I am so delighted at how much people are enjoying this story, thank you again!

Keeping these guys IC is hard, so I am sorry for any parts that are overly OOC.

A knock awoke Swaine from his sleep, his eyes blinking open and sitting up, as if waiting for someone to pop out and attack him. Upon looking around the dark room, he nodded, seeing no one in sight.

Then he heard the knocking again.

He sighed, swinging his legs out and rubbing the back of his neck. He never liked be woken up like this, it reminded him of being on the streets, every minute, one eye open to make sure he wasn't being followed. Gently standing up, Swaine made his way over to the door, yanking it open. "What the hell, there are people sleeping here." Swaine growled, flicking his eyes to where Esther was sleeping, the room next door to his.

"I am sorry, sir, but Your Majesty has asked to see you." A small, thin man said, yellow eyes staring up at Swaine. "One is sorry for waking you, Prince Gascon, but if you'll please follow me?"

Swaine sighed. "Give me a minute." He muttered, picking his coat up from the pile of clothes, luckily, it seemed dry now. He muttered a swear as he closed the door behind him, flicking the sign as a warning to the man. "What does my dear brother want?" He asked.

"I am sorry, I do not know, I am simply here to take you to him." He said, starting to walk down the hall. "My name is Marcon if you must know." He added.

Swaine blinked as he followed. "Marcon-?"

"I was named after Your Majesty and you, sir. My mother and father were not the best name makers in Hamelin." Marcon said, holding a door open for Swaine as they walked down the dark hallways.

Swaine chuckled. "You could have had worse." He pointed out. "They could have just called you Gascass?" The older laughed, Marcon huffed a chuckle out as well.

"I guess. Anyway, I do hope you enjoy your stay, Prince Gascon, go through here, Your Majesty is waiting for you." Marcon said, walking quickly away from the street-wise prince and down the ever dark halls.

Swaine smirked, that kid was alright, his mother and father were a bit weird for naming him after them, but it didn't bother the man as he walked through the door, the breezy night air meeting him.

"Brother, hello." Marcassin called, his hair was gently waving in the air, going from side to side. He stood, looking over the still city before he turned to Swaine. "I was waiting for you."

Swaine nodded. "I can see that, Your Majesty." He joked, bowing to his brother. "Enough of that, why the Hell did you send that kid to wake me up? Couldn't this have waited till morning."

"There would be other people awake then, brother." Marcassin said, watching Swaine with hard eyes. "Other people to wonder what we're talking about."

Swaine rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall. "And what are we talking about?" He asked, Marcassin turned back around, watching the city below again. "Marcassin?"

"You love her... don't you."

"Who?"

"Miss Esther."

"What?" Swaine coughed, pressing his body against the wall as Marcassin turned around. "No! I-I, why would you even think that?"

Marcassin watched his brother, shaking his head slightly. "You don't think I can't catch your staring?" He asked. "It's Miss April all over again... isn't it?"

Swaine's eyes grew dark as he walked over to his brother, looking down at him. "Never, never bring April up, she was hurt enough, there's no need for her name to be placed between this fight." He muttered. "Also, don't think I haven't seen you staring."

The younger smirked. "Poor little April." He muttered, breezing past Swaine to stand by the wall, not before giving his brother a hard kick to the leg. "Did they ever find the poor thing? Or did you cover that up as well?" Marcassin growled as he watched Swaine, chuckling as he watched the older jump from one leg to the other, a thin flow of blood running down his leg.

"Shut up, Marcassin!" Swaine shouted, not caring if someone heard him, he had the right to bark at his brother, didn't he? "What's done is done, I had almost nothing to do with it."

"Almost." Marcassin said, rolling the word out, as if trying to remember its meaning. "So what do you think will happen to Esther? She's such a dear..."

Swaine kept glaring at his brother, trying to work out where the younger male was going with this. He carefully noted that his brother was black under the eyes, and they had a rather odd glow to them. "What happened to the little brother I used to know?" Swaine asked, he didn't want to fight Marcassin on this, because it wasn't an even fight and would never be.

"Jealousy, is a weird thing, Swaine, but I would guess you know nothing about that." Marcassin hissed out. "You may return to your room, I'll see you in the morning, don't be too late... Also, get your leg cleaned up, you look like you just came from the streets." The younger of the brothers walked away, leaving an uneasy feeling in the breezy night air.

Swaine went back to his room, limping down the dark hallways. A weird homely feeling of guilt creeping into his heart as he carefully pushed open the door to the bathroom, cleaning the wound and falling back into the covers of bed, unlocking the door to his deepest nightmares.

Swaine gently opened his eyes, looking around his room as someone knocked at the door. "Prince Gascon, it's time for you to wake up." Someone called from the other side. Swaine let out a loud sigh, banging his head back on to the pillow. His eyes were red from crying, and he had a killer headache, waking up at dawn wasn't something he wanted to do.

He wondered if Marcassin wanted him to suffer.

"Please, Prince Gascon, it's time for Breakfast." The man said again, it wasn't Marcon, he sounded older than the boy who'd taken him to Marcassin last night.

Swaine sighed, pulling away the covers and rolling out of the bed. "Coming, one minute." He muttered, blinking the sleep away from his eyes as he dragged himself into the bathroom, standing up and splashing water on his face quickly. He pulled his coat on, happy to see his old clothes were all dry now as he opened the door, looking at the man who stood there.

He was a tall lad, a smiling face with a childish glow coming from his eyes. "Prince Gascon, please follow me." He said, his black hair was well brushed and he had round glasses over his yellow, cat-like eyes. "My name is Kit, myself and Marcon will be your main helpers while your in Hamelin."

"It's very nice to meet you, if I had even a penny on me, I'd tip you." Swaine muttered, following Kit with a slight limp in his step.

The halls were brightly lit this morning, people cleaning the floors and getting ready for another day. Swaine sighed as he watched them, wondering if they had families they should be with. One of the women saw him watching them, she quickly stood, bowing to the brother of Marcassin.

Swaine sighed, quickly following after Kit, he didn't like feeling as if he were better than anyone, because he wasn't, not in the longest shot.

Kit came to a stop, holding open a door. "Thank you, Kit." Swaine said, walking through the door to see Marcassin, Oliver, the fairy and Esther eating their Breakfast.

Limping over to a chair, the oldest sat down, muttering a good-morning of a kind in which the others returned. He slowly started to eat, out of the corner of his eye he saw Marcassin watching him. "Can I help you, Marcassin?" Swaine asked rather loudly, placing down his drink and raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing, I was just wondering why you happened to be limping, dear brother." Marcassin asked, a worried tone picking at his voice. Swaine looked fully at his brother, who sadly looked at him, a glimmer in his eyes. 'Try and get out of this one.'

Swaine growled slightly as he turned his head away, sitting up taller. "It's nothing, I hit my leg on the bed last night."

"Bad enough to make it bleed?"

"And how would you know it was bleeding?"

"There happens to be blood on the cloth, brother."

Swaine looked down at his leg, letting out a loud sigh as Marcassin proudly nodded. "Yes, I hit it bad enough for the skin to break and for it to bleed and make me limp. Please, go back to what you were talking about..."

Oliver and Drippy quickly went back to quietly speaking with Marcassin, voices low whispers as Esther looked at Swaine. "What?"

Esther shock her head, a playful smile on her face. 'Here we go again...'

"I hit my leg on the side of my bed, breaking the skin and making it bleed and I happen to be older than you all, and my legs are a lot weaker from a lot of falling on them, so that's why." Swaine growled out, knowing his voice had a slightly uneven tone to it.

Esther blinked. "Yeah, you already said that, but I was wondering why you were crying?"

"What?"

"Crying? C-R-Y-I-N-G."

"Yes, I know what crying is Esther, but I wasn't crying..." Swaine muttered, starting to eat his bread-roll. 'That girl is smart as Hell if she can see that.'

Esther rolled her eyes. "One, I heard you limping down the hallway last night. Two, I heard you crying last night. Three, your eyes are red." She said, smirking at her cleverness.

"One day, you are gonna get into trouble with how clever you are." Swaine muttered, shaking his head. "You're acting like a princess." He muttered, catching himself staring as he quickly looked away.

Esther smirked. "Princess Esther." She laughed. Swaine smiled before his gaze turned to Marcassin, his eyes were hard and slightly stony.

"Gascon? I hope Kit was nice, he's been a bit jumpy as of late, his wife just had a child." Marcassin said, taking a sip from his cup. "Named it something with an 'a'... it'll come to me."

Swaine closed his eyes. "Oh, really? He seemed very nice. Would of given him a tip if I had any money on me at the time." He bit down on his lip.

"Ah, yes it was... App? Appy... April...?" Marcassin smirked, watching his brother shake slightly. "Apple! That's right! It was Apple."

"Oh my, that is a lovely name." Oliver said, Marcassin nodded. "May I ask..."

Swaine clapped his hands over his ears, his eyes closed as he started shaking more, opening one eye to see Esther looking at him worried. "Swaine?" She asked, when he didn't say anything back she stood up, pulling his hands away from his ears. "You OK?" She asked in a whisper.

"I didn't do it..." Swaine said quietly, shaking his head to her.

Esther pulled him out of his chair. "Marcassin, Oliver, I think Swaine needs to get outside a bit, he isn't too used to being inside much." She said, quickly pulling Swaine away from the table.

"Alright, don't be too long, Esther, you can never trust a thief." Marcassin said rather loudly, pressing his dislike for the word as he made it last.

"But you can trust a friend." Esther returned, quickening her pace from the room as she pulled Swaine with her.