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
- 13
- 14
Yuusuke clapped his hands when he saw me. "Oh great. Guys, Kurama took care of everything, so I guess we can go home."
I smiled slightly. "Hardly. Sensui has a start on…Hiei. How are you here?"
Hiei took off his scabbard and unbuckled a role of black cloth. Yuusuke shrugged. "Yeah…dingbat Kuwabara cut the net before we could tell him what it was. So now we have to guard the tunnel till the SDF gets here."
Kuwabara ran up with Genkai. "Wait up, guys!" He lay his hands on his knees, panting.
Hiei unwrapped the black bundle and handed me some folds of white – the bandit's clothes I kept. And on them, a small box. "From your garden."
"Thank you." I stripped, handing Genkai the gun so I could dress. I straightened to find them all staring at Takasune. Two swords out, the other two with glowing hands.
I cleared my throat. "I don't think anyone should refuse my right to kill him myself."
"No," Yuusuke said. "Course not. All yours."
"I'm leaving him for Koenma to judge."
"What? Come on!"
"Dude," Kuwabara kicked the boy's head roughly. "That'll be like, decades from now."
"He's not going to be in prison, Kurama. You already said this could never go to trial," Yuusuke snapped. "They barely ever catch these guys, and here he is, and you're giving him a free pass?"
"We met his mother," I said.
Yuusuke licked his lips, leaning in. "No. Kurama. He's a fucking predator. This dirtbag isn't going to stop with you. Even let's say he leaves you alone, he'll just go after someone else. Keiko. Maya. Shizuru."
"But he may not." My breath caught. I hesitated. "He's human."
Genkai shrugged. "I think he waived that privilege days ago. Do rapists count as human?"
"Mm-mm, no." They put their hands up, shaking their head, cutting their hands through the air in crosses. "Nope."
I smiled. "Ok. That's not…something you can vote on."
Hiei shrugged. "Let me do it. He's tortured me twice now, each of them once. And knowing he captured you was enough to hurt all of us."
I thought about how he had stopped Sensui from breaking my other foot. "No, he's a kid playing with a power no one taught him to use."
"You do it then." Hiei picked up the box and opened it. Inside, among a collection of plants I used often in battles, was a fresh rose from the garden back home. "You can't fix what happened by letting him go."
Genkai nodded. "You have responsibilities. If you let him live, you are responsible for how he lives after this. Who he hurts."
I took the rose. The stem, stiff and shiny emerald, was so like home. I felt the whole thing was over at that moment.
"Keiko and Maya are strong," Genkai said. "But so were you, Kurama. His next victim might not survive."
"I'm not watching him." Hiei said. "If you ask me to keep an eye on him, I'll just kill him when you're not around."
I looked back. "Did you kill the other, Seaman?"
"What, the blond kid with the water? He's out cold. Kuwabara wore him down."
"You see," I said. "Humans don't kill humans."
Genkai snorted. "I will. Kurama, he already proved himself capable and willing."
I bit my lip. I imagined us leaving, hunting Sensui. Takasune woke. Escaping, he crossed paths with the blond boy, unconscious. I could imagine that pleasing Taka. That power. Being able to touch someone. They couldn't stop him, couldn't hurt him. He could take his pleasure.
Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he would leave. Never think of it again. But someday, he would be close to someone. They would be reticient, or unwilling. And Takasune… he might make them. Because he could, and because he that when he loved something, it was justice to take it.
Or maybe not.
I looked up and saw them around me. This wasn't about me being a proper human. Or my power. It wasn't even about doing what was right. It was about them. Protecting them. "The difference is that he didn't kill me. I will report it – I will make sure he's arrested and imprisoned, but I –
"That won't stop it."
Takasune was waking.
Genkai stepped forward. "He's more than a kid, Kurama. He stalked you and he followed through on the rape. He would have even if Sensui hadn't come along."
"We met his mom…" I said.
                "Would she want to know what her son did?"
                "He protected me once, stopped Sensui from breaking my other foot."
Yuusuke stepped on Takasune's shoulder. "Can I point out that he just spent the last month supporting genocide of the human race? Even I know that's evil. Like, I'm a pretty bad kid. Even I know rape is evil. And I know mass extinction of earth and everything on it, including all people, is evil. I haven't done it, or tried to. And I've had the crummiest parenting of the lot of you."
"I can't. There's a chance. People change – I changed," I begged.
"You're in shock," Hiei said. "We'll do it."
"This isn't over, Kurama. He's tortured each of us. He stalked you, attacked you, kidnapped you."
"Can it wait till we're done with Sensui?"
Yuusuke made a face like a grumpy old man. He looked at the far end of the tunnel, then screwed his finger through the air. "Fine! After Sensui."
Hiei shook his head at me and would not move. Kuwabara and Genkai were skeptical as well.
                "Yoko," Hiei drawled. "Finding some grotesque justice wouldn't have taken you a second in your prime."
                "I'm not in my prime." I took a pinch of small seeds from the box. I knelt down.
                Takasune cleared his throat. "You can't – "
                I leaned forward, pressing a finger to his lips. "Shh."
                He sat up, putting a hand on my thigh as he did. As I touched him, I was pressing the seeds to his lips. They found the saliva. They put down roots. They grew. He couldn't feel it, which the numbness they secreted, but his lips held my fingerprint in needleprick leaves.
                The others backed off, leery but unable to stop watching.
                With a marked mouth, Takasune said, "I just wanted – "
                "I don't care what you wanted. As you didn't care what I wanted." I stood. Seeing him one last time, I turned away, saying, "I didn't want these crimes to exist. I didn't want people callous enough to commit them to be real. And more than anything, I didn't want to make this decision."
In the end, Sensui was murderous. But so were we, particularly Yuusuke and Genkai. Sensui goaded them, and they responded.
                At the end, the man wanted to die. He had achieved his dream and lost it. Crossed worlds over and found peace and ruin. He missed his lover and his idealism. He gave up.
                Genkai sighed, ignoring the SDF, who were coming in too late to do anything but gawk. "Let's go home."

                We passed through the tunnel, letting the SDF guard and close the other end. I hung at the back with Hiei. The boys and Genkai were loud ahead, screwing around, making fun of Yuusuke's demonic mane, the long hair and tattoos which had appeared as he accessed his demonic energy. Yuusuke made a fine demon.
                "Can't say I'm surprised," Hiei said finally.
                "Mm," I nodded.
                "So, I can say again: I don't like anyone except other demons."
                "Kuwabara says you saved him?"
                Hiei scoffed. "Misunderstanding. I moved him. Moved him to a location which happened to be…slightly more safe. Coincidental."
                "I understand."
                Hiei looked me over. "You look well."
                I laughed. "We both look like old cat toys."
                "Sensui was strong."
                "It's funny. The detectives mediate between demon and human worlds – and spirit. And they end up making alliances. Everything bleeds across barriers." I gestured ahead. "Even this net. All kinds of demons pass freely. They work for humans. There's commerce, friendship, alliance. It isn't all threat."
                Yuusuke turned, glaring at me. "Hey!"
I was surprised; I hadn't thought he was listening. But his face was stern.
"I'm different from Sensui. My demons and humans, I bring home. I don't get them killed."
                I applauded, laughing. Genkai gave him a pat; Kuwabara leapt on his back and Yuusuke took off running with him, holding his knees.
                Genkai folded her arms. "You kids did alright. I didn't think you would make it to Sensui with that much fight in you – that coordinated."
                "You helped a bit," Hiei pointed out.
                "I'm allowed to meddle."
                We saw the boys stop, ahead. Yuusuke's voice echoed back. "How'd you get back here before us?"
Prince Koenma was there. He was organizing a cadre of reapers around Takasune. He preened, tossing back his robe, and snapped his fingers.
"We came for the perpatrators." He looked at me. I shook the prince's hand. "Your plants hadn't killed him quite yet. I'm taking him so we can discuss his future."
                I could see the outline of Takasune's body. The plants had consumed him now, but the shape of his form, reclining, was visible. As the seeds spread, they had numbed him, drugged him. He had turned over and lay on his side. The eyes, however, had caved it.
                "Hm." Hiei smiled.
                "But you were killing him," the prince said. "We'll have to try him and then re-ensoul him in another body after purgatory and retraining. And for you, there will be a disciplinary action – a fine, few days suspension. You can't just go around dissolving rapists with no trial after you subdue them."
                "I had not intention, until I realized that Takasune could have killed us while we were arguing. He could have expanded his territory. I realized I couldn't take that responsibility -- or risk that he would hurt someone else. So I choose to take that sin on myself."
                "You could have turned him in to me."
                "Help yourself."
                "Next time kill him in the fight and we won't have this red tape." The prince clapped his hands as they tucked spades under the body. "Up, up, up!"
Genkai patted my back and went on.
                Hiei nodded.
                I stared. Then passed by.
                Hiei crouched, smiling. The corpse had bloomed delicate tendrils, unfurling with tiny violet flowers on the end. He picked one and stood, smiling at it. Then he stuck a hand in his pocket and joined me, walking away.
                "He went back to earth in peace," I said. "And I will have some as well, knowing he won't hurt anyone."
                "Lovely green life from impossible sin," he said. "What's that thing you said once?"
                "Evil blood makes the most beautiful flowers."
                He turned the bloom. "There's always reasons to do evil. Plenty of us resist."
                "I'm wretched. I have no right to judge."
                "You were a theif; you still are. Your own recidivism justies what you did. Wait for Spirit World if you want. But we have to be practical." He smiled at the flower, looking like a child. Under his bruises, at least. "Others don't have your strength or healing. You wouldn't forgive yourself if it was Maya."
                I nodded. We walked in silence.
                "If you want to come to my place, I'll be playing nurse to those idiots," I said. "And myself. You look a bit beat."
                Hiei nodded.
                I took it into my mind and made a note to destroy the cameras Taka had left, full of images, before the SDF cleared the caverns. Spirit World would review the same crimes when he died; copies weren't necessary. And truthfully, I was still ashamed to have been forced into the situation. I was ashamed that I was forced to cower and beg like that.
                "I feel like I was a conspirator," I said.
                "Because you feign cooperation to get out of injury or death? This moralizing is the most boring part about you, Kurama."
                "I hate that he made me part of that experience. That he could make me survive it. That he involved me at all."
                I broke down and spoke of it to Hiei all the way back.
                He listened and teased me and finally held up the bloom and said, "It won't happen again."

"Listen, listen," I slapped Yuusuke's arm. "It's not about who's better. I can tell you, humans are more organized, their crimes are more systemic. Sins are more numerous because they're better at systematizing their evil. Demons are more imaginative. And it takes more to kill us, so there's all this canvas to paint on. No taboos, no mercy, no. It's a different culture. It's – listen."
Yuusuke was red with giggling, hiding his face in his arms.
"Yuusuke."
"Man, I have never seen you this drunk!" His voice was high pitched and leveled out in snickering.
I looked down my nose. Then I switched our drinks with deliberate thumps.
Yuusuke sat up. "What'd you do?"
I stared.
"We were drinking the same thing. What – why – what's – " He grabbed the edge of the table and leered at me.
"Drink up."
"What'd you do to it!"
"Nothing. We're drinking the same thing."
"I know you did something to it!"
I took a sip of his beer.
"No. No, you're just trying to freak me out. You know, screw you, and your brain."
I choked, laughing. He finished off my beer in a long minute, upending the bottle. I put my hand out. "Whoa. Whoa. Whoa, stop. You're hu – we're, we're human."
"Hahaha," he pointed at me, grinning like a skull. "Right!"
I turned the bottle, smiling. Then I stopped. "That kid. I feel…bad."
"Screw him. Who we talking bout?"
"That human boy. Takasu – "
"Kurama! Dude! No."
"I just…I don't know what's right – I don't know if I have – a moral compass like a human, if I'm doing what's human. I'm imitating you guys. But it's like the stories. A fox can copy a person but there's always something wrong."
"No. No. That's not right. You're, look – " He counted on his fingers. "He was gonna hurt other people. He was. I promise you, if he were sitting at this table – "
I shuddered.
"He would not be sorry."
I looked up. Yuusuke's eyes were that eerie red he got.
"He would not be sorry." Yuusuke tapped the table. "I promise you that. Look up any – any rape story on the web. They're not sorry. If they had souls, they wouldn't do this. He's not sorry. They never are. They think they're right – they think it's their right – they think they're more important than you."
"I know that."
"So why are you acting like he is?"
I stared at Yuusuke. Then I tilted the lip of the bottle at him. "You know why I follow you? As a captain?"
Yuusuke broke into a wide innocent grin, eyes bright. "I actually have no idea. None. I'm not a particularly good leader -"
"You're brilliant. I follow because you are smarter than I am in many ways, and it's worth learning." I took a sip and stared at the glass, the peeling label. "Keiko says rapists have a recidivism rate higher than sixty percent."
Yuusuke shaded his eyes with his hands, squinting. "I never understand a word that comes out of her mouth or yours."
"Recidivism is the likelihood one will repeat past behavior. There's a lot of trouble counting it, but one study said there is more than a 25% chance in 10 years and more than 60% in 25 that a released rapist will reoffend. That's more than a coin flip of whether he'd come after me again. Or someone else. I don't want to tell Maya I killed someone."
"Who?"
"Maya's a classmate."
"In your fanclub?"
"I'm her fanclub. And I don't think she should have a murderer in her life – "
“He deserved it. He lost his right to everything when he attacked you. That's how it goes. What you did…look. Your judgement is fine. Your call killing that rapist fucker is fine."
"I met his mom." I pulled my hands over my eyes.
"You did her a favor. She'll never know who her son really was."
I sat with my head in my hands. Yuusuke clapped a hand on my shoulder.
"Go talk to your girlfriend. You're normal. You're a nice normal kid with a nice normal life and a nice normal family.”
“I have a not-well-recovering alcoholic stepfather who throws things and berates his son. My mother too nice to kick him out or clean him up."
“Please,” Yuusuke blew a raspberry. “Kids with crazy alcoholic parents do fine!"
I stopped, tapping my teeth with my nail. "Not statistically."
"We do."
"Statistically, no."
"Fuck you. Fox – ok. We test this. Ok? Put your hand up if you've stolen over a thousand dollars."
"That had nothing to do with my parents."
"Exactly. Put your hand up!"
I slumped, rolling my eyes back, and stuck my hand up.
"Ten thousand. Keep your hand up. A million. A trillion – are you kidding?"
"This is silly."
"I am officially the most moral person at this table. HAA." He opened his arms. "Go me!"
We paid. I went outside. He was still at it, cheering. Finally he turned, completely still. Strangely still.
"You're quiet."
I nodded.
"You still feel shitty about it?" I nodded. He rubbed his chin. "What would you do if I told you I saw Takasune staking out your house? But I didn't say anything. Because I wasn't sure."
I looked him in the eye. "I'd kill you."
"Ha."
"No. I'd kill you."
"Not staking out. Just hanging around. But I didn't know he'd do anything wrong."
"You know what happened. I'd kill you."
"I thought he might. But I let him go because I felt shitty about turning him in."
"I didn't turn him in. I killed him. I murdered him because -- because I'd suffered at his hand."
"That makes you a hell of a lot more qualified as a judge!" Yuusuke shouted in my face. He stepped back and wiped his mouth. "Sorry. Too close. Think about that."
"Violence spirals, Yuusuke. It grows. It boomerangs, it comes back, and it doesn't always hit me – it could hit you, it could be my mother, anyone I love."
"You're still afraid of him. Even know."
Yuusuke peered at me. His eyes glittered in the night, his cheek warm with neon.
"I am. This world, this society, the protection of a god, good behavior, and all my caution and attention did not prevent him from – using me. Almost from killing me."
"Yeah, but we stopped him – "
"You might not have."
"We did."
"I know. I'm grateful. But people like when people like me are grateful. And weak. People like those they lust after to be weak. Do you understand?"
"No."
I inhaled, annoyed. "Keiko would."
"Tell her. Cause I just do what she says anyway."
"That's funny because the joke is: Of course you don't, because she's weak."
"Snap out of it. Please, Kurama. I can't understand what you're saying and I love you, but I have to fall asleep."
I nodded. "Good night, Yuusuke."
Yuusuke smiled. "Good night, Kurama. Hey. You're good. You're real good. A good demon and a good human. Don’t forget."
I nodded and lifted my hand, each going our separate way.
Before I got seven steps, he called back: "You're worth more than he is. People, peaceful people, are worth more. That’s why."
"Go to bed," I told him. "You're drunk."

Hiei snorted, pushing through my drapes. "You cannot be this upset."
"I'm not." I hung up my shirt and slid it into my closet. "But the fact that I'm not disturbs me – my calibration to morals in this century and community…my definition of myself…is under question. I feel."
I smoothed the shirt.
"I feel."
Hiei dropped inside my room.
I shut the closet door.
"You honestly think one of these humans – "
"His – "
"Shut up, besides his mother – one of these humans…you think you could find one that would tell you that breaking and entering a home with the purpose of – "
"He fell into it. He's young. There are circumstances. These are things that they consider and think about in this species!" I shouted. "Death is taken seriously here. Death. I had other options."
"You didn't."
"They might think I did."
Hiei pointed at me. He smirked and kicked up his feet. "You think she might. Maya."
"That's an example. No one – no one wants to be with a murderer – to be the confidant of a murderer – to be family – "
"Then you did his mother a favor. Kurama, he's dead. You say he fell into it? Another two steps into it, another fall, and he'd have killed you. You take that death seriously?"
"Yes."
"Not enough. You idiot. Because he is alive and somewhat sentient, are the victims nothing?"
"No."
"If that had been me. My body he tortured – or your mother."
"Don't say that."
"Would you have hesitated?" Hiei crossed his arms and leaned back to sleep. It was a rough night outside; he liked the comfort.
"No."
"Would you show regret?"
"I value you and her too much. More than him."
"Every victim is more valuable than the persecutor. That is human law." He looked at me, then snorted. "You should have let me kill him. I'd have done it slow. He'd have suffered. You and your human mercy, it's disgusting."

I sat with Maya at the ice cream store, outside under the umbrella, our books spread. She was studying, but
I was feeling proud, even happy. "I found a riddle while I was in the hospital. Want to hear?"
She looked up, taking the pen out of her mouth. "Oh yeah?"
"Two monsters battling. One is evil. One is your friend who became the monster so he could fight him on equal ground. How do you tell them apart?"
"One's a friend? Ask a question only a friend would know."
"Tried that. The demon's so clever, he reacts like the friend, who is so shaken he's barely able to answer. So neither knows the answer. They end up tangled and switching during the battle, with whoever has power."
Maya took her feet out of her flip flops and kicked them up onto my thigh, crossing her ankles. I put my hand on them. She tapped her lip with the pen, peering at me.
"They won't hold still?"
"No."
"Throw holy water on them."
"Your friend is a clone of the demon. His body will react like the demons."
"If your friend is a clone, does he have the same mind?"
"No. He's a ghost in the machine. Also, the bodies are self healing, so they'll be locked in eternal battle forever until you help."
"Huh. Can I save this friend at all?"
"I did."
"You figured it out? Okay. Let me think." She put her hands on her head to block the sun and looked out at the mountains, humming."Are you telling me everything?"
I shook my head, grinning.
"Stupid Minamino. Okay. Two demons. What was your friend before? Was he a good demon? Are there good demons in this story?"
"There's good demons."
"And he was one."
"Actually no, he was human. And he'll go back to being human if he's knocked unconscious."
Maya flung her hand out. "Oh! So do that."
"Can't, the other demon will kill him."
"Same time. Knock them both out with like, a ninja bomb. Flash grenade. Poomf, smoke. Separate them, restrain them, knock them out. And your friend will be revealed."
"Brilliant, girl. That's exactly it."
Maya chuckled, biting the pen, poking me with her foot. "That was a very – involved riddle. It reminds me of those dreams I have of you."
"Of me?"
"I used to have all these dreams as a kid. I still do, after days where we hang out a lot."
"You dream of me?"
"And always the same. We're in our old gradeschool – this started when those kids disappeared. So we're in school and we see a demon. I can see it for some reason, but you're like, No, it's not there – but I know you're lying. So we walk home, and in the dream," she looked down. "In the dream I'm in love with you or something stupid like that, and you're super rude. Then we get attacked."
"Wait." I tossed my book down and wiped my face. That was a suppressed memory. I thought I'd buried it in her.
"Geez. Fine, nerd, we can study. It's just a dream. Anyway, don't start on me about spirits-aren't-real; weird shit is happening all the time and if you scientists wait for piles of evidence, you're going to miss what's actually there."
I smiled at her, behind my hands. "It was real."
"What?"
"That's a real memory." Maya was staring at me. But I couldn't stop. I was too happy; I couldn't think of anything that could go wrong from me talking to her, and I was too glad to finally tell her to stop."It's a memory. That's why you keep dreaming it."
She stared it me. Slowly, she pointed at me. "I knew it! I knew it! Are you teasing? Shut up! No. You're a demon? I saw it."
She stood up, shoving her chair away. I held up a hand. "Before you – go, or throw something, remember how we've been friends for years and I've never hurt you."
She stared me down. "There are good demons. You were talking about you."
"I have a merged soul."
"With what?"
"A kitsune."
"Oh my God. That's why you're so handsome."
"Modesty would say no. But that's probably the reason for the green eyes."
Maya took my face in her hands and kissed me. I kissed back, leaning into her, even as she let go. "Wait…"
"I love your eyes." She sat down. Still watching me, she leaned back, examining me. She lay a finger on her cheek. "Huh."
"I wanted to tell you that."
"I'd think so."
"I suppressed the memory before so you'd be safe."
"But weird."
"Yes, but safe. I won't do it again."
"Really."
"Yes. My team has their friends and family who know, and I have you. Not my family, but you. You have to know. Because there's things I want to tell you about, and they wouldn't make sense."
"Tell me."
I knocked my hands together, hanging my head. "It's something bad."
She looked around, then put away her books. "Woods then?"
I followed suit. "Woods."
We left, crossed the street, and took the path into the forest.
I inhaled. The air was sweet from the trees blossoming. I was at my best here, where I could sense every thread of life for miles, every trunk and leaf, every sprout and tree. I fed them, they fed me. I had long since repaired the forest Sensui had destroyed, and it remembered me, just as this place did, my childhood hideout with Maya.
And because I was so strong, Maya's powers of discernment grew, enhanced by them, and the exchange I had with the forest.
She moved off the path to our spot, a clearing she had found, ringed with blackberry thickets. There was a spot in the middle that was hummocks of grass. She had discovered it, and I had tended it ever since. It meant so much to us both.
Maya was holding my hand for the first time in years. She dragged me in and dumped her bag and shoes. She checked the green berries, sighed, and settled.
I touched them and then swelled, red then black and heavy.
Maya touched one. "You're kidding." She pulled it off and put it between her lips.
I stretched out.
"They're good."
"I'm glad."
"Kitsune. Oh my God, it just – " She held her hands by her temples a moment, then shot them forward. "It just makes so much sense. You make so much more sense. All the archaic language, the patience and manners and sneakiness – "
"Hey, what?"
"You lurk." Maya made a come-on motion. "So let's go. Bad stuff. What did you mean?"
I put my hands together and hid my face. "I kill things. On occasion. When I have extreme motivation to."
"I know, I saw. I saw you fighting a little demon, and then you convinced him to help you fight the one that was going to eat me." She stared. "So why do you feel so bad? Did you kill a person?"
I pulled my head down, then let go, lacing my fingers together. Every cell in my body was buzzing. I couldn't stop fidgeting.
"Shuichi?"
"I'm Kurama."
"What about Kurama?"
"It's my name. It's my real name."
"Oh."
"Yes," I said. "I killed a human person. He was a psychic. He was someone's child. He was an artist. But he created a situation that would destroy society. He joined a group of terrorists, essentially. He supported them while they attacked. And he raped s-someone. More than once. While they…while they begged him not to – "
"You don't need to feel bad about killing a person like that."
It was that simple to her.
"I didn't kill him in a fight. We had a fight and I had a chance to show mercy and I didn't. And I usually don't, because it causes trouble – but he was human, and a child. He was so young."
"We were young! We didn't turn to terrorism and rape."
"But…maybe it was a mistake. The other kids I saw there, they had it pretty rough too. We let them live."
"Rape is different. That's – psychologically, that's different."
"Maybe it was a mistake."
"How could it be?"
"Coercion. Peer pressure. Depression… I don't know."
"How can you forgive someone like that, Kurama? Someone who hurt another person like that."
"Because it was me. I was the victim. And I think it was over."
"No. Rapists reoffend, Shu. Kurama. Especially if there's not consequences the first time."
"That was my friends' argument, that he was too powerful to risk release. But what if he wasn't going to reoffend?"
"He already had. He attacked you twice."
I considered that.
"Well, if he's allowed to make a mistake that big, so are you." She put her hand on my arm. There was a silence as we both considered, and then Maya said, "Wait. You said he assaulted you."
I nodded.
"So when you said you were at the hospital – "
"No. That's true, about my stepdad's accident. Except that he didn't fall asleep at the wheel, this kid made him hallucinate. That – that was the night he attacked me. He was in my house." I turned to face her, crossing my legs. Our knees touched. "I had to tell you that I was a demon because I had to explain this. When he attacked me…I was in a dream state. Hallucinating. So…at first, it wasn't…I – I did it on purpose. It wasn't even his idea, I just – I was hallucinating and I thought that I had to trick him to protect my family, so I – I gave him a blow job. Then his boss showed up – the ringleader, the charismatic. And he started beating the shit out of me. And I couldn't fight, so I ran. The rapist kid caught up with me and that was the assault."
"The whole thing was the assault."
I shut my eyes. "Yeah. We met again later and I was captured and he – the same thing happened. I was afraid, so I seduced him. He forced himself on me. But I…I was encouraging it – "
"Don't blame yourself. People always blame victims. But it's not that hard to not rape someone. I mean, that's stupid."
"There was another young man there who was more kind. He didn't touch me. He tried to kill me, but he didn't touch me. And – " I rubbed my eye, head aching at the memory. "It all got really bad. I ran away. The charismatic caught me, raped me, then was kind, then cruel. Then I tried to get them to mutiny and the charismatic one broke my foot and burned me. It – it felt really horrible. It was awful."
It was too much to say. Maya was silent.
My eyes stung red. I looked at her. "Please don't go, Maya. I'm not lying."
"Oh, please be lying," she asked. "I'm so sorry."
"Me too."
"I'm glad you killed him."
"I'm not." She was rubbing my arms and I took her hand and kissed it. "I was going to tell you something as we were studying today. I didn't think a murderer was the kind of person you might want to be with."
"Do you love me?"
I blushed. "You're my best friend. One of them."
"This is just like the dream. You're going to lie. Demon."
"Nothing like the dream," I said. "Part demon. Part human. Meant to do well. Sometimes don't."
"Me too."
"You're always great. Even when you fail, you – fail spectarularly."
She preened her nails. "Yeah, it's a gift."
Maya nodded, grinning. She leaned forward and hugged me. I took her head gently in my hands. She was so warm; her black hair was scalding from the sun.
She grinned. "You always smell like roses. Really. Like the real flower."
"I know. I do love you." I bit my lip. "But I can say I just like you know if that's too much to deal with."
"Now you check. Oh my God, that riddle was real. Was that how you spent your weekend?"
I grinned, pulling her tightly against my chest. "That wasn't even the best part."
Some days later, I sat with Maya on the bench. We were both looking for work, rather than returning to school.
"I'm working at a camp for convicts this summer," she said, sipping lemonade. "Art classes. There's a chance I'll be permanent staff."
"Convicts?" She handed me the drink. I took it and sipped. "Isn't that dangerous?"
She shrugged. "I'm using vine charcoal for now. Chainsaw ice sculpture will be next year."
"Enrollment based on good behavior?"
"Everyone deserves a chance to change."
"I quite agree. Rapists?"
"Fuck no. Fry em."
I nodded, finishing, and wiped my fingers. "I agree. Thieves?"
She shrugged. "Depends on whether it’s a truly impressive crime?"
"Ancient magical artifacts, say."
"Awesome. New career."
"Full immunity from you then?"
"Depends on whether they return them to a public museum in good condition."
"Got a soul and used them to save a woman's life."
"Psh!" She lifted up a hand, blowing air through her lips. She opened a round bouquet of Tootsie Pops and offered them to me. "That's just awesome."
I took one. I opened the wrapper, looking at the tiny cartoons along the edge and the glistening threads in the hard candy shell. "Thanks. What's all this?"
"Just enjoying getting a salary. Thought I'd share it with a friend." she turned to grin. She reclined, leaning her arms out along the back of the bench.
I grinned at her. We sat, looking out at the water.
"You don't know a lot about me," I said. "I mean, you do, but there's more. I want you to know everything. So…I used to be a criminal."
She rolled her head to the side. "Shut up."
I looked at her. She lifted her sunglasses. "Seriously?"
I nodded.
"What!" She dug into the word, peering at me.
"My friends, who I fight with…I'm doing that as probationary work release. Kind of. You'll meet all of them together. You're actually quite like one of them. And you know Hiei."
She frowned. "I must've forgetten."
"My fault."
"I'd love to meet your friends. And you could meet mine. And they can vote on whether or not we go out."
I looked at her.
Maya laughed. She was so bright – like the sun on the water.
"They don't get a say," I said, pouring sand carefully onto her knee.
Maya grinned. "Full disclosure. I don't have a lot of sexual experience."
"Not a problem." My heart hurt. Suddenly I remembered Yuusuke. "Uh. I…might be a bit bisexual."
"Unicorn…" She said, dazed, and reached out to pull my hair. "I kind of figured."
"What?"
"I mean, you don't give a shit about gender norms. Which I love. You're more of a hedonist." She started giggling. "You should take that out of your mouth when you say things like that."
I looked down at the sucker. "Pervert."
Maya took it and stuck it in her mouth. She raised her eyebrows.
"Clown. That's disgusting. If I put that under a microscope – "
She took it from her lips and kissed me.
It was my first kiss with a decent human, in a normal situation.
It tasted like candy and I came up sunblind.

Months later, as we lay on top of one another in the middle of the blackberry thicket, in autumn leaves,
Maya got up. She straddled my hips, pressing me onto my back. I let her lead, putting my hands behind my head as she unzipped my coat and pulled it open. She pushed up my sweater and the dress shirt and tee under it. Stroking my skin as the air prickled it, she looked down at me, eyes half shut. She rode my erection through the cloth.
"I like you," I said again.
"Liar, you love me." She corrected, leaning down to press her breasts against me. She liked this, she had said; she liked to have me under her. I liked that she was up for it. If I didn't push her, she was all over me. Having her way.
I pressed my head back at the sensations. She curled, her head under my chin. I moved a hand and stroked her hair. It was tickling my neck.
I moved my hand down and squeezed her ass. She was so hot. She never thought about things like what would happen when she was 70, but I didn't even mind. We would age together. I would die and perhaps Yoko would live on the the demon realm, living that full lifespan, but he would not be Kurama.
She pinned my other hand to the dirt, hard, grinning as we made out.
"No! Not like that," I said.
She let go, moving to kiss my throat under my jaw. I was not healed. Not completely. Not my fears. Small things reminded me, and it was hard. So many things, when we made love, were like rape. I knew it wasn't, but my body remembered and panicked.
She was aggressive, but didn't know what she wanted and always got into things and had to back out. It was ok. She had her kinks and twists and I had mine. We understood, we accommodated.
I kissed her. I pulled her hips forward and slid her back, lifting my knees. "Lean back."
Maya did, spreading her knees.
I pulled one of the backpacks over, under my head.
"Comfy?"
"Yes. Come on. You take forever," I pointed out. I began to massage her through the thin black cotton panties. "Cute."
She opened her jacket while I worked, teased her breasts while I watched. It kept things interesting until her hips began to roll and pump against me. She lost track of things, head back. "Oh, Kurama…good, good boy. Good – I, oh – "
She rocked. My fingers followed and responded, light and then heavy, changing rhythm. She finished herself in the last seconds while I stroked her thighs.
I sucked my finger. Edging her panties aside – Maya whimpered at the tightening of the fabric – I teased her opening with my knuckle softly. After a moment, as her body slicked up, I stroked the wet along her swollen clit.
"That's good," Maya crooned, trembling.
"I'm going to put a finger in. Just a little." I put my fingertip on her.
"Do it." She moved me to the spot and pushed my hand forward.
This was different, I thought. She brought me up to the hilt, and she said it felt strange, like nothing; there, but inconsequencial.
"Good place to start," I said.
She leaned down and kissed me. "I love you, slow."
- 13
- 14
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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