Just the Same.
A thing that the three Shibuya males had learned a long time ago was that when Jennifer had decided unto something, there were more chances of any of them stopping a typhoon sans majutsu than stopping her. Cute-things, occasionally dressing them up, Holidays (both Japanese and American, and she'd probably be adding some from Shin Makoku as soon as she could possibly get Murata to explain them to her), shopping...
So they coped. Especially Yuuri, since he was the youngest and, thus, the one left to her clutches more often than not. He had always thought that his dad's 'important meetings' and Shouri's 'study groups' were nothing but badly crafted excuses. Unluckily for him, he lacked the ways to test his theory.
He had also learned, long ago, that when his mother said that it was time to go shopping, it meant that he was going to get a completely new – and useless – wardrobe. Thankfully, at least on that he had his father's help. If Yuuri'd just agree to just about everything his mother wanted to buy for him, then later he'd go to the store with his dad to change most of it for something he could actually wear, just keeping a thing or two shoved as deep as possible in his closet for when his mom wanted him to wear something cute.
Yuuri thought nothing as his mom dragged him store through store, showing him shirts with logo designs and coats, jeans and shorts and socks and some things he really, really tried hard not to look at. Some of them, he thought, he'd be able to use. Not the pink stuff, though.
It wasn't until his mom started to drag him towards the underwear section of a store that Yuuri refused to move, digging his heels unto the floor and almost falling down.
"MOM!"
"Come on, Yuu-chan!" Jen told him with a chipper smile. "We still have to pick some pajamas!"
"Yes, but I can choose my underwear alone, thank you!" Yuuri flushed when he realized that his loud statement had attracted some very curious stares. Jennifer, however, seemed unperturbed.
"Oh, I know that, Yuu-chan. Mama has decided that if you want to wear thongs–"
"MOM!"
"–then there's nothing that mama can do about that," Jennifer finished in a completely loud and unnatural tone of voice. Yuuri wondered if there'd be any possibilities of being swallowed to another world by a sea of shame, or if that'd be pushing things a little too much. Then, Jennifer continued. "But! Wolf-chan won't be able to do that, now, would he? No, of course not. I already brought Sho-chan and Uma-chan to get some clothes for Conrad-san and Gwendal-san and Günther-sama when and if they come over to visit, so really, now–"
"Wait!" Yuuri said, interrupting his mom and shaking his head to try and stop the mental pictures of underwear and his brother and father and three members of his court in the same phrase to scar him forever. "... these clothes are for Wolfram? For real?"
Jennifer huffed. "Frankly, Yuu-chan, this is the least we can do! After all they've helped you, young man, buying them clothes–"
"Nononono, I'm not complaining about that!" Since he and Murata had discovered that they could more or less travel freely through Shin Makoku, the visits between his family in Shin Makoku and his family on Earth were quite frequent. Yuuri doubted that he and Gwendal would ever recover of the one time – so far – that Anissina had 'asked' to visit Earth, and he knew that none of the brothers nor he and Shouri would ever be the same after his mother and Cheri-sama had met. It certainly was a good idea for Wolfram and Conrad, the ones to visit Earth more frequently, to have their own clothes.
He would have added Greta on the list of people needing dresses, but the moment his mom had learned she had a ten years old cute granddaughter, she had gone on a frenzy. Yuuri was quite certain that now Greta probably had an outfit for every day of the year without risking repeats.
"Well, then?" His mom looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "Yuu-chan, is it because you like wearing the same clothes that Wolf-chan? Because that's so sweet! If that's the case then we should just search for clothes that would look cute on both of you, but really, I still think that we should buy him some underw–"
"MOTHER!" He shrilled again, attracting the stares again. Jennifer blinked at him and Yuuri reminded himself that his mother wasn't trying to humiliate him completely. Some days, he really, really doubted that, though, and this was already painting to be one of those days. "It's not that! I MEAN. I don't mind sharing clothes," he was quick to add because his mom and Wolfram had developed a quite close relationship and, as thus, his mom was quick to jump on Wolfram's defense. His own mother, really. "I... I just mean... s-sure that those clothes?"
Jennifer blinked again and then gave him a chipper grin. It was the Smile of Impending Doom, Yuuri realized, and felt a shiver run down his back at that. Some days, he really missed the fauna of Shin Makoku. That feeling right there could have used a good old shrill of 'BAD OMENS'.
"Of course I'm sure, Yuu-chan! Wolf-chan will look SO CUTE on them! And he will be so happy when he knows that you picked them up! Now, let's go, we still need to buy him some shoes after this!"
Yuuri gave a small whine as his mom dragged him directly to the underwear section, talking a mile a minute about different types of underwear and, despite himself, Yuuri zoned her out again. He certainly hoped that Wolfram wouldn't mind this; Yuuri was quite fond of his ass and didn't want to lose it in a fit of 'WIMP!' if Wolfram didn't like his clothes. God knew that he fussed enough with his uniform and casual clothes in Shin Makoku; the least he needed, Yuuri thought, was even more clothes to add to that, or even worse, to hate this Earth-clothing, because then there were very, very high possibilities of Impending Doom falling all over him.
Hopefully, learning that his mom had kinda chosen them too would make it better, if that was the case, that with the previously mentioned freaky bond they had developed.
"Oh, that's right! Yuu-chan, what kind of pajama do you think we should buy Wolf-chan? Because I just saw this really cute with cat ears that–"
Yup, he was dead alright.
-...-...-...-
Greta was immediately swooped out of the bathtub by his mom, wrapped in a fluffy pink towel and taken out of the bathroom before Yuuri even got a chance to greet his daughter, leaving him alone to help Wolfram out of the tub, handing him a towel and an apologetic grin.
"Troubles getting here?" he asked, retrieving the water-proof suitcases Anissina had developed.
Wolfram shook his head as if he was trying to get water out of his ears, which made the tiny part of Yuuri that still, sometimes, got annoyed at Wolfram for looking so damn cool without even trying to glee out.
"Not more than expected," Wolfram finally answered, pointing towards the suitcases, the towel around his shoulders. "Careful with that one. Mother sends it for mother Jennifer."
Yuuri winced and nodded. There really wasn't anywhere in his house to hide something like that from his mother – oh god, he had tried, gods of all the worlds and universe knew he had tried before – but he could, at least, hope that this time it didn't involve lingerie.
"Yuu-chan!" Jennifer yelled down from her own room. "Give Wolf-chan the clothes we bought for him!"
Wolfram's look made him blush and duck his head before he nodded, trying again not to think too hard about how kind of messed up was his life again since, really, it wasn't as if he would change it even if he could, guiding Wolfram back to his room.
"Uh, mom thought you should have, y'know," he started once they were there, opening his closet to show Wolfram where his clothes were folded, shrugging a little, awfully awkward as he realized that his mom hadn't used the space he had cleared for Wolfram in some drawers, rather mixing them up, the shirts and. Oh. Oh he wasn't going to think about his socks and unde- that drawer at all. Even if he was blushing which meant that he was, dammit. "Um, stuff for when you come over here. Uh, I'll go and."
He left before making more of a fool of himself, barely hearing Wolfram's muttered 'wimp'. But even that hadn't been said as loud or as upset as it could've been before the. Well.
Before the kiss.
Barely avoiding not to trip on the stairs as he blushed and shook his head, Yuuri went towards the kitchen, mostly searching for something to do until Greta and Wolfram were done.
"Yuuri!" Greta pounced on him once she came down, beaming. "Grandmama Jen says we're going to make cookies! And a cake!"
"Really? What's the occasion?"
"Something called 'Valentine'," Wolfram said, coming down the stairs. He was wearing some of his new clothes, though he was still tugging a bit at the fabric of the shirt.
Yuuri would have paid much more attention to said clothes or to his very cute daughter who kept on cheerfully informing him of the schedule Jen had decided for them – had he heard the word photoshoot?! - had he not just remembered that one of his mom's sacred days was happening while he had Wolfram and Greta visiting.
He was a dead man walking and somehow, he doubted that he could call Bob-san and ask political asylum. Last time Yuuri had tried, Shouri had informed him that nothing short of another possessed king was going to grant him that. Having a girlfriend had done nothing for Shouri's mood.
"Yuuri?" Greta blinked, confused. "Are you alright?"
"You're pale," Wolfram said with a frown, getting closer, a hand against his forehead before Yuuri could say anything at all. "You're not coming with a freaky disease, are you?"
"No, no, nothing like that." Yuuri decided no to say the 'I wish', instead giving a shaky laugh. "I. Uh. I had forgotten that it was going to be. Valentine's day."
Greta pouted and she had definitely been spending too much time with her grandmothers and Yozak.
"Then you don't have a present for Wolfram?"
And with her grandmother Jennifer. Yuuri felt himself flush as he looked towards Greta's pout, all to aware of Wolfram's confused – and probably surprised – stare on him.
"Yuu-chan! Shame on you!" Nearly jumping to the ceiling, Yuuri glanced towards his mom, who had her hands on her hips and was glowering. Even if technically he was now taller than her, Yuuri still felt himself shrink under her glare. "And not explaining such an important date to them! Really, Yuu-chan! What am I going to do with you?"
"It's not an important date!" Yuuri was quick to add, moving his hands. Greta, still pouting and looking as if she was completely broken hearted, moved towards her grandmother. Wolfram was still blinking, as if trying to decide what was going on and if he should make a run towards the bathtub or just simply brain him with one of the pans. "It's publicity, mom! It's only important if you own a chocolate company!"
Oops.
"Mother Jennifer would have been a great general," Wolfram said once they had been thrown out of the house with the precise orders not to come back until at least one present had been bought and Yuuri had gotten a proper Valentine's spirit, Wolfram's voice just a tad begrudging and more than a tad admiring. Yuuri groaned.
Going out on Valentine's Day or even right before Valentine's Day was crazy and it was something that Yuuri had managed not to do for the last two years, mostly because usually most of his friends either mopped about not having gotten any chocolate or they'd be gloating that they had gotten chocolate or they'd be bothering him if he had managed to get chocolate, but also because living with his mother, he got as much sugar and pink as any respectable male teenager could handle on a daily basis, and that decision had been before he became the king of a country that had super cute fluffy and pink plushie-esque fauna like the bearbees.
Yuuri really, really felt like he had to hold on to some masculinity as hard as he could. Sure, his mother and life-threatening situations in which he had to dress up like a maid didn't help to his resolve, but he did try!
At the very least, Wolfram was having fun. It was always kind of amazing look at him when he wasn't so uptight and he behaved like a normal huma-that's to say, a normal mazoku. Still with no idea whatsoever what to buy his mom, Greta and specially Wolfram – since it was kind of a moot point buying something when you were right there with the person – Yuuri sighed, paying for their two crepes as Wolfram tried his luck with some videogames.
"Here," Wolfram looked at the crepe for a moment, curious, before he shrugged and took a bit, his expression changing to delight as he properly tasted it. Yuuri grinned, knowing better than to tease him about liking sweets as he also bit his. "Um, is there anything you want to do?"
At least Wolfram had believed him when he had rushed to explain about Valentine's and he hadn't really asked – much – for explanations. And while he had been glaring to a few girls, as if expecting them to give Yuuri chocolate, so far what had happened had been that most of the girls they had found had looked at Wolfram and sighed as if their hearts were breaking for him, which Yuuri had, again, kind of expected.
"It's your world, wimp," Wolfram said, not quite meeting his eyes, the same awkwardness that had hung between them once more present, as sticky as the syrup for the crepe between their fingers. "You choose."
So movies were out of the question because Wolfram tended to ask, really loudly, things about the movie, ask if things really happened like that for humans here on Earth. Yuuri had had as much of stores as he could possibly handle a few days ago when buying Wolfram's clothes, and he still wasn't sure about buying him a present, not with how things were between them and its intention could go terribly wrong faster than you could say 'Anissina's new invention'.
As he pondered, chewing on the crepe, Yuuri looked up and then he grinned.
"Okay, I know where we're going!" He said, looking at Wolfram before he held his wrist, pulling. "C'mon! This way!"
Even if this was gonna be, technically, Shouri's kingdom, Yuuri still liked showing up this world. It wasn't perfect, of course, but no world was, and there were so many beautiful things. It was especially great to show them to someone like Wolfram, whose main nature seemed to be to distrust everything until proved wrong, and even then keep things at a safe distance.
"So, what d'you think?"
It was probably lame, coming to a ferris-wheel, but there was just so much to do when even if you're a king you have to deal with an allowance of a teenager. And Yuuri liked the sight of the city, highlighted by the light of almost sunset, the sky getting more orange than blue by degrees.
Wolfram was silent for a moment before he shook his head. He almost look sad, Yuuri thought. One of those tragic heroes, kinda, only that that didn't quite make sense.
"It's beautiful."
"But?"
"The world humans build changes so fast. Next time I come here, I'm sure it'll be different." Wolfram said finally, not taking his eyes from the sight. "For humans, twenty years is enough to forget a war and to rebuild a whole life as if there had been nothing to injure it at first. It's selfish, that. For us mazoku, sometimes even a century is not enough to let go of the past. Even if I like things how they are right now, they won't be the same."
Yuuri blinked a little, confused, looking at the city again. He could, kinda, understand what Wolfram was saying. There was a new building taking shape already, and he kinda understood, too, what he meant about the differences between Mazoku and humans. He saw them constantly on Greta because it seemed that every time he saw their daughter, she had changed, grown a little bit taller or a little bit smarter. He didn't like thinking too much about how it was entirely likely that Greta would be a grown up before he was even twenty years old.
But still.
"... I don't really think it's letting go of the past. The past is always there. We just have to learn from it and then you do your best not to do the same things. It's... I don't know. Something you have to do for the ones that didn't make it. I think I'd feel selfish if I spent all my life just mourning someone rather than doing stuff in their name. Even if time goes faster to some... it's the same, in a way." Yuuri rubbed the back of his neck, shrugging. Wolfram wasn't looking at him but he got the impression that he was really being listened, looking at how Wolfram's hand had tensed a little against the window. "And things change, but... but that isn't really bad. I mean, just because you don't know what's gonna happen next, it's not a bad change. Sometimes taking a risk is--"
Wait, was he still talking about human-life? Yuuri swallowed, suddenly very, very conscious that he and Wolfram had, pretty much, been in a date for the whole afternoon and that they were alone in a booth, several feet above the ground with a sunrise pouring bright and gold over them and the city and that his heart was pounding.
Wolfram turned to look at him and blinked.
"Yuuri?"
Wolfram's lips still were a little bit sticky with the syrup from his crepe when Yuuri leaned forward and pressed their lips together, and Yuuri thought he felt him gasp even before he reached to curl a hand against the nape of his neck. He thought he felt Wolfram shiver, moving his hands to Yuuri's knees as he leaned forward a little, too, opening his lips to return the kiss.
They both broke apart as the booth started to move again, and Yuuri realized that Wolfram was staring at him wide eyed. He felt himself flush and swallow, doing his best not to shift too much or to seem too nervous, and especially to keep on looking at Wolfram.
But then Wolfram gave him a smile, a small almost hesitant thing that made a thing inside Yuuri's chest kind of turn and twist and untwist at the same time, all within a heartbeat. Then Wolfram reached for his hand, brushing his fingers over the bone of his wrist for a moment.
"Wimp," he called, his voice as soft as his smile before the wheel stopped and he could get out. Yuuri, whose flushed expression had moved form that to full-out blush, followed after him.
It was such a completely un-Wolfram like behavior that it took Yuuri almost five whole minutes to call on Wolfram calling him 'wimp'.
"Welcome home!" Jen called from the kitchen when they had come back in. The one good thing about Valentine's day – for Yuuri, at least – was the fact that his mom did as many desserts as she knew, so for days and days the house smelled of chocolate and sugar and cinnamon and he was even allowed to eat them.
"Did you have fun? Where did you go?" Greta asked, coming out of the kitchen holding a tray of brownies.
"Oh, y'know. Just around," Yuuri answered, hoping he wasn't blushing and deciding to busy his mouth with one of the brownies. Greta seemed confused until the moment where Wolfram offered her the dolphin-plushie he had won for her.
Jennifer had a big, wide smile upon her face as she looked towards them.
"Sooo, Wolf-chan! Did Yuuri get you a proper Valentine's present?"
Yuuri swallowed. The only thing they had gotten, apart from the crepes and Greta's plushie had been a pair of keychains, and he was sure that his mother wouldn't think that was proper. He had just, quite simply, forgot the reasons of them hanging out together like that, this time.
Wolfram glanced at him and Yuuri startled again at the look in his eyes before he shrugged and smiled towards his mom.
"Yes, he did." was all Wolfram said, the keychain hanging from one of his belt-loops. "For a wimp, it's even kind of a thoughtful present."
Yuuri glared, following Wolfram into the kitchen even as Wolfram seemed to ignore him.
"Oi, I'm not a wimp!"
Yuuri thought he heard Greta and his mom giggle, but he was busy arguing with Wolfram.
Some things, after all, never changed.