Chapter 6 – The Plan.
The meeting had finally ended at the end of the evening. After a long time of discussing the plan with eachother, they all agreed they would go with the following plan: They would use Lucas to retrieve the power over Pixieville. Lucas would show up at the PixiePlaza the next day and tell everyone the truth about the elections, and how it should've went. No one was sure it would actually work, but they didn't have anything better to offer. Caramel and Rex were sitting on the couch at Sapphire's home. Only they, and Floxy had stayed behind. The others had all left and went home already. Fortunately, Caramel was able to calm the panicking Cherie down quite a bit. Though on the other hand, she wasn't feeling that well herself right now. She looked up at Rex, confused. ''With Vikus' and his new rules going on we won't be able to marry…'' ''If you're thinking that weird garden gnome has anything to say about our marriage, you've got it all wrong. I won't let him''. Rex took her hand, and smiled gently at her. ''If we want to get married, we will. It will be alright, just believe in me''. Caramel stared down at their hands with an insecure look. She wasn't too sure about it being alright… Sapphire and Floxy both looked at eachother. ''Maybe we should leave them alone for a while…'' Sapphire suggested, upon which Floxy nodded. The two of them left the living room, to sit down in the garden behind the villa.
Once outside, Sapphire was the one to sit down first. It was silent for a moment, until Floxy spoke. ''Don't you regret quitting? I thought being a singer was your dream''. Sapphire looked up, yet shrugged. ''I don't know. I like singing, a lot, but I'm also really happy to be back here with you guys again''. Another pause. '''What about you? Don't you have any dreams?'' she asked to break the silence. Floxy nodded. ''I always wanted to be a comédian''. He sat down next to Sapphire. ''Although I had many dreams. When I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a dentist. Until I found out I wasn't allowed to eat that many pies anymore because it wouldn't be a good example to others. After that, I didn't want it anymore'' he laughed, thinking back at it. ''Doctor Boxen might have a spot left for you as his assistent'' Sapphire joked, a grin forming on her face. ''You're crazy! Caramel will kill me. She will ban me from her wedding!'' Floxy replied. The both of them burst out into laughter. ''I even dreamed about being like Rex'' Floxy eventually said when they could control their laughter. Sapphire looked at him in surprise. She was curious as to where this would lead to. ''I was never like the other elves. My parents were disappointed in me, and they always told me nothing good would come of me''. He let out a sigh. ''In their opinion, elves should be mean and stealing all the time, instead of wasting their time by playing tricks. All the other kids they knew of behaved like what they thought of as proper elves, unlike me. The parents of Rex were good friends of them, and one day they asked them if I could join Rex his gang, which is how I came here. They hoped Rex would learn me how to be a real elf, like they wanted me to be''. He paused for a moment to catch his breath. ''And to make matters worse, they chose Narcissa to be my fiancée. You remember how she reacted when we first met, right?'' Sapphire nodded. How could she forget? Narcissa had accused her of stealing Floxy from her, which was true in a way, but still. She had been awful to Sapphire for a long time, ignoring her and being spiteful to her. It wasn't until she started dating Preston that it seemed she started to care less about her 'stealing' Floxy. ''I remember it very well..'' she stated, and sighed deeply upon thinking back on it. Floxy sighed aswell. ''Then you don't want to know how she treated me. I've… never told you about it before, as it already happened before we met eachother, but… Narcissa was just like my parents''. Sapphire wasn't sure what he meant with that. ''I was never able to do the right thing for her, and when something went wrong in our plans, she always blamed me. She would insult me, or hit me, just because I'm not like the others are''. Sapphire softly put her hand down on Floxy's shoulder, as to support him. ''Rex usually treated me the same as she did. Only Lenny was different, he was one of the few people who were actually nice to me. He was like an older brother to me'' Floxy told her. ''He made my time in the gang a lot more bearable, until he…'' He didn't finish his sentence. Thinking back about Lenny's death was still hard for him. Sapphire pulled him close to her so she could give him a hug, as a sign that she understood. Floxy looked up at her. ''…And you we're different too'' he suddenly said. ''You didn't treat me like the others did when we met eachother. You always believed in me, even when others didn't''. Sapphire shrugged, feeling a bit uncomfortable by all the praise she got. ''It's not a big deal. It's what I'm supposed to do, I…'' she started her sentence, but couldn't finish it. ''Thank you'' Floxy said with a smile. ''For being who you are''. Sapphire shyly turned her head away. ''That's not neccessary…''. She wasn't good at dealing with things like this. ''Yes, it is'' Floxy kept insisting. He took Sapphire's hand. ''I know we've been having a lot of fights lately, but I will always love you''. He kept looking at her while saying this. ''I love you too'' Sapphire said, as she stared back at him.
They sat like this for a while, staring into eachothers eyes, until Floxy looked up to see if Caramel and Rex were still inside the house. They obviously hadn't noticed that Floxy and Sapphire had left, as they only had eyes for eachother. ''Instead of staying here… we can go to my place?'' Floxy suggested. ''I mean, we're all alone then…'' He stared hopefull at Sapphire, hoping she knew what he'd meant by it. Sapphire started blushing. ''Do you mean..?'' Floxy answered her with an enthusiastic nod. ''Yes! We can play board games all night long, and have pillow fights with eachother, without Rex complaining about the noise!'' Sapphire just stared at him, dumbfounded. Board games and pillow fights? She thought he meant something completely different when he said they would be all alone. She felt a bit disappointed, but shrugged it off. A smile appeared on her face, at least she could spend time with him now. And aside from that, he had a point, Rex wouldn't be there to complain about them then. ''Okay, sure!'' she said. She stood up and took his hand.
-
It was the next morning. Rex was sitting on the couch downstairs, zapping through the tv channels while holding a cup of coffee. He had stayed with Caramel for a long time that evening before returning home. Not much later Floxy came downstairs. ''Good morning'' he said sleepily once he saw Rex, and sat down next to him. Rex ignored him. Normally he wasn't in the mood to respond on things like that, and it was even worse for him in the morning. Floxy shrugged. ''Don't answer then''. Sapphire also came downstairs now. While yawning, she passed by Rex and Floxy on her way to the kitchen. ''Good morning'' she also said. Once again, Floxy was the only one that replied. Rex ignored her, until he slowly started to realize she was there. Quickly he turned around, but she already went into the kitchen. ''Since when has she been here?'' he asked Floxy, still being surprised about it. ''Since yesterday night, why?'' he replied. ''Since yesterday night, hmmm? Rex said, staring down at Floxy with a curious gaze. ''Er… yeaah…'' answered Floxy, and added a: ''what?'' when Rex kept continuing with the staring. Rex sighed. He quickly turned around to look if Sapphire was still in the kitchen, then turned around to face Floxy again. ''What do you mean 'what'''? Rex sounded indignantly. ''What did you two even do that night?'' ''If it's about the board games, you weren't even there, so you don't have any right to spea—'' Floxy got interrupted by Rex. ''I'm not talking about your stupid board games!'' he snapped. ''I was just wondering how far you two went, relationship-wise, but since you reacted like that, I already know my answer''. Floxy only now started to realize what it was all about. He crossed his arms. ''Sapph's not interested in that sort of stuff yet''. His voice sounded insecure. He felt really uncomfortable talking about this. ''Did you ask her?'' Rex asked him. Floxy shook his head. ''No, but I think she wouldn't…'' ''Then you should ask her''. Floxy ignored what Rex told him, and instead threw a question back at him. ''What about you and Caramel then? How far are you two?'' ''Caramel wants to wait until we're married. And if that's what she truly wants, then I will respect her'' Rex replied back. ''…And that's why you're trying to interfere with the relationships of others…'' Floxy growled, luckily Rex couldn't hear him. At that moment Sapphire came walking out of the kitchen. ''Your house is lame, you don't even have chocolate milk in here!'' she complained out loud. Rex nudged Floxy. ''What are you waiting for? Ask her!'' he insisted. ''Ask her yourself'' Floxy said, starting to get annoyed again. Rex shrugged. ''Okay''. He focused his attention on Sapphire, who had been talking to herself up until that moment. ''Hey, Sapph! Floxy was wondering if you wanted to have—'' He couldn't finish his sentence, as Floxy jumped up from the couch and shoved his hand before Rex's mouth. ''Just shut up'' he snapped. ''What?'' Sapphire looked at the two boys, feeling confused about what just happened. ''Rex is just being annoying because he couldn't join in on our board games yesterday'' Floxy quickly said. This sounded even more suspicious to Sapphire. ''I thought he hated it if we were playing board games? I remember the last time we were playing, when he threw our card game out of the window''. She thought back upon it. Rex had gotten angry thanks to the noise they made while playing games, and thus he barged into the door of Floxy's room, tore the cards out of their hands, and threw them out of the window, into the garden. It took them days to retrieve all of them. ''Well, yeah, I guess he changed his mind'' Floxy made up. Meanwhile, Rex kicked Floxy's leg, which resulted in Floxy looking at Rex with an irritated glance, yet he still wouldn't let go. Sapphire shrugged. ''You can join in next time, if you want to. I'm going to get changed'' she said as she went upstairs again.
Floxy let go of Rex once Sapphire had finally arrived upstairs. Rex was still staring angrily at Floxy. ''Why did you do that? You almost ruined everything'' Floxy complained to him, still being irritated by it all. ''You deserved it. What if she expects me to join in on your stupid board games next time?'' Rex growled. Floxy ignored him. For a short time, there was silence. Eventually Rex spoke. ''Sooo… aren't you going upstairs too?'' Floxy was staring with a bored look on his face at the tv, and didn't even make an effort to look up at Rex. ''Why? And please change the channel, you know I hate shows like these''. ''Think about it for a second!'' Rex began, sounding strangely enthusiastic. ''She's changing! This is your chance to spy on her!'' Floxy just looked at Rex, dumbfounded. Was he actually being serious right now? It would be best to ignore him, he figured. Once Rex noticed Floxy was ignoring him, he stood up and blocked Floxy's view of the tv by standing in front of him. Floxy let out an irritated sigh. ''I won't spy on her'' he claimed. ''Why not?'' ''Because I respect her, and spying is wrong! Even if we're elves. Is it clear enough for you now?'' Floxy snapped at him. This was starting to get on his nerves. ''Just go spy on Caramel or something for all I care'' he added. Rex shrugged indifferently, and sat down again. ''Of course I won't do that. I respect Caramel's privacy. Besides, I haven't been in her house for longer than a few hours''. ''Does it surprise you, with thoughts like that?'' was what Floxy wanted to answer, but he tried his best to keep calm. ''Then why do you expect me to do it?'' Rex picked up the remote of the television again. displaying a bored attitude. ''I just wanted to help you, but fine. I won't then''. He shot a quick glance at Floxy. ''I mean, we both know you want it, but you're too scared''. ''What?'' ''You heard me. You're too scared'' Rex provoked. ''Who says I'm too scared?!'' Floxy threw a quick glance at the door seperating the living room and the stairs. ''Prove it'' Rex added with a grin on his face. Floxy seemed to hesitate a little, yet ran towards the door anyway. ''Fine! Just you wait!'' he yelled back at Rex, then disappeared. Rex waited for a bit until he was sure Floxy was upstairs, then started laughing. ''Ha, dumbass'' he said out loud while grinning. ''I can't believe he's still falling for that''.
Once Floxy had gotten upstairs, he walked up to his room with a determined look on his face. In reality, he was less determined than he came across as, but he wanted to prove Rex was wrong about him being too scared to do it. He could always just say that he went upstairs to get something if things would go wrong. He held his hand on the doorknob, ready to open it, when… Sapphire suddenly opened the door from the other side, and he suddenly stood face to face with her. ''Floxy! What are you doing here?'' she asked, sounding surprised upon finding him here. ''Er, I…'' he murmured. He tried his best to find the right words to say. ''I had to get something from my room, so I was waiting here until you were done changing'' he quickly made up. ''I wouldn't mind if you'd came in though''. Sapphire shrugged, acting like it was the most normal thing to do. She walked past him, to the stairs going downstairs. Floxy quickly turned around. ''Hey, Sapph…'' he began hesitatingly. ''What's it?'' Sapphire waited just to see what he had to say. ''Next time when you sleep over, we can also do other things instead of playing board games... you know''. ''Like what?'' Floxy's face turned slightly red. ''Well, er, you know…'' ''Oh! I know! We can play tricks on Rex!'' Sapphire interrupted him, but later added upon it: ''Wait… maybe that's not really a good idea… well, we'll find something for it I guess''. She smiled cheerfully. ''Are you coming? We have to be at the PixiePlaza hotel soon''. With that, she went downstairs. ''But I didn't mean…!'' Floxy tried, but it was already too late and Sapphire couldn't hear him anymore. Feeling frustrated, he kicked the door to his bedroom. Well, nothing to do about it now. She was right, they had to leave soon.
Rex nudged Floxy on their way to the PixiePlaza hotel. ''And?'' He asked curiously. Floxy sighed deeply. Not this again… Although… this might be the best time to get Rex back for it, he thought. ''What do you mean, 'and'?'' Floxy asked indifferently, pretending as if he didn't know what Rex was talking about. ''You know what I'm talking about. How did Sapphire react?'' Rex spoke soft enough so Sapphire, who was walking in front of them, wouldn't be able to hear their conversation. ''Oh, you mean 'that'… Not much happened. But if you want to know, I've probably seen more of her than you ever saw of Caramel'' Floxy made up, and started to grin a bit. ''What?'' Rex wasn't expecting this. ''Oh, and I'm staying over at her place tonight, if you know what I mean'' Floxy added. It was all a lie, of course, but Rex wasn't going to know that. Rex stared at him with his mouth wide open. How could that have worked? He was sure it would've ruined things for him, embarassing Floxy in the end. ''And it's all thanks to your amazing advice'' was what Floxy assured him. ''Maybe you should try it on Caramel sometime''. He glanced over at Rex with a determined look, then started walking faster to be able to walk next to Sapphire, leaving Rex stunned behind them.
There was chaos everywhere in front of the PixiePlaza hotel. ''You're late. Where were you?'' Caramel asked once she saw Sapphire arrive along with the two guys. ''Sorry. Did we miss anything?'' Sapphire looked around her. It didn't look like it had started yet. Lucas was standing in the middle of the plaza. Caramel shook her head. ''No, but it will start soon''. After a few minutes had passed and more people had arrived, Lucas spoke. ''Dear residents of Pixieville!'' he yelled loudly through the microphone he was holding. ''Don't speak so loud. We don't want to get deaf!'' yelled a gnome who was standing in the front row back. Lucas started to blush slightly. ''Sorry…'' he murmured, after which he tried to get his voice on a normal volume. ''You are all here today for an important statement I'm about to make. You all know Vikus has been chosen to be the successor of Nymphea, but he shouldn't have the right! The rightful successor should be the next one in line, her son, which is me!'' he stated. Everyone started to speak at the same time. ''Nymphea has a son?'' ''Who cares, as long as he gets rid of Vikus''. ''He does not look like Nymphea at all…'' ''EVERYONE BE QUIET!'' Caramel yelled. It worked, for a moment everyone turned silent. ''Why didn't you come forward earlier?'' someone asked once the public had calmed down. ''I didn't want to be the successor in the first place'' Lucas explained. ''Until I saw what Vikus was doing to our city. We need to fight back, to get back what's ours!'' ''Yes! Against Vikus!'' The audience loudly yelled back while cheering. ''Against Vikus? You're making a big mistake…'' said a sudden voice. Everyone turned around to look who was talking. There stood Vikus, with two of his guards. Everyone went silent. ''So you all rather have him, instead of me…'' Vikus began. Someone in the audience shook their head. ''N-no! We only want you!'' ''Liar'' Vikus growled. ''But fine, I won't punish the public for this. Instead…'' He pointed at Lucas. ''Guards! Arrest him and lock him up in the dungeons of my castle!'' The guards walked up towards Lucas, but Caramel ran up so she could stand in front of him. ''You can't take him! He's the rightful successor!'' she tried, but the guards just pushed her aside. Without her powers, she was useless. They grabbed Lucas and dragged him with them. ''Have fun in the dungeons''. One of the guards grinned. Lucas looked around him with a scared gaze, and looked at Sapphire, Floxy, and Rex, who all watched powerless. ''Let this be a lesson'' Vikus said, speaking directly to Caramel and the others. ''Oh, and one other thing… I wanted everyone to know that a new rule has been added as of today. No one in this city is allowed to be richer than me. Everyone should give their villa's to me, and turn in their money aswell. If you won't follow my rules, you will be locked up in the dungeons, just like your 'successor''' Vikus finally said, whereafter he walked away.
Everyone at the Plaza went their own way once Vikus was gone. Caramel stared down at her feet, feeling powerless. How could this happen? It seemed like such a good plan… ''My money!'' she heard gnome Grind yelling from far away. His money was probably being taken away right now. Sapphire, Floxy, and Rex came up to Caramel. ''That guy with his money… at least his house hasn't been taken away!'' Sapphire complained loudly. ''Where do I have to live now?'' Floxy wanted to open his mouth, but Caramel was faster. ''You can live with me for the time being. At least until you've found a new place'' she offered. Sapphire sighed. ''It's not like I've got much choice…'' Rex nudged Floxy, grinning. ''Your evening together has been ruined now, too bad for you'' he whispered, but Floxy couldn't seem to care less. ''We should come up with a new plan'' Rex eventually said. ''And save Lucas'' Caramel added. Yes, he was a jerk, but if it wasn't for their plan he wouldn't have been locked up by now. It wouldn't be fair to leave him behind in the dungeons. ''I guess we'll have a new meeting again tomorrow then'' Sapphire suggested while sighing. They didn't really have much other options…
A/N: I'm finally done! I already have a lot planned for the next chapter along with some old stuff I wrote for that one, so that one will probably be up a lot sooner than this one was! Thanks for waiting so long~. Also, just wanted to add, I have no interest in turning this story into an 18+ one, so it won't be detailed in that way(':. But they're in their twenties, so I felt like it sorta had to come up though, as they're adults now. Plus it's also neccessary for the sequel I'm planning.