"An Honest Mistake"
Part II
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How dare he! How dare that uncouth gorilla lay hands upon his Yuuri! Wolfram had known coming to Yuuri's world had been an ill-advised idea, but he had not expected to encounter such an affront to his honor!
So this, this was why Yuuri had been so adverse to letting the royal court visit his home—he had, as Wolfram had dreaded, a secret lover on the side! And then wimp had had the gall to drag the object of his affair before his very eyes!
"Wo-Wolfram, I can explain! This is a mistake! I-I didn't—"
"You bet it's a mistake, you two-timing WIMP!" Wolfram snarled, jabbing his outstretched finger for emphasis. "And believe me, once I'm done with you, you shall never make a mistake again!" How many times had he reminded Yuuri that, as his fiancé, he belonged to Wolfram alone? How many times had he made it perfectly clear what he would he would do if Yuuri's eye ever wandered?
"Please, Wolfram, really, I—"
"I assure you boys, it was an honest mistake," interrupted the stranger, who seemed to be attempting to untangle himself from Yuuri. "A simple case of mistaken identity. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be off and save us from further embarrassment."
Wolfram glared fiercely at the man, who somewhat resembled an off-colored, short-haired, human version of Gwendal (this actually caused Wolfram's opinion of him to drop a few notches). To make matters worse, despite the stranger's insistence on leaving, the man was still indecently wrapped around Yuuri.
Wolfram opinion fell a further few levels as his anger again blasted towards the atmospheric strata where even kohi fear to fly. "Excuse me! 'Embarrassment'? That's my fiancé you're hanging all over! You should be apologizing on your knees, you mangy cur, for defiling him with your filthy hands! And who knows in what other ways you've touched him when I haven't been watching? Have you—"
"Look, just shut up for a second," the human stranger growled. "My tie's stuck in your boyfriend's—fiancé's— damn jacket zipper, alright? I've never met either of you before, and I just want to get out of here and forget this ever happened. So, kid, if you'd just let me finish, I'll—"
Kid? Kid? Wolfram's free hand balled into a fist. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so insulted—he was at least thrice that human's age! If he only had his sword…Damn this world and its stupid laws against the carrying of blades! But then again, a length of Mazoku-forged steel in the gut would be too good a death for the knave. A fiery demise might be more appropriate, but in this human-infested world, it was all but impossible to muster up enough Maryoku for a decent fireball…
Almost of its own accord, his hand began to grope across the tabletop, seeking, seeking—
(Why did the humans here require so many different types of utensil to eat, anyway? Sharp pronged things, flat curved things, long, stick-like things—weren't sporks good enough for everyone?)
Ah, there it was. The handle of the dull, flat knife he had unwrapped from his napkin earlier felt cheap and flimsy in his hand, but it would make do. Even the meanest dagger or shiv could be deadly in the hands of a trained warrior, and after spending several decades in Shin Makoku's army, Wolfram certainly was no amateur. It was enough to slash an eye or lip, something painful, something that would scar….
"Wolfram, NO!"
There was a flurry of movement and the sound of dishes crashing to the floor, and Wolfram suddenly found himself looking down into a pair of huge, dark eyes, his fiancé's hands wrapped tightly around his knife-arm. With what must have taken a Maoh-mode-like burst of super-human strength, Yuuri had ripped himself free from the stranger's grasp, completely knocking the much larger man onto the floor, and thrown himself across the table. To stop Wolfram.
"Wolfram, please. Remember where you are! Remember—"Yuuri's tone was half pleading, half (Wolfram noted with a bit of pride) commanding. Wolfram stared down into his fiancé's eyes, his anger slowly ebbing, and a sense of guilt creeping in to replace it. He hadn't really been planning to hurt the stranger—threaten him, remind him of his place yes, but actually hurt him, no. The expression of Yuuri's face, however, clearly showed that the young king had thought Wolfram's threatening movements had indeed been made with the intent to commit violence.
Wolfram looked away from that accusing stare, his feelings of guilt increasing. This…this was Yuuri's world. Yuuri's world, which Yuuri himself had always insisted was unbelievably safe and peaceful (at least, in circumstances not involving dark and ancient Mazoku magic). What was Wolfram doing, bringing the bloody practices of his homeland to this place that Yuuri held so dear? And…and what kind of subject was he, immediately leaping to the most violent solution to the problem when his very king always chose the most pacifistic path? True, Wolfram often felt Yuuri's policies were naïve and foolish, but even he had to admit that Shin Makoku and its neighboring kingdoms had changed for the better ever since the double-black had taken the throne.
Not that he would ever tell him that, of course.
"Wolfram—"
Wolfram harrumphed loudly. "Of course I remember where we are, wimp. How could I not when we're surrounded by all these humans?"
Yuuri blinked up at him in surprise.
"And it wasn't like I was going to do anything you know," Wolfram continued stiffly, crossing his arms. "Putting a commoner like that in his place would be an utter waste of time. There was no need to stop me."
"Oh," said Yuuri. "I thought you were—uh…well…"
"Well what?" Wolfram shot him his fiercest glare.
"Uh…never mind," Yuuri muttered, sliding off the table. "Sorry."
"Humph. Wimp."
"Don't call me a wimp!"
"Well, that's what you are. Wimp."
"Am not! Wolfram, you're—"Yuuri paused, then took a deep breath. "Look, Wolfram, this whole thing, the weird guy, everything…you do realize I had nothing to do with it right? It was probably just what he said, an honest mistake—"
"Tch."
"Wolf-raaam! You know I would never—with a guy—I mean, another guy! I—"
"We'll talk about this later," Wolfram promised flatly. Now that his mind was unclouded by indignation, it was obvious that the whole situation was not Yuuri's fault—the young king didn't have a dishonest bone in his body, much less the nerve to have an illicit affair. And besides, if Yuuri felt uncomfortable having a romantic relationship with a boy as pretty as Wolfram himself, there was absolutely no way he'd have anything to do with a man as broad and brutish as that human. Still, it wouldn't hurt to keep his fiancé on his toes, to let him sweat a bit. Give him a taste of what would happen if one day he did cheat. Yes.
Yuuri shivered. "O-okay. Um, I'm going to see if that guy is alright. I think I pulled on his tie kind of hard when I got up. I might have, er, strangled him…"
And with that, the twenty-seventh Demon King of Shin Makoku zipped away, to tend yet again to the well-being of a person who had wronged him.
Wolfram ground his teeth together. The human had only just now sat up, and from the looks of the way he was rubbing beneath that stupid strip of silk around his neck, he had indeed been nearly garroted when Yuuri had pulled free earlier. The gorilla-like barbarian didn't seem to appreciate Yuuri's enthusiastic attention, however; although Wolfram couldn't pick out his individual words, the stranger's tone was brusque and short.
Wolfram's fist tightened around the dinner knife he still held in his hand. That human should be honored that a being as illustrious as the Mazoku king would even look in his direction, much less express concern over his welfare. What's more, he should be apologizing on bended knee for laying hands on the royal personage! Of course, like the majority of species, the stranger probably lived in complete ignorance of the world around him, and had no idea of in whose august presence he now sat…
That was still no excuse. Honor still dictated that the situation be rectified somehow. Clearly Yuuri wasn't going to take action, and the rest of the royal retinue had gone missing earlier that evening and had yet to reappear. That left everything up to Wolfram.
Without effort, he flipped his knife from his left hand to his right, then tossed it high into the air. The simple piece of cutlery soared upwards in a long arc, glittering beneath the steady, smokeless lights that he had found so strange when he had first come to this world.
Wolfram smirked. He had indirectly promised Yuuri that he would not use violence against the stranger, but if his time with his dark-eyed king had taught him anything at all, it was that not all conflicts had to be decided directly by the blade.
With a resounding 'thunk,' the knife landed, point-first, directly between the stranger's knees.
To be continued…
I have to say that Wolfram was an absolute blast to write! Anyway, a big thanks to the people who reviewed the last chapter! See y'all next week!