Mikael Pacioli

August 14: Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe

"Mikael! You're just in time. We were just talking about the guests we're going to have today."

Crossing the plush carpet in the room to where his group was gathered around a large, antique gathering table, Mikael made a befuddled face at his group liaison.

"We're having guests?"

Davies smiled primly.

"Yes, and very important guests at that. They'll be with us throughout the day tomorrow, off and on, and arriving in the afternoon today." Davies turned his attention back to the group. "So I expect everyone to be on their best behavior, appropriately dressed, and hospitable at all times."

The group chorused the appropriate answer, and Mikael settled into the only empty one remaining of the silk chairs. There was a bowl of fresh apples in the middle of the table, and he reached out and plucked one to snack on.

"Who are the guests?" he asked, drawing Davies' attention again. The older brunette gave a warm smile.

"Friends of Hylas House," he assured Mikael, "Our sponsors and donors. So again," here, he gave a strong look to Jaden, "We'll want to be on our best behavior."

Jaden rolled his eyes. Mikael took a bite of his apple.

Davies moved on to morning announcements then; the guest visit meant that classes were suspended for the day, as were departure passes. There would be an all-house check-in at 4 to greet the guests, and then dinner at 6 - mandatory - in the main hall. The dress code, he further stressed, would be fully enforced for the day.

~:~

"So what have you deduced about our esteemed visitors?" Mikael asked Jaden playfully as they were standing in line for champagne at the post-dinner reception. Jade picked at a slice of edam on his plate with a cheese fork and shrugged one elegantly bared shoulder.

"Money." he replied, tossing an exaggeratedly coy grin at Mikael. "And lots of it."

Mikael glanced skeptically over at the nearest guest, a man in an ill-fitting black suit and boots. Jaden scoffed.

"Not him. He's just a tag-along." the carrier blinked wide, dark eyes out at the milling crowd. "But the others…"

Suddenly feeling embarrassed by the tone of the conversation, Mikael turned away and stepped forward in line. Jaden, ever the keen observer, followed him quickly.

"Don't be ashamed." he bumped Mikael lightly with a shoulder. "You could love a rich man just as much as a poor man. Go and talk to one of them."

Mikael stole a glance at his friend before his attention was recaptured by a flute of bubbly champagne. Jaden accepted one and they moved to an empty spot near a far corner of the room.

Mikael twirled his champagne glass in his hands and focused on sipping it politely.

"Thanks, but I don't need to."

Jade raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you need to talk to someone. This is a carrier house, not a hospice home. Is this because they're rich?"

Mikael flushed.

"That doesn't matter to me."

Jaden waved a hand dismissively.

"Of course it does. But it shouldn't. They're just like the rest. Men are all the same, old or young, rich or poor." Jade considered his words for a moment, then added: "But the rich and young are more tolerable. Oh, look - someone's talking to Raeshon."

Mikael looked in the direction Jade had indicated; by the staircase, a rather portly man in an immaculate blue suit had separated Rae from the group and was speaking to him in a particularly intimate way. The carrier, Mikael noted, was doing what he did best: playing the coquette, alternately smiling brightly and looking shyly away. The man was practically devouring the entire performance.

"Someone's always talking to Rae." Mikael answered, suddenly feeling irritable.

Jaden glanced at Mikael with that bright-eyed way he had, as if he were reading Mikael's very thoughts, then shrugged sipped his champagne.

"Well, he talks back. It's not hard, you know."

Mikael shook his head, suddenly feeling more irritable and wanting to have some time alone to rebalance himself. He peered around the room for a chronometer; there was only a tall, antique grandfather clock against a far wall, and it was too obscured with age to read.

Frustrated, he sighed and shifted his stance, adjusting the waistband of his natori and tucking a strand of his hair behind an ear.

"So do you think we've been here long enough? If no one's looking, we might be able to - "

"Certainly not." Jade murmured, his gaze focused over Mikael's shoulder. "And certainly not now."

Something in Jaden's tone made Mikael tense up, and give a little-quarter turn to find a gentleman of late middle age wearing a well-tailored blue suit and approaching the pair of them. Mikael's heart began to beat faster; Jaden leaned over to him and whispered in his ear.

"Be sociable."

There was a firmness in his voice that Mikael was unused to, and a thin thread of desperation - as if he were telling Mikael in no uncertain terms that now was not the time to do anything unseemly. Mikael, ever the perceptive listener, obeyed.

The man stopped in front of them and extended two glasses of champagne.

"Gentlemen."

Jaden smiled sweetly and flipped his dark hair to reveal his bare shoulder.

"Thank you - my glass was just going dry."

He tossed back the rest of his drink and set the empty flute on a nearby table. The gentleman smiled and held the first glass out to Jade.

Mikael hastily did the same - although not so elegantly, as he spilled a little down his chin and had to turn away to discreetly clean himself up. He turned back just in time to make his introduction.

"And this is Mikael," Jade was saying, indicating him with a careless gesture. "My newest and dearest friend here at Hylas."

The man's eyes slid sideways to Jaden, then back to Mikael.

"Ah. A pleasure."

For the briefest of moments, Mikael almost extended his hand - before he remembered that carriers didn't do that - and he had to shift his grip on his new champagne flute to cover the mistake.

Jade shifted his attention back to the man.

"And Mikael, this is one of our esteemed guests: Charlton Lacey. He's come all the way from the Southern Coast."

Mikael inclined his head in the way he'd done to visiting Brothers at Saint Xavier's; it had been considered a sign of respect.

Lacey's gaze flicked over Mikael quickly, lingering on his face. Mikael always found this embarrassing, but Jaden had told him more than once that he should expect it - Mikael was, after all, handsome.

Seeing himself in the mirror, Mikael sometimes barely knew who he was. His hair had grown long enough to fall into his eyes if he didn't pull it back with a headband; in the summer sun, the auburn curls had lightened to a sandy brown that matched his tanned skin and offset his eyes. He wasn't unhandsome - he knew that much - but Mikael still never saw in the mirror what everyone else seemed to see. He did not understand the appeal of the cut of his jaw, neither too masculine nor too feminine; the arresting quality that his eyes gained in the sunlight; the enticing nature of his soft, tawny skin. He did not understand his beauty.

And though he was thankful for his good fortune, he never quite understood his admittance into Hylas house, nor the attention he received from his group liaison, nor the compliments and jealous jabs of his fellow carriers. Mikael had been told, many times, that vanity was a sin. He had been warned of the twin traps of narcissism and self-adoration; the empty pit of obsession. Those lessons still resonated in his mind; he still heard his father's voice telling him that what God loved above all else was kindness. And so it was impossible  - wildly impossible - for Mikael to conceive of the idea that he might be more beautiful, more beguiling, more full of raw, naïve appeal than any other carrier in the room.

Charlton Lacey talked to them for a brief time more about nothing of import. Jade smiled and stood with one hip jutted out - contrapposto, Mikael recalled from lessons with Brother Duncan - and allowed his hair to slip over his shoulder. Charlton flirted responsively, although he never pressed his case (had he known that Jaden was spoken for?), and in fact, spent most of the conversation with his gaze focused on Mikael. Feeling inordinately put upon and bashful, Mikael kept a more respectful distance than usual, going so far as to appear deliberately uninterested in the conversation as a whole.

Casting about the room for something else to focus his attention on, he caught sight of Rae being led off by the gentleman who'd been speaking to him earlier. Davies glanced up at the departure, briefly enough to escape notice, and then continued his conversation with the Ambassador without missing a beat.

Rae was being guided by the hand, his head tucked down behind the man's shoulder and his fingers looped between the man's own. His face had a slight flush to it, and as they trailed through the rear of the room towards the exit, he avoided catching anyone's eyes. At the threshold of the hall, he stopped abruptly, and the momentary hesitation made the man turn and murmur something to Rae. Whatever it had been, the carrier evidently found it soothing, because he yielded and followed along, out of the room.

Mikael, who had been watching the entire scene intently, turned to Jaden.

"Rae's being taken away." he said.

Jade looked disinterestedly up at Mikael, then turned back to the guest they'd been entertaining.

"Oh."

Mikael didn't know what he'd expected; it was unlikely that this rousing bit of information would have spurred Jaden into swift action. Nonetheless, he'd felt that something should be done.

"Well, shouldn't we - "

Jade shot his peer a withering look that silenced him.

"He's fine, Mikael." he shifted his weight to the opposite hip and held out a welcoming hand, beckoning the other carrier into their conversation. "Why don't you come and chat with Charlton?"

Mikael looked again at the door, through which the carrier and his leader had long since departed, and then back up to Charlton. The man was watching him with the wary, amused expression of one whose subordinate has just done something particularly wicked and clever.

"Yes, Mikael." he agreed, finally addressing the carrier directly, "Come chat with us."

~:~

It was after midnight by the time Mikael looked at a clock again. He and Jaden had found refuge from the ongoing party in a corner, where Jaden had kicked off his shoes and curled up like a cat in one of the large, antique stuffed chairs. Mikael refrained from doing the same, not wanting to appear too informal or to offend their guest.

Charlton took another swig from his glass of scotch and gestured towards the rest of the room.

"Hell of a party, isn't it?"

Jaden, who had by then made his way through the better part of five glasses of champagne, giggled and grinned cheekily at Charlton.

"And it's just getting started. Do everything you can to stick around, if you know what's good for you."

Charlton laughed, a boisterous sound that startled Mikael.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head - I've already been invited to tomorrow's celebration."

Jaden's expression suddenly sobered, and he flashed a look up at Mikael. Charlton must have caught the flicker of the carrier's glance, because he laughed again and turned a speculative eye over to Mikael.

"Maybe." he said, stretching one arm over the top of his chair and leaning back, legs cast arrogantly apart. "Maybe."

Jaden was watching Charlton closely now, and tucked his hair behind his ear; Mikael recognized this as a nervous action.

"Mikael's only just moved in here." Jaden said, perhaps meaning to change the subject. "He's new."

Charlton took another long draw of his scotch and turned his attention to Jaden.

"Oh?" he said, his voice full of ironic amusement, "Is that so?"

Whatever Charlton had planned to say next was interrupted at that moment by the arrival of Admiral Holly in their little group, who meandered his way over from a nearby cluster of military men that all seemed to be drinking from highball glasses.

At his approach, Jaden straightened up immediately, dropped his legs down from where they were folded beneath him, and tugged a bit at the edge of his natori. Charlton did nothing.

"Admiral Holly." Jay inclined his head politely in greeting. "How's the evening been treating you?"

"Quite well, Jaden. Lovely affair, as ever." the Admiral responded, crossing the group to lean over and place an affectionate pat on Jaden's shoulder. Mikael noticed that Jaden smiled, but kept his gaze more respectfully averted than was usual.

Holly turned next to Mikael, and extended a hand.

"Carrier," he said, politely. "I don't recall your name, but one doesn't forget a face like that. How's the transition been from Wiltshire?"

Mikael blushed at the praise, and followed Jaden's lead in looking shyly away.

"Lovely, sir. Of course."

Holly looked at Mikael closely for a moment, assessing something silently. Mikael bit his lip, debating whether to speak up, but something spurred him.

"It's Mikael, actually, sir."

Holly raised both eyebrows briefly.

"What's that?"

"My name." Mikael explained. "It's Mikael."

Holly watched him for a moment longer, an emotion between amusement and pride crossing his face.

"Of course." he responded. "Mikael."

Last, he turned to Charlton Lacey.

"Charlie. How are things treating you on the far side of the country?"

Charlton Lacey made no move to extend a hand; neither did Holly.

"Quite well." he answered, simply, and sipped his scotch.

Holly's eyes flicked down to where Charlton had unlaced his tie and left it to dangle over his shoulders.

"Good." he said, simply, then turned again to Jaden.

"Not too much longer here, is it?"

Jaden shrugged one of his elegant, fetching shrugs that made Mikael feel burly and ungainly in comparison.

"I'm free as soon as your son comes to collect me." he answered, sweetly, and Mikael took note of the fact that Charlton looked purposefully away during this exchange.

"Soon, then." Holly responded, and glanced briefly - but meaningfully - at Charlton before turning away, patting Mikael on the shoulder, and leaving the group.

As soon as the man had departed, Jaden relaxed again. Charlton tossed back the last of his scotch and set the drink on a nearby glass table.

"Well," he said, and stood. "It's getting late."

"Yes," Jaden agreed hurriedly, "For all of us. Mikael, aren't you tired?"

Mikael nearly answered honestly, but a tense look in Jaden's face convinced him that perhaps a polite demurral might be best.

"It's been a rather long day," he said, glancing sideways at the clock, "And I've yet to say my prayers before bed."

Charlton blinked at this revelation, then abruptly laughed, loud and full-bodied.

"Well, you sweet, prayerful little thing."

Jaden narrowed his eyes at Charlton, who bowed to both of them.

"I'll let you get on to it, then. Good night, all."

Jaden watched him walk away, then looked around the room. The crowd had thinned considerably, and the clock was close to striking two. Davies had disappeared, and a carrier or two lounged sleepily in the corners of the room.

"Come on," he told Mikael, getting to his feet and finding his shoes, "I think we're off-duty. You've got therapy in the morning and I've got - well, I don't know, but I'm sure it's equally vital. Let's call it a night."