"No!"
Youko sped towards the cliff, running as fast as he could, scaling the rocks. Debris fell all around him and he had to dodge carefully, looking for her among the rocks in case she had fallen. However there was no sign of her anywhere. Dread filled his entire being, praying she wasn't buried under all the rocks. He reached Rirī's rock covered ledge in no time, falling to his knees, pulling the rocks up desperately. A human couldn't possibly survive a blast like that, or if they did, being buried alive by boulders would certainly finish the job. Youko knew this. He knew that if she didn't fall then she was dead. There wasn't any surviving this. However, he couldn't make himself listen to reason, clawing through the large rocks, trying to find a trace of his human.
"Rirī! Rirī!" He cried, ripping the rocks up, tears welling up in his eyes.
'Please, Kami, please..' He prayed, his hands beginning to bleed.
"Youko!"
His head shot up and he saw her, battered up badly, covered in scrapes and bruises but alive and standing of all things, leaning against the cliff face behind the falls, panting. She had been trying to get his attention over the roar of the falls as his cried of her name. It looked like she jumped behind the falls into a small cranny that shielded her from most of the blast. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her, trying to convince himself she wasn't an apparition. Her eyes looked at him worriedly, resting on his wounds.
"Oh, Youko… You're bleeding.." She whispered sadly, carefully walking towards him, her legs trembling.
Her foot slipped on the wet rocks and she gasped, bracing herself for the fall but Youko lunged forward and caught her in his arms, cradling her tight against his chest. She let out a breath and opened her eyes, smiling at the sight of his shoulder against her cheek. She looked up and frowned at the gash on his cheek, reaching up to touch him gently.
"Youko?" She whispered when she saw the tears falling from his tightly closed eyes.
He didn't move to answer her, he just stayed there, crouched behind the falls where he had caught her, holding her closer, leaning slightly into her touch. She sensed his grief and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into her arms, rubbing his back.
"It's alright, Youko. Everything is okay." She whispered when she felt him give a sob, clutching her close to him.
"He took everything from me. My whole clan. My family. I'm the last silver kitsune. I'm so alone.." He whispered.
He was afraid of how much he was telling her, how much he was allowing himself to feel and admit. He was afraid. He was hurt. But she held him tighter, both ignoring the waterfall that was soaking them.
"You aren't alone, Youko. Kuronue has been here for you and has been a wonderful, loyal friend. And I may not have been around very long, but I love you, and I will do all I cant to protect you too. You still have a family and people who love you. You're not alone." She whispered, kissing his hair, holding him tighter.
"He almost took you from me, too. I almost lost you too. Rirī what would I have done if I had lost you? I thought you were dead.." He gasped, trembling, remembering those two minutes that felt like eternity, where he truly believed he had just watched her die.
"I'm not dead. I'm right here, Youko. I'm alive and so are you. I'm so glad you're alive." She said, nuzzling her face into his shoulder. "You weren't using your plants. I was afraid he was going to kill you.."
"I believed I could destroy him without using my plants. And I had no desire to waste the art of my people on someone who destroyed it once I had knowledge of who he was. Besides, It is not as if my life matters." He growled, not liking how she turned this around on him because she was the one who almost died and she was trying to get out of it.
Rirī glared at him and shoved him off of her, making him nearly fall off the waterfall in surprise.
"How dare you say something so stupid! Of course your life matters! You have a purpose Youko! You have to stop Yomi from ruining the lives of innocent people and you have to reclaim your men! What about Kuronue? You are his best friend! He would be devastated if something happened to you!" She yelled at him.
Youko saw how upset she was getting over this and he quickly took her into his arms.
"This isn't about them though, is it?" He asked in a gentle voice, noting the emotion in her voice.
She shook her head slowly, holding him closer.
"Not really." She whispered quietly.
Youko, despite himself, gave a smile. He knew she meant that his life mattered to her, more than anything. He gently kissed her hair and rubbed her back.
"I understand." he whispered in return.
She nodded, not trusting her voice, holding him closer and burying her face in his chest.
"Let's get out of here. I still have to show you your surprise." he whispered mischievously.
Rirī swallowed back her sudden sadness, welcoming the mischievous melody of Youko's tone.
"Lead the way."
-RK-
Kuronue grumbled as he finished hammering in the last shingle on the roof of the old abandoned temple, wondering where his friend and the human wondered off to and why it was taking them so long to show up. Not that it truly mattered. The place was still a terrible mess; weeds were growing in the gardens out front, the outside needed a new coat of paint desperately, and the doors needed to be waxed again because they still didn't slide open they exact way Youko wanted them to.
"And he takes off and leaves me alone to handle it all while he frolics through the forest with the human like he's some love-struck pup. Damn fox, give him a female and he loses his friggin head." Kuronue grumbled under his breath while moving to jump off the roof so that he could attend to the doors that barely opened.
Of course, he knew very well that Youko was never ever this crazy about a female before, and certainly never lost his head over anything. He saw what Rirī did to his partner and knew that he had fallen for the human swordswoman. And though Kuronue pretended to be grumpy he truly was happy for the two of them. He had never seen this side of Youko and never knew the fox demon to actually have emotions; he certainly wouldn't have guessed they would be awoken by a human woman either.
He remembered he would offer to buy Youko a night with a brothel woman and the fox demon would usually refuse, saying that he had more important things to attend to. However, when he did accept he still wasn't all there and he usually left much earlier than Kuronue ever did. But he knew Youko had his own string of various lovers, none with whom he intended to mate. The bat demon himself never saw a point in love or permanent mating. He never intended to take a mate and he still holds to that.
As he scrubbed the rudders of the door way, he smiled. Youko was definitely planning on making Rirī his mate. he could sense it and with this temple they were restoring to help her recover, he could tell the fox demon was definitely courting her. Kuronue only prayed she knew something about demon habits so that she could pick up on Youko's intentions and not offend him. And he also hoped that if she didn't know anything, that Youko remembered that she is a human. Those two have a way of letting misunderstandings tear them apart.
Finally the door was fixed and closed smoothly, or as smoothly as Kuronue could get it to. With a heavy sigh he stood and wiped his brow with the back of his hand, then turned to sniff the air to see if they were nearby. however, all he could smell was gun powder.
"Some humans must be hunting with guns. If only they could stop hunting each other..." He murmured, remembering the state Rirī was in when Youko had found her not even a few days ago. He knew what a bullet could do to a demon, and he was horrified to see what more than that did to a human. But he had to stop thinking about that.
He sighed and glared at the overgrown weeds in the gardens.
"He can fix these when he gets back. I don't have no damn plant power." He grumbled, ever staying in character.
~RK~
Rirī flushed in embarrassment as her stomach growled loudly. Youko looked down at her and chuckled as she avoided his gaze, which was hard to do since he was carrying her.
"Some one is hungry." He said with a smirk.
She glared up at him in almost a pout.
"I hope this surprise has something to do with food." She grumbled, looking away when he continued to grin at her, pouting more.
He chuckled at that and turned his head enough so that some of his wet hair hit her in the face, making her give him quite the expression. They had washed the blood from their skin as to not worry Kuronue, who probably wouldn't have been worried anyway. Rirī glared at him and slapped his own wet hair back into his face.
"So when can I walk on my own again?" She demanded.
"Not any time soon. I don't need another heart attack because I find you face down and out cold on the floor." He said almost seriously, but he was enjoying teasing her far too much to even try to maintain a serious composure.
"Okay that isnt possible, you don't even have a heartbeat. And another thing, I needed the practice and since I was all alone in a cave in the middle of no where, I figured why not. I don't have the patience to sit around and do nothing." She retorted.
He gave a mock sigh of irritation to further irritate her.
"Yes, because I enjoy falling on my face." She grumbled. "I need to practice, I don't like being this helpless girl you have to carry around."
"Youre going to have to get used to it, for the time being. Until you can walk again, I am afraid I will be carrying you around everywhere." He told her.
He knew she was actually distressed about being helpless, but he wasn't going to leave her sitting like a duck either. He won't make that mistake again.
Rirī huffed in defeat and tugged at her hair, which was wet and in desperate need of a good brushing.
"Damn pirates. Took my hair ribbon and my shoes. if I cant find a brush and something to tie it up with I'm going to cut it."
"Cut it? Why?" Youko asked, his eyes widening.
He liked her hair and how long it was. He liked how it was the color of the sunset in autumn and the sight of its uniqueness warmed his heart.
"Because its going to be in my way. It annoys me when I have it down." She huffed, frowning at the wet bangs sticking to her cheeks.
One of his hands brushed her hair from her face gently.
"I'll find you something. Don't cut your hair, alright?" he asked, his voice kind and soft, making Rirī's frustration melt away.
"Alright."
He smiled at her then looked up, his smiled broadening as he looked before them.
"There it is." he said.
The swordswoman turned her head and saw a huge temple on a hill. several arches stood over the rocky path that led up to waved from the top of the hill in the middle of some dead flowers and hastily cut weeds. Paint was chipping from the walls and nails were protruding out of strange places.
"Do you like it?" Youko whispered.
She smiled, because despite the size of the temple, it was really rundown and barely put back together. But she hugged his neck tightly and kissed his cheek.
"I love it." She told him, because even though it wasn't perfect, he had done this for her to make her happy and that touched her heart.
She heard a grumble about her personal display of affection from Kuronue and a soft rumble of laughter from Youko as he hugged her back and ignored the bat demon above them.
"I'm glad."
A/N: Hello my sweet Panda Lilies. I am so sorry this update took so long, I was having problems with my document manager and it was all quite ridiculous.
I understand everyone thinks Youko is a bit OC but I would really like to explain so that no one is confused. I've been dropping hints that because of Rirī, Youko isnt acting like himself at all. She's turning him into a different person and making him question everything about himself and how he sees the world. When Rirī was abducted by pirates, Youko acted rashly and without using his head. Everyone was confused. "Youko doesn't act like that at all. In the series he is so calm and poised when facing any situation." And you all are right. But my story takes place before the series and we get to witness Youko in some character development. Because of the mistakes he makes when thinking rashly because of his new emotions, he learns to be poised and calm in any situation, which we will see later on in the story, but I'm still working on that development :)
I would also like to take a moment to thank all you guys who stuck with this story and enjoy reading it, and also a thanks to the new followers and favorites. Seeing you guys enjoying this story really makes me happy. You guys are awesome!
Until next time, peace and love to you all 3
~Galinia
