"Hi-YA!" and with a kick and a yell, the before considered lucky dresser, had the top half of its wooden structure desecrated into splinters. Clover watched with a hateful glare as the tiny fragments of wood dropped to the ground like a shower of confetti. Her eye twitched, her chest heaved, and the knuckles on her tightly clenched fists throbbed with pain.
You idiot.

Her fiery gaze fell to the bottom half of the dresser, observing how cleanly she had broken its upper half off. Destruction was almost…beautiful. It was a form of art; and like any other art it took practice to do it well. Her thoughts momentarily halted her rampage and gave way to a few seconds of peace and quiet with the opportunity to calm down. The crowned lemur pressed her thumbs and pointer fingers together and closed her eyes before inhaling a sharp intake of breath.
Slowly in. Slowly out. There.

The sudden wave of calmness that rushed over her only provided a temporary solution. After about five seconds of standing still and trying to calm her nerves, her anger and frustration rose back to a high and resulted in the remaining remnants of her dresser getting thrown out of the nearest window. She paid no attention to the yelp of pain that followed a moment later as the heap of wood fell on Ted and flattened him to the forest floor, nor did she notice when Willie released a shrill scream at the top of his lungs "the fossa are throwing things at us-we're all gonna DIE!" or take heed of the ruckus and mayhem that came soon after. She was too focused on being angry. Truth be told, she thought she had worked out her anger issues with Sage. Yet here she was, having her third fit of the week. Another thing they had had between them that ended up being anything but permanent. Big surprise. But it wasn't like she even knew why she was angry in the first place. All she knew was that there was a fire inside of her and she needed to let it out.

Of course...thinking about it a little, there was a slight possibility it had something to do with Julien...and the fact that she-no. Clover shook her head as a stubborn rage coursed through her. She wasn't ready to admit that-to herself or to anyone-not yet. With a grunt of annoyance, she abruptly sat down on the side of her bed.
What is wrong with me?

She'd been down this road before, with both Koto and Sage, so it wasn't like it was the first time she had been attracted to someone. It certainly wasn't the first time she had cared for a person. She involuntarily flinched as the last memory she had of her grandmother quickly flashed through her head.

Definitely not the first time.

But with Sage and Koto, their feelings for each other had been obviously mutual from the start. Julien was different. The two of them had been friends for years-close friends, to be more precise. And the longer they had known each other the closer they had gotten. But they were still friends-just friends. That's how it had always been-not like with Sage, where they had started dating literally the second they had met...

A startled gasp accompanied by a quick turn of her head brought her out of her thoughts as it became apparent that there was someone knocking at her door. Clover muttered a "hmm" under her breath and raised a curious eyebrow, wondering who it could be. She cocked her head to the side and leaned over to her left slightly, attempting to catch a glimpse of her visitor from under the door.
"Come in."

As the door was flung open with a dramatic air, it instantly became as clear as day who had come to call. With a look of exasperation and utter annoyance, Clover fell back onto her bed and grabbed a random book that happened to be sitting on her nightstand. Turned out it was her new journal; it's pages giving off the scent of freshly cut wood (oh how she loved that smell) and not a single word in it had she written. Every single leaf was blank. This didn't stop her, however, from pretending to be so engrossed in reading a story that wasn't there, acting as if she didn't notice an almost identical female waltz up to the foot of her bed and peer down at her over the book she was holding so close to her face.

"Morning Clo-Clo."

Over the duration of the next minute, she contemplated whether she should respond or not. A small grin slowly formed on her face as she wondered if Crimson had started gloating yet. Slowly lowering the book, she soon came eye to eye with the crowned lemur standing in front of her and was met with a smug smile. Disappointed, her sly expression quickly dissipated into a frown. Crimson smirked before moving to the side of the bed and sitting down, focusing her gaze on Clover; ignoring her sister's efforts to make her leave by pulling the book back in front of her face.
"What are you reading?"

"Why do you care?" Clover grumbled with disdain.

"Well...I care that my sister is enthusiastically reading a book with no words in it," she paused for a second, "unless, of course, it's written in some sort of invisible ink that only you can see..."

With a sigh, Clover shut the book and set it on her night table before sitting up next to her unwelcome guest.
"Can I help you with something, Crimson?" she questioned stiffly, "Shouldn't you be back at the mountain lemur kingdom with Sage?"

"Well, you see sis, both of us have been super busy and all with running an entire kingdom-which of course, you wouldn't understand-
"Thank you-for that."
"-so Sagey Wagey and I have decided to take a much needed vaca and settled on crashing here for a couple of days-I'm sure you don't mind."

"Take a vacat-what about your kingdom?!"
Crimson gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "Oh don't worry about them Clo-Clo, the kingdom's in good hands..."

Meanwhile, back at the Mountain Lemur Kingdom

"Jarsh-Jarsh! Jarsh-Jarsh! Jarrrrsh-Jarsh!" the fish happily babbled as he rolled around in the puddles of mud he had ordered his subjects to bring in-ignorantly smearing the ungodly mess all over the once sparkling clean palace floor. "Jarsh-Jarsh!"

Crimson snickered to herself, "more like in good fins."

"Right, so...that still brings into question, why aren't you with Sage?" Instead of bothering me. Even with the last part left unsaid, it was more then clear that was what she had meant.
Crimson grimaced slightly, but the look was almost immediately replaced by a mischievous smirk as her retort rolled from her lips.
"Why aren't you with Julien?"

In an instant, the fire from earlier returned to Clover's eyes and with a forceful shove, she pushed herself away from the bed and her sister.
"We are NOT together! Why is it SO HARD for you to understand that?!"

"Oh Clo-Clo," Crimson said coolly, "You never did learn to control that temper of yours, did you?" she questioned rhetorically, as she got up from the bed herself, "and if last night was any indication...anger isn't the only emotion you're not able to control."

Clover's eye twitched involuntarily, "and what is that supposed to mean, exactly?"
Crimson grinned and tilted her head playfully. "You're a detective, right Clo-Clo? I'm sure if you gave it five seconds of thought you could totally figure it out."
Ignoring the fuming look on her sister's face, she sashayed over to a pitcher of water that was sitting on the house's only table. Making herself at home, she promptly poured herself a glass into one of the nearby cups before raising it to her lips and taking a sip.
"I've never realized how bland and tasteless water is," she said, pulling the cup away from her mouth and wrinkling her nose at it, "there are so many exotic drinks back at my kingdom, you wouldn't believe how many different kinds of wine we have. It is absolutely amazing..." she sighed happily, drawling out the last word for emphatic flare. After setting the glass down on the table, she again focused her gaze on Clover.

"Well sister girl, it's been more then five seconds, have you come to a conclusion yet?"

"Yes, I have actually. I've come to the conclusion that I would like for you to leave," she snapped hotly, causing that infamous smirk to return.
"Hm-well, I was actually talking about Julien."

"What about King Ju-no! Ok!? I don't-I'm not in l-"

"Go ahead," Crimson cooed slowing Clover's outburst to a halt, "say that you don't love him, but I think we both know that'd be a lie, don't we?"

Clover opened her mouth to disagree, but slowly her jaw clamped shut again as her gaze drifted down to the floor. Crimson crossed her arms across her chest smugly. "That's what I thought." She let her arms drop to her sides and walked over the orange lemur snootily before crossing them again, "So...does he know yet?"

Green eyes shot a startled look to light blue ones. "What?! I- of course he doesn't!"

Crimson blinked at her twin innocently. "Aren't you going to tell him?"
"No! Why on Earth would I do that?"
"Why on Earth wouldn't you?"

Clover eyed her sister with scrutinized criticism etched all over her face, as if the answer to that question could not be more obvious. Even so, she seemed to have trouble groping for an answer. "Well-I-what if he doesn't feel the same way? I'm not going to risk his friendship just so we can have a more intimate relationship. It would be a completely illogical choice," she replied matter of factly, her arms crossed sternly across her chest, unintentionally mirroring her sister.

"That is a good reason, Clo-Clo," Crimson nodded understandingly, "but I get this crazy feeling that there's a different reason you're not telling him. Isn't there sis?"

Clover winced nervously at the accusation,"I-I don't have the slightest clue as to what you're talking about."

"You see Clo-Clo, I would've believed you if it weren't for the fact that your tail twitches when you lie."

Clover raised an eyebrow, "No it doesn't," she stated defiantly as she looked over her shoulder anyway, just in time to see the unmistakable movement. Crimson laughed softly, amused by the surprised look on her sister's face.
"Oh please, don't act so surprised Clo-Clo, you're my sister, and as such it's very imperative that I can tell when you're lying to me," she said, "just like I know you're lying to me right now."
"I didn't lie," Clover growled through gritted teeth.
"Well then, what would you call it? An elaborate form of the truth perhaps?"
"No-because it is the truth."

Crimson laughed haughtily, "I think not."
Clover furrowed her brow, growing ever tired of her sister's antics.

"You might as well just tell me Clo-Clo, it would save us both a lot of time," Crimson purred, blinking her long lashes innocently.

"Tell you what?! There is nothing to tell you!"

"Just so you know, your lies aren't getting anymore convincing," Crimson said, moving to the opposing side of the table and placing her hands on it as she leaned forward, "what's the real reason you won't tell schoompy bear that you love him?"

"Because!" came the defiant answer that she had been expecting. Clover clearly did not want to discuss the subject, but Crimson wasn't one for giving up on something she wanted, and if necessary, she could be just as stubborn as her sister. It was only a matter of time before one of them gave in, and it certainly wasn't going to be her. "Because why?" she probed.

"I don't want to talk about this," she growled as her sister (metaphorically speaking) backed her into a corner. If Crimson said one more thing she was going to explode.

"'Because' isn't an answer," she stated bluntly,"perhaps if I brought Ju-Ju in here you'd be more cooperative?" she mused before posing the question again, "why won't you just tell me-"
"BECAUSE I'M SCARED!"

The sudden outburst had caught Crimson off guard and after a few minutes of silence, she brushed off the shock and asked for an explanation.

"You-scared?" she scoffed sarcastically, "scared of what?"

"That he'll leave," Clover said softly, her voice fading into a whisper. Defeated she slumped into a seat positioned behind her; now we're getting somewhere, Crimson mused, taking a seat beside her sister and patiently waiting for her to continue. When she finally did, her voice no longer held any of the anger in it that had been visibly present since Crimson's arrival; all Crimson could see was Clover's need to discuss this with someone, to finally let out all the emotions she kept hidden behind her carefully constructed walls- to have someone listen. So that's exactly what Crimson did.

"Every time. Every single time I start to care about someone, they leave," she looked down at her hands and winced painfully as memories she wished she could forget came back to her and played over and over again in her mind, "I've lost Grandma Rose, Koto-Sage...and I'm just-so tired of being hurt like this!" she said angrily as she tried to swallow past the lump in her throat, but ended up choking on it instead. Crimson silently put a comforting arm around her sister's shoulders, and almost could've sworn that Clover leaned against her a little-but it was most likely she had been imagining things. Still...

"And I'm just afraid," she continued, "that if I let someone else in, then I'll lose them too."

Crimson contemplated this for a moment, "But Clover, you and Julien have been friends for years and he's still here isn't he?"
Clover gave her a quizzical look, "That's different though..."
"Not so much. And with you around to protect him, well...I highly doubt that anything is going to happen to him." She grinned, "If you think about it, the closer you are to him, the better you can protect him, right?" she snickered at the surprised look on Clover's face, "It's only logic Clo-Clo."

Clover lifted her eyes to meet her sister's gaze as a hopeful smile started to form. "I...I never thought about it that way..."

"Of course you didn't. Everyone knows I'm smarter then you and you've always been a big stick in the mud when it comes to emotions." Crimson retorted, playfully elbowing Clover in the side.

"I know...I'm trying to work on it though."

"And...is there any chance you'll be letting Julien help you?"

A hint of red coloring flushed through Clover's cheeks as she diverted her gaze to the floor. "Perhaps."

Crimson frowned at her.

"Alright!" Clover grimaced, still refusing to meet her sister's eyes, "I'll go...talk to him."

Crickets chirped cheerfully in the background as she continued to sit in her seat without so much a twitching a muscle. Crimson sighed.

"Clo-Clo."

An innocent "hm" served as Clover's response.

"You're still here."

The crowned lemur fidgeted awkwardly and picked at a stray piece of wood that was sticking out of the table, "I guess if I want to talk to King Julien...I should probably go find him, hm?"

"That would be a good place to start."

The bodyguard made no sign of acknowledgement and continued to play with the splinter, "I mean-he's probably busy and I wouldn't want to bother him-" Clover's nervous rambling came to a stop when Crimson reached out and grabbed the paw that was so furiously picking at the table.

"Listen sis-" she said authoritatively, turning Clover to face her, "you need to stop worrying, ok? I know the whole thing is absolutely nerve wracking, but trust me, freaking out over it isn't going to help anything and-I swear Clo-Clo if you pick at that wood anymore the whole table's going to fall apart on you."

Bashfully, she pulled her hand away from its destructive purpose with a "sorry" muttered under her breath.

"If you want, I can come as backup," Crimson offered helpfully, "It just so happens I know a thing or two about keeping Ju-Ju in his place..."

Clover snorted at that but was more than grateful for her sister's offer.

"No...this is something I have to do on my own," she smiled at her twin appreciatively, "but thank you for the offer."

With a sigh she slid off of the bar stool and nervously let out a shaky breath. "I can't believe I'm actually going to do this."

"Well that makes two of us," came Crimson's retort from somewhere behind her, "any longer and I would've had to tell him myself."

Clover immediately turned around to face her sister in shock, "You wouldn't!"

Crimson sported a mischievous smirk as she raised her cup back to her lips, "I guess we'll never know now will we?"

After a moment's silence, Clover's accusatory glare changed into a playful smirk.

"You're such a snitch."

Clover watched as a small smile tugged at her sister's lips and if it weren't for the fact that she had been purposely listening for it, she would've missed the "paranoid jerk" Crimson softly muttered in response.

Clover's grin only widened at the response as a long ago forgotten weight seemed to lift itself from her heart; the exchange between them was a long lost way with which they used to show each other affection. That is, until somewhere down the road they'd decided they were more different than alike, and neither had seemed to care when their relationship had slowly crumbled to pieces. It was only at this moment that she realized how much she had missed having her sister around; no matter how rough things had gotten between them, they would always be sisters, and it was comforting that even after all these years and all their quarrels, nothing would ever change that. Because Masikura was the only one blessed (or cursed, depending on how you looked at it), with the power to read minds, she had no way of knowing what was going through Crimson's head at the moment, but if the smile on her face was anything to go by, she could be fairly certain that she felt the same way.

"Aight, nuff of all this sappy stuff," Clover said, but was grinning all the same.

"Agreed. There's been enough emotions today to last you a lifetime-oh my- are you feeling ill? I mean, you talked about your feelings for quite a bit there, there's no way that can be good for your health," Crimson teased as she playfully fussed over her sister, "are you sure you don't need to lie down or anything?"

"Oh, shut up," Clover said, swatting her sister's hands away, "if anyone should need to lie down, it's you. I mean-wow- you had to walk all the way over here and you had to climb up an entire tree-you must be exhausted. And if that isn't bad enough, than you had to sit on an actual chair instead of a nice big comfy throne-and all you've had to drink today is water?" Clover feigned a gasp, "you must be so traumatized-my heart goes out to you. I wish we had a therapist or something; I mean there's Dr. S, but he'd probably give you more mental scars than he'd take away-" Clover let out a surprised shriek as the contents of Crimson's glass flew in her face, immediately followed by Crimson's cheeky laughter.

"Oh no you don't!" and with that the bodyguard hightailed it to the water pitcher, with her sister hot on her heels. As fate would have it she got to it first, but she was quickly halted in her actions as Crimson attempted to take it from her.
"Give in Clo-Clo!"

"Never!"

And somewhere in between them both trying to commandeer the container, as well as shove the other away, the pitcher slipped between their grasps and spilled all over them both.

Despite having her luxurious fur dripping and messy, Crimson couldn't help but laugh at their ridiculous situation, and was soon followed by Clover, as the two, water and all, practically fell on each other due to their increasing hysterics. After the laughter had died down and thanks to some towels both girls as well as the floor, were no longer soaking wet, the two collapsed onto Clover's bed as she contemplated the seriousness of what she was about to do.

"You know, Clo-Clo, it's not like he's going anywhere," Crimson offered, "you could always just do this another time."

Clover sighed as she got up from the bed, "no-I need to do this now, before I come to my senses and realize how ridiculously crazy this whole thing is." She looked in the mirror and righted her posture as she took in a deep breath. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this-am I crazy? I must be crazy."

"Well than you and Julien should get along just fine," her twin purred from somewhere behind her. Clover just shook her head in reply before taking in another steadying breath and turning towards the door. Upon reaching it she reached for the knob, and her hand hovered over it for a split second...before grabbing the handle and flinging the door open.

"Just for the record," she called back over her shoulder, "if this doesn't work out by any chance, it's entirely your fault."

Crimson smirked back, "I'll keep that in mind."

Clover still hesitated a moment, "Crimson?" and when her twin raised a curious eyebrow at her, she continued, "thanks-for everything."

"What are sisters for," she replied lightly, "Good luck with your little adventure, Clo-Clo," she said, leaning back into the bed's pillows, watching as her sister began the perilous trek towards the throne room.
It wasn't until her sister was out of sight, that she added with a mischievous grin;

"You're going to need it."

...

There was no doubt that Crimson and Clover's little discussion cleared up and set right a great many things, but what they didn't know, was that it had had an unexpected effect that neither of them to this point were even aware of. They had been so engrossed with their conversation, that neither had heard the slight groan of the front door being pushed open, or the creaking of the wood floor underneath an unknown pair of feet, nor did they notice, near the close of their discussion, a soft fluttering noise-quickly and quietly-depart from their company.

peeks out from behind door timidly
h-hey guys...it's been a while...*sighs*
I guess y'all are wondering why it took so freak'n long...I'm sad to admit it, but I had a bit of a falling out with ahkj a while back (like maybe in April or something), and I haven't really done any writing since then. I'm currently on fall break though, and about a week ago, as I was sitting by myself and minding my own business, my shoulder angel randomly told me to get my butt back to my computer and to finish this story. I don't really talk about it...but my shoulder angel can be pretty scary sometimes, especially if you don't do what he says (he also contains a large amount of Jover energy, so that isn't helping matters at all). hence why I finally crawled out of the fandom hell HollyHeartfilia threw me into and started to write again. I kinda missed it to be honest. I also apologize for making y'all think this chapter was going to drown you in Jover. I just...i don't know, I've grown obsessively fond of sibling relationships recently-(indirectly Holly's fault)-and I needed some resolve for the twins-you're welcome. The format for the dialogue in this story and the story in general is pretty-not professional. Blame it on my rusty writing skills if you please.
Despite everything, I hope you all still enjoyed! My shoulder angel is decently satisfied...for now.

You're Great: xD I didn't notice that the G in great wasn't capital-I have this weird obsession with capitalizing random letters for no apparent reason and the G was one of them. You don't have to spell it differently if you don't want to-it's totally up to you!
And school...it's pretty good? I mean, it's ten kinds of stressful not to mention this is my first year ever in a public school and my anxiety is not too happy about the sudden change in atmosphere-but it's definitely getting better. I'm sorry to hear it's not so great for you :/ I hope it's better now...and if not-well, at least there's a Christmas break coming up (yayyy). Good luck with all the stuff you'll have to do before then ;)

And thanks everyone else who reviewed! Clov2000 (ik we already talked, but thanks again! your review made me rly happy :D), waterbendtheocean (tysm! So glad you like it!) and Netflix is 1210 (AWW thank youuuu❤❤❤) AND I'd also like to know; is there anything specific that you guys would like to happen in the end? Leave your thoughts, questions, concerns, chocolate cake, and/or other in the box below🔽

On a side note, I'm ridiculously terrified you guys won't like this chapter so...throws pillow at door and screams before running out of room in hysterics

Peace out,

-Netflix Original

(p.s. there's a little nod to the hellish fandom my soul's now obsessed with hidden in this chapter. Out of curiosity...can anyone find it?)