A/N: Sorry I took so long to update!! And happy summer to all you students and, well, everyone else too :P
As always, I loved every review! They bring a smile to my face and a new, shiny glow to my day.
Warning: This chapter might be overly mushy. But if you like mush, you should love it. :P
Chapter 5
By Yami no Kokoro
"Come on, Kurama, it's only 10:30 in the morning." The kitsune sighed into the telephone. So yesterday had been a fluke after all, the Spirit Detective still had that impossible habit of sleeping until noon if left to his own devices.
"You know, you'll be exhausted at school tomorrow if you sleep all day today. It throws off your body's chemistry."
Yusuke let out a soft laugh on the other side of the line.
"You sound like my mom . . . ok, what my mom should sound like. Anyway, if I'm tired I'll just skip school tomorrow." Then his voice brightened considerably, and he suddenly seemed a good bit more awake. "I can think of better ways to get exhausted tomorrow though . . ."
Holding back a smile, the fox traced his finger over the countertop, sighing.
"But Yusuke, you just said you were far too tired to do anything with me today. You just stay home and sleep. I'll have to go to the competition alone."
"Competition?" The doubt in Yusuke's voice was evident. "What kind? You mean like a flower show or something? Who grew the biggest pumpkin?"
Kurama sighed at his new koi's ignorance.
"For one thing, Yusuke, a pumpkin is not a flower, and for another, they are fully-grown in the fall, not April."
There was a quick laugh on the other side of the line.
"Right. I knew that." The kitsune absentmindedly brushed a lock of deep red hair from his eye and shrugged.
"Actually, Toranishi, a nearby high school, is hosting a large martial arts competition. They hold it once a month, and supposedly bring in the best in the trade from the area. I thought you might be interested in watching, but I understand if you're too exhausted."
He paused, waiting for Yusuke to weigh his options. Home and bed, or Martial Arts Competition and boyfriend. It took a total of two seconds for the other to jump in and reply, "No way, Kurama. I'll be at your house in twenty minutes. Can't leave you unattended in a crowd of hot muscly fighting dudes." The fox chuckled at the underlying worry in the joking words.
"What little faith you have in me. Maybe I don't want you to come anymore. You're likely to get a wandering eye if you have such a high opinion of them."
"Never, Kurama." The lack of hesitation in the answer made him freeze, as did the conviction with which the words were spoken.
"A-Alright, Yusuke. I'll see you in twenty minutes." Carefully he placed the phone back in its cradle, and leaned back against the counter, arms crossed. Yusuke seemed to care for him so much, and he wanted to feel that way back. The detective was sweet, brave, and incredibly handsome. In fact, he just as worried about someone hitting on Yusuke at the tournament as someone going after him. Not that he should, the boy was more loyal than anyone else he knew.
There was just one fault in the seemingly perfect equation that was Yusuke. He wasn't Hiei. So was there even a possibility that Kurama could feel for him like he had . . . like he'd loved . . .
'Just take things as they come, Kurama,' he coaxed himself silently. 'You like Yusuke, so stop worrying about feelings you'll have tomorrow or ones you had yesterday.'
Still, the fox felt his feet moving towards the house's back door, his place of solitude and peace.
The place where old memories lay.
Yusuke's POV
I smile brightly as Kurama's mother answers the doorbell, and barely remember in time to ask for Shuichi, instead of Kurama. Man, that guy has too many names.
The woman gives me this all knowing look that's kinda' eerily like the ones Kurama gets before letting me in.
"Shuichi's around back, in his garden." I think at the last second to slip off my shoes before stepping into the house (rules like that have never been really paid attention to at my house) and pick them up as she begins to lead me to the back door.
"Thanks, Mrs. Minamino."
She smiles and shakes her head graciously at my thanks, closing the front door and going down the side hallway of the two-story house.
"Call me Shiori, please. It's so good to see my son inviting friends over again. He hasn't had much company this year, save those girls from school that insist on coming over for help on their studies." The tone in her voice tells me clearly that she isn't too fond of those girls. Well, there's one thing we've got in common.
I wonder briefly if I should tell her that she hardly has to worry about the advances of bubbly high school girls, but what am I supposed to say? 'It's ok, Mrs. Minamino. I'm already with your son, so he's safe from those dangerous school girls.' She'd been polite enough to me so far, and I don't want to be the one to make her expression change to one of horror when she realizes Kurama's into other boys. Most parents don't deal too well with being slapped in the face with that kind of information.
We reach the back door and I slip my shoes back on, bowing slightly to Kurama's mom. Hey, I want to make a decent impression, don't I?
"Thanks again, Mrs., well, Shiori." She nods and turns away to go back up the hall. As I begin to open the back door, however, she pauses and glances back, smiling sadly.
"Just be careful with him, alright? It's been a difficult year."
I meet her gaze, surprised for a second into silence by her intuition, and then nod firmly.
"Don't worry."
Her smile brightens, and for the second time I can see the relation between my rose and his mother.
"Then have fun today." And with that she disappears silently down the hallway. Sighing, I open the door fully and stepped outside. . . into a world unlike anything I'd ever seen before.
Garden, what an understatement. Exotic trees sprout from a bed of soft green grass, filtering out the sun's bright rays with their thick and lush leaves. Flowers of every kind that I can imagine and a bunch more that I can't are arranged artistically in separate sections, some in rock gardens of smooth stone and some simply in dirt. Each area seems special, though, like it's all a part of Kurama, each plant representing a memory of an emotion so pure I feel as if my heart could actually burst from looking at them.
Anyone who believes that a mere human could make this is fooling themselves. I trail out through the back door in wonder, amazed at how much beauty could be incorporated into the twelve by twelve meter space that the city allowed.
And then I stumble upon the most beautiful flower in the whole garden. Tendrils of crimson tumble into a green that puts every leaf and plant dubbed that color to shame.
I'll never stop being awe of the beauty of my rose.
The kitsune kneels before a large shrub of some kind, sensual lips pressed together in a soft frown. Soft, as is everything about Kurama. Soft, gentle features, soft, creamy skin, soft voice and a soft heart, which is being demonstrated right then. The youkai is so worried about the plant, which seems kind of sickly, that he hasn't noticed my approach.
Odd that anything can be dying in a place like this. It's as though I'm standing within Kurama's very soul. That's the only way I can think to describe this beauty everywhere around me.
The plant in question is a pale green with dark red flowers dangling down from its stems, a white teardrop shape in the middle of each one.
"It's called a bleeding heart bush." Kurama says suddenly, brushing a finger lightly over a leaf and standing. I jump. Ok, so maybe my rose is a little more observant than I gave him credit for.
Looking back at the plant I notice that each flower does hang in a shape similar to a heart.
"What's wrong with it?" I ask softly. Something about the scene before me makes me feel as though I'm intruding on something very private. If something between a person and a plant could be private, anyway. "Why don't you just help it with your ki?"
Kurama looks over to me slowly, and I notice that they're shining slightly.
"Sometimes things appear in this garden of their own volition, perhaps because I've infused so much of my ki, of myself, into it. A little over half a year ago the bleeding hearts began to grow here, without my will or consent. Despite any efforts I haven't been able to get rid of them, perhaps because some deep rooted part of me doesn't want to, I don't know. Whatever the reason, the bleeding hearts chose today to begin to die, and yet again I am unable to stop them."
He pauses again, a soft smile coming to his lips as he points to something over my shoulder.
"And last night, I discovered those growing."
Turning around, my eyes scan over the plants and flowers until I spot what Kurama had been referring to.
In a rock-bed a small rosebush had sprouted, already bearing a single pink rose.
It sprouted yesterday . . . ok, even I can get the symbolism there. Spinning back, I grin at Kurama, who smiles back, eyes now dry of unshed tears.
"That rosebush is the best thing in the whole garden." I murmur.
I had won a place in the garden of Kurama's heart. Sure, I'm a puny pink rosebush, but I'm sure that it'll grow. After all, the bleeding hearts are dying, leaving a perfect space for me to fill.
Stepping carefully over an assortment of colorful rock moss, I lean forward, sure I'm still grinning like an idiot, to wrap the kitsune into a gentle but jarring kiss. I brush my tongue impatiently over Kurama's lips, requesting an entrance that was readily granted. Every fiber of my being hums as Kurama runs a hand through my hair and then down my back, the thin separation of our skin by my light black shirt seeming nonexistent. For a long moment we fall into a world where all that exists is the caress of the other, and when we leave the garden soon after I glance back to see that the bleeding hearts are drooping just a little bit more, and my rosebush contains two new blooming buds.
TBC