tampered | Log: Complete

Current Mood: conflicted

Log: Complete

When: June 27, afternoon
Rating: Everyone!
Characters: Kurama [

banditfox] and Kuronoe [

nobamboopls]
Summary: Two thieves. One cafe. Over a thousand years of catching up to do.
Log:

Shiori's arrival had been startling and worrisome. As much as Kurama missed her, he'd have been happier if she remained safely at home rather than trapped in the City. The difficulties of maintaining his secret aside, this was no place for a human woman of Shiori's giving nature. Now, with Kuronoe's arrival just a day later, the kitsune was feeling a little overwhelmed. He made his apologies to the other residents of his apartment for his abrupt departure, and set out for Cafe Juliet for the second time in as many days, knowing that his friends would protect his mother in his absence.

To all appearances, Kuronoe was real this time, not an illusion designed to throw Kurama off balance. It was still painful to think of the day Kuronoe had died. Everything had changed after that. Kurama had continued his work, but he became colder, more calculating, and more ruthless. What he'd done to Yomi was proof of that. After Kuronoe had died, Kurama had had no patience for partners who needlessly risked themselves.

Out of consideration for Kuronoe, the kitsune took his youko form before he reached the cafe. He knew that it would be more difficult for the bat youkai to recognize him as a human. When he finally stepped through the doors and saw his old partner, he didn't know how to approach--with anger, with joy, or with guilt--so instead he just waited, off to one side so other patrons could come and go. It was Kuronoe's turn to react.

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Kuronue had been waiting for who knows how long in the little cafe, ignoring the human waitress who'd time and time again tried to tempt him into ordering an espresso. He was starting to think she was some sort of drug dealer. But in that time he'd learned some things by searching rather rudimentally through the network attached to his little machine.

He was dead. And he was in a place called the city. He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't remembered dying. He'd touched his pulse points, and there was nothing. No movement in them at all. Ice cold, dead and walking around. How wonderful.

Pointed ears picked up on the sound of someone entering and then he caught the familiar scent of his partner, albeit that there was a clinging scent of human to him. He looked over to the door, and there he was. He smirked slightly and crossed his arms.

A clear symbol of "I'm not moving.". To him, he'd only been dead hours, he wasn't sure how long it had been for Kurama.

Jerk, Kurama thought, though not without an air of fondness. A simple probe of Kuronoe's youki revealed that it was indeed his partner ... but any happiness at that news was quickly sobered by the realization that Kuronoe was still dead. That meant he was trapped here. Kurama masked his feelings by focusing on Kuronoe's stubbornness, rolling his eyes at the other's refusal to budge.

"The least you could do is wave," he remarked as he pulled out a chair and sat, his tail draped negligently over the side and his elbows on the table as he interlaced his hands in front of his chin. Golden eyes surveyed the bat youkai from his hat down. "You look good, all things considered."

Kuronue couldn't help but grin as Kurama sat down. He counted it as a victory for himself since he'd gotten the kitsune to do what he wanted. He propped himself up with one hand, still grinning smugly.

"And ruin my stoic appearance?" He observed the fox, the red hair that had been implied over the network was gone. This was indeed his partner in crime, even if something seemed different. "This place is merciful in that regard. I'd rather not walk around with several bamboo spears sticking out of me."

Now if only he could get rid of how cold his body was things would be a bit better. "I'm going to guess that you're still with the living."

"Not without a certain amount of effort," the kitsune replied. "It's been a very long time, at least by my reckoning. I have no way of knowing how long it's been by yours unless you tell me." He let Kuronoe's little victory go without comment. In light of what had happened between them, something as minor as taking a seat when his partner refused to move was hardly worth arguing over. If they were going to have a fight, it would be about who had been right that day, and who had been wrong.

"So, care to tell me that the last thing is that you remember before you arrived here?"

Not with a certain bit of effort. It was easy enough to assume that Kurama had met with trouble then. But then, they were both thieves so danger was to be expected. He was almost curious but the questions could be saved for another moment.

"The last thing I remember?" That was easy enough, and he winced recalling the not so distant pain of his death. "I remember the trap, yelling at you to get away, dying. Then I woke up in a garden and I was here."

"Not very long then," Kurama observed, his own recollection of the trap uncomfortably clear. There were other memories alongside it, memories that had been twisted and planted there by an enemy who'd used Kuronoe's appearance as a weapon.

"Have you had time to learn about this place, or would you like me to explain?"

"Not long in my eyes. But what about you? How long have I been dead, Kurama?" He despised not knowing the majority of what was going on. It had been stupid to go after his pendant, had cost him his life and a lifetime of experience. His fingers twitched a bit, itching the have it back. He wasn't used to not having the familiar weight resting in his hands or hanging around his neck.

"I'm not completely inept you know." He rolled his eyes and pointed to the computer he'd pushed under his chair in annoyance. "I found some guides to this place so I understand the mechanics of it."

Kurama smiled apologetically. "I know, but I also know that we didn't have computers in Makai back then. It's not that I didn't think you wouldn't figure something out, just that I wasn't sure you'd had the time."

He sighed and leaned his chin against his hands as he thought of the best way to explain to Kuronoe everything that had happened. Simply delivering the facts seemed the best option. "It's been over a thousand years, Kuronoe. There are people here who will know you, but only from what I've told them."

"I've been here a few hours, and most of it was spent in here to avoid the slush." He said honestly. He despised the idea of getting his pants and shoes saturated with cold water.

If Kurama hadn't been so serious, Kuronue would have laughed, but he was serious. "1000 years? Damn... That long?" He leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling a moment before looking back at Kurama. "So much for going down in infamy as a thief. You're the only one who remembers me?"

"That long." The kitsune leaned back in his chair and fixed a solemn gaze on his old friend. "You know how the Makai is. If you aren't around to keep the body count rising, the stories start to fall by the wayside." His expression turned sympathetic. "I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, I've missed you."

"It's disapointing though, I'm hoping you at least became famous?" He shook his at the rather sentimental comment about missing him. Typical.

"I'm touched, Kurama. But if you missed me out of some self sustained guilt you built up over the centuries, I'll pass on it. I told you to escape."

"Famous enough for Reikai to take special interest," he confirmed, not out of pride, but simply because Kuronoe had asked. He would rather have become famous alongside his friend, or not at all if it would have meant Kuronoe were still around.

As to the guilt ... "To be quite honest, I did feel guilty, and I still do. I'm also mad at you." His eyes hardened as he spoke, not dangerous, but certainly full of menacing reproach.

"Well, that certainly is famous." He noted with a nod, resting his chin on his palm again.

"You've always been like this." Though there was a slightly nervous look to him when Kurama mentioned being mad. That usually meant a date with one of his maneaters for an evening. He'd preferred to avoid those dates whenever possible.

"It was my choice, that pendant meant alot to me, you should know that from all the trouble I went through to get it back the first time you took it." His fingers itched again and he smiled ruefully. "Can you believe that I dropped the damn thing before I died? All that trouble and I still don't have it."

"Don't try to get out of this," Kurama countered, his youki churning angrily and giving a hint as to how much stronger he'd grown since Kuronoe had last seen him. "You shouldn't have gone back ... at the very least you should have let me help you."

Ugh, of course it would figure that Kurama had gone up a rank or two in power. The churning youki so close made him feel slight on edge, like a too hard handshake. He growled and pressed back with his own youki at the pressure.

"Oh yes, and then you would have died too, even with your affinity for plants there was no way to stop those spears."

"You don't know that and neither do I," the fox countered, not bothering to force Kuronoe's youki back because he had no sincere intentions of starting a real fight here. Still, he stood and leaned over the table, clawed hands braced at the edges. His stance easily brought him inside of Kuronoe's personal space, and his tail lashed the air as he growled, "Don't do it again."

"It's a pretty safe bet." He shot back. If he hadn't been sure that going for the pendant would get him killed he wouldn't have told Kurama to run. He didn't back away as Kurama invaded his space, no matter how much time had passed he wouldn't do that ~~unless Kurama decided to pull out one of his more vicious plants~~.

"Trust me, next time we're in a life threatening situation, I'll be completely happy to let you get yourself killed in my stead."

"Try not getting yourself into a dangerous situation that can be avoided," Kurama retorted. Then his youki abruptly calmed, and he dropped back into his seat. "Just promise me that you learned and you'll be more careful."

"That depends on the number of objects worth stealing." He drawled, more than a little relieved that Kurama let the pressure on his youki go. "Yes, yes. You know I learn quickly after making a mistake. I never actually thought I'd get a second chance after getting myself killed, though."

"No one does, but you'll find it's a little more common than either of us thought." Kurama glanced around the cafe and shook his head. "This isn't the right place to be having this discussion. There's a lot that we need to catch up on, and some of it I'd rather not discuss where anyone can hear." He stood and nodded towards the door. "Let's go for a walk. There's a forest, if you don't mind being surrounded by trees at this point. I'll tell you everything that's happened since ... " The kitsune caught himself before he said 'died'. " ... since the last time I saw you."

Kuronue pushed his chair away and got up and nudged it under the table with one foot before following after Kurama. He would comment on his partners (he didn't care of the midget insisted he was Kurama's partner, he has seniority on the matter in his own opinion) avoidance of the term "died", but decided to cut him a break.

"A forest, huh? Well, then this place isn't a total loss."

"At times, I almost enjoy it," Kurama admitted. He kept to idle conversation as they made their way to the edge of the trees, and then fell silent as he listened to the surroundings--not just the way a normal person would listen, but also the plants themselves. When he was confident there was no one else nearby, he sat down against a trunk. "I'm sure you've noticed the human scent on me, but the explanation comes towards the end of the story." Then he began to tell Kuronoe how he came to head a small group of bandits, with Yomi for his second-in-command, the way they had fallen out of each other's good graces, his subsequent solo operations and eventual injury. The story continued with his human life, and finally ended with the routine he had settled into just after the Makai Tournament, before the City had snatched him.

Kuronue listened to the story, moving around occasionally, a bit restless. Forests had been a haven to him for a while so he felt secure as he listened. He didn't like what he heard, angry at himself for dying, not being there to help his friend. He felt like that by dying, he'd betrayed him completely.

Stupid pendant. Stupid bamboo. Stupid him.

"I missed... alot." He said finally as he jumped down from the tree he'd been standing in, his wings slowing his descent so that he landed silently.

Kurama again offered a sympathetic smile. "You did. It's all right, though. I forgive you ... especially now that I've had a chance to yell at you for leaving." He leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes, relaxing for a moment in the quiet of the forest. "I'm going to change, now," the kitsune warned his partner. "You'll still recognize my ki, but the body is human. The woman who bore it is here, and she doesn't know what I am. I can't go back to the apartment looking like the youko you know."

With that, he let his form shift. There was a brief flicker, red replacing silver, and then a boy just leaving his teenage years sat against the tree, his red hair falling to his waist.

Kuronue looked at this completely alien boy, finding it hard to believe that this was who his partner had become. The kitsune scent was extremely diminished leaving mostly the scent of 'Shuichi'. The human boy. And he wasn't going to take back the statement about red hair belonging to a saucy wenches in the pleasure district.

"So how are you going to explain me to your... 'mother'? Bats wings and pointed ears aren't exactly human traits you know."

"I'm not." 'Shuuichi' stood and ran his fingers through his hair to straighten it. The red strands were more unruly than the silver, and tangled more easily. "Not yet. She'll find out about me eventually, but I think it's best to hold off on introductions for now."

Green eyes fastened on violet, and Kurama continued. "I do want you to meet her. I just can't ignore the fact that I've been lying to her for nearly twenty years."

Kuronue was very good as controlling his facial features, it was hard to accept. 1000 years had gone by, the Kurama he knew was changed. It was understandable, he thought.

"Right. I'm guessing you know a place for me to stay then?" Away from his mother, he supposed.

It hurt to ask this of his friend, especially now, and Kurama let that hurt show. Whether or not Kuronoe would read it properly was another story. "I'm sorry." He tucked his hands in his pockets and turned back towards the city proper. "Believe it or not, I'd like you close if you don't mind. There are rooms near mine if you want them. Housing is free, here. You just pick what you want and make it yours. I'll understand if you'd rather have some distance. There's plenty of space in other buildings."

Kuronue sighed and rubbed his forehead. One thing never changed and that was how much Kurama could feel guilty. Time for damage control, he decided as he walked, his now longer legs getting him even with 'Shuichi' easily before he slung an arm over his shoulder.

"Geez, why would I want some other building. We're partners, right?"

At least letting Kuronoe see that he didn't want to do this had worked. "Thank you." Kurama gave him a grudging smile and a playful shove just as he urged a tree root to come up from the ground right in front of Kuronoe's feet. "You really ought to watch your step!" he called as he took off at a spring for Building Three.

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Log: Complete

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