#i have quite a few on my bed but i sleep with jevil because hes the softest

[yanderespamton78]

rb and put in tags the name of the stuffed toy(s) you sleep with

[afterthelastreset]

Rules Of One’s Soul Ch25 Ending

(Hey everyone. I just wanted to thank everyone who read this far and liked my story enough to read it to it's end. I had a lot of fun writing it and it makes me happy knowing some people loved it enough to read it fully. Thanks to everyone for reading this, adding it, or leaving a nice comment. And thank you to Toby Fox for creating such wonder characters for us all. Mak belongs to @alois-toussaint)

It was...just as they promised.

Rouxls took the last day off, with supervision of course. After that little scare both Seam and Jevil insisted that he stayed right there with them so they could keep an eye on him incase anything happened. So, Seam (forced him to sleep in) offered Rouxls his bed for the night, and he at first refused, but he was too mentally exhausted to argue for too long. So he took his offer, and fell fast asleep. Probably one of the most peaceful nights he had. He slept in rather late as well, because when he woke up he saw the blurry vision of Seam STILL sewing the black cloak he had been working on for a while now and Mak passed out lightly snoring on the couch, still wearing the small purple suit but now it was wrinkled in their sleep.

"So you're awake I see" Seam said with a smile, not even looking up from his sewing. ''I hope you slept well."

The worm groaned and reached up a blue hand run through his messy shiny hair. Slowly sitting up and looking to the cat with a tired grin. "...Yes. Thank thee." The blankets were tossed over, and his legs swung off the bed, And he slowly stood to his feet. Slowly stretching out his dark blue body and still Seam didn't look at him when Rouxls looked in his direction. "And howest didst thou sleep?"

"I slept rather well, thank you. But you must've been more tired than myself as you slept in rather late today, it's almost afternoon." Rouxls ground and reached to grab for his suit coat hung up on the bed post. Seam busying himself by doublechecking the stitching he had just done, bringing the black cloak up to his one good eye to peer at it. He was almost finished really, he just wanted to double check on everything before he decided to wear it. "So when does this celebration start if I may ask?"

Rouxls had just finished buttoning his coat shirt and sighed. "Tomorrow afternoon at five o'clock sharp. I musteth leave tomorrow to make sure all are according to plan-"

"After you're break today. You did promise us you would take time off today after all, and it would be rather rude to go back on your promise."

The worm paused what he was doing and despite him wanting to go and deal with the nonsense and chaos coming to prepare for the ball..He sighed in defeat. "Very well. Thoust shall havest mine word on it, but has thou been up to now?" He finally turned to the duke, who was currently running his hands through his head to try and tame his wild bed head but nodded to the cloak in his paws. "Thou haseth been working on that clothing for a longe time. What ever tis it for?"

"Oh this?" He held up the cloak and the duke nodded. "Oh, it's just an old coat I plan on wearing tomorrow on our little outing. It just needed some fixing from all these years, but it'll do in a pinch. But that also begs another question, what do you plan on doing until tomorrow afternoon?"

"I shallst keep to mineself and reopening mine shoppe for today." A smile came over the duke's features and he chuckled. "Who knowest how many Darkners forgotten to gettest their special someone something last minute.~ Mine profits and funds shall rise substantially."

He hummed and went back to sewing his cloak again. "I see. Are you planning on doing that for the entire time you're waiting?''

"...N-Nay. I'm also going to best thinking about f-future events, and ..a-and what wouldst be best for mineself and Lancer."

"And have you decided yet?"

A pause...And he heard footsteps walk past him and glanced up to see Rouxls stand in the doorway but smiled and looked back to him. "N-Not yet. B-But I havest plenty of time to thinkest it over. A-And perhaps a new speculation on mine life is just what I needed for a long time."

Seam chuckled again. "I suppose we could all use a fresh start every so often, but I want you to know duke. I'll support your descicion whichever you decide."

Rouxls smiled wider. "Thank thee. I shall seest myself out. I shall pick thee up by four thirty sharp tomorrow."

"Just be sure to be ready by that time tomorrow. I'll be expecting you, Mr. Kaard.~"

It seemed the whole day and a half of waiting for the two went by in a blink of an eye. He wasn't sure what Rouxls was doing within that time frame, but for him he was quite busy. More busy than he has been in a while. It took most of the rest of that day to finish sewing up the cloak back to it's former glory and it...it still smelt musty so into the wash it would go. Mak woke up not too long after Rouxls left and awakened with a snort and looked up at him. "Breakfast time??" He chuckled and offered to trade a giant diamond to wash the suit they were wearing and they happily agreed seeing the baseball sized diamond in his paw. Ok. So he got the laundry to go, what else could he do to prepare? ...Well what else to do but do what he usually did to pass the time in his life, he opened his sheap for a limited time this day. So he took down the closed sigh from his flap, gave Mak some food they gobbled down, and sat down at his usually spot behind the counter and waited. It didn't too long for three panicked Rudinns to come scurrying in and frantically looking around for anything they could grab for...the holiday he guessed, and came up to the counter. Each having a small bag of dark candy and one also grabbing a can of food along with it and the three threw money at him before slithering off just as fast away from the sheap....Well. If this is certainly how Rouxls said it would be, things just might be a bit more busy around here in the next few hours. AT least that's what he thought as his paws calmly went and picked up all the darke dollars thrown at him and he got up to pick up the few that fell onto the floor. Yep. It was looking to be a profittable time. And he wasn't wrong. Throughout the one day alone more darkners, mostly Rudinns with the occasional hathy or club, would make their way in and look around for what exactly they needed before exiting just as quickly with what they wanted. Most of it was tiny bags of dark candy, but their was also the occasional darkburger, tea mix, and at one point he even finally sold his spooky sword to a hathy. She said something about her husband always liking edgy looking things. Whatever the heck 'edgy' meant. But it wasn't over crowding, the most everyone would be in there was maybe four or five at a time and they'd leave just as quickly. Mak certainly wasn't enjoying the big crowd and just stayed in the back while occasionally poking their head out to ask a few questions.

"When's Jevil coming back?" "Lunch time now?" "Is my suit done yet?" "Where's my crayons?"

He chuckled and sat there and did what he normally did, meditate the hours away until someone else dashed in and he'd watch them scramble, buy, then leave then start his whole process again. The hours ticked passed and when a small period went without anyone, so he thought it'd be a good time to close up shop. He just got done sealing the flap of the sheap with the closed sigh hanging up, when he heard the familiar sounds of Mak's maniac laughter which could only mean one thing. He smiled as he walked back into his home and sure enough the sight of a very tired Jevil sat upon the couch and Mak was happily showing him their new giant diamond Seam gave them. The imp smiled and patted them on the head before flopping back into the couch's soft cushions.

He chuckled as he walked in and made for the armchair he always sat in. "Well, how was your day of work and playing with the little king?"

Jevil didn't even look up from his tuckered pose position. "Exhausting, exhausting. Rouxls, Rouxls has much to do around the castle and watching a child, child while practicing tricks is not easy, easy work at all. Even for myself, myself."

"Says the one that can do anything?," he chuckled as he sat down across from him.

Jevil chuckled. "I never said I couldn't, coudn't do it. Only that it wasn't easy, easy. But where is Rouxls, Rouxls?"

"He's at his shop resting as far as I know. He said he'll be back here tomorrow to escort Mak and myself to the castle, but how is that routine coming along? I would've helped but I vowed to retire from that life long ago."

..Jevil sighed before smiling wider and finally opening to look at him. "I respect, respect your descision old friend. But I will be able to perform tomorrow, tomorrow if I sleep all night tonight. If it means Rouxls, Rouxls and you will like it."

He chuckled. "You know I've always loved your tricks my dear friend. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Thank you, thank you." He smiled at him...before his smile disappeared for a moment and he turned his gaze to the ceiling. "Seam, seam?" He hummed and Jevil deflated a little with a sigh. "You know I can never, never apologize enough for my actions all those years ago, and I may make up, make up for my mistake...B-But if Rouxls chooses you or neither, neither of us...Would you mind, mind if we were still, still......I mean..Have, have a second chance at what once was between us, us?"

A silence followed and the cat was staring in surprise at the nervous form of jevil silently laying on the couch awaiting the cat's answer with fear as to what he might say. There was no way he wanted to be left alone after all these years of having no company except for guards delivering food or Lancer occasionally, and after he had discovered he had two soulmates he made peace with. But...it all depended on their answers. He was still dreading what Rouxls would eventually pick, but Seam-...He feared more. But as the cat Chuckled he squinted his eyes shut, fearing the worst.

"But of course. I couldn't imagine life without you again."

Like a spring his eyes snapped back opened and looked to the cat in disbeleif. "WHAT?!"

He just calmly shrugged and smiled. "I already forgave you, you apologised, and life is as normal as it'll be under the circumstances. Why wouldn't I accept an invite like that from my dearest and oldest friend- OOF!!" He didn't get a chance to finish before a purple blur suddenly jumped on him in the form of Jevil hugging the much larger cat as best as he could, Seam freezing up for a good moment or two, before chuckling and reaching up to pat the gremlin on the back.

"Thank you, Seam, Seam."

"Of course. But perhaps we both should get some sleep now. We both have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

*************************************************************************************************

Seam awoke the next morning to Mak asking for Breakfast and Jevil gone. Guess the royal jester was needed for rehearsal and all that with a ball. Which suited him fine. Not only did he himself had to get ready, but it was going to be difficult to convince the child to do anything of the sort, and he couldn't very well leave them here by themselves. They would've probably been ok, but he would've been a bad caretaker if he left the child there alone by themselves. First order of business was coaxing them into a bath, but of course like any child they refused and he had to brib them by offering them more shiny objects for their collection if they did so, which thy did reluctantly but they didn't like it. He'd make it up to them later when he was finished grooming himself....He was not fond of baths himself. One being because it was a cat thing, and another reason being because whenever he did take a bath his cotten always felt weighed down by all the water soaked into it and his stitches always strained. Nothing a magic drying couldn't fix, but that always left him rechecking all his stitches and brushing all his fluffed up fur. Especially the orange tuft of fur around his neck, it always fluffed up to make him look like some kind if lion, Mak laughed when it happened this time as he rain his claws and brush along the dum mane of hair and the rest of himself, repatching stitches and sighing after the amount of work fixing himself always took. Mak wasn't any better. They would let any part of them be brushed and even after he offered them something in return, only let him fix up the top of their head before clambering back into their suit and letting Seam fix them up and straighten their bowtie back into it's proper place, before throwing on his own black cloak. It had been slightly over a hundred years since he wore it, so he wasn't surprised when it was kinda snug, but it still fit fine all the same at least. He straightened out what he could and even dawned a fancy dress pants to match with it. When he was finished he summoned a mirror with a snap of the fingers and took a look at himself. The cat in the reflection smiled back as he inspected the cloak around his shoulders. The smooth black velvet had gold stitchings on the shoulders and hem and while it didn't go all the way down to his feet, it was still long enough to sheild his arms from sight unless he poked them out, and two large buttons were sewn to the left side of the suit with golden strings attaching them to the other side. Why- He'd say he'd look just like he did nearly a hundred years ago in this, even after his accident which left one of his eyes to be replaced by a button, minus all the patches he had now. Below him Mak was smiling and messing with their bowtie as if still readying themselves for the giant event. He chuckled and patted their head before snapping away the mirror.

"Are you nervous about the party?"

"Nah. Just hungry."

He chuckled again and made for the armchair he was all so familiar with. "Well just remember to behave yourself while we're there, and don't cause trouble." He sighed as he sat down into the comfy armchair and relaxed back into it's soft seat. Snapping his fingers to summon a flame before throwing it into the fireplace, lighting a fire in it's place. The kettle over the fire slowly starting to heat up.

They didn't have to wait too long. Time flew by as he sipped his tea and Mak..was playing with whatever shiny object they had collected recently, but there was no mistaking the sound of the flap opening and fancy heeled footsteps approuching the backroom. Seam hummed and looked to the old clock against the wall. Four thirty sharp. Well the duke wasn't a lier, he did show up to get them at four thirty sharp, and he smiled and turned to the doorway- And blinked in surprise at the sight before him. This could NOT be the duke. This fancy dressed up make up wearing beautiful GODDESS!! Could not be the duke. The blue man that was standing there was wearing fancy white, shiny heeled boots that stopped by his knees, fancy black dress pants and an even fancier blue and white velvet coat shirt. Gold shiny buttons shined from the coat shirt and the long elegant blue cape drapping over one of his shoulders and flowed down until it was a few inches away from the floor. Black spade markings lined the coat and white velvet gloves pushed the coat away for a moment. A small necklace hung around his neck with a shiny black spade and matching earrings were hanging from his pointed ears, but all that was nothing compared to his face. The shiny white hair that usually drapped down his back was now styled in an elegant braid drapping over his left shoulder and any left over small strands were curled framing his face. His eyelashes, looking like they had been curled, brought out his pretty mitchmatched eyes as they fluttered at him and Rouxls smiled. The worm quickly took notice of the cat's staring and the small pink to his cheeks, he's always had this effect on people, but this somehow made him feel more...bashful as the blue man looked down and reached up to push one of the white curls away.

"Art thou pleased with mine look?"

Seam didn't respond at first but coughed before giving a polite smile. "O-Of course. You look rather handsome tonight, Duke." Despite his initial shock at first, he calmly stood up and Mak poked their head out of their corner. Upon seeing Rouxls, they clambered out and bounded over by Seam's side as he rose a hand and snapped his fingers. The fire instantly disappeared and Seam turned back to him. "Sorry. Have to take precations."

Rouxls just bashfully cleared his throat. "T-Thank thee. Art thou r-ready to go?"

Seam patted Mak's head. "Yes. Are you ready to take us?"

His Only answer was smiling and held his hand out. Seam reached down to pick up Mak and calmly put the child under his arm before his bigger paw grasped onto Rouxls's and for a moment the two stood there and flushed, before he felt a sudden build up of magic and a blinding white light captured them both. It was a very strange and weird feeling to be sure, the light bodied nothingness feeling just felt..Strange. So when the three of them landed down on a path, thank goodness, instead of hard stone of the castle and much to his embarrasment, he fell over flopping softly onto the ground and coughed a few times. Blinking away the bright white light and staring up to the dark sky as feeling came back to his body and he realized his fur was standing on end. Mak grunted and crawled out from under his arm and shook the dust off themselves, just as Rouxls leaned over him with a concerned look over his face.

"Oh my. I amst so sorry! A-Art thou alright?"

"Yeah. I'm good." He grunted as he sat up and Rouxls comically pushed his back until the taller cat stood to his feet. The nervous worm quickly dusting him off and he shook his head, feeling slightly embarrased he fell over like a goober. Rouxls's way of teleporting was MUCH more different than Jevil's. He was used to the tight compact feeling of Jevil's twisting teleporting, but he guessed even Rouxls's way was more fancy of doing it. But he paused as Rouxls was still dusting him off and moved to the front of his magnificent cloak. And paused. "Oh. We're here."

The giant looming figure of the Card Castle's shadow towered over them as the cat stared and his button eye spun. He didn't even realize Rouxls had grabbed his paw and began to pull them forwards towards the castle's grand entrance. And Seam only watched as the castle grew closer with Mak bouncing at his heels, the front doors being guarded by two giant Rudinn Rangers who lowered their weapons once the duke waved them away. It was almost like nothing changed. The pathway was still as stone cold as he remembered and the anxeity of all those eyes possibly on himself again for being the old magician. Would everyone look at him funny? By being the duke's date he was bound to get some attention, but that was the least of his worries. WOuld the kings be displeased to see him? It had been quite a while and he wasn't sure if Rouxls told anyone of him being his date for this whole night, but it was still terrorfying. Even if noone knew or remembered him, he was sure he would get some attention for just being on the duke's arm, or more likely the duke being on his arm, but it still made him nervous. And when he blinked, brain catching up with him, he finally noticed they were in the castle. The many, MANY red and pink decorations lining the other wise drab hallways. A lot of giggling and smiles from the many staff and guards were a refreshing sight and calmed his nerves even if only a little bit. Mak was giggling and running around startling some of them and eyes wide at all the shiny decorations, and startling a few of the people watching the child floating around. But no one was looking at him, but he noticed a few people gazing towards the duke then away again. Despite his calm and polite smile, he felt a bit of annoyance at seeing the smiles sent Rouxls way, guess he couldn't help it. Despite what Jevil said, he wasn't the best or young looking. Scars and patches here and there. One eye. Stitches. He was only a few years older than Jevil and a few they were both older than Rouxls by a few more, but he still gave off the aura off being much older. Jevil was always saying it was because of how wise and patient he was, but he always knew it was more his appearance. But he was most surprised when the pair turned a corner and ran into two tall darners wearing suits and with professional faces. He was sure with his limited memory this was the rather large throne/ball room and by the way Rouxls was smiling excitedly at it, his gut feelings was correct. The worm suddenly stopped when Seam did and looked over his shoulder, white brow raising in confusion. The cat had grabbed the stuffed bat for a moment and kneeled down eye level with them for a moment.

"Now do you remember what we talked about?," He questioned and they nodded. "And what did we talk about?"

"No biting or scratching."

"And behave yourself. Can you do that?" They nodded again and he patted their head before standing back up and letting them run ahead to the doors. ROuxls excitedly lead him to the doors and nodded to the two in front of the doors as the child bounced excitedly at the doors waiting for them to open.

At Rouxls's nod, the two Darkners in suits both reached over and grabbed a door each and pushed them open. Seam was NOT prepared for what was on the other side of the doors. His good eye widened and his button one spun about as the doors opened and bright candlelights lit the room and bounced off the many MANY giant glittery decorations lining the wall. His ears twitched towards the left where a band was playing ballroom dance music even though no one was dancing(yet) and he couldn't beleive he just now noticed these sounds. Even though they were around half an hour early arriving, their must've been around at least fifty fancy looking darkners around them wearing glittery jewelry and other fancy things he didn't care for, but it seemed Mak did as their eyes widened before they ran off in a seperate direction giggling to themselves and disappearing into the crowd. Not that the two noticed. Seam was still star struck at the incredible sight of it all. Over to the far left near the winows was a very VERY large and long tabled filled with food: two gigantic roasts, a giaint salad, a chocolate fountain with bowls of fruit around it, a few cakes king sized, a punch bowl, a...giant bowl of Salsa(??), some platter of some kind of cookies(they were shaped like something but he didn't know what), another giant bowl full of dark candy, and a few other things he couldn't make out from the crowd clocking it. And there sitting on the thrones, were the kings and Queens themselves. Ah! He remembered them well. The Clubs were talking to their four headed queen. AH! King Heart and his beloved Queen Amory, the two looked so loving together as Mrs. Hearts fed her husband one of those strangely shaped cookies, and the Diamonds-...Well. They still looked as unhappy in their marriage as usual. The giant Rudinn was rubbing his temples and Mrs. Diamonds was glaring boredly at her surroundings. He chuckled- Until he saw him! The little jevil himself! There was a few wooden stands were in the middle of the floor a few feet above the audience with 5 performers. Four of them were simple jacks. 2 juggling a couple of harmless pins to each other on the stands above the crowd, the third a contorshonist curving his body into impressive poses impossible to most, and the last one laying on a bed of hot coals. The coals safely inside a suspended fireplace for everyone's safety. And in the middle stand of them all was the man of the hour themself. The purple menace hand't noticed them at all yet and wore a jester outfit similar to his regular one, only this one was made of black and gold velvet. The gold parts shiny and flashing brightly thanks to the devilknives he was juggling....and the devilknives were on FIRE!! He sat cross-legged in mid air and easily juggling four devilknives on fire, smiling widely and cackling at his work-

"Sir Duke and Royal Advisor Rouxls Kaard of Puzzles and Card Castle!!...And his plus one Retired Royal Court Mage Seam!!" Seam flinched as someone inside the door way called out Rouxls's official title and a LOT of people turned to see them, the kings included...He guessed someone told them about him too. Rouxls gave a smile and squeezed his paw almost comforting as he gently pulled the startled cat along into the room.

At the announcement of them two specific people caught their attention. Jevil snapped he smile over to them and paused. His yellow eyes widened first at Rouxls. The worm's hair and eyelashes naturally glowing and lighting himself as his fancy eyes met Jevil's and he bashfully smiled back...Jevil's hands didn't stop that expert juggling as he had developed to perform as second nature but he visibly gulped and his eyes slowly widened and had a pinkish hue to the bottom of those yellow orbs. But they started to become fully pink when he turned to Seam and saw the outfit he was wearing. The old but fancy magician cloak was simple compared to Rouxls or his or anyone else's outfits, but it suited him to a T and all the happy memories of him and Jevil performing and being happy came rushing back- And his smile came back even more wide as Seam calmly smiled at him too. His cackling growing as he juggled. The second person jumped up on their throne as soon as Rouxls's name was announced before jumping off said throne and began zooming through the crowd towards them. Pushing past others and excitement dripping over their young face.

"LESSER DAD!!" Rouxls's head snapped to the left and smiled widely kneeling down and holding his arms out just as Lancer grunted and squeezed between two darkners before coming free and running towards the worm who easily captured the young boy in his arms and happily brought the giggling boy up in his arms. Seam smiled and peered curiously at the small boy in the duke's hold, finally getting a look at this famous young king. The child was dressed in a small fancy uniform and cape, with a white crown on his head. A blue tongue stuck out of his mouth as she giggled and his tail wagged happily as his face hole that was apparently his face stared at his father. "Where were you? I thought your break was over."

Rouxls chuckled and bounced him a few times. "I waseth...a bit busy with a fewest new things and visiting someone." He turned to Seam who reached a paw up and waved to the small pup who tilted his head at him. "Lancer. Tis a friend, Seam."

"...You look really fluffy and tall Mr. Grandpa cat!"

Seam's brow rose, not expecting that kind of reaction from the child, but chuckled either way as Rouxls groaned softly. "Well, I'm happy you think so, Young King. " He bowed. "And what a brave little man you are."

"YEAH!! Lesser Dad is my noble steed too!!...Whatever a noble steed is." He said proudly and both men couldn't help but chuckle.

"Were you good while I was gone?"

He nodded. "YEAH!! I got to play with Uncle Jevil, and he made sure I got all the food I wanted, and he let me watch him practice, and he made me do boring homework with the teacher guy, and then I had to take a bath." He sucked in a breath to keep going. "And then I had to wear this itchy suit, but I got to eat ice cream for breakfast today!!" He took a moment to look at his father. "WOW!! You look really pretty, Dad!"

Rouxls rose a brow at him at the ice cream bit, but still smiled at the compliment. "Thank you, and you look as handsome as ever." He gave him a kiss to the forehead to which the child giggled at but shook his head.

"And Ralsei's coming!! I don't know when because his letter said his parents were busy, but he promised he would come!!"

He chuckled. "I look forward to meeting this Prince officially. We haven't been properly introduced since mine encounter longe ago with thine Lightner friends."

"This young uh..Prince wouldn't happen to be a small white darkner with glasses would it?" Seam asked curiously and Rouxls blinked at himbut Lancer answered before he could.

"YEAH!! He really cool!! Not as cool as Susie, but he can do really cool magic and is really nice!!"

He hummed and smiled again. "Well then I remember this Prince of Darkness. He and his friends visited my shop and fought Jevil. I was honestly surprised they made it out in one peice."

Rouxls blinked..before scowling. "What?..Art thou telling mineself that Jevil battled against children and thou let them?!"

Seam paused sensing Rouxls's now displeased scowl and shrugged nervously. "They lived, and aren't you the one who tried to stop them using puzzles and a powered up K-round?"

His frown deepened. "Mine puzzles were not thine best true, but they were made to trap and not harm and mine control crown -before it was destroyed by thine lightners- made thine K-round under mine control and I waseth going to stop it once it weakened thine lightners enough to store them safely within thine dungeon....I was NAY!! Intending on causing any harm or did so so carelessly, Seam." The cat didn't say anything this time and Rouxls sighed. "We and Jevil are goinge to have a longe talketh about this later." He quickly turned back to a small smile to Lancer and chuckled. "Now. Art thou having fun?" Lancer shook his head no. "Nay? What ever is thy matter?"

"Ralsei's not here and Uncle Jevil's busy...and everyone said I couldn't bring ANY toys and I have to sit on the dumb chair until Uncle jevil does his trick Routine." He pouted and leaned against his father.

"Oh? And when is Jevil going to entertain us?"

"He promised before my bedtime but it's taking too long!!"

Rouxls chuckled at his pouting and nodded to Seam to follow. "Well then. Now that I'm here, why don'tst thou wait with me while you wait for thou's friend, and gettest to know Seam better?"

"Is he cool?"

"Very.~ He was a magician."

Lancer's interest spiked up at magician and the pup stared past Rouxls shoulder up at the stuffed cat as he followed Rouxls back to the giant thrones. He was pretty anxious to be stepping up in front of the kings and queens no less, but to his surprise and absolute releif, none payed much attention then the usually 'Oh, I remember you. How are you these days?' kinda talk. Two of the four kings were too busy making googoo eyes at their partners anyways and one was busy trying NOT to notice the giant lady Rudinn they were married to. Lancer looked up at the kissig faces and made a 'yuck!' face and pointed at his mouth. Seam chuckling at the sight. Such a innocent child. Rouxls set him back down on the chair and Lancer groaned, falling back into the comfy seat as the other royals greeted the duke before going back to their regular business. Despite being next to the gigantic royals, Seam's attention was on the crowd. His good eye scanned the many, many couples swapping small hearts or giggling with red faces. One or two kissing each other. He thought he saw a flash on Mak every few seconds but couldn't be sure, and his eye went to Jevil the imp smiled seeing him look at him juggling before doing a flip in mid air looking like he was doing a hand stand without using his arms to stand and looked at him upside-down without stopping juggling and winked at him. Seam chuckled and waved back over to him- He hummed and turned back to the throne. Rouxls was now sitting in the throne with Lancer in his arms and said child was tugging his cape with interest.

"Are you really a magician?," he asked.

He chuckled. "A used to be. But I'm retired now."

"What does 'retired' mean?"

His paw came up to pat his head where his crown wasn't. "It means I don't work that particular job anymore. Now I own a store."

"Like Lesser Dad?" Seam nodded and Lancer smiled wider. "Uncle Jevil said you used to do tricks too!" His tail thumped wider in excitement. "Can you show me?! Please!!"

Seam hesitated for a moment, he hadn't really performed persay any tricks in a long time. But one look at Rouxls's smile encouraged him. After all, Jevil had made peace with their soulmates child, it was only fair he made a good first impression too. So he leaned down and held out his paws, both empty and not wearing sleeves. Lancer glanced at them curiously but jumped when Seam suddenly clapped them together, and slowly opened them to where he was holding a small toy in his paws. Lancer gasped at the cute teddy bear in his paws and reached out excitedly for it as Seam handed it over. Lancer was happy to examine the new toy before holding it to him in a hug and looked back to him bouncing and saying: 'Again! Again!' Rouxls was smiling wide now as was Seam as he performed another trick for the small pup. This time reaching behind his crown and then suddenly pulling out a single dark dollar, to which Lancer gasped in wonder and also took it when Seam offered it to him, shoving it into his pants pocket and asking for him to do it again. He smiled and happily performed a few simple tricks he remembered. Pulling a strand of tied together hankercheifs out of nowhere, which lancer also reached for excitedly. Making a small flame appear and turning it into different simple shapes like a circle, cube, flat surface, etc. Pulling a button out of his ear seemingly. And a few other harmless little party tricks a child like Lancer found amazing, the child was just fascinated with magic and he chuckled at his excitement. In the meantime Rouxls watched lovingly as Lancer was giggling and enjoying himself as Seam bowed as he clapped at his small performances. While this was going on every so often the announcer would shout out another name as more guests arrived.

"Princess Clover Clubs of Card Castle!!" King and Queen Clubs were excited and babbled as their small three headed daughter came up to them wearing a small crown for each head but that was about it. "Baron Mr. Elegance and Mr. Society of Great Bourd Pass!!" Two strange all white darkners made their way in about thirty minutes later and mingled with the crowd. Thirty minutes later."Royal Court Healer Ms Valen and her Husband!!" A slightly bigger than average blue hathy couple. Seam was starting to get the impression that most of the folks here were important court members and their plus ones/partners or just important people invited to the royal shindig. As the next ones also arrived around thirty minutes after the last. "General of War Sir Punch-a-lot and his husband!!" A VERY scarred up red rudinn ranger slithered through the doors with a slightly smaller green one and the red one gave a grumpy look around before rolling his eyes and letting himself be dragged in. Thirty minutes later. "Head Of Treasury and Staff Ms. Royal Coat Jack!!" A strange looking jack came in, but she just looked nervous and skittered in without another word. Huh. Guess she was the secritary Rouxls often referred to helping him. But the next announcement made Lancer perk up from his new teddy bear again thrity minutes later. "Esteemed Guest and Hero of the Darklands Prince Ralsei Durrmee of the neighboring Durrmee Kingdom!!"

This time a LOT of attention was focused to the doors as they opened and Seam looked too, wanting to get a look at this hero once again, and a small hush came over the crowd. Behind the doors strode in a teenage darkner. He looked-..Well exactly how Seam remembered. Same outfit too. Green cloak and hat, wide circle glasses, and red scarf. The nervous looking boy paused looking at all the darkners suddenly staring at him and he smiled nervously before waving a paw.

"Uh...H-Hi, Everyone." He quickly excused himself and made his way towards them. It seems the only ones who didn't stop were the band and performers, taking their jobs seriously no matter what happened. The nervous goat monster made his way through the crowd and Lancer's tail wagged even more as he came closer. "Excuse me. Excuse me. Pardon me, Ma'am. Oops! Sorry. W-Watch your footing, Sir." He said as he walked even closer to the royals who were now looking with smiles- Except for Queen Diamonds who seemed more interested in her jewelry. But the boy still bowed once he got close enough to the giant thrones and their occupants. "U-Um..Greetings, Everyone. I hope I'm not too late-"

''RALSEI!!" Lancer happily jumped off the Duke's lap and made for the teen still holding his teddy bear, said goat prince looked up just in time to watch the small spade pup hug one of his legs and giggled. Tail wagging. "YOU'RE HERE!! NOW IT WON'T BE ALL MUSHY AND BORING!! YOU WANNA PLAY WITH ME?!" All the adults (minus Queen Diamond and Clover) awed at the adorable sight of the teen giggling and patting his head in response. Clover's three heads were staring at the small goat teen with blue blushes even though each head had a different face responding to the blush. "Sure. If your dad doesn't mind." He looked back up at the duke still sitting in the throne smiling and watching, and waved a paw at him. "Um. H-Hello Mr. Kaard. Wow. You look really nice tonight. All of you guys do too."

Clover flushed deeper at that and Rouxls chuckled. "Nonsense. Thou arrived with plenty of time to spare. How waseth thou's trip?"

"F-Fine thanks." He straightened his glasses before looking down to Lancer. "And if he doesn't have any other duties, I'd be happy to catch up-"

"HEY!!" Most everyone jumped up at the sudden shout from one of the clubs princess's heads. "YOU PROMISED YOU'D BE OUR DATE TONIGHT!!" "I-It's fine if he wanted to spend time with him instead, I'll just be a little sad." "OH! I'm so excited! Our first date with a cute fluffy boy!"

"Uh..." Ralsei glanced to Rouxls for any help on the matter.

All of King Clubs heads looked displeased and about to say something a whole lot of somethings before his wife's heads spoke up. "Dearest we talked about this." "J-J-Just...l-l-let her have this moment..ok?" "Im fine with anything really." "HEY!! SHE'S ALMOST SIXTEEN!! GIVE HER A LITTLE SPACE!!" The five heads of his majesty stared at each other for a moment...before grumbling and not saying anything. "THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT!!" "Thank you, Sweetie." "T-T-Thanks." "Im still fine with anything really."

Ralsei still looked quite unsure before looking back to Clover. "U-Um..Ok. C-Can Lancer come too? I promised to spend time with him too."

The three heads looked at each other before the middle one spoke. "Would that make you happy and like us more?"

"Uh," he said still really unsure and looked at Lancer who nodded eagerly. "Yyyyeesss??"

"OK!! We can start by getting some roasted tree!!" She shouted before standing back up and walking towards him.

"Roasted what?"

He was nudged away by one of Clover's heads and Lancer happily bounced next to the two (or five if you counted each of Clover's heads as an individual) teens. King Clubs still not looking the tiniest bit pleased at his daughter's 'date' for the night at all.

"Do you think we're pretty?" "I thought we looked nice." "OF COURSE WE ARE!! WE HAVE STYLE!!"

"Uh..Yes?"

The last Seam heard of THAT conversation was Clover happily squealing to herself and still pushing the poor boy off with Lancer at their heels. At least the boy would be around two other kids and get to spend time with someone closer to his age group. But speaking of food, Seam gazed over to the table full of goods and wondered if there was anything to his liking. He didn't really have to eat being made of cotten, but anything he did eat was converted into extra magic later and who knows when that might come in handy? Rouxls seemed to mirror his same thoughts as he stood up and bid good morrow to the giant royals before turning in Seam's direction and gesturing to the giant food table in question. Seam nodded and the two began their way there, with Seam politely offering Rouxls his paw and the duke gladly taking it with a smile. The two made their way over past the others in the room and finally his one good eye was able to make out all the stuff on the table that was previously blocked from veiw...and his smile disappeared as he blinked. The last table sat a ....bowl of roasted tennis balls covered in cheese and-...a atcually honest to lightner tree that looked like someone tried to burn it but didn't do a very good job. Clover was there sitting on her hind legs and her front paws held a plate with ease. The giant plate had a couple of the tennis balls and a chunk of what he could only guess was this 'roasted tree' she was so excited about. One of her heads was jabbering to Ralsei while another one scarfed down what was on the plate. Poor kid was smiling nervously holding a plate with a single cheese covered tennis ball, obviously trying not to be rude...and LAncer was bouncing one of said tennis balls getting cheese all over the floor. The cat chuckled and shook his head. The poor kids. The duke and him at first stuck together looking at things but as soon as his eyes spotted the mac n cheese bowl he lit up and made a beline for it, leaving seam chuckling and looking around at all the other foods. He wasn't really that picky but none of it was really appealing to him yet. The roasts looked too hard and chewy, and he was never a big fruit or salad fan. And all the deserts looked too sweet for him. And there was NO WAY he was about to eat cheese covered tennis balls or burnt trees- And speaking of deserts. He chuckled when he finally saw the strange cookies and now understood why they were called 'Lancer Cookies', because they were all decorated to look like the young boy. He sighed and shook his head, going to move past the punch bowl since he wasn't really that thirsty....But paused when something...(or someone) slowly rose out of the punch bowl making a few darkners around them cringe in disgust.

It took him a few moments of blinking and staring to realize who it was, and when he did he sighed. "Mak. WHY are you in the punch bowl?"

The child blinked back. "I got thirsty."

His brow rose. "And so you decided to go swimming in the punch bowl?...And where did you get those sunglasses?" He now noticed the new and shiny sunglasses on top of their head. And he sighed. They were all sticky and wet now.

"Waiting for the surprise."

He blinked. "Surprise? What surprise?"

Before they could answer the same announcer that was shouting everyone's official statuses shouted out his voice from near the king's throne and he turned to look. In the meantime Mak slowly drifted back down into the pink punch and disappeared. "ATTENTION!! THE ROYAL PERFORMERS SHALL BEGIN THE SHOW!! PLEASE STAND CLEAR FOR THE CENTER STAGE!!"

Seam looked confused for a moment, but then sudden flashbacks of his old shows reached his mind. The audience of around a hundred darkners all gasped and stood aside when the jacks all stopped performing including Jevil as he caught the devilknives that he had been juggling this whole time. Each one being put out as he did and he watched in mid air as the five jacks jumped from their set up stages and began to push their own stage towards the middle one Jevil was sitting above. The five giant puzzle peice designed stages coming to fit perfectly with one another as he remembered it would and a small smile reached his face. Well, well. It had been quite a long time since he'd even seen a royal performance. Now was a good oppurtunity to witness one. Rouxls walked up back next to him watching curiously as he ate and the lights dimmed out until only two spotlights remained, one on the band that had gone silent, and one on the stage where all the performers including jevil had hopped off.

"ANNOUNCING LADY PAPER DOLL AND HER WONDEROUS BALLERINA DANCERS DOING THEIR FAMOUS WATERFALL DANCE!!" The man announced. "PLEASE EVERYONE STEP AWAY FROM THE DOORS!!''

Most everyone scrambled out of the way as the band started up some ballet sounding waltz music starting with violins at the same time the doors opened and in came not one but FIVE different all white white some black thin looking darkners dashed in through the dark. Making the audience gasped in surprise as they all jumped expertly and easily onto the table and could now be all clearly seen the spotlight. The biggest one was all white and stood in the middle as the black and white ones, four of those, all stood around her. All made similar ballerina poses as the music faded for just a moment before starting back up again, them moving along with it it gracefully. With the four smaller ones standing on their tip toes and slowly swaying their arms going a few yards away from the bigger one (the stage was fairly large and well built for such things) as their leader stood on one leg and reached her hand up as the soft flute music slowly died out once again and the other four stopped in a pose which left them on their tip toes and their arms pointed to their middles. They could hear the music conductor tap his music sheet stand and begin to wave his hands. Trumpets and violins started to play and they moved. The four began to move in similar motions, twirling themselves in circles while also circling their middle leader in a bigger circle as they spun, and who he assumed to be Lady Paper Doll moved as graceful as one would expect. She expertly brought her leg up high to stand on one leg and twirl around before taking a few graceful steps forwards the edge of the dancing circle before stopping, hand to her chest in fake distraught befor doing the same thing towards the other side before holding a hand to her forehead and dashing back towards the middle twirling a few more times before expertly 'falling' to the floor and laying limp like a ragdoll in a fake faint.

Seam hummed and leaned down to Rouxls to whisper. It was easy to see the worm as his white hair and eyelashes easily glowed in the dark giving him a beautiful aura. "They're very good. This Lady Paper Doll is quite graceful."

Rouxls nodded without looking at him. "Tis based on a true story about what someone sometimes experiences."

"Oh really?"

Rouxls nodded and pointed to Ms Paper Doll who had just now sat up to her knees and was fake sobbing and twirling her upper body in graceful circle motion to the music. "She represents the struggle someone goes througheth with their sad emotions when something devastating happens. And the four dancing around her-" He gestured to the still twirling ballarinas still doing circles while encircling her. "-represent the obsticles and circle of emotions thoust tis feeling. Which is why she's also metiphorically trapped within thine middle. Trapped within her own emotions and problems, which only go downwards as if one tis in a waterfall. Hence thy name Waterfall Dance. They're truly a remarkable group."

Seam didn't doubt that as he looked back to the lit stage from the dark audience. Lady Paper Doll then expertly held her hands up and pushed herself up onto her toes that resembled someone lifting a limp puppet. Twirling around a few more times before she blinked and held her head up to the light. Pretending to just now notice the light shining down on her. Reaching a hand up towards the spot light before she flinched and curled in on herself head down in fake shame. The four dancer had now stopped twirling and were facing her, the for gracefully ran up to her and held their arms above her as if metiphorically holding her down- Before she suddenly snapped back up. The four smaller dancers recoiled and treated back to their circle. This time running back to their circle, but instead of their twirling from earlier, they gracefully lept and ran around in a giant circle as the middle tallest dancer twirled a few more times before stoppong in the middle and striking a proud pose of her chest out, arms back and head held high. Rouxls smiled excitedly next to him.

"This is thine best part, the next steps represent her tossing the stress and thinges away from her and crumbling in sweet defeat and rising to thine goals!" He sighed. "Such beauty tis a work of art.~"

He had to agree. She stood in that pose for the longest time as the four others encircled her before she suddenly pirouletted and pivioted to the middle of said circle of ballerinas before stilling. One ballerina suddenly breaking the circle the circle and running towards her gracefully, the taller woman easily caught her and held her up in the air, the two doing a graceful pose before she let go mid spun and the smaller ballerina expertly 'fell' to her knees and slid a little away, hand to her forhead before 'falling' to the floor in defeat. Followed one by one of the other three who slid away and laid down in similar defeated poses which the audeience awed at and even Seam had to confess the ladies' were experts at their job. Leaving the spotlight on just the tall one and watching as the depressing and exciting music from earlier suddenly became more happy sounding and she prirouletted and spun in other dance moves he couldn't name as the song came to an end spinning happily and doing the same proud pose from before with her head and arms pointed backwards as the happy music finally ended and left. There was silence for just a few seconds before cheers and applause came from the audeince watching all around the stage and the other four ballerinas stood from their position on the floor to go stand next to their leader as they all curtsied to their audience. Seam found himself clapping along and smiling at the performances the ladies did for them. One by one they jumped off the stage and gracefully leaped back to where they came from. The balloroom still quite dark other than the two spotlights on the bandstand and huge stage. He almost did hear the announcer shout the next performers.

"UP NEXT!! THE JACK BROTHERS AND THEIR AMAZING BALANCE ACT!!"

The same four jacks from before all flipped and jumped from different parts of the audience onto the stage and struck a pose. Everyone clapping excitedly for the next act. Except for Seam. He recognized these old jacks and already knew their whole routine, if he remembered right they would start out with two of them standing on top of each other balancing on a ball and two others throwing juggling pins over the two flipping on the ball. And wouldn't you know it, one made a giant green ball appear, so Seam busied himself by turning around and grabbing one of these lancer cookies as the four performed, the audience including Rouxls watched captivated. Upon eating the cookie, he discovered it was just a regular sugar cookie with icing. He still didn't watch the performance when the audience gasped when one of the jugglers suddenly jumped onto the ball with the other two while still juggling back and forth with the one on the ground before they jumped, and was suspended onone of the bottom jack's held out arms, the entire time two jack's still juggling but now they were rolling the ball around moving around on the stage as they rolled around and juggled with expert balance, making the audience awe in disbeleif and he had finally turned around to look around at the crowd. It was dark but he was used to seeing everything in the dark besides lanturn light or his fireplace. He was looking for one small purple gremlin dressed in black ang gold in particular but he didn't see him anywhere. Now where could that little rascal have run off too this time? He was wondering if Jevil was planning some kind of grand entrance to the act, most likely. He always liked showing off to others around him. The four jacks was bouncing on the ball now, up and down a few times before one by one they jumped off the ball and the two juggling caught the pins and did poses with the other two. The audience roared again with excitement at the second performance as the four bowed to the watching crowd. Seam did too, more out of politefulness of the situation than actually watching the performance, but the four hopped off the stage and disappeared somewhere within the crowd not to be seen again for the rest of the night.

"NOW FOR OUR FINAL PERFORMANCE!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! PLEASE WELCOME THEE ROYAL COURT JESTER SIR JEVIL!!"

The crowd both gave a mix of excited and unsure faces but all that changed once a giant puff of smoke exploded on the stage and Rouxls's and his smiles became wider. A small BOOM! noise also went off and gold confetti shot out everywhere. Some landed on the stage but some fell over the crowd, shining thanks to the spotlight. Happy cackling was heard as the dust cleared and there was the purple jester in all his glory, he giggled to the crowd and bowed. The bells on his hat jiggling to his movements, the gold parts of his outsit shining in the light. Here we go. They were in for quite a treat.

"Ahehehehehe!~ Welcome, welcome!! Let there be chaos, chaos!! Fun, fun!! But a word of warning, warning!" His held up his hands. "Please, please do not try to do what my chaos, chaos brings at home, home! They are quite dangerous, quite dangerous!!" He snapped his fingers and suddenly the band started playing some kind of upbeat circus music and the audience's main focus was on the clown as he Suddenly whipped out a metal hula hoop. He sucked a deep breath and his cheeks puffed out, Rouxls recognized it as the face he made before he blew fire. And sure enough flames came forth from the fool's mouth and the hoop caught fire. The iron circle was tossed away from him quickly after that and they guessed he must've been using magic to make it suspended in mid air on the other side of him, before he yet again reach behind him and summoned more devilsknives, around five. He was floating now and stood on the stage. Really showing how small he was compared to Seam and Rouxls. Without so much as a warning he began to easily juggle the sharp looking weapons as the flaming hot hoop came shooting at him. While STILL juggling, he easily jumped up a foot and jumped right threw the flaming hoop's middle, the hoop stopped before it could even reach the other side of the stage and they guessed Jevil must've been using his magic to make it go back and forth as he still jumped threw it whenever it got close enough and still juggled those devilsknives, cackling and happy all around at everyone marvaling at his skills. Bells jiggling wildly. "This is fun, fun!! But more excitement should be expected, expected!!" Without warning the devilknives were all grabbed by him one by one and shoved back into his black cloak disappearing while he still jumped through that flaming hoop, when the last devilsknife disappeared, he reached a clawed hand out and caught the flaming circle. Giving it a few shakes until it was completely put out and he held it up, showing it off with a smile.

Everyone clapped again including them and Seam chuckled. "An old but classic. I wonder if he shall do his famous No-throat sword swallowing trick or fire images."

Before Rouxls could answer, Jevil had already bounded to the other side of the stage before reaching over into the dark real quick as someone (one of the jacks most likely) handed him what looked liked a couple of long rods wrapped in an old cloth, he nodded to whoever handed him the thing before he made his way back to center stage, the audeince watching in silent anticipation. With his back towards the half of the audience that his two soulmates were and only stood back up when he unwrapped said cloth on the floor, a metal SHING!! sounded off as Jevil produced a shiny average looking sword in his hands and showed it off to the audience. "Again, again! Please do not recreate what you are about to see at home, home! Sword swallowing and playing with fire is a very, very dangerous skill even for me, me." The sword was tossed up without another word and it was suspended in mid air by his magic. One person in the band gave a drum roll as it slowly desceneded dowwards and to everyone's shock, the fool's head sprung off his shoulder with a spring and he opened those jaws wide. Rouxls's jaw dropped to the floor as his mousetrap jaws opened and the sword continued it's decent down and THROUGH IT!! The audience gasped when the sword seemingly disappeard into the void of his mouth until the handle was left and his spring neck wobbled. WHERE WAS THAT THING EVEN DISAPPEARING TOO?! Seam chuckled. He knew, Jevil was using teleprtation magic to give the illusion it was going down his none-existant-for-the-moment throat and instead most likely making it appear under the stage where the audeince couldn't see it, but it was still amusing to see their surprised faces. Especially Rouxls who looked at him bulged eyes. The drum still played when Jevil's hand flicked it back up and the sword began to retreat out of his opened jaws. As soon as the last few inches of shiny metal left his teeth, there was a crashed of symbols from the band stand and his neck sprung back down to his shoulder. Instantly like it never happened and he did another pose as the audienc roared again in applause, the sword dropping and being caught in his hand as he presented it back to his fans. Before setting it back down to his feet when another long metal thing was picked up by him. This time it was a long metal rod with some kind of giant fuse at the end. Like a long torch. The same hissing breath and puffed out cheeks signaled the flames before it erupted from his throat, blowing onto the end of the rod and catching it on fire just like a torch. He smiled and giggled at his handywork, holding it up and he looked around to the darkened audeience! "Hehehehe!~ Forms and shapes I make with flames, flames. But helpers I need to pick, pick what to form and dazzle you all!!"

Seam leaned closer to Rouxls. "He means he's going to pick a few people from the audeince to choose what magic picture he'll make with fire."

Rouxls gave a small oh and watched as Jevil tapped his chin and looked over the watching crowd. "Now, now! Who shall I pick to choose the first picture-"

"DO ME!! DO ME!!" Jevil's head snapped to the right and Rouxls suddenly groaned as Lancer was jumping and waving his arms a few feet away from the crowd in a very unkingly manor. "PLEASE! DO ME!!"

Jevil chuckled and bowed in the boy's direction. "But how could I refuse, refuse a request from our beloved King, King?" Everyone watched as Jevil turned his face and the flaming rod up towards the stone ceiling and sucked in another hissing breath, though this one seemed to take longer as his chest expanded at well- Before it all broke loose!! A large stream of flames shot out from his mouth and hit the rod as the flames' path widened and a HUGE wall of flames shot out above the audeince and spread out into lines forming the shape that was similar to the Lancer Cookies clearly intending to be the small boy. The audeince's eyes sparkled as the flames fizzled into nothing after a few seconds and immediately applauded the clown as he bowed his head, Lancer giggled and clapping his hands together from seeing his flame protrait. "Hehehe!~ Thank you, thank you!! As tradition I shall take four more requests, requests to equal five!! Who shall, shall request next?!" This time a lot more people raised their hands and shouted requests to the purple imp! And he slowly did them one by one. A rabbick for a Noble. Another flame portrait for Mr. Society. A lovely flower for King Hearts dedicated to Queen Amory, Rouxls awed at the romantic gesture King Hearts made towards his wife who herself gushed at the sweet thought. And lastly a diamond shape after Queen Diamond ordered it of him. Well...He couldn't disobey the Queens but King Diamonds looked rather embarrased as he held a hand over his face when it all happened. The rod was put out when Jevil stuck the entire flaming end in his mouth- Before removing it quickly and a fire giant stream of hot flame was shot over one part of the audeince who leaned away and gasped before applauding his efforts again. "Now for some old classics! But first please, please welcome by adorable asistant, asistant!!" He snapped his fingers and another bang and small explosion of smoke appeared something purple and grey shot out of the smoke cloud. It slid up to him in the form of Mak wearing those sunglasses and a kazoo in their mouth, blowing on it before posing and a poof of confetti went off behind them. "Now we shall begin, begin the fun!!''

The rest of Jevil's tricks were pretty basic tricks, He would summon props he needed or someone would hand him what he needed from the audience, and Seam watched as it went as followed. The disappearing box. The classic (fake) sawing someone in half. And the classic having Mak stand against a wooden wall while he threw small show daggers at them, expertly missing. And at the end the two did a pose at the end as everyone clapped for them and Jevil looked to the two soulmates standing to the side by the table. Giggling and-.. blowing kiss in their direction. Rouxls froze with a small squeak sound, immediately turning a darker blue and Seam chuckled at both their reactions as he and Mak bounced off the stage. The candles were relit and staff quickly rushed over to grabbed at the stage, pulling the puzzle peices apart and beginning to pushing them towards the front door the dancers had run through before, making more room in the large ballroom for one obvious reason. But they would get to that in a moment, right now everyone was starting to chatter to each other excitedly about the performances that had just been shown to them while others made their way for the food table. Seam felt sorry for all the folks drinking the punch, and the band started up with the calm ballroom music again. And Rouxls turned back to him with a wide smile.

"Thine Jester's performance waseth astounding!!" His wide grin and excited tone made Seam chuckle.

"I told you. Jevil's magical abilities are quite impressive."

A stream of maniac giggled from behind Rouxls made the worm jumped and whirl around and blink at the side of Jevil smiling, sitting in mid air, tail wagging behind him happily. "Really, really?!" He giggled more at the worm's slightly spooked face. Dark purple rushing to his cheeks as his head fell to his hands staring at the two of them lovingly. "Thank you, thank you. You both l-l-look so lovely, so lovely.~"

Rouxls cleared his throat and gave a polite smile and bow. "Thank thee. Thou art looking splendid as well. Thine performance waseth wonderful!!"

Seam nodded. "I agree. You're performances were just as magical as I remember old friend."

Jevil giggled even more and if Seam didn't know better, he would say he was flustered in the presence of both him and Rouxls dressed up in fancy clothing. More purple coming to his cheeks at the compliments, but what perked the old cat's attention was the sudden start up of exciting violins and the excited gasp King Hearts made. He watched as the giant hathy pushed himself off from his throne and turned to the other giant than average hathy bowing and offering one of his giant tentacles to her. She giggled and of course accepted his offer to her. His one good eyes watched as the two intertwined hathys made their way down the small steps of the throne and into the crowd of the ballroom. Seam knew exactly what was about to start happening and sure enough, a whole bunch of other darkners were bowing or asking their partners to dance and the dancefloor area was soon filled with the dancing forms of couples as they laughed and made googoo eyes at each other under the candlelights and pink and red decorations. Jevil watched them all for a moment before looking back towards Seam and Rouxls with expectance- Rouxls jumped in surprise when a soft hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him against an equally soft body.

"Sorry old friend." Rouxls eeped when he looked up and found himself leaning against Seam as the giant stuffed cat gave Jevil a patient smile. "I know we agreed to be equals but you had your date, so please allow me to have mine. But I assure you, you can come to talk to us when we're not busy dancing or whatever it is people do on dates."

Jevil blinked, clearly not expecting that but gave a smile at them anyways, "Fair enough, fair enough. I was feeling a little hungry anyways. " He looked back to the table just as the Royal Clubs couple walked by talking loudly to themselves and making a line for the roasted tree and sports section of the table. And Seam chuckled again before tilting his head down to Rouxls.

"I know I don't know how to ballroom dance, but I suppose I Should ask you if you would care to dance anyways."

Rouxls blinked flustered up at him and cleared his throat, looking down. "W-W-Wellst if t-thou c-can't dance I shant make thee dance if thou are nay comfortable with it-"

"Oh, I'm comfortable with it. I just don't know how to do the fancy dances they're doing." He gestured to all the fancy waltzes and ballroom dances the nobles and court members were clearly doing. Chuckling when he saw the Prince Ralsei trying to dance with Princess CLover but she was so bigger than him she just stood on her back legs as Ralsei nervously held her front paws and sort of rocked with her. Clover wasn't complaining though as her faces were a dark blue and Lancer was sitting on the floor next to him and playing with the teddy bear he had given him hours ago now.

Rouxls reached a hand up to nervously grip his braid and still didn't look at Seam even as the cat let go. "W-W-Well..I-I-If thou insists- " He blinked nervously when Seam bowed and offered a paw then.

"Well then Mr. Kaard. Would you like to dance?"

Roucxls could only stand there with a deep blue blush and Jevil chuckled behind him. He opened and closed his mouth a few times like a goldfish before clearling his throat trying to look perfessional before shakily reaching a hand out and grabbing the soft paw. It closed around his smaller hand and Seam leaned back up before gently tugging him and pulling him towards the dancefloor with everyone else. Rouxls looked nervous and gave a look to Jevil behinde him only to see Jevil waving him good bye. The fancy shining light and jewelry everyone was wearing was almost blinding as he was lead into the crowd and stopped. Pulled against another figure suddenly as Seam put them into the tradional ballroom dance pose, but instead of the fancy waltzing around them, he just gently made them start swaying in small circles. Which he was releived at. He didn't know if he could handle any real fast and fancy dancing with his legs feeling like jello. He looked up to Seam's face for a moment as he smiled back, his heart skipping a beat before he cleared his throat and looked away nervously again. The silence still going on for a moment before he tried to speak and break the awkward silence.

"T-T-Thou art a b-better dancer than thou thinkest."

"Well thank you. I'm sorry if I hadn't said anything yet. But I wanted to be sure you were just as comfortable speaking." there it was, the patience and consideration of the cat he always loved.

Rouxls chuckled bashfully and fluttered his lashed up at him. "W-Well thank thou. I appreciate thou's concerns for mineself."

"But of course. Why wouldn't I? You and Jevil mean a lot to me." He chuckled. "It's been so long since anything really mattered to me as much as this."

Rouxls blinked up at him lovingly and in surprise as they still circled around. The taller form almost blocked out the light making it bounce around him and make it almost like the cat was glowing, a being of light similar to himself. Which is why his brain possibly wasn't really thinking and he suddenly stood on his tip toes and pressed a kiss to his nose tip. Seam stopped completely surprised and Rouxls suddenly pulled away. Blinking up at Seam's frozen form and a sudden feeling of guilt came over him.

"O-Oh. S-Sorry! I didst not mean to makest thou uncomfortable-"

He chuckled. "No, no. It's alright. In fact I would say it was the best part of my night."

He blinked up surprised again. "R-Really?"

Seam nodded and Rouxls sighed, releived he didn't do anything wrong by his sudden boldness but he would make sure to ask first before he did anything else like that. He wasn't sure how long they stood there dancing in each other arms, Rouxls giggling if Seam's made a small joke towards him and still smiling. But the two were soon interrupted when a white paw pulled at rouxls's cape and the worm turned around curious and came face to face with Prince Ralsei. The goat darkner looks at him with a slightly guilty face, Rouxls stared down in his arms and noticed he held a sleeping spade pup. Lancer was lightly snoring in Ralsei's arms and cutely clutching the small teddy bear in his arms, the crown lopsided on his head and that spade hole in his face closed. He shifted a little in the goat prince's arms and gave a cute puppy yawn before curling into his warmth like any cute child would.

"Uh. S-So sorry to bother you Mr. Kaard. But Lancer fell asleep and I didn't know what to do." He held the child up to him and Rouxls smiled and reached for him. Lancer's face blinked open for a second and his mind woke up just enough to recognize Rouxls so when the worm picked him up, the pup wrapped his arms around his neck and laid his head on his shoulder still clutching the bear.

He grunted as he shimmied him into his hold. "Tis quite alright. Tis rather late after all, tis only natural Lancer fell asleep." He patted Lancer's back and looked back up to Seam. "Mine apologies but I must get Lancer to bed."

He held up his paws. "No, no. It's understandable. ...*sigh* I think I better find my small one too. They're most likely tuckered out after the exciting night they just had."

The two men and sleeping child excited the dancing crowd and spotted Mak pretty easily. Jevil was hovering beside them as they snored and laid on one of the chairs placed out for the guests. The imp chuckled and waved at the trio as they arrived and Seam sighed, reaching over to take the sleeping bat in his arms and looking over them. The sunglasses were crooked on their face, and they were all wet and sticky from the punch, but he soon found the extra weight to be a whole bunch of shiny jewelry stuffed in their pockets. He didn't say or question it and instead turned and started making their way towards the exit with Jevil shrugging and the two men followed after, neither saying a word to each other in fear of waking either children until they got to the giant doors that were pushed open by servants and closed behind them as the trio made their way out. Rouxls watched the doors closed behind him before turning around to the other two smiling men.

"I...I Hadst a great time tonight. I thank thee and apologise for thine trouble."

"No apologies needed. We might as well get going anyways." He held Mak up. "Plus Jevil is my lift back, these old stitches don't feel like walking all the way back home in the middle of the night." Jevil giggled next to him and nodded.

"Doth thou need me to showest thou where the door is?"

"No worries, no worries. I can teleport anywhere!" Jevil proudly proclaimed and Rouxls smiled even more before bowing his head.

"Then I bid thee both a good night..I shall seest thoust two tomorrow.~"

The two watched as Rouxls turned and made his way down a hallway and what they presumed to be the young king's bedroom...Before Seam turn also and began walking, leaving the sounds of music and laughter behind him, but could feel Jevil right behind him floating. The two went in silence for a moment before Seam finally stopped and inhaled deeply, letting it out slowly and turned to Jevil with a smile. And the imp smiling back the two sharing the same loving thoughts of each other and a certain snow haired duke. He shifted Mak into one arm and held out his paw to the jester. Jevil happily took the paw with a giggle and flush of purple. In a second both were suck up into the void, on their way home after such a loving night.

[palettepainter]

“Raaammmieeellllll!” A familiar sounding voice whispered into her ear. Ramiel stirred in her slumber, but didn’t open her eyes, nor did she sit up from her bed to greet the visitor. She was fully aware of who they where, and if she had learnt anything from them, it was that giving them no reaction at all was often the best choice to take. It went quite for a few minutes, before something poked her cheek “Raaammieeeeelll!!” The voice sang, poking her cheek with a huge child like grin on their face, seeming to not understand that the said sleeping angel wanted them to go away. Ramiel’s brows furrowed a bit, and she tried to shove away their hand with her shoulder, alas, her attempts were futile. Once again silence, and Ramiel shifted back into a comfier position to sleep...until “Ramiel Ramiel Ramiel Ramiel Ramiel Ramiel Ramiel Ramiel-“ The cheek poking became repetitive, and soon became quickly affective at waking her up. Any other angel would have reacted with annoyance and even anger, (obviously), but for Ramiel, she had come to accept this as simply being one of the many morning greetings from her friend. And the said friend was none other than: “Jevil..” “Good morning dearest!!~” The mighty god of chaos sang cheerfully, casually floating above her and smiling ear to ear. Ramiel groaned sleepily, reaching for her glasses as she shifted into a sitting position. “So good to see you! Why! It feels like it was an eternity since we last saw each other! Don’t you think?” “..We saw each other yesterday” Ramiel said blankly, stating an obvious fact Jevil sighed “Oh how time flies!” Rolling over in the air, Jevil laid on his back, folding his arms behind his head and throwing one leg over the other, tail swaying slowly. “Hmm..” Jevil tapped his chin, darting his eyes up and down Ramiel’s exhausted look: with her usually neat and finely combed brown hair now a messy tangle of nots, her smart attire now just a simply blue night vest, and the droopy look in her expression, like she was struggling to stay awake. “Though I must be honest with you, you have been better looking!“ he batted his hand, still smiling “Now don’t take that to heart! It’s just that in my professional opinion, you’ve always suited having the smart and intellectual look over the morning bed head look.” Ramiel cocked her brow, unamused “..That’s because it’s midnight Jevil.” She directed a hand to her window, where the night sky twinkled down on the whimsical land of heaven. Jevil let out a small cackle, and leaned his noodle cat like body down near Ramiel “I knew a smart cookie like you would point that out!” Jevil offered several pats to Ramiel’s head, beaming at her like a mother would with their child. Leaning away, Jevil crossed his arms, gesturing with one hand  “Yes I figured you’d be a little bit salty with me for showing up so horrifically early - but sadly, altering the cycle of the sun isn’t something a-“ he made quotation marks “-‘reformed god’ does. After all-“ Jevil pulled a sassy grin, expecting his nails coyly “I am reformed!” He snapped his fingers, conjuring up a halo above his head “..Well, apparently not breaking into friends houses still needs work” “Ah-Ah-Ah!” Jevil wagged his finger “Whoever said it was a forced entry?” Jevil paused, before jabbing a thumb down the hallway “The kitchen window was open.” Ramiel pinched the skin between her nose, huffing under her breath. “What is it you want Jevil?..” she asked, tiredness still evident in her voice. The god  smiled happily, clapping his hands together eagerly “Isn’t it obvious dear? Why, I’ve come to deliver little Leo’s birthday gift!!” Silence hung in the room, and Ramiel blinked, genuinely unsure if Jevil was being serious. But when Jevil only continued to smile and wait for her response... “..Jevil..You do know that babies usually aren’t..awake at midnight.” “Yes.” Jevil answered politely, curiously inspecting the pillows on the end of Ramiel’s bed “..And that Leo’s birthday party doesn’t start until lunch time, correct?” “At 2pm sharp!” Jevil added formly Ramiel held her hands together, inhaling a calming breath, before she dipped then like a steeple “..So dont you think it would be better if you gave Leo your gift..at the party?” She paused, and took that moment to glance momentarily out of her window “..When the sun is up.” Jevil let out a merry chuckle, rolling about in mid air as if he had just been told a hilarious joke, but Ramiel remained looking unamused, her brow raised at her friends behaviour. “Ramiel Ramiel Ramiel!” Jevil sang, teleporting to Ramiel’s side in a flash of light “My dear DEAR friend-“ He slung an arm round Ramiel’s shoulders “You underestimate the sheer love and affection I have for your son! After all - I DID make a vow to be his godfather, did I not?” “It was more like begging.” Ramiel correcting “Details details.” Jevil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I most sadly wont be able to attend the delightful celebration.” He held the back of his hand to his head “Truly tragic, a party is never a party without dancing tea cups and cotton candy rabbits” Ramiel sat their staring in surprise. When did Jevil ever miss a party? More so, when did Jevil ever miss any of Leo’s parties! Ramiel couldn’t find any reason why Jevil wouldn’t be able to attend, she knew perfectly well Jevil didn’t care for doing chores or errands for anyone unless she persuaded him too, and Jehovah had banned any chaotic magic on the main land, so he had not chaotic work to do. “..Why won’t you be attending?” She finally asked Jevil was quite for a brief moment, his ears lowering a little, before he quickly flashed a grin and patted her shoulder “Oh it’s nothing to worry about! I simply misplaced my butterfly sandwich catching net at the bottom of the upside down lake!” He faked slapped his hand, throwing his head back a tad “I’m such a butter fingers! And I can’t attend a party without my butterfly sandwich catching net! After all, catching the sandwich’s rather then devouring them straight away is much more fun!” Ramiel had the sneaky suspicion that maybe that wasn’t the true reason, and her expression must have said so, because as soon as Ramiel went to speak, Jevil beat her to it. “Well then-“ he floated upwards, and pulled a goofy looking alarm clock from his pocket “It seems I’ve jabbered long enough!” He shook the clock near his ear and listened to the rythmatic tic tocking, before shoving it back inside its rightful pocket. “I had better deliver my gift!” He held up a finger as he spoke “Now: I want my gift to put to full use! By the time the clock strikes midnight tomorrow, the gift shall be of no more use!” “..No more use?-“ “And I want to also add, this is quite the generous gift, and I’m not quite used to being this giving.” He held a hand to his chest “And although you are not one for pestering Ramiel, do not expect me to be giving this gift back willy nilly.” Ramiel blinked “..What do you mean by-“ “And there of course shall be no magical side affects!” “..Magical...side affects?” Ramiel suddenly became uneasy, and a pit settled on her gut “..From..what?” Jevil scoffed “From the gift! Do pay attention Ramiel.” Jevil cracked his fingers, and then rubbed his hands together, tail wagging, clearly excited to give this mysterious gift “Now then! I shan’t waste anymore of your time Ramiel! After all, you’ll need to be looking your best for the party!” Jevil held up his fingers and prepared to snap, closing his eyes, but paused to quickly add “Oh! And do save me a slice of cake and sandwiches!” “Jevil wait!-“ Snap. The floating god snapped his fingers. Ramiel expected some kind of dramatic explosion of confetti or for a massive plush toy to appear in the far corner..but to her surprise, nothing happened. Eyes remaining closed, Jevil rummaged around in his pocket again, pulling out a small silver zip “Delivery, officially delivered!” He praised outload, before he let the zip float in front of him. He pulled the zip down, creating an opening back into his chaos realm “Toodle-loo!~” He said with a waggle of his fingers, before he stepped through the portal, as it shut neatly behind him. Ramiel stared at the spot where Jevil once was, all that remained now where some sparkles that gradually disappeared. Jevil’s instructions ran through her head, the cogs turning as she tried to piece it all together. What kind of gift had Jevil gotten? What did he mean by no magical side affects? Had Jevil..put a spell on Leo! Now that she thought about it she realised it wouldn’t be such a surprising thought, Jevil did enjoying using his magic to its full use, but if so, then what kind of spell had he casted? She knew it wouldn’t be anything dangerous, Jevil wasn’t THAT careless! Especially when it came to Leo. ...Ramiel exhaled a long breath “Well...guess I’ll just have to find out” she said to herself, before placing down her glasses, and drifting back into sleep. ~~~~~~~~~~~ “And after that he just..left?” Ramiel nodded with an ‘mhm’, placing down a second bowl of crisps on the table. Her two eldest brothers exchanged confused looks “Hmm, odd..” Baraquiel adjusted his glasses, thinking for a moment longer before he spoke “Mister Jevil has always been a peculiar person but..it’s not like he would miss Leo’s birthday party for nothing.”   “And you’re SURE he was making up an excuse?” Nathanial asked while turning to his sister, who only nodded. Both brothers hummed, and then exchanged looks once again, like they where having a telepathic conversation. “He told me he misplaced his net by the upside down lake..” Ramiel idly traced her finger round the edge of one of the plastic party cups, sighing quietly “But...something told me he was lying..” Ramiel fell silent, and let out another quite sigh, shifting a few things about on the table, trying to find something to keep her mind off the topic. Baraquiel cleared his throat, and then walked up to Ramiel, Nathanial soon following his lead “I’m sure Jevil will come along in his own time” “Yeah, you know him” Nathanial said paired with a shrug “Always fashionably late.” Ramiel peered up at her siblings, and tried her best to smile, it was still clear she was upset - Baraquiel and Nathanial wanted to try and reassure Ramiel further, but the two decided against it, perhaps it would be best to leave the topic be for now. “Well..” Ramiel glanced to the clock briefly, and then peered back to her siblings “The guests will be here soon, could you two finish with the food?..I’m going to go and wake Leo.” Ramiel could vaguely hear Nathanial and Baraquiel agreeing as she walked off down the hallway, but her mind was elsewhere, and she hardly heard what it was they said. Her mind was pondering on the question she’d be asking herself for the whole of that morning: Why had Jevil lied? The god of chaos worked in mysterious and unexplainable ways, and no one truly knew what it was that he was planning or going to do next. But for Ramiel, things where different. She had picked up on certain behaviours of his, and how he acted in different scenarios. At this stage, Ramiel was confident that she could read Jevil like a book. And her gut was telling her for sure that Jevil hadn’t been honest with her. But why? Why would Jevil had needed to lie? Did he simply not want to attend the party? Was he nervous about the angels that would be showing up? Was he nervous he may make the party worse with his magical antics? The last option seemed like it could have been a reason, but Ramiel soon thought against it, Jevil was never really shamed to show off his abilities. However, with 2pm drawing closer and the party almost ready, there was no time for her to find Jevil and question his actions. ‘I suppose I could talk about it with him later..maybe he will show up, Jevil is very fond of parties after all’ she told herself Approaching the door to her sons room, she could already hear the familiar gurgling and babbling coming from inside. Smiling, Ramiel reached for the door handle and then poked her head inside “Good morning Leo” the birthday boy was sitting up in his crib, back facing his mother as he waved his stuffed bear enthusiastically, giggling away. Ramiel couldn’t help but snicker as she walked inside the room, reaching into her sons crib and lifting him up to cradle him “Happy birthd-“ Ramiel’s words got caught in her throat, and in that second, if felt as if even the earth itself had stopped moved. For in her arms, staring back at her with child like glee, love, and curiosity - where two pink, spiral eyes. Jevil’s eyes Leo waved his tiny hands up at the face of his mother, wanting to touch her face. Lost in both wonderment and pure fear, Ramiel slowly lifted Leo up to her, just like how she would do every morning so that he could tell if it was her. Leo drooled on his onesie sleeve, and then reached a curious hand out, grabbing his mothers cheek. Ramiel felt a fresh bulk of tears gathering in the corner of her eye when a lob sided smile pulled at her little angels lips He let out a gurgly giggle, hands freely roaming her face as he felt at her cheeks, forehead and glasses. He soon began to nom on some strands of her hair, but she didn’t care, she choaked back a sob, her lips curling up into a smile. “Ramiel?” Nathanial poked his head into the room, his brother senses kicking in when he heard her light sobbing from the hallway. Concern growing he quickly walked over to her, soon followed by Baraquiel. Once the two where close to her, their eyes widened to the size of plates when they saw Leo with bright pink eyes. He gurgles at the two new faces, reaching curious hands out to both of them. “W-What..” Nathanial pointed a slightly trembling finger at his nephew “What happened to his..eyes?” Baraquiel, compared to Nathaniel looked much more calmer, and slowly waved his finger in front of Leo from side to side, the baby followed his finger, and then grabbed it with a giggle. He hummed “It...seems he can see.” He said, half lost for words “..Jevil’s eyes” “..What?” Nathaniel gave his sister a cocked brow Ramiel smile grew more, as she finally brought Leo close to cradle him, the curious tot was peering all around the room, taking in the new sights that he could not see before. Ramiel lowered her head to gently kiss his forehead, and it earns her a string of giggles and tiny excites claps. “They’re Jevil’s eyes...His gift!” It all finally clicked into place, and Ramiel suddenly realised what gift Jevil had given. “He said there would be no magical side affects..I, assumed he had casted some spell, but..” she paused, before sniffling, and wipping at her eye “I didn’t except anything like this!” Once again she drew Leo closer to her, hugging him with the most tender loving care, showering his forehead with kisses, and little Leo happily took the attention from his precious mother. Nathanial And Baraquiel, gradually recovering from their shock, eagerly knelt a little to make eye contact with Leo, who glanced to his Uncles. “Hey there little dude! What’s it like to see now huh?” The only response Nathanial got was incoherent babbling, but it sounded happy, so he’d take it. He let out a rare chuckle, before he moved out of the way for Baraquiel to say hello. “Hello there little one!” Once again, Baraquiel reaches out his finger and gently tickled Leo’s stomach. The baby let out a squeaky laugh, before grasping at Baraquiel’s finger. Ramiel couldn’t help but snicker under her breath, unfolding her wings she gently pulled her two oldest brothers into a hug, eyes still smiling down at Leo with warmth and love. The moment was perfect, until a very  ‘poof’ sound came from the lounge..followed by a thud and a groan All eyes went to the doorway of the bedroom, Nathanial felt his fingers curling into a fist was was prepared to throw a punch, but relaxed when very familiar and fuzzy face leaned into the doorway. “Ramiel!!~” Jevil greeted enthusiastically, waving four nets in his hand as he beamed a mischievous grin “I brought my sandwich catching net!! And lookie-“ He gestured to the other three “I brought spares!~ Who’d have know my sandwich nets where in my closet the whole time! Oh were going to have so much fun my dear!!” Jevil went to pat Ramiel’s head, only for him to pat nothing. Chuckling nervously, Jevil guided himself cautiously into the room, before he found who he guessed to be Ramiel from the sound of Leo’s gurgling, and patted her head softly. “Ah, I’m terribly sorry for that.” Jevil pointed to his eyes, that where now replaced with glassy shiny eyes, Leo’s eyes. “I may have made a slight misjudgement, this is a lot harder then I thought it would be.” There was a brief pause, and for a small moment, Jevil was worried he had said something wrong. His intrusion might have interrupt a sweet moment- Jevil felt something wrap around his middle, and then something fluffy resting on his back. He hummed, ears perked forward. He looked down where the sounds of Leo’s gurgling where strongest. Though he couldn’t see it, Ramiel was hugging him. One arm and wing wrapped around his back while the other arm held her son, who was still babbling away. Something warm began to grow in Jevil’s chest, it felt weird, but oddly nice. Smiling, Jevil reached a hand gently down to feel Ramiel’s head, before he carefully knelt down to wrap his arms and wings round her and Leo, returning to hug. Leo cooed, leaning his head to the side - he reached out a hand and rugged at one of Jevil’s feathers, causing him to flinch. “Oh don’t worry!” Jevil leaned back and balanced himself perfectly on his tail, leaning his head down to what he guessed was at eye level with Leo “Your old Uncle Jevil hasn’t forgotten about you!” Leo clapped his hands and kicked his legs excitedly, remembering Jevil’s voice almost instantly. With Ramiel’s help, she guided Jevil’s arms so that he was now cradling Leo. Jevil’s grin couldn’t have been more bright as he fondly nuzzled Leo, the enthusiastic tot cooed once again, hands reaching to Jevil’s cheeks to feel at his fur, the soft touch bringing back more memories of him. KNOCK KNOCK “Ah, must be the others.” Nathanial and Baraquiel walked to the doorway “We’ll let you guys catch up, see you two out there!” Nat said whip casually waving as he and his brother left out into the hallway. As guests filled up in the lounge, Jevil continued to coddle and dot over Leo, speaking in the most sugary sweet baby voice he could make. It was an amusing sight to see, the mighty lord of chaos fussing over a wee baby. Ramiel watched with a content smile, sighing quietly. “Well-“ Jevil snapped his digits, and the four sandwich catching nets magical materialised into his spare hand and Leo safely appeared in his mothers arms. “Aren’t we going to go and join the others? This IS a party after all!” Smile still present, Ramiel let Leo lean on her shoulder, lightly bouncing him in her arms “Yes, let us join them.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @cosmic-artzz I’M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG! I had this idea ages ago and it was inspired by some RP’s me and Cosmic had over Twitter, involving my god of Chaos OC Jevil, and her angel OC’s Ramiel and her son Leo. I’m not sure when exactly Leo is born in Cosmic’s heaven AU, but this story probably takes place way in the future. To anyone who doesn’t know about these characters: Ramiel was assigned to be Jevil’s caretaker of sorts, so that Jevil can become reformed (I’m not sure if this is cannon in Cosmic’s main heaven AU or if this takes place in a completely separate AU) - I told Cosmic that Jevil would adore Leo, he’d trade his left arm and right leg of it make him happy. This is a story of Jevil generously leading Leo his sight for his birthday, while Jevil has Leo’s blindness for the day, but that won’t stop him from having fun! (sorry if some parts aren’t written well, I’m not that good at writing sappy stuff)

DO NOT REPOST/EDIT/COPY/TRACE MY ART, THE OC’S OR MY WRITTING!! Ramiel/Leo/Nathanial/Baraquiel - @cosmic-artzz Jevil - me

[a-kiwi-fruit-that-makes-ocs]

So basically when I go to bed at night I hold my Spamton queen sized pillow (The cutest thing ever.) and I think about this idea I have that I might make into a fanfic. Basically I have this small business and Big Shot Spamton took pity on me and dated me to make me feel better, mainly because I remind him of his past self. Note about Big Shot Spamton in this thing, he frequently dates people in like that “trophy person” kinda way (He dates whoever, usually not for long because he’s just trying to prove somewhat to himself that he’s lovable after his abandonment.) But here’s the catch. This time, he actually falls in love instead of the relationship being something that makes him feel better about his abandonment. (The dating people a bunch and not really loving them thing is canon because of the sweepstakes, seeing as how he cheated on Jevil. I just choose to say “Oh my god this totally looks like searching for people to fill the void in one’s heart after being abandoned.” And the cheating is DEFINITELY a self destructive behavior, intentionally trying to mess up relationships because he feels like he doesn’t deserve the possibility of love.) Anyways the relationship goes on, and Spamton can’t bring himself to telling my self insert that he loves him. This results in an argument with my self insert ending the relationship. Shortly after, Mike leaves Spamton. Spamton becomes friends with, and ends up dating Swatch as a rebound to my self insert. Swatch figures out that it’s a rebound, and dumps Spamton’s ass. (Also because Spamton is self destructive and can’t show his love for people) Spamton, now having no money and no relationship or friendships, ends up falling into acid BUT NOT ON PURPOSE. He got lost when leaving the mansion and tripped into the acid. He got thrown out shortly after that. So now his legs are pretty messed up, and he has no one. So he tries to sneak in, multiple times. It doesn’t work. Meanwhile, my self insert is physically doing well, but doesn’t really open up to anyone anymore. He has a few customers he’s happy to see, but not many close friends. Skipping a few years, my self insert finds Spamton in the alley. Neither of them recognize each other, as Spamton has pretty much been lost to madness and not only has blocked out the memories of my self insert, but looks nothing like how he used to. He hasn’t quite gotten to the “Needs a lightner soul” phase yet, but he is defensive in an aggressive way. My self insert calms him down and takes him home, to which he ends up saying his name. Spamton G. Spamton. My self insert has the realization of how badly Spam has been messed up, and just breaks down because he never stopped loving Spamton, he was just upset that he felt like Spamton never loved him. The two have a moment, and Spamton breaks down too because someone is taking pity on him. They hug, and that’s when Spamton’s memories are triggered. The two just cry and cry before my self insert helps him get clean, and sees him some nicer clothes to wear. They have a heart to heart, and Spamton went to sleep in the guest bedroom, but he got scared and asked to cuddle to sleep instead. My self insert tells Spamton that he loves him, and in the morning, Spamton is gone. He left a note about how my self insert couldn’t love him like how he is now, and how he obviously only wants Big Shot Era Spamton. My self insert, of course, goes on a whole mission to find him. He’s back in the trash, and a Fight ensues. Spamton’s attacks get less and less dangerous as he just breaks into tears, while my self insert dodges not a single attack and just tells Spamton about how he loves Spamton no matter what. He doesn’t care that he’s been hurt, he doesn’t care how messed up he is. He doesn’t care about how rich or famous he is. Eventually Spamton just stops attacking and breaks down. That’s all I’ve got for now.

[afterthelastreset]

Rules Of One’s Soul Ch21 The Duke’s Return

(Mak belongs to @wasted-church)

AH! Being loved and praised was such a remarkable feeling was it not?

Which is what he had been asking himself all night last night laying awake in bed for who knows how many hours after he and Jevil had parted ways that afternoon and couldn't help but feel like he wanted to ram his head against a brick wall and feel as happy as a young school boy with his first crush now....It was quite the internal debate really. But he surprisingly felt....Happy. Fulfilled even. Like a missing piece of the puzzle finally put itself together in his miserable life. Yes, he still felt regret for having to tell him something so personal but hey. His soul thumped with happiness and fulfillment and dare say...maybe...Love? Whoa. Whoa. Slow down there. Just because you two shared two personal moments and he kissed you a couple times, that doesn't automatically make you two in a relationship or even in love for all that matter. And there was still Seam to deal with and helping Lancer out with this ball idea they had been throwing together for who knows how long. That's a lot of responsibility for one child and needed to be taken seriously if he wanted to be the best father he could be. So for know he would sleep on it and return tomorrow with a fresh mind and not think of any kisses or funny laughing imp's right now.

And that went as well as you would think.

He woke up about two hours late past scheduale and he cursed as he rushed to get himself looking presentable and teleported to the castle. But what he wasn't really expecting was the amount of color to hit him all at once-....OH SWEET MOTHER OF LIGHT!! So much pink and red. The familiar slight twisted and rush of his light weight being carried through with his usually way of teleporting was quite peaceful compared to the amount of eye soar that greeted him once the beautiful white light of his glow faded away. He had to blink to make sure his brain wasn't tricking him. But nope! Pink and read decorations were everywhere. In just the hallway the duke landed in alone, there must've been at least a hundred hearts drapped from the ceiling and more frilly and lace induced decor stretching every which way he could see. .....He couldn't remember the last time he had beheld so much love induced decorating since...Well- He didn't need to be thinking about that right now did he?

"W-Welcome back, Sir." The sudden voice made him jump and whirl around only to spot a hathy just a few feet away from him. She giggled and held a tentacle to her mouth before giving him a sincerely happy smile. "It's so good to know you're break wasn't a boring one. Hehe."

"Eh...L-Likewise."

Everything beyond the hathy was as normal as he expected it to be. About every servant or guard he passed was either chatting about the upcoming ball or 'party' as he heard, or gushing about the up coming night they would hopefully spend the night with their true love. It was all rather adorable and made him chuckle a few times if he was honest. Oh he wondered how many cards he had already gotten from his admirers piled on his desk already. Begging him to go with them or swooning over his dashing looks.~....Imagine his surprise when he opened the door to his office and not only found everything clean, but with absolute no backed up paperwork and absolutely zero cards with the exception of one. The giant one left on his desk was crudely made and had a macaroni smiley face glued to the front of it's red face, and upon opening it up had a pretty stick figured portrait of himself and a small round blue potato which he could only guess was supposed to be him and Lancer holding hands. In terrible handwriting was spelt :

"mE Anb LeSSER Dad!! P.s. I TOTALLY dibs not Eat Half the CAKE!! It WAs Uncle JeviL!!"

That made him chuckle and feel himself be filled with even more joy. Oh Lancer. Ever the little scoundral....OH RIGHT!! He dropped the card back onto the desk and turned immediately to leave. He had almost completely forgotten about his little water beetle, he had to go to him immediately and see what damage had been done if an- Loud sounds and a small pair of fast footsteps approached and he could only guess who had could be. A blue circle dragged itself past the door way out of sight to the other side, before quickly changing it's direction and bulldozer it's way into the office.

"OOF-"

The blue circle blur rammed into his chest at the speed of sound and they both went down to the ground with a thump. He groaned from the impact and felt something constrict itself and bounce on his ribs.

"LESSER DAD!! YOU'RE BACK!!" The child shouted happily and leaned over his face to look down at the worm. Tongue stuck between his teeth.

"...G-Grand to seest thou too, S-Son. Now pleaseth get off mine chest," he wheezed, the spade child was heavier than he looked. But alas it seemed his boy wanted to be held because he giggled and wrapped his arms around his neck when he slowly sat up. To which the worm sighed but gladly accepted the boy's affections with open arms. It was just a little hard to stumble to his feet while holding him in his grip. But somehow he managed. Lucky him.

Lancer giggled when he was lifted up in his father's arms. "HOHOHO!! As king I get to make the Dad rules now Lesser Dad! And you're my loyal steed!!"

"Oh, art I now?" He smiled and shook his head. His eyes gazed over him, Lancer didn't seem worse for wear and it didn't look like anything had changed in the ten days he had been gone. That was a good sign. So hopefully Jevil had kept his word and had been telling the truth the whole time he was talking.

The spade cub nodded. "Yep!...Hey, Lesser Dad. What's a steed?"

The duke laughed and walked out of the office and back into the love infested castle. He still got a sorrowful feeling in his gut being surrounded by all this love, but he guessed his calm mind must've finally been catching up with reality and numbed his skittish side. It was the only logical explanation for his behavior after all. But all that aside he made his way to the royal throne room where the other kings were most likely to be, if there was anything important to discuss or plan then he needed to get right on top of it. There was no time to dilly dally after all. ....But as he walked listening to Lancer ramble on able all the cool plans him and Uncle Jevil had come up with to 'Spice up the mushy party' he noticed a few of the staff gave him side glances and wide smiles, well he couldn't blame then for their gawking. Naturally he was prime crush material.~ But then why were some giving him weird looks? Oh well. Let them be jealous of his magnifinece.

"And he said his friend was gonna help him do this trick with fireballs! And it's gonna be like BAM! KABOOM!! BANG!!" He threw his arms out momentarily making ROuxls stumble and scramble to recover balance before they fell over. Which luckily he did. "...Uh..Sorry, Dad."

He rolled his eyes with a sigh, but made a mental note to instant a backup fire safety plan. "Tis alright." They were already at the entrance to said throne room already and on the other side he could hear the very familiar sound of the King of Clubs-

"AW! It's cute Clover wants to invite him as her date!" "NO! Absolutely not!" "He's not good enough for her! NO ONE IS!!" "But he helped save us?" "Still doesn't matter!"

He shifted Lancer in his grip to where he was holding him in one arm and a blue hand reached out to the door and opened. As sure as he suspected, on the other side down the hall like room was King Clubs in all his glory. Five heads arguing about some boy or date or whatever Clover wanted to bring with her to the ball. Across from his sat King Diamond who had one of his four hands rubbing his temples probably already over the whole thing, while King Heart was busy looking at a long scroll of paper that went almost to the floor. Don't ask him how he could read without any eyes visible, but what really made him raise a brow was the length of the scroll. The kings were easily almost three feet taller than he was, so the list was incredibly long if it was almost touching his feet. Diamond was the first to notice them approach and lifted his head from his hands with a smile.

"OH! Look who we have here. The return of the noble King upon his mighty duke steed."

Lancer giggled and wagged his little tail and the Duke rolled his eyes. "Good morrow to thou too, Mine Majesties." He did a light bow or what he could manage with Lancer not quite ready to let go yet. "I haveth returned from mine ...'vacation' as I shouldst. Apologies for mine tardiness. I assure thee it willst not happy again."

King Diamond waved a hand and gave a smile. "No, no. It's fine...At least you got away from Clubs for a good while." His eyebrow rose at the still arguing Multiheaded king who while wasn't as loud anymore still angrily whisper argued to each other and groaned. "At least you got to relax-"

Rouxls chuckled dryly remembering the past ten day's events. "Heh. Thou wouldst be surprised-"

"Did you say something Diamonds?" The giant Hathy looked up from the scroll in his tentacles and turned towards Diamonds, but before the giant snake monster could reply his gaze(or what he would've considered to be his gaze if he had eyes. Actually head) turned downwards near the floor and smiled at the sight of the small king being held by Rouxls. "AH! Mr. Rouxls! You returned! Thank goodness. I could help with the last of these erronds before the ball." He gave a guilty look and shifted the long scroll. "T-There's only three day left and I haven't even finished half of these yet and I still have to speak with my beloved Amory. She'll be so disappointed if I can't help her p-pick the floral displays like I promised. "

"Fear not my majesty. I shallst see to thine preparations accordingly."

"OH! Thank you! You're a life saver!" A major relief came over the giant hathy's face and Rouxls was happy to serve his Kings again. It would be a good distraction for what regretful feelings were being felt. "H-Here." He lowered the giant scroll down to the Duke who extended a hand to take it. "I-It's everything that needs to be done before then."

Rouxls smiled and held the list up to his face, expecting most of what was already on the long thing to be crossed out or marked as done...But his smile quickly dropped upon seeing the long list of things needed to be done. To be fair a giant portion of the list was crossed off, and the King being a bigger darkner of course had bigger handwriting so the words despite only being a few deeds, still needed a longer list of paper to accommodate the larger handwriting. Giving it the illusion of it being a long list of things when in fact it was only a few large words on the list. He was used to it, so that's not what shocked in. What shocked him was the amount of work, each task remaining task brought-

- Send out one invitation per darkner family

- Prepare the feast

- Give forth the orders of no 'adult talk' during the ball

He guessed he added that last one for Lancer, he could just add that into the invites. But that was only a few out of what must have been twenty or so. Lancer leaned a little closer to the list and pointed at a few crossed out words.

"Uncle Jevil and I did that one! And that one! I got to help him decorate and he showed me lots of tricks! He let me pick the best one ones for the 'enter-containment'!" He beamed with pride as his tail wagged. But Rouxls wasn't smiling at his happiness this time.

Instead his gaze slowly turned to the nervous looking Hathy who was tapping his tentacles together and smiling apologies at him. "Sire. Pardon mine doubts in thou's abilities, ...but didst thou really not getteth ANY of this finished within the month thou has planned and mine time away from the castle?''

King Heart chuckled nervously. "U-Um..W-Well, we got...some of it done, b-b-but we couldn't really decide about which one of our ideas we should do f-for the invites a-and other things. Hehe..heh."

The other two things had fallen silent and gave each other guilty looks over it all. Rouxls sighed and gave the list in his hand another look over bouncing Lancer in one of his arms...This would take a lot of work, but also to get these kings back on track, he knew very well he couldn't just invite every Darkner on the entire kingdom. There must've beeen thousands of subjects in their small kingdom alone....They could just invite the castle staff and encourage everyone else to celebrate it there own way. Much easier to manage than thousands of citizens. Which just left the castle staff and nobles like himself....Which still left easily around three hundred people. Oh dear light he could feel himself already getting tired at just one job alone, but like with any task, he'd be sure to come up with something. After all, Rouxls Kaard was never one to give up easily. Whelp. So much of his relaxing vacation-

"Uncle Jevil can help!" Lancer shouted startling the poor Duke into almost dropping him again. "..Oops. Sorry Lesser Dad. But Uncle Jevil can help! He can-"

"Letteth me guess," He interrupted him with a roll of his eyes, "He canst so anythinge."

"...Actually he can help with all these invite-tation thingies. He can write paper really fast like when he did all your work!"

Rouxls looked at the child with a raised brow, "Jevil didst all mine paperwork?" Lancer nodded his head yes with a hum.

Well whaddya know. The loon actually kept his word by taking on all his tasks and getting everything done it seemed, of course he'd still have to ask Lancer a few questions about the events of the past few days to be completely sure, but it did seem like he had nothing to worry about beyond this giant impossible list...which had to be complete within three days including today. He cooed thinking about it...Except he didn't coo. That sound came from the giant Hathy who sighed and held his tentacles against his head as if he adored the sight before him, Rouxls had no idea what about him discussing the list with Lancer was so adorable but he guessed Lancer was the cutest little water beetle-

"OH! There's nothing more I'd rather see than blossoming love!" Rouxls smiled and rolled his eyes good naturdly but froze by the king's next words. "Amory and I never really got along at first either, but after we sparked and talked it over it was like we were meeting a whole new person! There was nothing we wouldn't do for one another even to this day!~ *sigh*"

King Diamond groaned and reached a hand up to rub his temples. "I swear you get too wishy washy at the tiniest things-"

"E-Excuseth me mine majesties," he interrupted before another arguement could be sparked between them, "But what art thou speaking of?"

"Oh? Well yours and Mr. Jevil's newly established relationship of course! It's so nice to see him settling down and so happy. He said hopefully there'll be little pitter patters of children soon!" He giggled like he was expressing a romantic novel he had just read. And failed to notice the dropping face of the Duke before him in horror at what he was being told. "Oh it'll be grand to have young life around the halls again."

Lancer grinned and turned to Rouxls excitedly. "I get a baby brother?!"

Rouxls fell silent. The weight of the situation hitting him like a sack of bricks. Not that anyone really noticed at the moment, except for Little Lancer who tilted his head at his father's weird face. Flashes of everyone's funny looks his way came back to him, flooding his brain with it, as well as the suspicious lack of love letters this year and with what King Heart had just said-.....

"EXCUSE ME!! WHAT?!" Any sound or talking was quickly shut up upon the duke's high pitched voice peircing their ears painfully and bouncing off the walls, the kings and Lancer wincing back at the loud shout and stare at him with confusion racked faces. Even the always arguing King Clubs had stopped to marvel at the duke who looked ready to faint from embarrassment judging by his flushed face. Even the guards stationed within the room looked almost uncomfortable watching this- "P-Pardon mine s-sudden outburst, Your Royalties. But t-t-that worm and I are nay in ANY sort of r-romantical s-s-shennanigans!"

"....Really?" His tone seemed genuinely confused, and when Rouxls nodded Heart hummed and brought a tentacle up to rub his chin. "Oh my, my, my. Well this certainly is an awkward position to have put you in isn't it? My apologies. ..Although I guess now it makes sense as to why he said he wasn't accompanying you to the ball, I suppose. He must've been referring to a different Kaard with a similar sounding I guess...." He leaned down near eye level with the worm and the duke did was he always did in this kind of situation and smiled wide and nervously. "Are you quite sure? With all the facts he stated I could've sworn it was you?"

Not being one to lie to any of the royal family of course, the duke swallowed the lump in his throat and gave a nervous chuckle to the giant Hathy's confused frown. "I-I-I w-well...I guesseth over t-t-the course of ...however l-long we hadst been having a..fewest teeny tiny r-rendenvous??"

Heart looked at him for a bit longer, a few drops of slime forming at his face at the close proximity, but eventually a realization smile came over him and he leaned back up. "OH! I understand now. Silly me, he's courting you!"

Rouxls....blinked. Courting? Well if one looked at what exactly Jevil did do over the entirety of his behavior ever since that day before the lightners came, and with all he was doing up til now, one could quite consider his behavior as if Jevil was really courting him. The thought hadn't crossed his mind til now, but he guessed this did count as the fool's own way of 'courting'. "U-Uh-...Y-Yes. It wouldst appeareth so." His wide smiled appeared back on his face. "W-Wouldst thou excuseth mineself for just a moment- ...YOU THERE?!" He whirled around and pointed at one of the Rudinn guards in the room, the poor guard jumped and almost dropped his spear from the sudden action. "Send word out for the Court Jester immediately."

The guard gave a salute to the duke and without a word to argue they turned and slithered off towards the door as fast as Rudinn possible, thumbling his weapon a few times and dropping it with a clang before just leaving it and diving out the door. Spear forgotten in the door entrance. Rouxls stared a moment longer before sighing and straightening up, Lancer was giving him a concerned look.

"...Is Uncle Jevil in trouble?"

Rouxls flinched but gave a reassuring smile. "None at all, Little King." His teeth gritted under that smile and his eye twitched. "I just wisheth to discuss his...h-help with a few things is all."

"....Does this mean I don't get a baby brother?"

*********************************************************************************************

The fire crackled peacefully in the room as the ones within it sat silently doing there own personal business. Seam sitting at the counter lazily like he did most days, now a days it was just a bit more busier than usual. Every few hours or so, a Rudinn or Hathy would come in, frantically looking around at the shelves and picking out one of his random knickknacks or buy some candy to give to their beloved as a last minute gift. Too bad he wouldn't be open on the actual holiday. Meanwhile Jevil was busy trying to sew up any odd patches or small threads in that odd purple suit of his...You would think anyone who would be able 'to do anything' would be decent at sewing, but it appears the master of chaos wasn't mastering this.

"....You got the wrong seam again." The child crawled their way across the couch and point to the messy attempt that was a yarn stitched up hole in the side. Mak tilted their head at it. "It looks sloppy."

Jevil grumbled and held it up to take a look at the terrible stitching job. They were right. It wouldn't do at all for the event if he wanted to do his best, and of course if a child thought it looked sloppy then who knows what everyone else would think. A laugh caught his ears and he turned to see Seam smiling at the two of them with a head tilt. Jevil had been at this thing for a while now. Who knew he was a perfectionist?

"Would you perhaps like me to help you? I think I have decent skill with needle and thread." He reached a paw up to rub the top on his head where the giant black patch was.

But of course Jevil shook his head. "No, no! I can do anything! Something as simple as sewing, sewing is beneath me." Once look back to his messy yarn stitch made him give off a nervous chuckle. "...It'll just take some time, time."

Seam chuckled and turned back to the sheap entrance. "Suit yourself."

Every since the discovery about the Duke...a lot of things have fallen into place. Rouxls's reluctance to touch and affection, his nervous habits, his scars-...And why he was so concerned about the boy's well being. Seam bristled. Just thinking about having to endure what the duke did and still be so proud of his job and take on the role of father to the very child of the terrible king...But he couldn't judge too much. After all he taken his own metaphorical beatings and taking a small ankle biter of his own-...His ear twitched and his head tilted towards the flap door of the sheap. A moment later it flapped open and a green blur plopped to the ground. Seam didn't even flinch as he looked down at the green puddle gasping for breath on his sheap floor.

"...Welcome, Stranger. What brings you to my sheap?"

The green puddle, who was a very tired looking Rudinn wheezed out and slowly raised his head to gaze up at the giant stuffed cat. "...*wheeze* T-T-The Duke has s-s-sent for the Court Jester-...I-Imediately. hhhaaaa-"

His face plopped back to the floor and Seam hummed. Turning around and finding Jevil staring in their direction. "You hear that Jevil? Apparently you're wanted at the castle."

A giggle came from the Jester and his tail wagged, thumping against the couch with soft thumps. Standing up, suit falling into the paws of Mak who gave it a look over.

"Oh. Yes, yes. Who am I to deny royalty, royalty.~"

[afterthelastreset]

Rules Of One’s Soul Ch10 A Small Trip

(Mak belongs to @wasted-church )

The night was crisp. Clear. And the recent days of rain made everything smell fresh. It was nights like this he liked, it meant he could walk and clear his head. But right now he was finding that extremely difficult to do with the amount of emotions swimming through his mind. Anger at the fact these two were treating this whole situation as a game. Stress from all the distractions and foolishness from the past few days. An empty feeling in his gut nagging him to turn around on the spot and go apologize to his soulmates- Another rumble and slight pain shot tbrough him. Making him wince. .....And the fact he hadn't been able to find one decent thing to eat all day. Except candy. But that wasn't healthy or fit for his body at all. I mean who in their right mind would eat candy for every meal?....Jevil that's who. But he wouldn't lower his standards to his level. He had a job and reputation to uphold after all. He couldn't afford to be distracted with these absolute fools just because they wanted to play cupid at.....Soul matching day....Where other's confessed their love.

Oh god. That sick feeling in his stomach returned in full making him stumble a few steps as he mindlessly stumbled towards his home.

That holiday would always have a reminder of that fateful day-.....He still remembered that holiday. He still remembered that day. ...He could never forget her-

***********************************

The day was absolutely beautiful. Shiny pink and red hearts and souls decorations lined the walls of the castle and the lively bustle and excited chatter of servants around the halls was absolutely wonderful to everyone's ears. ...Well almost everyone. The giant spade huffed at the onslot of lovy dovy emotion being thrown around like common courtesy. God. Hathy"s and their stupid customs. Dragging everyone else into the stupid holiday mood. Most were too busy in their own desires that they didn't notice the Spade King's sour mood. Except for one loyal servant.

"Tis not e-everything to t-thou's liking mine majesty?"

The giant spade slowly tilted his head partially to give any kind of indication that he was looking at him behind the black abyss of the facehole the spade adorned with the hood. The king didn't look very pleased to say the least. He shifted in his giant throne and tapped his large hand on the arm more. The worm gave a giant nervous grin and the skin on his face began to melt slightly from the prolonged silence of the giant spade before him. The king was known for his unruly temper.

"D-Doth thou not enjoyeth thine festivities? "

The spade gave off another huff. His face still giving a clear frown. "What I would enjoy dear Duke if my subjects and guards didn't frolic around idiots drunken on lust," he spat out with a deep growl, "Heart was always one for sentimental stupidity. "

The worm was starting to get more nervous now. As he nervously chuckled and rubbed his hands together. "B-B-But Sire. D-Does not thy Queen likest t-thine holiday?"

The king grunted before leaning to his side and placing his head in his hand. Giving Rouxls a moment to relax somewhat now that the giant king wasn't looking directly at him. Using the Queen as a tool to deflat the king's anger was something he ptefered not to do but when one's anger was like that of a volcanos you'd have to do things one would normally not want to do. Luckily the Queen usually didn't mind in these situations. She was known for being the more....levelheaded of the two spade monarchs and usually her presence would be enough to calm the spade.

"Of course she does." The king's sudden voice made him flinch and stare at the king. He stared out the window at nothing in particular. His voice now a tad less annoyed sounding.".....I haven't forgotten."

"Of course n-not, Sire. S-Shall I send f-for a royal florist Sir? Everyone haseth been giving thy King of Heart's s-special flowers on thine day-"

He was stopped when the king held up a hand. "No. I won't join into the idiotic foolishness. ...Go. Leave me."

The worm didn't have to be told twice as he quickly bowed and made his way towards the giant doors leading to the throne room. To say he was glad to be dismissed now would be an understatement. He was darn happy to be away from the angry atmosphere the Spade King produced. But at least it gave him time to enjoy the little freedom he had away from the monarch. Sighing he dared to give off a rare smile in public and began to walk away from the doors down the large castle hall. The smiles and giggles given off from others fueled that smile on that nervous face of his. He barely registered a small group of hathys nearby. One gave him a shy wave with one of her tentacles, to which he gave an awkward smile back and waved politely. Making said hathy fluster a bright green followed by giggles from her surrounding friends. Rouxls gave a cough and quickly made his exit away from the hathys. Admiration went out to the ones who skillfully decorated the castle under King Heart's command. An excellent sight of red and pinks scattered throughout the place, though it would've been nice to include other soul colors. He knew himself that his soul wasn't a bright pink or red. But red was the color of love and passion, suitable to others who wish to find their lovers this day-

His heart beat faster at the thought of his own love that stole his heart. Her smile. The way she brought him kindness in such a stressful job. Her beautiful voice-

"Rouxls?"

That voice.

He stopped and turned around. The regal form standing just a few feet away from him.

"Mine Queen."

***********************************

Red no longer showed passion or love for him. Red was turned to the Spade's anger. Love was kept secret between those who had it. The holiday forgotten. But Lancer was determined to bring it all back it seemed. For him it'll be just another duty he'll have to attend to. He wondered how Lancer was doing right now? It was only a day sure but his little worm would be dealing with a massive ball and duties as king without him and surrounded by that crazy loon for who knows how long.

Another rumble and pain shot through him.

"Shut up I knoweth I needs nutrition l," he snapped down to his stomach.

First thing first though. He needed to get something solid inside himself. Mumbling to himself, he walked a bit faster towards his destination. Which wasn't far thankfully. The hip shop came into view just up the dirt trail. The door was shut with the closed sign present which pleased him. At least no one would've went in while he was gone for a couple hours. Upon coming upon the door he swung it open to a sight he found to his satisfaction. The place still mostly clean from his hard work from that morning and everything looked like it had been left untouched. Good. He hated it when his hard work went to waste. Sighing in releif, he made his way over to the counter to where the bag Seam had left wad sitting.

He rose a brow at the old tattered thing but sighed and reached out towards the thing. He might as well see what the cat dragged in so to speak. He reached a blue hand in and pulled out multiple dark candies and dark candy tree leaves that bounced on the counter but luckily none of them fell to the floor. Followed by them was his missing books on poetry and the spare blanket at the bottom Seam promised to return. .....Wait a minute. He blinked back towards the book. Did Seam take these because he enjoyed poetry too or or because he planned on selling them? He shook his head and decided to put all these things away. ....Along with the laundry dangling from the ceiling above his head. He sighed and slumped his shoulders forward. It was going to be a long rest of the day. And this was supposed to be a first day of a 'relaxing' vacation. The rumble of his empty stomach made him groan and turn to the shelves.

There had to be some kind of food leftover around here. Surely they couldn't have taken everything. A quick scan of the shelves proved him wrong as any canned product he had was gone....and the worms in the jars were probably expired by now. He groaned before a long forgotten thought made its way into his mind. Didn't Seam say he left something edible in the cabinets? The thought made his stomach churn.

Turning his sights to the cabinet he strode on over and yanked it open without hesitation. To his surprise, there was a small box. The same small box that Jevil presented the cake in. The thought of eating such a sweet unhealthy thing after having an empty stomach all day and something made by that love bond imp no less made him gag enternally. But his stomach would be the death of him. So with reluctance, he reached inside and grabbed the box.

He went to sleep much later that night. But it was once again a dreamless slumber and once again woke up more tired than he should be. The overly sweet taste of last nights cake still stinging his taste buds. The whole thing tasted and felt like a giant oversweet marshmallow. Too sweet for even Lancers young taste buds.But at least he didn't receive a rude awakening this time round. Thankfully. But that still didn't deter him from the possibility of the crazy Jester or cat showing up unannounced. Which meant the lock still needed repairs. Now Rouxls was never a morning person. Even as a young boy. But when something needed to get done, you'd bet he wouldn't stop until it was perfected to his satisfaction, which meant dragging himself out of the warm bed and forcing himself into an orderly fashion to get what needs to be done today. Which meant a trip to the local blacksmith. Frankly he was quite dreading the long walk to said blacksmith on the other side of the dirt roads, but opted to instead of teleporting. Walking would be more likely to wake up his still tired body. And work off the candy and cake he was forced to eat for breakfast. All those calories wouldn't be good for his body and must be worked off somehow.

What really bothered him was that he'd have to walk past the 'sheap' he left yesterday. But he would simply walk past that fast. He didn't have time for that nonsense today. Well....that plan backfired as soon as he wondered out onto the open road. Rouxls got maybe halfway down the path between the hip shop and sheap when he spotted a familiar tall cat lurking just outside the sheap sitting in some old worn out chair. Book in paws. He didn't even lift a whisker as the duke approuched. ...Ok. Maybe he just wanted to relax and not be bothered today as well. Suited him perfectly fine. One less thing to worry about.

So the duke confidentially took longer strides to pass the old cat quicker. He gave Seam a raised brow as he neared passing him but quickly looked away. Now was the time to be not deal with such-

"Good morning to you friend." He froze mid step. "Where are you heading off this early in the morning?"

The worm looked over his shoulder but Seam continued to scan his one eye over the book in his hands. Rouxls stood there for a few seconds just staring at the reading cat before huffing and turning back around.

"Its none of thou's business! ......But if thou must knoweth, I amst getting mineself a lock for thine shoppe door to properly keep pests out...Not that tis any of thee's business."

"Of course not." He agreed without looking up from the book. "I was just curious. That was all."

"Curiosity killeth thine cat," Rouxls mumbled to himself-

"Satisfaction brought it back you know...Or not. I guess it depends on which cat you refer to. Hehe."

Rouxls froze...before sputtering and walking off. Seam chuckling behind him.

******************************************************************

~Time skip to about 2 hours later~

The day was pretty nice. He was never too fond of the rain anyways. Always was a pain to make sure his stitches were all held together after a bath. Not that hed have any problems with sewing or anything. Just seemed more of an annoyance than anything, but it was a great opportunity to get some fresh air and air out the sheap's stuffy air. But it looked like he wasnt the only one to think so too today. He wasn't expecting to see the duke anytime soon after the whole lot of events packed within two days, but he had to give credit to the determination the worm seemed to posses. And his reaction was pretty funny. How many people could squawk like a rabbick and turn a brilliant shade of blue? The thought made him chuckle. Apparently the worm hadn't known of his hearing range. He causally turned the next page- His ear twitched at the sound of approuching feet and a moment later Mak stuck their head out of the entrance way.

"Im bored!"

"Did you already get bored of the shiny things Jevil brought to you?,

"Yeah.....Can I have the shiny white hair?"

"Mak, neither of us have shiny white hair."

"Not you."

He looked up from his book to look at them and they pointed a paw up the road ahead. He curiously turned in that direction to see none other than a familiar blue skinned white haired man making his way down the road back towards them. He heard the worm duke before he clearly saw him. What sounded like angry mumbles turned into a few curses he'd rather not repeat. The worm looked angry and was a deep blue in the face, stomping his feet up the pathway back towards his home. Seam rose a brow but didnt really say anything.

"Of all the stupid low things to sayest to mineself-"

"Greetings Duke." The cat gave a calm smile to the angry worm. "I see you came back. How was your trip?"

The duke stopped and turned a blue face towards the cat. "Thine trip was a waste of mine precious time!" Before Seam had a chance to ask what he meant he continued. "'Come back when you have actual money' he said! "I always get paid first' he said! Doth he knoweth who he is dealing with!? Rouxls Kaard tis nay to best trifled with the likes of that Malius scum!"

"Oh. So Malius is still doing that 'pay me first' policy eh?"

"I couldst haveth him thrown in thine dungeon for this! Who doth he thinks he is-?!"

"A Darkner who doesn't want to be cheated out of his labor." Seam interrupted before Rouxls could start on another tyrade. "Why don't you just pay the man first and save yourself the trouble?...Or not. Its not my business how you handle your shop."

Rouxls finally stopped and all anger dispated from his face. It was still a dark shade of blue but now it looked like he was more....flustered now.

"I.....cannot."

"Why not? "

The worm looked down and reached a hand up to rub his neck. "Mine register tis....e-empty....a-and mine funds are loweth."

"Aren't you on paid leave?"

"Yes.....But m-mine payment has yet to cometh...Lancer tis nay good at organizing lawkeeping."

A look of realization came over Seam as he stared at the duke of puzzles. "Then how are you affording anything? ...What have you been eating?"

Rouxls gave a flat look. "I amst broke at thy moment. And for thou's information I happen to know how to takest care of mineself. There art many worms and....candy to eateth for mine time away from mine royal duties! I shan't needest any help from the likes of a commoner!"

With a huff and turn of his body, the worm trudged off back down the path away from the staring cat and bat. After a moment of just staring after the Duke, Mak turned back to Seam and tugged his cloak.

"Does this mean I don't get new shiny stuff?"