Notes: So it's an Inuyasha/Yu Yu Hakusho end-of-the-world crossover. Only sort of not, I guess, with the end of the world part.

Rated: PG-13/R for language, some discussion of dark themes, and implied sexual relationship

The Last Winter

The demon's movements were preternaturally silent, soundless to the point of eeriness as he crept across the floorboards on the balls of his feet, crouched low with his fingers barely grazing the floor, leaving thin trails in the dust. No pad of foot, no rustle of clothing, no whisper of breath betrayed his progress as he took up his position beside the door.

The girl's steps were hardly any louder as she followed, taking her bow from its place and stringing it in one smooth, silent move. Her place was beside the window, to keep watch across the grounds.

He waited until they were both in place and signaled to him. The girl gestured with the merest flick of finger against her bow; the demon caught his eye and jerked his chin up, urging him into the room.

Kuwabara was not nearly so silent as either of them, but years had taught him stealth if not silence and any sound he made was unobtrusive enough not to stand out in the still night and gentle enough not to make the precarious house sway any beneath his weight. He scanned the room quickly, eyes flicking over the desk – stained wood, nearly black in the moonlight, on the huge side, probably worth a fortune in the old days – the bookshelves lined with leather-bound volumes neatly arranged in even rows, the glass-covered display cases holding vases and bowls and statues. The glass in the windows was still intact; whoever had lived here before had had strong, shatterproof glass installed at some point. Whoever it was hadn't stuck around long enough to enjoy this place; They'd found a skeleton downstairs, sitting slouched in a leather recliner in an elaborate study, the back of its skull blown away, a gun on the floor beside it.

It was a painting that caught his eye, a landscape of a tree-covered mountain. Even in the dark, Kuwabara's eyes were sharp enough to make out the brightly colored triangles of prayer flags poking through the trees and the red roof of a small shrine on the mountain side. The frame had a small metal plaque attached, the painting's title engraved onto it in precise, perfect kanji. Mount Kurama, Hideo Masaki, 1944.

The demon shifted on the balls of his feet, suddenly alert and Kuwabara swallowed the amused sound he'd almost made as he gave the demon his full attention. Inuyasha shook his head slightly and waved him off. False alarm.

No longer amused, he rubbed his thumb over the plaque, feeling the thin indentations of each line of each character. He paused over the second word and pressed just a little harder, as if he was trying to wipe the name off the metal entirely.

It wasn't the same name anyway, he told himself. The characters for the mountain's name and the characters for his old teammate's name were different. It was only the sound that was the same. And he hadn't had a reason to say that name out loud in a long time.

He ran his fingers over the edges of the frame, feeling for any signs of warding or youki that could mean a trap or an alarm. All he felt was dust, years worth of it, and he held his breath as he gripped the frame by the sides and lifted it off the wall.

No flare of magic, no explosion. He didn't feel particularly cursed and his fingers hadn't turned into anything they shouldn't have. So far so good.

He rested the painting against the wall by his feet, just far enough aside that he wouldn't kick it by mistake – twenty-one years old and he still felt like a gangly teenager sometimes, shouldn't he have grown into his limbs by now? – and studied the safe built into the wall.

It was smaller than he'd pictured. Barely a foot across by a foot high, it didn't look important enough to be what they were looking for. But Genkai had seemed pretty certain.

There was a keypad built into the safe door, small black squares and a digital screen. Kuwabara tapped in the password, only a little surprised the battery in the safe was still good. Each button beeped quietly as he pressed it, high-pitched electric bird calls that made him wince in the silence. He pressed the last button, gripped the handle. It turned beneath his hand and the safe door swung open.

A mirror and a glass bottle sat inside, not quite as dust-covered as everything else in the house, but obviously untouched for some time. The mirror was the size of both his hands put together, and lined with a frame of twisted strands of metal woven around each other. It was warm to his touch and when he glanced into the mirror itself, he thought he saw something moving in the corners behind him. He tapped the center of the mirror with the pad of his finger, just a flash of reiki touching the surface of the thing. He had to grit his teeth as something black and thick rolled across the surface, obscuring his reflection.

He glanced over his shoulder just to be certain, but nothing slunk in the corners of the room or lurked over his shoulder. Well, Inuyasha, but he could hardly be said to be lurking.

It only took a moment to wrap the mirror in cloth and slide it into the bag he carried over one shoulder and then he turned his attention to the bottle. Genkai had only told him to expect the mirror. Now that he thought about it, he didn't think she had ever implied there would be anything else in the safe. He probably should have considered it himself, but the mirror had been such a concern it hadn't left much room for anything else.

By the windows, Kagome hissed through her teeth and tapped two fingers against the side of her bow.

He didn't stop to examine the bottle, just wrapped it in another piece of cloth and jammed it into the bottom of the bag. Inuyasha darted across the room to the windows and then shook his head.

Kuwabara tightened the bag straps, making sure the mirror wouldn't shift about too much while he ran, then clenched his right fist at Inuyasha and pointed out the window. The demon nodded once before retreating back the way they'd come, far faster than either Kuwabara or Kagome would be able to follow. He would scout and assess the threat before they were even able to get out of the house.

Sometimes having demons on your side did come in handy.

The two humans slipped out of the house as the first drops of rain began to fall, warm against their skin, heavy and fat enough that they were soaked through in minutes. Kagome glanced upward worriedly. The storm clouds were thicker than they'd been in months and an angry kind of grey-black that spoke of a bad storm to come. They hadn't seen a bad storm in more than a year and Kuwabara supposed they'd all hoped it might mean they were over. No such luck, he thought with a sort of grim amusement. Once things went bad, it generally took more than wishful thinking to stop them from getting worse.

Inuyasha was waiting for them by the boat, his silver hair hidden under a dark brown cloak and hood. "Foragers," he said with a careless shrug. "They weren't looking for us."

Kuwabara just nodded. He hadn't thought they would have been. They were too far off the trade roots for raiders or pirates to attack, and it was unlikely anyone would come after the mirror. Sometimes he didn't think there was anyone else left in the world besides him and Genkai who did care about these things. That kind of thought always made him wonder why he bothered with it all, playing at being Reikai Tantei long after it had stopped mattering. "Storm's coming in faster than we thought," he said instead.

"I don't think we should go back to the house," Kagome said. Her hair was plastered to the sides of her face; one thin curl had worked its way loose of her ponytail and hung in her eyes. "It's barely on solid ground as it is. If we'd waited to come get the mirror we might never have found it."

"I don't like the idea of heading for home in this weather," Inuyasha said. "For starters, I don't actually like getting hit by lightning. And drowning – I hear that sucks."

Kuwabara looked passed the house, up the mountain. They were close to the top as it was, and the terrain was right for a cave or two. "We can make for the top. Find somewhere to wait it out. We've got supplies to last a few days."

"We'd have supplies to last a month if you two didn't eat your own weight in food everyday," Kagome said, wiping rain out of her eyes. "I vote for a cave. It's either that or we try to make to the next closest island before it gets bad, and we have no idea if that island will be any better than this one."

Kuwabara caught Inuyasha's eye, got a shrug in response. "Inuyasha can scout ahead," he said. "Kagome, grab the packs. I'll bring the boat." If they couldn't find anything else, they could at least use the boat to shelter them from the worst of the downpour. "Keep an eye out for those foragers," he called ahead, knowing Inuyasha could still hear him. "Last thing we need now is having to rescue you from some apocalypse cultists."

He didn't actually hear Inuyasha's response, but he could imagine it just fine.

****

It wasn't the demons that destroyed the world. Just people. And science. And maybe the earth itself doing what came naturally and it only seemed like an ending to the mortals caught in the way.

But there were always people looking to point fingers. The apocalypse cults sprang up everywhere in the dying days after the storms started coming faster and harder, when the sea levels rose meters in days, when the winter turned to summer over the course of a terrible week. And in the chaos it wasn't any surprise that people finally started to notice the demons and half-demons who'd been living just below their radar all along and found someone to blame.

It was probably a mixed blessing that most of the cults had died out as their members drowned or starved or died of drinking contaminated water. A lot of them killed themselves, but a lot of normal people had done that too. In that first year after the storms, when the shock of disaster had worn off and the realization had sunk in that this was the world now, Kuwabara had made the rounds of their settlement every morning, checking to see how many people had killed themselves in the night. Genkai and Shizuru would go with him most mornings, sometimes Atsuko or Yukina or Inuyasha. They'd gathered any bodies to be buried and redistributed food and water to adjust for their decreased numbers. Of the elderly who survived, nearly all killed themselves or willingly starved to death, leaving the food for the children, or for younger people who could work to rebuild. Sometimes food tasted like funeral ash to Kuwabara, but he ate it anyway. He wasn't the suicidal sort.

Although he did occasionally contemplate killing himself just so he could get within arm's length of Koenma and shake some answers out of the bastard.

Like why he couldn't have warned them. And where the hell Urameshi and the others were.

****

They waited out the storm in relative comfort, if your idea of comfort involved a cave and a deadly storm. The mirror made things a little tense since it would occasionally start moving inside the bag or make scratching, chittering sounds like some small creature trying to get through the glass. It woke Kuwabara one night and he rolled over to see Inuyasha bare his teeth at the thing and growl a long, dangerous note of warning. The mirror subsided instantly, but started up again as soon as they'd all gone back to sleep.

It was a long three days.

They made their way back down the mountainside once it was over. The water was about the same as it had been before – it was still rising, always rising – but the house was long gone, washed away by the wind and rain. They didn't stop to look at the remaining pieces of foundation, or the wooden porch that seemed to almost have been surgically removed by the storm. They'd seen it all before.

****

Home was a fishing village on the side of a mountain. Genkai had brought them there; Kuwabara and his sister, Keiko and Yukina, Atsuko, Kurama's family and a couple dozen others who had been willing to listen to the old temple priestess when she said they needed to leave the city. (This number consisted almost entirely of Atsuko's Yakuza buddies who had brought crates full of weapons, food and medical supplies with them, the only reason Genkai hadn't let Kuwabara throw their asses into the floodwaters.) Mitarai was there and Sawamura and Okubo and his sister because Kuwabara had shown up on his doorstep at three in the morning and told them to pack. They hadn't even asked, just done it. Sometimes he still gave them grief for that.

The village didn't look like a refugee camp anymore, Kuwabara couldn't help but notice. He wasn't sure when exactly it had happened, but at some point it had become a real village with homes and clotheslines, small fenced-in yards and shops. There wasn't much color, as dyes were getting rare. And fabrics, too; Kuwabara thought wistfully of new jeans and sneakers and leather jackets. But people made do. What they had was clean and well-mended. It would have been a poor village in the old days, but by current standards they were better off than most.

A half-dozen children played in the grass between the village and the water and they waved as the boat came in to dock. Beyond them, climbing up the side of the mountain, stretched the fields where they grew potatoes and root vegetables and whatever grains they could manage in the rocky soil.

He tied the boat to the dock and signaled the sentry with a salute while Kagome bounced on her toes and waved more enthusiastically. The sentry waved back, sparing a smile for the pretty young woman. The sentries had been essential in the earlier days, when pirates and looters had ransacked through survivor settlements, taking food and supplies – and women and girls, sometimes, or young boys – as spoils. But over the last two years the need for constant vigilance had eased and now the sentries were mostly older men and women or the injured villagers who couldn't stand the physical labor of farming or deep-sea fishing. Some were adolescents too old for the nursery but too young to go to sea for days at a time. The only time they posted fighters as sentries was during storms or when they had reports of piracy nearby.

Kuwabara climbed out of the boat, briefly envying Inuyasha's agility. "Show-off," he muttered cheerfully as Inuyasha jumped lightly up to the dock and pulled Kagome up after him.

The demon smirked at him. "It's not my fault you're half giant," he shot back. His accent was fading after nearly four years, though he still sometimes used words that had fallen out of common use a couple hundred years ago.

Footsteps thundered against the wooden dock and they all looked up to see Hatanaka Shuichi racing toward them. The boy was almost eighteen and had grown three inches in as many months. He'd be nearly as tall as his step-brother before he was done, Kuwabara decided, before he pushed the thought from his mind. "Shu," he called as the boy staggered to a stop before them. "What's wrong?"

"Genkai-shihan," Shuichi gasped, resting his hands on his knees and panting out the word. "Sick again. Shizuru-san says you should come see her."

Worry and something a lot like grief tightened his chest. "All right," he said gently. "I'll head up now. You're supposed to be at lessons, aren't you?"

The children had school; basic math and writing, though Kuwabara had a sad feeling that both of those things were going to become rarer with each passing generation. Very basic history. No geography because no one really knew where anything was anymore. No literature. Once they could read and write and count they learned how to tie knots, work a fishing pole. They spent time in the fields learning to plant and harvest and tend the crops, went up into the woods to learn how to forage for wild vegetation and knots, how to survive in a storm. Not much to hunt, not on this island, though there was the occasional furry woodland creature on the dinner menu and one of the old women bred cats to eat.

Shuichi was in another kind of class entirely, one Kuwabara and his team mostly taught, though a handful of others, like Okubo and Sawamura, occasionally took over. Archery, swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat. No one was allowed off the island till they passed, not even the adults.

Shizuru and Atsuko being the exception, because Atsuko still had guns and spare ammo and Shizuru could kill you with her brain. If anyone wanted to pick a fight with the two of them, Kuwabara figured the dumbass deserved whatever they'd do to him.

They sent Shuichi off to class, the boy shooting them a worried glance as he went. Genkai had been their leader and protector through the last winter and into the eternal summer, through the floodwaters and the storms that lasted for weeks at a time. The people here trusted the Kuwabara siblings, respected them and accepted them as Genkai's heirs, but the old woman was like everyone's grandmother. When she died the whole village would mourn.

They'd be mourning soon, Kuwabara knew, and the knowledge was heavy on his shoulders. Genkai had lasted longer than they'd expected, longer than she'd wanted to. But there were limits and even someone as strong as she was would eventually die.

Genkai lived outside of the village proper, up toward the trees where she could have a few dozen yards of peace between herself and the rest of humanity. Yukina lived there with her, first as a companion and later as a nurse. Genkai had never lost the ability to take care of herself, but as she grew weaker, it was easier to let her rest and save her energy while Yukina handled the cooking and cleaning.

Genkai was resting in one of the two little bedrooms, her hands folded on top of the blankets, her eyes closed. Her hair was spread out against the pillows, shot through with streaks of gray. But she opened her eyes when Kuwabara approached and inclined her head ever so slightly in a nod of greeting.

"Grandmother," he said, because he knew it drove her crazy when the villagers called her that.

She glared at him. "There is something," she said, her voice whisper thin and raspy where just a week ago it had been strong and clear. "A power." Her eyes drifted closed and she breathed slowly for a moment. "To the south," she said finally. "You must go."

She breathed out, slowly. And died.

****

They buried her body on the mountainside and, because she would have liked that, they all had a feast and drank whatever alcohol they had.

Then, because she would have liked that even better, they got back to work.

"She didn't tell you anything more than that?" Kagome asked, leaning back in her seat. She was wearing nightclothes still and he could see the small round curve of her stomach clearly. Five months in, she was starting to show. "Just that there was something dangerous south of here?"

Genkai hadn't even told him that much, really. But he'd spent the last three years gathering up artifacts of darkness and mystical objects that had been left ownerless after the flood so that they couldn't fall into the wrong hands. It seemed safe to assume this was more of the same. "It has to be important," he said. "Yukina says she only held out as long as she did because she was waiting for us to get back. Genkai's not the type to deny herself eternal rest over another cursed mirror or potion."

They were at home, gathered around the table. It was early yet and Keiko still slept in the little room upstairs next to Kuwabara's. It had been Sawamura's room until he married and Atsuko had suggested Keiko move in to fill the empty space. Atsuko had some idea of Kuwabara and Keiko falling madly in love if only they were in close enough proximity to each other on a daily basis, and Kuwabara had given up convincing her it wasn't going to happen.

"Maybe it's a demon," Inuyasha said. He cracked his knuckles and grinned. "Maybe we'll finally get a real fight."

Kagome looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Power could mean a lot of things," she said. "Maybe some wannabe warlord is organizing the pirates into some kind of marauding force. Or maybe there's a government being built in the settlements south of us."

"Or maybe there's a demon," Inuyasha said. "A big, nasty, flesh-devouring demon that's eating the settlements south of us."

"There's something wrong with you," Kagome told him.

"It'll be important, whatever it is," Kuwabara interrupted them. "Probably dangerous." He raised an eyebrow at Kagome and she glared back. "Are you sure you want in?"

"Pregnant," Kagome said. "Not crippled. I'm good for another month or so. Anyway, who'd take my place?"

They'd been training Keiko to take Kagome's place on the team once the baby was born, and she was more than capable, but Kagome was what Keiko wasn't: a fighter. Kagome liked wandering around fighting looters and playing with cursed objects. Keiko could certainly do the job, but she'd stay home given the choice. And if they were going up against something genuinely dangerous, a fighter was what they needed.

"It's your call," Kuwabara said. "But I don't want to hear any complaining about how much your feet hurt or any bitching about your ass being fat."

The look she gave him could only be considered deadly and Inuyasha coughed desperately into his hands to hide a laugh.

"Brave man," Keiko said sleepily from the doorway. "Taking his life into his hands again, I see." She blinked at the table, the sun just beginning to rise over the water, and their smiling faces. "Was it my morning to make breakfast?"

"I'm pretty sure it is," Kuwabara assured her.

"It's always my morning to make breakfast," Keiko said, swatting at the back of his head as she walked by. "I used to think you were the productive one."

Inuyasha snorted. "As compared to who?"

"You, for starters," Kagome put in. "When was the last time you cooked?"

"Never," Inuyasha admitted freely. "But I helped build the new docks on the far side of the island. How many breakfasts is that worth?"

"One," Keiko said. "And no complaining about it."

"Fish for breakfast again, I see."

"Seaweed too," Kuwabara said. "And some sort of root or tuber. Maybe a rodent of some sort."

"I miss meat," Inuyasha said.

"I'd kill for oatmeal," Kagome sighed. "And fruit. Bacon."

"Coffee," Kuwabara said. "And cigarettes, while I'm dreaming." They had this conversation, nearly word-for-word, every few months. At least his fingers didn't actually twitch anymore when he thought of nicotine.

"When are you leaving?" Keiko asked over her shoulder as she checked the woodstove. "And seriously – you guys couldn't even start the fire for me? My God, I'm your mother aren't I?"

Kuwabara raised an eyebrow at Kagome and Inuyasha in turn and waited for each of them to nod back before he answered. "Tomorrow morning, Mom. We'll leave after sunrise."

"I'll mom your ass if you don't get me some firewood," Keiko told him. "Go get dressed while I make tea and fry up a rodent."

He was pretty sure she was kidding. Just in case she wasn't, he beat a hasty retreat.

****

Five days into their search, Kuwabara was wishing Genkai had been a bit less vague on her deathbed. A power in the south wasn't much to go on, admittedly, but he'd thought for sure they'd be able to get track of something. But the fishermen and settlements they'd talked to hadn't heard of any strangeness going on and Kuwabara didn't sense anything that seemed out of the ordinary. The occasional ash-scented flicker of youki from one of the demon-friendly settlements, the water-cold feel of reiki here and there – mostly in children. A lot of the children born since the flood had reiki in their blood, which he was willing to take as a good sign. A lot of the children born since the flood were half- or part-demons, too, which he was also taking as a good sign. His sixth sense hadn't twigged on any impending sense of doom or further apocalypse.

"So, when the old woman said 'south'," Inuyasha said as they sat around the campfire on the fifth night, "she meant Australia? The bottom of the ocean? Hell itself?"

"Australia?" Kagome said. "I didn't know you even knew what Australia was, let alone where."

"There's a giant map hanging on the wall in the town hall plain as day," Inuyasha pointed out. "I can read."

"It's probably not there anymore," Kuwabara said.

"The map?"

"The country." He leaned back on his hands and stared up at the stars to keep the fire from ruining his night vision. "We've got plenty of supplies to keep going."

"And nothing better to be doing," Inuyasha said. "I've never said so, but I really hate farming. You want to chase this evil demon around for a few more weeks, I'm in."

Kuwabara risked a sideways glance at Inuyasha and grinned. "Really? You hate farming? This comes as a complete shock to me."

Inuyasha's eyes sparked gold in the firelight and for a second Kuwabara had to swallow against a memory of another demon with silver hair and gold eyes and a dangerous smile. Then Inuyasha flipped him off and the memory faded.

Something flashed in the distance, hot and bright. Kuwabara blinked away the afterimage and felt the distant surge of demonic energy brush against the back of his mind. Kagome and Inuyasha were on their feet, eyes shaded as they stared at the horizon. "There's a village over there," Kagome said, concern making her voice sharp. "Isn't there? That little place with the rice paddies, remember? We've traded there before."

"That," Inuyasha crowed, "was a demon. The old woman wasn't kidding when she said there was something down here. Did you feel that?"

"I did." Kuwabara brushed dirt off his knees as he stood. "That's miles from here. Whatever demon made that fuss is-"

"Big," Inuyasha said. "And powerful And mean. Possibly flesh-eating. We're going over there, right?"

Kagome was rolling her eyes at Inuyasha as she kicked dirt over the fire. "Something is very, very wrong with you," she reiterated. "I hope my baby doesn't take after you."

"At least fifty percent of that baby is mine," Inuyasha said. "And he is going to grow up to kick ass."

"They," Kuwabara said as he shouldered his pack and started down toward the water.

"They?" Kagome called after him. "Bite your tongue."

Kuwabara tapped a finger against the side of his head. "Psychic."

"Oh, God," Kagome said.

****

Something had happened at the village, that much was clear as they approached. A ship was sinking in the harbor and the docks were scorched and burnt, though no longer ablaze. A distinct air of brimstone hung in the air. The village proper looked somewhat the worse for wear as well, some houses untouched, others damaged, broken glass in the streets, though overall nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Raiders, Kuwabara thought, giving the sinking ship a second glance. None of the villagers were in any kind of hurry to save it, which meant it was probably their attacker.

Wounded were sitting out in the street, most of them already being tended to, none of them looking too serious at a casual glance, but Kuwabara waved Kagome ahead and she jumped out of the boat with their small bag of medical supplies held over her head as she waded to shore. Kuwabara and Inuyasha followed, hauling the boat up after them which made the villagers who came to greet them raise an eyebrow or two. It wasn't a small boat.

"We saw the flash," Kuwabara called up to the beach. "Thought we'd come and see if you needed help."

An old woman, wiry and squarely built, spat into the sand. "Pirates," she said. "They tried to pick a fight, but you aren't the only guests we've had lately."

"A small group of youkai," the second villager offered, using the polite term for 'demon' and 'half-demon' that the more tolerant villages had adopted. She was closer to Kuwabara's age, and probably very pretty under the soot and dried blood. "They helped us fight when the pirates came. One of them made the bright light you saw."

"They still around?"

The old woman shrugged. "They offered to work in trade for transport on one of the trading ships going north when they first arrived. And since no one was badly hurt, we didn't see any reason to delay the shipment."

Kuwabara nodded. The trade shipment might be all the income this village would be able to arrange for a while, if their fields were burned in the attack at all. Better to trade it in quickly and come back with supplies to help rebuild. "The pirates have any kind of insignia?"

"Skull and bones," the old woman said. "And a red rose in the skull's teeth, if you can imagine such a thing."

It wasn't one that Kuwabara recognized and a quick glance showed that it didn't ring a bell for Inuyasha either.

"The youkai seemed to think it was pretty funny," the younger woman offered. "The rose, I mean. They got a good laugh out of it before the fighting started."

"Well obviously," Inuyasha said. "It's a little girly for pirates."

"Maybe they were girl pirates," Kuwabara suggested.

The old woman snorted. "You'll forgive us our bad hospitality," she said, "but my granddaughter and I need to get to work. If you need shelter for the night, I'm sure something can be arranged, but I'm afraid it won't be much."

"Actually," Kuwabara said. "Would you mind telling us where the ship with the youkai was heading?"

It took a few minutes to get it out of them, but eventually the women were satisfied that Kuwabara and Inuyasha were neither pirates, nor demon hunters (Inuyasha snickered and bared his fangs when they posed the question), a slight misdirection for which Kuwabara felt only a little bit of guilt. The ship was heading north and east before it turned back and Kuwabara had to resist the urge to roll his eyes as he realized that the demons were heading more or less toward his own village.

The two women turned down his offer of help rebuilding and wished him safe journey, then went back to help the others. Inuyasha waited till they were out of earshot before growling like a lion with a toothache. "We could have stayed at home and waited for them to come to us," he snarled and glared at the water.

"Genkai seemed pretty sure we needed to go to them," Kuwabara said. Her dying words had been to tell him to go south, and even on her deathbed, Kuwabara didn't think Genkai would get the message wrong. "Why do I get the feeling we're missing something?"

****

They caught up with the trading ship at the Safe Harbor, a trade community less than a day north. One of the most populous and most well-defended settlements to come out of the Last Winter, Safe Harbor would do business with anyone or anything as long as they didn't attack their neighbors or cause trouble inside the port. Aside from being the biggest market in their part of the world, it was also the place to go for prostitution, gambling, moonshine and information, leaving no surprise as to why it was also the wealthiest settlement in their part of the world.

Kuwabara sent Kagome and Inuyasha off to restock their medical supplies and went looking for the captain of the trade ship.

The man's name was Kaneda and he was a little surprised to find Kuwabara was looking for him, but he took a minute to talk. "The youkai?" he said, wiping the hem of his shirt over his brow. "Yeah. They showed up out of nowhere about a week ago looking for transport, offered to work hard if we'd take them north. They all looked strong and healthy enough, and we haven't had problems with rogues in a long while, so we didn't see any need to turn them away."

"Even after they showed up out of nowhere?" Kuwabara asked, but the captain shrugged it off. "Two other settlements on our mountain," he said. "Island. Whatever. Figured they came from one of them. Common enough knowledge that my ship makes this trade route three times a year. Why? You know something about them I don't?"

"Not yet," Kuwabara said. "Just saw the light show the other night and got curious. We were heading north too, so I figured it didn't hurt to be careful. Were they heading anywhere in particular?"

"Looking for something," Kaneda said. "They hung around for a few hours, asking after some particular kind of trade item. Asking if anyone had seen it or knew of someone who had something like it."

"Yeah?" That caught Kuwabara's attention. "Not food, then?"

"Nah," Kaneda said. "A mirror. About the size of a book, with a frame made up of twisted metal strands. Why?"

****

"They're looking for the mirror?" Kagome asked a few hours later after they were under way again. "Why?"

Kuwabara shrugged. "Got me. I don't even know what that mirror does."

"And they're still heading north?"

They had traded produce and seeds for a small boat. "The dockmaster said that's where they were heading when they left, but he wasn't watching them for long."

"So they could be headed for the house where we found it," Kagome said. "Maybe they don't know we've taken it."

"Then why are they asking after it in trade markets?" Inuyasha pointed out.

"It or something like it," Kagome said. "Isn't that what the captain told you? Something like it? Maybe there's more than one."

Kuwabara shook his hair out of his eyes. "Either way, it seems like a good bet they'll try for the island where we found the mirror."

"That's three days from here," Inuyasha pointed out. "And they've got half a day's head start on us."

"If we don't stop to sleep, we can overtake them," Kagome said. "We'll take watches at night. We can probably pass them before they get there and lay in wait for them."

"They haven't actually done anything wrong," Kuwabara felt compelled to point out. "They saved that village, they worked for transport, traded for the boat – so far the only thing against them is they want that mirror. And so did we."

"He's being practical again," Inuyasha told Kagome.

****

They didn't catch up with the demons, even without stopping to camp for the nights. Kuwabara could sense their presence ahead. There was no flicker of youki to give them away so either they were tightly warded or they were more powerful than he was, a possibility that gave all three of them pause.

"I've known demons way more powerful than me who weren't bad guys," Kuwabara said and Inuyasha – who sometimes seemed to trust his father's kind less than any apocalypse cultist Kuwabara had ever met – scoffed and said, "Name one."

He could have named at least five or six, but he didn't feel like explaining who any of those people were when some of them were probably dead and all of them were gone.

****

They went wide on the last morning, and came in from the other side of the island than the demons had. They were all three of them shielded, but that would only work so long as the other demons didn't go looking for reiki and youki. Possibly not even that long if Inuyasha's concentration slipped.

"Just observe," Kuwabara reminded them. "We don't know what they want yet. If we can come out of this with allies instead of enemies, it'll make life a lot easier." Sometimes he couldn't believe the things that came out of his mouth. If you'd told him when he was fourteen that he'd one day end up being the diplomatic one, he'd have laughed. Well. First he'd have asked someone what diplomatic meant. But then he'd definitely have laughed.

"Why are they searching the island?" Inuyasha asked. "If they want the mirror, shouldn't they be searching the ruins of the house?"

Kuwabara shrugged. "Maybe they can't swim. Maybe it isn't just the mirror. Maybe they're laying a trap for us."

"Split up?" Kagome said.

Kuwabara and Inuyasha exchanged a quick glance that made Kagome narrow her eyes, but it made sense. "Stay back," Kuwabara told her. "You're a sniper today, in case we end up making enemies after all."

"I'll just start shooting if I see Inuyasha open his mouth," Kagome said.

Kuwabara rolled his eyes at them and snapped his hand out, palm flat, fingers splayed; the signal to split up.

****

Kagome never saw the demon coming.

She had a vantage point of most of the east end of the island, where the house had once been. She could see the wooden porch still clinging to the side of the mountain, and the demons' boat docked just a bit below that. She couldn't see the demons, though, or her teammates. She wasn't worried yet – Kuwabara and Inuyasha had vanished into the woods and would still be circling around to get closer to the boat.

She was a little nervous about what exactly the demons were looking for; Inuyasha had a point about searching the house if they were really after the mirror.

She hadn't gotten a good look at the mirror itself the night they found it. Her position had been at the picture window, keeping watch, but she had seen the mirror before Kuwabara put it away. It hadn't seemed like much of anything except for the way it reacted when Kuwabara touched it and the way they had kept hearing sounds all night after that.

It had reacted to Kuwabara hadn't it?

She frowned at the boat where the demons had docked it. Kaneda had said the demons arrived in his village about the same time the three of them had found the mirror. And according to Kuwabara, they had been asking after the mirror and the person who had it.

So.

"Kuwabara," Kagome said, her fingers tightening on the bow as things clicked into place. "They're not looking for the mirror, they're looking for Kuwabara."

"Very good."

The demon appeared in front of her so suddenly he might have been materializing out of thin air in a cloud of brimstone and black cloth. Red eyes flashed at her above the glint of a steel blade. "If you tell me where he is, no one will be hurt."

****

The first sign Inuyasha had that he wasn't alone came when the tree branch he was perched in came alive and grabbed at him.

He bit back a startled curse and flung himself out of the tree. He landed on all fours on the grass below and stared up at the branch as it calmed and returned to normal. Then he tried to stand up, only to realize the grass was growing and wrapping around his wrists and ankles.

A fierce yank freed his wrists and he stood, pulling his feet against the grass until the thin strands broke and he stumbled backward. The grass reached after him, literally growing under his feet. He jumped, somersaulting in the air, putting a few dozen meters between him and the grass, and jerked to a stop in midair as vines wrapped around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides.

He struggled, trying to get some slack in the vines to free at least one of his hands, but the vines only tightened the more he moved and more lashed out of the ground to wrap around his legs. He snarled, grateful they hadn't gone for his throat at least, and then the demon stepped out of the trees.

Surprise made Inuyasha stare for a moment, then he made himself relax. It made sense, in a way. "I know who you are," he told the demon.

"Oh?" the demon said. "Enlighten me."

He was ridiculously tall, at least a full foot taller than Inuyasha himself. There was a certain resemblance. This demon had long silver hair and pointed ears and eyes that gleamed gold even in the shade of the woods. No one who knew them well would ever confuse the two of them, but out of the corner of the eye, or in bad light…

Fox demon, Inuyasha thought absently. They were known to be cunning and deadly and most of all possessive. He hoped he wasn't about to get himself killed.

"You're the reason Kuwabara sometimes looks at me like he was expecting someone else," Inuyasha said. "But funny thing – he's never even mentioned you. I wonder what that means."

The demon narrowed his eyes and Inuyasha fought back a shiver of unease. Then the demon exhaled, a quiet, almost amused huff of breath and the vines dropped Inuyasha to the ground.

"You're letting me go?" Inuyasha asked.

"Of course I am," the fox demon said patiently. "If you're a friend of Kuwabara's I have nothing to fear from you. And if you're his enemy, I'll tear you into pieces so small even the rats won't bother with them." He smiled. It was not, Inuyasha thought, a pleasant expression.

****

He felt youki from two different directions, further below him in the forest and behind him, further up the mountain where they had left Kagome. He should have panicked and turned to fight but all he felt was an odd sense of calm. And then he thought of the brimstone at the burned docks, the fruits and seeds traded for the boat, and the flash of demonic energy across the water three nights past.

It all started falling into place and he had just enough time to contemplate what an absolute idiot he was before a hand darted out of the shadows and gripped his wrist so tightly he could felt the bones creak.

He didn't pull away, just glanced over his shoulder into the shadows and threw the demon a crooked grin.

"There you are," Yuusuke said cheerfully.

****

"So the mirror belongs to King Mukuro?" Kagome said.

"It's a communication device," Yuusuke explained. "Two-way communication. But it had been dark for years so Mukuro assumed it had been destroyed or dropped down a well or something."

"It was pure luck," Kurama said, "that one of Mukuro's messengers happened to be within sight of her mirror when you activated yours." The youko had shifted to his human form as he and Inuyasha entered the clearing, and now he ran his fingers through his hair, pulling it back from his face. "Hiei tried to contact you through the mirror but we couldn't get any kind of response."

Kuwabara quirked an eyebrow at Hiei, making a mental note to mock Hiei for wanting to talk to him later. "The damn mirror kept us awake for three days. We thought it was going to try and eat us."

Yuusuke snickered. "Well, it was Hiei. Who knows what he was saying into it."

Kagome leaned around Inuyasha to shoot a glare in the fire demon's direction that Hiei manfully ignored. Kuwabara made a mental note to find out what exactly she had done to him to make him look that uncomfortable. "So you've been looking for Kuwabara-kun for six years?" she asked Kurama. "How did you know he was even alive?"

"We knew," Kurama said. "But every attempt to reach the human world by gate either failed or left us buried under tons of seawater. When we finally found a gate that worked, it was far from where we believed Kuwabara's last position to have been."

"Tibet," Yuusuke chimed in. "Not a good place to be. Half the population of China ended up there after the floods."

They were circled around a campfire near the water's edge. They had busted up part of the old porch for firewood and spread out blankets and sleeping bags. Kurama had provided for dinner for the six of them – he was going to be handy to have around, if they could convince him to stay for a while, Kuwabara thought – and then they had started trading stories.

Kuwabara rolled his eyes across the fire at Hiei. "I'm guessing Mukuro wants her mirror back?"

Hiei hesitated for a moment, a look almost like surprise flitting over his face too quickly for Kuwabara to swear it had been there. "She didn't ask for it," the fire demon said finally.

"Keep it," Yuusuke said from Kuwabara's right side. He had flopped over backwards after dinner, threatening to explode, and hadn't moved since except to kick, poke or nudge Kuwabara as the mood took him. Urameshi had always gotten touchy-feely – or worse, grabby – when he was in a good mood. Six years had – apparently – added a great deal to Kuwabara's tolerance for it because he hadn't threatened to throttle Yuusuke even once. "We can use it for long distance calls."

"So you're going back to the demon world?" Kagome asked.

Part of Kuwabara winced internally and the rest was glad she had asked it so he wouldn't have to.

"No," Kurama said. "I'm staying. And Yuusuke and Hiei as well, for a time." The youko was sitting to Kuwabara's, close enough that their arms brushed occasionally. "It has been a very long time and there is much to catch up on."

Kuwabara leaned forward with his elbows braced against his knees. "That reminds me. There's something I need to say to each of you and you're going to shut up and listen." He ignored the expression on Kurama's face and turned to his right and jabbed a finger toward Yuusuke's forehead. "Your mother not only dragged a battalion of hitmen and thieves along when we evacuated the city, she has also spent the last several years desperately trying to get me into bed with your fiancé."

Yuusuke gaped at him and didn't even react when Kuwabara finished off with a slap to the side of his head. "Keiko?" he said but Kuwabara had already moved on, leering across the fire at Hiei.

"You," he said, with a wide grin and a delighted chuckle. "You know what you are? Brother-in-law."

"Dude," Yuusuke said, laughter breaking the word into a half dozen syllables.

Kuwabara turned away from Hiei's stare, already turning from shocked to vaguely furious, and looked down at Kurama. "I," he announced, "have been wanting to do this since I was fourteen years old." He grabbed the front of Kurama's tunic and pulled the youko closer, half onto his lap, and ducked his head to take Kurama's mouth in a light, playful kiss. The youko laughed against him, warm breath on Kuwabara's lips for just an instant before Kurama cupped Kuwabara's head in his hands and pushed closer, turning the kiss into something deeper and more forceful, not pulling away until Kuwabara was out of breath.

Kurama laughed again and returned the playful kiss Kuwabara had started with. "I," he said, just quietly enough that maybe everyone else didn't hear it, although Kuwabara wasn't betting on it, "have wanted to do that since you were fourteen."

"Okay," Yuusuke said. "Now I'm confused."

Kurama held Kuwabara's gaze for a moment, then his own lips spread slowly into a grin even as Hiei sputtered in denial. "Yukina and Shizuru, hmmm?"

"Oh yeah," Kuwabara said.

"You're joking," Hiei said.

Yuusuke blinked at them all. "Yukina and Shizuru what?"

Kuwabara rolled his eyes and would have stopped to spell it all out for him – six years certainly hadn't made Urameshi any smarter – but Kurama chose that moment to wrap his fingers in the front of Kuwabara's shirt and pull him down into another kiss.

"So, Hiei," he heard Yuusuke ask. "How exactly did you get your ass kicked by a pregnant girl?"

****

It felt like half the village was waiting for them as they came into sight of the docks a day later. Shizuru was waiting for them at the edge of the dock, Yukina at one side, Atsuko and Keiko at the other. Kurama's family was just behind them and the others who had known them before the last winter crowded in close behind, Sawamura and Mitarai and the rest of them.

"What do you want to bet," Kuwabara asked no one in particular, "that Shizuru knew exactly what the 'power in the south' was and where to find it and just liked the idea of the six of us trying to ambush each other too much to say so?"

"No bet," Kurama laughed.

"The part that worries me about all of this," Yuusuke said, "is the part where some dumbass put Shizuru in charge."

"That would be Genkai," Kuwabara said. "And if you were pirates, would you screw with Shizuru?"

"I'm fairly harmless and I don't want to mess with Shizuru," Yuusuke said with great feeling. He was starting to bounce up and down on the balls of his feet as they got closer.

"Harmless?" Kuwabara mouthed silently to a giggling Kagome. She shook her head at him and Kuwabara shrugged, grinning and said, "Well it could have been worse, Urameshi. We could have put your mother in charge."

He could feel Kurama shake with silent laughter next to him while Yuusuke stared at the docks in vague horror. "But she's not, right? I mean – Genkai was smarter than that right? Oh, God. Please tell me no one has given my mother any kind of authority."

Kurama nudged his arm. "That was mean."

The four of them were leading Inuyasha and Hiei, who followed in the second boat. Kagome had started out with them until Inuyasha got tired of listening to her and Hiei sniping at each other and had pulled alongside long enough to pick her up and toss her onto the other boat. Kuwabara and Kagome had spent the rest of the trip cheerfully badmouthing Hiei with Kurama and Yuusuke joining in whenever they were sure Hiei was within earshot.

That nobody had been set on fire yet was definitely a miracle. The bad news was that Inuyasha and Hiei seemed to be getting along. If they bonded, Kuwabara might have to join another team.

"So we're going to do this, yeah?" Yuusuke asked. "Keiko's not like, mad I've been gone so long, right?"

"Well she's not happy about it," Kuwabara said.

Yuusuke considered this. "Maybe I'll check for weapons before I try to say hello."

"I'd recommend that. Just be glad Genkai's not here or she'd beat your ass back to the Makai."

"Probably," Yuusuke said cheerfully.

He'd told them about Genkai's death, remembering the last time they'd thought they had lost her, back in the Dark Tournament when Toguro had killed her. This death had been easier to take, knowing she had gone in her own time and on her own terms.

"So," Yuusuke said, "what are the odds there's going to be a feast in our honor?"

"Slim, Yuusuke," Kurama said.

"If you're very good, we won't let Shizuru cook you dinner tonight," Kuwabara promised. "Keiko's got a real knack for frying rodents."

"I really need to hear you tell me you're joking," Yuusuke said as Kuwabara brought the boat in alongside the dock. "I really need to hear that from you right now."

There was a thud and the sound of running feet as Keiko jumped down onto the deck and threw herself at Yuusuke. Then Shiori was there, crying and holding her arms out and Kurama went to her. Hiei was already on the dock, with Yukina clutching at him, her fists wrapped in the back of his coat and her face buried in his shoulder while Hiei stared at her in a kind of gratified surprise.

"You're late, you lazy bum!" Atsuko shouted down at her son and Yuusuke threw his head back and laughed.

Shizuru cocked her head and smiled down at her brother. "Kazu," she scolded, "what have I told you about bringing home strays?"

****

Kuwabara woke up when someone crossed the threshold into his room.

It was very, very late, but he'd only been asleep a short while. There hadn't been a feast, but Shiori and Keiko had gone crazy in the kitchen and somehow managed to feed all of them, crammed into the house Keiko, Kuwabara and the team shared. It had taken hours for everyone to split off and go their separate ways. It had taken even longer to sort out sleeping arrangements. But Hiei had walked Yukina home, then likely vanished into the woods, and Kurama had gone home with his mother and family, and Keiko had gone with her parents, leaving Yuusuke asleep and snoring like a truck in the little room next to Kuwabara's.

He sensed youki and for just a moment tensed because it wasn't Inuyasha's. Then the familiar silver and green sensation of Kurama's youki struck him and he relaxed.

Then he tensed for an entirely different reason.

"I can leave if you want," Kurama offered from the dark.

"That- No." Kuwabara said. "That's not what I want."

"Good." A warm hand cupped his cheek and Kurama's breath ghosted over his lips. "You told my mother I was a demon."

"She figured most of it out herself," Kuwabara admitted. "I just gave her all the details."

He could feel Kurama's gaze on him in the dark. "She was afraid I was dead. You told her I was a demon so she'd know I was safe and alive in the demon world."

That too. Shiori's grief had been knife-sharp and painful just to be near. Kuwabara had considered honoring Kurama's wishes for about ten seconds in the face of that. "I hoped you wouldn't mind," he admitted.

Kurama's thumb brushed over his skin, traced his cheekbone. "If it was possible for me to love you more than I already did," Kurama said quietly. He didn't finish but he didn't need to.

"Stay?" he asked, because it was his turn to take a chance again. "If your mom isn't expecting you back…"

"She knows where I am," Kurama said. "She isn't expecting me back."

"I swear to God," Yuusuke's voice drifted through the thin walls from the next room, "if I hear so much as a single moan, I will bring the roof down on all of us."

"You need a new roommate," Kurama told Kuwabara as he slipped onto the bed, one leg thrown over Kuwabara's hips, his arms braced on either side of Kuwabara's head. He leaned down for a kiss, brief and chaste and Kuwabara could feel him smile against his mouth. "Or a bigger house."

"With sound-proof walls!" Yuusuke reminded them. "I am putting the pillow over my head. You have ten minutes. Go."

Kuwabara and Kurama stared at each other in the dark for what felt like an entire minute before Kurama laughed out loud.

"I can't believe I missed you people," Kuwabara said.

****

end

c&c is always appreciated!