Levi's POV-

Why were these people trying to get me out of this room? Wasn't taking me away from mom bad enough!?

Before I blacked out from sheer rage, I took a deep breath and reminded myself that nothing in the room belonged to me; henceforth I had no right to break it. No matter how much anger I felt…

More pounding came from the door and then abruptly stopped. Quietly creeping over to it, I did my best to listen to the conversation going on the other side. The person that I assumed had been trying to get me out said:

"P-papa! Sorry, I haven't gotten that blasted kid out yet. I've managed to get the door open a few times, but he keeps throwing knives at me when I do and then I have to close the door again…"

Rolling my eyes at how weak the guy sounded in the story, I patiently listened to Papa's reply:

"Don't worry, it takes time to heal from grief. Let the boy rest for the day, at least. Just make sure to leave some food out here, there's no need to make a sick man sicker."

My mind went blank for a couple of seconds. Did he really just say what I thought? The guy who had been trying to get me out of the room seemed to have the same opinion:

"E-excuse me!? Are you serious!?"

Confused himself, Papa replied:

"Yes, and?"

Freezing up now, the guy spoke a lot more quietly:

"Nothing Papa, I was just… surprised."

Only half listening since I was still surprised, the sound of footsteps echoed faintly while I sat there against the door dumbstruck. Half an hour must have passed and I still didn't understand what was going on. He really did that? Papa? Hastily thinking about the situation that I was put in, I cracked the door open to see if I truly was alone. Just outside the door was a tray of food, piping hot in fact and a glass of water that still had ice cubes. Wait, if Papa was the one who set the food outside the door, it should have been cold by now. So the question remained, who did? Before I could slam the door on the food out of suspicion and paranoia; the scent of it wafted by my nose in tantalization. My stomach grumbled loudly in protest of the denial. Great gods that smelled so good…

Caving into my stomach's demands, I gently brought the plate into the room and locked the door behind myself (despite the fact that people had keys to the room…). Imagine how angry I was when I turned around to see someone crawling into the window. Why the hell was he here!? To spy on me eating the first food I've had in days, or had it been a week…?

It should be noted that if my eyes weren't as sharp as they were, I wouldn't have noticed the curly haired bastard trying to crawl out the window like nothing ever happened. Two words: Like. Hell.

Nova's POV-

Why did Jolly's paperwork always have to be so shady? I can understand the need for stuff to sanitize the lab, more beakers, more test tubes, and even the occasional odd substance. What did bother me was the amount of complaints that ended up sent to me rather than him! Well; some of them weren't necessarily complaints, death threat was a better term, but that wasn't the point! How did all of this stuff get sent to me rather than him!?

Realizing something right then, I understood that my question was really a rhetorical one. Sighing, I thought over what would happen if Jolly got these notes. He would probably laugh at them, the death threats too. If these were to have any effect, they needed to go somewhere that would make something happen; henceforth, me. Why did the responsible person have to deal with this? Right then, I got another problem:

"*knock, knock*"

For a brief second, I debated whether or not I should pretend I wasn't there. But better judgment won over me as the lackluster response came from my mouth:

"Come in."

Coming into the office, the curly haired messenger said:

"Papa wants you in his office a.s.a.p., no questions."

Almost groaning but thankful for the break from the paperwork, I stood and said:

"Right."

The walk to the office wasn't necessarily a long one, but I relished in the lack of dealing with complaints about other people. While that wasn't my job, if you consider the fact it involved Jolly, it may very well end up in a big pain in the ass mess that requires security to handle. Grrr… If anyone was going to give me a premature aneurism, it was going to be him.

Mentally shaking myself, I focused solely on the nicely furnished hallways rather than impending problems. Upon reaching Papa's office, I "discovered" a new aneurism. The peace was nice while it lasted.

Opening the door, I initially saw Papa speaking to what looked like a new member. At a glance, he appeared to be about my height and had long white hair tied up neatly in a low pony-tail. I didn't dwell on that fact too much until I came through the entrance and said:

"I'm here as you requested, Papa."

Papa's gaze flickered to me and that of the white haired boy's followed. That was when I noticed rather than some random stranger, it was none other than Levi.

Hey, it wasn't my fault that I didn't notice! This was the first time I had seen him in real clothes and not covered in at least one layer of dirt. Anyone would be surprised…

The sound of scribbling was brief and quiet, but the glare that was narrowed at me was unmistakable. One small sentence was all that was needed:

"Why is he here?"

I noticed the underlined word with offense, but didn't respond. Instead, I asked Papa:

"What was the purpose of me coming here?"

Levi snorted, probably meaning: "I already said that."

Not even blinking, Papa told us flat out:

"For the time being, our Captain Levi will be working under you Nova."

If it was possible my eyes would have bulged out of my head and if I had lacked restraint, my jaw would have been hanging open like Levi's. A strained noise came from his mouth, and then fumbled around with his pen for a bit; likely out of the shock of the news. Unlike him though, I could speak:

"I'm sorry Papa, but the last thing I want is to do babysit."

He froze at the last line then turned a venomous glare at me. After that was a raised fist. A threat, obviously; for what exactly was another question though. Soon enough though, he lowered his hand to write:

"If you really do feel the need to assign me a babysitter-"

I noted he didn't even deny the situation:

"-please, please dump me on anyone other than him. He's already tried to kill me at least once, acted like a snotty-nosed brat, couldn't even leave me alone with my mother when-"

Levi hesitated at the end of that sentence, but went onto another page since the one he was currently using was almost out of space:

"-in my last moments with her, and had the guts to drag me to an unfamiliar room here rather than leave me at the hospital!"

Usually the captain remained very composed; but right then, you could almost see the anger dripping off of him, an undertone of grief present too. Noticing my mild surprise at his writing, he snapped. Well, as much as a person could with a pen and paper:

"Oh, don't look so surprised, at least half a dozen people can attest to me throwing knives out the door blindly whenever someone so much as knocked on it. And they stuck to the walls too."

Narrowing my eyes at him, I asked:

"Was that another threat?"

"It was a fact."

Mildly fearful of Levi's temper for a second, Papa interrupted the argument before a fist-fight (or worse, sword fight) broke out in his office:

"Shaddap you two! At the moment, the both of you are acting no better than children!"

The sound of Papa raising his voice made me freeze, and even Levi was stunned. Looking back to Papa for a few seconds and me, he sighed. I then saw Levi grind his teeth while writing:

"Sorry, I was the one who asked to work, yet I'm doing nothing but stirring up trouble. I also assume that despite the…"

It took him a few seconds to find the right word:

"… tension between me and Nova, you have me working under him with good reason. Thus I have no right to say anything. I deeply apologize for my actions, please punish me accordingly."

Handing the last note to Papa, he looked straight at the family head. It was a somewhat amazing sight to see someone new to look directly at Papa in such a situation. Gaze flickering between the note and the person, the family head rubbed a temple in thought. Eventually coming to a decision, he said:

"You were right about earlier. Moving you from your mother's dying place after such a traumatic experience was not the best decision. However, my children did not understand their lack of discretion, so do please forgive them. Consider what happened earlier your punishment. Dismissed."

A little surprised, Levi's face then went back to its usual stoic expression as he bowed and quickly exited. Papa and I were the only ones left in the room. After eyeballing the door for several seconds, he turned his eyes to me and said:

"Nova, do you take me for a fool?"

Surprised, it took me a little while before I could respond:

"Of course not!"

"Then do not treat me as such. Being paranoid with those around you is not your job."

About to interrupt, Papa cut off what I was about to say:

"While your mistrust of the captain is understandable, realize he has done everything short of throwing himself into a jail cell. By now he has earned a small amount of trust and deserves a chance to repay his debt. Don't make this any harder than it has to be."

Once again, I tried to say something, but he held up a hand and said:

"I don't want to hear it."

Despite keeping a stoic expression myself, I'm sure Papa saw the confusion swirling in my eyes. Sighing before letting me go, he said:

"How about this Nova: if you still have complaints about watching the captain after a month, I will have someone else keep an eye on him. Does that sound fair to you?"

A month seemed like a rather long time to watch someone. Thinking about the time span somewhat, I realized something else:

"Isn't that the amount of time left until the Arcana Duello?"

Papa answered:

"Yes, and?"

Right then I had a feeling, a feeling that Papa was aiming for something, but I didn't know what. Due to the position I was in though, this wasn't the time for questions. For now at least, I had to grin and bear it as the saying went. Deciding to tease me since I wasn't giving an answer, Papa said:

"You better leave now if you don't want to go searching the whole mansion for Levi."

With the reminder of my mission, I bowed out of the room. As soon as I closed the door though, I was practically running through the hallways. I did not need this Levi fellow making things harder for me than need be, and I didn't trust him not to destroy something given his record.

-Head Office, Intelligence Division-

Scribbling away and alone, Dante spent his work day like any other. Most recently, the intelligence division had been going over the repairs from the "attack" and was working on crunching numbers for the official reports. The numbers were not as high as one might have thought given the appearance of the damage earlier. They must have made it look worse than it really was, though he wasn't sure on where this left the captain with the costs. For one person alone to even try to work off that debt took a lot guts, but whether or not they could succeed was another question. And Dante didn't like the answer.

A swift knock from the door caused him to glace up to say:

"It's open."

Always is, wasn't much reason to locking an office door. The wooden door swung open to reveal Jolly, of all people. Surprised too, Dante raised an eyebrow at the shifty person before him and asked suspiciously:

"What are you here for?"

Walking in with his usual smug expression, Jolly carried a manila envelope with him. The envelope only raised more questions for Dante. Jolly placed the package on the desk and said:

"No need to be paranoid like a certain blue-haired kid, I found some information that you might want. It's not much, but still quite… interesting. Enjoy."

With that, Jolly left and was sure to close the door behind him. For the first few seconds, Dante eyeballed the envelope, being "paranoid" as Jolly put it. But for however much Jolly may ridicule him for being such, Dante exercised caution when dealing with him. The only thing scarier than Jolly himself was the devotion he had towards Papa. It was so much that the guy would sacrifice everything and anything if it meant their beloved head could survive. Though whether or not Papa would accept such lengths himself was another question entirely.

Since the previously mentioned envelope hadn't exploded or anything of the sort since Jolly had left, Dante picked up the folder with his tanned hands tentatively. Opening the folder up, he skimmed through the first few sentences. His brows then creased and picked up the reading pace. Soon enough his deep brown eyeballs looked like they were ready to pop out of his head. Among other questions, the biggest one he had on his mind was voiced:

"How did he get this…?"

Levi's POV-

Stupid head, was he trying to start a bloodbath? Well, a one-sided bloodbath at least. I didn't have any means of defending myself from serious weapons at the moment. Though I suppose the reasons for my assignment did make some sense; having the head of security watch the leader of a group of people that had "ravaged the island to shambles". Perhaps he just wanted to test my word? All things considered, my word was probably about as good as a crumpled piece of paper at the moment.

My mind stopped for a second in shock of how uncreative I was in my metaphors. That wasn't even a metaphor really, it was completely literal. What surprised me was that I wasn't as refined as I had originally thought, and then the irony hit me. Since when does a fishing villager think themselves refined at all? Probably all the reading I did…

Not paying attention to where I was going, I just let my legs carry me wherever. There was no rush for me to be put under house arrest and have to tolerate a tight-assed watchman. Lackadaisically, my mind wandered from topic to topic that came up and disappeared with the questions that crossed my mind. Sometimes I answered them, other times I just let them drop when said answer simply wasn't worth the effort.

With all the time I spent daydreaming (which wasn't particularly uncommon for me), it crossed my mind it had probably been an hour or two that I had been walking around… Yeah, I had no sense of time without being able to look at the sky. My internal clock was either busted beyond repair or it just didn't exist. Doesn't really matter which though, the effect is the same. Snapping me out of the daydream, I could hear labored breathing from around the next corner of the lavish hallways. Huh?

Continuing to walk around the corner, I saw my watcher completely out of breath and hunched over out of tiredness. Crumpled clothes, blue hair disheveled, the sounds of heavy panting coming from his mouth, face flushed and sweaty. 'Why would he be so sweaty?' After asking myself that question, that answer immediately came. The uniform was a black suit for Pete's sake, if you do any type of physical activity in that suit for long enough there was no question of you turning into a sweat bag.

The next set of questions hit me then:

'Should I leave before he notices? Or maybe stick around so he knows I haven't gotten into trouble? But then I'd have to worry about shaking him off my tail. Then again, he's pretty tired right now… *sigh* If I were to disappear today, that would raise some bad rumors like I ran off. And then when I get caught later I wouldn't have an excuse like I couldn't find my babysitter. Of course I could lie, but… these people are strange.'

Not that I was one to talk on that matter, but on the off chance that they knew I was lying, well… I had a very strong feeling there would be hell to pay. Besides the trouble of the situation I mean. Even though the "fact" I'm a boy, gender wise, is a lie, there was an argument I could make on that. If all captains were male and I was a captain (a darn good one), then I was a male. In a sense, but the argument still held! Albeit loosely… … … What was I thinking about again?

The noise Nova made when he finally noticed me snapped me out of my thoughts with a yell:

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?"

All of the questions that went through my mind on what to do went down the drain. Either I needed to think less or faster. And I didn't plan on turning incompetent either. What Nova said next really caught my attention:

"It's almost dinner, did you even eat lunch!? Because I certainly didn't since I've been looking all over for you!"

More scolding came after that, but I ignored it. I wrote the important question:

"Has it really been that long?"

While he was agape at my absentminded appearance, I thought a bit more about what else I could write. Explaining:

"Just realize I've never had a good sense of time, and it's been completely shot after being cooped up on that ship for who-knows-how-long. I guess what you're saying is true, I'm a bit hungry at the moment."

Now Nova was ignoring me so he could pull himself back together. While he was doing that, only now did I realize the situation was strange. If I had been wandering around this mansion for as long he said, I should have run into a few more people at least; another member, a maid, I hadn't even seen a mouse. This was somewhat freaky. Nodding at myself for my decision to not run away if Nova noticed me, I decided that to stick around a prude was better than getting myself into more trouble than needed. Immediately suspicious of my action, blue eyes were narrowed at me and Nova asked:

"What are you thinking?"

'Would it be troublesome to answer?' I thought. Meh, the babysitter still needed to rest and I wasn't going to run away:

"That it was odd you're the first person I've seen since leaving the head's office."

This answer seemed to make Nova a little breathless, not that he wasn't already if what was previously said true. He muttered something that I managed to catch with my sharp hearing:

"Just what is your power…?"

'Power? The hell is he talking about?' Curious, I wrote a little faster than usual. Holding up the note in front of Nova's face since he wasn't looking at me:

"What do you mean by power?"

He went doe-eyed at my question, but responded quickly:

"Nothing. I was just… talking to myself."

… too quickly to say something like that. My eyes narrowed for a few seconds, but I decided soon enough that I wanted as little part of this family's crazy that could be avoided. *sigh* I had plenty problems to deal with myself, without turning into an all-out psychopath. Personally, I'd say crazy but I may already be there. It's hard to tell if you've turned crazy yourself.

Stomach growling, I glanced down realizing that I must have been hungrier originally predicted. Well, when you're used to starving all the time and ate something recently… New question in mind, I wrote and gave the note to Nova:

"Do you plan on actually eating dinner?"

Outright glaring at me with that question, he spoke through gritted teeth:

"Yes."

"Then why are you still here?"

This made his right eyebrow twitch out of annoyance and yell:

"Of course I would, if I wasn't tired from searching the entire mansion for you!"

I made note of the display of energy there:

"You have a lot of energy left for a tired person."

He seemed ready to get violent right there, but instead collapsed to the floor again with a pissed expression. 'So he really is tired.' In which case… I wrote:

"Give me directions to the dining room."

A quizzical expression came to his face, followed by:

"Are you plotting something?"

Here is where my eyebrow twitched out of annoyance and I got a little snarky with my writing:

"Yes, I'm plotting to take over a seat at the dining table and devour the helpless food atop a plate."

Once again glaring at me after I wrote that, he said:

"I never realized it was possible to make food sound helpless."

Ignoring the irrelevant comment, I slipped the pad of paper I wrote on into my pocket. There wasn't anything else I was interested in Nova saying, so I stretched my arms in preparation of the task ahead of me. Hopefully not too much squirming would be involved and my job would be easier, to put the plan in action then.

No longer eyeballing me suspiciously, I hefted the unsuspecting Nova into my arms and began my run to dinner. While there wasn't too much squirming, the noise levels were still high:

"Oi, oi, oi! What the heck do you think you're doing!?"

Since my arms were currently occupied, there was no point in even trying to answer. Instead, I kept plowing ahead while he sputtered:

"D-don't you see th-that wall! And you're running right at it you-!"

More complaints and/or insults were thrown at me, but I kept waiting for those magical directions to do a hat-trick and appear. We would be crashing into to wall soon if he didn't say anything useful. Amidst the drabble coming out of his mouth, I heard the snipet of information I needed:

"-turn left, turn left, TURN LEFT BEFORE WE TURN INTO A SMEAR!"

Finally! Veering in the aforementioned direction, I knocked over a mahogany table at the end of the hall by accident. Whoops. Keeping my pace, the little brat was as anxious as ever but kept spouting out the directions like planned. Heh, for head of security he really was a scrawny thing, and whiny, and every bit a child as he must have been for his age. As I kept my pace, Nova kept blurting out which direction I was to run in and kept yanking on the front of my suit.

Now most girls would worry about that due to the fact that they had busts but when you don't have anything to begin with, the problem becomes mute. Heh, the same could probably go for my voice. Thanks to the fear on his mind, directions kept appearing out of his mouth right and left.

My job a lot easier now, I arrived at the door of the dining room. The smell of freshly cooked food nearly made me drool. Nova now being the last thing on my mind, I dropped him without a second thought and barreled in through the doors. Completely ignoring the stunned looks the people already in there gave me, I landed myself in an empty seat and made mad grabbing for all the food within my reach. In less than 15 seconds, my plate was loaded indiscriminately with food and the first thing I went for was the meat. Sinking my sharp teeth I realized two things. First is that what I was eating wasn't fish. Second, I didn't give a damn because it tasted absolutely delicious. While some may argue that I didn't really taste the food, could anyone really blame me when I had barely gotten enough food to eat over the past couple of days?

The plate was soon cleaned off of the bread, and vegetables, and meat I had gotten the first time and I was going in for a second round. When I went for the last plate of meat though, it seemed that another fork embedded itself in the meat. Actually looking up this time, I saw a familiar pair of golden eyes behind glasses. This time they were accompanied by a surprised face that I recognized to be Pace from earlier. Soon enough the friendly smile came back while I kept my expression impassive. Since I couldn't speak, he did:

"Long time no-see Levi. Now if you wouldn't mind removing your fork…"

Screw that. Letting the doofus trail off I used my other hand to quickly chop his wrist, eliciting a cry of surprise as well as release of his fork:

"Ow!"

There were several audible gasps at my action, but I paid no attention to them. I just continued to load up my plate again and eat to my heart's content. Who cares if I was being polite? I deserved at least this much.

Hello again everyone, and sorry for the long and unannounced hiatus. Thing is, I have had literally no time or energy. I have been doing community service hours and I am exhausted. On top of damned, demanding advanced courses with high grades. And I've missed writing so much T.T! It actually helps me relax and is fun, but requires much more than the very few hours of time I have left at the end of the day. If any of you even think of saying I could stay up all night writing, then try lugging around half of your body weight at five in the morning on a regular basis. It's not fun |||-.-

I feel like I'm on a relatively even keel now, so I'll try to update more often... I hope.

Be sure to read, review and most importantly enjoy! :)