Title: Mucky Pup
Author/Artist: Anchan
Pairing: Ishtar/Darres
Fandom: Vampire Game
Theme: #9: dash
Disclaimer: All characters and situations are property of Judal.
"DARRES! Look out!"
Darres felt something large charge into his chest and grabbed it automatically, pulling it against himself.
"Dar-res," whined the missile, squirming to get free. Darres instinctively tightened his hold; when one had the most dangerous person in the castle in one's grasp, one never, ever loosened one's grip, the first rule of the Royal Guard. It'd take hours to find her otherwise. He was so preoccupied with the struggling bundle in his arms that he almost failed to notice the various stains and worse, stenches, that were seeping from Ishtar's silk skirts to his shirt. His white shirt. Damn it.
"Your Highness," he sighed, resisting the urge to drop her and cover his nose, "bath. Now." Sir Keld was going to kill him for letting her get like this, she had a reception this afternoon. Or rather, he wouldn't, Ishtar would scream until she got her favourite "playmate" (Darres privately categorised Ishtar's "playmates" as "victims") back. Then, of course, she would offer him a celebratory meal made by her own loving hands or worse, subject him to a doll's tea party. Last time, Darres had been in the middle of gulping down the cold cup of gritty coffee she'd proudly presented to him when she'd informed him that it was made from mud and sugar. He'd had to physically restrain himself from throwing the entire damn pot at her.
He was sharply returned to the present when Ishtar, upon hearing the dreaded word "bath" had redoubled her efforts to escape. Darres hefted her over his shoulder and carried her bodily down the corridor. She kicked him twice in the chest and he grunted with each blow. "Your Highness…" he gritted out as her nails dug into his shoulder blade, "will you, for one precious minute stop being such a damned brat?"
Amazingly, she paused in her assault on him. "Are you mad at me?" she asked in a tiny voice.
Darres bit his lip to stop himself from sighing and giving into his urge to comfort her. Hardening his heart against Ishtar's childish pout, he replied simply, "Yes. Very. Go and have a bath."
Her lower lip trembled. Darres clenched his jaw, holding his breath and waiting for the scream that would herald the beginning of the tantrum to end all tantrums. He hugged her to his chest and closed his eyes.
"'KAY!" chirped Ishtar and his eyes snapped open. She was smiling brightly, her grin stretched from ear to ear. "If you really want me to, Darres!" She pressed a sloppy kiss to his cheek and jumped out of his slackened grip, calling to her maids as she skipped down the hall.
Some days, Darres wondered why he didn't just quit his job. But only some.