Only Hope

by Chaoartwork39

Filled with fear and worry for his clone source, his brother, Lemongrab, he decides to create a new Lemon Child he names Lemonhope. But as his brother's behavior worsens, so does the clone's worst nightmare. Only one thing must be answered: Can he be willing to sacrifice himself for something he loves?

3. Chapter 3

The sun has already past it's noon section by the time the Lemongrabs finished their morning tasks by giving orders to the Lemon children on their daily jobs. Everyday, each of them would take a different task such as each cleaning one or two rooms, cooking dinner, cleaning the windows, or anything on the long list. Since Castle Lemongrab was moved closer to the Candy Kingdom, after the Lemongrabs order a huge Lemon Child that was carrying the castle called Lemonjon to take them to their mother's kingdom to consume food and blew up in sacrifice in giving the kingdom Lemon candies from starvation, the citizens show no irritation in traveling around the castle one rooms to another while doing their duty.

A week before the Lemonsweet incident, the elder Lemongrab decided that Castle Lemongrab would use some tidy up and get some Lemon children to do the job. The second one agreed to this, for he felt that every kingdoms these days are always on the task in keeping their civilization feel like home for rulers as well as citizens. And everyday, he feels like his families are growing stronger and well-balanced. However, rumors are beginning to appear everywhere he go. As he passes by his children, the first thing they would notice is his newly huge chunk on his face.

Although they would never question the earls, they would whisper or talk to each other in confusion and sometimes either show the face of suspicions or concerns. However, he would never hear anything about if his brother was the reason for the chunk. One theory that he did heard about was that the earls were traveling around outside of the kingdom last night and that a huge vicious animal ambushed them with the elder saving him in time to defeat it, but that the second ended up with a bite chunk. He once heard a bit from one lemon child that theorized that he fell down stairs and badly damaged the left side of his head enough for the elder to have no choice but to remove it in which the one he was telling that theory to made in an excuse as how the chunk completely looks like its been bitten.

The brothers decided not to talk about it to anyone. After the youngster pardoned him to do some tasks, he let him go, but to be with him at dinner time in which he promises to do so. But he was not going to do task, but to go to the attic to meet up with Lemonhope, who must be starting to go hungry now. He couldn't find any food around for the newborn lemon child to first snack, but to hope that he can pick up a morsel at dinner time and give it to him at night before he begins to starve. Although it can avoid a bit of his concerns, he was thinking about the conversations he had with his brother during breakfast.

He just still couldn't believe he would just lie to him and keep this secret to himself. He thought that he had promised himself since he met him that he was going to say whatever news he catches to his brother and that he promised the same thing. He's another him, right? If he's him, shouldn't he agree with his thoughts on what to do with the child? Shouldn't the elder have the same heart as him to show mercy on this? The more he thought about this, the more it felt as if he might faint from this huge confusion and misunderstanding.

After having difficult time with his walking direction due to trying to get use to having only his right eye and growling a bit in frustration each time he would thump onto the left side of the hallway, he finally saw the ceiling door leading to Lemonhope's room. As he got there, he did seem to notice for a second that there was a small bread wagon resting against the left side of the hallway. He seem to have seen it before, for he knows that its owns by one of their Lemon Children that sells pieces of bread until the afternoon. It was oddly enough that he couldn't have just left it there on purpose, but decided to just think he ran off for emergency bathroom or being summoned by his brother. He began to first look around to see if the coast was clear or if he was being spied on.

Then knowing what happened the last time he did this, he bent his knees and jumped as high he could with only this time cautiously. He perfectly grabbed the ceiling rope as he opened the door while he landed perfectly on the ground. He quickly backed away in time for the ladder to land right where he once stood. But just as the ladder landed on the ground, he suddenly heard voices in which immediately made him look up at the opened door. He can hear the voice of Lemonhope and yet, there was a different tone of voice after him. He then frowned.
Oh sweet mother princess, he thought in anxiety, please don't let it be another Lemon child. Please just let it be that that he is just talking to himself from loneliness.

Filled with concern, he began climbing the ladder to the attic almost hurriedly. By the time he finally rose his head to see what was going on there, his eyes widened in shock from the sight and made a loud long gasp in which cause the chattering in the room to stop. Lemonhope was sitting in front of another Lemon Child both holding each two slices of bread on their hands as they turned a bit startled from his gasp and paused looking at him to process who it was.

Then realizing the visitor, they both made a small smile.
"Oh," Hope waved a bit, "Goodmorning-I mean evening, master. I was just talking to a new friend I made."
"Hom," he nodded with sound of delight pointing out at him with bread on his hand,
"Yes, this, hoom, friend is such a charming boy. I don't think I ever, hom, see him. Hmm, I wonder why."
Second Lemongrab could not respond but bit his lips shivering a bit trying to hold in the huge wave of worry and anger crashing across his body. It were those huge emotions that even the elder has problems holding in.

Noticing his expressions, his two sons stopped smiling with the small green skinned visitor looking anxiously while Hope just sat there with a blank face with not knowing why his father was acting this way. He couldn't blame him that much since he was still a newborn.
"Omm," the visitor responded with a nervous chuckle, "is everything, ok? Because, hom...you look pretty pale-"
He could no longer hold it in his chest anymore as he let his body let out a screech that had the mixture of complete shock and disbelief. The sound echoing across the room, he could already see the green child sinking a bit towards the floor with the face of fear. Lemonhope, on the other hand, just slightly widened his eyes in a bit of surprise.

All he paid attention to the most is the visitor. Already by his big oval nose, round eyes like Hope, green chubby body structure and a bakery looking outfit, he already knew who this Lemon Child was. Him and his brother made him during the starvation and was already hungry few minutes after being brought into this world. The first thing he ate was one slice of bread that was just lying around in their laboratory to use and he loved it at first taste. Because of this, they decided to call him Breadmon, which is a name combination of bread and lemon. He now works somewhere in the kingdom selling bread for any of his brothers that want to snack on it before he was not allowed to give them anymore at noon in order for each of the citizens to have enough room for their bellies when they have dinner.

He's also the same Lemon Child that announced brother's return on the whole day he went missing. But how...why?! How is it possible that he-
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" His screech broke into an angry shout, "YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE HERE!"
Breadmon's face began to grow pale.
"I..." He whimpered a bit, "I-I was just-"
"Do you realize what you've done? What you gotten yourself INTO?!
He quickly climbed up to the floor and stood up not looking at the Lemon Child anymore. He passed across the room, his anger turning into worry and fear again muttering,
"Oh glob, this is bad. This is really REALLY bad! Glob, tell me what I'm suppose to do. Where do I start?!"

While he continued muttering to himself in fear, Breadmon's fear lowered into concerned before him and Hope glance at each other for a moment with almost the same expression. He whispered to the newborn for a moment before getting up and pace towards his father.
"Your majesty," he grabbed his white pants and slightly pull it to get his attention, "your majesty!"
"WHHAAT?!" He quickly turned to him in a burst anger before making a quick panting. Flinched by his outburst, Breadmon regain a bit of his courage.
"Your majesty," he replied this time in a calmer voice, "forgive me for, hom, angering you. But you have to, hom, calm down. Somebody might hear us."

His anger quickly faded by this realization after he said this. Breadmon was right. If any Lemon Children or even his brother passed by below while he is freaking out, he was toast for sure. It's either freak out about later than now. Guilt fill into his eyes by the worry he gave that Lemon Child as if he was seeing how scared he himself looked after his twin brother bit off half his head.
"Forgive me, my son. It is not you who should be angered, but myself."
After few seconds of pause he let himself sit on the floor. He let out a huge sigh
When hugging his legs before he rest his head on it feeling so lost and confused. Why shouldn't I have done something that would have made one of the Lemon Children stay out of the attic? But even if I did something, wouldn't brother notice and become suspicious with it? There just some way I could have...have...
His thought slowly die down when he heard a tiny footstep drawing closer and he knew it must be one of his sons. Then he heard a very soft tearing sound before moments later smelled something familiar.

Raising his head up, he saw Breadmon holding a small piece of bread close to his face.
"Im...hom...guessing you would want some bread."
As much he wanted to refuse it the longer he stared at it, a grumble of hunger came from his stomach. since he didn't have any breakfast, he decided to just take it anyway. As soon as he took it, he made a first nimble on it. The taste of it soothe his emotions before quickly gulping it down and letting his pounding heart and growling stomach to calm at the same time. He was suddenly beginning to feel much better, but his throat still a but dry and stiff from all of the screaming. A while of silence, Breadmon walked up next to him.
"Now tell me," he told him, "what's going on? Hom, what's making you so scared?"
He looked up to him knowing that there was nothing he can do now that he has seen Hope. He hope he can understand him as he sighed again.
"Breadmon," he then turned to the yellow lemon children and introduced with a sad tone, "this is your new brother, Lemonhope. I created him last night."

"Last night?!" The bread lover glanced at him with his eyes widening as Hope walked up to them a bit curiously, "hom, no wonder I feel as if I never seen him before."
"W-Wait," Hope interrupted the beginning of the conversation in slight awe, "he's my brother?"
"Hmm," the other lemon child turned back to him in reply, "all of us lemon children, hom, is our brothers. We were, hom, both created by the two earls."
"O...oh," Hope then look down on the ground so he can avoid anymore question.
He must be thinking of how many brothers he have.
But he just decided to explain more about this to him and continued his conversation.
"As I was saying, I created him last night due to the accident that I had with my left head in which I'm never to explain what happened to it so you wouldn't freak out."

"But why? I'm sure it won't, hom, happen again and I promise I won't freak out and tell, hom, anybody about it."
"Breadmon," his tone grew serious, "even I myself is still scarred from this accident and you wouldn't believe it when I tell you who's responsible for it. And if you find out, you would be filled with fear the whole day enough for my brother to notice."
The green lemon child grew confused.
"But, hom, doesn't your brother knows about this? Because, hom, he wouldn't be suspicious about it."
The younger Lemongrab narrowed a bit for a minute not wanting to answer him, but refuse himself to shout at him again and to just ignore the question.
"So because of that accident," he continued making Breadmon grow upset a bit but decided to keep listening to his story, "I began to grow upset as to why it happened, I was wondering to myself all alone to why it happened.

"So I decided to cheer myself up by making a Lemon Child. I created Lemonhope with a different Life giver chemical by adding sugar from a lollipop into the chemical and that is why he doesn't act much like the rest of us, for he shows more kindness and understandings that I can't ever imagine. Because I wanted to create a lemon child to give me hope, that's why I decided to name him Lemonhope."
He saw Hope gave an impressed look as if even though he already knew why he was created, he never guessed as to why his creator gave him that name.
"But since my brother doesn't know yet that I have just given a life, I decided to keep him here in the attic and talk to him about it."
He then grew silent for a long time as his anxiety and guilt began to grow back in his body.
"I haven't told Lemonhope yet since I found out this morning, but..."

He then turns to his youngest son, who was waiting curiously for what he is about to say to him.
"You have to stay in the attic for now, child."
In a shocked expression, he quickly made a huge frown and said,
"Wait, what?!"
He gulped down a bit, beginning to feel pity for this child and continued,
"I tried to talk to my brother about this, but he then told me that he wouldn't like it if one of us created a lemon child all by ourself. If he finds out that you exist, he would immediately execute you."
"Well, I don't care if he tries to kill me," he began to narrow, "you promised me that you were going take me out of this attic so I can explore the castle and maybe even out side of it!"

"Lemonhope," he confessed again as he stood up and tried to walk towards him, "it won't be forever. Since my brother never acts this way and I upset him, it may take a day or two before he can regain his personality. When that's done, then I'll tell him if it's okay that you exist and I'll take you to your real room."
"And what if he NEVER regains his personality?" He turned away from him with his arms crossed, "I'll be stuck in this dungeon forever!"
He cringed a bit when he mentioned "dungeon" since it was his and mostly his brother's favorite thing to punish anybody that disrespects them. But he ignore it and kept on trying to act positive to him.

"Well, then if that happens, I'll take care of him. I will not let any of my children suffer from something they don't like or feel comfortable with."
Hope paused for a while and finally sighed releasing his arms.
Fine," he was still narrowing a bit when he turned his face back to his father, "I'll trust you in this one. But I really do hope you know what you're doing."
He sighed letting out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, Lemonhope."

"I just can't believe it," Breadmon talked again a short while after looking at floor, "why would the other earl try to kill someone? I-I mean, hom, I know both of you can sometimes be aggressive with people, but, hom, never do anything THAT cruel."
"That's what I do know why he's like this," even though the second earl kind of know what it is, "but I'm hoping that whatever it is, he can get these thoughts out of his head."
The older lemon child just slowly nodded and thought about this for a while.
"Hmm," he looked back up at his creator, "if it's ok if we, hom, eat together. It's really hard to, hom, process this situation from all the, hom, talking of it,"
"Yeah, me too," they both turned to Hope not even looking at them uncomfortably, "I really don't really want think about staying in the attic this much."

He both looked at his children and realized he still held an eaten bread on his including themselves. Besides it'll be nice if Lemonhope starts to know more about each of them so he can learn how to socialize and befriend anybody.
"Alright," he answered them, "but it can't be to long for my brother will wonder where I am."
He said "okay" as they sat on the ground gathered around and began finishing up their bread. As Hope gulp down a piece of his food he turned to his brother and said,
"By the way, why is it that you make that 'hom' like that?"
Breadmon turned to him in response and lick small crumbs off his face.
"Hmm," he smiled, "it's nothing. I'm just, hom, created like that."

The sun was setting by the time Lemongrab 2 and Breadmon left Hope's room while he keeps exploring it while the sunlight is still out. They were walking across the hallway to get to the diner room as they never said anything since they said goodbye to him. Breadmon was looking endlessly at the ground for minutes before slowly looking up at him while showing an anxious look.
"Hmm, what are we going to do?"
He was a bit surprised at first that he spoke up by this moment of silence, but guess that Lemon Child can tell that he was thinking the same thing.
"Well," he stared out at the hallway, "the best thing we can do is keep this to ourselves. But you have to swear to me that you would NOT tell a soul to anybody."
"Of course-"
"Including the other earl."

Almost immediately when he said this, he could no longer hear the lemon child's footsteps anymore. He stopped to look behind him and see him frozen in position his eyes widen in disbelief.
"Breadmon-?"
"I have to...LIE to an earl?!"
He sighed replying,
"Breadmon-"
"No," he shook his head stepping, "n-no, I can't do this! I'll be squashed if he finds out I've lied!"
He noticed he didn't hear the noise he makes when he's talking and guess that he doesn't when he's really scared as he walks up to him with a begging look.
"Look Breadmon," he replied back to him, "I, myself, don't wanna lie to my brother either. But I am not gonna regret myself for rest if my life by letting somebody take away something I created.

"So as I, the earl of Lemongrab, I command you to do as I told you."
The small lemon person looked down and thought about it in which the earl felt like it took hours on waiting for the answer to come out of his mouth. As serious as he tried to look in front of him, he can feel his heart pounding in his chest with fear praying to grod, glob, or whatever gods that is up there to let this child understand how much weight he is carrying right just this one life and even himself. He tries not to image the future on Hope's dead corpse lying on the ground as the result of his brother's one cruel action. Finally for a long while, he finally let out a huge sad sigh as his huge frown appeared.
"I don't want to lie to an earl..."

His plunge to the bottom and felt as if he was ready to scream and beg for mercy. He knew that he was doomed. His brother is never going to forgive him for his crime, the lemon children will find out about the Lemon Sweet incident, and Lemonhope is going to die all because he blew his cover in just almost a day. Just several hours of secret and now he is going to be paid half his life for almost everything he owns.
"But," his panic suddenly froze right by the lemon child's voice once again and realized that he was not finished yet, "I don't want to be a reason for a death AND disobey an earl."
The younger looked in awe and surprise with no words at all and watched him raise his head back to his filled with determination. He dipped his head.

"Hom, I'll do it."
Suddenly, he felt as if the huge weight of fear that was crushing bones was quickly lifted and can feel himself breathe again. He felt so relieved hat he feel like he can cry in joy at any moment. But noticing that Breadmon look to see if he scared him, he just tried act natural again and cleared his throat.
"Thank you, Breadmon," his voice came out shaky at first from all the emotions, "I knew you were too good enough to refuse my orders."
Breadmon still looked confused was about to ask him something until he closed mouth for a moment to try to change his expression into a small smile.
"Your, hom, pleasure is always mine, your majesty."

By the time they got to the diner room, everybody were already sitting down to eat. They decided to split up in case anybody would why they were walking together as they each went to their own seats. Luckily, Breadmon sits right next to the first Lemongrab and since the younger one always sits with his brother, he can always be close by in case the secrets between them starts going off board. As soon as he got to his seat, he saw his twin exchanging an impatient expression.
"Where were you? I was about to call the lemon guards to find you!"
"Forgive me," he sighed, "but I told you that I was busy."
"Well next time, can you do it even faster?! Besides, my food is getting cold and I feel as if I can eat a bear right now."
"Yeah," he tried to atleast be honest since he barely ate anything but bread, "me too."

Just please don't find out that I ate something right after noon, he thought nervously and hoping he washed the crumbs off his face right. But trying not to looked bothered he decided to just gulp down in his food and just let It fill in his empty stomach. Feeling his strength rendering his body, he decided to take a look at his brother and notice that he was biting off a huge brown looking meat with a curved bone sticking out of it.
"Turkey leg?" The second earl looked at him with curiosity causing him to look back at him before he narrowed at the youngster's expression.
"What?" He muttered with food in his mouth, "is there something wrong for what I eat?!"
"No no!" He retorted not wanting to really judge him, "is just I barely ever seen you eat something that huge. Neither have I had those kind of things."

"Well I'm starving and that means I eat what I think might fill me up. Now leave me alone!"
As soon he said, he took another bite of his food and then to look out at table where the lemon children were eating peacefully. He couldn't help but start feel a sense there is something he is thinking. Something in those blank stare as minutes went by that made his spill shiver downwards. Not only that, but he sometimes have been doing that for the past two weeks even before the Lemon Sweet incident and even so, they too haven't been getting along well. Days and days, he would see him more oftenly how his elder brother zone out while they're watching over their kingdom or when they're alone sleeping and he would stay up almost all night if he has to.

As he carefully put the morsels, which will be Hope's food, in his pocket, he began to notice more and more how his head wouldn't move a inch even by the slight sweeping noise that the clone was making. He then finally discovered that all of his strange attitudes were not coming from the Lemon Sweet incident last night. He let out huge gulp in worry.
Something's definitely not right...
Making sure that the morsel was completely hidden, he then turn back to him with an anxious frown.
"Brother...brother...brother!"
"Hmmng," His friend let out a growl, but tried to hold in his frustration, "what?"
"Brother, are you sure you're ok? You've been acting as strange as the insane ice wizard."
He then glared at him responding,
"I'm fine."

"But you have been acting like-"
"Like what?!"
"Like your not being yourself lately!" He began to narrow.
"What are you even talking about? I have never felt so much of myself since we expanded our kingdom!"
Some of the lemon children were already starting to look at them curiously. Even Breadmon was looking at them with a concerned look on his face, wishing he can stand for the second one. But never in their lives have they ever seen their fathers argue with each other in their whole entire existences. Having the same exact personalities, it makes no sense as to how it is possible they are arguing.

While they were staring with both of them not noticing they're reaction, the youngster's narrow began to slow disappear returning the slight frown. But the elder just glared at him more.
"Why are you even acting like that you are so worried about me?!"
He paused for a while and opened his mouth to answer until the sound of music began to play. The red curtain of the theatre, that was located in front of the table began to open. The older Lemongrab let out a relief.
"Finally," he relaxed on his seat as if he was trying to act as if the argument never happen. Some of the children that were standing got distracted by it and decided to just enjoy the show. Very few were still staring at them in anxiety.

As they hushed each other to make the diner room silent, the stage appeared to have a painted tower building on the left side of the scene while there was a tree stand right next to it. On the balcony of the tower, a cat-like lemon child was standing there in a white dress and a dark brown braided wig. As the violin from the big brown lemon child started playing, a dog-like lemon dressed in a white shirt dark blue pants with black shoes crawls into the stage as he then climbs up the tree near the other child.
"Ohhhh Lemeo Lemeo," the cat lemon called out in a heart-loving voice, "where art thou Lemeo-!"

But as the cat lemon was leaning really forward to stretch out his hand, he falls off the balcony with a cry of shock before hitting face-flat on the floor. But after a while of silence, the dog lemon just continued by letting out a howl,
"Owooooo, that angelic sound! Speak to me again..."
While the the actors were still performing, the second earl no want to pay anymore attention to the play. He just turned back the other Lemongrab who showed face of lacking satisfaction by the entertainment. He knew that there was no way he was going to let him get away from it as he leaned a bit close to him.
"Brother," he whispered into a gentle tone, "the real reason that I'm worried about you is because you my brother. You're my very beloved friend and I love you."
Th elder narrowed in defeat, knowing that the younger will never stop the conversation now that he's recognizing these behaviors from.
"Please...just tell me what's wrong and I'll help you-"

"I'm fine!"
"I'm sorry to upset you, but you're not. I can tell exactly when you are-"
"I said I'm FINE!"
"Brother-"
He couldn't take it anymore. He snatched one of the turkey legs and started to chow down at it rapidly. He notice that his cheeks were beginning to fill in with the food. The white one started to feel anxious.
"What are you doing?"
"Hang on, I'm eating!"

It wasn't very long until he notice that his cheek is so stuff that he might gag in any moment. His eyes widened,
"Brother, you're going to choke to death!"
"IM EATING!"
"Brother, please stop. You're scaring me!"
Then he grabbed another turkey leg stuffed his mouth with the other one before he can hear slight gagging coming from him. Now every single citizens were watching in with some gasping in shock as their younger father's heart was pounding in horror. He couldn't think of anything, but launched onto him saying,
"BROTHER, STOP IIIIT!"

He rapidly began grabbing both of the bone sticks and tried pulling the turkey legs away from his brother only for him to grip it with his sharp teeth. With as much effort as he can to pull it away, he felt as if his body might give up right away and slip unto the floor. With a loud growl of effort, he finally rips them off from his brother's jaw and took few steps backward to prevent losing his balance. He watched as his brother was quickly regaining his strength made a huge gulp on on his his stuff food until his cheeks went back to normal. Then he glared him, sharing his sharp with his eyes huge and before the clone can even react, he let out a powerful swing on his arm.

Next thing he knew, he felt a powerful blow hit right on his chunk in which triggered a harsh pain there enough to let out a sharp cry before the force of the blow made him fall backwards to the floor. The event felt so fast that right when laid there with his teeth clenching in pain and both his hands covering his chunk, the sound of the room immediately roared in shock as they began standing up on their seats and tried to see the result of the impact. The pain on the second Lemongrab's head was pounding so much for his only eye to see all the blurriness around him. Fortunately, he grew alert when the yellow blurry figure quickly appeared and was falling unto him with his arms stretched unto him. He reacted in alert fast enough to grip his hand unto him fighting for him to stop him from getting closer to his face, but his brothers arm then rapidly let go his hands to hold the youngster's arm onto the ground.

Whimpering in fear and worry, he grew his sight back to see his brother's mouth drooling in a snarl with the eyes that almost look like a beast was glaring at him. He leaned close to him growling,
"You will pay for what you've DOOOOOOONE!"
He was ready for attacking him once again as the second one widened for a split second before bracing himself while squeezing his eye shut. Then right before anything happened, he heard shoutings growing louder and he can no longer feel his brother holding him down and heard him yelp in surprise.
"Hey, got off me! GET OFF MEEEEEEEEE!"
He quickly turned to open his eye in realization to see that around four lemon children were holding him back grabbing his arms while smaller ones grabbed his legs or waist.

Right after he saw this, he felt both of of his arms be grabbed by two of his children and dragged him back inches away from where he was.
They're trying to break off our fight!
He watched by the time he was inches away from his twin to see that he was still struggling to break the children's grip. But when one of them, who was taller, went close to him to whisper about something for a while, he saw his brother slowly calm his rage down and finally stopped fighting them off. He made a harsh pant of anger and exhaustion and finally laid his eyes down at his brother sitting up from the ground with the help of their sons.

As much as the youngster wanted to tell him how he needs to calm down or warn him that he really wasn't feeling well, nothing ever came out of his mouth. He just stared at him huge anxious and worried look on his face while making a shuddering slow pant as if he was traumatized for what he has done. For trying to hurt him in front of their every single lemon children. They both stare at each other a minute both panting from the fight. Then the black-suited Lemongrab's pant finally began to slow until he slowly looked down on the ground and yet, the white-suited one couldn't read his expression.
I hope you didn't mean what you just did, he made slight frown as he waited for his words to come out.
But he just raised his head up with now a blank expression.

"I'm going to go to bed," he muttered and before anybody can respond, he ripped his body away from his children and began pacing away from the diner room. With his heart sinking in sadness and worry from his upcoming departure he quickly struggled to get up from the floor with the children noticing this and began releasing him.
"Brother-!" He tried to call out in a groan until he wobbled in dizziness when he felt the pain from his chunk return as leaned the side of his body against the table accidentally spilling a cup in order to keep his balance. He then used as much strength to hoist himself back up and try to rush, still wobbly, towards him.
"Brother,wait!"
"Just leave me alone!"

He tried to call out for him again. But by the time he was reaching towards him, the elder one slam the door shut in front of him.

Walking his way pass the hallway, the second Lemongrab can't help but feel the stinging and dizzy pains on his chunk that was leaking out lemon juices. But he did not try to worry about it, but to focus on finding his older brother.
Luckily, I know exactly where he is.
Because of his familiar personality given by the first earl when he was created, he knows everything of what both of them would think, say, and where to go. And when it comes to feeling upset, one of them or both would go to the same exact place to calm down in every single time. His brother just HAS to be there.

It was finally after taking the last turn down the hallway was when he spotted huge combined doors painted blue with each splitting lemons as the two doorknobs. These doors leads him to the Lemongrabs' bedroom. As he slowly place his hand on the doorknob, one of the door slowly creaked open, letting the light shine into the dark room. As soon as the light shown their bed, he notice his brother lying face-flat on it with his black boot off. He also noticed he already put his sound sword away.
"WHY ARE YOU STILL EVEN FOLLOWING ME?!"

He flinched to turn away from the stored sword to face his brother already rising a bit from his bed in order to make a glaring eye contact with his nervous younger brother. But he never coward away so they might not end up in a fight again or even worse. He stepped into the room and close the door shut behind him. Then he walked towards him until he was an inch away from the bed. He stopped in a frozen position with his arms hidden from his back while clutching them and looking at the elder with an anxious frown in his eye.
"You know that I will always follow you wherever you go," he told him in a soft honest tone, "that's what a good brother always does."

The elder didn't argue back, but just pause there still glaring at him.
"Hmmph," he grunted in disapproval, "and good brother NEVER interrupts his brother OR take away his precious turkey legs."
Then he turned his face away from him as the youngster waited for a while once again for his response and was about to just respond back.
"Our boys? Aren't you suppose to be looking after our boys?"
"I told them to stay in their seats and will return in few minutes."

He thought about for a moment.
"You don't need to leave our children just because of me. I can take of myself without your help. Just go back and tell that you just overreacted about everything and that they should never talk about the incident again!"
The youngster narrowed a bit by this sentence.
"I'm going to help whether you don't need me or not," he said this as he slowly walked to the bed and sat down on the edge of it never taking his eyes off him.
"That's tell me what you're thinking of. I promise I'll do anything to take away whatever's in your head.
The elder's body remain frozen as his eyes lock unto another door that opens to the balcony with the stars showing in the night sky and the wind dancing with the green curtains. He blinked in a blank expression.

"Our kingdom," he finally answered in a calm tone. He then slowly sat up from his bed to have a better look at the night sky outside with the second one staring at him in a bit of concern and confusion.
"Our kingdom is what I'm thinking of. Something is truly not right about it. I don't know what it is, but I feel that something is missing. Maybe we haven't expand it far enough. Maybe we don't have enough the pleasure of satisfaction for our loyal and beloved lemon children. For both of us."
He then turned to the white one in this time a serious expression.
"I think we must make a big change around here. Something that will make Castle Lemongrab stronger. And maybe as strong as the Candy Kingdom or...stronger."

There was that strange moment that deep in those words, it made the Second Lemongrab want to shiver.
Stronger...it was a very powerful word when he puts it to the sentence. He can just picture Castle Lemongrab being not only stronger than their mother's kingdom; But also stronger than all of the kingdoms. Stronger than the land of Ooo. Stronger than the whole entire world. They would have never ending food, more entertainments, and more freedom. It was probably something that the earls can ever dream of for their family. So why does he still feel not right about what the elder is thinking of?

He blink his eyes to reality to notice that his brother was waiting for him to respond and realized that he doze off a while now and yet, he wasn't even certain on how he can even reply to this. He gulped down, trying to gather each information that he thought of earlier on what he think of his brother's decision before answering out in friendly and a little of a nervous tone.
"Brother...sometimes I think of this the same way that you are right now. We have been doing everything in our powers to make our home stronger and happier for all of us. But overpowering our kingdom is quite a strong suggestion. I mean I like the idea, but I feel we should invest it further if we make a decision like this for I have from past centuries how some kind kingdoms only end up damaging themselves and the relationship to other. I'm not saying it can happen...but mother princess.

"What would she think of this? She already got mad at us for almost stealing candy from her kingdom. What if she would never even talk or visit us again from this? It's always a pleasure when she's sometimes here. She made us."
"Then that shouldn't be our problem. Our problem is anybody who stands against us or invade our home. More guards and more protections. If we can strengthen our home, then nobody shall stop us. We will be invincible!"
"That's for either of us to decide. You may find it acceptable, but I rather not yet. I understand that were the same, but doesn't mean we can sometimes have different thoughts. Until I look at our kingdom and see if our children and ourselves are in much more of need, I shall come to you and finally make the decision. For now, let us see where the future of our family takes us."

The first Lemongrab stared at him with no words to release from his mouth and just turned away from and made a slight glance at him. He finally gives up when he one again turned his face away and collapsed on their bed with a soft sigh of frustration. Without a word as well, the younger one got out of bed to pull the covers off from under the elder's body before setting it back down unto him with only his head showing. He leaned against bed placing his hand onto his twin.
"Just try to get some sleep, my dearest brother. I'm sure by tomorrow, you would get those thoughts out of your head."
He then paused for few seconds no longer having anything else to say.
"Goodnight."

He Slipped his palm away from him and began walking quietly to the door. He slightly opened it with a twist of a doorknob and was halfway out of them room before he stopped to take one last look at his brother. The body of the lemon humanoid never moved muscle like corpse meaning he was already drifting into sleep. He stood there staring at him with a frown in frozen position. Then finally, after minutes of no actions, he walked out of the room closing the door gently. As soon as it was close he paused before he can lean back on it with the silent sigh of sad exhaustion looking at the ground.

Power. That was what was inside his brother's mind. But what he cannot understand is how his behavior related to this. He been seeing him lately verbal abuse their children. He tried to eat him. His food behavior is beginning to get out of control. Now for first time, he tried to attack him over it.

This caused the second brother's heart to pound even more. If power for the kingdom is really what he is thinking about, there has to be something else that he is thinking about. And if so, why is he hiding it from him?
"Your majesty."
His eyes blinked by a familiar voice and looked up to see Breadmon walking towards him a minute away from where he's standing. There was an uncomfortable and concerned expression on his face as his eyes laid on his father.
"Breadmon?" He looked a bit surprised to see one of his loyal lemon children that his thoughts wept away as he began to walk towards him as well.

As soon as they came upon each other the earl asked,
"Why are you here? I told you and your brothers to stay at the dining room."
"Hmm, you were gone for so, hom, long. And the more everybody, hom, talked about what happened there...hom, I got worried that I had to, hom, check on you."
"Hmm," he smiled a bit in satisfaction, "funny. Out of all of my beloved lemon children, only you go and check on me,"
"I'm the only one who, hom, checks on you cause, hom, I'm the only one who knows the secret."

His smile slowly disappeared by this realization.
His son was right. He was so focused on his brother's sudden changing behavior that he has almost forgotten about Lemonhope and that he has deliver food for him afterwards.
"Also," his eye looked back down on him watching stare at something that made him motionless, "your bite chunk is still bleeding."
He stayed looking at him for a moment and gently rest his fingers on his chunk feeling a sting that feels less painful than before. Feeling a very sticky and wet liquid there, he let his fingers already pull away from it to look and see lemon juice rolling down on his fingers.
"Oh," he replied turning to look down at the left side of his turtle neck already stained with lemon juice before pulling it, "this is nothing. No...no harm at all."
Is that why he looks worried?

Then it was suddenly that he realized something: did he just said that his chunk was a bite? He was guessing it was just one of those common rumors about him being by a wolf. But by the time he was going to ask where he got this idea from, he saw that he was already walking few steps closer to him when he turned to face his. He made a brief stop to look up with a bit of a pale look.
"The other earl...he was the one who bit you. Didn't he?"

His eyes completely widened with a shuddering breath being slightly heard and felt as if his heart completely sunk down to his stomach. His face grew pale the most.
How...how does he...?!
The child's eyes widened for a second before making a regretful expression.
"I-I'm sorry, your majesty! I shouldn't have said it in front of you. I know that he wouldn't do anything cruel like that to you. But I just thought that each of you have extended jaws...and the way he's acting lately like how punched you. Even if you did get bitten by a wolf, shouldn't you guys have called Princess Bubblegum to take care of it?"
The earl still remained shock until he slowly began frowning by the time he saw him kneeling with face lowered to the ground.

"Please, father, I promise I won't say anything like that again! I just thought it had to be the truth. Hooo! Hooo! Am I righoooooooo-?!"
The second Lemongrab halted,
"No no. No more crying."
He heard him with a harsh sob trying to soften and he slowly looked up at him. There were tears still spilling on his eyes as he was staring directly still alerted. After a while of halting him with his eye closed shut, he finally opened half of it with no anger whatsoever, but a huge frown. He then lowered his hand down and began speaking.

"I'm doing this to prevent any panic to spread."
Breadmon blinked as if he knew what he was trying to say.
"You...don't mean..."
"We were playing last night and it wasn't long before I would have a chance to create Hope. While we were playing, I did something really foolish to really anger your dear father. It came suddenly and I didn't have time to react. The pain was something I thought didn't exist. But I had some strength to escape my brother and hide in the pantry.

"I was so scared and so confused on what why something like that moment that I didn't care what would calm me down."
He looked back at him.
"That...is the true story of Lemonhope's creation."
The child's eyes and mouth were already completely opened. His head looked back to the ground trying to process this truth.
"Grod..." His mouth shuddered as he started sweating in fear, "h-hooooooo grod!"
"You shall NOT say this to anyone!" He replied in a serious tone before drifting off in a frown, "nor even Lemonhope. I rather pretend to forget it than shiver my whole entire life from the memory. I'm certain that brother as well would want to forget that too."

Breadmon's breath kept shivering from each pant that he takes.
"But..hom," he then looks back upon him with still fear in his eyes, "what would happen if he tries to eat you again? W-what if I'm not there to save you?!"
The earl paused again looking back down on his son.
"He is my brother, child. I'm sure that it was just an accident...and I am certain he would never hurt me on purpose."

With his son now speechless, the second Lemongrab kneel down to face him.
"I am really serious about this promise, Breadmon. It will only make things worse if every lemons knew and it will also worsen my brother including myself. Do you understand me?"
Breadmon thought about it, knowing he was already keeping one secret. It will bear him more if he had to carry two of them. But after a long time of thinking, he looks up to the earl with eyes filled with loyalty.
"I, hom, understand, your majesty."

hellooo! And thank you so much for the positive review you readers have commented. I will, however, put this on a bit of a hiatus mode, due to the fact that I'm making another fanfiction for Guardians of the Galaxy called "Children of Mercedel" with Rocket Raccoon as the main focus. I will post it on by the time I publish chapter 3. If you want to check out the first two chapter. It's on deviantart by my same account name. Until then, stay put for chapter 4! ;)