The Red Queen Affair: Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Kyou Kara Maou or its characters.
The Red Queen Affair
Disclaimer: I don't own KKM or their characters.
Pairings: Yuuram
Ratings: PG 13
Chapter 3
Softly she waited, slowly she wept
Longing for her beloved’s embrace
Fears of fading desires she kept
His name in her heart she will trace...
“Wolfram! Wait up!” Yuuri cried as he saw the blond aristocrat make a sharp turn to his left, perhaps hoping to shake his relentless pursuer.
Yuuri, ever the hero wannabe, refused to back down to the challenge issued by his rival, quickened his pace and stiffened his resolve.
Turning a right here…
Turning a left there …
Dodging a couple of overgrown flora…
Whoops! Nearly fell into a hole…
‘Whe…where am I?’ he thought as he paused to catch his breath. Shibuya realized in all his haste to catch up to his insufferable colleague (can he even call him that?), he had managed to lose sight of the target altogether. Unfortunately his problems did not end there, whilst chasing after Wolfram he had gotten himself so far from the main hall that he was now indisputably, terrifically and utterly lost. ‘Now how did I manage to do that?’ he wondered at his own incompetence, ‘Maybe I am more of a wimp then I give myself credit for?’
He scanned his surroundings intensely, hoping to find a path that looked remotely familiar. No luck there, all his little eye spied was corridors, corridors and oh surprise, surprise… more corridors. ‘Shit’ was all his mind supplied before his mother invaded his thinking space and lectured him about being a proper gentleman and never cursing in front of the ladies.
“Now’s not the time to give Wolfram the benefit of the doubt!” Yuuri smacked his forehead in exasperation.
“Wolfram!” …
“Conrad!” …
“Murata!”…. “Anybody?”…
A sudden flash of gold was caught in his peripheral vision heading into one of the rooms, the giant room with large forbidding doors that once may have been incredibly handsome.
“Wolfram? Is that you? Quit playing around, won’t you!” Yuuri made his way to the room whose doors seemed so determined to keep him out.
When there was no answer to his calls he became apprehensive about entering. ‘Maybe I imagined it all…’ he thought as he studied the intricate designs carved into the heavy wooden structure. ‘Very old,’ Shibuya surmised, ‘possibly in the style of the Spitzburg period, during the reign of the Lady Cheri.’ These doors seem so unusually melancholic, as though it was trying to keep a terrible secret in.
‘I must be insane…personifying furniture. Maybe I’ll start cuddling the cutlery next!’ Yuuri chuckled as he turned to leave this foreboding place.
A soft sob from behind him stopped him cold in his tracks. He turned around and pressed an ear against the door. He could definitely hear the muffled sound of someone crying inside the room.
‘Wolfram!’ Yuuri pushed down upon the antiquarian door handle and gave the door a hard shove. The old contraption gave a loud shuddering groan as it was swung open showering Yuuri with a slate of fine grey dust mixed with particles of soot.
He sneezed after taking a whiff of the foul air and vigorously shook the dust off his head and shoulders. The sound of crying is becoming clearer now, he looked up and squinted until his eyes got used to the poor lighting. There at the far end of the dark and dreary bedchambers Yuuri could make out the shape of a person at the foot of the large bed sitting with his knees held close to his chest. The figure held his head down against his knees softly sobbing in the corner.
“Wolfram?” Yuuri called out gently to the boy hoping to get his attention as he knelt down in front of the blond.
Now that Yuuri was close enough, he could make out the strange clothes Wolfram was wearing. It looked like a pink negligee with ruffles all around. ‘Boy does he have issues…’
“Wolfram, are you alright?” Yuuri asked again when he received no response the first time.
The figure shifted and raised his head to meet Yuuri’s eyes. Blue. That was the first thing Yuuri saw, the blond had the most incredible blue eyes that shone brilliantly in the darkness. He watched transfixed as the most beautiful pair of lips parted to call his name.
“Yuuri…”
“Yuuri…”
“YUURI!!!!!!”
Yuuri was startled out of his trance by a loud scream coming from behind him. He turned around to give whoever it was a piece of his mind.
“Wolfram?!”
“Who else, wimp?” Yuuri stared in disbelief at the person standing at the doorway.
“But you were here? In front of me?”
“Have you gotten stupid as well, wimp?”
“But…but….but…” Yuuri stammered as Wolfram crossed his arms at his chest and raised an eyebrow in a silent challenge.
Yuuri whipped around expecting to see the Wolfram clone still sitting there staring at them.
Empty.
The space behind him was completely empty.
“I don’t get it. You were just behind me, sitting pretty in a pink nightgown and crying your eyes out!”
“What did you say?” Wolfram growled and glared at Yuuri’s head.
“I said…”Yuuri continued as he turned around to regard his bitter rival eye to eye. ‘Wait a second!’
“Your eyes!”
“What about my eyes?”
“They’re green!”
“Of course they are! They’ve been green since the day I was born and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.”
“But they were blue a minute ago!”
Wolfram suddenly was devoid of any retort, his eyes became wide and terrified.
“What did you say?”
“Your eyes were blue a minute ago?”
Wolfram looked nervous at the answer; he grabbed Yuuri’s hand and pulled him out of the room muttering something about meeting Gwendal and Conrad for dinner.
Yuuri was absolutely perplexed by the chain of events; however he would probably find it harder to explain away the healthy blush that dusted his cheeks to the other members of the expedition team as he let Wolfram drag him along by the hand.
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End of Chapter.