Chapter 3: Because you live

It was a bright sunny morning. Cornelia was awake but the one thing that made her want to sleep was the massive headache pounding immensely. This was probably due to the stress she faced with her older brother, Schneizel. The two of them were always getting into arguments and never got along.

Guilford opened the doors to see that she wasn't awake. Something seemed to be bothering her enough to cause her to cry. His fingertips ran over her cheek with a huge frown.

"Princess, what's wrong?" He asked with his voice flooding with concern. "I can tell you aren't looking well." His heart sank to his stomach seeing her sick.

"It's… nothing." She sat up and cringed as she placed her hand over her forehead. "I don't want you to worry about me."

"But you know I will anyway." He placed his hand on his cheek. "Do you have a bad headache?" He placed his hand over forehead.

"Yeah. I was trying to sleep it off but the pain continues to be more agonizing." She frowned as she laid back down. "Do me a favor and check on Nunnally." Her voice sounded weak from the pain.

"But… I can't leave you in your time of need." He frowned at her. "That would totally go against my will as your knight."

"Guilford, that's an order." She poked his chest. "I'm not in the mood to face my bastard of a brother right now." Her voice was angered just thinking of him.

"Okay but… try to get some rest. I'm going to bring you something warm later." He rubbed her cheek with his fingertips and kissed her forehead. "I can't stand seeing you not feeling well."

Guilford closed her door by a crack for privacy. He peeked into Nunnally's room to see that she must have been awake. His footsteps proceeded down the staircase and saw the empress with Zero and Schneizel sitting there.

"Oh? Your princess isn't with you? How unloyal that makes you as a knight." His voice was filled with evilness. "I still cannot think of why she appointed you as such."

"Schneizel please!" Nunnally pleaded him. "I wish you would stop treating my sister and her knight that way!" Her voice was filled with a deep sadness.

"I don't know why you allow this." He scowled at her. "You should be doing something to prevent this."

"Don't you think you should listen to what he has to say?" Nunnally ordered him. "I want the fighting to stop!"

"Fine. I apologize for being a jerk." He snickered. "I still think you are being unloyal to my sister."

"As if you're any better. I'm not leaving her because she ordered me to check on Nunnally. She's not feeling well right now. You push her too hard and that's why she falls ill." He shot Schneizel an angry glance while pouring water into a glass.

"I'm just doing what I think is best." He was stirring his tea with a spoon. "Nunnally shouldn't worry about the little things in life."

"Stop it… now!" Nunnally screamed at the top of her lungs. "I'm not going to say it again. I order you to stop making decisions for me!" She had never been this angry before.

"Schneizel, you're really stressing everyone out, you know that?" Guilford carried the glass of water upstairs with two Tylenol in his hand.

The woman still sitting up in her bed was finally relieved of his arrival. He could tell she was growing impatient before and would have to make it up to her. Guilford placed the two pills into her palm and handed her a glass of water.

"It took you long enough." She said under the usual impatient tone. "Did my brother give you hell again?" She couldn't stand the man he had become.

"Oh yeah…" He growled as he looked away. "He had the nerve to tell me how unloyal I was to you as well." His hand rubbed her thigh as she took both pills.

"I hope you didn't pay any mind to it." She took a few more sips of her water. "Schneizel wants all the attention. It doesn't matter who or what gets destroyed in the process because as long as all eyes are on him, nothing can ever bring him down."

"Was he always like this when you were younger?" He noticed her look away from his gaze and frown. "If it's too touchy for you to talk about then you don't have to."

"No… it's fine and no, my brother was never like this. He was always much stronger than me as we were kids. Sometimes if there was a bully outside the palace, he would beat them up before they ever laid a hand on me." She explained. "I remember one time when a terrorist tried to attack me, Schneizel had gotten so angry about it that he actually killed the guy."

"Wow… didn't he get in trouble for it?" Guilford looked at her with surprise. "Or were you both still pretty young?"

"No, we were still young." She faced him as she continued her story. "It wasn't until we both got older and began maturing. Schneizel had all these ridiculous ideas for his reign as emperor. A lot of them were the same ideas you here him preach to Nunnally. He doesn't care about the amount of lives that are lost…" She sighed.

"So it was basically his maturity and lack of trust?" He replied. "I guess I'm glad you saw those evil ways. You were also kind of interested in power as well but… at least you were able to change your mind."

"I wish you wouldn't talk about that." She looked away. "It's bad enough I made too many mistakes to count for. I can never gain the appreciation for the people like my half-sister Nunnally."

"I don't want to see him hurt you though." He told her as his cheeks turned red. "You're the most important person to me in the whole world. If I lost you, I would never be able to forgive myself."

Cornelia looked away as her cheeks blushed. It wasn't like she had a crush on him but sometimes she wondered if she really was in love with him. Guilford was the only one that had been there for her from the start.

"Sorry… I hope that didn't make you angry, princess." He looked away as his cheeks continued to fill with redness. "But I really can't stand him bullying you like that."

"I know but… there isn't really much that can be done." She placed her hand against his cheek and smiled. "Nunnally doesn't like fighting and we both need to acknowledge that."

Guilford placed his hand over hers and moved her palm to his lips. Her cheeks turned red as he started to kiss her palm. Cornelia placed her head into his broad chest as he held her in his usual protective embrace.

"You really like being held now, don't you?" He smiled as he kissed her forehead.

"Nah… I only like being held by you, my knight." Her cheeks flushed red as she buried her face against his chest. "Sometimes I feel like you're the only that gives me all the comfort I need."

"That's because I could never let you down, princess. I want you to be happy and smiling all the time. It's what makes me smile because I know everything is alright." He rubbed her back as he continued to hold her. "But when you're upset, I feel like I'm not being a good knight unless I give you that happiness you need."

"Why do you always have to make me blush?" She started to chuckle as her arms wrapped him tighter. "You seem to have a way with flattering me so much."

Guilford's cheeks turned red when he realized he couldn't find the answer. It was clear to him that he loved her and he cared deeply for her. Yet, his words seemed too sudden for the woman that had lost so much to her.

"Isn't that what a knight is supposed to when his princess isn't feeling well?" He replied as he kissed her forehead.

"Mm, I guess you have a valid point there." She blushed as his lips moved slowly toward hers.

Cornelia could feel his soft breath brushing over her lips. Her resistance made it obvious she was surprised by this. Guilford was so close to finally kissing her when the small voice made him blush.

"I wanted to see how Cornelia was feeling." She had said to them. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Her calm personality had finally returned.

"No… it's fine, your majesty. You weren't interrupting anything too important." He smiled as he let go of Cornelia. "We were just um… having a conversation."

Nunnally started to giggle at the two of them. She knew something was up between them even though they had never been aware. Cornelia blushed as she looked at her little sister's deep concern.

"You don't have to worry about me, Nunnally." She smiled at her. "I actually feel a little better now."

"That's good. I was worried that Schneizel had caused trouble for you again." She frowned. "He can be such a pain sometimes. It's totally despicable because he is just like our father."

"Our father wasn't the greatest man in the world." She sighed. "But I really don't want you to feel concerned by that. I know you can make things better than what either of them could do."

"You really think so?" Her cheeks turned red as she giggled. "I just want to do the best I can to aid those that were hurt because of the war."

Guilford loved what Cornelia had become. The old Cornelia shared the same views her half-brother still carried. The new one had ditched those ways after realizing how much corrupting that it created the empire.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you were okay." She smiled at her sister. "I'll leave you to alone now."

Cornelia started to blush when she looked back at him. His cheeks turned just as red as hers became. Guilford didn't know what to do or even say at the point. Anything that broke the silence would only cause more awkwardness between the two of them. Someone had to remove the barrier standing in their way just to let them know how much they truly cared for one another.