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For once in his life, Yusuke can't pry – can't pester, can't bother, can't wheedle – because every time he thinks about trying, he sees Kurama's eyes again, dark green and in clear agony. What right does he have to make the djinn go through all that again – and why should he want to?
And surprisingly, his silence – if only for lack of anything to say – appears to be the appropriate response. After a long, tense moment, Kurama stirs, takes a deep breath, and speaks again.
"He was," the djinn says – almost absently, Yusuke notices, as though Kurama is not speaking to anyone, simply thinking aloud – "a young man, and yet – for all his youth – so very powerful. A warrior, he was at times rough and brash – how else was he to command respect? – but at his core, a gentle soul. It shone through most often in regards to his family; in fact, he used his first two wishes to help them.
The first he used to cure his mother of what is now known as tuberculosis – a disease that would have been fatal in those times. The second he used to bring his sister happiness – those were his exact words, 'Bring my sister happiness'. Had he not already proven his true character, I would have twisted that wish, found a way to make the happiness temporary, taken her life at the instant she found it. Instead, I allowed her to find true love."
Yusuke, against his better judgment, hears himself speak up, asking, "I thought you weren't allowed to interfere with true love." Almost instantly, he's berating himself, thinking that Kurama will suddenly realize what he's revealing, but the djinn seems to take it in stride, answering in that same absent tone – as if the question had occurred to him naturally.
"There are loopholes, of course. There are always loopholes – that's why djinni can twist wishes the way they do. And so, by interpreting 'interfere' as having a negative influence, it was quite simple to have a positive influence and still be working well within the rules.
His third wish – " Here, Kurama falters for a moment, and Yusuke's not surprised. A strange, sinking certainty is beginning to fill him – he knows where this story is going. Not just an impersonal knowledge, though. There's something strange about this knowing – like he's been through it before. But that's impossible.
Isn't it?
"His third wish he swore to use to free me. Oh, how well I remember the night he made that promise – lying beside me, pale in the moonlight, save for his hair, which seemed to drink in the light. His eyes were so gentle, a look he generally reserved for his family. He ran callused fingers down my back and swore to me that he would use his last wish to set me free."
"He didn't, though," Yusuke interrupts, and again, it's like he can't stop himself. There's just something in him that needs to speak, that needs to understand why he knows. "Because something happened, something that made him use his last wish in a way he didn't want to."
Slowly – oh, so slowly – Kurama turns from the window, the moonlight casting a hazy corona of light about his slim body. Feeling strangely disconnected from his body, Yusuke keeps talking, no matter how much his mind screams at him to stop, to see what this is doing to Kurama.
"He used it…he used it for himself – it was what he'd never wanted. He had no reason to use his wishes for himself, he used them for other people, except that something happened…something…"
"A wound," the djinn whispers, crossing the room slowly, his face in shadows. Yusuke rises to meet him, standing at the edge of the bed, but Kurama stops an arm's length away. "He took a wound on the battlefield that festered, badly enough to threaten his life."
"He couldn't leave his family – couldn't leave his men," Yusuke finishes, and he hears the shaky intake of breath from just a few feet in front of him. "So he wished for you to save his life…" But something about that is wrong. That's not how it happened. "Because you made him. You made him give up his wish of setting you free, so that you could save his life."
"How?" Kurama asks, shakily, and shifts, just far enough that a sharp angle of moonlight falls across his face. His delicate brows are furrowed, his eyes desperate. "How do you know these things?"
Yusuke can only shake his head. He has no answer – and can there even be one? But it doesn't appear to matter that he doesn't speak, because a moment later, the djinn has answered his own question.
"Of course," he breathes, his green eyes widening in a manner that would be almost comical, if the situation weren't so completely bewildering. "You are the same man. Why didn't I ever see it?"
"What are you talking about?" Yusuke asks, with a voice that – he swears to himself – isn't shaking. The moonlight is intensely bright in his face, dazzling in his eyes, and for a confused, startling moment, he sees Kurama as he once was – the way he emerged from the lamp, almost, but younger somehow – gauze-draped, bare-chested, and beautiful.
The vision is gone almost as quickly as it came, broken when Kurama moves, reaching out with long, trembling fingers to trace the line of Yusuke's cheekbone, the curve of his jaw.
"You are the prince, the warrior – and now, the boy," the djinn murmurs, something like wonder in his voice as it drifts to Yusuke's ears. "The same soul, following me throughout the centuries. And I…I never realized."
"No – " Yusuke begins to protest, but it's no use. Because he has done no more than form that one syllable before the rest of his speech is abruptly cut off by the soft press of Kurama's lips to his. And even if he could think, could push the djinn aside, what would he say? With that simple, gentle, and unbelievably intimate contact, Yusuke knows.
Further words just seem like a waste of time as he falls to the bed with Kurama, in a tangle of warm limbs and even warmer kisses.
