(A.N. I am so sorry I haven't updated this in literally a year and more! I have no really good excuse, except that this was one of the best stories I have and keeping up with the style is almost exhausting. In retrospect this story was too ambitious, since I was trying to interweave this tale with the one in the play... still, I feel that this story does deserve getting back to, and here I am, back to it, mostly to give the readers of my other incest story a bit of a break from a number of quick updates!)

Sharpay eventually came out of her room, and she was entirely composed and herself once again. She found Ryan watching TV and looked at him, disgusted.

"Come on Ryan, we have work to do," she said, grabbing the remote and turning off the television. Ryan suppressed a slight groan. He was actually somewhat tired, despite the fact that he normally didn't get that way, even after quite a number of rehearsals.

"Shar, don't you want to talk about what happened?"

"Nothing happened," she snapped, apparently not wanting to talk about it, or straight up denying it.

"I just mean, the way you kissed me," Ryan said as he pressed the issue.

"It was nothing. I've kissed you before, you know," she stated flatly, sashaying to the studio.

"Yeah, but never quite like that," Ryan explained, stepping quickly to keep up with her strides.

"Whatever!" she cried, suddenly stopping and turning to him. "Look, I was tired and that made my emotions confused, that's all!"

"All right, all right," Ryan said, finally letting go of the situation. He didn't think that this entirely explained it, since Sharpay wasn't one to get confused even when she was tired. But he wasn't going to find out, it seemed, what the real cause was. The timing seemed odd though, since the night before Zeke had come to dinner. He wondered if that had been the catalyst for her explosion of emotion during their rehearsal, although he couldn't quite tell why it would be, unless she was, for some reason or another, unhappy with Zeke. Of course she was, though, since she didn't love him. She still loved Troy and for the life of him Ryan could not figure out why. He was nothing more than a shallow prettyboy, while Ryan had depth and mystique to his advantage. But he knew, as always, she would never love him. At least not the way she loved Troy. He did have one thing though – in a way, she loved Ryan more than Zeke.

What was the deal with Zeke, anyway? Why did Sharpay feel like she needed to keep a boyfriend? It was all part of her plan to keep up her appearances, supposedly. She always had a plan, she was always prepared. Nothing she did wasn't part of some long-term machine, each cog fitting into the next in a perfect interleave that worked people and all of society to her final goal. If pressed, Ryan would say that even Sharpay kissing Ryan like that, even her exasperated and confused emotions around and after the event, weren't real, but merely a deliberate act on her part. To achieve what end, Ryan still did not know.

Yet, no one knew Sharpay better than Ryan. (The reverse also being true, but not pertinent to this discussion.) Ryan should be able to tell when she's acting and when she's being sincere, shouldn't he? Come to think of it though, could he ever tell a time when she was sincere? Perhaps...back at the country club when she was crying because even Ryan had abandoned her. There may have been another time too, but the point was that it was very rare. Ryan should have been able to tell, though, whether this had been one of those rare times she was being sincere or if she was still attempting to deceive him and everyone else in the world.

They rehearsed for another two hours before Sharpay let Ryan go, and he went back to his idle television-viewing. Although the ballet was over, there was a baseball game on another channel that he watched. After all, he had been decent at baseball in his day, and had even shown Chad a thing or two back last summer. Come to think of it, that had been the time when he had gotten along best with anyone (other than Tom and Kelsi). So he watched the baseball game in silence, wishing his father could see him now so that he wouldn't think he was entirely homosexual.

To Ryan's surprise, Sharpay came into the room and sat on the couch next to him. "Look Ryan," she said after a pause. "I'm sorry I got mad at you. It wasn't your fault."

"Thanks Sharpay," Ryan said, smiling at his sister. It was a good act, a very well-feigned deceit. The only trick was, how much did she know? Ryan doubted she was being sincere, so he wasn't going to be either. But did she know that he was also deceitful, or did she take his words at face value? Oh, so many layers of lies! He also knew, however, that no matter what they both knew, they wouldn't say anything about it. They would both keep up the charade of feigning to one another that they were being true, because that is what was expected.

Sharpay sighed and snuggled up to Ryan. This wasn't too odd – even when she was acting normal she liked to cuddle with her brother. He was a warm body, and masculine in an offhand and non-threatening way. Of course the way they cuddled wasn't quite innocent for a brother and sister to touch, at least not at their age. Sharpay was more or less in Ryan's lap with her head resting on his strong chest. She closed her eyes, evidently content. It was good, now, that their parents were hardly ever around. They dare not let their parents see them like this.

Ryan wondered what would happen if he tried to kiss her. Probably, she would tell him he was crossing the thin but real line that she had laid out for their relationship and never let him touch her again. That would be... unwanted, Ryan thought, as he ran his fingers through her golden and slightly wavy hair. It was smooth and beautiful, always shiny and bright. She murmured a bit, she apparently liked that touch.

"I love you, Ry," she said softly, and Ryan's heart skipped a beat. He actually put a finger to his neck to make sure the pulse came back.

"But how?" Ryan asked.

"You're my favorite brother," she said, yawning. Of course...he was her only brother.

Act I, Scene IV

Lord Malvolio's Camp

Malvolio (Ryan): Scout, report!

Scout: Alas my lord, your brother has somehow seen the advancement and is preparing his defense of the city. We may be able to lay siege to it for some time.

Mal.: No, we will withdraw. If we cannot have an advantage, we will not assault them at all.

Scout: But lord, after we've come so far?

Mal.: We will only withdraw to a position out of sight. I have a better plan, one that will allow us to strike and succeed, but it needs time for it to work. You are dismissed! Lieutenant!

Exit Scout, enter Lieutenant.

Lieutenant: Yes sir?

Mal.: Begin to organize the men and have them retreat to the position behind the hills... nay, further! To the coast. I don't know how far my brother can see. We haven't seen any beacons, correct?

Lieu.: Correct sir. The only way he could find us is if he sends out scouts, whether they be on horseback or not.

Mal.: Of course a horse is easier to track. Have we gotten wind of any that are not ours?

Lieu.: No sir, although we cannot be completely certain. We have made a lot of tracks, we cannot quite account for all of them.

Mal.: Never mind, in any event, we know he has a scout who has seen us. But we have seen him too, so at least we're even in that respect. Dismissed, lieutenant!

Exit Lieutenant:

Mal.: Of course I have a plan. One that requires more stealth and secrecy than an army can provide, but it is my backup. Plan B requires that I sneak into the fortified city! How shall I do this, I do not yet know, but I know what I will do when I get in – I will kill my brother!