Kokoro No Kaitou : Youko's Story
Chapter 4
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We made it home shortly before midnight, and by then I was exhausted. I had used up so much energy just for the escape, and I felt like just falling asleep right then and there, in the clearing before the lair.
I had done so before, and found it quite comfortable.
However, this time, I had someone else to look out for, someone who might not like sleeping out in the clearing.
She was still unconscious, and didn't stir at all as I walked loudly down the stairs. So, I took her back to my room and laid her on the futon. I looked around for a bowl of water or something. I needed to wake her up.
Seeing that there was none, I decided to leave her alone for a minute while I got some water from the kitchen. It would have to be cold, seeing as how it had probably been sitting there for a while. Either way, I grabbed the bowl and walked back to my room.
I crouched down beside the futon, and got my hand wet with the water. But before I splashed it on her, I stopped.
It looked as though…some faint symbol was glowing on her forehead.
I reached out to touch it, but it disappeared.
I dismissed it as a figment of my imagination, and splashed some water onto her face. She gasped and sat bolt upright. She looked around for a second, and her eyes settled on me.
She suddenly held her head, and looked as though she were in pain.
"Daijobu ka?" I asked.
"I'm fine. Just a headache." She replied. She looked around the room. "Where are we?"
"My den." I said.
She took in her surroundings, and I watched her as she did. I noticed that she had a scratch on her cheek. It had obviously stopped bleeding, but it looked recent nonetheless.
She looked back at me and blushed. "Wh-what?"
I reached out and gently touched the wound. She tensed, and seemed surprised at the contact.
"What happened?" I asked, looking into her eyes. If Akira was the one that hurt her, I swore that he would pay with his life!
She blushed again, and I brought my hand back to me.
"I just fell, that's all. I'm a real klutz." She said.
"Does it hurt?" I asked. I was relieved, in a way, that Akira hadn't been the cause.
She shook her head, and her brown bangs brushed into her eyes. I resisted the urge to brush them away from her face. Why was I feeling this way?
"I'd forgotten about it. What with everything else that's happened." She said.
"It was kind of a big shock for you, wasn't it?" I remembered her 'brother's' words, and how they had affected her. She obviously cared about him a lot.
She looked down at her hands, lying in her lap. "Just a little…I grew up with Kenji and the others, but now it turns out that I'm not even related to them? But why was I even with them in the first place? Who are my real parents?"
I shrugged and stood, brushing off my pants. "I don't know, nor do I know how to find out."
She sighed. "Well, what next then? I can't go back, what with Akira there. And I've never actually left the estate before."
"Just stay here with me." I said, moving to sit on the edge of the futon. "There's plenty of space for you."
I was surprised at my own words. Stay here? With we, some thieves? This was certainly no place for a princess. And besides, Kuronue and Hiei would never agree to let her stay with us. I decided to worry about that when the time came.
I knew that I couldn't just leave her by herself.
I glanced over at her. "Well?"
"Oh! I'm sorry. I'd love to stay with you." She smiled at me, and I nodded.
We were both silent for a minute or two, before she spoke up.
"Kurama, I mean, Youko or- well, first things first, how should I address you now?" She asked.
I chuckled. "You can call me whatever you want to. I don't care. I've been called Youko by some, Kurama by others, and a rare few just call me 'kitsune'. I'm fine with all of those, but I would prefer it if you didn't call me kitsune."
She giggled, in a very girlish way. "Well, I've become rather used to calling you Kurama, so that's how it will stay."
I nodded, and was silent again for a minute. I started to feel my eyelids droop, when she spoke again.
"Kurama…what happened after I fell unconscious?"
I thought about what to tell her. Surely, after hearing her 'brother' say that he didn't care about her, she wouldn't want to hear that he was under the control of the man she was supposed to marry. I decided to reveal as little as possible. "Nothing much. Kenji threatened me some more, and I just ran past him. Akira and some of his guards came as well, but they weren't much of a challenge. However, Akira ran away before I could kill him."
"All of this with me still in your arms?" She asked. She seemed rather amazed at the fact.
"They weren't very strong. I didn't need my hands to defeat them."
She looked down at her hands in her lap, and sighed heavily. "This is really more excitement than I've ever had in my entire life."
I smirked, deciding to lighten the mood a bit. "Well, I'm glad that you're having fun."
"Fun? Ha! I've been engaged to a demon, broken a very wanted criminal out of jail, and I've discovered that my 'family' isn't really my family. I'm having the time of my life!" She said sarcastically. "And then I discovered that the dream that I've been having is of you, and-"
I smirked. So, she wasn't immune to the charms of the great Youko Kurama. I decided to call her on it.
"You dreamt about me, Amaya?"
She went as red as a cherry, which I thought was rather funny.
"Um, well, maybe…"
I kept smirking. She was fun to tease. "You have dreamt about me. It isn't wise to lie to a kitsune-we can smell when people are being dishonest."
She wrinkled her nose. "Well that's a bit odd."
I shrugged. "It's useful." I smirked at her again. "Especially when you want to make a girl blush."
She blushed again.
This is kinda fun, making her blush like this…
"So, Amaya, what kind of dream did you have about me?" I asked, turning to face her and then sitting cross-legged on the futon.
She glared. She seemed kind of angry at my comment. "A normal one. You didn't even say anything."
I rested my chin on my hand, and decided to tease her even more. "Normally, I don't."
She blushed again. "No, no! I mean, you were just standing there, looking at me. You didn't say anything, and there was a full moon behind you." She noticed my expression (I was still giving her an amused look), and she added, "And you were wearing clothes, thank you very much."
I started laughing, and I could feel that that made her uncomfortable. But I couldn't help it if she was so defensive!
She glared at me, and I stopped to wipe tears from my eyes. "Sorry, it's just that normally, women don't dream about me clothed."
She looked mortified. "H-Hentai! I would never dream about you like that!"
I smirked. "Well then, we'll just have to find a way to change that, now won't we?" I noticed that once again she looked horrified, and added, "Relax, I'm only kidding."
"It wasn't very funny." She retorted.
I tried not to laugh.
"Kurama?"
"Hm?"
"I…the Kurama that I became friends with, the one in the dungeon…" She paused for a minute to gather her thoughts. "You and him are the same person, right?"
I nodded. "It was me, just in a human guise. So as not to confirm their beliefs that I was Youko Kurama."
"Kurama…Akira…when he said that he wanted to…um, consume me, what did he mean? Does he really want to eat me?" She asked. Her voice betrayed her fear.
"He meant that he wanted to eat you." I said simply. "Akira is a demon that can steal the abilities of others by consuming their flesh. You obviously had something that he wanted, even though I'm not quite sure what it is. You're a ningen, and ningens have no special abilities that a demon does not already possess. Unless," I eyed her suspiciously, "there's something that you aren't telling me."
She looked surprised. She leaned forward slightly, tilting her head to the side. "Demo…what do you mean by that? Are you implying that I'm hiding something from you?"
I snorted at that. "Other than being a Princess of the Takahashi estate? You told me that you were a servant."
Her jaw dropped, and she quickly closed it again. "Ano…I liked it when you treated me as your equal. I thought…I thought that if I let you believe that I was a servant, that you'd treat me like a real person. Not a fake, porcelain doll that will break at the lightest of touches. I rather enjoyed not being called 'Hime-sama' or 'Amaya-sama'. I just loved being plain, regular, normal Amaya."
I shrugged. "Well, to each his own."
I could understand where she was coming from. I'd get fed up sometimes with being called 'Youko-sama' by some of my underlings.
A loud rumbling broke the silence, and I stared at her for a moment before laughing. She blushed and held her stomach, obviously embarrassed that it had growled so loudly.
"I guess that I'm a bit hungry. I haven't eaten since breakfast." She said.
I smirked at her. "I can tell. Come on, let's go get you something to eat before you wake the dead."
I got off of the futon, and walked over to the door. I realized that she wasn't following me, so I looked back at her. She got off of the futon as well. I opened the door and walked out and down the hall. She followed me, taking in the hall.
I stopped walking to see if she was still following me or not. She walked right into me.
She gasped and looked up at me. I thought that this was pretty funny too, and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Gomen." She said.
"If you think that this is amazing, then wait until you see the treasure room." I said, smirking.
"Treasure room?" She echoed. Her blue-green eyes seemed to widen at the thought.
I paused, making it look like I was considering something. "Well, I'm not so sure, actually. Because with the reaction you get from the hall, the treasure may give you a heart attack."
She glared at me, and I decided to get her to dinner before she collapsed from hunger.
I walked into the mess hall, and she followed me. She froze in her spot at the entrance, obviously amazed at the size of the room. I continued walking towards the back kitchen, knowing that she would snap out of her daze and follow me anyways.
"What do you have to eat here?" She asked as she walked after me.
"Well, you can pretty much make anything that you want to." I replied. I entered the back room and looked back at her.
I sat down at the table, and she seemed to realize that I had no intentions of cooking food for her.
I pointed to a cabinet. "There's plates in there, and there are chopsticks and knives in the drawer below it."
She nodded and walked over to the ice chest, grabbing the necessary ingredients needed to make some kind of food. I watched as she got out things necessary to make sushi. Seaweed, rice, fish, the works. She then set the fish on the counter, and opened the utensil drawer. She pulled out a large knife, and started to cut up the fish. She seemed to notice that I was watching her every movement, taking in her appearance. Now that I looked at her again, she seemed to be much more attractive than before. I don't know why I noticed it then.
My gaze seemed to bother her, and she accidentally cut her finger with the knife. She quickly dropped the knife and stuck her finger into her mouth.
"Amaya?"
She turned and faced me, and I quickly walked up to her. I gently took her hand and examined her finger. I chuckled.
"You really are clumsy, aren't you?" I said, smirking at her.
She frowned. "Thank you for pointing that out."
I looked at her finger again, and thought about whether or not that would help. By that I meant healing her finger. It was worth a try. I brought her finger to my mouth.
She blushed. "Wh-what are you doing?"
I swear! Ningens were so…slow sometimes! "We demons have gave the ability to heal ourselves at incredible speeds. I'm only helping you to heal faster." I explained.
I put her finger into my mouth, and closed my eyes. She tasted…good. Damn good.
Very…sweet.
She stiffened, letting me know that she was extremely shocked by my actions. I felt her wound heal, but kept her finger in my mouth a minute longer.
Suddenly, Kuronue came bursting into the room, loudly proclaiming his presence with a hoot.
"Oi, Kurama, I-" He stopped and stared at us. I still had her finger in my mouth, which made him grin.
"Kurama, who's the lady? Brought another one home already? I would have thought that you'd wait at least a week after the last one." He said, putting his hands on his hips and chuckling.
"Baka. She's a ningen- he obviously has her here for some other purpose other than sex." Came Hiei's voice from behind Kuronue.
I took her finger out of my mouth, but kept hold of her wrist. The girl seemed a bit shocked at what Hiei had said.
"Hiei, Kuronue, you're back a little early, aren't you?"
Hiei walked in.
"Well, we decided to get back here before the rest of the men came back from the raid. They should be back in about three hours." He said.
Kuronue walked over to the girl, and then looked at me.
"So, kitsune, you going to introduce us to your woman?"
She suddenly yanked her wrist from my grasp and put her hands on her hips. "I would appreciate it if you'd stop acting as though I were dumb, sir. I do not appreciate being talked about as though I were not in the room."
So, the girl had some fire in her after all. That was good.
Kuronue looked amused. "Oh, really? Forgive me, my lady."
He took her hand and gently kissed it. She didn't look angry anymore, and instead, blushed.
I growled at him in warning, and shoved him away from the girl. "Back off, Kuronue. She doesn't need your seducing."
"Sorry, Kurama. But I believe that I was talking to the lady, not you." He retorted with a grin.
"Atashi wa Takahashi Amaya." She said timidly.
He looked at her. "Amaya, huh?"
She nodded, and Hiei snorted.
"That doesn't answer my question. Why does the kitsune want you here? You're a ningen."
She looked over at me, and I smirked at him. I couldn't wait to see his reaction to the news.
"Because, Hiei, she's going to be living with us."
Both of them looked shocked. Kuronue stared at the girl with wide eyes, whilst Hiei looked infuriated.
"What do you mean, living with us? What's wrong with you, kitsune?!" Hiei exclaimed. He jabbed an accusing finger at the girl. "She's a ningen! Ningens have families that worry about them and try to take them back! She'll only attract trouble!"
I don't think that Hiei's ever been this mad before…
I could smell the sadness coming from her. "I…have no family to care about me. They want to give me to the demon Akira."
Hiei stopped yelling and looked over at her. "Akira?"
She nodded.
Hiei gave her a suspicious look. "What would a demon like Akira want with a ningen like you?"
"I wouldn't know. I'm still trying to figure that out for myself." She said, looking down at her feet.
The room fell silent. Kuronue scratched the back of his head, and opened his mouth to speak, but her stomach growled.
She blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Gomen nasai, but I'm really very hungry."
Kuronue grinned and walked over to the counter where she had been preparing her sushi. "Well, we'll just have to fix that now won't we?"
"Oh, you don't have to do that for me! I could make the sushi for myself." She protested.
He waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it. I normally cook for those two lugs anyways." He smirked at the girl. "And I certainly wouldn't mind cooking for a beautiful lady like yourself."
"Thank you, Kuronue-san." She smiled again, obviously flattered by my friend's seducing.
He set about to preparing the sushi for her, and I rolled my eyes.
"Always the charmer, eh, Kuronue?" I said. He just grinned.
The girl looked back to where Hiei had been standing, but seemed surprised to see that he was no longer there.
I flopped onto one of the cushions again. "Hiei isn't very social."
She sighed. "He doesn't like me very much, does he?"
"Hiei is always like that- even to us. He just isn't a people person." Kuronue said.
"Is there any particular reason as to why?" She asked, sitting on the cushion beside me.
"Well, he had a rough childhood. He's the bastard son of a koorime and a fire demon, and because of that he was banished from his homeland." I said. I shrugged. "I guess if anyone had to go through what he did, then they'd end up the same way."
"His parents weren't married?" She asked, looking quite surprised.
"Nope. Koorime are a self-reproducing, all female race of ice maidens." Kuronue said as he rolled the sushi in seaweed. "They don't like males, of any race. But Hiei's father was a fire demon, so that made it even worse."
He put all seven little sushi onto a plate and set it down in front of her. She smiled at him.
"Arigato gozaimasu." She said.
He shook his head. "There's no need to be so polite here, you know."
She nodded slowly and turned to her meal. "Itadakimasu." She picked up the chopsticks that had been lying on the side of the plate and picked up one of the sushi. She ate it, and smiled at him.
"Suki desu, Kuronue-san."
He grinned. "Good."
I rolled my eyes again. Great! My friend was moving in on her! I sent him a glare in warning. After several minutes, he seemed to finally get the fact that this girl was mine and left the room. So, that just left the two of us sitting at the table.
I had my eyes closed, and she ate in silence. When she finished, she started to look around for the sink. She brought her plate over, and then looked around once more. She finally looked back at me.
"Kurama, do you perhaps have anything that I could use to wash my plate?"
I opened one eye. "In the drawer to your right."
She nodded and opened the drawer, pulling out a towel. She poured some water into the sink and rolled up her yukata sleeves. She started scrubbing the plate; enough to get it decently clean. She then dried it, and walked over to the cabinet that held the plates, putting hers away. She then turned back to me, hands on her hips triumphantly.
"Do you know that that's the first time I've ever cleaned my own plate?" She asked, grinning like a child.
I chuckled at that. "Princesses really do live sheltered lives, don't they?" I stood and stretched. "I'm going to bed now. It's late, and I need to get some sleep before dawn comes."
She seemed surprised, and then blinked. She looked down at her wrinkled and slightly dirty yukata.
"Would you happen to have an extra yukata that I could sleep in?" She asked, pointing to her own. "I could use a fresh one, if it's not too much trouble."
I let my eyes trail over her body - though, she probably thought that I was looking to make sure that she needed a new yukata. In reality, I was looking for the sake of looking. I nodded. "We could borrow one from one of my men's rooms. One or two are female, and they wouldn't mind sparing a sleeping yukata or two."
I started walking back out to the hall, and she scampered after me. I kept going, past my room and further down the hall, stopping beside a door that had a flower engraved into the wood. I knew that this was Leiko's room, an ex-flame of mine. She had joined our band after we had had our relationship. I opened the door and entered, while she stayed outside. I got the yukata from one of her drawers, and returned a minute later holding a white yukata. I tossed it to her.
She caught it and smiled. "Arigato. Demo…where can I change?"
"In my room." I replied. I looked down at her, and saw that she had a strange look on her face. I sighed. "Kami-sama, I'll be outside of the room! Not in it while you're changing."
She smiled. "I assumed that from the start."
We walked back to my room and she walked in, closing the door behind her. I waited outside, cursing Kami for making wood so unlike water, which one could see right through. After a minute, she said that I could come in.
I walked into the room and stretched. "Well, all we have to do is find you a place to sleep."
She shrugged. I looked around the room, realizing this predicament. "We aren't very well prepared for guests, and I can't just let you sleep on the floor. And I'm not going to sleep on the floor…so that leaves only one option."
She seemed confused, and I sighed. "Things go right over your head, don't they? We share the futon."
She looked over at the futon. "It's big enough, I guess. But it will work."
Did she realize what she was doing to me? She was asking me to sleep in the same bed as a beautiful woman, and not sleep with her.
She might as well have been asking me to stab myself in the foot.
So, I decided that the best way to avoid the problem was to go straight to sleep, and keep my face in the pillow - that way, I couldn't see her nor smell her scent so close to me. So, I walked over to the futon and flopped down onto it, burying my face into the pillow. She seemed to find this funny, and giggled. She got onto the other side of the futon, and pulled the blankets up to her chin. She fell asleep shortly after, and I wasn't that far behind.
What a day…
~*~
Author's Notes: Well, looks like Youko's having a bit of a change of heart about Amaya. I've noticed that some of you reviewers seem to be reading this story before you read Amaya's. Is that true? Because Amaya's gives more descriptions of the characters, and how she feels, whilst Youko's is more revolved around women and fighting. You should really read Amaya's first before you read this one.
Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter:
Shessha's Crazy : Wow. I've never seen it spelled that way for him. It spells it 'Yoko' on my DVD. Hm… Well, the only place that I've seen it spelled that way is for Devil Hunter Yhoko. And she's a girl. Still, it's really a matter of preference. Thanks for your review! ^_____^ You were the first to review for the last chapter!
Story Weaver1 : Now you know! ^___^ And yes, he falls for her quite a bit sooner than she does for him. But he doesn't like to admit it.
Explosion : Thank you!
Suzaku no miko : Yes, we ALL love those bad-ass kitsunes. And their friends. ^_____^ I have a poster of him on my wall, and he always looks like he's about to do something bad, because he's got that mischievous smirk happening.
DarkVixenNisha : Thank you!
UltaAnimeFangurl2004 : Wow…were you hyper when you reviewed? Actually, I don't like coffee…only hot cocoa. Thanks for the review!
Review!!
Chapter 4
~*~
We made it home shortly before midnight, and by then I was exhausted. I had used up so much energy just for the escape, and I felt like just falling asleep right then and there, in the clearing before the lair.
I had done so before, and found it quite comfortable.
However, this time, I had someone else to look out for, someone who might not like sleeping out in the clearing.
She was still unconscious, and didn't stir at all as I walked loudly down the stairs. So, I took her back to my room and laid her on the futon. I looked around for a bowl of water or something. I needed to wake her up.
Seeing that there was none, I decided to leave her alone for a minute while I got some water from the kitchen. It would have to be cold, seeing as how it had probably been sitting there for a while. Either way, I grabbed the bowl and walked back to my room.
I crouched down beside the futon, and got my hand wet with the water. But before I splashed it on her, I stopped.
It looked as though…some faint symbol was glowing on her forehead.
I reached out to touch it, but it disappeared.
I dismissed it as a figment of my imagination, and splashed some water onto her face. She gasped and sat bolt upright. She looked around for a second, and her eyes settled on me.
She suddenly held her head, and looked as though she were in pain.
"Daijobu ka?" I asked.
"I'm fine. Just a headache." She replied. She looked around the room. "Where are we?"
"My den." I said.
She took in her surroundings, and I watched her as she did. I noticed that she had a scratch on her cheek. It had obviously stopped bleeding, but it looked recent nonetheless.
She looked back at me and blushed. "Wh-what?"
I reached out and gently touched the wound. She tensed, and seemed surprised at the contact.
"What happened?" I asked, looking into her eyes. If Akira was the one that hurt her, I swore that he would pay with his life!
She blushed again, and I brought my hand back to me.
"I just fell, that's all. I'm a real klutz." She said.
"Does it hurt?" I asked. I was relieved, in a way, that Akira hadn't been the cause.
She shook her head, and her brown bangs brushed into her eyes. I resisted the urge to brush them away from her face. Why was I feeling this way?
"I'd forgotten about it. What with everything else that's happened." She said.
"It was kind of a big shock for you, wasn't it?" I remembered her 'brother's' words, and how they had affected her. She obviously cared about him a lot.
She looked down at her hands, lying in her lap. "Just a little…I grew up with Kenji and the others, but now it turns out that I'm not even related to them? But why was I even with them in the first place? Who are my real parents?"
I shrugged and stood, brushing off my pants. "I don't know, nor do I know how to find out."
She sighed. "Well, what next then? I can't go back, what with Akira there. And I've never actually left the estate before."
"Just stay here with me." I said, moving to sit on the edge of the futon. "There's plenty of space for you."
I was surprised at my own words. Stay here? With we, some thieves? This was certainly no place for a princess. And besides, Kuronue and Hiei would never agree to let her stay with us. I decided to worry about that when the time came.
I knew that I couldn't just leave her by herself.
I glanced over at her. "Well?"
"Oh! I'm sorry. I'd love to stay with you." She smiled at me, and I nodded.
We were both silent for a minute or two, before she spoke up.
"Kurama, I mean, Youko or- well, first things first, how should I address you now?" She asked.
I chuckled. "You can call me whatever you want to. I don't care. I've been called Youko by some, Kurama by others, and a rare few just call me 'kitsune'. I'm fine with all of those, but I would prefer it if you didn't call me kitsune."
She giggled, in a very girlish way. "Well, I've become rather used to calling you Kurama, so that's how it will stay."
I nodded, and was silent again for a minute. I started to feel my eyelids droop, when she spoke again.
"Kurama…what happened after I fell unconscious?"
I thought about what to tell her. Surely, after hearing her 'brother' say that he didn't care about her, she wouldn't want to hear that he was under the control of the man she was supposed to marry. I decided to reveal as little as possible. "Nothing much. Kenji threatened me some more, and I just ran past him. Akira and some of his guards came as well, but they weren't much of a challenge. However, Akira ran away before I could kill him."
"All of this with me still in your arms?" She asked. She seemed rather amazed at the fact.
"They weren't very strong. I didn't need my hands to defeat them."
She looked down at her hands in her lap, and sighed heavily. "This is really more excitement than I've ever had in my entire life."
I smirked, deciding to lighten the mood a bit. "Well, I'm glad that you're having fun."
"Fun? Ha! I've been engaged to a demon, broken a very wanted criminal out of jail, and I've discovered that my 'family' isn't really my family. I'm having the time of my life!" She said sarcastically. "And then I discovered that the dream that I've been having is of you, and-"
I smirked. So, she wasn't immune to the charms of the great Youko Kurama. I decided to call her on it.
"You dreamt about me, Amaya?"
She went as red as a cherry, which I thought was rather funny.
"Um, well, maybe…"
I kept smirking. She was fun to tease. "You have dreamt about me. It isn't wise to lie to a kitsune-we can smell when people are being dishonest."
She wrinkled her nose. "Well that's a bit odd."
I shrugged. "It's useful." I smirked at her again. "Especially when you want to make a girl blush."
She blushed again.
This is kinda fun, making her blush like this…
"So, Amaya, what kind of dream did you have about me?" I asked, turning to face her and then sitting cross-legged on the futon.
She glared. She seemed kind of angry at my comment. "A normal one. You didn't even say anything."
I rested my chin on my hand, and decided to tease her even more. "Normally, I don't."
She blushed again. "No, no! I mean, you were just standing there, looking at me. You didn't say anything, and there was a full moon behind you." She noticed my expression (I was still giving her an amused look), and she added, "And you were wearing clothes, thank you very much."
I started laughing, and I could feel that that made her uncomfortable. But I couldn't help it if she was so defensive!
She glared at me, and I stopped to wipe tears from my eyes. "Sorry, it's just that normally, women don't dream about me clothed."
She looked mortified. "H-Hentai! I would never dream about you like that!"
I smirked. "Well then, we'll just have to find a way to change that, now won't we?" I noticed that once again she looked horrified, and added, "Relax, I'm only kidding."
"It wasn't very funny." She retorted.
I tried not to laugh.
"Kurama?"
"Hm?"
"I…the Kurama that I became friends with, the one in the dungeon…" She paused for a minute to gather her thoughts. "You and him are the same person, right?"
I nodded. "It was me, just in a human guise. So as not to confirm their beliefs that I was Youko Kurama."
"Kurama…Akira…when he said that he wanted to…um, consume me, what did he mean? Does he really want to eat me?" She asked. Her voice betrayed her fear.
"He meant that he wanted to eat you." I said simply. "Akira is a demon that can steal the abilities of others by consuming their flesh. You obviously had something that he wanted, even though I'm not quite sure what it is. You're a ningen, and ningens have no special abilities that a demon does not already possess. Unless," I eyed her suspiciously, "there's something that you aren't telling me."
She looked surprised. She leaned forward slightly, tilting her head to the side. "Demo…what do you mean by that? Are you implying that I'm hiding something from you?"
I snorted at that. "Other than being a Princess of the Takahashi estate? You told me that you were a servant."
Her jaw dropped, and she quickly closed it again. "Ano…I liked it when you treated me as your equal. I thought…I thought that if I let you believe that I was a servant, that you'd treat me like a real person. Not a fake, porcelain doll that will break at the lightest of touches. I rather enjoyed not being called 'Hime-sama' or 'Amaya-sama'. I just loved being plain, regular, normal Amaya."
I shrugged. "Well, to each his own."
I could understand where she was coming from. I'd get fed up sometimes with being called 'Youko-sama' by some of my underlings.
A loud rumbling broke the silence, and I stared at her for a moment before laughing. She blushed and held her stomach, obviously embarrassed that it had growled so loudly.
"I guess that I'm a bit hungry. I haven't eaten since breakfast." She said.
I smirked at her. "I can tell. Come on, let's go get you something to eat before you wake the dead."
I got off of the futon, and walked over to the door. I realized that she wasn't following me, so I looked back at her. She got off of the futon as well. I opened the door and walked out and down the hall. She followed me, taking in the hall.
I stopped walking to see if she was still following me or not. She walked right into me.
She gasped and looked up at me. I thought that this was pretty funny too, and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Gomen." She said.
"If you think that this is amazing, then wait until you see the treasure room." I said, smirking.
"Treasure room?" She echoed. Her blue-green eyes seemed to widen at the thought.
I paused, making it look like I was considering something. "Well, I'm not so sure, actually. Because with the reaction you get from the hall, the treasure may give you a heart attack."
She glared at me, and I decided to get her to dinner before she collapsed from hunger.
I walked into the mess hall, and she followed me. She froze in her spot at the entrance, obviously amazed at the size of the room. I continued walking towards the back kitchen, knowing that she would snap out of her daze and follow me anyways.
"What do you have to eat here?" She asked as she walked after me.
"Well, you can pretty much make anything that you want to." I replied. I entered the back room and looked back at her.
I sat down at the table, and she seemed to realize that I had no intentions of cooking food for her.
I pointed to a cabinet. "There's plates in there, and there are chopsticks and knives in the drawer below it."
She nodded and walked over to the ice chest, grabbing the necessary ingredients needed to make some kind of food. I watched as she got out things necessary to make sushi. Seaweed, rice, fish, the works. She then set the fish on the counter, and opened the utensil drawer. She pulled out a large knife, and started to cut up the fish. She seemed to notice that I was watching her every movement, taking in her appearance. Now that I looked at her again, she seemed to be much more attractive than before. I don't know why I noticed it then.
My gaze seemed to bother her, and she accidentally cut her finger with the knife. She quickly dropped the knife and stuck her finger into her mouth.
"Amaya?"
She turned and faced me, and I quickly walked up to her. I gently took her hand and examined her finger. I chuckled.
"You really are clumsy, aren't you?" I said, smirking at her.
She frowned. "Thank you for pointing that out."
I looked at her finger again, and thought about whether or not that would help. By that I meant healing her finger. It was worth a try. I brought her finger to my mouth.
She blushed. "Wh-what are you doing?"
I swear! Ningens were so…slow sometimes! "We demons have gave the ability to heal ourselves at incredible speeds. I'm only helping you to heal faster." I explained.
I put her finger into my mouth, and closed my eyes. She tasted…good. Damn good.
Very…sweet.
She stiffened, letting me know that she was extremely shocked by my actions. I felt her wound heal, but kept her finger in my mouth a minute longer.
Suddenly, Kuronue came bursting into the room, loudly proclaiming his presence with a hoot.
"Oi, Kurama, I-" He stopped and stared at us. I still had her finger in my mouth, which made him grin.
"Kurama, who's the lady? Brought another one home already? I would have thought that you'd wait at least a week after the last one." He said, putting his hands on his hips and chuckling.
"Baka. She's a ningen- he obviously has her here for some other purpose other than sex." Came Hiei's voice from behind Kuronue.
I took her finger out of my mouth, but kept hold of her wrist. The girl seemed a bit shocked at what Hiei had said.
"Hiei, Kuronue, you're back a little early, aren't you?"
Hiei walked in.
"Well, we decided to get back here before the rest of the men came back from the raid. They should be back in about three hours." He said.
Kuronue walked over to the girl, and then looked at me.
"So, kitsune, you going to introduce us to your woman?"
She suddenly yanked her wrist from my grasp and put her hands on her hips. "I would appreciate it if you'd stop acting as though I were dumb, sir. I do not appreciate being talked about as though I were not in the room."
So, the girl had some fire in her after all. That was good.
Kuronue looked amused. "Oh, really? Forgive me, my lady."
He took her hand and gently kissed it. She didn't look angry anymore, and instead, blushed.
I growled at him in warning, and shoved him away from the girl. "Back off, Kuronue. She doesn't need your seducing."
"Sorry, Kurama. But I believe that I was talking to the lady, not you." He retorted with a grin.
"Atashi wa Takahashi Amaya." She said timidly.
He looked at her. "Amaya, huh?"
She nodded, and Hiei snorted.
"That doesn't answer my question. Why does the kitsune want you here? You're a ningen."
She looked over at me, and I smirked at him. I couldn't wait to see his reaction to the news.
"Because, Hiei, she's going to be living with us."
Both of them looked shocked. Kuronue stared at the girl with wide eyes, whilst Hiei looked infuriated.
"What do you mean, living with us? What's wrong with you, kitsune?!" Hiei exclaimed. He jabbed an accusing finger at the girl. "She's a ningen! Ningens have families that worry about them and try to take them back! She'll only attract trouble!"
I don't think that Hiei's ever been this mad before…
I could smell the sadness coming from her. "I…have no family to care about me. They want to give me to the demon Akira."
Hiei stopped yelling and looked over at her. "Akira?"
She nodded.
Hiei gave her a suspicious look. "What would a demon like Akira want with a ningen like you?"
"I wouldn't know. I'm still trying to figure that out for myself." She said, looking down at her feet.
The room fell silent. Kuronue scratched the back of his head, and opened his mouth to speak, but her stomach growled.
She blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Gomen nasai, but I'm really very hungry."
Kuronue grinned and walked over to the counter where she had been preparing her sushi. "Well, we'll just have to fix that now won't we?"
"Oh, you don't have to do that for me! I could make the sushi for myself." She protested.
He waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it. I normally cook for those two lugs anyways." He smirked at the girl. "And I certainly wouldn't mind cooking for a beautiful lady like yourself."
"Thank you, Kuronue-san." She smiled again, obviously flattered by my friend's seducing.
He set about to preparing the sushi for her, and I rolled my eyes.
"Always the charmer, eh, Kuronue?" I said. He just grinned.
The girl looked back to where Hiei had been standing, but seemed surprised to see that he was no longer there.
I flopped onto one of the cushions again. "Hiei isn't very social."
She sighed. "He doesn't like me very much, does he?"
"Hiei is always like that- even to us. He just isn't a people person." Kuronue said.
"Is there any particular reason as to why?" She asked, sitting on the cushion beside me.
"Well, he had a rough childhood. He's the bastard son of a koorime and a fire demon, and because of that he was banished from his homeland." I said. I shrugged. "I guess if anyone had to go through what he did, then they'd end up the same way."
"His parents weren't married?" She asked, looking quite surprised.
"Nope. Koorime are a self-reproducing, all female race of ice maidens." Kuronue said as he rolled the sushi in seaweed. "They don't like males, of any race. But Hiei's father was a fire demon, so that made it even worse."
He put all seven little sushi onto a plate and set it down in front of her. She smiled at him.
"Arigato gozaimasu." She said.
He shook his head. "There's no need to be so polite here, you know."
She nodded slowly and turned to her meal. "Itadakimasu." She picked up the chopsticks that had been lying on the side of the plate and picked up one of the sushi. She ate it, and smiled at him.
"Suki desu, Kuronue-san."
He grinned. "Good."
I rolled my eyes again. Great! My friend was moving in on her! I sent him a glare in warning. After several minutes, he seemed to finally get the fact that this girl was mine and left the room. So, that just left the two of us sitting at the table.
I had my eyes closed, and she ate in silence. When she finished, she started to look around for the sink. She brought her plate over, and then looked around once more. She finally looked back at me.
"Kurama, do you perhaps have anything that I could use to wash my plate?"
I opened one eye. "In the drawer to your right."
She nodded and opened the drawer, pulling out a towel. She poured some water into the sink and rolled up her yukata sleeves. She started scrubbing the plate; enough to get it decently clean. She then dried it, and walked over to the cabinet that held the plates, putting hers away. She then turned back to me, hands on her hips triumphantly.
"Do you know that that's the first time I've ever cleaned my own plate?" She asked, grinning like a child.
I chuckled at that. "Princesses really do live sheltered lives, don't they?" I stood and stretched. "I'm going to bed now. It's late, and I need to get some sleep before dawn comes."
She seemed surprised, and then blinked. She looked down at her wrinkled and slightly dirty yukata.
"Would you happen to have an extra yukata that I could sleep in?" She asked, pointing to her own. "I could use a fresh one, if it's not too much trouble."
I let my eyes trail over her body - though, she probably thought that I was looking to make sure that she needed a new yukata. In reality, I was looking for the sake of looking. I nodded. "We could borrow one from one of my men's rooms. One or two are female, and they wouldn't mind sparing a sleeping yukata or two."
I started walking back out to the hall, and she scampered after me. I kept going, past my room and further down the hall, stopping beside a door that had a flower engraved into the wood. I knew that this was Leiko's room, an ex-flame of mine. She had joined our band after we had had our relationship. I opened the door and entered, while she stayed outside. I got the yukata from one of her drawers, and returned a minute later holding a white yukata. I tossed it to her.
She caught it and smiled. "Arigato. Demo…where can I change?"
"In my room." I replied. I looked down at her, and saw that she had a strange look on her face. I sighed. "Kami-sama, I'll be outside of the room! Not in it while you're changing."
She smiled. "I assumed that from the start."
We walked back to my room and she walked in, closing the door behind her. I waited outside, cursing Kami for making wood so unlike water, which one could see right through. After a minute, she said that I could come in.
I walked into the room and stretched. "Well, all we have to do is find you a place to sleep."
She shrugged. I looked around the room, realizing this predicament. "We aren't very well prepared for guests, and I can't just let you sleep on the floor. And I'm not going to sleep on the floor…so that leaves only one option."
She seemed confused, and I sighed. "Things go right over your head, don't they? We share the futon."
She looked over at the futon. "It's big enough, I guess. But it will work."
Did she realize what she was doing to me? She was asking me to sleep in the same bed as a beautiful woman, and not sleep with her.
She might as well have been asking me to stab myself in the foot.
So, I decided that the best way to avoid the problem was to go straight to sleep, and keep my face in the pillow - that way, I couldn't see her nor smell her scent so close to me. So, I walked over to the futon and flopped down onto it, burying my face into the pillow. She seemed to find this funny, and giggled. She got onto the other side of the futon, and pulled the blankets up to her chin. She fell asleep shortly after, and I wasn't that far behind.
What a day…
~*~
Author's Notes: Well, looks like Youko's having a bit of a change of heart about Amaya. I've noticed that some of you reviewers seem to be reading this story before you read Amaya's. Is that true? Because Amaya's gives more descriptions of the characters, and how she feels, whilst Youko's is more revolved around women and fighting. You should really read Amaya's first before you read this one.
Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter:
Shessha's Crazy : Wow. I've never seen it spelled that way for him. It spells it 'Yoko' on my DVD. Hm… Well, the only place that I've seen it spelled that way is for Devil Hunter Yhoko. And she's a girl. Still, it's really a matter of preference. Thanks for your review! ^_____^ You were the first to review for the last chapter!
Story Weaver1 : Now you know! ^___^ And yes, he falls for her quite a bit sooner than she does for him. But he doesn't like to admit it.
Explosion : Thank you!
Suzaku no miko : Yes, we ALL love those bad-ass kitsunes. And their friends. ^_____^ I have a poster of him on my wall, and he always looks like he's about to do something bad, because he's got that mischievous smirk happening.
DarkVixenNisha : Thank you!
UltaAnimeFangurl2004 : Wow…were you hyper when you reviewed? Actually, I don't like coffee…only hot cocoa. Thanks for the review!
Review!!
