23.3
Tap, tap, tap,
Footsteps echoed throughout the mansion as the rapid footsteps greeted the house servants just like it did every weekday before this.
Before the Perxin house servants could greet the two children from school, they had bolted pass them and went to their rooms on the upper floor.
Months had passed since young John’s integration into the Perxin’s household.
Both Edgar and Dalene had been more than courteous with John, though he was not one to ask for many things, the Perxins had obliged him whenever they went shopping.
Naturally, this meant John had acquired many books whenever possible.
And unlike back in the Sarvod Household, there would be no fear of confiscation nor restriction on when he could read them.
Aside from the minutest request of relaying information to his father through his letters, the two Perxins never asked John for more.
They treated him as they would with Serene, whatever she had, John too would receive, and whatever punishment would apply to Serene, the same rule applied to him.
Both Uncle Edgar and Aunt Dalene made sure that there was no favoritism at play, and John, greatly appreciated it.
Things such forming political connections, demanding Sarvod family secrets, or even flaunting to the public that the son of Dai’Ne Sarvod was under their care never left the Perxins’ lips.
As though they his blood, the Perxin couple would often ask of his day in the State Academy, check in on his well-being, remembered his preferences, and celebrated the festivals with him.
No matter how minute an issue was, the Perxins never ever raised their hand on him, instead, they reasoned with John and talked with him with the upmost rationale.
Again and again, they have regarded him as their own son.
Though unrelated by blood, in the Perxins mansion, John was truly at home.
He was not questioned, nor demanded to do strenuous or extravagant performances to entertain the Perxins.
To the tigerkin family, the bond between each other was more important than superficial perception of the public.
Alongside that, in the State Academy, he faced no issues, John was well liked, by his peers and the various teachers—or so he figured that none of them learned that he was expelled from the National Academy.
Though his life was uprooted, the blessing of being a part of the Perxin family was something he could never imagined.
And the one who made every day worth looking forward to was none other than…
“What are you thinking about again!” Serene jabbed her elbow to his sides, her mouth open, mocking him for the fifth time of the day.
“Nothing,” John smiled.
“Goofball,” she mocked, her small feline fangs revealed themselves to him as she so often when she was happy. “I won’t wait for you today.”
Without another word, Serene took off prompting John to do the same as he made the two rushed to their respective rooms.
Their game had started.
It was Aunt Dalene’s rule for the two children to clean themselves whenever they returned from school.
Therefore, to make it interesting, John and Serene had agreed that whoever was last to clean themselves will have to do the other’s homework for that day.
Pressed for time, John entered and exited his showers under a minute, vaguely slathering whatever soap on himself before washing it off. As there was an agreement that soap had to be applied and washed off to count it as a successful cleaning session.
He barely dried his short hair when he barged into Serene’s room, only to discover that she had just exited her shower as he gloated his victory.
“Ha ha! You are not fast enough!”
Serene did not speak another word and looked away instead, she pretended to not see him and proceeded to wipe her hair with a dry towel, patting it as she ran the tangerine strands of hair through the thick towel.
With the gentlest of motions, Serene patted her own hair dry, unaffected by John’s declaration of victory.
It was not until she was completely dry, did Serene looked over to John with a smile.
“My hair is dried, but yours isn’t.”
Realizing what she meant, the smile on John’s face died, “That wasn’t what we agreed, Serene! We said the first to leave showers after school!”
“Then leave the showers dry, not dripping wet, goofball.”
“You’re the goofball! Goofball!” John made a face, unable to admit defeat folded his hands. “I obviously finished first.”
“Not until you finished drying your hair.”
“I don’t have hair, Serene.” John pointed to the abysmally short hair of his. “The air dried them long ago.”
Serene frowned.
There she was thinking she had outsmarted John, but it turned out one of the many reasons he got himself a buzz haircut was to optimize his efficiency to compete with her.
“Not fair…” Serene puffed her cheeks. “I don’t want to have a bald haircut like you.”
“I am not bald,” John protested. “I just had my hair cut very short!”
“…”
Stolen story; please report.
The tigerkin made no noise, but one look at her dejected tail and her round emerald eyes was enough to inform John that she was sulking.
“Sigh…” John exhaled as he raised his hands in the air, surrendering to her complaints. “You get an extra minute in the future for drying your hair, but I still win for today.”
The frown on Serene’s face lessened, John’s proposal was fair. Yet, the girl did not think the same, for she still had her hair turned away from him as though trying to tell him, ‘No, that’s not enough!’.
“Come on, Serene,” John coaxed.
“Hmph!”
Is this about doing the homework thing? I finally won today and she’s pitching a fit?
John looked over to Serene mid thought, only to discover that she had was keenly keeping an eye of him, but turned her head away from him when he met her gaze.
For the past week, he had been trying to find time to confide her in private, but one event came after another, throwing a wrench into his plans.
There was him getting invited to his friend Ha Zun’s party, Serene attending Perxin’s family gathering, and the examinations that they’ve just finished earlier.
After thoughtful deliberation, John came to one conclusion. He grumbled unhappily “None of us won today... Is that enough, Serene?”
“Maybe…” the girl mumbled to herself.
“What maybe?!” irked, he spat his words out. “I finally beat you in this game and offered a truce, and that’s not enough?”
The tigerkin meekly shook her head, legs shifted as she denied his offer.
“What!? Why!?”
“You made me feel bad with all that shouting.”
Her voice as small as a whisper.
John squinted his eyes, unable to believe her nonsensical reasoning.
“You and I always speak loudly to each other, what’s the difference with today!?”
“…”
What’s the matter with her today?
The cogs in his mind turned and turned, but no matter what scenarios played out inside his thinking meat, nothing made sense to him. For the long months he spent with the Perxins, it was Serene that made every moment away from his family enjoyable. In fact, John could not fathom to imagine when he had to return back to the Sarvod Estate where his father was, just thinking about his life before coming to the Perxins made him shudder.
“Can you…” Serene quietly spoke, prompting John to sit straight.
“Can I what?”
“…HelpCombMyHair?”
Her words were a flurry, but John heard each of it clearly.
“I-I…” he stuttered, almost asking why but quickly replaced the question with a statement, “I would…but I am not sure how to.”
“First, you call me over.”
“Call you over?” John raised a brow at her. “Can’t you come here on your own?”
Serene looked away from John at his confused questioning, John understood what she said to him, yet, her words made no sense.
“Come?”
he gestured towards her with his left hand.
“C-come here, Serene?”
When her name was called, the girl came scooted beside him like an obedient cat to its owner, where she turned and let her tangerine curly hair face John.
Looking at the plethora of hair before him, John froze.
Like Aunt Dalane, Serene’s hair was wavy and curled unison, very much akin to a spring’s twirl.
If John were to describe it, it would be that her hair strands behaved similarly to plant tendrils, ever so slightly wavy.
“Um…”
“Second, you grab the comb.”
“Comb? Where did you keep your—”
In the flash of an eye, Serene passed a wooden comb to John.
“O…kay?”
“Third, you use your hands to lift the hair, then gently—” Serene halted when John’s hand and the teeth of the comb made way between her disheveled hair.
The two of them sat in silence as John continued the stroking motions to untangle her voluminous hair, quietly noting the gradual ease in her shoulders with each of movement.
Twang, goes another part of her hair… Hehe…
With each strand he untwined, the more amused he became, it was not long until John decided that helping Serene to comb her hair became a game of sorts.
It took him no more than a few minutes to completely straighten her smooth hair. John then proceeded to run the comb through Serene’s hair again to further ‘smoothen’ and ‘polish’ her hair.
“J-John, can I tell you something?”
“Sure.”
Unfazed, he continued on his hair combing task, taking in pride with the silky hair that he was combing to.
“That day, when I went with Papa and Mama to my relatives, you know… The one where we can’t bring you to…”
“Yeah?”
“I discovered something…” Serene’s voice was oddly cautious, far too gentle in comparison with how she normally would speak to him.
“Uh-huh?”
“I was telling my cousins about you, because, you know, you are my best friend and all of that.”
“Heheh…”
“But when they learned that you are a boy, a human boy. All of they made unhappy faces, saying that a girl like me shouldn’t be this close with you. So, I got angry and I ended up fighting them.”
The motions in John’s hands stopped, he blinked rapidly as he raised his brow, “You hit someone?”
“I… Well… Yes… They were talking bad about you, you see. They were shouting that all humans are vile creatures and will lie about everything.”
Erk.
“When they lost to me, all of them they cried to their parents. I don’t know what happened much next, but mama and papa later were also talking very loudly with the other adults. All my aunts were saying bad things about your family, about the Sarvods can only be used and not trusted.”
“…”
“They also said something like mama is not suitable to speak for the rest of our Perxin family, and that it is dangerous to keep you as a guest here. But they don’t know you like I do, John. You are just like me, you are not like what they said, you never lied to me, I don’t understand why they would say nasty things about you.”
“I-I have something to tell you too…Serene.”
His face was dark when he spoke. The words that came from his most trusted person in the world to him were like knives to his boyish heart.
“I didn’t lie… But I did hide it from you.”
Serene turned to him, but John’s head was hung so low that he could not see anything else but her thighs.
“I-I… can actually use magic!” he squeezed his eyes shut as he continued to explain to Serene. “I-I n-never told anyone because I don’t want to be a-abandoned…” his voice was shaky. “If my parents knew. I would be sent far far away, p-please don’t be mad at—”
Pomfp!
John found himself around Serene’s arms, his head rested on her shoulders as she had hers on his. He felt her silky hair on his cheeks as they wicked the moisture from his eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier…” equally upset, Serene croaked.
“I-I didn’t want to r-ruin your smile. I-I though that if I t-told you, you would only want to be my friend because I know magic. I thought that you would think I am weird, I thought you would not like me anymore. I thought you would get angry like my parents…That’s why I only said I don’t know how to teach you magic…”
Serene shook her head.
“T-that’s why I let you comb my hair…” she spoke, her tail curling to wrap itself around them. “Mama told me, if you like s-someone, you can trust them to do something for you. I-including, keeping each other’s secrets.”
“I-I…” young John was at a loss for words.
“There i-is another thing I want to tell you a-also…” Serene said meekly, her face pink as her eyes kept looking away from John.
“W-what is it?”
“I r-realized you are my first friend and my best friend.”
“!!!”
“Don’tLaughAtMeOkay!?”
The girl squeezed her eyes shut, face red from admitting such an embarrassing fact to John.
“IWillHitYou!”
…
…
…
“It’s the same for me…”
After a long silence, John mustered the courage to get the words out of his mouth.
Spring!
Serene pounced on him from where she was, catching him off guard as she pinned him on the bed with her eyes wide, glittering with exuberant excitement.
“YouAreNotLyingToMeAreYou?!” her voice had returned to her usual haughty vigor, and from the corner of her eyes John could spot tears of joy.
A smirk appeared on his face as he grabbed her by her shoulders, rolled with Serene across the bed until he was the one pinning her against the bed.
“Ha! Not even your beastkin strength can—” as he spoke, Serene with her strength pulled John down beside her, holding him firmly as her emerald eyes looked deeply into his with the most serious of expressions.
“Don’t lie to me… You know I hate liars!”
Her voice roared so loudly that had they were not close, it looked as if Serene would bite his head off.
“I-I wasn’t…” realizing he was too playful with her, John quickly explained. “Why would I lie? You are my first friend. I never t-told anyone that I could use magic but you.”
As soon as those words reached her ears, the fire in her eyes receded and morphed into one of a curious feline.
“You said your parents would send you away, w-why?”
“M-my family cannot use magic. All born as Sarvods have no talent for magic unless they practice it,” John said slowly. “That and no one normal in history can use magic when they were as young as three years old…”
“But they are your family aren’t they, John? If they know wouldn’t they be happy—”
“T-they’ll send me to the doctors if they knew this. They will run tests on me, to make sure that I am not a monster. Especially when…” John raised his hand before her, where wisps of black aura circulated his palm, “…it is this color.”
“Hmph!” Serene got up and puffed her chest. “So what!? It’s just the color. I don’t care what color my aura is as long I can use my magic.”
“You don’t understand Serene. Black aura is always associated with—”
“No, no, no!!!” Serene shouted back at John as her striped tail puffed behind her. “I don’t care! You will always be my friend, my best friend!!! If you parents want to send you away, I will make sure papa and mama keep you here!!!”
“Serene, its easy to say that, but my parents are still my family.”
“And I am your best friend!!! You are also my family!!! No family will abandon each other!!!”
Serene grabbed John’s hand, extended her pinky finger as she firmly hooked it with his.
“Ah…”
A gasp escaped his lips as young John watched Serene’s round face made a triumphant yet silly grin.
“I, Serene Perxin promise to always be John’s best friend and his family. Forever and ever.”
“I…” he looked away from her. “I will do the s-same for you as well.”