(Part 14)

"Mama." Brandon greeted his mother with a solemn tone in the corridor even as Keyron bowed politely beside him in greeting to the mistress of the Greaves Household.

"You're back." Kelly Greaves noted with small surprise. "How did it go?"

"It was fine." Brandon answered, not feeling up to smiling and being happy. In fact, it would be rather hard for him to smile right now, especially considering who had been planning to see.

"Don't work yourself too hard, Brandon." Kelly reached forwards and ruffled her son's hair with a soft smile in encouragement. Then, spotting the very small hint of a smirk on her son's butler, she moved her hand from her son to the butler's head as well, messing it up the same way. "And you too, Keyron."

"We won't." Brandon promised for the both of them. "Besides, I'm supposed to take over Papa's company soon. I must learn seriously this time."

"Your father has told me of how well you're doing. Don't worry. Experience comes with time." Kelly smiled down at her son and his butler, though the replying ones were uncertain.

"How is she?"

Kelly found it hard to believe that only two years ago, 18 year old Brandon Greaves had still been young, naïve and cloistered in his family. She and her husband had worried that Brandon would never grow up, and that they would have to rely on Keyron to watch over dangers for their son for the rest of Brandon's life. Never would she have imagined that the agreement of an arranged marriage between Brandon and Louise Crawford would change her son's life.

The change they had expected had only been on Keyron, who would have met his twin brother for the first time, but Kelly and Henry now saw more change in their son that the butler.

"Still not very well." She answered honestly on a soft sigh. It broke her heart to see such a capable woman become like this as well. When her son had announced that he needed help in taking care of Keyron's mother as well as the young Crawford mistress, she had immediately agreed. Back then, she hadn't been sure what had happened for sure, but her husband had told her something about the young Kyrano Reyes taking a stand and fighting against the Crawford regime.

Kelly remembered being utterly worried at what the 19 year old famed butler would do, but it appeared that massacre had happened. The news that covered the affair in the days afterwards seemed to pin Kyrano Reyes down as some sort of demonic butler. The staff of the Crawford Household that had been there on that night had been interviewed, and all of them had reported the presence of Butler Kyrano with mercenaries, coming in and killing some of the staff. No one had understood why Kyrano only chose to kill some and spare the others.

What was clear to the world, however, was that 19 year old Kyrano had killed his own Master and Head Butler.

Kelly had initially been afraid that something might have happened, but Brandon had explained afterwards that Kyrano had been out to save his own mistress. Kelly had known that Oscar Crawford was a ruthless businessman, and had frowned on his hard-handed approach. But she hadn't known that the man had been predating on the poor young children in the same household, and when Brandon had expressed that Kyrano had finally decided to fight back and sacrifice his life to protect the young mistress of the Crawford Household, Kelly had burst into tears at the gallant bravery of the butler.

The death of one butler had affected everyone, but it was obvious to see who had it the worst.

It was already three months, and Louise Crawford had yet to show signs of improvement.

"I'm sorry, Mama." Brandon's words cut through his mother's thoughts, and she blinked to see her son's head bowed in deep apology. "The months must have been hard on you."

"It have been harder on you and Keyron." Kelly answered quickly, stepping forth and claiming both the men in a hug. It was hard to imagine that they were both twenty, already well into becoming fully-fledged adults. Ever since the death of Kyrano, both men had immediately stepped up. Brandon had thrown himself into learning to take over the ropes of the family business from his father, and Keyron had found the motivation to study about the business world alongside his young master as well. It appeared that no matter what Kyrano had done to save his own young mistress, he had made a large impact on the two men of the Greaves family as well.

"It has been hard on Brandon, Mistress Kelly. But don't worry, because I'm there to make sure he's in his place." Keyron reported, though he was hugging the woman back as well, taking in the motherly love that Kelly had unfalteringly given him since his arrival into the household –since his first week of life.

"I'll make sure you're in your place, Keyron, if you keep talking like that." Brandon's answer was equally muffled against his mother's shoulder, hugging tight as well, as if they were two koala bears on the tree that was their mother.

"I'm already in my place, and that is forever beside you and Miss Louise." Keyron's answer was completely honest, without the slightest trace of lie or deceit. Kelly's heart warmed at the promise that had been repeated over and over again, until it was almost like a chant that the butler was now fond of saying.

Even though no one had ever doubted that Keyron would be walking the long road of Brandon's life along with the man, Kelly found that she was rather comforted to know that Keyron wanted to be there instead of being forced to.

"Continue with those mushy words, and I fear I might die." Brandon answered with sarcasm, and Kelly laughed. No matter how much her son and his butler might have changed, this was a part of them that made them... them. Brandon and Keyron had grown up, but they definitely hadn't grown unrecognizable to their own mother.

"If the two of you are back, then your father must be back as well. I'll go greet him, and we will have dinner promptly on time." Kelly pulled back from her motherly embrace, smiling down at both young men that were not going to be 'young' much longer. "Behave yourselves at the table."

"Tell that to Brandon." Keyron's answer was paired with a soft teasing grin, and Kelly laughed once more at the indignant expression on her son's face. Still, there was nothing more that they could say as Kelly left them in the middle of the hallway. She might have left Louise's room feeling sad and resigned at how a horrible world had destroyed such a promising young lady, but after meeting her son, Kelly decided that no matter how destroyed Louise was, she still had hope.

Because both Brandon and Keyron had promised themselves to be there by her side, with her. Forever.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Brandon and Keyron exchanged confirming nods with each other, reinforcing each other's emotional strength in that short movement before Brandon turned the door knob and allowed the both of them in the room.

There was reason why they had to both prepare themselves emotionally before stepping into the room, because the sight of Louise right now was enough to remind both of them of the painful event that had already passed them for three months. Seeing the woman now, Brandon was hard pressed to compare the woman that he still loved with the one that she had been while in school. It was hard to imagine that this woman might have once been the high and mighty, efficient and flawless Rose of the Academy.

Her beautiful hair was all over the place, frayed and dry, dirtied and filled with endless knots. The shining blond hair that Brandon had once fallen in love with was now a crazy force framing a face that held equal madness. He supposed that he wasn't surprised at all to find Louise on the floor, hiding in the small corner between the dresser table and the cupboard, tucking herself there while hugging her knees.

Afraid eyes tagged on the both of them as they came in, and blue eyes sharpened on Keyron, as they always did when his butler walked into the room.

At least she was responsive. Brandon had gotten psychiatrists to take a look at the woman, but the verdict was always the same. Post-trauma stress, coupled with the woman's tendency and inability to vocalize her thoughts and fear was crippling the woman. There was no medicine or drug suitable for Louise.

The only way she could get rid of all of this and come back to becoming the Louise Crawford that she used to be was to cry it out once and for all, sort out her thoughts, fix her own broken mind, and come back to reality to find Brandon and Keyron waiting for her to take their next step together.

"Louise, what are you doing in that corner?" Brandon did his best to hang an encouraging smile on his face, knowing that his butler had wisely stood back near the door while he approached the woman who reflexively shrank away from his approach. Still, there was no physical way that Louise could squeeze herself into the cramped space more than she already had, and Brandon landed his hands lightly on her forearms, making sure not to grip too hard to show that he was a friendly force. "Come on out; the bed is more comfortable."

Brandon had to give the woman a few light tugs before she finally caved in, unwrapping her arms around her legs. Then, taking Brandon's aid in strength, Louise climbed to her feet and took ginger steps all the way to the bed silently along with Brandon's guidance.

Her blue eyes never left Keyron.

"Louise," Brandon was having a hard time keeping up with his encouraging smile, but he had begun to learn over the months to deal with the pain in his heart. It was always in times of pain and crisis that Brandon learnt, and now he was learning how to maintain a strong front in front of the broken woman that he loved despite how much seeing her in this state cut him on the inside. "Louise, do you know who he is?"

Brandon didn't even bother pointing at the only other person in the room, because Louise had refused to let her eyes swivel away from anything else.

"K...K..." The name could never come out from those lips. Ever since she fainted from screaming and crying over her butler's body, Louise had not been able to speak. It was not a physical problem, but rather a psychological trauma that stopped the woman from speaking or vocalizing her thoughts.

Still, Brandon could not say that they had not made progress in the three months that Louise had stayed with them. When she was first brought into the family, Louise had not been able to even make a sound. Now, at least she could make a squeak or squeal, or even attempt to speak. At least she was a little more responsive, and at least she showed that she still understood their language and their talk.

"How are you today?" Brandon did his best to soothe the messed up hair, the sourness in his heart only growing when Louise did not even react to his question, eyes never landing on him.

"Well, Keyron and I had a perfectly horrible day." Brandon recounted, hands moving to carefully cradle the lady's dainty ones in his. "Today we learnt how to deal with crying businessmen coming to beg us to save them. I understand their desperation, and I wished that I could have saved them all."

"But Brandon could not, because as the next Master of the Greaves Household, he needed to learn how to weigh the costs and benefits." Keyron finally spoke up, as if he could no longer stand being stared at by the woman. Brandon turned to find his butler moving from his space in front of the door to his side.

"Keyron did not have it any better today." Brandon continued, somehow feeling a little glad that his butler was showing him solidarity in dealing with a mute lady that his heart still pounded for. "If I had to turn the businessmen down, he was the one escorting them to the door."

"And it was perfectly horrible." Keyron backed him up once more, borrowing the same words that he had used before. "You must get well, Miss Louise, and come back into the real world with us. You can be there when Brandon has to turn businessmen down, so he doesn't have to be a soft scaredy cat."

If it was in any other circumstance, Brandon would have immediately come up with a protest to that claim. But staying in the room had its effect on him long enough that Brandon no longer had the emotional strength to hold an argument with his butler and best friend.

Brandon took one more look at how Louise's eyes, no matter how long they had talked, had never wavered a single moment from Keyron's face.

She was still looking for signs of Kyrano.

Three months down the road from Kyrano's death, Brandon gave up.

He had lost. To a dead man.

He had been holding on to the letter from Kyrano, waiting for the best time to pass it to the woman. He had carried it with him wherever he went, waiting for Louise to come back to reality to read it. He had been waiting, knowing that if she read it, she would fall in love with the dead man all over again. Brandon had been literally holding on to his enemy's weapon, waiting for the best time to hurt himself.

But like how he had been completely reluctant to turn away the begging businessmen, Brandon could not let the dead man's last word just fade away into nothingness.

Even if Louise could not understand or could not respond, Brandon didn't care anymore.

He gave up.

"Brandon?" Keyron asked unsurely when his master stood up abruptly, letting go of Louise's hands all of a sudden and letting them fall back down to her lap with no inch of genteel.

Brandon reached into his breast pocket on the inner lining of his business suit, not sure why he had kept the envelope so close to his heart the whole time. It was the last thing that he had that belonged to Kyrano. Maybe Brandon had wanted to leave one last keepsake with him reminding him of the man that used to be his friend and love rival.

"Read this to her." Brandon passed the envelope to his butler. "Kyrano told me to wait for the best time, but I give up. I give up waiting. If this isn't going to wake her up, then I don't know what I'm waiting for anymore."

Keyron looked up from the envelope that he distantly recognised, then up at his master. It was obvious that Kyrano, before his death, had passed the envelopes to his master with the instructiosn to pass it to both recipients. His master had done that to him after the funeral, and while it had brought another wave of tears, Keyron had found that his emotional burden had been freed after reading his brother's last letter for him. Kyrano had definitely found the perfect words to say goodbye, and Keyron had read his twin brother's instructions for him clearly. Kyrano had wanted him to move forward.

And Keyron had taken the last advice that his brother had given him. In the past three months, Keyron had moved forwards with his master.

The sound of closing doors made Keyron look up, and he realized that his master had already left the room. Brandon had lost his encouraging smile at the end, not being able to keep up the pretenses of how seeing the lady in this state hurt him. Keyron could easily see that his master still loved the woman, whose heart and mind had been broken by the dead butler. But Brandon was increasingly becoming disillusionised, spiritless and lethargic.

Keyron looked down at the envelope that held his brother's handwriting once more, writing a name that wasn't his, then up at the owner of that name, whose blue eyes were still on him, as if waiting for him to speak more.

Kyrano had come through for him in the form of the letter. Keyron had been freed –liberated –after reading his brother's words for him.

He could only pray for the same effect on the woman.

Keyron took a seat by the woman's bed, and tore the envelope open.

This was it. One last try, once and for all.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Keyron rubbed his eyes, making sure that the tears that had been threatenin to rise were cleared from his vision. He held tightly to the piece of paper between his hands, and cleared his throat. His master had been right to stake a gamble on this piece of paper. They, like how they had always, were staking another gamble on Kyrano. One last time; one last gamble on Kyrano's head.

"Miss Louise." Keyron started, then was startled to hear the weakness in his voice. He cleared his throat again, this time harder and making sure he could speak and sound properly. He tried once more.

"Miss Louise," Keyron paused, then was glad that his voice didn't sound strangled anymore. The fidgety butler paused again for the third time, scaning his eyes quickly through the paper. He had to do this. It had to be Keyron, because if Keyron read it, then it would sound more authentic. It would sound as if Kyrano were speaking to the woman himself.

"Miss Louise." He tried one more time, and pushed on this time without a pause.

"I have been the luckiest man in the world while I lived. If I am to be regarded as a stellar butler, then it must have been because I was able to serve under a stellar woman. Even though there might have been moments where I wished that I were not your butler, but your lover instead, I regret nothing. I am proud to be a member of the Reyes family, and am I proud to have walked together with you since we were 5.

I am the only man who has walked alongside you since your childhood, and this title I hold with utter boastful pride. I am the only man who understands the Louise Crawford that was the excellent Rose of the Academy in St. Clair, and I am also the man who has supported her way.

These feelings I hold as a butler have only been further enhanced by my own feelings for you as a man, Miss Louise. Pride of having taken care of you through your teenage years aside, I am utterly proud to call you an acquaintance of mine, a butler and deep down in some level, an individual who has stood by you in all times. Beneath it all, if you must ask what made me hold on to you with my life, to stick by you and become such a nuisance, I will admit that it is love.

All butlers and their master or mistress who work well share some form of love. I have no doubt that my father once loved your father with the same devotion that I place in you. It is with this love that I have opened my heart only to you, and though it might have been a mistake to allow your uncle to see it, I regret none of it.

Those forbidden kisses we shared; I regret none of them, no matter how fleeting they were, or how we were both punished for it.

It is with the same love in my heart that I give my life for you. Because I know that you are unafraid to do the same for me; it has become dangerous. I know that you, Miss Louise Crawford, will be unafraid to let go of all the societal standing that you have simply to be with me. And I will never allow that; I will never allow the woman I have loved since 5 years old to fall from grace due to my own fault.

The first time I saw you, Miss Louise, you were reading a book in the garden in the Main House. My father brought me to introduce you to the butler who would serve you for as long as he lived, and you did not give me much of a look.

That was the moment I fell in love with you, who was, still is, and always will be beautiful, pure and pristine.

The Louise Crawford that I grew up with –the one that I watched grow up beside me –is a woman who might take her time to reel from her shock, but will never stay down. You have endlessly jumped back from obstacles, Miss Louise, during my time with you, and it is also this resilience that I trust in.

No matter what happens to me, or what has already happened to me at the Main House, you must bounce back. You may take your time to adjust your realities, but promise me that you will not do anything foolish. Please do not make my efforts to secure your safety futile. Please stay safe.

With my passing, you must forget me, Miss Louise. You must forget a foolish man who can be nothing except for a butler. I am a failure as a man, as a brother, as a son. The only thing I was able to achieve in my life was to be a butler, and I was your faithful butler.

But all of it will be over soon, and this worthless body will be buried deep beneath the dirt. When that happens, Miss Louise, you must forget me. You must love Mr Brandon, who loves you back deeply. Do not blame him for his keeping my secrets from you, because I have made him hide the truth from you. I trust him, Miss Louise. I trust him and Keyron to be there for you when I can't.

You understand how I have never been taught to trust anyone in my life.

If there are anyone who have taught me trust and belief, then it is Mr Brandon and Keyron.

Trust them, because they love you as much as I do.

As I leave to take the next step alone for the first time since becoming your butler, you must promise me one thing that will make my journey smoother, safer, and ultimately happier.

A butler's happiness is his mistress's happiness, and I have been elated my whole life in service to you.

So be happy, be loved, and love the person that who will be there for you for the rest of your journey.

Kyrano Reyes."

Keyron Reyes looked up from the letter that he still clutched tightly between his fingers, the stinging in his eyes threatening a rise of tears once more. Really, his brother might have written down that he was a failure at everything else except for being a butler, but Keyron thought otherwise.

His brother would have been a damned good storywriter given how Kyrano's words could make a grown man like him cry –and the words weren't even addressed to him in the first place.

Then again, if his brother would be a damned good storywriter, then Keyron supposed that he was a damned good storyteller, because when he looked up, the young mistress of the Crawford Household had finally seem to have broken through her shell. The tears that had been scarily absent since the Kyrano's death had suddenly come in a flood, and Keyron could see steady streams of them as they dripped endlessly on the covers.

"K-Keyron..." Louise's first word that broke the peaceful silence following the end of his narration brought surprise to him, but Keyron reacted to his butler instincts immediately.

"Yes, Miss Louise?"

"I know that you're not him..." Louise's voice was hoarse, but it was natural, because she was both crying, and she hadn't used her voice in months. "But can I... can I hug you and cry it out one last time?"

There was no use asking who the 'him' was.

"Miss Louise, you can take as long as you want, but you must promise the both of us that after you cry it out this time, you will learn to let go. I'm not asking you to completely forget him, but... he's already dead. There is no more use grieving over a man who has loved us all, but will never come back." Keyron offered as he moved from the chair that he had pulled up beside the bed to sit beside the woman who had finally cried on the bed.

"Okay, I p-promise..." Louise choked in her sobbing, immediately wrapping her arms around the butler who had offered himself as an emotional sponge.

The Keyron who was initially awkward at having the young mistress hug him and cry her heart out eventually put his arms softly around the woman in hopes that he might remind her a little of Kyrano's protectiveness. Both of them knew that he was not his twin brother, but Keyron was still, no matter what, a butler and a servant who had promised Kyrano would serve and protect the young lady.

Stroking the haphazard hair of the desperately sobbing woman, feeling the water seep through his clothing, Keyron rested his lips lightly on the top of the young mistress's head in hopes of comforting her.

There was a reason why Brandon refused to stop calling him a crybaby even after both of them had grown up, because Keyron found himself crying again, this time along with Louise Crawford.