"Are you serious, Nero? How do you even know he's going to wake up?"

"Actually, I checked his pulse. His heart's still beating. A little faster than normal, actually."

"Not the point, Bren, we can't afford Nero doing shit like this."

"Yeah, what even happened?"

"He broke a rule."

"Why is he so cryptic? Does he honestly think any of us know what that means?"

Marley opens his eyes. He's too disoriented to even know who he is, let alone what's going on around him.

"It means, it was either him or his fish. He got to choose."

"Quick question: how are we supposed to bring down his family and overthrow the government if Nero has rules that get Nocona electrocuted if he breaks them?"

"Yeah, get rid of the rules. He's just gonna keep breaking them—he is a teenager, after all. That's kinda what they do."

"No. They're there for a damn reason."

"What's the reason?"

"Uh, guys, I think he's up."

Marley sits up, feels cushioning on his body, and realizes someone put him on his bed at some point.

What the fuck is going on?

Marley begins to rub at his chest, mostly because his heart beat has slowed down immensely, but it's still not back to normal. It also hurts, and he doesn't want to think about why.

Then a face comes into focus, one recognizable as Lola. She seems to be examining his own face, and he's far too confused to process her hands reaching up until she's messing with his eyes, shining a light in them. Like a doctor. She also reaches up to feel his pulse.

"Wow, you're still not completely recovered." She mumbles.

"Guys, it's nearly time to sign into our rooms. Let's go." Ah, that's Eli. Marley's pretty sure. "We're still meeting at 1, no matter what." She continues.

Lola backs away, letting go of him. He takes that moment to examine his surroundings.

Eli is currently walking to the door, as is Bren. Lola follows them, sending one last glance over at Marley.

"Don't electrocute him this time." She tells Nero, who doesn't seem too happy about her telling him what to do. Marley has a feeling she just made it worse.

Marley feels Nero's eyes on him, but he also far too nauseous to start a conversation. So, he leans back on his bed and pulls a blanket over his head. He closes his eyes and wonders if this is really worth it.

-

Nero is the one that wakes him up.

He doesn't do it nicely, just shakes Marley's shoulder until the boy comes back to consciousness. He blinks, bleary eyed, up at the man. His adrenaline picks up for a moment at the sight of Nero's glowing red eyes—who wouldn't be scared of those things—but he's able to calm down when he realizes Nero probably isn't going to hurt him. Maybe.

"Get up. We're meeting Eli." He orders elegantly. Marley gets to a sitting position and stands up...

Only to fall right back down. Onto the bed. "Ah, why'd you just have to electrocute me?" He mumbles, frustrated.

"You or your fish, wasn't my choice. Get up or I'll leave you here."

"You won't leave me here," Marley replies. He doesn't elaborate the fact that the rest of them would be pretty upset with the both of them if only Nero showed up.

The brightness of Neros eyes seem to intensify, and for a moment Marley's pretty sure that he actually is about to leave him here. However, the man seems to have had enough of Marley's shit, seeing as, in one fluid movement, he has Marley swept off the bed and thrown over his shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down, what the-"

"Shut up, you'll wake everyone."

Then he's opening the door and walking down a hallway and Marley's quite certain they're going to get caught. He knows people patrol the hallway. Shit, he's about to get in trouble. What the hell makes Nero think he can get away with walking the halls like this?

They reach the staircase, and Nero turns and starts climbing the stairs. Marley is pretty shocked that Nero can carry his whole 170 pound self up all these stairs. He's hardly breaking a sweat!

Eventually Nero stops at the top of the stairs and opens a door with a key he has for some reason, stepping into... onto the roof. Of the building.

Marley's eyes widen. Holy shit, they're on the roof. Where anyone could see them.

Nero continues walking across the roof, clearly not concerned about being spotted. He reaches a room, unlocks it, and steps inside. It's a bit dim in there, Marley notices when his eyes adjust, but Nero seems to lighten it up a bit more.

Nero leans over and sets Marley down on the floor, not as gentle as would have been appreciated. Marley falls back a bit but stabilizes himself with his hands.

"Okay, cool." He hears Eli's authoritative voice, "first thing's first, we need a map of the castle and any public place your father is gonna be for as far ahead as possible."

Marley blinks at her, trying to process everything she just said. His brain is hardly working right now. Thanks to Nero. Asshole.

"Uh, I could maybe draw one? But the second thing I don't-I don't remember."

Eli doesn't look too pleased about that, neither does anyone else here. Marley's doing his best, though. So they can get over it.

"Okay." Bren replies, and pulls out a few pieces of paper. He gets it from a bag Marley hadn't even noticed he was carrying. The guy hands over a pen and a clipboard to Marley. Wow, he's supposed to do this now?

Marley stares at the paper for a moment, before grabbing the pen and beginning to draw from what he can remember off the top of his head. He's having a hard time functioning right now and his hand won't stop shaking.

He starts by drawing all the walls around the first floor and labeling the rooms and entrances. Why is he being so cooperative? He hasn't a clue. He doesn't even know their plan, for God's sake.

As he draws they all watch his every move intently. By the time he's finished he's barely even staying awake. "Okay, that's the first floor." He notifies them. It's actually just part of the first floor but they don't need to know that. He included the important parts, at least.

Bren snatches it, and Marley begins on the second floor. By the time he's done and has the majority he seriously thinks he may pass out again.

Bren has been looking over every single paper Marley has drawn, and he doesn't know why. It's not like the guy has ever been there, is he trying to see if it's correct? Marley would know if he'd ever visited. So.

"I mean, these seem like something to plan on, but some other time—when you're not on the verge of passing out—we're gonna need you to put in more detail." He states.

Wow, is Marley that obvious? More importantly: why did Nero electrocuting him drain him so immensely? He survived a gunshot not too long ago, got right back up with no problem. So what's going on here? Why did some light show set him on the verge of a coma? Okay, maybe not that far, but it feels like it.

"Okay, that's all we need from you right now." Eli states, one eyebrow raised.

"No." Nero says authoritatively. "We need intel on his father."

"I told you, I can't remember right now." Marley replies, growing a bit frustrated.

"Then find out."

Marley starts rubbing the bridge of his nose, "it's not that simple. He hasn't even talked to me since the whole..." he trails off. He avoids thinking about it, he doesn't even want to know what saying it out loud will do to him.

"What about the Queen?" Lola asks. "Are you on good terms with her?"

Ah shit. "Yeah, I guess I could try." He replies, scratching at his wrist for no reason. He doesn't have his keychain with him because Nero threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Marley's still in socks. His hair is a mess and he's not presentable in the slightest, this has got to be the first time he's gone out in public like this.

Really, his hair is always a mess, but he can usually tame it a little bit. He'd subconsciously began running his fingers through his dirty blond hair at some point. He realizes it's another nervous tic, and folds his hands in his lap.

"Cool, great, spectacular, let's go now. I have to wake up early tomorrow." Lenny says, someone Marley forgot existed seeing as he hasn't said anything throughout this entire exchange.

"We can't go yet, it's too early. There's gonna be guards in my hallway." Nero doesn't say our hallway, which would be appropriate seeing as they share a room. Marley rolls his eyes.

"I'm tired too." Eli answers, standing up and walking out. The rest of them do that as well, and Marley follows their example, leaning against the wall for support. He can keep his balance better than when he'd come here, but this is going to be a long walk.

He lets go of the wall, tries to walk across the roof—he keeps on tilting and his vision seems to think that this is the best time to screw him over—and it's not long until he's grabbing onto Bren, who'd been walking beside him, for support.

He grabs the prince's arm, steadies him to the best of his ability, and doesn't waste anytime before calling up to Nero;

"Nero, you made this mess, come take care of it!"

Nero'd been walking ahead, but turns back at the voice. He looks as though he'd been expecting it, but doesn't seem any more happy to be walking back to Marley than he has been any other time

He reaches them, looks to Marley, and says something that sets his veins aflame. "Why do you always have to be such an inconvenience?"

Marley can't help it, he glares daggers at the man. "I don't know, why did you have to fucking electrocute me?"

Nero seems to not have been expecting Marley to talk back, and his eyes narrow. Bren interrupts them before they can bicker any more, "come on, take him. It's too early for this."

He unceremoniously shoves Marley into the very personification of Hatred For The Noconas, and walks away.

Marley falls against him, which catches the both of them off guard, and ends up grabbing Nero's shirt to keep himself upright.

Nero takes a deep, deep breath, probably trying to keep himself from electrocuting Marley again, and grabs him roughly by the arm. He starts dragging him to the stairs and Marley falls against him more than once.

When they finally reach their hallway, they don't see any so-called guards in sight. Marley decides Nero is really dramatic.

Nero doesn't waste time, dragging them each down the hallway, clearly trying to get to their room as fast as fast as possible. Marley can barely keep up, and things seem to be going just fine—as fine as it can get with this guy—until they're just reaching their door. It's towards the end of the hallway, and they both hear it clearly.

Footsteps.

They're right there, right around the corner. Marley and Nero have maybe seconds before these people—patrols, he assumes—round the corner and catch them. It's over.

Marley looks up at Nero to see how he's feeling about this. Nero stares at him, red eyes drilling holes into Marley's own hazel, and sighs. He mumbles something of which Marley only picks up "god fucking da-" before the door is opened at lightning speed and he's shoved inside.

Marley falls to the floor, tries to get his bearings, and realizes that there are now voices outside the door. His vision is a bit fuzzy and his head is pounding. Still, he doesn't even think it through before he's pressing his ear against the door.

"Nero Accardi, can I ask what you're doing outside your room so late?" the voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard to Marley. Something he doesn't like hearing.

"Bathroom, Gilbert."

"It's Gil!" The voice objects, "or-no, you call me Mr. Matesic!"

"Yeah? If I call you that can I go back to fucking sleep?" Nero sounds irritated and inconvenienced. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"You know what? I don't believe you. You wanna know why?"

"No."

"Because," Gilbert continues, "you have a tell. Every time you lie, you... no, I'm not telling you."

Marley frowns. A tell? How well do these two know each other that Gilbert can read Nero's body language? Marley's a bit jealous, seeing as he can't figure the guy out to save his life. Or, well, to save himself from electrocution.

Nero goes silent, and then Gilbert's voice comes through again, "you know what? I think I'm gonna have Director Olucard roll the tapes. You know he does anything when you're involved."

Oh shit, this is actually really bad. Nero kidnapping Marley and disappearing is going to look really, really fucking bad-

"That camera hasn't worked for years. Nice try."

"It... it's been fixed!"

"No it hasn't. I'm going to bed."

He hears a hand start turning the doorknob, and backs away in just enough time to hear Gilbert reply back, "I'll still report it to him! He'll do anything to get you in trouble, you know that!"

Marley scrambles back to sit on his bed and seconds later the door opens to reveal his endearing roommate.

Nero doesn't even look at him, takes off his shirt and begins changing. Marley looks away before he can stare too long. He remembers that he didn't get to feed Sushi, so he walks over to the fish's tank. It's more than a little difficult, but he's slowly adjusting. Marley sprinkles some food in it, and finishes in time to see Nero in new pants and just getting a t-shirt on.

"Thank you." Marley tells him, because he is a polite young man and recognizes when someone does something nice for him. "For keeping me out of trouble."

Nero glances up at him in distaste, then back down again. "Seeing me dragging you around like that would have backfired on me." He turns around, and shuts off the lights without being near the light switch, and continues. "I didn't do it for you."

Marley notices something. Nero's constantly glowing electricity, coursing through his veins and setting a dull glow in the room, flickers for a split second. So quick Marley would have missed if he'd been blinking.

Marley can't help but wonder if that's the tell Gilbert had been talking about.