Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Fifteen

The next morning a slave came in to escort Katrina to the Master because he wanted to talk to her. Katrina woke to the sound of the door opening and found Yoko curled protectively around her, she growled softly and got up to limp after the slave.

Outside the slave started leading her to the Masters home as he explained why she was sent for, "The Master has chosen you as one of his favorites, which means that you will live with him until he grows tired of you and sends you back to the castle." Katrina wanted to turn and run back to her room, she'd rather die than stay in the Master's company for a minute, but she'd seen that some of the foxes didn't have collars and assumed that if she were good she might get hers taken off. The slave led her through the castle, then through the woods to a simple cabin. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer, the little black fox from yesterday poked his head out a small dog door and barked then went back inside. A minute later the Master answered the door, "yes?"

"Master, I have brought Katrina as you requested, and as you thought the silver fox killed the grey one, I believe they buried him, Sir."

"Good, I didn't much like that grey fox anyways... didn't even know his name. Oh well, come on Katrina I want to explain what's going on," The Master turned and headed back inside and Katrina reluctantly followed him. "As my slave probably told you I've chosen you as one of my favorites. So you will be living with me until I decide to send you back to the castle, and I have someone I want you to take care of, Ritsu!" At the Master's call the little black fox came running and sat happily at his Master's feet, "This little goof, is Ritsu, his mother died so I've decided that you will be his new mother. In fact, I just thought of this, that silver fox will be your new mate since he killed the other one so you two will be Ritsu's parents. Enjoy, he's quite a pawful!" The Master laughed at his own joke and headed off to another room in the cabin to send another slave for the silver fox.

Katrina looked down at the little black fox, Ritsu; he looked up at her and grinned, "Mommy!" He shouted and pounced on her, she wanted to roll over and nip his ear but he was an orphan and way to cute to resist. Instead of getting angry at him she sat up, mindful of her ribs, and said that her name was Katrina, not Mommy. And that when the silver fox got there he was to be called Yoko, not Daddy, because he wasn't her mate and they weren't his parents.

"Why don't you want to be my parents? I helped you yesterday and you seem like you'd make a great Mommy, I don't have a Mommy and I love you!" Ritsu said, and tilted his head slightly.

"Ritsu, I'm not your Mommy and I'm not going to be, I'll be your friend but I refuse to adopt you..." Katrina tried to look away as she mumbled, "No matter how cute you are."

"Play with me!" Ritsu shouted as he pounced on her again.

Katrina fell over and yelped as Ritsu landed on her ribs, his ears dropped and he slid off of her giving her a sad look. She gently rolled over and stared at him, then licked his head and knocked him over, "You're it!" she whispered, and got up and limped away.

"Yea!" he shouted, and scampered after her.

There was a knock on the door while Ritsu and Katrina were play wrestling, Ritsu jumped up and ran to see who it was then came running back and bounced a little as he told Katrina that Daddy was here. She sighed and decided not to correct Ritsu any more because it would be too much of a hassle. The Master answered the door again and thanked the slave for bringing the silver fox; closing the door he turned to the silver fox and explained to him what was going on then sent him to find Katrina and Ritsu.

"Hello, Ritsu, I guess I'm your father now, it's nice to meet you," Yoko said.

"Hi, Daddy, Mommy and I were just wrestling, want to join us?"

"Nah, I think I'll just watch, I don't want to hurt your mother by accident."

"Okay, here I come, MOMMY!"

Katrina and Ritsu played all sorts of games and occasionally Yoko tried to join in but Katrina growled at him and he backed off smirking. Eventually Ritsu grew too tired to stand and collapsed on the floor; Katrina picked him up by the scruff and took him to the bed that she'd be sharing with him and Yoko. When Ritsu was settled Yoko came over and brushed his tail across the kit, "He's so sweet, are you sure that you don't want to adopt him, if we escape don't you want to take him with us?"

"Who said anything about us escaping together? I plan on gaining the Master's trust so that he'll take this collar off of me and remove the nano-bombs and then I'm going to shift into my demon form and go home!"

"I don't believe the Master put nano-bombs in him," Yoko motioned with his tail at the kit, "and I know that he didn't put them in me. So why can't we escape with you, I can help you, and do you really want to leave orphaned Ritsu with this creep?"

"No, but... we're not mates, I have a boyfriend back home and I-" Katrina paused then said the words she reserved for her family and closest friend Catherine who was like a sister to her, "I love him."

Yoko blinked in surprise and said, "You love me?"

"What are you talking about? I said I love my boyfriend Kurama, not you!"

"Kat, it is me, just like you I have a demon form, Yoko Kurama, I didn't want to tell you because shortly before I met you I chose to no longer have any connection to my former self. The only reason I shifted was so that I could find you and hopefully get you out of here. I love you too, and it scared me to death when I found you on the forest floor the other day and then you disappeared the next morning. If anything happened to you I don't know what I'd do, but I won't let anyone hurt you ever again, I promise you we'll get home, all of us."

Katrina stared down at Ritsu trying to make sense of what she'd just been told... then she remembered being in America watching Yu Yu Hakusho with Catherine and seeing Kurama turn into Yoko and she broke down laughing. Ritsu stirred and Yoko looked at her like she was crazy.