Okay - Here's Chapter 2!

X: The probability of Mayor Rayon and Inertia sneezing at the same time was about a billion and three chances in one, but, lucky for her, such happened.

The Mayor sneezed rather violently several times, causing waiters to scramble over towards him, asking how they could help. The surly Mayor waved them off, mumbling about "too much damn pepper on the food".

The blonde haired child breath a sigh of relief, and tried to make herself as small as possible. The trio walked past the table, and towards the entrance of the restaurant, Skunk joining them there. Nibbling on the chocolates in her pocket, she kept her green eyes on them, and when they were out of sight, crawled from under the table, and sneaked out of the restaurant, and smacked right into.....
S: ...ENMY!!! The ill-tempered nanny looked like she was about to spit ink. She grabbed Inertia by the ear and dragged her off, mumbling all the way about how naughty Inertia had been. Inertia tried her best to escape...She knew Enmy would tell her father EVERYTHING along with exaggerating as many points as possible....

X: Even acting as innocent as possible didn't work this time. Enmy yanked hard on Inertia's ear every time she tried to say something, growling under her breath about bad little children who didn't mind their manners and stay where they were put.

Inertia tried to think of anything to do to get out of *this* mess, but nothing was coming to mind...............

S: As they neared Inertia's room, the young girl thought this was the end...she was doomed...the speeches downstairs had ended....she would never eat sweets again....

But suddenly! - A shriek came from Tima's room.

Tima came out, crying and screaming hysterically, and was clutching her left foot. As Enmy looked closer she screamed also. She remembered she was sewing up Tima's dress before she had went to look for Inertia, and one of her sewing needles must have fallen on the ground...and now that thick needle was half way into the heel of the sole of Tima's foot.

Enmy let go of Inertia's very sore ear and ran to grab Tima. The Duke was going to sack (fire) her!!! Other servants on the floor rushed to Tima as soon as they heard the cries from the Duke's favorite daughter. At other times Inertia wouldn't have enjoyed being ignored like this. But tonight she didn't mind. In a great act of self discipline, Inertia walked into her room and closed the door when she could have ran away again.

Inertia looked up at the clock.

Her father would be there any minute.

Inertia crawled under her large bed and hid in the corner. Her father would cuddle and spoil Tima all night and punish Inertia.... In the dusty darkness Inertia waited. Hiding under the bed wasn't much use; her father knew of all her main hiding places.......

X: Even through the thick walls she could still hear Tima's screams. It was dark under the bed, (ooc-*smacks self* Duh...me when I'm brain-dead...) and warm. Inertia wrapped her arms around herself, wondering how long it would before her father came to find her.

At the moment, life didn't seem like it could get much worse, Tima was going to get all of the attention tonight, and she was going to get spanked and lectured, and probably never allowed to eat candy, or pastries again. (ooc- which sure would depress me...)

She could hear the commotion now, as her father arrived in the hallway.........

S: *Inertia tried to make herself as small and possible and began to shiver with fear. She heard her father in the next room.....His voice seemed tired.....Maybe I won't get horribly punished after all if father is really tired...but what do I know? Inertia pushed up against the wall like she was trying to get through it and closed her eyes....*

X: Time seemed to pass by slowly....it seemed like hours since Inertia had made her escape to her room, and the sanctuary of under her bed. She began to wonder, if with all of the fuss over Tima, maybe Emny forgot to tell Duke Red about her misbehavior.

That thought was forgotten was she heard the heavy door to her room open, and her father's voice, quite and strained sounding, "Inertia?"

S: *Inertia tensed up and held her breath. Everything inside her screamed to not come out from under the bed....Maybe her father had forgotten her hiding place? I doubt that...He designed the entire Ziggurat, didn't he? He knows every inch of this building.... Inertia held herself even tighter and barely breathed....But she couldn't keep from coughing.....*

X: Covering her mouth with her hands, Inertia prayed that her father hadn't hear that cough...but not so. His footsteps trailed over to the edge of the bed, near the corner where she was hiding. There was silence for a moment, and then the blankets trailing over the edges of the bed, and thus hiding Inertia from view, were pulled back.

The light flooded under the bed, making the blonde haired girl blink as her eyes tried to adjust to the suddenly bright light...........

S: Inertia closed her eyes as she tried to scramble to the other edge of the bed...She quietly yelped as two hands gently pulled her out from under the safety of the bed......

X: ...and sat her down on the edge of the bed. Hesitantly opening her eyes, she was a bit surprised to see that he father didn't look quite so angry with her as she'd thought he would be. Which meant......lecture.........

S: Inertia hung her head as she thought of what she could say to her father.....When talking to the Duke about something serious, a couple rules had to be observed...:

~No slang

~Say every word perfectly

~Don't say 'um'

~Use big, mature words

Inertia met her father's eyes, then quickly looked down again.*

"H-How is Tima feeling?"

X: Her father glanced over towards the closed door, where outside Emny's strained voice could be heard, tending to Tima, and snapping at the other servants. Turning back towards Inertia, he nodded, "Yes, Tima will be fine. Her foot is going to hurt for quite a while, but the doctor is looking at it now."

Inertia halfway nodded also, wondering when her father would bring up the subject of her escape, and just what she'd say. A fit of coughing however - being under the bed must have aggravated her cold - drove that line of thought from her head.

S: *Inertia was able to finally stop coughing*

"Oh...Oh, I see."

*Inertia stuck her hands in her pockets....She remembered the stolen chocolates....but they melted. She lifted her chocolate stained hands out of the pockets of her designer silk dress and tried to hide them behind her back...*

X: But the melted chocolate stained hands did not pass the Duke's attention. Frowning, he motioned to Inertia to present them, front and center. Squirming a bit, she did so, careful not to get any of the sticky chocolate mess on her father's suit, he would hate it if she did so.......

S: (ooc - stick M&ms in the microwave for 15 to 30 seconds - they good)

*Slowly she showed him...She hung her head as he scowled, then she tried to smile...but she couldn't...she knew this wasn't going very well.....*

X: (ooc- melted m&m's? that sounds pretty good, I'm going to have to try that sometime. :)

"Inertia. Where did you get those...chocolates?" The Duke asked very slowly, looking straight into Inertia's eyes. Not wavering from her father's stare, Inertia answered hesitantly, "The restaurant's kitchen downstairs....."

S: *Inertia saw her father's glare harden and hung her head again....*

"...I'm....I'm sorry...."

X: She was trying to avoided looking at her father, she didn't want to see the stern look she was sure his face showed.

"I hope you are sorry Inertia. Disobeying me, just to get chocolates? And while you're still ill with the flu?" Inertia didn't mention that it was the thrill of the moment, and yes, maybe for the pastries, that she'd done so.

"I...I really am sorry, papa...." She ventured, wishing just for a moment she was like Tima, that her father would let her get away with anything........

S: "I....won't do it again....."

Inertia instantly regretted this. Her father remembered such promises and Inertia could never just stop being naughty......

X: Evidently her father realized this as well, if the hard, stern look he gave her was anything to go off of. He hated it when people didn't tell him the truth, or made promises they couldn't keep.....

"Really?" Her father was still looking at her with that hard look that made her squirm inside, "Somehow, little Inertia, I can't see you NOT getting in trouble....."

S: *Inertia looked up at him with teary eyes - she was sobbing now....She couldn't think of anything to say.....so she just broke out crying hysterically......*

X: Now, unless you're a complete jerk, no one likes to see cute little girls cry, particularly if they happen to be your daughter. Duke Red stiffed for a second as Inertia started sobbing, and then, quietly started to rub her back, a slight twinge of quilt running through him. For the most part, it was hard keeping his youngest daughter out of trouble, and while she could be aggravating, he was very fond of her, and hated to see either of his two daughters in tears.

"Now, Inertia, it's not that bad." his voice softened, as Inertia's sobs got bigger.

(ooc- hmm, I always saw Duke Red as stern, but very fond and sweet father, or at least, towards Tima. So... tried to play out on that part of personality...)

S: *Inertia stopped crying for a moment*

"Really?"

*There was a beat, and Inertia hopped into her father's arms (let us just pretend the chocolate mess disappeared^^)*

"I'm really sorry poppa."

*Duke Red knew she meant it this time. Inertia quieted down and began to nod of to sleep when a loud crash was heard down the hall*