(Part 8)

"How is he?" The worried question was asked by the lady, but equally worried eyes of the men tagged on the doctor.

"We have given Mr Reyes an injection to get his vitamin levels back to normal and dressed his wounds. Other than the scars, there shouldn't be anything permanent. However, I will advise for him to attend some counselling as part of his recovery process. The cuts on his arm are evenly spaced and with increasing depth –a methodical way to increase the pain."

"We understand. Thank you very much." Louise Crawford bowed in gratitude to the doctor who bowed back in greeting, giving instructions to not disturb the sleeping man before leaving.

"I'll be going back to the academy, Miss Louise, to sort out things out on our behalf. Please pardon me. I will be back to visit Kyrano soon." Keyron offered humbly, a sincere hand placed over his heart as he bowed low.

Unable to bear charging into the ward to disturb her peacefully sleeping butler, Louise hung close to the door, peeking through the window restlessly at the face of the resting patient. A sigh of relief escaped her now that Kyrano's face no longer hung the pained expression, but looked at peace with the world instead. The same paleness was there, but at least it appeared that her butler was no longer suffering.

The tension that had worked their way through to her shoulders leaked a little, but Louise could feel the stiffness of her back as she stood at the door.

"He seems fine. We were right; it was anaemia." Brandon said quietly from behind her, careful not to shock the rankled woman more than she already was. Louise nodded to show that she acknowledged the man's words, but didn't offer a reply as she finally gave up looking at her sleeping butler, and went instead back to sit at the chairs lined outside the ward for visitors.

"Thank you for your and Keyron's help, Brandon." Louise started the conversation after a long pause in which Brandon took over Louise's place at the door, looking through the window to watch over the patient in the ward.

"No problem. I've taken a shine to your butler as well. He's not Keyron, but he is still interesting." Brandon answered easily, briefly turning his eyes away from the sleeping man to the stressed-out mistress sitting outside, looking –for the first time since he knew her –flustered and completely lost.

"I thank you for his behalf as well. I would not have known what to do back in the classroom if not for the two of you."

"There were other butlers on scene. Any one of them would have been able to step in. It simply happened that Keyron and I were nearest to Kyrano." Brandon answered, but he knew that the words that he was speaking –none of them were the actual words that he wanted to say.

He regretted that he had to ask to clear his doubts, but they were words that had to be spoken.

Brandon walked away from the door and chose to sit on the set of seats on the other side of the hallway, directly opposite from Louise's seat. Leaning forwards so that his elbows rested on both his knees, Brandon did his best to give off the aura of compassion and concern. He didn't want his fiancée to think that his questions were accusative or angry in any sense. It was a simply need-to-know thing –even though Brandon was more or less already convinced of his own assumed answer.

"Before Kyrano passed out, you told me that I cannot expect you to love me wholeheartedly, because you already have shared your love with someone else." Brandon started, taking a jump right into the deep end of the pool. But there was no point in trying to wade in from the safe end, because his fiancée was not the type of woman who would care for skittish preambles.

"I don't know why you are bringing this up all of a sudden again, but yes." Louise was doing her best to scrape her emotions back, and Brandon was a little disappointed that she still did not view him to be trustworthy enough to let up on even an inch of her weakness. He was supposed to be her future-husband, and still the woman refused to show him her weaker side.

"The man whom I have to share your love with; is it Kyrano?"

"You are making assumptions." Louise's reply was timed perfectly in a bid to dismiss his suggestion, but Brandon had observed his fiancée well. He knew that the woman sounded stiff and unwilling to let him glean on her inner turmoil.

"If the man is Kyrano, Louise, then I completely understand."

"It is not." This time, the reply was a tad bit too fast, and the woman tried her best to hide it by escaping his gaze to focus her eyes on her clasped hands resting on her lap.

"Louise, you love Kyrano."

"No, I don't. A love cannot happen between a lady and her butler. It is forbidden."

"That is the rule, but humans do not always follow the rules."

"Kyrano does, and will follow them until he is dismissed from servitude."

Brandon shook his head. "You know what you say is untrue, Louise. Kyrano is willing to break all rules and laws if he deems it best for you and your happiness. Your butler follows every oath as a butler as if it were his soul's calling. If you wish for it, he will destroy the world to make you happy."

"I am happy where we are now." Louise's reply was short, but Brandon took to understanding that she was no longer trying to deny.

"I do not claim to understand the mindset of your butler, Louise, but the motivation behind his previous period of mistakes, his cutting and this incident is very likely to have been born out of your hiding secrets from your butler."

"I was not hiding anything from him." Louise answered quickly this time, but both of them knew that she was now lying through her teeth. Brandon found it ironic how he hadn't noticed earlier that there was no better way to trip the woman up than to say something about her butler. Anyone could insult her and curse her family to horrible death, and Louise would not even spare a single brain cell over it. But once anyone said anything about Kyrano, Louise's walls were lowered immediately.

"He was constantly irritated, particularly at me and at rumours that you and Keyron were having a love affair. It was in those days that he constantly made mistakes. Then, just one day he all of a sudden stops being angry. Unless he took hormone suppressing drugs, there was no other way he could have drained those negative emotions." Brandon explained, determined to let the woman understand.

The cause of Kyrano's fainting and his scars would definitely be hidden from the school body afterwards, but it didn't mean that Brandon didn't know the truth. He was very sure that Keyron had already come to the same conclusion as he, but knowing the truth would make no damned difference if the most important woman in Kyrano's life didn't understand.

"No way other than to cut himself..." Louise corrected, coming to the same conclusions easily.

"The pressure for him to perform once more forced him to push down his emotions. I know your Kyrano has been famed for being able to switch emotions, but it doesn't mean that he is good at dealing with them. He probably suppressed them until he found the time to cut himself, letting them all drain off."

"He was fine before all of this... He was fine before you came in."

"I admit that my presence, along with the discovery of his brother threw him off his stride, but it is more than that that changed your butler."

"What else is there? I've already tried to help him solve his family problems, but I've completely failed to see that instead of helping him, I destroyed him."

"Louise, do you still remember that Kyrano is the same age as us?"

The sudden question that seemed to come out of the blue surprised the woman enough to bring her blue eyes to meet Brandon's, blinking in confusion. There was confusion, but also surprise. Surprise that she realized she hadn't remembered that Kyrano was supposed to be of the same age as she. Butlers tended to be older than the ladies they served, and over time, with Kyrano's care for her, Louise had begun to realize that she had been considering Kyrano as someone older and more matured than she.

Brandon's short chuckle held little amusement.

"Don't worry, you're not the only one. It still strikes me with crazy shock sometimes when I remember that Keyron is supposed to be the same age as us." Brandon continued, seeing the answer clear in his fiancée's eyes. "The Reyes twins have become butlers so great at what they do that we completely forget that they are the same as us. They go through the same things as well, beside us; except that they have much better ways of dealing with everything as butlers."

"I don't get what you are trying to say." Louise interrupted shortly, clearly not in the mood to listen to the stories of good relations of Brandon and his butler. Keyron and Kyrano could be twins, but Louise herself knew very clearly that the two men were not alike in terms of characteristics.

"Kyrano is a nineteen year old. Like how puberty hit us, it hit him as well. Like how hormones rage amongst us all, it rages in him too. It is just that he knows how to hide his feelings so well that we tend to forget that he is still a young man like us. And just like the way we love, he loves as well."

"Kyrano loves someone? I have never seen his eyes on anyone in the Academy." Louise's surprise was so strong that Brandon could not help wondering. Did the woman never understand the cause of her butler's strength of loyalty to her? Did Louise really believe Kyrano when he declared his dedication to her family as an excuse for all the inhuman things that he achieved in her name?

Did Louise Crawford never know that Kyrano Reyes loved her?

"I am constantly glad that I have Keyron with me." Brandon stood up abruptly, deliberately not answering. Kyrano had already taken a marked dislike for him. If he said anything more, then he might never be able to make nice with his fiancée's butler. "Because we are both men, I can love him and he can love me in our own stupid way. It is so much harder for you and Kyrano."

"What are you-" Louise's desperate question was cut off by her fiancé this time as Brandon began walking away from the seats towards the exit in the same direction that Keyron had retreated towards.

"Figure it out yourself, Louise. And when Kyrano wakes up, tell him the truth. Tell him everything. Even if he doesn't like all that he hears, Kyrano will understand. Because your butler is a hopeless stickler to his duties and his role as butler, he will accept everything from you. As long as it is you, Kyrano will accept everything. Kyrano will accept all parts of you without wanting to change a single thing."

"I don't understand what you are trying to get at, Brandon." Louise had taken a half-step forward to chase after her retreating fiancé, but hesitated shortly.

Brandon only looked back and briefly gave an encouraging smile and a farewell wave.

"If that isn't love, I don't know what else is." He said as his parting words.

Brandon was totally fine with sharing the love from his capable fiancée with Kyrano.

In fact, he would be honoured to be placed side by side with someone like Kyrano.

He could never do it; he wagered.

There was a reason why he was Brandon Greaves, and the patient sleeping in the ward was Kyrano Reyes.

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Maiko, there will be Council Meetings from 3 to 5.30pm on Tuesdays. Prepare yourself."

"I understand, Miss Louise."

Louise flipped the card she had in her hands once more, finding yet another name that was distantly familiar.

"Call Mr Lambert and see to the administration of the buy-over of his stocks."

Her temporary butler did not even have the time to reply this time as she flipped the card again, glancing briefly again.

"Contact the Hanovers and give them the help they need as you see fit."

"But, Miss Louise, it is not in my role to touch the Crawford's finances to my will." Maiko spoke up with a plea in his voice. Louise paused temporarily, surprised at the resistance that was coming from her butler.

She couldn't get used to this; not one bit of it. Kyrano never complained about his job; never found ways to skirt past the jobs unloaded on him. And even though both of them knew that Kyrano had unconventionally took over his lady's duty of managing the family business partially to 'help her uncle', Louise had not realized exactly what her butler was going through daily until now.

"Right. Then simply contact the Hanovers and tell me the type of aid they require." Louise answered absently, chalking up yet another matter that she had to deal with herself. Maiko was an efficient butler, but he was nowhere near Kyrano's league. Brought into the Crawford Household by her uncle to be Oscar's personal butler, Maiko was still a mere unnamed butler who had not even been through the Imperial Academy for Butlers. He could, for his life, never be able to live up to Kyrano's golden coat of arms.

"As you wish, Miss Louise." Once more, came the deferential tone of her temporary butler, but he was no Kyrano. She heard his quiet sigh behind her, heard the stiffness in his replies whenever she added yet another job on his list. It was so hard to remember that Maiko was human –that Kyrano was human.

"Anything I can help you with?" Brandon's intruding voice surprised the both of them, and Louise looked up from her cards. "You seem to be suffering quite some bit without Kyrano."

"I'll live." Louise's no-nonsense reply was bitter.

"Not that I'm implying anything against you, Maiko." Brandon added as an afterthought, taking his uninvited seat easily beside his fiancée on the couch. They were in the library, but it was –like always –rather empty. "But it seems like without Kyrano, your mistress is not doing very well."

"I am constantly regretful that I am not able to ease her troubles, Master Brandon." Maiko's deferent tone of voice was secretly irritating Louise, but she knew that it would be unfair to lash out at the temporary butler. The poor man had been rushed from the Main House straight down the Academy after news of Kyrano's hospitalisation and coma was reported in.

Louise was still reeling from how fast things had happened.

What was supposed to be a quick and easy recovery for her butler had turned into something horrific when Kyrano did not wake up shortly after hospitalisation. Afterwards, he had developed infection from his wounds, and had gotten into a high fever. The fever had been almost lethal, and Louise's heart had sunk when Kyrano was shifted into the ICU to be watched over carefully. The man's condition was now stable, but the constant drug dosage meant that Kyrano had not been fully conscious since a week ago.

"It's fine. Kyrano's shoes are sometimes too inhumane for anyone to fill." Brandon answered Maiko easily, leaning in to get a glimpse of the cards that were in Louise's hands. "Are those get-well cards for Kyrano?"

"Yes. It seems that his hospitalisation is conversation starter everywhere in the school now." Louise answered shortly, deftly leaning away from her fiancé's invasion of space. It would take a long time to get used to the guy now that she knew he was to be her husband in the future.

"Not surprising, considering his reputation as an infallible Butler in Black. That; and the fact that Maiko's taking over Kyrano's place temporarily."

"The ladies' concern warm my heart, but Kyrano has shown no signs of waking up."

"Give the man a rest. He worked so hard for the past fourteen years."

"I have worked hard for the past nineteen years." A blank voice interrupted with a clearing of throat, and though the interruption was rude, everyone turned to the butler who had stood by silent the whole while. "Do I have to bleed myself out to get the rest I want?"

"You?" Brandon scoffed. "You whiny baby; you're scared of knives. You will pee yourself first before any blood comes out."

"I am no longer scared!" Keyron's protest was indignant, and the expression on someone so alike to Kyrano made Louise smile uncontrollably. "I'll make your blood come first before mine."

"Can you believe this guy?" Brandon laughed, turning to face his fiancée, and grinned at her smile. "What kind of butler is this?"

"Yours." Louise answered. To be honest with herself, Louise owed her strength now to Brandon and Keyron. From helping escort Kyrano to the hospital on the ambulance to being there for her even in school and making her smile stupidly, Brandon and his butler were doing everything to keep Louise together. If it had not been for the either of them, Louise would have long fallen apart. She would definitely not be back here in school, still holding on to what was supposed to be her routine life as the Rose.

It was much harder to lead the routine life now that Kyrano was no longer the one helping her.

"Well, I don't want him anymore. Do you? I'll sell him to you at a discount."

Louise laughed at the incredulous suggestion from her fiancé, feeling her spirits lighten ever so little. Now that she knew the secret that he had been hiding from her since his admission, Louise felt as if Brandon would definitely be there for her. It was strange; to be able to feel about someone else in the same way as she felt about Kyrano.

"I'd like that very much." Louise joked along, enjoying the tirade of emotions that flooded Keyron's face as he followed the conversation.

"You and I have a deal, Ms Crawford." Brandon spoke regally, extending a hand as if to confirm the deal.

"This is betrayal! I am being sold out by my own master?" Keyron declared incredulously –and rather dramatically as well.

"Quite literally, yes." Brandon's levelled answer made Louise giggle again, but any advancement of this make-belief plot was stalled when a shrill ringing interrupted the cheer atmosphere.

Sobering up visibly, Keyron retrieved his phone from the breast pocket of his coat and gave the screen a scan, looking up at Louise in short surprise.

"It's the hospital." He informed, then picked up the call that had to be about Kyrano's condition. Louise had not been able to register herself as Kyrano's next-of-kin-to-contact, for she was not officially a family member of her butler's. It had been a cause of great relief for her when Keyron stepped forth as Kyrano's blood brother, and had been the relay of information for Louise all through this trying period.

"Yes. Hmm... I understand. Thank you. We will be down to deal with the paperwork as soon as possible." Keyron appeared to be listening intently to the other side of the phone call, as both Brandon and Louise waited with bated breaths. Maiko remained silently observing of the scene.

"What is it? How is he doing?" Louise was the first to jump to the questions once Keyron ended the call with a grim expression. The pit in her stomach that had been chewing her for days suddenly seemed to grow when Keyron's suddenly lightless eyes landed on her. There was something like pain in his eyes when he looked at her, and for the slightest moment, he appeared as if he didn't dare to look at her.

Louise's throat went dry.

"It is for the best that you go down personally to see to it. I don't know how to tell you..." Keyron said grimly, voice sounding as if he were overcome with emotions. There was absolutely none of the previous joking atmosphere, as Brandon's worried expression passed between his butler and his fiancé, who gave a choked sob.

"Maiko." Louise called, her voice breaking a little. The strong woman was undoubtedly assuming the worst now. "Cancel everything that I have this afternoon. I'm going to the hospital immediately after school."

"But, Miss Louise-"

"This is not a request, Maiko. I am visiting Kyrano after school." The words came out as steel now, shocking the men. The weak woman was gone in an instant, and Brandon silently applauded his fiancé. His family definitely had chosen the right girl for him; a girl who could deal with anything that he could possibly throw against her. Considering his usual unconventional lifestyle as an heir of the Greaves house, he definitely needed a woman who could deal with his crap.

"You don't have to assume the worst, Miss Louise. It might not be as bad as the doctors said." Keyron tried to salvage the situation, but it appeared that nothing was helping when Louise stood up stiffly, the unshed tears gleaming from her eyes.

"I'm fine. I'll meet you at the front gates after school." Louise instructed and offered no more before she made to walk out of the library.

She would not cry; she promised herself. Kyrano had always wanted her to be strong. Kyrano didn't like a weak mistress, and Louise would not let her butler down. Forcing strength into a frame that was beginning to tremble, Louise forced herself back into her Rose persona. The Louise Crawford that had been talking to Brandon and Keyron minutes ago was now gone and buried.

And she would stay that way until she reached Kyrano's bed.

Or his deathbed.