HEELS OVER HEAD
Chapter Two
A ConYuu Fan-fiction
By: Ami
Beta-reader: thisissong
Alternate Universe, since I have no idea what happens after episode 34. No spoilers.
Standard disclaimers apply.
XXX
Slacker.
Yuuri had just recently realized the truth of Wolfram's word.
Slacker.
The more he thought about it, the more conscious he became about his nothing-to-do-ness, and the more bored he felt.
Slacker.
"…How true…"
The afternoon breeze felt nice, so Yuuri decided to stay in the bench for a while, gazing at the grassy backyard with a bored look. And as usual, his face displayed exactly what he felt.
Although he was the Maou, the holder of the highest authority in Shin Makoku, Yuuri felt like he was treated more like an apprentice than a real king. Naturally. He couldn't even spell a difficult mazoku word appropriately yet. There were still a lot of things he would have to learn before he would be allowed to take his full role as a king. And until then, he had to keep with Gunter's lessons.
For an energetic teenager like him, it was obviously very dull to stay behind the desk and to do paper works. Yuuri had never expected that one day he would beg Gunter to keep the tutorial going until dinnertime, to which Gunter would have gladly complied if Gwendal's messenger hadn't suddenly appeared to invite Gunter to an important meeting.
"…Everyone's so busy…" Yuuri muttered softly as he rested his head on the bench, diverting his gaze to the blue sky. Yesterday's storm had wiped away all the thick, dark clouds, leaving only some thin, cotton-white ones. It felt like Shin Maou was punishing him by displaying such a beautiful sunny day in the middle of his helplessness.
Yuuri rested his head on the bench and closed his eyes, deciding to take a nap while hoping that Conrad or Wolfram would be available when he woke up. Just when he was about to doze off, he felt a pair of hands covering his eyes, as a familiar lady's voice rang in his ears.
"Heika-darling, don't sleep your sunny day away."
Yuuri was too happy to complain at the hands that kept him blind.
"Yozak!"
"What? How did you find me out?" Yozak removed his hands with a disappointed face, "I thought my voice was feminine enough to delude everyone."
Yuuri laughed, at both Yozak's sudden presence and his pouting face.
"It wasn't good enough, Yozak. You'll need to practice some more before you can fool me into thinking you're a woman."
Yozak shrugged, "Alright. Guess I'm not good enough to challenge the Maou yet."
Yuuri moved to one side of the bench, giving Yozak enough space to sit beside him. But the red-haired man didn't seem to get the signal, and he just kept standing behind the bench, glancing at the yard with a bored look, imitating Yuuri's previous face.
"What are you doing here? I heard that you were out for another job." Yuuri asked.
"I am a very busy man, Heika. Once I've finished one, another job is already lined up," Yozak replied as he opened his mouth widely and yawned, "and now I'm up for another duty."
Yuuri widened his eyes, looking cutely clueless, "Another duty? Then what are you doing here? What's your next job?"
Yozak looked exasperated as he jumped over the bench and landed on his feet in front of his king, who was still gazing at him in astonishment.
"YOU are today's duty, Your Majesty. Geez, I thought I'd not be obliged to exclaim it out aloud. Didn't Sir Weller tell you about it?"
Yuuri blinked and rolled his eyes, before muttering a soft 'no'.
Yozak sighed again, "I see. As usual, he's always being so shy, that dear Sir Weller Conrad of yours. Oh, well then, just ignore my big mouth and I (man, I'm gonna get bashed for this). Ohohohohohohoho. Now, what would I do to entertain you? Wanna learn how to use cosmetics?"
"No, thanks." Yuuri cringed, ignoring the slightly weird feeling that came with Yozak's suggestive tone.
"You wanna play with my wigs?"
"No."
"Wanna try on my newest dress? I know you'll look good in it."
"NO!"
Yozak laughed at Yuuri's horrified face, as he finally sat down on the bench, turning his face to the pouting king.
"Okay, okay. Now, seriously, what do you want to do?"
"Let's see…" Yuuri made a thinking face as he tried to find one thing he really wanted to spend the day doing. Yozak waited for him with an enigmatic smile on his lips.
"I wanna…"
"…Think you wanna see how's Sir Weller doing?"
Yuuri stared at Yozak's evil smile disbelievingly and looked like he was about to refuse the offer. Yuuri would definitely refuse the silly idea of stalking Conrad in the middle of his work. Yozak thought so, until those words came out of the young king's lips.
"…You can really bring me there?"
Yozak tried his best to suppress his grin.
XXX
As Yuuri stepped in to the town, all eyes were turned to him. The guys were drooling and the women were glaring with jealousy. The Maou turned to the tall man beside him and glared.
"Don't get so worked up, Hei---I mean, Jou-chan," Yozak grinned as he placed an arm around the slender boy's waist, "No one will suspect us. We just look like a lovesick couple. It's a perfect disguise. C'mon, get here. Get closer to me."
"You call this a 'perfect disguise'?" Yuuri tried to lower his tone as he gripped Yozak's arm, "You told me that we'd not gain attention by dressing up like this, but look! Everybody's looking at us!"
"They're just adoring your beauty, and my flawless face, of course," Yozak replied calmly, "it'll be over soon."
"Let's hope so."
Yuuri looked down and winced again at the taste of lipstick on his lips, his silk dress, and his Cheri-styled blonde wig ( -- in the end, he did all the things he had declined before –laughs-). He had seen his reflection before, and had been sure that no one would recognize him as the Maou, not even Conrad, but he couldn't feel reassured. The guys on the street corner looked like they were undressing him with their eyes.
Yuuri lifted up his face and looked at Yozak who seemed quite confident with his gentleman disguise. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to make him cross-dress, but it was probably the best idea to have Yozak dress up as a man to secure him from those perverts.
"What is Conrad doing in this town?" Yuuri asked quietly as they walked together.
"A small group of bandits," Yozak explained as he turned to his side and leaded their way in to a small restaurant, "lately they've been appearing around this town. Everyone's worried, so Sir Weller decided to take care of the problem by himself."
Yuuri smiled politely as the waitress guided them to a table. It was table number 13. Yuuri wondered if it was a sign of coming misfortunes.
"What's his plan to catch them?" Yuuri asked as he opened the menu, pretending he was browsing it, although he couldn't read it at all.
"Today's special, please." Yozak told the waitress.
"I don't know. He never told me," Yozak replied when the waitress got far enough to not overhear them, "but let me tell you one thing…"
"Sir Weller NEVER loses to criminals."
Yuuri's eyes shimmered in amazement through the blue contacts, "He's really so strong…"
"Yes, he's very strong indeed," Yozak smiled, "and you should see his face when he's fighting. Man, he CAN scare his opponents off."
"I see," Yuuri appeared happy to listen to Yozak's story about Conrad, "but he also has a lot of friends, doesn't he?"
"Yeah, and lotsa of enemies too. But most civilians like Sir Weller. Even some humans like him."
Yozak couldn't help smiling at Yuuri's beaming face. The boy really concentrated while listening to him. It always made him wonder why Conrad hadn't made a move on the Maou yet. A moment later Yozak's eyes fell on Yuuri's blonde wig, then the answer came to him.
'Oh… that's why'
"Anything else you'd like to know about dear Sir Weller Conrad, Your Majesty?"
"Yes, one more thing," Yuuri quickly replied, completely ignoring Yozak's reminiscent tone, "I always wonder how well he treats his subordinates. Since they seem to respect him and----"
"Pssst…" Yuuri blinked as Yozak suddenly gestured him to stop talking and lower his head. His confusion didn't take very long, as a group of Shin Makoku soldiers suddenly entered the restaurant, including one familiar figure at the lead.
Yuuri gasped and promptly ducked his head, using the menu to cover up his face. Yozak just lowered his head and kept gesturing at Yuuri to stay silent.
"Take turns to guard the place, starting from squad A. The others can have lunch and get some rest here," Conrad announced to the soldiers, "assemble in one hour. Scatter."
"Yes, Sir!"
Still pressing his chin down on the table, Yuuri carefully pushed the menu up, only high enough to let him have the full view of Conrad's table. The brunet was sitting alone and he looked exhausted.
Yuuri frowned.
Conrad was always pushing himself. He'd get sick.
"Crap, didn't expect this," he heard Yozak mutter, "Better think out how to get outta here without getting caught. He's really going to kill me if he ever finds this out."
Yuuri just sighed. Although he still had no idea how to escape the situation, he felt calm, as if he was sure that the situation would resolve itself. Looking at Conrad's tired face made him want to just show up and approach the lonely-looking man, but Yozak's safety came first, he guessed.
"Sorry for the wait."
Both Yuuri and Yozak almost jumped off their chairs at the waitress' voice.
"Today's special for a lovely couple. How about the beverages?"
"Water, please." Yuuri quickly said with a nervous smile, while hoping that Conrad wouldn't be able to hear him.
Yozak just nodded in agreement, "Me too."
"Okay. Please wait for a moment."
Yuuri stared at the undefined-shaped food in front of him. It smelled nice, but Yuuri wasn't sure how to start eating with the various weird-looking 'things' on his plate. When he lifted up his head, Yozak had started eating.
"I thought you wanted to get out of here as soon as possible."
"We'll look suspicious if we leave without eating. So let's eat first."
Yuuri nodded and started eating. The food tasted fine. He was thinking of coming back there next time, but then remembered that he didn't know the name of the food.
'Pay more attention to Gunter's Mazoku Language class…' He mentally noted.
As the waitress came back with the beverages, Yuuri stole another glance at Conrad. Although he was sitting in a restaurant, Conrad didn't seem to intend to order anything more than a cup of tea that was settled on the side of his table. In front of him were some scattered documents and a pen. He seemed busy staring at one of the papers, while repeatedly marking it with his pen.
Yuuri frowned again and mentally shouted at the brunet.
'It's lunch-break and you're still working! Go and order something!'
Conrad shook and promptly dropped his pen.
"Yuuri?" He muttered softly as he stood up and looked around. Yuuri immediately lowered his head and resumed eating.
Unable to find any sign of his young king, Conrad sighed and sat back down, still looking confused.
"You look tired, Your Excellency," One of his concerned subordinates told him, "maybe you should take a break and have lunch."
Conrad weakly nodded as he collected his scattered documents and tried to find the menu among them, "…Somehow I feel that Heika wants me to take a break too… somehow…"
Yuuri just smiled.
XXX
TBC
