Pranks Day

There was a desperate knock on the door as Yuri woke. "Enter," he called yawning. The door opened and closed in a quiet snap. Yuri then noticed that Wolfram was not on Greta's other side as he looked up to find an out of breath Conrad.

"You look like you're in a hurry..." he commented.

"Well," Conrad laughed, "Can I ask you something?" Before Yuri could respond, dual loud sounds came from the opposite ends of the castle, "CONRART!"

Amused, Yuri asked, "What did you do?"

"Please, just hide me..." his godfather said, indicating that his king will see for himself quite soon.

"Under the bed," Yuri whispered which Conrad did in a dash, Yuri adjusted the blankets so that the bed looked slept in but completely covered his godfather. Yuri motioned to Greta to keep quiet about this to Gwendal and Gunter. To which she nodded, hand over her mouth to suppress her giggles. They both knew Conrad well enough to expect some troublemaking periods of time.

There was another knock on the door then, a very loud knock. Voices were heard from outside.

"Are you certain he's in there Gwendal?" they heard Gunter ask, "You know his Majesty might be awake." They heard a grunt from Gwendal as the stern advisor continued to pound the door down. Yuri sighed and answered the door, barely missing Gwendal's fist before looking at both his advisors properly.

The king had to force himself not to laugh as a very angry Gunter and a very, very, angry Gwendal appeared before him. Gunter was completely covered in orange paint where Gwendal's hair was dyed to the same colour as Anissina's.

"Have you seen, Conrart?" Gwendal asked savagely.

"I just woke up, Gwendal," Yuri told him, "Why?"

"My brother decided to get ahead of everyone on Pranks Day."

"Pranks Day?"

"Similar to your April Fools or whatever you call it," Gwendal growled. Before Yuri could ask a scream came from the bathroom. They all ran to the bathroom to find only for Yuri to receive a dead snake flat on his face. Now it his turn to scream. "Yikes!" he yelped, throwing it on the floor. An enraged toweled Wolfram stomped towards him glaring into his black eyes with his furious green.

"WHERE IS HE?" Wolfram fumed.

"Whom?" Yuri asked nervously.

"Dead snakes in the bath?" Gwendal asked, trying to hide his annoyance.

"When I find that weasel, the snakes won't be the only ones dead!" the blond yelled as he stomped towards towards his chamber.

"Did you check his room?" Yuri said helpfully.

"He would not be in his room this day any ways," Gunter sighed, "He may have gone on patrol early." An assumption Conrad was likely glad for.

"You can to the baseball field if you want," said Gwendal, ignoring Gunter's look of protest, "They may need help with the structure, and it's a national holiday after all." At first, Yuri was confused on why Gwendal would give him the day off from papers, but decided to do as suggested since he was already treading on thin ice.

He went back to his chambers to change into his day clothes and locked the door after making sure no one was near.

"They're gone," Yuri murmured. Greta burst out laughing and her father understood why.

"Wolfram's afraid of snakes?" Yuri guessed as Conrad climbed out from under the bed. Conrad grinned, "I only started pranking him with those since he was equivalent to your age."

"This year?" said Yuri. Conrad winced. "Trust me, he tried to hate me and pranking him would not help any."

Yuri nodded.

"I suggest you head to the baseball field or go on patrol until things cool down here," said Yuri as he dressed.

"Wanna join me?"

Yuri considered. His blood ran cold at the thought of what Wolfram might do to him when he found out that he hid Conrad. "Gwendal suggested I'd go to the field anyway, I think it's so I wouldn't get caught in a crossfire."

"I take that as a yes," said Conrad. After explaining to Greta what was going on, she agreed to not tell on them and decided to spend the day with Anissina and Gisela.

At the baseball field, they practised catch. Yuri knew they usually do it later in the day but he wanted to keep his godfather alive if at all possible. After while, the young Maoh thought of something.

"Just curious," he said, "Have you ever tried pranking Anissina and Gisela?"

"Pranking Gisela and Anissina is the same as telling Wolfram he's short," Conrad shuddered, "Mind you, I learned that the hard way." Yuri nodded in agreement and did not ask any more. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned. Just imagining Gisela getting angry with Conrad was a scary thought.

"Tell me Conrad, is there one person you've never been able to prank?"

"Just one," said Conrad, holding up a finger, "I've never been able to prank Yosak."

Yuri just laughed, "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."

It was an hour before they both decided that it was safe to go back to Covenant Castle. Conrad knew some secret passage ways in so he would not expect any tricks played on him. He was a prankster himself. They were riding under an oak tree when they heard a whistle. The next Conrad knew, at least ten water balloons plummeted down on him. Making his horse rear and run away towards the castle.

"Got you good, taicho!" a familiar voice laughed. As Yuri helped his godfather up.

"Somehow, I never know what you're going to do," Conrad sighed mock wearily at his best friend. Yosak jumped from the tree and shrugged.

"Whole Castle's got a bounty on your head."

"Well," Conrad replied appreciatively, "At least they can rest the bounty." There was a familiar prickle going up his neck, Yuri felt as if something was behind him as well.

"They're right behind us aren't they?" Conrad said cheerfully, professionally hiding his nervousness.

"I'm not the one who pranked them," said Yosak flippantly as he picked up Yuri and rode Ao away. Conrad turned to find Gunter, Gwendal and Wolfram all equipped with water balloons, a lot of water balloons.

Yuri was not all surprised to find his godfather soaked later. He made a mental note to himself not to prank his advisers or fiancé the next year, not unless he wanted to face a months worth of paperwork in a single day. Besides, Conrad would not prank him would he?

Yuri did not expect to find crickets in his bed at the end of the day...

Neither did Conrad.

Though they knew a certain little girl was going to get tickled later.