Germa was so...sterile.

No, that probably wasn't the right term to describe it, but even merely setting foot in that country made me feel...cold. Wrong.

Honestly, I wasn't sure that I could even call Germa a country, considering it was split and spread across the backs of monstrously large snails. I pitied those poor creatures for being forced to carry such a weight their whole lives.

There didn't seem to be many 'normal' people inhabiting Germa, either. As I walked along the stone path I could only see military presence. Same uniforms, same bandannas, same goggles and headphones. It hardly would have shocked me if each and every one of them had come out of the womb dressed that way.

It was almost shocking that I hadn't been tailed on my little expedition. Around Fell Wilds it seemed as though the Vinsmokes wanted eyes and ears on me at all times, whether it be any one of the princes or princess. It was strange that they weren't stalking me in their own domain.

I mean, with all these soldiers around they don't really need to go to the trouble, I guess...

They didn't need to waste their precious time keeping tabs on me when they had a whole nation of loyal, highly trained warriors. I'd be a fool to try anything stupid on their turf. My slingshot and I wouldn't stand a chance in hell.

Before leaving the palace, I had also ensured that Niji hadn't been lurking around, and Yonji wasn't difficult to keep distracted. One mention of Laoise and he was already halfway to the village, goofy grin on his stupid mug. If I didn't hate the Vinsmoke bloodline with such a passion, I possibly would have found it adorable.

And Ichiji...he was easy to avoid since he was avoiding me right back. That vile pain in my chest wasn't going away. Actually, perhaps it seemed to be slightly worsening, but it was hard to tell when it was such a constant. I buried it. Ignored it. It was preferable to the alternative.

"Uh, excuse me," I approached one of the passing soldiers, slightly unnerved by how stiffly he whipped his head around to face me. So robotic. "Have you seen an unfamiliar man hanging around by any chance? Strawberry blondish hair, kinda wavy, goes by the name Corbin? Doesn't, uh, dress like you." The soldier looked almost uncomfortable with my presence, but at the very least remained polite.

"I believe I have seen a young man fitting that description around for the past few days. Last I saw him, he was loitering by the castle, Your Highness." He responded rather flatly before nodding his head and walking off, leaving me with even more questions. I took a deep breath and sighed.

Huh. Funny. I couldn't smell his pheromones.

I couldn't understand why Corbin would want to go to the castle anyway. My first thought - and fear - was that he could have been planning to try and ambush Ichiji. I wouldn't have put it past him to pull such an idiotic stunt. He'd threatened to fight Ichiji for me ever since he had found out about our arrangement, back when we were merely friends. Kids together. That he would fight for my hand and win, whisking me away for a blissful fairytale ending. Pipe dreams.

The castle stank of stale Vinsmoke. A thick, lingering amalgamation of their scents that made it hard to breathe without dry heaving. It was nearly as bad as being with them in person. How Reiju could live in such conditions I would never know.

This...actually suits them to a tee...

The castle's aesthetic was awfully militaristic. Cold, and somehow even more sterile than the exterior. It wasn't ugly, by any means, but it felt eerie as the sound of my heals echoed whilst traversing down the corridors.

It was oddly quiet. Hardly any staff were scurrying around, which was surprising to me considering how strict and spoiled the Vinsmokes seemed to be. They treated the people in Fell Wilds like shit, so maybe they simply had no staff left? Or worse...

"Excuse me!" I caught sight of what appeared to be a maid rounding the corner up ahead, and I hurried to catch up to her. "I'm sorry, but have you seen a fresh face around here? Yay high, blond, kinda scruffy?" The woman seemed to be uncomfortable with my question, but she nodded and pointed towards the way she had come.

"Uh, yes, Your Highness. Mister MacClery is currently in one of the guest suits, down the hall, up the stairs, third door on the left..." She began, tightening her lips before giving me a look that I could only describe as pity. "But I would advise against paying him a visit. He's...preoccupied..."

Preoccupied..? Also, why does she know his full name?

Despite the sinking feeling beginning to swell in my gut, I mumbled a thanks and followed the woman's directions. Surely there was a perfectly good reason for Corbin to be here. Perhaps Judge hired him to do some work? Unlikely, considering how Germa prided itself in how advanced they are, but not impossible.

I heard the tell-tale sounds before I opened the door, which was probably a sign that I should have left it closed, but my body was on autopilot.

The freckled, sweat slicked back rhythmically lurching. The frizzing tangle of pinkish-blond waves. That slightly pitched grunt I had heard countless times before...and the legs of another woman spread across his shoulders.

It took a few seconds for the lustful pair to react, but it took me a touch longer. It wasn't until I saw Corbin turn his head, his eyes widening, and the way Cosette desperately tried to cover herself up.
"Sh..Shit, fuck! (Y/N), h..hey, I can explain-!"

The heel of my boot made an awful scraping sound against the stone floor when I spun and began to march back the way I had come. At last, something hurt more than that damn broken bond between Ichiji and I, but I would have preferred that.

That explains why he didn't show up the other night...

"No no no no! Hey, hey, wait! Please, (Y/N), baby, wait..!" Corbin, shirt off and pants being buttoned as he ran, caught up to me, reaching to catch my hand and bring me to a halt. "Let me expla-"

"There's nothing to explain." My voice wobbled when I spoke, and I hated it. It made me feel weak. "You've been here, fucking someone. That's it, right? I mean, duh, of course it is, because I just s..saw it." I pulled my hand away, but only slightly, allowing him to keep a partial hold of it.

Corbin wheezed out a long sigh as he caught his breath, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he always had when he was stuck for words.
"L..Look...I...didn't want you to find out this way. It happened so quickly, and I was still so pissed off about you screwing that Vinsmoke bastard, so I just-"

"Wait." I snatched my hand away this time, my brow furrowing as I registered his words properly. "I..I never had sex with Ichiji..? What the fuck? You think I'd- That I would- What?!" Great, now I was crying. I could feel tears beginning to roll down my cheeks, and it only worsened when Corbin had the nerve to roll his eyes.

"Come on, (Y/N), I know the truth. Your husband-to-be told me you two are fated, and had the evidence to back up the fact you two have fucked." Corbin explained, sounding a heck of a lot calmer than he should have in this situation. "Look, I get it. It's a bond you can't just ignore. It's nature. It sucks, but it's the way it is. I just think if you're out there screwing that stuck up bastard then I should be a-"

I had never been considered a weak girl. I was stubborn, I had a temper, and all my life I had refused to stick to the whole prim and proper princess shtick. I could fight, and I proved it in that moment when I swung my fist, cracking Corbin right in the nose. He stagged back a few paces, but didn't retaliate. He simply reached to cover his now bleeding face, groaning and tilting his head back.

"I don't know what kind of proof Ichiji showed you, but it's bullshit! Yeah, he and I were fated, and I c..cannot even begin to describe how messed up it was to feel any kind of pull towards that monster, but I put an end to it! I rejected him, and no, we did not fuck! Ever!" The pain worsened, only a little, but I was too horrified right now to care.

Corbin took a moment to pull himself back together after taking my left hook, shaking his head slowly.
"He had your voice, (Y/N). Crying out his name, just like you used to cry out mine. On one of those transponder snail things. I heard it loud and clear, so come on, can you just be honest with me already?"

My voice..?

It was impossible. I knew for a damn fact that Ichiji and I had never had any kind of intimacy beyond that screwed up moment of weakness before I broke our bond, and I certainly hadn't cried out his name. A trick. A vile, twisted little trick, and it had ruined the one good thing I had left.

I reeled back my fist, kind of dancing around on the spot, so badly wanting to crack Corbin again, but instead I just spun around on my heel and walked away, ignoring him calling out after me. No chase. No begging to talk. He likely just turned around and went back to Cosette.

I'll kill him.

There was no possible way I could, I knew that, but I oh-so wanted to. I marched out of the castle, tears slowing, fists balled. Back past the stone buildings and troops of soldiers, until my chest began to ache dreadfully when I neared the docking ramp.

Red.

And blue. Halting their approach when I came into view. Seeing Ichiji had my pain and my fury melding into one horrific beast, and I stalked towards the brothers, meeting them upon the ramp.
"Ohoho, looks like Little Princess finally tracked down lover boy~" Niji sang out his snickering, but I couldn't care less about his input. My eyes were on Ichiji.

"Wh..What the fuck did you do..?" I had wanted to sound more intimidating, but my voice was trying to break around every word I formed. Ichiji stiffened, just a fraction, and seemed to be standing so straight it was almost as though he was beginning to lean backwards, away from me.

"He was in the way." He spoke directly, formally, as though answering a simple question. No remorse, no anything.
"N..No...I know your messed up reasoning...What did you do?! You couldn't have had my voice..!"

Out of my peripherals I saw Niji reach towards me, and as I attempted to swat him away he seized my wrist.
"Actually, he did, sweetheart." Niji said with a smile, but it wasn't his voice passing through his lips. It was my own. I glanced at the glove of his raid suit, and it emitted a faint glow. Germa technology. The fuckers had been able to mimic my voice perfectly.

"B..But you we-"
"Amazing how easy it is to pluck a few hairs without anybody noticing, huh?" Again in my voice Niji spoke, finally releasing me and shifting back with a wickedly smug grin. "This is why your little country needs us. We're leagues ahead of you savages."

Savages? Is that really how people see us?

When I turned my attention back to Ichiji, I felt nauseous, like somebody had just kicked me in the guts at full force. A dizzying, intense kind of nausea that had my brow breaking out into a sweat. He showed nothing on his face. Nothing except a single beadlet of sweat forming by his temple.

"S..So...you sabotaged the one relationship I cared about s..so you could come into my room that night and seal the deal..? Is that it..?" I questioned him in a calm, yet quavering voice, but just as he opened his mouth to speak, I lunged forward and shoved his chest as hard as I could.

A single step back, his heel missed the edge of the ramp, and Ichiji went spilling into the ocean. I would have once taken extreme joy in witnessing such a sight, but instead I was overcome with a fierce wave of pain and the urge to throw up. Staggering, my vision began to blur around the edges, and before I could try to get out of there, I lost my legs.

"Aaaaand down she goes." Niji caught me with a single arm, curling it tight around my waist, letting me kind of just dangle there as I began to lose consciousness. It hurt. It hurt worse than it had the night I had rejected Ichiji.

"One of you come and haul her to the infirmary! I gotta go fishing..."

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***ICHIJI POV***

It felt as though I was dying. It wasn't the lack of oxygen from staying underwater for too long, because I had held my breath for a far greater time than this. It had been from the moment she had touched me.

No, the pain had slowly began to worsen the moment I had seen the look on her face. The utter betrayal, and the hurt. The hatred. Emotions I couldn't understand, yet they seemed to wound me worse than any weapon could.

The ocean water felt like a balm across my body, but one you would get from a snake oil seller, that would never truly fix the problem. At this rate I knew there was no fixing it. Not unless she accepted me, which was never going to happen, and I was too proud to chase it. No, not proud. I wasn't quite sure what I was, I just knew I couldn't bring myself to try.

"What the hell was that?" The moment I breached the surface of the water, Niji's voice found me. He was squatting on the dock, looking at me as though I was the stupidest creature he had ever laid eyes upon. "You let that bitch make a fool out of you."

I feel like I may have deserved it.

"I simply made the decision to yield, because if the Princess had returned home with two broken wrists from shoving my chest, then it would have been a poor look for us." I sighed, swimming to the edge and hoisting myself up. My body felt heavy, but I pinned that on the fact that my clothes were drenched.

Reaching over, Niji squeezed my bandanna, wringing it out all over my lap.
"Yeah, but now she's going to think she can get away with pulling stunts like that. What happened to making that bitch roll over and submit, hmm? Anyway, she passed out. She's hot to the touch. Probably some jungle disease or some crap."

There it was. A sharp pang on top of the already overwhelming physical hurt in my chest. A feeling I again wasn't accustomed to. A fierce urge to lay my eyes upon (Y/N), to make sure that she was okay. It left a sour taste in my mouth.

"Until we are married...I am willing to be lenient. She'll learn her place after everything is iron clad..." I muttered, grunting a little as I used Niji's shoulder to push myself to a stand, nearly toppling him in his squat. Before I could begin to walk away, my brother's hand shot out and seized my arm.

Of course you noticed.

"You're all overheated too. There's no way you have a fever, right?" Standing, this time using me as leverage, Niji forced his hand against my forehead, and I swatted him away and out of my personal bubble. That had always been one of Niji's downsides. He believed he had the right to everything, including the personal space of others.

"You playing the doting little brother act or something? We don't get fevers. I'm perfectly fine." Lies. Straight up lies through my teeth. I was perfectly not fine in any sense of the word, but I couldn't let him know that. Niji was my brother, my comrade, my blood, but he had a mouth on him. If I were to reveal my affliction then our father would know before I could even reach the top of the docking ramp again.

"If you say so..." Of course, he wasn't convinced. Niji was an incredibly perceptive person. It came in handy during interrogations or gathering intelligence, but it was the last thing I needed right now. "You going to go see your sweet little wifey? Make sure your precious darling is okay?~"

Again I swatted at him with a limp wrist, rolling my eyes behind my shades. I wanted to see her. Oh God, how I desperately wanted to see her, or to even just linger outside the infirmary doors to know for certain she was alright, and it felt wrong. So against my character.

"What a waste of time. Just get someone to send word to her parents so they don't think she's gone and fallen down a badger hole or something. The last thing we need is them freaking out and postponing the wedding." I made sure to nudge Niji's shoulder with my own as I walked off, my silent way of warning him to tone down his shit, lest I get genuinely pissed off.

"Whatever." He called out after me, wiping at the dampness I had left upon the material on his shoulder. "I still think we should just artificially inseminate her while she's out of it and speed track the wedding, but have it your way. You always have it your way..."

I did, but this time it was for such an odd reason. I couldn't bring myself to do that to her, no matter how indifferent I attempted to be. Before seeing her for the first time all grown up, feeling that pull, I would have been completely content with forcing her to submit to me, body and mind. Now, I couldn't even think about her without that excruciating pain consuming me, begging me to get even just one meagre step closer to her, wherever she was.

"Just contact them, you idiot. I'm going to change."

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***I think you're already changing, buddy...

Forgot to post this and had it sitting there for too long.

Next Time: Under the Weather***