I really just want to say thank you to those who took time out of their day to read this silly little thing. I appreciate you so much!

I apologize for not updating, but i kinda...broke my keyboard. But no worries, no worries, it's fixed! And I'm ready to update! But, without anyfurther stalling...

Chapter IV

"Do you need the broom or the mop?"

"Mm...Broom."

Marth searched through the pantry, mumbling to himself. "Broom...broom...Ah! Here!" He handed his sister the broom and closed the door. "Alright. What room are we cleaning first?"

"Mine!"

"That place is spotless though!"

"You can dust my shelves and I'll sweep the floor, easy!" Elice grinned and began twirling the broom by the handle. "Actually, I'll sweep the kitchen first. You can still clean my shelves."

Marth opened her mouth to say something, then quickly shut it. He pursed his lips and opened the pantry again, retrieving the duster before closing the door. "Thank you ever so very much, your grace." He rolled his eyes and lazily sauntered down the hall and into her room. He was right- it was immaculate. Not a single thing was out of place. Although, it was typical for someone of Elice's nature to have their living quarters reflect her personality: elegant and refined. He made his way over to the shelves on the other side of the room and glanced at all of the knick-knacks, picture frames and trophies neatly arranged on top of them. He gingerly picked a small trophy and ran his thumb over the engraving.

Elice Lowell

1st Place

Ballet and Modern Dance

He dusted off the trophy and returned it to its former spot. "Great. Only like, 25 more trophies until I can move on to the pictures." Marth sighed and took one more look at the trophies. He looked down at the duster.

Then back at the trophies.

He shrugged and ran the duster across them back and forth. Smirking a bit at his 'brilliant deduction' he moved down to the line of pictures. Each of them seemed the same: Elice in a costume of some sort holding her trophy in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. Their parents stood on both sides of her, and Marth was in the middle, hugging this sister. The first one on the shelf had the same elements, but everyone looked fairly younger. Marth squinted at the small child in the picture. There was no mistake about it, it was him alright, but he couldn't recall himself ever looking like that.

"How old was I? 7?" He mumbled and dusted off the the pictures. He looked over them once more, stopping at the last one. Everything was the same, yet there was still something odd about it. Only Elice seemed truly happy in the picture. He picked it up by the frame and looked at it closely.

Elice was grinning.
His mother seemed a bit unnerved, but she still smiled.
His father was clearly upset.
Marth looked as if he might cry, but he managed to smile.

"What happened...?" He looked on the back of the frame, but there was no date.

The sound of glass breaking caught his attention.

"Elice?" He ran out of her room and back down the hall.

Elice was on the floor, quickly trying to pieces of glass off of the floor, mumbling "Please forgive me, I'm so sorry..."

"Are you alright?!"

Elice took a moment to compose herself before speaking. "Yes...I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"I decided to sweep up in your room and I noticed a stain on one of your picture frames...I tried to bring it to the kitchen so I could clean it and- Well, I tripped, and it broke. Again, I'm so sorry! I'll replace it!"

"Elice, calm down. It's just a picture frame." Marth chuckled and retrieved the picture from underneath the shards of glass. "Oh, hey! This is my first competition photo!"

"Oh? Let me see." She took it from him. It was their family, plus one more boy, all beside him. Elice smiled a bit and pointed to the boy standing beside Marth. "This is Merric, right?"

"Mmhm! He seems pretty happy!" He looked over her shoulder and mumbled. "For a second placer..."

"Where is he anyway?"

"Last time we talked, he mentioned something about some special boarding school."

"Ah...I think I remember this picture."

"You do?"

"I'm fairly certain of it." Elice put a finger to her chin. "It was right before my last dance competition! We were almost late, but we managed to get there 5 minutes before opening!" She snickered gave him back his picture. "4..no, 3 years ago."

Marth looked back over the picture, noticing identical facial expressions compared to Elice's last picture. He frowned, a bit disturbed by the connection between the two. "Hey, sis...Did something happen between mom and dad that day?"

"Not at all. Why do you ask?"

"They look...unhappy."

"I don't think they had a serious argument, at least."

"What do you mean by 'serious'?"

"Oh, it was nothing. Father didn't want her spending excessive money on your lessons, blah blah blah. Something about 'invest more time in Elice's future for once'. It might have been a financial issue, I'm not sure."

"I...see."

"It's nothing to worry about, believe me. They're over it by now. We have enough to support the both of us, so it's no longer a problem!"

"Right..." Marth stood up. "I'm going to go put this in another frame..."

"Oh! Did you finish my room?"

"Y...Yep! All dusted!"

"Front and back?"

"Elice! I did it. All shiny and new. Just trust me." Marth laughed nervously and sped away, not turning back once. "I have to...call Merric anyway!"

She glanced back down at the shards of glass, sighed, and resumed picking them up.