Chapter 5

I have seen the entire anime of KKM in the meantime, and by god is it awesome :3 But therefore, I had to rewrite a few parts concerning the first chapter. Wasn't much, though.

Anyway, we need more character development here.

The days of the exams had come and gone.

Yuri was very glad that the time had seemingly passed by very fast. He had tried to distract himself with learning, had tried not to think of the difficult situation he had to face when he would be back to Shin Makoku. He still was unsure about his feelings towards Conrad. Just the thought of him made the boy blush again badly. Lately, it bothered him even more, sometimes he even dreamed about it. About Conrad. Not that he wasn't his first thought in the morning and his last in the evening anyway. He sighed heavily.

„Hey, Shibuya!", Murata waved at him as he approached, which brought Yuri back to earth. Indeed, to earth, he thought amused.

„Hi," he answered smiling. His classmate took his seat beside him on the park bench.

„How long have you been sitting here? I was looking for you."

Yuri shrugged his shoulders, grinning. „I have no idea, to be honest. Why were you searching for me?"

„I wanted to ask you when you want to go back."

The young king startled. „I- I thought we would have to wait for the results before going back... that would be in about a week."

„We don't need to, especially if you don't want to. Completely apart from if we go now or after the results, another question is, are you ready to go back?" he cleared his throat, „I mean... have you got a plan how to handle the case with Sir Weller?" Murata looked into the sky, obviously avoiding Yuri's indifferent gaze.

They hadn't talked about the matter since that one afternoon where they had met for learning. Yuri didn't wonder about being asked that right away by his friend. He had almost waited for it to happen.

„Yes, I think I'm ready... and speaking of the plan- I have none. I'll just behave like always, like nothing happened, that should be the best thing to do, right?" Yuri sighed, then nodded to reassure his statement. „Because how should I react to something I don't even know? I don't know what kind of feelings he has towards me." Or what kind of feelings I have for him.

Murata smiled, but more to himself. „Just wait and see."

Yuri was still confused, even more so by his friend's last sentence. He watched him irritatedly. Nevertheless he had read a lot of stuff on the internet over the past days and weeks. It was the only source he could use. He had been curious, he had wanted to know everything, and what he read kind of shocked him at first... The knowledge of the way men had sex with each other was weird. But well, now he knew. He rubbed his temples.

„Well, that's the only option I have..."

The bench they were sitting on was one of a couple ones placed around a fountain in the park. Suddenly, Murata got to his feet and grabbed Yuri at his wrist, pulling him up.

„To me, it seemes like you're ready – let's go!" he said, dragging his friend towards the fountain.

„Wait... what? Here?"

Those were Yuri's last words before Murata threw him into the water.

Conrad was wandering the hallways - again. He had been restless during the last weeks. Yuri had been away for over half a year now, which was thoroughly normal because of the time lag.

But the soldier couldn't help it, he was waiting impatiently for the day when Yuri would be back. Not that it would make any difference, he still couldn't talk to him about his feelings anyway, but he simply wanted so see him finally. He missed Yuri, even if it was just his presence he was allowed to enjoy.

It was winter in Shin Makoku and everything outside was wrapped in wonderful, fluffy white snow. The brown-haired soldier took an empty look outside the window and sighed quietly.

Conrad always got kind of melancholic in this season. Having someone to cuddle with would be the best right now. During the last weeks, he had so longed for physical contact, but there was no one who could or would offer him this. It had all started with Yuri's hug at his departure, and Yuri was what he wanted most now. Even if it was just a hug, and even that was a little too much to expect. But if he couldn't have anything like that, at least he needed a warm bath, so he decided to head to the public bathroom. Always a good plan for these cold days.

Yozak was also there. The soldier was pretty happy to find him sitting in the steaming water, because he always appreciated the spy's company and the conversations with him.

After getting rid of his clothes, he joined the redhead in the water.

„Commander," the latter nodded at the brown-haired man.

Conrad just nodded back, taking his seat opposite the other one. He sighed deeply. And just for a while, both of them didn't say a word, yet it was no awkward silence.

Until Yozak broke it by clearing his throat. „Ulrike-sama told me that Yuri would be back soon."

The captains eyes snapped open in surprise. And happiness. And pleasant anticipation. „Oh, fine. Could she tell you around when exactly?"

The spy shrugged his shoulder, apologizing. „I didn't ask her, in fact. But what about you, are you ready to meet him again?" Direct as always, Conrad thought amused.

„I am, but... I think I can't talk to him about my feelings already, if there's no sign, nothing I could hold on to. Do you know what I mean? I can't tell him that I love him if he's happy with the way it is. I don't want to ruin our relationship. Or the one between him and Wolfram."

The redhead just nodded, lost in thought. Conrad lowered himself to rest his head at the edge of the bathtub, closing his eyes. Yuri... Oh how I wish for you to be here...

Suddenly, a loud splashing sound startled the two men. In the middle of the bath, a black-haired boy wearing a soaking wet black school uniform, looked at them in shock. Then he started laughing merrily.

Yuri had some kind of dejá-vu. At one of his first arrivals in Shin Makoku, he landed right here, and similar to back then, his first sight was Yozak, naked. Same this time. He still giggled as he approached the both of them.

But as he did so, he got increasingly frightened. Conrad is there – and on top of that, he is completely naked. Yuri swallowed heavily. He couldn't turn his eyes off the brown-haired male. That gorgeous body was only covered with water from his hips downwards. The boy could clearly see his slender torso, the trained muscles, strong arms... up to the slim neck and his well-shaped features. Conrad was indeed a handsome man. His hazel eyes rested on Yuri all the time, the boy noticed. He had seen him tracing his body with his eyes. This made Yuri blush badly, again. And it was Conrad's fault.

As he thought about it, perception hit him. The scales fell from his eyes at once. He really doubted being in love with his godfather whilst thinking about him that way? Unclothing him with his eyes if he weren't already naked? Yuri wanted nothing more right now than just trow himself into Conrad's arms, but... well, he just couldn't.

„Heika, welcome home," Conrad greeted him formally.

„Thank you, Conrad, and once again... it's Yuri," Yuri couldn't resist to correct him. He just wanted to hear it.

„Yu-ri." There we go. He grinned like a moron, but just the way Conrad said his name was something special to him. The boy tried hard to not smirk. Instead, he turned to the spy.

„Hi Yozak!"

„Hey there, kiddo. How were the exams? Did everything went well?"

„Yeah, it did. Although we traveled back without waiting for the results... but that was Murata's idea. Anyway, where is he?" Yuri looked around, searching for a black-haired boy.

Speak of the devil, he thought as another splash was to be heard in the bath, and Murata sat there in his soaking wet clothes.

„Your Highness," the two soldiers greeted him with a slight bow.

„Hello," Murata answered smiling, „nice to be back here! How are you?"

He approached the rest of them. „Oh and anyway... could we first get some clothes to change?"

„Sure," Conrad answered, calling a servant to order him to bring their usual uniforms.

It took just less than a minute for Gunter to show up. The sound of him running through the hallways could clearly be heard long before he actually arrived at the bath. As he finally reached it he panted heavily, grasping for air.

„Heika-! ... Heika, I'm so lucky that you're here again!" He smiled brightly, still coughing. „A servant told me that he had to prepare your uniforms, so I asked him where you are..."

„Hi Gunter!" Yuri waved at him, „well yes, we're back! But it sure is no problem if we stay here a little bit? I would really like to have a nice warm bath... I'll meet Gwendal and Wolfram later... okay?"

Gunter winked, „Well, that's no problem. Gwendal is currently at his own castle, he has to deal with the supplies for the winter, and will be back in a couple of days. Wolfram is also on his own castle, because Cheri-sama wanted to stop by there on her current journey. Greta is with her. But Wolfram will also be back within the next days."

Yuri nodded, lost in thought. „Okay, fine. So I may stay for a while?"

„Of course, enjoy and have fun!" with that, Gunter left the room.

At first, Yuri took off his current uniform to get rid of the soaking wet clothes. He felt Conrad's gaze at him and tried to ignore it. The soldier tried his best to not show it anyway, but Yuri noticed it well enough. After trowing his clothes at the floor beside the bathtub, he took his seat next to Yozak, sighing deeply. This made him feel much more comfortable, he would be way too near to Conrad if he was sitting on the other side of the tub. But as he opened his eyes, he noticed that this wasn't such a great idea either – he looked directly at Conrad. And his face was still reddened.

Yuri tried to hide it by looking outside the huge window of the public bathroom, as Murata joined them, sitting down at Conrad's side.

„So, is everything alright over here?" his friend asked the two soldiers.

Conrad nodded. „Yes, no incidents that would demand your attention. The kingdom is just fine." He smiled, his usual, charming way to smile. Yuri wondered if he could get his face to it's normal colour ever again.

The boy still looked outside the window, noticing the huge piles of snow.

„It's winter... so we were away for over 9 months or so, right?" he stated.

„Yeah, about 9 months," Yozak responded.

„Winter is really great here in Shin Makoku. We never have that much snow in Japan, you know," Yuri's gaze was still focused at the outside, „I wonder... Could we go out there later? Building a snowman and stuff like that?" he enquired enthusiastically, grinning all over his face.

„Of course we can," Conrad smiled at him.

Oh crap, I mustn't look in his eyes. Especially not when he's smiling like that.

Haha, hard times for those two :) I like them suffering *giggles*

So, what do you think? :D Please review!