'Thicker then Water' chapter 2

note: I'm finally starting to write this again, though I don't have my notebook with me(I do remember most of it though)... ^-^ I didn't remember the name of the demon after Yusuke, so I made up one... If I remember, or if someone corrects me, I'll change it... ^-^

His head throbbing was the first thing he was aware of as he slowly regained consciousness, that and the old smell of knock-out chemical still in his nose. He barely heard the voices near him, one was anxious and the other was calm-sounding. The anxious-sounding(and very familiar by now)one was concerned for his cousin, and had thought their attackers were after him until he realized he was not the target. Shoji remembered what happened, and cried out, feeling something covering his eyes. "There, there, hold on Shoji, you'll be all right..." The familiar voice was over him now as the cloth was taken away, and he looked into Jonathon's scared blue eyes.

"Jon... Jonathon..." It was an effort to talk, but Jonathon's expression became relieved. "Are you all right, Shoji?" Shoji nodded slightly, and tried to sit up, his chest and head ached horribly. Jonathon helped him to a sitting position, and Shoji now saw that he was in the hotel room again. "What happened? Why'd they come after me?" Shoji weakly asked as he was handed a cup of something hot by Koenma. Koenma and Jonathon looked at each other, then Koenma shrugged. "Might as well tell you. We think it's because of your connection to Yusuke. Since you and him are... close, several factions of enemies have been after him for awhile. We figure one of them decided to capture you to use against him and us. We're investigating it now, but..." He shrugged, and looked at Jonathon.

"Don't you worry about anything, cousin, I'll help you," Jonathon promised. He was about to say something else, when the door opened to reveal Yusuke and his female companion laughing from a joke said before. They stopped, however, as they saw what awaited them inside the room. Shoji stiffened, feeling a little spike of nausea rush through his body, and he dropped the cup on the floor. In his efforts to calm himself, he happened to be looking at the girl and saw some unknown emotion flash in her eyes.

Then everything else was forgotten for the moment as Yusuke rushed towards Shoji, embracing him, checking him over and seeing the bruises. "I want to know what the hell exactly happened to him, and how in the Nine Hells I didn't know about it." Yusuke was angry now, Shoji realized, but not at him, but he didn't have time to react to this when the bracelet suddenly twinged and began responding to Yusuke's presence with the feeling of ten fire alarms going off at the same time in his head. Shoji gasped, the mental and emotional overload to his senses was too much all at once, and clutched at Yusuke, who laid him back down on the couch. "The... the bracelet... didn't..." Shoji managed to whisper before he fell unconscious again.

Yusuke looked from Shoji to Koenma, then to Shoji's cousin Jonathon, whom he noticed was giving him a hard look. "Look, I'm sorry, I had no clue what was happening here, did someone attack you tonight?"

Jonathon shook his head, his blue eyes flashing angrily. "They tried, they didn't, thanks to me-" He would have said more, had Koenma not stepped between them. "Both of you, settle down." He looked from Jonathon to Yusuke. "Didn't you hear what Shoji tried to say? Something was blocking the link between Yusuke and Shoji. I'm guessing it was the demons that attacked Jonathon and Shoji, and it appears that they were after Shoji, Yusuke." Koenma sighed. "I think that there is some very strong power behind all of this and I shall have to try something to keep that from happening again."

Jonathon nodded, and looked slightly apologetic as he glanced down at his cousin. "I'm sorry, I am just worried about my cousin. It seems like trouble follows us everywhere, ever since I received this crystal from my father." He held out a small crystal ball, with some red kanji sparkling occaisionally. Yusuke's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything, then he heard a voice behind him. "Ummm, Father?", and Yusuke turned, startled. He'd forgotten about his companion, in his worrying about Shoji.

She looked at him now, a puzzled look on her face, and he walked over to her, clasping her hands in his, "I'm sorry, but I must cut short our meeting together. Will you be all right? I mean, you don't have to go--"

She shook her head, and placed a finger on his mouth, "I'll be all right, Father, he needs you now. Don't worry, I know how to take care of myself, I've been taught not only by you, but my 'uncles' too. Please take care of yourself, and him too." She smiled happily at him, "Besides, this is the first time in a long time I've seen you happy since... that time." She frowned for a moment, then kissed him on the cheek. "I'll call you in the morning, all right?"

He smiled at her, and ruffled her hair. "All right, I'll see you in the morning. Take care, Miyuki." She waved to him as she walked out of the room.

"Father?" Jonathon exclaimed. He blinked, and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I had you figured wrong." He shrugged, and stuck out a hand. "I was only trying to protect Shoji, I would like to protect him from every bad thing that happens out there, but with my new responsibilities, I can't."

Yusuke took the offered hand, and held it. "I know, I've felt like that so many times it's almost second-nature to do it." Yusuke gazed down at Shoji, then back at his cousin. "Poor Shoji, he really is innocent to all of this, huh?"

Jonathon nodded ruefully, "Well, Hokkaido is a long way away from here, and it took me a while to get used to it too. Thankfully I met my friends, especially Jormei, who helped me to 'fit in'..." Yusuke smiled over the expression on Jonathon's face when he mentioned the name, and then sighed, looking at Koenma. "Will he be all right? I mean, they didn't do anything to him or..."

Koenma shook his head, "I checked him over, no physical or mental signs of tampering. It dosn't look like they had time to do anything other then knock him out." He blinked as the cellphone in his pocket began to ring, then he pulled it out and answered it. After listening for several minutes, Koenma held it out to Jonathon, "I think it's for you..."

Jonathon looked at him with a strange expression as he took it, then listened to it as well. "I got it, I'll be there as soon as I can..." He turned off the phone and gave it back to Koenma, then looked down at his cousin. "Please take care of him, I think I can trust you, since I now know who you guys are. But I'm not allowed to tell Shoji what I've become yet. I'll be back when I can, we have to take care of something..." He took out the crystal, and closed his eyes in concentration. There was a small brilliant flash of red light, which faded, leaving no trace of Jonathon. Yusuke glanced at Koenma with a wry grin, "Sheesh, I wish I could do that, but I don't think I want his job...", to which Koenma nodded.
*******

Shoji woke up again, some time later, this time he knew he was in his room, even with the lights off. He groaned softly, the earlier reaction had abated somewhat, though he still had a dull headache. "Shoji?" He heard someone say, and he winced, both because Yusuke had spoken a bit too loudly, and because of what he had been through before. He didn't answer, but he felt someone sit on the bed next to him. "Shh, shh..." a hand touched his forehead, as he whimpered slightly, his head still pounding. "It's ok, Shoji, you're safe now."

Shoji nodded slightly, and tried to whisper, since he didn't think he could make himself talk. It was a bit of an effort not to fall back asleep. "Who... she...?"

There was a bit of silence, as Shoji empathatically felt Yusuke trying to figure out what to tell him. He felt the bed shift as Yusuke instead went into the bathroom, then something cold touched his forehead. Shoji then heard the sound of a liquid being poured into a cup, and felt himself picked up as the cup touched his lips. "It's something for your headache," Yusuke said softly, then sighed. Shoji drank some of the liquid, it was somewhat sweet and listened as Yusuke started to speak.

"You know the girl you said you saw kissing me in a vision?" Yusuke asked, then continued without waiting for Shoji to reply. "That happened about eighty years ago, when I died the first time. She was -no, don't interupt and besides, you must rest anyway-" For Shoji was about to ask about what Yusuke meant by 'dying the first time'. He nodded slightly, the pain in his head starting to go away. "She was... Well, after I became what I am, I came back from the Makai, and married her. Her name was Keiko." Mercifully for Shoji, either the bracelet was reacting slightly to Yusuke's feelings, or he was very drained after the attack.

Yusuke went on. "We had a daughter, named Miyuki, and she is half-demon, taking many of her characteristics from me. You saw her tonight with me." Shoji's eyes went wide, but he couldn't say anything as Yusuke was still speaking. "Anyway... I was training our daughter one day in the Makai, when I got a message to come back to the Human world as soon as possible. It seemed that... a demon had come for me, he was mad... that I had killed one of his friends, was his lover, I found out later. I guess he didn't care that the Reikai had branded his lover a criminal for torturing and killing humans and lower demons for fun." Yusuke sighed. "Anyway, he decided, well, take one for one." Yusuke reached for, and held onto Shoji's hands, as warm tears started to fall on Shoji's chest.

Shoji remembered the last time he had felt Yusuke's tears on his chest, it had been his first night in Tokyo, and Yusuke was crying in his sleep about 'she wasn't supposed to have...' "The demon killed her, didn't he..." Shoji whispered, half in sympathy and headache pain.

Yusuke laid his head on Shoji's chest, tears still falling. "I... I argued with Koenma, why he didn't protect her... like I asked him to... He said something about 'a certain time', but I... I wasn't thinking rationally at the time... I handed Miyuki to Kurama and Hiei, asking them to take care of her and train her. I went after the demon... I wasn't supposed to, Koenma took a lot of punishment from his father for covering up for me again..." Yusuke sniffed, and Shoji placed his hand on Yusuke's hair, stroking it. "But I couldn't find him, he seemed to have gone underground or hiding in another dimension... I didn't kill any of his other friends, but I did bring them in since some were wanted for crimes anyway. I had lost some of the recklessness by then, so I didn't kill them outright. But sixty years have gone by, and I still havn't heard whether he came to ground or not yet. That's why, when I heard from Koenma about the attack on you, I thought that maybe he had..." Yusuke didn't finish, but Shoji nodded again.

Shoji blinked sleepily, it seemed like he had to make an effort not to fall asleep again, and pulled Yusuke to him. "I'm all right now... Please stay..." Shoji's eyes closed, and his head slipped down as he fell asleep. Yusuke smiled, and, pulling the covers around them, kissed Shoji before falling asleep himself.
***********

Koenma was very glad that he had insisted Yusuke turn the sound-proofing on in Shoji's bedroom, as several hours before dawn, Kurama and Hiei half-carried in a very drunk Kalerin. He was dressed very sexily, wearing a tight blue glittery shirt and glossy tight leather pants. Kurama seemed somewhat out of it himself, and Hiei just glared at both of them, though his cheeks were tinged with red also. Kurama and Kalerin were singing loudly as they entered, and it took Koenma several minutes just to hush them up and get each into their respective rooms. Before Hiei could go in with Kurama, Koenma pulled him aside and told him about the attack on Shoji. He also asked what the three had done that night.

"We went shopping." Hiei muttered darkly. "Then we went to a few places so that Kurama could acclumate Kalerin to the 'night life'. I don't think that Heero person ever let Kalerin try alcohol, though. One drink and he was like that..." Hiei shrugged towards Kalerin's door. "But you are saying that the demon that killed Keiko..."

Koenma nodded, "Yes, it certainly seems like he has finally appeared again, though how he found out that Yusuke had a new lover I'm not sure... He and I tried to keep his relationship with Shoji a secret, telling only you four and Miyuki." Koenma's eyes looked determined, but also had a hint of guilt. "This time I will push for a bounty permit on him... I couldn't last time, because as much as I hated doing it, I had to let the attack on Keiko happen. Sometimes I hate my job..."

Hiei grunted, "Well, I'm going to bed, since I had to haul both them in. Kurama I think will be ok, since he does this, but Kalerin...?"

Koenma smiled wryly, "Yes, I'll have something for him in the morning... Have a nice sleep, Hiei..." The door closed without him getting a response, and Koenma smiled. 'Kids...' he thought, shaking his head. He went to the computer, and starting to type a letter to his office in the Reikai, laying the groundwork for a warrant for Vincenze, wanted for numerous murders...

TBC