A/N: Someone reviewed and said the last chapter was weird. Good weird or bad weird?
Will watch out for grammar this time, I swear.
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The Day With Wolfram 5
Black
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Yuuri smiled at Wolfram, and reached for his hand.
"Let's run."
Wolfram stared dumbly at Yuuri's hand for a moment. How many times before had he taken Yuuri's hand (or, less gently and more effectively, his wrist) and pulled him after himself in similar situations?
More importantly, when before had Yuuri offered to take HIS hand?
He reached limply for Yuuri's hand, and Yuuri seized him and pulled him up. Still in shock, Wolfram straightened his clothing as Yuuri dragged him along after him.
"Let's go!" Yuuri shouted to the two water dragons. They followed Yuuri out of the room, then outpaced him. When the two boys had caught up to the dragons, they found that several guards had been knocked out.
"Whew!" Yuuri said to no one in particular. He looked around, and, still pulling Wolfram with him, ran for an exit.
This was both Yuuri's and Wolfram's first times in this particular castle/dungeon/wherever they were, so 'running for an exit' entailed wandering around and letting the water dragons attack any guards that were nearby. Wolfram regained his composure after a short while, and tugged back on Yuuri's hand to make him stop running.
"Wait." He closed his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Yuuri released Wolfram's hand and put his hand on his back. "Are you not feeling alright? Did he hurt you anywhere?"
/Did he hurt me(?)/ Wolfram thought. His face burned red, but he pushed Yuuri's hand away and snapped, "Shut up. Can you hear that?"
Yuuri stilled and listened to their surroundings.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
"I think the ceiling's leaking."
"Not that, moron." Wolfram closed his eyes and listened again over the sound of his own heart. "We need to go back." He turned away from Yuuri, his hands at his sides and not with either of Yuuri's, and Yuuri stared at his back for a moment.
"What for?" Yuuri asked. He was afraid of what had happened to Wolfram, but he was much more concerned with escaping at that moment.
Still not facing Yuuri, Wolfram said softly, "I could hear birds that way. If we get close to the castle wall, then you can push it down." He waited for a moment, and added, "I can't hear anything any more." He started to walk away from Yuuri, and Yuuri soon followed him, his dragons surging ahead like before.
As he caught up to Wolfram, he looked over Wolfram's face. The prince simply glared at the castle passageway and didn't look back at him.
Wolfram's hands felt cold, but he kept his distance from Yuuri. /I already let go of his hand, which is what I should have done in the first place instead of letting him pull me along like that. The idiot probably didn't even realize what he was doing when he took my hand anyway./
He felt Yuuri's gaze on his face and asked, "What?" irritably.
Yuuri averted his eyes. Wolfram was in no mood to talk, so he would do things Wolfram's way. "Can you hear anything?"
"Why are you asking me? Don't you have ears?" The prince scoffed and walked ahead of Yuuri. Crashing sounds ahead told both of them that more guards had been found.
Yuuri decided to lay off, when Wolfram stopped him by putting a hand up in the air.
"It's here," he said.
Once they were outside the castle, Yuuri found himself following Wolfram again and no words passed between them. It was nighttime by then, and both were in pain from various injuries they'd sustained throughout the day. Yuuri noticed that Wolfram kept touching the left side of his face lightly, then pulling his hand away.
/I wonder why he's not saying anything./ Yuuri thought.
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Back in Shin Makoku, a very worried Gunter was consoling himself in Gwendal's office, much to Gwendal's displeasure.
"Did your spoiled brother run off to elope with the king again?" Gunter asked, looking very distressed.
Gwendal looked up from paperwork (Yuuri's) and took a sip of tea. "Well, if he had it would be the first time." He sighed. "I think that he's just running from his duty again."
Annissina ran into the room, and both men jumped in their seats, hoping that she didn't have a new invention that she wanted to use them for.
"Gwendal!" She shouted, looking at Gunter quickly and then striding up the black-haired advisor's desk.
"What?..." He stared at her for a moment. She looked upset. "…What is it?"
"Cecilie told me that Yuuri isn't back from the festival yet. Do you think that we was kidnapped?"
Gwendal was a little taken aback. "Well, if he was, why would you…"
She answered by clasping her hands together happily and saying, "Oh, I've come up with a new invention that I would like to—"
Gunter bolted for the door. Gwendal, however, stayed rooted to his seat.
Annissina dropped the act. "Actually, I'm worrited. I know that Gunter is worked up enough as it is, and I didn't want to make him jump to conclusions." She took a seat in one of Gwendal's armchairs.
"Why would you be worried?"
Annissina glanced at the door before saying, "Your brother wanted me to tell you that he's sent out a search party, just in case." She feigned a smile. "Who knows, it may be something mundane, like an elopement…"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Annissina and Gwendal both started as they turned to see Gunter standing in the doorway.
In another part of the castle, Cecilie and her second oldest son sat down to dinner with the Great Sage.
The ex-Maou, who believed that her son and his fiancé were just staying out late like many kids there age did, asked, "Why did you send out a search party, Conrad? I mean, the festival is still going on. Why do you think they're not just enjoying themselves?"
"I'm sure that Conrad is just covering the bases," Murata said. Conrad nodded.
"His majesty often forgets his importance in New Makoku, as well as the number of enemies he has," Conrad said. "It's just a preliminary caution."
His mother smiled. "Conrad, you've always been so calm and mature. If you had a son one day, though, I'm sure you'd loosen up about things like that." She turned to the Great Sage. "Kids are supposed to enjoy the time they spend together, right?"
Murata laughed and said, "I don't think that Shibuya has ever enjoyed time spent with Wolfram…"
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Midnight found an emotionally and physically exhausted Wolfram leading his fiancé through a pitch-black forest as best he could. They had heard a few horses pass by, but Wolfram had made Yuuri hide each time.
"You idiot," he'd said the first time that Yuuri argued with him. "You let your water dragons go already, so there's no way for either of us to defend ourselves. If we did everything your way, we'd just get captured again!" He'd ended hissing loudly at Yuuri, so loudly that the Japanese boy had clamped a hand over Wolfram's mouth.
Big mistake.
As soon as the horses passed, Wolfram had thrown Yuuri off of him and pushed him so hard that he fell to the ground. He immediately thought of apologizing—in fact, he wasn't even sure of WHY he had pushed Yuuri—but the disgust and anger from the day's earlier events flooded back to him.
Instead of apologizing and helping Yuuri to his feet like an adult, Wolfram had fallen to the ground himself, sobbing again as he had in the castle.
Yuuri stared at Wolfram for a few minutes (or where he thought that Wolfram was) and listened to him cry in silence.
/He had to shoulder the burden this time./ Yuuri thought. He wished that there was something that he could do to help Wolfram, but he didn't know what.
"Wolfram?"
The Maou's voice was soft and forgiving. Wolfram found himself waiting desperately for Yuuri to say something else, to not just call his name in that voice that was more gentle and forgiving than what Wolfram thought he deserved.
In the darkness, he heard something moving towards him, and then one hand was placed on his elbow and the other missed his body completely. Wolfram remained curled up on the forest floor, partially because of the shock that Yuuri had come to him, Yuuri had touched him, Yuuri was…comforting him?
Yuuri's other hand found his shoulder, and he pulled Wolfram towards him. Wolfram let Yuuri do what he wanted, and kept his arms together between their chests.
When he felt Yuuri's hand on the back of his head, he started crying again, and realized that he had been holding back the tears while Yuuri had come to him.
Yuuri held his tongue and waited for Wolfram to talk.
"...Yuuri…" Wolfram said, his voice muffled against Yuuri's neck. He stayed like that for a while, how long he didn't know, hating how he was enjoying this little bit of contact that Yuuri himself probably detested. He calmed down a little, and pushed Yuuri away.
"You don't have to touch me or be close to me like that, if you don't want to." the prince said, none of the usual anger or spite in his voice. "But thank you."
To his surprise, Yuuri wrapped his arms around him and pulled their bodies closer.
"Yuuri—what are you—" he struggled against Yuuri in the dark, but his panic led to his defeat and he fell back against Yuuri, panting and crying again.
"You don't have to go away," Yuuri said while panting. He was out of breath from the brief struggle, too. "This is alright."
/Alright(?)/ The prince thought. /Alright. Not good, not bad, not one way or another./
Wolfram's heart sank. Yuuri didn't want him, and certainly didn't want to be so close to him…he was just comforting him like any other friend.
/If it's Yuuri, though, he wouldn't comfort a boy like this. This is more of the way that he'd act towards girls…/
Now THAT made him want to hit Yuuri. Since when did he deserve such treatment? The anger grew inside of him and he said, "Don't hug me like a damn girl, Yuuri."
Despite this outburst, he didn't push Yuuri away, but rather waited for his response.
"It's not like you're a girl."
"Well, if I was a girl, then you'd actually enjoy it."
They laid in silence for a while. Wolfram thought about what he'd said, half regretting that he had tried to bring something like that up with Yuuri, and half glad that he had been able to confront Yuuri about the hurdles in their relationship. /He's never been straightforward about those things before, and he never cancelled the engagement. He just lets it stay like it is, and he sometimes asks me stupid things like, 'Are we seriously engaged?' and says stupid things like, 'Well it was an accident, so….' or 'I'm too young to think about things like that./ He unconsciously moved closer to Yuuri. /He's always so ambiguous and distant. Even now, I don't understand why he's hugging me./
Yuuri turned over the words in his head. /I don't hate Wolfram because he's a boy. He's my friend and he's clearly in pain, even if he won't tell me about it, so it's only natural that I would…/
He turned his attention to the blonde prince in his arms. Wolfram felt warm breath on his ear for the second time that day when Yuuri said, "Wolfram, if you want to talk about what happened, then I'd like to hear it."
Wolfram was still. He felt for a moment that maybe that touch, and maybe the feeling of Yuuri's body next to his, could erase some of his memories from earlier that day. He knew that this wasn't true, though, and that he'd probably added a new layer to the barrier around him, one that would keep him safe from such disgusting…
"I know why you hate me now," he choked out.
"I don't hate you. I never hated you." Silence. "I didn't like you at all at first. I still don't like everything about you, honestly, but I feel that way towards everyone. There are a lot of good things about you--"
"NO!" Wolfram said, his face close to Yuuri's neck. "Not things ABOUT me. I mean ME. Not whether I can protect you, or whether I'm more decent than you or smarter or anything like that. It's ME you hate."
"I don't hate you…" Yuuri said weakly. "Why would I hate you?"
"Because, I'm always trying to get close to you, to be your fiancé, to be a father to Greta, and you don't want me there!" Wolfram sobbed again. "You don't want me as anything. You see me exactly the same as you see everyone else, from my brother that you care so much about to the King of Big Shimaron, and the Great Sage, and the…" He quieted for a moment, afraid of the consequences of his confession, and then said, "I didn't want you to see me the same as everyone else. I want to be the only person in your eyes. I want to be the most important. But there's no way for me to become that…"
"What's wrong with being the same as everybody else?" Yuuri asked, a little anger in his voice.
"Because I'm in love with you." Wolfram half expected to be pushed away for saying this. It was obvious, though…Yuuri must have known. "You…you don't treat your loved ones the same as everyone else. They're supposed to be important to you…"
Yuuri thought about that for a moment. /I didn't know that he was actually in love with me. I thought that he just held the engagement because he was supposed to, and because he didn't want to dishonor his family. Once again, someone was hurt because of my actions in this world./
"Sorry," he said to the blonde prince. Wolfram shook his head. "It's my fault for thinking I was someone important to you…I mean, looking back, I don't see how I could have made that mistake. I must be so stupid…"
He felt Yuuri's hands on his back, rubbing him and then resting. He held his breath, wondering why Yuuri would touch him like that, but he let it be, wanting to savor whatever sensations he could…
/No! Yuuri is innocent. He doesn't know what his touch and attention does to me. I should stop him, not take advantage of him…"
"Like I said, you don't have to touch me if you don't want to. My back is fine without your hands on it."
"Are you cold?" Yuuri's soft voice was full of concern. "I have extra layers of clothing…this costume is pretty useful, I guess," he said, trying to lighten the mood.
"I'm fine."
Yuuri ignored him and said, "Sit up." When Wolfram was sitting next to him, Yuuri removed the outermost jacket from his costume and gently laid it over Wolfram's shoulders like a considerate boyfriend giving his girlfriend his coat on a cold night. Wolfram didn't push it off—rather, he pulled it over his body, savoring in the lingering warmth that had belonged to Yuuri.
/I've become so pathetic./
Yuuri reach out for him, and Wolfram leaned back into his body, accepting this once-in-a-lifetime chance to spend the night laying close to Yuuri. Yuuri's hands found Wolfram's shoulders.
/His body feels good./ the Maou thought. Wolfram was warm, soft, and real, better than he'd thought. He had always said that he was too young to be in a relationship—which he truly believed. He also knew, thought, that fifteen was too young an age to know what he wanted from life.
/I should try it, before I turn it down. That's how I've lived here, and it shouldn't be any different for Wolfram./
"Wolf."
"Hm?" he asked sleepily.
Yuuri's left hand found Wolfram's chin, and he tilted the other boy's face so that their lips we almost touching.
"Do you want to kiss me?"
Wolfram waited in shock for a moment, and then he said, "Don't fucking tease me. It's been a hard day."
"I'm not teasing you."
"You should know the answer to that question," Wolfram said, his face burning. He waited, and then added, "I don't want this kind of pity from you either."
"It's not pity," Yuuri said. Wolfram could feel his soft breath against his lips, proof of their proximity.
"I don't want to take advantage of your kindness." the prince finally answered. "I don't want to say 'yes, kiss me'--" he swallowed in an attempt to control himself and to hide his embarrassment, "—and then wake up tomorrow to find that you hate me even more because we kissed. It would have been my fault then, t—"
He stopped talking when he felt Yuuri's lips lightly touch his own, and his heart beat so hard in his chest that he thought he would pass out. Yuuri quickly pulled his lips away, and then embraced Wolfram again, saying, "Now it's my fault."
Wolfram laid in Yuuri's arms, not sure of what to do. Yuuri had kissed him. Yuuri, who did NOT like being near him, who had not shared a cake with him, who had taken his hand for the first time that day, had KISSED him on the mouth. No ambiguity.
Wolfram pulled away from Yuuri suddenly, so quickly that Yuuri didn't have time to react, and pushed Yuuri onto his back.
"Why did you do that?" Wolfram asked angrily. He wiped his mouth with his hand.
Yuuri's hands found Wolfram's on his shoulders. "I wanted to. I haven't been giving you a chance."
"But why would you kiss me?"
"I wanted to try this, before letting go of it altogether. If you still want me, I'll spend more time with you like this."
Silence.
In spite of himself, Wolfram lowered himself down on to Yuuri and found his face with one of his hands. He touched the Maou's lips lightly.
"Can I kiss you?"
He felt Yuuri nod and he lowered his mouth onto Yuuri's. He immediately realized how soft Yuuri's lips were, and how warm his body had become.
He pulled back after a few seconds, and Yuuri reached up for him and pulled him down to lay beside him again.
"Let's talk about this tomorrow," the Maou said. He held Wolfram's hands in his own, now incredibly unsure of the nature of their relationship.
Wolfram nodded off to sleep, one small hole in his heart filled.