So it was finally happening, my son was about to be born. I was walking around in circles outside the room where Lavinia was giving birth, hoping for the result to be official very soon. I was anxious, even though I was with Konrad, who on many occasions tried to calm me down.
"Heika." Gisela came out of the room. She was sweating, but smiling. "Heika, you may see your baby."
My heart was pounding in my chest as I entered the room. I was excited but anxious, my son and I would finally meet for real even though he would be a slight bit younger than he had been in my 'visions' or 'dreams.' Two maids quickly disappeared, and there she lay, Lavinia, with our newborn son in her arms. She was smiling, even though she looked tired from giving birth. I sat down on the edge of the bed, and she handed our newborn son to me. I scanned the tiny baby I held in my arms, my mouth dropping wide open.
"What's the matter, Yuuri?" Lavinia asked, happiness written all over her. I on the other hand, felt a dark, rainy cloud come over me and my child. The newborn baby that so peacefully was resting in my arms had blonde hair, blonde like Lavinia's, not black like mine or that young boy's. It's eyes were a beautiful shade of dark brown, but they weren't black, not like his. And he was a girl.
-
I was walking around in my office, not really knowing what to think about the strange dream I'd had during the night. For some strange reason I didn't feel happiness, nor sadness in particular that it was finally happening; Lavinia was pregnant, pregnant with my future son I hoped.
"Congratulations, Yuuri Heika. You are gonna be a Dad. Lavinia Kakaa is pregnant." Wolfram's voice said, his exact words were on repeat in my mind. I sighed, sitting down behind the desk. I had no choice but sign all the documents, as the days were getting more and more busy.
My mind wandered to Lavinia, whom after admitting that she was actually pregnant had been acting distant, I still had the strange feeling dwelling over me, the feeling of not knowing something. Then again, I wasn't actually the first one to know about the pregnancy of my own child even though Lavinia seemed to have told someone who obviously couldn't keep 'secrets.' It was quite obvious by her actions that she didn't want everyone to know right away, however I couldn't seem to figure out why. The throne would have an heir, the people of New Makoku would be happy and so would I. Wouldn't I? Having my son, finally by my side?
"Come in," I said as someone knocked at the door. In came a young boy, light brown hair and dark blue eyes. He bowed slightly.
"Heika," he greeted. I noticed a piece of paper in his hand, which he immediately handed to me.
"This just arrived from one of our messengers." I smiled, nodding towards the door telling him to leave. He opened the door, but stopped before leaving. He turned around, looking me in the eye. He smiled.
"Before I leave, Heika," he said. "Please let me congratulate you with your unborn child."
-
I was sitting outside in the yard, between a whole bunch of the flower called 'Beautiful Wolfram.' Because that was Hahaue's flower, named after him, I thought it was the most beautiful one in the world. I picked a few flowers from the bunch, I was planning on giving them to Hahaue. He was watching me from the fountain, I could feel his eyes in my neck.
"What are you doing, Ronja?" he asked. "You know you shouldn't pick too many flowers from that spot." I stopped picking flowers, turning around to look at him. At the moment I wasn't more than five years old, I didn't understand that if I did, flowers would stop growing there. My short, black hair was blowing in the wind, it was nothing like Hahaue's blonde, glossy hair. He smiled at me to relieve me, he knew I would automaticly assume that he was angry with me for picking them.
"Sorry," I heard my voice say. I walked towards Hahaue, who laughed at me seeing I had leafs of flowers and grass in my hair. He took me on his lap, brushing it off. I handed him the bunch of 'Beautiful Wolfram,' he took it and smiled.
"They are indeed beautiful," he said.
"Not as beautiful as you though, Hahaue," I smiled, looking into his emerald green eyes, which were also smiling.
"Thank you."
-
While thinking back, I was observing Hahaue, having his breakfast outside as usual. Even though he was carrying a secret and hadn't started showing it yet, I knew exactly why he was eating outside, why he spent so much time in his room, he didn't wanna be observed by anyone than the few, well, two people that already knew. However, he didn't know that I knew so that would make the 'people' one person only. I smiled, thinking back, or should I say, forth to that day when I had been so little, picking flowers from the very same garden.
"It's not long now, Hahaue. Not long."
-
He had his arms tightly wrapped around her, making sure she was alright. Her long, blonde hair was surrounding her perfectly shaped breasts, her skin was softer than anything he had ever felt before, softer than silk, than anything he'd touched before. His dark brown eyes met her chocolate brown, he tried carefully not to hurt her as he entered her.
I carefully walked forth, forth to where my old class mate Murata was standing, in Shinou's temple looking out of his bedroom window. Looking at him from behind, made me think about how much things had changed since the first time we met, 'til now. Who'd known that we would end up here, so far away from our own world, as 'the Great Sage,' and 'Maou Heika' ? If someone had told me that we would back then, I probably would have laughed.
"Shibuya," he greeted without even looking at me. He was as mysterious and strange as always, he only had to feel my presence to know the identity of the one staring at him. His black hair was slightly messy, like always, and even though he had his back turned against me, I could see that his glasses had fallen way down on his nose.
"Murata," I said, walking towards him. He turned around, facing me, a smile plastered all over his face. He pushed the glasses back to their place, sitting down. He patted the sofa, and I sat down next to him. I had a feeling that the news about Lavinia's pregnancy, may be even Günter's wedding preparations, had already reached him.
"I can tell you are troubled," he said, his smile slightly disappearing. However, there was something about him this very day that I couldn't quite explain, something that might have been there for a time, I didn't know. I knew it was a positive feeling though, may be even positive for me if I was lucky.
"Spill the beans."
"I just don't get it," I said, not hesitating the slightest bit, I had been waiting for too long, I had to know the truth about my dreams and whether Lavinia actually was my son's mother, I could hardly take the mystery surrounding it anymore, it was like a burden, or a curse, like my son had cast a spell on me. Murata nodded, giving me a sign to continue.
"That boy in my dreams, he had black hair and black eyes. He was a Soukoku, just like me, and you," I said, nodding towards him, thinking back to the strange dream I had during the night.
The newborn baby that so peacefully was resting in my arms had blonde hair, blonde like Lavinia's, not black like mine or that young boy's. It's eyes were a beautiful shade of dark brown, but they weren't black, not like his. And he was a girl.
"And?" he asked, seeming slightly anxious, waiting to hear the rest.
"I had a dream," I continued. "A dream that my son wasn't.. My son. He was my daughter. My daughter with blonde, long hair and dark bro-" I cut myself off, looking into Murata's dark brown eyes, his facial expression was somewhat serious, but his eyes had a different expression resting over them, they were filled with happiness I could tell.
"She had dark brown eyes," I whispered. "Murata.. Why do I not feel happiness that I'm going to have a child?"
Murata closed his eyes, his facial expression changing. The wide smile that had been plastered all over his face when I arrived, was slowly returning. Happiness shone out of the young sage, and even before he said the words, I already knew what his reply would be. It was like a puzzle, each piece finally falling into it's right place. Murata and Lavinia, talking and laughing together at every opportunity given. Murata and Lavinia, hitting off faster than I could introduce them, the looks resting over them when they first laid eyes on eachother. Murata and Lavinia, none of them appearing at the celebration of my birthday after Günter's performance. Murata and Lavinia.. He then said the six words that I'd been waiting for, the words that confirmed what I suspected.
"Because it is not your child."
-
"Relax, Gwendal, there is no need to worry about Mr. Bishounen," I said, resting a hand on my tummy. My personal opinion was, that Gwendal was nervous about the role he'd been given, about the news we'd just received from Gisela. Personally I was also nervous, but I looked at the positive side more than the negative.
"How can I not worry about that man when no one even seems to know his real name?" he asked. "The man reveals nothing, he turns up so suddenly and no one even asks questions. Why? Because he is a Soukoku. How do we even know he is one, personally I have yet to see his so called black eyes."
"I personally saw to Mr. Bishounen when he firstly arrived at the castle," I said calmly. "You are just stressing dear, for nothing." Gwendal stopped walking around in circles, his eyes wandering from the floor to me. His cheeks somewhat changed into slight pink, his dark blue eyes were shining.
"What did you call me?" I didn't get the time to reply, before a maid entered the room.
"Heika is outside, he would like to see Your Excellency as soon as possible," she said, nodding towards Gwendal. Gwendal stole one last glance of me, I smiled and waved at him, as if telling him to leave already. The sooner he left, the sooner he'd be back, and the sooner the better, right?
-
"I need to see Mr. Bishounen right away," I said anxiously, seeing glints of Gwendal appearing in front of me. He closed the door to the room he came out of, and I figured that I wasn't the only 'anxious' person around. Gwendal looked from right to left, as if suspecting someone to watching us.
"At the moment he should be working on your paper work, if he's not in his office he's switched duties, meaning he's with Wolfram." I nodded, noticing that Klara had actually brought me to Günter's room. I crossed my arms, wondering how the wedding obsessed man was doing, however he could stop stressing. Me and Lavinia was definitely over; but Bishounen had to be dealt with firstly.
"Is Günter still ill?" I asked. Gwendal nodded in reply, clearing his throat.
"I guess you could say that."
"Has he seen Gisela about it?" I asked, curious to know what was really wrong with the man who had been acting so strange ever since the celebration if I recalled it correctly. Gwendal nodded, yet another time, and speaking of the sun, I spotted Gisela, walking towards us. I knew that Gwendal also noticed her, however it seemed like he didn't wanna face the green haired woman at the moment. She was smiling widely.
"How is father?" she asked, before seeing me. "Heika." I nodded towards her, greeting back.
"Your father is alright," Gwendal replied, not really seeming like he wanted to talk about it. Wait, why did Gwendal out of all people know what was wrong with Günter? They weren't exactly the closest – were they, or had I missed something?
"Judging by the way you're acting, you still haven't told Heika the good news," she said. I smiled, shaking my head, glad to hear that Günter's illness was slowly disappearing, if I hadn't misunderstood what Gisela had just said. She did say 'good news,' right? That probably meant that Günter was getting better, and would soon get back to work. Even though that meant lots of studying, I was glad the man was finally getting better.
"Günter is pregnant," Gwendal said. Even though it didn't often happen, his cheeks turned into a slight shade of red, he was blushing. Wait, hold on a second.. Did Gwendal just say the words 'Günter is pregnant' ? My mouth must've dropped wide open, I was shocked hearing Gwendal's sentence.
"G-Günter is, is, Günter's p-pregnant?" I managed to say. Gwendal nodded in reply, Gisela was still smiling, obviously happy that she was finally going to have a little brother, or sister. Wait, this couldn't be right, was I dreaming again? Would I wake up soon?
"But why, I mean how?" I asked, still surprised.
"The normal way," Gwendal replied, the red color changing from a shade of light, to dark red. He cleared his throat.
"But.."
"Mazoku men can have babies," Gisela said. I turned around, her eyes meeting mine. She was still smiling. "I'm surprised you didn't know, Heika." So that was why relationships between men weren't a 'rare' thing, was it? I mean I couldn't exactly imagine a woman making Günter pregnant, it would usually be the other way around.
"So who's the baby's father, or should I say, second father?" I asked, swallowing a lump. Gisela nodded towards Gwendal, my head slowly turning around to face him, I was glad I couldn't see my own facial expression.
"Gwendal.."
-
I entered Mr. Bishounen's office, he was luckily was there, I didn't feel well as I'd had quite and interesting, but stressing afternoon, while thousands and thousands emotions were building up inside me. I was happy for Günter and Gwendal, however there was another feeling beside that, that I couldn't explain, a feeling that I should have realised something around the announcement earlier, I didn't think Günter's pregnancy was the realisation I should have reached, but something, something related to it.
Mr. Bishounen made a move that told me to sit down on the chair in front of his desk. He'd clearly been working for a while, he had black bags under his eyes, however he didn't seem to mind my little visit. I knew that asking him for advice now would only give him more work, however I didn't know how to face Murata so there was nobody else to turn to.
"I'm not going to have a child," I said before Bishounen got time enough to even greet me. He closed his eyes, nodding slowly. I had a weird feeling that he already knew, but ignored it. I didn't wanna jump to conclusions and get worked up for nothing.
"But Günter is," I continued. "Günter is going to have a baby with Gwendal, and I just don't understand. I don't understand why I have a weird feeling due to his pregnancy, as I didn't know Mazoku men could give birth. I just.. I just.."
"That's why you proposed to Lavinia Kakaa instead of taking Wolfram Kakaa back as your fiancé, isn't it?" he asked, I could see him opening his eyes even though they were hidden behind his somewhat long fringe. I nodded.
"I didn't choose Wolfram because.. Because two men can't have.. Babies.." My voice became weaker and weaker, each word spoken. My mouth was still half open from speaking, and Mr. Bishounen was already trying his best to give me advices, I could see his lips moving, but I couldn't hear his words. His words that seemed to be blown away by the wind.
Now that Günter was pregnant, there was no doubt that also Wolfram could have babies. Wolfram could have a child with another man, another person of his own kind. Wolfram could give birth to my child, the boy with the shoulder length black hair, the boy who reminded me of myself judging by appearance, the boy with black, shiny eyes. The boy who had Wolfram written all over him.
His eyes reminded me of Wolfram's, only Wolfram's eyes were green. Beautiful, emerald green. Thinking about it, this boy had Wolfram written all over him. Not the looks, but his attitude. His attitude was definitely Wolfram.
For the second time that day, pieces from the mysterious puzzle around my son started to fall into the right place. When I had chosen Lavinia instead of Wolfram, he hadn't shown himself to me except from at the celebration, when he was so obviously standing next to the man himself. It was as if choosing Lavinia had killed.. Had killed him. I couldn't help but mentally slapping myself, how could anyone get so bloody stupid, after all the obvious signs? I then heard my son's voice, his voice so clearly in my head.
Father you must realise.
"I have realised."
-
Authors comment: well, I revealed almost everything in this chapter as I decided it was about time, and hopefully the majority of you that weren't satisfied with chapter 23/24 are now. If you are still confused with this story, do not hesitate on contacting me ( I prefer e-mails ) and I will try explaining it to you :)