Covet
Summary: Look only at me. Want only me. Be mine only. Otherwise, I'll break you. Dark!Kurama and Botan.
A/N: I've put up warnings beforehand in the first chapter to implore people who don't like this kind of content to steer clear as far away as possible from this story. I don't blame anyone from disliking it, but I don't wish to be responsible for anything that might offend people so please, if this is not something you would enjoy, please drop this story immediately. I won't take it personally, because this series is not something for the light-hearted. Writing this because I would like those who do not like this kind of fic to stop reading instantly. Regardless, it's a foolish mistake on my part not to warn people in every chapter, so I'll be doing that from now on.
Warnings: crazy Kurama, strong sexual innuendos, profanities, drug use (no, not those things you get addicted to in real life. When I mean drug, I mean like, plant drugs... if that makes sense), explicit and mostly rough smut (sorry, I just like that kind of thing), kinks, blood and possible gore, kidnapping and entrapment. And because this is a dark romance fic, a lot of insanity and psychological trauma. Not to forget obsession, of course. There's gonna be a very good dose of that.
Due to the aforementioned warnings, the relationship between the two characters in this fanfic will most likely be toxic and abusive. Note that I don't condone this in real life, nor do I support any of the things mentioned above if it's happening in reality. This is only for the sake of the story. If you don't like this, please don't read.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter 7
Kurama stood, red hair swaying gently along the icy sensation of the wind, in front of Botan's apartment. Shuffling sounds reverberated through the other side of the door, muffled as it reached his ultra-sensitive hearing. The noise an indication that his date would take a lot longer to answer the door, Kurama permitted himself a brief moment to study his own appearance.
Peridot eyes scanned himself; the black jacket wrapped perfectly around his arms and broad shoulders, clinging around his torso as the white, buttoned down shirt was evident underneath. His outfit was accompanied with a matching black tie, and a pair of equally dark shoes, the whole look causing his scarlet mane to appear more prominent.
Well, at least the man has good taste. Kurama mused to himself with a mental smirk. The clothes had not been bought by himself- if anything, he found this when he had abducted Shouji and had more or less unabashedly claimed it as his own. He was a thief, after all. Nothing less was to be expected. And it wasn't as if Shouji had any use for it either. Not anymore at least.
Kurama snapped out of his thoughts as the creaking sound of the door resonated in the air, prompting him to lift his head up just in time to see Botan step out of the threshold of her apartment. He watched her close the door behind her and pushed a gold key into the keyhole, turning the knob until a clicking sound echoed. The fox resisted the urge to stare at her rear end before Botan spun around to regard him with enthusiasm, her pink, honey-dew lips curling upwards to outline her trademark bright smile. He took the opportunity to study her- the blood red dress stuck tightly to her perfectly slim waist, accentuating both of the ample mounds of her breasts and the voluptuous curve of her butt. Despite the slightly lust-inducing outfit, the straps hung loosely around her shoulders, threatening to slide down her fair skin, though the look merely made her appear more alluring.
A delicious shudder ran down to the base of his spine at the tempting sight, as a mental image of her, naked and writhing beneath him, entered the recesses of his mind. He welcomed the indecent imagery but it was hardly the right time. Maybe someday. He calmed himself, and suppressed his brewing desire in fear of her noticing the spike of arousal in his aura.
"My, hello, Kurama," Botan greeted him with a certain chirpiness in her voice, the sound vaguely reminding him of chiming bells. "Sorry that I took so long. It must have been quite the long wait."
He returned her smile with his own as he extended the bouquet of roses towards her, the quirk on his mouth broadening ever so slightly as the ferry girl flushed pink at the gesture. "It's nothing to apologise for. I perfectly understand the need to dress to impress."
Botan stopped gushing over the flowers he gave her to blink her amethyst eyes at him, before a girlish giggle erupted from her throat. "Whatever gave you the idea that I was trying to impress you?"
"Oh, was it a misinterpretation on my part then?" Kurama retorted with an amused touch in his voice as he allowed her to wrap a hand around his arm, the contact making the darker part of him growl in approval before he quickly squashed it down. He wouldn't want to scare her off too soon. He tried to not to shiver at the thought of having her as they strolled down the hallways of Reikai palace.
"Well, I guess I was trying to impress you a little," she admitted in a timid tone, an adorable hue of rosy pink adorning her cheeks. "I mean, I would at least want to look my best if someone of your caliber is my date."
Kurama felt his male pride swell at her subtle praise, the fact that she had implied her attraction towards him unmistakable in his ears. Although, he quelled the impulse to take her by the shoulders and devour her lips in a kiss that would have left her all hot and bothered, and instead settled with a self-satisfied smirk.
"You honour me so," he replied casually. "Though in my personal opinion, I'd reckon you would look good in anything, considering you're fairly beautiful yourself."
Botan felt blood rush to her face. "Goodness, Kurama, you shower me with too much compliments. But I can't say I don't appreciate them though."
"I say nothing but the truth. A fox does not lie, that I can assure you," he declared, an air of self confidence radiating off of him as he let slip a slightly cocky smirk. The expression caused the ferry girl to burst out into a short but admittedly pleasant-sounding fits of giggles.
"You wouldn't mind flying, would you?" Botan asked him as she materialised her oar in her hand. "I mean, it's not much but it is a lot faster, in terms of means of transportation."
"Well, I don't suppose there's any other method to reach Ningenkai, no?" he answered her in a roundabout manner, before flopping next to her on the floating object after she hoisted herself on the oar.
"You can hold me if you get too scared of heights," she lightly teased him with a touch of mirth in her soft voice. Her response came in the form of a lopsided shrug, before the former bandit scooted slightly closer to hook his arms around her supple form. He tried to ignore how good it felt to have her back pressed against his chest, and instead focused on the whiff of vanilla that intruded his nostrils and filling his senses.
Truth be told, he was not even the slightest bit afraid of the prospect of falling. He had his own methods of traveling through air, and was more or less accustomed to the adrenaline rush that followed this sort of thing. But he would be foolish to decline such a chance to hold her, even if he couldn't do more but embrace her in his arms.
"You know, I didn't expect to go with you to the wedding. I mean, I figured you, of all people, would have already had a partner, to be honest," Botan blurted out after a long but comfortable silence, successfully bringing him out of his reverie. Kurama was more than grateful for the interruption though, or else his thoughts would have taken a more indecent approach.
"Is that so?" he rejoined, his words accompanied with the addition of a low chuckle.
"Well, I was expecting Shouji but after everything that's happened, I can't really do anything about it either," she elaborated, her blue brows creased into a deep frown which marred her forehead as she shrugged her shoulders. She was blissfully unaware of the tension Kurama was emitting through violent waves of his demon energy as he briskly summoned as much self-control as he could to curb his growing bloodlust.
"Why, would you have preferred it to be him?" he questioned with a calm timbre, carefully concealing the underlying anger that was ignited from the mention of the SDF's member.
"Oh, no, don't take it the wrong way," Botan swiftly assured him as she whirled her head around to face him, tone panicky as she flailed one arm at him in great fear that she might have offended him. "I mean, you're like a better choice compared to him. Your presence is a lot more relaxing, to tell you the truth. Shouji can be... er, a little bit pushy with his advances sometimes. I just didn't expect things to turn out this way, is all."
His blazing wrath slightly cooled down, Kurama seemed to understand where she was coming from as he nodded once at her direction. He tugged his lips upwards to form a reassuring smile as he caught the concern he could sense from the ferry in the way she chewed on the bottom half of her lip in a nervous manner. Oh, if only I could kiss you right now. He thought as he briefly surveyed the glossy, inviting texture of her mouth before he inwardly shook his head.
"Are you worried about him?" he opted to inquire, despite knowing that he probably wouldn't like the response, considering Botan's kind personality.
"I guess a little, but I'm more confused than concerned. He's prone to running off on his own without telling anyone where he goes, you see, so a lot of people are assuming that this is just another example of him going off on a lone mission again." She momentarily paused. "Quite reckless if you ask me."
Kurama nodded, in spite of himself not being too fond of the familiar way she spoke about him as if she knew him too well. Yusuke told him that Botan hadn't noticed Shouji's existence before, but she surely seemed to know quite a lot of information regarding him. Well, it wasn't as if Shouji was capable of stealing her away anymore- oh, yes, Kurama made certain to get rid of that possibility. A smirk teased at his lips.
And after tonight, he was going to ensure that he would make her his, once and for all.
"Oh, my, Botan. You look very stunning," Keiko gushed with a hand over her mouth as her blue-haired friend came over to envelop her in a crushing hug.
"Says the one who's dressed in all white, waiting to be wedded to the love of her life," Botan retorted teasingly with a cheeky grin spread from ear to ear, a chortle leaving her lips as the brunette flushed bright red in return.
"And you came with Kurama? What a surprise," Keiko swiftly changed the topic, looking over Botan's shoulder in slight astonishment.
"I would be a fool not to take a pretty lady such as Botan as my partner," he supplied and his mouth formed a coy smile as he directed a wink towards the ferry girl's direction, causing Keiko to gasp in utter awe and Botan's cheeks to turn warm.
"I didn't think he was willing though, especially when you take into account that I've rejected him before," Botan murmured, trying not to blush too much under Kurama's unwavering gaze. Really, he was so intent on teasing her.
Keiko blinked at her in surprise. "Really? I didn't expect you, of all people, to refuse him. I mean, you'd always gush over how handsome he is when we talk about the guys," she replied, a burst of laughter rumbling through her chest as Botan instantaneously sounded out an embarrassed protest.
The fox, on the other hand, had to take a moment to process the fresh information to ascertain that he had not been hearing things the wrong way. After he finally confirmed that the words had indeed reached his ears, he couldn't help but scowl at himself. If only he knew that she found him good-looking, he would have made a move a long time ago and Shouji wouldn't have attempted to land a finger on her in the first place. Then again, the primary reason he didn't pursue her as soon as possible was due to the fear of his darker impulses surfacing and breaking her. However, after the threat of a new guy nearly proclaiming his claim on her, Kurama found that he had long since threw all sense of restraint into oblivion. And what was more terrifyingly delightful, he had gladly allowed any slivers of remaining self-control to snap, along with his reason and human moralities- permitting his primal, and more demonic instincts to take over instead.
"Yo, Kurama, took you long enough to get here," Yusuke's voice chimed in, before he felt a slight tap at the surface of his back. He swiftly adopted a friendly and composed pretence as he offered the head detective a curt smile.
"Yes, apologies for the late arrival," he returned. "It was a long journey from Reikai, after all."
"Tell me about it. Feels like it'll take forever, doesn't it?" Yusuke groaned out his response as he scratched the back of his neck, a recollection of his first time stepping into Reikai premises occurring in his head.
The redhead let out a low, amused chuckle as Botan reprimanded Yusuke for his comment, to which the black-haired man replied with a dismissive wave. All of a sudden, he spotted a dark blur from the corner of his eyes, but didn't attempt to turn to even look at whoever it was as he was well aware whose appearance it implicated.
His chuckles died down in the air as Hiei stalked towards them. Only Kurama seemed to notice the hesitant, slow movements of his steps as Hiei hastily disguised the feeling of fear that almost overtook him after noticing the redhead's presence.
"Your ugly mug is as unappealing as ever," Hiei snorted at Yusuke instead, pushing away the reminiscence of his previous interaction with Kurama into the deepest parts of his mind where he hoped it would never emerge from ever again.
"Well, I missed you too, Hiei," came Yusuke's sarcastic remark, as he sported an equally sardonic expression on his visage.
A more menacing part of Kurama wanted to pull a sadistic prank on Hiei just to get him riled up and to see how he would react after what had happened between them- but a more logical part of him supplicated otherwise. Though it would be fun to see Hiei fidget in uneasiness from his acting like nothing ever took place, Kurama did find it barely amusing to be so cruel enough to subject him to such ruthless behaviour. After all, despite of everything, he still deemed Hiei as a close friend- granted that he kept his end of the bargain and proceeded to stay away from his personal affairs, of course.
Nevertheless, considering Hiei's obvious attempts at avoiding any eye-contact, the probability of him becoming an obstacle was less than likely.
Botan, however, couldn't help but notice their odd disposition. Kurama was always the first to acknowledge Hiei whenever he would show up, and Hiei would usually bark out some snide remark at him whenever he saw him. Though Hiei tended to be more of an asshole in the way he spoke, the two normally fit together like two sides of the same coin. They were close enough that Kurama treated him like a brother, so it was more than peculiar that the two seemed to be having some sort of rift- if the lack of words exchanged between them was anything to go by.
But Botan couldn't resist the nagging feeling at the back of her head that roared at her that it was something else entirely. It didn't appear as if they were suffering from the effects of an aftermath of a brotherly argument- but it felt like there was something more than what met the eye. She had briefly caught the slight trepidation in the way Hiei carried himself as soon as he saw that Kurama was there as well, and as unbelievable as it was, a part of her didn't really think it was her mind playing tricks on her. The look of fright on his features had been short, but it was more tha enough. But that was impossible. She couldn't conjure up any possible conclusions or hypothetical theories behind Hiei's terror which obviously resulted from Kurama. She rarely saw Hiei afraid- not even when he fought Bui, nor was it even noticeable during the times he engaged in bloody battles in the Dark Tournament.
What did Kurama do to elicit such a behaviour from him?
"Are you alright? You've been out of sorts for a while now," Kurama spoke with a tinge of concern in his smooth voice, promptly pulling Botan out of her line of thoughts.
They were dancing on the dance floor, the music slow and matching the beat of a romantic dance as the couples around them surrounded them. Yusuke and Keiko had uttered their vows a while ago, yet Botan still found herself to be a little bit on edge.
A frown came to rest on her forehead before she speedily replaced it with a wide, albeit forced, grin. After sensing and taking note of Hiei's prior dreadful display, Botan couldn't deny that a part of her was slightly on guard. She didn't want to be so distrustful towards the redheaded fox, especially after their long years of friendship- but something was prodding at her to realise that whatever it was that got Hiei practically almost on the verge of fleeing away, it was not a fairly good thing. And Kurama was probably the source of it.
"Um, well," She hesitated if she should even say this, but it didn't feel very wonderful to hide such doubts from Kurama. After all, this was Kurama. He could never hurt a fly... could he? "I mean, I don't really know the right words for this..."
Kurama quirked an eyebrow at her in slight interest, his emerald orbs holding a touch of concern. "If I did something wrong, you must inform me and I can assure you that I will do my very best to make it up to you."
His words of reassurance, and the edge of apprehension laced heavily in his worried timbre made her feel somewhat stupid to even suspect that he was up to no good. "No, I- well, I mean, I noticed Hiei was acting kind of weird. And it seemed like it had something to do with you."
The ex-thief's body turned into a tense, rigid line, before he adopted a more relaxed posture in the hopes of not sparking any more suspicions from the ferry girl. The gears of his mind worked endlessly for a way out of this, but found no solution to his upcoming problems- well, there was one thing he could do, but he didn't consider it necessary as of now. Perhaps if there were more risks of her obstructing his plans, then maybe he would put the idea to motion.
Botan hadn't tried to, but she couldn't help but discern the way his form instantly jumped at her words in return. The reaction was a little bit too violent for her taste and it left a bad feeling in her gut. Moreover, thanks to her slightly above average perception, she had noticed the waves of tension he radiated, his demon energy practically prickling her skin only for a fraction of a second before he swiftly suppressed it and collected himself. She hoped that the awful, nauseating feeling in the pit of her stomach would fade away, but none of her efforts to calm herself bore any fruit. A thought crossed her mind, and it made her sick:
When she looked back on it, she realised that he could have been involved with Shouji's abrupt disappearance. Especially when she considered the fact that she had refused to be his date in favour of keeping her promise to Shouji instead. It hadn't been a matter of preference- in fact, she chose Shouji merely due to the fact that he had taken the initiative to ask her first and it hardly seemed fair or just to suddenly jump to another guy. But Kurama could have figured his identity out, and he could have done some horrendous things to make sure he was out of the way... Goodness, what was she thinking? The entire time she had been close friends with Kurama, never had he ever displayed any such violent bouts of behaviour. He was always so calm and gentle- and if they didn't come across as harmful to him and the people he held dear, he would never indulge himself in such horrific issues. Botan believed that she knew him enough to know that he wasn't the kind of creep who would go around killing people he didn't like.
But for some reason, she still couldn't find the capability to breathe normally around him. The bile that she had managed to shove down her belly was climbing its way up her throat and making her skin crawl. After all this time, why now was she beginning to be scared of him? It had only been Hiei's strange look- and it could have been her imagination, she realised- and the whole prospect of him hurting Shouji was nothing but baseless conjecture. There was no concrete evidence for her to think that he was an evil man- and yet a part of her felt like none of the assumptions were completely wrong.
She didn't like feeling like this. Why was she feeling this way?
Despite her attempts at masking her anxiety with a cheery smile, Kurama had perceived the hint of uncertainty in her pools of amethysts, mixed with the unpleasant scent of panic through the feel of her body tensing up ever so slightly in his arms. The redhead expelled a deep sigh in his head. Vaguely, he was aware that no one would notice if he were to sneak himself and Botan out of the room as he spared a brief, fleeting glance at the two-panel doors serving as both the entrance and exit to the ballroom.
Maybe, He smirked, relishing in the thoughts that managed to creep into his head, I can have her a lot sooner than I presumed. He licked his lips, stifling a shudder at the thought.
He didn't exactly want to do this to her. If anything, he had wanted to court her as slowly but steadily as possible. He had wanted to take his time with her and wanted to worm his way to her heart through gentle, romantic gestures and advances. But taking into account the cautious way Botan was acting around him, it wasn't particularly difficult for him to put two and two together before he comprehended that she was beginning to think that he had a hand in Shouji being currently missing. He had another idea if such a possibility were to occur, and though he had hoped that it would not have happened, the fact of the matter that it undeniably was. Well, as long as she winds up being mine, I don't really care about the extreme lengths I have to go to. Though it would obviously pain her, of course. Still, a part of him honestly looked forward to it.
The path he was going to make the both of them was nothing but easy. And it was undoubtedly the darker method of staking his claim on her. But it wasn't as if he was complaining. If anything, the monster lying dormant underneath his calm exterior had even anticipated the course of events.
If Botan was going to make it this difficult for him, then it was time for him to take matters into his own hands.