The throne room was crowded with any available workers in the castle, from servants to cooks of all sizes and ages. Not once had Shouto ever seen so many people gathered up in a room this size, the biggest crowd having been his knights in the courtyard, or even citizens listening to his father there. But indoors? Now this was making him feel a bit claustrophobic.

After the cooks had told him that his siblings were returning home, he had dashed as fast as he could to the throne room. No, he hadn't known what time exactly they were coming, but he couldn't help but take this moment to check. It came as a surprise when he saw these people, so he assumed that they were either here or to arrive soon.

Every part of the room was filled, hardly any openings to squeeze through, the only large open area being the path on the velvet carpet that led from the castle's entrance to the thrones. Shouto was having a hard time even getting a single glance of that opening, and wasn't even able to hear if anyone was there. It was unbelievably loud, even louder than Queen Mitsuki and Prince Katsuki when they yelled at each other. He had to cover his ears in order to soothe his poor eardrums, even then, it was still not enough to tune them all out.

"SHHHH EVERYONE SHUT UP, THEY'RE OPENING THE GATES!"

Just then, everyone fell dead silent, only the wind making the faintest of sounds within the palace walls. Those who were gossiping about the supposed Todoroki family drama silenced themselves as fast as they could, not wanting to be the ones to be left standing out. The last ones to fade out were a couple of servants who were panicking about their room preparations who hadn't had enough time to fix them up.

But now, nobody made any sudden movements, waiting for the two older Todoroki siblings to finally return after a month of absence. The large doors were opened, then came walking in was a pair of knights, one probably three inches taller than the other. The taller one had indigo hair and dark purple eyes, large bags resting just underneath them. He hadn't looked very excited to be here, but didn't say a word about it.

The other one had vibrant blonde hair with a black lightning shaped streak on the left side. His yellow eyes held obvious excitement, a large smile spreading across his face within seconds of stepping inside the throne room. He was scanning the room for no reason, and seemed to have tipped his hat and winked at most of the people his age, from both females and males. The tired male noticed this, only rolling his eyes because he was obviously too tired to deal with the situation.

The blonde was ignored quite a lot by most of the male servants, receiving a variety of strange looks, but a few female servants seemed to giggle a bit and wave back at him. He seemed to start moving towards them in a slightly flirtatious manner, but was immediately stopped by the other knight who put a hand on his shoulder.

The blonde shot a look at him, opening his mouth to say something, but was cut off by his partner. "Princess Fuyumi and Prince Natsuo have arrived."

The entrance wasn't as extravagant as everyone else had expected, but nonetheless it was still lovely to see the two. The first to enter was Natsuo. Although an adult, his nature was a little more laid back than others in the kingdom, which may have been an act to hide other things inside. His pure white hair was almost blinding as well, since the color made it so the sun made it even brighter when the light touched it.

Then, there was his sister, Fuyumi. Only about four years older than Natsuo, she seemed to be a bit on the quieter and more mature side. Her hair was mostly ivory, but also had crimson streaks placed at random spots. She wore rectangular glasses that made her grey eyes appear to be slightly larger than they actually were.

When Shouto had finally managed to poke his head through the crowd, he still couldn't even see anyone from the position that he stood. He was obviously irritated, since he did have a lot of questions for his two siblings. While scanning the room, the prince looked for somewhere he could easily sneak through, until his eyes trailed to the window.

Staring at the window shouldn't have been the best idea, since the Sun was glaring right through there, getting in Shouto's eyes and almost blinding him. However, there were two shadows that covered the bright light, climbing their way up to sit on the balcony. One of the silhouettes seemed a bit familiar, a tuft of disheveled hair that he wasn't quite so sure he could make out. Then, the second seemed to have spiky hair, and somehow looked like they were posing for the cover of a magazine.

He squinted. No one had ever dared to climb any of the walls that held this castle together, but it seemed like this was the perfect opportunity since all of the knights were occupied at the moment. So then who in the world was it?

Shouto pulled himself back out of the crowd, turning to go to the entrance that led to that balcony. He kept his gaze fixated on that area, almost swearing he could see a toothy grin coming from the posing figure.

"Shouto? What are you looking at?"

The prince snapped out of his focus, and turned to the voice that spoke out to him. There was Princess Fuyumi, tilting her head as she looked for any hint of what that may have been. It seemed that the servants had moved out of the way that she had walked, which conveniently for her was towards Shouto himself.

Shouto, on the other hand, did not find this very pleasing. Sure, it was his sister that he had been trying to get a glance at earlier, but now, when he turned back to look at the window, the two silhouettes were no longer there. He clenched his teeth together, realizing that may pose as a problem to them later.

"It's... nothing." The prince glanced at the floor, not giving her much of an answer.

"Wait a minute, is it really Shouto? Heyyy!" Natsuo seemed to have some dirt and scratch marks on his face, but he wore a grin and held up a peace sign with his left hand.

Fuyumi shot a glance at Natsuo, wondering what he was doing. "You should probably get clean. Your clothes and face are a mess."

The white haired male scoffed, rolling his eyes while pointing a thumb at his sister. "Get a load of this id—"

The princess elbowed him, leaving a stinging pain in his arm, and walking away without another word.

"Ow! Yumi, I'm sorry! That was mean..." Just before he left, he looked at Shouto, settling down a bit as he rubbed at his arm. "Soooo... How's the kingdom been?"

Shouto didn't really understand the question, because there were two ways that could have been answered. On one hand, the people seemed fine for the most part, hardly any complaints on their end. On the other, however, there was still King Endeavor, and that small boy from yesterday that he couldn't help but remember. He answered as best he could, "As good as it can be."

Natsuo nodded, somehow expecting an answer somewhere along those lines. "Ah I see. Anyway—"

"By the way," the dual colored male did, however, have a question for Natsuo before he decided to leave the room, "Why are you all scratched up?"

His brother's gaze trailed over towards the ceiling. It looked like he was trying to find a way to answer the question without sounding like an idiot. He scratched at his head, before he said, "Do you want the short answer or the long one?"

"...The short one...?"

"There was a cat."

Shouto raised one of his eyebrows, "Then what's the long answer?"

"It was a really big cat."

Not knowing how to respond to that, Shouto held up one finger in the air, his mouth open in a slightly confused manner. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he should have expected something like that.

Natsuo patted him on the head, "Anyway, I'm gonna get going. If I don't get cleaned up now, Yumi's going to get mad at me, and trust me, you won't like her when she's mad. I'll talk to you later." With that, he walked off down the hall to reach his quarters.

Shouto watched as the crowd slowly dissolved, and each individual person returned to their posts and jobs. Now that both his siblings were gone, he could finally figure out what was going on with the window. It was currently late afternoon from the direction the Sun was now shining, so if he was correct, then the cooks would have a banquet ready for Fuyumi and Natsuo's return in a few hours. He needed to figure this problem out before then, so that it wouldn't be another lost thought in the back of his head.

He speed walked all the way toward the small staircase that led to that specific balcony. Although there was nobody there, he guessed that there still could have been some sort of clues left over.

When he reached the balcony, it was still spotless, seemingly untouched by anyone. Shouto knew better than to fall for that, and traced his fingers against the railing. It was humid outside, and it was making him slightly regret his decision to come out here. But, that did change when he felt something unusual sticking to the railing.

He turned to look at what he was touching, and saw a small sheet of parchment that blended in with the deep marble colors. He tore it off gently so that he wouldn't rip it, unfolding it afterwards to see what was inside.

Nice to see you again, Shouto.

That was all it read.

That note was rather ominous, considering the fact that both silhouettes were unidentified. The handwriting wasn't familiar either, since it looked pretty simple as opposed to the handwriting he was used to seeing. It was sort of shaky, but seemed ash-like at the same time, it was almost creepy.

He looked around. He tried to remember the silhouettes. One with disheveled hair, the other with spiky hair. He was trying to focus more on the second one and their grin. It bothered him more than anything, but he just couldn't put a finger on who it was.

"Oi, the fuck are you doing all the way up here?"

Shouto almost had a heart attack, jerking his head around and lifting his arm up in a defensive manner, only to find that it was Katsuki who had been leaning against the balcony entrance. He dropped his arm, sighing in relief. "Katsuki, don't sneak up on me like that."

The ash blonde rolled his eyes, holding his arm out toward the dual colored male. He started to move his hand in grabbing motions, "Hand it over."

"Huh? Hand what over?" If it wasn't so sudden, Shouto may have understood what he was talking about. A little part of him did, but the other part of him didn't want to hand it over, since he himself didn't even know what it meant. Besides, it was directed specifically towards him, so there was no need for Katsuki to read it.

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Well..." Shouto trailed off.

"Go to hell." He shook his head, knowing exactly what that 'well' was supposed to imply. "Look, you only go to the balcony if there's a reason. Now give me the note."

"For someone who hates me, you sure do like to pay close attention to me." He slowly placed the note into the palm of Katsuki's hand.

"Shut the hell up, I don't pay close attention to you..." Katsuki slowly opened it, his crimson eyes starting to trace every inch of the paper. "The fuck is this supposed to mean?"

"What makes you think I would know?" Shouto ran a hand through his hair, still very focused on other matters.

Katsuki sighed, shoving the note into one of his pockets. "Whatever. We'll figure it out later." He then started stretching himself out so that his back made a satisfying cracking noise. He then proceeded to change the topic to what he had originally planned to talk about, "So uh... your siblings, huh? That was pretty bad timing, goddammit."

The topic change was good enough for him, since he didn't really know where to take the previous one. Shouto rubbed at the back of his head, looking off toward the castle's back garden. There he could see Fuyumi and Natsuo laying out a scroll down on a bench, discussing some sort of design or plan that he wasn't able to make out from up there. "Uh... what do you mean 'bad timing'?"

The ash blonde only gave him a soft, yet smug, smirk. "Nothing. You're gonna be busy with those two for a while anyway."

Shouto watched carefully as a servant escorted his siblings back inside, so that they were longer in his view. He decided that he had spent enough time staring in that direction, and instead started to look Katsuki's way. "You have to return to your kingdom tomorrow. Why not say what you need now?"

"You know what, fine. Fuck it." He crossed his arms over his body, taking in a deep inhale as he did so. It looked like he was trying to avoid direct eye contact, constantly dragging his right foot against the marble below him, "I l—"

Katsuki was cut off by the blonde servant that had arrived along with the prince and princess. Neither of them knew when he had arrived, but that was a horrible choice on his part. "Heyy Shouto! You're Natsuo's little brother, right? I have to admit he's really fun, but now you, you're interesting. You're handsome, not to mention you seem to have a personality that the ladies would like a lot. So, how about it? You, Shinsou, and I will be partners in crime, ey?"

"Excuse me... can I help you...?" Shouto had been ready for whatever the other prince had to say, but now that they were interrupted, he had completely lost focus.

Katsuki looked absolutely pissed. His eyebrows started caving in toward his nose, his crimson eyes ready to bite off the blonde's neck. "Hey, DUNCE FACE, the fuck are you doing? It's rude to interrupt other people's conversations y'know."

"Dunce face? Wait who are you ta— w-WOAH—!" At some point in his life, his obvious idiocy probably got him in trouble more times than normal. But interrupting Katsuki? That must've been the worst decision in his life.

The prince had taken the blonde by his shirt, pulling him off of the ground like he only weighed as much as a couple of grapes. He snarled a bit, the dopey look on the other male's face slowly lighting a fuse. "You're the dunce face, dumbass. The fuck do you want anyway? You got two seconds to speak."

"First of all, my name's Kaminari." He laughed a bit, seemingly unphased by the mood Katsuki was in. "Second, I was just—"

"Times up." Katsuki lifted his free fist in preparation to punch Denki.

Shouto, being the more reasonable of the two, placed both of his hands on his arm. "Katsuki, calm down."

"Don't fucking tell me what to do." The grip on Denki's shirt loosened, just until he was finally dropped to the ground. Katsuki took a few steps back, looking in the direction of the horizon instead.

Denki started to soothe his behind, since the marble was cold and hard. "So that's what they meant when they said your personality is shit. Don't worry, you're interesting too, I can be your only friend!"

"SHUT UP, YOU DON'T KNOW ME!"

"Haha why did Shinsou tell me to go by myself..." The blonde pulled himself off of the floor. He started to stare innocently at Katsuki as if he hadn't done anything wrong, "Well uh anyway... I was told to bring you guys down to the... banquet hall? I think Endeavor wants you guys to have dinner or something, I dunno."

"We'll be right down." Shouto took Katsuki by the wrist, somehow able to drag him with him easily.

"Oh by the way! Your servant, the green haired one, he was so totally awesome! Dude, you should give me his name, I want to hang with him sometime around. Today he seemed in a rush though."

Shouto stopped, turning his head around slowly. "Did you say... green hair..?"

Denki nodded, "Well yeah, it was all curly and stuff. Why?"

The prince muttered under his breath, "We don't have a green haired servant..."

"Huh? What'd you say? Couldn't hear you."

"Where did you see him? Was he with anyone?"

Although his memory wasn't the greatest, he still was barely able to recall where it all went down. "I think it was by the library or something? Also, there was this tall, lanky, weird, black and spiky haired guy or something. He was wearing all black and man, did he look scary. His face had like purple, you should've seen it! He looked like a raisin!"

Shouto's mind immediately jumped to an image of a raisin with spiky black hair. He shook his head to get rid of the thought, turning to Katsuki right after, "Hey uh... I'm going to need you to distract my father."

"Eh!? Why me!?" Pulling his arm away, Katsuki looked slightly offended by the fact that he was asked to do such a thing. He already knew that Endeavor didn't like him as it was, and doing something would just ruin his reputation with him more. But then, the bright idea came over him: nothing's better than pissing off an asshole like that. "Actually y'know what? Count me in."

"I'm going to inspect the library. That might give me a hint to what I saw earlier. I trust you to make sure he doesn't become suspicious."

Katsuki started to bite at his thumb, smirking when he thought about what he was going to do. "Fuck yeah, I'm going to make your old man wish he were in hell." He then turned to the blonde standing in front of him, "Oi! Dunce face! You good at making annoying distractions?"

"Heck yeah, man! Dead to honest, that's my specialty. They don't call me Denki 'Distraction' Kaminari for nothing!" A smile spread across his face, proudly announcing himself out like it was some kind of achievement.

"Perfect. How do you feel about being my decoy?"

Denki titled his head, a blank look of confusion on his face, "D-Decoy?"

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