I wanna stand up

Pim couldn’t help but blink up at the man, mouth slight ajar as he firmly told her off for her comments. She had always been a stick, a trait that was seen as ideal amongst other women in Thailand. Amongst the men though, not quite so much. “Aye aye captain,” she replied, saluting him as he walked off. It was hard to try and keep her mind focused on his task and more than once she found it wandering before he returned.

“It did?” She questioned, pausing with his second point before shrugging her shoulders. She hadn’t exactly come with great demands for anything, more in response to his note. Pim smiled at him though, holding up a finger. “Also, my points are my positivity, my tree climbing, and my eyes.”

.

Even though he was walking away from the room, the words still made him chuckle, and he had an inner debate whether he should look over his shoulder and toss something else at Pim that might add to her discomfiture. Eventually, he chose not to do it, and just moved to the bathroom with the clothes draped over his forearm.

"Most definitely," he told her with utmost sincerity. "And I thought there might be something within my power that could help you. "Positivity, huh?" He repeated, thinking it was amusing she would bring it up given what she had said just minutes ago. "I don't suppose we will use the tree-climbing much unless a very specific situation presents itself, but we can definitely work with those other points," Klaus finished, and the corners of his lips curved upward. "When I looked at you, one of the first things I noticed was your smile."

Duncan nodded in agreement, the floor would just lead to more people being sick. Even now, he could feel the slight chill through his shoes. “The tablecloths could make good makeshift blankets too.” might as well use the resources they had. The tapestries were a good idea also and he nodded his head in agreement. Perfect, if the power stayed out they’d at least have some warmth.  Hopefully there was still bottled water in here from ongoing supplies as a ballroom. “If there is water, we should wrap it in a tablecloth so it doesn’t freeze.”

.

"I think there might be a storage unit somewhere where people keep the tapestry they aren't using," when people had that amount of money, they liked to make sure that even the rugs and draperies coordinated with the party's theme. He was sure this wasn't any different from it. "If we're lucky, there might even be a settee or two," he added. "But that's a great idea. I'll make sure to pass it on should anyone come across those bottles," something Klaus had to hope would happen sooner rather than later.

“Ain’t that the truth,’ he agreed with a nod. He only had one life, as his father would say, and he had to live it. No one else can live his life. “Alright,” Valentin said, raising his glass. “To taking chances and not sounding like a idiot each time I open my mouth and speak.” he said, now feeling a helluva lot better now that he had some kind of idea of where to start when he was ready.

.

Klaus clicked his glass with Valentin's in a toast. "Your words, not mine," his laugh was rich and deep, an obvious jest, although, if he needed the record in his favor afterward, he could always refer back to it. The German might not have nurtured much sympathy towards the royals, though far it be from him to insult one of them— especially one who hadn't done him any harm —for nothing.

There had been many times in Alys’ life that she had longed to be like the women in movies she watched from the past. Carefree to do as they wished, when they felt like it. It was secret life, she had only told her brother about. And sometimes the pair would imagine just that. That they held different lives. Those of Hollywood starlets and crooners. Or even a simple life as a farmer or common folk with a trade that didn’t require so much attention or rules, “Mainly the duty of being a royal. You have those who are your fans. Who follow your every move in the tabloids and even lurk outside your home just to catch a glimpse. And then you have to always look or be on your best behavior for the future of your country and its people. It’s a never ending cycle. And while I would much rather be at home right now, this…place has offered me some peace and quiet finally.” She pushed the cheese aside as she listened to him speak about his fate, “Ah, a natural.” She smiled, “At least someone likes what they do. And maybe it was already instinct. Your soul just told you what to do and you followed.”

.

Klaus took a calm sip from the wine in his glass as he listened to her words. "I cannot imagine having to live my life in the spotlight," he much preferred the shadows, where people rarely bothered to learn his name or held any interest in his story. He couldn't help but think that being a ghost had advantages, even if he couldn't deny there wasn't any normalcy to his lifestyle either. The events of his past made sure that wasn't possible. "It can't be good to have that kind of scrutiny constantly looming over your head like a storm cloud. Sometimes we just need to know that making mistakes helps build character, and won't be the cause of the ruin of my country's diplomatic relations with some other place," the guard found himself reasoning. Klaus half-closed one eye and tilted his head to the side, then to the other as he evaluated her statement before saying anything about how accurate they were. "Yes and no," he pointed out. "Some circumstances needed to happen to force my hand on that decision. But I'm here, and there seems to be little reason to consider the what-ifs," even though he would sometimes do it anyway.

“Oh! Yes, of course, that’s why you look familiar.” Though, truthfully, Lena hadn’t seen much of her cousins as of late, even though they were all living under the same roof, she’d at least seen Cassie in passing often enough to have seen the guard before. “It’s nice to officially meet you, Klaus. I’m Magdalena,” she said, returning his- disarmingly handsome- smile. “Though I suppose you may have known that already,” she added.  

.

Klaus continued smiling at the princess, dipping his head at the acknowledgment. "Likewise, my Lady." At the words, a breathy chuckle emerged from his lips. "I could lie and tell you you are completely foreign to me, but," he allowed the sentence to trail off, his shoulders moving with the gentlest of shrugs. "Although you should rest assured that I only know what the security team believes to be essential information about you."

Left in front of Klaus’ door on his birthday is a simple envelop containing a letter and a small piece of paper.

Klaus,

Seems to be your birthday again, how old are you now? I bought you a cookie for it, but then I remembered you saying you did not like the sugar. So I ate it so that it would not go to waste. I doubt you would be much for material goods either, especially considering that I have not yet seen you wearing what I gave you for Christmas. That, I suppose though, is a conversation for another time.

Anyway, I went through several ideas of what to give you, from nothing at all to anything you might want. Finally, I just got bored and made this coupon. You are welcome. Do not forget to read the fine print.

Solveig~

       She nodded at what he was about to do with her in agreement, and stayed quiet and rooted where is she. Once he arrived with the kit on his hands, and opened the blanket that covered her body, hiking up her dress until showing her scraped knees that was still bleeding a little but the majority was clotted blood, and the cut was a bit deep, and she raised up her sleeves showing her elbows. ❝ Here… ❞ She says softly. Her baby blue-hues met his gaze momentarily, swallowing hardly. Charlotte was a bit ashamed how she managed herself in this current situation, and Klaus is always the one to witnessed her mess.

.

Klaus's knowing gaze scanned her body, and soon he was in a crouching position in front of her, opening the lid of the small box and placing it at arms' length. Circling a hand around one of her ankles, he slowly straightened her leg, careful to avoid her eyes at that moment. He doused a piece of gauze in an antiseptic spray and set to work on where the injury seemed worse. "You know, if this had been centuries ago," he announced, tracing the edges of the wound with the piece of cloth in featherlike touches, lifting his light brown eyes towards her face then. "It would have been terribly improper for us to be caught in this position," his words had been crafted as a distraction, for he knew that once he ran the antiseptic through the gash on her skin, it would burn.

The woman couldn’t help but laugh at the question. “Well, if he gets hurt I don’t feel his pain and i’d imagine that goes both ways,” she replied. “But…when something is wrong with him, I just get a bad feeling. I won’t know what’s going on but I swear, whenever i’m anxious for no reason or Eamon suddenly pops into my head, something is always going on with him,” she explained. “Oh! You’re adopted?” she asked. “Well, it’s nice that you ended up with a sister in the end either way.”

“True. Though we should consider working out together again. Could be fun,” Niamh replied with a grin. “We shall.” There was a wide smile as she started to walk towards the road. “I promise not to take too long in town.”

.

Klaus looked at her with amusement glittering in his light brown eyes. "Don't laugh. It's an honest question," his words might have been chiding, but his tone evidently wasn't. He was curious about it nonetheless. "It must be a rather upsetting occasion, right? And although it happens to me sometimes, it doesn't mean it's one hundred percent guaranteed," he pointed out. Even so, it could still fuck with his head. "Does this bad feeling also occur if your brother is, say, hanging with the wrong person?" He wondered, giving her a glimpse into some of his family tension. "Yes. The family that took me in gave me opportunities I couldn't even dream of," he told her with a small smile.

"It could," Klaus conceded with a couple of nods. "Maybe I can come up with a personalized routine for you. If I recall correctly, you prefer things to be a bit more dynamic than the empty repetitions of machines, huh? Just tell me what you need. What you like. I should come up with something catered for you," he offered, a furtive smile gracing his lips, disappearing almost as quickly as it appeared. "Don't worry about it. I'm ready to help," he clapped his gloved hands before offering her an arm.

“I don’t,” Emilia replied with a laugh, smiling at the guard. She wasn’t exactly sure why he was there in replace of Gio but she didn’t question it. Maybe Gio had somewhere to be and….her birthday just wasn’t important enough to him. Well, that hurt a bit so she did her best to push off that invading thought. Birthdays were for fun, not for being upset over their guard. Besdies. The man had sent her flowers that morning, she was just needy. “Although, perhaps I should consider doing something different for next year’s birthday,” Mia mused. “I don’t know if I should recycle themes.”

Klaus heard what she had to say, and only one answer crossed his mind, but he felt he should tread carefully around it. "With all due respect," he began and dipped his head apologetically. "You are the future queen of your people. Why should you care about what anyone might say if you chose to recycle a birthday theme?" He wondered. Then, he thought he should add to that topic. "As a member of the people, I would find it humbling if the ruler of my country chose to celebrate their birthday in a laidback way, other than throwing some over-the-top party," with our money. He completed it in his head. "So, if you like garden picnics, why should anyone judge you for it?"

She snorted a little “He doesn’t handle no very well. He makes demands and I have to drop everything. It’s been that ways since I was like eight and he realised being a family man would get him more votes to boost him in parliament.” then of course his little coup last year overthrowing the grieving King and Queen. It was disgusting really, but perhaps that’s why she was here, so she couldn’t voice her disapproval publicly. “He has his perfect little family with the wife and step-kids who stepped into the royalty roles without much issue.” She nodded though, it restrictive as being here was, it did get her away from her dad trying to control her. “I just wish the signal here wasn’t so shitty so I could phone my mom - what about you? How did you end up here in Russia?”

.

Klaus drank the situation in, listening to the way she spoke of her family. "So your family is nothing more than your father's politics?" he wondered. It seemed a rather sad situation, especially when he factored in how he always thought families should be. "I feel it must be awful that he doesn't respect you or your wishes. Provided that you don't feel like doing something scandalous, you should have some freedom to discuss things that annoy you. Or come up with some compromise," he agreed. Moving his glass around so the wine would swirl. "It's a long and uninteresting story up until we reach the point where it came to my knowledge that the Greek family was looking for a security detail for Lady Cassandra, and I suppose you could say a door of opportunities opened in front of me."

Pim watched as he moved across the room, her breath hitched as for one short moment she thought perhaps he was about to stand right in front of her and drop the towel. She didn’t really relax until she noticed the hand gripping the material was keeping it up, and not positioned in order to whip it off. She blinked at him, clearing her head from the barrage of thoughts that had filled it. “Really? That’s so…odd?” She answered slowly, not really sure how to phrase it. “I wouldn’t want just anyone seeing me, I’m so gangly and…yeah…” she trailed off, pretending she didn’t hear him say they’d return to the topic.

When he confirmed he would change in the bathroom though the princess let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, glad at least for now she could relax. Only it proved hard to and she couldn’t quite get back into the soap on the TV screen the same way she would have if she were back in her own room. When Klaus returned and finally seated himself, she gathered herself together, shifting to face him. “We did. You said you had some things to show me… or tell me. So here I am.”

.

Klaus heard what she had to say about herself and just shook his head. "You may think that," he began, his tone slow and even. "But if you do, you will refrain from saying those self-deprecating words in my presence, for I will not allow it," he told her with finality, declaring over a discussion that hadn't even begun. "The more you focus on what you think are your negative aspects, the more they will take root inside your mind, preventing you from showing off the best you might have to offer. So, while I'm away, I want you to think about three things you believe are your strongest suits. And one of them has to be something physical," he gave her an exercise as he excused himself.

"First, thank you for your willingness. I must say, the conversation we'd had stayed on my mind a lot," he explained, and it was true. He had mulled over her admission for far longer than he would have wished until he decided he could do something about it. Draping an arm casually over his knee, he turned his light brown gaze towards the princess. "Second: you wouldn't have come if you hadn't thought there would be something in this for you, right?"

It wasn't in Klaus's nature— or in his job description —to intervene. He was meant to watch Cassandra and any situation that would unfold with a safe distance, for she should forget about his present. But intoxication could count as harm to someone, right? He thought so, and it was what propped him into action. "Pardon, Cassie, but could I have a moment of your time?" he requested, thinking it would be easier to get her to stop drinking if she could be distracted with something else. Or if she didn't know that's what he was doing.

    Charlotte shook her head when he reminds her of his job. ❝ Oh, right. ❞ She shrugged timidly, shivering from her to toe, under the blanket.  ❝ I don’t mind if you want to check. ❞ The Aussie princess doesn’t like doctors, although she knew this isn’t exactly the job of Klaus. She feels comfortable around him, maybe because they’ve met before, and she is always terrible at first interaction when she meets new people. The blonde never had an issue interact with staff. Back in home, she used to talk them more than her own family.  ❝ You’re right. But you’ll see it’s nothing.  ❞ She says softly with her chin quiver from cold.

.

He nodded slowly at her words. It was best to play the role of a dutiful guard then to allow her to assume otherwise. “Perfect. I’ll head over and grab a first aid kit. You probably just need to have them cleaned,” Klaus spoke with a smile, making sure that she acknowledged her pledge of the scrapes not being serious. He returned with the items in a matter of minutes. “People didn’t really want to part ways with this, I tell you. They insisted it would be better for you to go to them instead,” he dismissed the thought with a shake of his head. “So, where are those wounds?” Klaus asked other than poking and prodding.

“To think, it has only been a couple of weeks since I saw you and yet I almost forgot about your pension for flattering yourself.” Solveig spoke softly with small smile before flicking her eyes up to meet his. “Please Klaus, I am an adult, I do not ogle. I was simply staring into space and you happened to be in my eye’s path.” It was a blessing that solveig was so practiced at lying, otherwise she likely wouldn’t be doing so well. The fact that he’d caught her was bad enough, but of course Klaus felt the need to call her out. “Perhaps it was wishful thinking on your part.” Upturning the corner of her mouth she silently taunted him as she placed a hand under her chin.

.

One side of Klaus' mouth cocked up in a devilish little smirk. "And yet you cannot help bringing it up any chance you have," he shook his head. "I happen to think my cocksureness is one of the things you like most about me. You've just been too caught up in this dominant façade of yours to admit it. You're tired of the little boys you lure into your web, but they're safe. It's a temporary thrill," he spoke with a flourish of his hand in the air. "Deep down, you know you need a man to quench your thirst. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me," he winked at her discreetly, giving his words an even more conspiratorial vibe. "I don't wishfully think," he told her with a few shakes of his head, his face scrunched up slightly at the idea. In a moment, the expression was gone, replaced by the smallest movement of his eyebrows. "How's the room situation?"