As always, so many thanks to everyone who took the time to read and review last chapter.

Standard disclaimers apply.


The morning dawned bright, quiet, and chill. Warm and comfortable beneath his heavy blankets, Yuuri rolled onto his back and stretched luxuriously, content to wake slowly. He felt relaxed, refreshed…happy.

Yuuri turned his head to the side and felt his smile fall away.

It was very strange. When he was at home or on a journey he never had trouble with sleeping alone. But when he was in the palace…

Yuuri had come to the uncomfortable conclusion before, but always pushed it away without really thinking about it. Now he took a deep breath, summoned all his courage, and forced himself to examine the thought while staring into the peaceful, sleeping face of his fiancé.

He hadn't been able to sleep after their fight – not just because he disliked arguing with the other boy, but because Wolfram hadn't shared the bed with him. Last night, with Wolfram – still a little irritated at him, but no longer angry – back in his usual place beside him in their bed, he had slept wonderfully. It didn't matter how much the idea bothered him because it was true no matter how much he would rather believe otherwise.

Yuuri was just glad that he hadn't been stupid enough to say anything about it to Wolfram. Yesterday, his mind addled from confusingly pleasant kisses, he had felt so guilty and so desperate to settle things with the blonde that he'd very nearly been willing to say anything, The things he had managed to say had been bad enough.

Yuuri stared at the sleeping blonde and wondered if there was any way he would have imagined the whole ordeal. Surely he hadn't really asked another boy to kiss him. Surely he hadn't enjoyed it. He'd managed to avoid promising to fall in love with Wolfram, but he had agreed not to complain about their engagement anymore. Now, more than ever, he was stuck.

Wolfram was cute. No…it Yuuri was honest, Wolfram was nothing short of beautiful. Strong, loyal…a great kisser. But he was a boy!

Somehow, Wolfram's gender was beginning to become a less and less powerful argument in Yuuri's mind, and that bothered him more than anything else.

His thoughts were interrupted as the body beside him shifted suddenly and he found himself unexpectedly pinned under his fiancé. Wolfram was a fitful sleeper – Yuuri often found himself being kicked, punched, or molested in the middle of the night – but as that golden blonde head nuzzled his chest affectionately, he was utterly certain that his bedmate was quite awake.

"Eh…Wolfram?"

He raised his head, golden curls falling into his bright, pretty eyes.

"Morning!" the small mazoku greeted with uncharacteristic cheer.

And then a mouth descended over Yuuri's.

"Mmpf! – 'lfram!" clawing at his shoulders, Yuuri tried his best to push him off.

"What's wrong?" Wolfram's playful pout was somewhat ruined by the threatening look in his eyes. "This is something we do now, isn't it?"

"First thing in the morning?"

Those green eyes glinted dangerously. "If I have to hold you down…" he warned.

Yuuri had the feeling that if that happened, Wolfram would do a lot worse than simply kiss him.

"Can't you give me a little warning first, at least?"

"What's the fun in that?" he tossed his head proudly. "I'm your fiancé, and I - !"

"Okay, okay, fine!" he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the worst. He only dared to open them again when, sighing, Wolfram released him and climbed out of the bed.

"It's no fun if you look like you hate it," he complained, moving behind the dressing screen to begin getting ready for the day.

"I don't hate it, it's just…weird."

"Weird!" Wolfram snorted, voice slightly muffled as he changed clothes. "You're weird!"

Yuuri thought about commenting on the other boy's penchant for frilly nightwear, then quickly dismissed the idea.

"What are your plans for this morning?"

Yuuri frowned, surprised. "You know, the usual," he answered. "Run with Conrad, have some breakfast…" Wolfram insisted on tagging along often enough that he should be familiar with the routine by now.

"So you'll be busy?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Good." Wolfram emerged from behind the folding screen dressed in his usual attire and looking quite pleased with himself.

Yuuri felt a new stirring of fear. "Why?" he asked suspiciously. "What do you have planned?" hadn't he suffered enough this week?

Wolfram's smile brightened. "Are you worried that I'm cheating?"

"No!" why did the idea make him look so happy? "I'm just scared that you've got something horrible planned!"

"I would never do anything horrible to you."

Wolfram actually looked like he thought he might be insulted. Yuuri scrambled out of bed, but found that he couldn't figure out an appropriate way to apologize when he wasn't even sure what he'd done. 'Horrible' to him was an entirely different thing than it was to his friends and retainers. They considered so many weird things normal.

His fiancé's face softened before he could figure out something to say.

"Get dressed. Gwendal doesn't appreciate tardiness," he advised, heading for the door. He paused with his hand on the handle, as if waiting for something, and turned back to Yuuri with a frown. "Well?" he asked.

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going to demand that your beloved fiancé come back and kiss you goodbye?"

"Eh…am I supposed to?"

"It would be nice."

Yuuri would never be able to figure out how the other boy managed to pout and look arrogant at the same time, but Wolfram did it.

"Um…" he stalled.

Wolfram sighed in exasperation and left without pressing the issue.


"Huh?" Yuuri peered at the series of notes on the study door, but was certain that he wasn't reading them right. He'd made a lot of progress learning how to read and write in the language of this world, but he knew he had a lot left to learn. He couldn't be reading the notes right.

"Trying to summon your courage? It would be much easier if you'd just go on in, you wimp. Or…were you waiting for me?"

"Wolfram!"

"You were waiting?" his fiancé seemed pleasantly surprised.

"No, not that," he caught hold of his arm and pulled him over in front of the study doors. "What do these notes say?"

"You should be able to read them by now," he scolded.

"Please!"

Frowning, the prince turned his attention to the notes. "Gwendal's cancelled your lessons for today," he explained, "He says you should continue your studies with me for now."

"So I didn't read it wrong! But…why would Gwendal cancel my lessons?"

"This second note is from Anissina. She says he's doing it just so that he can hide from her, but that he won't be able to escape…the third note…it basically says yes, he will escape, and the fourth says no, he won't, and the fifth…well, even a stupid wimp like you should get it by now."

Yuuri nodded absently, hardly noticing that he still had hold of his fiancé's arm, nor that Wolfram was watching him carefully. He could well understand why someone like Gwendal would feel the need to hide from someone like Anissina, but he did wonder how it could be so bad that the dark haired mazoku would resort to a note war.

"Yuuri…"

There was something in Wolfram's voice that made the young kind decidedly uneasy. Cautiously he looked to the older boy, and was not happy to find him standing uncomfortably close. The look in Wolfram's eyes was a strange one – soft, happy…maybe even loving.

"Y…you're really excited about studying alone, aren't you?" he asked uneasily.

"I have a surprise for you, Yuuri."

"A surprise?"

"What I had to work on this morning…since Gwendal won't be here, I get to give it to you early."

Yuuri wasn't quite stupid enough to ask if the other boy was sure it was a surprise he wanted, though he did come close. Anything that made Wolfram look so happy was bound to be uncomfortable, at the very least.

"I put it in our room…" Wolfram urged, tugging on his arm.

"Erm…"

"So he really isn't showing up?" Anissina seemed to have appeared from nowhere, but Yuuri was far too grateful to care. Her hands on her hips, she glared at the study door as if expecting it to transform into Gwendal at any moment. "That man - !" she stuck yet another note to the door – as if she thought said note would prove appropriate punishment.

Yuuri wouldn't have been surprised if she'd somehow managed to rig the paper to explode when Gwendal touched it, though, so maybe it was a good punishment. Uneasily, he shifted away from the door – involuntarily placing himself closer to Wolfram, who used the opportunity to gain a better hold on him.

Anissina muttered at the door for a few more moments before she seemed to remember that she wasn't alone.

"Do you know what he's hiding?" she asked sharply.

"No," Yuuri answered quickly, and shifted even closer to Wolfram. Better the danger he knew, he reasoned, then the scary redheaded woman who liked to make things go boom.

"What would he have to tell us that he wouldn't tell you?" Wolfram reasoned. As her frown deepened, he began to pull Yuuri down the hall. "We'll let him know you're looking for him!" he promised.

"How do I know you aren't protecting him?"

Wolfram began to run.


Those lovely dark eyes regarded him warily.

"Do I have to?"

"If you want your surprise."

Yuuri hesitated and Wolfram had to clamp down on his control, fighting to keep from yelling. This was supposed to be a good moment between them. He would not ruin it by letting himself lose his temper.

"Yuuri…"

"Um…" he hedged.

He took his fiancé's hands and pressed them firmly over his own hips, glaring in warning. "You like it, don't you?" he asked.

"Well…yeah…but…"

"You're the king – it isn't seemly for me to keep having to push you," he glared. "Stop being such a wimp; it's embarrassing!"

"Wolfram…"

He wasn't going to be able to do it! The stupid, wimpy little - !

Yuuri kissed him.

He was awkward and inexperienced and clearly embarrassed, but Wolfram thought that, as far as kisses went, this had to be one of the best in history. Yuuri was kissing him.

The only thing that could have possible made it better would be if he hadn't had to fight so hard to get him to do it.


It was easy to forget that Wolfram was a boy when they kissed. He was so warm and soft and pretty, and he smelled so nice…

"How are you so good at that?" he demanded when at last he managed to pull himself away.

"I may be an 'eighty-something-year-old-virgin,'" Wolfram said with some mixture of amusement and arrogance, "But it's not as if I've never kissed anyone before!"

Without meaning for them to, Yuuri's hands tightened on Wolfram's hips. "Who…who have you been kissing?"

Wolfram blinked, eyes growing wide. "Why, Yuuri! Are you jealous?"

"N…no!" but it was weird to think of Wolfram, well, with anyone. "But who was it?"

"Why does it matter, if you aren't jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous?"

One elegant eyebrow rose doubtfully.

Yuuri quickly dropped his hand from his fiancé's waist. "Wh…where's my surprise?" he asked, desperate for anything to change the subject.

Wolfram was smiling – rarely a good sign. He walked over to the room's small desk and picked up a stack of papers that looked suspiciously like Yuuri's 'educational sketches.'

"I know they make you really uncomfortable," he said, returning, "That's weird, but you're too uncomfortable to even give it serious thought. So I thought I'd make them a little more relatable…so you'd have to think about them."

"And you thought I'd be happy about that?"

"You will be one day." Wolfram handed them to Yuuri, unconcerned with his protests. Looking at the carefully-altered pictures, he found that the blonde had added hair to the figure's heads and colored them in appropriately. Although they didn't look like the two of them, it was clear who they were supposed to resemble.

Plus, Wolfram had written their names out beside the figures with arrows pointing to each one.

"You're the one on the bottom?" Yuuri asked, surprised.

"Of course – you're the Maoh," he answered as if it should be obvious. "And you were the one to propose. And you beat me in combat, so you earned the right…"

Wishing they could drop the conversation, Yuuri pretended to examine one of the pictures.

"That's why it's so shameful for you to make me chase you," Wolfram continued. "You have to step up and stop being such a wimp – otherwise, I won't be the only one questioning your manhood!"

"Uh…right. Thanks."

"As it is, if I hadn't seen you naked so many times, I think I'd be wondering…" he trailed off thoughtfully, watching Yuuri stare at the picture. "You really like them that much?" he asked, and he sounded happy.

"Um…yeah…sure…"

"Look," he took them from him and shuffled through them for a moment before placing a new one on top. "This one is my favorite – what do you think? It looks like fun, doesn't it?"

Yuuri stared at the picture and then, against his will, he saw Wolfram's face in the place of the blonde in the drawing. His breath caught.

A tap at the door covered up the sound. Greta didn't wait for permission before she opened the door and stuck her head in.

"You don't have lessons today?" she asked hopefully. Wolfram only looked disappointed about the interruption for a fraction of a moment before he smiled, assured her she was correct, and invited her to come in. Yuuri hurriedly began hiding the drawings, but one slipped from his grasp and slid to the floor.

"Why are those two boys wrestling?" Greta asked, moving to pick it up. "Are they wrestling?"

"Uh…"

Wolfram swept in quickly to get the picture before their daughter could pick it up, saving the day in the face of Yuuri's frozen reaction.

"They're only playing, Greta," he assured her, thrusting the picture at Yuuri and shooting him a warning look. "How's your new room coming along? Are we allowed to come see it yet?"

Her eyes lit up; Wolfram had succeeded in distracting her.

Yuuri could only be grateful.


tbc

Lyell - poor Gwen...

yatte! - two hours of sleep lost because of me? That kind of sounds criminal... (author is sleepy)

wolf - thanks for the long review! I'm happy you liked!

Thanks again, everyone!