Hey! Guess who's back? Hainin Marshal is! With a three chapter story, no less. I was thinking that he didn't get a lot of love, so I racked my brain for something I could write for him, and while I was watching Full House last night, it came to me.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Hainin laughs wickedly as he situates the bucket of water over the doorway leading into the secret passage of the Sanctuary. He steps back, holding his hands up to make sure it didn't fall, and then he rubs them together as he scurries to the table to sit and wait.

"Hainin?" Babette's voice drifted to him from the hall leading to the torture room, and then the vampire child appears, an eyebrow raised. "What in Sithis' name were you giggling about? I heard all the way from my room."

The Imperial assassin grins and points to the bucket above the large stain glass door. "Nazir went out to get some groceries, and I decided to play a little trick on him. He's going to be so angry!"

"Why is that a good thing?" Babette asks.

"Because I'm going to be laughing at him," Hainin replies gleefully.

"You're going to be laughing at who?" A familiar deep voice reached him from the second floor of the sanctuary, and then Nazir appeared, brown bags in his grasp.

Hainin gapes at him while Babette laughs in the background. His eyes go from the Redguard on the second floor to the door of the secret passage, and then he points to the bucket, looking back at Nazir, who was also grinning. "That's supposed to be on your head."

"Well, it's not. And if I'm not mistaken," Nazir says, nodding to the door, "it's about to be on someone else's."

"Hello Family!" Cicero calls as he pushes open the door, and then the bucket falls onto his head, spilling water all over him. He lets out a gasp of astonishment, and then he starts to slowly sink to the floor. "I'm melting! I'm melting!"

Hainin glares at him as Cicero falls to the floor and lays still, the bucket still on his head. "You're not melting, huh? It's just water."

"Oh, really? I thought it was acid," Babette says, moving swiftly out of the way as Hainin swats at her.

"It's not acid? Pity," Nazir grumbles, but his grin betrayed the annoyance in his tone.

Hainin sighs and then walks over to the fallen jester. "I'm sorry, Ciss. That was supposed to fall on Nazir's head."

Cicero sits up, removing the bucket, a smile on his face. "It's alright, my Listener. Cicero enjoys a joke as much as the next assassin."

Hainin grins too, and then holds out his hand to pulls Cicero to his feet. The jester takes his hand, and then yanks the Listener down to the ground beside him. "See? Jokes!"

Hainin splutters from the water that had gotten in his face, which had landed in the puddle. Both Babette and Nazir were busting a gut, and Cicero was laughing as well. The Imperial huff and sits up, face dripping. "Haha. You got my hair wet."

"Poor baby. Now how will you get a female to follow you to bed?" Babette asks, pursing her lips at him.

He glares at her, and then holds up a finger in her direction. "You're lucky I have to go fix my hair, or I would fix you."

Cicero jumps to his feet and holds out his hand, and then draws it back. "Perhaps the Listener should help himself up," he says, and Hainin grumbles as he clambers to his feet.

"I'll be in my room," he grunts, and then shoulders past Cicero down the hall. The three remaining assassins watch him go before they all look at each other guiltily.

"Maybe we shouldn't have laughed so hard," Nazir admits.

"Cicero should not have pulled him down into the water," the jester says regretfully.

"And that crack about the girl… that might have been a little harsh," Babette adds.

All three sigh in succession, and then Nazir works his way down the stairs, Cicero moving to take a bag, but the Redguard moves away from him. "You're wet," he reminds the jester, who nods in response and removes his hat, squeezing out the liquid.

Nazir puts the bags down on the table and starts to unpack the stuff he had gotten. Babette climbs onto a chair to look in a bag, and pulls out a hair brush with a silver handle and red gems on the back. "What is this for?" she asks, holding it up by the end with her fingertips.

Nazir snatches it from her hand and stuffs it into his robe. "Nothing. Forget you saw that."

She raises an eyebrow but doesn't persist, and instead pulls out a book. One look at the title tells her exactly who it's for. "Cicero." The jester looks up from wringing out his pant leg, and prances over to her, taking the book from her hand before hopping over to Nazir and planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Cicero thanks you, Nazir," he says, and then scampers out of the dining room towards the bedrooms. Nazir rubs his cheek thoughtfully and then catches Babette looking at him. He makes a disgusted face and hurriedly rubs his hand on his leg.

"Nazir, I've been thinking," Babette begins, and Nazir glances at her. "I've been thinking that we should all do something together sometime soon. Just so we can remind ourselves that we're a family."

"Babette, my girl, that's actually not a bad idea. What did you have in mind?" he questions.

"I got a few ideas," she answers with a grin.

And there's the first chapter! Hopefully y'all are interested, because I'm pretty sure this is probably one of the crappiest ideas for a story I've ever come up with.

However! I did write a pretty good Ziris one last night as well that I'm going to upload after I'm done with this one. I actually enjoyed writing it, so hopefully you guys will enjoy reading it.

Ah, I better stop talking about it so you guys don't get excited.

Review and tell me what you guys think, and if you want the next chapter. I won't upload it if you guys don't like, but personally, I would want to know what Babette is planning.

Thanks again folks, and have a lovely rest of your day. Or night. Whichever comes first.