A/N: I don't really know where this came from. I wanted to write something with Yomi and Kurama that perhaps shows something else, what keeps them together, a reason that they perhaps don't understand themselves. Are there emotions shared between them? Or are they simply working towards their own selfish goal of understanding only what they feel…and not what the other is experiencing?
Is what's happening between them a sort of compassion, which they don't understand? Or is it their own egoism at work? The reason they stick together is to figure out the emotions they are experiencing…? Who knows, I certainly don't XD. I only write what comes to my mind, and I can't even write all of that out… *sigh*
I did manage to confuse myself, but that's about it.

Quote of the fic;
"Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us."
- Eric Hoffer

OXXXO

Everything had been destroyed. The marble courtyard was now cracked by vegetation, and its brilliant colour had faded into a mere memory. The windows were broken, no longer providing any protection from the chilly unrelenting winds. And centuries of withstanding acid rain had taken its toll in the concrete structure of his castle, corroding the walls until they broke apart like fragile limestone.

This wouldn't have happened if someone had taken care of the building. But in all his millennia of existence he had never once seen Youko Kurama do labour work. And, No, he did not consider thieving labour work; Kurama stole with his mind not with brute force.

Much to his appreciation the corrosion hade not yet reached the innermost parts of the structure, thus leaving them with at least one place to take shelter: the dim, caved in inside of his castle was now their home.

Why did they stay in this miserable place? They both loathed what it represented, hated its history, and resented what it made them.

It was not a stronghold, it could not protect them against assault; they were sitting ducks. It was cold and wet and dark; mould was growing in the parts that weren't solid rock, and the rock was growing moss. Water slipped in through the cracks, making everything smell like an underground cave. Not much warmth made it to this place they called shelter. They could do so much better than this! Where they trying to inflict some sort of psychological self mutilation on themselves?

If the nights were cold outside, one may imagine what they were like inside. At least Kurama had fur and tails, lots and lots of tails; so the freezing nights never bothered him. Yomi was not so lucky; he'd always envisioned himself going down in a great battle; not freezing to death in his own poorly maintained castle.

He was no one anymore. A fallen King; his rule reduced to nothing more than a chapter the history books.

And yet Kurama was still there. Kurama had never changed. He had never fallen; he still stood strong and feared. Yomi's tale had been a fleeting story, easily forgotten, Kurama had clawed his mark and memory into the very soil of the world. Even in the farthest most remote parts of Makai he was better known than the concept of night and day.

He was greatness in its purest form; the paragon of illustriousness.

Yomi knew this, but he would never say it out loud. That would simply tally up the wins for the fox, and he couldn't allow that ego to be inflated any more. Besides, Kurama probably already knew Yomi thought in these ways.

"Why are you still here?"

It was apparent that Kurama had not anticipated the question, or maybe it was the sheer bluntness he had not expected; the normally so enigmatic Yomi to be so ingenuous. For the fox paused in the middle of turning a page in that old tattered book, his breath caught just for a second in the back of his throat. Most would never have noticed these slight irregularities in character but they were enough for Yomi to decipher; a crack had suddenly appeared in the perfect mask that makes up Youko Kurama. A crack in the form of surprise.

Though, much to Yomi's quiet disappointment, it mended itself quite quickly. Nor did Kurama's response bring him much satisfaction. "Neither of us will benefit from doubting one and other. My intentions are simply a way to penitent, an intimate amelioration, but with whom, and for what purpose… even I have yet to figure."

"That is an even more disturbing conclusion."

"Indeed."

Yomi sighed, but maybe that was just it. Maybe there wasn't an answer…

Suddenly Kurama laughed, an unnervingly half-hearted laugh which sent little tingles unpleasantness up Yomi's spine. "Your once so palpable thoughts may have turned enigmatic, but your actions are as easy to read as they always were."

Wretched Kitsune! Well, two could play that game.

"You never loved her. You never could. You were not capable of ever loving that woman. You simply attached yourself to her; such is the folly of Kitsune" The words came slow at first, contemplative, then they twisted, turned taunting, maybe just to gain something; a reaction.

A mere twitch of an eyebrow would have been enough, but Kurama didn't even flinch at the words. "Humans are the only creatures granted the ability to love beyond the border of their own species. In that perspective you are right; Shiori loved me, but I could never love her back in the same way. All I could do was to mimic the appropriate human emotions and provide her only with a feigned illusion of love, but it was enough to keep her happy and such was my pledge to her."

There was no regret in Kurama's voice; but Yomi did notice something, it was not in his voice, but rather in the words themselves, they were too unrestrained and painless.

"Those words come very easy?"

"Just as easy as I lied to her." The fox returned to his book; the action a way to signal that they did not need to speak of this matter again. To elaborate it would be to breach an invisible line….

Because even if it went unbeknownst to Yomi: his words had stung. Yet, of course, the goat didn't have the decency to just end the fruitless conversation right there… "There was a human who said: 'He who can not lie does not know truth.'"

"Nietzsche." Kurama spoke directly without even meeting Yomi's glance "That guy also had a psychotic break and was confined to a mental institution." His face twisted momentarily, the action reduced to something nearly undetectable by a quick rearrangement of facial muscles by which the fox's expression turned apathetic. "…And besides, he who can lie to fool himself can turn the lie into the truth…"

And by those words Yomi fell silent, betrayed by his own mind once again.

THE END

A/N: I appreciate nice reviews just like everyone else :) Now I'm tired. It's 02:42… Need to sleep… Zzzzzzzzz….