Hi there! As promised, here is the next installment of Word's Once Spoken! I hope you all have as much fun reading this as I did writing it.
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Words Once Spoken: Chapter 5
...The force burst from his mouth, a heart wrenching cry of sorrow echoed from him. Before him lay the bloody remains of his mother, covered with the scent of demon, and without a doubt dead.
"No.." the broken, hopeless word sounded so feeble. His ability to deny this was missing, or nonexistent in the first place. A blinding red light flashed around him, his energy, all control over it lost, though he was too upset to realize it. He made no effort to move from the wet ground on which he knelt. He could do nothing but give in to the violent sobs that wracked his body.
A huge, erratic energy signal swept over the city. Yusuke's head spun rapidly to face the source of the energy. "Kurama, what's wrong?" He quickly turned and ran towards his friend.
Kuwabara was fast asleep, but this torrent of wild energy was enough to awaken him. "What the...Kurama!" Without stopping to think, he jumped out the window and took off down the street as fast as he could.
A dark figure, racing through the trees stopped in its tracks. A third eye opened and saw what the others would soon find. "This could cause problems." He vanished silently into the shadows, no room for hesitation now.
Hiei was the first to arrive. He knelt beside Kurama and urged him to rise. Yusuke arrived and froze at the sight. The first thing he saw was Kurama, in a way that he hadn't thought possible for his naturally playful friend. Kurama was trembling violently for one. But it was the crying that really startled him. Kurama had always been the calm one, and here he was, completely devastated, all self control lost.
When he saw what was behind the two demons, he understood. Shiori had been slaughtered, literally clawed to shreds. The putrid stench of death was powerful, it had just happened recently. Yusuke regained his senses and went to help Hiei get Kurama away from his mother's body. When he put the redhead's arm over one of his shoulders he smelled something else, though just barely, through the scent of death. "Alcohol!"he thought, shocked. There was no way he could mistake that smell. But why would Kurama smell like alcohol?
"Hey foxy boy," Yusuke said gently, foolishly trying to make the kitsune more comfortable with their presence during this.
He realized what a mistake it was when Kurama actually responded to him through his tears. A viscous growl rumbled out of the fox's throat as he glared up at the poor boy. "Don't ever call me that!" Kurama screamed at him. His eyes became golden for a brief moment, and then returned to emerald as his tears came once again.
They had set him down on his bed when Kuwabara joined them. He was thankfully silent for once as he looked sadly down on his friend. "Kurama?" Yusuke was the first to address him. He couldn't tell him it was okay, because it wasn't. Kurama had every right to be upset. When you lose a loved one, it hurts. That person is gone, and they won't return, it was human nature to mourn them. So what right did they have to try and make him feel better? Better that Shiori was missed and honored with Kurama's tears.
"It's my fault." Kurama cried. They stayed quiet, waiting for him to talk, knowing that he would. "If I had just come home right away..." he began coughing. It was the coughing that comes upon you when you're crying, your whole body heaves, as if trying to throw off the sorrow. "She's gone. I lost another loved one. I can't keep doing this!" he curled up and pulled his head into his chest. "I know I promised, I know I did.. I promised to live for him, I said I would wait! But why did she have to go too?" he looked so helpless, so lost. It tore at their hearts.
"This isn't how it's supposed to be." he continued. "This isn't how I wanted it. I stayed for her, I loved her." Now we can go back to demon world. But the spirit fox's soul had just as much sorrow as Shuuichi's, and could not cover up it's own sense of loss "Shut up!" Yusuke and Kuwabara shared a confused look. "You didn't want this either. We knew something was coming, but I would have never.. if we had just come home..." he collapsed into another fit of coughing.
Hiei looked down at Kurama sadly and quickly turned his eyes away. "I wanted to live, I truly did. But how can I continue on without him here, without her here? Why did they have to find me there? If they had left me, I would still be where I deserve to be. This pain would be gone, and real pain would be there instead!" Kurama's strength to speak faded away. Hiei had seen Kurama like this before, back in Makai. But now there was nothing he could do to help. Shiori's death should hurt him, but this was more powerful than any one of them had anticipated.
He was about to leave when the handle on the door turned. Tears continued to fall from Kurama's eyes, distorting his view. He was the only one who did not see the door. The door creaked open, revealing a very tall figure concealed by a deep black cloak. He stepped into the room, ducking through the doorway. "Who are you?" Kuwabara yelled, leaping backwards and stumbling. He ended up falling on his but and looking more like a clown than anything.
A powerful demon aura was being given off by the ominous figure. Yusuke moved threateningly towards the intruder, but Hiei stopped him. When Yusuke looked down at him, he saw recognition in Hiei's eyes. The demon ignored them and walked slowly over to Kurama. He grabbed the crying boy and flipped him not so gently onto his back, causing him to bounce slightly on impact. Then he knelt on the bed by Kurama's feet.
Hiei continued to restrain Yusuke and Kuwabara from approaching. Kurama's eyes grew wide with shock when the demon removed his cloak. "Master...Kuro?" he managed to stutter through his sobs.
Even Hiei was surprised at this. The master they had heard about, was this him? And why would Kurama call somebody master anyway? Kurama's so called master reached out and gently brushed a rec strand of hair from his face. The bat looked into his eyes. "I see, so you're little kit now." he said, looking into Kurama's emerald eyes, flashing gold. He looked into Kurama's soul through his eyes, wisdom overcoming his expression. "You are little kit and foxy boy, aren't you?" he looked surprised to say the least. "Now now little kit, quiet down." his voice was rather childish, but it held compassion that could only come through age. To the shock of the other three, Kurama immediately silenced, though his tears did not.
"He has every right to cry as loud as he wants!" cried Yusuke, indignant. He was angry that this person had any sort of control over his friend, and took an instant disliking to the bat.
Kuronue smiled gently down at the fox. "So you want me to be master Kuro for you right now?" he asked. What did that mean? The three suddenly found themselves onlookers of the situation, rather than being directly involved. Kurama nodded slowly. "Very well. If I do, you must promise not to cry anymore." Then, as an afterthought he added, "This is much like the night we first met, so long ago." Kurama nodded his head again, but no word came from his mouth.
Without another word, the chimera spread the redhead's legs and knelt between them. He pinned Kurama's arms above his head and kissed him fiercely. Yusuke and Kuwabara went from outrage to shock as Kurama kissed back with passion, his loss seemingly forgotten as he found comfort in this stranger. Kuwabara was especially surprised since he hadn't been present for their trip to demon world, and had no idea that Kurama wasn't even near being unexperienced in these matters.
Kurama began moaning under his old lover's kisses. Being dead hadn't lessened his many talents at all. Kuronue moved to the fox's neck, both of them ignoring the other three in the room. "Foxy boy." Kuro said, looking down at the figure below him. "Get ready for me..." That was why Kurama had been angry about ten minutes ago, Yusuke realized suddenly. The bat pulled Kurama's shirt off in one swift motion and tossed it aside. He began kissing and sucking at the redhead's newly exposed skin, a passionate love with no real caution about how Kurama felt. As he had requested, master Kuro was back. Kurama moaned again, his tears stopping as his mind turned completely to Kuronue.
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Kurama wasn't sure how it had happened, but he was glad for Kuro's presence. It was later, after Kuronue had comforted Kurama, and he was still lying on his bed. The other three had remained in the room, looking the other way, through the whole thing. They didn't want to leave Kurama alone in his present condition, no matter how bothered they were by what they heard coming from the two on the bed. One thing Hiei had noticed was that the bat had marked Kurama, claiming him as a mate, but he hadn't been bitten back. He sensed the bond being opened, but he doubted the others did.
"So who are you?" Yusuke asked, still suspicious of the stranger.
"I am Kuronue, master and mate of Youko Kurama." he replied cheerfully, as if nothing odd was going on. "I finally managed to talk Rekai into giving me my life back. It took a few years, but I convinced them in the end." He looked over at Kurama's limp figure. "I fear foxy boy has gotten lost without my guidance. Eighteen years was far too long for him to be left on his own." The matter of fact way that he said it made them question whether or not he even knew who Kurama was.
"I think Kurama can take care of himself." Kuwabara said. "He's done fine so far."
Hiei was the one who shook his head. "The fox is nothing without his mate. When he died, Kurama invoked his powers and almost condemned himself to eternal torture, the sign of a self pitying fool. Then he eventually recovered, but still acted the fool. He went to the place where his mate died and attempted to rob it again. This time it was he who perished. He managed to save his soul. He became a weak human, ended up almost dying to save his mother, joining the Tantei and being near death many times. Then he goes out drinking as he does every seven days, even though he felt that something would happen, and his mother dies for it." He said all this scornfully, looking towards the figure huddled on the bed with an empty face. Yusuke was surprised though, Hiei didn't seem at all resentful of Kurama.
"All of this is true." Kuronue said, "However, I was referring to the fact that he was without me for so long. A mating bond hurts when it's broken." He reached down and fingered the bite on Kurama's neck. "A one-sided mating bond is not a true one. He is pledged to me, while I remain untouched. My foxy boy would have never allowed that, but little kit is a child yet, and untrained." Kuronue turned Kurama's head to face him. "Go clean up, I abhor the smell of alcohol." he ordered.
Kurama nodded and left to clean up without a word. Kuronue was his master, and right now he didn't have any will to resist. He gave no thought to the way he was being treated, his first years as an apprentice had been full of commands like that. He had asked for master Kuro, and that was what he was being given. He had cried out his pain, leaving an empty shell inside. Youko was almost as devastated as Shuuichi. Kurama was ready to give up, this had been his fault. He would serve Kuronue faithfully and mindlessly, he had nothing else left but his bat.
It was truly a shame that the joy he should have felt at Kuro's revival was overshadowed by grief. It was a trait of both humans and demons to be more affected by the negative things in life. A tragic flaw, but one that he was going to give into willingly. Shiori's death had been another tragedy, and his fragile mind could only take so much. Even with Kuro, he was just too worn out by life. For with Shiori's passing, the purpose she had given him was lost, and he just became like Youko again. A nameless, heartless being, lacking identity and hope.
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That's that. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Let me know, this chapter was fun for me. Kind of odd since it was sad, but fun to write all the same, and it's longer. Well you know the drill, until next week, this was Red Kitsune Flames.
And by the way, the voting has been decided. I'm not telling you what won though, you'll lean more later. I have one more thing I need you guys to help me decide on though.
Do you want the demon that killed Shiori to be some insignificant weakling, a character from the show, or an OC? And do you want Kurama to seek revenge, or to just let it go. It won't come up for a bit, but I like to plan in advance.
Let me know what you want to read, k, bye!