(Part 3)

"Big Brother!" Kyra waved enthusiastically in the corridor to draw Kyrano's attention, then ran towards him the moment he spied her, leaving him milliseconds to react before she had jumped onto him, clinging to him for dear life.

Despite the inappropriateness of them doing this in the corridor, Kyrano could not force back his smile as he held on tight to his sister, making sure she didn't fall as he circled his arms around her waist.

"Kyra," He started with a tone of soft admonishment, "You're already ten. You should stop doing that."

"But I want to do more of that while you still can hold me up." Kyra grinned cheekily as she turned her eyes. "Good morning, Miss Louise!"

"Good morning, Kyra. Where were you early in the morning?" Louise could not help her smile as well, as she started a leisure pace once more beside her butler who had little problems carrying his sister and walking at the same time.

"Oh, Brother Keyron brought me out to watch the sunrise by the fountain. It was really pretty!"

"He should have let you sleep in. You are still a growing girl; you need your sleep." Kyrano frowned, and Louise was no longer surprised to see the domesticity of Kyrano as an elder brother. It appeared as if Kyrano was the more domestic, more caring of the twin brothers, and Keyron was the one who appeared to have equally much fun bringing their little sister running around the Academy.

"Just a few hours' lack of sleep isn't going to make much of a difference, Big Brother." Kyra answered happily. However, the bright smile was interrupted by polite coughs.

"Are you not feeling well?" Kyrano was quick to ask in concern, but his little sister merely waved it away easily.

"It's just a small cough, Big Brother. Nothing to worry about."

"Tell me if it gets worse. I'll run down to the infirmary to get some medicine for you." Kyrano tasked immediately, and Louise's amusement quickly turned to admiration for her butler. Ever since he had discharged from the hospital, it appeared as if Kyrano had less to talk; less to communicate. Louise had been worried that it would motivate another round of self-isolation, but with the arrival of Kyra, the worry had almost completely eradicated itself.

With the little sister of the Reyes family here with them at the Academy, being the bright little spot of sunshine that Kyra was, Louise's butler had no chance of becoming self-isolated again. In fact, Kyrano appeared to be livelier than he had in ages, and she remembered even catching her normally silent butler humming a soft tune under his breath recently.

That being said, Kyra's presence had not only soothed her elder brother. Louise always had a preference for children, and Kyra's arrival to the Academy had made Louise much happier. It was simply the innocent of a young child that Louise was always drawn to; perhaps to make up for the loss of innocence when Louise was very young. Still, the lady was joyful at Kyra's presence, for she loved playing with the little girl, teaching her, and even exchanging scandalous gossips with her (even when it was not in Louise's position or character to be believing or passing gossips).

"There you are, I was wondering where you had run off to by yourself." Brandon's voice came from a short distance away shortly after they began walking again, and Louise was rather surprised to find her fiancé running towards them. It was a weekend, a day-off from school. It meant that the school corridors were rather empty, for most of the ladies were either outside shopping, attending to family matters, or simply exchanging gossips and talk over coffee tables.

"I'm sorry, Mr Brandon! I saw Big Brother, so I ran over." Kyra apologised brightly, and Louise wagered that only an innocent ten year old girl like Kyra could get away with apologies even while she smiled like she had won lottery.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I would think you have a sensor that blips every time Kyrano is near." Brandon teased as he lightly poked Kyra in the nose. Then, turning towards Louise and Kyrano, who had stopped in their surprise, Brandon asked: "What are the two of you doing here- Wait, no, that isn't the right question. Of course the Rose and her Butler in Black would be in school on a weekend. Are the two of you done with whatever you have to do?"

Louise smiled briefly at Brandon's self-correction of his question. The man knew exactly how much of a workaholic he had for a fiancée, and still he didn't bother to try changing her. That was what Louise felt utterly comfortable about; the fact that Brandon didn't seem to expect her to change at all to suit him despite them being due to marry once they graduated.

"Yes, we were on our way to dinner."

"If that is so, then would you be so kind as to join Keyron, Kyra and I for dinner? I had to come back to school to settle some administration considering Kyra's temporary stay, and was about to head to the Rose Dormitory to ask if you wanted dinner."

There was absolutely nothing wrong in a fiancé asking his future wife out for dinner at all, but Kyrano still could not help feeling the pang of what he assumed quickly was jealousy. Still, it was something that he could not control, and what he could control was the way he reacted to the situation. And since he had made himself recognise that despite the mutual love that he and his mistress had for each other, his Miss Louise was also falling for Brandon.

Falling for Brandon was the right thing for his mistress to do, and much as Kyrano knew it would pain him, he decided that it would be for the best.

"Miss Louise, may I be so daring as to suggest that you and Mr Brandon share a dinner alone? I desire to share a meal with Kyra and Keyron, just us as family." Kyrano spoke up humbly, earning the surprised look not only from his mistress, but Brandon and his own sister as well.

"Well..." Louise dragged a little, thinking about the meals that they had in the past few days that Kyra had been with them. It surprised her to realize that while the little girl had been eating at the same table with her brothers, it was never alone, for Kyrano and Keyron as the butlers to Louise and Brandon were expected to eat with their mistress and master at the table. "I would like that. Would you like the night off?"

"That would be very satisfactory, Miss Louise." Kyrano smiled as sincerely as he could make himself. Then he turned towards Brandon, the man who was working hard to steal his mistress's heart. "May I assume that you already have had dinner plans ready?"

"Yes, I had Keyron contact a chef from a restaurant that our family was acquainted with to prepare our meal."

"I see." Kyrano nodded in satisfaction to know that his mistress's meal had been settled. "May I know where Keyron is currently?"

"He must be attending to the meal. He told me to come fetch you two with Kyra to keep her occupied."

Once more, Kyrano gave a brief frown at how Keyron seemed to be the one ordering his master around rather than the other way around. Soon, Kyrano made a silent promise to himself, he would talk to his twin brother about the proper ways of being a butler. While Keyron could come with the excuse that the master he served was someone who was unconventional and frowned upon strict master-servant relationship, Kyrano still found the way he dealt with Brandon as undesirable. With the blood of Reyes that ran through Keyron, the young man should behave more like a butler instead like the master.

"Then please excuse me, Miss Louise, Mr Brandon. I will hurry on to help Keyron with the preparations as well as inform him of the new changes of dinner plans. Take your time heading to the dining hall, and we will be done by the time you reach. Pardon me; I shall take my leave now." Kyrano announced, bowing as best as he could while still holding on to his obediently silent sister before continuing down the corridor.

He was mildly surprised to find himself not stopped by either his mistress or her fiancé, but instead renewed his determination to make truth of his promises as he headed for the dining hall. It had initially been a lie that he came up with to make his mistress and Brandon share a meal alone for the first time, but having a family meal in the Academy while Kyra was here did not seem all that bad as well.

"Big Brother, don't you love Miss Louise?" The sudden question from his sister while still in his arms surprised Kyrano, but he managed to continue his brisk walk towards the dining hall.

"Of course I love her." He answered easily. "Like how butlers love their mistresses so that they can serve the ladies well."

"No," Kyra replied with concern clear in her eyes. "I'm talking about love as man and woman."

The statement startled Kyrano quite some bit as he found himself slowing, his eyes taken off the hallway they were supposed to follow and swivelling towards his sister's intelligent brown ones.

"Where did you get that idea from, Kyra? You must have been reading too much romance novels, or heard too much from gossips." Kyrano did his best to dismiss the topic, but it was obvious that where he had gotten his father's stubbornness, his little sister had inherited the same thing as well.

"If you are not answering the question like that, then it means that it is true. You like Miss Louise as a man to a woman." Kyra declared, triumphant, but frowned shortly afterwards. "But if that is so, then why did you make her eat with Mr Brandon alone?"

It was Kyrano's turn to frown. Little girls of ten years old shouldn't be part of this mess. He had to keep this issue out of Kyra's hands, because –knowing his sister –the little girl would no doubt do her best to interfere it she believed it would help her elder brother.

"Mr Brandon and Miss Louise are already engaged, Kyra. It is only natural that they eat alone together."

"But Miss Louise loves you as well! Why would she want to have dinner alone with Mr Brandon if she loves you?"

"You've got it wrong, Kyra." Kyrano made sure that his sister could not see the brittleness of his smile even with her proximity. Kyrano found that it wasn't hard to lie at all –because it was the same lie that he had been telling himself over and over again since his discharge from the hospital to find that nothing much had changed at all. "Miss Louise doesn't love me like a woman does a man. She feels like that for Mr Brandon –or at least she is beginning to. Mr Brandon already likes her, and they are already engaged. Their family already agreed on the marriage. So it is very natural for them to have dinner together, Kyra."

"But, it can't be-"

"No more 'buts', Kyra. Besides, this gives us a chance to finally have dinner together like a real family, doesn't it? I'm sorry Mother cannot be here to share the meal with us as well, but at least you can eat with Keyron and me alone." Kyrano cut of firmly, seeing the conflict easily on his sister's face as she considered whether to pursue the previous conversation, or simply let it slide.

He knew that his sister had made a wise choice when she finally dredged up a small smile again. "Okay, Big Brother, let's get the dinner for Miss Louise and Mr Brandon settled, then we'll call pizza!"

Kyrano laughed, though the light sound that escaped his lips was a mixture of mirth and relief. Relief that his sister had decided to let things go, and mirth that little Kyra hadn't actually grown up much at all.

"It's not healthy for us, Kyra." Kyrano started as he pushed through the set of double doors to walk into the dining hall. "But alright; I will forgive us this once. Once we are done with setting the table, I will call for pizza."