Kaede was just wondering at how much stock Sakuya put into anything Ryuu would say when the most irritating of duos made their quickly approaching presence known. Wincing at Sakuya's side, she turned to see the pair of kitchen dwellers slide to a stop directly in front of the senior servants, still bouncing words off of one another and the hallway they stood in. 

"Whose idea was it to stick those two together ... we should really plan the personalities of our understaff better," Kaede was mumbling to herself, rubbing her temples, as Sakuya was literally about the pull his hair out. At Sakuya's order to get the remaining staff to the kitchen, Kaede watched the two overly-enthusiastic individuals bounce back the way they'd come. Straightening, she answered Sakuya's rhetorical question dully, "I stand by my musings ... but we have what we have. Shall we?"

With that, Kaede made her way to the servants' hall and found her place at the table. As she sat, she spotted a hassled looking Kaori with her head on the table and a moistened Haruki looking over a magazine. He glanced up at her, water clinging to his locks dripped down onto the magazine he held, as he smiled in his usual calm manner. Kaede asked, "You made it back in without tripping my defenses."

"Shinryū are known for being delicate," He joked and looked back down at his magazine just as Ryuu came in with an overly dramatic sigh as he fell into his spot. Ryuu's chin landed right into his awaiting propped palms as he glanced over at Kaori, "I feel like the tiny one over there looks ... cleaning bathtubs is not part of my job description. Sakuya is so cruel to me."

[center] -------------- [/center]

[i]Previously - before coming to dinner[/i]

As Kaori had entered the kitchen to deposit the dishes, Kira and Haruo were in the middle of the beginning of their long stream of almost unintelligible banter before practically running at the maid as she stood in the way of the exit. Their presence usually drained the girl, but anyone's sudden approach shocked her majorly. Once they passed the frozen girl, she dropped the plates into the sink on auto-pilot, her form becoming transparent and the solidity weakening. When she appeared with her head on the table next to the awaiting Shinryū, he was no longer surprised by this event and he merely continued looking over the magazine he'd grabbed on his way in. Without looking down at her, he asked, "Rough day again, Kaori?" She merely nodded, her form becoming a little more solid. Once she fully appeared, he reached over and ruffled her hair gently before taking back his hand to flip the page. This caused her to smile, but she kept her head down until she knew she was back.

[i]Meanwhile[/i]

Ryuu had looked over at the lazy maid's handiwork to see that it was good enough, so he did not put much more effort into his own. Why let Sakuya think he helped? It was her job, after all, and he had no orders. When she pouted as he pulled back to brush his bangs away from his forehead with his forearm, he glanced over at her and sighed before sitting back on his bottom. "'Maybe you wouldn't have a bad reputation if you weren't so lazy,'" He quoted Kaede, making her stern face before rolling his eyes and laughing lightly. When she mentioned Sakuya, Ryuu's eyes narrowed slightly before he rolled them. "I'm a footman - footmen don't clean as much, lazy, we just do whatever task the butler gives. You're lucky I offered to help do work beneath my station." With that, he winked. Then the dinner bell rang and he followed up quickly behind the maid, but slinked behind as they got closer to the dining hall. 

[i]Present again[/i] 

As all the servants were enjoying a questionably cooked meal, the little kitsune's eyes slowly opened. The noise of a bell ringing had been the trigger, but he was unable to drag himself out of unconsciousness completely until his eyes focused on the stream of smoke rising from burning herbs. The smell had hit him before he saw it, but did cause a little panic as it was unfamiliar. What he saw, however, did make him feel somewhat unsettled. His body felt too weak to move at first, so he looked around the room he found himself in. It was empty aside from the soft material he lay on and one end table with a low burning lamp and more burning herbs. A window was slid open and even more herbs sat beside it. He had seen many of these homes from a distance - the style of olden times - and liked to linger around them much more than the polluted new industrial kind of human dwellings. As the thought came to him, human, he realized that he smelled much more different scents than human. The heavy cold aura of a lingering soul and the oaky scent laced with venom of a spider mixed with the herbs in the room, and all around the material he lay on. But he himself was covered in the scent of spiced feline, and that caused his nose to wrinkle slightly - and hurt at the effort. He shifted painfully to his side to see the bandages which smelled brushed of earthy dog when he nudged them. [i]This is a strange place, grandfather ... [/i] was the first thought that came to him as he tried to remember how he'd gotten there. Flashes of being attacked came to mind, being pulled towards the water, the memories of searing pain as his skin was bitten into by the barbs of the watery creature, sudden release in another flash of movement, and then ... a human. A human male's voice giving muddled reassurances, the words not coming to him but the tone's softness very clear in his mind. He wondered if the human was attacked by all the youkai he sensed in the room. Maybe they had thought he was attacked by the human, and they tried to 'save' him. It was possible, but how could a human be wandering so freely and absently in the presence of all these youkai without being noticed? Perhaps the boy lived with them - which had been known to happen in the past, the kitsune recalled his grandfather's stories. He attempted to stretch, the effort painful but also necessary. The dog had bandaged him thoughtfully, he noticed, as they allowed some flexibility as well as keeping the wounds bound. Looking towards the window, he wondered where the human was now - he had to thank him for saving his life.