Chapter 10
"So whatcha tell your folks?" Yusuke asked.
"A boys' only trip because Keiko was getting tired of you," Kurama said. Yusuke laughed out loud.
"Ain't that the truth."
"What did you say?"
"I had to swear not to get in any fights, scuffles, or altercations, official or otherwise."
"Ah, she's getting better."
"Yeah." Yusuke glanced sideways at him. "Wonder who taught her that."
"No idea."
The Makai for the second official Youkai Tournament, otherwise known as Election Day for Apparitions. Kurama worked ahead so as to miss the full week. Not that he intended to be here the full seven days. No, the Tournament would take three or four days at most but he expected Yomi might want to talk, or Mukuro, and he needed all his wits for them.
Plus a day for healing but they all had an understanding not to talk about sick days. They were tough, manly men, after all.
"Hey, there's Shishi," Yusuke cried. "How ya doin, pixie stick?"
Kurama smiled. It was good to be back.
K
"'They that have power to hurt, and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow;
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces,
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others, but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself, it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester, smell far worse than weeds.
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,
Doth spot the beaty of thy budding name!
O! in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose.
That tongue that tells the story of thy days,
Making lascivious comments on thy sport,
Cannot dispraise, but in a kind of praise;
Naming thy name blesses an ill report.
O! what a mansion have those vices got
Which for their habitation chose out thee,
Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot
And all things turns to fair that eyes can see!
Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege;
The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge.'"
"Uh-oh. I know that face." Yusuke strolled into Kurama's room, shut the door, and leaned back on it. "Someone's in trouble."
Kurama sighed and dropped the letter.
"I may have neglected to tell Botan I was competing," he said. Yusuke whistled.
"There is absolutely no danger of my getting killed," Kurama said.
"Doesn't matter."
"I am perfectly capable—"
"You don't get in trouble a whole lot, do ya?" The younger man sank down next to him on the bed. "My grampa fought in the war. Used to tell us stories about how badass he was, ya know, usual crap. One day, him and my gramma got in a fight and he started ranting about how she always does this, always nags him. Even in the war, she'd send him letters just bustin' his balls about stuff he couldn't change. I mean, he was three hundred miles away; how the hell can he fix a tire on their car?"
"Yusuke."
"Next day, she'd send him another letter, apologizing and saying all these sweet, couple-y things. All the gross stuff you don't wanna hear about your grandparents."
Kurama rubbed his eyes.
"Yes, Yusuke, I'm aware she's worried about me."
"Yup."
A pause.
"I don't know if I can do this," Kurama said quietly.
"Why not?"
"Well, not everyone met their soulmate when they were five."
"Four-and-a-half."
He glared at the younger man, who smirked.
"Can I offer some advice?" Yusuke asked. "As a blockhead that gets in trouble all the time?"
"If you must."
"Don't start a fight from here. And for shit's sake, don't die. It'll be all my fault again and my ears just stopped bleeding from the last fight."
"What was that about?"
"Dishes or something; I dunno. Wasn't listening."
They both laughed at that and Yusuke got to his feet, clapping Kurama on the shoulder.
"See ya in the next round," Yusuke said. "I'm gonna take a nap."
"Right." Kurama waited until he shut the door. It was…weird. On one hand, her worry was flattering. A beautiful woman asking after his health was a particular kind of ego boost for a fighter, especially of his caliber.
On the other hand, it was annoying, insulting. Accusing him of slipping into his old habits when she knew how hurtful—But that was it, wasn't it? She knew. Beautiful but cold. Making the bad things look good. That had been his MO for the better part of three thousand years, he'd been lying, playing, manipulating. Twenty years of human contact didn't just erase all of that, especially when he'd fallen back into The Life so quickly. Yes, for good reasons but she'd wept over him multiple times and he'd stepped back into danger's path again anyway.
Reassurances then. For now. They could talk about boundaries and trust issues when he got back.
'What's in the brain that ink may character
Which hath not figured to thee my true spirit?
What's new to speak, what now to register,
That may express my love, or thy dear merit?
Nothing, sweet boy; but yet, like prayers divine,
I must each day say o'er the very same;
Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine,
Even as when first I hallowed thy fair name.
So that eternal love in love's fresh case,
Weighs not the dust and injury of age,
Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place,
But makes antiquity for eye his page;
Finding the first conceit of love there bred,
Where time and outward form would show it dead.
O! never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seemed my flame to qualify,
As easy might I from my self depart
As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie:
That is my home of love: If I have ranged,
Like him that travels, I return again;
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that myself bring water for my stain.
Never believe though in my nature reigned,
All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
That it could so preposterously be stained,
To leave for nothing all thy sum of good;
For nothing this wide universe I call,
Save thou, my rose, in it thou art my all.'
The next round, he fought like the demon he could be. Stress relief.
*sonnet 94, 95, 108, 109