Why are You so Sweet?

For several prolonged moments, Jäger stood in the doorway frozen in stock. Ren's profile can be seen crouching beside the firepit with her palms out towards the flames. Her damp, choppy black bob occasionally dripping water down her pallid back and chest.

When he comes back to himself, Jäger shakes away his stunned stupor and exclaims, "W-wh-what are you do-doing?" before rushing to throw his chilled cloak around Ren's bare form.

"Drying," Ren responds casually, puzzled by his reaction.

"Oh, s-sorry. I forgot to lay out a cloth for you wh-when I-...b-before-," Jäger stammers in a fluster with his eyes darting about to anything but Ren. One of his hands comes up to scratch at the back of his head, "Y-you're dry enough now, r-right? Please, g-go dress yourself. I-I'll have something for you when you return."

Ren stares back and plainly states, "I don't know how."

"Ah, r-right. Your m-memory," his hand falls back to his side.

A tug is felt on his woollen cardigan. Looking over, Jäger sees Ren up close with nothing but his fur cloak draped over her shoulders. Already knowing what he'll see if he looks any lower, he intentionally stares at nothing but her face. Ren's eyes stare back innocently as she asks, "Will you help me, Bruder?"1

Jäger swallows his nerves, takes a deep breath, and replies as calmly as he can, "A-alright. I'll help you," before walking past her to retrieve the abandoned garments and shoes. Breathing manually, he attempts to calm his uneasy heart as he walks but the length is too short. Even carefully draping each piece of the dirndl2 over one arm — while holding the shoes in hand and carefully away from the clean fabric — didn't take nearly as long as he would have liked. On his way back to Ren, he further procrastinates by detouring to grab a clean rag. Out of options, he returns to Ren while chanting internally, 'We're a family. This is normal,' repeatedly. Standing before her, Jäger uses his free hand to motion towards the living area that's covered with animal furs while saying, "Please, stand over there."

Wordlessly Ren complies and just as she's about to step from the packed dirt floor to the furs, a hand encircles her wrist to gently tug her back.

"W-wait."

Ren looks back to see Jäger looking down.

Clearing his throat and quickly recomposing himself while continuing his mental mantra, he reiterates, "Wait a moment." He then removes the fur cloak from her, leaving her skyclad, to hang it on a nearby wall hook before returning to neatly lay out the clean dirndl on the furs and set the shoes down on the earthen floor nearby. Purposefully paying attention to the cream coloured smock that has yellowed with age in his hands, Jäger instructs her to, "Raise your arms, please." When Ren does so, he puts the linen smock over her head and guides her to put her head through the centre opening while telling her to put her arms through the sleeves.

It takes a minute of fumbling before it's on correctly but, once it is, it fully engulfs Ren's frame, reaching down to the ground. Jäger then fastens the couple of animal bone buttons that lead up towards the collar in front. Next, he helps her into a skirt of a similar shade which he promptly ties for her. All the while his deft hands are careful in his movements so that he never touches her, not even through the fabric, despite his trembling. Noticing this, Ren feels an overwhelming urge to tease him. Just as Jäger's pulling his hand away, Ren catches it and brings it to her chest. Making him cup her budding breast, she leans in closer and complains, "Here is uncomfortable." Her clear, blue pools of water stare back at him expectantly.

Jäger's brain stops working for a few moments.

It's only when she gently squeezes down upon his hand, which causes his hand to do the same to her breast, that it finally starts back up and he quickly removes his hand. His heart pounds in his ears as he looks around for a distraction. 'What was I doing, again?' It quickly comes back to him when he sees the dirndl pieces laid out on the furs. Jäger attempts to grasp the stiff bodice, yet initially fails. The thick, blue linen piece is barely off the furs before it slips through his fingers and he must try again. While not looking at her, Jäger holds the blue bodice up to show her while saying, "Yo-you'll feel better w-when you wear this."

Seeing his flushed and flustered appearance, Ren thinks to herself with a small smile playing at her lips, 'Yes, this appearance suits him much better.' Ren shifts her expression to one of innocence and says with a mild grievance in her tone, "Bruder, you'll have to help me with that piece, too."

"R-right," he says softly to himself and takes a few moments to breathe to himself, suppressing his discomposure, before assisting her with the bodice.

As he's lacing up the back, he gets a moment of respite to calm down and think.

'Does she really not remember me?'

'If not, then why does it feel like she's taking revenge on me?'

'Can Vampir learn magic?'

'Has she cursed me?'

'I need sleep. I'm so exhausted...'

Once laced, Jäger tightens them until the bodice fits snugly before tying and tucking away the strings. He hesitates for a moment when he goes to grab the lightly faded blue skirt yet quickly recovers and helps Ren into it by carefully pulling it over her head. With it situated at her waist, he ties it for her like the previous before grabbing the final piece of the dirndl. The light, yellowed by time apron is looped around her waist and knotted with a bow at the back. Done with the dirndl, Jäger walks back around to face Ren.

Looking between the two of them, Ren pouts her lips and asks, "Why is it different?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

Ren pinches the edges of the cream apron while emphasising, "This. All this. It's different from what you are wearing."

Jäger opens his mouth to respond only to realise he doesn't know how. He looks down at his buckskin bundhosen3 and brown Janker4 that's over a beige button up shirt. "It's-It's just what girls wear."

Looking him up and down, Ren responds, "Yours looks more comfortable."

Unsure of how to respond, Jäger fumbles his words before trailing off, "I- It's- I only have one pair so..."

"Then, let me wear this pair," Ren insists, gently tugging on the waistband of the bundhosen.

Jäger's face flushes as he thinks, 'And what would I wear? The dirndl?' He takes a step back in response and says, "N-no." He then peers into her light blue eyes that seem to always be on the edge of leaking water and his resolve wavers. "A-at least not today. Now sit there so we can finish," he says referencing towards the furs.

Ren pouts but does as she's told.

Once seated, Jäger takes one of her feet in hand and starts wiping the dirt from it. When finished, he does the same to the other and then slips socks over her feet before instructing her to pull them up and fasten them in place with a cord. While Ren has no problem pulling up the stockings, she doesn't remember how to tie a knot and so Jäger must assist once again. With the skirts hitched up to Ren's porcelain thighs, Jäger squats before her and nervously ties a bow at each of her knees with the cord.

When finished, he's about to rise when Ren unexpectedly pulls him off balance by tugging him towards her. Luckily, he manages not to fall on top of her; however, he still manages to encage her with the way his limbs land on either side of her frame. His face a breath away from hers. "Wh-what are you doing?"

Ren leans in close and inhales, "Why are you so sweet, Bruder?"

"W-wh-what?" he stammers out in confusion and tries to back away but his collar is held in Ren's grasp.

"Your smell," she explains nonchalantly while nuzzling his neck and inhaling more of the scent. "Sometimes it's sweet and tempts me to taste. While other times it," Ren's voice goes flat, "isn't."

'What's that supposed to mean? Truly she must be trying to get some kind of revenge,' he thinks to himself in a fluster. "S-stop playing around," he rebukes while dismounting from his suspended position and coaxing her hand to release his collar.

Letting it go for now, Ren changes the subject, "Fine, then can I know my name now?"

Finally free, Jäger lays flat on his back beside Ren and relishes in the moment of relaxation. "Didn't I say we'd come up with something after we eat? Unless you've already come up with something."

'Tsk,' she mentally cheeks. 'He didn't slip up.' She then mentally calls out, 'Hey, tagalong Rump. Give me a name.'

[...] Not wanting to waste their processing power, tagalong Rumpelstiltskin responds, [Ren.]

"What about Ren?"

"Ren?"5 Jäger echoes with a raised brow, slightly amused at the thought of how she might have come up with that as a name.

"Mn," Ren nods. "What about you?"

Confused, Jäger responds, "What do you mean?"

"Shouldn't you also pick a new name? If this evil Queen is after me, then surely she knows of you, my Bruder. Which means you should also pick a new name, too, right?"

Blindsided by his lie coming back to bite him in the arse, he momentarily freezes for a moment before recovering to respond, "Dieter." It was a name he had always liked. "From now on, I'm Dieter."