A Maid's Work Never Ends pt.2 (Kikimora)

Part 1: https://pastebin.com/dacWW9hB

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"Here you go, Master, orange-lemongrass tea just like you asked."

The Kikimora sat the mug down on the night table beside the bed, slipping a coaster underneath and not pulling away until after she had blown on it to help it cool. "Please be careful, it is rather hot at the moment."

"Thank you, dear." The man seated in the bed replied, marking the page he had reached in his book and taking off his reading glasses. His brown eyes studied her as she pulled away, the maid still clad in her formal maid-wear despite it being rather late at night. "Chessa," he began, reaching out to grab the mug from beside him. The Kikimora perked up at her name being called, her eyes darting to her Master as he sipped at the tea.

"Is there something wrong with the tea?" She asked in near-panic, quickly jogging through her memory to remember if she had missed a crucial step. Maybe she hadn't let it steep for long enough...

"No no," he assured her, waving his hand as he took another sip. "I was just wondering why you were still in uniform. It's nearly bed time, you should get changed and come join me."

The usually pale cheeks of the Kikimora quickly flushed at her Master's suggestion, the maid wrestling to keep her feathery tail from wagging too quickly. "S-Sir," she stuttered, taken aback slightly. "Is it really appropriate for a maid to share the same bed as her Master?"

He had to suppress a chuckle. This was the same dance in the same shoes whenever he suggested something of the sort, Chessa ever the 'proper maid', as he liked to tease her. "Dear, we've been married for thirty-three years." He said, Chessa's hands rising to her cheeks in embarrassment. "There's nothing 'inappropriate' about it."

She didn't speak for a few moments, cheeks burning and eyes pointed directly at the floor. "I-I shall join you in a moment, Charles."

He finally let out a small guffaw when she had walked out of earshot, the clacking of her scaled feet ringing out through the rather sizable bedroom as she disappeared behind a folding screen to change. Thirty-three years married, nearly fifty years of knowing each other, and Chessa would still get flustered if he ever came onto her in anyway, her cheeks flushing, tail wagging, and voice breaking as a result.

Taking another sip from the tea, he smiled and placed it back down as his wife began to make her way back to bed, her maid's uniform replaced by a far less stuffy and simple pink nightgown, one that showed off a gracious amount of pale skin and grey-brown feathers. Without the prior hesitation, Chessa climbed into bed and quickly settled in beside her husband, latching on his arm and sighing as she closed her eyes.

He thumbed her cheek affectionately. "Long day?" He asked her, leaning down to kiss her forehead, which elicited a small ruffling of her feathers.

"It wasn't anything I couldn't handle. dear." She assured him, her left hand snaking over to grab hold of his own, their golden rings clinking together slightly. "I'm excited for what tomorrow brings, however. It's been a while since we've seen our little ones."

'Little ones' was a bit of an outdated term by now, their three children all having entered adulthood some years ago, and 'a while' being another small fib; they all had visited the week before, insisting on giving their mother a break around the house so her and Charles could go on a date.

"I suppose it has." He replied to appease her. Hopefully Chessa reacted a bit better to her daughters' offer this time, last week it took nearly an hour for them to finally convince her to take a break for their date. "It'll be nice to see them again."

Chessa didn't reply, instead snuggling in beneath the covers and enjoying the embrace of her husband.

"Are you ready for bed, then?" He asked her, turning over on his side slightly to face her more fully.

She opened her sleepy blue eyes and gazed up at him. "I would think so, yes."

Charles suddenly clapped twice, which made Chessa jolt, but the lights in the room shut off in response and plunged the bedroom into a comfortable darkness. "Blasted new technology..." He heard Chessa mumble under her breath, and Charles swore he also heard her utter something about that floor cleaning robot he had gifted to her as well.

Setting those thoughts aside, Charles pulled the covers over them and wrapped his arms around his lovely wife, kissing her forehead again and whispering "Goodnight, my love." into her ear, the Kikimora replying with a simple "I love you."