After-Tastes

by Vanessa S. Quest

A/N: This story is a sequel to Or leave a kiss within the cup by queasy, it does so as a stand-alone companion, so if she ever continues it, it most likely will have nothing to do with this (my) story.

Pairings, as per the norm, is ConYuu. And now… for a message from our author… aka the story.

After-Tastes

Pressing the palm of Yuri's left hand over his left eye and eyebrow, he began to rub it in attempts to chase out strange thoughts.

His arrival to Shin Makoku this time had been more- well let's just leave it at being a bit special. He couldn't really call it traumatizing and yet… memorable! That was the way to categorize it, he was pretty sure this was up there with going down the toilet or coming up next to a vegetarian great-white shark.

For his part, Yuri was able to treat it with some good humor, but that was largely because it had been Conrad, and ONLY Conrad who had witnessed it. Oh kami-sama had anyone else been there Yuri wouldn't know what to do. As it were, he wondered if there was a way to exorcise a particular Shinou. It just wasn't fair how it all happened!

It was his first…

Yuri blushed as he recalled it, kami-sama why couldn't he block it out, or convince himself he wanted to? Beyond that, the crick in his neck still refused to iron itself out, when everyone had gathered around him, he just pretended he came in through the private royal bath. He was pretty sure Cheri knew he was lying, but bless that woman for keeping secrets of the heart, he was sure she'd have called it. If he dared to call her out on it and risk being wrong, that is to say.

Both hands clutched his hair as he mussed it up to ridiculous angles as he tried to move past the… situation. He was sure it was alright, that Conrad would never ever… EVER mention it but somehow Conrad being ashamed or disappointed wasn't much better.

His head hung down, over-thinking things really was not Yuri's forte. As a principle he tended to not THINK things through, so having to go above and beyond was all the more the headache.

He was tired. He was tired, there was the typical commotion of Yuri coming back to the palace, and all Yuri wanted to do at this point was sleep. Shinou and his subconscious must have teamed up or something though, because what he saw when he closed his eyes was definitely not the typical baseball dream Yuri was accustomed to. If anything, he was pretty certain it was a recap of the exact instance, with the added features of pausing, rewinding, and looping. Over and over and over again.

Yuri had thought how thirsty he was, back on Earth, so like any normal, rational person in that sort of situation would do; he went to get a glass of water. Reflecting back, he was glad he hadn't gotten a 

straw. As he was sucked through and into the glass as he tried to get the fluid into him, versus the actual outcome of him in IT, Yuri was annoyed to think that someone would interrupt something so simple and pure as drinking a glass of water! The acute pain of being forced into a glass, well that was just added benefit, wasn't it? He really hoped the glass didn't empty onto his bed or shatter, both scenarios would be irksome.

His arrival, what had burnt itself into his very soul? Sure interrupting his own drink was annoying… and painful… but coming out of a glass and into a face of a certain vassal had trumped that as far as being the most memorable.

Yuri had tasted those sweet, petal-soft lips, seen the shocked look in his eyes, he spotted those brown eyes as his pupils dilated at Yuri's sudden… arrival. The sudden arrival and attachment to his lips.

Even in Yuri's sleep, his cheeks were burning a bright red that was discernable from a fever to anyone in the know, which would be only Conrad and himself, luckily. He counted that at least as a small blessing because had Wolfram seen it, or ever find out about it he was sure Shin Makoku would have to deal with a regicide. Yuri really didn't want to be a corpse at an early age of 15.

Turning in the bed, he opened his eyes when he felt warm contact, his eyes shot open wide. He just bumped into the horror in the pink nightie, Wolfram. Well, speak of the Mazoku. Yuri did his best to stealthily distance himself from that force of nature.

He decided to get out of bed, regardless of how tired he might still be, his mind wouldn't let him rest, and if Wolfram's already slipped in, he wouldn't let Yuri rest either. Yuri didn't want to get kicked or punched; his body was sore enough from being compressed. Yuri decided to go for a walk to clear his head.

He really shouldn't have been surprised to see Conrad; it was inevitable with his luck. Though, his options did range to varying scales of catastrophe. Oh, maybe he was missing from his bedroom and the kingdom was on high-alert if anyone doubted how easily it could turn into a crisis. Sighing silently, just thinking about how a balcony spiriting him away could lead to a military response.

As it were, Conrad scanned the hallway casually spotting him and approached. He was relieved that today's scale shifted away from the catastrophic, to the awkward side sure, but at least awkward never killed anyone. Wait, can you die of embarrassment and shame? Yuri silently pondered that until Conrad came upon him, causing a jittery response as Yuri jumped when Conrad's hand landed on his shoulder.

"Ah, oh, good evening Conrad!" Yuri smiled, blushed, then tried to find an adequate hole to fall into. There were no such hole-escape routes. Yuri turned his face back up to keep eye-contact, he didn't want to make Conrad feel guilty for making him feel embarrassed.

Though maybe he should, because Conrad was a damn fine kisser, and for him to be seducing a drinking glass so much was hardly fair or tolerable to Yuri. He didn't want to add mentally to himself why he was in fact upset by this was because he envied the glass that got to kiss Conrad so passionately.



"Er…um… you're up late." Yuri stammered, surprised that Conrad hadn't spoken yet.

Conrad smiled down at him, with what Yuri wasn't sure if it was melancholic relief due to Yuri acting 'normally' with the preface of how normal he could be after that, or if that look in his eyes was concern, really in this dim of a lighting he really had a hard time discerning the two and he felt it was important.

Yuri closed his eyes and smiled, "Guard duty must really be hard. Thank you for your strong work-ethic and dedication!" He opened his eyes in time to see Conrad's mood lighten, that was a relief in and of itself.

"Yuri, you shouldn't be walking around without a guard so late at night." Conrad's critique was given with such great gentleness that Yuri's heart fluttered and churned with an anxiety he had been afflicted with.

It was a weird affliction, Yuri could only recall the affects at certain moments, "Would you like to join me then? I'm going for a walk, I don't have any real destination in mind, but I do have a goal…"

Conrad laughed, "That is very like you, Yuri."

Yuri scratched the back of his head to laugh it off, it was, wasn't it?

"What goal would that be?" Conrad asked, catching Yuri off guard.

"Ha… ha… well, I can't sleep. Not that I don't want to, boy do I ever, but I can't."

"Wolfram?"

Yuri took his cue to laugh, "That's a big part of it." Yuri's eyes widened, he didn't think he could mention the other part of it.

Conrad became quiet to let Yuri reflect within himself. Those butterflies only seemed to sprout up when Conrad was involved. Yuri knew what he dreaded to say was that he really couldn't say that he didn't love Conrad. In fact, the realization of how much he did love Conrad was a shock to him.

He thought he was straight for crying out loud!

He never thought about guys doing this or that, he never found it gross, but he was raised in a culture that told him that wasn't how it WORKED. With zero attraction to Wolfram, he just put two and two together, I don't like Wolfram because I don't like men… simple explanation, right? But he mused sometimes the 'what if' possibilities of what if Wolfram was a girl, and decided he still couldn't stand him. Selfish, bratty, clingy and dramatic, and he just wasn't into that sort of high maintenance. When he realized that he had to really question if he could think of any guy he could ever like, he always assumed when his thoughts came to Conrad it was because he loved him like a brother.

He was no Shori, and the brotherly sort of relationship he had labeled it under didn't fit. So, if it wasn't brotherly, was it hero-worship or emulation? Conrad really is cool, so that was possible, but he didn't 

want to hold Conrad on a pedestal of the unattainable, nor did he want to be just like Conrad, he liked being him and Conrad being Conrad.

He was running out of options when he thought of one trip to the bath-house, but that kiss, that definitely sealed it. He like-liked Conrad, that was the relationship, the category he wanted to put him under. He wanted to put to scrutiny that development.

"Yuri?"

Yuri shook his head and looked up at Conrad, "Ah… what is it Conrad?"

"…You stopped walking." And have been standing like that for a good two minutes, Conrad edited out in order to be couth.

"Oh, so I did." Yuri blushed awkwardly. He loved Conrad, he wondered if Conrad would feel the same way, or if he'd push him away. Worst still, would he not push him away but not because he reciprocated, but out of some sense of obligation? That sort of fear is what kept Yuri's legs mounted to their fixed position on the floor. He looked down. He still hadn't come across any real answers. Could a person die of embarrassment? Could Conrad love him back? Could he convince Wolfram not to murder or attempt to murder either of them if Conrad did love him… if that was conceivably possible for a perfect person to love a ditzy baseball playing teenage boy with zero romantic experience? He felt weary; he really didn't need any help feeling more tired! This was all his brain's fault… when he gets home; Yuri contemplated taking revenge with a q-tip.

"About earlier…" Yuri started then sputtered to a halt, he didn't have the steam to progress from where he stood. Something like this took way more energy and brain-power.

Yuri was shocked when a pair of powerful arms that were deceivingly identical to Conrad's wrapped around him, pinning him into a tight embrace.

"Please forgive me, Yuri-heika." He couldn't say more to betray, to expose his emotions. As it were, he forced himself to add on heika to keep some degree of separation, though it didn't work at all.

Yuri's hands touched upon each of Conrad's forearms, buried between both of their chests. They didn't seem to mind being crushed with such a force. Yuri bowed his head.

"Why are you apologizing…? And more importantly why are you still calling me HEIKA?"

Conrad's laugh carried across both of their bodies in a wave, resonating through Yuri's pinned arms. Well, pinned as much as anything unwilling to move being held between two unmoving forces.

It seemed Conrad wasn't about to let go.

"I had intended on staying silent on the matter, to be happy for you and my baby-brother; however, I simply can't."

"…The kiss clenched it, huh…?"



"…" Yuri knew Conrad was blushing, he heard it in the silence. Those sort of signals Conrad gave out that wrote volumes as to what he was feeling, the man was so much more expressive and beautiful than he was given credit for. At least people accredited his levels of dashing about right, otherwise Yuri might have rioted… by himself?

Conrad let his arms relax as he pulled Yuri from the center of the hallway and into the shadows, hiding them from view of several guards making rounds.

"No, the kiss didn't. I decided upon this course of action weeks ago, but it isn't something so easy to broach."

Yuri blushed, the more time passed the further the blush crept until it tinted the tips of his ears a scarlet red.

"But, you were just standing there, with such a longing look I couldn't contain myself. I apologize."

"Stop apologizing!" Yuri squeaked out a bit louder than he intended, Conrad pulled Yuri toward an empty room to escape the sounds of shuffling boots coming from approaching guards.

Yuri waited for the door to be firmly shut before he continued, "I think apologizing for it is far worse, especially saying I enjoyed it. I think in the same way you did." Yuri let out a loud sigh before allowing himself to fall back onto his bottom, "Ah, I'm so tired, I think I can finally fall asleep with everything resolved now…" Yuri had posed with his chin extended, face tilted up, looking down, it made him look more tired than stuck-up, and yet had anyone else matched the pose, they'd be accused of being bratty.

Yuri opened one eye wider, to follow Conrad with it, "This is resolved, right? We just did the confessing of love stuff, right? I'm totally clueless because I've never had to do it before, so I don't know."

Conrad let out a small laugh, "Ah, yes I believe we can count it as that, though I would like to better-express my confessions when you're a bit more rested, Yuri."

Yuri nodded, "Good enough for me." He let out a lengthy yawn then growled realizing he had no place to go to sleep. "K'so… Wolfram's still hogging the bed." He had meant it to be an empty complaint, for him to deal with on his own, in a small corner of bed or from the couch. He didn't expect Conrad to extend his hand to escort him to Conrad's private chamber to make use of his private bed.

Blinking owlishly, with large black eyes and enough adrenalin to chase sleep off for another few minutes, he looked at Conrad asking for an explanation silently.

"I still have guard duty for some time more, if you'd like to rest until the early morning, you'd be able to slip back into your bedroom before Wolfram gets up, and that should be enough sleep for you, you've run on less."

Yuri hung his head, "Out of necessity, not out of choice. Gh… Oh, thank you Conrad. I really appreciate this." His eyes shifted to the left, "Though I might be asking a bit much for the protection I'm going to 

require once Wolfram finds out about us, especially when I call off the engagement, and double-especially when I call off the engagement… and get it through to him."

Conrad smirked, "Well, as his older brother, I can still take him, so you don't have anything to fear."

Yuri let out a snide laugh, not quite sure he could make it such a clean-cut solution, but if Conrad said it, that did tend to give it more merit.

"Okay. Well… goodnight…"

Yuri paused, still sitting up in the bed.

"…Yuri?" Conrad asked reflexively.

"…I can't believe this…"

"Yuri?"

He hung his head, "You don't happen to have anything to drink do you? I can't believe I'm thirsty now…"

Conrad smiled, handing him the enviable glass from earlier, having been cleaned, he poured water from a pitcher into the glass, the teen taking a sip, though it wasn't quite doing it for him.

"…It tasted better last time…" Yuri froze, realizing what that had to have meant. Conrad's gentle laugh that he caught in his own fist wasn't amiss to Yuri's ears, the brunette bowed down next to him, kissing Yuri as he leaned back, fast asleep, smiling.

"Good night, Yuri."

The End.

This is a continuation of the story Or leave a kiss within the cup by queasy, with her permission. You should check it out, because it is a very funny, whimsical story. Thanks again for letting me run on the premise, queasy!