What's this? A second update in a two-day time period? Why, I might be coming down with a fever. This one is also short, just a quick character study of Kurama. But the next chapter shall be long. Remember, I will be taking requests for any oneshots or situations you would like to see Kurama and Lupin in.

A Son's Devotion

Shiori was a graceful woman around the kitchen. She seemed most content when absorbed in a cookbook, performing an unconscious waltz across the tile floor as she moved counter to counter, dicing vegetables and steaming rice and humming a bodiless tune all the while.

She put her love into every step, just as she put her love into everything she'd ever done to raise him.

"Suuichi, dear, could you pass me the salt?"

Kurama lifted the saltshaker from the table with a soft, "Yes, mother," and sat it gently on the countertop just far enough from her nimble hands that she couldn't knock it over. In the process, he noticed her sleeves were rolled up to keep them from catching or getting stained, baring long, ragged scars to him.

He glanced away and moved to the dish cupboard, intent on setting the table. He didn't get to help her anymore and barely got to see her. Between work and missions for Koenma, his mother had somehow taken a backseat in his life, and he wasn't sure what he thought about it.

"It's so nice to have you home, dear," Shiori said as if reading his mind. She sighed happily. "When was the last time you sat down to dinner with us?"

Fork on the left, knife and spoon on the right. Napkin. Glass. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to leave you."

A soft noise left Shiori's thin lips; she smiled down at her recipe in the making. "Never you mind, darling. I know how important your school work is to you. And you're such a smart boy, well it'd be selfish of me to horde your talents, wouldn't it?" she turned; cast him that warm smile that twisted his stomach. He smiled back at her with only a slight effort; every year it seemed to get easier as he dug his grave deeper. Her trust was overwhelming, so much so that it tore at him (him, the greatest of criminals), especially when he shamelessly took advantage of that trust.

"Besides," Shiori hummed again, brushing flour from her hands as she consulted her cookbook. "I have little Suuichi and Ren to keep me company. I know that as you get older, you need more space..."

But that was the problem, wasn't it? His case seemed reversed. As a younger human, he had all but yearned to return to Makai and resume his life there. Every day stuck in Ningenkai was another in Hell. But up to this day, he had grown attached, too attached...

It had never pained him like this to lie.

A certain dreamy edge polished Shiori's tone. "I know one day you'll go away to college...get married...have little children..." He could almost see the loving smile smoothed over her lips as she paused to moon over her dreams of his future.

Every day, every minute, he was lying to her. With every manipulation, turn of phrase, excuse, he made a larger and larger tear in their relationship. She was oblivious to it, of course, but eventually she would know. When he didn't age. When he slipped up, as someday he was destined to do, and revealed himself as the nightmarish creature he was.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, mother. That's all very far in the future."

How he deluded himself.

"Yes, well," Shiori resumed her well-practised dance with an extra bounce in her step, one Kurama didn't miss.

He did not remember his youkai mother, had never encountered her in all his thousand years. But he doubted he could have cared for her the way he was devoted to Shiori, to make her proud, to provide for her in any way a son could for his mother. He would give his life for her, and the lives of many others.

"Here, dear," Shiori turned, cupping one hand beneath the wooden spoon she held in the other. A sugary substance dripped from it. "Test this for me. Too much lemon?"

Kurama gently took the spoon from her and tasted, glancing again at the scars on her arms.

"How does it taste, Suuichi?"

I am a fool.

"Delicious."

Sigh. Kurama has so much emo-angst going on beneath the surface, served with a large slice of remorse. Really, that must be all the human in him.

Kurama/Lupin interaction next chapter!

RR, please.