Kyou Kara Maou Fan Fiction ❯ But I Don't Like Boys? ❯ More Time on Earth ( Chapter 17 )

But I Don't Like Boys? by Shukumei

 

Disclaimer: Same as before.

 

Warnings/Spoilers: Yeah, same as before, too.

 

 

-o-o-

 

Chapter 17: More Time on Earth

 

“Shori.” Yuri tried to pull his arm back as his older brother dragged him towards the jewelry store a few shops down. “Shori, stop. I'm not going to find anything for Wolfram in a jewelry store.”

 

Shori stopped, Yuri's wrist still in his grasp, and turned around to look down at Yuri. “Just humor me.” He let go of his brother's wrist and moved to stand behind him as he pushed Yuri forward. “You might be surprised, little brother.”

 

“Fine, I'll look, but I can't promise you I'll find anything.” Yuri looked back at Shori. “I don't think I'll have the money to buy something in there anyway.”

 

Shori smirked as they stopped in front of the store. “Don't worry about the price. Whatever it is you want, I'll take care of it.”

 

“How?” Yuri asked, furrowing his brows.

 

“I have my ways…” Shori ushered Yuri into the shop and went straight to a saleslady. Yuri was too far away to hear what Shori said to the young lady, but she nodded and pointed to a man in a suit on the other side of the room. Shori flashed her a smile which she returned. “Go, look around,” he said as he passed Yuri to reach the man. “I'll be with you in just a sec.”

 

Yuri walked to the closest glass counter and squinted at all the glittering jewelry. He nearly choked at the set of earrings that were nearly 300.000 yen. Shori was nuts to think he could afford something from here. Besides, his mother had only given him 10.000 yen, which is more than he thought he needed, but apparently not if he was searching through jewelry.

 

Yuri sighed and moved onto another counter, stopping to peer into the glass again.

 

“Finding anything of interest, sir?” The lady at the counter, the one whom Shori had spoken with, appeared before Yuri and smiled down at him.

 

Yuri shrugged. “I'm not really sure what I'm looking for in the first place. You have anything for a guy,” Yuri looked at her nametag, “Keiko-san?”

 

Keiko smiled again and directed Yuri to a display of watches. “Watches are very common to buy for a male. Are you self-shopping? Or are you looking for someone else?”

 

“It's a little complicated.” Yuri scratched the back of his head. “But yeah, it's for a friend.”

 

“What type of jewelry does your friend like to wear, sir?” Keiko asked.

 

Yuri shrugged again. “I've never seen him wear jewelry.”

 

Keiko nodded. “Then that is a bit complicated.”

 

Yuri gave her an edgy laugh and looked at one of the diamond-studded watches. “I think he's, uh, a little too old-worldly to like a watch. I don't think his ears are pierced. Um, he wears long sleeves most of the time, so I'm not sure a bracelet would work either.” Yuri sighed loudly. “His neck is covered, too. A frilly sort of cloth-thing.”

 

“A frilly cloth-thing, sir?” Keiko put up a finger and told him to hold on for one moment. She left and returned with a piece of paper and a pen. “Could you draw it from memory?”

 

“Uh, sure?” Yuri took the pen and doodled the best he could, explaining when he was done that it folded in certain areas, but he just couldn't draw that.

 

Keiko studied the sketch for a moment and looked back up at Yuri. “Your friend is indeed old-worldly.” She smiled. “You're saying a necklace wouldn't work for him either in this case?”

 

Yuri nodded.

 

“This does narrow down your search.” Keiko leaned on the counter, feeling a little bit more casual with her awkward customer. “Rings are quite common, too. Although, I don't think I've seen them given from one male friend to another, unless… Oh, excuse me, that's prying, I'm sorry.”

 

Yuri shook his head and leaned on the counter with her. “I think the ring will say too much. I've already given that a definite no.”

 

“I see.” Keiko walked behind the counter to another off to the side, Yuri following. “If your friend is old-worldly as you say, I think something from here would do.”

 

Shori walked up behind Yuri and placed a hand on his little brother's shoulder. “Find anything, yet?”

 

Yuri was about to shake his head when a flash of green caught his eye. “Can I see that please?” he asked Keiko, pointing into the glass counter.

 

Keiko nodded, following his finger towards the corner of the jewelry case and reached in to pull out the item Yuri wanted to examine.

 

Shori eyeballed it and nodded at Yuri. “Perfect.”

 

“Really?” Yuri frowned. “But the price…”

 

“I told you not to worry about it, didn't I?” Shori smiled at Keiko.

 

-o-o-

 

“What did you get? What did you get?” Jennifer hopped around her youngest son as he tried to pull out a velvet encased box from the jewelry store's paper bag. She took the box, feeling its weight and feeling the softness.

 

Yuri silently awaited his mother's approval as she slowly opened the box. Jennifer gave a girly squeal of delight and fiercely hugged Yuri, careful not to overturn the box. “Yu-chan! It's so beautiful!” She let him go long enough to take another look at it and squeezed him again. “You did Momma proud!”

 

Yuri patted his mother on the back and looked up at Shori with a red face. Shori couldn't tell if the redness was from suffocation or embarrassment - probably both. Jennifer gave the velvet box one last wistful glance and gently closed it to return it to Yuri.

 

“Is dinner ready, Momma?” Shori asked as he walked towards the dining area.

 

“Just a little longer,” Jennifer replied. “Papa will be home soon. Oh, Sho-chan and Yu-chan, you can help me set the table.” The brunette woman skipped off into the kitchen, humming a little tune.

 

-o-o-

 

Shoma Shibuya, head of the household, arrived just in time for dinner, not too early and not too late, much to the pleasure of his wife. “It's been awhile since we've all had a chance to eat together like this,” Shoma commented as he spooned a scoop of his wife's “famous” curry.

 

“Ah,” Yuri nodded in agreement. “Murata said that Shinou had control over our time difference. It's out of our hands now. So my visits will get further apart…”

 

Jennifer made a sad face at her son. “You don't want to come see your family, Yu-chan?”

 

“No, it's not that…” Yuri put his spoon down and lowered his head. “I don't know what to do, Mom. Things are really mixed up right now, what with the two worlds sort of catching up with one another. If I'm not concentrating on King stuff in Shin Makoku, then I'm studying here on Earth. I'm not even sure if I can live in both worlds now.” Yuri sighed. “I just…”

 

“It's okay, son.” Shoma smiled at Yuri. “You've got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders now. Even Shori's juggling things right now, aren't you, Sho-chan?”

 

Shori nodded as he swallowed his food. “Bob's left most of my training as Earth Maou up to me figuring things out on my own. I just started college, and I'm almost convinced that I'm not cut out for it.”

 

“Don't quit, Sho-chan. You'll get used to it in no time, isn't that right, Papa?” Jennifer gave her husband a nod. “Oh, and Papa! Did you see the wonderful gift Yu-chan bought for Wol-chan?”

 

“You bought Wolfram something?” Shoma gave Yuri an awkward look and then smiled. “Oh, yes. For the date, right?”

 

Yuri quietly groaned. “Yeah. Mom told you about, eh? So, Mom, what do you have planned?”

 

“Oh, Yu-chan, it's a surprise. And why can't you call me Momma?”

 

-o-o-

 

The next day didn't go by any faster. School dragged, but he was able to turn in at least one assignment from each of his teachers that were due. Most of the teachers seemed surprised that he was turning in something so soon, but he warned them that he'd be absent again next week, so he might as well do what he could now.

 

Ken caught up with Yuri after classes, convincing his friend to let him stay the night with him. He seemed eager to get back to Shin Makoku and wanted to leave first thing in the morning. Plus, Ken agreed to help Yuri with his homework if only he could hang out with his bestest buddy. Yuri reluctantly agreed.

 

-o-o-

 

Ken fluffed one of Yuri's pillows and threw himself on it after he worked it to his preferred thickness. “Man, I haven't had a sleepover in a long time.”

 

Yuri looked over at Ken from his desk and pointedly waved his pencil at him. “You are not sleeping on my bed.”

 

“But, Shibuya,” Ken said with a pout, sticking out his lower lip, “it's big enough for the both of us.”

 

Yuri threw his pencil at his friend cuddling the pillow. “No!”

 

Ken ducked behind the pillow and glared at Yuri. “Hey, you could have stabbed me with that! Although, the probability is a little low…”

 

“Fine.” Yuri grabbed another pencil from a cup on his desk and went back to his English assignment. “If you sleep on my bed, I'm sleeping on the floor.” He sat for a moment, staring at the piece of paper in front of him. “Hey, Murata. I'm not sure how `kekkon' works in this sentence.”

 

Ken crawled over to Yuri and reached for the paper, sliding it to the edge of the desk. “ `Seito wa raigetsu Izumi to kekkon shimasu,' ” he read. “Ah, `kekkon'. Marriage… `Seito is going to marry Izumi next month.' is the correct way to say it. See? You want `marry', not `marriage' here.”

 

“I see now.” Yuri looked at the paper he was writing on and wrinkled his nose. “I had it all mixed up then. Why does English have to switch things around like that?”

 

Ken handed back the original assignment to Yuri and looked over at the other paper Yuri had in front of him. “Yeah, you have to switch those… English isn't too hard to learn as long as you're taught it growing up. I learned at least five languages that way.”

 

Yuri regarded Ken for a moment. “How many people have you been in the past?”

 

Ken laid down back on the bed, his head falling into Yuri's pillow. “Hmm… there's obviously the Great Sage. I honestly can't count them all. In the beginning I had some incarnations as mazoku that lived nearly a thousand years. One lived to be around 500. I did have a life as a human in Shin Makoku. That was a difficult time. He lived to be, uh, 75 I think. After that was when I was transferred to Earth, and the longest lifespan I've had here was ninety-… four, if I recall correctly.”

 

“So you've lived at least ten lives?” Yuri rested his arms on his desk and whistled in awe. “I can't imagine having all those memories.”

 

“I don't remember everything about them, just dramatic and life-altering moments. I remember most of my time as the Great Sage though.” Ken grinned at his friend. “You could probably ask me anything about Shin Makoku, and I'd know.”

 

Yuri pondered for a second, and then his eyes lit up. “Oh!”

 

“Oh?”

 

“This may sound stupid, but…” Yuri cleared his throat and looked towards the door. “My mom has this crazy notion.”

 

Ken lifted himself up on his elbows. “Your mom just has `inventive' notions. They're nothing stupid.”

 

Yuri looked back to Ken and shook his head. “She got this idea that Shin Makoku males might be able to, uh… well, you know, have kids.”

 

Ken laughed. “You're the crazy one if you think guys can't have children. All men can have children, unless they're sterile, of course. You have a father, don't you? What makes you think otherwise?”

 

Yuri gave Ken a confused look with scrunched eyebrows. “Wait.” Realization hit him, and Yuri quickly shook his head. “No! Not like that. I know we can have kids… No, I meant, um, like bear kids. Like get pregnant or something.”

 

“I know what you meant.” Ken smiled. “I just wanted to hear you say it.” He sat up and crossed his legs. “It wasn't possible from what I know, but things may have changed since then. You might want to ask someone else about it. Gisela's a doctor; she might know. Why? Did you want to have a baby with Wolfram, Shibuya?”

 

“Of course not,” Yuri said with a snort. “I just wanted to prove my mom's theory wrong. She tried to say that maybe they could reproduce like fish.”

 

“Wow… she really is imaginative. You sure you don't want to have a baby with Wolfram?” Ken asked with a grin.

 

Yuri sighed and leaned back in his chair, abandoning all hope of finishing his homework that night. “You know I'm still working out my feelings, Murata. I don't know what the future holds for us. For the moment, no, I don't want a kid; I'm too young for one. Besides, you said yourself that men can't bear children after all, so there's no point dwelling on it.”

 

“Yeah, it's impossible, but there might be the possibility of divine intervention.”

 

“Divine intervention.” Yuri rolled his eyes. “Now you're just making stuff up.”

 

Ken shrugged. “Many religions have instances of impossible pregnancies. Gods got humans pregnant all the time in Greek mythology. It should be impossible for a virgin to have a child, but there's stuff in the Christian Bible about it.”

 

“And they were all woman, right?”

 

“Yeah...”

 

“Then it's still impossible.” Yuri let out a breath through his nose and shook his head at Ken. “I'm not going to give the notion of male pregnancies another thought until I see one for myself.”

 

Ken quickly took the pillow next to him and shoved it under his pajama top. “Now do you believe, Shibuya?”

 

Yuri threw another pencil at him in response.

 

-o-o-

 

Yuri opened his eyes as his alarm started beeping some awfully annoying note. He flipped over to yell at Ken to turn the snooze on so they could sleep for another five minutes when he met a pair of black eyes on the other side. Yuri screamed and threw himself off of his makeshift bed on the floor and promptly into the wall.

 

Murata sat up from lying on the floor and grinned up at the gasping boy. “Such a violent reaction, Shibuya.”

 

 

“God, Murata!” Yuri fumed for a moment, collecting himself before he went to turn off the alarm that was only adding to his racing heart. “Give me heart attack… Why on Earth were you on the floor? And so close?” Yuri shivered.

 

“I was waiting for you to get up. You weren't expecting to see me; perhaps you would have liked to see pretty green eyes?” Ken gave Yuri a wink.

 

 

“Let's just get ready and go.” Yuri pulled his school uniform out of the closet and threw it on the bed. “Go change, and turn on the light before you leave.”

 

“Can do!” Ken leapt up from the floor and grabbed his small bag, doing as Yuri asked before he went to the bathroom.

 

Yuri changed, packing some of his homework into a waterproof bag. He walked downstairs only to discover his mother and Ken chatting excitedly.

 

“What are you doing up, Mom?” Yuri asked, setting his bag down on the coffee table.

 

“I made you boys breakfast because I knew you were going to leave really early.” Jennifer stuck out her lower lip. “You thought Momma wasn't going to say goodbye?”

 

Ken gave Yuri an open-mouthed shocked expression. “Shame on you, Shibuya. Momma just wanted to see us off.”

 

“It's fine, it's fine.” Yuri quickly waved them off and walked to the dining table. “What'd you make us, Mom?”

 

Jennifer rushed into the kitchen and returned with three plates. “Just some toast and an egg. Nothing special, Yu-chan.”

 

Yuri sat down at the table in front of one of the plates that his mother set down. Murata joined them. They ate quietly before Jennifer asked when they were coming back.

 

“Oh,” Yuri said as he put his food down. “I figured I'd come for… the date. Did you pick a day for that yet? Or what do I need to do?”

 

“Don't you worry about a thing, Yu-chan. We've got it all covered.” Jennifer clapped her hands together. “Just come on a Sunday, and I'll be able to work it out.”

 

“I don't want to do it next week.” Yuri shook his head. “Wolfram and I just had a date last weekend, so I don't want it to be too soon-”

 

“You already had a date?!” Jennifer exclaimed, quickly grabbing Yuri's hands. “Tell me about it, please, Yu-chan. Momma must hear how your first date went.”

 

Yuri shrugged, eyeballing Ken in hopes that his friend might bail him out, but no such luck. “It was fine, Mom. It's bad enough I'm letting you plan another date, but I don't need to divulge my private life that much, do I?”

 

Jennifer frowned. “But Yu-chan, I want to know what happens in your life. Now that you've got a big country to take care of, I know you'll never get to date a sweet girl from school, and I can't take pictures of you two going off to a school event…” Her eyes started to well up with tears that she held back with a pouty lip. “But this is so much more exciting, Yu-chan. Wolfram has been a nice young man, and he's so pretty, Yu-chan. Let Momma do this one thing for you two, please?”

 

Yuri sighed, returning to his food. “Two weeks. We'll return in two weeks. Oh, I was wondering if Greta could come next time.”

 

Jennifer squealed again, her pout disappearing. “I would love to see your daughter, Yu-chan! I can't believe you haven't brought her before. What size does she wear?”

 

“What size?” Yuri blinked as his mother fidgeted with bow on her apron in anticipation. “No, she won't fit my old clothes. She's ten, Mom.”

 

“Then I'll just have to go buy her new ones,” she said with a smile.

 

Ken nodded in agreement. “Greta will like that.”

 

“Done yet, Murata?” Yuri asked before he took his final bite.

 

Ken took his last few bites and opened his mouth to show he had swallowed it all. “Time for dessert now?”

 

“Oh!” Jennifer jumped up from the table, disappearing into the kitchen again and returning with a boxed cherry pie. “Put this in one of your bags and give to Wol-chan and Gre-chan for me.”

 

“Sure, Mom.” Yuri did as he was told, having to go back to his room to get another waterproof bag, and put the pie in the bag. He grabbed his other bag and put his shoes on before making sure Ken joined him in going to the bathroom.

 

With only two people, they had no problem fitting in the bathtub that Ken had conveniently filled that morning. Ken waved to Jennifer, thanking her for the breakfast. Yuri just said goodbye since his arms were full, and they left through the water.

 

-o-o-

 

End of chapter 17.

 

Well, that was crap-tastic. But I added in the last scene to make it longer.

 

Blah, you've all probably figured out what Yuri got just from all that narrowing down I did. But there are a few possibilities left… You'll just have to wait until Wolfram gets to see it, too. Hah!

 

If you're wondering how the yen vs. US dollars works out… 1 yen is worth almost a penny. So the earrings I mentioned that cost 300.000 (that's actually 300,000 since they use the decimal point instead of a comma) yen comes close to $3,000. And no, I don't speak Japanese, very little in fact. I looked some stuff up for that English/Japanese homework assignment.

 

Read and review, please!