Voiceless

Title: So Much More

Pairing: Wolfram X Yuri

Rating: M

Chapter Warnings:

Summary: Gwendal has something to say, and so does Yuri…

Chapter Number: #29

Author Note: It took so long for me to write because I had a cold, and then the flu, and then a sinus infection. I couldn’t see past watery eyes well enough to type.
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“Wolfie, what’s that you’re wearing?” Lady Celi made the point to shriek the next morning at breakfast. “It looks like a ring!”

“It is, mother,” Wolfram said, pretending that he wasn’t trying to make the ring three times as noticeable.

“Where did you get it?” She asked with a coo. “Is it magic?” Immediately Wolfram’s attempting-to-be-hidden smile turned to a scowl.

“No, it’s just an ordinary ‘engagement’ ring,” he muttered. “Yuri said that where he comes from, you have to give a ring to someone in order to marry them.” Wolfram could not succeed at hiding the smile that overcame his lips as he spoke of his engagement. His permanent and irrevocable engagement to the Demon King.

“Engagement?” Gwendal echoed bluntly. “Does that mean you two are done changing your minds, or is there another falling out in the future?”

“Brother!” Wolfram called out. Yuri could see the pain that jolted through the blonde’s eyes easily. To even think of being rejected again was enough to make Wolfram look as if he were about to be sick, to have it spoken of made him look even worse.

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“You can’t get angry at me just for talking to my brother, even if you are the Demon King!” Gwendal barked. At breakfast, Gwendal’s single comment lead to a wretched conversation about lovers who lie and engagements made only so that one partner will be silent. After that, Wolfram left early and Yuri had followed Gwendal to his office.

“That wasn’t talking! You were—”

“I was warning him to keep his eyes open. I’ve had enough of him falling for your tricks every time.” Gwendal’s eyes grew harder and Yuri looked away. It was true, he knew he’d have to admit it. He had played with Wolfram’s heart like a toy, even broken it and repaired it several times on his own.

“I never meant to hurt him, Gwendal,” Yuri said firmly, meeting the older brother’s gaze.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you did,” Gwendal said, his anger softening to simple hardness. It was always soothing when the accusations quit flying.

“I know that, but I really wanted to catch the person who hurt him before I proposed again.” Yuri sank his teeth into his lip firmly. No one knew the truth about the attacker. Rumors flew around that Wolfram had made it up, injured himself, or an intruder had gotten him. Once the word of the spies got around, everyone assumed that it was one of the spies. Once the spies were unmasked, everyone just talked about that. Sometimes it was like nothing had ever happened, everything had happened so fast anyway, but Yuri still felt that everyone conveniently forgot about the troubles Wolfram had endured. He hated that, and he hated even more that there could never truly be closure for Wolfram’s attack.

“But you couldn’t,” Gwendal noted firmly. “So you changed your mind and went to something else, and then you proposed again.”

“In a way that couldn’t be misunderstood.”

“And now you want everything to be forgotten about and smoothed over?” Yuri looked away again. “Are you even sure there ever was an attacker? This whole thing could have been a ploy to attract your attention.”

“How can you accuse Wolfram of something like that?!” Yuri snapped.

“Face it, there were no leads, no one saw anything, he didn’t see anyone—is it impossible to assume that there was never anyone there?”

“There was an attacker!” Yuri shrieked. It was painful to hear Wolfram’s adored oldest brother make accusations that pinned dishonesty to Wolfram’s chest like a badge. If Wolfram heard there was no way that Yuri could fathom how painful it would be for him. Maybe even worse than the attack itself. Gwendal had spoken his opinion before, and it hadn’t gone well then, but now…since Yuri also knew who had done it…knew there was no one that the attack had never occurred, the attacker never having existed, it enraged him.

“How can you be so sure?” Gwendal spat back, his passions returning.

“Because he told me who it was!” Yuri shouted without thinking in his cloud of red fury.

“So why hasn’t there been an arrest yet?”

“Because it was me!” The cloud did not diminish, and the rage did not leave Yuri’s eyes spontaneously as he registered the words he said. It was good to have someone know, even if Wolfram wanted it a secret, even if it was best kept a secret. Gwendal wouldn’t tell anyone who would tell someone who didn’t need to know. And Yuri needed to hear what someone else had to say.

“You?” Gwendal responded dryly, skepticism in his voice. “How convenient that you would be the attacker. That just plays the card of pity even better, doesn’t it?”

“It was me,” Yuri breathed hotly. “The other me.”

“The other you,” Gwendal echoed. “Even more convenient that you wouldn’t be able to remember it.”

“Tell me then, who else would be strong enough to break him? Who else could be strong enough to hold him down and hurt him when he was still angry, not just sad?” Yuri let his eyes trace the floor. “We both know how violent Wolfram gets if his pride and honor are at stake. Do you really think that a normal person, or even someone powerful like you, would be able to break him without getting harmed?” Gwendal looked the Demon King over, uncertain and unnerved.

“Why would you hurt Wolfram?” He asked after a long period of silence.

“I don’t know,” Yuri confessed, meeting Gwendal’s uneasy gaze. “He didn’t tell Wolfram why, and he didn’t tell me either.”

“What would he gain by making you hurt him?” Gwendal thought out loud as he turned his back to the king and looked out the window.

“Maybe he knew if Wolfram was hurt I would—”

“Agree to marry him again just to make him happy?” Gwendal suggested angrily.

“Are you still stuck on that!?” Yuri exclaimed, growling.

“Is that not what you’re doing?” Gwendal asked, turning back towards Yuri, his face void. “Wolfram got hurt so badly that he was afraid of his own shadow and was too weak to be able to protect himself, and then that got your attention so you rushed to his rescue and for whatever reason you decided to want to marry him. Where is the love in that?”

“I know this sounds wrong, but I didn’t really want to call off our engagement the first time!”

“That’s a lie,” Gwendal said bluntly. “I saw it in your eyes that you didn’t want him.”

“He was annoying me at that moment in time! After he got hurt he opened up to me more and I realized it was stupid for me to ever reject him! I made a lot of mistakes, but I made the proposal something that should mean something to him. I didn’t slap him on accident, and I didn’t leave room for someone to tell him I did.” Yuri growled lowly. “And if you try to convince him that I don’t care for him, I’ll stop you. I won’t let you hurt him like that.”

“Fine, that’s all well and good, but tell me something,” Gwendal said. Yuri didn’t like the look that formed in his eyes. “How can you make sure you won’t do the same thing to him all over again? What if you don’t remember and he doesn’t tell because he thinks you’ll separate yourself from him so he can’t get hurt again?”

“If that happens,” Yuri forced his lips to say. “I’ll cut him out of me. It may make me a lousy king, I may not be able to protect as well as I had before, but I won’t let myself turn into someone who can’t even treat the ones he loves with care.” Yuri forced himself to relax. “I don’t think anyone would mind having a normal human as a king as long as I’m surrounded by powerful allies, right?” Gwendal was too busy thinking to say much of anything.

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“Yuri,” Wolfram said as he lay on his bed beside the king. For whatever reason, Wolfram wanted to sleep there instead of in the king’s room, but Yuri didn’t dare to protest. “Do you think we could have this ring’s stone changed to one that has some magic in it…or at least an interesting history?” Yuri groaned and grabbed the ring out of Wolfram’s hands.

“No! You’re getting it that way and it’s staying that way. And if you want to change it you can go buy yourself a different one and I’ll give this to Gunter!”

“No!” Wolfram cried, grabbing for the ring again. “Give it back!” There was urgency in his voice and desperation in his eyes. Yuri could tell that the simple game of keep-away meant more than he’d intended. “Give it back.”

“I will, just give me your left hand.”

“Why that one?”

“Just give it!” Wolfram thrust his hand towards Yuri quickly, biting into his lower lip at the same time uneasily. “The ring goes on this finger,” Yuri said, sliding it on carefully. Wolfram retracted his hand and looked at the ring intently.

“It fits better this way,” he said, and shrugged, before lying down and pulling the covers over himself heavily. He went to sleep.

~Alice Von Wonderland

closing note: Just a long thing to keep things moving.

Alice Von Wonderland