Disclaimer: Kyo Kara Maoh/God (?) Save Our King belongs to Tomo Takabayashi.

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Sealed With A Slap!
Unknown Personality
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Games

I was so happy that Gisela was alright, even if she had a slight fever. All I could hope for was for her to get better, not worse. I watched her as she sat up, legs still swathed in the bedclothes. I placed the breakfast tray on her laptop and sat down on the stool that had been placed beside her bed and placed my elbows on the side on the bed and laced my fingers together in front of my chin.

She ate slowly, as if nervous under my scrutiny. She nearly knocked over the teacup in her unease. I reached out and righted it. Her arm twitched a bit, in reaction to my putting my hand over hers. I glanced at her, but her face was frozen into a mask. I let go and decided to keep my hands to myself for the rest of the day. She ate her scrambled eggs slowly and then sipped her tea. Once she finished, I called the maid to take away the tray. The maid did so, but not without an unwanted giggle. She was probably one of those moe maids.

The maid left and silence settled over us like a stifling blanket. Finally, I broke the silence,
"Do you want to play a game of cards?" I asked. She looked up surprised,
"I don't know how." She answered.
"Well, I can teach you if you want," I offered. She nodded and I left to find the deck of cards Yuri had brought back with him once when Gunter had summoned him back.

I came back with the deck. First, I taught her the value of each card and the order. I decided to start with a simple game: "Go Fish!" She caught on pretty quickly and soon we were well on our way.
"Do you have a King?" she asked, and I sighed, before giving her my King of Hearts. She smiled happily and then put forth another question: "Do you have an Ace?" and of course, I had an Ace. Soon she won the game, Gisela – 19, me – 7. I let out an exaggerated sigh of defeat while she chuckled in amusement.

"Do you know any other games?" she asked, interested. Nodding, I began spreading the cards out in such a way so that they didn't overlap while she looked on.
"This is called The Memory Game. Pretty simple, huh?" I explained the rules to her and we began. She seemed to have an uncanny knack for picking randomly and getting pairs! Not just once, or twice but thrice even! My mind seemed to have gone blank, literally. But then halfway through the game, it started up and I won, 15 – 11. Now we were even.

"This game will be the tiebreaker." I announced. "We're going to play Crazy Eights: Countdown, to make it longer and more gruelling!" I rolled up my sleeves and dealt out the card, determined to win. At first she seemed to be winning, getting rid of her cards as quickly as she got them and changing the suit just when I thought I would win. I tried to intercept her moves, by keeping track of what cards she had and what she didn't have so as to force her to pick up a card.

Finally we were neck to neck with one card left for both of us. I stared at her and she stared back, not backing down. It was my turn and the card on the top of the pile was a King of Spades. I made a face at my card and then, I put it down – an Eight of Hearts. I smiled pleasantly and said:
"Hearts."
She flung down her last card in mock exasperation. It was the Queen of Spades.
"Fine," she conceded, "You win. Congratulations." And she made a big show of the whole thing, shaking my hand and pretending to give me a trophy. I grinned at her and accepted the imaginary trophy.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, remembering the time.
"Yes," she answered. "Will you stay and eat lunch with me? If it isn't too much to ask?" she continued.
"Sure." I answered and then rang the bell for the maid. She entered in very cautiously, as if she expected to be interrupting something. Then she looked up and noticed our inquisitive stare and bowed her head apologetically. I ordered her to get us lunch and soon enough it arrived, hot and steaming. Gisela took a slight whiff of it and her nose wrinkled cutely. I smiled before turning my attention back to my food.

The rest of the day passed pretty much the same way, between card games and conversations (over dinner) about anything under the sun. Whenever the conversation drifted towards the picnic, it grew awkward and Gisela was more apt to fall into nervous silence, as if she was pondering something that had occurred on that day. I tried to pry it out of her but she evaded my prodding.

It grew dark out and cooler in the room but we didn't notice until a knock sounded on the door. Startled, I collected my wits and went over to open it. Anissina stood on the other side holding an ugly brown bottle in one hand and a large silver spoon in the other. I stared at first one, then the other and nearly shut the door in her face but she stuck her foot out and blocked the door from closing.

"Tsk, tsk." She disapproved, walking into the room. "Is that any way to treat a well-meaning adult?" she asked, advancing towards the bed.
"Well meaning? Yeah right." I muttered under my breath and walked forward to stop her. Gisela had this wary look in her eyes. Anissina poured out a tablespoon of the vile potion and, setting the bottle on the bedside table, tried to get Gisela to drink it.
"Stop." Gisela commanded. "That's not necessary! All I have is a fever." She explained. Anissina stopped with a woeful look on her face.
"But this cures everything!" she pouted.
Gisela sighed. "I'm trained in healing Anissina. I know I don't need to take any medicine besides the one the doctor gave me. It's nice of you to think of me but sorry, I don't need to take it." She dissuaded her as tactfully as possible.
Anissina sighed and uncapping the bottle, poured the potion back into it and after a "Get well soon!" she left.

"One disaster averted." I said, relieved, shutting the door behind her. I walked back to Gisela's bedside and sat down. I reached out and took her hand and clasped it between mine. It was warm, slightly above normal. I rubbed it soothingly, trailing my fingers up and down the wrist. Then I bent my head and kissed the back of it. I heard her take in a sharp intake of breath and her pulse spiked below my lips.

I lifted my head and smiled at her. She smiled back weakly, hand lax in my hold while the other clutched the sheets.
"Lie down." I ordered and she did so, a half expectant, half scared look in her eyes. I bent down and placed a kiss on her hot forehead. "Sweet dreams." I whispered, before moving away and walking out of the room. I had to sleep in my own room today, so as to not catch the fever. I'll admit it was strange being back. I guess I had gotten quite used to sleeping next to Gisela.

When I went to check on her next morning, her bed was empty. I panicked and ran around the castle, searching for her everywhere until I stumbled upon her in the courtyard. There she was, squatting down in the green, green grass, watering a small flower. I ran over and squatted beside her,
"Good morning Gisela," I wished her brightly.
"Good morning," she smiled at me. I motioned to the flower,
"Being kind to little ones?" I asked. She answered,
"Yes. It's such a little beauty, isn't it?" she asked, gazing fondly at the small plant.
"Yes," I agreed. "I love you." She looked up at me in surprise and dropped a little too much water on it. She pulled the can away with an exclamation of dismay and then worriedly checked the plant over. It seemed a little bent, but none worse for wear. She sighed a sigh of relief, but her body was tensed.
"Wh-what do you mean by that?" she stammered.
"Myrtles mean "I love you" and symbolise married bliss. Perfect for us, aren't they?" I asked.
"I-I guess so." She said, still as tight as a coil.
"What do you mean "you guess so"?" I asked, and her body tensed up more. My patience running out, I asked, "Why are you so tense?"
"Tense? What do you mean?" she asked rather quickly. I pressed my hands down on her shoulders without warning and she cried out.
"That's what I mean." I said, relaxing my grip.
"What do you want me to do about it?" she asked with a hint of desperation in her voice.
"Something that will stop it." I said, "But later. Now," I said, taking her arm, "We need to get to breakfast." I said and pulled her towards the Hall, pausing to drop off the watering can on the way.

Gisela was tense all through breakfast. By the end I had made up my mind. I followed Mother up to her room when she left.
"Mother." I called, when we reached, "I want a phone number." I ordered.
"Oh my!" she held her hand up to her mouth in mock shock when I told her whose. "Whatever do you want with him?" She asked, smirking behind her hand.
"Just give me the number!" I said exasperatedly. Tittering quietly, she wrote down the number on a piece of stationary. I snatched it out of her hand with a brisk "Thank you" and left.

When I reached the privacy of my room, I dialled the number. It rang a couple of times before someone picked up.
"Hello, I'm Wolfram von Bielefeld, son of Cecilie von…"

I was ready and waiting when she came up that night. I waited until she had changed and gotten ready for bed before I made my presence known.
"Good evening Gisela." I said quietly. She whipped around, hair nearly smacking her in the face.
"What are you doing here Yo-Wolfram?" she asked, correcting her question.
"I'm here to give you what you rightly deserve." I answered, just as quietly as before, arms folded across my chest, creasing my nightgown.
"What I rightly deserve?" she squeaked.
"Yes," I answered, getting up. I walked slowly toward her so as not to alarm her more than she was. I had no idea why she was so frightened in the first place. She kept backing up until I realised that this was not going to work against a lampshade.
"Stop," I commanded and she obeyed. "What are you doing?" I asked, stopping myself.
"Um," she said dumbly, seemingly looking for a way out of this. "Giving you personal space?" she offered lamely. I sighed.
"Go lie down on the bed." I said and she tensed. Again. Great. I speed walked over to her and turned her to face the bed and pushed her towards it. She walked over robotically and paused at the side.
"Go on," I said encouragingly, "Lie down." She lay down and turned to face me with a hesitantly look on her face as if she was asking me "What do you plan to do with me?" in this submissive way that was actually kind of cute. I shook my head, trying to shake the thought out. "Now," I said, "We begin."

To be continued…

Author's Note: First of all, I apologise sincerely for not updating in two weeks. I hope this chapter makes up for that! I might update twice in one week as a form of compensation, key word being "might". Thank you for all your reviews! And thank you for reading this far and having patience with my story. As you might have noticed (if FFN hasn't messed it up), I've been trying out all these little "story tactics" that I've been learning in English. Hope they've made the story look a little better.

The games have some authenticity. I played those against my brother and those were the exact scores. And yes, he does have this strange knack for finding pairs in succession by randomly picking cards rather than going in order.