"Happy birthday, you two."

Marik sat in the middle of the courtyard facing the door. He called out as soon as he saw the twins coming through the door. He had the old bag he had had the day he first met his master sitting nest to him, filled with the birthday presents he had chosen for the girls. He smiled happily as the both approached him but soon lost his smile when he saw the serious looks on their faces. Kiara stopped a few steps away but Sai continued trudging towards him. He suddenly had a strange feeling and tried to brace himself. Sai lunged and tackled him backwards, landing in her usual favorite pose of straddling him with his shoulders pinned under her hands.

"I was so worried. Master said something happened and then you didn't come and then I was sad. You could have been hurt or dead or hurt and dead and I didn't know. Master wouldn't say anything. I wanted to see you but you weren't here. You should never leave again."

He could see some tears starting to form in her eyes. He felt kind of sorry even though it wasn't completely his fault that he couldn't come on his own birthday like usual. He reach one of his arms up, struggling slightly against the weight holding his shoulder down, and gently patted Sai's head.

"It's okay. I just had to take care of something first. Now I'm here. I can't stay here forever, though. I have my own master, just like you do, and things I have to learn and do. You don't want to be considered a selfish person, right? I already see you two more than anyone else besides our masters, so asking to be near more when you're already near me the most would be a very selfish thing."

"But..."

"Hey, look. I got to come on your birthday, right? Don't be sad on your birthday that I wasn't here for mine. Be happy that I'm here now with presents for both of you."

"Presents? Really? For me?"

"For you and your sister, yes."

Sai finally pushed herself off of him and backed up enough to sit in front of him with a look of expectation. The sadness was disappearing from her face to be replaced with a smile which made Marik feel better, too. As he sat up he looked over at Kiara and saw that she was also wearing an awkward smile. While keeping his gaze on her he leaned forward some and patted the ground near Sai to indicate that she should sit with them on the grass. Kiara looked worried for a moment, then seemed to accept some kind of argument in her head before nodding and sitting about where Marik had patted.

Marik smiled happily at the two girls as he reached over to his side and picked up his bag of gifts. The first the thing he pulled out was two pouches filled with the candies he had put pieces of his memories into. Each pouch had the name of the girl for whom the candies were intended badly stitched into the sides. He wasn't exactly proud of the stitch work but at least it allowed him to know who got what.

"First off are these. It's magic candy meant specifically for you two. Before I hand it to either of you you have to promise to never let anyone else have any of the candy that's meant for you. Not even each other. Also you can't eat more than one per day. Okay? Good. Here you go. Yes, Sai, you can have one now if you want but before you do I have another present for you. Here. This is an actual weapon, so be careful okay. It's not perfect or anything, since it's made for training only. Just be careful with it."

Sai took her new weapon in hand with sparkling eyes and looked over all of it carefully before looking back at Marik.

"Did you make this?"

"Mostly, yes. That magic candy will help you learn how to do awesome things with it too. The slower you use up the candy, the better you'll probably be. Just so you know."

"Can I play with it right now?"

"Sure. I already gave it to you, so it's already yours. I'll come play with you in just a minute so go ahead and have fun."

"Okay. I love you. Bye!"

"Well then. Aaaaannnnd she's gone. Ahem. So, Kiara, your candy is a little more special and very dangerous for anyone but you, okay. There are two types of candy in there. Half of them will help you learn how to be a better healer than almost anyone else as long as you get some help from your master. The other half is a kind of special present just for you."

"What do you mean special?"

"Pain. Lot's of pain. Everywhere. All over your body."

Kiara started shivering in anticipation as her hand unconsciously started reaching into her candy pouch.

"Wait! Remember. No more than one candy a day. Also only about half of them are the special ones that you'll find that fun like that. If you want to try one now and hope it's a fun one then that's okay but you should probably go sit in the shade first just in case."

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"Umm. Right. Okay."

Kiara forced herself to take her hand back out of the pouch and stood up to walk back over to the shade near the door. After a few steps she paused and turned around to look at Marik.

"By the way, thanks."

She briefly looked like she wanted to say more but decided against it and walked to the shade to sit down and try her candy. Marik decided to shift his focus to Sai as he stood up. Just in case Kiara pulled a winning candy, he didn't want to see whatever would happen next. He walked over towards Sai as she was playing with her new weapon. He stopped a bit before he was within the danger range and watched her for a while. Whether she had actually eaten a candy or not he wasn't sure, but she seemed to be doing pretty well. There was the slight sound of a scream coming from near the door which Marik chose to ignore as he continued to watch Sai getting lost in her own enjoyment of swinging her new present around. All three of them stayed that way until it was lunch time.

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Marik sat in the shade between the girls. He had his eyes closed and head tilted back against the wall to rest lightly as he waited for his food to digest. Everything felt so peaceful at the moment. He kind of wished he could keep living in this moment for the rest of his life. He was actually starting to drift off to sleep when suddenly his shoulder was poked. He opened his eyes and looked to his side to see Kiara looking back at him.

"Do you really think I should learn magic and heal people?"

"Hmm. How to say this. I don't think you'll ever be able to learn how to fight or really defend yourself because of, you know, reasons. If you can learn sorcery and magic that can be used to heal people in any and every way possible, though, that makes you valuable in a special kind of way. It will give a lot of people a reason to protect you at the very least."

"I see. I don't think there's any sorcery that helps heal people, though."

"No. There is. Some of it isn't exactly obvious or as straightforward as magic, sure, but even healing a broken mind is healing and mind sorcery can do some of that."

"If you say so. I'll ask Master. You're pretty weird even if you're smart."

"I know."

Sai started tapping his other shoulder.

"Hey, hey. What about me? Shouldn't I learn that stuff, too?"

"Hmm. Learning magic and sorcery from your master is probably a good idea, yes. Learning the same kind as Kiara probably isn't for you though. Honestly learning how to use your new toy the best you can is probably the best direction I could point you in. Maybe you could learn some dancing? I heard once that learning how to dance can make using that thing easier and you never know when knowing how to dance might come in handy."

"Hmph. Fine. I still wanna learn magic, too, though."

"Well let me ask you this, then. Do you know what you want to do or who you want to be in the future?"

Sai looked him in the face for a while as she thought about it before turning away from him.

"Maybe. Kind of. I know a little."

"Oh? What?"

"Not telling," she said as she poked his cheek.

"*sigh* Well if that's the case, then what do you like to do besides run around a lot?"

"I dunno? Laugh? Is there magic that makes people laugh?"

"I mean there technically is, I guess. Illusions can be pretty good for that. I think there was this old belief somewhere that foxes and foxkin were supposed to be good with illusions, too. How's that sound?"

"I thought you only wanted me to do things I could protect myself with, though?"

Marik paused in his thoughts for a moment. She was kind of right but for her to understand that so easily when he had been trying to be at least a little subtle about it surprised him a little. He needed to remember that she was young and crazy, not stupid. There was actually a good chance that she was smarter than he was. The only reason he could be considered particularly smart was because he had some extra knowledge, after all. It would probably be better to just be honest and blunt with these girls rather than trying to hide things. Except his secrets.

"You're not wrong. You can use illusions for all sorts of things though. If you get really good at them then you can use them to have fun, make others have fun, protect yourself, and even attack others if need be."

"Really? Hmm. Alright! I'll learn illusion sorcery then!"

"No, wait. That's not a thing. There's illusion magic, not sorcery. Well, not exactly anyways. There are certain types of sorcery that can kind of help with illusions or eventually...I mean there's sorcery related to illusions but no illusion sorcery, only illusion magic."

"Hmm? I feel like your hiding something, though?"

"I am. Maybe some day I'll tell you. We're talking about this now, not that. Illusions are magic."

"Hmm. Okay. But what was the sorcery stuff, then?"

"Well, hmm, light and darkness sorcery come to mind immediately. After that would be mind sorcery. In a way you could push further and say that fire and water would be after that. If you really want to learn illusions and sorcery that goes with it then that would be the order."

"Wait. I have to learn it in order? Grrr. This is getting hard."

"Yes. Magic and sorcery are hard and not always fun. That's why I originally just suggested that rope weapon."

"No! I can do it. I'll show you. Just tell me the order and I'll tell Master to teach me."

"Fine fine. Illusion magic, light and darkness sorcery, mind sorcery, fire and water sorcery, then ice magic if you think you can still do more."

"Mm. Illusion magic first. Then sorcery. Light, dark, mind, fire, water. Ice magic if I want more. Got it. Be right back."

Sai leapt up and ran off, slamming the door behind her as she disappeared inside.

"No time wasted, huh?"

"That's how she is. Why wait when you can do it now? That's usually how she thinks anyways."

"I see."

Marik turned to look at Kiara who was staring at him as if studying his face. Eventually she nodded as if she came to her own conclusion about something and then looked back out at the courtyard. She let out a small sigh and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes similarly to how Marik had been a while ago.

"You should probably go out there now. As soon as she gets back she'll likely want to play with you until you have to leave."

"You're probably right. I'm not the only one who's weird even if they're smart, you know. I happen to know two girls who are also weird and smart."

Marik stood up and ran out to the middle of the courtyard, leaving those words behind. He stretched a bit and made sure he was ready to spend the rest of the day running around. It would be nice to get some solid exercise in without having to worry or think too much.