A/N: Wow. It has been a very, VERY long time since I wrote in this fandom. But as I've recently been RPing Noon, I got hit with inspiration again. X3

This should be clear, but in case it isn't, former names are used in this story: Noon is Monday's original Noon, and Dusk is Monday's original Dusk.

Monday was dead.

The former Dusk had reeled in shock a little when he received the news, because this should be impossible. Someone who he had known for centuries, for millennia, couldn't possibly be gone so suddenly.

Dusk closed his eyes, resting his forehead on his hands at his desk, remembering, with some effort. Those days before the breaking of the Will, when he and his siblings and Monday had truly believed in their duties toward the Lower House. Monday had been a different Denizen then; not merely a superior, but a true friend.

He should have stopped him when Monday made up his mind to help his siblings break the Will… should have acted on his nervous qualms. If he had, perhaps they would not have spiraled into this state. Perhaps Monday would not be dead…

It seemed so cruel, killing him just when he'd received a second chance at living from Lord Arthur.

Slowly, the Denizen opened his eyes. It was Saturday. She had stolen everything from Monday in convincing him to help her break the Will; if he hadn't gone along with her plan, Dusk thought, they would probably all be dead anyway. Killing him now, she was only finishing what she'd started.

The look on Dusk's face as he stood up was colder than it ever was. He would not allow her to escape justice for her crimes.

Noon, who was now Dusk, still hadn't emerged from his office, still turning everything over and over in his mind. He couldn't escape from the fact that this was all his fault.

He served Lord Arthur now, there was no doubt about that. The boy held the Key, controlled the Lower House, and Noon was bound by that. He no longer hated his brother, who had after all only been doing his duty. Noon had been shortsighted, blinded to their higher purpose by his steadfast loyalty. He'd learned to accept that, as he'd learned to accept his new place in the shadows.

And yet.

One couldn't erase millennia of obedience so easily. Monday may have been in the wrong, but Noon did not once regret anything he had done. Privately, he still believed that Dusk's actions against them had been out of line. They had no right in questioning anything done by the Master of the Lower House.

The Will might have named Arthur as the Rightful Heir, but that did not change anything in Noon's eyes. Monday was the Trustee, and it was not his fault that he had been cursed. He was the one Noon was supposed to follow, not this mortal usurper who somehow had the right.

The fact that Monday was dead now hit Noon rather hard.

However he looked at it, there was no escaping the fact that Monday's fate was due to Noon's own failures. If he had been able to do more…if he had only killed the Heir when he had the chance, defeated his traitorous brother in time—

Noon usually did not regret, but he regretted now.

His failure, he knew, would always haunt him.

"I'm sorry," Noon murmured, and wished that Monday could hear him.