Two's a company. (Nornir)

Saturdays are made for sleeping in, and that's exactly what Annie did on this cold winter morning.  Because even thought it was freezing outside, for the first time in quite a while Annie was snug and warm, under two layers of blankets, in a nice, soft bed.  And oh, how she loved it.  Kasha, likewise, had gotten some much needed rest; able to relax knowing that he didn't have to worry about keeping Annie safe and warm all night.  He slept on the bed beside her in cheetah form, under the blankets with her, letting her snuggle right up close to him.  It was 10:13 A.M. before Annie finally woke, blinking her eyes open before stretching a bit.  Kasha soon woke up as well, sensing Annie had awakened and opened his eyes too.  He lifted his head to look at her just as she was yawning, and soon proceeded to puff and start licking over her face for a morning grooming.  Annie winced, shutting her eyes as Kasha licked her, and started to giggle as she said; "Kasha~!  Menda takeneeta!" ^^  Kasha, however, was in too good of a mood to quit, and got to his feet.  He stood over Annie, continuing to purr as he gave her a morning face-washing.  Annie held onto Kasha's neck, laughing and giggling the whole time.  "Kasha, mek teena yana.  Poo kuru meetemep." ^^  

Later, after Kasha had deemed Annie's face to be clean enough and after she had gotten dressed, the two of them headed downstairs (Kasha still in his cheetah form.).  Jemmy's mind was no-where to be felt, so they guessed she must have woken earlier and gone out.  Instead they went to check on Marleigh and see what she was doing.  They could feel that she was somewhere nearby, and followed the feel of her mind 'till they found her.  Walking into the room, Annie looked over and spotted Marleigh, smiling to her cheerfully as she said; "Good morning Marleigh."  She had her hand resting on Kasha's neck, who stood right beside Annie.  He too looked up to Marleigh with a certain degree of respect for the maid who was partly responsible for caring for them.

The princess had stepped out that morning leaving Marleigh and Annie at home. Marleigh had not made any plans and so while thinking about how she would spend the day, she decided she would do a little tidying up. Annie was still fast asleep. She had checked up on her a couple of hours ago. She figured she ought to let her sleep in on a weekend and make the most of the days of rest. She was a growing girl after all.

It was a little past 10 by the time Annie had woken up. Marleigh was dusting an old grandfather clock in the study when Annie came in greeting her.

"Good morning to you too Ms. Annie and... Hmm. Come to think of it, I have never gotten the chance to be properly introduced to your noble companion."

Marleigh knew he was called Kasha from listening to their conversations with the princess. But she did not think it was polite to casually address someone by their name if they had not been formally introduced yet. Not to mention she had no idea if that was his real name or a nickname.

"I suppose you would like to have some breakfast. I am willing to take requests but my personal recommendation would be pancakes. There is a fresh bottle of syrup in the cupboard that I bought the other day."

Annie blinked as she realized Marleigh was right. She had never really introduced her familiar to Marleigh. She looked at him, then looked back to Marleigh as she started petting his head and said, "Oh..I'm sorry. His name is Kasha; he's my guardian." Kasha blinked a few times as his head was petted, and after a bit shut his eyes and rubbed his head against Annie, purring as he did so. Annie looked down at him and giggled, loving the affection and petting him more.

Annie looked up at Marleigh's offer for breakfast, and nodded to her. "Pancakes sound really nice, thank you. And...if it's not too much trouble, could I have some sausage too? I like to have them together so I can dip the sausage in a bit of syrup. It's really good that way." she said with a smile. Kasha paused from rubbing against Annie to look up at Marleigh, and after a moment Annie blinked and added; "Oh...and Kasha says you don't have to worry about feeding him. He doesn't need to eat really."

Marleigh smiled. "It is a pleasure to officially meet you Kasha."

Annie did not request much. Sausages were easy enough and Marleigh was sure there were some in the stocked refrigerator. She had just about finished dusting anyway so she could get on that right away.

"Sausages it is."

It was useful to know that Kasha did not need to eat. She had been wondering how the shapeshifter sustained itself. Magic was her best guess.

She led the two to the kitchen where she immediately started work on that breakfast. Before long a sweet aroma would fill the air, mixed with the smell of sausages. Marleigh figured she would take this opportunity to get to know the pair a little more.

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you know Princess Jemmy? She seems to be rather fond of you."

Annie smiled when Marleigh said she could have sausages too and said politely, "Thank you Marleigh." She and Kasha were then led to the kitchen where they sat down at a nearby counter; Annie in a seat and Kasha beside it. They watched as Marleigh started preparing her breakfast, and Kasha decided to lay down on the floor under Annie's feet. Both of them liked Marleigh; her personality was kind, courteous, dependable, and not at all intimidating. From what they had observed she seemed to treat people fairly and equally. The two could see them and Marleigh getting along quite well.

When asked how she knew Jemmy, Annie gave some thought to her reply. "Well...I first met Jemmy when I was staying at this really old house. There was no-one living there anymore...so I was staying there to keep out of the wind and rain. One morning I woke up, and when I opened my eyes, Jemmy was there watching me sleep. We talked for a while, and then Kasha came back from going off to find something for breakfast for when I woke up. Then we talked some more...about love and things like how Kasha loves me, and how Jemmy wanted people to love her." She paused for a bit, wondering how this next bit would sound. "...Then she said..how she was going to MAKE people love her because she deserved it, and then told me that I could either love her or die..."

Annie wasn't sure how to add onto or finish that quite yet, and so decided to pause in case Marleigh had questions.

Love her or die. That sounded so very much like the princess that Marleigh was not too surprised. It was more interesting that Annie went along with it. But the little girl's story did not seem like it was finished and so she decided to refrain from forming any opinions until after she heard everything.

"Staying in an old house where no one lived anymore? You weren't homeless were you? Before coming to live here with us I mean." Marleigh asked as she finished up cooking. She was now transferring the pancakes and sausages to plates. She then brought them over to the table.

"Ah, my apologies for being a little tactless." She didn't want to seem intrusive.

Annie listened to Marleigh's question, then looked up at her apology. She looked back down. "It's okay. And, yeah; I was homeless before." She didn't like admitting this to strangers; but she figured that Marleigh wasn't a stranger, and didn't feel as bad as normal about saying she was homeless. "Anyway.." she continued, "I had kind of already decided to love Jemmy and be her friend when she asked that...so I guess I didn't have to worry." When she thought about it, it kind of made her worry anyway. Would Jemmy really have killed her?

She smiled and bit as Marleigh came over with the plates of food and said politely, "Thank you." She began eating, and after a while she stared to wonder. Looking up to Marleigh she asked, "So...How do you know Jemmy? When did you meet her?" She could feel just enough from Marleigh's mind to know that she hadn't known Jemmy for a long time.

Marleigh did not need the ability to read minds to see that question coming. She would have shared her story either way even if Annie never asked. What caught her attention was how Annie and Jemmy's relationship was more complex than she expected. Even after hearing what had been said so far, she still could not get a good grasp of how close they really were and how sincere were their feelings for each other. Well, they were obviously close enough to agree to living under the same roof. But Marleigh felt there was more to know.

"Before I go into that, allow me to just give a little background of myself as it is very much related."

She cleared her throat.

"I am very much human though perhaps more talented than most. However if I were to call a place home, it would not be here on the mortal plane but in the realm of the gods where I am known as the Maid Saint. It has been my home for the last two centuries. As for what a Maid Saint does, it is exactly what you would expect a maid to do, except that the ones I rendered service to were gods."

"Due to certain events, I decided to take a 'vacation' of sorts in the mortal plane. But with my nature as a maid, my idea of a vacation is still in fact working though probably less intense than what I normally did in the realm of the gods. I will not deny that I enjoyed trying all sorts of things and learning all sorts of skills that may or may not be useful to me in the future. It is my policy to always be prepared."

"After spending sometime in this realm, I started to miss it: working and devoting my time to a master. It is a difficult feeling to describe. Anyway, it was then that I decided to look for more permanent employ than just doing random jobs. I chanced upon this mansion where I eventually met the princess. I guess I considered it a sign from fate that even while spending my time here, I would still run into beings like a Lord of Chaos. If the housekeeper of the gods was looking for a master, it was only fitting that the master in question was also a god. Thus I decided to start working for her here. That was less than a month ago."

(OOC: Reason for distance between this thread and Winter Home decided: Marleigh was cleaning the Realm of Chaos.)

Annie and Kasha both listened to the background Marleigh gave on herself. It was...interesting. A celestial maid that served gods? Taking a break by coming to the mortal world? That was something they hadn't heard of before. But it's no like they didn't believe her; they could both feel she was telling the truth. Annie took another bite of her pancakes and thought for a bit, waiting till her mouth was empty before responding. "So do you like working here in this world for Jemmy?"

Kasha was pretty relaxed at Annie's feet and just lay there. His eyes were closed but he was still awake and listening.

"I would say I am quite satisfied with my working conditions here." She replied as she began to wash the pans and other kitchenware she had used in preparing breakfast. The maid had already eaten before Annie even woke up and so she was mostly done with the kitchenware except for what was still on the table.

"It is an interesting experience to say the least. Sometimes I do regular mortal work. Sometimes I do work similar to what I did back in the realm of the gods. Working for the Princess gives me more opportunities than I previously expected."

She remembered how she had spent the past week doing a little tidying up in the realm of chaos. It was the first time in a while that she had released all her limiters and operated at maximum capacity. And this was considering she was exponentially more powerful in the divine realms. What superhuman ability she could manage to display in the mortal plane was but a tiny fraction of the Maid Saint's true divine might.

But that was a story for another day. Today, the priority was to clean the mansion and spend some quality time with Annie and Kasha.

Annie smiled a little bit as she ate and listened to Marleigh. It seemed she was happy with her work here, and Annie was glad for her. She quietly ate her breakfast as Kasha relaxed under her feet. As she ate, she tried to think of questions she might ask. She wanted to get to know Marleigh better. She could sense that the maid had two goals today; clean the house and spend time with Annie. So Annie figured, why no do both? She looked down at Kasha and asked, "Mapa skechekt?" Kasha didn't seem to react, but Annie soon smiled and looked up to Marleigh. "Do you want some help cleaning the house? I can help if you do; or try to anyway."

"That is a generous offer Ms. Annie, but I am afraid I simply must decline. My role here is to ensure neither you nor the Princess will ever have to bother yourselves with these chores. Perhaps it may not be a big deal to you, but to myself, it would be quite a shortcoming on my part to have you do such things despite my presence. I do have my pride as a maid after all."

It was a simple and honest desire to help. Anyone else would have gladly accepted it. But Marleigh was not just anyone else. While it was not always obvious, she was not the humblest person around. In fact she gets really motivated when faced with a task that would normally require a large group of people to do. In a way it fit with her belief that maids can do anything. Though perhaps her decades of being a saint had already distorted her view of what a "normal" maid was capable of. It would be more realistic to say she believed in their potential to do anything that their master required of them. Taking care of the mansion all on her own certainly met these criteria.

She hoped the little girl did not take offense or feel discouraged. As much as the maid felt strongly about doing the work on her own, she did not want Annie to feel she was not needed or wanted. And so she returned the proposal.

"Is there anything I can do for you though? In all honesty, taking care of the chores will not take me much time at all. The Princess is not around and so as far as I am concerned, you are the master of the house today."

Annie was a little bit surprised when Marleigh declined Annie's offer to help, but her reasoning made sense. It seemed that Marleigh took pride as a maid in being well able to handle anything that was thrown at her, and to take care of all the chores so Annie and Jemmy didn't have to do anything at all. If Annie helped, Marleigh wouldn't feel like she was fulfilling her duties. Though disappointed, Annie supposed she could understand.

But then Marleigh asked if there was anything she could do for Annie. The truth was, Annie didn't know what Marleigh could do for her. She was used to being content with what she had and what she was able to do, even if that was nothing. Now that she had everything she needed, and she could do basically whatever she liked, she didn't know exactly what she wanted to do; much less ask anything of Marleigh. She tried to think. "Ummm..."

As Annie thought, she decided to try, without invoking sorrowful memories, to think of things she used to do with her parents. What had they enjoyed doing? It was hard to think back for very long without getting emotional, but Annie did think of something pretty soon. Almost done with her breakfast now, Annie looked up too Marleigh and asked, "Could we bake something? Like cookies or cake? That sounds like fun.." she said, smiling and giggling; "And I bet Jemmy would like a snack when she got home." ^^

It was a simple enough request. Though even if Annie did not say so, Marleigh was already planning to resupply their stock of sweets and desserts. It was not surprising that their household goes through them fairly quickly.

"We definitely can. I shall make preparations after getting the cleaning done. That should not take too long."

By now Marleigh had finished putting away what was used to prepare breakfast and was waiting for Annie to finish her meal.

Annie nodded, looking forward to being able to spend some time with Marleigh and have some fun making some tasty cookies. She quickly finished her breakfast and picked up her plate to take it over to be washed. "What kind of cookies and cake does Jemmy like? My favorite are sugar cookies; and I really like chocolate cake."

Kasha felt rather lazy this morning and was content to lay under the table in his cheetah form with his head stuck out just slightly so he could watch them...that is when he had his eyes open.