A/N: This is my first ever KKM fanfiction, I do not own anything, and I am sorry for the cringey, cliche ending. This one shot was supposed to go in an entirely different direction, but then my computer crashed and I lost half of the story. Because of that, I got extremely frustrated and rushed to finish it before it could happen again. If you guys like this, let me know in a review, and I may write more. I'm not too far into the show, so I'm not 100% sure how true to the plot and the characters this is, but I tried my best. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.
The royal ballroom was filled with people and things. The "people" category included Mother, Greta, Lord Weller, Lord von Voltaire, Anissina, Gunter, and the royal wedding planners. There were four of them this time, all with different ideas and styles they think would best fit the king and mine's relationship. What none of them realized, however, was that there was barely a relationship between the king and I.
I meandered through the exhibits the planners had set up, mini replicas of the kingdom and how they would decorate it; inside and out. None of them were extravagant enough for my liking, but Yuuri had demanded he wanted a "simple" wedding, should the day ever arrive.
"Should." As if he expected us to stay engaged for the rest of our lives. That's preposterous! No one stays engaged their entire life, especially aristocrats. Staying engaged my entire life would be even worse than having the engagement broken off by either one of us. The embarrassment that would follow, all the snickering and questions and judgement - no one would ever take me seriously after that!
I couldn't let Yuuri do that to my pride and my image. I had to convince him to make a decision on something, and soon. We've almost exhausted every last wedding planner in the kingdoms. After these four were turned away - which Yuuri would soon do, no doubt - we would be left with the humans' wedding planners, and the peasants' planners. I didn't want someone like that to plan my wedding.
My fingers brushed against the finest, smoothest silk I had ever handled. It was a tuxedo that belonged to the fourth planner. His vision was for Yuuri and I to be flown in by a large group of the Fly Bone Tribe, wearing matching tuxedoes. I had thought it was a silly concept at first, but now that I was looking at the outfit he wanted the two of us to wear, it didn't seem that bad.
The fabric itself started out as black deeper than Yuuri's eyes. The fit was tighter than I was used to, since my uniform allowed more room for fighting, but since there will be no sword fights on my wedding day (an entertainment piece Yuuri had strongly declined) all that extra room would be unnecessary. The sleeves faded from a deep black at the shoulders to a deep purple at the cuffs.
I smiled slightly at the design. Purple wasn't my best color, but it was Mother's favorite, and Yuuri and I had both promised to incorporate the color somehow into our wedding. Since nothing else in this planner's "vision" involved purple, I couldn't exactly complain about how he had decided to incorporate the color.
I turned around, looking for Yuuri through the maze of clothing and wedding decorations the planners had strewn about the ballroom. He was on the other side of the room, still investigating the first planner's designs. I watched as he picked up the smaller decorations that the planner had laid out on a table, studying each one intently.
I rolled my eyes. Normally, I would have loved that he was paying attention to the detail, seeing as how this was an important day we were planning, but now it was just annoying. That planner's vision was hideous. Purple everywhere. There was not an ounce of black or blue in the design (which I had specifically asked for, considering my uniform was blue and Yuuri's was black). The design was too plain, too human for my attention.
"Yuuri!" I called harshly. He looked up, turning his head every which way until his eyes settled on me. I motioned my hand for him to come over.
As Yuuri moved across the room, so did Gunter and Lord Weller, much to my annoyance. I kept my mouth shut when it came to Lord Weller, considering how fond of him Yuuri was, but there was no need for Gunter to follow behind wherever he went like a dog in heat. Greta didn't even follow Yuuri like that, and he saved her life!
Once the trio reached my side, I wrapped my arm tightly around Yuuri's shoulders, forcing him to stand so close to me that I could smell the soap lingering on his body from his bath that morning.
"You wanted something, Wolf?" Yuuri asked, his eyes wide as he looked at the design spread out before us.
I smiled proudly at the tuxedo, pulling the sleeve closer to Yuuri with my free hand and rubbing it against his skin. "Feel how soft that fabric is. This is what I want to be wearing," I explained, hoping to get the message across without having to force-feed him.
Yuuri was silent. His eyes wandered from the silken tuxedo to the replica of the castle. I watched as he took in the details of the building, how everything was laid out in front of us. I studied the replica just as intently for the second time, a small smile tugging at my lips at the thought of seeing the whole castle lit up with magic, the townspeople sitting and staring in awe as Yuuri and I descended from above.
Yuuri turned away. My arm fell off his shoulder without a warning, and I turned to him in confusion. He hadn't said anything while he was studying the replicas of any of the planners. My stomach sank as I watched his eyes darken. He was going to send them all away. Again.
"While I appreciate the sentiment, and I loved all of your designs, I do not think now is the time for a wedding," Yuuri began. "I am sorry for bringing you all out here on such short notice, only to be sending you home so quickly. Please, feel free to stay the night and rest up before returning home, but there will be no wedding."
And with that, he walked out.
Four hours later and my temper was still sky high. I could practically feel my blood boiling as I thought about how to confront Yuuri about his disregard not only for the wedding planners and the event itself, but his disrespect towards me and my feelings.
The royal gardens were silent at this time of day, and I was alone with my thoughts. Sometimes that was a good thing, because it allowed me to calm down quicker than if there were people here actively trying to calm me down. This time, however, was different. The longer I stayed in the gardens by myself, the angrier I became. I couldn't get Yuuri's face out of my mind. His distant eyes, his mouth twisted into a grim frown. His hands had been down at his sides, clenched into fists.
My own fists mimicked the memory of Yuuri's, clenching painfully at my sides. "Why doesn't he want to marry me?"I ground out. Tears welled up behind my eyes, burning my skin as they overflowed onto my cheeks.
"Papa Wolfram?"
My tears froze on my cheeks, my anger turning to guilt when I heard the voice of my adopted daughter behind me. I didn't turn around; instead, I forced my hands to unclench, motioning behind me for her to come forward and join me.
I heard Greta's soft footsteps crunch on the gravel path as she moved towards me. When her hand clasped mine, I looked down at her face and smiled sadly. "Hey there, Princess."
"Why are you crying?" Her voice was small, quiet, as if she already knew the answer.
I thought for a few seconds about if I was actually going to unload my emotions on this little girl, my little girl. I almost told her that nothing was wrong, but then I thought better of it. Greta wasn't stupid. She knew something was wrong. After all, she had witnessed Yuuri's speech about postponing - cancelling - the wedding once again.
"I don't think Yuuri wants to marry me," I murmured. Saying the words out loud burned my throat and left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. I squeezed Greta's hand softly, looking away as the tears continued to fall.
Greta squeezed my hand back. "Maybe he's just afraid. Papa Yuuri does overthink a lot. You're always telling him about it and trying to make him stop. Maybe if you talk to him about it, he'll tell you why he keeps changing his mind."
Afraid? Yuuri may be a wimp, but I had never thought about him wimping out of our wedding. Hearing the words out loud, though, made a lot more sense. Yuuri was a wimp about everything else, so why not about this, too?
I crouched down so my face was level with Greta's. I smiled gratefully at her as she brought her hands up and wiped away my tears. "So, what do you think I should do?"
Yuuri was in his bed chamber, sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to the door. He didn't move when I entered the room, or even when I cleared my throat to announce my prescence. I stared at his back as I walked across the room slowly, waiting for him to acknowledge my prescence.
The bed dipped as I climbed onto it, but Yuuri still made no move to acknowledge that I was there. I positioned myself so that my back was against the headboard. "Can I talk to you?" I asked, lifting the pillows up to cushion the metal of the headboard.
"Is that a question or a demand?" Yuuri asked, looking over his shoulder at me.
I growled low in my chest. "Get over here before it turns into a demand, you wimp."
Yuuri sighed and shook his head, but he moved back until he was sitting with his back against the headboard, our bodies so close our thighs were touching. "Before you start yelling and telling me how stupid I am, I just want to say that I'm sorry."
I opened my mouth to protest, but closed it as soon as I realized that was exactly what I had planned on doing. My eyebrows stitched together as I reevaluated how I was going to approach the conversation. Greta wanted me to be gentle, kind, and thoughtful. She wanted me to think about what Yuuri said before I blew up and made things worse. So, I thought.
Yuuri had obviously thought about how his rejection of the wedding planners had affected me and how it had made me feel. The fact that he was apologizing showed that. But if he was sorry, then he knew that he had done something wrong. Maybe he had thought about our engagement itself, and the wedding that should have taken place a long time ago, and that was why he was sorry. Where exactly will he go with this apology?
Yuuri placed his hand over mine, intertwining our fingers together. "I realize now how my decisions have affected not only you, but the kingdom itself. I've just been so worried about making the wrong decision, I completely forget that this isn't a one-person thing. Sometimes I forget that you're there, that I have you to fall back on. I know you want this day to be perfect, and I've been under so much pressure to make sure that it's perfect for you. You deserve the best, and I know that I haven't been the best that I can be for you."
My eyebrows stitched together in confusion. "Of course you have me, too, you wimp. We're a team. We've been a team since the day you asked me to marry you."
"That was an accident," Yuuri mumbled, dropping his head down so his hair covered his face.
My anger had almost disappeared at how vulnerable Yuuri was becoming, but it flared back up again at the mention of his "mistake."
"So even after all this time, you still think proposing to me was a mistake? That's still how you feel?" I could feel my face growing redder by the second, my hand tightening around Yuuri's fingers.
Yuuri's head shot back up. He turned his body so he was kneeling directlying in front of me, his face twisted into a painful expression as a increased the pressure around his fingers, but he didn't try to pull away. "No no no, Wolfram," he explained, leaning forward carefully. "What I mean is that it had been a mistake at the time. I didn't know the rules then, and if I had known, I wouldn't have slapped you like that. But now that I know the rules, and now that we've spent more time together and gotten to know each other more, I don't think it was a mistake. I'm glad that I had made that mistake, and I'm glad that it had forced us together."
My anger was still boiling, but I forced my expression to even out enough to show my confusion. Yuuri was... glad? So then why was he sending away the wedding planners?
"What are you saying, then?" I demanded, maybe a little too harshly.
Yuuri sighed, finally wrenching his fingers out of my grasp. He crawled forward enough so that he was straddling my lap. My eyes lifted and met his, the anger finally boiling itself away to reveal my confusion. As Yuuri and I sat there, staring into each other's eyes, I think I finally understood what he was trying to say, and the confusion turned to anticipation.
Yuuri leaned forward, placing his lips gently against mine. My eyes were still open for the first few seconds, the realization not completely hitting me at first. But when my eyes closed, and I began to kiss him back, everything (almost everything) clicked into place.
Yuuri pulled back before I wanted him to. He cradled my face in his hands and stared into my eyes. "I like you, Wolf, a lot."
"So then why send the planners away?" I whispered, my pain and confusion creeping into my voice. If you like me, then why don't you want to marry me?
"I like you, but I don't think I like you enough to marry you. Not right now. Can we just wait a little while longer so the we can actually fall in love with one another, so that way it is a lot easier the next time around? I get so choked up when I listen to the wedding planners, and I get so nervous that they'll see that I don't love you like that yet. I want them to be able to look into my eyes and tell how that you are my world, my everything, when we get married. Can you promise me that, Wolf?"
I swallowed a lump in my throat and nodded, unable to say anything else besides, "You damn wimp." I pressed my lips against his again, kissing him deeper than the first time.
