As the meeting of Burning Flower came to a close, Tokaruth mentioned one more thing.

"We still haven't decided when to attack." he said in a serious manner, "We must first gather enough resources. We will meet once more before the attack to discuss it one final time."

Burning Flower and the three knights nodded and one by one, with notable time spans in between as to not look suspicious, exited the meeting room and bar. The very last people to exit the building were Homura, Sayuri, and Hoshi.

The world outside was already dark, only illuminated by the few lit lanterns and torches. The streets were also empty, except for a few drunks and homeless people, sleeping or muttering on the side of the street.

"So..." Homura began saying as he looked at Hoshi, "I don't plan on staying with our father and I doubt you have a place to sleep. Do you Hoshi?"

"No."

"Very well then." Homura shifted his gaze ahead, "I know a place."

And so, following Homura, the three of them arrived at a quite large palace-like mansion on the outer rim of the city. The mansion wasn't quite in the outside slumps of the city, nor the wealthy center of the city. It sat on the line between the two. The mansion itself looked like a four-star hotel. The mansion was two stories tall and 18 meters in length. It had red walls, a grand oak door, bordered with gold, a stained glass window showing a phoenix above it, many glass windows, framed in gold. It was quite modest.

"What is this place?" Hoshi asked, inquisitively.

"One of my father's mansions." Homura looked back at Hoshi and Sayuri as he spoke, "Asking, he has quite the amount of mansions throughout the city and elsewhere. This one just so happens to be one of them. Well, was one of them. This just happens to be my sixteenth birthday present."

Damn... Hoshi thought, I was lucky if I got a chocolate bar on my birthday.

Hoshi sighed with jealousy. "Well then, shall we enter?"

The three entered the mansion and took off their shoes.

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"I'm sorry, but we won't have any maids or butlers here." Homura turned to Hoshi and Sayuri once he took off his shoes, "We'll eat breakfast at a restaurant nearby. This is one of the smaller mansions, so it only has two bedrooms." Homura turned to his guest. "You can crash on the couch in mine or Sayuri's room."

"Sounds good."

"Indeed. I'll go to prepare our rooms."

While Homura fixed up the bedrooms for them, Sayuri led Hoshi into what seemed to be the living room, right across from the door. It spanned almost the entire first floor along with a bathroom and a kitchen on the left side of the room. In the center of the room stood a large sofa, across from it - a small round, glass table, atop which stood a pot with a dead flower inside of it.

"Oh, boy." Sayuri sighed as she inspected the flower, "Homa really hasn't been here in a long time I see."

"Homa?" Hoshi wondered who "Homa" was.

"Oh," Sayuri turned to Hoshi and softly chuckled, "That's the nickname I gave my brother. We gave each other nicknames when we were just children. A lot sure has changed."

Sayuri looked down in an attempt to hide her feelings - the feeling of sadness - or perhaps jealousy or regret, something Hoshi hadn't seen on Sayuri before, as the room fell into silence.

"A mansion sure is a nice gift." Hoshi attempted to fill in the silence of the awkward situation, as well as change the subject. The young man had never been good at dealing with people or emotions, and quite frankly, he felt awkward at times like these.

"Yeah." Sayuri muttered, "Although it's more of a regular house than a mansion."

Sayuri's, once more sad, reply made Hoshi feel awkward again.

"Hey, Hoshi?" Sayuri finally looked up, with desperation in her eyes, "What does Homura seem like, to you?"

"To me...?" Hoshi wondered, "Well... to me, he seems like a brave knight, someone who would protect anyone, no matter who they were. He seems like a hero."

Hoshi looked towards Sayuri as he spoke, wondering if this was the answer she had been looking for.

"..."

Hoshi was about to say something when he was interrupted by the voice of Homura, shouting from upstairs. "The rooms are ready."

"Let's go." Sayuri silently said as she stood up, Homura, following after her.

"Okay, here's your room, Sayuri, " Homura said, his back turned to the two doors, as he pointed to the right door behind him, "And this is mine. Hoshi, where will you be sleeping?"

"I-I'll..." Hoshi had trouble deciding, "I'll crash on your couch Homura."

"Very well, then."

And so, the three said their goodnight to each other and slowly, they all drifted away into a peaceful sleep.