Not long after Kiana finally woke up, the two were quickly on their way towards the Heart Castle. "Looks like we'll be staying in a different territory each night." Kiana giggled. Alice only laughed softly in response. The Heart Castle came very clearly into view, guards and maids walking about in front of it. "I wonder what's going on," Alice pondered. Her head tilted to the side. The staff did seem awfully busy, and not shorthanded like they usually did. 'That's a good sign, looks like Vivaldi isn't killing as many people.' the two both thought.

Greeting the servants of the Heart Castle, they found themselves soon inside. "From the time she should be having her afternoon tea soon. Usually she will wait for evening to set in, but on the few occasions where the afternoon seems to drag on unusually long she will have it a bit early. This way!" Kiana said, raising her arm as though about to march into battle. Alice shook her head, smiling as she followed. The hallways were long, and at times quite a bit confusing. "Your majesty, Miss Alice is here to see you."

The duo heard merely moments before making their grand entrance into the room where Vivaldi was indeed having her tea. "We see. You are dismissed, we will not be needing you any further," Vivaldi said. The maid bowed her head, scurrying off. "Please, sit. We are pleased you have come to visit us." she said, a warm smile crossing her features. A small pink crossed Kiana's cheeks, but ignoring it, she sat down next to Alice, who had placed herself next to Vivaldi. "We would have come sooner, but certain events have stopped us.

First Kiana had gotten sick, then Ace got us lost…" Alice explained, murmuring the last part. Vivaldi gave an irritated sigh. "He did, did he? We will just have to order his execution for when he returns." Briefly sipping the warm liquid in her cup, she soon turned her attention on Kiana. "We have been hearing much about you, Kiana, is it?" she asked. Kiana quickly nodded. "Yes, it is, your majesty," she responded, being so used to it after working in the castle for so long. Vivaldi laughed softly. "You may simply refer to us as Vivaldi, no need for formalities. As we were saying, we have heard many things being said about you.

Peter had informed us of another outsider, and Ace has not been around the past few days so we could not question him about it. Other than those two, we have only heard the murmurings of the servants around the castle. Being as we have been busy, we have not been able to leave to see if it were true or not. We are glad you came to visit, and we are extremely pleased to meet you." Kiana's cheeks went a shade darker, nervously rubbing the back of her neck.

"I'm nothing special, really. I just…" she began. Her sentence was interrupted, Vivaldi yelling for one of the servants. "We are sure both of you must be very parched. Allow us to get something for both of you to drink. Would tea be all right?" she said. Kiana and Alice both looked towards each other, blinked, but nodded with a short 'yes' to Vivaldi. "Splendid! We will require more tea, bring two more cups as well."

The three continued to talk; it consisting mostly of Kiana explaining about her life, before and during her stay in Heartland. Vivaldi had grown in an even better mood as evening took its place so vividly in the sky. Though, as time stretched on, the two realized how hungry they were getting. A frown crossed Vivaldi's features. "As much as we wish to accompany thee, we must be off for we have much work that needs tending to. We shall have a maid prepare your food and alert you when it is ready. You may do as you see fit to keep yourselves entertained, until then."

They nodded, bidding her goodbye as she left to do her work. "She's usually pretty busy. Though, a lot of the times she starts to get annoyed and orders the king or some of the servants to do her work. She only really seems to stop when she gets extremely annoyed, or when you had come to visit. Aside from your visits, she just seemed to huff and completely walk away from it." Kiana explained, laughing a bit nervously. "I see. What is there to do until our food is ready?" There were a lot of rooms, but most of them seemed to consist of bedrooms.

"We could sneak into Ace's room and steal his things." Kiana suggested.

"But what if he's in his room?" Alice asked.

"Ah- good point. We could go outside? I know where some beautiful roses bloom," Kiana said, smiling.

"Well, I guess we could. Let's inform the maid in the kitchen."

"Oh, alright. Don't make her work," Kiana giggled.

The two quickly told the maid where they would be and were soon off outside again. The brilliant shades of orange, red, and pink littered the sky. It never ceased to amaze either of them. It was the perfect sunset, one where the colors would only disappear as night dropped down on them like a bomb. It was like when someone took a picture of a beautiful sunset, and could see nothing more than the amazing colors lining the horizon. Smiles crossed both their lips, staring up at it.

"Come on, come on!" Kiana giggled and laced her arm with Alice's. The two were off through the roses, staring intently at each one as they passed. "She has so many…" Alice sighed, awe-struck by the sea of colors in the rose garden. There were pure and untouched white ones, cute and innocent pink ones, seductive red ones, along with bright and cheerful yellow ones. "That's not even the best part!" Kiana grinned. After passing another set of yellow, Alice gasped. Kiana was right.

Before the two lay a few bushes of dark and saddening, yet beautiful, black roses. Just beyond them laid something more astounding, roses that consisted of not one color, but two! White and pink, red and yellow, black and white, the combinations were endless! "Wow. These are amazing. Do you think Vivaldi would be mad if we took a few?" she asked. Kiana shook her head. "I doubt it! There are more than enough to spare for anything we take. But this still isn't the best part, Alice!" she giggled, dragging the female further.

Just in front of their eyes stood the most unusual colored roses, they almost seemed to be… "It's a rainbow!" Alice gasped, examining the multi-colored rose. "Uh-huh! I've been watching after 'em for some time! They're not exact rainbows, but they have all the colors of one. Cool, aren't they? Oh! In the rose bush, the same color combination never grows back in the same spot. For example, say this one, up here, gets cut," she began, pointing at a flower that spread from red in the center, to dark blue, to lighter blue, to purple, to dark green, to lime green, and finally finishing around with yellow, "it will not grow back in the same spot ever again. If ten flowers grow right there, it will never be like that."

Alice's eyes widened a little. "Really? That's amazing…" Kiana nodded, giggling still. "Yeah! My favorite is just up here," she said. Beyond the rainbow-color-roses was a bush of bright eye-catching blue ones, that almost matched the color of her eyes. "Of course that would be your favorite." Alice laughed. Kiana's cheeks went red, pouting childishly.

"Oh, shut up. So, I just happen to know what I like. No big deal~" she chirped.

"I suppose."

"Anyway, what would you like? I heard, since it never rains unless it's in a particular season, they keep a pair of cutters around here. Let's look for them, shall we?" Nodding, the two set to look for the cutters. In almost no time at all, they found them and were successfully cutting some of the bright blue roses. "You know, I saw one back there that was blue and white. That would so fit with your outfit!" Kiana said, fiddling with the stem to remove its thorn. "I guess, just be careful, okay?"

After successfully tying two roses together, Kiana now had a rose bracelet, along with one in her hair, while Alice had the blue and white one in her own hair. They had returned not long after picking the roses, fearing for the approaching nightfall. "Ma'am! Your food is ready whenever you are, Miss Alice, Miss Kiana," the maid announced. Kiana grinned towards Alice. "Chow time, I suppose? Let's eat!" Alice rolled her eyes, following after her towards the table that securely held their plates on its top.

In another part of the territory, a male slept soundly whilst in his own little dream world. But, despite his serene exterior, in his dreamland he was discussing things with a not-so-friendly-incubus. "The longer you wait, Ace, the more of a possibility it will become for her to leave. You want her to stay, don't you?" However, just as those words were said, his eyelids slowly opened before half-lidding themselves. The words echoed so loudly in his head, still. 'You want her to stay, don't you?' Nightmare knew what everyone was thinking.

No, when Gray didn't happen to take away his crystal ball, he basically knew everything that happened there. He rolled over so he was flat on his back, staring upwards at the ceiling. A smirk crossed his lips. "You knew the answer, so why did you bother to ask?" Pushing himself into a sitting position, he stood from the bed he had been lying on. The smirk was soon replaced by a frown, noticing where he was. "I thought it was a bit odd seeing that I had to climb down, oh well. Peter's not here so he doesn't need to know." and with that, he was off.

"Onee-chan, you're supposed to have your dinner before your dessert," Alice said with a frown, staring at the female who was desperately attempting to steal the plate she held above her head. "But, Alice, if I don't have sweets I might die!" She shook her head. "You won't die. Just eat and soon it'll be all gone, then you can have your cake." Kiana proceeded to pout childishly, eating her food as though it were a menace to society. "It's all your fault. If I didn't need to eat you, I wouldn't be having this problem in the first place…"

Alice sighed, shaking her head. Her eyes soon widened, opening her mouth to talk, but not successfully being able to warn Kiana of the impending doom. A gust of warm air soon roughly blew against her ear, causing a loud squeak and the brightest shade of red to glow along her cheeks. Whipping her head around violently, her eyes soon landed on the male responsible. "Hey there kitten. Just came back for a nap before returning to Julius, didn't expect to see you here when I woke up." Ace grinned, promptly taking a seat next to her. "What the-?"

"What? I'm hungry too, you know~" he laughed.

Her cheeks continued to redden, going a shade towards a more realistic blood red, brows furrowed.

"Now, now little kitten~ the more you huff and puff, the cuter you look. Didn't we already have a discussion about that?"

Her mouth lay a gape, gibberish soon flying out in place of real words.

"E-eh? I-I'm curious to know what that conversation was about…" Alice said, laughing nervously, not sure if she truly wanted to know or not. Ace just smiled, ordering the nearest servant to get him some food before even bothering to speak to them again.

"Now that you're here, I need to find a way to make you stay," he said, frowning for a brief moment.

"Fat chance! I'm not staying here!" she retorted. She squeaked as his arm reached to wrap around her shoulders, scooting her chair further from him. "Stop doing weird stuff, you creep!"

"Kittens shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them~" he cooed.

"YOU DIDN'T FEED ME!" she yelled, cheeks lessening from blood red to a soft glow of red; whether her cheeks were still stained from embarrassment or anger, was a mystery to them.

"Don't be like that, I might have to drag you to my bedroom."

"The hell you will!" Alice came in.

Ace frowned towards her, but didn't say anything else. Instead he fiddled with something in his pocket. "So does this mean you give up?" Kiana asked hesitantly, afraid he might strike when she least expects it. "For now, anyway. I have other things on my mind." She tilted her head. Other things? What did he mean by 'other things'? Never the less, she allowed it to escape her mind. Her food was still calling her name so desperately. Both Alice and Kiana kept an eye on Ace, not sure what he might have been planning.

Little did they realize what he had been planning. It never occurred to them what it might have been, let alone the 'pop' noise of a bottle being open was in any way related to it.

"Hey, little kitten~" Ace cooed.

"Call me Kiki." Kiana huffed.

"Fine, hey, Kiki~" he purred into her ear.

"W-what the hell is it?" she squeaked, face growing red once again.

Before anything else could be said, there was a flash of white.

"Mmff-!"

Author's Note; So I got tired of being confused when a new part came about so I added one of those divider thingys. I hope this makes things easier for everyone. 3

Uhm...

Right! I am SO sorry about being so inactive on updates. ; u;

The problem is I need to write more. (I like having at least a chapter saved back for when I post one.)

Buuutt!

Even though my next chapter is not done yet, I wanted to share this little baby with you~

I hope everyone likes it. x3 Now tell me what you think might happen next chapter!

Ooh and send any ideas you may have for the future and they may somehow be included~3

"Just keep making these cute little noises and see if there are any consequences~"

"No way, I am not wearing a dress even if I have to go. I will not let Ace see me in a dress!"

Boris tilted his head curiously. The last time he had seen Ace alone like this he was planning on killing Alice. What was he up to this time…?

Just to let your minds wander.