Akikee: Chapter 2 here! Thank you for reading this story, and thanks for the review! I shall apologize for any grammatical and spelling errors in advance. So enjoy reading it!

WordlessDreams: Hello all! So, we're back again. Akikee and I have split up the workload, she takes the even chaps and me, the odd ones. Thanks, Miyuki Meiru, for your review!

Chapter 2

Eyeing Wolfram with distaste, Yuuri pouted as he ignored him and resumed tugging at Conrad, wanting to get his attention back at him. Conrad just smiled sheepishly at him as he lifted him up to his arms, shrugging at Wolfram, rather amused by the drama that was about to unfold.

"Who's that brat with you?" Wolfram repeated, sticking a finger out to poke at Yuuri's chubby cheeks, only to have Yuuri growling at him, attempting to bite his fingers off.

"Who are you calling brat, you blondie excuse for a living?" Yuuri snarled at him as Conrad grabbed him by the nape of his neck to stop him from biting Wolfram's finger off. "Conrad, let me bite of those fingers! That'll teach him not to mess with me!"

Keeping his finger back, Wolfram frowned at Yuuri as he tried to place where he had seen this brat before. Black hair…black eyes…hmm…it's rather rare for a double black to appear in the castle… The only ones here that are double black are Yuuri and Murata…He sure does look quite familiar…he looked like…like…

"Are you Murata?"

Conrad could swear that the look on Yuuri's face was priceless. He couldn't help but chuckle slightly, only earning a reproachful glare from Yuuri, whose pout had turned into a scowl that made him look cute instead.

"Hmm…That can't be right…Murata had messier hair than yours, and he couldn't see without his glasse-" Suddenly, Wolfram felt rather sick in the guts as realization struck him. "Yuu…Yuuri?"

"It's heika to you," Yuuri said smugly as he struggled to be let down by Conrad. "What big nerves you have, calling me brat! Well, Julia told me you sure didn't think of me as a little brat while we're in bed, Wolfram. Instead, you're always the one begging for more from me didn't you? Little Wolfie?"

Face turning a bright crimson, Wolfram felt his cheeks and ears hot with embarrassment and didn't even heard the part about Julia while Conrad looked at him with his eyebrows raised and his lips somehow rather thin. Yuuri looked triumphant as he looked at Wolfram's reaction. However, he noticed that Conrad looked a bit…unhappy?

"I didn't-"

"Wolfram, dear! Where are you? Oh! Where have you been? I've been searching high and low for you!" a familiar voice floated through as Elizabeth strutted in, her hands on her hip as she approached the trio. "Why are all of you here? Eh…who's this cute little boy here?"

"It's Yuuri-heika," Wolfram huffed.

"Yuuri-heika? Why had he turned into…a…a kid?"

"You should ask Anissina," Conrad replied curtly as he picked up Yuuri and walked away, leaving both Wolfram and Elizabeth standing there, looking rather confused by Conrad's rather cold tone.

"What happened to Sir Weller?" Elizabeth queried as she looked at Conrad's back, then back at Wolfram who still look rather flushed.

"Beats me," Wolfram shrugged as he led Elizabeth back into the castle, feeling rather relieved that Yuuri hadn't spouted those things they had did in the past in front of Elizabeth. He was sure that if Elizabeth heard any of such things, she'd surely chase him down with a big knife and chop him to pieces before throwing them to feed the dogs and paint the whole castle with his blood… Like this, the castle will really earn the name of Blood Pledge Castle… Shivering at the mere thought of it, Wolfram gulped.

"Conrad, are you unhappy? Did I say something that upset you? I'm sorry,"" Yuuri said timidly as he glanced up to look at Conrad's rather stern face. Seeing that Conrad didn't reply him, Yuuri buried his face in Conrad's chest as he tried to recall exactly what he had said that made Conrad so irritated.

Feeling Yuuri at his chest, Conrad wanted to smack himself for causing Yuuri to feel sorry. He should at least try to mask his expression and keep his feelings to himself. However, he had really felt rather upset hearing Yuuri saying those stuffs he and Wolfram had done before. In fact, he felt jealous after hearing what Yuuri had said. He didn't know why, but he just felt that it hurts to listen to those stuffs. It really hurts, as if someone had driven a sword right into his heart. No, it hurts more than that. It's as if someone had driven a thousand swords into him and continued stabbing. Why was he suddenly jealous over such stuff?

"Conrad…Conrad, sorry…" Yuuri sniffed as he tugged at the front of Conrad's shirt and stared at him with tear-filled eyes.

Feeling his heart gave a lurch, Conrad hugged Yuuri closer to him, taking in the scent of Yuuri's hair. "Silly. Don't cry. I'm not angry at you."

"Really? You're not angry at me?"

"Yes, heika. Now dry your tears," Conrad smiled, rather fond of the smell of Yuuri and the body warmth he provided until he heard chuckling.

"Yay! Conrad's not angry with me anymore! The waterworks really work well! Thank you Julia!" came Yuuri's laughter as he jumped out from Conrad's arms and ran towards the castle.

Waterworks? Julia? Although he felt rather cheated, Conrad couldn't help but chased behind Yuuri, laughing as he went.

"Now Conrad can't find me!" Yuuri giggled to himself as he climbed up to the shelf in Gwendal's study room that was filled with different soft toys. Missing his footing, he nearly dropped to the ground, but luckily, he grabbed on to the shelf, preventing him from falling.

Finally reaching the shelf, Yuuri heaved a deep breath and glanced down. Feeling rather nauseous at the height where he was looking down, he gulped and sat down.

"Maybe I shouldn't climb so high…" he mumbled to himself as he looked about the shelf.

There were many different kind of soft toy; some were made with cotton and some were hand knitted by Gwendal himself. Chuckling slightly, a sudden idea popped into Yuuri's mind when his eye caught a small knot on a teddy bear as he grabbed on to it, turning it around in front of his eyes.

"Gwendal must be short of wool with him knitting all these teddy bears non-stop. Let me help him with it!" Yuuri said as he pulled at the knot. The knot was undone as Yuuri kept pulling it, and soon, a pile of wool was already piling at Yuuri's foot. It seemed so addictive that Yuuri found that he can't stop pulling at it, until he came face to face with only the teddy bear's leg left.

"Um…Gwendal would be happy?" Yuuri murmured to himself as he looked at the leg, somehow feeling rather afraid suddenly. "Yes, he'll be happy as I got him more wool! It's good to recycle! Maybe he'll like some cotton too…"

And so, with that thought, Yuuri carried on pulling more and more before operating on the cotton made soft toys.

"Conrad! Conrad! You lost! You hadn't managed to find me!" Yuuri said happily as he ran towards a rather worried-looking Conrad and jumped onto him.

Catching Yuuri into a bear hug, Conrad couldn't help but felt relieved. He had been worried sick when he couldn't find Yuuri after he ran into the castle. Now that he's safe and fine, he could feel the rock in his chest gone as he sighed.

"Conrad! Guess where I had gone to! I went to get you a present! See, do you like it?" Yuuri smiled happily as he took out a small black kitten from within his shirt and pushed it into Conrad's hand.

Looking at the soft toy, Conrad couldn't place where he had seen this black kitten before…he had seen it! Somewhere…it's so familiar…he'd seen it in…

"Heika! You're safe! I'm so afraid that witch Anissina would come and put you into some strange machine again!" Gunter's screech came breaking into Conrad's train of thoughts.

Snatching Yuuri from Conrad's arms, Gunter hugged Yuuri tight, nearly squeezing the daylights out of him. Struggling to get away from Gunter who already started giving sloppy kisses on his cheeks, Yuuri pushed Gunter's nose away with disgust.

"Here, Gunter! I have a gift for you too!" Yuuri cried hurriedly as he stuffed another soft toy into Gunter's hand as he slipped from Gunter's evil clutches and ran straight for Conrad.

"Heika! Oh, oh! Heika, I couldn't even describe my joy, my honour, to have received a gift from you! I would appreciate it and protect it with my life! Oh, how cute this teddy bear is! The brown body and the-umm…Heika, why is this teddy bear so familiar? Did you happen to…"

A loud yell permeated through the whole castle. Startled, Conrad grabbed Yuuri and followed Gunter to the direction of where the yell came from. They recognized it as Gwendal's voice. Something terrible must have happened for him to yell like that. Something so terrible… Yuuri gave a small shudder as they approached Gwendal's study room. Wasn't Gwendal supposed to be overjoyed? Or perhaps he's too happy that he's crying with joy? That must be it! He's crying with joy!

However, that didn't seem like the case right now…

"Mu-my…my…Who? Who did that?" came Gwendal's voice as Gunter kicked the door open and a distressed Gwendal came into view.

"What happened? Somebody tried to assassinate you? Or they wanted to assassinate Yuuri Heika?" Gunter shouted as he ran towards Gwendal.

"Some…somebody…somebody assassinated my…my soft toys!"

Stopping dead in their tracks, Conrad and Gunter looked at each other, and then back at Gwendal who was still mourning in front of the pile of wool and a pile of cotton with some shredded fabric on the ground. Yuuri peered out at Gwendal from Conrad's chest and tried to search for a smile on Gwendal's face, but saw none. Looking at Yuuri, Gunter gulped.

"Heika, you didn't happen to get the teddy bear from Gwendal, do you?"

That's it! Realization came striking Conrad hard as if a whole bucket of cold water was splashed on him. He knew where the black kitten had come from. It came from Gwendal's happy animal family collection…

"Gwendal, why aren't you happy? I'd specially get all those wool and cotton for you!" Yuuri said hesitantly.

Just as he finished his query, Gwendal's furious eyes shot at Yuuri who swallowed nervously as he glanced at Conrad and Gunter, whose expressions were unreadable.

"What did you say?"

"I wanted to get more wool and cotton for you, so I merely…merely gave those toys a makeover?"

Okay, this doesn't look exactly good…

"What? Is that true?" Ranjeel exclaimed from this throne as he looked at his advisor, Belire.

"Yes, Your Majesty. The spies in Mazoku had confirmed that king had been turned into a powerless child," Belire replied as he bowed at Ranjeel.

"Then it's time to have a happy meeting with dear Yuuri." Ranjeel smirked.