His eyes fluttered open as the brught light denied him the ease to continue sleep. Eyelids heavy from having just woken up, he could only open them as much as half it's full capability.
"Where--?" The unfamiliar ceileng ceiling that greeted his first gaze caused him to let out a question. Wait--this place wasn't unfamiliar at all. Nor was the soft but itchy sensation on his back as he laid on what he thought was that bed. "Ah,"
'So soft...' He thought his body shifted slightly to get a more comfortable posture to be laying down. He rested both arms on he chesta and his one leg raised while the other crossed above it. "Mhm~...." Like a cat he purred as the pose finally hit the perfect spot. Heaven!
"Hm?" Soon, another voice within that space drew him out of his beautiful lazy mood. He turned his head to the left, it was the wrong side. He was now facing the wall. 'Oops.' He recorrected his mistake by slowly turning his stiff neck to the other side. Now he could properly see the one from whom the voice ha came from.
"The sleepyhead's woken up, hm~?" A voice that was like the wind chimes of summer, fell on his eardrums.
The one who had said so was none other than the beautiful girl dressed in a perfect thick ribbons like dress that covered her body and even formed a ring around her ankle, Iris.
She stood near the wooden
"Hellll~o? World to Seph?" She used her other free hand to wave at him from all the way from the table. Seeing him not responding even after he was awake, naturally made her worry a bit.
"Iri...s...Is this place?..." Finally spoke up which got a sigh out of Iris. Although his was drowsiness was still very well evident in his breathy way of speaking.
"Hmph, that's your fisrt thought after witnessing SUCH!--" She spread her arms and face him clearly with a pout, as if putting hard emphasis on what she wanted to state. "--Divine beauty right after you wake up?! My heart!..."
Sephaies ignored her holding her chest as if he had ripped her heart out or something and closed his eyes after smirking at her.
".....So you've grown old of my beauty, hm? And you you will order me to find more ladies such as me right?"
"That would've worked if i was still a child Iris." He drapped his arm just above his eyes after he felt satisfied with his victory.
"..... You're not getting out the bed are you?"
"Never." He replied without a seconds delay.
Iris silently stared at him with a poke face. Her mind calling him all possible synonyms of a 'lazy bum'. Just then something flickered inside her head.
"Feeling lazy? Seee~ph?" With her usual drawn out way of speaking she asked the white haired boy sleeping, only for her question to be answered with silence.
"Haaah, well I should have expected that lazy side after seeing this." She said as she placed down what she had been holding, on the table. It was an ink pot.
"Messy handwriting, books scattered and ink smeared everywhere.....You fell asleep here once didn't you~?" She snickered at the thought of a young Sephaies snoring on the table with ink all over his face.
"Hrk--!"
"Ah confirmation acquired!" Iris smile beamed accross her face as she held up a Peace sign for her victory.
...
'WHAT A MAN! HE'S STILL NOT TRUNING!?' Even though his ears were red with probably embarrassment, this guy still didnt look at her.
A devious smile formed on her face as a bait fell in sight of Iris. 'Muhahahahahaha!!!'
"Another lazy point Seph~!" She bent down and picked up something from the ground as she held out her arm as far as possible from her, all the while pinching her nose. "And here's your underw--!" It was snatched away.
The....what she was holding was no longer in her hold but was in the hands of a peron who had jumped forwards so quickly. But instead of feeling relieved that it was back with him, he turned to look at Iris with burning rage.
Being the target of this rage, she thought of a plan, which was to do a--"Tehee!"--with a wink as a cherry on top.
"DONT TEHHE ME!!! AND IT'S JUST A HANDKERCHEIF ISN'T IT!?!?"
****
"Oh come ooo~n, you're still mad at me?"
"Of course i am! And those puppy eyes wont help."
"Oof, busted."
"You weren't even hiding your attempt though..."
Sephaies, who seated on the bed's edge, looked down at Iris ho sat in a perfect seiza, whining like a child being scolded by her teach. Which was quite comical considering their dynamic.
"So much for getting you out of the bed. Maybe this is what Zolka meant by a drama queen." She used her pout, hoping it'd sway him.
"Really?"
They sat in silence for sometime. Seph was still admiring the room. It really was his bedroom. The bedroom of his home. How he was here didn't bother him much as Iris was here wasn't she? But that aside, the sheer amount of feelings bubbling inside of him were too enormous to be described by simply words alone. Even he was having touble in choosing between the myriad of emotions he was holding back.
The bright tangerine like sunlight filtered through the window of the wall along which her bed was aligned. He wanted to look outside the window, to look back. But he didn't, because if he saw that orchid tree....he doesn't know how long it'll take for him to calm down. So Sephaies did not look back upon the sight of a long past and destroyed time.
"You know, Iris..." He spoke with a solemn voice of someone remembering. "Sissy used to wake me up right around this moment.....do you think she'll suddenly burst out of that door?"
Following his gaze, Iris also turned her head to look at the door, and then back at him with an unchanged smiling expression.
"....Hahhhh! I guess not. I just wanted to try sleeping in late like i used to as a child, pretty dumb right?" He said, his teeth visible because of how far his smile was widening.
But Iris with her index on her lips, tilted her head in confusion at how obvious it was. "Yuuu~p, that was a dumb reason to scold Iris." She spoke aloud without thinking.
Sephaies winced a little at her straightforwardness but scoffed it off as her character.
Suddenly feeling energised, he flexed his legs and jumped out of his bed.
After streching his arms and back a little, he looked down at her sitting form. "C'mon, you wanted me to get up right? Then how long are you gonna keep sitting for?" Just as a gentleman would, he held out his hand for her to grab onto an stand.
But, Iris simply stared at it for a second before closing her eyes and pushing herself off the ground without any help. She brushed off any possible dust clinging to her skirt. "Yes, it is about time we get on with this."
Sephaies paid no mind to her dismissal and retracted his hand back as his eyes followed the girl who turned away from him and mearched towards the door, not losing even a speck of her maidenly elegance.
Grabbing the door's knob, she looked back one last time with a sweet, gentle smile--"This will be a long journey after all."
And with that, the door that would start this so called "journey" was opened.