A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! In advance.8) Filler chapter :/ NO OFFENCE MEANT TOWARDS ANYONE OF ANY ORIENTATION. DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU GET OFFENDED EASILY, PLEASE.

Disclaimer: All Tamora Pierce's except Garret, Genevieve, Peter and Frederick. And the plot. (Another A/N at the bottom!)

Fate

II.

"King," Neal stated, disbelief colouring his voice.

"King," Garret confirmed.

Neal stared at the middle-aged Duke momentarily before rubbing a hand over his face. "You can drop the act now and kill me."

"Looks like we've got ourselves one dense nutcase of a King here, Gare," Lady Genevieve commented to her exasperated brother. Duke Garret merely sighed in impatience and stalked out of the room.

Neal looked up in alarm at the sudden slam of the door to find that the Lady had gone after her brother.

There was a moment of silence before Frederick (or was it Peter?) brought his hands together in a clap. "Well. Now that that's settled, Frederick and I will be explaining your duties to you,"

Oh, so he was Peter.

Neal sat up straighter and squinted at the pair, discreetly (or so he thought) trying to identify any physical differences as to differentiate the twins by.

"—border affairs, of course; but you won't have to take on everything for the time being; since it's going to be quite chaotic for the time being. The current Regent (that's Duke Garret) will be in charge, and you will be with him to observe how you are to carry out your duties—" Peter rambled, oblivious to the distracted Neal.

"You won't find any physical differences," a dry voice interrupted Peter's words.

Neal's startled eyes darted to Frederick's upon being discovered in his investigation, and immediately directed a sheepish smile in his direction.

Peter quirked an eyebrow at this exchange before breaking out into a smirk a split second later. "Looking to differentiate Ricky and me?" Peter's voice dropped to a gentle purr as he advanced towards the bed, lips curling back into a fang-revealing grin.

The green-eyed man gulped and looked to the other twin, who merely snorted and rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, Peter's hand landed on his shoulder.

He bit back a squeak and pressed himself as far into the headboard of the bed as he could.

I'm dead, I'm dead; I just knew they were going to kill me.

Neal inhaled sharply in fear as Peter's face appeared beside his.

"The difference between my brother and me," Peter whispered, "Is that Frederick is a ladies' man, while I," the hand on Neal's shoulder slipped onto his chest. Neal's eyes widened in horror. "I am a man's man."

Neal opened his mouth to let out yet another scream, but before the high-pitched shriek could escape from his larynx, Frederick pulled his twin away from the traumatized Neal. "That's enough, Girly boy," he told a laughing Peter, even as his lips twitched in amusement.

"You, st…stay away from me" Neal managed to wheeze, eyeing Peter fearfully.

The twins let out identical shouts of deep laughter.

Neal shivered.

"Relax," Frederick told the wary Neal as soon as their laughter died down, "Peter is a androgynous court spy. It's a job requirement to use his 'womanly wiles' in corsets and skirts when the need arises."

"Oh"

"He's as straight as you are, apparently."

"Oh."

"Unless you're not as straight as you let on…?" Peter turned to face him. "Then we could…together, you know," the twin waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Neal.

"MITHROS AND MOTHER GODDESS; I'M STRAIGHT!"

Silence.

"Well, the gods all know that now, I'm sure," Frederick commented dryly.

"And the rest of the castle," Peter added, grinning.

A/N: I'm putting this on hiatus. Because annual/bi-annual updates are very ridiculous. I've collated the previous chapters and posted it as chapter one. (Now I'm all the more aware of the inferiority of my writing as compared to all those fictionpress writers who churn out chapter after chapter on a weekly basis. And my bi-annual updates can't even reach the length of their individual chapters. Gah.) This isn't to say that I'm stopping all work on Fate. (Fate's been my pet piece of work since I was twelve. I've gotten emotionally attached. Haha.) ANYWAY. I'll post whenever I can, but it's officially on hiatus; so as to not get anyone's hopes up. (I feel like I'm cheating everyone who's been reading.)

To everyone who's been with Fate since chapter one (and who had to endure my sporadic updates and horrible grammar) THANK YOU. You have no idea how much your support (and reviews!) have meant to me (even though they frustrated me at times. JOREN IS ALIVE IN THIS FIC, DAMMIT. Haha.)

Please don't review if you don't want to, and no flames please!

Happy New Year to everyone still reading this!

-Rach / Ladyinshiningarmour

30/12/2008