Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they belong to Tomo Takabayashi, Geneon, and lots of other people who aren't me.

For Better or Worse

Remind me to send some flowers to the Great One when I get back. Seriously- I mean it. I have never been so grateful to find myself kissing porcelain in my whole life.

I stare up at the white plaster ceiling of my bathroom, back home once more. The water in the tub is soaking into my 'nice' school uniform; the one they dress me up in when I get to play with other royals. Oh goody! With a resigned sigh I grab the edges of the tub and pull myself upright. I start unbuttoning my coat, peeling off the wet material and letting it fall back into the water. I keep doing this with all my clothes until I'm not wearing anything. Getting my pants off is… interesting, but I manage. Then I drag myself up from the tub and snag the towel from the metal rod and stiffly wrap it around my waist. I tug the chain to unstop the tub and snag my clothes before they hit the drain. I wring them out.

Why do these things happen to me? It's not like I asked to get flushed between worlds practically every time I hit water, or asked to get engaged to a guy-especially such an overly possessive and rather unstable guy. (Although I was the one who proposed so I guess I did, but I didn't know at the time so that's hardly the point now is it?) And I didn't ask to be king of demons, or have to sit through twenty questions with manipulative old codgers with too many kids.

Of course as soon as I go back I'll have to deal with Wolfram being angry that I left in the middle of not defending his honor, or something like that, and Sigismund will still be hopeful that I'll choose one of his 'lovelies'. Gwendal will be glowering and Gunter will doubtlessly have had an aneurysm from all the bad omens going on. On the plus side though, maybe Conrad will have something productive to say to help the situation.

"Yuuri-chan! I have a surprise for you!"

'Surprise?'

I stare blankly at my mother where I'm standing in the hallway wearing nothing but a towel and clutching a bundle of still wet 'school' clothes to my chest. I'm starting to leave a puddle on the floor, but my mother either doesn't notice or doesn't care.

"Come on! Hurry up! This is so exciting!"

Now I'm being dragged by my hand down the hall, still wearing nothing but a towel and clutching a bundle of still wet school clothes to my chest. The puddle has become a trail of water down the hall, and my mother still either doesn't notice, or doesn't care.

"Mooom," I can't keep the whine out of my voice, "can't I at least put some clothes on first?"

She's not listening.

"Here he is!" my mother sing-songs as I stumble into the living room after her. There's a girl in a simple blue dress sitting on the couch- Ack! Are those my baby photos! Someone please shoot me now. The girl look up, blinking big doe like eyes at me. She smiles faintly and brushes a lock of blonde hair back over her shoulder. She's very pretty, even if her eyes are a rather ordinary shade of brown.

"Hello Yuri," she rises to greet me with a small bow.

"Yay! You two finally get to meet again. You haven't seen each other since you were little so you probably don't remember. Yuri, I want you to meet your fiancée, Miya. "

"Fiancee? How?" my voice squeaks embarrassingly as my brain tries to register the situation.

Me. Mostly naked. Wet clothes. Strange girl. Excited mother. Fiancée. Puddle on floor. Mostly naked. Embarrassing baby photos. Fiancée. Mostly naked. Fiancée that is not Wolf. Puddle on floor. Mostly naked.

'Oh my god! Wolfram!' I want to grab my head in my hands and sink onto the floor in a pathetic little ball. 'If Wolf finds out about this, I am so dead.'

I think my mother was talking while I was trying to muddle things through, but I missed most of it.

"-so it was decided that you guys should get married when you both old enough since you're going to be a demon king and you'll need a wife to help rule your kingdom!"

'I am so dead.'

"So you arranged a wife for me- hang on a minute… Mom, you knew that I'm the Demon King?"

Happy nod.

"And you didn't think I needed to know this!"

I can't believe it. I stare at them both incredulously.

"Are you mad at me Yuri-chan? We didn't want to bother you with it is all. If you hadn't been allowed to be normal growing up you'd have resented it the rest of your life. And you wouldn't have ever played baseball either, so isn't it better that we didn't tell you? Anyway she's from the Demon Tribe too. She's your father's god-daughter, and the only daughter of the King of Demons here on Earth. She doesn't have any wings- and I was so disappointed- but isn't she lovely? Now why don't you come say 'hi' to Miya?"

"Hello, Miya?" I smile woodenly.

'I am so dead it's not even funny.'