Mrawr! I'm back! I was being lazy with my other fanfic Red and not wanting to write a fight scene but I thought I should still update it before I updated this one. I've started at like 1am which is late but this chapter's being biting at my arse for like a week. So with out further ado I give you chapter ten of Liberated Aficionado, enjoy!

Chapter Ten

Sapphire blue eyes stared at the sleeping form before her. Slowly she reached out one slender finger…

poke…

poke…

poke…

"Go near me again with that finger, Kally, and I'll bite it." Daine growled sleepily.

"Aww! But Daine, look!" She thrust a poster in front of her sleeping sister's face. Daine cracked open one eye and immediately shut it as a fusion of obnoxious colours blinded her. She groaned and rubbed her eyes and opened it again.

"Kally, what the hell is this?" She glared at the offending poster.

"CARNIVAL!" Kally sung out loudly.

Daine winced. "…and?!" She demanded.

Kally smiled brightly. "You're taking me."

"No."

The grin slid off Kally's face and she gave Daine a long suffering look. "Pleeeze?" She begged, stretching the word out. "You could even take Numair for supervision…" She added with a devious smirk plastered on her innocent eleven year old face.

Daine gave a suspicious glance. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nuthin…just cos mama and papa are blind doesn't mean I am. I read Cosmo." She stated proudly.

"So that where you've gotten this Machiavellian streak from." Daine sulked against the pillows.

Kally frowned. "I don't know that word; what does it mean?"

Daine smirked knowingly. "That's for me to know…and you to read a dictionary and find out. Now scram princess; go harass Roald. He needs an alarm clock." A cheerful and scheming expression came upon Kally's face and she bounced out of the room. Daine stretched and moved to get out of bed but found she couldn't. Sighing irritably she flicked the duvet off her body.

"Miri, get your fat head off my stomach!"

"Make me, bitch." Came the drowsy reply. Daine reached for the water bottle she kept beside her bed and squirted Miri in the face, drenching her rainbow locks. With her eyes closed Miri reached up and groped around till she found Daine's head…then promptly smacked it.

"Ha." She drawled sluggishly, but got off her friend.

"You know, how you can sleep sideways is beyond me." Daine grumbled and stumbled out of bed.

"Shotgun first shower." Miri yelled and ran for the bathroom.

"We have more than one shower retard!" Daine yelled behind her.

"Well, I'm still starting mine before you!" Miri retorted before slamming the door behind her. Daine made a face at the closed door but wandered to her walk in closet and contemplated what to wear.

Thayet was about to take a well-deserved gulp of her morning caffeine rush when the delectable treat was taken right out of her hands leaving a teasing aroma of coffee in its wake.

"Cheers!" Daine said, downing the drink that was Thayet's only hope of getting through the day.

Thayet glared. "Why are you up this early on a Saturday?" She asked, mourning the loss of her drink. Oh well there was always more she thought spotting her best friend; the cappuccino maker.

"Carnival." Daine replied, hopping up onto the bench. "That thing you pushed out your cooch eleven years ago has aspirations to become the first human alarm clock."

Thayet looked slightly disturbed at her foster daughter's strange sense of aphorism but the feeling vanished once she locked eyes on her new newly made cup of coffee. She closed her eyes and puckered her lips slightly to take a sip of…air.

"Morning, Fifi!" Miri sung as she joined Daine on the counter with Thayet's second missing cup of coffee. Thayet stare angrily at the two of them.

"Good morning, Miriam." She said stiffly deciding to wait until they were gone before trying to make coffee again. Well, they do say the third time lucky.

"Please Thayet; I've walked in on you in the bathroom three times, you in the shower and even you and your husband. I think we know each other well enough for you to call me Miri."

"I remember." Thayet said even more icily.

Daine slurped at the coffee that was formally Thayet's. "Wow, you really need to start using locks in this house, huh?"

"Indeed." Thayet said, wishing they would just go already so she could get back to her coffee.

"We're going to the carnival with Numair for parental supervision and all. I mean, I know you don't trust me with you children."

Thayet raised her eyebrows. "And Numair agreed to give up his Saturday to spend with four children? When did you call him?"

"FYI it's three teenagers and a child and as for calling him…good point, I'll do it now." She reached behind her for the phone on the wall and dialled.

"You know his number by heart?" Thayet asked, surprised.

"You know it's rude to talk to someone while they're on the phone?" Daine countered before Numair picked up sounding more than slightly tired.

"What?!" He snapped into the phone.

"Don't you take that tone with me!" Daine rebuked. "Get dressed dear; we're going to the carnival. Pick you up at ten."

"I don't wanna go to the stupid carnival." Numair whined, sounding like a child. "I don't like clowns."

"That's circuses, dumbass. Bearded ladies and candyfloss are at carnivals. Pick you up at ten." Daine repeated a little more forcefully and hung up before he could argue again.

"He'd love to." She responded to Thayet who was looking at her with an eyebrow raised. Oh well, if it got them out of the house and away from her coffee she'd gladly dump them on her old friend.

"You can take the Hummer…" She subtly bribed to get them moving faster. "Jon and I need the Mercedes to go into work later on."

Daine flashed a smirk at her. "I know what you're doing, but I'm going to mindlessly go along with it, just because you threw the Hummer into the deal."

"It's the car less likely to be damaged by you." Thayet said dryly.

Suddenly Kally bounced into the kitchen singing loudly. "We're going to the carnival, we're going to the carnival oh yeah!"

Roald followed at a more sedate pace, shaking his head along with the iPod that seemed permanently attached to his hip.

"Time to go!" Miri yelled abruptly and poured the remains of her coffee into the sink along with the cup. Thayet watched this action with a withering glare. As soon as they shut the front door, Thayet bolted over to the coffee machine and poured herself a very very well deserved cup. She watched out the window as the hummer was backed out of the driveway and waved goodbye.

"Morning, dearest." Jon yawned behind her. "Ooh is that coffee? Thanks!" He took the cup from her. It came as a complete surprise to him when his wife clouted him hard on the head.

Despite his earlier disinclination, Numair was waiting for them outside his apartment building in a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the first few buttons undone. He was also wearing jeans and converse and his hair was freshly washed. When Daine pulled up he stared at her hair.

"…Pink…" He finally managed.

"I can almost feel the astounding amount of thought you must have put into that." She said sarcastically, reaching over Miri and opening the passenger door. "Miri, get in the back."

"Why?"

Daine rolled her eyes. "Because, you twat, Numair has longer legs than you so he needs more room."

Miri glanced at Numair's legs. "They're not that much longer than mine."

"Trust me, your dreams of supermodelling would be slashed if he were standing beside you. He's like six foot four."

Miri shrugged but stepped out. Now he could see her without the car door restricting his view Numair raised an eyebrow at Miri.

"I can see you've dressed for the circus." He said referring to Miri's outfit which consisted of a black tank top which had slash marks across the stomach revealing the hot pink top underneath, slashed sheer black stockings suspendered six inches down her thighs which were tucked into unlaced black and pink converse. Her outfit was topped off by the hot pink tutu she wore for a skirt.

Miri rolled her eyes. "Must we remind you again?! We're going to the carnival not the circus. Contrary to popular opinion, they are not the same thing."

"I was referring to your peculiar taste in fashion." He muttered.

"Hey, if you want demure then look at Daine." She pointed a finger behind her and climbed over the oblivious Roald to plonk herself in the middle. Numair did look at his girlfriend and almost raised his eyebrow again at their view of demure.

Daine was wearing her hot pink lock's pulled in a topknot then twisted into some sort of bizarre messy Japanese bun with two chopsticks stuck into it, her fringe slid over a face painted almost white with black lined eyes and ruby red lips, her dress was a light blue high collared Chinese style dress with silver embroidery that went to about mid-thigh with a split on either side that went almost to her hips. The dress had about four inches of exposed skin before meeting black leather boots.

Numair appraised her outfit. "You look good in blue." He concluded.

Daine smiled at him. "Thanks babe, are you going to get in or are we going to spend our day watching the doorman as opposed to eating candyfloss?"

Numair flushed and climbed in, grateful that Daine had made Miri sit in the back instead of him.

"Buckle up, Numy-pie." Daine started the hummer.

"Do you know how to drive?" Numair asked curiously.

"Yuss."

"Do you have a licence?"

"Nope."

Numair reached for his seatbelt.

The carnival was an exact likeness to the poster that Kally had shoved in Daine's face; full of ride's, people, and really obnoxious colouring. In fact Daine wanted to shoot whoever thought up the décor.

Urine yellow mixed with vomit green flashed against a backdrop of carrot orange to bring a giant banner publicly stating that this was indeed a carnival.

"Way to state the freaking obvious." Daine muttered. "Stupid banner."

Numair, who caught what she said, looked down at her, teeth flashing in a grin. "If you didn't like the colouring my dear then why did you drag me all the way out here?"

Daine's gaze fell upon a ride that stood out from the rest, mostly due to the loathsome pink heart and neon sign above the couples paring up for it. "Why, the tunnel of love of course." She answered merrily.

Numair followed her gaze and gulped. "You don't mean that…that monstrosity?!"

"Of course I did, Numy-pie. There's something incredibly arousing about making out on a giant swan floating on contaminated brown water while other people in their own swans floating on contaminated brown water smooch ahead and behind you don't you think?"

"I can scarcely think of anything more romantic." Numair said dryly.

"Miri, watch the kids. Come on, lover boy." Daine said, taking him by the hand and dragging him to the line away from Kally and Miri's knowing smirks and Roald's oblivious one.

"You know I really don't like the sound of making out on a giant swan floating on contaminated brown water while other people in their own swans floating on contaminated brown water smooch ahead and behind us. Sounds rather sickening to me." Numair criticized while the couple in front of them climbed into their boat and started to pash before the ride even went into the tunnel.

"It's another item to cross off your 'Thing's to do before I die' list." Daine said climbing into the large white swan boat.

Numair sighed and glared at the boat before climbing beside her. "I don't get how you make me do these things." He complained.

"It's a-"

"Quirk?" he cut her off.

"How ever did you know?" Daine asked, her tone was innocent but Numair caught a glimpse of a smirk before the darkness of the tunnel disguised her features.

"Well, now we're here we should really make the most of it." He purred, his earlier discouragement vanished.

"I didn't intend to spend the ride talking." Daine breathed before kissing him hard. Numair kissed her back just as hard and slid a hard up her dress to caress her through the fabric of her underwear. Daine moaned into the kiss and slid her tongue into his mouth. Within a few seconds they were making out as heavily as any of the couples before or after them on a giant swan floating on contaminated brown water.

Far too soon in Daine's opinion, the blaring lights of outside greeted them. They separated as the swan brought them blinking into the light. An unwelcome change from the dark calmness of the tunnel.

"I now see what the attraction of that ride is." Numair murmured to her as they got off the ride. Miri was waiting with Kally and Roald, large amounts of candy floss, toffee apples and a couple of corndogs in their hands.

"Daine and Numair sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Kally sang as they drew nearer.

"Firstly, it was a swan not a tree and who said we were making out? How do you know we weren't just enjoying the contaminated brown water and perving on the other couples?" Daine demanded, taking a piece of candy floss.

"The swans are made of wood which means they used to be tree's and if you weren't kissing then why is Daine's lipstick smeared all over your face, Uncle Numy?"

"She is way too smart for an eleven year old." Numair muttered, taking the mirror Daine passed him.

"Do you want a tissue or something for that?"

"No thank you Daine, I'll just get one off Kally here." With that he reached forward and pulled out a handkerchief seemingly from inside Kally's ear.

"Awesome, amateur magician." Miri said through a mouthful of corndog and candyfloss. Numair looked slightly disgusted but wiped the scarlet smear off his face.

"I wouldn't put something that been in Kally's ear near my lips." Roald said groggily.

Kally glared at him. "Hey! My ear are cleaner than yours dipshit! With you listening to your iPod 24/7, the dirt is bound to pile up."

"My, my, Kalasin. I wonder where exactly you got such a charming vocabulary?"

Kally blushed slightly when Numair addressed her on the swearing.

"Must have been Jon; he's got such a potty mouth." Daine said dismissively, taking some more candyfloss. "Why'd you guys get so much?"

"The guy gave me some extra cos he liked my hair." Miri said proudly shaking her colourful tresses.

"More like he liked your rack." Roald muttered not unintelligibly. The three females glared at him and Numair burst out laughing.

"Hey Roald!" A group of young teens yelled before coming over to them.

"Everyone this is Cleon, Merric, Owen, Kel and Sh-Shinko." He said stuttering a bit on the last name as a pretty Asian girl smiled at him. Daine noticed Kel's face harden into something resembling a rock as the two smiled at each other. She resolved to talk to Roald about it later on.

"Totally fabulous to meet you all. Now you can bugger off Roald. I'll txt you when we leave." Daine said, grabbing some more of Miri's candy floss and ignoring the glare sent back at her. Roald smiled happily and went off with his little posse.

"Numair, I think you should win Daine a toy." Kally pointed to the stalls situated in a little group like a village of con-artists.

"I'm terrible at them." He admitted, but let them lead him over to the stall. He paid the man and received three balls to knock down a small pyramid of bottles.

He threw…and missed. He tried again with the other two balls but lacked any results. Numair frowned and brought another try. Daine raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"This should be entertaining." Miri said to Kally while eating more candyfloss. Fourteen tries later and the pyramid still stood. Numair was getting more and more annoyed while the stall owner was getting more and more happy.

Daine sighed exasperated and tugged on his sleeve. "Come on, let's go."

Numair was down to his last ball. "No," He insisted. "They must be glued or something."

Daine looked at him, and then looked at the target. She sighed and shoved him aside and grabbed his last ball. Hardly aiming she tossed it…and hit the pyramid of jars, the stall owner looked slightly disappointed that the continuous buying was at an end but also rather amused that the tall man was beaten by the diminutive girl. This made a strange mix of emotion on his face as he handed Daine her prize and Numair looked at him suspiciously.

The prize was a small plush black and white horse which she gave to Numair.

"Here, I won you a horse. Now what are you going to call him?"

Numair looked sulkily at her. "Spots." He mumbled.

Daine frowned at him. "Don't get all shitty just because your manly pride was bruised. I'm a really good shot and you're not. It doesn't make me love you any less."

Numair cheered up with the word love. Miri rolled her eyes again and snorted while Kally was looking with interest between the two, studying their behaviour for reference for any future boyfriends that she might have.

"Hey, now Spots can be Cloud's boyfriend!" She exclaimed.

Numair looked at her. "Who's Cloud?"

"Daine's soft toy." Miri answered casually.

Numair looked at Daine next. "You have a soft toy?" He asked. "That's very cute."

"Very." Miri echoed, giving Daine a strange look. "In fact, I'm almost certain you have Cloud with you right now, don't you Daine?"

Daine blushed slightly.

"May I see?" Asked Numair curiously.

Miri was unsurprised when Daine pulled a stuffed horse out of her purse. Cloud was never far away from Daine. In fact, it was childlike how she refused to be parted for long from the grey horse. The last link to her dead childhood.

Numair examined the horse with care. "Gorgeous little creature." He handed it back to Daine who smiled happily at him and put both Spots and Cloud carefully in her bag.

"Hey look!" Kally yelled catching the other three's attention. "Can we go on the Ferris wheel?"

"Sure, why not?" Numair smiled at her. Kally ran to the ticket line

"Rockin." Miri said simply before wandering after her.

"Did your mother give Cloud to you?" Numair asked quietly.

"The only thing I was allowed to take from my home and the only link I have to her." Daine whispered.

Numair nodded and putting his arm round her waist and lead her to the line. As soon as Miri and Kally were in view, Daine ditched her vulnerable look and sauntered up to them.

"Jeez guys, ditch us why don't you?" She mocked lightly.

Kally poked out her tongue which was red from the candy floss. She grabbed Miri by the hand and clambered into one of the faded cars and locked them in. Daine and Numair got in the one behind them. They swooped up and around on the most well-known ride of all. About six turns later when the Ferris wheel gave a little jolt, making all the little cars swing. The man below sighed and opened up the mechanics box.

"Looks like we'll be stuck up here for a while," Daine commented, looking down.

"Carpe diem." Replied Numair.

"Huh?" Daine replied intelligently.

Numair chuckled gently and rubbed his nose against hers. "It mean's take the opportunity." He hinted.

Daine immediately got his meaning and leaned in, kissing him softly.

Below on the ground a pair of purple eyes watched them intently.

A ridiculously long one today with oodles of scene changes. Ridiculously long because I started this at about one in the morning and it's now four am. My mother will make me get up early tomorrow and I will ignore her and sleep. Anyways I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I put in Kel and the group, I didn't really read the books as intently as I did the Immortals so I don't know their mannerism as much so it's just s glimpse. From the review of 'Love's a four-letter word' I made a little love triangle thing going on with Kel/Roald/Shinko because she wanted Kel to date Roald. I don't really have any issues with that but I thought the triangle thing would make it a little bit more interesting. Anyone else's opinions? Anyways' review and I'll see you next time!

Never take away a man's dignity; it is worth everything to them and nothing to you (Kind of appropriate with the whole winning a stuffed toy thing with D/N)

Love Queen Cocaine

XXX