(A/N: This is a continuation of the story started in 1. "Marriage Proposal" and continued in 8. "The Radiance of the Sun" and 11. "I'll Protect You.")
I'll protect you. I'll always protect you.
Those had been his wedding vows. That's what he had promised on the day they got married. No matter what happened, Yuuri was his most important responsibility.
Now, as he tore through the dark forest, sword bared and clothes nearly ripped to tatters, one thing kept running through Wolfram's head. Where had he gone wrong?
Where had he gone wrong?
(The previous day)
"Is this it?"
"Yeah, the honeymoon suite. Look." Wolfram unlocked the door and pushed it open. Yuuri walked in and threw his satchel down on the bed.
"Not bad," he remarked, looking around the small room. "It's cozy. What gave you the idea to come here?"
"Gisela suggested it," Wolfram responded, dragging a much larger suitcase behind him. He set it on the ground and closed the door behind him, after giving a pointed look to the cadre of guards in the hall.
"They kind of ruin the atmosphere, don't they?" Yuuri asked, wrinkling his nose.
"It was a necessary precaution," Wolfram said matter-of-factly. "You know that."
The young king flopped back on the bed and stretched languidly. "I guess," he sighed. He lifted his head up to grin at Wolfram. "I'd rather it was just us, though."
Wolfram looked down at Yuuri through half-lidded eyes, a faint smile settled on his face. "If that's what you wanted, we could have just stayed at the castle, Your Majesty..." He advanced on his new husband and sat down on the bed beside him.
"But I wanted to get away from everything for a few days!"
Wolfram smirked. "Then we bring guards. Even I can't look out for your wimpy butt all the time."
Yuuri turned onto his side and propped his head up on one hand. "Always so worried about my protection," he teased.
"It's my job, isn't it?"
The boy king smiled then, amusement shining in his dark eyes. He looked up at Wolfram through his long bangs. "Oh? As a soldier or as a married man?"
It took Wolfram a moment to respond, driven to distraction as he was by Yuuri's provocative expression. "I... uh... both." He leaned down over the other boy and placed a chaste kiss on his forehead. "Now stop being cute."
Yuuri pouted and let his head fall back to the bed. "Cute wasn't what I was going for."
Wolfram's eyes narrowed and his breath started to come in significantly more frequent intervals. "Stop teasing, then."
Yuuri laughed, his shoulders shaking gently. He sat up and looked at Wolfram with an expression of such open affection that it brought a light flush to his cheeks. "What makes you think I'm teasing?" he purred, sliding one arm around his husband's waist.
Wolfram smiled, his long lashes fluttering prettily over his eyes. "Force of habit?"
"Wolf," Yuuri murmured, nuzzling into the crook of the of the other boy's neck. "I'm trying to get you into bed here. I didn't think you would make it this difficult for me."
Wolfram's eyes widened. "You mean... now? In the middle of the afternoon?"
Yuuri blinked once, then fell backwards on the bed, clutching his stomach and howling with laughter. "The middle of the afternoon!" he gasped. "So genteel! Ah -" he wiped his eyes, his breath still hitching. "It's a good thing one of us wasn't raised as nobility..."
"I can't help it!" Wolfram huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Besides which, you are nobility. You're better than nobility - you're royalty. Shouldn't you act like a king once in a while?"
Yuuri smiled and shook his head. "Fine. I'm royalty. As far as I'm concerned, that means we do it in the middle of the afternoon." He tilted his head to one side invitingly, looking up into Wolfram's open stare. "Now get over here."
He only had to ask once.
As he tore through the forest, branches whipping at his face, heavy footfalls crunching in the dried undergrowth behind him, Wolfram tried to comprehend how he'd gone from the happiest moment of his life to the worst. They'd spent hours locked in that room, young newlyweds free for the first time to discover all the best parts of each other. They'd only left to find something for dinner, and he'd been so drunk on his blushing infatuation that he hadn't noticed the guards were absent. He didn't even see their assailants until it was too late.
Now all he could remember was a shadowed figure and a sudden sharp, stabbing pain in his shoulder. He'd fallen to his knees, groping for his sword, and when he looked up Yuuri was already gone. Sick comprehension had washed over him, and he'd immediately vomited, from pain or disgust or maybe both.
The inn Gisela had recommended was located at the edge of a remote human town inside the Bielefeld lands. The town was known for a set of mineral baths that were a popular tourist attraction, but also had a thriving logging industry from the nearby forest. Wolfram had figured it to be a safe place even for the Maou to visit - out of the way, deep inside Mazoku lands, and he could even use his family's guards.
All of this raced through his head as he stumbled to his feet, gritting his teeth to ignore the wound in his shoulder. The guards were gone. No one even knew we were here, except for a handful of people inside the castle. People we trust. He scanned the ground for any signs of their attackers, nearly crying out in relief when he spotted a set of footprints in the soft earth. He drew his sword and summoned a small fireball to light his way, then set off after the faint trail.
He was able to follow it for quite some time, despite the fact that it led him into the forest. The kidnappers didn't seem very interested in covering their tracks, a fact that he may have found suspicious if he had been thinking more clearly. As it was, the awareness that he was walking right into a trap did not come to him until he saw a dozen dark, robed figures emerge from the trees around him.
He halted, immediately extinguishing the fire and gripping his sword tightly in both hands. He made a mental schematic of the location of each enemy, holding it in his memory so that he could fight them in the dark if need be.
"What do you want?" he growled. "Tell me what you did with Yuuri!"
He heard one of the figures step forward. "You must not be allowed to interfere. You will be eliminated."
"Like hell I will -" he started to say, raising his sword to charge, but he was stopped by a sudden glowing all around him. Each of the figures raised their hands in the summoning of a spell. Mazoku, he thought in disbelief. That was when it occurred to him that there were exactly as many of them as there had been guards.
He cried out sharply and threw himself sideways just in time to avoid a volley of razor-sharp shards of ice. Several pieces struck him, cutting his face and clothes, but he didn't stop to think about it. Instead, he rolled back onto his feet and took off running, cutting down two members of the circle on his way out. He felt another magical barrage approaching from behind, but a robust fire wall stopped it, as well as bought him some time to get away.
Now here he was, tearing aimlessly through a dark forest, with no sense of where he was and a host of attackers pursuing him. Despite his dire situation, his mind was only on Yuuri. I have to find him. I have to save him. They had corrupted his family guards, obtained the help of someone inside the castle - this was a betrayal plot deeper than he could even imagine. He didn't want to think about what danger Yuuri was in at the hands of something so big.
But how was he going to find him, in the midst of all this darkness?
Just then, he heard a great roaring noise and saw a pillar of light shoot up in the distance. He nearly stumbled, fearing for the worst, until he realized that a familiar silhouette had appeared against the sky. "Yuuri," he whispered. The Maou was out - either a very good sign, or a very bad one. He turned towards that light and doubled his pace, his breath hitching painfully in his chest.
At least now he knew where to run.
It was some time later when Wolfram arrived at the scene. It appeared to be some kind of cave, cut deep into a hillside. The Maou had disappeared, and the darkness that surrounded him seemed to be even deeper than before. He moved silently, having finally lost his pursuers, or maybe they had encountered trouble of their own. At the mouth of the cave, he risked a small fireball, but to his surprise it flickered weakly and sputtered out. He tried again, only to reach the same result. Is there an anti-magic field here? he wondered, holding his sword out in front of him, both to be ready for an attack but also to find solid footing as he advanced into the cave.
"Yuuri?" he called out tentatively. He listened for a moment but didn't hear anything, not even the shuffling of feet or the soft metallic sound of a sword being drawn. Are they all gone? he thought, placing one foot carefully in front of the other. "Yuuri?" What did he do? What did they do to him?
Just then, something sparked and flared in the darkness. Wolfram blinked, shielding his eyes with his hand before they adjusted to the sudden light. The jagged walls of the caves had been illuminated by a cone of shimmering, iridescent yellow glow, which seemed to originate from one point further on down the cave. Wolfram increased his pace to a light jog, now able to see the ground in front of him. "Yuuri?" he called again, louder this time.
As he drew closer to the source of the light, he identified a familiar shape lying unconscious on the ground. "Yuuri!" he cried, falling to his knees and scuffing them badly on the rocky floor. He gathered the boy into his arms, feeling desperately for a pulse. Yuuri's left hand flopped back, sending rays from the brilliant sunstone on his finger skittering across the cave walls. Wolfram smiled through the tears burning in his eyes. "I told you it would help me find you," he whispered.
Yuuri moaned softly and his eyes blinked open. "Wolfram..." he rasped. "You have to... get out of here..."
"I know. We're leaving. Come on, get up." Wolfram threw Yuuri's arm over his shoulder and tried to pull him to his feet.
Yuuri shook his head and pushed roughly at Wolfram, who looked up in surprise. "No," he said, his voice more urgent now. "No, Wolf, you have to get out of here! Now!"
"He doesn't get it, Your Majesty," a quietly sublime voice murmured from behind them. That voice... The hairs on the back of Wolfram's neck bristled, sending a dread chill down his spine. He straightened slowly and turned.
Just as his eyes focused on the figure stepping out of the shadows, a heavy blow to the back of his neck sent Wolfram spinning down into darkness. He fell backwards onto the floor of the cave, and the last thing he saw was Yuuri's face, scuffed and stained with tears. "I'm sorry, Wolfram," he whispered, before everything went black.
(A/N: I will be finishing this story arc in one of the alternate themes. I'm not going to just end it there, I promise!)
