"This is Aida Cerebellum, signing off," Roxanne finished, setting her papers down and taking a deep breath as she looked up. Mace and Minion applauded lightly, and Roxanne blushed.

"That was excellent!" Mace exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "I don't see why you'd have any doubts about yourself, really; I hadn't even realized the city's King had resigned for any particular reason. I thought he was simply overcome by the pape-arwork!"

"Well, that's kind of what he wanted people to think," Roxanne answered, pushing her hair behind her ear and not making eye contact with anyone present. "It's kind of scandalous to have an entire second family no one wants to admit is there, so he paid everyone off to make sure no one knew."

"How did you get all this information then?" Mace asked, coming up to Roxanne's desk and shuffling through her papers.

"Mostly I just do research," she admitted, backing away and keeping her head down. "But sometimes I like to go out and do field research, and usually people are so stunned or scared by my appearance that they answer all of my questions for a good five to fifteen minutes without realizing they're doing it." Mace laughed.

"Well, that's one way to put xenoism to use! And you've never showed any of your work to anyone before?" He looked up and Roxanne shook her head. "You haven't even sent anything in to the local print?" Again, she shook her head. "Well," he announced, "I think you're missing out here, dear Aida, and more over, I think the world is missing out! How long have you been at this?"

"Since I was little," Roxanne admitted.

"And you just file all of these reports away for yourself?"

"Yes."

"I have a hard time believing that any Wave wouldn't want this kind of quality on st—" The door burst open suddenly and Reptung charged in.

"Aha!" he cried. "I caught y—" He stopped suddenly, realizing he hadn't caught either of them doing anything. For being two years older than Roxanne, he often acted like he was two years younger, and her face burned with embarrassment as his own started to tint purple. After a moment of confusion, Mace waved and smiled.

"Hello!" he greeted, and Reptung began backing out of the room very slowly, turning more and more violet with the second.

"Hi," he mumbled before turning, dashing out, and slamming the door behind him.

"What exactly was that about?" Minion asked, voicing both his and Mace's thoughts at the same time. Roxanne sat down and buried her face in her hands.

"He thinks I'm brainwashing you," she mumbled. Mace and Minion shared a look before simultaneously bursting out laughing.

"That's preposterous!" Mace exclaimed, setting a hand on Roxanne's shoulder. "I can see how Reptung might be fooled, since for someone like you it probably wouldn't take much effort to brainwash the masses, but really—"

"What do mean, 'someone like me?'" Roxanne demanded suddenly, looking up sharply with eyes that could cut. Mace blushed a little as he realized what he'd just said.

"I—I didn't mean it like that," he promised, holding his hands out in 'calm down' fashion. "I swear, I just—"

"Then how did you mean it?" Gilda demanded, moving behind Roxanne as the girl stood up. Mace gulped, and Minion was soon at his side as well.

"Yes," Roxanne growled. She doubted anyone but Gilda and perhaps her Mother had ever seen her this angry, but she didn't really care. "How does 'someone like me' brainwash the masses without effort?" she demanded.

"I swear I didn't mean it like that!" Mace reiterated. "I didn't mean someone like you as someone like you, I just meant someone like you like—"

"Like how?" Gilda spat. It was Mace's turn to have his face burn, violently violet with embarrassment.

"Hey now," Minion said, setting his robotic hands on Mace's shoulders with an icy look in the direction of the girls. "Let Sir speak. I'm sure he didn't mean to offend anyone, right Sir?"

"Of course not!" Mace exclaimed, pulling away from Minion so that he could gesticulate better. "I—I just meant that, well, with the way you look, I wouldn't be surprised if—"
"The way I look?" Roxanne shouted, glaring up at Mace and jabbing a finger into his chest with every word she spoke. "Just because I look different doesn't mean that I can brainwash people, Mr. Mind! I may be an alien, but I'm not going to try to intimidate people with my alien appearance, and, furthermore—"

"That wasn't what I meant!" Mace insisted. "I just—You're very—There's a certain—" he stammered as Roxanne backed off, waiting for him to have his say with a hard look on her face. "I find you to—There—" Mace finally threw his hands up in defeat. His face had never been so purple in all his life, and finding that he couldn't quite grasp any of the words necessary, Mace turned and hid behind Minion, pushing him forward with both hands and shouting, "Minion has a crush on Gilda!"

"Sir!" Minion shouted turning his fish body around to stare down at his master, and had it not been anatomically impossible for fish to blush, Minion would have been bright red all over. Gilda looked taken aback, and Roxanne was nonplussed. She had no idea how to reply to that, and shared a shocked look with Gilda. A silent message seemed to pass between them, and they decided not to drop the issue.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Roxanne demanded.

"Well it would have absolutely nothing to do with anything if it weren't for the fact that Ceruleans and their minions are mindlinked and all of that sciency goodness but it's currently impertanent and we must be going now goodbye!" Mace shouted all in one breath as he dashed out the door, crashed into Reptung, and continued on his way while Minion chased after him. Reptung stood up from the floor, dusting himself off and muttering curses before turning his attention to his sister and smirking at her.

"Looks like there's trouble in paradise, hm?" Roxanne frowned and stuck her tongue out at her brother before slamming the door in his face and throwing herself onto her bed in a huff, covering her eyes with the crook of her elbow.

"That went well," she said, sarcasm surrounding the words like gelatin around sliced fruit.

"It could have gone worse," Gilda allowed, her mind a jumble from the whole ordeal.

"Yeah," Roxanne snorted. "Right. My brother burst in like some kind of paparazzi, I got insulted by the only person outside my family who's ever been really and truly kind to me, and I exploded all over Mace freaking Mind. Yeah, it totally could have been worse."

"Well, you don't have to get snippy about it," Gilda lectured. Roxanne uncovered one eye to look up at her minion.

"You sound like my Mother," she groused, then smiled and covered her face again.

"Do you still like him?" Gilda asked, feeling it was a question that needed to be asked. Roxanne's face turned red all over again.

"Yes," she admitted. "I do. I shouldn't, but I can't help it. Is it bad that I thought it was the most adorable thing, the way he got so flustered when I started yelling at him?"

"Yes," Gilda answered solemnly. "You're a terrible person and deserve to hang."

"Oh, shove off!" Roxanne half-laughed, sitting up and pushing at Gilda's furry arm. Then came her own chance to ask questions. "You like Minion?" she asked. Gilda got that same "if-fish-could-blush" look on her face that Minion had had, but she shrugged, trying not to let her Mistress notice.

"It doesn't matter how I feel about anyone," Gilda answered. "All that matters is how you feel."

Mace and Minion raced out of the Cerebellum household, Mace leading the way down the front path, ignoring Isst as she looked up from where she was tending to the garden she kept in the front of the house and waved. Soon they were running on the marble roadways that paved the majority of Cerul, barely ducking a hovercycle before Mace left the beaten path and dove into a familiar forest that he knew would take him home twice as quickly as the road.

After Mace and Minion were about halfway home, Mace slowed to a halt, gasping for breath and leaning against a tree. Minion was also breathing hard when he caught up to his boss, having had to concentrate hard on moving quickly and not falling over. Mace's lungs screamed as he gasped for breath. He should have tried out for the running team. He was pretty damn good at it, if he did say so himself.

"That went smoothly," Minion pointed out sarcastically. Mace glared at him, but didn't say a word. The fish was right. It had gone terribly.

Author comments:

Things go well...And then they go terribly. -.-

Edit: Where Mace says his spiel all in one breath, it was SUPPOSED to be all written together without spaces, but Fanfiction does not seem to allow that...Hm...*Shrugs* Oh well.