Title: Rivulets
Fandom(s): Kyou Kara Maou
Pairing: Yuuri/Hedwig(OC)
Summary: Yuuri helps Günter's sister build a mudman on a rainy day.
Rating: PG
Prompt: RIVULETS from celesia on LiveJournal.

This was originally written just for myself and the people on my flist as an excercise to get me to write again but I decided to post it here for organizational purposes. |D It's just a random bit, has no place in the context of any of my other stories, it's just there. Though Hedwig, the OC, does come from some other stories, this scene doesn't. This scene is just. A scene. Written for the sake of writing it. So, uh, enjoy?

RIVULETS
There were certain things in Yuuri Shibuya's life that he liked but could only handle in small doses. Günter von Kleist was one of them. But Günter, his eight siblings, and his father all in the same room together for an extended period of time? Was more than Yuuri could handle. Ever. Not that he disliked any of them, but a majority of them were like Günter in that they were completely over-the-top and dramatic about everything and a room full of people like that… It just wasn't something Yuuri was capable of dealing with.

Another thing that Yuuri liked in small and sporadic amounts was rain. He enjoyed it, it was pleasant and did good things for the environment (typically) but too much of it was depressing. Which was why, as he walked down the halls of Blood Pledge Castle, glancing out each window as he passed, he sincerely hoped the rain would stop soon.

Yuuri sighed as he passed another window (why were there so many?!) through which he saw the gardens and more rain, but something he saw out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he backtracked and peered out at the grounds. Someone was kneeling on the ground… and from what Yuuri could tell they were digging a hole with their bare hands. The person stood out clearly, even in the rain, donned in all red and with long red hair. The moment Yuuri realized that, he realized there were only two people who it could be. And considering one of them was currently away…

Yuuri hurried down the hall, took a turn and then another turn out onto the grounds. He shivered as he stepped outside into the cold air, rain drops landing on his head and shoulders. He unbuttoned his school jacket and held it up over his head before dashing out across the grounds, coming to a step next to the person digging. She looked up as he approached and he saw that she was covered in mud from her hands and arms to her feet and legs and all over her body. There was even a bit of mud on her cheek. "Oh. HELLO!" she greeted, grinning widely up at him.

"Um, Miss… Hedwig," he said, slowly, making sure he was addressing her by the right name and not confusing her with one of Günter's other siblings. When she didn't react he figured he'd got it right and continued. "Um. You know it's raining, right?"

"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm out here!" She had turned away from him and had resumed her digging. A rather large pile of sloshing mud was growing at her side. "See, back home, it – it's really kinda weird, I'm not sure it's normal – it usually only rains at night! So I'm asleep then and don't get to do this BUT I make a point, whenever it rains while I'm awake, to come out here and make one! I drop whatever I'm doing and go! I'm not gonna get into trouble for it, am I?"

It looked to Yuuri as though she didn't care if she was or not, she was going to continue on with her work regardless. "Um, that depends… What are you doing?"

"I'm building a mudman," Hedwig replied, completely serious.

Yuuri blinked. "A… mudman? Like a snowman?"

"I've never seen a snowman but I would assume so. It doesn't snow in Kleist."

"Really? Why?"

"'s too hot."

"Oh." He tilted his head to the side and watched her as she piled more mud onto her mudman and then proceeded to pad the mud down and shape it out to be the round bottom. "So… is Kleist more tropical…? Or like a desert?"

"Nope. Too cold."

Yuuri blinked again. "A-ah, what?"

She stood suddenly and turned to face him, hands on her hips and head tilted. "So, is it really okay for us to just call you Yuuri? I mean, I'd like that and I think most of us would like that – we never used any sort of formal addresses back home and no one in Anselm called us Lords or anything like that – but father and Adelinde said it was disrespectful, and Günter always calls you 'Your Majesty,' SO. I'm not quite sure what you want me to call you."

There was a slight pause and then Yuuri chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck and shivering. It was so damn cold. "Ah, really, just Yuuri is fine! I still think it's weird to be called 'Your Majesty' or 'Your Highness'… I get why they do it, but it just seems so impersonal and… I don't know, grand or something. I don't feel grand at all."

"Interesting!" Hedwig said in a chipper voice before turning back to her mudman.

Yuuri took a step towards her. "U-um, won't your father get angry if you ruin your clothes? I mean, those look really regal and fancy…"

"Naah," she said with a laugh, glancing down at the mud that covered her. "Father knows I'm an out-doors kinda person so he prepared accordingly. I have about five replicas of this outfit prepared for any sort of formal occasion. This isn't something I'd normally wear."

"Oh. Ah, okay," Yuuri said, lamely, not sure what else he was supposed to say to that. "So, uh, can I help you? With your mudman? I mean it's really freezing out here and all and since you said you need to make your mudman, maybe, I don't know, I can help so you can finish faster and get out of the cold!" He spoke very fast and took in a deep breath after he finished and kept his eyes on her to see her reaction.

She laughed.

"What?" he asked, eyes widening in alarm. Had he said something wrong? He didn't know. He never knew what to say to girls.

"It's just…," Hedwig spoke as she stood to pile more mud onto her mudman, making the body and head. "I don't know, is that something a king normally does? That's not beneath you or anything? Not that I know a whole lot about kings and queens and royalty and what is beneath or above a person… And Cheri was a rather unconventional queen. You know, the first time she came to my home she brought her kids, and Conrart – I don't even know what he had done – he pissed off Lia so she started throwing mud at him! He got angry and started to throw mud back at her and next thing you know, they are fighting! Fist fighting! And Cheri and my mum were standing off to the side, cheering them on! Dan Hiri had escorted them there and he was laughing his head off, and father, he just kept talking about throwing them in a fountain or something. But, anyway, it was just something you wouldn't except from a queen and people say you're a really unique king so I have no idea what to expect from you."

As she spoke, Hedwig performed all sorts of strange hand movements, and Yuuri thought for a moment that she was trying to visually demonstrate just how Conrart and Lia had fought when they were kids but Yuuri couldn't be sure.

"It is nice of you to offer either way," she added, grinning.

It was Yuuri's turn to laugh. "I wouldn't have offered if I thought it was something that was beneath me! And I never would have thought that anyway! Really, I may be king but that… that was really more of an accident than anything! Honestly, I'm just a normal kid and I… just wanna play baseball more than anything!"

"I don't know what that is."

Another pause. "Oh."

"But if you're really willing to help, come help me! I'm almost done, though, but if you could just help me pad his body down and round him off… Yeah, like that! There's no point trying to put a face on him, it'll just wash off in this rain, so… he'll be faceless! He doesn't need one anyway, he'd probably be ugly. AH! There we go! Done."

They stepped back to observe the complete mudman and Yuuri couldn't help but feel a bit proud of, despite how little he'd contributed to its creation.

It was a pitiful looking thing. The rain water was making it sag and slosh out and it was-

"Hedwig, it's falling into the hole!"

"It wha- oh. Shit."

They both leapt down into the shallow hole that Hedwig had dug – Yuuri had to take a moment to admire her stamina, having done the whole thing by hand – and they clamored to push the mudman back up right.

It toppled over on top of them.

Yuuri tasted mud in his mouth and kept his eyes clamped shut. He spat out the mud and whipped it out of his eyes as best he could with the sleeves of his shirt. He blinked rapidly, trying to get what mud had got into his eyes out when he heard Hedwig laughing next to him and turned to look at her.

She'd spat the mud out and hadn't bothered to wipe it off her face. She had leaned her head back and let the rain wash her off, the mud running in small rivulets down her neck and she laughed, clutching her stomach. Yuuri blinked at her.

After a moment she stopped and leaned forward, her body still shaking in amusement. "Oh, how tragic. It fell again."

"AGAIN?!"

"Oh yeah, they always fall. One time I thought to actually build the mudman away from the hole and made it too big and it still fell on me." She clasped her hands in front of her as if in prayer and muttered, seriously, "Rest in peace, oh mudman. May thou be a clayman or some other durable substance in the next life."

"Do you… always perform sermons for deceased mudmen?" Yuuri asked, tentatively.

"Yes."

"Oh."

They lapsed into silence. It was broken by Hedwig shaking her head, sending her hair and rain water everywhere. "Waah! It's cold…"

"Y-yeah! That's what I said before!"

'But I had to complete my mission!"

"I know."

"Mission's over now, though."

"Yeah. So can we go inside now and warm up? I can't feel my toes."

"I can't feel my hands."

"Let's go, then." Yuuri turned to head back towards the castle when Hedwig reached out and grabbed his arm. He turned to look at her, surprised, and found her smiling at him.

"So, if it's raining again tomorrow, I'll have to come back out here and make another one. In which case, will you help me again?"

His eyes widened and he felt a blush creep into his cheeks. "U-um, yeah! Sure! If I can escape Günter and Wolfram…"

"Great!" She exclaimed, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the hole with her and towards the castle. "I look forward to it!"

"Me too…" Yuuri said, and it wasn't a lie. Hell, somewhere, in the back of his mind, though he'd never admit it out loud, he was now rather hoping it would still be raining the next day.