11. A Cure and a Confrontation

"Poison!?" Lyn repeated disbelievingly. Well, more like not wanting to believe.

"Yes, poison."

Lyn stared at Youko. "Wait, wait -- don't demons have better senses than humans? How could you not have noticed that!?"

"I don't know, maybe it's odorless until it's activated," Youko said as he examined Reneey. Sweat was pouring from her forehead, and she was shaking and moaning a little bit.

"So what the crap does this mean and what are you gonna do about it!?" Lyn demanded, trying to keep from losing it. After all, poison wasn't her area of expertise unless it came from a snakebite.

"Well, go get a cold cloth rag or something cool and wake up your father, because he needs to tell me what else to do..."

"WHAT!?"

"Well, he was always good with poison!"

Lyn resisted an urge to smack herself in the forehead, but her eye was twitching again as she went to find Kuronue and wake him up, since she had no idea where she could find a cold cloth, anyway.

"Owww," Reneey groaned as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Hey.. how are you feeling? You're poisoned!"

"Oh, that's it?" Reneey asked, blinking.

Youko twitched. "That's it!? Reneey, you could die!"

"Oh, right.. I knew that..."

With Lyn and Kuronue

Lyn had finally figured out which room was Kuronue's and knocked -- okay, maybe kind of punched the door a couple of times -- while yelling, "GET UP NOW BEFORE I KICK THE DOOR DOWN AND DRAG YOU OUT HERE BY YOUR POINTY EARS!"

"UNLESS SOMEONE IS ON THE VERGE OF DEATH, I'M NOT WAKING UP!" Kuronue shouted back.

Lyn let out a low growl and, ten minutes later, Kuronue had black and blue all over him and was sweatdropping as he walked downstairs to the living room.

"You know, when I said 'unless someone is on the verge of death,' I didn't actually mean it."

"Just do something!" Youko and Lyn snapped together, and then Lyn made a face and wondered how in the name of Seto Kaiba she had wound up on the same side as Youko when she was still ticked at him.

Reneey, right. Well, killing Youko would have to wait until later; Reneey came first.

"All right," Kuronue said. "First, Lyn, go to the batrhoom, put a towel in cold water, and rinse it out."

Lyn nodded and left.

"Now how in the seven hells did this happen!?"

"We were attacked, and the attacker made a clone, knocked Reneey out and cut her arm, probably slipped her some sort of poison that remains odorless until it's activated."

Kuronue raised his eyebrows. "Do you know what kind of demon he was?"

"Yes, spider."

"So, spider demon venom," Kuronue said, nodding. "I remember, quite nasty. Okay, Youko, go to CVS (Me: Does Japan have a CVS? Lyn: Reneey, it's a fanfic. Of course Japan has a CVS!) and steal or buy or whatever you do these days some painkillers, antivenom, and a needle." (Me: I don't think CVS has needles... Lyn: Reneey, it's a fanfic, so CVS does have needles!)

Youko nodded; he knew what Kuronue meant, because Suichi's mom had sent him to CVS multiple times.

Lyn came back with the cold towel, and Kuronue said, "All right, Lyn, we have to keep Reneey awake until Youko returns."

Lyn rolled her eyse. "That's easy. SCOTTY VANITY!"

"WHERE!?" Reneey shouted.

"Shit -- fuck, that hurt," she cursed as she coughed up blood. "I blame you, Lyn, for making me scream! If I die, my ghost will sue you!"

"Then Gobble's ghost will be my attorney, and I will win. Anyway, don't blame me -- blame that dad of yours!"

"Then my closet and the ghost that haunts my room and tries to kill me will fight Gobble's ghost and --" Reneey broke into another coughing fit. "Yeah, this is what I get for arguing..."

"Reneey, how do you feel?" Kuronue asked.

"Well, let's see, I'm coughing up blood, I feel like I'm on fire -- oh, and you two are spinning."

"Okay, but you need to stay awake," Kuronue said seriously.

"Well, duh -- I mean, there's hell no way I'm going to the light, it will burn my skin!"

"Why the crap do you find this so funny?" Lyn asked with a frown.

"Because nobody but the bad people die in this series, Lyn," Reneey said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, Yusuke died three times! The most we would do is go to the spirit world and threaten Bratty Brat to bring us back."

Reneey shrugged like she didn't really care, and in truth, she didn't. I mean, it's death; you can't stop it, and crying certainly won't bring anyone back... but scaring Bratty Brat into bringing them back will work.

Kuronue blinked, and Lyn just shook her head. Maybe Reneey believed that, but Lyn didn't. Maybe in cartoons, you got as many chances as you wanted, but not in life. It wasn't that forgiving.

Once Reneey's feeling better, I'm going to make sure Youko doesn't even think about pulling this crap again, Lyn thought darkly as she glared at the wall, pretending it was Youko. Ironically, Youko came in with the stuff, but the bad thing was that he held out the needle.

Reneey's eyes went wide with fear. "Um, can I go to the bathroom?"

"No," Lyn said firmly.

"But I really --"

"A real lie, that's for sure," Lyn said, crossing her arms.

"But it's a fregging needle!" Reneey objected, trying to hide behind Lyn. "Save me!"

The corner of Lyn's mouth twitched as if some part of her had seen the irony in the situation. "That's exactly what I'm trying to do," she said quietly.

You're not gonna leave me here alone with these wackos, Rea. I'll lose it and kill them all.

"But it's pointy and sharp and I like pointy sharp things, but not when they're used against me!"

"Reneey, I promise it won't hurt," Youko sighed.

"Liar! They all say that, but it does hurt!" Reneey declared.

"That's because you always tense up," Lyn said exasperatedly.

What nobody had noticed, though, was that Kuronue took the stuff from Youko, hid in the corner, and filled the needle with antivenom.

"Reneey, I want you to live!" Youko snapped. "And you will, even if I have to tie you down!"

"Child abuse!" Reneey yelled.

Kuronue then got a glass of water, put the painkillers in it, and gave the cup to Reneey while hiding the needle behind his back.

"Here, Reneey, drink this," he told her. "And hold out the arm with the cut."

"I can totally call child se -- OW! FUCK! UNCLE!" Reneey yelled as Kuronue stuck the needle into the arm she held out.

"SHIT! THAT HURT!"

"It's almost done, Reneey," Kuronue said with a sigh as he injected the antivenom.

"You're as bad as Kelly about the needles," Lyn said, shaking her head.

After five hours -- well, five minutes, but it felt like five hours to Reneey -- the antivenom had been administered and everything was fine. Well.. for her and Kuronue. Youko would be lucky to be walking the next day.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to have a little talk with a certain godfather," Lyn growled, spitting out the 'godfather' part.

"Sure, just don't kill anyone," Kuronue sighed as he again went back to bed. Reneey shrugged and went to the guest room.

"Night!" she called, and Lyn nodded in response.

When Youko and Lyn were alone, Lyn took a deep breath, crossed her arms, and said in a forcibly calm voice, "You have two minutes to come up with a really, really, REALLY good defense. After that, I cannot be responsible for my actions."

"I just told you, like, two hours ago! What more do you need!?" Youko sighed; it was like dealing with Kasumi and Ruby all over again.

Lyn shook her head. "I didn't ask for an explanation. I asked for a defense. You almost got her killed, Youko, and the best you could come up with was 'I killed him'? What about you? You're the one who put her in danger in the first place! I swear, if you ever pull anything like this again, I'll kill you, whatever Kuronue says."

Youko pursed his lips. He knew that Lyn was right; knew that it was his fault. He had let it happen. Why did he stay there in the first place? Oh, right, because it had been a hundred years since he had held his daughter and, when he got the chance again, he took advantage of that. Which resulted in Reneey being poisoned.

"What kind of parent am I?" Youko muttered, shaking his head.

Lyn's jaw was still set. She would probably feel bad for him later, but at the moment, she was too ticked off to be anything else.

"She doesn't need to be babied, Youko, but you can't jeopardize her life, either." Her eyes flashed fiercely as she growled, "I won't let you. Not after everything, not after all these years. Not again."

Youko blinked. "Define 'Not after everything, not after all these years, not again.'"

A hint of color tinged Lyn's cheeks. Crap, she hadn't meant to say that out loud. "Nothing. None of your dadburned business."

"If it deals with my daughter, then it is my business, Lyn. Tell me. Now." Youko looked straight into Lyn's pale green eyes with a stern look on his face.

Lyn, however, shook her head, looking determined despite her obvious slip-up. "No. It's not my place to tell, it's not just my story."

And I wouldn't tell you if it were, she added mentally.. but Youko didn't have to know that.

Youko raised his eyebrows. Exactly what had happened to his daughter in that other place? He would find out.

"What do you mean by 'It's not my place to tell'? Did something happen to her!? Did someone hurt her!?"

Anger was in Youko's eyes, but not at Lyn, though; it was at the thought of someone hurting his daughter. Yeah, you don't wanna piss off demon dads, just like you don't wanna piss off country dads.

Lyn met his gaze unflinchingly, but some of the fire had been extinguished from her eyes. It made her look tired. Finally she sighed and answered, "Life is full of pain; it's an uphill battle, you can't avoid it. It helps if you have people fighting for you, and I've always been on Reneey's side since I've known her. Beyond that, I can't say; she has her secrets and I have mine. If you want to know about Reneey, you're going to have to ask her yourself. She'll tell you what she wants you to know." Antcipating an objection, she added quickly, "I'm not going to give you her life's story. I wouldn't want her to tell mine, and she wouldn't want me to do that to her, either."

"Yes, I can see that you are Kasumi's daughter -- you have her attitude and all," Youko said with a small smile.

Lyn nodded and left to go to bed. Or, well, to go lie down; she doubted she would be able to sleep.

The next morning, Youko was determined to find out from Reneey, and he would make sure Kuronue learned about Lyn's life, too. After all, what kind of parents would they be if they didn't know about their daughters' lives?