It was the spiritual equivalent of ripping a Bandaid off the skin after it'd sat there for days. The skin is always slightly sticky, there might be globs of adhesive still stuck to it. And burns. After so many days, it had become part of the skin, without it, it feels raw, like something should be there and it wasn't.

This was the sensation Shuuichi Minamino woke up with.

Something was missing. He wanted to reach out and grab it. He felt the need to check his hair. There's something in it he needed, wasn't there. He was somewhere he needed to escape from. People needed him. He sat up. His body was stiff, his joints were screaming in pain. His head hurt, his throat was sore, like he'd been screaming, and his mouth felt cottony and dry. He tried licking his lips, and it felt like sandpaper running over his chapped skin.

He looked around the room, slowly, taking in every detail. He was in a stone room. The walls were made of stone, and there was one solid, metal door in the far left corner. Cell. He was in a prison of some kind. But why?

A dim memory surfaced. Yusuke. He was helping Yusuke, and Kuwabara, and Hiei. They were his friends, but they weren't really his friends. At least, it didn't feel that way. They felt like someone else's friends. He remembered, they'd all been tracking down a… demon… who was kidnapping humans and demons. He was fracturing souls.

Shuuichi remembered speaking to him.

Do you think I wouldn't recognize the infamous demon thief Kurama, he'd said. Shuuichi realized that demon had been referring to him. Kurama. But he wasn't Kurama.

"Oh god," Shuuichi whispered. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned towards it. Sitting in the corner was the man the demon had spoken of, Kurama, looking straight at him.

"I see you're awake," Kurama said, smiling faintly.

Shuuichi found that the little voice he'd conjured just a moment ago was gone. He could only nod. An odd, alien feeling had come over him. He wanted to say it was like looking in a mirror, but that didn't seem quite right. Here in front of him was the man who'd lived the majority of his life. Shuuichi didn't know if he had an identity outside him. Every event in his life, every moment, was lived with this creature being part of him. And now he wasn't there. He'd been separated from Kurama. Upon realizing this, Shuuichi noticed he couldn't take a full breath in.

He felt movement next to him. Kurama had moved to sit by him. He wanted to look up, study him, ask him to explain what had happened, but he couldn't. His hands had started shaking and he couldn't breathe.

"Shuuichi," Kurama said. He spoke the name slowly, as if it sounded strange to him. Maybe he felt just as strange. "Shuuichi, it's alright."

For you, Shuuichi thought. It was probably wonderful for the fox demon to finally be free of his human form.

"You need to calm down," he said.

Shuuichi wasn't sure if he could. The part of him that worked with logic and calm was currently sitting next to him. He was all emotion, panic, anger.

"If you can't control yourself, I'm going to knock you out. We must focus on our escape. We don't have time for you to panic."

Shuuichi made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a laugh. Yes, the youko was the logical part of him. He blinked, causing tear to fall from his eyes, and chanced a look at the fox, who was looking at him with a questioning look.

"You're not very good at being comforting are you?" Shuuichi wanted to fault himself for way his voice trembled, but couldn't muster up the will to. Why cover up his feelings for his other half?

"Panicking will not help our situation."

Shuuichi nodded, returning his gaze to the floor. "I know," he said, "I'm sorry, I'll try to stop." He forced himself to take deep breaths, which was hard considering youko was looming over him. After a few minutes, he felt Kurama's hand sifting through his hair. "Um, what are you doing?" He was pleased his voice was making its way back to normal.

"You still have some of my seeds in your hair," he said.

That made sense. It's not like whatever was done to them would have magically copied seeds. Shuuichi found himself closing his eyes and focusing on Kurama's hands; the touch seemed to help. When the fishing through his hair continued after Kurama was clearly not removing any seeds, Shuuichi realized he must have been caught. He shouldn't feel embarrassed, but he did.

He peeked up at the youko and was met with a smirk. "Maybe I'm a little good at being comforting?"

Shuuichi wasn't sure if he should apologize or not, so he decided to be quiet.

"I believe I have something we can use here," Kurama said, sprouting a plant in his hand, "let's go."