Elijah had actually enjoyed lunch. They hadn't talked much - Kiseki seemed to prefer demonstrating to speaking - but it had been fun. Kiseki had even consented to share a doughnut with him, though this was performed with such pageantry that Kiseki had ended up breathing in cinnamon, and had spent the next few minutes sneezing. Elijah had been rather amused.

Afterwards, Elijah rang the bell again, and the page came to take the tray away. As he was about to shut the door, Elijah paused, and then stuck his head out again. The page peered at him questioningly.

"Um... am I supposed to be somewhere any time soon? Is there a timetable of scheduled events?" Connor may have sent him somewhere that he thought would be fun, but he couldn't imagine Iris agreeing unless there was some kind of unpleasantness that suspiciously resembled physiotherapy scheduled in somewhere.

The page goggled at him, and shook his head. "No, Sir. No timetable."

"Well then, what am I supposed to be doing here? Am I supposed to use the equipment in my room, or what?"

Elijah observed the page's sudden flush, and wondered what had provoked it. "Well... you can do whatever you like, Sir."

"What do you mean, whatever I like?"

The page went even redder. "Well... I mean... you can go anywhere you like within the Palace and the Palace gardens. You're free to use any of the facilities that we have here. If there's anything you need, you can order it and it will be brought up as soon as possible. And while you're in your room... um... your Key will tend to your every need."

His key? Elijah patted his pocket where the key still resided.

"My key?"

"Yes, Sir."

"So... all I have to do is show my key to get whatever I want?"

"Oh, no, Sir. You don't have to show it. Your Key will take care of it."

Elijah blinked in complete non-comprehension, having visions of inanimate Keys carrying buckets of water into his room. No, that was brooms, he reminded himself, and he was definitely not Mickey Mouse.

"I'm going to go back in now," Elijah informed the page.

The page nodded at him sagely. "Yes, Sir."

Elijah withdrew his head, thought of something, and then peered around the doorframe again. He noticed the page was still looking at him somewhat oddly.

Elijah lowered his voice. "Hey, do you know why he's here?"

The page blinked at him, puzzled. "Who do you mean, Sir?"

"Kiseki -- why is he here? There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him."

The page appeared offended at the very idea. "Of course there isn't, Sir!"

"So... why is he here at the Palace?"

The page seemed confused by the question. "He's a Key."

"A key?"

The page nodded, as if this should be self-evident.

Elijah decided he must have misheard. "You mean... he has a key? Like mine?" He dug into his pocket for his key, displaying it to the page.

"Oh no, the Keys don't have keys, Sir!"

Elijah felt a headache coming on. "Are all the people here peculiar, or is it just me?"

The page didn't seem to know how to answer that, and Elijah waved a hand, indicating that it was a rhetorical question. "Thankyou for your help," he said, and withdrew into his room once again.

"That guy is seriously weird," the page muttered to himself.

In the evening, Elijah re-packed his suitcases. He now understood why Kiseki was still whipcord-thin; he never stopped moving. He prowled the room, stopping to sit for a perhaps a few moments, then jumping up to dangle from one of the bolts in the wall, then climbing up the ladder to peer down on Elijah from above. Then he dropped to the floor and flopped into a large beanbag, poking and prodding it to make the beans squeak.

Elijah wondered how much of this he could take before he truly went around the bed.

He gave up on the book he had been trying to read. "How about we play a game or something?"

Kiseki's face lit up as though it was Christmas.

He was a quick study, Elijah would give him that. He mastered all of the simple card games that Elijah could remember how to play, and managed to beat him at least half the time, if not more. Eventually, Kiseki's mind began to wander, but by then, it was time for dinner, so Elijah called a draw and Kiseki was too busy turning his hand into a card house to object.

For dinner, Elijah had fried rice with snowpeas, bits of fried egg, and squares of bacon in it. Kiseki had fish and chips. During the meal, Kiseki kept trying to steal bits of bacon while Elijah wasn't looking. Elijah, meanwhile, retaliated by taking a chip for every time Kiseki was caught.

Elijah thought back on how miserable he was just this morning, and was surprised at the fact that although he still didn't want to be here, his smiles were genuine. The place itself didn't seem to be too bad. Good service, at the very least. And his room mate? Well, Kiseki was tolerable, for the moment.

He was still going to hang, draw and quarter Connor, though, when he got a hold of him.

Kiseki yawned widely, revealing pointed incisors.

"Time to sleep?" Elijah asked.

Kiseki nodded.

Elijah looked nervously to the bed. "Do you think there are any spare blankets around here? I'm happy to sleep on the couch if you want the bed."

Kiseki looked at him as if he needed his head examined. "No couch! We share bed!"

Elijah flicked another glance to the bed uncertainly. "Well... I guess it's big enough... if we stay over our own sides..."

He dragged his pajamas from his suitcase and changed in the bathroom while sitting on the toilet. It was a useful trick he had perfected, after a fall while dressing had left him with a scar and seven neat little stitchmarks now hidden by his hair. He filled a glass with water and downed his nightly tablets.

When Elijah came out of the bathroom, Kiseki was sitting on the bed, completely naked.

Elijah turned around so quickly that he lost his balance, and had to grab at the doorframe to keep upright. "Sorry! I thought you'd have finished changing."

"Kiseki finished."

Elijah turned this over in his head. Oh. "Um... I think perhaps... if we're sharing the bed, we should both wear underwear, at the very least."

"Kiseki has no underwear!"

Elijah massaged one temple, and tried to forget the statement he'd just heard. "Well, you can borrow some of mine, if you like." There was no response, and he couldn't tell whether the silence meant consent, or rejection of his idea. "I have boxers with pictures on them," he added hopefully.

"Ok!" Kiseki declared. Elijah carefully avoided looking at the naked boy as he made his way around the bed. He was getting tired, and his limp was getting more pronounced. He chose three different pairs and left them on the end of the bed, sitting down on the arm of the couch to wait while Kiseki changed.

"Boxers on!"

Elijah pushed himself upright and turned to find Kiseki standing by the bed, proudly displaying himself for Elijah's approval. He'd chosen the pair of black boxers with cute little angels all over it, each with halo and feathery white wings. There was only one little figure that was different: a cheeky-looking devil, with horns and a wicked grin, placed to sit just below Kiseki's left hipbone. Connor had given the boxers to Elijah for his birthday.

Elijah stared, deciding that they looked much better on Kiseki than they did on him. He wore them low-slung, presumably to accommodate his tail at the back, and Elijah's eyes followed the soft trail of dusky hair from the waistband up to his navel. Kiseki may have been short, but there was nothing child-like about his body. He was lean and lithe, his muscles roped beneath coppery skin.

Elijah realised he was standing there checking out his mostly-naked roommate and flushed. "Well, at least they fit," he said as he grabbed the other two pairs of boxers and threw them back towards his suitcases. Kiseki flopped down onto the bed, making it bounce, and squirmed until he was underneath the covers. Elijah slid in on the other side. The bed was firm, which was the way he liked it.

Kiseki flicked his bedside lamp off, and Elijah did the same. The room was dark, but he could still make out the shapes of furniture and equipment.

"Good night," Kiseki said, in a small voice.

It had been a while since anybody had wished him good night.

"Good night, Kiseki," Elijah replied.

Some time during the night, Elijah swam towards the surface of sleep, but without quite leaving its comforting haze. He thought he felt a warm body curled around his, solid against his back, an arm around his chest. It occurred to him that he should say something, but he couldn't quite bring himself to speak. Instead, he sank back down into darkness.

When he awoke in the morning, Kiseki was lying well away from him, his head and one arm hanging off the edge of the bed, and Elijah dismissed it as a dream.