Disclaimer: I don't own either, sorry.
Chapter 10
The exorcism of Yoko and Kurama
When they arrived at the shrine Kagome – and Miroku – heaved a sigh of relief as the omnipresent youki of the Makai vanished. Kagome staggered forwards, leading the group into her house. It was empty.
"Where do you want to put Souta and this kid?" Yuusuke asked.
"Put them both in Souta's room. We've only got two bathrooms so people are going to have to wait their turns for the showers," she directed with all the ease of a field general, "Ayame-chan, I'll look at your wounds right now, just let me get the first aid supplies. Anyone else wounded meet me in the kitchen. I don't care if it's just superficial I want to look at it,"
Everyone nodded. Sesshoumaru commandeered the first shower, seeing as how he ranked higher than anyone else. Yuusuke slipped into the second before anyone could protest. Hiei disappeared off without a word to anyone other than Yuusuke.
Kagome sat Ayame down on the kitchen table, the first aid kit open next to her and started cleaning wounds. She had matching sets of claw marks racking down her back and across left arm that looked the worst of everything. Other than that there was a few scrapes and cuts that could be patched up with band-aids.
"How'd you manage these?" Kagome asked, dabbing some hydrogen peroxide on the claw marks. Ayame hissed, her back tensing.
"Don't ask me, I didn't see the bugger,"
"Well, they don't look bad enough to need stitching so I'll just put some gauze over them and wrap them up tight, sound good?" Kagome said, sorting through the supplies for the materials.
"They'll be gone in a day or two so it doesn't matter," Ayame shrugged.
"See," Kagome laughed, ignoring the pain the spontaneous motion caused, "that's another reason I envy youkai, you can heal so quickly, it's almost unfair,"
"Not good if the wound isn't clean," Ayame protested, "Then it scars that much quicker or the poison spreads,"
"Point taken,"
Kagome finished wrapping Ayame's back and arm. She looked over the wolf princess once again before pronouncing her free to go.
"But," she warned, "No getting the bandages wet, so I'd advise getting Kouga-kun to help with some kind of sponge bath or something,"
Ayame did not look thrilled at the bathing restriction but agreed to her doctor's orders.
By the time Kagome got her turn in she showers, and she was last, the water was cold. She scrubbed herself as quickly, and carefully, as she could, getting off the worst of the blood and gore before jumping out.
Her reflection on the mirror caught her attention. Cuts and lacerations covered her body, most shallow. No wonder she hurt; no wonder Yoko jumped in on her fight.
She shuddered, grimly reminded of her brief stay with Naraku, and quickly covered herself, ignoring the fact that she was getting blood on her bathrobe.
"Shippou?" She called, wondering if he had arrived yet. The red kitsune bounded up the stairs to answer.
"Yes, momma?" he asked, frowning when he could keenly smell blood.
"Can you help me bandage these cuts up?" she asked, holding out an arm to show him what she meant.
Shippou growled and pulled her down to the kitchen. Kagome noticed that no one had bothered to clean up any of the blood they had tracked in. She waved to Sesshoumaru, Yuusuke and the wolf couple as she and Shippou passed the living room. Yoko was waiting in the kitchen, rag in hand, wiping off the table. Kagome smiled. Seemed the kitsune was something of a neatnick.
"Siddown," Shippou commanded. Kagome meekly obeyed. Yoko hovered, holding her hand as her son cleaned and bandaged the wounds left from the toushin's lightning attack. They covered her body, head to toe, and by the time he was finished Kagome could swear she looked like a walking bandage.
"Why didn't you take care of these earlier?" Yoko demanded, "Why did you wait until last to shower? You should have taken priority and had these taken care of by now,"
"Simple," Kagome smiled up at him, "You hate having blood in your hair,"
"What does that have to do with it?"
"Everything. Besides, this is nothing much. I've had much worse, just ask Sesshoumaru or Shippou," she shrugged. Yoko glared.
"Not the point,"
"I agree with Yoko," Shippou tossed in, tying off the last bandage. "You should have done something. It's not healthy to play hero,"
"Fine," She relented under the weight of their combined displeasure, "I'm sorry,"
"Better be," Yoko muttered, pulling her into a tender embrace. Shippou scowled but left the kitchen.
"Thank you for jumping in," Kagome whispered.
"Like anyone could have stopped me. If I hadn't killed him already I'd kill him again," Yoko swore vehemently, his tail twitching nervously. Kagome smiled softly and pulled him down for a kiss.
Back in the living room Shippou scowled. "There is no way I want that… that… there is no way I want Yoko for a father,"
"Hey, clam down," Yuusuke protested, "While I agree that having Yoko for a dad isn't all that appealing a prospect to look at and is just plain weird, he's not all that bad,"
"You're not the one living with the prospect of having him as a step-father hanging over his head!"
"No, but that's one of my best friends who's stuck in a front row seat to this little romance, not to mention my cousin! My cousin who I just found out a couple days ago isn't as pure and innocent as I thought. You think you got problems? I just found out I have common ground with her! In a place where she shouldn't even have ground!" Yuusuke slammed his fist into the coffee table, cracking it neatly in half. "Crap,"
"You're upset because momma fight? As problems go that's nothing. I've spent the last five hundred years figuring that she'd end up the world's youngest virgin grandma. Toss that out!" he almost shouted.
"Calm yourself Shippou," Sesshoumaru advised, annoyed. Shippou scowled but fell silent, seething inwardly.
"He'd just better keep his hands offa her," Yuusuke growled.
"If he doesn't he won't have hands," Shippou promised darkly.
"But what if it's her hands on him?" Ayame asked archly. She knew what was going on and she fully supported Kagome and Yoko's romance.
"She wouldn't," Yuusuke glowered.
"Are you certain? It seems to me that she's warming up to him quite nicely, not that I blame her. If he was making a bid at my hand and I was free I'd warm pretty quick," Kouga protested loudly at his wife's declaration.
Sesshoumaru slipped into the kitchen. He could not hear what was going on in there thanks to the 'discussion' being had in the living room.
He found Kagome sitting on the counter next to a pot of almost boiling water. Yoko was sitting at the kitchen table, looking as innocent as the day he was born.
Innocent. Sesshoumaru did not trust him to be alone with Kagome.
"Hey Sesshoumaru," Kagome smiled brightly and slipped some noodles into the pot, "The boys got some problems with my social life?"
"They are concerned," he admitted.
"Well, they don't have to worry that I'd do anything inappropriate before we are married, mated, whatever would make her happy," Yoko announced, "And that is only if I garner the approval of her closest male relatives,"
Sesshoumaru eyed the kitsune calmly, his eyes narrowing as he considered something. Abruptly he nodded to himself and turned to leave the kitchen.
"Sesshoumaru, can you tell everyone that I'll have something to eat done in a few minutes?" Kagome called after him. She did not get a reply. "He'll do it," she shrugged.
"You have quite the family there," Yoko commented. Kagome grinned.
"Can't blame anyone but myself," she admitted, "At least Shippou and Sesshoumaru are my fault. Yuusuke on the other hand…"
"Guess you can pick half your family,"
"Half is a good number," she agreed, "Could you get me the milk and cheese out of the fridge? This pasta will spread farther with a cheese sauce,"
Yoko passed her the milk and cheese and Kagome dug another pot out of a cupboard. She poured in a liberal amount of milk and turned on the element under the pot. When she started cutting the cheese into small cubes Yoko peeked over her shoulder.
"Is that swiss?" he asked curiously. Kagome took the hint and held up a generous chunk. It vanished before her hand rose further than her shoulder.
"You like swiss?" she asked, watching the cheese vanish.
"It's a weakness Kurama passed on to me," Kagome gasped, spinning around.
"Kurama! Where's he been? He hasn't been out in ages!"
"He's asleep,"
No I'm not! Kurama protested. Kagome grinned.
"He's not, is he? You know, I think I've figured out why you flicker,"
"We flicker? How odd,"
"Yes, and I have to admit that it's one of the strangest things I've seen. But since I've never really met anyone else with two souls then I have no basis for comparison," she stirred the pot of milk carefully, "It's like sparks. That is, when you're in charge your aura is dominant silver. When Kurama talks to you, you get these pink or light red sparks in your aura,"
"Interesting," Yoko nodded thoughtfully, "I have to admit that we never gave much thought to what our auras were doing when we interacted,"
"So you admit that he's awake?" Kagome challenged. Yoko relented.
"Yes, Kurama is awake,"
"Bet he wants out,"
"Bet he does,"
"Are you going to let him?"
Yes. Please let me out. It's cramped in the back of your mind.
:So sue me:
Now that would be pointless.
:Ever so:
Yoko turned control over to his human side. Kurama stepped back, blushing a little at how close he was standing to Kagome.
"Hello Miss Kagome," he said.
"Hey Kurama, how are you doing?" Kagome smiled at the red head.
"Well. It's nice to be out. I hadn't realized how cramped it got in the back of someone else's mind. I'm impressed with Yoko for putting up with it for so long,"
:Practice, my boy, practice:
"Bet he has practice in it," Kagome reasoned. Yoko laughed.
:See? We're perfect for each other:
"That's what he said," Kurama sighed. Silence grew between them until Kurama excused himself to go to the living room.
Kagome smiled. She liked Kurama, liked him a lot. But it was as a friend. Having Yoko courting her was probably very uncomfortable for him.
"It's even more complicated than marrying one side of a set of Siamese twins," she mused. "They share a body and from what I can tell they both see and feel the same things as well. Wonder if there's some way I can get around that,"
"So, let me see if I have this perfectly understood," Sesshoumaru studied his sister. She had come to him with an idea and had asked his advice and opinion. She now sat nervously before him on her bed since he had appropriated the desk chair. "You wish to extract Yoko's spirit from Kurama's body and you wish for me to use the tenseiga to restore his own body back to him?"
"Yes, Like you did for Miroku-sama," Kagome nodded.
"You care for this kitsune?" he asked bluntly. He had to know for sure after all. Kagome blushed and nodded slowly.
"Yes I do, and my youkai side calls for him the same way Shippou described how kitsune find their mates,"
"I see," he frowned. He had no particular wish to have a thief on the family, but if Kagome insisted…
Yoko had not, unfortunately, done anything that Sesshoumaru could use to sustain a veto against his suit. For a renowned philandering rogue he had acted the – almost – perfect gentleman.
"If such is your desire, you have but to ask. This Sesshoumaru will be present for any exorcism ceremonies involving the kitsune and human," he promised. Kagome jumped up and hugged him tight around the neck, whispering her thanks.
"I just have to ask him what he thinks of it now," she said, stepping back, "I don't want to pressure him into anything but it is kinda weird knowing that Kurama-san is everywhere Yoko is,"
"Understandable," Sesshoumaru conceded.
Kagome grinned at him and dashed from the room, no doubt in search of Kurama and Yoko.
The house was almost empty compared to earlier that day. Koga and Ayame had opted to return to the Makai and their family and Shippou had agreed to take them. Yuusuke went home to check in on his mother and neither Souta or the other boy had awakened. Kagome had been checking in on them ever couple of minutes, waiting for them to come around. So far they had not even stirred.
Kagome peeked out to the grounds, checking to see if there was anyone visiting the shrine. No one. She spread her senses out and quickly located Yoko and Kurama's auras. They were in the living room, watching a movie, but if their flickering auras was any indication they weren't paying much attention to it.
"Kurama-san?" Kagome called softly, padding in. Kurama looked up, his emerald eyes meeting hers.
"Yes, Miss Kagome?"
"Can I talk to you and Yoko? She sat down on the edge of a sofa. Kurama nodded, turning the volume of the movie down.
"Certainly. What is it you want?"
"Well," she bit her lip, "How well do you two like being together? If there was a chance you could be separate would you take the chance?"
:What's she talking about:
Us? Separate? How?
"How? What do you mean?"
"Well, Yoko's a spirit right now using your body, right? What if he could have his own body back?"
:That would make mating her much simpler: Yoko smirked.
But you've been with me my whole life, Kurama hesitated. Yoko felt a wash of sympathy flow over him.
:And I'd still be around, kid. I just wouldn't be nattering in your head all day and night. I'd miss teasing you with dirty images but that can be worked around:
"Yoko wouldn't mind the chance," Kurama relayed. Kagome nodded.
"And what about you?"
"Well, I've never been apart from Yoko so I really don't know what to say,"
:You're a big kid. I've taught you enough. Between me and your mother you can stand on your own two feet. I must say that I never thought about being separated from you but…I don't want to drag you into the middle of a mated couple's life:
You really do like her, don't you?
:More than you can ever know:
"Can you give Yoko back his body?" Kurama asked seriously. Kagome shook her head.
"I can't, but I can exorcise him from your body and Sesshoumaru can bring him back to life," She explained soberly. Kurama was surprised.
"He'd do that? I though he didn't like Yoko much,"
"He doesn't. But he loves me and he knows that I have accepted Yoko and he won't stand in my way when it comes to something I love,"
:She loves me: Yoko said, amazed, her words sinking in.
That's what she said.
Suddenly Kurama clapped his hands over his ears in a futile gesture to block out the very loud cries of joy coming from Yoko. Kagome covered a smile.
"He's in agreement," Kurama sounded strained.
Shut up in there! You're going to give me a headache!
:She loves me: Yoko babbled.
Yes, we both heard that. Kagome loves you, you love Kagome. Now you just have to get past her family.
:No problem! I haven't given them any grounds to say no on:
Good for you.
:She loves me:
"Please. Do it quick, before his screaming splits my head in two,"
Kagome nodded and directed him to kneel in the center of the living room. She called for Sesshoumaru and started laying a circle of salt and purifying herbs. When Sesshoumaru had arrived with tenseiga she fished a sutra out of a pocket and stood before Kurama. Holding the sutra up and filling it with her power she carefully placed it on his forehead. Kurama's eyes widened and he grit his teeth in pain, pitching forwards to his hands and knees.
Kagome bit her fist, watching the pain the exorsism was putting him through. Slowly Yoko's soul lifted out of the human boy and hovered inside the circle of salt, unable to leave. That was good. He couldn't be brought to the Reikai before Sesshoumaru could being him back.
Kagome nodded to Sesshoumaru. The youkai Lord stepped forward, drawing tenseiga and focusing on the soul before him. With a slash of the life giving sword and a pause to make sure that everything was in order he turned and left the living room.
Yoko landed on top of a moaning Kurama, dressed in his usual clothing. It was strange, Kagome thought, that he would be resurrected with his clothing on. Then again, so was Miroku.
"That hurt," Yoko commented, rolling to lay on his back beside Kurama. Kagome rushed towards them.
"Yoko? Kurama? Are you alright?"
"My head's quiet," Kurama commented, mumbling into the carpet. Yoko laughed, poking his former host in the side.
"Gonna miss me nattering away at all hours?"
"Not right now. I'm reveling in the silence," Kurama shot back. Kagome shook her head.
"So neither of you are hurt?"
"Just dizzy," they said at the same time. Kagome giggled.
"Good. If that's all that's wrong then I think this calls for ice cream!"
Yuusuke had come back over after he had called and Kagome had told him what had happened. He found the fact that Yoko and Kurama were now separate very interesting and decided to spend the night. Sesshoumaru left for his home after Shippou returned, leaving Kagome in the care of her capable son. Kagome fed everyone dinner and soon had sleeping arrangement sorted out. Kagome would be sleeping in Souta's room to keep an eye on her brother and the other boy during the night, Shippou had her room, Yuusuke was relegated to Jii-chan's room, Kurama got Kagome's mom's room and Yoko opted for the living room.
Kagome settled herself down next to Souta's bed, her whole attention on the two boys lying there so still. She could find nothing physically wrong with them. There was no reason she could see that would prevent them from waking up. But they remained asleep.
She hugged her winter haori closer to her body, propping herself against the bed, her head resting by Souta's shoulder. His breathing was even. So was the other boy's.
Outside the bedroom door Yoko had taken a silent residence. He sat quietly to one side of the door, toying with a rose. Like he was going to sleep in the living room when his future wife and mate was worrying herself ill. What kind of a mate would he be if he did that?
So he sat in silent vigil, not saying anything. He closed his eyes, running his fingers along the rose's stem and kitten soft petals. Tomorrow he would go to the Makai and ask her brother for her hand in marriage and the right to mate her. He would make sure they did both the ceremonies, the youkai and the human. Then, when Sesshoumaru said yes, and Yoko was certain he would, he would come back to the Ningenkai and ask Kagome to marry him.
He smiled.
