DISCLAIMER: Kyo Kara Maoh belongs to Tomo Takabayashi. The song "Roter Sand" and all its lyrics belong to Rammstein.
"One love and two guns.
One points into my face.
He says I stole you.
He doesn't know that you love me.
Red sand and two cartridges.
One dies in the gunpowder kiss." - Rammstein, "Roter Sand" (lyrics translated from German)
A/N: As you can see, the song that inspired this fic is about a duel with guns not swords. But the Demon world doesn't have guns, so...
-- One Love and Two Swords --
Lord von Rochefort challenged Gwendal to a duel, which Gwendal tried to weasel out of by protesting that Anissina wouldn't want them fighting over her like she was a prize to be won.
"That would be a completely barbaric way of settling things," Lord von Rochefort agreed. "Lady Anissina will still be free to choose whomever she wishes, of course. The duel is simply an opportunity to prove which one of us loves her more!"
When he put it that way, it made it impossible for Gwendal to back out of the duel without looking like he didn't care about Anissina at all... which would make their very public kiss very hard to explain...
Gwendal was still regarding the whole matter as ridiculous, so he was surprised by how serious Lord von Rochefort actually was about it. As the duel began, he was shocked to find that he was hard-pressed to defend himself. It seemed he had underestimated his opponent's skill with the sword as well as the seriousness of the situation. He quickly got serious as Lord von Rochefort's swordpoint raked across his shoulder, drawing blood.
The battle only became more intense from there. Gwendal had no idea how much time passed. His focus was narrowed so that the only thing he was aware of was his opponent.
Suddenly he found himself kneeling on the ground, breath coming in shallow gasps, sword arm numb. He struggled to his feet again despite his adverse condition.
And then Anissina was beside him, shouting, "Stop, idiot, you're going to bleed to death!"
Days later, after much intensive healing, Gwendal finally regained consciousness.
And the first words out of his mouth upon awakening were: "Did I win?"
"Well, no... not the duel..." Celi informed him hesitantly. "But you won what's important!" she continued cheerfully. For a moment he wondered what the hell he could possibly have won (without having any knowledge of such an event) that was more important than the duel... then he realized that she was talking about Anissina's heart. "I've already started planning the wedding-"
Whoa, wait! Why was his mother planning a wedding? This whole ordeal had been about stopping a wedding from taking place...
She couldn't possibly be thinking that Gwendal was planning on marrying Anissina, could she?!
-end-
A/N: Reviews are love.