Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Voice of Your Eyes ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A/N: This is the sequel to The Wreck of My Memories. It's another story from Hiei's POV. There is mild shounen-ai.

Disclaimer: All rights belong to Yoshihiro Togashi and Shonen Jump. No infringement intended, etc etc all that jazz. I'm poor so don't sue.

Rating is M for language.

The Voice of Your Eyes

By Terri Botta 2005

Chapter Six

The sun shines down on the old temple complex, lighting on the thriving gardens and clean swept paving stones. It is the end of summer and it is hot, but a pleasant breeze makes the day more bearable.

We are outside, sitting comfortably in the shade, the remnants of our dinner piled in empty bowls and bento boxes. Uma rests with her back against the ever-blooming sakura tree, her hands idly stroking the trunk as she sends her energy up into the higher limbs to sprout more flowers. Kurama watches her and gives her an appreciative smile.

They are a matched set, these two. Both are never happier than when they are puttering around their gardens and fussing over their plants. Having Uma come live in this place surrounded by forest as far as the eye can see was a stroke of pure kitsune brilliance. I doubt this place was so well tended even when the old woman was alive.

I feel a small stab of regret. I didn't know when Genkai died. I was in the Makai with Mukuro and word didn't reach me until months later. I would have liked to have been able to pay my respects to her. She had always been kind to me, had even fed me on numerous occasions, and she was a strong and skilled fighter. She taught Yuusuke almost everything he knows. I think we all miss her, but I imagine that she would be happy knowing her special place is being tended so diligently.

Per Genkai's request, the surrounding land will never be sold or developed. It will remain wild and untamed as it has always been, and with four demons among the legal heirs, it's unlikely that it will ever come out of our possession. Genkai hoped it would become a sanctuary for demons and humans alike, and Uma living here and loving it is part of that legacy.

It's been several months since I discovered that Uma was still alive and took her from the Makai in order to keep her safe. I don't think she misses the old shack with its leaky roof and drafty windows. Compared to the hovel she was living in, Genkai's temple is a palace full of luxuries like indoor plumbing and hot running water. No, I doubt she misses the Makai at all. No one bothers her here and she is free to garden and grow her herbs as much as she wants.

We visit often; Kurama more than me, but he lives in the Ningenkai while I do not. It is not as easy for me to slip away unnoticed, although Mukuro knows I have strong ties to the human world, and accepts that I like to spend as much of my free time here as I possibly can. I think she suspects that my relationship with Kurama's `herbalist colleague' is more than mere professional courtesy to a friend, but she is shrewd and keeps her mouth shut.

Ch. Both of us have our secrets.
She didn't even question me when I asked of there was something that could be done to help Uma's injuries. At her raised eyebrow, I explained that Kurama owed her a debt, and I in turn owed Kurama a debt, and so the fox had brought Uma to me. I'm pretty sure Mukuro knew there was more to the story than I was revealing but she helped as much as Uma would let her.

Uma's new robotic leg is the result.

The leg is all she would accept. Mukuro offered a set of hands but of course that would have meant cutting off the ones she had, and, as burned and scarred as they were, Uma wasn't willing to part with them. As for her throat, a cybernetic voice box would have restored a voice but it would have sounded artificial so she turned that down too. She does fine with her mind-speech with those who are telepathic like Kurama and me, and Kurama has taught her sign language so she can communicate with those who aren't. Now she signs as she speaks mind-to-mind almost as if it is how she has always spoken. I like to watch the graceful movements of her hands as she forms the patterns in time with her thoughts. I've learned the silent language myself just from observing her but I haven't revealed that little fact. She and Kurama like to `talk' about me with it because they think I can't understand what they're saying. It gives me insights on their latest scheming.

In that they are also a matched set; always trying to wheedle something out of me that I'd rather not do or admit. They managed to convince me to tell Yukina that I was her brother, even though I had previously told her that her twin was dead. Imagine my surprise when my sister smiled at me and told me that she already knew. Apparently she'd always known, or at least she'd known for certain after the Dark Tournament. She told me that she knew it was me because she could feel me, and she'd just allowed me to go on thinking that I had her fooled because she thought it was what I wanted.

When I told her the reason I had kept the truth from her, she actually started to cry. She hugged me and said she was so relieved that was all it was because she had been so afraid that I was ashamed of her because she was weak and allowed herself to be captured by that pig bastard Tarukane.

How could I ever be ashamed of Yukina? All along it was me who was the one who was ashamed.

She, like Uma, forgave me. They both forgave me without reservation. It is something I am not sure I could do myself, but maybe someday I can learn it from them. I've been able to learn from my friends in the past. Yuusuke taught me what it meant to be part of a team. The Oaf taught me that pure human stubbornness can overcome the greatest obstacles. And Kurama… Kurama has taught me love.

The last reason these two are a matched set is because they are both unconditionally mine, and they both love me with all that they have to give.

After much coaxing from Uma, the kitsune stepped up his efforts to woo me, and I, also with much coaxing from Uma, allowed myself to be won. It has been an… adjustment and an… awakening. I'm still reeling from it but it's starting to settle in. I am getting used to being touched and loved, and I'm beginning to enjoy it as much as Kurama does.

Even now as we sit here, he is sprawled on the ground with his head on my lap. When I look down at him, he lets one green eye slide to peer up at me, then he smiles and blows a soft sigh that tickles the underside of my knee through my thin pants. The action makes me shiver but not with cold.

When I first accepted his advances, I believed that a physical relationship would be something I would have to endure, something I would suffer through in order to reap the other benefits pairing with him in such a way offered me. Oh how wrong I was. I continue to be shocked by the depth of the emotions he makes me feel and the strength of my desire for him. I have come to crave his touch and revel in the pleasure he brings me.

And he makes me happy. They both make me happier than I have ever been, my matched set.

Sometimes I wonder how it is possible for someone like me to feel so much joy when all I knew for so long was pain and anguish. Sometimes I wonder what to do with this wild love I have inside me. It makes me do things I would never do otherwise. It makes me viciously jealous and possessive to the point where Kurama's had to thwap me a couple of times just to bring me out of it.

It humbles me. It weakens me even as it makes me stronger, and sometimes it scares me to my very core. I don't know… I don't know what I would do without the people I have come to love in my life. These two. Yukina…

There are days when I loathe myself for feeling the things that I do, and days when I know I would die before I gave them up. And I fear that one day I will lose them, that they will be taken from me. I keep waiting for the pain to come back, for my fate to rear its head and strip me of the happiness I have found. I lost Uma once. What will I do if I lose her again? What will I do if I lose Kurama? Yukina? Could I go back to being what I once was now that I have found this? Now that I know what it is like? I don't know what I would do…

A blooming rose is shoved into my face, snapping me out of my downward thoughts. I look at my kitsune who smiles at me.

“You're brooding again,” he says.

“Hn.”

“What were you thinking?”

“Nothing. It's not important.”

He gives me a smile that tells me that he believes me about as much as he can pick me up and throw me.

“If it's not important, then stop brooding about it,” he sighs, flicking the rose so the petals caress my cheek before putting it back in his hair.

“Ch.”

He rolls so that his chin is resting on my knee. “We're not going to leave you so stop worrying,” he states simply, then stretches and yawns. “Besides, it's too beautiful of a day to brood.”

I huff but say nothing.

`I agree. Kurama, let's go check on the Makai garden. The sun will be going down soon and the night bloomers will be opening. I think there might be some early seed pods ready for collection,' Uma suggests, her hands signing as she broadcasts her mind-speech so both of us can hear her.

Kurama has been teaching her some of his techniques on how to make plants into weapons. She seems to have a knack for it. He's also been brewing up numerous potions from rare herbs geared towards helping her regain her energy faster.

“I think that's a wonderful idea, Uma-san,” Kurama agrees and rises to his feet.

Uma stands, her robotic leg clicking and whirring as the joints move, and brushes some stray sakura petals from her skirt. I look at her and smile softly. She looks so much healthier now, not nearly as thin and wan as she had been, and she's letting her hair grow again.

Kurama goes to the tool shed to get a bucket and a spade while Uma collects the leftovers from dinner and takes them to the kitchen. I stand and wait for them in the courtyard, my hands folded behind my back.

Uma is the first to return and she brushes the side of my cheek with the back of her hand affectionately. I look up at her without inclining my head and snort. She says nothing but then there isn't any need for her to say anything at all. Everything she feels and wants to tell me is right there in her eyes.

Kurama joins us and Uma takes the bucket and spade from him as they begin to walk towards the long stairs that lead down to the surrounding forest.

“I wonder if the Blood Vine will be ready soon,” Kurama muses. “I could definitely use some of that during the Makai Tournament.”

`I'll see about cross-breeding some with that Makai Ojigi you have,' Uma offers.

“What a brilliant idea, Uma-san. I wonder what would happen if we crossed in some carnivorous Sundew…”

`We could try to make the sap poisonous…'

“Blood Vine, Ojigi and poisonous Sundew, what a combination!”

I sigh. Once they get started in the gardens, they'll fuss for hours. Not that I mind. Watching them can be very entertaining (and sometimes I can get a good nap in while they're weeding) so long as they don't ask me to be a volunteer when they test the final result.

“Hiei? Are you coming?” Kurama asks me, tossing a happy glance over his shoulder.

Both faces in my matched set pause on the stairs to wait for me, giving me expectant looks. I chuckle and shake my head, then move to follow wherever they lead.

Fin

A/N: The title of this story is from the e.e. cummings poem Somewhere I have Never Traveled. The transcript of this poem can be found here:

http://eserver.org/poetry/somewhere.txt