Planet Aquarius

This place seemed to have a calming effect on Alexis. Maybe it was just the peaceful ambiance of this place, or some twinge of familiarity. It was like the Resistance base, but also something else, something she couldn’t remember… As she continued to slowly wander through the walkways, her heart stopped pounding as hard, her breathing less rigid. She kept wiping her sleeve over her eyes, as if someone would rush along and see. No one did.

She finally found a familiar aura, and headed towards it, when a person rushed past, carrying a bundle of clothes. She shrunk against the wall, giving them room to maneuver past her. The stained cloth caught her eye, reminding her of her dream, and she continued to stare at the person till they twisted around a corner. She swallowed a lump in her throat, convincing herself that it was just a stupid dream. Dreams meant nothing…. Just random bits of information your brain shot out while in a certain stage of sleep. Nothing more…. She grit her teeth, she knew that wasn’t always true, but this time, it had to be. It…It just had to be.

Traveling in the direction that the person was walking away from, she kept going, her arms crossed, fingers clutching the cloth of her jacket. Eventually she found a screened door and stopped.

She turned the corner slightly, catching a familiar back of red and black hair before twisting around the corner again. Whatever this place did to calm her down was ruined. Now she just felt….. rather ill…. As soon as she goes in there, he’d want his watch back, and then he’d be off back to Fragment. Not that she was hiding from Fragment herself…… she just didn’t want HIM to go back into danger again. She knew he could handle himself… she knew it well enough…. But…… Sometimes…. There are things no one can handle.

She paced for a minute or so, fingers fidgeting with the stiff fabric of the uniform. She could just stall… Go wander elsewhere, maybe lose him on this planet for a while, then go back to Fragment… Pick him up after the fighting was over…. He’d be unhappy…. But he’d be safer that way…. She doubted that anything bad would happen if he was with Gramps… New Gramps that is…

Maybe… Maybe she should just go over to New Gramps and explain that, and be on her way… She frowned, knowing both of them wouldn’t like that idea. And....She didn’t want to disappoint him even more than she already had……

Deciding she’d figure out what to do later, she took a breath to calm herself down and wipe at her eyes again, before sliding the door open and walking inside, leaning against the wall. Trying to keep her normal casual demeanor about her to look as nonchalant as possible. “…..Nice outfit”

“Of course, I am pretty sure that no one would want anyone who reeks from blood and mud from the sewers don’t you think?” Feng replied as he appeared behind them with a smile. “And you’re just in time here.” He placed a tray, with what seemed to be a tea set placed on, into Coden’s hand. “I normally would have a servant doing this but since you seem bored I think I’ll just use you.” If this person (?) wasn’t such high position and power there would had been no doubt that someone would had thrown something at him for his touchy words and his enjoyment of trying to piss people off. “I wouldn’t get too comfortable though. Since-“ His words were cut off with a loud crash that would had made anyone jump, except for him, who just looked over at the direction where the sound came from. “Oh they already started. Follow me. You might see another familiar face.” Feng said with a smile that obviously said that he wasn’t going to say who.
Just as the sky was blue, or the government was corrupt, this was a regular happening at this mansion. These regular happenings consisted of Ouran behind thrown into a wall leaving either a crack or a crater in it or several explosions which pretty much changed the landscape of the yard. Besides the fact that the servants are holding their heads, thinking of the damage they had to repair, this had become a normal event to happen whenever “he” came to visit. “Come on!! You have more than that! Let’s get this party started!” “He” said as he cocked both guns in his hand and fired mercilessly after Ouran who was dodging them without ease. The people at Germania would had held their head in shame, for the one who was firing rapidly after the young assassin was no one other than the Grand Official of Germania, Richter Wirklichkeit (Older version!!!). There was a shout of “Please don’t kill him~!” from some random servant but the Germania Official showed no sign of stopping or making the battle any easier. Ouran, being stubborn and prideful of his abilities, also showed no sign of stopping either. All of the servants sighed as they watched the yard, they worked so hard to keep clean, get ruined. For only a fool would try to stop this fight.

Coden would have leered at Alexis, but his glance was saved for Feng. He gave the tray once calm, wary look, appraising the fine china and glassware. He had half a mind to drop the tray and let it all crash to the floor. Oh, he'd love to see what Feng had to think of that. Fingers loosened just slightly on the handles of the tray, seconds from dropping the precious tea set.
Of course....he knew....He knew too well that Feng would not react at all. He could see the old mans expression. A dangerously kind smile and small shake of the head. Alexis would probably clean it up in the wink of an eye anyway. Twitching furiously once, Coden closed his eyes and took a long, steady breath. He would never escape his duty of appeasing the higher authority, would he?

Looking much calmer than seconds ago, Coden silently followed Feng from the dressing room, out into the noisy courtyard. While most guests ought to be appalled or shocked at what they were seeing, Coden was none at all impressed or surprised. He merely rolled his eyes as if watching a pair of children tussle.
"I take it this is mandatory encounter for those boys?", Coden asked, as his tendrils casually raised from his back. The first appendage lifting the tea pot from the center of the tray, another holding it's lid while the third flipped the cups to be filled. He had a very distinct feeling it was that time; he may as well play the roll 'Ryuuran' had dressed him for..... He'd get at him later for this humiliation.

Alexis shrunk against the wall as Gramps and Coden walked past her to inspect the commotion outside. The small grin dropping as soon as their backs were turned. She edged outside herself, leaning against the wall behind the others. Judging by the people around her’s expressions of annoyance and indignity, Richter and Ouran did this kind of thing all the time, and there was very little chance of anything bad coming from this brawl of theirs, outside of someone accidently getting shot. So she decided not to try to interfere in a fight where it’s brawlers obviously didn’t want assistance…

….It still bothered her slightly. She knew this fight was friendly in nature…. But that didn’t stop the sounds of gunshots digging into her, echoing through the courtyard. After several months of being shot at, one doesn’t brush aside that sound very easily… She didn’t feel very comfortable standing here watching them barely avoid killing each other with each blow, she wanted to do something… stop the fight… leave… she didn’t honestly know…

She tore her eyes away from the fight, glancing between Gramps and Coden, her hand inching forward, to tap Coden’s shoulder. Only an inch from contacting, she paused, her fingers hovered for a moment, before quickly retreating. His aura had a particular look to it that for some reason bothered her. It looked like he was plotting something, with ill intent in mind. A sensible side of her told her it was probably some sort of prank on Gramps for the outfit and his current position as a table. But the more insensible side… The one that lingered long after the nightmares disappeared… Wondered if he did this to her as well… Loving on the outside….. A ruse that hid something sinister underneath…. The thought made her sick, she knew it wasn’t true, but here she was, thinking it anyway…

She realized her own ruse was down, and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She was just acting silly due to the nightmares… that’s all…. Rubbing at her eyes, her hands fell, her face returning to a neutral state. Outside of her eyes, which darted around nervously.

“…..Is this…. Is this how they always greet each other?”

“Most of the time it is Richter that starts it first. After all, he also takes part of the role as a guardian.” Feng said as he took out his usual fan and laughed as Ouran went flying into the wall. For the most part the wall took most of the damage as Ouran fell onto the ground in heaps. “Come on, your dad could had done better than that….oh, hey guys.” Richter said as he put his gun away in thin air and waved. Ouran took this opportunity to land a hard kick into Richter’s stomach as the Official went flying into the other wall. “Rule number 12, never let your guard down.” The blue-haired assassin said with a smirk. “Well done Ouran. Now come over here, I think a break would do.” Feng said ignoring the complaints the Germania official was saying. Something among the lines of “that was dirty!” or “cheat!!” But of course no one was listening to him. After all, there are no rules when it comes to brawls.

After several shouts and a whack from Feng’s fan, things finally settled down as the party took their time with their tea while the servants went to work on the yard…or what’s left of it. “You guys always get into trouble at the worst times. You just had to end up in Amaterasu, the non-friendly country out of all nine. Are you sure one of you isn’t curses? I know a good exorcist.” Richter said as he lit his cigarette. Feng gave a disapproving glance, for he wasn’t a big fan of cigarettes. (Chinese smoking was very different from Western ones) However, he decided to let it slide. Ouran, who was already used to it, drank his tea in silence and decided to listen to the conversation rather than engage in it. “That would be useless. I think they would end up making the exorcist insane with their unlucky fortunes that follow them. “ Feng answered as Richter laughed lightly. “I would imagine that! Hey, maybe they’ll set a record for the ones with the worst luck.”

Alexis leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms as she glanced away, seemingly enthralled by the destruction done by the two fighters in the yard. She tried not to look like she had been asked that before by people, as she had on several occasions, to the point where she had wondered if she was indeed cursed in some way. It seemed like it lately, with the horrid luck that had befallen her and her own.

“……..Maybe so….. it’d be some record to hold… right?” She said, faltering slightly, before glancing back at the damage, “….Do you want me to help with that?” She asked, welcoming some sort of work to distract her.

“No, you’re invited as guests here. You may think you are helping but in this country if a guest helps with the work of a servant, it is considered as an offense. It’s their work to do.” If there was anything that Ryuuran didn’t like about Alexis was her nature to help others. She seemed to assume that helping others will do good, when it may bring more harm instead. Moreover, she sometimes put her life on line to help others and not consider about her own. He wouldn’t exactly consider that noble or smart to begin with. “But why don’t you two do something that does not involve the destruction of property? I had to deal with hearing complaints from your secretary the other day Richter.” The former official said to Richter. That poor woman, dealing with the secret escape Richter tends to make every couple of month. Ryuuran internally expressed his feeling of pity to the young woman.

“Ha! If this boy doesn’t train more he’s never going to be up to pare with his dad!” Richter said with no signs of apologizing or stopping. He put a hand on Ouran’s head and roughed up the resisting young assassin’s hair. It took everything within Ouran to stop from exploding his annoyance to the older man. After all, this man who just tried to kill him and destroy his yard is still, sadly, a grand official. At this point Ouran made a vow to personally go fight Richter when his skills improved. Let’s see how he would like to have his ass kicked….

Offense? It was an offense to help? Than why the hell was he serving tea!? He glare momentarily at Ryuu as he leaned over the table to refill cups.
"Perhaps it is not so much the lack of hours as it is the lack of a proper teacher.....", Coden chimed quietly.
After filling the cups with tea, He carefully set the tray on the table between the three men and stepped back. "Or..you just aren't teaching him right." He turned to survey the field on which the boys had been fighting before. Such a mess. It have looked impressive to someone else, but to Coden is was just a disorganized show of brute strength and power.

Alexis leaned against the wall, looking slightly defeated. They didn’t want her help with the cleanup, and she didn’t want to wander alone, as it looked like Coden was going to stay for a while. So she just stood in the background and watched the men who all rose around her, stealing in only once to slip a cup of tea off of the tray. The tea was warm and felt good in her cold hands. Sipping the tea was even better, as that warmth slipped down her throat, warming her insides. After a swallow or so, she was content to just cradle the cup, listening to the group talk