Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Kitsunebi ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Yuu Yuu Hakusho nor do I make any money from this piece of fan fiction.

 

Reader Warnings: Shounen-ai (AKA Slash, M/M), lime, pairings: Hiei x Kurama, Yomi x Kurama, Yuusuke x Keiko, Kuwabara x Yukina

 

AN: To my reviewers thus far: Thank you for your kind words and love. You have no idea how happy it makes me to know that people enjoy reading the crazy ideas that come out of my head. And I promise you, there will be a Yomi beat down in the near future.

 

Kitsunebi

Chapter 7

 

Several hours passed at the temple before anything happened. After the first hour of relative calm, Yuusuke and Kuwabara decided to take a seat next to Puu, who was channeling Genkai's spirit, and catch up with the old master. Yuusuke would never openly admit it, of course, but he missed her and loved her like the grandmother he never had. She had taught him discipline, taught him what it meant to fight, and most importantly, value what he had. After a while, and checking with Koenma that there was no activity through any of the portals, Genkai even got Yuusuke and Kuwabara to do a little training together.

 

A flare of Kurama's youki told them something was happening, as all three sets of eyes focused on the pair. Hiei's eye suddenly snap open as his head is thrown back, as though he had been punched in the face, as Kurama's fox form begins to glow bright white. The body enlarges as distinctly humanoid features form: arms, legs, and torso; the light dissipates, revealing Kurama's youko form. His eyes fly open, and upon seeing the other three Reikai Tantei so close to him, he leaps for the courtyard, vaulting over Puu's larger body, Rose Whip in hand. Yuusuke and Kuwabara make a move to say something, but are stopped when Hiei holds out his sealed right arm to stop them.

 

Kurama, relax, Hiei says through their mind link, sending soothing emotions through in the process. It's ok. You're at the temple in the Ningenkai.

 

Kurama drops to his knees as Hiei's voice triggers a rush of memories. His attempt on Yomi's life, only to discover later that the assassin had only succeeded in blinding the goat youkai. His partnership with Kuronue, only to have the bat youkai die in a trap a few years later. His own brush with death, and his rebirth as Minamino Shuuichi, the perfect son every mother wishes she could have. His first meeting with Hiei, resulting in his current friendship - or was there something more? - with him. His mother's illness, leading to him steal the Forlorn Hope, and meeting Yuusuke. His fight against Genbu of the Four Saint Beasts, his first assignment as part of his parole. The Dark Tournament and the struggles that came as they fought for their lives in the ring, and his reclamation of his youko form. His meeting with Kaito, his classmate at school, in his territory just prior to their next case with Sensui. His return to the Makai as the result of Yomi's insistence and manipulation. The Makai Tournament, his first show of open defiance against Yomi.

 

And then came the newest set of memories, the result of the latest set of threats from Yomi. The message from the sphere. The idle threat against his mother and his human family, whom Koenma had said protection was granted to. The strong sleeping powder in his food, which Kurama had not detected until it was too late, and he was on the verge of collapse. Him waking up to find that yes, he did return Yomi's affections. Him screaming in his head that no matter what a small part of him said, that he was repulsed by the goat youkai, he could not help but do what was asked of him. And the last thing he recalls: fighting Hiei, losing the necklace, and the ensuing nightmare in his mind.

 

Kurama clutches his head in neatly manicured hands as memories flood back. Overwhelmed, the kitsune faints into Hiei's arms as he reverts back to his human form.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Hiei carefully lays the unconscious form onto the futon Yukina had spread out for Kurama. Red hair fans out behind the sleeping redhead like a red halo of temptation; Hiei had found that the hair was as soft and silky as the fur of the youko's fox form. It was then that Hiei realized that Youko Kurama truly was the best thief in all of the Makai, past, present and future; that the legends were true. He had done what no other being, male, female, youkai, human, or god could ever hope to do. He had stolen the one thing the Forbidden Child himself had locked away underneath miles and miles of frozen mental walls to ensure nothing could ever reach and for years denied its very existence. His heart.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kurama slowly awakens to the gentle chirping of birds outside. Opening his eyes, he recognizes the aging beams of the temple roof. His eyes sweep around the room, landing on a certain half-Koorime's sleeping form in the corner. Hiei was sitting upright, one leg up, with the other stretched out, katana hilt resting on his left shoulder while the tip of the sheath was planted between his legs. His left arm rested on the katana, keeping it in place while his head rested on the hilt as he slept. What surprised Kurama, though, was that the Jagan was wide open and gently glowing, clearly pointed at the sleeping fox.

 

Hiei stirs as the Jagan told him the fox had woken up, and after a few blinks, ruby met emerald for the first time in many days. “Sleep well, Fox?”

 

“Yes,” Kurama answers, thinking. “Thank you.”

 

“Hn. Don't mention it,” Hiei replies, brushing off the fox's gratitude.

 

Kurama sits up, hands clenching the blankets that had kept him warm through the night. “Don't tell Yuusuke and the others about what you saw in my head,” he quietly requests as he hung his head and shut his eyes to prevent the tears that were building. He was, if nothing else, ashamed of what Hiei had seen. Youko Kurama, supposedly the greatest and most bastardly thief in all of the Makai, reduced to a broken sobbing mess and humiliated.

 

Try as he might, tears of anger and frustration started rolling down perfectly sculpted cheeks and onto his hands. It only fueled his frustration, as his body began to bend over into wracking sobs as he felt the emotional turmoil wash away. After the first few, a strong set of arms pulls the conflicted fox towards a warm chest, soothing hands running up and down the fox's back.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Hiei could only hope that he was doing the right thing when he rubbed up and down the fox's back as he had seen the others do in the past. And when the kitsune noticeably relaxed, Hiei gently released a breath he had barely realized he had been holding. Minutes seemed to crawl by as Kurama's sobs continued, and in some part of Hiei's mind, he wished that he could continue holding the fox, and that the gentle embrace could have been under better circumstances.

 

Quiet footsteps echo down the hallway, and as Hiei looks up, he sees Yukina quietly slide the old screen door open with two trays of food next to her. As she brought in the food, she gently asks, “How is he?”

 

Looking down, Hiei notices that Kurama had fallen asleep once more, although this time, unlike the tortured sleep that threatened to wake him earlier had Hiei not used his Jagan to block the nightmares; it was a quiet restful sleep. “Better now, I think.”

 

A look of relief washes over her face. “I'll come by for the trays when I bring in lunch. I'll see to it you're not disturbed.”

 

Hiei could only answer her with a look of pure gratitude. In that one moment of understanding, Hiei almost wished the circumstances of his Jagan implant were different, that Shigure had not forced the fire youkai into secrecy regarding his relation to Yukina. Whether the look caught Yukina off guard, she did not comment on. She only replied with her pure smile, pure and clear as freshly fallen snow.

 

`Something must be wrong with me,' Hiei thinks to himself as he contentedly watches Kurama sleep. `So beautiful. I don't deserve such a beautiful gift.' Acting on impulse, Hiei bends ever closer to the redhead's soft lips, wanting nothing more than to kiss them, and suck the pain away.

 

Millimeter by millimeter, Hiei closes in, and he would have gotten his wish, if Kurama did not stir. Hiei instantly pulls his face back, not wanting to startle the fox into something he was not prepared for. Seeing the compromising position he had put Hiei in, the fox pulled away from the fire youkai, a soft blush gracing his cheeks. “S-sorry,” he mumbles.

 

Closing his eyes to recompose himself, Hiei only answers, “Yukina brought us breakfast.” Standing up, Hiei brings one of the trays closer. Realizing the food was now cold, he uses a little youki to use his hands to warm the food back up before bringing it to the fox. “I just warmed your breakfast back up for you. Eat.”

 

Looking down at the tray, which consisted of miso soup, grilled fish, rice, and an egg, Kurama's stomach growls, and after the first bite, heartily digs into the meal. Hiei spares the fox a small gentle smile of relief before going to warm up his own breakfast.

 

To be continued . . .

 

AN: For all the times I said that I find Hiei to be almost impossible to write for, I find myself drawn more and more to writing this from his perspective as opposed to Kurama's. I know it may seem strange that Hiei's the one who's putting the moves on Kurama (I'm well aware that for the most part, the fandom seems to have Kurama being the one who does most of the initiating) but I have a hard time believing that spending all that time with Kurama didn't change Hiei in some way. I'd like to believe that, if nothing else, Hiei's softened up a little on the inside, and just doesn't really want the rest of the world to know. As usual, drop me a review; they make me insanely happy.