CHAPTER THREE: THE CAT AND ITS MASTER'S SONG

"Hold still, yellow-eyes." Dio said playing with my black lock of hair.

I didn't notice it at the time, but Dio was braiding my hair as well. We both finished at the same time, sort of. It took me a bit longer because of I had to put the ornament back in place so the braid would stay.

"All done, sir!" I pulled back and laughed a bit.

"Thank you, yellow-eyes." He said touching his braid, he laughed.

For a twenty-two year old man he can braid hair really well. That to me was surprising. Then, he did something I thought he never would do. He pulled me close to his chest, technically my head was on his chest. He repeated the words 'good, yellow-eyes,' over and over again, patting my head, as it I were his pet.

"Dio, sir," I cleared my throat. I didn't feel strange at all. No new feeling surfaced because of where my head was ", your shirt." I had a free hand, so blindly, I began to feel his sheet's hoping to find his shirt. I found it and with perfect aim it landed on his head.

"Meow!" a cat of must of come into the room.

Dio let me go, and he put on his shirt, it was white. I didn't notice but he was sitting cross-legged, while I sat in the light brown chair. 'I like his pants,' I thought. His pants were black, but they were Claus' pants, I know because there was a small tear on the knee.

"A cat." I said, watching the small ball of black fluff waltz right in.

It was indeed a cat. It was a black kitty with bright yellow eyes, as well. I slid out of the chair, onto the floor. I hugged my knees cautiously, while watching the kitty close up on me. The cat was next to my leg and it began to purr while it rubbed against my leg. I stopped hugging my knees and put one hand in the back to support my angle, while I sat. With my other hand I began to pet the cat.

"Hello, Yoshi!" I said happily petting the cat gently.

Dio was now in the corner of my eye. What I meant was that, I could see him from the corner of my eye, without turning. He was now leaning on the edge of the bed staring at the cat. He moved his hands closer to the cat. I smiled. I looked at his outstretched hand, 'He's wearing black gloves,' I thought.

"Meow!" Yoshi hissed and yowled, protectively. He jumped onto my knees.

"Huh?" Dio was like a curious child. He was now sitting on the floor, too. He grabbed the cat gently from my knee and held it up to his cheeks. "It's soft." He told me.

"He's my pet, sir," I said stretching a bit. "Holy…."

I landed with a hard thud on the floor. I never got to finish my sentence. Stupid me, I forgot how I was sitting. Now I have a headache. I was lying on my back, and the hair Dio braided was in my face. 'The ceiling here is white,' I thought trying to ignore the headache. Dio was laughing.

"Dio, sir, I don't find it comical." I said closing my eyes.

"I do," he stopped laughing, "so try and lighten up, yellow-eyes."

"I will try, sir." I said having my eyes closed.

My head was pulsing. 'Oww,' I thought, 'I hope this headache goes away.' I sat up again opening my eyes. I had an idea, which seemed good at the time. I moved cautiously towards Dio. I then decided to tickle him. I scurried my hands around his stomach, and sides. I watched him, but to no avail, he was holding his breath. He tried hard not to laugh.

"No, yellow-eyes. You do it all wrong," he said finally breathing.

"Excuse me, sir?" I said stopping.

He put the cat down on his bed. I looked at him confused. I didn't know by what he meant. Still I sat there waiting for a 'magic show,' to appear out of thin air.

"Like this," he said laughing as he tickled me.

For once I felt like laughing. If you want to know the truth, only Alvis has tickled me before, no one else has though. I began to laugh and managed to turn this into a tickle fight. Dio was laughing, I guess those two years in the ruins of the Grand Stream must make you insane, but Dio somehow managed to keep his sanity.

"Dio, sir," I was bursting with laughter at this point.

"Ahem!" a voice stopped the laughter, and Dio and I almost jumped out of our skins.

We both kneeled next to the bed, so that our chins were resting on the bedside. The cat, well actually she's a kitten, jumped on top of my head, and just sat there, like if nothing happened. Yoshi was trying to be graceful.

"Meow!" the cat said sitting on my head.

"What are you two doing?" it was the red head, our very own Lavie, she had given us a confused stare.

"Nothing," I said with a big grin on my face.

"It's something." She didn't even say 'hi,' to Dio, that ticked me off.

I stood up, acting calm. I knew the cat was on my head, but it must've fallen when I got up. I don't know what happened, but the cat appeared on Dio's head. Dio then stood up grabbing the navie cat with one head.

I got an idea. I put my arm around Dio shoulder, like if he was a long lost friend of mine. "I have an idea, sir. A game if will." I whispered softly into his ear. "You, sir, will have to stay here though."

I walked over to Lavie, who was leaning on the on the side of the wall. I think my shoelace was untied. I found myself on the floor, this time flat on my face. 'This is just great, just great,' I thought. I shook my head as I tried to get up.

"Need a hand?" Lavie's hand was gesturing to help me up.

"Yeah, thanks." I said getting pulled up by Lavie's grip. "Stay here, please?" I asked Lavie nicely while I was in ear reach of here.

"Eh?" Lavie gave me a puzzled look. Then, we both looked at Dio. She then spoke, "With him?!" she whispered fiercely in my ear.

"Relax." I said putting my hands up, trying to calm her down. "He won't hurt anyone. I promise." It's a good thing we were whispering.

"Hmph!" she turned away.

"STAY!" I whispered angrily. I didn't really want to be mean to Lavie but she left me no choice. When I have to I will, so I pushed her out of the way into the room. She looked at me angrily; she had a good reason as well. "I'm sorry…" I looked away. I slowly closed the door. I watched Dio look at me, he was walking towards the door.

"What are you up to-" he was cut off as I slammed the door.

"It's all part of the game, sir!" I yelled on the other side of the door.

'Thank God!' I thought, the lock was on the outside. You can guess what I did; yeah I locked the door on those two.

"Loki! Open the damn door!" Lavie yelled angrily.

"I can't hear you!" I said walking down the hall.

I heard a pair of footsteps coming from the direction of my room. 'I bet Alvis heard,' that was a deadly thought. 'Knowing Alvis she's going to open the emergency room's door.' I felt a tug on my right arm. 'My poor sweater,' I thought, 'so many tugs on the poor thing!' I thought. In case you didn't know I'm left handed. I turned around and to my surprise I find Alvis next to me. She was nowhere near the door as I thought she would.

"Loki," she looked at me with curious eyes,"what did you do?"

"I locked the emergency room door, with Lavie and Dio in there." I said feeling proud of myself.

"Why?" Alvis asked. Then I guess the wheels in her head turned. "Ooohhh." She smiled at me.

I patted her on the head. We both knew that Lavie liked Dio. I know this for a fact because Alvis heard Lavie talk about him in her sleep, and well it was not too pleasant for Alvis' delicate ears. Alvis didn't need to ask questions when she told me what Lavie said. She's a smart girl that she is; she knows what we talk about and can keep up at an intellectual conversation.

"I'm going to see Claus." I said hugging Alvis tight, and then I let her go.

"Okay," she said yawning. "I'm going to take a nap, with Mr. Sheep."

I watched her go upstairs holding the sheep tight. Her room as well as Lavie's, and Claus' rooms were upstairs. The bathroom was upstairs as well; I had my own bathroom, which was downstairs of my room. I walked south of the emergency room.

I looked to the left of another opening, and there was the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen and sat at the table. 'All the furniture here is ebony colored.' I thought as I rested my head on the table. My stomach growled. 'Any food?' was my first thought. I looked around in the refrigerator.

"Let's see." I looked around searching for something good to eat. "Left over pie, milk, cheese, peas, broccoli…." 'Anything?' "Ah-ha! Ice-cream, Loki scream for ice-cream." I laughed as I opened the freezer.

It was a gallon of ice-cream. I love ice-cream, a lot. It was chocolate my favorite. I closed the bottom door and the freezer. I walked over to the sink and washed a spoon and a bowl. I sat at the table eating my fill in chocolate ice-cream. It was really good, especially with whip cream and chocolate syrup. I put everything back in its place.

"What time is---" I stopped halfway and pulled put an old pocket watch from my sweater. It was made from gold, and the numbers were made out of diamonds, where I got it I don't know. "It's 4:45."

I walked out of the kitchen, another opening was there. This was living room, which we hardly use anymore. It was fairly enormous. 'A normal sized living room,' I thought. I walked past both of the rooms, down a small hall, past the flight of stairs, and opened a door; the brass knob was as cold as h… Nevermind it was really cold.

I stepped on the porch the broads were creaking as I walked. I jumped down the steps like a kid and watched the wheat move in the wind, like a dance. There were two fields of wheat, one in front of the house, and the other one was outside my room. I ran in between the two fields. A small dirt road was right there, that road lead to where we met Dio.

'Yoshi better be doing his part.' I thought. How I knew Dio was coming, that's a mystery, but I always use my cat to strike up a conversation. You know hopefully it will work, but knowing Lavie she'll be stubborn, and well… I just hope it doesn't come to that.

I ran the whole way there so I wouldn't miss catching a glimpse of Claus. At these hours he's sitting on a small hill watching the clouds. I ran the whole way there and I was out of breath when the road stopped. I was an inch away from the field. The grass here was green, like in those nature books you read, where everything is perfect. There a couple of wildflowers here and there, some were blue, others were violet, some were red, and the rest were all mixed.

"Claus!" I yelled putting my hands near my mouth, sort of like a loud speaker.

A figure in the distance moved. I ran towards it, and after tripping over some rocks, and some 'invisible' ones I made it up the hill. I fell on my back, and landed with a soft thud. I was catching my breath and stared at the clouds. I didn't care how far away I was from him.

"Hi, Claus." I said watching the clouds pass.

"Hey," he must've been looking at the clouds still. "Did you take your medicine?"

"Yeah, Claus," I said sarcastically. "I only blacked out because I was over whelmed with joy."

"Loki…" Claus said worried. "I… You know it's for your own good."

"Claus ain't good with emotions," I said in a childlike manner. I looked at Claus. "Not even in his sleep."

"What?!" Claus was staring at me. "What are you talking about?"

"Claus once asked, why a Sophia kissed him, she never answered back." I sang. "You talk in your sleep."

"What the heck were you doing in my room?!" Claus was trying not to get mad.

"I couldn't sleep, and neither could Alvis so we went to your room." I said putting my hands in back of my head. The pocket watch was still in my hand. "That's when you started talking. You lied to me, Claus. Why?"

"Because…" Claus looked at me with soft eyes, but he didn't say anything.

"Don't say it." I said closing my eyes. "I know what you're going to say." I had a good idea; maybe he thought I would be jealous. "I don't get jealous." That's true I don't.

"Sing that song, Loki," Claus tried to change the subject, "you know the one you that you promised me."

"Oh, that one," I had one eye open. "Okay… If you are lost in your way, deep in an awesome story, don't be in doubt and stray…." Just to warn you this last about three minutes.

Me: I don't own Last Exile, or .hackSIGN.

Loki: And she never will. Oh, for all those reading this the next chapter is called –

Me: Shut up! Hits Loki in the head

Claus & Lavie: Here they go again.

Me: I could really use some help here, because I never got around to writing the 5th chapter, so R&R.

Loki: Liar!! She telling lies, I tell you. Muhahaha!! I will tell you something true I'm her opposite, no really I am.

Me: That's enough!