To the cries of his alarm, Curt flopped out of bed with his usual "grace". Shutting it off, he felt that must have been more tired than he'd thought, since the dream he'd had was both long and vivid. From the surprise Mailvixen to the scary Tigress, he could remember the whole dream effortlessly. Despite the near swerve into nightmare-town towards the end, Curt missed the amount of good that he'd done for those close to him and found himself lamenting his brain latching onto how much his friends needed "fixed". It was a notion that he'd struggled with for some time when he was younger, as his sister got the majority of the attention. He thought that he'd overcome that, moved on and accepted his mistakes and his role, but apparently not. He made a mental note to buy Anna something special in apology. She was always wanting something she walked past, so it wouldn't be hard to find something.
Suddenly, Curt realised that he could smell cooking and went into "parent" mode, quietly panicking in the same way any parent would if an 8 year old was at the oven. He charged out into his room without stopping to change out of his pajama bottoms. With a deep breath, he loudly but firmly shouted his sister's name before he was even in the kitchen. There was a sudden, startled clatter of utensils as there usually was when Anna wanted to make breakfast,
"Anna, how many-"
The rest of the tirade caught in his throat at the as he was greeted to a kitchen straight from his dreams. Or more specifically, his "dream". Yesterday was as real as the bacon sizzling and the shocked expressions on 2 different muzzles, one of whom looked as though she'd messed up in front of their boss. Fortunately, one of those muzzles did belong to his Siamese sister, so he was able to make an attempt at a save without too long an explanation,
"...how many times do I need to say that, even if my alarm hasn't gone off, wake me when Meredith gets here?"
There was a clear sense of relief from the kitchen as, suddenly, the two furries could breath again. Anna shifted gears much faster than she could have yesterday morning and, with a shift in weight started teasing Curt,
"Thanks, big bro, you gave the two of us heart attacks! How is it that WE have the muzzles, but Master gets to bark?"
Meredith, the maid mouse, handed the frying duties over to Anna so she pad over to Curt, then bowing to him, frayed nerves not totally relaxed,
"Master, your schedule has you at an important meeting in the afternoon. I've already looked out your resources and prepared a replacement for my afternoon shift at work, to accompany you. Do you want to go to work in your presentation outfit, or shall I bring it with me and prepare a more casual outfit for the morning? I understand that I haven't been working with you as long as Head Maid, and that this is my first time accompanying you to your work, but believe me, I shall not disappoint you!"
Given the barrage of information, Meredith had clearly put in the effort to ensure the day ahead went perfectly and that telling her that she didn't have to come would be the same as saying she wasn't needed and, between the earnest expression and the guilt over startling he'd given her, Curt didn't have much of a choice but to accept and try to settle into the role she sremedies to expect from him.
"Actually, Mere, I think I should wear my best stuff to work and change once the meeting is over. Could you look out something comfortable? I might also go for a jog after work, could you get my water bottle?"
She bobbed a mousey bow and scampered off to look for everything. Truthfully, he had no intention of jogging and wasn't even sure he still owned a water bottle, but he'd have some alone time with Anna while Meredith did her best to look for it.
"You thought yesterday was a dream, right?" Anna said with a hush to her voice, while Curt nodded sheepishly, "Well, you were half right, Master. It's a dream come true. Oh! What're you doing with the..." she made a finger gun motion. It was a good question. What /should/ he do with it? Work? No... The idea of having someone being subservient actually work in the same place as him still made him uncomfortable. He had an idea though.
"I'll leave it with you and Little Miss 'Head Maid', okay?" Anna nodded furiously with glee, "I'm leaving you two an important job and this is to decide how involved I'll be with every zap. I want you two to upgrade the gun before I'm done with work. No more than that, but you have to convince me *why* you choose that person before you do, so that I know you two won't just be zapping people you drive past in the street, okay? Emergencies don't count for the purposes of this exercise, but if it comes to that, I expect the reason to be worth at least three zaps, okay?" For a second, Curt reflexively worried that he'd overloaded Anna with info, but when a Cheshire grin spread across her face, he was more worried she would overload him with reasons before lunchtime...