I opened the door as quietly as I could. This was practically impossible, due to the fact that the door was one of the creakiest things I've heard in all my sixteen years on Earth.

"Finally back, then?" I heard Julius sigh. I paused.

SHIT. BUSTED SO SOON.

It's the damn doors fault.

"Um, yeah..."

"And where have you been?" He asked. 

"The Castle of Hearts." I answered honestly. Julius has this deadly father aura. There was no point in lying to him, since one way or another, he'd find out.

"And you didn't think I'd be worried?"

"I was going to come back, actually. You should know what Vivaldi's like." I rolled my eyes, "She's your queen, after all." I added.

 "Don't get sassy with me." Julius sighed, "I thought you would've atleast realised by now that I tend to stay away from people-- Queen included."

I blinked, twice.

He just called me sassy.

Sassy.

"I am not sassy." I frowned. Julius raised an eyebrow, "Is that all you heard?"

I pulled a face, "Of course not!" Well, actually, yeah, it pretty much was. 

Julius let out a loud sigh. "Well, moving on..." I coughed, but nodded. I soon realised something as Julius began to ramble on. That guy-- I mean, Blood, probably knows all about my feelings towards him. After all, I am Alice's sibling.  There is also a highly likely chance that he already knew who I was, due to the twins and Elliot. I bit my lip. What a troublesome guy.

"Are you even listening to me?" Julius sighed loudly, snapping my trail of thought.

I looked over to him, "In all honesty.... no."

Suddenly, the door burst open.

"JULIUUSSSS~!" Ace sung as he slammed a bag full of bloody, broken clocks onto Julius' desk, "Here you go!~"

Narrowing my eyes, I looked at Ace. Are you stalking me? I was literally just at the castle....

And we all know Ace has no sense of direction-- so in order for him to be here so soon-- he must've been following me.

Well, that's not creepy at all. 

"Um... I'm just going to... yeah." I quickly opened my bedroom door and closed it as soon as I got inside.

I'd literally just got away from Ace, and I'd prefer if we had our distance. I hopped onto my bed. Thinking about it now... I hadn't told Julius that I'd met Blood today. I was going to, however Ace arrived and... um, well, I felt incredibly awkward, so I decided not to tell him.

Oh well. It won't hurt telling him later, will it?

Suddenly, there was a tap on my window. I turnt my head, "Hm?"

"BIG BROOOOOOOOOOTHEEEEEER~!" 

 I opened the window, "Twins? What are you two doing here?"

"We wanted to see Big bro!" Dee smiled as he and Dum entered the clock tower, both jumping through my window. 

"But, er, don't you two have work?" 

"Mmh! But our end is pretty quiet right now, so we skipped!~" Dum smiled. 

Dee put his axe down on the floor, "Hey, big bro, what did you think of Boss?"

I coughed, "Hm? What?"

"You know, Blood~" Dum smiled.

 I bit my lip, "He's, um.... He's just like Alice described him as."

"And what was that?"

Letting out a loud sigh, I poked Dum's head. "Did he think that by sending you two here my opinion on him would change, hm?"

The twins blinked, "Y-- How did you know?!" They let out in confused unison. I frowned, "Go tell him he's stupid."

"Got it!" Dee smiled as he pulled himself and Dum out of the window.

"Eehh-- I wanted to talk to big bro!" I heard Dum complain.

I sighed again, but much louder as I closed the window. Really, did Blood think that that of all things would work? Damn. I think Alice made him out better than he was, if stunts like that are his usual. 

 Blood Dupre... how irritating yet disappointing.