Author Commentary; It's finally done. I've been planning this story for a while now, and have never really got round to doing it before, so one day I just decided to finally sit down and write it. That didn't work so this story is written by me with help (quite a lot of help) from my friend kyuubi0kid, and it finally got done. So it's up, so please review so I can improve (and I like reading comments). So, on with the fanfic.

Characters; Yuuri, Wolfram, Günter, Shori

Pairs; Yuuram

Rating; M

Warnings; Child Abuse, mild threat

Disclaimer; I don't own Kyo Kara Maoh, but I wish I did

Fire. Fire that burns your soul yet gives you another life, so powerful that is was banned from the world we live in. Children born with the element of fire were pact cells, they were abandoned by their parents at birth, killed by soldiers while young or kidnapped and have the cells forcefully taken thus killing them. If the latter happened they were taken to the Black Market and sold to bandits, pirates, even kings…

xx

In the throne room of a large old stone castle was a man whipping a small child of ten, the whip had been used so many times that the wounds were now deep and now permanently embedded in his skin, the wounds starting to bleed more and more with every strike, the blood started to travel down his back and onto the floor. Shoma Shibuya grew a sadistic smile on his face.

"It's your fault she's dead, it's your fault you were born" He shouted at his son. In the corner stood two men Günter, his majesty's brother in-law and Shori the older brother of the child and the oldest son of the king, they were both forced to watch this torture every day, and today was no exception.

Günter had been living in the castle for many years and in his opinion it had been far too long. Gunter's violet hair trailed down his back most of it sticking to his face because of the sweat but he was in a better state than Shori. Shori had been around for every beating, and had hated every second he had spent in the corner of this room, it always came to the same conclusion; he turned his head away in disgust.

"Daddy... please stop...please" the young prince asked with blood and tears filling up his eyes, "please". The two men in the corner couldn't look at the half dead child crumpled in the centre of the room any longer.

"Look at him" The king growled. He stopped whipping his son and pulled his head back; he bent forward and whispered into the child's ear "What did I say about talking back" He slammed the child onto the floor, the child grunted in pain as he connected with the floor. "I'm sorry" The child whimpered as his head and body slammed against the floor leaving a trail of blood from his bright red back, "I didn't mean to..."

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY" He was about to strike his son again when he got a cruel idea, he left the child and walked back to his throne picking up another of his many whips. "Günter, Shori come here" he called out.

"Yes sir" The two men reluctantly but quickly walked over to the blood thirsty Maoh, they were both scared, but still they knew that their fate could be no worse than of the poor boy lying on the ground in front of them. The men walked over to their king and unwilling kneeled and had their heads down.

"Günter hold onto this whip" He pushed one of his whips into Günter hand, he then looked at Shori and thrusted his own into his sons hand and bluntly said "Ten strikes from both of you". Their eyes widened and shock fell on them.

Günter slowly rose from his spot on the floor and made his way to the boy, he tightened his fist around the whip not wanting to use it; he raised his arm and struck it down repeating 'I'm sorry' in small whispers over and over again. The victim whimpered but did not speak, he liked Günter and he didn't want to cause anyone anymore pain. He felt every lash as he always felt them; however after 9 years the feeling hadn't got any better, he heard a cruel voice, "Shori, your turn"

Shori unwilling struck Yuuri's back ten times hating to do this even though he rarely spoke to his little brother and only saw him at the beatings, he never wanted to hurt him ever because Yuuri was family and he cared for him. Yuuri's eyes were filled with bloody pink tears, although it hurt like hell he was smiling, somehow, even if the pain was the same, these lashes felt better than his fathers, kinder, sweeter, not meant to cause hurt but to help him grow stronger.

Günter and Shori threw down the whips and looked at their hands seeing the blood of a innocent child, they fisted their fists and walked slowly backwards not making eye contact, ashamed of what they just did.

The Maoh laughed with a brittle, hollow tone, "well wasn't that fun boys?" His eyes were shaded with black with a dark shadow of evil; his dark laughter filled the large room.

The boys stayed quiet not daring to make a sound, theirs eyes drifted to Yuuri who was currently on the floor, more blood began to flow and made the puddle on the floor larger. The Maoh stood up from his golden throne and set his eyes on his youngest son, he felt today was a special day, a day for a special, new game to play. it was not only in his mind that today was special, today was the anniversary of the little brats birth making it the day of his wife's death.

He picked a knife out and stared at it; he walked over to his son and gently ran it across his back, the knife gleaming in the sunlight. "Now, what nice game shall we play today?" he said in a sickening tone, suddenly an image of his wife's face flashed up before his eyes her smile halting him, his heart turned from ice cold to burning hot with rage, "YOU LITTLE BRAT".

He dug the knife into the skin making the child scream out in pain, the Maoh starting to move the knife and move it in different directions. Tears slipped down Yuuri's face as he coped with the pain. He laughed manically while the two helpless men in the background watched in terror, they wanted to move and help the small child but alas they couldn't or else Yuuri would receive a punishment worse than death.

Shori whispered to Günter quietly so only they could hear, "can't we do something, please?"

"I wish we could but if we intervene now...he would something worse than death itself" Günter whispered back to Shori feeling defeated.

A blood stained dagger dropped to the floor and the young Maoh walked out of the room laughing.

Yuuri woke up abruptly from his all too familiar nightmare. Two figures made their way into his line of vision, he briefly smiled at Shori and Günter, and then looked around the room, and suddenly he remembered what had happened, his smile faded. He pulled himself up and hissed in pain, Günter moved a cold rag against his back "This might hurt a bit" Günter warned before pressing harder. Yuuri finally noticed a fourth man in the room, he beckoned to the man in the corner, Günter eyes travelled to the man whilst cleaning his master's wounds. Günter made sure he cleaned every last part of the wound inflicted on his master, before getting up and once again and hiding the equipment in the corner of the small room, perfect for a scummy bandit.

Shori stepped over to his brother and handed him his t-shirt, Yuuri didn't have the power to thank him, and he was too scared of the yellow haired boy iin the corner.

When no one was bothering him he finally had a chance to study the room. In the centre of the room was large cheap looking table with Different type's fruits on top, in the far left corner was a plain mahogany desk, papers scattered across it in a messy state. Nearer to him on his left was a single door probably leading to a bathroom. To the far right was a chest of drawers above them a small barred window, closer to him was several chairs. The blond boy finally caught Yuuri's eyes as he glanced around the room. Not realizing the consequences Yuuri slowly stood up, struggling to keep the strength in legs. When he was balanced he began to walk over to the boy in the corner. His two guardians stared over at the child in amazement as Yuuri stumbled over to the corner. Suddenly Yuuri's matchstick legs started to tremble; they buckled under his weight, the blond rushed forward and caught Yuuri giving him a strained smile "Wolfram."

Yuuri returned the smile full heartedly causing Wolfram to hide beneath his fringe his cheeks clearly going red, Wolfram picked Yuuri up bridal style and carried him back to the single bed "Lay down, you're not strong enough yet." Wolfram spread his fingers along Yuuri's chest and gently pushed him down; a rough push pulled him away from the Moah and onto the hard floor. Gunter sat by Yuuri's side as he checked over him while Shori stood tall in front of the fallen blond. Shori grabbed Wolfram's collar harshly and brought him face to face "Listen you brat stay away from my brother or else I will kill you! Do you understand!" He let go off Wolfram, again making him crash to the floor.

Wolfram smirked directly at Shori, determined not to show any weakness towards the furious man standing proudly over him. Over the other side of the room, Günter was determinedly trying to explain their situation to the dazed Maoh; Shori quickly turned on his heels and began to stride over to his brother. Grasping his only chance Wolfram pulled himself up and latched onto Shori's arm forcing him to turn and face him. A smirk had spread itself on Wolfram's cheeks.

"Listen you need to leave don't you, I'm not stupid, I can tell that your lil' king is getting ill from his torture sessions here and to be honest, I don't like being treating second-class."

"Why should I listen to you?" Shori asked an annoyed expression filling his face.

"Because if you don't leave soon, Yuuri will die"

"How do I know you aren't lying?"

"Right now I'm all you have"

Narrowing his eyes, Shori went into his thoughts. Could he trust this guy? No. But Wolfram was right; he had no choice but to trust the bandit. "Fine" the lord muttered, "get us out of here."

With those words Shori turned on the heels of his polished shoes, and with a vicious scowl on his face he walked away. He knew that with being who he was, it would be impossible to justify what he had just done. Shori knew very well that lords did not make deals with bandits; however he knew the only reason he was doing it was to save his baby brother, and that would always be good enough for him.

xx

Wolfram smiled at himself, he was clever, get them on your side and you won't die, that was how he saw life. His aim was always to get himself onto the winning team, and this team had an army behind them. The only way he could see this battle ending was with dozens of bandits corpses swaying in the breeze, suspended by a single rope around each ones neck, and Wolfram von Bielefeld refused to be one of them. No, he was going free, away from the annoyances of the compound, and he was defiantly getting away from the lot he was being forced to handle at the moment. He was getting away from them as soon as possible. As plans went, this one sounded pretty good, however he was definitely going to have to win them over first.

Wolframs eyes wondered across to the three nobles in the corner. From what he could see the easiest one to gain any sort of trust with would be the kid in the middle, the double black with every single bone in his body breaking through his fragile skin. He was kind of. Wolfram stopped his trail of thought immediately, this was a serious mission, and he couldn't get distracted, and anyway this kid's the Maoh, there's no point thinking about anything other than pure business, and that was the only way Wolframs mind worked.

There was then an abrupt knock on the locked wooden door followed by a familiar voice, "Oi Wolfram, open up."

The men in the corner panicked, Günter's pupils widened, afraid of his precious Maoh being taken from him again, afraid that Yuuri would be sent back in ruins, or worse. Shori's worries were identical.

With a final foreboding glance to the corner Wolfram opened the door to be met by several armed men, all of which he recognized. The man who had spoken at the door smiled a chilling smile. His blond hair didn't rest as well as Wolfram's. All his features looked fake, as if a sheet of plastic had been placed over his skin. Wolfram knew all too well that this look was what lies waiting for you if your life is spent stealing and cheating, and he knew all too well that this appearance was waiting for him. The men behind the other bandit moved forward towards the corner, Wolfram couldn't watch the abuse which was taking place behind him so he merely listened to the screams of the child as he was grabbed, along with the other two prisoners.

"Sorry for disturbing you Wolf, but the boss wants those two for something or other." The blond pointed at the two men being forced over to the now open door, noticing Wolframs shocked expression the bandit explained the situation through his grimacing lips, "Yeah, the boss wants them for something, probably some sort of torture of something, you know. Personally I would focus on the Maoh, but the boss is the boss I guess"

Wolfram stole a glance over at the distressed Maoh, from just a second of a glance, Wolfram felt a slight ach in his chest that he had never felt before, and he didn't like it, "Yeah, he probably just wants to question them about something, you know, get something good out of this rather than just a mentally disturbed king, I mean come on, there's got to be something else to this." Suddenly he felt the burning sensation of a dozen eyes digging into his back, scratching away until finally only a bleeding hole was left.

There was a dramatic silence occupying the entire room until the target of the silence realised what he had just said, even though personally he didn't see the problem with expressing himself but obviously it wasn't the time or place to say that.

"I was just sayin'" he muttered, his eyes rolling back into his skull as he spoke. He didn't really care about what was going to happen to those two, as long as it didn't jeopardize his chances of getting out. But this was his chance, his first and maybe only chance to get close to the Maoh. However, the ever confident Wolfram couldn't help doubting himself, just this time.

What would he say to the Maoh?

Would he speak normally, like he would to any friend?

Or was this different from any con, or kidnapping he had pulled before?

Lost in his own thoughts he didn't notice the men leave, the bang of the door slamming shut sent a shiver down Wolfram's spine, chilling his bones. He turned around, eyes fixing on the corner where a young child sat on the floor, helpless, sobbing into his knees. A smile spread along Wolframs face. It was time.