To the Death of the King - CG

[YukiTen]

Sophia grinned playfully. "Cyfon said, 'Oh well, Sophia, good luck, stupid.'" She giggled musically and continued, passing her mother's urn without even a glance. She didn't need to look at it. She didn't want to. "And I said, 'Oh well, come on!'"

She bolted up the rounding stairwell in the foyer, taking each step in sets of two. Paying little attention to the intricate designs of the railings or the carpeting, she just ran, feeling her time shortening by the second. Her breath was leaving and entering her lungs quickly as she went, ringing in her ears like airy doorbells. Speaking of her lungs, they were burning slightly.

Heh. She was really outta shape. Even her thighs were starting to ache.

"Hey, Soph'! Wait for us!" Cyfon pipped, his footsteps sounding close behind her.

"No!" she squealed, huffing and spluttering helplessly. "We gotta get packed up!"

To be quite honest, Sophia didn't want to be late. Being late would be a black mark on her reputation. She had to have a perfect reputation, otherwise if anything went wrong, she could be suspect for what happened. She didn't want that. Well, for this specific event, if she was late, she'd miss her flight to Japan. Which would be bad.

Bad. Bad, bad, bad.

It was when she stopped at the mouth of the hallway she went through much earlier that an idea began to form and rattle around in her brain. It took a while for her to catch her breath, lungs burning, thighs on fire. This idea was a seed, maybe, that could grow into a well-thought tree of a plan.

She could show up on time for everything and do something behind the scenes. But what? What was there for her to do? What about Britannia? What about Japan? What about the Japanese? 

[Gayest. Reply. EVER.]

[Gracie-kun]

[I've seen gayer; don't worry about it. X3]

Sophia took a long lead, but not because she was faster than Blake. The brunette slowed down with the weight of her mild depression. "I wanna learn Japanese. TAT"

Presently she was now jogging alongside Cyfon, who looked at his sister's sprint with a slight frown. "Hey, Soph'! Wait for us!" he called.

"No!" Sophia squeaked. "We gotta get packed up!"

Blake watched her cousin's desperate rush, blinking. "She's faster than I remember." She paused, still running, and then turned to Cyfon. She grinned and demonstrated the only kind of flirting she was capable of, even if it wasn't intentional: "Last one to her room's a rotten egg!"

She pulled ahead, but she knew Cyfon would probably catch up in a few strides of his long legs. Still, she threw a smile in his direction. "On-a-guy dagger-ah!"

[...Blake tried to repeat 'onegaidakara'...*smacks forehead* She's SO white. XD]

[YukiTen]

[>> Blake is funny ]

Sophia let out one last soothing breath and made an absolute break for it, not bothering to turn and see what Blake had said, or even what Cyfon might have said in return. All thoughts virtually out the window (she figured it would be better to leave long, hard thoughts alone until she got on the plane to Japan), she bolted down the mahogany halls of her childhood home, swerving around the maids and guards that lines every wall and protectively coddled any expensive urns and vases. Her goal was her bedroom, which sat at the very end of an extensive hallway. The very hallway she just now turned onto, that is.

Her lungs were on fire, burning in her increasing efforts to reach her room and pack up. Her legs were tensing and blazing along with her chest, the muscles probably in disbelief at her sudden anaerobic runs. If she wasn't so determined to leave the Blackfeld estate, her body would have given up by now and allowed her to crash and burn like it normally would. But it could recognize a press for time and sense the urgency.

The flight was at six and only a few minutes have ticked by, but every second counted. 

She flashed right into her blue-ified bedroom, immediately swerving and dashing to her closet. Flinging the mirror doors open, she buried herself in her massive rack of clothes and shoes, books and more books, video cameras and computer equipment, and whipped three large suitcases out of the unnecessarily large pile of crap.

"Sophia!" Cyfon's voice chided gently from behind her, panting and tired.

"Shut up and fill them!" the blond croaked, tossing the suitcases at the black-haired boy without a second thought, her heart beating as fast as it possibly could and her lungs burning as hot as they could. She was tired. But there was still work to be done. 

"One for clothes, one for my computer stuff, and the other for my books!" she snipped, hunched over in a bit of a coughing fit. Each small cough felt like pin needles in her throat, ravaging her lungs like it ain't no thing but a chicken wing. Good lord, she really wasn't in good shape. She huffed and frowned a little bit.

Cyfon gave his over-worked little sister a concerned smile, setting her blue suitcases down and opening each as gently as he could as if they would explode if he wasn't careful. Carefully, very carefully, he did this and looked up at Blake with his brown eyes, tilting his head towards Sophia. "Just separate clothes from books and books from electronics," he mumbled softly. "It's best just to be quiet and help."

Indeed.

Sophia had an explosive temper. Well, most times. She would only really explode if something broke or if she burnt anything she was cooking, which wasn't rare. However, time and urgencies was another thing that could set her off. Nobody knew why, but to Sophia, everything and everyone had to be perfectly on time or else it created a sort of black mark on her reputation. Truth be told, she was right.

[Crap...utter, no-plot crap... ><]

[Gracie-kun]

Clothes? Books? Electronics? Those had to be the main themes, didn't they? Blake inwardly groaned but flashed a smile at Cyfon with a little effort.

Being an outdoor child, Blake wasn't exactly adept with computers and digital devices. They looked fragile and weak, and she feared she'd break them just by touching them. And clothes? Imogen freaked if she got a tiny wrinkle in one of her dresses. Blake wasn't sure how Sophia would react, but knowing her inexplicable temper at times, the brunette didn't want to risk the wrath.

Books. Yes. Those were her best bet.

Blake bolted for the giant bookshelf and began taking tomes by the armful to the suitcase designated by Cyfon. She continued to move like lightening, but a few of the titles made Blake's brow furrow with confusion. The Art of War, Tactics and Strategy, The Battlefield of Cold War. What in the world was her cousin reading?

Of course, other genres were mixed in, but war seemed to dominate Sophia Blackfeld's bookshelf. It was eerie. However, Blake wouldn't bring it up. Something in her gut told her not to talk about it - at least, not in this place.

The suitcase was filled in a few minutes, books stacked not for neatness but for space, and Blake turned to find Cyfon done with the electronic bag and Sophia with her clothes. Blake slammed the textbook-case shut and picked it up. "You call a cab yet, Soph'?" Being nearly middle class, Blake had forgotten that her insatiably rich older cousin would have a private car already waiting for them.

[Not plotless - sometimes those posts are a necessary evil to get to the really good ones. :D]

[YukiTen]

"You call a cab yet, Soph'?"

Blake's simple question rang in Sophia's slightly pointed ears like a bell, clanging around in her brain. Cab? A cab? Didn't she have a limousine? Didn't she have a driver? Didn't they ALL have drivers? Why would they need a cab? Did they even have cabs in Versailles?

Her face screwed up into an expression of confusion. "What are you talking about? >>"

Cyfon chuckled with amusement, his hands going to work on zipping up the electronics section of his sister's suitcases. He smiled warmly, leaning back on his elbows. "Sophia's confused~" he sang cheerily, his smile widening at the twisted look of 'what the hell are you people talking about' on her face.

She stared at the black-haired boy, her face swirling back to its normal bored expression, and she stood. Dusting herself off, she placed her thin hands on her wide hips and spun around on her toes, taking wobbly step by wobbly step to get to her door. Her shins were still in an unnecessary amount of pain, burning and straining in all their glory. The door was only ten feet away.

"Ne, Sophia, are you going to carry your suitcase?" Cyfon questioned gently.

"Iie, baka!" she snapped, continuing on in her almost useless endeavor to reach the hall. She frowned, noting that she was eight feet away from her destination. So close but so very far away. She glared helplessly at the hallway, walking as steadily as she could.

Cyfon shrugged and dutifully got to his own feet, latching his fingers around the handles of the two suitcases Sophia left behind and lifted them. Surprisingly, they weren't that heavy even though they were filled to the brim with clothes and computer things like mouses, mousepads, USBs, keyboards, cameras, web cameras, scanners, monitors, speakers, hard drives, wires, fans, removable hard drives, circuit boards, then t-shirts, coats, skinny jeans, tank tops, skirts, dresses, bracelets, hair accessories, underwear, bras - he twitched and mouthed a long 'ewwwwwwwwww', hobbling on after his blond sister.

Ew. Anything surrounding women's underwear was just flat out disturbing. He couldn't he actually made that assessment of her belongings. Panties. >> He blushed with the embarrassment of having noted such a thing and inwardly smacked himself. TAT He frowned and did everything he possibly could not to look at Sophia. If he did, some awful dirty thought of her panties would cross his mind and the little garments would probably replace her face.

Must...not....look....

"Cyfon, carry those down to the foyer. Mr. LeMaster will load them into the limo, okay?" Sophia explained, finally reaching the hall. She grinned cruelly and hopped up and down. "Ha! Take that, stupid legs!" And she immediately regretted that simple action because her shins were now on absolute FIRE and she had half a mind to cry.

The poor older boy did, indeed, envision panties as his sister's regretful face.

He swore he was going to die a lonely man from that moment forward. Being alone would allow him to avoid such strange and awkward things. He wouldn't have to see panties as faces. Hell, he wouldn't have to see panties PERIOD. Thank the gods. He was definitely going to stay a lonely man.

He waddled out of the room with Sophia's suitcases in tow, walking very quickly. He needed to be away from the slumping girl or he'd thing of panty-faces again.

Sophia looked around the room pathetically, her eyes landing on her mahogany desk. There sat a beautiful metallic blue laptop, curved and perfectly shaped, beckoning to her. Her blue eyes widened and she about died. "GODDAMN IT!"

[Maa...not too well written. >>]

[Gracie-kun]

[Cy, such a pervy perv. XD]

Blake looked from her wobbly cousin to the scarlet-colored Eleven, blinking. She dropped it, though, lugging up the suitcase of books and fast-walking alongside Cyfon with Sophia at the lead.

Just as she and Cyfon were out the door, however, a screech of mortification and fury rang out: "GODDAMMIT!"

Blake raised her hands like a gun was pointed at her and the heavy suitcase plopped next to her right foot. "I TOUCHED NOTHING! QAQ" There was NO WAY this side of hell that the brunette wanted anything to do with Sophia Blackfeld's unmitigated rage. Ever.

[...Didn't know what else to put. *facepalms at self-stupidness*]

[YukiTen]

Sophia growled in all her anger, not even bothering to care anymore at the fact her shins hurt like hell as she stomped over to her desk. Each step shot a wave of pain and agony up her legs. But she didn't give a damn. Her laptop was placed neatly on her desk and it was her prized possession - the ONE thing she forgot to pack.

"You're a bastard! Stupid laptop!" she snapped, disgracefully curling her fingers around the edges of the unsuspecting piece of technology and ripped it from the clutches of her evil mahogany desk, angrily returning to her pack of family members and suitcases, every irritated stomp shattering her stressed shins.

Cyfon stared at the ball of anger that was his sister, face reddening with confusion. Was she seriously mad about her laptop? He shook his head slightly and continued down the hall, blinking every time his little sister's feet stomped.

Sophia was now ahead of him, slamming her feet down on the floor, and she was certainly unhappy as he rounded each corner and took angry step after angry step down the stairs, passing the urn in the foyer, and stopping right in front of the unimaginably large mahogany doors of the Blackfeld estate, tapping her foot loudly against the marble floor.

[Bah. >> lame reply. Felt like this could move things along though]

[Gracie-kun]

Blake scuttled out of her older cousin's seething path, green eyes huge. She didn't question the practicality of being angry at a laptop - she was simply glad that it wasn't her that Sophia was mad at. She made a tiny sigh of relief and gathered the suitcase up again.

While the brown haired girl outwardly showed her fear for Sophia's temper, at least internally there was no repercussions. She never took it to heart when the blond teen was mad. Imogen, on the other hand - well, there ought to be awards for holding grudges for so long and with such ferocity. At least Sophia would forget little things that Blake accidentally did. Imogen would be there at her deathbed recalling how her elder sister stepped on her foot and scuffed up her favorite shoes - when she was SIX.

Now, Blake spotted the impatient Sophia and bolted past her down the steps. Her green eyes faced straight forward. Better than Immy, anyway.

[YukiTen]

Sophia leaned up against the marble door frame of the Blackfeld Estate and held her laptop tightly against her chest, viciously growling at it as if it were some satanic device of worship. Which, in all actuality, it was. Well, maybe not Satanic, per say. But wasn't exactly holy, either.

She frowned.

Cyfon had followed her down the steps and was now setting her suitcases down in front of her and Blake, dusting off his hands and smiling widely. He smiled oo much. >> "There we go. Now, where's the driver?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Sophia quipped, glaring at nothing in particular.

"I dunno... Oh! Much earlier, your dad said that he'd meet us at the airport to say his goodbyes."

"Okay..." She closed her eyes, brows furrowed, and sighed. "Blake."

[Gracie-kun]

"Oh yeah," Blake said, perking up after Cy's new information. "We never really said goodbye to everyone, huh? I'll miss Uncle Wiess. He's so funny. >w<"

Sophia sighed beside her, frowning with her eyes closed. "Blake."

"Hunh?" The brown haired girl blinked at her cousin's unusual seriousness. It made Blake start to sweat a little. "Err...I didn't break anything while we were backing, did I...?"