For a few days, all was quiet in the Sunshine household. Well, as quiet as such a chaotic mess of a place can get-- which, I assure you, is not very quiet at all. Anyways.

  Some random day at some random time, Sarah decided to go outside, because she is not some chronically online person who hasn't touched grass in three centuries. And, to her ever and unending surprise, Fandaniel was standing rather ominously in the corner of her yard. 

  She blinked once and stalked over to confront him. "Good sir," she addressed him, making it sound as though he was not, in fact, a 'good sir' at all, "what in the actual flip-flop are you doing on my lawn?"

  Fandaniel looked startled, almost as if he hadn't noticed her. Sarah narrowed her eyes at him, and he smiled almost...sheepishly? What? "My sincerest apologies. 'Tis only that I most desperately need to speak with Melody. Is she here at present?" he inquired. 

  "No. Leave."

  That was totally and completely a lie. Melody was, in all truthfulness, here, and very happy not being bothered by some guy who should have been dead but was not.

  Sarah turned and walked back to the house, Fandaniel following her the whole way, pleading, begging for her to allow him to see Melody. She slammed the door in his face. Of course, that only resulted in him teleporting into the house. The disrespect.

  Fandaniel flashed her the most innocent smile ever, then beelined straight for Melody's exact location. Sarah followed him.  She watched as he whipped out a sorry excuse of a bouquet of withered, half-dead flowers and presented them to Melody. 

  "Ever since our first meeting, your beautiful countenance is the only thing I have had the ability to think of. I simply had to see you again!" 

  Melody looked up from the sketch of whatever she'd been doing. "What?"

  His expression of utter adoration faded. "Do you reject me? Oh, please, do not turn me away, I beg of you! I could not bear the pain!" And he clutched at his heart dramatically. 

  Sarah rolled her eyes. "You cannot be serious." 

  It took a moment for Melody to fully comprehend what was even happening. She stared blankly at Fandaniel for a moment, then instead of responding, ran out of the room. Quite speedily.

  Fandaniel watched her leave, his expression ever so heartbroken and desolate. He looked as though his whole world had come crashing down around him, leaving him only with a pitiful pile of shattered hopes and dreams in shards that were much too small to ever put back together again.

  Understandably, Sarah was disgusted and somewhat disturbed by this extremely uncharacteristic behaviour. She left. Fandaniel was now alone to wallow in his eternal disappointment.

  Melody, meanwhile, had locked herself in her bedroom. She was sitting with her back up against the door, what Fandaniel told had left her aghast and confused. In her thoughts she kept on stressing about what she should do. Melody ended up deciding that she'd just lie to him. She didn't want to hurt his feelings, and in her mind lying was the best option in this situation. So once she recovered she got up, walked through the hallway and back to the living room. Melody slowed down once she reached the doorway and eventually stopped.

  Fandaniel stood next to the couch with his back facing Melody, his head hanging down pathetically and the flowers he once held in his hand were now on the floor.

  Seeing this made Melody feel sorry for him. "Hey," she said to him, so quietly it was almost inaudible.

  Fandaniel turned around and looked at her, and he said nothing at all. He just stared into her soul blankly. It was almost scary.

  Melody walked over to Fandaniel and looked up at him. She only now realized how deathly pale he was. "When I first saw you I wondered why in the world your hair looked so shiny. I now realize..." She stopped for a moment just to stare into his dark grey eyes that looked almost black. "I love you too." She felt incredibly guilty. 

  A huge smile spread across his face and he quickly bent down and scooped up the bouquet of withered flowers to hand it to her once more. "Truly? Oh, what bliss the sound of those words falling from your lips gives me! Such a gift is priceless, but I shall ever and always be attempting to make this up to you. I shall be your eternal servant!" he stated, bowing low in a gesture of intense gratitude. 

  Melody didn't know what to say; she literally did not know how to respond to something like that. Fortunately for her, Sarah walked in once again, a thick slice of bread clenched between her teeth.

"What in the what is going on now?!" It was almost impossible to understand what she was saying.

Melody tilted her head at Sarah in confusion. "What?"

  Instead of repeating herself, she paused and gestured wildly at Melody, at Fandaniel, at the whole situation itself, her expression saying something along the lines of "Mind explaining this?"

"Well, it's hard to explain... I honestly don't really know myself--" Melody replied, glancing down at the bouquet of flowers Fandaniel had given to her that she now held in her hands.

Sarah removed the bread from her mouth and stared at the other two, eyebrows raised. She seemed to be appraising the situation and coming to a conclusion of what had happened. "He gave you dead flowers."

"It's the thought that counts!" Melody exclaimed, now trying to defend Fandaniel. She believed that he was just trying to be nice, but perhaps he doesn't exactly know how...

  "Okay, then here's my thoughts: what happened to make you not a maniac who wants the whole universe to die?" Sarah demanded of Fandaniel. 

  He simply gazed at Melody. "I have decided that there is some good in this world after all," was his response.

  "First of all, ew; second, how is anything ever supposed to happen if all the insane people are doing this? So much storytelling potential-- wasted!"

  "What--" Sarah's statement about storytelling potential left Melody extremely confused.

  Sarah looked as though she were about to elaborate, but Thancred's voice interrupted her, calling from somewhere upstairs, "Sarah, have you a moment? I need to speak with you."

  She shut her mouth, whatever she had been about to say immediately forgotten, and exited the room without another word.