Can I go next? Please?

Sure. I mean, I'm the only other one there, so who else would tell it?

Antonia

Antonia took a deep breath. The idea of telling someone about her hair was honestly terrifying. But she trusted Alfred. She'd already told him about the glowing part of it, and he was clearly in pain despite how he tried to remain cheerful as they set up a campsite for the night.

"Alfred." she said, drawing his attention from the fire he was attempting to start despite the lack of use of one of his arms. "What's wrong with your shoulder?"

He smiled, and shrugged the uninjured shoulder, "I think it might be broken, but, well, not much we can do about it for now. But it's alright."

"But…" she took another breath and blurted, "I can help!"

"More magic?" he guessed, casually sitting down beside the fire he was so far failing to start. "Well, alright. I can't do more than basically act as my own painkiller without Mattie."

She smiled and sat down beside him. Her hair had begun to unravel between the confrontation and the water, so Antonia took one of the pieces that had mostly fallen out and considered how she would wrap it as she asked, "You can do magic, too? I thought you said Matthew had invisibility."

"Yeah. He does. I'm best with what Lukas calls 'personal enhancement'. You know, superhuman strength, superhuman speed." Alfred replied. She nodded, and carefully began to wrap the strand of hair around the injured shoulder. Despite her care, he still winced and let out a hiss of pain.

"Sorry." she said as she finished. Then she began to sing. Alfred's face was curious as her hair began to glow anew, stretching from the roots down towards the ends. The light slowly made it to the hair around his shoulder. He winced again just as the light reached him, but then she watched as he slowly relaxed and let out a relieved breath.

Alfred smiled as she unwrapped his shoulder, "Wow. Good as new." He moved his arm curiously, as if to test out if it really was as he said. His smile widened. "Thanks."

"So you said that Lukas knows about magic, too?" she asked curiously.

"Oh yeah. He's been teaching me and Mattie for the last few months." Alfred answered, "But I'm more interested in your magic. Is it all focused on your hair? I've never seen magic like that. How long have you known about it?"

She gave an uncertain smile and answered, "Since forever. Papa found out when I was a baby, and some people tried to cut it. But when they did," she pulled out the small chocolate brown strand of hair she had, "it lost its power and turned brown. He said that… this sort of healing magic, and the ability to reverse aging… is really rare, and that if people knew…"

"You can reverse aging? Lukas said that it's one of the things that is- should be- impossible. Is it actually reversing aging, or is it just an illusion? How long does it last? Time magic isn't sustainable." Alfred asked.

"Really?" Antonia replied. How strange. When Francis had taught her about magic, he had said nearly everything was possible as long as you had the raw magic, the willpower, and the potential for whatever type of magic you tried. "Well, I think mine actually… lasts. Which is why papa says its so special, and it has to be protected."

Alfred's head tilted in consideration. She could almost see the possibilities running through his mind in his sky blue eyes. "But it is connected to your hair? I don't really know much about object-oriented magic. Lukas and Emil can do it I think, but I couldn't pick it up. That's really neat, though."

She gave a half-hearted smile, wrapping her arms around her knees, "I guess so."

"Or is it really not?" he asked after a few beats of silence.

"Well…" she began, not entirely sure how to explain, "Because of what happened when I was a baby- when people tried to cut it and take it for themselves- I think whatever happened must have scared papa. Really badly. He just wants to protect me from people who would want to use me for my gift or take it away, which is why he never let me…" she sighed, looking away from her companion, "Why I never left…"

Alfred leaned forward, looking at her with what she thought was concern, "Why you never left the tower." He nodded, "That makes sense, I guess. But do you still want that? You seem happy. I can't say how happy you were, there, but I do know that nobody likes feeling like they are locked up. Everyone wants to be free."

"No." she replied. "But… Oh, I don't know. I just… I know that I would hurt papa. He's always been so afraid of the idea of losing me, you know? I'm all he has. I don't want to scare him, but… the world, it's so beautiful." she ran her hands through the grass near her feet. "Papa tried to keep me happy in the tower. Anything I wanted, he would get me. Paint, books, fabric, a guitar… he even made the roof into a rooftop garden for me to grow tomatoes. He always tried to find new things he could teach me how to do to keep me entertained. But it still… wasn't enough I guess. How terrible is that? Papa did everything he could, and I still did something like this."

"But that makes sense. Why shouldn't you want to leave? It's only human. I think, if he loves you like you say, he'd be happy that you are happy." Alfred said. He sounded so sure that she could believe him. She let out a breath of air, stretching out her arms.

She asked, "So what about you? You said you didn't even know your name, right? So how do you know Matthew is your twin brother?"

"Well… the people at the orphanage said we showed up one day in a basket, holding onto each other with nothing but the blanket over us and two little wooden carvings on a cord. Kiku told me later that what I had was a powerful, but pretty archaic, protective charm. They named us Alfred and Matthew, though they couldn't tell the difference between us so we eventually decided I would be Alfred and he Matthew." her companion said, staring off into the evening. "We have no idea who our parents were, or where they were from. There wasn't even a note with us. We lived in the orphanage, but eventually Matthew was adopted and became Matthew Williams."

"... you weren't adopted with him, were you?" she asked carefully.

Alfred's expression darkened. "No." he was silent for a few moments. She feared to break the silence for him. "Eventually I was adopted too, but I ran away, looking for Matthew. That's when I first began to steal."

"But how did you find Matthew again?" she asked quietly. With how close the pair of twins were, she thought it must have been terrible to be separated like that.

Alfred explained, "Well, there's one other type of magic we both have. We call it our 'twin bond'. I can just… always tell how far away he is, and in what direction. We don't take long separation well- my magic doesn't work so well without him, and it's the same with him. I can tell when he's feeling a strong emotion, or when he's been seriously hurt…"

She let out a gasp of realization, "That's what happened! When we were fighting that guy, Matthew was hurt! Is he okay?!"

"He's alive." Alfred replied quickly. "But, yeah, that's what happened. He was stabbed, right here." he pointed to his middle. "He doesn't have a magical healer, though, so it still hurts."

Antonia considered this for a few moments. "So… if you knew Matthew was hurt, why didn't you go to him?"

"Because you were in danger." he answered, as if it was the easiest answer in the world. She didn't think it actually had been, though. In his shoes, she did not think it would have been easy at all. "I knew he was with Gilbert, and I trust him enough to at least keep Matthew alive. He might have always tried to arrest us, but he's not a bad guy. And I guess Gilbert managed it. I'll have to thank him later- once I make sure he hasn't gone and arrested Matthew."

"If he's hurt, we should go find him." Antonia said, "I can heal him."

Alfred waved a hand in her direction, "We can do that in the morning. I'm tired, you're tired, and he's not in too much danger. Don't worry." he paused for a moment, "By the way, Aunt Katyusha gave me your bag instead of mine." He slung the bag off of his shoulder and handed it to her, "You can have it back. You probably have mine or Mattie's."

She accepted her bag from him, before she checked the bag she had been given. It seemed to be Alfred's, though she wasn't sure. She handed it to him anyway. Then she looked into her own bag, and sighed in relief when she found the glittery crown still wrapped in a few of the dresses she bought. She wondered once again if she would really have to give it back. It was so pretty and shiny!

However, there was something missing. Romano was still with Matthew. She just hoped he wasn't too worried.

Do I get to say something finally or am I just going to have to keep listening to all of you ramble on?

But you'll give everything away!

You've never one for the dramatics, dear. Let the children have their fun.

Fine.

I'll tell this part then. Before you start freaking out, I'll keep the spoilers or whatever to a minimum.

Romano

Romano woke up in the morning without Antonia.

He immediately wanted to go into a panic, until he saw the slumbering forms of Gilbert and Matthew and remembered the previous days' events. Stupid Matthew, getting injured like that- and then he tried to convince them that he was fine, and Romano almost believed him. Almost. But Romano was too much of an overprotective older-brother type to let it go so easily. Good thing Gilbert shared the same trait- ugh, sharing traits with the older potato bastard, he was surprised god hadn't just struck him down for thinking something like that.

However, there were other important things to consider. Like the fact that it was Antonia's birthday and he was not there with her. He would not allow that to happen.

He supposed there was a positive side to the deal Gilbert and Matthew had made the night before- Gilbert would help Matthew return to his brother, but they would go their separate ways before getting all of the way there (otherwise Gilbert would feel obligated to arrest them, and Matthew had put his foot down to allowing that). There was more to it, of course. Romano was surprised how well he could still read Gilbert, even after all of these years. It was Antonia's birthday, and he wanted to be back at home with his family.

Romano could not even pretend a little bit that it didn't sting, realizing that. He wanted to scream to the bastard that Antonia was so close, that he had found her, dammit! But, well, he was a chameleon.

And as he had known for a very long time, chameleons could not speak.

However, there were other ways of communicating that it was time for them to wake their lazy asses up. He went to Gilbert first, since Matthew was injured and needed rest to heal. Gilbert was sprawled beside the dead fire, his expression for once calm. Romano took only a second to look at it before he slapped the man across the cheek.

Damn, he hadn't gotten the chance to do that in years. He'd forgotten how fun it was.

Gilbert went bolt upright, nearly sending Romano falling to the ground. He was too busy laughing at Gilbert's startled expression to care.

"What the-" Gilbert began, before catching sight of the chameleon and instead saying, "Oh, it's you. What was that all about?" Romano rolled his eyes- how the hell had Gilbert expected him to answer that? Sign language? He didn't have the right fingers for that, nor did he actually know it in the first place. Did Gilbert even know sign language?

As Romano hopped down to the ground, Gilbert rubbed his eyes and stretched. Romano crawled over to where Matthew was curled up, and gently tapped his cheek. He didn't need Matthew being surprised- if Matthew moved too suddenly he might hurt himself further.

His first few taps didn't seem to affect Matthew at all. Oh, great. He was going to end up being one of those deep sleepers, wasn't he?

Romano poked Matthew's face with a little more force. Still, nothing. He may as well have been dead, but the rise and fall of his chest told otherwise.

"Need help?" Gilbert asked. He seemed as wide awake as ever already. He approached Matthew, and gently shook him to no effect, "Huh. Kid sleeps like a rock, doesn't he?" Romano took the moment to glare at the red-eyed man, before returning his attention to waking up the sleeping beauty.

Slapping the kid with his tail did nothing but bring about some strange grumbling noise and slight movement. Gilbert began to shake Matthew's shoulders again, bringing about more of the grumbles and a hand swatted in their direction.

"D'you think he'd wake up if I said I was going to arrest him?" Gilbert wondered. Romano only shrugged. "I wonder what that Alfred does to wake him up. Any ideas?" Why did Gilbert expect him to know? He was a chameleon, not a fucking miracle worker.

Gilbert stood up, but Romano turned his attention back to Matthew. Hm. He tried poking a few more times, but then he noticed Gilbert bringing over his little water pouch. Romano hopped back into the grass and watched as Gilbert poured some of the water onto Matthew's head.

"Hey!" Matthew growled, shaking his head. At least he was awake.

"You wouldn't wake up." Gilbert replied with a shrug as he replaced the stopper on his water pouch. Matthew groaned, before sitting up with a wince.

Gilbert seemed to notice as Romano had, "Stay still a minute. Let me check the wound, and then we can get ready to go if you're feeling up to moving." Matthew let out a sigh but nodded. Romano watched as Gilbert carefully unwrapped the bandages he'd carried within his own supplies. The chameleon winced upon seeing the wound again. It looked a little red to him, but he left the diagnosis to Gilbert.

"Yeah, it looks like that poison I mentioned might be setting in, but it doesn't look too bad yet." Gilbert noted, "As I said, yet. But when you find your brother you tell him I said that he better take you to a doctor or I'll make sure to kick his ass before I send him off to prison."

Matthew let out a chuckle, "I imagine Alfred's going to fuss over me as soon as he sees me. You don't have to worry about that."

"Good. It's the job of a brother to worry." Gilbert replied as he re-wrapped the wound with more bandages from his bag. "I'll carry your bag for you until we separate. Don't strain yourself. If you need to stop you better tell me."

"Alright." Matthew said in a long-suffering but good-natured tone. The boy rubbed his eyes and let out a yawn. Romano climbed up to the boys shoulder. Matthew smiled at him and said, "Good morning, Romano." He might have gone a little red as he turned away. Why was the kid smiling at him?

They set off at a slow pace. Romano couldn't begrudge Matthew that, since it looked like walking pained him even if he didn't complain. Whenever Romano decided Matthew had had enough, he'd glare at Gilbert until he called for them to stop for a break. He also kept a careful watch on Matthew's temperature- as much as he could recall, most of the slower poisons made the sufferer feverish. As far as Romano could tell, there was no fever just yet, and if there was, it was low.

It was at most an hour (probably less) of this before Matthew announced, "We're close. I can make it myself from here."

"You're sure?" Gilbert asked, standing with a sort of unsure stance. Likely he was not sure if he should press the issue or not. Romano sighed. The worry over the kid was sweet and such a Gilbert thing to do, but Romano would have the kid, and once they got to Antonia, she could heal him if things got too dire. He trusted Matthew and Alfred enough for that should it become necessary, but he'd prefer not to have to resort to that. However, with Antonia-bleeding-heart over there, she'd likely see him wince once and offer to help.

Matthew nodded, "He's not far- I'm sure he can tell I'm close. If there's an issue, he'll come for me. Go. I'll be-"

"If you say that you'll be fine one more time, I'll-" Gilbert huffed and threw his hands in the air, "Just stop saying that. You better live so I can say I'll see you around without being a liar."

"Well, now I just have to live." Matthew remarked dryly.

Gilbert snorted, "Hell, yeah, you do! With the promise of being graced with my awesome presence in the future, who wouldn't hang onto life with everything they have?" Romano grumbled under his breath. Stupid insufferable potato bastard.

He'd missed the jerk.

"Alright. I guess… goodbye." Matthew said with awkward uncertainty.

"Goodbye. I'll see you around." Gilbert replied with a little less awkwardness- honestly he was probably just covering up like always.

Then the pair parted, Matthew continuing on towards his brother and Antonia, while Gilbert went in another direction. Romano watched as Gilbert disappeared through the trees, wondering when he'd see the idiot again. Hopefully soon, should things go according the plan.

The first sign to Romano that they truly were getting close to Antonia and Alfred was a shout that sounded like Alfred. Instantly Matthew sped up despite Romano's glare- did he really want to hurt himself?!- and within seconds they arrived within a clearing.

The first thing he noticed was the horse attempting to drag Alfred away. But Romano didn't care, because Antonia was right there. Instantly he leapt to the ground and ran to Antonia, before frantically checking her for any sign of injury or distress. Who knew what could have happened to her in Alfred's care with no other supervision?!

Antonia began to laugh as he scrambled to and fro. "Romano! I've missed you, too!"

"What is going on here?!" Matthew demanded, looking fierce despite the bandages, the sweat on his face, and the hand clutching to his injury. Everyone froze, even Romano, like children being caught misbehaving.

"Mattie!" Alfred cried, drawing Romano's attention to him and the horse, who had a grip on his shirt. Alfred tried to dart forward for his brother, startling the horse and sending them staggering a few paces.

Then the horse and Romano locked eyes. He knew that horse.

Alice Kirkland?!

The other's green eyes widened with recognition when they saw him. Her jaw went slack, allowing Alfred to run for his brother and wrap him in a hug. He saw her eyes stare at him, then go to Antonia, as her eyes widened further and looked back to him. Seeking confirmation that it was him, and the girl with him was who she thought it was.

He nodded.

Thank you for your time.