A/N: As a warning, there are a couple uh, false starts, in this, and the following two, chapters. Things conspired so that it seems like intimacy will be initiated a couple times before it actually is, and the intimacy itself is incredibly non-descriptive each time it actually happens. I don't even think anything these three chapters qualifies as much of a lime. So uh, have at it?
The reason behind using Japanese words when they are speaking Russian is because their native language is Japanese and thus even if they say the correct words in the correct language, they still think those things in Japanese. Thank you.
Any historical inaccuracies in this and all of the following chapters are completely intended because the presence of yōkai changes things. Drastically, at that.
Fuck, but Russia was fucking cold this time of year. And Yoru had rubbed off on him far too much – Haku remembered the days when he never cussed at all, now expletives fell from his lips nearly as often as they did his lover's lips.
He fingered the coded letter that had been teleported to him by Kagome-ne and Sesshōmaru-ni. He could obey the contents easily; treating these rowdy, bawdy people like they were friends would be easy despite their obvious antagonism – and their status as enemies. Friendly enemies, but enemies nonetheless. Still, he would engineer a situation so they saw the letter and let their guard down – they wouldn't be able to figure out the code because the code was old Nihongo, despite the letter being written in yōkai Russian – Shippō'd gotten quite talented, and was able to write the code into the paper in such a way that only official pack members, those with the blood connection given due to Sesshōmaru-ni's marking, could read it, thus allowing the most important members in their campaign to make alliances between the powerful yōkai of other countries to read the messages, and be able to safely and openly give the letters off to their prospective allies, even when they were enemies at the moment. He would let Yoru read the letter (well, possibly, it depended on how the situation ended up being engineered), but first he had to get to him which he really needed to do because people here loved Yoru.
Ironically enough, Yoru could not fucking stand them. He abhorred the male Russians as tasteless, classless drunks. The females he liked fine, and since Yoru was openly and obviously both taken and gay, they weren't threats – female yōkai were as a general rule smarter than males; unlike the majority of ningen females, yōkai females were less ruled by instinct and emotion than their more masculine counterparts. That was partly why almost no matter where in the world they were, yōkai women were treated far better than ningen women were treated. India was an exception, but that wasn't much of a surprise, India was an exception to everything. And was awesome. Maybe they could go there next, just for a freaking vacation.
It didn't matter what language he was speaking in, to him they would always be yōkai and hanyō. He couldn't remember the Russian word for yōkai at the moment, although he knew that when speaking the language it would come back to him swiftly, but Kagome-ne told him that in English they were called "demons" and "half-demons". How fucking absurd, seriously; what a way to incite fear. Yōkai weren't demons, they were just yōkai. Better than ningen. Smarter, stronger, faster, longer-living, less prejudiced – yōkai were better in every way than ningen were, no matter what Kagome-ne said about trying to shape the world so that ningen were mentally and culturally more like yōkai.
The world she came from was very clearly not the world they lived in, and while the first time she realised that, she had had a horrible breakdown (apparently she had known but been ignoring it until she was bluntly confronted with the fact somehow; Haku and Yoru had been gone at the time), because it meant she would never see her family again, most likely, now she was just intent on shaping this world to be a place where ningen had not overrun the planet and driven yōkai into hiding. Where yōkai and hanyō openly intermingled with ningen.
He had to admit, Nihon was a great place now, because of Kagome-ne. Hanyō were fucking everywhere; they were almost as widespread as ningen, much to Kagome-ne's delight. Haku hoped that eventually the dominant species on the earth would be hanyō; they were pretty ideal when it came down to it. Not as overpowered and instinct-driven as yōkai, but not as weak and stupid as most ningen were. Kagome-ne chided him for thinking like that because it wasn't their fault that most ningen could not afford education, but Kohaku had been raised as a teenager for many decades by and amongst yōkai; his outlook was permanently coloured by those interactions, and he knew that despite her words Kagome-ne thought the exact same way. He'd heard her say things like that to Sesshōmaru-ni when the ningen nobles were being stupid because they were stupid. Despite being far more educated than the peasants were.
Finally he reached the eastern palace and walked in, allowing his thick spider-silk cloak to be taken and hung up, shaking the snow from his short ponytail, and waiting. Sure enough, it took all of five seconds for his lover to be on him, kissing him frantically and pulling away only to nuzzle under his chin, speaking in Nihongo, "Fuck, thank fuck you're back, all these nasty, disgusting men keep trying to touch me, Haku-san, and they won't listen to the women who are obviously in charge, and everyone stinks of vodka and I miss sake and shōchū and people who understand that just because you are not mated yet does not mean you are free prey!"
Haku wondered if he'd ever have the courage to tell his mate that he was ready for that if Yoru was – the illusionist had been very lightly hinting, in such a way that told Haku that he didn't realise he was doing so, that he might be ready to take the Very Big Step and actually tie themselves to each other by way of magic. Despite being powered by yōki and reiki (or hōriki, reiryoku, or Kagome-ne's miko-ki), the mating ritual was still a spell that tied people's souls together. It was, frankly, astounding that they had reached a point where their love for each other was stronger than their obsessive needs to not have themselves bound to anyone in such a manner. Yes there was the whole spell tying them to Kagome-ne and Sesshōmaru-ni but that was weird, different, and neither of them wanted to die; living had been far more important than that sort of being bound. This was far different.
Looking down at his desperate, perfect mate, Haku resolved to tell him tonight. Somehow.
Hopefully.
Some things were scary. Especially when you realised that the Shikon probably had a hand in them and so no matter what you planned regarding them, something was bound to spiral out of control, even if the negative effects were largely mitigated by Kagome-ne's pure heart and intentions.
Still, for now he pulled his mate's head up and kissed him deeply, running his fingers through those silky, ink black strands in such a way that obviously scandalised the little moth twins over in the corner. Their parents were amused rather than scandalised – despite clearly not being anywhere near as deep as Rika and Jin were, they could easily see that Haku and Yoru had been together for an incredibly long time and were as deep as it got. They were also, if he read that sparkle in their eyes right, looking forward to watching Haku scandalise the fuck out of everybody here, with the more-than-willing help of his gorgeous partner. Oh yes, he would give them a show, for sure.
They weren't actually Kohaku and Byakuya here – names had power, and not a single person in their pack who went to another country for any reason whatsoever used their real names; all of the dozen and a half people involved in this endeavour had nicknames, and the rest of the pack had a list to choose from when they went overseas.
Roku-ni finding—or rather, being found by—a yōkai woman who caught his attention and could accept that Kagome-ne would always be first in his life (she loved him more because of it; Sakura was incredibly inu, and his loyalty to Kagome had been the thing that caught her eye to begin with – the Shikon really was scary powerful—or the Kami were, whichever) had expanded their pack by five members despite it only happening three and a half decades ago (who would have thought they would have two sets of twins?!), a good two dozen or more of Kagome-ne's dream family had ended up joining the pack (all of them yōkai – they made for a motley crew, although the core pack was still fully canine), and many of them had found mates as well, and several of Yasha, Kohaku, and Byakuya's yōkai and hanyō taijiya friends were adopted into the pack as well. They pretty much ruled Nihon from behind the scenes, although Sesshōmaru-ni was only openly in control of the Western Lands.
Nobody alive was more powerful than ani-san, not even Father. Well, okay, Kagome-ne was, but because she willingly submitted herself to Sesshōmaru-ni, even though she had the last word, that gave him control over her power, which was what made him the most powerful non-divine being in existence by default. If Kagome-ne didn't exist, though, Sesshōmaru-ni would still be able to easily beat the ass of anybody who dared challenge him; even Yoru – whose illusions, it turned out, Sesshōmaru-ni could power through. He was the best.
Back to the present; he pulled on his lover's hair softly so that he would whine, and bit, sucked, and kissed his way across his jaw, up his ear, down his ear, and down his neck.
The clothing here was at least easier to move aside than it was back home, although they both felt very strange wearing things that were so constricting. Their regular outfits of haori, hanjuban, obi, and hakama (in Yoru's case; Haku didn't wear hakama, because it interfered with his taijiya outfit) might seem unwieldy or constrictive, but they were actually very flowing and loose and easy to move around in, unlike these "shirts" and "pants" that you slipped over your head, instead of tying closed, and that, in Russia, were rather tight instead of loose and billowing like hakama.
Although really, Yoru did look utterly edible. "Mmm mine. You want me to claim you, koishi? Make them see who you belong to, Yoru?"
Kohaku and Byakuya were permanently Haku-san and Yoru when they went abroad, partly due to the fact that there was no way in hell they would be able to use other names when being intimate, and simply due to the way moth instincts had changed them, claiming was an integral and constant part of their lives. It was pretty much the only thing that kept them from actively pursuing a career as spies, although they still constantly spied for their family. The other part was because even at home they generally went by Haku and Yoru amongst those who knew them well, apart from the taijiya, who always worked with Kohaku and Byakuya; no trace of their intimate selves in those split sides.
Yoru whimpered in broken Russian, his voice giving his dominant partner the prettiest pleas – they were pretending that Yoru wasn't fluent, when, in fact, Yoru was fluent in every language he had heard even once. Apparently it was a talent he inherited from Naraku that his new body had held on to. He could also easily feed the knowledge of that language to anyone he chose; Yoru was incredibly valuable to their pack, if still stupidly overpowered. "Please, Haku-san, Yoru needs so badly. He was being touched and Haku-san knows Yoru can't stand being touched by anybody else!"
That was incredibly true, and Haku peppered kisses all over Yoru's face for having had to deal with that, each one making his mate whimper, whine, or gasp, murmuring to him in Nihongo that Yoru was such a good boy and Haku was so proud of him for not freaking out until just now, and for not attacking them.
Only their original pack could touch Yoru without him either freaking out or giving them hell over it, depending on his state of mind, because it made him incredibly physically ill. Today was a freak-out day, likely because the men here were large, drunk, and determined as fuck. Haku looked around and the moth couple in residence pointed him to a nice chair, he thanked them with a nod of his head and by fishing out one of Yoru's special origami butterflies, sending it over to them for the children to play with – if they ever needed a fast escape they'd have one. It didn't matter their alignment or personality – moth yōkai were far too rarely seen in public (and despite how widespread they were, too rare in general; every moth tribe was diverse and unique in spite of a wholly shared and identical base culture) to not give any of them that they saw all the aid possible in case of something going wrong, no matter how unlikely it was.
Haku growled softly to Yoru, who immediately calmed, and noticed that every damn person in the room was watching them – fucking good. Yoru was his and no one else's.
He moved over to the low chair, sat down, and had Yoru sit in front of him. The claiming was rough and rapid and thorough; by the time Yoru was panting and trembling in his grasp, recovering from the claiming, the entire room, barring the adult moth couple, were staring at the two of them in fascination – some of it awed, some of it sickened, some of it utterly and wholly confused, and some of it completely furious.
Someone came up to them, Haku didn't really give a shit who, and demanded, "You will defend your claim?"
It took less than a second for Kakudai – in his form of a wakizashi because to these stupid Russian men that would look more impressive than his kusarigama, which was inherently far more painful and dangerous – to be in his hand and pointed at the drunken, infuriated, vodka-stinking yōkai. Considering that his trusty partner had been nowhere in sight before he appeared in Haku's hand (Kagome-ne called the dimension that they had found a spell for to store their weapons in when they couldn't wear them openly "hammerspace" for some weird reason. All they had to do was want it, and their weapon would appear out of nowhere, and it disappear just as fast at their willing it to be so, even if they weren't holding it), the entire room was gaping at them.
"I was raised as a taijiya by my birth family, and when I was adopted into Taishō's pack, he took up my training, intent on making sure that I could not only defend myself and my loved ones from both ningen and yōkai, but aid him in defending his lands from invasion or attack. If I wanted you dead, you would be already, and many yōkai in the afterlife would confirm my words. My stunning mate might have more valuable abilities due to his breed and incredible power, but neither of us is defenceless, and it is fatal to underestimate a single member of Taishō's pack."
They would not keep those words in their minds, since almost everybody here was completely shitfaced, which was the only reason he could speak them. Sesshōmaru-ni (called Taishō, abroad, at the insistence of Father) wanted his pack overall to seem powerful, but the individual members to be underestimated until the time to prove their power was right, and it wasn't quite time for that yet. This was impressive, but Yoru was the powerful one in this couple – both Yoru and Kagome-ne got a kick out of the fact that the more powerful members in their respective couples were the ones who submitted. Haku and Sesshōmaru-ni tolerantly allowed it because it was true and neither of them could deny their lovers anything they wanted. Conveniently, their mates were well aware of this and not afraid to abuse that small fact.
Haku pulled his hand back and Kakudai disappeared, leading him to bite Yoru's ear and speak clearly into the room, "Yoru belongs to this Haku-san, mind, body, and heart, and anybody who dares touch him or think of harming him will find themselves meeting a bloody and painful end."
"Not his soul?"
That deserved an explanation, with the very polite and honestly curious tone to those words. They understandably wanted to know why a couple so obviously close would not have mated yet. "Both Yoru and this Haku-san suffered imprisonment and slavery to a being that was able to do such things to us as enter our dreams, control our actions, modify or wipe our memories, and pour agony into our bodies for no other reason than wanting to, just under a century ago. Our experiences under his control deeply and severely affected us. Until my Yoru is ready to take the next step and becomes capable of tying his soul to mine in a mating bond I will never demand such a thing from him; nor would he ask such a thing from me unless he knew for certain that I was ready for it. Yoru's soul belongs to himself alon-"
Yoru interrupted him, causing Haku to blink and look down at him as he straightened himself up, turned around, and slid from his seated position into seiza position, his eyes shining with love. "This Yoru's soul belongs solely to his Haku-san, and has for a year now. This Yoru would beg that Haku-san grants him the honour of being tied to him, body, mind and soul, as our hearts are already tied together, for the rest of our eternity."
Fuck.
He lunged forward and grabbed his lover, pulling him up against his torso and growling lowly, "Yes, Yoru. Absolutely. I love you so much, perfect Yoru."
The room was scandalised again, but this time for a different reason – even amongst the more open-minded yōkai a declaration of mating intent was terribly private. It was only the fact that they had been together for over eight decades now, their relationship was deep, and they were moth-intimate that made Yoru so confidently able to declare his intent so blatantly in public.
"Mamoru! Let the pack know that Yoru has agreed to mate this Haku!"
Victory sang into his mind and Mamoru cheered, "Finally! It's about damn time the two of you mated – half those pesky advances will be disappearing now. Although somehow I strongly doubt the public claiming will lessen any."
Considering that Haku and Yoru had been pretty much solely responsible for affection becoming status quo amongst the nobles in the Western Lands instead of hidden away like it had been for over two centuries, Mamoru was likely correct. He knew that, so he retreated, leaving Kohaku to deeply kiss his lover and demand, "I refuse to wait any longer when this has been coming for over eight decades."
They didn't have rooms yet, but upon a glance upwards Kohaku knew that he wouldn't have to worry about this; no, they had incredibly lucked out, and their luck was walking towards them right now, announcing in a soft voice, "If it pleases Haku-san and Yoru, this Gregor and his Larisa would act as witnesses to their mating bond as is traditional amongst our breed, and offer their rooms for the act itself, seeing as Haku-san and Yoru have no rooms of their own yet, much to the disappointment of our hosts."
Haha! Clever, clever. Making it sound like the people high up hadn't purposely decided against giving them rooms to force them to stay for the ball and see how they acted in public, and subtly chiding them for doing what they had done, as well as offering their personal hospitality, which would normally put Haku and Yoru in their debt (and, coincidentally, which would be the only thing that made it even remotely safe to publicly offer to host Haku and Yoru; fear amongst the rest of the yōkai here of how they might use that debt repayment), all in one fell swoop. They either had political training, or were amongst the rarer breeds of moths who, instead of being illusionists, could fit themselves into any situation with ease and respond exactly as needed without any forewarning whatsoever. There were only three breeds of that kind that he was aware of, no more than twenty amongst their numbers, and they generally despised using their abilities for politics, so it was far more likely to be the former.
Still, it would not do for this generous offer to go unanswered, especially because, while Haku was willing to do the mating the normal way, as was Yoru, both of them would much prefer doing it the moth way. "This Haku-san thanks you incredibly deeply, Gregor, Larisa. Whenever we briefly talked about it, we had come to the decision that if we ever mated, we wished to have witnesses and to mate in the moth manner, so it is most kind and gracious of you to offer your presence and your home. This does not pay the debt, but here, for your children."
He pulled out another of his lover's butterflies, and sent it towards their children in such a way that made it seem as if he had just now sent both butterflies. Now they had two escape routes, and the debt was more than paid; in fact, if they weren't overseeing the mating, the couple would be in their debt.
Haku wasn't worried about Yoru and himself; the butterflies they carried around were always meant for giving to others. They could escape perfectly capably on their own, or they wouldn't be getting sent into potentially dangerous situations. Not to mention, they were literally immortal because of that spell of Bokusenō's tying their life statuses to Kagome-ne and Sesshōmaru-ni's.
Someone in the background spoke up, obvious shock in his voice; they must not know much about moths to not know that amongst their kind, overall breed mattered more than alignment. Neither pair would dare interfere with the others' plans or views, only aid each other when necessary even if it went against what they personally believed, unless it was something well and truly destructive that had the potential to threaten whole tribes of moths. Then again, probably most people didn't know that – moths didn't exactly hide it, but they didn't advertise it either.
If Byakuya had ever met other moths whilst working for Naraku they would have sabotaged the hanyō and freed him immediately. Well; they should have, anyhow. Haku was still furious with that incident, and put it out of his mind for now because this was a happy occasion.
"You would trust foreign strangers with such a thing? How daft are you?"
Good; they thought them stupid. Haku pulled out his letter carelessly: this was his opportunity to get it to their hosts, he could just tell Yoru what it said. "Why should I fear or doubt such kindness being shown to me when my pack leader just recently messaged me, letting me to know that despite not knowing you well, you are friends and to treat you like friends? We may never ally, but our job here is to foster good feelings, not spread mistrust and deceit."
Someone grabbed it, he didn't care who; even if they had kitsune – which they didn't in Russia, except in the bordering mountains, and those had already allied with the pack because Shippō was awesome and had so many special tricks of his own that any kitsune den would ally with them to learn just one of them – they still wouldn't be able to figure out the code, or even really be able to find one at all, so it didn't matter who saw it before it got to their hosts. He continued his small speech, "Really; we are not enemies, there is no war between our nations, and the entire purpose of the presence of myself and my mate here is to attempt to come to a friendship. Besides, this Haku-san has been slowly travelling towards this very moment for almost a century. He does not wish to wait even longer, as he is certain others can understand, eh?"
That garnered laughter throughout the room, and the matter was dropped, leading him to help his lover up and walk towards the moth couple with a bright smile. They looked knowingly at him and he shot a wink towards the pair before they turned around to show the way from the ballroom. It would be good to put a kink in their hosts' plan of having them getting wholly inebriated (which never happened, ever; not only were they beyond careful with how much they partook, both of them had begged ane-san to find a way to make it impossible for either of them to get fully drunk – as opposed to pleasantly tipsy – or drugged, and after two decades she'd managed to fiddle with their reiki and yōki in such a way that once the alcohol or substance level got past a certain point, it burned up) and staying up half the night waiting for a room to sleep in.
When they got to the rooms, the children went off in one direction to bed, and the female moth turned around and squealed, switching to Nihongo almost before her husband could put up an illusion to make it seem they were getting the pleasantries over with. Definitely political training. "Haku-san! Yoru-san! It is so good to finally meet you, my precious Rika-chan has spoken of you so often; you are a treasure to her, especially because she is still alive. And all because of you!"
Well, wasn't that convenient. Their hosts were friends of Rika, and owed an even deeper debt to Haku and Yoru because their befriending her had led to her being adopted into the pack around, oh, something like four and a half decades ago, which led to her joining the very small amount of people who were tied directly to the pack's alphas. Most newcomers weren't allowed to find out about the whole "immortality" thing; their pack might have over three dozen members now, but only probably seven people outside of the original, core pack had been allowed to find out about their immortality and had their lives tied in such a way.
Haku should have known this would happen, seriously; Rika might have been ningen before she was adopted into the pack (Yasha and her daughter were, to everyone's fading shock, still going strong – for a relationship that hadn't meant to become serious, they fell in love terrifyingly fast once it happened; they had been about to split up and move on to other people after deciding that it had been a good experience but they both wanted something deeper, before they suddenly fell for each other, hard, and Haku was dreadfully pleased with this outcome of things), but she was deeply ingrained in the moth communities and knew people from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures and nations. She spoke to people all over the world, friends that she had gained from going trading with her mate and father-in-law back when they were still courting.
Really, if it wasn't for Rika, half their alliances would probably have been impossible, and Haku was momentarily terrified at the force of power his ane-san held inside of her that could cause such a thing to happen, before he came back to his senses – their world was turning out to be amazing because of ane-san.
Haku and Yoru looked at each other and sighed, shaking their heads, much to Larisa's amusement and Gregor's confusion. "I told you! Rika-chan says that nothing in the world can shock Haku-san and Yoru-san, because whatever their big sister wants, she gets, and it comes about in terrifying and wonderful ways."
Yoru spoke up at that, "Oh fuck yes. We have stopped being surprised by conveniences and coincidences – they don't exist. The universe just likes to align with ane-san's wishes. Sometimes it does so in horrible ways, but most of the time nowadays it does so using things that might be considered miracles. It is quite pleasant to hear Nihongo again, however. I have been listening to dreadful Russian for over a sennight now; no offence but it is a most unmusical language compared to my birth language."
Their male host spoke up at that, his chestnut hair falling over his shoulders as he raised an eyebrow, "Are you implying that our presen-"
It was impolite but he interrupted, because the answer was a blatant yes, "Absolutely and without fail. Ane-san has been wishing for us to mate for decades now, and knows of our wanting to do things the moth way, despite neither of us being fully and wholly moth. If it hadn't been you, there would have been another couple here who knew what was going on and would offer their services to aid our endeavour. However, the universe seems to be aligning itself especially to her wishes for this occurrence, because it pulled up a couple who already knows us by reputation; making it more likely that you know some of our status on intimate relations and various other things that affect mating rituals and can aid us in making sure the ritual completes itself firmly."
Gregor seemed very nonplussed at that, but Larisa simply smiled and dismissed her mate's illusion and switched from Nihongo to Russian. Hmm, what kind of abilities would she have? Mating allowed mates control over each other's illusions even if they weren't deep – or if the mate in question was ningen or a hanyō without any yōki abilities – after all, so her dismissal didn't give him any clues, though Gregor's abilities likely aligned themselves with solely audible illusions, considering the nature of his previous scripted conversation. Ah, he could find out later. "So, what kind of things must this Larisa and this Gregor be aware of so that we can help in you finally completing a mating that has been so long in coming? You two are incredibly deep for not having mated, after all – this Larisa was honestly unaware before she met you that a couple could get so deep if they were not, first off, wholly moth, and secondly, mated."
Yoru answered that, a permanent illusion disguising his words and the movement of their mouths to give off their "official" explanation for the situation while he gave their new friends the truth – despite how deep they were and how they acted in public, Yoru still was his snarky, selfish, arrogant, intelligent, talented, flashy self. Intimate Yoru and tricky, "troublesome" Byakuya melded together brilliantly to make a complete whole that was so beyond perfect that there were no words. However, it was far better for him to be underestimated, so he often seemed simply and wholly submissive alone in public.
"Our situations are incredibly unique – neither of us retain the physical forms we were born with. My first body was a created body by the hanyō who imprisoned and enslaved the both of us a century or so ago, and it died. When it was reborn, it was created in such a way that made it imperfect and flawed in many ways, and began to kill me. Our Father – pack-father, that is, technically – has the ability to enter a being's body and completely rebuild it in such a way that all imperfections and the like never exist in the new form. My original body was based on that of moth yōkai, but my new body, due to the inu nature of my family and my own subconscious wishes, gained a definite inu lean when it came to instincts and behaviours, which deeply affected me, although when it comes to intimacies I am almost wholly moth."
It was Haku's turn, and he explained his own self in the only way they had come up with that was satisfactory – the official explanation was much simpler, but effectively still the truth, in a way: the spell that tied his to his alphas' lives had changed his own existence to be more yōkai. "Larisa. You are aware of the existence of the Shikon?"
She nodded, as did Gregor. Good, Rika was doing her job – moths despised things like the Shikon, unlike most yōkai, and if they knew about it they would do everything they could to protect Kagome-ne so that it wouldn't escape her body again, regardless of their ideas regarding her plans of merging species, although so far all of them had been strongly for her ideas. "In order to maintain immortality, bodies must be changed. None of us are wholly aware of the nature of the magic which is tying our existences to that of our alphas, and giving us existences similar to theirs, but the presence of the Shikon forced it to change itself so that it not only ties our existences together to prolong life, but evolves our bodies in ways that can handle true immortality.
"You may not be aware of this, but we literally can not die. Nothing that exists on this earth can cause us to cease existing. That irrevocably changed us, and as far as we have been able to tell, because the person I was closest linked to was Byakuya, a moth, the spell and the Shikon made my body like unto his so that I would react like a moth in the proper ways. Unlike what happened with our ane-san, this change happened over years and decades, so that the changes were largely unnoticed. Every born-ningen in the pack is incredibly yōkai because of this."
Rika was the only born-ningen in the pack aside from Haku, Rin, Roku-ni, and Kagome-ne. She was an exception, they simply did not allow ningen into the pack, excepting very important circumstances like a mating or a hanyō member's parents. The rest of the very few ningen in the pack were all mated to yōkai and shared the lifespans of their mates or at least the time it would take for their children to reach full hanyō adulthood at exiting their teens (considering that most beast yōkai mating rituals tied the lesser lifespan to the greater, they were all tied to their mate's lives, there were no mixed-species couples in the pack that were not amongst that kind of beast yōkai other than Rika and Jin). Ningen generally didn't do very well amongst so many yōkai and hanyō; they were too unfamiliar with the culture. Kagome-ne, upon realising this, had been very wise and decided that ningen wouldn't be allowed to join the pack just through friendship with members; only a mating could allow them in.
Their hosts both looked incredibly thoughtful at this, and Yoru continued, "So, we believe these things are the reasons why we were able to bond so wholly and deeply despite the disparity in our races and the fact that we are not mated yet. The most important thing for you to know about what will be happening tonight, and which you might have to compensate for, we are unsure, is the fact that Haku-san and I have not really had sex yet, we most definitely have not done anything that requires penetration, and we will not be having sex tonight. We may never truly have sex, and are quite fine with that fact."
Even Larisa was left blinking at that, as she rushed out, "But how- You're so deep, how is that possible?"
Haku chuckled and ran his fingers through Yoru's ponytail, making his partner moan softly, "Pleasure can be had through means which are not sex, as you must be aware of by now, and even though we do partake in more traditional acts than grooming, it has never gone too terribly far. Having our bodies possessed and controlled by Naraku gave us very twisted ideas of personal privacy and security, and neither of us are currently ready to move past where we have gotten, physically, and neither of us really care about that. We are able to pleasure each other exquisitely with how far we have come from the beginning, and that is enough. Also, something you should know about Yoru – even the most platonic and chaste touches make him ill, excepting by our original pack who has been with us for the entirety of the last nine and a half-ish decades. Please do not ever touch him unless it is an absolute emergency. He can defend himself better than it seems at first glance."
Yasha could touch him irregularly, he was coming closer to being trusted so deeply, in part due to their constant exposure with taijiya missions, but even for him, around a fourth of the time touching made Yoru ill. And sometimes it was simply required of him, such as the time Byakuya's back was broken and Yasha had to help Kohaku carry Byakuya to a flat place so that it could heal up more easily, so that didn't change things, either. Circumstances didn't change the touching issue whatsoever.
"I hope he isn't better than he seems at first glance, otherwise I should be completely and utterly terrified of him; Yoru is frighteningly powerful, and it is immediately obvious, why else do you think you got challenged upon making your claim? Someone like him is prized in these bloodthirsty courts."
Yoru chuckled lowly and smirked, "Oh, you should definitely be terrified, Larisa. Nobody, alive or dead, has ever seen my full power, because the one time I showed off the extent of my abilities to someone – it was my Father – I had not discovered all of them. Those butterflies, for example, will make a moving, physically existing copy of you and anyone else you wish, whilst simultaneously masking your yōki and physical forms in such a way that barriers actually strengthen the illusions. The copies will seemingly have your yōki and personalities and actions; the longer you wait to use a butterfly, the more complete the illusion becomes. We keep those around to give to people we feel might be able to use them. Needless to say, every moth existence we come across gets at least one of them."
A barrier went up as soon as he began talking about the butterflies, making it seem as if he was talking about something that randomly changed every time it was used, and as he did not actually put the barrier up, Larisa and Gregor were left utterly flabbergasted, shocked, and slightly frightened. As it should be. They were quite nice, but Haku and Yoru made certain that everybody who might end up being more than a passing acquaintance knew better than to cross them. Haku and Yoru were deadly and powerful and not to be underestimated.
Haku decided to have some mercy on them, however, "Yoru can create his butterflies how he does because his abilities and existence were created to be more powerful and simply different to that of normal moth yōkai by Naraku. The barrier comes up whenever Yoru goes into detail about his butterflies; only people that I have given butterflies to can hear his words. Nobody can take those butterflies from Yoru or myself and drug us into telling them what they do. The butterflies themselves hold their own barriers and cannot be used by just anyone. You won't be able to tell anybody about them unless you genuinely, under your own power, feel like they need to know for a reason that will not end up sabotaging our efforts."
No need to let them know just yet that drugs for the most part didn't work on them any more. Haku had a niggling feeling that knowledge would become needed later. Time, and experience, had taught him to never ignore his instincts, and niggling feelings were most definitely an instinctual manifestation, no matter that most people couldn't recognise that.
"Damn, but you guys are good. It's blatantly clear you've been doing this a while."
Yoru scoffed at that, rolling his eyes and going into The Litany – there would be spies watching them, and people listening in, and while the important and private information that passed their lips was always disguised to unwanted listeners, due to a permanent illusion placed upon the two of them, and every member of the pack who went abroad, by Yoru himself; the other information needed to be heard, and would be. "More like it's blatantly clear that we are beyond paranoid, these protections were put into place decades before there was even the slightest thought of leaving our beloved Nihon. We just renew the protections every couple of years. Seriously; the reason Haku-san and I got picked to do our job despite our clear lack of subtlety when it comes to names and affection is because our experiences have turned us into incredibly powerful and paranoid beings. Paranoia that is conducive to intrigue because that was our once-master's speciality.
"We have healed enough from our traumas regarding him that we do not mind using our abilities in a similar manner, although part of that is simply due to the nature of the use is towards a good cause; the safety and unity of beings across the world, specifically yōkai and hanyō. Did you know, there is not a single moderately-sized or larger village in Nihon without at least one yōkai and/or hanyō member any more? We do not live separated from the ningen in our country, and because of it, they are truly no threat to us any more. Ningen were breeding fast and spreading far a century ago, overrunning yōkai and slaughtering us. However, now even the taijiya villages similar to that in which my mate was raised in as a ningen child all have hanyō and yōkai members – no longer are they a threat to friendly yōkai, only those that are unsafe and a threat to innocents. In fact, there are at least two taijiya villages that are solely populated by hanyō and yōkai, with absolutely no ningen in them.
"We suffer fewer mass slaughters, no more risks of overpowered yōkai taking over areas and running them into the ground, ruining them for decades, and the ningen governments work alongside yōkai and hanyō, including them in the creation of laws and legislations. Our goal here is to offer the same changes to the people who live in other countries, so that they may be safe from being forced into an existence of either war or perpetual hiding."
Gregor looked to the side briefly, subtly letting them know there was a spy listening in, which they were already aware of – despite his "public face," anybody important would realise that Yoru was not as he seemed, so it was fine for spies to see his intelligence and true attitude – apparently the being had just let itself be known further, and Haku smiled at him, "Hopefully our kind host will see that we are no threat, will leave peacefully if our offer is not wanted, and do not intend on taking over and forcing anybody to bend to our whims. All we intend to do is offer knowledge and aid in dealing with ningen so as to make sure that the yōkai in Russia do not have to end up hiding themselves years in the future – or worse, end up being wiped out by dangerous ningen weapons. Guns are painful and will harm even the strongest of yōkai; ningen are evolving their design and power to make them even more dangerous every year. Not to mention explosives and accelerants that are harmful to all.
"Our ane-san originally came to us from a place in which yōkai did not exist. Ningen had driven them into either hiding or death; they lived in massive towns that held millions – yes, millions – of people in one relatively small area. She came here, saw that yōkai existed, met them, made friends with them, mated one of them, created a family of them, and determined that if she had any say, at the very least her country would never suffer that possible outcome. The land where she was living before she came here was polluted and dying; she has thoroughly changed things so that implements that once were powered by dangerous substances that destroy the place we live on are now powered by yōki – which is safe, easy to create, can just as easily multiply itself, and considering the sheer amount of yōkai and hanyō in Nihon, is incredibly widely accessible.
"She is already working in Spain, France, England, India, and China to help them change things to be similar to how they are in Nihon, so that ningen no longer become a deadly threat that end up taking over and either destroying our lives and culture, or forcing us into hiding so as to avoid such destruction. And despite not working there, she is helping Germany somewhat as well, they are very defensive of their culture, so nothing is openly being done, but they are using many of her ideas to base changes on for themselves."
The message behind the last being "we will help you out even if you don't want a direct alliance," which was something that Kagome-ne wanted every possible ally to know. Their gracious hosts hummed softly and Larisa commented something that would no doubt be pointed out by an antagonist, "But were you not born ningen? Why do you follow in this endeavour?"
Yoru barked out a laugh and began giggling helplessly against Haku's side, and he chuckled softly, "Forgive my mate. This is why he laughs so rudely. After the age of fourteen, at which point my body and mind began ageing how yōkai age, rather than how ningen age, I was raised by yōkai and people who were born ningen but preferred yōkai to other ningen. My life is permanently tied to a yōkai by a spell; a powerful daiyōkai that has many centuries of life left to him, and whose true form is the size of a small forest – his claws alone are the size of two grown men stacked upon one another. At least, they were the last time I saw his form, which was many decades ago, he is very likely larger by now. The two most important people in my life are a moth yōkai first, and secondly, a nekomata without whom I would probably have lived my original life out ending up insane with loneliness."
Sesshōmaru-ni wasn't any bigger now than he was even almost a century ago, because he kept his yōki restrained, but they didn't need to know that. He shrugged lazily and bit his lover's ear lightly to shut him up, causing Yoru to gasp and whine a bit in delight. "I hold no fondness for ningen, find them inferior to yōkai in every way, and hope that eventually the only sentient beings in existence are yōkai and hanyō, maybe along with ningen who have mated yōkai, to be honest. There are good ones, but overall I believe ningen to be pests that destroy the natural world and pretty much exist to ruin whatever they can get their grubby hands on. My honoured sister feels differently, but the disagreement is not enough to cause a rift, especially since I still support her endeavour; why would I not, when the purpose is to make certain that the beings who raised me thrive and survive into the future? We simply do not talk about our views regarding the worth of ningen, ever."
Larisa's blue eyes were sparkling with laughter at his response, and Gregor seemed impressed and intrigued by the idea of a person who was born ningen, changed into something resembling one but most definitely not any more, and who intensely disliked ningen as a species. He rumbled out a response with a firm nod, "I wish you and your family luck in this endeavour. I cannot know what our honoured host will do in response to such an offer, but I can hope that they take you up on it; have any of the other yōkai royalty done so in our country?"
"The south has; in a sennight we will be travelling to the north, and the following sennight, the west."
That pretty much guaranteed at least borderline cooperation – knowing that a rival or ally was accepting or had accepted an offer of alliance from yōkai who were highly powerful both physically and politically meant that the eastern royals wouldn't dare turn down Kagome-ne's offer outright. Especially because Rika made certain that Kagome-ne knew who the weakest power in any country she had connections to was; they would naturally accept her aid, making them more powerful, and making the other powers more inclined to accept her offer in response to an increase of power that was not violent and thus could not be returned with violence. And they would not at the moment risk trying to get rid of or imprison Haku and Yoru, because the letter showed that their pack knew where they were and would come looking if they disappeared from the face of the planet.
Generally even yōkai who declined her offer ended up stealing her ideas. And all of the ambassadors made the endeavour seem more successful and wide-reaching than it was – yes, they were making waves in those countries, but at least two fifths of the changes were happening due to yōkai who hadn't actually allied with them; which was what Kagome-ne wanted. She was not up for ruling the world like the Shikon no doubt wished from her. The countries that would likely eventually form a single country called Germany (amongst the yōkai they already were Germany, if only very loosely) had each given her a clever counter-offer that meant that they swapped ideas back and forth without having a tangible alliance; because they did not want any foreign power messing about with their cultures. Kagome-ne was beyond happy with this, because if yōkai took power in what would eventually become Germany amongst ningen, a terrible massacre and worldwide war would be avoided.
Honestly, anything that led to less violence was a good thing. Haku was good at violence, and could take pride in his skills, but he did not enjoy it. Fighting itself was highly enjoyable. Causing severe pain or death to others was absolutely not. So, this turn of events was highly pleasing to Haku.
A/N: Part one of three; I got to writing and ended up with something almost 24k long, so I had to split it up. This was literally the only good place in the whole damn thing to split it up so next chapter is split awkwardly into the following one, sigh.
Mari writes way too fucking much. Okay, part two will be posted next time!