Title: Define My Pain

By: Aina Song

Fandom(s): YYH/FF8 Crossover

Genre: Yaoi

Rating: NC-17

Warning(s): Language; Angst; Blood - Possibly some Saap, if I can manage it.

Pairing(s): Yusuke/Squall; implied Hiei/Kurama

Reviews: Yes, please.

Author's Note: Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money. Italics= dreams, and such.

Teaser: He didn't know what he needed… Until it found him.

Chapter Seven -Only Hope

Squall Leonhart slowly passed his hand along the wall. Its surface rippled like bricked water. Standing just behind him, Seifer Almasy stared at it in disbelief. "How the Hell…"

Yusuke laughed, watching them. "Doesn't look like much, does it. But it will work. This wormhole will lead you straight home. And it's only temporary, so you'd better hurry."

"But how did you do this?" Squall softly demanded, passing his hand over the rippling surface a second time.

The dark youth shrugged, "I had help."

Squall understood. Yusuke's bond-brothers. Closer than life itself, never beyond the reach of his last breath. Alone, Yusuke was a formidable being with such power whose limits Squall had yet to guess at. But the three of them together…

Seifer still looked skeptical. "I'm not convinced this would work."

"One way to find out," Hiei remarked, just before shoving the blond youth forward.

With little more than a surprised shout, Seifer stumbled through the brick wall. Squall watched as his old rival's body vanished before his eyes, then he turned his wondering gaze upon Yusuke.

But Yusuke only smirked, shrugging. Behind him, the red-haired Kurama was frowning at their fiery-eyed companion.

Dark humor shone in Hiei's glare, "What?"

"Was that truly necessary?"

"Wasn't it," he insisted.

Yusuke shushed them, still grinning. "Here," he said, offering Squall the small red box he had brought with him upon his return to the temple.

Squall looked at it a moment, then took the box into his hands and lifted the lid. Then he stared. Cushioned upon a layer of grey foam, tucked inside its own leather sheath, was the same dagger Squall had admired from the window of a gift shop the night before. Black leather sheath, cross-woven leather grip… Squall lifted it up out of its box and bared its triple-forged blade. It boasted perfect balance in his fist, a rare quality in such a weapon.

He put the dagger back into its box and replaced the lid. He looked at Yusuke, and suddenly all the rest of the world seemed to disappear. "Thank you," he whispered.

Before he could draw in another breath, Yusuke had stepped close and was kissing Squall's mouth very thoroughly, sharing his taste of mint chocolate one last time. Then the dark youth's hands were on his shoulders, and Squall felt himself being shoved backwards.

He could not feel the brick wall as he passed through it.

Only the sudden chill that gripped his lungs as he left Yusuke Urameshi behind…

~o~

"Yusuke?"

Kurama exchanged a look of concern with Hiei, who only frowned to hide his own worry. They watched as their young bond-brother silently turned away and led back through the city to Genkai's temple.

~o~

Edea's garden.

A cliff-side meadow, filled with every blossom imaginable.

They had reached their original destination, at last. For it was here that Squall had once promised Rinoa Heartilly that he would always wait for her. And here it was that he had scattered her ashes.

When Seifer had first offered to "kidnap" him and bring him here, Squall had not understood why. But this past week had forced Squall to realize the obvious truth. His time with Rinoa had ended. He knew that, now. He knew it, and yet he did not feel so guilty about it as he had thought he might.

What he suddenly did feel was the birth of a tiny flame in the core of his heart. Its steadily growing warmth dripped like liquid fire, filling his heart from somewhere even deeper within him.

"Squall," spoke Edea's voice, as she came up behind him. "Child, when did you get here?"

"Only recently," he heard himself answer, though his mind still followed this new flame. Now it was spilling into his veins, swimming in his very blood. He could feel it, could trace its path as it began to spread through his entire body. Not burning. Not invading. But almost… Welcome.

Edea was speaking again. "The Ragnarok's auto-pilot brought it to my shore a few days ago. Is there something you're not telling me?"

And then some. He did not answer right away, his mind racing with a self-discovery he dared not ignore.

"Squall?"

"I came with Seifer. Have you seen him yet?"

"Yes," she sighed, knowing her question refused. "He's just inside."

The blond youth was leaning against the broken doorway to their old childhood room, looking in. "Hit me again if you want, but I'm going to say this. You just made the biggest mistake of your life, coming back here."

But Squall was no longer concerned with whether he was right or wrong. "I'm going after the White Ship, to ask for Ellone's help."

"Ellone?" Seifer shook his head, "Her power has limits, Leonhart."

"I remember." His eyes stung, a fire only he could see brightening his vision, and he felt the flames consume his lungs as he breathed. They would soon engulf him whole, unless Ellone could help Squall to bring them under his control.

~o~

They could not take it much longer. For three weeks, Hiei and Kurama had watched Yusuke bury his broken heart as though there had been nothing wrong. It was the exact same thing he had done when he had learned about Keiko and Kuwabara. This time, however, they could feel his pain eating at his insides like poison.

They had to stop their young bond-brother, before he destroyed himself.

Late one afternoon, they found Yusuke wandering the forest outside Genkai's temple. Without a word, they took his arms and pulled him down to his knees. Yusuke protested, but soon quieted under their solemn stare and let them have their way. And so Hiei and Kurama bombarded him with their combined energies, silently forcing him to witness how his sulking had begun to hurt them as well. When they pulled their energies back, Yusuke responded. He let his own energy flow out of him so that it may embrace them all. He let them share his pain, and the true cause for it. But he would not allow them to tear it away from him. It was his pain, after all, and he did not wish his bond-brothers to suffer needlessly for his sake.

Instead, he let them help him to quiet his pain and hide it within the core of his heart, where it would whisper but not fade. And after, when all was done, Yusuke felt a small sense of peace settle within himself. Without the one he had chosen, he would never be whole. But he would continue to survive. For them.

~o~

"People are going to wonder, Leonhart. They'll ask questions."

"Let them."

"Are you sure you don't want anyone to know the truth?"

"…Give my Revolver to Laguna. He deserves to know I haven't died."

"And the others?"

He smiled, "I drowned at sea."

"They'll blame me, you know. They'll think I did you in, myself. Revenge or something for defeating Ultimecia."

"Then stay in Esthar. Borrow Laguna's influence as their president to establish your place there and start anew."

"And you think he'd accept me, just like that?"

"If you remember to stick to the truth and keep your smart mouth in line. I'm discovering for myself that anything is possible."

~o~

"Yusuke," Genkai quietly interrupted, having suddenly appeared as was her custom. "You have a visitor."

The dark youth did not move from his brothers' embrace. "If it's Kuwabara, ask him if he has a death wish then tell him to go away."

"Idiot," she shook her head with a fond smile. "I'm not your answering machine. Get up and go tell him yourself."

Swearing, Yusuke stood and left to do just that.

He was a young demon. Quick and powerful; dangerous when he wanted to be. But still young. He had not caught the secret behind Genkai's smile.

But Hiei and Kurama were not so young. They had caught it, and swiftly guessed the reason behind it.

~o~

Yusuke had barely stepped into the temple, when he suddenly found himself shoved back against a wall with the blade of a dagger pressed up at his throat. The hold on him was not unyielding; he could easily have wrenched himself free. But then he caught a glimpse of his attacker.

There was a streak of white in his feathery brown hair. Thick markings were scrawled all over his marble skin, glowing red as fire. A fanged snarl, and hauntingly blue eyes whose pupils were also rimmed with red.

"S-Squall?"

"Why didn't you tell me I wasn't human," the swordsman hissed, holding the blade steady as he kissed Yusuke's mouth with all the hunger of a passion unleashed.

Much as he enjoyed revisiting the cinnamony-citrus taste of those sultry lips, Yusuke reluctantly pulled back. "I'm sorry," he panted. "I should've told you."

"Yes."

"And I shouldn't have let you go."

"No."

"I should've asked you to stay. Begged you." Yusuke's dark eyes shone, "Thrown you down and had my way with you until you couldn't dream of leaving."

"Why didn't you?"

"You only wanted to go home." He sighed, "It wouldn't have been right to take that from you."

Another moment passed, and Squall slowly brought the dagger away, tucking it into its leather sheath which now hung from one of the loose belts at his hip. "So, what am I?"

"A demon, same as I am." And, in the spirit of honesty, Yusuke let his true form be revealed. His black hair grew long and wild, his skin took on a chocolatey hue, and jagged chalky blue tattoos marked his darkened skin. He smirked, feeling his fangs play at his lower lip.

Squall stared, "Your markings look like mine. Except…"

"Except, they're not like yours. Yours are all over; mine are just here and there." Yusuke shrugged, "Demons come in thousands of breeds. But you and I are what some might call a couple of accidents. We're Mazoku."

The other frowned, curious. "Mazoku?"

"Demonkin. Half-breeds. Both of my parents are human. So were my grandparents, and so on. Keep counting back; you'll only find more of the same, until you reach forty-four generations before my birth."

"A demonic ancestor?"

"Right. But his descendents were all human. The demon blood in his DNA skipped over all of them until it reached me. There's no guessing how many generations it took for you, but it's easy to tell the story's about the same." Then his smirk grew, "Though it looks like your ancestor might have been descended from a fire demon. Wait 'til Hiei sees you."

Squall's fire-rimmed eyes widened, and he knew a moment of uncertainty. "Your bond-brothers. Will they…"

"They'll accept you," the dark youth confidently answered. "Even when we thought you were human, they were ready to give you a chance."

Squall found no reason to doubt his dark lover's word. He asked, "What do we do now?"

"Tomorrow, I hope you'll follow me back into my world. Kurama, Hiei, and I can teach you everything you want to know about your demonic power. In the meantime," Yusuke added, stepping closer. A heated light shone in his fierce brown eyes, "I think I'd like to test those new fangs of yours."

Quickly guessing his game, Squall narrowed his eyes and watched the dark youth come even nearer. "Are you calling me a biter?"

Yusuke pulled his lover roughly against him. His touch tracing Squall's fiery red tattoos up under his shirt must have burned like electricity, because it brought a hiss of breath from his lover. And he gave a slow smirk when he felt a rumbling predatory growl start up from deep within Squall's chest.

"One can only hope…"

The End