Thank you to anyone who has the patience to read this latest chapter

Thank you to anyone who has the patience to read this latest chapter

Acknowledgements

Mariko the Forgetful Idiot: Thank you!
SapphireMateria: Thank you!
VexenIV: Thank you!
Demyx.Luvr.172: Thank you! Don't worry; they'll make some progress in the next chpter.
Sora17's sister: That's the curse of being Zexion. Thank you!
xXxIRunWithScissorsxXx: I can only hope this one was also worth the wait. Thank you!
Kasaru-chan: I can only hope you have as much patience with me now as you did before. Thank you!

Favors

xXxIRunWithScissorsxXx
I'llEatYourPickle
Kasaru-chan
SapphireMateria
Setsuna.XIII
loverofAkuRoku

The castle's kitchens were a buzz. The servants swarmed about like ants trying to create delectable dishes to overwhelm the palates of even the most foreign of guests. On one table rested an entire platter devoted to bread, on another, fruit tarts. Everyone's nerves seemed to be running high, as evidenced when Axel tried to steal a pastry for breakfast. The red head had never had to run so fast in all his life. The cooks acted liked they were guarding gold rather then food. The reason for all the preparation was that this was the final day of Demyx's birthday celebrations. As the crown prince had done little for his guests since his birthday, many wanted to see him one last time before departing to their respective realms.

Vexen awoke at dawn; the sunlight creeping over the horizon had not yet touched his room. The eldest blond stretched before climbing out of his king-sized bed. His bed was a mixture of different colors: vibrant reds, fiery oranges, brilliant yellows, soothing blues, rich greens and gorgeous purples. Despite his appearance, he loved colors more then his brothers did. Most would have thought Vexen's room to be rather dull or at least covered with various scientific equipment. However, all of Vexen's chemicals and research rested in his lab. He never brought any of it to his room.

As befitting a royal advisor, Vexen dressed smartly in a long-sleeved white shirt complimented with black pants. A closer inspection showed that tiny silk snowflakes had been sewn on to the fabric of the shirt. Once dressed, Vexen headed to Demyx's room to wake him.

He found his brother half on his bed and half off as he snored away, his head hanging off the edge. Vexen smiled affectionately at him, before dumping the contents of a nearby pitcher on to Demyx's head. While such behavior was unbecoming of a man Vexen's age, there was no one to reprimand him for his actions save Demyx, who fell to the floor after being rudely awakened by the water.

" Vexen, do you have to do that?" Demyx asked wiping his face off with a dry sleeve.

"I don't have to do it." Vexen said with a smirk. Demyx sighed as he sat up.

"Well then, what should I wear today, oh wonderful advisor?" He asked. Vexen walked into Demyx's closet and soon returned with a baby blue shirt and navy blue pants.

"How about this?" Vexen asked. Demyx made a face.

"Don't you think that's a little too much blue?"

"Well then, what do you suggest?"

"I like the shirt but how about black pants like what you have?" Demyx asked nodding at Vexen's pants.

"But we'll match."

"Vexen, we're brothers, whether you like it or not." Demyx said with a smile. Vexen nodded. "Besides, we won't have the same pants on. My pants will look better." Demyx declared and with that he jumped up and darted into the closet. He emerged sometime later, wearing the baby blue shirt along with tight black pants that hugged his legs. Vexen frowned.

"What's wrong? Don't I look sexy?" Demyx asked as he turned to examine himself in the mirror on his closet door.

"I don't think the crown prince should be going for 'sexy'."

"Well, I want to look sexy. So I will." Demyx said crossing his arms across his chest with a 'humph'. Vexen merely rolled his eyes at his brother's childish behavior.

"Come on, let's go wake Roxas up." Vexen said and they headed out the door.

Only, Roxas wasn't in his room. A quick inspection of his closet showed that his civilian clothes were gone as well as his riding boots.

" That's odd. Roxas doesn't have a lesson today." Vexen said. Demyx sat on the youngest blond's bed as he gazed around the room.

"Maybe something came up?" He suggested with a shrug.

That something had been Axel, who had woken Roxas up well before dawn. Granted, it had been hard to even get to Roxas' room and then from there out the castle but Axel had managed. Now the two of them were racing across a vast plain of emerald green grass. Roxas, seated on Pegasus, felt like he was flying. Axel raced beside him, riding a jet black horse with white stockings. He hadn't said where he gotten the horse from, only that his rider wouldn't need him for a while. Roxas had decided not to ruin his fun. He was enjoying the feeling of the wind on his face as he and Pegasus ran. Axel halted his horse at the top of a large hill. Roxas and Pegasus came to a halt beside him.

"Wow" Roxas breathed. He had never been this far away from the castle before and certainly not this early in the day. Now as the sun began its ascent into the sky, it washed light over everything, casting the castle in a yellowish-orange glow.

"Isn't it amazing?" Axel asked, beside him. Roxas could only nod his head. The sight was breathtaking. He was so engrossed in the sunrise that he failed to see Axel looking at him. While the sunrise had taken Roxas' breath away, the sight of Roxas, bathed in the sunlight had been breathtaking for Axel. He didn't even notice he had started staring until Roxas turned to look at him.

" Axel, is something wrong?" Roxas asked. He wasn't used to these looks Axel gave him. He had dated both girls and guys in the past but none had looked at him the way Axel was looking at him. Truth be told, he rather liked it. Axel snapped out of his trance and turned his jade gaze back toward the sun rise.

"We should return to the palace before your brothers start to worry, Roxas." Axel said. Roxas nodded. The sunlight was doing an excellent job of highlighting Axel's face, especially his hair and eyes. He was rather disappointed when Axel turned his horse around and headed down the hill. Roxas followed after him. Pegasus whinnied at him. He said, absentmindedly, patted Pegasus on his neck.

"I know Pegasus but we can't exactly kiss on horseback." Pegasus snorted in response and shook his head, causing Roxas to laugh.

"That's easy for you to say, you're a horse." Pegasus whinnied then sped up into a trot to keep up with Axel and his horse.

"What were you two doing back there?" Axel asked. Roxas blushed.

"Just you know, talking." Axel raised an eyebrow at this answer.

"You were just talking, to your horse?" He asked skeptically. Roxas nodded.

"Yeah, haven't you ever talked to a horse? They're very smart."

"I doubt that." Axel said with a snort. His horse snorted and stopped abruptly. Axel looked down at him. "What's wrong with you?" He asked, nudging the horse in his sides. The horse refused to move and shook its head stubbornly.

"I think you insulted him. Khan doesn't really like that." Roxas explained.

"Wait, you know him?"

"Yeah, Mulan rides him all the time. Besides, Xaldin would never let one of his mares out of the stables, not while they're in heat, anyway."

"What does being in heat have to do with anything?" Axel asked. Clearly he didn't understand the finer points of horse breeding. Roxas sighed. This was going to be like talking to Demyx or Vexen. They would only listen for a while before getting bored and then they would change the subject to something more interesting to them.

"When a mare's in heat, it means she's ready to breed." He paused. "You do know what breeding is right?" He asked, acting a little like Vexen. Axel nodded. "Well, when a mare's ready to breed, all the stallions go crazy competing with each other to be the one to breed with her. Kind of like a bunch of guys will start fighting when they see a hot girl."

"Or guy." Axel added. Khan seemed to have forgiven Axel for his previous statement, and started walking beside Pegasus, carefully not to crush their riders' legs. Roxas blushed and nodded.

"Yeah." He said and turned his head to avoid Axel's gaze. And now he'll switch to something else he can talk about. He thought sadly to himself.

"So tell me what else you know about horses." Axel requested. Roxas turned to face him with a look of surprise on his face. "What's wrong?" Axel asked, looking concerned. "Did I say something wrong?" Roxas just shook his head and leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek, blushing bright red as he did so.

"No, nothings wrong." Roxas said happily. Axel's cheeks colored slightly as Roxas' kiss took him by surprise. "So what else do you want to know about horses?"

After they had returned from their ride, put the horses back in their stables, gave them water and a wash, they headed back toward the palace. Axel left Roxas as soon as they entered. The cooks had all gathered in the banquet hall where Demyx's guests were enjoying their breakfast. Roxas walked into the midst of rich silks, satins and velvets, ignoring the stares. He plopped down between Vexen and Demyx, who couldn't resist tugging at the coarse linen shirt Roxas wore, so much different from Vexen's silk and Demyx's cotton.

Roxas looked around at the guests. Most looked tired since they weren't used to being up so early. But Demyx had wanted his guests out of his palace as soon as possible. Of course he didn't actually tell them that. Roxas scowled as Demyx tugged on his shirt again.

"Will you stop that?" He demanded with a scowl.

"Why are you wearing that?" Demyx asked, ignoring his demand.

"Because I just came back from riding." Roxas answered.

"Where did you go? You don't have lessons today." Vexen pointed out.

"I went riding with Axel." Roxas said lowering his voice so only his brothers heard. Demyx smiled.

"Our little Roxy went on a date." He squealed. Roxas hushed him as he looked around nervously. Luckily, no one nearby heard them. Vexen smiled.

"So where did you go?" He asked.

"Just to that hill near the woods." Roxas said. Almost immediately, the smiles vanished off Vexen and Demyx's faces.

"The hill...near the woods?" Demyx asked.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Roxas asked, eying Demyx nervously.

"Those woods are the border of our kingdom." Vexen explained.

"I already know that." Roxas said turning to face him. "So what's the big deal?"

"The big deal, your majesty, is that our enemies could kidnap you if you traveled too close to those woods." Sephiroth said coming up behind him. Roxas nearly jumped out of his chair and accidentally spilled his glass of milk. Vexen stood up abruptly to avoid getting milk on his clothes.

"Ah, Sephiroth, glad you came." Demyx said to the captain. "Do you know Roxas went to the hill by the woods?" Sephiroth shook his head, looking slightly embarrassed.

"No, my prince, I can not say I did."

"Then you must also have not known that there was no one accompanying him."

"Hey, Axel was with me." Roxas exclaimed. Demyx nodded.

"That is true. Axel was with him. But one has to wonder why none of the guards knew nor if they did know, inform us of this." He said eying Sephiroth. The man seemed even more nervous then he was before. Roxas had never seen him like that before. Then again, he had never seen Demyx so protective of him.

"I understand, my liege, it will not happen again. Now, if you'll excuse me, I will make sure of it." With that Sephiroth bowed and left. Demyx waited until he lost sight of the long haired man, before bursting into a fit of giggles. Vexen shook his head, although even he was smiling.

"That was mean, Demyx." He said. A servant came up behind him and cleaned up the spilled milk. His chair was pushed back toward him and he sat down only to stand back up with a squawk of surprise, when he realized he had sat on someone's hand. An apology died on his lips as he turned to the servant, only to realize it was Marluxia. The pink head smirked.

"You should be more careful when you sit down, my prince." He purred causing a shiver to run down Vexen's spine. Marluxia turned on his heel and left, laughing softly as Vexen's cheeks reddened. The eldest prince checked his seat for any more hands before sitting down again. Demyx was laughing twice as hard now.

"Remind me to thank Marluxia for that wonderful display." He said to Roxas, who chuckled at Vexen's misery. Vexen shot a frosty glare at his brothers, which unfortunately had little effect when coupled with his beet red face. Well actually it did have an effect, which was to make Demyx and Roxas laugh even harder, if that was even possible in Demyx's case.

"I don't have to stand for this." Vexen growled.

"You're not. You're sitting for this." Demyx told him. Vexen scowled and stood up.

"Oh, come on, Vex, where are you going?" Roxas asked.

"To my lab so I won't have to be bothered by you." Vexen said. Demyx snorted.

"That's what you think. As crown prince I'm allowed to go anywhere." He said proudly. Vexen smirked back at him.

"Yes, but as crown prince, you also have to see your many guests off, one.. at.. a.. time." He reminded Demyx. Demyx frowned at this, but brightened a moment later.

"Then I shall send dear Roxas in place to tease you when I can not."

"Isn't Axel waiting for you, Roxas?" Vexen asked, hopefully. Roxas shook his head with a smirk of his own.

"Nope. We spent the morning together. It wouldn't do to spend too much time together. Don't you think, Demyx?"

"Oh, I agree. Therefore, have fun you two." Demyx said, waving good bye. Vexen left the table in a huff, Roxas somehow managing to keep up even though he was still laughing.

Marluxia looked up from his book when he heard two sets of footsteps come down the stairs. He was surprised to see Roxas with Vexen but thought nothing of it.

"I've never seen you blush before." He said his eyes on Vexen. Vexen shot him a glare, even as his cheeks reddened again.

"You've also never touched my ass before." Vexen responded. Roxas looked at the two of them and sighed.

"Doesn't anyone say hi anymore?" He asked.

"I know Axel does, why don't you go see him?" Vexen suggested. Roxas shook his head.

"Nope, that's not going to work."

"Damn." Vexen muttered under his breath. Marluxia raised an eyebrow.

"Is there a reason why your brother is here?" He asked. Vexen shot Roxas a look begging him not to mention what had happened earlier that morning. Not quite understanding why, Roxas shrugged. Thinking quickly he said,

"I wanted to know what was...so bad about the woods."

"The woods?" Marluxia asked.

"Yeah, the woods. Demyx and Vexen got really upset when they heard I went near there with Axel and I want to know why." Roxas explained. Marluxia turned to Vexen and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Well, Vexen, tell him about the woods. I'm curious about it myself." He said. Vexen looked at Roxas and Marluxia before nodding. "Ok, I'll tell you...

"You incompetent oafs, they can't be dead! My parents were the healthiest people in the kingdom!" Thirteen year old Vexen yelled as hot tears jumped into his eyes. He pushed past the bumbling men as they cowered in the doorway of his room. He found his two brothers in their parents' room. Demyx was crying his eyes out while he tugged on his mother's hand, trying to wake her.

"Mommy, wake up." He said softly. "Vexen? Why won't Mommy wake up?" Roxas just stood by Demyx and stared at his parents. His seven year old mind seemed capable of understanding what ten year old Demyx could not. Vexen gazed sadly at his parents. Both of their parents had skin that was lightly tanned, from all of the time spent outside. Their mother had golden hair that fanned about her head like a halo. Their father had dirty blond hair which he kept short and encouraged his sons to do the same. Although their eyes were closed, Vexen knew his mother had eyes the light green color of peridots while his father's eyes matched the dark blue of the ocean. Vexen gently place a hand on each of Demyx and Roxas' shoulders. Roxas looked up at him, his aqua blue eyes still wet with tears.

"Why?" He whispered. "Why did they have to die?"

"I don't know." Vexen murmured.

Just then, a tall thin woman with olive green skin and heavy eye make-up burst into the room. She eyed the three children with disdain.

" That's enough grieving for you, brats!" She said. "Pack your bags. First thing tomorrow, you three will miles away from here and each other. I'm queen now!" she declared, happily. A short pink faced man stepped forward. Even the man's clothes were pink from the magenta suit he wore, the pink shoes on his feet and the floppy eared pink hat on his head.

" Ac-ac-ac-actually, Malefi-fi-fi-ficeient, it's t-t-t-t-time to r-r-r-r-r-r-r-read the w-w-will." The man stuttered. Maleficent frowned at him but nodded for him to go ahead. The man pulled out folded piece of paper tied with a green ribbon. Green happened to have been the queen's favorite color. Roxas, Demyx and Vexen gave the man their complete attention. All hoped there would be something in that letter that would prevent Maleficent from shipping them off somewhere. The man unfolded the paper and read aloud.

" Ya-da, ya-da." He read in a clear voice, because that's what the will actually said. " To our beloved sons, Vexen, Demyx and Roxas, we leave the entire kingdom. We appoint, as our heir, Demyx, to rule the kingdom." Demyx and Vexen's mouths dropped open in amazement.

"But that's impossible." Vexen yelled. "I'm the oldest; I should be the next in line. What else does it say, Piglet?" He demanded.

Piglet read the rest of the will, trembling as he did so.

"But as Demyx is too young to rule alone, Vexen will serve as his advisor. Our only request is that Demyx houses, feeds and treats his brothers like princes." Maleficent uttered a small cough. Piglet paused to look at her. "Yes, Madam?"

"Um, what about me?" She asked trying to sound sweet, which was impossible for her but you gotta give her points for trying.

"To Maleficent, we leave the Nix land which you are to occupy as soon as humanly possible." Piglet read. Despite the sad occasion, the brothers couldn't help grinning. Maleficent looked downright furious.

"But that's swampland." She screeched.

"I'm sorry, Madam, but that's what it says." Piglet told her.

"I can't believe this. 13 years I've served those ungrateful wretches and this is how they thank me! You haven't heard the last of me, brats." She yelled as she stormed out the room.

"Wow," was all Marluxia could say after Vexen had finished. "I never knew your parents had such a wonderful sense of humor." He said as a grin spread across his face. Roxas shot him a quizzical glance.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I haven't ever heard a will read out but I'm pretty sure most people don't have to specify what they mean when they say take care of your siblings." He said. Vexen smiled.

"Well, Demyx wasn't always the angel he is now."

"He was an angel?" Roxas asked.

"Demyx used to play some pretty wild pranks on Roxas and me." Vexen laughed. "I remember one time he dyed Roxas' hair blue, not only that but he also dyed Roxas' horse blue as well." Marluxia laughed.

"That must have been hilarious."

"It was. Now what was that name Demyx and Sora called you after that?" Vexen asked Roxas, who started to blush.

"Roxasberry." He muttered.

" Roxasberry!" Vexen exclaimed as at the same time, Marluxia burst out laughing.

" Roxasberry isn't that funny of a name." Roxas grumbled.

"Yes...it...is." Marluxia gasped in between giggles. He was laughing so hard that he fell out the chair.

Vexen smiled, which then turned into a chuckle and finally a laugh. Roxas stared at his brother in awe.

"Vexen, you laughed." Roxas said. Vexen nodded.

"Yeah, so?"

"You never laugh. Sure you chuckle, but you never laugh." Roxas grabbed one of Marluxia's hands, startling the pink head from his fit. "Thank you so much. You've done the impossible." He said as he vigorously shook Marluxia's hand. Vexen looked on in confusion. "Now you have completely eased your acceptance into our family."

" What?" Marluxia asked as Vexen's eyes widened in horror.

"Oh, look at the time; I'd better go find Axel now. I think I've been away from him long enough." With that Roxas darted up the stairs before either of his elders could say a word. Roxas chanced a look back at his brother, to see Vexen's face was beet red from the tips of his ears to his neck. Now the eldest blond was trying to hide his face from Marluxia until the blush faded. Roxas left the laboratory wearing a mischievous smirk and feeling proud of himself. After all, Demyx had said for Roxas to tease Vexen in his absence.

Axel cursed under his breath. He and Zexion as well as the other servants had been called on to help load up the royal luggage of the various kings and queens. He was currently struggling with a particularly heavy trunk. It's owner stood by watching him carefully.

"Jeez, Lady, what have you got in here? Rocks?" Axel wheezed as he finally hoisted the trunk onto a cart Zexion had found.

"Precisely." The woman responded cheerfully.

"What the hell?" Axel exclaimed. "Who carries rocks around?"

"Well, I do." The woman answered, looking slightly perplexed from Axel's question. Zexion stepped between them.

"Come on Axel, we have to get this trunk into the carriage." He said nudging Axel away. At this, the women let out a twittering laugh.

"Oh, silly, I don't have a carriage. My ride is a boat." she said. Zexion stared at her as the meaning of her statement sunk in. The closest harbor was a good couple miles away.

"Tell me you have a ride to the harbor." Zexion murmured. The women shook her head.

"Nope." Zexion sighed and stepped away from the cart.

"Well then, have a nice trip. Come on, Axel." Zexion started to pull Axel away.

"Wait!" The women called looking distressed. "You're not going to help me?"

"Nope." Zexion called over his shoulder. Suddenly a cane came down across the smaller man's head, causing him to see stars He whirled around with an angry hiss. His eyes found the possessor of the hated cane, a rather plump lavender-skinned woman with white hair. She had shell earrings and wore a long black dress.

"What seems to be the problem here, my dear?" The new woman said. Just the way she spoke sent shivers down Zexion's spine. And not the pleasant kind, either. Axel was looking around to find some reason to not be there. As much as he loved watching Zexion go ballistic he knew it wouldn't be good to draw attention to them, especially not after yesterday. He spotted Demyx saying good bye at the front entrance. The red head slipped away and quickly made his way over to the crown prince.

Demyx had just shaken (what he could only guess to be) the 50th hand and he still had a lot more to go. Just then Axel appeared in front of him. The red head gave him a quick bow.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, prince Demyx but you love is in trouble." He said, ignoring the couple he butted in front of.

Demyx's turquoise eyes filled with concern. "Zexion? What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. Yet. But I'm worried he may lose his temper if left alone for too long." Axel said, pointing to the man in question who was currently giving the two women in front of him the finger, much the skinnier women's dismay. Demyx's eyes widened.

"Oh, no." He murmured and hurried over. When he got there he could hear the larger of the women complaining about the obedience of the servants. Zexion stood by, fuming. Not wanting another episode like the other day, he stepped in.

"Ladies," He said. The two women stopped talking and turned to look at him. The brunette gasped and curtsied. Demyx smiled at her. "I don't mean to interrupt but could you kindly excuse my servant?" He asked nodding to Zexion. Both of the women glared at Zexion.

"Well, he hasn't finished helping me with my trunk." The brunette exclaimed.

"Lady Jane, if you want to take your trunk to the harbor, you're going to have to do it yourself. My servants are only obligated to help you get your bags to the carriages. Now if you'd like a carriage I could have one of other my servants call one up for you." Lady Jane frowned, but her frown could stay when up against Demyx's brilliant smile.

"Very well, Prince Demyx. If you would please call a carriage I would be very grateful." She said with a flirtatious flutter of her eyelashes. Zexion narrowed his eyes at her but Demyx just kept smiling that amazing smile of his.

"Of course." He said then turned to the white-haired woman. "And Lady Ursula, I would appreciate if you didn't harm my servants. They are not like yours and don't appreciate being hit, especially with canes." He shot a glance at Zexion. The smaller man seemed to have a calmed down a little. Demyx turned back to Lady Ursula who was watching him with one eyebrow slightly raised. She shook her head.

"I shall not question your particular love interests, Prince Demyx. How else can you explain why he is allowed to disrespect guests as much as he has?" she said, holding up one hand with slightly long, bright red finger nails, as if she were saying an oath. "But I would recommend someone with better control of their temper." She turned and walked off, leaving Demyx blushing in her wake. Axel smirked as he sidled up beside the crown prince.

"It might be wise to follow her advice, Prince Demyx. Zexy, here doesn't look like he'll be much fun." Axel cast a glance at the man in question. "Why, just think how he'll be in bed!"

If Demyx had been blushing before, his face was bright red.

"I think you two can handle things on your own." He stammered and without waiting for a reply hurried off. Axel chuckled as he watched Demyx's hasty exit. That was until Zexion elbowed him in the ribs.

"Idiot." He muttered. Axel bent over clutching his stomach.

"Why the hell do you care?" He wheezed.

"Whether I care or not is none of your business. Your duty, like mine and Marluxia's is to research, not harass and in Roxas' case, flirt." Zexion remarked stiffly.

"Well, you sure calmed down fast." Axel stood up, still rubbing his stomach gingerly. "Wow, you have some bony elbows. You know, it would do you some good to eat more."

"And it would do you some good to shut the hell up." Zexion hissed in return. Axel merely rolled his eyes. He wasn't in the mood to get into another argument.

Marluxia couldn't help raising an eyebrow at Roxas' closing remark. This was made all the more intriguing when Vexen blushed. He had never seen the blond blush before, at least not so easily.

"What was that about?" He asked. Vexen stiffened but didn't reply. Instead he busied himself with the various chemicals around him. He pulled down a bottle with oil in it and then extracted a small piece of metal with a pair of clamps. Setting the metal down on the surface of his lab table, he then proceeded to smash it with a hammer. Marluxia watched him as he did this, noticing how worn the hammer looked from frequent use.

"Aren't you going to dry that off?" He asked after noticing the hammer came away wet. Vexen shook his head but didn't answer. Marluxia frowned. He didn't appreciate being ignored. If he wanted to be ignored, he could hang out with Zexion. When he mentioned this to Vexen, the blond merely laughed.

"Good, he's probably helping Demyx with our guests. I'm sure they could use some help." Marluxia's sapphire blue eyes narrowed as he walked up behind him.

"You know if you keep smashing that, it's going to explode." He said indicting the moist powder in front of Vexen. The blond smiled.

"So you know what it is? Then tell me what is it?"

"Obviously it's an alkali earth metal." Vexen raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Oh and how did you know?"

"You kept it in that oil."

"I'll give you that. Actually its kerosene. Okay, now that you know what kind of element it is. What is it?" Marluxia frowned and brought a hand to his chin in deep thought.

"Well, where did you get it from?"

"Caustic Potash." Vexen answered.

"Then...it's Potassium!" Marluxia exclaimed. "But wait, that's dangerous. Having any alkali metal is dangerous. What if it touches the water in the air?" Vexen shrugged.

"Then it reacts. You should know that."

"No, what will you do when it reacts? Because it's only a matter of time until it does." Vexen nodded as he slipped on some heavy looking gloves. He also picked up a card and used the card to brush the smashed up potassium into a beaker. He set the beaker down away from him and then put goggles on.

"This" he said and poured the beaker of water into the beaker with the potassium. A bright orange flame burst out of the beaker. Vexen sat back looking somewhat pleased. He and Marluxia watched as all the potassium 'burned' away. When it was all gone, Vexen pulled out a glass container and poured the solution left into the container.

"I see so you must do this a lot."

"Do what?"

"React Potassium and water. If you didn't you wouldn't have that container prepared."

"It isn't always potassium. Once I used lithium and last time I used sodium." He explained. "And besides, the container isn't prepared."

"Then why do you have O-H, the symbol of hydroxide?"

"Just in case." Vexen muttered softly. Marluxia nodded, although he didn't believe him. Vexen grew tired off Marluxia's piercing gaze and turned to look at the pink head.

"That was a pretty good deduction. And here I was beginning to think you were ignorant."

Marluxia feigned surprise. "Really? And after all of our stimulating conversations?" He asked. Vexen smiled wryly.

"Yes, because there's nothing more stimulating than a conversation about whether mint tastes better fresh or dried." He said sarcastically. Marluxia smiled also.

"So? It did you some good. You shouldn't be cooped up in this stuffy basement you call a laboratory all day." He gazed around and couldn't help wrinkling his nose. "Surely you can perform experiments outside."

"On what? Genetics1?" Vexen asked. Marluxia rolled his eyes but stopped mid-roll as he got an idea.

"That it!" He exclaimed.

"What's it?"

"Plants!"

"Don't tell me you want to show me more of your unnatural roses."

"No, but I do want to see the Queen's garden." Vexen's eyes narrowed.

"And just how do you know about that?"

"Roxas took Axel there and he told me about it."

Vexen sighed.

"Fine. I'll take you there tomorrow, but on one condition."

"What's that?"

"You help Demyx out in the foyer." Vexen said, causing Marluxia to wrinkle his nose.

"Why?"

"Because you're annoying me." The pink head sighed and turned away from the blond.

"Fine, I'll go help your brother but in return, you must take me to see your mother's garden. Deal? You are after all a man of your word, so you will keep your promise, right? "

"Right." Vexen said with a nod of his head. Suddenly a paper was shoved into his face. "Marluxia, what the hell?" The blond yelled in surprise.

"If you really are as noble as you claim to be, then you won't mind signing this." Marluxia explained, causing Vexen to smirk.

"So then you don't trust the word of a prince?"

"A prince yes, but I know you're much too clever for me to simply take you at your word." Vexen picked up the pen that was held out to him and studied the hastily scrawled statement before signing his name on one of the two lines at the bottom. Marluxia pulled the paper and pen from his hand and also signed his name.

"Now, you have me in a legally-binding contract." Vexen remarked. "Clever, especially for a servant." His eyes narrowed suspiciously. Marluxia merely smirked in reply.

"You're just mad that I made you promise to do something for me. It would do no good for you to get suspicious over nothing."

" True, there is nothing in my mother's garden that would be of use to you. Dangerous plants are kept hidden away, no matter how beautiful they tend to be."

"Ah, it seems beauty is deadly."

"You know about that more than I would." Marluxia snorted and gestured to the chemicals lining the wall of Vexen's laboratory.

"Speak for yourself. You're the one who has cabinets full of poisons."

"Yes, but they aren't beautiful."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Vexen rolled his eyes at how corny that sounded.

"Then tell me, what do your eyes behold?" Vexen asked. Marluxia took another step toward him, trapping his emerald green eyes in his own sapphire blue gaze. They stared at each other for several minutes before Marluxia spoke.

"Beauty." He said then turned on his heel and walked away. Gracefully he climbed up the stairs and managed to make less noise then Roxas had only moments earlier. As he was opening the door to leave, he heard Vexen call out.

"Then you must be blind." He smirked, knowing Vexen couldn't see him.

"We shall see." He called. With that, he pocketed the contract and stepped out in to the sunlight. He made his way to the foyer, hearing, as he did, the sounds of the servants. The conversation that drifted out to him held none of the flowery speech of nobles, just the everyday chatter of average civilians. Briefly, he wondered where Demyx was. The crown prince usually liked being the center of attention.

"Marluxia!" The pink head's head shot up as he heard his name to see Zexion hurrying to him. When he saw the look of urgency in his eyes, he shortened the distance between them even more. Catching a flash of bright red out of the corner of his eye, he whistled softly. Axel looked over then slipped over to them. The three of them met at the same time.

"What is it, Zexion?" Marluxia asked. Zexion held up a folded piece of paper. What caught the other two's attention was the jet black seal.

"We've got mail." Zexion said.

And I'm ending it there! I know, I'm bad for leaving you with a cliffhanger after a hiatus of forever but I wanted to end it like that, so I shall.

Explanations: One of the reasons I took so long getting this out would be because I wanted to do better than Don't Be Racist in that I wanted less grammatical errors. For DBR I had a wonderful person beta for me. But I don't have one for this story, so if there's anyone who wouldn't mind beta-ing for me, please let me know.

As usual, please review!

1Vexen was referring to the father of genetic, Gregor Mendel who experimented with pea plants