Disclaimer: I do not own Kyo Kara Maoh.

Summary: Shin Makoku is finally at peace and Yuuri returns to Earth to finish high school, taking Wolfram with him with plans to finally take charge of their relationship. But when an actress from the drama club recruits Yuuri for their next play, of course the only words Wolf hears are "girl asked" and "yes". What's a Maoh to do to prove his love? Make his angel join him on stage of course.

Pairings: Yuuri x Wolfram

WARNINGS: Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing), you have been warned

Your Romeo, My Juliet

By V. Shalyr

Chapter 1

"Er, excuse me?" Yuuri stared at the girl standing in front of his desk, not quite sure he had heard her correctly. The bell had just rung signaling the end of classes for the day and all around them, other students were chattering and putting away their books.

The girl—what was her name again? Haru, yes, he was pretty sure that was it—smiled a little nervously. She'd thought long and hard before deciding to approach the captain of the school's baseball team for this. It wasn't that he was scary or anything. Actually, Shibuya Yuuri had a reputation for being kind and standing up for people when they needed it. That was the main reason she'd chosen to approach him with her plea for help as opposed to some of the other more popular guys at school—despite the fact that he was also reputed to be a little…strange. She'd heard rumors that he had disappeared from school for several months awhile back and that he occasionally vanished without a trace, but no one in his family ever seemed to worry about this. It was never brought to the attention of the police, and when he returned, it was like he'd never been gone—except that something about Yuuri had changed over the course of these absences too. It wasn't anything anyone at school could put their fingers on, just something in the way he held himself, a certain confidence perhaps and surety. Some people on the baseball team even claimed that their captain always seemed to know when it was going to rain. To say the least, Haru had been intrigued.

"I'm from the drama club," she repeated. "We've kind of been having trouble getting funds. Our club budget's been cut by half and the school said we'd have to try and make up the difference with our performances. But you see, we really haven't been doing very well getting people interested and out to watch us. We were kind of hoping that you could help."

Yuuri frowned a little. The school had been having a few money issues lately. His baseball team had been lucky. The sport was popular and his team had quite a following so they didn't have to worry about financial pressures. But a lot of the other clubs and sports teams hadn't been so fortunate. Still, "I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm not really sure what I can do."

The girl hesitated, fiddling with the strap of her book bag. "Well, um, we thought that it would work best if we could get some of the more popular students to perform with us."

Yuuri was starting to have a niggling suspicion about what she wanted. "So, are you asking me to act in your next performance?"

Haru beamed. "Something like that. We were hoping you'd agree to be the male lead."

Yuuri scratched the back of his head, looking a bit rueful and a bit apologetic. "I'm not sure. Honestly, I've never been in a play before."

Haru's face fell and her gaze dropped to the floor. She looked so dejected that Yuuri couldn't help feeling a little guilty. So maybe he'd never been part of a play, but he did act all the time nowadays. It was kind of part and parcel of being a king, or so he'd discovered. Good politics, it appeared, had a lot to do with being good at deception. Even if you were a kind ruler, you still had to develop at least a decent poker face if nothing else.

"Maybe I can give it a try," he said finally. "So what play did you guys have in mind?"

This was wonderful. Haru smiled gratefully, her brown eyes sparkling with renewed excitement. "Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."

.

To say Yuuri regretted agreeing to help would have been… Well, it wouldn't have been wrong exactly, but it wouldn't have been completely right either. It wasn't helping or the thought of being on stage that made him uneasy. It was the thought of having to explain it to a certain blond Mazoku who was waiting for him at home.

He just knew that his hot-tempered fiancé was going to take it the wrong way. The two of them had been living on Earth for a good few months now with occasional trips back to Shin Makoku and Wolfram had finally begun to adjust. With his parent's help, Yuuri had enrolled him in an art class and he was really getting quite good. It made Yuuri smile to remember how utterly pleased the blonde had been when Yuuri had gone to pick him up after his first lesson. He'd hauled Yuuri around the classroom completely ignoring the stares of the other students and showed him all the different art supplies and example projects. Of course, the double black was already familiar with most of these things, but he hadn't wanted to interrupt his companion's excitement by saying so. Instead, he just smiled and nodded and spent most of the time watching Wolfram himself.

The fire Mazoku really hadn't changed all that much over the years. Both Yuuri and Murata had several inches on him now, not that it stopped him from glaring or raging at them when he was upset. Yuuri hadn't really thought about it until that moment standing next to him in the art classroom, but he found himself rather glad about this seemingly insignificant detail. It made him feel more like they had a chance of starting over, that he could make up for the mistakes his younger self had made when it came to this particular relationship.

He wondered what his classmates would say if they knew Yuuri was now older than them by several years courtesy of the time difference between the kingdom he ruled and Earth.

The double black was pulled from his thoughts by the sight of his house—well, his parents' house really, but it was where they lived when they were on Earth. Murata had suggested that they buy their own apartment so as not to inconvenience Jennifer and her husband; it wasn't like Yuuri couldn't afford it. But his mother simply refused to hear of it and no one, absolutely no one, got in the way of Yuuri's mother and what she wanted—least of all her husband. Though Shibuya Shouma really didn't mind. Both of his sons might have been growing up, but that didn't mean he stopped worrying about them. That was just the kind of parent he was. Besides, two seeming teenagers living on their own would be too much cause for notice and undue comment.

It surprised him that no golden-haired angel came haring out to greet him. Wolfram had thrown a fit the first week when Yuuri had started going back to school. It had taken considerable effort to persuade him not to follow him to class. As it were, Wolfram still went to meet him after school now and then and people had seen and started talking. Frankly, Yuuri found that he didn't mind that part though. All he'd had to do was slip a word in here and there and now everyone at school thought he had a girlfriend. As the captain of the baseball team, Yuuri had become quite popular at school, and this meant that he didn't have to worry as much about girls vying for his attention. What he didn't need was Wolfram storming into his school to terrorize the resident female population.

Of course, with this new development… Damn, Yuuri wasn't looking forward to having to tell him about it. But he had to tell him about it sooner or later because letting Wolfram find out on his own through someone else's garbled story would be far worse.

Locating Wolfram turned out to be a simple matter. He had his easel set up in the backyard, a brush in his hand and his teeth worrying at his lower lip while he stared intently at the canvas. The art teacher had gone over pastel, charcoal, watercolor, and oil paints thus far and Wolfram had taken to the last of these with great enthusiasm. He was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn't notice Yuuri's arrival until the double black had wrapped his arms around his waist from behind and buried his nose in his soft golden locks.

Wolfram jumped a little and gasped, almost dropping his paintbrush. "Yuuri!"

"Hey," Yuuri greeted. He grinned when he felt the slender body relax against him and lean back against his chest. He was definitely starting to get used to this. "How was your day?"

Wolfram indicated his half finished painting with an irritated wave of his brush. "I've been working on this all morning but it just isn't right."

Yuuri glanced over the canvas, bemused. "Sorry that I can't help with that. It looks good to me. I don't really know too much about art."

"Obviously," Wolfram sniffed.

Yuuri chuckled and gave his middle a light squeeze. "Are you ready to go?"

Wolfram hesitated then nodded and Yuuri let him go so he could clean and put away his art supplies. He almost never asked where they were going anymore, just happy that his king honestly wanted to spend time with him. Time, time and attention. That was all Wolfram really wanted—needed—from him whereas Yuuri needed him to actually talk to him and in turn listen to what the double black had to say. They were both working on it and Yuuri liked to believe that they'd made significant progress.

For the most part.

.

One of the first things Yuuri had done upon returning to Earth this time around was to get his driver's license. It was simply more convenient that way. Besides, the last time he'd taken Wolfram on public transportation, the blonde had broken someone's nose—and Yuuri had let him. Worse, the double black couldn't seem to dredge up any guilt over the matter. As far as he was concerned, that man shouldn't have tried to grope his fiancé. It wasn't Yuuri's fault if no one had warned him that the "pretty foreigner" came packaged with a volatile temper and a quick fist. Besides, if Wolfram hadn't punched the man, Yuuri might have, so the result would have been the same either way.

Aside from preventing another such accident from happening again, using a car had other advantages—like being more comfortable when Wolfram inevitably got carsick. It wasn't nearly as bad as when he got seasick, but that wasn't saying very much.

The moment Yuuri parked the car he was out the door, leaning against it and looking a bit green. He shut his eyes and concentrated on breathing in the fresh air. Riding in these wheeled, metallic vehicles always made him lament the lack of horses in this world. Yuuri had explained that it wasn't that they didn't have any. It was simply that people didn't use them as a means of transportation anymore. Rather, horse riding had become a sport, something people did for fun and recreational purposes.

Horses, after all, simply couldn't keep up with the speed of a car and required a lot more work to take care of.

Emerald eyes snapped open again when a hand grasped his and he looked up into Yuuri's smiling face. Wolfram would never admit it out loud but it made his heart race every time the double black looked at him like that, especially now that he knew it was for real. Honestly, he still thought sometimes that he was dreaming.

As he followed his king out of the parking lot, Wolfram noted with slight trepidation, "There are so many people."

"Yeah, I know. It seems this festival is pretty popular. The art teacher at my school said it's one of the biggest creative arts festivals of the year."

The fact that it was one of the few festivals with free admission probably didn't hurt the size of the crowd either. Yuuri thought it had been a smart move on the part of the hosts not to charge people for going in though, seeing as it gave people more money to spend once they actually got inside to be dazzled by the work all the various participating artists had to offer.

"There are artists from all over Japan here," Yuuri explained, accepting a map from one of the festival volunteers and glancing over it. "Is there anything in particular you're interested in? Basically, everything that's being sold here was handmade by the seller. There are supposed to be all sorts of unique pieces, and there's a gallery at the heart of it all too."

"What are those people doing?" Wolfram asked, pointing.

Following the direction of his curious stare, Yuuri grinned. "Hey, it looks like that guy's doing an origami demonstration."

"Origami?"

"I guess you could say it's the art of folding paper. You see those framed pictures he's got on the wall behind him? Everything in those frames was folded from pieces of paper."

As they drew closer to the stall, Yuuri gestured towards the strings of paper birds covering the left wall. "Those are paper cranes, just like the one he's showing that girl how to fold now. There's a story that says if you fold a thousand paper cranes, you can make a wish."

"And it's supposed to come true?"

"Well, that's the idea, yeah."

Wolfram considered this for a moment then tugged Yuuri closer to the table. Retrieving one of the colorful square pieces of origami paper from the stack the stall owner had put on the corner, he joined the girl where she was trying to fold her first paper crane. Technically, Yuuri already knew how to fold paper cranes, but he'd learned such a long time ago that he wasn't completely sure he remembered all the steps. And anyway, things were more fun when you weren't doing them by yourself, so he took another piece of paper and followed.

He wondered what it was Wolfram would wish for. And then he wondered what he would wish for. Maybe it was strange but he honestly had no idea, though perhaps as a start, he'd wish that Wolfram would be calm and understanding when he told him about what had happened at school. Then again, Yuuri didn't think even the magic of a thousand cranes was that powerful.

By the time they left the festival, evening had fallen. Wolfram had taken quite a liking to origami and they'd bought several different packs of patterned paper as well as an instruction booklet so he could continue his collection at home.

They had dinner at a ramen place that Yuuri had started frequenting since he began high school. He'd made a point of having Wolfram try all different kinds of Earth foods, a large part of which consisted of different Japanese dishes all considered they were living in Japan. Wolfram was okay with most of it, with the one exception being the raw fish which it had taken half an hour of coaxing for the blonde to even try. Thankfully, they didn't run into any of Yuuri's classmates. The double black had enough on his mind as it was.

Back in the car on their way home, the double black had run out of excuses to delay the inevitable. He'd been trying to figure out how to relay the news and come up with a blank. It seemed he'd just have to be blunt and hope for the best.

"Listen, Wolf, I'm going to be a bit late after school tomorrow."

This caught Wolfram's attention right away and he jerked his head around to look at him. "Why?"

"Well," Yuuri started, drawing out the word as his mind raced, trying to figure out just what to say. "Someone from the drama club asked me for help with their next play and I said yes."

"Play?" Wolfram repeated, his brow furrowing. "What play?"

Damn, there just didn't seem to be any good way to explain this. "It's called Romeo and Juliet. It's a—ah—romantic tragedy written by a pretty famous English playwright."

"What kind of help did they want?" the blonde asked suspiciously after a moment of silence following this announcement.

Yuuri guided the car into the driveway and turned off the engine. The sudden silence felt oddly loud.

"Um, I'm going to be an actor. You see, the drama club hasn't been doing too well and they're hoping that since I'm the captain of the baseball team, if I play one of the main characters, maybe it will encourage more people to come and watch. They'll be holding auditions for the other characters in a few more days."

Yuuri could just sense his companion begin to bristle.

"You're going to be one of the main characters."

"Uh, yes?"

"And you said it's a romance story," Wolfram said flatly.

Nope, not good at all.

"Yeah…"

Yuuri waited for the inevitable explosion and he wasn't disappointed.

"It was a girl, wasn't it?" the blonde demanded, his eyes already flashing with the beginnings of jealousy and hurt anger.

Yuuri sighed. "Yes, it was, but that has nothing to do with this."

Wolfram said nothing but he didn't meet the double black's eyes either.

"They needed help," Yuuri pressed on. He couldn't just let the matter sit or it would fester and cause more future misunderstandings. Wolfram simply wasn't good at letting things go. "I was one of the only people she could think of to ask. What was I supposed to do?"

"Tell them you were busy or help them find somebody else," Wolfram grumbled but hunched a little more into the jacket he was still wearing.

The Mazoku's emerald green eyes were dark and Yuuri grimaced mentally. He'd had to work real hard to convince his fiancé that he was going to take their engagement seriously and that yes, he did in fact care. Not that he could really blame Wolfram for not believing him. It had taken him far too long to come to terms with his own feelings

It had been…painful to realize just how much you could hurt someone without knowing it. And it was even easier when the person you were hurting spent so much time hiding it behind anger and irritation. He hadn't understood the full impact of it until he'd taken the blonde out to dinner on Earth half a year ago and declared his intention to formally court him. There had been so much raw fear in those emerald green eyes that Yuuri had been shocked. It hadn't been the reaction he'd been hoping for or expecting, but it had been a revelation.

"You don't mean it," had been the first words out of Wolfram's mouth as soon as he'd recovered enough from his own surprise. He'd had a stubborn set to his chin that Yuuri was all too familiar with, but there had also been something about the way he seemed to shrink back into his chair that showed just how uncertain and scared he was behind the angry front. Thinking back, Yuuri felt a little sick to realize how withdrawn the fire Mazoku had become around him in the months leading up to his confession. It hadn't been anything obvious, not exactly. Wolfram was too proud to admit—especially, perhaps, to himself—how fragile his heart really was. But now that Yuuri knew how to read the signs better, it was impossible to miss.

In the end, Yuuri was glad that he'd chosen to approach the matter of their relationship on Earth.

"I don't want to accidentally offend him or something," he'd reluctantly confessed to Murata of all people when he'd had the arrangements made for their trip. It wasn't like he had anyone else to talk to about these things. And even if the Great Sage could be a bit of an annoying pervert, he still gave good advice now and then.

"Shibuya," he'd said slowly, adjusting his glasses as he studied Yuuri's expression—a mixture of determination and anxiety, "this is Lord von Bielefeld we're talking about, yes?"

Yuuri had thought that was pretty obvious but he'd nodded all the same.

"Then the only thing you need to worry about is how long he's been waiting for you to do something like this. The two of you have been engaged for what? Half a decade? More? That's a long time even for a Mazoku engagement. He must love you a great deal to have not asked you to release him from the engagement already. Do whatever you feel is best, but know that you probably have your work cut out for you."

He hadn't outright told Yuuri that his fiancé had been hurt by how he'd handled their relationship over the past half a decade, but looking back, he'd definitely been hinting at it. Perhaps he'd felt that that was something the king had to figure out for himself.

And so Yuuri had delegated the necessary tasks to his other court officials and taken Wolfram to Earth. Regardless of how well he had settled into his role as Shin Makoku's king, he had still grown up on Earth and he knew better how to handle things like relationships in a setting where he was familiar. At least he wouldn't have to worry about what a proper date should look like, even if Murata was right and that didn't really matter. And, well… Maybe he'd sort of hoped that being on Earth and learning more about its customs would help Wolfram understand him a bit better too.

For the most part, the double black was pleased with the results. But this stupid play was threatening to undo all of his hard effort! It wasn't fair! Or—hold on a moment.

"Hey, Wolf, how would you feel about performing on stage? That way, you could come to the rehearsals with me."

Wolfram stopped scowling for a moment to consider this. "You mean join these auditions you talked about?"

"Yeah." Yuuri smiled encouragingly. "You could be my character's friend or something. He's got two important ones. Some of the actors even get swords for the fight scenes."

This fact didn't seem to interest his angel as much as Yuuri had hoped it would. Instead, Wolfram lifted his chin in a determined manner.

"You said this was a romance story," he said, that fact clearly not having stood a chance of escaping his attention. Wolfram had a very selective memory for some things. "Then I want to be whoever it is you're supposed to be in love with."

I should have known, Yuuri thought. But he felt compelled to remind him, "It's supposed to be a girl, Wolf. I don't think they'd agree to cast you in the part. I thought I explained about these things to you already."

Wolfram looked at him like he was an idiot. "You've already told people that I'm your girlfriend."

The double black blinked. "Yeah?"

He couldn't well tell them that he had a boyfriend or a fiancé. His school teachers might come knocking at his door. He looked far too young to be engaged by Earth standards, at least in this modern era.

Instead of explaining any more, Wolfram got out of the car and went in search of Jennifer. "Mama,"—she'd insisted that he call her that and he'd complied easily; the two of them got along uncannily well as far as Yuuri was concerned—"I need to borrow some clothes."

Or go shopping. They would have to see.

TBC…

.