THE END OF THE AFTERNOON came hastily with clouds and sky blending their heavy scorching colours together above the kingdom. Yuuri continued to feel frustrated about not being able to play in the tournament preliminaries. After Gisela's medicine, even though he still had the fever, Yuuri had gathered enough strength to keep fighting with this nuisance until now. He could not take the thought of being powerless and lying in his room for at least that night and another half of the next day. It was too long for him. He wondered and suffered thinking of how fun it would be for his teammates to start the tournament with a victory. Yuuri let out a sigh unconsciously before he buried his face in the big white pillow underneath his head.
After drinking the medicine, Wolfram didn't want to know why the king liked baseball so much anymore. He just excused himself simply and left the room. "I changed my mind, I'm going. Stay here and rest Yuuri."
"Your Highness?"
The king craned his neck and turned back at the door to search. It was Conrad.
"How are you feeling Your Highness?" Conrad asked with a gentle smile.
"I'm good so why don't we go out and play baseball?" Yuuri tried to get himself out of the annoyingly idle situation.
The handsome soldier replied firmly, "I don't want to repeat myself, but you must be responsible for your actions. What if something happened when you exercise too much outside when you're supposed to be in here resting? Remember that you chose to be the King of Shin Makoku. That's why you have to follow all regulations meant for the king, including staying in bed and do nothing when the Traditional Fever comes."
Yuuri once again gave in, but he still felt uneasy.
"Your Highness, would you mind if I borrow your baseball gloves for Wolfram?" Conrad told his purpose of coming to visit the king.
"My gloves? For Wolfram? Why does he need them?" The king was lost.
"Actually, Wolfram asked me to teach him some basic baseball skills and to be honest, I was amazed of how he set the balls on fire out there."
"Wow, he is that good?" Yuuri seemed to catch Conrad's astonishment as well.
"Good? I don't see how setting all the balls on fire with his fire lions is good…" Conrad knitted his brow.
"Ohhh! I thought– 'cause you say– …Never mind," the king finally saw light. "Erm, about the gloves, I think they're just over there on the shelves."
Conrad said while going towards the shelves:
"Wolfram appears to be a pretty good batter himself [except for the first few times when he was so afraid of the incoming balls that he sent out his fire lions to burn them down though…] and we're trying catcher right now. He wanted your gloves since he said it would give him luck."
"Why does he suddenly feel like playing baseball anyway?" Yuuri asked.
"Wolf said he did this for you, Yuuri," nothing other than a grateful smile Conrad gave to Yuuri.
Wolfram's unexpected shout for his brother from the ground pierced the late afternoon air and came through Yuuri's open window.
"I shouldn't let my young otouto wait, should I?"
"Oh, right, go ahead."
"I'm sure he'll explain to you later why he's doing this, Yuuri. Don't worry," and Conrad went out by the door.
"I guess…"
Wolfram hadn't come back since then. Yuuri already had dinner, took his bath, and even drank two more serves of the atrocious medicine. The ugly taste still lingered in his mouth. Yuuri thought Wolfram would never want to miss the chance of having the evening meal alone with him, but obviously the beautiful blonde had refused this opportunity. Yuuri kept wondering why Wolfram became detached from him, the person whom he never left his sight from. The young king also imagined them sitting together in his room with Wolfram starting to argue about which dish Yuuri should eat first. "Wolfram sure likes to make things complicated…" Then instantly Yuuri startled and felt cold sweat forming quietly when he realized what he had been thinking of.
"Why did I imagine that just now?"
"Imagine what?" Wolfram's voice suddenly barged in.
"What?"
The blonde was drying his silky hair with a white towel and was wearing his usual pink nightgown. Tiny transparent droplets of water jumped riantly from his hair to the soft garment on his shoulders. The emerald eyes were glistering mildly. It seemed that there were also little water pearls stagnated on his fair and long eyelashes, like he had been crying. But Yuuri was certain that that didn't happen. Wolfram had not been crying, just that the steam from his bath was gravitated by the beautiful gem-like eyes. Yuuri, moreover, sensed a fresh and excited aura from Wolfram.
"What do you mean 'what'? You said you've just thought of something. What was it? – Wolfram asked the king like he was demanding an undoubted and instant answer from one of his soldiers – and why is your face still red? You already took your medicine right? Why hasn't the fever gone down even just a bit?"
"My face?" Yuuri spoke clumsily with an idiotic look in response. He could now notice the increased temperature of his face but then replied that it was nothing.
"Nandemonai," Wolfram, feeling sore from head to toe, did not bother pressing Yuuri for an answer. He climbed onto the bed and flumped down next to Yuuri.
"You shouldn't go to bed when your hair is wet. You'll catch a cold."
"I'm too tired… It's fine like that," Wolfram whispered.
"Come on, get up, I'll dry it for you. I don't want you to catch a cold and start having a fever like me. Too troublesome," Yuuri insisted his friend.
Wolfram knew he should never let this second chance slip away since he could not make his first one (the dinner). Without any further delays, he stood up and came close to the wardrobe to get the hair dryer on the second-top shelf. Wolfram had to tiptoe so that he could reach the dryer placed behind a big pile of nightgowns. Chuckling carefully, the young king assured his laugh could not be heard from where the blonde was standing.
"Here," Wolfram handed Yuuri the dryer and lay prone on bed again, leaving Yuuri sitting with the whole control of the dryer (whoo~ so powerful).
It was a cream-coloured one with small imprinted symbols and figures around the rim, the one Yuuri liked.
The little machine didn't make much sound; it blew Wolfram's blonde hair gently. Yuuri's right hand quietly started stroking the other's hair. His fingers glided between the wavy strands, unable to stop. It's soft… Yuuri then lifted Wolfram's hair up to make sure he dried the inside hair properly. He did this once or twice and said to himself, "This should be enough," and put the dryer away. (This is drying properly!)
The king didn't expect any thanks from the blonde but he still wanted to hear that word. At least he was the one who dried Wolfram's hair in order to prevent the cold [even though he was the one who suggested doing so himself in the first place and only blew Wolfram's hair for about, like, one minute?].
"Wolfram…?"
Yuuri heard no response; Wolfram's back was facing him.
"Wolfram? Are you ignoring me?"
Still, nothing.
The double-black tried to call him once more, "Wol–" and wham!
Wolfram had abruptly turned his body around, brandished his arm and hit Yuuri's face hard. There was no telling how much pain Yuuri was feeling at that moment. The only thing the black-haired boy could remember was that he did not sense his nose existing.
"What was that for! Trying to pick a fight with me?" Yuuri shouted sitting up and turned to Wolfram.
HE WAS ASLEEP!
Except for the star-like shape his body seemed to form, with two arms and legs spreading in all four directions, everything about him was perfectly exquisite. Wolfram's bang covered over his fair long eyelashes a little; they touched each other silently. The emerald eyes were hidden and gave his face a sense of mystery, but at the same time, revealed his innocent blithe spirit of youth (well, let just leave the fact that he's 82 years old aside). Wolfram's satisfying smile was an even more evident unconscious movement, showing how excited he was before coming back to the room. Yuuri wondered what had happened during baseball practice.
Wolfram suddenly shifted closer to Yuuri, curling his body and with hands gripping the king's blue pajama shirt. Yuuri started to feel nervous. He moved right a bit in hope to make Wolfram let go of his shirt but the blonde didn't. Feeling more anxious, Yuuri used his hands to push that of the blonde away and slid down under the blanket. He remembered to keep a careful distance from Wolfram. However, Yuuri's efforts were foreseen to be in vain. Wolfram searched for the double-black's arm and seized it. This time, he even leaned his head over to Yuuri's shoulder, which flinched feebly. The high school boy felt weird, half afraid of what Wolfram might do to him, half lost in befuddlement. Did he miss something? The fact that he had to stay only in bed for a whole day was irritating enough for him and now he had also lost the grasp of what the people around him were thinking and feeling.
Tired of guessing why Wolfram's aura seemed to be quite animated that evening, Yuuri sighed and rested his hand on his own stomach, preparing for a hopefully good sleep. He still wanted to get away from the blonde's arms, which were holding that of the demon king so firmly. So, the young king slowly turned to his left. Surprisingly, Wolfram let him go. Maybe he was deep in his sleep by then; and his dream must have been extremely satisfying so he did not have to worry about anything in the real world. Maybe that was why Wolfram let go of Yuuri. Was he now so confident that needing Yuuri by his side was not a wishful desire anymore? Had he found something else more meaningful than just sticking around Yuuri like a kid chasing his favourite candy bar? If it were truly that, Yuuri would be awfully thrilled. He would finally have some leisure time when there were no more paper signings since Wolfram would not follow the black-haired boy's every step every time anymore.
The king thought of the matter that way but then said to himself that he was reading too much into Wolfram's such little gesture. It was just a simple I-let-go-of-your-arm-now motion that blonde made since he could not possibly know what he was doing in his sleep. Not as if Wolfram was going to really avoid him the next day with this as a warning sign. "Right?" he thought. And he chuckled, believing it would take several decades for him to persuade Wolfram to do that.
Funny how Yuuri said he was tired but could still come up with this monologue in his mind. The double-black felt a strange relief and dug himself under the soft blanket. He could sleep then. But he knew, tomorrow, he had to ask Wolfram for the reason.
- End of Chapter 2-