Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Captured by a Rose ❯ Chapter 14 ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter 14

 

* * *

 

Against all desires, morning came. The morning last blasted in, opening my eyes and my lovers. I yawned drinking in splashes of warm, honey golden sunlight that I gulped down like liquid light. Its sweetness tasted pure, like nectar that a hummingbird drinks from a flower.

 

Suddenly a hummingbird I thought of darted in to the shrine, its buzz resonant and soothing in the low hum of bees that work busily. The hummingbird's ruby glimmer on iridescent emerald flashed in my face. I followed it outside to the shrine veranda, lured by its hypnotic gleam.

 

“Yusuke-kun?” A pair of fair hands slid under my arms, fastened around my waist. “Good morning. You slept well?”

 

I massaged them in my hands, thumbing their palms in broad, deep strokes. His hands relaxed. I gripped them, blissfully interweaving my fingers between his. “Eh, just okay. So much has happened lately. I feel kind of sad leaving it.”

 

“I know, but you know what poets say about love, Yusuke-kun?” recited Kurama affectionately. “When you're ignited by true love, every nerve in your body burns like a firefly on fire. The flame of love is so strong, yet sadly it burns just a brief moment. It'd break my heart to loose the fire of our love. I want it to burn on, beyond death itself.”

 

“Me too. I'm not poet, but I know you're saying we need some distance, or we'll exhaust our relationship too quickly.” I squeezed him with all my strength. “I don't want to leave you!”

 

“I don't either. Even a fire must rest, my friend, or it can't burn forever,” sniffled Kurama, clutching me back. “I'll call you in a few days. Goodbye, love.” He kissed me.

 

He called me `love' for the first time! My heart sang with joy! That afternoon, we parted ways. I cried out to his image etched in my memory. I grasped it with my hands only to feel empty air. My heart writhed in pain. How sore it became.

 

* * *

 

A ladybug tottered off the edge of a leaf, falling in Kurama's palm. Its smooth, polished shell reflected a glint of orange light that struck Kurama's eye.

 

“Is it just luck I found you in a rose bush outside my house?” speculated Kurama, crooning over the orange-shelled bug.

 

“Maybe it's a sign that your relations with Hiei will improve,” chimed Botan, sheltered from the sun under the porch of Kurama's house.

 

The kitsune stood up, turning towards the spirit messenger. “Oh, hi Botan-san. You returned with my mother from the shrine so soon? How is she?”

 

“Just great! She's fixing lunch now,” exclaimed Botan eagerly. “What about Yusuke?”

 

Kurama laughed, allowing the ladybug to roam over his hand, "Yusuke, I do love him, and I'll miss him so much. Though, I do not know for sure, I hope that Yuusuke feels the same. And when we meet again, we will savor the time all the more."

 

They're really grown, realized Botan silently. When I return the three artifacts to Koenma-sama, he'll assign Yusuke another mission. What if that breaks them up? If it does, I can never forgive myself!

 

* * *

 

Late that afternoon, a gusty breeze whistled in through my window, its cry a swallow on the wing crying out to its mate. The wind whipped around in a cyclonic whirl, twisting dark satin curtains in its maddening dancing. Botan flew in on her broom through their dance.

 

“Oh, hey! What's new?” I said to her, lying on my bed.

 

“I've returned the artifacts to Koenma-sama. Here's a letter from him.” She handed me an envelope.

 

I read a letter inside as follows:

 

“Dear Yusuke,

 

Thank you very much for a job well done. I regret to say, I regret to inform you of your next mission so soon. Recently, there have been usual activities in the Demon Realm by the boarder near the Human Realm. Spirit Realm observers sense their no ordinary youkai, but powerful warlords. No doubt that when the barrier thins, they may well invade the Human Realm. I've asked a good friend of mine, Master Genkai to train you in the limited time that remains until the youkai invasion. Urameshi Yusuke, you are the Spirit Realm and humanity's only hope! Please visit Genkai immediately!”

 

Signed,

Koenma

 

"Damn, can't that toddler do one thing by himself. Fine I'll go!" I flopped onto the bed, arms behind my head, "Anything else that brat wants?"

 

Botan shook her head.

 

"Hnnn, fine." I turned my face away from her, and closed his eyes. I heard the young spirit messenger fly out of my window and I relaxed. I knew I had to do this but I hated the fact I wasn't going be able to see Kurama for a while.

 

* * *

 

After lunch, in his room Kurama wrote in his journal:

 

“Dear Diary,

 

“How I miss my Yu-kun so much. His smiles, his laughter, even his silly jokes. As much as I want to be with him, I need time to myself. I didn't tell my love that. I hold him in all my heart, along with other painful feelings. Those feelings are the reason for my needed isolation. Where did they come from? Hiei.”

 

“Hiei's mother, Hina, sinned against the goddess by loving an outside man. So the goddess decided to punish Hiei by pouring out the rage of her soul, into the once pure vessel of Hiei's heart. For the rest of his life, he walked the path anger. But its not his anger, it's the goddess's. Every time Hiei tried to love me, he felt the pain and suffering of the goddess's broken heart. Her agony became his; his agony became hers, like darkness mired in darkness.”

 

“Just allow your self to love me,” I told him.

 

“I can't,” Hiei cried back. “If I'm hurt again, I'll die.”

 

“It's not you who is hurt. It's the goddess who cursed you,” I clarified.

 

“Shut up!” he hissed. “You don't know my suffering or my pain!”

 

“Every time we tried to love each other, it ended up in an argument like this, most often with Hiei lashing out violently, over and over. This went on for a few years, eventually driving my own soul into the pits of depression itself. Depression is awful. You don't care if you lived or died. Did the sun rise? Did the birds outside your window sing sweetly? None of it mattered. In depression, you hung in a state of limbo between life and death. Your mind is like a ghost that commands an empty shell. Soon, death seemed inviting. Of course I met Yu-kun, and you know the rest of the story, Diary.”

 

“Now that I love Yu-kun, I could never go back to loving Hiei, even if he could love me. Still, I can't stand seeing poor Hiei suffer. I'd like to become his friend again, but how?”

 

Kurama stopped writing. A rusting outside his window caught his attention. He glanced outside. A fiery gaze fell over him. Hiei. He snaked down a slender tree branch a few feet from the kitsune's window. Crimson ruby eyes peered at him with guilt.

 

“Hiei…” whispered Kurama. “Come inside.”

 

The fire youkai crept into his room. “Back at the temple I hurt you, Kurama.”

 

“You had every right to, Hiei. I betrayed you when I left,” sympathized Kurama, averting his gaze away from his former lover.

 

“It was my fault you left in the first place,” sighed Hiei, reclining on the redhead's bed. “I didn't want to admit it then, that the curse of the ice goddess controls my life. My heart is receptacle for her pain. As long as she suffers from her unrequited love, I myself can't love. That's the real meaning of why my life has no meaning now.”

 

Kurama clutched the shorter youkai against his chest, their bodies now pressed together on his bed. “I know how you feel, Hiei.”

 

“Isn't it better to die?” The fire youkai borrowed his head in the kitsune's chest.

 

Long slender hands grabbed Hiei's head, yanking it back, so his met eye to eye with Kurama. “Don't be a fool!” snapped Kurama, who rarely showed anger. In this case, he couldn't contain it, driven over the edge by the thought of his comrade dying. “It's easier to die than to love. Yusuke-kun taught me what love is. That's the reason I keep living. And as my friend, I love you more than anyone, Hiei-kun.”

 

“Hiei-kun…you called me Hiei-kun,” the Jagan warrior cried. “Only friends say -kun.”

 

“I've always wanted to call you that. I didn't think you'd let me,” Kurama chuckled, cupping Hiei's cheek in his palm.

 

“Heh,” Hiei replied sarcastically. A smirk crossed his face. He snuggled closer to his partner. “So we're friends again now?”

 

“Of course we're friends. Hiei, you'll find a way to love someday. I'm sure if we find a way to help the ice goddess, then you might be freed from that curse” Kurama smiled, twisting his fingers in Hiei's hair.

 

Hiei sighed. “I'm glad you'll help me, but now you're Yusuke's. We were so intimate…”

 

The kitsune's arms pushed suddenly at Hiei. “In lust, not love. Satisfying the body won't make you happy, only the heart will, Hiei-kun. I'll do everything in my power to free you from the ice goddess and find for you a true lover!”

 

To be continued…