There are times, sporadic and brief, but nevertheless times, when Murata will look at Wolfram and think I could love you.

Perhaps it started in his similarities to his great past love Shinou, and how strikingly similar they look, but Murata, when he dwells on it, likes to think that is all it is, a starting point, not a foundation.

It happens in odd and wildly varying moments, anything from looking up and seeing Wolfram mid-strike, the power, courage and loyalty he has framed in that one snapshot in time. Other times it's domestic, anything from seeing him lying in the gardens in an odd moment of relaxation, or even sitting down to eat. Even the commonly thought negative emotions, can bring it out in him, when Wolfram is being jealous or petty, there will be a moment when everything becomes very focused and clear as a cloudless sky Murata can picture a life with Wolfram von Bielefeld.

I could love you, he will think, I could love you if given the chance, and I think you could love me too. We could be happy.

The Great Sage has lived many lives, and has continued to learn about people and even himself with each one, and he knows with clarity that those who only have one lifetime can never grasp what will work and what won't. He is confident of this, even as Shinou's spirit continues to whisper in his ear, mocking his 'obsession' with his ancestor, purring like a pleased tomcat that he knew his sage still loved him, and laughingly pointing out Wolfram's faults.

Yet Shinou is no longer flesh and bones, and though his presence lingers when it suits him, Wolfram is soft flesh and firm bones, a beating pulse and just so full of life in a way even the original king never was, Murata thinks it can excuse many of his other faults.

Wolfram is a dazzling mix of beauty, arrogance and vulnerability. Of nobility, duty, servility and pettiness. He is grasping, guiless and loyal to a fault. But it is this mix that makes him so entrancing and heady to Murata, who had known so many people and learnt to be amused by them and love every facet of a personality. Wolfram is bright and burning in a way so rare only Murata can appreciate.

But Wolfram is also the King's fiancé, and however much Yuuri protests, Murata cannot see him giving Wolfram up easily, making him as selfish and possessive as he accuses Wolfram. And it is this, aided by Shinou's lingering – not enough to allow Murata to love him in quite the same way as before, but enough to emotionally halt him- that brings him to the conclusion that although he could love Wolfram, it would be better to not. So he mocks the boy, and does not show him the compassion he feels would be more suited to their interactions.

And still this does not stop the loneliness, the admiration or even the yearning, when he is caught unawares, when they are alone, or even in company and he is startled by the other man's beauty.

I'm not in love with you, he thinks. But I could be.