Katie's Point of View:

Keiryi gave me a look that said I had just betrayed her ultimate trust when I told her to go home with Kuwabara. Hiro had an odd look in his eye, and Yusuke looked eager to hear what had been going on for so long while he was gone. It had been ten long years since he left, and thirteen since Kurama died. Kuwabara had been happily married shortly afterward while I was left to mourn my only true love.

Unsure what to say to the man who had tried to take me away from the man I had loved, I sat there in complete silence, perched on the edge of the couch. Yusuke gazed at me longingly now that we were alone, but he straightened his features and sat down. What could he say? "Come and have sex with me"? I knew that was his ultimate objective, but it was a matter of me and my morals. I was going to resist temptation without any help, without anyone there.

Then there was Keiryi. If I somehow gave in and got pregnant by someone other than her unknown father, whom she worshipped, what would she think? Being a mother was so complicated, and I had never wanted such a responsibility. That was why Kurama had been there. He would have known what to do when Keiryi was troubled, how to handle my crises while keeping her happy. Instead, I had been forced to simply distance myself from her, to put as much space between us as possible so that I didn't have to deal with my fears.

"What do you want me to say?" I asked, flustered that he just let me have my silence instead of making some smart comment. "I never will be able to get over Kurama, and you just have to accept that. Yusuke, you can't keep striving to achieve something you can't have."

"I don't know," he said. "I wanted to talk about Keiryi."

"Why?"

"Because I feel like something's missing from the picture," he replied. "Why is she so tense? Whenever we met in the Plane of Luminescence, you told me that she was the most softspoken thing you had ever seen." He grimaced at the thought of what had happened that afternoon. "Instead, she gets here, and I can tell she's being cheeky because there's something conflicting inside her."

"Keiryi's still fumbling along," I said. "Before last night, she didn't even know her heritage." Yusuke quirked an eyebrow at me as if to say that this should have been a crucial part of her upbringing. "I thought that since she was living a normal life," I continued, "she didn't need to know anything that would make her appear suspicious. Also, I couldn't bear to recount stories of Kurama. It's too much."

"Then why won't you just let me help you, dammit!" Yusuke screamed, slamming his fists into the arms of the chair he sat in.

"I know your definition of help," I said acidly. "You want to be with me, to take Kurama's place just so you can feel better about Kayko in the process. Get out of my life and stick to screwing yourself over."

"Well, maybe if you'd just let me in, I could give you some advice!" he shouted, and stood up, brandishing a fist. "You're always so damn stubborn! Get over yourself, Katie! It's like everyone else has to be miserable just because you are!"

"That's only because you wanted to get with me when we were younger!" I retorted. "I see you still haven't grown up enough to realize what you can't have!"

"Shut up!" he screamed, and threw a fist at me. I dodged, but I could feel a strong gust whipping by my face. So he had had demon energy from the start! Cold as ice now that I realized he wanted to force me into the equivalent of rape, I thrust my hand forward, and white light intertwined with vines enveloped him. Screaming, Yusuke emanated energy, flashing like a siren in the night.

"Confront your own demons, not me," I said darkly, letting him go as he lay there on the floor, gasping for air. Even if he wasn't entirely human, he could still suffocate.

Slightly humbled, he looked me up and down and then took a step toward me. "So you're still the same Katie," he said, smirking. "You're strong, intelligent, and drop-dead gorgeous, but you can't just let me have my way."

"Afraid not," I spat. "Sorry, but I have a child to look after, unlike you. Grow up in a little while and I'll be able to fool around with whoever I want. Oh---that's right. Kurama will be back by then so you can keep your slimy hands off of me!"

"Amen to that!" he shouted, slapping me across the face. After all that, I recoiled reflexively from the impact. Falling back and letting my arms fall to my sides, I relaxed and stared at him, lost and hopeless, just as I knew Keiryi was.

"I know Keiryi's not turning out the best," I said, "but there's nothing I can do to help it. How can I stop her from developing into a clam? She keeps shutting me out, and only when we reach our breaking point are we able to reconcile with each other." I looked down and decided that Yusuke was an entirely different person now. He had gone through marriage and divorce, and now it was taking its toll on him. He was becoming little more than a bitter old man. "I'm sorry," I said quietly, choking on the tears that I wanted to hold back so badly. He couldn't see me cry now, not right after we had fought so ardently.

However, Yusuke offered me his hand and I took it. We just stood there holding hands, and I think our little spat convinced him that we weren't meant to be lovers...only friends. Despite his desires, and what he wanted, it wasn't meant to be, and that was that. "It's okay," he said in his slick-talking way. "I made this into way more than it should have been. I guess I was just frustrate about Kayko."

"Yeah," I said softly. "Keiryi just has me so worried lately that I don't know if she'll ever be the same again. I know she wants to find her father, especially since I told her that he might be out there somewhere. She's like her father, cool and calculating. She'll formulate a plan, but once she has it, she'll execute it fearlessly."

Yusuke looked at me with a smirk. "So it's the execution that you're worried about?" he asked.

"No," I replied, more worried than ever. "I'm worried that she doesn't know what danger she can get herself in. I told her she's meant to be very powerful, so she might think that she's already strong enough to make it on her own. She's only thirteen, Yusuke. I...I don't want to lose my daughter at such a young age."

"Hey Katie, it's okay," he said, and wrapped his arms around me. Though I was slightly taller than him, I craned my neck slightly downward and cried into his chest.

Even though I was vulnerable, he finally figured it out and didn't try to jump me just then. Both of us knew that doing something like that would ruin the intimate friendship we had going. Few could achieve that balance, and even fewer could become friends with those they could not love like they wanted to. "You really did deserve Kayko," I said to Yusuke. "Unfortunately, I can see how that big mouth of yours got her mad at you too."

"Speak for yourself," he joked. "When the little runt talked back to me, I could've sworn it was Mini-Mom yelling at me and not Keiryi." I smiled and laughed at him. Keiryi really was a lot like me, and I wanted to keep it like that.

"Just wanted you to know that I'll be here if you need some help with the kid," Yusuke said with a grin, and I smiled back.

"I'll call you if I need a baka to be a bad influence," I said sarcastically.

"Deal," Yusuke replied, holding out his hand. We shook on it, and then he made some tea for me(it was too late for coffee).

The radio was still on, and though the song was nothing special, it reminded me of the time when I went to Tina's bar, and I heard the song that brought me to hysterical tears. After hearing that song and confessing my troubles to Tina, I had been regenerated and enabled to continue my search for Kurama. Sadness sprouted in my heart when I thought of things from that time. To this day, I could still feel his touch, could still hear the voice that greeted me when I woke up.

Then there was the night when Keiryi was conceived, and we made love as furiously as we could, pouring everything we had into those hours. Yusuke would never be able to understand how we had loved each other so deeply. When I refused to separate from his touch at the cafe, Yusuke only made fun of us.

"I still love you," I said softly. "Make no mistake about it. I just love you in a different way."

"Katie," he whispered in my ear. "Just remember that I'll be here to catch you when you fall, if fox-boy doesn't beat me to it, that is." He winked at me and then we sat down to drink the tea. The cups he poured it into were delicate blue china, and I could tell by the way he looked at them that they reminded him of Kayko.

"So, did you and Kayko at least have fun while it lasted?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah," Yusuke said, "but then we started working and drifting farther and farther apart. We had sex a few times, and didn't have any kids. Honestly, we weren't mature enough to take care of a kid yet, anyway. Between the two of us, we had plenty of troubles."

I nodded sympathetically, realizing that he had loved her at first. Kayko was one of the reasons I had stopped Yusuke from even kissing me. She would have been heartbroken had she found out that the two of us had been messing around. She was a sweet girl, but perhaps too sweet for Yusuke's hard-core attitude and killer instincts. He was a wild beast who needed to be tamed, and Kayko couldn't put up with his temper all the time. "What happened right before she split up with you?" I asked.

"We were both getting home, and she started making supper. All of a sudden, Kayko starts crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she just exploded on me. It was like there was no possible way to reconcile us, and she just stormed out without packing anything. The night we broke up, she had this china out...we were going to celebrate our wedding anniversary." My jaw dropped open and stayed that way for several minutes. Finally, I regained my composure, shook my head in disbelief, and stared at him.

"That's a rough surprise," I said quietly, still getting over the shock a little bit.

"So was Kurama's sudden death."

Mention of those endless hours made me want to cry so badly that I choked on my tea. I remembered lying on top of him, trying to stopper the blood flow as his life slowly drained out of him. How could my love be dead so soon after we had found each other again? It seemed as though we had just gotten to know each other before he was taken away.

"Look," I said. "I have to go home and get some sleep." Hah. What a terrible lie. I didn't want to reminisce anymore. It just made me feel sadder than I already had. Before Yusuke could say or do anything to stop me, I opened a portal and stepped through into my bed. Not surprisingly, I feel asleep right as I lay down, and I dreamed that Kurama had returned. In my dreams, he watched over me as I slept peacefully, smiling and stroking my hair like he always used to do...

Whew...just typed two chapters in a row. When my chapters get this long, it becomes rather difficult to type even one full one. For those of you returning fans, I considered doing a Plane of Luminescence scene, but figured that that could be saved for later, when mysteries begin to unfold. Also, I have a few answers for 4-is-lovely...

1)wait and see

2)wait and see

3)wait and see

4)Keiryi(KAY-ree)

Thx. to any people who happened to review chappie number 2, and Peace Out!

Miari