Yuki loved waking up in the palace, he loved falling asleep with Shuichi in his arms, he loved the finery, the decorations, the lifestyle, he loved everything about his new home. On top of all that, he was pretty sure that he loved Shuichi.

He'd been living in the palace for a month, content as long as he was with Shuichi. He'd moved his small collection of belongings to Shuichi's room three weeks ago after he'd tired of K and Ryuichi's incessant teasing. K hadn't agreed to lay off the fun, just the lectures.

Tohma and Caspian had been mysteriously absent, but as long as they kept to themselves, Yuki could care less. After the carrot escapade, he'd carried the lamp with him at all times, ready to unleash K next time either of the buffoons tried any funny business. He wished that Mika would pull the same card and disappear for a bit, but she'd kept up her constant nagging as soon as she found out that he was living with Shuichi. Yuki's stomach tightened at the thought, and he tried to think of other things. After five minutes of trying, he gave up and tried to resolve the problem.

He'd been rethinking his decision to leave for a while now, unsure if he would be able to. He'd become very dependent on Shuichi, and he knew that the prince was even more attached to him. He'd never had anyone like Shuichi in his life before, and Yuki was thrilled with the way that it made him feel. He felt like someone understood him, even if that person couldn't string an intelligent sentence together without some deep thinking. No matter Shuichi's brainpower, or lack thereof, Yuki was falling for him, hard.
Whenever he thought of leaving, he started to get light-headed and had to change his mental subject. All he had to do was look at Shuichi's face and he immediately knew that it was going to kill the childlike man if he left. Yuki groaned and rolled over, wishing that this could be easier. If he stayed, Mika would force them to get married, and he had never wanted that and would never want that, no matter how much he adored the person sleeping in his arms. If he left, however, it would kill Shuichi, and Yuki wasn't sure if he could put his lover through that. It'd hurt him enough when Hiro left, and Hiro had just been his friend.

He looked down at Shuichi's face and sighed; it shouldn't have to be this way. He tore his eyes away and looked out the large window to the balcony. The early morning light was just starting to break, and Yuki knew that he had at least a few hours to himself before Shuichi woke up. He guessed it was around six or seven, and Shuichi rarely even opened his eyes before ten.

He kissed his forehead and rolled him off of his chest, thinking that a walk might help him clear his head. He got out of the bed and shrugged into his shirt. He buttoned it as he walked towards the door, trying hard to be quiet. If he woke up Shuichi, someone might get hurt. The sun wasn't even up yet.

He slid through the doorway and closed the door behind him quietly. When he turned around to begin his traversing of the palace, he came face-to-nose with K.

"K?" Yuki asked quietly, making sure that Shuichi's door was shut. "What the hell do you want?"

"Just popping in."

"It's six in the morning."

"Oh? Is it?" K asked innocently, smiling widely at Yuki.

"What do you want?" Yuki asked resignedly, secretly glad that he'd met K before the genie had barged in and woken up Shuichi.

"As of today, we've been here a month. We need to talk about your last wish." K told Yuki, pulling out a clipboard. He flipped through the pages and clicked his tongue several times. "According to my paperwork, you have indeed used two, on somewhat frivolous items, might I add."

Yuki crossed his arms and glared at K, holding back his responses until he was ready to unleash them. He'd hardly seen K lately, as he'd been spending as much time as he could away from him and Ryuichi and with Shuichi. He cleared his throat and channeled his inner attitude before replying.

"You're the one that picked the first wish, dumbass."

"That's the best you can do? Wow, you've mellowed." K observed, smiling at Yuki again. He tapped the slightly shorter man on the head with the clipboard and started to walk away, trusting that Yuki would follow him. "Technically, Ryuichi picked that wish."

"And saving my life wasn't a frivolous order." Yuki said, jogging to catch up with K. He ignored the Ryuichi part, already aware of his treachery.

"Well, maybe not to you…" K said, enjoying the look on Yuki's face. It'd been too long.

"Just spit it out, K." Yuki commanded, looking at the empty halls with longing. He needed to clear his head, and his crazed genie giving him wishing lectures was not going to help.

"Basically, you need to hurry up and wish me free. I'm getting sick of being stuck in a room with Ryuichi all day. It's cramping my style."

"Tell me about it…" Yuki murmured, remembering life on the streets with Ryuichi and his favorite pink friend.

"Well, OK, I'm glad you want to listen!" K exclaimed, conjuring up a chair and a couch, shoving Yuki into the first.

"I wasn't serious!" Yuki squalled, trying to sit up. K pulled out his gun and pressed it into Yuki's temple, shaking his head slowly.

"Sit." K ordered, poking Yuki in the head with his gun a few times. "He's constantly screaming about something, or he's dancing around with Kuma, and when he gets bored with that…well, he tries to get me involved. I just can't take it, the rug thinks it's hilarious, and don't get me wrong, Ryuichi and I have had some great fun playing pranks on the guards and booby-trapping Tohma's office, but enough is enough."

Yuki sighed and looked at the blissfully quiet halls again, wondering if he could outrun K. He was only half-listening to K's rant as his other half was busy being occupied with exit strategizing. He glanced over at K, who was lounging on the comfy couch with his eyes closed. If he was quick enough, it just might work.

"I think I might be able to handle him day-to-day if I had more sleep, but he's always coming into the room in the middle of the night, and you know how loud he is, it's like he's incapable of ever shutting up. He had to narrate every step, it's so annoying. I'm lying there at three in the morning, snoozing, and I hear him and that damn rabbit come bursting in-"

"Wait, three in the morning? Ryuichi has an eighteen-hour minimum sleep requirement." Yuki stated, his curiosity about his old roommate getting the better of him.

"Not anymore…he's always out gallivanting with that Tatsuha."

"What?" Yuki asked, his stomach plummeting. If Ryuichi had told Tatsuha anything about the prince lie, he was through.

"Yeah, apparently they're bosom buddies these days." K answered, sighing dramatically. "He never has time for me anymore."

Yuki rolled his eyes, vowing to question Ryuichi immediately. He was beyond concerned. He thought back over their previous conversations, trying to remember if he'd ever talked to Ryuichi about Tatsuha. He furrowed his brow, suddenly wishing that he paid more attention to Ryuichi's conversation.

"Don't boil your brain, you made it his mission not to tattle." K reassured Yuki, glaring at him from the couch. This was supposed to be about him and he was being completely ignored by his unwilling therapist.

"Oh, right…" Yuki mumbled, miffed that K had him figured out. He'd never said that he was concerned about Ryuichi's gum flapping.

"Anyway, back to my terrible Ryuichi issues…" K continued, closing his eyes again.

Yuki groaned and looked around helplessly. K had the gun sitting on his lap, and Yuki had the sneaking suspicion that he would be shot the second his feet hit the ground. He leaned back, craning his neck over the back of the chair, and almost flipped himself over; Caspian was positioned directly behind him, dancing a little jig.

"BIRD!" Yuki yelled, snapping his head forward and catapulting out of the chair. The feathered fiend was much too close for comfort. "CONURE! PARROT DEVIL!"

"What?" K asked, startled. He sat up and looked over Yuki's chair. When his eyes fell on the still-dancing bird, he grabbed his gun and cocked it.

Yuki saw K get up and took it as a sign of attack. He charged Caspian, knocking over the chair in the process. K stopped to pick it up, clicking his tongue and grumbling. He sighed and started jogging after Yuki, wondering if things would ever be normal here. Sure, Caspian was a threat, but Yuki was clearly overreacting to the green maniac's presence.

"Yuki, not so fast!" K called after Yuki, starting to get worried. Caspian wasn't flying for all he was worth, he was yelling, nothing. K stopped and cocked his head, suspicious. He watched Caspian's retreat, which consisted of some frenzied scuttling and horrendous name calling, and it dawned on him. "EIRI, FREEZE!"

Yuki slammed on the brakes when he heard the accursed name and spun around to face K.

"WHAT?" Yuki yelled, taking off his shoe and hurtling it at Caspian. "He's getting away, help me out here!"

"It's a trap!"

"Bullshit!"

"Use your head, think man!"

Yuki sighed angrily and started chasing Caspian again, intent on capturing the murderous nuisance. He rounded a few corners, leaving K out of sight. He could hear Caspian's claws clattering on the stone floor, and he followed the red tail whipping around columns for several more minutes until they reached a very large hallway that was lavishly over-decorated. He stopped, a little taken aback. It was the last place that he'd expected Caspian to run, given that the Sultana's room was just down the hall.

"That all you got, pretty boy?" Caspian taunted, hopping around down the hall. He started dancing again, thoroughly enjoying himself. "La la la…"

Yuki shook his head and started walking towards the bird again with images of a victorious apprehension floating around his mind. He sped up as he got closer, completely focused on the dancing parrot.

"That's right…just a bit closer…" Caspian whispered to himself, watching Yuki's progress. He started doing his version of an Irish river dance and called Yuki a few choice words. The street rat was dangerously close to the trap, and as long as he didn't look down, everything would be fine.

Caspian and his babysitter had spent all night preparing their trap, and their progress was slow until Tohma sneezed and blew a hole into the floor with his inadvertent magic. The hole was located dead center in the middle of the elegant hallway, and Tohma and Caspian had less-than-brilliantly attempted to hide it by covering it with dried up palm leaves.

The bottom of the pit was full of sharpened sticks and several spears and swords. It'd been one of Caspian's favorite ideas due to the high probability of impalement. Once Yuki was shish-kabobed properly, Tohma could use the spell he'd been planning to unleash during the carrot fiasco.

"Wait…" Yuki said suddenly, looking closer at what he'd originally thought to be a very ugly rug. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the supposed rug was actually dried out leaves. "Really? You actually thought I'd fall for this?"

"Nope." Tohma replied, appearing behind Yuki and giving him a solid shove. The street rat toppled forward, plummeting through the ill-devised cover and into the spear-lined pit.

"Oh, you fell for it! Literally!" Caspian sang out, twittering around and laughing. He'd been saving the line for days and had decided to ignore Tohma's assistance.

"Owww…" Yuki groaned, rolling over onto his back. He'd miraculously missed all the points, but they'd cut him up pretty good. He had a serious gash in his side, and his legs were covered in scratches. His arms bore a few defensive wounds, and one of the shorter of the sharpened sticks had cut one of his cheeks open.

"Eiri?" K called, his voice echoing through the halls. Now that they were close to civilization, he had to keep up the prince ruse.

"Dammit!" Tohma muttered, stomping to the edge of the pit and rolling up his sleeves. "Better make this quick. Hold still down there!"

Yuki groaned again in response and tried to stop the bleeding in his side. He glared up at Tohma and showed off a few hand gestures to get his point across.

"Tohma, hurry it up! That genie's coming!" Caspian screeched, flapping over to Tohma's head.

"Eiri! Answer me!" K ordered frantically, running around the corner and almost crashing into Tohma and Caspian.

"AHHHH!" Tohma screamed, running towards the pit and turning to face K. Caspian swayed ominously on his head but ultimately kept his footing.

"Where's my prince?" K questioned Tohma, walking up to him and grabbing the front of his shirt. He shook him a few times for added emphasis.

"K…?" Yuki called, sitting up and holding his side.

K peeked over Tohma's shoulder and saw the horribly constructed spear pit.

"Seriously…?" K asked, shaking his head. "You didn't see that?"

"He pushed me in!" Yuki yelled, wincing at the pain in his side.

"Sure, sure…" K muttered, leaning back and eyeing Tohma suspiciously. "I have a few things to take care of up here, then we'll talk.

"Whatever…" Yuki replied, lying down again.

"Ma-ma-maybe later…" Tohma stuttered, trying to remove K's fingers from his shirt.

"No, I think we'll handle this now." K replied curtly, tightening his grip and swinging Tohma away from the pit. "You tried to kill him again, boys…I think it's time to end this."

"NEVER!" Tohma yelled, sinking his teeth into K's hand. Caspian flew down onto the genie's shoulder, helping the effort by assaulting K's ears and neck.

"ARGH!" K screamed, dropping Tohma to free his hands for Caspian swatting. As soon as he released Tohma, the vizier ran for it, careening down the hallway with Caspian close behind. "Damn!"

"What happened?" Yuki asked loudly, unable to see what was going on. "They get you too?"

"They wish." K answered. "No, they bit me."

"They?"

"Shut it."

"Pretty sure Tohma's rabid. Might want to check into that." Yuki told K, hoisting himself up and grabbing his side to keep the bleeding in check.

"Thanks for the helpful advice. See you later then." K said as he leaned over the edge of the pit and gave Yuki a little finger wave.

"HEY!" Yuki yelled at K. He'd been counting on the genie to help him out as the pit was at least seven feet deep.

"You rang?" K asked, peeking over the edge.

"Get me out!"

"Say please."

"No."

"Well, captain crabby, afraid that I can't help you."

"I'm not crabby, I'm stuck!" Yuki retorted angrily, grabbing a spear and hurtling it at K's smug face.

"No personal attacks sourpuss. Not my fault you fell into a hole dug by a guy that's a hump short of a camel."

"Damn you, K, get me out!" Yuki ordered, throwing another spear at his insolent genie.

"Nah, you're not being very nice."

"NOW!"

"Nope."

"K."

"Eiri."

"Technically, you have to listen to me…"

"Not unless you use a wish, and just for that, I'm really leaving." K spat, turning on his heel and stomping down the hallway. He hid behind a large potted plant, waiting for Yuki to get himself out. It'd be fun to ambush him now that he was on the lookout for Tohma and Caspian.

Yuki spent the next ten minutes yelling at K and cursing the vizier and his chatty helper. He eventually collapsed, the pain in his side becoming unbearable. He held the wound and looked up, hoping to see K peering down at him. He stayed there for a while, gathering the energy to carry-out his escape.

"Dammit…" Yuki whispered, wincing again. He stood up shakily and leaned against one of the walls in the pit for support.

He shook his head and exhaled sharply, psyching himself up for his grand escape. He laid a hold of a spear and shoved it point-first into the wall in front of him, making sure that it would stay put. He repeated this with about five more spears, each higher than the last. When his make-shift ladder was as high as he could make it, he started climbing up, using the spears to keep his balance.

He reached the edge of the pit after some serious effort, much cursing, and a few animal noises, barely managing to pull himself out of it.

"You alright over there?" K shouted to Yuki, slightly concerned. He'd never heard a human make such horrible sounds.

He got no response, and decided that he'd better go check on the doomed street rat. Besides, he was getting tired of waiting. Crouching behind the plant had put him in a foul mood, and he was feeling more impatient by the second. Sure, it'd be fun to ambush Yuki, but he couldn't wait for the next century to turn. He had a to-do list after all.

"Eiri?" K inquired, meandering back to the spear pit. "You didn't fall back in, did you?"

K reached the spear pit a few minutes later, and he was really starting to feel the burn of curiosity. He was internally grateful that he wasn't a cat.

"Come on now, this isn't funny. You jump out at me and I'm throwing you back in. There will be fire involved." K told the echoing hallways. He paused, waiting for Yuki to either come out or yell something back, but the silence was overpowering. "Alright, I warned you."

K pulled out his gun and jumped around the corner, expecting to find the street rat in ambush mode. Instead, Yuki was sprawled next to the edge of the pit and he wasn't moving.

"Great…" K muttered, putting the gun away and walking over to the bloody and bruised street rat. "Why do I always have to save you?"

K picked up Yuki and threw him over his shoulder, trying to decide where to take him. Shuichi's room was closer, but he didn't want to have to deal with a panicked prince. He was much too similar to Ryuichi, and K didn't think he had the energy. On the other hand, Ryuichi had captured his medical supplies a week ago to play 'doctor' with Tatsuha, and K was sure that he'd want to help fix up Yuki. K groaned and set off for Shuichi's room, thinking that he could always muzzle him and tether him to the balcony.

They made good time, and K was partially upset that they didn't run into Tohma or Caspian. He was in the mood for some fun, and he didn't have the heart to torture Yuki when he was in this kind of shape. He approached Shuichi's door and rapped on it a few times, trying to rouse the younger prince. He was pretty sure that he'd still be asleep as this hour, and he didn't want to have to break down the door. He knocked a few more times, the noise escalating with each hit, but there was no sign of movement from within.

"This is your fault, you know…" K muttered to Yuki. He dropped the wounded street rat on the floor and backed up a few feet. He didn't want to use excessive force, but the door looked like it could really take a hit. "Here goes nothing."

K closed his eyes and charged the door, intent on breaking it down, completely forgetting that he was an all-powerful genie. He bounced off and landed with a loud 'thud' on the floor. He massaged his back and glared at the door, willing it to open. When it actually did, he screamed and fell backward, shielding his face from the possessed door.

"Oh, right…" K said, clearing his throat and trying to sound manly.

He picked up Yuki again and carried him into the room, slinging him down on the bed when he reached it. Shuichi mumbled something about an apocalypse and zombies and rolled over. K shook his head and ignored him, glad that he was such a late sleeper.

"Boom boom…everybody…dead…" Shuichi muttered, the noise from K's door assault clearly affecting his dream.

"Somebody's special…" K whispered, rolling up his sleeves and unbuttoning Yuki's bloody shirt.

He conjured up some antiseptic and started cleaning the gash in Yuki's side. Yuki groaned a little bit and tried to roll away, but K held him in place. On the other side of the bed, Shuichi yelled something about brains being eaten and started kicking out as hard as he could. K ran over and tried to hold him down, wanting to prevent any more Yuki damage.

"NOOO! DON'T EAT MY BRAIN!" Shuichi shrieked, pulling away from K and flopping onto Yuki. When he made contact with another body, his eyes snapped open and then widened with fear. "ZOMBIE!"

Shuichi pushed off of Yuki as hard as he could, convinced that he was a zombie from his dreams. His hair was matted, he skin was pallid, and the blood from his various cuts and scrapes was smeared over his clothes and exposed skin.

"ZOMBIE! UNDEAD!" Shuichi yelled again, scrambling to get out of the bed.

"Calm down man!" K ordered, grabbing Shuichi's shoulders and slapping him across the face. "Breathe!"

"Breathe? No zombies?" Shuichi asked in his five year-old voice, pointing at Yuki's sleeping form.

"No zombies. Just a Yuki."

"Yuki?" Shuichi repeated, something inside his head snapping into action. "Eiri?"

"Great…" K muttered, putting a hand over his eyes. He couldn't tell which freak out would be worse: Shuichi discovering a zombie in his bed, or finding a half-dead Yuki in its place.

"Why aren't you helping him?" Shuichi inquired, standing up on the bed to tower over K. "Huh? That's your job, so do it."

"Sorry…?"

"Now, move it!" Shuichi commanded, pointing to Yuki and glaring down at K.

"Yes, sir!" K responded, saluting Shuichi and marching back to his charge. He'd never seen Shuichi use his authority, and it was a little bit scary. He knew he was the Prince, sure, but this was the last thing he'd expected out of him after the zombie chaos.

Shuichi watched K return to his task of repairing Yuki and, once satisfied with his progress, flopped back onto his bed with a resigned sigh. He scooted over to Yuki's head and positioned it in his lap, content to take care of his lover while genie tended to his wounds.

"What happened?" Shuichi asked quietly, stroking Yuki's hair. He ran his fingers through it to smooth it out, loving the opportunity to do what he wanted without Yuki protesting.

"Caspian and Tohma again." K replied, finishing the cleaning. He summoned a surgical needle and thread to begin the stitches, beyond glad that Yuki was still out. He knew things would be ugly if he tried to sew him up while awake. "They seem to be escalating things."

"What was it?"

"A spear pit in the middle of the Sultana's hallway."

"That's stepping it up?" Shuichi replied dryly, rubbing Yuki's shoulders subconsciously.

"Apparently. It might of worked if they'd had more spears. Tohma pushed him in and it's a miracle that he didn't get impaled."

"Impaled?" Shuichi queried, looking at K sideways. While he stared at the tall genie, he failed to control his fingers and grazed one of Yuki's earlobes.

"Hey!" Yuki squalled, sitting up and smacking Shuichi in the jaw with his head. When he saw K holding a needle and thread, he yelled again and tried to make a run for it. Instead, he merely toppled out of the bed and face-planted, his eyes still unfocused from his semi-comatose state.

"Now, now, that was unnecessary. I'm a very good seamstress." K informed Yuki, dragging him back to the bed, as the latter was resisting with all of his available strength.

"Sorry Yuki…" Shuichi murmured, massaging his banged chin.

"Whatever." Yuki responded as K shoved him back into the bed. "You're the enemy now."

"Just trying to help." Shuichi chirped, closing his eyes so that he didn't have to see the horrendous glare that Yuki was giving him.

"Be nice, you." K told Yuki, brandishing the needle.

Yuki sighed and rolled his eyes, steeling himself for what was coming next. He could feel the stinging around the gash in his side, and he was really wishing that images of stitches would stop dancing around in his head. He'd rather be oblivious to what horrors K was preparing to inflict upon him.

"Alright, take a deep breath..." K advised Yuki. "And you, hold his head."

"Righto." Shuichi acknowledged, gingerly grabbing Yuki's head and rubbing his temples in an attempt to keep him pacified.

"Don't look Ethel." K said dramatically, threading the needle and bending down over the wound.


"That's it!" Tohma yelled, slamming the office door behind him. "That damn street rat!"

"Would you watch what you're slamming?" Caspian sniped at Tohma, wrenching his tail out of the door jamb. Tohma had slammed his boa in the door too, but he had yet to notice.

"I'm just so…so…" Tohma said exasperatedly, falling into his spinney chair. He moved to touch his boa for comfort, and started mouthing incoherent words to Caspian.

"So many possibilities…" Caspian choked out, the various adjectives that he could finish Tohma's thought with driving him mad. When he looked up and saw Tohma's face, he sighed and retrieved the boa for him, unwilling to deal with a Tohma tantrum on top of everything else. "You're such a baby…"

"Not now." Tohma said seriously, stroking his boa and regaining some sense of sanity.

"Yeah…" Caspian agreed, noting the look on Tohma's face. Even with the boa back in his possession, the fire was gone and it was starting to get replaced with despair. "Listen, we can't give up that easily, we still have most of the notebook left to work with…"

"We're running out of time, Casp." Tohma said, grabbing his hair with both hands and putting his forehead on the cool wood of his desk.

"But we have to keep trying. If we just cease our efforts, Mika won't have any reason to keep us around." Caspian told Tohma, wondering how to spur him into action. Usually Mika threats worked, but he seemed a little far gone for that. He flew over to his cage, thinking that a nice bath might get the ideas flowing.

"That doesn't matter…he seemed pretty hurt after that tumble, there's no way he's not going to tell Mika as soon as that genie…wait." Tohma stopped suddenly, standing up and smiling at Caspian.

"Tohma…" Caspian hissed, hunkering down in his cage. It was never good when Tohma's moods switched that fast.

"It's so obvious…" Tohma muttered, a strange glow starting to consume his eyes.

"Tohma." Caspian said louder, trying to snap Tohma out of anything rash.

"The genie, I have to get the genie…"

"No, Tohma, he's invincible, you can't get him." Caspian articulated clearly, stamping on Tohma's crazed idea. "You'll get killed."

"Why didn't I think of this before?" Tohma asked no one in particular, talking to the coat rack in the corner.

"Because it's a terrible idea." Caspian answered, flying over to Tohma and landing on his head. He grabbed some of his hair and hung upside down in front of his face, trying desperately to distract him. If Tohma died, Mika would have him stuffed and fried within ten minutes.

"No it's not…" Tohma said with a manic smile spreading across his porcelain face. He patted Caspian on the back and strode towards the office door, looking more than slightly unhinged. "It's a marvelous one."

"Down, Tohma, down!" Caspian ordered, swinging forward and biting at Tohma's face. The vizier merely grabbing the snappy parrot and pried him off, calmly sitting him in the quill holder on his desk.

"Don't forget to water the plants..." Tohma whispered, nodding seriously. He grabbed his nicest coat and pranced out of the office, the boa tied around his waist like a neon sash.

"NO!" Caspian shrieked, flapping out of the quill jar and grabbing the back of Tohma's trench coat. He tried to fly backwards to pull the maniac back into the safety of their lair, but Tohma was on a mission and was incapable of being deterred. Caspian conceded the tug-o-war and followed Tohma at a distance, determined to be on clean-up duty if necessary.

Tohma stalked through the halls, the clownish grin still in place. He had no idea where he was going, but he figured he was bound to find the genie eventually. It was pretty hard to hide a magical being these days.

"Here, genie, genie, genie…" Tohma sang out, humming to himself.

"Tohma?" someone asked suspiciously, approaching the crowing vizier with caution. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Mika!" Tohma exclaimed happily, bounding towards Mika with his arms outstretched.

"Tohma, no, don't start that mess." Mika ordered, planting her feet and putting her hands on her hips.

"I think he's past that point, lady." Caspian said to Mika alighting on a lamp to watch the proceedings; Mika was going to filet Tohma.

"MIKA!" Tohma yelled, still skipping towards his love, his tongue flapping out behind him and his eyes shining.

Mika looked away from Caspian and laid eyes on what was quickly approaching her. She shook her head meaningfully, but this only seemed to spur Tohma on. She thought about standing her ground and fighting she noticed the look in Tohma's eyes. She whispered a quick thanks that no one was around to see what she was about to do.

She abandoned her post and started running for all she was worth, the fabric of her royal dress billowing out behind her. She flew around the corner to her hallway and stopped short; there was a giant hole in the throughway of her personal quarters.

"Tohma…" Mika muttered, pinching her nose. She crept closer to the pit, not wanting to fall in and knowing that if she stopped, Tohma would catch her.

"My darling, where are you going?" Tohma sang out, a girlish lilt to his voice.

Mika gulped and flattened herself against the wall, trying to edge around the gigantic crater. Before she could even take a step, Tohma bounded around the corner and made a beeline for her, his eyes unfocused.

"Tohma, no! Stop!" Mika yelled frantically, unable to move. When she saw that Tohma wasn't going to listen, she put her hands up and braced herself for impact.

Tohma slammed into her a few seconds later and they both went flying into the spear pit.

"Dammit Tohma!"

"Oh, it's so dark…so romantic…" Tohma murmured, feeling around in the dark for Mika. When he found her, she smacked him in the head.

Caspian flapped onto the scene a few seconds later and had to make an emergency landing when he saw what was happening in the bottom of the hole. Once the laughter had stopped, he waddled to the edge to get a better look.

Mika was tangled up in several spears and sticks, and her dress was completely ruined. Her crown was balanced precariously on one of the taller spears, and Tohma was eyeing it while mouthing the word 'shiny'. Tohma himself was sitting cross-legged on the floor, completely unscathed. When the crown no longer amused him, he redirected his attention back to Mika and started trying to pet her hair.

"You touch me and you'll be dead." Mika warned, slapping Tohma's hand away. "Bird, get some guards, I'm not staying down here."

"Nah, I don't especially feel like it."

"Unlimited kitchen access. I'll give you a key."

"Sold." Caspian affirmed, tearing out of the hallway and putting all roadrunners to shame. He returned ten minutes later with several guards and a rope.

After the guards had extricated their Sultana and convinced Tohma to stop trying to fondle her, they cleared out. Mika rarely looked that incensed, and none of them wanted to bear the brunt of her anger.

"Tohma…" Mika hissed, her eyes closed.

"Yes, dearest?"

"If you ever…" Mika started to say, getting worked up. "No. No, I can't do this right now."

"What?" Caspian asked, more than slightly disappointed. He wanted bloodshed.

"I have a conference to get to, I don't have time for this." Mika explained, more to herself than anyone else. "I'll deal with you two later."

"You'd better, you owe me a key."

"Don't get your feathers in a knot, I'll handle that after I handle the Princes."

"Princes?" Caspian pried, noting the plurality. "Doesn't that concern the vizier as well?"

Mika looked from Caspian to Tohma, who was sitting in the corner and drooling on himself, and back again.

"Good point, but still…" Caspian pressed, wanting to stay on top of things. Tohma was in no state to handle business, and Caspian had the distinct feeling that at least one of them needed to be at that conference. If they had any chance to get to Prince Eiri in front of Mika, they had to seize it. "You're supposed to tell him these things."

"That's a lost cause." Mika said, gesturing to Tohma. "I gave up on giving you two memos a long time ago, and you don't get invited to most meetings. Tohma's a walking liability, you're a nutcase, and the two of you together is just scary. His title is only a matter of formality."

"We were there during Prince Eiri's introduction."

"As uninvited guests." Mika returned smugly. When she saw Caspian fluff up and shuffle around, she realized that the parrot was in it for the long run. He wasn't going to give up, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know why. "You're not coming, you can stop posturing at me. I don't know why you're getting so upset about this, and I don't give a rat's ass. You stay away from that throne room. Prince Eiri thinks you're both locked up, and it's going to stay that way."

"But-"

"No. No more. You stay out of it. Take Tohma back to the office and take a nap or something." Mika snapped. When Caspian opened his beak again, Mika grunted and stepped towards him. Caspian squeaked, and backed down, very aware that Mika packed one hell of a punch.

"Fine, fine…" Caspian conceded, not at all happy. He watched Mika leave the hall and then landed on Tohma's head, intent on snapping him out of his happy daze. They had spying to do.


Here's an extra-long chappy to make up for the last one. . I know this story seems like it will never, ever end, but it's getting closer every second…I can actually see the end of my layout. It's a pleasant sight to see after working on this crazy thing for so many years. *sigh*

See you next time,

Amaya