Relax... by any means necessary!

[Zeke Omoihake]

On one of many days before the Sumata and Heroes would clash in their last great battle, Zeke tiptoed through the hallways of Solar Castle. Slipping past the many guards on their routine patrol he arrived in the audience chamber where he knew Alex was no doubt sitting and pondering. It was something that the young king of Santo Luce had been doing for days now, almost as long since he'd declared his kingdom free from the Sumata's control.

Zeke poked his head in slowly through the small slit he created between the two doors, checking to see his friend was indeed slumped stubbornly put in his regal chair. With a quick nod of his head he ducked inside the room, and as if perfectly timed Holmes came around the corner and stood infront of the door, watching in his usual strict and stuffy posture.

"Alex! How's everything going?" Zeke called out cheerily as he approached the throne, his lips curved into a coy little smile.

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander glanced over to Zeke, cheek cupped in his hand as he leaned on the armrest of his chair. His usual cheerful air automatically put a small smile on Alexander's face.

"Zeke. I've been quite busy, you know. Sitting, thinking, waiting--you know, the usual," he removed his head from his hands and sat up straight as Zeke approached, "sometimes I almost wish I was a carefree prince again. I didn't have too many responsibilities back then--or rather, ones that if I neglected had detrimental effects on my kingdom. How have you been?"

[Zeke Omoihake]

"I've been good Alex." Zeke bounded cheerily up to the throne. "And it's funny that you should mention that wish, because it's about to be granted. You've been too grim and gloomy for too long Alex and you need a day off. Hero's orders." His smile only grew as he teased the blond king.

His brush movedbehind Alex and began to go to work, sketching out long lines as it slowly made out a human silhouette.

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander chuckled.

"That would be nice, Zeke, but it really can't be done," he tilted his head to the side, "I've got too much to worry about; you leave here to do your hero thing and I even worry about you sometimes. I've got a lot of things to do to make sure everyone around me remains safe in times like this afterall."

He tried to keep his smile a very genuine one, sorry to turn down his friend like he was and trying hard to be very polite and friendly as he said, "It's very nice you think of me, though."

[Zeke Omoihake]

"Now come on Alex, it's your job to ensure the well being and happiness of all of the citizens of Santo-Luce correct? Well, last time I checked the king of a kingdom is a citizen too, and you deserve that same treatment." Zeke nodded with self assurance.

"Besides, you seem to think that I'm giving you a choice in the matter. When i said Hero's orders, I meant Hero's orders. Now are you going to come along nicely, or do I have to drag you kicking and screaming to a good time?" Despite the harshness of his words, Zeke's expression and mannerisms showed he was more playing with Alexander than anything.

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander leaped out of his chair then, however not for the purpose of going out to spend the day having fun.

"Don't play that 'the king is a citizen' card on me, Zeke. You and I both know that when there's work to be done I have to do it regardless of how much there is," he said, knowing full well that when there wasn't a war going on he'd most likely procrastinate whatever work there actually was to be done as a king until Holmes dragged him in to do it.

He pulled out his small bible out of his pocket, holding it up as he announced, "What I really need to do is go work on the study of this thing, reciting and practicing spells and overall make my barrier protecting all of us stronger. It's nowhere near where I want it to be, yet."

[Zeke Omoihake]

Zeke gave a disapproving huff. "Don't you brush it off that easy Alex. You know as well as I do that you need a clear head to do stuff like that. You're overworked, and I'm not the only one that thinks so. I got Holmes' approval to do this in the first place, and if your nanny thinks you need a day off I don't think you get a say in it."

"Besides, I worked hard to get a replacement lined up for you. See, he's already filling in nicely." Zeke bobbed his head towards the throne, where a recreated form of Alex sat eerily still in the chair. "What do you think? Not as good as the original, but enough to fool any that might peak into the room."

[alexanderthegreat]

As Alexander looked behind him he jumped, nearly having a heart attack at the sight of his lifeless duplicate.

"W-what the--!? Zeke, it...augh!"

It looked very much like him, yes. It wasn't bad or anything, just really creepy. Alexander wanted to walk up and poke at it but was almost afraid to for fear that it might...eat him or...something.

He sighed loudly in defeat, turning his body towards Zeke but keeping an eye on the fake Alexander in the chair.

"...It looks like you've gone through a lot of trouble for me, Zeke. I'll never understand why you do, but it is very flattering and I thank you, aside from asking you what in the hell we'd be doing at all today...and that thing doesn't speak, does it?"

[Zeke Omoihake]

Zeke almost dropped to the floor laughing at Alex's reaction.

"Don't worry don't worry." Zeke managed to finally say as he rubbed a tear away from his eye. "It's just going to be a stand in for you while we have some fun. I've actually gotten pretty good at maintaining these as long as I only do one of them." Zeke stood there with a silly grin on his face. Truth was he could actually get it to speak and act a little, but he figured for Alex's own sanity he'd do well just to have it remain silent.

"Anyways, Holmes is with me on this one, so he's going to watch the door and deal with any minor problems while we have some fun! Now, where's your secret passageway out of here?" Zeke started moving along the wall, eagerly pushing against individual bricks and fiddling with ornaments in the room. "It's got to be around here somewhere..."

Of course, Zeke was in trope mode, wholly expecting Alex to have what every fantasy royal had in their throne room, even if he was totally wrong.

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander raised an eyebrow as he watched Zeke fiddle around with...everything in the throne room. At this rate they'd be just leaving after sundown, though it was oddly amusing to Alexander to watch Zeke try to find the assumed secret passageway.

With a smile he walked past Zeke and opened up the door in the far right corner of the room, leading out to a very narrow and empty hallway.

"You mean the door, here? It's pretty secret if you can keep quiet, move fast, and avoid being seen," he said with a chuckle. He'd take the lead on this one, he'd become a master of exiting the castle without much attention attracted to him afterall. He motioned for Zeke to follow and he slid along with very long, graceful and silent strides down the hallway.

At the end of the hall sat a small window, a tall bushy plant in front of it. Alexander peered for only a moment out of the window; below were bushes one storey down, conveniently all by a corner of the castle gardens that wasn't every heavily watched even in these times. He flashed Zeke a clever smile before very ungracefully leaping and falling out of the window into the bushes, a soft thud and rustling of leaves heard but nothing else.

[Zeke Omoihake]

Zeke blushed with embarrassment as Alex showed him to the obvious exit. Moving away from a bland looking wall he faked a confident smile. "Uh, right. I was just...hoping to see you get into this a bit more. Hehehe, yeah."

With that he followed Alex as stealthy as he could through the hallway. He kept himself low as his head flicked around nervously, thinking that anyone could come out from a corner or blind spot and catch them in the act.

Zeke let out a small gasp as he heard the thud of Alex landing after his leap. "Oh crap, Alex." He said softly before he leapt after his friend to see how he was. It was immediately in hindsight that Zeke realized an extra minute to sketch a pair of arms might have made the whole thing work a lot better. Leaping up to the rail his foot caught the sill, and without anyway to balance Zeke tumbled down into the bushes.

Right on top of Alex.

Sitting up as he straddled Alex it was as if his brain went dead. His only instinct was to bang his head on the closest hard surface, but as that would have only resulted if head-butting his kingly buddy he could only sit stunned. After what felt like an eternity(be it for one reason or another) something finally clicked.

"Hey look Alex...no hands." He said sheepishly, hoping he'd get a laugh out of his goof up.

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander hadn't landed in the best way possible, though he certainly didn't wind up hurting himself either. The first time he definitely did but of course that was back when he was like, fifteen years old.
Nope. Nowadays Alexander was way more experienced. Knew how to fall on his head well enough without breaking anything.

He was just getting up when he noticed a quickly approaching shadow right above him; he barely had enough time to tilt his head upwards to look when Zeke fell on top of him.
Okay, now he was hurting a little. Thankfully not enough to complain for long, not that the king could find it in him to do so as he looked up in shock at Zeke sitting on him.

And stared.

Really, he was waiting for him to do something. Anything. "Oops" or freak out and have them get caught or roll off of him immediately or something. In the silence Alexander actually seemed to become a little flustered, something about this seemed awkward enough that he was almost reduced to a shy, giggly schoolgirl.

Which was not cool. He was happy that Zeke broke the silence finally. Alexander only too easily smiled; it seemed to had been itching at the sides of his mouth the whole time, he'd been afraid to smile in case it looked...well, creepy. At least now he had a real legitimate reason to let it out though he couldn't quite figure out what made him want to grin like an idiot to begin with.

"Cute, Zeke. Let me know before you leap next time though, I don't want you to get hurt or something," he threw in a chuckle, "I know you can look after yourself but you still don't have arms to help break your fall. I suppose it's a good thing I was here."

[Zeke Omoihake]

"Oh, uh yeah right. Silly me." Zeke grinned as rolled off and up to his feet. He stood still as his brush drew up a pair of arms for him to actually do something with, of which the first was to poke Alex where he had landed. "I...didn't hurt you did I?" His eyes looked up with shy worry.

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander shook his head, brushing himself off and standing up. He tried to shrug off the pain and just carry on, acting like nothing had even happened.

"No, not at a--owww," well, until Zeke poked him. He quickly grabbed Zeke's hand to prevent him from poking into his sides further and forced a huge grin, still trying to hide the cringing his face was doing.

"...A-as I was saying, not at all! You didn't get hurt, did you?" Alexander thought it best to try to turn the question around on the other young man as he looked towards the castle garden's wall...their last obstacle to freedom. Assuming they [the servants] hadn't found it by now, there'd be a hole at the bottom of it that they could climb under and out to the other side.

"Either way we should get moving. To the wall, tall bushes, hole to climb through," Alexander added in with a wink, letting Zeke's hand slip out of his and sprinting off to their 'escape hole'.

[Zeke Omoihake]

Zeke stood in a daze when Alex grabbed his hand. Though he heard everything that was said he was drawn in by the feeling of his artificial hand against Alex's. Though it was not unusual for him to notice the texture and heat of another with his creations, there was something that felt different this time.

When he let go to lead them through their final hurdle Zeke snapped back to attention and moved with stealth till they reached the thick brush that covered the wall. Slipping down low Zeke pulled aside a few of the bushes as he looked for their escape.

Thinking he wasn't going to find it at all after a couple minutes Zeke pushed one last bush out of his way and gave a weighty gulp. At the base of the wall was a patched bit of stone work that went about 2x2 feet in size. He could tell by the relative amount of wear on the bricks that they had been put in not too long ago.

"Alex, I think your secret path might have gotten found out." Zeke turned to his friend with a discouraging frown upon his face.