"Heika..."

Yuuri glared slightly then sighed and spun away. "Heika, heika, heika! How many times have I told you? My name's Yuuri, and since you gave it to me, you should at least call me by it." He smiled over his shoulder at the taller mazoku. "All right, Conrad?"

Conrad hesitated briefly before returning the smile. "Yes, Yuuri."

Apparently satisfied, the young king continued along his way to his bedroom, argument forgotten. Conrad watched him, only turning away and resuming his duties when Wolfram appeared at his majesty's side. As usual, the blonde was complaining about Yuuri's unfaithfulness. This time the supposed cheating involved the three maids Yuuri'd been talking to just before meeting up with Conrad.

A few of the words drifted down the hall to Conrad, making him freeze.

"Yuuri! Listen to me when I talk to you! ... Yuuuri! Stop watching Weller and say something!"

Conrad's head snapped around and, just for a second, his eyes met Yuuri's. Then the maou looked down, face pink. "Sorry Wolfram. I was thinking."

Wolfram nodded to himself and smiled. "That's fine. Now come on! I want to show you a secret passage I found in the basement."

"Huh?"

"Come on! I can't explore it alone, so I have to take someone, even if it is just a wimp like you."

The pair disappeared around a corner, but they were almost down the stairs before Conrad remembered to move. Even then, rather than head out into the courtyard as he should have, his body continued to follow his younger brother's path down the stairs as if he were possessed.

Occasionally he'd hear his brother yelling, and even less often Yuuri's voice would float up to him, a quiet murmur. Concern started to run through him for the king. Yuuri hadn't the fiery demeanor of Wolfram, but he certainly wasn't this quiet naturally. He should at least be complaining about how loud Wolfram seemed to be in the echoing chamber of stairs. Every shout reverberated in the trio's ears, deafening them temporarily. However, Conrad didn't mind the noise, as it covered the sound of his footsteps.

Three floors down now. As far as Conrad was concerned, the steps ended here. He crouched, preparing an excuse for when they came back up towards him . . . and frowned. Wolfram's yelling was suddenly gone. Quickly – "Too quickly," whispered a part of his mind. "What if they'd seen?" – he rose, leaning over the banister to look for the couple.

Nothing but a blank wall. He stared at it for several minutes, willing the stone to become something else. As if he could do anything. He was only half-mazoku after all, so there was no chance of magicing the wall away. When several minutes passed without a change in the wall's blank face, he walked down to it and put a hand to it, feeling the grainy result of years of sitting here untouched.

But where'd they go, if not into the wall? He searched it again, more carefully this time, and finally noticed an abnormally in the flat surface: a thin crack that ran through the surface into the shape of a small door. Conrad glanced back up the stairwell, wondering how many times he'd gone between floors, never wondering about the extra stairs going down to meet a dead end.

He sighed, and pushed into the door, only slightly surprised when it began to glow. Rather than opening, it became (not there) liquid, and he pushed through.

The other side was dark, and he couldn't hear his brother or his king through that stifling black. All the sound was muted, and he coughed just to hear himself. For a moment, he considered going back – surely Wolfram could protect Yuuri as well as he could, and in this darkness, the young prince's fire would be much more useful than his own sword.

He stepped forward carefully, refusing to abandon his king on the basis of a bit of darkness. Wolfram wasn't the most careful person in the world, so it was entirely possible that they'd fall into a hole or hit something equally (or more) dangerous.

"Heika?" After several minutes, he felt assured that calling for Yuuri wouldn't be a bad idea. "Wolfram?"

A muffled thud ahead of him stopped him cold for a moment before he resumed his careful pace, struggling not to run. "Heika? Wolfram?"

This time there was a voice, a low moan almost directly in front of him. He knelt, reaching out until he felt something. It was cold, but feeling along the edges, he could make out the thin shoulders of his king. "Heika?" he asked, concern washing over him.

Yuuri moaned again then seemed to revive slightly. "Co – Conrad?" he coughed, rolling onto his back. "Conrad... Get Wolfram..."

He considered this for a moment. "What happened?"

"I don't remember. I'll be fine though. Find Wolfram and come back for me." Yuuri's voice was rough, as if he hadn't used it in years, but surely it'd only been a little less than half an hour since the king had been upstairs, talking to Conrad. Still, this cold was more like the feel of prisoners who'd been in the dungeon for as long as they could remember, not someone who'd merely passed out a few minutes ago.

Conrad nodded, despite his misgivings. This was clearly not a safe place to be – it was magical in some way. If he retrieved Yuuri and carried him out, who was to say whether or not the door would still open when he went back to get Wolfram. He touched Yuuri's cheek, shuddering at the deathly temperature. "I'm taking you with me."

Yuuri tried to protest, pushing against Conrad's arms weakly, but there was nothing for him to do – Conrad was still fresh and more than able to lift the king onto his back. "Hang on," he murmured, walking forward briskly.

"Wolfram!" "Wolfram?" "Wolfram!"

The pair took turns calling for the wayward prince, but though Conrad felt certain they had to be nearing the end of the strange room, no one answered. Could Wolfram be behind them, passed out somewhere? At times like this, Conrad cursed the heritage that prevented him from using maryoku.

He was almost prepared to give up, to bring Yuuri back and try to come back with a torch, when a harsh light flared up in front of them. Suddenly the entire room was lit and surely it couldn't be that size. They'd been walking for almost an hour. Surely it couldn't be a normal-sized... torture... chamber... with Wolfram chained up in the center, only a few inches in front of his brother.

Wolfram's eyes fluttered open, and was it just Conrad or did the prince look older? But that would take more than just an hour, right? He could feel Yuuri's temperature dropping dangerously in spite of the warmth of the room's many burning torches, and dropped to his knees, shifting the king so he could wrap his arms around the boy. "Hang on, Yuuri," he murmured, not taking his eyes off Wolfram.

Something stirred in his stomach, and though he'd only ever looked at Yuuri before, he couldn't deny that his brother was just as beautiful in his own way. Even as he was now, with bruises and scars from years of suffering some invisible tormentor in this dungeon, he was lovely. Gently, Conrad laid Yuuri down and rose.

"Wolfram."

The blonde looked up at him, eyes wide with the innocence he'd somehow managed to retain. "Conrad?" he croaked, voice harsh against the gentle crackling of fire that filled the room.

Conrad shook his head, smiling. "I found him, Wolfram. You tried to drop him on the path, but I found him anyway."

Wolfram's eyes widened, and he tried to twist away, shoulders and arms straining against the chains. Conrad sighed, and cupped the prince's cheek. "Really, is that any way to react to your lover? And after all the trouble I went through bringing this one here for you to play with..."

Yuuri watched the scene unmoving. He'd known. Ever since Conrad picked him up, he'd known. Conrad would have brought him back. Conrad would have ensured his safety first, saying that Wolfram could take care of himself. Conrad would have stayed with him no matter what in this place.

This wasn't Conrad.

Weakly at first, then with more strength as anger started to course through him, he climbed to his feet. Blue fire surrounded him as his hair lengthened and his pupils turned into slits.

Conrad glanced at him and sighed, the sound of someone who was hoping his prisoners would be smarter than they were proving to be. "Heika, don't waste your energy like this. You'll age too fast if you do. Wolfram won't be able to enjoy you at all."

The maou's eyes narrowed. "You possess others for the sake of pleasure and ruin the innocent relationship between brothers. Ordinarily I would not –" For the first time, he stopped mid-speech, mouth unable to make any more sounds.

Conrad's lips were in the way.

Eyes wide, the maou tried to back away, maryoku filling the room as he fought to create something to punish this spirit but how was he supposed to get rid of something in Conrad without hurting Conrad? His power wavered and Conrad grabbed his wrist, pulling him closer and wrapping one arm around his waist.

"Heika, you really shouldn't do that. Wolfram wants to enjoy you, as do I. We can't do that if you're bad."

The glow surrounding the maou paled as he was brought in for another kiss. He struggled against the hand weaving through his hair preventing him from escaping, but he couldn't escape. Left with no other choice, he let go of the power and passed out, escaping in the only way available to him.

Conrad grunted in disgust and threw the boy to the ground. "Useless," he spat.

"Yuuri!"

Conrad looked back to the blonde chained behind him. With that sort of beauty close by, why had he ever looked upon his king that way? Because he's Julia. Because he's the one who protects me. Because I love him. His head snapped up. "Who's there?"

Wolfram stared at him, feigning innocence. He stalked over and slapped him (Not on the left cheek, though. He's not the one you want to hit there.) and pretended that the blood trickling down the boy's cheek satisfied him. But what you really want is Yuuri, isn't it? His eye narrowed, and he kicked the boy. "Stop talking, why don't you. It's not helping you any."

You don't like to hear the truth?

"Stop talking!" This time he heard a sickening snap from something in the blonde's body, but the boy just kept looking up at him with the damned smirk on his face.

Wolfram felt his vision waver as something broke, and he stared resolutely at the ground. He wanted to yell, to say that he wasn't talking, but then he would be talking and that would make it even worse. So instead he'd just fix his gaze on the ground. If he didn't look up, maybe the not-Conrad would stop hurting him and let him think of a way to help Yuuri.

Even so, he couldn't help but whip his head up when Conrad suddenly screamed and clutched his head, falling to the ground before him.

Several minutes passed, during which the cut on the blonde's cheek healed and turned into a greenish bruise that complemented his eyes nicely.

Finally, Conrad stood up. Silently, he reached into his pocket, not at all surprised to find a key there, and unlocked his brother's chains. He quietly assessed the boy's condition, determining him fit for walking, and picked up his king. Without looking back, he started walking back towards the door, Wolfram following along in equal silence.

When they reached the end, Conrad threw the key over his shoulder and walked through the door, hand reaching for Wolfram's at the last second. The door tried to solidify for a second, then Conrad pulled, and Wolfram came through.

"Thank you, Conrad," Wolfram muttered.

Conrad glanced at his brother, noting that the aging and the bruises seemed to have disappeared. He shook his head and glanced at Yuuri, pressing a hand to the boy's forehead. He was warm again. "Wolfram..." He wanted to say something, anything, about what'd happened, but he couldn't.

Instead, Wolfram stood. "You don't have to tell me anything. Whatever was in there, it didn't want Yuuri. That was all you, right?"

Conrad hesitated then nodded. Why deny it? Wolfram would see the lie in his eyes either way.

For a moment Wolfram was silent, perhaps surprised by Conrad's answer, even though it'd been expected. Then he sighed, and knelt next to Yuuri, picking his fiancé up. He glanced at Conrad. "Unfortunately, he's already engaged to me. You'll have to try harder than that to get him."

Conrad watched his brother half walk, half jog up the stairs. He glanced back at the wall in front of him and stood, decision made. "Wolfram!"

His brother's pace only increased, and after a moment Conrad nodded and followed. He'd have to get Wolfram out of the way some other way. He didn't really think the boy would go back down there anyway. But it was worth a try.