A/N: Why hello there. Guess what, I finally snatched up some inspiration! And I know where it came from, too :) I finished a YoukoxYomi picture with a twist on dA (it's called The Youko's Cave and my username is houkakyou if anyone wants to check it out) and I've been rewatching Season Four of YYH :D

Yes, I know the dialogue is pretty much completely different than what the actual words are, but that's the point. This takes place in…I think it's episode 101? Well, it's the one where Kurama and Yomi meet after a thousand years. You know? The good episode.

Also, nobody ever explained why there seems to be a fox tail poking out of his backpack after he starts flipping around to avoid the three guys Yomi sends after him. So I addressed it myself :) Also, this was inspired because I was watching them and I realized that Kurama seemed really short, but then I thought back and – he's taller than Yusuke! He's around six feet! So Yomi must be a good seven and a half! (He's really grown; Youko is seven or so and used to be a lot taller than him…) Well, here you go!

The Sun Always Rises

On Debt

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After meeting Yomi for the first time in a millennium, the most shocking thing about him was not his lack of sight, but in fact his height.

He towered over my red-haired form like a cat over a mouse. Such a drastic change from my memory of him caused me to step back and give my head a mental shake. I had – rather foolishly, I suppose – somehow expected to be looking down into his eyes, as before. But I found myself having to glance almost a foot and a half above my current eye level to be met with closed lids. This shoved me from my mental position in the past right into the present, where I was now the lesser being and the subordinate. For a moment, I even found myself regretting choosing to spend so long in the human world. My stagnation had colored my world an ashy grey of death, and I had sorely needed to revisit the colorful world of the immortality that I had left behind.

Ironically, Yomi himself was now caught in a colorless haze of only four senses – senses that, I admit to myself at night, I could have had if only I had forsaken my human mother sooner. I had one chance before the death of this form, one chance that a moment of emotion had caused me to ignore. Now I had to wait the eight or nine decades it would take for this body to die naturally before my soul could escape and reform my original body.

"Yomi…" I hissed. "What is the meaning of this?"

He smirked, and I quickly stifled the overpowering need to wipe the smugness from his countenance. Instead, I regressed my rose whip as he spoke. "I wasn't sure if it was you, Kurama, my old friend. Your energy feels so different from how I last remember. Rather diminished."

I frowned. "Much has changed, Yomi, not the last of which is our relationship. I don't remember parting on good terms, so why the message after so long?"

Now it was the goat's turn to frown, his brows creasing. "Kurama, can we not put our issues aside until it comes time to confront them? My intention today was to have you observe a war meeting and to see what you contribute. Come, let us go."

I scoffed, red hair swirling as I shook my head. "I never claimed to understand you, but now I have not a clue of your intentions. You've spent a thousand years gaining power in pursuit of what I was, and now you have called me here to witness what you now are. But I am also far from the Youko you remember. I am only human. You cannot realize how much has changed; comprehending the enormity of my transformation is unavailable to you without the use of your eyes. I am silver-haired and golden-eyed no longer; my trademark white clothing and silent movement has vanished. I am, as you said, diminished.

"So what the hell could you want from me?"

"Oh, my friend, you are too humble. Your mind has not languished, and it never will. Now please. Would you like to run with me? Gandara is a good fifty miles away, and we must get there before nightfall if we are to attend the meeting." He considered for a moment, then ventured, "Unless you find yourself unable to traverse such a distance?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "Again, Yomi, I am mostly human…and most humans cannot walk fifty miles in a day, let alone run it in two hours. I suppose I shall just have to miss this meeting of yours; my apologies. You'll just have to leave me to my own devices until I arrive tomorrow."

The taller demon let out a laugh and strode forward. "Ah, my fox friend, you always were a wonderful conversationalist. But no fear, I will simply carry you along with me and we will be there in no time!"

I flinched away as he reached for me. "Yomi, really, I don't mind walking, I'm really not quite ready to –" I cut off in a strangled squeak as his arms encircled me and he lifted my tense form up, pausing for a second midway to readjust. I suspect he, like me, wasn't ready to be confronted with the change in size; I was lighter and smaller than he'd ever felt. We'd traveled in this fashion once before – which was probably why he did not pause in suggesting such an embarrassing position – a very long time ago when I had been injured as a result of his foolish actions. Needless to say, the situation was vastly removed, and the slight annoyance I had felt then was exponentially increased now. I grunted discontentedly and hefted my dangling pack onto my chest, taking a second to tuck the errant foxtail in. My brother had given me the charm as a parting summer souvenir, and I had packed it away to give my belongings some semblance of humanity, as ironic as that seemed.

Yomi began running, the trees becoming a blur all around him. I smiled in spite of myself, for this was a sensation I had missed, and one that I relished. The wind rushing past my face, lifting my hair up, rippling past my clothes to mingle with Yomi's own – no, that ruined it. Better not to think about the one whose arms supported me, the one whom I owed a heavy debt.

I owed him, because I'd taken away his sight –I found out later that he had referred to it as his light.

Light colors the world, and the biggest difference between us was the height that cast a shadow over all that I saw. He had the view to life with no eyes to see it, and I had only the world surrounded by shadow, by the death that walked the streets waiting to claim my name.

But for now, it was all I could do not to scream, to not be taken over by the ghosts and regrets of the past.

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