Author's Note: I was challenged and inspired by the pairing generator. Haha. So here you go. A one-shot. Well it's not really a strictly AnissinaxAdalbert as suggested by the pairing generator. I myself couldn't stomach the guy. But anyway, this is an attempt. This was initially published in my LJ where I write brain farts.
In-Love With Anissina
Anissina knew it was going to be a bright and sunny day so as soon as she woke up and opened her eyes, she already had a smile on her face.
It was a very mischievous smile and anyone who could have seen her wearing that smile in as early as 6 in the morning would ran away in fear. It was that smile that could send signals to anyone that she has a plan.
By 6:30, she was dressed in her usual red attire and was on her way to her laboratory, deciding to wait until 8 in the morning before she can eat breakfast. After all, she wanted to join the Maou for breakfast so she can tell him about her new invention. It would also be a good chance to tell the others about it--to Conrad, Wolfram, and Gunter, since she knew that those three would join the Maou for breakfast.
By 7:50, she came out out of her laboratory with a
bowl of white yogurt-looking gunk. She rushed to the kitchen and was
greeted by
Sangria, one of the maids, "Good morning, Lady
Anissina."
She smiled brightly at them. "Good morning, ladies. What's for breakfast?" she asked casually while on her way to the cupboard to get a more presentable bowl.
Sangria could not help but notice the yogurt-looking thing on the bowl Anissina was holding. "What's that, Lady Anissina?"
"It's food. Could you serve it to Lord von Voltaire in his office? I'm sure by this time he's already awake and working there. I made this for him so he can be more awake." Anissina explained while trying to keep a straight face.
Anissina she made the yogurt. It contained ingredients with contents similar to a love potion she learned to make thanks to Cecilie von Spitzweg. She wanted to feed it to Gwendal.
"Alright. I'll just take these glasses to the dining area for King Yuuri." Sangria answered. "Are you joining the King for breakfast?"
"Yes, I am. I'll just prepare this and leave it here by the oven, okay?" Anissina asked.
"Yes, Lady Anissina." and Sangria left the kitchen.
Anissina transferred the yogurt into the more presentable bowl before placing it on the counter by the oven. With that, she left the kitchen and went straight to the dining room.
"Good morning, everyone!" she greeted as she
entered the dining room where everyone she expected to be there was
already seated and just waiting for Yuuri to arrive.
"Well,
good morning, Anissina." Conrad greeted pleasantly.
It was
only when she took her seat next to Conrad when she realized that
Adalbert von Grantz was seated across from her. "Oh. You didn't
tell me that we have guest! Hello, Lord von Grantz." she
greeted, trying to sound pleasant. "I'm surprised that you're
here."
Adalbert had a smug look on his face. "I was invited by his Highness to drop by for breakfast since I'm visiting my castle this afternoon. And you're up rather early, Lady von Karbelnikoff. Working on another experiment?" he asked.
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Well yes. Would you like to hear about it?" she asked.
But before Adalbert could say his
answer, Yuuri finally arrived. "Good morning everyone!" he
greeted while panting hard.
"Good morning, your majesty."
everyone but Adalbert and Wolfram greeted him back.
"You
sleepyhead! You've kept us waiting again!" Wolfram pointed out
in annoyance.
Yuuri blinked. "What? I'm still late?" he
asked.
Gunter checked the time and realized that Maou is a
minute late. "Oh, your highness! You're late by a minute!"
he pointed out.
Yuuri just sighed. "I guess running here all
the way from my room is no use. I left my room at 7:45 and I still
arrived here a minute after 8!" he pointed out.
"Is
your room too far from the dining room? I can lend you a device that
has wheels so you can just ride all the way from your room to this
place. That way, you won't be late anymore, your Highness."
Anissina said proudly.
Yuuri was suddenly interested. "Really?
Like a bike? A skateboard? Rollerblades? A scooter?" he asked
excitedly.
"Yuuri, I don't think it's a good idea to encourage her..." Wolfram said.
Yuuri frowned. "Well maybe Miss Anissina can really help me out here. After all, she said it's a device, not a machine."
"What's the difference anyway? Even if her inventions don't have wires in them, they still tend to explode for some reason." Adalbert pointed out.
Anissina's eyes widened. Adalbert sure knows how to ruin a lady's day with his "witty" remarks. However, before she could react, Conrad just nudged her discreetly with his elbow to avoid starting a battle of words.
But Adalbert doesn't seem to want to stop there because he went on, "Seriously, Lady von Karbelnikoff should just stay away from science and focus on doing typical lady-things like cooking and cleaning. You'd make a fine wife but unfortunately, you're very rough around the edges."
Yuuri walked over to his chair at the head of the table and sat down uncomfortably. "Now, now, I think Lady Anissina is happy with what she's doing. I believe that women should be happy with their lives and that they should not just be simply restricted to the household. After all, we're not living in the olden days anymore, right, Miss Anissina?" he said in an effort to speak up in behalf of the lady.
Anissina just smirked. "Well yes. His majesty is correct. Why don't you listen to him, Lord von Grantz?" she asked coolly before she crossed her arms.
Everyone
could already feel the tension between the two so they were glad when
Lasagna entered the room with the cart of food.
Gunter
immediately reacted. "Oh thank goodness. The King is starving.
What took you so long?" he asked in an effort to shift the
attention away from the women vs. men subject.
"My apologies, Lord von Kleist. One of the porridges turned cold so I had to reheat it." Lasagna explained as the rest of the maids began to help her serve the porridges.
Adalbert cleared his throat and smirked, "Well I disagree with Lady von Karbelnikoff, your Highness. I think women should be restricted to their homes. Who's going to cook for the man if the woman is not there when he comes home?" he asked airily.
"Oh no..." Conrad
mumbled.
Gunter just took a deep breath while Wolfram clenched his
jaw and kept still on his chair.
"Well if men like you
aren't so traditional on who's supposed to be doing the cooking and
cleaning then maybe you'd stay away from the battlefield, stay at
home, and actually learn how to clean and cook the right way!"
Anissina told him.
"She's right! And where is it written that
women should just be restricted to doing the cooking and cleaning
anyway?" Yuuri asked.
"It doesn't have to be written anywhere, your majesty. Our forefathers have been used to that tradition ever since the world began." Adalbert answered confidently before he picked up his spoon so he can start eating already.
Conrad interrupted before Anissina our Yuuri could speak up. "Where's Gwendal?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.
"He's in his office. He'll have his breakfast there." Anissina answered coldly before she started eating her porridge.
Wolfram got Conrad's point. "Uhm... maybe we should call him and ask him to join us, what do you think, Yuuri?" he asked.
Yuuri blinked. "Yeah, I think Gwendal should join us. He's been working too hard lately." he said before turning to Sangria. "Excuse me, can you..." he began. However, Anissina settled her spoon on the bowl and said, "I'll go get him." she said. Apparently, she was looking for an excuse to just get out of there without appearing very rude. After all, she knows how rude it is to start a fight over a meal in front of the Maou.
"Thank you, Miss Anissina." Yuuri said.
But before Anissina could reply, Adalbert suddenly grunted and started coughing. Everyone turned to him. Anissina thought that he was going to say something derogatory again but she was surprised when she saw that his eyes were turning a bit red. "Oh no..." her mind was screaming at her.
"What's in this porridge?" Adalbert struggled to ask before finally collapsed under the table.
"Oh my goodness!" Gunter
exclaimed.
"What happened?" Wolfram asked in awe.
Conrad
got up and went over to the other side of the table. "Adalbert,"
he called out. Anissina just stood still as she stared at the
porridge that Adalbert was eating. "Lasagna, where did you get
that porridge?" she asked calmly as she turned to the
maid.
"It's the one by the oven." Lasagna answered
innocently.
Sangria gasped.
Anissina's heart began to race. "What did you bring to Gwendal?" she asked.
"He doesn't want to eat, Lady Anissina. Why?" Lasagna asked.
Anissina ran out of the dining area to go to Gwendal's
office.
"Anissina, where are you going?" Gunter called
out; although she did not answer anymore.
"Is he alright, Conrad?" Yuuri asked as he got off his chair and crawled under the table to see if Adalbert was okay.
"He's still breathing and he still has a pulse." Conrad announced.
Wolfram
got up from his chair and examined the "porridge" that
Adalbert was eating before he got up. "It doesn't look like the
one I'm eating so..." he picked up the spoon and stirred it a
bit.
"Don't touch that! I think it made him faint!"
Gunter warned him.
"Do you think it's poisoned?" Wolfram
asked.
"What? Who would poison Adalbert?" Yuuri
asked.
Silence.
"Where did Anissina go?"
Conrad asked.
"Hey, she has the motive to kill him! But I
never knew she had a grudge against Adalbert, too..." Yuuri
began.
"I'm not even sure if Anissina's the type to bear grudges..." Conrad mumbled. "Gunter, help me pull Adalbert out from under the table." he said.
Yuuri crawled out from under the table while Conrad and Gunter pulled Adalbert to a more spacious area in the room while the maids opened more windows to let in some fresh air.
Suddenly, Anissina returned again looking a little frantic. "Quick! Cover his eyes!" she announced.
"Huh? Why?" Conrad asked.
"Just
do it!" Anissina answered impatiently.
"Anissina, I know
Adalbert is an unpleasant person but why did you have to do this to
him?" Yuuri asked.
Anissina took a deep breath and pushed
Conrad away from Adalbert before she knelt down and covered his
closed eyes with her own hand. "I didn't poison him, if that's
what you think." she said.
"Then what did you do to
him?" Wolfram asked.
"That 'porridge' isn't really
porridge. It's yogurt and it's supposed to be for Gwendal!" she
explained.
"What? You want to poison Gwendal?"
Gunter asked in shock.
Yuuri was mortified when he heard that.
"Miss Anissina, why? I thought you and Gwendal are..." he
stammered.
"Your majesty, the yogurt isn't poisoned to begin with. It contains a love potion developed by Lady Celi and..." she got cut off when Wolfram reacted, "Ahahaha! I knew it! You're in-love with Gwendal and you want to charm him with Mother's potion!"
Anissina could feel her ears getting warmer because of embarrassment and stress. "No, no, no!!! I just want to experiment on Gwendal's response with ugly animals. Isn't it he likes cute things? I want to monitor a man's brainwaves when it comes to attraction towards particular things that aren't pleasant to look at." she explained. "My plan was to feed him the yogurt, wait until he's down, blindfold him, take him to my lab, and start my psychological experiment on him. The potion will wear off in 5 hours anyway but for now, we'll have to restrain Adalbert before he wakes up! Now quick, give me a blindfold or a handkerchief or whatever! We have to cover his eyes before he wakes up!" she said frantically.
"What's going on?" they heard Adalbert
ask rather groggily.
Anissina felt her heart stop for a moment
when she heard his voice and felt his hand circle around her thin
wrist so he could get her hand off his eyes.
"Mother's love potion? Is that the one that makes somebody fall in-love with the first person he sees?" Conrad asked as he stepped away further from Anissina and Adalbert. Wolfram immediately went to Yuuri and dragged him away from the dining room in an effort to hide him from Adalbert. Gunter immediately hid behind Conrad.
"Conrad!
Help me here!!!" Anissina wailed. Conrad just smiled weakly at
her.
"Gee, thanks a lot!" she mumbled
sarcastically.
"Anissina?" Adalbert asked.
Anissina
froze and turned to Adalbert. His gaze was completely glued to
her.
She immediately moved away from her and went over to Conrad.
"Restrain him from me for 5 hours. It will wear off eventually."
she said.
But Adalbert was quick to his feet and he caught up with
her. He grabbed her in his arms and crushed her thin frame against
his. "Oh my love. Will you marry me, my lady?" he
asked.
"Oh my..." Gunter could feel the hairs at the
back of his neck standing.
Conrad, on the other hand, was too
shocked to reply.
And then Gwendal entered the dining room. "What is going on in here? Anissina, why did you come to my office and just ran... off... again..." he trailed off when he saw the scenario.
Adalbert glared at Gwendal. "Who's thisOgre? Is this your other lover?" he asked Anissina.
Gwendal's left eye twitched. "Ogre?" he repeated.
Anissina slapped Adalbert's face with her left hand and pushed him away before running over to Gwendal. "I know I'm having a bad day when I'm already experiencing one!" she mumbled before walking away.
"My love! You slapped my face! We're engaged!!!" Adalbert said as he ran after her.
"von Grantz, what is the meaning of this?" an enraged Gwendal demanded as he grabbed Adalbert by the arm.
"You're not yet engaged. She slapped you with the wrong hand on the wrong cheek." Gunter pointed out.
"Let me go, you ogre. I'm in-love with Lady von Karbelnikoff and I'm going to marry her." Adalbert told Gwendal, completely ignoring Gunter's statement.
Gwendal turned pale. "What?" he asked.
"You heard me. Now let me go." Adalbert said before he finally managed to break free from Gwendal's grasp so he can run after Anissina.
Conrad
and Gunter went over to Gwendal. "We have a situation here. We
can't just let him marry Anissina!" Gunter told him
frantically.
"I'll call on the guards so we can restrain him
from Anissina." Conrad said before leaving.
"What is
going on?" Gwendal asked Gunter.
"Anissina is supposed
to give you some yogurt that can make you fall in-love but it was
accidentally served to Adalbert so now..." Gunter
began.
"Anissina wants me to fall in-love with her?"
Gwendal asked, suddenly feeling a mix of emotions that consisted of
very confused, disturbed, embarrassed, nervous, worried, and...happy.
Gunter was quiet for a moment as he took a little time to process Gwendal's question in his head. "You can put it that way," he said amusedly as a bright smile graced his lips. But he cleared his throat. "You have to help her, Gwendal. If not, this is going to create a wrong impact on the von Karbelnikoff family. You don't want her father and her brother to hate all of us here for getting Anissina into trouble, right?" Gunter asked.
Gwendal suddenly felt a surge of rage take over his consciousness. "I can't let her marry that... that... that man!" was the last thing he said before running off to find Anissina.
Gunter took a deep breath and sighed in relief.
Yuuri and Wolfram came out of hiding from behind a post in the
hallway and met with Gunter. "What happened? Is Miss Anissina
alright?" Yuuri asked.
"I hope she's hiding somewhere
safe." Gunter said.
"But that's mother's Love Potion
number 3! There's no use hiding from a person intoxicated with that
potion! It heightens your senses so you can basically smell and hear
your love interest wherever they are. Adalbert will find her no
matter what." Wolfram said in a worried manner.
"Sounds
like an animal searching for his mate..." Yuuri realized.
"Ugh.
That's disgusting, your highness! Can you imagine what their children
would look like? Please have mercy on Anissina!" Gunter reacted
in disgust.
Yuuri cringed. "I didn't mean it that way. Well
then we have to find her and keep her away from Adalbert until the
potion's effect wears off." he said.
Meanwhile, Anissina
headed over to Gisela's room to ask for at least 20 animal
tranquilizers.
"What are you going to do with them? Is there
a big animal that you have to take down?" Gisela asked as
she rummaged through a box of medicine containers under her study
table.
Anissina thought for a while. "More like, Lord von
Grantz." she said.
Gisel was surprised. "Lord von
Grantz? Why? What happened?" she asked.
Then, they heard
someone knocking on the door. "Anissina, my love. I know you're
in there!" they heard Adalbert's voice.
Anissina shuddered
while Gisela just sat there in awe. "Anissina! What is going
on?" she asked.
"Adalbert, Anissina is not there."
they heard Yuuri say.
"No, your highness. She's inside! I cansmell her! And when I get her out of there, I'll kiss her."
Adalbert said.
Anissina had always tried to be strong but at
that moment, she just wanted to cry. "This is my end! Oh,
Gisela, when I die, will you carry on with my mission on empowering
women?" she asked worriedly.
Gisela did not know what to say.
"Well yes, but... what is going on?" she asked
confusedly.
The door burst open and there was Adalbert struggling to break free from Yuuri, Wolfram, Jozak, Conrad, and 5 soldiers who were trying their best to restrain him from coming in. "Anissina! My darling Anissina! Help me! They don't want us to be together! But I'll find a way, I promise! I'd kill them if I have to!" Adalbert cried out.
Anissina panicked. "No, no! Don't kill anyone! Otherwise I'll... I'll... I'll kill myself!" she said in an attempt to keep everyone safe.
"My god! Anissina, you should be restrained from your laboratory for at least a year until you learn from this! Your experiments are really bound to destroy the world someday, you know? Just look what you've done with Adalbert! You gave him a love yogurt that's supposed to be for Gwendal!" Wolfram said in annoyance.
"Anissina, I this is a good chance for you to run away now." Conrad told her.
Gisela quickly got a tranquilizer gun and loaded the
darts into them. "No, don't leave me here! Somebody has to shoot
him! My aim isn't really that good from this distance." she told
Anissina.
"Well then come closer!" Wolfram told
Gisela.
"I don't want to come near him! He looks dangerous
and rabid! I don't like going near rabid animals, Wolfram."
Gisela pointed out with a disgusted look on her face before handing
the gun over to Anissina. "Here, shoot him with at least 5. The
darts have the strongest tranquilizers I ever came up with on them."
she said.
Anissina did not hesitate anymore. She just grabbed the gun and fired as many darts as she could at Adalbert, hitting him in various areas of his body--yes, including the crotch. She decided to fire all the darts anyway to make sure that the tranquilizer can really render him unconscious.
In 3 seconds, after the last one hit Adalbert on his right thigh, he finally weakened and limped against the men restraining him.
Wolfram immediately let go of
Adalbert and stepped away. "I'm glad you didn't hit any of us!"
he told Anissina.
"Hey, I'm not all that bad, you know. Men
aren't the only ones who can handle a gun." she answered
proudly.
Wolfram just made a face but his attention shifted back
to the rest when he heard Jozak react, "Your highness!"
Gisela
gasped. "You shot the King!" she told Anissina.
Anissina
just shrugged and dropped the gun on the floor as she crossed her
arms. "Oh for crying out loud. He'll live! It's just one dart!"
she told them reassuringly.
Yuuri was a little groggy as Conrad pulled out the dart from his left arm. "I'll be fine... but I'm really tired..." and he finally fell asleep.
They were all silent for a few moments before Conrad said, "At least Adalbert is down. We'll just have to tie him somewhere and wait for 5 hours before we let him go."
Gwendal arrived at the
scene. "Anissina!" he was yelling. He looked rather
distressed.
"She's fine, Gwendal." Wolfram pointed
out.
Gwendal was panting hard as he stopped running and looked at
Yuuri. "What happened to him?" he asked.
"He's just
sleeping. He'll wake up later." Wolfram said
reassuringly.
Gwendal turned away. That assurance was enough for
him to forget about the King's condition for a while so he can focus
on the issue that he was concerned the most.
Anissina just
stood inside Gisela's room. "You alright?" she asked
casually.
Gwendal started to calm down when he saw that she seemed
fine. He knew she was capable of defending and taking care of herself
but still, it was probably his nature already to be concerned about
the ones who he considers dear to him even if he was good at
concealing every kind of emotion he had ever felt towards them.
But he felt different at that moment because it was only then when he realized how much he truly cared for Anissina.
Still, he tried to keep a straight face and again, he successfully maintained a cold exterior. "I'm supposed to... be the one asking you that." he said. However, there was something in the way that he was looking at Anissina that communicated something else to her. She immediately knew what it meant but she just kept it to herself... like always. So she just smiled simply and said, "I'm alright, Gwendal. In the meantime, you'd better help them bring his Majesty back to his room so he can rest."
Gwendal hesitated for a while but he
heard Wolfram calling him. "Brother, help me with Yuuri. Conrad
and the rest are carrying Adalbert away already."
That was
when he turned away from Anissina and went over to help his youngest
brother.
As soon as the men left, Gisela turned to Anissina and
shook her head disappointedly. "You were trying to give a love
potion to Gwendal but it went to Adalbert?" she asked.
Anissina
just smiled casually and shrugged. "Hey, I'm not perfect."
she said.
Gisela smirked. "Call for my help next time."
she said with a wink.
Anissina sighed. "Oh well... I think
that 'next time' you're talking about will happen when they're
finally over this incident. But for now, it looks like I'm going to
have to send a message to Lady Celi that her plan failed." she
said before heading over to the door.
"But seriously,
Anissina, do you still need a love potion?" Gisela
asked.
Anissina stopped and thought for a while. She smiled
softly. "Until he learns to open up, Lady Celi thinks it's
better with a love potion. But honestly, I think I'll just have to
wait for now." she answered.
"Wait again? I'd be
very impatient if I were you." Gisela pointed out
disappointedly.
Anissina just took a deep breath. "I'll be
fine, Gisela." she said reassuringly before she finally stepped
out of the room.
By sundown, Adalbert was already okay and was
about to leave the castle grounds. Yuuri and the entire gang decided
to bid him goodbye at the gate.
"Well, it's been a long day
but I still don't know why I fainted." Adalbert told them
gruffly.
"Maybe you're just really tired." Conrad
said.
Gwendal just stood still beside Conrad, eyeing his younger
brother warningly to make sure he wouldn't say anything that could
remind Adalbert of the incident.
Adalbert could remember being in
the dining room and then suddenly, he was already in a bedroom. When
he asked what happened, they kept insisting that he fainted for
unknown reasons. Gisela just advised him to go home and rest instead
of traveling again because his fainting was caused by severe fatigue
and lack of sleep due to his travels.
"I guess I'll see
you some other time, Adalbert. Be sure to drop by here again, okay?"
Yuuri asked cheerfully.
"Of course, your Highness."
Adalbert asked as he mounted his stallion. He smirked. "After
all, I'm not yet finished with Lady von Karbelnikoff." he
said.
Anissina cringed as she stepped away and hid behind
Gunter, refusing to say anything to him. Gwendal's left eye twitched.
"What?" he grunted.
Adalbert could not understand why
Gwendal was eyeing him that way. "Well then, Lord von Voltaire,
better restrain me from her next time. We sure had a good discussion
this morning during breakfast." he said, meaning to be
sarcastic. However, Gwendal took it literally. Conrad just nudged his
older brother to keep his temper in check. Gwendal just cleared his
throat and looked away. "Don't worry, I'll keep Anissina away
from you as much as I can." he said through clenched
teeth.
With that, Adalbert rode out of the castle grounds while Yuuri waved and yelled another goodbye. Afterwards, everyone went back inside the castle except for the three sons of Cecilie von Spitzweg.
"You know, I think it's good that you didn't
eat that yogurt, Gwendal. Otherwise, you would've fallen in-love with
Anissina and then you'd completely forget everything that you did
after 5 hours." Wolfram said.
Conrad just stood there quietly
with a soft smile on his face.
Gwendal just grunted, not knowing
how to respond to Wolfram's statement. "Next time, inform me
when the King plans to invite von Grantz into this castle again so I
can take Anissina to my castle and we'll stay there until he leaves."
he told his brothers.
Conrad just sighed and gave Gwendal a
reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Don't be like me, brother."
he said before going ahead of them back inside the castle.
Wolfram
and Gwendal looked at him strangely. They understood what Conrad
meant.
Gwendal took a deep shuddering breath. "But what
can I do?" he asked.
Wolfram smiled and slapped his eldest
brother's back playfully. "Adalbert might plan on coming back
here tomorrow so why don't you take Anissina to your castle now
before it's too late?" he said before running after
Conrad.
Gwendal grunted and clenched his fist. "That's not really funny, you..." he said in annoyance before deciding to go back inside the castle.
oOoOo
-end-
