Kitsune's Confession

[Seven]

by Lori McDonald






"Shuuichi!" Shiori wailed. "Where have you been?!"


Desperately, Shuuichi clung to her mother, her throat clenching as she swallowed spasmodically, too frightened to get the words out past her teeth. How could she say it? How could she admit what had happened? That she had been half kitsune, but now, thanks to an evil entity, she was now wholly human, female, and pregnant. All her life she’d kept her secrets, but she couldn’t anymore.


Behind her, her friends watched her sympathetically, silently lending their support, and she took a deep shuddering breath. She could do this, she had to do this.


"I, kaasan, I-"


Her mother lifted tearful eyes. "I thought you were dead," she whispered.


"Shuuichi!"


Shuuichi blinked, and suddenly found both herself and her mother being held by her stepbrother Shuu-chan, who’d appeared from inside the house with his father.


"Where have you been?" Kazuya demanded.


Shuuichi started to panic. Telling her mother was going to be hard enough. She wasn’t sure she had the courage to tell these two as well.


"You can do it, Shuuichi!" Yuusuke yelled helpfully and got shushed by Keiko.


Questions started firing at her from all three family members then, demanding to know where she’d been, who took her, why she didn’t contact them, if she was all right, and what all these people were doing here.


"Hey," Shuu-chan asked suddenly. "Is it just me or does that dog have five tails?"


Over by Hiei, Kurama, in his silver fox form, looked embarrassed for a moment, then seemed to shrug and dropped his tongue out the side of his mouth in a toothy grin.


Shuuichi blushed and looked at her mother. "Maybe we better go inside. I-I have a lot to tell you."


"Of course," Shiori soothed, guiding her child into the house, Kazuya and Shuu-chan behind them. The front door closed for a moment, then reopened with a bang as Hiei marched nonchalantly in, carrying a squirming silver fox by the scruff of his neck. He glared at all of them, dropped the fox in the centre of the room and went to sit on the windowsill.


"Hey, he does have five tails!" Shuu-chan crowed.


"Who are you?" Kazuya blurted, staring at the fire demon. Hiei ignored him, watching Shuuichi.


"Shuuichi?" Shiori asked quietly. "What happened?"


Shuuichi dropped to sit on the couch with a groan, her face buried in her hands. "I have something to tell you. It’s… not easy."


Her mother knelt before her. "Tell me."


Shuuichi opened her mouth and babbled incoherently.


"Huh?" Shuu-chan asked.


Shuuichi tried again and couldn’t get the words out through the pounding of her heart. Kurama chuckled throatily and she resisted the urge to throw a pillow at him. At least he could play dumb animal during this.


"Stupid fox," Hiei snapped suddenly. "Just tell them."


Everyone looked back and forth between the two as Shuuichi bit her lip. At this rate, it would take all day to get the words out.


Apparently, Hiei agreed. "That," he pointed at the fox. "Is Kurama. He’s a youko." Kurama perked up his ears. "Sixteen years ago he was stupid enough to get himself killed," The ears flattened. "and his spirit jumped into the Ningenkai looking for a new body. It settled in your unborn baby." He jabbed a finger at Shiori, who was gaping at him with an open mouth. "A week or so ago, a creature yanked the youko back out of Shuuichi and now there are two of them, except now Shuuichi is female and I got her pregnant. Deal with it." He crossed his arms.


Shiori, Kazuya and Shuu-chan all stared at her.


Shuuichi blushed as red as her hair.


"Do you expect us to believe this?" Kazuya blurted out. Shuu-chan looked thrilled, Shiori in shock.


Hiei rolled his eyes, hopped down and grabbed the front of Shuuichi’s tunic, ripping it open.


Somehow, Shuuichi managed to get even redder.


"SHUUICHI!" Shiori screamed.


"Excuse me," Shuuichi managed politely before bolting to the bathroom with her hand over her mouth.


Well, Hiei definitely needed to work on his tact some more.


Forgotten in the rush of Shuuichi running off to vomit and her shocked mother running after her, Kurama sat in a corner of the room with his tails around his legs and sighed.


He’d never wanted to tell Shiori what he was. The merest thought that she’d reject him had been enough to make him feel as physically ill as Shuuichi had become. But now they’d had no choice, and it looked like she HAD rejected him, for her daughter. At least, she had more seeming interest in the human than the fox her son had already mistaken once for a dog.


Kurama’s head bowed, his nose almost touching the carpet. What had he expected? He’d stolen her child’s body for his own. Until they were split in two, he hadn’t even realized that anything of the original Shuuichi remained, so complete was their mergence. He ached to be one with her again too, but that would have to wait, at least until after Shuuichi gave birth.


Would she change her mind about remerging with him, he wondered. Nine months as a regular human girl… what if she decided that she preferred being that way? What if he did? He shuddered, knowing he couldn’t. Shuuichi had given him something he’d never had before, and it was like a drug he couldn’t do without. His soul needed her as badly as his heart needed Hiei.


Faintly, his sensitive ears picked up the sounds of the rest of the team and their friends settling down to wait on the front lawn and grinned toothily. At least they accepted them both, and understood. He looked towards the bathroom where Shuuichi had vanished. He just hoped Shiori could.


"Nice doggy."


Kurama looked up at Shuu-chan, who was reaching towards him and blinked.


"Don’t touch it," Kazuya ordered, his face hard and confused. He looked down at the fox. "What are you?"


Kurama sighed. He’d always dreaded Kazuya finding out, afraid he’d leave his mother or something, and shimmered, shifting to his youko form. Kazuya’s eyes bugged out as the seven foot, silver kitsune loomed over him. Shuu-chan looked thrilled.


"Otosan," he whispered. "Father…"


Kazuya swallowed. "You’re a… you’re a…"


"A kitsune," he finished. "Kurama. Everything Hiei told you was true." He looked towards the window, but Hiei had trailed after Shuuichi once he heard her getting sick. "I’m sorry," he said to his father.


Kazuya shook his head. "Why did you do this?" He looked like he was in shock.


Kurama’s smile was grim. "I didn’t want to die. And I love my mother." He looked down. "It doesn’t matter to me what body I wear, or how many. Shiori is my mother. I just hope she can accept me, and that you can."


Kazuya was silent.


Tenderly, Shiori held her daughter’s hair up and away from her face while she vomited into the toilet.


Her daughter, she had a daughter? Shiori had to smile at the thought, though she could feel hysteria lurking somewhere behind. She’d always wanted a daughter, and had been sure she’d been carrying one throughout her pregnancy. She loved her son desperately, but he’d been a bit of a shock.


Now she knew she had been carrying a girl. Sort of. Shiori shook her head and fetched a damp cloth to wipe Shuuichi’s face with once she leaned back.


"Why didn’t you tell me any of this?" she whispered.


Shuuichi’s wide green eyes were full of tears. "I was afraid you’d reject me." She swallowed. "I still am."


Shiori gaped at her, then wrapped her arms around the shuddering girl’s shoulders. "Oh, Shuuichi, I’m your mother. I could never reject you. Though… this is going to take some getting used to." Love your children unconditionally, she’d always believed that. Love them and they’ll be true to you. Still, that love was being stretched to the limit.


"You lied to me," she whispered. Shuuichi’s arms tightened around her. "I never want you to lie to me again, Shuuichi."


"I won’t, Kaasan. I promise."


How much did her promises mean? Shiori wondered sadly. Shuuichi had already proven to be a masterful liar. She sighed and wondered whether she’d ever trust her again.


Rather than voice it out loud, though, she hugged her closer, uttering another concern. "That boy said you were… pregnant?"


Shuuichi gulped. "H-hai. I just found out."


Shiori sighed. "And that child is the father?"


"He’s- he’s older than he looks, Kaasan."


Pregnant, at sixteen… "Why did you let this happen, Shuuichi?"


Shuuichi seemed to be glued to her. "I didn’t think about birth control, kaasan. I-I never needed it with him before."


With him… Shiori closed her eyes at what that meant. How long had her son and that boy been…? She sighed again. It would take a very long time before she forgave her child for any of this.


Shuuichi sniffled in her arms. "Do you still love me?" she whispered.


"Of course I do!" Shiori gasped. "Never doubt that." Shuuichi seemed to relax a bit. "But now we have to figure out what to do." A baby. She was going to be a grandmother… "We need to decide what to do about this baby that’s coming."


Shuuichi started sniffling again. "Oh, kaasan, I don’t know if I even want to have it! M-maybe I should get rid of it."


Shiori felt cold, then, to her surprise, raging hot. Startled, she turned towards the door to see the boy who’d impregnated her daughter standing in the doorway, his eyes blazing. Shiori gasped as she saw the tiles he was standing on blackening from an intense heat, and smoke rising from the bandages on his arm. He was shaking.


"What did you say?" he hissed, looking not at her but at Shuuichi.


Shuuichi swallowed. "Hiei, Hiei I-"


"Don’t you do it," he whispered. "Don’t you dare!"


Then he was gone, a black afterimage marking where he’d been.


"Hiei!" Shuuichi cried, then sagged against her mother, sobbing again.


Shiori just held her and wondered if she was going to wake up from this.


The front door was thrown open and the kids waiting outside were blown over by the force of Hiei’s invisible passage.


"What was that??" Kuwabara gasped as he shielded Yukina.


Yuusuke stared at the door, then down the road. "Hiei," he decided. "Something happened."


"What do you think it was?" Keiko asked.


"I don’t know," Yuusuke said and crossed his arms, hating this waiting with a passion. "Hopefully someone will think to tell us soon."


"Maybe I should get rid of it."


"Maybe I should get rid of it."


"Maybe I should get rid of it."


Hiei raced across the city, those words echoing in his mind like a mantra, or a whipcrack laid across bare skin.


Shuuichi didn’t want to have his child.


Reaching a park, he zipped up the trunk of a tall tree to the uppermost branches, abandoning his coat as he drew his sword, leaping into the air and flashing the blade in the moves of a kata.


She wanted to flush it out and toss it away as though it was worthless.


The sword sang in the air, whistling as it moved lightning fast, rending invisibles with unerring speed and accuracy.


Like garbage.


He moved faster, and faster.


Just like he had been.


Hiei dropped back onto a branch, gasping, fighting the tightness in his throat that threatened to move up into his eyes and betray him. Stupid, selfish human…


He closed his eyes and stood there for a long time.


Kurama looked up from growing a flower for Shuu-chan - mainly to get him to stop trying to touch his ears - the instant Shuuichi and Shiori came back into the living room. They were heading for the stairs, Shuuichi still looking pale and ill when he stood.


Shiori met his gaze, her own eyes confused and frightened by the sight of him, then she looked away. "Kaasan," he whispered.


Kazuya cleared his throat. "So what’s going to happen?" he asked, sounding more uncertain than Kurama had ever heard him before. No wonder. He’d always been a man well grounded in so-called reality.


Shiori looked at him calmly. "I’m putting Shuuichi to bed, then we can talk about how to keep people from realizing the truth about her. And in the morning, we’ll see if Shuuichi has decided what to do about her baby."


Kurama swallowed heavily as she led Shuuichi up the stairs. She hadn’t said anything at all about what was to be done about him.


"How are you feeling?" Yuusuke called up to the bedroom window.


"Nauseous," Shuuichi told him, leaning out. "And relieved. She accepted me."


Yuusuke whooped, joined by the cheers of the others. "Way to go, Shuuichi!" Kuwabara yelled.


Shuuichi smiled. "Keep it down. I’m supposed to be asleep."


"What about the baby?" Botan called.


"And Kurama?" Keiko added.


"And Hiei?" Yukina whispered.


Shuuichi’s smile faded. "I don’t know, I don’t know and I don’t know. I’m too tired to think about it right now."


Yuusuke flashed her thumbs up. "It’ll be okay, Shuuichi, you’ll see." She smiled again and he turned to his friends beside him. "Who’s for movies?!"


They all cheered again.


Tired, Shuuichi lay on her side in her bed, her green eyes fixed wearily on the half open window and the curtain that blew lightly in the breeze.


Kurama’s tail flipped over her. "You know, you’re not alone, Shuuichi," he whispered. "I’m still here."


"You miss him as much as I do," she whispered.


"It’s only been a couple of hours," he reminded her, but it sounded halfhearted. He wanted the little koorime’s warmth as deeply as his other half did. The kitsune’s arm settled around her more closely, his body warm against her back in the narrow bed. As far as her parents knew, he was sleeping in the guest room, but he’d snuck in once they went to bed. It was his room after all, even if his feet hung off the end of the futon. "He’ll come back."


"I don’t know," she sighed. "He heard me talking about maybe not having the baby. He… I didn’t know he wanted it so badly."


He nodded into her hair. "Neither did I." He was quiet a moment. "You don’t have to worry about raising the baby alone, Shuuichi. I’ll help you. Hell, after it’s born, I’ll BE you. You know we never thought we’d have Hiei’s children." His silence left the rest unspoken. As Kurama, they’d wanted it though. To help raise Hiei’s child, to be a proper family…


"Never thought I’d be the one bearing it though," Shuuichi muttered.


"Look at it this way. We don’t have to go to all the annoyance of stealing one."


Shuuichi giggled, a lot of her tension dispersing as she slowly started to acclimatize to the fact that her human family wasn’t going to leave her in the lurch and yes, there was an infant inside her, but it wasn’t a bad thing. She might have been in a teenage body, but she wasn’t a child. She was responsible enough to raise a baby, even if she did want a certain fire demon’s help.


"Are you going to keep it then?"


It was a new voice and Shuuichi looked up at Hiei, who was standing just inside the room.


"Yes, Hiei, I am. If you’ll help."


All the tightness seemed to drain out of him. "I’ll help," he promised as he came over to climb into the already overcrowded bed with them. "I promise."


Peacefully, Shiori dreamed of a garden.


It was beautifully in bloom, rich with the smell of roses and a thousand other flowers, sparkled with sunlight and butterflies. Shiori sighed as she walked through it, smiling at rabbits and deer grazing on the luxurious grass.


"Shiori…"


Startled, she looked around, but couldn’t see anyone.


"Shiori…"


The voice was deep and rich, though layered with sadness. Shiori looked back the way she’d come to see Kurama standing in the centre of the path, his ears and tail drooping.


"Is there any way I can convince you to love me too?" he asked her.


Shiori’s mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, not knowing what to say, or to feel. "I don’t know you," she whispered at last.


He rushed forward at that, falling to his knees before her and reaching up to take her hand. "You know me," he pleaded. "You bore me, raised me! You know me."


She shook her head, frightened by the alien being who she couldn’t see as her son. "That was Shuuichi, that was-"


"That was me," he whispered. "Me. All of it. I remember lying in your arms as a baby, I remember you protecting me when those plates fell. You taught me compassion, love, everything. I was a heartless youko until I met you."


Shiori trembled. "But you’re hundreds of years older than me. You don’t need a mother."


"Oh, but I do!" His golden eyes were wide. "Kaasan, I love you more than I love my life. More than I ever loved it. Please, don’t reject me!"


Shaking, Shiori reached out to touch his silver hair and soft ears. He leaned into the embrace, eyes closing. "Please," he whispered again.


Love your children unconditionally. Shiori swallowed. "I won’t reject you," she whispered to him and it was like the sun awoke in his smile.


Tears shone in Kurama’s eyes as he opened them. Sitting on the edge of his parents’ bed, he smiled down at his mother, who was smiling in her own sleep as she continued with the dream he’d gifted her.


"Kaasan," he whispered as he bent over to kiss her cheek. Finally, he’d come home again. Still smiling, he stood to slip out the door and back to his own room, where Hiei and Shuuichi between them had managed to take up the entire bed.

 

THE END





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