"My bed is empty," Naruko muttered. "…Why is my bed empty?" she asked, looking around her room. Signum was seated against a wall, clad in armor and holding Laevateinn. She had probably fallen asleep guarding her, or something. "Signum, wake up right now," Naruko commanded.
The Pink Haired knight snapped to attention instantaneously. "Mistress," she said, not a hint of sleepiness in her tone. "I am glad to see you awake," she said.
"Signum, why are you dressed in armor?" Naruko asked.
"There are possible enemies in our home, Mistress, and I only felt it prudent—" Signum began, before blinking and stopping when she saw Naruko shaking her head.
"Signum, put on sleep clothes," Naruko ordered.
"But, Mistress, I—" Signum protested.
"Are you going to disobey me, Signum?" Naruko asked, casually. "That's fine. Strip."
"Wha—"
"STRIP."
***
"…Naruko woke up," Shamal said, wincing as she heard Signum's telepathic plea for help. "And she's not happy about something… wonder what it could be..?"
Zafira was leaning on the kitchen counter, arms crossed, clearly trying his hardest not to think about anything. Shamal laughed, which brought his attention to him. "How are you? You were pretty tired…"
"I had enough juice left in me for a couple restoration spells… A good night's rest took care of the rest," Shamal said, shaking her head. "Other than my hair being dirty because I haven't had time for a bath…" she said, stretching a little. "So, about our guests…"
"They've settled in comfortably. At least, relatively," Zafira said, waving his hand. "We should tell Mistress…"
"Tell me what?" Naruko asked, as she walked into the room pulling something by the arm. That something being, of course, Signum.
To see the usually stoic knight blushing was a rare, and quite amusing, sight. To see her blushing because she was wearing a criminally short skirted maid costume was… hilarious. Zafira coughed as he disguised his laughter, while Shamal didn't have an ounce of shame in her. Luckily, Signum was far beyond reacting violently, even if she secretly wanted to strangle Shamal at that time.
"Anyway… Since you thought you could disobey your mistress, today you'll be helping me with breakfast. You get to rest, Shamal," Naruko said, nodding at her. "We have someone to fetch everything for us!"
One of the downsides of having a big house with a big kitchen was that, well, walks everywhere just got that much longer. While the Kitchen wasn't gigantic, it was still comfortably large enough to hold an actual kitchen team, instead of just a single cook. Shamal was glad she wasn't going to be the one fetching everything or washing the dishes.
"Anyway, we had to tell you, Mistress, that we have guests today. The two girls that you brought here yesterday… well, it was late, and their hotel was far, so… we offered to let them stay over," Shamal explained.
"They should be waking up anytime now," Zafira noted.
"Huh?" Naruko asked. "Oh… oh right, I fell asleep! I feel like the worst host ever! When did you guys arrive?" she asked, tilting her head.
"We got here just as you fell asleep, Mistress, so don't worry about that," Signum said.
"Oh, that's good. Okay, Signum, since you, ahem, volunteered to be our slave for today, you're going to start working now…"
***
A delicious smell wafted through the air. Food!
Vita stumbled into the kitchen. She was tired, since she had slept about as much as Shamal had given her constant worry causing insomnia, but she didn't have healing magic to bring her back to full strength, and so she was still quite exhausted. There was also the fact that she'd been sleeping alone for like, a week. That had been very hard to get used to, after so many nights spent in the role of a teddy bear. "Mistress's breakfast…" she muttered, drooling a little.
What they could make just wouldn't compare. She didn't know exactly why it was, but she understood that the food anyone else made, no matter how good, just couldn't compare to what her mistress would make for her. As it was delicious, she didn't care, and she hadn't cared when Shamal felt offended about Vita telling her as much. Shamal had been forced to admit she wasn't comparatively that good, but she still complained from time to time.
Deciding that washing her face was lower in the priority list than stuffing it full of tasty things, Vita had quickly come downstairs to find the kitchen. The table had already been set. "G'morning," she muttered, sleepily.
"Good morning, Vita-chan."
Wait… she knew that voice… "You..!"
"…Eh… what?" she looked like she had no idea.
"Vita-chan, stop making a fuss and eat your breakfast."
Well honed survival instincts made Vita jump to sit on the kitchen table, ironically used more than the one in the dinning room by virtue of convenience. She mumbled a thank you when somebody placed a bowl of rice in front of her, and began eating in earnest, taking a moment to pause and give yet another thank you when she was given a tall glass of orange juice. It came in handy seconds after, as she had to push down a clump of rice that just would not go down.
For a moment, she thought that was Signum, but that couldn't be right. Why would Signum be dressed in a maid costume and serving her breakfast?
"…"
Vita blushed and shook her head. The image of the Wolkenritter's de facto captain in a maid's outfit waiting her on hand and foot just would not go away. And why was she thinking of herself in that same position under Naruko? That couldn't be right… Wouldn't her mental image be the other way around? ...There, that was better.
Besides, there was something more pressing, which had to do with an obstructed airway and her trying to dislodge whatever it was that was preventing her from breathing.
"Will she be alright?" Fate asked, turning to Naruko, somewhat worried about Vita choking not once but twice.
"I think she just noticed that we both have visits and that Signum is on punishment duty. We don't see that very often," Shamal noted, calmly ignoring Vita as she began to turn purple, drinking from her coffee cup that was more milk than coffee.
"Oh. Punishment duty…?" Fate asked, somewhat confused.
"Happens every once in a while, when the mistress wakes up in a bad mood and whoever's at hand fails to meet her demands. Signum got off lightly this time," Zafira said, swallowing the bread he had been munching on a moment before.
"Very lightly. The last time I was on punishment, I had to wear an apron," Shamal stated, frowning.
"What's so bad about that? You're wearing one now," Nanoha said, looking confused.
"An apron is very useful, but… it was also the only thing I was wearing over my underwear," Shamal said, turning bright red.
"And the moral of the story is, when your mistress says jump, you ask how high on the way up," Zafira said, shrugging. "We have fun."