Today might've been the worst day of Yuuri's life; you know, beside the whole "literally getting flushed down the toilet" deal.

Yuuri was exhausted; the entire past week had taken up all his energy. It all began when he thought he'd caught a cold, or something of the sort. After a tiring coughing fit in the morning he figured: screw it, I'm staying home from school today. He found himself slightly stressing over and missing Shin Makoku, and so decided it be an ideal day to skip, rest, then visit his kingdom. Sure, Earthly schoolwork was important, but he wasn't a king here.

However, he did not go to Shin Makoku the morning he skipped. Instead, he spent the day in bed. His mother didn't question it and figured he needed the day off, but after three days of straight sleeping, she decided it was time for a trip to the doctor's.

He was just so tired. And with that, came frustration. What was wrong? He didn't have the time nor patience to take all these tests then to wait for the results. His chest hurt a bit and he coughed here and there, but surely he could only have a petty infection that would easily be cured by a month of antibiotics. Despite that, he found himself getting a troublesome amount of blood, tissue, and imaging tests.

Subsequently, after a long doctor's appointment of all talk, he found himself finally home again and sitting in the living room silently. Neither Shouri nor his dad were home, it was only him and his mother, who had disappeared to her room. He tried to think of how he'd tell the other half of his family: "Hey, dad, guess what! I've contracted some godforsaken fungus infection in my lungs and its more than likely going to kill me." The boy sighed to himself. Apparently it's called aspergillosis. The doctor had offered antibiotics, however they only work 20% of the time. Another option is surgery, however, it is only considered to be of temporary use. He trembled just at the thought; his lungs were dying inside of him and now it was inevitably spreading to his brain, heart, kidneys…

But why? Because he had a "compromised immune system"—a fancy way of saying your body has no idea how to protect itself. The doctor listed many reasons why Yuuri, of all people in the world, could've had a compromised immune system, and none of them had to do with his excessive traveling between worlds. Yuuri snorted at the thought. He had a few ideas: perhaps his body was struggling to build immunity against both worlds. Or maybe he had inherited Julia's immune system—much like he had the Wincott blood—in which is only strong against the viruses back at the kingdom. Or even this: the travel between two worlds had weakened his body. Either way, he found that he could sit and dwell all day long but it wasn't going to change the fact that he was going to die.

Leaning over with his elbows on his knees, he thought. He had to plan ahead. What would be the next step from here? How were his priorities set? He considered going to school one last time, but then again, the only school related activity he gave two damns about was his baseball team.

But he couldn't stop worrying about Shin Makoku. It was always there, in the back of his mind: his reign, his people, and his best friends in which he might as well consider family.

Without further hesitated, he decided to go. Bursting into his mom's room, he embraced her tightly and kissed her on the cheek, in which promptly lead to her break-down into tears.

"It's okay." Yuuri said with a light tone in his voice as he reached away and grabbed a box of tissues for her. "Love you, mom." He smiled at her. He wish he could've done more, but how was he supposed to comfort her when he was the one dying? Yuuri felt that he himself had not accepted the fact yet. If he had, shouldn't he be crying for himself?

But there was so much to be done.

After the short hugging session, Yuuri left to the bathroom. Miko nearly hyperventilated when she heard the water running in the bathtub, and pushed the door open only to discover an empty room.

Yuuri shivered as his friends covered him with towels.

"You Majesty is going to catch a cold—" Gunter pleaded.

"I know, I know. You say that every time I come like it's something new." Yuuri mumbled as he ruffled his hair with a towel.

"About time," Wolfram muttered under his breath.

Yuuri opened his mouth to say something, but instead sneezed.

"I knew it! There has got to be a better way to get here." Gunter scolded, though his expression fell into one of worry as Yuuri leaned forward in a coughing fit. Gunter and Wolfram blinked in a dumbfounded manner as Conrad took a seat next to Yuuri and rubbed his back until he recovered.

Embarrassed, the double-black quickly wiped his mouth against his sleeve and sat up. "Alright, fine," he peeped up, "you got me. I have a cold."

"Oh, your Majesty," Gunter sighed as he embraced Yuuri, pulling his wet head to his chest. "I'll order you some tea and soup right away."

"I'm fine—" Yuuri laughed sheepishly as he caught Wolfram giving him a hard, chiding glare.

With that, Gunter was off to get Yuuri a fresh set of clothes. The king put his arms into the air and stretched, concealing a yawn. "So what did I miss?" he asked, alternating his gaze between Wolfram and Conrad.

"Not much, your Majesty." Conrad responded with a content smile.

"Everything," Wolfram snapped on the contrary. "Don't leave us for that long."

Yuuri only sighed and leaned back. "I know, I know. I guess I'll start by catching up on my paperwork."

"Evidently, you don't know." Wolfram hissed.

It caught Yuuri off guard. He just sort of stared at Wolfram, thinking about the sudden angry remark. Was he implying that Yuuri didn't care about his own kingdom? His gaze shifted to the ground, feeling very underestimated.

"…I'll make it up to you guys." Especially now that I'm on my deathbed.

"Good." Wolfram replied with a slight hesitation as he tried to sound unconvinced. However, he felt a pang of guilt, seeing as Yuuri took his teasing more seriously than he had intended. It wasn't very like him.

Yuuri stood up and placed his hands on Wolfram's shoulders, who was promptly taken aback by the contact. "I'm going to my work room and I want you to come with me." He said in a matter-of-fact fashion followed by a pleasant grin.

Flustered, Wolfram gave a short nod. "I—"

"And that's an order," he added as a touch of dominance. Yuuri turned his head to glance at Conrad. "And you: please tell Gunter where I'm at so he doesn't have a panic attack."

Conrad gave a curt nod, studying what he could of Yuuri's face before he turned away. He caught on quickly that something was divergent about him, though couldn't pinpoint it. Surely Wolfram's mocking couldn't affect Yuuri to such an extent? "Yes, sir."

"Good." Yuuri gave a nod, satisfied with his work. He turned away and began towards one of the entrances to the castle. Wolfram followed without hesitation, casually stuffing his thumb inside the belt of his scabbard. Conrad was left watching them disappear from view, contemplating Yuuri's long disappearance beforehand.