Aries' pov

'Do you think he actually went home?' Taurus muttered, his voice somewhere next to my ear. I tried to shrug as casually as possible, as if it didn't matter – which, of course, it did. We'd all witnessed how Scorpio's true identity was revealed, an identity without that stoic mask of him. And it had brought as all to our thoughts – perhaps the hateful boy we'd got to know wasn't who we thought he was.

'I do think he went home,' stated Virgo, who startled both Taurus and I. 'It seemed like he didn't want to disobey his father. And even if he thought of being rebel, he probably doesn't have anywhere else to go.' 'But, if he is actually home,' Furface mingled in, talking on while ignoring my annoyed sigh, 'then we should really check on him, right? We can't let him just... be, I guess.'

Virgo nodded in agree, but I looked up to my right to lock my eyes with Taurus'. He looked back, and shrugged just the way I had a couple of seconds ago. I smiled faintly, before turning my head and noticing we were already close to Cancer's Store.

After Cap, Furface and I had left to follow the others, we found Taurus and Virgo waiting for us just outside the hall. Capricorn quickly caught up with the others, who were walking somewhere in front of us, while the four of us followed in silence. Virgo had shot me a couple of looks though, throughout the walk, and it was only now I remembered how Virgo's last name might as well be Sherlock, along with the memory of how Taurus and I still hadn't told anyone about... you know.

We'd reached our building within seconds, and when we got to the top floor, everybody else had gathered in front of Scorpio's apartment. Before I could do or say anything, Gem rushed to my side and grabbed my shoulders.

'He won't open the door! How can we talk to him when he won't open the door, accept our friendship and become friends for life?' 'I will talk to him,' Miss Lion stated, and trotted past the others to softly knock on the door. 'Scorpio? It's Leo,' she called, and all of a sudden, the hallway got silent. It was as if everyone wanted to hear this – and to be completely honest, we did.

'Could you please open the door? I promise the Dwarf won't harm you,' she continued, at which I groaned. 'You know what? Maybe I won't. If that will make him come outside, then fine. I won't harm him. For today,' I said, whispering the last sentence, which went unnoticed under Furface's grimace. 'Scorpio, if you will just come out and talk to us –'

'Leave me alone,' Scorpio's voice yelled back. Leo's open mouth closed and she took a step back, giving Aquarius a helpless look. 'Aqua, dear, can't you help me?' she asked, but before she'd even finished it, Aqua had already shaken her head. 'Please don't pull me into this, Lee,' she mumbled, and I could feel my level of annoyance rise with the second.

'I am done with this! Let's block that door, like I always do with Furface's!' I shouted, gaining an agreeing yell from Gemini, Taurus, Cap and Sag, but Leo sighed and turned to me with narrowed eyes. 'Oh, yes, because I bet that will make him get out of the apartment! Blocking the door, sure, because violence will definitely help this situation to get better! No, if we want access to the apartment we should break down that door and –'

'Break down the door? So that he will feel even more threatened?' I sneered. 'If staying in is what he wants, then we should let him stay there for a long time, hm?'

'You don't understand anything about people, do you, Dwarf?' Leo screamed.

'At least I'm trying to make this better, Furface,' I screamed back.

There was a short moment of silence between us, and within that moment, both of us realized that our armistice was officially over, now that this place wasn't in danger anymore. Both of us were thinking of new insults to make, and of comebacks to each other's insults, but the harsh silence was interrupted by Cancer stepping forward, and knocking on the door of apartment 23.

'Scorpio. Please open up,' said Cancer. Furface and I exchanged glances for another second, until we turned ourselves to the door and witnessed the glorious moment in which the door opened about an inch.

'Nicely done, Cancer,' I mumbled when I walked up to the door and pushed it so that it opened further, and I entered the hallway I'd seen before. Cancer followed right behind me, along with the rest of us – even Pisces, who clearly didn't want to be here, judging by the way she was clinging onto Virgo's arm.

We found Scorpio in the living room, his back turned to us, as he stared through the doors of glass that separated the living room from the balcony. I had to grab Gem's arm to prevent her from walking over to the couch and plopping down on it, because I was fairly sure that wouldn't help to lighten the mood, even if it was just a bit.

We stood there, for what seemed like minutes, or perhaps hours, but were probably just a couple of seconds, until Scorpio was the one to start talking. 'Well?' he asked, softly, in a tone that wasn't as frightening as we were used from him. 'You're here for a reason. I won't know that reason if you just stand there in silence, or will I?'

No one reacted – because, how could we? Sure, he was right, we were here because of what happened, but it didn't seem like he wanted to talk about it. It seemed like he just wanted to be alone.

He turned around, looking like how we were used to seeing him, only now, mixed with a bit of... sadness? If it wasn't that, it had to be an emotion very close to it. 'Well?' he repeated. 'If you are here to talk, then go ahead and talk. If you are here to yell at me for what I did, then go ahead and yell. It doesn't matter, I know what I did was wrong and I accept it if you can't forgive me.' Scorpio bowed his head and slightly turned away. 'I can't forgive myself either.'

The moment after his words, was the moment in which Libra walked past me and stopped in front of Scorpio, offering him his hand while he looked at him with an expression I thought only Virgo could pull off. 'We haven't met before. I'm Libra, from apartment 26.'

'Scorpio,' responded the taller boy, and shook Libra's hand after a moment of hesitation, before glancing over to Taurus and Sagittarius. 'So you're the brother of those two. Leo told me about you,' he explained, and looked back to Lib. 'I don't suppose you heard a lot of good things about me.'

'Taken the fact I just woke up from a mental breakdown, I also haven't heard a lot of bad things about you,' Lib stated, and he somehow managed to crack up a smile. 'Aquarius kept it pretty neutral when she told me about the situation.'

I moved my head a bit, so that I could see Aqua from the side, and noticed how she was lightly blushing at Libra's words. Thoughts immediately came to my mind again; wasn't there something going on with Aqua and Libra I had to find out?

'I'm sorry we had to witness the whole situation,' Libra said, at which Scorpio sighed. 'I'm sorry about causing the whole situation,' he stated, and all of a sudden, it seemed as if he realized we were all still standing, because he looked up at us and nodded towards the couch. 'You can sit down, if you want. I suppose you won't leave me alone unless I've told you the story.'

And like that, I ended up on the couch along with Gemini, Pisces and Virgo, Leo and Aquarius sat down at the table next to us, and Cancer, Capricorn and the three brothers had settled down on a couple of chairs, just as Scorpio himself.

'Does your father do that a lot?' asked Cancer, gaining everyone's attention with her question. 'I mean... does he often hit you?'

'He does,' Scorpio answered, which earned him a couple of gasps from the girls around. 'Quite often, actually. Whenever he is angry, or just pissed off. It doesn't hurt me mentally as much as it used to hurt... but it does hurt me when he hits my mother.'

'He hits your mother as well?' gasped Leo, at which Scorpio nodded. 'But... why?' Cancer added. 'To prove he's powerful,' Scorpio said, but softer than before. 'And he succeeds. My mother and I both think of him as a powerful man.' He looked down at the ground, but looked up yet again. 'I always wanted to be like him, only... better. Everywhere we lived, I tried to keep peace and bring people together. I felt that, if I could do that, people would think of me as powerful as well. But especially, my father would think of me as powerful.'

Scorpio closed his eyes, leaning back in the chair with his hands covering his closed eyes. 'I guess that's what I was trying to do. I wanted my father to stop being such a... such a jackass. I wanted to prove him I could be powerful as well, and finally be able to stand up to him. And I wanted to reach that goal by achieving peace in this place. It seems that I've failed.' He sighed, and let himself sink back into his regular position. 'I suppose I'm no better than my father.'

In the silence that followed, we all thought back to the past days, and how his actions all added up to this one moment. Apparently, none of us could have imagined that even Scorpio had a different side, or a reason for acting like that. And, instead of just talking to him about it earlier, we all made the wrong moves.

'That's pretty much it,' Scorpio stated after a minute or so, awkwardly looking around. 'If there's anything else you want to know...' 'Are you really moving out soon again?' asked Sagittarius, and Scorpio, to my surprise, shrugged. 'Well, I don't really know for sure. Dad will surely want to move back to our mansion, when it's completely ready again, but... maybe mum and I will stay here, using her excuse "work is closer from here".'

'Scorpio,' Virgo said, 'if you are to stay here, we will all support you. If you let us, of course.'

And for the first time, we saw Scorpio smile. Actually smile, not sarcastically, not sadly, but really. 'Thank you. I've never had any real friends before.' 'But you will now!' Gem happily squealed from her spot next to me, unable to stay silent any longer. 'We will all be friends, and have fun, and play Mario Kart, and have more fun – until you get pulled into the whole Aries/Furface thingy and you have to choose between Aries and Miss Lion, of course.'

'Speaking of that,' said Scorpio, turning to me, now, 'I'd actually really like to know what happened between you two. No one has really told me and – did I say something wrong?'

The second after he said the sentence, I felt myself freeze up, and I knew a lot of other people felt that same way. Scorpio was uncomfortably looking around, not knowing what he said that caused this silence, until Libra broke it. 'Yes, I haven't heard the story as well,' he said, 'and I don't think my brothers have either.'

I forced myself to flash Furface a look from across the room, while she looked back at me, clearly in the same shock as I was. Why wouldn't she, we hadn't told the story to anyone for over four years. And that was with a reason – neither of us wanted to actually remember the moment. But...

Maybe it was time to get over that.

Leo coughed softly, clearing her throat while she moved her chair a bit, making sure everyone could see her, and after a last glance over at me, she turned to Scorpio and started talking.

'I moved in here when everyone else was living here already,' Leo said, before she corrected herself, 'well, everyone except for you and the boys from apartment 26.' She looked up to the ceiling, while I stared down at my feet, as she continued talking. 'My parents got divorced a couple of days after we moved in. My mother and I were still living here, but she was at her office the entire day. She was the only thing I still had left, so I got up every morning as early as possible to still be able to see here, before she left off to work. Aries...' I knew she was looking at me, but I knew it would be better if I didn't look back. '...was a good friend. She understood how I felt, and we started spending a lot of time together. After a week or so, I'd earned myself the title Chaos Survivor.'

I remembered everything she said, and even though my thoughts interrupted her a couple of times, I was still listening to her words closely. 'Before my Ceremony, Aries and I made it our job to make this place a true Chaos, by scaring away all the other residents. It went pretty well, until...'

'...until there was only one family left, on the second floor,' I went on. I didn't know why I continued talking for her, it just felt as if I had to. And perhaps, Leo felt that way too. 'A small family, mother, father, daughter and son. Leo and I made a deal, a deal that stated that we'd have her Ceremony after she had managed to get them to move. We both started planning, gathering stuff we needed for booby-traps, and finally, I had worked out a perfect plan. Leo agreed on it, and we started working on it together. But, after a couple of days, I noticed Lee was working on a different plan, a plan to get them out without doing any of the things we had planned.' I finally looked up, locking my eyes in hers as I went on telling the story. 'We got in a fight. Leo started working on her own plan, I continued mine. I placed my booby-trap in one of the other apartments, without knowing Leo would later go there as well.'

I waited a minute before I continued, and thought back to the moment that had brought five long years of hate and Chaos with it. 'The trap was supposed to work when it sensed movement. It was meant for one of the kids from the second floor, but instead, Leo activated it.'

'Turned out Aries had made the whole thing a tad too explosive,' Leo continued, with a slight crack in her voice. 'The apartment almost literally blew up, along with the two next to it... and along with me.'

'Lee broke both of her arms and spend a couple of months in the hospital,' I muttered, finally averting my gaze from Leo's blaming eyes. 'When she came back, the family had moved out, and she demanded her Ceremony, but she'd forgotten about the deal.'

'The deal was that if the family moved out, I would get my Ceremony,' stated Leo, raising her voice. 'The deal was that if the family moved out because of you, you'd get your Ceremony,' I corrected her. 'My plan would have worked if you had listened to me, instead of forcing your own ideas through everything,' Furface hissed, causing me to groan softly. 'We started working things out according to my plan! You cannot just change the plans halfway through!'

'Anyway,' said Leo, ignoring my comment as she turned over to Aquarius, 'in the meantime, Aqua and I had grown to become much closer to each other. The story of Miss Dwarf and I got out, and everyone took sides. Aqua appeared to be the only one taking my side, which was fine, because she truly understood my feelings and thoughts.' 'While everyone else agreed with me,' I muttered, but Furface talked right through it; 'Virgo also found that I should have a Ceremony, just as Cancer and Aqua, but even after that, Tiny Dwarf still didn't allow me to have my name up there.'

Leo stared back at me, her eyes narrowed again, and I looked back at her with the same murderous look captured in my expression.

'And that was the beginning of a lot of Chaos.'

     Libra's pov

'Well,' Taurus stated, closing the door behind him, 'that certainly was worth the wait.' 'I never thought they actually used to be friends,' Sag muttered, walking over to the railings in the hallway. 'I just thought they hated each other from the beginning.'

After the story of Aries and Leo, everyone just sort of got into mingling with each other. Aries and Leo sat on the opposite sides of the room, Leo talking with Aqua, Cancer, Virgo and Pisces, while Aries was chatting away with Gemini and Capricorn. Taurus, Sagittarius and I had started talking with Scorpio himself, and to be honest, he actually seemed like a pretty nice guy. I still noticed how my brothers would be a little suspicious, though, but they'd have to get over that. After about thirty minutes, I decided it was time for us to go – also because Cancer wanted to talk to Scorpio, still.

And now, the three of us were just standing in the hallway, thinking about – well, everything, kind of.

'It really is too bad you had to break down, Lib,' said Taurus, gazing over to me. 'I think you and Virgo would have gotten along just fine.' 'Speaking of Virgo,' Sag said, looking from Taurus to me, 'now that you are awake again and everything is fine again – sort of – I think I'm going to move back from Virgo, to our apartment. If you don't mind, of course.' 'But I'd just got used to the silence around,' Taurus sighed, but cracked up a smile right after. 'Just kidding. It'll be cool to have you back, both of you.'

'Yes,' I smiled, and you know, Sag? Everything really is just fine.'

At least, that's what I thought before entering our apartment.

Because, after the three of us entered our hall and walked on to the living room, we came in on something none of us expected. In the middle of the living room, dad sat on our couch, turning around as soon as we came in.

And our mother was sitting next to him.

'Mum!' Sag happily shouted and ran over to her, hugging her with what seemed like everything he had. 'So, New York did suck?' asked Taurus, grinning widely as he greeted our mother as well. 'Well, maybe a little,' mum laughed, and she got up and hugged me too. 'It's so good to see you all again. I really missed you, when I was gone.'

'Of course, we're amazing!' Sagittarius smiled, and mum laughed softly. 'I know, honey. But, before you can all go on and tell me about all the amazing adventures you've been through, your father and I have some great news to tell you all.'

'Are you getting back together?' I asked, my voice maybe a little too hopeful. 'No,' dad said, and he got up. 'The reason work has been crazy lately, is because I've been working more than usual. That way, I could raise extra money, and with that money, I can afford to buy us one of the houses in our old street.'

'What?' Taurus reacted, but dad continued on: 'Your mother is moving back into our old house, which, luckily, wasn't sold yet. It'll take another week until we can move into the new house, but until then, we can stay in our old house.'

'So, what your father is actually saying,' said mum with a smile, 'we're moving again, and this time, you will finally live in a place where you can be actually happy.'

'Indeed,' our father added, and smiled at the three of us. 'You can finally go home.'