"You pouted! It was adorable!"

"But he's a menace! A menace that steals my nice things!"

She's pouting again.

Hair-ruffle.

Well now she's pouting more.

"You are artfully sabotaging yourself, you know. It would be less fun to win if you didn't pout about it at all."

"Well. Well. You hush."

The Emperor giggles.

"I might even find it tempting to win in a way that didn't infuriate you! ... Probably not, though, that's just fun on its own merits."

"Aauuuuuugh."

Giggle.

"I love you! Done with board games now?"

"I love you, too. Yes," sniffs Eselle, but she's stopped trying to repress her smile. "I have had enough stolen from me for today, thank you."

"Awwwwww."

Aww. The Emperor may also have a hug.

"Granted, now I don't know what to do. Zeothe's less bad about stealing my things in cards, but if the game allows for it he'll usually find a way to annoy me. Because he's terrible."

"I am, it's true."

He hugs her, giggling. Why are they so adorable???

"Did we break the Emperor?"

"We might have," says Eselle, gravely. "Sekar, sweetie. Fight it. Fight the giggles, come back to us. We need to figure out what to do now that Zeothe's ruined board games forever."

No. Instead, giggles.

"I feel that saying that I ruined all board games forever is inaccurate. I ruined one board game, for maybe an afternoon, just for one person. It's temporary board game sabotage more than anything else."

"Of course. My mistake."

She pats Sekar's hand, smiling. "You okay?"

He hugs her. "You're so cute."

Hug!

"Yes we are, thank you for noticing."

"Yay, the Emperor isn't permanently broken, I don't have to freak out and try to figure out how to keep the empire from collapsing."

... Well now Eselle's giggling.

"If you think the empire would collapse without me you haven't been paying attention."