Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Summer Time ❯ Chapter three ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three: The Yacht

I stood at port seven, waiting for Kurama to show up. I was in my cat demon form in a demon town. Dressed for comfort, I was wearing a pair of tennis shoes, jean shorts, and a tank top. I was carefully holding a suitcase which Salova, my guardian, had helped me pack. Salova hadn't been particularly thrilled, but she had still promised to make excuses to my friends for me. I had a great guardian.

"You look lovely, Kaline," Kurama said from behind me, his voice kind. Of course, he always sounded kind when he talked to me.

I turned around to see the fox demon. "You look quite handsome yourself, Kurama. Hopefully I won't have to beat off any girl demons while we're on the ship," I teased, though I was serious about him being handsome.

"Shall we go aboard?" he asked, offering me his arm. He was such a gentleman at times, and I loved it.

"Yes, please," I replied formally, placing my hand on the offered arm. It was so sweet of him to escort me. I couldn't help but smile at him.

"I came up with a backup plan," he told me suddenly as we approached the yacht. "I don't have time to explain, so just follow my lead if your plan fails."

"Okay," I agreed as I wondered what Kurama had come up with.

We walked up the gangplank and onto the deck of the yacht. A man right at the top of the gangplank stopped us.

"State your names and reasons for being on board," the man ordered briskly.

"Youko Kurama," Kurama told the man. His voice held an abnormal coldness to it.

"Kaline," I said, keeping my voice calm and gentle. "There's no surname."

"We're mercenaries," Kurama added when the man gave him a questioning look.

"May I request that Youko Kurama and I be sold together and not forced to fight against each other?" I inquired, my voice sweet and soft.

"Why?" the man countered in a gruff voice.

I was startled for a moment. "We're companions."

"So? Friends fight all the time on this boat," the man replied.

"What Kaline means is that we're lovers," Kurama told the man, giving him a cold glare.

I hid my shock behind a sweet smile. What had Kurama just said? That we were lovers? That was his great backup plan?! Well, I had promised that I would go along with it...

"Oh," the man commented, nodding his head in understanding. "Did she learn that term from her parents?"

"Yes, I did," I said, my voice still kind. "They disliked the word 'lovers', so they raised me to say companions."

"I guess that makes sense. There still are quite a few parents who are old- fashioned," the man stated understandingly. "Now don't worry your pretty face there, beautiful. You won't have to fight against your lover there. I'll make sure of it."

"Thank you," I told him with a gentle nod of my head. Man, was I getting sick of talking to the guy.

"I just have one more question before I have someone take you to your room," the man said. "Lady, would you be kind enough to be the officiator at the fights? You are the most beautiful female on the ship, and it would probably raise moral and such if you were the officiator."

"May I think about it?" I inquired. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to be the officiator. The officiator stood in the middle of the fighting ring and told the audience what was going on. The person also counted to ten and such when fighters were knocked out, down on the ground, or out of the ring.

"If the captain will let you," the man replied. "He may just decided that you're too pretty to sit in the stands."

"I'll do it then," I said a little reluctantly. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to meet the captain of a demon ship.

"Good. The first fight will be right after supper. You'll be expected to be in the arena about ten minutes early wearing something a little more appropriate for the occasion. Now, I'll have Gus take you to your room," the man responded. He turned around. "GUS!" he shouted. "Come here!"

A tall man with blond hair and blue eyes came over. His skin was blue and he had four eyes.

The man whispered a few words in Gus's ear. Gus nodded his head curtly, and then turned to look at Kurama and me.

"Follow me please," Gus said, spinning on his heel and walking off.

Kurama and I exchanged looks and followed Gus.

Gus lead us down to the second level of the yacht. He handed Kurama and me each a key and then pointed to a door. Then, Gus left.

"Not much of a talker, was he?" I commented jokingly.

"I guess not," he replied with a smile. "Shall we go in?" He gestured towards the door.

"Definitely," I told him, inserting my key in the lock. I turned the key, opened the door and went inside. Kurama followed me.

As I stuffed my key in the pocket of my jean shorts, I looked around the room. There was only one large bed, two dressers, a closet, and a connecting bathroom. The room was also very cold.

"It's so cold," I said, putting my suitcase on the top of one of the dressers. "And why is there only one bed? Isn't there normally two?"

"Well, they probably gave us a couple's room," Kurama replied simply.

"That reminds me... why did you say that we were lovers?" I asked him, keeping my voice at a reasonable level. I wasn't really happy with him, but I wasn't angry either.

"It was the only connection that I could give us in which they wouldn't argue with," he answered.

"Couldn't you have said that we were married?" I inquired as I began to unpack all my clothes. I hadn't packed anything warm, and I was beginning to regret it.

"Demons don't get married," Kurama informed me. "They just become lovers. Also, the bond of lovers in the demon world is much more binding than a human marriage."

My tail swished back and forth in annoyance. "I just wish that you could have come up with a different backup plan. Now we're stuck in the same room with only one bed, and it's too cold for either of us to sleep on the floor."

"I am sorry," he apologized as he came over and put his arm around me. "But that was the only thing I could think of. Botan even tried to come up with something else. That was our only backup plan."

"No, there's no need to apologize," I told him, giving him a smile. "You were suppose to come up with a backup plan, and you did. I have a feeling that there were no other options."

"Botan thought about us being siblings," Kurama said. "But there's no way that would work. We don't look anything alike, and you're a cat demon while I'm a fox demon."

"How true," I agreed, leaning my head against his shoulder. Kurama was so warm, and I was so cold. "Do you think that we could get them to turn the heat up down here?"

"I don't think so," he replied.

"Why?" I wondered, going back to my unpacking. Were the crewmen of the ship such tightwads that they couldn't afford to let the room be at least a normal temperature?

"We're in the room for lovers. The cold... increases the likelihood of the couple snuggling together and such," Kurama explained to me.

"Oh," I said, feeling rather stupid. "So why don't we quickly unpack then go have a look around?"

"Sure thing," Kurama went back over to his dresser and began putting his clothes away very neatly.

"I did bring a terrycloth bathrobe," I said, pulling out the item. "That's quite a bit warmer than the rest of my clothes." I put the robe, and I soon felt a little warmer.

I kept pulling clothes out of my suitcase (I had spelled it so that it would have unlimited storage space). Eventually I got down to the skirts and dresses that Salova had assured me that I would need. The only reason I had packed them was because she had told me that Kurama would probably like me to dress up every now and then.

The last things I took out of my suit case were shoes. I had quite a few of them, which surprised me.

"Do you think you have enough things?" Kurama inquired with a laugh. He had finished unpacking quite a bit ago, so he had taken up watching me.

"I think so," I joked back. "Although I think that I forgot a few things."

Kurama nearly fell off the edge of the bed.

"I'm joking!" I exclaimed, then became serious. "Okay, I've got my makeup and hygiene products and jewelry and hair things in the bathroom, my shorts and shirts and other stuff in the dresser, and I have my skirts and dresses in the closet. I think that's all." I took off the warm robe and hung it up in the closet. "Do you want to go exploring now, Kurama?"

His golden-yellow eyes glittered with curiosity. "That sounds like an excellent idea." He opened the door for me and gestured for me to leave the room.

"Thank you," I told him, giving him a kiss on the cheek as I walked passed him.

"As always, you're welcome," he replied, closing and locking the door behind. He put an arm around my shoulder as we walked down the hall.

After a thorough inspection of the second level, we went down to the third. There were a few demons walking around, along with a small laundry room. There was nothing on the third level out of the ordinary... if you decided to count demons as ordinary.

When Kurama and I tried to go down to the fourth level, we found the door locked.

"What are you two doing?!" a demon demanded to know. He was dressed like a crewman.

"It's my fault, sir," I said politely. "I've never been on a ship so I got really curious. I wanted to explore the whole ship and see how everything worked."

"You're not allowed to go down there," the crewman said gruffly. He didn't look very happy.

"I'm very, very sorry," I apologized, doing my best to sound sincere. "Will you please tell me if there are any other places where I am not allowed to go?"

"Just the fourth level," he replied stiffly. "I don't want to catch you trying to go down there again."

"Yes sir," I replied.

"I will make sure to remind her of that if she ever gets the desire to take a peek down there," Kurama promised.

"Make sure that you do," the man said, finally leaving.

Kurama and I exchanged looks. He nodded slightly at me. We both knew that if there were human slaves, then they would be down on the fourth level. I had a feeling that I would have to teleport the both of us down there if we wanted to do some more exploring.

"Shall we go take a look at the first level?" I asked Kurama, making sure that the crewman heard me.

"Yes," he replied, giving me a kind look. "I have a feeling that the fighting arena is up there along with the dining room."

We took the flight of stairs back up to the first level, leaving the suspicious crewman behind. I was more than happy to be rid of the gruff, rude crewman.

Kurama and I explored the first floor, finding a large coliseum-type place for the battle. The dining room and ballroom were also very close along with many more rooms and demons.

"The only thing they seem to be missing is a library," I whispered to Kurama, giggling a little bit. "But I can see that they have a bar where you can order drinks." I pointed to some doors which some demons had just used. "Think that he's in there?"

"Possibly," Kurama replied. He knew who I was talking about. Hiei was probably in there having something to drink. It was also possible that Yusuke and Kuwabara were in there as well.

"Do you want to go in?" I asked him.

He looked at the bar room, then looked back at me. "Yes, I do." With his arm around my shoulder, we walked into the bar.