Of You, Me, and Us
Summary: "I like you." When those words left her lips, Botan had expected to hear him utter words of apology. After all, she didn't think he felt the same way about her. She didn't expect Kurama looking straight at her in the eyes before leaning closer to kiss her. And although he didn't say anything, one glance at the expression on his face was enough to tell her: she was his now.
A/N: Now that Kurama and Botan already have a family, I feel like it'd be alright to depict some of their familial relationships even more. You know, maybe develop some sibling love a little. There might be some family chapters which will focus more on Kurama, Botan and the twins being a family than just Kurama and Botan in general. Still KB in my opinion though lololol.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter 48: Mirror Image
Despite being twins, Tsubaki and Ume retained an abundance of distinctions with each other.
Their different genders aside, in terms of semblance, Ume's locks of hair were of vivid vermillion in tincture, the bright hue a direct contrast to the light cerulean tendrils of Tsubaki's mane. Even the colors of their eyes were vastly different - whilst Ume's were a pretty, radiant lilacs like her mother's, Tsubaki's pools of peridots resembled his father's. The only similitude they portioned with one another were the fox ears and tail they inherited from Kurama's demon side which they were shrewd enough to know that they needed to constantly hide from the public view.
Personality-wise, the few similarities the two siblings shared with each other were the keen intellect they took over from their father. Whilst Ume had a tendency to display a more mild-mannered way of speaking and level-headed demeanor like Kurama as they gradually further evolved in time, Tsubaki had a knack of being more outspoken and moderately easily irritated like Botan with their increase of age. Tsubaki, however, possessed Kurama's steadfast pride and inclined to keep his vulnerability to himself, his inflated ego a contradiction to Ume's forthright admissions of her emotions that she got from her mother. There were numerous accounts where their diverging dispositions would frequently clash with one another, though the sources of their persistent bickering mostly stemmed from rather childish disagreements. They liked instigating arguments with each other for no good reason and even physical scuffles were not much of a rarity and occurred in sporadic occasions. Sometimes Kurama and Botan would talk through their perennial disputes, simply because their feuds had also winded up thrashing the entire house every once a while when either the both of them or one of them would get too riled up and ended up being too physical.
People tended to view twins as these relatively inseparable couple of siblings that would be seen together very often and never apart. When one would appear, the other would linger behind. At least, that was what most assumed.
As the first month passed and the two began developing bodies that seemed to be the physiques of eight year olds, Botan and Kurama started perceiving that their interactions lessened over time, and the twins began making it their sole mission to avoid each other as much as they possibly could. Whenever Ume would pop up at the dining table during the accounts where the entire family would feast together, Tsubaki ascertained that he would eat the food on his plate with as much brisk pace he could summon simply to leave the table so that he didn't have to deal with his sister. At any moment Tsubaki would step out of the toilet or basically just any space from the whole house, Ume would go elsewhere in her hardest attempts to guarantee that their encounters were kept to a minimum. Whatever efforts the husband and wife endorsed in order to get them to start talking to each other again were rendered fruitless as the twins proved to be slippier than they expected and eluded the topic each time it was brought to light. Days became weeks and weeks became another month and what seemingly looked to be a couple of eight year olds flourished into the appearance of full-blown teenagers.
The fox had disclosed that when they reached teenagehood, their bodies would slow its progress rate to that of an evolving momentum that was considerably steadier than humans. It was in their teenage years that their semi-immortality aged a lot later than earthlings, and thus, the likelihood of the siblings garnering unwanted attention was relatively slim. When their forms matured enough to make them across as fifteen, Kurama and Botan decided to let them attend school. The couple presumed that the twins would be elated to finally obtain more friends as that was what they wanted the most back when they were little and forced to be obscured from the public eye for most of the time due to their rapid growth. School was supposed to be a good thing.
Despite that though, the first few months in school, Ume would return home appearing crestfallen and on the verge of tears, whilst Tsubaki would shoot long, hard stares and brief, odd glances at her once a while. Their daughter started exhibiting a bizarre behavior of keeping herself locked in her room for most of the time and Tsubaki, who owned his own room after they stopped sharing most things once they grew older, tended to simply act like his sister's manners wasn't concern-inducing and weird. Kurama and Botan had suspected that there was something going on at school, but Ume refused to tell them anything whilst Tsubaki avoided the subject when it was brought up. And yet, the twins were still adamant in their silent treatments they proffered to each other.
It wasn't until they received a call from the school's administration did Kurama and Botan finally realize the severity of the situation.
When they came barging in the principal's office, Ume appeared to sport a look of guilt on her features while Tsubaki seemed to be engulfed with various purple and blue lesions at all over diverse parts of his body. When asked what had transpired, the principal apprised them of the bullying that Ume had been undergoing for the past couple of months and how Tsubaki had gotten into a messy brawl with the boys who were trying to corner her at the back of the school. He had broken a lot of their bones, their injuries horribly acute to the point that most of them were sent to the hospital. And although the couple didn't agree about the method he chose to go about protecting his sister, Kurama and Botan were aware that his intentions were fairly good and came about out of his brotherly affections for his twin.
After resolutely insisting to the principal that the bullies were more in the wrong and that they would not reprimand their son for doing the right thing, Kurama and Botan had promptly driven home with the twins after they were instantly given an earlier leave from school.
"Why didn't you tell us anything?" Botan questioned them, voice gentle but firm, holding an undeniable scintillia of mild disappointment as she proceeded to place a big back of ice over Tsubaki's head in order to reduce the swelling of a huge bruise on his forehead. Her son had the back of his head against her lap as the mother continued to tend to his wounds.
Silence hung in the air as the twins were unresponsive, the reticence compelling Botan to go on, this time her timbre adopting a more stern tonality as she spoke, "You two should have said something instead of keeping it hidden like this. Bullying isn't something you keep quiet about, and punching people responsible around isn't exactly the best way to handle it."
Ume, on the other hand, was perched on an unoccupied space at the other end of the sofa, fingers nervously twiddling with one another as she offered a low, barely audible in return, "It's not Tsubaki's fault. We weren't talking to each other but he happened to see one of the girls being mean to me. He almost lost his cool but I calmed him down and forced him not to divulge in too much detail about what was going on- I didn't want to worry you and father. You already did a lot of fretting when we were younger because you had to keep some things about us a secret and I just didn't want to cause you trouble." The elucidation passed her lips in an anxiety-congested mumble, the tinge of fear palpable in her tiny voice as she watched her father take his seat at the single seat sofa across for them. He had returned from the kitchen with a tray of four mugs of hot chocolate.
"While the notion of you two going to such extremes not to elicit our concerns," Kurama's voice was controlled, tight with suppressed emotion as he handed the other three their respective warm beverages, "it's not a good choice to keep silent about things like these. Humans might seem fragile but they're capable of being much crueler than us." A pause lingered before he cautiously droned, "May I know the reason for the bullying in the first place?"
When Ume pursed her lips forward in thought, as if hesitant to disclose the full entirety of the story, Tsubaki went to alleviate the tension building in the air with a quick explanation, "I don't know. Guess it's because Ume's pretty and smart, and not many girls like that about her. And the boys think she's the ice queen or something of the sort because she doesn't want to pay any of their feelings attention. It's pretty dumb."
Kurama and Botan took a few moments to register the pieces of information, the elaboration slowly sinking into their brain. In truth, they had feared that their talents would draw the envy and unwanted attention of the wrong crowd of people. And for some reason, the school where the twins were studying at was far more lenient with men than women, as the husband and wife were quite confident that Tsubaki displayed the same bouts of aptitude but failed to accumulate any animosity at his direction. It was heart-wrenching that things were different when it came to Ume.
"Is it my fault?" Ume's small, scared timbre reverberated in the air in a barely hushed whisper. "I mean, maybe I should have been friendlier…"
"Goodness, it's not like that," Botan briskly reassured her, a consoling, warm smile tugging at the corners of her pink lips as she reached one hand to confer her daughter a comforting, doting pat on the top of her head. "You didn't do anything wrong. You're not to blame for the girls' jealousy or the fact that you didn't like any of the boys."
The strained ambience around them shifted into a comfortable environment as the slight anger from the parents' systems dissipated into nothing, leaving in its wake only a pooling puddle of remorse.
Kurama brought his mug to his lips, taking a deliberate sip of his hot chocolate and permitting a fleeting second for the sweet, warm taste to dissolve on his tongue before supplying a forbearing response, "Your mother and I are not furious with either of you. We were simply worried. You two never inform us of anything about school, and both of you were behaving very strange for a few months. Then we got the call from school and well, needless to say, seeing Tsubaki in bruises was not what we wanted at all."
"...Sorry," their son eventually muttered under his breath, voice holding a touch of brewing shame. "I wasn't trying to hurt them too much, but I couldn't control my strength after seeing them surrounding Ume. I got scared for her and I just… snapped."
"But you held back, right?" came Botan's all too knowing riposte, the tender iota of maternal affection latent in her voice. "I don't know about you, but after you guys kept thrashing the house a few times before, I got pretty convinced that my strong son wouldn't lose to a group of hooligans. The fact that you got your own share of injuries gives away that you tried to hold back at least a little. Or else they wouldn't have delivered any blows and you could have possibly killed them."
"Regardless, it wasn't the best way to deal with the situation," Kurama expelled a soft sigh before assuming a stern baritone in his timbre as he went on, "Violence is never the answer, Tsubaki. Especially not against humans. Perhaps things could have been handled better and in a more civil manner. Still, I'm glad we raised you to be a good big brother." A fatherly, proud smile spread on his lips as his voice gained a gentler speck of profuse content at his son. It hadn't been the finest option to tackle the bullying of his sister, but it had been done with honorable intentions. Nevertheless, they would have to educate their son on how to manage his anger a little better.
"Do you want to change schools?" Their mother's voice echoed in a worried tone in the living room, gaining the twins' attention as they averted their gazes from their father to her. Botan wore a regretful expression on her visage, a single thin line of concern noticeable on her lips. "I mean, if you want to…"
"No," Ume's frantic response came almost immediately, panic evident in her large lavenders before she regained her presence of mind and cleared her throat after discerning the alarm prominent in her voice. Her timbre was of a calmer speck as she supplied, "I think that after Tsubaki gave them the… er, roughhousing, those boys probably wouldn't try to land a finger on me again."
Kurama's scarlet, well-sculpted eyebrows creased into a deep frown. "And the girls?"
"I think I'll be fine," Ume reassured him, a comforting smile latching on her lips as she continued, "I mean, Tsubaki's going to be there."
Botan expelled an amused, but delighted fit of girlish giggles at the perceptible embarrassment and admiration evident in her daughter's last sentence as it resonated in the closed space. "After doing whatever it took to avoid each other, your father and I got worried that you guys might hate each other or something."
"Ume was just being stubborn," Tsubaki's derogatory scoff sounded like a second impulse as the letters bubbled out his throat in an instant. Although, his words lacked any hostility and instead came across as a harmless, albeit teasing jibe.
"Well, your ego didn't help either," his sister murmured the controlled riposte, but resisted the urge to sound out a snarky interpose in favor of retaining her composure.
"At least I was born five minutes earlier than you," her twin conferred the demeaning, yet lame remark. Ume took that opportunity to deliver her own snide counterattack.
"And yet, for some reason, my mental maturity is about five years ahead of yours," she echoed with a neutral expression, despite the dormant condescending tone discernible beneath her impartial timbre.
Kurama and Botan merely observed with gleeful smiles as the two siblings exchanged swift insults with each other back and forth, their contemptuous remarks becoming more and more offensive as time went on. Although, the couple were no longer shrouded with concern, now understanding that it was really simply a way for the twins to convey their love for each other, despite their frequent denials and refusals to admit that they actually cared. The only thing they had to worry about was so that their arguments wouldn't intensify to full-on physical scuffles. They weren't sure if their house could withstand another round of deadly brawls between the siblings. Really, having children could be relatively scary at times.
"But, you know," Botan assumed a chilling smile in the midst of them watching their kids' harsh bickering, "I might need to have a looooooong, wonderful discussion with the parents of the bullies some time though…"
Kurama turned to look at her, a nervous fit of laughter rippling out his throat. He was certain that a discussion with an outraged mother-Botan would be nothing short of a nightmare to their would-be victims.
...Then again, maybe his wife was a lot scarier.
A/N: Not my best but hope it is to your liking.
Howdy Aamy- Lol, I imagine fame to be very exhausting to be honest. Having a horde of fans chasing him is not only tiring, but also very grating to the nerves. I find it amusing that some fans think they own a certain popular person, whether in real life or anime. I prefer not to stand out to be frank lmao.
Haha, if you think that I don't try to make a chapter naughty at least a little, then you're wrong XD. I don't know why I'm such a pervert, I really don't lol, but it's harmless, just that I have a relatively active imagination. To be honest, this compilation is really mostly fluff, something of a safe haven I guess for the darker, more dirtier aspects in my other stories lol.
And I'm sorry for not responding to everything again! Know that I translate all of your reviews and read and love all of them. Just that my mind just becomes blank after typing for a long time lmao XD. And my fingers go numb and I end up looking for rest.
Tashio- You know, Kurama really doesn't make his life any easier lol. Looking like a girl AND wearing pink? It's no wonder why so many people get confused about his gender. And fun fact, the Philippines studio in charge of the Filipino dub actually thought he was legit a woman I think lol.
And that is interesting. I might add that to my list of ideas for this story. You're very creative, I like how your reviews are always thought-provoking lol. It would be a nice change to read about the dramatic reactions of his fangirls if they found out he's married and has kids XD. If Botan got into any trouble from a stalker or a crazy fangirl of Kurama's or something, you betcha that there's a trio of her husband and children wreaking bloody havoc on the unassuming humans lol. She's the love of his life and a good mother after all. And Tsubaki and Ume are going to be very protective of her, I can assure that. I do like to think of making them a little spoiled by her though lolololol. (in terms of maternal affection of course. She's still going to be strict and make sure they're on the right path.)
AnnKirra- I'm glad you love this story! And it makes me happy to make you smile and feel a lot of emotions through my fics. It increases my self-esteem as an author and also gives me a good feeling of making people's day. Hope you like this one too!
