Sorcerer Hunters Fan Fiction ❯ Perpetual Thoughts ❯ Under The Blue Sky ( Chapter 18 )

Marron watched the sky quietly.

 

Late afternoon...

 

Still, the sun shone brightly in the sky. The sky did however seem to recognize the advancement of hours, acknowledge that the day couldn't last forever... sunset was less than an hour or two away, Marron knew that. However... for the time being, the sky was a comfortable blue, and the sun was only obscured from his sight by a particular high tree that stood on the other side of the path to him. He looked up at the tree, holding his hand up to protect his eyes from the glare of sunlight between branches. Quite strong... the last shining rays of the sun as it began it's daily retreat.

 

It'd probably be dark by the time he and Milphey returned. Still, they wouldn't be out for too long, would they? Marron looked back down to the dusty path, running the edge of his shoe against the ground immediately in front of him. A vague line was left on the ground. He ran the flat of his foot over the line, the line was destroyed.

 

Where was Carrot at that moment... Marron felt slightly uncomfortable at the thought of going out without telling Carrot. Not that he felt the need to tell his brother of his every whereabouts (Carrot probably didn't care about the half of it), but if he was going to be out late, going to be out past dinner, possibly... would Carrot worry about him, wonder where he was?

 

Marron couldn't quite feel guilty at the thought of his brother worrying about him.

 

"It's not as if I don't worry about him enough..." Marron thought to himself.

 

The primary thought in Marron's mind was that he didn't want Carrot to worry about him and tell all of the others (though they'd probably notice at the time too) that Marron was missing; therefore they'd all wonder where he'd been, why he'd been there, all of those prying questions that Marron didn't feel comfortable answering... but on the other hand, was there really so much to pry into? As much as the others wanted to know, surely he could say that he and Milphey had gone down to the city for something to eat. It wasn't as if that was a lie, and it was likely that each one of the Sorcerer Hunters had been taken to the city by Milphey in the past; Marron had memories of being taken down with his brother, on his own, sometimes Milphey would treat them all. That's right; it wasn't as if it was an unusual occurrence, or anything. Nobody would really suspect a thing.

 

The only doubts and suspicions would be those, Marron felt, created by his own mind. Having to double-check anything he said, not wanting to say anything that could be taken the wrong way...

 

Not wanting anybody else to know what'd happened last night...

 

Not wanting anybody else to know what'd happened earlier on in the day...

 

It wasn't as if it was any of their business, but at least Carrot or possibly Gateau would be curious... perhaps... probably Carrot more than Gateau. It'd be something he'd raise easily in conversation, wouldn't it? Just enquiring as to where Marron had been through the day... saying he'd been with Milphey all day wouldn't have been a lie, but... well, the entire subject was one that Marron felt he'd be against talking about.

 

And then there were the matters of last night...

 

If Carrot were to mention those...

 

Usually the Glacé brothers talked about most things before going to bed. The events of the day, about missions if they'd had any, about people they'd met and things they'd done... surely Carrot would probably raise something like that, unless... unless it was something he felt he couldn't mention... after all, Milphey had spoken about the time in the past where Carrot had gone to him to seek satisfaction, and that had been a surprise, hadn't it? Carrot had never mentioned anything like that in the past. So perhaps there were secrets kept between the siblings, after all...

 

Marron paused, thinking about that. Secrets between he and Carrot? Half of their relationship felt like it was a secret kept from the other. Sometimes it really did feel like it was all a lie, like too many things were hidden for the interaction to be true...

 

Carrot's warm touch wasn't false, though. Carrot when he needed a hug, Carrot when he was talking normally, Carrot when he was happy and when he smiled...

 

Oh, and when he smiled...

 

Marron looked back up at the sky, thinking back on things that Milphey had said. Looking up at the blue sky and feeling moved to tears... a feeling that couldn't be put into words... those things, how Milphey described them, did feel similar and familiar somehow. He easily admitted that all feelings were reserved for his brother, so naturally those feelings would be for Carrot... even a feeling that couldn't be put into words, a feeling that couldn't be described... he leant back against the wall he'd been standing beside, relaxing as he continued to gaze at the sky. Somehow, the atmosphere was comforting... while he looked up at the sky above him and thought about his brother, events that worried him seemed further away and other things didn't have to be worried about. The image of the wispy clouds above superimposed in Marron's mind over an image of his brother's smile, and he smiled in amusement at himself.

 

Just what was he doing? Getting all preoccupied over Carrot like that... still. He wouldn't have argued that as having been a bad thing.

 

It really was relaxing... it was relaxing, and somehow easy to think of the happier things. He knew of his feelings and he knew of their limits, but then there were other things that he knew... things that he knew that perhaps he felt he shouldn't, but somehow did anyway. Usually due to outside influence. Marron never thought he would have felt so in Potato's debt, but if it hadn't been for him and that potion on the beach so long ago, then that would never have happened...

 

Marron's heart missed a beat as he thought of that. The beach... thing. He looked back down at his feet. It'd been a while since he'd really thought about that, and he knew firmly why... those thoughts were so potent and time only seemed to increase the allure of the thought of being locked in a room with his drugged-up niisan who was concerned only with getting his rocks off and not minding at all if that was achieved at the expense of getting them off with his brother...

 

Shaking his head, Marron looked up to what was in front of him, the trees and bushes that bordered the path in front of him, the path itself... where was Milphey? He'd said half an hour, surely it'd been longer than that... well, he was an extravagant person. Knowing him he'd probably spent most of that time fixing his hair and makeup before showering before even thinking about what he was going to wear, and that would surely take quite some time...

 

On the gardens, Gateau shifted his position in annoyance. Marron had been standing there for a good twenty minutes that he'd noticed...

 

He'd come down to the gardens after speaking with Milphey, having more or less given up any hope of finding Marron that day. Then, as he'd been sitting there, Marron himself had appeared... it seemed typical that he should do so just as Gateau had been preparing for a nice little afternoon nap, but that couldn't be helped, he'd supposed. After his earlier searching, Gateau wondered why he didn't just approach Marron now that he definitely knew his whereabouts, but... just for a short while, he ended up watching Marron instead. He'd come out of the door, walked the path to the edge of the building, then just stood there. And stood there. Carried on standing there. Sometimes he'd look up at the sky, sometimes he'd look at the floor, then he leant back against the wall, but... why was he there? Perhaps he just wanted some fresh air. Gateau wasn't really sure, and he wasn't really sure he wanted to intrude, either.

 

It wasn't as if Marron had noticed Gateau. Currently sat beneath one of the larger trees in the garden, Gateau supposed his position more or less concealed from Marron. If he moved to sit against a different side of the tree, if he stood up and walked forward... would Marron notice? Given his tendency to get preoccupied with his thoughts, probably not. It wasn't really worth risking it.

 

Though, it wasn't quite evening yet... maybe Marron was still available for a quick trip to the city? Just a friendly trip together. Nothing deep or heavy about it, just a walk and something to eat, or... or something. Gateau's day had essentially been spent, much as he was loathe to admit it, either looking for Marron or thinking about Marron. He wasn't sure quite what he thought of Milphey's involvement, but... the things Milphey had said did make sense somewhat. Marron, wanting to ease Carrot's needs...

 

Gateau laughed quietly to himself. Carrot always had needs, he was always so subtle with his libido... had to have been something big for Marron to get worried about it. So much so even Marron had noticed? Damn.

 

Another part of Gateau felt it would have suspected something more of that, in the past. All the times he'd wondered about Marron and his feelings for Carrot... sometimes when he looked at it, all evidence seemed to point almost blatantly at Carrot as being the person Marron was so besotted with... sometimes that seemed the unavoidable answer, sometimes it seemed a silly conclusion to have come to. After all, people often got crushes and obsessions and feelings for people, but... even Marron would have the sense to stay away from his brother. If anything, what kind of person was Carrot for Marron? Marron was... he was... well, they were totally different people. He and Carrot obviously got along quite well, but personality-wise... Gateau shook his head. If Marron and Carrot hadn't been brothers then likely they would barely have ever even spoken to each other. Carrot's behaviour was trying even to Marron, who loved him unconditionally... Marron's ties to Carrot were obviously strong, but... no, Marron wouldn't want to confuse those feelings. Carrot seemed to be enough of a bother to babysit as it was, and Gateau liked to think that essentially, deep down and essentially, Marron had his head screwed on right; if Marron had feelings for Carrot, how much would that mess everything up? Even moreso than he himself and Marron having disagreements.

 

At the moment, it really did seem an amusing idea. Marron and Carrot? No way.

 

There was still that matter of there being someone Marron loved, and that was a little more confusing. Any way Gateau looked at it, it didn't really seem to make sense. Surely enough Marron loved Carrot, but in that there really didn't seem to be any space for anybody else, and if there was Marron probably wouldn't let there be... Gateau had come to the conclusion that this was really just Marron's excuse to prevent people getting close to him. Easy enough to cook up powerful feelings if there were powerful feelings working behind those false ones, wasn't it? Marron didn't want to risk being taken away from his brother for the time being, but to say that would be strange, wouldn't it? He probably wouldn't want to be accused of incestual leanings.

 

Gateau was pretty sure he remembered mentioning something like that to Marron, long ago. Something like how it was possible to have feelings for other people while protecting his brother, or that feelings between people were different to feelings between people, or something... he couldn't really remember. Just that Marron had been angry at that? Maybe, maybe not... but that seemed something Marron would get angry at, in any case. Damned was the person who tried to separate Marron from his brother.

 

Leaning against the tree, Gateau thought about the different sides of Marron there seemed to be. Essentially his bedroom face. Times in the past, he really had got riled about things... not that the things he'd done hadn't been good, Gateau still found his thoughts wandering in that direction even now, but it was just the things that he hadn't done...

 

Marron probably wouldn't have admitted if he was nervous, or if he didn't feel ready for those things. He was a strong person, and it didn't seem far-fetched to think that Marron wouldn't want to admit a weakness. There would probably have been better ways to have handled the situation, like, perhaps, sitting down and talking about it, but... maybe Marron had felt backed into a corner?

 

One thing that often tended to loop itself through Gateau's mind was that time when he had initially suspected things between Marron and Milphey. The whole event often seemed glaringly clear in his mind, he couldn't escape it. However, apart from the things that had happened where also the things that had been said...

 

"You said I was like a demon... you said you loved me... if you walk out of that door, if you leave me... if you leave me, who you love... will anybody else love you...?"

 

Never would Marron Glacé have admitted feelings directly to anybody else, Gateau thought with a 'hmph'. Still, what was something like that supposed to mean? Maybe that was the closest he'd ever got to seeing Marron be vulnerable, but... Gateau often thought about how strange that choice of words had been. Marron was so confident in his power to say that nobody else would ever love Gateau? That had been a pretty damned spiteful thing to say, but if you really looked at it, it wasn't as if Marron had ever said he'd loved Gateau in the first place... and as far as relationships went, there had been various things there in the past, it wasn't unreasonable to say there'd probably be things in the future, too. Marron's judgement had no bearing.

 

Perhaps he'd meant it that, if Gateau was willing to walk out on somebody he loved then nothing was sacred, or something. Possibly so, but surely even Marron could have seen how damned unreasonable he'd been back then? There was a line between love and manipulation and Marron had crossed it long ago. Love was fine, but what Marron had been... Gateau shook his head to himself. Whatever had been coming across from his direction, love had not been it. Some kind of emotion that had brought Marron to at least trust Gateau a little bit, but Marron seemed to quite enjoy playing with and near-betraying that trust... and it wasn't as if it'd ever felt like Marron was giving his all to the relationship in the first place. Gateau was there and Gateau was handy but there was always an extra word for that other person, a justification and a prevention whether they existed or not...

 

A long time ago, Gateau remembered thinking to himself that he wouldn't mind even being used if it was Marron doing the using, but... in reality, that... that wasn't quite it. Most fantasies at the time had started in sex and ended in a relationship, and while they had had a kind of relationship Gateau was still hard-pressed to figure just what kind it had been. Gateau was a strong person but he was still human, and there was only so many times you could hear 'I have you but can't accept you', 'all of you is not enough for even part of me' implied before it started taking its toll on one's self-confidence. If Marron had deemed Gateau worthy enough for even just telling him of his problems it would have been a little better, but... alluding to things ambiguously and using sex as an example wasn't the right way to go about it.

 

It'd all started with sex, hadn't it? That time when Gateau had caught Marron. That was a pretty normal thing though, nobody would really have expected strange things of Marron... so he'd been masturbating, so what? So, Gateau had been caught like a deer in headlights. It was Marron, who wouldn't have been?

 

Perhaps Marron's implication, back then, had been something along the lines of 'who will you love more than me after this' or something. Gateau recalled something similar being said, Marron saying about how Gateau had thought him beautiful and all that kind of thing... that was a more realistic thing to think about and trust Marron to imply it in the worst situation possible. Still, that was always a weak point at the end of an established relationship, wasn't it? Looking at the broken feelings forced upon yourself, holding them close, wondering if they'll ever be fixed and by who... looking back on it, Gateau supposed there were even parts of him that still stung over that whole first relationship of his, way back in the days.

 

It was almost nostalgic to look back on, but to look back on it he wondered if it was right to call it 'love'; he'd definitely had feelings for that woman, but the situation had been... well, even he had to admit that he'd been too young for any kind of sexual relationship at the time, but she'd thought him cute and his body had at least given some kind of opinion on her. Then it was like, older woman, sex, score! They'd had a little outside of the bedroom, she'd been quite a successful woman (it'd seemed at the time) and more than once had Gateau been mistaken for her son as they went out to restaurants and other such places...

 

With the hindsight of experience, Gateau now knew himself used by that. She'd been older and beautiful and successful and honestly he wouldn't have been surprised if she'd had a different bedmate for each day of the week, at some points. Gateau had just been her latest interest, and at that age the mindset had been more excited about getting laid so often than anything else. But to look back on it, she'd probably never have accepted more than what they had, the relationship was fun but nothing else and she certainly wouldn't have wanted to settle down with Gateau, or anything. Settling down with a boy less than half her age, scandal.

 

The second relationship of Gateau's life was harder to look back on scathingly. There hadn't been any pretence there; the two of them had been close and trusting friends, they still were close and trusting friends to a degree, and they'd figured that since they were together so often for missions, spent so much time together, were quite so close... why not indulge a little when a mission was over? Neither of them had pretended to be head-over-heels or anything, though Gateau had made a couple of comments that had made her smile... their relationship had sex but could have survived without it, as it now did. There wasn't any malice there, just the fact that circumstances had changed and they'd moved past that. She'd accepted that, Gateau more or less did too, though occasionally, very occasionally, he found his mind wandering back to she and her irresistible curves, her blinding warmth... primarily back to the sex. He knew her too well to know she'd want to settle down with him, or anything.

 

Another glance towards Marron.

 

It was a bit deep to be thinking like that for that time of the day, but... it couldn't be helped and Gateau couldn't especially help it himself. All of his past relationships seemed to centre around sex, seemed to have that as his focal point... perhaps that'd been a reason why he'd pursued Marron so vigorously - Marron was a guy, guys were different to girls, surely they'd be more in tune being both men and so they'd have an idea of what each other wanted... but Marron's mind was an impossible nut to crack (as Marron himself was) and that hadn't really progressed.

 

So really, all he was good for were meaningless or circumstantial relationships centred around physical attraction and/or sex? Gateau sighed deeply. It wasn't as if he ever outwardly denied that. It wasn't as if sex was a bad thing or anything, and if it was on offer then he liked to think he'd accept it, but... well, it would have been nice to have had a relationship to prove the cycle wrong. Something that was a little deeper and a little more heartfelt. There had been tantalizing glimpses of things like that with Marron, the little blushes he gave while they went places together, the little things Gateau would say that Marron would look at him with wide eyes for...

 

Of course, it was all on Gateau's initiation. Marron never really said romantic things, never did romantic things... usually he was happy enough to be swept along on Gateau's feelings and then turn things around to his own ends come the night. His daytime blushes had been so sweet, but in retrospect Marron was more one to blush through guilt than innocence; he'd be embarrassed, but still not comfortable. Then he would do things that deserved so much more than a blush come the darkness of night, and Gateau was always reduced to a disobedient puppet in Marron's controlling hold.

 

Gateau growled to himself. Why was he thinking such pointless things again? Thoughts like that wouldn't help anybody, they'd only get him into another bad mood... to try and sway his mood, Gateau turned to look at Marron again, to think upon more mundane curiosities. He was still standing there... was he waiting for something, waiting for someone? Maybe waiting to see if Carrot was in the city, waiting for him to come back? That didn't seem an unreasonable assumption.

 

Still, Gateau himself had been looking for Marron for most of the day. That, and anything to distract him, even if said distraction was Marron... sighing, he picked himself up from the grassy floor. Might as well go over to see what was up with him, maybe have a little chat. Surely he wouldn't be against that.

 

Marron's ear pricked as he sensed somebody approaching. Was Milphey ready at last? He glanced to the side, and was vaguely surprised to see Gateau walking towards him. Where had he come from? In any case, he'd have to go soon... Marron tried not to show any hint of strain, "Ah, Gateau... good afternoon."

 

"Yeah, isn't it?"

 

There was a pause while Gateau walked over then unceremoniously leant himself against the wall which Marron was also leant against. His arms were folded, and he was now to Marron's right side; Marron let his gaze follow Gateau's position, and he watched in silence as Gateau seemed to settle himself. Another few moments in which Gateau could have spoken, but didn't... Marron leant back against the wall.

 

"Did you want something?"

 

"Well... I'd been looking for ya for most of the day, now. Just wanted to know if you wanted to go down to Facade for lunch or something, but... it's a bit late for that now. I guess if you wanted to go we could, but it'd have to be for dinner rather than lunch. So what do you say?"

 

Marron's eyes fixed themselves on the sky above again, "I'm sorry, Gateau... I... Milphey already said that he'd accompany me to the city."

 

Gateau frowned, "... He did, did he?... Huh. And I was just speaking to him a little while ago. Woulda thought that he woulda known I'd been looking for you for that reason..."

 

Surprisingly, Marron's next question didn't hold any hint of malice.

 

"Does that... make you jealous?"

 

That comment seemed to hang in the air as Gateau quickly looked up; he'd heard the words, but the tone and voice seemed strange. That was something that Marron would say, but... it seemed like something he'd say to stir annoyance, mean as a snide jibe... but no, he honestly seemed curious. Gateau wasn't sure. Did it make him jealous? He couldn't answer Marron's questioning eyes, he closed his own and turned his head back towards the path.

 

"I can always ask you tomorrow, I guess."

 

"And if I refused you?"

 

"The day after?"

 

"We might have a mission."

 

"We might not."

 

"I might still refuse you."

 

"You didn't refuse Milphey..."

 

"No, I didn't."

 

"I... guess he asked you in that kind of way where you couldn't say no, huh? He's the sort of guy you don't wanna make disappointed. If he asked me down to the city then I'd say yes, so I guess I can't blame you."

 

"That doesn't make you jealous, then?"

 

Gateau turned to face Marron again, his brow furrowed.

 

"Would you want it to?"

 

Marron shook his head, sighing a wistful sigh then smiling to a point above him.

 

"Not particularly."

 

"Why ask, then?"

 

"Curiosity."

 

"Ah..."

 

The wind picked up. It buffeted at Marron's hair more than it did at Gateau's, quickly taking its own power and blowing Marron's hair from where it'd been habitually tucked behind his ear. Closing his eyes from the sting of the gust, Marron leant his head forward and rearranged his hair once the wind had died down. Blinking the chill from his eyes, Marron looked to Gateau, then to the sky again... somehow, that peace remained with him. Somehow the cold bite of the wind could only serve as a reminder that he was alive... he couldn't even be irrational with Gateau at that moment. Why was that? Perhaps that was another feeling that couldn't be described.

 

"... What do you think of the sky?"

 

"Uh? Um... it's blue?"

 

A small laugh, "Not like that, Gateau. I mean... does it... does it ever move you?"

 

"Does the sky ever move me? Well, I can't really say I've ever... I dunno, really. Not really. Why, should it?"

 

Marron took a few steps forward, "It'll always be there."

 

"No kidding."

 

"No, really. The sky will always stay there, no matter what. No matter what happens below it, no matter what happens as the world revolves and life grows and dies beneath it, it will always watch, silently... and wherever you are, you are covered by the sky. You can always look out of a window or up above you, and see it. Isn't that... somehow amazing?"

 

"I... guess it is, yeah..."

 

"I think that it can stir things within us. For all the time I've been standing here, for all the times I've looked up... I can't look at it and think 'I've seen that, I don't need to look at it anymore'. Or so I think. It's..."

 

Marron smiled with such a warm smile that it shocked Gateau, as if it was an expression that wasn't supposed to be seen, or words that weren't supposed to be heard. Was Marron even talking to him anymore, or merely offering a commentary of the thoughts in his mind? Would he have said them to anybody who listened, or purely for Gateau's benefit? But that expression... that was a warmth that Gateau hadn't seen in a long time.

 

"... it's a... it's something that I can't easily describe. Words are inadequate... don't you think? All of the words available to us, and there are still things that we can't speak of, things that we don't know how to say. Perhaps one day there'll be words easily accepted that we don't know of at the moment. Perhaps... perhaps there'll be things that will always remain a mystery."

 

"... Perhaps..."

 

"I hope that's true. I think it would be... somewhat sad, if we were able to easily know everything about each other."

 

"I guess..."

 

Marron looked at Gateau, catching his line of sight for a second before Gateau looked away.

 

"Don't you think it's best that we can slowly discover things about each other?"

 

"I wouldn't know. Depends what things were discovered, I guess."

 

"... You're right. To know so much about a person and hate them for it is much more terrible than making a quick judgement... I feel. But... those are all things that happen beneath the sky, aren't they? Feelings come and go, and the sky doesn't change... but yet it is always, always different..."

 

Gateau wasn't sure he knew what Marron was on about anymore, "Mm..."

 

"Those clouds up there are different to clouds that have ever been up there. There has never been exactly that arrangement of clouds, and as the sun sets, it will be a sunset that is unique, a sunset that has never been seen by this world before, and will never be seen again. When I look at a sunset... I feel somehow privileged to have been able to have viewed it before its disappearance. And yet it'll be reborn exactly the following day, though different... always different... always changing, but always there... and as long as the sun and the sky remain, anybody in this world will always be able to look at them. Perhaps other people feel the comfort that I feel. I wonder. In that, there is also a comfort... that other people would feel comforted..."

 

In retrospect, Gateau wasn't quite sure why he'd taken that moment to quieten Marron with a kiss, but he had, and he didn't really realise it until it was too late. He had Marron pressed against the wall, he'd caught Marron mid-sentence... Marron himself seemed shocked and surprised, momentarily frozen to the spot.

 

"Mmh-...?"

 

It'd seemed, in some way or another, the right thing to do. Marron's mouth opened a little wider against Gateau with his sound of confusion, and Gateau found himself holding Marron just a little tighter than he'd intended to. A little test to see how Marron would react, perhaps? He could sometimes be a surprising person.

 

Feeling Marron's fingers then stroke against his neck only made Gateau tense. If it was a test to see how far he could go before being pushed away - well, Marron would never have accepted things like this in the past, and that tender little touch still felt strange to feel. Marron should have pushed Gateau away with an angry 'what are you doing!?', but no, he was... he seemed to be accepting it. A softer sound from Marron that Gateau could feel as much as hear, and he felt caught. Even just physical expression was alright, wasn't it? To accept the physical was at least to accept one part of them... wasn't it? His eyes remained closed and his tongue pressed closely to the warmth of Marron's own - and it was just things like that that made Gateau feel suddenly uncomfortable to be experiencing. The sense, the taste, texture... the warmth of his lips, the moisture, the ridges and folds of Marron's mouth were all things immediately similar to the memories that touch conveyed. The physical had mental connotations that Gateau realised he didn't wish to revisit, and the stroking of his neck seemed almost deceptive in its softness.

 

Somebody waiting for somebody else shouldn't have kissed somebody uninvolved in the situation like that, Gateau thought to himself. More than anything else, if Marron and Milphey were involved, then this was certainly a strange way for Marron to behave.

 

Marron himself felt surprise at Gateau's sudden kiss. Alright for a sudden meeting of the lips but there was something deeper there that Marron wasn't sure he wanted to identify. He'd meant it when he'd said he hadn't wanted Gateau to tempt him; whether he liked it admit it or not, there was just something about Gateau that was terribly tempting... Marron wasn't sure quite what. His feelings were for Carrot, he was very sure in that viewpoint, but... while the connection and the feelings were potent in themselves, there was something sweeping and tantalizing in the thought of somebody so unconnected, of somebody who was strong, was powerful, was... was Gateau.

 

"I couldn't describe it as love," Marron thought to himself, and indeed it seemed a very different definition to that which he had already established for himself, which was more or less anything connected to Carrot. But just as the wind blew with a chill reminder of existence, so did Gateau's body transfer a warmth that also spoke of being alive. When somebody like him had such obedient feelings it seemed almost natural to test how far he would go, but... there was a time and a place for everything, and this, Marron felt, was neither. If anything, the previous events of last night and the current day had left him with little desire for anything in that field.

 

For the moment, he could push Gateau away. Marron's shoulders tensed for a moment as he considered it... he felt that he shouldn't be pleased that Gateau would take such liberties, but on the other hand, he couldn't mind, either. There was something terribly warm and familiar about Gateau's kiss, and it had been quite a while since he'd last felt it... that stirred memory and more within Marron just as it did within Gateau. Marron made another slight muffled sound, continuing to stroke one of his hands up against Gateau's neck, then gently pushing against it with his fingertips. To his slight surprise, Gateau moved away with little resistance.

 

"Gateau... why...?"

 

Gateau shook his head, honestly not knowing why.

 

"Not sure... but... you sure say some pretty things, sometimes. Guess I got caught up in the moment."

 

"I... see..."

 

"You didn't get angry."

 

"You thought that I might?"

 

"I wondered. A-anyway, I better not stay here too long. Milphey's gonna show up soon, right?"

 

"Ah, you're... you're right."

 

Gateau was heading towards the inside of the building. Marron turned around, "Oh, Gateau?"

 

"Mm?"

 

"If... if you see my brother... tell him where I am, would you? I... I haven't seen him. I... wouldn't want him to be unduly worried about me should he wonder where I am..."

 

"Sure, I'll do that."

 

"Thank you..."

 

Gateau retreated to the inner hall, feeling strange somehow. He hadn't meant to kiss Marron, or anything... he hadn't planned it or expected it or anything of the kind, he'd just acted truly on impulse. Marron, talking so kindly and wistfully... Gateau sighed. That kind of Marron had been the kind he'd fallen for in the first place. It would be very easy to fall again, he mused. No, but Marron could also be strange. Marron was not the kind of person who would break him from his cycle; if anything, Marron could and would only perpetuate it.

 

Turning around, Gateau looked to where he knew Marron was. Mostly hidden, but the wind blew a hint of his hair and robe into being visible, and he remained there. Gateau watched with an indescribable feeling, feeling hurt but feeling wanting both at once. He knew that that was a silly thing to feel, but sometimes he couldn't help but just hope...

 

He closed his eyes and turned his back on Marron. Hope itself seemed a silly thing too, just sometimes.

 

"UAH!"

 

There was a collision; Gateau opened his eyes quickly on realising he'd been collided with. First assessment was 'it's Milphey', second was 'oh my god, it's Milphey'. Yes it was Milphey, but how... Gateau just blinked.

 

"Oh! Oh my, Gateau-chan, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Sometimes it's easy to run without looking where you're running, isn't it? Time flies when you've got hair like this to upkeep. There's not enough time in the day to really decide what to wear, is there? Well, I suppose you wouldn't really know about that. I mean, not that I'm disputing your taste in clothes or anything but you know what I mean, don't you? Yes, you do. I hope you do, anyway. Don't you? Anyway! I'm sorry for running into you without realising. Places to go, people to go with! Byeee!"

 

It'd been difficult to concentrate on Milphey's words while he'd been speaking. Easier to focus on was what the guy was wearing... and damn if he wasn't wearing it well. He'd wear that just to go out with Marron?!

 

The dress itself was reasonably tight (and Gateau was part-surprised that Milphey hadn't padded up the top half just for the reaction), and just the right kind of purple to offset his hair, which was now tied with a loose orange hairtie over his shoulder as opposed to how he usually wore it... the orange hairtie, it was a little lighter than orange, wasn't it? That was certainly made to go with... well, with all of Milphey's accessories; the necklace and the bracelets were obviously a set - ah, did the earrings go with them? All of them seemed to sparkle with an amber matched only by Milphey's own eyes. That in itself drew attention. Even Milphey's handbag matched the dress, and with amber jewels studded around it, Gateau noticed as Milphey sped off; where did someone buy things like that? The whole getup was quite impressive, as if it'd been made entirely for Milphey's own sake... Gateau found himself standing and staring for a little longer than he meant to as he watched Milphey go outside, find Marron, and start talking to him. Couldn't hear the conversation, but...

 

"Wow. Just... wow."

 

Those two would certainly be killer for a night in the city. Gateau closed his mouth from where it'd been hanging open, and turned his back on the scene again, heading towards the kitchens. Nothing more to be done with the day other than eat and sleep with perhaps a little posing in-between. Whatever.

 

Damn, though...

 

Gateau shook his head as he entered the main kitchen area. Looking up, it seemed that Tira and Chocolat were already there; Tira stood to the side as Chocolat chopped something to put in a pan, both looked up as Gateau came in.

 

"Ah, Gateau-chan!"

 

"Tira, Chocolat... ah, it's your turn to cook, is it?"

 

Chocolat looked up with an exasperated chop, "You expect someone else is gonna? Everyone's gone all of a sudden, figured if I didn't start cooking then nobody else would. Still, I wouldn't really want darling getting close to an oven, you know? Not after last time."

 

Tira nodded, "And the time before."

 

"And the time before that."

 

"It's surprising we still have a kitchen, isn't it..."

 

"Well, that's exactly why we don't let darling in, isn't it! I wondered if Marron wanted to cook again... if he was going to I was going to maybe ask him to do one of those big pies of his, I was really craving one earlier... couldn't find him anywhere, though. I can't do pastry, so it's stir-fry instead."

 

Gateau nodded, "Sounds good to me! Smells good, too. Mmmnn."

 

"Hehe, thanks. So, any clue where the others are?"

 

"Can't say about Carrot, but... Milphey and Marron at least were getting ready to go out, so... since it's getting a bit late, I don't know if they'd be back in time for dinner. They'll probably stay out for that, now."

 

Chocolat sighed a short-tempered sigh, "Jeez, they could at least say when they're not gonna be back, honestly. Oh well, we can manage this between us, can't we? And darling, if he turns up. Haven't seen him for a while, but he's probably doing something that's not good for him. Still, once he smells the wafting aroma of my cooking, he'll be entranced and come hopefully over to the kitchen... and I'll smile and offer him my cooking with love, and he'll realise just how deep his feelings really are..."

 

"Oneesamaaaa..."

 

"Whaaaat? They always say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, don't they? Nothing like a good meal to show who really cares."

 

Gateau paused, leant on the counter as he was. For all appearances he was idly watching the vegetables sizzling in the pan under Chocolat's steady hand, but somehow he couldn't help but think... just what were Milphey's motivations? He was obviously interested in all of the Sorcerer Hunters but Gateau had never seen him quite that dressed up for a trip with anybody else. Not even with Marron in the past...

 

Not that Marron was one to be swayed by flashy appearances, even with one so flashy as Milphey.

 

Was he?

 

No, no. Gateau had been touting his appearance for as long as he and Marron had known each other, and that had never had much effect at all. If all it took was a dress and some sparklies to catch Marron's eye then Gateau had definitely been going about things wrong for all those years. He wasn't really the type to even consider wearing a dress, in all honesty. If the thought itself scared Gateau then just what effect would that have on Marron?!

 

Tira put a hand to Gateau's arm, "Gateau-chan, are you alright?"

 

He looked up, "Oh? Oh, yes, sure, I'm fine. I'm fine."

 

"You seemed to be watching the vegetables very intently."

 

Chocolat tipped some kind of seasoning into the pan, not looking up as she spoke.

 

"Tira, don't be clueless. It's about Marron and Milphey, isn't it?"

 

Gateau looked up in surprise, "Uh?"

 

"I was pretty shocked that you and Marron had split up, myself... I mean, I know Tira definitely was, but I was too... and that's gotta be a bit weird, hasn't it? Seeing the guy you were with going off with some other guy. Milphey, too! I mean... he's... I don't know, I never really saw him as being the kind of guy who Marron would go for..."

 

"Hey, we don't know if Marron and Milphey are together..."

 

Chocolat put the pan down and stared at Gateau, "Then don't you think you should make it your mission to find out?! Don't you feel even a little betrayed at all? If darling went off with some hussy - not that I'm trying to badmouth Milphey or anything - I'd be immediately trying to find out the terms of their relationship!"

 

A humourless laugh, "I don't think I really want to try and pick apart Marron's reasoning anymore. If he wants to go out with Milphey, I'm not gonna stop him, am I?"

 

"Maybe that's what he wants you to do!"

 

"Huh?"

 

"Oh, come on. Playing hard to get? People always want things they can't get, right? Maybe Marron's playing on that angle. Him and Milphey, going off to the city, aloooone..."

 

"It's not like it's that weird, Chocolat. Milphey's always inviting people down to the city, just that this time he invited Marron."

 

Chocolat went over to the other side of the kitchen unit, opening a cupboard and looking for something in there. Gateau couldn't help his eye being taken by the pink apron that hung on the side of the cupboard unit, pink with that cute little carrot in the middle. Marron's apron, of course. He turned his attention from that and back to the things that Chocolat was saying as she dug around in noisy metal objects to find the thing she was looking for.

 

"And Marron accepted, right? Well, I don't know. Maybe it is just fine. Don't mind me, it's just my point of view."

 

A few more moments of metallic clangs and clatterings, then Chocolat brought out the instrument she'd been looking for. She walked back over to the counter and continued preparing the stir-fry. It really was smelling good now, but Gateau couldn't help but think about what Chocolat was saying. Girls were... girls had more suspicions and plots to use in relationships, didn't they? For such a conclusion to come so quickly to Chocolat... was something like that that obvious? He didn't really have a woman's logic... it was questionable as to whether Milphey or Marron did either, but that was beside the point. Women noticed things like that, and Gateau quite trusted Chocolat's judgement... he frowned, thinking deeply to himself.

 

Marron had asked Gateau if he were jealous.

 

How blatant was that?

 

He'd accepted that kiss easily enough, too.

 

Gateau felt at a loss. What was happening, all of a sudden?

 

Tira folded her arms, "Well... we all know what Milphey's like. He always acts so flirtatious, doesn't he?"

 

The bowls and plates on the counter shook with the impact of Gateau's hands hitting it, a little harder than he'd meant to but it at least got the attention of the two girls. He primarily looked at Chocolat while he spoke, though it had been Tira's comment that had sparked the thought in his mind.

 

"If he acts so flirtatious then what's the real part of him like?"

 

"Gateau-chan?"

 

"If it's an act, then there has to be something real behind it, right? Something different. And if there was something different, then... it'd be something that wasn't... that wasn't usually..."

 

Milphey never dressed up like that normally. Marron would accept Milphey's invitation so easily? Marron would ask such a question so innocently, then accept a kiss with a soft touch when he would normally have been angry? Marron had asked if Gateau was jealous. Was he jealous? He was confused, more than anything else. If Marron was trying to make people jealous - trying to make him jealous... Milphey had agreed to help out with Carrot, it seemed. It wasn't impossible that Marron would go to Milphey for more help and advice. Perhaps it hadn't been an accident that Milphey had collided with him at all, because, if anything, it'd made him really notice...

 

Would Marron really do something like that?

 

Would Milphey play along with something like that?

 

The more Gateau thought about it, the more it seemed like exactly something Marron would try. Never one to directly come out with anything, but using Milphey to make Gateau jealous, that wasn't something Gateau would put past Marron at all. And after all, nobody ever said that those two were in a relationship... nobody said that they had to be, either.

 

Chocolat looked up when Gateau silently stormed out of the room.

 

"Oh! Gateau?"

 

Tira leant where Gateau had been just previously, "Maybe he went to find Marron-chan?"

 

"Maybe... but he went out, didn't he?"

 

"If Gateau-chan knew where they'd gone, perhaps he could follow them..."

 

Chocolat was stirring something into the large pan, now.

 

"Well, I guess so... he could have at least said something, though. I shouldn't have used so many vegetables, it seems like there's not going to be many of us eating tonight at all...!"

"Carrot should turn up eventually, though. When he's hungry enough."

 

"You're right, you're right. Ah, I mustn't be discouraged! Cooking with love~ cooking with lo~ove~"

 

Another sigh, "... Oneesamaaa..."

 

****

 

"... I should have worn something different."

 

Marron stared at the path as he walked it, Milphey hanging happily from his arm. He felt somewhat embarrassed; he hadn't expected Milphey to make such an effort...! Anybody could have admitted that Milphey looked stunning in those clothes, Marron didn't feel himself an exception to that... and Milphey had dressed himself up so for Marron's sole benefit? He didn't have to have done that. The things that Milphey always wore normally would quite have sufficed...

 

Milphey giggled lightly and pressed his face to Marron's neck, "What you're wearing is fine, Marron-chan. To the city people it's something different, isn't it? Not everybody in Facade wears robes. And of course, nobody in Facade wears robes as well as you do!"

 

"... You went to such trouble, though..."

 

"It's no trouble at all! I like an excuse to be able to delve through my wardrobe. In any case, it's been a long time since I've worn this one, but it still fits wonderfully! Well... maybe it's a little snug around my hips. What do you think?"

 

The movement that followed made Marron blush slightly. If anything, there was no way he could have passed judgement on the state of Milphey's clothes on his hips from that... and that probably wasn't Milphey's goal in the first place. Marron coughed slightly.

 

"Look, Milphey..."

 

"Mmmmmn?"

 

"I... I'm grateful that you should ask me out and I don't wish to seem like I don't appreciate it, but... I would rather you... I'd rather you acted with a little more restraint..."

 

"I know, I knowww... but, I can't resist it when you blush! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything. No, the main thing is to try to make you as comfortable as possible! You should be comfortable and relaxed. A stressed Marron-chan is never a good thing."

 

Marron pulled his arm away from where Milphey had it held tightly, "I... I agree with what you're saying, but I wouldn't wish for the others to get the wrong idea. I... when not even I am sure of our relationship, I wouldn't wish for the others to jump to any kind of conclusion!"

 

Folding his arms, Milphey shook his head slightly.

 

"Marron-chan thinks too much about what other people think. For the time being, you're the most important person! If Chocolat-chan says anything, just smile and deny or approve her as you see fit. If Gateau-chan says anything, do the same. People can think what they want but if you keep a confident point of view then nobody can argue with that, can they?"

 

"People will think what they want no matter what words are spoken to them."

 

Milphey held his handbag in front of him with both hands, "Alright, alright. Marron-chan, what's on your mind? There's obviously something bothering you."

 

"Ah..."

 

For a few moments Marron stared at Milphey as they walked, but the eye contact wasn't returned. Milphey was walking with his gaze fixed steadily on the path in front... Marron looked away, looking at the same thing himself. His expression fell somewhat as he thought about the things that were running through his mind... the primary objects were the events of earlier, and Gateau. He wasn't sure which to broach first, but he supposed that the chronological order was a logical one in itself.

 

"Earlier..."

 

"You're feeling alright now, aren't you?"

 

"Y-yes, I am, thank you. Only... I remember little from... from what actually happened. I recall... our actions, and I recall waking up afterward... but the meantime of that, I... I don't remember anything at all, but from your reaction, it seemed as if it were quite... as if I worried you. I... I apologize for that."

 

Milphey shook his head, "It wasn't something you could really help, you don't need to apologize. I was quite worried though, I'll admit that. You just seemed to be getting so frustrated, then... then all of a sudden you did some kind of glowing thing, then you were unconscious!"

 

"... That... that is..."

 

"So I went and got Kahlua, 'cause he's all into magical things. He did some sort of thing and you woke up eventually, but as I said, I really was worried for a while!"

 

"I... didn't mean to worry you..."

 

"You don't need to keep being so apologetic! The only thing we should focus on for now is working on how to stop you being so uptight about things. After all, you were so frustrated earlier... I know it's probably the only way you felt you could be, but... if it's frustrating and difficult, then surely more things are going to go wrong!"

 

"So I should try to be more relaxed..."

 

"That, or you shouldn't try at all."

 

Marron paused in his steps suddenly, looking at Milphey.

 

"Ah?"

 

Realizing that Marron had stopped, Milphey stopped himself and turned around to face Marron, looking quite serious as he spoke.

 

"Sometimes things can become much bigger than you initially wished them to be, can't they? Surely even you can realize that at the moment you're caught between wanting to do things and not wanting to do things. If you don't want to do something, if your body doesn't want to do something... if you try and force feeling onto yourself it's only going to be more frustrating when you know, at heart, that it's not really there."

 

He softened slightly, "You didn't worry about any of this until recently, did you? Until things with Gateau-chan earlier on in the year, you held little worry for the practicalities of sex... it was something that was possibly in the future, something that didn't need to be thought of outside of fantasy. Would you agree that you rushed into things?"

 

Marron looked lost, somehow.

 

"If my brother were to have offered this time last year, or even the year before that... I wouldn't have hesitated..."

 

"Yes, but he's the fantasy, isn't he? The dream, the passion, anything's alright if it's him... but the reality, the actual 'am I ready to make that leap'... it's not wrong to feel like that, Marron-chan. Anything you feel, if it's something you can't help but feel... is there a difference between feeling that you'd want to take a walk and feeling like you'd like to suck your brother unconscious? Both are feelings, and both are ones you're sure of... so what's the point in denying any of them?"

 

Marron continued walking again, "I... I cannot accept my feelings of my brother as being correct. Between gender and relation and relationship... between attraction and distraction... for the certainty of rejection..."

 

A sharper tone to Milphey's voice just for a moment, "Do you deny that you love him?"

 

"N-no, never...!"

 

"Well, then. Just accept that you love him, and work from there. If you're denying yourself things then surely that's lying to yourself... and we all know how difficult Marron-chan finds it to lie."

 

Milphey ended that with a soft smile, tipping at Marron's chin with one finger. Marron didn't say anything to that, but... Milphey's words were undoubtedly true. He found it impossible to lie to anybody else... and just as much, he found it impossible to lie to himself, either.

 

"I... recently I've been quite reasonable with my feelings, though... Gateau and I have kept our distance, I've managed to keep my thoughts at a reasonable distance... only really the events of last night have stirred me in any opposite direction."

 

"But it's not good when you're ending up unconscious because you're trying to have an orgasm! I'm sure there's something that should be done, but... I can't think of what. I don't think you should worry about it, either. Just that, for the moment, you can't come. Well, you haven't for a long time, so it's not really something you can help, is it?"

 

"I... I suppose..."

 

Milphey took hold of Marron's arm again, "I'm sure it'll sort itself out eventually. In the meantime, let's stop thinking about such serious things and think about where we're going to go! I know lots of nice places, money isn't an object. However, I think you should also be aware, we are being followed."

 

Marron almost came to another halt, but Milphey attached to him prevented him.

 

"Ah-!?"

 

"Come on, come on, if we stop suddenly it's only going to make Gateau-chan think we're on to him."

 

"Gateau...?"

 

For a second Marron debated a backward glance, but that was the first rule of sensing something following you; if there was something on your tail, whether a monster or a beast or a human tracker, the best thing was usually not to let them know you knew they were there; that would only attract attention. Time could be better spent thinking up a plan of attack for when their presence was revealed... however, this was a different situation. Gateau wasn't following, with all the hope in the world, with the intention to hurt or kill either of the people he followed; louder in Marron's mind was the thought, just why would he be following at all?!

 

Milphey didn't seem so surprised.

 

"You can only really expect it of him though, I guess. He did say earlier to me about how he was looking for you... I suppose that now, he found you! Just, you're a bit busy. But if he just wants to see you, then that doesn't mean you have to know about it, right?"

 

"I can't be comfortable when I'm being stalked, Milphey."

 

"Well, it is a bit disconcerting, isn't it? So, what should we do? Maybe we could run away from him... go to somewhere he wouldn't think I'd take you. Hey, have you ever been to a strip joint?"

 

"I-... n-no, no I haven't."

 

éMilphey didn't try to hide his enthusiasm, "Would you like to go to a strip joint?"

 

"Not particularly."

 

"Aww... well, it's your call. Anyway, we can either try to lose him or we can confront him about it. Which sounds better to you?"

 

Naturally the former sounded better initially, but... as Marron's mind ticked over, he couldn't help but consider the latter, too. Which sounded better? To go with the option of escape... he wasn't sure he trusted Milphey not to take him somewhere embarrassing. With all the will in the world, Milphey wasn't the one who had to live with such things afterward.

 

Plus, that wouldn't answer the question, just why was Gateau following in the first place? He'd spoken to Milphey before and Marron afterward and was obviously quite clear on the predicted evening's events... he'd mentioned wanting to take Marron out himself. Might Gateau have planned to appear suddenly and claim rights to Marron's time? Was that really Gateau's style?

 

Perhaps he wasn't following at all. Maybe he had his own agenda for visiting Facade.

 

Gateau certainly had his own agenda, but as far as his own thoughts went, he was quite determined not to be caught; the path from Eden to Facade was reasonably empty (quite understandably, given the time of day), but it was flanked to either side by various trees and bushes, it wasn't impossible to pick a path through those rather than the cleared ground of the main road. Picking said path quietly was a different matter altogether, but Gateau considered himself far enough away from Marron and Milphey for them not to hear his rustlings. If they did hear him, let them think it was an animal, or something.

 

As for his motives... somehow, Chocolat's words had had a deeper effect on him than perhaps they should have done, he felt. As far as the Misu sisters seemed to see it, Gateau had been wronged somehow, he should discover the circumstances of that. That wasn't really the situation at all, sometimes Gateau wondered just what kind of relationship there'd been to fall apart in the first place, but... well, they couldn't know that. Tira and Chocolat couldn't be blamed for not having an awareness of the wider picture.

 

However, Gateau himself was quite aware of the situation, and still he was following Marron and Milphey on their evening date. It was somehow harder to justify to himself, but he also knew he'd probably never get anywhere by asking either of the two of their intentions. Especially given how Marron was, who ever knew what his intentions were, let alone if he'd ever be willing to reveal them... it was too much to wonder if Marron had purposefully meant for Gateau to follow, but either way, he felt he'd discover things best if he saw them with his own eyes. Watch for the gestures, the body language... probably wouldn't be able to get close enough to hear the conversation, but if there was something there then surely it should then become obvious.

 

Wasn't it already obvious? Gateau didn't know if he was following because he wanted to prove himself right or wrong... as he walked, he supposed he could only wait and see what happened.

 

Milphey now walked with his hands behind his head, "Marron-chan went quiet. Can't think of a solution?"

 

"Ah-... well, is there any firm way to really solve such a situation?"

 

"Avoid him or confront him, two easy ways right there."

 

"Neither is easy, Milphey..."

 

A shrug, "Fine, but we're running out of pathway. If we want to go somewhere in the city we should decide quickly so I can think of somewhere we can go. If we do go somewhere then I don't want you being all nervous half the time wondering if Gateau's suddenly going to burst into the room."

 

Marron couldn't even deny it to himself that he'd been suspecting that something like that would happen. Anywhere they went, even somewhere hidden that Milphey knew... anywhere that was public held a risk that Gateau would follow them there. To go anywhere with such a fear surely wasn't acceptable, surely it was entirely within his right to ask Gateau why he was following!

 

It was the asking that seemed the hard part, though. Was he just supposed to turn around and reveal he knew of Gateau's behaviour? Marron had been in similar situations many times before, watching Carrot and occasionally even following him places... it was enough to watch and observe all the little things he did with the comfort of knowing he couldn't be seen, but that had never prevented the risk that he might have been seen, that he could have been suddenly noticed...

 

The moments of sheer voyeuristic guilt and passion... knowing that he wouldn't be seen, and watching such private moments of his brother... Carrot going off into the woods when he was supposed to be sleeping would have surely attracted attention, anyway. Watching him sit by himself for sometimes hours, sitting tightly and only sighing to carry a hint of his voice to Marron's ears... sometimes less innocent things. Sometimes tears. Sometimes masturbation. Marron watched it all with a desire to know everything of Carrot, but also with a real petrification of being caught...

 

"Ma~rr~on~cha~an...?"

 

Milphey's sing-song voice brought Marron back to real life, somewhat. Thinking of his brother and the things that would happen and had happened in missions past wasn't going to get him anywhere in the current situation. Sympathizing with Gateau didn't make his actions any more excusable.

 

"... We should perhaps confront him..."

 

"I thought you might say that. Ah, but that means that there'll be an unpleasant confrontation, and there I was hoping this evening could be entirely perfect... but, I suppose that can't be helped, and it probably won't be perfect if you're looking over your shoulder every few minutes to make sure you're not being watched. Right? So. How do you want to confront him?"

 

Silence. How? How many different ways were there of waiting for Gateau to come closer and then reveal knowledge of his earthly position?

 

"Does Marron-chan want me to do it?"

 

"Ah-... ah?"

 

"I could if you wanted me to. It'd maybe be a little easier on your side if he didn't think it was all you, or anything. If it was me knowing he was there then that can't be helped, right? And besides, if he's following us for any reason to do with you, then he's not going to come right out and tell you his reasons to your face, is he now?"

 

"I... suppose not..."

 

Milphey dropped his step with a wide smile, "Well, then!"

 

Marron did come to a stop with that, not quite sure what Milphey was implying by that. Stopping on the path, it seemed they'd reached the pathway where countryside was just starting to melt into as close as Facade got to urban civilization... obviously Gateau would have to change his tactic soon, but Marron wasn't quite sure just what Milphey had planned... he made his confusion evident.

 

"Milphey, what are you going to do?"

 

"Marron-chan, you go on ahead. I'll hang back and act as if I knew that he was following us, but you were unaware of it. That'll save him a little embarrassment, right? And maybe I can hear his motives while I'm at it... that's what Marron-chan wants to know, right?"

 

"Ah... well, yes..."

 

"So, you carry on. If you want to wait after a while then feel free to, but hopefully I won't take very long."

 

"Alright... thank you, Milphey."

 

"No problem. Go on now, quickly...!"

 

Nodding his understanding, Marron went on his way, eventually reaching the populated outskirts of the city. Milphey watched him leave, picking him out in the crowds up ahead... after a short while Marron was no longer visible, Milphey presumed that he'd turned a corner somewhere. He was a sensible person however, he wouldn't pick somewhere too hard to be found afterward. Now the focus was just to talk to Gateau as quickly as possible... given how the general public tended to react to Marron, Milphey supposed he wouldn't be too comfortable being left alone for too long. If he was just waiting around he'd definitely be propositioned by at least a few people... then the rustling of Gateau nearby was louder, Milphey picked that moment to turn around.

 

"Gateau, you don't need to hide anymore. I know you're there."

 

There was a louder rustle, then a silence. Then Gateau pulled himself out of the undergrowth and onto the path. He couldn't avoid Milphey's accusing eyes, but he couldn't bring himself to look right at them, either. Milphey had his arms folded and looked, for a change, quite displeased... Gateau wondered why he felt like a little kid about to be scolded for something. He picked a leaf out of his hair, self-consciously running his hand over his head to check for anything more.

 

"Um..."

 

"You're following us, aren't you?"

 

"I guess... there's no way to hide that..."

 

"May I ask why?"

 

Gateau scratched at his neck, "... It's not... uh... sometimes you do stuff on impulse, right?"

 

"So you thought you'd stalk Marron just for something to do on an evening? You may want to get a new hobby before it moves on to anything disturbing."

 

"I- I wasn't stalking him, I-"

 

"You were following him without his knowledge, right? You were hiding so he wouldn't notice you, you were watching him without his consent; I can't know your intention, but what else would you describe 'stalking' as!?"

 

"... I... I'm sorry..."

 

Milphey sighed, "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. Though fortunately I realized you were following us before Marron could sense anything, so I sent him up ahead so I could confront you without either of you being embarrassed. I don't want to leave him for too long, but... Gateau. Would it kill you to rack your brain for a reason as to why we're here like this right now?"

 

It was harder to think of his sure-fire suspicions when one of the objects of said suspicion was glaring at him with such piercing eyes, but... Gateau tried to gather his thoughts. He chanced a glance up at Milphey, then looked down again. His suspicions were... at worst, his suspicion was that there was something between Milphey and Marron. Worst case scenario.

 

Being looked at like that by Milphey, though... even if that was the truth... was it really any of his business? Did it really matter if there was something between the two of them? Gateau felt suddenly guilty. He should have waited until they'd returned... if he'd asked Milphey seriously, perhaps if he'd even asked Marron... if there was truth there, then surely there wouldn't have been any reason to deny it?

 

Not that Gateau ever understood Marron's reasoning, but Milphey at least... if asked seriously, then surely...

 

Gateau supposed he couldn't deny it himself.

 

"... I was... curious about you and Marron."

 

Milphey seemed to relax fractionally, "Well, that's an understandable reason. Curious in what way? Maybe I can answer your questions."

 

"... It's nothing, really..."

 

"If it was nothing you wouldn't have followed us. Even if it is nothing, tell me about this nothing, and maybe we can make something of it."

 

Gateau looked up, "I- I can't help but think there's somethin' goin' on between you and Marron! And I know it's none of my business or anything, and I don't know why the idea bugs me as much as it does, but... you were going out all dressed up and you were going out with Marron even though you knew I wanted to and earlier I kissed Marron and he didn't argue or anything, so it was like... I don't know... Marron was all confusing earlier then you turned up and it just... I guess it confused me more. I mean, I know you said you weren't the person Marron loved, but... I... I don't really believe there is a person he loves anymore... not in the way he's always on about... made me wonder if he was just making that up back when we were together to push me away or something... 'cause... he'd never tell me who that person was and the more I think about it the more it doesn't seem to make sense... so I was... kinda suspicious of the two of you going off after Marron acted so weird with me earlier on. That... that's about it."

 

Then there was a silence. It seemed that Gateau had chosen that moment to expel pretty much everything on his mind, and when mulling over his multitudinal thoughts, Milphey couldn't help a vague glance in Facade's direction. Not that he minded being Eden's guidance counsellor but there really were better times and places to come out with things like that. Milphey had a slight wish that Gateau could write that all down and save it for a few hours, put his own duty on pause and just be able to go out with Marron without having to muse on and duck the rapid-fire emotions flying and rebounding off the corridors of Eden...

 

He sighed. He couldn't just leave Gateau standing there...

 

"Alright, alright... so essentially... Marron's confusing you. He seems to do that quite well... though, earlier... he kissed you? That's surprising, isn't it?"

 

Gateau shifted from one foot to the other, "Well, I was the one who started it... I saw him so I went over to talk to him, he went off on one about the sky and clouds and sunsets and stuff, and it was just like... I don't know, it was weird. I hadn't really heard him like that before, all wistful... and he just smiled so nicely, and it was like... well, it'd sound kinda weak to say 'I couldn't help it', but... it's exactly that, I couldn't help it...! Then I figured he'd probably push me away or something, but he didn't..."

 

Milphey nodded, "I see...?"

 

"... Before that... he'd said he was coming down to Facade with you. I said that was strange 'cause you knew I'd been looking for Marron in the first place... he asked me if it made me jealous. Him and you going down to Facade, I mean."

 

"Ah... and what did you say?"

 

"Didn't say much really... it's not really that it makes me jealous or anything... just... curious, I guess. Um... I guess I should say. Earlier on this morning me and Carrot saw you and Marron in bed."

 

Milphey's shock was unmistakable, but he didn't say anything.

 

"So it was like... we were just curious, really. I know what you said earlier, about you going to Carrot and Marron knowing about it and all... but... we couldn't really... we couldn't help but think from that that at least something had happened, 'cause I mean... come on, you and him sleepin' on each other like that, what are we supposed to think...?"

 

A soft laugh, Milphey's relief in the knowledge that nothing more had been spotted, "There's no way to really excuse that, so I won't attempt to do so. Just that Marron did end up quite exhausted last night... we more or less fell asleep where we sat..."

 

"Exhausted...?"

 

"He eventually managed to work himself into one of his magical haze things again. That was why you saw Kahlua this morning, I was quite worried about him... and that's why we're going out at the moment. After him managing to knock himself out, after staying in that room for so long, we thought it'd be a good idea to go out and get some fresh air. I wanted to treat him, so... we decided to come down to the city."

 

Milphey looked Gateau in the eye, "Is that acceptable?"

 

The question of just how Marron managed to work himself into another magical coma burnt on Gateau's tongue; he keenly remembered the last time, and he knew what had come before that... therefore wasn't that almost blatantly saying that something had happened between Milphey and Marron? At least that Marron had attempted something or other while near Milphey... of course, Gateau didn't feel he knew enough about Marron's magical practices to really cast judgement, there were probably one of a million things that could have caused Marron to knock himself out... and Milphey had got Kahlua to sort it out. Would he have got a powerful Haz Knight in to sort out a sexual problem? Would a busy Haz Knight want to sort out a sexual problem? Gateau wasn't too sure about that. He felt he himself would be a little intimidated asking someone like Kahlua something like that...

 

The next question to leave Gateau's mouth was different quite to what he'd been considering, but still one that irked him deep inside, one of those thoughts that made him feel lonely and inadequate on those nights where he got preoccupied.

 

"Marron... trusts you, doesn't he?"

 

Milphey shrugged slightly, "I'd like to think that most people would trust-"

 

"I'm talking about Marron, here."

 

Slightly shocked by the decisive tone in Gateau's voice, Milphey supposed that he couldn't really disguise that point any. He nodded, "Yes, he trusts me."

 

"What... kind of things does he trust you about?"

 

"Oh, come now. To say things like that... wouldn't that be betraying his trust just to mention them?"

 

"I-... I suppose. Um... I guess you wouldn't be able to say, but... it'd... it'd at least put my own mind at rest to know if I was right or wrong or not... but... is... is there somebody... that Marron loves? I mean, really loves. In all the hopeless desperate ways that he used to describe. Do you... do you know if there is? Do you know if he was... maybe... lying about that...? Trying to dissuade me..."

 

For a few moments, Milphey looked genuinely torn, looking to the side and biting against his bottom lip.

 

"I- I mean, you don't have to say anything if you really can't, I don't wanna put you in a bad situation or anything..."

 

Milphey turned his gaze back to Gateau, looking him in the eye again.

 

"Gateau-chan. Would it really help you to know if there was or wasn't?"

 

"I-..."

 

"If I said 'yes, there was', would that make you feel any better? If I said 'no, there isn't' and that said to you that Marron really was trying to dissuade you... would that really make you feel better?"

 

"At least that'd be an honest deception I could really resent him for."

 

"You want to resent him?"

 

Gateau shook his head slightly, "I... I don't really... want... to... I suppose... but it's more... he was so screwed up back when me and him were 'together', and it was like... all that time... he just wanted to use me for his own things, but he'd never trust me enough to tell me why or anything... and... I do really hate that he did all of those things, that he couldn't just be open and tell me stuff and be able to relax... trust me enough to relax with me... then it more ends up, obviously I wasn't enough for him, obviously there was something wrong with me for him to not trust me any... then... then he's standing there all pretty saying poetic things about the wind and trees and whatever crap he's on about, and... it's almost like I can forget the stuff he did, you know? Maybe if he could be a little forgiving... maybe if he could sort himself out... maybe if I could help him... then I think, no, wait, I shouldn't be thinking stuff like that! After all the stuff he did before... if he did it before, if I gave him the chance to do it again... he would do it again... and I woulda only left myself open for that..."

 

Milphey couldn't help but soften his glare; really, Gateau didn't deserve to be glared at, not at the moment. More than anything - like most of the teenagers in Eden - he was confused, and Marron was causing that confusion. He sighed shortly.

 

"Gateau... it's difficult to know what to say to all of this. There's nothing I can say or do that'll make Marron open up to you, I don't have a magic wand and I can't predict the future... maybe he'll never open up to anybody."

 

Unable to help a note of impatience in his voice, Gateau folded his arms and closed his eyes for a moment, "He opened up to you, didn't he?"

 

On that, Milphey stepped closer to Gateau, putting a hand to Gateau's closest arm to persuade him into opening his eyes again. Gateau did so, a little taken aback to have Milphey standing so close to him suddenly... he really was very pretty. He knew that probably should have been the last thing on his mind at that time, but... he was. Gateau couldn't help but feel a slight tug of jealousy for both of those he'd followed - Milphey for having somehow gained Marron's trust in a way he obviously couldn't, and for Marron having caused such a visual reaction with Milphey... Gateau wondered what it'd be like if Milphey ever dressed for him like that. He wouldn't dislike that, he thought blandly to himself.

 

Filling the silence with only a shaking of his head, Milphey didn't remove his hand from Gateau's arm, which felt cold somehow. He held his own hand there until he felt the skin warm under his slightly, pressing his fingers just gently.

 

"Marron didn't say anything to me through choice."

 

"Uh... n?"

 

"It's more... a trust that was built out of circumstance. I saw and heard things I perhaps shouldn't have done. I don't know if he would have come to me of his own accord."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

Milphey waved a hand to try and illustrate his point, "It was a while ago. It was night, he came into the room I was sleeping in, but he didn't realise I was sleeping in it until it was too late... I'd heard him come in and got out of bed so I could try to jump whoever'd maliciously burst into my room in the middle of the night... then, well... as I said. I saw and heard things he wouldn't have wanted anybody to see or hear otherwise. After that, he had little choice but to explain himself... well, he could have refused if he'd really wanted to, but he couldn't have known I would have kept silent for him without asking, right?"

 

"I guess it was more than just walking in on him jerking off, then..."

 

"Ha ha, it's funny you should say that..."

 

"He was jerking off?"

 

"Essentially."

 

"Huh, and that was exactly what I caught him doing way back in the beginning. What makes this and that so different..."

 

Stepping back, Milphey looked down at the ground.

 

"Perhaps it's not a betrayal to say the same thing he's been telling everybody for the past few months... Gateau? It's different because I caught him... I caught him calling a name."

 

Looking back up at Gateau, he seemed to be waiting for Milphey to elaborate. Another sigh, "I caught him saying the name of the person who he loves. He was shocked that somebody else would know... but I could only let him trust me. There are few things that surprise me anymore... and nobody should have to bear a burden on their own, even if it's just the knowledge of feelings..."

 

There didn't seem to be much to say to that. The bottom suddenly fell out of Gateau's primary theory; at least that meant - if Milphey was telling the truth - that Marron hadn't acted so psychotic with Gateau for malicious reasons only of his own accord, but that still left the question of who, though... thinking about it, Gateau was sure that knowledge of that person wouldn't really help. If it wasn't picking through each and every one of his mental processes to figure out just what about him it was that led to him being untrustworthy in Marron's eyes, it'd just be beating himself up to wonder what was so great about that other person compared to he himself...

 

Gateau frowned, realising something.

 

"... So if you heard him... that means... that means you know who it is?!"

 

"I'm not saying who it is."

 

So near and yet so far.

 

"I, I'm not asking you to tell me who it is, but..."

 

"But...?"

 

Another pause, then a quick shaking of the head.

 

"No, nothing. I don't really... I don't have any reason to know who it is, really. If Marron isn't telling anybody, then I guess I can't really try and get it out of you, either... n'... it... probably wouldn't help... to know who it was... anyway..."

 

"But you're still curious, aren't you?"

 

"Can't really help it. He pretty much dumped me because of this person, so... maybe it's... I don't know, I feel that maybe I have a bit of a right to know..."

 

Milphey reached over to Gateau's arm again, pushing it out of where both were folded, then taking hold of Gateau's gloved hand. He started walking down the path, Gateau supposed he was supposed to follow, and he had no reason not to... Milphey slowed his own pace to match Gateau's, indicating that they should walk together into the city.

 

"I... can't speak too much on Marron's behalf, but... I think he would be frightened if you found out who his feelings were directed towards."

 

Gateau frowned, "That's a strange way to say it... he'd be frightened? Of me?"

 

"Worried of what you'd think about him. He's never exactly said so, but... I think that, somehow, Marron does feel for you. How, I couldn't say. Perhaps I'm just speaking my own mind, but... if I was him, if I knew that you had feelings for me but I had feelings for somebody else, I wouldn't want to hurt you."

 

"Jeez... if Marron didn't want to hurt me, then he shoulda thought of that before he started messing with my head."

 

"Well, I don't know how his mind works. That's only my opinion."

 

"Yeah..."

 

At that point, it seemed to occur to Gateau's mind that he was holding the hand of Marron's 'date' while being led into the city by the same; Milphey and Marron had been going down to the city together, but what was Milphey doing at the moment? He pulled his hand away, "Milphey, where are we going?"

 

"Oh? I thought Gateau-chan might like to come along with us. You were following along to keep an eye on Marron-chan, weren't you? Well, it'll be easier to watch him if you're right beside him. Or do you want to go home alone?"

 

"I... I'd be in the way..."

 

"No, no you wouldn't. There's nothing between me and Marron to get in the way of! Didn't you say earlier that you wanted to resent him? I think that would be... unfortunate. I know you don't want to risk your feelings flaring again, but perhaps if you act friendly with him, if you spend time together in an innocent way, his trust with you can grow. I'll be there too, so I can make sure nothing untoward happens. Alright? Of course, if you really want to go back, then I won't stop you. I don't want to force you into spending time with Marron or anything."

 

Gateau shook his head, "I see what you're saying... I mean, I don't want him to get mad with me or anything, but... if it was just friendly, it'd be okay, wouldn't it?"

 

A laugh, "That's what I'm asking you. I don't think there's really any reason for him to get angry, though... maybe he'll be a bit surprised that you turned up, but there wasn't really a mood to spoil, or anything. Now, it's just a case of where did he go... I told him to go on up ahead..."

 

The two of them continued walking. By this point the sky had darkened considerably... night would probably have fallen by the time they reached wherever they were going to go, let alone before they got back to Eden. By this point, that didn't really matter. It did however make picking people out a little difficult... Milphey peered around, one hand up to his eyes as he glanced around, the other still tucked tightly between Gateau's fingers.

 

The streets were still quite busy, despite the advancing time. It seemed to be one of those nights where the nightlife of Facade chose to bloom... Milphey and Gateau made their way through people, eventually walking to a park with quite a few shadowy tall trees in the distance and a certain figure standing closer. Milphey smiled on noticing Marron, "Ah! There he is. Come on, let's tell him we're here!"

 

Gateau let himself be dragged over to where Marron was stood. For a few moments Marron really seemed caught in his own thoughts, not realizing his company until Milphey started speaking to him.

 

"Ah, Marron-chan! We found you. It's a good thing you're wearing white, otherwise we might not have seen you! You might not have seen us, either... all thinking about quiet things like that. Anyway! We're ready now, so shall we be off?"

 

Looking up, Marron had opened his mouth to say something about Gateau, ask how the meeting had gone, ask if Milphey had managed to get rid of him - then he realised that Milphey was not alone and the 'we' had not been a figure of speech. Milphey was there... with Gateau. Milphey was holding Gateau's hand, even... Marron wasn't sure what to think. He wasn't really sure he was in the right frame of mind for dealing with Gateau in the current moment... for the time being he wanted to take some time out and ponder on things with Milphey, ponder about things that only he and Milphey would know about... such a situation would be made a little more difficult with Gateau there. He'd have to watch his words carefully, if he were to speak at all...

 

Marron stood there silently for a moment, taking the situation in. Gateau raised a hand, Marron nodded slightly in his direction.

 

"Gateau..."

 

He spoke with an air of greeting, but with a kind of suspicion to his voice... that couldn't remain for too long, though. Before he could say or do anything more, Marron found his hand grabbed by Milphey's free one, and was enthusiastically pulled away from the park's entrance. It seemed as if Milphey wanted to take control for the moment... Marron didn't have any problem with that.

 

"Well now! Now that we're all together... the more the merrier, isn't it? Don't we make an interesting group! However, the most important thing is... where shall we go?"

 

"Milphey, I thought you had somewhere in mind..."

 

"I have many places in mind, that's the problem! Lots of nice places to go but I'm sure you don't want to go on a restaurant crawl or anything. You're not the kind to eat a lot, in any case... so we should pick somewhere special where the food is good..."

 

The three came to a stop at the first main intersection of the city; two fountains lay in the middle of the wide pathway, various buildings distantly opposite to each other across the road. People milled around, some sat on the edge of the fountains, most clamoured at certain buildings; pubs and establishments of ill repute were starting to gather their patronage for the night... Milphey pulled his hands away from Marron and Gateau as he walked over to the closest fountain, obviously deep in thought.

 

"There's the Mistopha... that does lovely Rusean grilled food. Aaah, those steaks... but, it's on the other side of the city, really. It'd be midnight before we ordered... mmmn, where... the Paprelimonto does lovely rice dishes, but I'm not sure it stays open after dark... well, the Carasalananta is nearby... that place does pasta to die for, honestly... I'm not sure if I'm really in the mood for pasta, though. Well, we came out for Marron-chan's benefit! So, what does Marron-chan want to eat?"

 

"A-ah...?"

 

"It's not a difficult decision... you haven't eaten for a while, right? So what's your stomach yearning for?"

 

Gateau perched himself on the stony rim of the water's edge, "I guess you'd know where to get anything in this city, wouldn't you?"

 

"Ahaha, something like that. But, if there's something Marron-chan really wants, then I'd like to be able to get it for him... Marron-chan, thought of anything yet?"

 

"I usually... don't really decide..."

 

"Oh, come on. You're not so indecisive you can't pick something to eat, right? If you could have anything right now, what would it be? Something sweet, something savoury... we could get something hot or cold or spicy - oh, I know a place that does a curry so hot that it-... well, I better not say what it does to you when we're about to eat, but let's just say that it's quite hot and leave it at that. There's probably representative restaurants for every kind of cuisine on the Continent in this city somewhere or another, so-"

 

"... salmon."

 

"Mmm?"

 

"If there's somewhere where we could eat salmon... I'd like to go there."

 

Milphey was stopped in his tracks once more by Marron's innate ability to attract attention with just the smallest things. He spoke so quietly and his request was almost childlike, somehow... Milphey had to fight back the urge to glomp and squeal, of course they could go somewhere where there was salmon, Milphey'd buy all the salmon Marron could eat if he wanted, and prawns and crab and anything he could imagine to go with it...

 

He shook himself from his little train of thought, twisting at a lock of hair hanging over his ear.

 

"So, we should go somewhere with seafood, right?... Gateau-chan, you don't mind that, do you?"

 

"Uh? Oh, ah, no, that's fine."

 

"That's good, that's good. It's just, sometimes you get people with allergies... but, let's think. Somewhere nearby... there's the Ristolarante a few roads away if you don't mind the fact that it's owned by the Ristol family of Sorcerers..."

 

Milphey seemed to look especially at Gateau while he said that; Gateau caught the look but just shrugged as he picked himself up from the edge of the fountain, "A restaurant is a restaurant..."

 

So, with Milphey leading the way, they headed towards the Ristolarante restaurant. Marron couldn't help but be quietly happy; he hadn't really thought about satiating such cravings before, but... once he'd thought about foods he wanted to eat, things he wanted... he hadn't had any kind of fish in quite some time, and salmon, when done just right... it'd been even longer since that. A year or so, at least... the promise of good food was a potent one and for a moment Marron was able to let a small smile overtake his expression and he'd entirely forgotten about his unease at Gateau being there, until he realised his forgetful thought.

 

He glanced up from where he'd been looking ahead, keeping his eye on Milphey keeping the way... he looked from Milphey to Gateau, who seemed to be looking straight ahead. Marron turned back, but kept occasionally looking, just out of the corner of his eye...

 

Why was Gateau there?

 

Perhaps he'd been making his own way to Facade, then Milphey had heard him and misinterpreted the situation? Perhaps he really had been following, but... why? To what end?

 

Coming out with anything like 'so! Why were you stalking us?' didn't seem appropriate at all, and Marron couldn't think of any way to tactfully work something like that into the fabric of conversation... if Gateau wanted to mention it, then he could. If Milphey came up with his own way of informing Marron of Gateau's motives, then that was fine.

 

Why would anybody follow anybody else in such a fashion, though? The only comparison Marron could come up with was that of he and his brother, of such subtle methods that even Carrot wasn't aware... the sellers of Spinner Traces probably had Marron to thank for a lot of their income, but Marron would likely have paid any price to have been able to have such a thing to lead him to his brother no matter what... almost as if the thing had been made with Marron's devotion in mind. Marron often mused on how wonderful it was that such a thing existed...

 

Gateau would never plant one of the peculiar little spiders on him, would he? As they walked, Marron self-consciously brushed at the front of his robe. It wasn't as if it was anything magic, he wouldn't really be able to tell if he was being traced or not... but then again, it wouldn't have taken the use of one of those to tell Gateau where he and Milphey had been going to. From Eden to Facade was a long straight path, and if Marron was going to be going anywhere then he'd be following that path...

 

With a vague feeling of impatience, Marron supposed he'd have to wait until they got back to figure out what Gateau was up to.

 

"I would follow my brother to ensure his wellbeing..."

 

Somehow, thoughts always seemed to come back to Carrot, the justifications Marron would use to follow Carrot... he shook his head slightly. His justification was not Gateau's justification and maybe there didn't have to be a reason at all. Marron couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by his current company, though. Milphey and Gateau got on as well as anybody did, but Marron saw himself as the missing link; if Gateau really knew of anything that had happened last night, then...

 

... then what?

 

Would he be angry? Upset? Worried? A quick chill washed over Marron's body as he remembered Milphey's previous involvement. Gateau's anger. Gateau's actions. Carrot had just happened to manage to stop things before they got too far, but oh... if Gateau hadn't have stopped... Marron's opinion on that seemed to change daily. In retrospect, especially given what had happened with Milphey the night before, he supposed it best that nothing finalistic had really happened. If his circumstance of sleeping passion was anything to go by then such things may have brought him to his orgasm, but then there was also no guarantee that they would have done, either... Marron turned to watch Gateau a little more obviously while they walked; Gateau either didn't notice or didn't want to respond, he kept his eyes on Milphey and the path still.

 

Gateau was... different, to Milphey. Milphey was trusting and understanding and patient and kind, and he seemed willing to help anybody through any kind of situation, even Marron and his sexual difficulties... but all they seemed to have highlighted were Marron's problems with little hope for solution... Milphey's opinion seemed to be that it'd be fine to leave it for now, they'd find out how to solve things later on. That was fine, but... how many documented ways were there on the Continent to solve such things? Who else had such problems to have been able to find a cure, if such a problem had a cure?

 

The pain of earlier had been intense, but perhaps pain could be a valiant thing sometimes...

 

Marron glanced away when he realised that thoughts of he, Gateau and bondage were rising in his mind again. He'd managed for quite some time without thinking of such things, it was already quite established that Gateau wasn't willing to go for anything with such a degree of power split, but... there was always the vague curiosity, what would it have been like? Would it have worked? Tied up, bound still, no way to cast the magical seals he seemed to end up casting without even realising... perhaps the solution would come from within, but Marron wasn't sure what kind of solution was inside him to come forth; until then, they couldn't say they'd tried everything...

 

No, but thoughts like that... thoughts like that were what had landed him with his affliction in the first place. Thinking on things so keenly that could never be, that were impossible... it was indeed delicious to think of how brutal Gateau could perhaps be, but anybody really had the potential to be anything and power and strength aside, Gateau was really quite gentle when he wanted to be. Perhaps Milphey also had the power to be violent in his passions, but that didn't sway the fact that it was always Gateau that Marron thought about.

 

Perhaps it was a case of Milphey knowing too much? Marron had ended up trusting Milphey with his big secret, which was okay in itself, but then... everything from there would be tainted somewhat by the vision of Carrot somewhere. The problem came about because of Carrot, his thoughts of Carrot, his feelings for Carrot... he knew that, Milphey knew that, Milphey was willing to work with him and didn't think it something disgusting or terrible... Marron knew he was indeed incredibly fortunate with Milphey, it took a special kind of person to know such things about a person and not react badly, but... events of the night before aside, Marron wasn't really sure just quite how he saw Milphey... perhaps he really would tie Marron back and take him with wild abandon if Marron so requested, but...

 

Marron frowned slightly as he thought on his feelings. There were unquestionably things he thought about both Milphey and Gateau, but really he thought different things for every different person he knew; that was a naturally complicated reaction, but... when it came to basically, when it came to how he saw his two companions... he didn't know. For so long he'd seen Gateau as being the one who fit perfectly into his plans - he was strong, he was powerful, given many factors (and ignoring Marron's own magical powers) Gateau definitely had the physical advantages... perhaps it would be a better thing to transfer such thoughts to being about Milphey?

 

There was something different there, though. Milphey's will to put up with anything Marron said to him... his understanding... his inability to be shocked, by anything...

 

Essentially the thought surfaced that Marron just didn't see Milphey in that way. He trusted Milphey with a lot more things and thoughts than he'd ever trusted anybody else with, and he supposed that he also trusted Milphey sexually, he trusted him to be as gentle and patient as in any other area...

 

Another glance towards Gateau. Was it unhealthy to yearn for that edge of brutality, for someone not to understand him but to fuck him with violent fervour? He didn't want to reduce Milphey to any kind of sexual object, he supposed. He trusted him and he felt bad enough about the previous night to consider more or less using Milphey as an outlet... likely Milphey wouldn't mind it, and perhaps it wasn't strictly using somebody if there was mutual trust, understanding, etcetera there, but...

 

No, but that made his train of thought towards Gateau seem even more unforgivable. He wouldn't be willing to use Milphey but he would be willing to use Gateau? No way he looked at the thought seemed to offer a different perspective. He was willing to manipulate Gateau's feelings for him and hoped to twist them into a fashion to use him for his own sexual ends, using said feelings as a justification.

 

That really was much more unforgivable than anything Marron had considered about Carrot, wasn't it?

 

Perhaps though, the feelings issue was something else that was different... Milphey obviously liked all of the Sorcerer Hunters, and probably didn't make too much of a distinction between them in his levels of friendship... however, Gateau quite blatantly had feelings towards Marron, he'd even admitted holding a love for him, and... surely such feelings were not rational, and if Marron was willing to offer a sexual relationship, then why wouldn't Gateau pick up on that?

 

If Carrot were to consent to nothing but a sexual relationship, Marron could have been satisfied... well. Perhaps not satisfied as such, but... if Carrot was... if that was all that Carrot was willing to offer, then Marron felt he'd only be able to accept that and give all of himself to what little that was... didn't Gateau work like that? As a matter of principle Marron couldn't allow Gateau too much, but... the things he was willing to offer, the kind of relationship he could consent to... he wasn't asking for love and romance, and if he wasn't giving that he didn't really expect Gateau to give it either. Surely they could have just a sexual thing going on? Nothing so complicated as to wind up ugly, but if they knew from the beginning that there was only sex, then...

 

"Ah! Here we are. The Ristolarante. Are you two alright? You went very quiet all of a sudden."

 

Milphey's question seemed to snap both Marron and Gateau out of their respective thought processes at the same time.

 

"Y-yes."

 

"I'm okay."

 

He turned around, "You sure? We don't have to go here if you two don't want to. As I said, I do know quite a few places to eat out in this city..."

 

Marron attempted a small smile as he walked forward, "No, this place is somewhere that you recommended, so it's somewhere we can go. It certainly seems to have a nice atmosphere..."

 

Even Gateau had to admit to that. The windows didn't allow direct viewing into the restaurant itself, but the decor that was visible seemed to be quite low-lit and red. The window itself displayed primarily an inner wall of the building, distant walls visible and some vibrant green plants overhanging said inner wall. There was a kind of shelf in front of this wall covered by a red throw, and large menus were displayed on that shelf. Milphey approached the doorway, "So! Shall we go in?"

 

He implied that Gateau and Marron should walk in before him; they did so, then waited for Milphey to join them to lead them once more.

 

Looking around inside, the atmosphere really did seem a pleasant one. The walls (and floors and ceiling) were a deep shade of red, disturbed every so often by a pale yellow light set into the walls at set intervals. Between these lights were the usual array of inexplicable paintings that usually adorned such places; this restaurant seemed to have a kind of abstract theme going on, none of the paintings seemed to outwardly admit to being of anything coherent.

 

From looking over the primary eating area, there still seemed to be quite a few tables left, to Milphey's relief. Obviously they'd come at just the right time. As they walked further inside they were greeted by a smartly-dressed employee who wanted to know if any of the three wanted their coats taken; essentially he seemed to be talking to Gateau with this, since he was the only one wearing anything that could be construed as a coat, with spikes on the shoulders, even...! Gateau supposed to himself that maybe that could be a little intimidating for such an up-market type of place. He let his coat be taken.

 

They were guided over to the tables, Milphey smiling and gazing coyly and obviously making some kind of impression with that waiter. In the end Milphey chose the table set furthest into the corner, sitting himself down furthest into the corner, able to see the rest of the room from his position. Marron sat on Milphey's left, Gateau on his right, and Milphey couldn't help but let out a slight groan when he sat down.

 

"Uhnn... it hurts to sit downnn... I should have remembered..."

 

Marron blushed immediately on realizing what Milphey was implying. Of course, he hadn't really been gentle, but... well, for the time since they'd only been lying around in bed, that wouldn't hurt too keenly...

 

He quickly plucked a menu from the holder in the middle of the table and hid himself quickly behind that in the pretence of wondering what to order. Perhaps his expression could be taken as a reflection of the crimson walls, but he didn't want to risk it. Fortunately, just before Gateau could say anything, a waiter appeared.

 

"Is madam having difficulties?"

 

Milphey looked up, "Oh! Oh, you're so considerate. Well, I happened to... over-exert myself somewhat, before coming here..."

 

"Would ma-... s-..."

 

"Call me 'madam' if it suits you best."

 

"A-ah... would m-madam like another cushion?"

 

"If you could get me one I'd be quite quite happy, yes."

 

"Alright then. Please wait patiently."

 

Milphey smiled happily as the waiter went off to find another cushion, "See? They're friendly here. They even call me 'madam'! Ahaha."

 

Gateau didn't seem to share Milphey's good humour, "Milphey, what happened?"

 

"Hmmn? With what?"

 

"To hurt... sitting down... how'd you manage to do that?"

 

A second of blank expression on Milphey's face as his mind raced for an excuse. He went with the first thing that came into his mind, which seemed plausible enough.

 

"I think I pulled a muscle in my leg, or something. It happens sometimes, don't worry too much. Just, have you ever had it where you hurt yourself in some way like that, but it doesn't always hurt? You only remember about it when, say, you sit down, or so. I suppose it'll get better after I've slept tonight. Why, how would you think I'd hurt myself?"

 

"I... I don't know."

 

Milphey watched Gateau carefully as he sat back in his seat, his eyes closed. Had his own excuse been convincing? Did Gateau believe him? Still, there were many things that could lead to aching posteriors, he could have hit it in an awkward way while getting out of bed... might have been bitten by something... might have been constipated... just because it hurt to sit down didn't meant that he had to have been having sex, did it? No. Gateau probably didn't suspect that at all. Milphey hoped.

 

The waiter returned with another cushion, red with yellow trim to match the decoration of the room. Milphey accepted it thankfully, and sat on it with a relaxed sigh. That felt a little better.

 

"Now, then! I see Marron-chan's been sitting with his nose in the menu for the past little while. Gateau-chan, do you want to see what there is?"

 

While speaking, Milphey reached over to pick up two more menus from the middle of the table. He placed one of them on his placemat and held the other one out for Gateau, who seemed to accept it with... almost some kind of hesitation? Milphey wasn't sure what to make of that, turning his attention to what was on the menu.

 

"Ah! See, salmon with additional seafood side-dish and vegetables. Marron-chan, do you want that?"

 

Before Marron could reply, Gateau interrupted.

 

"Milphey, are you sure this is okay?"

 

"Why wouldn't it be?"

 

"... It's all pretty damned expensive..."

 

"Yes, well, it's a good restaurant! Don't worry, I've come here quite a few times in the past. Actually, I think I came by on its opening night..."

 

"Just what kind of salary are you getting?!"

"Ahaha, a good one."

 

Gateau's eyebrow was firmly raised, "You'd have to be! Jeez... what kinda jobs do you get from Big Mama?"

 

Milphey was toying with the edge of his currently-empty wine glass as he spoke, smiling quietly to himself.

 

"I tend to take jobs given to Haz Knights..."

 

"Aren't they like, really difficult and dangerous, though?"

 

"Perks like that keep things interesting. I'm just that good, you know?"

 

"You must be... man. Why doesn't she just make you a Haz Knight already..."

 

"Ha ha... she doesn't have to do that. Anyway, come on now, let's decide what to order. Hmmm. Oh, they do such a lovely fish pie... it's got this sauce... oh, if I could make it at home I wouldn't leave the kitchen. Ever. Gosh, just thinking about it has my tummy rumbling... oh, I have to get that, no question. Gateau-chan see anything he likes?"

 

"Mmnnn... I'm not sure..."

 

At that point another waiter appeared brandishing a bottle of wine, "Would you like me to fill your glasses?"

 

Milphey smiled and held his glass forth, "Oh, yes please. Ah-... oh, but my friend here doesn't drink alcohol. Perhaps I could order something non-alcoholic for him?"

 

"Would sir like to just try the house red?"

 

"Ah..."

 

Milphey waved one hand, "He's allergic. Do you do mineral water?"

 

The waited stood up from filling Milphey and Gateau's glasses, "Allergic? My... you have my commiserations, dear sir. It's very good wine. However, we also offer a variety of juices at the bar... if sir would like to follow me?"

 

He implied that Marron should follow him. Marron stood up and pushed his chair under before following, "Ah, thank you..."

 

Both Milphey and Gateau watched as Marron walked through the little doorway that presumably led to the bar. Once he was gone, Milphey took a sip from his glass.

 

"Hmn, it is good... I can't remember if I've had this before. Perhaps it is a shame that Marron-chan can't drink alcohol, but then... I suppose it's a good idea for one of us to stay entirely sober, though. Maybe we'll end up drinking a lot and getting lost on the way home! Then Marron-chan would have to guide us. Ahaha, I'm sure it wouldn't come to that, though. So, Gateau-chan. You seem uneasy somehow."

 

Milphey leant forward on caged hands. Gateau glanced at him, supposing that statement was a veiled question... he shook his head.

 

"It's nothing..."

 

"We've been over this before, I think. If it was nothing it wouldn't be making you into a Mr Frowny. Is it something about Marron? So say so before he gets back."

 

"He... keeps looking at me strange."

 

"He does? I didn't notice... he had his face behind a menu for a lot of the time."

 

"No, I mean... when we were walking here. He kept looking at me. I didn't wanna look at him or anything in case he didn't want me to, but it was just... I don't know. I can't really ask 'why are you looking at me' or anything, it just made me a little uncomfortable. But I guess it's probably nothing. I mean, as you said, he was looking at the menu for that little while so I guess it was just... I was probably noticing things that weren't there."

 

"Perhaps, but-... ah! Marron-chan, did you find something you liked?"

 

Marron seemed to have appeared suddenly; he took his place next to Milphey once more, carefully sitting down a tall glass with some kind of green liquid on his coaster. He seemed quite happy with what it was he'd brought back with him, so Marron obviously had found something that took his fancy.

 

"They really did have many kinds of fruit juice. This is lime juice... it's something else I haven't had in a while, but... it has a soft taste to it, it's very refreshing."

"Ooh, I don't think I've ever had lime juice... well, that's a lie, I've probably tried everything there is in my time, but I haven't had it for a while. Can I try a little?"

 

"If you like."

 

Marron offered Milphey the glass; he accepted, taking a few sips from it.

 

"Well, it probably tastes better when you haven't been drinking wine just before it, but yes, that does have a nice taste to it, doesn't it? Maybe I'll have a glass of that myself, later on. Anyway! We got as far as deciding Marron-chan's food and mine, but Gateau-chan got distracted..."

 

"Ah, oh yeah. Umm... what about this one, the po-kay one?"

 

"Po-kay...? Oh, the pourc dish... chicken and... oh, I've had it before, what is it... chicken and bacon, isn't it? Ah, with cheese. Oh, oh my. I remember. Oh, do I want the fish pie so much now that I remember their wonderful thick bacon... perhaps I should get that instead, otherwise Gateau-chan's plate'll only be tempting me all night... oh, Gateau-chan, definitely definitely get that. The chicken's so moist and the bacon's so thick and they really don't skimp on the cheese, melting over the meat so lasciviciously..."

 

"Lascivious cheese?"

 

"If cheese could give you bedroom eyes, then this is the cheese that would do it, trust me."

 

Gateau glanced down the menu, "Does it say what kind of cheese it is... ah, Galnian. I'm not sure I've had that..."

 

Milphey shook his head, "You don't get it that widely outside of Galn. They're pretty protective of their cows there, and how... I think the Ristol family have Galnian connections or so, it's pretty rare to find much of it outside of that area apart from in specialist cheese shops... oh, perhaps Marron-chan's had it before, though. I remember Onion-chan used to make me take him on monthly trips down to Galn for a while, I don't know what they put in that cheese but I think he was actually addicted for a while..."

 

Marron spoke shortly, "Yes, I've had it before."

 

"Did you like it?"

 

"No."

 

"No? It's a very nice cheese, though!"

 

"When we were younger... father would always say that, and always try to make us eat it, but... I... either it never agreed with me or I never agreed with it, but I... can't touch it now."

 

"Ah, it's a mistake to try and make a little person handle a mature cheese. Silly Onion-chan. So, you're alright with the salmon? I think... I think I just have to say the same as Gateau-chan, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't."

 

Orders settled, Milphey waved down a waiter and finalized their orders. Their menus were collected, and after a short while, their food came to them.

 

Gateau was quite sure Marron was staring at him throughout that relatively silent wait, but... he passed it off as being nothing. Milphey was looking around the room with interest, but Marron wasn't such an obvious person... Gateau even glanced behind him once, to make sure that it was he Marron was staring at... to his upper right was one of the abstract paintings, something with lots of red triangles, but surely Marron wouldn't be so entranced by that... perhaps confrontation was the answer. Gateau leant on his hands and stared pointedly at Marron, thinking that that would put Marron off, sway him into turning away... it didn't lift his unease when Marron just stared back with equally matched depth; Gateau glanced down at his place mat, then the food arrived.

 

Milphey was quite vocal of his enjoyment of the food before he'd even put it into his mouth, "U~waaa...! Oh, this reminds me why I love this place so much. Look at this, Marron-chan! I know you don't like the cheese but you have to agree that that's impressive, right? I mean... if I just... here, look!"

 

While speaking, Milphey had quickly grabbed his knife and fork and cut a section from the edge of the chicken-bacon-cheese mix to submit to Marron's approval.

 

"See how thick the bacon is? Gateau-chan, aren't you impressed?"

 

He'd already started eating, "Mmm, s'good!"

 

"Ahaha, I'm glad you like it."

 

Silence for a few moments as the three of them silently devoted themselves to their meals, quietly considering and savouring their choices. Milphey couldn't help but keep his eye on Marron as he ate... he wasn't currently saying anything, but there was a kind of warmth in Marron's eyes that Milphey liked to think he noticed. That, and the slight eating noises. Marron would carefully separate a flake of the salmon from the main piece, gently scoot it around the plate to collect sauce, then guide some of the accompanying prawns onto his fork before taking the mouthful gently into his oh-so inviting mouth... somehow even something so mundane was easy to watch, and Marron ate so carefully. Despite the generous amount of sauce on the dish, the same which Marron applied to his fish, he rarely ever got any on his lips - then when he did, just for a moment, he was some kind of perfection sullied. That slight smudge of pink over Marron's lips... pink in their own way, but different... then there'd be a movement and his tongue would have gathered the sauce and restored Marron's appearance to its usual glory. All in the space of a second or so... but the glimmer of saliva still shone on Marron's lip as he ate, or at least until he brought his napkin up to his mouth, dabbing softly and breaking the mesmerising movements; Milphey paused from his own meal, taking up the wine glass to give his fingers something to do in the meantime. He sipped again from his wine, feeling warm and comfortable for the time being.

 

It really was quite a nice outing, wasn't it? He hadn't planned to bring Gateau along, but... just for the moment, nothing catastrophic had happened... perhaps his two charges were somewhat quiet with each other, but that was perhaps to be expected. If they could get used to taking cosy trips like this out with each other, well... Milphey smiled to himself. Perhaps it wasn't his place to build Marron and Gateau's relationship back together, but bringing them back to civil cohabitation seemed a reasonable goal to aim towards. It wasn't as if they were exactly at each other's necks at the moment, but there still seemed to be confusion between the two of them... well, he thought as he put his glass back down, that would hopefully sort itself out. Marron and Gateau were essentially sensible people.

 

On Marron's side, he couldn't help but keep looking at Gateau. He had a slight feeling that Gateau was watching him, or trying to watch him... but whenever he tried to make direct eye contact, Gateau would eventually look away. What did he want? Was there something he wanted to say, something he couldn't say? Marron wasn't sure, and it was starting to frustrate him, just a little. If Gateau had something to say then surely just Milphey's presence wouldn't affect that...

 

After a little while, Gateau made to get up, "I just need to go... y'know."

 

Milphey nodded his agreement, and Gateau headed off to the signed side-corridor that would lead to the toilets. Milphey retained his smile, turning to face Marron.

 

"Well, this is nice, isn't it? I know we didn't expect to have Gateau-chan here with us, but I think having the two of you here... I'm enjoying it. After all, all we really wanted to get out of Eden for was fresh air, right?"

 

Marron didn't seem to share Milphey's good spirits, "... I want to know why he's here."

 

"Why do you think he'd be here?"

 

Whether that was a rhetorical question or not, Marron answered in a quiet voice, "If he followed due to his feelings... if he followed due to suspicion... he either followed in order to watch you or I, and somehow I don't... I don't think he had an intention of following you..."

 

"Well, it's quite obvious that he's following you, isn't it?"

 

Suddenly, Marron stood up.

 

"I... want to find out."

 

Milphey quickly reached out, holding onto the edge of Marron's sleeve while he shook his head.

 

"Marron-chan, can't it wait until we get back to Eden? Alright if you just want to ask him, but if it's only a civil question then surely it can wait, can't it? I don't want you to do anything rash..."

 

Marron tugged his sleeve from Milphey's grip, walking in the direction that Gateau had disappeared in. Milphey took another sip from his wine, watching Marron's receding figure with trepidation... he wasn't sure he trusted Marron to safely occupy a room with Gateau, not while Marron was so determined to find out something Gateau might not be comfortable telling him... Milphey set back to his meal, hoping that neither of them would take too long. It didn't take too long to ask a question, did it? Just a simple question, maybe a simple answer... and Marron-chan wouldn't notice if just a small piece of his salmon went missing, would he? Milphey quickly impaled a flake onto his fork, and ate it before he could change his mind.

 

"Hmn... the salmon IS good...!"

 

About fifteen meters away, Gateau had been washing his hands at the white washbasin set into the red counter of the men's toilets when he heard the door behind him open. It seemed that the smaller room followed the decoration of the main social area, Marron noticed as he walked into the room... looking up into the mirror, Gateau realised just who'd joined him. He stood up straight, shaking his hands of water droplets before stepping over to where the towels hung. There was a quiet moment, Marron seemed to be making sure that they were alone... they were. Gateau felt a slight misgiving as he himself came to this realization, but supposed it couldn't be helped; Marron was just standing against the door... Gateau watched him in the mirror as he towelled his hands dry.

 

"You come in here for something or did you just wanna look at the pretty decor?"

 

"Why are you here, Gateau?"

 

"What, in the bathroom? Thought that would be obvious..."

 

Marron obviously wasn't in the mood for playing around, "I don't mean that and you know I don't mean that. You were quite aware that Milphey and I were coming out tonight... I could believe if you had your own agenda, if Milphey persuaded you along of his own accord... perhaps you didn't mean to join us. I apologize for accusing you if you are indeed innocent."

 

The only sound in the room was the sound of Marron's soft step across the tiled floor as he approached Gateau, who still had his back turned. Marron reached out, gently pressing his hands to Gateau's exposed upper shoulder.

 

"I'd like you to turn around. Turn around, look me in the eye, and tell me why you chose that time and this day to come into the city."

 

Gateau sighed, and turned around. He wiped his hands finalistically as he did so, leaning over to replace the towel where he'd picked it up before looking down at the slightly shorter mage. Marron's glare really was quite piercing, wasn't it? Gateau thought quickly; it probably wouldn't please Marron to know his true reason, and when it came to that he wasn't really sure of said reason himself... perhaps, he thought, he could play it cool. He shrugged.

 

"Just felt like taking a walk, maybe buying a snack or something... Milphey just happened to catch me and bring me along, really."

 

"You spoke with your eyes closed."

 

"Hmn?"

 

"I said that I wanted you to look me in the eye."

 

Gateau did so as best as he could, "Okay... I came down to Facade just 'cause I felt like it. Okay? Let's get back to the table, we can't leave Milphey waiting for too long on his own."

 

Hoping that that could be the end of it, Gateau made as if he were going to make his way back to the main hall, but Marron stood against the door, still. He didn't seem too intent on moving. Gateau laughed slightly, "Come on, we can't get back if you're standing in the doorway all the time. Besides, what if somebody tries to get in and you're blocking the way? You don't want to make people angry, do you?"

 

Marron had a vaguely familiar look in his eyes, "Before we return... answer me just one question."

 

The glare and the eyes and the fact that Marron was blocking the way not only with his body but then all of a sudden with one hand outstretched against Gateau's chest didn't give him courage any, but he supposed that any question Marron asked, he could answer. What kind of question would Marron want to ask, anyway? Gateau kept his tone light.

 

"Sure, what is it?"

 

"You still... desire me... do you not...?"

 

Neither moved. Gateau just stared at Marron for a second, he'd really asked something like that? Alright for wanting an answer, but what kind of question was that... Gateau shook his head.

 

"You can't ask me something like that."

 

"If I wondered that I might desire you, would that loosen your tongue?"

 

Gateau gently pushed Marron's hand away from his chest, "It was you who said 'don't tempt me' all that time ago, right? We agreed, that time. I wouldn't tempt you, you wouldn't tempt me, and even if we did end up tempting each other, we wouldn't give in. Right? I've been good with that, so let's not make it difficult for each other. Okay?"

 

He made as if he really wished to leave the room, but Marron still prevented him, pushing with two hands this time.

 

"Perhaps there are different realizations I've come to since that time. Maybe I should want you to tempt me and give in to it-"

"Marron, you were perfectly fine about an hour ago. What's up all of a sudden?"

 

"Maybe when I think of something I would wish to act on it immediately before the mood lessens..."

 

"Isn't that called 'thinking things over sensibly'?"

 

"Doesn't it affect you at all that I say that I desire you?"

 

Marron's eyes were burning with something Gateau knew he didn't want to have to cope with for the current moment. If anything, they were in a public place... had Marron forgotten that? Somebody could walk in at any moment! Wanting to show his ability to avoid a sexual confrontation, Gateau dared himself push Marron aside enough to open the door to the outer corridor.

 

"It's been a while since the time I woulda said 'yes' to that without thinking about it. Stuff happens, though. Sometimes I like to think I learn from my mistakes."

 

The door slammed neatly as Gateau left the room. Marron stared across at the sinks; Gateau was as stubborn as ever, just as much as he himself was. To proposition him? Of course he wouldn't accept, not in the current circumstance, not with things as they were. Was it a case of giving up and turning his attentions, or was there really... was there any hope remaining that perhaps... just perhaps... Gateau could agree with him?

 

If anything, Gateau's words had stung at Marron's pride somewhat. Gateau saw their past relationship as a mistake? Something he wouldn't have wanted to have had happen in retrospect?

 

Sighing, Marron went over to the sinks and started the water running, holding his hands under the cold water, letting a small inconsistent pool form in his hands before he splashed it over his face. He did this once more, holding his hands to his face for a moment... he hadn't realised quite how overly warm he'd felt until the cold bite of the water; quite refreshing. Standing up straight, he looked at himself in the mirror... he turned his head a little, watching his reflection with a slight curiosity.

 

Sometimes the figure in the mirror and the person he saw himself as ran far from alongside each other...

 

Marron took up a towel, gently patting his face dry.

 

It was a little strange to consider, the two people outside waiting for him... both of them, Marron had been in sexual situations with. Both of them had tried to cope with his lust in their own fashions, neither had seemed to get anywhere, not yet... Milphey's words had been sensible when he'd suggested perhaps not trying at all. Not trying anything when he perhaps wasn't ready... not trying to force himself into anything... Marron leant against the counter, wondering if there would be a time when he could consciously say 'yes I'm ready'... when lust was the driving force there was little rational sense of anything, and that had certainly proved itself with Milphey. That was less trying to force something and more just a sense that something had to be done, no matter what it was...

 

Thinking about that, Marron wasn't sure he wanted to feel exactly that pitch of frustration ever again... Marron remembered little from the night previous but he could vaguely recall a dull ache throughout his body, a slight pain that had remained with him from earlier on in the day; the needing and the wanting remained but the release was impossible...

 

Was it even possible to be able to take Milphey's advice, accept that orgasm wasn't something he could achieve and get on with everything else as usual? Marron knew that a lot of his various practices couldn't be seen as being exactly healthy, but if there was a problem... was it alright to just leave it?

 

Then there had been what'd happened just then, with Gateau... Marron shook his head as he put the towel back onto the rails, looked himself over in the mirror once more before turning for the door... did it matter so much if Gateau had this or that feeling for him? After everything that had happened before, Gateau probably wasn't going to turn around and tout for any kind of experimentation. Even if the terms of the relationship were so clear? Even thinking of that, it wasn't as if they hadn't tried things before, things that hadn't worked...

 

Marron felt he hadn't been lying when he'd told Gateau he'd come to some different realizations since that time that seemed so long ago; nothing entirely new and amazing, but things that only cemented what he'd thought before. Then some other things... Marron didn't know if he ever wanted to mention to Gateau (or anybody) what had happened with Milphey, and it did seem like he'd taken a step forward then two steps back when it came to that kind of thing... it hadn't been supposed to be like that, and Marron could barely remember anything past pushing Milphey out of his and Carrot's bedroom in any case... brief memories and sensations flooded his mind to remember, but in a dreamlike manner... somewhere was kisses, were touches, was being naked and desperate and sex, oh god, sex...

 

Surely it was good like that? When it was so feral that you almost literally lost your mind... wasn't that what was desired of such an act?

 

When had it truly become such an all-encompassing issue... Marron sighed gently, glanced at his reflection in the mirror then looked away. He really had become no different to the others, had he? He'd always berated Gateau for being so focused on such things, always mentally chided his brother for thinking with his crotch... several times were missions where Chocolat would refuse to fight in favour of hanging all over Carrot, and Marron would find himself wondering just why she couldn't shift focus for five minutes, and suddenly he found that he himself was suddenly exactly like the others, but differently...

 

"Your feelings for him are wrong."

 

"Thinking of niisan so intently... such things only serve as a distraction!"

 

"There is a level you don't want to lower yourself to, isn't there?"

 

Everybody else in the team certainly seemed motivated by their hormones at the best of times... but really, to think of it like that... Carrot always being so driven by his lust for pretty girls, Chocolat the same by her lust for Carrot... Tira driven by whatever it was in her pretty little head that convinced her that beating up on Carrot was the best thing in the world, Gateau driven by his urge to have everybody look at him, notice him, and why would he want people to notice him if not to admit his undeniably-pleasing looks? All of them with their drives and reactions... Marron himself? He was driven by Carrot, as most seemed to be. Driven by his groin? Not exactly... well, certainly, but... it wasn't as if he'd set out directly from childhood thinking that he wanted to protect his brother entirely so he could end up in bed with him, but such things had always been abstract... it'd just been a case of wanting to protect Carrot, keep him safe, be with him, be by his side... anything was alright if it was Carrot, but... quite where had thoughts of sex entered into it?

 

The path seemed logical in a way, he supposed. Every other emotion was for Carrot, so...

 

However, thoughts like that were different to the current situation and there wasn't really any reason why he was standing around thinking of Carrot when it was really he and Gateau that seemed to be the current problem. He turned around to head back to where Gateau and Milphey would be waiting for him, when he found himself met in the doorway by Milphey.

 

"Marron-chan! Are you alright in here?"

 

"Ah? Y-yes, is there any reason why I shouldn't be...?"

 

"No reason, but you were taking such a long time that I thought you'd fallen in!"

 

A slight glare from Marron, Milphey just laughed before quietening.

 

"Plus, Gateau came back a little while ago, I thought it was strange that he'd come back first... I asked him if he'd seen you in there, he said he'd seen you for a moment but then he just carried on eating... I wondered if something nasty had happened, or anything."

 

Marron continued to stare at the mirror, aware of Milphey's reflection just behind him.

 

"Nothing nasty, no..."

 

"Then certainly something?"

 

A pause. Marron glanced down at the ground, then looked up and across at Milphey.

 

"Milphey... why do I still imagine him in my mind?"

"Mmm? Who's that?"

 

"Gateau. Why do I still think of him? Why is it that... why is it that whenever I consider any kind of thing like that... whenever I think about anybody who might be able to act like that with me... whenever I think of that kind of thing I always think about him... and it... after things that have happened in the past, obviously it's barely a viable option... he wouldn't accept my requests in the past, and especially now he wouldn't accept them... so why do I still feel so determined that perhaps I should want him to...?"

 

He looked up with such an honest kind of curiosity. Milphey stared at Marron for a few moments... indeed, that was quite a question. He shook his head slightly, "Marron-chan seems determined to pursue the things that he can't have..."

 

"I wonder if it's perhaps something like that..."

 

"Have me."

 

It seemed that Marron had had something to say before Milphey came out with his own quiet statement; his mouth opened to speak, then it seemed to dawn on him quite what Milphey had said. His voice caught in his throat, and for a second, words failed him.

 

"Th-... uhn?"

 

Milphey seemed to be looking at him awfully seriously.

 

"Milphey...?"

 

"Call me 'niisan' or 'Gateau' as you'd wish; Marron, I... the more the days progress, more and more you seem to tear yourself up with your feelings. 'My feelings for niisan are so wrong!'... 'Gateau's actions confuse me as much as my feelings for him do!'... everybody has a different reaction. Perhaps Carrot would indeed be reluctant to start a relationship with another man, before you even consider the fraternal connection... perhaps you've already driven Gateau too far for him to consider returning... I look upon them as fondly as I do any of Mama's children, but... sometimes... surely they can realise how foolish they are...?"

 

While speaking, Milphey had reached out to cup Marron's cheek in his hand. Perhaps the physical connection had been a mistake... Marron didn't attempt to escape the contact, but Milphey could only be reminded of how soft Marron's skin was, how it felt beneath his fingertips... if Carrot and Gateau wanted to ignore the treasure presented to them then that was their own business but oh, how thoughtless they were. If Carrot were to just accept, then he would so easily have Marron entirely... how many people could hope to possess such a thing? If Gateau could accept... if Marron had some kind of yearning for Gateau then how could he ever hope to refuse?

 

"... If you were to ask anything of me... if there was anything you wanted that I could grant, then... then I'd try to grant it for you. I can't be your brother and I can't be Gateau, but as much as I am myself... then... I want you to know that, at least with me, you... you don't have to worry. More than anything, I want you to be satisfied... and if I could somehow satisfy you, then... well. I'd be happy."

 

"Mi-... Milphey, I-..."

 

Milphey's voice dropped slightly as he continued, pausing momentarily to press his lips to Marron's forehead.

 

"I have to admit, I... I enjoyed last night a little more than I maybe should have done. I know you were in pain, I know you suffered, I know that there were difficulties... I can't enjoy seeing you in pain, but... from my own position, from an entirely selfish viewpoint... I don't understand how they can resist you... and perhaps it scares me just a little that I couldn't think of resisting you..."

 

As he spoke, the focus of Milphey's eyes seemed trace their way down Marron's face; his gaze held at where his hand held Marron's jaw, and the silence of the sentence left unfinished seemed suddenly intoxicating. A kiss was pressed to Marron's jaw, then another one slightly lower... the high collar of Marron's robe prevented further exploration, but then Milphey's fingers were working against the catches and pulling the fabric down, and Marron let out a slight gasp at the feeling of outside air on his previously warm neck, then the unmistakable feeling of Milphey's breath replacing the heat...

 

"Mi-Milphey... this... isn't quite the pl-"

 

"... Oh! Oh my! Oh my god!"

 

Marron's vague protest had been disturbed by the door opening; a well-dressed man stood there, staring openly at where Milphey now had Marron pressed to the wall. Any previous thoughts Marron had had in his head vaporized; someone had caught them...!

 

Milphey turned to glance over his shoulder, seeing the man standing there.

 

"Oh, ah... hello, there!"

 

"... You... what are... you..."

 

"Nice restaurant, isn't it?"

 

"... I... I disturbed something disturbing... I... I'm sorry...!"

 

The man left the room, slamming the door slightly as he went. Milphey watched, looking quite disappointed.

 

"Hnn... he went so quickly. That's a shame, we could have had a little fun if he'd decided to stay and watch... oh well, at least he was the type to be scared, I suppose. Sometimes people can get so uppity if you decide to do things in public! Oh well, I suppose that was a timely interruption, we can't really stay in here all night. Gateau-chan might get suspicious. Come on, blushing Marron-chan! Let's go back, we can't let our food go totally cold, can we?"

 

"A-ah..."

 

Marron couldn't quite concentrate as he allowed himself to be dragged back into the main hall, back over to the table, back to his seat. In all honesty he still felt confused from how he'd been thinking about Gateau, let alone how Milphey had just been acting...! Milphey could change his mood so quickly, too... Marron wasn't sure if he was pleased or not that the two of them had been disturbed. It was of course embarrassing to be caught, but... if that man hadn't chosen that moment to walk in, what else might Milphey have said?

 

For someone to offer themselves so easily like that... Marron found himself glancing at Milphey for a little longer than he might have done previously as they sat down. Why would Milphey say something like that? He knew Marron's inabilities... what did he have to gain from saying something like that?

 

The only conclusion Marron could come to... Milphey was just a confusing person. The more Marron spent time with him, the more he felt there was a lot more to Milphey than was immediately noticeable. He was a confusing and sometimes amazing person and Marron felt lucky to have him on his side, but outside of the things he did that Marron was there to see... well. He didn't know what to think.

 

Gateau looked up from where he'd been buttering the complimentary bread roll left on his sideplate as Milphey and Marron returned.

 

"You guys took your time."

 

Milphey laughed happily, "Well, we're back now, aren't we? That's the important thing. Anyway... how's everybody getting on with their main course? Since, after all, there's always the eagerly-awaited pudding course to look forward to... let's see..."

 

While Milphey busied himself with the menu once more, Marron glanced wordlessly around. Thoughts seemed to be clamouring in his mind, and there didn't seem to be any easy solution presenting itself... very basically, he was caught between doing something and doing nothing. Doing nothing was perhaps sensible but then when sat opposite two of the contenders for the former, he wasn't sure he could quite... resist? Manage? He brought his gaze back to the table. Were the pulls of the things that he wanted to do really so strong that he couldn't hope to defeat them? Was that it? That didn't seem quite so, somehow...

 

More than that seemed the realization that it would in fact be very easy to resist everything. Meditate if it was needed, ignore anything his libido said to him and manage a completely normal life... that was how things had been before, hadn't they? Alright, so now he knew there were elements of unease with his sexual difficulties, but... for years, hadn't he always wished to say to his brother that sex was not the be-all and end-all of life? Sometimes Marron wished he could just get Carrot's attention and tell him that the world would in fact not end if Carrot happened to die a virgin, so he shouldn't be so energetic in his pursuit of any random woman he happened to meet...

 

Then, compared to that... compared to that, he himself was almost the opposite, believing that his feelings were so terribly wrong, punishing himself for things that the others would feel normally...

 

Was it a level he didn't wish to lower himself to?

 

Was there really that element of being somehow 'better' than his companions? If that was the case then surely that had backfired... incestual overtones aside, Marron couldn't help but meekly suppose that, had he just embraced his sexuality like how everybody else seemed to then he wouldn't have ended up in such a frustrating position...

 

Thinking of such things... Marron looked from where he'd been staring intently at the flower arrangement in the middle of the table up to Gateau, who was just beyond that. Gateau seemed to have been quite occupied with staring across the table himself; Marron expected him to look away when their eyes met, but somehow Gateau didn't... his gaze dropped for a moment, and he seemed to be frowning when he looked back up at Marron... what was he trying to silently say? There was a slight nod from Gateau, to indicate Marron... whether it was a signal or an idle hand movement, Gateau's hand then went to his neck. Marron watched, wonderin-

 

Suddenly, Marron realised; his collar was still undone, wasn't it? What with being disturbed and all the other things on his mind he'd barely remembered, but suddenly he realised... he couldn't hide his shock, looking away from Gateau as he quickly fastened the catches. That would be something Gateau would notice, wouldn't it? It wasn't as if Marron ever made a habit of going around showing more skin than he felt was necessary...

 

Gateau glanced from where Marron was now hurriedly redressing himself to Milphey, who was intently studying the menu. They had been more than just a little while in the toilets... alright Milphey going to find him but what came after that...

 

"Well, it all looks quite tasty! The ice cream here is very good, if I remember... they have some exotic flavours, an-"

 

"Milphey, what were you and Marron doing in the bathroom?"

 

Milphey froze quite obviously on that accusation. Marron also, Gateau noticed.

 

Kicking himself for the silence, Milphey placed his menu down and leant back in his seat. If Gateau was going to come out with something so blatant then there had to have been something clearly bothering him... and he could also be quite blunt when he wanted to be. Now seemed to be one of those times.

 

For a second, Milphey wondered if the situation could be passed off with a smile... given the sudden deadly atmosphere that seemed to have permeated the table, perhaps not. Supposing that perhaps he'd have to undertake a different tactic, Milphey leant forward onto caged fingers.

 

"Is it really any of your business just what me and Marron were doing in the bathroom?"

 

"I-"

 

Gateau seemed to be caught in coming up with a response to that. Arguably, no, it wasn't. That didn't stop him feeling wronged, somehow.

 

"Gateau... I would apologize in advance if I were treading on any toes here, but... I barely think that Marron's actions are the kind for you to be concerning yourself with anymore. If you two were still romantically involved and I've been misinformed, then, as I said, I apologize. However, if you would choose to deny Marron hi-"

 

"He's the one who broke up with me!"

 

"... Indeed, indeed. I'm sorry. But no matter who broke up with who... I don't think you could have ever called Marron your property to approve or disapprove of his actions as you saw fit... don't you think?"

 

"It's gotta count for something when just five minutes before you disappeared with him for ages he was saying about how he was horny for me!"

 

Marron's voice was tight, "Gateau..."

 

"And would you reciprocate him? If he is, as you so eloquently put it, horny for you... would you return those feelings? I can understand if you would or if you wouldn't... if you would, then I can also understand a degree of possessiveness that you might feel. However, if you wouldn't... if you were determined to relinquish him... would it be worth justification to only have a reason for hatred?"

 

Gateau was staring pointedly away from the table now. Milphey looked from Gateau to Marron, the latter of whom was staring intently at what remained of his fish. Another glance at Gateau... he still didn't seem to be willing to say anything... quickly taking the opportunity, Milphey ran his finger along the edge of Marron's plate, gathering up some of the pale sauce; he then poked Marron's nose, leaving a blob of cream there. Marron looked up with confusion, Milphey only smiled comfortingly at him before turning back to Gateau.

 

"... Gateau?"

 

"I'm not gonna let anything like before happen."

 

"Indeed, it would seem not-"

 

"I don't mean just with Marron. Other stuff. I don't wanna keep repeating myself."

 

That seemed to catch Milphey and Marron's attention, and it was at that point that Gateau looked back towards his two companions.

 

"I-... uh, Marron, you got sauce on your nose..."

 

"I... I know..."

 

Marron quietly occupied himself with finding a napkin and wiping his face clean as Gateau continued.

 

"I get things if it's just sex. If people just wanna have sex, if people just wanna have sex with me, fine, no problem in it. If it's gonna be a relationship, then... if it's gonna be a relationship then you want it to be comfortable, right? Not with all the dramatics and the manipulating crap. If it's 'let's be friends who have sex' then even that's okay, if it's something you end up thinking's been on the books for ages then you might as well give in, but... if it's all painful and forced and-... well, I don't know. I don't see the point in you going after me when it's so obvious that it's not me that you want, it's that mysterious person you never mention. I know you're not like me, so I don't see the point in you just setting yourself up like that... and I'm not keen on the thought of being a replacement, either."

 

"A replacement..."

 

"Marron, just go after the guy you like. At the end of the day, the worst thing he's gonna say is gonna be 'no', right? You're not gonna know otherwise."

 

Milphey interjected, "I don't think Marron's in the position to be making any kind of propositions to anybody at the moment."

 

"Hn?"

 

"If he was using you for anything, then it wouldn't be for his own pleasure."

 

A silence followed that; the implication was there, but nothing was said... Marron couldn't think of anything to say in the situation as a whole, partially unable to believe he was caught up in quite that kind of argument. Milphey was quite sure he didn't have to spell things out to Gateau... Gateau himself didn't know what to say. Why else would somebody use somebody else, except for their own ends?

 

Maybe there really was no point in trying to pursue anything further, for Gateau or for Marron both.

 

Milphey smiled gently, "I don't think this is something that can be resolved at a dinnertable, do you? Here, though. Menu. Pudding course. Choose already. Otherwise we're barely going to get any sleep tonight!"

 

The mood deflected somewhat, Marron and Gateau somewhat gladly turned their attention to the menus in front of them, to the appropriate section. There did indeed seem to be quite the choice of puddings, and it seemed that Milphey wanted to give his own personal opinion on each one of them.

 

"As I was saying previously, the icecream here is lovely. Lots of exotic flavours! Oh, and look at all of these cakes! Let's see, which ones have I had before... mmm, the banana cake! The banana cake is wonderful. It's so light, and it has just the most delicious icing... but there's lots of things apart from cakes and icecream! Some of the things they have are so elaborate that you don't want to disturb them by eating them! Hmn, and apple strudel... I don't know if I remember what a strudel is though, am I getting it mixed up with apple crumble? Of course, if they had that here then they wouldn't call it apple crumble, they'd give it some big fancy name... ooh, strawberry cheesecake, I don't think I've had that here before..."

 

As Milphey babbled happily on for the benefit of his two companions, Gateau looked up from his menu to catch Marron's line of sight; he did so, and somehow he couldn't quite help but hold that stare for as long as Marron didn't look away... it seemed a strange situation. Someone so beautiful, someone so terrible... Gateau had been speaking the truth when he said that he didn't want to repeat himself. Marron was indeed dangerously attractive, but rationally... surely it was pointless to even think of anything more happening? Marron was preoccupied. That was the luck of the draw.

 

Chocolat's words still echoed through Gateau's mind, 'playing hard to get...!'... Gateau wasn't still quite sure just what was going on between Marron and Milphey if anything, but... given how Marron was, given how Milphey seemed to be, was it entirely unlikely that all of this could be some kind of stunt to see how Gateau felt for Marron? He still didn't know.

 

It was too easy to dare to let thoughts like "I could love you like that person you want doesn't", "It could be good if we gave each other a second chance" enter in, but... that was putting, Gateau felt, too much trust into Marron's feelings to be appropriate actions.

 

If anything...

 

Love?

 

Did he love Marron?

 

Just looking at Marron and thinking such things caused a tight feeling inside. Love? Love him? That was a long shot. Gateau didn't want to call it that anymore. There was something there, but... not that. Not anymore.

 

"... Haha! Chiffon cake. I wouldn't be able to eat that without laughing. Mmm... lemon meringue? That's always nice. Ah, a lemon cake as well... lots of lemon-flavoured things, aren't there? Still, lemon's a good flavour. Ah! Oh... mmmmmn... they have profiteroles... haaaa. I love profiteroles. I have actually eaten them until I was sick once! Ahaha, with so much cream and so much chocolate that's not surprising, but they're just so good... I think I'll get those now, just for the nostalgia. Don't worry though, I won't be sick this time, I promise! You see, what happened that time was, me and a friend came out... was it here? I don't think it was here, I think it was before this place was up, but... we had this bet going on, to see who could eat the most profiteroles! He chickened out after about twenty, but I ate fifty-seven! Oh my, no wonder I was sick, but they were so lovely until I was, you know, sick for three days afterward..."

 

Milphey seemed happily ignorant of the unbroken stare about three inches away from his current line of sight.

 

If there wasn't love there, then... what was there?

 

If love was a justification, then perhaps it could work both ways...

 

If there wasn't any pretence, then just perhaps...

 

"Oh, you went quiet again! There's so many nice things... Gateau-chan, do you want to see if you can eat as many profiteroles as me?"

 

"Uh? Uh, um... oh, profiteroles?"

 

"Ye-es, profiteroles! Like I was just talking about. They're really nice, though! When I was walking to the toilet earlier I saw someone else eating some, you get a nice amount of them...! Well, I'm having profiteroles. You've been staring at the menu for so long, it can't be that hard to see something you want and go 'my stomach wants that, I'm getting', can it?"

 

Marron looked up, "I... I'm not sure if I could handle something sweet after such a large meal..."

 

"Na-ah, I'm not letting Marron-chan get away with not having a pudding! You can't not have a pudding, that's blasphemy! Here, let's see. Mandarin cheesecake? Cherry cheesecake? Blackberry cheesecake? Cheesecake cheesecake? Believe me, cheesecakes are lovely. That said, I like pretty much everything they have on this list... or a cake? Vanilla cake, mint cake, strawberry cake, fondant cake, coffee cake, lemon cake, banana cake... oh please Marron-chan, have the banana cake? It's so wonderful..."

 

"I am quite full..."

 

"Well, we'll get the banana cake anyway, and I'll eat it if you can't. But, I'm sure you can have your cake and eat it too, right? Especially when it's such a nice cake..."

 

Marron still stared at Gateau as Milphey spoke, but at that point Gateau finally looked away, and back to his menu.

 

There wasn't really much more to be said.

 

****

 

The room itself was quite a departure from anywhere else in Eden. Not that Eden in itself was such a place to want to escape from, but... the walls were either stone, brick, or either of those two painted over. It did give the place a nice atmosphere depending on where in the building you were, there was something fresh about the white-painted bedrooms that refreshed those who stayed in them, especially when the sun shone in in the mornings, the white became that bit brighter and sleep could be chased away... the uniform decoration of each room was a vague comfort, and you could go into nearly any room in Eden with the safe knowledge that it'd be about as similar as any other room you'd visited in the past. With the exception of Milphey's own bedroom.

 

Eden's bedrooms were essentially split up into two corridors, forming a kind of horseshoe shape around the lower structure of the main hall; somehow it'd always been accepted that the current Sorcerer Hunters resided on the corridor on the right-hand side of the hall, and anybody else with more or less permanent residence on the left. In truth there were more floors and rooms than that, Eden was ideally a sanctuary to anybody who needed such a thing whether they were Sorcerer Hunter or Parsoner and even a few Sorcerers had been sheltered in the comfort of Eden's walls at points.

 

Milphey himself often liked to swap bedrooms. His own bedroom was his little cocoon of suspended time and atmosphere, but occasionally it was easy to drop into an elongated dream of the past and some nights he just didn't want to fall asleep thinking like that. It never hurt to get closer to the current Sorcerer Hunters either, and to that end, that far bedroom along the right corridor had almost been labelled as 'his' purely due to his continued stay there, despite the room's dull conformity.

 

Currently, Milphey sat in his own bedroom. His own bedroom along the left corridor, nicely between Cinnamon's bedroom and Shiffon's bedroom... leaning back on his chair, Milphey wondered if he could afford himself a little comfort to think that none of the Sorcerer Hunters would probably think to look for him there. Perhaps it was a little cruel. More than anyone else Gateau probably needed at least a visit... Marron could usually do with somebody to talk some sense into him these days. Milphey's door was currently locked; no matter the constant needs of the Sorcerer Hunters, sometimes he just needed five minutes to himself, sometimes.

 

The room was reasonably lit by an oil lamp that sat on Milphey's desk. It was the only light in the room, but for Milphey's purposes, it was enough. One didn't need too much light when it came to the matters of sitting at a desk and perhaps doing a little writing. The room itself was also very orange, and this seemed only heightened by the candle's light, flickering and waning as it wanted. The vibrant colour, usually less muted by the glow of bright sunlight, would have caught the eye of anybody visiting it, though... people rarely did. Milphey was glad of this, somehow; he didn't mind that Cinnamon would come in on occasion, that sometimes Shiffon and Kahlua would come in for one reason or another... none of the Sorcerer Hunters ever ventured forth. It felt somehow pleasing to have a place separate to them, as separate as Milphey felt when concerned with those people.

 

The colour scheme had in fact been at the suggestion of somebody else, in the past. "Have a room that's orange!", he'd said. They'd painted it together, in fact; it'd shocked the hell out of Shiffon and Cinnamon when they'd walked in to find the room (and the boys) covered in orange paint, bright orange paint, but they'd eventually seen the humour of the situation. Sometimes you just had a rebellious phase. Looking around his room and thinking to the softer hues of, say, Cinnamon's bedroom, Milphey wondered if he'd ever grown out of his... but the orange itself was warm and a pleasant thing to wake up to, it was probably better than having a room painted darker colours, perhaps that was the style of some people but a room painted black or something would just have been depressing... better to celebrate life through explosion of colour, was it not?

 

Orange and yellow and red seemed spread across the room in confusing patterns. The curtains matched the walls as best as they could, trimmed with yellow. Milphey's bedsheets and pillows were a darker red, but again with yellow... he was perhaps the first to have seen the futility of the collection of material possessions, there was always that theory of 'you can't take it with you when you die', but then again, Milphey often thought to himself... he wouldn't die. Maybe Eden would one day be destroyed, taking his carefully-constructed bedroom with it, but he'd have enough time to make another bedroom someday, he was sure.

 

Wavering on two chairlegs, Milphey let himself fall back onto four. Well, for the time being he was happy that his bedroom was in one piece and he still held possession of all the odd things he'd managed to collect up over the many, many years. Objects and artefacts from anywhere across the Continent... perhaps there was a futility to material objects but there were always the memories stirred to see and touch such things, and the pair of golden earrings that hung at the highest point of the large mirror at the back of Milphey's desk were probably the most treasured things. He didn't have to touch them to have memories stirred, just looking at them caused a memory of "Here, you can keep these!"... those were the things Milphey felt he'd probably be most saddened to lose, if something disastrous happened to Eden.

 

Milphey's desk was usually an organized and clear space. Various books and diaries filled the drawers, and two of those books were currently laid out before him. One was open at two blank pages, and the other was closed, a few inches away from Milphey's unmoving pencil. His head was leant on his hand, and he was staring up to the top of his mirror again... he shook his head, laughing softly to himself. He was getting preoccupied again. The pencil tapped at the top of the page... it seemed that even starting was a difficult task. Eventually, an elongated '14' was sketched to the top of the page. Milphey paused, looking to the clock across the room. It was late... was it even enough still to call the day the fourteenth? However, the diary entry was to surmise the events of the fourteenth, so...

 

Somehow prompted by this, Milphey finally managed to focus in on the contents of his diary. His entries could be long and flowing, and looking through past pages it seemed that he hadn't made an entry since the eleventh... that seemed quite a while ago, and in comparison, quite a few things had happened since. So came forth matters of Marron, of Gateau, of sex and feeling and confusion... of momentary things Milphey had noticed that he felt he wanted to remember, of questions Milphey thought he might want answered someday... musing on the events of the days just past, organizing their content in his own mind.

 

After eventually coming to some kind of point where he felt he could stop, Milphey yawned and stretched with a pleasant exaggeration. The day itself had been more or less memorable, he'd had a good time with Marron-chan and Gateau-chan, they'd eaten well... it was days like those that made life feel good, and it was nights like those that made Milphey feel something else indeed... he fell out of his stretch, slumped lazily in his chair. He looked around the room again. The curtains weren't drawn, the night sky was plainly dark outside... Milphey debated drawing the curtains. Staring at them obviously wouldn't do anything... he'd do that when he got up to go to bed. The vague suggestion of a shower echoed through Milphey's mind, but... well, that could wait for the morning. Nobody would, with any luck, be seeing him between the night hours and the morning. As things were Milphey was feeling quite exhausted... a bath seemed more attractive than a shower but then was the risk of falling asleep in the bath, and pleasant as that could sometimes be, he often woke up quite wrinkly. Not brilliant for one's skin.

 

A loud sigh. Nothing left for it but to go to bed, really... he sat up, feeling like that action took more effort than he could really be bothered to afford. The diary was closed with a soft 'pat', then placed in the frontmost desk drawer. The other book...

 

The other book still sat there. Milphey stared at it, then looked to his pencil...

 

He kept the pencil with him, taking the book and the oil lamp over to his bedside. Another thing to do before bed now thought of, the previous lethargy was forgotten. Milphey carefully set down the objects on his bedside cabinet, quickly drew the curtains, then leapt unceremoniously into bed. The mattress and blankets did their best to swamp him in their smothering warmth, Milphey took a moment to close his eyes and settle down in his comfortable comfortable bed. It'd been a while since he'd last slept in it, but gosh, it felt good to be back in it. He bounced a little, as if testing the springs for familiarity. The creaking of the springs caused a soft laugh to happen in turn.

 

Pulling the blankets back to a more sensible fashion, Milphey drew his covered knees up close, leaning the book upon them. He stared at the cover; the book was quite obviously old, and perhaps a little delicate, but certainly well-kept and lovingly looked after. The cover itself was carved wood, cloth stuck to the inside then the paper inside bound by sturdy tied thread... the kind of personal notebook that'd been all the rage across the Continent, probably about a century and a half ago... primarily Sorcerers tended to like them, their ornate covers had often lent a kind of air of education to anywhere where they might have been placed. The content, of course, depended on who wrote in it.

 

Such things had eventually been replaced by books that were smaller, could be made with less expense, could be more accessible to the masses... it'd been quite a while since it was accepted that most Parsoners were illiterate, after all. Shops still sold the ornate heavy notebooks if you looked in the right towns, the right shops, but for the time being, Milphey still had at least half of this one left. Usual diaries he could tear his way through in a matter of a month or so, and at least one of the cabinets that sat beneath his window was piled full of the pages inked and pencilled in with memories Milphey didn't want to forget... this book was for a different purpose. Unlike the other books, it wasn't one that Milphey liked to spend a lot of time dwelling over... indeed, such a thing could become entirely too depressing even after the first thirty pages, but... well, if one was keeping records...

 

Carefully opening the book, Milphey quickly thumbed through the pages until he came to the last recorded entry... it seemed almost callous, and the thought made Milphey smile sadly. So many people he'd known reduced to the pages of that book... flicking through it, none had the eloquence or prose of the first entry, but some of them really were a sentence, a matter of words... well. Some were more special than others.

 

The most recent entry was one, interestingly, for Onion. The double-page was only half-filled, and to start a new entry would be to start that next page... Milphey's eyes strayed down the previous page.

 

Onion's name. A small photo of him (and Apricot, though that hadn't been able to be helped) from the time Onion had brought back that camera from that one trip he and Milphey had taken, back when the children were small... underneath that was the year of Onion's birth, and a dash. Nothing next to that, not just yet (happily enough). Beneath that...

 

Milphey flicked his eyes to the blank page. Dates. Descriptions. Sensitive spots. Favoured locations. Favoured positions. Favoured fetishes. Milphey kept record of all such things in that book. If anybody were to wander into his bedroom while he was out and read through his diaries, Milphey would have been a little annoyed but would have forgiven... this book was the only one that he kept in a locked drawer. It was both a celebration of the lives that Milphey had known, and then a slight source of guilt and shame for the pages that only continued to be filled. A memorial of those who no longer walked the Continent. Maybe it was something to be proud of? Milphey's pencil hovered over the page once more.

 

He sat forth suddenly, the book moving with his legs to lie flat on the bedcovers; the pencil fell from the cover to settle somewhere near Milphey's leg.

 

Most recent entry, Onion Glacé. The first date recorded on that paper was somewhere around twenty years ago. The last date on that page was two years ago, give or take a few months. As far as such things went, dear Onion had sticking power. Twenty years, really...?

 

Then would be the next entry, one not written yet. Marron Glacé. Onion's son. Arranged so simply over two pages like that, something just seemed decidedly wrong with it... hadn't Gateau asked something like that, just what was Milphey's connection to the Glacé family? Usually via the crotch, but not always. In this case though, quite certainly...

 

Eyes glancing over the photo of Onion again, Milphey laughed humourlessly. He ran a finger gently down the photo, tracing around the area of Onion's face.

 

"Hmn... I wonder what you'd say... knowing your son fucked me just as hard as you ever did... seemed he did inherit some things from you after all... don't you think, Onion-chan?"

 

The photo of Onion, of course, didn't reply. The silence left by the unanswered question was filled only by the soft scritching of pencil on paper, Milphey dutifully filling out a page for Marron. Reduced to a short summary, after writing in his diary for so long Milphey didn't want to write anything more gushing on Marron's manner or bedside manner, the encounter could only be described as something that hadn't been meant to happen. Milphey finished off the entry with a dash, " - Not meant to be."

 

There were complications, and then there were complications. Anyone born before Carrot was too early, anybody after Carrot was too late. That was right; Marron's feelings for Carrot were likely unshakable.

 

Taking the book back over to the desk, Milphey repeated that over in his mind. It was alright to help Marron, to offer such things as himself for problems that Marron might want solved, but... Milphey couldn't help but sadly feel, as he walked back over to the bed, drawer locked... anybody running to try to win Marron, well... unless you were Carrot, that competition was lost. In that way, the race was over before anybody had realised it had begun in the first place. Somebody who was already so taken... there was no hope of competition, was there?

 

Milphey closed his eyes on the day with the slightly annoyed thought that Carrot'd better figure out Marron's feelings at one point or another. If Carrot didn't want Marron then there were plenty of other contenders...

 

The question, however, remained.

 

Did Marron want to be such a coveted prize in the first place?