The noises of the café swirled around the table near the middle of the floor as the two original patrons of the table glowered directly at the two new additions to the table, one of whom looked very genuinely sorry for what part she had played in the whole thing while the other just stared back at the two with a wide grin on her face.

"You can wipe that grin off your face right now, Nonette." Ciaran said sternly, his arms crossed across his chest, while Dorothea mimicked his expression and look exactly.

In reply, the champagne-haired woman shook her head, her eyes still on the pair and the smile not leaving her face. "Not a chance."

Beside him, his girlfriend let out a sigh. "To be fair, I should have expected that. But what I didn't expect was her dragging the princess along in to this."

At this the pair turned their heads to look at Euphemia, who squeaked quietly in fright at being subjected to such hostile looks.

"I'm sorry!" She cried out quietly before dropping her head to look down at the table. "It's just that she made me tell, and I tried so hard to not tell her, but she made me tell and then she roped me in to follower her and I did try and stop her but-"

Reaching forward, the older woman gently took a hold of one of Euphemia's hands, stopping her apologetic tirade and forcing her to look up at the Knight of Four.

"Euphemia, don't that that I'm angry with you." Dorothea said softly. "It's just... I know what Nonette is capable of. But I'm just surprised that she managed to rope you in to this."

This response made a smile form on Euphemia's face, an act that was copied on the couples faces too, even as they both turned to look at the oldest, and possibly the most juvenile of group.

"All right, Nonette, you caught us." Ciaran said simply. "So can we just drop this now?"

"Drop it?" The Knight of Nine repeated, her smile turning to a look of shock. "But you two... you're going out! You're a couple!"

The couple in question quickly responded with a loud 'shush!', which promptly made the woman shut her mouth.

"Yes, we are." Dorothea said firmly but quietly. "But we're not ready yet to tell anyone else. Euphemia was the only one who knew. Well, until you decided to follow us here, that is."

Ciaran's eyes opened in shock at the sheer venom that was in his lovers voice that was directed at Nonette, who, along with Euphemia, looked just as shocked as he was.

"Dorothea, I didn't follow you because I wanted to ruin your relationship." The Knight of Nine said, sounding genuinely hurt.

"Then why did you follow us?" The umber-skinned woman asked, looking at the other woman questioningly. "For god's sake, Nonette, I am an adult and I sure as hell can make my own decision with who I fall in love with-"

"But that's why I had to follow you, Dorothea!" Nonette cut in vehemently. "I have seen the other people you've had... 'relationships' with-"

"Yes. All of which you've had a part in bringing to an end." The Knight of Four responded, the anger becoming clear in her voice.

"Yes, because none of them were good enough for you!" The champagne-haired woman responded, slapping her palm against the table to get the point across. "Dorothea, I've known you for four years and I have never seen you once be with a man who has come close to treating you right or be able to make you happy."

An apologetic look crossed Nonette's face as she turned to look at the young man beside Dorothea.

"Ciaran, I like you, I really do. But I'm sorry. I had to be sure that if you were to have a relationship with Dorothea, that you were the right one for her."

A shocked and angry look came to Dorothea's face.

"But it's my choice, Nonette!"

"Yes, it is, Dorothea." The Knight of Nine said coldly as she turned to look at the other woman. "But as your friend, I have a right to say what I think too."

"And?" Ciaran asked simply, looking at the woman blankly. "What do you think?"

The question made all eyes turn to him, one pair with a look of confusion, one with a look of subdued anger and one blank look.

"Why does it matter?" Dorothea asked, her look of annoyance focused on Ciaran now.

"Dorothea, I will freely admit that Nonette following us was a horrible thing for her to do," The young man said in a placating voice. "But she is not wrong. If a friend has reservations about another friend's relationship, then they should be allowed to say what they think." Turning his head, he looked at Nonette. "So Nonette... what do you think?"

Looking down at her hands, the champagne-haired Knight didn't say anything for a few seconds as she seemed to mull over the answer in her head. It would definitely be a stretch to say that Ciaran didn't want to hear the answer, but a part of him was definitely scared about what Nonette would say.

"From what I saw of you two today, and also seeing how you two get along with each other... I think that you two are made for each other." The Knight of Nine said with a touch of finality, even as a sincere smile came to her lips.

This revelation caused a complete U-turn on Dorothea's facial expression, as her mouth moved from an angry frown to a confused smile to a full on happy grin. Looking closely, Ciaran was certain that he saw her eyes begin watering with happy tears. Reaching over, he put a hand on to her back and gently started rubbing in a circle.

"Look," Nonette said, her voice sounding more quiet as she looked at the woman across from her. "I'm sorry that I made you angry, Dorothea, but I really do care for you. We both know how horrible it can be when we're forced in to a relationship with someone we don't like just because it's expected of us. I wanted to be sure that you decided to go with Ciaran because you wanted to, not because you had to."

Okay, that stung a little bit, but Ciaran knew what Nonette meant.

Suddenly, a smile quickly formed on the older woman's face as she clamped her hands together quickly. "So... on to the main issue, since Euphie didn't say: when did it happen? When did you two first feel the power of love take hold?"

Across the table from her, the young man couldn't help but groan out in embarrassment at what Nonette said while Dorothea just put a hand to her forehead as she chuckled at the comment.

"As long as you don't make any more quips like that again," Ciaran said with a smile as he shook his head. "It was at Kitakyushu, so just a little under a month ago."

This news made Nonette focus intently on what he had just said. "It was that night? Wow. I... I didn't expect that."

Ciaran shrugged by way of a reply. "You and me both. I mean, I basically had a breakdown after combat and then..." He turned to look at Dorothea as he gently took her hand in his. "Then this wonderful woman comes along to make me feel better, even going so far as to give me a kiss."

A wistful smile came to his face as he remembered the sight of the lights from the nearby military vehicles highlighting her features as she leant in towards him, the smell of her hair and sweat filling his nose and finally the feeling of Dorothea's lips pressing against his left cheek...

"Aww..." Nonette and Euphemia sounded before the former began talking again. "But what about you, Dorothea? When did you first realise it?"

"Umm, I'm still not really sure." The umber-skinned woman replied, a small blush on her cheeks. "I know that Kitakyushu was the first time I began realising what my feelings were, but as for when I first started having feelings for him? I'd have to say it was the night I first met him properly, back at the Palace."

The Knight of Nine's eyes opened wide. "That early? But... how? What tipped you off"

This time, it was Dorothea's turn for a wistful smile to come to her face. "He... heh. He kissed my hand when I first introduced myself to him."

"He kissed your hand too?" Nonette asked incredulously, before she slumped backwards in her chair, her arms across her chest and a pout on her face. "How come you've not done that to me yet, Ciaran?"

"Because I never I got the chance!" The young man replied incredulously. "You mashed my face in to your boobs the first time we met. Plus considering how close we've gotten, a kiss on the hand is kind of redundant by now. Hell, I've even seen you topless."

"What?" Euphemia asked in shock as she looked across at the young man.

"You did what?!" Dorothea asked in angered shock as she looked across at Nonette, surging up from her seat slightly.

"It wasn't anything untoward." Ciaran replied to both, holding his hands up defensively. "It was the night after... after the attack, and Nonette had me bunk with her for the night."

At the revelation, the anger seemed to dissipate from the umber-skinned woman as she slowly lowered herself back in to her chair, even while she kept her eyes on the champagne-haired woman, who now had the decency to look guilty.

"Okay, ignoring that bit," Nonette said, shifting the mood forward a bit. "Since me and Euphie both know about your relationship now, what are your plans regarding Cornelia and the others?"

That question, out of all of the others that could have been asked, made both Ciaran and Dorothea pause their train of thoughts.

"I mean," The Knight of Nine continued. "I know that you did ask Euphie to keep quiet about the whole thing, and if you want me to keep quiet about it, then I will. But... Nellie, Darlton and Guilford... they're your friends, Ciaran. We all are."

"They deserve to know." Euphemia added, leaning forward in her chair. "And remember what you said, about how you didn't know how your family would react. Well, we're your family here."

Closing his eyes as he leant back in his chair, Ciaran let out a sigh as he let the words fly around in his head.

She was right, and he knew it. They had said it themselves.

Euphemia: "Well, I guess we'll be your family then."

Cornelia: "You aren't alone, Ciaran. I want you to know that."

Darlton: "If you ever need advice, come and ask me. Okay?"

It would be stretching the truth quite a bit if the young man were to say that he felt like crap over trying to hide the fact he was in a relationship from his new foster family.

"She's not wrong, Dorothea." Ciaran said, lifting his head up to look at the Knight of Four next to him. "They have a right to know."

Beside him, the umber-skinned woman took in his words before she placed a hand on top of one of his own, tracing a series of loops in the hairs on the back of it as she nodded her head.

"You're right." Dorothea said, smiling sadly. "Andreas is like a father to me, so I can't imagine us having a relationship without him knowing about it."

Ciaran nodded his head. He felt the same way about his own father, although that feeling was made more morose by the fact that he would never know.

Well, looking at it, one out of two wasn't too bad.

"All right. We'll do it today when we get back." He said, turning his head to look at the two other women across from him with a smile, both of whom returned the gesture.

"And we'll support you all the way." Euphemia said, looking decidedly pumped up for the situation.

"We know you will." The Knight of Four said with a happy smile, even as she eyed Nonette out of the corner of her eye. Quickly though, the stink-eye fell away and was replaced with a sad expression. "Nonette, I'm sorry about before. I-"

"Dorothea, save it." The champagne-haired woman said, interrupting the other woman mid-sentence. "I'm just looking out for you. I know you'd do the same for me."

The agreement altered the mood significantly, with smiles coming to the faces of all of the occupants of the table. Ciaran couldn't deny the happy feelings that radiated from the three women and through him.

So this was what it felt to admit to the people you loved that you were in a relationship.

It felt good.

"All right then." Nonette said, standing up. "Let's get back to the Palace. I think that Cornelia will have probably noticed by now that we've disappeared, and the sooner we get back, the better."

"Oh, I forgot about that." Ciaran admitted, looking a little bit scared at getting the Second Princess angry twice in as many days, especially after she had little sleep. "Ah well. Can't be helped. I'll get the cheque."

"No, no you won't." Euphemia said, as she raised her hand and flagged down one of the waitresses. "We put you two though a lot of trouble today, so we'll pay for this."

"We will?" Nonette asked, to which the Third Princess replied with a pointed glance. "Oh, right. Yeah, of course we will."

Neither Dorothea or Ciaran could suppress the chuckle that came to them as they watched the champagne-haired woman reach in to one of her pockets to pull out her purse as one of the waitresses came to give the cheque. Although as the woman drew nearer, a thought suddenly came to the young man's face, causing him to slam the ball of fist in to his forehead.

"Ah, I almost forgot about the shoes!" He said, ignoring the pain that his fist had caused. "Ow." Almost.

"It's all right." Dorothea said, as Ciaran rubbed his forehead slightly. "You head back to get them, we'll meet you at the entrance to the Mall. Okay?"

"Sounds good." The young man replied as he stood up from his seat, retrieving his hat, before leaning down and kissing her on the lips. "I'll see you guys shortly."

Euphemia and Nonette responded in more or less the same manner, albeit a bit distractedly for the latter as she was forced to pay for some food that she didn't even eat, as Ciaran exited the café and moved at brisk jog down the thoroughfare towards the shoe shop his shoes were waiting at.

As he moved, the Briton couldn't help but feel like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. It wasn't a substantial weight, but it was a weight nonetheless and he felt so relieved because of it. He felt so great, like he had been given a full boost of energy that didn't feel like going away any time soon. He knew it was horribly clichéd to say it, but to Ciaran, everything felt more... clear.

The sky was blue, the leaves were greener, everyone looked more alive. Heck, even the guy with long white hair clutching his head in pain as he walked past the Briton looked more...

Ciaran stopped in his tracks before he turned to look behind him, trying his best to look for the man with long white hair, a pair of oversized headphones and a pair of silver sunglasses over his eyes, but the crowds behind him had swallowed him up.

A warning went off in the young man's head. A primal warning, one that spoke of danger and caution, screamed in the back of Ciaran's mind, and it had all been set off by that man passing him.

Squinting his eyes, he tried to catch even a glimpse of the man who had passed him, but one of the rules of the universe came in to play: no matter how distinct a person was, if they went in to a crowd of a large enough size, they would eventually disappear.

Putting the image of the man in to his memory for later, Ciaran grudgingly turned back and headed back to the shoe store to collect his purchase.

The sooner he got away from here and back to the Palace, the better.

Needles.

Needles and saws.

Needles and saws and knives scratched away at his mind.

Clutching his head tightly, the white haired man made his way through the crowds as he sought some respite, some refuge from the sounds. Even the voices of all of the other people around him couldn't drown out the noises passing that man had generated in his head.

Pushing his way through the crowds and ignoring the indignant replies from the people, Mao looked for a secluded space as he could find among the crowd. Ducking to the side, he spied a corridor that lead away from the main concourse and followed it quickly.

After rushing down the corridor, he quickly got out of breath. But putting his hand against the wall to his side, gasping for air, he saw that he was too far down the hallway for anyone to be near him.

Taking a steadying breath, Mao leant against the wall before sliding down. That... infernal noise had finally gone, only the soft voice of CC comforting him.

"Mao, Mao... Just listen to the sound of my voice... That's it."

Even those words, the most soothing of words that flowed like honey through his ears couldn't dampen that horrible noise that came when he passed that man.

If Hell had a sound, it would be like that. That horrible, persistent scratching that started as just a little sound at the edge of his hearing before quickly becoming something that sounded like it was right in his brain.

Having his breathing under control, Mao pushed himself up as he thought over the encounter: the sound had started when that man, the man with green cap and the black and white scarf, had gotten close to him, then it got louder when the man was right beside him, then it went away when Mao was furtherest away from him.

In all of his time with CC, Mao had never heard of that sort of phenomenon before. It was, in a word, horrifying to experience.

Making sure his headphones were in place over his ears properly, he pushed the volume up further as he began walking out back towards the Mall interior. That mystery man had gone, and no-one seemed to have called the police, so Mao strolled casually out of the corridor and was swallowed back in to the crowd.

He pushed the short-term memory of that encounter back the dark corner of his mind as he thought more clearly on his goal, even more so as her words filled his head again to drown out the noise of the crowd.

"Since my mind is the only one you can't read, and you can only be happy when you're with me.
I'll stay with you always... Yes, I'm right here... Mao..."

"CC..." Mao said wistfully as he made his way through the crowd.

With shoebox in had, Ciaran made his way out of the Mall and to the exit that was near the car park. Spying his lover standing by the dark blue car the pair had arrived in, he picked up his pace until he was near her.

Instead of waving, Dorothea simply leaned forward and rested her arms against the metal top and her chin against them. On a hot July day, such an act would have been unbearable, but she had parked it under a shaded area. Admittedly, the car-park that served the Mall and the park were one in the same, it had been specially placed to allow the option for either a quick walk or a short walk in to the Mall.

"Got them." The young man said, spinning the box between his hands before stopping it. "Ready to go?"

Looking at him, Dorothea couldn't help but notice that he looked a bit distracted. He wasn't having second thoughts, was he?

"Ciaran? Is something wrong?" She asked tentatively.

"... I just saw what had to be the strangest person I've ever seen since I got here." Came the reply very quickly.

Dorothea's eyes opened wide at what her lover said, although as he turned around to look behind him, she couldn't help the smile that came to her face as she realised that he wasn't have any second thoughts about telling everyone.

The sound of a honking horn behind them made both of them turn around, as they saw a dark green car pull up behind them. The passenger side window was open allowing Euphemia to look out along with Nonette, who leaned over from the driver's seat, a pair of fashionable sunglasses on her face.

"Hey! Love-birds!" The older woman yelled out, making the Third Princess flinch at the volume and closeness of her voice. "Let's get a move on."

"Yeah, yeah." Ciaran said, a cocked smile on his face as he opened his door and climbed in.

"We'll be right behind you, Nonette" Dorothea said as she entered her own door and sat down, buckling her seatbelt as she did so. Beside her, the Briton was already belted up and ready to go, casually drumming a nonsensical rhythm on his lap as he looked out of the front window.

Not being able to help herself, she reached over, gently weaving her fingers in to the hair on the back of Ciaran's head, her digits digging through the curly locks of hair. The action didn't make him jump but it did make him turn his head to look at her, a smile on his face before she leant forward and planted a kiss straight on his lips.

The Knight of Four loved the feeling of Ciaran's facial hair rubbing against the skin around her lips now. The way the coarseness of the hair scratched slightly at her skin while the hair itself made her skin tickle as she smiled in to the kiss. The gesture wasn't missed as she felt her lovers lips turn up in a smile of his own.

Disengaging from the kiss, the pair looked at each other happily in silence, completely ignoring the sound of the horn from Nonette's car.

"I think that we should get moving." Dorothea said dreamily, still looking straight at Ciaran and completely ignoring the world outside the car.

"Yes, we should." Ciaran replied in kind, raising a hand to stroke her arm.

They stayed like that for a few seconds before a particularly long blast from the second car brought them out of the moment.

Turning reluctantly to the front windscreen, the pair couldn't help but smile happily at the sight of Nonette giving them a small glare while beside her, Euphemia just waved happily at the pair, before the car pulled away, leaving Dorothea to start the car's engine.

"Might as well face the music." The umber-skinned woman said as she set the car in to drive and rolled it out of the parking space before they moved in to the myriad traffic that flowed through the Tokyo Settlement. As there was no way for them to move through the traffic quickly, the pair of cars had to deal with the various snarls and snares that existed on the roads of a city.

One such snare being a particularly long traffic jam on one of the main roadways. Dorothea could see Nonette's vehicle two cars in front of them, but she didn't mind that much. It merely meant that she and Ciaran got to spend more time to talk about what had happened.

Turning her head, she opened her mouth to speak, only to see the young man staring out of the passenger window, his hand on his chin in a contemplative gesture.

"Ciaran?" She asked, making him turn his head around to look at her. "Something on your mind?"

Leaning back, the dark-haired Briton put his hands behind his head, the contemplative look still on his face. "I was just thinking about what you told me before Nonette and Euphemia found us."

"Oh?" Dorothea asked, a little bit worried about where this was going. "And... what about it?"

"Traffic's moving." Came the reply, with Ciaran pointing out the windscreen to the sight of the numerous cars in front moving forward.

"Oh!" The Knight of Four said in surprise before she put the car in to drive to roll with the moving traffic. Before long, they had moved on to one of the main high-rise roads in the Settlement. "So what made you think about what I told you?"

Looking to his side, Ciaran was silent for moment before he let out a small sigh and began speaking. "It's just... your story really reminds me of... someone I know."

A dark eyebrow raised above one of Dorothea's green eyes at the comment, even as her vision was fixed on the road in front of her. "Who are you talking about?"

Moving his arms down to cross over his chest, Ciaran looked out directly in front of him, obviously unsure if he should answer the question as he drummed his fingers against his bicep. Closing his eyes again, he spoke slowly and softly. "Dorothea, before I answer, I want you to promise two things from me: that you won't get angry about this and that you won't tell anyone else about what I'm telling you. Promise?"

That comment made the Knight of Four take her concentration off the road to look at the man beside her in shock, before she remembered to look back at the road. "Wait, what?"

"Just promise me and I'll tell you." Ciaran replied, his arms still across his chest. "Don't worry, it's nothing seedy. But to the wrong ears, it might be... dangerous information for them to use against me."

Still keeping her eyes on the road, Dorothea gently bit her lower lip as she thought over what she had just been told. Keeping a secret was something she was quite good at, but that was only with small, harmless secrets. Like the time she caught Monica trying to order some leopard print underwear. Harmless things. But this... it sounded like it could be blackmail material in the wrong hands.

Beating her fingers in a gentle tattoo on the steering wheel, Dorothea nodded her head. "All right. I promise I won't get angry and I won't tell anyone else about it. So what's up?"

Moving his hands to rest against his knees, Ciaran finally spoke. "Okay, so I'm sure you remember the pilot of the red Glasgow you crippled in Kitakyushu?"

Dorothea cast her mind back to that night: the darkened warehouse stretching out around them, the dead Knightpolice unit slumped on it's knees at the feet of the Caradoc, while in front of her, the Black Knight's Glasgow unit, lying forlorn on it's front, with an arm and a leg missing. She remembered the girl, with red hair and a red outfit, standing up in the opened cockpit block, her arms above her head as a fireteam of infantry aimed their guns at her.

"Yes, I remember her." Dorothea said flatly, unsure about what to really say about her.

"Her name is Kallen Kozuki, at least when she's using her mother's name. Using her father's name, she's Kallen Stadtfeld." Ciaran said with equal flatness in his voice. "She's half-Britannian, half-Japanese."

The Knight of Four's eyes opened wide in shock. The only thing she had been told about her was that she was called Kallen Kozuki, but she didn't know that she was half-Britannian.

"How did you find this out?" She asked.

"I talked to her when I was taken captive at Narita. It was the same night too actually." Ciaran said, an amused smile on his face that confused Dorothea somewhat.

"So... what made you think of her from what I told you about my past?" The umber-skinned woman asked, turning the car around a gentle corner with a straight shot towards the Viceroy's Palace.

"It just made me think." He replied. "It's funny how people with almost the same backgrounds, given the right push, can go in completely different directions with their life. You became a Knight of the Round, while became entangled with a terrorist insurgency. It's quite sad really."

Dorothea would have had to been deaf to miss the sadness in Ciaran's voice. "You pity her?"

"Pity's not the right word." Ciaran said, shrugging his shoulders slightly in his seat. "It's more... it's like watching a child walking in to the path of a speeding vehicle while you're over a hundred feet away from them. You can run all you like, but no matter how hard you push yourself, you can't save her."

A thought popped in to her head, but something nagged at her first. "You called her Japanese."

Again, her lover shrugged his shoulders. "Japanese. Eleven. A person's a person, no matter what you label them."

She knew that she should have expected those sorts of feelings from Ciaran, but it still made her smile to hear him say what she had suspected about her lover. "You're taking this quite personally, aren't you? With Kallen, I mean."

A melancholy look on his face, the young man nodded his head. "She's been told that if she throws her lot in with Zero, then she can help her mother and the Japanese people. Hell, I even got Darlton to call off the surveillance detail that the government had following her."

"What?!" Dorothea cried in a knee-jerk reaction, almost bringing the car to a complete stop, which also meant that Ciaran was thrown quite quickly forward in his seat, causing him to cry out in shock and pain before the car carried on moving forward. "Oops, sorry."

"Ow? Dorothea, why did you do that?"

"I'm sorry! It's just... you had Darlton call off the surveillance team on a known terrorist. Do you not know how dangerous that is?

"Of course I know it's dangerous!" Ciaran snapped back, looking genuinely offended. "But, I've also seen how you Britannians treat these sorts of people and I don't want her to be killed when I know I can help her leave the Black Knights."

The anger dropped from Dorothea's face as she heard the conviction in her lover's voice. He meant every word of it, and she felt ashamed at having questioning his motives. 'He really cares about Kallen.' She thought to herself.

As the car continued on it's way down the roadway, the inside filled with an uncomfortable silence as the two occupants settled down from their first argument. Outside, the buildings flew past until Dorothea made the car turn a corner and headed towards the gate that led to the garage of the Viceroy's Palace. A pair of guardsmen stopped the car, but quickly waved it through when the windows were lowered enough to let them see the heads of the pair fully, allowing them to enter the spacious garage that contained the various staff cars and nondescript motors to be used by the Viceroy and her staff.

Pulling the dark-blue car in to the vacant spot it previously filled, the Knight of Four killed the engine.

"So?" Ciaran asked out of nowhere as Dorothea began unbuckling her seatbelt.

Her hand gripped around the fabric lifesaver, she let it slide gently through her hand as she mulled over what she had been told. Ciaran had willingly let a known terrorist, a dangerous terrorist at that, basically go free. All because he believed, very strongly believed, that he could get her to leave the Black Knights.

She knew that if he succeeded, the only reward Ciaran would get personally is the knowledge that he had helped Kallen. And if he failed... now that didn't bear thinking about at all.

"It's so little to gain, but so much to loose." She said softly, although in the close confines of the car, there was no way that her partner couldn't have heard her words.

"That's the problem with doing the right thing." The Briton said. "I know that if I succeed, only a small handful of people will know about it. But if I fail... then I have fucked everything up."

Dorothea nodded her head in agreement, before she sighed and put a hand to rest over one of his hands.

"Ciaran, what I'm about to say, I don't want you to take it as a criticism." She said softly. "But you're too nice. I do agree that if this goes wrong, this girl will have to be killed and I'm sad about it. But if it has to happen, then it happens."

The downcast look on her lover's face told her that was not what he had expected to hear, but she gave his hand a gentle stroke with her thumb in a reassuring gesture.

"But for what it's worth, I do think that it's worth a go." Dorothea said warmly. "And for the record, I'm not that angry with you, and I also won't tell anyone else about this. Okay?"

Ciaran nodded his head as a relieved smile spread across his lips, happy that he was able to state his case.

The sound of someone tapping at the driver's side window drew their attention, making Dorothea turn to see Nonette standing outside the car before she rolled down the window.

"Glad to see you two finally made it." The Knight of Nine said, smiling. "Euphie's gone ahead to get Nellie and the others. So you two ready to get this over with?"

Looking back to Ciaran, Dorothea saw that he had moved his hand to wrap around hers, making her smile.

"I'm ready." The Knight of Four said to the young man. "Are you?"

He nodded his head. "I'm ready."

Dorothea exited through her door, her friend stepping back to let her out while Ciaran unbuckled his belt and stepped out of his open door before the trio moved towards one of the elevators and exited the garage.

Rubbing two of her fingers on each of her hand on both sides of her temples, Cornelia paced back and forth behind her desk. She could very much feel the beginnings of a migraine forming in her head and she knew exactly why.

She had sent Nonette to try and find Ciaran and Euphemia, since Dorothea had not answered the messages sent to her and the Second Princess had a good feeling that the two would know where the Knight of Four was. It should have taken only a few minutes, but then the four of them had disappeared completely for three hours!

And no less than five minutes ago, her younger sister had suddenly appeared in her office, dressed in one of her civilian outfits no less, with Guilford and Darlton in tow. Before she was able to ask any questions, Euphemia simply told the pair to wait in the office before she left the three alone in stunned silence.

Right now, the two men were watching her intently to see what she would do.

"I'm going to kill him." Cornelia said out-loud, not interrupting her movements. "I am seriously going to kill him."

"Your Highness, I think that might be an overreaction." Her Knight said, trying to placate his Princess, but his words fell on deaf ears as Cornelia continued her rant about the youngest member of her staff.

"I told him. I fucking told him that if he was to go out, then he was told to either tell one of us or to have one of us go with him. Then he just ups and disappears, not only with Euphemia, but two Knights of the Round too!" She growled out, finally stopping behind her chair as she gripped the headrest tightly. "Oooh, I find out that he's been doing something with those three, I'm going to-"

"Cornelia!" Darlton yelled out in disgust. "You can't seriously be suggesting that Ciaran would do something he shouldn't, especially with Euphemia?"

Her hands still on the back of her chair, the Second Princess drummed her fingers against the woodwork of the chair as she turned to look at the scarred general. "... I... No, no I'm not. I'm just... Gah! I'm just so annoyed at him. He seems to make it a habit of following one order of mine and then ignoring the other and continuing that pattern."

In front of her, she heard the general sigh softly. "Yes, I am aware of how he acts with the rules, but from our recent history with the lad, it seems that the times he does ignore your orders, it's not of his own volition. And, he does apologise for it afterwards anyway."

Cornelia looked Darlton as she took in what he said, nodding her head. The only serious time that she knew that Ciaran had explicitly ignored one of her orders was at Narita, and that was because he carried out an order from Euphemia to come to her rescue. Even if the act did end up seeing him getting captured, he had truly been remorseful for it.

Sighing loudly, she let her body lean forward, resting her forehead against the top of the headrest of the chair.

"I know that I shouldn't be angry with him. I know I really shouldn't." Cornelia said quietly. "I'm... I'm sleep deprived and I'm just angry in general that Zero did nothing last night. So I think I just wanted to vent."

Both men nodded their heads, knowing the source of their Princess' displeasure well, before Guilford spoke up.

"Your Highness, I am positive that Ciaran will have a good explanation for why he and the others disappeared. Let's just hear what he has to say before we put any judgement on him."

Cornelia nodded her head as she pushed her head up from her chair, taking a steadying breath before she spoke again. "You are right, Guilford. He's a good man. I shouldn't think to harshly of him."

The pair of men nodded their heads in agreement as the Princess moved her chair back and sat down on it, sinking in to the plush cushions of the seat as, sighing again, she put her right elbow on the armrest and rested her head on to her hand, closing her eyes as she did so.

A trio of knocks sounded on the door, although the sound did hardly anything to make Cornelia open her eyes.

"Let them in, Guilford." She said sleepily, not opening her eyes as she heard her Knight move towards the door before he opened the wooden portal and let the others in to the room. After a few seconds of the sounds of shuffling feet, Cornelia opened her eyes and fixed them on to the two people, Ciaran and Dorothea, standing directly in front of her. To the corners of her vision, she saw that Euphemia and Nonette had taken up positions on the sides of the pair. All were dressed in civilian garb.

"Your Highness." The umber-skinned woman said, bowing her head.

"Princess Cornelia." The Briton said, copying the gesture.

Cornelia stayed silent for a few more seconds, taking mental notes of how the pair carried themselves. They looked ready for something big to happen, but they also looked like they wouldn't like the outcome at all.

"All right." The Princess said, pushing forward slightly in her chair to put her hands on to the desk and look at the pair in front of her. "I will accept that you two are adults, and that you are free to do whatever you two want to do within reason and the confines of the law. However, and I cannot stress this enough, you two must also realise that we are in a very trying time right now."

She kept her voice low, keeping the desire to yell at them down, as she turned her head to look at Dorothea and continued speaking.

"Dorothea, I know that as a Knight of the Round, you are sworn to the orders of my father and Lord Bismarck, but I can trust you to follow the orders that I give when security is concerned. Right?"

The Knight of Four bowed her head. "Yes, Princess. I do."

Cornelia nodded her head before she turned it to look at the young man. "Good. And Ciaran. I am sure you know that, simply as your superior officer, that you are to follow the orders that I give you, again, when security is concerned. Correct?"

A nod of his head. "Yes, Your Highness."

Closing her eyes, Cornelia pushed aside the anger that was welling within her before she spoke again. "Good. So please tell me, where did you two go to?"

Ciaran answered for them. "We went in to the Settlement, Your Highness. Specifically the Omotesando Mall."

"And why did Nonette and Euphemia go with you?" The purple-haired princess asked as she opened her eyes.

"Technically, they didn't go with us." Dorothea replied. "They... they kind of followed us."

… Okay, that was not what Cornelia expected to hear. Sitting up more stiffly in her chair, the Princess looked at the two in front of her as she spoke again. "So... why did they follow you two in to the Mall?"

At this question, Ciaran's and Dorothea's posture suddenly shifted, both becoming more physically nervous. The Knight of Four moved her hands to in front of and below her waist as she began wringing her hands, while the captain brought his hand up to scratch at his beard, moving his eyes to look away from the Princess.

Turning in confusion, Cornelia looked at Nonette to her right. "Nonette, do you know what this is about?"

The champagne-haired Knight simply shrugged and shook her head. "You need to hear it from them, Nellie."

Turning back to look at the pair, Cornelia shook her head in exasperation before she asked the question. "Why did you two go to the Mall?"

Both remained silent for a few seconds before Dorothea spoke up hesitantly. "We... we were on a date."

It took less than a second for Cornelia's eyes to snap open in surprise, a gesture that was shared by both Guilford and Darlton behind the pair.

"A... a date?" The Second Princess repeated in confusion. No, she must have misheard what she had said. But it was Ciaran who decided to confirm it.

"Yes, Your Highness. We... we went on a date."

Looking at the young man, Cornelia saw that the nervousness had gone from his body, replaced by a small smile on his face. To his side, she saw that the smile had been carried over to Dorothea too.

But she still couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Are... are you two suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

Neither person said anything in reply. They simply turned their heads to look at each other, still smiling. A small piece of movement from below drew Cornelia's attention as, looking down with still widened eyes, she saw the two link their hands together, interlocking their fingers, before they turned to look at her directly.

Behind the pair, Guilford's jaw dropped in shock while Darlton just stared in surprise at the pair.

"...what?" Cornelia asked, staring at the pair in front of her blankly.

Euphemia responded happily, bouncing up and down on her feet slightly as she said. "They're in a relationship! Isn't that great?"

At the outburst, the older woman turned to look at her younger sister blankly as she took in what the pink-haired teenager had just said: she was far more subdued than normal.

"You knew about this, didn't you?" She asked simply, before she turned to Ciaran, raising the volume of her voice slightly as she asked him. "You told her but you didn't tell me?"

In his defence, the young man looked genuinely guilty before he spoke. "Well, to be fair, we didn't really plan her finding out about us."

"That's beside the point, Ciaran!" Cornelia snapped back, her voicing rising another level in volume before she put both hands against her head. "It's just... you are in a relationship with a Knight of the Round. Is that what you're telling me?"

Moving her hands to the side of her head to look at the young man, she didn't say anything as she saw him nod his head simply. "Yes. I am."

The hands at the side of her head fell away as the Second Princess fully took in what she had been told, unsure of how to process what she had just been told.

"Right. Let's take this from the top," She said, putting her hands flatly on to her desk before she took in a small breath. "When did this happen?"

"Do you mean as in 'when did you too fall in love' or 'when did you two decide to become a couple'?" Dorothea asked for clarification, but she quickly shut up when Cornelia directed a particularly vicious glare at her.

This did not earn a positive response from the young Briton as he took a step forward to interpose himself between the two women. "Princess Cornelia, I do apologize for not having kept you, or the others in fact, in the loop as to mine and Dorothea's relationship. But... the fact is, we just weren't ready to tell anyone else yet."

A perfectly groomed eyebrow arced up as she listened to what Ciaran was saying. Granted, she did have an idea of what his fear would be, but the confusion did soften her facial features a bit, although it was Darlton who spoke the question that was on her mind.

"Wait a minute. Why wouldn't you be ready to tell anyone else if you knew you were in love?"

Turning her head, the Princess looked at the scarred general as he spoke. From the tone of his voice, he was taking a vested interest in this.

In front of her desk, the Briton took in a deep breath before he gave his answer.

"Because... this is... my first relationship."

If any phrase was going to plunge the room in to absolute silence, that was it.

"This... is your first?" Cornelia repeated, still in shock over what she had just heard.

"You could have fooled me, you sly dog you." Nonette said, looking at the young man in surprise.

In reply, Ciaran just shrugged his shoulders. This prompted Cornelia to, once again, her hands up to her head. This was just getting too out of hand.

"Now hang on a minute." Darlton said, butting in to the conversation before the Second Princess spoke. "Ciaran, there's something I have to ask you: do you love Dorothea?"

This earned a disbelieving look from the young man before he replied with a vehement and loud, "Yes!"

Holding up her right hand for silence, the Second Princess stopped the conversation from going any further. "Okay, okay. I can accept that you and Dorothea are in a relationship. But I have to ask something too, and I really think that this is one of the most important questions here; but do you two know what this sort of relationship entails for both of you?"

She knew that the question would mean two different things to the two different people, and if she got the answer that she wanted from one of them, she'd be happy.

The Knight of Four nodded her head. "Yes, Your Highness. I have."

Ciaran's reaction... "Uh..."

That was all the incentive the Britannian royal needed to surge up to her feet and march around the desk, before quickly grabbing on to the scruff of the Briton's jacket and dragging him towards the door.

"Cornelia!" Her younger sister cried out in shock.

"Your Highness!" Dorothea called out after her.

"Don't worry, Dorothea," The Princess responded as she moved towards the door. "Me and Darlton need to have a little word with your boyfriend here. Darlton, come with me. Now!"

Moving quickly at the command, the scarred general headed towards the door, his long legs letting him cover the distance smoothly to reach the Princess just as she opened the door and pushed the young man through. Holding it open, she let the older man past her before she moved to close the door.

Looking in to the room, Cornelia saw that both Nonette and Euphemia had moved to comfort an obviously distraught Dorothea while behind her desk, Guilford stood their impassively.

Sighing softly, the Second Princess let a sad smile as she closed the door softly before turnin to look at a very confused Ciaran while Darlton moved to stand at the side and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Cornelia, if this is about me dating someone older-" The young man began before the Princess silenced him by holding up one of her hands.

"No, Ciaran. That's not why I had to pull you aside." She said.

"Well, if it's because she's a noblewoman and I'm not-" Ciaran began again before Cornelia cut him off again.

"Ciaran, shut up and let me talk!" She snapped loudly, making him clamp his mouth shut. Taking a deep breath, Cornelia steadied herself before she spoke. "Ciaran, I need to know: do you plan to tell her?"

A confused look over came to the young man's face. "What do you mean?"

Darlton spoke up in response. "Neither Nonette or Dorothea know that you came from another world. How are you going to explain that to her?"

Realization came to Ciaran's face as he took in what the general had said. "Shit," He whispered out. "I never thought of it. Oh man, I feel like such an idiot."

Moving closer, Cornelia put a hand on to his shoulder, giving him a reassuring rub before she began speaking.

"That's not all we need to talk about." She said softly but sternly. "Ciaran, we've still not been able to establish what brought you here, or whether you staying here is temporary or permanent. I... I don't even know how I'll feel if you suddenly up and disappeared one day. But how do you think Dorothea will feel?"

Shock came to Ciaran's face as he obviously thought over the implication, his eyes opening wide before they became teary. Her words had obviously struck a particular nerve with him and Cornelia felt guilty at saying what she had said. Reaching forward with her other hand, she took a hold of the other shoulder as she looked him square in the eyes.

"Ciaran, I'm not criticizing you for not telling her." She said softly. "It's just... This isn't something that you can put aside. You HAVE to tell her at some point. Nonette too."

"It's only right." Darlton said, adding his own baritone agreement to the mix.

In front of her, the Princess saw Ciaran nod his head before blinking away the built-up tears.

"But how am I going to do that?" He asked. "I mean, it's not like I can just take them aside and go: 'Dorothea, Nonette, I love you both, but I have to tell you: I'm from an alternate world where the Britannian Empire doesn't exist, and I should be working in a restaurant as a dishwasher right now', now can I?"

A small titter of amusement left Cornelia's throat at his very simplified explanation of the facts. "Yes, I can't really see that going down too well." She gave the young man a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "But in all honesty, you need to tell them, and sooner rather than later. And if you ever get scared about telling them, then just ask us to come with you."

Putting a hand to his head, the Briton let out a loud sigh, a sad smile at his face. "I know you will. But it's just... when will I know it to be right time? Or what if I do get sent back to my world, or God forbid killed? Then what do I do?"

Cornelia looked up at Darlton as they took in what Ciaran had just said.

Reaching forward, the scarred general put a large hand on top of the shorter man's head of hair before ruffling it slightly.

"Don't worry about too much," Darlton said soothingly, a genial smile on his face. "We'll deal with that later. But right now, we need to talk about something else: you ARE dating someone older than you AND in a higher rank than you."

"Oh balls..." Ciaran murmured out in fright.

"Hey, I'm not angry." The general said, taking both Cornelia and Ciaran by surprise. "I'll be honest, as a red-blooded male, I'm quite impressed."

"Andreas!" The Princess said out-loud in shock, completely taken aback that her top general, one of her best friends, would take in such a carefree manner. She knew he could be a bit carefree about things, yes, but that was pushing it.

In his defence, Darlton put up his hands, taking his left one off of the young man's head. "Now do remember, Princess, that I was a young man once myself, and that getting a woman such as Dorothea can definitely be seen as an impressive act."

The young man was silent for a few seconds before Ciaran smiled. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," The general said. "And, to be perfectly honest, I kind of had my suspicions on what was going on between you two. This just confirms it."

At the comment, Ciaran's face went several shades of red in an instant in shock. "Wha- how? When?"

This news took Cornelia by surprise too, as she had been wholly in the dark almost like everyone else had. Or at least, she thought so. "Yes, Andreas. When did you start having your suspicions?"

Crossin his arms over his chest, Darlton replied. "Well, I saw that Dorothea was acting odd around Ciaran after Kitakyushu, but it was really when she agreed to be the one to accompany Princess Euphemia to rendezvous with Zero at the docks to get him back after Narita. I had only ever known her once to jump to a task like that so quickly, and that was when she was an officer cadet.

"I'll be honest, the thing that clinched it for me was when I confronted her on it. Her answer was simply that she didn't know. And that's when I knew." Turning his head slightly, the tall, scarred general gave a sideways glance in the direction of the purple-haired princess. "Because that was the same answer I got the last time I asked that question."

This time, it was Cornelia's face that went several shades of red quickly before she closed her eyes and looked away from the pair. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Wai-wait?" She heard Ciaran asked. "What's going on?"

"Come on, lad. Don't tell me you haven't guessed it already. With Cornelia and a certain nobleman?" Darlton asked in return.

Opening her right eye a tad, the Second Princess saw the young man staring at her in wide-eyed shock. "You mean... you and Guilford...?"

"Bloody hell, Ciaran." She groaned out in annoyance as she turned to look at him. "Wasn't it that obvious? I mean, Guilford and I spend a lot of time together."

In reply, the Briton just shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly? It just never clicked."

Cornelia just looked at him blankly before, accompanied by a smile cracking on her face, she began chuckling. "How did you ever find out that Dorothea was in love with you?"

"She told me." Ciaran said with an earnest shrug and a smile of his own. "So... how did he get around it?"

"Who get around what?"

"Guilford, being in a relationship with someone of a high social status." The young man replied.

Taking a short breath, Cornelia cast her mind back on to when she had first entered in to her relationship with Guilford.

"I think that me being a Royal might colour this slightly," She said in a sad tone of voice. "But you learn to keep it close. In public, we had to maintain the cold but professional distance we were known for, as you will be too, so the only time that you two will be able to enjoy each other's affection is if you're with us, or by yourselves."

Ciaran nodded his head as he took in what he was told. "So it's basically what I imagined it would be then."

The two adult Britannians nodded in agreement. It really was no way to have a relationship. And if the pair had to split, then that would make it harder for them and the burgeoning relationship.

A sudden idea clicked in to Cornelia's brain, made even more real as she clicked her fingers together. "Although, if you two were to stay in a place where your relationship was known and readily accepted by people you knew and trusted, you wouldn't have to hide it."

Darlton gave her a sceptical look. "Cornelia, what are you getting at?"

"I'm not getting at anything, Andreas." The Princess replied, using the general's given name to highlight the seriousness of her plan. "I'm just thinking; we are in a dangerous situation here in Area 11, and the inclusion of a Knight of the Round in our order of battle would be a definite boon to us."

The two males simply looked at her as they processed what she had just said before the realization dawned on their faces.

"Princess, are you really suggesting what I think you're-" Ciaran began before the older woman cut him off.

"I'm not suggesting anything, Ciaran." Cornelia said, holding a hand up to stop the younger man from continuing. "I'm saying it outright: I'm going to petition my father to have him station Lady Ernst in Area 11 to help fight the Black Knights and then help sort out the resulting mess."

And to let Dorothea and Ciaran have as normal a relationship as possible, was the unsaid part of her plan, and both men knew it.

A warm smile crept across the captain's face as he fully processed Cornelia's plan. "Your... Your Highness, you... I'll never be able to pay you back for what you've done for me."

A small smile of her own came to the Second Princess' face. "Ciaran, you don't have to pay me back for anything. I just want you to live as a happy a life as you can."

That did nothing to abate the smile on Ciaran's face. Inside her, a part of Cornelia's body screamed at her; 'Hug him!' Feeling her arms move up, she took a step forward, moving to embrace the young man.

The sound of the door handle being depressed and clicking open made the princess stop dead in her tracks before Guilford stuck his head through the gap.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important, My Lady," The bespectacled Knight said in a slightly snarky tone, "But we were wondering whether or not you were going to return the young man to his lover."

In the hallway, the trio simply shook their heads at the comment, although it did annoy Cornelia slightly that their conversation had gone on a bit longer than they had hoped but it had to be said.

"Yes, Guilford," She said turning around and walking past her Knight and lover. "We're coming now."

Walking through the door, Cornelia saw the two other woman and Euphemia still standing where she left them, although from the looks of it, it seemed that Nonette had managed to embarrass both her sister and Dorothea again.

"Sorry that took so long." The Second Princess said, drawing closer to them. "But I had to talk to Ciaran about a few things pertaining to your relationship that were quite important."

Turning quickly, an uncharacteristic look of fright on her face, Dorothea looked at Cornelia. "Your Highness, I swear: there is nothing improper going on between me an-"

"Dorothea, please." The purple-haired princess said, interrupting anything that the Knight of Four was saying. "While I will admit that I had a small misgiving about your relationship, I cannot deny that what you and Ciaran share is the beginnings of a proper relationship."

From the corner of her sight, Cornelia saw the young man in question step past her and move to stand beside his lover, but she continued what she was saying, especially since both needed to hear it.

"I know that in Britannia, your relationship will very likely draw many questions, and few good ones too, but I want you both to know that... I fully support your relationship."

The expressions on Ciaran's and Dorothea's faces couldn't have looked more relieved, even more so when he wrapped an arm around her and pulled the umber-skinned woman in to a sideways hug. It made the princess' heart warm up slightly at the display of joy as the single hug became a full hug between the two.

She didn't want to ruin the happy atmosphere, but the next part had to be said.

"And, since I support your relationship, and I know that everyone else here does too," She looked around at the various nods of agreement from the other people as the pair of lovers turned to look at the princess. "So... I'll petition my father to allow Dorothea to remain here in Area 11 for the foreseeable future, and we'll see how it goes from there."

The gasp that came from the assembled group could have almost sucked out all of the air in the room, although the noise was almost deafening, as was the exclamations of joy from Euphemia, Nonette and the two lovers. Cornelia knew that they wouldn't express it loudly, but she knew that Darlton and Guilford were wearing their expressions on their face with glee.

Ciaran opened his mouth to speak. "Cornelia, I- Oh, are you bloody kidding me?!"

The cause of the young man's outburst was the shrill tone of the telephone on Cornelia's desk, indicating that someone was attempting to call her.

"Is it 'National Interrupt Ciaran Day' or something?" He said out loud in annoyance, causing Dorothea and the others to chuckle at his discomfort, even as Cornelia moved towards her desk.

Stepping around it, the princess pressed the speaker button to connect with the caller.

"This had better be important." She quipped, certainly annoyed at being interrupted.

"Uh, Your Majesty," The slightly frightened voice of one of the Palace's phone operators came through for everyone to hear. "We have a message from Lord Bismarck. He says it's a Priority Two message. Shall-shall I patch him through, Your Majesty?"

The noise level dropped precipitously as all heard the name mentioned, although only one person was confused by the turn of events.

"Uhh... Lord Bismarck?" Ciaran asked quietly in confusion.

"The Knight of One," Darlton answered, keeping his voice quite low to avoid being heard by the person on the other end of the phone. "The leader of the Knights of the Round."

"And technically, our boss." Nonette added, sounding more subdued than normal.

"How is Lord Bismarck trying to contact us?" Cornelia asked to the operator.

"Through video message. We're ready to patch it through to your office when you're ready, My Lady." The operator replied, causing Cornelia to quietly let out a sigh.

"Okay, I'll set it up." She said before she clicked off the phone before she put a hand to rest against the top of her desk, her face an expressionless mask. "This cannot be good."

That was an understatement and a half by far. While it was true that her father very rarely contacted his own children directly, it was also true that any information or important topics of discussion would reach their desired destination via either Schneizel or one of the Emperor's other ministers. But to be contacted by the Knight of One...

"It's probably me again." Nonette said unprompted, sighing gently as she spoke. "I bet it has to do with Marshal Stirner's report."

Cornelia nodded her head as she closed her eyes. Everyone in this room, apart from the two Knights of the Round present, knew that Ciaran wasn't from this world (which was still a weird phrase for her to say, she admitted to herself) and that was how she intended to keep that secret. Until the time was right for Dorothea and Nonette to be told at least.

"Shall I set the video-link up, Your Highness?" Guilford asked, to which the Princess only replied with a simple nod of her head, not bothering to open her eyes as she heard her Knight move behind her. The sounds of the man opening a concealed panel in the wall behind her before pressing a button made her turn around as a large portion of the wall behind her desk slid upwards, revealing a large television-esque screen, about four feet in length and three feet in height, built in to the wall.

"Everyone ready?" She asked, turning her head slightly to look at everyone behind her as they moved in to a place relative to their rank: Darlton moved to stand on one side of the desk, while Euphemia came to stand next to her older sister. Reluctantly, Ciaran took a few steps back from where he stood next to Dorothea, an act that further cemented the fact that, while they were together around others that didn't know about them, they'd have to stand apart. To her credit though, the Knight of Four put up a stoic mask as Nonette moved beside her behind the desk, but the Princess saw that she didn't like the move any more than her lover did. This just left Ciaran alone a few paces in the back of the group.

She couldn't help the sad look that scrunched up her face as she saw the young Briton left behind from everyone else. She had seen Guilford do it so many times and that hurt her heart too much. But she couldn't imagine how it must feel for him.

The small smile that Ciaran shot her as an attempt at reassurance did little to help, but she pushed that aside. She had to deal with this first.

"Guilford, set it up." Cornelia said, prompting her Knight to step closer to the screen and type a small sequence of numbers in to a touch-pad built in to the screen before he moved to stand the other side of the desk.

For a few seconds, a small 'call waiting' icon filled the blank screen, before another icon, this time showing 'call connecting' appeared. This all probably lasted for around ten seconds before the formerly blank screen was replaced by the image that no-one in the upper echelons of the Britannian Empire wanted to see.

Lord Bismarck Waldstein, the Lord Knight of One, First Sword and head of the Emperor's personal Royal Guard, looked all the more imposing on the large screen. His tall, square shaped head, his dark tanned skin and long black hair filled the middle of the screen, his white and gold Knight of Round uniform just poking out from the lower edge of the screen. From the looks of the room behind him, the man had to be in his own personal office.

For a few quiet heartbeats, his single blue eye staring at the people on the other side of the screen, which was a lot less unnerving than his sewn up eye staring at them, Cornelia had to admit. However, the intense stare vanished and was replaced by a kind, sincere smile.

"Princess Cornelia," The Knight of One said, bowing his head slightly. "I'm glad to see you in good health."

Cornelia couldn't help but return the smile. While she had grown up with Lady Marianne as her idol, she couldn't deny that she had given some hero-worship to Lord Bismarck too. He wasn't the Knight of One for nothing.

"About as well as I can be considering that we're in the middle of fighting an insurgency here in Area 11." She said warmly before she went down to business. "But I have to ask: why am I being contacted? Have I done something to... displease my father?"

"Oh. My apologies for any confusion, Your Highness." Bismarck replied in a sincere apology. "I did not contact you to speak to you, I'm afraid, although I do find our talks stimulating. No, I contacted your offices today to talk to Lady Nonette and Lady Dorothea."

"Huh. You were right, Nonette." Ciaran said from behind her in what he must have thought was a low voice, but the head on the screen turned to look at the young man behind them.

"So this must be Captain Forsyth." Bismarck noted, not sounding all too surprised by who he was talking to.

"Uh... yes, My Lord." Came the stammered and sheepish reply. "That's... uh... that's me."

"How are your injuries healing?" The Knight of One asked, speaking in a genial tone that Cornelia knew was not faked.

"Uh, good. I'm healing well, My Lord. Although I'm certain it would have been worse if Lady Nonette hadn't saved me."

"I don't doubt that, but I am glad to hear. From what I read about you from Provost Marshal Stirner's report, you seem like a young man I plan to keep my eye on in the future." The older man said before he moved his attention to the two women in front of Ciaran. "Which brings me back to my purpose for calling."

Even though the pair were still dressed in their civilian outfits, the two Knights of the Round stood to attention as they prepared for what was to come.

"The Emperor feels that the two of you have spent too much time already in Area 11, especially considering that Britannia is close to re-initiating hostilities with the European Union. As such, he is ordering all Knights of the Round not in country to return to the Homeland."

Cornelia did not need to look around her to know that the look of shock on her face was mirrored by the others in the room.

"Re-return to the Homeland?" Dorothea asked in shock.

"What the hell?" Nonette cried out. "This is bull-"

"Language, Lady Nonette." Bismarck interrupted, his stern voice raising only slightly in pitch to stop the champagne-haired Knight from speaking. "While I can understand that you two are annoyed by the decision, and I do understand that, truly, you must not forget that you are both Knights of the Round. As such, you are both sworn to carry out the Emperor's orders, whatever they may be."

Turning to look at the two women, Cornelia saw both of them hang their heads slightly in resignation. Behind them, she saw Ciaran looking quietly distraught, the same look mirrored on Euphemia's face.

It seemed that the Lord Knight of One must have picked up on those expressions as he let out a weary sigh.

"It is not fair, I understand." He said softly to Nonette and Dorothea, although the Second Princess was certain he was addressing it to everyone. "To be forced away from your friends at a time when you have been enjoying yourself. And I do not doubt that the Princess would have found a use for you in Area 11. But I'm afraid that this is how things must be."

To her credit, it was the Knight of Nine who recovered first, lifting her head to look up at her superior.

"When do you want us to leave, My Lord?"

"The Emperor said as soon as you got this message," Bismarck replied flatly before a small smile lifted up the sides of his mouth. "But I have no qualms with you two leaving tomorrow morning. It'll give you two time to say good bye to everyone properly."

'A small mercy from the executioner.' Cornelia thought to herself as she saw the two women nod, Dorothea still keeping her head looking down at the floor. Turning back, she looked at the screen.

"Will there be anything else, Lord Bismarck."

A shake of his head. "No, that is all, Your Highness. Good day to you."

"And a good evening to your, My Lord." Cornelia replied, remembering what the time difference was in the Homeland.

With that concluded, the screen blinked out, becoming black again. The only things seen on it's screen were the reflections of the people in the room.

"Guilford? Close the screen, please." Cornelia asked, not in the mood to give an order after all of the positive energy had been sucked from the room.

Turning around, the Princess' mood fell even more as she saw that Dorothea still had her head down, only this time she could see her shoulder bobbing up and down as a hand came up to her mouth.

"Oh, love. Come on." Ciaran said in sympathy, quickly stepping forward to put his hands on his lover's shoulders as she continued crying. Spinning quickly, the umber-skinned woman pressed her body full against his, prompting the young man to wrap his arms around her in an attempt at a soothing hug.

"It's not fair." Cornelia heard Dorothea sob out softly as she buried her face in to the Briton's shoulder. "It was all going so right, and now this..."

"I'm sorry, Dorothea." The Princess said softly, meaning every word of it. "I truly am. But I can't countermine my father's orders."

The Knight of Four nodded her head in understanding, although Cornelia could see that it did little if anything to stop her tears. Although Ciaran didn't have to as, removing one of his hands from her shoulder, he gently cupped her chin to bring her face to face with him before, not saying a word, he gently pressed his lips to her left cheek and then her right.

That definitely did the trick as her tears slowed, but the forlorn look stayed on Dorothea's face.

Moving forward, Cornelia put a soothing hand on to the Knight's back as she spoke up again. "At least you two have until the morning. So I guess that's a small comfort."

Ciaran nodded his head as he placed it against the side of Dorothea's. "I suppose."

"Hey!" Nonette suddenly, and loudly, said from the side, making everyone flinch. "Let's have a party. A going away party!"

"Nonette, I'm not in the mood..." Dorothea mumbled out, closing her eyes in resignation before they shot back open as the Knight of Nine wrapped her arms around both her and her love. "Nonette!"

"Oh, hush." The champagne-haired woman responded, a broad smile on her face. "Look at this from another perspective, Dorothea: you are now in a relationship with the man you love. That's got to count for something, right?"

Bringing a hand to wipe the tears out of her eyes, the Knight of Four nodded as a smile started forming on her face. "Yes. Yes it does." She said happily.

"So let's celebrate!" Nonette yelled out again, making both lovers flinch from the volume and proximity of her voice. "A party to celebrate the end of our staying here while, at the same time, a party to celebrate Dorothea and Ciaran getting together. It'll be awesome!"

"A party doesn't sound that bad, actually." Cornelia said, thinking it over. She could do with a bit of winding down after last night, and earlier today, and an hour or so of good food and drink would certainly help do that.

"Yay!" Euphemia cried out in joy, before she turned and ran to the door. "I'll contact the cooks and tell them to get it started. Does six sound okay?"

Everyone replied 'yes' just as the young Princess opened the door and quickly sped away, causing her older sister to titter slightly.

"She could have just used the phone." Cornelia stated simply, earning a chuckle from everyone. "Okay, let's all get ready for the party. If you want to invite anyone, it's okay with me."

"If it's all right with you, Cornelia," Ciaran said, his arm still around Dorothea, drawing the Princess' attention. "I'd like to keep this between us, if you don't mind."

Cornelia nodded her head in understanding, smiling softly. "No problem. Now, run along you two. Go and freshen up. You have a party to prepare for."

"In four hours?" The young man asked, confusion plain on his face. It took a raised eyebrow from the Princess to get him to understand her meaning. "Oooh. Gotcha. Come on, Dorothea."

Nodding her head, the Knight of Four let herself be lead away from the four Britannians before she stopped at the door. Turning around, she looked squarely at Cornelia and, without preamble, bowed to the Princess.

"Thank you, Princess. I can't say how much this means to me."

For a few moments, Cornelia was silent before a broad smile came to her face.

"Go and enjoy yourselves, you two." She simply said, nodding towards the pair. "But make sure you dress nicely for the party."

Without saying another word, Dorothea stepped back out of the open door before her partner moved to close the door. As his head was in the gap of the open door, Ciaran shot a thankful in Cornelia's direction before he shut the door behind them.

In the large expanse of her office, the Third Princess let out a quiet sigh of breath as she moved back towards her desk. Instead of moving behind it however, she stopped at the front of it and spun around before resting herself against it.

"Gilbert." She said to her Knight and lover, prompting him over to her with a movement of her finger.

"My Lady?" He asked as he walked towards her.

When he was in striking distance, Cornelia reached a hand out and drew him the last few inches towards her as she pressed a quick but heartfelt kiss to his lips. As she disengaged, the Princess couldn't help but smile as the look of shock on her Knight's face before it morphed in to a contented smile.

"Thank you, Cornelia." Guilford said warmly as he moved to rest beside his lover. "It's nice not being the only couple here, isn't it?"

Cornelia hummed in reply as she moved her head to rest against his shoulder. "Just a bit."

Out of the corner of her right eye, the Princess saw a slightly miffed Darlton standing beside a very pissed off Nonette.

"Well, nothing is stopping you two." Cornelia pointed out to the pair, shrugging her shoulders from her position against Guilford.

For a few moments, the Knight of Nine just stared at the Princess before she turned to look up at Darlton with a hopeful expression.

"It didn't work before, it's not going to work now." The scarred general said before he turned and headed to the exit of the room.

The Going Away/Getting In To A Relationship party (as Nonette cheerfully called it) was much more of a subdued affair than Ciaran, dressed in his Royal Guard uniform, would have expected. Yes, there was food, drink and music present. But instead of it taking place in the main dining room as had happened with his 'anniversary' celebrations, it took place in one of the smaller rooms in a quiet corner of the palace. Casting his gaze over the room from his seat on one of the lounge chairs, the Briton took in all of the details; a fairly large round table upon which rested a variety of food and sweet treats, another table to the side with a variety of soft and alcoholic drinks sat on it while a small music player sat in the corner of the room on a small cabinet which made no attempt to fight with the volume of the people speaking in the room.

Leaning back in his seat slightly, a smile graced Ciaran's lips as he took a sip from his glass of rum and cola. This was how a party was supposed to be for him: no need to fight to be heard over the music when talking to people, the drinks were actually nice.

It was definitely his kind of party.

A soft impact on his thigh drew his attention as, looking down, Ciaran saw a foot clad in a black, high-heeled boot that ran up to the calf of Dorothea Ernst. To his right, his girlfriend was lounging on the other side of the chair, sipping on a tall glass of lemonade, one leg over the side of the chair while the other was on her lovers leg.

"What you thinking about?" She asked, smiling sweetly at him.

"Just that this is a nice party." He replied, nodding his head slightly. "Euphemia did a good job with this."

"Thank you!" The girl in question called out, holding her own glass high above her head, making the two people on the chair laugh in response.

Putting his hand on to the top of Dorothea's leg, Ciaran lazily let his hand run up and down the front of her calf. He knew that neither person could directly feel each other through the leather of her boot, but the young man was certain that he felt his lover shiver slightly from his touch.

Before he had a proper chance to enjoy it, a sharp and painful impact on the side of his head made him stop the act as he cried out in pain.

"Hey?"

To his side, Darlton stood looking down at him, a drink in his hand and a stern look on his face.

"Don't you think it's a little bit early in your relationship to be doing that, young man?" He asked.

Turning to look at his right, Ciaran looked at Dorothea, who merely shrugged in reply.

"I'm sure you know that I treat Dorothea as my own daughter when I'm allowed," The general continued as he began leaning down, quickly filling the young man's personal bubble. "So you should probably listen to what I have to say."

Ciaran couldn't help but swallow slightly in fear as Darlton drew his face closer to his.

"I think that I can say this with some real certainty that..." He stopped mid-sentence as he used his finger to beckon Ciaran closer, which he reluctantly did, bringing his left ear level with Darlton's mouth as the older man whispered. "If you're going to do that, it's best to do it in one of your rooms."

The young man's eyes opened in surprise at the general's words, even more so at the smile that graced his lisp. Turning his head, he saw that everyone was looking at the two of them expectantly.

"Uh... it's a bit rude, isn't it?" Ciaran asked. "I mean, you went through all of this effort-"

"Hey, relax!" Nonette called out, having changed in to her own Knight of the Round uniform, a glass of champagne held in her hand. "This party is for both of us, so it's all right if one of us is here, right?"

The others nodded their heads in agreement, signalling they were okay with the pair leaving early.

Carefully moving her foot off of Ciaran so he didn't spill his drink, Dorothea stood up from the chair, putting her drink on a side table before turning around and holding out her hand for her lover to take.

Handing his drink off to Darlton as he stood up, the young man brushed down his uniform before he took the offered hand and was led out of the room, not before waving a goodbye to everyone.

Not relinquishing her grip on his hand, Dorothea pulled Ciaran along the winding paths that lead from the party room to one of their bedrooms. They hadn't travelled far before the young man stopped dead, nearly causing Dorothea's hand to slip from his before she stopped too.

"What's wrong?" The Knight of Four asked, turning to look at the man behind her.

"You're acting... quite forward tonight." Ciaran stated, looking at his lover quizzically. "Is something wrong?"

This brought a blush to Dorothea's cheeks as she averted her eyes from him. "If I tell you, would you think less of me?" She asked.

It took all of a second for Ciaran to decide to shake his head. "Not likely."

This made Dorothea turn to face him directly, although she quickly shifted her vision to look down at a button on his jacket.

"You've not been spending a lot of time with me recently." She said softly, reaching a hand up to gently fiddle with the button she was focused on. "I know that you had the battalion to train and you had to deal with... with Kallen, and Cornelia too. And I'm okay with that. It's just..."

"Just?" Ciaran repeated, keeping his voice soft.

"It's just that as soon as I manage to get a chance to really spend some time with you, we get ripped away from each other." She shook her head gently as a sad smile came to her face. "I just... I just want some time with you, that's all."

'Ah.' Ciaran said to himself in his head as he realised what Dorothea was talking about. "You just want me to yourself for a while and you think you're being selfish, right?"

Nodding her head, his umber-skinned lover lifted her gaze to look directly at him. "I told you'd think less of me."

A small chuckle came to the young man's throat as he gently lent forward and pressed a kiss on to the tip of Dorothea's nose before he wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

"Dorothea, if I had all of the time in the world, I'd gladly spend it with you." He said warmly as he squeezed their bodies together softly. "I think that we're allowed to act a bit selfishly now and again."

That did the trick, as Ciaran felt and heard Dorothea let out a happy sigh before she nuzzled the side of her head against his. Moving back from the hug though, the Briton saw that a blush was still on his lover's cheeks.

"Okay, now what's up?" He asked.

"Umm... Can I do two more selfish things tonight?" Dorothea asked, warily in reply.

Closing his eyes, Ciaran chuckled again before he replied. "What is it?"

His eyes opened quickly as he felt Dorothea put a finger to his chest before she drew a small circle in the fabric before she looked at his face directly. "Stay with me, until the morning. Just me and you, together for the night. We can watch television, read a book, it doesn't matter, just as long as we're together."

A nod his head came in reply. "Aye. I can do that. And the second thing?"

This time, the blush on Dorothea's face deepened as she prepared herself for what she was about to say, but even when she did, she mumbled it out so quickly, it was amazing that Ciaran even caught it at all.

"...carryme..."

"Carry you?" Ciaran asked, surprised by what he had just heard.

"Forget it!" The Knight of Four called out, turning quickly and continuing her walk to her room. "It was a stupid idea. Let's just go to your room and get ready for the night. I know that Jimmy Fallon is on ton-hey!"

While Dorothea was saying all of this, a mischievous smile on his face, the Briton quickly sneaked up behind her. Moving quickly to match his pace with hers, he struck. Putting both his arms at the right side of her body, his right arm at waist height and his left at knee height, he swept them to the side, picking Dorothea up in a bridal carry, which did nothing to lessen the blush on his lover's face.

"So how long have you had this fantasy?" He asked as he made his way down the corridor, jostling Dorothea's body slightly to keep her body close to his to stop her from falling.

"... since I was a little girl." The umber-skinned Knight admitted after a few seconds of silence, quickly settling in to the position she was in, resting her head against his shoulder. "I remember watching those old black and white movies with Errol Flynn in them, where he would carry the main damsel in this way-" She swung her feet lightly to reinforce her point. "- and I just thought to myself: 'I'd like that'."

Ciaran nodded in understanding as he carried her down the corridor. The bridal carry was, he always thought, an incredibly romantic gesture. It said probably the most important message for a relationship in such a simple but literal way; "I've got you, and I won't let you down."

"So where can I drop you off, love?" The young man asked, putting on a bad Cockney accent which worked well at making Dorothea laugh.

"My room will be fine." She replied between small giggling fits.

With his destination set, Ciaran made the relatively short journey from they were to the older woman's room was, letting her slide off of his arms to stand in front of the door.

"I won't be long." Dorothea said as she opened the door. "I packed virtually all of my things earlier so I'll just get changed in to my pyjamas and meet you back at your room. Okay?"

Ciaran nodded his head in understanding as he turned to head back to his own room, making sure that his lover's door was closed before he performed a little hop of joy before he entered in to his bedroom. Moving quickly, he performed his routine for preparing for the night; give his teeth a brush, changed in to a pair of pyjama bottoms and a plain white t-shirt before climbing in to bed and he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Pushing himself to sit fully upright, Ciaran looked at the door questioningly before turning to look at the clock beside him.

6:15 had turned in to 6:25.

It shouldn't have taken ten minutes for Dorothea to get changed in to her pyjamas.

Moving out of his bed, the young man quickly padded over to the door, leaving his slippers where they were, as he decided to investigate what was keeping Dorothea. A few images of fairly irrational fears rushed through his head as he headed towards the exit (he seriously had no idea where the image of her falling through the floor came from), but that didn't stop him as he opened the door a bit too quickly.

On the other side of the door, his lover gave a small cry of shock which made Ciaran stop short of butting his head against hers. Forcing himself to stand still, the young man gave Dorothea a quick look over: she was wearing the same pair of blue and white pyjamas she had worn the first night they had slept together, while in her hands, she carried what looked like a small duffel back. Her hair was once again out of it's braid and was flowing down past her shoulders, while a blush once more tinged her cheeks a dark shade of red.

"Sorry for the wait." She said sheepishly before she held up the bag. "I... may have gotten a bit carried away with getting stuff ready for tonight. You don't mind me having a shower here in the morning, do you?"

Looking at him like she was, Dorothea could have asked him; "Can you burn your whole room down?" and he'd do it. Not saying a word, he simply stepped aside, letting her in to the room, before closing the door softly behind her.

Once inside the room, and having deposited her duffel bag softly near the foot of the bed, the pair began their evening together. After a quick bit of fiddling, the young man found where the television in his bedroom was located, surprisingly enough, in a large cabinet that sat directly across from the couch in the room. Decided to save time early, the main light was switched off while the bedside lamp gave the necessary light to see where they were going and what they were doing with the remote.

At first, the pair had sat straight up next to each other on the couch as Dorothea switched on the television before they both leant back in to the back of the seat, moving to cuddle next to each other. This then turned in to Ciaran lying down on the couch with a cushion as a pillow while the Knight of Four lay on top of him with her head on his chest as they watched a variety of shows, mainly a mix of early evening comedy shows (plus one that seemed to be very much like Only Fools and Horses) before the programmes switched to a late night talk show.

In his world, he'd only ever really watched a few of them, mainly Jonathan Ross. But this guy was close enough to be the same: not really someone who you could pick out of a crowd in terms of looks but when he told jokes, then you couldn't help but join in the laughter.

The guy prattled on at length about Britannian politics (someone called Guinevere was getting repeated mentions and a lot of hoots from male audience members), but then his jokes switched to what was going on in Area 11, and all of the humour stopped being funny very quickly.

He thought that he could handle the jokes, but the host then made a joke about the battle at Narita and likening it to a mud-bath for the Princesses, and that's all it took for Ciaran to begin to feel his blood begin to boil. Moving quicker than he thought capable of moving, his hand shot out and snatched the remote from it's spot on the couch in front of them before he mashed the mute button, sending the room in to silence as he closed his eyes to contain the anger.

The feeling of Dorothea gently pulling the remote from his hand as she moved from resting against his body to holding herself up with one hand made him open his eyes, as she used the remote to switch the television off completely. All the while, a sympathetic and understanding look was on her face.

"Let's go to bed." She said simply before she moved off of the couch, carefully climbing over the young man's body to avoid giving him any sort of injury before she padded over to the bed.

Taking a few calming breaths, Ciaran put the remote down before he pushed himself up from his seat and headed towards the bed. At that moment, he hated himself. He let himself get angry on probably the most trivial thing ('Seriously? Who even thinks that talk show hosts are experts in politics anyway?' He asked himself) and it had ruined the whole atmosphere of the evening.

'Proper quality boyfriend material you are, mate,' He sarcastically said in his head as he stopped beside the bed, looking down at Dorothea as she sat on the bed.

"I'm sorry, Dorothea." He said earnestly. "That was... I shouldn't have gotten angry at what that guy said, I know, but it's just-"

"Ciaran, stop." The Knight of Four said softly, leaning forward in the bed to gently take a hold of one of his hands before she moved to kneel in front of him on the bed. "You don't have to apologise. I know how loyal you are to Cornelia and Euphemia. Besides, that man was never really funny to begin with."

Her words brought a smile to Ciaran's face, as he moved forward to give his girlfriend a kiss, which she lovingly returned for a few seconds before she pulled back.

"Now, come on." She said, shifting her hands to gently hold on to the young man's biceps. "Come to bed. I've still got you for the whole night."

Moving her legs out from behind her, Dorothea suddenly pitched backwards, dragging Ciaran along with her down on to the bed, earning a surprised yelp from him before he began chuckling heartily while he rolled to the side to avoid crushing her.

"Jesus, Dorothea," The young man said in surprise. "And you say Nonette's rubbing off on me?"

At the mention of the Knight of Nine's name, the umber-skinned woman bit her bottom lip as she averted her gaze. That earned a frown from the young man as he reached a hand over and gently cupped her face with his fingers before he turned it to so she was looking at him.

"What's wrong?" He asked, concern in his voice. "Do you think that I want you to be more like her?"

Dorothea shrugged. "You've spent a lot of time with her, so I'd have thought-"

"It has not really been because of my own choice." Ciaran countered. "Besides, Nonette's not really the type of woman I see myself with."

"Really?" Dorothea asked in shock. "But you've seen her b- her breasts."

The Briton arced an eyebrow at that comment. "I bet you've seen her breasts more than I have."

For a moment, a contemplative look came to the older woman's face before she shrugged her shoulders. "Fair point. But still... should I be worried?"

Ciaran shook his head a split second after the words left her mouth. "No. Not at all. I chose you, didn't I?"

Dorothea nodded her head, but from the look in her eyes, she didn't look fully satisfied with the answer. The young man let out a small huff from his nose as he thought on what he should do. He knew that words wouldn't do anything for her. So he had to actually do something.

Raising himself to his knees, Ciaran gripped the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it up over his head before tossing it over the side of the bed, leaving him entirely naked from the waist up and his chest completely bare for Dorothea to see. A cocksure smile was on his face for a few seconds before he realised exactly what he had done as his smile took on a more sheepishly quality and a blush coloured his cheeks and he moved his arms forward slightly to cover his body.

Beneath him, Dorothea looked him, mouth agape in shock before she began laughing hysterically.

"Oh, my God! Ciaran. What was that?"

The young man shrugged in reply. "I... am not really sure myself. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Still laughing, the woman reached a hand up and pressed it against his stomach. "But it's just... you're so hairy!"

And it was true. From his chest downwards to his hips, it was like someone had shaved a bear and stuck it on to his body, as he was covered in what could only be described as a matt of dark-brown-bordering-on-black hair.

From her position on the bed, the Knight of Four continued laughing before it quickly petered out before, sighing, she put a hand forward and placed it on to his sternum. The contact made the young man move his arms aside and jolt upright slightly.

"You really are the hairiest lover I've ever had." She stated, a smile on her face as she ran her hand soothingly over his sternum and chest. Whether Dorothea felt the goosebumps forming under her hands, she didn't give any hint. Quickly, her happy smile shifted to a forlorn look before she spoke again. "I still can't get over the fact that I have to leave you tomorrow."

The young man nodded his head in sympathy. It was unfair. Reaching down, he gently took the hand off of his chest before he moved to lay down beside her. "Still: at least we get tonight."

A smile came to Dorothea's lips as she moved to rest her head on Ciaran's chest again, bringing her other hand up to run through the hairs on his chest. "Besides, we've still got the video-links, so we can chat whenever we like."

"That's true." He nodded his head before he turned to look at his lover as she continued speaking.

"Besides, if your doctrine really does prove as successful as we all think it will be, then, if all goes well and you do manage to beat the Black Knights, you and your regiment can get a transfer to the Homeland." Dorothea said dreamily.

The topic made Ciaran chuckle slightly. "Yeah. I mean, if Cornelia does give me and the Warhounds credit for it, we'll be hailed as heroes. Then no-one can say that we can't have a relationship."

He had meant it as a joke initially, but as he thought over what he had said, he realised that he could do it. It could be done! If he and the Warhounds really did beat the Black Knights and they captured Zero, then what could Cornelia do for him as payment? A promotion? More than definitely.

A knighthood? Now there's a thought. Sir Ciaran Forsyth... it worked. He would be a member of aristocracy and then no-one could really stop him going out with Dorothea officially.

As soon as that thought entered his head however, he immediately began hating himself for even thinking it. That was so selfish of him! That sort of thinking was the exact same sort of thing that got twats like Hasselbach in to their positions in the first place. Looking at the woman beside him, he didn't want to imagine her reaction if he became like that man.

No, if he was going to be with her, he was going to go about it the right way.

"Shall we try and get some sleep?" Dorothea asked, slipping her hand out of his and moving underneath the cover.

Turning over slightly, the Briton looked behind him to look at the clock on the bedside table, reading the time. 22:35

Not the latest time he'd gone to bed at, but it would suffice.

"Yeah, all right."

Leaning over her body, he switched the lamp off before climbing under the covers and nestling up to his lover as the room fell in to darkness. Waiting a few moments, Ciaran let his eyes adjust to the low-level of light. As his night vision came in to play, he could see Dorothea looking at him.

Smiling sweetly, he leaned forward, tilting his head up to kiss her forehead before moving down to kiss her nose and then her lip. Soon, the pair were exchanging kisses in the darkness of the room until they separated.

"I love you." Dorothea said softly.

"I love you too." Ciaran responded.

Moving closer to each other, the pair wrapped their arms around the other as they shifted in to a more comfortable position, with the Knight of Four once more resting her head against her lover's chest. Soon their breathing became more steady as they drifted off in to sleep in each other's arms.

The sounds of the Knights of the Rounds transport's engine idling filled the air of the Palace's hangar. Looking around him, Ciaran was still surprised by how large it actually was: it had the space for the transport, which had to be the same size as a Hercules transport, along with the six Valkyr gunships and some smaller aircraft that the young man had not been told about.

It was quite impressive, he certainly could not deny that.

Although it was hard to find any consolation in that when the woman he loved and the woman he had come to appreciate as a trusted friend were leaving for God knows how long.

Presently, Ciaran was standing in his official Warhound uniform, to the right of Darlton and Guilford. In front of them, Cornelia and Euphemia stood ready while they stood before the two Knights of the Round. To the side of the group, a small honour-guard of the battalion's senior officers, Villetta and Fick in the same dress as their captain.

All of their stuff had been packed in to their transport and now they just had to say goodbye.

"Well, Nonette," Cornelia began, sounding a lot less professional than when they first arrived. "Once again, you have dropped unannounced in to my life and given a complete shake up."

This earned a small nervous titter from the group, although the Briton didn't really feel the humour as the purple-haired princess continued speaking.

"But, I can say this: it has certainly not been an unpleasant experience."

From his position behind her, Ciaran couldn't see the Princess' facial expression, but the smile on Nonette's face told him that the look on Cornelia's face was an equally happy one before she turned her head to look at the umber-skinned woman next to her.

"Dorothea, it has been a pleasure to spend time with you. I know that with your experience as the Knight of Four, I would have very much liked for you to stay in Area 11. But sadly, life is not always so nice."

Now that definitely made Ciaran's mood drop. And from the looks of it, it affected the Knight of Four's mood too, making her drop her head slightly. Reaching forward, Cornelia put a hand on to her shoulder which caused Dorothea to lift her head up.

"Yet, I trust that your role as Knight of the Round will see you back here again. Or if you decided to continue hanging out with Nonette, then you can come back again for a holiday."

That had the effect of making the woman smile and Ciaran couldn't help but notice how it made her face light up. If there was any image of her that he was going to keep in his mind, it would just be that smile.

Moving her arm, Cornelia held her hand out for Dorothea to take, which she did so with all of the poise and finesse of a Knight of the Round. Turning to the champagne-haired woman, the Second Princess was soon encapsulated in another air-crushing hug from Nonette. This time however, Cornelia made no attempt to fight it, instead wrapping her own arms around the other woman, staying connected for a few seconds.

After the pair disconnected, the two Knights began bidding their farewells to the assembled group. Nonette's goodbye hug to Euphemia was a lot more chaste than her greeting, although she did end up planting a big kiss on to the young girl's cheek which caused her to shriek loudly in shock. Thankfully, Dorothea's farewell was a simple handshake and a small hug.

The pair made a point to bid goodbye to Lieutenant's Fick and Villetta, both women giving the pair words of encouragement and promises to meet again, while Dorothea gave the latter a few extra words that Ciaran couldn't hear but it seemed to bring a warm smile to the silver-haired woman.

Then, it came to the three senior officers. The women approached Darlton and Guilford in turn, embracing the pair in a friendly manner, each man giving the women a gentle kiss on the cheeks before exchanging pleasant words of farewell with the two male Britannians.

And then it was Ciaran's turn.

Moving in front of the young man, Nonette let a wry smile as she looked at him.

"Well, I guess this is it." She said, shrugging her shoulders slightly, which made him chuckle.

"Jesus, Nonette. You make it sound like it's the end of the world or something."

The champagne-haired woman nodded her head, staying silent for a few seconds. Taking a step forward, she made the move to embrace Ciaran in a hug, but, suddenly, he held up his hand in front of him, stopping her movement as a look of hurt confusion came to the woman's face.

"I need to do something I should have done a long time ago." He said cryptically, which made the woman even more confused.

Reaching forward, he took a gentle hold of Nonette's right hand before, bowing slightly, he brought it up to his lips, letting him kiss the knuckles of her hand. Looking up, Ciaran saw a large smile form on the woman's face as he let the hand drop and he moved back upright, a smile of his own coming to his face.

"Happy now?" He asked.

"Oh yes." Nonette drawled out happily, before the smile on her face took on a sad quality. "I will miss you though."

Ciaran nodded his head in agreement, a sad smile of his own on his face. "Same here, Nonette."

With that said, it came time for the truly hard part for him as, stepping aside, the Knight of Nine allowed the Knight of Four to step towards the young captain.

"Lady Ernst." He said, bowing his head. It felt so strange of him to use the woman's title, especially not considering the fact that the pair had grown so close together that to even say that they were on first name terms was nowhere near close. But they had to do it for the sake of keeping their relationship a secret.

"Captain Forsyth." Dorothea responded, nodding her head in greeting. The words were said easily enough, but he could see that she wasn't comfortable saying them. "I am... quite sad that I'm not able to see your unit perform it's first action."

Ciaran let out a single chuckle. "I shall personally keep you abreast of our progress, My Lady." 'And tell you how much I miss you.' He said in his head sadly.

The umber-skinned Knight nodded her head, while at her sides, her fingers began fidgeting slightly. "Good, good. That's good to... to hear."

It really hurt Ciaran to have his lover so close to him, especially when she looked so uncomfortable, but not able to do anything to her.

"Well," He forced himself to say, "I hope that you have a pleasant- ah, sod it."

Reaching forward, he brought his arms up and wrapped them around Dorothea as he pulled her in to a tight hug, which she happily returned, wrapping her own arms around him and going full in to the hug. Not caring that people were watching, the young man lifted his lover up and spun her around, her legs trailing behind her, making her laugh giddily before he put her back down.

"Oh, you stay safe over here, okay?" The Knight of Four said, bringing one of her hands up to play with the hair at the the top of her lover's neck, before he nodded. Without another word between them, they pulled each other in to a kiss, Dorothea moving her hand up to rub against the back of his skull.

Completely oblivious to everything around them, the pair stayed connected like that for a few seconds before they disengaged, nuzzling their foreheads against each the other.

"I mean it." Dorothea said softly, letting only Ciaran hear her. "Please stay safe. For me."

"I will, love. I promise." The young man responded, meaning every word of it.

Getting the promise she wanted, the umber-skinned woman pulled back from his head as she let her hands slide down Ciaran's arms until they rested in his hands. Reluctantly, Dorothea let her hands slip from his before she turned around and headed straight for the open door of their transport. It would have looked callous and possibly cruel to anyone else, but they both knew that if she stayed longer, then it would have been even harder for her to walk away from him.

Climbing up the stairs in to the aerial vehicle, Nonette closely behind her, the umber-skinned Knight stood at the top and looked behind, raising her hand in a wave, with the other woman copying her gesture. In reply, the group on the ground waved their own hands to bid the pair goodbye before they climbed in to the transport and the door closed behind them.

Soon, the sounds of the aircraft's engine building up in to a crescendo fully filled the hangar before the vehicle launched itself out of the building and in to the open air of mid-morning. Looking out of the open door of the hangar, Ciaran watched the craft quickly recede in to a dot before vanishing from sight.

When it was gone, the young man let out a weary sigh as he hung his head.

"Something wrong, lad?" Darlton asked from his side, looking at him quizzically.

"I had no idea that just even doing that would hurt as much as it did." Ciaran said quietly, looking up at the scarred general sadly.

This earned a sympathetic chuckle from Darlton and a hand gently placed on to his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"Well, I'll say this about you, Ciaran," Guilford said moving towards the pair of officers. "When you choose to forego subtlety, you really just go for it."

At the man's words, the young man's head shot up in confusion. Keeping a straight face, the bespectacled Knight pointed his thumb over his shoulder and towards the two officers dressed in the same uniform as Ciaran, a look of amused surprise on Lieutenant Fick's face and a look of slack-jawed confusion on Villetta's.

"... I honestly forgot that they were there." The young man said earnestly before he chuckled once.

Walking past him, Cornelia added her own laugh to noise that the group was generating. "Well, they're your officers, Ciaran. So it's your job to explain what just happened. We'll see you in the meeting room. Don't be too long."

Moving away, the two Princesses and the two officers headed towards the exit, leaving Ciaran in the hangar alone with his two junior officers.

Walking towards them, the young man saw that the looks on their faces had not really shifted, although Villetta had made the choice to at least close her mouth.

"So... I imagine that you want to know what that was about." He said as he drew closer.

"Ciaran, I know you said that you were close with the Knights of the Round," The tawny-skinned woman said, still quite in shock. "But... are you really that close with Dor- Lady Ernst?"

Mentally, the Briton thought over what he should say about what they just saw before, shrugging inside his head, he thought to himself, 'Eh, what have I got to loose?'

"Me and Dorothea are in a relationship." He said simply, looking at both Britannians in turn, almost as if begging them to say anything against it.

Fick was the first one to speak. "... Congratulations, sir. I guess." He said, a little bit unsure of what to say.

"This... Ciaran, this is huge!" Villetta finally getting over her shock and going in to mild concern. "I mean, a Briton and a Knight of the Round? That's-"

"Yes, I know, Villetta." Ciaran cut in, holding up a hand to cut her off. "Everyone that knows about this relationship has said the same thing. Even Dorothea." He let out a sigh before he continued speaking. "It is what it is. I'm glad that I'm in a relationship with such a wonderful woman, and I'm aware of the problems that we'll face. And I'd like to think that we're ready for it."

For a moment, the thought of why he was telling this to Fick and Villetta. They were his subordinate officers, and it may have been a bit too early for him to call them friends, but he had said it, so there was little else he could now.

"Well..." The silver-haired woman began, the look concern on her face falling away to be replaced by a smile. "I think that I can consider Lady Dorothea as a good acquaintance of mine, so I think it's fine for me to say that I support your relationship."

Ciaran couldn't help the smile that came to his face at the older woman's words. Turning his head to look at the blonde-haired lieutenant, he looked a little bit expectantly at the other man, which prompted him to shrug his shoulders.

"I'll say: congratulations, sir. From that display, you two looked like a lovely couple."

The smile on the young man's face broadened widely, although he had no real idea why since he knew that he didn't really need their say on his relationship.

"Why exactly are you smiling like that, sir?" Fick asked, looking at the Briton quizzically.

"I have no idea." Ciaran answered, shrugging his shoulders as he turned around and headed back to the hangar's exit, the two subordinate officers in tow. "Maybe it's just because I feel so happy about being in a relationship that I just kind of want to... show off a bit."

"Show off a secret relationship?" Villetta asked.

"... Okay, fair point." Ciaran replied, nodding his head before the trio entered in to the elevator that lead to the exit. "Anyway. Let's focus here. We're about to face our worst possible enemy."

"And who would that be, Captain?" The tawny-skinned noblewoman asked somewhat dramatically as the three stepped in to the elevator. But with his happy mood, Ciaran decided to play along as he dropped his voice an octave as he replied.

"Politicians."

AN: And that is chapter 27 done! Lord but this took a long time. I would have put this up last night when I uploaded the chapter to the doc manager, but it was quite late when I did so, so I decided against it. Originally, this chapter was going to extend past 30 pages, culminating in a... well, I won't spoil it since it'll be shown in chapter 28, but I'm not really proud of myself for cutting scenes in half to save time. But then I remembered that this isn't an actual anime so I can do whatever I want with this story.

As I have said before, and I'll say it again; writing anything do to with romance is not easy for me to do, but I really think that I am getting closer to getting things down pat for it. Not much else to say on this chapter really.

But a bit of good news as I am now employed! I'm working with my sister in the store she works in in Liverpool, in one of the biggest retail chains in the UK really, so I have money now. But the Department of Work & Pensions, with regards to Universal Credit (everyone in the UK knows what this is, but for non-UK residents, it's the name we give to the money you get from the government when you're unemployed), have their heads collectively up their arses, so I have to deal with that now. But I have money now! Yay!

So, as usual; read, enjoy, review, and please do help with the TvTropes and Wiki page for this story. It would mean a lot and I'd help myself but I have no idea what to do, especially with regards to tropes (the only one I know for sure is Growing The Beard, since the later chapters are of definitely superior quality to the earlier ones).