InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ A Father's Love ❯ Family Reunion ( Chapter 8 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Luthien Tinuviel-Minyatur 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Shounen / Angst / Romance / Drama | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.24.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 864 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Shounen / Angst / Romance / Drama | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.24.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 864 | Status: Work In Progress
I do not own Inu Yasha or YuYu Hakusho. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihiro Togashi. I make no money off of this, nor do I intend to.
Chapter Eight:
Family Reunion
Upon awakening the next day, the group set out back towards home. Shippo had taken to riding on Kurama’s shoulder, forgoing Kagome’s basket.
“What about ivy?” he asked.
“Fidelity.”
“And lavender?”
“Devotion or distrust.” From the moment he had awakened, Shippo had continued to ask him about the meanings of flowers, just as he had continued to ask until sleep finally claimed him the night before. Most anyone else would have been annoyed. Kurama was just happy that his son had taken an interest in plants.
It nearly broke his heart.
“Feh. What about moss?” asked Inu Yasha, clearly sarcastic.
“Don’t pick on Shuichi, Inu Yasha. Moss doesn’t mean anything.”
“Actually, Little One, it means maternal love and charity.”
“Really?” At Kurama’s nod, Shippo just glared at Inu Yasha.
“Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” observed Sango.
“Indeed it does,” agreed Miroku. “Is something troubling you, Inu Yasha?”
“Mind your own business!” Inu Yasha retorted.
“Let him be sour,” dismissed Kurama, setting Inu Yasha to seething quietly. “I have learned many things in my life, and one of those is if his type decides they want to be difficult on a given day, they will be and nothing will change their mind.”
In his mind, Kurama was reminded for a few seconds of Yusuke and Hiei. If Hiei woke up on the wrong side of the bed, there was nothing to be done for it but stay away for a while. Yusuke was nearly worse, if that was possible.
Shippo was nearly slung off of Kurama’s shoulder when he spun around suddenly. “Whoa!”
“Shuichi? What’s wrong?” asked Kagome. Inu Yasha spun around quickly as well. “Inu Yasha?”
“It’s Sesshoumaru,” was all Inu Yasha said as he drew the Tetsuaiga. Kagome quickly dismounted her bike and reached for her bow.
“What does he want?” asked Sango as she switched to her battle outfit and hefted Hiraikotsu. “He knows by now that he cannot claim the Tetsuaiga for himself.”
“Yes, he has known that for a while,” added Miroku, reaching for his aqua rosary beads, should the Wind Tunnel prove necessary.
Kurama just sat Shippo down and drew Hiei’s katana. In the back of his mind, he was still surprised that no one had asked him where he had gotten it, since they had not seen him leave the village with it.
A speck in the sky began to grow larger. After a few tense moments, that speck formed into two, a large one beside a slightly smaller one. Then they landed.
The large speck was a two-headed lizard-like beast of burden. Upon that was a young girl, no older than ten years in an orange kimono with part of her black hair up in a ponytail that stuck out the side of her head. Next to her was a kappa demon in a servant’s uniform holding a two-headed staff. One head male, the other head female.
The small speck was a male with long white hair that reached nearly to the small of his back. Gold eyes were set in a pale face with two red lines on each cheek bone that reached nearly to his pointed ears. Upon his forehead was a purple waxing crescent moon. He had a mokomoko boa draped over his left shoulder, while a spiky shoulder guard graced his right. Only one arm was visible from the voluminous sleeves of his kimono. The kimono itself was mostly white with a red honeycomb and flower crest at the collar, sleeves, and shoulder. His pants, also white, were sashinuki hakama, traditional Japanese pants that were gathered at the ankle and ballooned out. His shoes were ankle high boots with pointed toes.
The gold eyes coolly surveyed the group. He lingered for a moment on Inu Yasha, then on Shippo. An eyebrow quirked as they landed on Kurama and a smirk made itself known.
“Hello again, brother.” The voice had a deep, silken timbre that induced thoughts of fingers gliding slowly down the spine, silk sheets, and the many activities that combined the two.
Inu Yasha tightened his grip on Tetsuaiga and shifted further into a battle stance. “What do you want this time, Sesshoumaru?” he growled out.
Sesshoumaru just shifted his gaze from Kurama over to Inu Yasha. “I have not come here to speak with *you*, Inu Yasha.”
“You’ve no other brother here. Do not toy with me!”
Sesshoumaru looked surprised for a brief second. “You mean you do not know?”
“Know what?!”
Sesshoumaru ignored the dog-demon’s outburst and strode over to Kurama. “You did not tell him? I am surprised at you.”
“Do *not*, Sesshoumaru... Not now...” Kurama said through gritted teeth.
“Why not? Doesn’t our dear little brother have the right to know the truth?” Sesshoumaru asked softly.
“Sesshoumaru, I swear upon Father’s soul that if you say *one* word...”
“You will kill me?” This was said at normal volume. “That is a threat that I think I would like to see you try to accomplish.” Sesshoumaru took Kurama’s chin in his hand. “Different from what I remember. Red hair, green eyes. If only Father could see you now. He would be ashamed of you.” Sesshoumaru roughly released Kurama.
“What the Hell is going on here?!” demanded Inu Yasha.
“Since he does not seem willing to say it himself...” Sesshoumaru stepped back from Kurama. “Inu Yasha, meet your *other* older brother, Yoko Kurama. I’m certain you’ve heard of him.”
“You’re lying! Yoko Kurama was a fox demon!”
Sesshoumaru chuckled. “The Great Yoko Kurama is a hiyoukai, Inu Yasha. Half fox, half dog. He was just fortunate that the fox blood ran truer.” He glanced at the katana Kurama still held. “Put the twig away, Kurama. Metal was never your skill.”
“His name is Shuichi Minamino!” argued Sango. “He cannot possibly be Yoko Kurama!”
“Will you prove it to them Kurama, or must I?”
Kurama grit his teeth harder. He was stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. If he showed himself as Yoko Kurama, that would make him a potential target for Sango and he would lose the trust he had gained from the other members of the party. However, if Sesshoumaru forced it out of him, Sesshoumaru would quite possibly tell Shippo the truth about his parentage, and Kurama was decidedly *not* ready to tell him that.
“Very well,” he conceded after a few minutes, putting the katana away. Gathering his energy, he made the transformation from Shuichi Minamino to Yoko Kurama.
The others watched, stunned, as the Shuichi they knew was replaced with a demon. The red hair lengthened and turned silver as tails sprouted from the small of his back. The green eyes turned the same shade of gold as Sesshoumaru and Inu Yasha’s. The yellow tunic and white underclothes combination disappeared and was replaced with loose white pants and a loose white sleeveless shirt. Silver fox ears appeared atop his head as he grew at least a foot in height.
The resemblance was unmistakable, thought Kagome. The gold eyes and similar shaded hair were dead giveaways. And, she had to admit, Kurama was absolutely beautiful.
“Are you happy now, Sesshoumaru-niisama?” Kurama bit out, his voice at least half an octave lower than it was.
“Quite. Do you see now, Inu Yasha?”
Inu Yasha had a slack-jawed expression on his face. How could he not have known this? Throughout his whole life, he had been led to believe that Sesshoumaru was his only surviving relative. Even Myoga hadn’t told him he had other family. He fell out of his stance and staggered back from his brothers in shock. If he had been unaware of this, how many other secrets were his family keeping from him? He’d had enough of being the last to know about his own clan, and if he couldn’t get any information from Sesshoumaru, then he’d have to pry it out of his other older brother.
Sesshoumaru, of course, ignored the pained expressions crossing his youngest brother’s face. “How long have you been in the area, Kurama?”
“Four days.”
Sesshoumaru arched an eyebrow. “Four days and you haven’t spared a thought for me? I feel I should be hurt.”
“You have been rather... low on my list of priorities, Sesshoumaru-niisama.”
“I’m sure. You realize, of course, that the few demons remaining alive that have grudges against you will have noticed your return, just as I did?”
“How did you know he was here anyway?” asked Shippo, calmer than the rest of the group.
“His little tiff with that wolf-demon that seems to always be around you,” answered Sesshoumaru, clearly in a rare mood as he spared a look for Shippo. “I recognized his energy signature. Fusing with a mortal doesn’t change it as much as he thought.” He strode over to Kurama and leaned in. “That particular tribe is causing trouble. You should *not* have returned,” he whispered softly but firmly.
“I had to, Niisama. He is mine.”
“Hm.” Sesshoumaru stepped away and went back to his companions. “We’re going, Rin,” he called to the little girl, who had wandered into a small bunch of flowers.
“Coming, Lord Sesshoumaru!” Rin ran up behind him, a small clutch of flowers in her hand. Kurama noted dimly that they were magenta zinnias. The girl held them up for Sesshoumaru, a beaming grin on her face. “For you, Lord Sesshoumaru.”
Sesshoumaru looked at Rin for a moment, as if unsure what to do about the gesture. Suddenly, he smiled and took the flowers. Then the smile disappeared as suddenly as it came. “Jaken.” The kappa demon and the little girl mounted the dragon-like beast as Sesshoumaru took to the sky, it quickly following.
Several long moments passed as Kurama awaited the inevitable explosion of rage and bloodlust to erupt from Inu Yasha. He didn’t have to wait for very long.
“What the Hell did he mean by all of that?!” Inu Yasha all but roared.
“I thought it was quite clear, Inu Yasha-otouto. I happen to be the older brother you didn’t know about.”
“And why the Hell didn’t I know about you?! How many other relatives don’t I know about?!”
“Because *our father* decided that you shouldn’t know! *Sesshoumaru-niisama* didn’t even know at first! And you have many other relatives you don’t know about because I don’t know where the Hell they are!” Tears welled up suddenly in Kurama’s golden eyes. “*Nobody* knows where they are!” That was when Kurama bolted.
Long moments passed, when suddenly...
“SIT, BOY!”
Inu Yasha faceplanted with enough force to create a two-foot deep hole in the ground in the vague shape of himself.
“How can you treat him like that?! Shuichi hid that from us for a reason and for you to pick on him after Sesshoumaru treated him like he did is inexcusable!”
“Did you know about this, Kagome?!” Inu Yasha demanded, his voice slightly muffled by the ground.
“He asks a valid question, Kagome. Did you?” Miroku seconded.
Kagome shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I suspected he was a demon,” she began, looking at the ground. “I didn’t believe it at first, honestly. But that he had another form, or that it looked so much like Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru, I didn’t know that. And I swear I didn’t know he was your brother, Inu Yasha.” Inu Yasha just growled as he picked himself up from the ground. Kagome turned to Sango, who had remained quiet throughout the whole ordeal. “Sango? You aren’t going to hurt him, are you?”
Sango looked in the direction the distressed kitsune had run in. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “He hasn’t tried to hurt us, but what I know of Yoko Kurama...”
“Yoko Kurama, the Great Kitsune Thief. Feared in three worlds, an unrepentant killer. He could kill all of us and not blink an eye if he wanted.” Inu Yasha interjected that observation.
“Is he really safe?” Sango asked.
“I trust him, Sango. You should too, since he helped with your leg. He could very well left it to get infected, you realize.”
While the others argued, Shippo looked at the invisible dust trail that Kurama had left behind him. He felt bad for the older demon. It wasn’t fair to Kurama that Sesshoumaru had forced him to reveal something he wasn’t ready to. Seeing that the others were occupied, he motioned to Kirara. She came quickly to his side and the two of them set off to find Kurama.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was well after nightfall before the pair found Kurama. The kitsune was curled up against a tree, surrounded by plants of varying foliage that mostly hid him from onlookers. Shippo motioned to Kirara again and she took off to find the others and let them know that both Kurama and Shippo were safe.
Kurama had not transformed back into the red-headed form that Shippo had become accustomed to. For the first time, Shippo noticed that Kurama was a nine-tailed kitsune demon. That was not only impressive, but a testament to Kurama’s age. Most foxes didn’t attain a second tail until they were a thousand. Shippo also wondered if Kurama’s status as a silver fox was also a product of age or his natural coloring.
It was then that he noticed the shaking of the shoulders and the noises coming from the older demon. Kurama was sobbing. Heavily, if the sound was anything to go by.
Shippo approached Kurama slowly, hoping that Kurama would not bolt again. When Shippo accidentally snapped a twig, Kurama’s head snapped up. When he realized it was the kit, he quickly wiped his tears off of his cheeks.
His golden eyes looked like they held the pain of a thousand centuries.
Not truly knowing what else to do, Shippo climbed into Kurama’s lap and snuggled against him, letting him know without words that someone still cared about him.
Kurama sat in shock for the briefest of split seconds before enveloping Shippo tightly in his arms and crying harder, as though he were spending every negative emotion he had held his entire life.
They remained like that even after both had fallen asleep.
~~TBC...~~
Glossary:
-niisama: Respectful way of saying older brother
otouto: Little brother
Notes: My deepest thanks once again to my fiancé and beta for getting me out of the corner I had written myself into after Sesshy informed Inu Yasha about the additional family member. Ai shiteru, Dan-chan.
Magenta zinnias mean ‘Lasting affection’.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Eight:
Family Reunion
Upon awakening the next day, the group set out back towards home. Shippo had taken to riding on Kurama’s shoulder, forgoing Kagome’s basket.
“What about ivy?” he asked.
“Fidelity.”
“And lavender?”
“Devotion or distrust.” From the moment he had awakened, Shippo had continued to ask him about the meanings of flowers, just as he had continued to ask until sleep finally claimed him the night before. Most anyone else would have been annoyed. Kurama was just happy that his son had taken an interest in plants.
It nearly broke his heart.
“Feh. What about moss?” asked Inu Yasha, clearly sarcastic.
“Don’t pick on Shuichi, Inu Yasha. Moss doesn’t mean anything.”
“Actually, Little One, it means maternal love and charity.”
“Really?” At Kurama’s nod, Shippo just glared at Inu Yasha.
“Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” observed Sango.
“Indeed it does,” agreed Miroku. “Is something troubling you, Inu Yasha?”
“Mind your own business!” Inu Yasha retorted.
“Let him be sour,” dismissed Kurama, setting Inu Yasha to seething quietly. “I have learned many things in my life, and one of those is if his type decides they want to be difficult on a given day, they will be and nothing will change their mind.”
In his mind, Kurama was reminded for a few seconds of Yusuke and Hiei. If Hiei woke up on the wrong side of the bed, there was nothing to be done for it but stay away for a while. Yusuke was nearly worse, if that was possible.
Shippo was nearly slung off of Kurama’s shoulder when he spun around suddenly. “Whoa!”
“Shuichi? What’s wrong?” asked Kagome. Inu Yasha spun around quickly as well. “Inu Yasha?”
“It’s Sesshoumaru,” was all Inu Yasha said as he drew the Tetsuaiga. Kagome quickly dismounted her bike and reached for her bow.
“What does he want?” asked Sango as she switched to her battle outfit and hefted Hiraikotsu. “He knows by now that he cannot claim the Tetsuaiga for himself.”
“Yes, he has known that for a while,” added Miroku, reaching for his aqua rosary beads, should the Wind Tunnel prove necessary.
Kurama just sat Shippo down and drew Hiei’s katana. In the back of his mind, he was still surprised that no one had asked him where he had gotten it, since they had not seen him leave the village with it.
A speck in the sky began to grow larger. After a few tense moments, that speck formed into two, a large one beside a slightly smaller one. Then they landed.
The large speck was a two-headed lizard-like beast of burden. Upon that was a young girl, no older than ten years in an orange kimono with part of her black hair up in a ponytail that stuck out the side of her head. Next to her was a kappa demon in a servant’s uniform holding a two-headed staff. One head male, the other head female.
The small speck was a male with long white hair that reached nearly to the small of his back. Gold eyes were set in a pale face with two red lines on each cheek bone that reached nearly to his pointed ears. Upon his forehead was a purple waxing crescent moon. He had a mokomoko boa draped over his left shoulder, while a spiky shoulder guard graced his right. Only one arm was visible from the voluminous sleeves of his kimono. The kimono itself was mostly white with a red honeycomb and flower crest at the collar, sleeves, and shoulder. His pants, also white, were sashinuki hakama, traditional Japanese pants that were gathered at the ankle and ballooned out. His shoes were ankle high boots with pointed toes.
The gold eyes coolly surveyed the group. He lingered for a moment on Inu Yasha, then on Shippo. An eyebrow quirked as they landed on Kurama and a smirk made itself known.
“Hello again, brother.” The voice had a deep, silken timbre that induced thoughts of fingers gliding slowly down the spine, silk sheets, and the many activities that combined the two.
Inu Yasha tightened his grip on Tetsuaiga and shifted further into a battle stance. “What do you want this time, Sesshoumaru?” he growled out.
Sesshoumaru just shifted his gaze from Kurama over to Inu Yasha. “I have not come here to speak with *you*, Inu Yasha.”
“You’ve no other brother here. Do not toy with me!”
Sesshoumaru looked surprised for a brief second. “You mean you do not know?”
“Know what?!”
Sesshoumaru ignored the dog-demon’s outburst and strode over to Kurama. “You did not tell him? I am surprised at you.”
“Do *not*, Sesshoumaru... Not now...” Kurama said through gritted teeth.
“Why not? Doesn’t our dear little brother have the right to know the truth?” Sesshoumaru asked softly.
“Sesshoumaru, I swear upon Father’s soul that if you say *one* word...”
“You will kill me?” This was said at normal volume. “That is a threat that I think I would like to see you try to accomplish.” Sesshoumaru took Kurama’s chin in his hand. “Different from what I remember. Red hair, green eyes. If only Father could see you now. He would be ashamed of you.” Sesshoumaru roughly released Kurama.
“What the Hell is going on here?!” demanded Inu Yasha.
“Since he does not seem willing to say it himself...” Sesshoumaru stepped back from Kurama. “Inu Yasha, meet your *other* older brother, Yoko Kurama. I’m certain you’ve heard of him.”
“You’re lying! Yoko Kurama was a fox demon!”
Sesshoumaru chuckled. “The Great Yoko Kurama is a hiyoukai, Inu Yasha. Half fox, half dog. He was just fortunate that the fox blood ran truer.” He glanced at the katana Kurama still held. “Put the twig away, Kurama. Metal was never your skill.”
“His name is Shuichi Minamino!” argued Sango. “He cannot possibly be Yoko Kurama!”
“Will you prove it to them Kurama, or must I?”
Kurama grit his teeth harder. He was stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. If he showed himself as Yoko Kurama, that would make him a potential target for Sango and he would lose the trust he had gained from the other members of the party. However, if Sesshoumaru forced it out of him, Sesshoumaru would quite possibly tell Shippo the truth about his parentage, and Kurama was decidedly *not* ready to tell him that.
“Very well,” he conceded after a few minutes, putting the katana away. Gathering his energy, he made the transformation from Shuichi Minamino to Yoko Kurama.
The others watched, stunned, as the Shuichi they knew was replaced with a demon. The red hair lengthened and turned silver as tails sprouted from the small of his back. The green eyes turned the same shade of gold as Sesshoumaru and Inu Yasha’s. The yellow tunic and white underclothes combination disappeared and was replaced with loose white pants and a loose white sleeveless shirt. Silver fox ears appeared atop his head as he grew at least a foot in height.
The resemblance was unmistakable, thought Kagome. The gold eyes and similar shaded hair were dead giveaways. And, she had to admit, Kurama was absolutely beautiful.
“Are you happy now, Sesshoumaru-niisama?” Kurama bit out, his voice at least half an octave lower than it was.
“Quite. Do you see now, Inu Yasha?”
Inu Yasha had a slack-jawed expression on his face. How could he not have known this? Throughout his whole life, he had been led to believe that Sesshoumaru was his only surviving relative. Even Myoga hadn’t told him he had other family. He fell out of his stance and staggered back from his brothers in shock. If he had been unaware of this, how many other secrets were his family keeping from him? He’d had enough of being the last to know about his own clan, and if he couldn’t get any information from Sesshoumaru, then he’d have to pry it out of his other older brother.
Sesshoumaru, of course, ignored the pained expressions crossing his youngest brother’s face. “How long have you been in the area, Kurama?”
“Four days.”
Sesshoumaru arched an eyebrow. “Four days and you haven’t spared a thought for me? I feel I should be hurt.”
“You have been rather... low on my list of priorities, Sesshoumaru-niisama.”
“I’m sure. You realize, of course, that the few demons remaining alive that have grudges against you will have noticed your return, just as I did?”
“How did you know he was here anyway?” asked Shippo, calmer than the rest of the group.
“His little tiff with that wolf-demon that seems to always be around you,” answered Sesshoumaru, clearly in a rare mood as he spared a look for Shippo. “I recognized his energy signature. Fusing with a mortal doesn’t change it as much as he thought.” He strode over to Kurama and leaned in. “That particular tribe is causing trouble. You should *not* have returned,” he whispered softly but firmly.
“I had to, Niisama. He is mine.”
“Hm.” Sesshoumaru stepped away and went back to his companions. “We’re going, Rin,” he called to the little girl, who had wandered into a small bunch of flowers.
“Coming, Lord Sesshoumaru!” Rin ran up behind him, a small clutch of flowers in her hand. Kurama noted dimly that they were magenta zinnias. The girl held them up for Sesshoumaru, a beaming grin on her face. “For you, Lord Sesshoumaru.”
Sesshoumaru looked at Rin for a moment, as if unsure what to do about the gesture. Suddenly, he smiled and took the flowers. Then the smile disappeared as suddenly as it came. “Jaken.” The kappa demon and the little girl mounted the dragon-like beast as Sesshoumaru took to the sky, it quickly following.
Several long moments passed as Kurama awaited the inevitable explosion of rage and bloodlust to erupt from Inu Yasha. He didn’t have to wait for very long.
“What the Hell did he mean by all of that?!” Inu Yasha all but roared.
“I thought it was quite clear, Inu Yasha-otouto. I happen to be the older brother you didn’t know about.”
“And why the Hell didn’t I know about you?! How many other relatives don’t I know about?!”
“Because *our father* decided that you shouldn’t know! *Sesshoumaru-niisama* didn’t even know at first! And you have many other relatives you don’t know about because I don’t know where the Hell they are!” Tears welled up suddenly in Kurama’s golden eyes. “*Nobody* knows where they are!” That was when Kurama bolted.
Long moments passed, when suddenly...
“SIT, BOY!”
Inu Yasha faceplanted with enough force to create a two-foot deep hole in the ground in the vague shape of himself.
“How can you treat him like that?! Shuichi hid that from us for a reason and for you to pick on him after Sesshoumaru treated him like he did is inexcusable!”
“Did you know about this, Kagome?!” Inu Yasha demanded, his voice slightly muffled by the ground.
“He asks a valid question, Kagome. Did you?” Miroku seconded.
Kagome shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I suspected he was a demon,” she began, looking at the ground. “I didn’t believe it at first, honestly. But that he had another form, or that it looked so much like Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru, I didn’t know that. And I swear I didn’t know he was your brother, Inu Yasha.” Inu Yasha just growled as he picked himself up from the ground. Kagome turned to Sango, who had remained quiet throughout the whole ordeal. “Sango? You aren’t going to hurt him, are you?”
Sango looked in the direction the distressed kitsune had run in. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “He hasn’t tried to hurt us, but what I know of Yoko Kurama...”
“Yoko Kurama, the Great Kitsune Thief. Feared in three worlds, an unrepentant killer. He could kill all of us and not blink an eye if he wanted.” Inu Yasha interjected that observation.
“Is he really safe?” Sango asked.
“I trust him, Sango. You should too, since he helped with your leg. He could very well left it to get infected, you realize.”
While the others argued, Shippo looked at the invisible dust trail that Kurama had left behind him. He felt bad for the older demon. It wasn’t fair to Kurama that Sesshoumaru had forced him to reveal something he wasn’t ready to. Seeing that the others were occupied, he motioned to Kirara. She came quickly to his side and the two of them set off to find Kurama.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was well after nightfall before the pair found Kurama. The kitsune was curled up against a tree, surrounded by plants of varying foliage that mostly hid him from onlookers. Shippo motioned to Kirara again and she took off to find the others and let them know that both Kurama and Shippo were safe.
Kurama had not transformed back into the red-headed form that Shippo had become accustomed to. For the first time, Shippo noticed that Kurama was a nine-tailed kitsune demon. That was not only impressive, but a testament to Kurama’s age. Most foxes didn’t attain a second tail until they were a thousand. Shippo also wondered if Kurama’s status as a silver fox was also a product of age or his natural coloring.
It was then that he noticed the shaking of the shoulders and the noises coming from the older demon. Kurama was sobbing. Heavily, if the sound was anything to go by.
Shippo approached Kurama slowly, hoping that Kurama would not bolt again. When Shippo accidentally snapped a twig, Kurama’s head snapped up. When he realized it was the kit, he quickly wiped his tears off of his cheeks.
His golden eyes looked like they held the pain of a thousand centuries.
Not truly knowing what else to do, Shippo climbed into Kurama’s lap and snuggled against him, letting him know without words that someone still cared about him.
Kurama sat in shock for the briefest of split seconds before enveloping Shippo tightly in his arms and crying harder, as though he were spending every negative emotion he had held his entire life.
They remained like that even after both had fallen asleep.
~~TBC...~~
Glossary:
-niisama: Respectful way of saying older brother
otouto: Little brother
Notes: My deepest thanks once again to my fiancé and beta for getting me out of the corner I had written myself into after Sesshy informed Inu Yasha about the additional family member. Ai shiteru, Dan-chan.
Magenta zinnias mean ‘Lasting affection’.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~