Author's Note: YAAY! final part! ^_^ I think it turned out rather well. XDDDDDDDD *amused* hope you like finally having... some fun. *laughs*

Disclaimer: Own nothing!

"Conrart?"

The voice made the man's head lift from where it was nuzzled into the silky locks of Yuuri's hair, his soulful cinnamon eyes blinking against the light that spilled in through the doorway from the hallway. Night had fallen over Covenant Castle and most had returned to bed, the entire situation exhausting many who could find no explanation at all for the miracle of Conrart's return. Most doubts over his authenticity had been quelled quickly by both Annisina's experiments and an interrogation by both Gwendal and Wolfram, though neither had dared to even consider removing their brother from the side of the Maou.

"Mother?" His fingers stroked tenderly against the soft skin of Yuuri's jaw, drawing the man more tightly against his body, just needing the physical contact, anything to hold the man to him.

"When... when I heard..." Cecilie was trembling, her green eyes glittering with unshed tears as she entered the darkened bedroom, her expression revealing to him all the emotions that screamed through her soul as she gazed at the child she thought she had lost all over again. "I couldn't believe it..."

"Mother." One hand reached out towards her, not quite knowing what to say to comfort her when his own soul was in turmoil without Yuuri. They were so much a part of each other, he feared that he would never be able to draw his lover back to him from the dreams where the Maou had coiled himself in tightly.

Her hands were chilled from the night air outside, a flush of gooseflesh spread where she touched him, palms cupping his jaw and turning his face towards her. "My son." Tears shimmered in her eyes, sliding down over her beautiful cheeks, her entire body trembling with the ache that burned in her heart. "My boy... I thought I had lost you all over again." She hated the memory of being told of Conrart's death, of knowing that she had lost one of her beloved children.

"I thought... I had lost myself as well, Mother." His eyes drifted closed again as he leaned into her touch, comforted by it, unashamed of seeking out some of the contentment that touch provided him, knowing just how much she loved him.

"I'm certain his Majesty..." Her voice trailed off as she looked down at the slender frame leaning against Conrart's chest, the dark head that flopped limply to one side, raven locks framing the half starved face of the Maou. "...No... what happened, Conrart? What... on... The poor baby... did he exhaust himself?"

"No." It was a ragged sound the was torn from Conrart's throat, his grip tightening around his beloved, gathering the slender frame up and trying to warm the too cold frame. Rocking slowly, his face was buried against the wild mane again, fingers curling tightly in it, thumb rubbing tenderly against the nape of the younger man's neck. "He tried to follow me."

Cecilie froze, her entire expression showing her shock at those words. "Oh... Conrart."

"He tried to follow me." Despair touched his tone, his helplessness at the situation, knowing that no matter how hard he tried the Demon Mirror would not respond to him. Only the Maou could... Suddenly his cinnamon eyes turned from the bowl resting half out of sight to his mother for one long moment and swallowed.

"No... no, Baby, please don't ask me that." Cecilie was heartbroken at the quiet request she saw in her son's brown eyes, the plea for her to help him. "Please. I can't lose you again, my darling Conrart." Tears shimmered in her emerald green eyes, so many emotions swirling right there.

"Mother." It was a entreaty, wretchedly soft.

Her body gave out under her as she sagged into the chair beside the bed, just gazing at her son and the one that had truly brought Conrart back to them all. Green eyes studied the handsome features of the soldier's face, her gaze trailing downwards taking in the slashing scars that swept across his muscular body and the tight bandages coiled around his chest, the slight hint of red darkening the fabric. What would happen if she refused? What would happen if no one allowed Conrart the chance to follow after Yuuri?

"Mother, I love you." One hand stretched out towards her, fingertips brushing softly at the tears that trailed down over her cheeks, feathering against her pale skin. In that moment, he could see the years weighing on her, the long years of suffering and grief that had filled her life. The guilt over the war with the humans and her inability to fight against the control of her older brother. For the first time, he could see everything inside of her, really see it and his fingers slipped upwards, stroking back the wild blonde locks, knowing just how much she had felt for his father and all the other men in her life. "I truly do and I am grateful that you are my mother, because no other could have been better for me or my brothers."

Cecilie sobbed, clutching at his hand and holding it closer to her skin, pressing her cheek into the warmth of it and finding peace in her heart for the first time in a long while. "You always did know just what to say." And she knew she had to do this for him, or he would end up just like Yuuri had, a ghost barely alive and moving on autopilot. The two existed as one being, so entwined, so deeply in love that the absence of the other tore half of them away, leaving a gaping wound that would never heal. "Come back to me, Conrart, please... if anything... bring him back with you and come back to me."

Managing to stand, she returned with the bowl, fingers sliding across the rim of it, feeling the energy fluttering around within its protective curve. It responded to her, even though she was no longer the Maou, it answered her request to allow another to step through the doorway and follow Yuuri into wherever it was he had gone.

Conrart leaned over Yuuri's body, holding the man close to him tightly as he gazed into the depths of the bowl and caught his own reflection in the broken pieces of mirror that glittered in the bottom. Brows drew together as he stared at them, catching facets of himself in their depths. And suddenly he felt a pull, like a wrenching at his soul all over again, tearing him free again from his body as he slumped back, head lolling to one side, brown eyes glassy and fractured with silver steel.

And in the darkness, a woman silently wept in hope that they would come back to them all.

Conrart jerked sharply, his entire body tingled with sensations as he came sharply awake leaning against the headboard of a bed, his chest heaving as he blinked to clear his vision. His hand instantly clamped around his left upper arm, wincing at the fresh burst of pain that rain along his shoulder and down to his fingers from the bandaged wound. Shifting slightly against the stiff sheets, his gaze swept the room, taking in the filthy coat sitting across the back of a chair, the colours almost burning him up inside to know exactly where and when he was. Fransia, before the final show down against Big Cimaron, the night after he had confronted Gunter.

It was an odd feeling, to be back here, back inside one of his own memories. The solid wood behind his head felt real, the raw pain of his left arm, the aches and scraps across his exhausted body, the knowledge that he had betrayed his Maou. The emotions rocked him, almost tossing him so hard he couldn't breath, this was one of his memories just as he had thought. The Demon Mirror had not used Yuuri's memories but his own to produce this particular world, this particular bubble of space where Yuuri had hidden himself away from reality.

Conrart had done to the same, his soul fleeing back to a point where life had been quiet, back to the days on the main Wincott Estate where he had first met Julia. Even there... Yuuri had come for him, a piece of the man knowing exactly where he had gone and stayed with him. Yulian. The name fluttered through his mind with the images of a man so like Yuuri, but not burdened by the weight of leadership of an entire Kingdom. Even there Yuuri had been trying to protect him, trying to shelter him from the world from the evils that had almost robbed him of his life, protecting Julia, protecting him from Geigen Huber and Stoffel and his own need to prove that they were just as loyal as any other demons.

Then Lutenberg, the memory so clear, the rain soaked Yuuri Shibuya standing before him in the quiet of the Inn, long hair plastered to his face and just looking at him with such sorrow filled eyes that it turned his heart over sharply in his chest. The slender man protecting him on the battlefield, running right into the fires of hell to pull him out. Yuuri had been there, the main part of Yuuri had been there... and then... had been gone again abruptly.

"Always trying to protect me." Things were slowly starting to make sense, the thousands of memories and moments that hadn't been there before, Yuuri trying to find him, trying to hold him close for just a little longer. "Always keeping me safe."

It had been Yuuri that had held him, held his soul to the world of the living and not let it slip over into the next, gripping him so tightly, keeping him swaddled in his own memories to prevent him from sliding away. His Beloved's powers had worked that horrible Autumn night, despite Yuuri's own wounds and utter exhaustion, the Maou had pulled his soul back from the edge, holding it as tightly as possible and never once letting go in all those months. His body might not have lasted, but his soul had.

Like Julia's soul, like Christine's, his had been kept safe by someone that cared for him. Conrart's had been caught between worlds, between the land of the living and the dead. He had been able to follow the trail Yuuri had left for him, follow the path upwards into the light, but Yuuri had been caught, trapped here while Conrart had escaped.

Now he was back in the realm where shadows lurked ready to consume them if their grip loosened even a little.

Where was Yuuri? He could feel his beloved, feel the presence that seemed to fill the entire world, overwhelming him for a moment and making his breath leave him in a rush of relief.

Shifting from the bed, he was on his feet, swaying ever so slightly while he regained his balance, being reminded that his strength was limited given the state he had come in, he desperately hoped that he would be able to convince Yuuri that he really was there.

The window slipped open a little further, a dark form sliding in through the small gap between window and frame, barely making a whisper of sound. Obsidian eyes glinted like polished stones in that too thin, too pale face, the man hesitating by the window, clearly uncertain whether it was safe to be there.

Conrart's heart clenched at the sight, his entire body stilling as he just watched the man move, the expression on that beloved face that tore out everything inside of him at the pain there. He wished to wrap the man up in his arms, drag him closer and refuse to ever let him go again. Guilt flared, hot and overwhelming, he was the cause of his lover's pain, that night so many months past, he should have requested several soldiers come with them, but Yuuri had just been so worried about the dying ashes of the fire rising again he had not been able to deny his lover his request.

"Yuuri."

The man straightened at the sound of the familiar voice, instantly giving Conrart a heart-stopping smile, pulling the window shut before crossing the space between them.

"Sorry I took so long." Sweeping the long raven strands out of his face and into the edges of the hood, he looked Conrart up and down, relaxing and glancing towards the locked door out into the corridor. "The guards were everywhere."

What could he say? How could he say it to convince his lover? "Let me have a look at you." A hand stretched out to carefully sweep the hood back and away from the Maou's face, the pads of his fingers sliding caress the beautiful face, knowing the lines of it intimately.

Turning his head into the caress, his dark eyes half closed, lips parting and clearly imagining something more than just his hands. Yuuri wanted nothing more than to imagine that the eyes looking at him would reflect more than just this man in this moment, no matter how much he wished for the past to comfort him, even now, he craved the knowing smile and the glint of promise in those eyes.

"Love."

His world spun once at that word, leaving him almost swaying with the sweetness of it.

"Look at me."

Obsidian met cinnamon. An electric arc leaping from one man to the other, a promise of something unexplainable.

"This isn't real." Yuuri sobbed softly, tears coming to his eyes and burning down over his cheeks, his fingers clenched into tight fists as his little dream came crashing down around him. Reality never could wait. Conrart was dead and he had been unable to save him, unable to bring back the only person that had ever truly mattered. "You aren't real." His entire body shook with the force of his grief, his legs almost giving out from under him as the weight of the months alone hit him hard in the gut. "This... this is all... my doing..." Only his magic was holding this world up, preventing the memories from unravelling and sliding away from him like Conrart's spirit had. The Maou felt as drained as he had that night, the horrible night everything had gone wrong.

The Double Black almost jerked hard away from the warmth that suddenly enfolded him, his entire body being drawn forwards and up against a broad chest, his face turned into the curve of Conrart's throat as he cradled him lovingly. The cloak slipped to the floor, completely abandoned and allowed a hand to cup the back of the dark head and draw him away enough to be able to lean in and kiss him deeply, mouth moving across the trembling lips.

Yuuri clung to him hard, fingers digging into the fabric, shaking like a leaf within the curve of those arms, his tears continuing to tumble down unchecked and soaked into Conrart's shirt. "No matter what I try... I know I'll never get you back. I can't be without you." There had only been one other time that he had ever truly been without Conrart, during the search for the boxes. In his heart, he had questioned why he had subconsciously picked this moment to come relive. Was... was it because he had wanted to be here for Conrart? Or... had it been he needed to be with the swordsman to erase the feeling of loneliness that had prevailed during these months without the steady support of this man. "I can't... It was my fault that you... that you died."

"It wasn't, Yuuri. I know it wasn't. We both thought it was safe and I knew better than to not have someone go with us."

"I asked you to let the guards stay."

Guilt rested on both of them for that night or so it felt.

And then the words from the tall soldier hit Yuuri square in the gut and he jerked backwards, eyes wide as they stared up into the face of the man before him, his mouth working for a moment, a choked wail escaped him.

"Yuuri."

"No." The younger man's backside hit the edge of the table hard after backpedalling and just staring into the beautiful cinnamon eyes that deepened in colour, the intensity of emotions glittering there definitely the one he knew. Where had Conrart come from? His beloved? Where had this precious treasure slipped from in his mind? He hadn't dared touch the memories he had together with Conrart after they had become lovers, there wasn't a moment he regretted amongst them and he couldn't... face the dream of seeing eyes like these looking back at him.

"You pulled me back, Beloved. Kept me from slipping away into the darkness and forgetting the world."

"Impossible!" Yuuri shook his head wildly, his raven mane falling around his shoulders in a tangled mass, his entire body shuddering as he stubbled to the side, knocking against the back of the chair. The window was to one side of him, if he could get to it, he could tear it open and flee into the night. The man couldn't face reality, this reality. The pain was still raw an ache in his heart that left him barely able to breath at all, his stomach was knotting fiercely, twisting and being wrenched hard in his gut by invisible strings. "I... I failed."

"No, you didn't." His hands reached out towards Yuuri, his own heart crumbling at the sight of his lover's anguish, his entire insides feeling like glass had been jabbed hard into his very soul and slashed him to pieces. "Yuu, Beloved, I'm right here, I came here to bring you back to me."

Obsidian eyes widened, lips quivering as he finally found the edge of the window, feeling it slide easily against its frame and hoping that he would be fast enough. He couldn't do this. Here, faced with the sparks of hope that swirled at the sound of that voice. He couldn't hope anymore. Yuuri Shibuya had tried everything to ease the pain, anything to sooth the raw agony that dwelled inside.

"Don't run from me."

But he couldn't stop himself, tearing the window open and launching himself into the night, hearing Conrart coming right after him, the larger frame hitting the edge of the frame and breaking it outwards, shards of glass and wood raining down around both of them as Conrart reached out for him as they both plunged into the darkness of the night and the embrace of dreams.

His entire body jolted slightly as sensations flared outwards, his entire body arching upwards into the touches, the large hands tenderly caressing along the curve of his hips. A mouth was against his skin, moist and so hot it scorched all the way inside of him as he arched and gasped, fingers clenching helplessly into the warm head that rested against his hips. Dappled sunlight streamed through the branches of the old gnarled tree overhead, the splashes of light almost blinding him as he groaned softly, twisting his head away slightly, trying not to end up blinded either by the golden rays or the pleasure that assailed him.

"Oh... Kami!"

Body arching restlessly, his hips thrust upwards, shuddering as he felt completely overwhelmed by the ecstasy that overwhelmed his senses as his world exploded. Hands clenching in the soft silky strands, nails digging into the man's scalp, his world nothing more than a sea of stars and utter bliss that surged in waves over every nerve ending he had. How long had it been since he had felt such utter pleasure? Since that mouth had touched him so intimately, since those large hands spanned his body, caressing and coaxing a thousand little noises from his throat.

Heat flooded out of him as he whimpered, melting into the softness of the blanket beneath his bare back. Inhaling deeply as he was slowly drifting back to himself, he stroked his hand across a slightly stubbled jaw, a thumb sweeping across one lower lip slightly and felt that tongue flick over the pad of his finger. His palm being nuzzled tenderly, lips sliding against his wrist and wooing him so fast his entire body ached all over again, unable to deny the raw desire that stirred inside of him.

He remembered this day. The surprise he had felt when he had awoken to find himself snuggled against Conrart on the back of a horse, the man having spirited him off away from the castle to one of their favourite spots, where no one would find them for a few hours. Conrart had been hungry for him, cinnamon eyes burning with an expression that made Yuuri melt into a puddle, knowing that his beloved craved him so much that he had carried him off without word to any other besides Yozak as to their whereabouts so that they could have some privacy.

"I won't let you run from me." The heated mouth scooted up over his belly, trailing a line of delicate little kisses against the skin, nuzzling against the curve of his hip and turning his attention to Yuuri's belly button, lapping at it slowly, exploring. "You came for me and I'm here for you." Fire flared and burned in those steel stars that shimmered to life in Conrart's eyes, the light of something that had mellowed in the other man over time but was now alive all over again.

"You... can't be real."

"Why?" A hand stroked against the inside of Yuuri's thigh, sliding back and forth against the warm flesh, teasing and caressing until the younger man was arching again into the contact, breathless with want. "Why can't I be real?"

"Because..."

The stubbled jaw rubbed against the painfully hard part of Yuuri's anatomy, nibbling along the curve of one slender leg, knowing exactly what affect he was having on his lover. "Yuuri Shibuya, do not make me ask you again." A nip made the dark haired half-demon buck wildly against the exquisite pressure, one hand curving back into that wonderful silk mass of hair, clutching at it tightly.

"I'm not strong enough to hope again." Yuuri's voice was barely above a whisper as he shuddered once with the sensations fluttering upwards through every inch of his body. Tears were burning behind his lids, wanting to free themselves again, but he didn't want to let them fall, he didn't want to spoil this moment where they were so close together, sheltered away from the rest of the world. He had been curled up in Conrart's memories, enfolded in a world that someone else had lived in, but this one was his, one of his favourites.

The warm sunshine spilled down across his already flushed skin, as a mouth found a nipple, circling it slowly and drawing a whimpering groan from his lips. Teeth nipped, leaving a few dark marks across his skin, the longer strands of hair teasing his skin in long slow caresses across his chest.

"You've always been strong, Yuuri." Conrart shifted slightly, his own body making its demands extremely clear, the physical contact was intoxicating, the knowledge that he had Yuuri's very soul under his hands. He had been able to follow him from one fragmented memory to another, that if he held on tight enough then he would be able to remain close to the one he loved. "So strong. You have always protected me, even when I did not understand that, it has always been you keeping me safe, protecting my heart and soul."

"You've got that..." A soft whimper slipped from between his lips, the heat surging in waves, drawing a few more erotic little sounds from him, his hips shifting restlessly. "...The wrong way... you protected me."

"What are you feeling? Tell me... so I can figure out how to make it better... even a little." A palm rubbed slowly up across the hard length again, gaining him a breathless little gasp and a wild squirm of pleasure.

"If... if I hadn't insisted... we leave the guards... if I had been riding my own horse..." Fingers dug hard against one of the broad shoulders, clinging to it for a long moment, his entire body shuddering with the overwhelming grief that surged all over again. It still felt so fresh even though he had lost Conrart six months before it did nothing to dull the horrible pain that pounded in his mind like a living thing, sweeping away most of the beautiful of this particular moment with this dream lover. "You took the arrow for me." It had actually gone clean through his lover, slicing through flesh and cutting into the heart. Hands trembled as they touched the broad shoulders, fingers spasming as he could no longer quite bring himself to touch the handsome man over him. "If I hadn't been there... you..."

"Yuuri."

Obsidian eyes lifted to stare into the luminous steel streaked cinnamon brown gaze, his heart freezing in his chest for a second at the vision before him, skipping several beats in the process. "Don't... don't say my name like that." Chin twisting away, his body stiff and trembling beneath the calloused palms, yet the flames that licked and seared at his flesh made him all to aware that he couldn't ignore Conrart.

"How else should I say it?" Nuzzling the warm belly, lapping at his belly button again, his stubbled cheeks slid lower again, rasping erotically against silky thighs. "You are not at fault. Neither of us is, we were both exhausted, we have both felt safe that night..." Though he should have been far more aware of his surroundings, they had both thought it safe as it had been for well over a decade... the assassination attempt had shocked them. "But Yuuri, I am alive, I came here into this land of memories and dreams to find you and bring you back home."

"You can't be here."

"Why not?" Yuuri's ankles were lifted, palms sliding down the underside of the man's calves, drawing them over broad shoulders, allowing one hand to drop between them and stroke intimately at his lover. "Why can't I be in our memory? You were in mine, were you not?"

"Its different." Lips parted, obsidian eyes heavily lidded and a startled little gasp escaped him as fingers caressed in slow circles before one slipped inside him, making his entire body arch at the stimulation. "It... is..."

"How so?"

"I... I'm holding it up... Shinou... he helped me..."

"Shinou?"

"Mmmh...oooh."

"That might explain things." Conrart considered as a second finger was slipping inside his lover slowly, rubbing against the tense muscles, caressing and easing the tightness there. His mouth stroked along the aching length that throbbed against his cheek, tongue slipping across the underside of it, delighted by the fact that Yuuri was responding to him.

A fingertip brushed against the scar that ran across one eyebrow, thumb sweeping the length of it slowly, fingers siding into the fall of autumn brown locks, sweeping them back away from his lover's face to be able to peer at him. "...Con...?" It came out as a choked sob.

"I'm right here, Yuuri."

A heated brush of air fluttered across the wet skin almost made the dark haired man scream with pleasure, it had been so long since he had felt that good. Far too long.

"Stay with me." The back of his fingers swept along one cheek, lingering there, feeling the warm air slide against the back of his wrist, the life that permeated every cell of his beloved. "Please, Con, don't leave me."

"I won't." He promised his other half, his lips turning upwards into a smile as he kissed the back of his beloved's hand, nuzzling the silky soft skin. "Mine own."

"I need to feel you inside of me." The Maou whimpered softly, gasping as those elegant digits twisted around inside of him and were producing the hottest little bubbles bursting inside of his gut. "I need to feel all of you."

"Never could resist an offer like that." Grinning, his fingers retreated from the tight body, his knees sliding beneath the slender rear, supporting his lover as he leaned over him, spreading those legs wide. The push inside was languorous, every inch a tight slide of hot steel stiffness and resisting muscle. "By... all the..." A long groan escaped Conrart as he penetrated his lover, broad shoulders shaking with the effort to take it slowly. "You're so tight."

Yuuri's smile matched Conrart's, his head tipping upwards slightly, just allowing the warm sunlight to brush across his face, his arms resting on either side of him, stretched out and practically boneless as he allowed Conrart complete control. "What do you expect when I haven't had someone touch me like this for months."

"Someone?" One slow thrust, a touch rougher than he had planned at the words. His mouth found a nipple again, biting down hard in threat if he wasn't answered, though the abused flesh was soon being lapped at, the hard bud responding to the wild movements.

"Yes. Someone." The teasing was back, the easy play between them, the warmth spreading to replace the heavy weight of grief that had utterly consumed his life. "I was lonely you see..."

"No one has any right to touch you." A sharp thrust had Yuuri practically sobbing as Conrart angled to strike that sweetspot, hand closing around the damp shaft of his lover's length, working it roughly, thumb sliding over the head. "No one is ever going to take you from me. I know I'm the only one to touch your heart... to have all of it."

Their bodies were sliding together, a tangle of limbs and heated flesh, the soldier barely able to keep himself from just claiming everything from his lover. The slender body was just so tight, so welcoming and he couldn't quite resist the lure of it. Hot, slick, sexy. His free hand coiled into the untamed mane of raven, curling into it and lifting the beautiful face towards him, kissing Yuuri deeply and just devouring his lover completely as their bodies slid together, merging slowly into one single being. The world was beginning to crack around them, the tree fragmenting into parts, as if someone had shattered a mirror. This little reality that they had retreated to was dying.

"Look at me." Conrart breathed against Yuuri's damp lips, lapping at them softly, thrusting harder and deeper into the willing body, hissing out a sigh of pleasure as muscles clamped down on him. "Look just at me." Black locked with brown, an arching jolt of something passing between them in that one moment.

It felt as if shards of glass were tinkering down across his back, a fine shower of a thousand million separate colours each held within a grain of sand. Conrart ignored it all in favour of his lover, both arms sliding beneath the slender body, cradling Yuuri tightly against his chest as legs slipped from his shoulders and looped around his waist, pulling him closer. Lifting the thin half-demon into his lap, he was tucking the beautiful face against his throat, closing his own eyes as they rocked together in a heated dance of bodies.

The coils of heat spread from where they were joined, skin rubbing erotically, a touch damp with sweat, Conrart rocking hard, drifting in deep, melting them together. He buried his face against the silky strands, seeking out the long ragged scars that ran across one side of his lover's scalp, lapping where it ran just behind his lover's ear. "I love you."

Arms hugged the soldier close, his fingernails biting erotically into flesh, scrapping and clawing a little as the pressure continued to build up between them, wave after wave of it crashing up and over them. "Its... too much." He gasped, breathless with anticipation and desperate from need. Pressing himself down hard against that rock hard length penetrating deeply into him, his muscles squeezed about it, working every inch of the velvet covered steel of Conrart's erection. "You... are too much... too much to contain... to much to hold onto..."

"Then I'll just hold onto you." Conrart whispered back as he allowed his own tears to fall, both of them silently weeping for the long months of separation and anguish that had consumed what had been so full of joy. "I'll hold every part of you together, I'll be here, my Beloved. I'll be your sword and shield." Palm cradling the tight rear, he squeezed hard, getting a bite to the throat in return for the torment.

Words became impossible.

As the world crumbled around them, the colours melting away into blackness, the soldier drew Yuuri back with him, cradling the essence of his other half back with him to the real world. Reality was beginning to encroach on them, the sounds of familiar voices invading their privacy, the fields and trees giving away to the stone walls of Covenant Castle.

Yuuri's cry of utter pleasure broken the darkness, head arching back, black eyes wide with surprise as the coiled heat exploded with the force of a demolition charge, rocking both of them as the smaller man's body began to desperately milk the soldier's length, drifting him to climax as well. Descending over the edge together, Conrart sheltered Yuuri's body with his own. Their voices mingling together as the world was engulfed with flames of ecstasy.

The glass completely fractured all the way through and allowing both to slide through its razor sharp embrace and back to where they belonged.

Obsidian eyes blinked slightly against the sudden intrusion of brightness that assailed his surroundings. The familiar bed rested beneath his back, his body jerking upwards with a helpless sob, his hand covering his mouth and tried to keep the sounds from escaping him, the memories burned all the way through him. The feeling of those hands on him after so long, the dream so vivid it felt real, the relief of having Conrart back being replaced by the raw agony that always came when he found himself along in his own bed. Sheets were sliding down over his skin, pooling across his lap and he positively groaned at the contact between silk and hot sensitive flesh.

His hair was plastered against his skin, clinging to the sides of his face and the back of his neck as his fingers lifted from where they had been clutched in the sheets, brushing up across his belly and aching nipples that felt like someone had... A whimper was torn from his lips at the contact, squirming uncomfortably against the mattress and becoming even more aware that other parts of him were aching deliciously from rather intimate use. There had only ever been one person he had allowed to touch him like this, to consume every part of his body and... let down his guard.

Had he betrayed him?

The thought that he had allowed another to touch him was repugnant and made his skin crawl. Even though his beloved was gone he would never allow any other to ever take his place. Conrart was everything to him and Yuuri was extremely loyal to his other half. His hand lifted higher, wanting to curl his fingers around the familiar ring that hung down against his skin and found absolutely nothing, his heart clenched sharply. Where was Conrart's ring?

Suddenly a hand brushed across his thigh, calloused fingers stroking slow erotic circles from knee to groin, the cool metal of a ring teasing his flushed skin. The bed shifted beneath him, the warmth of another invading the sheets and all of his senses. A thumb feathered delicately against a forming love bite on Yuuri's flushed skin, tracing the edges of it in the candle lit darkness of his bedroom.

"Please... don't touch me." His voice was a raw croak, his throat dry and clearly he had been doing more than just talking to whoever it was that shared his bed. "I'm sorry... but please... don't." Scooting away, he turned his back on the other occupant of the bed, rolling and almost stumbling as he tried to avoid looking back at his night time visitor.

His eyes swept the darkness, noting the forgotten book he had last seen Wolfram reading on the chair beside the bed... flowers and a knitted animal from Gwendal. And the cracked Demon Mirror resting with them, half hidden amongst the objects, looking almost abandoned and quite out of place.

"What have I done?" Yuuri asked himself, hands covering his face and shoulders sagging as he felt soft kisses brushing across his shoulders and he flinched away. "Oh... Kami... what... what have I done?"

"I thought that would be obvious?" Strong arms swept around Yuuri's waist, tugging him backwards against the edge of the bed and back against a strong chest. A mouth caressed the curve of the dark haired man's throat, lapping slowly over the slightly salty skin in something almost akin to amusement. "Or... was it not enough?"

That voice.

"Come back to bed. There is no need to be walking around in the cold at this time of morning."

"Con...?"

"Yes?" Nuzzling Yuuri's shoulder, he nibbled at the flushed skin tenderly, half dragging the slender man back onto the bed with him, tucking them both beneath the blankets and practically coiling himself around his lover.

"You're... real?"

"I would hope so."

Trembling hands touched the broad chest, encountering bandages and felt his heart lurch, his eyes slowly lifting to be able to gaze into his lover's face, swallowing around the large lump lodged in his throat. "How?" Was this reality? Was he finally back in his own body? His fingers slipped over shoulders, sliding down over every inch of Conrart's skin, feeling each and every scar that lined that body, being able to count the years by each raised mark. "It... is you."

"It seems Shinou managed to keep my body... alive in some fashion or at least in one piece... and you slowly drew my soul back to the surface of... well... back towards life and after you went through the Mirror, you left me a trail to follow back to my own body." It was all quite crazy and they would both need a long talk with Shinou about it, but Conrart didn't care how it happened but was just grateful to the powers that be that he could be once more with his beloved.

"Shinou?" Obsidian eyes blinked at that, trying to let his memories order themselves. He remembered things that... he had never experienced. He had seen the Battle of Lutenberg, held Conrart close as they rode to safety. Seen this man as a raw force of nature... furious and reckless in battle... seen another side of his lover and understood how others could call him the Lion of Lutenberg. "Do you...?"

"Yes. I seem to have a new set of memories... it is all quite... interesting." Both brows lifted at that and he smiled a little amused by it, but relief flared through him knowing that Yuuri was back with him that all would be well once more. "A gift."

"Yes. Yes it is... I am glad for them." Because he remembered more about Conrart Weller, knew more about this man's past, had lived another life in this world with him... knew Suzanna Julia... knew so many from before he had first arrived in Shin Makoku. The sense of home only added to by them. "Even the darker ones... I... I know them, I know Julia... Delchais. Gisela... so many that have gone before us."

"Wolfram... Gwendal... The others..." His eyes gazing at the gifts sitting close by, his heart warming at the sight of them as Conrart cradled him there in the darkness. "I... I abandoned them."

"No. You just did what you needed to do. You brought me back and they all understand that, no one is angry with you." Brushing his lips against Yuuri's temple, he just tightened his hold on the smaller man. "I spoke to them." Both hands stroked over the slender body, lingering over the too thin frame and promising himself that he would definitely make sure that Yuuri didn't skip a single meal.

"How come... I feel like I've been well loved?"

"Well... you were." Conrart muffled a laugh against his lover's throat, before entwining their hands, their rings clinching softly together. "Even if it might have been a dream... it seems as if things there... reflected what we were... up to here..." With a bemused cough, he wasn't about to admit that when he had come back to himself, Gwendal had been standing stock still in the doorway looking as if he had been hit squarely in the face by a pillow and... The flush on his brother's cheeks had been enough to earn him a wicked little grin from Conrart.

"Oh... Kami." Yuuri groaned, fingers coiling tightly in the brown strands, shaking his head and just pressing in closer, allowing his heart to ease and for everything to slowly slide out of him. "Why are you grinning like that?"

"Let's just say, Gwendal will not be able to come within a hundred paces of both of us for at least a week without going bright red."

"What?"

"Oh nothing."

"Conrart!"

And happy laughter followed a whimpering little moan.

LOL ^_^ yay for the finish!