(A/N): When I look at my past work, I cringe. Literally, I just hiss at the screen OvO

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Expecting you? Of course he was, he was the one who first arranged this small little meeting.

Odd, did he just incidentally make it more dramatic?

Or did he just wait for your presence for longer than expected?

You couldn't possibly know the exact moment your lord will finish up the meeting when you add the fact that you accidentally managed to cause a little uproar.

Surely, because of you, you managed to jumble up his busy agenda and shift it into such disarray that he might be mad.

Speaking of that, a large puddle was still visible on his neatly wrapped bandages and lower light wear, a key reminder to your earlier interaction.

Finally, you decided to not break your back today and stood straight up, your nervous hands fumbling together in a neat weave.

"How's your yukata?" You nervously asked, wary of the consequences when bringing up that incident, alone without anybody to stop him.

Lord Choromatsu only laughs, a laugh mixed between a chuckle and a heavenly action for fascination. "Still worrying about that? It's fine, I assure you that." He only waves it off, dismissing the topic for now.

"S-Still! You're the Clan Leader, you shouldn't let me off the hook that easily!" You cried out, not feeling like this was right.

You'll do whatever it takes to fix this, whether it will be doing his laundry yourself or fanning him in daylight until your arms fall off. You probably were not even allowed to touch the clan leader's possessions and the green leader himself had a fancy fan he could use, but it was worth a shot to repair your misdoings.

In the middle of your thoughts, Lord Choromatsu quietly untangled his long legs on the tatami mat and got up defiantly on his two legs, not even creating any noise at all. How was that possible?

Choromatsu loudly snaps his oddly dramatic fan back to a thin folded stick, his defined eyes damgerously narrowed to small slits.

"So you want me to punish you that badly? You should be warned about how harsh my punishments are. I'm sure you don't want to disappear from existence the moment you displease me, right?" He expertly uses his folded fan to forcefully tilt your unsuspecting chin up along with your gawking face to stare at him directly in the eyes.

Eye contact is horrible...

His hard olive green eyes burned a painfully silent order in your own taken back pupils: 'Don't push your luck.'

Your pupils trembled at the silent theme, that's right, before you could finally focus your temporary peripheral vision on his serious face and slowly blink, barely moving your head in a up-and-down motion that almost didn't even classify as a simple 'nod'.

Choromatsu takes his sweet time to slowly dislodge the fan away from your slightly scratched chin and firmly place it in the before empty place next to his gleaming katana of his makeshift tool belt, aka obi.

"Now that our situation is...properly handled, I would like to ask of you a small favor. A small task, that's all. I'm sure you can keep up with the small and simple program, since you are a well-trained servant." The green clad leader keeps being repetitive in his word choice of 'simple', expecting nothing but the best from you.

It was impossible to tell if that was a genuine compliment or his way of sassing you with undetectable sarcasm at that last part, so you didn't object or comment in any sort of negative or positive way while instead rubbing your bruised chin to relieve the burning pain.

That fan must've been sharpened or something like that before this all happened.

Choromatsu crossed his arms in a firm lock, his chest puffed out confidently before he started opening his triangle-shaped mouth. "I need you to deliver some of our valued chef's special mochi to our neighboring clan."

What is this, a gift? Why give a clan a present all of a sudden?

"The Oda Clan." Choromatsu seems to try hard to not hiss out the name of that very well known clan, seeing as he roughly bites his soft lips soon afterwards.

"It's a peace offering to prevent a full fledged war from breaking out on our land tomorrow, so I would appreciate it if you gave it to one of the head samurai there, just not Akechi Mitsuhide or Nobunaga Oda. And, for heaven's sake, come back alive to report how well it went."

"Milord, why me in the first place? Your personal page, I believe, would be better suited for this job." It wasn't like you don't want to carry this task out, but, just like he said, this was to prevent a war from raging on. Okay, so maybe you did't want to do it.

The weight of possibly causing a war on your shoulders? That's not on your long list today.

Currently, there wasn't a war on these specific lands, but war always raged on somewhere in Japan. In another province out there, a Clan Leader wishes to obtain more land and uses sheer brute force to obtain it.

No, the villagers don't get considered in the process. The villages are the battleground of several bloody battles, the gravestones of several falling brave samurai, the target of captures for innocent hostages. They were nothing but a factor in the bloody equation of war.

"That? Your family has benefited the royal family for years, so I supposed you should thank your ancestors for this opportunity. You seem valuable, so we're putting you to use now." Choromatsu passes off this information like it's no big deal.

It's not like you can waste this opportunity if you word it like that. Shaming the family lineage is never an option.

"I'll do it." You firmly nodded and clasped your petite hands together, ready to resume busy work once again.

Choromatsu darted his eyes around the giant room before facing you with a worried face. A worried face of true concern. "Protect the basket with your life," He added in a low voice.

Woah, the tone suddenly transitioned to something dark. You precariously whispered a 'I-I understand...' in a tiny voice of yours.

Choromatsu returns back to normal at your words and contorts his expression to the usual static one. "Head to the entrance gates and I'll make sure there's a ride ready for you. The basket will be there already, I just need to go inside and present the gift yourself." Choromatsu instructs you his last commands, his eyes ordering you to immediately leave now. It didn't take before you willingly obeyed and silently left the private chambers, uneasiness swelling up in your chest.

You walked aimlessly through the now seemingly cramped hallways, your mind somehow closing in on itself in several trippy, including the real world.

It was a simple task, right? It's not like you were killing someone, you were sending mochi, mochi! But it didn't seem right.

Maybe it was because it was the first time you were doing an errand that actually mattered? A page did this all the time, so that just had to be it! You will get used to this new air of importance!

Oh right, your ride is waiting for you. Can you manages horses well?

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(A/N): I'm trying to update more often as I can, so updates will be random. Serendipity will hopefully be updated this weekend, but I have a question for you guys. How many words do you want each chapter to at least have? I try to not go overboard with 3000 words, so this is a bit shorter. How many do you honestly want?

01/19/17