It was a stormy night. The constant flash of lightning served both to illuminate the midnight sky and to awaken Shin Makoku's Young and impetuous Moah. The young man sighed, there was absolutely no way he was going to get to back to sleep with thunder booming every few seconds! He rolled over and moaned into his pillow.

Great One he ached!

It was his own fault

Really it was

After seeing his beloved godfather, the Lion of Luttenberg, Lord Conrart Weller, get injured – again – in his defense, Yuri had decided enough was enough.

He was going to learn how to use Morgiff as a sword, not a magical bludgeoning object.

At first Yozak, Günter and even Wolfram had been his instructors in the art of the sword, however Gisela had finally removed the splint from his godfather's right arm this morning and he'd decided to escape his history lessons in favor of having self defense lessons from the Lion of Luttenberg.

After four hours or so of being run mercilessly around the palace courtyard and being forced to run drill after drill, both for the sword and for martial arts, he was stiff, sore and completely convinced that his godfather was a closet sadist!

Sighing he decided a long soak, in a hot bath couldn't hurt – and if this one could be conducted without the truly awkward presence of his overly forward fiancé – all the better!

Carefully – so that he didn't wake the other boy he climbed out of bed and went about gathering his bath supplies.

~~~***~~~

Finally after what seemed like hours he came to the door leading into the soldiers' bath – it was a long ways from his own private bath or even the bath reserved for the nobles. However the unlikely chance of Wolfram even looking for him here made it worth the walk. That and any soldier here this late would likely be too stunned by the presence of their king to fall over worshiping him!

With a slight smile on his face he opened the door and slipped into the steam filled room. He couldn't see very far, but he expected that. His own private bath and the one for the nobles were kept quite hot. So why wouldn't the soldier's bath be kept just as hot?

He moved off into the small alcove off to one side of the room and carefully set down his things, and began to strip out of his pajamas. He could hear voices but he mostly ignored them. He really just wanted to be alone, and there were only two. Rather abruptly his sleep deprived mind connected the to voices with names.

"Well you're a very dirty boy aren't you?" Yozak's oddly husky voice carried through the thick steam.

Conrart's reply was positively sultry, "Only for you."

Yuri felt his ears, and cheeks heating in a way that had little to do with the steam and quickly set about looking for his discarded clothing. Maybe he would use the Moah's bath after all.

Yozak's answering laugh rang through the foggy atmosphere. "You never seemed to complain."

"You going to do something about, my being a 'dirty boy'?" Conrart replied teasingly.

"Is that a challenge?" Yozak inquired.

Conrart answered his question with one of his own, his voice still holding that sultry quality Yuri had never heard before and prayed never to hear again. "And if it is?"

"Oh then I guess I'll be forced to…'handle' the situation wont I?" Yozak replied.

Conrart laughed, "I think I might …enjoy that."

"Oh you would, wouldn't you." Yozak replied his tone suggesting that it wasn't a question.

Yuri blanched and quickly reevaluated his earlier assessment of his godfather, Conrad it appeared wasn't a closet sadist, but rather a closet masochist. It wasn't an image he could understand when balanced against everything else he knew of his godfather.

"Where do you want me?" Conrart asked quietly.

Yozak's voice was firm when he replied, "Against the ledge, it will be easier that way."

Horrified and now desperate to escape (preferably unnoticed) before his Godfather and Yozak started to do anything more than talk he attempted to leave in nothing more than the robe he'd managed to drape across his small frame. He promptly tripped over the hem of the robe. Involuntarily he yelped in alarm.

Conrad's startled "Heika?" was matched by an equally surprised, "kiddo?" from Yozak.

Yuri scrambled back, sputtering apologies, as the two men emerged from the steam. They crouched on either side of him, sporting perplexed looks. It was only then that Yuri notice that Conrad was literally covered in mud.

Actually the man was dripping with mud, and something that had a tinge and scent, yuri couldn't identify.

"Conrad?" He asked quietly, "what happened to you?"

Conrad turned an interesting shade of red. "I slipped," he confessed after a moment.

Yozak laughed, "actually he's lucky the horse he was trying to help get into the stables, didn't use him as a stepping platform to get out of the mud."

Conrad shot his friend a look, "very funny," he muttered.

"Oh, have I annoyed the mud monster?"

Conrart snorted. "Shut up Yozak."

The red head grinned, and offered his king his hand. "So what brings you here at this hour Kiddo?"

Yuri flushed, "I – well I'm kind of sore from this afternoon's lesson, and I wanted a hot bath, but I didn't want to be accosted by Wolfram. I figured no one would be here."

Conrart lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "You are right, there normally wouldn't be anyone here at this hour, but I didn't want to make more work for the maids by tracking this stuff all over the palace."

"I-I'm sorry, I –I didn't mean to interrupt the two of you." Yuri replied, "I mean it- it sounded like you two were going to –"

Conrart blinked, and Yozak chuckled, though his cheeks had taken a distinctive red tinge. "Not this time Heika," the spy said quietly, and then added. "However I was going to … help Conrart get that… stuff out of his hair."

Yuri glanced back and forth between the two of them, "Are you two…well?"

Conrart smiled, "since we were about your age." He replied quite candidly.

Yozak offered the boy his hand, "come on Heika, let's get you off the floor."

~~~***~~~

Yuri glanced over his shoulder at the smaller soap filled pool Conrart was sitting in. Yozak knelt beside him on the ledge, gently working the mud out of his hair. They were talking quietly to each other. Yuri couldn't help smiling, both men deserved happiness, and it looked like they made each other happy.

After a few more minutes, his godfather and Yozak joined him in the warm waters of the main bath. He couldn't help smiling at the way Conrart curled up against Yozak's side.

The fact that Yozak's every move in relation to his godfather was gentle, hadn't escaped Yuri's notice. He was happy the two men were happy together.