No more AN at the start of the chapters. You guys don't pay attention to them, LOL.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kurama. I own Bri. I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. That dude Yoshi-something does.
Chapter 17: What Base Are We On?
Kurama
I wasn't sure how everything had gone from being friends, to being siblings, to being…now. To being in love. All I know is that now she knows. Bri told me that her heart started beating when I kissed her. It stopped soon after, though. She was really happy that I'd finally learned how to say her name correctly.
So was I.
We stayed mostly the same. Confessing it aloud really didn't change much of anything, other than we knew for sure. We knew that we were in love.
Sometimes, I caught her staring at me, with a little notebook in her arms. Her hands ghosting softly over the paper. I think she was drawing me, but I couldn't be sure.
Bri kept up with her training. If she wanted to, she could have made a very weak Spirit Gun. I wasn't about to tell her she was nowhere near as powerful as Yusuke when it came to fighting. Even after a year in the Chronodom, training every day, she couldn't hold a candle even to Kuwabara's strength when I first met him.
But she could, at least, control her own Empathe abilities.
The last day we were going to be in the Chronodom, she decided to test her abilities in the somewhat safety of the room. I sat in the corner, away from her in case the distance might protect her—and me—from her powers. I found it quite strange that she was so weak in Spirit power, but so strong in Dream power.
"Okay, Kurama. This is it." She took a deep breath, and then gathered her Dream energy into her hands. The gold sparked, far brighter than any ordinary light. Like lightning. For a moment, she did nothing.
Then she started turning up the "volume".
At first, it was like a tickle on the edge of my mind. Slowly, it turned to pain. A headache…a migraine…two boulders crushing my skull… She resisted all that she could against my mind. But still, I could feel everything about her. How her heart wasn't beating, how her skin was a little cold. I could feel myself and her all at once. She whimpered softly, a helpless kitten's mewl. I found my voice doing the same thing. A trickle of sweat dripped down my spine and hers.
Suddenly, it all vanished, only an echo of the near past. Bri gasped for breath, like a winded lioness.
"Oh, God…" she moaned. Her breath came short. "Kurama…Kurama, are you all right?"
"I should…be asking…you…that," I said, trying to catch my own breath. She shook her head roughly. Curls of dark brown hair flew around her face. Her hair had gotten so long in our stay. I'm sure if I hadn't cut mine once a month, it would be three times its length now.
"If I ever have to do that in a crowded room…I think my brain will split in half."
I smiled through the aftershocks. "That's what this was for. Do you have all your things?"
She nodded, her brows furrowed in thought. Perhaps pain. I still felt the lingering hold of her mind in mine. It was only a small headache, but it recalled very vividly the pain it had wrought.
Bri packed up her things into a back pack. Since I had already done so myself, I helped her. When she wasn't looking, I slipped the notebook I'd seen her with into my pocket. It was really no bigger than a small paperweight, unnoticeable. I caught a quick glance at the first drawing. I was right. She had been drawing me.
Why had she been so secretive about it, though? I would have said yes, if she wanted to draw me. I sighed inwardly. I suppose that really was just Bri's way. I should have known.
Bri held her pack and a suitcase that contained all of our homework. We closed our eyes and walked together back out into the real world. For once, I had not held my eyes open. I don't think Koenma could have handled seeing me in my demon form again after the scare we'd given him.
"Ready to go home, Shuichi?" Bri said. "Kaasan's going to be happy to see us."
"Yes, she will." I smiled and patted her gently on the head. "You look too much like a cat."
"Is that supposed to be derogatory or a compliment?"
"Compliment."
"Thank you much. I love cats. They're my favorite animals." She gave me a goofy, feline grin. "Did I ever write that in my journal?"
I blushed. "I'm sor—"
"No, Kurama, don't be sorry." She stopped me in the hall. "I wanted you to read it. It's crazy, but…I wanted you to. If I turn these stupid powers up, I'm privy to your every thought, everything about you. You haven't a clue about me. I wanted you to know, even if it's only that small part, when I have my pencil on the page."
She'd expected me to read it. She actually dangled the journal as a bit of meat before my nose, hoping I'd take the bait. Somehow, I was happy that I'd taken my animal instincts. I guess I really still was Kurama Youko inside.
Even when I was also Shuichi Minamino.
Bri
Kaasan was happy to see us home. She brought us both into a warm, three-way hug, and then sped away to the kitchen. I glanced at Kurama.
"We were supposedly in New York at an art show," I said, softly enough that he could hear and she couldn't. "What are we going to say? I don't like lying to her."
"Neither do I," he sighed. "I've always had to do it. She wouldn't be able to take it."
I guess it was true. How would you explain to a woman who's thought her son was merely Shuichi Minamino that he was really the reincarnation of an ancient fox demon named Kurama Youko? I'd barely been able to take it, and then only because they had instant proof at the time. What would Kaasan say if her Shuichi suddenly manipulated a rose into a deadly whip before her eyes?
"Guess we just wing it," I shrugged. "Come on, I want to unpack."
I took the tiny door that I hadn't seen in a year down into the basement. I stared at the room that was mine. It was exactly as I'd left it, maybe only a few day's worth of dust. We'd only been gone a week in this place, and yet it was really a year. What would Kaasan say if she knew we'd had an entire year together in the same three rooms? I guess I'd probably laugh and call the men with the nice white jackets.
Slowly, I unpacked all of my clothes into the chest of drawers. They were a lot more worn than they'd been. A year on that dance machine had left some with holes in the knees and shaggy cuffs. I guess I'd have to go grunge for a while so Kaasan wouldn't figure it out. She was too smart for her own good.
Those last few weeks, when Kurama was so lost in thought or openly reading my journal, I had secretly kept a tiny notebook containing drawings of him. Mostly they were of him reacting to my journal. His eyes widening, smiling, laughing, even once he had tears in his eyes. I searched at the bottom of my suitcase for the notebook so I could hide it away as soon as possible. If Kurama knew I'd been drawing him… It wasn't his reaction so much as mine that worried me.
But it wasn't there.
I panicked. My heart started beating again, racing in my chest. What if I'd left it, what if Kurama had it, what if I'd dropped it? I tried my best to calm myself and slid out of my room and into Kurama's.
"Hey, Shuichi," I said, partly in case Kaasan was listening in. "Have you seen a blue notebook somewhere? I had it in my suitcase…"
"This one?"
He had it.
Kurama had the notebook.
I tried to breathe normally as I held out my hand. Gingerly, I turned up my Empathe skills, just enough to read Kurama. I wanted to know if he'd seen what was inside the notebook. I took the book and turned away.
She's so beautiful…
Why doesn't she just ask me if she wants to draw me? I'd say yes in a heartbeat…
I took the notebook back to my room, a blush crawling over my cheeks. Guilt jabbed at my chest. I'd been so worried about what he'd think about me drawing him that it hadn't occurred to me to just ask. I'd reduced myself to a stalker.
What was this boy doing to me?
I just want to sit and stare at him, listen to his voice. I just want to cry in front of him, just to hear him say those sweet, soft words. I didn't want to sneak at hearing his thoughts, I wanted to let him tell those thoughts to me aloud.
Kaasan called us back up for dinner. We ate together, Kurama, me, and Kaasan, as if we'd only met a week ago. I still was being asked those questions that you ask a person you barely know. The neutral ones, you know, like complimenting on the weather and asking how the schoolwork was going.
Kurama and I were past all that, but Kaasan didn't know. She thought we'd been at a stupid art show in New York. Sure, we'd had some time together if we'd actually gone on that trip, but the time we spent in the Chronodom was intimate. So intimate, in fact, that we'd…we'd…
What were we now, I wonder?
I couldn't really say we were lovers. Lovers, well, they made love. He wasn't my fiancé, and we hadn't really gone on any sort of date. So we weren't boyfriend/girlfriend. What would you call this sort of relationship?
I expressed this to Kurama, in the softest of whispers, in the hallway outside of our rooms. Just before bed, before we'd have to go back to school in the morning. He cocked his head to the side in thought. I think he'd picked it up from me, because I don't recall him ever doing it before.
"I don't know."
"It's kind of important for me…" I whispered.
"Tomorrow night," he said. "I'll take you on a date. After school, I'll take you somewhere."
I threw my arms around his shoulders and whispered in his ear. "Thank you, Kurama."
He hugged me back. I could feel his smiling heart beat against my chest, where mine feebly joined it for a few moments.
"Good night, Bri," he said softly, letting me go at last.
"Night, Shuichi," I said aloud.
I walked into my room and collapsed into the bed.
And lay there.
A spike of fear struck me like a piano chord. I couldn't get to sleep. I couldn't get to sleep. If I didn't sleep, I'd wake up hurt. Would I wake up dead this time? I tossed in my bed, trying in futile to fall to the bliss of slumber.
Minutes passed. Half an hour. An hour. Two. Three. I sat up in bed with a sigh. There was no way I would sleep. Maybe this time, the pain wouldn't be so bad.
And maybe I'd wake up dead.
I climbed out of bed and ran a hand through my hair. It was slightly longer than it had been. Koenma had let Botan cut it before letting me go back. Kaasan would definitely figure some things out if I'd gone back with hair past my shoulders. Kurama, somehow, had kept his hair the same length. It boggled my mind.
I was just about to go try to sleep again when a soft knock came at my door. Kurama peeked into my room, his green eyes shimmering lightly in the moonlight of the basement window.
"It's happening again…isn't it?" he whispered. I nodded.
"I'll wake up hurt again," I said, my voice lower even than his. "I hate this. I thought my training was to prevent this." I wasn't sure he'd even heard me. He didn't speak. Softly, he turned the knob of my door so that it wouldn't make a sound. A soft touch on my shoulders and then he spoke.
"The only way to prevent it is sleep."
A whine entered my voice. "I can't."
He smirked. It made him look a little like Hiei, when the light hit just wrong. "Right. If I can sleep with hundreds of years of thievery and murder on my hands, you can sleep through this."
"But…Okay, what do you suggest?" I sat on my bed and lay my head in my hands.
"Lay down," Kurama commanded.
I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but I dared not disobey him. His tone was enough. I wasn't going to disobey him when he had that tone. I lay my head back on the pillow. It wasn't until after I did so that I realized I'd acted like a scared child. He'd acted like a scared parent.
He chuckled softly. The sound send shivers down my spine.
"You look so much like a cat, little Neko." I giggled. Even I could hear the nervousness in it, and I'm sure Kurama did. "Calm down. Relax. I don't bite."
"Listen to who's talking, Kitsune," I retorted, trying to keep the playful tone to a minimum. I don't think I succeeded.
"Point taken, Neko." He laughed. "Stretch your muscles. Then, let them loose."
He guided me through each muscle group, patient and trusting. I did as I was told, stretching all of my muscles one by one. The minute I released the tension in them, it was like I didn't want to move again. My eyes refused to fall closed.
That tone again. "Close your eyes."
"I can't, Kura—" His lips on mine interrupted his name. My eyes slid closed. They began to open again when Kurama drew back. He closed them with his fingers and a soft command.
"Don't open them again."
Suddenly, I felt it. A gash appeared on my forehead. Someone's head had struck something. I saw through their eyes for one moment. A baseball bat. They tried to run, but tripped. Scraped the knee. My knee bled.
"Bri, cut yourself off," Kurama whispered, his hands on either of my cheeks. "Turn the powers off."
"I…I can't…" I whimpered. I reached up to touch the blood running down my forehead, but Kurama's hand pushed mine away.
The person jumped up and took off again, running blind into a forest. He went unfollowed. My vision faded from him, though I hadn't yet opened my eyes. Kurama's hands placed pressure on my forehead gash. I still hadn't opened my eyes.
"He escaped?" Kurama whispered. The blood from my knee leaked through my pajama bottoms. Some trickled down my leg.
"Yeah…" I smiled weakly. "We're both pretty lucky. He's gone home. Safety, for him."
Kurama placed a bandage over the gash, and then rolled up my pants leg and tended to it. I tried to sit up, but a strong hand on my shoulder pushed me back down.
"Kurama, why can't I sit up?" Plaintive wail. I sounded like a sick little kitten.
"I don't want you to." The same playful tone I'd used on him.
I pouted and let my eyes fly open. He rolled my pants leg back down and sat on the edge of my bed. Kurama smiled, his deep green eyes soft in the pale light of the moon.
"I'm glad you're okay," he said. "At least this time, it wasn't Karasu trying to bomb you to death." I think he was trying to be sarcastic, but it was in the same smooth tone he always had around the others.
I gave a half-grin. "Yeah, true. Just a baseball bat this time, chief, I'm all right."
"Baseball bat?" His eyes flashed. He glanced at the bandages around my head, just quick enough for me to notice. "Do you need Tylenol?"
"I never feel the actual blow, really," I shrugged. Kinda hard lying down. "Just the aftershocks. It's not so bad. A little pain never hurt no one." He laughed at that. "What is the saying? 'Pain is weakness leaving the body'."
"Yes. Good night, Neko. We have school again tomorrow."
A sudden fear gripped my still heart. He moved to stand, but I grabbed his arm before he could move anywhere. I wrapped both arms around his elbow. I don't know what possessed me to say it. I don't know what scared me so bad.
I was frightened white.
"Don't leave me," I whimpered. I held to his arm like it was my last link to the world. If he left… If he left, somehow, I knew I would die. Without him, my breath would stop and my body would follow my heart.
"Bri…" He wrapped me in a warm embrace, one that I held onto. "Scoot over. I'll sleep in here tonight."
We didn't do anything, I swear to you. Neither Kurama nor I even thought of what it meant for two people to sleep in the same bed. He forced my eyes to gently close and I was out like a light for the night. His arms were around my shoulders and I held them tight to them with my own.
When we woke up the next morning, it was like a kitten and a fox in the corner of a forest. He was curled around me, stretched out in my bed, and I was in a little ball in his arms.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
I think this chapter's kinda cute…But it hurts my heart some. Especially the last part. I used to have a friend that I slept in the same bed with (I'M STILL A VIRGIN!). This chapter kind of reminded me of him. He died six years ago.
Just for future reference, I'm going to put all AN at the end of the story from now on. You guys seem to pay more attention to them. I have something to ask you guys! First off, I'll answer questions.
Suntiger: Nope, story's not done. And sequel is on the way after…three more chapters.
Kurayamihikari: I like your idea, but I'm not gonna use it, mostly because by the time I found it, the sequel was already half done. I think it would be cool, though. Why don't you write a story where present-day Kurama goes back in time?
Saori: I know, I loved that phrase, too. "Whatever it is, I want it." I love making jokes about crack because it just seems stupid to me that different things can do things to our bodies. Like chamomile tea, for instance. Soooooo soothing…I drink a cup every night. I, like Bri, have trouble sleeping. That technique that Kurama uses is called the Jacobson's Relaxation Technique. Really works.
Sonya-White-Angel: I dunno where anyone got the idea that this story was coming to a close…It's twenty chapters long, and then the sequel, too…
Now, the part you've all been waiting for…
Since I have chained myself to the chair working on the sequel (about half done now, actually), the least you guys can do is give me a little help (Please?). There are several more pairings in the next story. Does anyone want to help me out with the character that ends up mating with Kuronue? She's quarter coyote and her name is Ayame. A former slave of Youko's. I don't know what else to do with her.
Thank you so much for your kindness! Now, I do have another request (yeah, I'm so selfish, aren't I?) Sillylittlenothing has already reviewed it, but can the rest of ya'll go check out the first chapter of Silver Treasures? Thank you soooo much in advance!
