Disclaimer: Blaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Warnings: Same as always.
A/N: Big thanks to all for not complaining about the new update schedule(OR the obscene wait that came after it!). n-n; You guys rock, honestly.
:n:
"Have you seen the Knights?"
Lord Lykouleon looked up from his deskwork, teal eyes flickering with confusion.
"The Knights? No. Why?"
Tetheus was impassive, his drawn face betrayed by the slight tension to his voice.
"It's not that important... Not yet. I've detected some demon energy around the castle. I don't think it's a threat to the security of the castle, but I wanted to inform them of it. However..."
"You haven't been able to find them," Lykouleon nodded, a slight smile playing at his features. "You're not the first to come looking for them today. Alfeegi was here as well."
"How strange."
Tetheus glanced briefly out the large glass windows lighting up the study behind the Dragon Lord.
"Should I send someone to look for them, my lord?"
Lykouleon shook his head, lips still barely upturned.
"No. They'll be back. I recommend looking for them at supper. I've never known them to miss one of Cernozura's meals." He paused, suddenly remembering. "...Well, apart from last night. I don't suppose that counts, though. They were distracted."
Tetheus nodded in agreement, a dry laugh threatening to show itself in his carefully blank expression.
"Yes, I think they have an excuse. It's not every day one grows two cup sizes."
The Dragon Lord concentrated on withholding a snicker as well, and the Black Dragon Officer continued.
"Three, actually, in Thats' case."
Lykouleon broke down, laughing off his tension at this absurdity.
"Do I want to know how you learned this?"
"It's a matter of security, my lord," Tetheus said with an innocent air, secretly glad he had caused the Dragon Lord to relax. "I needed to find out somehow. After all, armor doesn't adjust by itself."
The blonde haired man nodded, catching the fleeting reference to the dangerous position Dragoon had found itself in with this sudden transformation.
"No, I suppose it doesn't." There was a brief silence in which neither man spoke, then Lykouleon added in more seriously, "look for them at dinner. I'll set aside time for a conference. I think it's high time we speak to them of their continuing responsibilities as Dragon Knights."
:n:
Rath shivered suddenly, whipping his head around to stare into the foliage, crimson eyes narrowed.
"What is it?" Rune asked in a whisper, swirling around as well and placing his hand on the other's arm.
Rath growled under his breath, shaking his head.
"...Nothing. I thought I heard someone."
Two fading steps of heeled footsteps, one leaving behind a faint demonic trail, were inaudible under the birdsong and chatter behind them.
"Hey!" Kitchel pulled herself out of the water and onto the grassy bank, snapping the tension. "Hey, Rath? If you really wanted to get a tan, all you'd have to do would be to stand really close to your dragon while he's breathing Fire, right? Because the flames wouldn't hurt you, right?"
Rath stared at her.
"...It was just a thought."
Cesia giggled as well, shimming up onto the bank next to the other three.
"Rune, have you told Tintlett about this yet?"
The elf jumped, eyes wide and nervous.
"Wh-what? No... Why?"
"Weren't you saying something about trust? How you needed to tell each other this sort of stuff?"
Rune glared at a teasing Rath, flushing red.
"What sort of thing?" Cesia asked, arching a slender eyebrow. "You two swore to notify each other every time a curse backfired and you got gender-flipped?"
Rune paused, totally flustered.
"Weird marriage vows," Thats spoke up, shaking water out of his long hair and imagining the scene. "I vow, before heaven and earth, to tell my dearly beloved of every time I grow a cli--"
"Thats!" The Dragon Knight of Water shouted, obviously scandalized at the mere thought.
Cesia laughed behind her hand, intervening quickly and pulling her legs under her to kneel upon them.
"You were saying that you should notify her, though, right?"
Behind her, Thats, still in the water tugged wet brown hair out of his eyes, wiping his face and pulling a grimace.
"Rune, how can you stand this hair on a daily basis? Mine's only shoulder-length now, but it's still a pain!"
"Oh, you had longer hair before," Kitchel pointed out as Rath smugly glanced at his still-short dark locks. "Remember? It was in a ponytail."
"It still wasn't this long," The Dragon Knight of Earth insisted, trying yet again to brush it completely out of his face without result.
"You should tie it back," Cesia commented, then turned both her face and the subject back to Rune. "And you should tell Tintlett about this."
"Just leave us out of it," Rath said, gesturing sharply at Thats and himself.
Cesia rolled her eyes. "And how would that work? Please, Rath, she won't care, anyway."
"...Might find it funny, though."
"...Might want to come down and help us out." The fortuneteller and thief grinned evilly at each other.
Rune's eyes widened.
"What? You can't make me send for her!"
"We never said that." Kitchel's voice was wavering with withheld mischief. The Knight of Water eyed her suspiciously as she snatched up a towel, handing Cesia a second.
"We'll just send for her ourselves," Cesia laughed, the sound fiery upon the rustle of leaves.
"H-hey, wait!" Rune reached out to grab hold of them, but struggled with the towel wrapped tightly about himself. Unable to get his arm out before the two girls had leapt to their feet and darted off into the trees, he overbalanced, falling to the ground.
As the snap of branches and high giggles began to fade, Rath shook his head.
"...Sucks to be you."
:n:
"The others should be done about now," Havana said, still slightly harried from their near-encounter with the upper-class females.
"I can take you back to our dorm and you can meet them. Oh, this'll be fun!" She chattered on, kicking her dangling legs as she sat on the counter next to the bathroom sinks.
Sending a brief glance at the silent stall, she continued.
"Too bad your period had to start when we were way out in the gardens. At least it's the first day still, though."
Not understanding what she meant or even sure if he wanted to, Garfakcy went back to staring at the small(and yet all too large) plastic and cotton contraption in his hand. A feeling of impeding doom spread over the tiny stall and the narration thankfully moved back outside to give the short henchman some privacy as he hoisted up his full skirts.
"You'll have to borrow off someone else if it gets too heavy," Havana continued, waiting patiently for the other to rejoin her, "my flow stays pretty low."
She flushed slightly at this display of personal information, and hoped that her charge hadn't been able to hear what she said.
Garfakcy, meanwhile, winced with pain, one eye squinted tightly shut, as he berated himself mentally, silently yelping in startled agony.
"Owowowowowowowowowow..."
Muttering to himself quietly, he took a deep shaky breath, trying to slow his heartbeat down to something that didn't make him feel as though he was about to pass out.
"Relax, relax," he whispered, closing both eyes and attempting to forcibly calm his stiffened muscles.
It wasn't so much that he was a big fan of zen and the art of moving through life smoothly, so much that it was, he was quickly discovering, very difficult to remove a half-in tampon when you were so tensed as to be clenching it.
A sharp burning pain jolted through his body in places where he was previously unaware he had nerve endings and he gasped softly, green eyes flashing open with the oddly inverted discomfort.
As he slowly managed to slide the all-too-wide cotton stick further away, he heard the maid still waiting for him speak up.
"Um, are you okay?" Havana asked, embarrassed at having to do so. "That was an old one... Did it already fall out of the applicator?"
Garfakcy pounced upon the target-shaped excuse waving about in front of him, hastily responding.
"Y-yeah!" He glanced at the milky plastic tube he was still holding, having already attempted to use it to push the tampon in properly the first time, but instead accidentally sliding it off the back of the cotton wad.
This, he assumed, was the applicator.
"Um, I don't suppose you have anything else?"
Anything less painful, his mind added in with a shaky gasp as he finally dropped the slightly bloodied tampon and its holder into the small wastebasket in the stall.
"I don't have anything else on me," Havana shook her head. "You could ask one of the other girls." Perhaps she heard the cringe on his face through the painted plywood door, for she continued. "But for now at least, just use toilet paper."
Garfakcy's pale eyes lit up.
Toilet paper. Of course!
He hastily grabbed a handful, firmly shutting out the part of his mind that was disgusted with the thought, and folded it up into a neat pad, tying it down with another long strip.
There. That... That actually looked very flimsy, he admitted to himself. But it was better than nothing and much better than the damned tampon.
:n:
"Th-this isn't fair!" Thats gasped, leaning heavily on the railing at the top of the main stairway at the entrance to the castle, trying futilely to keep his body covered with the meager white towel.
"Tell me about it," Rath muttered, struggling to wrap his towel tightly enough to get it to stay above his chest and not fall off. "I can't get it to stay."
He glanced at the other almost jealously.
"If you just tucked it properly, you'd be able to get it to work. This is impossible!"
Thats grimaced. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but... At least your chest doesn't hurt when you go up or down stairs! Breasts bounce," he emphasized, "and that's painful."
Rath's eyes narrowed slightly, obviously not pleased with the implications in that explanation.
"At least I'm skinny."
Rune buried his face in his hands, giving a low exasperated moan.
"Do you two realize what you are saying?" he asked incredulously. "You both sound absolutely pathetic."
The other two Knights stared shamefully at the marble ground, scuffing their feet guiltily.
"Come on," Rune continued impatiently, already starting down one of the branching hallways on the second floor, "they must've gone this way. I can see their wet footprints."
It wasn't long before the scantily clad trio found themselves standing outside a closed wooden door, the trail of watery footsteps ending in a messy jumble front of it.
Rune tested the brass doorknob nervously, almost expecting himself to be blown backwards with the force of a shattering explosion or turned to ice on the spot with his hand still gripping the handle.
Nothing happened, however, and he was surprised to feel it turn almost too easily in his grasp.
"Hurry up, already."
Rune didn't hear which of the other two made this impatient remark, but he heeded it, his heart unreasonably jumping wildly. Stepping inside, he was startled by how utterly normal the room appeared. It was obviously Cesia's, as he recognized the dresser and bed from when she had been lending them clothing, but it didn't seem to reek of evil deeds or of Faerie Princess Summoning.
That was, of course, before he caught sight of the white-clad figure seated serenely in the center of Cesia's bed, a half-drunk cup of tea in her hand and two smugly grinning girls on either side.
"Why," Tintlett smiled smoothly, "hello Rune."
Rune blanched, vaguely aware of a chorus of snickers coming from both inside the room and directly behind him. He lashed out randomly at the moving form next to him and was rewarded with a muffled yelp.
"Tou-chy," Thats muttered, rubbing his arm where the elf had caught him a glancing blow, then fell silent as Rune walked further into the bedroom.
"U-um..." He stuttered, seemingly at an utter loss for words.
After all, he thought furiously to himself, What does one say in this situation? It had never been part of his etiquette lessons back when he was a boy.
The double meaning of that statement did not fail to take the opportunity to dig its claws into his skin with an embarrassing slash of pain.
"Yeah, when I was a boy..." Rune sighed under his breath, guiltily avoiding Tintlett's eyes and staring instead at the white sheets in front of him.
"Um," he continued, "hi. Hello, Tintlett."
"Tsk," Cesia rolled her eyes, setting her cup of tea down on the nearby bed stand with a clatter as the Elven Princess giggled behind her own cup.
"Hello, Rune," Tintlett said serenely, "how are you?"
Rune faltered, still at a loss for words. Inwardly he was seething, foaming undiluted hatred at the mouth and mentally throttling the other two girls in the room. Outwardly his jaw had yet to be scooped up from the floor.
"Oh dear," Tintlett sighed, sounding almost amused. "Well, thank you for the tea. It was lovely."
"Wait," Rune managed to get out, still staring wide eyed. "Why... How..."
"To see you, of course," the other elf laughed lightly. "It's not every day one has this opportunity."
Rath shuddered. Was that a flicker of sadism in her innocently shining blue eyes?
"And," she went on, whatever dark thought the Knight of Fire had caught a glimpse of disappearing, "I was invited to Lady Raseleane and Lord Lykouleon's ball."
Tintlett beamed at the dumbstruck Knights, then took another sip of her warm drink.
She looked Rune over consideringly, then broke into a grin, losing her sugar-sweet tone with a sadistically delighted laugh.
"...But it was mainly to see you with knockers larger than mine. Gods, I wish I had been here when Cesia took you bra shopping."
:n:
I have no excuses. I'm so sorry. This was a shitty update, too. :sweatdrop: Honestly, I'm pretty pissed at myself about this, but I just ran out of time...
:n:
As I'm having trouble accessing the reviews, responses will be sent via that spiffy new responder thing. And, if it's an anonymous one? In the next chapter. :sweatdrop:
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...If you want to yell at me, you'll have to do it in a review... :sweatdrop: