GW/YYH crossover: Moments of Redemption (7/30)
Everyone's doing so well picking out my stupid little slips and mistakes. ^_^;; I hope you continue to do so, and I hope you continue to enjoy this next part! (and I hope you continue to forgive me for my very slow writing pace... ^_^;;)
Title: Arrival/Departure
Pairings: Kurama/Heero Yuy
Warnings: Violence, some angst, weird-ass crossover (but it works, I swear!)
Series: Moments of Redemption (7/30)
Notes: This storyline is written for the 30 Kisses challenge. This is # 3 - "Jolt!"
Summary: Kurama and the others help the Gundam Pilots put their ghosts to rest
Dedicated to: deathgod02
Extra Disclaimer: All aspects of Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing belong to Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties. These characters were borrowed without permission, but only for fun and not for commercial purposes.
(X-posted to: 30_kisses)
Previous parts can be found HERE.
Kurama flinched as Agent Yuy pulled the trigger, gun shot cracking the quiet into distinct pieces. The fog-creature blasted apart with the bullet impact, but then bled back together, looking angrier, coming faster.
Kurama turned. "Yuusuke!"
"Already on it." Yuusuke's hand was pointed toward the things, which were now a dozen strong and rolling forward like a wall with grinning faces. His fingers curled into his "gun" pose and Kurama tackled Yuy without thinking and got an elbow in the cheek for his effort. That would bruise.
Then nothing happened.
Dripping and trying not to taste the wet-ashes flavor of spirit-world water, he turned and stared at Yuusuke.
Who was blinking at his own hand like it had grown a sixth finger, or maybe lost one without his noticing. "Huh?"
Yuy shook Kurama off with a growl, and lurched to his knees, firing rapidly and hitting three of the things in the dead center of what could pass for their foreheads.
Kurama stood and grabbed his arm, trying to haul him up. "We need to--"
Yuy shook him off, glaring. "I can do this. I just need to--"
"Shooting them isn't working! You're only making them angrier!"
They both flinched and fell back as one of the frontrunners reared up next to them and then exploded into a fine mist, the report of a gun echoing in the fog.
"Move your ass, Yuy!" Further ahead, Duo was shoving the Chinese Preventer in front of him, gun in his other hand. "Quatre says it's this way!"
Kurama could only wonder at what "it" was, exactly. Yuusuke finally dropped his hand and shrugged before turning to follow the others. "Come on, Kurama."
Running was difficult when it consisted mostly of wading through hip-deep water. Kurama was tempted to swim it, but a glance at Yuy reminded Kurama that the agent was wounded, one arm still inhibited against his chest, so that wouldn't work. He felt a small jolt of guilt, and managed to squash it before he could do something embarrassing, like try to coddle the boy. At the very least, all mothering instincts should be reserved until after they were finished running for their lives.
Duo cut back a moment later with Yuusuke and the Chinese Preventer. "Jeez, Heero, we've been telling you to lay off the hamburgers, but you never listen to us."
"I'll carry ya."
Heero gave Yuusuke a glare that spoke of death and dismemberment should he even try.
"Shut up and let the man carry you, Heero."
Kurama could feel the fog-creatures, could hear the click of their grinning teeth.
"Do not allow your pride to be detrimental to your safety or the safety of your teammates, Yuy."
"I don't really think you've got room to talk about over-abundance of pride, Wufei."
"Shut up, Maxwell."
"Man, you guys are adorable when you fight. Like puppies!"
Kurama sighed. Yuusuke was not helping things.
"Here." Trowa's voice was low, but pitched to cut through the fog and the sound of other voices. He was standing on the steps leading out of the water and to a shadowed doorway, wide enough that it made Kurama think of a cathedral.
"Don't shoot me," Yuusuke said, reaching for Heero. "Probably wouldn't work, anyway."
Heero didn't shoot Yuusuke, but from his expression, Kurama thought it was probably a near thing. They took off for the steps, and Trowa lead the way inside. At the threshold, Kurama turned and looked into the fog, in time to see the creatures melt away and disappear.
"Hey," Duo said from somewhere behind Kurama. "Do you get the feeling we were just...herded?"
Kurama pressed his lips into a line. He was always unhappy when he didn't know what was going on. It was a rare enough occurrence that it usually caught him off guard. It was this kind of arrogance, he thought with a small internal smirk, that kept getting him into trouble.
Fortunately, he was good at improvising.
"Ow!" Yuusuke yelped. "Stop poking me, dude."
The glare Yuy had fixed on Yuusuke's neck, which was the only thing he could see from the angle he was at, in Yuusuke's arms, was enough to drill holes through even Yuusuke's admittedly thick skin. Kurama had seen Yuusuke survive worse, however, so he tried not to worry.
Glass crunched underfoot as he turned around and took in their surroundings. It was a lobby, marble tiled and gold trimmed and one whole wall that lead deeper into the building lined with slats of mirrors.
"Dude, seriously, if you don't stop poking me, I'm gonna drop you on your head so many times you'll…well...trust me, it will be bad." After a moment, Yuusuke thought to add, "For you."
Duo snickered and wrung out the tip of his braid, which had soaked in the River.
Expensive real-wood chairs lay overturned and gutted, the crystalline chandelier slumped sideways on the floor, shattered. Quatre Winner's hair was a bright point in the dim light as he studied a fire-exit map near the opening of the hallway.
"It's Apex Hall," Winner said, making his way back to them. "Where we were last night."
"This place is in serious need of a pick-me-up." Yuusuke toed one of the over turned chairs.
"I agree." Winner brushed his hand over one of the columns, lingering on the long scratch marks. "Not that it doesn't have a certain end-of-the-world charm as is. It certainly wasn't this ruined when we last saw it."
"This destruction was deliberate." Wufei was circling the chandelier slowly, then stopped to look up the ceiling where it had been connected. "And...old." He frowned. "Though that isn't possible…"
"Try not to think too hard. That's what I do." Yuusuke ignored the dark look Wufei threw in his direction that clearly said the Asian man would do everything in his power to be as little like Yuusuke as possible. "Things are creepy and wrong. Just get over it, and try to solve the big problem without getting distracted by the details."
"What we need to know," Winner said, "is what are details and what are pieces of the bigger puzzle."
"Well, that's why we have you, psychic-man." Yuusuke grinned. "And Kurama. Any thoughts, Mr. Brains of the Operation?"
"First thing's first. Put Agent Yuy in the chair, please."
There was one chair against a wall, out of the general path of destruction that had remained mostly intact. Yuusuke dropped Yuy into it with relish that proved its stability. Kurama tried to quell him with a look, but Yuusuke just bounced on his toes and appeared completely unrepentant.
"What are you doing?" Duo asked.
"Seeing to Yuy's injuries. I have a feeling that they're only going to become more inconvenient as the day progresses. Do we have power?" Kurama didn't need that much light to see well, demon eyes making even moonlight like a sun to him, but it would still be easier if they had light, and it would certainly be better for the humans in his group.
Duo hesitated, eyes narrowed slightly as he looked Kurama over. Then he flicked a glance at Wufei and grinned. "I'll go check it out. Trowa? Back me up?"
The taller man, who'd been studying a chair whose legs had apparently been sawed off, straightened and nodded.
Wufei moved closer to Kurama and Yuy, making Kurama wonder if he should admire or feel exasperated by this group's persistent suspicion. Well, he supposed survival taught hard lessons, and he wasn't the most trusting person himself.
Duo, after a glance at the map on the wall, headed for the emergency door, whose sign was unlit, meaning both the primary and secondary power was out. Duo shoved the door open, produced a small but powerful penlight from one of his many pockets and shown it into the blackness.
Anxiety clenched Kurama's heart for just a moment. There were monsters about, even if he couldn't sense them. It felt fundamentally wrong to send children into the dark against them alone, even if they were well-armed children.
Then again, now that he was thinking of it, how many of them were armed? Duo and Yuy certainly, but he hadn't seen any of the others produce weapons as of yet.
He shot a look at Yuusuke, who caught it in one of his perceptive moments, and pushed off the wall he'd been leaning against.
"I'll go."
He had to jog to catch up; the other two had already disappeared through the door.
"Yuusuke," Kurama said, and then paused. The moment back in the fog, when Yuusuke's reigun had failed to work, was sudden and clear in his mind.
Yuusuke, one hand on the doorframe, turned and grinned. "Don't worry."
And then it was just Kurama, and three people who didn't like or trust him, much. Wufei was a solid presence just off to the left and a step back from Kurama's line of vision. Yuy was a silent in front of him, which was rather surprising, actually.
Kurama glanced up, hand hovering over Yuy's ankle. "You're all right with this?"
Blue eyes regarded him with a sort of patience Kurama wouldn't have expected to find. "You're right. These injuries will slow me."
"Ah, yes."
"You can do something about them."
"I think so."
"You think so?" This was Wufei, edged and cynical at his back.
"Healing is...not my specialty."
Wufei snorted.
"Chang," Heero said, and his gaze was much less patient as he shot the other Preventer a hard look.
Kurama could almost feel Wufei roll his eyes, but he stepped away and allowed Kurama some room, moving to stand guard near the emergency exit. The steady eyes turned back to Kurama.
"Do something about them," Heero said, in a way that made Kurama want to salute with a "Yessir!" but he didn't think Heero would appreciate the humor, or even get it, really.
So he looked at the ankle in his hand, pale skin and strong bones and the elastic brace soaked through and gray with spirit water. He'd not really expected the Preventer's feet to be delicate-looking, long toes with nails neatly trimmed. He wasn't sure what he'd expected--feet that looked like combat boots, perhaps.
The calf had defined muscles, even relaxed as it was, fine hairs faint and light, tickled Kurama's palm as he ran his hand up Heero's shin, feeling for stress fractures unconsciously. It was a nice leg, Kurama thought, and if he said that out loud he was fairly certain he'd get up close and personal with the well-formed toes as Yuy kicked him in the face.
Time to focus.
Kurama took a breath and concentrated, and hoped this would work. Yuusuke hadn't been able to use his reigun, but Yuusuke's powers weren't subtle, and were clearly offensive. Kurama had been trying to feel out the shape of a kekkai or any other ki-seal. Though it was possible to create a power void in an area, it almost always left behind a recognizable ki-signature.
He'd felt nothing, but in this place, wherever they were, that didn't necessarily mean there was nothing.
Still, he could hope that a small healing spell wouldn't trigger whatever power-suppressant they had fallen under. Kurama wasn't very good at healing, and the break in Yuy's collarbone might prove too complicated. If he healed it incorrectly, it would only be worse trying to fix it, later. But Yuy's ankle was only sprained, and that should be easy enough to fix.
He reached carefully for power--
--and it hit him, like a bolt of pure ki, blazing fierce and orange and alien.
He must have shouted, because the sound of it was ringing in his ears.
"Kurama?"
Kurama's head jerked up, everything in him going cold, at a voice that he only heard in distant memories and hazy dreams, anymore.
Kuwabara Kazuma sat in the chair where Yuy should have been. His skin was white, except for the bright red second smile carved under his chin, and the rust-dark old blood spilled down his tattered T-shirt. His face was blank, his eyes rotted and yellow, unseeing. But he tilted his head, a little obscene jerk of movement that opened the slit in his throat even wider and said, "Kurama?" in a voice so normal and curious that Kurama choked.
And then he realized he was still holding the ankle, a cold dead weight in his hands, and maggots were crawling up his fingers, over his wrists. He didn't scream. He didn't scream but he did fling the ankle away from himself and scramble back.
"Kurama?"
Kurama squeezed his eyes shut. "No!"
"Minamino, pull yourself together!"
It took Kurama a moment to register the voice, and then the name, and then he opened his eyes cautiously, and was speared without mercy on Yuy's hard look, and never felt more grateful to be chastised by someone a fraction of his age.
"I...there was..."
"Is everything all right over there?" Wufei asked cautiously.
Yuy looked to Kurama for an answer to that question. Kurama cleared his throat. "Yes. Everything is fine. And," he added, in a moment of slightly-hysterical humor, "how are things on your side?"
"...Fine. Winner and I... Winner?"
Kurama turned at the alarm in Wufei's voice just as the lights came up with a soft click and flicker and revealed that Quatre Winner was no where in sight.
Title: Arrival/Departure
Pairings: Kurama/Heero Yuy
Warnings: Violence, some angst, weird-ass crossover (but it works, I swear!)
Series: Moments of Redemption (7/30)
Notes: This storyline is written for the 30 Kisses challenge. This is # 3 - "Jolt!"
Summary: Kurama and the others help the Gundam Pilots put their ghosts to rest
Dedicated to: deathgod02
Extra Disclaimer: All aspects of Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing belong to Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties. These characters were borrowed without permission, but only for fun and not for commercial purposes.
(X-posted to: 30_kisses)
Previous parts can be found HERE.
Kurama flinched as Agent Yuy pulled the trigger, gun shot cracking the quiet into distinct pieces. The fog-creature blasted apart with the bullet impact, but then bled back together, looking angrier, coming faster.
Kurama turned. "Yuusuke!"
"Already on it." Yuusuke's hand was pointed toward the things, which were now a dozen strong and rolling forward like a wall with grinning faces. His fingers curled into his "gun" pose and Kurama tackled Yuy without thinking and got an elbow in the cheek for his effort. That would bruise.
Then nothing happened.
Dripping and trying not to taste the wet-ashes flavor of spirit-world water, he turned and stared at Yuusuke.
Who was blinking at his own hand like it had grown a sixth finger, or maybe lost one without his noticing. "Huh?"
Yuy shook Kurama off with a growl, and lurched to his knees, firing rapidly and hitting three of the things in the dead center of what could pass for their foreheads.
Kurama stood and grabbed his arm, trying to haul him up. "We need to--"
Yuy shook him off, glaring. "I can do this. I just need to--"
"Shooting them isn't working! You're only making them angrier!"
They both flinched and fell back as one of the frontrunners reared up next to them and then exploded into a fine mist, the report of a gun echoing in the fog.
"Move your ass, Yuy!" Further ahead, Duo was shoving the Chinese Preventer in front of him, gun in his other hand. "Quatre says it's this way!"
Kurama could only wonder at what "it" was, exactly. Yuusuke finally dropped his hand and shrugged before turning to follow the others. "Come on, Kurama."
Running was difficult when it consisted mostly of wading through hip-deep water. Kurama was tempted to swim it, but a glance at Yuy reminded Kurama that the agent was wounded, one arm still inhibited against his chest, so that wouldn't work. He felt a small jolt of guilt, and managed to squash it before he could do something embarrassing, like try to coddle the boy. At the very least, all mothering instincts should be reserved until after they were finished running for their lives.
Duo cut back a moment later with Yuusuke and the Chinese Preventer. "Jeez, Heero, we've been telling you to lay off the hamburgers, but you never listen to us."
"I'll carry ya."
Heero gave Yuusuke a glare that spoke of death and dismemberment should he even try.
"Shut up and let the man carry you, Heero."
Kurama could feel the fog-creatures, could hear the click of their grinning teeth.
"Do not allow your pride to be detrimental to your safety or the safety of your teammates, Yuy."
"I don't really think you've got room to talk about over-abundance of pride, Wufei."
"Shut up, Maxwell."
"Man, you guys are adorable when you fight. Like puppies!"
Kurama sighed. Yuusuke was not helping things.
"Here." Trowa's voice was low, but pitched to cut through the fog and the sound of other voices. He was standing on the steps leading out of the water and to a shadowed doorway, wide enough that it made Kurama think of a cathedral.
"Don't shoot me," Yuusuke said, reaching for Heero. "Probably wouldn't work, anyway."
Heero didn't shoot Yuusuke, but from his expression, Kurama thought it was probably a near thing. They took off for the steps, and Trowa lead the way inside. At the threshold, Kurama turned and looked into the fog, in time to see the creatures melt away and disappear.
"Hey," Duo said from somewhere behind Kurama. "Do you get the feeling we were just...herded?"
Kurama pressed his lips into a line. He was always unhappy when he didn't know what was going on. It was a rare enough occurrence that it usually caught him off guard. It was this kind of arrogance, he thought with a small internal smirk, that kept getting him into trouble.
Fortunately, he was good at improvising.
"Ow!" Yuusuke yelped. "Stop poking me, dude."
The glare Yuy had fixed on Yuusuke's neck, which was the only thing he could see from the angle he was at, in Yuusuke's arms, was enough to drill holes through even Yuusuke's admittedly thick skin. Kurama had seen Yuusuke survive worse, however, so he tried not to worry.
Glass crunched underfoot as he turned around and took in their surroundings. It was a lobby, marble tiled and gold trimmed and one whole wall that lead deeper into the building lined with slats of mirrors.
"Dude, seriously, if you don't stop poking me, I'm gonna drop you on your head so many times you'll…well...trust me, it will be bad." After a moment, Yuusuke thought to add, "For you."
Duo snickered and wrung out the tip of his braid, which had soaked in the River.
Expensive real-wood chairs lay overturned and gutted, the crystalline chandelier slumped sideways on the floor, shattered. Quatre Winner's hair was a bright point in the dim light as he studied a fire-exit map near the opening of the hallway.
"It's Apex Hall," Winner said, making his way back to them. "Where we were last night."
"This place is in serious need of a pick-me-up." Yuusuke toed one of the over turned chairs.
"I agree." Winner brushed his hand over one of the columns, lingering on the long scratch marks. "Not that it doesn't have a certain end-of-the-world charm as is. It certainly wasn't this ruined when we last saw it."
"This destruction was deliberate." Wufei was circling the chandelier slowly, then stopped to look up the ceiling where it had been connected. "And...old." He frowned. "Though that isn't possible…"
"Try not to think too hard. That's what I do." Yuusuke ignored the dark look Wufei threw in his direction that clearly said the Asian man would do everything in his power to be as little like Yuusuke as possible. "Things are creepy and wrong. Just get over it, and try to solve the big problem without getting distracted by the details."
"What we need to know," Winner said, "is what are details and what are pieces of the bigger puzzle."
"Well, that's why we have you, psychic-man." Yuusuke grinned. "And Kurama. Any thoughts, Mr. Brains of the Operation?"
"First thing's first. Put Agent Yuy in the chair, please."
There was one chair against a wall, out of the general path of destruction that had remained mostly intact. Yuusuke dropped Yuy into it with relish that proved its stability. Kurama tried to quell him with a look, but Yuusuke just bounced on his toes and appeared completely unrepentant.
"What are you doing?" Duo asked.
"Seeing to Yuy's injuries. I have a feeling that they're only going to become more inconvenient as the day progresses. Do we have power?" Kurama didn't need that much light to see well, demon eyes making even moonlight like a sun to him, but it would still be easier if they had light, and it would certainly be better for the humans in his group.
Duo hesitated, eyes narrowed slightly as he looked Kurama over. Then he flicked a glance at Wufei and grinned. "I'll go check it out. Trowa? Back me up?"
The taller man, who'd been studying a chair whose legs had apparently been sawed off, straightened and nodded.
Wufei moved closer to Kurama and Yuy, making Kurama wonder if he should admire or feel exasperated by this group's persistent suspicion. Well, he supposed survival taught hard lessons, and he wasn't the most trusting person himself.
Duo, after a glance at the map on the wall, headed for the emergency door, whose sign was unlit, meaning both the primary and secondary power was out. Duo shoved the door open, produced a small but powerful penlight from one of his many pockets and shown it into the blackness.
Anxiety clenched Kurama's heart for just a moment. There were monsters about, even if he couldn't sense them. It felt fundamentally wrong to send children into the dark against them alone, even if they were well-armed children.
Then again, now that he was thinking of it, how many of them were armed? Duo and Yuy certainly, but he hadn't seen any of the others produce weapons as of yet.
He shot a look at Yuusuke, who caught it in one of his perceptive moments, and pushed off the wall he'd been leaning against.
"I'll go."
He had to jog to catch up; the other two had already disappeared through the door.
"Yuusuke," Kurama said, and then paused. The moment back in the fog, when Yuusuke's reigun had failed to work, was sudden and clear in his mind.
Yuusuke, one hand on the doorframe, turned and grinned. "Don't worry."
And then it was just Kurama, and three people who didn't like or trust him, much. Wufei was a solid presence just off to the left and a step back from Kurama's line of vision. Yuy was a silent in front of him, which was rather surprising, actually.
Kurama glanced up, hand hovering over Yuy's ankle. "You're all right with this?"
Blue eyes regarded him with a sort of patience Kurama wouldn't have expected to find. "You're right. These injuries will slow me."
"Ah, yes."
"You can do something about them."
"I think so."
"You think so?" This was Wufei, edged and cynical at his back.
"Healing is...not my specialty."
Wufei snorted.
"Chang," Heero said, and his gaze was much less patient as he shot the other Preventer a hard look.
Kurama could almost feel Wufei roll his eyes, but he stepped away and allowed Kurama some room, moving to stand guard near the emergency exit. The steady eyes turned back to Kurama.
"Do something about them," Heero said, in a way that made Kurama want to salute with a "Yessir!" but he didn't think Heero would appreciate the humor, or even get it, really.
So he looked at the ankle in his hand, pale skin and strong bones and the elastic brace soaked through and gray with spirit water. He'd not really expected the Preventer's feet to be delicate-looking, long toes with nails neatly trimmed. He wasn't sure what he'd expected--feet that looked like combat boots, perhaps.
The calf had defined muscles, even relaxed as it was, fine hairs faint and light, tickled Kurama's palm as he ran his hand up Heero's shin, feeling for stress fractures unconsciously. It was a nice leg, Kurama thought, and if he said that out loud he was fairly certain he'd get up close and personal with the well-formed toes as Yuy kicked him in the face.
Time to focus.
Kurama took a breath and concentrated, and hoped this would work. Yuusuke hadn't been able to use his reigun, but Yuusuke's powers weren't subtle, and were clearly offensive. Kurama had been trying to feel out the shape of a kekkai or any other ki-seal. Though it was possible to create a power void in an area, it almost always left behind a recognizable ki-signature.
He'd felt nothing, but in this place, wherever they were, that didn't necessarily mean there was nothing.
Still, he could hope that a small healing spell wouldn't trigger whatever power-suppressant they had fallen under. Kurama wasn't very good at healing, and the break in Yuy's collarbone might prove too complicated. If he healed it incorrectly, it would only be worse trying to fix it, later. But Yuy's ankle was only sprained, and that should be easy enough to fix.
He reached carefully for power--
--and it hit him, like a bolt of pure ki, blazing fierce and orange and alien.
He must have shouted, because the sound of it was ringing in his ears.
"Kurama?"
Kurama's head jerked up, everything in him going cold, at a voice that he only heard in distant memories and hazy dreams, anymore.
Kuwabara Kazuma sat in the chair where Yuy should have been. His skin was white, except for the bright red second smile carved under his chin, and the rust-dark old blood spilled down his tattered T-shirt. His face was blank, his eyes rotted and yellow, unseeing. But he tilted his head, a little obscene jerk of movement that opened the slit in his throat even wider and said, "Kurama?" in a voice so normal and curious that Kurama choked.
And then he realized he was still holding the ankle, a cold dead weight in his hands, and maggots were crawling up his fingers, over his wrists. He didn't scream. He didn't scream but he did fling the ankle away from himself and scramble back.
"Kurama?"
Kurama squeezed his eyes shut. "No!"
"Minamino, pull yourself together!"
It took Kurama a moment to register the voice, and then the name, and then he opened his eyes cautiously, and was speared without mercy on Yuy's hard look, and never felt more grateful to be chastised by someone a fraction of his age.
"I...there was..."
"Is everything all right over there?" Wufei asked cautiously.
Yuy looked to Kurama for an answer to that question. Kurama cleared his throat. "Yes. Everything is fine. And," he added, in a moment of slightly-hysterical humor, "how are things on your side?"
"...Fine. Winner and I... Winner?"
Kurama turned at the alarm in Wufei's voice just as the lights came up with a soft click and flicker and revealed that Quatre Winner was no where in sight.