Romeo had yet to pull himself up from the floor when the guild doors opened and what he saw sent him skittering back under the table.

"Hello everyone!" Alice called as she entered into the guild, grabbing Cross by the arm and tugged him back towards the table when he tried to escape.

"Hello." Lexi greeted the pair. Her dark eye flicked to Cross. He scowled as he tugged his arm free from Alice.

Alice beamed at Lexi. "Lexi! Congratulations on winning the tournament! You did wonderfully. Truly, a sight to behold with the blade."

"Thank you." Lexi dipped her head.

“Yeah, congrats,” Cross added on. Without looking Alice reached out and snagged him as begun to inch away.

"Oh Lexi,” Alice spoke in a singsong voice. “I know it’s terribly rude of me to ask, but would you mind helping me with something?"

Cross looked at Lexi and quickly shook his head back and forth. Lexi's eyebrow went up in curiosity.

"What do you need help with?"

"As you know tomorrow the doubles tournament will begin.”

"Doubles?" Makina butted in.

"It's part of the Dance of Blades," Lexi explained. "It’s the same format, but it has far less participants and they fight in pairs. It is still just as difficult as the traditional Dance, if not more so."

"Why?" Makina said.

"If one of the two falls, it leads to a two-on-one situation. A weak link will almost always lead to a loss. Teamwork is a necessity to make it beyond the first round."

"I see," Makina said. "Then you won't be competing in that?"

Lexi shook her head. "Even if I had a partner, I wouldn't be ready to fight by tomorrow."

"Exactly!" Alice clapped her hands together. "Apparently one of the contestants did not think ahead as well as you. As such, they decided to sign up for both the singles and doubles tournament. Octavious warned against it, but the rules do not outright ban doing so."

"And they dropped out," Lexi guessed with a small sigh. It happened almost every year, usually from one of the younger contestants.

"They dropped out." Alice nodded. "And that left Octavious with a spot to fill. Luckily-"

"I'm not going to do it," Cross said suddenly.

"Oh Cross, please! Won’t you do this one little thing for me?" Alice tugged him closer. "It will be so much fun." "

"No.”

"You want Cross to enter the Dance of Blades?" Banksy said. "Really? Cross.”

"Yes, as my partner. Octavious already agreed, but Cross is being particularly stubborn about it," Alice said. She looked at Lexi. "Don't you think it would be good for him?"

"I really hate you sometimes," Cross sighed as he struggled free from Alice. Without missing a beat Alice hooked her arm around Cross's neck and pulled him tight to her chest, ruffling his hair with her free hand.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Alice.” Lexi’s voice was soft, but there was a hint of an edge beneath.

“Yes?” Alice tilted her head, her arm still firmly locking Cross in place as he struggled weakly to free himself.

“I believe you are making Cross uncomfortable.”

“Am I?” Alice glanced down at Cross, her fingers still ruffling through his hair. “Well, that’s alright. Isn’t that what a big sister is supposed to do?”

Makina started. "Wait, she is your sister?"

Cross managed to pull Alice's arm off and free himself. Frowning he smoothed out his hair. "No, she isn’t."

"Then why did she say that?" Makina said.

Lexi blinked. "I am curious as well. Would one of you care to explain?"

It was Servilia who answered, appearing at the table with a bemused smile on her face. She lifted a hand to her cheek and gave her head the smallest of shakes.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that. I don’t believe I’ve heard Cross refer to anyone as ‘Sis’ since you left, Alice. How nostalgic.”

Cross shot her a pleading look. “Not you too.”

It was a vain effort as Servilia reached out and mused his hair. “Don’t be so cranky, little brother.”

“I hate you both.”

“Aw, we love you too,” Alice cooed as she wrapped her arms tightly around him. Servilia joined in on the embrace.

“This is weird.” Banksy muttered, glancing under the table at Romeo who had managed to brave a look, but only for a moment before he returned to his hiding place.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Servilia let out a gentle laugh as she released Cross, though Alice’s grip remained firm. “When we were younger, before any of you joined the Guild, the three of us were quite the trio. Well, I suppose it was more of a duo, though Cross did his best to keep up. We were a little bit of a family within a family. Inseparable.”

“He was so cute, always right there behind us, wasn’t he, Servilia?” Alice smiled fondly as she finally allowed Cross to escape her grasp. “Servilia was the only child my age at the orphanage at the time. We were both committed to joining the guild when we came of age, though I was more focused on the fieldwork while Servilia, as you can see, was more business oriented.”

“If I remember correctly, there were quite a few arguments over whether or not I would be joining Alice’s team. Never a fan of paper work, were you Alice?”

Alice gave her a broad smile. “I just didn’t want my sister to waste all of her time behind a desk worrying about money."

“And I didn’t want my sister to lack a livable wage because she lacked the foresight to set up a savings fund or even remember to request payment for the jobs she finished.”

“And neither of us wanted our little brother to get into any more trouble than he already got into.”

“Oh yes, Cross caused quite a bit of chaos for us, didn’t you Cross?”

"Not really," Cross grumbled.

“I remember he once followed Alice on a request. Or he tried to,” Servilia laughed. “Alice managed to lead him right back to the orphanage before heading out of town. I found him standing by the back door, completely dumbstruck and holding a map upside down.”

“I remember that!” Alice shook her head. “It feels so long ago, now.”

"It was quite adorable to watch, though." Servilia continued. "Eventually Cross was able to best me in swordplay, but I don’t think I was ever really his goal. It felt like every night he would challenge Alice to a duel and every time I would have to go scrape him off the training room floor and clean up his wounds before sending him to bed. Oh, he would get so get so angry when we would tease him about it.”

“Yeah, I’m so glad we’re bringing all this back up again.” Cross said with a decidedly dejected tone. “Overjoyed.”

"Speaking of that," Alice looked at Cross, the very edges of her lips quirking up into a smirk. "You never did beat me, did you Cross?"

"No." Cross frowned. "I didn't."

Alice's smile grew. "That's too bad. I know your eyes still work, but I was so very interested to see how your skills with the blade had developed since I've been gone. But I suppose if you won't participate, I'll just have to assume the worst. How unfortunate. If I remember correctly you were getting quite good before I left. Such a shame."

Cross glared at her for a moment before his shoulders slumped and he ran his fingers across his temple. He glanced at Lexi. She was staring at him, her large black eyes filled with silent curiosity. Her expression was mimicked by the other members of the group. He felt the weight of their expectance settle on his shoulders.

He let out a heavy sigh, blowing the air out through his nose. He turned back to Alice. She was still smiling, her head tilted slightly to the side. His hands tightened into fists for a moment before he relaxed and gave a single nod.

"Right, then. I'll do it."

Alice clapped her hands together.

"Oh yay! Alright, then! How wonderful!"