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Gilgamesh was perfectly aware of the fact that his wife wanted answers from him, and he knew that there was going to be a long conversation to follow. Arturia wanted – and deserved – an explanation, after reading the headlines from that morning. It was plain to see that she did not know what to make of the press's news; she did not know whether to believe them or not.
While it could have been disappointing for some people to know that she mistrusted him like this, for him it actually felt the opposite.
In fact, he was quite pleased by the fact that she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, instead of immediately condemning him. But, at the same time, he couldn't say he was surprised: Arturia was all about fairness, she would never judge him without knowing the version of all parties involved, and therefore not without listening to him first.
Exactly like on that same morning, Gilgamesh felt fury invading him. He had already delivered his punishment, but he was going to make that pathetic excuse of a businessperson pay, again and again, for planting that seed of doubt in the media and his wife – especially his wife. She was not going to jump to conclusions because luckily for him – and how weird it felt to think such a thing – she was a better person than that, but she was rightfully going to demand answers.
He felt the juvenile urge to sigh and rub his temples, but suppressed it. How could he have ever anticipated, all those months before, that his marriage would end up being far more complicated than he had expected?
But it wasn't the time for such thoughts.
…
In truth, the day before Gilgamesh had been in meeting after meeting the whole day, to cancel a deal suggested by another business company, the Matous.
Both he and Enkidu were fully aware of the fact that, even though they were quite the powerful entity, the Matous had business methods that differed from theirs, and Gilgamesh did not intend to affiliate Uruk Enterprises with partners he did not consider beneficial nor worthy.
The lead emissary from the company, Mr. Shinji Matou, had however requested a dinner to finalize the cancellation of the potential deal and, as business courtesy, Gilgamesh had very reluctantly agreed. Enkidu had been with him, and the two of them had been accompanied by car to a place hardly appropriate for a dinner: one of Tokyo's most renowned nightclubs. Neither of them had expected – or planned – to find themselves in such a place, nor had they expected it to be filled with reporters and escort girls.
Incensed, Gilgamesh had dismissed Shinji Matou curtly before leaving right away with Enkidu; but they had not noticed that several women had trailed after them and that pictures had been taken, too.
He had been beside himself with blind rage because of the fact that he – he, of all people! – had been fooled by those inferior businesspeople, and had therefore gone back to the empty offices, to walk off his wrath.
When he had seen the headlines, he had called in Enkidu and Iskandar to devise a simple and direct plan to have his revenge. He could not expose the truth without giving away his own mistake – as much as he hated using that word for something he had done, it was the wretched truth – therefore, it had taken him a while to organize the whole thing.
That was the reason why he had not been able to explain everything to Arturia right after receiving her message.
…
Gilgamesh shortened everything that had happened to tell it to his wife, as he still stood at his bedroom's door. It was actually ridiculous that he was keeping such a defensive pose while in his own home, but it was unavoidable.
She listened to him, wordlessly, and her face did not reflect her thoughts as it usually did. In fact, she looked emotionless.
He concluded, "This is what happened yesterday." Then, noticing her continued impassibility, he gave her a shrewd look. "Did you actually give credit to the headlines?"
She stared at him, the tension suddenly increasing between them. They were standing on opposite sides of the room, both beds between them, but it was as if the space separating them had abruptly become minimal.
She would not lie.
"…Since I did not know where you were last night, I didn't exclude any possibility."
He felt rage fill him again, pushing away any rational thought. What!? She had actually, honestly suspected him of… Yet he had thought that she would not truly believe that…
"You genuinely thought that I would spend the night in such a place, even though we are married!?"
He took an abrupt step forward, his blood red eyes ablaze in fury. "What kind of man did you take me for, Arturia!?"
Things were escalating far too quickly, but she would not be defensive – she would not. He had been away the entire night and two whole days without an explanation, and he now resented her for trying to consider all the possibilities?
She could not help it – she snapped.
"I can take you for a man who looks after his self-interest and his own pleasure before anything else, Gilgamesh!"
Immediate silence followed, a silence full of guarded yet incandescent tension. They had never raised their voices like this during their past disagreements.
His tone was cold and low once he spoke again.
"I usually wouldn't concern myself with the media's opinion, or people's opinion in general, of me. But that my own wife, the one person who due to our deal is supposed to know better, can frankly have such thoughts about me… this is intolerable."
His gaze was even colder than his tone. He had thought she would not jump to conclusions and actually wait for his explanation, but she had given the press some credit. It appeared that she disliked him far more than he had previously thought.
What mattered the most to him was his company and his work in it. His marriage had been a mere contract to give advantages to his famous name; nevertheless, that did not mean that he would ever disrespect and insult Arturia by having lovers or other relationships. Besides, he didn't even feel the desire to have any since she–…
But those were thoughts for another time; he was engaged in a serious conversation with her at the moment.
She was not fond of him, there was little doubt about that, and he had been well aware of it at the beginning of their marriage. Since they had however been getting somewhat along during the past few weeks, he had thought for sure that she would not distrust him any longer, or at least not completely… but he had miscalculated. Yet again.
He contemplated the idea of interrupting their unfinished conversation, leaving the room and simply going to spend the night in another bedroom, but it would not have been a wise – nor particularly mature – thing to do.
Therefore, he sighed. His voice was again controlled when he spoke, but not any less cold.
"I cannot imagine what part of my behaviour towards you made you think that I would do something as lowly and degrading as cheating on you. Even if it's nothing but a contract, you are still my wife and I am still your husband. With everything that you dislike about me, I did not think you the type of person to be so ready to jump to conclusions – and these kind of conclusions. This is something I truly cannot understand."
Blood red eyes remained implacably glued to her green ones. "I did not think that your hatred for me would lead to this."
Arturia fought to keep her eyes on him and not lower her gaze. Indeed she could not say she was fond of him, but it did not go as far as he thought.
She had the right to be doubtful of him; it was true that he had never given her a reason to think he would cheat, but it was also true that he had never given her a reason to think the opposite.
Or maybe, could it be that she was she just trying to justify her reasoning…?
She had to say something, and as reluctant as she was to actually say things like the following ones aloud, she also had to tell the truth. He deserved at least that much.
Her tone lowered as she admitted, "I do not hate you, Gilgamesh. And perhaps I did allow the media's words to influence me."
She took a deep breath. "But I don't think you have the right to completely blame me. You asked what kind of man I take you for and, in all honesty… I don't know the real answer to that, for I don't know that much about you. You are aware of the premises on which our marriage started, and that is certainly not the kind of basis one would expect for a true union. I refuse to accept the blame for thinking ill of you, when I simply don't know you enough to be sure you wouldn't actually do what the press – and I – suspected you of doing."
His anger did not lessen one bit at hearing her words, but suddenly, his expression changed. That alone was enough to alarm her, and the following calculating glint in his eyes did that even more.
"But, Arturia, this is quite… odd. While what the press reported is not true, I have to wonder about the reason why you would actually care this much about it. Even if it were true, as you seemed to think, it doesn't influence the contract – and you should not really be concerned about it. You get the money anyway, regardless of me being… faithful or not. Why did you take the trouble of confronting me so seriously about it?"
Arturia opened her mouth and then closed it. Looking for an answer, she remembered what she had decided earlier in the day; it was a good enough answer, she decided, even though it was only a half-truth.
"Because you asked me to be a proper wife for you, and I agreed. But I can't do that if you stray – and especially not if your supposed cheating becomes publicly known."
Strangely, he did not seem to take in her words with anger; instead, he measured her with his gaze, thinking. A few seconds of silence followed.
Slowly, a faint smirk began to stretch his lips.
"So… you were actually… jealous?"
Arturia arched an eyebrow. She hadn't exactly expected such a question, but from a man like him, she couldn't say she was truly surprised – even though, just a few moments before, she had admitted she didn't know that much about him. She inwardly shook her head at herself, blaming fatigue for her confusing thoughts.
It wasn't hard at all to make her expression convincingly offended and disbelieving though, because those were actually her feelings.
Or so she thought, at least.
"I don't believe that to be the case, Gilgamesh. Jealousy is a feeling of harsh possessiveness for something one no longer has, and I can't miss something we never had in this marriage."
His eyes seemed to be evaluating her once more, and for some reason, she had again a hard time not breaking his gaze. That irritating smirk, however, did not leave his face.
"You are only partially right, Arturia. Jealousy can also simply be a mental feeling of uneasiness originating from suspicions and fears." His smirk widened. "I dare assume that this was exactly your case."
She would not let him try to play her; he enjoyed himself far too much in teasing her, and she was tired of it.
She took a step towards him, avoiding her bed that was in the way.
"Go right ahead then, do what you accuse me of yet always do yourself when it comes to me – assume all you want. But please do not make the mistake of missing the point here." She took another step forward. "As you said, we did not talk about infidelity in the contract. How about doing it now?"
He observed her with inexplicably unreadable eyes, and then gave her a formal, stiff nod in acknowledgement.
"Fine. Talk, then."
She narrowed her eyes, feeling her irritation rising at his dismissive tone.
"Not if you order me to."
He narrowed his eyes as well. Every time they talked, it became a war of words. It was certainly fascinating to some degree, but it was also convoluted and a foolproof method of getting a migraine.
"Why must you be so stubborn, Arturia?"
She openly glared at him. That was it.
"This is not me being stubborn, Gilgamesh. This is me demanding you to show me a minimum amount of respect when addressing me!"
The blond man seemed slightly taken aback, but it was only for a second; his normal haughty expression was immediately back in place.
"Either way, the final result would be the same."
Arturia's fury had rarely reached such dangerous levels. The last time it had happened, she had slapped him.
"Oh, really? You think that ordering me around and trying to belittle me and treating me as your inferior will give you the same result as you behaving like a decent human being, growing up from your inexhaustible arrogance and starting to treat people as people?"
Eyes aflame, she held his gaze firmly, and waited impassively.
Another long, tense silence followed. It was impossible to guess what Gilgamesh was thinking, and Arturia decided not to even try, instead giving him the time to absorb her words.
He was actually contemplating the fact that indeed, every time they talked, it got out of control. Always.
Then, slowly, Gilgamesh looked away… only to immediately look back into her eyes.
"I suppose… you may have a point."
She did her best to stop herself from rolling her eyes, even though the urge was almost overwhelming. He supposed that she might have a point?
However, the fact that he had at least admitted that she was right in this was a start.
Gilgamesh sighed. Only briefly, though.
"Very well. Let us talk about the matter of infidelity in our marriage." Contrary to her, he did not suppress the urge to roll his eyes. "Marriage, as it is, entails that no unfaithfulness is allowed. I don't see why that part should not be respected in ours."
Arturia stared at him. She wanted to slightly argue that point because… well…
He seemed to read her mind.
"I'm well aware of the fact that you have not given any thought to this previously because your sister's conditions were your main concern. But, as it happens, I don't have any intention of being untrue to my wife. I did make an agreement with you, and adultery wasn't part of it. However, this also means…" he took a sudden step closer to her, "…that you are bound to the same kind of oath as well."
He studied her emerald green eyes keenly, taking in every shadow, every shade. The beds were no longer between them; they were now standing almost directly in front of one another.
"You agreed to be my wife. And I will not accept my wife sleeping with other men or women, nor sharing any kind of intimacy with anyone else."
She was not impressed by that monologue.
"You agreed to be my husband as well – and after saying all this, we can finally agree on the fact that cheating is something neither of us will tolerate."
Gilgamesh could not explain why, but he found that their conversation had become quite extraordinary. They had just decided that, even though there was no real relationship between them, they had to be faithful, and not just because of the marriage. They were going to be faithful to each other, because of a monetary contract. A mere contract.
A contract he had made with a woman he found more fascinating by the day.
A woman who had admitted, more or less, that she would not have accepted it, had he truly cheated on her.
Not that it surprised him: he knew that Arturia had more self-respect than that.
The strange silence that was between them did not last long. She didn't know why, but she did not find herself at ease when they were not having a conversation and just stared at each other.
Since they had now cleared up the matter of unfaithfulness, they had other things to address.
She felt her throat beginning to get dry, but she ignored it, only clearing it briefly before continuing.
"What should be an important matter to consider right now is how to proceed from here." She looked at him pointedly. "As you told me, the businessman Shinji Matou is responsible for all this and he–"
He did not let her finish.
"About him, do not concern yourself. As I told you, Enkidu and I have made sure he regrets ever thinking our names."
She eyed him warily, uncertain about whether or not to ask more. She decided to leave the matter be, but only for the moment – perhaps the next morning she could go back to it – and took a deep breath.
It was actually more easily said than done, since by now, they were basically standing face to face, and the proximity was a little disconcerting. But at least they weren't yelling at each other anymore, their conversation having lost the offensive tones from shortly before.
"Earlier, before you came home, when I was still considering this situation in a distasteful light… I did hope that it might just have been a misunderstanding, and that brought forth another problem."
She looked at him. "The press needs to be quieted down, and… I was considering a few options. Perhaps it would be for the best to appear in public sooner rather than later – meaning, within the next few days. To appear at a public event together would be a very efficient method of shutting the malicious gossip quickly."
She held up a hand to make sure he did not interrupt her. "I know – you'd rather feed the newspapers another gossip story and be done with it. I suggest… instead… we take a different approach."
Her expression was half-firm, half-expectant. She had something in mind, but she wanted to tell him first, and she wanted him to agree. More intrigued than he cared to admit, he gave her a nod, indicating for her to continue.
She looked directly into his eyes. "I suggest suing the National newspapers for spreading lies about our private life."
…
He heard her out, and his large smirk was more than enough indication that he fully agreed with what she wanted to do.
As soon as she was done talking, an awkward silence filled the room. They had clarified everything; the rest of the details could be determined in the morning. Nothing else was needed.
She attempted, unsuccessfully, to clear her throat again as she went to the fridge in their bedroom, taking out a bottle of water. All that talking had completely dried out her throat.
"There is dinner ready downstairs," she offered, uncharacteristically not sure about what else to say.
He met her eyes for a second, considering his options. However, he was beginning to feel the effects of not having slept at all the night before, so he shook his head briefly.
"I'm not feeling particularly inclined to have a meal at the moment. I will take a shower."
He disappeared inside the bathroom and, after almost drinking the entire bottle of water, she decided she could try to get some sleep. It had been quite the day, after all, especially with having the first serious discussion – fight – with the man to whom she had gotten married.
The lights were not exactly ideal to fall asleep, but she knew her husband was probably still going to need them. Not long after she had made this consideration, he came out of the bathroom.
As they were about to turn the lights off, he spoke.
"Arturia."
She turned towards him, ready to pull the covers over herself. She wanted to sleep.
"Yes?"
He seemed to have genuine difficulty in getting the words out.
"I was late the past few evenings… because of work, cancelling and making deals, and didn't pay much attention to the time. I will make sure to come home earlier from now on."
She looked at him for a moment, her eyes unreadable. Only mere weeks before, he had let her know that he preferred her to come home earlier in the evenings, and he was now promising that he would do the same.
Then, she could make another suggestion of her own.
"Maybe… it would be for the best if you had breakfast here as well."
Sakura was going to have the scare of her life at having him present, but it would indeed be positive if in the morning the two of them left together to go to work.
She was about to finally turn off the lights after he gave a short nod in reply, when he unexpectedly added, "Thank you."
Completely taken aback, she gaped at him.
"I beg your pardon?"
He cleared his throat, an annoyed expression appearing on his face.
"I said 'thank you', Arturia."
Seeing her question having some difficulties in being put into words, he spared her the trouble by going on, "For always keeping dinner ready for me, even when I came home very late. I… was not unaware of it, and it was much appreciated."
Without a word, she turned off the lights. She did not want him to see the unexpectedly fierce and undignified blush that had appeared on her cheeks.
Then she quietly murmured in the dark, "You're welcome, Gilgamesh. Please do make sure it's no longer needed from now on."
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The next morning, poor Sakura did indeed have a huge scare when both her employers sat down in the kitchen to have breakfast together. The girl had overcome some of her shyness because of Arturia's kind manners, but something about having those two powerful people in the room together was very intimidating to her. Therefore, she was mute as she quickly served them their meals, before taking her leave to accompany Rin to school.
As soon as she was gone, Gilgamesh almost rolled his eyes and said, "It's ridiculous for the girl to still behave in such a manner."
Arturia calmly sipped on her hot tea and answered, even though it had not been a question but only a comment, "If you made the effort of making your employees a little more at ease in your presence, then they wouldn't be so terrified of you."
Even if he did not give a reply aside from a small scoff, the blond man pondered over those words, as they made him notice something he had not considered before.
Arturia was his employee too, yet she had never showed to be terrified of him. She had occasionally been wary and guarded, yes, but only in order to keep her position – never because she feared him.
How interesting.
He managed to put the thought aside and focused on her, since she was now asking him a question.
"I doubt I will like the answer, but I would like to know what you did – or will do – to… well… deliver your punishment on Mr. Matou, as you mentioned."
Gilgamesh's face darkened a bit at the mentioning of his name, and he scowled. It was already over, the punishment had already been delivered, and the details were probably going to be on the day's newspapers.
He had done a careful preliminary research on the vermin's past, noting that he was a frequent customer of that morally ambiguous place he had lured him and Enkidu to, and had also a long list of crimes of corruption, embezzlement and even blackmailing. That was where Gilgamesh's knowledge of underhand tactics had come to use, to destroy that man once and for all, even though finding proof of his shady dealings had been surprisingly easy.
After making Iskandar send Shinji a fake message about meeting in a public place to discuss a new potential deal, Gilgamesh had made sure that the press was there to wait for him, each reporter provided with a precise list of everything questionable he had ever done in his career with and for the Matou company. When going to the supposed appointment the previous evening, Shinji had found himself publicly exposed and had had no time to invent excuses before the police took him away.
His company was going to declare bankruptcy somewhere in the near future, because Enkidu had investigated the Matous' income, and under Shinji's care, it had gone from not very good to disastrous; it was no wonder that he had been so desperate to secure a deal with Uruk Enterprises.
Gilgamesh told Arturia the essence of it and, noticing her concerned gaze, immediately guessed her thoughts.
"His employees will not lose their jobs, Arturia. What remains of his company will be purged and then incorporated into Uruk Enterprises."
She stared at him, before swallowing the piece of bacon that had been forgotten in her mouth as he was speaking. She hesitated for a second.
"I'm glad about that, Gilgamesh. I can't say I am fond of the methods you used to ruin Shinji Matou's life and career, nor can I approve of them, but I can respect the fact that you took his wrongdoings seriously and paid him back accordingly."
And that you actually cared about the consequences, she privately added, looking away briefly, least he read her thoughts in her eyes, as he seemed able to do with increasing frequency lately. Then she stared at him again.
"There is another thing I would like to emphasize. Since this entire matter has proven to be quite the scandal, as I told you yesterday, it would be good to be seen in public sooner rather than later, together, also at an event of sorts. It would be positive for our reputations."
He made a motion for her to go on. What she had just said was obvious, and she wouldn't have addressed him just to state something obvious.
She cleaned up the rest of her plate and took a sip of her almost finished tea.
"However, you hate the usual social gatherings, and I can't pretend I ever look forward to any of them. Therefore… I suggest we choose specifically when to appear in public."
His expression clearly told her that she had to elaborate that quite generic statement or he would soon lose his limited patience.
"I was thinking of charity events, exhibitions and culturally impactful places. All these things are positive for the image we intend to present."
It was interesting to note that she was using the plural, mentioning both of them. It did not hurt that it was also a very good idea. Those social gatherings were a nuisance to say the least; if they had to go, it was indeed best if there was a true use for them, not simply appearance's sake. Being more involved with charities would also be very constructive publicity for his name.
All he did was give her a nod, but his blood red eyes met hers, letting her know exactly how much he actually valued that suggestion. Being who he was, however, it was unlikely he would ever put his implied admiration into words.
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…
Breakfast was over not long after that, and they took the limousine together to go to work, carefully avoiding any contact with the reporters still waiting outside. If the chauffeur was surprised to see for the first time husband and wife go to work together, he had enough sense not to let it show. While their behaviour that morning was not the norm, the two of them were married, after all.
Work that morning went smoothly, but when lunchtime arrived and Gilgamesh came to her office to walk out of the building with her – they wanted to go to a nearby place to have their meal – he had a strange smirk on his face.
"Brace yourself, Arturia: you are about to meet a starving horde of reporters."
She stood up, leaving a few files ready on her desk for later, making her way towards him.
"Are we going to have to address them?"
His eyes were firmly fixated on her face, examining her expression carefully and thoughtfully before his strange smirk suddenly widened.
He could hold a press conference; he could speak with the press himself; he could avoid those mongrels entirely if he wanted to; he could do many other things too. However, he had already taken his revenge on the one responsible for everything; given that she had already suggested her ideas on what to do with the media, it wouldn't be bad to let Arturia deal with them as she pleased.
If she wanted to, of course.
"That, dear wife, is something that this time I will leave entirely for you to decide."
As it turned out, it wasn't truly her decision to make. The press was indeed waiting for them, and most reporters were shouting questions in Arturia's direction, completely ignoring her silence as she and Gilgamesh looked for a way to walk around or through them.
"Mrs. Uruk, a comment on the scandal!"
"Did you neglect your husband, forcing him to sleep elsewhere, Mrs. Uruk?"
"How can you consider yourself a woman, Mrs. Uruk, if you stay with a man who cheated on you?"
"Are you not ashamed of what happened, Mrs. Uruk? Are you not humbled?"
"Do you really have the guts to show yourself in public after the scandal, Mrs. Uruk? Did you even read the newspapers?"
As the sentences became more and more offensive, Arturia felt her patience rapidly thinning. Eventually, she turned towards the reporters, and they quickly quieted once they realized she intended – for the first time – to give a reply.
Even though she knew it was pointless, she looked each reporter around her in the eye, speaking slowly and firmly.
"Since it pertains what I am going to announce, I will answer your last question. As a matter of fact, I do read the newspapers, and am well aware of the latest piece of news you all talk about. It's quite clear that an indescribable amount of money was made by selling it. Therefore," her voice was loud and clear, "I take your presence here as opportunity to let you know that my husband and I are going to file a lawsuit against the National newspapers for intentionally spreading blatant falsehood, writing complete and utter lies about our marriage and attempting to discredit our names simply in order to make money."
Her voice rose a little, to still be heard over the shocked gasps and murmurs that were erupting. "We ask that everything that was earned with yesterday's sells is paid double and given to this charity." She named one she was familiar with and had agreed on with Gilgamesh the evening before.
Then she gave one last look to the street full of people, before linking her arm with Gilgamesh. "That will be all."
The Uruk couple left the building followed by several other questions shouted by the press, but both ignored them to go have their lunch. They had nothing else to say – Arturia had already said everything.
Gilgamesh in particular was very satisfied, not even feeling slighted for not having had the opportunity to address the press himself. His smirk, as he walked away with her and transformed their linked arms into a handhold for appearance's sake – or maybe just because he wanted to – could not have been wider.
He never found himself bored with her.
Ever.
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