Grape twirled the crown on her finger. "What do you think of me now, Rex? Am I the worst leader still?"

She tossed the crown to him. "You took down the king?"

She nodded. "And that is a gift for you." She bowed. "Now if you would excuse me, I will be going to my room."

"Stop right there. I know you're lying. You almost failed. It was that Princess Peach who stopped him, not you."

"W-what? What are you going on about?"

"Think for a moment, my dear. Why do you think I gave you that brooch?" He hobbled closer to her and pointed his cane at the brooch.

"You gave it to me when you let me take charge of the Sour Bunch. I always assumed it was to display my mark as their leader."

"It is enchanted, my dear. It was so I could keep an eye on you. That's how I knew about your failed attempt on Sparkle Theater."

She cupped her hand over the brooch. "You were spying on me? Why?"

"I wanted to make sure I could trust you as their new leader, my dear. I know it was a bit absurd, but if you keep up this path of failure then I'll have to revoke your rank. I don't want to do it, my dear, but even I too, was watched when I became leader. I will remove the enchantment as you become a better leader, but for now, it must stay put."

"I-I..."

She was at a loss for words. She had told him about the Sparkle Theater incident, but now he had just admitted to her that he knew the whole time. She was overcome with fear, anger, and sadness all at once, and fled to her room to clear her mind.

She entered her room, crossing right to her vanity. She grabbed the small stool and held it above her head, planning on smashing the mirror.

"Good girls don't lose their temper."

She put it back down, and sat on her bed. She thought of what Dimentio's father had said to her. He said she was his daughter.

For three months she sat, thinking about the words he had said, and what Rex had told her all her life. She went to her closet. Inside sat a present. It had purple wrapping and a dark purple bow, and it had been in her closet for every day of her life.

There was no clue as to who had left it, expect for a small tag which bore her name, Grape Lyre. There was no other name, or a date, but she had never felt ready to open it. That was, until today.

A strange wave of curiosity came over her. She grabbed the present and lifted it to her face. A gentle shake told that it was smaller than expected, smaller than the box itself. It also sounded plushy, and soft. She untied the ribbon and lifted the lid. The inside was filled with purple cushions, like the ones she used as a bed. Removing a few of them revealed another item, a purple music box with gold accents. The music box bore the insignia of the Elder Bunch, showing that it was a gift from before they had died.

She lifted the lid, the inside being the home of a small mirror and a musical windup. She turned the windup and released it, the song beginning to play. She smiled calmly to the music box, having no memory of why she felt she had heard that song before. It wasn't until the last note played when something snapped together in her mind.

And she remembered everything, all at once.

Author Note: Okay, so this one is a SIDE STORY to All for Us, so it's not really important to read.

This story is inspired from a few songs: Two of a Kind (Ghost and Pals), Mockingbird (Eminem), and Anthropology (Awkward Marina [this one was for later chapters that weren't originally going to be included in this story])

The narration in this one is a little different than my other stories because I was actually picturing it like those narration-led stories! (You know, the ones that read the narration to you out loud like Baldur's Gate.)

This story actually started off as a funny doodle of two Elder Bunch members (one being Rex, the other Tobias [which you'll meet in the next chapter]) and wasn't originally going to be anything serious (yet here we are...) But once I wrote a little of Grape's past (that I made up) into it, I decided to go for it and write a whole story about the three of them.

This one is a bit more...calmer (?) than my other more recent stories (such as All for Us) and it'll be marked as K+ because I'm not expecting it to get (very) dark. (There is a single death in there, but it's not gross or anything like Piper's death in Plus Ultra! [I'm sorry about that, by the way. That was going a bit too far into my anger. She was a vent OC I made after 2022's situation, so I reflected her character off of the person who upset me.])

Things in this story, and things Grape has said and done in my others will connect, and I've been thinking about the confrontation near the end of this one for a while, so I think this will go great! It might be a bit more on the longer side compared to my other stories like The Heartless Centaur, All for Us, and To Catch a Toad but I don't think it'll be as long as Plus Ultra! was. (The length of that one was absurd, but at least it kept true to the drawn-out nature of anime!)

Anyways, I ramble. Enjoy the story, and stay Off the Hook!