Empty Chairs at Empty tables; Les Mis
"Yusuke? What... what happened?"
The teenager leapt from his seat, knocking the chair to the ground. "Kur..Kurama." He mumbled, trying to mask his shock and dismay. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough."
"Kurama? I don't know what happened!"
"Calm down Yusuke." The red haired boy sat down next to Yusuke and put his arm around him. He smiled that charming, loving smile and sighed. The other boy looked up, and he noticed Hiei's cloak was clutched in Kurama's trembling hand. The heart monitor continued to beep.
There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on and on
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.
'I can't lose someone else. I can't...' Kurama left Yusuke's side and stood above Hiei protectively, as if to fend off death him...excuse me, herself. "Yusuke?"
"I'm so sorry Kurama. He was so mad that you left. He just blew up, and then he...he attacked Keiko..."
"Is she ok?" Kurama asked half heartedly, his green eyes never leaving Hiei's calm features.
"She's gonna have a scar on her arm the rest of her life. She's lucky she has her arm at all."
"You are right about that."
"Kurama? Where did you go?"
Here they talked of revolution
Here it was they lit the flame
Here they sang about 'tomorrow'
And tomorrow never came.
"I had something to do, Yusuke. That should be enough." Memories flooded the youko's mind. It had been 824 years today. How could it have been so long ago? But the day haunted his memories, and who had saved his mind from the brink? The broken child laying on a hospital bed, the only indicators that he was alive a bleeping machine and the soft rise and fall of his chest.
Kurama jumped when Yusuke gently laid a hand on his shoulder. They both gazed down on Hiei and Kurama could feel the burning tears stinging his eyes. He had not cried since that day, and he had only even come close to crying on one other occasion.
From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices rising
I can hear them now
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade at dawn.
"When I was young I led a small street gang in Makai. They all looked to me. Needed me. It was the only family I had ever known, and Koronue and I protected them fiercely." Kurama brushed a wayward strand of Hiei's hair off his forehead, careful not to remove the headband covering his Jagan.
"They were bitter and wanted to revolt against everyone it seemed. 'How things will be different Kurama!' They said. 'No more starving, no more nights in the bitter cold on the streets, oh Kurama what a life we will have!' They were cut down, destroyed, their bodies left to rot on the streets while Koronue and I were away. When I couldn't protect them." Yusuke starred at Kurama in awe at how calm the other boy sounded.
Oh, my friends, my friends, forgive me
That I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on and on.
"Ilyana, she was a fox demon like myself, was still alive when we returned. Koronue plucked from the rubble. She had lost so much blood..." Rivulets of blood trickled from Kurama's palms, but his voice remained completely steady. "She curled up in his arms and gave him her necklace, and she thanked me. Yusuke she *thanked* me!"
Phantom faces at the window
Phantom shadows on the floor
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more.
Her smile still haunted his nightmares. To fail one so young. "And then it was just Koronue and I, until he was killed. I left him to die as well. Left them all to die. The human world was the only way I could get away from it all. and even then I couldn't leave it all behind. That's where I was Yusuke. Visiting that empty warehouse on that empty street!" But how could he explain to the other boy, even younger than Ilyana, how Hiei had saved him. Brought him back. There was no way to explain it. Hiei's presence pushed those phantoms back, all he had to do was look into the other demon's eyes and they were gone. Not even Hiei knew that he could do that. And now, he may lose him too! It was more than the Youko could bare!
Oh, my friends, my friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was for.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more.
'Please don't die on me Hiei! Not because of me!' A single tear fell from Kurama's eyes onto Hiei's hand, and the weak fingers twitched.
A/N: Now I could have been horribly awfully mean, but I was nice, I could have had him die!!! I even have that way written out, it was very sad.
