IY YYH Crossover 1 Chapter 28
Healing Soul Chapter 28: Meeting Mother
Feeling the weight of stormy eyes studying him Kurama turned from the window and its sights at which he had been staring with half attention to meet their gaze. Seeing the concern within he offered a small smile, either in apology, encouragement, or both.
"Shuuichi-kun?" Kagome started softly despite the crowd noise of their public transport. "Are you sure you're ready for this? We can wait, you know."
The worry softened in his green eyes, his smile gaining a bit of its missing confidence. "I would be just as nervous a week from now as today, Kagome-chan." 'Not to mention I'd rather this meeting Now before whatever happens this free day and its likely overwhelming results.' His smile grew, but sheepishly making him look more like the human youth of his body than the millennia of his soul. "It is not bringing you which makes me anxious but what awaits."
Warm delight swirled the blue stronger within her eyes causing the ancient fox's heartbeat to pick up but it soon took second to the feel of her dainty, bow-callused hand slipping alongside his and causing his breath to catch.
"Kagome-chan?" He could have winced at the waiver in his voice and wondering if she could hear the uncertainty and hope that belied the question unspoken behind the tone.
"Hai, Shuuichi-kun?" Her breathed response so soft that if not for his youkai hearing he would not have heard her.
Drawing in a breath for strength Kurama figuratively stepped onto a path he had never trod in all his centuries of existence. "May I tell Mother I'm courting you?"
He watched as Kagome sucked in a breath, stormy blue eyes widening. "Are you?"
"What?"
"Are you courting me?"
With that Kurama finally realized where he had gone wrong with the conversation. He gave a sheepish, but slightly roguish, grin. "If you would concede to permit me, I would like to. I would like to very much."
"Then, yes."
Delighted Kurama stared into her sparkling blue orbs while debating with himself about drawing her petite form into his arms despite traveling on public transport. He was just beginning to reach out to her when he heard Kagome's voice calling his name, but it sounded distant and distorted through its questioning tone and her mouth was not moving...
A delicate touch on his elbow jolted the fox avatar and the smiling face of Kagome shifted to that same heart-shaped face but with a worried expression as the ambient noise of the public transport rekindled around them. "Shuuichi-kun? Didn't you say this was our stop?"
He glanced up, nodded, and silently led her from the vehicle with a soft smile before they missed their chance to disembark. Meanwhile internally he was close to panicking, realizing that at some point he had slipped into a daydream but uncertain as to when.
Opening the door to his home Kurama clasped Kagome's hand tightly in his as they entered and toed off their shoes. "Mother?" He called as softly as he could while projecting his voice just enough to reach throughout the house. Faintly his eyes showed his wince hearing the hint of nervousness tinging his usually calm tones. "Where are you? I... There's someone I'd like you to meet."
"Shuuichi...? Who is this..." Shiori stepped around the corner and drew short at the sight of a petite, long haired female being helped into guest slippers by her son. Her usually staid son who at this moment was smiling affectionately up at the blushing female.
Swiftly the redhead stood, a pink hue lightly touching his cheeks over a faint smile that at once was both bashful and hopeful. "Mother, I would like to present to you Higurashi Kagome of Higurashi Shrine. Kagome-chan, my mother, Hatanaka Shiori."
Brown eyes glimmered with growing, barely contained bliss as she exchanged greetings with the shrine maiden her son had brought to meet her. It was only a lifetime of propriety ingrained into her that kept the excited mother to the expected script while being pleased at the young woman's politeness. However it was her son's soft body language towards their pretty guest that had Shiori's heart fit to bursting.
'Ah, Kagome-chan; YOU are his smile. You are the source of his wrinkled shirts and the peace in his heart.'
Her thoughts on the girl herself and what tea she would like to serve that would not be too presumptuous were infiltrated by a gentle throat clearing from her son. Intrinsically Shiori gave him her full attention.
"Mother we're..." Kurama glanced at the girl, who still had her hands clasped together from her introductory bow. "That is I..." He swallowed, green gaze slipping to his mother then to Kagome then back again. "I am courting Kagome, Mother."
He saw the light flare in joy even before Shiori's fingertips flew to her lips as if to tone down her growing smile. Even so, enthralled and embarrassed by his mother's happiness the redhead was distracted by the aura beside him as it flickered in amusement. "Oh you are, are you?"
Kurama felt the blood drain from his face and internally cursed, immediately realizing that his daydream earlier must have started before he spoke to Kagome of his intentions. Awkwardly he cleared his throat. "Yes."
Shiori watched the girl's eyes brighten into bluer hues and sparkle. It delighted the devoted mother to see the ease there was in such companionable teasing. "And you were going to mention this to me when?"
Catching on to her impishness Kurama's color returned and he smiled with matching playfulness in his own way, while taking on a serious, slightly husky, low timbre as well. "You know it is instinctive for a fox to be cunning; for him to subconsciously dig a den with two ways inside." He watched her nod and could not resist a sly grin. "Then you remember when I told you I would only play the part when you were willing to take on the role that went with it completely?"
The miko blushed, her teasing nature momentarily stymied with embarrassment Kurama could scent from her. "H-hai."
The kitsune avatar grinned, permitting a bit of his mischievous nature to peek through... and hopefully assuage the embarrassment factor by regaining their earlier playful banter. "That being said, how else would I endeavor to see it is a role you would wish to fill without initiating steps to woo you?"
How her blue eyes could look dumbfounded and yet be alit as if by stars at the same time Kurama could only marvel. Hearing a muffled sound from his mother he had no need to see how she was taking seeing such a scene first hand. It was not this revelation of which he feared his mother's response, after all. Right now it all revolved around Kagome's reactions, and he prayed it was not only his hopes that were reading pleasure from the female.
"I guess you couldn't do it another way." The miko conceded, but then she playfully pouted and cuffed his arm. "But did it have to be in front of your mother?"
"What?" Kurama teased, eyes dancing. "After both your mother and grandfather accused me of courting you already? One might think you'd already agreed, not having denied it then."
Kagome gasped, her cheeks pinking. "You didn't either!"
Green eyes blinked at the miko, swirling with fathomless emotion. "Why would I?"
"Eh…?" The young woman floundered, her expression clearly showing her baffled thoughts.
Lightly Kurama chuckled, sparing a quick glance to his mother to see that she had happy tears in her eyes with her hands still hiding her mouth, then chucked the underside of his miko's chin playfully with a knuckle. "Why would I deny courting you when I've been wooing you in small ways even before I realized I wanted to myself?" Another chuckle at Kagome's flabbergasted reaction, her mouth opening and closing quickly as if she was attempting a reply. "That was rhetorical, Kagome-chan."
She looked at him oddly, a teasing light in her stormy blue eyes. "So you want to court me?"
The ancient kitsune felt his human skin heat, certain its shade was now on par with his hair. "Well, yes… I mean for a while now I've… that is… well your mother said…" All attempts to continue his out-of-character fumbling were stilled instantly at the touch of a tiny, delicate fingertip gracing his lips. Green eyes caught sight of his mother's delight peripherally before being captivated by dancing blue orbs, deeper than any ocean.
"Hush, Kurama-kun. I was only teasing. You honor me." He could sense and smell her honesty, and though he could catch hints of her low self-worth hovering beneath the surface Kurama put its presence aside for the moment to bask in his own personal bliss. She had agreed to let him court her! While many of his actions towards her were steps along that path already Kagome's verbal acceptance of his suit… needless to say he was on cloud nine… and enough out of it to ask for clear confirmation.
"Shall we conclude agreement that we are courting and continue from there?"
Blue eyes smiled to brighten the awkward one on her lips. "Hai." Kagome blushed profusely as she turned to apologize to the watching Shiori for their disrespect. Of course the delighted mother insisted her pleasure, embarrassing the couple profusely. Kurama suddenly felt his hand harshly squeezed and looked to its tormentor in question, feeling slightly out of the loop but not particularly minding at the moment as the little miko centered his very existence. "Well… while we are glad," Kagome spoke the word as if she was uncertain how exactly she felt on the matter yet, "to have been able to share this with you, that is what we came to tell you."
His delight smiled softly and warmly up at him. "Kurama-kun, didn't you have something to tell your mother?" Her sweet, heart-shaped face warmed to a pleasing pink. "Something else to tell her?"
Kurama shook himself, red hair shifting around him as he worked to pull his head out of the clouds enough to focus on the inevitable, likely uncomfortable, revealing conversation. "Yes, of course." Flashing Kagome a thankful if slightly rueful smile he gave a slight nod as the anxiety that had dissipated with their playful flirting and his following dreamlike haze crashed around the kitsune with tsunami force. Instantly he paled, his hand clenching the miko's for stability. Thickly he swallowed, even as he was trying to wet his suddenly parched mouth with a swipe of his tongue behind a frozen half-smile. Although he had been prepping himself for this mentally Kurama still was not sure how he would get through this. Turning to his mother he indicated the kitchen table at which not that long ago he had made the first step towards today with revealing his name. Fear and uncertainty flicked in his eyes. "Mother? If we could?"
Watching… Shiori felt as if she was always watching. Even as her son had grown to be dutiful and even affectionate in his own way she always felt somehow that she was always on the outside of his life, watching him. It had been worse when he was a child, and such un-childlike behaviors disquieted her. However in the last few years there had been Hope; starting with that Urameshi boy and summiting most recently with him asking to be called Kurama. Her mother's heart beat with a flurry of emotions and her thoughts swirled with a plethora of notions. Deciding rapidly Shiori studied her son only a moment before nodding her head once and herding the young couple to the family's Western style table. Even dazed and euphoric as she was to discover her son was finally interested in a girl -and a shrine maiden at that!- Shiori was sobered by the unaccustomed emotions in her son's usually deceptively calm eyes. For them to be like that… for him to show such weakness as well her mother's instincts were peaked. "Come. Sit. I think some relaxing tea would do us some good."
Startled that his mother had been able to read such a need from him Kurama's green eyes swept to her in gratitude. "Thank you, Mother." He added to Kagome's politely murmured thanks as he led the miko to their table. With a boyishly winsome smile that had been missing in his youth the redhead saw his miko seated, then himself. "I think that's exactly what we need."
Despite the relative ease of his words her son looked torn, troubled. Shiori shifted quickly, patting his shoulder on the way to put the kettle on. Her son held himself with such nervousness and uncertainty, so much more than when he sat with her at this very same table speaking of both friends and concern for his step-bother. 'Could this have more to do with Shuuichi's friends?'
The silence was not entirely comfortable as they waited for the water to boil and the tea to steep, despite the females' best efforts. Kurama could feel the miko's aura soothing him and brushed his thumb over her knuckles in silent thanks, having found himself unwilling to relinquish her touch when they sat. Shiori watched the little touches their guest was bestowing to comfort and calm. The ease of their physical contact, how accepting and even hungry for each light brush of fingers and the casual way they held hands spoke clearly to the observant mother as she puttered around the kitchen while allowing her son these moments to calm before speaking of whatever bothered him so. 'The wrinkled shirts… the peace… I do think my prayers were answered that there was a girl. This girl.' She smiled a mother's secretive, knowing smile with her back to the pair. There was no worry within her of possible inappropriateness between the two away from parental eyes. While the pair were close and clearly accustomed to physical contact and comfort perhaps more than socially acceptable in their still rather restrained society Shiori could see the innocence in their touches. Although it did make her wonder at their closeness if only now was her son's courting made known. 'Perhaps what my Shuuichi fears to tell me will shed light on this as well.'
Silently she served the tea, seating herself across the table from the young couple. Her son's hands wrapped around the cup and each other as if to gain strength from the warmth seeping through the ceramic though it was clear to Shiori any help to her son's courage would come from the petite girl at his side, who even now sat with shoulder brushing his bicep.
As they sipped tea Shiori began to softly ask the usual questions of their guest: the name of her school, how life is on a shrine. It was when she broached the next logical subject that the calm which had finally effused the room felt to suffocate Kurama. "How did you two meet?"
Why was this so arduous? The millennia old fox spirit inadvertently left Kagome to field the answer as he flailed internally to bring forth any of the premeditated things he wanted to reveal to his human mother. "That's a funny story; you see I had met the Kurabara -Shizuru and Kazuma- at my family's shrine. Kazuma-kun and I were both complaining about our studies, and commenting on how calmed we felt around each other and that would help us do schoolwork so we started our study nights." Sinking into the blue sea of her eyes when she glanced his way with a smile Kurama felt himself drifting into the contentedness there. A soft squeeze of her hand in his revitalized him. "One day Kurama-kun showed up to visit the Kurabara, helped me with some tricky trigonometry, and has been joining us ever since."
Brown eyes glided from one to the other as Shiori absorbed and filed this new information. Suddenly already bight eyes sparkled and she gave a slight gasp centering her gaze on her son. "Your distractions. Your distraction led you there."
With a soft, wry smile Kurama gave half a nod. "Yes, but… there is more. Or at least possibly more, when I consider aspects only recently brought to light." Shakily he drew in a breath. "There is so much I must tell you, Mother."
"Perhaps if you started at the beginning…" The young woman's soft tone murmured with encouragement. The peace that washed over her son's face and even the carriage of his body had Shiori feeling her own love for this strange female bloom in light of what she did for him.
"Hai, Kagome-chan." The gratitude, the love, felt in those few words said so much to his loving mother. Her brown eyes were full of acceptance and love when Kurama dared lift his emerald gaze to meet them. He drew in a deep breath. Now was the time; there was no going back. "Mother… I know you must have wondered at my strange behavior as a young child, how I treated you as if you were lesser…" Guilt and anguish choked his words until Kagome's hand left her own tea cup to rest upon his forearm gently. "Before I changed my behavior when I was five." Kurama sucked in his breath, bracing himself. "I would like to have a chance to explain that…"
Again his voice trailed off. Shiori added her touch to that of whom she hoped might someday be her daughter-in-law by reaching across the table and curling her fingers loosely over her son's white-knuckled, cup-gripping hands. "You can tell me anything, Kurama –my Shuuichi."
The look in his emerald eyes was relieved but still reluctant. "I do not have a human soul." Kurama let that set in and was surprised when the look, the love, in his human mother's eyes did not falter. Buoyed he moved on. "I was the spirit fox Youko Kurama, my body killed, when I sent my soul to a soul-less fetus to hide and heal." The fox avatar swallowed thickly. "I was never intended to be your son."
Leaving no time for his mother to comment, terrified of what she much think of him now, Kurama launched into his full tale for the third time. This time complete with the recently regained memories. He had never felt such anxiety after its telling before and there were many times his heart clenched painfully with worry at how his mother, the first being he knowingly loved, would react to his past behavior regardless of how her expression shifted only to moments of overwhelming concern and compassion. At long last he drew to a close, his human body feeling drained to his very soul and that he might pass out of his chair bonelessly if not for the physical, mental, and spiritual support of the miko beside him. Her aura wrapped around him warmly, bolstering his battered confidence as he waited on pins and needles for his mother's reaction. Any reaction.
"Well," Shiori said at last. Their tea had long grown cold and she was too stunned by all she had learned to trust her body to move even could she think to get them some more. "That certainly explains a lot." Her smile was wobbly but no less warm, no less loving or tender. He was still her precious son, and something he had said at the beginning still troubled and bothered her. Something Shiori felt she had to address beyond anything else. "But on one thing you were wrong."
Kurama blinked surprised green eyes at her and even Kagome tilted her head in confusion. Brown eyes stared deep into green, unwavering in the certainty she held. "You said you were not intended to be my son."
Not one eye in six did not quiver with emotion. "Do you think it coincidence that the life I carried was void of a soul just when yours was adrift, looking for a home? The rest may be more than I can understand at once, but I know this: you could not have come to me had it not been the will of the kami."
Not an eye was dry as Kurama's chair was thrust backwards with a groan of wood against wood. Perhaps anticipating what he needed Shiori scooted her own chair back more smoothly from the table, barely timing it before her grown son darted then dropped to his knees at her feet, wrapping his arms around her as he buried his face in her torso. Though stunned at the physical demonstration Shiori wasted no time clasping his shoulders close to her as tears dripped onto his red locks from wide, stunned eyes. Something predominant but guarded inside his mother broke, then started to heal in that moment; she had always longed to embrace her son, to have him embrace her in return.
"My darling, darling boy." Tears were flowing freely now. Shiori could feel the damp of her clothes from her son's silent sobs while moisture-blurred vision noticed the darker patches she herself had made upon his Titian mane. "Your soul is your soul and you are my son regardless of anything else."
Hearing a choked sound Shiori brought her eyes up to the face of the girl's only to see how her son could easily lose himself in those watery blue orbs that spoke of a depth of feeling and empathy beyond measure. With a lifting of the lip corners and a tiny nod she bid Kagome to join them, pleased when the silent invitation was accepted. Soon the miko knelt beside Kurama on the floor, her arms encircling his waist at his mother's knees and her head pressed to his shoulder blade just beneath Shiori's embrace. Despite the waterworks and emotions the experience was soothing, even revitalizing. Or at least it would be… when all was said and done.
Author's note: I will summarize that there has been a combination of technical and emotional difficulties mixing with a reluctant muse that caused this chapter to be so delayed. There were multiple versions of some scenes (again) between my digital and paper writings that had to be meshed which took a while too. As a birthday present to myself I swore I'd post today… so I might have to fix it if it reads too odd tomorrow. :sheepish: Hope you like it!
I should have a new chapter next week. Just need to finish it up.
Thanks so much for reading.
Originally posted 11 April 2014
Edited 21 April 2014: Fixed some things up a bit; hopefully it reads a bit smoother now.
