The Past, Revisited
by Jane Fa Ker
Category: Yaoi/Shounen-ai (Yomi & Kurama, yes, you read it right. Yomi and Kurama)
Warning: Spoilers for the Makai Unification tournament and the end of Yu Yu Hakusho.
Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi and others. Used without permission.
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THE PAST, REVISITED
The lights of the city were bright and blinking when Yomi came by Yuusuke's hospital room. The ward was dark, Yuusuke still lay unconscious on the bed. He had lain so ever since the end of the fight with Yomi in the Makai Unification Tournament where Yuusuke had lost to the stronger, older youkai. The fight had taxed both their energies, though Yomi had certainly recovered faster than his ningen counterpart.
Kurama did not look up from his vigil when Yomi came to see him. He had been watching over Yuusuke since that round and he was concerned about the younger boy's reaction when he finds out that he'd lost. So he stayed to watch Yuusuke, missing much on the farewells the competitors bade each other at the end of the tournament. Truth to tell, Kurama did not care much for the sentimental goodbyes and post-tournament parties. As it was, he enjoyed the quiet solitude he shared with the other sleeping teenager. Over the course of time that he'd worked with the Reikai Tantei, no one had quite captured Kurama's attention as Yuusuke had. The boy was just so... lively, and unaffected, and Kurama liked him. A lot.
He would have liked it better, of course, if Yomi had not come to see him, especially at this time at night. He did not particularly like the youkai's company. Just the sight of him, with his blind eyes eternally closed giving him the air of someone who was perpetually in deep thought, reminded Kurama all too much of his wicked youko past. A past he now wished to put behind him.
"You have not moved from this room since your friend was put here," Yomi commented mildly. He stood against the door frame, the light from the corridor outside outlining his silhouette against the darkness of the room.
Kurama could not see the look on that pale ageless face and so he chose not to give a reply.
"Dad!" A shrill voice broke the silence that stretched over the two old acquaintances. From behind Yomi sprang the small spry shape of his son, Shura. The child youkai was giving Kurama the evil eye. "Do we really have to see these ningen?"
Yomi smiled faintly and nodded. His patience for his child seemed infinite to Kurama. He bent and whispered a few words to the kid before straightening and regarding Kurama with that same thoughtful, infinitely patient gaze.
Shura nodded grudgingly. "I'll wait at the lobby." The boy was gone.
Kurama almost smiled. "I wonder sometimes what you would have done if Shura had been conceived much earlier, in the times of our hot-blooded youth."
Yomi's lips twitched at the thought. "I wonder myself."
He fell silent and the quiet stretched between them like a yawning abyss waiting to swallow the first to break the truce. Kurama turned his attention back to Yuusuke, feeling self-conscious at the lack of conversation. He brushed the boy's bangs away from his face, pulled up the blanket a little higher over the healing bandaged body. Yomi observed him wordlessly.
"You wanted something from me?" Kurama asked finally when the silence became too thick for him to even breathe. His ears were starting to ring too.
Instead Yomi said, "You love Yuusuke, don't you?"
Kurama bit his lip. He could see where this was going. "He's my friend."
Yomi was not impressed. "Yes. You love him far more than you love even yourself, kitsune." A small smile appeared on the pale supple lips.
No point in denying that one. He knew he hadn't exactly been discreet about his affection for Yuusuke. Oh, he had been subtle so that Yuuauke never noticed or really thought about the depth of their connection. Yomi was perceptive to have picked it up easily. But then, the youkai had known Kurama for hundreds of years.
He sighed when he saw that Yomi was not going to drop the subject just because he did not answer. Perhaps he could avoid anymore embarrassing revelations from Yomi if he kept a better conversation going.
"Please, let's talk about this outside. I..." He faltered, seeing the faint smile on Yomi's lips. "I don't want to wake Yuusuke."
The youkai nodded. "Very well."
The walked in companionable silence to the lobby, into the outdoor. Kurama stole glances at his companion. Yomi was ageless and his pale placid features seemed out of place in a world known for its violence and barbarity. He watched the youkai as he was joined by his son, who was grumbling once again about Kurama.
"So what happens now?" the redhead asked, anxious to return to Yuusuke's ward, where he could be alone with a boy he had long desired... Yuusuke's ward where he didn't have to answer pointless questions about his personal preference in lovers.
"I will be going away. I need to take Shura to a place where he could train undisturbed and perhaps someday, beat your friend Yuusuke." He smiled almost wistfully.
Shura's eyebrows knitted and he protested loudly that he could and would beat Yuusuke in the coming tournaments. Yomi merely smiled.
Kurama nodded. "I see." He did not.
"Tell your friend Yuusuke that he has made me happy with his decision, even if it cost me my domain. I have never had to use my powers as such in a long time." He paused for a moment, as if gauging Kurama's reaction.
Kurama kept his face carefully free of expression, his voice bland. "I'll tell him."
"And Kurama?"
He bit his lip and waited.
"Tell Yuusuke that I look forward to fighting him once again."
"In three years," Shura chimed in, oblivious to the undercurrent of struggle between the two youkai. "I'll beat you too!"
Kurama laughed softly. "We'll see, little youkai."
"I will--" Shura started to insist but Yomi cut him off.
"Tell him that I will fight him for you."
He gasped. Kurama thought he was going to faint.
Yomi took a step closer. Kurama was rooted to his spot, mesmerized by the sheer paleness of Yomi's skin that made him look ethereal. Once upon a time... Hadn't he loved this youkai?
Gentle fingers grasped his face, not demanding, but asking. Kurama did not move, too shocked to say anything, do anything but stare at that pale thoughtful face, surreal and horrific, beautiful and terrible at the same time. Warm lips whispered delicately over his face. He gasped at their softness, found himself tilting his head to received this saving grace, found his lips moving to kiss Yomi back. He opened his mouth a fraction at the gentle coaxing of the youkai's warm tongue as it moved to lick his lips slowly. Slow like honey. He sighed, closing his eyes, and surrendered himself to pure bliss as the larger taller youkai enfolded him in his arms. Yomi was so tall he practically had to lift Kurama off his feet to kiss him. So good... He had not been held this way in a very long time... It felt too damn good...
Yomi pulled away too soon and Kurama had to take a step back to keep himself from falling. His eyes fluttered open searching that closed secretive face.
"Yomi...?"
The youkai smiled beatifically. "I'm glad to have known a man such as you, Kurama."
And then he and Shura were walking away, Shura making faces at Kurama until he was too far to be seen.
Kurama watched them both until the night swallowed their forms in its infinite gloom, a gloom that seemed to reflect the kitsune's confusion. With a final glance at the direction the two youkai had taken, Kurama sighed and hurried back to Yuusuke's room. Perhaps Yuusuke was already awake...
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