Yuuri shivered from the cold when he got out of the cover of the residence walls. He felt that there was even colder than in his castle, and he was probably right because it was the country's northernmost point. The freezing wind blew, and there was snow everywhere.
Only when he landed his eyes on the winter landscape of the city beneath and the mountains surrounding it did he forget of the cold for a moment. But then, the wind blew again.
"I don't understand how people here are able to live in those conditions."
"They already used to it." Conrad walked over to him, looking seemingly unfazed by the weather.
It looked like he would be the only one bothered by the circumstances, and he didn't like it. But Wolfram probably didn't like cold weather, so maybe they would be able to share their suffering together.
Those thoughts were shattered when his fiance left the residence, walking calmly toward them as if he were strolling during the spring. Not fair.
Wolfram was wearing a white coat with soft fur and at his head was a made by Gwendal bear hat. The oldest brother also made one for Yuuri, but he had no intention of wearing it. He preferred to bear the cold than the embarrassment. But when the blonde stood right next to him, still yawning and rubbing the sleep away from his eyes, the air around him started getting warmer, and soon, Yuuri didn't feel cold.
He looked at Wolfram quizzically and then at Conrad, who also got closer to his younger brother, and, finally, he understood what was happening.
"You are using the fire maryoku to warm up himself?"
"Of course I do. I don't intend on going in weather like this without it."
"Fire maryoku could be handy in those circumstances." Conrad laughed.
Well, and you are using him as your personal furnace. But Yuuri was going to do the same, so he didn't comment on that.
"The opening ceremony should begin soon, so better let's get to the town square." Conrad went a little ahead of them in the city direction but not far enough. From now on, they were forced to walk on Wolfram speed if they wanted to stay warm.
The Maou was invited as a special guest for that town's annual winter festival. Apparently, it was one of the biggest attractions in the whole country, attracting lots of tourists every year. The views themselves were already beautiful, so Yuuri wasn't surprised. And going there would allow him to have a nice winter break in a cozy mountain residence, making him even more exciting to come. The cold was a problem in the beginning, but now he had Wolfram, so he could forget about it.
They went into the city, where crowds of people were already gathering. The buildings and vendors' stalls were decorated with colorful lanterns and tiny paper flowers. The space was filled with loud laughs and the pleasant smell of warm winter delicacies. Yuuri didn't know what was sold in the food stands, but he intended to try anything anyway.
In the middle of a town square was built a wooden platform, next to which was standing the mayor of the city, already waving to them.
"It's such an honor to host the Maou himself in our humble festival." The man said after introductions.
„No, it's my pleasure. Thank you for inviting us." Yuuri laughed awkwardly, seeing the mayor bowing and thanking him once and once again.
„The people are very pleased. The king's presence himself is enough reward for their struggle to pull off the festival this year. And they will be even more delighted when they hear the words of praise from the Maou himself."
„Wait, it means you want me to say the speech?"
„It would be the grand point of our opening."
Nobody told him about preparing any speech. Was there anything good he could say as an improvisation? He couldn't think so.
„Wolf, go instead of me."
„They want the king, not the king's fiance."
„I'm pretty sure they would be more than pleased after seeing you."
„Don't dump your job on me and just go!" Wolfram pushed him into the wooden platform when the mayor was already welcoming the guests.
All the eyes immediately landed on him, making him nervous, which didn't go well with a sudden unpleasant feeling of stepping into the cold. He needed to make it fat and go back to his furnace, that is, Wolfram.
„Thank you for coming, everyone!" He said after the mayor introduced him. „We have another great festival this year. I hope that all of you will have a lot of fun and make wonderful memories from this occasion. But just be careful to not catch a cold."
The crowd cheered after he ended speaking. Yuuri suspected they would cheer on him no matter what he said, but he still didn't want to feel stupid. He waved to everyone and ran back to Wolfram, hugging him and feeling like all the cold was escaping his body again.
„What, Yuuri, what are you doing?"
„It's cold."
„I know it's cold, but we are in public."
„And what about it?" He didn't care or think about anything else at this moment. Warm was the only thing he was focused on.
„You really are a handful." Wolfram pushed him away and sighed when Yuuri whined. Then, he stretched his hand to him. „Let's go. You wanted to check the attractions, right?"
Happily, Yuuri grabbed the hand offered to him, immediately feeling warm spreading out through his body from his palm.
„I will leave you then. Don't go outside of the festival area, understood?" Conrad said, directing his words to Wolfram.
„Wait, you leaving?"
„I don't want to interfere with your date." His godfather sent him a knowing smile.
Now, warmth was also spreading from Yuuri's face.
After instructing his little brother where he could find him in case of emergency, the soldier walked away, disappearing into the crowd.
Standing as if he froze to the ground, Yuuri proceeded with what to do next. During that time, Wolfram was patiently waiting for him.
„Well… Maybe let's check the food stalls first." He finally said, trying to sound natural.
„Sure."
They got cups with a local beverage right after approaching the dining area. It had a spicy aroma and intense taste, making them feel energized after drinking it.
All of the foods were fried on the grill or baked in the oven, so everything Yuuri took was warm. There were buns and dumplings, meat skewers, fried fruits, and vegetables, something that looked like small dought patties. The selection was so vast that Yuuri chose to take a small portion of everything to make a taste test.
From all the selections, Wolfram bought himself a dark cake full of honey and nuts.
They sat on one of the benches, observing a dance performance nearby while eating and sharing opinions about the food. After eating all of it, Yuuri was already full and needed some rest, so he observed the people walking around them.
Then, he spotted that many people were walking in the same direction. There was already a huge crowd in that alley.
„Hey, Wolf. Let's go see what is there."
Wolfram only hummed, not looking where Yuuri was pointing, focused on licking the honey from his fingers.
„Wolf."
„There should be an ice figures competition."
„That sounds cool. Let's go."
So, they went. Walking through the crows wasn't hard, as everyone was stepping aside after seeing them, and soon they could see the first statues. They were still a work in progress, but the shapes could already be seen. Especially a particular one.
„They wanted to go the easy path…" Yuuri looked at himself, scalped out of ice with disgust. It was an idealized, or maybe it would be better told, caricatural version, probably made only to appeal to the jury.
The warmth started getting away from him, and he looked around to find Wolfram slowly walking in the other sculpture direction.
„Hey, don't walk away from me." He trotted to the prince and grabbed his hand again.
Wolfram was looking in awe at a big statue of a horse in a gallop. The artist was still adding final touches, but even someone deprived of any art sense could see the finesse with which the statue was made.
„It's beautiful." Wolfram walked around the horse, taking Yuuri with himself.
It seemed like the artist heard Wolfram's comment and was now shying away, not knowing what to do with himself. He should be grateful – it's rare to get a compliment from the prince.
„Maybe we should get back when they finished all the sculptures," Yuuri spotted another crowd gathering attraction and wanted to see it, not feeling that much interested in the ice carving.
Wolfram took another round to walk around the horse and went after him to what turned out to be a frozen lake. People were ice skating on it or playing around with snow.
„You can borrow skates from there if you want." Wolfram pointed with his head in a small shed direction.
„Cool. Let's try it!"
Yuuri felt a little bad that he had a priority pass whenever he went as a king, but he didn't think it would be possible to tell all those people not to do this. So it ended up with them having a lot of place on the lake just to themself, and on top of it, many heads were facing their direction, looking carefully at his every move. It was a good thing that he was decent at skating. If he fell among all that crowd, he would hide for days.
Of course, Wolfram was also good at skating. More than good, he was giving a show. When he did a jumping pirouette, everyone started clapping.
The prince came back to him, grabbing his hands and circling him around, making him spin.
„I didn't know you liked it," Yuuri said, seeing his smiling face.
„You good at this too."
„Well, I'm trying."
They skated together, Wolfram most of the time being in front of him, looking at his face.
„Are you ok with doing it backward?"
„I'm good."
„I see."
Then, Wolfram stopped at looked at him more closely. Their faces were close, their breaths turning into a mist with every breath. But Yuuri still didn't feel any cold, only a pleasant warmth coming from the person in front of him. Suddenly, the distance between their faces disappeared, and he could feel something soft and warm touching his lips.
First, he didn't know what had happened. Only when Wolfram pulled away, with his cheeks flushed and some strange sparkle in his eyes, did Yuuri's mind finally understand the situation.
„Wha…" He took a step away and nearly fell on his ass. Now that got to him where they were, the presence of all the eyes observing him was again noticeable. He wanted to get out, so he went to the lake's edge. His hands were still holding Wolfram's, more out of the habit, so the prince was right behind him.
When he couldn't walk properly on the ground, he only calmed down a little. Acting as if everything was all right, he returned the ice skates.
Walking away from Wolfram meant going into the cold, so he didn't want to do this. He wanted to stay in his warmth. But not where everyone was looking at him. So, he pulled him with himself through the town and finally found some place where they could be alone.
„You could just tell if you didn't like it," Wolfram said after minutes of silence.
„I'm not… disliked it. It's just…" He looked around, searching for words. „I don't like to have an audience."
„You didn't mind this in the town square."
„That was something different!"
„How?"
„Aghh." Yuuri grabbed his hair, not knowing how to explain this. „I just don't like everyone to witness my first kiss. It's too private. And embarrassing."
Wolfram looked at him and then turned around his head.
„I'm sorry."
„It's ok. I'm not angry at you." He placed both hands on his shoulders. „Celi is probably doing it all the time, so you don't know that it is something bad. I mean, it's not bad, bad. But every person has a different feeling about it." He left like he was starting to get lost in his explanations, but Wolfram nodded his head. „Maybe we should talk about it later." Another nod. „But the festival is still going. I'm hungry again, so let's get some more food."
Wolfram nodded again, but this time he looked at him and smiled.
The fire in a fireplace cracked. A soothing sound Yuuri liked to listen to while sitting on the sofa, wrapped in blankets and observing the land outside the window. He had a book on his lap but gave up on reading it, focusing instead on stroking the golden locks of the person leaning on his chest.
Conrad entered the room with two cups of something warm in his hands. He handed one of them to Yuuri and sat in the armchair.
„You had quite an eventful day." He said, sipping from his mug.
Yuuri smelled the drink to find out it was the same beverage he had drunk earlier.
„It was nice."
„You were pulled to be a jury in an ice sculpturing competition. The participants had to be excited."
„They were. Some even too much. They even give me their statues. I have no idea what to do with those."
„It's cold here for most of the year, so you can leave them in the garden. Although Gunter might want to see them. Especially the Maou one."
„I'm going to break that one down."
Wolfram wriggled a little in his sleep, so Yuuri patted his head reassuringly.
„The newspaper already had a great headline for tomorrow. You overshadowed the whole festival." Conrad chuckled. „But now they can advertise it as an ideal place for couples to make out."
„Don't tease me." He drank the last bit of his drink and put the mug on the table.
„But it's a joyful occasion. I'm sure people will be reassured that the royal couple is on such good terms."
„Are you trying to say that it's good for morals? Because I felt you are just happy because you win in a betting pool."
Another smile made him quite sure of his thesis. He had seen the pool before departing for the festival. All of the people in the castle are betting on when they would first kiss. And he was pretty sure that Conrad orchestrated everything today to win.