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Lord Von Voltaire was standing frozen in the hallway just outside of his own personal quarters facing down the most terrifying opponent that he had ever known in his entire existence. His broad shoulders were squared, his strong hands clenched to white knuckles, and his left eye was twitching as he desperately and futilely tried to will his frozen limbs to move and escape. If he could just dodge somehow and get to the end of the hallway and the stairwell to exit this wing of the castle…
She was blocking the only way out.
"Gwendal, you colossal coward! What would the council say if they saw their General running away from his own bedroom like this?"
Lady Anissina the Red, the poison Lady herself, was between him and his only escape route. The chilling ice blue gaze she fixed on her childhood friend and perpetual lab rat gave no room for excuses. The thin woman had her hands on her hips and her tall brown boots squared apart and she knew she had the much larger mazoku cornered.
"Just stop it. I am not running away, the man is ill and needs his rest and having me and my maryoku hovering around will only put him on edge. Conrart can't catch wraith fever and he doesn't have any maryoku for him to sense. Günter's always treated the boy like family. There's no reason Conrart won't be safe looking after him."
Gwendal tried his excuses anyways. Sometimes reason and logic could find it's way into her overactive brain, on rare occasions, when they actually could be made to further the glory of science and women's superiority.
Gunter had been brought to Gwendal's private bed chambers to rest because the infirmary was still in need of cleaning up and because his own tower room was too far away, too cold, and too over piled with books as usual to even find the bed for him to rest in. It wasn't exactly clear who had suggested Gwendal's room in the first place, but they were both Lords of equal station so it was a logical and already well heated choice for accommodations. Günter certainly hadn't objected, he'd been unconscious at the time. Conrart had been the one to carry him this time and so he had been the one to volunteer to stay and watch over him.
"And what about Günter being safe with him, hmmm? What happens if he tries to play a game of healer and patient with him?"
Anissina persisted with her evil plot. He was convinced it was some kind of evil, it had to be, the woman lived to torment him after all.
"Stop being ridiculous, Conrart has Jozak. I'm not that blind and neither is Günter."
Gwendal folded his arms and tried to sound resolute in his conviction that he was stating the obvious. Everyone knew about Conrart and Josak by now, didn't they?
"What if he had Günter too?"
Came the sharp tongued reply. Gwendal sputtered for a moment but then regained his certainty.
"Lord VonKliest would never!"
The raspberry haired inventress gave a smug smile and folded her own arms across her chest.
"You're right, he wouldn't normally consider anything inappropriate, especially not with someone of Conrarts rank and breeding, but right now he is very ill. And he's always been a romantic. Do you think Conrart would resist if…"
"My brother is not the sort to take advantage of anyone like that."
Gwendal was beginning to doubt his own excuses and wondered why he should even be trying to defend anyones honor in this ridiculous conversation. He really didn't have time for this nonsense. Time for feelings. He had duty and work to get back to!
But Anissina persisted.
"Even if he knows he'll never get another chance? Even if it were Günter, his childhood idol and schoolboy crush? Even if the other insisted and perhaps because he was ill he'd want to answer any and all delirious requests to 'comfort' him?"
Gwendal was grumbling now in a belligerent and almost childish tone.
"You're being unreasonable. You're trying to make me go back in there so I can make a fool of myself."
She finally huffed and glared harder as if highly insulted since he was clearly the one being difficult about this. She silently despaired the thick skull that all men seemed to be born with. Lady Anissina finally came at him and smacked him on the shoulder with the back of her hand in frustration while he comically ducked and cringed expecting far worse.
"For Shinous sake Gwendal, I'm trying to make you happy!"
She shouted in frustration, after which she stomped off down the hallway doubting there was any kind of invention that could help this hopeless situation. Then again… maybe there was? She wouldn't be a genius inventor of the very highest and epic caliber if she couldn't come up with something, now would she?
Gwendal blinked owlishly after her as the bright double curls at the ends of her long ponytail swayed in the wake of her angry clicking gait.
If he didn't relent and visit with Günter more the maids would know, and then Anissina would know. After a lifetime of withstanding her scientific method he had developed a keen sense about when she was planning something that would involve him and some maryoku draining monstrosity of an invention. That angry glint in her eyes most definitely foretold his undeserving doom at the hands of her next experiment if he failed to "be happy" as she put it.
Suddenly spending time visiting with a sick Günter, if that's what she really wanted him to do, sounded like a very, very good idea!
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Gwendal had been stubborn and felt too awkward about going back into his bedchamber right away. Instead he'd let his feet take him automatically down the familiar route to his office where he polished off the days paperwork and issued new orders to deal with the heavy snowfall they were facing this evening and likely into the next few days. He would give in to Anissina eventually, but on his own time and in his own way. He still had that much spine left to him.
It was later than he anticipated, closer to midnight than he wanted it to be, when he finally found himself standing back in front of his own bedroom door. Only the faintest crack of light escaped out into the black unlit hallway. Gwendal had always had excellent night vision, he actually preferred to be up all night and the daily grind of rising at dawn did make him cranky. The birdsong at dawn always lulled him into the best sleep and he'd not rise until late afternoon if left to his own devices on the rarity of a day off.
He decided to enter his room using skills of stealth that would make even his daintiest foster kitten jealous. He knew every little creak of the old oak floorboards by heart after so many years in residence here and he used shielding spells to completely mask his presence as long as he stayed out of that small circle of lamplight from the bedside table. He didn't want to disturb Günter if he could help it, and he also didn't want Conrart to know he was here yet.
His younger half brother had pulled up his desk chair to the bedside. He was reading a thick leather bound book that looked suspiciously like one of Anissinas newest romance novels to help him pass the time until Josak came to take his shift. The two half breeds were the ones best suited to watching over Günter after all since they couldn't become infected by his illness. Conrart didn't look up at all when Gwendal silently approached and he couldn't blame him for not having a way to detect him in his own room.
He had almost been afraid to look but when he did the vision in his bed took his breath away for a moment. Gwendal literally had to remind himself to breathe. It was only Günter after all, a familiar enough every day sight to him, except the dark wooden four poster and navy sheets weren't usually there to make his pale features seem to glow under the lamplight. Just the way his spider silk hair was spread out over the pillows made something in Gwendal's knees go instantly weak.
Even though he was sound asleep in the warm comfort of Gwendal's bed there was even a small curve to the light blush of his lips, as if he were smiling in his sleep. It was strange to see him so unguarded and Gwendal spent a long moment to appreciate it.
Günter smiled at people, he smiled for them, but he never really smiled because he himself was truly happy. More often his lips would curve upwards into a fragile worried sort of mask as he considered all the things that could snatch a peaceful moment and the happiness of those around him away for good.
Gwendal had always known Günters smiles held a deep and tragic kind of sorrow if one looked carefully enough past all his aristocratic airs and dazzling perfect beauty. That is until Yuri Heika had come into their lives. Despite his glaring flaws and misadventures the only thing Gwendal had ever truly held against the boy king was that he was able to make his royal advisors eyes light up and genuine laughter come from his lips without seeming to put any effort into it at all.
Günters happiness was a problem Gwendal had struggled with and danced around since he'd first realized that hidden shadow of sadness that followed the pale mazoku everywhere as constant as his cloak. Nothing had him more vexed than how easily Yuri had been able to solve it. He was downright jealous of their Maoh. At the same time he wanted to just go up and hug the boy whenever he saw the lavender haired knight expressing such unguarded and perhaps to some even downright silly joy at the hope for peace and prosperity Yuri had brought into their lives.
That well guarded gloom and anxiousness had been there in Günter when Gwendal had first met him as nothing more than a star struck adolescent trying not to act as awkward as his younger brothers in front of a visiting noble. Günter had looked a thousand times more stunning than any of his portraits but once Gwendal had noticed how hollow his smiles really were he had seemed a lonely and delicate cameo that haunted ones heart. The kind of pale tragic beauty poetry was written about, badly, in Gwendal's own secret diaries.
If his own Lady Mother hadn't been so busy fawning over the lovely young Lord upon their first encounter Gwendal imagined he might have been foolish enough and caught up enough in the others beauty and his own inexperienced lust to slap Günter and propose marriage right then and there.
But the recklessness of youth was never really upon him and Gwendal stood by then as he has stood by for years since, patiently waiting and hoping that one day the other would have some real use for him aside from duty and friendship. That one day the brilliant older mazoku would simply turn to him and all the formal distance kept carefully between them would be broken by some word or deed. And of course lines from some of Anissina's romance novels flitted through his mind at the thought of what may happen then, having very few real romantic experiences of his own to go on and certainly none with another male and especially none with someone as absolutely precious to him as Gunter.
Gwendal's patience had only brought him disappointment when it came to the silent longings of his heart. The other man seemed to notice Gwendal about as much as a piece of furniture on most days. It was true they counted each other as friends, good friends if Günter were to be believed the few times he had introduced Gwendal to others on rare informal social occasions.
"And this is my good friend Lord Gwendal VonVoltaire…"
The words still gave him warmth to think of, and yet how much more warmth he had craved from his secret crush over the years. It would have sent him to the floor to be introduced as anything more, as a best friend, as a lover, as a fiancé. He would die truly complete if one day Shinou be begged he could ever have Günter own up to him as his husband. The thought alone had colour rushing to his cheeks like not even the cutest plushie or baby animal could.
But Günters true smiles were not for him.
He knew it was hopeless and down right ridiculous of him to entertain any fantasies of ever being with Günter. His crush was a completely different strain of demon than himself and it was unrealistic to think anything could ever happen between them. The Lake tribe mated for life, their loyalty was legendary to the point of being ridiculed as blind stupidity in tales with ironic endings. The harsh reality that Gwendal faced was there could be only one person in Günter's love life when and if he was ever ready to make that choice and he'd obviously not found them yet.
The General stepped back into the darkest shadows cast by the small pool of lamplight and turned to leave as silently as he had come. Despite the hour being late there would always be more paper work waiting for him in the cold depths of his office. Work was a companion that had never failed him.
"Mmmmm, Gwen…."
The soft sound from the bed made him freeze as if he doubted his own hearing. There was a bit of rustling as Günter turned and nuzzled a porcelain cheek further into one of the navy pillows. Conrart crisply turned another page of his book and spoke into the room.
"Well it seems like he's made himself at home. You'd almost think he was used to your bed, big brother."
There was a quiet smugness in his voice as if he'd known his elder sibling had been there all along. He very well may have, although it was hard for Gwendal to pinpoint what he had done to give himself away to Conrart's weaker half human senses.
He cleared his throat and stated plainly, gaze never leaving the still soundly sleeping figure in the bed.
" I was carrying him earlier in the day, he must recognize my scent."
Conrart was observant enough, and probably heard Anissina teasing him enough, that he knew he fancied Günter a little more than he should. He didn't want to fuel any more teasing in the future.
"If you say so."
Conrart still hadn't looked up from his book, but he was clearly amused.
"He'd know any of our scents anywhere. Though I can't remember the last time he snuggled up to anyone like that, well, aside from Heika."
Gwendal had a fleeting thought that Anissina had gotten to his brother too and he was trying to make him jealous of their King the way he just had to point out the obvious like that. The thin fingers of one of Günter's hands were clutching the corner of his pillow now, the same way he had clutched onto Gwendal's coat when he had carried him close.
"I think you've said enough. We mustn't wake him."
Gwendal ground out. It was at once too much for him to bear. He came close enough again that he was a looming shadow with eyes that reflected witch fire green where they caught the light.
"I'll trust you with his care little brother, for now."
The heavy weight in his tone was not lost on Conrart, nor the warning chill that snaked up his spine as he recognized Gwendal's maryoku level spiking to fill the room with an oppressive weight. He could be as cold and hard as the most unyielding parts of the earth itself when something provoked him.
The mountain tribe where Gwendal's father hailed from were usually like that. Half brothers or not it was in Gwendal's blood to be able to turn off or otherwise shield his emotions well. Some of the longest lived of the demon tribe, Mountain demons were slow to anger and slower to love, but when they did it was with their whole heart.
Conrart recognized that playing with his brother's feelings had always been a dangerous game. Wolfram he could taunt and argue with all day, the passionate fire wielder was purely of Shinou's tribe and enjoyed a good fight and like humans his moods changed by the moment. But Gwendal was much more reserved, careful even, with every feeling. To play with his emotions was not to be done lightly because he only reacted to things that truly meant a lot to him, and his reactions were just as serious as those feelings.
Conrart's sigh of relief was audible when he heard the door obviously close and Gwendal's boots clearly marching away down the hallway. The pages of his book were suddenly far less interesting to him than the mysteries of the man he was set to watch over. He frowned and wondered just how much of Gwendal's heart his old teacher had managed to capture and if he himself were aware of it at all.
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