Won't You Stay This Time?

Solo Butler (Part 1)

Author's Note:

Heads up! Extra long chapter ahead! 7000+ words! Enjoy!

Also, guess what! Author-chan got a new kitten yesterday! I have named her Coriane (Cori for short)! Although, she is quite the handful right now. It's like having a child in my case. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!!

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~~Claire's POV~~

I woke up later in the morning, around ten or eleven, and it felt wonderful. At the Trancy manor, I would usually have to get up extremely early to make sure the mansion was presentable when Alois woke up, but here I could sleep until noon and no one would care. With a little bit of difficulty, I sat up in bed and stretched as I yawned before slowly getting out of bed and walking over to the window. I opened the curtains to allow some light into the room and smiled up at the warm sun. My appointment was at two in the afternoon, so I had time to spare and use to relax.

I walked over to my wardrobe and pulled out a suitable dress that allowed me room to breathe with my baby bump. While changing, I felt clear kicks against my stomach and smiled at the signs of life. As I finished changing, I heard a knock on my bedroom door and made my way over to open it. Hogo smiled at me when he saw me. He was holding his son Tom in his arms and he was happily gurgling away as babies often do.

"I thought you might like to see your nephew", Hogo said. I smiled and nodded, taking the two and a half month old into my own arms. So far, Tom had grey eyes just like Hogo, but he had his mother's blond hair. Once he saw me, he smiled his gummy smile that could melt anyone's heart. I never got to spend much time with Tom, but it was like he still knew who I was.

"Hello there, my darling little nephew Tom", I smiled at him and tickled his tummy. He laughed and giggled, swinging his arms around.

"He's no darling at night...", Hogo said, running a hand through his hair.

"Do you keep daddy and mommy up at night, Tom?", I giggled. The baby laughed too, swinging his arms about once more. However, this time one of them came in contact with my stomach. "Oh! Let's try not to hit that, okay?" It hadn't really hurt, it was more that I was paranoid something would happen to the children now that I was away from the Trancy manor. But Tom seemed to partially understand and hit my stomach more gently. "Yes, those are your little cousins."

"It might be about time for his feeding", Hogo said. "Could you take him to Lenora? I have some work I should get done."

"I don't mind", I nodded. "Though I guess I should talk to everyone later if Furenzu hasn't told you all."

"Furenzu told us what happened", Hogo said. He placed a hand on my shoulder as if to comfort me. "Don't worry. We'll figure out what to do." He gave me a small smile. "Lenora should be in the drawing room." I nodded and he turned to leave and do his work.

I sighed to myself and rocked Tom back and forth as he started to get fussy. While trying to calm Tom down, I headed towards the drawing room and found Lenora there reading just as Hogo said. When she heard her son's whines, she immediately looked up and smiled when she saw me.

"I thought it was getting close to Tom's feeding time", she said as she took Tom from my arms. Since it was just the two of us in the room, Lenora unbuttoned the top of her dress and openly fed Tom. "Where's Hogo?"

"He said he had some work to get done", I replied as I sat down. She nodded.

"I see", she sighed. "So, how are the little ones?"