“You will be on your best behavior, do you understand?” A sharp voice rung in Babis' ears as a rough wire brush pulled at his scalp. He winced as he felt the tines drag across the skin underneath once again, causing him to clutch the arms of the ornate chair. That still didn’t stop him from nearly being lifted out of his seat every time the bristles snagged on the small knots left in his hair… which there were a lot of thanks to his brilliant idea of spending the morning running around in the courtyard even the ground was still soggy from recent rains. He had just wanted to blow off some steam that morning, but instead, with an accidental fall or two, he had managed to land himself into a larger mess than normal… both figuratively and literally.

The older woman, Ria of Eliades, behind him cared little for how she was unintentionally causing her grandson discomfort. She was in far too much of an annoyed rush to consider that. Babis also did not dare complain either as he was all too aware that this easily had been one of the worst days to get in trouble especially with his grandmother. The poor woman was nearly at her wit's end with the preparations for the eldest daughter of the Vlahakis family, their vassal, to arrive at their manor. As far as Babis was aware, as he didn’t pay as close attention as he should have when he was told of this, Scylla would be living with the Eliades family in order to learn the ways of the court under the watchful eye of Ria and Marisa. Although Babis didn’t care all that much that she would be living with them, as she was considerably older than the twins, the prospect of her coming to Midas to focus on the social events that the identical pair were avoiding made him very nervous. After all, who’s to say that the adults within the family would be trying to teach such things to Babis and Aras as well?

He shuddered at the thought of being dressed up and paraded around the court like a little show horse. It was something he wasn’t a stranger to especially as there were no other identical twins within the Colchian court, but he still was afraid of the prospect of needing to attend court. That meant that they were now “grown-up” and Babis wasn’t ready for that. Although no one said it as it would, rightly, upset the twins; Babis knew that “growing up” meant that Aras would have to focus more on learning how to become a leader. Once the boys were “grown up” the twins wouldn’t spend as much time together. Babis was not willing to confront this in any aspect… not even when it was now staring him right in the face.

“Now why you decided to do this, I’ll never understand…” Ria said absentmindedly as she pulled at the last few stubborn flecks remaining in the boy’s hair. Her words might have been quiet, but the shaming intention seemed almost deafening to the boy who’s eyes looked down in response. This fear of confronting reality was what drove him to spend the morning playing in the mud. He was hoping to avoid meeting Scylla and all the unfortunate realities her arrival meant. However, Babis was not foolish enough to say this aloud. Instead, he simply remained quiet long enough for Ria to finish.

“Alright, it’s not perfect, but it will have to do,” Ria said with an exasperated tone as she became acutely aware of how little time was left before Scylla would arrive. “Go find your brother,” She finished, finally releasing Babis from the chair and the dreaded brush meant for longer hair, “And for goodness sake, don’t you find trouble along the way.”

Babis didn’t need to be told twice before he lept up from the chair. He swiftly nodded to his grandmother before making a swift getaway so she wouldn’t call him back to the seat. He ran towards the front of the house where the rest of his family was crowded in the main foyer, waiting for word that the carriage would be arriving soon. Everyone was there, from his grandfather who sat on a nearby bench to even the broody Mikael who had somehow been coaxed into attending this family event. However, Babis really only had interest in paying attention to what one member of his family was doing…

His twin brother Aras seemed to be enraptured in the conversation going on around him and was foolishly distracted from Babis' arrival into the foyer. Smirking at the sight of this, Babis instinctively crept up behind his brother with an uncharacteristic silence for the Eliades twins. Then, without any warning to Aras, Babis lept forward and lightly pushed him while making a strange sort of noise, intending to elicit a scream from the intelligent lad. He didn’t even see if his impromptu plan had even worked before Babis' airy laugh filled the room, drawing pointed stares from the boy’s parents. It took him a moment to calm down, finally being able to choke out, “You should have seen your face Aras.”

Before his brother even would have had a chance to react, a servant came rushing into the room and announced that the carriage carrying the Vlahakis girl had finally arrived. Quickly, all the Eliades family made their way outside with Marisa and Photis making a special point to steer their sons towards the door. This meant that the boys didn’t have a chance to speak again until they were all outside, lined up in a perfect little row. Harith, as the head of the house, stood at the farthest left while Mikael closed the line at the far right. Poor Babis stood smack in between his brother and the watchful eye of Aunt Felia who had very little patience for the wild antics of her nephews. She made that much clear with her little annoyed stares, probably displeased at the mess he had caused earlier.

Babis shrunk beneath her gaze and instead turned to his brother to hiss at him while everyone was distracted by the carriage making its way through the manor gates, “So, what do you think she’s like?”