After saying his farewells to Ais, a lingering warmth in his chest from their quiet parting, Draco exited his familia home.
The crisp morning air, sharp with the lingering chill of winter, filled his lungs as he stepped onto the snow-dusted streets of Orario.
His breath plumed in frosty clouds as he adjusted the hood of his cloak.
His first stop was the Ganesha familia home.
A smile touched his lips at the thought of his firebirds, and two friends who now cared for them: Shakti and Adi.
Earlier in the week, Draco had negotiated another deal with the Ganesha familia.
His firebirds, cute as they were, were not suited for travel, nor could they be left with his relatively young and inexperienced familia members.
The new Bahamut familia home construction wouldn't commence for several months, leaving him in a bind.
The Ganesha familia, with their vast estate and specialized facilities, were the only ones equipped to provide the care his unique companions required.
It was a temporary but necessary arrangement, one he had poured considerable effort into securing.
His boots crunched rhythmically on the fresh snow as he made his way through the winding streets.
The city was slowly awakening, shopkeepers beginning to sweep their stoops, the distant clang of working smiths echoing through the cold air.
The towering walls of Orario cast long, shifting shadows, but even they couldn't entirely dim the early morning light filtering through the clouds.
Soon, the facade of the Ganesha familia's home came into view, its imposing structure softened by the blanket of snow.
At its front, the statue of Ganesha himself loomed.
Draco looked up, and a soft chuckle escaped him, misting into the air.
Several months prior, sometime during the war with the evilus, someone…had dared to desecrate it, chopping off its crotch, perhaps seeing it as an eyesore.
It had remained broken, a gaping wound in Ganesha's pride, until his last visit.
Now, however, it stood repaired, glistening white against the grey sky.
But the repair job… it was something else entirely.
The new crotch was disproportionately, comically larger than the previous one, giving the revered deity a somewhat cartoonish, exaggerated appearance.
Shaking his head in exasperation, Draco pushed open the main doors, the sound muffled by the thick snow outside.
He navigated the familiar path, bypassing the bustling common areas where junior members were already commencing their morning routines, heading straight towards Shakti's office.
Knock! Knock!
Draco rapped his knuckles against the sturdy wooden door, awaiting permission to enter.
Despite their close friendship, he held a deep respect for Shakti and the order she maintained.
It was common courtesy, a fundamental part of the discipline he himself valued.
However, despite knocking twice, there was no reply.
'Is she perhaps not around?' Draco thought, a faint line forming between his brows.
It was unlikely.
He had made an appointment with her the previous week, confirming his arrival time.
Knowing Shakti, she would never miss a scheduled meeting.
He knocked a bit harder, the sound echoing dulling in the silence of the office, yet still, no reply came.
A flicker of genuine concern now etched across Draco's features.
This was uncharacteristic.
Closing his eyes, he sent out a small, almost imperceptible magic pulse, a gentle ripple of magic that spread through the immediate vicinity, seeking out life signatures.
Sure enough, Shakti was in there.
Her presence was faint, almost indistinct, and disturbingly motionless.
Worried, Draco wasted no more time.
He quickly grabbed the door handle and pushed.
To his surprise, the door was unlocked, yielding easily.
His gaze swept the room, and what he saw next halted him, his initial concern giving way to a rather amusing, yet strangely endearing, sight.
Slumped on her expansive desk, which was entirely consumed by a veritable mountain of paperwork, was Shakti.
Her head, usually held high, was slumped to the side, cheek pressed against a pile of official documents.
A thin, glistening trail of drool dripped from the corner of her mouth, catching the morning light filtering through the window.
Her usually sharp, serious expression was replaced by one of a serene, almost childlike exhaustion.
She seemed utterly lost to the world, a stark contrast to the cool, collected, and relentlessly strict woman he knew.
'Well, isn't this quite a rare sight,' Draco mused, a soft smile playing on his lips.
'If only I had an image-type magic item, I could capture this rare moment.'
The thought lingered for only a second before he dismissed it.
That would be an invasion of privacy, and besides, the memory alone would be treasure enough.
Walking closer, his tail swishing almost silently across the plush rug, Draco observed Shakti carefully.
He leaned in, checking her breathing, the subtle rise and fall of her chest, ensuring she was merely asleep and not in any distress.
Only when he confirmed her well-being did the tension in his shoulders ease.
However, the fact that the work she was doing was enough to drain the stamina of a level five adventurer completely, rendering her so deeply unconscious she didn't even register his presence despite his proximity, was a bit concerning.
Taking a small, discreet glimpse at the surface document lying precariously atop the paper mountain, Draco's eyes scanned the official headings and dense paragraphs.
It was then that a wave of guilt washed over him, a wry, self-deprecating understanding dawning in his mind.
'To think all this is partly my fault,' Draco thought, the smile fading from his face, replaced by a slight frown.
The reason that Shakti was so utterly exhausted, drowning in a sea of administrative minutiae, stemmed directly from the deal she made with the Bahamut and Hermes familia.
It was a comprehensive agreement regarding the reorganization of Orario's patrol routes and, more significantly, the treatment and processing of captured criminals.
During the negotiations, Draco, had suggested some rather efficient, perhaps too efficient, methods for gathering information from Orario's residents regarding suspicious activities.
His idea was simple: create clear, accessible channels for citizens to report potential crimes or unusual occurrences without fear of reprisal, allowing the Hermes familia's extensive network to proactively investigate rather than solely react to incidents already underway.
The logic was sound: if information could be gathered systematically and efficiently, crimes could be reported and dealt with more effectively, preventing them from escalating beyond random encounters during patrols.
It was designed to enhance public safety and streamline enforcement.
However, with the Ganesha and Hermes familia's being vastly larger and far more embedded in the city's daily life than the Bahamut familia, they naturally took on the bulk of the responsibility for implementing and managing the new system.
This meant that once the new reporting infrastructure went live, a veritable deluge of information, tips, and queries began flooding Shakti's office.
Every minor squabble and every suspicious shadow....it all funneled into the Ganesha and Hermes familia.
As the central figure overseeing this massive shift, Shakti felt compelled to personally review almost everything herself, at least until the system could be stabilized, its initial kinks ironed out, and reliable personnel could be trained and delegated to handle the sheer volume.
With Draco's planned departure for his own long-term journey, he couldn't take on such a monumental administrative task.
His other familia members were, for the most part, essentially kids, still learning adventuring and life in Orario.
The few that were of age and responsible weren't skilled in the intricate, mind-numbing art of paperwork.
So, the overwhelming bulk of this new system's initial implementation fell squarely on the Ganesha familia, and by extension, on Shakti.
'Ugh, why did I even make all those suggestions,' Draco sighed internally, a fresh wave of guilt washing over him.
Moving away from the desk, careful not to disturb the sleeping woman, Draco quietly took a seat on a plush, if slightly worn, couch positioned against the far right wall.
He didn't feel it was right to wake her.
She clearly needed the rest, and interrupting such deep slumber felt almost sacrilegious.
So, he waited.
It was still quite early in the morning, and despite having other friends he had to visit later in the day, he had ample time to spare.
He settled back, the soft cushions conforming to his form, and watched the silent, dignified chaos of Shakti's office, the only sound the quiet rustle of his own breathing and the distant hum of the city.
.........…
Bang!
"Onee-chan!"
It was sometime close to noon, the early morning light having long since given way to a brighter, though still overcast, sky.
Draco was suddenly jolted awake by a loud, insistent knock that rattled the office door.
The abruptness of the sound sent a jolt through his frame, his tail involuntarily scraping across the rug beneath him, the sharp ridges at its tip inadvertently shredding a portion of the woven fabric.
With nothing to do in Shakti's office, and the utter stillness of the room proving surprisingly conducive to rest, Draco had grown extremely bored and, at some point, had fallen into a deep, dreamless sleep himself.
"Hmmm, who is it?" Shakti muttered, her voice thick with sleep, as she stirred awake.
Her eyes felt sore, gritty from being pressed against paper, and her mind was still hazy, caught between the remnants of sleep and the pressing reality of her workload.
She slowly raised her head from the desk, her neck stiff, and blinked several times, her gaze unfocused as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.
Her eyes soon landed on Draco, who was equally startled, still blinking away the vestiges of his own nap.
Still half-asleep, Shakti tilted her head in confusion, a small, endearing gesture.
Her blurry vision slowly cleared, the world gradually sharpening into focus until she could finally make out the identity of the person in the room.
"Huh, Draco… what are you doing here?" Shakti asked, her voice clearer now as her mind finally caught up.
The formal tone she usually adopted was absent, replaced by a simple, bewildered question.
"Uhm, before I answer, you might want to…" Draco began, his voice a low rumble, making a subtle facial gesture towards her cheek.
He didn't want to embarrass her too much, but the situation was undeniable.
Confused at first, Shakti furrowed her brow and placed a hand instinctively on her cheek.
Her fingers brushed against something dry and papery.
To her mortification, she found a document, a rather important-looking one, stuck firmly to her skin.
Her drool, which had pooled as she slept, had dried into a sticky adhesive, gluing the paper to her cheek like a grotesque second skin.
"Ah!" Shakti involuntarily yelped out loud, a sound of surprise and extreme embarrassment.
Her eyes widened, and she hastily tore the paper from her cheek, the faint tearing sound adding to her mortification.
After a quick, horrified glance at the drool stain left on the document, she grabbed a piece of cloth from her desk drawer, scrubbing vigorously at the remnants that were still on her face.
This situation, being discovered in such a state, was utterly humiliating for her, embarrassing enough that her entire face was flushed a deep, undeniable red, a stark contrast to her usually lighter complexion.
Meanwhile, outside the door, Adi, Shakti's younger sister, was filled with escalating concern. There had been no response from her sister inside the room despite her knocking several times already, and now she heard a strange little yelp.
The initial concern turned into a slight apprehension.
However, after hearing what sounded like some sort of muffled struggle or exclamation from inside the room, Adi, decided to enter, her worry overriding any sense of decorum.
"Onee-chan, are you okay? I brought some food for you, so I'm coming…" Adi trailed off, her voice fading into a bewildered silence as she encountered a very, very weird scene.
Her sister, Shakti, usually the epitome of composure, was flushed red, almost glowing crimson, and frantically wiping her face with a cloth.
And there, on a couch to the right of Shakti's desk, her friend Draco was slowly disentangling himself from the cushions, looking equally disheveled, a faint, almost imperceptible smudge of drool on his own cheek from his nap, and a distinct, freshly shredded tear in the expensive rug where his tail had reacted to the sudden noise.
Although, objectively, nothing in the situation truly warranted any wild suspicions…..a person wiping their face, another waking from a nap…..Adi's fertile imagination, fuelled by her overactive concern for her sister and a dash of romantic idealism, quickly constructed a rather flowery and exaggerated scene that absolutely, did not happen.
Her mind, in a flash of dramatic brilliance, conjured images of secret liaisons that led to such disarray.
"Sorry for disturbing! You two can… can share the meal together!"
Adi practically yelled, her own face flushing a vivid pink as she dropped the basket of food she carried on the ground with a soft thud.
Before either Draco or Shakti could even process her words, let alone respond, Adi spun on her heel and sprinted away, her footsteps echoing rapidly down the hall, leaving a bewildered silence in her wake.
'I can't believe those two would do something like that in the office... how lewd!' she thought, her face burning hotter with every step, the innocent sight transformed into a scandalous secret by the vivid tapestry of her mind.
A/N: Ugh, feel like I am waffling again, do you readers like these kind of chapters? Or need less of it…