Disclaimer: (It's been a while since I did one of these disclaimers, hasn't it?) Kyou Kara Maou does not belong to me, not its characters, or its plot, or that hot blonde (mostly-hated) bishie I like to call Adelpoo. I wrote this for fun and for fun alone – I definitely am not making a profit out of this (unless you count out some for of... happiness derived from torturing these boys). So yeah, happiness...!
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Now or Never
Breakdown
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There was a limit to what everyone could take and thus an end to everything. Wolfram von Biefield, third child to one infamous Cecilie von Spitzberg and then fiancé to the country's current King, contemplated about this sentence very darkly as he stood beside a window overlooking the palace's frontal grounds and followed, very intently with his eyes, one black-clad figure as he scaled the palace grounds towards a certain patrol that had just arrived.
Wolfram had no claim to being the most tactful out of his brothers, by all rights, that title belonged to Gwendal, but he had been taught, both by his tutors and experience itself, how to be so and knew when to hold down his emotions. Still, the sight of the country's young King scrambling clumsily towards that group of arriving soldiers, lead by none other than his charming older half-human brother, like any other ordinary village girl would sparked a curious sense of jealousy in him and he was livid. He pressed his lips into a thin line and folded his arms crossly, grimly hoping his half brother, or better yet his fiancé, would catch a glimpse of his less-than-amused form overhead but his half-brother, Conrad, simply dismounted from his horse to indulge his fiancé with yet another one of his warm hugs.
He could almost hear their voices and feel the air of familiarity surrounding the two and it unnerved him greatly, making him bite down into his lower lip unconsciously as the silent anger continued to eat at his patience.
With a huff, he spun around and unfolded his arms in one movement before heading towards the library.
It had to end somewhere.
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Unrest was on the rise along side the kingdom's borders, with spies being deployed by enemy kingdoms to whet the hapless humans' discontent along the border. It was a growing problem, a small one but one that promised a minor civil war that would undoubtedly spark more problems in future should it be left to fester. Conrad voiced his concerns on the matter in the form of a cautious statement that all but brought up the fragility of the humans' trust towards the Mazoku when Gwendal had the topic broached in their monthly state meetings and without fail, Yuuri had agreed with him. Their King then proceeded to order for them to lay low for a while, to avoid complicating the situation with their human subjects, and to monitor progress along the border.
Wolfram was no believer of the notion that some problems were best left alone until things became clearer, he believed in a just form of action. He had been upset with Yuuri's decision as was Gwendal, but in reality, Wolfram was more upset of the why behind his decision rather than it itself. And that incident ultimately opened Wolfram's eyes to the harsh reality of Conrad's relationship with Yuuri.
They did not outwardly show it but it was there, an unbreakable bond that Wolfram realized any of his efforts could not contest. Wolfram had tried to ignore it since then, tried to hold his crumbling reality together with the same reason over and over. That same reason being the fact that Yuuri was engaged to him and has been for two years now. It may have been an accident, at first, but Yuuri certainly made no attempt to break it, let alone curb his less-than-discreet advances. But with his eyes he saw reality as it was and as he'd never seen it before. More and more he felt like the outsider in between the well-established relationship the two possessed.
He spent the whole of the afternoon surrounded by old and new maps of the border towns, analyzing each nook and cranny of its terrains like every captain would in an eve of a battle, deliberately ignoring his mother's request that they, the whole 'family', have a nice little afternoon tea outside, in the gardens under the nice warm sun. He shut everyone out, from the librarians and scholars whom he did a little more than persuade out the library when he entered it, to the maids and soldiers sent to fetch him and finally, little Greta who insisted he go out so she could play with 'both her daddies' outside. The idea sickened Wolfram so much and worsened his already dark mood that he suggested, spitefully and with a tinge of positively ill-meaning malice, that she play with Conrad instead – in his place since he would naturally do a much better job than him.
Eventually, she gave up and left her position in front of the two unmoving library doors, flanked by several of Anissina's floozies, in defeat. Wolfram tried to imagine the look of disappointment etched on the little girl's face as he sat back down on one of the unoccupied chairs in the library and immersed himself in deep thinking. He knew though that a child like her could hardly stay unhappy and would probably forget about his backslash by the time she reached the gardens. He was wrong and shortly after, he was startled by the sound of three firm knocks echoing across the spacious library.
He recognized the person on the other side of the doors easily; it had to be Gwendal. Wolfram imagined the Maou persona behind Yuuri's dumb smile fancying a much stylish entrance that guaranteed he survived for no longer than twenty seconds after that knock and Conrad was known to make those firm but unobtrusive knocks followed by a good few sentences about being mean to girls. Gwendal made firm, harsh-sounding knocks that seemed to promise a shortened life span for the doors he knocked on and made people open doors for him as fast as possible before he broke them down.
With a short disappointed sigh, he rose up from his seat and calmly marched towards the doors. He opened them to a deeply frowning Gwendal who, if possible, frowned even deeper at the sight of his younger half-brother. Wolfram merely folded his arms and spoke in tone that was less-than polite;
"I suppose my dear, honorable older brother will now proceed to lecture me in saying mean things to," He paused, for dramatic impact maybe, and quietly spun around as he began walking away in slow strides from his brother. He shot back then, "…unsuspecting cute little girls?"
Wolfram watched as his raven-haired brother's gaze rested on the maps haphazardly spread out on the library tables and he smiled when Gwendal quickly snapped his gaze back to his direction.
"You're still upset about Yuuri's decision." Gwendal simply stated before closing the door behind him and striding towards the table. Wolfram merely followed and arched one delicate blonde eyebrow to display his dissatisfaction.
"I am, Aniue." Wolfram replied curtly before seating himself into a chair and eyeing Gwendal gravely. "Deeply upset." The blonde added as an afterthought though with less conviction than his first statement. Gwendal nodded in silent agreement, running a hand through the maps to smooth its surface.
"I want you to send me there." Wolfram continued cautiously, watching his brother assess the maps intently. Gwendal made to reaction to his statement but he imagined the gears in his military genius brother's brain moving to decipher the motives behind his wish. "It doesn't matter if you send anyone with me, the less the better, I imagine. I've learnt a lot these past few years and you know that."
"And what do you plan to do there?" Gwendal stopped and though his eyes remained fixed onto the old, yellowing map, Wolfram knew he had caught his brother's attention.
"Mostly reconnaissance, you know what I have in mind, Aniue." Wolfram stood up and joined his brother's side, he then proceeded to explain where he surmised the root of the problem lay, trailing old mountain pathways and underground tunnels in the map as he did so and recounting old war records in the region. "—This could be where the spies are coming in, Aniue. There may be few, there might be a huge group all in all – but I imagine it can't be too big or we'd have noticed by now. There's also the possibility of a majutsu user amongst them."
There was a long pause as Gwendal mulled over his words but then signified an end to the silence with small sigh.
"Wolfram." He all but whispered before continuing in a much harsher tone, "And you think you can do anything in that event?"
"We have a messenger birds about, communication is the least of our concerns and I can obviously handle a few brawls." Wolfram folded his arms above his chest, "So yes."
Gwendal took a deep breath and then strode towards the library doors before swiftly locking them. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, both hands on the doorknobs, before turning around and giving Wolfram a grave look.
"You want to get away, don't you?"
Wolfram's breath hitched, visibly and he frowned. "I do, Aniue. I want to do something about this problem."
Gwendal blinked, unfazed and obviously not satisfied, before taking a few steps forward and looking his brother in the eye.
"I know what you did earlier and more importantly why, Wolfram." Gwendal said slowly, "She was upset, Wolfram. Deeply upset. And she thinks you're angry with her." His older brother's dark eyebrows met and his eyes narrowed, "But we know you're not, don't we? You're upset about Conrad."
Wolfram sneered and tilted his chin upwards before folding his arms crossly across his chest. "And what if I am, Aniue?" He questioned pensively, mouthing each syllable clearly and provokingly. Gwendal made a sigh as he took steps forward to close the gap between his brother and him.
"You're only making things worse for you this way, Wolfram." Gwendal told him calmly, his voice laced with a warning of sorts. Wolfram was unimpressed and he clenched his jaw.
"So you knew," Wolfram stated with heavy sarcasm before hissing dangerously, "Aniue"
"If he wanted to, he would have broken the engagement," Gwendal began, "and enga—"
"BUT HE HASN'T." Wolfram all but yelled, effectively stopping Gwendal from continuing his sentence. He walked up to his older brother then and grabbed a fistful of the raven-haired man's uniform. "But he hasn't." He hissed, breath mingling with his brother's.
Gwendal was silent, eyeing him with what Wolfram could only identify as sheer pity and then, it struck Wolfram; the notion that they knew more than he did. His eyes widened and he released Gwendal, backing away like a traumatized little child, drowning in shock.
"You know something, Aniue." Wolfram whispered, quietly and almost to himself as he backed away. "You… You…"
"Wolfram." Gwendal was saying or at least that was all Wolfram felt he heard. He clamped his hands on his ears.
"Just send me there, Aniue!" He screamed, "Just send me there. Take me away from here! Away from him and Yuuri and.. just.. fucking… everyone…"
He broke into a run towards the doors and stopped with a hand short of turning the knobs.
"When I come back, I'll guarantee you I'll be better and I'll have this damn thing solved too." He hissed and then turned sharply to his brother. Eyes drawn in a withering glare that pierced through his brother like knives, he whispered desperately, "Just send me away."
And then, Wolfram, Cecilie von Spitzberg's youngest son, was gone into the slowly darkening halls of the castle.
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Dinner was reasonably quiet that night with the absence of one blonde and the unusual prevalence of a somber atmosphere. Greta was silently picking at the peas on her plate with a spork, Cecilia was worrying for her 'Wolf' and Gwendal was more than usually unreasonably quiet, Yuuri imagined dark clouds hanging above the general's head. The only ones who seemed normal over dinner were Gunter, who was idly watching him and Conrad, who was the exemplar of proper dining etiquette as usual. He couldn't be sure if he was any normal than, well, the ones abnormal that night – for one, he was slightly worried about Greta's silence and even Wolfram's absence.
He decided to speak out, tentatively as he leaned forward the table, "Um…Gwendal, any idea what happened to Wolfram?" He began cautiously and then found himself completely throwing that out of the window, "He's not developed some form of PMSing or—"
Gwendal looked up and literally glowered at him before resuming his eating processes. Yuuri effectively shut up after that. He was about to ask Gunter next, in hopes of a better response, – anything was a step up from the open display of hatred and annoyance – when the subject in question came through the dining room door fully dressed complete with a traveling coat on.
He swept his eyes, which looked unreasonably puff to Yuuri though it was probably the candles around the room, across the room before opening his mouth to speak.
Everyone, naturally, looked up to listen to his announcement and Yuuri noticed Greta squirm worriedly in her seat.
"I'm leaving." Wolfram announced with his usual prideful flair, making it sound just as important as 'I'm not hungy' or 'You're not having mashed potato and have half-cooked peas so I'm not eating'. It took a while for the statement to register inside Yuuri's brain but when it did, he almost fell of his seat.
"WHAT!" He actually blurted out and thought he was imagining things when he thought he saw those lips twitch into a self-satisfied smirk.
Celie, self-proclaimed Sexy Queen, echoed his query with a bit more tact and then added a persuasive purr of 'Wolf'. For once, Yuuri realized, Wolfram was dead serious.
It made Yuuri worry suddenly and it, sort of, frightened him, even. He'd seen Wolfram serious, yes, but he'd never actually been on the receiving end of this.
Gwendal was actually the only one who didn't look half as surprised and Gunter's eyeballs looked like they could pop out of their sockets like ping pong balls within the next minute.
"For the border town of Kuchen, Yozzak is coming with me." Wolfram continued in the same serious voice and then, without missing a beat, "I'm also breaking my engagement with Yuuri so I'm not having dinner tonight because we're leaving right now."
That didn't register very well in Yuuri's brain either, for a while all he could think of was the fact that dinner, breaking, engagement and now were used in the same very sentence.
"Goodbye, dear mother." The blonde prince said finally, and with an air of definite finality, before he was out of the dining room in an instant.
Yuuri blinked at the closed doors, stared some more, and then looked at Greta who looked like she was about to cry.
"He… broke the engagement?" was the only thing Yuuri could say dazedly before Gwendal gave Conrad a look Yuuri couldn't quite understand and storming off saying something about Julia having more tact.
And he imagined, Julia – whoever she was- had more tact because he didn't have an idea what to do.
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A/N: Fanfare! Banzai! Screw editing! I CANNOT edit to save my life. I enjoyed writing this. Wee to sadism and much out-of-characterness. Don't you think it's wonderful when you make these people do what you want them to do? I wonder how much it would take to get Adelbert to screw Wolfram… But anyway, joy. Love, peace, JOY – posting my stuff online scares me now. -(goes back to fangirling all over Kantarou, Haruka, Camus, and a bunch of oyaji-material seiyuus)-
PS, the whole Conrad-no-Ude arc does not happen. I don't plan on having Conrad's arm flopping about leaving a nasty mess on my brain's carpet either so yes, that does not happen, Conrad is whole and happy with his little family. And, because I can't remember and have been a bad fangirl, not watching subs like every good fangirl should, Wolfram does not know about Julia… you know, that. But Gwendal does, and I really don't know how he got Conrad to tell him. (Yozzak should, ne?) So yeah, extreme liberties abound :-D.
(goes back to dancing about AU and OOC)-