Carbon

So, the last chapter was late AND it sucked. Please forgive me. I’ll try not to let it happen again.

Chapter 18

After four hours, Shiori returned home and Yusuke and Kurama were not yet in the mood for independent movement. The task of greeting the woman was left to Hiei, who took the job reluctantly. He didn’t like the feel of carpet beneath his bare feet, however, Kurama had warned him to leave his boots upstairs as he trudged down to say hello to the waiting Shiori.

“Hello, Hiei!” she greeted him. “Did you sleep well?”

Hiei grunted. “Yusuke and Kur-… Shuuichi are resting. They had a rough night last night.”

Shiori frowned. “Are they ill?”

“Nothing like that.” Hiei paused. “Merely were awake half the night.”

“Oh?” Shiori smiled, the knowing look on her face irritating Hiei slightly. “Should I expect them to appear later today?”

Hiei shrugged and gave a non-committal grunt.

Upstairs, Yusuke groaned at the sound of his cell phone ringing. He’d given Kuwabara his phone number but apart from him, no one outside Kurama’s family knew his number. He was surprised, therefore, when he was greeted with Keiko’s voice.

“Oh, hey, Keiko,” he muttered.

“Are you alright?” she asked. “You sound tired.”

“I’m fine. Did you get my number from Kuwabara?”

Keiko paused. “Yes.”

“I don’t mean to sound like an ass, but is there some reason you called? I’m pretty tired.”

A scoff on the other end let Yusuke know his lack of manners wasn’t appreciated. “I just wanted to congratulate you again on graduating and getting into Meiou.”

“Thanks,” said Yusuke. “Can we talk some other time? I’ll call you when I’m not so tired, I promise.” Kurama shifted beside Yusuke, suddenly awake.

“Alright… Bye, Yusuke.”

“Later,” Yusuke grunted. He snapped his phone closed and lay back down. All at once, he felt a warm tingling at the base of his spine and his soreness vanished. In fact, he felt like he could leap out of bed and run laps. “Hey!” Yusuke grinned. “I feel great now!”

“You ought to,” said Hiei. He was sitting beside Yusuke on the bed suddenly, and had his hand resting lightly on Yusuke’s tailbone. “It took me until just now to realize you were still injured.” He moved his hand to Kurama’s backside and healed him as well. “The bracelets seem to be doing too good a job.”

Yusuke stared down at the bracelet Hiei had given him. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Hiei touched Yusuke’s wrist. “They were supposed to reign in your demonic instincts to help you hone your awareness without losing control. They seem to instead be hampering your demonic auras.”

Kurama sat up. “Oh?” He looked down at his own bracelet and touched it. “Is that why we didn’t heal normally?”

“Wait,” said Yusuke. “Wave orb or not, it should still take a few days for my ass to heal after… that.”

Kurama winced. “I’m sorry, Yusuke.”

“Never mind that,” Hiei growled. “I have an appointment with the demon who sold me these bracelets.”

“I guess you want them back, huh?” said Yusuke.

Hiei just scowled and tightened his grasp on Yusuke’s wrist. He unclasped the bracelet and pocketed it, mimicking the gesture with Kurama before stomping out of the house. “I don’t envy the merchant who sold Hiei defective merchandise.”

“I don’t feel good,” said Yusuke. He’d heard Kurama but the words hadn’t penetrated his mind. He felt dizzy and listless. That strange beating in his head from when his demonic instincts took over was back with a vengeance and he found himself clutching his hair to quell a disquieting headache.

Kurama looked on with concern. Having never encountered any being quite like Yusuke (being born human and becoming demon was quite a rare feat for any creature) he couldn’t fathom quite how his lover felt. “Yusuke?” said Kurama. “What’s going on?”

“I feel like my head’s gonna explode, damnit. I want that bracelet back.”

Kurama sighed. “Hiei is long gone, my dear.” It bothered Kurama to see Yusuke in such agony. The old awkwardness was back; as if Yusuke didn’t belong in his own body. Yusuke no longer smelled quite human to Kurama. It was as if the bracelet had acted as a ward, sealing Yusuke’s demonic aura and allowing it to grow without being expended. He felt a thrill up his spine at the impression of raw power surging off of his lover and a swell of pride that he was so close to such a powerful demon.

Kurama pushed those thoughts aside, however. Yusuke’s pain was far more pressing than however powerful a demon Yusuke might be. Kurama reached out and rubbed Yusuke’s back, soothing Yusuke even though the aura surrounding him caused Kurama’s fingertips to sting slightly. “When Hiei returns, I’ll have him use the jagan to re-seal your demonic energy. It’s clear that a ward wasn’t the safest route.”

“How come you’re okay?” Yusuke asked.

Kurama thought for a moment. “I’ve been transitioning longer than you have.” He rested his head on Yusuke’s shoulder and trailed his fingertips up Yusuke’s arm. Much as he was worried for Yusuke, the strength of Yusuke’s youki caused tendrils of desire to thread through Kurama’s system. Youko always enjoyed bedding powerful demons and his kitsune side was practically purring with delight. “I’m in the last phase,” Kurama continued. “It won’t be terribly difficult for me to complete the merger.”

“What do you have to do?” Yusuke asked. Listening to Kurama’s voice; having to focus on Kurama’s words; was helping Yusuke keep inside his own head He wasn’t about to lose control again and do something he would regret.

“At this point, I merely have to get my head around the transition. Physically, I’m nearly finished. Emotionally, however… I’m having difficulty accepting the fact that I will no longer have two separate identities.”

“Huh?” Confusion was good. Confusion was distracting. “You have more than one identity?”

“I’ve always been two separate people. My rebirth as a human came with a flawed merger. I possessed what would have been a viable infant- I wouldn’t have died,” Kurama elaborated for Yusuke’s confused look. “I’d been looking for a fetus that would not have made it but my time ran short and I chose the weakest one I could find instead. Needless to say, the soul that would have been Shuichi Minamino did not take kindly to being possessed by a demon. My souls warred up until my birth as a human when both souls decided to coexist for the time being.”

“You never acted crazy,” said Yusuke. “You didn’t seem like you had too many people going on in the same body.”

“I assure you, I did. I might be the only creature in existence that manages to have two souls and only one personality. The Kurama you speak to is the only Kurama that occupies this body. Souls are different. Had you been around when Kaitou stole Hiei’s, Kuwabara’s and Boton’s souls for that brief time, you would have seen that a person is not their soul. But I digress. There is no simple way to explain this.”

“I think I get it. It’s like you’re just one person with an extra set of soul, right?”

“More or less.” Kurama shifted uncomfortably. “For a time, my souls were rejecting each other. This was recently, right after Sensui, in fact. But it lasted only a week or so. At that time, you were dealing with other things and did not notice. As it stood, I spent half my time not remembering any of my demonic memories. Hiei helped me with that.”

“That’s weird…” Yusuke frowned. “but you’re okay now, right?”

Kurama smiled and grasped Yusuke’s hand, giving it a brief squeeze. “Yes. Are you feeling better?”

Yusuke shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Still have a pretty bad headache but I think I can deal.”

Yusuke stood and stretched. He padded over to the closet and threw on one of his more comfortable outfits (Kurama refused to buy Yusuke anything resembling sweats so he made do with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt). “I guess we should make an appearance downstairs, yeah?” said Yusuke. “Your mom’s probably wondering why Hiei left all in a huff.”

Kurama chuckled and waltzed to his dresser. He pulled on a pair of black slacks and a deep emerald dress shirt before following Yusuke downstairs.

“Morning, Shiori!” said Yusuke. He beamed at Kurama’s mom who was currently washing some bowls in the sink.

“Good morning, Yusuke-kun,” she said. “Good morning, Shuichi.”

Kurama smiled. He struck up a conversation with Shiori about the wedding and the trio chatted for a brief while before Hiei stormed back into the kitchen, interrupting their pleasant conversation with a wave of pure malice. “Hello,” he greeted Shiori. His demeanor was clipped and abrupt and Kurama gave Hiei a severe look. “I apologize,” he amended. “I’m in a terrible mood.”

“What’s the matter, Hiei-chan?” asked Shiori.

Hiei flinched. “It’s a private matter.”

“Hiei!” said Kurama. “Don’t be rude.”

“It’s alright, dear,” said Shiori. “We all have moments where our tempers get the better of us. Why don’t you three go for a walk? The sun is shining and the air is warm; surely a good remedy for irritation is a nice long walk.”

The boys agreed and were soon heading out the door. Once they were out of sight of the house by several blocks, Hiei, who had up to that point been seething in silent rage, let out a growl of frustration. “I couldn’t find the creature who dared to cheat me but rest assured, I will make his life miserable should we ever meet again.”

“You are entitled to your anger, Hiei,” said Kurama. “But you should have stayed away until your temper had cooled. I don’t appreciate you subjecting my mother to your foul moods.”

“She’s not a child, Fox,” Hiei snapped. “You don’t have to protect her from everything unpleasant.”

“Hey, now!” said Yusuke. He was just as irritated with Hiei for being rude to Shiori but he didn’t like the prospect of his lovers having a brawl over it. “Listen, guys. We should talk about something else. This is just gonna make all of us pissed and there’s nothing good about that, okay?”

“You don’t know what that vile beast stole from me,” Hiei said. He’d apparently not heard a word of Yusuke’s protest and decided to continue his tirade. “To think I was so easily fooled.”

“I was fooled as well, Hiei,” said Kurama. It was clear that he was embarrassed about it too. “You’d be hard pressed to fool the legendary bandit with a worthless piece of metal. However, I, too, was fooled into thinking a fake was the real thing.”

“That vermin… My payment was worth more than both bracelets combined.”

Kurama balked. Even fake, these were expensive fakes. “What on earth could you have swapped-?” At the look on Hiei’s face, Kurama stilled his question. “Surely, you… you didn’t sell one of yo-“

“I have no other forms of payment, as well you know,” Hiei growled.

“Wait a second!” Yusuke was through being ignored. “What the fuck did you sell?”

“I’m sure you know why a Koorime is valuable as a slave,” said Hiei. “Remember that beast Tarukane? Even as a half Koorime, I can still produce the same gems.”

“Not only that, but you are the only one of your kind that is known,” Kurama added. “From what I’ve gathered, your gems are twice as valuable as Yukina’s.”

Hiei scowled. “If I need to elaborate on precisely why that annoys me, you haven’t been paying attention.”

Kurama nodded.

“Okay,” said Yusuke. “I’m going to need someone to explain because I’m not as smart as Kurama.”

Kurama squeezed Yusuke’s wrist. “Hiei is letting us know that it is not just for anyone that he would subject himself to the indignity of crying and selling a tear. His love for us is more important than his pride.”

“Be quiet!” Hiei snapped. “I don’t need it expressed in such gentle language. The sentiment is grating.”

“I get that you’re in a shitty mood,” said Yusuke. “But why are you acting like loving us so much is a bad thing?”

“He’s making me sound like a love-struck fool.”

Yusuke chuckled. “You’re not? Well, hell… I’m kind of a love-struck fool. It’s fun; you should try it.”

In spite of Kurama’s slight irritation, hearing Yusuke say that caused a small thrill in his heart. He knew that Yusuke loved him, it was just nice to hear it expressed openly.

Hiei still scowled. “You’re both hungry,” he said moments before Yusuke and Kurama’s stomachs both growled.

“I suppose I should buy us lunch, then,” said Kurama.

Much to Kurama’s delight, his offer was met with only the slightest of token protests from Yusuke and a somewhat appreciative jerk of the head from Hiei. After everyone had fuller stomachs and cooler heads, the walk home was accomplished with far less animosity and the rest of the day went without incident.

That night, however, Yusuke went to bed feeling slightly uneasy. Although Hiei had promised to stay within range, he wasn’t feeling quite like sharing the bed with Kurama and Yusuke. That, coupled with the absence of that soothing bracelet (however useless it turned out to actually be) Yusuke was thrown into the arms of an incredibly violent nightmare. He couldn’t remember anything specific, save for the blood and sight of everyone he knew being torn limb from limb by his own claws. When he woke, he was shaking so violently that Kurama was physically restraining him. He didn’t notice the kitsune’s presence as he worked to calm his breathing and when his mind finally returned to the present, he looked up at Kurama and bit down hard on his lip, trying to quell horrified and disgusted feelings and the sudden confusing jolt of demonic instinct telling him to throw Kurama across the room. The result was that he ended up just staring into Kurama’s eyes until his mind was comfortably empty again. “Oh man…” he groaned. “What a nightmare.”

Kurama relaxed and lay back down beside Yusuke. He’d woken several minutes prior due to Yusuke’s restlessness and took an elbow to the sternum before deciding to hold Yusuke down. The sound of his lover growling and snarling was both terrifying and slightly arousing. He was exhausted from all the conflicting emotions. “Are you alright now?” Kurama asked.

“I don’t know…” said Yusuke. He rested his head over Kurama’s heart and listened to its soothing beat. It was slow, steady, and life-affirming. “Did I scare you?”

“Yes.” Kurama saw no reason to lie. “I’m worried that things are about to get complicated.”

“Like how?”

“I’m not sure,” said Kurama. “I just fear that they are.”

= - = - = - = - =

When Hiei returned the next day, he didn’t miss the fact that Yusuke was in terrible spirits. He was shocked, nonetheless when Yusuke snapped at him when he entered the room. “Where the fuck were you last night?” Yusuke said. “Your disappearing act seriously screwed me up.”

Kurama gave Yusuke a nervous look, which the raging toushin missed.

Hiei stared at Yusuke; quite stunned with the fury and raw demonic power flowing off of him in waves. He felt a swell of pride to rival Kurama’s when he noticed how powerful his lover was. “What happened?” Hiei asked.

“I had a goddamned nightmare is what happened,” said Yusuke. “I needed you and you weren’t here.”

“You never called.”

Kurama rose from his seated position on the bed. He grasped Yusuke by the elbow and gave it a squeeze. “I was here, Yusuke.”

“I needed both of you.” Yusuke looked at Kurama and the haunted shadow in his eyes frightened the kitsune. “I needed to see him and know he was okay. In the nightmare I… I-I…” Yusuke stopped, unwilling or unable to continue his explanation.

Kurama pulled Yusuke into a tight hug. Hiei stood by, not entirely comfortable with the situation. He had an idea as to what Yusuke had dreamed and he wasn’t sure how to react without possibly making things worse. “I shouldn’t have left,” said Hiei.

Yusuke backed away from Kurama and stared at his feet. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” He muttered. “I don’t want to hurt people so why do I dream about this shit?”

“Your dreams are a way for your demonic instincts to work their way out of your system,” said Kurama. “They don’t represent your actual desires.”

“But… my instincts are to eat people?”

Kurama backed away from Yusuke, it was subtle but enough of a reaction for Yusuke to want to melt into the carpet. It made him feel dirty, evil.

“I…” Kurama stammered.

“No,” said Hiei. He stepped forward. “It’s the atavism. The desire is being bred out of you due to your ancestral father’s refusal to eat humans any longer. It’s my understanding that he is close to death due to his ridiculous starvation.”

Yusuke shivered. “You guys… aren’t even human though.”

The thought of what Yusuke meant by his statement had both Hiei and Kurama on their guard. Hiei snapped himself out of his horrified trance first and walked over to hold the shaking Toushin. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he said, his voice shaking worse than his body. “I l-love you both so much and it scares me.”

“Yusuke…” Kurama said, he pulled his two lovers into his arms and held them close. “You would never harm us.”

Yusuke just stood there, allowing himself to be held, enjoying the quiet comfort offered by his two lovers. “How do you know?” he asked.

Hiei and Kurama broke away from Yusuke. Hiei stared Yusuke directly in the eyes. “We wouldn’t let you.”

A wave of calm washed over Yusuke. He knew that he was a powerful demon and that he’d be difficult to stop but he also knew that Kurama and Hiei were more than capable of protecting themselves. Besides, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that his love for Kurama and Hiei would help to prevent himself from acting on his dreams. However, it didn’t settle the matter entirely.

That night, in fact, Yusuke had another one of his nightmares. He woke up being practically smothered by Kurama and Hiei as they had to use full strength to pin him to the bed. He was breathing hard and it took several minutes for the fear to subside. When Yusuke finally returned to his senses, he let out a strangled moan, suddenly aware that the terrifying nightmare had caused him to get an erection. “Fuck!” he muttered. “That’s not normal.”

Kurama sat up and smoothed Yusuke’s long hair away from his face. During the course of the dream, he’d reverted to his full demon form. “It’s alright, my love,” said Kurama. He glanced at Hiei, giving him a subtle nod. Hiei trailed his lips down Yusuke’s bare chest and darted his tongue out to taste the salty sweat clinging to Yusuke’s stomach and abs.

“H-Hiei!” said Yusuke. Kurama touched Yusuke’s chin and tilted his head up so the toushin would be forced to meet his gaze.

“We’ll take care of you,” said Kurama. He pressed his lips to Yusuke’s, kissing him gently. Yusuke whimpered; the feeling of Kurama’s warm lips on his and Hiei’s hot mouth trailing lower and lower on his body was overloading his senses.

Kurama massaged Yusuke’s shoulders and neck, still kissing gently. When Yusuke moved to deepen the kiss, Kurama tilted his head back slightly to keep the pressure on his terms. He increased the pressure of his hands on Yusuke’s shoulders to prevent Yusuke from moving against him. Yusuke let out a sharp hiss of surprise when he felt Hiei roughly pull down his pants and begin playing with his cock, rubbing it up and down lazily. Kurama glanced down to watch as Hiei rubbed his thumb over the head of Yusuke’s dick and then reached down to press his own palm to Yusuke’s balls. Yusuke let out a yelp of surprise, his thoughts still slightly muddled from sleep. The sight of both demons playing with his erection was quickly making Yusuke lose control. He dug his heels into the bed and clutched the sheets at his sides. Hiei lowered his mouth to Yusuke’s dick while Kurama fondled his balls. Then, Kurama kissed Yusuke, pressing with bruising force in order to stifle Yusuke’s cries of pleasure.

Right after Yusuke came, he surprised both demons by pushing Kurama onto his back and sinking his fangs deep into Kurama’s shoulder. Before Hiei had a chance to react, Yusuke had done the same to him before collapsing atop both of his lovers and panting. “Wh-what the…?” Yusuke stopped. He was only vaguely aware that he was nude and that he’d bitten his lovers. “Why’d I do that?” he asked, once his brain started working at about half its usual speed.

Hiei sat up and grunted, rubbing the puncture wounds on his neck but not daring to heal them. “Your demonic instincts got the better of you,” he said. “I’m flattered.”

“Huh?” asked Yusuke.

“Hiei means that by biting him, you’ve marked him as your property. In spite of how it sounds, that’s actually an honor.” Kurama smiled. “It means that you enjoy us immensely.”

“Uh… I thought that was obvious…”

Kurama chuckled while Hiei just crawled back to the pillows to sleep. “Don’t worry too much,” said Kurama. “It’s one of those things you’ll understand better as you grow used to your demon side.”

Yusuke collapsed beside Hiei and pulled him into his arms. He was too tired to think about anything at the moment and just wanted to sleep. He was pleased when Kurama crawled beside him and pulled the covers over them and soon drifted to a content sleep, no longer troubled by nightmares.