The Lion's Heart | A Stepmother's Marchën Fanfic

Chapter 9: Caught

"G-Good afternoon, Jeremy!" Karina nervously laughed.

Jeremy sat up and had sweat running down from his forehead. His eyes still widened. 'Wait...wait... why is she here?'

"Pardon me, Lady Karina... may I come in?" Someone knocked on the door.

Karina and Jeremy simultaneously looked at the door and then looked at their clasp hand and then at each other's eyes before immediately untangling their hands.

"Y-yes! Come in." Karina squeaked. She brushed off her skirt and fixed her hair. The brunette tried to remain calm, but her face still felt hot. She took a peek at the golden haired boy, but her desire to see his reaction was to fail as Jeremy was looking away from her.

"Ah, the young master is already up!" the Neuschwanstein maid said. "I shall leave the young master's lunch here. I will take my leave now. If my lady and young master need anything. I will be outside..."

After the maid left, Karina cleared her throat, trying to dismiss and forget their  moment earlier. "So... do you want to eat?"

Jeremy --- still not looking at her --- spoke. "Sure..."

Karina opened the lid covering the bowl of food and picked the bowl up. "You should eat. It will help you energize." Karina huffed and raised her right arm up and acted as if she was flexing her muscles to which, in actuality, Karina only flexed her bones.

Jeremy finally raised his head up and snorted at Karina's action. "I think you're the one who needed to store your energy. You look more paler compared to when we last met." He said while taking his lunch from Karina.

Karina pursued her lips and puffed her cheeks. "The weather has been colder lately...."

"Hey..." Jeremy called out to Karina.

Karina raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Sorry about earlier... I guess I was still half-asleep."

Karina crossed her arm to make an 'X' shape. "It's alright. I don't mind."

Jeremy let out a breath and finally scooped up a small amount of porridge and ate it. Karina couldn't help but stare at Jeremy's eating habits. She found it adorable how Jeremy shut his eyes and hummed to show how satisfied he was with the food served to him.

"I guess you still have your appetite. Thankfully."

Jeremy sighed and sweat-dropped. "I went to hell these past few days. I couldn't even eat anything. It was terrible."

Karina laughed. "You must have done something wrong to Virgin mary. You should go and apologise."

"You bet, I would never want to go through this again."

"Oho~ I see." Karina looked at him.

"Geez, stop staring at me like that. Wipe that grin out of your face." Jeremy blurted out.

Karina continued to stare at Jeremy. It didn't take long for Jeremy to feel burdened by Karina's burning gaze towards him. "Hey, stop staring at me.... you're making me feel awkward."

Karina's purple eyes enlarged, startled by Jeremy's outburst. "Ooops.. sorry, was I staring too hard?"

"Besides that, why did you come to visit me?" Jeremy spoke in between his bites. Karina didn't immediately answer and stayed silent. This cause Jeremy to think that he might have asked a rather wrong question. "You don't have to answer ---"

"I..." Karina opened her mouth.

"You see, I also caught the measels last year."

Jeremy stopped eating and looked straight at Karina. He didn't move and kept his gaze locked at the brunette and waited for her to continue. It didn't go unnotice to Jeremy, that despite her smiling, Karina's eyes were opposed to the gentle smile she had always firmly kept in tact on her face.