A/N: Wow, finally. I just reread through your reviews and it spurred me to write a little more (hint, hint). Have sixteen hundred words of delicious goodness :D

Kitsune and Demon Lords

Past and Future

-x-

Yomi chuckled, bringing his hand up to untangle an errant strand of black silk. "Well, when you put it that way, how could I refuse? Such enticing offers come so rarely…" Turning over to face his companion, he sat up and waited while the covers pooled off of his form. He liked to take his time with everyday activities; the loss of his sight meant that he could savor sensation much more easily. Especially sensations involving his lithe lover. "Will you be leaving today?"

Youko finished tying off his belt and straightened his tunic. "Of course. How could you even doubt that? It's been ever so long since I had the chance to screw over somebody's expensively warded home," he paused with a dangerous smile. "And that damn dog's been asking for it for a while. We can't let such impudence let go unchecked, can we? He thinks he's protected himself from the King of Thieves, and I have the feeling that showing him just how unprotected he really is will prove entirely entertaining. " Padding to the door, he slipped on his shoes and paused at the doorway. "Tell Shura that I'll be back within two days with a present."

The lord nodded, a grin tugging on the corners of his mouth. "But of course. He'd be disappointed otherwise, with all that you've been spoiling him recently." Sensing the fox's departing wave, he called out. "Find something interesting for me too, fox! It's been too long since I've felt the weight of stolen artifacts."

The silver chuckled in return and flitted off, leaving the castle by way of a rather craftily concealed portal that should've taken him directly to the heart of Old Makai.

'Should have' being the imperative words.

Youko blinked and looked around. This wasn't Old Makai. True, it bore some of the same landmarks, but the plant life… Wait a minute. He recognized that death tree! He'd gifted that very same plant with his youki just a few months ago, continuing a tradition he'd started back when he'd first persuaded it to grow.
Keeping an eye out for anything that might want to attack him, as silly as that sounded – this was is territory, for Inari's sake, and no one would dare touch him here! – he shifted his weight and walked over to the slobbering thing. Putting out his hand, he grimaced. He'd trained the drooling mechanism out of the plant years ago, only to be brought back once he rustily summoned its cousin for his fight against Ura Urishima a century and a half ago. "Hmm… How old are you, I wonder?"
Pushing a tidbit of power into it, he asked it – rather politely, too – exactly that.

-Yum power hungry eat hundred fox help three- it answered back.

"Three hundred, eh?" That would put this version of his territory at around fourteen hundred years ago – a century before he'd sent the assassin after Yomi. He wasn't surprised that time had warped so terribly; this had actually happened once before during his partnership with Kuronue, so at the very least he wasn't operating blind.

The sound of a leaf crunching reached his ears and he whirled around, wary. Scanning the undergrowth, he noticed a patch of palest violet through a gap in the leaves. "Hello, Yomi." The eye vanished, and after some movement the form of a much younger version of his lover approached from behind a luscious patch of shimaneki-sou.

The goat was rather tense, he noted. Possibly because the fox in front of him looked too similar to his leader. Oh, well. He was banking on the hope that his younger version was out on a heist and he could pass himself off as being, well, himself. He didn't look that much older, did he?

"Who are you?" The grating tone annoyed Youko's sensitive ears as the young demon – he couldn't have been more than two hundred - drew his sword. "And how in the hell do you know my name?"

The silver grinned. "You can ask, you know. Why I look so similar to the person you're familiar with.

Yomi's eyes widened. "Fine. Why-"

"Doesn't mean I'll answer, of course, but hey, it's always worth a try. Would you be satisfied if I said that I'm his older broth- Hey, hey, no need to swing your sword about like that. I must say, you're rather hot-headed for a goat-brat." His smile widened as he watched the younger youkai shake his head frustratedly. Dodging yet another wild stroke – rather gracefully, too – he leapt up onto the stem of a sleeping Ojigisou, sending a miniscule amount of power into it to wake it up. Watching Yomi's eyes widen in realization, he directed the plant to play with the goat for a while as he made his escape. "Have fun!"

Yomi watched the silvery form disappear into the undergrowth and cursed. Youko had demonstrated this particular plant's abilities to the group a few years ago during a particularly nasty heist, and that experience had only cemented their common decision never to get on the thief's bad side. "Oh, fuck me."

-x-x-x-

Relaxed as he was, it was easy to laugh about Yomi's old personality quirks. Languishing in an old den was, after all, preferable to watching the hotheaded idiot battle one of his precious plants – though it would have been funny, to be sure, to see the expression on the goat's face once he realized that the plant was only playing with him and he could've easily run out of the plant's attack range.

Stretching out, he started and straightened up as he heard his plants screaming out.

-Intruder here warn danger watch break slash goat- was all he needed to hear.

That little brat found me? Unbelievable. "This would explain how he knew of it in the future, though; I knew that I'd never shown this particular den to him." Pushing himself up, he placed a hand on the ivy-covered wall and smiled. Let him in. Don't worry.

Walking toward the entrance to the den, he pushed a silver-encrusted statuette out of the way and watched as the vines covering the door released, letting the intruder fall clumsily to the floor. Pushing himself up, the goat shook his head and glanced toward the fox. "You!"

Youko sighed dramatically. "I shit you not."

Yomi frowned confusedly. "What?"

Sighing again, the kitsune directed one of his heftier vines to pick the other youkai up bodily and throw him down the hall toward the main chamber. Pacing along in his wake, he picked up a tear gem and held it to the ambient sunlight, turning it around. Now, where did I get this?

Wandering into the larger room that housed most of the more sentimental goods, he turned to fall gracefully into the pile of silks in one corner. Ending his perusal of the clear gem, he tossed it aside as the goat finally unearthed himself from the collection of coins he had landed in. Ignoring the promise of gold, he turned to the fox – who, by that point, was stretched out rather sexily on the make-shift house-sized bed – and ended his sentence before he'd uttered a word. The figure in front of him was just so similar to his leader, and he'd always wanted a taste…

Youko grinned ferally, letting his hand trail along his torso. Come into my den, said the fox to his prey… "I won't tell him if you won't. Haven't you always wanted this?" Just like I've always wanted to see your beautiful eyes, up close and personal. Last chance, taken eagerly.

Yomi made his way over to the vision in white and dropped to his knees in front of the reclining figure. "Yes…"

The last thing he remembered, thanks to some dream-flower pollen, was all-consuming passion and a whispered endearment.

-x-x-x-

Flopping down on their shared bed, the fox smiled. "That was ever such a productive trip, and I didn't even get to my target destination! That'll just have to wait, I suppose." Turning over, he poked his lover. "Hey, goat. I still need to get something for Shura. Have any ideas?"

Yomi sighed and made up his mind. "Yes…"

Struck by the similarity to the youkai's last words from his last experience, he blinked. "I have a bad feeling about whatever you're going to suggest-"

Yomi turned over and was on top of the fox in a flash. "Time to own up on that promise of more children, love. Your son has been asking for a sibling, and I think this counts as the weight of something stolen, hmm?" Grinning, he leaned down and captured the youko's lips in a deep kiss.

As soon as he was allowed to breathe, the silver groaned. "Oh, fine, you damn goat. I love you too."

-x-