"I can't believe I'm saying this, but... will you come with me to the castle?" I asked, the desire to stab myself repeatedly growing stronger and stronger the longer I had to look at the stupid red-coated knight.

"Huh? Hahaha~, you're not going to throw my clothes in the river again are you?" I death-glared him with as much death-glaring ability as I could possibly muster (dear freaking Gackt. I've said the stupidest word in the English language twice!).

"As long as you don't mentally undress me anymore, then no."

Ace blinked a few times, needing a bit of time to process what I'd said with his beyond-slower-than-a-dead-snail-paced-train-of-thought. I swear he's about as intelligent as a glass of gasoline-filled mineral water. "Alright~. Just follow-"

"No. YOU'RE following ME. Because I actually know the way."

"Then why do you want me to come if you know the way?"

"Because I highly doubt people in castles randomly let in suspicious looking persons without invitations unless another resident brings them along. And I have to talk to someone there."

"Oh? Who?"

"...Why exactly did you think I was being vague in the first place, genius?"

And so, off we went. I felt really uncomfortable dragging Ace through the forest after what had happened before, but I highly doubted that I could get into the palace any other way seeing as... well, the albino-donkey guy hated me and I didn't know anyone else there. Besides the queen. But she seems like she's sort of an important figure who wouldn't conveniently be wandering around outside of the castle.

The guards smiled and greeted us kindly—okay, their kind greetings were probably directed more at Ace than me because I drew faces on them with a Sharpie marker I conveniently had in my pocket (isn't it awesome? My SKIRT has pockets!) and stepped on their feet—and let us through the gate, and I began my totally nonchalant quest.

I poked my head into every room, making sure no one saw me (though I suppose I shouldn't have worried much because Ace left and Peter wasn't around, so the whole 'seeing' thing wasn't much of a problem), and found: seven bathrooms, a library, seventeen coat closets (HOW MANY COATS DOES ONE CASTLE NEED?), five stairwells, six kitchens—one of which I left on fire, forty-two bedrooms, and the most disappointing of all—an entire wing full of rooms dedicated to freaking creepy little stuffed animals.

What makes it even MORE sad is that that was where I found who I happened to be looking for. The queen, in case you're an idiot and didn't catch on. "Oh, Miss Toki! We weren't expecting to see you here!" she said, hiding the bear plushie she was holding behind herself.

"Um… Yeah, I did kind of drop in unexpectedly…" You see my dear children, that is what Tokis do. "Do you think you could help me with something?" I glanced uneasily at the hundreds of little glass eyes that were staring into my soul for a moment. "Unless you're busy. Boris is girly enough, I'm sure I could just talk to him."

"We would be delighted to help, Miss Toki. What is it that you need?"

And so, I cut off the story as I always do when someone's helping me with something because I tend to space out during those times and me saying "herp-a-derp I don't remember hurr durr" wouldn't be a very interesting story at all. Well… that's questionable. I mean, come on. Picture me, the amazingly-freaking-awesomest person in Jupitarian Mexico… NAY! OUR ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM!

Wait, what was I saying again? Screw it, on with my epic tale.

"Um… Vivaldi, when I said I needed to get ready for a date, I meant I wanted to be more… less-likely to break something. And my neck is included in my list of somethings by default," I said in my almost-to-a-normal-inside-voice-that-took-me-three-hours-to-get-anywhere-close-to-perfecting.

"You are doing fine, Miss Toki." I swear she tried pushing me over, taking advantage of my lack of balance in heels. You see, Toki had this BRILLIANT idea that she was going to go to the queen and learn how to actually act like a reasonable female. Unfortunately that also involved not doing all of a Toki's favorite things, including shouting, encouraging violence, barking at small dogs, drawing faces on people in magic marker, throwing things, NOT wearing high-heeled shoes, and sneezing in unison with people around me.

After thanking (GASP I WAS ACTING GRATEFUL) the purple-haired queen for her assistance I hobbled out into the woods, thanking Gackt and every other god I could think of that the cycle had just changed to noon, and very painfully made my way all the way across the freaking country to the town.

"Oh, hey Toki. You look nice."

My favorite totally-not-gay-looking kitty friend happened to be there. "What are you saying, that I don't look nice ALL the time? I'm like a freaking GOD," I protested, immediately beginning to pet his fur because I was really hyper.

"You really don't know how to take a compliment, huh?" Boris teased, his tail flicking and making a jingly noise.

"Well, I do, but only worthy compliments. Like for example calling me superiorly amazing or something like that."

"I'll keep that in mind. Sorry, I've gotta go. Come back and visit soon."

"Sure."

He continued on his way and with a sigh I decided to double-check the sky. It was still noon.

Then miraculously, as though some mysterious force wanted to make my life easier so I didn't have to narrate a bunch of time spent wandering around in circles it was night time.

In about ten minutes I saw Blood appear in the crowd.

And dear GODS did he look awesome.

/AN/ FINALLY I GOT A CHAPTER FINISHED. Sorry, after all the wait it's more filler crap, but the next chapter will be Toki and Blood's date, I promise! I'll try to get it done soon!