VIII. kitsune in a flower shop

"We should bring him to the hospital." Said Omi, concern in his voice. Hiei just said "Hn" and blurred with his burden even before Omi was quite finished speaking.

"Don't worry about Kurama, Hiei's brought him to our resident healer to be tended. It wasn't a dangerous wound or we'd have seen him go youko." Yuusuke moved to assure the other team before they did anything foolish like trying to take him and Kuwabara out to find out where Kurama was taken by Hiei.

Ken went to Sakura since everyone else seems to be preoccupied with Kurama. She didn't look to be injured at all. He checked and there seems to be miraculously no injuries. Thank whatever gods that be. He told everyone and Ran breathed easier for it. There, whatever you say, you were worried more about him than you were about her, Aya-kun you are lying to yourself if you say you haven't accepted Shuuichi-Kurama as your brother.

What happened next was almost anticlimactic. A car suddenly came from no where swerved into their group. Everyone barely managed to get out of the way. The door opened and Sakura was levitated into the car as it took off again. Schwartz!

"When will we be able to see if he's all right." Ran asked, concern evident in his voice. Despite his ambivalent feelings towards Shuuichi, he was his little brother after all and he was really worried. Not to mention the thought of leaving him with Hiei wasn't exactly sitting well with him especially after what happened tonight.

Be fair, Ran what happened tonight was probably an accident…but even so, Hiei should have been more careful.

"Does this happen often?"

"No, Kurama and Hiei is our best team."

Even so, I don't like it. What about the other time with the demon called Sohliel?

"Where are they?" A death-glare accompanied that statement to which both Reikai Tantei was oblivious. They have had too much of that from Hiei as it was.

"We really can't tell you." Yuusuke said and he and Kuwabara lit out of the airport before Ran had a chance to grab them and shake some answers from them. Fighting demons gave you speed for times when you really need it like now. After all, Yuusuke didn't want Hiei on his back for endangering Yukina and Kuwabara didn't want his Yukina-chan endangered either.

" Well have to report to Kritiker to do." Ran said reining in his temper.

***

Kurama woke up in his own futon to a concerned fire demon.

"Fox, are you all right, now?"

"I think so. Thank you for bringing me to Yukina." Kurama smiled at Hiei. The smile was the special one he usually gave the fire demon.

"No need, it was all my fault." Self-condemnation was in his voice. Kurama wouldn't have been hurt in the first place if he hadn't interfered. And yet here he was, sitting beside the Fox and being smiled upon as if nothing of that sort had happened. Guilt made him stand up to go but Kurama made a sound that made him look back questioning.

"No it wasn't, it was an accident. I won't have you blaming yourself for something you aren't responsible for."

"But…"

"No buts, you don't deserve the blame."

"But…"

Kurama couldn't think of anything else to do to shut Hiei up so he gave him a teasing kiss.

Hiei found Kurama's sweet mouth on his and was quick to take advantage of it. It was just like the ones in his dreams though much better for being real. He clumsily put in his tongue instinctively wanting to taste the youko. If Kurama was surprised by Hiei's reaction it was eclipsed by the surprise he felt at his own reaction. He slid his arms around his friend and kissed him back with a thoroughness that showed at least a thousand years experience.

Suddenly, his door had opened and standing there was his oniisan. Ran's jaw was hanging down so low, Kurama feared that it would hit the floor.

"Ran-'niichan, how good of you to visit." Kurama said extricating himself from Hiei's embrace.

"Hn. Bad timing."

"What were you doing with K—Shuuichi?"

"Hn."

"Shuuichi, are you a willing party in this?" Death-glare at Hiei who glared back.

"H-Hai."

"I disapprove of it! It’s bad enough that you're associating with him…"

"Hn." Hiei said with a smirk. You're a fine one to judge.

The tone was so obvious that even Ran caught it.

"'Niichan, he has point, you're so much alike you know…" Kurama stopped short of snapping, he had about enough of Ran ordering his life about. He doesn't accept me, why…

"I didn't even want you to be associating with me in the first place."

The pain radiated in Ran's voice stopped whatever else Kurama was about to say. Kurama rose despite still being weak from his injury and blood loss and hugged Ran before the latter could avoid him. Anger forgotten, he was tentatively trying to soothe the pain that was in his oniisan's voice not sure if he was welcome but trying to nonetheless. Ran allowed himself to be soothed, accepting the comfort that he felt in his little brother's care and realized only then that he did accept him. That he had forgiven Kurama for his deception and what else he might have done before he had know him, it just took his brain sometime to catch up with his heart. No matter what he did in the past this was Shuuichi-kun, someone who had loved him these months and willing to accept and love him still after learning of his past. This was genuine, spontaneous—real.

And Kurama accepted me why shouldn't I accept him. Come to think of it I might be worse than Kurama, all things considering. Sh--Kurama did those things for survival in a world that seemed so radically different from this one. He had done it to survive and not knowing any better but he did what he did fully cognizant of his actions and there were alternatives, none the least of them was to move on and forget. I know better…

Shuuichi—no—Kurama had an awful past, yes, but then his childhood was hell. With a little love, he turned out one of the most unspoiled people Ran'd ever known. Ran finally let go of the guilt he had been harboring, no matter what Kurama did before, no matter what he had done and he had done to the soul that should have been born in his place, Ran couldn't fault him. Ran couldn't imagine anyone else as his little brother. He felt a hatred for those slavers and all those kitsune who had hurt him, if any of them were around now Ran would have run them through with his katana! A sentiment that was futile judging from the way that demon moved. His arms tightened around Kurama anyway.

Kurama looked up into Ran's eyes, seeing the fierce protectiveness in them decided to snuggle even closer.

"'Niichan…"

"Little fox, Kurama-chan, do you really like him? I mean really like him in that way? Truth now." Ran pushed Kurama away a bit to see his otouto's face and assess his answer.

Kurama smiled at the endearment and thought about lying to reassure both Hiei and Ran but something in Ran's eyes made him hesitate. Kurama looked at Hiei apologetically.

Hiei braised himself to hear the worst, closing his eyes he had known the risk of caring and accepted that the Fox may not feel the same no matter how it hurt. The next words however surprised both Ran and him.

"I don't know yet. We never have had the chance to talk about it. But we have been best of friends since I was nine. He was the only one who knew of my youkai heritage. He …understands my position in the Makai. I don't have anyone else I have been able to trust as completely as I did him. I think I might love him in time."

"Hn."

"Hn."

"I can't expect you to like it 'niichan, you think of Hiei as a cold-blooded killer but he is more as you are. Both of you care for others more than you would admit, others beyond family though you act as if you don't."

"Hn."

"I know you still don't like it, 'niichan, but could you trust me at least?" Pleaded Kurama.

"Hn." A deeper one this time that of resignation. That was all Ran could do, he was never good at denying his imouto anything within reason and it seemed now that he couldn't do it either with his otouto.

"Thanks, Ran-'niichan." Giving Ran a second hug. "You won't be disappointed I swear."

"No sleeping with him till you're completely sure though! If possible when you're 'married'."

"Hai." Kurama begins to wear a sweat-drop as Ran started to run down his guidelines for dating with an emphasis on the fact that both Kurama and Hiei were teammates.

"No hanky-panky during missions…"

"Hai." The sweat-drop got bigger and bigger at each additional rule. Kurama nearly fainted when Ran insisted on going each and every rule with Hiei, convinced that there was going to be bloodshed. To Kurama's relief, Hiei seemed to be either stunned or so rapt that he didn't utter a word but "hn" in Ran's entire recital.

Oh dear, it looks like Hiei's going to get the same treatment he dishes out to Kuwa-kun. Thought Kurama half in amusement and half in alarm as Ran gave Hiei a suspicious look for his silence.

"Which one of your teammates do you think is more tolerant of homosexuality do you think?"

"Nani!" Both of them exclaimed.

"You heard me right."

"Yuusuke, probably, though that might be pushing it. Why, 'niichan?"

"I thought so. Because I can't be with you all the time, especially on missions, I'm going to ask him to be your chaperone."

Both Hiei and Kurama fell over in astonishment.

That's, that's so archaic and I'm suppose to be the antique around here. Kurama fought down the desire to giggle or protest that he was no delicate lady to need such precautions. Knowing that Ran was quite serious and had his best interests in mind quelled both impulses. Then Kurama remembered something and nothing was quite as funny as before.

"Ah, 'niichan I have something to tell you…"

"Hn."

"It's about our youkai ancestry…" Kurama spent the rest of the afternoon explaining about the vagaries of youkai inheritance amongst humans with youkai ancestry starting with Yuusuke's case. "…Yuusuke's youkai inheritance manifested after he had died twice…"

Hiei had stopped listening to the words he knew about all of this already. He could have left but he enjoyed the sound of the Fox's voice besides he lazily eyed Ran, gauging the latter's reaction.

"In our family's case the genetic key is for possession, permanent possession, our ancestor was a youkai criminal as decreed by the Reikai for his crimes against countless innocents. Bolshai had anticipated his capture and readied for a way to escape via possessing and destroying one descendant…" Kurama went on to explain the mechanics of the rite and so they picked Aya-neechan. Since she isn't so well connected to her body at the moment it might be easier for them."

Ran's expression swung from cautious belief to horror.

"I—I should volunteer, they would let Aya-chan..."

"No, 'niichan. That's no option…only one descendant would have been ‘chosen’ from what we know of these things."

Hiei barred all escape by standing between the window and the door. The Fox would never forgive him for letting Ran go out with this kind of resolve to sacrifice his very self.

"Besides, they wouldn't take you anyway, 'niichan, they already have the perfect sacrifice… 'niichan, please don't."

"Hn."

It took Kurama a good two hours to convince Ran not to take such a rash course of action and he got it reluctantly.

"We'll rescue her together 'niichan don't worry we will."

"Hn."

Ran left the Minamino residence with renewed resolve to save his sister no matter what from the cult that had her. There was so much more at stake now than ever before.

***

Weiß had managed to rescue Aya-chan with the inside help of the still missing Sakura. Ran had been more than adamant that they not tell the Urameshi Team about it since he didn't want the little fox up and about so soon after being injured. They had been lucky that that demon "Sohliel" didn't show up. But then, they had got there when Schwartz had moved on to another hideout so maybe that wasn't luck.

The initial operation was secret but they weren't able to keep it a secret for long. A few hours after they've rescued his sister, his brother and the rest of the Urameshi team was at their doorstep. They had waited for the shop to close but that was all.

"We're here to help, 'niichan." Kurama said with his normal cheerfulness.

"Yes, I, Kazuma Kuwabara, is always willing to help protect a damsel in dis…"

"Itai! You're embarrassing us." Yuusuke said, whopping Kuwabara on the head hard to shut him up.

"Hn, Baka."

"So how are we going to defend Aya-chan, Ran-'niichan?"

***

Kurama sat back comfortably against the counter reaching with his ki to the plant life around him. They took shifts to guard Aya-chan with the Weiß. One of the Urameshi team was always with her in the mornings and afternoons when the Weiß had to mind shop. There was no point giving the Schwartz an opportunity to snatch her again even if evidence indicated that they operated only at night.

The flower shop was a most welcoming place to Kurama. Almost as good as a garden with all the verdant ki available and what he could do with it. Twist it; play around with it using his will. The place fairly hummed with power. In places like this was where he felt his power the best, his tails—all six of them—would have been wagging in delight at the power. A row of his favorite plants, roses, lined the closed shop and he worked his ki into them with a half-mischievous intent. No one was going to take his sister away from him as long as he can defend her. The attack didn't come on that night or the night after that.

***

Another night of guard dog--no fox--duty, Kurama sighed. This was getting them no where. They should be out assassinating the Estet trio or trying to find their whereabouts then Aya-chan would be completely safe. Or trying to wake her up. With all that has happened, they deemed it imprudent for Hiei to try and maybe get into trouble in a fight. That was Kurama's argument he had no intention of endangering Hiei for someone who might no be roused anyway. Ran-niichan argued but couldn't fault the reasoning. It did help that he pouted one or two times. Ran seemed to find his pouts as adorable as Hiei did. He stretched his youki again to the plants as he had the past hour. He had to be ready if the attack occurred tonight.

A sudden crash came from the front of the shop. Kurama risked looking up over the counter to see that an explosion of some sort had breached the front of the shop. Schwartz was pouring through the gap. There were only two of them and Sohliel. The rest must be with Ran-niichan's group. Kurama activated the roses in the front of the shop to lash at the newcomers.

Crawford and Schuldich was being protected by Sohliel, the vines weren't doing much damage but it did keep the sneaky demon from doing anything. Hopefully keeping the demon from doing anything. Both Ken-kun and Omi-kun could probably cope with the rest if they should discover that Aya-chan wasn't in the upstairs bedroom.

They had warded the shop from detection of ki but that didn't mean that the canny Sohliel wouldn't have figured out what they were going to do. As of the time they haven't figured out what that one's power was. He was too wily to do anything more than make paltry illusions that a class B demon could create. He must be old yet he left no records to identify him by, a good indication of intelligence. As Kurama knew, he himself didn't have a record despite his many conquests. They didn't even have a reputation to go by. Most good demons trip themselves up with their tongue since boasts have a way of circulating in the Makai. But that wasn't a failing of this demon either, no one has heard of anyone named "Sohliel" ever before in the Makai. Maybe it wasn't his real name, maybe it was assumed but they didn't have the time to look.

Somehow, they didn't count on the combination of both ki power and ningen weapons. Kurama was busy sending his ki into the surrounding plants and relied on his companions for detecting other threats. The cut flowers in the arrangements were particularly hard to manipulate more so than their living relatives since each variety had to infused with enough ki and no more. When Kurama realized that both Omi and Ken were both out of commission it was far too late. He was starting to feel fuzzy and was barely managed to clamp on the gas mask assigned to him. Being only partly human the sleeping gas took a longer time to affect him than it did the others but it did have an effect. Groggily, he tried to protect his compatriots and Aya-chan but his reactions were becoming quite slow.

Damned where were Hiei, Ran-niichan and Youji-niisan?

At this thought, one of the "missing" members of Schwartz came in from the back part of the shop, Naoe-kun. Did the gas disable everyone in the top floors? But Hiei couldn't have been affected, unless this gas originated from the Makai.

He saw Aya-chan lifted from the floor and sail out of the window. He was having a hard time, as it was to protect himself from the Schwartz.

"Don't worry, Shuuichi-kun, we'll take good care of the ningen girl."

"Should we take him too?" Crawford made a gesture at Kurama.

"No, that's no tame fox. We'll have a hard time keeping him without drugs. Leave him be."

"Fox?" A nasal voice asked. Ah that was Schuldich… that was the last thing Kurama heard before succumbing to the darkness.

***

"Hmmm. Where?" Kurama awakened to a room that was not his. It was utterly neat, Spartan even. Almost nothing about personality touched the room except for the color of the bed covers they were blue plaid in diamond pattern, austere.

"You're in your oniisan's room." Hiei said as he came in.

"What happened…?"

"That night Sohliel muffled the struggle downstairs and caused a few illusions that everything was all right, the Schwartz came up to fight us or so we thought. We were about to kill them when they were able to escape from the window or so we thought. We chased the berserker but he disappeared. Then we went in the shop to find you and the other two Weiß members unconscious from ningen sleeping gas. What happened to you?"

"How about Omi-kun and Ken-kun?"

"Still knocked out."

"I think I'd better explain when 'niichan and the others are here." Kurama said sitting up shakily.

"What's for breakfast?"

"Kitsune udon." Ran said coming into the room with a tray scowling suspiciously at Hiei as he did so. The tray had three bowls on it.

"Yum." Kurama said while Hiei made a face. The latter didn't like fried tofu and had often wondered what Kurama saw in it. Seeing his prospective mate making a face at one of his favorite foods made Kurama smile, he wondered what did Hiei like besides sweet snow and if the fire demon also disliked Inarizushi…

***

"There was an explosion. Then the Foreseer and the Telepath came in with Sohliel. I had my plants attack them. They seem surprised and overwhelmed by the plants except for Sohliel at that point I noticed that both Omi-kun and Ken-kun were unconscious and I was groggy. I managed to get the mask on but it was too late. Then nothing." Kurama said to the entire Weiß team and Hiei. Yuusuke was talking to Botan and Kuwabara was at school and couldn't be reached at the moment so they had to make do.

"We didn't even had that much warning." Omi said chagrined at how fast the gas had rendered him unconscious without a fight.

"Ch, they used our wards against us. We couldn't sense what was real and what were shadows because of them." Hiei said in a disgruntled tone.

"At least we know a little about Sohliel now than we did before…" Kurama said frowning a little at the way they had been fooled. They should have known better.

"What?" Ran asked somewhat annoyed at all this chatter. They should be combing the city for signs of Schwartz and Aya-chan not babbling about last night.

"He's an illusion master." Hiei and Kurama said simultaneously, the latter grinning a little at the way their thoughts had coincided.

"Well and good but that doesn't get us Aya-chan…"

"Don't worry we'll find and rescue her Ran-niichan. We will." Kurama gave Ran a big hug as he said these words not showing any bit of his doubt and frustration. Kuso, we have been blocked again…

~TBC~
 

Kurama on Inarizushi and Kitsune Udon

Kurama: But foxes don't eat rice balls or toufu and noodles!

Silrayn *heaps a fair portion of both in Kurama's plate*: I know that Kurama-kun and so do most people but it does make a good story doesn't it?

Kurama *looks at the steak on Silrayn's plate*:  It's not FAIR!

Silrayn: Now, now, Kurama-kun, be a good fox and eat your food...

*Kurama pops into kitsune form grabs the steak with his mouth and runs away with it.*

*Silrayn sits there with a sweatdrop for awhile.* ^__^()

Silrayn:  Oh well, I guess he deserves it anyway for working so hard in this fic...^__~ Review this Fic...