FIC: TAATS Chapter 10: The Profoundness of the (Drunken) Maou
Title: The Admirer and the Sage (Chapter 10: The Profoundness of the (Drunken) Maou)
Author: Batty_Gal a.k.a Tetra26
Rating: T+
Fandom: Kyou Kara Maou
Pairing: Wolfram x Murata
Word Count: 2095
Fic Type: Ongoing
Summary: Murata sees another side of Yuuri that he didn't know existed.
Prior chapters: 1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4 ~ 5 ~ 6 ~ 7 ~ 8 ~ 9
Chapter 10: The Profoundness of the (Drunken) Maou
Another night, another club. Though Murata had been totally uninterested, he went along with Yuuri on the almost impossible chance that he'd find someone who could take his mind off of Wolfram. Sadly, that didn't happen, and the more he drank, the more frustrated he became with it all.
By the time Yuuri (who also didn't luck out on finding someone that night) and he left the club, both were drunken and holding each other up. Yuuri, who had been spending less time at home and more time at Murata's, decided to crash over at Murata's new apartment.
This minute decision would prove crucial to everything.
“Murataaaa,” Yuuri slurred out. “Cook something, I'm hungry.”
“Idiot, do I look like I can move, let alone get up and cook?” Murata mumbled.
Both men were laid out side-by-side on their backs on Murata's living room floor, still drunk. That was as far as either of them could make it when they initially came in the door, and an hour later neither of them could still be bothered to go any further.
“Surely you have some snacks or something,” the other man whined as he managed to finally roll over and look at Murata.
“I do, but I still can't move to get them,” Murata said. “Feel free to get up and help yourself.”
“Fine, fine,” Yuuri said, and sighed.
Murata watched with amusement as Yuuri tried, and repeatedly failed, to even sit up to get up.
“Don't laugh at me!” Yuuri said in annoyance, which made Murata laugh even harder.
“Ooh, that's so damn pitiful!”
“Shut up!”
“I'll shut up when you sit up - and it doesn't look like you'll be doing that anytime soon.”
“Jerk,” Yuuri grumbled, still annoyed. He rolled over onto his side, away from Murata.
“Man, you're a mean drunk. I'm not going to drink with you anymore, especially if you're going to take out your failure to get laid on me,” Murata said.
“Who's being mean now? Besides, it's not like you got any action tonight either.”
“I simply didn't find anyone interesting to me, while you repeatedly got shot down. Huge difference.”
Murata laughed as Yuuri mumbled several expletives directed his way. After his giggling and Yuuri's curses against his ancestors died down, the two men fell silent.
Murata assumed that Yuuri had finally given up on his journey for a snack, and had fallen asleep. He continued to lay on the floor with his eyes closed, his mind wandering and not focusing on anything in particular.
After a few minutes, Murata was startled when Yuuri spoke up.
“Say, Murata... Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“What's going on between you and Wolfram?”
Murata was shocked by Yuuri's question, but quickly recovered and answered. “Yuuri, don't tell me you're starting to take the castle gossip to heart too...”
“No, I'm not talking about the gossip,” the other boy interrupted, slurring his words. “I'm talking about the way you two act.”
Murata rolled on his side to look at Yuuri, who still has his back to him. “What do you mean by that?”
“It's hard to explain. It's just... when I talk to one of you, it's like I'm talking to the other at the same time.”
He was confused by Yuuri's statement. “I still don't understand...”
“Well, it's like you two have rubbed off on each other,” he said. “For example, when I'm alone with him, he acts like you do.”
Murata was pained at the thought of Wolfram alone with Yuuri, but his curiosity about what the other man was getting at prevented him from ending the conversation. “How does he act?”
“Well, before... things were sort-of awkward between us after the engagement ended. It was like he was forcing himself to be around me sometimes. Yet, now, things are comfortable between me and Wolfram like they are between me and you. Ever since he became close to you, it's been that way.”
“I still don't see how that's acting like me...”
“It's the small things. Cracking jokes at my expense. Laughing with and at me. Giving me advice. Those are things that he does now that he didn't really do before he started hanging with you.”
Murata was stunned. He knew that Wolfram had become more open when alone with him in those ways, but he had simply assumed that the blond was already like that privately with Yuuri. He hadn't known that, in reality, it hadn't quite been that way.
The reveal was astonishing.
“And then, there's you,” Yuuri said, interrupting Murata's thoughts.
“Me?”
“Yes. I can see parts of him in you,” Yuuri said. “You've become meaner.”
“What?!” Murata shot straight up and glared down at Yuuri's form, which was shaking with laughter.
“And more hotheaded!”
“Idiot!”
“See?!”
Murata rolled his eyes at Yuuri's comments, but didn't deny them. It wasn't that he was not like that before; he simply didn't show that side of him to Yuuri.
Until Wolfram.
Murata realized then that Yuuri was right about the both of them. The past two years between him and Wolfram had really changed them both. He didn't know what to think about it all, or how this fit in the grander scheme of things. Before he could think any deeper about the matter, Yuuri suddenly sat up and grabbed his arm, and Murata looked at the other man in shock.
“Murata,” the other man said.
“What?” he asked, looking at his friend's suddenly serious expression.
“Do you love Wolfram?” Yuuri asked, staring into Murata's eyes.
Murata paused. He had sobered up enough to be alarmed at what his answer may cause, but the intensity of Yuuri's stare wouldn't allow him to brush off the question with a small lie.
He stared into his friend's eyes for a few seconds longer before the alcohol, and his heart, caused him to answer truthfully.
“Yes.”
Murata expected Yuuri to look shocked, or confused, or even slightly appalled. What he didn't expect, however, was for his friend to look relieved, and the other man's next remark caused Murata to temporarily question his own sanity.
“I'm glad,” Yuuri said with a sigh, and gave Murata a small smile.
“Wha... what?!” Murata asked. He was beginning to think it was all a dream. “Since when are you alright with a man being in love with another man?”
“For quite some time now. Even though I don't swing that way, I don't mind what other people do.”
Murata's mouth hung open. He made a mental note to write down what he could remember when he became fully sober, because he didn't think Yuuri would ever say such things again.
“You should tell him how you feel, Murata,” Yuuri said.
Murata squawked at the comment. “What makes you think I can do that! Besides, it's not like he feels the same way.”
“I think he does,” Yuuri said, which prompted Murata to raise his eyebrow.
“Why do you think that?”
“It's just... the way he looks at you now - it's the same way he used to look at me,” the other boy said softly. “I'm glad that you return his feelings. He deserves to have someone love him back.”
Murata was in absolute awe. Yuuri had essentially revealed that he had noticed how deeply Wolfram had cared for him. He purposely ignored the remark about how Wolfram looked at him and focused on that.
“You... knew how much he loved you? Why didn't you let him know?”
“I couldn't bring myself to reject him flat out. After all, I am a wimp,” Yuuri said, his voice tinged with sadness. “So I took the coward's way out, and waited until he ended things. I felt so bad about it, and I still haven't really forgiven myself for it.”
Murata was stunned by Yuuri's confession. He couldn't find any words to address what the other man said.
“I even tried to discourage him from becoming interested in you, because I thought you were straight. I didn't want him to get hurt again. Even when you confessed that you went both ways, it still bothered me. I didn't want him to get any false hope because of other people trying to push you two together.”
Murata looked at his friend. The man in front of him had proven himself to be much more astute than he had let on, and he felt like the obtuse one for not realizing it sooner. He felt pity for Yuuri, who had held all of this inside of him and had essentially played the “bad guy” by pretending to be dense. As misguided as it may have seemed, it was proof that Yuuri cared for Wolfram in his own way.
“So tell him how you feel, before he gives up on you too,” Yuuri said, and smiled at Murata.
“I don't want to be second in his heart to you, Yuuri,” Murata said, sadly. He was still unconvinced that Wolfram cared for him, and was afraid that if he did make a move, Wolfram would only accept him as a replacement for Yuuri.
“Murata, have you ever been in love in any of your lifetimes?” Yuuri asked, suddenly.
“Yes, of course. Several times. Why do you ask?”
“Was the first time you fell in love the only time you really loved someone? Were all the other loves after that rebound for you?”
“No, of course not!”
“Then why can't you realize that just because Wolfram loved someone before you doesn't mean that his love for you now isn't the real thing?”
More profoundness from the drunken Maou. Murata decided that he would, once he got back to Shin Makoku, inform Gwendal that plying Yuuri with alcohol before meetings and other important events would make things go much smoother.
“I see your point,” he said.
“Good. Now will you tell him how you feel?” Yuuri asked.
Murata thought hard about Yuuri's revelations and encouragement that night, and gave his friend the most truthful answer that he could.
“I'll have to think on it a little longer,” he said.
Yuuri nodded, and pushed himself up off the floor. “And now, snack time!” he declared.
Murata laughed as his friend staggered his way into the kitchen to rummage for food.
“You don't know how much I appreciate tonight, Shibuya,” he said quietly to himself.
And so, Murata thought about it. Day and night, for several weeks. He even dreamed about it, dreams that were so real that he either woke up in misery over Dream-Wolfram's cruel rejection of him, or twisted around his soiled sheets over Dream-Wolfram's more-than-happy acceptance of him.
It was driving him nuts.
He knew that he couldn't hide his feelings much longer, and resolved himself to making a move. He made himself remember that time heals all wounds, and that even if things didn't work out between him and Wolfram, that he would probably, at least, still have him as a friend.
After all, wasn't he still friends with Shinou?
While Murata was driving himself insane on Earth, Wolfram was mirroring his actions in Shin Makoku. The blond was still having trouble sleeping, and when he did bother to slumber, his dreams were filled with Murata rejecting him for not being Shinou, or laughing at him behind his back with Shinou while they discussed how stupid he was to believe that Murata love him. He even had nightmares that Shinou took complete control over his body so that he and Murata could be together.
The nightmares, coupled with not having seen Murata for a while, made him want to scream.
He knew that something had to give, sometime soon. His sanity, and his heart, could only take but so much.
That's it for this chapter! Now, didn't I promise you all that Yuuri would redeem himself way back in chapter 1? Now you know that almost every dense thing that Yuuri has said/done throughout this fic has been on purpose. I know a lot of fics bash a character that they think gets in the way of their pairing, but I've never been a fan of that. I just don't think it's necessary. It's also why I warned that Yuuri would redeem himself - I didn't want anyone to think that he was going to be bashed. Besides, Yuuri is awesome - dense moments and all.
In the next chapter, Wolfram gets his own counseling session.
Next Chapter: 11
Author: Batty_Gal a.k.a Tetra26
Rating: T+
Fandom: Kyou Kara Maou
Pairing: Wolfram x Murata
Word Count: 2095
Fic Type: Ongoing
Summary: Murata sees another side of Yuuri that he didn't know existed.
Prior chapters: 1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4 ~ 5 ~ 6 ~ 7 ~ 8 ~ 9
Chapter 10: The Profoundness of the (Drunken) Maou
Another night, another club. Though Murata had been totally uninterested, he went along with Yuuri on the almost impossible chance that he'd find someone who could take his mind off of Wolfram. Sadly, that didn't happen, and the more he drank, the more frustrated he became with it all.
By the time Yuuri (who also didn't luck out on finding someone that night) and he left the club, both were drunken and holding each other up. Yuuri, who had been spending less time at home and more time at Murata's, decided to crash over at Murata's new apartment.
This minute decision would prove crucial to everything.
“Murataaaa,” Yuuri slurred out. “Cook something, I'm hungry.”
“Idiot, do I look like I can move, let alone get up and cook?” Murata mumbled.
Both men were laid out side-by-side on their backs on Murata's living room floor, still drunk. That was as far as either of them could make it when they initially came in the door, and an hour later neither of them could still be bothered to go any further.
“Surely you have some snacks or something,” the other man whined as he managed to finally roll over and look at Murata.
“I do, but I still can't move to get them,” Murata said. “Feel free to get up and help yourself.”
“Fine, fine,” Yuuri said, and sighed.
Murata watched with amusement as Yuuri tried, and repeatedly failed, to even sit up to get up.
“Don't laugh at me!” Yuuri said in annoyance, which made Murata laugh even harder.
“Ooh, that's so damn pitiful!”
“Shut up!”
“I'll shut up when you sit up - and it doesn't look like you'll be doing that anytime soon.”
“Jerk,” Yuuri grumbled, still annoyed. He rolled over onto his side, away from Murata.
“Man, you're a mean drunk. I'm not going to drink with you anymore, especially if you're going to take out your failure to get laid on me,” Murata said.
“Who's being mean now? Besides, it's not like you got any action tonight either.”
“I simply didn't find anyone interesting to me, while you repeatedly got shot down. Huge difference.”
Murata laughed as Yuuri mumbled several expletives directed his way. After his giggling and Yuuri's curses against his ancestors died down, the two men fell silent.
Murata assumed that Yuuri had finally given up on his journey for a snack, and had fallen asleep. He continued to lay on the floor with his eyes closed, his mind wandering and not focusing on anything in particular.
After a few minutes, Murata was startled when Yuuri spoke up.
“Say, Murata... Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“What's going on between you and Wolfram?”
Murata was shocked by Yuuri's question, but quickly recovered and answered. “Yuuri, don't tell me you're starting to take the castle gossip to heart too...”
“No, I'm not talking about the gossip,” the other boy interrupted, slurring his words. “I'm talking about the way you two act.”
Murata rolled on his side to look at Yuuri, who still has his back to him. “What do you mean by that?”
“It's hard to explain. It's just... when I talk to one of you, it's like I'm talking to the other at the same time.”
He was confused by Yuuri's statement. “I still don't understand...”
“Well, it's like you two have rubbed off on each other,” he said. “For example, when I'm alone with him, he acts like you do.”
Murata was pained at the thought of Wolfram alone with Yuuri, but his curiosity about what the other man was getting at prevented him from ending the conversation. “How does he act?”
“Well, before... things were sort-of awkward between us after the engagement ended. It was like he was forcing himself to be around me sometimes. Yet, now, things are comfortable between me and Wolfram like they are between me and you. Ever since he became close to you, it's been that way.”
“I still don't see how that's acting like me...”
“It's the small things. Cracking jokes at my expense. Laughing with and at me. Giving me advice. Those are things that he does now that he didn't really do before he started hanging with you.”
Murata was stunned. He knew that Wolfram had become more open when alone with him in those ways, but he had simply assumed that the blond was already like that privately with Yuuri. He hadn't known that, in reality, it hadn't quite been that way.
The reveal was astonishing.
“And then, there's you,” Yuuri said, interrupting Murata's thoughts.
“Me?”
“Yes. I can see parts of him in you,” Yuuri said. “You've become meaner.”
“What?!” Murata shot straight up and glared down at Yuuri's form, which was shaking with laughter.
“And more hotheaded!”
“Idiot!”
“See?!”
Murata rolled his eyes at Yuuri's comments, but didn't deny them. It wasn't that he was not like that before; he simply didn't show that side of him to Yuuri.
Until Wolfram.
Murata realized then that Yuuri was right about the both of them. The past two years between him and Wolfram had really changed them both. He didn't know what to think about it all, or how this fit in the grander scheme of things. Before he could think any deeper about the matter, Yuuri suddenly sat up and grabbed his arm, and Murata looked at the other man in shock.
“Murata,” the other man said.
“What?” he asked, looking at his friend's suddenly serious expression.
“Do you love Wolfram?” Yuuri asked, staring into Murata's eyes.
Murata paused. He had sobered up enough to be alarmed at what his answer may cause, but the intensity of Yuuri's stare wouldn't allow him to brush off the question with a small lie.
He stared into his friend's eyes for a few seconds longer before the alcohol, and his heart, caused him to answer truthfully.
“Yes.”
Murata expected Yuuri to look shocked, or confused, or even slightly appalled. What he didn't expect, however, was for his friend to look relieved, and the other man's next remark caused Murata to temporarily question his own sanity.
“I'm glad,” Yuuri said with a sigh, and gave Murata a small smile.
“Wha... what?!” Murata asked. He was beginning to think it was all a dream. “Since when are you alright with a man being in love with another man?”
“For quite some time now. Even though I don't swing that way, I don't mind what other people do.”
Murata's mouth hung open. He made a mental note to write down what he could remember when he became fully sober, because he didn't think Yuuri would ever say such things again.
“You should tell him how you feel, Murata,” Yuuri said.
Murata squawked at the comment. “What makes you think I can do that! Besides, it's not like he feels the same way.”
“I think he does,” Yuuri said, which prompted Murata to raise his eyebrow.
“Why do you think that?”
“It's just... the way he looks at you now - it's the same way he used to look at me,” the other boy said softly. “I'm glad that you return his feelings. He deserves to have someone love him back.”
Murata was in absolute awe. Yuuri had essentially revealed that he had noticed how deeply Wolfram had cared for him. He purposely ignored the remark about how Wolfram looked at him and focused on that.
“You... knew how much he loved you? Why didn't you let him know?”
“I couldn't bring myself to reject him flat out. After all, I am a wimp,” Yuuri said, his voice tinged with sadness. “So I took the coward's way out, and waited until he ended things. I felt so bad about it, and I still haven't really forgiven myself for it.”
Murata was stunned by Yuuri's confession. He couldn't find any words to address what the other man said.
“I even tried to discourage him from becoming interested in you, because I thought you were straight. I didn't want him to get hurt again. Even when you confessed that you went both ways, it still bothered me. I didn't want him to get any false hope because of other people trying to push you two together.”
Murata looked at his friend. The man in front of him had proven himself to be much more astute than he had let on, and he felt like the obtuse one for not realizing it sooner. He felt pity for Yuuri, who had held all of this inside of him and had essentially played the “bad guy” by pretending to be dense. As misguided as it may have seemed, it was proof that Yuuri cared for Wolfram in his own way.
“So tell him how you feel, before he gives up on you too,” Yuuri said, and smiled at Murata.
“I don't want to be second in his heart to you, Yuuri,” Murata said, sadly. He was still unconvinced that Wolfram cared for him, and was afraid that if he did make a move, Wolfram would only accept him as a replacement for Yuuri.
“Murata, have you ever been in love in any of your lifetimes?” Yuuri asked, suddenly.
“Yes, of course. Several times. Why do you ask?”
“Was the first time you fell in love the only time you really loved someone? Were all the other loves after that rebound for you?”
“No, of course not!”
“Then why can't you realize that just because Wolfram loved someone before you doesn't mean that his love for you now isn't the real thing?”
More profoundness from the drunken Maou. Murata decided that he would, once he got back to Shin Makoku, inform Gwendal that plying Yuuri with alcohol before meetings and other important events would make things go much smoother.
“I see your point,” he said.
“Good. Now will you tell him how you feel?” Yuuri asked.
Murata thought hard about Yuuri's revelations and encouragement that night, and gave his friend the most truthful answer that he could.
“I'll have to think on it a little longer,” he said.
Yuuri nodded, and pushed himself up off the floor. “And now, snack time!” he declared.
Murata laughed as his friend staggered his way into the kitchen to rummage for food.
“You don't know how much I appreciate tonight, Shibuya,” he said quietly to himself.
And so, Murata thought about it. Day and night, for several weeks. He even dreamed about it, dreams that were so real that he either woke up in misery over Dream-Wolfram's cruel rejection of him, or twisted around his soiled sheets over Dream-Wolfram's more-than-happy acceptance of him.
It was driving him nuts.
He knew that he couldn't hide his feelings much longer, and resolved himself to making a move. He made himself remember that time heals all wounds, and that even if things didn't work out between him and Wolfram, that he would probably, at least, still have him as a friend.
After all, wasn't he still friends with Shinou?
While Murata was driving himself insane on Earth, Wolfram was mirroring his actions in Shin Makoku. The blond was still having trouble sleeping, and when he did bother to slumber, his dreams were filled with Murata rejecting him for not being Shinou, or laughing at him behind his back with Shinou while they discussed how stupid he was to believe that Murata love him. He even had nightmares that Shinou took complete control over his body so that he and Murata could be together.
The nightmares, coupled with not having seen Murata for a while, made him want to scream.
He knew that something had to give, sometime soon. His sanity, and his heart, could only take but so much.
That's it for this chapter! Now, didn't I promise you all that Yuuri would redeem himself way back in chapter 1? Now you know that almost every dense thing that Yuuri has said/done throughout this fic has been on purpose. I know a lot of fics bash a character that they think gets in the way of their pairing, but I've never been a fan of that. I just don't think it's necessary. It's also why I warned that Yuuri would redeem himself - I didn't want anyone to think that he was going to be bashed. Besides, Yuuri is awesome - dense moments and all.
In the next chapter, Wolfram gets his own counseling session.
Next Chapter: 11