"Y-yo, Amelia." I said, trying to act like someone who didn't just appear out of thin air.
"Hello!" Amelia said again. I don't know why. "How did you get here?"
"Uh... Window?"
"No you didn't!" Amelia said with a laugh. "You used the circle things again, didn't you?"
Dangit. That definitely would have worked with Michaus. New tactic! "Uh, w-what were you doing behind the couch?"
"Uh........ Dunno! It seemed fun!"
"Was it?"
"Kinda."
"Hm. Noted."
"Who're you?" Amelia asked, briefly looking over at Sis before letting go of the top of the couch and moving in front of it like a normal person. She was wearing a really little yellow dress, which complemented her golden hair excellently. Good choice, Duke.
Wait, was she holding herself up there with just her arms this whole time? That's some upper body strength for a 4-5 year old. She is gonna kill it on the monkey bars. "You dress is really pretty!" Amelia announced towards Sis.
"See, I told you it looked good." I said and turned to Sis, who didn't seem amused. It was at this point that I noticed that she had her hand firmly placed on her fishing rod. Hope that's just a force of habit.
"You look like you could be brotherandsister, but your hair's all wrong, it looks like mine!" Amelia said, playing fast and loose with the concept of compound words.
"Y-yeah." Sis began with a cough again. "That's it."
Her voice sounded a little shakier than usual when she said that. I wonder if she's coming down with something? Is that a thing that can happen?
"Why don't you talk that much? Are you shy?" Amelia asked, innocently. That's a terrible question, but I wasn't about to scold her about it.
"No." Sis said. "I just don't care to."
"Sounds like you're shy."
"Okay."
"Do you have a background check?" Amelia said from completely out of the blue with a slight smile on her face.
"I- What?" Which caused enough whiplash to grab even Sis's attention, to the point of her briefly loosening her grip on her fishing rod a bit.
"My aunties say I should play with shy kids, but papa says I should only play with kids after an extensive background check." Amelia explained.
"Do you know what 'background check' means?" I asked.
"Nope!"
"No, I don't." Sis answered Amelia's question before trading it for another. "Shouldn't you be somewhere else?"
"Nope! Nowhere I want to be. Papa's party today. Oldies are no fun. So I try to find somewhere fun to sleep!"
"Behind a couch?" I asked.
"The floor here is really comfortable!"
"More comfortable than the couch?" I said, sitting up as I realized I was still lying down on her couch.
"But the floor is on the floor, and the couch is all the way up."
"Huh. Can't argue with that."
"Yep!" Amelia said before turning back over to Sis. "Let's play hide and seek!"
"I said no earlier." Sis said, not even considering the idea. "What about what your dad said?"
"Papa also says that climbing trees is dangerous, but it's real fun!"
"Y-you should probably listen to your father about that..." I implored.
"It's fine! Even if I did freak it, I'd be just fine! Not that I'd fall!" Amelia said, with a smug look on her face as I tried to comprehend the fact that a 4-5 year old girl just used the term 'freak it.'
"Pretty sure you'd break every bone in your body." Sis remarked. "Tends to happen to mortals. Especially small ones."
"Not as long as I have the-... The nothing!"
She's probably talking about 'the rod', I wager. As I recall, the duke said somethin' about it being some magic-y protective charm. Does she just have that on her everywhere? Where's she keep it?
Shoot, speaking of trees, "I should probably report back to that guard guy up front." I said. This has been one long imaginary piss.
"Good point. We should get moving." Sis said.
"Front?" Amelia asked.
"Oh, uh, I gotta step out for a bit. The... Bathroom." I hastily explained. "A-and Sis, you can't come with me. It defeats the purpose."
"This is unfamiliar territory. I can't just let you do that."
"Don't worry." I said, trying to imitate S with a comforting smile. I probably could have just said that a few seconds apart wouldn't kill anyone, but there was a no effort compromise to this. It was least I could do. "Once I get down there, we'll do the thing we did in the cart a few days ago. It'll be fine."
"... Guess that works. I'll be watching you from the window, too." Sis said with a bit of reluctance as she gestured to the still very very clean window. The room we were in was on the second floor, in a room to the right of the front door. Or I suppose to the left of it, if you were looking at the front door from the outside, which I soon would be. Wild stuff. "If anything happens, I'll just jump."
"If you break the glass, be VERY careful of the shards on the ground." Amelia dutifully stated. "And never try to pick them up!"
"Thank you, Amelia." I said. "But, Sis, please do not break the duke's house."
Sis said nothing, but shot me a look that screamed total disregard for personal property.
With that, I sighed and stepped outside the room, into a familiar, massive hallway. Vaguely familiar, anyway. I didn't really give it all that good of a look last time. That said, the carpet, the absurd amount of weird art littered around the place, the gold-y design of the walls that somehow screamed pretention, it was all just as grand as I remember. What I didn't remember was the sheer amount of doors identical looking doors along the hallway. Are these just the same room copy and pasted over and over again or something?
The hallway seemed oddly devoid of life, considering the whole party thing. As I peered over to the right, I noticed one of those red cloth rope thingies and the back of a sign I couldn't read. I wager this is an area we're not supposed to be in. Whoops. Speaking of places I shouldn't be, I gotta get back to the front. There's a smaller, more inconspicuous dull brown door amidst the sea of fancy copy-pasted entrances, down to the left a little ways. Probably a maintenance closet or something. That's a good a place as any to warp from.
Realizing I've spent, like, 15 seconds just standing here like an idiot, I speed-walked over to the presumed closet and push- PULLED it open.
The instant I switched from pushing to pulling, I realized I probably should've knocked first. Just avoid any chance of an awkward encounter with a janitor or something. Sure, it was low stakes, but...
The moment I opened the door, I wished I'd thought of that sooner.
I was face to face with a tall woman with pink, bobbed hair and a skin tight black bodysuit, currently hunched over and digging through a small black bag with all sorts of weird probably magical implements. She initially had a look of fear, which quickly morphed into a sort of devilish curiosity that I really didn't like seeing.
Haaaaaaaaahhh... Again?
"Why'd he leave again?" Amelia asked, looking up at the ceiling in confusion or something.
"Bath-"
"Ooh! He's gonna do that thing with the circles again!" Amelia stated with a beaming smile.
"Yeah. Something like that." The immortal sighed with a slight cringe. "What was the point of all that..."
. . .
'She sure talks a lot like Michaus does.' The immortal thought to herself.
