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Something To Tell You
Kurama was more then a little nervous as he paced around in his room. At the rate he was going he was going to wear a trench into his floor, he thought absently with a small smile. If only that would be the worst of his problems. But it wasn't and he felt rather like someone trapped in quicksand. Someone who didn't have the use of any of his limbs and was both blind, mute and stupid. Why oh why did this have to happen, Kurama thought in exasperation, fighting the urge to start tearing his hair out in frustration. He should have seen this coming. It was only a matter of time before his parents picked up on the fact that their son wasn't exactly normal. No kidding, Kurama thought darkly. He'd always figured that eventually he'd have to tell them because he wouldn't age, not because his mother had almost been done in by demons. He of course had saved her in time but he wasn't stupid enough to believe she'd swallowed his lame explanation for his rose whip. It had been the only way to save her though, he hadn't had any other choice. So now he was in between a rock and a hard place a lot earlier then he'd expected. He'd noticed that his parents had both been looking at him oddly the past couple of weeks. They weren't saying anything but he could see that something was on their minds. Something to do with him. There was always the chance that they'd never ask for fear of hurting or offending him but he didn't want that. He didn't want them to be afraid to ask him anything. So now he needed to tell them the truth. He wasn't really who they thought he was at all. He was a fox demon, a creature who had been alive for over a thousand years on the demon planes. A former thief who'd taken advantage of a situation without any thought for anyone but himself which had led him to become their son.
Taking a deep breath Kurama walked to his door and after a pause opened it and let himself out. Closing the door firmly behind him he walked bare foot down the hallway to where his parents were watching the news in the living room. "Mother, father...could I speak to the both of you, please?"
"Is something the matter, Shuichi?" His mother asked, looking over at him from the couch with a hint of concern in her eyes.
"No, not exactly. But I do need to talk to you both." Kurama said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile on his face. He was so nervous he could be grimacing and not even know it. Who would have thought he'd be so scared. He could face down an army of demons without flinching but this had his heart beating like a jackhammer. He couldn't recall being this afraid since his mother had almost died on him before he'd retrieved the Mirror of Darkness.
"Of course." His step father assured, turning the television off as Kurama walked over to stand in front of it so that he was facing them.
"Well I...I don't know quite how to go about saying what it is I need to say. I wasn't expecting to have this conversation for quite some time yet with you both." Kurama began, figuring honesty was key in situations like this. It wasn't like he had much knowledge of what it meant to have a heart to heart talk with someone. His life had always been so full of secrets, even more now that he was living in the human world. "I actually didn't think I'd ever have to tell you because I wasn't planning on still being here when..well I just...please understand that no matter what I tell you I still think of you both as my parents and that I care for you both deeply."'
"Shuichi..whatever is the matter?" His mother wanted to know, getting to her feet. "What's wrong?"
"Please sit down, Mother." Kurama insisted and didn't continue until she was once again seated. "There's no need to be upset it's just that...well it's just that there's something I need to tell you. Something about me that you don't know and should."
"Oh, Shuichi..we were wondering when you would bring it up." His mother said, suddenly looking relieved as she took her husband's hand in hers. "I was starting to wonder if you ever would. I'd hoped you knew that you could tell us."
"You know...?" Kurama said slowly, not quite sure what to say now. How could they know? What had he done that had given him away? He'd always been so careful and here they were telling him that they'd known and just hadn't said anything? "How could you know?"
"How could we not? I've watched you grow up before my eyes, Shuichi." His mother said, her love for him plain as day in her eyes. "At first I was a little upset, I won't lie to you about that. But then I reminded myself that you are my son and even if you are..a little different that doesn't change that I love you and want you to always be happy."
"Your mother and I feel the same way about this, son." His father added, giving him a warm look as well.
"I suppose it was foolish of me. To think that I could hide it from you both. Least of all you, mother. I want you to know that it did hurt me to keep it to myself. I didn't think you'd take it as well as you are to be frank. I didn't know what you'd do so I hid it from you. Or thought I had." He said with a sheepish look on his face, relaxing as he felt the stress slid off his shoulders. They were taking it so well.
"Well you don't need to hide it anymore, son." His mother assured him, getting up to give him a hug. "And your young man is welcome here any time."
"My..my young man?" Kurama repeated, looking very confused as he pulled away from his mother, keeping his hands at her waist. "Who do you mean?"
"Why that boy, Hiei. Short, quiet, with the spiky black hair." His mother said with a puzzled look now of her own.
"But what does Hiei have to do with any of this?" Kurama wanted to know, suddenly getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was missing something and he had a feeling it was a pretty big something too. "I've brought him over before yes..but I thought that was okay with you both."
"Of course it is but what I meant was that you two don't have to hide your relationship anymore." His mother explained, also getting the feeling that she was missing something now.
"Hide our relationship? What made what he is more apparent then what I am?" Kurama wanted to know, reeling from the fact that they also knew that Hiei was a demon. Most humans didn't believe that demons existed, much less that they walked among humans in the human world often. How could they possibly have figured this out unless they themselves were more then they seemed. But that was impossible, he knew them too well to consider that. But then how...
"Well it wasn't that either of you gave anything away, it was just your behavior, son." His mother explained, taking his hands in hers. Squeezing them comfortingly she smiled at him reassuringly. "It wasn't hard to figure out, what with you never bringing anyone but him and those other two friends of yours here. It was obvious that you were close to the other two but that your bound with Hiei was special."
"Special...mother..." Kurama began, feeling a dread like he'd never know rising up. "What do you mean...special?"
"Well I..." His mother began, blushing as she lowered her gaze to the floor, unable to hold his gaze. "Shuchi...I mean that he's...he's your special someone."
"Special someone..." Kurama repeated, the light finally going on. By the Gods..it couldn't be. Could it? "Do you mean..do you mean to tell me that you think that Hiei is my lover?"
"He's not?" His mother said in surprise. "But wasn't that what you were going to tell us?"
"NO! You thought I wanted to tell you that I was gay?" Kurama demanded, not sure whether to laugh, be insulted or bang his head repeatedly into a wall until he fell through it. Here he'd thought everything was okay and all along his parents had been incredibly off base. Hold the phone... "Why on earth did you think having male friends made me gay?" Kurama wanted to know, staring at them with a mixture of shock, insult and confusion.
"Well...I...we...you..you aren't gay?" His mother asked weakly, not quite sure what to think anymore as she let her son's hands go as she stared up at him in confusion.
"No! I'm not now nor will I ever be." Kurama assured them forcefully. "Now please explain where you got that idea from."
"Well you never seemed to show an interest in girls." His mother explained, wringing her hands as she worried about how her wrong assumption might effect her relationship with her son. She'd been so sure... "You always seemed to prefer hanging around with boys and you never mentioned any girl in particular, much less bring any of them home with you. The only people that came here with you were boys and you always seemed so close to them, Hiei especially. You're so handsome and wonderful that it just seemed that there was no way you couldn't get a girlfriend unless..unless you didn't want one."
"We're sorry, Shuichi..we hope that you can forgive us for jumping to conclusions." His father said, getting to his feet as well.
"It's all right, I'm not angry. I suppose it would seem odd to you all." Kurama said, trying to come to terms with the fact that his parents had apparently been under the assumption for a while that he was gay.
"So if that's not what you wanted to tell us..then what was it?" His father asked, wanting to change the subject before things could get any worse. It was bad enough that they'd falsely assumed that their son was gay but telling him all the reasons why would likely just make things worse.
"Oh." Kurama said weakly, suddenly realizing that he was back where he started. Which was worse..having a son who was gay or one that was a demon? Somehow he got the feeling that demon was not going to go over so well as the first. "Well you see..what I wanted to tell you..what I thought you knew was..well..I'm not who you think I am..literally."
"What do you mean, Shuichi?" Was his mother's confused question.
"Well for starters my original name wasn't Shuichi..it's Kurama. Shuichi is the name you gave me but for the first thousand years of my life I went by Kurama..when I was a fox demon on the demon planes." Kurama began, not surprised when both of his parents gapped at him like he'd just told them the earth was flat. "I know you must be thinking that I'm crazy or sleep deprived but that isn't it. Remember, mother...when those men attacked you a few weeks ago? Those men that were abnormally big and strong? Who knew you even though you'd never seen them before in your life. They were demons too and they'd come to do you harm because of me. Because of who and what I am."
"I...I...don't understand." His father said weakly, Kurama's mother backing away as she stared at her son in confusion.
"I came to earth, to this human world because I had been badly hurt in the demon world and needed to take refugee and heal from my wounds. I hid..I hid in your womb, mother. I had intended only to stay with you until I was strong enough to leave you and return to my world. But I...I couldn't leave you here alone, especially after you got so sick. I didn't go back to the demon world until your condition worsened to the point that there wasn't any hope anymore. Then I went to get something to help you."
"Is that...is that why she healed so miraculously?" His father wanted to know, trying to understand. "And by demon..what do you mean? You don't mean demon, demon. Do you?"
"Not quite what you're thinking. Your culture has depicted us in many ways but I guess the closest I could get to explain what I'm like is that anime show Inu yasha that Eichi's likes to watch when he stays over here." Kurama said, latching onto the analogy. Eichi's was a neighbor that his mother sometimes baby-sat who was a little obsessed with anime and Inu yasha in general. He and his mother had been subjected to watching it a lot with the boy as a result. "In my true form I'm like that character Sesshoumaru though certainly not in personality. Or his hatred of humans obviously..or lordship of anywhere..well basically I'm just bigger, stronger and a lot more dangerous. Hiei is a demon too, that's why I didn't get what you were talking about right away before. He helped me get the demon object that helped you, mother."
"I don't know what to say..I can't..I can't really believe it." His mother said weakly, trying to smile but failing miserably.
"I thought I might need to demonstrate. I can't turn into my true form, not here in these circumstances anyway. But I can show you that I have powers beyond that of a normal human being." Reaching behind his hair Kurama surprised his parents by pulling out a rose. With a flick of his wrist that rose became a thorny whip before their amazed eyes, the room filling with the sweet sent of the flower. "This is my rose whip, the one I used to grab that demon's arm before he could hurt you, mother. My specialty is manipulating plants." Seeing the way they were staring at him Kurama sighed. "But this isn't quite enough to prove my claim since a magician might be able to pull off an illusion cause as this. If you'll hold on a moment I'll bring my other proof." Walking out of the room Kurama headed to the door, stopping a moment to turn and look at them with a rueful half smile. "Hiei is coming back with me..it would be best for everyone if you didn't mention the possibility of either of us being gay while he's here."
That being said Kurama went to the front door and opening it popped his head around the corner where Hiei was lounging in the darkness. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Hiei."
"How are they taking it so far?" Hiei wanted to know as he walked into the house. "It's surprisingly quiet. Did your mother faint dead away by any chance?"
"No, there was a bit of a misunderstanding before which is why it took so long, Hiei." Kurama explained as the two walked into the living room to find Kurama's father with his arms wrapped around his mother while she leaned against him for support. Hearing the two approach they turned to face the young man, Kurama's father keeping a tight grip on his wife. "This will only take a minute, then you both can have all the time you need to decide how you feel about all this. I'll leave with Hiei if that's what you want until you feel comfortable with seeing me again. If you do. Hiei?" Kurama said, looking down at friend.
"First off...you'll be justifying every bad thing I've ever said or thought about humans if you kick him out." Hiei said roughly, that being all he was going to say on the subject. Instead he let actions speak louder then words as he took off his head sash to reveal his third eye, drawing gasps from his friend's adoptive parents. "This is my third eye and the reason I never take this off. My job is done...I'll wait outside until you tell me otherwise." Hiei added for Kurama's benefit before exiting the room to let himself out.
"He...he...he..." Was all she could manage to say as she clung to her husband, not sure what to think anymore. She'd always thought that her son's friend was a little strange but now this? Her son's friend had an eye in the middle of his forehead! And he'd acted like this wasn't a big deal, like it was nothing strange to have more then the normal two. He wasn't human..he couldn't be. And her son claimed that he was the same way. That her Shuichi wasn't her Shuichi as all.
"He's actually half fire, half water demon so we aren't all that alike. I only have two eyes in either form." Kurama said, trying to lighten the mood without any success. "I can't begin to understand how you're feeling right now..so I'll go for now and you can call Yusuke when you wish to speak with me. He'll know how to get in touch."
"Shuichi..Kurama." His mother said in a voice perilously close to sobbing.
"I'll always be your Shuichi, Mother. I want you to know that." Kurama said softly, fighting the urge to go over and take his mother into his arms, to reassure her. "Don't ever think that I don't love you as much as any son has ever loved his mother. You mean the world to me and I would do anything if it meant protecting you from any hurt or moment of pain. There is nothing I wouldn't do for you."
"Then you'll stay here..with me." She said weakly, pushing away from her husband to walk towards her boy, the child she had carried and loved for all these years. A bit wobbly as she made her way towards him she fell against her beloved son, his arms came up around her automatically to hold her up in his loving embrace. "You're my son...my heart. I don't care who or what you are..so long as you're my son."
"Then...I will stay for you, Mother. Until the day you tell me otherwise." Kurama said softly, laying his head on top of hers. "I swear it."