Title: No Better Than This
Pairing: Youko Kurama/Yomi
Rating: PG13
Theme: Lipstick; cross-dressing
Disclaimer/Claimer: I acknowledge the original creators (Togashi, Peirrot, etc.), I do not own these characters and I make no profit from this whatsoever.
Warnings: Um. Cross-dressing. Gender-bending. Please don't hurt me.

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There was a gateway out about twenty three yards from the gang's main den and the surrounding area was littered with some white clothing and a few empty pouches that smelled of incense. Yomi collected the clothing and pouches by himself, seeing as how his comrades didn't notice anything peculiar about the portal and the trash lying around.

What Yomi found strange was that it was a portal to the Human Realm.

Youko Kurama was no where to be found that day.

Yomi took his time cleaning the outside, not finding anything better to do with his time aside from spending it with his comrades or eating and sparring. He paced across the front of the portal (it wasn't that big; it was about the size of a large grapefruit and shimmering white and just hovering in the air at the horned yokai's waist height), stalking around it whenever he found it convenient and recovering some more trash. He was just waiting for when Kurama came back out and he wanted to be the first one to see him.

"Hey, Yomi!" cried one of the gang members – Hideko, the rooster. "Come back over here! K'rama won't be back for a – heh, a long time…" He grinned a cocky grin and his comrades chuckled and laughed over the fire as they dealt their cards to each other.

Yomi walked over to their group, waiting until he was able to sit next to Hideko. "What are you talking about?"

The rooster, clad in his red leather vest, a multitude of belts and knee high boots, swatted his hands toward Yomi for him to sit and he handed him a goblet with white liquid. He had a long face with fair check bones and a long neck. His hair was styled upwards in red and brunette spikey streaks. Yomi didn't hang around Hideko all that much, but Youko Kurama found him to be a good locksmith, not to mention a loud caller on the lookout squad.

Hideko took a swing of his cider and grinned at the horned demon. "K'rama's out on a deal on his own terms tonight."

"He's gotta take in some different aspects of the worlds in, uh, different ways… forms… if y'know what I mean…" another demon – scaled and horned in eight places on his head and shoulders – Shinade, commented with a chortle and they all laughed amongst themselves again.

Yomi looked on with an odd stare at his fellow thievesmen. "Then what is he doing in the human world?"

"Hnn? He does that all the time: goes to the human world." Hideko said, finishing his drink. He turned to Yomi. "You haven't noticed anything? You haven't noticed anything… peculiar?"

Yomi had an even odder look on his face now when he stared at Hideko. "Other than the mass of dirty clothes and perfume lying around?"

"Exactly!" The rooster called out, smacking his hand down on the small table to his playmates. An off-topic holler of "read 'em and weep!" with an eruption of groans and unfair shouts at Hideko made for a few more laughs as the cards were resorted and dealt again.

"Why did he leave his clothes?" Yomi asked.

"Oh! What makes you think that those are his clothes?" Hideko responded.

"…'Cuz they're… there, I guess."

Hideko got another serving of alcohol and cider and arranged his card hands, not letting his players know what kind of hand he had. "Take a closer look, there, Yomi,"

So he did. Yomi took one piece of clothing from the pile he collected and folded it out in front of him.

"…"

"Well, what is it, Yomi?" Skalik asked.

"…It's a skirt."

The group went quiet. Hideko smiled in appreciation and everyone suddenly burst into laughter and hoots of questionable sexual jokes and stereotypes. The rooster looked at the kid kindly with a gleam in his eyes, his chin rested on his open palm, as Yomi continued to stare at the article of clothing.

"Is this a joke?"

"It's a fortune!"

"It's a scandal!"

"It's hilarious!"

Hideko took a few careful sips from his goblet before he explained to the young horned youkai. "Do you not know 'bout the legends of kitsune?"

Yomi was usually the last one to hear about Kurama's social life and other plans unless there was a special part in it for him. Since Kuronue's sudden death, Kurama looked to Yomi for security in their jobs, trying to be more forceful for the band to collect, pillage, and get out before any casualties occurred.

Kurama told Yomi what to do only on a need to know basis.

Yomi shook his head.

"Since K'rama's a Youko, there are similarities between his race and those of old shapeshifters of his ancestors. Some humans 'ave seen kitsune as guides for the commoners and messengers of the gods. Though most of the time, they end up being seen in a humanoid form."

"Why does Kurama travel to the human world? There's nothing there…"

"It's fun!" Hideko cried. "It's so easy to scare poor humans when you have nothing better to do. Some even are brought back to Makai for their blood to be made a feast of. You eat humans, don't ya, Yomi?"

The young youkai nodded, but said nothing further on that subject. "But I though Kurama only ate foul and vegetables…"

"It's fun to scare humans and gain power over them." Hideko continued. "The thing about Youko's is that they are the ultimate tricksters and pranksters. The idea of the getting the best of the most horrible human to live give Youko the magnificent pleasure of having control. Then, of course, he steals 'em for all they're worth." Hideko smiled and chugged his drink.

"I still…" Yomi didn't get it. "What's with the skirt, though…?"

"That's what I'd like to know!" Several of the group members shouted and hollered drunkenly before falling to the ground and scooting up to watch the card game and eves drop on the conversation about their leader.

"When K'rama gets bored out of his mind, what do you think he does to kill time? Youko's are shapesifters. YOU figure it out." He enunciated his last sentence with an inclination of his head in the horned youkai's direction and bulged his eyes out comically.

It only took Yomi a moment before he turned a bright red and made a strange, nasally deflating noise. As soon as the gang members fell over from holding their breaths from laughter, Yomi hunched over himself on the ground and let out the heartiest laugh he had ever laughed. Hideko finished his drink with his eyes closed in reverence and sorted his card hand.

"Y-You've… you've gotta be… Ha! You've gotta be KIDDING me… HIDEKO-SAN!"

Nothing else happened until dusk, when everyone hit the sack and or went into town to a tavern or brothel to divert their attention and stay awake to party.

Yomi wanted to sleep, though. He gargled at the river side and undid his dirty tunic, making sure it was clean and dry before tomorrow's sunrise. He scrubbed at his face roughly, trying to get out an uncomfortable feeling in his skin when he felt a high rise in youki coming from behind him.

He spun around, but only managed to throw himself on his bottom from the sheer force of his momentum, and tried to get the water out of his eyes in time to see who his new foe was.

The figure was white. The outline had thin, long and muscular legs that arched gracefully out of the portal and was followed by a thin, lithe body and a head of too-long-to-be-real hair.

It glowed. Yomi's retina's burned until his eyes got used to the bright light.

It was a woman. And she was walking towards him.

Yomi was petrified, but only slightly, as it was a good chance that this was someone completely different than who he initially thought it was. He stayed as still as possible while trying to maintain a stable and straight line in his youki in order to not give off any stressed feelings or timid auras to make him an easier target.

The figure stopped and stood straight and dignified. Her head held high and her hips jutted to the side in a language that said simply: I'm right here. Try me.

When a tail and a set of anthropomorphic ears poked out from particular areas on the being, Yomi began to panic.

When he thought that the ability for Youko Kurama to shape shift into a woman was hilarious and exciting that afternoon, he now found it to be blood chilling.

"Hey, Yomi…" his/her voice cooed to him and then continued to walk, still in the full bodied form of a beautiful demonic woman, showing no shame in her breathtaking nudity.

"H-hey… K-Kurama…"

And suddenly, he found himself under him/her. Unwilling to even move in fear that Kurama would get the wrong idea (because Kurama would either seduce him or beat him and never let him hear the end of it, and it looked like Kurama wanted to seduce him, like it or not) Yomi was as still as a stick, his throat clenched and his eyes were wide, trying to get the full detail of Kurama's "new" body as closely as he could before he never saw it again.

His/her lips were on his and a taste of lemon and something tart filled his senses.

What does K'rama do to kill time when he's bored out of his mind?

Yomi's hands clung to Kurama's sides, feeling him/her up and soaking him/her into his memory permanently.

Kurama let out a throaty and passionate moan from his chest as they continued to kiss and grope each other on the fresh grass. No longer than a few minutes into their foreplay did Kurama finally change back and Yomi was a little disappointed.

"What?" Kurama asked, looking a little annoyed, but not as much as usual.

"N-nothing…" It was better to make the most of it and then never speak of it ever again. "Let's keep going."

END… I guess.

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--- I am… actually quite opposed to gender bending in canon fandom. But seriously. If I can get the opportunity for Kurama to be a woman and seduce Yomi that's the best I can get. XD
--- Hideko, and any other miscellaneous demons are my creations. Hideko's the smart-aleck and is probably going to come back sometime. I like him. He kind of takes Kuronue's place for a while.