So...an itsy bitsy one shot to distract me from the other stories I'm in the process of. I have a soft spot for grumpy old men, don't you?
"For Gad's sake, Caius, you didn't have to meddle in puppy love! Now you know what will become of them poor teenagers...drifting around heartbroken..." Aro frowned and wagged one finger at Caius unhappily. "With our luck one of them'll probably go jump off a building or something. Again. Do you know how tiring it is to fix the mess of that kind? Now Aphrodite is going to be after our butts again!"
"Aphrodite is silly, and naive," Caius said grumpily. "Besides, they were being entirely too co-dependant. They needed a wake up call."
"That didn't mean you had to introduce a third party!" Aro exclaimed, throwing up his arms in frustration. Caius grunted unhappily and retreated to his corner in the smelly, dirty sewer pipes.
"Why are we even doing this anyway?" Caius complained. "It's not our fault we're trapped here with no form of entertainment whatsoever."
Both Aro and Caius' heads swiveled to stare at Marcus accusingly. Marcus groaned loudly, looking as though he wished he was anywhere but here. "Oh, how typical," he grated. "Blame me for your brainless thinking. Why don't you blame Aro for once? He was, after all, the reason I was cooking in the first place."
"Marcus, you can't cook!" Aro whined. "When I said I wanted to eat pizza, I meant from Pizza Hut, and not the homemade kind! There is such thing as takeaway, you know."
Caius huffed, glaring at Marcus. "And regardless, it was your fault you conveniently forgot the oven hadn't been repaired yet!"
Fifteen years ago, a frequently overlooked shack just outside a small town had suddenly exploded. By the time the fire was extinguished, nothing remained of the straw house but ashes and cinders. Ashes to ashes, the people had said, and let the memory of the three old men rest in peace.
Unfortunately, the three old men were also somewhat...magical. With the ability to influence external events, they had somehow managed to trap themselves in the underground sewers when the oven had exploded, and for fifteen years the cantankerous men had stayed underground moaning about the affairs of the outside world.
"It was Aro's fault we got trapped here..." Caius mused.
"Was not!" Aro protested.
"Was too," Caius and Marcus said simoultaneously.
Aro huffed and crossed his arms, examining the pearly skin set with hundreds of wrinkles. "I'm getting too old for this," he muttered.