The sun wakes Kazu again. He feels Anna laying on him, so he turns his head to face her. She is staring at him. "Good morning, Welcome to tomorrow… sleep well?" he asks.
She blushes, then answers. "I did… I don't know why I always sleep so well next to you. I feel safe, like I'm home."
Kazu pulls Anna into another tight cuddle, "I sleep well with you draped all over me too, I don't have to worry about floating away…" She playfully smacks his chest.
"Are you calling me fat?" she playfully asks.
"Yep." he says with a smile, "Wanna move that big ol' booty so I can get up?"
She laughs, and jumps onto his lap and pushes his hands down to the bed. "I am going to use my big ol' booty to crush you." She jokingly says.
Kazu leans forward and kisses her on the lips.
At the foot of the bed they hear a small voice ask, "Ummm, good mornyng. Do you always wrestle lyke that yn the mornyng?"
They both look towards the one speaking and see Felina staring back. Kazu laughs as Anna slides off him, then collapses into her pillow. She then pulls the cover over her head, and embarrassedly laughs to herself.
Kazu responds, "Nope, this is new, normally she just bear hugs me in my sleep." Anna kicks him from under the covers. "Are both you and your brother awake?" Felina gives an affirmative nod. "Excellent, Everyone needs to take a bath before we start the day. Who wants to go first?"
"We can go fyrst, or you two can go fyrst. Yt does not matter to us. We are just happy you let us sleep here, and gave us food." Felina responds.
"Do you two always bathe together?" Kazu asks.
"Of course, do you not bathe together? Yn the orphanage we got a bath every two weeks, and there were usually a lot of us bathyng at the same tyme. Yf you dyd not have a bathing buddy, you would never get very clean, especially on your back. Yt takes a lot of rubbyng to get all the dyrt off."
Kazu responds, "If you still want to, I won't stop you, but here you do not have to share. I use magic to fill the tub with warm water, so everyone can have some privacy if they so desire. I even have soap to make you extra clean, it means less scrubbing and makes you smell good."
Felix responds, "We never had soap before, just a rag to scrub with. Can you show us how to use yt?"
Kazu looks at Anna, who has uncovered her head to better hear the conversation.
Anna answers with a smirk, "I'm not sure that showing you how to use it will be necessary, I figured it out on my own fairly easily. If you really feel that you need to be shown, I'm sure Kazu and I can do that, right Kazu?" Anna asks with a look of "how do you teach someone to bathe" written across her face.
"I guess we can show you how to use it. I'll go first." Kazu says to Anna.
"I'll go get the bath ready then you can come in." he says to Felix.
A minute later Kazu has the bath ready, he strips out of his clothes and calls out. "The bath is ready, come get in." A couple of seconds later the twins come running in naked as the day they were born, with Anna chasing closely after Felina trying to stop her. Rounding the partition she enters the bathing area and sees a naked Kazu standing next to the tub facing her. Her brain short circuits and she immediately freezes as the twins jump into the water.
Kazu lightly admonishes the twins, "Don't splash the water out of the tub, you two are going to need all that water to get all that dirt off you."
Kazu turns back to Anna who is still frozen in place staring at him. Kazu leans forward so his face is the same level as hers. He smiles and speaks to her, "Sweetie, you have two choices, join us and help me teach them, or go back around and wait your turn to bathe."
Anna mumbles, "Okay, have fun… I'll be right there… I need to sit down."
Unthinkingly, Anna starts removing her night clothes, as Kazu turns back towards the twins. Kazu climbs into the tub and grabs the soap. A moment later Anna steps into the tub.
Kazu starts explaining, similar to how he had explained it to his own son, how soap works. He explained how to use it, and why they do not want to get it in their eyes. He then begins rubbing the soap on his arms and chest as a visual example of how it's used.
He holds the soap out for the twins to take, Felina is the first to accept it. She begins copying what Kazu had done earlier. When she finished her arms and chest she started to hand the soap to Felix, but Kazu interrupted.
"Felina, you have to use the soap on your whole body, I was just showing you how to use it. You have to clean everything from your hair down to your toes. Just remember to close your eyes while you have soap above on or near your eyes. She nods and stands to get the rest of her body. Kazu turns to Anna who is still staring at him.
"Anything to add, Anna?" Kazu asked.
Anna, still staring at Kazu, says nothing in response.
Kazu smiles and turns his attention back to the twins, just as Felina is applying soap to her foot. Before he could say anything Felina slips and falls right into Anna's lap.
Anna immediately helps Felina up, then asks, "Are you ok? You didn't get hurt did you?" She started checking her for injuries.
Felina Responded, "No, Y am good… nothyng ys hurt… I landed on you, are you ok?"
Anna started to respond when she finally realized where she was, and slowly, hesitantly, looked over to Kazu, then down at herself. She turns bright red, reaches out and hugs Felina, and pulls Felina back into her lap, as if she is hiding behind her.
After a few questioning looks at Kazu, Felina asked, "Ummm, Anna can Y fynysh washyng?"
Anna lets her go and sinks lower into the water. Felina tries to get the soap on the middle of her back, but fails. She turns to her brother and asks him to help her. He immediately begins helping her with her back. Once he is done he starts washing himself. Only part he's needing help with is his back just like his sister did. Without even asking, she immediately helped him with his back.
After finishing his back she hands the soap to Anna. Anna blushes and turns slightly away from Kazu and begins washing herself. When she gets to her back she is having issues getting it all, much like the twins did.
Kazu slides over to her and sticks out his hand for her to give him the soap. Quicker than he expected she gives him the soap. He thoroughly soaps up her back, making sure not even a single millimeter is missed. When he is satisfied that he is finished, he rinses her back off. Once he finishes rinsing her off, he begins to wash the areas he had not soaped up before. When he gets to his back, Kazu hands the soap to Anna and turns his back to her.
Kazu said playfully, "Can I get you to give me a hand?"
Anna takes the soap and begins washing his back. She slowly moves the soap bar around with one hand and rubs the soap in with the other hand. After she got to his lower back she leaned forward and her cheek pressed against his soapy back between his shoulders. She continues washing lower and lower down his backside.
A minute later Felina turns to Kazu and whispers, "Why is she doing that? You already washed your bottom."
Kazu quietly laughs, "I think she is just making sure I did a good job cleaning it."
"Yeah… he's still dirty… he's a dirty, dirty boy…" Realizing what she just said, she suddenly came out of the trance she put herself into. She dropped the soap into the water and cleared her throat to ask, "So is everyone clean now?" Without waiting for a response, she said, "Excellent, let's get dressed and head down to breakfast."
Anna jumped out of the bathtub and as she landed she immediately slipped, her feet heading towards the ceiling and her head heading for the floor. Kazu, faster than the eye can blink, hops out of the tub and catches her. He stands there with her safely cradled in his arms. Before he can ask if she is okay, she grabs his face and kisses him. He smiles as he carries her to her side of the bed.
He gently sits her down on the bed, ending the kiss. Kazu says with a smile, "As much as I like looking at your big ol' booty, we need to get the day going." Before she can respond he quickly kisses her, lays a towel on her head, and then walks back to the tub to wash off the remaining soap.
Anna sat staring at the wall, for a full minute before she remembered that she was still naked. She takes the towel off her head and begins drying herself.
By the time Anna was finished dressing, and brushing her hair, everyone else was also ready.
Kazu jokingly said, "I never knew teaching someone how to use soap would be so interesting."
The twins laugh, and Anna blushes. Kazu goes around gathering up their items and placing them in his bag. When he is done gathering their items he unlocks the door and removes the locking spell.
Anna asks, "What are you doing?. Why did you remove the spell?"
Kazu explains, "We were paid up till today, and we are buying a house. Other than eating at the tavern, we don't really need to come back here."
A few minutes later they are downstairs, Kazu turns in their room keys, then they head to the dining area. They spend the next hour eating breakfast, and conversing about unimportant things. After they finish eating they head to the Hunters Lodge.
"Hello Tara," Kazu says as they enter the lodge. The 4 of them make their way to the reception desk. Tara is not there, instead Mica is manning the desk. "Oh… Hello Mica, is Tara off today?"
Mica without looking up replies, "She's off doing a quest so I am working the desk today."
"Well it's nice to see you again, and I have a question." Kazu says.
Mica looks up, "Crap it's you… I mean… How can I help you today?
"My friends and I are looking for a house, do you know who I need to talk to to buy one?" Kazu asks.
Mica looks at Kazu then at his companions, then turns back to Kazu. "You need to go to the Merchants Lodge, they are in charge of selling the available properties. They are just one street east of us, their sign has a bag on it with wheat sticking out of the top."
"Thank you Mica, I appreciate your help. Have a good day." Kazu says before they all turn to head out the door.
A short walk later they are standing in front of the Merchants Lodge. As they enter they are greeted by a man standing just inside the door.
The merchant asks, "How can we help you all today?"
Kazu responds, "I am wanting to buy a house, it does not have to be inside the city, but it does need to be as close as possible."
"Yes sir, I can help you with that. Please come this way." Says the merchant.
The merchant leads them to his office. Kazu and Anna take the two chairs and the twins stand behind them. They spend the next hour looking through properties, making two stacks, maybe's and no's. They eventually narrowed it down to a home on a 18 acre property ½ a kilometer from the east gate. It is what most people would refer to as a mansion. It is two stories tall, with 10 bedrooms, two servants quarters, 6 bathrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, a parlor, a tool shed, and a workshop. Best of all it is only 1 gold and 42 silver coins. The home was marked down because it has been empty for 8 years, and the merchants are tired of paying for the maid to keep it clean and the handyman for upkeep.
Kazu smiles as he pulls required money out of his bag, gives it to the merchant, and signs some ownership paperwork.
Kazu asks, "Are there any taxes I need to be aware of?"
The merchant responds, "There is an annual property tax of 1 bronze per acre, and 1 bronze per bedroom. If you make or sell any goods, any taxes are assessed my the Merchants Lodge. If you sell to a merchant, the merchant pays the taxes. If you are the merchant then you have to pay the sell tax of 1% of value. All taxes are collected by the Merchants Lodge."
Kazu thanks him for answering his question. Very quick math tells him his taxes are 30 bronze coins, if they include the servants quarters.
The merchant excuses himself, and a short while later he comes back into the office and hands Kazu the deed and 9 slightly different keys and a master key.
The merchant calls over an apprentice, and tells him to show Kazu and the others the house. The Apprentice asks the group to follow him and then they all head off to find the house.
In less than an hour of walking they arrive at their new home. It looks better than the drawing showed. Out front there are a dozen fruit bearing trees with grape vines growing 5 meters away from the house on 22 meter long lattice work arches on each side of the house. They reach the front door before Kazu could do a full visual survey of the front of the house. The merchant unlocks the front door and enters, beckoning everyone else to follow him. The foyer is fairly large, with a stairway to the second floor next to the door. He can not see much from the foyer, the rooms appear to be down a hallway straight across from the front door.
The merchant calls out for the maid to come to the foyer. A moment later a 1.65 meter tall, mid 30's looking, shapely red haired woman in a blue and white maids dress with a matching bonnet appears. The woman who is slightly taller than Anna stops and looks quizzically at the group. The apprentice informs her that Kazu has just purchased the property, and the group will be moving in today. She smiles and welcomes "the Master of the house", and his companions. As she finished her greetings, Kazu noticed a bit of worry in her eyes.
Kazu walks up to her and says, "If that is worry I see in your eyes, there is no need. You have taken excellent care of the house, and I would be in error to not thank you for all the care you have given it. I have no intention of asking you to leave, on the contrary, I am interested in keeping you on if you are interested. What is your current salary?"
The maid smiles, "Yes sir, I am paid one bronze a month, I would enjoy continuing to serve the masters of this house." She looks at Anna, then back at Kazu, "I am Lina, if there is anything you and your wife need, day or night, please let me know."
Kazu looks over at the blushing Anna and responds to Lina, "Thank you Lina, but we are not married. Also the amount you are paid does not seem right, even with room and board, I would say you should receive two bronze a month. How does that sound?"
Lina looks worried for a moment, then surprised. "That is too much sir, I eat your food and sleep in your house. I do not need so much."
Kazu smiles, "Just because you do not need it now, does not mean you can't use it later. You are going to live a very long life. It will be yours, so use it if you want to, or keep it for emergencies. It is up to you what you do with it. I'm just letting you know how much I'll pay you."
Continuing to look at Anna he continues speaking, "So we will need the Master bedroom, and three other rooms readied before we sleep, that is of course, only if they are not currently ready."
"Of course Master. I'll take care of it immediately." She replied, as she started heading off to turn down the rooms upstairs.
"I did not mean right this second." Kazu says with a laugh. He turns back to the apprentice. "I appreciate your assistance today, but we can take it from here." He reaches out to shake the apprentice's hand and slips a bronze coin into it.
"The apprentice replies, "You are welcome sir, If you need anything else, just ask for me, I'm Aaron."
"Thank you Aaron, we will. Have a safe walk back to town." Anna said as Aaron exited through the front door.
"Ok everyone, time to explore the house. The rooms behind the stairs are for the employees, so leave them alone. The rest of the house is free to explore till dinner time. Let me know if you find anything interesting." Kazu instructed.
Kazu starts walking to the double doors, Anna joins him. The two of them explore the first floor, looking at each room. Kazu was making a mental note of anything he might want to change or add. They ran into the twins when they were coming out of the living room. Felina hugs Kazu and Anna, raving on how beautiful she found the house, and how happy she was that they were willing to help her and her brother.
Anna states her observation, "It's rather funny how they are only 4 years younger than me, and only two years younger than you, but they still see the world like a child leaving the farm for the first time."
Kazu responds, "They kind of are though, they never left the orphanage until they were kicked out. Everything they are seeing now is stuff you probably saw when you were 6. This is the Innocence I was referring to last night… Wanna check out the rooms upstairs?"
Anna enthusiastically nods, and then follows Kazu upstairs. They begin with the first room on the left side. It is a large room with a walk-in closet, and its own bathroom.
"This looks like the Master bedroom, I guess this will be mine." Kazu said while smiling.
Anna looks at Kazu, a hint of sadness on her face.
"You are still welcome to cuddle when you want." He says as he walks up behind her and gives her a hug.
Anna rests her head against his shoulder and whispers, "Perfect, I sleep so well next to you."
They hear a squealing noise coming from the hall, they separate and investigate the noise. What they find is Felina happily running around the last room on the left, which is the room Lina is currently making ready.
Anna inquires, "Well that is a happy noise, did you claim this room Felina?"
Felina happily responds, "Yes, yt's so pretty, and byg… and yt has another room attached over here that ys bygger than the room Felyx and Y shared at the orphanage." She opens the closet and shows them the "room".
Kazu responds, "That is a walk-in closet, it is where you keep your extra clothes, shoes, coat.. Whatever you want to put in it really. What is this other door for?"
Felina runs to the door and opens it. "Yt's a bathing room, and yt's shared wyth Felyx's room."
"That's great," Anna replied."How is the make ready going Lina?"
Lina turns and faces Anna and answers, "Going well, I only have your room left to check."
"Oh, you already did the master bedroom? We were just in there and we thought it had not been done yet. The comforter was not even turned down like you did for this one." Anna Inquired.
Lina appeared confused for a moment, then her face shifted to a look of realization. "I see you must have been in the mistress' room. The master's room is across the hall. Since you two were not married, I did not think you wanted that room."
Anna looked at Kazu with a smile, "Can I have that room?"
Kazu smiles back, "Sure you can put your clothes in that room, but we all know you probably won't sleep there…"
Lina looks at Felina and asks, "Are they together or not?"
Felina responds, "Y don't know…. Y just lyve here."
Kazu goes into the twins' bathroom, and discovers that there is no running water. He still has to use water magic for anyone to bathe.
Kazu says out loud, "Welp, first thing on the agenda, adding hot and cold water to the bathrooms. Shouldn't be too hard, the hardest part will be adding the piping through the stone walls. Until I finish that, I'll keep filling the tub for each of you."
The three women look at him confused. Anna asks, "What is piping, and how is that going to bring hot and cold water in here?"
Kazu, realizing he was thinking out loud, responds to Anna's question. "Let me figure out how I want to do it, and then I'll give you a demonstration on how it will work."
Anna agrees to wait, and the other two women follow suit. Felix now standing in the doorway to his room asks if he can help with whatever he builds. Kazu agrees to teach him once he figures out what he wants to do.
Everyone except Lina make their way to Kazu's room to inspect it. It is a bit larger than the room across the hall that Anna claimed. The Master bedroom has a sitting area by a fireplace, a partitioned changing area, 3 dressers and a walk-in closet big enough to hold 3 king size beds. In the bathroom he finds a built-in wash basin with a drain, rudimentary toilet, and a recessed bathtub big enough to hold 6 people comfortably with a rinsing station next to the tub.
Remembering that he has everyone's things, Kazu pulls out everyone's items he had in his bag. Go ahead and put your stuff in your rooms, then we'll meet downstairs.
After finishing putting away their things they make their way down to the parlor, and relax on the couch.
The twins and Anna trade stories of their youth, as Kazu ponders the plumbing issue.
Eventually Kazu stands up, excuses himself and walks out the front door. Several minutes later he returns with some long hay stalks in his hand. He lays the hay stalks on the table then walks into the kitchen. He comes back with a large pan and several corked jars and a cup. He sits down and hollows out the stems, turning them into straws. He then submerges them in water until they become a bit more flexible.
Everyone in the room is staring at him, waiting for an explanation of what he is doing. Felix is the only one that is carefully watching his every move, taking mental notes of each thing he does in order. He watches as Kazu pokes a hole in one cork and slides a stalk into the hole. He then pokes two holes into another cork and slides the free end of the stalk from the first cork. Next he places another stalk into the other hole in the second cork. As he holds the contraption up he asks Anna to fill the largest jar with water. Once she is done, he turns everything over and seals the filled jar with the first cork, then he turns everything back over. The filled jar starts draining through the stalk into the jar with the two stalks in it. Once the second jar is filled the water pushes up the second stalk and comes out of the top pouring water into the cup he is holding under the free end.
Kazu looks around, and still seeing the confusion on their face, he begins explaining Pascal's principle in the simplest way possible. "If you put a divider with a corked hole in a bathtub and fill one side. All the water stays on that one side, but if you remove the cork, water will rush into the other side until both sides are level. The contraption I made a model of is doing the same thing. The jar Anna filled is the first side of the bathtub, and the cup is the other side. The stalks and the other jar are the hole that goes between the sides. When Anna's jar and the stalk going to the cup have water at the same height, it will stop pouring out of the stalk into the cup."
"I need to make a water tower, represented by Anna's jar, then pipes, represented by the stalks. I'll also need to make a water heater, and some fixtures to control water flow. And I'll need to make a pump to bring up groundwater, though for a while I can just fill it myself as needed… that way I can decide on what kind of pump I want to eventually make… and how to power it… maybe a windmill…" He trails off still talking to himself.
After some time has passed Kazu realizes he is alone in the room, Even his contraption is gone. As he gets up to find everyone else Lina walks into the room to inform him that dinner is ready.
As Kazu enters the room he sees his place setting at the end of the table, and sits at it. "Thank you Lina, what are we eating tonight?" Kazu asked.
"Tonight I prepared grilled steak with roasted potatoes and vegetable soup. I would have prepared something… more… but I had to use what we already had." Lina said, looking a bit uncomfortable.
"Sounds good Lina, and we understand you want to make the best you can, but what you are serving, no one at this table will complain about."
Everyone at the table agrees as Lina goes to the kitchen to bring in the food. The food she served looked and tasted wonderful, and everyone complimented her during and after the meal. Lina was blushing and smiling all throughout dinner."
After dinner Lina cleared the table, and everyone else went back to the parlor.
After entering Kazu was reminded that his demonstration was no longer there, and he asked about it. Felix took it to his room while Kazu was thinking, he wanted to be able to refer to it later, if needed, and did not want it disassembled..
A long meandering conversation later it was bedtime. The twins head to their room, and Kazu and Anna go into his room.
The two of them go to the sitting area to relax. Anna sits with her feet on the couch leaning back into Kazu, they sit there in silence. After a few minutes, Kazu asks if she is sleeping in her room or staying in his.
She says nothing, she just grabs his hand and walks him to his side of the bed. She then walks to her side, as she starts getting ready for bed, Kazu does the same. Once Kazu is ready he turns back to Anna, and sees she is already in bed. He climbs into bed, and Anna slowly inches her way over to him. He slides his hand under her head so she can get into her normal cuddle position, and pulls her closer. At this point he realized why she was being a bit timid, her night clothes were in her room. His hand that is now resting on her bare shoulder slides down her side and comes to rest on her bare hip.
Anna, in a nervous voice, speaks first, "Goodnight Kazu." Then she kisses him and closes her eyes.
Kazu smiles at her and says, "Goodnight Beautiful."