Disclaimer: I do no in any way shape or form own the rights to shadow hearts, completely fictional and pertains nothing to the original thoughts of the creators.

Author's notes: The main pairing here is Yuri and Kurando, and of course is an AU, besides its' just cousinly love after all *grins*. Remember to review with constructive criticism to encourage better chapters to come.

Chapter 1: As the Rain Deepened

Kurando's heart raced as he ran down the sidewalk, his mid-length mahogany brown hair waving in the wind, of the awkwardly busy street of his native town, his clothes having been drenched for the past ten minutes, he glanced around for a tapestry to take shelter under. "Why is it so busy all of the sudden" Kurando muttered under his breath "The town never has any visitors, especially on our rainy days like this." His feet sloshed across the ground as he ran through puddles towards his home, finding that none of the other houses had their sun guards out to hide under along the way. Kurando distanced himself from the strange visitors on the pavement, hopping over a puddle to land on the single dirt road that led to his family's home.

He began to lose his breath, and the sun began to sink down from the sky as his foot hit the base of the dirt road, sinking in a few inches as his other hit a hard spot to stabilize him. "Ughh damnit! I need to get out of this rain" he groaned as he tugged his leg in attempt to free it from the thick yet sloshy mud.

"Need some help there?" a curious voice said from behind.

Kurando looked behind him and saw his cousin, Yuri, standing a few feet behind him under a parasol. His eyes widened in shock, Yuri was wearing tight black pants, laced with green trim down the sides that flared at the bottom, and an unusually plain white T-shirt. "Umm yeah…that would be great" Kurando beckoned a little shocked at the site "So are you guys the ones causing all the commotion around here, and what's with that outfit by the way? It's kind of odd to see you in something so plain" Kurando chuckled as Yuri grabbed his arm, tugging him out mud pit and shielding him from the rain with his parasol.

"Yeah, sorry bout all the people, everyone must of caught whiff that the 'God slayer' was in town" Yuri apologized as he began to walk back to the house with Kurando. "Anyways, how've you been? It's been awhile since I've seen you" Yuri asked, curious to know what his cousin has been doing in the time that he's been away.

"Eh, things have been better. Just a lot of helping out mom, and dealing with Anastasia sending me 'anonymous' love letters every other week in a different handwriting" Kurando chuckled. "How about you, how've things with you guys been going?"

"Eh the same as you I suppose. We travel around not liking to stick to one place. Karin keeps going for me no matter how much I tell her I just want to be friends and likewise to Geopetto after her. Joachim himself has been visiting back home for awhile to his brother, other than that nothing much" Yuri replied with a blank expression on his face as they neared the door of the young samurais house.

"Well umm…would you like to come in? I've some time to kill, so why don't we catch up a bit more after I change up inside? You can even visit with my mom, I'm sure she's dying to see you." Kurando chuckled at the thought of how his mom would treat Yuri.

"Oh great, I can listen to aunt Saki's 'why are you dressing like that' and her 'are you eating right, you need to make sure you're healthy' she treats me like a five-year-old every time I see her" Yuri groaned as he held entered through the door being held open by his cousin.

"Nah, I wouldn't worry about it. Ma has been a lot more…loosened up after she started on her meds. You should be fine" Kurando smiled shutting the door behind him as he and his cousin took off their shoes, placing them on the shoe mat. "Well I'm gonna go change upstairs. You can sit on the couch for a minute and talk to mom if that's alright with you."

"Yeah that's fine I suppose" Yuri smiled, rolling his eyes because even with meds he knew aunt Saki would still be a handful. He walked through the opening into the extravagantly decorated living room. It was filled with old family heirlooms, relics, and whatever other nick knacks his aunt decided to collect in her boredom. He walked over to the exceedingly plain couch, in comparison to the room anyways, took a seat, and leaned his head back onto the back rest. The room was silent, not including the sound of Kurando's feet fluttering up the stairs, and aunt Saki wasn't heard in the least, which was strange because he had been in the house for more than a total of twenty-five seconds. "Hey aunt Saki" Yuri yelled "It's your favorite nephew Yuri! Don't ya wanna come say hi to me?" Yuri questioned as the house remained silent. He shrugged not being too worried and enjoyed the silence. She was probably just out shopping for groceries of some sort, or maybe some more nick knacks to clutter up the room more than it already was. Yuri sat a few moments longer, staring at the glass table in front of him. "Kurando sure is taking a long time; I wonder what's keeping him so long?" Yuri muttered to himself as he got off the couch and began towards the stairs.

Yuri silently began up the stairs, his light footsteps being muffled by the pattering of the rain against the shingles of the house from outside. Yuri reached the top of the stairs, the walls up top being decorated with family photos of Kurando and his mother from over the years; his eyes veering from the pictures he looked left to right. "Which room was Kurando's again…" Yuri muttered as he looked down the hallway both ways, and followed his gut by taking a right. Walking down the short hallway Yuri began to hear ruffling on the coming from the far door on the left. He turned facing the door, and reaching his hand down to the knob. Turning it and beginning to walk in Yuri started "Hey man aunt Saki isn't…." He stopped staring in awe as his face flushed a bright red color, but not nearly as bright as Kurando's when he turned around and noticed Yuri had walked into the room.

"Ohh umm hey…Yuri…umm so mom isn't here then I take it..?" Kurando stuttered, standing next to his dresser in a pair of obscenely tight boxers, as his face burned brighter. "Umm well…I didn't mean to take so long…I was actually looking for the new clothes I bought…" Kurando blushed deeper as he gestured for Yuri to take a seat, as the older cousin shut the door and took a seat on his younger cousin's bed, still in slight shock, and a bright shade of pink still remaining on his face. "Well anyways…I got these awesome pants and this amazing vest that I wanted to show you…and it was kinda a new look for me…so I wanted to know what you thought was all.

Yuri's face remained it's shade as he turned, laying his head on the pillow with his hands behind it "Dude you know you look good in anything you wear, you have the face and body to pull pretty much anything off you want" Yuri chuckled trying to make things seem a little less awkward, but still couldn't stop staring at the rather large bulge in his cousins boxers, and start to feel something in his own pants growing larger.

Kurando blushed deeper once more and smiled meekly "You…you really think so…I didn't think I could pull anything off but my samurai gear" Kurando turned back around and shuffled through his drawers. A brighter smile came to his face as he held the items behind his back, and looked back over at Yuri "Umm hey Yuri, close your eyes and don't open till I say so, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever you say man" Yuri chuckled, ignoring the peculiarity that was in his pants. Why would he start to get horny at a time like this, not to mention at the site of his cousin nearly naked, and him being a man no less. Yuri decided to dismiss his thinking, as to not confuse himself even more, listening to the ruffle of the clothing that he could hear his cousin putting on.

"Okay you can open your eyes now" Kurando said standing in the middle of his room, his hands and arms held behind his back. Kurando was wearing a black fishnet top, under a pitch black vest that tightly conformed to his toned torso, his pants holding tightly to his hips with a green studded belt, and the pants flaring out at the bottom whilst a few short chain links hovered in front of his crotch and wrapped around behind him.

Yuri stared at him in awe; his face growing a deeper shade of pink than when he first entered the room, and the bulge in his pants nearly becoming whole. "Dude…you look fucking amazing!" Yuri commented to him with no other way to put it, as he sat up on the bed, trying to hide the erection in his pants. "When did you get so damn fit anyways? Your arms are a lot more toned than I remember"

Kurando blushed yet another time as he swayed his hips back and forth, then went to sit on his bed next to his cousin. "Well training does that to you ya know" Kurando laughed explaining to Yuri. "Well anyways, I'm glad you like it, because I know mom won't, and I've wanted to tell you something for awhile now since you're the only person that I actually feel close to in our family and friends…"

"You know you can tell me anything man" Yuri said putting his arm around his cousin's shoulder, giving him a tight shake to loosen him up a bit.

Kurando's face deepened one last time as a look of meek seriousness crossed his face. "Well ummm the truth is…Yuri…I'm gay" Kurando said looking up at Yuri as a blank expression covered his cousin's face.

"Dude you know I don't care about stuff like that" Yuri laughed as he hugged his cousin tightly and kept his arm around his shoulder "Besides I kinda already figured that out awhile back, no offense or anything like that."

"Well Yuri that's not really all of it…" Kurando muttered as he turned closer to Yuri and put his arms gently over Yuri's shoulders "I kind of chose this stuff out for you in hopes that you would like it…."

"Why would you care if I liked it Kurando? You're my cousin, I'll love you no matter what man" Yuri smiled gently as he looked into Kurando's eyes and saw that the younger cousin was struggling with something. "Is there something troubling you?"

"Yuri I chose this for you because…" Kurando began as he tightened his arms around Yuri's neck, and brought his lips quickly to his cousin's. Yuri's face was struck with awe, and he began to turn red once more, and yet he didn't feel opposed to this at all. What was happening, why was his cousin kissing him, and why was he enjoying it, he didn't understand it at all. Suddenly he began to close his eyes, and his arms naturally held onto Kurando tighter as his body flushed full of heat while his erection became even fuller than it already was. His lips pressed tighter to Kurando's, naturally starting to conform to them as he could hear his cousin start to quietly groan in pleasure. Yuri was enjoying himself; he'd never felt like this with anyone ever, and didn't ever expect that it would be with a guy let alone his own cousin. His mind raced as his body began to tremble, and he quickly pulled away to look at his cousin's crying face.

"Kurando…what's going on….I don't understand this…and why are you crying?" Yuri stuttered for lack of ways to put what he wanted to ask.

Kurando's tears began to roll down his face, and started falling onto the tops of Yuri's firm arms that still remained around his shoulders. "Yuri…I love you so much…I've never been able to tell you this; I always thought you would find me a freak for this and didn't think you would return the feelings" Kurando began to sob sadly, knowing something was going to go wrong.

"Kurando I don't hate you…I definitely feel something, and I don't know what it is. I'm scared, and I never thought anything like this would ever happen, let alone that I would enjoy it" Yuri said softly as he took one hand to wipe away Kurando's tears, and gently leaned in to him, kissing him softly on the lips. "I don't know what is going on with me…with us, but I like it, even if it shouldn't be going on" Yuri smiled at him and hugged him tightly.

Kurando began to stop crying as he smiled weakly and returned Yuri's hug. "Yuri I'm so happy right now. I've never been happier than whenever I am with you. I'm so full of life when I'm with you, so happy, so excited, whenever we part you're all I would think about, and I'm so relieved that you don't disown me because of this."

"No worries Kurando, you know nothing will change how I feel about you, and umm well… I don't really know how I feel…but I really like this…and I really do think that you're beautiful" Yuri said as a smile covered Kurando's red face, and Yuri leaned in to passionately kiss once more. His arms wrapped around him tightly as Kurando groaned in pleasure, when suddenly Kurando pushed Yuri onto his back, kissing him deeper than before, slipping his slick tongue into Yuri's mouth. His lips pushed tighter to his cousin's as he was being pinned, as he heard a door open in the distance.

"Kurando! I'm home!" aunt Saki yelled as she walked through the door.

"Shit, aunt Saki is home!" Yuri panicked not knowing what to do.

"Don't worry" Kurando quickly jumped off of Yuri and pulled his mid length hair back into a ponytail. "Whatever you do don't tell my mom any of this, we'll just go down there like nothing had happened, and we can talk more about it later" Kurando winked, pulling Yuri up whilst giving him a small kiss on the cheek and blushing. "Well we should head down there before she thinks I'm dead or something" Kurando laughed as they made way to the door and started to open it.

End chapter 1:

I thought I'd make the first chapter short, this being my first fan-fic. Please review with constructive criticism on the chapter, and things for me to improve upon. Thanks for reading and more to come soon!

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