True Happiness

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"Now we get to do laundry. We will work on it past lunch until diner. She requires her clothes to sparkle, and seeing as they're black, it's kind of difficult," he said, jokingly. I laughed briefly before he began instructing me. I was very happy we were in a room all about cleaning and not one that was filthy.

"Would you prefer to wash or iron them?" he asked. Why would I want to touch her dirty clothes? Of course I didn't say it, but I sure as hell thought it. Grandmama's dresses were all nasty and infected with her evilness my sarcastic brain thought.

"Ironing," I said simply. He nodded, smiling. He was always so happy. I didn't know how he managed to stay happy in such a dreadful place, but I knew he kept me happy.

"Okay, then you can watch me clean the first ones. I would suggest taking off your suit's jacket and rolling up your sleeves, you might get wet, or at least I will," he said jokingly as he did so himself, laying the jacket on a chair against the wall. I too, took off my jacket and rolled up my sleeves. Although I didn't see how I would get wet. Ironing is about heat not water, right?

He looked better without the jacket. He had a slightly muscular build, but you couldn't see it with the jacket. He just kept getting hotter and just overall, closer to being perfect, with not far to go.

He laughed, taking me out of my gaze.

"What," I asked, trying to cover up how I was obviously checking him out.

"You," he said adorably. Laughing, he turned to the sink and turned the water on. "Can you pass me a dress?" he asked as he wet his hands. I didn't want too, but I did it anyway. Grabbing it off the hanger, the dress was rough and I still don't know why she would wear it. Even the dress was rough and just simply bad, like Grandmama.

I walked over to hand the awful dress to him when he turned and flicked his wet hands towards me, shooting water at me. Thanks to my fast reflexes and quickly figuring out what he was doing, I used the dress as a shield, but water hit my hands and face.

Laughing, he continued to stick his hands in the water and flick it at me. I couldn't believe it! He was so perfect, I couldn't get over him.

"Haha, you're missing!" I teased.

"Shut up, I'm the one with the water, remember!" he said, jokingly threatening me.

The dress soaked, I dropped it and quickly dived my hands into the water and curved them under the water so the powerfully flowing water shot up at him. Moving my hands to aim, I covered him in water, head to toe, before I stopped.

Neither of us could stop laughing and I even fell to the wet floor, curled up as I laughed hysterically. Once I regained control, I stood up and observed Lance's soaked self. His white shirt was stuck to his body and was see through. He was crazy hot. He had pronounced abs and pecs, but not so much that it was too obvious. He was just muscular enough.

"Wow, I won," I said, laughing at him as he continued to look at himself in shock. Even I couldn't believe how wet he was, I couldn't imagine what was going through his head. He looked up at me with a huge grin, as if he had a plan to get me back. Anxiety pulsed through me as I wondered, should I be excited or scared?

"Come here, let me give you a hug!" he said jokingly. I should be excited.

"Not when you're that wet," I said, although I really did want to hug him. Hugging him was actually exactly what I wanted. He approached me and I backed up until I hit the wall, which I must say I planned myself. I contemplated leaving the room, but besides my fear of Grandmama catching us and ruining us, I really wanted him to hug me, so I made it easy for him.

Close enough, he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me, completely wetting myself. I really hoped my shirt wasn't see-through, but I just couldn't focus. At first the hug was just friendly, but it grew into something more.

My stomach fluttered as he held me tighter and the hug became warmer. I couldn't believe what was happening. His head was nuzzled into my shoulder to wet me at first, but then the way he held his head changed, as if he enjoyed the warmth of my body. At that moment, I was truly happy.

The longer he hugged me, the wetter I got. I felt the warm water slowly soak through my clothes until it accumulated on my skin. I never liked being wet when I wasn't submerged in water, but at that moment I didn't care.

Sooner than I wanted, he released me and stepped back, just looking at me. I could see into his deep eyes, deep into the innocence that so gracefully shrouded them in beauty. Both of our faces were black, completely innocent. Then, he went back to being himself and looked over my body, which I quickly blocked by crossing my arms.

"What are you hiding? You're certainly not ugly," he said, at first as a joke, but then it became romantic. I couldn't help the redness that quickly devoured my cheeks. I slowly lowered my arms, not embarrassed in front of him anymore. He smiled, and jokingly said, "There you go. Show your sexiness, and be proud!" He called my sexy. I couldn't believe it. It took everything I had to keep my jaw from dropping.

I laughed briefly before Lance became serious again. "Alright. We need to work on the chores and hopefully dry off in doing so. Now, hand me the dress on the floor," he said, as he walked back to the still running sink, pouring soap in his hands. I wished we could do the water fight all over again, but I knew we couldn't. Grandmama didn't give us a chance. It was as if she tried to kill all happiness that went on. All I wanted was him. His hug, his laugh, even his smile.

Bending down, I picked up the soaked dress and handed it too Lance. He took it and held it under the water, soaking water inbetween each thread of its rough fabric. I watched him pour a huge amount of soap over the crumpled up dress. He clogged the drain, turning the water off.

Then he diligently lathered the soap over every part of the dress, taking at least twenty minutes. It took him almost no time to rinse it as he unclogged the sink and turned the water back on, washing out all of the soap. He squeezed as much water out of the dress as he could. He let it hang over the floor, uncrumpled and put it on a hanger. Pushing all the other dresses to one side, he hung it on the other side to dry.

"Now it has to dry. I can get about 3 more dresses washed, and then it should be dry. Here," he said, tossing a towel from a shelf above the sink to me, "Try to dry off the floor."

"You got it!" I said enthusiastically. He started on the next dress as I knelt down and laid the towel out on the red and black tile floor. Within seconds, the towel was soaked through with water and a puddle of water formed on top of it.

"Umm, Lance. There's too much water for one towel," I said, trying to think of a solution.

Laughing, he replied, "I didn't expect it too," while throwing a two foot tall stack of towels at me. I tried to catch as many as I could, but several fell to the floor.

Several minutes later, I had the entire room's floor, aside from beneath Lance's feet, covered in towels. There was enough to have 3 layers of towels everywhere. I had three towels left, and I knew exactly where to put them.

I was knelling right behind Lance holding the towels, but my face was level with his butt, when I said, "Can you move your feet for a second?"

He looked down at me, confused for a second until he seemed to realize why and replied, "Sure. You go ahead and do that while looking at my butt-"

"I wasn't," I replied, embarrassed. I began blushing and I looked down to hide it. I had to admit I did, but only for half a second. I didn't have to look twice to see it was big, and I won't lie, I thought it was super hot.

"I'm just kidding," he replied as he stepped to the side on top of other towels as I quickly layered the remaining spot on the floor in towels. He stepped back and as I stood up and proceeded to walked around, apply pressure to help the floor dry.

Eventually, Lance said, "Ok, you can iron the first dress now."

I grabbed it from the rack and laid it out along the ironing board. I plugged in the iron when I realized - Isn't the mansion not supposed to have electricity? I double checked to make sure the plug and chord wasn't a hallucination, but after feeling it with my hands, I knew it was there.

"Lance, I thought there was no electricity. Why is there a plug?" I asked, confused.

"There is electricity, it's just accessible in very few rooms, but Madam Amelia has made sure there are no phones," he said. Of course! I should have known Grandmama would use electricity only to serve herself. I wasn't surprised she'd lie to me, although I wondered if there was a secret telephone somewhere. Probably not, but maybe. The thought intrigued me, seeing as it was a possible escape.

"Figures," I said as I started to iron the black dress. I was ironing for several minutes when I thought about yesterday. Although I was pretty sure, I had to make sure he was a Siegfried. My curiosity was never idle in my mind.

"Lance, what's your last name?" I asked.

"My full name is Lance Siegfried. You?" I knew it! I commended my detective abilities, even though it wasn't a mystery per say, but still. His name was so beautiful. It was tradition with the old English last name, but Lance was modern and original, I seemed to fall in love with the name.

I found it cute that he wanted to know mine. I always thought mine was outlandish. I had mixed feelings about my name. I liked my first name, but my last name sounded like a science fiction star ship name, at least to me.

"Leeonith Astrid. But please don't call me Leeonith," I said with a pleading like tone. I liked my first name, but I didn't like when people use it fully because I found it unfittingly proper. Only Grandmama called me Leeonith, and I overlooked it seeing as she would only use it more if she knew I hated it.

"Leeonith, I like it," he said before laughing.

"No, please-"

"I'm just kidding. You're too funny." Phew! I was scared the one person I seemed to have a chance with was going to call me my full name. That would have been awful.

I continued to iron the dress until I decided to be done. If Grandmama didn't approve, she could go to hell for all I cared. I'd actually prefer her there. I grabbed one of the free hangers and hung the dress inbetween the drying and dirty sections. I grabbed the next dress that was to-be-ironed and began. It seemed to take just as long it took Lance to clean them as it took me to iron them. I didn't know if I should have taken more time, but I didn't put much thought into it.

One the third dress, I went to place the iron on it when my hand seemed to twitch and I put the iron on top of my pointer finger, covering almost the entire finger. Dropping the iron on its side, I whimpered and began to shack my finger furiously as if it would help. Lance looked at me and I honestly expected him to laugh, but instead he looked at me in a way that showed he actually cared. My heart fluttered and I almost was happy I had burnt myself. Lance quickly turned the water in the sink to cold water and felt it to make sure it was cold.

"Put your finger in the water, it will take the stinging away for now," he said, watching me.

"Okay," I said as I stepped up to the sink and put my finger under the water. It was just cold enough, and the water pressure was strong enough, but not so much that it hurt. He was right; it took the majority of the pain away.

"Thank you," I said.

"I just don't want you to be hurt," he said sympathetically. He just couldn't stop giving me the warm feeling inside. I loved every minute of being with him.

After several seconds of holding my finger under the water, I stepped back and wiped my finger off on one of the dirty dresses. I went back to ironing, but once I finished the dress I was on, Lance stopped me from grabbing another one.

"It's time for lunch. Come on," he said, walking out of the room. Luckily our clothes had dried, but we left our jackets in the room. We went back to the servants eating room and as we entered, I saw bowls at every chair, but what excited me was that they were steaming. I couldn't believe we got something hot. Hot was meant it couldn't be that gross, right?

Lance and I sat in the same places as last time and I realized everyone was sitting with their families. We waited until everyone was seated when everyone picked up their bowls and started eating. It was some brown soup that smelled like broccoli. I wasn't exactly thrilled, but I was hungry enough to eat it.

I tasted chunks of beef, potato, and, of course, lots of broccoli. It wasn't as awful as the oatmeal, and I noticed that, myself included, it didn't take anyone long to finish. I wasn't full after I finished it, but I wasn't sure if it was due to the amount of food, or because I skipped breakfast. I did notice it wasn't that much soup though.

We were about to get up and go back to cleaning her dresses when Grandmama barged into the room. Her back was arched and she looked ready to kill. She scanned the room until she fixed her eyes on Lance and me.

"Leeonith and Lance. Come with me this instant!" she demanded. Lance, looking frightened, stood up quickly and followed her out of the room. I took my time seeing as I didn't care what Grandmama though. I was scared to know why she was so pissed off, and that might have been why I was moving so slow too. She led us up to the laundry room and stared back at me as I sluggish approached her furry.

Inside, I stood next to Lance as Grandmama spoke, "Why is the floor covered in towels, and why are you not fully dress?!" she shouted at us. Every word she spoke torn at my anger until it finally snapped, lead to my angry rant.

"Excuse me! We are doing you laundry and you're complaining? We got water on the floor and we've fixing it ourselves. You have no right to come in here and-" She slapped me across the face, hatred plaguing her own. Not even makeup could make her look pretty when she was mad.

"No dinner for either of you, and don't try to eat tomorrow either! Now clean this room, finish my laundry, and put on all of your uniform!" she spat at me. I couldn't believe she would starve us the way she did. I tried my best not to blow up, but I failed.

"No! How about I'll just leave this room and let you do it? Maybe doing some chores will stop you from being such a bitch!" I screamed in her face. She was absolutely livid. I was surprised she didn't try to kill me. I notice Lance was looking at me in shock, as if I was the bravest person alive.

"You will do what I say, or you will never know happiness again." She left the room, jamming the heel of her shoe into my foot. I cringed and dropped to the floor as she closed the door and locked it.

"Are you okay?" Lance said, kneeling down to my level. I slid against the wall onto the floor and took the shoe off. The white sock was red around my big toe. I didn't want to take off the sock, scared of the pain it could cause, but I knew I had to. Slowly and carefully I slid it off my foot. The nail on my big toe nail was almost shattered, devoured in cracks. Beneath the blood, it looked crocked, as if she had broken it. I didn't doubt it.

"My god, are you okay?" he repeated. I realized I didn't reply at first, too focused on the pain.

"Um, I think it's broken. Can you help me up?" I asked after I tried to stand up, but I failed. He wrapped one arm around my shoulder and the other one against my chest as I slowly stood up. He helped me over to the chair and replied.

"Stay here. I can do the rest. I usually do it all by myself," he said caringly.

"No, I can help," I insisted, trying to get up again, but I fell back into the chair and whimpered again.

"Stay there. Normally I'd make you go rest, but seeing as we are locked in, that's not possible. She should unlock the door before the end of the day hopefully," he said as he tried to process our situation. I really didn't want him to have to do it all by himself, but I knew sitting was the best for me. And seeing as I managed to hurt myself ironing without a broken toe, I didn't want to try it with one.

I watched him clean all of the dresses and then iron them, taking a lot more diligence then I did to make sure they were wrinkle-free. He seemed to take twice as long as it took me to iron them. The window's light shifted as the clouds shifted over the mansion, along with the sun eventually falling.

The entire time, I sat there watching him. Even how he cleaned the clothes was cute. He seemed almost O.C.D. at making sure they were all perfect, even going back and re-ironing the one's I did. If he wasn't so cute I'd find it insulting, but I knew he just cared a lot. I wondered why he cared so much, because I know I didn't even though I might get punished, so I asked.

"Why do you put so much effort into the chores? Grandmama doesn't deserve it," I said bluntly. He stopped and looked at me, a smile on his face as if he were admiring me.

"Haha, Madam Amelia makes sure she gets perfection. I don't enjoy talks like the one we just got, and I especially don't like the punishments," he said somberly. I felt horrible. I'm sure if I just splashes him and didn't cover him in water we would have been punished like we were, and if I wasn't so stupid and just shut up we wouldn't have the punishments we did.

"I'm so sorry Lance; I wouldn't have spoken back or even soaked you if I knew it would lead to this. Honestly, I was never exactly shown punishment from my parents. I guess in a way I learned discipline, but it doesn't take much to make me snap, especially from Grandmama. I'm really sorry I was so-"

"Don't be sorry. It's not like Madam Amelia is nice and you made her mad. Truth is, she would have punished us for anything. She told me that if you do the slightest thing, she would not hold back on the punishments. Although, she did hold back some." He spoke those last words, "Although, she did hold back some," with so much mystery, they seemed to echo in my head. If she was holding back, what is she truly capable of doing? It scared me to know she could do worse.

As he hung the last dress on the rack, he turned to me in the chair.

"How's your foot doing?" he asked. I looked down at my partially red foot. It had an aching pain, but just watching him sort of distracted me from it. It was always there, I just wasn't focused on it.

"Fine I guess, I think I might be able to stand up," I asked cautiously. I didn't want to hurt it anymore, but having to sit in that chair for so long made close to the same amount of pain as my toe, actually. My butt was aching, not to mention the jackets crumpled up beneath it, and my legs were asleep.

Lance quickly had his arms around me, supporting me, as I slowly stood up, my weight shifted off of my bad toe. I slowly paced back and forth, waking my feet up.

"So you can walk! Does it hurt?" he asked.

"Not really, as long as I keep my weight off of my toe. Thank you," I said honestly.

"I didn't do anything. I'm just happy you can walk. The suns almost down, and Madam Amelia hasn't come back. Without the sun, we won't have any light."

"There are the stars and the moon," I said assertively. He laughed briefly, but didn't continue with the subject.

"We might have to sleep here. We can use the towels as blankets and pillows. Hopefully they are dry," He said, observing the room.

"Let's sit

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