Disclaimer: I just really enjoy watching the show (and I have the manga coming in the mail). Does that count?
Pre ConYu, again, so no one yell at me this time. ;)
It was a nice, small wedding. Gwendal had seemed a bit put out about it, but Greta's enthusiasm kept anyone in her vicinity from speaking of the rush and extra work negatively. It was uncommon, it seemed, for one to be married in the castle gardens.
At least, if one was a guard. But the request had filtered to Yuri through a few intermediaries, and he had certainly not had anything against a guard getting married in the gardens.
Of course, he hadn't considered the effect such would have on the amount of paperwork he had to get through every day. Still… it was a nice wedding. Small enough that he'd felt extremely out of place when Greta dragged him into the crowd. Not that he wasn't often out of place, being the only double-black in the kingdom who didn't routinely hide in a 'no man's land'. And being king.
He'd been getting over the strangeness, slowly. He woke in the middle of the night being sure the whole Demon Kingdom mess was just a dream far less often these days. In fact, he was getting to be pretty settled in. Eighteen was a young age to consider oneself 'settled', especially considering the life spans in this country. His country. Still, that's how he was starting to feel. Greta was growing up in a peaceful country, though with occasional 'incidents' as Gwendal called them. The incidents had been fewer and much farther between, which was both nice and a bit boring.
It seemed the only excitement was excitement only for others. Mainly, Wolfram's temper. It was not fun being on the receiving end of his enthusiastic jealousy day after day. Yuri really enjoyed visiting their allies.
Mainly because they had to travel by sea, so he got a few hours of true respite.
Of course, he always felt bad about enjoying the travel because Wolfram always got sick.
"Dad?"
"Hm? What is it, Greta?" he smiled as he looked down at her.
She grinned. "Isn't it nice that Jarden has found his home?"
"His home? Did he buy a house too?"
A small frown puckered her brow before she shrugged. "I don't know."
"But you said he found his home."
"Oh," she smiled. "Yeah. He's found his home."
"Greta… I'm really not following you here." He braced his hands on his knees to bring him down a little bit so they could speak more quietly.
"They don't say that here?"
"Say what?"
"Family is like home."
"Oh. Well, yes, I suppose." He started to straighten, but she frowned at him and caught his sleeve.
"No. Not like that."
Like what? He didn't have time to ask.
"It's like being outside, in the woods hunting or in the fields working all day, until you just want to collapse into your bed. Family is the warmth and comfort you get when you do fall into bed. When you begin to relax and everything is good again."
He smiled. "I like that. Yeah. That's good."
"Mm. And he's got something better."
"Hm?"
"A… a lover," she blushed slightly, "is supposed to be like your favorite food. Exciting, fulfilling, and warming you up inside out."
"So he gets to collapse and be fed all at once," he summed up, grinning. He straightened and tousled her hair. "You're so cute."
She grinned up at him. "It's nice, huh?"
"Yup."
As soon as the ceremony turned to simple celebration Yuri gave the now wedded soldier a small smile and nod before fleeing the group, not wishing his presence to detract from the couple. He went to his office and settled down to attack the stack of papers that had noticeably bred in his absence.
Time passed, marked only by the drifting of shadows until Gwendal came in to join him. They had both found it easier, less tedious and frustrating to spend the last hour or so before dinner working through Yuri's 'urgent' stack together on those days he hadn't managed by himself.
"Are you alright, your majesty?"
"Headache," Yuri replied shortly, lowering the fingers that had been pressed to his temple.
Gwendal just nodded.
Yuri had long ago come to the conclusion that the only thing paperwork really did was give one a high tolerance for the pain of mild, sustained headaches.
Unfortunately, this one was rapidly growing worse. He'd had it all day, and most of yesterday, but it was so mild he wouldn't have bothered taking something for it if the potion was in his hand. Contrary to popular opinion, as espoused by Wolfram, he was not a wimp.
He winced when someone knocked on the door and realized he hadn't done anything productive for several minutes. The pounding in his head had gotten to the point his fingers were digging into his temples again, trying to ease the throbbing by compressing the vigorous flow of blood.
He didn't really notice people had been talking until he heard his name over the rushing of blood.
"Yuri?"
He glanced up and managed a smile he knew was weak before Conrart frowned. "Time for dinner already?"
"No. Your majesty, would you look this way?"
Yuri winced as Conrart moved until there was more light stabbing his brain through his eyeballs, making them ache a bit on the way.
"You have a migraine."
Yuri blinked, relieved when Conrart moved to block the light again before he really heard what had been said. "So this is what those feel like?" he mused, lowering his voice quickly when the sound of it made the throbbing worse.
"Mm. Sounds are bothering you?"
"Mm," Yuri agreed, knowing without testing it that nodding would be a very, very bad idea.
"Are you hungry?"
Yuri felt ill at the very thought of going to dinner. The noise of silverware against plates, of things being set down, of people talking… the myriad of scents, the motion of chewing and the extreme effort it would require for people not to worry over him… mostly Gunter, because the way his head was going, one 'your majesty!' wail would finish him off. He must have turned slightly green, because Conrart continued before he could speak.
"I thought not. It would be best for you to go to bed. If you'd like to keep your eyes closed, I'll guide you."
Yuri made a noise of agreement and thanks before standing up, glad Conrart hadn't moved very far away when the man steadied him as the room started to sparkle with little dancing lights.
"Yuri?"
"Give me a minute." The lights slowly faded away.
"Okay?"
"Mm." Yuri balled his fists in Conrart's uniform, keeping his eyes closed. The soft sound of their footsteps was enough to make him wince, so he silently praised whatever might be listening that it was Conrart who had declared he should go to bed and led the way. The farther they got from his paperwork, and the longer they walked in as close to silence as they could get without being silly about it, the less his skull felt like someone was trying to tango with a jackhammer.
A door opened, nearly silently, under a gentle movement from the man who's back he was practically clinging to. "Wait here," Conrart instructed quietly, after closing the door. He moved away and the lights behind Yuri's lids slowly faded away to nothing. "You should be able to open your eyes now."
He did, the single candle on a stand moved to the middle of the room barely enough to see by, all of the heavy drapes pulled against the summer evening. "Ah, thanks."
Conrart smiled gently and inclined his head. "You should dress for bed. You'd be more comfortably that way. I'll get you something to help get rid of your migraine."
Yuri felt more tension he hadn't realized he had draining away as Conrart moved to the small cabinet that held a variety of medicinal things with a second candle.
Yuri stripped, still moving cautiously, and pulled on his pajama pants before slowly easing into bed. Movement was making him worse again. He closed his eyes when he was fully stretched out, his brain pounding more furiously before slowly giving him some slight relief. "Do you get migraines, Conrad?" he asked, quietly.
"I've never had the pleasure," Conrart retorted softly with a quick smile in Yuri's direction. "Gwendal used to get them fairly often, though." Conrart approached, snuffing the candle when he drew close enough for the light to affect Yuri. "You must be getting too tense."
"Tense? With the Kingdom as peaceful as it is?"
Conrart's smile was in his voice, though small on his lips. "You'll never be a fan of paperwork, your majesty. It can cause a lot of tension, as I'm sure Gwendal has told you." He reached out and rubbed the muscles where neck and shoulder met, smiling when Yuri relaxed farther into the pillows. "You should take breaks more—"
WHAM!
Yuri jolted up, clutching his head in agony at the movement.
"Yuri!"
"Wolfram!" Unlike his little brother, Conrart's tone was not one that shrieked instant death to all those with migraines. "His majesty has a headache, which you are not helping."
No kidding, Yuri thought bitterly. That entrance had made him worse than he'd been in his office. He let out a small moan when lights flared beyond his hands. He covered his eyes while trying to keep pressure on his temples.
"It's just a headache. Down some of the potion and get to dinner!"
"Wolfram, you should know some headaches are not like others. This—"
"Yuri, you wimp! Take the potion and let's go."
Yuri was trying to ignore them, trying to curl into himself from the neck down so his brain could go floating away in agony… anywhere, as long as it was away.
"Yuri!"
He snapped, thrusting a hand out before thinking. The automatic recoil from the increase of light to his lids—and the exponential increase in pain—made him think enough to stop from throwing Wolfram right out into the hall, but it was a near thing. The gust of air—that was a new power… well, at least used like this—killed every flame in the room except the one sitting alone in the middle of a table moved to the middle of the room. He let go of the magic, and watched Wolfram half-stumble before regaining his balance. "Get out."
"Yu-Yuri!" Wolfram went from sounding hurt to fury in a breath. "Yuri, you can't just toss me around! I'm your fiancé!"
"Not anymore." Yuri closed his eyes and motioned at the door. "You can scream at me all you like tomorrow. Right now, my head is killing me and if you don't leave on your own I will force you out." He slowly eased himself back down, a pained wince or the way Conrart was getting up making Wolfram leave with a huff.
He heard some low-toned arguing, but tuned it out when he heard something that sounded suspiciously like Conrart reassuring Wolfram that it might well have been the pain talking. He heard Wolfram storming off, but Conrart continued to talk, so Yuri began to relax, knowing that they wouldn't be disturbed if Conrart was instructing the guards. The door closed, and beautiful quiet fell around them.
Conrart returned and picked up the vial he'd brought over from the cabinet. "You need to drink this, your majesty. It'll help."
"What'll help you call me Yuri?" he grumbled, but opened his eyes. He relaxed when he saw no signs of impending lecture or gentle scolding in the warm brown eyes.
Conrart smiled. "Yuri. Drink."
Yuri took the vial before frowning at it. "This isn't headache potion." Gwendal kept some in his office. It was a different color, and smelled more vile.
"It is. Two of them, actually, along with some muscle relaxer, pain reliever, and a little bit of a sleeping draught." The smile reappeared when Yuri glanced at him. "I've mixed much the same for Gwendal many times. I've given you less of all, as you've no tolerance for them yet."
Yuri mentally shrugged. "All of it?"
"All of it."
Yuri drank the concoction, and closed his eyes as he rested against the pillows again. "As long as my head doesn't hurt tomorrow when your little brother tries to break my eardrums."
"Yuri… you shouldn't say such things, even when in pain. He's liable to believe—"
"I meant it." He peered at the shadows that made up his godfather's face since the older man had turned slightly away from the small, lone candle. "I've never really… that is… oh, damn. Hard to explain with my head pounding. Getting better, though," he assured the one sitting silently beside him. "Wolfram makes me tense. Not a good tense, either. I think if he weren't yelling at me all the time we could be really good friends, but the only way he's not going to yell at me is if we aren't engaged." And there was no way he was going to marry him. Ever. Sure, sometimes it was a relief to see him, but he'd been just as relieved to see Ao at times. That was no basis for a marriage. If it was, at least Ao had never put him in a headlock.
Yuri wanted to find his future spouse through something other than a misunderstanding. He smiled faintly and felt his head beginning to feel a bit… odd. "Conrad?"
"Yes?"
"My head feels funny."
"Does it hurt?"
"No… well, a little, but…"
"You feel sluggish, your limbs are heavy?"
"Mm."
"That's what's supposed to happen, Yuri. Go to sleep."
"Hn. Thank you, Conrad."
"Of course, your majesty." Conrart moved the hair back from Yuri's brow, making black eyes he'd thought were closed for the night reopen. "I'll stay just in case you react to one of the potions," he explained, trying to escape admitting he was checking his temperature for that reason. He'd once given Gwendal too much of the headache relief potion because Gunter had slipped some into Gwendal's tea without mentioning it.
That had caused several hours of panic.
Yuri sighed softly and turned onto his side, tucking a hand under his jaw and the other beneath the pillow. The turn put Conrart's fingers into black hair again, his withdrawal paused when Yuri relaxed and shifted just slightly into the faint touch. "Conrad…"
"Yes?" Conrart replied to the sleepy whisper just as softly.
"You feel like home."
Conrart's eyes widened before closing as he smiled, even as Yuri relaxed utterly into complete sleep. "Thank you, Yuri," he whispered, checking Yuri's brow, finding no sign of the increased temperature he would expect if the young king were going to react badly to the medicine. He tangled his fingers in the longer hair at his crown, allowing that one moment of selfish indulgence before returning to sit properly in his chair.
He couldn't maintain it for long, though, and leaned forward to rest his chin on his hand as he watched Yuri sleep. He laughed softly at himself. "So do you, Yuri."