“I am very sorry if this house is a mess.” Charles said amidst him reheating the pumpkin porridge.

“It’s alright. I don’t mind at all.” Arthur politely disagreed, while subtly eyeing around the perimeter.

Even though he did disagree, Arthur did wonder where did all the servants go that makes the house so dull and dusty?

“Uhm, Mister Wicker?”

“Please, call me old man Charles.” Charles giggled. “I am not that remarkable for you to call me as such.”

Arthur’s lips twitched. “…Then, I will call you Old Man Charles.”

“Yep.” Charles bobbed his head happily. In secret, he wished for people to call him with affectionate names, just like old times, but he also knew he won’t be able to return back time even if he wanted to.

“I hope you didn’t dislike pumpkin soup.” Charles appeared beside Arthur and handed him a steamy bowl of thick pumpkin soup filled with soft pumpkin chopped in bite sized cubes. The old man then took a seat on an empty stool beside Arthur.

“Oh, right.” Charles was about to put a scoop of pumpkin soup in his mouth when he remembered about the bread.

“This soup will be even better with some bread.” He hopped down the stool. “Wait here for a bit, young man.”

Charles walked towards the bag placed on the countertop not too far from him. Meanwhile, Arthur took the opportunity to glance again around the kitchen. Unconsciously, he fastened his grip around the wooden bowl that looks small in his big hands. Arthur fell into a short ponder while he looked at the soup.

“It’s warm…” He mumbled.

“…or more importantly,” Charles’s voice from the distance shook him from falling into daze. “Do you feel like eating some pumpkin porridge now?”

Arthur arched an eyebrow. “You were saying?”

“I mean, I was told that vampires don’t need sustenance in the form of solid food.”

Arthur mouthed an OH. “That wasn’t far off from the fact. We can eat solid food, but even if we didn’t, it still won’t affect us.”

This time, Charles was the one mouthing the OH. “Then I’m glad that you will eat the porridge. It tasted delicious; you know?”

He then climbed up again to his stool and placed a big loaf of bread on a plate.

“I am tad too old to rip it for us. So, if you may…”

Arthur immediately put his bowl down on the kitchen counter and picked up the bread, before ripping it in about an equal half for both of them.

“Thank you, young man.” Charles chirped while accepting the half loaf of bread from Arthur.

The old man then started to eat, completely ignoring Arthur’s stares at him.

“Was it that good?” Arthur was captivated by Charles’s over the top behaviour as he ate the pumpkin soup with the bread.

“It is delicious!” Charles answered, before proceeding to rip some bread off and dipped it into the soup. He moaned again in happiness after putting the pumpkin porridge-soaked bread inside his mouth.

Seeing his reaction, the vampire glanced at the soup curiously. He began to re-enact what Charles had done; tearing a little piece of bread and dipping it inside the soup before putting it inside his mouth. Soon after that, he was greeted with a wonderful sweet and creamy taste of the pumpkin, causing him to also moan a bit.

“This is wonderful!” Arthur stated the obvious.

“Didn’t I tell you?” Charles giggled.

The two of them then resumed to enjoy the pumpkin soup, although their surrounding was silent, the old human and the vampire is enjoying that simple, common platter happily.

  “Thank you so much for having me.” Arthur said. Him and Charles were standing at the front gate as Charles waved goodbye to him.

“You’re welcome. Thank you too for accompanying this old man to eat.” Giggled Charles. Despite cheerful, he will miss the moments where the two of them enjoyed the food.

Arthur replied with a polite chuckle and a gentle smile. To be honest, he too enjoyed the moment they shared together as they ate the pumpkin soup. It tasted surprisingly good and suited his taste even though human food is usually tasteless for him. Arthur then fixed his eyes down to Charles.

“Old man Charles, I am deeply sorry for what happen to you this afternoon.” Arthur’s deep bow made his tall stature shrink further than Charles’s height, which in turn caused the old man to frantically ushered him to stood back up again.

“It’s okay, I told you I don’t mind.” He grabbed Arthur’s shoulders and tugged it up, subsequently telling Arthur to stand up.

“But I am still guilty.” Arthur insisted in spite of Charles telling him not to.

“It’s alright.” Charles let out a defeated snicker before patting Arthur’s forearm because his shoulders are too far away for him to reach. Charles tilted his head up to look at Arthur’s beautifully sculptured face and said, “People won’t even know if there’s something happened with this old man.”

Mysteriously, Arthur felt a sense of prickling inside his chest. It’s a bit like a sense of irritation, and anger, but what was the cause?

Arthur subconsciously furrowed his black eyebrows to calm down that prickling sensation. ‘It was probably nothing.’ Was what the clueless vampire insisted and he adjusted his cape and outfit, abiding to Charles’s words to not apologize to him.

Arthur retreated a few steps back, still smiling to Charles as he did that.

“By the way, old man.”

Charles shot his gaze at him. “What is it? Did you leave something behind?”

Charles’s old man-like sentiment won a giggle from Arthur. “No, that’s not that. Please be careful at night. Keep the doors and windows locked and don’t open the door to strangers, okay?”

Charles was astounded by Arthur’s advice. It had been a while since someone gave that kind of advice to him, he never heard of those kind words anymore after his wife died.

Slowly, Charles agreed with a half-smile and a nod. Arthur disappeared soon after that.

Charles then heaved a sigh before turning around, his eyes now attached to the lawn of the mansion which is filled with vines and bushes.

“I should really clean all this up…” Muttered the old man.

Even though he had the strong urge to do so, somehow his energy feels like it’d been drained. It’s probably due to his old body that he’s unable to do heavy tasks. The most he can do is maybe sweeping the floor, which, he had not done so in many years. But that doesn’t mean that the old Charles Wicker won’t be interested in doing the cleaning. After seeing the result of what he did himself; the pumpkin soup cooking and the bread he possessed by him own buying activity, Charles Wicker is determined to clean the house by himself, at least the small margin of it.

As he sauntered inside the house, his cheerful tune once again filled the silent air. It seems like Charles Wicker will have something more to do today.

“Meow~” The white cat appeared from behind Charles.

“Oh, you’re still here, little one. I thought you had gone back to where you belong.”

Another meow ensues, along with the soft chuckles of an old man who gently communicates with an animal. Without him realizing, a figure, clad in black with eyes shining bright like sapphire stared intently at him. The hue of its eyes brightened as it saw the old Charles Wicker entered the house.