A Phoenix's Heart

Chapter 9: Shorts from Everyday Life

Stress Cleaning

Estella's point-of-view

It was September 23rd at 5:00 in the morning. Everyone at the base, which was only a few, was still asleep. I, however, couldn't sleep all night. To pass the time and to deal with stress I've been cleaning the kitchen. I was scrubbing the inside of the last stone oven. It was the last thing in the kitchen left unclean. I scrub and soak the inside and outside of the oven the best I can to get as clean as I can while I talk out loud. My goal is to make everything look as new as possible. Every base was a bit different, this one had a massive kitchen with several fancy appliances for cooking and storing food. It works like a cafeteria where the staff would make various dishes at certain times of the day for members to eat at their own time. The kitchen and eating areas were always a mess and left extremely disorganized. The staff did their best to keep everything clean and tidy but if you look closer it was easy to tell how utterly disgusting the kitchen really was. Due to the small amount of people still on base right now the kitchen has been closed for a week and I took the opportunity to deep clean it.

"It's been a week since I officially moved in with Fueggy and became a member of the Crimson Lions. You should have heard the things people said when we returned from our date in Berry. I know women gossip but I didn't realize men did too. And I swear they do it far more. Everyone was so judgmental. Calling me a whore and slut or at least the younger ones did. I guess I can't blame them though. I haven't started working yet. For all they know, I've just been spending all my time in our room. Fuegoleon has been on missions for this whole week. Once again, he was gone by the time I woke up the next day. I feel like everyone hates me, calling me all these awful names. I find it rather funny that they're only targeting me. No. I guess it actually makes sense. Most of them don't know me. A lot of the older members remember the two of us being an item and are kind. Even Leopold seems hesitant to accept me. I know it's been a long time but I helped raise him, at least until he was six. You like Leopold don't you Leo?" I crawl back out from the stone oven and look towards the lion lying on the kitchen counter. He simply stares at me with an inquisitive look.

"Anyways, it appears that someone had been talking to the press because our relationship has been the talk of the town recently. Most people know who I am and our relationship. There have been articles bringing up our engagement announcement from about 20 years ago. Stories of how we fell in love or him or me cheating have been rampant. The stories are crazy but some of those journalists should think about becoming novelists because their stories were engaging as hell. I haven't been able to leave the base because of the harassment from the media and the death threats from fans. Fans of both me and him. Some are upset because we're with each other. Others are saying that our relationship doesn't count because it's arranged. Then there's another group saying that we can cheat due to our relationship being arranged. So on and so forth. A member tried to sneak fans onto the base before she got caught. She's confined to her room for now waiting for Captain to get back to decide her punishment. I feel pressured to make an official statement to the press but I don't want to make a formal announcement without Fuegoleon's input. I didn't grow up in the limelight like he did. I've never dealt with this before. I miss not being a part of such intense social expectations.

I finally finished the ovens and leaned against them catching my breath. It took me all week but the kitchen is finally clean. I got started reorganizing some things. I had to sneak out to find containers to organize. I know I should have asked Fueggy's permission first but I made some new rules for the area. Members have to put away their own dishes and scrape off the leftovers so they're cleaner. They're magic knights, I don't care if they descend from nobility. It is not the kitchen staff's job to do all the damn chores for them. Part of the magic knight's job and right to live on base is to maintain the cleanliness of their environment. They can't just push it off on someone just because they get paid to cook their meals. Damn lazy little craps need to get their shit together.