Happy Holidays, akayashi! (original) (raw)

For: Akayashi
Prompt:Wolfram x Yuri; Assurance

Title: I Know.
Name of Recipient: Akayashi
Pairings/Characters: Wolfram/Yuuri, a few people from the main cast
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: Kyou Kara Maou, its characters, storyline and settings belong to Tomo Takabayashi. This is but fanfiction and I make no profit from it.
Original Request: Wolfram x Yuuri; Assurance
Summary: Wolfram goes to bed every night wondering if he was one step closer to Yuuri’s heart.

A/N (if applicable): Be warned about recurrent, unannounced flashbacks and reverts back to the present. These are meant to be Wolf’s thoughts and as we may or may not know, thoughts can never stay organized for more than five minutes.

He went to bed every night wondering if he was one step closer to Yuuri’s heart. He knew very well, with obvious chagrin, that the Demon King loved everyone equally and gave everyone equal treatment, but Wolfram couldn’t help but hope, within the short but radical span of time he’d been with Yuuri, wasn’t he special just a little bit?

He had changed since Yuuri came. For the better, he knew, but wasn’t ready to admit it yet. He knew by the look of pride in Gwendal’s eye, the relationship he was patching up with Conrad, the gentle rise of responsibilities bequeathed to him by the court, his lengthening tolerance and understanding about human folk and their culture, that he had changed. Wolfram supposed he couldn’t help the change within himself. Yuuri touched everyone he came across and it was quite impossible to be unmoved after meeting the boy.

Wolfram was scared of change. When he was younger, change had been the one to turn his world upside down; the moment he found out his Little Big Brother was half human, the rebelling in human lands, the secret power behind his mother’s throne and the loss of Julia. Well, technically, Wolfram would owe that to the truth, but no one really needed to change the truth. He could have lived as the golden boy all his life, surrounded by family and laughter, but then change wouldn’t be change if it didn’t change.

On the subject of change, Wolfram thought, Yuuri’s arrival was that of one he could handle. They had been off to a rocky start at first, with the Maou and his tendency to hoist wrongdoers up in the air with his water dragons, but the unexpected that came with the new Demon King was something Wolfram soon grew accustomed to. No, he didn’t develop a penchant for being thrown up in the air all the time, but the idealism Wolfram used to call ‘Earth nonsense’ in the early days was reaping tangible results.

With regard to politics, Yuuri was handling himself quite well. The Demon King’s optimism and trust he had a thing for dropping everywhere, letting flower and bloom kept his retainers both anxious and relieved at the same time. In a nutshell, Yuuri was a giant ball of energy that rolled around wherever it wanted to and was in need of several or so reliable friends to keep him grounded and on track. Shinou should be proud of his choice, if he had room to be any prouder, that is.

This was the Yuuri Wolfram knew and grew to love, beyond the traditional meaning of a slap to the cheek. On one sleepless late night analysis, Wolfram concluded that this unpredictable, ever changing Yuuri will stay unpredictable and ever changing, giving the blond Prince a small consolation of Not Change in everything that was happening around him. It made change more tolerable with Wolfram. He was able to ride it, enjoy it, change a bit too for the better alongside Yuuri.

Unfortunately of course, change did not change in one direction. After all the adventure (fun and annoyances in between) Wolfram wondered what would happen next after the affair with the boxes was over.

He didn’t want this ball of energy to leave. That was change too, but change in some far off Land of Change which Wolfram wouldn’t be able to grasp anymore, just like all that talk of politics and honor and illegitimacies back when he was very young and only knew of the world as his big brothers and mother, whom he thought would always be there.

Wolfram’s fear of change came back upon King Saralegui’s arrival. By then, he had known better than to fly off in a shallow jealous rampage. He was confident that what he and Yuuri had gone through up till then was far stronger than any newcomer could break. Wolfram somehow had a grasp of Yuuri’s trust pattern, that shining good will persevere thing, and contented himself by taking a load off and seeing where Yuuri would get himself into. Of course, Wolfram would always stick by decisions the black haired boy would make, knowing it’s in anyone’s best interest. Wolfram saw and noted with some amusement that Yuuri had this warped understanding of the world (be it his or this alternate dimension, it’s all the same to him) and believed that tiniest shred of good in everyone could be brought out and put to use with the right amounts of persuasion and life epiphanies.

We’d all achieve peace, or something like it, according to him. At this point, Wolfram would scoff. Yuuri was good with things like that. He was born to be a leader, born to deliver a new golden age not only to the Demon Kingdom and its allies, but to this world’s entirety.

During this part of Wolfram’s midnight psychoanalyses, he’d get the urge to punch his pillow, but would restrain himself so as not to wake up the slumbering Yuuri spooning a similarly slumbering Greta. It was better off they didn’t know any of his long nights staring out the window if the night was clear, or lying in bed wide awake if it was cold. Yuuri would go into panic mode and think up of some trivial problem or a physical ache that a good pep talk or small healing session wouldn’t cure. Wolfram shook his head at the thought.

Yes, Yuuri was perfectly capable of ruling twelve kingdoms if he wanted to, but to face the affairs of the heart was another matter.

During the early days, Yuuri had several times sidestepped the issue of Love. Wolfram then, despite having been jealous and impulsive, found out Yuuri had a fundamental principle when it came to Love, and it was the basis of just about everything he did: Give love and love comes back to you.

Of course, it had annoyed Wolfram to no end that Yuuri spread his cheese around gung-ho but that’s going into politics and we all know it’s not bad in the end.

To Wolfram, Love was to sacrifice. Sacrifice came in many forms. Most of them involved hurting the beloved in order to protect him. To suffer in silence: Wolfram was willing to be the very object of Yuuri’s undiluted hatred if that meant he, Yuuri, was going to be safe, well and alive. Conrad worked along similar lines, hence his ‘betrayal’ in fulfillment of Shinou’s task. Gwendal thought along the same lines as Yuuri, or probably when it concerned birthing Bearbees and hormonal dragons; Wolfram was never sure what Gwendal’s love manifested as but he was knew damn well it was there.

For the first time in over eighty years, Wolfram learned to step down from his own priority list and place someone more important at the number one spot. He’d do all for Yuuri, beyond duty because he realized that falling in love escaped the nitpicks of late night analyses, flew right in the open window, landed on his lap and stayed there to stew, bubble, steam, excite, delight, hurt, everything.

Wolfram chose to wait, to suffer in silence, to sacrifice in the hopes that the love he’s giving would be returned, in the hopes that Yuuri would see his own advice staring him in the face. In truth, he had been seized with fright at the thought of Yuuri losing his definition of Love to the rush of simple teenage attraction, infatuation, hormones or whatever Wolfram could blame Sara on. Change Wolfram wasn’t banking on was change he didn’t want, that was why he wanted to see Yuuri’s future in the Dry Wind. At the risk of getting little to no consolation, Wolfram wanted to know if he would have to brace himself for another epic change, if he’d have the energy to stay by Yuuri when that happened, if he had to prepare his heart for the worst, be it politics or personal.

Wolfram knew he would never change. He’s headstrong enough to be confident about that. Yes, he was getting along with people better. Yes, he was more patient. Yes, his discrimination against humans was lessening but Wolfram’s own principles would never change. He was still willing to wait for Love.

In the early days, he had been pompous enough to declare that his highest devotion to His Majesty was to die for him. Now, Wolfram knew it’s more difficult to live, scarier to bank on something as unstable as the future, more daring to live out each day as fully as possible, more daunting to hope and to know change is inevitable but not knowing what and when exactly it’ll come, more beautiful to say,

“I will live for you.”

Wolfram understood why Yuuri was so reckless, jumping into the fray to get a comrade out.

“I will live for you.”

Wolfram understood why Yuuri never liked the thought of anyone dying. Pain wasn’t with the dead, it was with the ones they left behind.

“I will live for you.”

Wolfram said it every night like a prayer, when he had finally found the energy to lie down and rest. He got the resolve to hope once more that his sacrifice for Love would return Love. The sincere declaration was all it took to make his chaotic thoughts cease, reminding himself that there need be no logic when it came to loving someone with all your heart. You wouldn’t die for them, that’s just ridiculous. ‘You’d do anything to be with them’ is more practical.

Wolfram went to bed every night clinging to living like a talisman, allowing just one more something to ponder on, namely, how much more would he have to wait till Yuuri outwardly showed he cared for him, not just as a close friend, a confidant, but something more.

“I will live for you.”

Tonight wasn’t going to be any different. But at least Wolfram was ready to sleep. He got into the sheets beside Yuuri and kissed Greta in between them good night.

A warm hand suddenly laced its fingers in his.

“I know, Wolf. I know.”

Just the right assurance to keep Wolfram waiting for a thousand years.

END