Messenger

Chapter 17

"Quick question, why are we just hearing about this?" Hime asked, practically jumping on Flower's arm. Fancy parties were right up their alley and this was the first one to happen in years, so she'd have to excuse their hyperactiveness.

"We just heard about too." Flower noted glancing over at her advisers.

Yohio was quick to put his hand up motioning his innocence. "Hey, we needed to come up with something to stop King Howard from being salty at you."

"And there's no way that we'd be letting you be alone with him especially after what he said to Piko." Maika added. No one had fully told Hime what happened between that king and Piko, but it clearly wasn't good and Flower was not happy about. The way that she scowled was enough proof. "This was the best we could think of."

"Well, I'm not complaining." Honestly, is a party the worst result here? Everyone needed some fun and, with that many people being there, it wouldn't be too hard for Piko and Flower to break away from the royal hothead and for a certain few kids to slip in.

Mikoto crossed their arms and shot their twin a look that Hime was very familiar with. "I hope you know that you can't go."

"Under any other circumstances, I would be all for sneaking you guys in, but after what went down, old Howard would lose it even if you were just on staff." Flower stated. Although they would never say it, she was one of the people Hime knew they couldn't cross. Flower can be scary when she wanted to be.

"I'm sorry that I left you alone in the first place." Piko apologized. This was the fourth time since the two of them had entered the common room and even Hime was starting to get a little annoyed.

They sighed in exasperation knowing that they have no patience for that kind of thing. "You have nothing to be sorry about. That guy felt threatened by a kid and that's completely his problem."

Be nice to yourself, dang it! It seemed like everyone was always talking themselves down and it made absolutely no sense. Everyone was insanely cool and no one could see it. Just look at Piko and Flower; they had been holding their heads high throughout being put under a huge amount of stress or Oliver being thrown into a new place and adapting to the twin's own brand of madness. Hime could go on and on and somehow their friends wouldn't get it.

"Well, I don't know about how I feel about being called a kid, but thanks."

"In comparison to Your Royal Highness, you are a kid." Mikoto commented.

A sly look passed through the group with Maika rolling her eyes. "This stays in here, ok?" The guilty party nodded. "Not that you're wrong."

Yohio perked up instantly. "Red alert! Who are you and what did you do with Maika?"

"Hilarious. Master of comedy over there." Flower said weaving in layers of sarcasm. She did appreciate Yohio's brand of dad jokes despite how she'd never say so.

Hime noticed that a lot. People tended to hide how they actually feel about something even if it was just on something small such as liking a person's jokes. There didn't appear to be a reason behind it and Hime never had a problem seeing through people trying to "play it cool." Maybe it made everyone more comfortable. They did need that kind of relax feeling right now, but it just kept things moving so slowly when people could be way happier being open about how they felt. Although that could be Hime's shipper instinct talking.

"Ok, but are we forgetting something important here?" The people in the room gave Hime a questioning look. "We get to dress you guys up!"

Both Flower and Piko deflated. They can't escape it no matter what, so ha. "Wait, but why would I need to dress up?" He asked visibly concerned about the answer.

"Because if I'm going through this, so are you." Flower remarked back.

Piko sent Yohio and Maika a pleading glance with Maika returning it with a face that gave him a clear answer. "Sorry, but we can't have you standing out too much, or else many important people would be highly questioning our judgment."

"More than they already do. Not many people hire twigs with no questions asked." Yohio appended.

"Hey!"

"It still means that we get to dress up not one but two people." The amount of evilness had doubled much to Hime excitement as well as since no one disagreed that they could help. "Might as well make the best of it."

Flower slid into one of the ratty side chairs showing an understanding that she would just need to deal with the hype. "Easy for you to say."

Despite the royal's apathy, this was some of the most positive energy all of them have had in the past week. Every person in a castle was walking on eggshells, but the messenger common room had practically become a home base that they could drop the formality that no one really liked in the first place. Sure, it was more than a little run down and half the furniture was in desperate need of a patch up, but it was the warmest place they knew of. Everything had a softened edge that made it feel that nothing would hurt them.

Absentmindedly, Hime squirmed next to Flower with the two of them fitting snuggly. It was a known fact that when Hime got sentimental, they were even more of a cuddler and few people were ok with showing that affection. Even Mikoto can get kind of squirmy about it and they're very used to Hime's habits.

Flower ruffled the small kid's hair as they slumped into her side. "Eh, glad that you're going to have fun."

"Well, we do have a lot of planning to do. Maika's been running around like crazy trying to get the materials. The goal is to make it look like we didn't just put this together at the last minute." Yohio laid out.

"So, please don't say anything about our time crunch." No problems there. Hime didn't want to say anything to that dumb king anyways. It wasn't just that he had said mean things to them, but also that he was simply too much to be around. His clothing was too colorful, jewelry was too flashy, and most of all, he was too loud. His voice boomed over Hime's ears and picked at their brain making them just want to curl up and stop hearing anything at all. They snuggled further to their surrogate parent.

"We'll keep it quiet." Mikoto answered for them both. They were the first to tell when Hime was starting to get overwhelmed and was probably the best person for calming them down. At least the common room was a very calming space for them.

The two adults moved to the exited. "Sound good, but we do need to get back to work."

Hime really didn't want her friends to leave, but they got it that they had a lot to get done. Much to their surprise, Flower hadn't moved yet. "Ok, but I'm needed right here, so can I meet up with you guys a bit later?"

"Ok. You know where to find us." Yohio replied before his partner could say anything. Hime would have to thank him later because some cuddles were very appreciated at the current time.

The amount of projecting I just did. Hime is basically how I act when I'm hyper and when I overthink things, so yeah. I really love them and the Meikas need some more songs. If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them. As always, stay safe and drink some water.

-TheLavenderNarwhal