NC:: >.< You peeps asked for it…this is the sequel to ‘A Simple Gift’. And I KNOW for a fact that quite a few of you are NOT gonna like how she ends this one. However…there’s more to come after this one. o.- *points * See? This is what you get for pestering the almighty Mieren for more… Enjoy! ;p

 

 

Rejection

By Mieren

 

Kurama fingered the earring dangling delicately from his left earlobe once more, his eyes narrowing slightly as he studied his reflection.  The gem was a perfect sphere, the exact same emerald coloration as his eyes.  Holding the gem was a gold dragon claw patterning in the earring, the fragile seeming structure supported by a thin gold chain up to the small loop attached to his ear.  He tugged on the gold again only to find that, just like yesterday, he could not remove the little bauble.  He had tried pulling it forcibly out of his ear, but the flesh wouldn’t tear.  The force he had used should have been enough to break the earring, but it hadn’t harmed the small trinket.  He was certain that the same magical properties instilled in the earring that prevented him from removing it prevented it from being damaged either.

 

A loud curse snapped him from his contemplations.  He huffed in recognition of Yuusuke’s voice.  He had obviously been attempting to remove his earring as well.  Stepping out the bathroom, the sight of the black-haired youth confirmed his guess.  Blood smeared one ear and part of his cheek, but no wound was present and the earring was still in place, a familiar appearance of silver and sapphire glinting tauntingly.  He huffed again and flopped back across Yuusuke’s bed.  He had come over with the hope that together they might be able to find some way to remove the earrings.

 

The simple presence of the earrings wasn’t what had them so irritated.  It was the constant reminder of what they had unintentionally done.  Kurama allowed his mouth to twist in a mixture of irritation and revulsion.  He had gotten married to the little koorime, he and Yuusuke both.  After they had learned that Hiei hadn’t been mad at them, had actually enjoyed himself, they had momentarily relaxed.  Their peace of mind lasted for as long as it took Hiei to explain the meaning of the earrings they now wore.  He had had no idea that demons mated for life.  Had their encounter been a one-night thing or perhaps a casual encounter for stress relief on occasion, he wouldn’t mind.  But marriage?  He didn’t want to be married yet!  Especially not to a man.

 

As far as the casual sex went, that was far from the case.  Hiei showed up at the strangest hours at the strangest places, wanting to either take or be taken.  Kurama shifted on the bed a little stiffly.  The little fire demon hadn’t been particularly gentle last night and from the way Yuusuke was moving, he hadn’t been the only one jumped the previous evening.  He blinked in confusion when he realized that Yuusuke was speaking.

 

“I can’t believe it… to a fire demon… a male fire demon…” he muttered to himself, seemingly unaware that Kurama was still in the room.  His litany continued, more broken with each passing phrase.  “Keiko’s going to kill me… I didn’t mean… cheating is one thing… but with a man… no way she’ll understand…”

 

Kurama huffed loudly to gain his attention.  “No use in bemoaning what happened.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?  Are you actually enjoying this?” Yuusuke yelled.  His aura became blinding as it flared in response to his emotions.

 

“That’s not what I meant,” Kurama said stiffly, still tugging pointlessly at the earring dangling by his jaw.  “What I mean is that we have to do something other than complaining.”

 

“And what would we do?”

 

“I’m not sure,” Kurama admitted sullenly.  “But I have a few sources to check with.  They might be able to tell us some of the rules of demonic marriage.  I’ll be back in a few hours.”

 

Before Yuusuke could object or ask him any questions, Kurama was gone.  He sped easily through the early evening darkness.  Today, they had both skipped school.  The marks on their arms and necks could be dismissed, possibly covered, but the difficulty they were having walking could not be hidden as easily.  Stupid fire demon.  Surely Hiei could at least have the decency to bring some sort of lubricant before jumping them.

 

As if summoned by the thought, Hiei appeared in front of him.  Kurama skidded to a halt and tried to backpedal, but it was too late.  Thin arms wrapped around him and a mouth locked onto his own.  Kurama squirmed and tried to break his mouth free to protest.  They were in the middle of the street!  He broke the kiss by finally biting the overzealous koorime.  Not to be interrupted, Hiei’s mouth latched onto a nipple through rumpled white fabric and he began to tease it roughly.  Kurama tried in vain to push him away, finally accepting that he couldn’t remove the leech that had attached to him.

 

“Not here!” he pleaded, praying that the smaller man would heed him this time.  This wasn’t the first time that he had been caught in public.  Luckily, no one had seen them on the rooftop two days ago.  There would have been a lot of questions that he most definitely did not want to answer.

 

For his part, Hiei paused long enough to physically throw Kurama over his shoulder before leaping into the nearest tree.  Kurama sighed, knowing that fighting back at this point was useless.  After that first night, Hiei had gotten much stronger and nothing they could do was any match for his newfound strength.  As close as he could tell, the koorime’s strength had skyrocketed since they had slept with him.  Either the little fire demon was rutting or in puberty, both of which spoke poorly for his chances of being able to walk at all tomorrow.

 

They landed in the uppermost branches silently, where Kurama was immediately deposited across one of the thicker limbs.  Hiei leaned against the trunk and pulled the now limp youko into his arms.  Kurama allowed himself to be stripped by the already naked fire demon, wondering idly when the smaller man had divested himself of his clothes.  Without preparation or warning, he found himself lowered onto the engorged sex of the red-hot koorime.  He hissed in pain but willed himself to relax, knowing it wouldn’t help to fight back.  Fighting would only leave him sore.

 

Pain lanced through him when Hiei began to thrust in earnest, but he still didn’t move or cry out.  Movement would only spur the koorime on and any noise would draw a good deal of unwanted attention.  He was extremely lucky that Hiei had listened to him and moved this far out of sight.  He wouldn’t put it past the fire demon to have taken him in the streets, pedestrians be damned.

 

Kurama bit his lower lip hard enough to draw blood when Hiei came inside of him.  If the contact hadn’t been painful enough as it was, the semen flowing into him was hot enough to leave blisters.  His body temperature had spiked as surely as his horniness and he wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take and remain sane.

 

Just as suddenly as it had started, it was over.  Hiei disappeared without a word, leaving the youko panting softly.  Kurama scrambled back into his clothes and scurried towards his original destination before the small koorime could come back.  His contacts should be waiting for him by now, since he had been delayed.  Huffing indignantly, he hurried down the street for few blocks before veering unerringly into the shadows.  As expected, three sets of impatient eyes regarded him from the blackness.

 

*     *     *

 

Kurama waited patiently, struggling not to grind his teeth, as three forms rolled on the ground, absolutely howling in laughter.  He had only had to tell them the first few minutes of the night’s events before they had realized what had happened and started laughing themselves sick.  For the last ten minutes, they had been in hysterics and he was close to losing his patience.

 

“Well?” he asked somewhat sharply, an irritated tick appearing in his left eye.  This unintentionally drew attention to the earring hanging from his left ear, sending two of the youko in front of him back into a frenzy of laughter.  The third, gasping as though in pain, managed to straighten and face him with an almost serious expression.

 

“Well,” the golden fox answered stiffly, biting his lip to stifle another chuckle.  “If you were dumb enough to sleep with a koorime, you’re just going to have to accept what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

 

“There’s not much you can do other than kill him,” the russet youko added, momentarily catching his breath.  He broke into helpless giggles again a moment later.  Kurama scowled.

 

“I’m serious,” he snapped.  “I need a way out of this.”  When the russet kitsune opened his mouth, Kurama rounded on him angrily.  “And I’m not killing him!”

 

“Alright,” the chocolate brown female interrupted, speaking for the first time.  “There are other options, if you’re willing to take them.”

 

“Like what?” Kurama asked, immediately interested.  Unlike most societies, most youko clans were governed by a matriarchy, thus the females were generally more highly educated than the males.  Granted, the males were better fighters, but the women could run circles around them intellectually.

 

“If you can remove whatever symbol he created to eternalize the union, in this case that earring, the mating will be inconsequential.  All parties involved will be released from the bonding.”

 

Kurama frowned.  “I’ve already tried that.  I can’t get it off.”

 

“Hmm.  That may be a problem.  You may have to convince him to destroy it then.  He created the earrings, so theoretically, he should know how to destroy them.”

 

“What if he doesn’t?”

 

The female paused, thinking.  “Well, if he’s unaware of such methods as how to break a the focal point of a bonding ornament, then you’ll have to figure it out yourself.  Having never encountered such a situation within the youko clans, I’m unsure of how to go about doing such a thing.  To my knowledge, no one has ever succeeded in that particular task.”

 

“What if the earring were simply removed?” he asked slowly.  If necessary, he would sacrifice part of his ear.  At this, the dark brown female paused and regarded him carefully, considering.

 

“I don’t believe that would work.  If it were so simple, the mating would mean nothing.  If the earring were to be removed, and I believe I’m correct in this, it would simply reappear in your ear, exactly where it was placed.”  She stared at him for several moments, vaguely chewing on her lower lip.  “I don’t think that cutting your ear off will work either, if that’s what you’re thinking.  It will just grow back, earring included.  This type of magic is a strong one.”

 

Unable to help himself, Kurama swore loudly.  This caused the two male youko to resume their lung-wrenching laughter.  The female sniggered, but managed to remain somewhat composed.  She grinned at him, causing Kurama to seriously consider storming off and pouting somewhere.

 

“There is one other option,” she said suddenly.  Kurama perked up.

 

“What is that?”

 

“To reset the mating patterns of all three involved,” she said firmly.  “If you can do that, there shouldn’t be a problem.  Well, other than convincing the koorime to sleep with someone else…”

 

Deafening laughter met this announcement, informing Kurama that getting Hiei to bed with someone else would be a battle in itself.  Trying to compose himself, he rose to his feet and bowed stiffly, turning to leave.  Smooching noises and mimicked panting sounded behind him, courtesy of the two male youko still in the small clearing.  That was the final straw.

 

Growling low in his throat, he rounded on the two males, silvery hair flashing behind him as he approached the two.  He was so furious that he barely registered the appearance of his youko form, even though his tail threatened to tangle with his legs.  Thorny vines appeared from the earth with no prompting, entangling the now mortified male youko.  Despite their superior attitudes, they were no match for youko Kurama.  Realizing that they were trapped and outmatched, they became silent immediately, struggling to look pathetic enough to be spared.  The female only chuckled, amused by the plight of her companions.  Seeing that the two previously snickering males were now in no position to tease him, Kurama turned to leave.  Eventually, they would find a way to escape the snares, assuming that the female didn’t help them.  With the sense of humor that most youko shared, she would leave them there to suffer until they figured out the plant’s weaknesses themselves.

 

He had almost left the clearing when the chocolate colored female spoke up again, catching his attention even through his blind rage.

 

“There is one side effect to breaking the bond,” she said.  Kurama blinked at her.  “If you succeed in breaking both bonds, one of many things may happen to the koorime.”

 

“Like what?” Kurama asked slowly.  He instinctively knew that he wouldn’t like the answer.

 

“He may move on,” she said softly, gnawing on her lip again in a nervous habit that she had established long ago.  “He may grow depressed or ill.  There is also the possibility that he will not be able to handle it and will kill himself.  A koorime’s mind is a difficult thing to understand.”

 

At this, Kurama paused.  He didn’t want to hurt his friend, but at the same time, he didn’t want to end up mated to another man.  Nodding to himself, unconsciously chewing on his lip as the female matriarch had, he left the trees, barely remembering to revert to human form before disappearing into the crowd once more.  Behind him, three sets of eyes gleamed in the darkness.  Watching.

 

*     *     *

 

Yuusuke glared at the floor, trying not to grind his teeth.  Kurama had made it sound so simple when he explained the situation two weeks ago.  Break the mating bond, he had said.  A week ago, he had ripped the earring out in a moment of frustration and had ground it into the earth with his heel, considering it the end of the matter when it had shattered under his shoe.  The next morning, he had awoken to find the blasted thing back in his ear, intact, shining at him innocently.

 

After Kurama had spoken to the other youko, the information he had learned had been somewhat disconcerting.  Despite his desperation to be free of the koorime’s lecherous activities, he didn’t want to hurt his friend.  Currently, he and Kurama were desperately devising a way to make Hiei decide that he wanted to end the relationship.  Just earlier that day, he had gone so far as to attempt earlier to scare Hiei off by taking turns with Kurama pinning the smaller demon and screwing him silly.  He had thought that by losing his position on top for a few hours straight would make him think twice about the relationship.  It might have worked, too, had Hiei not been thoroughly enjoying himself.  They had finally collapsed in exhaustion.  When he pleadingly requested that they continue, Yuusuke had nearly cried.

 

“How much power do you think it takes to completely destroy these earrings?” Yuusuke asked suddenly.  Kurama had told him that if they could be destroyed, that the bond would be broken.  The redhead frowned.

 

“I’m not sure.  I’ve tried a few things already, but nothing works.  Besides, I thought we agreed to try something else before resorting to that.”

 

“We did,” Yuusuke sighed, “but I’m beginning to think that we need to do something.  Immediately.”

 

Hearing the last word, Kurama tensed and peeked over his shoulder.  Sure enough, Hiei was just outside in a tree, watching them with a frightening expression.  Both occupants of the room slunk back, terrified.  The look in his ruby eyes was the same one they had seen just a little earlier that day.  The glowing crimson eyes vanished without warning.  Kurama leapt to his feet and bolted to the door, determined to be gone before Hiei made his way into the room.

 

“Kurama!  Get back here you coward!” Yuusuke snapped after his retreating form.  He needn’t have worried.  The redhead was tackled the moment he opened the door by an overzealous, undersized demon.

 

“Wait!  I’m too tired!  Hiei, please!” Kurama pleaded, squirming violently as the koorime proceeded to strip him.

 

Seeing Hiei occupied with Kurama, Yuusuke sprinted towards the door, thinking he could escape while the hormone crazed fire demon was ravishing the protesting youko.  Needless to say, he didn’t make it two steps past them before a slender hand snagged his ankle and dragged him back into the fray.  He spun to yell at Hiei only to discover that it was Kurama who was preventing his escape.

 

“No way,” the redhead snapped.  “I’m not going to be stuck here alone with him!  Hey!  Let go of that!”

 

Busy trying to keep the slender hands out of his pants, he relinquished his hold on Yuusuke’s ankle.  He wasn’t too busy, however, to keep from tripping Yuusuke when he tried to escape again.  Panicked beyond rational reasoning, Yuusuke rolled to a kneeling position facing them and raised one arm, finger extended.  Power collected around his finger at an alarming rate.  Kurama only had time to yelp in surprise and scramble back as Yuusuke fired his attack.

 

“Ray gun!”

 

The bedroom wall exploded outwards in a deafening explosion, raining shrapnel on everyone in the room.  Kurama remained curled in a protective ball until the debris had stopped flying and the eye-searing light had faded.  The redhead straightened slowly, struggling to regain his senses and equilibrium.  He’d been close to Yuusuke’s attacks before without suffering anything like this.  He wondered for a moment if he’d been hit.  His suspicion was confirmed when he felt something hot and sticky run down the side of his jaw.  The smell of burnt hair and flesh permeated the room.

 

Yuusuke was frozen in shock where he knelt.  He had fired at his friends.  Without even intending it, he had hurt them.  He jerked slightly when Kurama pulled himself to a sitting position, one hand held to the side of his head as blood streamed freely down his forearm.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked shakily.  Kurama pulled his hand away from his head and stared at the blood smearing his arm for a moment before nodding.

 

“You barely clipped me,” the redhead answered numbly.

 

“What about Hiei?” Yuusuke asked, worried.  The small black clad figure was curled up on the floor a few feet away.  He wasn’t moving.

 

“You didn’t hit him,” Kurama said quickly, crawling over to the small lump that was his friend.  He frowned at the dazed look on Hiei’s face.  The ruby eyes looked disoriented, confused.  Kurama’s hand snapped to the side of his head, his searching fingers telling him what his mind already knew.  The earring was gone.

 

“I destroyed it,” Yuusuke said softly, echoing Kurama’s thoughts.  His hand immediately yanked the earring out of his own left ear and threw it towards the window, right hand held ready.  “Ray gun!”

 

“Wait!”

 

Another flash of light and clap of thunder permeated the room as the second earring was destroyed in a fiery explosion.  When the flying shrapnel and clouds of dust disappeared for a second time, Yuusuke’s apartment was completely annihilated.

 

Yuusuke looked over to the source of the yell to find Kurama staring back at him in shock.  In his arms, he held Hiei, who was shivering uncontrollably.  Kurama looked down at the small form huddled against him, turning his head upwards to try to get his friend to look at him.  The ruby eyes staring back at him held no sense, no understanding.  Yuusuke only then understood his mistake as he looked at the trembling, catatonic koorime and wondered if his friend would ever wake up again.

 

 

 

TBC