The Grand Mistress

Simione spent the rest of her days taking care of Bunbun while Hawk got himself preoccupied with the repairs he had to do in the temple as the storm left some casualties not only with the old folk's houses but also on their recent crops. Still after a few days, there was no improvement on the flooded river that the foreign volunteers were already worrying they might not be able to leave Comis Village as scheduled.

One afternoon, after finishing up some work in the fields, Hawk went to the orphanage to see Simione, camouflaging the fact by pretending to bring some newly gathered potatoes from the fields. Due to the storm, some old crops that were already planted by the old folks were prematurely harvested and since they couldn't sell everything because the quality wasn't that good and also because they cannot cross the river, they ended up dividing the harvest among themselves and sent some to the temple and orphanage. The one that Hawk had in his sack right then was the one meant to be given to the orphanage.

"Hello Hawk, it's good that you came," One of the staff welcomed him. "You rarely comes here that everyone was already spreading rumours that it was because you didn't like the staff in the orphanage,"

"I had been busy with the field madam. The aftermath of the storm left me so much work to do," Hawk defended himself although the staff was very aware of the village folks and were only teasing him. "By the way, this is from the fields,"

"Thank you Hawk," She thanked him and saw how the man looking around trying to catch a glimpse of something, "If you want see Cat, she's in the children's dormitory,"

"Alright," Hawk stopped his search and just dragged his sack of potatoes in the kitchen and went to help some staff store what he just brought. When everything was set, he asked permission to go where Simione was and soon, he found her playing with Bunbun in his bed.

"Didi!" Bunbun called on him when he caught the glimpse of the man silently watching them from the door. His call made Simione turn her head to where he was at and she gave her a polite smile of greeting.

"How is he?" Hawk entered to cater the boy, who right then had managed to run to his side and was calling up for him to carry him. He stretched his two little hands to him and was expecting Hawk to responde. In a moment then, Hawk gave him what he wanted and he was already in his arms.

"He's doing fine as you see," Simione shrugged. "Bunbun, come up here and don't bother the uncle. He just came from the field, he must be very tired,"

"How was the work in the field?" The girl added as he saw the two, Hawk and Bunbun sat together on the other bed, just in front of her. "The storm left so much work to do,"

"It did but the village folks were all doing well. I'm amazed of how positive they were even when such a loss in the crops,"

"They were used to it. This thing is common to them already as during these seasons, storms were really expected to come," Simione narrated but broke into smiles as the sight of Hawk Monsanto with a  child really amazed her. It wasn't the first time he had seen the man with Bunbun but he was always acting very awkwardly at him, so with the other kids in the village. It was obvious that he wasn't used to children but he was trying his best to be gentle with them. 

"Why are you laughing?" Hawk noticed.

"Nothing," Simione refused to say at first but then thought perhaps she should let him know. "You look so well with children these days, it's such a rare sight for a Monsanto to be so close with a child. I don't know probably because whenever people say the name—Monsanto, they always tremble in fear but seeing you now with Bunbun, it does look like he was just sitting with a Monsanto"

"Do I?" He took pride in her compliment. The Monsanto's weren't family affectionate, especially the men or probably they were used to hiding their emotions away; he had never seen any of his family before being so close with children. Even his very own father wasn't affectionate with him as he remembered but he knew he cared for him a lot, especially when he had seen the look in his eyes the night he was sent off with Butler Gah to hide. "I think rather the opposite because as you see only Bunbun isn't afraid of me, the rest of the kids however…"

"Hahahah," Simione giggled when he added such thoughts in their conversation. Right, how could she forget the fact that indeed only Bunbun was close to Hawk. All the other kids were afraid of him because aside from him rarely smiling, his domineering aura scared everyone away.  "Its because you never smiles, you are a scary man,"

"I'm aware of that. However, Bunbun….he seemed not afraid of me," Hawk looked at the child and saw how his hair was covering his eyes. He pushed it off his face gently and smiled at the boy who right then was sitting comfortably at his lap while playing with his hands and occasionally biting it. 

"He's different from the other kids, he sees things differently too," Simione told him. "However he had a very traumatic past that's why until now, he's having a hard time connecting with other kids. You must have noticed he rarely plays with anyone,"

"It's because he is a smart child, he might think he's playmates aren't as smart as him," Hawk announced and tapped Bunbun's head. "Right Bunbun?"

The boy looked at him and nodded his head in agreement to Simione's surprised. That was the very first time she saw Bunbun responding to other people because most of the time, he only plays with himself and ignores everyone around. He occasionally calls people however when he needs something but when it comes to conversations, he rarely responds aside from her.

"See?" Hawk bet on it. "I told you he had his reasons for not being so sociable,"

"How could you make him respond so easily to you?" Simione was really impressed. On her side, it took her a few visits before she got Bunbun to respond to her while the rest of the staff was having hard time communicating with him. However with Hawk, it only took like a few days for him to gain his trust.

"I think it's because we are the same," Hawk smiled at it and remembered how he was as a child. For him, he knew Bunbun wasn't a socially challenging or impaired child. He just really is not unto people who were not able to keep up on how he thinks. This was the reason why he liked Hawk because the man can see right through him perfectly. "Don't worry, Bunbun is fine. Just let him be a child for now. When he grows a little, you'll be surprised on how brilliant he was,"

Cat raised a brow at it and wanted to ask more but before she could open her mouth, someone hurried through the door.

"Cat, the telephone line had been fixed already and someone rang in the directress office looking for you," The girl who came announced.

"For me?" Everyone then was curious, especially Hawk.

"Yeah, I believe it was from Imperial hospital, go and check on it now," The girl added with haste. 

Imperial hospital?

As soon as Simione heard it, she ran hurriedly to the directress office and when she entered, the directress was still on the phone but immediately gave it to her.

"Hello?" Simione was so worried and was praying that nothing was wrong. She had been stuck in the village for a while now and so she was not able to get news on how everyone was doing back in Devon City.

"Sisi, it's me," The caller was Madam Silicia on the other line. Her voice then got SImione more worried because it felt like she was having a hard time and was all exhausted.

"Grandmother, is everything okay back there? We had a storm here and so our phone lines were down for a while. I hope everything is fine," The girl said it all in one go anxiously. Something about this call was making her very worried.

"Sisi, actually something good happened but..but...but… oh, can you come home right away?" grandmother Silicia was almost crying at the other end.

"Grandmother, what is it?"

"Your brother has woken up…" Madam Silicia announced and everything around Simione stopped at the words.

She was stuck in the phone call for a minute more and when it ended, everything around her changed. Her honey colored eyes steadied with thorough determination, her ears couldn't hear a thing but only the voice of Madam Silicia announcing Brother Don's dilemma repeatedly and before she knew it, she bolted out the door and hurried to her room with the fixed plans to leave Comis village right away.

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