Okay my lovelies, here is the final chapter of Demon Foxes and Roses as promised. Thank you so much for sticking with me this long, for all my fans old, new, and my mother ;) ENJOY!!!
I don't own any of the songs mentioned in this chapter or any other and as much as I would love to, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho ;)
Della's POV:
I pushed the shade up and studied my reflection in the window. I looked different. Shaking my head as the plane taxied to a halt I waited impatiently for my turn to disembark. Of course I looked different, it had been four years. My eyes were still blue but my hair was now shoulder length with a million layers and brownish red instead of blonde. The captain came over the intercom, I was surprised at how rusty my Japanese had gotten but I understood him well enough.
Digging out my phone I held the power button until the screen lit up, rolling my eyes at the text messages from my mom and Lucy. They were both begging me to come home on the next plane to California. Neither one had understood that I had needed to do this, for me, but surprisingly David had. When my high school had advertised a senior exchange program with Japan it had seemed like fate and I had signed up despite my mom's protests, David had paid for it.
Rising, I quickly hefted my carry-on bag from the overhead compartment and exited the plane. The rest of my things would be picked up in baggage claim but first I had to find my new family. The Tokyo airport was just as loud, crowded, and confusing as I remembered but a gigantic cardboard sign with the words "Della St. Clair" was clearly visible once I reached baggage claim.
Emerging from the crushing throng of people I smiled at Mr. and Mrs. Ito and their daughter, Sen, who was a year younger than me. I bowed before them and said in my less than perfect Japanese, "Konnichiwa Mr. and Mrs. Ito, thank you for letting me stay with you. I'm Della." I smiled warmly at Sen, who was staring at me like I had an extra head. Apparently my ripped jeans and Converse were new to her.
The rest of the grand airport adventure was less than memorable and I heaved a gigantic sigh as I settled into the plush car seat for the ride to my new house, which was only a few blocks from my old neighborhood. Mrs. Ito turned to look at Sen and me in the back seat, "Della, we'll be driving by your new high school. So you can take a look at it before your first day."
"Thank you Mrs. Ito," I said with a smile. School started in a week and I would be spending half the year here before going back to California to finish my senior year and graduate. I really hoped this wasn't a mistake. I pulled out my phone again and began texting my mom. Sen leaned closer.
"Is that the Sprint Instinct?"
"Yeah," I said, rolling my eyes. I hated my phone.
Sen pulled out a red LG Shine, "I just got this a month ago." I eyed the phone enviously.
"I used to have a Shine, I miss it so much!" And just like that the ice between us broke. As Mr. Ito drove, Sen and I talked about friends, TV shows, and music until we passed a large building not that different in architecture from Sarayashiki.
Mrs. Ito turned to us again, "There's your new high school Della. It's an all girls school, Sen attends as well but she'll be a year under you of course."
I ribbed my new friend, "Don't worry I'll still eat lunch with you." She giggled and started talking about the all boys high school next door. I only half listened. Boys were not a big deal to me, well, one boy was but I didn't think about him if I could help it.
I lay on my stomach on my new bed with my phone cradled in my hands. To call or not to call, that was the question. Taking a deep breath, I sucked it up and punched in the phone number from memory.
"Hello?"
"Hi Keiko, its Della." We had talked since I returned to California, but not recently and not often.
"Hey! What's up? I haven't heard from you in forever!"
"I know, what are you and the guys doing tomorrow?"
"Um…nothing. Why?"
"I'm kind of in Japan and…." I jerked the phone away from my ear as Keiko's scream threatened to shatter my ear drum.
"Oh my God are you serious!? Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"
"I didn't wanna get your hopes up in case I chickened out."
"Well I'm glad you didn't. I'm going to make some calls but meet us here around eleven tomorrow." Click. I smiled down at the phone, same old Keiko. No wonder I loved her so much, no questions. Feeling better for having called my old friend I turned out the bedside lamp and resolved to get some sleep before tomorrow.
I didn't get any sleep. As a result the next morning I was twitchy and anxious not to mention tired and pissed, being in Japan had obviously brought several memories too close for comfort and I had had bad dreams all night. Dreams of running after a fox but never being able to catch it…More than once I had jerked awake, sure that there was someone at my window or standing next to my bed but there never had been.
Stumbling into the kitchen I murmured good morning to Sen before pouring myself some cereal. The look on her face told me clearly she would have been more thrilled had the Swamp Thing appeared in the kitchen. When I finished eating and sat back Sen decided it was safe to talk to me. "I thought I'd show you around the city today."
I winced, "Uh, Sen, I kinda made plans to see my old friends but you're welcome to come too." Her eyes widened like she had just been given the most wonderful present on earth.
"Really?" She breathed, before launching herself at me. I caught her awkwardly.
"Uh, yeah, sure. But I need to meet Keiko in…" I glanced at the clock, "three hours so hurry up and get ready."
Two hours later, Sen and I were on a bus and I was regretting my cereal. I was even more nervous and twitchy than I had been this morning. Maybe I was taking things too quickly here, but it was too late to turn back now. Sen had been chattering nonstop since we had left and in a bid to shut her up and center myself I thrust some old pictures into her hands, put in my iPod and hit play. The first song was Photograph by Nickelback, I hit skip. When You're Gone, skip, Somebody for Me, skip, Feels like Tonight, skip, Stolen, Everything You Want, I'm with You, Broken, I Can Still Feel You, Let Love In, Leave out All the Rest, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, White Horse, Kristy Are You Doing Okay. In disgust I ripped the ear buds free and shoved the offending piece of technology back into my bag.
This was apparently a signal for Sen to continue talking, "Who's this?" She shoved a picture into my face. Gripping her wrist I pulled her arm back so I could focus on the photo strip and immediately wished I hadn't. It was THAT photo strip.
"No one." Sen studied the damning pictures again.
"He doesn't look like no one, was he your boyfriend?"
"There is no us." A knife slid between my ribs and twisted causing my breathing to hitch. "No. He was no one okay?"
"Okay…" She held up another picture, "Oh my God! That's Keiko Yukimura!"
I raised my eyebrow, "You know Keiko?"
"Well no, but she's like the most popular girl in school!"
"Wait, Keiko goes to our school?"
"Yeah!" I laughed.
"Sen, we're going to hang out with her." Her excited gasp made me smile.
"Oh and that's her fiancée." My eyes popped.
"Fiancée?"
"Yeah, didn't you know?" I shook my head as I stared at the picture of Yusuke and Keiko smiling. They were engaged and hadn't told me? That hurt. Sen was already on to another picture, this one a group shot of the whole gang at Genkai's. Genkai was in front, Hiei and Akira were on the right, then Kuwabara and Yukina, Yusuke had Kuwabara in a headlock, Keiko and Botan stood next to him, I was next to Keiko and…Kurama had one arm around my waist and was holding up a peace sign. Sen turned the photo over to look at the names on the back.
She flipped the picture back over, then looked at the names again. "Is that…? That is! You dated Shuichi Minamino!?" I shushed her as several people turned to look at us curiously.
"I told you we didn't date. How do you know him?"
"He's only like the smartest person in Japan! He graduated early and is going to University to be a botanist! His name was in all the papers."
"Oh," I turned to look out the window and realized I knew where we were, when the bus made its next stop I ushered Sen off and began walking towards the Yukimura's restaurant. Thankful to escape the close confines of city transportation.
"Um, Della, it isn't safe to be alone out here…" Sen jerked and huddled into me as a shadow moved in an alley.
"Don't worry; I won't let anything get you." I smiled at the irony of the statement and turned down another alley, remembering my way perfectly, until we stood in front of the cheery little restaurant. Sliding back the paper screen I walked in and smiled. At least this hadn't changed, same tables and chairs, same wonderful smell, same Mr. Yukimura behind the counter.
"Pull up a seat ladies, I'll be with you in a minute," he called over his shoulder.
"Hi Mr. Yukimura," I said.
He turned, "Della?" I smiled and he came around the counter to hug me. "It's been a long time, how've you been? KEIKO, DELLA'S HERE!" He turned and shouted up the stairs.
"I've been good, this is Sen." She bowed but had barely managed to open her mouth before she was interrupted by running footsteps on the stairs. They were my only warning before Keiko appeared and literally tackled me. "ACK! I missed you too!" I said as I fought to keep us both upright.
"Hey punk, we missed you." I looked back at the stairs where Yusuke was leaning casually.
"I missed you guys too! So what are we doing today?"
"Going to Genkai's, duh," Keiko laughed as she pulled back. "We're just waiting for Kuwabara and Shizuru to get here." A honk had the four of us running outside where Shizuru and Kuwabara waited in Shizuru's beat up car.
"Come on slow pokes!" She called, waving at us through her open window. I laughed as we all piled into the car (which was amazingly small) and made introductions, Sen had a shell shocked expression and I didn't blame her. We were a lot to deal with on a good day and I really hadn't warned her properly. The drive to Genkai's was fun and mostly consisted of us ribbing Kuwabara over deciding to become a teacher, but I was proud of him. I gave Keiko a hard time about the engagement and everyone commented on my new hair. It was just like old times, mostly.
We parked as close to the temple as possible before starting the long ass hike through the forest. I had thought I was in shape but I guess I was wrong; the steps still left me panting like a sissy. "Hurry up dimwits, you're all late." Genkai's surly voice made me smile and as I looked up at her I was reminded of the first night we had met. I stood up straight.
"Good to see you too grandma," Yusuke and I said at the same time before bursting out laughing.
"If you don't hurry up all the food will be gone!" Yukina appeared behind Genkai with a teasing smile on her face. "Hello Kazuma."
"Yukina my love!" I laughed again as Kuwabara tripped over himself to get to her side.
"Yep, that's my baby brother," Shizuru rolled her eyes and played with a gold lighter I hadn't noticed before. As we all piled into the kitchen I greeted Botan, Akira, and Hiei and again introduced Sen to everyone. By the look in her eyes I guessed she hadn't expected to meet all my friends, but if I was going to live here I was going to try to hang out with everyone as much as possible and she would have met them all eventually.
I tried not to do it but I couldn't help myself from looking around the room, searching for a glimpse of red hair or green eyes, but of course he wasn't there. Keiko touched my arm and gave me a knowing look that I hated.
Yusuke and Kuwabara had already begun demolishing their portions of food before the rest of us even sat down. I laughed as I picked up my fork; I was still useless with chopsticks. The eating part of lunch was mostly quiet as everyone dug in and after we sat in a small comfortable silence…well, semi comfortable. There was a gigantic pink elephant in the room or silver fox as it were that no one wanted to mention. Finally Botan stood up and stretched. "I vote we head down to the shore to work off all this food."
There was a chorus of agreement as we all stood, Genkai voted to stay behind and clean up but before I left she grabbed my arm. "Have you been training?"
"Yes, I'm a black belt in Tai Kwan Do."
"Good."
I answered her unasked question, "My Spirit Energy never came back."
She nodded, "Just as I thought, it probably never will unless you or a loved one is in danger."
"Yeah, well that's not likely."
I turned to leave again, trying to think about my Spirit Energy or about loved ones, "You know I left this land to everyone when I die."
My eyes widened and if I had been drinking something I would have choked, "Genkai…"
She spoke over me, "I left some for you too, if you want it."
I hugged her, "Thank you Genkai." I was touched deeply by her gift and thought I might actually cry.
"Hey Della, ya comin!?" Kuwabara yelled from the steps. Genkai pushed me to the door.
"Now get out of here." I thought there were tears in her eyes. With a nod I raced to catch up with everyone, joining Hiei and Yusuke at the back of the group.
"So tell me what I've really been missing." Yusuke nodded and began telling me about some demon named Toguro and the Dark Tournament, then about the rogue Sprit Detective named Sensui and how Yusuke's second death had awakened his demon heritage. We had reached the shore at that point and the girls and Kuwabara were playing in the water, here I had to stop him, "Wait, you're a demon now?"
"Part demon, but yeah, it's pretty awesome now that King Yama doesn't want me dead anymore."
I snorted, "Okay so after you became a demon you went to Demon World to train with your demon great-great-great-…"
"Yeah, his name was Raizen. So then Hiei and Kurama went to work for Mukuro and Yomi who both wanted to control Demon World. It was a bitch. When Raizen died, I thought up the idea of having a tournament to decide the next King of Demon World."
"A completely idiotic plan you were lucky didn't backfire on you," Hiei growled. "You're stupidity ceases to amaze me."
"Anyway, now some demon named Enki is king and things have been pretty good ever since, he's pretty strict about keeping harmful demons out of Human World."
"Wow, that's some story Yusuke, ever think of making a movie?" I joked.
He laughed, "Yeah right! That's crazy!"
"Hey guys! A little help here!" I howled with laughter when I turned to look at Kuwabara, he was soaking wet and greatly outnumbered by innocent looking girls. Yusuke jumped up and ran to his friend's aid, leaving me alone with Hiei.
"You gonna go help?" I asked as the girls began drenching Yusuke and Kuwabara with water. He snorted.
"No." Yusuke used Spirit Energy to retaliate, forming a mini tidal wave that broke over Keiko, Sen, Yukina, and Akira.
"Oh hell no!" I jumped up, intending to join the battle but Hiei grabbed my arm and when I met his eyes, the Jagan Eye behind his headband glowed faintly.
"He's still miserable." Hiei projected his words directly into my mind.
My heart faltered as Hiei released me and went back to watching the others. Not really paying attention I went to join the water fight and got knocked on my ass by one of Yusuke's mini tidal waves. I fell into the water, sputtering and gasping for air, life had a way of getting your attention in the worst way. Strong hands grabbed my arms and pulled me against a strong chest. I caught my breath and wipped the salt water from my eyes, realizing that I could see Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei. Everyone else looked like they had seen a ghost and that more than anything told me who was holding me.
Turning I looked up into a pair of emerald eyes that I had missed like a part of my soul. I was having more trouble breathing than when my head had been under water. "Hi Della." My heart stopped and all I could do was stare up at him like a retard. Kurama was here, he was here and he was holding me. And in his eyes was a shadow of the pain he was trying to hide, pain that called to the heart wound that had refused to heal even after four years apart.
"Hi." I whispered, unable to look away and unable to move as he pressed his lips to mine. It was pure instinctive reaction to throw my arms around his neck and kiss him back, unfortunately the move unbalanced us and we fell backward into the surf. Both of us were spitting out sea water when our heads broke the surface but we were smiling too.
The water fight continued until we were all soaked and exhausted, pulling ourselves out of the surf we lay out in the sand to dry. Hiei wrapped his cloak around Akira and I didn't miss the quick kiss she pressed to his cheek. As dusk fell, Genkai arrived with dinner and informed us that she had already notified Sen's parents we would be home late. The boys built a drift wood bonfire to cook dinner over and later we made s'mores. When the sun had fully set, Akira and Hiei took their leave.
I hugged Akira warmly, since they had to be back to patrol the Demon/Human World border it was unlikely I'd see much of them. When I approached Hiei we stared at each other for several seconds. "You gonna let me hug you?"
"No."
"You gonna let me do it anyway?"
"Hn." I wrapped my arms loosely around him; it was like hugging a tree. He stepped back quickly, gave me a hostile glare and disappeared into the forest with Akira hot on his heels. Kurama took my hand and lead me behind a natural rock shelf that separated the beach. We sat down not touching and stared at the surf coming in.
"You cut your hair."
"Yeah."
"It looks nice."
"Kurama, we both know you don't want to talk about my hair." He was quiet for several seconds.
"I decided to stay."
"What?"
"I decided to stay in the Human World. I had always planned on returning to Makai after I regained enough of my Demon Energy, but I decided to stay instead."
"For your mother," I said with a nod. My eyes never left the lapping waves.
"And for other reasons." He laid his hand on my cheek and turned my face to his. "I stayed for you too. I love you Della."
My eyes filled with tears, "How can you say that to me now?" I pulled back but he wouldn't let me go.
"Because you were right, I was a coward. I like being in control Della and it's impossible to have any control when you're around. I'm terrified of someone hurting you, of someone using you against me. I was an idiot and for the last four years I've been miserable, I was planning on flying to American and finding you to tell you I'm sorry. And to beg you to give me another chance because you were right. If you're with me I can protect you, not knowing if you were well…it drove me insane."
"Kurama, I don't think I can do this again." My voice broke, how could he expect me to trust him with my heart again? He rested his forehead against mine.
"I know, I know it'll take time but I'm willing to wait. I will re-earn your trust Della; it's not worth it if I don't have you, none of it is." My tears fell and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. "Just give me a chance Della, that's all I'm asking for."
I looked up at him, and felt my heart break again because I would always give him another chance. Even if he destroyed me again, if he asked I couldn't refuse him. "Don't hurt me again," I whispered.
"Never." He held me until the tears stopped and I felt strong enough to return to the gang. He brushed the tears from my cheeks and my eyes, giving me a beautiful smile that went a long way towards healing my wounded heart. Rising he pulled me to my feet and hand in hand we walked back to the bonfire together. Things might not have been fixed between us, but for the first time in four years I had hope for the future.
So? What do you think? Leave me a review! I love you guys!