Startled profanity announced Kuronue's appearance in the sorting room. Twisting at the waist and peaking over his shoulder to look around rather warily, as well as curiously, he let loose another mumbled tangle of words that may or may not have made much sense to anyone who was close enough to hear. He wasn't quite sure what he'd said himself he
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He wondered if Kuronue would be able to see the years on him, the time that had passed since... that. Had Kuronue come instantly from his death, or lingered in the afterlife? Whatever time had gone by, it had done nothing to lessen Kuronue's sense of humor, at the very least.
"So free with a kiss," he managed after a while, contriving to keep his voice level, casual. "Will you ever change?"
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He smiled weakly at Kurama. "Not likely." His eyes dropped, and he took Kurama in. The years perhaps had changed Kurama. It made something inside ache. "It seems you have though."
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After a moment he said, "I missed you."
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Well it wasn't hard to put two and two together and he felt...cheated, in a way. Though he knew he shouldn't.
With this in mind he made his way over to Kurama and wrapped his arms around Kurama before he changed his mind about the fleeting urge. He pulled Kurama in close and rested his cheek against Kurama's. He let himself simply be happy to have Kurama in his arms again for a moment, feeling like the time that he had to hold him was borrowed.
He give a spoken reply, he figured the hug was enough to convey how much he felt...had felt for his partner.
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If I had waited, was the horrible thought, if I had only waited a little while...
He allowed the embrace a while longer before pulling away slightly, still within touching distance, his hands lingering on Kuronue's arms. "Much has changed," he said, avoiding Kuronue's eyes. "How... has any time passed for you?"
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Kuronue fought to keep the black rage at bay. It wasn't his place to feel angry about something he'd...given up a long time ago. Still, his eyes were hard while he stared at Kurama, running his fingers through his hair, simply because it'd been so long since he'd been able to and he wasn't sure how he'd be answered were he to ask.
"Slow," he said simply. And it had. It had been peaceful, in an agonising kind of way.
He hesitated for a moment before he asked, "Just how much has changed, Kurama?"
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"I died," he began, his voice still very soft. Any louder, and it would break. "And escaped. I was reborn as a human, nineteen years ago. Then I came here." An obscenely abridged version of his life, but long explanations could wait for later. "I..." he almost thought of naming Kusuriyuri his lover, but that didn't evoke the permanence of their relationship. "I have taken a mate."
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He isn't sure which he wanted to address first. "...A mate?"
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His hand slips beneath Kurama's chin and tilts his head up. "Don't hide from me, Kurama. Never from me. Look at me."
"Kusuriyuri?" he asked, just to be sure. His eyes betraying nothing of the ache he didn't dare dignify with a name.
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"Yes. He is... very dear to me." How much pain would that admission cause, he wondered?
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While the words sunk in, he fisted his hand in Kurama's hair and cupped either side of his face, stroking down his neck and cheeks. It was...hard to accept it.
He wasn't sure he could.
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Tentatively, almost fearfully, he brought his hands to Kuronue's face, tracing over what had once been so sharply familiar to his hands.
"I don't know what to say," he confessed, again dropping his voice to avoid the indignity of it breaking on him.
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"How long after I died...did you die too? What happened that caused the great Youko Kurama to fall?" he whispered, not sure he wanted to keep his normal loud and confident tone. He basked in the feel of Kurama's fingertips, even turning his face into the hands.
He quelled the urge to kiss those hands. They weren't his to kiss.
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"A hunter. a ver skilled one, and I-" had stopped caring whether I was alive or dead "had been reckless. Inari was waiting for me, so I ran, possessed a human child." He realized, belatedly and with no little embarrassment, that his hands were shaking. "I am not so great as anyone thinks."
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"But you are alive now," he said quietly. "I am glad for it. I would have felt much worse had I found out that you had died."
Secretly he wondered if it would have hurt less if Kurama had died then. If they both had.
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