Drinking Buddies Forever
Chapter 1
Kaname sat in her bedroom waiting for her friend to signal her clear escape. She knew that she wasn't supposed to go out this late and that she also had to attend her own concert later that night, but it was the only way she could get away from the paparazzi. She so hated the cameras, and she hated her job, but her mother had recognized her talent early on and had gotten the connections by any means needed. So, she felt obligated to stay with the job for as long as she had to.
There was a tap on the window and Kaname looked outside to see her friend Kensuke waiting for her. She opened the window and climbed down the side of the mansion with ease. After all she had done it many times before and an S-class demon must learn to adapt quickly to her surroundings. She jumped off of the wall when she was relatively near the ground and she ran into the forest as fast as possible with Kensuke doing his best to keep up. He was only an A-class after all.
"…Jeez, Kaname…can't you slow down…just a little bit…when I'm following?" Kensuke managed to say between wheezing gasps when they finally stopped outside the Southern Dragon Clan's Palace. They often visited this place fore the Southern Dragon Clan kept in close contact with King Enma of the spirit world and therefore, in the garden was a giant orb that could show anything from any of the realms that the user wished to see. The Southern Dragon Clan was the protector of this orb, called the Mirror Orb, by the request of King Enma.
"Um…no! Stop being such a pussy-licker!" Kaname joked with Kensuke as she normally did.
"Oh, but I'm your pussy-licker!" Kensuke joked back.
"Shut up, Kensuke!" Kaname hit Kensuke over the head with her fist.
"Oh, come on, you know you love it!" Kensuke stuck out his tongue in a disgusting gesture.
"Go fuck yourself." Kaname said turning away from him and looking at the palace apprehensively. She had done this many times before, it was fairly easy for a Night Wolf to successfully invade a palace without getting caught, but there was a new presence in the palace this time. It smelled like a new demon had been added to the stench of the rotting flesh scattered over the palace grounds.
"What is it, Kaname?" Kensuke asked seeing the suspicious way she eyed the walls around the garden.
"I smell a new demon mixed in with the guards. He smells royal, kind of like a Demon Lord from my home in the pits of the Makai. I think I know him." Kaname said in a low tone.
"Really? I don't smell anything except for rotting flesh and I'm a Wolf Demon too. Are you sure you aren't just imagining it?" Kensuke said unsure that his Night Wolf friend's ability to identify scents was beyond his own.
"Believe me, I know that scent. He and I knew each other back in my old home." Kaname said annoyed at the new scent that had been added to the castle's usual unbearable stench.
"Oh, really, what's his name?" Kensuke asked suspiciously eyeing Kaname, expecting this demon to be an ex-boyfriend.
"Prince Daisuke of the Lunar Wolf Clan. He knew my mom awhile back." Kaname said distastefully, she had never liked that arrogant son-of-a-bitch.
"So I guess we don't have to sneak in today, do we?" Kensuke asked expecting his leader to smirk at him knowingly and nod surely. What she did was glare at him as she let a soft growl rise in her throat. That soft growl was the meanest thing she ever really did to him, he had never heard her really growl at anyone like he did, she was not as ill-tempered as he was. He didn't know if it was her Night Wolf blood that made her so calm or if there was something she wasn't telling him. She never hit him with the intention to injure him, no, not his Kaname, not his sweet bitch who barely ever let that soft growl sound from her throat.
"He's a Spirit Guardian! We are not going to be seen this time, especially by him, do you understand?" Kaname hissed at her dear stupid mutt softly.
"Y-Yes, Kaname, I understand but I have one question." Kensuke said cautiously.
"What?" Kaname snapped.
"Well, if this Daisuke guy is a prince and a Spirit Guardian then how did you know him well enough to know his scent?" Kensuke asked curious as to Kaname's relationship with one of the royal demons.
"This is not the time, Kensuke. I'll tell you about it before the concert, I promise." Kaname said with a soft smile. She knew that he was beginning to become suspicious and leading him on was just so much fun.
"Fine, let's go…" Kensuke said giving up on his mission to discover the relationship between his Kaname and this Wolf Prince. He followed her to the wall of the castle and did his best to keep up as they scaled the large castle wall. It was the outer wall, and the tallest, so it had always caused the most problems. Kensuke followed Kaname to the climbing roses that the dragons keep on the outside as an attempt to make the palace more attractive. They proved useful so he was not complaining about them.
Kaname then lead Kensuke over the tall outer wall and through the side door of the inner wall. She had created this door on their first visit and hidden it behind the climbing roses that covered the walls. The door opened silently and they walked into the garden. That was the easy part, after having snuck into the palace so many times before they had by now perfected it. They stepped into the garden and found themselves standing on a white stone pathway that would lead them to the center of the garden. The demonic garden was filled with just the kinds of plants that Kaname, for some odd reason, adored and would sometimes steal seeds from to use later on. Today Kaname replenished her supply of Death Plant and Tree of Grim Dreams seeds, they had proven useful in battle and she had grown quite fond of planting them in her enemies and walking away as her enemy would drop to their knees and be overtaken by the plant's life sapping powers.
"Why do you always use those, anyway?" Kensuke asked Kaname, watching as she inspected each individual seed with deep eyes.
"Because, my dear Kensuke, they don't require any power to use and…I just love the sound of their victims screaming in their dying pain…it's delightful…" Kaname whispered the last bit as she closed her eyes and recalled the times that she had used the plants before to rid herself of any nuisance. She opened one eye and glanced at Kensuke with a fanged smirk, he was quavering with the fear she had stirred in him. "Heh, don't worry about it Kensuke! I'd never use them on you…I like you too much!" Kaname comforted her wolf counterpart with a bright smile.
"R-right…heh…n-nothing to worry about…" Kensuke stuttered deciding that he should stop pissing Kaname off so much. He then followed Kaname to the center of the garden and he saw it, the Mirror Orb, held atop a crystal fountain, it was huge. At least eight feet in diameter it was hard to imagine how a simple water fountain could hold it so delicately without it falling to the ground.
"Hn…it's gotten smaller since the last time we were here…" Kaname said, bored already, but despite her lack of awe inspired by the Orb she had an important question for it. Kaname stepped forward with Kensuke following close behind her, almost hiding behind her back from the Orb before them. "Well, Kenny? You got a question or can I go first?" Kaname asked looking over her shoulder at the wolf yokai who already had his tail tucked between his legs.
"N-nope…you can go…just hurry up! I've got a bad feeling!" Kensuke said shaking all over from the feeling of eyes all around him, watching as his counterpart and him approached the Orb. His eyes darted back and forth frantically and his ears were on full alert as Kaname sniffed the air and waved his feeling away dismissively.
"Keh…it's nothing Ken-Chan…no guards that I can smell so calm down." Kaname said with a patient smile to her easily frightened wolf yokai idiot. "Now…for the Mirror Orb, I want to know something… Yesterday I asked my mother a question that had been bothering me for a while but just nagged at me even more after Daisuke wrote me that letter asking me if mom still had that huge blue diamond that my father had stolen for her when they met. I asked mom who my father was…and she told me it was better if I didn't know." She took a deep breath, "Great Mirror Orb! I beseech you! Who is my father? And where is he now?!" Kaname watched as the Orb began to glow red and then silver and then the smoke within it began to clear and she saw a Yoko with silver hair like her own and full harvest moons for eyes just as she had.
"Huh? …Hey! Th-that's Yoko Kurama! He was a thief in the Makai! He was famous! B-but I thought he died fifteen years ago!?!" Kensuke said surprised that Kaname's request to see her father would be answered with a dead Yoko.
"A…Yoko…? I'm…half Yoko? I-I…don't understand…how could mom keep this from me?" Kaname asked herself in a desperate whisper. Then she watched confused as her second question was answered without fail. The smoke fogged her view of the Yoko and then it turned a darker gray and cleared this time to reveal a city in the Living World. The Orb closed in on a school where human teenagers were leaving for the day. One boy in particular was the focus of the Orb, he had long red hair and green eyes. Her father was dwelling in the human world disguised as a human teenager. "I…I have to go there! I have to meet him! I need to ask him so many things! Orb! How do I get to the Human World!?!" Kaname yelled at the Orb in her desperation and it showed her a snake pit in the pits of the Makai where the Sorceress Vampira dwelled. "There…I'll go there! I'll get her to help me!"
"Kaname…um…Kaname…l-look…" Kensuke stammered desperately trying to capture her attention as he watched the guards appear at every entrance.
"What is it, Kensu…oh…" Kaname's voice faded when she came out of her trance and turned to see the guards all around them. "Heh…nice to see you again, boys, but we've gotta go now…so if you don't mind maybe you could just forget we were here and never mention this to your superiors?"
"Ha ha ha! You really are confident, aren't you, Kaname!? Just like your mother always was!" A familiar voice came from behind the dragon guards as the scent Kaname had detected earlier approached them.
"Kuso…Daisuke, what in the hell do you want?" Kaname hissed angrily as the guards parted to reveal a White Wolf Yokai about her mother's age. He stepped forward and stood before Kaname and Kensuke.
"Want? All I want is to know why your mother never told you who your father was…I was going to ask her during the concert tonight but I suppose I could escort you home and ask her then…" Daisuke said grabbing Kaname's chin and grinning, his fangs gleaming white. This girl looked so much like her mother it was uncanny she even had the perfect curves in all the right places, being half Yoko had perhaps even increased her beauty.
"You old pervert! I should bite your hand off for touching me! I thought my mother told you to stay away from us!" Kaname growled at Daisuke angrily, she wished he would just die already.
"I would if I could but you and your mother possess such beauty it is hard to resist you." Daisuke smiled triumphantly, he would soon see his ex-fiancé once again and he would convince her that she should take him back now that that son-of-a bitch, Yoko Kurama, has been dead for fifteen years.
"You're disgusting! Why don't you go fuck yourself! I have a concert to get to!" Kaname pulled out of Daisuke's grasp and backed away from him and into Kensuke. She looked up at Daisuke who was 6 feet tall whereas she was barely five feet, "Kensuke…get out of here! I can take care of this!"
"No! Sorry, Kaname, but I can't just leave you here with this guy!" Kensuke lowered his head and crouched glaring up at Daisuke, just daring him to try something.
"Well, it seems you have yourself a pet…I'm proud! It is in a Night Wolf's nature to use lower demons as toys!" Daisuke grinned at the thought of this girl taking in more of her mother's traits than her father's.
"You're wrong, Daisuke! I don't use Kensuke at all! He chooses to hang around me on his own, and I don't order him around like a pet! He's more like a partner in crime! He's my good friend!" Kaname yelled at Daisuke as Kensuke watched her with an appreciative smile. She would not allow anyone to place her dear idiot in the same category as a pet.
"Fine…at least allow me to escort you both to the concert. I still need to speak to your mother and I can't imagine what would happen if you were to be late for your own performance. Please, Kaname…I promise I won't touch you! Heh, if I did your mother and this little wolf-boy will chew my ass off!" Daisuke laughed changing the subject and holding his hands up in a peace-making gesture.
"Hmm…fine! Kensuke, let's go!" Kaname said annoyed and Kensuke obeyed without question.
"Kaname! Where in the hell have you been, child!?! Never mind! I don't want to know! Just go get dressed you have less than five minutes!" Hisui said frantically when her daughter entered the backstage area later than usual. She shoved her daughter into her dressing room and closed the door without trying to hear what her daughter was asking her.
"I-I'm sorry, Miss Hisui…I didn't mean to keep her out so late…" Kensuke apologized when he saw the stressed look on Hisui's face. He hated when she was angry with him because he didn't want his Kaname's mother to hate him, that would interfere with his plans, wouldn't it?
"No, no…it's alright, Kensuke! You got her here before the music was supposed to start, and that's all I ever ask of you…" Hisui said walking back and forth checking the instruments and the electronics and the headset that her daughter would be wearing. She had to make sure everything was perfect, this was their first Reikai performance and it couldn't fail. Lord Koenma, judge of the spirits was to attend and she didn't want to keep him waiting.
"Ah, Hisui! I see you haven't aged one ounce since last I saw you!" Daisuke's voice rang out seeming to make time stop for a moment. Certainly Hisui froze for a minute before grabbing Daisuke by the hair and wrenching his head back so that he dropped to his knees and was looking up at her with his neck bent about to break. "AH! OW!! Hisui, I promise I didn't do a thing!! You can even ask little Kensuke over there! I didn't lay a wrong hand on her!!"
"Is he telling the truth, Kensuke!?!" Hisui growled glaring at the now quivering boy. He nodded hesitantly as he watched her with wide eyes, she was frightening. "Hmph! Fine! Say what you came to say and make it quick! I told you a long time ago to stay away from my family!" Hisui growled threateningly as she threw Daisuke down to the floor.
"Ah…I…just came to ask why your daughter had to ask the Mirror Orb in the garden of the Dragon Clan's palace who her father was? Because she did and it answered quite clearly…she knows now that she's not as much of a Night Wolf as she thought." Daisuke smirked knowingly and awaited Hisui's response. She simply stared at him for a few minutes and then she kicked him into the wall across the room.
"How dare you!?! You let her get to that Orb! You let her find out!! After I told you to keep her away from it no matter what!! You stupid white Coyote!" Hisui yelled as Daisuke coughed and tried to catch his breath.
"Well…I thought…she had a right…to know…who her father was…despite what he was…" Daisuke said through heaving gasps. He didn't care what anyone said, Hisui always hit the hardest.
"Hmph…I know she has the right to know…but what's the point of knowing when he's dead?" Hisui looked at the ground as she sat on the couch next to Kensuke.
"Um…actually…she asked where he is…and he's alive…" Kensuke pointed out hesitantly to Hisui, being as cautious as possible. "He's in a human body in the Living World…the Mirror Orb showed him to us…"
"What!!?! Kurama is alive!?! Not possible!! The bounty hunter killed him!! I remember because it was the day I found out that I was pregnant!!" Hisui yelled in disbelief. There was no way that her beloved Yoko could possibly be alive still. But if he was…if he was she would be beyond happy…
"Nope! He's alive and well! And I want to meet him!" Everyone froze as Kaname's voice cut through the air like a knife. She stood in the silence for a moment and then she smiled and said, "I'll meet him…and none of you will stop me!" Then Kaname ran on stage as the announcer called her name and the crowd cheered and chanted "We want Kaname! We want Kaname!"
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Kaname's first song: Not About Him
Written By: Deanna Nixon
Looking out the window on a silent winter's day
Thinking about calling, yet not knowing what to say
Wondering why you hurt me, wondering if you care
Wondering why I'm wondering when you're not there.
Listening to the radio, a song I used to know
It used to mean something to us so very long ago
I see your picture on the wall against a clear blue sky
I'm crying, yet my tears are taken and I don't know why.
Walking by the highway in the middle of the night
A moonless, starless sky above; the clouds block off all light
Thinking no more of the past, nor what the dawn will bring
Hoping just to hear your voice, to hear my angel sing.
Finally I'm released from you as tears begin to fall
Stumbling blindly through the tunnel, pathway of us all
Seeing there before me that bright and deadly gleam
Yet as it comes it's not a train, but an ending to this dream.