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Dear Ori,
It has been a while since I last saw you. I hope that you are doing well and that this letter finds you in good spirits. I have good news, our latest addition to the family has become a juvenile. I would that you meet her sometime. She''s quite entertaining, as well as fearless, it seems.

How have your trainings been coming? I can just imagine you toiling hard with your rapier, honing your skills. I hope that you have found a sparring partner since the last time we met. Learning to fight is always easier when there are more than one.

I hope to hear from you, soon.
Your friend,
Aleric

Dear Bertrand,
Greetings and salutations! How are you and dear Ernestine? I''ve written to tell you that Ruby Soho is now a juvenile, like yourself, and she would no doubt love to meet both of you properly soon. I look forward to seeing her make her first friends outside of the family. (And I am positive you three will become quite good friends.)

I''m sure you will enjoy meeting her as much as I have, she is quite the little storyteller. (Although my brother will no doubt have something to say about that once he finds out.) I will allow you to pick the time and place, of course. But we will also be having a feien party at our place soon in celebration of her blooming. You will come, will you not? We have two pools and a lot of food!

I look forward to hearing from you, and give your darling sibling a hug for me.

Your friend,
Aleric

The backyard of Ice's place is remarkably normal. Half of the patio is covered with a white roof, for a cooler cooking area. On the uncovered area are two child sized swimming pools. One is actually a miniature beach, complete with a wave system. (Yes, this IS the surfing pool.) The other is filled with calm, cool water.

On the patio under the covering is a grill covered with food being cooked. Two women man the meat, one a tiger like silent girl, the other a bubbly green-haired girl. Their names are Kisa and Jade. Ask them for what food you want and they'll get it^^

Next to them is a long folding table covered with chips, dip, fruit trays, veggie trays, meat trays, buns, cups and drinks. (And whatever else you might find at a picnic for feien.) There are two sets of each object, one in humanoid size, the other in feien.

The grass is short, cut for this party, so any games one might want to play are easy for feien sized people. That's partially why there are two fruit trays. One for eating, the other for sports balls. There's a small tree in the middle of the yard, just the right size for playing tag in.

There is also a white shed to the right, but you will probably want to stay out of it. That's where the last of the rats lives. (And to live in the same yard that Silva does means he's one mean sonuvabeetch.)

There is punk music playing in the background, a more mellow set of songs, because the hard stuff irritates the hell out of Silva. But the one that is played the most is "Ruby Soho" by Rancid. Speakers are mounted to the outdoor roof, so it gets decent surround sound. There are brightly colored decorations, as well. It's a raeggae style, with bright reds and greens. Frogs and lizards, mainly, in design. Soho has a thing for them. (Naruto influence.)

There's a sign on the front door of the house saying "Go on back, the party's waiting!"

"But why won't you be IN the party?" Soho asked, looking up at Nick and Nack with a little pout. The two boys were sitting on the CD player in Ice's room, flipping through the CDs.

"Well... see..." Nack started out hesitantly. How could he explain it?

"We're freaks." Nick said bluntly. "You bring in a feien, one outside of the family, they automatically think we're Silva's whipping boys. Then you get the pitying looks, and them, not the boss, talking about us as if we weren't..."

"Smart enough to make our own decisions." Nack finished. "They don't realize what they're doing. Well, cept that blue female. She knew." Both boys nodded. "But we don't mind DJ'ing, Soho. It's kind of fun. And this is the one time we get away with pissing the boss off without being made to run twenty laps."

"But what if I get tired?" She asked, unwilling to give up so easily.

"Aleric will be there." Both said at the same time.

"And what if--"

"The Boss will be there." They said without even waiting for her question. Both tried not to laugh when she crossed her arms across her chest and glared at them. "You look real pretty, Soho!" Nick said, earning a smile.

"You think?" She asked, twirling to show off her skirt.

"Sure do! Now why don't you go out there and get ready to greet your guests, huh?"

She jumped. "Oh, I should, shouldn't I?" She floated up, taking the time to kiss each boy on the cheek. "Bye Nick! Bye Nack!" She called before zipping out the window.

"Good job, boys." Silva said as he stepped out of the shadows to follow her. Nick and Nack nodded.

Having spotted activity next door from Zayne's bedroom window, Sunil was currently perched on the fence between her yard and Silva's. The yard behind her was starting to show the effects of Kam's currently degenerating state and the subsequent neglect everything was suffering. Sunil tried not to pay that any mind, since Kam wasn't her bond anymore.

Standing up as tall as she possibly could in her juvenile form, Sunil peered down on the party. She was hesitant to just fly in, since this was Silva's yard - not that she was scared of him, but he was dangerous - but her curiousity won out.

Gliding on her cloth wings, Sunil made her way to land heavily beside a fruit tray. Frowning at the sweet things arrayed there, she sauntered over to a veggie tray and picked up a carrot stick to nibble on.

Silva noticed her first, a slight frown on his face as he realized who it was. Sunil meant trouble. She always meant trouble, kid form or adult. But before he could do anything about it, Soho caught sight of the newcomver. A large smile crossed her face as she flew to the table, waving excitedly. "Hello!!" She called, landing on the table.

"My name's Ruby Soho, but you can call me Soho. And you are?"

Silva cursed and got ready to jump in the moment trouble began.

Sunil munched on her carrot as she gave Ruby the once over with her eyes. With a mostly quiet snort, she tried to match the other juvenile's smile.

"I'm Sunil. Do you... live here?"

The lack of any obvious bonds or other groups of feien made that a distinct possibility, although Sunil was privately hoping for a more interesting answer.

"Yep!" Soho said happily. "With Aleric and Mister Silva Demon. Mister Silva Demon comes home covered with blood really really late at night." She added confidentially. "But when I tried to get him to do it for the party he wouldn't. So, um... what's your costume?" She asked. "Mister Silva Demon's not wearing one, but Aleric's a witch doctor and I'm a lolita!"

It literally took all of Sunil's self-control not to laugh out loud in Ruby's face. Instead she just blinked rapidly before getting control of herself.

"I'm not wearing a costume," she said, taking another bite of carrot. "I wasn't aware I was supposed to."

Looking Ruby up and down one more time, Sunil had to concede that she looked very nice. Grudgingly, she told the other female so.

"Your costume is very nice. So, why isn't Silva wearing a costume?" Looking around as if she was about to divulge a secret, Sunil leaned in close to Ruby. "I bet you could have made him look very dashing."

"You think?" Soho asked guilelessly. "I think he's terrifying more often than not. But hey, everyone's got to be themselves, right?" She shrugged, looking at all the food. "Do you know Mister Silva Demon very well?" She asked, grabbing a handful of watermelon from the fruit tray and taking a bite.

Maybe this other juvenile knew something about his past. No matter how young she was, she was probably older than Soho. Soho wasn't very old, after all.

Sunil grinned behind her carrot.

"Indeed. To each their own is what someone in my household says. And I wouldn't say I know Silva particularly well, but I did beat the crap out of him once. Why?"

Sunil preened a little, forgetting how ridiculous that must sound in her current form.

"You beat him up?" Soho asked, sounding stunned. "Oh... I bet he didn't like that..." She shook her head. "But he said that he used to have a relationship, but it didn't work out... It was really sad." Or irritating. It had made her have to backstep to get what she wanted.

"You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" She asked, looking up at the other feien innocently. Get straight to the story that interested her the most. Until she was distracted, that was. Thankfully that hadn't happened yet! But she was just guessing now... for all she knew this blue juvenile wouldn't know a thing...

"He didn't like it," Sunil said. "But I was older then and he was still a juvenile."

Sunil tapped her chin thoughtfully, pretending to think about the question - which she had to assume related to Ruya.

"I might know something about it. I did have a friend who was very good... friends... with Silva a long time ago. What did Silva tell you about this relationship? So that I can be sure it was my friend he was talking about," Sunil finished.

She put on hand on her hip, while continuing to nibble away at the carrot. It was hard to believe Silva hadn't interrupted this conversation.

"You know, if it was her - she might be able to drop by here sometime, since she lives right next door." Assuming she ever emerged from her stupid bloom state, Sunil thought bitterly.

"He said that attachments are stupid..." Soho said with a little pout. "And that he had been attached to someone but it hadn't worked out." She took another bite of watermelon. This feien obviously knew who she was... but that she might be here for the party?

This was just TOO good! Soho paused as something tinged her excitement... Was that... jealousy? She blinked, getting lost in her thoughts for a moment. That could be a problem...

He had stopped with the smile. No, not Soho's. Soho's he had expected. But Sunil's was terrifyingly off-base. And he had listened with a growing sense of masochistic fascination. When they had brought up Ruya, something had made him stop from interrupting.

He still wasn't sure what that something had been... but he was pretty sure he hated it. With a passion.

"It goes back to the storytelling." Aleric said from behind him. Silva grunted, still fighting himself. "You've got a past, she doesn't yet. It's no surprise she's fascinated with yours."

"There's more to it than that." Silva muttered. He eyed his "bonddaughter" for a moment. "But I haven't figured it out just yet..."

"Hmm... you might be right." Aleric agreed.

"Attachments are stupid," Sunil said smoothly, agreeing strongly with Silva - although she couldn't quite remember why she thought so. Her eyes unfocused for a moment while she tried to dredge up some of the memories she had lost. She was unsuccessful and eventually returned to the conversation at hand. "But I think we are speaking of the same feien. Ruya is her name and she lives with me. We're actually bonded to the same person."

Sunil thought about stopping there, but she really couldn't help but add the next part. For whose benefit she wasn't sure.

"Tragically, Ruya has lost all of her memories."

That really seemed like the sort of thing this nosy, bubbly little feien would like. It was so very soap opera.

"She's lost her memories?" Soho repeated, her eyes going wide. Ruya... whoever she was... wouldn't remember Silva, even if Silva remembered her! For just a second a little smile played on her pretty lips, then she frowned. "That's too bad..." She said, shaking her head. "I guess he was right about attachments not lasting..."

She glanced around, catching sight of Aleric first, then Silva as the shadow moved slightly. "Does Mister Silva Demon know she won't remember him?"

"Oh yes," Sunil said, pausing to chomp into the carrot violently. "He knows. Although it really doesn't seem fair for poor Ruya to be in the dark about her past when everyone else will know about it."

Sunil smirked and finished off the carrot stick.

"Her old diary is laying around the house somewhere and I think I may have to let Ruya read at least parts of her past writings. The questions is, of course, which parts are important and which ones aren't. Perhaps if you read it..."

Sunil trailed off, looking like she was considering something carefully.

"Maybe you could help me decide which parts would be important for Ruya to be aware of. I mean, you seem to know Silva very well."

Soho blinked, astonished. "You mean it? I mean..." She paused, trying to think out the ramifications of the offer. It wasn't as if it would hurt this unknown girl's feelings! She wouldn't remember, so she probably wouldn't feel anything about it, right?

It would be like reading a piece of ancient history...

Silva stayed silent. If Ruby got the diary he could burn the thing before Sunil got it back. That would save him a lot of problems. For the first time since the conversation began, he smirked. Soho's natural instinct to meddle was starting to work out for him!

"Could I?" Soho asked.

"Of course," Sunil said, faking a bright demeanor. "I'll have to leave to go whip up a costume, anyway. I'll just bring it back with me."

Sunil looked like the cat who ate the canary, very pleased with herself but slightly guilty. With a little finger wave to Ruby, she took to the air.

"I'll be seeing you, Soho."

"Bye Sunil!!" Soho called, waving happily. "I''ll see you soon!"

"You can''t honestly let her read that, can you?" Aleric asked Silva quietly.

"Who says she''ll get the chance?" Silva drawled. "But it''s not fair for Ruya''s old memories to be forced on her when she wants to forget, now is it?" He turned, heading for where Soho was munching on her watermelon, looking for all the world as if he couldn''t care less what she had been up to.

Aleric sighed and fingered his skull necklace. They were getting into shady territory with this one... he only hoped they didn''t ruin their own lives as well as Ruya''s.

Hitomi fluttered uneasily towards the backyard where the party was coming from. Usually flight wasn't quite so difficult, but under the circumstances she sought out a magician to magick her wings to be...different from their normal state. With surprisingly neat effects. And she wasn't quite used to the clothes she was wearing either. While it was cute, the green dress was a bit restricting. She peeked around the corner of the house and saw the people gathered there. She fluttered in and over to where they were, but hanging back, trying to feel out their personalities before introducing herself.

Silva and Aleric glanced up at the same time. Aleric smiled in greeting, Silva snorted. And then, finally, Soho looked up from where she was trying to eat a grape. She reached up, wiping at her mouth and looking from Aleric to Silva, curiously.

How had they known someone was here? She shrugged it off, smiling widely. "Hi!! How are you? My name's Ruby Soho!" She called, waving at the newcomer.

Hitomi took that as her cue that she was at least welcome. She said, "Hi! My name is Hitomi! I dressed up like Tinkerbell. I made the dress and shoes myself. But a friend of my Mom's put special magic on my wings to make them all fancy like. And he said that it wears off at midnight so I have to make sure that I'm home, because my costume wouldn't look as good without it. And that would make me sad. And plus mom said that I shouldn't stay out so late. She feels like our new bloom might be hatching sometime soon and I don't want to miss it. I like grapes." Hitomi looked at the remains of the grape that Ruby had in her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Did you catch that?" Aleric asked Silva softly.

"Not a bit." He replied. "Somebody needs to lay off the sugar sticks."

"Really? You made it all by yourself?" Ruby asked, clasping her hands. "That's awesome! And your wings look really good!" She said. "But you're right, you should leave before they stop shining." She finished with a nod.

"It's a miracle." Aleric said calmly.

"She speaks gibberish. Quite a talent." Silva said equally quietly.

She smiled widely before continuing on, "But midnight isn't for a while away..right? I hope not because if it's soon then I wouldn't be able to stay and have fun with everyone before they stopped being shiny. And taht would make me sad. It's been a while since I've been out having fun. Is Kojak coming? He's amazing. He has a tail! It's black and yellow. Like my hair, except it's blue and yellow. He has a really big house and a really big family. At my house it's just me and my mom and the new bloom, but it hasn't hatched yet. But it looks really cool. It's black and white and it has red speckles. The doctor said it was a girl. It will be fun to have another girl. We can paint our nails and do our hair and do fun girl things. You have pretty wings." Hitomi fluttered down and grabbed hold of a grape and fluttered back up to Ruby smiling widely before muching on her grape.

Silva and Aleric looked at each other, shrugged, and pulled the staffs hanging over their backs off to start a spar. Soho was filtering the repetitious things the other feien said, all the while keeping her smile.

"You've got a bloom? That's great! I was a bloom just a little while ago. It's a little crowded inside." She finished with a nod. Then she preened, rustling her wings. "I'm pretty fond of my wings, but you're the first feien I've met with feathers, too! Mister Silva Demon has scales and Aleric has these funny claw things on his." She turned, looking at her wings with a happy little smile. "I've got a scale of Mister Silva Demon's!" She said, holding her necklace out to show it off.

The constant tapping of staff against staff distracted Soho as it got closer. She let out a yelp as she realized that Silva and Aleric had moved their sparring to the table.

"Mister Silva Demon! Aleric! Would you stop that?! I'm trying to have a--" She stormed off to yell at them, completely forgetting that she had been having a conversation.

Aleric stopped first, earning a jab to the gut for his politeness. "Ooof..." He muttered, bending over as he recovered. "Forgive us, Soho. It's a bad habit of ours."

Soho raised her arms to Silva. "I'm tired, Mister Silva Demon. Hold me?"

Silva snorted, but picked her up anyways. "Attention span is almost as short as her stamina." He told Aleric, earning a nod where Soho couldn't see it.

The two latest newcomers probably would have been there earlier had the younger of the two not fussed about exactly what they were wearing: thankfully for the purposes of the costume party, their bondmate had a large collection of fondly-kept Barbie clothes. Burgundia thought these adorable. Cascati thought them not.

In the end, he'd been forced into a small pair of what were apparently supposed to be bluejeans - Christ, clothes itched - his hair tied back and a little cowboy hat perched on his momentarily tamed riot of bluewhite curls and spikes: obviously the world's tiniest and - as he had eyed his mirror - utterly gayest cowboy: all he needed was assless chaps. Maybe Gallium could pierce his nipples.

Burgundia, on the other hand, wasn't really dressed up as anything: she'd taken a little demure pink print dress that was appropriately calf-length and scoop-necked to show off the necklace that she apparently wasn't ever going to take off. M's diamond. She'd brushed her hair over and over and tied it back again with a pink ribbon. Rose had thought she looked adorable and had cut little wee mouse slits for Dee's wings. Casca helpfully told her that she was dressed as a Stepford wife, something Dee didn't really understand.

"Do I look fine," she was saying.

"You look so fine, Dee-dear."

"Do I look immodest? I can't make a bad impression on her, I just can't. I do think you should've worn a shirt."

"I'm allergic to shirts, ma cherie."

"You can see my ankles, is it really surely appropriate? This is gonna make an impression on her 'till she dies - "

"Darling, if you don't get in there any time soon, I'm going to quite possibly go off and leave you here."

Burgundia gave her brother a mean, squinty-eyed look which he had come to know intimately: with one last pat of her hair and one last faintly worried look at her pale bare arms, she set off fizzing with nervousness into the backyard. Casca, much less so, thought comfortably about the cigarettes in his back pocket.

"Darlin..." Silva said. He knew for a fact that Soho had recovered already, if she had had to recover at all. But she was still sitting in his arms, playing with his rattail.

"Mister Silva Demon, you really need to change shampoos." She told him with a little nod. "Your hair could be much softer!"

"Darlin, we've got more visitors." He said, trying not to snort. Soho glanced up, smiling widely at the newcomers and waving.

"Helloo!!!" She called happily, finally wiggling out of Silva's arms and taking to the air. She headed for Dee first, her hands out. "You look so pretty! My name is Soho! I'm a lolita."

Casca had to count to ten and hold his breath so that he didn't laugh at a number of things: Burgundia's expression, Silva previously cradling Soho in his arms, or the general Soho-ness of the new juvenile. Silva was in for a rough ride. Karma was beautiful. And, hey, he wasn't complaining at her outfit.

Burgundia, however, varied wildly between diving on the juvenile so that nobody could see the sheer amount of skin she was displaying and her innocence thus kept, or being good-mannered. In the end, she was too excited to decide, and did a mixture of both: she took Soho's hands in her own and beamed at the other juvenile.

"Hideecuteshoeshow'syo'daddy," she said breathlessly, and then after she'd gulped in air: "My name's Burgundia but call me Dee and I'm yo' sist-ah and you are surely be-yoo-ti-ful."

"My sister?" Soho asked, all three eyes going huge. Then she let out a little scream, glomping the other feien tightly. "I have a sister!!" She said happily, pulling back again. "And so pretty a sister! Of course you SHOULD be pretty, since you're related to me, after all! Mister Silva Demon said I was gorgeous! Then he said that wasn't always a good thing, but--" She stopped, just beaming back at Dee.

Aleric chose to speak up. "She meant she was dressed as a lolita, Dee. Not that she is one." He said as he flew close. "It is wonderful to see you again. How have you been doing?"

Silva's eyes were narrowed and focused completely on Casca. He remembered the little s**t quite clearly.

"I've been doin' just fine," Dee said, still breathless, eyes big and full as she took all of Soho in. One hand was still happily clutched in her sister's. "Thank you kindly for askin', how's you and yours - oh, isn't she just so precious? Ruby, I declare you're the purtiest thing I did ever set eyes on, I swannee - happy first birthday, by the by, my bondmate brought over a box of chocolates, which isn't the best present considerin', your bondmate will probably just have to eat 'em."

Cascati, away from the screaming bustle of juvenile girls, finally noticed Silva's eyes; he tipped his hat at the other Feien and gave him a slow, secret smile, touching his lips just once before he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and a splintered piece of match.

"Don't smoke, 'tisn't nice," Dee said severely but halfheartedly, mostly enraptured by Soho.

"I'm not, dear, I'm inspecting my cigs for holes." Casca's attention was still all on Silva. "Hullo, darling. It's so nice to see you again."

Ruby, Soho, Ruby Soho... what did it matter? She had a sister!! Soho grinned, hugging Dee again, then pulling back and looking around wildly. She wanted to show her EVERYTHING! And show her and tell her and-- "You got me CHOCOLATE?" She finally asked. "I'll eat every bite! I promise!"

She had never had chocolate before...

Silva snorted, both at Soho's reaction and Casca's comment. "Can't say that I return the feeling." He drawled. Soho glanced up at his tone, then over at Casca, cocking her head.

"Um... Hi! I'm Soho." She called, not letting go of Dee. "Nice to meet you!"

"That's my brother," Burgundia explained helpfully. "My bond-brother, I mean. He's no relation."

"Charmed, ma petite," Cascati drawled; he ambled over to Soho, still in eye of Silva, leaning over to deliver her a quick peck on the cheek before moving away to light his match on a piece of rough cardboard torn from a match-box. "Any sister of Silva's is a friend of mine. Isn't that so, Silva-sweetling? The love we share, boundless and free, naked and wild."

Burgundia ignored this exchange: the secret for both of them to live in harmony was to start developing singular deafness. "Do let me call you Ruby," she said coaxingly to Soho. "Everyone'll be calling you Soho and Ruby's so pretty, I'd love to call you it special."

"Touch her again and I'll show you just how deep my... love... goes." Silva replied coldly. Soho blinked, only to be distracted by Dee's question.

"I guess..." She said, looking thoughtful. "I mean, you're my sister! It's okay if my sister calls me Ruby!" She smiled again, pleased that she had worked that out so easily. "But Silva's not my bondbrother, he's waaaay too old. He's my bonddaddy!"

"She decided that on her own." Aleric added as Soho nodded happily.

"And Aleric is my bondpapa! So they have to help me when I need help." And hold her, and give her what she wanted and--

"Don't get me so aroused," Cascati said mildly, lighting the end of the cigarette and distastefully waving the match out. "Soon I'll start to think you secretly love me. All right, sweetheart, I won't kiss her any more, not if it makes you jealous."

Burgundia, still ignoring her brother, was still beaming all over her pale little face. "Casca's too itty-bitty to be a bonddaddy. So he's my brother. I do wish I had a bondfather sometimes, Casca can just be the worst chaperone, I'll tell you all about it some time when we can talk proper. But I'm your real live blood sister, so I swear I'll help you too. I can do your hair and we can go places together and talk and it'll be just fii-iiine."

"Really?! I'd love that!" Soho said excitedly. "We could meet all sorts of people and hear all sorts of stories! And music and food!" She stopped. "That made me hungry. Are you hungry?"

"You think Ice would notice if I killed the little s**t in our backyard?" Silva asked, glancing over at Aleric. "She never notices the rats..."

"I'd surely love a bite to eat if you're peckish," Burgundia said demurely, and smoothed down the front of her dress with her free hand. "Just an itty-bitty bit. Shall we?"

"Of course," the ice Feien was saying, taking a deep slow drag of the makeshift cigarette, "of course, I'm just saying, darling - I couldn't ever give her a roll, she looks so very much like you. Just imagine. I'd be yelling out your name, precious. Then again, if that's her kink..."

Silva stopped, his expression going blank for a second as an image of the dead, blood soaked rat flashed in his head. Then he calmed. "Soho's off limits." He said plainly. "You wanna f*ck someone, find yourself a plastic doll. It might actually not complain about how damn small your hands are." He smirked.

Soho tugged Dee towards the table. "We've got all SORTS of things to eat!"

"Darling, sometimes people prefer dexterity as opposed to your large hamfisted way of doing things." There was a horrible, empty look in Casca's eyes: too blank, too intent, too hungry. A little bit like the rat. "So no Soho. Anyway, dear, plastic gives me hives, though thank you for offering, I hear through the grapevine it's the only way you get any lately. Cigarette?"

Burgundia was already wisely going along with Soho, away from Casca, who obviously had all the mental capacity of a lemming. "I haven't really eaten yet," she admitted. "I'll have to beg you to help me, darlin', I surely don't know what to eat. What tastes good?"

"I like fruit!" Soho said, heading for the fruit tray and grabbing a handful of watermelon. "This is really yummy! And the grapes are good, too, and--" she eventually named every fruit on the tray and some that weren't even there.

Silva raised an eyebrow, looking into his eyes for a second. He had seen that look before... "So, boy, when did you lose your soul?" He asked casually. "Lost mine... hell... probably the first time I was shot at..." He said thoughtfully.