..

I make my way toward the edge of the crowd while alternating between holding my ears, butt and left shin and slightly crying.

Almost makes me think, who the real asshole is. Almost.

After telling Elise to meet me this evening and gaining some distance to the other people, I order ‘Donmir’ to create some ice to cool off the wounded areas and lessen the pain.

‘Donmir’ has gotten a lot more responsive recently. Whenever I look at him, I can feel him looking back. His body has also gotten more solid. I can almost properly hug him. Speaking of…

I give my best friend a massive hug which he reciprocates by drooling all over my face. I stiffle my giggling as to not be noticed by the others and let go of the hug again.

Then I make my way to Gramps’ quarters, where I suspect he brought Ricardo to to let the guy vent his frustration.

During my duel against Ricky I have been trying to imitate the things I learned on the Muramasa-origin style, which I had been practicing for a while now. The actual movement techniques aren’t quite possible even with my small body, since the epee would break before I could get a chance to actually utilize any of the advantages of this martial art.

I use my left hand to feel up the bruise that remains on my shoulder from the hit against my ear. The epee didn’t pierce as deep into it as I thought, probably due to the points being smoothed out for our duel, but it still burns quite fiercely. Had I not blocked that way however, I fear that my ear would have been gone for good.

Regardless of that, I have finally arrived at Gramps’ quarters. I loudly knock on the door while shouting

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I prepared this joke for a while now.

After a quick second of me silently smiling at the closed door, the door opens up and I am greeted with a punch on my head followed by another spanking by the old Gramps. Still worth it.

Skipping forward a few seconds, I find myself kneeling on the ground, Ricky in the background, looking like he could cry at any second now and Esteban towering over me and giving me a long lecture.

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At first, I barely managed to follow along but I quickly become bored . By pretending to be sorry and putting both of my hands on the ground in a begging position I get into a semi-comfortable position, in which I can close my eyes and I use the old man’s constant rambling as a lullaby to lull me into a daze.

This continues for a while and I almost actually fall asleep, when I hear his rambling coming to a close.

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I am glad, that I didn’t miss the timing for me to get up or else this would have ended with another spanking. I slowly manage to raise myself up without completely looking like I’ve had a good afternoon nap.

Gramps is looking at me with a suspicious gaze but decides not to pursue the matter any further.

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<>, I barely manage to correct myself before it’s too late.

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I ask him while putting my best, innocent expression on.

Seems like he didn’t properly adjust to my switches in demeanor.

He simply nods to my request and leaves his own room, leaving only myself and Ricky left inside this 4-sided room.

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I take a momentary pause to check, whether he is eavesdropping on our conversation through the door, but it doesn’t seem like it.

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I look up to see a disgruntled Ricardo sitting on a corner of Esteban’s bed-frame.

His reddened face and swollen eyes show that he is crying for a while now, I can say that from experience.

<>, I say while quickly sneaking to his side and throwing an arm around his huddled-together body.

He tries to back away but I simply tighten my grip while also ordering ‘Donmir’ to help me with that and giving my most beautiful smile to the person, that is lying scared beyond fright within my arm.

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I can literally feel a tremor going through his entire body by my teasing and he seems like he is going to burst out into a big outburst, if I don’t do anything soon.

I decide to diffuse the tension a little: I stand up and bring my face close to his before beginning my little speech.

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He visibly perks up with these words and the tremoring of his body seems to briefly freeze up. I continue taking the initiative by building up from there:

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After taking a step back, I bow my head by 60 degrees for a few seconds.

What awaits me when raising myself up to face my opposition again is a face of bitterness.

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<>, I ask him.

He stares blankly at the seemingly unexpected question.

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<

<>, he interrupts me.

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For some reason his questioning gaze makes me want to punch him but even I cannot go that far with my new position in this family.

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<>, he throws out this quip at me, which makes me go over the edge.

..

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Imogyeran finally blew a fuse and is throwing a tantrum in front of Ricardo, who finds this situation very fascinating.

In the last 2 years since the first day, that the two of them had any contact to each other, he had always felt this insurmuountable wall between them, which made it impossible to truly discern the person that was Imogyeran Ashenwald.

At first, Ricardo has told himself that it was the boy’s unique circumstances that made him act in this way but eventually he became hellbent on the idea that, he was looked down upon by his own slave and developed an insufficiency complex about this relationship between the two of them. Add on top of that the positive relationship between Imogyeran and Esteban and the fruits of jealousy and hate were given proper grounds to grow into what accumulated in today’s incident.

But now everything seems different. In front of him is not somebody above or beneath himself, no. In front of Ricardo Blueseva is simply another boy, who is throwing a fit about a mundane topic, that would have otherwise no importance for the greater flow of each of their life’s. In this moment, though unconsciously, Ricardo drops the core essence of his repulsion towards this person. Simultaneously he begins to form a faint liking similar to that of a relative or a sibling looking at an annoying kid-brother of theirs, though only faintly.

Suddenly, he can’t help himself but to let out a bug laugh at himself and fall back onto the bed, he was sitting on.

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the pouting Imogyeran takes this gestures in a negative manner and jumps on top of Ricardo and the two of them wrestle a bit with each other. Unsurprisingly, Ricardo has the advantage in terms of raw muscle-power but Imogyeran decides to play unfair. Ricardo is soon pushed down by a small boy, who is almost 2 years younger than him and a little something, that looks like the toy-plushy, that his sister keeps inside her room, where this one seems to have a different color. This specimen also seems to be drenched in water.

After the wrestling match is over(Winner Imogyeran), Imogyeran introduces ‘Donmir’ to Ricardo (the two of them got close quite quickly ). ‘Donmir’ takes well to Ricardo’s presence and Ricardo has always been jealous of Elise’s plushy, which is why he fell in love with ‘Donmir’ on first sight. The atmosphere inside this room is very hearty and during their stay inside, the two kids talk for properly about each other for the first time in their ‘relationship’.

Ricardo talks about his hobbies and favorite foods, while Imogyeran explains a fair bit about how he got this good with the sword and other general stuff about himself.

Inbetween, Ricardo also explains to him about the definition of the word irony and talks about some other figures of speech, which he had to learn as part of his classes for prose. Imogyeran seems quite interested in that topic, so the conversation veers onto the field of prose and music,where it lingers for a couple of minutes.

Although Imogyeran possesses the unique ability to start a conversation in the most destructive and deconstructive manner possible to mankind, by the end of their long exchange, both kids have a smile on their faces.

This doesn’t mean, that both of them have reached the rank of friends already. The two of them have simply not spent enough time with each other for that to be the case. There is also the matter of today’s duel silently hovering over the two.

Though he has partially come to terms with the situation through their conversation, Ricardo is still bitter about his loss and eventually their chat reaches the point, where he mutters something about wanting a rematch with Imogyeran, after having had a decent amount of preparational time.

That is the moment, when Imogyeran remembers the original reason as to why he wanted to have this conversation with Ricardo in the first place.

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He sits back up in front of Ricardo, both legs crossed and the boy tries his best to regain his usual stoic expression before continuing.

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The unexpected words cause the ends of Ricardo’s mouth to curve upward.

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<>, before he could continue, he is interrupted by Imogyeran’s words.

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He raises his right hand and points it at Ricardo’s left hand.

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