We reach our safe-house after running only God knows how long, and I 
finally get a chance to 
stop and catch my breath.

"Kuronue..." he growls.

"Kura--" I start, interrupted as he grabs me and pulls me close to him, 
lips crushing mine.  He
kisses me hard; hard enough to leave bruises tomorrow.  "Ku--" I start 
again, but he cuts me 
off again, deepening the kiss.  

His hands are all over my body, pulling at my straps.  They're in a 
tangled mess, so he simply 
swears and rips them off.

"Kurama, you--" I try again for the final time.  It's obvious he won't 
let me get a word in 
edgewise.

"Shut up and let me fuck you, chimera," he hisses, golden eyes blazing.  
He throws me down onto
 the bed.  I start to unbuckle my belt, but he takes my hands and places 
them above my head.

"No," he orders, taking my lips in a kiss.  He releases my wrists and 
starts to divest me of my
 pants, throwing my over-skirt off to the side.  

When I am naked, he gives me a quick, possessive once-over, and looks me 
straight in the eye.  
He straddles me, taking my hands and interlacing our fingers.  He starts 
to rock, the silk of 
his outfit playing hell with my senses.

"Oh, God..." I groan, the only statement he has allowed me to finish.  
Then his mouth is on mine
again, and I try to kiss back in between moans, trying to match his 
frenzy.

"Kurama..." I moan, thrusting my hips against his.

"Yes..." he whispers, reaching down to grasp my hardness.  His fingers 
stroke me, and I'm forced
to close my eyes.

"Kurama..." His other hand is on my chest, his sharp nails running 
teasing tracks up and down, 
occasionally pinching and wrenching another moan from me.  "Kurama..."

Then his hands are gone.  My eyes open halfway, and through my 
lash-streaked vision I see him 
rear up and start to pull off his own clothes, pale white chest rippling 
with his every movement. 
In seconds he is completely naked, save his pendant, and he returns to 
his former position.  

"Kuronue," he says in a low whisper thick with lust, reaching down to 
pull off the loop holding
my hair in its ponytail.  He holds my head in his hands, kissing me with 
his teeth, nipping at 
my lips as he rotates his hips against mine, our two members rubbing 
against each other in a mad
dening friction.

"Kurama, Kurama, Kurama..." I moan, pressing my head back hard against 
the feather pillow.  His
lips and teeth follow me, refusing to leave me alone.  They travel down 
my neck, sucking 
desperately against the vein there.  He seems almost tempted to bite it, 
and I'm almost tempted
to scream at him to do so.

Almost as if he can hear my thoughts he does, his sharp vulpine teeth 
causing a shock of pain to
lance through me.  I moan loudly, the sensation driving me insane.

"Dammit, Kurama, do it!  Stop playing!"  The words are mangled from my 
throat, as every couple 
seconds another moan is pulled from my lips.

"Playing?" he asks, biting my earlobe.

"Do it!" I cry, not caring that I'm unprepared.

And he does, forcing himself into me.  I scream with pain, but the sheer 
raw carnality of the 
joining drives home the pleasure.  "Kurama, Kurama, Kurama," I repeat 
over and over, screaming 
and moaning and begging and pleading all at once.  My fingernails dig 
into his back as he thrust
s short and fast, hard and violent and exactly the way I love it.

With a feral scream he climaxes in me, burying himself even deeper 
inside.  He bites my neck, 
clutching onto me as he thrusts the final times.

It is more than enough to push me over the edge.  Sobbing his name 
helplessly, I cling to him 
tightly as my own seed splatters onto our stomachs, caught in the 
complete upheaval of my world.


I lie still, trying to catch my breath.  His head is resting on the 
crook of my shoulder, and 
his rough panting blows hot air over my sensitized skin.  His arms 
embrace me powerfully, but in
 no way threatening.

A sound very much like a sob comes from him.  "Kurama?" I ask, opening 
my eyes.

I feel him start to tremble, start to shake. He inhales sharply, and 
refuses to look up at me. 
"Kurama," I try again, more aware this time.

He starts to weep.

Kurama, crying?  The last time I ever saw him crying was over two 
hundred years ago, when he 
achieved his last tail.  But those were different, sacrificial tears, 
almost.  This is...

"I thought you were going to *die!*" he cries, arms squeezing around me.  
"I honestly thought 
you were going to die and I would see you die and I'd be alone again!  
Why did you go back for 
it, you idiot?"

I close my eyes, arms wrapping round him.  "You dropped it, and you had 
wanted the Scroll for so
 long..." I said, swallowing thickly.

I guess I *had* come pretty damn close to dying today.  We had broken 
into Sorenji's treasure-
vault, looking especially for the Ai Shi Sei En scroll that Kurama'd 
been eyeing for the last 
couple years.  We had broken in and found the scroll no problem, but 
when we tried to take 
anything else... 

The alarms had started wailing and a trap of poison-tipped darts was 
sprung.  We had managed to
dodge them all unscathed, but the nearing sound of a hundred footsteps 
was driving us to 
desperation.

Then Kurama had dropped the thing right when we were in the center 
hallway, in the middle of the
cursed swinging scythes.  Right when the archers let their arrows fly.

I was able to grab the scroll, but didn't sense the archers amidst the 
youki-manipulating 
scythes.  I had been too busy trying futilely to divert the scythes to 
my will to notice them 
until I had heard the dark whistling of the arrows.

I had frozen like a murderer caught in the sweeplights at one of the 
three tokai.  At the last 
possible moment, I had whipped out a scythe and parried most of them, 
only barely nicking my 
fingertips.

Now, thinking back, I can hear Kurama screaming.

"You think I'd have you risk your life for that?!  A stupid enchanted 
roll of parchment?  
Kuronue, you're my partner, my lover, my friend, and Inari-sama knows 
what else!" he says, tears
dripping down onto my already-sweaty chest.  "Kuronue, if you died..."

I run a hand through his mussed silver hair.  "Kurama, I didn't 
realize..."

"I love you, you know.  I love you and whenever you get so close, 
because of me... I think a 
little bit of me dies as well.  You mean everything to me, Kuronue, and 
have for a long, long 
time," he whispers, still not meeting my gaze.

My voice catches in my throat.  That's the last thing I've ever expected 
to hear from anyone, 
much less the most feared and respected youko thief in the entire Makai.  
Proclaimed to be a 
heartless son-of-a-bitch and of a race known for their fleeting 
affection.

"Do you really?" I ask, my voice husky and raw.

He looks up, holding my gaze with his aureate irises.  "I love you," he 
says quietly.  "I think
I realised it the day after breaking into Gurou's place.  Do you 
remember that?  We just found a
bunch of musty books that we sold later because they were boring as 
hell...  But after, the next
morning when I woke up and saw you still asleep, I..." Kurama trails 
off.  "It had been raining
that morning.  We were both soaking wet, and I was thinking how much you 
looked like a 
kurodoubutsu that someone had dunked in the well a dozen times, with 
your hair loose and 
plastered all over your neck and face..."  

He smiles slightly.  "I was thinking something like, 'I bet I'm the only 
one who gets to see him
like this' and then I thought, 'I guess that's why I love him,' and I 
knew it was true.  There
wasn't any big moment of revelation, just it finally hitting conscious 
thought, I suppose.

"It was different then the sharp feeling of jealousy I'd get if I saw 
you smile at someone more
attractive than me, or the feeling of sated contentment after we'd 
finished having sex, or the 
thrill of completing a heist with a skilled partner.  It was different 
than how I felt after 
confiding my past to you, the only person I've ever told about my 
mother, or being trusted in 
return.

"But whatever it was, I knew that I loved you." he finishes.  "I love 
you."

"Oh," I whisper.

He rests his head back on my chest, lips brushing against my neck.  His 
eyes are closed, his 
breathing slow and steady.

"Kurama, we stole those books over a hundred years ago," I say quietly.

"I know," he says, matching my tone.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask.

"Because I didn't want you to reject me.  Because I loved, needed what 
we had.  Because I 
wouldn't be able to stand it if you left me," he says.

"How did you know I didn't return you feelings?"

"I knew," he says.

"I didn't know," I say.

"Blind..." he whispers.

"Yes."

He is silent.

"Kurama. I--" I start, but he shakes his head.

"Wait till tomorrow."

"Kurama--" I try again.

"Please."

I sigh, and kiss him gently.  "We're both blind."

"Are we?" he asks.

"Yes.  A couple of blind fools," I say.  "Kurama?"

"Yes?"

"Open your eyes."

He does, and I lean in to kiss him lightly, openmouthed.  I let my 
tongue tease his lips, and he
returns the gesture.  We remain in eye contact, the feeling strangely 
penetrating.

"I want to spend my life with you," I say.

"Do you?" he says in a wondering tone.

"Yes," I affirm.  "I have for a long time."

He closes his eyes, then opens them again.  "I never though I'd hear you 
say that."

"I'm sorry," I say.

"Why?" he asks.

"For making you doubt."

He reaches behind his neck, and unfastens his pendant.  He looks as it 
for several seconds, at 
the dark, ebony chain, the blood-stained crystal.  He takes my hand, and 
places it in my palm.

"Kurama--" I start.

"I want you to have it," he says quietly.

I open my palm.  "Then fasten it for me."

He takes the pendant and places it around my neck, the gem cool on my 
heated chest.  He closes 
the clasp, and his gaze flickers down to where it rises and falls with 
my breathing.

"Looks better on you, anyway."  He smiles slightly.

I wrap my arms around him, and pull him close.  "I love you."

He kisses me lightly. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" I ask.

"For doubting."

*OWARI*