Chris took a deep breath and fought the urge to scream. She leaned against the door, and closed her eyes. She counted back from ten. Each number a different way that she could repay Zeven's 'kindness'.
Calmer now, she peeled herself off the door. As much as it pained her to admit, Zeven had a point; she could hardly think straight and nothing she could do would be of any help. Chris thought about what Zeven had mentioned earlier before leaving, since he did technically give her permission to go through his things… there should be no issue with her turning the house upside down to find them.
His bedroom was a bust, nothing besides the clothes in the drawers gave the impression that someone was living there. The bed was immaculately made everyday and there were no places to hide things. Chris had been in his room several times and hadn't seen anything that looked remotely personal. "Ha!" Chris laughed out loud, "hiding something in his room is too boring. Definitely not his style."
Gunter stood off to the side as Chris tore through the house. It was like someone released a tornado indoors, he wished Zeven would have taken her coffee away earlier. "Christopher, I understand the phrase, 'no stone unturned' but if you would be good enough to turn the stones right side up. I cleaned yesterday and you are making things unnecessarily harder on me."
She turned around to Gunter like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "Sorry Gunter." They were standing on the second floor landing, and Chris was down on her hands and knees checking under the rug. Gunter took a second to really look at what she was doing, she was a very different person than the Christopher who was dragged in only a few days ago. There were many moments that she resumed her princely character, but times like this he could only see the girl.
Chris finished looking under the rug and along the baseboards, looking for a secret panel of some sort like the one that was under her bed, but didn't find anything. She had gone through the entire second landing before she stopped in front of the second door on the right. She hadn't ever been in that room.
"That is my room, I promise you will find nothing of interest in there." Chris squinted her eyes suspiciously, "That's just what someone hiding something would say." Her hand reached out to the door knob as she watched Gunter's reaction. Her teasing had little effect on Gunter: 1. Because he didn't care and 2. Because Zeven was also a little shit and he had been dealing with that far longer.
"If I say you can open the door, will you just look inside and then consider it good?" Chris nodded her head fevourently. Gunter stepped up to the door and pulled out a key. Slipping it in the lock, he looked at Chris one more time before slowly cracking the door open.
What was inside shocked Chris. It was a normal bedroom. Neat, tidy, she did notice the bed was sloppier than Zeven's which made her laugh inwardly. The only thing that really caught her eye was the photographs on his nightstand. There were two pictures. One was of an obviously much younger Gunter, who stood beside and beautiful woman and three children. Chris wasn't going to pry, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. The other picture was of a still younger Gunter and a tiny boy. The picture was newer than the first, but still from a long time ago, 10-15 years at least.
Chris was about to turn around and leave when she was struck by the eyes in the photo. She knew those eyes. She burst inside the room and snatched the picture up to get a closer look. There were still wrinkles on Gunter's brow, but they didn't cut as deep. And his arm was around a very small Zeven. Zeven wasn't any taller than Gunter was. It was easy to see why she wouldn't have recognized him immediately, he was drastically different physically. This Zeven had short, cropped hair, and couldn't have been over 5'6". He looked like the wind might blow him away with his scrawny body. She wanted to laugh, but at the same time she felt conflicted. He was clearly not the Zeven she knew, this one looked like a husk of a person. It was like he was caught in between thoughts and his masks.
She recognized him in a way too. His eyes were the same, focused and intense. His stare could burn through a person even at that age.
She held the picture up, her thumb swept over the protective glass barrier. Saving her from being completely swallowed by those eyes. "How old was he?"
Gunter didn't have to think before answering, "fifteen days past 16. He looks sour because he had been trapped in the palace for a two week celebration." Chris looked at the photo, and at Gunter, "Only sixteen? I was bigger than he was at that age." Gunter laughed, fondly remembering the younger Zeven. "We were beginning to think he'd stay that size forever. But boys grow, and they grow up to look like their fathers. Zeven wanted nothing more than to differ from his father, but here he is now. He grew up into the perfect copy, the outsides are the same, but the souls are different."
Gunter walked into Chris and gently lifted the photo out of her hands. "Now, I believe that is everything of interest in my room." Gunter kindly gestured for her to step back outside. She did, and he promptly locked the door back. "Now Christopher, the fact that I A) let you in, and B) showed you that photo are to remain strictly between us. Understood."
Glad to have seen the picture, but sad that she still didn't have any ammunition to use against Zeven, Chris gave Gunter a mock salute. "But honestly Gunter, thank you." with that, she carried on her way.