"Yuuri!"
The boy-king in question winced and turned slowly to face the irate blonde, whose call echoed in the hallway of his castle.
"Yes, Wolfram?" he asked as pleasantly and innocently as he could. All was not lost. Wolfram yelled at him all the time. It was possible that he didn't know—
"Why didn't you tell me you're going to Earth?" Wolfram asked, before Yuuri could finish the thought.
Shit.
"Ah… Well, um, I-I was going to, Wolf, but—"
"But what, wimp?" Wolfram interrupted Yuuri's stuttering. "No, don't bother lying to me! You never meant to tell me, did you? You were planning to sneak off behind my back and have me find out about it hours later! And don't you dare deny it, Yuuri!"
Yuuri didn't dare.
"I knew it!" Wolfram fumed, when his fiancé remained silent. "At least you had the decency to tell Greta, so that your sudden disappearance won't come as a shock to her. Never mind about the shock to your fiancé!"
Yuuri sighed. Of course Wolfram had heard it from their daughter. He couldn't really blame Greta, Wolfram was her father too.
"Look," Yuuri tried, "I'll only be gone for a couple of days; a week, tops! You won't even notice I'm away."
"Won't notice? Won't NOTICE?! Of course I'll bloody notice, Yuuri! In case you've forgotten, we sleep in the same bed!" Wolfram shrieked. "I'm coming with you!"
"What? No, you can't!" Yuuri cried anxiously.
"What do you mean I can't?" Wolfram asked, his eyes narrowing. "What's so special about this trip? Do you have some girl waiting for you? Yes, of course, that's it! You cheater! You're planning to throw yourself into the arms of some—"
"No, Wolf, I'm not!" Yuuri hastily denied. "I'm not seeing any girls. I'm going there to watch a baseball tournament. And I know how much you hate baseball, so I thought you'd rather stay here."
"Wether I like the stupid game or not is irrelevant. You should have asked me, instead of making decisions for me! It's my duty as your fiancé and as your protector to stay by your side," Wolfram declared.
"But I don't need protecting on Earth! Besides, Conrad's—"
Yuuri realised his mistake as soon as the words left his mouth, but the damage had been done.
"Conrart? You're taking Conrart with you and not me?!" Wolfram yelled. "I don't believe this, you cheater!"
"He likes baseball!" Yuuri cried desperately.
"So what? I can watch it too!"
"Wolfram, you hate watching it," Yuuri reminded the blonde. "Last time you fell asleep!"
"That's not the point! If Conrart gets to come along, so do I!"
Yuuri stared at his stubborn fiancé and tried desperately to come up with some argument to stop the blond boy from following him. But his mind remained perfectly blank and finally he sighed resolutely.
"Fine. You can come along," he said and Wolfram smirked triumphantly. "On one condition."
Wolfram's eyes narrowed. "What's that?"
Yuuri drew a breath and braced himself.
"You will not tell anyone there, that we are engaged," Yuuri said quickly, looking at his toes.
Silence.
Yuuri dared a glance at the blonde and took a hasty step back, for Wolfram's face was livid with rage.
"Wait, Wolf! Hear me out!" Yuuri cried, before Wolfram had a change to slander him again. "It's not that I'm ashamed of it or you or anything! It's just not normal there for two guys!"
"Liar! You just want everyone there to think you're single, so you can flirt around! You cheating wimp!" Wolfram bellowed his hand clutching the hilt of his sword.
"No, that's not why! I swear! Look, there are some people there, who might try to hurt us if they knew!"
Wolfram eased the grip on his sword, but still looked sceptical.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," Yuuri continued, relieved that Wolfram was no longer shouting, "that there are some people, who don't think two men should be… together. And sometimes they get violent."
"I thought you said you didn't need protecting on Earth!" Wolfram accused, but let go of his sword.
"I don't, because no one there knows that I'm engaged to a boy!" Yuuri said exasperatedly.
Wolfram thought about that.
"So you're saying that if they knew they'd try to hurt you?" he said at length.
"Some people might, yeah," Yuuri said quietly. "It's just a precaution, Wolf. I don't want to cause unnecessary conflicts. And, besides, it's nobody's business but ours, right?"
Wolfram gave him a long and searching look.
"I suppose," he agreed finally. "Okay, fine. I promise not to tell anyone."
Yuuri sighed with relief.
"Thank you, Wolfam!"
"But I better not catch you flirting, or—"
"I wouldn't dream of it," Yuuri assured him.
"Hmph!" Wolfram replied as the boys turned to make their way towards the royal baths.
Wolfram and Yuuri, along with Conrart and Murata, stepped out of the kiddie pool on the Shibuya's back yard later that day. Yuuri's mother welcomed them with hugs and excited squeals and promptly sat them all to the dinner table. Wolfram liked Jennifer immensely and felt right at home. Shoma let his wife do most of the talking and only nodded politely to all of them. Shori didn't seem overly pleased to see anyone besides his precious brother, but acted civil enough.
Murata went home after dinner and as he was leaving said that he would come to pick them up in the morning for the first game in the tournament. He also reminded them to put on their translator ear-pieces in the morning, so they would be able to understand and talk to Earth-people. It wasn't the game that interested Wolfram (in fact watching baseball interested him just about as much as watching paint dry), but he wanted to stay close to Yuuri and make absolutely sure that this whole trip wasn't a chance for his fiancé to go philandering behind his back.
Wolfram listened as Yuuri went over the cover stories they'd made up for him and Conrart. They were supposed to be from a small European (whatever that meant) country and in Japan for a holiday visit. Conrart would be introduced as an acquaintance of Yuuri's father and Wolfram as his half-brother. Yuuri would tell everyone, that he was supposed to show them around and introduce Japanese culture.
"Do you think we have to use our covers much tomorrow?" Wolfram asked Yuuri as they made their way up to Yuuri's room a little later.
"I'm not sure. Probably," Yuuri replied opening the door for them. "Most of my classmates are going to be there to watch the game and they might get curious."
Wolfram nodded thoughtfully and closed the door behind them.
Yuuri dug up two pairs of pyjamas from his drawer and handed the other to the blonde. They were both cotton and an identical shade of light blue.
Wolfram held the pyjamas in front of him and eyed them critically.
"No frills, sorry," Yuuri said smiling as he pulled his shirt over his head.
"I'll manage," Wolfram replied scowling a little and started to change as well.
They got into bed a few minutes later.
"Wolf?" Yuuri said quietly, and paused a little before continuing, "You will remember your promise tomorrow, won't you?"
Wolfram turned to look at him and Yuuri flinched under his glare.
"I am not in the habit of breaking my promises," Wolfram hissed, and hoped that the anger masked the hurt in his voice.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry for asking," Yuuri said quickly and flicked off the lamp on his night stand. "I just thought… well, you get so angry sometimes and might forget yourself," he finished a little uncertainly.
"I only get angry, if you give me the cause for it," Wolfram sniffed and turned his back on the black-haired boy.
"Then I'll be careful not to," Yuuri replied and settled beside his fiancé beneath the covers.
They laid in silence for awhile. Wolfram stared into the darkness, unable to sleep with bitter thoughts coursing through his mind. It hurt that after everything they'd been through Yuuri still doubted him. Still didn't trust him. And, worst of all, still relied on Conrart more than him. He and Yuuri had been engaged for three years now and nothing had changed between them.
Perhaps nothing ever would.
Wolfram tried to repel that gloomy thought, but his masochistic brain didn't seem to want to. There was nothing even resembling intimacy between him and Yuuri at all, except the sleeping arrangements and their family time with Greta. She had stopped sleeping between them more than half a year ago, but that hadn't brought Yuuri any closer to his fiancé at night; it had just left a Greta-sized hole in between them. The bed that they laid in now wasn't nearly as wide as the one Yuuri had in the royal bedchamber, but still there was a distinctive gap between the two boys.
Despite his best efforts Wolfram couldn't figure out what it was that Yuuri wanted. What was the problem? Wolfram knew he was good-looking; more than that actually, he was gorgeous! He was a loving father to Greta and utterly devoted to Yuuri. So why, why didn't Yuuri want to take their relationship to the next level? Wolfram was running out of ways to show Yuuri how much he loved him and the wimp didn't even seem to notice! Or care.
"Yuuri?" Wolfram spoke softly shifting onto his back.
"Mmhm… yeah?" his king answered sleepily, oblivious to the inner turmoil of his sleeping companion.
There were a million questions on Wolfram's mind.
Why do I have to pretend like I don't love you? What can I do to make you love me? Why aren't I enough? What will become of us? How do you really feel about me?
But he didn't voice them.
"Good night," he said instead and closed his eyes tightly.
"G'night…" Yuuri murmured already dozing off.