I Cry On No One's Shoulder
by Arisa

Chapter Eight: Fairy Tails Merge with Reality

Shuuichi's heart was crying bloody tears as he kept on trying to distinguish fantasy from reality. It was so hard, as if they had merged right under his nose, and without a ripple in time.

Time. Time itself was racing at an anguishing pace, as each second progressed, the world warped as vials were lifting from Shuuichi's eyes, the very mists that had kept him safe all of his life, were revealing the dreadful truth. All the deception and lies that were told since the clock of creation had started ticking, were removing their cloaks that they wore to cast a shadow over themselves.

‘Sailieve, eva.’ A deep female voice sang out inside of Shuuichi's mind as he held his head in his hands, weeping tears of agony.

"Shuuichi? Shuuichi? Are you okay?" Yusuke asked, stepping forward, but Kurama put out his arm to stop him, "Go to Makai, and ask a roadside peddler for the nearest place from where you can get the pollen of forgetfulness. Get it as quickly as you can, and as much as you can. I will try to keep him in here, but please, be quick."

"What about Hiei? Do you want Hiei's help?" Yusuke asked as Kurama lowered his arm.

"If you can find him on your way, yes. But if you can not, that is fine."

"Come on, let’s get going, Kuwabara," Yusuke stated hurriedly as he took quick steps to the door.

"Wait."

Yusuke turned around with a fearful glint in his eye as he made a few seconds of eye contact with Shuuichi, "Y-Yes?"

Kuwabara's right hand started to twitch as Shuuichi said. "You never answered my question."

Shiori was humming a light tune as she walked up the stairs to see what her son and his friends were doing.

As she turned the corner, Yusuke and Kuwabara were heading in the opposite direction, and rather quickly. "Is there something wrong?" Shiori asked.

"Nothing too serious. You see… We forgot something at our houses, so we have to go to our homes really quickly, and we will be back soon," Kuwabara stated.

"Oh, okay. See you boys soon then," Shiori said and turned around and walked back down the stairs with Kuwabara and Yusuke behind her.

"I am sorry, Shuuichi, but… Many things are flooding my mind right now. I am sorry I even said such a thing… But… Something just does not feel normal about you."

"Don’t be sorry for what you are not truly sorry for," was the only thing that Kurama could reply to safely.

"Hm," Shuuichi said and closed his eyes tightly, trying not to let the tears of confusion seep out and streak down his face.

Kurama walked over to Shuuichi's bed and sat down. "Don’t worry, everything will turn out fine," he said gently.

Shuuichi opened his eyes and looked up at his stepbrother through the tears that blurred his vision. "But I don’t know what is real anymore," he stated and softly yawned.

Kurama smiled softly. "Believe in your heart, for your brain perceives images and hearing, but the heart is blind, for it has no eyes nor ears, only feelings." Kurama's eyes detected a flicker of movement from his stepbrother's open door, but paid it no mind.

"If what you are saying is true, that means-" Shuuichi's voice cut off as he was knocked unconscious.

"Looks like I came in time."

"Hiei! Why did you do that?"

"Lying is truly an art, but should not be used at certain times."

Kurama's eyebrow arched a little, then he looked at his currently unconscious brother who was slumped on Kurama's shoulder. "How hard did you hit him?"

"Not that hard."

"Hmm… Where were you when Yusuke and Kuwabara located you?"

"I was in Southern Makai."

Kurama nodded and gently repositioned Shuuichi on his bed and inspected the place where Hiei had hit him. "Looks like he will be unconscious for about two hours."

"Hn."

"Why don’t you stay up here with him so I can go downstairs for a minute?"

Hiei nodded his head about an inch, walked over to a far corner, and sat down as Kurama left the room.

‘It is nice and warm here, I never want to leave,’ Shuuichi said inside of his dream.

He was on a spotless beach, with crystal blue waves lapping up onto the sandy shore. Shuuichi walked a few steps into the clear waters of the ocean and looked up into the flawless blue sky at the seagulls that were dancing among the clouds.

A warm breeze ruffled his hair playfully as he walked back onto the shoreline, the sand sticking to his wet feet as he walked along the shore. Shuuichi looked at the lush jungle that bordered the beach. He pondered about venturing in, to see what secrets it withheld. He decided against it, and kept on walking, for he saw a pile of boulders in the distance.

Shuuichi walked over to the large black boulders, and climbed up them. It hurt his hands and feet just a little bit, but he really did not care, because the view was well rewarding, the waves crashing rhythmically into the boulders, the sun high up in the sky, casting its warm rays through the fluffy white clouds that dotted the sky with their humble happiness.

Here, Shuuichi did not feel pain, nor sorrow. He could breath easier, and his eyes were full of life. He was back to normal; he did not have the IV in his arm, or any sign of it previously being there.

A white feather danced down from the sky, as if it was lost from an angel’s wing. He grabbed it out of the air, and turned it over in his hand, wondering where it came from.

Shuuichi tilted his head up, looking for any sign in the sky, as from where the feather came from. He did not find anything out of the ordinary, so he looked back out over the vast ocean. The water that was spraying up onto him was warm, so he set down the feather on the rock, watching that it did not get blown away as he took off his shirt, then to lay it on top of the angelic-like feather.

Shuuichi climbed down from the boulders, and walked a couple of feet so he would not get swept into them by the currents. He then waded slowly into the clear, salty water, looking down at the sandy bottom to see if there were any fish.

When he was almost waist deep in the water, he sat down on the bottom, watching waves out in the distant waters of the ocean. Soon, small fish came up to him to see who the alien in their waters was. The light that flowed through the water reflected off of their small scales.

Shuuichi could not help but laugh as one of the fishes' tail made contact with his bare waist. Other fish were gathering, as the rest were leaving, content with their search.

After thirty minutes, Shuuichi stood up in the water, and walked out with his kaki shorts sticking to his skin in every movement he made. He looked down at them, and shrugged, nothing could be done about them; they would just have to dry.

He looked at the boulders where he had left his shirt, with the feather underneath it. His eyes widened with surprise as his mind told him that they were not real. It was a person, with wings!

The thing in the distance that Shuuichi had seen looked up from where she was sitting, with her knees pulled to her chest. She stood up, her long brown hair falling onto her back and light pink dress falling down to her ankles as she jumped off of the boulders, with Shuuichi's shirt and feather in her grasp as Shuuichi stood in his tracks, dumbfounded.

She walked up to him, a kind, warm smile on her flawless face and handed him his white t-shirt only. "I seemed to have lost this feather, thank you for finding it. I came to you in this dream, a figment of your imagination, so I would not scare you in my true form. Goodbye, Shuuichi, and I shall see you once again." With a beat of her great wings, she flew off with her light pink dress dancing about her ankles.

‘What did she mean?’ he thought, and then said out load, "That means that this is not real!" And then he cried out from the unbearable pain that came from the realization that he did not want to acknowledge.

"I too have come from an image in your imagination," a deep male voice proclaimed from behind him. "I am here to comfort you in your limited time in your personal sanctuary."

Shuuichi's head turned around to see who the person was. His eyes widened with surprise as his jaw gaped, "You… You are the person from the stories my stepbrother tells me!"

The kitsune closed his eyes and lightly chuckled from amusement, "That I am."

"He should be awake by now…" Kurama said worriedly.

"Uh… What happened?" Kuwabara asked from the doorway.

"It is about time you got here." Hiei said coldly to Kuwabara.

Yusuke tiredly covered Kuwabara's mouth with his hand. "Would you please shut up?!" he asked annoyed.

"Hiei knocked him unconscious. Shuuichi should have come back to by now…"

"I wonder if he can hear us…?" Kuwabara wondered out load.

"I don’t believe so, from the look on his face, and his heartbeat, I would say it is near to impossible."

"Oh."

"Did you locate the flower easily?" Kurama asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Not really, but we did manage to find it… Now if I can only find it…" Yusuke answered and started to rummage around in his pockets, and soon a sweat drop appeared on his head.

"What did you do with it, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked.

"Don’t you have it?"

"Not that I can remember… I thought I gave it to you before we were chased…"

"You two fools lost it!?" Hiei yelled.

"Not so loud, Hiei." Kurama asked. "In your back pocket, Kuwabara?"

"Hm? I but I gave it to Urameshi…"

"No, you did not. It is in your back left pocket."

Kuwabara reached into the pocket, and there it was, the tiny maroon flower, that looked like a star, but with the points rounded off.

"… Genius, Kuwabara, genius." Yusuke commented.

Kurama walked over to where Kuwabara was standing, dumbfounded, looking at the small flower. "May I please have it?" Kurama asked.

"How did you know that?" Kuwabara asked.

"I can sense it," Kurama answered simply.

"But I don’t want to leave! I am in no pain, I can take full breaths, and I don’t have an IV constantly in my arm!" Shuuichi complained.

"You can no longer run from what you are destined to fulfill in your life, no matter how short it is to be," the silver-haired kitsune said coldly.

"Can I at least ask you one question?"

The kitsune nodded his head.

"What is real, and what is fantasy?"

The kitsune was silent for a few moments, thinking on how to phrase his answer. "The human imagination is as vast as the universe, and humans do not know where it stops yet, nor what is out there. The meaning of reality is in the eyes of the beholder, but the meaning of fantasy is in the mind that controls the eye," the kitsune answered and then turned around and started back into the jungle from where he came from.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Shuuichi called.

"Home, and where you should be going," he answered as his white robes billowed in the breeze. "You have people there that worry about you constantly, and love you with all their heart. While I am feared and loathed, and never experienced pure love. Regain conscious, young Shuuichi."