Kurama returned to the café, taking the seat next to Yusuke. Yusuke's hand went to his thigh and he rested his head against the brunet's shoulder. "Well?" Yusuke asked.
Kurama watched the band for a few minutes before answering. "He is confused. We are forcing him to reevaluate what he sees as monsters and not." He tipped his chin up, not moving his head off Yusuke's shoulder, "I know he desires us, but he doesn't want to be one of us. He doesn't want to see himself as a monster."
Yusuke turned to look at the redhead, his free hand coming up to caress the pale cheek and toy with the bright red hair. "Do you think he will come to us?"
Kurama's lifted his head to meet Yusuke's eyes. "To save his precious humans, he will come to us. Will he join with us? I don't know."
"What else happened tonight, Kurama?"
Kurama tipped his head into Yusuke's hand, "His girlfriend broke up with him."
"And?"
"He was upset about that, but said that he was expecting it. I know he fantasized about us. I could smell his need. It was powerful, Master."
"How do you know it was us, Kurama, and not just you?" Yusuke's thumb traced the redhead's lip.
"The way his body reacted. He was thinking of both of us. I'm sure it was me beneath him and you behind."
Yusuke brought his face closer to Kurama's, so close they shared breaths, but didn't touch him, "How did his body react, Kurama?"
Kurama bit back a moan, "His eyes dilated in pleasure, the muscles of his back rippled as if being caressed, his abdominal muscles tightened as if he were thrusting, and I'm sure, if I'd seen it, or could have felt it, I would have seen his ass relax, opening."
"Like yours is?" Yusuke tipped his head a little but still didn't touch the redhead's lips.
"Master," Kurama moaned.
"Do you know how delightfully intoxicating you are, Kurama?" Yusuke asked as his lips hovered over the redhead's cheek.
"My Master is more than kind to say so. My master is my life." Kurama's voice was sinfully soft, just reaching Yusuke's ear, promising pleasure and more. A shiver traveled his body as Yusuke's lips gently touched his pulse, a gasp leaving his lips as he felt the teasing scrape of teeth. He almost whined when Yusuke pulled away. "Master?"
Yusuke sighed, running his fingers through his hair, "I want him, too, Kurama." The redhead looked ready to pout or say something scathing when Yusuke silenced him, pulling him in a rough, deep kiss. Kurama moved liquidly as he felt his body pulled onto Yusuke's lap, a moan escaping between their locked lips. Yusuke's hands massaged up and down the redhead's back, caressing his skin through the silken shit, playing with the fiery hair. Kurama's hands sought purchase on Yusuke's body, sliding under his open shirt, pushing off his shoulders before his hands slid up his neck and into the black hair.
Kurama pulled back a little, "I want him, too, Master." His lips slid along Yusuke's jaw to his neck, kissing there hungrily.
Yusuke groaned softly. "Can you convince him, Kurama?" His hands continued to play in the redhead's hair.
"I will do my best, as always, for my Master." Kurama's lips never moved far from Yusuke's neck, brushing against it as he spoke.
"And for yourself," Yusuke added, his hands sliding down the redhead's back to cup his ass.
Kurama moaned, his head arching back as his hips rocked into Yusuke's. "My Master's pleasure is my pleasure."
Yusuke chuckled deep in his throat, "I don't doubt that, Kurama." He rocked his hips against the redhead. Suddenly, he stood, holding the redhead's ass as he did, lifting Kurama with him, and walked to the stairs. "Before you go, I need to fill you in on a few things," he said, his voice dark with sensuality.
Kurama groaned at the double entendre and buried his face into Yusuke's neck, "Anything you desire, Master." His fangs grazed Yusuke's flesh as he spoke.
Yusuke felt a shiver travel his body as he glided down the steps. "Always, Kurama?"
"I have been summoned by you, I am bound to you. You are my Master for all time."
Yusuke bent over his desk, placing the redhead on it gently. "Is that only why you stay, Kurama?" He knew the answer, but he liked to hear the redhead say it anyway.
Kurama laid his hand gently on Yusuke's cheek. "I permitted you to summon me, to bring me over because I loved you, Yusuke. I love you still, my Master."
Yusuke held Kurama's wrist to his mouth, breaking the skin He offered his wrist to Kurama. The redhead's eyes were wide, "Master?" he breathed out past the skin.
Yusuke closed his eyes slowly and reopened them, granting permission. Kurama's free hand held the hand to his mouth as he whispered, "Thank you," before breaking the skin with his fangs.
They reached the pinnacle of pleasure together, Yusuke resting briefly on Kurama's chest before he pushed away, "You'll need to change before you go talk to our slayer again."
Kurama pushed himself off the desk, "Yes, it seems that way." He pulled his pants up around his hips again and pulled the shirt off, not bothering to unbutton it. He shivered slightly as Yusuke's hand brushed his chest and then wrapped around his waist. His sated green eyes met the brown ones of his master, "I will do my best."
"Try to have him back here before dawn."
"This is Hiei we're dealing with." Yusuke frowned, and Kurama continued, "I will do my best, Master, but we have to remember that."
"Do not come back here without him."
Kurama bowed slightly, "Yes, Master." He turned to leave the room when he felt himself pulled back into Yusuke. His head went up and his lips were claimed hungrily by the brunet, his mouth invaded. He could still taste his blood on Yusuke's tongue and he moaned into the kiss, struggling to match his master's intensity.
Abruptly, Yusuke pulled back, "You have not failed me, yet, Kurama."
"I will do my best for you, my Master." His green eyes were liquid as he met Yusuke's gaze.
"I know you will, Kurama. Go now. You are too much of a temptation." Yusuke pushed the redhead away from him.
Kurama smiled over his shoulder and quickly left the office. He had a room under the café and pulled out a clean shirt of the same color to wear over to Hiei's. No sense in rubbing the slayer's nose in his relationship with Yusuke. Even though he knew Hiei already knew. It would do his arguments better not to push too many buttons. He looked at his wrist and it was already mostly healed. He laid his lips on it, kissing where Yusuke had breached his skin. He preferred wrist wounds to neck wounds when making love to his master because he could kiss them afterwards, in his mind, closing the circle between Yusuke and himself. He looked up and saw Yusuke watching him, a small smile on his face. While the redhead watched, Yusuke mimicked his actions, bringing his wrist to his lips and kissing it. Kurama returned the smile and Yusuke left, returning to take care of the business he'd interrupted to meet with Hiei in the café and their little tryst afterwards.
Hiei was sitting at his kitchen table, staring at his tea while it cooled. Normally, the drink would help him sort out his thoughts, a kind of meditation of sorts. His problem tonight was not that his thoughts needed sorting out but rather that he wanted to forget where the path of his thoughts was taking him. Tea wouldn't help with that and he didn't have a taste for anything stronger. His expression went from stressed to an angry glare when he heard a timid knock at the door. He didn't want to deal with anyone else tonight. It was too early to go to bed, if his mind would have let him sleep. Schooling his features and holding his gun in one hand, he stood. "Who is it?" he asked from the kitchen doorway. Looking though the peep hole required him standing on his toes, not the safest of ideas.
"It's me, Kurama," the answer came through the door.
"What do you want?" Hiei asked, not moving.
"Could you please open the door, Hiei?"
Unable to find a reason not to, Hiei holstered his gun after putting the safety on and moved to open the door. He glared silently at the redhead, waiting for him to explain himself. Kurama waited patiently for Hiei to say anything. The minutes stretched between them, Hiei growing more and more frustrated as the redhead stood there calmly. Finally, his temper snapped, "What the hell do you want?"
Unruffled, Kurama answered, "Yusuke has told me not to return without you."
"Yusuke?"
"It bothers you when I say 'my Master.' If it will put you at ease, I will call him Yusuke."
Hiei shifted uneasily. Courtesy and monster didn't go together. Gruffly, he muttered, "You can call him whatever you want. What do you want? Why can't you go back? What if I refuse?"
"May I come in or do you really want to discuss this in the hallway?"
"You really can't go back without me?"
"Those are my orders."
"You're that confident you can convince me?"
"No, my Master is."
Hiei's grip tightened on the door. "And if I just decided to close the door and ignore you, you'd stay out there all night and probably die when the sun comes up?"
Kurama nodded, "Yes, that is what would happen."
"Why? What has he done to earn such loyalty?"
"May I please come in, Hiei? You can always revoke the invitation, you know."
"Are you confident you can convince me?"
"I'm not, not completely. My master is, though."
"Is it really that important? Or is he exaggerating in another attempt to coerce me?"
"That's hardly fair, Hiei. If he wanted to coerce you, he would have done it already. He's had plenty of opportunity, including earlier tonight."
Hiei looked down. He was being unfair. Worse, he was acting like a monster. But, he didn't let monsters in his house. He didn't…"Come in," he muttered, stepping to the side.
"I won't do anything without your permission," Kurama said softly as he stepped in the apartment.
Hiei's head came up and the redhead was standing just in front of him. In his eyes, Hiei saw lust, desire, need, and fear. He couldn't cope with the first three, so he latched onto the last, asking as he stepped back, "What are you afraid of?"
Kurama stepped back to lean against the opposite wall, closing the door as he did. He wrapped his arms around himself before answering, "I'm afraid of loosing my Master."
"Why?"
"I love him, Hiei." The vampire's eyes were so open to him, Hiei could see the truth behind those words. It disturbed him more and less than he cared for. Before he could sort this out, he pushed away into the kitchen.
Kurama followed more slowly, standing in the door way and watched Hiei. The shorter man was emptying out his cup and rinsing it. He then filled a kettle with water, putting it on the stove and turning on the flame below. Kurama watched, fascinated. It'd been some time since he'd seen anyone make tea and Hiei seemed to be deliberately ignoring him during the process. Hiei pulled down a tin of tea, opened it and sniffed, seeming to relax as he did. The kettle began to whistle and he pulled it off the flame, pouring some into a pot Kurama hadn't noticed before, swirled the pot and then dumped out the water before setting in a mesh basket and spooning some of the loose tea into it. He poured water slowly over the leaves then put the lid on the pot before setting down the kettle and turning off the stove. Without looking at the redhead, he placed the pot on the table along with his rinsed cup and a clean one. He pulled a small pitcher that matched the pot out of the refrigerator before sitting down and looking at the redhead expectantly and challengingly. Kurama smiled softly and took the seat opposite Hiei, the only other seat in the small kitchen. Hiei's expression continued to be challenging as he poured tea, first in the cup in front of the redhead and then his own. Kurama picked up the beverage and sniffed appreciatively. "Assam?" he asked, holding the cup in his hands delicately.
Hiei's expression went from challenge to surprise. "Yes."
"It was my favorite," Kurama said sadly as he put the cup back on the table.
Nonplused, Hiei glanced down at his own tea. "What did you do before…?" the question trailed off and then, as if just realizing what he'd said, he stammered, "I'm sorry, you don't have to answer."
Kurama smiled softly, "It's okay, Hiei. I was a ballet dancer. Yusuke was my patron for a long time. I fell in love with him. When I found out what he was, it scared me at first, but I loved him too much. He tried to convince me otherwise, used his powers to try and scare me. He pushed hard, but I loved him still. He stopped being my patron, hoping that would change my mind. I sought him out, though. I fell among a pack of vampires and nearly died. Yusuke rescued me from them. He said, 'This is what I am. Is this really what you want?' I told him, 'I love you. All of you, my Master.' He brought me over and I have never regretted it."
"He doesn't try to push me away," Hiei said softly. The longer he talked with the redhead, the more confused his definition of what made a monster became.
"You know what we are, our darkside, Hiei. He is trying to show you that we are not entirely dark. I am trying to help you see that too."
Hiei had no answer, so he turned to doctoring his tea. He poured cream in until the liquid looked like a dust storm and added a spoonful of sugar. Slowly, while his mind turned in tight circles, he stirred the drink. "Why do you want me?" he finally asked, his eyes still on his drink as he lifted it to sip. His red eyes finally re-met the green ones as the liquid calmed him. Even in the worst of circumstances, Hiei found tea soothing.
Kurama was holding his cup again, breathing in the steam. "You are powerful, Hiei. And, we find you attractive."
"Do you love me too?" he asked, his voice derisive. He really wanted to know, though. His stomach tightened and he dropped his gaze again.
Kurama was silent a long time. Finally Hiei looked up and was about to say something sharp when the words died on his lips. The redhead didn't need to answer aloud, his face said it all. His expression was full of pain, hope, need, fear, desire, uncertainty. Hiei looked down again, feeling worse than he'd ever felt around vampires. "Does he feel the same way?" his voice barely left his mouth.
"Yes," was the equally soft answer.
They sat silently at the table a long time, the tea cooling in their cups, untouched. The last person who had told Hiei they loved him had left him earlier that night. It frightened him unreasonably when people told him that they loved him. It was probably why he'd pushed Keiko away. He needed her to break up with him. It was safer. But for whom? She knew he raised zombies, but didn't know he was the scourge of vampire kind. He had scars, but to see them, his shirt had to be off. She'd never seen them. He wasn't sure how he'd managed to avoid visible scars, but it made his life a little easier. These thoughts chased each other in Hiei's head. He knew he was avoiding the real issue. Finally, he spoke up, "Why do you love me, Kurama?" His eyes remained on the table.
"'The heart has its reasons which Reason does not know.'" At Hiei's frown, Kurama continued, "There is not reason, Hiei, it just is. I can't tell you why I love Yusuke, either. It just is."
"And you would obey him?" It bothered him, at some level, that Kurama was quite willing to stand outside his apartment until after sunrise if he hadn't let him in. He didn't like it. He didn't understand it either. Kurama didn't seem simple or spineless, and yet he did whatever Yusuke asked him to.
"Because I choose to, Hiei. He doesn't force me. If he did, I wouldn't do anything for him. He phrases things as commands, but they are requests."
"And when he punishes you?"
The redhead smiled in a way that made Hiei squirm, "Who's to say I don't want to be punished?"
Abruptly, Hiei stood and left the kitchen. Kurama waited a moment before clearing the table and following him out into the living room. He was about to speak, feeling that maybe his last comment was a little farther than Hiei was ready to accept when the brunet held up his hand to forestall him. "I don't understand. I'm not really sure if I want to or not. I can't say I love you. I can't say I don't. Before tonight, I knew…I knew…before I met Yusuke, I knew what monsters were. But, now…" his voice trailed off and he sat on the couch. "Now…I don't know." His elbows rested on his knees as he dropped his face to his hands.
Kurama didn't know what to say, doubted that Hiei wanted to hear anything as he tried to sort everything out in his head. Before tonight, he'd been able to ignore the growing conflict between what he believed and what he saw. He couldn't avoid it anymore. He sat for a long time before getting up to pace the room. Finally, Kurama spoke up, "I wish I could let you have your simple world again, Hiei."
Hiei sat again, "I don't." He looked over at the redhead who looked mildly confused. "Children have simple worlds. I gave that up a long time ago, when I learned to raise zombies. I just need to finish growing up." He sighed, leaning back against the couch. "What's involved in the whole marking thing?"
"I don't know. Yusuke…"
"You can say 'my Master.' I know you feel better referring to him that way."
"My Master would have to tell you that." The redhead smiled as Hiei looked over at him.
"You just want to get me back to the café," Hiei accused, knowing he was wrong but wanting to get a rise out of the vampire anyway.
"I want to get you a lot of ways, but I really don't know about marking," Kurama smiled, turning the tables on the slayer. The image of the redhead, tousled with need, flashed through Hiei's mind again. This time, the redhead was over him and he could see Yusuke behind him. "Tell me what you see, Hiei," Kurama's voice broke into his fantasy.
"Nothing!" Hiei spat out. When Kurama only raised an eyebrow at him, he changed his answer, but not by much, "Nothing that will happen."
"What are you afraid of, Hiei?" Kurama moved slightly closer to the slayer.
Hiei looked away but did not get off the couch, "None of your fucking business."
"If we are going to work together, Hiei, I need to know, my Master needs to know." Kurama moved again and again, Hiei didn't.
Facing away from the redhead, Hiei mumbled, "People who love me die." He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt the redhead lay a hand on his shoulder. Eyes wide, he looked at Kurama.
"We are not so easy to kill, Hiei. Who died?" Kurama's eyes were full of compassion.
Hiei looked down, unable to face the redhead anymore, "My parents died."
"When?"
"I was twelve. They were the first zombies I deliberately raised." He pulled the white lock forward, "This is what is left." He pushed it back.
Kurama's hand turned Hiei's head to face him, "I'm sorry, Hiei." He gently kissed Hiei's forehead where the white streak began. "How did they die?" He put his arm along the back of the couch behind Hiei, giving the slayer space, but remaining close.
Hiei's emotions were in turmoil. His body felt incredibly warm, starting where the redhead's lips had touched and spreading from there. No one else had ever asked him how his parents died, or really seemed to care. And, even stranger, he didn't feel trapped by the vampire's proximity. He sighed, "They were killed by new vampires who'd gotten away from their keeper."
"Revenants?"
"Yeah. I saw them." Without thinking, and if he had been, it would have been against his better judgment, Hiei leaned against the redhead. "Their master caught up with them before they got to me."
"What happened then, Hiei?" Kurama's voice was soft as he slid his arm around the smaller man.
"I don't remember, I blanked out. When I came back to myself, the revenants were dead, their master was injured and the cops were there. They told me I did it. I don't remember. I went to live with my grandmother. She taught me to control my powers. She was very angry when I raised my parents."
"She didn't love you?"
"She was afraid of me."
"Do you know the name of the master?"
"Bui."
"He's one of the ones challenging my Master."
Hiei sat very still for a long moment, his body tense, shivering, as he remained in the loose hold the redhead had on him. "I'll come with you, Kurama," he finally said, looking at the redhead.
Kurama brushed his lips against Hiei's, "We need to go quickly. There's not much time before dawn." He stood up and walked to the door. He stopped, looking over his shoulder when he didn't hear the slayer following him.
Hiei was still on the couch, his expression shocked. His body felt too warm. "Don't do that," he finally said, pushing away from the couch. Without looking at the redhead, he brushed past him and pulled open the door after grabbing his jacket and pulling it on. When the redhead stepped into the hall, he locked the door and stalked along the hall and down the stairs to his car. Kurama followed, amused at how aroused one light kiss had gotten the slayer. Wisely, he held his tongue while the drove back to the café.
A/N: I wasn't gonna put this up until the morning, but I don't feel well, so you get a chapter. Okays...Assam is one of my favorite teas (I'm a tea whore and I couldn't see Hiei drinking coffee). It's a rather potent tea, almost as much caffeine as coffee. Hot, it's good with cream and a touch of sugar (and I hate corrupting my tea, but Assam really is better for it). Cold, it's good straight. The tea preparation described is totally British. Not that anyone cares...but tea is measured one spoon for the pot and one for each person. So, Hiei would have put in three spoons of tea. Why did he give a cup to Kurama? I dunno...ask him. I think it was a challenge of sorts. If I felt better, I'd be writing a shower scene...ja catch ya next chapter. This chapter was edited. Full version can be found at my homepage.
