Author's Note: Okay, so it took me a little longer than I expected for this one ::sweatdrop:: I'm sorry everyone ^^;

But here's my shout-out list just the same!

Freestyle Death: Wah ;_; I'm sorry you didn't like chapter 3 as much as you did the first two ;__;

The Lord of Darkness: =^^= Thank you so much! ::huggles you::

Bloaty Kitsu: Heeheehee, I'm glad you liked the Antagonist Without a Name... AWAN... Awan... hmm... ::giggle::

Lunar Wulf Gemini: =^.^= Thank you very much for your review~ it made me happy n_n

Machinegungirl: Heehee! YAY! ::ignores the fact you stole the one cookie that was to be split between reviewers:: Chibi! ::glomps you:: I'm glad you thought the last part was funny~ yes Cyril has a strange knack for hurting Fabian-- perhaps Fabian is the gullible one, no? =^^=

Sweetlilengel: ::puts on interview-y type voice:: Well, I'm living up to my name unintentionally, other than that no comment. ::huggle:: don't cry! I'm sorry for taking so long on this! ;_;

So thank you to my wonderful reviewers! Remember-- more reviews means.. well... not necessarily quicker updates all the time... but it means Sarah will think of updating more often and will hence get better ideas for her stories!

::pouts:: So you've gotta review if you want to be entertained rather than bored to death!

Nevermore
Chapter Four

**Last time...**

Her diabolic laugh grew from but small chuckling until it became very loud, "kukukuKUKUKU--"

The door to her room swung open and she immediately stopped cackling and dove into her plush chair.

"Um, ma'am... are you feeling all right?"

"Quite fine." she answered haughtily, flipping her hair over her shoulder, or rather trying to but alas she couldn't get it all over her shoulder so she simply gave up, vowing to cut it one day if it didn't make her look so 'swooky'.

"Uh...right, you're not going through one of your evil phases again are you ma'am?" the servant girl asked.

"Course not. Now go away, I don't require your company!" she said, shooing the girl away.

The girl left, closing the door behind her so finally the woman with the long hair stood again and finished her cackling. She spat at the door and added, "And I'm not evil in PHASES, but all the time. So there. Tomorrow... I visit Fabian and his newfound toys... and tonight... I try to take over the world!!!"

(::sings quietly:: Pinky and the Brain... yes, Pinky and the Brain. One is a genius the other's insane...)

The woman glared up at the ceiling, "I hear that you know! Damned authors think that just because they're in another dimension we can't hear them..." The woman 'tsk'ed and walked out of her bedroom.

*This time...*

It had been a whole entire day, yes... a whole 24 hours since I ate breakfast wearing only a blanket in the company of three beautiful people.

Adara giggled slightly as she continued whispering with Maaya, the only other female in the room, occasionally both girls would look up to spare a glance at Cyril and I then go right on and continue giggling. Usually this was after they had eaten something that a strange chef had made them....

And I say it was a strange chef because ever since this morning the food had begun to taste different, and it was a better change either... perhaps the old chef had died of over exertion? ...I mean that was a lot of food yesterday and the day before...

...I feel so guilty now!

Before I could ask Maaya (for I knew Cyril wouldn't even answer me) about the chef and when his funeral would be (for no one would FIRE such a good chef, so the cook indeed must have died), a woman with a rather large bun on top of her head (and her hair still reached to just below her as-- er.. backside) entered the room with a tray of snacks and other such necessities.

As I pulled one off the silver platter she caught my eye before walking out in one of those sashaying type of ways...

...she seemed so familiar. Hmm... I wonder who she might be--

I looked down at the chocolate covered cake and took a bite out of it only to find that it was actually filled with a sweet strawberry-flavored cream. As I was about to swallow, letting the cake-y goodness just melt in my mouth I noticed there was something hard and cold. Confused, I swallowed around it leaving just the hard, round thing. Was it a rock or something? Damn chef...wait a second... perhaps Cyril had hired a strange hitman as a chef and he was trying to kill me! Without sparing a glance at the person I suspected of trying to murder me I reached into my mouth and pulled the thing out, only to find it was a ring. An expensive ring.... One that I had bought myself a long time ago.

"Oh shit..."

As if on cue, the servant with the long back hair and bun walked into the room, "Did you find everything... satisfactory?" she asked, pausing and looking at me just as she said the last word.

I jumped up in my seat, there was definitely no question about it this time. I recognized her, "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Maaya looked over to me, here pretty eyes wide in disbelief as she blinked at me, "F-Fabian!"

Adara seemed equally as confused, as did Cyril-- so that ruled out him inviting this crazy wench into his (well, his father's) home. "Fabian what's gotten into you? Are you feeling all right?" the elf asked, tilting her head to the side.

The woman cackled, pressing the pads of her fingers next to her mouth as her laughter grew slowly in pitch before everyone in the room averted their attention from me to her, which didn't take too long.

"Fabian! It seems you have picked out your new victims..." she said, advancing on me simultaneously releasing her hair from it's bun so it touched the ground now. Apparently she had grown out her hair even more since I had last seen her...

Maaya gasped and stood up, "Y-You cannot speak to my-- our guest in that way! I'm afraid I have to ask you to resign your positio--" Maaya abruptly sat back down as the dark-haired woman glared at her.

"I don't even work here you feeble-minded half-wit!" she muttered angrily, "Now, Fabian..." her voice changed to a tone that sounded like a strange sort of coo but since I really hated this girl now it reminded me more of a sort of strangled bird... "Don't you love me anymore?"

"Is that why you came back here?" I asked rolling my eyes heavenward before shaking my head at the stupidity of such a question, I had told her time and time again that I never wanted to see her again.

"No." She answered with a light shrug, "Just wondering if you would change your mind after seeing my stifling beauty once more." There was no doubt about that, she was indeed beautiful.. but I had been the one to taint her-- to cause her to lose her mind you could say.

Afterall, she WAS an angel. Was being the keyword-- hence the reason it was capitalized-- but she sacrificed it all for me. And now this was what was left of her... a shell of her old kindness... replaced by a sort of contempt, malicious, vane, quirkiness.

She licked her lips and moved closer to where I was seated and I simply looked up at her, "Fabian..." she whined, "why can't we be the way we--"

"I believe my sister told you to get out." Cyril's voice came from the other side of the room where I had forgotten he was standing. His expression was serious with a hint of anger.

She 'hmm'ed and stopped stooping over me-- and I tried to indiscreetly move my chair away-- a moment to look at Cyril. A smile formed on her face, a strange smile that caused me to wonder exactly what she was up to, "Only... if you can guess my name. You have three chances."

Cyril blinked at her, "Jennifer."

"Definitely not."

I opened my mouth to speak and she threw a pillow that was on the couch next to her at me, "You cannot help them you evil, putrid, conniving, sleazy, bastardous, handsome little devil you..."

"Bastardous?" I questioned blinking, was that even a word...?

"Nope! That's not my name either, one more guess." she answered happily.

'Cheap!' I thought to myself, being smart enough this time not to say it out loud otherwise we'd be put into the worst hell imaginable... living with her. I shuddered. Her real name was--

"Rumplestiltskin [1]!" Adara and Maaya cried out in unison.

...Shit.

Now they'd done it...

The long-haired one blinked and looked at the two girls, opening her mouth to speak, "...How did you know?"

"Really?" Adara asked confused, apparently it had been Maaya's idea and she had just gone along with it.

"No." She replied and cackled at the girl's anger.

"So tell us your name, and then we'll remove you by force." Cyril said sneering at her.

"Amikiri [2], I think--"

"Oh how wonderful my name sounds coming from your lips once more! Say it again Fabian!" she cried, throwing herself at me. Before I even blinked once she had her arms wrapped around my neck and her eyes closed.

At my long silence she opened her eyes and looked at me sadly, "Why don't you love me anymore Fabian?" she asked softly, having one of her ever elusive mood swings, "That's all I want to know..."

And I almost said something I would be sure to regret, something that would probably have ended up inevitably in us getting back together-- but thank the Gods (and I'm not one to usually thank them mind you [3]) that Cyril came to my rescue. And I'm still puzzled why he did it-- he shouldn't have even cared about the conversation Ami-chan and I were having.

"I think the real question is..." Cyril started, drawing everyone's attention to him-- he had a weird sort of emotion smoldering in his eyes. And I say weird because even I couldn't tell what it was... and that's saying something. Really it is. "...how many times a day do you have to wash your hair?" he asked motioning to the long strands that were always dragging on the floor.

I sweatdropped, it certainly wasn't the sort of question I had been expecting.

Ami-chan sniffled, "That isn't nice boy! Though I like your feistiness..." she added as an afterthought, she sat up from my lap and made her way over to Cyril-- getting very close to him, as she looked down into his eyes... after all she was barely shorter than me-- 6' even or something. Scary, huh?

I heard a sort of squeal from her as she smiled and held her hands to her chest happily as if to "calm her racing heart", "Fabian!" she said, turning on her heal and almost tripping on her hair, "I am over you!"

Happy happy day! I could have squealed with excitement myself... but that'd be rather embarassing.

"I'm in love with Cyril!!" she cried out with a broad smile.

...Feck.[4] Could it get any worse?

"I'm staying in the guest room from now on, Maaya I do hope you forgive me rudeness and I hope we can be friends seeing as I will beging courting your brother tomorrow. Adara... what can I say? You're a cute girl [5]."

All right... now I know not to ponder if it can get worse... it always, always can.

Amikiri left the room, leaving four very quiet people in her wake.

And all at once we spoke at the same time, causing our sentences to jumble:

(Maaya) "She seems nice." (Adara) "A bit strange..." (Cyril) "I don't like her" and (Me) "Does this mean we get the old chef back?"

Maaya giggled, "Come on Adara! Let's get better acquainted with my future sister-in-law!" she all but dragged the elven girl out the door-- chair and all- but the redhead had the sense to standup just before the door was slammed behind her.

... 'Future sister-in-law!? Whose side was she on anyway?' Not that she knew I was after her brother or anything... I think if she ever found out about that her innocent heart would have a heart attack of some sort [6]...

Awkward silence...

"So, Cyril... what do you think of your future wife?" I teased.

He looked at me with his glare that I had seen now over one hundred times, "I love her." he said simply.

I blinked, "Eh.. what?" Surely I didn't hear him right...

"I. Love. Her." he enunciated.

Again the blank look from me. But he couldn't love her-- he didn't even know her! He said just a few seconds ago he didn't like her! How could he fall in love with her in such a short time AWAY from her--

That was of course when I dropped my stupid gullibleness and took notice to the fact that Cyril was smirking slightly, little bastard had been tricking me..!

I growled slightly and folded my arms across my chest in that 'Grr-I-wish-I-could-strangle-you-too-bad-your-royalty-and-they'd-kill-me-for-it' kind of stance.

"Well, Fabian... I think I've come to a conclusion."

"Oh? What conclusion would that be?" I asked raising an eyebrow at the younger.

He stood on the bull of his feet [7] and planted an innocent sort of kiss (more like a peck-- the cheapskate!) to my lips. "I've decided to see how far you'll have to go to try and get me to fall in love with you." he said with the same sort of smirk as he had on earlier before he left the room, leaving me all by myself.

....

SCORE!

I chuckled quietly, it seems I had intrigued him afterall... despite all my previous doubts.

Me: 2, and Cyril: ... ah... please don't spoil my moment. I'll rake in the points later and then show off when I have more than him.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
To be continued in chapter five...

[1] I do not own Rumplestiltskin-- nor do I even know if I spelled it right ::blinku::
[2] Amikiri: Ah-mEE-kEE-rEE. I do not think there is a name like this.. but if there is I don't know what it means ^^;
[3] Well he is a Demon ^_^;
[4] Sarah thinks f*ck is a vulgar word, and only to be used in kinky situations. ^_^; therefore she prefers using feck or something silly like that =n_n=
[5] No, Amikiri is not hitting on Adara-- cute as in sweet.
[6] Little does he know (dun dun duun)
[7] What most people refer to as tippy-toeing but the bull (no not the animal) is right below the toes...