WARNING: One sided: WolfYuu, ShinMura and MuraYuu. We'll see how this changes in time. Rating also may change.

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Mirror

That morning Yuuri woke up feeling something was wrong, something was missing. Stretching to his left and finding an open way he realized the situation he was in, as the memories from last night flooded his mind and the last trace of drowsiness was ripped out of him as if hit by a baseball bat.

Wolfram was already gone.

Yuuri sat up and looked out the window. Judging by the temperature and the light outside it was nearly six am, probably earlier. If Wolf wasn't next to him on their bed this early it meant the blond had left as soon as he fell asleep.

Only god knew when would be the next time he'd see his best friend and he was as sad as he'd ever imagined he'd be. But he had nothing to regret about the night before, you might think he would have wanted to directly say goodbye, or maybe take a last look at his friend's face, but all that was just unnecessary formalities.

With a real friend there's never a goodbye that lasts forever.

With someone you really care about, someone who really knows you, words are not necessary.

He knew that, deep in his heart, he believed that, then why, why on earth did he feel his heart was about to break in half?

Tears started falling from his already reddened and swollen eyes. Last night he had cried a lot, yes, but silently, smiling, feeling the warmth of Wolfram's back touching his; now he was alone, and he could let his desperation show.

All of his feelings of guilt, anger and frustration emerged at once. Why hadn't he been able to love someone so wonderful like he had always deserved? How did he allow himself to hurt him so deeply? To keep him by his side? Well, now he had probably lost his best friend for good because of the way he acted.

Hiccupping and sobbing with sadness, but mostly out of anger, Yuuri could actually feel his disturbed emotions as if they were flooding out of him. He let out a groan and hit the bed with his fists.

It was only when the remainings of the former royal bed hit the ground that Yuuri realized what he was doing. His tears suddenly stopped, he took a step back and restrained his marioku.

"Shit"

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...oOo...

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"Good morning Heika" said Conrart once he caught sight of his godson, who was running like there was no tomorrow. "May I join you?" he asked.

Yuuri turned around to answer, although Conrart was already running next to him, not really waiting for an answer.

"Sure, Conrad" Conrart took instant notice of the state of his king. Yuuri was pale, probably from lack of sleep, and his eyelids were quite swollen. Also, the fact that he didn't scolded him for calling him heika was something to be worried about.

Conrart knew that his little brother had left. Wolfram was, above all, a good soldier to the kingdom, and hadn't left without taking care of the official paperwork concerning the suspension of his patrol duties on the king's lands, and such.

Also, as a brother, he had a bit more insight about the subject, of course. He honestly had no resentment towards his godson, but he was aware of the amount of damage he had done. He understood the reasons and knew most of the harm had been done unintentionally. He also knew how much Yuuri was suffering right now, and even if the pain was different, he felt equally worried about both boys.

Now, that left a question, if Yuuri had been to his office yet, or not...

"Heika, have you finished the paperwork for me to take with me to the construction site?" he asked, trying to disguise his real reasons, or his knowledge of the situation.

"Oh, yeah..." Yuuri answered, as if woken up from a dream, he had no idea how long he had been running and his feet just kept on going in autopilot whether he was aware of it or not. "I haven't written the letter to the construction manager yet though, I know I probably should have it ready, sorry Conrad, I just didn't feel like working this morning" he added and slowed his pace.

Okay, Yuuri hadn't been to the office yet, so he hadn't seen it. It wasn't that Conrart wanted Yuuri to suffer further more, but he had hoped his king would come across it before he had to leave to the Spitzberg lands, where the dam was being built.

This dam was a big step on the Maou's plan, with a lot of the Sage's help, to implement some new sources of irrigation to the dying plantations of the land, suffering because of the merciless heat that lashed the country. So it was not something to be postponed or messed with, reason why Conrart was to stay in the site through the whole duration of the project to ensure Stoffel stayed out of it. And his departure was scheduled for that morning.

With him leaving, his mother sailing the seas only Shinou knows where along with Anissina, and Günter away on his now biennial excursion to the furthest lands of the kingdom, Yuuri was about to face some really tough times alone, not to mention Greta wasn't going to be visiting from Zorachia in a few months at least.

"I'll go get it ready so you can leave, otherwise you won't reach the next town before the heat reaches its peak" Yuuri said, already taking the first few steps towards his office.

"Yuuri" Conrart said loudly, making his godson stop on his tracks and look back. Once he had his attention he smiled, much like he always did, but with no little concern on his face.

"He will be okay" he said, startling Yuuri who, until that point hadn't imagined anyone else knew about the matter. But somehow, as it always did, his godfather's smile managed to soothe him.

"And so will you" Conrart added, again to Yuuri's surprise. He felt like the tears were threatening to come back so he smiled, sadly, but honestly.

"I hope you're right"

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...oOo...

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"Geika, you can't find him either, can you?" The childish voice asked with a half annoyed, half concerned tone. Who would have thought this kind of trouble would come along with being the Genshi Miko, really.

"I'm sorry Ulrike, he seems to have vanished" Ken's expression was particularly hard to read at the moment he spoke. A mixture of feelings that were coming to a boiling point inside of him made it almost impossible. Ulrike thought it wiser to let the subject go and stayed in silence.

"I'm going to the Castle" he said, and without another word, he was gone.

Ulrike was left alone on the room, her eyes directed at the waterfall on the wall. Being a priestess on the Original King's Shrine was an honor, hers was probably the ultimate honor, and she was thankful, from the bottom of her heart, as she had seen how Shinou Heika had ensured the well being of the country through the words he had given her through the years.

Hearing his words was, had always been a gift, a blessing, but lately...

"I can't believe those two..." she whispered to herself hearing the footsteps of the Daikenja fading away.

Ken was not the kind of person who leaves a lady talking to herself, but he was just not in the mood right now. After that night a week ago Shinou had completely disappeared. Not only had he stopped taking a material form, but his energy was nowhere to be found and he hadn't spoke to any of the priestesses either.

"That selfish jackass" Murata growled while passing through the shrine's doors in his brown stallion, earning a few odd looks from the priestess guarding it. He just rolled his eyes and kept going, but only a few feet away Ken started to rethink his plans for the evening.

Realistically speaking, riding to the castle in this heat might not have been the best of ideas... But he was in no mood for changing his mind. Even if he died of heat exhaustion, hardly possible, he was going to get the hell away from that stupid, selfish and childish king's shrine.

It took a few pit stops to rest in the shade of this or that tree, but Ken kept on going. The short ride to the castle had become an absolute torture under the ruthless heat and as he got closer and closer to his objective, his anger slowly shifted and turned inside of him, resembling sadness more and more as time passed by.

Was Shinou really gone this time for good? Was that what he meant that night? If that was the case, what was he going to do?

Without realizing it, Ken was already in front of the castle wall and was being let inside by the guards. He shook his head, trying to push away the thoughts that had him so uncharacteristically disturbed.

After leaving his horse on the stables and greeting a few passing maids and soldiers, Ken made his way to the far left end of the castle courtyard. His feet moving practically on their own, looking for a familiar place of his borrowed memories.

Knowing he was nearing that place he was about to drop the act and let his false smile become a very different expression when he saw him, under that specific tree, of all trees. There was Shibuya.

Ken stopped walking, moving, and probably even breathing for a moment. He stood there, still far enough for his presence not to be noticed, but close enough to see the scene clearly, and for a moment considered running away, not for a specific reason, he just felt like running.

However, as he was about to do so, he noticed the parchment in Yuuri's hand, more specifically, the color of said parchment. There was only one reason Shibuya could be holding a navy blue parchment.

Realizing this, Ken hurriedly shifted his attention to Shibuya's face. The expression on his face broke Ken hear twice before he was able to completely process the scene. Shibuya's eyes showed a mix of angst and surrender that Ken had never seen on him before. For Shinou's sake he looked close to tears! Looking more closely, judging by the slight swelling of his eyelids, he had probably already cried his eyes out the night before.

That was probably Ken's exit signal right there. However, he soon realized he had made a very stupid tactical error. Trying to see Yuuri's face more clearly, he had unintentionally come too close, now there was no way of making a clean exit. So Ken chose the next best thing, playing dumb.

"Yo! Shibuya" he said walking up to his friend like there was nothing wrong in the world.

"Murata! How... How long have you been here?" Yuuri asked trying to hide his face, half aware of the ragged aspect he probably had.

"Just got here, why?" Ken asked back quite playfully, smiling like he always did while playing dumb with Shibuya. It was something he had become used to with time. After all, he had been pretending for three years now and he felt quite confident of his acting skills, not that it was something to be particularly proud of in this case.

"Nothing. So, what brings you here?Trouble in girl paradise?" Yuuri asked, just for the sake of shifting the attention away from himself. Murata was quite the player and Yuuri had an idea of how he probably enjoyed the constant passing by of beautiful shrine maidens. Although he also had the suspicion that his glasses friend had quite the good time with the Original King, but he rathered not think too much about that, it was none of his business anyway.

"Well, you can only just watch up to a certain point before becoming bored, you know?" Ken replied, playing along with Yuuri and trying his best to live up to his pretty ladies lover facade. Well, being completely honest he did loved the ladies, he just happened to be torn between two obvious males in terms of the heart, and they weren't at all unpleasant to the eye either... But he was obviously just rambling inside his head, and he had to stop before it showed in his face. Shibuya was already giving him an odd look.

"You perv" he said, mistaking Ken's expression for something else, and they both laughed. He was probably, in deed, a perv. Shibuya had no idea.

"Are you staying for dinner? Nobody is here anyway" Yuuri asked. Actually Gwendal was still in the castle, but everyone would agree his presence wasn't really noticeable, unless you count the sound of knitting needles clashing together, he didn't make much noise.

If Ken wasn't mistaken, and even though he rarely was he would often find himself mistaken when it came to Shibuya lately, Ken thought he heard a bit of a plea for company in that question. If that was the case, quite probably considering the parchment, he was more than happy to oblige. Besides, he wanted to get the hell away from the shrine for a while anyways.

"I was thinking of staying for a few days actually. Is not often you get some peace and quiet around here" Ken answered casually while stretching his sore muscles from the ride.

"Oh, sure. I'll have the maids put you in a room near mine" Yuuri replied just as casually. He was relieved somebody would be there with him. He needed some time on his own to think things through, but he was sure he'd go insane if left alone for too long in that enormous empty castle.

Ken's heart, on the other hand, had just skipped a beat. He knew Shibuya probably meant nothing by it, but for some reason he felt so incredibly flustered by the fact of Yuuri wanting him in a room close by. He felt like mentally slapping himself for being so trivial, wasn't he just suffering about the situation with Shinou?

And talking about serious issues...

"Hey, is that...?" Ken asked, trying to sound vague enough, but clearly looking at the parchment in Shibuya's hands.

"Yeah..." Yuuri said, noticing he had completely failed at hiding the thing, but not finding enough strength to care. "He left it in my office before he left" he added and looked down.

"Oh..." was all Ken was capable of saying. Wolfram had left.

Navy blue parchment were used in the nobility only for one reason. It was some old tradition that started because of a specific event Ken knew about first hand, although that was another story. In short, it was used in official documents concerning the termination of engagements or marriages. Both parties had to sign for it to be official and Ken saw only one signature on it. Wolfram's signature.

They stood still for a really long couple of minutes. Yuuri was completely emerged in his thoughts, aware that not signing the document was only postponing the inevitable.

Meanwhile Ken was having an internal moral battle. He was seriously debating his options. There were two choices. The first, and probably the most wise, was to stay on his well known role of the matchmaker and give Shibuya the push he needed to realize his feelings for Wolfram were probably more than those of just friendship if he was this heartbroken about it. Knowing Wolfram he would take the idiot back if he went to look for him.

Now, the more daring and attractive choice was to take advantage of the situation. But even though the thought was appealing and he trusted his manipulation skills, with Shibuya he had absolutely no self confidence in this aspect. And even if he had some, he was just too depressed to even try.

Both soukoku, lost in their own thoughts, sighed quite loudly at the same time, snapping the other out of their respective stupor.

Looking at each other they couldn't help but to chuckle, up to some level unaware of how similar their situation was, in more ways than one.

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I'm on a roll with this story, yesterday I was taking notes in one of my classes and before I knew it I had written half a chapter. I'd feel like a bad student but it was just such a boring lecture!

Anyways! Thank you so much to those who read and reviewed the first two chapters. Honestly I was expecting little to no reaction with this fic, especially from those who usually read my Yuuram fics.

This chapter is not really good in my opinion, but it was necessary and I hope you won't mind.

Let me know what you think, any questions, constructive criticism or plot ideas are more than welcome.