Stepping into the shabby home, Gilbert started conversation. "Bahaha! I knew you'd come to the awesome me for girl problems eventually! Who's the lucky chick?" As if on cue, Gilbird popped out of Gilbert's shirt.

Wait... Ludwig thought wouldn't it have gotten crushed when he hugged me? Shaking this off, he spoke, all business. "Princess Felicia Vargas."

Gilbert laughed. "Haha. Seriously, who is she?"

Ludwig, getting agitated by this point, gave him a cold, hard look, face filled with a red tint.

His older brother's face visibly aged, no longer laughing. "W-w-what the heck, West? Got love for treason? She's the goddamn princess! You know, you could get arrested or worse for something like that! And that would be totally unawesome!" Despite how cool or menacing Gil could be, he always had his weak spot... his little brother. The one whom Gilbert prefered alive. "Does she even know you exist?"

Averting his eyes, Ludwig's face softened. "Yes... long story. But I do like her, and I've upset her. What should l do?"

The albino himself had never had too much luck with girls, but he'd never let his brother know that; he wanted to be looked up to. Now that Luddy needed him, Gil would make this up as he went along. "O-kaaaay... So, what you do is... cook for her! Women love that romantic shit, and make the best dish you know. I've heard that the Princess loves food."

"Bruder, you know I'm not useful in the kitchen..."

"So go to that bookstore of yours for a cookbook or something. Or buy some. Or, better yet, ask Francis! Ol' Frenchie'll prolly cook it for you. " GIlbert pondered and planned. "No, wait... screw him, it's better you do it yourself. Oh, and get her something like a stuffed animal... she'll be all yours" He snickered with a wave of his hand. "While at work I'll keep an ear open, 'kay? Those maids always have something to talk about~. Of course, it's usually the the epic Gilbert." He said, winking.

Ludwig released a rare smile. His brother wasn't useful for much, but planning things that were technically illegal was something he knew he could always count on Gilbert for.

/

Lovina glared out the carriage window. She couldn't believe that the only non-idiot in the castle happened to be a perverted seditious jerk. Nevertheless, she had to take him on a tour of their kingdom today. The one that that bastard wanted to overthrow. Ugh, she hated life. Even more to her irritation, Antonio insisted on coming too. These idiots were all against her.

Sadiq chuckled.

She turned tward him ragefully. "Something funny, bas-" Lovina cut herself off; her Felicia act was getting rusty from disuse. "B-bass sounds good for dinner tonight! How funny!"

From beside her, Antonio cracked up. "But don't you hate fish, Lov-" She elbowed him in the side, effectively quieting him.

"Mere fish doesn't sound good enough for my introductory dinner." He scoffed.

"You're right. Ve, brother?" She was out to expose, dammit! She had heard what he'd said, and though she didn't know exactly what it meant, she knew she didn't like it.

Sadiq rolled his eyes before craning his neck to look upon the girl he thought to be a stupid annoyance. "What is it, little sister?" He said, thinly candycoating his dislike for her.

"Why do you always wear a mask? It makes you look scaryyy, ve." She pouted, avoiding slapping Antonio's hand when he tried to pinch her cheek.

No matter how badly Sadiq wanted to say "suck it up, loser", he had to be polite. "I don't know..." Raising his eyebrow, he silently thought. To conceal the face of a famous dictator.

"I wanna see!" She lunged forward, a look on her face that was more determined than curious.

"NO!" He yelled, defensively jerking out of her range of reach.

With an act of biwilderment playing on her face, Lovina decided to let this go... for now. Damn, I wanna see what's behind there! She though suspiciously, as she leaned her head on Antonio's shoulder as the carriage stopped in the center of town. (B-but it was just because she was tired, dammit!)

/

Felicia's throat was feeling numb from crying earlier. She was letting her feelings out on a nearby cat, with gingery hair that was soft as snow. She didn't notice until too late that she was pressing on it too hard with the palm of her hand until Keiko opened the door, watching in horror as her cat darted through the open escape route. Feli jumped to her feet, running after it with all her might, into the dirty streets, not caring that she was barefoot.

Feli didn't care that her hair was a mess, she didn't care that she smelled very strange (a mix of tomato sauce and a salty fish dish that Keiko had made the night before), she didn't care about anything that she'd previously cared about when she'd lived in the castle; at that moment, it was just a blond shoemaker and a stray cat.

/x/

Very sorry for the accidental haitus; It's just that I put this off, and then thought about typing it, and then procrastinated. The chapter's finally up, but the last thing I posted was in June u_u Feel free to bite my head off, as I've probably messed up on the chronology of events happening in this story. I won't let another haitus happen here.