Two Much: First Meeting

Kai walked outside and plopped down on the grass beside Goh. "So what are you doing out here, just sitting around?"

"Sasame's going to sing to us," Hajime said waiting expectantly like a cheerful toddler.

"Wait, I didn't say I would-"

"I didn't know you sing, Sasame."

"Well he is the Knight of sound, dimwit," Mannen said with a grin.

"Oh, that's real insulting coming from an idiot with half his brain frozen."

"I swear, the way you bark off at people. It's hard to determine whether you're a guy or a girl."

"Wow, thought that up yourself? And here I was thinking brain dead people couldn't function."

"God, you sound like an old married couple. Cut it out," Goh interrupted.

"SHUT UP!!!" both teens shouted while rubbing Goh's face in the grass.

Kai looked over at Mannen and shoved his face in the grass too. "You shut up too." Then she turned to give Sasame a warm smile. "Go ahead Sasame, I want to hear that beautiful voice of yours."

Sasame blushed a bit. "It's not that great."

"Yes it is!" Himeno chirped.

"Yeah, stop being so modest and sing for us Sasame."

Sasame looked down at his feet for a moment. "Fine."

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Kai rested her chin up against her folded arms as she looked up at the beautiful songbird. Mannen looked over Goh, at Kai, whose eyes were fixed on Sasame with a small smile on her face. Does she…like Sasame? Figures. She's always with him. They look like they're having fun a lot of the time. It wouldn't be much of a surprise. At least not to me anyway. Sasame's the type of guy that knows everything about girls, except when they like him. I guess it's funny in a way. Mannen mindlessly let his eyes wander from her placid face to…well…the rest of her. His thoughts (which I won't be typing out! Naughty Knight) were interrupted when he felt Goh nudge him with his elbow. He looked over at Goh who held a sheepish grin on his face. "Get your mind out of the gutter," Mannen muttered only low enough for him to hear.

"I was just about to tell you the same thing," Goh snickered.

Mannen turned red slightly and looked away. Great. Goh has a big mouth. Now everyone's going to think I'm a pervert.

During mid-chorus, Sasame stopped singing. Kai snapped out of her dazed look of serenity. "What's wrong?"

"I think I hear someone arguing," Sasame said looking over in the direction of the courtyard.

"Maybe it's one of the gardeners," Himeno said giving it no further thought.

"I don't think so. It doesn't sound like anyone I've heard around here before."

Kai stood up. "Well if it's that big of a deal to you, we can always go check it out."

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"Stop shouting you idiot. If they spot us, they'll send off the alarm. We don't need trouble this early. Do you want mother to be angry?" one of the women spoke in a calm, cold, yet collected tone.

"So what?! Let's just get the stuff now and get on our way. We're wasting time!"

"We're taking our time. Besides, I don't think we can stay in here for that much longer. The barrier is beginning to suck us back out. We only came to find where it is."

"Who are you?" Kei asked, interrupting their quarrel.

The two women looked over at the group nearby. The louder one slapped her own face disappointedly. "Great. She's going to be so angry," she muttered.

"Who?" Sasame asked picking up on her comment.

"Excuse our rudeness," the other women spoke with a faint smile. "My name is Takata, and this is my sister Kana. We're…lost, you might say."

"State your last names, positions and I.D numbers or risk violence," Hayate warned.

"What?! Who do you think you're talking to-"

"Quiet," Takata said, placing a hand over Kana's mouth. "We came to introduce ourselves. I…we, are the daughters of your dearest Princess of Disaster. We seek revenge on the pretear and knights." Then her eyes wandered over to Kai. "There's only one pretear. Who are you?"

Kai raised a brow at her. "No one important."

Kai didn't seem at all phased. The rest of the knights were, however, stunned and angered. "Takako had children?…"

"I suggest you two intruders leave at once," Kei suggested while keeping his calm composure.

"That is fine. We will respect your wishes…for now." With those final words, the two disappeared.

"Weeell that was weird," Kai sighed. But no one seemed to share that confused emotion.

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"Why'd you just leave like that?! Either leave anonymous or stay with a name and kill the bastards! Now they're going to be on high alert for sure! Why'd you do that?!"

"There's more than one way to skin a rat and I plan to make it bleed."

"…So what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I know what I'm doing so please stop talking."

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Kei entered the lounge where the Knights sat on couches around the fireplace. "We're now on high alert," he informed.

"Good," Goh said, gesturing for the tired Knight to have a seat.

"So why didn't you just kill them right then and there?" Kai asked after knowing the situation.

"It's not that easy, alright. Think before you talk."

"O, please. I've dealt with people bigger than tha-," Kai quickly shut her mouth. I really should think before I talk.

The rest of the knights looked at her. "Dealt with?"

"What? Don't look at me like that. It's not like I did anything SERIOUS," she lied. Sasame raised a brow at her for a second, then returned to his original thoughts.

It grew quiet once more. Himeno tilted her head onto Hayate's shoulder. Kai looked over at them both. A small grin spread across her face. Hayate turned red a little and silently mouthed the words "shut up". Kai raised to her feet and yawned. The quiet tension in the room was beginning to get to her. She noticed a row of albums on a shelf hanging over the fireplace. She grabbed them all and returned to her seat on the couch. She kept one in her lap and placed the others on the floor in front of her. She began flipping through it for her own amusement. There was a picture of Goh, Kei, Sasame, and Hayate in the rose garden outside. They were all so small and covered in dirt from gardening. Hayate looked so happy. They all did. There were more pictures of them as children with the older knights of earth, water, and ice watching after them. Sasame looked over with a small smile on his face.

"You're the first one in forever to take those down to look at," Sasame said as she flipped over another page. It was a picture of Sasame crying and a man hovering over Hayate while he sat in the corner facing the wall. They were in their regular clothing so she couldn't tell who the man was.

"He's kinda hot. Who's that? Hajime? Shin?"

"That's Mannen," Sasame laughed while flipping back to the page with the man in his knight of ice uniform. Everyone else laughed while Mannen turned bright red.

Kai looked at the album surprised. "Be for real, Sasame."

"I'm not lying," Sasame said continuing to laugh. Kai quickly flipped the page.

"Ha ha ha," Mannen said in a sarcastic tone. "Just laugh it up."

"Woa," Kai said. Her eyes widened and she started giggling under her breath. Sasame looked over to see why she was laughing. His face went hot red.

"Time to move on to a different one," Sasame said reaching for the album but Kai pulled it out of his reach.

"Well isn't that just the cutest thing!"

"What is it?" Shin asked curiously.

Before Sasame could stop her, Kai held the album open for everyone else to. Mannen, Hajime, and Shin fell over with laughter while the other knight went red. It was a picture of the knight children naked. They looked as if they had just been out in the garden because they were running away from Shin and Hajime, obviously avoiding a shower. Which means Mannen had to have taken it. Goh snatched it out of her hands, took the picture, and burned it with the flick of a finger. "Aww, why'd you do that? You're burning memories."

"I think I'll live," he responded, closing the album and placing it on the end table.

Kai looked through the second one, which were the knights in their teen years, then moved on to the third. It was a bit old but not that old. "Aww, Shin and Hajime look so cute!" Hajime was trying to fix Shin's oversized hat, while Himeno helped Shin off the floor. The two blushed while Shin managed to pipe out a feeble thank you. It wasn't tense anymore. It felt warm and enjoyable.

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