Strings Of Fate & Falling

Roxanne pouted, folding her arms, as she just stayed on the raft, lying down to look up at the sky. "Typical." she said sternly.

Kieko grunted as he stumbled out of the bushes, finally giving the girls the slip. He groaned as he shook his head, heading for the garden out of sight of Roxanne so it wasn't obvious. "Ugh...not cool." he grumbled before he eventually reached the garden.

"Sorry about that kieko. I owe you big time though " max said as he walked over and pulled the lever openig the gardens entrance

Kieko pulled a face for a split second before he shook it off. "Yeah. You do." he said simply before he followed Max inside, brushing himself off as he had bits of leaf and twigs in his hair. He sighed when he picked the final twig out of his fur.

Max sighed. The garden didn't change but that was good it was still peaceful. "Alright ruby gave us a plan on how she thinks roxy would like her sixteenth birthday. And I offered to having here in the garden problem is roxy likes to come here often so someone has to stand guard up here to keep her out

"And I'm guessing that someone would be me?" he asked, looking to him and folding his arms as he looked around. He was right though, she could come back at any moment. And Kieko and Max both knew how fond she was of this place.

"Only if you want to.and it's only after we start to put up decorations. I'm bringing ruby and my family up here to get started. We'll take turned guardin the garden and distracting roxy. We need to keep her away from here as much as possible as much as I hate to say it" max looked around. "But I'm betting she would love this place to be where he surprise party takes place.

Kieko nodded, processing everything. "I see. I'll be on watch first then." he said before he stepped further in, possibly imagining where the different decorations could go. He smiled. "Yeah...I can already tell she'll love it." he said.

Well I'll send you a mental message after I bring everyone else's up here to set up. Right now I want you to find roxy and keep her occupied" he said. "I need to go get ruby" he said runnin out

"Right." Kieko nodded before he headed back to the lake where he last saw her. He hoped she was still there and as he sprinted, jumping from tree to tree, he sighed in relief as she was still lying on the raft floating in the middle of the lake.

With a smirk, he leapt over and stood above her.

Roxanne stirred when she felt eyes on her. She suddenly jumped. "Argh!" she yelped, surprised at his presence.

"Calm down, Roxy, you'll capsize us." Kieko chuckled, before sitting down next to her.

"Well don't sneak up on me like that then!" she pouted.

Kieko merely grinned, looking into her eyes as they started talking just like that.

'I know what your thinking kieko. Get it out of your head and focus'

~

Max ran and knocked on ruby's door. "Coast is clear ruby"

'I am focused. I'm doing my part aren't I? Keeping Roxy away.' Kieko thought, frowning.

~

Ruby peeked her head out before sniggering. "I love all this sneaking around, it makes that much more exciting." She grinned, closing the door as she had a bag of decorations.

Max smiled. "Alright I'll show you where it is" he said leaving her towards the tree. "This is actually where I met roxy" he muttered and he pulled the lever

Ruby watched in astonishment as the door revealed the garden to her wide eyes. She gasped as she entered, looking around. "So this is where you two spend most of your time. Its beautiful and...so peaceful." She said cheerily, looking to him. "You did all this didn't you sweetie?"

"Ya. When I found it it was nothing more than a plant graveyard." Max said. But after a few weeks of work the life came back to this place. Roxy just loves it here. It's a santuary for her and I" he said smiling. "I've kept it a secret for years

Ruby grinned at him. "So of course this would be the perfect place to hold her party." She said, glancing around again as she admired his work. "Its always nice to have a secret spot where you get to spend endless hours with the person you love." Ruby said quietly.

Max sighed. "Ya well lately it's between me and kieko fighting over her. I'm starting to get sick of kieko butting in on her" max growled. "I know I want to keep kieko as a friend but if this keeps up I don know what I'd do"

Ruby smirked, a hand on her hip. "My, my. My daughter has quite the attention." She snorted, before putting on a serious face. "These are not my words of wisdom as a mother, but before it manages to get that bad, you two need to come to some mutual understanding, for the sake of your friendship. Plus, truthfully, it all comes down to who she chooses in the end." She said, looking at him.

Max sighed. "At this point it's up to her. There's no standin point to talk to kieko about this and there's no way it won't break into a fight...." He sighed lookin up. "I have to tell my parents to come here then I'll switch places with kieko to distract roxy.... Her birthday is tomorrow. And I still need to figure out what I'm getting her." He said as he walked up. Ruby told them to make roxy hung her birthday was in a couple days. Well a few kisses later and it actually worked. 'All I have todo is get my parents and then we switch kieko'

Ruby nodded. "I understand." She said quietly before detecting something in his voice. Of course she heard the fear that Roxy wouldn't choose him. So she felt the need to give him a lift, as he was already like a son to her. "Don't get wrong, I'm incredibly fond of Kieko too, but I just don't think, he's the one, you know. Ever since you two met, I've never seen her more alive." She said quietly, before wandering off further into the garden.

Max smiled. "Thanks ruby." He said running down.

Later Leorik and Lenora came down. "Ruby you down here's ringtail" Leorik shouted

~

Max walked towards where kieko left Roxanne. "Roxy?" He looked around. "Where are you?"

Ruby grinned. "Yeah, yeah, come on slowpokes, we have work to do!" She chuckled.

~

Kieko was sitting on the floating raft in the middle of the lake as Roxanne's head rested on his lap as she hummed tiredly. Obviously the rafting had tired her out after all. The boat moved over the water gently as Kieko leaned down to kiss her forehead, a soft sigh coming from her in response.

Max growled stream coming out of his ears. 'Kieko! Time to switch' his thought hit kieko's mind like a jackhammer

Kieko winced as Max's thought was loud in his mind. He sighed; standing up and looking down to gently stroke her head before he leapt off, tree to tree on his way back to the garden.

Max walked the edge of the bank. He used his flames to gently float onto the raft. She looked like she was asleep. "Roxy? You awake?" He said gettin kinda close to see if she was asleep or just faking.

She actually seemed like she was asleep as she snored quietly, curled in on herself like she used to years ago. She looked so small this way as she breathed slowly and quietly.