Rules of One's Soul

Ch7 Realizing Feelings p3

He felt strangely numb for the rest of the day. It didn't matter how much he tried to strain a smile or look happy for Lancer's sake, he just felt....numb. Well, maybe numb wasn't the right word. He felt more like he hadn't slept in a whole year....Maybe part of that statement was true, he couldn't really remember the last time he got a good night's sleep since....Yeah. Better not dig up any old memories right now. Better focus on Jevil giving who was him a worried glance every so often. Honestly, he didn't know what the Jester used to do before he was locked up or what he would do now that he was rehired and pardoned by Lancer, but he was pretty sure hovering behind them and following the duo around the castle was taking care of royal business was not it. Rouxls was starting to become really uncomfortable with all the stares they were getting from everyone else around them, most were terrorfied with shock or confusion at seeing the crazy joker floating behind the Duke and King Lancer. Even the other kings were wary, except King Heart. He had too much of an open heart it seemed. It made him even more tired from the amount of emotions that waved through his mind, which he really shouldn't be focusing right now.Right now was the time to focus on doing as much as possible to prepare Lancer for the ten days of his absence. He's barely be able to clean up his room, let alone run an entire kingdom by himself.


But he still couldn't help but have that small voice in the back of his mind say it wouldn't be so bad. He would use some space and a nice vacation was overdue.....But he made a promise to her and himself to take care of Lancer. No matter what. Did he really trust this jester just a few days after he was sent loose? Yes, answered a silent voice ringing from the back. Not much, echoed another. He groaned again and tried to shake those feelings off. Right now he needed to focus. Focus!

He had to shake his head and refocus his skattered mind into the conversation at hand-

"- s-so anyways, to help lift our subjects spirits in this new era of reconstruction I'd thought we should open the castle more to our loving subjects," the King of Hearts brought a tentacle arm to rub at the back of his neck sheepishly.

Oh...right. Did he miss that much of the conversation? He straightened his back up and tried once again to focus his attention into this conversation, or at least what attention he had left. Lancer was sitting at the table next to him looking a mixture of bored and confused to what the adult kings were going on about, while Jevil was being awfully quiet just hovering above near the ceiling, he would've chuckled if he wasn't already trying to pay attention to something else at the moment.

"Don't you think that'll cost a whole lot?"

"There he goes again with the 'I don't like spending attitude'."

Oh, please. He really didn't want to deal with another fight between the Clubs and Rudinn right now. The two could go on for hours on end if no one stopped them. But someone must've heard his silent prayers because that wasn't what had happened. Instead the Rudinn gave the multi-headed king a look and spat out-

"No! I mean it'll cost a lot to put together something for hundreds upon hundreds of subjects and we don't even have enough to cover even a third of that amount. And don't you forget we're still trying to piece together what's left of what Spade left behind?"

"Of course I didn't forget!," one of the heads barked back, "I'm just saying you usually worry about your money problem!''

"Oh, so now I have a money problem-!"

"Gentlemen, Please! Not in front of the child." The poor Heart looked exhausted already and the meeting's only been-....Actually he lost count of how much time had passed, but the other two kings at least respected the poor hathy's words enough to not fight right now at least. Thank goodness. "Thank you." He breathed out a sigh. "Now I know we can't invite all our subjects but we should at least encourage others to celebrate one of our oldest customs."

"I'm bored-"

Rouxls hushed Lancer before giving a nervous smile back at the other 3 kings. "Children. H-He's just a bit tired-"

"But it's boooooriiing." The small spade slapped his hands onto the table and stood onto his chair. "Let's make it more exciting!"

Rouxls groaned but King Heart chuckled at the child's action and asked, "Oh, Really? Well, why don't you tell us what you think would make this event less 'boring' to you?"

Lancer paused for a moment and gave that famous confused look with his tongue stuck between his front teeth before looking back up at him. "Um.....How about food!? Food's always good."

"What kind then?"

It was clear that by the smile on the giant hathy that he was enjoying asking the little child what he thought about this. It was kinda cute to watch in all honesty, but the little boy didn't see it that way as he beamed at the notion of being asked his own ideas.

"We need to...How did Susie say it was-..Make it POP! We need something fun like-...Like...Uh..."

Rouxls leaned next to him. "How doth fireworks sound?"

His face lit up immediately. "Yeah! Fireworks sound awesome! Oh, oh. And lots and lots of food and music! I can play splat noises from my ipod!"

"Young, Sire. I thinketh thine noises wouldn't be appropriate for a romantic evening for a mostly adult audience." Lancer gave a small pout which made the Duke roll his eyes. "We can invite thou's friends if you oh so wish."

''....But I don't know where Susie and Kris live....But Ralsei practically lives next door!"

"Well, since thou has made up his mind, we shouldst really focus on the topic of the dungeon conditions-"

"Now what a second," the Rudinn king leaned across the table and gave a look, "We still need to discuss the budget of this whole thing-" One of King Clubs's heads groaned while the others gave various looks from confusion to 'I'm so done', Making Diamond give a hiss back. "Not like that! I mean, our funds are limited towards rebuilding and our subjects as it is. How are we going to fund all this food and fireworks?"

"...We could make it a potluck charity ball?," the Heart meeakly suggested, "We could have everyone bring a dish and donate a miniture wage?"

"That's a brilliant idea!" "Hey! I would've thought of that too!" "You wish!" Honestly, can his heads ever agree on something?

"Now that is out of the way, doth I may request that we-"

"Can we have a chocolate fountain?!" Lancer's voice suddenly skyrocketed in new excitement. "And cake and...and ...and whatever that noodle dish is called?!"

The heart chuckled. "If someone brings it, sure."

Lancer gave a babble of delight before turning to Rouxls, "I gotta go tell the cooks! And have someone go tell Ralsei! This is gonna be the best mushy party ever! HO HO HO!! "

"What!? Lancer wait-" The small spade didn't give another thought as he jumped down from his chair and pushed past his legs. He once again tried to call out to the excited child to stop him but the small spade excitedly bounced his way out the door doing his tiny impression of a Santa Claus. The worm sighed and reached up a hand to rub his face. He really didn't have the energy to keep up with a child like this.

"Well, I guess this meeting is over." "Good! I want to see Clover! Right now!" "I'm pretty sure she's asleep by now?"

The other three kings mumble among themselves and stood up from the large table. Looks like he wasn't going to get to actually talk about security today.

"Tired, tired you look." He didn't look up from his hand as Jevil casually floated next to him, giving him a questioning look. "Why not, not just turn in?"

"I'm still angry at thou's antics," he slowly turned from his hand to give the imp a tired disgruntled look, raising a brow, "And I will do no such thing until mine king sleeps, and he's nay asleep or tired."

Jevil hummed and nodded in agreement with his statement. "Understandable, understandable-...But he's a king now, he can handle a little nap time." This made Rouxls raise his brow higher as if to say, 'Art thou serious?' and Jevil giggled at the reaction. "I'm more than capable of putting, putting the younge child to bed and spinning a tale good enough to impress, impress the sandman himself.~"

"Thou? Put Lancer to sleep? Bah!" The tired worm stood up on tired legs, giving the gremlin a frown. "I shan't heareth it! Mine boy is-"

"Growing up, up and needs to learn how to be king without the interference of a mother hen." He tutted and shook his head at the worm's constant worrying again, "I do hope you do not act, act like that when our children are brought into our world.~ It'd be a bad influence on the poor child.~"

The worm's face went from a comical expression of confused, to utter shock, to a deep purple. He seemed to go blank for a moment and just gave out a few angry sputters at the jester's innocent smile before he just turned around dramatically-...Which did nothing but set off another series of giggles, and in a moment worthy of his title, the Duke gave off a flustered growl and stomped his way out of the room..Too bad the laughing imp followed right behind him, telling him "R-Rouxls, Rouxls. D-Don't do that. Just think about all the cute little memories, memories we'd make."

"N-NAY! I don't need this! I-I shan't hear of it!" He sped up his long strides towards where he suspected Lancer had bounced off too, too bad Jevil was able to keep up easily. "L-Leave me you...you ghastly worm! I'm too tired to dealest with this."

"Rouxls. I'm sorry, sorry. But please let me see your blueberry face.~"

"Nay!"

A couple others had stopped and took a look at the strange duo walking past, giving them strange looks. Honestly looked more like an old married couple than a royal Duke being trailed by a Jester. And to be honest Rouxls didn't like what must have been going through their heads at this point, seeing the crazed jester float around him giggling and following like a lost love struck puppy and how blue his face must've been at the moment didn't help his cause either. A force sudden made itself known on his head and two arms snaked their way around his neck. A purr sounded out as something snuggled into the shiny hair on his head, he ended up freezing and turned his eyes upwards towards the imp nuzzling into him. Jevil sighed and purred out some mumbled about him being 'cool and soft to the touch.' His normally cool face heated up a purple hue and he let out a small squeak. Jevil giggled hearing that and laid his head flat against the top of Rouxls's head. What followed was another weird noise from Rouxls before the worm man waved his arms up and above his head in a sort of flailing like motion startling the jester and whoever was left watching. The worm whirled around and gave the startled jester a flustered look, Jevil gave a startled look back and blinked.

"...T-Thou needst t-to calmeth thineself down."

"Oh....Why? Do you not like, like physical affection?"

"I...I..." His eyes went around to the few surrounding watchers and gulped. "N-N-Nay in public."

Jevil continued to stare at the flustered worm before a realization came over him. "Oh, I see. Bwahaha. Keep things, things professional at work. I understamd, understand perfectly." He let off another purr before giving those same pink eyes from earlier this morning with the pink hearts. "More on the professional, professional when needed. Perfectly understandable. We have, have a whole ten days to make up for it.~"

The tone he used plus the wink he gave after sent a shiver up Rouxls spine plus a throb from his soul. He decided to cut losses and just turn and leave to go find Lancer. Not surprisingly Jevil wasn't too far behind. Like he suspected, he eventually found Lancer stuffing his face with leftover food in the kitchen, making a mess. The child looked tired though. Hopefully enough to go to bed. It took Rouxls a while to convince the spade stuffing his face that he should head to bed, but luckily Lancer was complient and agreed to his bedtime. Now all that was left to do was deal with the purple stalker he had on his tail. He just wanted to go back home and sleep already. He made it about halfway down the hall from Lancer's room before a clawed hand grabbed onto his shoulder and the smiling face of Jevil came into view.

"Let me take, take you back."

"N-No thank you....I'm more than capable of going home."

"In the rain?" He pointed his other hand towards the window near them where rain could still be seen pouring down. "You still look tired,tired. Allow me to help, help."

"N-No-"

"I know you're too exhausted, exhausted to work magic right now." Rouxls froze but eventually gave off a sigh to Jevil's happiness.

"Fine. B-But only once-"

No sooner had he said that than Jevil suddenly shot his hand out and grabbed his, making him flinch and look at the smiling purple face. Jevil gave off a series of giggles as his only warning before the room around them suddenly darkened and a compression feeling squeezed his chest. He clamped his eyes shut at sensation of the air being forced out of his lungs and his body being stretched out like some rubber toy, it was quite the uncomfortable feeling to be honest. Would not recommend traveling like this. His way of teleporting was a lot more peaceful, all it took was a few ideal moments of senseless non-motion and then some sparkling light. Not this compressed madness. None the less, it all ended almost as soon as it began when he suddenly was slapped back down onto his feet. His body stumbled and nearly fell over but Jevil still had a hold of his hand and quickly pulled Rouxls back up into a standing coughing fit of a man. His vision swirled and his lungs felt like they were underwater as he sputtered and forced himself to gulp down oxygen into his poor body. Jevil patted his back and continued to sorta encourage Rouxls, strange but appreciated. When he was finally able to blink past the blurred scenes, he was able to make out a table of some kind he was leaning against. Dust covered the top and when he slowly removed his hand it left a print...Oh. That'll explain the excess couching and fire burning in his lungs. Jevil's teleportation must've made some of the dust fly into the air when they popped in.

"I don't suppose you two are done for the day?", a soft voice called out a little ways from them. Their sudden pop in had startled the cat, but he quickly calmed down once he recognized the two. Rouxls's looked over at the cat sitting on the bed, a book in his paws. The worm rose a brow and gave Seam a look.

"W-Was...Was thou sitting here reading all day?"

Seam chuckled before closing the book and setting it on the bed before standing up. "Only since you all left me stranded here seven hours ago. I'm afraid I'm not too fond of going home in the rain. But I do enjoy the peace and quiet of reading while listening to the rain outside." He gestured to the store window and the water running down it.

Rouxls gave a groan and straightened himself up. "Well thou can now leaveth with thine gremlin over here-" he nodded towards Jevil '' -without the worries of getting rained upon."

"Oh, come now. Come now." Jevil's face popped back up to his side vision. "It's your time to relax-"

"Which would be when I'm sleeping without disturbance from thou."

".....Oh. Right. You do need, need to recover from no-sleepitis.~"

Seam rose an eyebrow and gave Jevil a curious look. "No-sleepitis?...Aha..Hahaha. I'm pretty sure that's called insomnia Jevil."

The imp shrugged and giggled a bit more. "All it took was just a little, little child encouragement and common sense to the rules.~"

Rouxls gave a grunt and pushed Jevil's face away from his own. "I think thou shouldst leave now, it's getting rather late as it is."

"Aw. No fun, no fun.~"

"Come on now, Jevil. We should respect the Duke's sleeping condition."

Surprisingly Jevil listened to the old cat and floated over towards him, but not before giving the worm another purr and wink. Rouxls scrunched his face up but his face flushed a blue again. He really wished it would stop that. Seam held out his paw to the floating Jevil who took it without question, Seam took one last look back at Rouxls and gave a small wave before his shape was suddenly whipped. Literally. His form whipped back along with Jevil and in an instant, the two weirdos vanished without sound. Rouxls stood there blinking for the next couple seconds at where the two used to stand, before shaking his head and turning his back towards the area where they were. He just needed to lay down and have a small moment to himself for a while....And try to sort out all these thoughts and emotions zig zagging over one another in his head.

Seam on the other hand was quite adiment on giving the poor duke some alone time away from Jevil's constant affection. The poor guy looked tired enough, though Seam wasn't quite sure what Jevil meant by 'common sense of rules' or 'child encouragement'. The teleportation to his own Sheap was a matter of seconds away, and while Rouxls obviously wasn't used to the sudden teleporting Seam after years of Jevil using the spell, he was quite used to the effects so all he ended up with was a small stumble upon landing. He turned to the small jester after a few moments of regaining himself and opened his mouth to ask about what happened, when the fool suddenly doubled over giggling and hugging his sides.

"Well...You seem happy. Care to include an old friend on what you mean?"

"Seam, Seam! My opportunity, opportunity has sprung! My soul, soul beats hard for my heart's desire, desire!" He giggled more which in turn caused the cat to tilt in held in question. "You see,you see! My desire has told me he shares the same emotions my soul, soul has for him, him! It's absolute chaos, chaos!" The imp fell back in a flourish of squeals and giggles that Seam couldn't help but smile at.

"Really now? Well, it sounds like you too have made a real connection. But you should keep it down before you wake Mak. It takes forever to get a child to sleep."

"Hahaha. Agreed, Agreed."

Seam smiled before walking his way over to the couch. "Now...I don't suppose you mind filling me in on what happened while you were away do you?"

Jevil smiled in glee. "Seam, Seam. I have a tale, tale to spin to you."