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I spent the rest of the day simply preparing for tomorrow. Ash, Adalia, Sammy, tripling, quadruple checking our reservations, our essentials all packed and ready.

The thing was, I wasn\'t really sure how long we\'d be staying over for, no one could say, for all, I knew the entire process could take less than a minute and we\'d be on the train back to the city before evening even struck.

Ash didn\'t own many clothes of her own, I noticed she tends to cycle between only three dresses, two of which were formerly mine, and the last being the sundress Ria bought for her way back when. 

Before anyone starts accusing me of cheapening out when it came to her needs - she has my card, knows how to use it, studied our economy, learned the intrinsic value of the dollar, and I also lost count already how many times I\'ve urged her to get herself something nice.

The most she did that I could kinda consider indulging was buying herself a sewing kit. As a result of her frugal lifestyle, her suitcase had more air than clothes packed inside it.

On the other hand, we have Sammy, bringing only a paper box full of souvenirs home, her trolley zipped up and stashed behind my closet door. She was returning home, but she wasn\'t staying home, so she proclaims. 

Once I was done with business, and on the midnight train home, she was coming with. 

Just how long was she planning to keep up this constant surveillance on me? I doubt even she knows. For as long as Mom was home is my best guess. And if she gets to have it her way, I\'m sure Sammy\'ll just continue avoiding her all the way up till graduation. 

Those two really need to get a room alone together and have a talk to sort out their issues.

When the evening sky finally broke through the clouds, I knew then it was finally time to reach a consensus… 

I laid in my bed, foraging my mind for that consensus, glazed eyes staring up onto the numbing white of the ceiling surface hoping that the answer would just come crashing down right through it… I was in that position for so long, I nearly missed the orange light fading from my blinds. 

Then from the bedside, the buzz of my phone, Amanda with a message, brought me back to my senses. It seems I wasn\'t the only one with the night\'s matter on the mind.

<<Are you going yet?>> She asked, so simple, so concise, without the cutesy fluff usually adorning her texts.

<<In a while>> I shot back, muttering my reply under my breath. 

Instantly, she responded right back. <<What are you going to say?>>

My answer… wasn\'t as instant as hers, my thumbs hovering just stiffly over the keypad, and obviously, going on read wasn\'t something Amanda would just skim over unnoticed.

<<It\'s your choice at the end of the day>> quickly followed after by <<I trust you>> 

<<Do you really trust my judgment?>> I said, still uttering words in a whisper.

<<I trust that you\'ll do the right thing. You always do in the end.>>

I always do in the end, she says… unwavering faith to the end, this girl. It\'s comforting, I\'m happy she thinks that… but then what happens when I end up doing the exact opposite, end up making the wrong choice? Will she still think that? See, the thing about faith is that it\'s just as hard affirming it as it was having it…

<<By the way, Sammy knocked out on my couch and I think she\'s dead for the rest of the day. I\'ll drop her early at the train station tomorrow to meet you there instead, alright?>>

I cleared my head, replied back, <<Sure>> then began scrambling out of bed. I stay in the house for any longer, and I\'ll just be monologuing till I\'m a dusty, brittle skeleton. I\'ll go now, settle the matter once and for all, and finally be done with it.

Quickly pulled out the nearest I could see from my wardrobe, struggling my arm through one of the sleeves while turning the doorknob with the other, just as quick, I swung it wide-open, only to nearly bash headfirst into Ash who for some reason was hanging about outside my bedroom door.

I stumbled a few steps, and at the same time, she did too, but Ash was faster regaining her composure, a gentle smile and her head held high, "Just about ready to leave for the night, Master?"

Don\'t remember telling her my plan, good guess… though I suppose the coat and the look of determination on my face certainly helped narrow down her deduction.

"I figured Sera waited for long enough," I said, carefully shimmying past her into the hallway. "Better late than never."

Only took a few steps forward before I stopped again. A thought so suddenly popped into my head, something I realized that should have happened long ago. Frowning, I turned to Ash, "Tell me, how long has it been since I got back?"

Ash contemplated for a moment, slightly bemused, but answered anyway, "I believe it\'s been at least six hours." 

"Three hours more than she claimed, would you look at that," I scoffed, faintly feeling a twitch at the corner of my lips, before turning around to walk again. "Grumpy Cinderella\'s late." 

Ash followed me down the steps, peeking curious eyes in the corner of my eyes, "Who?"

"Hey, Adalia," I called out, catching sight of her lazing in her favorite spot. "You wondering the same thing as I am?" 

She responded with a slow blink, and then quietly muttered. "Amelia… is late…"

"Any idea why?"

And apparently, she did.

"She\'s… having… fun…" 

"Not too much fun, I hope…"

I gave my phone a quick look-see, no videos, no pics, no tweets from Tyler for the past six hours. Oh, but Amanda uploaded a selfie of her and Sammy eating cotton candy on a Ferris wheel. Good for them. 

"You\'re not worried she might have killed him out of frustration?" I asked, raising a concerned brow. 

"She… promised…" Adalia assured. "Or no… hugs…"

Power of love.

Oh well, guess I\'ll eventually discover the aftermath of what happened to them both sooner or later… knowing my luck, it\'s pretty much destiny. In the meantime…

"Did you need something?" I asked the unusually twitchy-eared Elf, still tagging along on my way to the door. "If it\'s dinner, I\'ll have it for breakfast, don\'t worry." 

Even more bewildering, she didn\'t look as graceful as she did at first glance. It\'s hard to describe exactly the look she was showing me, but it was a strange one, and when I turned around, she stepped back away from me again. I wasn\'t even that close…

"No, Master, it\'s, um…" She swallowed, I don\'t think I\'ve seen her visibly swallow before. "I… I merely wish you see you off, to wish you luck, I know you\'ll make the right choice, you always do." 

Familiar words, where have I heard that before? More importantly though…

"So you stood by my bedroom door and followed me all the way down here just to say that?"

She swallowed again. "No…" 

"Then what is it?"

"It\'s nothing, Master, truly," Ash shook her head, a little too hard and ended up flicking a lock of her hair into her lips, sputtering, she quickly added. "I-I think it truly best if we forget this instance, it really is nothing, Master. I forget myself."

Okay, I know I can be dense and daft at times, but even I knew when nothing is never truly nothing… especially when that nothing came stammering and squirming. Something was going on with her, alright.

"Pretend I\'m not leaving, pretend I didn\'t open my bedroom just now," I began walking away from the door and towards her. "Let\'s say you knocked, let\'s say you entered, what you were gonna say?" 

And… Ash backed off even further away. Seriously, what\'s her deal here? Now of all times too…

"Perhaps another time, Master…" She said, smiling with assurance and yet sounding unsure herself. "When you\'re not… preoccupied…" 

Fine by me, I guess. Luckily or unluckily, she was right. I did have more pressing matters to tend to. 

"I\'ll hold you to it then," I told her.

"Yes…" She nodded, relieved.

Strange, indeed.

I turned around again, but as I did, I heard something scratching something. At the door, on the floor, a pair of paws, swiping claws. Mr. Black appeared to want out, his bushy tail swishing restlessly in the air.

Hmm, I did remember one time thinking that I should bring him over to the park just for old time\'s sake. 

Well, better now than ever, I guess.