Believe in Time II

Disclaimer: Kyou Kara Maou does not belong to me and I make no money from this work of fanfiction whatsoever.

Pairings: Wolfram and Yuuri, others mentioned

A/N: Well, here we go. We are approaching Wolfram's departure from life as "Wolfram" and on to becoming "Shinou". If I really knew more about what happened in that past, I'd actually consider writing the story of his life there, but I'm not that much of a glutton for punishment. Oh well. Angst ahead.

Murata checked the calendar in the light of a sputtering candle, and mused on how they were literally counting the hours now.

Well, he and Yozak were.

He honestly didn't know when-

Knock, knock.

"Speak of the devil," he murmured, getting up from his small desk and walking to the door.

"Yozak," he greeted the tall red head, his usual jovial expression no where to be seen.

"Geika," Yozak replied, all seriousness. They stared at each other in silence for several moments.

"Forgive my rudeness- come in," Murata said, ushering him inside. Yozak followed sedately, shoulders bowed.

"Less than a day now."

"I know."

"I was there when he came in and tried to say goodbye to Von Voltaire-kyo. It was heartbreaking. Gwendal was busy and he kept brushing Wolfram off." His face was grim.

"Finally he just said good bye and left."

Murata leaned back, sighing. "It's not like he can tell them-"

Knock, knock.

"Eh?"

Knock, knock.

The two men looked at each other. Yozak shrugged and made a gesture to say "I don't know; it's your door."

Murata raised an eyebrow, before shrugging and getting to his feet to answer it. Both his eyebrows went to his hairline when he saw who darkened his stoop.

"Weller-kyo?"

Yozak stood up, wide eyed. "Captain?"

Conrad stood at the door, looking haunted and pale. "May I come in?"

Yuuri moaned weakly, coming hard as Wolfram continued to pound away inside him,

It was the last in a series of frequent (and sometimes inappropriate) ambushes by his husband; lately Wolfram had been insatiable.

The familiar movements became jerky, frantic, before Yuuri felt the familiar warmth of his husband's cum inside him.

"I love you, Yuuri," Wolfram whispered, yet again. It was a mantra he had heard several times in the past few days. The Maou would never get tired of hearing it, but he had to have heard those words more in the past week than he had during the duration of their relationship.

It was nice, but also somewhat suspect.

Too bad Yuuri could not, for the life of him, figure out what it was.

"I love you too," he answered, breathlessly. He absently brushed back Wolfram's tousled hair. "But- is something wrong? Something you're not telling me?"

It wasn't his birthday, it wasn't their anniversary, and there weren't any uprisings or political intrigues he knew about. (And he knew about most of them nowadays. A couple of Maou Bitchslaps of Justice worked wonders.)

Wolfram, as far as he knew, had not caused any major incidents…

Wolfram gave him a shaky smile, and kissed his forehead. "It's nothing for you to worry about."

Yuuri let his eyes drift shut, somewhat reassured. "I trust you, Wolfram." He yawned mightily. He smiled, as Wolfram spooned him, nuzzling his hair. He enjoyed having his husband be this affectionate, for whatever reason. "No matter what."

He heard a soft sigh and felt warm lips on his shoulder.

Closing his eyes, he started to doze off. "I just wish you'd tell me what was bothering you." Even marathon sex couldn't distract him- not when it had been this obvious.

Wolfram's voice was tight. "There's nothing to be done."

That bothered Yuuri- but the marathon sex had worn him out. A yawn split his head and he smacked his lips. "You can tell me in the morning, okay?"

Wolfram just laughed softly. "All right."

The bed was warm and comfortable, especially with Wolfram wrapped around him instead of kicking out his spleen.

In fact, if he hadn't been so comfortable, he wouldn't have noticed Wolfram trying to leave.

"Where you goin'?" Yuuri slurred. It was blasphemous for him to be leaving when Yuuri wanted his living bed warmer.

"I need to check on Lawrence," was the soft reply. Yuuri didn't bother to open his eyes or roll over, just grumbled.

"Well, hurry back, okay?"

If he had not been so comfortable, he would have noticed that it took Wolfram longer than normal to answer.

"I'll come back as soon as I can."

"He told me he had only a week and six days," Conrad began, looking at Daikenja and his old friend Yozak. "That was a week and six days ago. Daikenja-sama… do you know what the contract was? Is there any way to change the Original King's mind?"

Murata blinked slowly. Apparently he had completely misread Wolfram.

"What are you talking about?" he covered, smiling blankly. Conrad could apparently see through him.

"I mean the deal Wolfram made to save Yuuri. He didn't pay then, and he has to pay now." His nostrils flared as his eyes narrowed. "Shinou said he doubted I would ever forgive him- that he had taken away Julia and he would take away Wolfram. Why? Is he doing this because I wasn't able to follow his orders?"

The stricken tone spoke volumes, and Murata had to sigh. In typical Weller fashion, Conrad blamed himself for something beyond his control.

"Anything you may have done or not done will affect the outcome, Weller-kyo," Murata answered, absently rubbing his nose. "What Shinou did is necessary. What Wolfram is going to do… is also necessary."

"And- that means what? He's just going to, what?"

"Shinou asked for his life." Murata knew what Shinou would have had to have asked, even if he didn't have the exact phrase. "He didn't want Wolfram's death. That would have worked against him. He's going to send Wolfram to the place where he was always needed, and he will live out his life there until time comes full circle."

Conrad turned frantic. "You can't be serious- Yuuri- their son- there has to be a way to stop it, to change his mind! Daikenja!"

The appeal was lost to Murata. Conrad thought he was saving his younger brother, but if he did, the world, history itself, would be thrown into chaos. And more to the point, he was denying his brother something very important.

"Conrad, I know this may be difficult…" He took a deep breath, feeling Yozak's questioning eyes on him. "I realized something." A strange pained smile crossed his features.

Conrad looked ready to scream in impatience.

"Destiny cannot be changed, but more to the point, the reason it cannot be changed is because when we make a decision, we always have a reason for making it. You had a reason to appear to betray Shin Makoku. Wolfram had a reason for giving up his memories, then later agreeing to Shinou's price. I had a decision to make, and I knew that while it was destiny that I make it, I also made it of my own free will. That doesn't make much sense when I say it. Yet it was still the right decision to make."

He could sense the puzzlement from Yozak and Conrad's righteous impatience for him to get to the point.

"When I told Yuuri how to save Wolfram after the battle between Shinou and the Sovereign, I knew I had come to a crossroads. There was the option to let Wolfram die, and prevent him the pain that would surely come." Conrad breathed in sharply, and he could sense Yozak's intense interest. "His destiny has always been a cruel one, and I could have changed everything by letting him die. There was my choice and my crossroads. I looked that choice full in the face, and I chose to tell Yuuri how to save Wolfram anyways."

Conrad was baffled, as was Yozak, and Murata sighed.

"What I'm getting at is even if it was fate, it was still my decision. I wanted Wolfram to live for Yuuri, and for my own selfish reasons."

He was greeted again by two blank faces.

Murata twitched. "Just shut up and let Wolfram do it, okay? We're all in deep trouble if he doesn't."

The two soldiers nodded, slowly… and Murata twitched, again.

"He has to do this- and I can't tell you why yet, Conrad. All I can tell you is that Shinou would not have asked for that price without a good reason."

Murata paused. "And Wolfram agreed to it."

"And what was that price?" Conrad asked, frustrated. "You use pretty words but you are just telling me that Shinou will destroy the two people I love most. You say he's giving up his life- but how? How can he give up his life and not die?"

"He will be sent away from us…"

/And if I have anything to do with it, he will return./ He aimed that thought at a particular stubborn blond.

/I made my choice as well. Saving me from it would have been unfair./

Murata grimaced.

"What can we do then?" Conrad was agonized.

/There are always regrets when it's over./

"We can pray, Weller-kyo."

Yozak rolled his eyes. "Yeah, to who?"

Wolfram's eyes were dry.

It surprised him that he was facing this moment without tears. He had somehow assumed he'd be bawling, pride aside.

He should have kicked, fought and screamed. After all, that was who he was, right? He had never accepted anything quietly in his life. Yet when it came down to it, he was stealing away in the dead of the night.

Wolfram stepped away from Yuuri's bed, dressing slowly in his human peasant clothing. He was leaving his peacock finery behind, like everything else.

Except the silly ring.

Looking down at his fingers, he smiled grimly. He would take that with him, at least. It was a precious reminder of why he was doing this.

Oh yes, he was a man in love; with his husband, with his child and his life, and here it was slipping through is fingers like so much sand. If he had tried to tighten his grip it would have slid away even faster.

So he had cradled it carefully and let it go.

"I'll be back," he said aloud, belting on his sword. Leaning down he gave Yuuri one last kiss. His husband stirred, muttering something about "homerun" before drifting back to sleep.

Walking to the small nursery, where their son was, he let his fingers drift through his shock of dark hair.

"Goodbye, my little son," he murmured. He couldn't stay any longer and if he said goodbye to Greta again he'd probably break.

Maybe he wasn't as composed as he'd like to think.

"I hope you grow up to be as kind as your papa and as beautiful as your grandmother. I know you'll be loved." He couldn't bring himself to kiss Lawrence goodbye.

If he did, he wouldn't be able to leave.

Swallowing dryly, he turned on his heel and marched (quietly) for to the door. Now all he had to do was get out.

Wolfram put on his boots, walking down the dimly lit halls without aid of a candle or lantern. The castle gates were beyond that door.

He refused to look back. Looking back would mean regrets, and he couldn't let himself have any until this- whatever it was- was over. He could only good forward.

He was glad as darkness swallowed him as he walked. It meant he could keep lying to himself about the tears.

Murata wonder what had actually possessed him to go watch.

Or what had gotten him to believe he could take two certain soldiers with him as they waited at the castle gates.

He had a good feeling that Conrad would try to wring some answers out of Wolfram- but Wolfram himself didn't know what awaited him. Yozak was there for moral support…

He was not looking forward to this final confrontation.

His ears caught the sound of boots padding down the halls of the castle- not hard soled, but soft, like what a peasant might wear.

The Great Sage found himself biting his lip as young Shinou stepped out of his memories into the real world.

After four thousand years, his memories of the young man had not dimmed. Wearing an odd green tunic, breeches, a plain sword, simple boots, he looked just as Murata remembered from that nightmarish eve when they met.

His best friend, his nemesis, the person to whom he had pledged his soul and more stood before him. He was not Shinou yet, but the moment was fast slipping up on them.

His little tirade about choices sprung to mind, as he saw Conrad approach Wolfram, taking his arm.

There was, he noted to himself, no way to really know what actions were destiny, happenstance, choice, or truly bad luck. He wondered if that was what it meant by the past being unchangeable…because one choice fed another, in an endless cycle.

Maybe he was just putting off the inevitable with a meaningless internal debate. There was no question that Wolfram would go take the path before him. He was too honorable and flawed to do otherwise.

He stepped back, not wanting to hear the words between the brothers. Light and shadow danced over their faces as expressions changed from desperation to anger on Conrad's face, and resignation and despair on Wolfram's.

Conrad lashed out- grabbing Wolfram's shoulders and shaking him like a disobedient little boy- and then the line was drawn. Wolfram's fist slammed into his older brother's jaw, sending him back.

"Never," Conrad's hissed words drifted to Murata on the wind. "I will never forgive him or you for what you are going to do to Yuuri!"

Wolfram's eyes were shaded by his hair, obscuring his expression. He turned his back to Conrad.

"I love you, even if you never forgive me. I was foolish and couldn't forgive your humanity all these years. Are you as stupid as I was to let something unchangeable come between us? We'll never see each other again in this lifetime."

Conrad's eyes were stricken, but no words came out.

"You have nothing more to say?" Wolfram's voice dropped. "I want to come back. One way or another, I want to come back…"

The torches illuminating the gate slowly guttered out, casting them all in shadow as Wolfram left, Murata on his heels. If Yozak and Conrad followed, he did not know.

There was total silence as they went into the courtyard in the Palace of the Original King.

It felt like a great bell had just fallen silent. He could feel it still in his bones even if the sound was gone, leaving you waiting for the next.

Murata stood behind Wolfram, looking into the deep dark pool in front of them.

"Is this what you wanted?"

"Yes."

Simple as that, his questions of Wolfram's, or Shinou's, motives were answered.

"I probably shouldn't have come after you like this," Murata muttered, and wrapped his arms around his best friend's shoulders. It didn't matter that they weren't best friends yet, or that they wouldn't be able to talk for a very, very long time.

"I should have kept silent, but… do you know what's going to happen?"

Wolfram shook his head, not looking at him.

"You will be going back in time. Do you know what awaits you?"

The blond man shook his head again.

"A pain beyond death itself; you will be separated from Yuuri, from your son, and from everything you have ever known. You will face trials that would defeat the strongest man. You will be forced to destroy someone you love."

He could feel that familiar sense of Wolfram's chest hitching; it didn't matter that he had never held Wolfram in this lifetime, or that he was taking advantage of a friendship that didn't exist yet.

"You will make choices both kind and cruel, and you will be only remembered for the cruel. You will lose yourself. Can you still do that?"

He could smell the tears on Wolfram.

"I'm sorry, my friend. I shouldn't have…"

Shouldn't have what? Told Yuuri how to save you? Come tonight? What else could he have done?

"No." Wolfram pulled free of his grip. "No, Murata. I always knew that I wasn't needed here. Since I met Yuuri, I knew that my life was going to be given, somehow, to him. This is the only way for things to have ended."

He had turned to Murata, and put his hands on the dark boy's shoulders, before kissing both his cheeks, quickly.

Murata realized that he had been in tears himself.

"I always knew my life was for something else. I guess that meant my life was meant to be in the past. Thank you for coming, Ken."

Murata nodded, then smiled. "I shouldn't be crying- after all, I get you for a lot longer than Yuuri did."

Wolfram chuckled. "I should go," he whispered, stepping up on the lip of the fountain.

Murata nodded again.

"Hey, Murata? Next time you see my brothers and Yuuri, tell them that I love them, okay?"

Murata grabbed his hands as Wolfram stepped into the water. It swirled around him, pulling him downwards, but Murata held on tightly. He could see the fear and resignation on his friend's face.

"Murata, tell Lawrence about me, please?"

Murata sobbed.

"And- and I want to believe this- that you can find your own life. Don't be the Great Sage forever. The future isn't decided yet!"

Murata choked back a laugh when the water closed over Wolfram's head.

"My old friend- it has. Oh it has."

Conrad had never imagined he would feel such rage towards his little brother. Rage that he would-

He would actually go through with it.

The soldier slammed his fists impotently into the paving stones where he knelt. His brother wasn't allowed to grow up and face hardship. He was supposed to be safe with Yuuri. Hadn't they been through enough?

He couldn't even look at Yozak, who had apparently known all of this when it happened. His best friend-

"Daikenja-sama," that traitor commented, cutting through Conrad's mental miasma.

Lifting his head to the youth in black, he stood, hands clenched.

"Can you tell me now? Can you tell me now what happened? He's passed the threshold of coming back- so at least give me some closure!"

Murata paused, and looked over at Yozak, who shrugged and scratched his head.

"You're right. He's on the threshold of becoming the greatest hero and monster we have ever known."

Conrad grabbed him by the front of his black uniform. "Stop dancing around the subject! Did he hate me that much? Is Shinou punishing me for going back on my word? He's taken my brother!"

"Your brother has become the greatest man Shin Makoku has ever known, Weller-kyo," Murata said quietly, and Conrad was nearly distracted by the tears in his eyes. "He's the person you hate most."

"Why won't you bloody tell me?"

"He has, Captain. You just gotta think about it some," Yozak said, holding up his hands and talking in his "be nice to the emotionally fucked up man" voice. "And I don't think he can say much more. Cause… Well, Shinou'd be mad at us."

Then he scratched his head.

"What the fuck. Wolfram became Shinou."

Murata was promptly dropped on his ass.

"Yozak!"

"What's he going to do to me? Wolfram's already in the past, and its his shit to clean up now. I won't tell Yuuri, until his Royal God Complex decides to do something about it. I won't belittle what he's done but shit… "

Murata pushed his glasses up his nose. "I agree with you actually… But couldn't you have thought of a gentler way to tell Conrad?"

The half human had backed up, eyes wild, refusing to accept.

"You- he couldn't- he wouldn't-"

"Wolfram didn't know what he was going to be doing. He just agreed to give up his life," Murata said gently. "He went back, and when I met him, he was much like he was now. He just seemed very sad. He grew up, Weller-kyo. He became a man, a general…"

Conrad's mind flashed back to his long ago conversation with the ancient king, and clutched his arm.

"I had many reasons when it came to your arm," he paused. "And one of the reasons was because I wanted to change the future. I had long come to the conclusion that it is an impossible task, no matter who you are; though I had to try. Yet losing you would have made Yuuri sad." Shinou sighed heavily, bowing under a horrible weight. "And that is something I do not think I could bare anymore."

His eyes clouded with tears.

"So… he saved me when I lost my arm because…"

"I have no doubt he meant to use you somehow- but if he could find a way to save you, he would. You have always been his beloved older brother."

"Though perhaps I wanted to give you back your arm, because you looked so wrong without one," Shinou went on, thoughtfully. "And because I could. If my own brother was hurt, I would save him, even if it was a foolish wish."

Murata's shoulders sagged when he saw the fight go out of Conrad's frame.

"I believe," Murata licked his lips. "I believe that Wolfram will come back. We just need to give him time to believe it himself. Until then- don't tell Yuuri."

Conrad gave him a stiff nod, before turning and heading back into the castle, leaving Yozak and Murata behind.

Yet it was Shinou's words that rang in his ears.

"It brings our greatest joys and sorrows, and no matter what I've tried, I cannot change its flow. Oh, moving back and forth through it is no problem… You may not believe this, Weller-kyo, but I have been many different things in my time. I have been a brat, a warrior, a homeless vagabond, a vassal to a great lord, a lover, a hero and a king. The roles I have cherished the most were husband and father. Time has taken all of these from me, Weller-kyo. Yet I would not change what happened."

To be continued.

A/N: I have been sick, and distracted, and sick again. And FMA is an evil distraction. I hope you all enjoy. Please feed the author cause she's sad like that.