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A loud boom of thunder, a howl of wind, and a cacophony of noise greeted a certain butler as he entered the main hall of the manor, platter of empty glasses in hand, standing straight, head forward, focused. N took a few glances at tonight's guests, as he stood like a statue nearing the entrance, off to the side so as to not bump into anyone entering the hall.
Despite his prim and proper appearance, like most tonight, it was just a mask. He had been worked relentlessly by Tessa's folks for the main preparations for this year's gala, and he was so exhausted and drained. It was apparent to all those who've seen him lately, outside of the watchful eyes of the other Elliots'. He was ready for tonight's gala to come to a close, then do more work by readjusting tables and cleaning dinnerware and..
“N?”
He hadn't been paying much attention to his surroundings, almost flinching at the proximity of the voice beside him, before realizing who it was that addressed him. Tessa.
“O-Oh Tessa— Hi! How's the gala been for you? I hope you've been having fun!”
He gave a more strained than genuine smile her way, trying his hardest to not look as exhausted as he felt. The crescent lines beneath his eyes didn't help that fact however. Or his slightly improper and messy hair.
“N, I think it's time for you to rest.. You're not lookin' too well, how about you head back to my room and keep Cyn company? I'm sure she'd appreciate it.” Tessa said, hands clasping his free hand, practically pleading with her eyes for him to listen. He was about to protest when she added: “I convinced J to step in for you tonight, so it's all taken care of. Father won't notice much at all.” With a pause afterwards, he agreed, setting down the platter on a nearby empty counter, and quickly exiting the hall as fast as he could (without drawing attention to himself, of course.)
Within good time he made it up the stairs and into Tessa's room, opening and shutting the door, before stumbling further in to almost fall at the end of her bed, on the floor. Tessa didn't mind it when he sat on the bed, but Mrs. Elliot sure did, and he didn't want to be caught and chained up in the rain again for ‘misbehaving’.
He lowered his head at the thought, bringing his knees in close to hold. His mind felt fuzzy, in a way he had experienced before a few times when he was just so exhausted from it all. He didn't know what to call this feeling, but he dubbed it as “going soft”, but that didn't help to make him understand why it happened. It just kinda did.
“You seem tired, big brother, N.”
Cyn’s distinct and robotic voice was heard at his side, as he turned his head towards the window to his left. Alone sat Cyn on the floor, a few of Tessa's dolls strewn about, propping up her head with a hand as she smiled warmly at him. It caused that feeling to increase, but he brushed it off his mind, as he smiled back.
“Jus’ a lil’ bit today, that's all..” He mumbled out, voice sounding strangely higher in a sense, but not by too much. Cyn moved to stand and move over to him, almost falling onto the ground as she sat back down beside him, looking him over.
“Questioning stare. Are you, feeling soft, big brother, N?” She asked, causing him to slowly nod, a sad look on his face. A hand reached out to lift up his head towards her's, as she gave him yet another smile. “It's, okay, big brother, N. We can, play, till Tessa, comes back. Do you, want, to play with, the dolls, or, color?”
He let out a soft “dollies, please” in response, and Cyn crawled a bit over to them (standing was too hard currently) and grabbed two, both of them girls in dresses, one in a green and one in a blue, and both with long brown hair each. She came back with them, handing the one in the blue dress to N, who had moved a bit to go towards a doll house Tessa had.
“What should, we play, with the dolls, now? House?” She asked, and N nodded with a smile. He always enjoyed the more simple ways of playing, like just having dolls do normal and ‘bland’ things like making food and chatting to each other.
N set to arranging the house's furniture the way he liked, and picked back up the doll, having it ‘make’ breakfast for the other, as Cyn had them take a seat at the table. They continued on with them just having the dolls ‘talk’ to one another, eventually taking them outside of the house to ‘go to the park’, which then involved them moving to play on the windowsill. Luckily by now, the storm had subsided to just rain. He really didn't like lightening or thunder, especially while ‘soft’.
At some point an hour into this, N started to grow very sleepy, his thumb slipping into his mouth a few times as he dozed off. Cyn took notice of this, setting down her doll, and scooting closer to him, as he was currently almost asleep, leaning up against the windowsill.
“I think, it is, sleepy time, big brother, N. Let's get you, into bed, now, okay?”
He whined as she prodded at him to wake up, at least enough so he could crawl over to Tessa's bed. The young girl didn't mind it if he slept there when she wasn't occupying the space, and there was no way he was getting much farther from the bed at the moment.
Slowly and very sleepily, he crawled over to the bed, climbing into it, as Cyn did the same, sitting up at the foot of the bed, trying to keep herself from falling over onto the floor. He laid his head on the pillow, almost falling asleep right there, before Cyn moved up the bed toward him, to gently pat his head.
“Goodnight, big brother, N.”
Cyn spoke with smile, as the other drifted off into sleep mode.