The next day Kurama finally saw Hiei. The Jiganshii had almost murdered his sister's captors.
It was also the day Kurama almost killed Tohru.
Strange coincidence that.
It was play practice. Kurama sported the ridiculous tails and ears and awaited Retainer #2 to deliver his lines.
"With such wealth, you would think a man satisfied."
"But...Youko is not a man."
They were on the roof because the band had taken the theater to practice for an upcoming concert. Most everyone was freezing and their lines bounced with their shivering lips. Someone sneezed and Kurama glanced in the direction. Tohru sat miserably off to the side. It must have been the morning he had gotten up early to wait for Kurama. He had caught a cold.
"Down in that castle is a monster, sleeping soundly on a treasure worth more than our lives" he whispered again under his breath, waiting for his queue.
Kurama stepped into the mist of the players. He heard Tohru go silent and felt the weight of his gaze. He ignored it. "It is true that my wealth is greater than kings. It is true that I am not a mortal man. This, however, is the only truth. That treasure is worth more than all my wealth combined, but more so, there is a second purpose."
"A second?"
"Yes." Kurama paused, "Love."
"But...."
"But?"
There was a silence. The silence stretched. The players sitting off to the side all glanced in the same direction. "Tohru. Your line." One of them said.
Tohru shook himself. He had been rubbing his head. "Right." he said and stood, coming to stand squarly in front of Kurama. "Down in that castle is a monster, sleeping soundly on a treasure worth more than our lives!" he exclaimed.
"And love!" Another actor said.
"Nothing is worth more than love." Kurama said and saw Tohru watching him through the corner of his eye. "That most rare of wines, that finest of pleasures. I'll find you someone and make you drunk on love and we will never disagree again!"
There were laughs, but Tohru wasn't laughing. Kurama turned and saw him staring right at him.
He decided today he would talk to the boy no matter what.
After practice, Kurama walked over to him. He was sitting, rubbing his temples, a sneeze accenting his misery once in a while. "I'll walk you home." Kurama said.
Tohru paused and glanced up at him. "If you don't mind." he said, but his gaze told another story.
Kurama walked beside Tohru and eventually said simply, "Tohru?"
"Hn?"
Kurama paused at that, then resolutely forged on. "We have to talk."
"No we don't."Kurama sighed and stopped. They were at a crosswalk again. It was late in the day and there weren't very many people there. The light told them to walk, but the two boys didn't move a muscle, just regarded each other carefully.
Kurama knew he had to choose his words well. It had, after all, been his fault this had happened in the first place.
If only he weren't so tired.
He hadn't been sleeping well between school and dreams and summons from Koenma to Spirit World and to make matters worst, he wouldn't be able to do what was necessary to replenish his energy before he had to return to Koenma tonight.
He sighed.
"Tohru. About that night, I have to tell you..."
"It was a mistake." Tohru finished.
Kurama nodded uncertainly. "Yes."
"It meant nothing."
Kurama didn't like where this was going. "Yes."
"I know."
Kurama just blinked. "What do you mean?"
It was Tohru's turn to sigh. "Do you really think I don't think the same thing, Minamino? I mean...you...you kissed me...." He looked away. "I had never been kissed before. I thought my first would be some desperate girl, not....you." He turned and looked Kurama in the eye. "I don't know what happened. I never looked at you in that way, but when you kissed me...it felt right."
"Tohru..."
Tohru shook his head. "I don't know what that means. Maybe it doesn't MEAN anything. 'It was just a mistake'-I tell myself that all the time. 'It meant nothing.'-only I think it did. I just-for the life of me-have no idea what."
"Tohru." Kurama watched as the other boy's face underwent a swift transformation, from indifference to a lost look. Kurama watched this and had no idea what to do. In his mind all he could think of was how much like Hiei he looked, even now and hated himself for the thought. When Tohru reached for him, he let him, accepted the embrace. Tohru didn't try to kiss him, he only held him as though the touch would bring an osmosis of understanding. Kurama, however, had nothing like that to offer him.
"Hey..." Tohru said and laughed. "I should go home." He pulled away and Kurama regarded him uncertainly. "I'll see you tomorrow. At school."
"Yes. Tomorrow." Kurama said, not sure what to say. He thought of the serious face he had seen when he had first met Tohru. He had never imagined the boy possessed a face like the one he now wore.
Tohru nodded and turned and Kurama waited a moment before turning. He was halfway across the street when he spotted a spirit messanger from Koenma in the sky.
His heart stopped. "Hiei...." he whispered, fearing that the fire-demon had done the worst.
He barely heard a voice calling, "Minamino!"
He didn't even see the car.
When he came back to himself, he was on his back and Tohru was on top of him.
"What...?" Kurama said, disoriented. His eyes turned from HIgashii to the sky. He couldn't see the messanger anymore. Where had it gone?
Suddenly Higashii grabbed the front of his shirt and hawled him up so their faces were inches away. "What the hell was that?" Higashii roared. "Were you trying to get yourself killed?"
Kurama didn't answer. "Hiei..." he whispered.
"Minamino...." Higashii said in a voice sunk somewhere between rage and relief, tinged by curiosity and mixed with the faint stirrings of more concern than he should have felt towards the other boy. He didn't even realize that he himself was bleeding and neither did Kurama until the other boy's eyes rolled back into his head and he sunk onto Kurama's chest, unconscious.
But, as stated, this was the same day that Kurama finally saw Hiei.
But it was strange, when he set eyes on the Jiganshii, he had been sure there would have been nothing else on his mind, that he would have felt a peace and an ache of what was behind them.
He did feel an ache, but there was no peace. As for what was on his mind, that would be Tohru and Tohru alone.
It must have been guilt, right?
Right?
...to be continued....
Author's Note: Hi! Thank you SOOOO much to everyone who read this story and to those who reviewed it (Such nice people!:) This is actually everything I have written so far. I WILL have more posted somewhere between Friday and Monday (I hope), but I just haven't written it yet. So! What do you think? Will Tohru die? Will Kurama and Hiei get back together (were they ever REALLY together?) and! What about the PLAY!???? All questions will be answered in the upcoming chapters of.....A FOX TALE!!!!!!! (end music score.... :) Please review if you liked it! (or if you didn't :) See ya! Ja ne!