A/N: Clearly nobody reads YYH fics anymore. What a pity.

Of Kitsune and Demon Lords

Instincts and Experiences

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Shifting the sleeping boy into a new position carefully – for however much the fox hated parenting he did have a soft spot for kids – Youko settled into a cross-legged position on the lavish sofa across from Yomi in the demon's tower office. He would've glared, but that would have only given Yomi amusement from being able to accurately predict his ex-commander's expressions. Stupid demon.

"Why am I here, asshole?"

Yomi chuckled and crossed his legs gracefully, propping his chin up on a hand. "Straightforward, hm? This must be a trait you aquired from your human years; I don't recall anything other than careful calculation and devious dexterity during our time together. But to answer your actual question… You ran here, I suppose. I don't presume to know what goes on in your head, Kurama."

"I left my 'human years', as you call them, behind a long time ago, Yomi. Almost a century, in fact. I'm being straightforward simply because I am. Pissed. Off. Why did you send Shura out to search for a mother? And what have you been telling him that convinced him to choose me? He's smart, for a kit; he wouldn't just pick any random demon out of the blue, even if they were as powerful as I am. He knows who I am and my reputation, thanks to you, so he would know to avoid me." Leaning forward, he pinned the handsome demon with a chilling stare. "Why are you manipulating your own child in order to satisfy your perverse desires of pulling my into your stranglehold again?"

The smile melted off Yomi's face and his tone became cold in a match with Youko's own voice. "I sent Shura out to search for you, Kurama, and not in a manipulatory move. However cold and brash you seem to think I am, I would never do that to my own child."

The fox leaned back, mindful of the child on his lap. "Alright, then, asshole, I'll ask you again: Why am I here?"

Yomi stood up so quickly that Youko flinched in shock, hands going to his ears to cover them from the brunt of the enraged voice that followed. "Stop calling me that! I will not take disrespect from a thief in my own castle! And the reason I have called you here is because you are Shura's mother, or at least a parent!"

The fox was stone still except his ears, which were flattened as far as they could go and twitching with almost-fear every few seconds.

Yomi flinched and brought a hand up to his forehead with a grimace as he realized what he had just done. "Look, I… My apologies. I had not meant to yell like that. I…" He sighed and opened his sightless eyes in a display of clear trust. Youko blinked at seeing the white orbs and felt a shiver go through him. Uncurling his tail from where it lay around Shura, he flicked it in a gesture familiar to the demon lord from centuries of partnership. Go on.

Sitting down again, the raven-haired male clasped his hands together. "When I was preparing to create Shura," - at the name of his son, Yomi's eyes drifted over to where the boy was lying and softened briefely in affection – "I decided to borrow a piece of your genetics to mix with mine. A perfect clone was not what I wanted, and I somehow got it through my mind that a child of both you and I would be the perfect way to honor your memory – that is, my memory of our times together. Please don't hold it against me; I had just discovered my would-be assassin and was more than a little stressed from dealing with both Raizen's death and Mukuro's continuation of our stalemate – and don't even get me started on that idiot friend of yours and his idea of a makai-wide tournament." Chuckling dryly, he went on. "I had obtained a lock of your hair centuries ago that I kept in one of the boxes we…obtained…on one of our more fortunate ventures that turned out to be perfect for integrating your DNA into our son. The rest, you know – he was born without a hitch, I trained him, we fought in the tournament, and he's been developing since."

Youko snorted, glancing down at the still-diminutive kid. "Doesn't look it."

Yomi shot him a glare – impressive, really, since the male had no real eyes to do it with – and the fox quieted. "My species grow slowly, on account of our millennia-long lifespans, and I have been assured that yours do too. How old are you now, after all, that you look to be in your late twenties in human years?"

Kurama blinked and raised a slender eyebrow. "I should be about twenty-three hundred this winter. If I remember correctly, you're almost sixteen hundred? And yet you look to be in your late thirties. I don't think – if your story of mixing our genetics is true, which, given your rather unstable personality, could indeed be so – it's you that Shura gets his slow body development from. What is your point in telling me all of this?"

The demon slumped a fraction and tilted his head up in the fox's direction. "Shura is sick. Very sick, if my chief healer is to be believed, and it-"

Youko growled lowly, watching with pleasure as Yomi stiffened in his seat. "You…you let your only son – and mine, if you're to be believed – go out hundreds of miles away from home in the middle of Old Makai to locate a notorious thief that may or may not have killed him or left him to die? I would be hard pressed to find an area more dangerous that where he found me in all the three worlds! A child – and a sick one, at that – doesn't belong within fifty miles of the place! How could you, Yomi?"

"As I was about to say, Kurama, if you had let me finish, it is not a physical sickness that ails him. It is a mental one – apparently his longing for a second parent has put him in that state." The demon pointed to Shura's face and motioned under his eyes. "The doctors tell me that there are dark circles underneath his eyes and that has has very little energy left nowadays – the second of which I have confirmed myself. Please, Kurama – Youko – stay with me, here, at least until Shura gets better. You don't have to do much, just be here. Please. For all the good times we had a thousand years ago, for my son's future, for my sanity. I can't bear to lose the both of you a second time."

The golden eyes narrowed. "How do I know that you won't try to kill me during my stay here? I would expect it - after all, an eye for an eye, isn't it? In your case it would be quite literal, though, and I have no intention of giving up any of my precious gold, no matter what form it's in. We haven't been comrades for centuries, and now you're turning around and requesting that I – in essence – become your mate? Why should I do that for you? Why should I do that, even for a sickly child that you claim to be created of an artificial union between you and me? I guard my seed well; how do you know I won't take the first chance I get to end Shura's life simply because you stole it from me, even though it wasn't exactly in the usual method?"

Yomi stood up and stepped closer to the seated fox, going down on a knee. "The old you would have done just that, Youko, but you have been tempered by age, wisdom, and compassion. The calculating fox inside you is still there, judging my every move – as you have just proved – but he has calmed. I, too, am the same – and I believe that you will do anything to help our son, just as I will."

The fix eyed him suspiciously. "If that was an attempt at flattery mixed in with a plea for help and a hint of nostalgia, I'll have you know it worked."

Yomi smiled as much as his pride would allow and leaned forward to grasp Youko's chin with a hand. Threading the other through the silver's liquid locks, he pulled forward and met warm lips, slightly open in preparation for the welcome intrusion. Slipping a tongue inside the fox's cavern, he began a battle for dominance that left both gasping for air after pulling apart a minute later. "Oh, Youko…" he whispered, running his fingers along the pale face and around eyes that watched him softly. "Thank you."

Pulling out of the lord's hands, Kurama sighed and tapped a finger on his chin before flicking Yomi on the forehead. "I only have two conditions. One: No more kids until I say so. And that 'say' has to be free of coercion in any way, shape, or form. Two: You're Mother, I'm Father. Or Daddy. Whatever's easier for our son to say. Just as long as we establish that when we have sex, I am on top. There's no way I'm submitting to you when you won't even be able to see where in the hell you're putting your dick. Understood?"

Yomi smiled and nodded, chuckling. "Yes, straightforward does seem to be a trait you're borrowing still. Do not worry, I agree. I have no qualms with being the established mother of the relationship, and I doubt Shura will mind as long as we both spend time with him."

Youko grimaced. "Oh, right. Shura. I forgot he was still sleeping on my lap. Can we move him to a more comfortable place? My legs are falling asleep."

The demon lord smiled at Kurama before leaning down to pick his son up. "Of course. And as long as we are on the topic of 'more comfortable', why not adjourn to my – our – rooms? I'm sure we can get you settled in and have a nice long conversation to catch up, among other things.

Youko bared a canine sexily. "Yeah, right. What conversation? The only thing we'll be doing is fucking each other into the floor."

Yomi paused and turned back. "Your point?"

The fox just grinned and continued walking, spurred on by promises of what lay ahead.

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