Dream Interpreting
It must be one of those mornings again, I thought wryly, when I woke up.
He did it maybe once or twice a week; depending on the weather and what happened during his day. I suppose the animal or demonic forms had different instincts, brains or feelings that made dealing with Life easier. Or sometimes I guess he just wanted to stay in shape; maybe he just wanted that animal or demon form to accessible if he ever needed it. I don't know.
Whatever the case, I went to sleep with the redheaded Minamino lying next to me, breathing softly, scent of roses in the air.
When I woke up, my companion was the silvery Youko Kurama.
It doesn't bother me, his shapeshifting. I find it rather amusing, to be honest. It's fun, too. Our private life is never dull, I assure you. When I'm down, I get a furry fox tail wrapped around my shoulders and an affectionate lick on the cheek. When I'm playful and teasing, I have a witty redhead at my side to combat my every remark.
And when I'm in a dark, mysterious mood, ready for action, adventure, and excitement, the melancholy fox bandit Youko Kurama is waiting for me.
Of course, that same melancholy bandit is sleeping like a baby right now, his breathing fluttering his silvery bangs like a feather before a fan. His angular eyes are shut tight; be it against a storm of bad memories or a gentle dance of sunlight and laughter, I really don't know. Being who I am, gifted with my empathetic powers, I suppose I could find out... but if he wants me to know, he'll tell me.
He usually does, too, I thought lazily. Not in the mood to leave the warm, comfy bed. I'm good with dream interpretation... at least Kurama's dreams. And he can interpret mine pretty well, too. Maybe it's because we know each other so well... and for so long...
I sighed and snuggled back down under the downy covers, and closer to the foxy creature beside me. It turned out to be a bad move; he was skirting the edges of sleep, and the movement woke him up; opening those golden almond-shaped eyes for me to see.
He murmured a soft good morning, before leaning a little closer; resting his head above mine on the pillow. I chuckled and ran a hand through Kurama's soft sheet of hair.
"Morning, sleepyhead," I teased, turning so that I could face him.
He was lying at an angle; Youko Kurama is somewhere around seven feet tall, and our bed just isn't built for him. Not length-wise, anyway. Diagonally, he fits pretty well... but I'm a good six feet myself.
With his head resting above mine, I squirmed a bit so that that I was diagonal, too; parallel with him. I could easily see those lovely golden eyes, and the perpetually cynical amusement that shone from them.
I stroked his hair again, and kept talking. In the midst of battle, with his ego boosted and his plants wrapping around his victims' necks, Youko Kurama is quite talkative, but here, alone, with only the human Kazuma Kuwabara? He's as soft-spoken as the human version of himself. Witty as always, but a little more thoughtful. I've come to believe all that egotism and grandiose crap about how much of an offense it is to anger Mighty Kurama is really just a defense mechanism for surviving in a world where people might respect you, but they'll never love you. It's understandable.
"It's a nice morning," I said absently, enjoying the feel of that smooth silver.
"It was a rough night," Kurama countered. "The thunder and the lightning was awful."
"Nightmare-awful?" I asked carefully.
"Nah." He smirked, relaxing. He gently sent a burst of power into the spider plant on our bedside table, directing one of the runners to wrap around his big hairbrush, and drop it in my lap. "Brush if you're going to play," he ordered with no real authority whatsoever.
I laughed and sat up. With a mocking salute, I began working the brush at the ends. "With pleasure, O Mighty One," I murmured with 'reverence.'
The fox chuckled at my play, and leaned back, enjoying the feeling of the brush straightening out his tangles. "My dreams were actually pleasant last night," he commented.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Humorous, at the very least."
"Funny dreams?" I repeated. "Do I wanna hear this?"
"Yeah, I think you do." He grinned wickedly. "I dreamed Koenma tried to get Hiei to get Yusuke to get Keiko to get Botan to see that pink was truly the best color to paint the Gate of Judgment. And Botan would have none of it; she claimed they would use wallpaper with lots of little Rei-ken and Rei-guns and Rose Whips and Kokuryuu all over it. With Mickey Mouse in the bathrooms, of course."
I shook my head. "K'rama, that's not funny, that's just weird."
"Oh, wait, it gets better," the fox spirit grinned. "Yukina wanted to paint it a deep, mysterious purple color, with ice blue polka dots. Which Keiko thought was great; she wanted to doodle smilies all over them. With a neon green magic marker."
"Okay, stop RIGHT there," I said, fighting the smile that came to my face at the thought. "First of all, Yukina has much better color coordination than that. And second of all... Keiko just isn't the smiley sort, you know?"
Kurama pouted cutely. I had no idea how such a handsome face could be made to look so childish and... adorable... "Can't I just tell you about the part where Hiei declared his everlasting love for the color fuchsia and declared that all who did not grab paint brushes and begin slopping the color all over the Gate would die a painful death at the mouth of his dragon?"
I laughed out loud, and leaned down to press a soft kiss on Kurama's smooth, bone-white forehead. "Sometimes I worry about what goes on in that head of yours," I said seriously.
"It isn't pretty, I assure you," he said, just as seriously. "Thousands of years; I daresay it's in need of a maintenance check."
Catching my smile slowly turning into a frown, he added quickly, "It's okay, really. It's just... all those thoughts from the past get cluttered with the present." A slow smile curved his fine mouth. "That paint fiasco... I actually watched a demonic Lord and Lady have that same argument. I found it so foolish, that I went and stole all their paint, paintings, wallpapers, tapestries..."
I hid my frown; full-fledged now. I don't approve of stealing. But that was in the long past, and really had no bearing on the present.
My perceptive Kurama caught it anyway, though. "It was all in good fun. I ended up returning the paintings anyway; I was allergic to the oils in them."
"I know," I said. I sighed.
Kurama twisted and wriggled so that his head and all the masses of fur growing out of it laid in my lap. His bright eyes widened in concern as he looked straight up at me.
"Are you all right?" he asked gently, the 'Minamino' voice coming out of the Youko's throat now.
"Yeah. I'm just..." I sighed again. Sighing is a good way of just letting go; I figured maybe if I did it enough times, my anguish would leave my body with my breath.
"Upset?" Kurama filled in cautiously. "Kuwabara, talk to me."
"I know it was a long time ago," I let out, "but... I had my own dreams about it."
"You mean when your parents died?" Kurama asked softly. "Kuwa, that was not a long time ago," he added gently. "Not to a sensitive person like you." He reached up to trace the edge of my face with a delicate, thin finger; careful of the claw on the end.
"Yeah, it's been two months, only..." I pulled him so that he leaned against my chest. He turned over to hug me easier.
"Only what?" he prodded in his sweetest voice. Hard to imagine that the evil Youko Kurama is capable of a 'sweet' voice, but he is. I don't know if anyone else has heard it, but it's just as comforting as Shuuichi Minamino's sweetest voice, to me.
I closed my eyes; he was shifting me and sitting up straighter. Letting me be the one to lean on him. I appreciated it. I laid my head against his thin chest, as his white hands rested on my back. He sat silently; waiting for me to speak. Reminiscent of how I acted after one of his Youko form nightmares; when he would immediately shift back into Minamino's form and eventually explain all of his bad dreams to me.
"I saw it as if I had been there," I confessed finally. "I could see the horror in their faces, as the airplane crashed into the cold ocean; and the ocean just swallowed them... they had no chance..."
Kurama hugged me a little tighter, as if he was trying to squeeze the bad feeling out of me without killing me.
My head still resting on his chest, silver sheets of his fur lying on either side of me... I pushed him back slightly, to look up at him, meet his eyes. I was positive confusion radiated in my own.
"But wait. They were in a speed boat that crashed," I said with a frown, "Not an airplane. Why did I dream of an airplane...?"
The foxy fox cocked his head thoughtfully. If there's one thing he loves to do, it's puzzle. He loves putting things together and figuring them out. And once he's finished, he just takes them apart to figure out why they fit that way.
It's an endearing quality sometimes, but others, it just drives me up the wall, how he can never let things just be.
I was glad to have his analytical mind on my side this time, however. My most strange and disturbing dreams usually foretell something... or at least, give me background information that will help me make a decision about something that is to come. I'm not-quite psychic, I'm just always well- prepared, I guess. My subconscious can't be damned to give me a straight answer, it just gives me what I need to find that answer on my own. It can be frustrating, and Kurama is so much better and figuring it out than me.
His lips were pursed in a nonchalant fashion. His eyes were draped in that blank, unreadable expression they wore when he was in the midst of a musing; whatever form he took – green-eyed human, yellow-eyed Youko, or red- eyed fox – that expression was the same.
"Kuwabara... were you lying close to me when I fell asleep last night?" he asked. "I don't remember if you were..."
"I think so..." I said slowly. "Yeah. Definitely; I remember, 'cause I was grumbling about how all that hair kept getting in my way..." I smirked, in spite of myself. "It's like drowning in blood, laying next to you in Minamino form."
He lightly knocked my head for my rudeness, but not enough to hurt. In a purely physical sense, no matter what his form, he isn't strong. Without his plants, he could not hurt me if he tried.
With his plants, however... Ouch. Very ouch.
"So... what?" I asked. "Does my dream have to do with you?" I frowned. "Are you scared of airplanes, Kurama?" I knew he was afraid of doctors, and held a superstitious triskaidekaphobia, but airplanes? That was new.
"No, no," he said. "It's... when my parents were on their honeymoon, way back after the Sensui fiasco, they were threatened. They were still on their airplane..."
"Oh, I get it now," I said. "My grief; your scenario?"
"Yeah. As far as I can tell." He ruffled my hair. "I guess you aren't predicting Apocalypse today, my love."
I snorted. "I wouldn't dream of Apocalypse; I'd dream of Urameshi defeating it somehow or how the gods decided when and where it would happen... my powers are so roundabout..."
Kurama laughed. "Probably. Here," he gently pushed me back, and got up; standing at his full height... before shrouding himself in a white, smoky youki and stepping out of it as the red-haired Minamino. "You rest awhile and get your bearings together from that dream, and I'll start breakfast," he offered with a million watt smile.
"All right," I agreed, letting him kiss me quickly. "I'll be okay."
He nodded. "And I'm here when you're not."
---
Kuwabara constantly referring to Kurama's human form by surname... eh. Japanese people, particularly school age boys, tend to address each other by surname. The YYH boys are no exception; outside the main cast, it's rare to hear Kurama, Yusuke, or Kuwabara's first names. (heck, it's rare to hear Kuwabara's first name anyway!) Early Sensui arc, after Kuwabara wanders around Kurama's school yelling his demonic name, Kurama gets all flustered and assures his classmates it's a nickname, and then proceeds to remind Kuwabara that around here, he's only Minamino. Kuwabara gets kind of flustered himself and says he's sorry. (Great sequence, by the way. =))
Besides... I wanted to. Mleah.