CHAPTER ONE: Elise
Sorry this chapter starts out a bit angsty but it gets better
Wolfram watched his fiancé dance with yet another lady, they had been engaged for over two years, and in a few months they would be celebrating their third year anniversary - not that there was anything worth celebrating, it was quite the opposite. For almost three years, Yuuri had discarded their engagement, treating it like a bad joke, repeating the same line; 'we are both guys'.
Yuuri had said that line so many times that wolfram was starting to see it a daily mantra. Yuuri had no problems with male on male relationships, heck some of the lord and rulers of influential lands had male concubines or spouses, but for some reason he had a problem with their relationship, wolfram was starting to think Yuuri's problem was not with same sex relationship but with him.
They were at one of the neighboring countries celebrating the one year anniversary of the orphanage Yuuri had sponsored. According to tradition Yuuri was supposed to dance with his fiancé first before dancing with anyone as a sign of dedication, commitment, loyalty, love and the rest. But Yuuri had blatantly decided to humiliate him by dancing with other ladies, there were many rumors of their engagement most of which were disgraceful and insulting to Wolfram but did Yuuri care... no!
The overly innocent king did not realize that he was practically giving the people the right to spread rumors about Wolfram, and if he knew he would probably start showing concern to wolfram… out of pity, And that was worse. Wolfram could deal with the rumors but the last thing he wanted was Yuuri feeling sorry for him.
Watching his fiancé dance with another lady was making is heart ache, he wanted to match up to the dancing duo, and drag Yuuri out of there but he would only end up making a fool of himself, He hoped Yuuri would look his way and see the hurt he was causing him and at least have the decency to ask him for a dance, but oh no the double black decided to dance with one of those whores; okay Wolfram knew he was being bitter but what the heck was he supposed to do? Dance around with joy?
Wolfram knew Lady Katherine was not a whore, she was the founder of the human-demon orphanage, she was nice, respectful and everything Yuuri would ever need in a queen. She wasn't as beautiful as his mother, heck she wasn't even as beautiful as him, he wasn't vain but she couldn't hold a candle to him in terms of looks. There was one thing she had that he would never be; she was a woman and that was enough for Yuuri to pick her over him.
The double black had no idea the humiliation and disgrace he was causing wolfram, not that it mattered. There had always been rumors surrounding their engagement mostly because Yuuri had no qualms blurting out that their engagement was an accident and that Wolfram was a guy.
Wolfram regretted ever falling in love with the wimp, he was good-looking, loyal, strong, a solider as well as a skilled Mazoku; he was the perfect fiancé, he had lots of suitors before the engagement, as well as after they got engaged but he turned them down because he had faith in Yuuri, he hoped that one day Yuuri would realize he was in love with him.
Wolfram laughed at his naivety, how could he have thought that Yuuri would love him, he had tried everything even to the point of sneaking into his bed wearing that pink frilly excuse of a night gown his mother had given him, but none of them had worked… because he was not a lady.
Watching Yuuri dance with the lady was making his heart ache, he felt sick and miserable, he could feel the looks of pity people were giving him and he was sick of it, his eyes were starting to sting because of the tears he had been holding back, for the first time in decades Wolfram wanted to scream and cry he wanted get way from here, away from everything, he had been happy and fine before Yuuri arrived but now everything had changed, he had changed. He had somehow linked his happiness to Yuuri, he believed that if Yuuri could love him then everything would be fine, his confidence and self esteem was low. The Great Lord Brat had fallen.
After deciding that watching his fiancé dancing with another lady was causing him more harm than good, he decided to leave the ball, he wanted to run away from here, he wanted to feel the wind, the open sky; he wanted things to go back to how they were before he met Yuuri before he made the biggest mistake of his life… falling in love with Yuuri.
Wolfram wanted nothing more than to disappear to anywhere, just not here, he could deal with the rumors, he could deal with the looks of pity and sympathy people threw at him but he could not handle watching the man he was in love with dancing and laughing with a lady, completely forgetting about him. The air was starting to feel stuffy, he felt as though he was being suffocated, he finally understood the feeling The great Sage was talking about, the feeling where you have so much going on that you just want to run away, to feel the wind in your face, to lie down on the grass, stare at the dark blue sky, laugh at the cloud and stars; He had always said that, that was a waste of time and an invitation to get a cold but right now he wanted that more than anything,
He looked around, and saw Gwendal, Conrad, Greta, Günter, Gisela and his mother, they were all busy talking so some of the guests, he was pretty sure none of them would notice his departure, and maybe he was right.
He walked to the barn to get his horse, she seemed to notice the hurt in Wolframs heart and the unshed tears in his eyes, and she made a soft noise as if to calm him, Wolfram chuckled dryly.
"Thanks, why don't we go for a ride, anywhere as long as it's far away from here, just staying here makes me sick." She made another soft noise, this time a bit louder as if to tell him she understood. Wolfram got on his horse, looked around one more time and decided, he half hoped that someone would see him, talk to him or at least asked him where he was going to, but no one did.
Wolfram had been riding for what seemed like hours even though it had only been one hour tops, he had been galloping at full speed, he wasn't going anywhere in particular, he let his horse lead the way, and he wanted to be away from Yuuri and everyone at the ball.
When he had finally calmed down and the adrenaline had worn off, Wolfram finally realized that he had no idea where he was and there wasn't a single person or house in sight. Shit! He had really screwed up this time, he was starting to feel stupid for leaving *cough*running away*cough*. He slowed down in order to search for any building or person in order to enquire about finding his way back to the castle.
After ten minutes of searching for houses or passersby wolfram saw a small shabby looking cottage, he decided to ask the residents to allow him to spend the night as it was already dark, there were no other houses nearby and he had no idea where he was. He opened the door, and was met with a cold, dark and empty room, void of any personal belongings; the only thing that stood in the empty room was the blank fireplace that looked like it had not been used in a long time.
The living room was empty, the windows were opened, the only source of light was the moon, the cold wind blew making Wolfram to shiver. He walked into the first bedroom, it was empty, the beds were made, but it seemed as if no one had been in it for a long time.
He walked into the next room, it was dark but in the midst of the darkness his eye caught a shadow, someone seemed to be leaning against the wall. The dark clouds obstructing the moon seemed to clear up, a gentle light shone on the figure in the room, wolfram gasped. The person was pale, and looked like she was on death's door; something about her reminded him of Greta. Without thinking he took off his military jacket and put it on her.
"It's cold here, you should take better care of yourself, okay?" the lady nodded gently in submission. Wolfram unsheathed his sword. "I'm going to get some twigs and branches for the fire place, do not move, you need to keep warm or you'll fall sick." She nodded again as wolfram left the room.
Blue eyes shone with amusement, who would have thought that there was someone kind and foolish enough to barge into a dissertated cottage and then offer to his jacket to a stranger as well as offer to start a fire just to keep her warm. She could have sworn that before the Blondie's protective instincts kicked in, he looked rather miserable. "This is going to be interesting" she thought.
A few minutes later Wolfram had placed the twigs he had cut in the fireplace as well as started a fire. He had walked her to the living room, so the fire could keep her warm. For the first time Wolfram took a closer look at her and the only thing that could describe her was ANGELIC. She had long wavy blue hair that reached her waist, she had baby blue eyes, creamy pale skin as well as soft pink lips; she was the definition of beautiful. He had never seen anyone look so perfect, she was soft and delicate, the glow of the fire made her skin shine like gold.
"Why are you being nice to me?" the blue haired lady asked. Wolfram was exhausted, physically and emotionally, he didn't have the strength to yell or complain at her lack of gratitude.
"I don't know, somehow you remind me of my daughter" He answered weakly.
"Daughter? You look too young to have one."
"Well she's my adopted daughter, well my fiancé's adopted daughter"
"She is lucky to have such a nice and caring dad."
"Yeah" he answered half heartedly.
"You know, I might not know who you are but you are one of the few people to show me kindness, the least I can do is listen to you. Tell me what is bothering someone as beautiful as you and when I get my strength back I'll gladly get rid of it for you" She teased.
Wolfram let out a hollow laugh, it was funny that the lady who looked like she would die any minute now, was offering to get rid of whatever was bothering him.
"I have been trying to deal with what has been making me miserable for almost three years; I don't think you would be able to deal with it even if you had all the strength in the world." He replied sadly.
"Something tells me this has to do with your fiancé" she noticed the way Wolfram tensed at the mention of the word fiancé. "I was once engaged to a man for five years, he had various concubines, he did nothing to hide his affairs, I was miserable and the laughing stock of my land, you can tell me what's bothering you." Wolfram wasn't one to speak about his private matters with strangers but then again they were not in Shin Makoku, so she probably wouldn't know who he is. Something about her felt warm, friendly and familiar. Besides he would be spending the night here so he might as well have a conversation with the beautiful stranger.
"Your engagement with the cheat, how did it end?" Wolfram asked curiously.
"I finally decided that I deserved something better than spending my years drowning in misery, I finally let go of the denial I called hope, I kept believing that he would change, and that he would get rid of his concubines even though deep down I knew the truth. After five years I got fed up, I realized that I could be happy without him and so I let go of my foolishness and ended the engagement. It wasn't easy but I'm glad I did, a few years later he married one of his whores."
"I wish I was as strong as you, I can't let go of him, and I love him so much."
"You look like you have been miserable for years, how many more chances are you going to keep giving him? When would you realize that you are a beautiful, strong and reliable man who deserves to be with someone who can make you smile, you should be in his bed by now happy and content instead of in the middle of nowhere, talking to a stranger, trying to fight back those tears."
Her statement broke the last of his resistance, he ended up crying on her laps, telling her stories about Yuuri, Greta, blood pledge palace, his voice was filled with pride and laughter when he talked about Greta, while his shoulder seemed to fall when he talked about Yuuri. They had been talking for hours, and occasionally the pale stranger would tell him jokes or reveal embarrassing memories to make him laugh. For the first time in years Wolfram feel free, he felt 50 again, he laughed without a care, they shared embarrassing stories, gossips as well as bragged about their skill. Wolfram had finally made a friend.
"You know we have been talking for hours and we still don't know each other's name, my name is Elise."
"Mine's Wolfram."
