Disclaimer: I don't own ToS:DoTW or its characters.

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Stolz und verständnis

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"Alice! I've finally found you!" The blue haired man shouted happily while he gleefully approached the object of his affections.

Alice tuned her head after hearing the familiar voice. "Decus? What are you doing here?"

"Richter ordered me to--" But his explanation was interrupted by a loud scream coming from the roof of the cavern.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

A strange girl dressed in purple robes suddenly fell from a hatch located right above Alice. Decus, who was horrified seeing his love being crushed by the unidentified person, grabbed his head with both hands.

"AAAAAHH! Oh, Goddess! Alice!"

He ran to Alice and pushed the strange female that had fallen on top of Alice off of her. "Ow. But what the-?"

Decus ignored the woman's complaints and knelt beside Alice raising her torso with his arm. "Alice! Alice! Are you O.K?" After receiving no response from her, he put two fingers over her neck to check her pulse. One, two, three, four, five… Nothing. Decus was terrified for her. "No! No! This can't be! Alice! ALIICEEE!"

The woman dressed with strange clothes awkwardly rose up. "Aaaah… What a fall." She took a step back. Decus was still crying and embracing Alice (who seemed to be a white golden haired girl, in the eyes of the strange woman). "What the hell just happened?" she asked aloud.

"Alice. Oh Alice, I beg you. Don't die… I can't live without you, I don't want to. Please Alice don't die." Decus couldn't hold back the tears.

The strange woman soon understood what had just happened. She quickly ran to aid the pair.

"Is she O.K?"

Decus didn't answer. He just kept crying over Alice's shoulder. "Alice. Alice, don't leave me, please."

The coal haired woman put her fingers over Alice's wrist. Her pulse was normal. "The girl is fine. She is just unconscious."

Decus rose his head up to look for first time the unknown woman. "What? Are you saying that she is O.K? I've just check her pulse with my own hands-" He noticed something after looking his own hands. "Oh! The gloves…"

"You remind me to someone… Anyway. By your clothes I would risk to say that you didn't come here to take a walk. Do you have any gel or vial to wake her up?"

"Of course. I keep those things inside my Iron Maiden."

"I don't think that this is a good moment to be sarcastic."

Decus looked hurt for a moment. "I would never be sarcastic! She is my beloved!" Decus pointed his Iron Maiden. "I'm talking seriously."

"Oh." The mysterious girl blushed. "Wait a moment! Are you saying that you take that big iron thing everywhere? How?"

"This is no time to flirt, woman. I understand that you had been impressed by my strength. By my heart belong to her." Decus deposited Alice's body into the kind woman's arms and ran towards his torture instrument. When he opened it the girl was impressed, not for the huge sword, but for the decoration. An innumerable amount of pictures of the golden haired girl covered the space inside the Iron Maiden.

"Where is it? Where is it…?" Decus muttered, looking for anything that could help.

"Stop searching. It doesn't matter. I'll use one of my seals to wake her up. It shouldn't be hard."

Decus closed his Iron Maiden and ran towards his beloved. "What's that paper?"

"This paper, as you call it, is a magic seal that allows me to recover the awareness of those who are out of combat," she explained, "And now… Purgatory Seal!"

The paper disappeared with a blinding light.

"And now?" Decus asked impatiently. "Why isn't my dear waking up?"

The woman looked worried. "This is bad. She is not waking up."

"Alice! Alice, my darling! Your dear Decus is here! Now, open your eyes for me!"

"I'm surprised she hasn't come to yet. Your cologne could wake the dead."

"Ahah!" Decus laughed, apparently thinking that his cologne was as irresistible as always. "You're entranced by my alluring essence as well. However! I am pledged to my darling Alice."

"Decus?!" A familiar voice asked.

The mysterious woman lifted her head to ask for the newcomer's aid "You came just in time! This girl broke my fall! Can you use healing artes to help her?"

"Marta?!" Decus asked in surprise, "But Richter killed you!"

"Wait a minute." Suddenly, the friendly attitude of the young woman who had tried to help him with Alice changed. "You know Richter? Are you guys friends with that creep?"

Marta decided to clarify the situation. "Sheena, those two are both members of the Vanguard!"

Sheena (after realizing what she had been doing) casually dropped the body of the girl that she nearly killed minutes ago and ran over to her new friends.

"Ooow…" The sudden impact with the ground apparently woke Alice up. "What the--?"

"Alice, my darling! It's your prince. Decus!" At the sound of the familiar voice, Alice turned her head to face her sickening companion.

"What the- -?" She quickly left his side. She didn't want to be related with him in public. "Why is Dumbo-Decus here? Eww… Get away from me, you reek!" She looked at the new group. "Martmart? Why are you still alive? What, Richter failed?"

"Yes my dearest Alice. And after all the trouble I went to, transforming to lure Marta away from her friends." Decus took the form of Marta's father to show what he meant.

Marta then fully realized what had happened. "Daddy! You- - That was nothing but a disguise!"

"Sheena, is that similar to your ninja technique?" A blue-haired man asked in surprise to Decus's trick.

"No. Even the most advanced techniques of the Igaguri-style involve some sort of trick or device," the woman replied.

"Well, well." Alice decided that she had already let them talk enough. "Guess I'll just have to take care of little Martmart myself. I can't wait to see the look on Richter's face when I tell him."

Alice seemed to be happy so Decus didn't waste a second to join in it. "Let me help, my dearest Alice."

The group took the chance of what it seemed that was going to be a discussion between the two and ran away.

"Decus, you stink. Stay away from me!" Alice said before running after the group.

Decus ignored her hurtful words and ran after her. He wasn't going to let Alice go up alone against all those enemies. It could be dangerous. And it wasn't the first time that her pride didn't let her see the risk of the situations.

"Now then, be a good girl and say your prayers before I send you off to heaven." she said in a sweet voice.

"Not so fast!" Sheena shouted getting in her way, "Celsius!"

The Summon Spirit of Ice appeared between Alice and Decus and created a frozen wall between them and the group of the self-proclaimed heroes.

"No fair!" Alice shouted angrily. "First you fall right on me, and now you throw up this stupid wall!"

"Quiet my dear." Decus hated to see Alice so frustrated. "I'll take care of this." He said bowing before her.

"Decus. Stop calling me dear while you are in that form!"

Decus noticed that Alice was right--he still was in commander's Brute form. But that wasn't the only thing he noticed in Alice's sentence. "Wait a moment! Do you mean that you don't mind my praises while I'm in my normal form?" He asked happily, taking his original form once more.

"Eewww… No way! I just meant that it was more repulsive than usual."

"It's still good news," he proclaimed happily while he took his sword out of the Iron Maiden. "Now my dear. Look at the power of love!" Decus used all his strength and hit the wall and only managed to scratch it a little.

"How impressive…"Alice said sarcastically. "Now I'll show you the real meaning of the word 'power'!" Making circles with her toy rapier she cast a spell which only managed the same result as Decus's blow. "I'm still weak for the hit on my head."

Decus knock the wall with his knuckles. "It seems to be pretty tough."

"Oh! Don't tell me!"

Decus, as always, ignored or wasn't wounded by Alice's words. "It seems that the only thing we can do is wait until it melts to get out of here."

"Ptch… We should take a nap." Alice sat down on the ground. "It isn't worth it to waste energy."

Decus turned his head and smiled. "Alice! Don't- - Don't tell me that you wanna rest with me?!"

"What?!"

"You know, to warm each other's bodies!"

"No way, you stink! I would rather freeze to death than be near you!"

Decus stop smiling and sat down. But what did he expect? She didn't like him, after all.

"What do you think you are doing?!"

"You want me to be nearer?" Decus asked hopefully.

"If you want to take a nap here you should put something between us. I'm so not going to take a nap if there isn't something to separate us." Alice took a look around. "Use the Iron Maiden. Maybe that piece of junk could be useful for once."

Decus obediently got up and put the Iron Maiden between them creating an imaginary line.

"And don't even think about passing the line! I don't want you to be close to me!"

5 Minutes later.

"Alice." Decus whispered, "Alice… Are you awake?"

"No."

"It doesn't remind you of the old times? You know, when it was just you, me and your pets?"

"Since when aren't you one of my pets?"

"Well. If you consider me one of your pets, I'll be happy."

After hearing those words Alice was glad that the Iron Maiden was blocking Decus's vision or he would be able to see the sudden blush over her checks.

"Don't be so happy. I prefer any of my pets before you. They are hypnotized, I can trust them more than I'll be able to trust you, if I ever trust you. You are a human after all. Humans can't be trusted."

Decus felt saddened after hearing that phrase. It seemed that nothing will be able to make her trust him, not even the sacrifice of his life for her. He hated being a human. He wished he was a half-elf too. Maybe Alice could trust him if he wasn't a dirty human.

"Alice," Decus said seriously. "If you want… If you want you can use the Hypnos with me."

"What?!" Alice was far from expecting that kind of answer.

"I said, if you want to, you can use the Hypos on me. If that's the only way to be useful to you, to make you happy, I'll gladly lose my consciousness."

"What are you saying Dumbo-Decus?" Alice was really mad. She hated how Decus was always able to twist her meanings. "I'm not going to waste an Exsphere on someone as useless as you!"

"OK… I just wanted you to know that if you someday want to take the control over all my actions with the Hypnos… I wouldn't mind it."

"Shut up!" Alice shouted. "This conversation is over!"

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Decus had stayed awake staring at the roof for at least twenty minutes. He couldn't allow himself to fall asleep. What if a monster attacked Alice while he was sleeping? He would never forgive himself if something happened to Alice.

Tired of, ironically, not doing anything, Decus got up and began to do some stretching exercises. Looking to one side, he noticed how peacefully Alice was sleeping on the floor. Decus couldn't help but smile as he came close to her without passing the Iron Maiden. The way she slept wasn't exactly very feminine: her face was sideways as a thread of saliva dripped out of her mouth, one knee lifted into the air and the other on the ground with her legs open in "V" form with an arm extended across the floor and the other over her chest. And if all that wasn't enough, she was snoring. But that didn't bother Decus. Far from it! She was so natural like this that it made her even more attractive. Alice was like that. She was herself. And she didn't bother to hide it, because she was proud of the person she had become. And if someone had something against it, he would have to deal with them!

She was a strong woman who didn't let herself be carried by the values of the weak. She didn't find excuses for her actions or any kind of pretext for her selfish interest. She wasn't like those who said "We must do the good for others." Hypocrites all of them! They only try to find excuses to do whatever they want and be able to sleep at night. Always acting like they were better than her, like their actions were justified so they can call her: bitch or sadist. He hated them all! Always saying that they were the good guys while the only thing that they are after is the feeling of feeling good with themselves. Such a thing as kindness and goodness were non-existent, only excuses that the hypocrites use to justify their selfish purposes. They weren't better than her, yet they always were acting like they were.

Decus was proud of the kind of person that Alice had become. And even if she never believed it, he understood her.

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"Damn wall!" Alice shouted as she kicked it. "It's been an hour trapped in here with you and it hasn't melted yet!" she ranted, and then embraced herself, rubbing her hands against her forearms in an attempt to get some warmth. "And to make it worse this place is made of ice… I'm going to get a cold."

In an instant Decus had undone his jacket and knelt reverently as he offered it to his beloved. "Here you go, my love."

"Get that out of my sight!" Alice snapped. "I don't want to wear your stinky clothes and end up smelling like you!"

"Alice! You shouldn't be worried about my health. I can swear to you that I'll be fine."

"What are you talking about?!" She said in a surprised tone. "I don't care about you or your health!" She snatched his jacket and put it over her as if it was a cloak. "The only one who matters here is me! So I will take YOUR jacket. I'll use anything that could be useful for me. You can die here for all I care."

"Fear not my darling." Decus said while he moved his arms doing some kind of weird dance. "Your presence keeps my heart warm enough."

"Weirdo."

Without a doubt Decus was a weirdo. His behavior was completely unnatural. He was always making weird dances in public like there was no one around. But contrary to popular opinion, she didn't mind the way he acted—in fact she liked it. It's not that she liked the way he moved, but the meaning behind it.

Decus didn't care about what people thought about him. If he wanted to do something he just did it. Decus was proud and sure of himself. He didn't need to satisfy anyone to feel good with himself or fit into the manipulative standards of the society. Cowards called him an idiot as they remained in their golden cages. But those cowards were too afraid of the freedom, of whatever other people will say about them. So they keep living as the powerful ones tell them to live, believing what others tell them to be right or wrong. Those cowards won't ever be able to live their lives call him an idiot because they needed to think that he was one to find some kind of sense in their pathetic lives. But those cowards won't ever taste the freedom.

Alice was proud of the kind of person that Decus had become. And even if he didn't know it, she understood him.

"If only I could find something to cover my legs…" Alice murmured to herself.

"Understood…" After hearing those words Alice heard the sound of a belt being undone. "Wait a second my dearest Alice." When Alice looked behind her she saw Decus jumping around with his pants at the level of the ankles as he tried to remove one of his shoes to remove his trousers.

Alice looked stunned, not knowing how to react. "What are you doing?!" Blushing, she threw Decus to the ground and pushed herself over him she smashed his face against the floor.

"Exhibitionist! Put on your pants already!"

"Al-ice, it's ver-y hard to do it l-ike this."

"You should have thought that before showing me your underpants. Perv!"

"Are you done yet?" A familiar voice Asked from behind.

Alice turned her head. "Richter?!" Alice rose up quickly. "It's not what it - -."

Richter interrupted the explanation. "I don't care about it and I don't want to know it." He turned away from the pair and left from where he had come.

Alice went through the melted ice hole in the wall. "Richter!" She turned around and threw the jacket at Decus's face. "This all is your fault idiot!"

Alice turned around again and run after the red haired half-elf. "Richter, wait!"

Decus put on his jacket and closing his eyes he embraced himself. "I suppose that this will be the closest I'll come to be able to embrace you." And after the brief moment of joy, he took his Iron Maiden and ran after his beloved.

"Alice, wait!"

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Translator:

- Stolz und verständnis: Pride and understanding.

-Dedicated to the autor "Eu de Seduction".