About House Cleaning – Part 2

"What do you think we should start with, sister?"

"Unknown. Maybe her bedroom? That is where she usually is."

"..."

For some reason two vampires were discussing how to clean my house in broad daylight. The first one was the one I was used to seeing though mostly at night: Yakatarina. The second was her sister, my… classmate (?): Iovanna.

"Oh… You are wearing glasses too now?" I asked.

Indeed, aside from her mad-scientist themed cleaning get up, Iovanna was also wearing round glasses.

"Yes."

Her answer was so blunt and curt that I got the distinct feeling she didn't want it to be mentioned.

"Dora, I mean Iovanna, is unable to control her evil eye so she needs to use special glasses," explained Yakatarina adjusting her own glasses.

Iovanna slightly furrowed her eyebrows.

"Indeed. I thought it would be inconvenient to clean with my eyes closed so I asked sister to give me one of her special glasses."

"Eh? You mean you could have neutralized your evil eyes so easily?" I asked, looking at Iovanna with round eyes.

"I had my reasons," she simply said.

Again it seemed that she didn't want to talk about the subject so simply I gave up.

"Hm, so, Yakatarina, do you wear glasses to control your evil eye too?"

"Indeed."

"You can't control it?"

"Hmhmhm..."

Yakatarina chuckled, adjusting her glasses like some evil overlord. She then pointed her finger at me like some attorney.

"Correct! Aside from mother, we all suffer from some serious cases of power incontinence! Isn't that lovely?!"

"I fail to grasp the lovely part here."

I knew that all vampires had some sort of evil eye but it never occurred to me that Yakatarina was wearing glasses for that reason. Sure, I did wonder why someone who could regenerate her tissues needed glasses – especially since I was pretty sure I damaged her eyes before – but I just put that on her general weirdness. Never did I think it was because she genuinely couldn't control her power.

That realization however made me quite uneasy. Vampires always had evil eyes specialized in mind-control or the like and, most often than not, those eyes had the effect to charm. 

Well, I say most but I couldn't be sure about numbers there. That being said, there must have been a reason why legends about them often said they could fascinate people, right? That was my reasoning anyway.

"So, huh, Yakatarina…"

"Hm?"

"What do your evil eyes do?"

I had to make sure. I felt bad about asking, but I had to know whether or not my feelings for her came from her eyes or not.

"What do they do, huh?"

She took a thinking pose as if hesitating. This indirectly confirmed my worst hunch. 

But didn't want to jump on the gun – she could hesitate for a hundred different reasons after all. I mean, she was a so-called Archduchess or something. Maybe they had to keep their powers secret? That would make sense. 

If that was the case, I couldn't just push her to reply. It would have been inconsiderate which is why I decided to take back my question.

"Er… You know what? Forget—"

"My evil eyes just give my name to whoever is looking into them."

"Huh?"

Well, I tried to take back my question.

"They give… your name?"

"Yes. My whole name."

"That's all?"

"It has the merit to be simple to explain, indeed," she said nodding, a proud smile on her face.

Evil eyes that gave your name to whoever looked into them? This definitely counted as mind-control of some sort but…

"Huh, that is…"

I strayed off a little. Not because I didn't know what to say but because I wanted to say it in a less "honest" way.

"Useless," cut Yakatarina. "Yes, yes, I hear that often."

"Wait, I didn't want to say that…" 

I tried to protest but there was no doubt she stole the words from my mouth there. 

"Oh? Interesting. What did you want to say then? I am curious."

"H-Huh?" You are putting me on the spot here!

Her earnest and expectant look stabbed me in the heart. Mostly because the expectancy in her look was clearly saying something along the lines of "You won't find anything satisfying but I will be sure to appreciate the effort anyway".

Truly a critical hit. I was being pitied by the one I tried to show pity to. Worst still, I brought this upon myself because of 

"Well… You… will be able to introduce yourself if one day you can't somehow talk? Like if you are gagged or something…"

"..."

"..."

"Passable. Try again."

"I am terribly sorry. Don't make me do that again, please."

Before realizing it I was already bowing with the maximum level of humility I could muster. 

"Confusion. I am not sure I understand why you are apologizing but, like I said, I am used to being told my eyes are useless. I can't even control them fully."

"But…"

Her head tilted, Yakatarina looked at me with her eyes wide open.

"Confusion. Why do you even bother? My eyes are not that useful. Without going into pointless details, they are so useless that I can't even use them to do what you proposed. Besides…"

She straightened herself, making her eyes disappear behind her shining lenses.

"Oh. I got carried away. Anyway, they are failures and me, the Archduchess using them is a failure too. That's all there is to it."

"…"

I furrowed my eyebrows for a moment. 

"You… You shouldn't talk about yourself like that. No one is a failure, there is no such thing as a perfect walkthrough for life, you know?"

I spoke in a low voice half because I thought those words were too cool to come from someone like me and half because I wasn't the brightest person around. Needless to say, Yakatarina's silence wasn't exactly helpful there.

"Erm… Sorry…"

I am not sure why I apologized exactly. I know I felt guilty but I don't know exactly why. I had my fair share of reasons between embarrassing Yakatarina by questioning her about her "failure" of a power, embarrassing myself by questioning whether or not Yakatarina manipulated me using her "failure" of a power, or embarrassing Iovanna by questioning Yakatarina and ignoring her like some sort of "failure".

*stare*

"Uwah…" 

She was truly staring at us like, her expression saying anything which needed to be said and some more. That, you see, is when you sincerely hate when your eyes wander aimlessly. Happens a lot when you can't look at people's faces too long… Sadly… I sometimes hate my cowardly self.

"Oh! Impressive! Truly impressive!"

Clapping inaudibly into her hands, Yakatarina exclaimed herself. She sounded just like an old woman who finally found the answer to some riddle given to her when she was just a little girl. Yes, that comparison is really specific, I know.

"Dawn, have you ever thought about doing motivational videos? It could pay well and you look cute enough to attract people!" she added with way too much motivation for my taste.

"Where does that come from?" I blurted out, surprised by the sudden compliment. She was truly a devilish girl.

"Sadness. Why not become a politician then?" she continued. "In a few more years an office suit and a bun should suit you really well!"

"Is that just a cliché office lady you are describing? Uh no, wait… That isn't the point!"

She patted my head smiling.

"Small."

"I am not small, stupid vampire! I'll have you know I'm a bit above average in height!" I declared.

"I can see the top of your head, though," Yakatarina retorted.

"You're the one who's too tall!" I shot back, trying to pull her hand away to no avail. Guess she wanted to pat my head that badly?

"Ahem."

Iovanna loudly cleared her throat, elegantly hiding her mouth behind the back of her hand.

"I do understand that you enjoy each other's company very much, but..."

She didn't continue. There was no need to clarify her thoughts there. Indeed, whenever Yakatarina was around, I would inevitably get sidetracked. 

"Okay. Let's start cleaning, you two... Ah…"

Ah… She changed the subject, didn't she?