Don't leave by LunaFair (a.k.a Anna M. Haslinger) (snow like ashes series TXT) 📖

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Day one~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
prologue

I opened my eyes, slowly realizing it was still dark. 'Great', I thought, slowly sitting up,'That was my sleeping for today...'
Once awake, it was impossible for me to go back to sleep. When my eyes had gotten used to the dark, I stood up and went over too the window, just too see that everyone but me was still sleeping. Slowly I got dressed and left my little apartment, walking down the road. The town was as peaceful as always.
I slowly wandered down the streets, heading for the beach, to watch the sunrise. It was just a great sight.
Suddenly I saw something moving and quickly turned to the right, only to realize, it was just a boy, about ten years old, selling newspaper.
"Want a paper?", he asked, looking up in my face.
I just nodded, searching my pockets for a coin although I hadn't much money left, and the next rent for my flat needed to be payed soon ...
Finally I found what I had looked for and handed the little coin to the boy, who handed me a newspaper in exchange and smiled, thanking me and wishing me a good day. Then he left and I continued walking while reading the paper I had just bought.
When I finally reached the beach, I thought about throwing the useless thing away. While I was approaching the next wastepaper-basket, someone bumped into me, not even bothering to say sorry or something. I stumbled and the paper fell out of my hands. As it landed on the ground, a page flipped open and I, finally falling too, landed right on it, staring at one specific ad. It was written in beautiful letters, looking completely different than the rest of the paper and seemed to be ... well ... somehow better than the rest. I stared at it for a while. It said:

Help needed!
We wish for a young man, about 20 years old, preferably tall.
Needed skills: Cooking, cleaning
The candidate should own a good sense of humor and energy
Full-Time-Job
A nice big room with bathroom included
The payment will make up for every inconveniences that might occur.
Everyone who is interested, might come to Takarai-mansion at 3 p.m.

Was this ... a dream? A job with included place to live, well payed? No this couldn't be real ... I read it another three times, then I kissed the paper, making the people around me stare, picked it up again and rushed home to get dressed for the interview.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Takarai-mansion

Some hours later I found myself standing in front of the huge mansion, owned by the Takarai-Clan, the most powerful and richest family in the whole country. Not even the king was able to mess with them. If they wanted, they could just send over their private army and take over the throne. But for some reason they didn't want to.
When I went over to the door slowly, I realized, that there was no one but me. I wanted to back off, but then I remembered how urgent my need of a job was right now, so I knocked. Nothing happened for some moments. I could clearly hear my heart beating, as I listened to the perfect silence.
'Great, I bet no one's home', I thought, just a second before the door opened, and an elderly man looked at me in surprise.
"I- I'm here because of the ad", I explained, showing the paper to him.
"It's okay, let him in", a lady's voice called from inside. Had she heard me?
I walked inside, the man closed the door behind me, while I followed the voice that had called me.
A lady, about maybe thirty or forty years old was sitting in a huge chair in front of a huge fireplace, from where I could hear soft sounds of burning wood. She smiled, when she looked at me, while resting her hands on her lap.
"Good ... so what's your name, young man, and how old are you?", she asked, her voice was soft and friendly.
Yeah, name ... good question to begin with. I smiled friendly.
"It's Camui, ma'am, but for my last name I don't know exactly. I'm an orphan", I explained.
She nodded, looking at my with a lot of sympathy in her eyes.
"Good, Camui. Do you know anything about your parents?", she asked.
I sighed, my hope fading.
"My ... father was a soldier from a country I don't know. That's why I have those blue eyes", I almost had to spit that words out. I hated how I looked.
"And ... my mother was just a daughter of a poor farmer. When I was born, she left me somewhere in the city, where a priest found me, giving me my name. And that's about it", I ended my story, looking at her.
She nodded again.
"Ah yeah, and I was 20 years last Monday", I said.
"Good, and you're able to cook I suppose?", she asked, looking pleased when I nodded,"Good boy. Fine. I'll leave with my daughters to our castle in the mountains. We'll take the servants with us, so it will be your job to look after my oldest son, Hideto, who's not coming with us, due to his weak health", she finally explained,"Don't worry, it's not much, just be sure he eats enough"
I nodded again.
"Good, then I'll prepare the girls to leave"
"Does that mean ... I got the job?"
"Sure", she said, finally getting up, I quickly bowed to her, then she left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hideto

It was about one hour later, when I had gotten all my stuff up to the mansion. To be honest, it was just one bag, filled with some clothes and books and one or two other things.
Misses Takarai had already left. Luckily, she had showed me my room before. It was huge! In fact too big for me, so instead of putting my stuff into the giant wardrobe, I didn't bother with unpacking and went over to the kitchen instead, when I heard something from behind. I returned to my room, just to find my stuff lying all over the bed, and a small guy with dark brown hair sitting in between the things, throwing the rest out of the bag as well.
He didn't seem to have noticed that I had returned. Either that, or he just didn't care.
I looked at him in confusion. Was this Hideto? Wasn't he supposed to be older then me? What did she say? 23? He looked that young ... and fascinated by my clothes.
"That's not much you have there ...", he suddenly said - so he HAD noticed me - while reading something I couldn't see,"... Gakuto"
I froze.
"That's not my name!", I said louder than I had wanted to.
He gave me a smirk.
"It is, Gakuto Camui", he said,"You lied to my mum, black hair. I just don't get why. Because your dad loved your mum and told her he'd be back soon? Or because that warrior named Gakuto tried to murder my dad?"
I stared at him in horror. No ... no please ...
"Don't worry, my dad is not what one would call a nice man, so I think it's okay. He's in battle again, while your dad got killed ... By the way, that's what he did, not you.", he gave me a smirk before standing up again,"Hey, your bed's a mess! How are you supposed to keep the house clean when you can't even keep your own bed clean?"
"But you ...", I started, but he wouldn't give me a chance.
He rushed past me, leaving me alone with the chaos he had caused.
At least that explained that strange good sense of humor thing ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was about seven p.m. when I ended up knocking at his door. At first, there was no reaction, then he opened the door and looked at me. He hadn't changed his clothes or something, but he looked different somehow ...
"What is it, black hair?", he asked, appearing to be not too happy about my presence.
"Supper is ready", I told him while smiling as friendly as possible.
He looked unsure, but then he smiled and followed me to the kitchen.
"So ... what did you cook?", he asked snuffling, but being unable to find out on his own.
I gave him a smirk as he sat down by the table in the kitchen.
"Hey you! Answer me!", he commanded.
"You'll see, little one", I teased, putting a bowl in front of him and handing him a spoon.
He just stared when I put a big pot on the table, then he leaned forward to look inside, snuffling again.
"That smells good ... soup?", he asked, ignoring my teasing perfectly, while he put some in his bowl.
"Soup. My own creation", I said, smiling proudly as I watched him eat.
He seemed to have a good appetite, so I wondered why his mom was worried about him not eating enough. After a while, the pot was empty and Hideto looked very satisfied.
"You're a very good cook, Gacchan", he said smiling at me happily.
"What did you call me?"
"Gacchan. You can call me Hyde if Hideto is too long for you", he said, before kissing my forehead,"See you in the living room"
Then he was gone again.
I blushed. Had he just kissed me? While shaking my head in order to get rid of that thought, I stood up and started washing the dishes.

Soon I was done and went to the living room as he had commanded. But yet he hadn't ordered me to, although I was his servant sort of ...
Still I did as he said and soon I entered the quite big room, where his mother had talked to me earlier. He had put her chair in some corner and sat on a carped in front of the fireplace. There was a puzzle in front of him, and he was trying hard to continue it. While he looked quite unpleased, I had the feeling he had gotten far in the short time he had been alone in the living room.
"Looks great", I said, but he didn't even look up, when I sat down on the other side of his work, looking on the image. It was something with wings ... an angel?
"Nah ... It's not great enough", he murmured, but I could hear he was smiling,"So help me, will you?"
Smiling as well, I took up some pieces, and after a while started working on it too.

I guess we worked about an hour on it, both too lost in his puzzle to notice anything. When our work was finished, I looked at him, smiling, but when he looked up as well, I froze and kept staring at his face in shock.
It was his left eye. Everything around it was just swollen and red, looking terribly painful. When he had interpreted my looks, his hand immediately got up to his face, touching his red, also swollen cheek but wincing immediately.
"Ow!", he whined, when I got up, seeing tears welling up in his other eye,"Ow ow! It hurts!"
"Calm down ... has this happened before?", I asked, looking at him with worry.
He got quiet and nodded.
"It's just some allergy ...", he murmured, looking away.
"Hey look at me, puffy eye", I said, sitting down in front of him. I was surprised when he really did what I