I had originally planned to turn this into a real fic, but reading it over (and looking at what I had started writing to make this a real fic) I decided I liked this better the way it is now.
Because this was meant as a rough outline, there are names missing, abbreviations, and of course, my little observations, but I think it works. (Or maybe I'm just nuts!)
So, of course, I own nothing.
Enjoy!
The Plot
Wolfram watches a woman arrive on foot to Blood Pledge Castle. She approaches Yuuri and asks the Maou for help. She is from a foreign country and has accidentally gotten entangled in a marriage situation because she didn't understand the customs of New Mazouk. Yuuri sympathizes (no mention of his own engagement) and agrees to help the woman.
Wolfram begins to think about how his engagement to Yuuri came about and finally begins to wonder if Yuuri really wants to marry him.
He confronts Yuuri, who waffles as usual, leading Wolfram to conclude he doesn't.
Wolfram gets over being angry (hitting Yuuri upside the head helps) and realizes this is not a situation that he wants to be in. Yes, he wants to be with Yuuri, No, he doesn't want to break off the engagement, but he wants Yuuri to want him too. He wants his feelings to be returned, but they're not (see confrontation) then it's not fair of him to keep Yuuri trapped by the engagement. (Damned honour) He wants Yuuri to be happy.
Feeling like he'd just as soon start hacking his own body to bits, Wolfram goes to find Yuuri, and breaks the engagement, covering his hurt the only way he knows how, with anger.
Yuuri, meanwhile has helped the woman with her problem and she returned to her own country. Looking forward to spending some time with Greta and Wolfram (hiding from Gunter) wondering idly what his mom would think of Greta (EEK! She's so cute! If I couldn't have a daughter, a granddaughter is the next best thing! Oh, Yu-chan, I can't wait to dress her up!) when he runs into a very serious looking Wolfram.
Wolfram formally breaks off the engagement. Yuuri is too shocked to react, causing Wolfram to berate his verbal skills and intelligence. He finally storms off in a huff.
Yuuri wanders around in a daze for a while, then decides he's pleased with the new developments. (Yay! He gets his bed to himself again!) spends the rest of the afternoon with Greta and Conrad (hiding from Gunter).
At dinner he notices that Wolfram is quieter than usual, no one comments that Wolfram is no longer sitting at Yuuri's right, but everyone (except oblivious Yuuri) gives him odd looks until finally Wolfram excuses himself and hurries out of the room. Greta slips away from the table and follows him to his room.
She asks him what's wrong and he tells her (just the basics) and she looks at him. "So you're not going to marry Yuuri?' He shakes his head no. "Are you still going to be my daddy?"
Wide eyed shock…Flummoxed.
Wolfram sinks to the floor and holds out his arms to Greta, hugs her and reassures her that he will always be her daddy, just like Yuuri. Placated, Greta leaves. Wolfram slumps against the bed and cries.
Yuuri gets ready for bed, all excited (my own bed! Whee!) thinking it will be a good night.
Wrong.
Yuuri tosses and turns all night thinking the bed is too large, too still, too empty…too lonely.
Finally he admits to himself that he misses Wolfram.
NEW CHAP
Next day a rider comes in reporting a gang of bandits has been terrorizing an area near the border of NM and the human country, stealing children. Appalled, Yuuri decides to set out immediately, to less protest than usual, as everyone else is pretty appalled as well. It is decided that Gwendal, Conrad, Yozak and Wolfram will go with him. Wolfram considers staying behind briefly, but realizes that his first duty, no matter how he feels, is to the Maou (damned honour again) and besides, he doesn't want anything to happen to Yuuri.
They head out and soon reach the border. They find the first village they come to looks like a ghost town. Everyone has locked themselves into their homes. Those who have lost children are in mourning. After initial suspicion, the Maou and his company are welcomed and shown to an inn for the night.
Cries, screams and flickering lights wake them up. (different beds, all in one room) The bandits are attacking. Everyone runs from the inn. Gwendal, Conrad, and Wolfram join in fighting the bandits, Yozak stays behind to guard Yuuri. Yuuri chafes.
Fires are burning through the village, and childish cries from a burning house draws Yuuri's attention. He hurries off, Yozak right behind him. Yozak stops him from entering the building and goes after the child, telling Yuuri to stay put. Yuuri agrees. Yozak goes in.
Yuuri focuses on the house, watching for Yozak to return and doesn't notice a support beam falling towards him.
A hard shove knocks him down and he hears Conrad and Gwendal shouting. More debris from the house falls on him and he looses consciousness.
Back at Blood Pledge Castle, Gunter mourns His Majesty's absence while hiding from Ainn…whatever her name is.
NEW CHAP
Yuuri wakes up in a bed surrounded by concerned faces. Conrad is sitting beside him, Yozak is standing behind Conrad, Gwendal is pacing in front of the door. Conrad asks if he is alright. Yuuri nods. (aside from a slight headache, he is) He asks what happened. Everyone seems to hesitate slightly, then Conrad tells him that some debris from the building fell on him and knocked him out. Yuuri asks Yozak if he got the child out of the fire, Yozak says he did. Finally Yuuri takes a good look around and asks where Wolfram is. Everyone avoids his eyes and no one answers.
Yuuri asks again, louder.
For some reason everyone seems to find great interest in the walls, ceiling and floor.
"Conrad…?"
Conrad meets his eyes and Yuuri is surprised at how sad they look. Conrad tells him that Wolfram was the one who pushed Yuuri out of the way of the beam, but he had been caught by the edge of it and knocked out himself.
"Where is he, is he alright?" Yuuri asks, sitting up and looking at the other (empty) beds. Conrad tells him the bandits took Wolfram as well as several of the village children.
Yuuri jumps out of bed and announces that they have to go immediately. He takes a step and promptly staggers. Conrad catches him by the elbow. Yozak and Gwendal go to prepare supplies and horses.
Wolfram comes awake in slow degrees. The first thing he becomes aware of is that his bed is moving, bouncing in fact. As he's trying to figure this out, his bed neighs. He then realizes he's sitting up, there is an arm around his waist holding him upright and he's pretty sure it's not Yuuri or any of his brothers. Fighting the instinct/desire to turn and belt whomever is holding him (not that he could do much damage as he realizes that his wrists are bound together.) He feigns sleep. Every so often he moves to allow the fabric of his uniform to catch on passing branches, satisfied to hear the ripping of cloth. He can also hear the muffles sobs of children around him. He wants to offer them reassurance, but now is not the time, now he has to do all he can to ensure they are found. He knows his comrades will come after them.
Yuuri will come after the children.
He knows Yuuri.
After several hours of hard riding and almost painful pretending to be asleep the horses stop. Several of the bandits ride off ahead to prepare a fake trail to shake off pursuit. The others wait. Wolfram cracks open his eyes to see the remaining bandits, all still in their saddles with their swords drawn, eyeing their surroundings warily. There are two horses in the middle of the group, each horse has several children on its back. The younger children are crying. One of the bandits holds the leads of the two horses.
With a speed born of desperation, Wolfram grabs his captor's sword in a two handed grip (still bound) and pulls. Surprise gives him the advantage and the bandit releases his sword almost before he knows what is happening. Wolfram lets himself fall sideways off the horse, the sword swinging out to slice through the lead ropes. Falling to the ground he rolls and gets back to his feet fast, bringing the flat of the sword up across the horses rumps. The horses bolt, rearing, forcing the bandits to back away, then take off at a full gallop, the children hanging on for dear life.
Before he can move towards securing his own freedom however, Wolfram finds himself surrounded by swords, all pointing at him. There is no way he can face these odd and win his reason tells him in a cold voice, and he lets the sword fall from nerveless fingers. Defeat is bitter, but he still struggles as the arms grab him from behind. He lashes out, noting the pained grunt with satisfaction. A fist connects with his right cheek and the world goes dark.
"Don't mark him, he's pretty and he can fight, he's worth more than all the other put together."
NEW CHAP
After almost a full day of riding Yuuri and co. still hadn't caught up to the bandits. Little scraps of blue cloth assure them that they are going the right way, everyone is beginning to feel the strain of non-stop riding, but no one suggests a break. Yuuri is dividing his time worrying about the children and worrying about Wolfram. The sound of horses approaching fast makes them stop. Conrad, Yozak and Gwendal move in front of Yuuri. Yuuri strains to see around them. Two horses burst out of the trees and rear, dumping children to the ground. After making sure the children are ok, they ask how they escaped, hearing how Wolfram saved them. (see Gwendal swinging between worry and pride) Gwendal tells them they have to return the children to the village. Yuuri refuses, he's going after Wolfram. Very short, heated debate follows, Yozak ends up retuning with the kids while the others continue on.
Night falls. Gwendal calls a stop for the night (so practical). Yuuri argues, Conrad steps in and sways Yuuri, telling him that the horses could be injured traversing the forest in the dark. Yuuri backs down. They stop.
Yuuri chafing with impatience begins to realize just how use he is to having Wolfram beside him, always, and it feels wrong now that he's not. (hears wolfram's voice call him a wimp. 'I'm not a wimp, you jerk!) Begins to wonder if letting Wolfram break off the engagement was a good idea after all. Finally falls asleep near dawn.
Conrad smiles at him, sleeps soon after.
Up early and off, they soon come across the bandits. No Wolfram. Conrad and Gwendal are engaged in a fight, but are baldy out-numbered. Yuuri goes Maou and trounces them. (insert bad speech here)
They learn from one of the trounced bandits that they have been selling children from the border villages to slavers and Wolfram has been sold.
Yuuri moves like he wants to punch the bandit (can you see the scowl?) Gwendal stops him.
"Let me." POW! "I hit harder."
Wolfram wakes up again and realizes that he feels sick…very, very sick. They must have put him, he summarizes with dismay, on a boat, and it's impossible to track someone over water. Realizing no one will be coming for him, Wolfram tries with little success to ignore his sea sickness and find a way out.
A second trounced bandit tell them (not to willingly) that the slaver have a disguised ship in the harbour and that they will be leaving in a few hours. Yuuri and co. race towards the not to distant coast and reach the harbour, but there are a whole lot of boats, and not a lot of time.
Yuuri, Conrad and Gwendal race along the docks, looking for any sign of Wolfram.
Yuuri starts pleading in his head with the Great King Whose Name I Can't Remember, to let him find Wolfram before it's too late. He doesn't want to loose him, he just wants him to be safe, with him, if he lost Wolfram he didn't know what he'd do…(WTF? Isn't that what you think about someone you…) Realizes he loves Wolfram. (Aw shit!) Some how in the course of his musings he notices a scrap of torn blue material on a gang plank leading up to a good sized ship. Without warning Yuuri turns and runs up the plank, Conrad and Gwendal right behind him calling for caution and sanity.
They are met on the ship by some nice looking men, who, quickly sizing up Gwendal and Conrad, treat the three of them very nicely. Conrad, in a stroke of horrible (to Yuuri anyways) brilliance make it seem as if they have come to purchase a child. The slavers are taken in.
Yuuri begins wandering the ship as Gwendal begins negotiations.
He notices that the captain's cabin seem to be huge, so he peeks inside and is surprised to find that is much smaller than he would have thought. He goes inside and closes the door behind him. Walking along the wall that doesn't seem to line up to the outside wall, he finds a secret door. It opens and he steps inside. A starburst of pain in his head makes the world go black.
Again.
NEW CHAP
In spite of his seasickness, which is not helped by the fact that he's exhausted, Wolfram managed to set himself behind the door with a chair. When there was a sound from the other side of the door, Wolfram raised the chair over his head and brought it crashing down on the head of the person who entered the room and knocking him right the heck out.
"Yuuri!"
Yuuri is down for the count.
Wolfram throws the chair away and after a brief panicked moment of making sure Yuuri's ok, shakes his head in disgust.
"Our Maou, taken out by a piece of furniture." (completely disregarding the fact that he'd been planning to take out anyone who passed through the door with said piece of furniture.)
Wolfram drags Yuuri up (semi-conscious) and pulls him out of the room. Slipping silently across the deck, out of sight. Conrad sees them and he and Wolfram meet eyes. Wolfram gestures towards the gangplank and Conrad nods fractionally. When the two are off the ship, he touches Gwendal's arm. Gwendal looks over at him, then turns back to the slavers and says he'll buy the whole shipment. The slavers agree. Gwendal gives them half the agreed on price and says he'll send someone in two days to pay the remainder and pick up the 'cargo'
They leave.
Go back to the horses, Yuuri's still pretty out of it. He turns to Wolfram who tells him to ride with Conrad, he'll take Ao.
Yuuri looks hurt, but rides with Conrad.
Back to Blood Pledge Castle, top speed.
Gwendal sends out his secret weapon to deal with the slavers (Ainn…whatever her name is, and Gisela for good measure. shudder)
NEW CHAP
Wolfram receives a message (via Greta) that Yuuri wants to talk to him and is waiting in the garden. Wolfram doesn't want to go…(What if he's sending me away, what if he's met someone else, what if…)
Yuuri is crouched down looking at the flowers when Wolfram comes up behind him and asks what he wants. Yuuri stands and presses something into Wolframs hand.
"Here, hold this."
Then slaps him.
(See Wolfram SHOCKED! Raises hand to cheek, DOUBLE SHOCK)
Yuuri walks away whistling.
Wolfram turns to watch him go, hand still to his cheek. (TRIPLE SHOCK)
Looks down at what Yuuri pressed into his hand. A hybrid flower bred and named by Cherie-sama.
Beautiful Wolfram.
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Follow up fic - A & G vs. the slavers
Lady what's her face stands tall in front of a small troop of solders.
"We've been entrusted with an important duty by (find Gwendals' title!) and His Majesty the Maou." She declared, waving around what appeared to be a giant leaf blower. "With my newest experiment, Bye Bye Slaver-kun, we will rescue the children and get back (Gwendal's title)'s money!"
She turns to Gisela who stands beside her. "Then we will go shopping for supplies for my next experiment!"
Gisela nods "And medical supplies."
"And a new dress."
"Of course!"