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Justin tried to hide his smile at the idea. "But I don't think he'd be very good at it. But he always discovers things in the kitchen. Just last year he saw how much food we were throwing away and ordered that any good food that we were not going to use be donated to orphanages and churches to feed the poor and hungry. I just don't think he'd be good at washing dishes." and finished drying the last of the dishes.

"What? I'm busy!" the chef shouted, stress on his face as he turned to an equally tan man. The colorful wings gave a twitch before tightening against his back. "What? Justin?" he glanced at the sink before nodding. "Yes, hello Tsume. if he's done you can take him, but he needs to be back after the party to help clean u-- No no no!" he shouted at a second cook, shoving the wolf out of the way. "You're going to burn it! Go organize the fruit!" and began to fix it, muttering about how close to time they were. It took a moment, spotting Justin's large brown eyes over the table before snapping. "Well what are you still here for? Go get ready for the party!"

"Y-yes sir!" and dashed out with a grin, pausing and looking at Tsume. "Are you coming?" and was bouncing from foot to foot, excitement clearly visible throughout his small frame.

Emily waited patiently and nervously, the look on her sisters' faces showing that it was quite amazing what was going on. She was only used to her own french braids, and this sort of hurt, but at least Nix apologized for the pain. Soon though she was done and Annabelle handed her a mirror. "Wow..." she said, turning her head to look at it better. she agreed with Annabelle, it was like she was a princess from a storybook. She stared at her reflection almost teary eyed befor Martha's yell made her turn.

"It's not my turn! I'm done!" but Nix was obviously having little of it, sitting the girl down and doing her hair. Martha wasn't pleased, not at all. She felt the fingers going through her hair, moving it in weird directions, making it feel sticky, and then something else was brought out. "What're you grinning at?" she snapped at Annabelle when it was all over. "I probably look hideous." and snatched the mirror from Nix. "I think I look like a clown." but she liked it, since her words held no malice whatsoever.

"Brother is going to throw a fit." Emily murmured, using her hand to cover her smile.

Elliot watched Leo, trying to wrap the gift in front of him but he soon gave that up and let Leo do it. "Yes, we should check on them. Let's pretend I managed to wrap one." and chuckled. He enjoyed this, they were friends. Friends don't have intimacies in the bathtub. his mind pointed out before he killed it. They were friends, it was a one time thing and would definitely not happen again. I'm rather positive friends don't kiss so intimately either. of course they did, his mother and the prime minister did it all the time. Oh that's a crock. "Come on, then. You've wrapped these rather nicely." and picked up two of the gifts, analyzing them in hopes of memorizing how they looked.

The chef jolted as his back was pressed before his entire body went lax, a very welcome feeling. "Thank you!" he called, looking at the food he was fixing and quickly went back to work.

"They're with my mom." he said, running through the servant hallways, at some point actually walking inside the walls before finding the servant's quarters. "This way." and turned a corner, walking down and opening the bedroom he shared with his mother. The royalty knew how to properly treat their slaves, room looking the same as Tsume's plain room up stairs. There was a woman smoothing out the clothes on the bed, clothes covering her entire being from neck to foot, a covering on the lower half of her face. Her hair was as black as her son's though the gray was showing at the roots, some even streaking back to the bun.

"There you are. The Prime Minister brought you some clothes."

"What? I was going to wear the clothes the prince gave me!" he said

"Those have shorts, he brought you a new pair of clothes that the prince used to wear as a child." she chuckled. "I remember these very well." and with a gloved hand pointed to the clothes on the bed.

"Th-Those are hideious!"

"Nonsense, put these on now. You should thank the Prime Minister for his donation." but she was smiling, remembering how the young prince hated wearing them as well. As the boy dressed on the side of the room the woman looked at Tsume. "You are Miss Lily's companion. It is a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for escorting my son." and bowed to him.

"Are these shoes?!" Justin wailed.

Martha continued to act as though she was undecided about the hairstyle, turning only when she heard barking. "Hey it's the dog."

"Ludwig!" Annabelle squealed, hugging him happily and laughing. "You are just so cute!"

Elliot chuckled, following as well. "I can't help but agree. We should have dressed him up." and followed the pup down to the playroom, pausing and looking at his eldest sister in horror. "Martha Reanne Nalenyr!" Elliot yelled. "Y-Your hair!"

"It's the most popular style with Falian boys. I'm being cultured." Martha said quickly.

Elliot's face went red with anger, trying to calm himself because it was popular, he saw it everywhere with the children.

"He looks like a strawberry." Annabelle whispered to Nix.

"I... guess," his head twitched. "It's fine..."

"How does my hair look?" Emily asked quickly, running up to her brother to deter his anger. "Nix did it!"

He stared down at her with a frown, turning her head side to side as if expecting a splash of color. "It's beautiful."

The woman smiled as he kissed her gloved hand, giving a small laugh. "Why thank you." and fixed her gloves and sleeves, gloves actually going over to sleeves up to her elbow.

"Mom this is ugly." Justin said, staind there awkwardly in the much to bright clothes.

"I agree with Mr. Tsume, you look like a young prince." and kissed his head through the veil. "Now for your hair." but before she could grab the cream the man had it and was working on it instead, the mother deciding to hold the small mirror up so Justin could see.

"I look dumb."

"You look very mature." she said, nodding at Tsume's comment of being the perfect prince before looking up at the man. "Thank you for doing his hair, Justin, thank him."

"Thank you very much." he said, muttering a quick 'for making me look dumb' under his breath. "I'm going to go fidn the others, okay? You get some rest, Mom."

"I'll be right here." and nodded her head at them.

Elliot hugged her back awkwardly. "Yes, we made up. And I'm aware it's a party but that!" he pointed. "I liked it on the male children! You didn't see any girls with it!"

"she looks very handsome." Annabelle said. "Like a dragon prince. Right Ludwig? yes she does, oh yes she does." and kissed his wet black nose. "But we have a party to go to!"

Emily smiled bashfully at Leo. "You look stunning as well. can we go now?"

"Might as well." Elliot said, turning around. "Nothing to stop it. The guests will start arriving soon."

Justin kept on messing with his clothes, his hair, everything. "She gets sick sometimes, but she's actually getting better. Mom was terrible last week, and she normally heals just fine on her own, but someone called a doctor and he touched her,' he looked down. "The doctor is sick now, he'll be fine but he would've died if I didn't come in. She has one of those abilities, you know." and Justin had never felt the skin of his mother, or his lips against her head, she was always covered. "I hear voices." and paused by the stairs looking up, spotting Nix bounce down.

"Yes it... th-that's not the point!" he argued with the child before stopping. He was arguing with a child. "Lily," he grumbled. "I dislike your sister. She was much cuter in Falia." and ushered his sister's down the stairs, all three of them listening to Leo and rushing after Nix.

Annabelle smiled, placing Ludwig down and ran ahead. "Come on Ludwig!" and bounced down the stairs, stopping when she looked at the black haired boy. Who invited the noble?! She looked up, panicked at her sisters. Was she pretty?

Martha spoke these thoughts. "who're you?" she asked. "Which city are you from?"

"N-No it's me!" Justin defended as Martha got close in his face. "It's Justin!"

Emily looked at the boy, the shoes making him taller then her (she was only barely taller than him). "Wow. You're very handsome." She aid, the black-haired boy going red and just nodding silently, looking at his shoes.

"You look terrible." Elliot said. "Those clothes never look good on anybody." he didn't catch the smile Justin gave that someone agreed with him, but the princess had also complimented Justin so right now he didn't care if he looked terrible.

"I got worried over Justin." Annabelle said. "How disappointing."

"You clean up good." Martha said, walking on the other side of the boy, Emily on the other. "I really thought you were a noble's son."

"No, the Prime Minister gave me these clothes." he spotted Lily and stared before smiling. "You look pretty as well." Leo was a boy, but he looked like a girl, Justin just didn't know what to think anymore. He was in prince clothes, Leo was actually a prince in princess clothes and Elliot loved boys. The whole world had gone topsy-turvy.

Justin gave a laugh. "Well I had other ones, but Mom used the ones the Prime Minister gave to her." he explained, blushing as Emily was suddenly up against his side.

Martha grinned. "Long live the King and Queen!"

"Th-That's not true." Emily muttered, her face almost as red as Justin's, unable to look him in the eye. "We don't match at all."

Annabelle grinned. "Maybe Miss Lily can make you a matching dress, then!" and looked up at the woman as she was hugged, smiling and trying to hug her back but there were too many people in the way. "We'll be good, I promise." and thus time hugged her tightly, stopping and looking at the woman before hugging her again. Something was off. There was a bump. She looked up curiously at Miss Lily, having stopped walking and hugged her again. "Miss Lily, you have a bump." and pat it with her hands.

Elliot was up ahead with the others. "We're going to greet them at the door, all right?" he asked, lining them up properly, including Justin. "And you take care of those clothes. The Prime Minister made them by hand."

"Wh-What?!" the boy exclaimed, looking at it.

"Wow, you really can't tell." Emily said. "It looks professionally made."

"The guest are lining up by the door!" Ipo greeted with a smile as the royalty (and Justin) lined up.

"A lot of mother's came as well." Kashi pointed out. "I've assured them they can stay."

Elliot nodded. "Good, let them in." and he watched well-dressed kids enter, Annabelle making sure she happily hugged everyone to loosen them up, even the mother's and grandmothers, and even a few single dad's showed up. Elliot greeted most of the adults, thanking them for coming, the twins were complimenting people on their clothes, and within the hour the party was going out in the garden and in the ground floor ballroom. The triplets who were once so close, had split up during the party, each quickly finding which large group of children they wanted to play with. Martha even had her own band of pirates at one point, terrorizing Emily's troupe until Justin ever so bravely defended her until bursting into tears. The party room itself was colorful, colored paper hanging from the ceiling and travelling across like vines, more colorful paper around the ornately decorated table of food. There was dancing for the adults as well, a lot of them enjoying themselves and having a good time after learning their children were fine.

Elliot had to dance, it was custom, and he tried to hide at one point from all the dancing, but a mother found him and dragged him out to dance. He did manage to dance with Leo so that raised his spirits. Halfway through the knight his father and the Prime Minister maid their debut, making a small speech about growing up and womanhood, making a joke that his daughters were unable to get near boys until he was ten feet under, and then joined in the festivities. Aside from the large table of food, maids and butlers were walking around with their own trays of juice and wine, making sure everyone was eating. A butler actually became hostage to the pirates until Elliot sorted it out, disbanding the thieves and their sticks. Annabelle was actually able to hold her own against boys, though one seemed to be getting to close and before Elliot could intervene Emily openly defended her sister. Before that could result in a fight the king and prime minister threw in Kashi to settle it, which made things worse so in the end Elliot had to save them as well.

He never saw the teary-eyed Kashi after that, or the king or the Prime Minister, but it was all right because children and their mothers were leaving, thanking them and Elliot giving them food to take home. "We can't eat all of this. If you don't take it we'll have to throw it out." was his excuse, and many took food, some more then others which he had little problem with. Meats, cake, fruits, and soon the garden and ballroom was empty, Ipo having taken the children upstairs with Tsume to put them to bed. Elliot had tried to help clean but the maids ushered him out, telling him he needed sleep as well.

he yawned, looking over at Leo with a smile. "Well that was certainly more festive then I imagined it."

Annabelle had managed to convince Ipo to let Nix and Justin sleep with them, and she was too awake and filled with energy to even think about sleeping. "That was so much fun! I want to turn nine every day!"

"I'd probably get filled with food and explode." Emily said. "My tummy hurts."

"That was amazing! Who knew those kids knew how to have fun! I've been missing out!"

"My feet hurt." Justin complained. "Why do girls talk so much? Just talk and talk and talk." he collapsed on a pile of stuffed animals. "I just want to sleep."

"No time for sleeping, my friend!" Annabelle was quick to lift him up. "There's still so much more to party!"

"Yea! The sun isn't up so it's still our birthday!"

Emily looked at Nix. "How was your first party in Nalenyr?" she asked while the two lightly teased Justin.

Elliot laughed. "Me neither. You have to admit those women sure did relax after a few glasses of wine." and the fathers, they'd been so cautious. It was a party, they deserved to dance with a pretty girl. "Hm?" he moved over to the other, kissing his head with a smile. "What is it?"

Emily smiled. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. There were so many kids, I never thought the capital was so big. I mean reading it is one thing but seeing it, and only the children and mothers. We're gargantuan."

Martha looked at Nix. "Yea, yea we could do that! And Tsume is out taking kids home, right? We should do it!"

"I'm all for it! And so is Justin if he wants to keep his pants on."

"Fine, I'll go, but only if we come back to sleep." he pleaded, standing up and yawning. "How are you four still awake?"

Martha peeked out the door and down the halls. "We're clear, where should we go first?" she asked.

"Everyone take off your shoes! We'll be heard with them on!" Annabelle was on the floor, taking off her own shoes before forcing Justin's off. Emily was quick to remove hers and went to help Justin. Within a few moments, Martha making sure everyone was ready, she ushered them all out.

Elliot kissed him back before grinning. "Well you were dancing an awful lot. Maybe you wanted your feet rubbed and you would be so cruel as to ask me to do it." he teased, kissing him again as Leo pressed against him. "But I am against you" and kissed him again liking where this was going. "We're in the garden." He reminded as Leo found his ears, the appendages flicking at the sudden n**. he could hear the lust in Leo's voice, making the prince's skin crawl, lips finding the sensitive skin of the other's neck. He bumped into one of the few cleared off tables in the garden, listening for a moment before turning and sitting Leo atop of it, kissing him again. "Let's hope we don't get caught." and with a mischievous smile on his face leaned him back before getting on the table and over him, possessing the lips and working to remove the dress.

"But what if there are people cleaning it up?" Annabelle asked.

"she has a mind reading ability, remember?" Emily said, tugging Justin along. "If she says there's no one, there's no one."

Martha scouted ahead first, and at a quick pace, plus Nix's mind reading skills helped them stay out of trouble, and soon they were in the empty and still messy ballroom. "It's clear as day! Ooh there's still food out." and began to nibble happily and whatever was left on the plates.

Emily smiled. "Some food will wake you up. Here's some cake."

Justin stared at the plate before shrugging and deciding to eat.

"Hey, weren't Elliot and Leo drinking out of glasses like these?" Annabelle asked, pulling it down and taking a sip. "Euch! Maybe if we mixed it with some juice."

Elliot had to pause on the dress, muttering curses at it. "is it meant to stay on?" he asked. "We're burning this thing tonight." but Leo was quick to lift up the skirt and his eyebrows raised, fingers tracing up the thighs. "You really must stop this bad habit." he murmured with a smile, kissing the pale flesh of his legs before moving up to kiss Leo again. "Let me show you why."

(( wee oo wee oo time skip! ))

The prince was panting gently into the other's skin, chuckling. "My clothes are a mess." he murmured, unsure of how many times Leo had finished. "We really must try this again when our clothes are properly removed." and took the swollen lips gently with a smile before kissing his neck again on the purple spots he'd left. "I forgot what I was trying to teach you." and gave another chuckle, sitting up and moving his hair from his face, looking down at his lover. They were supposed to be friends, but it always came down to this. "You look satisfied."