shallow sleep

by: oONekomataOo

DISCLAIMER: I don't own YYH and I fall asleep sobbing every night because I don't own Kurama, Kuronue, or even Teh Smexy Hat (giggle, snort).

WARNING: Probably some OOCness, language, Pocky conspiracies, and flirty bats.

Neko: I've had the idea to do this fic for awhile, but kept going off into 10 million different directions with it. It got to the point where writing it caused me to bash my head into my desk, which….looking back probably caused more than a little brain damage to an already crazy Pocky-addicted freak. But whatever. I ended up splitting my story into 3 different ones yet still couldn't find the right motivation. Then I heard hyde's (of L'Arcenciel) Shallow Sleep, blinked, squee'd, and started to write up the rough draft again with an actual title this time.

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Limbo smelled like old ladies. Or at least that's what this particular soul thought it would if he was actually still capable of smelling in his current bodiless form. But you couldn't really blame him for making the assumption, because Limbo wasn't exactly the most exciting place in the universe. Unless you found an endless mass of swirling darkness fun anyway.

Quite simply: Limbo sucked. Limbo sucked ass. One could occasionally bump into another unfortunate soul doomed to float around its infinite swimming pool of darkness, but they weren't exactly chatty. The best you could really do was hope to find an axe-murderer or something to tell you about how he killed over thirty people before the cops even caught on, escaped prison twice, slaughtered bunnies for fun, eluded the police force once more, and finally died by tripping over his own shoelaces and getting run over by a bus. And that was on a good day.

Sometimes you'd be unfortunate enough to find some whacko scientist that was all too happy to regale you with his life story that mainly consisted of experimenting on anything from snails to humans. This eventually led to a lecture on how the weapon of mass destruction that they had secretly developed, which led to rants about how The Man had unfairly passed judgment on them and threw them in here. Those were the days that you wish you could somehow kill yourself again. Today was one of those days.

The soul of the former Makaiin thief quickly descended into one of the upper lairs of Limbo. He had two unfortunate meetings with a psycho math professor that drove his former students mentally insane with his polynomial functions and quadratic equations. Then he had the horrid luck of running into one of the ex-demon lords he and his partner in crime had stolen from. He caught hell for that. Yep, today was definitely not Kuronue's day.

Floating about in the cloudy air, the koumori noticed a cluster of souls zipping around in an erratic formation. Now, it was semi-normal to see one or two souls together, but nine or ten was almost unheard of. Kuronue edged closer.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked the soul nearest to him.

"The Master…he comes…"

"He returns to us…the Great One…"

"Our Master…he comes…"

"Sorry I asked."

Tempted to leave the doped up freaks, Kuronue turned away and prepared to float on. That was before a giant electrical cloud was ripped open above him. A strong wind started to surge through it immediately.

"Holy shit!" yelled the bat as he was nearly blown over. If he still had legs in his current bodiless form, Kuronue was pretty sure that they would have given out, and he'd be knocked on his ass by the sheer force of the new presence.

From the storm cloud a large and powerful hand appeared.

"Damn! That thing's so freaking huge, it's gotta have its own area code! Hell, I bet its owner takes up two time zones!"

Unimpressed by the koumori's colorful commentary, the cluster of souls continued chanting their master's name like a mantra.

"Senhor grande Vasuki! Todos granizam o mestre Vasuki!" ("Great lord, Vasuki! All hail master Vasuki!")

"Senhor grande da saraiva Vasuki! Retorne a seus povos uma vez mais!" ("Hail great lord Vasuki! Return to your people once more!")

"Nosso mestre grande Vasuki! Eu sinto como o tacos!" ("Our master, great Vasuki! I feel like tacos!")

All that Kuronue got from that was a headache and the strangest craving for tacos.

The gigantic hand released a soul to be dropped into the abyss. By the way the corrupted soul seemed to resist with storm clouds and strong you-ki, Kuronue guessed that it was not happy, whatever it was.

With a final roar and crash of thunder, the new soul was hurled into oblivion right before the koumori spirit's eyes. Its followers howled along with it and raced off after their master.

But Kuronue didn't see this. All he saw was opportunity.

Just as the giant hand pulled itself out of the rift it created in Limbo, Kuronue took off towards the vanishing storm cloud.

It was almost instinct. For years, Kuronue had been wandering the darkest depths of Limbo looking for an escape, and now one had conveniently appeared as a special, limited time offer. Having potential freedom dangling in front of him was like jingling a set of car keys over a sixteen year old's head.

The youkai could have sworn he felt the refreshing feel of a Makaain breeze lift him up closer to the opening before something clamped down hard on where his shoulder would have been; had he a physical form. Kuronue stifled a cry of pain.

'I'm just a soul! I shouldn't be able to feel anything!' he thought furiously. 'What the hell is this thing? Some kind of security measure?'

Unable to find an answer to his questions, the thief focused all his energies on escaping the prison with the added weight of the force threatening to tear him apart. Kuronue was barely able to pass through the disappearing thunder cloud before it closed itself off to the rest of the denizens of Limbo.

Blinded by the excruciating light on the other side of the tunnel, Kuronue was momentarily paralyzed. This would be the first source of true light that the koumori had seen in decades. Kuronue flew blindly in the direction he thought would take him farthest from the depths of his former prison. In other words, he looked like a radioactive hummingbird that took one too many hits of LSD.

Around him, papers flew off desks and ogres sped around searching for nets, cages, or whatever they could find to put the escaped soul in. One grabbed an all-purpose laser gun. Another grabbed a Hello Kitty mechanical pencil. A loud roar sounded over the mummers and yelps coming from the rest of the staff.

The youkai had assumed the painful presence on his arm would leave him once he escaped Limbo. He was wrong.

Kuronue had to bite down another scream as a new wave of pain overtook him. Now he couldn't tell if he was being ripped apart or liquefying. It felt like force opposing him was actually melting over him like superheated metal. And without a body to help him focus his own you-ki, Kuronue felt more and more defenseless.

"God…damn it…" he cursed, unsure how much longer he could last. 'I did NOT finally escape that hellhole just to die again!'

The koumori knew exactly what would happen to him if his soul was damaged beyond the point of repair. Breaking down into tiny fragments of spiritual energy and gradually fading into nothingness was not on the top of Kuronue's priority list.

"K…Ku…rama…"

An image of his silver-haired friend flashed through his mind. He couldn't die again now, he had gotten so far…It was just a little further to Makai. It was just a little further to his best friend.

The monstrous energy attacking the koumori did not let up. Kuronue felt as though his entire body was on an electrical fire of you-ki.

Still, he refused to give up. Kuronue knew he could get through this, find a way back to Makai, and then finding Youko would be a cakewalk. Being the experienced demon that he was, Kuronue continued to handle the situation with the grace and maturity of someone his age.

"Cocksucker!" he spat. "Let the hell go!"

Soaring around the offices of Reikai, Kuronue was in too much pain to really figure out where he was going. All he could too was dodge the dizzying array of arms, horns, and nets as they reached out to grab him. Despite still being blinded by what felt like the intense rays of the sun, Kuronue managed to locate an open window. The numerous voices and commotion started by the fugitive soul started to fade as he flew out the opening to the outside world.

Running on pure adrenaline, the thief flew away from the castle as fast as possible. Still disoriented from all the damage he was taking, he was no longer able to distinguish up from down or where the ground ended and the sky started. Diving lower, the kourmori could sense a rush of fresh souls and hear the cry of very surprised ferry girls.

Wisps of bright orange vapors appeared all at once to cloud his vision further as he pressed on towards what he could only hope was the right way to Makai.

"The...River Styx?"

Kuronue continued to fly around the river of souls madly in search of his homeland while the pressure that had been eating away at his soul seemed to ebb away. Eventually it had become only a small throbbing in the back of his subconscious.

"The hell…?" Kuronue questioned out loud to no one in particular.

Finally he felt it. A familiar dark pull that invaded all of his senses and bid him to come closer and closer. It filled the thief with ecstasy.

'Makai…'

He had found it. The small portal that would lead him back to the world of demons and bring him one step closer to finding his friend again. Without a second thought, Kuronue plowed through the final Kekkai Barrier. A final burst of light later and he was back at home in the forests of Makai.

Still a little disoriented, Kuronue looked around for any clue as to where the bloody hell he was.

"I don't recognize any of this…" he muttered. "This can't be happening, I never get lost!"

If souls could sweatdrop, the koumori spirit would have had quite a few beads of sweat on his head.

"Well, okay, there was that one time in the Dark Forest, and that other time inside Taishoku's mansion, but the hour we spent wandering Demon's Gate was partially Youko's fault!"

A moment of silence followed his outburst.

"I'm gonna need a new body too," growled the spirit. "…….shit."

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"Koenma-sama! Koenma-sama!" came the usual cry of alarm from George.

"Ogre," greeted the young demigod halfheartedly. "What is it now? Did you spill ink all over your loincloth again?"

"No, sir!" exclaimed the large, blue ogre, huffing and puffing from his long run to his superior's office. "This just came in from Judgement center!"

He threw an official-looking folder on Koenma's desk and rushed to finish his own report.

"A soul just escaped Limbo! It flew out following the imprisonment of another diabolical youkai and it almost clipped King Enma in the nose!" George gestured wildly. "He had the whole ward in a panic too! We suspect it escaped back to Makai since no reports in the Ningenkai have yet been made."

"A soul from Limbo?" barked Koenma. "What have we done about it so far? Have we identified it at least?"

"Yessir! His profile's in the report there!"

The toddler quickly opened the folder and skimmed through its contents.

"This can't be right…" Koenma mumbled. "Sure he was an accomplished thief and killed his share of youkai, but he's never even taken a human life. He couldn't have been sent to Limbo for crimes like that!"

George felt the child's gaze fall upon him.

"Ogre, are you sure you brought me the right folder?" growled Koenma.

"Y-Yessir! I got it straight from the Security wardens themselves! They're still keeping a close eye on the castle grounds for him."

Koemna simply shook his head and continued reading. He felt his heart stop cold as soon as he got to the list of relatives and allies.

"I know that the Tentai are busy training for the Dark Tournament, but should I ask Botan to inform them about this anyway?" the blue ogre asked, trying to be helpful. "Maybe they could keep an eye out for this guy in the Ningenkai?"

"No," the miniature price responded in a serious tone. "I don't want any of them to find out about this. You're right about the chances of the fugitive escaping to Makai."

He closed the folder.

"As far as Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei are concerned, this person should not even exist, understand?"

"Y-Yes, Koenma-sama!"

"The Tentai have to prepare for the fight of their lives, we don't need any more stress weighing them down." Koenma continued. "Besides, this guy can't do much without a body, right?"

"Yessir!" saluted George before exiting the room.

As soon as he shut the door, Koenma's serious face gave way to a chibi one.

"More importantly, I don't want any angry fox incarnations bearing their fangs at me to get information about their past life's partner in crime!"

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A shrill cry tore through the treetops of the unfamiliar Makaiin forest.

"Home, sweet, home…" muttered the floating kourmori spirit as he attempted to navigate his way to the source of the scream without running into any trees.

Despite being the battle-hardened, tough guy, orphaned youkai that he used to be, Kuronue's deepest sympathies went out to the blood-covered child before him.

A little boy that appeared no more than four years old was slumped over the body of a teenage boy's corpse, crying uncontrollably. There was blood everywhere, but it looked old. If he still had his sense of smell, Kuronue would have been able to predict that this had happened a little over two hours ago. The ones responsible were long gone, but the two victims remained in the near-twilight.

"WHY? WHY? WHY?" screamed the young demon, finally pulling his head back from the blood and tearstained wound on the other youkai. "Nebo! NEBO!"

Now that Kuronue had a clear view of the child, he noticed that he had shaggy black hair, deep violet eyes, protruding fangs, and a set of leathery wings.

"Guess I'm not the only koumori in these woods after all…"

The child snapped his head up at the floating orb in surprise.

"W-Who are you?" the boy asked, his voice choked and raspy from grieving.

"You can hear me?" exclaimed Kuronue. "And you can see me too?"

The boy nodded through his tears.

Kuronue couldn't believe it. Most youkai had to at least be in the upper D class to see spirits, and C class to even hope to communicate with them. The thief shook his head (or at least tried to). This fragile looking kid barely looked like he made the D class at all. His clothes were ragged and he obviously hadn't eaten a decent meal in quite a while.

'What's going on here?' thought the thief. 'I couldn't see spirits until I was twelve, and I was a fast learner!'

"None of this makes sense…"

"Mister?" the young koumori ventured, wiping his tears on his sleeve.

It was enough to snap Kuronue out of La-La Land.

"Er, yeah?"

"You're like me, right?" the child stretched out a wing. "Would….would you be my big brother, please?"

Too bad souls couldn't facefault. Kuronue didn't know what to be surprised by more, the fact that the kid could identify different species by their spirits (Kuronue himself could only tell if they were good or bad, ningen or youkai), the fact that he was asking him to become his brother, or the fact that he was finally back in Makai attempting to make sense of the impossible again.

'This is worse than Youko's stupid word games…'

"Please, Mister?"

The boy sounded desperate.

"Look kid, I'd love to, but as you can see…" Kuronue floated around to demonstrate. "I'm kinda dead already."

"Y-You can take Nebo's body…he's already gone forever."

"Kid, nobody's ever gone forever," the thief said a little harsher than he intended. He noticed that the little boy jumped a little. "Trust me, I've crawled out of the darkest pits of Reikai to get back here to see my friend."

The younger koumori looked down at the body beside him.

"But you and your brother here won't have to do that," Kuronue continued, floating next to the boy. "After you're done living a nice long life here, you can see him again…on the other side."

"R-Really?"

"Really."

Kuronue did his best to be reassuring, but he wasn't as confident as he sounded. This child might be able to communicate with spirits, but that wouldn't really help him survive in this forest. This forest was one big deathtrap. If the youkai that murdered his brother didn't run into him, something else just as vicious probably would. Odds are the little koumori would be eaten alive within the week.

If Kuronue had fists to clench, he would have drawn blood.

"B-But, until then you'll be my big brother, right?" asked the boy with puppy eyes. "And you'll protect me, won't you?"

He had hit the nail on the head.

"Uh, I…" the thief stammered.

"P-Please, Mister? I promise to stay out of your way…"

The puppy dog eyes intensified to a level Kuronue thought only he could achieve when he had begged Youko for extra treats. Sugar-coated pleading for sugar-coated snacks. The only difference was that the child's eyes were filled with deep hope for a savior of sorts, not anpan, dumplings, or candy.

"Listen kid, I would if I could, but there's no way I can possess a…a person that's already passed on," he replied, choosing his words carefully. No need to upset the child more than he already was.

"I can help you then!" exclaimed the child as he grabbed the spirit in front of him and shoved it into the body that laid next to him.

"Wait just a---!"

Kuronue never got the rest of his sentence out before he was blinded by a light for the third time that day.

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"Nii-san? Nii-san?"

Kuronue could hear a voice off in the distance. It seemed so far away, yet so close.

"Nii-san! Please wake up, Nii-san!"

But the thief didn't feel like waking up. A tingling sensation ran through his veins almost comfortingly. He couldn't even remember the last time he had actually slept. His eyelids felt so heavy and the smell of blood was so strong…

'Wait…I can smell blood?'

His eyes snapped open, and Kuronue sat up quickly in alarm. However, he regretted it as soon as he did so once a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him.

"Easy, Nii-san…"

Kuronue looked at the boy incredulously. He wasn't floating above him anymore and he was actually touching him. Touching and smelling him, Kuronue amended. The little boy definitely hadn't bathed in awhile either.

"I'm…I'm alive?" the older koumori asked, touching his cheek to make sure he wasn't dreaming. "I'm really…"

"Nii-san!" squealed the boy as he glomped the reborn bat.

"Oouf!" Kuronue sputtered as he tried to simultaneously not get the wind knocked out of him or vomit all over the place.

"I'm so glad you're here with me, Nii-san!" the boy looked up at him with tears shining in his eyes.

"S-Sure," Kuronue said. "But how'd you do that?"

The child just smiled.

"Well, whatever," sighed the thief. "I'm Kuronue."

"Kuro-nii!" exclaimed the younger boy as he hugged him tighter.

Kuronue fought the increasingly strong urge to puke up whatever was in his stomach, or Nebo's, he wasn't really sure at that point. While the bat was glad he got the kid's mood seemed to be improving, he wasn't too keen on his surprisingly strong grip. Eventually he got the little bat to loosen his grip. Then the tears started.

"Don't cry, kid, I told you I'd protect you." Said Kuronue in his best attempt to sound comforting. 'Damn, I really suck at this brotherly crap…'

The little one continued crying, but Kuronue could now see that he was smiling too.

"So what's your name?"

The only response was more sobs into Kuronue's equally ragged clothing.

"Look, if you don't give me a name, I'm gonna just call you 'Mikata'…," he joked.

Strangely enough, the boy didn't object to being called "Ally" and only smiled wider, wiped his tears, and hugged Kuronue again.

"Hey, I was just kidding," the older bat laughed as he rubbed the child's back for comfort. "I won't really call ya 'Mikata.'"

"N-No…I-It's okay," the newly named Mikata hiccupped. "I…I like that name."

"Whatever kid—er, Mikata," the thief shrugged. "Let's get you to a stream and clean up."

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Never in his entire life did Kuronue have this much trouble walking. After being stuck in his spiritual form for over two decades, walking was about as easy as fighting off Toguro with a rubber ducky and a muffin. (I'd say Sensui, but you might actually be able to bribe one of his personalities depending on the muffin flavor.)

Inside Kuronue's head the jury was still out on whether it was a good thing or not that Mikata was there to help support him. The older koumori had never been very fond of showing much weakness.

Luckily they found a nearby creek, clean enough for them to wash the blood off their faces and clothes. Mikata jumped right in while Kuronue nearly buckled under his own weight and the sudden loss of his balancer.

It was also light enough for Kuronue to see his reflection in the water. He was half-expecting Nebo's hollow face to be staring back at him, but it was his own self that he saw. Aside from the rags he had on now, the koumori looked no different as he did on the final raid he made with Youko Kurama that cost him his life.

'And how is my little thieving buddy doing?' Kuronue mused. 'He better still recognize me…'

During his trip down memory lane and his plans of what to do to Youko if he didn't remember him (mostly consisting of beatings to his head and threats to pull his tail and/or ears), Mikata crawled up beside him and curled against him contently.

"Geez, you're freezing!" Kuronue shivered. "Let me get a fire started and we'll try to get some sleep."

Mikata nodded lazily as his new "nii-san" stood up to start a campfire. He now noticed how tired he was from the day's events and fell asleep next to Kuronue in no time. Carefully brushing a strand of the child's wild hair from his face, Kuronue leaned back against a tree to rest his own eyes, chuckling to himself.

"Puppy dog eyes…he got me with puppy dog eyes," smiled the bat before sighing sleepily.

"…How the hell did Youko put up with me?"

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::A/N::

Neko: Meh… that didn't go as well as I wanted, but I was in a writing mood.

Kuro: (looks at rough draft) How the hell can you even read this? It's just bullet notes and cookie crumbs!

Neko: That's not true, there's some Pixie Stix on there too…

Kuro: And here I thought it was just colorful crack.

Translation Corner------------------------

I tend to include foreign words in my fics, so you can see definitions here. Feel free to correct anything wrong, or add anything you think I've missed.

Random Chanting (Port.) Yeah…Babblefish doesn't have any English to Hindu translation, so instead you get……Portuguese. I was in a strange mood. I'll edit this later once I find the Hindu translation.

Koumori (Jap.) "Bat"

Youkai (Jap.) "Demon"

Vasuki (Hin.) In Hindu mythology, Vasuki is a gigantic snake and one of the three rulers of the Nagas (a snake-like race). Usually depicted in human form wearing the crest of a serpent.

Kekkai (Jap.) "Barrier" or "Shield"

Makai (Jap.) "Demon World"

Reikai (Jap.) "Spirit World"

Ningenkai (Jap.) "Human World"

Tentai (Jap.) "Detective"

Nebo (Heb., Sum.) A god of trading. He was also a teacher, writer, and messenger. Not the same character as the Nebo that appears in this fic. I just used the name because of the similar traits. You'll learn more about fic-Nebo later.

Ningen (Jap.) "Human"

Nii-san (Jap.) "Big Brother"

Mikata (Jap.) "Ally," "Supporter," you get the idea.