Adult-FanFiction.org : YuYu Hakusho

Stepfather
By : Artemick
Category: Yuyu Hakusho > Yaoi - Male/Male
Views: 7320 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I make no money. I own no YYH.
Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Hiei was far in front of the group when he hit the plains. He circled the perimeter. Nothing. He ran over the collapsed building and the two remaining. Clearly Kurama’s work. There were swathes of odd plants and organic debris. Some blood – not Kurama’s.
“What happened?” Botan demanded, first of the rest of the soggy footed group.
Hiei shrugged. “I’m not a tracker.”
“Guess,” Genkai ordered.
“There was a fight. They’re both alive. Now they’re elsewhere.”
Yuusuke pushed forward. “Whoa! Are you saying Kurama lost?”
Hiei grinned. Wouldn’t that be something? “No. Kurama did not lose.”
“How do you know?”
Hiei simpered. “Because the thought is absurd.”
“He may have been overwhelmed,” Genkai said. “There could be countless other psychics, foot soldiers like that doctor.”
“That could be anyone.”
“Judging from Kurama’s experience, our enemies are probably people we've had contact with. Their boss recruited them specifically to challenge individuals on this team.”
“Yeah right,” Yuusuke waved a hand, sticking his tongue out.
“You don’t think you have enemies?” Botan chided, hands on her hips.
“I just don’t know that many people.”
"The murderer has a point,” Hiei agreed.
“Lay off! The doc didn’t die!"
“You two,” Genkai addressed the other psychics. “You knew Urameshi?”
The human delinquents shrugged at each other and stuck their hands in their pockets. Yana said, “Sure, but we wouldn’t have recognized him. We just heard there was a couple of badasses over there.”
“I didn’t hear much of anything, but then, it wasn’t my turf.” Kida looked professionally contrite.
“That’s understandable,” Kaito said. “The only one of you of any consequence was Minamino.”
“I always thought of him as a bit anti-social,” Botan admitted.
Kaito shoved his glasses up. “Minamino is well known in scientific and academic circles. He’s presented at several regional conferences in the last semester. He's been fairly visible.”
“But Kurama is charming! Who could hate him -” Botan said, lifting her hands to weigh. “- Who also had psychic abilities?”
Kaito put up his hand. “Still do.”
“Anyway,” Genkai growled. “Let’s get back. It’s possible Kurama and Kuwabara went home. If they won they'd have no reason to wait - or to meet us at the hospital. God, we need better coordination. Dog bells would work.”
There was a jingle. It was electronic birdsong. Hiei was there immediately. He plucked the contraption out of the grass. “Hm.”
Botan took it. A small cheap token clicked against the plastic, plated and enameled: a leaf.
“Uh, that’s from Keiko,” Urameshi volunteered.
“Why’s her phone here?”
“Kurama’s phone,” he said. “She gave it to him after…the last time.”
There was a silence.
“Answer it,” Genkai ordered, turning. “Make up some good lies. The last thing Kurama’d want is for his mother to worry he's playing Bond girl to some world destroying madman.”

I woke up, strained and aching to the bone. I twitched, trying to scratch my face. I couldn't lift my arm.
My wrists were roped down. I clenched my fists on wood. I was upright, in a chair. There were white papers all over me, tight to my skin with sap paste.
“Good morning.” He kissed my forehead. I knew him. His voice. Him.
I seethed, rolling all my muscle against the chair and rope. They were not strong enough to hold me – but somehow -
“See the pretty writing?” Itou’s hand pressed down a loose corner of a white paper “Spells. Isn’t that unreal? These things actually work.”
“Of course they work,” I growled, my voice coming out hollow. “They’re wards. Tradition lingers for good reason.”
“Well, if I’d have known it was this easy, that I wouldn’t have cursed the whole house,” he said, walking behind me. His fingers traced up my arm. “I’d have just met you at the bus stop with a baseball bat.”
His fingers crossed up my shoulder. I leaned away, exposing my neck. When he took the bait, stroking the skin over my pulse, I bit down on his thumb.
He shrieked. I felt bone crack and still did not let go.
Smart enough not to tear away, Itou grabbed something, something metal, and struck me in the back of the head. I let go, gasping.
He cursed. I grinned, bloody mouthed. He struck me again.
My vision blacked out.
“You little shit.” He was in front of me, hands like vices on my wrists. “I’m going to make this so bad for you, you’ll wish – “
I focused. I spat the blood into his face. Each drop cut like a razor.
He howled, falling back, and I shouted at him, “What? What will I wish for, Itou?”
“That’s why I told you to gag him.” Someone with huge hands pulled my head back, covering my eyes, and jammed cloth into my mouth. He used both hands to tie it in.
My sight prickled back to his face, upside down, and I could see it was the man from the video. He was beautiful, Indian skinned, with a dark bindi. His hair was slicked back and it made him look bald as a serpent.
He jerked the knot tight, causing me to shut my eyes, flinching. “I haven’t warded him for blood magic yet. Stay away from his teeth.”
“My eyes,” Itou moaned.
“Can you see?” The man leaned over. “There you go. Won’t be winning any beauty contests soon, but soon there won’t be any to win.”
He chuckled, patting Itou’s back. I evaluated him. He was gigantic. If he had wanted to, he could have easily shattered my skull with that gag.
He turned and smiled at me.
I felt absolute cold.
He was sharing an intimate thought, a look that said, Do you see what I’ve had to deal with? What I’ve had to work with? So hard to find intelligent help.
The boy he’d just comforted was being manipulated.
He knew I was smart enough to see that. Intelligent enough to know what that meant: to be afraid.
“Takasune-kun,” he said. “I told you to kill him, and here he is again, looking awfully alive.”
Itou stood. I had not injured him, though the facial cuts were simply spouting red. He held his hands out like a bowl, catching the blood off his chin. “You have your uke. Someone to take your frustration out on. I wanted one for myself.”
The man grunted. “Do not discuss anything in front of this enemy.”
“You’ve got your boy toy, Seaman’s got a bully to torture, Snipe’s off to make the detective dance, and the baby’s set up with his games. Don’t I get someone to film? All I’m asking for here is the exact thing I was promised,” he raised his voice.
I counted them in my head. The tall man, his uke, Taka, Seaman holding some civilian – maybe Kuwabara, Snipe, and the baby. Six thugs. There should be seven.
The man looked at me and shook his head. “It won’t do you any good to listen.”
I looked around. Caves. I was right. We were deep, too. No light, barely any air current.
I was chilled; my jacket was a heap of torn fabric on the floor. My tshirt was ripped and there was a sigil painted over my chest. They had been too concerned with tying me down and warding me helpless to undress me first.
I was flattered.

“You didn’t see this message?” Genkai demanded, holding her hand to the screen. “You are dumber than the gum holding my teeth in. He recorded it for you to see!”
Yuusuke shrugged helplessly. “Give us a break! We didn’t watch that far. Once we got the rapist’s face, we stopped watching. It wasn’t a blockbuster; we weren’t analyzing it for Oscars.”
“You should have at least looked for the evidence,” Koenma said.
“It went to static! Who adds teaser onto the ends of things after the black goes to static?” Yuusuke protested. "It's like the thing was made by a fucking film student to busy pulling his dick to jump cut."
“Who is it?” Genkai barked at the prince.
Koenma turned his pacifier inside his mouth. “Unfortunately, that is the former Spirit Detective, Sensui. Botan is retrieving his file. I’ll brief you once she gets here. But I can tell you now: no amount of preparation will be too much for this fight. And we had better hope that the rest of our team is alive if we hope to finish with the world intact, because we will need everyone.”

The bindi-marked man grabbed a fistful of my hair, though I wasn’t resisting. I searched his face. It frightened me more each time I saw it. He let me see the expressions of disgust and condescension he hid from his recruits.
“Time to talk,” he said. He rubbed his thumb over the cloth and it ripped, parting as if his finger were a blade. He fished the pieces out of my lips.
I closed my mouth. It felt so good to relax my jaw.
“I know what you are.”
There was no way he recognized me as the fox. He was outrageously human, and he couldn’t have heard it from my one slip at the Tournament: after Urameshi’s battle, no one who survived the Tournament would have felt my little tricks were notable enough for rumor.
“You’re one of the detective’s boys.”
I laughed. “That isn’t a secret. Everyone in the Makai knows. But you’re not of the Makai, are you?”
“Hm.” He leaned down, fingers climbing up my cheeks. He stroked his hands around my head until they were in place to snap my neck. I noticed, my eyes stretching wide, and he tensed.
“No, please – “ I begged.
He landed a kiss on my hair and let go with a laugh. “I’ll be back in the demon world soon enough.”
He disappeared and returned. “Here’s your medicine. No more blades of blood, princess.”
I opened my mouth, obedient.
He put the pill between two fingers and, grabbing my hair again, shoved them deep into my throat.
His nails scratched me. I gagged, trying to cry out.
“There, there,” he backed off.
I hung my head forward, looking piteously at him, mouth tight shut. My throat bled and swelled.
He nodded and walked away.
I was holding the pill in my throat. I heaved, bringing it back up. I spat it forward into my lap and let it fall between my thighs.
The man returned, holding a bondage gag. It was simple, with an obscene ring of plastic.
I looked between that in his face. “No – please. I’ll do it. You don’t need to use that – I’ll do it anyway.”
“Good to know.” He dragged the chair aside, examining the floor. “You know, good boys swallow."
"Alright," I agreed.
"Their pills, I mean. This is for the pill, if you don’t swallow it now.”
“I did,” I insisted.
He stuck his fingers into my mouth, checking my teeth.
I was shocked: he tasted of the Makai, like the space between dimensions.
“What are you so afraid of, if you did swallow it?” he asked.
“You…are getting close to the other side, aren’t you?”
He held my head by the still and groped under my legs. “Quite close. Look at that.”
His finger pinched around the pill.
I looked down. “I'm sorry.”
“How do you want it?”
I opened my mouth.
He smiled and jammed it down over my tongue, breaking the skin at the corner of my mouth. I swallowed at his release; he watched me until it would have dissolved. It tasted like fire, the second time. I opened my mouth when he took my chin, letting him examine under my tongue.
“You know, child,” he said. “I like demons. Very much. A friend of mine says that you are a fox.”
So he knew. I shook my head. The pill's ward inside me was like an ulcer. I felt ill. “Not anymore.”
“Fascinating.” The man stroked the inside of my thigh through my uniform.
I watched. “Did you…tell Itou Takasune to rape me?”
“I don’t care what they do. Humans…they’ll take whatever opportunity they’re given, won’t they? Like weakness is an invitation. They’re dogs.”
I am not weak, I wanted to tell myself, but my arms were tied and I wanted to sob. I was exhausted. “Is my teammate dead?”
“Did you know he was a psychic?”
I shut my eyes. Fuck. Like delivering weapons grade uranium to a terrorist group. I scoffed. “He’s just an idiot Urameshi likes. A mascot.”
“So you did know, liar.” He pet my hair and chucked under my chin. “We plugged him into the drill. Powerful kid.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“Why the drill, the breach? Be serious. Answer me.” I sneered, “You can’t possibly have anyone around who can understand you.”
“You say that because you assume I’m insane, and that the reason is complex! But it’s simple. I want to make the world a better place. A more honest place. Demons aren’t the evil; we are. I'm giving you a homeland."
His offer was so honest, so generous and beautiful, that my heart ached for a moment, thinking: Here is a man who will do anything to make me happy. But I blinked and recoiled. "I have a home. Sir. I have a family here. A human family."
"You choose a poor country, immigrant. I’ll show you the tape.”
“I've seen the tape – wait. The tape? Chapter Black? You have it?”
The man nodded. He pulled up a chair and drew it forward. His knees pressed in on mine. “You see, I used to work for that side, with the little prince. Until I realized, Why? I’m simply siding with the apes over the wolves because I happen to be a primate. That doesn’t make it fair, just racist. And when you think about it…” HHe rubbed my thigh, moving closer until he was whispering, his cheek to mine. “Demons just follow their instincts. They’re hunting. It’s natural…while humans…only humans are cruel. We could eat fruit and vegetables, and live harmless lives. We don’t. We could live for pleasure - ”
His tongue plunged into my ear. I winced away, ducking down into my hunched shoulders. He chuckled. "We live for pain."
He grabbed my groin, twisting. I cried out. "And power. Beg me."
“I have lived over a thousand years in the Makai,” I growled, panting to catch my breath, sick at the pain. “And I've never heard such moronic theory, even from nationalists. I assure, we’re not wolves; wolves are social. Wolves are pack animals like humans. Demons are…it’s a different culture. That’s all. Don't idealize us.”
“That’s it? Coming from the little academic. The little researcher’s gone to ground…too much time spent fucking the natives.”
I stared him down. “Comparing the Nigenkai to the Makai is like comparing Tokyo to the worst favelas of Rio."
"Tell me."
"The Makai is ruled by force,” I said slowly, marking each word. “A fallen and languishing society following the rule of the most violent. That's the practical fallout from your freedom, your anarchy: rule by force. At least in the human world sociopathy is a freak exception, not basic requirement for survival. There's order here. There's peace."
“No! That’s where you’re wrong. No. I have at least lived in this world longer than you,” he tapped under my chin. “And I assure you, under the façade of law lurks every sentiment of the Makai.”
“I have never seen someone cut so many times they turned to liquid as a punishment for stealing except in the Makai.”
“Have you seen someone impaled on growing bamboo? Dogs shot before children? Children shot before parents? Institutionalized rape against women? Genocide enforced with machetes?” He leaned into my face. “Think about what happened to you. Would that have happened in the Makai?”
I looked down. “Easily. But I knew to defend myself there – “
“Exactly!” His breath hit my face. He was so excited he was nearly in my lap, hunched over and huge like a great black dragon. “The demons are honest. The façade isn’t. Why protect the liars? Aren’t they worse for the lie? Pretending they’re morally superior, like – a rapist who idolizes his fetish, his victim?”
He drew a finger over my lips. “What do you think, demon? I pity you. I remember them torturing you, a long time ago. The SDF. Rape. It’s truly hideous. The disrespect, the annihilation of personhood it implies in the victim. You toy. You rag.”
My lip curled.
“When they caught you, it was news. It was a joke how they were refusing to turn you in, how the last living member of the thieves, their fabled leader, was the centerpiece in their celebrations. How King Yama said they earned some fun. I’m just saying…I pity what happened to you. If you wanted to get even – “
I wanted to.
As I examined the strangeness of that, how suddenly and truly I wanted to switch sides, to get what the darkness and pain in my wanted, the justice I deserved, I understood.
He was recruiting me.
“I do,” I breathed, like an ingénue.
“Oh what’s next, that I’m right too?” He slapped my cheek and stood.
I sighed sharply, shutting my eyes.
He dragged the chair away. “Hah! You’re just as fun as Taka said. Wily.”
I hissed, “Perhaps you’re right. Humans have a capacity for cruelty that I truly do not understand. Yet I have interest in only one murder. Not billions."
“I’ll send him in, once he gets back.”
I choked. “Wait.”
He looked back. He showed me the face he showed his recruits. He looked nearly like Yuusuke, warm gentle eyes. He was beautifully tan.
“Don’t bait me,” I licked my lips. “Let’s speak simply. What would I have to give you to keep Takasune-san away from me?”
He chuckled. “You’ve got nothing I want. Nothing I couldn’t take anyway.” He wiped the medicinal dust and my sweat and spit off onto his black jeans. “Itou-kun! All yours.”
“No, please!”
Seaman, the sweet blond boy came in taking off his hood. “Hi sir. What are you doing?”
“Ah, neutralizing the hostile,” the tall man said. “You brought dinner?”
“I did. But Nightmare left. He wanted to get some supplies, he said.”
I grimaced. Seaman may be too innocent to understand that, but I was not.
“Why is he crying?”
The man gave a charming laugh. “He’s happy to see you.” And he left.
“Hey. Minamino.”
I looked up, gloss-eyed. My voice cracked. “I’m not crying."
Seaman knelt down. He looked like a kitten. Kuwabara would like him, I thought, and I coughed to back off the verge of tears, smiling. “Excuse me. I’m not crying. I’m just afraid."
Seaman took the man’s chair. “Bought some take-out. Good stuff.”
“No point in budgeting, I suppose.”
“Right,” Seaman chuckled. He heaved a sigh. “I’m going to be so relieved when this is over.”
“You won’t be anything but dead.”
“No. I’m going to go to a corner of another world where there’s nothing, and I can just…be. None of this." He gestured at my bonds.
“Why can't you stop this now? Before they torture me?”
His oceanic eyes chilled. “What, and let you bullies take over?”
“What?"
"You. Your gang."
I coughed, choking on a laugh. “Yes. I’m obviously a testosterone pumped meathead.”
“You hang out with them enough. You friend didn’t stop yelling till they gagged him.”
“Oh Inari, he’s alive?” I stared, and began weeping again. I shut my eyes, ducking under my bangs. “Thank Her mercy…I’m sorry…I’m…” I shook my head, gasping. “Um…would you please wipe my face? I'm so sorry. It’s disgusting.”
“Sure.” Like a schoolboy, he pulled out a white kerchief. He patted my eyes and nose.
“I’m sorry – thank you.” I shook my head, floored by the relief. “Kuwabara. I just - his sister and I are friends. Not that I wouldn’t save him anyway, he is a teammate - and also a friend. But… to have to say that I killed him…it would have been terrible. He means everything to her. They have no mother.”
“You didn’t kill him. Why would you say that?”
“You don’t understand, I told him to go in the building – alone. I thought he could handle it. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I was confessing like a Catholic. But the boy was so sensitive, his own eyes reddening as he heard the pain in my voice. He was pure, and at his touch, his look, I felt unburdened.
“It won’t matter in a few days.”
“My mother – “I remembered. “Oh no. Inari, no. Where’s my phone – please, please let me talk to her?”
“I can’t – “
“You’ll kill her – my mother! Let me talk to her!”
The boy’s brow pinched high. “I…I’m sorry. No calls, not by me or anyone. No contact. Security.”
“I’ll lie. You don’t think I’ll tell her this? That her child was raped, made insane, tortured – that the world is ending in hours? She thinks I'm at a conference. I just want to tell her I’m safe and I love her. I always lie,” I begged him. “Please. Please, I beg you.”
The boy hesitated. Then he put the boxes of warm food on the chair. “Where is it?”
“The phone? It's in my jacket.”
He stared at me.
“It’s white. It has a green charm on it. It's right in my jacket pocket right where I'm looking."
The boy stomped out. “Sensui!”

I heard the fight from around the corner of the entrance.
“Because they have GPS chips in them! They can find it and know where he was taken.”

“There’s already a building down. They know where he was taken; two of them escaped. Take the energy you spent worrying and activate the GPS. Then send Sniper.”

Somewhere near, a flock of birds flew up, disturbed by the engine, explosions, and shouting:
“I’m telling Greenpeace about this!”

I grinned, getting mushroom sauce down my chin. I swallowed and muttered, “Sorry.”
“I got it,” Seaman turned the chopsticks in his hand and wiped it with his thumb.
“My savior,” I teased.
He grinned, sucking it off, eyes low. “Another bite?”
“Water?”
As the blond offered me the straw, I heard a groan from the corner. “Look at those lips pucker. Mm!”
Being totally human was like being totally blind. With the wards on, I could not sense anyone’s approach; my hearing and smell were dull; my memories were uninstructive. I slipped my lips off the straw, rolling them inward, pinched white. I cowered, trying to be still.
“What do you say, pet? Welcome back?”
My eyelids twitched narrow in distaste, but I muttered, “Welcome back.” I would not provoke him.

"Itou-sama," he prompted.
I was still until he stomped toward me and I flinched, croaking, "Itou-sama. Itou-sama. Welcome back."
"That's right." He clapped his hands together, rubbing them. “Seaman, my man. What are you doing with my prize boy?”
Seaman put the glass down. “I went ahead and fed him. Didn’t know how late you’d be out.”
“Aw. Let’s hope he’s still hungry.”
“I’m full,” I said.
“I brought honey.” He reached into the cloth sack at his feet, pulled each item out and put it square between my bound legs. “Chocolate syrup. Sake. The classic.” The classic was canned whipped cream.
Seaman made a face. "What are you feeding him?"
Takasune beamed at me. My brows drew together hard.
"I'm feeding him me. Ha."
I began to cry, just to sob. My face turned hot, aching. I pulled every bit of my body away from him. I could barely move and my muscles began to shake at the strain.
"What do you mean?" Seaman asked.
“Help me!" I cried out at him.
Seaman met my eye for an instant and looked down, afraid. Coward.
“Help me, please!" I shouted.
“No, you can't,” Itou ordered. “I talked to Sensui; it’s fine. Get lost.”
Itou shook the can and placed it with the others. The cold began to seep from the metal can into my skin. “And it's not all sugar. I have sashimi for nataimori. Well, I suppose that’s more my dinner than yours. But it'll make for gorgeous photos, these reds and whites laying against your skin. Flesh and flesh.”
I shivered, trying to stop, trying to control myself. He put a hand on my, hushing me. I breathed deep and let it go.
Seaman lingered in the door.
I kept my face turned from them both. “Takasune-san. I wish we had met in other circumstances. Perhaps it wouldn’t have come to this. I do not want this – any of this, to happen to me. Please. This isn’t -”
He lurched close to my face. “This isn’t about you.”
“I know. I know. But Takasune-san, this demeans us both - ”
He stroked my throat and placed his hand tight on it, with intent, but no pressure. “Say thank you, Minamino. Say thank you for the nice presents.”
I mumbled the repetition.
The thwap of cardboard startled me; I looked up to see the blond boy closing up the left overs. I lurched forward, bowing desperately. “Seaman. Thank you for the company. It was good to talk to someone."
The blond nodded.
I said, looking at his back and far too quiet to hear, “Oh please come back…”
Then he was gone.
I looked back. Itou stared at me, so intimate and yet still a stranger.
“Your hands are shaking.” Itou covered them.
I wanted to throw up on him, but I hadn’t eaten enough.
He pulled the coat off my shoulders. “Who did this?”
“The coat?”
“Yes, the coat.” He slapped the back of my head.
“The tall man.”
“Liar.” He looked at it. “Seaman, huh? You love him.”
“No."
"Looks like it. You scraping to keep him in here."
No, he was simply k-kind.”
Itou, or Nightmare, turned the coat over in his hands. He leaned over his knees and looked up into my face. Time seemed to stretch, until I remembered nothing but the chill air and his lonely voice. “Let’s play a game. You like games.”
“I f-fucking hate games,” I hid behind my clenched eyes. I was trembling all over. I couldn't control it.
“What did you first tell me on the phone?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You were so flirtatious. You know, I tried to call you. Send you texts.”
I checked the strength of the ties on my arms, squirming.
“Hm. You know what I don’t remember? The feel of your ass clenching down. I had to hurry, I didn’t really get a full ride. I mean look at you – the way you were leaping around up in the fields? Running like a scared hare. You’re fit to fuck. You’re a marathon event.” He patted his groceries. “That’s what I’m planning for.”
I stared down, blinking. “This…you’re trying to get even?”
He chuckled. “For what?”
“Seaman said that he joined to get even. He goes and beats up gangs like the ones that hurt him. How did I hurt you?”
He stared, then threw back the chair and stalked by me.
I froze. That was the last thing I meant for him to feel. Rage.
“How did you hurt me. How. You don't even know. You don't know – “
I swallowed. “I - but - I'm asking."
“You did, that’s the thing, you did. But you wouldn’t even know. It’s just that…people like you, you take everything. You just…take everything. There’s no room in the world for runners up. Just you. No one wants to hear about anything about anyone but the best.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not the best.”
Itou sneered. “As if you’d be this humble and accommodating if I let you go. What was that you yelled at me?”
Something I regret now, I assumed.
He lunged forward and bit under my neck – truly bit, severing through the skin like a rat. I gasped.
He pulled back. “I came for your neck! That’s what you said. You want my neck?”
I could feel the skin bruising, without my powers to heal.
“I can’t hear you. You want it?”
I said nothing. Didn't look at him. But he clapped his hand on my jaw and I said, "No. No sir."
“That’s what I thought.” He pushed back my face, holding it, and kissed me on the mouth. “That’s what I thought, pretty bitch.”
I jerked my head down.
He sat. We were quiet for a minute. Then I felt anger welling up. Indignation. I looked up at him. I shook my head.
“I don’t deserve this…” Maybe I did; I’d been awful. But not to him. “Not from you.”
“No no. Time to take it.” He shook a bottle at me and tossed the bag away. “Every fucking bit.”
I looked. Lubricant.
“Thank you,” I said.
“What?”
“For using that.” I shut my eyes, knocking tears down my face.
He cut me loose. Of course, I was nothing to him, no threat. As he’d said, he could take a baseball bat to me and there’d be nothing left, just a few gummy red hairs.
I rubbed the rope marks on my arms. I shoved the food onto the floor, canisters clattering off the stone, and I pulled my knees together.
“Up you go.” He pulled me up by my shoulders.
I grabbed his arms. My feet were all pins and needles. “I’m going to fall.”
“Trust me.”
I couldn’t make my legs bend right. He pulled me up and brought me to the space behind me. There was a table there that I hadn’t seen, a worn wooden picnic table. It looked like it’d been stolen from the park. He sat me on the bench.
“Get up on it.”
I looked behind me. It looked high; I was tired.
“Get up on it.”
“I don’t think I can, Itou.”
“We can do this two ways.”
“Wait – “
“By your will, or in my territory.”
I twisted around, reaching across the table, grasping the other side. I pulled, flipping onto my stomach, then dragging my chest onto the table. It scraped, but it wasn’t painful. I rolled onto the table, staring up into a blinding bare bulb in a steel fixture. It looked like a construction site find, stolen, like the table. I pulled my legs up.
Takasune leapt up beside me, grinning. He swung to get his balance, then dropped a knee on either side of my hips.
Smiling, he reached out and spread my hair out. He fanned and smoothed it across the table. Then he pulled the strands of my bangs down over my brows and chewed out a word: “Ready?”
A bubble of senseless electricity rose in me, nervous impulse, fear. With an instinct like jerking away from a live spider, I scrambled suddenly onto my stomach and grabbed the end on the table, trying to pull away.
“Hey!” He grabbed my hair, jumping further down.
I curled into a ball. My thighs hit his leg. I drove my fists to my forehead, protecting my face.
“Hold still!”
“Come on...please. Let me be. The world is ending and you want to spend the last days committing such an offensive sin?”
“The best way to go,” he laughed, smoothing my hair hard to my skull. He hissed in my ear, “Balls deep in you.”
I flattened my hands over my eyes.
“Mm, Minamino. You do that again, you’re going back to my convenient instant asylum.”
“Maybe,” I muttered. “That’s for the best.”
He shook my head back and forth. "Naw. You don't mean that. I'll put the nightmare on you. I will. You want to go back in the doll box?"
"Anywhere but with you."
Takasune sat back. He banged my head on the table and let go. “Fine. Your wish is my command.”
He rubbed his fingertips to his thumbs.
A wave of cold rushed over me.
Then heat.

My body felt loose, slippery, well in hand. It was happy; I could feel the origins of it wherever his hands or gaze touched me, in compact concentrated possession. I looked at him. The man who cared for me, who brought me toys, brought sashimi, wanted to play. He was handsome. He held me tight. Wanted only me; adored me; followed me and fought to have me.
No, part of my mind wailed.
This must be it, I thought. But in the fear, in the realm of real fear, I was not afraid; I was in love. I liked it. I wanted it. Growing attached.
I smiled, tilting my chin up, baring my neck to him.
I could see it, this second time through. Parts of my splintered mind caught the after images of the fear, or the real face of my tormentor.
He grabbed my arms, as if he would shake me, but he lifted me up. I laughed, my head rolling lax as a doll.
“What are you doing, pet?”
I lifted my head and grinned at him. “Hold me down.”
Itou laughed. Then he threw his weight forward, slamming me down on my shoulders.
It hurt, ached. My head cracked against the wood. It was hard enough that my vision spotted over. The blindness excited me.
“You like that?”
I breathed into the pain.
“Hurt me.”
His brown eyes crossed over my face, uncomprehending.
“I need it,” I breathed. “Without…I can’t. It…has to be you.”
Itou let go of my wrist. He brought his hand down my face, his fingers trembling. He drew his knuckle over my lips.
“Do it,” I begged, beginning to panic. “Do it to me.” I wrapped my legs around him, lifting my groin to his. My voice grew resonant, without inhibition, tonal, beautiful. I lifted my face to his and kissed him, kissed him holding my lips up, like Michaelangelo painting on his back. I said, “It has to be you. Hold me down – tighter.”
He did not know what to do.
Fear coursed through me. “Do what you want. Make me do what you want!”
“You want me to?”
I throbbed, squeezing his body between my thighs. I was sweating, hysterical. I panted, “Please just – just – fix me back. How I was.”
“What?”
“Before you touched me. Just screw me, fix it!” I screamed.
He scoffed. “Whoa, Shuichi.”
“Just do it!” I snarled. “Fill me, fill me, I came to you, didn’t I?”
Itou struck me; my teeth were too close to his face. I went with the blow, throwing myself with it. My hair fell over my face.
“Minamino-san. What…is this?”
I pulled my hair off my face and sat up. It felt so good – peaceful.
“Again. Harder.”
Itou covered my mouth, slamming my head backwards. Tears squeezed out of my eyes, but it was good.
“Shut up,” he ordered. “Stop talking. I'm taking this off. I'm taking this off right now."
The territory relaxed. The room swung back. Everything came back stark and clear down to his acrid aftershave.
I threw him off, kicking and tearing with my fingernails.
“Whoa, whoa.” He backed away. “Mood swing.”
“That was wrong.” I pulled my shirt to my chest, trying to cover myself. “That was wrong.”
He rubbed a hand down his body, stunned. He was slick with sweat and his eyes were open and white as porcelain. He looked like a drenched on a carnival ride, surprised at the thrill and horror of the fun. “Was that your fear?”
I shook my head, not more than a tremble.
“What was it? What did you do?”
“I…made it safe.” I said.
The image training had worked. The fact that I came up with such a fear horrified me. My horror fed the fear, made it solid. Genuine. Takasune’s magic was not so deep, so permeating that it could sift through a human’s entire mind – the consciousness of a human was like the shifting sands on a wasteland, or the tiered dense jungle of the rainforest. There was no simplicity, no ‘worst fear’ – just a threshold of adrenaline near the top.
“You didn’t seem afraid.”
“No one fears being afraid.”
“You don’t like sex.”
“Rape is not sex!”
“That wasn’t rape.”
“Yes, it was.”
“You like rape."
I shuddered. “No, I – “
After the nightmares, the unwanted erotic flashbacks, I knew what my fear was. That I would like it, seek it, want it. Love it. That it had changed me. That he had changed me.
“That’s your fear,” he asked, his voice pitching high with amusement. “You'd enjoy being raped?”
“No.”
“Aren’t fears supposed to have a grain of truth in them?” He laughed, ducking to see into my face. “Some…basis? Did I break you?"
"Fuck you."
"Did I make you my doll? Did you like that? You must have – “ I protested; he ignored it, spoke over it. “Why else would you be so afraid, Shuichi? You want to be chased, held down, beaten. Fucked. You’re welcome.”
I tried to hit him. He grabbed my wrists.
"Say thank you, thank you Itou, thank you for fixing me! Fix me, fix me. Put your cock in me again so I can be happy."
"You can't hurt me now. I don't have any more nightmares."

I pushed my arms apart, then snapped them in, crossing, bashing my right palm into his fore arm. I closed my hand as it contacted his wrist, pinning him, and brought my freed left hand up and around, chopping into his jugular as if I could sever his head clean off.
He gasped, collapsing.
I peeled his other hand off backwards, breaking the fingers, and shoved him. Taka tripped backwards, grabbing his neck. He choked, “You – “
I leapt off the table. My bare feet hit the stone floor and I skidded. My hand slapped the ground and I found purchase and I ran, I ran.

The tunnels passed like a honeycomb labyrinth. I ran, choosing wherever the air smelled better.
Suddenly, there was light. I gasped and put out speed, trying to make it to the light, where I might see my team through whatever mask they’d put on this catacomb and its secrets.
The tunnel opened abruptly into a cavern the size of a castle ballroom. It extended out, carved by gentle water with millennia.
My steps slowed. I looked up and around.
There was a lake before me. A man was there with light here. Light and force grew around him – and bent.
Dimensions bent.
I inhaled sharply. It was not the outside I had smelled free air from – the wind was from the void beyond this man’s gate. He was carving into another world.
I smelled demons. He was carving into the Makai.
I walked forward to the edge of the water.
The young man opened his eyes. “You must be the new pet.”
I nodded. “And you?”
He tilted his head. “I volunteered.”
His voice echoed through the place. I looked behind and promised rashly, “I can get you out of here. But I need your help.”
The young man smiled. “There’s no time left. And less for your moment of freedom. They’ll be here soon.”
I heard a creak and turned.
There was a blue sofa in the middle of the stone floor, in front of a TV. The man with the bindi lifted himself from it, wiping his eyes.
“You did warn me, Itsuki. Look at this clever fox. Got all the way to my living room.”
“Sensui,” the young man said.
I looked at the man. “Is that your name?”
“You thought you smelled the prairie, eh?” Sensui pointed over his shoulder. There was another exit in the wall behind him. “That leads to the surface.”
He walked slowly between me and the door, rolling up the sleeves of his sweater.
I had ripped the wards off as I ran, and vomited up the remainder of the pill’s potion from my stomach. I was still weak, but I reached into my hair and found a thorn. I held it up, rolling it between my fingers and pressing the point into my thumb. The blood welled up dark and coated it. With that incentive, the rose vines unwound. I snapped out my whip, standing sideways.
There was soft laughter, not from the man, but from the demon on the lake.
“Kill him, lover,” the demon said.
“Quiet, Itsuki.”
I looked at the exit. Sensui had no reason to lie when I was so weak. My best line of attack was to buy time to run into the far tunnel and try to make it to the surface.
In my lax hand, a dandelion seed flowered. I took a few steps forward as it went to seed, and the feathery umbrellas blew off over the lake, carrying spores.
“Please move.” I said.
He laughed and covered his mouth. “I’m sorry, but…I’ve never fought an opponent who was so proudly naked.”
“Please move,” I repeated, letting my voice break. I walked forward, as if I would circle around him to the exit, as if the vine whip was a loaded gun.
“No.”
I heard the man’s minions catching up. They were reluctant to enter. They knew who was in this room. They knew I was awake now. Armed.
As I glanced over my shoulder at the sound, I sent energy into the lake, pushing the seeds around.
I pulled the whip up in loops and lifted my hands. Cracking off a thorn and hiding it between my fingers, I put the whip down. Hands open, I walked forward. “Sensui-san. You said you like demons.”
He smiled.
I licked my lips, keeping my hands up. “Does hell appeal to you?”
The smile twitched.
I let my hands lower slightly. I was within ten paces. “Do I appeal to you?”
He sniffed. Sticking his hands in his pockets, Sensui tilted his head. “What’s your game?”
I gave him a shaky smile. “You seem to take care of your…friend. Would you take care of me?”
He followed my eyes across the lake, where the demon watched us, deeply amused.
“You love him,” I said. “You protect him, don’t you? You keep him safe in this awful world.”
Sensui looked at me.
I opened my lips to speak.
A vast length of green lashed up from the water and wrapped around the demon’s neck. He shouted, grabbing it with both hands, trying to rip it off as it lifted him into the air. Another ten vines followed, wrapping him, pulling.
“Stop." I ordered, holding up a hand as Sensui looked at him, eyes flashing. “I’m holding them back. You kill me, they’ll pull him apart.”
He didn’t move.
“Help him,” I said. “Go tear the vines off before they constrict. All I want is to leave this cave alive – I don’t want to kill anyone. Just make that choice: let me leave and save the one you love."
Sensui's nostrils flared and he stared, opening his legs in a wide stance for fighting. But the brutality in his hunched spine and raised arms was masked in a moment. He looked over me, down at my bare feet. Then he smiled. Laughing, he opened a hand towards the cave exit and stepped back. He inclined his head in a little bow before flashing to the water's edge, faster than Hiei.
I ran.
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Stepfather	By : Artemick Category: Yuyu Hakusho > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 7320 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I make no money. I own no YYH.

Stepfather