shallow sleep

by: oONekomataOo

DISCLAIMER: I don't own YYH and I cry myself to sleep every night because I don't own Kurama, Kuronue, or even Teh Smexy Hat (giggle, snort).

WARNING: Probably some OOCness, language, Pocky conspiracies, and flirty bats.

Neko: Update. Finally. Whee…

Trading towns; great places to stop by to get the latest goods or information. You could spend the entire day snooping around for whatever you needed, and then rent a room in an inn for a relatively peaceful evening. Even the smallest trading towns had places to stay…unfortunately for Kuronue, the particular town he and Mikata had stumbled upon only had taverns and no inns. The difference? While the tavern keepers served rooms to rent they also served other things—like alcohol. Which makes sleep pretty much impossible especially in a place like Makai, where the only thing higher than the number of drunks that periodically lined up to get trashed each night was their tolerance for liquor.

This did not make Kuronue happy.

By the time he'd tracked down the safest tavern of the three in town, Happy Hour was in full swing. Also not improving his mood was the fact that he still hadn't had a real meal since his revival at the hands of a four-year-old. How he'd ever figure that one out, he had no idea.

"Oi, Mikata," Kuronue spoke, prodding the child beside him.

"Hunh…?" replied the sleepy koumori.

"We're gonna have to stay at this place tonight, okay?"

"But, um, Kuro-nii…Mikata feels bad people inside…"

His foster brother of sorts sighed and crouched down to his eye-level.

"I know there's some bad people in there, kid, but we don't have any other choice," Kuronue explained. "If we don't stay here, we'll have to sleep outside again and be sitting ducks for the really bad people that might pass by. You don't want that, right?"

The child shook his head.

"Good," the he answered, ruffling Mikata's hair again. "You just stick by me and you'll be fine, okay?"

And so the two bats made there way into the wooden tavern. Pushing past the drunks was normally no problem for Kuronue, but pushing past them with Mikata clenched firmly to his hand was a little harder. He had to make sure no one stepped on or ran into the tiny koumori on their way to the front desk. Equally unfortunate was that the front desk also served as the main bar area. Naturally, our hero handled it the maturity and grace one would expect from his character.

"Get outta my way, ya bloody drunks!" Kuronue hollered, kicking a passed out octopus-looking youkai off his barstool.

"Hey there son, we got the finest ningen blood on tap! Care for a mug?"

"Nah, just a room for now, barkeep."

"Sure thing," the larger youkai said, taking a key off the rack behind him. "This kid yours?"

"Yeah, I knocked up the wrong chick a few towns over and now her man's after us," Kuronue said with all the ease of someone who's spent his entire life lying himself out of trouble. "Guess he figured it out when the kid sprouted wings."

"That so?" the barkeep grinned. "Well don't you be startin' any more trouble at my bar, I already got plenty!"

"You got it," the bat grinned, setting down the money for the key. "Oh, that reminds me. You got any food here?"

"Do I look like a chef to you? I'm already short-staffed as it is!"

"Do I look like a food critic to you? I was talking about soup and bread or something, I'm starving!"

The barkeep laughed again and promised to have something ready by the time he put his younger companion to bed. Kuronue nodded in thanks and agreed to come down for it after Mikata was tucked in.

When they opened the door to their room for the night, the violet-eyed boy dove straight for the bed. Kuronue pulled up a wooden chair and glanced around the room. The furnishings were pretty sparse, but after camping out in the woods for the last few days, neither bat was about to complain. Besides, the older of the two knew that these rooms were usually given to the drunk or hung-over, so there was no reason to make them fancy.

Once Kuronue made his companion to promise to stay put and not let anyone in the room, he headed back downstairs to pick up their dinner. This time shoving drunks out of his way was easy. Again, the same octopus-like demon was rudely kicked off his barstool so that Kuronue could get the barkeep's attention.

"That guy's gonna be mad with you tomorrow…"

"Look at him! He's not even going to remember himself tomorrow," the thief laughed. "Now about that food…"

"You've sure got a one-track mind there," the large youkai shook his head, setting down a tray of soup, a few assorted slices of bread, and a pitcher of water. "Best I could do on such short notice."

"Looks great!" exclaimed the bat.

"Didja want anything else to drink? Some whisky, maybe?"

"I'm more of a sake man, myself…"

"So you're from Eastern Makai, then," noted the barkeep, pouring him a glass.

"Born and raised."

"Helluva mess over there, now."

"You said it," Kuronue replied, masking his concern for his thieving guild. It hadn't been a mess when he'd last left it. The East practically belonged to Youko, many of its barons and lords living in constant fear of a raid. And any town that didn't was too afraid to admit it.

Kuronue downed the burning drink in one gulp, paid the barkeep, and returned upstairs. Mikata was already fast asleep by the time he returned, so the elder bat sat on the chair to eat his dinner and think about what he heard.

Somehow Eastern Makai wasn't doing so good and the thief had no idea why. Asking too much about it would be risky, especially if it was a big enough change that everyone would be expected to know about. Kuronue had never felt so cut off from everything else. Back in his time, he always knew what was going on and had eyes and ears everywhere. Now…not so much.

Finishing off his share of the meal, Kuronue covered the rest for Mikata and tried to get some sleep himself. Even with all the noise from the bar below, the koumori had an easier time than he had initially predicted. Reincarnation and sleep deprivation'll do that to you.

The next morning Kuronue awoke to the sound of Mikata eating breakfast. Or rather, the smell of it.

"Nnn…what is that?" the older bat mumbled sleepily.

"Kuro-nii!" the boy squealed excitedly. "Mikata got breakfast!"

"You what?" asked his companion, now shielding his eyes from the sun with his arm.

"Mikata got breakfast for Kuro-nii!"

"You what?!" Kuronue repeated, shooting up in his bed. "I told you not to leave the room!"

Mikata's smile fell.

"B-But, Mikata heard Kuro-nii's tummy go 'ruuumblummblll' and, and—"

His so called role model couldn't help but sweatdrop at the boy's attempt to imitate his stomach.

"You weren't supposed to leave because there are bad people down there. Remember?"

"But there are good people down there now, Kuro-nii," the child tried to explain. "The man with the beard gave Mikata the sandwiches!"

'That was nice of him,' The koumori thought, eying the remaining two ham sandwiches. 'Wait…that bartender didn't have a beard.'

"Who gave you the sandwiches, Mikata?"

"The man with the beard."

Kuronue sighed. Children's logic. Might as well have offered him candy while he was at it.

"Kuro-nii?"

"Don't worry about it, kid," he replied, sitting down and digging into his first sandwich. "Just make sure you don't go off wandering around on your own again. Sometimes your 'good people' end up being 'not-so-good people.'"

After breakfast, the boys decided to continue on their way. Now that Kuronue had a map and some weapons at his disposal, life was going to be a lot easier.

Continuing their way down the rickety set of stairs that led back to the main bar area, the thief noticed that his travel toddler was right about the place. The only people in the bar were a man laughing loudly at the barkeep's joke and the barkeeper himself.

"I'm impressed, Pops!" Kuronue laughed. "Not a drunkie in sight!"

"You can bet I tossed each and every one of 'em out myself!" the barkeep boasted, flexing his arms.

But the thief had suddenly lost all interest in making chit chat with the large man. As soon as the bearded man at the bar turned around to face him, Kuronue's eyes widened in surprise. Memories started flooding into his tired brain. He barely felt his new little brother tugging at his shirt.

"See? See? Kuro-nii? That's the man with the beard that helped Mikata!"

"T-Toki?!"

"Beelzebub's sweet uncle! Is that you, Kuronue?!"

Kuronue immediately ran over to one of his former guild members with a mixture of shock and relief. Toki wasn't always the brightest member in the bunch, but his skill with a sword was extraordinary. At this point, Kuronue would've settled on the most annoying member of Youko's thievery guild as long as it got him some answers. Toki was more like an early Christmas present wrapped up in bar naps and alcohol wrappers.

"Great Inari's tailfeathers! You're a ghost, aren't you?!" the panicked swordsman shrieked and jumped straight off his bar stool. "The ghost of Kuronue!"

The thief didn't know where to begin. Should he explain to his old drinking buddy that he was a flesh and blood now or that Inari was a fox and therefore had no tailfeathers. Toki took no notice of his comrade's dilemma and unsheathed his sword to protect himself.

'Well that answers that,' thought the bat. 'Ghost problem, first.'

"I-I'm not afraid to use this on you, spirit!" whimpered Toki, his sword wavering as much as his sword.

"Shut the hell up and put that thing away," Kuronue ordered him, just as he used to back when they were on raids together. "I'm just as real as you are."

"W-What? But, but you…"

"Died?" the thief laughed. "Minor setback. I came back to have a couple more rounds with you guys before I call it quits for real."

This seemed to calm the other man down a little more.

"So you're really back?"

"Sure am."

"How long have you been back?"

"Not too long, actually," answered Kuronue. "Kind of a recent thing."

By this point, Toki had put his sword away and motioned for the two bats to join him at the bar.

"Something to drink?" the owner asked.

"I'll take a sake," the older bat said, then motioned to his companion. "And he'll take an apple juice."

The bartender went to fetch the drinks requested while his customers caught up with each other.

"You gotta tell me, man!" the thief exclaimed. "What's up with Kurama? No one here's ever heard of him! He didn't skip town on us, did he?"

Toki looked at the ground, sadly.

"Hey, been gone awhile here….fill me in," the bat started, voice beginning to lose its initial excitement. "Toki?"

"Um, y'see…he…he died, Kuro."

The ice in the thief's chest froze back into place.

"You're lying."

"N-No…I'm…" the swordsman hiccupped and choked back a sob. Toki had the appearance of a barbarian, but was a total softie on the inside.

"You're bloody lying!!" Kuronue shouted, enraged. At this point he didn't even care that he was letting his temper get to him. "You think that's funny or something, Toki?!"

His former teammate managed to pull himself together for his friend's sake.

"It's not funny at all, Kuro," he said in a tone of seriousness the bat didn't think he had in him. "It happened a year or two after you died…I cried for days…Hayabusa had to drag me outta the fort…"

Kuronue's heart sank. The ice he had felt in his chest now seemed to trickle down his insides and settle in his stomach. He had never felt so much despair before.

"Kurama…"

Mikata poked his head around his foster brother's shoulders and watched the conflicted emotions play across his face. Slowly, he reached his tiny hand up and patted Kuronue's cheek. He didn't like to see his new brother looking sad.

"Kuro-nii?"

The elder bat looked down at him in confusion, not quite expecting the action from his tiny companion. He did his best to smile for his sake.

"And HQ?"

"It's been abandoned for at least 15 years now. Without Youko there, everything's overgrown with plants," Toki informed him. "Me and 'Busa tried to visit a few years back, but it was too dangerous. Guess Youko didn't want anybody messing with his territory…"

Kuronue tried to smile again.

"What about you? What do you and the other guys do now?"

"Hayabusa and me mostly do odd jobs now," explained Toki. "Ume and the Queen just drink themselves into oblivion. They were pretty upset. I'm pretty sure Wattan just wanders nowadays. I don't know about the rest…"

"…."

"But hey, it looks like you've been a busy guy yourself, Kuro," Toki tried to lighten the mood.

"What do you mean?"

"You got a kid now, don't you?" the swordsman gestured towards Mikata. "What's your son's name, anyhow?"

"Mikata is Mikata," the boy answered, feeling safer with Kuronue there.

"That's a good name for a—"

"He's not my son," the bat answered, but winced a little at the harshness of his voice. He took a more natural tone to finish his statement. "He's more like…a little brother."

Toki smiled.

"That's good. I'm sure 'Busa would love to meet you guys!" he chuckled. "Bet he'll do a backflip when he sees you, Kuro!"

"I highly doubt that, Toki."

About an hour had passed until Hayabusa showed up. The three at the bar passed the time by talking about what went on in the last twenty years. Kuronue tried to explain the afterlife and his confusing reincarnation process to the best of his ability and Toki tried not to let on how much of his head was spinning. The swordsman in turn, filled Kuronue in on the current state of the Makai, with Youko's death throwing the balance of power off in Eastern Makai. Several rival thievery guilds tried to rise above the others in his absence, leading to chaos in the underground world. Not too long after, an Eastern lord had gotten his hands on a forbidden artifact and destroyed much of his own territory, including several smaller towns. It was a dangerous place to be nowadays.

When the red kitsune walked in, he was greeted by Toki and Kuronue. He dropped his bag and stared at the group with wide amber eyes. Despite his stoic demeanor, he felt the shock creeping into his expression as the man he had thought to be dead, asked him to buy him a drink.

"…Kuronue?"

"Hey, Haya-chan!" snickered the thief. "What's with that face? I only asked you to buy me one drink!"

"Sit with us, partner!" Toki joined in. "You'll never believe who I ran into!"

"Have a seat, have a seat," the bat continued to laugh. "Damn, you look like you've seen a ghost!"

The newest arrival unsteadily took a seat beside his former guild member. Mikata quickly scurried onto Kuronue's lap, still wary of the new dusty red-haired man. He seemed like a friend of his foster brother's, but still had a sense of coldness about him. The barstool creaked under his weight, while Mikata watched him closely.

"What happened to you?" the fox finally asked.

"Long story."

"Who's this child—?"

"—Longer story."

"I'll fill ya in later, partner!" Toki chortled.

"It's incredible…" Hayabusa mused, waving away the barkeep. "I had thought that both of our leaders had died…"

Kuronue's smile dropped a little at this statement. He tried to ignore the ice water that continued to trickle throughout his body and chilling him. The fox noted his change in expression and smiled a bit.

"That is what I thought, Kuronue. Not what I believed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Obviously you're alive and well, but that's not all," clarified Hayabusa. "Kurama is far too powerful of a kitsune to pass on without me sensing it. I worked alongside him for many years and became very familiar with his lifeforce. I believe that if he were to ascend to the afterlife, I would feel it."

"You really think that?" asked Kuronue, his mood considerably improving.

"Yes," the fox replied. "Like you, I believe that Kurama is still out there somewhere."

Kuronue happily agreed.

"Now that you mention it, I did hear a rumor today about Youko showing up at the Dark Tournament," Toki said.

"No, kidding?" the thief asked in surprise. "That lameass tournament they hold in the Ningenkai?"

"Yeah," Toki confirmed, reaching into his bag to grab something. "I even scored a copy of it from some guy that had the Video Sphere!"

He pulled out something that resembled a chipped crystal ball that could fit in the palm of a person's hand.

"What'd you do? Step on it?" Kuronue asked, pointing at its crappy condition.

"Hey, I got it at a good price because it already looked like this!"

"As long as it still works," Hayabusa commented.

And with that, the little ball flickered to life in Toki's palm. A faint light shot up from the center of it and faded in on a short boy who was saying something about his grandma.

"You sure we got the right one?" the bat sweatdropped. "That kid has a freaking fishing pole. What kind of a tournament is that?"

"I can barely even hear it," the fox complained. "This quality is terrible."

"Shh! Shh! It's getting to the good part!" Toki urged them.

The images skipped to a red-haired boy getting caught in fog of some sort. The view then panned around the fog trapped around the arena as if it was some sort of a cage. The audience started getting as restless as the men watching it felt.

"This is the stupidest fight ever," huffed Kuronue. "You can't even see what's going on."

Suddenly the fog screen cleared up and the audience seemed to gasp. Two hazy figures started to come into view. There, in the center of the arena was none other than Youko Kurama. Nearby were the baffled announcer and a dead beast. The static-y audio picked up the crowd going wild with this revelation.

"Y'see! Y'see! I told you so!" the swordsman exclaimed, excitedly.

"Calm down, Toki," his partner instructed him. "We don't know that for sure."

Kuronue grabbed Toki's forearm to steady the image. As the fog cleared more, his friend seemed to transform back into the original redhead they had seen at the beginning. The bat made sure to imprint the face of the boy housing Youko's soul to his memory.

'So, he didn't skip town…he skipped dimensions…'

"It's him," Kuronue grinned. "It's gotta be him."

"How can you be sure?" asked the fox.

"Are you doubting the words of your second-in-command?!" Kuronue laughed, his hopes of finding his friend the highest they had been in days.

"Former second-in-command," Hayabusa corrected him sarcastically.

"Yeah!" Toki cheered. "It's gotta be him! That's what I thought too!"

"Even if it is, what do you intend to do about it?" asked the red fox sharply.

"Oh, I don't know…" the bat played dumb. "Probably something along the lines of find him and drag him by his fluffy silver tails to the nearest bar, and make him buy me that beer he owes me."

"You're really gonna find the boss again?!" Toki practically squealed in delight. Which was quite the task, given his size.

"That's the plan."

"Then come with us."

Everyone looked at Hayabusa in confusion.

"That tournament took place in the Ningenkai, so that's where you should start looking," he explained. "If you want to get there, you can work with us for a few days until we go past Hag's Woods."

"Hag's Woods?"

"Correct. They say there's a witch living there that can transport people to the Ningenkai for a price, but I don't know what that is. You'll have to figure it out on your own."

"No problem," grinned Kuronue. "I'm sure we can work something out."

At that point he felt Mikata tugging on his sleeve again.

"You'll come with me too, right Mikata?" smiled the older bat. "And help me find Kurama?"

Mikata nodded happily.

"Well alright then! Let's get this convoy on the road!"

----------------------------------------- END: Chap. 3

::A/N::

Neko: I listen to a lot of music when writing, but I find that shasl is easiest to write to Final Fantasy songs. Of course then I want to play said FF games, which leads to conflict. Conflict often resolved by chocolate ice cream.

Kuro: Aren't you supposed to talk about the story here?

Neko: Oh, right. That…yeah. It's slow. And so plot-directed. (sweatdrops) Anem's so different because I can go off on as many tangents as I want…oh, well.

Translation Corner------------------------

I tend to include foreign words in my fics, so you can see definitions here. Feel free to correct anything wrong, or add anything you think I've missed. To shorten this list, most character names will appear in the chapter they were first introduced.

Koumori (Jap.) "Bat"

Youkai (Jap.) "Demon"

Youki (Jap.) "Demon Energy"

Makai (Jap.) "Demon World"

Kitsune (Jap.) "Fox"

Reikai (Jap.) "Spirit World"

Sake (Jap.) "Rice Wine"

Toki (Jap.) "Opportune Time" an OC I created to move the story along. He's a swordsman with a soft spot for little kids.

Hayabusa (Jap.) "I forget" another OC, he's a red fox that fights by possessing others.

Ume and the Queen (Jap.) more OCs, Umeko = "Plum blossom child" a drama queen with feelings of unrequited love for Youko. The Queen = Ringo = "Apple" a drag queen called the Queen as a nickname. The only thing he loved more than Youko was booze (also unrequited). As you can imagine, they didn't get along very well. These two may pop up later in the story.

Wattan (Jap.) "from the homeland" the final OC created for Youko's guild, he can teleport over short distances.

Video Sphere (Eng.) Taken from Final Fantasy X. They project images of events stored on them for the viewer to see. If they can have them in Spira, they can have them in Makai, dammit!