A/N: This time I would like to thank Aquatwin for her review. It made me very happy :D.

Chapter Seven:

In Which the Plot Thickens

~Rima's POV~

"You mean like the Titania from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream?" Nagihiko asked.

"Umm… Titania the queen of the fairies," said Ardi.

"Married to Oberon?"

Ardi looked stunned, "How'd you know?"

"I told you, Shakesp—" he began, but stopped and just shook his head. "Never mind that. Where is Titania?"

"At her palace! Where did you think she would be?"

"How do we get there?" I asked. Ardi turned to me and blinked.

"By portal stone, of course."

"A portal stone? Where do we get one of those?"

"Well—" the goblin began, and stopped as there was a knocking on the door. He ran to answer it, and in walked my very own fairy godmother. She was wearing an ordinary street dress and her wings were somehow hidden.

"Cassandra!" Nagihiko and I exclaimed at the same time. Her head turned in our direction and recognition ignited in her eyes.

"What are you two doing here? I thought—oh, yeah, that's right," she began. "Okay, what do you want?"

"Can you take our curses off?" I asked plainly.

"Yes, but I won't," Cassandra said. "You have to do that yourselves."

"How?" Nagihiko asked.

"I'm not telling," sang Cassandra. "Now both of you—out!" She took us by our ears light we were naughty children and dragged us into the hallway, where she dumped us.

"I thought you were supposed to be our fairy godmother," I said, touching my ear where she had grabbed it.

"I am," she stated, "And I'm doing what I think is best for the two of you."

The door slammed closed, and we both sat there, staring at it in silence for a while.

"Who knew fairy godmothers could be rude," Nagihiko said. I nodded.

~In Japan, a few hours later (remember the time difference)~

Amu flipped her phone shut and sighed. Why isn't Rima answering? It was late enough in the morning that she should be awake. Rima didn't usually sleep in past ten. Well, there was only one thing to do about it: she would go see Rima herself.

Pulling her shoes on at the door, Amu yelled, "Mama, I'm going to Rima's house!"

"Okay," her mother called back cheerfully.

Amu closed the door behind her and took off down the street. It didn't take long for her to reach the Mashiro residence, and when she did, she promptly rang the doorbell. Rima's mother answered.

"Hello, Amu-chan," she smiled.

"Good morning, Mashiro-san. Is Rima here?"

"Oh, no she's not," said Mrs. Mashiro. "She's having a two week sleepover with Nadeshiko."

"N-N-Nadeshiko?" Amu managed to stutter. She was so shocked that all she could do was just stand there, staring at Rima's mother.

"Yes."

"Nadeshiko is back?" she began thinking aloud. "Why didn't she tell me!" Amu bowed slightly and excused herself. She began running toward the Fujisaki mansion.

Nadeshiko is back. Why didn't I know? Why would Rima be at her house? And for two weeks? That seems like a really long time. Something isn't right, Amu thought.

By the time she'd reached Nagihiko's house, she was panting really hard. Baaya answered the door and greeted Amu.

"The young master isn't here right now," she said.

"Is Nadeshiko here?" Amu asked.

"No, she is still studying in Europe."

"Oh. Uh, thank you, I need to be going," Amu said, and began the walk back to her own home. Something is definitely wrong.

To: M. Rima

From: H. Amu

Subject: Where are you?
Rima-chan, where are you? Your mother said you were with Nadeshiko, but Nade-chan is still studying in Europe. And Nagihiko isn't home, either. What's going on? Did you and Nagihiko elope? XD Just kidding. But seriously, where are you?

~Amu

~In London, England; Rima's POV~

Sometime in the early morning, I was rudely awakened by my cell phone. It was still dark outside, so after shutting the darn thing up, I went right back to sleep. When I woke up several hours later, I took a look at the text message I'd received. It was from Amu.

Hey, Nagihiko," I hissed to the boy sleeping on the ground next to my bed. Apparently, he hadn't really been asleep, because his eyes opened immediately and he turned to face me.

"Yes, Rima-chan?"

"Amu wants to know where I am," I said.

"So?" He asked. A tick mark appeared on my head.

"What should I tell her?"

"I don't know. Something that will make her not try to find us."

"Like what?" I asked, getting really irritated. How was I supposed to come up with something to tell Amu? If I told her a specific place, she might go there looking for me.

"Um… tell her that we eloped," he said in a teasing voice. Crap. Did he even realize that he just gave me a command? Whatever the case, he just dropped in my favor. Not that I favored him at all.

To: H. Amu

From: M. Rima

Subject: Re: Where are you?

Yes, Nagihiko and I eloped XD

I put the "XD" at the end in the hopes that she would think that I was joking. Then I sent the message and put my phone away. Nagihiko sat bolt upright on the floor.

"Did you seriously tell her that?"

"Well, you commanded me to," I scoffed. He put his face in his hands.

"I'm sorry, Rima-chan, I forgot. I should have worded it differently."

"She'll think I'm joking," I stated blankly, knowing it was the truth. "Are we going to get breakfast? I'm hungry."

"Yeah… let's do that," he said.

~At breakfast~

Silence.

This was awkward.

"So what now?" I asked. Nagihiko sighed.

"I don't know," he said. "We can go talk to Cassandra Vamist and the goblins again. They might be able to answer some questions. "

So we finished our breakfast and headed to Cassandra's door swung open only a few moments after we knocked. Cassandra stood on the other side, staring at us, unblinking.

"What do you want?"

"First, we would like some answers," said Nagihiko. Nodding, she let us in and we sat on one of the beds, her on the other facing us.

"What would you like to know?"

"What are the limits of the curses?" I asked.

"The limits of your curse, Rima dear, are obvious," Cassandra began. A tick mark appeared on my head when she said 'Rima dear', but I didn't say anything. "You must do whatever anyone tells you. And although with strong willpower you can put it off, you will eventually have to do it, unless you are ordered otherwise.

"On the other hand, Nagihiko is not able to lie. He can remain silent, tell half-truths, or even tell lies if he truly believes they are true. But he cannot say something like 'the sky is pink'. Is that all? I have things to do."

"What about our charas?" I asked.

"What about them?"

"Can we have them back?" Nagihiko asked."

"Fine. Here," said Cassandra, shocking us both. Three eggs appeared in midair and dropped into our hands. I tapped mine.

"Kusukusu?"

"They're stuck in there until the curse is broken," Cassandra explained. I felt a sting in my nose and bit down hard on my lip to keep from crying.

"So we are meant to break the curse?" Nagihiko's eyes lit up.

"Of course! But you have to figure it out on your own. Now before I leave, I have a question for Rima."

My head raised in surprise. "What?"

"What are your feelings for Nagihiko?"

"..." I wasn't sure how to answer. This could have something to do with the curse. Maybe she would take it away with a specific answer? But why? It didn't make sense to me, so I just decided to go with the same thing I've been saying since elementary school, "I hate him."

Cassandra frowned. "Very well. We'll have to raise the risk here, I see. Drat! These things are so hard to rhyme!" She tapped her chin with her wand. "Oh, I have it!

Half-truths are not good enough

You'll say only truthful stuff."

Nagihiko and I both sweat-dropped at her lame rhyming skills. She waved her wand at Nagihiko, who looked horrified. "There. You can thank me later." Without a word of good-bye, she walked out the door and slammed it behind her.

"Wow, Cassy must be really serious about you two," said a nasally voice. I looked around but didn't see anyone. Suddenly, the female goblin from last night popped up from behind the other bed and I jumped at the sight of her.

"So why'd you come back?" asked another, more familiar voice, as Ardi popped up next to his sister. Both of them looked and smelled a world cleaner than last night.

"It looks like we have to find Titania," Nagihiko sighed.

"Ha! Good luck with that, humans," scoffed Raye.

"Is she hard to find?" I asked, still cradling Kusukusu's egg.

"No," Raye replied, "Not once you get to the Realm of Faerie. But you guys are humans, so the only way for you to get there is by portal stone."

"Where do we get one of those?"

"That's the hard part," Ardi said. Nagihiko raised an eyebrow questioning.

"There's only one portal stone in London that we know of," explained Raye, "And it's not going to be easy to get."

"You know where it is?" I asked eagerly, ignoring the second part of Raye's statement.

"Well..." she brought a paw-like hand up to her dog-ish face, "I might."

"Okay," Nagihiko rolled his eyes, "What do you want?"

"Peanut butter," she stated firmly, "A whole jar of it."

I blinked. Is she serious?

"Peanut butter?" he asked doubtfully.

"Yes," Raye nodded. "Peanut butter. You give me a jar of peanut butter, and I'll tell you where to find the portal stone."

"Okay, it's a deal," Nagihiko nodded. "Where is the portal stone?"

"How do I know you'll bring me peanut butter?" Raye asked.

"He can't lie," I said, "He's telling the truth. We'll bring you some peanut butter. Tell her, Purplehead."

"Yes, we will give you a jar of peanut butter."

"Okay," Raye sat back on her haunches, looking satisfied. "The portal stone is with a lady named Susie Evergreen. She's a witch, and makes a living telling people's fortunes. You'll have to go to her shop and find the stone."

"Where is it?" I asked.

"That," Ardi piped up, "I can help you with. But I don't work for free, either."

"We'll give you a jar of peanut butter, too," said Nagihiko. The goblin shook his head and held up two digits on his front paw/hand.

"Two."

"Fine. Two jars of peanut butter," I said, getting irritated with the goblins.

"Good. I'll take you to her, then," said Ardi, "But you're on your own after that."

A/N: Sorry that this chapter was so short. The next one should be longer, and definitely more exciting.

That blue button down there is magical. In fact, it's a portal stone. If you click on it, it will take you to the magical world of reviews, where you can write a review for this chapter! Why don't you click on it and see for yourself?