Sitting in Abel's private quarters in the palace, having a nice quiet afternoon tea, he and his sister, as well as Astha, Ion and his grandmother Mirka, were staring in shock at the Prince of the Empires' unseemly sugar addiction.

"Is that safe to drink?" Ion asked, looking physically sick. He was staring in disbelief as Abel dropped thirteen generous spoonfuls of sugar into what had once been a perfectly brewed cup of tea.

"Of course it is," Abel replied, "It's very nice. Would you like to try it?"

"NO!" the boy cried out, holding his hands up. "I mean...n...no thank you...my lord..." he blushed afterwards.

"I can't imagine why not. And how many times?" Abel sighed. "You and Astha-san must have short term memory. Please stop calling me that. I don't need to hear 'my lord' this or 'my prince' that or 'great commander' that. Please stop it. I understand you need to do that in public, however much I hate it. But we're not in public. You don't need to do it now. I really won't take any offence whatsoever if you don't call me that. In fact, I'm taking offence that you keep doing it."

"But...court protocol..." Ion began to explain for what was probably the hundredth time already.

"I get it, I know, stuffy court etiquette, I know..." Abel waved a dismissive hand.

"Oi...that's my court," Seth glared at her brother.

"Yes, and you always liked it when you were treated like a princess and everyone followed your orders," Abel replied. "Well, I guess after a while all those rules would stick," he said, turning back to Ion and taking a sip of his sugar ladened tea which made the boy blanch. "What's wrong, Ion-kun? You look sick?" Abel asked.

"Erm...nothing..."

"Are you sure?"

"...Mmmm," he nodded.

"It's your tea, Abel, it's making him feel sick and honestly I can't blame him," Seth shook her head.

"Eh? My tea? What's wrong with it?" Abel looked down into the cup.

"What...you put in thirteen giant spoonfuls of sugar in it! Into one tiny teacup. It's more sugar than tea now!"

"But it's nice and I always do that!"

"I know and it's disgusting! I'm making a new rule. As Empress, I decree that no one ever, in my Empire, is allowed to add more than four spoonfuls of sugar to their tea!" Seth said with complete seriousness.

"EH?!" Abel cried in horror. "You're lying. You can't do that! You can't just make up a new rule like that! I object! I definitely object! I'll object untill I turn blue in the face! I need thirteen lumps of sugar!" he explained and slammed down his tea cup and then pointed at her. "You're lying! You don't mean that!" he said, "And why only four?!"

"Four is my lucky number," she said.

"It's an unlucky number, you know I hate that number. You said 'only four' because you know it's my unlucky number, didn't you?"

"Maybe," she gave an angelic smile.

"Why is four unlucky?" Ion asked.

"Don't say a word," Abel glared at his sister.

"Well...when we first figured out we could fly it didn't go so well. Abel fell off the observational desk four times, flat on his face, before he got it right," Seth said and the young methuselah laughed.

"You promised you wouldn't tell anyone about that!" Abel blushed. "Ion-kun...please stop laughing! Flying is a lot more difficult than it looks when you've never done it before!"

"Broke his nose each time too," Seth added.

"Ouch," Ion muttered through his laughter. Even his grandmother, ever the court lady was having a difficult time keeping her laughter in.

"Fell like a rock straight out of the sky and hit the floor...wooooosh...crash..." Seth said, raising her palm and then slamming it down to illustrate her point.

"It hurt," Abel rubbed his nose.

"Ah! And do you remember when we tried to make weapons as Crusinks for the first time?"

"I'd rather not," Abel said, still blushing.

"The first four times you tried..."

"Seth..."

"It exploded in your face and you were covered in sticky, gooey blood!"

"It was horrible," he shuddered. "And yours exploded too!" he added, defensively.

"Only once! And not as bad as yours."

"But my scythe is a lot bigger than your tuning forks, there's a lot more blood in it!"

"You couldn't get the blood out of your hair for weeks."

"It's not my fault my hair is white."

"Well, for a week, it was pink," she corrected.

"I looked like a clown," he lamented.

"You really did. I really wanted to stick a red nose on you."

"Thank you for not doing that."

"Well...I did...when you were asleep...I took it off when you were waking up."

"THAT'S AWFUL!" he yelled. "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO YOUR OWN BIG BROTHER?!"

"How could I not?" Seth laughed.

"Where did you even get one anyway? We were out in the middle of Mars on a colony ship. I don't think they packed clown costumes to take with us. Or did they? Were they actually planning a comedy act for the colony? No, that's impossible, the humans running the programme didn't have a sense of humour."

"No, they didn't," Seth agreed, the smile falling for a moment. "But I made do with what I had," she shrugged.

"You...made do...with what? What was there on that ship that was even...oh no...no...please...no. Tell me you didn't use..." he blanched while she just continued to smile angelically at him. "You did, didn't you...ewwwwwww...gross..." he rubbed at his nose with his sleeve.

"Hahahhahahaha!" Seth laughed.

"Your eminence? What did you use?" Astha asked.

"They used to make us do target practice and avoidance every day for training," Seth explained. "Like tag...but they threw things...and we were always it. Anyway, they'd use these little red balls filled with...I don't actually know what it was but if you got hit it made you itch for weeks and it gave you a nasty electric shock."

"And you put one on my nose!" Abel exclaimed.

"It was only there for a few minutes."

"On my nose! Why would you do that?!"

"I was bored," Seth shrugged.

"Bored?!" he repeated. "I could've lost my nose!" he yelled.

"You didn't."

"But I could've!"

"But you didn't," she reiterated and he slumped down into his seat again.

Picking up his tea cup, Abel took another sip making everyone else grimace at him.

"What?" he asked, stunned again as they stared.

"I really don't know how or why you would want to drink that, Tovarish," Astha said, grimacing at his tea cup.

"Not you too, Astha-san," Abel frowned. "Aren't partners supposed to stick together?" he asked.

"Normally...yes...in this...no."

"Just great," he sighed.

"They're on my side, nii-san. You may as well just forget the tea and just add the sugar to water, it's not as though you'd be able to taste the actual flavour of the tea anyway," Seth remarked and Abel's eyes lit up.

"I never thought of that," he said, sitting up. "Maybe I should try it..." he said and reached for the sugar pot.

"NO!" Seth yelled and snatched the pot of sugar before he could.

"Eh? Why? Seth, give me the sugar please, I need it!"

"Never!" she grinned, "I'm the Empress, everything in the Empire belongs to me!"

"Even the sugar pots?!"

"Especially the sugar pots."

"That's not a rule," he grumbled.

"I'm making it a rule now. If only for your health, nii-san."

"That's a dirty, rotten lie," Abel mumbled, "We don't get sick like that and you know it."

"Better safe than sorry."

"Seth..." he reached out again and she leapt back elegantly out of her chair and away from him. "Okay, okay, you've had your fun, now please just..."

"Nope," Seth grinned, taking another step back.

"Whyyyyyy?"

"Hehehe...come and get it, nii-san," she held the pot up in her hand as though it were a trophy.

"Seth! Why are you teasing me? You're acting like a child."

"I'm making up for lost time. You certainly have," she said, remarking on the fact that neither of them had had much of a proper childhood because of the Mars programme.

"Well, I guess you've got a point but...wait...you're calling me a child?!"

"Her Highness makes a very good point," Astha teased him with a fanged grin.

"You too?!" Abel cried in disbelief. "Seth!" he said, jumping off the sofa with inhuman speed and leaping after his sister but she too was extremely fast.

Muttering quietly to activate her Crusink, wings sprouted from her back and her eyes shone blood red as she rose from the floor and floated in mid air out of Abel's reach.

"That's cheating! I can't come up there! You know my wings are too big to fit in this room without breaking something! Knowing you, you'll charge me for anything I break. And what if someone sees you?! Come back down here!"

"I refuse."

"You can't stay up there forever!"

"Watch me," Seth shrugged, her voice eerily echoing throughout out the room.

"But..."

"It's quite nice up here, actually," she remarked and lay on her back, hovering in the air and delicately juggling the pot between her hands.

"Seth!"

"Abel," she retorted, calmly.

Abel let out a deep sigh and stared up at her. "You always were mean to me," he lied, petulantly.

"And you were always such a big baby."

"Was not," he grumbled. After a moment, he stood up and practically ran from the room only to return carrying a long handled broomstick and wearing an evil grin on his face.

"Abel...what are you doing with that?" Seth asked, warily and he grinned at her.

"Cleaning," he replied. He swatted around at the floating Seth with the bristle end of the broom and she had a difficult time of avoiding it as she swerved around the hanging chandelier. "There seems to be a lot of dust on the ceiling," he declared, smiling.

"Tovarish," Astha ran a hand down her face and sighed. "This is hardly proper behaviour for a Prince of the Empire," she sighed.

"Well, the Empress started it," he retorted and swung the broom again.

"Hey, that was a close one, you almost got my head!" Seth yelled.

"Then admit defeat and hand over the sugar!"

"Never!" Seth laughed.

"Erm..." Ion stared at them in shock. Since he was an infant he'd been rigorously trained in deportment and etiquette and no where in that training had it ever said that courtiers or even royals could act so childishly. He'd certainly never seen the Empress do so, that is until Abel had returned.

"We might as well let them have their fun," his grandmother said, noticing her grandson's stunned expression. "Her Highness has been alone for quite some time," she stated, "And I know she was greatly affected when she learned that he'd fallen in battle. Twice."

"Ah...mmm," he nodded, not knowing quite what to say.

After a minute or so, Seth swerved low enough for her brother to grab hold of her ankle and he pulled her down into his arms, tossing the broom aside. Her wings vanished and her eyes returned to normal as she pouted at him.

"Gotcha," he grinned.

"Nii-san!" she glared at him.

"Yes?" he asked, innocently.

"That was cruel," she stated.

"I disagree," Abel said and then slung her onto the sofa, albeit quite gently, before grabbing the undamaged sugar pot from her hands. "Hahahaha...I win," he grinned.

"You realise I'm going to pay you back for this," Seth declared.

"Well, that would be quite childish, wouldn't it," he retorted, quickly.

"This means war," she said.

"You know how I feel about wars. The bible says 'turn the other cheek', you know."

"A phrase which I'm sure the Terrans take to heart," she rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you used to love a good prank war. Don't tell me you've gotten too old for a little fun?"

"We're the same age."

"Ah, then you're just scared."

"Oi, I never said..." his eyebrow twitched.

"That's alright, I understand. I am the Empress Augusta Vradica of the Formidable New Human Empire, after all," Seth flicked her hair a little. "It's understandable you'd be scared of me," she said. "Grown men cower before me," she boasted.

"Seth..."

"Armies flee before me. So I really do understand your reluctance to engage in battle with me."

"That's such a petty trick," he lamented.

"Yes, but it's working."

Abel sighed deeply and sat back down. "You'll be making chicken noises next, won't you?" he asked and she nodded.

"For as long as it takes," she said, "I'll even get the servants and the guards to follow you around clucking at you. They'll have to, if I order it."

"Then you leave me no choice if only to defend the dignity of the people of the Empire," he added.

"War?" Seth raised an excited eyebrow.

"War," he nodded.

"Good luck, Tovarish," Astha said to him, shaking her head.

"Eh? You're deserting before the war even starts?"

"I'm not going to fight a war against her Highness!"

"It's a prank war, not a real war."

"I'm too old for such things," she replied, haughtily.

"Well, if you're too old, what does that make us?" Abel looked to Seth who shrugged at him.

"She's right though, you are going to need a lot of good luck," Seth said to her brother.

"I think I'll manage."

"Heh."