A/N: Okay, yeah, here's the next chapter - and I'm going to try to add more Aion stuff. Because I just feel like I've kinda been neglecting him.

And without further ado - voila! I present to you chapter 10!

CHRONO

"Hey, Chrono, when are you making dinner?"

Aion lounged on the couch surrounded by all his gang members, and when I walked into the living room, they all turned and simultaneously shot me a glare. I gulped and hurried into the kitchen.

"Right away."

I began to pull random ingredients from the fridge and cupboards, planning on throwing them together into a pot or pan and either boiling them or frying them together to make some barely-edible food (the typical meal in the Daemon household) when Aion called out, "Actually, on second thought, don't bother, Chrono. We've decided to go to the ball tonight."

I froze, turnips halfway out of the fridge.

"I heard they're serving food there," Aion continued, with a malicious note in his voice. He was torturing me, and enjoying it. Typical.

"And the prince and princess will be there, too, I've heard. Have you ever met them before, Chrono? Oh, right, you're going to the ball too, aren't you? Well, we'll be sure to meet you there, brother dear!"

"Ooh, I bet Chrono looks so cute in a dress!" Shader squealed. "Hey, Aion, do you think the princess would let me bring one of my kitties with me? Hmmm?"

She rubbed one of her kittens under the chin, purring at it.

"Yoo-hooo! Chrono, I'm here!"

"Looks like your savior is here," Aion called out to me. "Hey, Mary! Want to join us at the ball tonight? We're all going!"

He didn't seem to surprise her much. If he did, she didn't show it. "Well, I hope you have a marvelous time there, flirting and dancing your feet off!" she chirped. "Chrono, I'm going up to your room! Come up whenever you have a moment, would you?"

I debated with myself mentally about who was worse company. Aion and the others, or Mary?

"Chrono, are you going to be wearing make-up? Because I'm sure Rizelle has some she could lend to you."

Mary it was.

-0-

"Mary! They're going to torment me there!"

"They already do anyways, so what difference does it make?" she demanded. She pulled another gown from her suitcase and held it up to my body, frowning. "Not this one either," she muttered. "Chrono, I hate your hair and complexion! It's impossible to find a good fabric and color that suits you well!"

I sighed. Once again, she wasn't really listening to me.

Oh, well. I'd just try my very best to avoid Aion and his gang there. Should be easy enough - they'd all be dressed up in some sort of gothic attire, and they'd be in a group, so it would be a piece of cake to stay away from them - right?

If only.

ROSETTE

It was the third ball - which, thankfully, meant that it was the last. Neither me nor Joshua would have to suffer through this same-sex flirting anymore.

And boy oh boy, was it torturesome.

"So, Joey, I hear that you like archery and riding." One girl - Cornelia? Cordelia? All these girls' names sounded identical to me - lowered her head and fluttered her eyelashes at me. "Maybe you could take me with you someday. I have a mare of her own, a beautiful dappled gray. I named her Lady. Would you like to meet her?"

Inwardly, I groaned. On the outside, though, I was careful to hide every bit of my disgust behind a sunny smile. "I wish I could, Cordelia - is it Cordelia?"

Her smile faltered for an instant. "Cornelia. But you can call me Corrie."

Corrie. Some other girl I'd met, Anastasia something-or-the-other, had insisted I call her Annie. Another girl, Elizabeth, had told me her nickname was Ellie. Couldn't these girls come up with more imaginative nicknames? Say, Zabe for Elizabeth and Nellie for Cornelia? And maybe Chrona could be a nickname for Corona or something like that...?

Rosette. No-no to Chrona-thoughts. Focus on the girls in front of you. Don't let down your brother's reputation!

"All right... Corrie. I wish I could, but I've got a bunch of princely work I have to do that keeps me really busy, you see? I just haven't got the time." I winked at her as though we shared some kind of secret. Even though I had to fight the instinct to gag, it worked: She instantly squealed, blushed a respectable baby pink instead of the fire-hydrant red I was so much more used to, thanks to the amount of time I'd been spending with a certain somebody recently, and backed off with a sort of triumphant smile on her face.

She was instantly replaced by another look-alike.

I couldn't take any more of it.

"I'm sorry," I told her as I got up from my throne. (Not my idea. The servants'. Honestly, we gave them too much free rein around this place.) "Can I go talk to my br- sister for a while?"

The girls all nodded in understanding and cleared a path for me to reach Joshua, who was in a similar situation - except he, of course, was being wooed by young men.

It looked even worse than my situation.

"Such a pretty thing you are," one man said with a suggestively raised eyebrow. (It made him look like he was constipated. Seriously. What did girls find attractive in these men?) "You look so thin and slender... If you ever get in trouble, you won't have to worry a bit. I'll come to your rescue as your knight in shining armour." He winked and leaned over to kiss Joshua's hand.

The look on my brother's face...

Priceless.

I couldn't just stand by and watch as he had a nervous breakdown, though - in spite of my love of torturing him, he was still my brother - so I shoved my way through the crowd and grabbed Joshua's hands, pulling him upright. The look of relief on his face couldn't even be described with words.

Neither could the rage on the face of the "knight in shining armour."

"Who do you think you are?" he growled as he got up from his kneeling position on the ground. He seemed like he'd been about to serenade the "princess" with poorly-written poems about "her" elegance, beauty, et cetera, et cetera... Well, he'd be easy enough to handle. I'd been looking for an outlet to let out my anger anyhow. This would do quite nicely.

"I'm the prince, you mindless faggoty worm," I snarled, getting right up into his face as only men did to each other, "and I am Princess Rosette's brother. Would you mind explaining to me why you were assaulting my sister in public for the whole world to see? Look at her! Whatever you did to her, it must've been horrible! She's almost on the verge of tears!"

Joshua shot me a disgusted look. He didn't approve one whit of what I was doing, and he was making sure I knew it. He must've been more desparate than I'd thought, though, because he obligingly burst into tears just as he was supposed to.

"He... He was telling me about how he wanted to get me alone and...what he'd do to me there..." Joshua sniffled. I felt both pride and disgust. First off, I wasn't that kind of weakling - who on earth would believe he was actually me? Clearly, everyone would, and that brought me to my second point - Joshua was an amazing actor. I made a mental note to hire him off to some acting troupe later to make some extra cash. You never knew what you needed to buy, after all, and I didn't get a very large allowance despite my royal blood.

"It's okay," I fake-soothed. I shot a final glare at the dumbly blinking guy who'd just previously been blathering about "oh, the lovely Princess Rosette, how soothing and peaceful her voice doth seem, and the sheen of her rich blue eyes do outshine even the sky"...

There was a reason I hated poetry.

This was it.

I brought Joshua over to the dining hall, where he continued to fake-cry while simultaneously hissing at me, "Jesus, even Azmaria's better than them!"

"Of course she is," I said, unperturbed. "She always acts so nice and gentle and stuff when you two are being lovey-dovey."

He instantly turned pink. "H-Hey!" he stammered. "We do not act lovey-dovey!"

"Oh, but you do," I replied, enjoying myself immensely. "You know, when you guys are in the kitchen and sharing an ice cream sundae..."

"That was once, and only because the chief was begging me to try out his new ice cream recipe."

"And that time you swam together at the beach-"

"She started that, and it was a water fight, not love-bird stuff!"

"-and, of course, let's not forget that time you were out for a walk together at midnight and the little incident at the fountain."

"Wait, you saw that?"

"Wait! Y-You were there?"

The two of us turned to face Azmaria, who was now an almost identical shade of red as Joshua. "Th-That was private!" she stammered. "Y-Y-You..."

"I never reveal my secrets." Just to fluster them both a bit more, I gave them a little secretive wink and added, "I know about all the other stuff, too."

They both looked away and blushed even more, if that was even possible.

"Well, I'm going back to flirting with girls," I said to them with a devilish smirk on my face. It wasn't often that I got to get the upper hand with Azmaria, not when she wasn't being lovey-dovey anyway, so I made sure to treasure every opportunity. "Do you two want some privacy? I'm pretty sure a guest room is open..."

If we'd been in a bedroom, they would've both thrown pillows at me.

Grinning, I got up and left, leaving the two flustered love-birds sitting next to them in what seemed like a normal situation to outsides, but really was the most awkward situation ever.

CHRONO

"Mary, why do all the carriages you hire for me always look like some sort of vegetable?"

"Well, duh, the driver's a vegetable carrier!" Mary replied, with a kind of how obvious is that? tone in her voice. "Now, go and break some hearts! I want a full update on your situation with the princeeeehh...prince when you get back, all right?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Sure, I'll give you an update on my situation with the prince-eeehh, but there's not much of a situation to update on. We're just friends."

She smiled knowingly.

"What? It's true!"

She shook her head. "Boy, you are in such denial. Well, hurry along now, and try not to run into Aion's gang!"

Oh, drat. I'd completely forgotten about them. And what exactly did she mean by "you are in such denial"?

Before I could turn and ask her, though, the orange, pumpkin-shaped carriage was off and running, and it didn't take long for Mary to fade into the distance.

In a few minutes, I arrived at the palace. I waved goodbye to the carriage driver as he drove away - he made quite a sight, a neon-orange carriage amidst all the delicate, lady-like blues and purples of the other carriages - and then turned to walk up the stairs.

The first thing I saw was a throne smack-dab in the middle of the dance floor.

The second thing I saw was Joshua merrily whistling and pushing the other throne to join its partner.

...the heck?

"Hey, Joshua!" I called out as I pushed and shoved my way through a buggy-eyed crowd of girls. It didn't take long to reach him - whenever I laid a finger on one of the girls, she instantly crumpled as though I'd dropped a ton of bricks on her. How weak were they, anyways?

He noticed me and gave me a smile. "Hey, Chrona! Lend me a hand, would you?"

I sighed, but helped him out anyway. As we pushed and shoved, I grunted, "So...what's up...with...the thrones?"

"The servants," he said cheerily, not the slightest bit out of breath. "They decided that since today is me and my sister's birthday, they'd celebrate it with a bit of fancying-up - you know, a tiara for her, a crown for me - but we both took them off a while ago - and then thrones for us to sit in, stuff like that..."

"Yeah, but what's with the thrones in the middle of the dance floor?"

"Oh." He shrugged. "They're not going to be used anymore, so I figured, why not put them where they'll be of some use? You know, bothering lovestruck dancers and stuff?"

One last shove and the thrones were in place. "There," he said in satisfaction. Done. Hopefully now, there won't be any more girls-"

"Prince Joshua!"

Suddenly, I was buried under a torrent of girls rushing forward to grab Joshua's arm. What happened to the weak girls that had tumbled at a single touch?

"Dance with me, please, Jo-Jo dear!"

"Dear Joey, would you care for a dance?"

"Joshy! Joshy, dance with me! I am the best in the kingdom, everyone knows it! Would you like a sample of my talents?"

I finally made my way out of the gaggle of girls who were almost suffocating Joshua under their weight. "You okay?" I called out to him.

He shot me a grimace and jerked his head to the side. "Later!" he shouted back. Then he turned to the first girl and, with a pained smile on his face, said, "I'll be happy to dance with you! Please wait your turn, all right? There are many other girls who are all just as eager for a dance as you are."

The girl pouted but backed off, only for another girl to replace her.

I recognized my cue to leave and quickly scurried off to the dining hall.

Well. What was I supposed to do now?

"Hey, Chrona! Where's my brother? Flirting with girls again?"

For some reason, Rosette laughed, as if this were immensely funny. "Azmaria's over by the balconies, if you want to talk to her. I've got some flirting of my own to do - you know, manners and all... See you later, okay?"

I nodded, and she vanished as quickly as she'd come. It amazed me how different Joshua and Rosette were: Joshua was wild and funny, and Rosette seemed more...reserved and polite.

Well, with nothing better to do, why not go talk to Azmaria? I sighed and walked back into the ballroom. The balconies were over on the left, right next to the entrance stairwell. Joshua was in the middle of dancing with some black-haired girl and maintaining a polite, interested expression on her face. After a bit of searching, I saw Azmaria on the left-most balcony, talking to somebody.

I looked again.

She was talking to Aion.

A/N: Jeez, that seems like an awful chapter, but I'm still a little proud of how often I'm updating. How long was it - two weeks or so? Better than the three months that I used to take.

And the story's almost done! Three, four, maybe five more chapters and the fanfic will be done at last!