A/N: I am unbelievably sorry for not up-dating for such a long time! But, hopefully this will make up for it.
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Dilandau had never in his short sixteen years of life had been faced with something like this. Never would have have wanted to be.
First he gets letters from someone he's never met in his entire life. Love letters. And then said someone just lands in his lap, injured and without anywhere else to go. Supposedly, anyway.
And that wasn't the worst of it, so far. No, now he had to decide what to do with her. He couldn't let Fulken find out about her, he might tell the sorcerers. And he couldn't very well let her wander the Vione and have everyone wondering about her. Killing her was looking rather appealing, but for some odd reason that he fathem didn't really want to kill her.
No, he was too curious to kill her. Yet.
"So what the hell am I supposed to do?!" The albino suddenly exclaimed to absolutely nobody, just to his dark and empty room.
Shaking himself from his thoughts, he became aware of the quick footsteps nearing her room.
No sooner than two seconds later there was a knock on the door. Three knocks, actually. All in a frantic row, "Lord Dilandau, are you in there? It's Shesta."
"Come in."
The young slayer didn't have to be told twice. He opened the door and shut it just as quickly. Turning towards Dilandau, the blonde gave a bow, quickly, but still with respect. When he stood back up, the red eyed captain could tell he had something important to say, but was trying to find the right way to say it, so he would look proffesional-ish.
"Lord Dilandau... it's about Miss Merle."
"What about her?" The captain questioned using a voice not too forcefull, but not extraordinarily gentle either.
"Well, Gatty and I were cleaning her up in the dungeons like you told us to and, well, she got sick and passed out from the medicines affect. She's also running a light fever." Shesta explained, keeping his guard up in case the albino was angered and tried to hit him.
Dilandau didn't hit him, though. He just stood and gave a thoughtful look.
"And what exactly do you want me to do?"
"W-well, sir... Gatty and I wanted to know if maybe we could move her to one of the private rooms and clean her up there. After all, you said that Dallet, Gatty and myself couldn't tell anyone else about her and I don't think treating her in the dungeons would be such a good idea."
Contemplating the slayer's words in his head a few times the albino captain nodded, giving the 'okay' that the blonde desired.
"Thank you lord Dilandau! I promise we'll be carefull when we move her."
"I know you will. I'm coming to make sure you do." Dilandau replied, moving toward the door as the blonde fully took in the eleven words that had been uttered from his commander's lips. A slightly anxious look planting itself upon the blonde's face as he followed the other out of the room.
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Back in the dungeons Gatty was looking over Merle as she slept, figuring that he could make better progress fixing her as she slept than he ever could when she was awake.
The damage she had sustained before he and Dallet had found her was actually relatively light except her right leg, right ear and left wrist. The leg had little pieces of glass stuck inside of it where the skin was parted from jagged claw marks which had crusted over with blood and dirt. Her ear was still trobbing and occasionally leaked blood when touched, now it had foam forming around it because of the medicine. Green foam that reminded him of the kind you might see in a river in the middle of fall.
As for her wrist, well, it would take some time for that to heal properly. He winced as he popped it back into place, some of her skin moving out of place as the bone that was previously poking out of it slid back in. If he wasn't trained to handle this sort of thing in the field he actually might have gotten sick by just looking at her.
"You poor thing. You should have let us fix you up sooner." He scolded the sleeping girl in a light voice as the door to the dungeons opened, revealing not only Shesta, but also his captain. Both were holding what looked like blankets.
"Lord Diladau, what are you doing here, sir?" The second in command asked as he slowly raised to a standing position. Giving a bow in greeting and respect.
"Well, Gatty, I'm here because you both suggested we move the girl to another room."
"Sir, we don't have to if you say-"
"I said yes." Dilandau said, moving toward the slayer and the girl by his feet.
Gatty took a moment to stare at his captain in amazement as the albino lifted Merle into his arms, carefull not to disrupt any wounds that the secong in command might have already bandaged.
"We're going to move her into the room right across from both of yours. Nobody is currently occupying it and as for as I know that room hasn't been set foot in for at least two years. I don't know why that is, but as far as I'm concerned-"
"It's perfect!" Shesta complimented, clapping a hand over his mouth at the realization that he had interupted his commanding officer.
Gatty didn't say a thing, simply nodding in agreement of lord Dilandau's plan. He and Shesta would be close enough to reach her if needed, and if one of the other slayers saw them exiting the room they'd simply think that they'd entered the wrong room. It truely was a brilliant plan.
"However," Dilandau added, wrapping Merle in a blanket, "First we have to get her out of this dungeon without anyone seeing her. So you two will have to walk ahead of me and make sure that if anyone's too close that they're distracted when I pass."
Shesta and Gatty nodded with agreement, following their captain to the door as the albino added one more blanket to Merle, making her look like a sack of potatoes from far away.
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As Dilandau and his two partners in crime made their way to the apointed destination the white skinned commander contemplated why he had decided to do something so... kind. It just wasn't like him. He was a known killer in the Zaibach empire and yet he was being K.I.N.D. to a complete stranger.
'What the hell is wrong with me?' Dilandau questioned himself, letting out an unheard sigh of frustration as the trio rounded the corner.
Only to be seen by Miguel.
"Lord Dilandau, I've been looking for you, sir." The umber haired young man said giving a bow as he said the words that could set the trio's plan astray.
"What for?" The caiptain said still walking, not even slowing his pace so Miguel could catch up. It was what he usually did, so the slayer wouldn't become curious of his behavior. Aside from the large bundle in his arms, Dilandau was acting pretty normal.
"Well your lordship," Miguel started gaining pace with his albino captain, "It's about the trouble with your guymelef. It seems that the mechanics will have to remove the flamethrower for a short time to see if any of the problems are caused by it. Also they're keeping the 'melef out of action until they get it fixed entirely."
"So, in other words, I can't go into the field for awhile." It was a statement and they all knew it. Inside Dilandau was pissed, but as the words escaped his lips he only sounded bored.
"Yes sir." Miguel said, slightly disapointed that he couldn't be with the caiptain in battle. He perked up, though when he realized that Dilandau was carrying a bundle that looked rather heavy and that the two blonde slayers following from behind were looking rather nervous.
"Lord Dilandau, would it be terribly rude of me to ask what the thing your carrying is?"
'How's he going to get out of this one?' Both Gatty and Shesta thought at the same time as the caiptain and brown haired slayer rounded another corner, the blondes speeding up a little.
"It's a sack of potatoes. What else?" Dilandau answered sounding relatively annoyed as he answered Miguel's question.
"But, why are you carrying it when you have Gatty and Shesta to do it for you?"
"It's to build my upper body strength. Better than lifting weights and it's better than listening to Fulken harp all day long."
"Wow, lord Dilandau is really good at this lying thing." Shesta whipered to the blonde next to him, Gatty nodding in agreement.
"He has to be." Gatty replied, his blue-green eyes flashing as the commanded seemed to quicken pace with each step he took. Needless to say it looked as though he was trying very hard not to just run from Miguel, dump the girl and get this little "mission" over and done with.
"Is there any thing else you need?" Dilandau asked Miguel irratably as they turned yet another corner. 'How many halls are you going to follow us through any way?!'
"Oh not really sir, it's just a pleasure to be in your company." Miguel replied, trying his hand at flattery.
"Don't try and suck up to me Miguel. It doesn't suit you."
"Access denied." Shesta joked quietly, restaining himself from giggling. He kinda felt sorry for the older boy, he was practically a friend of Dilandau's after all.
"Okay, then. Is there any thing I can get you before I leave your company, though?"
"Actually, yes there is. Go down to the wine room and get me something with a bite in it. I've got a headache coming on, but don't be too quick. And don't forget, I like this deep red stuff in the back. And when you're done with that go to the kitchens and get some hot meat, I haven't eaten either." Dilandau wasn't entirely lying now, he was getting a headache and wine always seemed to help that. The food wasn't totally nessassary, but what the hell, it would keep him away for a while.
"Yes, sir. I'll be back in a moment." Miguel bowed once more and was off, nodding to his fellow slayers as he passed.
When all three were sure that the brunette was in the next hall and well out of ear-shot they all gave a sigh of relief. He hadn't gotten suspicous.
"That was really good acting lord Dilandau." Shesta complimented, both the blonde slayers up beside their captain as they neared their destination.
"Yes, I think I did rather well." The albino said, sarcasm dripping off of every word, "Now the next person who tries to intercept me, get's to deal with you two."
The two blondes nodded, fully aware of the obvious threat that if they didn't help Dilandau out with the next problem they were seriously going to get it later. They didn't want that. Certainly not.
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Fate seemed to be on the trio's side though, because they got to thier destination before they could be intercepted again.
The inside of the room in which they were to keep Merle was actually pretty nice. There was a lot of dust everywhere, but there was also a large bed with the silk blankets and sheets still on it, along with two large fluffy pillows. There were no windows, but plenty of candles that were practically screaming to be used. A large black book-case resided to the left of the room, filled with many types of books, paged yellow from age. No bathroom. That would be a problem, but the boys would deal with that when the time came.
As Dilandau set the small cat-girl on the bed, the two slayers either were guarding the door or were lighting a candle so they could see.
While they did that, Dilandau took the chance to study the girl.
She was actually pretty small, but when she laid down she looked the slightest bit taller, but only by a couple inches at most. She couldn't have been much older than fourteen.
'She looks kinda...cute.' Dilandau decided, mentally kicking himself for the thought.
'Lord, this is going to be strange when she wakes up.'
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A/N: Okay, that's the end of this chapter, but I hope to get the next one up rather soon.
I'd like to thank CampionSayn and MyLuvlyRiku for beta-ing this for me. And I'd also like to thank Macky, Valinor's Twilight, EscaPhan225, Nikushimi no Ai, Katt Anne Kindel, Kamikaya, Casa Circe, and Dilandau-is-My-Boyfriend for their wonderfull, wonderfull reviews that kept me writing this.
And to all you reading this, REVIEW.
