Tears in Heaven Chapter 13: Part XIII: And after the Battle, a yu yu hakusho fanfic

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack. 6-16-07: Most of the next two chapters will be written to the album "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" by My Chemical Romance.

Blood type: Tired. And educated. I figured out I make my coffee too strong.

Comments: Final part of a massive three-part update. This finishes Tears in Heaven... and quite possibly my time in the YYH fanfiction ring. Yeah, I'm thinking with as few reviews as I get for these stories, I may post one more one-shot I have that I hope everyone will enjoy, and then stick to Kyo Kara Maoh and Kingdom Hearts... maybe dabble in FFVII. I dunno. Anyhow, please enjoy the final chapter of Tears In Heaven, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

Part Thirteen: And after the battle…

"Sora!" The auburn vixen looked up, and reached out to the tiny blond cherub rushing at her. Tonio launched himself into her arms, giggling madly to his 'Sora', the only way he could say Solaris's name. He was young yet, he had time.

"Tonio, aren't you supposed to be in lessons?" she asked, giggling with him. She knew how it was to ditch lessons; you didn't have to listen to a bunch of bull. He just reached up and wrapped chubby arms around her neck.

"Fly me, Sora!" he begged, and Solaris laughed happily. Black wings unfurled from the woman's back, and she took off, holding tight to the cherub. Angels looked up from whatever they were doing, and sighed indulgently. Saving Heaven, Hell and the lands inbetween hadn't changed the hanten's impulsive, rebellious nature, and time wouldn't dull it either. All that had changed in the scant three years that had passed was the respect that she received as a savior. Solaris soared right over Shiroi's head as he taught Hikaru how to wield a small dagger, and he looked up to his daughter.

"SOLARIS! AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING?!" he yelled. The vixen was an angel of music, a saver of souls in a sense. She spent most of her time on earth or wandering the heavens, finding souls that had lost their way and gathering them to her to be absolved and sent wherever they needed to go. To do so, she sang. It was her thing. Solaris laughed that bell-like laugh and landed near her father.

"Nothing to do on earth today. I thought I'd come visit you and mom, but if you don't want me to…"

"Nuuu, Sora! Don't go!" Tonio cried, and Hikaru grabbed onto a black-fabric covered leg. Solaris had kept her battle outfit Foxglove had made for her and used it to work in. Little Hikaru shot a glare at Shiroi.

"Don't you make Solaris leave! She came to visit!" Shiroi sighed; Hikaru was very convincing.

"Fine then." He sighed, and sat back down, motioning for his daughter to sit too. "So, what's going on down in the human world?"

"Well… I heard that a war maybe coming soon, figured that Shinigami-sama would want to be in the know. And it's gonna be a big one too, if the reporters aren't blowing things out of proportion again, so I'm just waiting until we have to start clocking in overtime."

"Yeah, good point." Shiroi nodded.

"Mama, Foxglove-san's here again!" a young demon child yelled to his mother. The older woman came out just in time to see a young vixen swoop overhead, black wings flared, azure blue dress fluttering over black leggings. Tiny black slipper-covered feet seemed to dance as she turned, smiling as she did a barrel roll to entertain the two before flying off.

While Solaris had accepted her father's offer on behalf of heaven to be an angel of rescue/music, Foxglove had declined, saying she was more comfortable in hell than heaven, and rightly so. After all, she had terrorized a lot of angels in looking for her sister; they didn't have a good opinion of her. It was her way of giving back to them some shred of honor. Besides, the girl didn't want to be mentioned in history any more than she already was going to be.

So she spent her days helping around the temple, sometimes going home to help those who had helped her, or going to the bazaars and markets to pick up items that were rare or needed cheap. She felt that she had spoiled Yukina and Solaris from buying human-made skillets ever again; her last gift to the two sous-chef-wanna-be's had been two demon-forged iron skillets. Tough as hell and guaranteed to last this lifetime and the next. Fairly light too. Today was mostly a pleasure trip; earth was in the declining portion of autumn, it was getting too cold to fly much there. Here was much nicer. But she sighed and decided to head back to the temple; maybe Hiei would be home from the small dojo he ran by now!

"Kurama!" The red-headed boy looked up to see an auburn vixen coming at him fast on wing. He caught Solaris, who retracted her wings and smiled happily. "Sorry, couldn't wait until you got up the path! How was work?" she asked excitedly.

After Kurama had graduated college (in the top three of his graduating class, despite distractions in the last year), companies were trying to recruit him with all sorts of options: corner office in a new office in Nagasaki, penthouse condominium in a sparkly new building in Tokyo, mucho vacation time in Osaka… the list went on and on. In the end, Kurama decided that he was going to take up the offer of a smaller company that would let him work from home, only having to report in one day a week to the office. It was a good job, the advertising firm was incredibly well-paid, and he got to spend a lot of time with Solaris.

It was the best deal ever. And Solaris loved her job as an angel of music. It meant she got to do her favorite thing every day, pretty much: sing and dance. And out at the temple, no one could see her unless she wanted to be seen. It was incredible to watch her dance sometimes; she'd get so into a tune she'd let her wings come out, just enough to be manga-sized and cute, and use the enchantment placed on her so long ago by Shiroi to lift herself into the air. And now she was buzzing with excitement.

"It was all right. They loved the idea." Kurama smiled. His last project had been to think up a gimmick for a new makeup line 'Divine Cosmetics'. Solaris had been staring over his shoulder and suggested getting some pop star to sing the jingle dressed in a hot angel outfit. It was so obvious he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it. A few tweaks to the idea (Solaris had drawn the outfit, but it had been a little too short, so he'd lengthened it a little, and the tune to the jingle had to be written down by Solaris after Kurama had told her the lyrics) and he'd presented it that day. "They hardly believed me when I told them I'd had you draw the outfit."

"Huh. Imagine that." She said, shivering a little. Kurama laughed and pulled her into the folds of his coat.

"So I take it you had to go to heaven today?" Solaris shook her head.

"Didn't have to so much as wanted to. I wanted to visit the cherubs… they say that a new batch is going to need to be hatched this spring, and guess who gets to sing them out?"

"You?"

"Yep! Apparently it's my duty as an angel of music. Doesn't hurt my feelings a bit, I like the cherubs. It was always after the bigot angels got hold of them I didn't like them so much anymore." Solaris snuggled deeper into the coat. "But now they like me just fine."

"You saved their collective ass, why wouldn't they?" The two turned to see Yusuke getting pummeled by Keiko, and Kuwabara laughing. "I get it, sorry!"

"Good. See that you do." Keiko nodded. "We came to visit… chilly?" she asked, smiling. Solaris blushed lightly, and Kurama laughed. Another typical weekend at the temple…

"Hiei, welcome home." Foxglove smiled as Hiei walked up the steps to the temple. She was sitting on a chair, snapping peas into a bowl as Solaris peeled one last potato. The elder twin got to her feet, took the potatoes inside, and smiled.

"Take those peelings down to the compost for me later, will ya, sis?" she said, leaving them alone. Foxglove sighed and smiled; it was worth a trip to the smelly compost heap to talk to Hiei alone like this.

"Thanks." He sighed, sitting down by her.

"Tough day?"

"You bet. One of the students decided he wanted to get into a judo match with another, got beaten, then got irate that I suspended him for a week. He doesn't get that I've told them all time and again not to fight in the dojo unless it's a sanctioned match." Hiei groaned again. "And another took a fall hard and broke her ankle. Her parents threatened to sue until Izumi… angel that she is… reminded them of the waiver they signed at the beginning of the year."

Before finding out more, Izumi's mere mention stirred up sparks of jealousy in Foxglove. After she'd met the woman, and found out that she was happily attached to a nice guy in Tokyo, she could acknowledge Izumi's name with a smile. She wasn't a threat to Foxglove's love for Hiei. Even Hiei understood that. "Izumi's a lifesaver." Foxglove acknowledged.

"That she is. So, I heard the detective and the baka?"

"And Keiko. They came to visit." Foxglove smiled. "So Yukina and Solaris are making Nabe, I think… I never did really catch why they needed potatoes and peas. Gives me something to do, I suppose."

"Anything else in the news about that potential war?" Hiei asked. Foxglove's ears twitched.

"Nothing of substance. Just rumors that it's been declared and they're each waiting for the first side to make a shot before retaliating." She snapped the last pea into the bowl. "It's a cold war so far, but Solaris is gearing up for overtime. She's finishing up her winter outfit's repairs tonight."

"Oh." Hiei said, then picked up the bucket of potato peels. Crimson eyes cut Foxglove a glance as she protested. "I've got it. You get those peas in. I'm hungry and I think I just heard a three way stomach growl: the vixen, the detective, and the baka are starving."

"Right." Foxglove laughed and did as she was bid.

Shiroi wandered the temple grounds with Hikaru late that night, looking in on each room. He passed right by Yukina, Kuwabara, and Yusuke and Keiko's rooms, finding his daughters and the ones they loved. Solaris was sleeping right by Kurama, peaceful with her head resting on his arm. Her wings were retracted into the birthmark form and she turned over away from the draft of the door opening, now resting her head on Kurama's shoulder. As if instinctually, the boy pulled her closer with one arm and smiled, never waking up. He nodded with Hikaru and moved on to Foxglove.

This scene was sweet in its own way, but not too much so. While the two slept on different futons, the space between them was pretty minimal. Still, all that touched were their hands; hers palm up on the floor and his covering hers. Shiroi nodded again as Hikaru pouted and frowned, then fluttered down to pull their futons closer. As soon as she had finished, she nodded, and went back to Shiroi. The two left after that.

"What if they hadn't wanted that?" Shiroi asked.

"Too bad. They're into each other, they need it." Hikaru declared, then looked back fondly to the temple. "I'm glad they've finally found happiness."

"I am too." Shiroi said, cuddling his cherub-incarnated wife closer. "I am too."

Fin.

Okay, so here's the deal: Tears is over, yes, but I have a sequel. Review, and tell me if you want to read it.

Also, I realize that this fic was likely... well, confusing. So I'm willing to answer questions if you're willing to ask them, and in character too. -glutton for punishment, much?- So here's the deal: send a review (anonymous reviews are fine too, but I really like having names!) with your question and who you're asking, and I'll try to answer it. The answers will be posted in a chapter after this, so please look for it.