Chapter four has arrived!I actually finished this chapter last night a couple of hours after I uploaded chapter three, but I never got a chance to upload it. Sorry!

Before the chapter begins, I'd like to say one thing. Thank you to Springflowerangel for the review, and also, thank you to anyone who has read this far! You guys are amazing!

As usual, Yu Yu Hakusho rightfully belongs to the wonderful Yoshihiro Togashi, who, sadly, I am not. All I own are the ideas in my head and my OCs.


To say that the crowd was shocked by the announcement was a bit of an understatement. For what seemed like ages, no one spoke. Advisor Shusui finally cleared his throat, and that broke the spell that had fallen over everyone. All at once, their voices filled the room, the roar enough to make Ashton flatten her ears against her head. The princess winced a little. It took Advisor Shusui several minutes to calm the throng.

"He's a human!" one prince angrily cried out. "She cannot marry him! There has to be some kind of law that forbids this!"

"We will not allow this kind of marriage!" another demon protested. He made as if to take a step towards Ashton, but a glare from Kurama stopped him. The redhead's eyes flashed gold; Youko was angered by everyone's words.

"There are no laws that forbid it," Kurama spoke, but it was not his voice that came from his mouth. It was Youko's, calm and level despite his anger towards the guests. Ashton gently placed a hand on his shoulder, and Kurama turned his head to look at her. His eyes returned to their normal shade of emerald as she spoke something that only he could hear. The spirit fox nodded after a moment.

"Yes, well… As he stated, there are no laws that forbid their marriage," Advisor Shusui told the crowd. It was easy to tell that he, too, was not happy with the princess' announcement, but he knew better than to say anything against the decision. He cleared his throat a second time. "So now, without further ado, we shall have the night's last dance." The sea of people parted to allow the newly engaged couple access to the ballroom dance floor. The two waltzed to the music that began to play, the world around them seeming to disappear as they gazed into each others eyes, their foreheads pressed together.

Long after the music had ended and the guests had departed, Kurama and Ashton could still be found in the ballroom, gently swaying to a song that only they could hear. They didn't seem to pay it any mind when their friends from the Human World entered the ballroom again; the two were still holding their own little conversation, oblivious to the rest of the happenings in the world.

"Auntie Ashton! Uncle Kurama!"

Tefy's sweet voice pulled them from their little world. The two stepped apart and turned to look at their friends. Everyone was watching them with expressions of mixed emotions.

"Mind explaining to us what the hell's going on?" Madarao asked them. They gave her confused looks, and an exasperated sigh escaped from the neko's lips.

"The engagement?" she prompted. "Since when were you two even dating, let alone planning to get married?"

"I guess you guys would know the answers to both of those questions if you bothered to come visit every once in a while," Ashton coolly replied, though there was a bit of a snippy undertone to her words. "But to entertain your questions, we've been together for about three years now. We've actually really been engaged since about five minutes before Advisor Shusui had me announce who I'd chosen."

Sensing that it would be unwise to ask anymore questions, their friends excused themselves. Ashton sighed quietly and wrapped her arms around her fiancé. She hid her face in the crook of his neck. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips as Kurama's strong yet gentle arms embraced her.

"They think we're crazy," the princess quietly said. Kurama chuckled, and she peeked up at him. He was lovingly watching her.

"They just don't understand how special what we have really is," he corrected her. Ashton gave him a skeptical look. Kurama placed a small kiss on her forehead.

"Let's not worry about them right now, love," he told her. He gently rubbed her back, and a content smile graced her features once more. "All that matters now is that your advisors cannot make you marry someone that you don't love. We're together, and we always will be."

| |¯`·.¸_¸.+´¯`¤.¸¸.·´¯`×

For the remainder of their stay, Madarao avoided Ashton. She was miffed by her friend's words from the night of the ball. More than that, though, she didn't want to say anything that would give Ashton reason to hate her.

The lack of attention from the neko didn't affect Ashton, though. She spent most of her time with Kurama, planning their upcoming wedding. All they'd told their friends so far was that they were planning to wed in May. That gave them about six months to get everything in order for their wedding day.

The ball had been over for nearly a week, yet the news of Ashton's engagement to Kurama was still causing an uproar throughout the Demon World. Envelopes addressed to the two arrived at the castle each day, most of them containing meaningless threats of various sorts. They paid them little attention at first, but Ashton had noticed that one trace of demonic energy kept popping up on the new mail. The energy was familiar to her; familiar, but one that she hadn't seen in over three years.

She'd originally requested that the two not be bothered with the letters, but she told Kiyo that she'd changed her mind, asking that all mail be delivered to her before anyone else had a chance to open it and discard it all.

It was early in the afternoon when the day's mail arrived. As instructed, Kiyo took it straight to Ashton, who was in her room at the time. The princess found the letter with the energy trace, and she opened it, pulling a piece of thick parchment paper from the envelope. She began to read it, slipping so deep into concentration that she didn't hear the bedroom door opened. She jumped when Kurama's arms wrapped around her waist. The piece of paper fluttered to the ground.

"You scared me, Kurama!" she exclaimed. She laughed a little and playfully hit his arm. The redhead smiled sheepishly and kissed the tip of his fiancée's nose.

"Sorry, love," he apologized. "You were so into that letter that I couldn't resist the urge to scare you a little bit." He pulled away and retrieved the letter that Ashton had dropped. He returned it to her so that she could finish reading.

As she continued from where she'd left off, her eyes widened just slightly. A look of fear could briefly be seen in her grey orbs, but it disappeared just as quickly as it came. Once finished, she handed the letter to Kurama to read, and she sat down on the edge of her bed, staring wide-eyed at the floor.

"Oh my God," she whispered. Her eyes filled with tears; they quickly spilled over to fall down her face. It seemed as if each one knew its path so well, like it had been traveled so many times.

"Merihk's coming back for me, Kurama," the princess managed to say once the redhead had finished reading the letter.


And that's that! Thank you for reading, and please make sure to review! Reading reviews makes me feel very, very loved, and they motivate me to continue on.

Much love,

Pandah