Chapter 4 Trapped: part 2

Koronue stepped coolly into the hallway, his friend and partner beside him. "You take the high road-"

"And I'll take the low road-"

"I bet I can catch her before ya'."

Youko regressed to his pure fox body; he could always track better as a beast. Waving his tails excitedly, he bent his nose to the floor for a moment, chose a direction, and bolted down a hall. Koronue made an anime sweat drop, "Show off."

Tou-Kou was panicked, stumbling down a set of stairs. She fell the last three steps, and crawled when her leg betrayed her. The thieves' hide out was a hopeless maze to those who did not know it. Her knee stopped throbbing just in time for a four-legged pile of happy to trounce her rudely. She made a small, high-pitched sound and shoved him off. The vulpine whirlwind snagged the hem of her cloak and growled playfully. Tou-Kou was terrified; after playing tug-of-war for a moment, she jerked off the cloak, threw it over her assailant and wrapped him up in it quicker than he could wag his tails. O.o 'What just happened?'

Koronue was at a disadvantage, to move fast, he would have to use his wings, which indoors he could not. His tracking skills were not very good, and he had no way of predicting the little ningen. So, he began to search rooms, one by one, and lock the doors behind him, thus by process of elimination, he would eventually corner her. Lets check back on Tou-Kou, shall we?

Her bare feet made little or no sound on the cool floors. By the absence of windows, she assumed she was under ground; also assuming Youko and Koronue assumed she wanted to escape, she assumed they would head higher to the exits, assuming she was not in the lower levels. O.o That's confusing… Falling down thirty-seven flights of stairs collectively, she reached the lowest of low places and limped down another hallway. The basements were used to store things from food to treasures, each room a messy maze. She found the room farthest from the last stairs and hid herself under an old king sized bed, which suited her quite nicely for it was nearly two and a half feet above the ground. There, she curled up in a ball and hid.

The fox found it almost too easy to track her scent, but was predicting where her trails would lead all wrong. He thought she might be going up to the exit, but her trails led him down. Then it clicked in his head that she was trying to trick him. She was going down while they were going up. 'Clever girl, that one.' He thought with his nose to the floor again. His search led him into the basement of the hide out. With only one way out of it, he changed back into his two-legged form; confident his nose would lead him right to her. He stepped carefully through the disorganized hoard of goods. He searched each room carefully, flicking his silver tail and ears warily; he heard a strange sound. He couldn't place it. He made his way to the last room in the basement, the door hung open; she was in here somewhere.

He could hear the strange sound more clearly, he knelt to the ground; clearer; he crawled across the room; clearer; he looked under the big bed; bingo. Tou-Kou was curled up under the bed, sobbing quietly. His golden eyes faltered. Why was she crying? 'She's frightened.' He thought with pity. Crawling under the bed with her, his heart almost broke. 'I'm supposed to be a scary bandit, I'm getting soft.' She took no notice of him, for he was quieter than a mouse. He touched her hair, she gasped and cringed away from him. "Don't be afraid, Tou-Koushin. I was only playing with you." He tried to soothe her; she recoiled again when he reached out to her. He stared as if he had been struck in the face, she didn't trust him at all. Her eyes where brimming with diamond-like tears, reflecting the light, making her eyes look bigger, more innocent.

She shoved herself farther away from him, coming out on the other side of the bed. He scooted after her and grabbed her ankle as she was trying to climb over the bed. She gave a small yelp. He came out from under the bed and wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms down. She tried to scream, his hand shot over her mouth, "Please don't scream, my ears could not take it, you understand?" he said gently, sitting on the bed. Tears poured out over his fingers. Her eyes were painful to look at. He rocked her slowly, trying to calm her down. "I won't rape or violate you, I promise; or may my tails be cut off."

Tou-Kou shook with sobs, making little noise out of fear and nature. The fox loosened his grip on her arms, which she slid around his waist, burying her head in his half bare chest. They stayed like that for a while, him stroking her tresses with one hand and whispering to her, and her crying her heart out and hiccupping now and then.

When she stopped crying, she sat up and wiped off her face. Looking down at her hands, she caught sight of her clothes, which were in shreds and very revealing. Drawing her arms around herself, she blushed. Youko looked confused, "What's wrong?" his eyes drifted down to her clothes, as most demons don't have a problem with nudity, he was baffled. "Are you cold, what?" her blush deepened. "What?!"

Pouting, she held out a shred of her shirt to him. "Ooh!" he slapped his forehead. "No problem, you still have that cloak; it's upstairs." Leading her out of the room, he walked up the stairs of the basement and opened the door. Or tried to.

"Oh, poo! It's locked; Koronue must have locked us in by accident! Idiot…" -.-;

Tou-Kou groaned, thumping her forehead on the door. "Yes, you'll have to forgive him, he's an idiot. You hear that Koronue? YOU'RE A BAKA, YOU BAKA!! HEELP!! It smells funny down here!" the fox pounded on the door like a mad man. Tou-Kou smacked him in the back of the head. He stared at her wide-eyed, and then threw his arms around her, faking tears, his specialty.

"Oh, Tou-Kou, what will we do? We could die down here! We'll have to eat rats to stay alive and make love to stay warm!!"

O.o

SMACK!!

Sprawled across the floor, the fox rubbed his check tenderly, "I was just kidding, Tou-Kou, yeesh!"

Koronue was officially freaked out. Being alone was creepy enough, but at night in the dark (he was too lazy to light candles.) was just plain spooky. Every little sound was brought to his pointed ears. His comrade was missing, and the ningen girl with him. He had set up a base behind a couch, armed with his scythes and a broom handle rubber band shooter.

Rustle!

"AAAH!!" Twang, twang! Crash!

An innocent vase had the crap shot out of it with rubber bands, then shattered with a scythe. Koronue uncovered his eyes. He frowned and collected his weapons. Sensing his friend's reiki flaring furiously, he ran down stairs to find him. Moments later, when he discovered the door to the basement, he could hear his friend cursing loudly and beating on the door. He unlocked the door, opened it, and was plowed into the ground. Four fist and four feet began to beat the crap out of him. "What did I do?" he wheezed when the hurt let up.

"You locked us in the basement, you baka!"

"Oops!" O.o

"Oops?' is that all you can say? We could have died down there, while you were being paranoid in the dark and attacking random furniture!!"

"How the hell did you know about that?"

"I'm Youko Kurama, I know everything." He smirked evilly. Tou-Kou's stomach began to growl menacingly. O.o Time for dinner.

After plowing through several bowls of rice and other condiments (And scaring Youko and Koronue with how much she could eat.) Tou-Kou found her cloak and claimed Youko as a pillow. "Isn't she cute?" Koronue mocked. "Shut up." But true to Koronue's word, the fragile little creature had dug herself into their cold hearts and made them both a little less evil.

"Keeping a human around is not practical for our lifestyle, you know that don't you?" Koronue spoke softly as she slept. "How hard could it be? Tou-Kou looks old enough to handle herself." The fox replied.

"Why do you keep calling her that?"

"What, Tou-Koushin?"

"Stop. When you start naming things, you get attached to them, and that makes you weaker."

"She won't make me weaker. This human means nothing to me." He lied.

"No good shall come of this, Youko."

"Tou-Kou will not change anything."

"For your sake, I hope so, Youko. You have had many crushes, many lovers, and they all ended the same. Heart ache for you, and a nuisance for me." He said forebodingly.

"You know I swore off love and lust a long time ago. I will never open up again."

That's a parody of a song, "You take the high road and I'll take the low road, and I'll get to Scotland before ya'."

R&R