1 Up – Chapter One: The Beginning

by Tetra26/Batty Gal

Summary: Wolfram and Saralegui play games with each other, with unexpected results and fallout. Shinou tactics, chemical provocation, passive-aggressiveness, manipulation and other dirty tricks are used to bring each other down. Wolfram and Saralegui.

Wolfram von Bielefeld angrily grabbed the King of Small Shimaron by the shoulders, and pressed him forcefully into the wall.

"I don't know what you're doing, or what you're planning, but stay away from my fiancé or else, 'pretty boy'," he said.

Saralegui, who seemed unfazed by the contact and the threat, smirked at him. "Interesting of you to insult me as a 'pretty boy' considering you're one yourself," he quipped. "Anyhow, I'm not planning anything, so quit being so paranoid. My issues with your beloved Maou have already been resolved, for the most part."

"Then why do you keep looking at him like that? As if you're plotting something?," Wolfram asked, suspiciously.

"Looking at someone is against the law now? I was uninformed of such a rule. Pity."

Wolfram gripped Saralegui's shoulders harder, and was secretly delighted when his face briefly flashed with pain. "I'm going to warn you one more time. If you do anything to him, I won't hesitate to destroy you – if necessary."

"I wonder what your beloved Maou would think if he heard you giving out death threats, Lord von Bielefeld. He probably wouldn't be too happy about it," Saralegui responded.

"Stay away from him."

"Why should I? He has opened his doors to me after everything I've done, why shouldn't I take advantage of that?"

"I don't trust you, not one bit."

"Who cares? The Maou does, and his opinion is the only that matters here 'pretty boy'. Besides, I like him. I think he would make a wonderful husband."

Wolfram was livid. The idea that Saralegui would even attempt to sway Yuuri his way made him see red. "He's my fiancé, so don't even try it!"

"Fiancé. Just fiancé. He's not your husband yet, and that makes him fair game as far as I'm concerned."

"If you come on to him I swear-"

"What's so wrong, Lord von Bielefeld? Can't stand the idea of competition? If your beloved Maou loves you in return, there shouldn't be a problem here – he'll just ignore my advances. Or, could it be that you wish I was pursuing you instead?" Saralegui said in a teasing, seductive voice.

Wolfram, who was seething with blind rage over the idea of Yuuri and Saralegui together, was seconds away from sending Saralegui's pretty hair up in flames. However, a sinister idea came quickly into his mind – one that was more of a Shinou thing to do, as opposed to a Wolfram one.

Wolfram let the anger that showed on his face fade away, and gave Saralegui the most predatory look that he could muster up. He removed his hands from his shoulders, and placed both of them up against the wall on each side of Saralegui's head.

He watched in amusement as Saralegui's normally smug face turned into one of confusion, and decided to press his body closer to his. "Maybe that's exactly what I want, Your Majesty," he said in a husky voice. He pointedly looked at Saralegui's lips through half-lidded eyes, hoping that it would imply that he was thinking about kissing them.

The normally composed Saralegui shrank as far against the wall as he possibly could. "Wha... what do you think you're doing?!"

"I've decided to drop the pretense of warning you away from the Maou, and have decided to be a little more open with my desire for you," Wolfram said in his sexiest voice. He took one of his hands off the wall, and entangled his fingers in Saralegui's hair. "So, how about you forget about that wimp and take on a real man like me?"

"You... get away from me before I scream! This joke isn't funny at all, you understand?!" Saralegui hissed.

Seeing the normally cool Saralegui so flustered due to his seduction tease turned Wolfram on for real, and while he was slightly embarrassed by his state, he couldn't help but to use it to further his cause. He pressed his crotch against Saralegui's. "Does it feel like I'm joking to you?"

Saralegui opened his mouth to scream for Beries, but he muffled the scream with a kiss. Saralegui did his best to push him away, but Wolfram's lithe frame betrayed just how strong he truly was.

Wolfram deepened the kiss for the hell of it, and was surprised when Saralegui stopped fighting him and started to respond to his assault. He was even more shocked to find that he liked the feel of Saralegui's body against his, as well as the his lips against his own. For several moments, the two made out against the wall, completely lost in their act and unaware of their surroundings.

"What is going on here!" a voice cried out.

Both men pulled away from each other quickly, and noticed that they had an audience of onlookers. Yuuri, Gwendal, Yozak, Beries, and others stared at the two men with various looks of shock, anger, amusement, jealousy and confusion.

Neither of the two could quickly come up with an explanation. Saralegui was simply speechless from both Wolfram's actions and being caught in the act – while Wolfram was trying to figure out how to explain to Yuuri and the others why it looked like he was ten seconds away from doing things up against the wall with the king of Small Shimaron.

"Just what were you doing to my little brother?" Gwendal asked, breaking the silence. The look of sheer fury on his face made more than a few people step backwards.

Saralegui snapped out of his daze. "Doing to him? Doing to him?! He was doing it to me!" he shrieked, indignant at the accusation. "Did you not see how he had me against that wall?"

"What did you do to him to make him do that to you?" Gwendal gritted out, his eyes narrowed.

"I didn't do anything at all! I didn't want this at all!"

"That's interesting, because it sure looked like you weren't being forced at all. You seemed to be enjoying it as much as he was," Yozak said. He pointed towards Saralegui's crotch, where his arousal was obvious.

Saralegui blushed in embarrassment and anger as he rearranged his clothing, and turned to point towards Wolfram. "Tell them! Tell them what was happening here!"

Wolfram, who had been stunned silent throughout the entire exchange, felt guilty as he watched the infuriated and embarrassed Saralegui wait for his reply. A part of him actually wanted to speak up and defend the other man while the other part wanted to take advantage of the situation and make him look bad.

He remembered how Saralegui had taunted him about Yuuri, how he had implied that he planned to put the moves on his fiancé, and the smug look on his face when Wolfram got angry at his words.

The guilty side of him lost.

Wolfram blinked his eyes and shook his head, and put on his most confused face. "How did I get outside? And where did all of you people come from?" he asked, incredulously. "Is this a dream?"

Saralegui's mouth dropped open at Wolfram's act. He simply couldn't believe that Wolfram had gotten him into such trouble and then pretended not to remember what he was doing to him.

"Saralegui, you promised me that you wouldn't manipulate my friends again," Yuuri said. "Please, stop."

"I didn't manipulate him! I had nothing to do with this! He was the one that pulled me aside. He was the one who assaulted me. He was the one who kissed me!" Saralegui, his suave composure long forgotten, shouted.

"Wolfram would never do that sort of thing on his own will," Yuuri said, simply.

Saralegui was once again speechless, and saw no way to further explain the situation in a way that didn't make him look even more guilty. He knew he had been bested by Wolfram von Bielefeld, and that his reputation made Wolfram look completely innocent.

With his dignity in shreds, he saw no better choice than to exit the situation immediately. "Fine. Believe what you want to believe. Lord von Bielefeld and I know what really happened here, and that's all that counts, for now. Beries! Let's go, now!"

Wolfram didn't miss the angry glare that Saralegui shot him before stalking off, Beries close behind him. He had to restrain himself from smirking at the indignant man, and on the inside he was gleeful at his small victory over his self-appointed rival. He was certain that Saralegui would not let things end at that – especially after Wolfram had made him out to look like the villain. Regardless of the sneaky tactics that he anticipated Saralegui would pull, he looked forward to going up against him again.

In more ways than one.

Author's note: This is the revised edition of "1 Up", which was initially intended to be a oneshot. I consider this a part of my own personal "Wolfram Project", in which the goal is to pair Wolfram with everyone, romantic or not. Changes made to this entire series: Removed epithets (the blond, the fire mazoku, the other man, etc), corrected grammatical errors, Conrad is now Conrart (unless Yuuri is directly addressing him), changed "Sir" to "Lord", and other misc. things. Next chapter: Saralegui gets revenge.