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English
Series:
Part 1 of Taking responsibility verse
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Published:
2020-06-14
Completed:
2020-06-19
Words:
2,610
Chapters:
2/2
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44
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642
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Taking Responsibilty

Summary:

It's the night before Katarina and Geordo's wedding and he gets the idea to confess his love. (Un)fortunately, so does everyone else. Will this be enough to make Katarina finally realize she has a harem?

Notes:

The best and worst thing about this fandom's size is that I can post this at 1 in the morning and not have to worry about it being pushed off the front page. Hopefully this is worth losing sleep over.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

It was the night before Katarina and Geordo’s wedding and Katarina couldn’t sleep. “If I missed any doom flag, they’re probably going to happen tomorrow” she thought “Maybe someone will object during the ceremony or Geordo will get up to the altar and declare he wants to marry Maria instead or...” 

 

Her pondering was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Come in!” she said, sitting up in bed.

Geordo opened the door and walked into the room. His face reminded her of the good end cg in fortune lover that had been honestly worth giving up her pride and looking up a walk through to get. “Katarina..” She tilted her head to indicate she was listening. “I know that when tomorrow comes I will have you for my own, but I can’t stand the thought of swearing myself to you without you knowing how I truly feel about you.” He confessed “I’m not marrying you because of that silly scar, or for politics, or because I want to scare away other women. I’m marrying you because I love you so deeply and madly that I will devote every moment of my life to making you happy. So even if you do not yet return my love, please accept it.”

 

Katarina’s mind stopped working and before she could restart it there was another knock at the door. “Come in” she said automatically. Geordo muttered a curse under his breath and hid. 

 

Keith burst into the room, and ran up to Katarina. “Onee-san, I know you are supposed to get married tomorrow and I’m just a brother to you but please reconsider. I’ve loved you since we met and I want nothing more than to be at your side forever. So please at least give me a chance before Geordo takes you away forever.” 

 

Katarina just stared at him blankly. After a moment's pause the window was thrown open. Katarina turned to face it and Keith dove out of sight.

 

“Katarina! I have a carriage ready and our tickets for the ship! Let’s run away together!” Said Mary excitedly, her head peeking up over the window ledge. “Forget about our fiances! You're the one I love! You’re the one who makes me feel special. We can make a new life together with just each other! Please say yes Katarina!”

 

Katarina could hardly say anything, because there was immediately another knock at the door. Mary ducked her head below the ledge, still peeking at what was going on in the room. Katarina attempted to say “come in!” but instead let out a prolonged squeak. Alan came in anyway. .

 

“Listen I know you’re marrying my brother, but I want you to know that I love you too and... I prepared a song...” There was a growling from the window, but neither Katarina nor Alan heard it. “There is a piano in here right?”.

 

Before Alan could investigate the room for a piano there was the loud sound of footsteps coming down the hall. Alan quickly ducked under some furniture as Sophia pulled her brother through the open door.  

 

“Katarina! Sophia shout-whispered as she balled her fists up and summoned all her courage. “I’m not going to let you marry Geordo until you at least hear what my brother has to say! You are one of the most important things in my life and I’m not going to let you go without a fight!” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and spoke far more calmly. “You are the morning dew on the leaves, a wildflower in the meadow, a cool breeze on a summer day, a birthday cake and all of the other things that turn living into a life combined into one. Being with you is what makes me feel alive, so without you I would surely die, if not in body than in spirit.”

 

“That's from Sophie and the Emerald Princess. Good reference” managed to pass like a tumbleweed through the wasteland of Katarinas mind. No thoughts followed it. 

 

Sophia elbowed her brother. “Katarina, I have known since we met that I had no chance of winning you...” He started “but there is no one else in the world who makes me feel the way you do. You are perhaps the first person other than my sister to understand me, to make me truly happy. Every moment I spend with you is a moment I treasure. So if there is any chance for me...”

He was interrupted by the sound of Maria’s voice from down the hall. “Katarina? Are you still awake?” she called, clearly coming closer. Nicol pulled Sophia down and threw Katarina’s discarded blanket over both of them. Maria looked through the open door and smiled when she saw Katarina. She walked over to the bed, either not noticing or tactfully ignoring the other figures “hiding” in the room. Maria sat beside Katarina and gently helped her close her mouth, which had been agape since at least Mary’s confession. She stared at Katarina lovingly for a moment before starting her own confession. “When I started at the academy, all I wanted was for someone to look at me, and not just as a commoner or someone with light magic. I was so lonely and then I met you and you not only saw me, you liked me and you let me be a part of your wonderful world. When you think about that it would be silly if I didn’t fall in love with you. I just want to make you as happy as you make me, so in whatever form that needs to take, please let me be by your side forever.”

 

Katarina managed to blink twice and mutter “but I’m the villainess...” before she passed out. Truly a valiant effort.

Chapter 2

Notes:

Thanks everybody for your nice comments! I'm posting this one at midnight, so I take it as progress.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The Katarina council sat in stunned silence for a few seconds.

“This can't be happening” said fearless Katarina. The others nodded.

“Maybe it isn't happening?” Responded happy Katarina.

“It’s the only reasonable explanation” agreed studious Katarina “But we should check and make sure”

“Very well” said chairman Katarina “DEPLOY THE PINCH TEST”

Katarina pinched herself.

It hurt.

The council panicked.

“HOW IS THIS REAL?!?? THIS WOULD BE A CRAZY CONFESSION SCENE EVEN FOR A PROTAGONIST” yelled studious Katarina.

“There has to be something” muttered fearless Katarina.

“I hope it's not some sort of dark magic attack...” worried timid Katarina.

“Nonsense! Rafeal is our friend now and he would never do something so mean!” said happy Katarina.

“Besides, Maria’s immune to dark magic, she would have to be in on it” reasoned studious Katarina.

“In on what though?” pondered chairman Katarina.

“Maybe it’s a joke?” posed happy Katarina.

“A joke...” The others nodded

Katarina burst out laughing. “Oh you guys” she said between peels of laughter ”You knew I was worried about the wedding so you decided to pull a prank to make me feel better.’ She wiped a happy tear from her eye “I almost fell for it!” She looked up at her friends. None of them were laughing.  In fact her friends, who had come out of their hiding spots to make sure Katarina was okay, looked varying degrees of disbelieving and upset.  Katarina was even more confused. 

“I’m tired of this.”  said Geordo. Katarina turned to face him and he captured her face with his hand. He paused for a second to make sure she wasn't upset and seeing no objection in her face pressed his lips to hers.

Now Katarina had shared a few “practice” kisses with Acchan in her previous life but this would be her first kiss as Katarina Claes and boy was it a doozy.  It had all the dominance and firmness one would expect from a kiss from the blackhearted prince, but it was sweet in its own way. He pulled away far too quickly in Katarina's opinion and left her dumbstruck and staring.

“You..aren’t joking are you?” She asked. Geordo nodded and smiled.

“I’m not joking either!” Yelled Mary as she jumped through the window. She rushed up to the bed and pulled Katarina in for a kiss of her own. It was different than Geordo’s kiss, but Katarina found herself loving it just as much. Mary was passionate and energetic, and pulled Katarina in rather than pushing her down.  Katarina was able to respond quicker this time and even managed to kiss back a little, which Mary responded to eagerly.  They didn’t pull away until both of them were panting, but Katarina still wanted more. 

“So are the rest of you...serious?” Katarina asked in the tone she usually used for questions like “I can have all the cake right?” and “Once you finish the book can I borrow it?”. She looked hopefully at the rest of the harem.  They shrugged and formed a line so they could each have a turn expressing their feelings. There was only moderate shoving involved.

Maria’s kiss was sweet and gentle at first, but grew more passionate as it went on. Truly the perfect kiss for an otome game protagonist and Katarina was both smug and saddened by the fact that she was the one to get it rather than any of the real love interests.

Sophia’s kiss reminded her of the practice kisses with Acchan, soft and nostalgic, but it still felt new and exciting. 

Nichol kissed her like she was the really yummy looking dessert he had wanted the whole party and had finally been given permission to eat. That at least was a feeling Katarina understood.

Alan kissed her like it was a showdown, and thankfully Katarina had 5 entire kisses of practice at this point, so she gave as good as she got. 

Finally, Keith elected to kiss Katarina’s hand rather than her lips (their relationship couldn’t be expected to change too fast), but it still felt different than anything he had done before. Perhaps it was because they knew each other so well that Katarina could feel the plea in his lips when they touched her, even if the gesture was less intimate.

“That was wonderful...” Katarina sighed after receiving all of her kisses. “Excuse me for a second” She flopped backward onto the bed. 

The Katarina council was even more stunned than before. A tumbleweed comically tumbled through the room while the silence continued, but this seemed to be a problem beyond the capabilities of even the greatest Katarinas.

“Well I suppose we should pass a resolution officially in favor of kissing based on the fact that kissing is good. Any objections?” tried chairman Katarina.

“No objections” said the other Katarinas with far less gusto than resolutions were usually passed with.

“Then onto the matter at hand” said chairman Katarina.

There was another long silence. 

“There has to be some explanation....” whispered timid Katarina.

Just then they recalled a memory from their past life, they had been walking to school with Acchan and....

“Ugh Katarina is just the worst. Why can’t I just go back to having Mary as a rival. She was so pretty and nice and wonderful. I almost felt bad taking Alan away, but he didn’t deserve her.”

“Well if you like Mary so much you should know that there’s a rumor that there is going be a girls love expansion of fortune lover where you can capture the rivals”

“Really??! “

“Well they did it for their last game, and the rivals weren’t nearly as popular as these girls are”

“Awesome!! ... wait a second if there was a rival expansion then I would have to capture Katarina!”

“Conquer Katarina...” Katarina muttered out loud. The harem paid little attention as these utterances never made sense and it was far from the weirdest thing she had said.

“I wish we could have romanced Sophia and Mary...” said fearless Katarina without a trace of irony.

“So if Acchan were correct... We would have been capable of gathering not only doom flags, but love flags as well” concluded studious Katarina. 

“So we could have just seduced Maria instead of worrying about dying or getting exiled!” Whined timid Katarina.

“I think we did seduce Maria.” Happy Katarina pointed out.

“However even if Maria did capture us that would not explain the other 6 kisses.” added studious Katarina.

“Well we did steal Mary’s love flag from Alan... maybe we accidentally stole enough from the others to trigger the harem ending in the wrong way” posed fearless Katarina

“Stealing love flags... how villainous” said timid Katarina

 

“It seems in our efforts to avoid being a villainess in regards to doom flags have led to be even more evil in regards to love flags! Fate must be inescapable...” said studious Katarina.

“Well the best we can do is attempt to remediate the harm we have done in stealing all the love flags” said chairman Katarina “All in favor of apologizing and attempting to restore the love flags to their proper owners...” 

“OBJECTION!” interrupted happy Katarina. “I also don’t know how we got on this route but this is the route we are on and we have to see it through! Did we give up in our past life when we got the same route over and over again or seemed doomed for a bad end? Did we give up in this life when it seemed like there was no chance of stopping Maria’s heroine charm? NO! We are the KATARINA council and Katarina Claes rolls with the punches and does the best she can with what she has. And what we have here is a bunch of captured hotties and the best we can do is kiss them a lot. So it's time for use to take responsibility by smooching everyone! ALL IN FAVOR?”

The other Katarinas clapped and cheered. “NO OBJECTIONS!”

Katarina shot up in bed “I’m gonna take responsibility! If you are going to love me then I’ll love you back more until we have created a cycle of endless love that’s stronger than any doom flags we encounter!”

 

“Katarina... who are you talking to?” Geordo asked

 

Katarina cocked her head in confusion “You guys?”

 

Alan sighed. “He means who are you going to choose? Who finally won?”

 

“Choose?” asked Katarina, as if confused by the very concept. “I could never choose just one of you to love! That would be like choosing one sweet! How could I pick between Cookies and Cake and Parfaits and Meringues and puddings and...” She listed sweets for a solid minute, many of which didn’t exist in Socier. 

 

“So you love all of us?” tried Maria after it became clear Katarina had become distracted by thoughts of desserts. Katarina nodded vigorously. “Well I guess we’ll have to share you then.” She went to embrace Katarina.

 

“It’s more than I expected” shrugged Nicol as he joined the embrace.

 

“Even if I have to share you I won’t give you up!” said Mary, who knew that spots close to Katarina in the embrace would go soon.

 

“As long as we can be happy together” said Sophia as she joined.

 

“Leave it to you to think of something like this” said Keith

 

“You have always been unconventional” said Alan.

 

Only Geordo had yet to join the embrace. Katarina looked up at him. She didn’t want to make him unhappy, and he was the one she was marrying. He sighed. “I won’t be the one to ruin your happiness.” He awkwardly completed the embrace.

 

Katarina relished the embrace. It was so loving...and warm... and soft... She yawned. The others let her go. “I love you all” she said sleepily “But I really need to get to bed, after all I am getting married tomorrow”

Notes:

I hope I did okay with Katarina figuring things out. It takes maximal evidence to deal with maximal obliviousness. Also should I tag Acchan?

Notes:

the next chapter and a sequel are in the works, so let me know if u want to see more!

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