Hello! Here's an unedited out of context excerpt from my au fic that will probably change drastically when I get to that point :D!
"Octavia, how good of you to join me." He gestured to the seat across from his own at the desk. She didn't take it.
"Klaus Wulfuenbach, I never thought I'd see the day where we would speak again. Then again, I never thought I'd see you playing politics beyond your own lands. Those do seem to have expanded as of late."
"The world has been full of surprises for the both of us. I thought we might discuss-"
"Surprises, oh yes! Many surprising things have happened over the years indeed." Klaus frowned as she began to walk around the desk.
"For example, you, my dear, ran away with your tail between your legs!" He narrowed his eyes in response.
"Bill chooses Lucrezia, and you disappear like a coward. It was disappointing to say the least, I had thought you'd at least fight to stay relevant in their lives." She passed behind him. "Perhaps the Heterodyne stories have tapped into something I simply didn't see, an urge to run away from your relationships. I believe the same happened with Queen Albia, no?" Klaus glared at her.
Many an overconfident noble had flinched and bent to his will under that gaze. But Octavia Beetle had known him a very long time, and had grown a much stronger immunity to it than even the Heterodyne Boys.
She looked into his eyes in a rather bored manner.
Klaus looked away first.
She found no satisfaction in it.
"What do you know of the girl," the Baron finally asked.
"Nothing more than you. She broke through early, and fearing Spark hunters, her parents asked my father to protect her, and he accepted. He's placed her with a foster family and has begun tutoring her." Octavia examined the nails of one hand. "I think he rather enjoys having such a young Spark following after him."
"Is that so? Were you aware that these "parents" of hers are nowhere to be found?"
"I did mention that they were afraid of Spark hunters in the Wastelands, yes? Given your own fixation, you more than count, Wulfenbach."
"And were you aware that this "foster family" of hers were in fact Punch and Judy?" More annoyance was creeping into his voice.
"Is that where they've retired to? I see no harm in it, they raised the Boys. They couldn't do much worse with just one child Spark." She switched to examining her other hand.
The Baron glared at her again, the toll of this new life of his becoming more obvious on his face. Already wrinkles had deepened, eyebags were darkly permanent, and his hair had dulled from its youthful silver.
"The girl has been assigned bodyguards on top of that. Who is she, Octavia?"
"Just a little girl with a strong Spark, Herr Baron."
"Punch and Judy informed me she was yours. But I find that rather hard to believe when the girl looks nothing like you."
She smiled in response, "Snitches."
Octavia finally finished her lap around the desk, and took a seat in the chair. Propping up her arm on the desk for her to rest her chin upon, she made herself rather comfortable.
"So what if the girl is mine? So what if she isn't? As far as you need be concerned, she is effectively the heir apparent to Beetleburg. Need you look into it any closer?"
"I care rather about the girl's origins, Octavia. I know you. You have no interest or love for children, and you wouldn't drag an ordinary Spark's child to your father as an heir. No matter how early a breakthrough, he wouldn't accept that. No child is missing from the great houses, and surviving children of the Other's attacks are already here on the Castle. Which leaves very few possibilities, of which I would prefer to confirm an answer from."
Octavia's smile dropped.
"You never have respected me as a scientist, Klaus. I am a Doctor you know. There are numerous methods with which I could've created a child, many of which could easily result in the divergent traits between myself and Agatha."
"So you insist on claiming that she is biologically yours? And Dr. Beetle believes that?"
She sighed, "What does biology have to do with it? If you have it your way, my father will be ousted from his position within the next ten years. To be replaced with a much more controllable man of your own, biology be damned."
One of Klaus's eyes twitched within his glare.
"The girl is mine, Herr Baron. There, does that make you happy?" Octavia stood up, stopping to straighten her skirt and adjust her glasses.
"Perhaps you should be more worried about a certain one of your students. A rather unremarkable boy, who I believe has stayed on this ship far longer than his own lack of lineage would suggest appropriate, yes?"
Suddenly the Baron's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, and he stood, towering over her from behind the desk.
Madness dripped from his voice, "And just where did you hear that, Octavia."
"Children talk, Klaus. They talk alllll about the other children they meet on this ship when they go back home. The occasional mention of the boy "Gil" with no family of his own sometimes crops up. All the other children you find without families go to foster homes. I know you as well, Klaus." Octavia met his furious stare with a glare of her own.
Octavia Beetle had never liked Klaus Wulfenbach.
During his time under Dr. Beetle, she had made it abundantly clear a multitude of times over. Like when she purposefully didn't tell him about a class assignment, when she set Professor Maligula's hunting pond-skaters on him when he went for a swim, that time she sabotaged his lunch, and most of all, when she outright told him as such during their third meeting.
She had been hostile to the Heterodyne Boys too, the combined hostility told the three that it wasn't for the lineage of the Heterodynes and associating with them, but for something else. But before they could truly figure it out, Octavia had seemingly given it up, no longer adding to the daily chaos of their lives at TPU.
She eventually made true peace with the Boys, but in the more peaceful time they spent together, Klaus never earned the same.
He did learn however, that Octavia wasn't one to make such efforts without reason, not without something to protect.
Be it her pride or, perhaps, her daughter.
Klaus loosened his grip and Octavia snatched her hand away.
"I expect this conversation to not leave this room. Yes?" she asked after a moment.
The Baron's assistant, one Boris Dolokhov--who had been sitting in the corner of the room--gave a stunned nod.
"Good. I will see myself out, Herr Baron. I expect there to be no more issues over this matter. Good day, gentlemen."
The Baron lowered himself into his chair, leaned back, closed his eyes, and put a hand to his face for his growing headache.
He had sent the Sturmvoraus boy away to avoid having eyes on his son. The boy wouldn't have said such a thing to Octavia even if they had met. No, this had well and truly happened via simple children's carelessness, and Octavia's own ability to connect the dots.
So be it then. A threat for a threat.
He would not pressure Beetle to send the girl to the Castle. It would be ineffective with such a lopsided power balance at play.
"Boris, a coffee, please."
"It's already on it's way, Herr Baron."
