[DoA Fan Fic] Engraved Arc 2 Chapter 4

                                                                 Arc 2 Chapter 4
                                                                  Question Game










    “Marie- Marie Rose? MARIE ROSE!” Kokoro shrieked, her piercing voice cutting right through the roar of the Turbo V8. “Slow down, please!” Kokoro continued to shriek while Helena continued to sit comfortably with her right leg crossed over her left, observing Marie Rose's prowess at driving.
    “Relax, Kokoro,” Helena suggested to her with a smirk.
    “How can I relax like this?” Kokoro fired back in panic, her head turned to the side towards her older sister with her eyes squeezed shot.
    “Don't worry, I was trained by a man with no face!” Marie Rose  boasted, proudly.
    “What kind of man has no face?” Kokoro shouted as she stared ahead with her eyes full of terror. “And why are you driving so fast for anyways?”
    “Because, I asked her to,” Helena reminded Kokoro of her command two minuets ago. “I trust Marie Rose with my life.” Helena stated at volume so that Marie Rose could hear her with ease. A devious smirk spread across Marie Rose's innocent face, her foot feathering the gas as she came around the corner at speed before their entrance to the road of the manor.
    “Do you trust me, Kokoro?” Marie Rose asked her, turning her head back to look at Kokoro with a sly smirk. It was Kokoro's turn to feel uncomfortable from the way someone looked at her.
    “Marie Rose, please look at the road!” Kokoro pleaded while Helena noticed that Marie Rose had positioned her car to the absolute limits to the right of the road. Looking outside her window, Helena saw the guard rail not even an inch away from the side of the car.
    “Marie Rose... please...” Marie Rose's eyes widened the moment the first of Kokoro's tears fell down her cheek. Marie Rose returned her attention to the road and canceled her original brake point and promptly began to apply gradual brake pressure and slowing the car back down to the speed limit. Marie Rose adjusted the rear view mirror to get a better view of the back seats.
    Kokoro was trying her bast to calm herself down, her eyes shut and her breath purposely slow. When she finally opened them, her eyes met Marie Rose's through the rear view mirror.
   “Thank you, Marie Rose...” Kokoro expressed her relief as she wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “Please, I don't like it when people drive fast.”
    “...I understand, it won't happen again.” Marie Rose stated, signaling and turning left into the road into the manner, driving professionally between the cobblestone lined with great trees on either side.

    Marie Rose shut her car off, keeping her finger pressed onto the button as her guilt took it's toll on her. She heard Kokoro and Helena open their doors on both sides and closed her eyes, not wanting to look at Kokoro for shame of not having a good impression on her new sister.
    “I'm such an idiot...” Marie Rose mutter to herself.
    “I don't think so,” Kokoro said from right behind her.
“Huh?” Marie Rose gasped, turning around and coming face to face with Kokoro who stuck her body between the two front seats
    “I just wanted to let you know, I'm not upset with you; so don't beat yourself up over it kay?” Marie Rose sighed, heavily as her stress over the incident lifted.
    “Thank you, Kokoro.”
    “Don't mention it, come on out.” Marie Rose accepted Kokoro's invitation and followed her out of her own car, closing the doors behind them and locked by Marie Rose immediately.
    Marie Rose took a quick look around and turned to Kokoro, “where did Helena go?” Kokoro placed her thumb under her chin in thought.
    “I think she said she had to go the bathroom, and she was gonna take care of a few things so...”  Kokoro  smirked and with a quick shot of her right arm, swiped Marie Rose's key right out of her hand.
    “HEY!” Marie Rose shouted and gave to chase to the fleeing Kokoro who was already twenty meters away. “Come back here, Kokoro!” Marie rose shouted after Kokoro who laughed triumphantly as she pumped her arms and legs and broke out into a full sprint.
    “Haha! Not so fast without your car, are you?” Kokoro taunted her. Taking a glance behind her, she quickly found that Marie Rose was left in her dust. “Hah, you're not-” Kokoro skid to a halt on the grass as Marie Rose slid on all fours to intercept her from the front.
    Swipe! Marie Rose relieved a bewildered Kokoro of her car key and placed it in her rear thigh pocket and gave it a taunting tap.
    “Try taking it now,” Marie Rose joked with a smirk before placing her hands behind her back and walking off back towards the front of the manor. “So, what do you feel like doing- HEY!” Marie Rose gasped as she felt the violating sensation of touch dragging across the denim of her rear. “Kokoro!” Marie Rose protested to such actions and tried to grab Kokoro's wrists while trying to hop away.
    “You're my sister now, that means I will go to higher lengths for retribution!” With one last pull, Kokoro managed to liberate Marie Rose's key from her butt-pocket  and twirled it between her fingers. Marie Rose placed her hands on her rear in a defensive manner as she took a step back away from Kokoro.
    “That's not cool, Kokoro!” Marie Rose detested. “I'm sorry that I drove the way I did, we didn't know you'd react the way you did!” Kokoro said nothing in reply and instead opted to simply smile and tilt her turn her head slightly to the side while eying her. “Don't treat me like a kid!” Marie Rose warned as she took swipes at Kokoro's hand who this time was not to be taken by surprise.
    Kokoro evaded Marie Rose's attempts at regaining her key with graceful, flowing movements of her hands and arms while replying, “I'm not treating you like a child.”
    “Then what is this then?” Marie Rose asked, throwing a well aimed kick to the bottom of Kokoro's hand and sending her key up high into the air. Marie Rose rushed forward, and Kokoro spun backwards; wrapping her leg around Marie Rose on the back swing and kept her taught. Holding out her hand, Kokoro let Marie Rose's key land in her.
    “Helena said that we should get to know each other better,” Kokoro informed her  while making sure to keep Marie Rose restrained gently as she continued to reach for her key with alternating left and right swipes. It was time to change tactics.
    “Alright.” Marie Rose's simple and short agreement was met with immediate action. Grabbing hold of Kokoro's leg with both arms around it, Marie Rose dropped down and wrapped her legs around Kokoro's now trapped leg.
    “Whoa!” Kokoro gasped as her body fell forward, Marie Rose rolling her body out so that her body would intercept Kokoro's falling body. Her actions prevented Kokoro from falling on her face, but now Marie Rose was in control of the situation. Moving quickly, Marie Rose darted from under Kokoro  with one crunching motion on her side and took hold of her right shoulder and used it to pull her body on top of  Kokoro's back.
    “Hey, wait a minuet-” Kokoro suddenly pleaded, “WHOA!” Marie Rose rolled herself and Kokoro onto Marie Rose's back. Marie Rose quickly wrapped her legs around Kokoro's backs and between her legs, locking her legs in place while locking her free arm   across her own chest.
    “Well then I'll start,” Marie Rose agreed with Helena's suggestion, but she wanted to do this on her terms. “I was trained in systema, and I'm quite good at it. Now you say something.” Although Marie Rose had no intention of harming her new sister, she did take hold of Kokoro's trapped arm's thump and slightly pulled back on it just to let her know who was in charge.
    “Well, I'm a maiko, or traditional Japanese dancer...” Kokoro started as she found that her approach to Helena's suggestion might have not been the best of ideas.
    “Alright, I like watching horror moves, what kind of movies do you like?” Marie Rose questioned her.

    “Girls? Are you alright?” Helena called out from the front door. Finding that Marie Rose's car was still parked where Marie Rose had left it earlier in the afternoon, Helena began to scan the grounds. “Where have those two gone off to...” Helena wondered aloud as she walked across her drive way and towards the field to the right of the house. There, she caught a gleam of blonde in the field and traced it's origin.
    “Marie Rose? Kokoro?” she shouted to them in worry, kicking off her heels and bolting across the grass. The closer she got to them, she realized what it was that she was seeing. Kokoro was laying on top of Marie Rose with her back on her stomach, Marie Rose's small body locking Kokoro in place.
     “...and that's when they made me their chief maid- Oh! My lady,” Marie Rose cut off her explanation to acknowledge and greet Helena who gave the pair a strange look.
     “and what exactly is going on here?” Helena questioned them as she crossed her arm and tapped the side of her face.
    “I tried to get to know Marie Rose better with a friendly game of-”
    “She snatched my key right out of my hand.” Marie Rose interrupted her, blowing Kokoro's hair out of her face.
    “I said to stop doing that!” Kokoro insisted with urgency while Helena shook her head above them with a smile.
    “And how did that work out, Kokoro?” Helena asked her while extending her hand in front of the hand that desperately clutched onto Marie Rose's key.
     Defeated, Kokoro handed the key over to Helena, “not well,” she admitted.
    “Alright, Marie Rose.” Helena showed Marie Rose her key, and she promptly let go of Kokoro.
    “Uhg...” Marie Rose remarked at the amount of sweat on her overalls from holding onto Kokoro for so long. “Ah....” she winced as she slowly closed her legs and turned her body to the side and found Kokoro right next to her in a very similar situation. They glared at each other for several moments until Kokoro extended her hand towards her. Marie Rose reached out for her hand as well and promptly shook hands with Kokoro before the two helped each other painfully stand up.
    “How long were we missing?” Kokoro asked Helena.
    “It's six in the afternoon,” Helena responded while shaking her head with a laugh.
    “We were like that, for four hours?” Kokoro gasped.
    “Glad to see you two are getting along,” Helena joked while placing her hands on their shoulders and acting as their support as she walked and they took wide 'wild-west' steps towards the manor. “and this couldn't come at a greater time,” Helena mentioned, gaining their attention simultaneously.
    “Why's that, Helena?” Kokoro asked her older sister who stopped them at the front door steps and sat down with them with her arms comfortably placed atop their shoulders.
    “Because I have to leave for a few days on a business trip.”
    “Should I prepare our things, my lady-” Helena held her hand up towards Marie Rose, stopping her in her tracks.
    “You're not my maid anymore, Marie Rose. Your my sister, and your other sister will need your company while I'm gone.” Marie Rose looked at Kokoro who did the same thing before they both looked up to Helena.
    “Alright, Helena...” Marie Rose frowned, and was quickly met with Helena's hand coming down and resting on her head and mussing her hair and restoring her smile. Helena knew that this would be her first time away from Helena for a extended period of time since she first met her and she knew this. Marie Rose hugged her former master who responded in doing the same, resting her forehead on the top of her head.
     “I'll miss you too, Marie Rose. Don't worry, it's just for a few days, I promise.”  Marie Rose nodded and and released Helena. Helena stood back up and smiled at Kokoro who also had concern printed on her face. “Besides, Kokoro could show you her piano skills as well. I'll go get started on packing my things; I would like to enjoy one more dinner prepared from our chef before I leave tomorrow morning though.
     “Alright,” Marie Rose said aloud while Helena walked up the steps and back into the manor, not knowing that Marie Rose and Kokoro were staring at each other other for an extended period of time as the same through ran through both their heads. After four h ours of 'questioning', how did both women fail to mention their interests in the piano?