The sun burst through the large windows of the Prince's room, casting some light on the inhabitants. Yuki buried his face into his bedclothes to hide from the unwanted sunlight and sighed. He'd been awake all night, unable to sleep. He kept worrying about his feelings that were developing for the one lying next to him all night, finding himself unable to come to terms with his earlier conclusion. Even in the times when his overtaxed mind couldn't pull up any more points to mull over, it nagged him about Shuichi's new connection to Ryuichi.

He groaned and flipped over, deciding that it was time to get up and do something instead of tossing and turning in bed. Besides, he still needed to concoct a fix for protecting Shuichi's head from his less-than-stable cohort.

He hoisted himself out of the comfy bed and meandered over to Shuichi's monstrous closet. He poked his head in, concerned about booby traps, and then slid in. He rummaged around in some dresser drawers and through the hangers, but he couldn't find anything that would suit his plan. He was about to give up when he found the dresser responsible for keeping Shuichi's pants and matching sashes organized. He grabbed a silvery ribbon sash and ducked back out the closet, eager to be out. It was a freak show with four walls in there.

Yuki walked over to the balcony and glanced out, squinting at the shockingly bright light. Cinda was up early this morning, tearing up any remaining tree trunks and throwing rocks at any guard foolish enough to attempt a patrol in the area. Yuki sighed and shook his head. It was strange how perfect Cinda and Shuichi were for one another. He'd never have picked an elephant for Shuichi's best friend.

He turned around to avoid the continuously glaring sun and his eyes fell on Shuichi. It was hard not to stare at him, he looked so beautifully ridiculous. Even if a person had no attachment to him whatsoever, Yuki figured that they'd still be drawn to him. He had that kind of personality. Plus, one couldn't help but be intrigued by the hair. No one in their right mind would wear it like that. Yuki smiled at that thought; of course he wasn't in his right mind.

Yuki crossed the room and sat down next to Shuichi. He started stroking his soft hair, admiring the way it seemed to fit his face. He stayed there for a while, watching Shuichi sleep, his mind blank and completely without worry. He moved to kiss Shuichi's exposed ear, and the sash in his hand reminded him of his mission to protect his lover. He shook Shuichi lightly, trying to wrench him out of dream world, but he had no luck.

"Shuichi? Come on, wake up…" Yuki murmured, leaning in to whisper. When he got no response, he nuzzled his neck, trying to elicit some sort of reaction. Shuichi moaned and rolled over, pulling the covers over his head.

"Leave…alone…me…" Shuichi grumbled, not taking too kindly to the idea of waking up before the crack of noon. He was capable of it, but it required some mental effort.

"No, we need to work on our anti-rabbit effort, get up."

"Uh uh."

Yuki groaned and ran a hand through his messy hair. Shuichi could be very frustrating when he wanted to. Yuki gave up his verbal attack and instead picked up Shuichi and shook off his covers.

"No! Put me down!" Shuichi squalled, keeping his eyes tightly shut against the light. He threw his arms around Yuki's neck to prevent himself from falling, and hid his face in his shoulder.

"Not yet…" Yuki answered. He carried Shuichi to the balcony and dumped him on the floor, counting on the sun to finish him off. It was brighter than ever.

"It burns!" Shuichi screamed, curling up in the fetal position and rolling around on the stone floor.

"Come off it already…" Yuki muttered, shaking his head at the flailing moron.

Shuichi continued to flop around like a fish out of water for about five minutes while Yuki watched from inside the room. Eventually he stopped rolling around and stayed flat on his back, glaring for all he was worth at his smug lover.

"Damn you…" Shuichi hissed, sitting up and crawling towards the door to his bedroom.

"Don't be such a drama queen…" Yuki told him from a safe distance, feeling a little bit unnerved by the look in his eyes.

Shuichi muttered something incomprehensible and pulled himself into his bed, intent on returning to his slumber.

"I'll throw you out there again."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I wouldn't?" Yuki asked, raising his eyebrows in a questioning way. He smirked when Shuichi glared at him, and reentered the room.

"You're supposed to listen to me…" Shuichi whined, airing out his pouty attitude to see if that worked on Yuki. The latter merely shook his head and sat down on the bed next to Shuichi. "I'm the Prince."

"So am I, remember?"

"Yeah, but you're fake."

"Yeah, but no one else knows that." Yuki returned, smirking again. "This could go on forever, and as much as I love the stimulating conversation…"

For once in his life Shuichi noticed the sarcasm in Yuki's voice and hit him over the head with a large pillow.

"Ouch!" Yuki squalled, slightly surprised that any blow dealt by Shuichi could actually cause pain.

"That's what you get." Shuichi said, crossing his arms and nodding his head once.

"Not sure you're worth protecting now…" Yuki said quietly, rubbing his head.

Shuichi's eyes widened and he immediately adopted a worried look; he'd forgotten all about the dream. He latched onto Yuki, their squabble pushed out of his thoughts by concern for his mental safety.

"Don't let him eat my brain, Yuki!" Shuichi screamed, right into Yuki's ear.

"Alright, alright, get off, he's not going to eat your brain…" Yuki retorted, wincing in pain. He attempted to pry Shuichi off of his neck and only succeeded in making Shuichi tighten his grip. He could hear his pulse in his head and his eyes felt fuzzy around the edges.

"I don't want to get eaten!" Shuichi screamed, jumping into Yuki's lap and maintaining his iron grip on Yuki's neck.

"Shuichi…" Yuki sputtered, unable to draw breath. "Get the hell off…"

"But he'll eat me, Yuki!"

Yuki groaned, incapable of a retort involving speech. He tried to twist around to make Shuichi break his grip, but the lack of oxygen was affecting his motor skills in a negative fashion. The room started to spin, and before he could make another move, he toppled off of the bed unconscious.

"Bird!" Tohma hissed, aiming a slap at Caspian. "You have to be quiet!"

He and Caspian were situated outside of Shuichi's door, waiting for their ill-fated target to emerge. Prince Eiri hadn't been in his suite, so Tohma guessed that he was with Shuichi. They'd been camped outside of his door for two hours, listening intently to what was happening inside. So far, it'd been pretty quiet, minus the screaming that had just started up. Tohma thought he heard something about someone eating someone else's brain, but he wasn't sure. Knowing the Prince, anything was possible.

"Speak for yourself loudmouth…" Caspian muttered, ruffling up his feathers and glaring at Tohma.

Tohma opened his mouth to retort, but a loud 'thump' from behind the door captured his limited attention.

"What the hell was that?" Tohma said in a whisper, more to himself than the conure sitting on his head.

"Why don't you go in and see? I'm sure they'd both be thrilled if you popped in for a visit." Caspian answered, snickering. It was his job to be the lookout, but he was having too much fun tormenting his owner.

"That's it, you're on your own from now on." Tohma spat, knocking Caspian off of his head and stomping down the hall. "Don't screw this up."

"Don't screw this up." Caspian mocked, donning a haughty air and a high-pitched voice.

Tohma muttered something incomprehensible and stomped off down the hallway, throwing a little hissy fit. He'd put up with Caspian's antics all last night and into the morning due to their planning session. They'd come up with a wide array of measures to use against the fake prince, and Tohma felt sure that he'd be dead by the end of the of week, if not the day. True, leaving Caspian on his own after the conveyor belt fiasco was risky, but the bird seemed pretty eager to repair the damage from his one and only mistake.

Tohma rounded the next few corners lost in thought. He had every possible outcome mapped out in his head. If Caspian failed in this attempt, they had limited time to eliminate their target. Tohma shook his head vigorously, clearing his head of all worries. They had a massive amount of violent ideas stock-piled, and they could use any one of them to end the pesky faker. Tohma shook his head again and hopped down the stairs towards his office. While Caspian was busy attempting murder, he was going to clean up the office and organize their battle plans. If he had time, he thought it'd be nice to have a cup of tea and a small nap. After all, waiting on your bloodthirsty conure to kill and dismember a street rat could be rather exhausting.

"Yuki?" Shuichi asked softly, wiping Yuki's face with a damp cloth. "You're not dead are you?"

Shuichi continued to dab at Yuki's forehead for a while before he really started to get concerned. He'd been out for fifteen minutes and hadn't moved an inch.

"Not again…" Shuichi muttered, thinking back to the other times that Yuki had died on him.

"Mmm?" Yuki murmured, opening one eye. He was lying on Shuichi's bed and was surrounded by endless heaps of pillows. He opened his other eye and looked around, wondering what was going on. When he looked up and saw Shuichi sitting on his stomach, it all came rushing back to him. He remembered the stranglehold and the ensuing lack of oxygen and groaned. Shuichi cocked his head at the noise and Yuki glared at him.

"What?" Shuichi asked, head still sideways.

"You could've killed me, that's what." Yuki responded, an edge to his voice.

"But you've already died a couple times…" Shuichi answered, not sensing the danger that he was in.

"Not for real."

"It was real to me."

"At this point in time, you don't matter." Yuki replied, trying to sit up to dislodge himself from the pink-haired murderer. He wriggled around for a while, but Shuichi was a lot heavier than he looked. "Let me up brat."

"Nope. Not until you take it back." Shuichi said, returning Yuki's glare. "I matter."

Yuki was quiet for a bit, refusing to let Shuichi win any kind of argument. He squirmed around some more and Shuichi leaned forward, pinning his shoulders to make sure that he didn't go anywhere. Yuki crossed his arms and stared up at the glaring Shuichi for a while, content to keep this up for as long as necessary. It wasn't like he was dying to get back to K and Ryuichi anytime soon.

He figured that Shuichi would crack sooner rather than later. He had a pretty short attention span, and Yuki didn't think that he was the type to hold onto petty things like this for very long.

Thirty minutes later, however, he was rethinking his hypothesis. Shuichi was still sitting on him, and he hadn't budged an inch. His nails were digging into Yuki's shoulder and the glare had intensified by the minute. Yuki was slightly worried about his lover's blood pressure at this point. His eyes weren't twitching, but they were narrowed into catlike slits and a vein in his forehead was pulsating out of control. Yuki sighed and decided that he should probably surrender before medics were needed.

He glanced to his left and looked around for the sash that he'd procured earlier. It was buried under the ridiculous amount of pillows on the bed, and only a small corner of it was visible to the naked eye. Yuki snatched at it and pulled it onto his stomach. Shuichi took this as a sign of an impending attack and snorted. He released Yuki's shoulders and then slammed them back into the bed with a few incomprehensible mutterings.

"NO."

"No what?" Yuki asked, slightly afraid. He'd never had reason to really fear Shuichi, but now he definitely was. He hoped that Ryuichi could survive on his own, because there was a steadily increasing chance that he wouldn't be leaving this room alive.

"NO."

Yuki merely nodded, aware that Shuichi was most likely incapable of a decent conversation at this point; his face was starting to turn an ugly shade of plum. Yuki fiddled around with the sash for a while, trying to determine the safest course of action. If he showed some concern for Shuichi's continued mental safety, maybe he'd let him live. He moved his gaze from the ribbon-like belt to Shuichi's face and decided that he'd better move fast, as his scalp was turning blood red. Yuki had never seen anyone turn such interesting colors.

"Shuichi?" Yuki asked nervously, not wanting to set Shuichi off when he had no way of escaping the carnage.

Shuichi ground his teeth together and shook his head. He mouthed the word 'apologize' and returned to his silent vigil.

"Fine. Just hold still."

Yuki threw the sash over the top of Shuichi's head and when the latter loosened his grip, Yuki sat up as best he could and situated the silky material. He tied it at the back of Shuichi's head and then flopped back onto the bed. Shuichi was still sitting on him, but he was no longer holding Yuki down.

"There. You're safe now." Yuki told Shuichi, worried about what was going to happen next.

"And?"

"And I suppose you matter…a little bit." Yuki said with a small smile.

Shuichi smiled back and kissed Yuki gently, putting his hands on either side of Yuki's head.

"Don't start with me…" Yuki whispered, kissing Shuichi's chin and trying to roll away.

"I'm not done with you." Shuichi returned, wondering how far he could go without Yuki tossing him off of the balcony. He didn't seem like he was the passive type, but Shuichi figured he'd be worth the risk.

"Excuse me?" Yuki queried, even more concerned than he was before. It felt like he was looking in a mirror. He'd never seen Shuichi look like this, and he found himself suddenly wishing that he was the one sitting on the other.

"I think you heard me…" Shuichi said quietly. He kissed Yuki again and then moved down to his neck, thoroughly enjoying himself. He started unbuttoning Yuki's shirt, undoing his own with his free hand.

"I have places to be…" Yuki said quickly, sitting up as fast as he could in a desperate attempt to extricate himself from Shuichi's clutches. No one had ever turned the tables on him quite like this and he wasn't sure if he entirely appreciated the way things were going.

"You sure?" Shuichi asked, wrapping his legs around Yuki's waist and kissing his collar bone.

"No…" Yuki answered, thinking that he could reverse the situation rather easily at this point.

"Then stay a while." Shuichi ordered, leaning into Yuki and kissing him again, all the while pushing him back down onto the fluffy bed.

He ran his lips along the edge of Yuki's cheek, from his chin to his ear, and back again. Every time he got within an inch of Yuki's earlobe, the older man sucked in his breath and stopped moving entirely, and Shuichi guessed that he'd found his one weak spot. He kissed Yuki again to keep him distracted and then kissed his ear faster than greased lighting. Yuki screamed and sent Shuichi flying backwards off of the bed. He toppled feet over head and landed in a tangled heap on the floor.

"What the hell was that for?!" Yuki yelled, one hand clapped over his ear. "Never do that again, never, never, ever again…"

Shuichi was too busy laughing to reply, and it took him several minutes to be in any shape to talk. He'd never heard anyone scream like that, let alone Yuki. He finally hoisted himself back onto the bed and sat next to Yuki. He giggled a few more times, but overall, he kept himself pretty contained.

"Completely uncalled for…" Yuki said through gritted teeth and clenched jaw.

"I'm sorry…" Shuichi gasped, his lungs still tired after his fit of laughter. The sash had slid down to his neck and he re-adjusted it while Yuki seethed next to him. He was almost entirely distracted by the gorgeous thief sitting next to him, but he still had room in his conscious to worry about possible Ryuichi infiltrations.

"I highly doubt that."

"Then I'll have to make it up to you." Shuichi said in a more suggestive tone than usual. He figured that Yuki must be influencing his personality.

"Rain check." Yuki interjected, wondering why Shuichi had morphed into him.

"Not a chance." Shuichi replied, now channeling his inner Yuki. He was really enjoying the note of panic in Yuki's voice, even though he didn't have any idea of what he was supposed to be doing.

Shuichi crawled into Yuki's lap and kissed him again, wrapping his arms around his neck. He finished his earlier task of unbuttoning his shirt and threw it off, working on Yuki's as he went. When his mission was accomplished, he started to kiss Yuki's neck again, this time moving down his chest.

"Alright, fine, have it your way." Yuki said, deciding that his was better than nothing. Shuichi could be quite persuasive when he wanted to be.

Shuichi smiled and kissed Yuki harder than before, pushing him back into the pillows. He thought about his next move, and paused.

"Need an instruction manual?" Yuki asked sarcastically, stroking Shuichi's face with a few fingers.

Shuichi pursed his lips his lips and puffed up, ready to start glaring again. Then he caught sight of Yuki's ear and changed gears. He reached out a finger and started inching it towards Yuki's exposed ear.

"I'll be quiet, I promise, don't do that again…" Yuki said in a high-pitched voice.

"Good." Shuichi replied, deciding on his course of action.

Well, kids, this is chapter is an excellent example of what happens when you listen to Adam Lambert on repeat while writing. I meant to update on Friday, but I didn't realize that I had a chapter ready to go until today. Gold star…

Anyway, enjoy.

-Amaya