Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Summer Time ❯ Chapter Twelve ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter Twelve: The Orb of Baal

"We got a new plan," I said, right after I teleported back to my room. I was back in my demon form, just in case some demon decided to visit right as I got back or something.

Kurama was sitting on the bed, obviously very bored. He had taken up twiddling his thumbs. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. No one deserved to be that bored.

When he stopped twiddling his thumbs and looked at me, I continued to talk. "I'll go and create fakes of the three items, and then you'll get to switch the real ones with the fakes."

Kurama considered what I had said for a moment. "What if they're already fakes?"

"That's not a big deal. If the demons have fakes, then why should it matter if they get a different set of fakes?" I responded, sitting down of the edge of the bed beside Kurama. "And if we take their fakes and Koenma has the real ones, then we're still okay. There's no harm in playing it safe."

"Hmmm... how long would it take you to make them?" Kurama asked me, curious. He knew that my spirit energy was very flexible. It could be forced to do just about anything, but it usually took time.

"I'm not sure. At most, it could take a few days," I replied. "There's no way the three objects are going to be easy to replicate." (A/N: Does anyone know what the three objects were called? I can't remember.)

"I wish we knew how much time we had," Kurama commented, his tone a little wistful. "And what the demons are planning to do with the three objects, if they even have them."

"What else could they be? Can you think of anything else that demons might want that comes in a group of three?" I inquired, bringing my knees up to my chest and resting my head on them.

"No. I don't think that there is another set of three items anywhere... at least none that any demon would be interested in," he replied, standing up and changing into his human form. "I'm going to explore the fourth level some more. You might want to get started on making the copies while I'm gone."

"I know," I said, sighing. I really wasn't looking forward to using so much power. I had a feeling that I was going to be very weak for the next few days. I never liked feeling weak

"I'll be back in a while," Kurama promised. Then, with a kiss and a smile, he was gone.

I uncurled, stretching out my legs and arms. It was about time I got to work, and I wasn't going to do anything while I was in a ball. Besides, it wasn't like I had anything better to do. Kurama was gone, leaving me stuck in the room all alone. If I didn't do something, then I would end up as bored as he had been earlier. I hated being bored.

Shifting my position so that I was sitting with my legs tucked beneath me, I began to form a small sphere of spirit energy. The bright blue ball of light got larger and larger. Tiny bolts of blue lightning sparkled around it. Silver lights flashed in the power's depths. Eventually, I had enough power there to begin forming the Orb of Baal.

Very slowly, my ball of energy changed to green. I kept on pouring my spirit energy into it, using my mind to shape it exactly how I remembered it. I paid attention to even the most minuet details that I could recall. Everything that I knew about the orb went into making the fake.

After two hours, the fake Orb of Baal was only a fourth of the way done, and I was exhausted. Rubbing my eyes, I tossed the partially finished orb into my suitcase. Then I put the suitcase in the closet with a spell to keep everyone from sensing it. That took up the last of my spirit energy. I didn't have a drop remaining, which left me feeling a little empty and very vulnerable.

I yawned, feeling extremely tired. I was going to sleep well, that was for sure. There was just one thing I had left to do: take a shower. There was no way I was going to bed without my shower.

My shower was less than five minutes long. I was too tired to mess around. I just got in, got out, and put on my night clothes. I didn't even have the energy to braid my hair.

I crawled into bed, too tired to stay up for Kurama or even change back into my human form. Curling up under the covers, I was asleep within moments.

I woke up to someone rubbing my ears. The person was being very gentle but still firm. The person was even scratching my ears every so often.

I was, of course, purring absent-mindedly. I was so much like a cat in my demon form. My ears were sensitive like a cat's, and it felt wonderful to have them rubbed, which was probably how a cat felt.

"Kurama?" I asked, still a little groggy from sleep. All I had to say, was that if it wasn't Kurama rubbing my cat ears, then someone's head was going to roll... or at least acquire a few very painful scratches.

"Good morning," Kurama replied, voice light and cheery. "I let you sleep in since you were so tired. I brought you breakfast."

I opened my eyes and sat up. Kurama was in his demon form, a plate of fruit and doughnuts on top of the dresser near him.

"What time is it?" I asked, yawning. I was still exhausted from the pervious night's efforts. And to think that I still had so much to do.

"It's a little after ten," he replied, handing me the plate of food. "Now eat. You're exhausted and you need to get something in your stomach."

"It's after ten!" I cried out, shocked. I was suppose to have been in the arena ages ago. I tossed aside the covers and moved to get up. I had to hurry up and get to the coliseum as soon as possible. I had a responsibility to fulfill. I wasn't about to shirk one of my duties.

Kurama put a hand on my shoulder and forced me back into a sitting position, his expression calm. "Don't worry. I got Koto to cover you. She's even agreed to do all the morning fights for the next week or so. I told her that you've been feeling really tired in the morning and such... and she immediately agreed to help. I think she took what I said the wrong way though." Kurama paused for a moment while I began to eat. "She mentioned something about morning sickness, and how she couldn't wait until the nine months were up."

I nearly choked on my food. Koto thought I was pregnant! What in the world?! Things were just getting worse and worse. Knowing Koto, she had already gone and announced to everyone at the arena that I was supposedly with child.

Kurama rubbed my back, obviously not understanding why I was so shocked. He looked like he thought some food had merely gone down the wrong tube.

"Youko Kurama," I began, my entire body tense. "Koto thinks that you told her that I was pregnant."

"What?!" he shouted, looking very shocked. He had not been expecting me to say that.

"Morning sickness? Nine months?" I said, eating a slice of an orange. "Those terms are usually connected with pregnancy and babies." I had to act reasonable, even though I felt the same way he did. But, if Kurama was going to be the one to have a heart attack, then I needed to be the one to remain calm.

Kurama almost fell off the bed, his eyes very big. It took him a moment to collect himself. "Perhaps I'd better go and straighten her out."

I sighed. "What's done is done. She's probably told everyone on the yacht by now. We might as well go along with it." I gave him a half smile. "Besides, it give me the perfect excuse to use for just about anything."

"You always do see the bright side of things," Kurama commented, sounding a little surprised by my reaction. He quickly recovered though. "Now, you'd better finish eating all that. After all, you're eating for two," he teased gently, brushing a hand across my abdomen.

"Kurama!" I protested, laughing at him. He had a habit of making the most embarrassing situations bearable. "You're being an absolute goofball." I shook my head at him in disbelief, still laughing. "What am I going to do with you?" I asked, eating some strawberries. I put the plate aside after that. I was full. It didn't take much food to feed me when I was in my demon form.

Kurama's fox ears twitched, and he suddenly pounced on me, playfully pinning me down. "Hmmm... I think the question is, what am I going to do with you?" he countered, giving me a quick kiss on the lips. He had a playful gleam in his eyes and a smirk on his face.

"I can think of a couple things right off the top of my head," I replied, giggling as he nuzzled my neck. His fox ears tickled when they lightly brushed up against my skin.

"Like what?" he asked, giving me another kiss on the lips. He then smiled at me impishly, obviously in a very good mood.

"I'm not going to tell you," I said tauntingly. "You're just going to have to guess." I really hadn't thought of anything, but I had wanted play along. Kurama and I played 'games' every so often. It was basically us flirting, but we always had a lot of fun during the 'games'. I knew that we were about to play another one.

Kurama took that as a challenge. He began to lightly run his claws down my bare neck, which really tickled. "Is this one of them?" he asked, continuing the tickle torture.

"No," I answered, giggling. I was rather enjoying Kurama's playful nature, as I always did. Of course, he was the only guy I would even think about 'playing' with, and as far as my opinion went, Kurama was the only guy for me. Not to mention the only guy who could get away with pinning me down on a bed.

"How about this?" he asked, placing kisses all up and down my neck. After a moment he moved to the base of my throat and my shoulders.

I squirmed a little bit. It is hard to keep still when a cute guy is tickling and kissing you. "No. Keep trying," I told him, grinning. The guessing game was a lot of fun, and I was curious to see what he would guess next.

Kurama paused to think for a moment. He looked me in the eyes, searching for an answer. "Perhaps this," he finally said, rubbing and scratching my ears. His touch was gentle but firm. It felt really nice, so I couldn't help but enjoy every second of it.

I began to purr very loudly. Man, did I really have to purr so much? I wondered if there was any way to control it. Knowing my luck, probably not.

"Alright, alright," I admitted. "I give up! You win. This was what I was thinking of." That wasn't quite it, but I needed to say something to get him to try something else. I didn't want to keep purring for who knows how long.

Kurama stopped rubbing my ears and looked at me. "You give up, huh?" he asked, quickly kissing the tip of my nose. "What if I don't?"

"Ah..." I couldn't think of any response to that. What could I even say? I did want Kurama not to give up. I was having too much fun for it to end so soon.

Smiling, Kurama continued to tease and play for the next half hour, much to my delight.

When he finally decided that I had gone through enough, he let me sit back up. The grin on his face was huge and even a little smug.

"What was all that for, Kurama?" I inquired curiously, getting out of bed and pulling a dress out of the closet. "I loved it, I really did; but why did ya do it?"

"Why do you ask, my love?" he countered wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. "Thinking of trying it again soon?"

"You are just insufferable this morning, aren't you?" I teased him jokingly, turning my head so I could give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Maybe," he replied, his tone still playful.

"Oh, you!" I stated with a laugh. "Now let me go so I can get changed. We can talk once I'm dressed."

"Very well," Kurama said, faking reluctance. He released me so very slowly, obviously testing my patience.

When I was finally free, I went into the bathroom and quickly got changed. I emerged a moment later in a bright blue, knee-length dress that matched my eyes perfectly. It had short sleeves, and the material gracefully hugged my form. The neckline was high, which was fine with me. The only bad thing was that material was thin. It covered everything, but it didn't do much good against the cold. I really hoped that Kurama liked me in a dress. The only reason I was wearing it was to impress him.

Much to my enjoyment, Kurama was impressed. He gave a low, appreciative whistle. "You look beautiful, Kaline," he told me, voice sincere.

"Thank you." I blushed and changed the subject. "Now, why don't you tell me about what you found last night?"

"Just more spells. There's about ten rooms or so for me to go through yet, but I've seen no signs of any humans or items," Kurama answered with a sad sigh. "I just wish that I could find something."

"I'm sure that you will soon," I told him, placing a comforting hand on his arm. "It's not like they can hide anything from you for long. I know that you'll discover what they're guarding soon enough."

Kurama gave me a half smile. "How about we go up to the deck and enjoy the nice weather?"

"I should stay here and work-" I began, but Kurama silenced me with a look. "Or not."

"You need to rest. Deal with the orb tonight, after the evening fights," Kurama ordered, voice firm.

"Very well," I conceded, not really happy about that. I did understand that Kurama was only trying to protect me. He loved me and didn't want me to over exert myself. "Let's go lay in the in the sun for a while. I would like to warm up."

With that said, we left the room and climbed up to the deck. It was a very nice day. It wasn't incredibly hot, and the sun felt pleasantly warm on my face. The light breeze caused my black hair to sway back and forth.

Kurama ran his fingers through my hair as we laid down on a lounge chair. He hugged me close to his side, my head on his muscular chest. One of his hands played with my hair while the other absently rubbed my shoulder. I just traced the dragon design on his shirt with a finger, as happy as I could be.

The afternoon went by very quickly, as did supper and the evening fights. Nothing eventful happened at all, except that Jacinth gave me another thank you hug and talked to me for a few minutes before running off again.

Kurama left to explore the fourth floor at his normal time, and I went back to work on the fake Orb of Baal.

By the time Kurama came back from his exploring, I was about ready to drop. The orb was a little over half finished, which I was very proud of.

"You look very worn out and pale," Kurama commented, his tone one of worry and kindness. "Perhaps you'd better rest."

"Hmmm?" I responded, looking up at him from my position on the bed with blurred vision. I was so tired I was about ready to drop. Even though I was sitting on the bed, I was swaying back and forth unsteadily.

Kurama shook his head and smiled sweetly at me. "Just give me the orb and tell me where to put it," he urged me gently.

"It's goes in my suitcase in the closet," I muttered, rubbing my eyes and giving him the ball.

Kurama put the fake where I had told him to. I mumbled a few words to seal the orb away so no one could sense it.

I gave a yawn as the red head came back over to me. "Go to sleep now," he said, gently forcing me to lay down. It wasn't like it would have taken much strength to get me to do anything at that moment. "I'm just going to take a shower. I'll be back very soon," he promised, pulling the blanket over me and giving me a kiss on the forehead. Within moments, Kurama was in the bathroom, taking his shower.

Through a great force of will, I stayed awake until Kurama came back into the room in a pair of blue plaid boxers. He had obviously decided to change into different night clothes. Not that anyone could really call boxers 'night clothes'.

"I'm so tired," I muttered softly as he climbed into bed and hugged me close to him.

Kurama gave me a gentle squeeze. "Well, get some sleep. I'll make sure to have breakfast waiting for you when you get up."

"Thank you," I replied, yawning as I closed my eyes.

"Good night... oyasumi," he whispered in my ear as I drifted off to sleep.

The next two days were pretty much the same. Nothing really exciting happened during the day, but the second night was interesting...

"Kurama!" I cried out as he teleported back into the room. He had just spent the past three hours exploring the fourth level. "I finally finished the orb!" I showed him my work of art. It had taken so long to do, and I was very proud of my craftsmanship.

"I'm impressed," Kurama said, picking up the fake orb and examining it. "You did a very good job with this. I can't even tell that it's a fake."

"Thank you," I replied, smiling brightly. I loved getting compliments from Kurama.

"Well, you should like my news very much since you're done with this," he told me, grinning from ear to ear. "I found the three objects tonight. I can probably replace the Orb of Baal right now, and no one will know the difference."

"Congratulations!" I shouted, throwing my arms around him. I gave him a quick hug and kiss.

"I'll go take care of this," Kurama said, holding up the orb I had just finished making. "I'll be back in a moment."

I released him, allowing him to teleport off to the third floor.

Kurama was true to his word. Less than a minute later, he was back in the room, a large smile on his face. He held out the Orb of Baal to me. "Here you go. This is the one the demons had."

I took the object from him and inspected it. "I can't tell if it's real or a fake. I know that I didn't make it, but that's it."

"Hmmm... I guess that we'll just have to ask Koenma once we got off this yacht," Kurama said, shrugging.

"Until then," I replied. "It can stay hidden." I put the Orb of Baal into my suitcase, quickly spelling it so no one could sense it, not even me.

I turned to Kurama, sighing happily. "For the first time in ages, I feel like we've made some really awesome progress."

"Ages?" he repeated, laughing. "We've only been here for a week." (A/N: For those of you who don't believe that it's been a week, go back and double check)

"Really? It seems so much longer," I stated, feeling a little foolish, but I quickly shrugged it off. "We should have a little celebration tomorrow afternoon. Just the two of us. Perhaps we could go back to the bar and dance room? We haven't been back there since our first day on this ship."

"I suppose that we could do that," Kurama replied a little teasingly. "I think that I would enjoy it."

"Good," I said, smiling. It had been such a good night. I had finished the orb and had even gotten my shower over with before Kurama had even gotten back from exploring. I was going to go to bed very happy.

"Now that we have our plans all set down, I'm going to take a shower," Kurama stated, giving me a kiss. "You smell really good right now," he added after a moment, caressing my face with the back of his hand.

I sighed happily. "Oh, Kurama." I shook my head in astonishment as I took his hand in mine. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"Does it really matter? You have me now," he countered, smiling at me as he took his hand back. "Now, I'm going to take my shower. Be good until I get out."

"I will," I promised, humoring him.

After giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, he gathered up all this stuff and went into the bathroom. Within moments, I could hear the shower running.

Feeling very content, I plopped down on the bed, dressed in my pjs. I had changed from wearing a t-shirt and shorts to bed into a spaghetti-strap shirt and shorts. My shirt was white and my shorts were a dark blue.

Finally remembering something, I changed into my human form. I felt much more comfortable like that. First of all, it seemed quieter. Second, I didn't have those sharp nails. I had accidentally scratched myself one morning while I had been getting dressed. I hadn't been happy when I had bled on my favorite shirt.

Frowning at the memory, I curled up under the covers. It felt so much colder in the room without Kurama beside me.

I was very happy when Kurama came out of the shower ten minutes later, dressed in red silk boxers.

"You're freezing, aren't you?" That was the first thing he asked, his expression one of sympathy.

I merely nodded my head, giving him a smile.

Kurama chuckled at my silliness, turning off the light and getting into bed. I snuggled up next to him, still elated from the recent events.

"Good night," Kurama whispered in my ear, his very sweet and soft.

"Good night, my love and my mate," I replied, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Sweet dreams," he said, hugging me.

Smiling, I fell asleep.