(Part 8)

Kyra's condition had barely stabilized, and it was not looking good at all. It was already the third day of hospitalization, and Kyrano had not changed out of his clothes ever since he arrived the first day. In fact, he had done nothing more than just staring at his sister, his insides empty and gone.

Kyrano did not even have the emotional strength to run the perfect memories of Kyra through his head. He simply sat there, watching his sister, and resisting every single mental picture that fought to bring around a wave of emotions. The good, the bad, the terrifying pictures concerning his sister; he resisted them all as he looked on from the other side of the window.

The people came and went.

Even his mother came –thanks to Louise's kind escorting –and had broken down on the other side of the window as well. Kyrano had not reacted even as his mother had given in to the emotional stress, and fainted on her wheelchair. It had been a hectic mess with the nurses arranging for a temporary bed for the distraught woman.

Waking up a few hours later, Karima had asked for the best treatment for her daughter –the exact same words that her son had repeated to the doctor. Once more, the promise that they would do their best was given, accompanied with the same warning to be emotionally prepared. Karima, along with her eldest son, had sat side by side, simply watching the young girl fighting for her life for a long time.

But at least the elderly woman was much more responsive as she eventually accepted Louise's offer to put her up in a room in the hotel near the hospital so that she might be able to come down immediately if anything happened.

Kyrano spoke and reacted to nothing.

Keyron, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found.

Left with two butlers who were out of commission, Brandon and Louise had to look after each other while taking care –and looking for –their butlers. It was not an easy feat, and Brandon often found himself looking over to Louise, wondering if she would fall soon. But it appeared that the strong woman was completely understanding of her butler's shock and unresponsive state, though she tried relentlessly for him to attend to his own basic needs.

It was only until the 3rd day that Kyrano returned to reality.

The first stir that he made brought a jolt of surprise in Brandon, though Louise acted almost immediately.

"Kyrano?" She ventured softly.

"Yes, Miss Louise?" His voice was hoarse, but it was completely understandable, because the man hadn't been drinking much at all.

"Are you okay?"

"I am physically fine, Miss Louise." He answered, voice hoarse but mechanical. "Emotionally, I am bare. Completely bare."

Brandon and Louise was not sure if the painfully honest reply from the butler was what they expected –or wanted. At least the man was being honest with all that he felt –which was nothing. Kyrano wasn't feeling anything at all, and Louise simply could not decide if it was a cause for alarm.

"Do you want to eat something? Should I get something for you?"

"It is fine. I cannot expect my mistress to be getting my food." Kyrano stood up, and even Brandon could hear the soft pops of joints finally being worked once more. "Do pardon me for my subpar performance as your butler the past few days, as well as for the upcoming few days. I fear that I cannot be on my usual level for a short while."

"You don't have to worry about that, Kyrano." Louise excused quickly as she stood up, worried for her butler, but not sure what he must be thinking. "I will be fine for these few days without your help. Kyra is more important."

"No." The reply was almost pleasantly made, and Louise was rather shocked that there was almost a polite expression hanging on her butler's face. "You are more important to me. My mistress is the most important person of my life, and it is my duty to serve you, even through this tough time."

"I don't want to force yourself to serve me when Kyra is here, Kyrano. She needs you."

"And so do you, Miss Louise." Kyrano answered, stepping closer to his mistress as if just seeing her. His deft fingers quickly reached out and arranged the bow that had been slightly tilted a little off-centre. His mistress must have tried her best to dress herself properly, but the perfection that Kyrano achieved was hard to recreate. "You need me, and I am here as your butler."

"Kyra needs you more than I do, especially at this time." Louise insisted. "I'm letting you take a break from serving me temporarily during this time, Kyrano. You need to stay here for your sister and mother. They are both not holding up well."

"No." Kyrano answered, his hands falling to his sides. He hadn't thought to bring his gloves when he left the dormitory the other day, and it felt weird that he was serving his mistress without his white gloves. It felt dirty –unprofessional. "I will be serving you during this time as well. Thank you for your concern, Miss Louise, but I can manage."

"I don't doubt your abilities, Kyrano." Louise said, obviously a little annoyed at his determination to stay with her when she knew that his heart wanted to simply stay, to watch over Kyra and make sure his little sister would be okay. "But my heart will rest better if you're here to watch over Kyra."

"Kyra's illness is not short-term, Miss Louise." Kyrano answered, a simple matter-of-fact tone that alarmed the lady a little. How could the loving elder brother state the fact so emotionlessly? "I cannot possibly take a break for so long to take care of Kyra. I have to serve you."

"You can take as long as you want, Kyrano." Louise tried to insist. "In fact, if you want to quit, I am not going to say no. Uncle will understand as well."

Kyrano's words stalled at his lips as he stared at his mistress, her blue eyes shining with what seemed like unshed tears.

"No." It was the simplest, rudest reply that a butler could make for his lady.

"Kyrano-"

"Pardon my manners, Miss Louise." Kyrano interrupted, his hard eyes on her. He had not forgotten his teachings as a butler, but he needed to show his mistress that he was utterly serious. Rejecting her, looking at her straight in the eye, and interrupting her was simply his way to gain her utter serious attention. "I am going to serve you for as long as you wish for me to. I am not going to allow my personal family matters to affect your life, because no butler is supposed to burden his lady with his own problems. Besides, I have made my father a promise that I will serve you and protect you 24/7, and this is no different. If Kyrone is still here, he will decide on the same thing and I have –that you are currently, and always will be, much more important than my sister who lies in there. Please do not make this much harder for me, Miss Louise, because I will never break my promise. I will never betray my father's and my sister's wish to serve you well."

The lengthy speech was followed by a long moment of shocked silence, in which Louise's wide eyes stared at her butler in wonder and shock. It was one of the first time Kyrano had ever spoken of how his own family had influenced all of his decisions, the first time Kyrano was imposing his will on his mistress rather than the other way around.

Kyrano stared at his mistress dead in the eye for a minute longer, and then his instincts set in once more, as he dropped eye contact, stepping back a little, then offering a polite bow.

"Forgive me for my manners, Miss Louise, Mr Brandon. For now, I would implore for you to remain here while I make arrangement for a car back to the school. I will make myself presentable as soon as we are back in St. Clair, and we will attend to all overdue assignments and requests." Kyrano expressed, and before either of them could offer a word of protest, Kyrano had straightened, and walked off.

"He and Keyron are one and the same." Brandon took his place beside his fiancee, placing a sympathetic hand on her shoulder in a show of solidarity. Both of them were losing their butlers due to them running away from reality. For the first time, Brandon finally felt as if he were on the same boat as the girl he loved.

Both of them were so worried and concerned about their butlers, but both Reyes men had run away before they had the chance to do anything.

Louise sighed, turning to look at the cancer-ridden girl suffering.

"Please get well soon, Kyra." She said in a tiny whisper. "I know this is selfish of us, but please bring your brothers back to us. We can't survive without them."

____________________________________________________________________________________

A small touch on her hand wakes Louise up from her troubled sleep. Stirring, her brain rushed to place her location, the time, and the reason she had fallen asleep.

It was a few days after Kyrano had woken up back to reality, pretending that nothing had happened to him at all, as he continued to serve his mistress with the same perfection as before. Louise wasn't sure at all how the man managed to do it, but she definitely knew that it was killing him inside silently that he was so far away from his suffering sister in the hospital. Thus, Louise had done her best to clear her schedule, to come down to visit Kyra as often as she could so that Kyrano –using the excuse of following and protecting his lady –could visit as well.

It was a little disappointing, however, when Kyrano still remained in his butler persona even when Louise brought him to his sister's ward, almost ignorant of the fact that the little girl lying on the bed was the very same girl that had brought a brilliant smile on his face at her first appearance. Still, there was nothing that Louise could help with, as she could only do her best to swallow her words and continue praying for Kyra's health.

It was not looking up at all. The doctor had done another checkup on the little girl recently, and though she had shown signs of sliding back from the world of unconsciousness, her body was not catching up well. Kyra's cancer cells were spreading, and even though they were doing their best, it appeared that the hospital's 'best' was increasingly becoming not enough.

Another touch on Louise's hands made her realize that it was exactly the same touch that woke her up, as she stirred once more, then blinked her eyes open slowly. Bringing her head out from the shelter of her arms, Louise straightened with wide eyes when she found Kyra's soft eyes opened, the light that had always been there gone now. Flat black eyes tagged on Louise, and Kyra's smile was frail.

"You're awake." Louise exclaimed with surprise. "How are you feeling, Kyra?"

As slowly as Louise had opened her eyes, Kyra opened her mouth.

"I'm fine, Miss Louise." The girl's voice was soft, and it was obvious –so painfully obvious –that she still hurt. Louise could only imagine what the girl could be going through with all her pains. "I'm sorry if I've worried you."

She was just so much like her own brother that Louise's eyes stung with the rising threat of tears. How could the children of the Reyes family all be so... loyal to their masters and mistresses? Even a young girl of ten was not spared from such strong teachings.

"You must get well, Kyra." Louise said, holding on to the young girl's hand –the same one that had given her soft touches to wake her up –in a show of solidarity.

Kyra smiled, but even the girl knew her own situation. Black eyes met blue ones without fear while Kyra breathed in deep a few times, as if the effort to speak took a lot out of her.

"Where is Big Brother and Second Brother, Miss Louise?" Kyra asked again after she regained her breath.

"They... um... they stepped out for a short while." Louise's lie was barely held together, but Kyra shook her head, clearly knowing better.

"You don't have to lie to me, Miss Louise. Have both my brothers run away?"

There was no hiding anything from the little girl of ten, was there? The little girl who had always been easily excited and naïve was suddenly very mature and understanding –the simple reflection of Kyrano in her serious expression was almost unbearable for Louise.

"Keyron has gone missing since the day of your hospitalisation. Kyrano... he hasn't gone missing physically, but he has run away from the situation emotionally." Louise sighed in defeat.

"I'd thought it would go like that, Miss Louise. It is fine. We are after all, from the same family. I would do the same if I were them. In fact, I ran away from my own situation as well."

"When you came to St. Clair to find Kyrano?"

"Yes." Kyra confessed, then paused for a short while to breathe again. Louise almost could not bear the agony in her heart at the sight of the lovely young girl being so frail. "The doctor wanted me to go back and tell Mother, then admit myself to get treatement. But I knew that once I went in, coming out was either going to take years, or I was never going to come out at all. I couldn't bear to deal with it. I went back home to clean the house, make dinner, pack my bags and told Mother that I was staying over at my friend's. I wanted to see Big Brother one last time."

Louise could see that the young girl was quite labored at the end of the short speech, and waited patiently for Kyra to regain her breath again.

"Do you want me to get Kyrano? You must want to see him, at least. We will do our best to find Keyron, I promise." Louise started to stand up, remembering that the young girl's favourite person –understandably –was her big brother, and that she might have some words for Louise's butler.

What stalled her was the weak, semi-warm hand that wrapped around her fingers, as she turned back around to see Kyra's begging eyes.

"No, Miss Louise. I want to talk to you before Big Brother comes back." The way the girl spoke about it sounded as if she wanted to talk about things terribly important, and Louise could not find it in herself to refuse her butler's beloved sister. Louise once more sat back down on the chair beside the bed, holding Kyra's hand again.

"I had a dream, Miss Louise, when I was sleeping." Kyra started, paused again, and then continued with another deep breath. "It was back when I was much younger, and Big Brother came back home from work with Father. He was dressed in his butler clothes like Father, but when he met me, he smiled and carried me in his strong arms. I remembered asking him about the person he was serving, and all he could talk of was about you. He told me everything about you –how you were beautiful, how you were graceful, and was amazing at everything you did."

Kyra's cough interrupted her words, and Louise almost ran out of the room to call for help. Still Kyra's hand in hers tightened, keeping Louise captive even though the young girl was definitely much younger and weaker than her.

"Big Brother wanted me to become like you, and even though we come from a poor family, he said that if I did, then he would love me very much. And so I agreed to go to St. Luna, because I wanted to be like you. I was always a little jealous when I grew up, because you had my Big Brother's time and love more than I did. But Father and Mother taught me what it meant to be a Reyes, and as I grew up, I understood more and more."

Kyra laboured for her breath for another long while, as Louise waited, not wanting to interrupt the girl –not being able to bear the sight of her in pain.

"When I came over to find Big Brother, I also wanted to see what you were like. And you, Miss Louise, was like everything he said. Big Brother hasn't sold you short at all, and I'm super glad that you are the one fit for my Big Brother, and he fit for you also. My Big Brother is the best person in the world –and I know that I am biased –but the mistres that he serves is also the best in the world. I can never be like that, no matter how hard I try."

Louise wiped her tears away quickly before they could roll the rest of the way down her cheek.

"I'm also very happy to meet Keyron and Mr Brandon. Second Brother is amazing –as amazing as Big Brother –but happier. Mr Brandon is also very nice, and I like him a lot as well. I think all of you have really made the happiest week of my life, and I really want to thank you all, especially you, Miss Louise. You helped me understand my Big Brother even more than I thought I did."

"I... I didn't do much at all..." It was Louise's turn to sound weak as she wiped more tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. "Please don't say it like that, Kyra."

"Big Brother is not Big Brother without Miss Louise." Kyra simply ploughed on. "There is no Kyrano Reyes without you. You have made my Big Brother the man he is now, and he is perfect. The master and mistress makes the butler –Father used to always say that whenever they came back. A butler will always change and learn according to what his mistress wants, and Big Brother has done that for you."

"If anything, it is Kyrano who has helped me become the woman I am now." Louise rushed to say.

"Please be happy." Kyra's short answer to that was accompanied with a small squeeze on Louise's hands.

"I'm sorry?"

"A butler's happiness is his mistress's happiness." Kyra recited, and for the shortest moment, Louise almost heard Kyrano speaking those words as well. "For Big Brother to be happy, you must be happy."

"Everyone tells me that, Kyra, but it's impossible." Louise confessed. "How can I be happy when I see Kyrano suffering? How can I be happy when I don't know what he is thinking of, what he feels or even what he wants? I can't possibly be happy in my own world without him, because my world hinges on him that same way his hinges on mine."

"Do you love him, Miss Louise?" The question was asked so innocently that Louise stalled for a long while.

"No, I..."

"Miss Louise, I understand your circumstance. But please tell me honestly what it is in your heart. Is it my Big Bother as your butler, or him as a man?"

"Kyrano as a man." Louise looked down at her hand, holding on to Kyra's small one. "I love Kyrano."

"Yes." Kyra's smile regained a little of its former glory, though Louise saw none of it. "But it will not work out. Big Brother has already spoken to me about it. All he wants is to create memories to remember when he leaves. Please let those memories be happy ones for him, Miss Louise."

There was another pause in which Kyra struggled to breathe while dealing with the pain in her chest.

"The Crawfords are the life for all Reyes members. A word from the Crawfords are the orders for the Reyes. Our Master's wishes are ours. Our Masters and Mistresses are more important than our own parents, brothers and sisters. Only can our spouse ever stand on the same level as our masters, and even then, our spouse must understand their role in the Reyes family. Only a male child can serve as the butler for Crawfords' young masters and mistresses." Kyra recited, remembering those words from the sessions when her father had sat her down, and taught her those words of tradition. "A butler's happiness is his mistress's and master's happiness. A butler cannot wish to break out of his position, because it will only bring heartbreak. Always greet your mistress and master, and never meet them in the eye. Obey the wishes of your master and mistress, both spoken and unspoken. Bow with sincerity at the sight of them. Never sleep earlier or wake up later than your master and mistress."

There was another long pause, in which Louise had turned up to look at the young girl reciting those words from the back of her mind, the words coming out fluidly as if natural. They were all rules of butlership –the doctrine that butlers were supposed to remember. Louise recognised one or two of them –particularly the one on a butler's happiness being his mistress's –but she had never really knew that there were so many that the Reyes children were taught.

"Those are only a few of all that we have been taught in the Reyes Household, Miss Louise." Kyra continued, smiling as if she had just given a demonstration. "Because I am not working in butlership, I don't have to remember all of them. But if you ask Big Brother, he can tell you every single one of them with precision and speed. That is my brother for you. Other than being a butler, he doesn't know how to be anything else. He tries his best to be a good brother for me, but he doesn't really know how. It's always up to us to teach him, to be a man, to be a brother. He needs the people around him, Miss Louise."

"I... I never thought of it that way."

"But he has told me that he plans to leave your side, Miss Louise, because he doesn't know how to stand watching you marry Mr Brandon while he still loves you. I completely understand, and I do not blame anyone, Miss Louise. You must love Mr Brandon, because you two are made for each other. I just hope that until Big Brother leaves your side, please take care of him well. Please give him good memories, because I can't anymore. I can't make him smile anymore."

"You have to get well, Kyra." Louise insisted. "As long as you can get well, I'm sure Kyrano can smile again."

The little girl, wise beyond her years very much like her elder brother during her age, shook her head.

"I can't. It is both not my role anymore, and I don't have the time anymore. You are the only person that can keep my brother alive after I die, Miss Louise. Please promise me that you will take care of him well before you leave him to marry Mr Brandon."

"I...I..." Louise's tears threatened to run again. She almost could not believe that it was a young girl of ten years old talking to her.

"Please promise me that, Miss Louise... because there is nothing else that I can do in my current state."

It completely broke Louise's heart to hear the ten year old girl asking this of her –begging her to give her promise. Kyra's pure heart was struggling to live, struggling to reach out to her brother who had been sold to the Crawford family since young, his own heart torn and broken.

The one who had broken it was Louise herself.

"I promise you, Kyra." Louise blinked the tears from her eyes. "I promise you that I will take care of Kyrano. I'll make him happy."

Kyra's smile regained a little more strength, but it was still a painful shadow of its former glory. The easy grin was gone entirely now, as the ten year old tried her best to not show her pain and suffering in her eyes. As a servant of Reyes, she could not impose her will too much on the mistress of the Crawford family. As a daughter of the Reyes family, it was honourable enough to have the hier to the Crawford family crying over it. It was enough that she had overstepped her boundaries and made her brother's mistress promise to take care of her brother.

Kyra simply could not do anything more than hide her true pain from all that would visit her. Her smile was worn now, but still she insisted upon it. She would leave the world with a smile on her lips.

She would greet her father in the heavens with the same smile on her lips as well.