Mine
Sao: ...
Saor: ...
Neko: They're having a staring contest. You must be very very quiet.
Sao: ...
Saor: ...
Neko: Okay I'm bored. BOO!
Sao: ...
Saor: AAAUGH!
Sao: Hah! I win!
Saor: THAT'S CUZ YOU FELL ASLEEP AGAIN!
Sao: I did?
Neko: No. You were just in a trance and Saor being the simple minded person she is, she figured you were asleep.
Hiei: Hn. Bakas.
Sao: Hiei? What are you doing here? This is Kurama and Karuri's fic.
Neko: Yes, but they are (ahem) otherwise occupied most of the time so I brought someone else in before I died of boredom.
Saor: But, but, but, you remember what happened last time?
Hiei: (glares at Saor)
Saor: AAAUGH! (runs and hides in a closet)
Sao: Uh-oh.
Neko: Gomen! I was bored! Besides, he comes in in this chappie...
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Youko and Karuri were headed back towards the dojo for lack of a better place to go, the afternoon sunlight washing them in red-gold, bringing a fiery tint to Youko's silver tails, ears, and hair. and a blazing glory to the already fiery colors of Karuri's. Suddenly he stopped, sniffing the air slightly.
"Nani?" she asked softly.
"Hiei's here."
"Why would he be here? I thought you said he was off training on his own."
"I really don't know, kitto." he replied amiably, pulling her against him to breathe in her ear, "That's why we're going to go find out."
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Hiei flitted past the trees of Genkai's forest, giving the area that was thoroughly saturated with kitsune youki a wide, wide berth. He was here for two reasons: one, his own training had begun to bore him slightly, and he knew that after even a brief stay with the insanity that was the other Reikai Tentai, he would be glad enough to return to it. Two: he knew that the baka was here, and while he trusted Genkai to at least keep him thoroughly busy, he still didn't trust the baka around Yukina.
He caught the barest whiff of cinnamon as he came within sight of the temple. It was faint at first, but quickly permeated the air very subtly the closer he came. He slid aside the shoji door at the porch, closing it soundlessly and beginning to explore slightly, both looking for and avoiding the others who were here.
The cinnamon everywhere was beginning to make him very glad that he had not been here most of the time. It was easy to identify which room was theirs- the scent intensified times ten when he came closer to it. The room must be swamped in it, he thought. If he had ears like one of the kitsune, he would have pinned them back in annoyance. The whole race of them was baki insane, for sure. Who else would have decided that in order to gain a life-mate you had to work both yourselves up to it for an entire month together and yet be absolutely forbidden to so much as see your partner nude?
"Konnichiwa Hiei. Come here to check on someone?"
Hiei turned around from his path further down the hallway to find Youko with his head quirked to the side just slightly, the female kitsune, Karuri, with her chin nestled over his shoulder from behind.
Why did kitsune have to have so many dratted tails? He could swear it had to be just to annoy other people, and perhaps throw off their enemies. Hiei forcibly stopped himself from attempting to figure out how many there were on the both of them; it would probably leave him confused and very irritable.
He let his silence stand for an answer; he knew the kitsune would be able to figure it out on his own- probably already had.
The silver chuckled softly- yes, he definitely already knew.
"Do you realize that this entire temple reeks of excitement?" he queried.
Both kitsune flashed almost identical fanged grins for answers. Really. They were downright infuriating sometimes. He narrowed his eyes slightly in annoyance.
"She's downstairs and around the first right corner, in case you wanted to know." Youko informed him. Finally, something useful from him. Get an overly repressed kitsune and a possible mate and they became completely unreasonable, truly. Hiei flashed away to go check on his sister so he could get out of here.
He had been completely right. Even a few minutes here was enough to make him want to go back to his own training, and he hadn't even seen the baka or the tentai.
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Youko laughed softly as Hiei flitted quickly away from them, turning his head to nuzzle Karuri's cheek gently.
"Does he always seem that uncomfortable around other people?" she asked.
"Not always. Just when said other people are acting in ways he considers ridiculous, which incidentally is, I believe, his current word to describe us."
She bit back a laugh, though her eyes sparkled with amusement.
"So why don't we get out of his way?" she suggested, threading arms around his neck to pull herself up more comfortably, effectively draping herself over his shoulder, feet no longer touching the ground. Her tails twined around his torso and arms, keeping her balanced, albeit barely.
"What an excellent idea." he replied, pulling her over his shoulder into his arms bridal style, earning a short yelp of surprise, followed by a mock glare.
"You are a bad person."
"I've learned to live with the shame."
Karuri reached up to nibble gently on his lip, which he took advantage of to lock his mouth with hers, slowly at first but increasing in intensity, which she eagerly matched, locking arms around his neck. When they broke apart, her cheeks were flushed mildly and they were both panting slightly.
"It's hard to believe it's full moon... It's seemed like forever and now suddenly it's over." she murmured.
"Hai. But it's true." he whispered back.
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The night was perfectly still. Perfectly quiet. Unnaturally quiet. A single breath of wind swept over emerald grass almost glowing with youki. The sky was velvet black, dotted with liquid diamond stars. The clearing was dominated by the silver moon, perfectly round and full, hanging overhead.
Karuri and Youko were in the very middle of the clearing- their clearing, where they had begun courtship and where they would finish it.
As if on the stroke of midnight a single beat shattered the eerie silence, vibrating in the air, high and melodic. Another followed it, rending the ringing aftertones with a deeper vibrato.
There was no other; no priest, no judge; no marriage. This was left to the ningen and those who require some physical proof, witness, to their union.
But they were kitsune of the seventh class. The only witness to their union was the trees, the stars and the moon.
Another tone soared through the air, high and triumphant. The other joined it, weaving a subtle harmony around the treble of the first. Both kitsune were perfectly still, eyes locked on the moon, as the sounds of an ancient tradition soared around them.
Then both tones stopped, abruptly. A breeze picked up, swirling around them and lifting hair to twirl about their bodies, tugging at tails.
A lilting tune began, light and carefree at first, then growing heavier and lower, before switching almost into a minor key. It stopped with the soaring riff, into the heavens in seeming ecstasy.
It switched into a single background note as another song began, this one a minor key from the beginning. It followed slightly the same lilting pattern at the very beginning, before starting to spiral down in a dramatic cadence. It screamed painfully onto an off note for a split second before returning to a slight recap of the lilting pattern. Finally it began a staccato rising beat before soaring into the same riff of blinding ecstasy. (A/N: THAT IS A FRIGGIN' WEIRD WORD! Okay, now that I've thoroughly ruined the mood...)
The first tone joined the second in the liquid vibrato in the heavens, weaving around it in complex harmonies and very subtle dissonances until they both faded off into silence once more.
Slowly they both looked down to meet each other's eyes. The breeze was dispelled, overpowered by the rising air that rushed up over them, as youki levels rose till it became nearly overpowering. One step, two steps toward each other. Both were clothed only by their tails. Three steps. Four. Five, and Youko's hands reached out to grasp her hips, pulling her closer to him. Karuri reached up as if in a dream, to gently run fingertips over his bare chest towards the neck.
His hands ran up over her waist, gently over the curves of her breasts concealed beneath the tail, to trace a line along her collarbone, drawing her towards him slowly. Their eyes never left each other, until finally the spell was broken when she was drawn flush against him, too close to see each other.
He nipped at the junction of neck and shoulder, then soothing it with his tongue, feeling the heat of her body against his increase, the blood quicken. A moment more his lips covered the spot, savoring her taste, before pulling her against him and sinking teeth into the tender flesh. A sharp pain in the same place on his body followed, as the ritual was completed.
"Mine." the husky whisper was lost in the silence of the clearing as Youko pulled Karuri tight against him.
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PROBLEM: this story is seriously going downhill. I am frazzled and it's completely turning into a homework assignment to me.
SOLUTION: I'm gonna post this, and then actually work on getting it back in line, and hopefully start posting again after school's over. Hopefully the laziness of summer will help. Because I'm seriously getting p.o.ed at this story right now, and because I haven't been able to write it properly, and Neko has decided to hover just out of my reach right now.
aside from this depressing note;
THANKS TO:
Ugly Kitten: It's so unfair that you are already out of school. I don't get out for another three weeks or so. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. I am so tired of school... I repeat that tying me to a chair gets you nowhere though... (gives you cyber brownies and a Youko plushie) there you go!
Princess Kandra: Don't worry... you're not the only lazy one.
sillylittlenothing: yeah... this chapter's kinda... Um. It's um. That's my word for it. O.o.
bookworm0492: yay 'nother song! I have no idea what this one is though, so...
animagrl: ummmm... no lemon. I have said why back in chappie eleven already, and I think it's very good reasons. I might not even get as close as I thought I might if I'm in the wrong mood... I don't write smut except when I'm in a smut mood. O.o ignore me... I'm being p.o.ed today...
Lucifer001: OH MY KAMI! You actually went through and reviewed each chapter! I feel so luffed! (glomps) You get the Youko plushie just for that!
LilPurrfection: ... Update is here, but I can't say when the next one will be.
kittyluv: Cyber brownies and Youko plushie! (hands them over)
Rachel: Amazing. Please remind me who Useless is, as you will be sending him/her after me now...