Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Movie Rip-offs, Act I: Bite Me (The Princess Bride, Yu Yu Style) ❯ Yomi's In Trooooouble... ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11

 

Kurama was in a very good mood. He was grinning. And humming. He'd gotten a letter from Yomi that morning, and while it didn't say anything specific, it did say that he and Hiei would be home in a matter of weeks, a month at most. That news had put Kurama in a state of pure joy that made everything feel right with the world.

 

At the moment Kurama was in the palace kitchens with the cook, experimenting with the dinner menu. With Karasu and Yomi gone and their staff with them, the servants were all that was left, and Kurama was doing his best to ensure that they enjoyed their time to themselves, starting with the food.

 

“What was it that we put on the chicken yesterday?” Kurama asked the cook (no one knew her real name) as he tore lettuce and tossed it in a giant bowl to make salad. “Tanya really liked it and I told her I'd make more today, but I can't for the life of me remember what I put in the dressing.”

 

“You made it, you should know.” Cook said, smiling as she chopped onions and tossed them into a bowl next to her.

 

“I should, but I don't.”

 

“Well I can't help you. If I recall, you wouldn't let me watch you.”

 

“I didn't-“

 

“Yes you did.”

 

“Was I mean?”

 

Cook laughed. “C'mon think! It was lemony and tangy and it was made with…?”

 

“…Lemony tangy stuff?”

 

“Now, now, don't mock.”

 

Just then, the kitchen door swung open. “Hey, Kurama, you've got visitors.”

 

Kurama looked over at the door and smiled. “Oh, hello, Maria. Who is it?”

 

“I don't know, I've never seen them before.”

 

“Oh…. all right. Where are they?”

 

“Your room.”

 

“All right, thank you. Finish this salad for me?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Thanks.” Kurama said, tugging playfully on one of the girl's braids as he headed out of the kitchen.

 

He hadn't even managed to get the door open all the way before he was bull-rushed and pulled into a hug so tight it felt as though he would never breathe properly again.

 

“B…Benji?”

 

Nod.

 

“Oh my…. Benji!”

 

The next few minutes were filled with nothing but incoherent babbling between Benji and Kurama as Miguel and the crew listened with smiles on their faces.

 

When Benji finally calmed down enough to remember where he was, he smacked himself on the forehead. “Oh, I'm stupid! There's someone I want you to meet. Miguel? Mig-oh, Miguel,” he said in Spanish, “stop being so shy and get over here.”

 

Miguel peeked around Erik's shoulder, his face red. Slowly, he moved forward so he was standing in front of Kurama. “Hello.” He said in halting English. (That and “No, thank you, I don't want the alcohol” were the only English phrases he knew, and he'd learned the second out of self defense.)

 

“This is Miguel,” Benji explained. “I told you about him in my letter, remember? He doesn't speak English, so-”

 

“Ah, si.” Kurama said. “Pleased to meet you.” he said to Miguel in Spanish.

 

“Same to you.” Miguel replied.

 

“You and I need to talk later.”

 

“We do?”

 

“Yes. Word on the street is you know everything about Benji and I need ammo for the verbal assault I have planned for later.”

 

Miguel laughed. “We'll talk.”

 

Benji looked panicked. “You will do no such thing! Miguel!”

 

XXX

 

The dining hall roared with laughter as Miguel told his third Benji anecdote of the night. Outside, the sun was just beginning to set, but inside, the castle was ablaze with light. The dining room was completely empty, except for the group that sat in the exact center of the table in the middle of the room.

 

“So then,” Miguel said, as a burst of laughter died slowly around the table, “he marches right up to the woman and says, `You be mean my Miguel again and you're gonna die, lady. Not that you aren't almost there already you ugly old bat!' Then he kicks her in the shin, grabs my hand and runs away. This was a little old lady, mind you, but she insulted me so, y'know she had to go.”

 

The others roared with laughter, and Kurama commented, “You were quite a sassy ten-year-old, Benji.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I was a trail-blazer,” Benji replied, taking a swig of his beer. “Can we move the conversation away from me now?”

 

“Gladly,” Kurama said, chuckling quietly.

 

“What's that supposed to mean?!”

 

The chuckle grew to an outright laugh, and the rest of the room exploded with mirth as Benji calmly dumped the remainder of his beer over Kurama's head.

 

XXX

 

“Every single one of those guys was slobbering drunk,” Miguel stated, giggling as Benji dropped him unceremoniously onto the bed.

 

“But seeing Kurama and Sebastian get into a fist fight was worth the hangovers we're gonna have in the morning.”

 

“What exactly caused that anyway?”

 

“Well, as far as I can tell, Sebastian said `Chemel flebbal fluh' and Kurama took great offense.”

 

“Well you were very kind to break them up like that.”

 

“God, I'm gonna be so sore tomorrow,” Benji groaned, stretching out on the bed. “Why did you let me drink so much?”

 

“You always blame me,” Miguel whined.

 

An evil grin spread across Benji's face and Benji rolled on top of his lover. “Damn straight, and payback's gonna be a bitch.”

 

“You curse a lot when you're drunk,” Miguel observed idly, pulling Benji down into a kiss. The redhead allowed the kiss to go uninterrupted for quite some time, but just when Benji was about to attempt to push it further—and Miguel could always tell—he found himself slamming face-first into the pillows as his lover shoved him off and went to extinguish the candles.

 

“You're heartless,” Benji pouted from the bed.

 

“And you're trashed,” Miguel replied, climbing back under the covers and wrapping his arms around his lover. “Wake me when you're sober.”

 

XXX

 

Kurama sighed as he dropped onto his bed. It had been quite a long time since he'd had any alcohol, and the stuff had hit his system like a ton of bricks. He'd spent the last half hour being violently ill outside in the bushes.

 

The redhead didn't like the way he'd been feeling since Hiei had left. He was fine when he was with other people, always forcing a smile to please them, but once he was alone he just wanted to cry and scream and throw everything within reach. But he never did any of that. He couldn't remember how to get angry anymore, not really.

 

XXX

 

Shura: interrupts Yomi's reading Kurama's pathetic.

 

Yomi: No he isn't.

 

Shura: Yeah he is! He should just march right up to that Karasu freak and punch him right in the face!

 

Yomi: He can't do that, Shura. If he refuses to stay at the palace, Karasu might hurt Hiei.

 

Shura: So?

 

Yomi: So he loves Hiei!

 

Shura: Love is sickening.

 

Yomi: I agree.

 

Shura: Get off my side immediately. I don't need any decrepit old guys taking sides with me!

 

Yomi: Old?

 

Shura: Ancient.

 

Yomi: You little brat! jumps on Shura and begins to hit him with pillows Take that! And that!

 

Shura: Get off me, you crazy old bastard!

 

Yomi: Make me, you sniveling, spoiled little ape!

 

Shura: Bite me, moron!

 

Yomi: Oh, you so got that from the book!

 

Shura: So what?!

 

Yukina: from downstairs What's going on up there?

 

Shura and Yomi immediately fall silent and return to their separate seats

 

Shura: Nothing, Mom!

 

Yomi: Yeah, we were just talking! Your son is a monster!

 

Shura: Your father is a jerk!

 

Yukina: still calling from downstairs Well as long as you're getting along!

 

Yomi: We most certainly are not—

 

Shura: cuts Yomi off We're fine, Mom! whispers to Yomi Keep reading before she comes up and busts us.

 

Yomi: Good idea.

 

XXX

 

The days passed slowly for all of them, each one fading into the other until they all bled together in everyone's minds, each one the same as the one before and the one after. Miguel fell immediately and wholeheartedly in love with the palace, and he and Benji spent most of their time in the gardens and the courtyards. The rest of the crew left to stay in a local tavern, and Kurama almost managed to be happy with Benji around.

 

But life always had been and always would be incomplete without Hiei.

 

XXX

 

Hiei was having trouble. Trouble adjusting to life off the island, trouble not squeezing Yomi by the neck until his eyes popped out of his head and his brains oozed out of his ears, and trouble letting go of the coconut that he knew logically was not Kurama but was nevertheless still his main comfort.

 

It had been two weeks since Yomi had come to get Hiei off the island, and Hiei hadn't said more than ten words since then. They had passed through a small town a week and a half before and Hiei had had a nervous breakdown after being exposed to the crowds whose existence he had completely forgotten, so now he and Yomi were staying in a small abandoned shack in the woods while he got used to life away from the island again.

 

Hiei clearly had not been taking care of himself while he was stranded, and he was--if possible--thinner than he'd been before. He hadn't had anything to eat or drunk since Yomi had come to get him, and it had gotten to the point where he couldn't even drag himself out of his bed anymore. He wasn't even trying to stay alive anymore. He couldn't explain it, but… there was a part of him that wanted to die. And that part was slowly creeping into the rest of his life, taking over his mind until it seemed like there was no alternative.

 

When Yomi returned to the shack after a long walk in the surrounding forest, he saw that Hiei was lying on the bed facing the wall with his back to the door, apparently asleep as he clutched his coconut to his chest. Smiling slightly, Yomi quickly made some soup and, after finishing his own bowl, carried the other over to Hiei. “Hiei?” he inquired softly, sitting down next to the bed. “Do you want anything to eat?”

 

No answer.

 

“Hiei?” Yomi asked a bit louder. “Hiei!”

 

Silence.

 

Frowning, Yomi reached out and shook Hiei's shoulder. Then he realized something.

 

Hiei wasn't breathing.

 

XXX

 

A/N: So? Sudden? Shocking? Do you hate and despise us? I hope so, because if you have that strong a reaction to the story it means you're liking it. Yeah, I'm cruel. So sue me.