After ten years of waiting, Oz had finally returned from the Abyss. Of course, Gilbert was overjoyed. He hadn't seen his master for ten whole years! However, it seemed that Oz didn't hold the same feelings...

"Alice, you can't eat that without paying!" Oz shouted, quickly following after the brunette before they would have to pay for the meat she was about to munch on.

"Oz, don't stop me!" Alice shouted back, resisting the blond. "Meat is meat, and I want some!"

"But we'll have to pay for it!" Oz tried to explain, pulling the drumstick out of the girl's hands before she could start eating it.

Alice flinched, her anger apparent. "Oz, that's my meat! You can't have any! Just have the dumb seaweed head pay for it!"

Gilbert clenched his fists. "I am not a 'seaweed head'!" The ravenet shouted, crossing his arms. "And I'm not paying for your dumb meat so put it back!"

Oz somehow managed to push Alice along past the meat stall before she could take a bite out of any of the hanging meats on display, Gilbert sighing in relief. He was already low on money as it was since his family refused to give him any of their money due to him being a 'traitor', as they had put it, and he couldn't possibly afford to waste money on stupid things like meat for Alice.

"Remind me again why we're out here, Oz...?" Gilbert asked, placing two fingers against his forehead to stop an oncoming headache.

Oz stopped in his tracks, looking down. "Well, it's your birthday soon, and I wanted to buy you something, but you insisted on coming with..."

Gilbert flinched, pulling his hat down a bit to cover the light blush his face held. "I-is that so...?" He looked away. "I-in that case, I'll just watch from afar..." The ravenet started to walk away, but Oz stopped him.

"No, you don't have to do that! Besides, it's...a bit...creepy, if you think about it..." Oz kept a firm grip on Alice's wrist while she tried to pull away, even going as far as to bite the blond boy as he spoke with his valet.

Gilbert flinched. Hadn't he followed these two around like that before...? Did Oz really think it was creepy?! No, everyone would think it was creepy... He decided to keep quiet about it. "R-right, my bad..."

After they had walked down the street a bit more, Alice pulling at Oz's grip any time she saw any type of meat even mentioned by any of the street vendors, Oz stopped at a shop that held a bunch of small knick-knacks.

"Oz, are you really stopping here...?" Gilbert asked, his gaze sweeping over the items on display as he spoke.

Oz flinched. "D-do you not like the items...?" He asked, looking up at the ravenet a bit worriedly.

Gilbert waved his hands at the blond frantically. "N-no, it's not that... I-I was just wondering..."

"Right..." Oz looked around a bit, Alice continuing to poke at Oz when she noticed a small meat keychain that she wanted to buy. They ended up having to get it anyway, since she continuously gnawed on it until there were teeth marks.

Gilbert looked around as well, his eyes stopping over something small. It was a small locket in the shape of a heart. He picked it up and opened it, a bit disappointed that there was nothing interesting inside. However, he did indeed know that it was meant to be empty until someone bought it. What intrigued him was the strange way he had been drawn to something like that.

"Oz." Gilbert walked over to the blond boy and tapped his shoulder. "This will do, so you don't have to buy me anything else."

Oz turned to look at Gilbert, gazing at the item in his valet's hands. "A locket...?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

The ravenet nodded.

"Are you sure you don't want something else...?" Oz asked, looking a bit concerned.

"Absolutely," Gilbert replied almost immediately, regretting having done so just as fast.

Oz's facial expression changed into one of mischief at that. "Gil, do you have a crush~? Ten years and you're in love already, huh?" The first sentence he had said sounded a bit more lively than the second sentence, but Gilbert decided to leave it alone and not say anything for now.

The ravenet blushed lightly, covering his mouth and nose with his gloved hand. "N-no, it's not that... It just...intrigued me..." Gilbert explained, his gaze not directed at the locket, but at Oz instead.

"Huh? Something wrong?" Oz asked, noticing Gilbert's state.

"N-no," Gilbert replied, flinching slightly at that, "not at all."

"Alright, I'll buy this then~!" Oz cheered happily as he headed up to the man running the shop, paying for both the locket and the keychain that Alice had wanted.

As they walked out, Oz stretched his arms out above his head. "It's gotten pretty late already, hasn't it?"

Gilbert nodded. "It has," he agreed.

"Gil, who're you gonna put a picture of in the locket?" Oz asked suddenly, letting his hands rest on top of his head, folded together.

"Huh?" Gilbert asked, giving Oz a confused look.

Oz laughed. "The locket, Gil. Who's picture are you gonna put in it?"

"That's..." Gilbert trailed off, finish in his answer only in his thoughts, you, of course... But there was no way he was actually going to say that out loud. He blushed slightly as he looked at the locket.

"So?" Oz asked, grinning up at his valet eagerly.

"No one," Gilbert replied, slightly defensively.

"Aw, really?" The blond looked a bit disappointed at the given response. "Oh well. Just for show then?"

Gilbert nodded reluctantly. "Yeah..." He mumbled softly, clenching the locket in his hand tightly.

"Alice, what about you?" Oz asked, looking back at the girl who was trailing not too far behind the two. "You seem to be enjoying your keychain too, hmm?"

Alice nodded excitedly, still chewing on the keychain. "Of course," she said, her words slurred slightly due to her mouth being occupied with metal. "It's meat! Nothing's better than meat!"

Oz laughed. "Right, sorry Alice!"

As the two laughed, Gilbert couldn't help but wonder why the two of them seemed to be so close. It was sort of like he was slowly drifting away from his master and being replaced with that dumb rabbit.

"Gil?"

Oz's voice broke Gilbert's thoughts, and he flinched. "Y-yes...?"

"Let's stay together forever. All three of us." Oz smiled at the ravenet as he spoke, blushing slightly.

Gilbert looked down at Oz, eyes slightly wide. There was something he about Oz, despite being his valet, that he just couldn't bring himself to deny the boy.

"Yeah..."

Maybe that dumb rabbit really wasn't replacing him after all.