Safety First

A/N: Wow, I've been away too long. I actually had this and the last chapter written for a while, but wanted to change some things. I'm much happier with it now, I hope you agree.


Chapter 3
Tension


Gwendal was standing at the window in his office trying to ignore the distractions surrounding him. The sun was very low in the sky and people in the city below were moving about getting back home before dark. Normally this site would fill Gwendal with a deep sense of satisfaction that all was well in the country he fought so hard to protect. Right now however, it wasn’t working. He turned away from the window surveying the room. On the near wall was a bookcase covered in books and the fruits of his knitting. A beautiful rug covered the floor and there were several exquisite tapestries on the wall. The desk in his office was made of a rich dark colored wood and was currently covered with a map… and a growing pool of tears. Therein lay the problem.

Gunter had been inconsolable since His Majesty’s disappearance, and in his ultimate kindness had decided to share his pain with the most stoic man in the castle. He was laying over the edge of the desk where he had finally landed after a flurry of tearful pacing. The silver haired man could not have been more pleased to hear a knock at the door. Any interruption was welcome at this point.

Conrad barely waited for an answer before entering, Yuuri close behind him. This turned Gunter’s tears of grief into tears of joy and he proceeded to use the young king as a human handkerchief. A stern word from Gwendal and the noisy reunion settled down.

Something seemed amiss in the scene. The two men who had just come in seemed tense, more than would be expected in the situation. Yuuri was slightly hidden behind Conrad as if not wanting to be seen. But it was not Gwendal’s job to judge right then.

“Any injuries?” He asked briskly.

Conrad shook his head in the negative. A little bit of pressure lifted from the room.

“Do I even need to tell you how dangerous it was for you to disappear like that?”

This time Gwendal sounded exasperated. Yuuri blushed and shook his head. He would do terrible things to have this whole incident behind them. In his embarrassment the young king didn’t see the serious looks passing between the half brothers. Whatever was being communicated it was over quickly.

“I will see you at dinner then,” Gwendal cut in harshly. “You are dismissed.”

~+~+~+~+~+~

Dinner was tense.

Conrad barely touched his food, looking pensive but not unhappy. Gunter was shifting back and forth in his normal upset mood, not touching a bite. Gwendal was trying not to let the lavender haired man get to him but was obviously failing. There was very little food actually being eaten.

Yuuri was miserable out of confusion. He knew why he was upset, had something of a good idea about what was bothering Conrad, but why was everyone else so down?

A thought flashed into his mind, maybe they knew what had happened and they were upset at Conrad. That would be horrible; the king didn’t stand for conflict in his advisers. He resolved to make time in the morning to investigate further, today had already been too tiring.

There was also a chance the disruption was the empty chair otherwise normally occupied by Wolfram. This was depressing Yuuri more than anything. He couldn’t stand having hurt his fiancé, even though it had been an accident. Could he still be out searching? Was he okay, could he be hurt? If only he would come back, Yuuri would make everything better. He had to. Every time he thought of a way to apologize to his fiancé the fiery kiss with Conrad filled his mind.

After the second course was presented (not that anyone really wanted it) there was a small disturbance outside. Voices were raised, then a long pause with nothing happening. Eventually the door opened slowly to allow a thin and rather upset looking man in.

The whole room looked up as the attendant entered, bowed and announced the youngest prince’s arrival.

Wolfram pushed past him without a word as everyone stood to greet him. He looked like he had run the whole last kilometer back to the castle. Hair wild and slightly out of breath he surveyed the table. He opened his mouth to say something then looked straight at Yuuri and closed it again. The blond sat stiffly and avoided eye contact with the others. No one else took the initiative to start conversation. There was a 10 ton elephant in the room and no one was going to mention it.

Nervous shifting passed around the table like an infectious disease. Conrad was the only one immune; he looked instead like he had been turned to stone, staring into emptiness and not moving a muscle. Wolf ate quickly off the plate in front of him, obviously hungry from his search. He was the only one left with an appetite. The others watched him with various questioning looks, but the only sound was the occasional fork touching plate. When he had finished Wolf stood abruptly and left without saying a word.

The echo of the door closing had faded from the room seemed to signal the other occupants to give up on their meals as well. They left as quietly as they arrived, making the meal by far the quietest and most awkward in a long time. Yuuri was the last one to get up, feeling the heavy guilt of the whole situation on his shoulders.

~+~+~+~+~+~

The young king took a long winding route back to his room, not eager to see the blond he knew was waiting for him. Mulling matters over in his mind didn’t seem to be making things better, and he felt the intense need to crawl back under the bed he had hidden under earlier in the day.

Yuuri was finally at his room far too fast. Strangely, it was quiet and dark inside. The young king couldn’t believe that his fiancé wasn’t waiting for him so he spent several minutes looking in every possible hiding spot. How could Wolf miss an opportunity to yell at me? Yuuri asked himself. Obviously he had made the other boy so angry that he had driven him away. This was serious.

Yuuri sat down on the bed and flopped back onto the empty mattress. He had to think of a way to make it up to Wolfram. After several minutes and no real plan he got up and dressed for bed on auto pilot. He slipped into his side of the bed, carefully, as if someone was sleeping next to him. He stayed closely to one side of the bed, unconsciously trying to avoid Wolfram.

A plan started to form in Yuuri’s head, one that could actually work. But then he remembered the kiss with Conrad earlier, how could he explain that? Yuuri groaned and rolled onto his back. Now that he was alone he could ponder this new development further. His mind was trapped with the thought of how good it felt being so close to someone else. Someone’s tongue in his mouth, hands on his body.

It was somewhere in this line of thinking that Yuuri realized he was having the same reaction he had earlier. Being a 16 year old, it wasn’t a big surprise, and he rolled over onto his side away from the center of the bed. It was the same motion he had made many times before, not willing to let the blond in his bed find his arousal. It took a moment for Yuuri to realize he was the only one in the bed right then; he didn’t have to wait until it went away or try to sneak away to the bathroom.

There was something dirty about taking care of this new problem right there, but also something satisfying about being able to do it in his own bed alone. This was the one problem he had right now that he knew how to handle completely. The pent up sexual energy from earlier in the day combined with his reaction to the memory seemed to seal the deal.

Carefully and slowly Yuuri untied the front of his pajama pants, rubbing himself as he did. He pushed them down mid-thigh and teased himself through his tiny black underwear. All the while his mind wandered to earlier in the afternoon and the delicious kiss. His hand finally made its way to the waistband where a thumb hooked under and pulled them down to the pajama pants.

The image of Conrad kissing him wasn’t working as well as he thought, after a while he wasn’t feeling as good as he had. He rolled over, mildly upset that even this wasn’t working out as planned. The lingering scent of Wolfram was on the pillow next to him and images of the other boy floated into his head. Yuuri found himself falling into a different fantasy.

This time it was Wolf kissing him, sweeter and lighter than his kiss earlier. He was focused on that mouth; it was cute even when being used to yell at him. His hand sped up again. The blond had such a loud mouth, and he was never afraid to use it, so Yuuri’s mind started supplying him with other uses for it. Every few strokes he would rub more precum over the head. Small moans started escaping him as he pictured Wolf’s mouth around him.

It was at about this point that there was a small sound outside the door, a key in the lock. If Yuuri had not been so involved in what he was doing he might have noticed it. He might also have noticed the door opening. But it wasn’t until he heard someone else yelp in surprise that he realized what had happened.

Wolfram was standing right in the doorway staring at him. Not just staring, blushing and gaping awkwardly. They were frozen like this for a moment, Yuuri half naked, still holding his rigid member; Wolfram with a hand over his mouth, eyes wide.

TBC