(Part 9)

Kyra Reyes passed on from the world a week later, peacefully in her sleep. It was a rather painless way of dying, and Louise was distantly glad somewhere in her heart that the beautiful girl had gone off in peace, without suffering too much.

Keyron had returned from his hiding shortly before his sister's death, and had been utterly shocked to receive the news that he almost fell back into a catatonic state. It was like with Kyrano all over again –except that this was the younger twin, and Keyron would not leave his sister's side, even as the white blanket was drawn over her face.

Kyrano reacted to nothing at all. Kyrano and Louise had spent the night over at the hospital on that day, and had been sleeping in a hospital-provided room for patients' family members. Both of them had been awoken by flustered nurses who explained that Kyra's heartbeat had stopped a minute ago, and that the doctors were doing their best to bring Kyra back to life.

Louise had waited for the worst ten minutes of her life, standing worriedly outside Kyra's ward and trying not to look through the window at what the doctors were doing to the poor little girl. Her butler, instead, had only stood there and watched with a face as hard as concrete. Nothing could break the expressionless face of Kyrano's as he stood there, his world falling apart internally while he kept himself upright, watching.

Kyrano had even watched as the doctors looked at their watches, then decided that fifteen minutes was too long, and that Kyra's chances of coming back to life was almost nil. Souless black eyes had watched as the doctors communicated with the nurses as they buttoned up Kyra's hospital gown again, removing the medical devices surrounding her bed, and scribbled down the time of death while checking their watches.

The purely professional affair was done efficiently, as the nurses smoothed out the creases on Kyra's gown, her bed, and followed the doctors out to greet Kyrano and Louise, as well as Keyron and Brandon who had been sleeping in the hotel nearby.

"We've tried out best." The doctor promised, her eyes filled with understanding. "My condolences."

Louise remembered Keyron falling unconscious immediately at those words, but she was rather caught up in her own emotions as well, as her legs went jelly immediately. However, her fall to her knees on the floor was stopped by Kyrano's strong arm, as if he had been waiting for her all along. Louise had remembered feeling the strong arm holding her up, pulling her against him for a support to stand.

The heart hiding behind a calm man had been racing at extreme speeds.

Louise had looked up at her butler's face, but it was almost as if it were chiselled in marble. Nothing changed his expression as he looked only forwards, his dead eyes set on the doctor who had stayed for concern of the fainted brother and the swooning lady.

"Excuse me, but please let me escort my lady and my brother to somewhere safe before I deal with the paperworks." Kyrano had apologised, his tone hard as steel.

Louise had bit her tongue to stop herself from saying anything. In fact, she didn't even protest when Brandon ran over to take over supporting her, leaning on her fiancé while she watched Kyrano pick up his twin brother, sling him over his shoulder like a sack of potato, then turned to march down the hallway.

It was like his sister had never died in front of his eyes. It was like he had simply been watching a documentary video, that it was purely informational, and that nothing had any emotional attachment to it.

Louise knew better. She had heard his racing heart. She had felt his tightly controlled tension in his arms when he held her up. She had felt his minute shivering that almost shook the whole man apart. No, Kyrano was not emotionless.

He was feeling too much; too much that he didn't know how to deal with them all. So he had swept them all underneath his role as an efficient butler.

Louise could not bear to break Kyrano's defense mechanism at that moment. And so she had allowed Kyrano to serve his role as the perfect butler.

The days following Kyra's death, Louise deliberately pretended to be too affected to go to school, forcing Kyrano to have free time to death with the paperwork concerning his sister's death and funeral. As expected, the efficient butler took everything formally and emotionlessly as he arranged the moving of the body, selected a coffin, selected a place for the funeral –basically arranged every single step of the way from the hospital until when the coffin would be lowered into the ground.

Quick and efficient as Kyrano was, it took him three days to get the details out, and by the fourth day, Kyra's body was embalmed, dressed in her best dress, her favourite toy –the one that Kyrano had bought for her at the amusement park –joining her peaceful little body in the coffin. The funeral was a completely procedural affair, with a distraught Keyron pushing their distraught mother on the wheelchair following the hearse while Kyrano held the photo of his beloved sister.

There had not been many attendees, but some were Kyra's close friends in St. Luna Academy. Dignified ladies as they were supposed to be, Louise was rather glad that the friends that Kyra had made were the ones who were attached to Kyra's smile rather than her family name.

Louise was surprised when even her uncle and the Head Butler of the family turned up at the funeral. However, his presence there was purely promotional of his 'concern' of his personal servants. Oscar Crawford's presence at the burial ground was greeted with photographers, and the Head of the family even went up personally to Kyrano to express his condolences.

Dead-eye Kyrano had simply accepted it all as a butler should, but Louise knew better.

She was at the point of walking up to her uncle and resisting his faked sincerity when he announced rather haughtily that he had left in the middle of an all-important conference to come down to the funeral, and that he needed to return to business. His departure was good news, considering he took his horde of photographers along with him.

The Last Rites were said with the heavy, sombre air.

It began to pour as the coffin was lowered, but there was no regard for the weather in Kyrano's bones as he rested his sister's photo at the side, took off his butler's coat, rolled up his sleeves, and wordlessly went over to collect a shovel. Louise stood with her heart absolutely breaking into a million pieces as she watched her butler work his muscles, pour shovel after shovel of dirt down the hole that contained his beloved sister's body. It was almost like his heart was down there as well, and that he was burying it along.

The affair was over in a wink.

Slowly, the guests began to leave, but Kyrano, having put his coat back on and regained his perfect appearance, made no effort to move. Louise, worried, stood beside him holding up the umbrella over him.

"Miss Louise." Kyrano's voice was uncharacteristically strangled for the first time that she knew him. "If you want to leave with Mr Brandon, Keyron and my mother, you should leave now. I would like to stay here a little longer."

Sensing that her butler was finally on the way to the breakdown that he had kept at bay since receiving the news of his sister's death, Louise replied a soft 'no', and bade for Brandon to take good care of Keyron as they struggled past, Keyron a crying mess that could no longer walk properly.

They waited until all the guests were gone, and then they waited even longer.

Louise wasn't sure at all what they were waiting for, but she waited patiently for her butler to slowly become human again –to become the brother that he had stopped himself from becoming since a few days ago. There the two of them stood, in the rainstorm that chilled Louise to the bones, with a meagre black umbrella held over their heads. Louise took her veil off her hat, no longer caring for manners and appearance as she stared at the tombstone erected.

A sister and daughter beloved and cherished while she lived, Kyra Reyes.

Below those beautiful words were the dates of birth and death.

Briefly, Louise let her eyes roam to the tombstone that stood beside Kyra's.

A father and butler who served his best, Kyrone Reyes.

This was the second time Louise had stood in front of a gravestone belonging to the family member of her butler.

Kyrano had hurt and lost so much.

"Miss Louise." Kyrano's voice was so soft that it was almost drowned out by the thunder. "Please forgive anything that you might see from now onwards."

It was the warning Louise received.

One moment later, the distraught brother showed himself completely as he fell from his feet to his knees before his sister's grave. The tears that burst forth from Kyrano's eyes came at such speed that Louise knew immediately he had been keeping them back for days.

"Kyra..." Kyrano's voice cracked badly, and for the first time, the pain wrote completely unhindered on the man's face as he reached out to trace his sister's name on the cold stone. "Kyra, how can you leave so soon? Big Brother didn't have time to say goodbye, didn't even have time to say that he loves you. You didn't give me a warning, you didn't give me anything... Kyra, how can you just leave me..."

Louise stood stiff and frozen, holding the umbrella over Kyrano who continued to cry aloud for the first time in his life. It was both utterly horrible and relieving to see her butler letting everything go for once, to see that he was finally letting his emotions show. The true emotions that made Kyrano a man and not a demon finally showed themselves, and though Louise's heart cracked even more, she steeled herself. It was something that Kyrano needed to do alone –to face his sister's tombstone.

Eventually, Kyrano lost words for his sister, and only knelt before his sister tombstone, crying and wailing.

Even during his father's funeral, Kyrano had not appeared so distraught. During Kyrone's funeral, Louise had remembered watching her twelve year old butler, one eye bandaged, leaking tears from his eyes. Kyrano's face had been grim and sad, but there had been none of this outward expression of sorrow.

This time was completely different as Louise stood behind her butler as he became entirely human –a lonely, pain-filled human that was helpless against a God who wanted to claim Kyra into His Eternal Embrace.

Eventually, kneeling in front of the tomb did not seem to bring him any closer to feeling his sister, and Kyrano –crazy with sorrow –hugged the tombstone in hopes of feeling something warm, something beating with soft, rhythmic thuds. None of them came, as only icy cold, wet stone met his arms. It was completely silent, but Kyrano made it up by his cries instead. How could Kyra be gone? How could she possibly lie down and sleep forever just like that –especially after all that they had shared together?

Kyrano was barely aware that the raindrops were hitting him again –that the shelter of a black umbrella was gone –and that warm arms had wrapped around him from behind. The thudding of a rhythmic heart filled his ears, but they came from behind him, not through all that he was hugging.

"I don't know what else I can do, Kyrano. I want to help you... I want to protect you, but I can't. This is the only thing I can do for you, so please, just cry it all out. Kyra will be watching over us from the heavens with Kyrone, smiling." Louise was saying as her tears mixed with rainwater as well, hugging her butler tight. She had wanted to do that since the day they received news, but she –like her butler- had kept herself back. She hadn't wanted to do anything to trigger Kyrano's emotions, to break through his control. But now that he had let go, Louise also found herself letting go. Damning all consequences, Louise had found herself rushing forth, kneeling and enveloping her butler's form in her embrace, praying that he would feel her warmth, that he would still know that she was here.

Kyrano didn't really care. At that moment, there was none of Butler Kyrano, none of a man who loved Louise Crawford. It was only Big Brother Kyrano that hugged his sister's tombstone, crying and wailing for her early departure from life.

Kyrano did not get better until much later, when he found himself exhausted from crying, exhausted from everything. The water still beat heavily down on them, but Kyrano didn't really care anymore.

"Kyrano?" The soft voice at his side stirred him back to reality a little, and he turned to see his mistress's face just a few inches away from him. Her arms were still protectively around him, and for the moment, he didn't really care as he drew them closer. The warmth that Louise provided was heavenly –it was a physical projection of what his sister must be experiencing beside their father.

"Please don't leave me, Miss Louise." Kyrano turned his red puffy eyes on his mistress, who continued observing him worriedly. His voice was hoarse and scratchy, but he didn't care. He was past caring about many things at this point. "Please don't leave me like how Kyra did..."

"I won't." Louise assured –the only thing that she could promise. She remembered how Kyra had made her promise that she would take care of Kyrano –and that was exactly what Lousie intended. "I will never choose to leave you, Kyrano. You can trust me."

Kyrano's wet, gloved fingers reached up and trailed lightly on Louise's cheek, the sadness still written clearly on his face. His eyes were already puffy and red, and yet they still had a hint of a moisture that could not be attributed to the rainwater. Louise watched her butler carefully even as his fingers trailed to her chin, and lightly tilted her head.

Both of them closed their eyes as their lips met shortly. There was no deeper emotion to the kiss –only a man looking for comfort in a soft brush of lips, and a woman who did her best to provide that comfort. Quick as they came together, their lips parted and their eyes opened again to look at each other, the mutual understanding running between them.

"I will never leave you, Kyrano." Louise promised strongly, feeling –for the first time –that she were the true protector of her butler's fragile heart. With the promise that she had made to the deceased Kyra, Louise further strengthened herself mentally. It would be hard.

But Louise would never leave her butler. Kyrano had lost too much for her sake for her to even begin repaying him. The only thing that she could do was to never leave his side. That was something she could do.

They would be together, until Kyrano got better. They would always be together.

If only things were so simple.