AN: And finally the birthday bash draws to a close...

Chapter 8: Extravaganza-Final

Leona had agreed to Linus' plan so quickly that she had neglected to ask her parents, but when she did, they had no qualms about it. She supposed she should have already known their answer. If it was true what Lucas had told her before, they wanted her to be more independent. Still, it saddened her that they had agreed so readily as if they were no longer worried for her wellbeing.

She hadn't heard about the new hotel, but she knew about it now when she beheld its grand scale. It looked like some kind of expensive resort and Linus was paying for all of them to stay that night. There would be three rooms—one for the girls and two for the boys as there were more of them than girls. Cecil was used to sleeping with Cathe and Leona did not want to be left out. One look at the ridiculously large rooms, however, and no one was really upset about the arrangements.

She avoided Eros as a matter of principal. She simply did not want to deal with him. However, he made no advances whatsoever towards her. In fact, he seemed completely relaxed as if he wasn't the slightest bit concerned with her. Did he do this purposefully? But she knew too little about people to determine that just from looking at him. To discover her answer, she'd have to speak to him directly and she did not want to bother with that.

The place was so large with so many things to do that their group wound up splitting up since they could not all decide to do just one thing at once. Instead they decided they'd meet back up in an hour's time so that they could really hang out. Eros and Zeph opted to go to the pool area. Leona hadn't understood Lucas' snide "Of course" comment, but then she thought of all the women that would be there in their swimsuits…Truly boys who had only one thing on their minds. Cecil and Lucas found that they both had the same idea of checking out the recreational room. The way they looked at each other, Leona imagined it would be intense competition rather than recreational. Ludovic just wanted to explore and then Linus opted to go with him because he didn't want his little brother doing such a thing on his own. Then Leona decided she'd do anything Cathe wanted to do since they were of the same mind on certain things—they would check out the shops.

"This place is amazing!" Cathe said enthusiastically.

Leona found that she liked the other's enthusiasm. It balanced her naturally somber one. Despite it being her birthday, she could count on her fingers how many times she'd actually been enthused. Since Linus wasn't physically with them, his infectious good mood did not affect her at the moment.

"It's like a small city in itself. Granted, I haven't been to a lot of hotels…but this is just impressive," she gushed.

"I've actually never seen anything like this," Leona agreed.

The hallways they walked down were immense. The ceiling seemed unfathomably far away. This really was a mammoth establishment. She wondered how she missed all news relating to something that must have taken a lot of time and effort to construct—it was a testament to her obliviousness of the outside world. She knew only what was taught in textbooks and what she read for pleasure. Everything else was yet to be discovered.

They found a flower shop first.

"It's rather late for something like this to be open…" Leona commented and Cathe readily agreed, but this did not stop them from going in to investigate.

She felt as if she had stepped into a garden, though one that was lacking somewhat in genuine nature. The soft, earthy smell of the flowers hit her nose and she breathed it in, then let out a satisfied sigh. The smell was intoxicating. It was even stronger than her own garden.

"I wish my entire house smelled like this," she said closing her eyes.

"It's subtle yet strong at the same time. I like it," Cathe agreed with her.

They window-shopped. They weren't planning to buy anything at all. On Leona's part, she didn't have any more room in her personal garden and Cathe could not take a delicate flower with her on her way back home. Perhaps a seed would fare better, but Cathe didn't want to bother with that. Though she liked the idea of having an honest garden, she had no interest in starting a garden all on her own.

The clothing store was next as it was right across from them. Unlike the previous place, there were actually patrons in this one. Cathe immediately bounded over to a red dress that she'd been eying in one of her catalogs, the very same one that'd been on her wish list. The silk, embroidered sleeves were what attracted her to them every time and Leona had to agree.

This would have been too fancy for her birthday, Leona thought. In fact, too fancy for anything she'd ever attended so, of course, Cathe didn't have a specific occasion in mind. It was beautiful and so it should be worn at some point—Leona was sure this was the other's thought patterns.

They continued further into the store and ran into a multitude of dresses that caught their fancy, but they also found shirts and bottoms alike. Leona had to stop herself from buying something outright. Everything in the store corresponded to the upcoming summer season and most products seemed to have superior, high class taste. These weren't clothes one would simply "throw on" and even the camisoles were made from the richest of materials

There was a pastry shop and at that point, Leona finally gave in and purchased two chocolate éclairs for them. The taste was heavenly, the bread soft and moist. The entire shop smelled dizzyingly sweet. Despite having cake and various other homemade desserts earlier this day, she secretly enjoyed this indulgence the most. She vaguely thought about challenging her father to make something as good as this. Maybe. Baking wasn't exactly his forte, but that wouldn't stop him from trying…Someday when she felt he had the time and they were bored, she would bring him here and watch his reaction. This was, by far, the best pastry shop she'd been to. How odd that it didn't have its own building and was beholden to a hotel?

For reasons unknown, there was a grocery shop and Cathe and Leona spent a good chunk of time in there. Leona learned the most about Cathe's family life. They'd pass by an item and she'd comment on how they would wound up using it. Colette was the one who could theoretically cook, but Cathe admitted to learning and knowing how to cook for as long as she could remember. That was the case for all her siblings. They were taught how to do chores immediately, washing clothes, drying them, ironing them, cleaning various parts of the house, cleaning the outside of the house, keeping the lawn looking nice, and cooking. Everyone had to cook and there was a set schedule. Cathe couldn't remember the last time she'd actually seen her mother cook, but she was certain she knew how.

Leona found it amusing that little Lucas would be in the kitchen cooking up an entire dinner for such a large family. It didn't seem so strange then that somewhere along the way he acquired the skills of sewing. Everyone knew how to sew to some varying degree, Cathe explained to her when Leona asked about it, but Lucas had a knack for it and it became a bit of a running joke. Anything that needed to be mended would somehow become his responsibility to do because he did it "so much better than anyone else." And it was quite easy to guilt trip him into doing such activities. Claim that you didn't want to look raggedy in front of other people, you'd be so embarrassed, or really pack on the sympathy points and tell him about some real or made-up incident that occurred due to shoddy sewing work. Cathe was clearly amused by this.

Whoever cooked didn't have to do the dishes that day and there was a schedule for everyone to do the dishes at some point in the week. The only time that her parents did any actual work in the house was when one of the kids were sick. Surprisingly, that didn't occur very often.

"That's actually quite practical," Leona said with a bit of surprise in her voice. Colette hadn't struck her as a very practical person.

She taught them important life skills of how to live on their own when the time came pretty early on so such knowledge was second nature. Leona wondered how schooling worked in their family.

"It's a struggle," Cathe claimed. "None of us are all that good at it. Well, everyone except Lucas. That's why their dad put him in charge of things when none of the adults were around even when Linus still lived with them and he was the oldest. He pretty much tutored everyone on a regular basis to the point that there was actual time set aside for it. I swear if it wasn't for him, I might have had to repeat a grade…"

"Having Lucas for a tutor must have been trying," Leona said with a short laugh.

"Not really," Cathe said with a raised eyebrow. "Way better than the ones at school. I don't know, he just explains things really well in a way that I can understand, at least. And he's always so encouraging and nice—and best of all, really patient. I raise my hand too much at school and all the teachers are so tired of me. I feel kind of bad about it, but Lucas, I know he'll answer any question I have about anything if he knows the answer."

"Wait a minute, we're talking about Lucas here, right?" Leona said a little confused. "The guy who's favorite pastime is teasing me to death and who has a thing for sarcasm."

Cathe looked at her thoughtfully and then put an index finger in the air when she figured something out. "Well, you know how everyone has different sides? You must have really pissed him off at some point. He has a bad habit of holding grudges for a long time, but…well, that couldn't be it. He gave you that cat." Then she shrugged. "Sometimes even I can't figure him out." In the same breath, she clicked her finger. "He totally likes you, that's it! He started out liking you, then you must have did something to piss him off royally, then you must have like apologized or something at some point and then he's all confused about it because of the whole 'holding grudges' thing. But then he's always liked you so that explains the cat! It's perfect, right?"

"Cathe, you're not making any sense anymore," Leona said in a strained voice.

"Don't worry, that happens from time to time when I talk," she said with a laugh.

"I guess so. But the part about people having different sides, I think that explains it. It's only natural that one should act differently to their own family than to a complete stranger."

"Wait, are you a complete stranger?" Cathe asked.

"Well, no, well sort of. Enough of a stranger to count."

"Oh," Cathe said wide eyed. "We have to change this immediately! Let's be friends already!"

"You want to be…my friend?" Leona asked quizzically.

"Yeah, of course, silly! It's been fun hanging out with you and I've been to all of your birthday parties. Besides, I totally need people to have girl's night out sometime."

Leona smiled then. "That does sound fun. Alright then, let's be friends from here on out."

Cathe was smiling as well. "Good. Now let's raid some more late night open stores!"

Leona had to admit that she had a blast going through the shops, but they didn't manage to get to all of them before they had to head back after an hour. The hour had felt like half of one as far as Leona was concerned. She'd enjoyed herself so much with Cathe that she was less inclined to meet back up with everyone and deal with so many people and personalities at once. Cathe didn't seem perturbed, however, so she wouldn't be either. In fact, she seemed quite excited about the prospects of the remainder of their night.

They met on the top floor. Whatever beef that Cecil and Lucas had with each other seemed not to be resolved at all and they barely spared each other a passing glance.

"Looks like they had loads of fun," Cathe said aloud in a cheery voice

Leona wondered if that was sarcasm, but she suddenly realized that Cathe was being dead serious. She only received "hmph"s from both of them. Lucas looked at Cathe now.

"As usual, your good mood appears unblemished—quite a feat with the likes of our little princess," he said.

"Excuse me—little?" Leona said with a frown. His insults knew no bounds.

"Oh, then you're a big princess?" Lucas said back without skipping a beat.

She sighed exasperatedly, "Somehow that sounds worse." Leona wished there was something she could do with that little triumphant smirk on his face.

Soon Linus and Ludovic joined them and their good mood rivaled that of Cathe's.

"This place is crazy big," Linus said, "I'm sure Ludovic and I barely scratched the surface as far as exploring goes. We didn't run into any of you guys."

Leona caught Lucas looking at his older brother with scrutinizing eyes—an odd behavior in itself, but then stopped when he noticed her watching. Leona gave him a questioning look, but he was sooner ignoring her.

The twins took their time arriving. A bit more than fifteen minutes had passed before they sauntered into their little gathering and they seemed as beautiful as ever. Leona was again avoiding Eros' gaze, but she had to admit that she was itching to look into those shimmery emerald orbs.

"Alright!" Linus said with infectious excitement. It did wonders with lightening her darkening mood. "Who's ready for some elevator tag!"

"I'll be it!" Cecil said raising her hand immediately, "No one will escape me."

Linus' smile became slightly worried. "Let's choose someone who won't turn this into some kind of all out battle…"

"Hey!" Cecil said clenching one fist. "This is tag, we have to take this seriously."

"There's no prize at the end," Linus reasoned with her, "And it's far too late for the kind of energy you want to put into this."

"I'll be it," Lucas said. "On account of using elevators as opposed to just running off—I'll count to thirty."

When he turned and started counting, there was no longer any discussion and they were all running off at once. Leona found herself caught up in the moment. She'd seen several elevators and the hotel had 21 floors. She noted where the others were going and went a different way. For some reason, the floor number 17 stayed in her mind. She quickly stepped into the first elevator she saw after she was out of sight of the others and automatically went to that floor.

Now that she was alone, she could calmly assess the situation. She decided she would explore the entire floor to see how many other elevators there were. In a matter of ten minutes, after sprinting down every hall, she found two other sets of elevators. This was a residential section and all she could see for miles were doors after doors. The best place she could hide behind were tables and corners.

She stayed on this floor for nearly an hour and finally decided that she should visit other floors. Perhaps Lucas simply hadn't gotten to this floor, perhaps he wasn't it any more. Maybe she was missing all the action on another floor. She went to floor ten and stayed there for a while—another residential area. Thirty minutes passed and then she went to floor five. There she found an arcade. At this late of night, the room was dark, but all the lights from the machines lit up the entire area. She'd heard of such places, but she'd never been to one. There were still people here, kids her age, and the area was filled with odd little noises. Her curiosity won out and she walked in to further investigate what all the excitement was.

She'd no sooner made two steps in when she spotted one of the twins. She knew immediately that he was Eros on account of how his hair was styled. From where she was standing, she couldn't see his face, but she could make out the female's face. In her opinion, she seemed a bit…older. Nonetheless, she was still pretty in her own right with her dark eyes and long, dark hair and she seemed to have her full attention on Eros. Leona could only imagine what they were talking about. There was a twinkle in her eyes and she seemed in an obvious good mood. She couldn't hear them over all the background noise, but there was no mistaking what she saw next. Leona watched as they kissed. It was long and passionate and try as she might, she could not look away. In fact, she was quite surprised with the entire scene. It made little sense to her. Why had he done those things to her only to engage in similar activities with another woman?

"Eros…!" She covered her mouth, unable to stop herself.

Before she knew it, she was looking at him directly, those piercing green eyes gazing straight through her. It was as if timed slowed. His face was expressionless, unreadable. Then that moment was interrupted when the woman he'd been kissing forcefully turned his face back to her and smacked him clean across the face. She was beyond displeased with him and eventually stormed off in frustration. Eros didn't even begin to pursue her. In fact, his attentions were on her again. Leona decided at that moment that she'd overstayed her welcome and ran off before anything else would happen. Was he angry with her? Had she royally screwed something up for him?

She found an elevator and went to any floor that wasn't that one—13. When there, she realized that it was another residential floor and she hid behind the first table she saw. She took a deep breath and simply sat down beside it waiting for something to happen, anything. She'd stopped looking at the time and had no idea how much time had passed before she found her eyelids drooping in sleepiness. How late was it? With a sigh, she stood up once again. Surely their tag game must have ended and she'd seen no action at all. Everything was quiet.

She didn't want to think about anything right now. All she wanted was a nice bed to rest in—she'd been up since early that morning and the day still hadn't ended for her. She decided she would simply retire to her room, to heck with everything else. Their rooms were on the topmost floor side by side. Tiredly, she trudged down the long hall, used her keycard and entered her room.

"Finally…"

Cecil and Cathe would sleep together. Leona would sleep on her own much to her relief. No sooner had she climbed atop her bed, she was closing her eyes. Yet her tired mind did not want to rest just yet. Instead, she began to slowly retrace the day's events. Why did it feel like such a chore? Why had it felt like a week had passed when it had only been a day?

She sat up with a start, when she heard the door to the room open. She was expecting to see either Cecil or Cathe. She'd have to explain to them why she'd abandoned them so wantonly and with little regard to anyone else. She wondered if Cathe would be angry with her and that troubled her the most. She hated the idea of making a friend only to lose them on the very same day. But it was neither of them who opened the door at that moment.

"Eros…? How did you…?"

He wore a grin as if he reveled in her confusion. "I told Cathe that I'd left something in here. The silly girl lent me her keycard without much provocation at all. Somehow I knew you'd be here. The day must have surely been long for our reticent lady."

"Why are you here?" Leona asked gathering her wits. She could not even turn her face away, those eyes of his had trapped her in place.

"There are many reasons, my lady. I do grow weary of your games."

"My games?"

"Yes. You've been avoiding me as of late. I suppose I can understand why, but it is quite unnecessary. I do not force myself upon hesitant women—it would be a complete waste of time."

Her cheeks were burning now and she could not turn away. She was sure he could see all of it. Her breath caught in her throat when he stepped closer to her bed.

"So you needn't worry about my intentions for you—I have none."

"What you're trying to tell me is that you're completely uninterested in me now."

Eros gave her a full smile then. "Now you're putting words in my mouth. I will always have an interest in you, but I will not act on such things as I said before. Of course, should your feelings ever change…"

"How would you know, if I never tell you?"

"Ah, yes, you're quite fond of keeping things close to the chest. Make no mistake, I can read you like an open book despite your efforts. Your mind tells you one thing and your heart tells you another. Your mind and body remain hopelessly imbalanced."

Imbalanced? What is he going on about?

"In the meantime, I will continue what I do best. I will not intrude upon your personal space, I only ask that you show me the same courtesy else I'll be receiving many more crisp slaps."

"What was she to you?" Leona asked mystified.

"A beautiful lady who would soon make my night."

Leona still didn't understand what he was saying and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"To be painfully obvious: we were going to fuck each other's brains out."

Leona gasped from his unsubtle language. Eros turned from her then releasing her from his spell. He moved towards the door and opened it now. His other hand was placed on the light switch. She'd forgotten to even turn it off before she'd climbed into bed.

"Now lie down. I wish you a most restful night, my exhausted angel."

The last thing she saw as he cut off the lights were his long, curly locks. Then she heard the door click shut. Her mind could not fully fathom Eros, but she was sure she'd not disclose such a conversation to her parents. She assumed they'd be none too pleased with it. But then she had freedom to make such choices. And anyway, she no longer felt frightened of him, but she would have to keep her guard up. She thought of nothing more before her body had finally had enough and shut down completely.

AN: So, yes, much shorter than I think all my other chapters, but it was just as fun to write. Now that most of the characters in the story have been "introduced" I think it's time for some adventurin'. Already working on the next chapter. Stay tuned.

Romina78: I hear ya, I was pretty sheltered as well. High School was a big deal for me-it felt a lot like this birthday party except is was longer and way more drawn out. Ah, so you knew there was going to be another child (oh, no-she totally picked up on all that foreshadow!). I'm not sure what "sketch" version is, but it is a bit episodic...

StarlightDiamond: The problem with Regal/Presea is that I've never seen it as a healthy relationship. Of course, there's always a chance that it could turn out differently, but realistically (can I use that word when talking about fictional people?lol) it would be rather unfulfilling for both. Even if it was an accident and there was really no other choice, Regal was the one who physically murdered her sister. That's a little...awkward and probably always going to be a mood-killing subject. Secondly, clearly Presea reminds Regal almost all the time of Alicia, the same woman which canonly he's never gotten over. He's still in love with her and hasn't fully moved on. So what's the best way for him to get past that death? Hook up with Alicia's near carbon copy? Even if Regal actually saw Presea as someone other than "the woman who reminds him of Alicia" and as a completely different person, she still will look like Alicia and the reminder will always be there. I think it would be more traumatizing than healthy. Maybe you're okay with this, but Presea would definitely be dating her sister's leftover...And if they had another sister and Presea died somehow, he then moves on to her? (Just move through the whole family, will ya)

I don't have a problem with age difference if they're both adults. But there's more than just that. There's a physical developmental discrepancy. She's a twelve year old girl and who knows if she's even started menstruating...I'd suggest waiting five more years before doing anything more...erm...physical. Really, the thought of 30+ year old guy banging a 12 year old looking girl is hilarious (only because mentally she's 28, otherwise it'd just be wrong). If this is actually condoned, it'd be like condoning any 12 year old to hook up with much older guys because she's "mature" enough for it and that's just a slippery slope from there.

The circumstances is just all wrong is all I'm saying. Thanks for taking the time out to review. Nice to know that you like the direction of the story. The couplings were admittedly decided a bit for convenience sake, but they also make some sense. We'll never know how it all "should've" ended up like, but here is my take.

Christa1989: You know, I forgot Raine was borne in Tethe'alla, but really she spent a good deal of her life in Sylvarant. Elves are distinctly separate from humans. Their village is surrounded by a dungeon forest. You have to have written permission from the king to even enter the place if you're human. Why would Regal ever be in a situation that demanded that he visit Heimdall? I'm not even sure if he knew where it was in the first place. I think my problem here is that I've not imagined Regal Bryant with any family members like that. He never talks about his parents, aunts, uncles, or anything like that. I always thought that was strange. We just know that he comes from a rich family and that he has little to no contact with the Bryants (if there are any besides him).

Raine/Zelos? I have a shocked face on right now. At least the ages are closer together. Zelos really likes any female he comes in contact with so I take his reaction upon first meeting her with a grain of salt. Such comments are so typical from him that it was even integrated into the game where you can get items from most females like he's some item/money pimp or something. I'm not saying it's a bad couple, but Zelos needs to be with someone who fully captures his attention else that relationship is doomed to fail. Raine is a great woman and pretty no-nonsense, but she won't be putting up with Zelos' games at all. Maybe a more mature Zelos might make this work out. Raine/Zelos = rocky relationship...at least in my opinion.

And thanks for telling me about your brother. Now there's guaranteed to be some Sheelos in the next chapter!