Home Work

Disclaimer: Kyou Kara Maou does not belong to me, and I make no money from this work of fanfiction at all.

Pairing: Wolfram and Yuuri, many others mentioned.

A/N: Yay. Second chapter. Here we will explore the frightening world of Mazoku rituals.

So far, so good, Yuuri thought, watching the various participants of the Blessing. They had gathered, listening to his rambling speech on the joys of parenthood and responsibility and wishing them all luck, before standing back next to Ulrike.

Beside him was Celi-sama and Flurin, who were nervously not-looking at each other.

A cup was making the rounds; Yuuri eyed it warily but most of the participants had begun to act vaguely drunk… In fact, it was starting to remind him of a giant party.

Celi-sama handed him the cup, smiling.

"Have a drink?" she coaxed.

Yuuri took the ornate goblet without thinking, and halted a moment before it touched his lips.

"This doesn't mean I'm getting married to anyone, does it?" he asked, suspicious.

Celi-sama shook her golden head gaily. "No- then it would mean I had married Flurin-chan and that is something both of us would like to avoid," she said, cheerfully.

He tried to think logically, rationally, consider all the options…

"Though it would be extremely rude if you were here and didn't drink, too," the ex-queen murmured, and that settled that. Yuuri could just imagine the consequences of offending all these people- silverware would never stop hitting the floor.

Besides, it's not like he had to worry about being fertile, and a little sip couldn't hurt, could it?

That being said, Yuuri put his lips on the goblet, tipping it upwards, barely managing to swallow.

Sheer will was what kept him from spewing the fluid over his friends, and gagging as he swallowed the gunk.

"Well now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Celi said, clapping him on the back. Yuuri eyeballed her. There was a lot more going on but because he couldn't admit his ignorance and just ask…

"You should be going home to Wolfram now," she said, entirely too cheerful. "You'll want to see him, won't you?"

Yuuri knew he had been had. Just somehow, he knew he had been had.

Ulrike, who had been watching the entire thing, covered her mouth with her hand. If even the small Maiden could find this amusing, then there had to be something wrong.

Well, they certainly wouldn't get him. He would go home right now.

"I'll be going," he said petulantly. The stuff in his stomach was churning. Maybe he had gas?

The girls continued to giggle (giving Yuuri a bad flashback to the many yaoi fan girls) and he flounced away. A carriage was waiting for him; he had arrived via horse but at that moment he was grateful for it. Whatever it was that he'd drunk was going straight to his head.

He fidgeted with impatience as he stepped up into the small carriage, wishing he could pace as the driver set off.

The uneasy feeling in his stomach was turning into a steady cramp, and that cramp was getting worse.

He winced, looking around. If it wasn't just his luck to get sick after drinking the stuff… The rest of his body was aching in sympathy-

That ache turned into a lightening fast stab, making him double over as a fist of pain crushed his heart and lungs, fingers clawing into the plush cushion below him.

Then as soon as it started, it was over, making him feel weak and watery. It left him limp over the carriage seat, staring up at the ceiling for several moments.

After a few moments of remembering how to breathe, the Maou blinked. The pain was gone, leaving only a dim soreness in his belly.

His thoughts were disconnected- not like they had been when he'd been possessed by more along the lines of:

"Oh, the cushions are purple. I like purple. Purple is nicer than black. Does Wolfram like purple? He always wears blue and I like blue when he wears it. I wonder where Wolfram is? He didn't want to go but I miss him and I miss him a lot and he's prettier than purple. I like his green eyes… green is pretty…"

A bit of sanity in the back of his mind noted that he felt strung out. Perhaps the drink had been a drug? Whatever it was…

He felt fluffy. Pink, too. He didn't know that a person could feel "pink" but for some reason that summed up exactly what he was feeling.

The weakness that had oozed through him was pleasant… but he really didn't want to keep lying on the cushions. After all, Wolfram wasn't on those cushions and Wolfram was who Yuuri really wanted. No offense meant to the cushions.

The carriage eventually stopped, and Yuuri opened the door- and saw no one outside. That was good- he didn't want to see anyone else anyways.

The entire palace seemed unusually empty. Of course, this made total and complete sense. It was late. Therefore smart people were in bed. Smart people were in bed screwing.

Oooh… whatever it was he'd been drinking was really going to his head. Both heads.

Tee-hee.

That was a really immature joke; he shouldn't be making such silly jokes… but it was funny…

Really. Maybe he should ask Wolfram?

The thought of Wolfram made his knees go weak with longing- all he wanted was to find his fiancé, and hold him, kiss him… be pounded into the sheets…

With a silly smile, he noticed that the light was on to his bedroom. Wolfram had to be there… a shadow was moving back and forth beneath the door.

He grinned, slowly pushing the door open.

Wolfram noticed something immediately strange the next morning when he awoke.

It was hardly the first time he had awakened to find himself hopelessly tangled with Yuuri. It was definitely not strange to awaken with a delicious afterglow, or sticky and sweaty.

Smiling faintly, not opening his eyes quite yet, he let his fingers trail over Yuuri's chest-

It squished.

Eyes flying open, they bulged when Wolfram saw the reason. Yuuri…

Yuuri had breasts.

"Oh hell!" Wolfram whispered, nearly hissing. "Yuuri- I thought you weren't going to participate."

The noise- and the fact that he had squeezed Yuuri's chest a little too hard- caused his lover to jolt awake, inhaling.

"Oi, Wolfram. What's wrong?" Yuuri asked, eyes half glued shut.

"I thought you had said you weren't going to participate in the ritual- just say a few words," Wolfram asked, at a loss. It wasn't that he was mad about it- far from it- but he had thought Yuuri agreed they were too young and even if he loved the idea of Yuuri bearing his children, to do so, so soon…

"What do you mean?" Yuuri mumbled, into his (her?) pillow. "I went, I gave a speech and then Celi-sama asked me to drink something and… Wolfram, you don't look well…"

Probably not, Wolfram agreed. He could feel the blood draining from his face when Yuuri had mentioned his mother.

"Yuuri," he said, trying to stay conscious. Then it hit him. "You didn't read the book."

The dark haired Maou's eyes bulged, screaming "caught!" half a second before he noticed that his chest felt different. Another second of processing occurred- Wolfram watched the different emotions cross Yuuri's face with fascination-

Yuuri looked down at his breasts and opened his mouth to scream.

Wolfram had fortunately thought enough to snap his hand over Yuuri's mouth, muffling the scream so that he would not wake the whole castle, and have a moment to think.

"WHY didn't you read the book?" he hissed.

Yuuri was frantically looking down at his-herself, hands moving down her body to her groin, mouth flapping open and shut.

"Yuuri! I know you- Why didn't you read the book?"

"I-" Yuuri was trying to hyperventilate.

"Focus on me, Yuuri," Wolfram grabbed her arms. The whole situation pissed him off- and he had a good idea who was behind it- but Yuuri, having no idea what was going on… "Focus on me and breathe. What happened?"

"I- I- I- burned the book. I picked it up to read it and lost my balance and dropped it before I could get started and it fell in the fire and then I tossed water on it trying to save it and then it just sort of fell apart and why do I have girl parts?"

"Its part of the ritual- fertility is granted to all couples who join in. Meaning if you are barren, you'll be able to have a baby, once. If its two women- one of the couple will become male long enough to impregnate the other. If its two men, you have one turn into a woman long enough to give birth." Wolfram bit his lip.

"Couldn't I have just been a pregnant man?" Yuuri wailed.

Wolfram's eyebrow's twitched. "Then where would the baby come out?"

Yuuri was so confused… It was impossible to stay shocked or mad with Yuuri for long when he (she?) was despondent. Grabbing her (him?) by the shoulders, Wolfram pulled Yuuri to his chest, grunting slightly with the effort- he had yet to regain his full strength after the battle with the Sovereign.

"Yuuri… why didn't you tell us? Or at least tell me? I could have explained to you. I would have gone if you had really wanted children…"

Yuuri stared at him, eyes wide. "Really?"

"Well, Greta shouldn't be an only child," Wolfram said plainly. "And the idea of you surrounded by babies-"

He cut off, blushing.

Yuuri looked away.

Yuuri had awakened to a hiss and a squeeze- and found once again that the nightmare had not ended

"I didn't mean to do anything," he (she?) said, plaintively. "Celi-sama told me I'd offend almost all the people in the room if I didn't take a sip- and I could just see the silverware falling…"

Yuuri was still dealing with the gender identity crisis. (S)he did not want to even consider the possibility…

Wolfram closed his eyes, a low growl coming from his throat.

"How long am I going to be a girl?" Yuuri squeaked. It was embarrassing, and on top of th-that…

"While you are carrying the child," Wolfram said, swallowed, and focused back on Yuuri.

Yup. That was what Yuuri was afraid of. There was a dull roaring in Yuuri's ears as the world was washed over in gray, toppling over in to the blankets.

"Yuuri! Yuuri!" he heard Wolfram shout, and there was a stinging slap on his face.

"Wolfram?" Yuuri whimpered, coming back around. "Did I hear that right?"

Wolfram took a deep breath.

Yuuri knew what Wolfram would say, but didn't want to hear it.

"Yuuri- if you don't want to-" he could hear the pain in Wolfram's voice. "If you don't- you could… there are ways to not have children, it's only been a day…"

That brought his confused spiral to a halt. The sheer pain in Wolfram's voice- not to mention the idea of killing a baby, even one not quite all there yet-

Looking into Wolfram's face, Yuuri swallowed.

It was too much.

"Wolfram… Do you want this?" It came out as a whisper.

The blond gave Yuuri a choppy nod.

"Why?"

"I want to have children, with you." Wolfram looked away. "And if… if the past couple of months are any indication, I have no idea much time we'll have together. If something were to happen to either of us…"

The breath stuck in Yuuri's throat. Wolfram sounded… Grabbing Wolfram's shoulders, Yuuri stared into his face.

"Wolfram- I… I don't want to hurt a baby. And, and… All right. I think I'll be okay," Yuuri mumbled, burying her face again in Wolfram's shoulder. The blond soldier said nothing, just held Yuuri while she tried to calm down.

"Wolfram?"

"Yes, Yuuri?" he murmured, stroking her hair.

"I'm scared."

"Me too."

"You still want this?"

"Yes."

Then Yuuri groaned, as something occurred to her.

"My mom is going to get me into that wedding dress. I just know it."

Wolfram had the cheek to laugh.

To be continued.

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but this part was harder to write than I thought it would be. It felt so incredibly cliché but… there aren't that many ways to get a person pregnant… I think. Well, I hope you all liked it.

I've been distracted with "Sunshine" and how to write the third part of the arc, and how much angst I want to add to this one.

Well, gah… It might have been better if I had written it as a separate story outside of the "Forgotten" series, but if I didn't write it together, it probably never would have gotten written. Bah humbug and merry Christmas.

Oh yes, and Shori is going to strangle Wolfram. Yay.