AN: Sheiße will to be hitting the fan now.

Dedication and disclaimer in first chapter.

Chapter Six

Buffy: I've lost battles before. But no one else has ever made me a victim.

Faith: And you can't stand that, can you? You're all about control.


Yusuke had found, in his scholastic career, that the time that school claimed to open didn't have to be set in stone as a personal arrival goal for him. Since he had a hunch Kurama felt differently (when he was around to show up for school at all), he had decided to waste his morning meandering around in the general direction of Kurama's school instead of asking if Kurama could do the same for him.

"So, man," he said after he'd found the demon and then stretched out the small talk until he could see the roof of Kurama's school a street away, "how you holding up?"

He was expecting it. Damn, and Yusuke'd been so careful about creeping up on the subject. "Give me two more days," he said calmly. "They're just dreams, after all, and contrary to popular theory, dreams do not -"

They were walking under a power line, with a crow on it. It cawed halfway through Kurama's sentence, and Yusuke made a mental note not to ever interrupt the guy again when the bloody smear of black feathers and beak hit the ground.

"That," Yusuke wagered, "was not good."

"No," Kurama allowed.

Yusuke waited, and then pressed, "I think it was just a normal bird."

"It was."
"I think I need to do something."

Kurama was still staring at the bird as he tucked his now-normal rose back into his hair. "They don't sound harsh, do they. Everyone says they do, but it's more like someone singing underwater." He looked at Yusuke. "Two more days. If I haven't taken care of it by then -" he stopped suddenly, eyes widening, and then continued, "we'll talk."

"The hell with talk! I don't like any of this, and if you haven't gotten rid of him in two days, I'm going in guns blazing." Illustrating his point, he formed a gun with his hand. "Bang."

Kurama quickly pushed his hand down, face smooth. "Why don't you go and tell Botan your concerns? She's good at listening to these kinds of things, when she isn't making cracks about undead boyfriends listening in."

"Gotcha," Yusuke said with admirable subtlety, as such things went, until he winked. He couldn't resist. "I'll do that."

I sat at my desk slowly, rationalizing that tonight had no reason to be worse than any other so far.

Of course, it didn't have any reason not to be, either. No reason. There was no reason to -

"I'll take no gold, miss
I'll take no silver
I'll take those sweet lips
That thou will deliver…"

The little boy whispered the song into the ear of the doll in his arms. The bed creaked over them, and the splintered remains of the door lay in the middle of the attic floor with no wall. Some china dolls were scattered among my possessions. A large, round mirror leaned against the wall, providing a clear view of the top of the bed to anyone below. A door that wasn't there to be reflected warped around the edges inside it, blackness-biting seeping through.

"Maybe I can have little sister or brother to play with," the boy confided hopefully in his doll's ear, inaudible above the sound of an explosion atop the bed.

His sister ran in through where the door would be if it were there, appearing from nowhere. She stood there for a moment, alone, and then closed her eyes and threw her hands out. There was another blast of heat and light.

A rumble - his father yelling - and the third blast shook the room, knocking the girl from her feet, clutching the bloody remains of her chest and neck. Her face was probably twisted with pain, but it would still be beautiful, if he could have seen it.

"Karasu," she whispered thickly, when he crawled out - after the debris had settled. "Come here."

He looked at the bed, and then did. "Are they dead?"
She nodded, breath sticky and slow behind her empty-face, words burbling over her lips. "I need you to do something for me. You know - you know how, when Father does - what he does to Mother, sometimes he says that she's his because of that?"

He nodded back, even though he didn't. Her words were dribbling into the blood, and she'd run out of both soon.

"Well, that's why Mommy killed herself. Now she's not his. But if I die from him, I will be his, forever. So I need you to do something for me. I can't… I'm too tired…" Her hand found his. "If you kill me instead, I'll stay with you forever, instead of him. Won't that be nice?"

He could barely hear her anymore, but he nodded again, and put his hand on her chest. "Promise me something," she gasped. "Don't remember me like this. Remember me when I was pretty."

"I promise," he said, and then he was all alone. He looked over at Mother, who was finally looking back at him. Her eyes were shiny and unblinking, unseeing. All along, Mother had only had dolls' eyes.

I was in Karasu's arms, surrounded by the rubble of the scene - everything but the bodies. I didn't move for too long, and he pulled me closer, burying his face in my hair and setting off a bomb at my back. It didn't hit me, but the heat did, singing my clothes.

"Finally."

The slender… person… had Lord Shifter's coloring, with golden eyes that glimmered as s/he slinked forward.

"Could I," Karasu growled, yanking away and leaving me to retreat, "have a few minutes alone with him for once?"

The person shrugged, hands spreading innocently. "That wouldn't be much fun just yet, would it? They're no good when they kick." Golden eyes gleamed, catching Karasu's. "And it would be a crime to let this one get away. I mean, look at him. Have you ever seen anything so perfectly beautiful? Have you ever desired anything so very much?"

Karasu looked at me, still seeing golden eyes.

I met his firmly. "But I don't want him." I'd forgotten this part. Using plants. There is no reason.

The person sighed, walking closer to me. "Haven't you ever heard of the golden rule? Whoever has the gold makes the rules." S/he leant in, lips brushing my ear even when I stepped away, breath smelling of roses and making me dizzy, eyelashes brushing the side of my face. "I could make you want him."

I stopped thinking. Concepts - Want. Take. Have. Feelings - lips, hands, skin.

"I know your tastes run to destruction," the person continued, background noise I didn't understand as s/he circled us, far outside the sphere of what mattered. "But - and I do admit to being biased - isn't this way better? Slow poison over a messy bullet. Anyone with a true appreciation of beauty must infinitely prefer my methods."

The necklace I was wearing slipped through my open shirt, and I could think again as it touched my skin. I blew the stem of a rose through Karasu's hand. It didn't make us any farther apart, but it gave him pause, me room to breathe again.

"Oh my." The person sounded genuinely, if mildly, peeved. "Are you going to let him get away with that? Let him control you?" S/he was standing behind me, a hand coming past to stroke Karasu's face. His eyes were glazed, staring at nothing. "Let him laugh at you while he and his little friends burn you in effigy…"

I bit my tongue and did the only thing I could think of, which was to take advantage of my position to get him away from the person, quickly. Knocking Karasu on his back seemed like the thing to do, and I went down with him.

His eyes were still empty (as he grabbed my arms and reversed our position, hands tearing at my clothes, no plants answering any longer), as unseeing as -

I tore the necklace off and put it around his neck, fighting to keep thinking without it. He stopped, breath harsh, and didn't move. "Don't," I said. "You won't be free. You'll just belong to it, and then its twin will have you soon after."

"Oh, Kurama." He smiled. "I've always been theirs."

I smiled back. I can do this. "So stop." I stroked his face, just where the person had. "Stay with me." I can do this. "Be mine."

He stared at me, and then sat back. Cautiously, I leant up on my elbows, and he smiled again. "All right."

The person was silent for one long moment. Then s/he started laughing. "Oh…" s/he gasped, "you two are priceless. Humanity, demonkind, you're all so priceless! You'll do anything to delay even for a moment the ending you know is inevitable." It choked back more gales of merriment, wiping its eyes as if it could cry for anything. "Well, then - to answer the question you can no longer ask, No. He could've had you seven ways from Thursday by now, and he hasn't. He isn't mine." A beautiful smile. "Yet." S/he waved. "I'll see you soon. Even if you don't see me."

We were alone, and a key gleamed in the dust where s/he had been standing, dull and tarnished silver with a foul spot. His arms were longer, and he was in a better position, and he got it first.

Karasu rolled off to sit beside me, and we both collapsed, and breathed.

I opened my eyes and watched a bleary smudge of orange and white splinter and coalesce into Kuwabara's lantern-jawed face peering around the door.

"Hey, Kurama," he said cautiously. "You gonna be sick?"

I sat up. "Why is it so bright?"

"The sun does that." He looked very pleased with his almost-witty repartee. "It's past noon. You said you'd help me with math homework on Saturday," he reminded me. "Which it is now."

"Noon? Really?" I stood up, keeping my eyes on him. He looked too big for the door frame, and his clothes clashed with each other and with his hair.

He nodded. "Your mom let me in. She had to go grocery shopping, but she said she'd be back soon." He looked around my room with interest, still hovering in the doorway. I paused for a moment, trying to convince my senses that there was nothing wrong in the room, and realized that there was, and it was me. I smelled of him, sweat and singed things and brimstone. "Seriously, man, if you need to go hurl or whatever, don't let me stop you."

I laughed and sat back down on the bed. "I don't think that would help."

"Whatever you say," he agreed dubiously. "I'm gonna go whip something up for lunch. Breakfast. Come down when you're functioning, okay?"

I leaned back, bracing myself on my palms. "Helping yourself to our kitchen, are you?"

He looked momentarily embarrassed, then recovered. "And once you've had instant ramen Kuwabara-style, you'll be sorry you gave me a hard time about it!"

I stood again, feeling more up to the idea of walking. "I have no doubt. I'll come with you; wouldn't want to miss a chance to steal the Kuwabara recipe."

"Yeah, well, you might wanna brush your hair first," he suggested.

"Ugh," I complained, running my fingers through the mess on my head and grabbing a brush off the bedside table. "Tell me when I look human again."

"Done," he said promptly.

I paused. "Not quite what I meant."

"Yeah, well, you know." He shuffled in place.

I dragged the brush through my hair, wincing. Tossing and turning had not done me any favors. "You're a very good person, Kuwabara."

"That sounds like there's going to be a 'but' at the end," he noted mournfully. "If it's about math or training, I know already."

"No. No addendums. I was just thinking I haven't met many people like you." I walked over to my bureau and opened one of the top drawers with my free hand, fishing around and letting my mind go blank.

"...Thanks?"

"Yes, you're welcome." My hand closed on something small and cold.

"Cool." He beamed. "Your hair's pretty much better now." As I tossed the brush onto the bed, he added, "I don't know anyone like you, either," with the most perfect sincerity - in his fourteen whole, entire years on this earth and he'd never met anyone who could match up to me.

I pressed the key into his hand on my way past him and said, "Good."

AN: Everyone is so nasty, oh my god. Except Kuwabara. I am deeply in love with Kuwabara.

Also, I would like to point out to anyone unaware that the god-awful pseudo-pun off of its name - that is something Desire does, not something I made up.

Anyway, I'm about to go into finals, so I shall see you all on the other side. Reviews would increase the chances of my surviving this by over nine thousand!