Enough was enough. Kaiser rubbed at the temples of his head intensely. There was plenty of stress that the young vampire felt these days- he had to figure out how to recapture his magic for one thing. Another thing that had stressed him out for a time was Lady Angela's death but with time, that healed some of the wounds though there was still some remorse felt for her people and children. And the third, perhaps the strongest had been one of her daughters, namely his fiance. Nerezza had a knack, though an annoying one one, to pop out of nowhere and try to get him to break his oath of refraining from physical pleasure until the night they were wed. He had thought that after all this time, she would simply give up the ghost and go along with the proper terms of this engagement.

After all, it was set up by her own father that they were to be joined. But for some reason, likely because of her Rosenite heritage, she saw things differently. Every night he had to check underneath his bed, in his closet and all over his room before turning in because there was a good chance that she would find somewhere to hide and corral him like the past few times.

The last time she tried was certainly not his favorite and he had to make sure that for now on, she couldn't get into the bathing chambers while he was in there soaking. How else was he suppose to know that she was there, waiting to dry him off and talk about her "negotiations". Kaiser could only shake his head in disbelief as he recalled that moment and winced. Enough was enough and he was fed up. Nerezza couldn't keep this going or else he felt like he was going to go mad. It was with that, he downed the last of his blood wine and stormed off from his room and went towards her. A clean and simple knock on the door was done to make sure that she was decent before he ventured inward. "Nerezza, we have to talk", he spoke sternly, guiding onto the room without looking at her. He closed the door behind him and turned to face her. "Our engagement won't last forever, I can assure you of that. But these games need to end, my sweet. And you know of what I speak of."

So perhaps she had been taking this whole test Kaiser’s willpower a bit too fair lately. Perhaps she had also bitten off Christian’s head and then told her sister she was a midget. It was only her temper and while she knew that at first, she was jesting it was certainly becoming a problem. She laid on her bed and flipped through the family book that Lucian had been given. She stared at all the faces she had yet to meet. There was a bit of sadness in her golden eyes. For a moment the glamor had went and her eyes turned back to their true hue. Green eyes red around the pupil. She just didn’t feel like focusing at all.

When Kaiser came in her room her eyes only flickered up to him once before she flipped the page in the book and rolled on her stomach so she didn’t have to look at him. “Yes, yes. I give.” It wasn’t that she would normally give in so easily as it was that she didn’t want to hear about the wedding at all. Her mother had been planning it and now she was lost. She didn’t know what to do.

“I won’t do it anymore.” There was a hiccup in her voice from the cracking trying to come through as she buried her face in the pillows. It wasn’t fun tormenting Kaiser anymore. Not when she had lost her mother. “You can go back to doing whatever it is you do during the day.” Nerezza was in a plain dress and her white hair was braided back. She looked like she wasn't even trying anymore not that it did her any injustice. There was an unnecessary coldness to her voice most likely from her trying to deal with whatever storm was brewing in her heart.

When he got a good look at Nerezza, there was something wrong with this picture. There was something about her reaction to him that had Kaiser worried. It was like she wasn’t herself and things only grew worse by the moment. Her immediate acceptance towards his wishes made his eyes widened. “Wait…what? What do you mean…you give?” For as long as he knew her, she wasn’t the sort to just give up that easily. Her resilience was very strong if not annoying at times, but it was a quirk that grew on him. Now it seemed like her fire had died and he was unsure why.

Was it something he had said?

She looked away from him, perhaps the first time he could remember her doing such a thing. This wasn’t the Nerezza he knew and loved, and it hurt him as he drew closer to her bed and sat at the edge of it. He didn’t know what to say or do but he wanted to comfort her any way he could. His hand stretched out to caress her back softly, stroking it as if to try and rid her of what was bothering her. “It’s fine, I didn’t know that you wouldn’t be like this, Nerezza.” Perhaps he should have been more kinder with his words. She was still pretty young enough for a woman and he could have been more careful. “I’d rather be here with you, love. I don’t want to leave you like this.” His hand moved up her back up to the base of her back. “Will you tell me what is the matter?”

“I give. You do know the words correct? I give up? I am not longer playing that game? I concede? You can only say it so many ways, Kaiser.” There was a high annoyance to her voice but it was mostly hurt. She flipped a page in the book again and jumped a bit as he sat beside her on the bed. She thought he would just leave her alone but he didn’t he wanted to make things better.

His hand against her back was calming and she melted almost immediately against his touch. “I wasn’t going to let you break your word.” Her eyes flickered up at him again. “I was going to push you until you broke then drop it.” That had been her own game. Sickly as it was she liked to watch things break but she no longer had the willpower to break people. Kaiser was merely a game and it wasn’t hurting anything. 

“Thought you would leave if I snapped hard enough.” Even in her crabbiest of moods, it was hardly threatening at all. She supposed the man really did love her to put up with her like that. She turned back over and took his hand in hers. His hands were larger than her own and she thought about that as she played with his fingers. 

“Mother dying first of all… I suppose you knew that much.” She was able to keep herself together as she put the pieces together for the rest of it. “Second… I don’t know what to do with our wedding plans. They are lost in limbo because I am not my mother and I have no clue what I am doing.” It upset her greatly. No matter how smart she was or cunning, it wasn’t helping her here. “Third… I’ve made you angry with me.”

Kaiser couldn’t help but to sigh heavily at her words. While he should have been relieved that she was stopping with her games, the fact that it was so easy and her demeanor worried him even more. Though he did have a bit of a sour look on his face at her confession. “Is that right?” He would have said more, but he didn’t press on about it. Not when she was like this he wouldn’t continue with it. Nerezza had never seen this bothered before. Not during his teachings to her nor at any other time they spent together had he seen her like this. Whatever was bothering her was slowly starting to eat at him too.

“Well, sorry to disappoint you then, but I’m not going anywhere. I promise you that.” Her reply would have normally made him chuckle, but he didn’t feel like it at the moment. No, he wanted to cheer her up from her mood and slowly it seemed to be working as she unraveled and opened up bit by bit. A small smile crept up his face as she turned over and took his hand. The smile though faded as she started to reveal the reasons behind her pain. He thought back to the day Angela died and the days afterwards where he had to hold Nerezza and brush the tears away. Losing a parent wasn’t the easiest thing in the world and he didn’t think that she would fully be over it now nor for a long while. “Your mother…would want you to be happy. She wouldn’t want her special little girl to be pinting over her death for too long.” He leaned in closer and held her hand tightly. “And you aren’t alone, I feel as though I may have a part in this wedding too. And also you have sisters and aunts and cousins to rely on to assist us in the plans.” Nerezza wasn’t alone in this, he wanted her to remember that. The burden of the wedding was on both of them, not solely onto her.

“Finally…I’m not angry with you. Annoyed at the time, yes but not overly upset. Don’t fret over it. Though had I known that you were merely playing with me, I wouldn’t have worried so much about breaking my oath. You did a good job actually. I was worried that I might have gave into temptation before the day of our union.”

Nerezza for a moment put a smile on to hide through what she was going through. He was good like that and she was honestly lucky that he wouldn’t leave her side when she was distressed. There were too many husbands that could care less about their wives and only about the children or rather sons that they could bare. For her and Kaiser it wasn’t like that. She was grateful. She could have ended up married to someone who did not have her best interests, not that her papa would have let that happen.

Through tears, she nodded and smiled at his words. “I know she would want me to be brave and move through this to the best of my ability. I’m just sorry that I couldn’t be stronger right now… but that’s why I was given you by fate right? You are my other half and you are supposed to help me be stronger.” She took him fully as she pulled him up to her and snuggled into his form. It was rather innocent compared to what she had been pulling with him. “I didn’t think men wanted anything to do with that stuff… I could ask my aunts I know. I just wish I knew what Mama had planned out.”

A chuckle left her lips as she wiped the tears away more. “Did I really? That’s funny that I almost got you to crack.” She held him close as if any moment she could lose him. “Kaiser I only tease you because I love you. Because this is all a change for me. My heart once dark isn’t anymore. The Shiran blood while it bothers me from time to time… isn’t a huge part of my life anymore… If I am mischievous it is merely to combat my horrid thoughts. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I just want to be Nezzie.”

It was slow but she reached up and kissed his lips gently. “I want to be your Nezzie.”

Vampires did have that nasty stigma that humans had when it came to love and sex. Perhaps it was much worse on their account that they were seen as lusting creature forever chasing after their wants. But at least for Kaiser and his stead, they weren’t like that. As far as he could recall, his house had been filled with love and understanding. Unions, as many had seen as other race’s customs and not ones that belong to the creatures of the night, were taken seriously and thus so was his case with Nerezza. The marriage may had been arranged, but he certainly wasn’t unhappy with being paired with her. He was sure that he fell for her the first time he laid eyes on her. But in that time he was brought in to be her mentor to help her better her magical prowess. Even then he saw her as more than just another spoiled daughter or a woman to be used in bed like most men would had thought of her. Kaiser peeked at her as she teared up and smiled at her. “No one can blame you, you are trying my dear. I wouldn’t expect for you to be over it immediately. I just want you to know that the pain will ease itself in time and we can be sure that your mother, wherever she is is proud of you. Of who you are and the things you will accomplish.” He embraced her tightly with a hug of his own, “I will help you anyway I can, Nerezza. I swear on that.” He nuzzled at her neck before kissing it. Her scent was like honey to him as he breathed it in. She was right, her aunts would have been more than likely to help them out. “Perhaps one of them knows, or maybe she left the plans somewhere. We can try and find them when you’d like. It’s a special day for not only you, but myself as well. Of course I want to make sure everything is perfect for you.”

He nearly scoffed at her when she was in disbelief over how he nearly broke from her advances. “Yes. To be honest I wasn’t sure how long I could withhold from…my thoughts. You are a beautiful woman and it took much effort for me to try and not admit my feelings alone back before all this.” It took the possible threat of death from her father and her coming out to both of them about how she felt for him to finally announce his own feelings. As impure as those thoughts he had in the back of his mind were, he kept them at bay because he didn’t want to be selfish and he wanted to give her genuine love first. “You’d make any man’s heart race, my included. I just wanted to show you that I am serious about our engagement, about our relationship. I wasn’t trying to deny you at all.” His eyes looked deeply into hers as he drew her closer against him. His grip around her was loose but firm. “I love you too. When I look at you, I don’t see the dark hearted girl, I see a young woman that is filled with love but she doesn’t know it. You don’t have to appease me, your father or anyone else. Trust me, we all love you for who you are, even your brother. He is grateful about the person you are, even if he doesn’t show it. There had been plenty of talk between the two of them to realize that much. “You are who you want to be, never let anyone tell you otherwise.”

There was hesitation from both of them but as she moved to kiss him, Kaiser returned it in full. “You are mine. I am yours.” He smiled kindly before slipped away from her and got off the bed. “One moment, I’ll be back.” He left the room and returned moments later with a small box. He sat back onto the bed and faced her with it in an open palm. “This is for you. I went to one of the best jewelers around Arri for this. It should have been given to you when our engagement was announced, but better late than never, right?” Inside it was a well crafted ring with designs of lavender etched in great design around the silver body. In Arriese the engravement said “As our hearts and souls meld into one, we become one being forever more, finally complete.”