, Mum... I'm too tired..." The little girl mumbled, stirring once more.

"Kyra, you need to tell me what's going on." Kyrano pursued, putting a little urgency in his tone so as to get his sister to wake up.

"Big Brother...? Is that you...?" The soft questioning tone came.

"Yes, Kyra. You are at St. Clair Academy."

"St. Clair...? Why...?" Kyra seemed to get a little more awake as the young girl stretched awake on her brother's lap. It took a moment for the words to sink in, and she jerked awake, sitting up immediately, eyes of sandy brown looking around at the curious eyes that were on her.

The disorientation seemed to hit her, but Kyra remembered the voice that had been calling her awake. She spun around, and met quickly the one eye of sparkling black.

"Big Brother!" She squealed, her arms spread open.

Kyrano could not help it. He was a capable butler, an efficient Butler in Black for his Rose. Kyrano was a butler who could be ruthless, heartless and completely cold if needed of him.

But when it came to his sister's bright-as-sun smile, he could not resist.

In an instance, the smile turned on helplessly on Kyrano's face, and he grabbed the little girl in a tight hug.

"Kyra, we are finally reunited again!"