Chapter 2

Cool, gentle breeze was blowing in the early summer night. Letting the wind blow casually through his raven hair, he gazed at nothing in particular but he seemed to be looking at the jet-black sky.

Changes were inevitable in the current situation. He had considered both possible choices he had. Choice number one: Wait and do nothing. Then there would be no engagement between them anymore. Wolfram would then have to move out. Not only from his room, but also from the castle as he didn't have the position to stay here. It would be extremely awkward for the ex-fiancé of the king to stay in the castle. Personally, he found this point of view strange. How come the ex-fiancé had to be kicked out of the castle? Even when couples broke up, they would still see each other occasionally. Well, maybe this was again a kind of cultural difference or some so-called royal affair matters... whatever.

But the thought of Wolfram leaving him is unbearable. He couldn't stand the idea of not being able to see the blond when he wanted to. He was just too used to having the young Mazoku by his side. His leaving was like asking him to use his left hand to do everything in spite of the fact that he wasn't a lefty.

It was just intolerable! No, choice one was discarded for sure.

Choice number two: marry him. This was a tricky choice for him. He was tempted to pick this choice as he didn't think much would be changed after they got married. But then, it would be insensitive of him if the reason for getting married was just his selfish desire of not wanting to have anything to change.

People got married because they loved each other, right? And it's unfair for Wolfram. He could have found another person who truly loved him and...

desired him

That's a weird thing to think of. He once asked himself if he desired the blond. The answer, well, was complicated. He considered Wolfram a really, (he didn't know the adjective that was suitable for describing him) clean? pure? innocent? person. He looked like an angel (but he wasn't). It would be a sin to even think of staining him, as if he was some kind of goddess (he would be burnt to death if he dared tell others about this).

Maybe he shouldn't think about this topic any more. He decided that's not necessarily an important issue. Desire wasn't always related to love, was it? A mind-numbing headache was coming through. He rubbed his hair in frustration but still couldn't come up with anything useful.

Maybe he should just flip a coin and let fate decide…

He leaned forward, hands resting on the rail of the balcony.

A soft click caught his attention. He turned and found the person whom he had been thinking of these days. Dressing in his usual sky blue uniform, the young soldier scanned around the room and stopped when he saw Yuuri.

"You skipped dinner," he said, walking through the large window between the room and the balcony "That's quite rare."

Compared with Yuuri, Wolfram looked exactly the same as he was three years ago. Time didn't leave any trace, neither on his face nor his build. Yuuri caught him lifting his chin a little when talking to him because of the slight height difference. Though it was just a few inches, the double black still inwardly cheered for himself that he was finally taller than Wolfram (ignoring the fact that he lost in arm wrestling with him last week).

"Why are you smiling like this?"

"No, I'm not smiling," trying to fight back the urge to grin, he straightened his stance a little.

Maybe this could make Wolfram lift his glance more. He liked that look.

"What happened to your hair? It looks like weeds."

"Oh, that... You know, it's quite windy out here," he lied, "Look, so windy..." As if emphasizing his point, he waved his hand in the air.

"Quit it. That's silly," the blonde frowned, lifting his hand to tidy up Yuuri's messy hair.

Staring directly at the emerald eyes in front of him, feeling the light touch upon his hair, his thoughts started wandering again.

Wolfram looked the same but he was in fact different then, after all the things that they had been through.

He still kept his pride and passion. Sometimes unwilling to compromise, even when the whole world was against him. He would never hesitate to voice out his opinions whenever he found something unacceptable. Always stayed honest and determined. Yes, he was like his element, bright and strong. The difference, however, was the way he kept these characters in control. It's hard to associate words such as 'calm', 'rational' or 'gentle' with the Mazoku in the past. But there were moments, such as now, Yuuri would be amazed by how tender he could actually be. Stubborn as he was, the signs of care and love were not easy to notice. Jealousy would still be shown from time to time. Chasing and shouting were no longer the means of showing it. Instead, he would just glare, walk away and ignore the king for the rest of the day.

And the table was turned. Yuuri would spend hours (if he was free from duties) following Wolfram, trying to trick him into replying to his random utterances and talk to him again. To his surprise, doing that was kind of fun. It's like a battle of ignoring verses talking. Thanks to the non-stop talking ability inherited from his mother, he won every time.

He recalled the annoyed look Wolfram gave him while telling him to shut up and he remembered himself couldn't help but laugh after seeing how he pouted for failing to ignore him completely.

He could live like that without getting bored for the rest of his life.

"Here, you look much decent now."

Maybe…

"Hey, don't you dare space out in front of me," Wolfram grumbled as he was withdrawing his hand but it was gripped before he wanted to say the word 'wimp'.

"Er… Wolf?" Yuuri swallowed hard, not sure about what to say.

"What?" the voice sounded irritated but the hand stayed.

"Do you know about..." unconsciously, he squeezed his hand a little "the deadline?"

"Deadline?" he parroted "of what?"

"Of us..." he paused "you know... us"

"Oh... I just wondered what you're going to say," Wolfram seemed to be relieved "Yes, I know. No more engagement after next Friday."

To be frank, the king didn't see that coming. He expected to see stronger reactions, definitely not this.

"So, what about that?"

Pursing his lips a bit, the taller man commented, "You're quite cool about it, aren't you?"

He felt like a fool. It was like he was the only person who cared, and spent time worrying and panicking on his own.

"Of course, I knew it from the beginning. How should I react then?" he asked, with a slight smirk "Cry? or threaten to burn you alive if you don't marry me?"

"…" this time, Yuuri was the one who frowned. He was surely not pleased about the blonde's attitude.

"What's with that face?" he shrugged, averting the stare that was directed at him. "I thought you would be happy about it."

"Not if that means you have to leave..." or it hurts you, he added inwardly.

"Well," Wolfram moved his gaze to the dark sky, the sound of thunder from the far was hard to miss "You can come and visit me," he suggested quietly.

"No, I won't accept that," the king stated firmly, feeling his pulse racing "You did it last time. I won't let it happen twice."

How could he say this so easily? To leave, not staying by his side…

Maybe his heart was beating too fast; it started to ache. Still holding the calloused hand of Wolfram, he pressed both of their hands onto his heart, trying to ease the pain.

Surprised by the unusually quick heartbeat of the king, Wolfram turned and looked at him, eyes widened.

"Stay," raindrops started falling as he ordered, with a stubborn expression on his face. Wolfram knew very well that once he had made a decision, no one could change his mind.

Not even Wolfram himself.

The sound of rain filled the silence for a while. Wolfram sighed and chided, "Stop being childish. What then? Are you going to marry me?" he retorted weakly, looking away.

"Yes, I'll marry you," he replied almost immediately, forgetting about the things that he was worrying about a few minutes ago.

He would do anything just to keep Wolfram by his side.

"No," Wolfram disagreed darkly when he glared at the king, feeling the anger slowly boiling inside him. He took a deep breath before he uttered again. "This is totally ridiculous. You know, if you said this to me one or two years ago, I would definitely strangle you to death."

Yuuri bit his lip. He understood that he had hurt Wolfram's pride, again.

But he was just desperate to prevent him from leaving. He couldn't think straight every time he was dealing with issues concerning Wolfram.

Taking his hand back to himself, Wolfram crossed his arms "Stop the rain, then we can talk."

The rain was getting heavier. This in fact reflected the mood of the king.

When he was angry, there would be thunderstorms. When he was sad, it would rain.

He glanced at the sky for a few seconds and the rain stopped. When he noticed the damp blond in front of him, he muttered an apology. With a slight touch on the fringe, the water on their body was gone completely.

His control of his magic had improved a lot in these years.

"You're not only wimpy, but also super selfish," exhaling deeply, Wolfram lifted his chin and started.

"Eh?"

"You don't love me but you want to keep me here with you." his voice was surprisingly calm, as if he was just stating an obvious fact that wasn't his own business. He was used to Yuuri sending him signals implying he might like him more than friends but they would never become anything more than friends.

But Wolfram still didn't have the heart to leave him. This is how much he loved Yuuri.

The raven-haired king wanted to argue. Why was he so sure about it? How could he tell if there's love or not? He wracked his brain these days to think about this issue but he was still not sure about his own feelings.

"Okay then," Wolfram said, with his usual smug expression, "I can stay here and we don't need to get married."

"But how?"

"Simple. You're the king. Just give me another title so that I'm allowed to stay without being bothered."

"But then other people..." would start gossiping again.

"Whatever, I don't care," he said lazily, waving off whatever that was brought up. "I have to stay here because you're extremely useless and you cannot live without me, right?"

Yuuri stared at him for a while, dumbfounded and chuckled at last.

"Yes, you're most certainly correct."

"I hope stupidity isn't contagious," the young soldier rolled his eyes. "Which idiot in this world will laugh after being insulted?"

The double black laughed harder and raised his hand "Me."

"Ha, ha, very funny."

Refraining himself from laughing further, Yuuri asked "Wolf, what do you want to be?"

"What?"

"What title do you want?"

The blonde thought for a while, suddenly caught the glimpse of the long-forgotten storybook in the corner of the balcony. He used to read it to Greta three years ago. She was now too old for fairy tales.

Though it sounded a bit cheesy, maybe that's not a bad idea.

"Knight."

"Er... what?"

Looking up, he said again, very clearly.

"I'll be your knight."