[REG] Of Sugar and Stalkers (Eve + Lucy + Seth)

[Melodine Cantus]

It took a while, but Eve Summers had managed to persuade Lucien Everard, or commonly known as Lucy, into letting her 'kidnap' his siblings for one afternoon. At first, when she brought the subject up, he had peppered her with adamant no's, but Eve had countered by pointing out that Aidan and Nadia needed some fun in their lives. They had a boring old lady big brother, and if she didn't step in, they would all become a family of librarians or something! Besides, she hadn't been able to hang out with Aidan and Nadia often these days, which she missed.

Once the puppy eyes were switched on, coupled with a pout, there was no turning back for Lucy.

Eve had triumphed, once again, and joyfully skipped out of the Everard's residence, the two kids in tow. "What do you say to some ice-cream? And cotton candy?" Lucy probably never really let them have much sugar, the poor dears, and she was here to remedy that! "Do you guys have anywhere you want to go to? Somewhere not boring, obviously!"  

[Kaiyumi]

The pair were quite happy that Lucien had allowed Eve--who they had always seen as their big sister--to take them out that day. Despite being very fond of her, they rarely managed to spend any time together!

In response to the question of sweet treats, Nadia shook her head, looking up at Eve with large doe eyes. "No thank you!" She chirped sweetly, smiling up at the blond girl, "We don't want to ruin our lunch! Right, Aidan?" The little boy nodded in agreement with his sister.

...They have been well trained.

Both children frowned thoughtfully as they considered where they wanted to go. "Somewhere fun!" Nadia exclaimed, providing an answer that was enthusiastic but not very helpful. Aidan, on the other hand, seemed to be thinking about the options a little more carefully, his face scrunched up in thought. Finally, turning his big eyes up to Eve, he smiled. "Is there an amusement park around here?"

---

Somehow, just somehow, Eve managed to convince Lucien that letting her kidnap his siblings for the day was a good idea. He wasn't sure how she always did it, but the blond girl seemed to have this skill of convincing him to do things he didn't want to do. Or maybe he was just a pushover.

Either way, he had watched with a grimace when his friend came to pick up Nadia and Aidan. Was this really a good idea? Being the overprotective brother that he was, he wasn't so sure that it was. It wasn't exactly that he had no faith in Eve--he definitely trusted her to keep them safe, no matter what happened--but...

Okay, well. He didn't trust her not to spoil his siblings rotten and feed them candy for dinner.

His initial plan (beyond not letting Eve take his siblings out at all) was to just...read a book and try to relax his nerves for the day while Nadia and Aidan were having fun. However, he found that the longer he thought about this, the more paranoid he got. What if Eve and the kids ran into a youma on their trip out? Sure, he trusted her to keep them safe, but what about Eve herself? Yup, his big brother overprotectiveness had spread over to encompass the blond girl as well.

So he decided on what every overprotective brother would do: following them to make sure that everyone was safe and sound by the end of the night. Of course, he wasn't going to do this alone, and that was why he had called Seth the evening before.

Now to just wait for his arrival.  

[Xaki]

Seth examined the street signs once more, holding up the slip of paper where he had written Lucien's address to confirm his location. After parking his motorbike, Seth walked up to the house to rap on the door. "Why am I here again?" Seth asked once the door opened, rubbing the back of his head with a glance that demanded an explanation towards Lucien. He had been half-asleep when Lucien had called and only vaguely remembered the conversation. He also recalled saying yes since it seemed more troublesome if he had said no.

That and Seth had received a phone call from his uncle saying that he might drop by. That was all Seth needed to get out of his apartment for the day.

And to be perfectly honest, Eve could take care of herself well enough as far as Seth could see. So where did Lucien and Seth come into the picture?
 

[Melodine Cantus]

"Oh, you're hopeless." Eve groaned at their response, stifling a sigh. "Have I been gone for that long that you actually started listening to Lucy's boring lectures?" Either way, she was pretty guilty of not popping by the Everard household enough, her presence there diminishing with each day after she had been awakened. And then there had been the time when she gotten her cast, where the visits had stopped entirely and had been relegated to the occasional call. Yeah, Eve was a horrible person and she was determined to make up for it.

"That sounds fun!" Eve clapped her hands together, an enthusiastic smile still plastered on her face. "I bet Lucy never brings you there. He'd probably worry about how safe the rides are. And come on, we can share a cotton candy or something, so it wouldn't ruin your lunch! Besides, I want some too!" There, a compromise. Kids liked candy, after all, so hopefully this would be easy. How long had Lucy left them sugar deprived? The blonde grimaced at the thought.

...Then again, she wondered if he would be fine at home. He was probably reading. Or pacing. He would totally be worried.

But if she knew that he was worried for her safety, she would have been insulted. He knew what she was, for goodness sake!  

[Kaiyumi]

"But too much candy will give us cavities," Nadia blinked up at Eve with wide eyes, tilting her head to the side cutely, "...Right? We learned this at school!" Well, at least they didn't get all of their strict lessons from Lucien. Of course their school would enforce certain ideals in their head, such as the fact that candy was unhealthy.

Granted that that didn't stop the teachers from giving out candy for good work habit or as bribery.

"Okay!" Aidan chirped at Eve's suggestion, nodding eagerly, "We can share some cotton candy! And ooh, I've never been on a big roller coaster before! Can we go on one together, big sis?" Just as Lucien saw her as a younger sister, Nadia and Aidan saw her as the cool big sister that they never had. At once, Nadia and Aidan each latched onto one of her legs, staring up with those doe eyes of theirs.

"Pleeeeeeeeease?" They begged in unison. If they were puppies, their tails would be wagging blurs by now.

---

When Seth knocked on the door, Lucien was suddenly grateful that he had ushered Eve and his siblings out the back door. It wouldn't do if they saw each other, after all.

"You're here so that we can make sure Eve doesn't try to feed my siblings candy for the whole day." Lucien answered grimly when he opened the door, looking as if the fate of the world rested on their shoulders that day...which it kind of did. For the blond, at least--his siblings really were his world, as ridiculously cheesy as that was. "Thanks for coming, Seth. Let me know if I can return the favour at some point." He knew that the favour would probably be something akin to "Eve is dragging me out, please get over here and suffer with me", but he definitely owed the dark-haired man for this.

"I think they're going to the amusement park." Yup, Lucien had been listening to that conversation of theirs before Seth came. It seemed that when he was seriously concerned about someone, he got pretty good at that stalker thing.

"We'll take my car. I'll drive you back after so that you can get your motorbike, if that's fine with you?"  

[Xaki]

Seth didn't comment on Lucien's love and devotion to his siblings, looking like he didn't care. In reality, he really didn't. Seth didn't waste time nor was he the type of person to judge a person for such menial things.

However, upon hearing their purpose for the day, Seth had to think. Seth tilted his head in confusion at their particular mission, his finger at his temple. "Candy?" Seth was trying to figure out the importance but he was failing miserably. When he was young, he ate sweets, didn't he? Unless they poisoned candy now which Seth would have presumably heard about. And since that option was invalid.."I'm failing to see the point." His expression was truly bemused and partly '-the hell?', giving the idea that Seth had thought about this seriously.

"Don't you normally shove candy up their mouths to shut them up?" He leaned back on the door frame, his legs indolently crossed. Granted, Seth's parenting was really wrong somewhere. Or was he raised that way? But clearly he knew this from experience.

But even if Seth didn't understand, it didn't mean that he wasn't willing to help. "Either way, I'm all right with the plans." The amusement park, huh? It had been years ago when the motorbike rider last visited. Not since his childhood in a rare venture when both his parents were free.  

[Melodine Cantus]

"Not if you brush your teeth properly! Besides, you don't shovel candy into your mouths everyday, so the occasional indulgence is perfectly alright!" Eve declared, patting Nadia on the head. Well, at least she knew that their insistence had been partly due to what they taught in school. Back then, Eve had listened but never really cared, although getting into Crystal Academy meant learning a certain set of etiquette. She wondered if Nadia would go there... hello, Crystal uniforms were totally cuter than Meadowview! That, and it was a pretty prestigious school...

Whoa. She was thinking about their future. That was weird. And Lucy-like. Kind of. She wasn't as boring, of course!

"Yay!" Eve cheered happily, pumping her fist into the air. The trick of saying that they could share was a pretty good one... although it wasn't much of a trick when it was partly the truth; Eve liked eating sweets too, so it was a bonus for her. And Aidan wanted to go on the roller coaster too!

Oh, Lucy was going to be so pissed. Eve thought with relish. But they deserved to have fun! And besides, they were begging her! How could she say no to them? "Of course!" She assured them, bending down to envelop them into a hug. She had forgotten how much she had missed them both; being an only child meant that she had never experienced what it was like to have siblings. Being close with the Everard family gave her that luxury and now she had no excuse to be absent in their lives when Lucy was a Knight, of all things.

"Let's get into the car! Who's riding shotgun?" She gestured towards the White Volkswagen Beetle, which she had borrowed from her mother for the day.