The Fox's Rose
By MistressTsunami AKA shinchansgirl
Chapter Five
REVISED
9/15/05

You thought I was just a spark.
Something that you could control,
To light the dark.
I am the flame,
That lights the inferno.

-T-shirt from NeonDragonArt "Fire"

For a few days, the time that passed could be called almost peaceful. There were no longer any bags under Kurama's eyes, and taking care of himself had become more than just a routine task. Even if he was doing more – between getting Yuusuke to classes, cleaning up the detective's room (and, eventually, kitchen and bathroom), helping the detective with homework while somehow getting him to stay another night, warming up and doing exercises with Hiei, sparring with Hiei, checking up on the pack, checking the wards, and doing his homework, Kurama hardly had enough time for sleep – he felt better at the end of the day, and, totally exhausted, would collapse in his bed. He no longer worried that Karasu would slip in during the night and harm his family – the nights Hiei spent away from the red-head's house, it seemed, were the nights that he strengthened the wards. The demon in him could feel the energy passing over him as he stepped through the doorways, the demon deterrents accepting him as a member of the house.

But they had expected Karasu to wait a few days before making another move. They would have been caught off guard had he attacked so soon; it was unheard of.

The red-head was becoming slightly wary as he opened his locker door on Saturday and found a note inside. It was simple, really, a plain white envelope sitting on his books for him to take before he left to go home. Carefully, he took it and opened it.

Immediately, he recognized the poem that had been Yuusuke's personal assignment from him the previous night.

To his credit, Kurama did not immediately panic. It had been a love poem they had read, it did not mean that they were being watched. Anyone could have put it there; he did have many admirers, and some would have thought to give him a poem…some would have even had the guts to do it.

The fox-demon scanned the letter for clues. School had just ended, there were too many people around for him to simply sniff it, and he didn't want to take it home unless he knew that there were no dangers attached to doing so – counter-wards could be hidden in anything written he took home with him. He had to be careful.

There was no signature on it, but the envelope had been address to Suuichi Minamino; his human name. A female seeking attention would have left a name…unless the note had come from one of his few male admirers. Human world had a way of looking down on same-gender relationships, however, so while that did explain a lack of signature, that didn't explain how the note was delivered in the first place.

Perhaps it had been from Karasu.

"D…Do you like it, senpai?" stuttered a voice.

Kurama turned to the smaller boy that stood beside him. He had short brown hair that fell into lovely blue eyes…and, from the sense of his spirit energy, was completely human. Kurama smiled. "Did you leave me this?"

"Yes, senpai," the boy answered, his eyes still downcast. Kurama would not have thought the boy capable of such a risky move; he seemed too shy. "My name is Kuri Makoto, and I'm in the first year. I…someone told me that you liked poetry, and even helped me to pick out one that you would like. He said it was one of your favorites." The boy had the grace to blush. "Please accept it."

"Kuri-san…I'm not sure that this is appropriate." Kurama placed a hand on the other boy's shoulder. "Why don't we talk about this someplace a little more private."

The boy nodded. "Thank you, senpai."

Kurama smiled gracefully on the outside, but his insides where whirling. If what the boy said was true – and he had no reason to believe it wasn't – then someone had influenced his choices. There was nothing to fear if the person was simply someone who knew Kurama and was trying to make a joke out of the whole thing – heck, it could have been Yuusuke trying to get revenge, although a little too planned-out for him – but should the being behind all this be Karasu…

It would become complicated the more people the other involved.

"Will this do," Kurama asked, motioning to the empty tennis courts. "I believe the tennis club's activities don't begin for another hour."

The boy nodded. "Yes, this is fine."

Kurama sat down on a bench, motioning for the other to sit beside him. "Kuri-san, you do realize this…well, it could be considered a love poem by some. It's one of Blake's less dark pieces."

The boy blushed again. "I know, senpai. I…I wanted you to have it, because I…please forgive me senpai!" he suddenly shouted. "I know it's wrong, but I like you! I…I've always admired you, and wanted to be with you."

Kurama's smile was small, but gentle. "I'm flattered to be admired so by my underclassmen, but I'm afraid I must dissuade your interest in me. There is disappointment down the road you follow, Kuri-san, as well as a deep damage to your reputation."

"I can…keep it a secret. If you want. But please, senpai, I don't think these feelings will ever go away."

Kurama smiled one last time and stood. "One day, Kuri-san, you'll thank me. I give this back to you, so that one day you may give it to the person you truly care for." He placed the note on the bench and walked away, pretending to ignore the tears that streaked down the cheeks of the other boy.

"Senpai! Wait, please."

Kurama stopped to look at the boy one last time.

"If I…Can I ask a favor of you, senpai?" Makoto asked.

Kurama nodded. "If it is within my power."

"If…if senpai will not accept the letter I gave him, can I at least ask for one kiss?"

"Kuri-san," Kurama sighed. "This really isn't something you should get mixed up in."

"Then…then senpai won't grant me this one request?"

Kurama flinched inwardly. The way the other had said that…it made him feel awful. And the younger boy was so sincere as well. Kurama turned around. "I'll make a deal with you, Kuri-san." Immediately the younger boy's face lit up. "For one month, I want you to seriously take a look at your classmates and upper-class-women. I want you to look for someone you like, and I want you to take your chances with her. If, after that one month, you still feel the same, I will grant your request of one kiss. However," Kurama said sharply, "and I want you to really pay attention to me right now Kuri-san."

"I'm listening, senpai."

"Kuri-san, even if I give you that one kiss that is all I can give you. I'm afraid I don't feel the same."

The boy's head fell so that the brown locks hid his eyes. "I understand."

Once more Kurama walked away to return home, but this time it was the red-head who stopped to speak again. "Kuri-san, may I ask who helped you to pick out that poem?"

"Huh?" the other asked, looking up. "I…I don't know who he was. He came to me after school yesterday and told me. We went to the library to find the poem in one of the books there…he seemed quite insistent on this one, come to think of it. Have…have I offended senpai by bringing him this poem? Should I have chosen another?"

"No, your choice was fine. Please, though, in the future, do not wander off with men you don't know who have seen your secrets."

"Yes, senpai."

Hiei appeared beside Kurama as he left the school grounds. "Foolish boy," he muttered, indicating that he had seen what had happened.

"Indeed, but realize too, Hiei, that humans do not actively look for danger the way we do. They wait for it to come to them."

"Ch. I'd say it came to him. Fool boy's lucky he's not dead."

"Too true…in fact, I'm wondering why he isn't; Karasu would be of the frame of mind to destroy any that had an interest in his intended," Kurama mused. "He is a demon, after all."

Hiei didn't comment; it was always best to let Kurama work things out in his own mind. The red-head was best at strategies and things of that sort, after all. It was a rare occasion when he could be easily manipulated, but Hiei did take advantage of those very few moments.

Red locks danced as Kurama shook his head, dispelling the thoughts. "I'll think on it later," he said. "I have a visit with Koenma to make, and hopefully find us a more suitable living area."

"What about the detective?" his black-haired companion asked.

"He's going to a movie with Keiko, I believe. He did say he would be late, at any rate. Would you mind checking up on the two? and then on that first-year, if you have the time?"

Hiei frowned. "I'm not a babysitter."

"Just Yuusuke then. Be at my house when he goes there, and make certain he doesn't leave. Mother should have some sweet snow for the two of you, if you'd like."

The small Jagan-bearer was already gone.

"Koenma, sir?" Botan called out, peeking into his office through the open door. "I brought Kurama; he said he had something he wanted to talk to you about." The blue-haired girl seemed unusually troubled, but Kurama didn't ask questions. He simply walked inside.

"Ah, Kurama. I'd say it's good to see you, but you usually bring trouble with you. We're overworked as it is; it's a bad time of year for humans – a plague in one of the smaller countries, but it still makes more work for my ferry girls."

"I noticed that Botan seemed a bit more distant today than usual. Are they all overworked?"

"It seems so, I may have to recruit a few more from the training school before they're ready – not many can become Grim Reapers, you know, but there should be at least two or three I can pull from. I really need Botan on hand for other work – she's my closest contact to your team, after all, and she's able to keep a watch on the demon activity in Human World, and know when something's wrong. Quite a handy trait, if I do say so myself."

Kurama nodded. "It would be. Unfortunately, I haven't come here today to discuss the deaths of humans."

"I didn't think you would."

"I'm in need of an apartment for myself, Hiei, and Yuusuke."

The young toddler frowned around his pacifier. "I don't see why; the three of you have lived in Human world for quite a while now without any problems concerning living arrangements."

"I didn't think there was a problem either, until I realized where our detective was staying. I've taken him into my care, but I don't think that my current home is suitable for the three of us – I hope that you are aware that Hiei spends a great deal of time in my company, and, while I do not mind sharing a bed with him, our relationship has not yet risen to that level of commitment, if it ever should. I don't wish to burden my mother with unnecessary work, either, so I was hoping for the three of us to move in together."

"I still don't see why that's brought you here."

"Spirit world's footing the bill."

"What!" Koenma shouted, shocked at the nerve of the demon-soul before him.

"Electric, heat, water, rent, cable, phone, and anything else that arises – including grocery, clothing, and other necessities – Spirit world will pay for. I do believe that we've earned that much from you. Yuusuke did agree to be your spirit detective when he realized he could see demons after his death, but the situation at Maze Castle, fighting Suzaku, the Toguro brothers, and the most recent event – the Dark Tournament – were all above and beyond what was needed in order to reconcile his debt to you." Green eyes were sharp, tinted gold, practically daring the demi-god to protest. "In short, you owe all of those involved more than what you have given – which is, in essence, nothing. And don't even try to protest that Yuusuke did it to repay you; you said before he came back to life that his debt to you was repaid; I've heard that from his own mouth, and Yuusuke isn't one to lie."

For a few moments, Jr. sat at his desk in shock, his mouth hanging open and the pacifier threatening to fall. His gaze fell to his desk; this wasn't the usual Kurama he could negotiate with – something had seriously ticked him off. The demi-god sighed. He did agree that he owed Yuusuke something for his efforts. "We can cover the cost of the apartment – including utilities – but you're on your own for food, clothing, and personal necessities."

"All of it, Junior, or Hiei and I wreck havoc on the human world. Yuusuke would help us as well, I'm sure. We recently discovered that he may have demon blood in him, and he always has been somewhat of a rebel, I'm sure he wouldn't mind helping us out."

"You'd get put back in jail if you tried something like that!"

"Only if you could catch us." His hair was streaked with silver, his ears pointed and slightly furred. "Tell me, boy, does your power extend all the way into the depths of demon world, or do you only deal with it's dead?"

Koenma gulped. It really wasn't proper for him to give into the request, but, to be quite honest…Youko scared him. "Fine, we'll cover all costs," he said, trying his best to hide his fear, although he was fairly certain the other could smell it anyway. "Give me a month, and I'll find something decent for you."

"You have a week," Youko said, ears twitching, "or heads start to roll."

Koenma was never happier to see that boy leave.

Kurama sat at his desk, exhausted after his 'talk' with Koenma. The child-sized god wasn't difficult to deal with most days, but when he wanted something done quickly, the red-head was forced to draw out the demon within.

Which wasn't too difficult when said demon wanted to be let out.

Returning to his human body, though, sometimes left him somewhat drained – although not ever very profusely – and traveling to human world on his own had been tiring.

Maybe he should have waited for Botan to make another trip.

But he hadn't wanted to impose on the girl any more than he had to – she did have a lot of work to do – and he had wanted to be home as soon as possible, possibly even before Yuusuke and Hiei returned. He had. After informing his mother that they were still looking for a place to stay, but should have one by the end of the week if everything went according to plan, Kurama had gone to his room and pulled out his own homework. And proceeded to glare at it.

He was tired; he didn't want to do it. He blamed both Karasu and Yuusuke's mother for the unintended rush and – since they weren't around at the moment – glared out his frustrations on the innocent paper. So intent was he on turning his math homework into a flaming pile of ash that he didn't notice the mask placed over his mouth until it was too late to do anything about it. He inhaled deeply, unable to prevent the instinctive gasp for breath, and took in a large dosage of sedative as he did. He fell limply into Karasu's arms, asleep, and unable to wake up.

"I told you that we would do things the hard way if you didn't comply, pet," Karasu muttered, burying his face in Kurama's long red hair. "But perhaps this is for the best. A good beating to put you in your place and prove that you are mine should still those doubts within your mind. And if not, we'll always be able to have a good match. I'll never be able to let you win again, but…we could still have fun.

"I'm proud of you, in a way. Still, I wish it were me you were protecting, and not some weak-minded mortal. Proud…and frustrated with you. It's going to be a fun first few weeks, isn't it, love?"

And with those chilling words, Karasu left human world with Kurama tucked under his arm.

Hiei's head still hurt slightly when he woke up. It took him a few moments to recognize what it was that had disturbed his sleep – Kurama's mother turning over in bed upstairs, a few doors down from Yuusuke – and quelled the immediate reaction to return to sleep on the couch.

Something was wrong.

On silent feet he raced up the stairs into the demon fox's room.

Empty.

That wasn't right; the demon-fox should have returned from spirit world long before now, and been in bed.

There weren't any signs of a struggle, but there were signs that the other boy had been home after speaking to Koenma – and now that he thought about it, he remembered Shiori mentioning that he was in his room studying. The demon-spirit wasn't here though. The homework lay on his desk, still half-finished, his clothes and chair were still in their proper places, the bookshelf stood merrily off to one side, the plants were still on the nightstand, leaves fluttering occasionally in the night air when a breeze fluttered past.

The window.

The window was open.

With a growl of frustration Hiei raced to the guest room, careful not to wake his fox's mother. He had assumed it would be days – weeks, even – before Kurama's stalker made another move. He had thought that they would have time to train and prepare, to tell Yuusuke and the others what was happening. He had thought the wards would deter him, possible even keep them safe, or at the very least warn them.

Apparently not.

"Detective," he called out. "Wake up; Kurama's missing." There wasn't any response from the nearly comatose human. It appeared that he still felt the situation was safe.

And why would he think otherwise? No one had told him of the dead man's return.

This time Hiei dared to shake the other boy's shoulder. "Get out of bed, detective." With a slight push from his warded jagan, he spoke directly into the other's dreams. Time to wake up; Kurama has been… fox-napped.

Yuusuke slowly drifted awake. "…'iei?" he asked.

"Get up detective."

"…'rama's missin'?"

"Yes. Now get your lazy ass out of bed; we need to see Genkai."

Slowly, Yuusuke sat on the bed. "…We're going to see Grandma?" he asked, more coherent as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Yes stupid. Get dressed. We don't have much time."

Hiei had a bad feeling, to put it lightly. Something was bothering him, but he wasn't quite sure what that something was. Perhaps it was because, when they sparred, the kitsune had worn him out long before he had expected to be remotely tired, but that he could easily dismiss. He had, after all, been in the midst of plant life during their sprees, giving the fox a clear advantage. Maybe then it was how quickly the human form of the demon fox had worn out, even though they had been in a place full of plant life. That was something he wasn't able to dismiss as easily.

Hiei barged into the detective's room as the sun rose, rocks settling in the pit of his stomach as he thought of the dark demon who was after their fox, not that any demon wasn't dark. He considered using his third eye to check up on the kitsune, but didn't want to risk the energy it would take, nor did he want to risk being noticed by any loyal to the bird-demon.

Kurama had been exhausted from the talks with Koenma, most likely. If Karasu had managed to get into the kitsune's room he would have…a brief image flashed before Hiei's eyes, not supported by his third eye, yet not turned down either.

He did not like that.

He growled, the sound drawing Yuusuke's attention. With a nod from the detective, they both turned to leave the house and visit Genkai's temple. Hiei remembered to lock the door behind Yuusuke and left through Kurama's broken window, since he didn't have a key – there was no sense in alarming Kurama's human mother. And while Hiei restored his strength, Genkai could summon up the few others who were not already there, as no doubt all of Kurama's pack would want to help in rescuing him.

He only hoped that Yukina wasn't there. He still didn't want to tell her that he was her brother, didn't want to burden her, and yet the ice demon seemed to accept him as a sibling anyway, by blood or not.

Those feelings confused him, and he needed a clear head for rescuing his fox.

Not that he would object if she were there.

"Yo grandma!" Yuusuke called, having finally reached the top the great staircase that led to her temple. "Where are ya?"

"Over here, dimwit," Genkai answered, standing in the doorway of her home. "Get inside, both of you."

Yuusuke looked behind him to see Kuwabara following him. "Hey, shorty bring you here, too?"

"Yeah. I gotta bad feeling about this one," Kuwabara answered.

"You always say that."

"Yeah, but this time it's different. This time it feels…personal."

"Whatever, man." Yuusuke didn't mention the fact that he knew why they were there – beyond the fact that Kurama (recently dubbed "monster" by the Urameshi boy) was missing, he knew nothing of the situation.

The black-haired boy was the first to enter, followed by his red-head schoolmate. He wondered idly why Hiei had gone to fetch their teammates without warning – it was rather disconcerting to realize that the one you were talking to was no longer there – but didn't think to comment on it at the moment. He had already taken his frustration over that out on a wall, and hopefully wouldn't be fined for the damage if anyone recognized him.

Kuwabara, of course, had to point it out the obvious fact of the missing members of the usual team. "Why hello there, Yukina. Where's Botan and the pretty boy?"

"I'm not sure, Kazuma," Yukina answered. "Hiei was the one to call us together. Would you like some tea?"

"Sure," Kuwabara answered, sitting down next to the ice maiden. Yuusuke sat across from him, on Yukina's other side, forming a semi-circle on one end of the table that faced Genkai.

"So where's the shrimp?" Yuusuke asked; he hadn't seen Hiei since they left.

"I am not a shrimp," Hiei answered from the shadowed wall behind Yukina. "You don't have to stay, Yukina, if you don't want to."

"I'm fine, Hiei," the ice maiden told the dark figure, "would you like some tea?"

"No thanks. We need to get straight to business. Koenma may or may not know about this, before you ask. And I, personally, don't care. I called you all here because you are all a part of Kurama's pack, whether you wish to be or not. He would give his life to protect you, and so I feel that it is within your rights to seek revenge on his behalf."

"Woah, wait up, revenge?" Yuusuke asked. "I know fox-boy's missing, but isn't revenge a bit much? I thought he was only going to talk to Koenma, not disappear to the other side of the world."

"What happened to the pretty boy?" Kuwabara asked. "What's this about seeing diaper-boy?"

"I was getting to that, you dolt. He's been kidnapped, or fox-napped, if you will. We are the only ones available to get him back."

"Oh my," Yukina interrupted, "how terrible."

Hiei nodded, accepting her interjection. "It gets worse."

"What's so tough? Can't we just take him back? I really don't see the big deal here."

"Of course you don't, idiot, after all, that takes brains," Genkai interrupted, saving Hiei from explaining.

"So tell us, Grandma, what's up?" asked Yuusuke.

"Think about it. Any demon able to fox-nap Kurama would have to be extremely strong, and be able to get past his defenses without actually killing him, so they'd also have to be skilled. And, judging from the psycho's reaction, there's more to this than meets the eye."

Hiei nodded. "The one after the kitsune was Karasu."

"You mean that dude from the tournament with all the bombs? The one that nearly killed Kurama?"

"Yes. Apparently, he's not as dead as we thought. I saw indications that Kurama had come back after speaking with Koenma last night, and his mother all but confirmed it. That's not the worst of it, though. Karasu's come back…to claim Kurama as his mate," Hiei explained.

"Oh, dude, that's just wrong."

TBC…