All the King's Men – Chapter 2
Author Notes: I apologize for the prolonged delay in getting this out. Thanks to everyone for reading, reviewing and adding this story to your alerts. More notes at the end of this chapter.
Disclaimer: Kyou Kara Maou!, including its characters and other items included in its universe, is the property of Tomo Takabayashi and Temari Matsumoto. I'm, as usual, just borrowing them for my personal entertainment and for no monetary gain.
Kubota was giddy with excitement as she prepared for her evening out with friends. The feeling never really left since she saw him earlier in the day.
Sure, he seemed oblivious, but she was convinced he just hadn't fully realized his feelings for her and wouldn't be quick to return them. After all, they'd just met, and he seemed nervous.
She knew friends and family would urge her to see reason, to not read so much into their interaction, but she couldn't help it. She loved him and just knew he'd have her. She was sure his family would adore her in time, too. She couldn't wait to meet them.
Kubota hummed a tune to herself, her steps light as she moved over to the closet and started going through the clothing she had at her disposal.
Hm… Not this one… Flip. No, this one's no good either… Flip.
"No…" Flip. "No…" Flip.
Before Kubota realized it, she had made it to the last garment.
"Damn it," she muttered.
Her roommate Nakajima chose that moment to stick her head into the room. "Hey."
Kubota glanced over her shoulder. "Hey yourself."
Before Kubota could protest, Nakajima planted herself right by her side, hands now thrust into the hangers of clothing Kubota had just gone through. After some murmuring and muttering as she looked at the various articles of clothing, Nakajima pulled a gray skirt and a purple blouse out of the closet.
"Here you go," she said, holding the pieces up against Kubota. "These will work, especially the blouse. The color will bring out your eyes."
Kubota opened and closed her mouth a few times before she regained her voice. "Wait a minute!"
"So, who's the lucky guy?" Nakajima continued, laying the outfit onto Kubota's bed.
Kubota hummed. "That's a secret."
"C'mon! Don't be selfish, holding out on your roommate!" Nakajima nudged her gently. "Besides, why else would you be tearing through your closet and talking to yourself?"
"I just met him today."
"Ah," Nakajima replied, raising an eyebrow as she did so. "Has he asked you out yet?"
Kubota shook her head, pressing her lips to keep from giggling like she was back in high school. "Of course not. That'll take a little time."
Nakajima eyed her critically. "I'd like to meet him – see if he's worthy of your affections."
Kubota resisted the urge to snort, her eyes glinting with a bit of anger. "And have you take him from me?"
"Not when I'm happy with whom I'm dating," Nakajima replied in a singsong voice, ignoring the dark look she received. "He's taking graduate studies in business and government. He's pretty cute, but then again I like guys in glasses," she added thoughtfully.
"Enough of that," Kubota said. She didn't care about Nakajima's taste in men. "We're still going out, aren't we?"
Nakajima chuckled. "Of course we are." As she headed out to her own room, she paused and called back over her shoulder, "I haven't seen you like this for a good while. I hope things work out for you."
"So, any chance of our seeing a little brother or sister from your parents, Shibuya?"
"Not hearing you!" Yuuri yelled, picking up the pace to distance himself from Murata, not caring he was still holding onto Wolfram's hand. Murata couldn't help but stop and laugh at how Yuuri plowed forward.
"Slow down, wimp!" Wolfram planted his feet as best he could, and Yuuri slowed his pace, letting go of Wolfram's hand.
"Yeah, slow down, Shibuya!"
Yuuri and Wolfram stopped long enough for Murata to catch up to them.
"Sorry about that, friend." Murata hardly looked sincere in his apology, the glint of amusement remaining in his eyes.
Yuuri shook his head and smiled in spite of the embarrassment he felt. "Sure you are."
"So, are you done?" Wolfram sniffed. "And where are we going?"
Yuuri paused thoughtfully. "We could go over near the campus."
"We just came from over there," Murata replied. "But there is one place we could go."
"Where?" Wolfram almost seemed intrigued by Murata's suggestion.
"Oh, a little place called Karasu." Murata's glasses seemed to glint from the street lights.
"And what is that?"
"You'll see when we get there."
Karasu was located a few blocks from the university campus, situated among noodle and yakitori shops. It had the appearance of the cozy neighborhood watering hole, but oddly enough, it suited the parade of students and faculty just fine.
Bottles of various domestic and imported liquors – more for anyone who could afford the luxury of purchasing spirits – were displayed up on mirrored shelving behind the beer taps, glasses stowed above the bar, tables and booths lined up along the inside walls. Sports memorabilia from the university teams and the Seibu Lions were tacked up throughout.
They almost ditched the idea of going in; Wolfram decided he didn't like the place because of the name, especially after Murata told him what it stood for translated on the train trip over.
Yuuri first shot a glare at Murata, who should have known better than to tease Wolfram, and then he turned to Wolfram. "C'mon, Wolf. Let's go in for a bit," he pleaded, giving his fiancé the best puppy dog eyes he could. After all, Wolfram was a sucker for Yuuri being cute. "It's just like one of the taverns back in Shin Makoku. There's nothing dangerous in there, like a gang called The Crows."
Wolfram rolled his eyes. "If you say so," he huffed, giving Murata a glare of his own.
From a table they located near the rear of the establishment, Yuuri watched the Seibu Lions game, cheering as his favorite player hit a home run. He and Murata bantered back and forth about the progress of the team, which wasn't doing so well for the current season.
Wolfram tried to understand what the big deal was about baseball; he'd tried learning the basics of the game from Yuuri, but in the end it didn't suit his fancy. Conrad seemed to understand and appreciate it more, probably because he'd stayed on Earth long enough to see more of it. Even now, with Yuuri all excited over the game, the joy was lost on him.
Wolfram stirred his drink with his straw, watching the bubbles float up to the top, bursting as they made it to the surface. The fizzy drink Yuuri called "soda" was one of a few things Wolfram found fascinating and couldn't get enough of at first, drinking more than one daily. Miko admonished him on overindulging, and he reluctantly obeyed her, not wanting to deal with cavities, gaining weight or ruining his complexion. He'd really missed having his morning bottle of melon Ramune though.
"Want another one?" Wolfram looked up to find Murata looking at him with an amused look on his face.
"Of course not."
"It's the bottom of the ninth," Yuuri said, bumping Wolfram's knee lightly with his. Noticing the confused look on Wolfram's face, he added, "It'll be over in a few minutes."
Wolfram looked away to avoid Yuuri from seeing his face color. "I knew that!"
Yuuri bit his lip to keep from chuckling. Five years before, he would have poked fun at Wolfram, but now… Now, Wolfram's desire to learn more about Earth and yet his bemusement over the same endeared him to Yuuri even more. He'd been trying extra hard and made the sacrifice of traveling far from all he'd grown up with and known to lend his support.
"We can stop off for crepes on the way to the train station."
"Humph! We'd better," Wolfram replied, focusing on the last of his soda and pointedly ignoring Murata's chuckling.
The evening was not going according to plan.
Kubota and Nakajima met up with the rest of their friends as soon as they got off the train, and now the group was wandering, trying to figure out where they would be spending their time. At the rate they were going, they would have spent the entire evening wandering the area only to have to return to catch one of the last trains.
And deal with the perverts, Kubota said within herself. There was one such pervert she and Nakajima left in a train car nursing a suspected broken nose for his trouble.
She otherwise paid little attention to the discussion around her, the other young women firing off suggestions. Karaoke came up more than once and was shot down each time, and with the next set of disbursements yet to show up in student accounts, heading back to the campus for a dorm party was out.
Nakajima suggested drinks and snacks at Karasu, which the group latched on to quickly. That idea seemed much better than calling it an early night.
With a more concrete plan in place, the group made its way over, chattering picking up once more, the discussion turning to the guys in their classes. They were well into the term, ample time to weed out the ones who weren't doing well in their studies; the ones who clearly didn't have the desired look were out of consideration long before that.
Kubota resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He wasn' t in any of her classes but seemed to be very studious, remembering her observation that afternoon – especially the intense, focused look in his eyes as he read his text and the equally intense glare he fixed his best friend for disrupting him. She wouldn't have minded having that glare for herself. All to herself.
As the group approached their destination, Kubota spotted him coming out with two other people, the three talking among themselves.
The first person she recognized was his best friend Murata, the one she shared a lecture with. The second person she didn't recognize at all. He looked nothing like the other two – the blonde hair and light complexion alerted her to that. Maybe he was an exchange student?
As if there hadn't been enough talk about guys, the chatter returned anew, some of the group now gushing over the blonde that caught their eye, wondering if they'd ever see him around campus. The sight of him seemed refreshing.
Sure, the blonde was cute, but nothing like him, as far as Kubota was concerned. She watched as the trio proceeded down the sidewalk ahead of her, slowly fading into the evening crowds.
She hadn't realized she'd stopped walking until Nakajima turned to find her lagging behind, the others having already gone in. "Are you coming?"
"Ah, sure!" Kubota hurried to the door that Nakajima held, taking another look down the street before going in.
Nakajima ventured a glance of her own before following Kubota, quirking an eyebrow as she looked at Kubota's retreating back.
The stop to pick up the crepes turned into another extended stop – not nearly as long as the time spent in Karasu – but enough to get some pre-trip discussion in.
The three sequestered themselves at a bench down from the crepe stand, speaking quietly in Mazoku tongue of plans and schedules for the time spent in Shin Makoku.
"You know you'll have a pile of documents to handle, so you'll be occupied the first couple of days," Wolfram warned between bites of his crepe. Yuuri resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but he couldn't dispute that much; Gwendal seemed to live to give him work in the name of "further developing the discipline of the Maou".
"I'm sure I'll have a few things to take care of at the temple," Murata added.
"And what about you?" Yuuri asked, turning to Wolfram. He had an expectant look on his face as the blonde leaned in to take another bite.
Wolfram paused then sat up straight to glare at Yuuri. "What about me? I'm in the same spot as you," he spat.
Yuuri smiled brightly; the agreement both he and Wolfram made with Gwendal came to mind. "That means it won't take two days then. Right?"
Wolfram matched his smile with one equally as bright if not a bit smug. "We're not married yet, so I can only review."
"And here I was hoping I could get a little help," he moaned, hanging his head in a dramatic fashion.
Murata found the entire episode hilarious. "Shibuya, you'll forever hate paperwork."
Yuuri shrugged. "It has to get done."
"If it's any consolation, I'm sure His Excellency will have already addressed the most critical issues," Murata said. "You'd never get done with the paperwork if he held onto every single document that came in during your absence."
"And besides," Wolfram added, "did you forget we have other plans this trip?"
"Of course not," Yuuri replied.
Murata was intrigued. "Wedding plans?"
"What else?" Wolfram replied, rolling his eyes. "Mother wouldn't dare let us have a visit home without getting our opinion on any of the details." He knew best of the three of his mother's planning methods, which meant she did whatever she felt, and he was looking forward to it the least.
"That doesn't make for a lot of 'alone time'," Murata murmured.
Wolfram snapped, blushing all the while at what he believed Murata was implying, "And why are you worried about what we're doing?"
Yuuri chuckled at Wolfram's reaction. The incident with the Dry Wind was one of a few times Wolfram made much ado over being intimate, and that had to do with kissing in public. The thought of anyone even thinking of the two doing much more than that left Wolfram even more flustered.
Time to smooth down some ruffled feathers.
"Wolf, he didn't mean it that way," he said.
Murata cleared his throat. "Shibuya's right. I didn't, so there's no need for any of us to get carried away."
"And besides," Yuuri said, leaning to whisper into Wolfram's ear the rest of his statement. Murata looked on, amused as Wolfram's blush deepened.
"Hmph! Perverted wimp." Wolfram only sounded offended; the blush on his face and how he poked at his half-eaten crepe indicated otherwise.
Murata, on the other hand, filed that tidbit away in his head for future reference. As much as his best friend would protest against speaking much regarding his relationship with Wolfram, the young king managed time and again to unwittingly let bits and pieces come out. He was tempted to point that out in light of the conversation they'd had on campus earlier.
"So, when are we heading back?" he asked instead.
"First thing in the morning," Yuuri replied, flipping open his phone to check the time. "We'd better head to the train station before we're stranded for the night."
Kubota hurried down the sidewalk, trying with a renewed fervor to recall the direction she'd seen him and his friends go. It was a gamble that much she knew; the trio could have gone to any number of places including back to their own homes.
She'd abandoned her friends at Karasu, assuring them she had to head back to the apartment and get started with some studying she needed to have done for Monday's midterms. They appeared puzzled but none the wiser of what her intentions were, and she hoped none of them had ventured a look to see which direction she'd gone when she left.
She took glances into the storefronts, at carts lined up along the way, down alleys and corridors, hoping she could at least spot the blonde. He didn't appear to be very familiar with the area, she guessed, so chances were he would be there, too.
She was prepared to throw in the towel and go home for real when she spotted the trio on a bench, the blonde holding what she could gather was a crepe.
She hung back, finding a spot on another bench across and down from where she'd seen them, her heart racing as she watched them.
They were having a discussion, a bit animated as she saw his face light up with a smile then fall as the blonde responded. It lit up again as the blonde reacted to something Murata said.
She watched him lean in – a little closer than what she'd expected or liked – to the blonde to say something to him. The look on his face as he sat up straighter – a smirk as the blonde turned a darker shade of red – made her heart clench.
Murata was a close friend, but the blonde? How did he know him? How close was he really? He seemed to be more than the exchange student everyone else thought he was.
Kubota pressed her lips into a tight line as she watched them leave the bench, heading off to the train station, Yuuri putting a hand to the blonde's back as they walked through the thinning crowds.
To Be Continued...
Author Notes #2: This chapter is dedicated to some OC development. I hope I haven't made Kubota too over-the-top. Remember, she's a bit obsessive. *cough*
I've had quite a time, between personal, not-so-happy things happening and work becoming very hectic. I hope to not keep everyone waiting quite as long for the next chapter.
Thanks to chris'cut and eclst for the prodding. *smile*