A/N: Hello once again, Audience.
I hope you're enjoying Shiki's trek with Kasai. There isn't really an OC that I've made that I don't like, but Kasai holds a special place in my heart.
Ciao for now!~
Symbols Guide:
* : Written by CM; She writes for Akari and Hiei
3 : Written by Star (supposed to be the 'heart' symbol, but FF doesn't like the 'less-than' sign, so it's a 3 instead); She writes for Shikiyoku and Youko/Kurama
~!**!~ : A universal transition between scenes or characters, sometimes used to indicate a passage of time, but most often used to transition between major scenes that are happening. As the story progresses, this will evolve into mainly separating the (usually two) scenes happening between authors/characters.
As a general rule, anything in italics is thoughts.
Unless it's used in a sentence like this, which merely indicates emphasis.
(Words in italics and within parenthesis is dialogue between Hiei and Shikiyoku via the bond between them after Hiei becomes Shikiyoku's Consort. As soon as the 'thought' occurs, it can pass between them, and does not actually have to be formed into exact words-feelings and sensations can pass through as well-in order to be picked up and the meaning translated immediately by the other. For the sake of the coherence by the reader, words and sentences are used as normal. It cannot be picked up by telepathy.)
"Quotations are usually reserved specifically for telepathic dialogue being transmitted from one being to another, but sometimes this can also mean a character isn't being careful about what they're thinking and anyone with telepathy in the nearby vicinity can listen in without taking any effort."
The only exception to that last rule is for the Shiba Inu dog, Nabu. All of his "spoken" dialogue will be in italics and quotations, but is communicated through body language or dog-like noises, so unless a character is able to translate those they are unlikely to pick up on what he is saying any more than the average person might understand his general moods like aggression (bared teeth, ears back) or excitement (wagging tail).
The Nabu Exception also applies to anyone when they are in an animal form, if the dialogue is in italics and quotations, unless stated otherwise.
Previously on Yu Yu Hakusho!
Kasai begins to hold Shikiyoku at night,
to take the place of Hiei
and keep her nightmares at bay.
He ends up getting less sleep because of it,
but watches as the dark cloud that had once
been a constant around her
begins to lift.
On one such evening,
she starts to kiss him in her sleep,
at first inconsequential little things
along his skin,
but when she reaches his lips,
he nearly sets the area around them on fire,
her actions hard enough to resist
and amplified by his newfound affection for her.
Upon arriving at the Seventh Level,
they stop at the last homely house,
a tavern called The Last Stand,
which overlooks the Blight leading up to the entrance
to the Eighth Level
where the Infected have been for years now thrown.
Shikiyoku gets them a room,
and in the morning Kasai awakens to find her gone.
Fearing that she abandoned him,
he rushes downstairs to find her at the bar,
already through several drinks,
and confessing that she meant to leave him,
but found that she couldn't.
He learns of her plans to trek through the Eighth Level
just as she has all the others,
and insists on accompanying her,
discovering her to have been born on the Ninth Level,
and able to pass through the portal that leads into it.
Their run through the Eighth is a harrowing experience,
one that leaves Shikiyoku in her pain form
and bereft of energy,
but alive.
And as soon as she and Kasai emerge on the Ninth Level,
she feels the bond within her sing a distant song...
~!**!~
Moriko and Akari continue their trek,
Moriko hunting for food as Akari prepares a fire.
He unknowingly begins to teach her how to play,
though she only wins after employing his own shadow against him.
After they had gotten moving again, Moriko sulking a little and Akari huffing at his gloominess here and there, the pair had taken off at a run, neither of them speaking to the other, unlike in days before.
Even so, Akari felt rather…. good. More relaxed than she had felt in what could easily have been years. After all, she wasn't really sure how long she had been in Yomi's place before she had ended up here. While she didn't exactly know where she was, she didn't have any desire to figure out where she was in relation to the other layers, didn't have any desire to leave this newfound place- she had thought she'd seen all of the layers.
Maybe this was the Ninth layer?
It would make it even harder for certain things and people to show up, if that was the case. But all in all, she didn't actually care. She simply wanted to go on from day to day without incident. Without cause for stress. Without… Without grief.
She glanced back over her shoulder, seeing again the fur that lined her back long before she saw the fox demon following behind her, the two of them now walking at a steady pace. His head was lowered, eyes on the grass, nose to the dirt as if tracking something or another.
She turned away from him, her eyes going forward again and her nose taking one long sniff of the air.
The only thought on her mind at that moment was that she didn't want to get attached to this one. After all, getting attached to people in the past hadn't exactly worked out in her favor, and more often than not, ended with her in pain, one way or another. Left her alone all over again.
Suddenly, the idea of heading to another pack didn't seem like a good one. In fact, it seemed rather counterintuitive to her, considering her feelings on getting attached to people at the moment. Why seek out a group of dogs to get attached to, if they only end up the same way the previous pack did?
...It sounded rather dumb of her, but some part of her still wanted to see if there even was another pack out there, one that hadn't been affected by the infection of whatever was spreading.
She paused as the sound of an extra set of paws on the ground reached her ears, turning them this way and that to catch the direction so she could turn to look, to make sure she wasn't under attack.
When the other demon came into view, trotting at a decent pace, she stopped altogether with the intention of letting the other pass, not expecting the canine demon to pause and look her way.
Neither did she expect the demon to turn towards her and bow, giving a playful grin and a swish of the tail that Akari had come to recognize as a gesture she didn't so much mind anymore.
That didn't mean she could react in time, however.
"Little cousin!" the female canine shouted as she pounced, front paws colliding with Akari's shoulders and knocking her over. Akari reacted as she knew how, her energy fluxing just enough so that she could pin the other's shadow to get away, rolling to the side and a few feet away from the newcomer.
Only a second passed before Akari was knocked down again, the wolf demon using energy very similar to Akari's own to knock away the hold she had had on her shadow, the other's nose suddenly in Akari's face.
"Cheater." The wolf demon made a little tsk sound, "You shouldn't use those shadows as a crutch, little cousin. They cannot solve all your problems."
Akari blinked, realizing the other was a shadow user just as she was, and hadn't used them other than to undo what she had done.
"Why's another wolf demon so far South of their territory?" Moriko suddenly spoke, and when Akari turned to look at him, he was in a playful bow, patiently waiting for the other before he pounced, ridding Akari of the weight on her body completely.
"I've a message from my Alpha to send before the festival starts- I'm tracking another fox demon like yourself."
As Akari rolled onto her stomach, she watched the two other demons roll and play, all while having a casual conversation.
And instead of sticking around to watch what she didn't understand, she turned and continued to the North all the while considering what had been said. *
~!**!~
It wasn't as if Kafu wasn't well-prepared for disturbances within the walls of his dear tavern. Kami knew he had seen more and dealt with much worse things in his life.
But not much worse.
If he had been some place where no one could see him, he would have on more than once occasion over the last twelve hours rubbed his fingers at the bridge of his nose.
As it was, he could only sigh silently to himself and continue making sure that the hybrid demon who had taken up loud residence for the past half-day didn't cause too much trouble.
It wasn't as if the little creature didn't pay him for the drinks. Not that Kafu truly expected him to as the older demon would have simply put them on Shikiyoku's tab and taken it up with her later. And he wasn't exactly causing so big of a scene that he was disturbing everyone else, who was just as loud and noisy.
It was just-
Sigh.
At first Kafu found all the questions amusing. Gouka wanted to know the details of every drink that had been sent out from his bar, the meanings of each of them, once loudly complaining that he hadn't gotten a single such drink the entire time he had been there.
Not that a single being in the establishment was going to touch his royal markedness with a ten foot pole.
Now though, the only talking Gouka did was at a decibel that was almost as loud as the rest of the place combined. And it was happy hour. At least the hybrid no longer noticed when Kafu picked up him and placed him back on the barstool, one invisible Vector constantly hovering nearby just so he wouldn't wobble out of his seat.
Kafu didn't think he had ever seen Gouka quite this drunk. It was like he was passed drunk and onto some sort of drunky'er-drunk.
Now I even sound like him. Kami send me relief.
Kafu wasn't a particularly religious demon, but the prayer went up in his moment of desperation anyway.
And by some miraculous event, in walked the answer to his prayer.
Kafu resolved to set up some sort of altar beneath the bar counter when he had a moment to breathe.
Aforementioned "answer" walked in cloaked from head to toe and with a white-blue haired fire demon the bartender did not recognize.
Also, she was...much taller than Kafu last remembered, causing the bartender to do a double take right off the bat, having recognized her immediately from the muted aura around her when she walked in the door, but taken aback by the realization that the indistinct and completely covered demon who appeared to float to the only two seats empty at the door-side of the bar had somehow regained her demonic form, which had up to this point alluded her to Kafu's knowledge.
When she sat down and flicked a brief two fingers in Kafu's direction, he immediately set about pouring her and her companion a pair of Demon's Fire, bringing them over only to have them both immediately take long quaffs of the drink.
Before he could move away, she lifted a single finger to indicate he take pause as she finished her giant gulp, then gestured for him to come closer. He leaned his ear near the cowl of her cloak to have her murmur something at him, and his expression gave away nothing of his thoughts as he briskly nodded and stood back upright, immediately attending to her...second...order.
One that was to be delivered to a certain, noisy demon sitting in the dead-center of the front of the bar and beginning to loudly complain about something else. 3
The echoing roar of laughter and talk bounced around and around the room, booming in Hiei's skull and then magnifying when his own voice added to the cacophony. His words traveled across the room, half of the time scrambled and the other half of the time meaningless- forgotten the second the words were off his tongue.
The ringing of the bell over the door fell on deaf ears to him- the drink in his hand and the thought of the next were the only things he could focus on, having no brain capacity to think on anything else anymore. Perhaps he simply didn't want to think on anything else. If that were the case, then he'd decided long ago that any semblance of coherent thought was futile. Useless. Benign.
Except perhaps to complain.
The fire demon leaned waaayyy back in his stool, one hand clutching the edge of the bar for balance, one foot on the rest of the stool and the other propped against the bar to further slant the chair backwards, his head tilting back.
"Barkeep!" Hiei's hand waved his drink around, sloshing the contents and sending a few stray droplets flying all over the place. "It'shh jusht too da'amn lou' in here! And ish it me in here, or is it jusht hot?!" Hiei's head rolled forward in a motion that to anyone else seemed mightily painful, but to him was a swift, easy motion. "Could'ya turn tha' damn phone offff, it's been ringin' all nigh'!"
The stool next to Hiei was suddenly vacant, and he took full advantage of it my slamming his stool back onto all fours and turning, propping his feet up in the neighboring one and reclining back a little, somehow not leaning into the person now behind him.
"It'shh too da'm crowded!"
A large gulp had this drink rolling down the sides of his mouth and down his chin as he finished the last of whatever was in his tankard, and he had turned to demand more when another drink slid into view. With the motion, his vision wavered and it took a moment before his world stood still enough for him to recognize that yes, it was all one glass, and no, it was not one of those fancy-schmancy curvy ones. It was a boringly-straight glass, tall and vibrant with colored alcohol in its midst.
Bright, swirly colors that he'd asked about once before.
He stared at it long and hard, squinted eyes trying to dissect the colors and muddled brain trying to recall each individual meaning before the meaning of the whole.
He stared at it so long that the demon next to him drank two more glasses before Hiei's head snapped up to see who had passed him this one, eyes wild because how dare they.
He was reserved. Taken.
Hadn't he made that clear by flaunting his marked arm all over the place and glaring with the eye that had the swirls decorating his cheekbones?
His glare was drawn to a demon sitting on the far side of the bar, cloak covering their face and skin enough to make it a little difficult to determine the identity of such a demon, though he realized that that one was flanked by another. They could be together, which made the entire situation worse.
Or maybe Hiei was just overthinking it.
"-show you ta shend me shtupid…" the fire demon grumbled as he slid from his chair and crossed the room, not a single other demon in the room seeming to notice his venture from one end of the bar to the other.
His finger doing a little wagging motion in front of his own face, gesturing a negatory to the other. "Yer're new here, sho lemme get thish shtraight: I. Am. Taken." Hiei's eyes narrowed a little at the features of the other. "Or didjya think tha marks were fer decoration?" another pause. "Alsho, no touching."
~!**!~
Akari's paws moved forward without any conscious thought of where she was going, her senses only keeping her true to the North while her brain meddled elsewhere. She never noticed when the sun disappeared behind the horizon, or when it appeared again from the other direction. She didn't notice when she crossed a stream and kick a fish, nor did she notice when a storm blew through. She only stopped for rest once, in a cave she had found somewhere between the pond she'd skirted and some other source of water that she could hear but held no interest in.
She skirted that one too.
It was probably about a week before Akari gave up on thinking the fox demon would find her, that he might catch up. And it was probably only a day after that that she began to keep her expression in a resting scowl, as if it might thwart anyone else who dared step in her way and attempt to join her.
So, when she crossed the scent of the fox demon she'd left behind, she at first did not so much as pause. At first, she didn't even register the scent as one she recognized, and thus did not even consider altering her trek.
As fate would have it, she crossed the scent again. The second time, she took better note of the direction the scent went into, and paused to glance in that direction. Contemplating.
Her nose gave a twitch at the thought of learning to actually play with another. It would probably become a good thing to know, since she traveled in the direction of another pack. Presumably, she would not be welcome if she didn't even know that basic concept.
Still, she turned and moved on.
The trip seemed longer, the sun sluggishly rising and even more sluggishly setting, begrudgingly lowering itself out of sight each night, taking longer and longer to hide and allow the moon to bask the world in its glow. And Akari hadn't been able to get the thought out of her head.
Of learning to play. Of Moriko.
Perhaps she could turn back, trace his scent again.
It's likely gone by now.
She wasn't happy with how things had ended with the other.
Isn't it for the better?
She battled herself like this for hours, never stopping for anything other than water before continuing on again.
So, when she found the scent a third time, she found herself drawn to it. It wasn't hard, since the scent traveled downwind, from the North and she just so happened to be moving that direction.
And it seemed he moved her direction too.
So, when the trees gave just a bit of leeway that she could step into a small enclosure of them, she found herself inexplicably bowing before the fox demon, her chin on the grass and her tail in the air. It did not wag, nor did her expression hold any initial excitement, but she did wait for the other patiently, brows raised in expectation. *
He moved as if in a dream, or as if everything he experienced he did so for the first time.
While at first he had simply begun moving in the direction in which he had been pointed, it did not take long for something ancient to stir within his bones that he found himself following, in the direction the others had told him, yes, but in this direction lie something important, something that kept his feet going even while his mind could not pull together to form a coherent thought.
These smells, these sights, the scents and views, all somehow new and yet somehow familiar in ways that he could not rightly explain nor describe.
He could only follow the path his feet steadily set before him, taking little notice of any creatures that passed by him, though aware on some level that he was never in any danger.
And it was because of all of this that when the dog ran up to him and bowed playfully that he did not take heed of her approach, moving continuously forward as if in a trance, seeing and hearing nothing, but taking note of everything. 3
~!**!~
The dark cowl only turned Hiei's direction after a moment, when it appeared he might be done talking, the features behind it completely hidden even from his lower angle.
The voice that emerged from the hood was dark and gravely, betraying little emotion as it fired Hiei's words back in his face.
"You're new here...so allow me to enlighten you…" The figure leaned forward ever so slightly towards him. "I send what I wish...to whomever I wish." 3
"Yer not ash funny, barging in here like you own tha plache, ash you think to sheem you are," Hiei managed to say, eye twitching a little as his brain worked hard to create a viable response to this… haughty tone that had been thrown at him. "I've been here fer a whole decade-" he wasn't actually sure if that was right, but he would go with it anyway, "-'n' yer funny ishn't shenanenanigansh." He went quiet again, taking to staring at the darkened figure and trying to make out at least something from the cloak.
~!**!~
Akari blinked when the fox demon simply passed her by, not even so much as glancing at her that she could tell. She gave a faint puff at the other, finding that she may have irked him more than she'd thought during their last play time.
And yet she thought he may be challenging her. Seeing if she actually wanted to play, or perhaps even learn how to properly do so.
Partly miffed, partly excited at the challenge, the dog demon turned and stalked behind the lightly-hued demon, eyes watching the way his hair flowed back and forth with each step he took. She calculated a few responses she might get from tugging on the hair, but her eyes traveled up to his ears, and she recalled him tugging on her own.
Her eyes flashed, and being unable to resist the thought of returning the favor to the other, Akari leapt, her paws making contact with the fox demon's shoulder blades and forcing him to the ground, her teeth finding an ear and tugging at it, a playful growl reverberating in her chest with each tug.
"I win!" *
He still felt no true danger, rightfully so, but it meant that he was not completely aware of his situation until he had planted face-first into the ground, breathing dirt and grass and blinking, arms at his sides as he had made no move to even catch himself before the other had him pinned.
And he didn't particularly understand how he had gotten here before he vaguely remembered the dog or something bowing or another and then paws on shoulders and-
Oh.
Blinking again, the tug at his ear was neither painful nor unpleasant, but as he felt the full weight of the other plop down over him, he did let out an unsolicited grunt as the air in his lungs whooshed out of his mouth unintentionally.
Without any particular sort of hesitation, he gathered his hands and knees underneath himself and easily pushed up to all fours. 3
~!**!~
Revealing nothing of what the creature behind the hood thought, the shadowed hood only waited for Hiei to finish, appearing to possibly size him up before giving a reply.
"I...am not now, nor have I ever been...funny." The demon drew just a micrometer closer to him, "I...am fierce." 3
Hiei's eyes narrowed to slits, pupils dilating just a little with a sense of recognition at the words used by the demon, the phrase striking a chord that sung a song somewhere deep within him and seemed to light his core on fire.
Suddenly, this wasn't as funny to him anymore.
Because if this wasn't who he was thinking it was, he was sure to lose it.
An index finger twitched, and the hood from the cloak seemed to fall back as if a gust of wind had caught it, revealing a darker-skinned, scar-ridden female demon whose dark amber eyes weren't recognizable to him. The scars though, especially the heart-shaped one at the edge of her lips, almost had him reeling. With relief? With anger that it took so long, or that this might be an imposter? He wasn't sure. His emotions caved in and the fire demon stood upright, not saying a single word.
~!**!~
Akari's satisfaction at having pinned the other was palpable on the air, her mood very quickly shifting from whatever it had been before to a rather ecstatic one. She tugged vigorously at the other's ear, though was sure not to bite too hard to draw blood, and occasionally shifted her weight as if to make sure the other didn't move.
When he did shift however, and onto all fours, Akari's hold on Moriko's ear did not even so much as loosen, and she shifted to stand on her own feet, rather enjoying the balancing act he'd provided.
And if her growling was not indication enough, her wagging tail certainly was. *
Something of the position he found himself in reminded him that he too had a truer form than this, the realization only just awakened within him, but with that realization came a shake that ran from the top of his head all the way down to his tail.
The shake of his head to release her grip on his ear, but a change following the path of the shake as his body fluidly shifted front to back into an elegant shape in which he found he felt more comfortable in than the bipedal form he had left.
A final swish of his tail in the instantaneous shift and he had padded forward as soon as he had made her let go, far enough that he would be warned should she try for him again. 3
~!**!~
The she-demon found her face suddenly revealed, though if she were surprised by it, no such emotion was betrayed by her expression, which seemed very nearly devoid of anything remotely like it.
Deep within the dark eyes, however, something ancient gleamed for a second before disappearing again.
She stuck her face in his, almost leering at him in a way that would have given anyone else in the room the sense that they should leave her very much alone.
Her sharp, angular features gave the eyebrow she lifted a more pronounced sense of questioning as she finally parted her lips to break the growing silence between them, her voice scraping out of her throat.
And if she could have remembered how, she would have smirked at him.
"Problem, little fire?" 3
Hiei did not back down from the challenge of this one, his eyes still narrowed and his nostrils flaring as he took in the scent of the woman sitting in the stool. Her voice was not the same one that he had known, but suddenly, he had no doubts in his mind whatsoever.
And whereas before he'd been rather loud, now, he was rather quiet with his words.
"Yesh, you took too long." He took a deep breath, and suddenly his words were faster than any speed he could have achieved with his feet. "I waited and I hunted and shearched for waysh out of here and you took yer goddamned time gettin' yer scrawny ass down here- so long I thought you'd fergotten me and found shome… shome… jerk."
He finally blinked, the relief flowing through his veins with the certainty of who he was now talking to, and that even though she wasn't recognizable physically at the moment, he knew in his core that this was her and that she had most definitely not forgotten him, and that he'd finally be with her again and… and…
That relief had every muscle releasing the tension he'd been lugging around for years, a slight smirk forming on his face.
"Took you long enough, woman."
~!**!~
Akari had enough sense to know when she was about to be tossed away, and was able to give herself a little moment to leap away and land on her feet from the other. The second her paws touched the ground, she spun- kicking up dust with the motion- and planted her front paws on the ground, her chin resting upon them as she stared excitedly at the foc that was smaller then she.
She hadn't ever seen Moriko change into this smaller form, but maybe it was more fun this way.
Though a bit unfair, she noted.
"Come on, let's play."
Her tail lashed in the air and her tongue fell from her maw to hang at the side, her eyes never leaving the fox. *
The few steps he had taken were paused when he heard the other turn, a single ear ticking backwards to make note of the noise.
Another step or two and he had his side facing her, an unreadable expression in his eyes, golden and unblinking and swirling with mystery as his silver tail rested calmly in neutral, the tip of it just shy of the ground.
The invitation conflicted him on a level that he did not understand as his nostrils flared, taking in her scent and actually noting it for the first time, no longer surprised to find that it, like every other smell since his arrival, seemed so excruciatingly familiar and yet altogether new.
Both ears stood at attention atop his head, but he only watched her, making no immediate move to leave. 3
~!**!~
Shikiyoku recognized a drunken-collapse about to happen when she saw one, and she easily reached for her Consort's relaxing body as she slid out of the stool she had been sitting in and gathered him into her arms.
As he spoke into her mind, filling her with a familiar warmth that she had all but forgotten, her eyebrows twitched into a momentary frown and she closed her eyes as she responded into his fast-growing darkness.
"I am sorry, little fire."
She knew he was in fact taller still than when she had seen him last, though still short for a male by any stretch, but then again, she too had grown. If for different reasons.
It was nothing for her to stand and hold him in her arms like one would a child, his head resting over her shoulder as the rest of her cloak flowed to settle around her body for a moment before she took one fluid step and then another towards the stairs, continuing for them and no longer seeing or hearing anything else in the room outside of the calmly beating core she could feel against her shoulder.
Before the first stair-step, she turned back, meeting Kasai's eyes.
Her head tilted slightly.
"Stay until morning?"
She did not say it very loudly, but she did not have to.
Kasai glanced over at Kafu for a second before looking back and giving her the barest of nods.
Her face seemed to brighten then and she climbed the stairs, returning once more to the same room as always, not bothering to remove the cloak around her shoulders for fear of waking him and only laying down on the bed with Hiei in her arms, watching over him with a serene sort of patience until he might wake up. 3
He could have been sleeping for minutes, hours, days, or even weeks for all he knew. As Hiei's consciousness slowly began to surface to the light of the world, time seemed skewed, unmeasured almost, as if no time at all had passed. He was comfortable, laying in the most comfortable bed in the world, with the warmest body lying with him. His eyes did not open, because he was half afraid that this was another one of those dreams, where he'd found her and was holding her again and that he'd wake to the reality of an empty bed and only Kafu to go to.
But he knew it was different this time, long before he even opened his eyes. The scent was there- different, but there nonetheless. And the beating of her core, her breathing.
He released a small breath through his nose- a sort of sigh of content in its own way.
Because he was done waiting. There was no more reason to leave this room, aside from maybe to get back to the first level, which he really had no desire in doing at that moment.
He was perfectly content in laying there, with her arms wrapped around him and his body up against hers, his face buried into her shoulder while he stretched ever so slightly.
Ever so slowly, he settled back into place, realizing something rather odd in that moment:
She was… taller, her body longer than his.
It was this that brought his eyes open, that had him drawing his head away from the woman lying next to him and to looking up at her face, and then down the length of her body.
...When had she… grown?
And why was her hair white? Her skin dark? Her eyes such a shade-
You know what? It didn't matter at that moment. She was here, this wasn't a dream- or at least, he didn't think so- and he had missed her so very much.
And yet all he could manage to do was stare into her face- a face he didn't recognise in the slightest, aside from maybe…. the jawline? Yeah.
~!**!~
Akari's tail continued to swish back and forth in the air, making ample sound in the near-silence of the area as she eyed the other keenly, noting that he appeared on guard enough to not let her close enough to make a hold for his ear again.
The tail, though..
It interested her. She couldn't rightly explain why, but she considered going after it, considered taking hold of the very end of it and tugging.
She noted that he did not immediately walk away, and found that the odd look in his eyes was even more fun to her then if he simply expressed what he was thinking. It made it more.. challenging.
She gave a little shuffle forward, stirring the dust some more. A small yip sounded on the air, a prompting one, waiting to see what he'd do.
Impatient, she lifted her chin from her paws and gave a taunting tilt of her head. (What's the matter, dog got your tongue?)
without hesitation or forethought, Akari leapt forward, pouncing in Moriko's direction and landing at his feet, bowing and nipping at his paws, but never touching them. *
A puff of air stirred the grass at the fox's feet at her inquiry, and his brow-line stirred for a moment as if he might make a rather human sort of frown, but never completed the gesture.
He did not so much as flinch when she leapt forward, though the front paw closest to her lifted casually from the ground and drew up closer towards his body.
He held it there as his eyes followed her movements, as if searching for an opportunity to gently bop her on the nose with it. 3
~!**!~
Shikiyoku's eyebrows lifted higher on her face, the only betrayal of the amusement she actually felt as she sensed Hiei's wonderment at her current form.
Truth be told, she hadn't the faintest idea why her true, demonic form had finally returned as she changed to better combat the Infected.
Her eyes closed and a brief line formed between her brows.
It was a memory she did not wish to recall at the moment.
Her and Kasai had made their way to the city, stopping only in one of her and Kitoushi's old hiding spots so that she could retrieve some sort of clothing.
Opening her eyes again, she drew them down to take in Hiei, who had somehow managed to wrap himself in her cloak with her after the last time she had nudged him far enough awake to make sure he drank some water.
She could have only imagined the hangover such a night as last might have given him if she hadn't appeared.
The thought of his behavior the night before made that same distant spark flicker briefly in her eyes as she drank in his features, refilling the image of him that had nearly faded in her mind's eye, how much older he appeared, and taking a great deal of comfort in the gentle thrum of their bond, whose prolonged absence seemed to make its presence that much more prominent in his waking moments. 3
Hiei's eyes stared up at Shikiyoku's, meeting her gaze very briefly before taking to memorizing every facet of this new form.. The curve of her jawline that he remembered was likely the only thing he could see that was the same as her human form, and so each new angle, each new detail was focused upon for a short while, to be memorized for later. The craggy swirls seemed older now, in fact every scar had faded a little and yet still seemed prominent on her darker skin.
And once he was done memorizing her features, relief consumed him like a dam that finally gave way to a flood. It rushed through his being at having her there again, even if she was not the same as she had been. And that relief flooded the bond he could now hear singing within his very soul as well, followed quickly by a number of other images.
the first of those images being Hiei waking to find Shikiyoku gone, and him going to the only place he had ever known to be able to get him to and from the eighth, and finding it sealed. The next image was one of his many rampages, fire burning on bundles of trees and entire miles of grass and brush, leaving areas alive with flame that never really died out. Anguish at being told over and over again that he had no way out, that if he knew what was best for him, that he would wait. The anguish of being told that all he could do was wait helplessly and hope she returned safely, sometimes even if at all.
With each passing image, Hiei could feel his own stress and sorrow and anguish being passed over the bond, relieving him of a great deal of it and showing her the years he'd gone through searching desperately for answers, before suddenly giving up and taking to drinking, making money by various means to ensure that he wouldn't go insane sitting in one place, waiting for however long it would take. And then the days where he did nothing but drink, followed by the hangovers and the dreams and drunken hallucinations that he held her, and waking to find her not there.
And finally, the very last emotion upon seeing her and fearing that she were an imposter meant to be his undoing, followed by the relief and knowledge that she was there again, safe and with him once more.
All of this passed within the blink of his eye, and he could still only stare at her, his lips twitching with the faintest of smirks.
~!**!~
Akari danced about at the other's feet, nipping the air near his paws and making noise that made no actual sense and was only meant to convey her cheer and playfulness. She yipped and whined and gave little barks here and there.
When she saw the raised paw, however, her chin dropped to the ground, as if daring the other to pop her on her nose or head. She looked up at him from under her brows, her entire body giving the little wriggle that came with her furiously-wagging tail.
(Whatcha gonna do? Huh?) *
The utter excitement of the unknown creature before him left him stunned in place as it was all he could do to watch her.
What do you want?
Who are you?
His tail gave a single swish in response to his own questions, ones he could not answer without turning them on their heads and finding that he could not answer them for himself.
Taking a few cautious steps away from her, he slinked backwards, his unsurity of the situation hidden behind his passive gaze as his tail swished again. 3
~!**!~
If she loves you, she'll come back.
Flooded with what she knew most intimately was only a portion of his experiences, there was something of a relief amidst all the sadness she felt pouring over her.
Her own trials to get to him were merely loaded with single-mindedness, save for the last gauntlet which was harrowing in its own macabre way, so never before had such grief been from his side of things, had such a load been passed her way.
And she almost gratefully accepted it, for it meant that finally things were not quite so one-sided any longer.
She felt her side of the bond quiver once, but with her distanced from her emotions, there was nothing it could sense to pass to him.
"Should I prove somehow that I am no dream, little fire?" Since that seemed most prominent of his fears, she felt it quite sensible to ask. 3
Hiei blinked once slowly, as if her voice did not register with him quite yet. His lips gave the faintest of quivers, as if he'd expected her to ask such a thing- if she hadn't asked it, really, he would have been suspicious. And he realized that even though he could feel the bond within him singing a song he'd long forgotten, he still could not hear from her end of things, nor sense what she was feeling.
No matter, that could be remedied whenever he so desired.
"Humor me." it was the least she could do, anyhow, for taking so long to get here.
~!**!~
Akari let the other take a few steps away, though her eyes watched his every move keenly. She tracked every muscle that even so much as twitched, from the tips of his ears to the very tip of his tail as it gave a little twitch.
Her wolfish grin returned as an open jaw and a lolling tongue.
(What, bored so soon?)
With that, Akari stood to her full height again, giving herself a shake to send the dirt that had clung to her into the air.
(You're no fun.) *
"I'll have you know that I'm loads of fun."
The various twitchings and movements of the silent, body-communication of animals ended in what could be interpreted as an irritated flick of an ear as the fox paused in place, blinking a single time before his eyes rested upon her again.
Why did I say that?
The tone of his response to her had been anything indicative of the "fun" he claimed to be, as it had been flat and somewhat other-worldly, as if it came from somewhere outside himself and he were not truly the one that spoke it.
He did not feel fun in any case, and couldn't rightly say why he had stopped or even spoken, his gaze remaining the cool and unexpressive look she had been given before.
In the midst of the strange emotions stirring in him, he turned and began to trot away, his tail raising high over his back and wagging twice, sending his scent backwards as the wind momentarily picked up and rustled through his fur, now completely ignoring whatever of the dog he left behind and starting once again to pad along the path his very soul seemed to set before him. 3
~!**!~
There was the slightest hitch to her eyes as she assessed him and his statement, arms still wrapped around him.
"I show up more differently than you have the capacity to imagine, hold you in my arms as if I know you, a gesture from which you have not yet removed yourself I might add, and yet you still question me, still think I'm a vision." The edges of her mouth twitched like she might smile as she leaned her face closer to his, lowering her voice so that it barely passed the space between them. "How exactly would you have me humor you? Tell a joke? Because I'm sorry to say that I'm fresh out." 3
Despite Hiei's slight taunting, if he were honest in this moment, Shikiyoku would find that, really, he didn't know what to do with the fact that she was so much taller than he, that he had somehow ended up wrapped in a cloak that he was seemingly sharing with her- that she was currently wearing, no less.
And the eyes that momentarily sparked at him were not the usual ones he was used to seeing. Though her sense of humor was the same as he remembered, he could say that honestly.
Suddenly, he remembered the gems that she should have in her possession, around her neck on little strings, and his own irises sparked for a moment.
"The necklaces," was all he said, knowing she'd understand that he'd want to see them, in the very least.
~!**!~
The response Akari received was one that rattled her to her very core. It brought up images and memories that she'd, up until this point, locked away in a dark corner of her mind. Now, however, she saw the fox in front of her as a tall, sleek-haired demon in a different layer, sitting in a booth across from her, eating cherries.
And she also saw a shorter version of that same person, hair shorter and eyes a different shade. Memories associated with that version had her taking at first only one step back, and then two more.
Before she saw what the other did, Akari turned tail, giving a little growl as she shot off in a random direction. She ran, and ran, and ran as long as she could, until she collapsed from exhaustion.
Only then did she stop to think about who she'd been playing with.
And only then did she take the time to lock away that part of herself again.
She wasn't going to allow such a thing to happen again. Never again. *
The sun far above, over the tops of the trees, began casting the light of its evening fall, throwing over the foliage deep reds and oranges that announced its daily retreat.
At some point, he had broken into a longer stride, his shape dashing through the brushes and over fallen logs, a mere streak of elegant silver that few noticed as he passed too quickly for them to see.
He was close.
And before long he could feel the moon beginning to sing to his blood. 3
~!**!~
Ah.
Of course. Something that she would not be able to fabricate, she supposed. Still, it was...disappointing? After all these years, with the world at his fingertips once more, he simply-
Wished for what was his to begin with. Heh.
Acquiescing, Shikiyoku removed a single arm from around his body, deftly untying the cloak at her throat and slipping the leather-bound jewelry up over her head, her long, lithe fingers finding little difficulty in the tasks until she then held the items between them, beneath the cloak but where they both could see, in silent offering.
If any emotion flickered across her face since seeing him, it was that second of disappointment. The jewels were rightly his, and she held no disappointment in returning them to him. It was instead that second where...the one in which she had thought he might ask for something entirely different, the one in which perhaps they might pick up where they left off...
I suppose some things will never change.
Was she really all that surprised?
Well, no.
But after spending years searching for him and dreaming about him finally -
It doesn't matter.
And it didn't. She held her Consort in her arms and on some level, she really couldn't bring herself to ask for a single thing more. 3
Hiei's eyes found the jewels the second they were revealed, the energies about the little gems unmistakeable in the fact that they were indeed his and his sister's, and thus proving, despite his lack of doubt in the beginning anyway, that this was indeed Shikiyoku laying with him. And though he was not actually looking at her face, the fire demon had not missed the fraction of a second where her expression flickered just a little.
He hesitated only a moment before his arms reached up to take what she offered and placed Yukina's over his own head. A hand slid away into the pocket of his dark pants, and his fingers closed around a sleek piece of metal that he pulled out and, after untying the knot that made the little jewel into a necklace, looped the string through the little circle, letting it fall to rest with the glowing gem.
Without missing another beat, Hiei tied the string together again, and promptly reached up to place the necklace around Shikiyoku's neck, and before she could so much as begin to protest, he had his lips against hers- something he'd wanted to do for a long time now.
He held his lips there for a few moments, suddenly remembering the last one he had before they'd been separated- one that he'd taken without anyone's notice, one that he'd rather enjoyed taking while everyone else was busy.
That memory also struck up another:
Oh, right.
He could switch her back to her other form, the one without the scars. A sort of excitement welled up within him at the thought of seeing this new creature in her true appearance, smiling.
And suddenly, he wanted to see that smile.
~!**!~
She didn't know how long she slept, but when Akari woke, it was as if the previous events never happened. Her expression rested in neutral, her eyes giving nothing away of her thoughts as she stretched and began to move forward. She decided to continue moving North, despite all things, her pace steady and true.
She didn't know how long she traveled before she found civilization of any kind, and even then it was a human encampment. Humans wandered from shelter to shelter, few even so much as sparing a glance her way when she passed and even fewer acknowledging her presence, save for one or two who watched her entire trek through the village until she was no longer within their line of sight.
She traveled some more, the wind in her fur and her ears back, her head down for greater speed. Her nose just tickled the blades of grass underfoot, as if she might find a scent to follow.
Finally, she found a scent to follow- a canine one. Her pace slowed and Akari momentarily considered turning away and deciding to go off alone, as she had once done. It wouldn't be hard to survive- her biggest problem might be her lack of knowledge of the area, if anything else.
But before she could decide to turn tail and leave, the hairs on the back of her neck were on end, and she was stopped in front of another canine. One that stared with slits for eyes and curled lips showing sharp teeth.
(Your business here?)
Akari did not so much as blink at the other, a male who stood several feet taller than she, who probably should have made her nervous. Alas, he did not.
(Passing through, is all.)
(I don't believe you, Alpha.)
Had this one called her that any day before this one, she likely would have cringed. Now, she merely met his glare with a calm stare of nonchalance. The air shifted about her, and she found that while she could not sense the others in the area, she could smell them. Waiting. Watching.
She had trespassed.
Oh well.
Akari slowly lowered herself to the ground, first to her front paws then rocking back until she rest on her stomach, her chin meeting the tops of her front paws. (I am not here for a fight.)
The other lifted his head higher, his nostrils flaring just a little, hackles lowering only a fraction. For a moment, Akari considered saying she meant no harm, but realized that she had meant no harm to her own pack, and how that had ended up.
It was best not to give false promises.
Now more then before, she wanted to stand and walk away, to go back the direction she had come and find another place to be, to be alone. Instead, she found herself at the mercy of this pack, who had her surrounded.
(Stand.)
Akari did just as she was commanded, and rose to her four paws. When the other turned to go, she followed, not needing words to know that he intended to take her to his own Alpha, to see what he or she wished to do with the trespasser. *
"Augh!"
The exclamation rang around the stone hall as the blue-eyed wolf demon sitting at the head-most chair of the table reached up and ran his hands up and down his face.
"I hate meetings!"
The only other being in the room gave the impression that this particular outburst had happened before.
"Yes, ookami. Of course."
"I hereby ban all meetings from ever happening. Ever!" Making a wide gesture, he slumped backwards in his chair, reaching his feet up to push himself onto the back two legs and throwing his head back, dark hair getting caught behind him.
"The meetings are a necessary evil, ookami." The other wolf said as if repeating a line that had been spoken many times before. "They are a part of why those who owe us fealty still owe us fealty."
Releasing an overly-dramatic sigh into the air above him, he grumbled, "Can I just ban the ones I have to attend, then?" 3
~!**!~
Shikiyoku watched Hiei replace one of the necklaces around his own neck where it belonged, and then let her eyes close as she took in a deep breath, finding herself awash in the scent of the lingering alcohol he had been drunk on, but also cinnamon and- ...cloves?
That was strange. He'd always smelt of charcoal in her dreams.
Before she could take another moment to consider it, she felt Hiei doing something that she quickly realized was returning one of the jewels back where it had been for all these years and her eyes popped open, the hand which had held them out for him to see moving forward with the intention of resting against his chest, a gesture intended to stop him.
Hiei, I can't-
Two things happened at once.
Before her hand actually touched him, her lips parting to give voice to the protest she already began in her mind, suddenly Hiei's mouth had found hers, and any words she might have spoken in the next second smothered away.
In the instant before he made the sudden move to kiss her, Shikiyoku actually saw her hand, longer and larger and catching her eye, and it gave her a distracted pause-one in which Hiei managed to slip into without her immediate notice-reminding her in one fell swoop that while she may have felt 'normal' in this, her true, regular, demonic form, finally as complete as she had been since fleeing Demon World all those years ago, the sight of her like this was not one Hiei had ever seen.
Her pain form could not hide the barest of smiles that belied how pleased she was as she finally took conscious note of Hiei's kiss and closed her eyes.
She had never imagined Hiei might see what she really looked like, not since their journey through Demon World for Koenma had more than proven she was incapable of shucking off her human disguise, but now that he apparently had enough of her scars and emotional distance, the thought excited her, and she felt her core skip a beat.
...
When nothing at first happened, Shikiyoku's eyes slid back open, and seeing the expression on Hiei's face, her core skipped a beat for another reason that she almost refused to understand.
The moment was gone before she could allow herself to explain it as she felt her core give an entirely different sort of hitch and the change begin tingling along her feet, enveloping her entire body with a quick sensation she had forgotten just as she blacked out. 3
Hiei noticed the brief moment where Shikiyoku's eyes betrayed something that he didn't quite understand. For a moment, he considered analyzing that reaction, but that thought too was washed away when he felt his own core give a small hitch. Or, after the sensation had passed, he realized that it had not been his own, but a reflection instead of Shikiyoku's core, which had been transmitted through the bond.
A brief moment of satisfaction swept over him just before his own eyes closed to signal the change that would bring her skin from an ashy, scarred complexion to her smooth, vibrant, radiant skin.
And he tracked every inch of the change with the Jagan, watching scars disappear one by one until even the heart at her lips was gone, replaced with skin so alive that it seemed to shine with her energy, despite the lack of her use of it. And at the same time, he realized that the arm around him was suddenly.. shrinking, smaller by the nanosecond with the rest of her body that lay against his.
And when he finally opened his eyes again, they took in the sight of the human form he'd known, of the small Shikiyoku whom he had been able to lift and carry at any point in time should he so choose. His ruby irises sparkled a little in mirth at the sight of the clothes she had been wearing, now several sizes too large.
And then his eyes alighted on her hair, short and a bit choppy in style, and he blinked once. It took a few moments before he recovered, his eyes turning to Shikiyoku's face and seeming to soften a little at her as a hand reached up to pat her head, his fingers feeling the soft tresses there.
Welcome back.
Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off!