Blackmailed

Yuri sighed as he wandered through the now darkened halls of Covenant Castle, he could hear the subtle movements of the guards as they moved about the grounds. None of them followed him; it wasn't needed not now in this time of peace and prosperity. Certainly not with his ever vigilant godfather lord Conrart Weller, the lion of Luttenberg, living on the palace grounds, and not with so many loyal subjects in residence. He was the Maou, the Demon king and they all respected his power, and the authority he wielded. Today they'd celebrated his 19th birthday. The decorations had been beautiful; Gunter and the others had out done themselves, as usual. The sideboards had been heavily laden with a variety of sugary confections. Everything from cakes, and chocolates, to small pastries, to a towering confection of spun and blown sugar in the form of a fire breathing dragon, had graced the tables. Yet with all the delicately crafted displays of culinary decadence gracing the banquet hall, Conrart had as usual, stuck to the one sideboard that bore delicately sliced fruits and slivers of strangely colored vegetables.

Yuri had been quite content to leave it at that, having long ago noticed his godfather's aversion to anything sweet. However his fiancé, Conrart's younger brother Wolfram had handed him a rather large slice of cake and pretty much dared him to order Conrart to live a little and have some cake. When he'd protested, Wolfram had rather cheekily informed him that Conrad wouldn't follow so trivial an order anyway, and then proceeded to tell him not to feel bad for 'wimping out'. Annoyed by his fiancé's continued declarations of his own weak and timid behavior, he'd taken the rather large piece of cake and marched over to where his godfather sat munching on of all things a purple carrot stick, set the sugary confection down in front of the other man and instructed him to 'live a little.'

Conrart had simply stared at the rather large piece of cake in front of him before asking in a rather unimpressed tone of voice if that was in fact an order. Annoyed with the idiocy of the entire situation he'd replied simply enough that yes it was in fact an order, and then proceeded to walk away taking the plate of veggies Conrad had been making a serious dent in with him as he left. He'd been well and truly satisfied with the startled expression on his blond fiancé's face when they'd seen Conrad taking a bite of the sugary confection.

It wasn't until hours later, as they'd prepared for bed that Wolfram had mentioned just how stunned he was by the fact that Conrad had actually eaten the whole thing, muttering to himself about how he hoped the sugar didn't upset Conrad too much, but that if it did it was his own fault for not having enough of a backbone to refuse so foolish an order.

Yuri had simply sat there for a time listening to the blond snore, and hoping Conrad didn't suffer too much of an upset stomach over his order. Truthfully he hadn't even thought about the stomach problems such large amounts of sugar were likely to cause a man who now that he thought about it didn't even take sugar in his tea.

Worry and guilt had subsequently driven him out of his bed to wander the palace halls.

The sound of someone vomiting reached his ears and he was about to turn and leave whoever it was in privacy since they'd likely overindulged in the corpus amounts of alcohol that had been served at this evenings celebrations and wouldn't appreciate a royal audience while they paid for that stupidity when he caught Yozak's voice.

"Are you feeling any better now? Or should I go and get Gisela? You've never thrown up this much before." Yozak's tone of voice told Yuri the identity of the other person as simply as if Yozak had actually said the other man's name. Yozak only used that soft, purely gentle tone with one person, his husband.

Conrad's voice was quiet and it shook slightly as if he had to concentrate on every word to get them past his lips. "I'm fine, just a little nauseous."

"A little?" Yozak was cut off again by the sound of Conrart vomiting. "That's it, I'm getting you into bed with a glass of water and then I'm going to get Gisela."

"I'm fine, just a little sick." Conrart replied calmly. "I'll be fine in a few hours, you know that."

"Yha I know, you'll be miserable, and shaky for a few hours. Then you'll be fine, I'm still going to get Gisela." Yozak's tone left no room for argument. "What I don't get is why the hell you ate that piece of cake in the first place."

Conrart made a distinctly sick noise before replying. "It was a direct order."

Yozak snorted, and gave a grunt as he scooped the smaller man up into his arms. Alarmed Yuri ducked behind a rather covenant and large vase, fully aware of the fact that Yozak's preoccupation with what appeared to be a very sick Conrart was the only reason the spy didn't notice his presence. "Oi, you idiot, the kiddo would have been the first one to take that damned piece of cake away from you if he'd known what the consequences of you actually eating it would be."

"Don't lecture me, I'm sick." Conrad whimpered into Yozak's chest.

"Which is exactly why I'm putting you to bed and getting Gisela," Yozak retorted mildly. "And don't bother trying to talk me out of it you're not that smooth, even when you're not throwing up, and your breath smells like fruit by the way."

Whatever Conrart may have said in rebuttal to that, Yuri didn't hear, as he was too busy navigating the dark halls, in search of Gisela's quarters. He wasn't the most intelligent person alive, and he knew it. But he did have the benefit of a 20th century earth education, with a mandatory health class! And what he'd just overheard did not sound good. Actually it sounded like Conrart might be diabetic. Which was not a good thing at all, particularly since they were here, On earth it was an easily diagnosed and treated illness, even if there was no cure for it. People on eart still led perfectly normal lives. But here?

~~~***~~~

Yuri sighed; he'd been pacing this same stretch of hallway for the past hour. He was actually surprised he hadn't worn a hole in the stone floor yet. Beside him Gunter leaned up against the wall and waited, Gwendal standing not that far away knitting something with a pale green yarn. Lady Cecilia stood quietly a few feet from them her green eyes wide with worry. Yuri had apologized to both Conrart's older brother and his lady mother earlier and had been rather startled to find that neither of them blamed him for the fact that Conrart was currently ill. In fact if anything Gwendal was actually furious with Wolfram, simply because Wolfram knew exactly why Conrart never ate sweets.

Yuri himself was angry with wolfram, but not because of Wolfram's part in this whole fiasco but for the simple reason that when he'd woke Him up and told him about the fact that they'd had to call Gisela, Wolfram's only response had been to mutter about stupid half-breeds and go back to sleep. If it had been Shori, Yuri would have been with him. So he honestly didn't understand wolfram's behavior.

Finally after what to him at least seemed like an eternity Gisela left the room, closing the door softly behind her. "He's alright," she said as soon as all eyes had turned to her. "Albeit a bit unhappy with the standing orders I've given him to spend tomorrow in bed." Gisela paused than rubbing lightly at her eyes. "I want him to rest, so you…" she turned her head watching as lady Cecilia slipped into the room behind her. "Can see him in the morning." She finished mildly.

King Yuri was many things but he liked to think a coward wasn't one of them. So why then was it taking every ounce of his courage to not run away from his closed bedroom door? He'd visited Conrart's rooms often enough, both simply to visit and to check in on the man a time or two after he'd been injured in his defense, so why was it that facing him now was so much harder than it had ever been?

"Yuri, Come in I know you're out there." Conrart's voice called from somewhere beyond the door.

Gathering his courage, Yuri entered the room. He couldn't help smiling at the sight before him. Conrart was sitting up in bed, his back pillowed against Yozak's bare chest, a book open in his lap. "How are you feeling?" he asked after a second.

Conrad smiled, "honestly, kind of groggy," he replied with a small shrug. "Are you alright Yuri?"

Yuri blinked "Why are you asking me that, when I'm the one who nearly killed you yesterday? God Conrad I am so, so sorry."

"Yuri, I'm fine. You didn't know I couldn't eat sugar and honestly I'm a grown man, I should have told you why I don't eat sugar. This is not your fault, it's mine."

Yuri sighed, "I still feel horrible."

Conrart raised one well sculpted eyebrow. "If you want to make it up to me, you can get me a new book, I've read this one twice."

Yuri blinked taking note of Conrad's small smile. He couldn't help it he laughed. "Blackmail doesn't become you Conrad." He said after a moment shaking his head.

Conrad shrugged, "How else am I supposed to get new reading material?" he asked then gesturing at Yozak he added, "He refuses to leave me alone long enough to fetch me a new book."

"Alright, any preferences oh bookworm?"