Author's note: Alright guys! Since I was on a roll, I decided to post chapter two as well. Once again please let me know what you think or if you see any errors in the story. I originally didn't plan on this story heading in this direction but it turns out that my mind decided to anyway. Please tell me if anything is confusing or if there isn't enough romance later on in the story. I know how irritating it is to read a story that is too overshadowed by events happening. More explanations for the plot are in the next chapter:)
Yuuri gazed at the injured demon on the bed. His normally golden complexion was now pale and waxen, and wrapped on his chest and shoulder were white stripes of bandage stained red with blood. Wolfram's breathing was shallow and his face grimaced slightly with every breath that he took. Gisela was nearby, fussing around him and checking his vital signs.
"Are you sure he'll be okay?" Yuuri's asked in a small voice. This wasn't like the blonde, normally he would be ordering everyone around to stop coddling him and demanding to get back out there with his troops, not laying here passively. His consort didn't do 'passive'.
Gisela stopped fluffing the pillows by her patient's head and turned her gentle gaze to Yuuri's. "Your Majesty, Lord Wolfram is very strong, and luckily the sword missed his heart. He is only resting right now, but I have no doubt he will be awake and complaining in a couple of hours." Gisela smiled down at the soldier and checked his pulse. "He wouldn't let anything take him away from you, Highness. Not even death."
Perspiration glistened on Gisela's forehead and her hands shook slightly on Wolfram's skin. As Yuuri focused more on the healer he noticed she looked slightly green with dark circles under her eyes. "Gisela, I appreciate everything you're doing for Wolfram, but please make sure you don't overspend yourself. I would hate to see you get sick." Gisela flushed gratefully under the young king's caring gaze.
"Why thank you for your concern, Your Majesty, but I will be alright. Lord Wolfram had extensive injuries and I had to perform high level healing magic on him. I will still have considerable power for a good while."
"Good I'm glad. Yuuri smile faded quickly when Gisela quietly left the room and shut the door behind her. He was left to his own worries and returned his attention to Wolfram. This situation was bringing him flashbacks of another time, when Wolfram's body was frozen without his heart and Yuuri didn't know if he was going to be strong enough to save his best friend. Yuuri's hands shook slightly.
"This is why I wanted you to stop being a soldier, you know?" Yuuri studied the injured boy's face carefully for signs of movement. "But I wouldn't ask that of you. Being a soldier is part of who you are and you wouldn't be happy being my consort all day, standing behind me watching me sign paperwork and sit in boring meetings."
Yuuri fidgeted in his chair. All he wanted was for his partner to wake up and tell him he was being a total wimp. "I still don't know who did this to you. I really hope it's not Sara, Wolf. I mean he seems like he's changed and I want to trust him. That probably makes me an idiot, huh? But I want to believe he's a good person so bad. I asked him if he knew anything about the attack, but he claimed that he knew nothing about it." There was silence as Yuuri let his voice trail off uncertainly.
"Please Wolfram, wake up. What if I told you that I was cheating on you with-"
"I KNEW IT." Wolframs body flung up suddenly into a sitting position, his emerald eyes glowed with rage. "You cheating wimp! This is what I get for-" Wolfram started coughing and grabbing his chest in pain. Yuuri flinched and jumped in his seat. "Wolfram! Stay still, ok? I'll call for Gisela!"
Yuuri raced to the door and yelled out into the hallway, his heart beating with joy and adrenaline. "Gisela! Wolfram's awake! Hurry!" The healer suddenly darted down the corridor, carrying bundles of bandages and other herbs. "Move Yuuri!" she snapped in her sergeant voice and Yuuri scrambled to get out of the doorway. He followed close on her heels as she stopped at Wolfram's side and began pouring her power into Wolfram's injury.
Yuuri leaned around Gisela's soldier to see and froze when he met Wolfram's infuriated glare. Yuuri tilted his body away as he laughed nervously, shielding himself behind Gisela in case Wolf wanted to set him on fire.
Oh come on! He had to wake up as I was joking about cheating on him! Not that I'm not glad he's awake but SERIOUSLY. The Great One obviously wants me to pay for something. Totally unfair.
Lost in his own ranting of injustice in the world, he missed the moment Gisela's healing light stopped flooding the room and Gisela's firm voice brought him back to the present. "Alright Your Majesty," she declared as she lightly pushing Wolfram back onto the pillows,"not to worry, Lord Wolfram just reopened his wounds when he moved too quickly." Wolfram gave out a load groan in irritation and pain. "Sure, Gisela, blame the invalid. Some healer you are." She pointedly ignored her recalcitrant patient.
Gisela began unwrapping the blond's bandages and set out some herbs to prepare to apply them to the wound. "Your Highness, you must watch His Excellency carefully now. He's going to want to ignore my orders and simply go about his day without taking proper precautions." She stopped suddenly and sent the latter a ferocious death glare that had Wolfram attempting to escape by sinking through the bed to the floor. "It would be very bad for him if he did that." She snapped threateningly.
Yuuri tried letting out a laugh to diffuse the tension, and save his Consort from the suddenly sinister healer. "Oh I'm sure Wolf will listen to orders, he wouldn't be that stupid." Gisela nodded and went back to wrapping the new gauze around the soldier's shoulder.
Wolfram snorted and rolled his eyes before focusing them back on the demon king. "Isn't there something important you should be doing, wimp? Like running a kingdom by any chance?" He asked pointedly and raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow. Yuuri shook his head in disbelief, only Wolfram can pull off almost dying without a blonde hair out of place.
Yuuri walked around the other side of the bed and reached out to grab his hand. "I'm so glad you're okay, Wolf. You have no idea how worried I was." He said softly and gazed sincerely into the soldier's stare. The expressive eyes widened before the smile that Yuuri adored broke across his face. Yuuri subconsciously began leaning forward into his husband's personal space, only realizing it when the blond's warm breath caressed his face. His eyes slid down to Wolf's full lips and-
Gisela let out an uncomfortable cough, hiding her smile behind her fist. "King Yuuri, Wolfram needs to be resting in bed for a couple of days so it'll be up to you to make sure he follows orders." Yuuri hastily flinched back from Wolfram and blushed a deep red. Wolfram gave an amused laugh at his spouse's embarrassment and Gisela smiled at the two of them before gathering her items and promising to come back to check on her patient in a couple hours.
Yuuri sat down in a chair beside the bed and stared at Wolfram with a huge grin.
"...Why are you looking at me like that?" Wolfram demanded as he twisted the bed sheet between his hands.
"I'm just so happy that you're awake, Wolf. You don't even know how terrified I was." Yuuri grabbed a pale slender hand and held onto it tightly. He looked down at their entwined hands for a moment before glancing back up at the blonde. "No more patrols for a while, okay Wolf?" Yuuri cajoled hesitantly.
Wolfram studied Yuuri's face for a minute in concern before nodding. "Well of course not, I don't want to get on Gisela's bad side by going against orders." Wolfram sat up slowly, wincing as he did it.
"Wolf! Hold still a second will you?" Yuuri gently grabbed him around the shoulders to hold him upright before stuffing a pillow against his lower spine. Wolfram's hand reached out and touched Yuuri's face before he could pull away. The demon king started in surprise and glanced over to meet a loving green gaze. Endless moments passed in silence as the king reassured himself that his consort was here, safe and alive. Wolfram simply glowed with contentment even though his chest still rattled in pain with every breath.
"What happened out there?" Yuuri murmured suddenly. "It was supposed to be a simple border patrol."
The mood broke and Wolfram narrowed his eyes in remembered rage at the squirmish. "It was! I was leading my squad along the western perimeter, everything was going fine. We passed through Agrona and we were going to stop for the night-"
"Agrona?" Yuuri interrupted. Wolfram waved his hand loftily. "Oh for the love of- it's a town about fifteen miles from here, you really need to start paying attention to Gunter's geography lessons."
"I do pay attention!"
"Do not wimp!" Wolfram clapped his hand suddenly over Yuuri's mouth to stop the blossoming argument. He heaved a put-upon sigh and continued, "As I was saying. The reason we were going to stop there is because they are known for their mining industry for black crystal. A rarity among demon kind because they are known to expand the powers of the demon who wields it."
"Wait a second! How come I didn't know about these crystals? Why isn't everyone in the kingdom carrying these around if they are so useful?" Yuuri demanded in confusion. "Those stones would be kinda handy in the situations we get ourselves into."
"Because Yuuri, the crystals are a double-edge sword. While they do increase your powers greatly with each use, they also bring you closer to losing your powers forever. In other words, they suck out the life force of the demon who uses them by slowly destroying their power. As we all know, once a demon loses the ability to create magic they die." Wolfram explained. "It's absolutely disgusting! Only insecure losers would ever even consider the undignifying act of applying black crystals to their bodies, definitely not people fit to call themselves an honorable citizen of the Great Demon Kingdom."
Yuuri processed this new information and tried to remember if he tuned Gunter out in the lesson about black crystals, or if it had never been taught to him in the first place.
"The demons who wield them become addicted to the stone after the first use and turn into mindless slaves who will do anything to experience the rush of power again." Wolfram's voice raised in volume. "Those who use them are nothing more than pathetic husks of people! Honestly, if they had any dignity at all they would end their lives right then and there after the first exposure!"
"Why are black crystals even allowed to be sold in the first place then? Why not send in some troops and just destroy the entire industry?"
Wolfram shook his head in response his eyelids lowering thoughtfully. "A few kings before you have tried believe me. Except shutting down the selling of an item doesn't mean it's the end of the problem. All it does is allow for the good to be priced significantly higher and get into the wrong hands."
Yuuri's eyebrows raised as he finally caught on. "You're talking about the black market."
"Exactly. So now the Great Demon Kingdom watches over the production and selling of the black crystals, that way we can log who buys them and make sure warnings are given about the stones deadly side effects. We also make sure they don't get sold to enemies." Wolfram's tone became slurred at the end his eyes struggling to open after each blink. Gisela's pain relief remedies must be taking effect.
"So what happened to your patrol, Wolf?" Yuuri prodded gently, reaching out a hand to brush his husband's bangs back from his forehead. "Mmm." Wolf made a tired, happy sound in the back of his throat as his hair was stroked. He tilted his head forward to follow Yuuri's hand to prolong the contact and then shifted to kiss his palm.
"Honestly, I have no idea. One of our designated stops for our patrol is Agrona but it isn't under my squad's jurisdiction to regulate. It falls under Lady von Rochefort's command and she carefully watches the black crystal sales."
Yuuri thought about that for a second. "Wait! Is Lady von Rochefort one of the Ten Aristocrats?"
Wolfram nodded in response. "I'm impressed you remember anything from the council meetings, you wimp."
"Don't call me a wimp! And I'd like to see you concentrate while trying not to vomit in that chair!"
Wolfram's eyes suddenly slid closed and his breathing deepened as he fell into much needed rest. Yuuri rose to his feet and grinned at the peaceful expression on his face.
He never did tell me what happened on his patrol. Oh well, it's so like Wolf to fall asleep in the middle of a conversation.
Yuuri pulled up the sheet to cover more of Wolfram's chest. He leaned over and whispered in the blonde's ear, "Thank you for coming back to me. I love you."