Note: I follow the subs I watch and thus their spellings on things. Also, I've only seen to episode 50 or so at this point, so I have no idea what Greta winds up calling her fathers in terms of pet names. My personal favorite name for my father is "Daddy", and thus that's what Greta gets...assuming that the word "Daddy" is the loose translation from whatever she's saying in ShinMakokuese, of course :)
It was a warm day, the first after a long and miserable cold front, and Greta was beside herself with a bursting need to be outside. Yuuri agreed immediately but was just as quickly detained by Gunter for the review of a new treaty to be signed. He sent a pitiful glance to Conrad who laughed and shook his head, a sure sign that this particular job could not be avoided no matter how pathetic Yuuri managed to look. Wolf closed the book he'd been reading and stood, ready to follow his fiancé into the dim office where all of his document-signing took place. That is, until he felt the tugging on the hem of his coat.
"Do you have to go with Yuuri, Wolf? Can't you come outside and play with me?" Greta's huge brown eyes, normally so quick and vibrant, looked suspiciously moist. Wolfram had a sneaking feeling that his adopted daughter wasn't nearly so devastated about not having a playmate as she let on, but the bigger those eyes grew the smaller his resolve shrank.
He looked at Yuuri who was trying and failing to hide a knowing smirk, one that said And you think I give in easily.
"You…won't need me in there?" He asked his fiancé uncertainly. The others in the room were shocked that Wolfram had given Yuuri up to others without a fight, but Yuuri had known the pull of Greta's pleading first hand and wasn't nearly so surprised. He laughed. "Of course not, Wolfram. I have Conrad AND Gunter AND Gwendal to protect me, and I doubt the treaty will suddenly call its brethren to arms and attack."
Wolf sneered. "And you said the Dream Mirror was a soup bowl."
Yuuri, palms up, acquiesced. "Go play with Greta. I'll be fine."
Conrad smiled down at the young princess. "I think Yozak is outside. Why don't you go keep him company?"
Wolf, discontent with the idea of anyone butting in on his time with his daughter had to swallow a sigh when Greta gave an enthusiastic "okay!" and ran out of the room.
They found Yozak training a group of green-looking soldiers, cheerfully barking orders with his hands on his hips. The boys – all around the tender age of seventy or so – looked like they were about ready to keel over and all gave small sighs of relief when Greta came bounding up.
"Yozak!" she called, and he turned to catch the princess in his arms with a practiced ease that made Wolfram frown.
"Good morning, your highness!" Yozak beamed, and hefted the girl on to his shoulders. "Coming out to enjoy the weather? And oh – what's this?" His grin widened at the sight of Wolfram, looking perturbed. "You've brought a straggler!"
"Careful, solider," Wolfram muttered darkly. "I outrank you." Yozak only laughed.
"So you do. Now, to what do I owe the occasion? A visit from Shin Makoku's most beautiful princess is a treat!" Greta happily hugged his neck and beamed, soaking up every minute of her new elevated status like the little attention-monger she was, or so Wolfram thought with no small note of affection.
"Conrad said you were outside and that we should visit you, so here we are! Happy to see us?"
"Of course!" Yozak wrinkled his nose through his smile and jerked a thumb towards his trainees. "And I bet they are, too. Alright, kiddos. Fun's over for now. Go shower, the lot of you, before you show yourselves back in the palace."
Pitifully grateful, they all gave stiff, aching bows and slunk off to collapse somewhere – preferably somewhere free of red-headed drill sergeants with biceps the size of Big Shimaron.
"So! What do you want to do, now that you've rescued lonely uncle Yozak from death by mediocrity?" Greta scrambled down his big body and ran over to hug Wolfram's legs. Wolfram, thus far a third party in these happenings, looked a little startled but his hand immediately sought out his daughter's brown curls without his knowledge.
"I wanna play 'Castle'! With both of you!" Her excitement was practically a brand of maryoku itself – and a powerful one, at that.
The soldiers both exchanged glances. "What's 'Castle'?" Wolfram asked the obvious question for them both.
The look they received made both of them feel more ignorant than they had in a very long time. "Ugh. Castle is where I'm the Princess, and I'll need a brave knight to save me from the evil monster."
"Oh," Wolfram said.
"Huh," Yozak added.
"Yozak, you can be the big dragon that breathes fire and cross-dresses a lot." Yozak looked more pleased about this than perhaps he should, and cracked his knuckles.
"Great! And who is the brave knight, then?"
Greta turned to Wolfram, all smiles. "My daddy, of course."
Something very warm bloomed in Wolfram's chest. A knee-jerk reaction told him to think 'this is beneath me', but what he said was, "I'll do my best."
He started out stilted. Even as a child Wolfram had rarely played pretend and as such by his eighties it had become an entirely alien concept. Yet, after an hour of watching his happy daughter in the sunshine and the way she lit up every time he called out something like "Don't worry, fair princess, I'll save you!" was well worth any humiliation he might feel. Truthfully, it was nice to feel needed and appreciated for his heroic nature by someone he loved…for once.
He couldn't say how much time had passed since they had started, but by the time the sun was casting long shadows on the ground Greta looked exhausted. She may have been a trooper, but she was still a growing girl with highly irregular bedtimes and she lay like deadweight in Wolfram's arms as he hoisted her up to carry her inside. Yozak followed, knowing enough not to offer to carry the girl himself despite how awkward a bundle she seemed for her adopted dad. She was human, but even as a ten year old Greta was almost half of Wolfram's height and likely half his weight as well. Wolfram stared forward, a strange expression coloring his eyes.
"If ever I wonder why it was I survived Rutenberg…" Yozak began, "It's probably because of kids like her." Wolfram lifted his eyebrows to show that he had heard, but made no move to dignify Yozak with a response. Yozak went on anyway. "She's a fighter, this kid. If half the soldiers in Shin Makoku had her spirit, there wouldn't be another damn war for centuries."
He was expecting a snide remark. He was expecting indignation at the idea that he was insulting the soldiers of Shin Makoku, or anger that Yozak had been thinking about Greta at all. What he was not expecting was for Wolfram to smile just a little as a light snore reached his ear and to rest his chin on his daughter's curly hair, then casually say:
"You're right."
If he lived to be ten thousand years old, Yozak would never forget the day Wolfram said those words. The sky didn't rain down fire. The ground did not shatter or collapse. The world continued on, and Yozak put his hands on his hips and grinned.
"Well, I'll be damned," he said. And that was all.