Chapter 4

Yuuri sat in his bed and looked at the ceiling. He felt a weight on his chest that wasn't sure would ever lessen. He had tied his own son with these hands, even if it was to stop senseless fighting he couldn't forget that. He had been able to guess why Akio had left the demon kingdom with everything that had occurred a few seconds after he left. He sighed then grunted as Wolfram in his sleep punched his side. His obsidian eyes looked down at Wolf's sleeping face and gently touched his head feeling his soft hair. He smiled weakly remembering how Akio used to let him mess with his hair for hours on end but would only tolerate Wolf for about an hour before he insisted on learning sword play or something else.

Flashback

Akio sat in Yuuri's lap as he messed with his hair watching a game of baseball that Conrad was teaching. Akio was watching with the big eyes on a ten year old boy. He didn't understand the game but enjoyed trying to come up with ways to intercept the ball. Akio leaning back gently into Yuuri's strong arms and felt his dad smile down at him.

"Akio?" Akio heard Yuuri ask and looked up at him. Yuuri had always been able to tell when Akio was sad or unhappy or confused.

"Why don't they just catch the ball and throw it back to the guy in the middle?" Akio asked his quiet voice clearly confused and curious on the topic.

"Because then they can't get the opposing side's guy out." Yuuri replied patiently.

Akio fell silent for a moment a slight scowl on his face as he thought. "Like the opponent in a sword fight?"

"Yeah. It's just like that." Yuuri smiled at him. "Except it's a team, a small army of swordsmen or women against another team of equally matched swordsmen or women."

"What is going on over here?" Wolf asked as he smiled at them and sat down next to Yuuri to kiss him.

"Ew." Akio replied to the kiss and they both turned to face the mock disgusted boy in Yuuri's lap.

"Ew huh?" Yuuri replied before he began tickling the boy who squealed in laughter and attempted to wiggle away. "One day you'll do the same thing with someone."

"Nu – uh." Akio replied back once the tickling stopped. "I've no interest in making kissy face with anyone. Ever. Blech."

Yuuri and Wolf had laughed at that because he was still a child and thought all romantic things were gross.

Flashback ends

Yuuri had tears rolling down his face as he recalled how happy they had all once been. How at one time, seemingly forever ago, they had been a family. One big happy family. And now they were scattered and Wolfram was suspicious of everyone. There would be no telling what would happen if Wolfram found out that their son was the man who had been helping them. Yuuri looked out the window at the clear night sky and let his tears fall.

'Akio. I'm here. I'm still on your side.' Yuuri thought hoping it would reach his son seemingly worlds away. 'I'll always be on your side. Do what you need to do; I'll wait patiently for your return.'

Yuuri sighed as Wolfram got further and further into the pregnancy he became more and more of a pain to even tolerate. Everything, every single thing, was cause for Wolfram to either blow up in anger or break down into tears. Still he was happy that Wolfram would go through this for him. He shook his head. In the few months that had occurred nothing had happened to warrant Akio risking anything to help them, which while Yuuri, was sad not to have seen his son lately he was happy that he wasn't in danger as well.

Akio yawned as he sat with Maka alone in the cabin on a mission to ensure the cabin was safe from the demon king even with it in the demon kingdom. He didn't like being so close to Maka as it made it difficult to think straight. Plus he couldn't take care of the problem alone as the cabin only had one bed and one bathroom. Maka slept soundly unconcerned of how Akio was feeling at the moment. He still didn't understand that he'd proposed even though he had asked Akio the next day why he seemed so down and he had told him that he was a demon from the demon kingdom and it was a demon thing. "Don't worry about it. You're a human I don't expect you to understand and that's ok." Akio had told him with a smile.

Still Maka's dreams were filled of possible explanations for "Drake's" sudden change in behavior yet none seemed to be right. He'd asked if he had lost his family, to which he got a no and an obvious love of said family from "Drake". No matter what he asked the answer was always no and don't worry. But "Drake" Was his friend and it was impossible not to worry. So he awoke quickly when "Drake" stood and headed outside cursing silently. He followed "Drake" outside at a distance. To his shock he watched as "Drake" looked all around to see if he was free and then put his hands in his pants. Maka simply smiled and grabbed a piece of cloth and walked out to hand it to "Drake".

"Here. It helps keep you quiet." Maka told him smiling then left.

Akio watched as Maka left back into the hut and looked out at the forest before embarrassed continued stuffing the rag in his mouth. He finished up and headed back inside. He smiled a thank you to Maka and then lay on the bed sighing. Maka smiled back and with their backs together they went to sleep.

Meanwhile with Yuuri and Wolfram.

Yuuri held Wolfram's hand as he growled and tried in a vain attempt to make the pains he was feeling go away. Wolfram whimpered and gritted his teeth. He wanted to set fire to something, right now more than anything he wanted to set fire to a certain cheerful demon king who was smiling and handling his death threats like a champ. But with the pains to close together to focus any of his magic he was forced to deal with the pains and only able to make threats he couldn't carry out right now.

"Fuck you Yuuri!" Wolfram shouted as Yuuri offered to help him walk like Gisela had said might help. "I'm not fucking walking anywhere damn you! Just die Yuuri die!"

Yuuri held onto Wolfram as he shook and shivered with a contraction.

"Is it possible to put him in the water?" Yuuri asked Gisela.

"Normally I'd say yes but with his magic being fire it would simply turn to steam which wouldn't help his situation at all." Gisela told him calmly while Wolfram was screaming about how he was going to kill Yuuri later.

"True. Heat wouldn't go well with what he's feeling right now." Yuuri commented mostly to himself.

"Oh fuck you! Like you fucking know!" At this Gisela hid behind her hand to laugh quietly and Yuuri simply raised an eyebrow at the raging Wolfram.

"Who knew labor would turn him insane." Yuuri mumbled to himself. "Easy now Wolfram this stress isn't good for you two."

"Like you fucking know what's good for us you did this to me damn you!" Wolfram then clung to Yuuri and Yuuri knew that it was because he was feeling weak.

"Easy now Wolf, Easy." Yuuri whispered softly in his ear. "You'll get through this. You're a soldier. Don't tell me it's different giving life than when you used to take it." Yuuri rubbed his back as he said this and felt Wolfram cling to him.

"It hurts so fucking much Yuuri." He whimpered just loud enough that Yuuri could hear.

"I know Wolfram. I know." Yuuri gently massaged his back where he thought the pain was centraled.

"Lower." Wolfram whispered for the first time since the ordeal had started in a calm collected voice.

Yuuri smiled and started massaging slightly lower happy when Wolfram would cling to him but not scream when he had a pain. Yuuri smiled and chuckled lightly.

"Yeah that's good. Just like that Wolfram." Yuuri told him softly.

Wolfram handled the contractions better until he had to push and by then he was crying and ready to give up. Hours of screaming and cursing later and another boy were in the demon kingdom. Wolfram looked at his son and smiled rocking the whimpering boy.

"You were right Yuuri. Totally worth it." Wolfram told him a stupid tired grin on his face. "My little Takoma."

With Maka and Akio.

Akio glanced up at the night sky long after the day had come and gone. He had a feeling he'd be required to return here and next time it wouldn't be so calm. He glanced at the orders that said they were to pull back out of the cabin and sighed. The cabin had become a little bit like home to him. He would miss it dearly. As Akio and Maka headed out back to the Kingdom of Big Cimarron Akio wondered if his Daddy Wolfram had, had his child yet. He must have he mentally scolded himself and felt his heart clench sadly as he thought that. His Daddy Wolfram would never need him or care about him now.

He tried to tell himself that was ok but he felt the sting of tears in his eyes regardless. It was easy to pretend that he didn't care if one of his parents forgot and disowned him it was much harder to actually believe it. He followed Maka and talked to him like normal but his heart wasn't in any of it. How could it be? Not only had he lost one of his parents' love for sure but he had also been proposed to and had to pretend like it didn't matter. Talk about hard. Still he was alive for whatever reason he still had his life.

Akio and Maka sat around the banquet table after returning from the three days ride from the hut. Maka had been happy all the way down but Akio couldn't help but feel like he was being torn three ways with no way to stop it. On one hand he was a spy and had to do so without bringing any knowledge to the king of Big Cimmarron. On the other he wanted to return home to see his parents again and for things to go back to being as normal as they could be. And lastly he had to stay and look after Maka because he hadn't resolved the proposal that he had received from Maka. He was pushing himself to every possible limit he could not to mention having to fight to keep his magic from coming out at all. He was so exhausted and stretched past what would have been normal that lately he couldn't even pretend he could get sleep. He had just sat down to eat when Maka noticed something was off with him.

"Hey. Drake. You ok?" Maka asked him concerned only to gently nudge "Drake" and everyone stood up with shock as he fell to the ground hard and was clearly in a bad way. "Someone get the healers!" Maka called out.

Meanwhile with Murata

Murata sighed having sensed that Akio had finally crashed. If his feeling was correct and often times it was then Yuuri would need to move and FAST if he wanted to save his son. Murata carefully got on his horse and rushed over to the demon kingdom. His horse galloped the distance to the kingdom and neighed almost in protest at having to stop and the guards upon seeing Murata stood at attention. The only one who could give them orders the same rank as Yuuri had just arrived.

"I wish to speak to the king. And as soon as possible it's important." Murata told the guards and they rushed to go tell Yuuri.

Yuuri upon hearing that Murata had important information to say rushed to him. "Murata!"

Murata glanced at him strangely calm and unflirty. Something was seriously wrong and Yuuri prepared himself for the worst.

"Yuuri. We need to talk. Alone." Murata told him softly glancing back at the glaring Wolfram who was attempting to follow them.

"Right." Yuuri turned to Wolfram. "Stay here. I'll be back soon."

That said they got on their horses and headed off a short distance when they reached the river that was far enough away that no one would hear them Murata started.

"I have this feeling, and their almost never wrong, that Akio's magic just awoke." Murata told his best friend seriously. "I know you're worried about him enough as it is but we need to pull him out of that spy mission as soon as possible or his fighting not to use his magic will kill him."

"But he's just a kid. Damn." Yuuri did one of the rare curses and unable to stop them felt the tears stinging his eyes. "Damn it, Damn it, Damn it!"

"Yuuri…" Yuuri knew this was hard for Murata to tell him. "If it was water magic I could buy you a little more time. Water… It wants to heal, but he's gained Wolfram's fire magic. At the most I can buy you three years. I know the limits of my magic and I can suppress his for about three years at the most, but someone needs to teach him how to use it. We need to rescue him."

At this point Yuuri was crying full on and his body shook from the sobs. Murata hugged his sobbing friend. He knew this was hard for him to hear and knew that Yuuri loved that boy more than anyone in the entire kingdom. Murata rubbed Yuuri's back and smiled offering what little info he knew in his heart.

"Yuuri. Your boy Akio, while he does resemble and tends to act out like Wolfram there isn't a doubt in my heart he is like you in personality." Murata smiled feeling a slight laugh from Yuuri.

"Good to know." He smiled and thanked Murata pulling himself together as best he could.

They headed back slowly allowing Yuuri the time he needed to prepare himself for the onslaught of questions.

Meanwhile with Akio

Akio woke feeling weaker than normal and glancing around found that he was hooked up to three machines and a sad looking Maka was sleeping uncomfortably on a chair his head on the bed.

"He… Was worried about me?" Akio mumbled to himself. Akio's eyes hardened slightly. 'No. I mustn't allow him to worry for me.' Akio reached out and gently shook Maka's shoulder. "Come on now you oaf. You should be taking better care of yourself. Your back is gonna get hurt if you stay sleeping like that. Come on. Up you go. Wake up."

"Drake?" Maka asked half awake and clearly sleepy.

"Come on you weirdo. Up and at 'um. Do you wanna get a crick in your back?" Akio answered calmly as he shook Maka once more.

"Drake!" Akio grunted as he heard Maka cry out his name and the crash as the chair he had been sitting in crumbled to the ground.

Akio blinked down at Maka as he clung to him. Confused his eyes widened when he felt Maka shaking slightly.

"Drake…" Akio didn't know what to say to make him feel better, clearly Maka had had a harder time dealing with the fact he was injured than he had originally thought. "I'm sorry Maka." He whispered softly as he pulled him into a hug. "I really am a fool." He closed his eyes and felt Maka tense slightly. "I'm been so focused on so many things I didn't even notice how scared I was making you. I didn't even notice your fear. I ask you to forgive me."

Maka sat up and glared at Akio. "Why the hell didn't you ask us to take a break on the way here?!" He shouted at him. "You're in such horrible shape so then WHY?!"

"I…" Akio started but couldn't say that he didn't know if he could do it if he hadn't just ignored his needs and kept pushing through.

"You what?! I'm waiting!" Maka growled at him it was almost canine like.

"I thought I could make it fine." Akio replied and even he hated how much it sounded like he didn't care.

"You…" Angered Maka stood and before Akio could say anything stomped to the door. "Then take care of yourself bastard!" Slamming the door as close to in Akio's face as possible he stomped back to his home and went to work.

Akio frowned and lay back looking at the ceiling and silently let the tears fall from his eyes. Here he was again so close to Maka and yet so far away.

Three months later.

All healed Akio did the only nice thing he could think about doing for Maka. Asked to be only put together on missions that required both of their skill sets. The king threw a tantrum but agreed. However Maka was shocked when he heard that it was "Drake" that asked for it. He had felt bad about yelling at him ever since it had occurred and now they were separated by "Drake's" request. It felt wrong but more than anything he felt bad about it.

When Maka saw Akio he growled and walked over to him grabbing his hand. "Bastard!" Maka snapped.

"How so? Because I took what you said to heart and did what I thought needed to be done?!" Maka blinked hearing the usually docile "Drake" snapping back at him. "So it's ok for you to treat me poorly but I can't stand up for myself?! All we do is fight! What's the-"

Akio blinked when Maka pinned him to the wall and shut him up by kissing him. Akio wanted nothing more than to allow it but knew if he did there would be no stopping him and so he pushed back on Maka's chest and when the kiss was done used his fighting skills to get away no matter how difficult that was for him. Maka watched him go and kicked the nearby pole in anger. He should have known that revealing how he truly felt would only get him hurt but he had still kissed him anyway. God he was a moron. Akio found a nearby alley and hid in it crying as he curled in a ball wishing he could fade away from the world.