Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they belong to Tomo Takabayashi, Geneon, and lots of other people who aren't me.
For Better or Worse
'What is he up to?'
We couldn't hear what was going on behind the doors of Lord Sigismund's drawing room and Weller, damn him, wouldn't let us get close enough to hear anything. No one in the whole castle could have missed that surge of power.
Yuri!
My fiancé was in a room all alone with that man and he'd felt threatened enough to summon his powers as Maou. When I felt it I rushed to the door, not caring what Conrad would say about my rushing in. I was going in and nothing was going to stop me.
I reached to open the door but the knob twisted beneath my hand, and pulled inward without any urging on my part. I almost stumbled back when I saw Yuri standing there with a normal expression on his face as if nothing had happened at all.
I glanced past his shoulder and noticed the Lord Bastion looked quite shaken up about something. I turned a questioning look on Yuri, but he was looking past me at the others.
"Did you get the trunk in my room?" Yuri asked Conrad, completely ignoring me. Gwendal is scowling at all of us impartially, just like he normally does. 'Am I the only one who cares that our king just used his Maou powers and none of us know why?'
"Yes Yo- Yuri. It's ready in your room."
"Great! Now where's Gunter at?" he looks around.
"I'm right here Your Majesty!" the lavender haired man proclaims gaily as he walks down the hall. "Everything is just as you requested."
"Thanks Gunter! Well, everything is taken care of here. I think I'm going to turn in for the night and then we can head out in the morning. Gwendal, Lord Bastion would like to speak with you. He wants to include some small revisions within our agreement, and we thought it best to make sure you agree with any of the last minute changes. Personally I'm okay with them, but you might like to add your input?" Yuri seems very pleased with himself when he's making this announcement. "I'll trust you to take care of the details, ok?"
"Very well, Your Majesty. I will take care of it for you." Is it just me or does Gwendal sound rather… bemused by Yuri's behavior. Well, we all are though, aren't we?
"Okay then, goodnight Conrad. 'Night Gunter. 'Night Gwendal," he announces before trailing down the hall toward his bedroom. What? No goodnight for me? Wait, I'm on good behavior. I have to wait until we're alone in his room before I can really let him have a piece of my mind. I trail after him, glaring holes in his back the whole way.
He is so going to hear it when I get him alone. First he abandons me after not defending my honor, and then when he does come back he practically ignores me. I know it was an accident on his part, but I am his fiancé whether he likes it or not. I deserve to be treated with respect, damn it!
Finally we reach his room and he holds the door open. I feel a moment's confusion. Yuri looks at me expectantly.
"Well?" he demands. "Aren't you coming in? You usually end up in my bedroom no matter what I say so there's no point in trying to kick you out." Well now. It looks like he's finally figuring things out.
But that doesn't change the fact that I'm still not happy with him!
"Besides, Wolfram," he grows very serious all of a sudden, "we need to talk."
Why do I not like the sound of that?
"That sounds like an excellent idea, Your Majesty," I answer back coolly. My mind is racing over the possibilities as I step past him. What could be going on? Did he accept one Bastion's brats in my place? I swallow nervously at the thought. He wouldn't dishonor me like that would he? But what else could have put that expression on his face?
"As long as we're agreed on that then. Look I'm going to change for bed first. You just, make yourself comfortable or something, okay?" he makes it a question, stripping off his uniform as he makes his way to the armoire with his clothes. The trunk is sitting at the end of the bed and he has to walk around it.
I un-strap my sword and lay it beside the chair that is settled next to the bed. There, that's as comfortable as I'm getting until I know what's going on. I sit down in the chair and wait for Yuri to come out from behind the screen where he's finishing changing his clothes. I sit very straight against the stiff back of the chair with my elbows resting on the curved arms. My hands are lightly clasped in the air above my lap. Regal, yet relaxed. At least that's the image I'm going for. Honestly I feel like my stomach is trying to crawl out of my throat, I'm so nervous.
"I guess you're wondering what's going on, huh?" Yuri announces as soon as he steps back into sight. He's rubbing the back of his head and staring at the ground in that rueful way he does when he's been caught at something. I narrow my eyes dangerously.
"You could put it that way," I answer as acidly as possible. As a prince, that is actually very as it turns out. Yuri apparently agrees because he winces at my words and starts to look as nervous as I feel. Well that makes two of us. At least we're even now, I think smugly.
"Alright, I'll tell you all about it."
'Why how gracious of you,' I think rather nastily.
He raises a hand to stop the flow of words that are resting on the tip of my tongue. I'm surprised my mouth isn't scorched from the heat that I just swallowed.
"I'll tell you all about it if you'll promise not to yell, or hit me, or try to leave the room, or do anything like that. At least not until I'm completely done? Do you promise?"
"And why would I need to promise something thing like that to a wimp like you?" I demand softly, dangerously.
"Because you'll fly off the handle before I can finish and be really upset. And don't call me a wimp! Now promise me or we're not having this discussion!" he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Very well," I utter through clenched teeth, "I promise not to speak to, hit, maim, kill, or leave you until you have completely finished your tale. There, are you satisfied?" I spit out at him.
My husband-to-be lets out a relieved laugh. "I forgot maiming, I'm glad you covered that in your promise. Ok, where to start?"
He leans over the chest and flicks open the lock. I sit up a little straighter and try to catch a glimpse, but he's angled to where the lid is blocking my view.
"Well you know how I fell into the fountain at the party? Well I went back to my world. Which wasn't so bad, because Bastion was really putting me on the spot and I was glad that I was getting away from that. It really was inconsiderate of him to sit there and try to marry me to one of his kids while you were sitting right there, you know? Actually," he chuckles nervously, "I suppose you do. Well Shinou summoned me back to my world because he knew I wasn't comfortable with the whole 'guys getting married' thing and he wanted to give me a choice."
"Anyway, almost as soon as I got back my mother cornered me and dragged me downstairs to meet this girl. Her name is Miya, and as it turns out my family had an understanding with her family that as soon as we were old enough that we were supposed to get married."
My breath catches in my chest. If he was engaged before we met then that makes our engagement void if he chooses her. This is it. He's going to dump me, publicly humiliating me and… I'll lose him, to some girl from his world. Just like I was always afraid of every time he left my side to go back.
I lower my eyes to stare blindly at the design on the carpet, so that he can't see my expression. My hands are clenched together and I have to force my fingers to relax so that I don't bruise myself, hoping that he hasn't noticed my reaction to the news.
"And my mom liked her, so she set up a date for us. Nothing serious! I just had to take out to dinner to satisfy my parents. Not so different from having to dance with everyone here to keep Sigismund satisfied, really. But the thing is, when I took her out to dinner we started talking and getting to know each other. It turned out we really had a lot in common."
Every word is a dagger in my heart.
"She was pretty and fun and she also understood demon customs, so she taught me a little about that. It was mostly small things that I would never have considered, that no ever thought to teach me yet. But the point is I really did like her. And I thought, I really could see myself happily married to her you know? She was everything I had ever hoped for in a life partner. And you have to understand that I knew the Great One wanted me to make a choice between you that night. And so I made a choice, but I made a deal with Shinou that I could come back to tell you before I spoke to anybody else about it. And it doesn't have to be official until I turn sixteen. Well, that and some other things too which aren't relevant to this discussion."
It's twisting in my chest with agonizing slowness. How can he be so casual about this? I can't speak. I can't leave either, my word… I gave my word…
"It was kind of stupid actually. What prompted me to make the decision I made, I mean. But you should hear it anyways, cuz otherwise nothing will make sense, and you deserve to understand why."
'Shut up… Just shut up… I don't want to hear it!'
"I was sitting with my mom by her little flower bed. She was really excited at the thought of a wedding and she was already planning for it. I think that's a mother thing to start planning for a wedding that won't even take place anytime soon. Anyways, she was trying to decide what to plant for the wedding because she wanted to grow the flowers for the bouquet herself."
'I can't leave- I can't handle this!' I feel tears prickle at my eyes and I widen them to keep the traitors from falling.
"Mom told me she thought that carnations would be nice for a wedding, that she had always been planning on growing carnations. Now you have to understand that my whole life there has never been anything but those bright purple flowers. Imagine how surprised I was to discover that she had never even planned them to begin with. It was just so weird to hear her talk about getting rid of them."
'Why are you telling me this?' I stare at him in disbelief. He doesn't seem to notice my look, he's messing with something that he pulled from that damn box of his. 'My life, my heart, is being ripped to shreds and you're talking about your mother's floricultural experiments?'
I stare at him in disbelief. He doesn't seem to notice my look, he's messing with something that he pulled from that damn box of his."I didn't know that she loved carnations, that she had wanted them so desperately when she first began planting. The only reason she even got the heliotrope was because the florist she went to didn't have any carnation seeds left and talked her into trying the heliotrope. He promised she could always come back and get carnations if the heliotrope didn't work for her."
I could feel Yuri's eyes on me then. I raised my head once more and stare right back at him struggling not to let him see how much this was upsetting me. I can do this, I refuse to embarrass myself.
"The wedding that she was planning for was the perfect excuse to get rid of them and plant the carnations that she had always wanted. But I told her not to. Do you know why?"
His eyes are so serious, so thoughtful. I shake my head, silently trying not to cry in front of my king.
"I told her not to even though she'd be growing better wedding flowers and getting what she had originally wanted in the process."
'I don't understand.' I stare at him, trying to figure out what's going on behind those black eyes of his.
"And that's when I realized, I could have everything I wanted with Miya. She's pretty and smart and nice, and ,more to the point, female. All of these are things that I had originally wanted, and she's also the daughter of the demon king of Earth, so I'd get a good queen on top of it."
My jaw drops at this little revelation. He didn't tell me that she was a demon princess! There was never a chance that I could compete with that. I close my eyes, feeling sick at the realization.
I feel warm fingers wrap around my chin and force my head up. When I open my eyes I find his face very close to mine. He's kneeling on the edge of the bed, inches from where I'm sitting. He smiles gently at me.
"But, and this is the kinda stupid part, I realized that I'd be like mom with her flowers. She had wanted carnations for so long but by a complete accident ended up with heliotrope. Now that she had the chance for carnations, she was so attached to he heliotrope that she didn't really want give them up. And it made me think. I had wanted a girlfriend for so long, but ended up with boyfriend on accident. But even though Miya is my chance for a normal fiancée, I didn't really want to give you up."
'He doesn't mean what you think he's saying. He's dumping you for his Earth princess,' my brain is screaming at the spark of hope that springs to life.
"Wolfram, I'm sorry." My heart sinks into my boots. "I'm sorry I went on a date with Miya, even if it was just to keep my family happy, and I'm sorry I danced with all those girls, even if it was just to be polite to them." His thumb brushes lightly against my lips, so soft and hesitant. "That you put up with so much because of me, but… I wanted to try to…"
My heart soars.
"I'm most sorry about not trying harder to be a better fiancé. I can't really make that up to you, but I got this for you because I wanted to thank you, for everything."
I stare down at the wrapped present resting on the bed behind him. He had pulled it out from the trunk sometime in the course of his rambling on about… her. It's a rather large box. I glance at him questioningly and he tilts his head toward it.
"Come on, Wolf. You have to open it first. You can scream and rant and rave as much as you like as soon as I you see everything I got for you."
I narrow my eyes at the screaming and ranting and raving crack. He was doing so well, but now he's just asking for it. I get up from the chair and kick my boots off so I can crawl onto the bed. The sooner I get this unwrapped the sooner I can yell at him for that and the hell that this last half hour has been for me. I swear I must have aged a good ten years from the stress of that alone.
The bow is gone. I quickly rip at the paper, balling it up and throwing it over my shoulder. I'll pick it up later. Finally I get to the box and tug the panels open. I blink down at what I see, and I can feel a confused frown working its way across my face. Some brightly colored books and another smaller black box. He nudges me and urges me to take it out to look. I can tell he's excited about the gift so I go along with it.
I carefully lift the black box out and glance at it. It has gold clasps on one side. I flick them both up and then carefully open the lid to see what it holds inside. And I raise my brows at what I find. Why on Makoku would he get me…
"Paint?" I ask out loud in confusion. He did say I could speak once I saw what he got me. He moves close behind me on my right side so he can lean against my shoulder and explain the presents to me.
"My aunt on my mother's side is an artist. She makes her own paint for all of her work. Aunt Jana doesn't share her recipe or her paint with anyone, so no one else in the world knows how to make it. These paints are a variation of her own personal blend, I asked her to make them just for you."
'Just for me?' I stare at my love from inches away.
"I thought you'd like it since you like to paint right?" he grins at me, pleased with himself. He is way too cute when he looks at me like that.
"And the books?" I ask to distract myself from doing something very naughty to him.
"About half of them are art books, the rest are just some good novels that I like. Oh, there's also a book about baseball. Mostly its educational stuff."
"It's written in human. I can't read it," I point out gently. His hands tighten on my shoulders slightly. When he speaks his voice is overly casual.
"That's ok. I can teach you. Or I can read them out loud to you, if you'd like."
A chance to spend time with Yuri, to get to understand him better?
"I would like that," I answer with my own soft smile. I tilt my head back and brush his lips quickly with my own before I can think about it. Then I duck my head to hide my blush, carefully replacing the paints back into the box.
"Um, great! Now that that's all settled we should go to bed. We have a long trip ahead of us tomorrow, and part of it will be by boat," Yuri starts rambling nervously.
I groan at that.
"Ugh, don't remind me."
"Are you going to sleep in your uniform? Where's your nightgown?" he asks scooting the box off the bed.
"I'll get changed in a minute. Hey! Don't drop that!"
"It won't break, they're books," he points out.
"My books, and I don't treat my books like that, you wimp!" I snap back. "Besides there's paint in there, I don't want it to splatter all over!"
"I guess I didn't think about that," he admits sheepishly. I rush over to check and make sure everything is ok. Luckily the paint box was held in place by the books so it didn't get knocked around. I shoot Yuri a glare, which seems to be amusing to him for some reason. Then wander off to grab my nightgown and get changed for bed.
I have to go all the way back to my own room to do my nightly getting ready for bed ritual, and to change. When I come back and he's already in the big bed and the covers are turned back waiting for me. I crawl in on my side of the bed and snuggle down.
"Yuri?" I ask, "Are you still awake?"
"Hm?"
"Thank you," I speak to the dark lump on the other side of the bed. I see the lump move, rolling closer to me.
"For the gift?"
"Choosing me," I correct softly. He moves closer to me to try and make out my face in the dark. I can just barely make out his face from where he's laying so close to me. "I'm never going to let you change your mind, you know that right?" I feel his lips hesitantly ghost over mine in the dark, just as quickly as I had earlier he draws back.
"I knew that when I decided that you're mine, not her. For better or worse, no matter what."
'For better or worse, no matter what.'
I grin mischievously at the thought.
"Oh, so you can't get mad and change your mind if I do this?"
"Wolfram!"
The End…
Whoo hoo! It's done, over finished! I'm free! Hope you guys enjoyed the ride. And thanks for all the support along the way.
(PS, I only have the first couple of dvds, but I read somewhere that Wolf likes to paint. Is that right? If not, oh well, cuz I'm not rewriting this chapter.)