Kyou Kara Maou : Wolfram Takes a Break

Summary: On Cheri's wedding cruise, Wolfram takes a break from parenting, but doesn't return. Can Yuuri and the children find him? Short sequel to The Pirate Wedding.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to Kyou Kara Maou, of course.

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Chapter 3 : Homage

The dinghy and the sailing skiff ended up reaching Wolfram's lagoon about the same time. Adelbert's less-maneuverable dinghy – well, compared to the way Cheri sailed a boat – went in first. Efram slipped off the boat and pulled it to the side of the lagoon near Wolfram, where he could stand about waist-deep. Yuuri handed Bertram to him while he slipped into the water himself. Then he reclaimed the quiet wide-eyed baby and cautiously clambered toward Wolfram, who sat with his back to the lagoon, gazing rapt at his fellow audience members.

Wolfram and the fire elementals were only the first of the fire maryoku creatures drawn to the bay of black rock by the lagoon this night. By now the ground was alive with shining fire salamanders. A family of fire foxes sat near Wolfram, pixies hovering overhead. Yuuri didn't know the names for most of the other creatures, large and small, who ringed the pyre. He hoped none was a fire chimera. They all seemed to be coexisting peacefully for this event. He stepped carefully over the salamanders, and touched Wolfram on the shoulder, noticing that he himself, too, now glowed with a fire halo.

Wolfram looked up in surprised delight, and eagerly reached for Bertram. He exchanged a kiss as Yuuri sat down beside and embraced him. Then Wolfram looked back and waved at everyone in the lagoon, a smile of pure joy on his face. His red flower – it looked like an Earth hibiscus, though it wasn't – was still in his hair.

Adelbert and Frieda and Greta and Efram came and joined Wolfram and Yuuri on the ground, Greta and Frieda sharing Adelbert's lap to Wolfram's left, Efram hugged in Yuuri's arm to his right. Friedrich elected to stay alone in the dinghy. Yozak and Conrad, Gwendal and Annissina, all bailed out of the overcrowded skiff to watch from the lagoon's edge. On the skiff, Manfred lay holding Cheri. Aldrich and his wife Glynda held their adorable son Dietrich and his agemate Trenton von Gratz. Gisela held Murata, Brendan held Hilde, and the single Günter von Krist and Ted von Trondheim sat rapt, side by side. Cheri effortlessly nudged skiff and dinghy into perfect broadside views, and kept them there. All the living watchers – Mazoku or not – glowed fire halos.

No one spoke. A few more fire beasts wandered in. The fire foxes, miffed at being displaced by the invasion of Wolfram's family, wandered back to sit in front of them, the vixen boffing Wolfram in the nose with her haughty tail. He laughed. Her kits, a bit keyed up, climbed onto the men's laps to examine their children more closely, to the children's delight. Frieda grabbed a kit, and Adelbert hastily detached him and returned him to his mama. The kit investigating Bertram touched noses with him. He patted the kit roughly, but the fox understood. Efram eventually managed to coax a pixie into alighting on his arm for a few seconds, to their mutual delight. The salamanders respected no personal boundaries, and scuttled over Yuuri's feet and legs several times. He was too distracted with his own little corner of wonders to watch similar interactions with the others back in the lagoon.

The star of the show, the phoenix, was a grey shadow of the jewel-like bird Wolfram had first sat down to watch. His pyre built, he came around to briefly touch each maryoku beast in the clearing, and treated the people the same as the beasts – Mazoku, human, or in between. Yuuri did look back toward the lagoon watchers for that. The tired greyed phoenix didn't fly, but rather walked tiredly across the water. He paused especially long with Friedrich, Aldrich, Manfred, Cheri, and Conrad.

When the phoenix touched Yuuri, he felt he was being asked a regret, something that grieved him. It was all nonverbal, but the regret that flew out of Yuuri's heart to the phoenix was time – that his time was out of sync with Wolfram and Bertram, that he must age and die and leave them behind still young.

Yuuri and company had been there about an hour, not bored in the slightest, when the phoenix finished his rounds and walked to his pyre. With no further ado, he climbed to the top, faced the audience, and suddenly turned himself into a living torch. Yuuri hadn't expected this would hurt! A cry of anguish escaped him and everyone else, even the salamanders keening, from nearly physical pain of loss and grief. The fiery pyre burned hot and fierce and fast, expended in half a minute. A last spark flew up into the sky, and all was dark.

The fire maryoku vanished from the rock bay. No one glowed. The fire Mazoku felt suddenly drained, though not to the point of losing consciousness. In the August night, suddenly all were chilled. Fire was warmth, and light, and passion, and energy. Its absence was grief, and dark, and cold, and death. Yuuri and all the others sobbed for the death of the fire of life. Even the jellyfish dimmed in the lagoon, the stars above cold and ungiving.

And a tapping grew. At first, the sounds of grief all but hid the fragile sound, but it grew, more and more forcefully, and the sounds of grief died back into a hush of anticipation, huddled in the cold. A crack brought sudden light, gleaming through a fissure in a giant egg that rested where the phoenix pyre had burned to ashes. A few more taps and out stepped the phoenix, brighter and more resplendant than when Wolfram had first seen him. In moments, he grew back to full size, fire maryoku pulsing out from him in sheets of energy. All the people and maryoku beasts took on their overflowing fire halos again. Then the phoenix took flight, straight up, and disappeared.

The people all cheered. The maryoku beasts slipped away into the night. Wolfram was still crying, and Adelbert and Efram as well. Wolfram and Adelbert exchanged a hug, then Adelbert got up, taking Greta and Frieda with him back to the lagoon. Though the rest lost their halos as the fire elementals dispersed, all the fire Mazoku still overflowed, including Bertram and Efram, their maryoku hypercharged, so Yuuri was bathed in the energy of three fire healer halos where he sat hugging his dearest demons.

Efram pulled himself together first, and got up, reaching down for Bertram. "I'll take him," he said. Wolfram and Yuuri gave Bertram a kiss, then Bertram held his arms up and happily went to Efram, who took him to the skiff to visit with Manfred.

Yuuri chuckled. "You know, that baby hasn't stopped demanding 'Chu! Chu! Chu!' since you left. And now – 'OK, sure, let's play with Efram'. Oy…"

Wolfram laughed. "Maybe I spoil him a little. He's a willful little guy. Yuuri… I'm sorry I worried you. I just… saw the phoenix, and couldn't leave…"

"I'm glad you didn't. That was amazing! I'm sure none of us would have missed it for anything." Yuuri added thoughtfully, "I wonder, if that was all of it."

"Mm," agreed Wolfram. "I don't know, but I know what you mean. Something's different. It was like the phoenix took something from us, to die with him, and be reborn as something else. Yuuri… I'm sorry I stalked off like that. I wish I'd brought you with me. We're parents, yes, but… I don't want the two of us to ever give up being playmates and lovers together, you know?"

Yuuri smiled. In the dark by the ashes of the pyre, the only light came from Wolfram's aura, so the smile was lit only for him. "Me, too, love. I can't really say that I want to grow up faster. I'll grow up and grow older faster than you'd like already." He played with the red flower still adorning Wolfram's hair, smiling at how beautiful he looked, dressed in nothing but shorts and flower and some sandals. "I'll never give up trying to be better at the parenting thing, even though you'll forever be better at it than I am – you spend more time at it. But even while I'm still an adolescent, I still want to be your lover and friend, too, more than anything."

"Wolfram! Yuuri!" Cheri called from the skiff. "We're going to put the kids to bed, then come back here for an adult swim. See you then, if you want a ride back."

Wolfram and Yuuri smiled. Wolfram answered, "Thank you, Hahaue! Oh, but… not here. There's a better lagoon, with a hot spring, a few headlands that way." He pointed. "Let's leave this place… special. OK?"

"OK, Wolfie. We'll find you."

Efram commandeered the dinghy and dragged Greta and Trenton and Dietrich into his schemes. Adelbert and Frieda and Friedrich joined the skiff company. Bertram was already asleep in Manfred's arms. Yozak and Conrad decided they'd had enough water and wanted some food, so joined Efram's dinghy, much to Efram's disgust – he'd wanted to run that show himself. But there wasn't enough room in the skiff for all the adults, and Glynda and Hilde wanted to get Dietrich and Trenton to bed soon – they wanted to join the adult swim. Gwendal and Annissina stayed in the water, but got a tow from the skiff toward the other lagoon, Gisela and Murata joining them.

"Shall we?" asked Yuuri.

"No," said Wolfram. "Please, Yuuri – let's explore our way there together, alone for a while."

Yuuri smiled. "Yeah. Let's."

So all their nearest and dearest departed, leaving Wolfram and Yuuri alone in the hallowed place of the phoenix's rebirth. As soon as the boats were well away, Yuuri gently drew Wolfram to the lagoon, divested them of their shorts, and made love to his glowing demon lover amidst the shining jellyfish. And when they were ready to go, they saluted the ashes of the phoenix somberly as they left his lagoon. Then they both played like adolescents, laughing and swim-scrambling their way over the headlands and across the inlets, back to the lagoon of the hot spring to join the bawdy midnight adult swim.

-oOo-

There were gifts given that night, to all who came to pay homage at the rebirth of the phoenix – some griefs redeemed by the phoenix himself, others wishes granted by the other mazoku beasts at the celebration. Some realized what they'd received within days. Some took longer, some much longer.

-oOo-

Cheri and Manfred were married at the phoenix's pyre, in a very small, quiet ceremony. Yuuri performed the wedding. Other than him, only the couple's sons attended – Wolfram, Efram, Bertram, Conrad, and Gwendal. The reception, of course, was being held all week, partying with all their nearest and dearest on the hydrofoil.

Cheri and Manfred both felt a strong kinship with the phoenix. The lives they bore when they first fell in love before Wolfram was born, their careers as Maou and military commander, had crashed and burned. With their marriage, at long last, they wanted a rebirth, to create their lives anew out of the ashes.

-oOo-

The following day marked the one year anniversary of Manfred's sudden rise to ruling Lord Bielenfeld – the first day it was legal for him to resign from the job. He asked Cheri to bring himself, Friedrich, Aldrich, and Wolfram to the phoenix lagoon again, then to wait with the skiff until someone swam out to call her.

They clambered up into the black stone bay, Wolfram and Friedrich helping lame Manfred and one-armed Aldrich, though Manfred seemed to be walking easier than even a few days before. Manfred led them to ring the ashes of the phoenix.

"Are we in agreement," Manfred began, "that one of the four of us, and no other, should rule Bielenfeld?" The others nodded somberly. "Then as Lord Bielenfeld, I wish for the four of us to decide, together, who should rule from today forward, and lead our family and domain."

Wolfram was surprised. He thought they'd come here to just add a little ceremony to his father handing the baton to Aldrich. Friedrich voiced it. "The responsibility and authority are yours, Manfred. You decide."

Manfred nodded. "I agree. But I choose to decide by seeking counsel."

Aldrich was the first to nod thoughtful agreement. "If I were to be chosen, I'd want the whole-hearted support of the von Bielenfeld. I like your style, Manfred."

Manfred nodded his thanks, and said, "Then I'll start. I haven't disliked ruling Bielenfeld as much as I thought I would. Should the rule fall to me again, I will serve willingly and faithfully. But it is not what I want, not my vocation. I believe someone whose heart is in it, would be a better choice. But standing before me, I see three men, not one, who have the vocation to rule.

"Wolfram, you're my son and heir. You love politics. You were trained to rule. Although raised outside Bielenfeld, and perfectly free to choose your allegiances, you have consistently chosen to serve Bielenfeld. If I pass the domain to Friedrich or Aldrich, it is unlikely to pass your way again. So I ask you – do you want Bielenfeld?"

Caught surprised, Wolfram took a few moments with it before answering. "I think… if Bielenfeld should fall to me, I'd rule it willingly and well. In fact…" He trailed off.

"Just be honest, son. Speak your heart," said Manfred. Friedrich and Aldrich nodded agreement – they wanted to hear what he had to say.

Wolfram gathered his courage and said, "In truth, in a hundred years, I would love to rule Bielenfeld. But today? I couldn't leave Yuuri and our children. Today my heart lives at Blood Pledge Castle."

"Thank you. And who would you choose as our next ruler, if not you?"

A lot of tactful hedged answers crossed Wolfram's mind. But he elected to speak the simple truth. "Aldrich."

"Thank you." Manfred turned to Aldrich next. "And you, Aldrich? Where does your heart lie?"

"I want to rule Bielenfeld," he answered directly. "I've been the heir for my entire adult life. I've trained for it, and I believe I'm good at it. The year's break from being heir was very enjoyable. But remaining heir instead of ruler… would be alright."

"Mm, why would that be alright?" prodded Manfred. "You deposed your father a year ago – yet you say it would be 'alright' with you to give the domain back to him?"

Aldrich looked away. "I want the domain. And I love my father. I believe he'd keep me as his heir, because I'm his best choice. And though I don't always agree with him, and I wish he'd be less autocratic – we aren't children anymore, Chichiue. Still, you are the best qualified of us. And… I love you, and I want you to stick around."

"Thank you for your candor, Aldrich." Manfred turned to Friedrich next. "Uncle, you ruled long and well. I ask you – do you want it back?"

"No, I don't," answered Friedrich. "Don't get me wrong – it took me most of this year to let go, but… Like you, Manfred, I wasn't raised to rule, and my heart wasn't in it. I was happy as a healer, and inherited the domain by sudden disaster. I've spent this year teaching Manfred healing and to rule. I enjoyed the healing more and more, and the rule less and less. What I want, is to teach healing at the Institute. My advice, since you ask it, is that you pass the domain to Aldrich. And to you personally… You can heal and teach anywhere, Manfred, and Cheri would be happier if you lived mostly outside Bielenfeld. Your heart lies with her."

Manfred nodded agreement. "Thank you, Uncle. I agree. Then we are in accord. Aldrich, you have our full support. I abdicate, and declare you Lord Bielenfeld. Who is your heir?"

Aldrich looked a question at Wolfram. Wolfram shook his head, and extended his hand. "Raise Dietrich well. I offer myself and my heir Bertram as your loyal vassals. My liege."

Aldrich shook his hand with a smile. "For now. Though I wouldn't be surprised if you or Bertram becomes our next Maou. I shall treasure your service, Lord Wolfram." Wolfram didn't gainsay him. Privately, he agreed. But please – let it be a long, long time from now, let me have as long with Yuuri as I can…

They shook hands all around, bowed to the ashes of the phoenix, and left, the nobles von Bielenfeld unified and renewed, under their new leader, Lord Aldrich.

Wolfram decided he should take these little parenting breaks more often. They did wonders to clear his mind.

-oOo-

Author's note:

The cheery little story ended here, but there is another chapter, about the eventual fate of Wolfram and Yuuri's grief given to the phoenix.

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