This chapter was written by the lovely F.A. Starhawk. Go worship the ground she walks on, I love her so~3

Sena's eyes snapped open and for several languid moments he wondered what had caused him to come to such sudden awareness, very unlike his normal, slow method of waking up.

Then he became aware of a strangely tangible dark aura seeping into his room, apparently his survival instincts were kicking in so that he'd wake up before the owner of that aura could burst into his room.

A wake-up call from Head Maid Hiruma was extremely unpleasant and usually involved the recipient of the treatment fearing for their life.

Really, Sena's life had never been completely normal in any way, but when his parents decided to go away on a trip around Europe for their second honeymoon, that's when his life really started to get more hectic. His parents had wanted to hire the best head maid they could find who would be sure to keep Sena and Chuubou on track with their studies, protected them, keep them out of trouble, and was, of course, capable of controlling all of the other servants.

Hiruma was someone who could easily do all of those things, and he'd practically been hired on the spot.

Why his parents would hire a man, who was obviously a man, in a maid's outfit to basically keep watch on their two youngest children twenty four/seven was a mystery to Sena. Of course, it was also a mystery how his mother would arrange his marriage to her friend's male children before she had even known that he wasn't going to be born a girl.

But then again, his father had also been fine with hiring Hiruma too, which was intensely strange as his father tended to be the more down to Earth, levelheaded parent.

Maybe Hiruma scared them into hiring him. That made sense, although they hadn't really seemed frightened when they met Hiruma.

"Rise and shine, young master!" Hiruma yelled in a psychotically happy way as he burst through the doors to Sena's room, some sort of firearm almost completely hidden behind his back and the folds of his dress.

"I'm up, no need for a wake up call today." Sena laughed nervously as he quickly got out of bed, just in case Hiruma thought he was dawdling and decided to give him some incentive to speed up.

"Very well, I'll go make sure your breakfast is being prepared according to the set standards your parents informed me of." Hiruma held his firearm in front of him and smirked darkly.

"No! That's quite alright! I'm sure Monta is used to making breakfast properly by now!" Sena said as he rushed past, hoping to remove himself from Hiruma's line of sight before the blonde could offer to 'escort' him to breakfast.

In his rush he ended up tripping over a lone slipper near the doorway, he stumbled precariously for a moment before a pair of large, familiar hands steadied him.

"Ah, thank you so much Yamato, what would I do without you?" Sena asked sweetly while Hiruma sneered at the taller brunette.

"Well Sena, I am your body guard, it's my job to guard your body."

Sena's smile became even brighter. "You're so dedicated to your job Yamato."

"But of course." Yamato replied, leaning in a bit closer and opening his mouth to say something else before he was interrupted by Hiruma shoving him aside.

"I shall escort you to breakfast, young master." Hiruma stated before turning about face to march down the hallway, Sena timidly following after him after quietly saying good-bye to his bodyguard.

As he passed by the bay windows at the front of the manor he noticed several large moving van parked outside.

"The new neighbours are finally moving in? Can we go over and meet them today?" Sena asked excitedly as he peered out of the window, hoping to catch a glance of his new next-door neighbours.

"That's a bad idea." Hiruma calmly replied in an all-knowing fashion and Sena fought the urge to pout at him.

"Why is it a bad idea? Isn't it my duty to welcome the newcomers to the neighbourhood? That's what being a good neighbour is all about."

"I said it's a bad idea, so don't do anything stupid like going over to greet them." Hiruma said through gritted teeth and Sena nervously nodded his head in agreement.

"Now let's go get you some breakfast before that fucking monkey of an assistant cook does something stupid." He gripped Sena's hand and pulled him away from the window, relentlessly dragging him towards the dining room and depositing him at the table.

"I'll go make sure everyone else is up doing their jobs, just because it's Sunday doesn't mean they have an excuse to slack off." Hiruma said aloud, a hand disappearing into the folds of his dress only to emerge gripping a Winchester handgun.

"Enjoy your breakfast, young master." He said before disappearing into the hall with a dark grin.

Hiruma obviously liked his job way too much.

Sena slumped in his seat, preparing himself to ignore the screams of terror that would certainly be staring up any minute now.

Really, what had his parents been thinking when the hired Hiruma?

"Hey Sena, what are ya looking so glum for?" Monta asked as he emerged from the kitchen with a plate of scrambled eggs and toast.

"Oh nothing, I'm just feeling a bit tired, that's all." Sena assured him, wincing a little when he heard a faint shriek and quickly starting up a conversation to distract himself from the possible acts of violence occurring several rooms away.

"Has Chuubou come around yet? I haven't seen him so far this morning."

"Yeah, he here about thirty minutes ago. What kind of pre-teen wakes up early on a Sunday?" Monta set the plate in front of Sena and furrowed his eyebrows. "But you should know your little brother usually gets up before you, so why did you ask?"

"The new neighbours are finally moving in, and I thought we could be like a little welcoming committee, you know, to get them used to the neighbourhood. But Hiruma said it was a bad idea for some reason, so I thought maybe we could sneak over while he's busy making sure everyone else is... Well, busy."

"But if he catches you doing something he told you not to, you'll be dead meat." Monta stated truthfully and Sena nibbled on a piece of toast thoughtfully.

"Well, I could always bring Yamato to protect me from him. He is my body guard after all."

"I don't think he'll be enough. What about bringing Shin along too?"

Sena nearly dropped his toast. "Shin? Why?"

"Well, for a butler he's pretty kick-ass don't you think? If anyone could face Hiruma on equal terms and not die, it would totally be Shin."

"I don't know... Remember that time when Chuubou almost fell backwards down the stairs?"

"How could I forget?"

"Well me and Shin both ran to grab onto him but I made it there first, and ever since then..."

Monta leaned in curiously. "What?"

"Never mind. It's probably all in my head anyways." Sena chuckled nervously before finishing off his toast and starting on his eggs.

"Right, well if you're not going to bring Shin then you may as well bring Gaou."

Sena paused, chewed very slowly and swallowed. "Well, I suppose my parents did appoint him as my part-time chaperone, but I want to welcome the newcomers, not scare them away. Gaou is a little... Intimidating." Sena's expression brightened. "Maybe I'll bring along Clifford! He is my precious guard dog after all!"

"Yeah, you could do that..." Monta uneasily replied. "But just remember, even if you don't have any of your lessons today, your betrothed is going to be coming around sometime in the afternoon, he didn't specifically mention when. So if you're going to sneak out you'd better do it fast or you may not be here when he shows up and Hiruma will make you take extra lessons for being impolite."

Sena sunk further into his seat. "Agon is coming over? But I saw him last week! Why did mother have to arrange my marriage to such a scary guy?" Sena sighed in defeat before casting a curious look in Monta's direction.

"Wait, how did you know he's coming over?"

Monta straightened his posture proudly. "Well, I may just be an assistant cook, but someday I'm going to be an amazing butler just like Tetsuma! And to do that I need to start keeping track of your appointments and such."

Somebody inside the kitchen called Monta's name and he flinched.

"Whoops, they must think I'm slacking max! I'll talk to you later Sena!"

Sena finished off his breakfast and pursed his lips in thought.

Maybe if he wanted to be sneaky about visiting his new neighbours it would be better for him to go alone. Hiruma would be more likely to realize that several people were missing as opposed to just him.

"Alright, it's settled, I'll go visit them by myself." Sena nodded his head with a smile and made his way from the dining room to his room to make himself presentable before sneaking out through the back. If he went into the backyard and exited through the gate in the fence at the side of the house then there was less chance of him being spotted.

After changing into a fresh set of clothes and rubbing a brush through his unruly hair he tip-toe through the house and opened up the back door, being extremely cautious as he closed it silently.

He turned around, feeling rather proud of himself for a fleeting moment before he caught sight of a pair of dark brown eyes, watching him.

Sena fought the urge to jump in surprise and greeted the man politely. "Good morning Musashi, how are you today?"

Musashi removed the mug of coffee from his lips to reply: "Pretty good." before bringing it back to his mouth.

"Ah, I see... Well, you're probably busy planning stuff out for the garden, so I'll just be on my way then!"

He quickly scurried off before Musashi could ask where he was headed and with a grin approached the moving vans that had been parked in the street.

"New next-door neighbourghs, here I come!"