As we lay

TITLE: As we lay
AUTHOR: Lemonychocolate
EMAIL: dragonechilde@yahoo.com
WEB SITE: n/a
RATING: Mature-Adult
DISCLAIMER: I make no claim to, nor hold any license to the original characters to this story. These characters are used for the sake and sole purpose of entertainment only. No profit shall be, nor will be gained from the writing found hereafter; nor shall any personal credit be taken as to the character designs, personalities or concepts stemming from the original characters used. All situations in the story below, unless otherwise stated, should not, in any way, have any bearing on the creator’s original work.
FEEDBACK: Yes!
SPOILERS: none that I can think of.
SUMMARY: After one reckless and unforgettable night, Yusuke and Kurama are forced to deal with the consequences.

Chapter 3

Kurama swam to consciousness to the sound of the phone ringing. Rolling over in the bed, with blurry eyes, he looked at the clock. Yawning, the time didn’t initally register in his mind. Abruptly his eyes widened.

2 am.

Overpowering fear clutched at his heart. Fumbling the light on, fear making him clumsy, he snatched at the phone. Fear made his normally smooth voice a mere rasp of sound. “Mother…?” All manner of dreadful things rushed through his head…everyone of them involved his mother.

“No, it’s Yusuke.” The low, hoarse whisper held a note of panic strongly suppressed behind a heavy, stout door. However, Yusuke’s voice indicated Panic, whistling cheerfully, had a key to the door and was turning the knob.

“Yusuke…? Why are you calling me at this time of morning?” Frowning he sat up in bed. Scrubbing at his face with one hand, he yawned. The mists of sleep clearing rapidly from his mind.

“Uhm…no reason.” Kurama’s frown deepened at the odd tone in Yusuke’s voice. “I…I was…I was, uhm, just wondering…just casually wondering, ya know…uhm, like what would happen if, say, the plants happened to, uhm, kinda fall off, by accident,” Yusuke stressed, “Beforethreehoursareup?” he finished in a rush.

Kurama’s brow wrinkled in confusion, deciphering the rapid spate of words. “But how…?”

The chuckle that came over the line sounded false to his ear. “Oh, you know how these things happen.” Actually Kurama didn’t know. The leaves could fall off…if someone was determined to pull them off. “I just wanna know, if…uhm, you think it woulda still worked?” Now anxiety colored Yusuke’s tone.

“Well,” Kurama said slowly, thinking swiftly. “It would depend on how long the leaves managed to stick to your skin before they ‘fell off’.” There was a moment of silence. He could practically hear Yusuke thinking.

“Uhm, more or less, 30 minutes?” was said hesitantly. “Kinda on the less side than the more, though. Do you think it had time to work?” There was a guilty note in the other’s voice that traveled clearly over the phone line.

“The leaves are at their stickiest within the first 2 hours. Their potency greatly depends on how long they adhere to skin.” Patiently Kurama waited for Yusuke’s response. It wasn’t long in coming.

“Really? Well, imagine that! Uh oh, gotta go, Keiko’s waking up.”

*click*

A dial tone filled Kurama’s ear. He groaned. Bending his legs, he draped his arms over his knees.

“Fox, I could have told you it wouldn’t have worked anyway,” Hiei said sleepily. He yawned widely as he stirred at Kurama’s side.

Startled, he looked down at his lover. “What do you mean? There’s no reason why it shouldn’t have worked.”

“Power levels,” Hiei said succinctly. He turned over and pulled the covers over his shoulder. “Turn off the light,” he mumbled, closing his eyes.

“Wait…” Frustrated, Kurama shook Hiei’s shoulder roughly. “What do you mean by power levels?” He shook his lover again.

“If I answer you, will you let me go back to sleep?” Hiei growled, jerking his shoulder away from the ktisune’s tight grip.

“Yes…”

“Did it ever occur to you that if Yusuke operates at a higher level than both of us, that your spirit energy will have little effect on him? Fool! Naturally his spirit energy would counteract yours!” Idiot, Hiei’s expression seemed to say.

“Uhm, no…” Kurama replied weakly. Chagrin was in his eyes, embarrassed color staining his cheeks. He felt like an idiot.

“Well, it should have.” With a rough impatient sound, Hiei flounced around to lay on his side, his face turned away from the light. He drew the covers over his head to further block out the light and yawned.

Idiots, both the fox and the dim-wit. Neither one able to see the answer right in front of them.

“What are we supposed to do?” Kurama whispered to himself. A tenuous answer floated softly just out of reach.

Hiei stiffened under the covers, abruptly coming fully awake. “Fox, if you voice your idiotic idea…I. Will. Kill. You.” Though muffled as he was under the covers, his threat lost none of its force. “I will rip out your tongue; remove your eyeballs and make them a gift to Mukuro. I will evicerate you and wear your fur around my waist.”

Startled, Kurama glanced at the lump under the covers, a little shaken by the colorful threat. Though he had a feeling Hiei was not making idle conversation. “I have no idea why you’re threatening me,” he said stiffly, forcing an injured note in his voice. It was a pity Hiei was under the covers, he reflected, otherwise I could use my eyes to a greater advantage.

“What ever you decide, leave me out of it,” Hiei stated flatly.

Slender shoulders slumped. “Why?”

“Think about it, fox,” Hiei retorted snidely. “I’m sure the answer will come.”

Kurama stared at Hiei’s back. He felt an impassible wall suddenly loom between them. And in that instance, he understood why Hiei would not help. Could not help.

He turned off the light and slid under the covers. “I’m…I’m sorry.”

In a flurry of sheets, Hiei was straddling him, pinning him to the bed. There was a cold, annoyed look in the red eyes. “I neither need nor want your pity. Save it for yourself.” His look changed, malicious amusement dancing in his eyes. “You’re going to need it for yourself.” His mouth crushed Kurama’s fiercely before the kitsune could ask him what he meant.

Not that Hiei would tell him anyway. He was going to sit back and enjoy the fireworks.


* * *

Morning came with the inevitability of the tide.

The Urameshi family woke.

The sun was still shining, the earth still orbited the sun. Thus ignoring Yusuke’s fervent wish that a great big meteor would hit the earth and cause world wide panic and chaos. Either that or a great big monster could attack. He wasn’t picky.

Grumbling silently, he uncovered his head. Hiding under the sheets wasn’t going to help, he realized.

The Urameshi family, their movements routine and well-practiced, were soon dressed, assembled and eating breakfast. Yusuke floated through that time on autopilot, struggling to keep his panic from showing.

Distantly he could hear Keiko chattering. Whatever he said must have satisfied her but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what he said. He kissed Biki and wave goodbye to his wife and daughter from the doorway. Keiko always dropped Biki off at daycare on her way to work.

Leaving him alone with his thoughts in the apartment. He jumped, let out a startled screech when the phone rang. His breath was rapid before he shakily laughed before he answered it.

This was so lame. One way or the other, he would get through this. Kurama would figure something out. And if they had to, he was sure that if they put their heads together with Hiei and Kuwabara, an answer would come. Though he was pretty sure he would have to do a bit of pounding to make Kuwabara stop laughing.

“Urameshi,” he said feeling his anxiety die down. It rose sharply at the voice at the other end.

“Yusuke, we need to talk,” Kurama said quietly. “Do you work today?”

Yusuke sat down, his face paling. He did not like the tone in Kurama’s voice. “Yeah. But it’s my half-day so I get off around 2 pm.”

“Good. Meet me at Genkai and we’ll talk there.”

“Kurama…”

He could feel the kitsune hesitate. What Kurama wanted to say, he didn’t know…and he wasn’t sure if he was ready for the answer. “I’m…I’m sorry, Yusuke.”

*Click*

Numbness trying to set in, Yusuke dropped the phone back into its cradle. He buried his face in his hands before roughly scrubbing at his face. Dropping his hands, he inhaled deeply, forcing his fear aside. Panicking wouldn’t help and could only lead to more mistakes. Setting his jaw, he rose from the chair and grabbed his keys. Striding towards the door, some instinct made him hesitate with his hand on the door. Indecision warring in his eyes, he paused. Slowly he turned and headed to the bedroom.

When he left the house, he had a small sachtel over his shoulder. Grabbing his bicycle, he adjusted the bag, mounted and rode to work.

Once at work he forcibly set aside his problem to concentrate on his job. He was one of several cooks assisting the main chefs at a highly popular restaurant. And being inattentive while working around fire generally led to getting burned. Or have one of the chefs screaming and raising holy hell.

Unlike the front part of the restaurant, where it was usually calm and serene, the kitchen was usually a madhouse of noise and confusion. Chaos, as he liked to call it, in its rawest form. People shouting, screaming at each other; it took an enormous amount of concentration to filter out the background noise and stay focused on your work. That and making sure you didn’t chop a finger off.

Customers had a tendency, one of the chefs said dryly, to dislike severed body parts in their food.

Joking and clowning around was acceptable; burning the customer’s food was not. It was without conceit that Yusuke knew he was good at his job. One of their best employees.

“Cagare!” The shout in his ear startled him.

Only too late did he notice his sleeve was on fire. Yelping, he was grabbed from behind—a litany of curses scorching his ear—and his arm thrust under running water. It didn’t take a genius to know who was doing the yelling, he thought grimly. He ignored the screaming curses Pontiero was throwing at him.

Wasn’t like he understood Italian anyway, he thought resentfully.

Pontiero Jin, the head chef was half Italian and Japanese. Growing up in a small town in that country, and while he spoke both languages fluently, he always resorted to the language of his father to curse at his ‘servants’. Something about Italians having a better grasp, and volume of curses words, so a person would KNOW indisputably that they were cursed.

Pontiero viewed the kitchen staff as his personal property. A cross between an idiot and a slave. Less than human, but a little more intelligent than, say, a sloth. Screaming at them, he firmly believed, allowed what he was saying to penetrate the thickness that filled their brains.

He ruled the kitchen with the arrogance of a dictator. Even the owner and other chefs feared him. His temper tantrums were famous in the kitchens.

A day without Pontiero going off on somebody was like a day without sunshine. It wasn’t merely the staff that received the sharp edge of his tongue. The customers were not exempt either. Any customers that dared insult one of the cooking staff, much less his food, had a dragon in his or her face.

Absently Yusuke noted some of the more interesting words, mentally filing them away to practice later on. What the words meant, he didn’t have a clue but they certainly sounded mean and nasty.

“Testa di merda! Cazzeggiare! Vaffanculo a Lei, la sua moglie, e' la sua madre. Lei e' un cafone stronzo. Io non mangio in questo merdaio! Vada via in culo!” Despite his harsh words, Pontiero’s hands were gentle as he smoothed salve on Yusuke’s reddening flesh.

Whirling around, Pontiero screamed at the ogling staff, “Andate tutti a 'fanculo! Fools! Get back to work! I’m not paying you to sit on your hands!”

No one dared to tell him that technically since he wasn’t the owner, he wasn’t paying them at all.

“O budiùlo d'un Pisano!” Pontiero spat one final time. Satisfied that the appropriately cowed looks and fearful eyes, he turned his attention back to Yusuke. He glared at the sheepish young man. “Keep your mind on you work and not on play! Checca,” he added as an afterthought.

Yusuke’s cheeks burned. He glared angrily at the short cook. He had learned enough to know that he was being called an ‘idiot’ and ‘bastard’ and while he didn’t exactly question those two, he resented being called ‘Checca’. He wasn’t gay!

Drawing himself up like the slow coiling of a viper, Pontiero stared at Yusuke with the haughty arrogance of a god. “Checca. Checca. CHECCA!” he hissed with slow venom. “Now get back to work!” he snarled. He popped Yusuke on the back of the head then strutted away.

“One of these days…” Yusuke growled under his breath. A co-worker patted his arm sympathetically.

“Leave it alone, man; you’ll never win against him. He can outscream you any day.” With that sage advice, she turned her attention to her work before Pontiero saw noticed her.

“Calling me gay….Who the hell does he think he is? Like everybody don’t know he’s sleeping with one of the bus boys!” Yusuke muttered.

“Shhhh….” Came from both sides of him. Nervous looks were directed over their shoulders at the whirlwind chef.

“I’m just saying…”

“D’uh! Everybody knows he’s gay,” was whispered fiercely from his left. “But do you remember when Tomo brought his boyfriend troubles into the Kitchen?” Yusuke’s eyes widened. They all winced and shuddered from the remembrance and bent to their task.

Yusuke reflected soberly. I am one of the most feared yokai in the Makai. I can crush a brick wall with one blow; I can race lightening. So why does one tiny shrimp of a human scare the bejesus out of me?

He had yet to find an answer.

* * *

Keiko tried to keep her mind focused on her work but it was nearly impossible. Five mistakes she had already made; nearly deleted an important file, hung up on a client, forgot a meeting…and it was only 11:15 am.

She knew she was distracted but she couldn’t help it. She had found a red hair on one of the chairs yesterday. When she asked Yusuke who came over, he casually mentioned Kurama had stopped by.

No one else.

Just Kurama.

Why that bothered her, she refused to contemplate. For some reason, she had always felt…wary around him. As if he was somehow a threat. Yet he was never anything other than polite to her. Unfailingly gracious, well-mannered and refined. There were times she wished Yusuke was more like Kurama.

Courteous and helpful to everyone.

It was implicit in his eyes that if he was ever needed, all anyone had to do was ask. She smiled wryly. Course, Yusuke probably wouldn’t even need to ask ‘cause Kurama would already be there, she thought wryly.

Slowly her smile faded, her eyes darkening to near black. She bit her lip, feeling ashamed of herself. Kurama was Yusuke’s friend, she assured herself stoutly. One of their dearest friends.

And why does he rarely come to the apartment? a sibilant whisper drifted out of the darkness. Except when you’re not home.

She shook her head roughly, dislodging that thought.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that a speeding truck was heading this way. Which direction to run, she had no idea. Only that she had to find a way to deflect to preserve the sanctity of her family.

One misstep and everything she had would be gone.

* * *

Nervously Yusuke climbed the steps to Genkai’s temple. For once in his life he was grateful of endless steps that seem to go on forever.

It gave him time to collect himself, if he could remember how, he groused. It seemed like all he had been doing the past several days was panicking.

Whining like some pathetic kid, terrified out of his mind. But he was. Terrified, that is.

When he reached the top, Genkai was standing at the door. Her ever present scowl firmly in place. “Dim-wit…” she growled at her prized student. If she was surprised to see him, it was adroitly hidden behind her piercing stare eyes. Anything else she felt about him was carefully concealed. But sharp eyes, untouched by time, swiftly catalogued the many signs that only one familiar with Yusuke would note.

“Grandma…” His insouciant greeting was a combination of cockiness and his usual brand of irreverence.

They glare at each other. It was the standard greeting between each that effectively hid the affection they felt for the other. Yusuke would never admit it, but Genkai was the closest thing to a mother he had. Atsuko gave birth to him, but with her drinking and partying at all hours; he basically raised himself.

He would be the first to admit that he had had an attitude problem. He was too loud, obnoxious. A delinquent in all but deed. It was Genkai that took a raw, brash young boy and began shaping, molding him into something of value.

With an irascible huff of breath, she stepped aside. “He’s waiting in the dojo.” After he had moved past, disappearing in the temple, her face relaxed revealing the hidden fear she dared not let him see.

She had not been fooled when Kurama had arrived. With that bland look firmly in place, the stupid boy actually thought to fool her. She snorted silently. It took only a few seconds of a cold disagreeable stare and Kurama was tripping over himself to explain what was going on.

She sighed, refusing to be a meddlesome old woman. Why couldn’t this have been settled five years ago?

“Dim-wits!”

* * *

Just before Keiko left for work, she checked her voice mail. Her heart began to race at the message Yusuke left. She played it several times, feeling a numbness coming over her.

“Keiko…it’s Yusuke. I…I asked your mom and dad to pick up Biki. We…uhm…we need to talk. Come to Genkai’s temple after work.”

The strain in his voice, and the feeling of inevitability settled in.

The truck was closer than she thought.

* * *

Her hands were shaking as she entered the temple. No amount of deep breaths could still their trembling.

A shape appeared out of the darkness, startling a nervous squeak from her. A gleam of green and she gasped, her hand rising to her throat in alarm.

“K…K…Kurama! You…you…scared me!” His faint smile was apologetic. Recovering herself, Keiko smiled shakily.

“That’s okay.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. She wasn’t an unintelligent woman…not by a long shot.

Kurama was here.

Yusuke was here.

They were here together…ridiculous ideas ran swiftly through her mind. They moved so fast, they were impossible to pin down.

A muscle jerked in the corner of her mouth. She raised her chin, looking steadfastly into a pair of vividly green, yet unreadable eyes. “Yusuke called, asked me to meet him here…said we needed to talk.”

Kurama inclined his head. Turning he walked with eerie, silent grace down the hall. Her mouth tightened, a flash of anger flickering in her eyes before she followed him.


Yusuke looked up when Keiko and Kurama entered the wide open area. He was kneeling before a tea service. Cookies were on a plate beside the little squat tea pot and matching cups.

Steam wafted gently, curling softly in the air before dissipating.

The corner of his mouth hitched up in a spastic movement. Absently he brushed at his loose blue shirt and jeans. He wished he had chosen something different to wear. Keiko always hated this shirt, he thought absently, picking at a loose thread.

Silently Kurama took up a position at the window, his presence going unnoticed by the other two. This would be difficult enough without his input. Sliding his hands in his pockets, he stared at the forest beyond. Enveloping himself in the quietude contained within its’ green depths.

“Hey…” Yusuke said softly, his eyes held a mingled look of relief and dread.

Keiko tried to smile, but knew it was a wasted effort. She was full of too much trepidation to attempt to be happy. “Hey, yourself.”

She knelt carefully across from him, kneeling with quiet grace and economy of movement. She accepted the cup he poured with a murmur of thanks, but hastily sat it on the floor next to her. Her redden flesh bearing mute testimony that she was not quite as calm as she pretended. She folded her hands together to hide the visible evidence of her nerves.

A silent tension vibrated between them, growing stronger with each beat of their hearts.

Yusuke lowered his head. He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly.

“I…I had a one-night stand about three months ago,” he stated baldly. His words dropped like a stone in water. Each succeeding ripple destroying, washing away pieces of his life.

Conversely he felt a heavy weight lift from his shoulders.

Keiko shook her head, disbelief playing over her face. She couldn’t have possibly heard what she had said. “Wh…wha…what…? What did you just say?”

“I have a one-night stand a couple of months ago.” Even with him repeating it, his words still made no sense. It was like she was in a nightmare. All she could see was her life, her life and dreams…destroyed.

Everything she had worked for, worked towards, gone.

“How…? I mean, I know how…but why? How could you do this to me? To us?” Her cry came deep from her soul.

Yusuke’s head lowered again, his jaw tight with suppressed emotion. His shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “I could give you a thousand reasons, a hundred excuses and none of them would be worth a damn. We were tired, hyped up and drunk.”

“We…?” Slowly Keiko’s head turned.

Kurama felt her stare drilling a hole in his back. He turned his head to the side, but other than that, did not acknowledge her accusing stare. “You…” Her words were breathed with horrified, venomous disbelief.

Her head swung back to Yusuke’s guilty face. “You slept…with Kurama? You…you
…jerk!” Frustrated at her inability to express her disgust, she put her whole weight in the slap she gave him.

It wasn’t enough to equal the pain in her heart.

“And you came home and made love to me! You BASTARD!” A wordless scream erupting from her throat, she lunged at him, overturning the tray in the extremity of her anger. Fingers crooked into claws, she managed to get in one nasty scratch on his face before he captured her hands. Growling, she struggled to get her claws into him again.

Make him feel the physical pain of what was tearing her apart.

She struggled in vain against his hold before collapsing against him, sobbing brokenly. Yusuke pulled her close.

“Why…?” It was a wail from the heart.

He had no answers to give her. He didn’t even know why himself. All he knew was that it had happened. “I…don’t know. I’m sorry…God, I’m so sorry.” Tears fell unnoticed down his face. They cried together for a shattered dream.

“Why now? Why tell me now?” She pulled back to ask, her voice made hoarse with anger. A lump was in her throat, making talking difficult. “You’ve waited all this time, so why tell me now?”

A horrible, dread certainty had her gasping, drawing away. “Oh, my God! You have AIDS!” She was on her feet, staring at him in sick horror and pity.

“Hell, no!” Yusuke shouted, jumping to his feet in. He looked horrified at Kurama who in turn had whirled around. Kurama shook his head minutely, his eyes faintly amused. The higher the spirit energy, the less likely a yokai could contract human diseases.

Actually, the only human illness a yokai could get was a cold.

Yusuke relaxed, though he did glare at the kitsune.

Keiko looked confused. “I don’t understand.” She looked between the two males, sensing some wordless communication going on.

The vile curse that spilled from Yusuke’s lips made her flinch. “I’m a toushin. All toushins are male,” he said tersely, inwardly squirming with embarrassment.

She still looked confused, a frown pulling at her brows. “Yes, so?” she said impatiently.

“All toushins are male. There are no female toushins! I’m PREGNANT!”

Keiko felt her knees weaken. “I think I need to sit down,” she said faintly. She fell to her knees, staring dazedly at the floor.

“Me too,” Yusuke said faintly, suiting action to words. Kurama made a swift, aborted movement towards Yusuke then stopped. With Keiko in the room, he wasn’t sure his help would be welcome or make an already tense situation worse.

A thick silence settled over them. They were unaware that the position of their bodies placed them in a triangle. Much like the emotional one they were in now.

“We…tried a remedy, something that would have…” Yusuke’s words trailed off.

“An abortion you mean?”

Yusuke shrugged, looking away from her. “Yeah, something like that.” His hands danced nervously on his knees. “It…uhm, didn’t work. We found out that Kurama alone ain’t enough.” He didn’t tell her that he had changed his mind and stopped the process, then changed his mind again.

“Hiei…? Wouldn’t he help?” Keiko asked eagerly, latching on to the idea.

“Not if any of us want to live,” he responded slowly. A faint look of uneasiness was stirring in his eyes. He stared almost unblinkingly at her. She didn’t notice. She was like a dog with a bone…she had an idea chasing around her mind.

“Then we’ll just have to find another demon!” she said impatiently yet elatedly. She laughed with relief and clutched his arm. “All you have to do is find another demon and get rid of it! Then we can be a family again.”

“Twins…” Yusuke said softly, his eyes empty of emotion. His head was cocked to the side. He stared at her, a growing distance in his eyes.

With a flick of her hand, she dismissed his words. “Doesn’t matter. Once you get rid of…”

“My children…” Yusuke said slowly, staring at her as if she was a stranger. “Kurama’s children.”

“Whatever. We can be a family again.” There was a minute hardening of her eyes. Her chin lifted. There was a look of resolution in her eyes. She was fighting for her family. “You have no other choice. If you love me, and I know you do, you’ll get rid of…” She gestured to his stomach.

Yusuke stood up. She stood as well. It seemed as if they looked at each other across a great chasm. One impossible for a mere human to cross.

“Keiko…” he said hesitantly, a question in his tone. He touched her face softly as if to familiarize its shape.

She stepped to him, pressing her body against the line of his. Reminding him of what they shared. The pleasure he found in her body. Turning her head, she gently kissed his hand. “Yus-chan, I love you. You know this. You KNOW this,” she repeated, emphasizing her words.

“You have a family already. And God forgive me, but I…I don’t…I don’t think I could accept another’s child into our family that is not OURS,” she said passionately. “Yours and mine,” she said, making sure he understood. Searching his eyes, she continued softly. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted, all I’ve dreamed about for so long. When I think of love, your face always comes to mind. Please don’t throw away everything we’ve worked for. I love you,” she said tearfully. She framed his face in her hands, and stretching above her meager height, she layered desperate kisses every place she could reach. “I love you.”

“And I love you,” he said softly. Yet there was an infinitely sad look was in his eyes. And something else.

Disappointment.

She jerked away, sensing his refusal.

“If you expect me to raise…his children, you had better think again, Urameshi Yusuke!” she hissed. Switching tactics, she went on the offensive. “If you go through this, I swear to GOD, I will never forgive you! NEVER! Do you hear me!”

Yusuke looked torn. Guilt and confusion eating away at him.

Seeing the indecision in his eyes, Keiko swallowed hard. She struggled for calmness. “I’m willing to forgive you. We can get past this. You have a wife and daughter,” she begged desperately, grasping his shirt. Gazing in his eyes, she put every ounce of emotion in hers as she pleaded, “Don’t throw it away. Please…”

Kurama stirred. “It’s interesting that you mention Nabiki…” he said quietly. There was a chillingly impassive look on his face as he gazed at her.

Keiko froze in outrage before she whirled around and stormed up to him. “You do not mention my daughter,” she hissed venomously and raised her hand.

He caught her wrist on the downswing. “Unlike Yusuke, I will no compunction about hitting you back.” His hand tightened warningly before he literally threw her away. Keiko rubbed her painful wrist.

He saw a certain look in her eyes, a look of awareness that made his eyes narrow.

“Kurama, don’t…” Yusuke said quietly. Their eyes met over her head. The wordless way they spoke, the silent communication—it infuriated her. It always had. Her eyes narrowed angrily. “Just…don’t.” There was a tired defeat look in his brown eyes that Keiko didn’t noticed or chose not to see.

But as she watched them, her mouth twisted bitterly. All these years, and once again, she was instantly excluded from their little magic circle. She threw back her head, laughing mirthlessly. Unaware that she was dancing on a precipice.

The ground was crumbling under her feet and she didn’t even see it, Kurama thought in distant amazement. Surely it was only suicidal assuredness that Yusuke would never allow harm to come to her that made her continue, he mused silently.

“No, let him go ahead. He’s already taken you away from me. Let him talk! Kurama, the greatest Makai thief! The greatest backstabbing whore is more like it! Isn’t Hiei enough for you? How many more marriages have you broken up, huh? Other little bastards you’ve been keeping secret?”

Kurama froze, anger flashing in his eyes.

Yusuke paled alarmingly and even Keiko gasped, her hand clapping to her mouth. If she could, she would have tried to retrieve her words. And very aware that she had allowed her temper too much free rein, she hurriedly backed away from him. She looked pleadingly at Yusuke for help. “Yusuke…”

In their eyes were years of childhood spent playing and laughing. Yusuke saw a young Keiko. A sweet, loving nature combined with such an unexpected stubborn will in her tiny body. Everyone in his life had long since given up on him, but never her. Never Keiko. Long after he had became jaded, harden by his life…she had never gave up on him.

“Kurama…” Yusuke said warningly. He was uneasy at the chillingly ruthless look in Kurama’s eyes. “Please…don’t.”

“Oh, no, my friend…she wanted to hear what the ‘whore’ had to say. I plan on speaking,” Kurama purred, stalking towards the trembling girl. “Would you deny my right to defense?” He affected an injured tone.

“Kurama…please…” the low, hoarse voice plea came from Yusuke. Kurama’s jaw tightened, his face chiseled from ice. Even with the red-hair and green eyes of his human self, it was chillingly eerie how he looked every inch the merciless and utterly ruthless Yoko Kurama.

Their eyes locked. With a cold, haughty inclination of his head, Kurama conceded to his friend. “Very well…”

However the look he cast Keiko promised retribution.

One way or another.

Keiko turned to look at Yusuke, a heavy weight dropping from her shoulders. She felt as if a reprieve had been granted. “What…what are you going to do?”

“I have to go to the Makai. A child from two yokai needs the demonic atmosphere of the Makai to thrive after the birthing.”

“Then stay here until you have it,” she begged desperately. “I’m sure Kurama would be more than happy to take it…I mean them.”

“Every month, my spirit energy diminishes until the point where I am nearly empty. I can’t defend myself. That’s why no toushin would be fool enough to have a child without a partner.” A wry grin touched his mouth. Gallows humor springing into action. That was Yusuke.

“But you know what they say, ‘Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool’.”

Keiko had an abstract look on her face. Something Yusuke said stirred an idea. “Wait…wait…” she said, thinking furiously. “You just said that the longer you’re carrying, the lower your spirit energy becomes, right? That means, if we wait a couple more months, you guys can try again!” Her eyes wide, she looked at Yusuke hopefully.

Kurama resembled an ice statue, he was so still.

Yusuke lost his smile. He blinked. A frown pulling at his brows, he looked puzzled as he glanced around the dojo, then back at her. There was only one reasonable response to her idea.

He had never hit a woman; and he wasn’t about to start now.

“Goodbye Keiko.” He bowed formally to her, as if to a stranger.

Then walked away.

Keiko abruptly realized the magnitude of her mistake. Desperate now, she called after him. “Yusuke! Urameshi Yusuke! If you walk away from me now, don’t bother coming back!” she yelled at his retreating back.

He disappeared into the recesses of the temple.

“Bastard…”

“Yusuke used to talk endlessly of his plans to marry you. Incessantly almost.”

Keiko jumped, startled by the low husky voice of the kitsune. She recovered. “I’m quite sure that must have really upset you.” Her lips curved in a ugly parody of her usual sunny smile. “That I got him before you did. Is this your form of revenge?”

Kurama’s head tilted. There was a curious look of understanding in his eyes. He nodded to himself, the pieces finally coming together. He cursed himself for being so slow. “I always wondered at the fear in your eyes whenever you saw Yusuke and me together. It wasn’t very obvious the lengths you went to keep us apart. It’s rare that I’m taken by surprise.” He bowed, acknowledging her cleverness in deceiving him.

“All this time, I thought it was simply the fact that the four of us frequently battled demons and Yusuke generally received the worst. In reality you feared that Yusuke would turn from you…to me.”

She set her jaw. Averting her face, she steadfastly refused to even acknowledge the softly spoken words.

He sighed, abruptly tiring of his game with her. His eyes were tired and sad at the damage Keiko’s fear of him had caused Yusuke. “For what it’s worth, it would have been a waste of my time. I have always cared deeply for Yusuke…as a friend. Yes, if I had pushed it, or perhaps if he had shown any inkling for me other than friendship, maybe…maybe things would have been different.”

Kurama shrugged, his eyes holding a distant look. “But he did not; so I did not.” His turned his attention to her. The intensity of his regard forced her, at last, to meet the shadowed stare. “You made him happy, and that was all that was important. The friendship, the bond I had with Yusuke was far more important to me than my desire for us to be lovers.”

He paused to allow his words to sink into her conscious. Then coldly, deliberately he continued. “And had I wanted him, I would have had him. Make no mistake about that.” His eyes glittered with some unknown emotion.

“But he’s hurting now,” she shot at him. Her voice, gratingly shrill, was laced with mixture of anger and bitterness. Her heart ached, throbbed painfully as realization finally set in. There was a painful, irritating tightness in her eyes as if all moisture had been leeched from her. She blinked rapidly. Knowing that she had lost, but something inside her refused to stop fighting.

“So much for you vaunted concern over his feelings,” she finished spitefully, trying her best to hurt him….like they had hurt her. “I have always loved him. We made plans for a family. Now it’s gone.”

“Family…?” he said softly, making the word a question instead of a statement. His head cocked to the side, he studied her. And when he began to move, to saunter towards her, there was something in the set of his eyes…the way he looked at her that sent her heart to pounding.

“Humans have such a curious concept of ‘family’.” Keiko backed away from Kurama’s ominous advance. Her eyes narrowed as a foreboding chill came over her. “Father, mother… child. That was one of Yusuke’s dreams. To have children…with you. One day. After you two got a bit settled, of course. His words to me were, ‘In five years, me and Keiko, we’ll just be starting with the family gig. Probably have enough of the little ankle-biters to make our own baseball team’. Five years.”

“So…?”

“Toushins have almost complete control over their reproductive capabilities. There are, of course, certain ways to around such resistance and usually it takes a combination of things for it to happen. Unfortunately in Yusuke’s and my case, such events happened. However, that does not quite explain how you got pregnant. Nor Biki,” he said meaningfully. He smiled coldly at the shock in her eyes.

She gasped, her eyes rounding in surprise. “How dare you!” she breathed, trembling with rage.

Kurama was unimpressed by the volcanic rage that shook the young woman. “Yusuke knew, Keiko. He knew the day you came home, glowing with the news that you were pregnant that he might not be the father. Yet still he married you. I think he probably held on to hope…until the day you laid her in his arms.”

Pausing, he continued softly. “There was no blood-connection between them. Didn’t you hear him? Toushins can only produce male children.”

Keiko’s face was as white as a sheet. She looked like she was either going to throw up or faint. Seeing her sway, he kept a safe distance between them. Just in case.

“I held him in my arms as he cried himself to sleep. And never once has he EVER said anything derogatory about you. He stilled loved you. Loved you enough to ignore Biki’s parentage; loved the child from your body as if she was his own.” His eyes glowed, a golden sheen overlapping the green of his eyes.

“Oh. My. God…” She sank to her knees, burying her face in her hands. Her shoulder shook as she rocked back and forth. A soft keening sound came from the young woman at his feet. All her defiance and fiery pride gone, crouched at Kurama’s feet, Keiko bore the appearance of a broken woman.

Kurama gazed down at the woman at his feet, completely unmoved by her agonizing grief and despair. Softly and coldly he continued. Using words with the ruthless precision of a surgeon.

“All you had to do was just let him go, continue being the sweet Keiko he imagined you to be…and he would have come back to you.”

He crouched with lissome, fluid grace and tenderly cupped her cheeks in his hands. Carefully, he raised her face and delicately brushed away her tears. Her sobs dwindling to soft hiccups, he smiled gently at the desperate hope in her eyes.

And cruelly delivered the killing blow. “Now he’s mine. And rest assured I will not make the same mistake as you. I allowed him to get away from me once, but never again.” He watched unemotionally as desperate hope died. Nodding in satisfaction, he rose easily to his feet.

“I love him…” Keiko’s voice held a hopelessness that would have softened the heart of any man.

His eyes fading to flat, empty gold, it was as Yoko Kurama that he spoke. “You loved a dream, not the man.”

* * *

They told the others, not everything, of course, just enough. Kuwabara, to say the least was stunned. Yusuke sat with his head hanging low, misery coming off him in waves.

That is, until a faint mumble was heard. “Huh…I guess we know who really wears the pants.”

Yusuke was on Kuwabara like a ton of bricks. Swiftly putting the struggling red-head in a headlock. A quick shuffle ensued, to which the others politely looked away.

Finally Kuwabara was free. A little bruised for the most part, but relatively unhurt. He glared haughtily at Yusuke, smoothing his hair. “Still awesome. Anyway, the only reason why I was holding back was because I was taught never to hit a pregnant…woman.”

Laughing softly, this time Kurama held Yusuke back from giving another pounding to their friend. Hiei gave Kuwabara an approving look, unseen by Yusuke. The human returned it with a nod of his own and a wry amused twist of his lips.

Hell, if he could accept some of the freaky-scary things they had seen, the crazy-ass yokais that tried to kill them, destroy the world or both, all the injuries and assorted hurts they had endured over the years, AND that Yusuke was one of the yokai that they often fought…this was nothing.

Nobody was going to get physically hurt. And that was all that mattered.

He gave an oblivious Yusuke a quick, dubious glance.

At least I hope not, he thought with some worry.


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