Fate's Child Destiny's Friend: So…should that be a 'then grins lopsidedly at both his brother and cousin'? I honestly thought what I'd had was all right, but it works this way, too, I suppose…—tilts head and mumbles to self for a few minutes—

Darknesspirals: Nope, can't blame you a bit. Hells, even I can't remember some of what I wrote unless I go back and read it. I had a couple of plot-holes pop up that way in Fox's Mischief, and probably at least once in my other stories, too. Anybody spots 'em, point 'em out and you get a cookie. If I've already marked it, likely as not it'll prove to be an interesting twist or bit of foreshadowing later.

Not quite the loophole I meant there (let's hear it for random leaps of logic, yeah?) but yes, she's left herself—and the gang—a loophole. Specifically, a portal keyed to their energy signatures. I left that out of the story, so I'm putting it here, where only the smart people read.

Kitsune Kit: —while hiding all the dangerous chocolate from Aislin— So you're no longer a freshie, huh? That's good, people will want to can you less. Maybe if you poke fun at the newspaper staff in your articles they'll go away? We'll see you when you can drop by!

—voice comes on over a loudspeaker that appears from nowhere— For public safety, please do not feed the ice-fox sugar or pixies. Thank you, that is all. —bzzt!—

Aislin: No, that's your universe over there. My own Yoko, however, is off-limits.

Asilin Kheldarson: Poorly, that's how. I love the little pipe-fox spirit, it's so adorable and fuzzy! But to answer your question, yes, I'm leaving all the fun details up to your own inventive little minds. More fun for you, less work for me. Also, I'm too lazy to bother changing the rating of this fic, and your outcries of displeasure when I leave something hanging like that amuse me.

Starling: Oh, very bad pun! No cookie for you! Bad Niana!

Heh-heh-heh. 'n,.,n'

Seeyu: Yes, reading others in the timeline does usually help. Unless you're someone like Piers Anthony or Mercedes Lackey or one of the other greats. Then, then you don't need to read in order. Me, I like overlapping bits and pieces of my stories, it convinces people to read them all. Sneaky, aren't I? —pleased smile—

DevilDucky1304: Trust me, unless you're as naïve as I used to be—before my sister and her friends had the joy of corrupting me, that is—this chappie should clear it all up. If not, just check back to what Rei said when Kurama dropped by.

Luna's Lady Love: Here ya go, an update! To answer: 1) They'll be getting very…um…itchy. Vows of chaste behavior will be sorely strained. 2) He's very creative. I'm sure he'll think of something. ¬,.,¬ · · ·

Konane Shadow Wolf: Glad you like. Keep reading!

EarthHeartIdiot: Welcome! I like puns, puns are amusing. Make as many as you want to. No, the reunion is not going to be written, mostly because if I did, this fiction would go unfinished thanks to Hiei chopping me into tiny pieces. I abuse my OC's, any regular can tell you this. The more I like or the more I use, the more shyte I put them through. Aislin being absolutely no exception. However, my ice-fox-mutt gives far better than she gets in most cases (ie, she may have gotten beat up by those guards, but they are the ones who are very, very dead.) Crappy situations build character.

Starling: NIANA! That was HORRIBLE!

CrimsonSnowflake: I think I need to remind you, web-links don't work in reviews unless you add spaces. Care to try again? Yes, faeries vary. They vary everywhere, just ask any mythological…um, is expert the word to use?

—————To everyone who has ever received a review from me in their careers, 'specially those I have in my favs: I apologize for not being caught up on your own stories. All I can say is, that thing they call reality eats lots of time, and never, EVER, EVER get DSL. Go for cable. DSL whomps the uber whompage. Thank you.———————

Warning: This chapter contains lots of innuendo, but no actual snogging.

————————————————————————————

Oh, hells, it's hot. She hangs suspended in a world of ice, her very core burning her alive with the heat. Why is it so damned hot and why can she not move? Something's going to be bitten in short order if she doesn't find herself moving in a moment. A blessed patch of cold settles at her back and she soaks it up eagerly, basking in the relief until something passes by her nose. It smells of life, and she's starving…

"OW! Damn it to hell, Aislin, that fucking hurt!" The sweetness in her mouth is pried away with several inventive curses that she hadn't come up with. Only one person she knows who can actually invent as many creative curses as she can.

"Yo…ko?"

"You're awake. Lovely. You bit me, and without any fun first." Yoko's normally seductive voice is sullen, full of something much earthier than anger. "Did you have to bite me on the ward burns? You did, didn't you?"

"Shut up and kiss me, moron."

"At the moment, I have something that, for once, might be tastier than me. Say 'ah'."

She manages to pry open one eye to see her beloved dangling what looks like a bunch of grapes over her head. "Are those Makai grapes?"

"Yes."

"Good. 'Ah'." She revels in the sweet taste, juice mingling with the traces of her mate's blood lingering in her mouth. "Kitsune with grape chaser. Yummy."

Yoko can't help but smile as he feeds her, leaning back against a thick main branch so that the two half-recline, her head resting just above his stomach. "I'd say 'bite me' but you already have. Can we have a little bit of foreplay before you do that again?"

Her mind's still hazy with exhaustion and hunger, but she vaguely remembers a vow she'd made not to bed him until his new body is physically old enough…how old was old enough in a human? "We're not mating. You're still too young."

The silver fox pops another grape into her mouth and speaks into the silence left by chewing. "Koibito, my body is eighteen and has been since two months ago. That's legally old enough and quite old enough for my hormones, thank you very much. For the love of all that's holy, don't torture me."

There was something else, and she tries to figure it out while continuing to eat the offerings of her beloved. She's gone through five bunches of grapes, two apples, and the venison before she remembers what else she had thought about before she'd gone on the mission involving the barrier. Yoko had remained silent after his plea, waiting until that introverted, distracted expression of hers clears. "For real this time."

Yoko pulls his attention from the pheromones driving him delightfully insane. "For real what?"

Levering herself up, the mixed-blood looks her lover in the eye. "This time, we're not going to just talk about starting a family. Every time we've just talked about it, something bad happens. I don't want to talk about it anymore, I want to make it a reality. And that's the only way you're getting anything. Otherwise, you sit over here and I sit over there or something and I do my damnedest to ignore you."

Heat fills the cherished golden eyes as the fox pulls his beloved close and leans in for a kiss, whispering just before their lips touch, "Wish granted."

——

"Fool, I would not disturb them if I were you."

"Aw, come on, Hiei!" complains Yusuke as they walk down the cobblestone path with a resigned Yamato in the lead. "They've been recuperating from that secret mission of theirs for two days! I've been working my ass off and by Kami they're going to get off their tails and help!" Almost as an afterthought, "Why is it so cold around here?"

Hiei refrains from comment, silent even when the talisman sealing the clearing is severed by the holy sword he remembers so well from the last time he'd encountered it, watching Rei in this very place. It's still nearly giving him hives. He thinks in the direction of the sword with venom, Maybe I should break it And smirks internally when it ceases its attempts to cleanse his soul of darkness.

The second the ward dissipates Hiei claps a hand over his nose, almost overwhelmed by the pheromones that had been contained within. Several fruit-bearing plants are standing forlornly around the massive tree, the only things visible of the tree's occupants being one bare male foot and the trailing end of an empty sleeve.

Yusuke stalks to the base of the tree, oblivious to all the signs, and shouts with a disgusting level of cheer, "Rise and shine, lovebirds! Time to get your tails to work!"

In response, the foot disappears from sight and a shoe is thrown with unerring accuracy into Yusuke's head. "Piss off!" comes a groggy snarl. Hiei smirks openly this time. Yoko sounds satisfied, at least. But when Yusuke makes as though to jump up there to roust them out of their nest by sheer force, Hiei restrains him with a hand clamped onto his shoulder.

"Unless you wish to see more than you'd like," he drawls in a mild tone, "I suggest you keep your feet on the ground."

"Why?" Yusuke's face is the picture of naivete. "Are they naked up there or something?"

Eyeing the sleeve fluttering in an afternoon breeze, Hiei gives a neutral, "Probably."

"Oh. Then I really don't." And he spreads his feet in a firm stance just to make his point. A tousled pewter head peers over the edge of the tree-hollow, green eyes only half open but with a sated smile on the carmine lips.

"I'm surprised," the stranger says in Aislin's voice, still soft from sleep. "You don't want to see a pretty naked woman? Are you sure you're a male?"

"Mine," comes the satisfied male voice again, sounding no little territorial. The pewter fox disappears with a giggle and a thud, several rustling sounds emanating from the sanctuary.

"With all due respect, kitsune-sama," Yamato states in disapproval, "the temple's sacred tree is not meant to be the setting for bedroom games. If you would be so kind, go. Home."

"Spoilsport priest," sighs Aislin's voice again, both foxes leaping down a few moments later in equal states of clothed disarray. Yusuke is busy turning crimson as it finally occurs to him what exactly his friends have been doing, his gaze stuck on Aislin busy trying to finger-comb her mottled storm cloud tresses.

"For two whole fricken' days?"

"Ah, he gets it," purrs Yoko, looking very pleased with himself. "For a moment there I was afraid it would go over your head." And that wicked smile of his grows while his demon-descended companion dissolves into incomprehensible spluttering.

Hiei, however, is eyeing his soul-twin's new look. "What's this for?" he asks with a jerk of his chin. Yamato, satisfied that the unwelcome guests would not be going back to their—ahem—revelry, turns and stalks with a cat's offended air back up the pathway to his regular duties.

Eyes the color of new pine needles blink at him then clear. "I need to keep my body temperature higher on the standard scale if I'm going to carry to term so I'm tapping into a single portion of my bloodline. I'll have to wait a few days until it can be confirmed, but I doubt any kits would be able to cope with my preferred form. Not to mention that shifting too often will be bad for them."

Yusuke finds a new subject to splutter about, combined with wide eyes and much pointing. "You…you mean you're…you're really…"

"Won't be able to tell for a little bit yet, but we're hoping," Yoko confirms with an even bigger grin, practically beaming at his friends as though he'd just been given the number of how many kits to expect. However, the grin disappears with Hiei's next sly statement.

"You do realize that human custom dictates there should be a wedding somewhere between conception and delivery?"

Both foxes freeze, dismay clear to read in both. Aislin is the first to snap out of it. "But I don't want one!"

"Could always pretend you eloped," offers Yusuke, swallowing his embarrassment to help avoid an event he would not enjoy but would still likely get roped in for. "Just pick up a couple of nice rings and act like that's why you've been gone."

For a moment the pair brightens, then Kurama, abruptly in his human form, droops. "No, it would disappoint Mother."

"And the other girls would make us have one anyway just so they could participate," adds his mate with equal depression. "We're stuck with it."

Hiei's voice is purposefully bland, but mischief gleams in orbs the color of blood-wine. "Add 'wedding' to the list, then, since I've located the Sunstone."

——

"Shkatha, what does my agent report?"

"Milord, the Avalons have successfully bonded with four of the five stones and your agent has yet to be spotted by either the Silver Thief, the Winter Rose, or the Jaganshi."

"What of the fifth stone?"

A shuffling of paper. "Milord, the Sunstone is currently being kept in Ningenkai's Kurayami no Mori, near the residence of the psychic Genkai."

"Do they know where it is?"

"I am informed that they do, milord."

A long, pleased hiss. "Excellent. Continue to watch their progress. Let me know the instant that the bonding ceremony is complete for the fifth stone."

"As you command, milord."

——

"But where are we going to have a wedding that can hold everyone?" comes an unhappy near-wail from a dark-haired woman striding with three other males up a cobblestone path. "Everywhere in Makai will be too dangerous for most of the human guests, and I can't think of anywhere in Ningenkai that can hold everyone from the Lair, everyone in your clan and family, and the people I want to invite!"

"What about a wedding?" chirps a curious voice, a lithe body leaping from the bushes alongside the path. Hiei actually smiles at his beloved as Kohaku shifts back into her human form, sweeping that long length of ponytail over her shoulder.

"Yo, wolf-girl," greets Yusuke, beaming at her. He jerks his thumb over at Kurama and Aislin, his grin turning wicked. "These two are gettin' hitched."

"Really?" Kohaku gasps, her face lighting up. Both foxes nod mournfully at her and she whoops, hugging them both hard before running back into the brush, howling at the top of her lungs. More jubilant howls join hers at the news she spreads, as well as several other shrieks and assorted noises, the inhabitants of the forest also choosing to congratulate the pair.

"Oh, I'm going to be so embarrassed when we tell the Lair," Aislin groans, hiding her face in her hands. "They're going to be so much worse."

"What's all the racket about?" demands Genkai when the quartet reaches the top of the temple steps, her wrinkled face creased into a deep frown. "That girl's going to scare all the game away and I'll have to hear everyone's empty stomachs all night."

"Genkai, do you where we can have a wedding that will hold seven hundred plus guests?" Kurama asks a trifle desperately. The faded pink eyebrows rise.

"I might. Why? Are you two bothering to get—" Pale brown eyes focus on the dark-hued Aislin and narrow, and in a voice of doom the psychic declares, "You…are pregnant."

"Oh, so it did work? I'm glad." Aislin looks ridiculously pleased by the news, sharing a smile with her mate. "I'd hate to have had all that effort be for nothing."

"When did you…nevermind. I don't want to know. I don't need you to tell me, your auras are practically screaming it." The psychic beckons them to follow her and slowly walks down the stone-paved path to the main building, Hiei flitting off to go find Kohaku while the other three follow after Genkai. The old woman tosses a wry smile at the foxes, never breaking stride. "So you two need to get married, eh? Human conventions, no doubt."

"No choice," sighs Kurama in correction. "I can't disappoint my human mother and the girls—Yukina excluded, I think—won't let us get away with merely 'eloping'."

"Good point," Genkai concedes. "Do you two have any ideas about places yourself?"

"Well," admits Aislin shyly, "I don't know about koi, but there is a place I was thinking of…I don't think it's big enough, though," she adds in disappointment.

Kurama looks down at her for a moment, confused, before his emerald eyes twinkle. "Church of Redemption?" His beloved's smile says it all.

Genkai makes a thoughtful sound. "If I remember your description of it, the church itself won't hold that many, but you could always have an outdoor wedding." The psychic snags a startled Yukina on their way past the statue the ice apparition was dusting and pulls her gently along. "Yukina, what do you think?"

"About what?" is the blank response. Yusuke chortles in glee: he's enjoying this far more than is probably good for him.

"Kurama and Aislin are getting married."

"Married?"

(("Hand-fasted,")) translates Aislin into Koorime and garnet eyes clear.

"Oh!" Yukina's face is wreathed in smiles. "So you're finally making it official? That's wonderful! Congratulations! Did you consider letting Koenma-sama presiding over the ceremony?"

A shake of the storm-dark head. "No, we hadn't gotten that far yet." The conversation continues while everyone turns into the living room, finds seats according to their preferences, and settles in. "Right now we're trying to figure out a place that can handle everyone without putting most of the human guests at risk."

"An outdoor ceremony would be a lovely idea, though we need to make sure the weather will be clear," muses Yukina, resting a fingertip on her tilted chin in thought. "Perhaps the Blade-arm wolves would oblige."

As though the name of the sister-clan is a summons, four bundles of energy explode into the room, caroling their congratulations with joy and mixing up Wolf with Japanese and several rather silly love ballads they'd heard Kami-only-knows where. Aislin and Kurama are practically buried under armloads of flora, laughing as they shake off bee's balm, roses, daises, strands of morning glory, lilies, ivy, 'church bells', starflower, angelwing, and several other varieties.

In a much calmer fashion, in comes Inazuma and Nadeshiko, each holding a long-stemmed red rose. "Our congratulations, benefactors," the alpha male tells the foxes in his deep baritone, handing Aislin his rose while the female wolf hands Kurama hers. "If you can wait until the wedding, you may have what you seek with no effort, on the condition you don't forget to invite us."

The four younger wolves freeze in dismay. That they might not even get invited hadn't occurred to them. Kohaku relaxes, knowing that since she's a team-mate, the odds that an envelope would end up in her mailbox are good. Takumi, Takara, and Suzume are not so sanguine, however. They whirl to face the startled foxes, voices rising in fervent pleas.

Aislin silences them with a wave of her hand, speaking into the following stillness. "Calm down, please! I wouldn't dream of not inviting you!"

Cheers, and the duo are once again happily glomped, all four pups waltzing out while singing one of the soppiest love songs at the tops of their collective lungs. Genkai sighs into the quiet that they leave, rubbing an ear with a grimace. "This place hasn't been the same since you showed up, Inazuma. Those children will bring the roof down any day."

"They are young and energetic," replies Inazuma, his handsome features bland. "Children do tend to have unholy amounts of energy, Genkai-san."

"Which wears out the rest of us," is the raspy retort.

Kurama enters the conversation again, his face filled with puzzlement. "Inazuma-san, how did you discover that we need the Sunstone?"

Nadeshiko answers instead of her mate. "We intercepted a correspondence from one of your agents that mentioned jewels linked by the same myth and deduced it." A gleam in her smoky blue eyes is echoed by her smile. "We weren't going to give a clan treasure up without a fight, but Jaganshi-san explained the reason behind your collecting of the stones. I think the wedding of the King and Queen of Thieves is a portentous enough occasion to warrant such a gift, don't you?"

The blinding smiles of the foxes answer her, but Kurama thinks a moment before saying, "We might need that gift a bit before the wedding, if we don't hold it soon enough. The curse is permanent come the American New Year."

"Just shy of six months is a short time to plan such an event, Yoko-san," Nadeshiko teases gently. "But if you need it sooner than the wedding, consider it an early gift. But if you don't mind my asking, why have a wedding, anyway? We're youkai, we don't usually bother."

While Aislin turns red, Kurama gives the answer. "It's generally considered poor taste to have a child out of wedlock in the Human World."

Knowing looks pass between the wolf couple. "Ah."

"You're going to have a baby, Aislin-san?" Yukina gives her friend a dazzling smile. "Even more good news! Or would you have a litter, since you and Kurama-san are both part fox?"

"We'll find out eventually," Aislin replies dryly. That brings the conversation back around to the details of the wedding, which continues long into the evening.

——

"Oh, fair princess! I have traveled these many miles, through perilous lands and untold dangers, to return to your side!" Obsidian, in his guise of Haru, drops to one knee before a Zephyr trying her best to keep a straight face over his theatrics. The disguised renard hides his script behind his back as he takes his sister's hand and leaves a featherlight kiss on her knuckles. "My heart rejoices to see you safe!"

It's been nearly a month since the return from Makai, and Obsidian has settled into his human life with surprising agility, almost as if he'd been born a mortal himself. The plans for the wedding of Aislin and Kurama are proceeding nicely, thanks to the plant-manipulating abilities (florist: check) and culinary skills (Gre'ich insisted and no one objected so caterer; check) of those invited.

In fact, the biggest argument so far has occurred over the summer-coated Aislin and her wedding dress. Botan was the one who'd presented the first prototype to her last week: the stones of Reikai Palace are still trembling from the explosion of temper. Needless to say, that frilly atrocity will not be plaguing another store window.

But we're talking about our sweet young renard and his sister, not Aislin. School has let out for the summer break but the twins' homeroom class is putting on a play. And a rather sappy one at that. Half the cast can barely keep from laughing at any time.

Zephyr keeps her own copy of the script tucked behind her in the waistband of her skirt so that her hands remain free for accompanying gestures. "My brave knight," she recites in a sugary voice that has her human friend Eri in silent stitches, gazing with mock adoration into her brother's eyes, "you have done as I asked and retrieved the treasures of the kingdom. Thanks to you, my people are safe, and Father has told me to offer anything you could ask for."

Obsidian leaps to his feet, catching her other hand before pulling them to his chest. "Then I ask only one thing! I wish to be given my world, your hand in marriage!"

A dark-haired girl steps forward, making grand gestures as the final scene plays out behind her in her role of the narrator. "Disaster averted, the peaceful kingdom of Lanalia celebrated the wedding of the courageous knight and their beloved princess, while the thwarted wizard sulked because he didn't even get an invitation to the ceremony. With the treasures once again radiating their spells of safety and shielding over the kingdom, everyone lived happily ever after. Except for the wizard, who was later eaten by a dragon."

Most of the class dissolves into laughter at the comical performance of the 'dark wizard', flailing as the students who would later be stuck into the bulky dragon costume all jump on him, roaring.

The class representative grins and claps his hands, and the performers turn to him expectantly. "Well, boys and girls, and dragon," he adds with a wicked smile, much to everyone's amusement, "we've got three days until showtime and I think we're ready! Eri-san, how're the costumes coming?"

"Finished by tomorrow if I get an early start," the blond girl promises.

The young man grins at her and turns back to the rest of his crew. "You heard her! Tomorrow afternoon, dress rehearsal. Eri-san, grab a couple of the decent sewers to help you out if you need to. Anybody not roped into costume duty, dismissed!"

Obsidian and Zephyr are among those to leave, having proven beyond a doubt that their skills with needle and thread are abysmal. The pair chat happily about the upcoming performance and the complexity of their costumes (finished last week with the kind of ability expected of a professional), basking in the summer heat while they walk to Zephyr's human home.

Kumiko is busy gardening when the two stroll into view down the sidewalk, and she favors Obsidian with a cool smile from beneath her straw hat when he stops at the white-painted gate. "See you tomorrow, angel-girl," he tells his sister with a wink, then bows politely to her mother. "And good afternoon, Uotani-san."

"Hello, boyo."

"Okay, Haru-kun," Zephyr chuckles, pushing him just a little back the way they had come. "I don't need an armed escort to my own front door. I'll see you tomorrow at rehearsal, so don't get into trouble."

He gives her a casual wave, already sauntering up the block to the street that would take him to his current home with Kurama. The story that has been given to the crimson fox's parents is that his home had burned down during the field-trip thanks to the work of an arsonist; there are even fake reports on the progress of the 'case' that are dropped off every week or so, actually written by Obsidian himself. The black renard knows cop-speak quite well since several of the books that had ended up on his little table in that Rekai cell had been Japanese law-books.

So now he lives at the Hatakana home in the guest bedroom, eating meals with his temporary family, fighting over the television with Kurama's step-brother Suiichi, and helping his former boss take care of the back-yard garden. Utterly content with his present situation, Obsidian begins to whistle a popular j-pop song that has been circulating like wildfire.

Then he turns the corner, and shadows jump him.

——

Koenma, once again in his teenaged form, looks up as Japanese oaths echo down the hallway, spoken in a young man's alto-baritone in a similar range to what Kurama sounds like when he's beyond furious. It's a kind of voice the prince has only heard once, when Yusuke died for the second time at the hands of the previous Spirit Detective. And it does not bode well for whoever's holding the curser.

"May the gods take you all! Put me down this damned instant!" A rumpled, pissed darkling male is thrown to the ground before Koenma's desk, bound hand to foot and resembling a spitting cat. Startled, Koenma looks from the sweaty, exertion-red faces of his shadow-stalkers to the violet eyes of the prisoner.

"You appear," the Prince says in a careful tone to the black-clad shadow-youkai who had sworn long ago to serve him unto death, "to have brought me the ragged Avalon."

"Avalon, hell!" swears the young man, straining hard against his rope bonds but unable to snap them. "My name's Shinkai! Haru Shinkai! And those freaks better have a good reason for bringing me here!"

"Drop the act, Avalon, I'm hardly that stupid." Koenma sits back down in his chair and runs weary fingers through lank brown hair. Making a face at the feel of oil, the prince resolves to take a shower in the immediate future. "Show me those golden eyes of yours, renard, I've no patience for pretending today."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Haru shouts, panting where he lays. Beneath the exterior of his human personae, Obsidian is very grateful to Kohaku's friend Luke for cutting his raven hair short again, in the style it was before he'd left for Demon World's Solstice. Long hair such as youkai habitually wear would have given him away in an instant. "The only eyes I've got are purple! And you're crazy!"

"I'm the prince of Reikai as you very well know, Obsidian Avalon," Koenma counters in a level tone, gaze never wavering. "And struggling is vain under the hold of those ropes. You should recognize them from your first capture."

"You're all freaking crazy," states the young man lying cramped on the floor. "What are you guys even on to make you think this stuff? You'd make a fortune on the streets."

One of the Shadows steps forward, steel-grey eyes slightly confused behind the mask hiding the lower half of his face. "My lord, the ropes have not been taking any energy from this boy. It's as if he's already at human levels of soul-strength and they dare not take any more."

That's because Obsidian has his energy shoved so far down into himself it's making him nauseous just holding it there. The ropes, he'd worked out long ago, depend on a series of bodily triggers to indicate the limit of drainage: the nausea, however uncomfortable, works to his advantage as one of those triggers.

Koenma sighs, reaching out and pressing a button on his desk's surface. "Hinata, be so kind as to bring Shikyo and whoever's here that has the best nose."

The invisible speaker crackles before modulating into a female's soft tones. "As you command, Koenma-sama. Please have patience and they will be there shortly."

"Thank you." Koenma returns to his slumped position and continues eyeing the prisoner, who has given up on breaking his bonds and degenerated into muttering curses on all present and everyone in their families, ancestors included. One includes a suggestion to shove several unlikely objects into the incorrect orifice of someone's great-grandmother twice removed. The things only get more creative as the black-haired, amethyst-eyed young man once again works himself up into a frenzy, showing a volatile temper and average human strength.

No strange spirit energy. Not even fangs. To all outward appearances and hearing, the one who claims himself to be no one other than Haru Shinkai is human. But then again that is the reason Koenma sent for his specialists.

After a perfunctory knock on the open door, in padss a tall, slender woman in comfortable white tunic and trews, her long hair the color of midnight oceans a straight curtain to the backs of her knees; by her side strides a male with the tawny, wild hair and amber eyes of a lion youkai. One is Koenma's top psychic, second to none (including Hiei and Aislin), the wind apparition Shikyo. The other is one of Koenma's Hunters, the scarred, unexpectedly-cheerful lion named Kougyoku, called Kou the Topaz Cat. Unlike their mortal counterparts, lion youkai are famous for having even better noses than the wolves, a fact that has stuck in the craw of many a canine.

The innermost thoughts of the prisoner have become a single litany: 'OhbloodyfuckingHELLI'm friggingscrewed. Any above that remain in the complicated barrier of 'human' mentality, sometimes called 'a thief castle' to ward against mind-readers such as the blue-eyed woman staring down at him impassively.

Kou is not so silent. "You stink, kid. What in the name of the Plains God have you been doing?"

"Practicing a play," mumbles Haru. "Part of it is when the prince, me, gets back from a nasty journey. The smell of the stuff Eri came up with is hard to get off."

"Gold and glory, I'd have to agree. All I can get offa you is human, sweat, sage, seven kinds of mud, sulfur, and some pretty potent herbs. No matter if you're fox or not, ain't nothing gonna smell right offa you for a month. And I pity your poor nose."

Secretly, Obsidian agrees. But 'Haru' can't smell it so much, so he gives the lion a constrained shrug. "I've got some stuff meant for skunk to kill it, mostly, and deodorant takes care of the rest."

Koenma, in the meantime, looks over at Shikyo, who gives him an enigmatic shrug. The boy's mind is human: confusion and fear foremost, with anger at the rude treatment close on the former's heels. Misty, fragmented memories dating back to early childhood: a pudgy hand reaching for a very tall tablecloth, an elfin face looking into a giant mud puddle before a broad smile, a whoop, and a jump. The first skinned knee, falling out of a willow in a play-yard, fights, games, pretty girls that fascinate and repulse at the same time. Finals for junior-high, entrance-exams for Sarayashiki High. A blur of blue landing in outstretched arms.

Nowhere can she find fox, or youkai, or any knowledge of the Spirit World whatsoever. Human, the young man named Haru Shinkai. "It would seem, sire, that the Avalon impersonated this one and took his identity. Nothing indicates that he is the one we seek."

Kou backs her up. "Nothing, boss, not a whiff of musk of any kind. A 'course, that's prob'ly 'cause of the stink, but it might not be."

"Told ya you're a bunch of nutcases." A quick glance at the lion leaning carelessly against the wall. "'Cept maybe him. He's not near bonkers as the rest of you."

A weary, resigned sigh. "Very well, untie him, get him home, do what you need to, I don't care. Shadows, take a break, or pick another city. He's nowhere near Yusuke's territory, it would seem. Spread out, and you're all dismissed. Go away."

All the youkai rest right fists over their hearts and bow in salute and acknowledgement, a snap of a Shadow's fingers unbinding the rope. It unwinds of its own accord and twists itself into a neat coil into the Shadow leader's hand. Kou hoists Haru onto his feet and gives him a sympathetic grin as the youth works feeling back into numbed limbs, tsking over the rope-burns left around his wrists.

"Hold still, kid, I can get those gone." With a snap of claw-tipped fingers in tandem with a muttered spell, the angry red welts fade into healthy skin again.

"…The hell?"

"Just forget it, kid," Kou chuckles as he slings an arm over the shorter youth's shoulders and leads him out the door, Shikyo trailing languidly after. "You won't remember it by the time we get you home, anyway. Now, where's your bunk, eh?"

"I'm staying with a guy named Shuichi Minamino, my tutor, have been since my place burned down during an away-trip for school…" the soothed baritone fades down the hallway, the wronged teen presumably continuing to speak even as he's led towards the portal to the Human World.

Koenma slumps in his chair for a few moments longer before he propels himself to his feet to find that much needed shower. Hell, if he's lucky, maybe he can drown himself and get out of doing even more god-forsaken paperwork while trying to prevent the Apocalypse. Then again, if the Apocalypse does happen, he'd be buried for about a decade by paper but then would have a damned light workload until the Earth repopulated.

He considers that for about a split second while going out another door, then discards it, having worked too hard and too long under the yoke of Light's chosen to ever seriously think about letting the world be destroyed. He'd hate to see all that stress and the worry be for nothing. It would irritate him no end.

"Bath," he only says aloud. "Bath, something decent to eat, some sleep, maybe some exercising. A run around the outside track sounds nice. I spend too much time sitting behind that forsaken desk. I think I miss the days of exile, I didn't have to deal with this kind of mess."

"Talking to yourself is a sign of mental instability, Koenma," Aislin jokes with a distracted air as he goes past her desk, littered with books and papers and her booted feet propped on one corner, the residue of a month's absence. The book she's pretending to read is one of mythologies involving the creation of the Three Worlds, but Koenma spies the pastel cover of what looks suspiciously like a book of baby names peeking over the top. One finger deftly pushes it down out of sight, the prince never breaking stride. Pale green eyes glitter after him in repressed mischief. "Thank you."

"Think about the name 'Joshua'," suggests Koenma with a reviving of his old humor. "I've always been partial to it."

Coral lips part in a fanged smile. "I'll consider it, Koenma."

———————————————————————————

koibito: lover

Kurayami no Mori: the Dark Forest

Starflower: the Makai cousin to the star jasmine, resembles hyacinths more closely in bunching and color, but grows on vines.

Hinata: Sunny place

Kougyoku: Topaz