Love to Share
Summary: After Hube and Nicola's debacle with the love detector machine, there are a lot of upset people. But Yuri thinks he might have some explanations to soothe ruffled feelings and broken hearts. KKM OVA. Short fluffy one-shot.
Yuri sighed. The whole day had been a bit of a mess. First they'd unearthed that machine. Then Anissina had discovered that it revealed love compatibility, among other things. Then they'd just had to make Hube and Nicola try it out. Given that the two of them were the closest couple Yuri had ever seen, he'd thought it would be a snap. But it hadn't worked out. Instead, the meter had come up with a depressingly low 45 percent.
Now Wolfram was trying to badger him into the machine, insisting that they would definitely get a higher score. Gwendal was in a temper. Most of the castle's inhabitants were blaming Hube for the low reading. Including Hube. Nicola had left, upset, and Hube had disappeared. Yuri had seen his face before Hube vanished, and knew that the older man was feeling incredibly guilty.
Yuri sighed again. "Honestly, all this fuss over a machine. I mean, it's not like it can really judge emotions right? I mean...love is complicated." My own emotions are a great example. I mean, I really like Wolfram, but I'm not sure I like him that way. And there are so many people I care about. Conrad, Greta, Gwendal, even Gunter and Anissina. Not to mention Miss Giesela. And Hube and Nicola and El. And all the people I've met from different countries. People like Miss Flurin, or Mr.Histo-Cryff and little Beatrice. And my family back home, Mom and Dad and Shori. And Murata. And Ulrike. With all the people I care for how could any machine possibly understand all that? He grinned to himself. I'd probably be lucky to get a 10 percent with anyone.
The thought wasn't particularly comforting. Yuri made a face. He'd come out to the garden to get a bit of a break from the while thing, but apparently it was determined to follow him in his thoughts. Ah well, he could at least go pick some flowers for Greta. That had been his original excuse when he'd bolted from his office. Fresh flowers for Greta, and to decorate his desk, since she liked to see them there.
He was almost to the main flowerbed, where the flowers he'd fondly dubbed 'family flowers' were blooming, when he heard a soft sniffle. Someone crying? But who would be crying here? He turned and followed the noise, until he found one of the small benches dispersed throughout the grounds, and the slender auburn-haired figure sitting there. "Miss Nicola?"
Nicola looked up, surprised. "Yuri?" She sat up straight, brushing quickly at the tear tracks on her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."
"It's fine. More importantly...Miss Nicola, it looked like you were crying. What's wrong?" He had a pretty good idea, but it was one way to start the conversation.
Nicola flushed. "It's nothing really."
Yuri moved to sit beside her. "It's about this morning, with the machine, isn't it?"
Nicola's hands clenched in her lap, fresh tears forming in her eyes. "I love Hube, and I really thought he loved me as well. That we were so incompatible...it feels like something might have gone terribly wrong. But, if Hube doesn't love me the way I love him, what am I going to do?" A soft sob caught in her throat, and she started crying again.
Yuri patted her back awkwardly, his thoughts going back to his previous considerations. "Yeah. I can imagine that that would be pretty hard to take. But you know, Miss Nicola, I don't think it was Hube's fault that things turned out the way they did."
Nicola looked up, hurt and anger in her face. "You can't think it was my fault..."
"No, no, not that." Yuri held up his hands quickly. "Sorry. That didn't come out quite right. That isn't what I meant at all." He shook his head. "It's just..."
He paused, thinking carefully. "Miss Nicola, you love little El, right?"
Nicola blinked. "Of course I do! He's my precious little boy, the most important thing in my life."
Yuri grinned. His mother had given him that speech as well. "More important than Hube?"
Nicola blinked, then looked flustered. "I'm not sure. I love them both the same. El is my precious child, but Hube is the only man I'd ever want to spend my life with. I'd do anything for him."
Yuri smiled, and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "I know Miss Nicola. I also know that Gegenhuber feels the same way about you." He remembered a Hube who had dueled Gwendal at the top of the North Tower for love, then passed out in shock at the idea of a child. The man who had come to him, begging him to save El from the Flybone tribe. "To Mr. Hube, you and El are his most important people, his most precious family, right?"
"Of course. I've never doubted it. It's just...a reading like that..." Nicola faltered.
Yuri smiled and took her hand gently with his. "You and Hube both love El as much as you love each other, right? So I think it isn't a surprise that things turned out the way the did. After all, you had us baby-sitting El while you were experimenting, so that very important other part of your hearts wasn't there, right?" He looked away.
Nicola's eyes opened wide. "I...I hadn't thought of it like that." She looked away, fidgeting. "But still...only 45 percent..."
Yuri patted her hand. "Well, if you both love El so much, then really, you'd only expect a 50 percent." Yuri waited till she looked up at him. "But you and Hube also love the Demon Country, right? You told me once, you were happy you were here, with all these people, like Gwendal and Hube's parents. And you care so much, you even let me borrow Hube for dangerous missions. And I know Hube cares about the Mazoku. That's why he works so hard for Gwendal."
Nicola nodded. "You're right, of course. Do you really think..." Her voice trailed off hopefully.
"I'm sure of it, Miss Nicola." He grinned and looked away from her. "Honestly, I was thinking what my own response would probably be, just now. After all, I really do care for a lot of people. I think you must be incredibly close, to have gotten even a 45. I don't think I could manage even a 10."
"But you're the most loving person I know." Nicola blinked. "But that's the point, isn't it?"
Yuri nodded. "It's understandable, that you'd be upset, but really..."
A smile broke over Nicola's face. "Oh, you're right, Yuri. You're absolutely right. I do love El as much as I love Hube, and I know he feels the same way, he's said so plenty of times. And we both do care about this country, and all the kind people who have helped us here." She bounced to her feet, then pulled Yuri to his. "Thank you. I've got to find Hube and explain things to him."
Yuri nodded, glad he'd been able to help. "You should probably bring El too. I'm sure having his wife and son with him would make Hube feel much better."
"Of course." Nicola smiled at him. "Thank you Yuri." She leaned forward and delivered a soft peck on the cheek.
"YURI!" Wolfram's angry shout made both of them jump, seconds before the angry blond put Yuri in a headlock. "Honestly, you tell us you're going out to gather flowers, and then I find you cozying up to another man's wife. Bad enough that you're always flirting with unmarried women, but this...how do you explain this? Huh?"
"For the last time, it's not like that!" Yuri escaped and stood panting. "Honestly, I was just talking to her, and Miss Nicola was happy because I cheered her up."
"Cheered her up huh? Just because it makes other people happy doesn't mean you can flirt shamelessly..."
"Like I would. Geez, she's a married woman. Going after an already married woman is a sleazy thing to do. I was just explaining why I think the machine screwed up this morning." Yuri rubbed his neck.
Nicola intervened before it could get any further. "He's right, Lord Wolfram. Yuri was only helping me feel better. I was just saying thank you, before I go explain things to Hube." she smiled, then leaned up to peck Wolfram on the cheek as well. "Thank you as well, Lord von Bielefeldt." She gave both young men a bright smile, then turned and raced away.
Wolfram stared at her disappearing back. "What on earth was that all about?"
Yuri grinned. "Remember the talk we had in the Bearbee cave, back when we were still kinda getting to know each other? All the stuff I said about love and all?"
"Of course I remember." Wolfram tossed his head with a sniff.
"Back then, I'm pretty sure Wolfram could have gotten 100 percent in that machine. But now that you have so many other people you care for, do you really think you could say your heart is completely devoted to me?" Yuri held his gaze.
Wolfram stared at him for a moment, wide eyed, then tossed his head and stepped forward to seize Yuri's arm and drag him into the garden. "Honestly, how could you ask me a question like that. Even if I have some care for Greta, and perhaps my older brothers, of course I'm completely devoted to you. Haven't I already proven that, time and again? Really, of all the questions..." Yuri smiled as he followed his fiancee, knowing that the tirade was the closest Wolfram was going to get to admitting he was right.
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Nicola shifted El in her arms, then pushed open the door to the tower balcony. A familiar lean shape clad in blue and purple stood by the railing, and she smiled. She'd been right about where Hube would retreat to, after the morning's embarrassment. She shifted El to a slightly more secure position, then walked forward until she could lay a gentle hand on her husband's arm.
"Nicola." Hube's voice was soft, and she could hear the faint shame and regret in it.
"El and I were looking for you. We haven't seen you all day."
"I..." A quiet, almost unheard groan emanated from Hube's chest, the lean hands clenching onto the balcony rail. "Nicola, I..."
"It's all right." She laid one hand over his, as she usually did when he was upset. "I talked to Yuri, and he explained things to me."
"His Majesty..." The pain in his voice shifted to puzzlement. "I...don't understand."
Nicola smiled, and touched his arm gently, to pull him to face her. She waited until he turned to her, his eye dark and solemn. "Yuri reminded me that both of us have things that are really important to each other, besides just our relationship. Like El." She held up their son. "I know I love him, with all my heart, and I'm sure you do as well."
"I would give my life for both of you." His one hand remained in hers, the other reached up to hesitantly touch his son's face. El giggled happily and grasped his father's fingers. Nicola smiled, and Hube relaxed, just a little.
"I know that, and I'm sure El understands that too, in his own way. But that's what Yuri told me. We'd both give everything we could for El, just as much as we would for each other. So what happened this morning...it really makes a kind of sense, doesn't it. If El wasn't with us, then there's no way we could have made it to 100 percent."
The lines of strain and shame relaxed in Hube's face. "Then...you do not blame me? Even though I..."
"Of course not. I was a little concerned, of course, but then Yuri reminded me of that, and also reminded me that we both value other people here in the Great Demon Kingdom. After all, I'm friends with Lady Anissina, and Lady Celi, and Greta is often with us as El's playmate. And you, don't you value your relationship with His Majesty, and His Excellency Lord von Voltaire, and even with Yozak and Lord Weller?" She smiled up at him.
Hube nodded, then twisted his hands so that his strong, calloused fingers were caressing hers. "I do. However, I would give them all up for you." His arms moved to encircle her in his warm embrace.
"I know that. That's why I think Yuri's right. And as long as we have each other and El, and understand that, then I don't care what any strange old artifact says about us." Nicola smiled into her husband's face, and leaned in carefully until she could rest her head on his shoulder, position so that both of them were partially supporting the child between them.
A small smile creased Hube's stern face, erasing the lines of grief from moments before. "Of course." He bent his head to kiss her gently, holding her one arm and his son in the other. "Nicola..." If he was going to say anything else, it disappeared into a sigh of relief as the tension drained out of him.
Nicola smiled and relaxed into his arms. She didn't need him to say anything. Hube was more a man of actions than words to begin with, and his kiss, the arms her wrapped so tenderly around her, were saying 'I love you' in a way only he could. So she simply relaxed into his embrace, basking in his warmth, and the love they shared.
Author's Note: Yep. Completely sappy and fluffy. I don't write many of these, but I thought I'd try it, and after what had to be an embarrassing scene, these two were just begging for some resolution.