"Thank you again for joining me." Arthur smiled as he led the girl through the garden. Her straight raven-black hair reached just short of her hips with no real style, and her hazel eyes looked almost as if they glittered in the late afternoon light.

The long-sleeved purple dress she wore swished about her as she walked, brushing against the soft grass. Arthur was pretty sure she was barefoot, but he decided it wasn't important. "Of course!" Leotie replied, beaming at him as she bounded ahead for a few moments before turning around. "Thank you for inviting me!"

She continued walking backwards, and Arthur reached a hand out to warn her, but was too late as she squeaked in surprise before falling backwards and over a rock. She rolled to a stop, though the landing looked pretty painless, and Leo had to rush to pull her dress down before anything was revealed.

Arthur couldn't help himself. He snorted. He whirled around, hand slapping over his mouth. His shoulders shook, and he desperately tried to hold it back, nearly suffocating himself for it. Despite his altogether futile attempts, he couldn't entirely silence the laughter spewing from his lips.

Leo pouted and glared, but eventually she too broke out in laughter. Her voice was gentle, soothing. There's something about it that seemed so faintly familiar that it physically hurt him to hear it, and Arthur abruptly stopped laughing.

He spent a few moments trying to recollect himself as he helped the girl up, giving her a pathetic excuse of a smile, but nonetheless, she didn't comment on it.

They eventually found their way by a small pond in a corner of the garden, a family of ducks paddling about. Leo made a sort of silent gasp in delight, rushing ahead to kneel down by the pond and intently watch the ducks.

Arthur watched her, shaking his head to dismiss the wayward memories that clung stubbornly to the edges of his mind.

"I take it you like ducks." He stated, coming over to squat beside him, his arms wrapping around his knees, chin resting on one knee to watch the feathery creatures going about their business.

Leo smiled brightly. "I do! They're funny creatures… like giraffes and goats."

Arthur gave her a bemused look. She was a strange girl… but that wasn't altogether a bad thing.

"Thank you for coming with me, though I wasn't expecting you suggest we go out." He gestured around them at Angeles, the bustling city going about its day as usual. He had spent quite a bit of time with Lady Leotie, and while uneventful, it was nice. It was the next day, a Saturday, which explained at least a bit why it was so crowded in the shopping district.

With a little help from the maids, he'd put on contacts to change his eye color, fake glasses, and old clothes received from Kyousuke, who was the most similar in build to him. They'd attempted to tame his infamous unruly hair, but to no avail, and eventually he'd just thrown a hat on top of it.

After a few more tweaks, they'd allowed him to go without a horde of guards. Really, he was surprised by how much he barely recognized himself with only a hat and some glasses. It was no wonder celebrities always chose it as their first disguise of choice.

So thus, he was traveling the streets with an equally disguised Lady Sakura Schlutz, her black eyes squinting in the bright sunlight. Her brown hair was pulled back in a loose bun, wearing ripped skinny jeans, sneakers, and a large t-shirt. As always, her camera hung from her neck. From what he knew, it was the kind of thing she wore before the Selection.

Sakura smiled brightly, apologizing quietly as she bumped into someone. "Of course!"

"Did you have somewhere you wanted to go?" The young teen looked around for several moments before pointing at a street vendor.

"I heard that place makes a mean cannoli." Before he could even answer, she was already pulling him towards it, and he couldn't help laughing at her enthusiasm.

Arthur bought two, one for each of them, biting into the pastry while being careful not to let the cream fall out from the other side. It was a little too sweet for him, but seeing Sakura groan in delight at the taste kept him from tossing it.

"Is it that good?" He asked, lips quirking upward in bemusement.

She nodded eagerly. "It's delicious~!" She replied, words muffled from the cream still in her mouth. She made a squeak of surprise as cream fell from the opposite side, her fingers attempting to salvage it. In her attempts, the rest of the cannoli vanished down her esophagus.

Arthur laughed, holding out his own, which had only a small bite taken out of it. "You can just have the rest of mine."

She looked at him with wide, hopeful eyes reminiscent of a small dog's when someone is holding a dog treat. "Are you sure?" He thrust his hand out once more, with the cannoli in hand, and this time she took it without question, eating it with more care than she had the first one.

They spent the next hour wandering the streets, trying other local delicacies. Arthur gave the sweeter ones to Sakura, and they threw out the exceptionally weird ones. She took several pictures throughout the walk. Some were of people walking down the street, others of buildings and cars or birds passing by, and—much to Arthur's chagrin—others still were of photos of him trying to eat something utterly disgusting or that one moment where he dropped his ice cream.

We don't speak of that one moment.

They walked past a theater, people in costumes advertising the latest horror movie. Sakura's eyes seemed glued to the place as they walked by, and Arthur led them about a block before, with a somewhat exaggerated sigh of reluctance, swung back around towards the theater.

The brunette's eyes gleamed with a hopeful delight as they did. Arthur knew he was going to regret this later.

Sitting in the seats, Lady Sakura to his left, popcorn between them, and drinks on either side, Arthur was regretting this. Sakura sat giddily in her seat, occasionally taking a few pieces of popcorn and munching on them as they waited for the movie to start.

"Thanks for coming with me." She startled him, and he turned to see her with an apologetic look. "I don't know a lot of people who are willing to watch movies like this."

Arthur gave her a shaky smile. "Of course. My sister loves horror too, so I'm used to it."

…Well, every time she made him watch something with her, he always left five minutes in. Not that it was an important detail or anything.

"Do you have any siblings?" He asked, not really interested in the trailers currently playing.

Sakura smiled brightly. "Yeah; I have an older brother. Jason Schlutz."

Arthur recognized the name; blond and blue-eyed, he was a famous model and actor, particularly for how he'd moved up castes. It was rare, but the guidelines for changing castes were much looser than it had been when the system was first integrated.

"He's a famous model, isn't he? If I remember correctly, he was one of the lead roles in that new movie that came out the other day." Sakura nodded in confirmation, but she didn't respond, as the lights dimmed, signaling the start of the film.

Next time, Arthur decided, he wasn't going to indulge Sakura if she wanted to watch a movie.

Duckssssssssssssssss.

Anyways, sorry this is so late. :P I wrote half of it, and things just kind of piled on. This time, I'm hoping to update more regularly until Christmas within the next week or two, and then perhaps will pick up again after the holiday. Ya know how it is.

Thanks for waiting though! :) I hope you liked this chapter!