Long Way Down
By Kitsune

He grabbed the sack and pulled the strap over his head and shoulder, slinking off in the dark for the door. The youko stuck the lock pick between his teeth as he slid across the floor blending into the shadows, amazing for one as bright as the Silver.

He counted the steps to the heavy door in the back of his mind, dancing a little to the left as he remembered the map had pointed out all the weak floor stones that would trigger the drop traps with the slightest pressure.

His heel skirted over one of the weak stones and it crackled loudly as it broke from its molding and plummeted to the spiked chamber below. He breathed a curse in the darkness.

“Fuck…” I have got to get out of here before I am Youko-kebob, he thought with an irritated sigh that he clamped down on. Whose brilliant idea had it been to split up, anyway? He actually breathed his sigh this time as he recalled… oh, yeah. Mine.

The youko clung to the wall as he moved around the room, inching his way ever closer to the door and his escape. He hoped his partner was having better luck than he was.

*** *** ***

Black wings tucked tightly to his back, Kuronue slipped along the hallway.

We were supposed to meet back here… so where the hell is he? Did something… no, stop that! I’ll just scout ahead a little bit.

The chimera shifted the pack to his other shoulder; it was already heavier than anticipated what with the weight of the contents of that last chest. He swallowed a growl as the door ahead of him opened and a distinctly familiar head of long silver hair topped by pointed silver ears appeared, an annoyingly smug grin plastered on his face.

“Certainly took your damn time, didn’t you.”

He was rewarded by a soft chuckle as the youko’s cold nose nuzzled his cheek. “Yes, but wait until you see what I got.” The Silver grabbed his hand and they began moving back down the hall to their exit. Suddenly the youko jerked still.

“Kurama, what-“

“Shh!” The delicate furred ears canted forward, listening intently to the dark corridor ahead of them. “Damn… they’ve found the tunnel… we’ll have to get out some other way.”

“Oh shit! Where do we go now? You’re the one who studied the floor plans of this monstrosity.” Kuronue grumbled, once again hitching the satchel higher up on his shoulder, faintly annoyed by how it kept slipping.

“We go right. There’s another passage to the conservatory and we can get out through the overhead ventilation.”

Kuronue shook his head as he followed his partner. With as many jobs as they pulled together, and with as many as Kurama had done off on his own, he never ceased to be amazed at the damn fox’s memory. Every single location they’d ever hit was etched with crystal clarity in that mind, to be recalled at a moment’s notice. This was definitely that moment.

The youkai raced to the end of the hall and slipped into a darkened closet. Kuronue looked around with narrowed blue eyes and nearly shrieked as Kurama’s hand brushed across his lower back.

“Here? Are you out of your mind?!”

“Hush! You’re in the way!” Kurama’s voice was brushed steel but tinged with amusement. Granted they had made love in some strange places before, but never in the middle of a heist, it was just way too dangerous.

Kuronue forced himself to swallow the odd sensation of hurt that crept up in his chest. He knew the dangers involved in merely pulling off the robbery, never mind trying to have sex in a darkened closet, surrounded by guards and tripwires, and trying to keep quiet at the same time. They were both too vocal for that. He had to hide a blush, he was the louder of the pair of them, but he had coaxed some fascinating sounds out of his lover on occasion.

He turned his attention back to the matter at hand and the youko who was sliding one hand along the wall around the doorframe just about shoulder height. He was about to ask what he was looking for when he heard a muffled “A ha!”

Click.

A small doorway slid open behind him and he caught a knowing smirk in Kurama’s golden eyes. He rolled his own eyes skyward and was rewarded with two strong hands turning him around and pushing gently between his wings.

“Go, make a right at the first intersection. This hallway will bring us out in the conservatory.” Kurama smiled and palmed the trigger to the door, setting it to shut behind them.

Kuronue slithered his way along, feeling his way to the first branching of the passage and took the immediate right as instructed. Not ten minutes after entering the dark closet, Kuronue pushed up against a dead end and nearly cursed until Kurama’s arm slid over his shoulder and pressed one side in.

They tumbled out into the conservatory, the starlight filtering in through the glass wall across from the doorway. Kuronue turned his attention to the ceiling, helping to locate the ventilation grating.

“There, Kurama.” The Silver turned to follow his partner’s outstretched hand and grinned fiercely.

“Up and out we go, Kuronue.” He yanked the grating off its hinges and bowed regally to the dark chimera. “After you, of course.”

Kuronue laughed. Even if they had been surrounded by sword-wielding youkai and backed up against a sheer cliff wall, Kurama would have managed that same flippant, careless tone and manner.

He leapt for the narrow ventilation shaft and crawled inside, suppressing a sneeze at the years of dust that had accumulated within. He scrubbed his hand across his nose numerous times to stifle the threatening sneezes and felt Kurama behind him also trying hard to resist the urge to sneeze.

A welcoming breeze tingled across his face as they neared the other end of the shaft. He realized that he had forgotten to ask where this tunnel ended when he heard the pounding of surf just beyond the darkness. He stopped in his tracks as his fingers found the end of the shaft and then met with empty air.

Kuronue looked down and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. He scurried backwards and made it about a foot and a half before he rammed straight into Kurama.

“Oi! Watch it, Kuro!”

“Damn, Kurama. This is the one time your marvelous steel-trap memory has completely failed you. We can’t get out this way!” he turned in the midst of his rant and caught Kurama’s eyes narrowing.

“Why, have they blocked off the exit?”

“Blocked! No, more like they’ve unblocked it! We’re about twenty stories up and hanging out over the water!” Kuronue could have sworn he caught a flicker of a smile cross that pale face, and just when he was about to discount it as a trick of light and shadow, Kurama laughed.

“Of course we are, baka! That’s where this tunnel is supposed to go!”

“Are you out of your mind?! How are we going to-“ He never got to finish as Kurama lunged forward with a feral growl and one good hard shove that sent them both tumbling out of the passage.

Kuronue recovered from the split second panic that had gripped his insides and snapped his wings out, grimacing as he was jolted to nearly a complete stop, and started gliding down slowly.

A fierce rush of air beside him caught his attention and he caught sight of Kurama plummeting past him, rushing to meet the water’s surface at an alarming rate of speed.

“Oh shit! Kurama!” Kuronue tucked his wings in to his back and angled his decent. He couldn’t fly with the narrow wings, but he could glide and he could dive, which is what he did now, trying desperately to reach his friend, partner, and lover.

He cringed and had to look away as the quicksilver streamlined shape that was the youko sliced into the water.

Kuronue snapped out his wings again and made a hasty and messy landing as he practically slammed into the sand on the beachhead. His face took on a desperate cast as he stood and ran for the shoreline, splashing into the surf and wading in to his hips, searching frantically and calling out at the top of his lungs.

“KURAMA!”

They were well below the level of the castle they had burgled and the noise of the rushing water was loud enough to cover his screams from those above, but he fervently hoped and prayed that there was someone out here who could hear him. Someone who was tall, silver, playful, sexy, and infuriating.

“Damn you, Kurama, where are you!?” He clenched his fists. “Don’t you dare die, ahou! Don’t you dare!”

A sudden rush of water in his face made him scramble backwards, but two strong arms twined around his waist and a wet mass of silver hair streamed into his face. He screamed in surprise.

“Yaagh!”

Two decidedly amused golden eyes laughed at him from beneath a mop of wet bangs, and the furred silver ears drooped under the weight of being wet.

“Gotcha!”

Kuronue growled. “Kurama, you asshole!” He was furious and started to struggle out of the youko’s grip, but the silver fox demon wasn’t put off so easily. “You crazy son of a bitch! Let me go!”

Kurama pressed up against him as he managed to wriggle around in the encircling arms. “I’m sorry, Kuro. It was the only way out. I didn’t mean to push you.”

He sighed and ceased his fight. He knew that if Kurama didn’t want to let go he wasn’t going to let go and that was the end of that.

“That’s not it, dammit,” he clenched his teeth around another growl born of pure frustration.

“What is it, then?” The fox’s wet nose nuzzled at his ear and he felt a slight and gentle nip on his bare shoulder. “Kuro?”

“It’s you, all right?! It’s you! You scared the shit out of me back there! I thought you’d drowned!” He sighed and felt his anger slipping away. He tried his hardest to hold on to it. Tried to let it fuel his argument with the youko and warm that spot in his chest that had gone cold at the thought of Kurama swept out to sea by the currents or floating face down on the surface that had hit him harder than his jarring landing a few moments ago.

A soft huff of surprise blew by his ear.

“I’m sorry, Kuro. It’s just that…”

“It’s just that you never stop to think that someone might actually give a damn about you! That someone might miss you if you went off and did something stupid, like died!” Kuronue realized he’d been yelling and he sighed and went limp in Kurama’s arms.

“Kuronue… I-“

“Forget it. Just forget it. Let’s go home and check out our take, ok?” He began to move away when the strong arms that had been wrapped around his middle grabbed his arms and spun him around. He found his face clasped between two cold wet hands and a fierce kiss planted against his lips.

Kurama broke off his onslaught and rested his forehead against his lover’s chest. “I’m sorry, Kuro,” it was heavy and thick.

Kuronue caught a slight tremble in the strong body pressed against his and blinked rapidly in shock. He blew out all his pent breath in one great sigh and wrapped his arms around the silver youko.

“Let’s go home, Kurama. I’ll let you make it up to me properly.”

*OWARI*