Asilin Kheldarson: Yes, new chapter, new fun ways to bother my characters. Repeat the pattern here. n,.,n
Silverwing013: Wow. You're like Aislin-on-pixie bouncy. And come on, her father hasn't been there at all, and he's where she gets her Irish blood. 'Stubborn' is an understatement. And I can make that statement, 'cause I'm part Irish, too. Kurama as Yoko has been mated to Aislin for over five hundred years. The Talk is a moot point. No Talk for Brian. In reference to Yuuki Barbarac, I'm getting there, hold your pooka. Here's hoping my laptop continues behaving. Else I see a brief flight in its future.
Rikka Chishio: To quote, 'manure occureth'. Working full time, classes, and busted comp kinda cut into the whole posting thing. n,.,n! Twisted personality? Oh, yes, very much so, thank you. It's nice having that noticed. —grins—
Obsidian: Of course I have ears. I complain about them in the first chapter, don't I? They're featured here, too.
Hieinokoishi: It's okay, I'm behind (way, way behind) on reviewing as well. You'll see about Yuuki, and while there will be some more Hiei/Kohaku, there won't be much. Foxes are the focus of this story, after all. (I'm biased, what can I say?)
Kitsune Kit: —shakes confetti off her brownie and uses hand to dust it off herself— Wow, that was an enthusiastic greeting. Mm, brownie. See, I'm updating, I'm updating. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, merry Winsol, etc. Hope you get what you wished for! (I'm praying that big box under our tree with my name on it is a new comp. Please, please let it be a new comp…)
Lady-Love: Oh, yes, very much so. —tail wags cheerfully— Please avoid munching on body-parts, as humans taste unpleasant and clothes are needed to avoid charges of public indecency.
To everyone who reviewed my newest carol-parody, thank you all very much. I was rather shocked at how many I got in one day. I hope you enjoy the stories here, as I enjoy writing them.
Holiday bonus: If I get eight reviews for this chapter, with at least two from new people or from people I haven't heard from for a while, within the next four days, I will post the next chapter—which features the long anticipated wedding!—as a present to everyone. Fourteen reviews gets you two chapters, nullifying the cliff-hanger I have inevitably stuck in at the end of chapter nineteen. Ready? Set. Review!
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The midsummer days seem to pass all too quickly for Team Urameshi and their companions; it seems to Obsidian that he blinks and it's already the tail end of July. The wedding of his surrogate mother is just over two weeks away, and everywhere he looks someone is there, filling his world with dizzying activity. After the play had been finished with, he'd become a regular student at Genkai's along with Suzume, who now trains with him daily.
And who he's definitely starting to have feelings for, despite the fact that she's nearly a century his senior and one of the last members of a hunted clan. In fact, if you point those facts out, he'd usually blink at you and go, "Oh, yeeeaah. Who cares?" in tones of indifferent remembrance.
The developing romance is a live-action entertainment for the rest of the gang—Hiei even makes a point to observe the training sessions just so he can watch Obsidian go red in the face every time Suzume comes out of the locker room in her gi. Meanwhile, Zephyr is getting the accelerated courses of fuda and origami magic from her mother, absorbing everything like a sponge thanks to the Ivory-linked memories of the basics.
Obsidian often gets letters that way now, usually in the form of a swallow or crane, since the two hardly get to see each other now that school's let out for the summer. It irks him, but he dares not bring himself to the attention of the child-prince's hunters any more than he has to. He has no wish to have another chunk of his memories completely wiped out.
Preparations for Aislin and Kurama's wedding are advancing nicely; Aislin gave up on trying to get the girls to agree on her dress and just had one of her old acquaintances make something more to her taste. Of course, just to piss the ice-fox off, the 'old acquaintance' decided to be cheeky (on the sly commission of her mate) and made a more complicated version of Aislin's fae dress in pale, pale blue.
When Hiei saw it, he'd just started laughing while Kurama gave the old fish apparition a bonus during Aislin's (comparatively) mild shouting fit. But in the end, the ice-fox agreed that it was probably going to be better than anything her female friends could come up with and agreed to wear it. Obsidian (who'd been in the background the whole time examining the silken creation) cheered and tossed confetti he'd pulled from his pocket space.
Then spent an hour cleaning every speck of it up on the orders of the pissed dress-maker.
Now, though, he simply takes some time for himself and goes to a park near Kurama's mortal house, choosing a tree for a refuge and resting his back against the rough trunk. One of the sand-boxes is nearby, and he watches with half-lidded eyes the young children making castles and moving small piles with toy trucks. His hair's grown out some; it brushes his shoulders again in a thick curtain, his bangs forever hanging into his violet eyes no matter how many times he pushes them away.
But soon the joyous shrieks of playing children are too much for him to stand, and he seeks a quieter place to zone out. He finds one in the farthest corner of the park, a tiny clearing no more than ten feet across, ringed by blackberry bushes heavy with fruit.
He snags a handful on his way into the little sanctuary, flopping onto his back in the browning grass and letting out a sigh of relief. Everywhere he's been lately has been too…too busy, too noisy, and it grates on nerves accustomed to day-long periods of almost perfect silence. Obsidian pops a berry into his mouth and bites down, savoring the taste of sun-thick juice that explodes on his tongue.
The dappled sunlight turns the leaves he stares up at bright green, the only noises around him that of wind rustling those leaves and the calls of birds above him. Relaxing for the first time in over a month, the fight-weary renard drops into a deep sleep with the berries forgotten on his chest.
Nothing happens for a long time, a good hour to judge by the motion of the sun, as the inhabitants of the park grow accustomed to their quiet visitor. At last, though, some of the blackberry canes are pushed aside by a cautious nose and a deer youkai of the pika variety edges into the clearing. The large brown eyes are locked on the pile of berries sitting so temptingly on the rising and falling chest clad in a simple green tanktop.
A xika beats the deer to them, the tiny winged rodent flying in from a tree and making a perfect ten-point landing on the topmost berry, staggering like an overweight bumblebee back to its branch with that fruit clutched in its tiny paws.
Snorting at the show-off antics of the demon-kin mouse, the deer youkai picks its way over to the waiting snack and delicately starts munching the berries one-by-one. The display of courage encourages the other inhabitants to resume their activities.
From another tree, a sylph sings a ballad in her wind-through-treetops voice while hanging up laundry made from leaves and flower petals. A meremia, canny to the ways of predators, hunts bugs while keeping an eye on the sleeping kitsune taking up the main part of its hunting ground. A mortal hawk perches on a branch, just waiting for that xika's luck—or sense—to run out on another go at the berries.
Obsidian's youki, locked behind heavy shields for the past couple of weeks, takes this moment of dropped guard to begin leaking out, giving the flora around him new life and vibrancy. Flowers bloom in the thick carpet of short grasses, attracting shyer creatures than the deer.
Butterflies. And among them, the brilliant wings of pixies and faeries fan in unearthly arrays of color. The butterflies and most of the other tiny fae go for the nectar-filled blooms scenting the air with dozens of flavors, but one or two come to rest beside the almost-gone pile of blackberries.
Sure, they could easily claim those on the bushes and with less risk than these, but the berries lying on the green-clad chest are the ones most filled with energy, and so are worth the risk. The deer looks annoyed at having to share its snack, but lets the plucky little faeries choose their own rewards, mouths quickly getting stained with purple juices while they squeak at each other in their tiny voices.
"Look, Poppy, it's the boy," one of the berry-eaters tells her companion, a male with a bright blue shock of hair. "What do you think he's doing all the way in here?"
"Who cares, Glory?" the male replies with a shrug. "If he wants to nap here, let him. Sun-god only knows you-know-who's men aren't likely giving him a break."
The meremia, an older, calmer creature than the ones who had claimed the Avalon twins as their special people, glides down to join the conversation. "Probably escaping the wedding preparations, too."
"It's so exciting!" pipes a nearby pixie, dragonfly wings fluttering in anticipation with her arms covered in pollen all the way up to her elbows. "Those two, finally getting married! And in the Human World too!" The deer bounds a few feet away when Obsidian sleep-mumbles and rolls onto his side, ink-black ears popping out of his hair and his tails unfurling in a silken banner. The faeries resettle, carrying the last berries to their new perch on Obsidian's hip.
"Do they know the legend, do you think?" Glory asks no one in particular, abandoning her berry and fluttering down to the ground, one minute hand reaching out to touch the gem set in the black fox's forehead. "The one that involves these?"
"How should we know, Glory?" hisses Poppy in alarm, his hair flopping into his face as he gestures hard. "Now get away from there! It's dangerous!"
"But Poppy, it's the boy," his companion protests, still touching the jewel. "You know he's a friend to practically everyone."
"I'd rather you not test that rumor!"
"Worrywart," giggles the pretty little faerie, relenting. She's fluttering back to her companion when someone else leaps from beyond the barrier of thorny canes to the trees and down again, sunlight picking up tawny colors in a wild mess of hair. Squeaking in panic, the fae, deer youkai, and the meremia are gone in the blink of an eye, leaving the black fox asleep among the butterflies and the stranger.
Raspy chuckling slips through the air as Kou the Topaz Cat crouches beside Obsidian, a respectful but disbelieving smile quirking his lips. The young renard is virtually dead to the world, a large purple butterfly resting on the tip of one silken ear, his limbs in the careless sprawl of youth.
"You've got some pretty crazy luck, kid," the Cat comments wryly, offering his finger to the butterfly as a perch. When it steps onto it with little fuss, he raises it to his face for a closer look. "Here all of Reikai's been hunting you, and I find you asleep in the flowers."
The strange voice finally wakes the napping fox, who slowly blinks open golden eyes and freezes when a pair of unfamiliar boots are registered as being less than two feet from his head. A very quiet curse is whispered in Kitsune, making Kou beam at him even more.
"Why aren't you running, kid?"
A long pause to look around before Obsidian tells him, "I'll crush the butterflies if I move."
"The butterflies," Kou sighs to the living jewel resting on his hand. "The kid is wanted by the Prince of Spirit World, and he's worried about hurting butterflies." The addressed pretty flutters large amethyst wings seemingly in response, before it sails away to a particularly attractive bloom at the edge of the clearing. "Get your priorities straight, kid."
"Their lives are short enough as it is," is the low response from the youkai lying at his feet. "Who am I to bring them early deaths?"
An explosive sigh from the lion, who pushes his tangled hair out of his face, laughing. "Damn, you really are just a soft-hearted kid, ain'tcha?" he jokes, gently shooing away the three or four other butterflies that had decided to settle on the fox. "The guys in Mid-Security told me 'bout you, how you took care of a couple of fish for ten whole years. An' how you would sing roundelays with your neighbors."
"Not a lot to do in jail," Obsidian jokes weakly in return, still not moving even though all the delicate insects have been shooed away. Kou makes a noise in agreement before he picks the younger apparition up by the back of his tanktop. "I don't suppose the ol' Jedi mind-trick thing of 'these are not the 'droids you seek' would work, would it?"
Being the movie-buff he is, Kou not only knows the line, but understands the reference. "Not when you stink of fox, kid."
"Look, whoever you are, I don't need much more time. Give me one more month, and I swear to the gods I'll turn myself in."
"The name's Kougyoku, but people just call me Kou. My nickname's the Topaz Cat. And you, my unfortunate bucko, are Obsidian Avalon. So why do you need the month? I admit I'm curious."
"There's a curse on me that takes five jewels to break. I've gotten the Dragon's Tear, the Blood-Star Ruby, The Eternity Lily, and the Agate Eye. I'll have gotten the Sunstone by the end of August, and then the curse will be broken and I can turn myself in. I'll swear in blood if I have to, but I need to get this done."
"Kid, you're gonna have to be more convincing than that."
"The curse was bought by a demon named Higurashi, and cast by one of the last black-sorcerers in Makai. It's all in the name of revenge on my boss."
The lion pauses at the edge of the bushes, a strange expression beginning to turn his eyes molten amber. "Now that I believe, kid. You say this's gonna screw that piece of slug-youkai crap over royally?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," assures his prisoner. "Higurashi paid a whole hell of a lot of money for this curse, and if I break it he's gonna have spent it for nothing. You know that won't make him happy at all."
"You got yourself a contract, then," says the Topaz Cat, setting Obsidian on his feet in the grass. "But you're gonna have to swear that blood-oath. I don't want you running off and my ass getting put in a sling 'cause I let you get away scot-free."
"Deal." The black fox concentrates youki in his thumb, then nicks the pad with his sharp fangs and writes the sigil for his name in empty air, the glowing mark hanging there for only a breath or two. "I hereby swear to turn myself in by the thirtieth day of August to the authorities of Spirit World." He presses his bloody thumb into Kou's waiting palm and adds, "By this mark you will know I have fulfilled my oath. I'll see you on the banks of the River Styx, Kougyoku the Topaz Cat."
"Got yourself a bargain, Avalon. Now get going before I change my mind."
Obsidian bolts off, leaving behind Kou in that clearing filled with flowers. The same large purple butterfly floats over, coming to rest on the same proffered hand. The lion smiles at the delicate creature, baring a single gleaming fang. "How 'bout that, huh?" he sighs to it in a bemused fashion. "Catch of my career, and I let him run off like a gazelle on steroids. Revenge is such a bitch."
——
Ohh, that was close. Far, far too close! Obsidian bolts for Genkai's temple but changes his mind after only a couple of blocks, his numb mind remembering that no normal human, or even one trained by Genkai, should be able to run fifteen miles at a sprint without some kind of rest, first.
So, despite his nerves that scream at every sudden move or unexpected flicker at the corner of his eyes, the black renard catches a bus to the edge of town, clinging to the hand-rail for dear life. He even leaves the imprint of his fingers on the durable metal, though he doesn't notice that at all. Only after he gets off the bus does he race at all his impressive speed up the trail to the safety of the temple.
Yukina, tending her garden as usual, looks up in surprise when a breathless, wide-eyed Obsidian screeches to a halt inside the warded gate, practically hyperventilating as he stands with hands on knees, letting his fear work itself out of his system. "Haru-san?"
A hand waves limply at her in an attempt to reassure, that elegant head with the unfinished look getting thrown back, the better to gulp in huge lungfuls of air. Genkai emerges from somewhere inside the temple, her own faded brown eyes narrowed at her student.
"Stop swallowing air like that, dimwit, unless you want to damage all of those little sacs in your lungs." Obsidian stops breathing altogether for a moment before he registers who had spoken. Then all his attention is on her, eyes holding a feral edge to them. Genkai continues walking slowly towards him, her raspy voice level. "Take slow, deep breaths and let them out just as carefully. Your body is going to say it needs more oxygen faster, but if you keep gasping like that you're going to hurt yourself."
Yukina stays where she kneels beside the mint patch, waiting while Obsidian begins to follow his combat-teacher's instructions, that dangerous feeling ebbing away. She knows better than to approach any youkai when they feel cornered, having been on the approached end for a number of years during her captivity at the hands of a black-market gem dealer named Tarukane. Because it's times like this when the brain shuts down and instincts take over.
Finally Obsidian takes one last huge breath and drops into a sitting position on the cobbled path, his usual ebullient smile weak and shaky around his calmed respiration. Genkai stands just a couple of feet away, her fists resting in the small of her back as she gazes soberly at her student. "Now, mind telling me what that was about?"
"Wards?" comes the wary reply, and Genkai snorts.
"Koenma's not allowed to spy in my compound, you know that. So long as you are within the circle of this temple's walls, you are effectively invisible."
Giving the elderly psychic a respectful nod, Obsidian explains what had happened less than an hour before. He concludes with a confused, "But rumor says that the Cat is one of Koenma's best hunters. You're not supposed to let revenge get in the way of your job, but that seems like exactly what the Cat did. I don't understand."
Surprisingly, Yukina is the one to give him an answer, when she gives him a clay cup filled with cool water. "He's still a person, Haru-san," she says soberly, still using his human name so as not to make a crucial slip in any future event. "Sometimes, no matter how much your head wants to do what's just or what you're supposed to do, your heart is going to take you in another direction."
"You should understand the concept of revenge, kid."
"I do, Genkai-sensei, I really do, but…"
The old woman sighs in understanding, once more reminded that while the kitsune before her is chronologically bordering adulthood, his mental age is still somewhere around a human fifteen or so. A naïve fifteen, at that, due to his severe isolation during most of his formative years. "It seems impossible that even those people considered 'good guys' would want something so dark as vengeance?"
A meek nod is the black fox's response, his violet eyes downcast. Genkai sighs again, looking towards the sky as if asking for patience. Yukina merely pats him on the head with one of her sweetest smiles, asking gently if he wants to help her weed the garden. As Obsidian nods acceptance and rises to go with the koorime, Genkai tells him one last thing on the topic.
"Vengeance is vengeance, kid. Doesn't matter what flavor or color it comes in, be it sweet or bitter, black or white or grey, sooner or later, even the best of the Light is going to want to lash out in retaliation. It's how the world works."
"'Dark, Light, day and night/ No matter what they say./ Black, white, wrong or right/ It's all in shades of grey'," Obsidian quotes back tiredly from a youkai-children's jump-rope song, looking as though the few hours of peaceful rest he'd gotten hadn't been nearly enough. "I should know that by now, Genkai-sensei. Thanks for putting up with me."
"Saves me from weeding that stubborn garden," Genkai smirks back. "I get to watch you two do it and supervise."
"Sit on your porch and yell orders is more like it," quips the renard with more of his usual cheer. Genkai fakes a head-smack in his direction and he lopes off with a throaty chuckle, a hint of the heart-breaker he'll be when his spirit catches up with the rest of him. Yukina hangs back a moment, sharing a conspiratorial smile with her benefactor before padding back to her plants. It really is simple to cheer the boy up or calm him down; the koorime believes that it's because he's a naturally laid-back soul, one that's fairly young with few lives experienced. And because he has a good heart that wants to shine all that cheer back at everyone, just to see them smile.
As dusk falls, a shadow drops onto the ground just inside the temple's ancient walls, somehow managing to glide and stalk at the same time to where Genkai is reading a newspaper on her back porch, a cigarette sending tendrils of smoke up from an ashtray by her knee.
Faded brown eyes glance unconcernedly up at Hiei before returning to her paper, the fire apparition half-hidden in her own shadow, thrown across the ground by the electric lights in the room behind her. "What is it?"
"Checking for the young fool," is the monotone reply. "No one's seen him all day."
A thumb is jerked towards the room she'd actually been guarding, but her eyes don't move away again from her paper. "He got into some trouble today and came here for some breathing space and quiet. He passed out about an hour after he finished weeding the garden with Yukina."
An ebony eyebrow rises in a surprisingly arch expression. "Did the trouble have a name?"
"The Topaz Cat."
The arch expression is gone, replaced by apprehension and a potent curse muttered under Hiei's breath. "What's the fool still doing here then, instead of his reserved pit?"
"Because the Cat surprised the dimwit with a foible. He's got a vendetta against Higurashi."
"And…?"
"And the boy gave the Cat a blood-oath in exchange for his continuing freedom." Genkai takes a drag of her cigarette and blows a cloud of smoke into the air. "But his freedom ends on the thirtieth of August."
"Hn." Hiei seats himself cross-legged on the porch beside Genkai, upwind of the smoke, his mask once again firmly in place. "That's cutting it close."
"Stating the obvious." But Genkai folds her newspaper with a sigh. "Aislin's going to be furious."
This time, a broad smirk flows across Hiei's face with the ease of familiarity, brought on by his own fiancée, Kohaku. "Maybe she'll actually do something to the brat-prince, then."
"Vindictive kajihenge."
Hiei rises again, strolling casually through the doorway of Obsidian's room with that smirk still in place. "And I haven't been since when?"
——
A week later, and only one more remaining until the wedding. All of the arrangements have been taken care of, including a tunnel from Makai to Ningenkai—specifically, to a field about a mile from the Church of Redemption in France. Koenma was understandably upset at the perceived hole in his nice tight Kikai Barrier, but he calmed down when Aislin explained that it would be keyed, specifically, to the people who would be coming. There would be Yusuke Demon-side and Hiei on Human-side to act as a kind of bouncer/usher, making sure that those who were going through had a) an invitation or b) proof of their identity.
Shikyo was a suggested third precaution, but none of the youkai of the group wanted to take the chance that she'd read the location of the Lair or something equally vital from one of the guests, so use of her services was vetoed. The Blade-arm Clan of Kohaku's ookami family had agreed last month to attend as security for the weather and the guest-list, and translators and illusion charms have been crafted for anyone who will need one. Can't have the unaware human attendees getting spooked by, oh, say, a ten foot, purple-skinned giant covered in spikes (one of Merc-Guild Captain Mizu's men, a surprisingly gentle oni who had assured everyone that he could get his own tuxedo for the occasion).
Aislin's long-time friend and his company the Pride-claws would also be acting as security—and only as security, or they'd be sitting among 'friends of the bride' with a few of Kumiko and Zephyr's sealing wards slapped on to make sure they behave themselves.
Now, with only the waiting to be taken care of, Obsidian and Zephyr's hand-to-hand combat training has been stepped up, Suzume taking part in the lessons after a private request to Genkai on the part of the sweet wolf-girl's father.
"Kit, I told you to keep your guard up on your left side!" Aislin yells in a voice that would do any drill sergeant proud. "Stop letting your attention slide to the pretty girl in a gi!"
The Reikai Tantei and company are gathered at Genkai's temple on this sunny summer afternoon, Koenma and Kuwabara absent for their own legitimate reasons: the child-prince is still swamped in paperwork and is trying to memorize the last bits of his part as priest/preacher/ceremony-speaker-person, and the carrot-top is stuck at home because Shizuru refused to let him go, instead making him catch up on homework missed on a non-Avalon related case. She's at home as well, making sure that her brother doesn't sneak off like the delinquent he used to be.
So Yusuke, Hiei, Genkai and Aislin have decided to put the trio of youngsters through a 'pop-quiz' training session, seeing how much they've learned so far. As usual, Hiei is their adversary, though Yusuke has been added to the role as well, since Obsidian, Ivory and Suzume have advanced far enough to give Hiei trouble by himself.
Keiko had been surprised to see Zephyr suddenly shift into a slightly-taller, paler version of her human self with ears and a tail like Yoko's, but had accepted the explanation of the vixen's case as being a slightly-botched reincarnation—no mention, of course, is made of the parts involving Obsidian and his search; Keiko's still clueless about that. So's Kuwabara for that matter, but since he isn't at the gathering it's a moot point.
Botan's found out through the grapevine somehow about Obsidian, but since she never liked the fact that such a nice boy was kept so long for no apparent reason in that cramped itty-bitty cell, she's managing to keep her mouth shut, enjoying the secret.
"Stop staring at Haru like a lovesick calf, wolf-girl, and pay attention to your opponents!" Genkai shouts to her own student with her expression between exasperation and amusement. "Dimwit, stop going so easy on them or you're going to—" Her warning comes too late. Yusuke, not believing that the trio of students is as advanced as they are, hadn't been fighting as well as he should be.
That gave Ivory an opportunity for attack, and she'd taken it, slamming the end of her preferred bo staff into the Detective's stomach with all of her formidable strength. Yusuke goes tumbling back with the breath knocked out of him, whamming into and through a tree. Hiei just smirks as he spars with the youngsters, cheered to see his cocky friend taken down a peg so firmly.
But it is with smiles of glee that the trio pounces on him next, quickly tangling him up in a mix of vegetation and fuda, with Suzume holding him still with her touch-focused paralyzation ability. Hiei growls in his confinement, but quickly starts laughing when the stunned Yusuke gets a similar treatment at the hands of Obsidian and Ivory, the unfortunate demon-descended human soon strung up by his feet in vines and scraps of paper.
Yusuke's outraged yells (once he gets his breath back) bring smiles to everyone's faces, including Keiko's though she hides hers behind a hand. Genkai motions for the foxes to release her heir, and proceeds to chew him out for underestimating an opponent while the youngsters go and free Hiei from his captivity.
Later, when night has fallen and only the youkai remain behind, waiting for a howl-along with the Crescent-Blade clan to get started, Hiei looks down from his perch in a gnarled tree at the black fox leaning against the trunk.
"You truly do have the most unholy luck, fox," he tells the disguised Obsidian in an unreadable tone. "Even those who should do otherwise keep your secret."
"It's not entirely my doing, Hiei-sensei," Obsidian sighs back, pushing his messy bangs out of violet eyes for the uncountable time. "If I didn't know any better I'd swear Destiny was fixing things so it'd be impossible for me to get caught."
Hiei once more has that grin of Kurama's cousin Rei pop into his head, and instead of snapping back some dismissive reply, he actually turns thoughtful. "You could be right, fox. It's entirely possible."
"Huh?" Apparently Obsidian had been expecting the scornful response. His upturned orbs flash gold in the darkness with the strength of his own surprise. "You mean you agree with me?"
"Don't sound so shocked," Hiei says gruffly. "I agree when the idea sounds sensible."
Obsidian laughs at that, his eyes glowing back to amethyst above a broad smile. "You make it sound like you've actually met Destiny."
The only reply is a knowing look from ancient garnet eyes. Instantly Obsidian is up in the tree beside Hiei, practically sparking with excitement and awe. "You mean you do? Is she really a she? What's she like?"
Hiei's answer is brief and succinct. "She's a pain in the ass. Worse than Kurama."
"Really? How come?"
"Getting a straight answer out of her is impossible."
"But we foxes are—"
"Even worse."
Blink. "Wow."
Hiei snickers, unbending enough to ruffle the young kitsune's inky hair in a rare sign of affection. "Just don't depend on your luck forever, kitling. Sooner or later, if you're not careful, no matter what Fate wants to have happen, you'll get caught by someone immune to your charms and her entanglements."
"I just hope it's after the curse is broken," breathes Obsidian fervently just as Kohaku's voice rises in harmony with Suzume's in the beginning of the howl-along. And when the black renard returns to the ground, his own molten baritone cry spiraling into the night, Hiei sends a prayer to whatever Powers are listening that the boy's wish is granted.
——
"You do have a hand in this…situation…don't you?" Crimson hair bound back with a yellow-and-black checkered bandanna shimmers as its owner turns to face the fire apparition perched on her workshop window, a delighted but very secretive smile parting rose-pink lips.
No need to ask what Hiei is talking about. "It's a major tangle that I've been sorting out for the past six months, Hiei. I see you've managed to sneak around the dimensional barrier into my work-space again."
He drops into the room, striding over to where Rei Kenobishi sits at her huge loom strung with rainbow threads. "Have you gotten it untangled? What's going to happen?"
"Mm-mh, Hiei-kun, that'd be telling." She wags a finger in mock reprimand at him, other hand never faltering in the working of the polished shuttle darting across the weave. "You know I'm not supposed to do that."
"Rei…" His tone of warning says it all.
But Rei over-rides his threat. "Don't even bother, you know it's currently impossible for me to actually be killed, and it'll stay that way until my successor is trained. In the meantime, I honestly can't tell you the outcome even if I was allowed to. The tangle's too big still, and the Meddler's got both sticky hands in the mess. I'm having enough problems keeping Obsidian out of prison and the Sunstone out of Higurashi's hands."
"The bastard's attempting to prevent the breaking of the curse?"
"No. That's the weird part. I haven't even been able to fathom his motives from his Thread, but…" The emerald eyes so like his soul-brother Kurama's dim in troubled emotion. "He's not doing anything to stop it. He's just…watching. Waiting like a spider in the middle of a web." Her mouth twists wryly at the unintended pun reflecting her own Office's symbol. "It's just that Chaos wants the jewel to go to the bastard so very badly. By the way, I can tell you that he's got a couple of shadows on your pair of cubs that have so far managed to escape your notice. Next time they come within a mile of you, I'll light them up so you can get them out of the way."
Hiei nods his thanks and starts to turn away. A work-callused hand on his arm stops him, the spike-haired youkai turning to meet Rei's suddenly-fierce gaze. "Be warned, Hiei. Something big is coming that no Power can stop. There's going to be death, just like there was for Nerima. But I don't know whose. With any luck at all, it'll be Higurashi and no one else. But this once, I can't guarantee it."
In a gesture more befitting of Kurama than of his own privacy-loving self, Hiei picks up that slender hand and drops a kiss on Rei's knuckles. "Thank you for that warning, Rei."
"It's the best I can do right now. Walk carefully, Hiei, and guard those two as best you can. If not…my instincts tell me it's going to be bad."
And with a silent nod, Hiei disappears out the window again, leaving a grim Rei to return to her workings of Fate.
——
"What news, Shkatha?"
"None to the good, I'm afraid, your Highest Excellency. The Avalons appear to be waiting to bond with the final jewel, and our informants have, unfortunately, been giving cold welcome from the Jaganshi and the Whiteout at last. We have yet to be able to place new spies upon any of the foxes."
"That," hisses the voice from the darkness, "is going to make things exceedingly difficult. However, I can guess what they wait for; their precious teacher's wedding. See if you cannot sneak an agent onto the guest-list or something of the sort."
"Aye, your Highest Excellency. As you command, so shall it be done."
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Bwahaha! Yes, the cliff-hangers get worse. Evil me. Review and you get past it—and to the wedding—that much faster. Bwahaha, bwahahahaha!