Good Morning Corinne,

Hope you slept well and feel better now. Today I continue the story and let you guess, again who Tika might be. You were pretty close last time! I hope you enjoy the little chapter and have a good day.

All the best, Mako😊

Take-chi was sure he had misunderstood. "Um... eh... you... you are a man?", said this question, more of a statement, seemed rather silly to him. Tika's expression seemed astonished, but also amused. "Yes...? What did you think?" A mischievous grin played around the corners of his mouth as he looked at Take-chi'. The latter blushed a little in embarrassment and tried to avoid the shorter man's gaze as much as possible.

"It's all right, don't worry, you're not the first one to mistake me for a girl, it used to happen all the time, even to my brothers. When we were strolling through the forest, they always said: "Little Red Riding Hood', or 'Gold Marie', but that's just ridiculous... Romi, my youngest brother, is anything but a 'Gold Mariechen'...", Tika laughed a little cautiously and Take-chi still didn't know what to say.

It all came as a bit of a surprise to him. Even though he possibly should have known it from the beginning, when they first met. Why exactly was he not able to tell the genders apart properly? Even if Tika said it wasn't that bad, it still bothered him... It was just embarrassing....

"Pass me your plate, I'll put it in the dishwasher," Take-chi just nodded, not really caring what a 'dishwasher' might be at the moment. His host seemed to notice that Take-chi's mood was not the very best and could also imagine what the reason for this might be. The dark brown-haired man, however, let this slide and instead looked for a way to cheer up his newfound buddy a little.

Take-chi stared ahead of himself, somewhat lost in thought, into nothingness, which was actually the inside of the kitchen, but he didn't really notice it at all. Tika cleared his throat again, very timidly to make himself heard, or rather to get attention. "Tachi? How about a little trip into town after I show you where you'll be sleeping tonight? Trust me, it'll take your mind off things." Tika predicted, smiling to encourage Take-chi.

The latter wouldn't have known what to do next anyway, so he took up the offer, even though he wasn't exactly in the mood for a city tour. Especially because he couldn't picture much under the word "city". It was like a jinx, why had he lost his memories?

Once again, Tika pulled him out of his thoughts. He opened the door to the corridor and told the light brown-haired man to follow him. Take-chi did, all the way to a smaller door, it was painted white, seemed somehow delicate and 'enchanting', if that was the right word. to describe it. "This would be the guest room.", Tika spoke as he pushed down the handle with his right hand. "Make yourself a little comfortable, we'll meet, say... in about ten minutes?"

The prince nodded and stepped into the room beside Tika to take a look.

The first thing that caught his eye was the large bed, there must have been four mattresses stacked on it... Who slept on a mountain like that? But he didn't want to risk not knowing something again, so he kept his mouth shut and continued to inspect the room.

The walls were painted a violet blue, with little daisies as decoration. The two windows, through which the slowly disappearing daylight entered only sparsely, had frames painted with gold leaf and looked really high-class in every aspect. The dark mahogany wardrobes gave the room the final touch. 'It's like heaven,' went through his mind and in his excitement he hadn't noticed that Tika had left him alone.

Of course, he wasn't far away; if Take-chi listened carefully, he could hear clattering sounds that seemed to come from the kitchen. But he didn't pay that much attention, preferring to start climbing the mattress mountain. It was not that easy, even if he stood with his bare feet on the wooden edging of the, probably former, four-poster bed, he did not reach far enough above the top mattress to shimmy up.

After about five minutes, he gave up and silently made a mental note to ask Tika later what he should do about it. But this still had time until after the excursion, for which a little anticipation was now building up.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)