Disclaimer: I don't own Maruma in any of its media format.

Warnings: This is Conyuu, Yuuram and Shoram in varying degrees. Each of these do have a kiss. If you have a very strong animosity for any of the pairings, you might want to hit the back button and go to the next story.

A/N: This was written for kkm_challenge and the challenge is to write focusing on a character you have difficulty with. For me, that would be Conrad. Please read and review. And as always I love all your feedbacks, positive or negative. Oh and a word prompt: Masquerade.

End of Engagement, Beginning a New Season

Wolfram was less than happy with the room arrangements.

"Wolfram, I would like to stay in a room by myself," Yuuri said without emotion. For the young king, it was a difficult feat. They have been engaged for so many years now that even though Wolfram's face was only showing annoyance, he knew how much such a simple request hurt the ex-prince.

"You know, Yuuri," Wolfram replied, his voice suppressing the turbulent emotions in his heart. "I should be the one you come to when you have problems."

With that, the blond walked past him snatching the card key from Conrad's hand and marching towards the nearest staircase.

He's going to get himself lost, Yuuri thought. Thankfully, Murata had diverted his fiancé to the elevator. His old school friend gave him a smirk and a small wave as Yuuri watched the doors slide close removing the painful sight of Wolfram's angry face.

Yuuri almost breathed a sigh of relief as he massaged the frown off his forehead when his brother's voice barged in on his thoughts.

"I can't say I'm happy with these arrangements either, Yuu-chan," Shouri complained. "Why do I have to stay with your weird four-eyed friend."

You're both four-eyes, Yuuri thought uncharitably.

"Well, who do you want to stay with then? Wolfram?" Yuuri shot back. "He's already pissed off having to bunk with his own brother, perhaps we can push him off even further by having you sleep with him instead."

"Don't use that tone of voice with me, young man. I don't care if you're the king of the demon world," Shouri scolded. "I think you and I should stay in the same room and use this opportunity to strengthen our brotherly bonds."

Yuuri wished the ground would open up and swallow his brother. Perhaps, it was a mistake to bring his family with him on this trip. No, it was a mistake to bring Shouri. Not that he could have prevented his brother from coming, he was the Maou of Earth and Yuuri really should be thankful for his brother's help in arranging this trip. But dammit, he wanted to be alone.

Actually, he wanted to be alone with Conrad. The decision he had made was not a light one. Since he had made it, he had been filled with a mass of swirling and contradictory feelings and thoughts. Only Conrad's gentleness could calm him down when he felt like he was about to burst as he did at the moment.

The trip was made for his very own selfishness, he knew that. But being king meant his life was not his own. He felt he was owed at least this one small thing. One small thing that was probably going to cause no small amount of umbrage in Shin Makoku. Facing the ten nobles was going to be worrisome, especially, Waltorana. Gunter would probably weep and moan and make references to his lack of worth and Yuuri would have to spend hours consoling the man. Lady Celi... she might be peeved or she might be happy. Yuuri was never sure with her. As for Gwendal, Yuuri felt obligated to inform Gwendal of his plans and he had been awarded with the most terrifying frown in either two worlds, lesser beings would have peed in their pants. But in the end, Gwendal only said, "Don't involve me in matters of love." And left it at that.

And Greta... Yuuri did not even want his thoughts to head that way. Wolfram was definitely going to kill him.

If there were such things as perfect days, this was shaping to be quite close. They had gotten rid of Wolfram, courtesy of Miko and Shouma; and Shouri, courtesy of Murata. In fact the only blemishes were during breakfast when Wolfram's eyes shot daggers at Yuuri when he learned they were not spending their last full day on Earth together, and when Shouri challenged Conrad to arm wrestling to determine who gets to spend the day with Yuuri. Fortunately, Wolfram had not yet learned how to say no to Miko and Murata pointed out that Conrad couldn't accomplish things that only the Earth Maou could.

Yuuri felt like a kid in a candy store, especially, since he was wearing a backpack like a schoolchild. It was just him and Conrad in Boston and Conrad promised to call him Yuuri all day.

The first thing they did was catch a cab to the hospital where Yuuri was born.

Traffic was heavy, but Yuuri didn't mind. Conrad was beside him retelling him the story of how he met his mother and how Yuuri got his name.

"It's a good thing my parents are Japanese and that the Japanese have a tendency to pronounce L's as R's or I would have ended up with a girl's name. Being called Shibuya Yuuri Harajuku Fuuri was bad enough. I can't imagine going through life with a name like Julie."

Conrad chuckled, "I'm sorry Yuuri. I didn't really think when I blurted the suggestion out. I suppose in my head I pictured you as a girl."

"I didn't disappoint you, did I?" Yuuri's brow wrinkled slightly, "That I was born a boy."

"Not at all," Conrad gave him a dazzling smile. "I think you've already learned this, gender does not define us."

Yuuri felt a warmth spread out from his heart covering his whole being from the top of his head down to his toes. He wished he could bottle this feeling. Then during the dark hours of the night when he felt cold, alone, confused and wrong despite, or especially due to, the presence of Wolfram in his bed, he could open that bottle and feel assured. He pushed the thought of Wolfram away. This was his day, Yuuri's day. Not the spoiled prince's.

There was really no reason to go up to Pediatrics and watch the newborns. But there they were, noses on the glass, looking at the pink and blue bundles.

"Maybe we should legally change your name to Conrad," Yuuri joked. "Con...ra...r...to. Really too hard to pronounce."

"Well, if the Maou feels compelled to go through all the paperwork to change the spelling of my name, then I would be honored," Conrad replied.

Yuuri scrunched his face at the mention of paperwork, "If I'm going to go through all that trouble, I might be tempted to name you something like... um... Mabel or something."

Conrad laughed. "Then I could be known as Able Mabel the Fabled and Nimble Sentinel of King Sable."

Yuuri snorted at the ridiculous title. They spent a few minutes quietly snickering.

All of a sudden, Yuuri jumped up and down, yelling, "Hey, Conrad! Look, look!"

Conrad followed Yuuri's gaze.

The baby was like any other blue bundle. Eyes closed in sleep, long black lashes on chubby brown cheeks. Tight brown curls were hidden under the tight cotton cap worn by all newborns. Conrad couldn't see anything special about the baby; the baby was terribly cute, but they practically all were. Gwendal would have been in heaven if he were with them.

Then his brown eyes lowered to the tag on the bassinet.

"Well, it's not an uncommon name, Yuuri," Conrad said.

"Yes, but isn't this a wonderful coincidence? I'm sure they don't have babies named Conrad everyday. And look, the parents even spelled it right!"

Yuuri grinned mischievously and then started to stroke his chin as if to indicate he was having deep thoughts.

"What are you thinking now?"

"Kids with your name... Have you ever heard of George Foreman?"

"Yuuri, you are not..."

"I want a big family and I'll name the kids Conrad, Conrad II, Conrad-chi..."

"I might have to agree with Wolfram that you have an atrocious naming sense."

"Conradette, Conraderella..."

The warm, cozy pub where they were eating lunch was a stark contrast to the cold, austere, concrete building they just came out of.

It was lunch time and the restaurant was crowded. City Hall had spewed large numbers of hungry government workers who now vied for seats amongst the businessmen from the surrounding buildings.

Conrad and Yuuri found themselves sitting on tall stools at small round barrel tables wrapped around thick wooden beams that held a sign that said, "D. O'Malleys Coopers & Bottlers Since 1810". Yuuri dropped his backpack on the floor and looked around wide-eyed at the Celtic adornments in the large room.

"So do you like this place?" Conrad asked.

Yuuri nodded. "It feels cheery and friendly here. Irish pubs are not common in Japan. I wonder how authentic these pubs are... I mean I've never been to Ireland, you know."

"I don't know how Irish the people here are, but the pub itself is very authentic. It was actually designed and built in Ireland. Then they shipped it in crates across the sea and reassembled it here."

Conrad paused as he watched his companion soak in all the details: the mural on the wall, the masonry, the wooden and tiled flooring, the comfortable booths tucked away in the corners, the dark browns of the bar with all its busy bottles and taps. When Yuuri's gaze came back to him, he continued.

"They have Celtic bands play here in the evenings."

"Really? I'd like to see that."

"Well, we can certainly put it on the schedule for tonight."

"See if you can also find a way to ditch Murata and Shouri."

Conrad laughed, "We'll see."

"Aw, come on. I was able to get rid of Wolfram..."

"Yeah, but your brother is an entirely different..." Conrad paused to find the right word.

"Beast, you mean?"

They both laughed.

Conrad felt at peace. There's a certain elation that fills him when Yuuri was nearby, a completion that he couldn't find in the fierce spirit of his youth, in the strength of his own convictions nor in the substance of his own character. He would gladly serve Yuuri as many lifetimes as possible to be this whole.

Yuuri noticed the serenity that transformed Conrad's face. His name-giver was always smiling. But he learned through the years that Conrad had volumes of smiles each differing in intensity and meaning. This one, he had never seen before. As if Conrad for one moment had let a mask fall off.

It lasted too short in Yuuri's opinion.

"You like this place too, Conrad?"

"Yes, this is one of my favorite places on Earth. Not only because the food here is good, but the idea that someone brought part of their home to this new world. It makes me happy to know that no matter where I go, no matter what happens to me, I could always have part of home here."

Yuuri stared at the hand that was over Conrad's heart.

"Thank you," Yuuri said in an almost whisper.

"For what?" Conrad asked bemused.

"For bringing part of my home to Shin Makoku."

"Oh? You'll have to enlighten me Yuuri. I'm not sure what you're talking about."

"Stop being coy. You know what I mean."

Conrad chuckled, "You did a lot of work yourself on that baseball stadium."

"No. You were the one who came up with the idea. You were the one that got it built. All I did was admire the thing and play in it... You always seem to know what I want and don't hesitate to grant it to me. How do you do that?"

Before Conrad could respond, they were interrupted by a man and his two coworkers.

"Are these seats taken," the man asked.

"No. Please do join us," Conrad replied.

The three happily seated themselves. And Yuuri was about to greet them and do his usual 'the world is my playground and everyone is a friend' thing when he recognized the three. They were government workers from City Hall.

Three days before, his family and friends had all gone as a group to go sightseeing in downtown Boston. Unfortunately, Wolfram's Talk-to-me-Listen-to-me-new-and-improved-kun had stopped functioning. He didn't realize it until they were out of the hotel and he found he could only understand Yuuri, Conrad and Murata. He was miffed when everyone outvoted him in going back to the hotel to get one of the spares. The short trip had been going well enough until they got to City Hall. It started with the security gates when Wolfram kept tripping the metal detectors. And it went downhill from there. The small fiasco that Wolfram caused was surely going to be memorable.

Perhaps if Yuuri just smiled and kept quiet... He was sure the imposing government building received its fair number of visitors, and Yuuri was so average-looking that it was easy for him to be overlooked.

"Hey, I know you," the female in the group exclaimed brightly at Conrad.

Why do the Mazoku have to be so attractive, Yuuri moaned silently.

They had been having such a nice lunch, it would be completely ruined if the conversation went that way. Even when the loud and obnoxious blond was not with him, it seemed Yuuri still couldn't get away.

Please, no one mention Wolfram, he prayed to all deities he could think of.

"So..." the other man said, "where's the loud and obnoxious blond?"

tbc...

A/N: Author loves feedback. Negative and Positive.