Equinox!

The two kept a calm disposition as Raldin entered the room again and moved over to the desk they were currently hiding beneath. The suspense was killing them as the Vice Captain etched closer and closer to the desk and even Raten's breathing was becoming unsteady. 'We're so screwed. We're so screwed.' The two thought over and over again while trying their hardest to stay silent.

Raldin's footsteps became like a clock ticking to their doom. It was as if they could hear every possible sound and it was all in slow motion. The slight creaking of the wooden floor, the sound of Heart Members conversing outside and the sound of Raldin's steady breathing.

'Annie isn't worth being kicked out of the Heart for unauthorized trespassing.' Sky thought, regretting his decision of formulating this deal with the other.

'This little punk. I don't know how the hell he talked me into this.' The two were beginning to turn on each other as they waited for their end.

Raldin finally arrived at the desk and he raised his hand. 'Is he going to break the desk on us?' The two were in horror as the hand went down, reflecting in their eyes.

"I knew it!" The Vice Captain spoke as he... picked up a document on the stack of papers. "It must have fallen under my desk." Raldin was missing a paper so he turned for the door and headed outside the room, closing the door behind him.

'Phew.' The two breathed out, feeling relieved. Raten threw a small needle at the edge of the door so Raldin didn't completely close the door on them.

"Hah!" Sky deactivated his camouflage ability and the two began to search the place. "That was incredibly lucky," He remarked, checking the walls for any hidden corners.

"Tell me about it." Raten looked through the bookshelf. This office was modeled the same way as Raldin's office with some artistic differences here and there. He lifted each book, hoping to see some kind of hidden area being revealed to them but no such thing happened.

"I found something," Sky announced, pointing at a red, smoothened crystal that was hidden by a fake cover on the wall. He pressed on it without thinking twice about it but nothing happened.

Raten continued inspecting his area until he found a hidden blue crystal as well by the edge of the bookshelf. Like Sky, he pressed on it but nothing happened either.

"Why don't they work?!" He complained quietly. They tried tapping them at the same time but still nothing. He grew frustrated while Sky began to deliberate. The latter looked over to see framed paintings of the three medallion rankings. Yellow, Blue and Red which signified Vice Captain, Captain and the Heart's General respectively.

But there were more than three, there were seven in fact and in different orders: Yellow, Yellow, Blue, Red, Blue, Red, Yellow. Quite odd. "Hey!" He grabbed Raten's attention. "Have you come across a yellow crystal by chance?" Raten realized that he was onto something and began to intensively search the room. A minute later, he came across a third yellow crystal in the centre of the office.

"Maybe this is some kind of code. Let's try it." Since there were three buttons and in seperate sections of the room, they couldn't press them all at the same time. So, Raten formed a blunted, metal taper which he placed floating next to the newest crystal.

"Yellow. Yellow. Blue."

"Red."

"Blue."

"Red."

"Yellow." They executed it perfectly but nothing happened. Raten grunted, slamming against the bookshelf and propelled some of the books in it to fall out as well as a few items.

"Hey! Careful! Some of these are valuable and we can't leave a trace, remember?" Sky said, almost exasperated as he picked up the books and then a mirror that had fallen out as well. It was a surprise to him that it hadn't broken. He looked into it, admiring his own reflection for a moment like the haughty Noble he was. But on closer inspection, he noticed something had made it's way into the reflection.

"I got it!" The dark-blue-haired noble held onto the mirror as he moved over to the other's position. Raten simply followed him and got himself ready for what else the other had figured out. "It's inverted. We do the order backwards!"

"Yellow."

"Red."

"Blue."

"Red."

"Blue. Yellow. Yellow."

The sound of twisting and turning came from a part of the room and they turned their attention to the desk. Before their eyes, the desk mechanically moved over to the side, revealing a hidden compartment on the wall which had a small set of weapons hanging on the wall with different lengthed and shaped supports for the weapon they anchored.

There were at least nine weapons and one of them included Raten's sword. The one with the demon hand's hilt and a crystalline, unsullied blade. He grabbed it at once, feeling one with it before metal from his container dragged it into the container until it was gone. To him, it was one of the most natural feelings in the world.

He also saw a black staff that he liked and on a whim, decided to take it as well. "Let's go!" Raten stated, reading to get the hell out of there while their luck was still good. But he found himself unable to. Looking down, he realized that his slacks had been caught on a nail on the ground.

"What's wrong?" Sky asked, seeing that he hadn't moved an inch. At that moment, Raten felt a significant amount of emotion other than anger or irritation. He wanted to the ground to swallow him up and never spit him out. With a blush, he answered.

"My trousers are stuck."

Sky stifled a laugh, worsening the other's reddish cheeks. He tried to get Raten's cloth off the nail.

"Pull harder."

"Don't blame me. I'm pulling as hard as I can. It's not my fault you got yourself stuck."

"Well, I'm not the one who made trousers made of a material akin to concrete." Although the clothing granted to him was smooth to the touch, it would harden when he was in motion, however, it didn't cause him any discomfort.

It was that same peculiarity that didn't allow the fabric to be ripped so easily.

"What is up with this nail, anyway?" Sky wondered in a mix of anger and fatigue from trying.

The nail was a tough one and until Raten could recall how, he was unable to bend other metals. Meanwhile, as if their luck had run out and like clockwork, a Heart Member was making their way to the office with a document given to him by the Vice Captain to keep.

"Aha!" They freed Raten at last, leaving a piece of material behind while rushing and pressing the code in reverse, closing up the clandestine inventory of weapons.

"Let's go." The moment the Heart Member went through, Raten and Sky passed by him at their fastest in a streak, freaking him out with the large gust of wind that accompanied since he hadn't seen them.

Promptly, he reported to Raldin about the strange anomaly. The latter wondered why the Heart Member would report such a thing but after some consideration, he made his way to the office. He ordered him to leave as he unveiled a purple crystal which when he pushed on, played the past events of what happened in the room.

'Is that all? He wanted his sword back and a staff. That's nothing to report. That sword is mostly useless and it's not even made from Element Ore.' Raldin thought to himself. "I can let that slide for the Noble as well."

Raten and Sky were relieved that they hadn't been caught. At that point, Sky didn't even remind the other of their deal because he was over the idea.

"Well, see ya' never." Sky hopped off.

They didn't know it but that day, a bond formed between them.