Disclaimer: I do not own. Please do not hunt me down and shoot me. I am just a measly English Education major in a tiny, nowhere college in Kansas.

Chapter 6: Kuronue

Bri

I'm sure I cried out in my sleep. I saw Tsuki, wrapped in Kurama's newer, Earth-based Rose Whip, Hiei's katana trained on her throat, and Yusuke pointed his powerful Spirit Gun at her heart. Koko stood there, fury in her eyes. I knew that Koko would be angry with Tsuki…

But why did she give the order for her death? Of all people, it was Kurama who'd dealt the killing blow. I didn't see it, I only heard it, watching Koko walk away. Her face was troubled as she sliced open another hole.

What was that hole? I tried to breath again, but my heart was pounding in my throat. My two loves had committed murder, for my sake. It made my heart ache all over again. I stared at the room I'd woken up in. The pillow that Kuronue had set me on was enormous, and he was asleep not too far from me. His wings were flapping occasionally, almost like a human snoring.

"You're finally awake, wench?" I heard the cold, cruel voice of Youko Kurama. I had raised my powers up enough to sense their most naked of thoughts. In this situation, I found it necessary.

Now to get some answers, before Kuronue wakes up.

"Why were you on my lands?" he demanded, this thought still swirling around in his head.

And why the hell does she believe that I am her mate!

"I haven't a clue," I shrugged. "And I don't know why you don't remember me and I don't know why you're in your past form."

He scowled at me. In his most deadly voice, he said: "Do not talk back to me, you little wench."

Inwardly, I sighed. His mind was completely devoid of any thoughts of mercy. In fact, he was truly considering just to kill me right then and there. I had nothing to fear, though. I knew that he wouldn't kill me because Kuronue had asked him not to. But, all the same, I had best watch myself.

"Fine," I said. "Answer a question of mine."

What now?

"What year is it, in the human world?"

He scoffed aloud. "Are you certain you didn't hit your head, wench?"

"Please refrain from calling me that," I said. "And you hit me, remember? I've had worse hits, though, so don't worry about my health."

His sharp claws were at my throat in an instant. Those narrow gold eyes glared at me, but he didn't say anything. "It's 1974."

I coughed as he finally released my neck. I could feel blood trickling down from a few tiny wounds. I pushed the pain from my mind. I'd felt worse, I guess. Nothing had prepared me for his answer, though. Both the fact that he gave it to me and the fact that it didn't match the year I was supposed to be in.

"Explains a few things…" I muttered to myself.

"Like what, wench?" Youko snarled, licking the blood from his nails with a deft tongue.

"The way you're acting, the fact that Kuronue is alive, the fact that I'm here. Dang it, Tsuki…" Why'd she have to go and do this? Oh, yeah, because I was born!

"What does the moon have to do with anything?" Youko asked. He seemed startled, but it didn't show on his face. It was the perfect façade of calm and cool. I sighed inwardly. So that is where Kurama had gotten it. I wish I could have the playful, smiling, red-haired boy I knew so much better.

Then I realized something. I really didn't know Kurama as well as I'd thought. If he was like this in his past…

"It's her name," I said. "My mother."

"A human pushed you into Makai?"

"No," I shook my head. "She's the half cat demon." I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. His eyes were trained on me. "Shouldn't we wake up Kuronue? He'll want to hear this, too."

Youko nodded, but didn't move. I rolled my eyes and turned around to the sleeping bat demon behind me. I shook him roughly, but he merely turned over. I could "hear" Youko's laughter in his mind, though I knew without looking at him that he was still as calm and cool as always. I reached deeper into his mind.

Stupid human. Doesn't even know the only way to wake up a bat demon is to tug on his wings…Kuronue usually jumps right up if you pull his left wing.

I smirked to myself, glad Youko couldn't see. He'd just given me exactly what I needed. I reached up toward Kuronue's left wing and gave a quick tug. The violet eyes shot open, followed quickly by the rest of him.

"Smart human," Kuronue grinned toothily at Youko. "You told her to wake me up, didn't you, fox?"

Youko leaned against the table in the middle of the room, his silver tail jerking around erratically. That must be one of his outer façade's failings, because I could sense right away that he was irritated that I'd figured it out.

"She did it on her own," Youko said. "She wants to tell us something."

Kuronue folded his wings against his back and looked at me with curious violet eyes. I was shocked to see a little of the "new" Kurama in this one. He seemed so innocent, almost as kind and lenient as my Kurama is. I felt my heart tug a few times at the loss before settling in my chest again.

"Are you aware of the main power of a cat demon?" I asked. It was Sakyo who had finally told me what Tsuki had probably done to escape.

"We know," Youko said shortly.

"Don't tell me you're cat enough that you can travel time?" Kuronue asked.

I smiled despite myself. "I wish it were that easy. Then I could just open up a new rip and jump right back into my own time, couldn't I?"

They waited.

"No, I don't have the power. Tsuki, my mother, did. She doesn't like me, you see, because I was going to marry a fox demon." Leave them to figure out that wasn't entirely true. "So…My guess is that she pushed me into his past to see him when he wasn't quite as…Assimilated."

Kuronue fell off the pillow, laughing.

I stared at him, hearing his obvious thoughts.

Kurama's going to marry her in the future!

I glared at him, then at Youko, who was laughing in a way that made my blood run cold. He sounded almost like Matsu and Une.

Like Karasu.

"Kuronue, I suggest if you want to keep the little wench alive, you keep her away from me," Youko said, swishing his tail. "I am going out."

He bounded away like a real fox might and vanished into the world above.

Kuronue was still laughing. "You sure you aren't deluded, kid? Look how old he is! He's well over a thousand years old!"

I smiled. "Well, in my world, he's only eighteen, just like me. But, I will not say any more. Can you take me to some cat demons? Maybe they can help me get back."

He sobered almost immediately. "I can't do that. Cats…aren't very fond of bats."

"You mean they'd eat you, right?"

He scowled. "Youko tried hurting you again, didn't he?" Kuronue gestured to my neck, which was still bleeding. "You're going to have to face the music. That Kurama is not your Kurama."

I sighed and nodded. Suddenly, a warm, wet thing pressed against my neck wound. I turned my head to see Kuronue lapping at my blood. I tried to push him away, but his hold merely tightened. I couldn't move. I tried to struggle, to thrash, but his firm hold on me only got more…interesting.

His legs were wrapped around mine, his bat wings holding my arms pinned against my sides, and his hands held my head still. I could feel the fork in his tongue, drinking in the blood. I was going to die. I tried to listen to his thoughts.

Resist, Kuronue…You're only going to stop the bleeding…Not start it up again!

I blinked in shock as finally, he loosened his hold on my head just a little. He lifted my shirt up to look at the wound there. It was closing up a little faster than usual, but considering that I was surrounded by so many powerful sleepers…I guess it decided that it could speed-heal.

"You use a different kind of power than that of a cat demon," he said, releasing me at last. "What is it? I can sense it…"

"Dream energy," I said, touching the wounds he'd licked. They'd stopped bleeding. "I'm an Empathe. I can hear what you're thinking, if I turn myself up high enough. Don't plan on doing it, though. Not a pleasant experience."

Kuronue smirked. "I don't know about that. Sounds like a pretty useful thing. Don't tell Kurama about it."

I glanced at him. So childish… Almost like Koko and Keiko and Botan rolled into one, but with those violet eyes. Strange. I chewed on my lip. Kurama…where are you?

"Why is it that Youko didn't kill me?"

"Because he knows he'd have me on his tail forever," Kuronue grinned, revealing tiny, sharp teeth. "You can't exactly take care of yourself. It'd be like taking down a blind, deaf, and dumb child."

So, the guy had some morals. Interesting. I wondered where he'd gotten them. Youko sure didn't seem to want any.

Kuronue nudged me with one of his wings. "What's Kurama like in the future? And how come I'm dead?"

I glanced at the pendant that surrounded his neck. Red and silver, so simple. Was that the pendant that Kurama told me about? The one that Kuronue had risked his own life to retrieve when it was cut? Why? What was it about that simple pendant that Kuronue was willing to throw everything away to get it back?

"Can't say," I said. "I'd ruin everything."

"Maybe not," Kuronue pointed out. "Maybe you're supposed to be here to influence this time period."

I scowled. "Yeah, and Kurama would have mentioned it if twelve years before he was… Um… In Ningenkai that he met me. I don't think he'd forget about me."

"True," Kuronue tapped his long, slender black nails against his chin. "I wonder why he chose you, though. You're not exactly the type he keeps going on about."

I blushed furiously. "Well, I'm not exactly thrilled to meet this version of him, either!"

He laughed, a deep, guttural sound. "Point well spoken."

"Thanks. Can you at least point out the way to a cat village? I've got to get back to my own time…"

"That would be unwise," he said.

"What, now you're using the big words on me? Why the hell would it be 'unwise'?"

I tried to stand up deliberately. I really did.

But I fell back onto the pillow and straight into Kuronue's lap.

Into. A. Bat. Demon's. Lap.

So warm…

Neither of us moved, my question forgotten. My heart started back up, racing in my chest. I waited for him to do something, my breath caught in my throat. Calmly, as though this had happened many times before, he pushed me away to sit on the cushion. I still had trouble breathing.

I have to remember, this is Kurama's mate. Even if she is from the future. Get a grip, you idiot!

"A-Are you…all right?" I asked, trying to breath with at least a semblance of normalcy.

Yeah. Normalcy. I'm TWELVE FREAKIN' years before Kurama's even reborn and his stupid partner is crushing on me and I have no idea how the hell I'm supposed to get back! Yeah. Normalcy. Right.

"I'm fine," he said shortly. "Stay here. I have to attend to something. If Youko comes back, tell him I went Topside."

"A-All right," I said. The prospect of seeing the Youko of before-Shiori times was not a happy one with me. Kuronue turned wing and climbed a set of stairs. I saw a patch of sunlight and then it was shadow again.

I almost decided to switch this over to be a Kuro-Bri fic because I liked the dynamics between them, but…alas, something happens that cannot be reversed.

Princess Kandra: Hee, hee, I'm guilty of worse. I started on the story, then I expanded it to write the prequel and then I expanded it into a five-book series and now I'm back to just writing the story I'd settled on at first. Because I never wrote any of it. ;;

Saori: No worries about Bri and Kurama, they will be reunited…Actuually, the time in Makai doesn't last as long as I was hoping it would, mostly because I couldn't come up with reasons for Kurama and the gang not to find Tsuki. LOL. I am so stupid.

SilverDragon: Tsuki has infinite lives, unfortunately. Can you guess the only way to kill her?

Kuramafan: I dunno why, but Tsuki has suddenly became a bad-girl charrie name for me. Oo It's weird. I like the moon. I love wolves. So why the heck did I make wolves and the moon look like bad charries?

Peeka-chan: If you think about it, the real Kuronue gets like five seconds of actual airtime. The only thing we learn about him, really, is that he can't leave that pendant behind and he was a partner and good friend of Kurama's (unlike Yomi, obviously). So, I took liberty with his character. He can almost be called an OC if he wasn't an actual canon character…

Luci: Um…I thought about it, but the only scene that really came to mind was the tugging-on-the-wing one. I remembered reading that some species of bats sleep so heavily during the day, that the only way to wake them up would be to break their wings. I wasn't going to go that far, though. Poor Kuronue…