Hi! Just thought I'd thank you for reading this far... so... thanks! ^^ Please remember to review, check out my Deviant art account (ShingetsuXMangetsu) and my You tube (Himetsukineko) Thanks and enjoy!

There was a screech; a horrible, gut wrenching, screech that cut through the air like a knife.

"That can't be right."

SCRIIIITCH!

"Seriously, stop! If it was an animal I'd think you were killing it!"

SHRIIIEEEK!

"FAI THAT'S NOT FRICKEN WORKING! Try something else!"

"Hang on, I almost have it-"

"No. No, you do not."

After a year of practice, Fai could play the violin beautifully. Mangetsu would pick a piece of sheet music and he'd learn to play it flawlessly within the hour. A problem arose though, when he tried to use it for magic. That problem being that he couldn't.

Sound magic is entirely physical. You think of what you need to happen and let the notes come to you. You have to be able to improvise, which was something Fai had never been good at. He didn't like uncertainties and he always felt better when he had a plan to follow. A spell, a recipe, the sheet music he practiced so diligently… anything. But sound magic had to be done spontaneously and so even when he tried the simplest spells, which were all he could try under Mangetsu's suppression, he just couldn't let go. He over-thought it and confused himself and the end result sounded like he was skinning a cat alive.

He released a frustrated sigh before setting his instrument carefully down on Mangetsu's bed. They were sitting in her bedroom; she'd sent a servant for him at two in the morning and he hadn't been able to sleep anyway so, instead of ignoring it, he stumbled sleepily through the corridors to her rooms.

Since he was now her main chef, it was up to him to make them sugared crepes and dark hot chocolate, but he didn't mind. In fact, despite his exhaustion, he enjoyed it.

When they finished he suggested that they go to her "throne room" but she shook her head.

"Nah… Sylvia and the rest are all in there and they all get bitchy right around now."

She seemed confused by this but Fai understood immediately; they couldn't leave Mangetsu without supervision which meant they had to conform themselves to her schedule. And since Sylvia was her main caregiver she had to be up with her the most. It had to be frustrating, seeing as Mangetsu would go for weeks subsiding only on catnaps before falling into a deep sleep for days on end.

"Let's just go sit in my room and you can play your violin for me."

So there they were; Fai was sitting on Mangetsu huge bed complete with canopy and about fifty throw pillows while Mangetsu herself sat on the floor, artfully arranging sticky jewels on Natalia's face. She laughed.

"I don't believe it! It's magic and you can't do it!"

"It's not funny! What if I never learn? I'll… I'll…"

She fake-gasped,

"You'll… what? Drop dead of average-ness? C'mon Fai, you said yourself this is, like, the hardest form of magic to learn. Just 'cause you can't do it right away doesn't mean you're… defective or something."

He saw Mangetsu struggling. She was torn between her knowledge of how low his self-esteem could drop at a moment's notice and her innate desire to rip on him. Eventually her teasing side won out.

"I bet Damien can do it."

Like all members of the royal guard, Damien was skilled in magic. He was a level six magic maker, on his way to becoming a Red Fire sorcerer and drawing his power from his distinctly yellow eyes. Fai sensed something odd about his aura and Mangetsu told him that it definitely looked different than any aura she'd ever seen, but the only way to find out what exactly it was was to ask and that just seemed rude to Fai. He had to make Mangetsu swear not to ask him herself.

On top of his magical skills though, Damien could play the violin on par with Fai. It was fun to play duets and so he and Mangetsu pestered him constantly. He complained at first, but after a few minutes they were discussing the music and debating the best way for it to be played by two.

Fai found himself taking on a different personality with every person he met. Around Mangetsu he was his normal, generally mature, slightly insecure, somewhat neurotic self. He still laughed and joked and teased her, but he was more subdued and natural with her than anyone else. That was because he trusted her not to ask questions he didn't want to answer and she kept that trust.

In front of Damien though he became childish and teasing, smiling and laughing and joking like everything was perfectly fine. Mercifully, if Mangetsu noticed she didn't say anything. Although, he got the feeling that Damien knew something was up anyway. He would devote all his attention to making Fai laugh, usually by making jokes at Mangetsu's expense. Fai would fake laugh at first, but Damien would just keep going until it was real and Fai was practically senseless with laughter. It was like he could tell when Fai wasn't truly happy and actually cared enough to try to change that. He was the only person, besides Mangetsu, who could make him act immature and laugh for real.

This set the two at odds though. Even though he was easily closer to Mangetsu, it still seemed to bother her when Damien put such an effort in to being around Fai and making him happy. She counteracted his rude jokes with flat out rude statements which somehow made him laugh even more. That seemed to annoy Damien who would say something nasty back. They'd start shouting at each other and before he knew it, Fai was dragging Mangetsu off of him. She fought with Damien more than she fought with Sylvia and it was scarier for Fai because it always got physical.

Mangetsu's personality was the same with everyone. She was loud, and impulsive. She said anything that popped into her head. She teased anyone and everyone, made jokes that were almost always, but occasionally unintentionally, rude, and she had absolutely no inhibitions. Fai found himself wishing he could be more like her and modeling parts of his mask on her personality.

The difference was that Mangetsu had a nasty side. She could be wicked when she wanted to be, especially to palace staff. She didn't treat them like they were below her; she just saw them as her captors. Fai spent a lot of his time following her around, dragging her off of people and apologizing.

He found that the only way to get her attention when she was completely involved in terrorizing someone was to, although he hated to do it, hurt her physically. And the only way he could cause enough pain for her to even notice was to grab her by her hair.

He could only get her attention with her hair because her hair color was the source of her power, which made it extremely sensitive. All magic users draw their power from either their hair or eye color. The color is always very unusual and it is extremely rare for someone to draw from both their hair and eye color. Even though Fai knew his power came from his eye color and had told Mangetsu this several times, she always forgot and said it came from his hair color. When he asked her why she told him it was because it was such a beautiful, unusual color that he could draw from either. She even convinced him to try drawing from his hair once, but nothing happened and after that she gave up.

Fai sighed and rolled himself off of the bed so that he was sitting on the floor next to Mangetsu and Natalia.

"I need to go to bed; I have to go to a ball tomorrow."

From the time he turned ten, Fai had been required to make an appearance at all of the many balls and parties that King Ashura hosted. They were attended solely by the court magicians, high ranking army officials, including the Thirteen Generals, all of the lords that ran the cities outside of the immediate kingdom and their wives, their mistresses and their generals. Wealthy merchants that supplied the palace were often invited or just bought their way in along with their friends and families. Or they bartered with guards, offering to work in the kitchen for free. And even though this created an overflowing guest list and menu, the balls were still unimaginably boring, mainly because Fai had no one to talk to. He spent the entire night just floating around the party, watching couples dance to the quick music, the source of which he could never find.

"You know what's stupid? Those things sound so boring. They're filled with people I know I hate even though I've never met them. You have to dress perfectly and stand up strait and be polite" She said the word polite the way most people say "murder"

"It'd be horrible, and I'd still kill to go, just to get out of these rooms."

She glared at the walls and outside, thunder cracked. Fai bit his lip; he knew it had to be horrible for her there. He wasn't exactly happy either, but he got to go anywhere in the palace, he got to go outside and he got to practice magic. Mangetsu got to sit in her rooms, study things she wasn't interested in and wait for something, something she could be certain would be horrible, to happen to her.

"I… I'll get you out of these rooms someday. I promise."

She looked at him, surprised. Then she just laughed. Not bitter or mocking, just amused.

"No you won't."

"Huh?" He blinked at her.

"No offence," She abandoned her work decorating Natalia's face and crawled over to sit up against Fai. He unconsciously leant his head on her shoulder and she set hers on top of his. "But honey, I'm not the one that needs to be saved."

"Hmm?"

"Sorry Angel, but at least I could tell something was wrong. You're the Repunzel here, not me."

"What's a Repunzel?"

Mangetsu snorted.

"It's not a thing, apparently it's a person. She's from some stupid story my Sylvia in Ruskia told me."

Fai laughed at how she referred to all maids as "Sylvias". The laugh was cut off by a yawn though.

"What's it about?"

Another snort.

"Some girl with really long hair is trapped in a tower and decides to just sit there and wait for someone to save her. And since it's a fairy-tale, someone does."

Fai was sure there was more to the story than that, but he decided not to press the issue. He thought it sounded rather nice, having someone who loved you enough to help even when you didn't want to help yourself. And besides, maybe the girl was afraid to leave. Maybe there was something in the tower that used to be good to her but wasn't anymore and she still felt loyal anyway. Maybe having someone else there gave her the strength to leave.

Fai was half asleep, but he must have said this out loud because Mangetsu responded.

"I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, it's just that… some people get rescued, and some people rescue themselves. I'd rather rescue myself and I think you'd…"

Fai missed the rest of her sentence as he drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

So whadidya think? This chapter jumped around a lot so if anything didn't make sense, just ask^^

Okay, so, I told this little girl at the art camp that I teach at during the summer that I write fanfiction.I told her about Mangetsu and how she's my oc. She was only 8 or 9 so she didn't get it at all, but I told her some stories with Mang as the main character, just to entertain her. I don't even remember what they were, but she absolutly LOVES Mang now and after I showed her my drawings of her, she made me help her do three paintings of her (including a chair o.0). I have pictures of them on my phone, and if I have the time I'll post them on deviant. *flips out over first fanart* Also, it got me thinking that it'd be really cool if any of you guys drew Mangetsu. So if you want to, draw her, post her, and PM me about it. I'll fave it on DA and mention it in the next chapter. Not that that means that much, but it would make me unimaginably happy^^

ありがとう

ShingetsuXMangetsu