Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Unbalanced Pendulum ❯ Frost on the Petals of Summer ( Chapter 5 )

A "Thank You" to all my reviewers

Devil's Wings: I hear you. Karasu and Hiei isn't exactly a match made in Heaven. And don't you worry, Kurama will be wheedling himself into Hiei's life in future chapters.

Ko-krama: Thank you, I was worried that I narrate too much without enough action to support it. I've also been trying to keep the characters somewhat in character with the story, while also having them work for my purposes. I justify my alterations by the story being AU.

Dark_KittyCat: Lol, don't stress yourself out over it.

MultifacetedTune: Just wanted to mention that I really like your username.

Kit Airiden

Princess Forever

Infamous Lord Dilandau

Tetsumi

Foxrose

Volpe Di Spirito

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Unbalanced Pendulum

Chapter 5: Frost of the Petals of Summer

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Kurama's POV

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I couldn't move. I was bound by my oath to obey the stranger's command,

"Come pet. There is no longer anything here for you,"

and yet my mind couldn't seem to understand the words. All I saw was Kuronue's body, the vessel that had housed my love, my trust, and my unequaled joy, lying there upon the ground.

His skin had not yet lost its youthful luster and probably still retained its warmth. But his eyes, his beautiful dark eyes had faltered in their intensity. I had seen death, had inflicted it myself in many of the worst ways, but his staring grayed eyes reached slimy feelers into the darkest shadows of my mind and rattled my very spirit. I was too disturbed to even shiver. He held no expression in death. He had no idea of the consequences of his rash actions. But then this was my fault. I had taken him in at too young an age and protected him too well. He was my love, my one precious thing that I would always protect. I had apparently done both too much and not nearly enough. I should have been wiser. But I had been arrogant and now Kuronue was dead.

I couldn't even flinch when the stranger kicked his body onto his back and removed the knife. Fresh blood spread outward from the wound. Through the grass I could feel his physical energy seep into the earth as all things eventually do. It warmed my frozen limbs just a little. My breath came back to me in quick and shallow spurts not even deep enough to move my chest or stomach. But then there were his blank eyes again, staring at the cruel world from behind stray locks of tangled black hair.

I'd never been one for romance in the general sense of the word. I had never fallen into my lover's eyes; never found nirvana within their depths. But here they were so completely and unmistakably dead. And all the light that lifted his face into princely beauty was gone. He was still a gorgeous man, but all his fire had turned to unfriendly ash and I didn't know what to do.

I vaguely noticed that the stranger was collecting his fallen sword and giving me at least a few moments to collect myself. Then again, perhaps the latter was just my vulnerable mind creating false illusions in the search for something to cling to. Because I then saw Kuronue's body consumed in black flames. I could first feel the protest of the grass crushed beneath his flesh then hear the sound of his hair sizzling into nothing. It was when the first smells of cooking meat rose into the air that the stranger demanded my attention with a mental urging that I could not ignore.

"Come."

I followed a good ten paces behind. My step was graceful still, but it lacked my normal playfulness. I rather felt like a shadow of death than a stalker of games. I suppose my outward appearance was calm. Maybe the stranger could read the distance in my eyes. Maybe not. Maybe he wasn't looking.

I never looked back at my fallen comrade, friend, partner, lover - in a century I might have even called him my husband, though the implications of that would have been the ruin of my reputation. I didn't want to see his scared flesh rippling in the heated air. I didn't want to ever see him dead again. But what I would have given to resurrect him, to see a glimmer of the devil he was within those eyes. What I would have given to hold his warm being in my arms again - to hear him scream my name in ecstasy and feel him do the same to me. I would have given anything…except my life. As I walked, and then ran, farther and farther from my beloved's corpse I realized that I would have done anything to save him except give up my life. It would have been a lie to say that I had nothing left to live for after his death. I had me. I had the perpetual continuation of me to motivate my survival. He had given his life to save me - not even my life but my freedom and my happiness!

If I had been a normal minded creature the blow would have knocked me silly and I would have stopped running, stopped walking, and would have simply stood there, mind shocked at how deep Kuronue's loyalty to me ran. But I was not and I did not. I kept walking in my epiphany-induced daze. I had never realized just how young and naïve he was. And I loved him even more for it. I felt I would burst or dance until I collapsed from exhaustion and could do nothing more than lie on the forest floor and laugh in my merriment because of the love I felt for him at that single split-second of time.

I might have actually laughed aloud because the stranger turned his burning red gaze my way in annoyance. His annoyed glance seemed funnier than the greatest blunders of mankind and I really did laugh outright. But I didn't stop walking. I, in fact, kept walking right passed this little demon. And then my laughter ceased just as suddenly as it had begun and I waited for him to retake the lead.

I'm not sure if I can accurately explain his expression just then. He wasn't angry, confused, or impatient with me. He seemed bored - no, more like he was attempting boredom to mask curiosity. His lip twitched. Smug? I didn't have the capacity at that moment to understand or analyze. So I stood and waited with my arms, limp as though I had forgotten I possessed them, dangling at my sides. We must have remained that way for many minutes before he took deliberate steps forward and passed my person. That look never left his face until he was in front of me. From behind I could see the muscles around his eyes and mouth relax into a neutral expression.

I knew that Kuronue was dead, the feeling that I my chest had been crushed told me that, but I also knew that I didn't really know it yet. I would have to figure a way to deal soon because if I didn't, these unnamable and foreign feelings would destroy me.

I was terrified…because I knew something horribly volatile was trapped within me. I was terrified at what would happen when it broke free. I was terrified at what I would become - at what I wouldn't become. And somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I was terrified at what this stranger would do with me now that I was bound to him.

I was absolutely terrified.

I kept walking.

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Sorry that the chapter is so short (only two pages!), but I wanted to get something written so that my reviewers don't desert me. This probably should have been part of chapter four now that I really think about it. I didn't want to add anything afterward because I thought that this worked best standing on its own.