Dawn Light Breaks
Sao: AAAAIIIIEEEE! (Ducks incoming radishes from booing crowd as she finally appears on the scene) Help! Karuri! Kurama!
Karuri/Kurama: (hurry in) what is it– AACK! (duck veggies being flung)
Sao: The people are throwing veggies at me! (hides behind them)
Karuri: Well why do you think that is?
Kurama: Maybe because she left this chappie unwritten for a heinous amount of time?
Sao: IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR! I got kicked off the computer entirely for TWO WHOLE WEEKS! It was complete torture! Torture, I tell you! Aagh! So, this is the first Wednesday I've been allowed back on the computer, and ano... Here it is?
Kurama: (sighs)
Sao: I TOLD YOU IT WASN'T MY FAULT DAMMIT!
Karuri: Let's ano... go now. (Grabs Kurama and runs from room) (angry crowd continues throwing veggies as soon as their favorite characters are gone)
Sao: AACK! Hey! throwing veggies equals I'm too busy dodging them to write properly! So stop! EEK! (ducks one last eggplant) (crowd finally stops booing at lateness) Gomen nasai! Thank Kami they stopped throwing stuff...
Karuri woke up to the light coming in through the window, warm and comfortable despite the lack of a blanket. Her body wasn't really responding all that well to her brain, and she was sore all over. Not really wanting to awaken quite yet, she relaxed herself again next to the warm pillow at her back.
Wait. When had that gotten there? She opened her eyes again, wincing at the light pooling in the room. Locks of her hair, fading through shades of strawberry and dark auburn to black, came into her vision, mixed with deep blood-red. Damn. Her illusion must have come off last night. Or at least part of it, she amended, noticing the lack of tails.
Oh, well, that didn't exactly matter. It wasn't like anyone was around to notice her hair being over eighteen inches longer, and such a unique pattern. Even youkai back at home thought her hair might have been dyed... She was getting off on tangents now. But really, did that matter? Tangents were good... Good tangents...
And she really, really didn't want to relive in any detail whatsoever the extreme torture she had gone through last night. Never, ever upset the balance, had been the lesson pounded into her, over and over and over again during training. Training was hard, she had thought, yes, it was hell of sorts. But there, all the focus had been on creating and maintaining a balance. This was all caused by trying to preserve her identity from one little aura-delving youkai. And therein lay the difference.
There was only one good part in the crazy, painful hallucinations last night, and that had been rising out of the hellfire working its way through the icy cold that froze every last bit of her, and burned alive at the same time, to find those wonderful swirly green gold eyes set in a face framed by blood-red hair... It would have looked exactly like Kurama, if it weren't for the gold eyes.
Ah, she was being silly. What would a Kurama look-alike with gold eyes be doing here? She shifted to be pressed flush with the warmth, and was surprised when an arm snaked around her waist.
Immediately she sat straight up in a jolt of realization, only to be swamped by a wave of dizziness as the cold air of the room washed over her. The man beside her sat up, looking at her through vivid gold eyes. She found that her throat wasn't working anymore. Who was this person? It looked like Kurama, but his emerald eyes couldn't be confused with the bright gold of this person at all. As he merely sat next to her and looked her over, quirking his head just the tiniest bit, she finally found enough voice to say,
"Ano... are you Kurama's twin, by any chance?" She winced at her own voice. It was harsh and broken, as if she'd been screaming. It was not her voice. That voice belonged to someone else.
"No, tawainai," he said, one side of his mouth quirking up into a smile. That was not Kurama's voice either. It was deeper and slightly seductive, sending shivers up her spine. (tawainai silly)
"Then... who are you?"
"You were very right when you said Youko Kurama hates people stealing his name." he said, leaning in towards her to whisper in her ear, his hot breath washing over her cheek. "I do. Which is why it's a very good thing nobody has, ne?" He leaned back a bit to study her face.
Her eyes widened. He was... Youko Kurama? The Youko Kurama? He didn't look anything like the pictures in her history books. The Youko Kurama had silver hair, not blood red, and fox ears and tails like any kitsune.
"You don't look like you're supposed to." she managed to accuse, her voice cracking.
"Neither do you, kitto." he said back, managing somehow to look faintly amused and worried at the same time. "No kitsune looks exactly like they should in the Ningenkai."
He knew she was a kitsune? How the hell did he figure that out? She had no giveaways in her illusion, nothing— she noticed again the multicolored hair spilling over her shoulders and pooling on the bed just slightly. Oh kuso. Her illusion.
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Youko watched in amusement as her eyes widened in panic at the sight of her own hair, and as she quickly checked to make sure she didn't have any tails. The fear in her scent was almost as tempting as her own scent, with or without the faked humanity blended in. Her scent was still covered up, actually. It was merely her eyes and hair that had changed, though he enjoyed watching her eyes, which had been a clear orange-red when she woke up, flash through a swirling green gray to a dark, bright fuschia-violet.
"Wha-what happened to KuraShuichi?" she asked, her voice blurred around the edges with slight relief and still rough and harsh from last night. The eyes began to relax back towards a more bluish color, gaining a tinge of the color they were in her illusion.
"Oh, he's still here." Youko responded, letting his heightened amusement show in his voice. "He's merely still asleep. I may not be able to take full form, but I can take control of the body while he is asleep or knocked out."
"Of the– so you DID die!" she breathed, her brow furrowing adorably at him. The eyes flashed to completely forest green, with the faintest tinges of gray swirling withing there depths.
"Not quite, kitto. After all, here I am." He raised an eyebrow at her and watched her breath quicken slightly. Ah, sweet revenge. Kurama might not have noticed it that much, but he certainly had. Yesterday afternoon. She had been playing with them. Classic kitsune behavior. It was only right that he be allowed to play back, though, perhaps now was not the time. Her mouth tightened as some jolt of pain, from what, he couldn't tell, hit her. But then, he never did go for the conflicting powers thing. That was Hiei's gripe.
Youko... What's going on?- came Kurama's still slightly confused, sleepy voice. If he had his tails, Youko would have swished them in frustration. And here he was having such a nice conversation with the first prospective mate material he had encountered in a loooong time.
–: Go back to sleep Kurama. :– he grouched back bad-temperedly.
Huh?- his human counterpart immediately jerked fully awake at this.
"Karuri?"
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"Karuri?" he asked, his eyes swirling green-gold as his voice went back to the one she knew. So the other one hadn't been lying about being the same person, and no wonder he was called Kurama. Who hadn't heard of possession as one of the last resorts for staying alive? And it would explain Youko's body never really being found. It probably dissolved as the soul left it. The only reason they thought he was dead was due to the word of the youkai who killed him.
"Are you okay?" he said, sounding and looking generally confused. It hadn't been as evident under the perfect control and elegance of Youko, but his red hair was mussed and his eyes wide now, concern written over his beautiful features. He reached over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, wonderingly quirking his head at her.
"I'm fine, Kurama." she reassured him, managing a smile. Her body was stiff still, and seemed to be freezing in this position. Damn it all... It was just her luck, of course.
"You don't look all right." he rebuked her gently, pulling her over to him. She gasped and shut her eyes tightly as her muscles screamed in protest at the movement, then managed to relax against his body heat. "Mind telling me exactly what was going on last night?" he said. She opened her eyes to see him looking down at her, one eyebrow raised slightly.
"It was nothing." she murmured quietly, looking down and away from his face.
"Nothing?" She couldn't see him, but she could hear one eyebrow being raised in disbelief. "'Nothing' had you screaming and whimpering and like this now?"
She winced slightly both at his words and as his arm tightened around her. At least his warmth was relaxing her to the point where she could almost move.
"O-okay, it wasn't nothing." she admitted, her voice still cracking slightly. "It was just a battle for control."
"Stop trying to play it down, kitto." he warned, his voice deepening to that of Youko again.
"I don't have anything else to describe it!" she tried to yell, frustrated, but her voice broke and she was reduced to a harsh whisper. "All the elements don't really get together for a big happy party and stay the best of friends for ever and ever!"
Great, way to go, Karuri, she thought to herself. If there ever was a way to announce to the world "hello, I'm an elemental kitsune," that was it. Hmph. Like he didn't know before, if he was there last night. All of that turmoil not showing up outside her body? Not a chance.
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Youko! Stop trying that! Can't you see it's hurting her?- Kurama yelled at his counterpart, who had managed to gain temporary control.
–: I want to know, dammit:– the kitsune complained, but relinquished control to him.
Why?- Kurama asked, curious in spite of himself.
–: Well you need to know these things about a possible mate. :– Youko replied, sounding slightly disgruntled.
Kurama was distracted from his disbelief and the continuation of their conversation briefly as Karuri sighed at the lack of further questions and melted against him, causing a warm shiver to pass through his body.
What do you mean, possible mate?- he demanded. -We've known her barely a week!-
–: How long you've known someone is not the issue when you have multiple reasons to believe that they are an extremely powerful race of kitsune, almost rarer than your own. It doesn't hurt that she's as attractive as she is. If this is a toned down illusion... I can't wait to see her with it off. :–
Trust Youko to find a way to include that in his assessment.
How do you know she would be friendly to those advances!- He returned.
–: She's here in our arms, isn't she:– Unsufferable smugness tinged the kitsune's voice.
The situation's a little different.- Kurama insisted dryly.
–: That is beside the point. :–
There was absolutely no point in arguing with him today, was there?
Sao: okay, I'm aware of the fact that this chapter went absolutely nowhere. I DO have some plans for this story that I'm very happy with, I'm just not so sure how to implement them, and right now, I'm writing this at two thirty in the morning so that I can post as I should for once. And to avoid being attacked by veggies again.
Karuri: (snickers)
Sao: Shut up Karuri.
Kurama: Hey, was that Neko over there?
Sao: Why yes! How nice of you to notice! Neko has finally returned to me, and with a vengeance. I have another story that I might be attempting regular posts on... not that I even have the first chapter done yet. I love the characters in it too... sighs.
Oh, and thank you to the wonderful reviewers! I felt so loved! (sniffs.) Unfortunately, like I said, it's two in the morning and I'm lazy and I can't respond individually right now. I might try next chapter, k? Gomen.
Karuri: Ja ne, minna-san!