It was cool in the restaurant, and they managed to get a tiny table by the window. The taste of the cold lemonade Yuuri ordered was a sharp, pleasant contrast to the noonday heat outside.
Noon was his favourite time of day. For Yuuri, it was when everybody would be up and vibrantly alive, yet time slowed the closer it gets to 12, the heat causing people to yawn and stretch and just generally enjoy the feeling of today.
He'd mentioned it to Wolfram, on a day much like this years ago, but the blond had laughed.
"Noon can only be considered well-spent if I'm asleep."
With Wolfram, Yuuri suspected the foremost love of his life was sleep. Desserts brought up a close second, and family and friends floated beyond those two positions.
"You know, choose whatever you want. I'll pay for lunch-"
"Don't be a jerk. I already said it's my treat since you stopped me from destroying the soul of the lovely Gisela. Besides, you're broke."
Yuuri frowned. Eating delicious food under these circumstances didn't sit well with him. If his mother knew how much trouble he constantly put Wolfram through... he doubted he would survive. He had a niggling suspicion that his mother liked his friend better than she did him.
"You basically got me a job. And you've paid all the bills this month, and most of last month's. I'm leeching a living off you! I think I should start repaying that substantial debt at some point."
"I work because I like to, and I foot the bills because a very good friend of mine has hit a bit of a rough patch, and a bit of help would be good for him. This friend doesn't actually have to worry about repayment, because I know should I get in trouble, the idiotic wimp would bend over backwards and then some to help me."
Wolfram hit Yuuri on the arm with his menu.
"And you need that money more than I need you to buy me food. You know I don't like it when you get a serious expression like right now and demand equality."
Wolfram returned to reading through the appetisers, continuing unconcernedly.
"Nothing is fair for anyone in this life. You never have to actually hurt yourself just because you want to return every favour I do for you. Yourself first; ridiculously kind-hearted friends later."
Yuuri slowly sipped his drink, watching without seeing the beads of condensation run down the side of the glass. He had never quite got around to drinking alcohol regularly; he got drunk very easily, as Wolfram knew firsthand.
He also got bored when doing schoolwork, and was hopeless at Geography.
Things that Wolfram also knew.
And his dream of furthering his studies to become a teacher. His friend knew this wish of his, the dream he fought to keep from his family. Mainly because they would offer to pay for him, and he couldn't do that to them.
Wolfram seemed to know everything about him; what's more, he seemed to accept all the feeble whines and crazed thoughts Yuuri came up with.
"You really are ridiculously kind-hearted to me, you know. I don't think even lovers treat their partners like this."
Prevented by the table from getting on his hands and knees, Yuuri settled upon placing both palms on the table and bowing till his forehead reached the wood.
"Thank you for all your care Wolfram. I think I would be in a lot more trouble if you hadn't decided to look out for me."
Yuuri straightened then rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly, a faint blush making its way across his cheeks.
"I don't think I thank you enough. Mom would probably insist I follow you around and become your personal maid for the rest of your life."
He looked up, surprised that Wolfram hadn't brushed it aside or made any kind of response whatsoever.
The blond's face was tomato red, and he looked like he couldn't decide whether to scold or laugh.
He settled on a kind of annoyed spluttering.
"Idiot wimp, don't do this kind of thing! It's too weird for me this early in the day to see you bowing to me, and for a bizarre reason too."
Wolfram flicked back his hair, and crossed his arms.
"I should return the gesture; if it weren't for you, I'd be living in a disgusting pigsty right now. And I'd probably have died of starvation. Don't be a wimp and say thank you so flashily again! Part of the bargain for being friends is we don't have to thank each other for every little thing. Otherwise there'd be no time for anything else."
Yuuri smiled his biggest, happiest grin, and Wolfram couldn't resist a tiny quirk of his lips at the adorable sight.
A thought struck him.
"Wimp, how come I've never heard about a single girl whose company you liked?"
He thought some more.
"In fact, I don't think I've heard of a single friend of yours that didn't go to school with us."
Yuuri frowned a little; he'd never thought about it before. Work had never been much fun for him, so he had been polite but quietly distant from his co-workers. As for women... They scared him silly. Whenever he did manage to gather the courage to talk to one he liked, almost any kind of response, including: "Sure! Where would you like to go for dinner?" and "Do I know you?" sent him into one of his dazed trances.
It was easier just to keep to himself, and be polite and kind to everyone.
Then go home and joke and chat with Wolfram.
"I never really thought about it... But I guess I'm too shy to make many friends. And women are just too bizarre for me to understand. It hasn't really bothered me though; I share a home with my best friend."
He shrugged.
"I don't think I need anybody else but you right now, Wolf. Weird eh?"
Wolfram slurped his drink thoughtfully, then nodded.
"It is weird, but to be honest, I like you best too."
"We sound like a pair of old wimps. I don't think it's normal to be this anti-social."
Wolfram shrugged, and waved a waitress over before finally ordering for the both of them.
"We've never really been normal. I don't think it's that fun"
"Thank you for the delicious meal Wolf!"
"Hmm" Committed to crunching ice cubes, Wolfram just nodded. It was one of his more annoying habits, one he had been scolded for often when he was much younger. His mother had sworn it would destroy his teeth and no one would ever want him for a lover.
Self-centered almost from birth, a young Wolfram had gamely replied that between having to simper at men the way his mother seemed to enjoy doing, and crunching ice, he'd rather lose his teeth.
That had earned him the cold shoulder from his mother for over a week, and it had worried him a bit, the first few days. Then he'd had a discussion with an equally young Yuuri over strawberry popsicles.
"I think my mum wants me to stop chewing ice and find a person to marry"
Contemplatively a young Yuuri had licked his popsicle. After great deliberation, he had reached a solemn, illogical solution.
"I like chewing ice too... If no one else wants to marry you because you crunch too noisily, we can marry each other."
Good times.
"...Wolf? Wolfram!"
Green eyes snapped out of their daydream, and Wolfram swallowed the melted slush.
"What?"
"I said, is there anything you wanted to do today? After I start working, we won't be at home at the same time often. This'll probably be our last outing in a very long time."
Wolfram spared a glance at his watch, and heaved a reluctant sigh.
"Well, I need to go see Gwen about my account... I guess I could go say hi to mother too while I'm there."
Wolfram didn't have a close relationship with either of his brothers, nor his mother, so Yuuri was a bit surprised by his suggestion. He was glad, however, that Wolfram was prepared to visit his family without needing any prompting.
"Let's go then. And don't worry so much. If they try to keep you there again like last time, I'll pretend to faint and you can make an escape!"
"Not funny, wimp."
The mansion was large and grand, but from the look on Wolfram's face, one would've thought he was faced with a decrepit hovel. Ancestral, ancient and regal though the place was, Wolfram had few happy memories there, and the very sight of the wrought-iron gates made him want to leave immediately.
Yuuri blocked out any exit, looking unusually stern, arms crossed over his chest.
"Come on Wolf, don't tell me the pyromaniac who threatened to burn down the school unless they gave us a study break is actually afraid of his family."
A small smile, a look of encouragement.
"There's nothing they could say about you that'd be true and awful enough to make you not like yourself, okay?"
And with that being said,
Yuuri grinned mischievously, then slowly pressed the doorbell.
The look of unbridled horror swiftly being swamped by a solid mask of arrogance was one Yuuri couldn't see often enough from his damn-near-perfect friend.
A shrill voice screamed through the intercom, and Wolfram winced. Yuuri patted his back emphatically; the noise wasn't much different from what Jennifer made when Yuuri went for a visit.
Never mind that he made a point to visit his parents at least twice a month; his mother never got any less enthusiastic, and Yuuri never seemed to be able to withstand the sound.
"Oh my baby Wolfie, it's you isn't it? Gwennie said you might be coming soon, something to do with your aunt's money. How lucky you are, I was just about to leave for the airport to meet Fan Fan!"
Fan Fan? Yuuri mouthed. Wolfram shrugged, mouth set in a grim line before replying into the intercom.
"It's Wolfram, mother. Do not let me detain you from meeting this man of yours, I just want to speak to big brother. And is Conrad there?"
"Wait, I'll open the gates for you. And silly Wolfie! This is what happens when you don't come see us often enough! Your brother is off somewhere in Europe with Alford to attend a fencing championship!"
A nervous twitch formed on Wolfram's left eye, and Yuuri tried his best not to worsen the situation. Conrad was the only one capable of toning down Cecilie's temperament, and without him Wolfram was usually left standing awkwardly after his mother shoved him into her bosom.
"Damned Conrad said he'd tell me if he ever leaves the country! How am I supposed to stand my mother now?"
Wolfram was furious, and Yuuri knew he didn't stand a chance to pacify things.
I'll be damned if I don't at least try, though.
"You have my calming presence, Wolfram. That should count for something."
With the groan of old machinery the gates slid open, and Yuuri jogged after Wolfram who had strode in purposefully.
"Thanks Yuuri."
Celi opened the front door for them, dressed in a frivolous, showy red dress with a deep neckline and slits up to her thighs. Yuuri didn't know where to look without being offensive to either mother or son, so he settled on Celi's hair, the colour similar enough to Wolfram's to make it less scary.
Of course Yuuri got pressed into a suffocating hug when she was done terrorising Wolfram, and he tried his hardest not to breathe or twitch or just move in any way.
"Aww, Wolfie you should have said you're bringing this hunk along with you! I'd have made Fan Fan get us later tickets!"
"Mother, let him go please. Yuuri is claustrophobic. You can go first, I just wanted to speak to big brother."
From his position near Celi's chest, Yuuri had an excellent view of her large green eyes, a replica of Wolf's. And when Wolfram had told her to leave so curtly, Yuuri was willing to swear that she had looked so very, very sad.
Before he could even confirm it with himself, air-headed Celi made a swift return.
"Oh very well then, if you're so shy around your mother." She pinched his cheeks, and Wolfram scowled. Hastily she brought her hands back, but Yuuri doubted anyone noticed it but him.
"I'll go now, and I should be back in a month. If you can't contact me, ask Gwennie, he has Fan Fan's emergency number. Love you, Wolf!"
"Goodbye mother."
Both boys turned to face the woman as she left in a haze of perfume, heels clicking on the cobbles as Celi walked to a waiting limousine. She waved at them, but while Yuuri waved back enthusiastically, Wolfram barely suffered a look in her direction.
Wolfram waited until the gates had closed behind the car before turning to enter, mildly surprised to see an arm blocking his entrance. Any contact with his mother left him exhausted, so it was with tired eyes that he faced Yuuri and asked what the hell was the matter now.
Yuuri internally patted himself on the back for resisting the urge to run away when Wolfram snapped at him. He knew better than most people how rough Wolfram could be, but it was a rare occasion to have the blond actually be angry at him. And, though Yuuri couldn't quite explain it even to himself how he knew, Wolfram's anger was usually shallow and quickly dispersed.
Now he looked like he wanted, truly wanted to kill someone.
Yuuri attempted to stand his ground in the face of a glowering Wolfram.
"Wolfram, you were unforgivably rude to your mother just now. You should call her and say sorry, or at least talk like her son and not her... auditor or something!"
"If she had wanted me to treat her like a mother, she should have treated me like a son. Don't try to change me when there's no pleasure to get from it."
Listlessly Wolfram pushed past Yuuri, momentarily being swallowed in the darkness before Yuuri followed and left the sunlight on his back.
It took 15 minutes of awkward shuffling down long hallways and across giant rooms before they finally found Gwendal, hunched over binders thicker than his arm, scowling at his paperwork in a bright room at the top of a flight of stairs.
Yuuri had long ago given up trying to memorise the layout of the house; had Wolfram's family decided to keep him a hostage in the mansion, he suspected it would take the police days to find him.
Gwendal looked up, a frown Yuuri remembered from the first time he met Wolfram's oldest brother still wrinkling his forehead, the spectacles perched delicately on his nose looking ridiculously undersized.
"Hello brother. I'm here about aunt Ru's account?"
A growl was basically Gwendal's greeting, before large hands moved the mountains of paper in search of something. Yuuri and Wolfram shared a look of slight fear, the intensity of said fear increasing proportionally with the time it took for Gwendal to find whatever it was he was searching for. Yuuri was mere seconds away from breaking into nervous laughter when Gwendal straightened, a pile of important-looking papers clenched in his hand.
Further ignoring the two nervous boys, Gwendal gracefully pushed his little glasses up the bridge of his nose, Yuuri stifling a laugh at the sight of the scary man performing so elegant a movement, and began reading through the lines and lines of what Yuuri suspected to be dry legal drivel.
Yuuri had a vague idea of what Wolfram was here for; the blond made this pilgrimage once every year or so, and Yuuri had tagged along once or twice.
Wolfram's father's only sister had decided to forgo the route normally taken by a woman left by a man; after the love of her life had professed to being in love with another, Rufus had kindly told him to leave.
Even though she had been pregnant at the time.
Instead, she had sold her business, invested wisely, received an almost blessed return, then left to trot the globe with her child.
Last Yuuri heard, aunt Ru and Marque were making their way through dusty Egypt.
The answer to the question of Marque's nationality was one that both Yuuri and Wolfram had betted heavily on.
Out of fondness for her only other family, Wolfram's aunt continuously set aside a large sum for him, despite the fact that her dearly departed brother had left an inheritance for the blond that made buying a small country seem plausible.
As Wolfram had drunkenly told him after his last trip, when Celi had attempted to blockade the blond in the mansion, "My psychotic father specifically mentioned that I'm only allowed to use my inheritance after I have shown proof to my mother that I am living happily with my soul mate."
In between trips to the toilet, Wolfram had growled choice words about his late father's romantic tendencies. Yuuri found it easier to understand why a man known to have been fearless in pursuing business ventures could have fallen in love with Celi.
The money his aunt left him was used to pay off study loans, settle emergencies, and though Wolfram went to great pains to hide it from Yuuri, albeit ineffectively, sent to several orphanages.
"If you hate being given money so much," said Yuuri, who was foreign to the concept, before Wolfram had collapsed into a drunken stupor, "you could just not take any of it."
Wolfram had stared at him with red eyes, before cursing.
"I'll excuse you implying that I was stupid enough to miss that gem of an idea because you're Yuuri. The first time I tried that, I was informed by a real-estate agency that aunt Ru had paid the down payment on a villa in Buenos Aires. I have to go and collect a cheque at least once a year, or this is what she does to me. My entire family is insane."
Yuuri couldn't help but agree with that when Gwendal finally deigned to look at them.
"Wolfram" The deep voice startled the blond out of his reverie, him having gone down the same memory lane Yuuri had traversed. Yuuri bit down a smile when he saw Wolfram snapping almost to attention, back ramrod straight and eyes tinged with slight fear.
Just like a small boy anxious not to disappoint his disapproving elder brother.
"Yes, brother?"
Wolfram had to resist the urge to fidget, and hated that he was uncomfortable in the presence of his family.
"The Baian stocks Rufus chose to sell caused a considerable increase in her net worth, and since the Bank of Voltaire is offering all their highest investors a significant increase in their interest rate, the amount that you receive will be approximately 52% more than the previous amount"
Gwendal moved his frown to the chequebook in front of him, neatly lettering in the amount and stamping his approval, thoroughly ignoring the look of unabashed shock on both Yuuri and Wolfram's face.
I could have bought a damn Ferrari with her last cheque, and this is fifty percent more?
Yuuri only heard elevator music, his mind having attempted and given up on comprehending the sheer enormity of the value.
"Wolf?" Yuuri found his mouth operating of its own accord. "How many times have you met your aunt Ru?"
"Not. Often. Enough."
Wolfram recognised the dimming of Yuuri's eyes as his friend floated into the twilight zone. He couldn't say he blamed the other boy. While they wrote letters and e-mailed each other frequently, Wolfram had never realised the true insanity of his aunt.
(Side note: That night Wolfram e-mailed his aunt to ask what she had been playing at; the reply he had received almost immediately was that she had just wanted to spoil the prettiest nephew anyone could ever hope to have. The message was accompanied by a picture of Rufus winking impishly, her thick braid of blonde hair obscuring what he strongly suspected was a sari, Marque laughing and waving in the background. The grey blur off to the side of the picture was suspected to be that of an elephant. Wolfram had gone to bed in dire need of aspirin.)
Gwendal carefully tore the rectangle of paper out of his leather-bound chequebook, handing it to a Wolfram who received it with shaky hands. Gwendal returned to his work, now behaving as though the boys had never interrupted.
Wolfram swiftly pocketed the cheque, the numbers burning a hole through his pants. Gently he shook Yuuri's arm, calling to him.
"Yuuri, if you don't come back right now, I'm telling Gwendal you want to work for him in investment banking!"
"Coming, coming" Yuuri whispered as he got up to follow Wolfram, looking back to make sure Gwendal wasn't directing the frown of DOOM at him.
At the door, Wolfram shooed Yuuri out before muttering a swift thanks and closing the door.
They looked at each other.
Yuuri tried out a smile, and discovered that disbelief made his left cheek wobble, throwing the smile off course and resulting in him wearing a lopsided nervous grimace.
The look on Wolfram's face was that of utter blankness; Yuuri was willing to swear that the blond's face would have remained impassive if his leg had spontaneously combusted.
Yuuri stuck through with his grimace.
"At least we don't have to worry about the rent."
A/N: Ta-dah! From now on there'll be weekly updates. There're three other things I'm doing alongside this one, so I want to coordinate everything so that I can get things done in an orderly way at least once a week :) Trying to fix my nasty habit that someone pointed out to be, where I don't put full stops at the end of dialogues. Chapters shouldn't be longer than 5000 words at most, if I'm remembering correctly. Believe I should mention that there's a novel written (by me, heh) about Rufus and Marque XD They somehow became really interesting after I wrote this part. They don't figure much in the story though. Read and review!