Okay, fair warning, this will be the last chapter before the time jump I planned. I couldn't write everything so I skipped a couple...months. You'll see though that I think it came along rather well.
Title: Into the Indefinite Sky
Author: S.P. Kathrine
Anime: Kyou Kara Maou
Genre: AU, Angst/Drama, Romance
Pairing: YuurixWolfram
Rating: M (R)
Chapter: Chapter 9 - (09of?)
Warnings: Angst, Non-Consensual Sexual themes (referenced/implied), AU, OOC Wolfram, possibly OOC everyone else (and a few Warnings I can't mention without ruining the plot)
Summary:
Wolf had spent his life believing that he was meant for servitude. His master was strict, and often cruel, but he never thought he could be anything more than what he was. One night changes everything and he is thrown into a world that he knows nothing about and given a life he never thought he could have. But a secret he keeps could only throw his life into further turmoil and not to mention the Demon King…
Chapter 9 - Speaking to Flowers
They remained in that embrace for sometime and it was Cheri-sama who first pulled away. Realizing that she was releasing him, Wolf sat up in a jerking fashion, eyes turned away and a slight line of color tinting the pale porcelain-like skin over his nose. Cheri-sama didn't comment, but stood and extended her hand.
"Come with me," she said. "There's someone we need to see."
"Who?" the boy asked.
"Gwendal. We have much to discuss about when to have your Coming of Age Ceremony."
Her choice of words caused him to blink in confusion. "What? What are you talking about?"
She smiled at him. "Well, at age sixteen it is tradition to decide what you want to do with your life, such as becoming a statesmen, joining the military, or learning some trade. Often you have a small ceremony to commemorate it," she explained. "You did not get that choice and it would be best for your to think of how you will live the rest of your life. You don't want to spend the rest of it running do you?"
"Of course not!" he blurted. "But Yuu-His Majesty said that I could leave whenever I wanted."
"Do you? Want to leave, I mean," she inquired. "I don't mean to sound harsh, but you don't have anywhere else to go. Nowhere pleasant anyway. Why not just stay here and try to take what is being offered? You can take lessons with Günter and from there you can choose to do whatever you want. You could even decide to push back your decision until later and familiarize yourself with different crafts or duties. Just wait a few days even, if you want to leave after that, than I will stand by Heika and not let anyone stop you."
He stared at her. Does she want me to stay so badly? he wondered. And yet she's giving me the choice to leave. Does she believe that I will choose to stay? But then he thought of all of the troubles that could arise from such a decision. He would be deciding to live with the very Mazoku that he had feared and despised for so many years. He would be acknowledging himself as one of them, whether it was truthful if he was full-blooded or not wouldn't even matter.
But she's right, he admitted, even if only to himself. I don't have anywhere else to go. Hilde would beat me herself if I even attempted to return to the Talon, even if it was to stay with her. She made it clear that I am never to go back there. I may be free now, but I still have nothing, no property, not money, not even an extra suit of clothing. Yuu-HIS MAJESTY promised to provide me with funds if I chose to leave, but that doesn't change the fact that I have no idea what I would do with it.
What he needed was time. Time, to get to know the world around him and acquaint himself with those who could best help in him creating a life for himself. Cheri-sama was correct in everyway, even though he would not tell her that to her face. At the same time, Wolf did not know if he would be allowed to leave if he did wait. Why would they provide for him only to let him go without want for anything in return? It didn't make any sense to him at all.
"It's all right for you to wait," Cheri-sama told him, interrupting the confusing debate within his mind. "You cannot simply pick up a life for yourself in one day. You need to find what you know will make you happy. Yuuri Heika will give you the chance. That's all he wants for his subjects." She gave him that saucy wink once more. "And since you're his fiancé, he'll want to make sure your really happy."
Her words changed the atmosphere of their conversation. Wolf cut his eyes and glared at his hands where they lay in his lap. "I am NOT his fiancé!" he insisted. "I didn't know when I hit him! And HE most certainly was not thinking clearly! His reaction last night was telltale enough."
"But you must remain engaged for seven months," she reminded him. "Then the Council will annul the agreement. Couldn't you just try to go along with it? Heika is rather odd, yes, but I know that he is the kindest of hearts and it is easy to become enchanted by him."
Enchanted? What an interesting turn of phrase, Wolf thought. He recalled how he felt when around the boy. Either he was lost within his eyes and smile, or fueled to anger by the betrayal. Such extremes. Yuuri made him feel things that confused him and he did not like his lack of defense when confronted by those feelings. Indeed, it was almost as if he was caught in some spell.
"I refuse to be trapped in a relationship without any standing," he finally said. "When you and Sir von Bielefield married, you were at least friends. There is not even that much between His Majesty and I."
"But there could be," Cheri-sama returned with a smile. "If you both could put in the effort. And it would be wonderful for Greta."
"Why?" Wolf wanted to know. "What is wrong with Greta?"
"Well, there are often times when Yuuri Heika has to return to his homeland, because he is not originally from Shin Makoku," she clarified. "When he leaves, Greta misses him so much and is very lonely. It was obvious yesterday how much she cared for you and you seemed to like her very much, too. You would be a great comfort to her. Like another father."
I'm too young to be a father, he wanted to say, but he could recall all of the other children he had cared for and helped raised over his years as a slave, Hilde's two girls being some of them. At the same time, he thought of his feelings when he was forced to leave them behind to move on to a new house and master, or when they had been taken away. Thankfully, most were far too young to get attached to him in a permanent way. He'd had twelve different masters throughout his sixty-some years of slavery and, having spent twenty of said years with Verik, that meant he was passed and sold often. The shortest amount of time he'd been 'kept' was six months, the longest-other than Verik-was eight years. Many of the children would now be elderly and have grandchildren of there own.
Greta is Human, he thought. Would I have to watch her grow old and die before I'm even old enough to look the part of her father? Could I do that to myself?
"Please think on it," Cheri-sama asked of him. "You shouldn't regret the choices you make while you're here, or after you leave."
"So I do not need a Coming of Age Ceremony?" he wanted to be sure of what she was saying.
"Not at this time," she replied. "You could always wait or choose not to have one at all." Then she gave an elegant shrug, "But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't see Gwendal. I'm sure that they are absolutely frantic looking for you. They might even think that you ran away."
It was then that Wolf realized that she knew the real reason for why he had entered the room. But she did not try to accuse him of anything, merely tried to sidestep the oncoming confusion that would come with his seeming disappearance. "It would seem the best course of action," he agreed with her and then stood, but did not take her hand.
"May I touch you again?" she requested.
"Why?" he inquired in return.
"I just want to fix something," she explained.
His mind came up with a few ideas on what she could want to do, but he did give her permission. Wolf was shocked by the pleased expression on her face as she reached out and ran her hand through his hair. She shifted strands and such until she seemed satisfied and then pulled away.
"You have such beautiful hair," she said, "and yet you leave it in such a mess. That will not do. And it's rather long, but perhaps this length isn't bad for you."
Wolf hadn't actually thought about his hair since he'd rinsed it during his bath. Yes, it was rather long, reaching past his shoulders in some places, but it was also uneven and there were places where the strands were broken, damaged from being pulled far too often. In the mirror yesterday he had not even noticed, so shocked was he by his own transformation, but now he had the time to contemplate it.
"No," he decided. "It would be best if it was cut."
"Good!" Cheri-sama clapped her hands together. "That is something that we can work on today! But for now, let us deal with the matter of your whereabouts."
They both walked in silence to the door, but Wolf was distracted by the stuffed animals on the table. One in particular. It was a rather brightly colored pig, with buttons for eyes and a large nose. It seemed so familiar that he could not help picking it up for a closer look.
I had a Piggy, when I was younger, he remembered.
"That's Kitty 2," Cheri-sama told him.
"Kitty 2?" he repeated.
"Yes, Gwendal made one for Wolfram when he was born," she said. "It's a kitty, even though it doesn't look it-actually looks more like a pig. When Wolfram went missing, we couldn't find Kitty either. Gwendal made a new one to put in the room afterwards. It was important because it was one of the few things they always argued over. Wolfram loved 'Piggy' and absolutely refused to call it 'Kitty'." She then opened the door and stepped out of the room.
Wolf stared at her, eyes widening slightly before looking back down at the soft toy in his hands. He continued to stare at it for some time, trying to assimilate what he had 'known' with what he now 'knew'. With a reverent sort of care, he set the 'kitten' back in its place on the table and followed her.
They reached the door to Gwendal's study and could hear the voices within. They were muffled, but the angry tones were still understood. Cheri-sama gave him another of her infamous winks before pushing both of the doors wide open.
"-not going to spend hours searching for someone who doesn't want to be-"
Gwendal's words halted as the five people in the room turned to stare with various stages of shock at the two newcomers. Yuuri's eyes were wide and Günter looked as if he had just been about to speak. Murata actually looked as if he was trying to go back to sleep at the table, completely uncaring about the shouts and arguments gong on around him.
"Hello, boys!" Cecelie greeted exuberantly. "Why are you fighting so early in the morning?"
"Where have you been?" Conrad's question was obviously directed at Wolf.
"He was with me, of course," Cheri-sama answered instead. "We had a wonderful conversation and came to understand one another."
I doubt that I am EVER going to understand you, Wolf kept this to himself.
Yuuri stood up from his place at the long table in the center of the room and moved. "We thought-"
"That I had run," Wolf nodded as he interrupted him. "I know, I'm not dull. Why else would you think otherwise? You all know how I feel about being here."
"Do you intend to run?" Gwendal asked him.
"Would you try to stop me?" he parried.
Günter stepped forward. "As fiancé of Maou Heika, you have duties that need to be seen to, as well as lessons to take about-"
"Is that how you see me?" Wolf cut him off. "First I was merely the lost brother, now I'm just the fiancé to that wimp of a king?" He motioned his hand towards Yuuri. "I'm am not a title, a concept, or a memory. I will decide who I am."
Conrad stared at him, those same penetrating eyes trying to read him. But Wolf would not be so easily taken in by any of those in the room. Not even Yuuri.
"And, pray tell, what have you decided?" Conrad asked him, that same infuriating smile back on his face.
Wolf would not take the bait. He knew what he wanted and-
"Wolf-chan!"
Small arms wrapped around his legs and he almost lost his balance, more out of shock than the actual act. He turned his attention downward and saw the young caramel-haired girl that clung to him.
"Where were you!" she demanded. "I went to find you this morning, but some of the guards said that you ran away!"
"Greta…" the blonde didn't know what to say at first. He gently pulled her away from him and kneeled down so that they were near eye level. "I didn't run away. I was with Cheri-sama."
"But do you want to leave?" Greta asked him, open wariness in her eyes. "I know you kept getting sick yesterday, but you seem better today, and I wanted to show you the garden and the new flowers Cheri-sama and I were growing, and we could have a picnic, or something, and…" She took a deep breath. "I really, really like having you around and don't want you to leave!" With that she threw herself into his arms, wrapping her own tightly around his neck.
Wolf stared at the dark-skinned child clutching him so dearly and didn't know what to do. Discreetly, he glanced at Cheri-sama, wondering if she could have possibly put the girl up to this, but didn't think that such a thing could be acted out so well. And so he curled his arms around her in return, feeling the light tremble in her body.
"Please don't leave," she pleaded. "I'm sure you'll like it here if you just give it a chance. And Papa Yuuri is really nice, too! And so is everyone else, so please don't leave. If you leave I might never see you again."
How can I tell her no? he asked himself frantically. He could feel the growing wetness on his shirt. He hadn't realized that she would come to care for him so much in just the few short days that they had known each other. Greta was indeed a wonderful child, and anyone could simply fall in love with her, but… Could he really choose to stay just for her?
/ "…you don't have anywhere else to go. Nowhere pleasant anyway. Why not just stay here and try to take what is being offered?" /
Finally, Wolf let a sigh and smiled as genuinely as he could. "I'm not going anywhere," he told Greta. "So you don't have to worry about it anymore. I'm staying right here." She stepped back and looked into his eyes, searching for any lie behind his words. He reached out a hand and wiped the streaks from her cheeks. "Don't cry anymore."
Her eyes brightened almost instantly. Once more, his arms were filled by the enthusiastic girl as she squeezed him. "Yay!" she cried. "That means that I can show you the new flowers and go on a picnic! It will be great! We'll have so much fun, Wolf-chan!"
"I-I'm sure we will," he let out a light laugh at her eagerness. "But maybe you shouldn't do all of this in your nightgown."
Jumping back, she clapped her hands together. "I need to get dressed!"
Cheri-sama seemed have been infected by her obvious zeal over her plans for the day. "I know just what would be perfect to wear for today!" she exclaimed. "Today is going to be lovely!" She took Greta's hand and they turned to leave, but not before Greta waved goodbye to everyone in the room.
"You'll be coming with us, right Papa Yuuri?" she had asked.
"Of course," the raven-haired boy had agreed.
"Good!" she grinned just before she and Cheri-sama left the room, shutting the doors behind them. Wolf stared at the doors after they were gone, a strange feeling welling up in his chest.
"You don't have to stay here just to please her," Yuuri told him.
"I'm not," the blonde replied, his back still to them. "I have spent almost my entire life as a slave and know very little else. I made this decision for myself, so that I may find my path in life."
He did turn to look at all of them then, even though his eyes fell on Yuuri. "Don't mistake this as me suddenly deciding to become 'Wolfram von Bielefield'. I am not him. You may even call me by that name if you wish, yet it will not change the fact that I will never be him. But I will stay until I can figure out who I am supposed to be. For that, I guess you could say that I am using you, rather than the other way around."
Yuuri only concurred with his words, "You can stay for as long as you like and leave whenever you feel ready."
"I want to learn to use a sword," Wolf told them. "And I want to learn everything I can about Shin Makoku."
"Why?" Yuuri asked him.
"Because I want to know the truth about Mazoku," he answered. "If a child like Greta can care so much about you all, there has to be a reason for it."
A smile lit up those eyes and Wolf refused to let it affect him as it usually would.
"You can take lessons from Günter with Shibuya," Murata said. "He still doesn't understand all of the Mazoku customs and so Gunter's been tutoring him."
Wolf nodded, only for a sound to break out in the relative silence of the room. A blush covered his cheeks only slightly while everyone else froze.
It was Yuuri who gave the embarrassed laugh. "Perhaps we should go to breakfast," Yuuri said. "I'm starving so much that my stomach is protesting."
"We wouldn't want the Maou to die of malnutrition," Conrad spoke. "How would we explain that to your subjects?"
Wolf only watched them and their friendly banter. No one mentioned that it wasn't Yuuri's stomach that they had heard.
Entering the garden was much like walking into another world. Even surrounded by the stone walls of the castle the flowers grew as a wild and vibrant, yet tamed beauty to counter the obvious civilization around them. The scents of the different strands enveloped him like a sweet perfume. It was calm and peaceful. Wolf almost felt as if he was intruding.
"Look at those roses!" Greta pointed out the flowers that did indeed look like rose, save for the fact that the petals were often more than one color. "Cheri-sama said that they were the first ones she blended. She said that she mixed them with pansies. Aren't the colors pretty?"
"Very pretty," he agreed with her. Greta smiled and pulled him along even more. She was dressed in something other than the recreational clothing that she normally wore. Instead she wore a lightweight, casual pale blue dress that came past her knees with a pair of white girl-breeches that came to just past her knees. The outfit was unusual for what he had seen most young girls wear, but it did look adorable on her.
Cheri-sama had been very proud of her selection and said that was perfect for a stroll with the 'family' as well and for light play. She also mentioned how it was perfect for Greta because of how she preferred pants to simple gowns. Yuuri had complimented his daughter on how beautiful she looked and Wolf agreed with him. The child had blushed happily before sitting down to enjoy her morning meal with them.
After cleaning up and getting dressed-his clothes once more provided by Yuuri, Wolf had allowed Greta to lead him out of the palace to the cobblestone path to the garden. Yuuri was not far behind, walking beside Murata, who had decided to join them-for 'entertainment' he had said.
So far they had only covered the first area of the garden and there was still plenty more to see. Flowers he recognized and could remember were everywhere, although much more vivid than he could ever recall them being. It seemed like the gardeners and Cheri-sama took great care with them. The ones that he could not recall were beautiful and Greta enjoyed explaining each one she knew to him.
"Those are Tiger Lilies," she would say, inserting different blossoms for each one. "I actually got to help plant new ones last spring." Then she would turn to Yuuri and Murata. "They've grown bigger, haven't they Papa Yuuri?"
And so they went, spending the rest of the morning this way. They finally had traveled through the circular garden and then turned towards the courtyard at the front of the castle. There were many flowers around the edges of the square as well and Greta felt it was her responsibility to show all of them to him as well.
One patch caught his attention, for he spotted a yellow flower he was sure he had seen before. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it looked like the picture on the bottle of bath soap he had used the day before. "What is that flower?" he asked, pointing to it.
"Oh," Greta said, "that's beautiful Wolfram."
He looked back at her. "Yes it is beautiful," he agreed. "But what is its name?"
"Beautiful Wolfram is its name," Murata clarified. "Cheri-sama named these flowers personally. The blue ones are Secret Gwendal and Conrad Stands Upon the Earth. The red ones are Cheri's Red Sigh."
"Oh," Wolf took in what they had said, only to notice something had been left out. He pointed to a black and dark blue flower that did not look as if it had completely bloomed yet. There were fewer of it scattered about the plot than all of the others as well. It had a tall stalk with a large bud that was still somewhat closed. "What about this one?"
"That's the one Cheri-sama and I worked on all winter and early spring for!" Greta stated proudly. "This is the first time its been planted, though and it hasn't fully developed yet. We haven't even given it a name."
"It's lovely," he told her. "You have a wonderful talent for this."
"I love flowers," she told him with a blushing shrug. "Cheri-sama says that I would make a great flower breeder."
"If you put so much work and dedication into it as you seem to, I couldn't see any reason why you wouldn't," he smiled. "And flowers are one of life's most talkative plants. They can say anything you want them to and even a few things that you don't realize. If there's something you can't say, flowers can easily do it for you. All they ask is that you respect them and their beauty."
"That's exactly what Cheri-sama said!" Greta exclaimed. "Wow, you two must have had a really good talk this morning."
Wolf froze at her words. He did not know where the words had come from. He could somewhat remember someone else saying them to him, but not who or when. It was one of the things from his faraway childhood that he could barely recall. It was hard to remember everything after letting it fade for so many years.
They started to walk away from the plot, only to have Greta halt them. "I know!" she said and suddenly Wolf was being tugged to the fountain. "Sit here!" she said, pushing him down so that he was facing the front steps of the castle. "Don't move and don't you dare look behind you!" With that she rushed off. Wolf could only blink in perplexity.
"You're wonderful with her," Yuuri mentioned as he came up behind him. "She adores you."
"I have no idea why," he replied.
"It's because you have a motherly aura around you," Murata stated.
"Motherly!" the blonde shot up and glared at him. "I'm a boy!"
"That doesn't change the fact that you're very paternal," the dark-haired boy replied, bringing up his hands as a form of surrender. "It's not meant to be a bad thing! It's good to have such qualities."
"Don't be so angry, Wolf," Yuuri tried to supplicate him. "She likes you, so isn't that all that matters?"
"Especially since she's going to be your daughter," Murata added. "I mean, you're engaged to her father."
"I'm not this wimp's fiancé!" the blonde huffed.
"Right, he's not my-" Yuuri's words halted. "Hey! Don't call me a wimp!"
"You are one!" Wolf returned. "You're weak and you can't even take someone squeezing your shoulder!"
"It's not my fault you're stronger than you look!"
"What is that supposed to mean!"
"I mean you look kinda girly!"
Yuuri suddenly realized his folly just as Wolf grabbed his arm and twisted around, the dark-haired boy flying through the air before landing in the fountain. He sputtered and quickly pushed his head above water so that he could breathe.
"Shibuya!" Murata cried out and jumped in to help him.
"Humph," Wolf crossed his arms and turned his head away. "Serves you right! Wimp!" A cry let out and Wolf looked back to see that the water in the fountain was swirling like a whirlpool, both Yuuri and Murata trapped in its thrall.
"Yuuri!" he cried and threw himself towards the edge of the fountain, his hand outstretched. The Maou reached back reflexively, but it was too late. Both he and his friend were lost down the swirling waters. "NO!" Wolf jumped into the pool, but found himself touching the stone ground. The Whirlpool was gone and so were Yuuri and Murata.
"YUURI!" he shouted, falling to his knees.
"Wolf-chan!" Greta was standing a few feet away.
"Go get help!" he told her urgently. "Something happened and Yuuri and Murata were sucked away! We have to do something!"
"It's all right Wolf-chan," she told him, although her voice was somewhat somber. "Papa Yuuri and Mura-chan just went home."
"Wh-What?" he asked her, slowly calming down.
Greta let out a sigh. "Shinou always sends them home this way. Papa Yuuri is connected to water, I guess, so water sends him home. They'll come back in a while."
"Y-You mean this happens all the time?" he asked incredulously.
"Uh-huh," she nodded. "But they won't be back for a week or so at the earliest. Sometimes, Papa Yuuri is gone for a long time and I miss him a lot." She turned her eyes down, staring at the surprise she had gathered for him. A bouquet of the flowers from the last plot they had visited.
"Greta…" he drifted off. Instead of saying what he was about to, he dragged his soaking body out of the fountain and kneeled in front of her. Then he hesitantly took her into his arms, carefully not to crush the flowers between them. "Thank you for the flowers, they're lovely."
She smiled in return, even though there was a wet glaze to her eyes. "I'm glad you like them."
Okay... I have no idea where this chapter came from. I originally wanted it to just be about the flowers and then have them sitting down with Wolf for his first formal meal... but as you can see it didn't turn out like that AT ALL. I just let it flow and look what happens...Yuuri gets shipped back to Earth. Oh well, still working with the time jump. Next update is Sunday...and you'll be getting the BIG surprise twist that I've been holding out on since I started writing this story. Until then.