Wow, I'm sorry that took so long. Personal issues happened but most is well now. I think I'll be able to update this once every two weeks because I have a lot on my plate these days. All those worried about Gwendal's story, it's coming up soon! I sure hope you don't cry during it. :snicker: Anyways...
Thank you to all those who have reviewed thus far; I really appreciate it. It makes me feel like the time I've used to write this story hasn't gone to waste.
Onward to the story!
Chapter 7
"Yuu-chan... Yuuuuuu-chan...Momma and Poppa are leaving. Wake up Yuu-chan!" Jennifer finally yells after whispering to her son.
Gwendal, the lightest sleeper in the world due to the military, bolts up wide awake. Blinking his eyes several times, he tries to focus.
"Huh?" He hears Yuuri mumble sleepily from the bed. Pushing his hair away from his eyes, he focuses on the direction of the higher-pitched voice coming from the door.
"Yuu-chan, come hug your Momma and Poppa. We're leaving in a few minutes." Jennifer says sweetly.
The tall Mazoku stands up from his futon, his long hair cascading down his back. Jennifer completely forgets about her son as she stairs at the muscular figure of Gwendal. Her mouth slowly drops open, jaw touching the floor, as she watches him stretch those muscles.
Feeling a gaze on him, Gwendal turns slowly to look at Jennifer, whose mouth is dragging on the floor. "Good morning, Mrs. Shibuya."
"Uh..."
"Mom, it's five in morning. It's too early to be...waking...up", Yuuri trails off as he sees his mom no longer fussing about him but staring at Gwendal while he stretches his arms upwards. Now, if Yuuri were much more awake, he wouldn't be staring the way he's staring. His eyes pinpoint the smooth, tan skin of Gwendal's stomach exposed by the lifted shirt; he can't help but think how cute, a word he would never really associate with Gwendal, his navel is. It's an outtie.
Gwendal deduces that somehow he is the cause of the tense silence that has fallen on the unusually quiet room; he looks at Yuuri, who seems to be in a daze, and then he looks at Jennifer, who's eyes are completely devoid of life. He scowls at the unwanted attention.
"Excuse me." He bows and walks out of the bedroom, brushing past Jennifer.
Jennifer merely nods her head, still gaping after the muscular figure as he walks by. As soon as he's out of earshot, she squeals, biting her fingernails in true fanatical fashion. "He's sooo cool!"
Yuuri blinks, the squeal bringing him out of his trance. "You should see him when he's... uh, fencing." Yuuri has to admit that Gwendal is incredibly hot, especially with bed head; in fact, the taller Mazoku was kind of cute when he woke up, stretching and yawn, much like a cat.
So Yuuri slaps himself across the face pretty, earning a strange look from his mother. "Are you... okay?" Jennifer says, very concerned about her son's mental state. Really, who just slaps themselves across the face that hard for no reason?
"I'm fine." He isn't. He just thought of the guy that used to scare him with a glare as hot and cute. Not before breakfast. Nothing good happens before breakfast.
"Are you sure? You look a little bit pale. I hope you aren't coming down with something."
"Really, I'm fine. I was just lost in my thoughts."
"You think he's hot too, huh?" Jennifer pokes Yuuri in his side and watches him blush a very vibrant red.
"MOM!" Yuuri can't believe his own mother would suggest something so... so... true? "What are you talking about? I... I need to go to the bathroom!" Yuuri doesn't give his mom a second thought and flees to the bathroom.
In Yuuri's morning routine, he wakes up, gets up, and goes to the bathroom. Nothing has changed in his routine; it's just a matter of someone else's routine overlapping, namely Gwendal's.
Yuuri flings open the bathroom door to find the toilet room door open and Gwendal standing over it, relieving himself. There is a two second delay between seeing Gwendal and processing the moment's events. The Maou freezes in his forward movement and stares at Gwendal while said man glares back.
Yuuri is the first to break the extremely awkward silence. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry." And with the next beat, Yuuri spins on his foot and leaves the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Not before breakfast, damn it!
Yuuri sprints downstairs to his parent's bathroom and uses it, Gwendal-free. I can't believe I walked in on Gwendal using the bathroom. I should have knocked or something; I'm such an idiot.
"Yuuri!" He hears his mother call from outside of the bathroom somewhere. "Yuu-chan, hurry up and say goodbye to us; we're about to leave."
After washing his hands, Yuuri heads to the front door to where his parents are waiting for him. They seem to have already loaded the taxi with their belongings.
Jennifer and Shouma are standing in the doorway, smiling at their cute son who's rubbing his eyes sleepily. "So kawaiiiii!" Jennifer practically knocks him down when she jumps on him, hugging him tightly. A whole week of no glomping is something Yuuri decided he could definitely live with.
"... Mom... so... tight..." The demon king tries to gasp out before she kills him.
"I'm going to miss you so much!"
"Honey, I don't think Yuu-chan can breathe." Shouma worries quietly.
Apparently she didn't hear him because she continues to hug Yuuri until he's almost purple. When she finally lets him go, he collapses to the ground, breathing in the much needed air he was deprived of moments before.
"Yuu-chan, we left you an envelope on the counter in the kitchen with enough money for you to buy groceries and to have some fun with Gwendal since he's visiting. Some of the money can be used to buy Gwendal some clothes if he doesn't want to wear any of mine or Shori's old clothes. You have our cellphone numbers so you can reach us anytime. We should be back sometime on next Friday."
"Remember to lock the door when you leave the house. Please keep the house clean." Jennifer chimes in as Shouma wraps his arm around her. Yuuri stands up, breathing normally and back to his normal color.
"Good morning, Mr. Shibuya." Gwendal deep voice floats down the stairs, tickling at Yuuri's ears as Gwendal comes down the stairs dressed in the pants he had worn the day before and the gray t-shirt he slept in, tight against his chest muscles.
"Good morning, Mr. von Walde. I hope you slept well."
"Yes I did, thank you." Gwendal responds curtly, yet politely. He looks over to Yuuri who is avoiding his gaze with a massive blush covering his neck and face.
"I'm glad because Yuuri can snore pretty loud sometimes."
"DAD!"
"Anyways, we must be going. We have a long trip ahead of us, right honey? Jennifer?" Shouma looks down at his wife. She seems to be in a stupor as she stares at Gwendal. Shaking his head, he smiles at Gwendal with an apologetic eye. "Goodbye, you two. Please be safe." Shouma practically drags his wife away from the King and war strategist, waving as best he could with one hand.
"Bye, Mom and Dad!" Yuuri yawns from the doorway, waving sleepily. They watch as the taxi takes Yuuri parents away. Sighing audibly, Yuuri places a hand on his forehead. "Whew, my mom is scary." Suddenly the memory of him walking in on Gwendal using the restroom assaults him and he starts to blush furiously.
The tall Mazoku folds his arms across his chest and bows his head in agreement. "What do we do now, Yuuri?"
"Go back to sleep. It's too early to be up at this time."
"This is the time I usually get up."
"Really? This early, huh? Why?"
Gwendal merely looks at Yuuri in silence.
"Oh, well... What do you do this early in the morning?"
"Train."
Yuuri yawns and walks into the living room where he plops down on the sofa. "You're really devoted to the duties."
"It's all I have."
"No it isn't. You have Conrad, Wolfram, Sexy Queen, Gunter, and Yozak. You have me. You have all the people who respect you in the castle. You have more than you think."
Gwendal looks genuinely surprised at the not-so-sleepy speech the young king just made. For being so young, Yuuri is pretty wise.
Gwendal bows his head as he stands in the hallway, watching as Yuuri rolls himself into a ball. "Thank you, heika."
"Why don't you go back to sleep. Give yourself a day off; you work hard enough in New Makoku. You're in Japan... now. Relax..." Yuuri dozes off as he talks. Gwendal allows himself a small upwards turn of his lips as he drapes a blanket from the back of the sofa over Yuuri's sleeping form.
The tall man goes to the kitchen as his stomach his rumbling quite loudly. Looking through the cabinets he tries to find something to eat or drink, but he can't read any of the labels. In his search, he comes upon a big white box with handles on it. Grabbing one of the handles, he pulls hard enough to open it. A gust of cold air hits his arms as the light floods into the semi-dark kitchen. There are jugs of liquid and containers of food. He's never seen anything so confusing. Gwendal sighs as he closes the refrigerator door. He can wait until Yuuri is awake to eat.
So Gwendal walks back to the living room where Yuuri is sleeping on the couch. Looking down at the young king, he smiles gently at the sheer cuteness of the sleeping teen; Yuuri's mouth is slightly open as he snores lightly. Gwendal resists the urge to pet his hair by moving away to sit in the recliner at the other side of the sofa.
When he sits down a leans back, the chair starts to lean back and rock, startling the gentle stoic. Gripping the armrests of the chair tightly, Gwendal stiffens his entire body and waits for the chair to stop moving. Once the motion stops, Gwendal slowly relaxes his body to sit more comfortably in the chair, moving very carefully so as to not start the rocking motion once again.
Gwendal begins to think about his family and the people of the castle. He smiles a little as he thinks of how everyone would react to seeing him relaxing and smiling as he has in the past day. How amused they would be! Conrad would probably smile his small sweet smile while Wolfram would probably look at bit lost for words. Gunter would probably get him to have tea and strawberries with him while discussing how great the young king is. Cheri would probably hug him and waltz away as she normally would, exclaiming something about having less wrinkles in his forehead. Yozak would tease him relentlessly about becoming soft. And Anissina, Gwendal shudders at the thought of her name, would probably pull him from his relaxed, calm state to do some awful experiment resulting in injury to him.
Gwendal is so lost in his musings, he didn't notice he was falling back asleep. Before he realized, he is dozing in the recliner, his chin against his chest.
SLAM!
"Helloooo? Yuuri? Are you still sleeping, my lazy little brother?"
Both Yuuri and Gwendal stir at door slam and the voice bellowing through the house.
"Shori..." Yuuri yawns, stretching like a cat waking up. Gwendal opens his eyes and attempts to focus on the pretty pale yellow wall across from him.
I fell asleep?
Shori walks into the living room, looking suspiciously at the two waking men. "Oh there you are. Why are you sleeping down here? Did you and Gwendal have a wild party last night?"
"No", Yuuri says perturbed at his idiot brother. "We saw mom and dad off to their visit with Grandmother and Granddad." Yuuri rubs his face in a wide circle, ridding himself of sleepiness; Gwendal merely pops his neck.
"What time is it?" Yuuri flops back down onto the couch as tiredly tries to fall asleep after the present interruption.
"It's almost ten-thirty. My plane leaves in a couple of hours."
"So, why are you here?"
"Well, I was hoping to catch Dad so I could talk to him about an investment."
"You missed him."
With a flat-eyed look, Shori retorts, "I see that."
"So why are you still here?"
"..."
"Whatever; just leave me alone." Yuuri rolls onto his side, trying to force himself back asleep.
Shori looks at Gwendal with a questioning eye. "Did Yuuri make you sleep in that uncomfortable chair?"
Gwendal, in his normal manner, gives a solitary shake of his head as he folds his arms across his chest.
"Shori, we had slept in my bedroom until Mom woke us up and I suppose we fell asleep here after they left. It's all pretty hazy to me."
Chuckling while rubbing his chin, Shori walks towards the kitchen door. "Gwendal-san, you don't seem like the type to let down your guard and sleep in random places."
"Hm."
Yuuri finally sits up, completely annoyed at his brother. "Just do whatever you're going to do here and quit bothering me."
"Don't you have school today?"
"No, I'm staying with Gwendal while he's here."
"What is he? Your boyfriend?" Shori looks taken aback between the two of them, as if it weren't possible the two could ever get together.
"NO!" Blushing, Yuuri quickly tries to correct his brother while Gwendal hides his own blush behind a curtain of bangs. "He's my guest and I don't want to leave him alone."
"Why?"
"Because..."
"Because what?"
"Because... that's what a good host does."
Shori raises a single eyebrow, suspecting that Yuuri is leaving out something of great importance. To him, everything seems just a little bit suspicious. That gives him another reason to be wary of this older gentleman who's sleeping with Yuuri and spending time that he could be spending with his little brother. Never mind that fact that he has a business trip he's about to leave on.
"Ok Yuu-chan, but if I hear anything bad about Gwendal-san, I will make sure he pays."
Yuuri's face scrunches in confused annoyance. "What are you talking about? Gwendal is one of the gentlest people I've ever met. Sure he seems stern, but he's really a very caring person. He would do nothing to hurt me; in fact, he actually keeps people from hurting me on a regular basis. Duty or no duty, he's a great man and friend so please don't think or speak cruelly of Gwendal."
Gwendal looks up at Yuuri with the brightest blush covering his face and neck. Nobody has ever talked in such a way about him before. Nor has he been so embarrassed before, well, except for maybe that time he had to kiss Gunter's forehead to remove that cursed crown. But even then, he's always had to deal with Gunter's odd problems and Anissina's (shudder) magical solutions. But for this to come from his king, Shibuya Yuuri, it's completely different. It makes him lose his breath as his heart pounds quicker and louder than it has before. It puts an awkward feeling in his stomach that makes him... happy.
Yuuri looks over at Gwendal after he's finished his speech, a hint of pink touching his cheeks. He tosses him a small smile as if saying, "I meant every word I said." The eighteen year-old doesn't notice the speculating look he's getting from his brother.
"Whatever. I'm going to eat breakfast. What do you have to eat?" Shori continues into the kitchen without sparing a glance at the still red military man.
"I don't know. Don't you have your own place AND food? Quit eating all of our food!"
"Hmph..." Shori opens the refrigerator, ignoring his little brother, investigating the possibilities of breakfast.
"ARGH! He's so aggravating!" Yuuri says out loud to himself, pulling at his hair in both hands.
Gwendal sits quietly as he watches Yuuri pull his hair out. In some ways, he's a bit envious of him. Because of his personality, he won't allow himself to show his emotions as freely as Yuuri does. There have been plenty of times when he's wanted to yank and pull on his hair in frustration when he's at the castle, mainly when Gunter is breaking valuables in his worried frenzy or when Wolfram is acting like a brat.
A sudden, loud grumble of his stomach pulls Gwendal from his musings and envy, causing him to redden in embarrassment. Yuuri, who had stopped pulling at his hair, looks up at Gwendal surprised.
"Well, I guess it is time to eat breakfast." Yuuri pinches his lips together, sealing in the imminent laughter threatening to burst out.
Gwendal narrows his eyes menacingly at Yuuri as he tries to push down the blush. "Well, I suspect that we will join your brother in breakfast."
Yuuri almost laugh dissipates rapidly at the thought of having to join Shori in eating. At that moment, Shori comes walking from the kitchen with a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth and a bottle of orange juice in his hand.
"Phowwy, ah goddah goh." The spectacled man rushes through the living room and out of the door. The two leftover men sit staring at the door somewhat startled.
"He left." Yuuri says evenly. Gwendal nods in agreement. "Well, let's eat a good breakfast!" Jumping off the couch, Yuuri sprints to the kitchen and throws open the refrigerator door. Gwendal on the other hand follows slowly behind the black-haired teen.
"Ahhh, he ate the last of the bread. Well, I guess we can't have toast." Standing up straight all of a sudden, Yuuri pulls the milk from the refrigerator and slams the door shut. "We'll have cereal!"
"What's cereal?" Gwendal asks as he sits himself at the small kitchen table facing the energetic teen.
"Cereal, how do I explain it?" Tapping his chin, he walks to the pantry and retrieves two boxes with pictures on the front. "This..." Yuuri holds up one of the boxes, "...is cereal. It's one of the number one breakfast foods around the world. Here, try it."
Yuuri places the milk and the cereal boxes on the table in front of Gwendal and gathers the rest of the items needed for a decent meal of cereal and milk. He pulls a couple of bowls from a cabinet and a couple of spoons from the silverware drawer; he places those items on the table and sits himself across from Gwendal.
"Now, we have two kinds of cereals: the healthy kind and the not-so-healthy kind. This..." He holds up one of the boxes, "...is the wholesome, healthy Special K. This other box contains the not-so-healthy Honey Nut Chex."
Gwendal watches Yuuri's presentation with slight interest, as this is going to be his meal.
"Now, Honey Nut Chex is sweet and delicious, but Special K is better for the body. So, take your pick."
Gwendal, who is one to like sweet things, chooses the obvious choice. "I'll try the Honey Nut Chex, please." Yuuri's smile widens exponentially as he picks up the box of cereal; he feels he has just received the answer the greatest mystery of the universe.
As he pour Gwendal's bowl, he confirms his findings. "You like sweet things, don't you?" Yuuri pours his bowl of the same cereal.
Gwendal glares menacingly at Yuuri, but nods anyways. Looking down at his bowl Gwendal contemplates this cereal. It does look pretty appetizing, but is that all there is to it? "Yuuri, is this all to the cereal?"
"No, it would be too crunchy if you ate it like that. You add milk to it. You add enough milk to both soak in and make the cereal mushy or you can add enough to make it moderately wet yet leave it a soft kind of crunchy."
Gwendal looks at the Maou in confusion.
"Or I could add the milk for you and we'll see how you like it." Grinning nervously and a little bit embarrassed, Yuuri pours his advisor a sufficient amount of milk into his cereal. "Now, mix in the top cereal so they get wet too. And then eat!"
Gwendal picks up his spoon and does exactly what Yuuri said to do; he mixes in the cereal with the milk and takes a bite. After chewing the bite, Gwendal's eyebrow twitches when he looks up to find Yuuri staring at him anxiously.
"So?" Yuuri says excitedly, nearly jumping out of his seat.
Gwendal twitches again but not in annoyance, but perhaps in amusement. "It's good." Yuuri anxious smile becomes one of pure happiness and he digs into his own bowl of Honey Nut Chex.
As they eat, both of their thoughts are running rampant through their heads: Gwendal's consisting of the cereal and Yuuri's consisting of how Gwendal looks when he first awakes in the morning. Gwendal, on one hand, is having a problem grasping the concept of cereal: it's a small compact meal that even the youngest child can put together, yet it's full of great flavor and the sweetness... oh, the sweetness. And Yuuri can't seem to get the image of the slightly ruffled, sleepy-eyed stoic out of his head.
"Yuuri?" Gwendal pauses in his eating to find out what's wrong with the Maou; he doesn't necessarily like the look Yuuri's giving him, if he even knows he's giving it at all.
Yuuri snaps out of his trance to realize that he was staring dreamily at Gwendal with his mouth gaping open and his tongue practically hanging out. "Uh... eh, excuse me!" Yuuri dashes out of the room to his parent's bathroom, leaving a somewhat confused Gwendal staring at his empty spot. He raises an eyebrow at the strange teen and silently goes back to eating.
In his parents' bathroom, Yuuri is having a tough time dealing with the strange thoughts running though his head about his long time advisor. Maybe it's because he's never seen his very formal, stern advisor any less than just that, stern and formal. He starts hitting himself in the head as soon as the thought, 'maybe it could be more', runs through his brain.
"Get a hold of yourself, Yuuri! You're just new to Gwendal being out of his normal area. I mean, you've seen him with his hair down before, right? Have I seen him with his hair down? I don't think I have. SEE? It's just new. It'll pass as time goes by. You'll get use to seeing him out of his element and then, and then you'll be fine. Right? Right. All right, Yuuri; pull yourself together, man!" Patting his cheeks, Yuuri shakes his head like a boxer would, working themselves up for a fight. "Be strong and do your best."
Yuuri takes a deep breath as he places a hand on the door knob. Stepping out of the restroom, he calmly walks back into the breakfast to find Gwendal drinking the last of his milk from the bowl. The long haired man looks up to find Yuuri staring at him with a bright blush covering his cheeks. He quickly gulps the milk down and places the bowl back on the table with a blush to make the king's.
"Excuse me. I just did what the people on the box did. Heika?" Gwendal doesn't realize that Yuuri's staring at him because of the cute little milk mustache that's gracing his upper lip.
"So cuuuuute..." Yuuri sighs absently. As soon as it leaves his mouth he clamps both hands over his mouth, his eyes widening to the size of large Maou manjuu. He just can't seem to stop himself.
"Yuuri-heika, is there something wrong?" Receiving an energetic shake, Gwendal pins Yuuri with his patented annoyed glare. He reaches for a napkin which is on a pile in the middle of the table. He dabs at his mouth, removing any stray food or milk from his lips including the milk mustache. Looking up at Yuuri again, Gwendal stares at the more relaxed looking teen. "Are you going to finish eating?"
Frantic nodding.
"Hm." Gwendal rises from the table picking up his bowl and spoon and places it in the sink in the kitchen. He sits back down at the table where Yuuri is eating his bowl of cereal with his head down, avoiding the taller man.
"Are you sure there's nothing wrong, Yuuri?"
Yuuri gives a pitiful nod.
"Did I do something?"
"It's just me."
Gwendal folds his arms across his chest as he leans back in the chair, studying Yuuri's state. Right as he's opening his mouth to ask if there's anything he could do, Yuuri intentionally interrupts him, changing the subject.
"Let's go to the beach!"