CHAPTER 7
Catastrophe
It had been such an idyllic day. A Sunday, with no work to be done. Kurama had insisted they both get up early - not easy with a fire demon whose only sure conviction appeared to be that he had a right to sleep in as much as he liked, in direct and opposing proportion to Kurama's determination to get him out of bed. Kurama won in the end: a sly reference to the possibility of ice-cream, on the picnic in the country that he'd arranged, was enough to get the grumbling Hiei out of bed and into the shower. An offer to help wash Hiei's back did get a bar of wet soap thrown at him, but he was happy to treat the snarled "Kitsune no baka!" as a token of affection.
True, Hiei had grumbled all the way through the journey - the train was too crowded, why did they have to take a stupid bus as well as a stupid train, the bus was too slow - but this was just background noise to Kurama: he'd have missed it if it wasn't there.
The weather was perfect, the lovely wooded valley that he'd checked out so carefully the previous weekend stayed as lovely - and as secluded - as anyone could have wished, and Hiei brightened up as soon as he started unpacking the food. He became almost sunny when Kurama proved as good as his word, and produced, from out the packing of ice in the cold-box he'd borrowed off 'Kaasan, a tub of Hiei's favourite "sweet snow". He'd let him finish most of the tub. Anyone else who could put away ice cream at that rate would have ended up as round as a balloon, but Hiei's metabolism meant he could demolish anything edible put in front of him, without putting on a bit of weight. He'd let him finish off most of a bottle of sake as well, in the hope that it would put the little fire demon in the mood for a little open-air "amusement". He hadn't been disappointed.
They'd spent most of the afternoon kissing and cuddling - with several more energetic intervals - and on the return journey Hiei had just snuggled up against him and gone to sleep on his shoulder.
Moreover, when they'd got back home, the sleep seemed to have refreshed his lover as well as re-fired his passions, for he had first displayed an unusual degree of affection toward his lover, then insisted in dragging Kurama into the bedroom and repaying, measure for measure, all the demonstrations of passion that he'd received earlier that afternoon.
While Hiei showered (it was preferable to leaving things as they'd ended, because that would have guaranteed a big wet patch in the bed), Kurama wandered around the bedroom in a happy daze, picking up Hiei's discarded clothes, which as usual had been dropped on the floor wherever he'd taken them off. Even the fact that Hiei was completely incapable of even the most basic tidiness after two years living in their apartment, did nothing to dent Kurama's sunny mood. He'd always known what he was taking on by asking Hiei to live with him, and was fond of even the most antisocial of his lover's habits.
Remembering he hadn't emptied the cold box, Kurama drifted out to the kitchen. That was strange: he was sure he hadn't been given a chance to get out the three-quarters empty sake bottle, but there it stood on the counter...... no, he lifted out its twin and stood it alongside!
"You little.... demon!" he whispered. No wonder Hiei had been so keen for him to go and shower before they did anything else. True, he'd needed it. He'd been so blissfully happy, he hadn't been aware his hair had been full of bits of dead leaves and tree bark, until Hiei had pointed it out. What the people on the bus had thought, he'd rather not imagine.
He must have been less than ten minutes in the bathroom, eager to rejoin his lover: for Hiei to have filched the second bottle from where it had been stored and downed that much of it, in that time, suggested desperation rather than debauch. Poor Hiei! He never seemed to be able to take the lead, to start a seduction, unless he was three-parts drunk, Kurama thought, knowing from past experience how insecurity imprisoned the youkai's feelings. Tears pricked at his eyes for a moment. "We'll work it out, love, I promise you," he silently vowed to his lover and dearest friend.
Hiei emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in one of the enormous white bath towels that Kurama only bought because the little fire demon looked so cute smothered in them. Kurama was already in bed, and threw out his arms to draw Hiei in to him.
"Gods, yes, he is quite drunk," Kurama thought as Hiei stumbled a little before tumbling into the bed without any sign of his usual cat-footed sureness. He'd been so busy enjoying Hiei's sudden confidence he hadn't even noticed; or perhaps the drink hadn't had enough time then to reach its full effect.
His lover snuggled up against him with a little purr of contentment, and regarded him steadily from out of a pair of half-asleep ruby eyes. "That.... was nice."
"Sure was," Kurama said fondly, smiling down at him. "Happy?"
"Mmm." Then, "Got a question."
"Yes?"
"That thing you did with your finger...... who taught you that?" The technique in question had played a significant part in Hiei's enjoyment of the last stages of their lovemaking, and the fire demon was, as always, a little shocked by how skillfully Kurama could manipulate Hiei's body to provide them both with the maximum pleasure. He'd often wanted to ask just how Kurama learnt to be so good at it, and wondered which of his Makai lovers had taught him. If he had been less drunk, he would have only wondered for a moment, then forgotten it. But too much drink had made him single-minded and stubborn.
"Oh, that...." Kurama's memories of his visit to the doctor came tumbling back to him. "Nobody, really, well, not anyone you'd know. Not from the Makai, that is. And it was ages ago." Embarrassment tugged at his conscience as he recalled how sincerely he'd sworn never to tell anyone what had happened.
The meaning of his reply wasn't lost on Hiei.
"What, someone human taught you all that?! How come you never said you'd had a human lover before?"
Kurama wrongly interpreted the flare of emotion in his lover's eyes as jealousy.
"It was no-one who meant anything....no-one that I cared for.... it was only once.... I didn't see him again.... I'd forgotten him completely!" he said with obvious sincerity. Unfortunately, this was just salt in the wounds of a certain intoxicated fire demon, who was definitely not thinking clearly tonight. His biggest fear had always been that eventually the sweet, caring mask of Minamino Shuuichi would slip, and reveal behind it the cold-hearted youko who could love intensely one day, then walk away from his weeping lover the next, without a backward glance. Anger, fear and drink made Hiei suddenly very aggressive.
"Tell me who he was!!"
"I - I'm sorry. I promised him I'd never tell anyone.... promised it on my honor...." Kurama said shamefacedly.
"Oh, FINE!!!" With a clumsy push, Hiei wriggled out of the bed and leapt to his feet, glaring down at Kurama with a face full of unthinking rage. "So you'd rather keep a promise to someone you only met once an' don't care about, than trust me? Just FINE!! Knew your youko ways would win! When all this started, I thought it was gonna be fun... didn't realize I'd get to need you so much that it hurts! Oh, you care today, but tomorrow I'm gonna be another throw-out, because somethin' brighter an' shinier came along! Well, I'm not waitin' to be dumped - I'm goin' NOW!!"
With a snarl, he glared around the floor, and Kurama was sure that if his clothes had still been there, he would have grabbed them and been out of the window without stopping to dress.
Hiei glared at him murderously. A thin trickle of black smoke began to seep ominously through the overlappings of the bandage on his arm.
"WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES, FOX?!!" It wasn't quite a shout, but it was far louder than Hiei ever spoke to Kurama before, and there was no mistaking the anger and menace in his voice.
Kurama flung himself out of bed and across the room, wrapping his arms tightly around Hiei.
"Hiei, it isn't like that, I love you more than anything and anyone, and I always will!" he gabbled, panic-stricken.
"Then why won't you trust me with somethi' you say is unimp't... unm'pt... doesn't matter? Give me my clothes!"
"Because I gave my word of honor I'd never tell anyone. If I do, he'd lose his job, be taken to court, maybe end up in prison. And I'd have lost my honor.... How could anyone trust me if I did that?"
He could see the last point had struck home, for Hiei's concept of honor, although pretty elastic over things like property (that is, anything he wanted was his if he could steal it), was as strict as any warrior's code when it came to personal obligations. Things like that could matter to him if he stopped to think.... and he did.
"So how're you gonna prove to me what you're saying? How can I stay 'less I know you're telling the truth?!" It was less of a challenge than a plea for help, for the anger had gone out of his face, leaving a look of fear and insecurity that wrenched at Kurama's heart. He cast around despairingly in his mind for a solution.
In his mind....
"Hiei, you can read people's thoughts and feelings with your jagan! Why can't you read mine and see for yourself what happened? Then I wouldn't have broken my honor by telling you!"
Hiei's expression went worried.
"Can't do that, fox," he said, hesitantly. "I can read feelings, but get memories out in the right order?... I'd have to dig and push and kinda move everythin' round to get it.... could really hurt you."
"What about if I sit here and remember it all in the right order? Couldn't you just watch the memories replaying themselves?"
Hiei's face went a bit more worried. "Isn't that the same as tellin' me?"
"Hiei, wouldn't you stretch a promise until it twanged - without breaking it - for someone you loved?" Kurama wasn't giving up.
"Hn. All right. Still don' like it."
"Come on. I'll sit on the bed, here - you sit beside me."
Hiei settled himself beside Kurama, then hesitantly reached up and unbound the ward on his jagan.
"Kurama.... I never did anything like this.... I don't know it's safe...."
"If you go, I've got nothing to live for anyway. So let's do it. Ready?" Kurama sounded braver than he felt.
Then, the weirdest sensation, as if someone had physically put a hand into his skull and pushed his brain to one side. It made him suddenly nauseous, and he hoped he wasn't going to throw up.
"I'm ready." Hiei's voice seemed to come from a long way away. Kurama forced himself to start reliving That Incident.
For a moment, everything seemed to be okay. Then he heard what seemed like a grunt of pain beside him, and the sensation of being in control of what he was remembering disappeared in the blink of an eye. All of a sudden, it was like being strapped to the front of a rollercoaster travelling at the speed of light, as Hiei's jagan, fueled by a ki monstrously overstressed by anguish and drink, and quite beyond the fuddled demon's ability to control it, attempted to encompass all of Kurama's mind at once. Kurama felt as if his brain was boiling. The pain was unbelievable, and his conscious mind just shut down in self defence, but his body reacted without its direction - anything to get away from the hurting.
With a scream of agony, he hurled himself off the bed and out of Hiei's grip. The fire demon threw himself after him, but Kurama had already run full tilt into the wall as if it wasn't there, then flung himself equally violently into a collision with one of the closet doors. From there he lurched away, then suddenly leaped at the window. It was closed, and two floors up, and Hiei could see from his vacant, pain-filled expression that he had no idea what he was doing.
It took all Hiei's speed, in the eye-blink of a moment remaining, to catch up with Kurama, but even he couldn't stop him completely. He managed to hit him hard enough to knock him away from the window and spin him round, but Kurama was still moving so quickly that instead he collided with the wall, and the back of his head clipped the edge of the window opening with a sickening thud. For a moment he hung there, his face as empty as if the spirit had already left his body.
He slid slowly down the
wall, his scarlet hair smearing an equally scarlet swathe of blood behind it.
When he hit the floor, he keeled over sideways, falling with his brilliant emerald
eyes gazing sightlessly upwards.