Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho 1. Dr Minamino

_The cast of characters used in this story are not my creations. Yu Yu Hakusho characters and InuYasha characters are the intellectual property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Rumiko Takahashi respectively. _

_Please be advised that there will be adult content in various forms throughout this story. _

Part I: Dr. Minamino

"The oxygen levels have been checked and rechecked. Brain activity indicates she is still in a coma-like state. The latest spinal tap and CT scans are regular, showing no clear abnormalities. All other tests so far suggest the subject's body is perfectly healthy, stable and able to breathe on her own. Will there be anything else before we close up the lab for the night, Dr. Minamino?"

Same ol', same ol'.

The technician's voice seemed millions of miles away to Kurama. Preoccupied as he was, he barely acknowledged her with the lazy wave of a hand as he dismissed her. "No, Hoko-san, you may go. Just leave the backlights on please."

"Yes sir," Hoko sighed. He was obviously going to spend the night in here again. This will make the fifth night in a row. The man was going to burn himself out.

As soon as he was certain he was alone, Kurama ran his fingers along the thick glass of the chamber. Only in his dreams the glass would be gone and he could freely touch the figure contained within. Her onyx hair floated around her in the cloudy liquid that was chemically identical to amniotic fluid.

The bulletproof, shockproof, practically apocalypse-proof glass gleamed, taunting him and reminding him that he couldn't touch her. When would she wake up? _Would _she wake up?

_Inari-sama, please don't let me fail in this task. _

"Come back to me, Kagome. I don't think I can do this for much longer," he whispered, caressing the glass enclosure.

For three hundred and four years Kurama hung on by a thread, existing solely for the day he would be reunited with his long lost wife. In the last twenty-three years he watched as she developed from a dividing cell to a fetus, then eventually on to the woman he married.

When quiet reflection proved more depressing than fruitful, the kitsune retreated to the oversized swivel chair that had been his silent partner in the many hours spent researching. Collapsing heavily into the worn oxblood leather of his old friend, the kitsune tiredly tugged at his red hair while double checking some inconsequential data before settling back into his nightly vigil.

He knew his assistants all thought him an obsessive nut. However, the fox didn't give a damn what anyone else thought. Eclipsing all other concerns, there was a newfound tension that jelled within him over the last few days. It was something that he simply could not ignore. Not the usual anxiety he muddled through on a daily basis, but a curious sort of anticipation plucked at his senses, setting his nerves on pins and needles. Something deep inside, an age-old instinct perhaps, told him that the results of all his toil would come to a head soon.

Never one to ignore his instincts, Kurama stayed every night in the uninviting, dank laboratory, waiting and dozing uneasily until whatever destiny decided would happen, happened.

Gods, how he hoped there was an end in sight. On the one hand, Kurama was frightened that his past may come back to haunt him. On the other hand, he was _sometimes_ positive that he'd paid his debt for the sins of his previous existence—he hoped.

One more night passed with a quasi kitsune slumped over a keyboard. One more night passed with nightmares plaguing said quasi kitsune.

The glorious morning, however, would dawn _almost _the same as any other. Except this time, it would bring joyful tidings to the kitsune in human skin who fate sought fit to compensate for his contrition and patience.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

_Short prologue, I realize, but I didn't want to launch right into the story with a mega chapter, ya know? _

_Sayonara _


	2. Rebirth

See chapter I for disclaimer and warnings. Oh, and Kurama may seem a little out of character, but he has a really good excuse. Try to imagine yourself in his shoes.

Thanks to SuicidalxDolly and Dreaming-endlessly for reviewing. I was going to put up this chapter yesterday, but I finished it literally 3 hours before I got laid off. Bummer. So I decided to get drunk instead. Tomorrow I get to work on my resume. Too bad that isn't as much fun as cranking out fan fiction.

Part II: Rebirth

_Giggling and gasping._

_What a wonderful sound to hear first thing in the morning, he mused as his fingers danced over his new bride's ribs, tickling her warm, naked body._

"_Ah ha ha ha stop, Kurama!"she managed between gasped breaths._

"_Only if you say it first, Kagome."_

"_No, you fiend!"_

"_Alright then, prepare yourself for…the claw!" he warned, raising his right hand, fingers splayed and curled into the shape of a claw. For any normal being who hadn't seen real claws on a youkai or wasn't extraordinarily ticklish, it wouldn't have been so threatening. But for the priestess this was sheer terror. _

"_No! Anything but that!"_

"_I can't hear you." The claw struck, curling around the back of her knee and viciously attacking the silky smooth skin, making the miko shriek and buck in an unsuccessful attempt to get away from him. "The claw has claimed yet another fair maiden as its victim. There is no escaping…unless…the fair maiden was to tell a certain fox champion the magic words that allow him to dispel the claw."_

"_Okay, okay…I give," she screamed, "just…hahaha…cut it out already!"_

_With a triumphant smirk, Kurama sat back, eyeing her expectantly. She pouted. _

"_Cheater."_

"_The claw has only been temporarily defeated. It could come back at any moment to devour the maiden…"_

_She threw her hands up in a placating gesture to fend him off, then sucked in a deep breath and exhaled in a deep sigh of feigned exasperation. "Please, master kitsune…"_

"_Come on, Kagome, you can do better than that. You have to make it believable. Do the eyes. And you forgot the benevolent part." _

"_Grrr…"_

_The claw made an appearance._

_Sufficiently cowed, the priestess's eyes immediately eyes grew wide and shiny and her lips parted, quivering slightly. His wife was very, very good at this. _

"_Oh please, great and benevolent master kitsune-sama, this poor maiden suffers the most terribly wicked dreams at night that cause me to moan embarrassingly in my sleep and wake up hot and wet in strange places. I fear the village priestess will hear of it and proclaim me possessed by a youkai! I am afraid the only way to stop the dreams is to act them out. Won't you help a poor humble girl, mighty kitsune-sama?"_

_Kurama could clearly see the evidence of her amusement lurking around the corners of her mouth by the time she finished, but ignored it as his eyes lightened to gold and he regally drew himself up to play the part. "And just what is it that you dream of, little maiden?" he inquired, voice deep and husky. _

_Kagome, ever a good sport, fell deeper into character with a blush as she cast her eyes down shyly. "Well, you see, I'm too embarrassed to say it aloud. It's just too scandalous, and I am so shy," she informed him while fiddling nervously with a loose thread from the top sheet she bashfully clutched to her chest like a security blanket. _

_Oh yes, she was very good at this indeed. Unfortunately, the coy veneer was ruined by the shrewd glint in her eyes. _

_His smirk widened into a somewhat predatory smile. "You may whisper it in my ear if you wish, little maiden."_

_The 'maiden' unwound herself from the sheets and scooted forward into his lap to do just that. He felt his whole body shiver right down to his toes when she leaned in and brushed his hair away from his ear, and again when she whispered her dirty little secrets to him. _

_As any good 'mighty and benevolent kitsune' would do, Kurama selflessly obliged her._

_An hour or so later, Kagome snickered to herself. "If someone would have told me you were such an incorrigible rascal when we first met, I would have laughed in their face," she told him when he finally leaned back and licked his lips clean of the last bit of whipped cream. _

_He chuckled as he moved to examine the love bites she left on his hip, chest and inner thighs. "This coming from the biter of the relationship." One of the purplish bruises had actual teeth marks around the edges. _

_Narrowed, green eyes slid in her direction, eyeballing the miko speculatively. "Are you sure you're not a cannibal?"_

_His bride laughed and opened her arms for him. "Oh, come here, you big baby."_

_And Kurama was happy, truly happy, maybe for the first time in his considerably long, jaded life. He finally found someone who he could be himself (or was it selves?) with. It was so nice to not have to pretend. _

_Some silent moments passed in which they simply enjoyed each other's company and delighted in gentle touches on smooth skin and trading soft indulgent kisses. _

_Then, "Kurama, I think I should talk to Koenma about crossing into Makai soon."_

_The demifox sighed, reluctant to take up this conversation again. "I really don't want you going there, Kagome. Even if we ignore the fact that the Makai is inhabited by dangerous youkai, all the rebellions and political upheaval going on now is turning the place into an even more volatile powder keg than it was before. A human priestess with ties to Reikai and Youko Kurama wandering around amid all the violence and unrest is just asking for trouble."_

"_I know, dear, but what else can I do? I have to find the last jewel shard and the Makai is the only place I haven't searched. Naraku bit the dust two years ago, but this thing keeps drawing youkai to it. How many demons have come after it in the last two years? How many youkai have we had to kill or banish? Sixty? Seventy? It's only escalating now that the word is out that the Shikon Jewel is back. Eventually we'll risk either exposure, or some innocent will get caught in the crosshairs and killed. I think it's time for me to go on the offensive and get rid of this thing for once and for all, Kurama. You know I'm right."_

_She was wrong._

_One month later they were accidentally transported right into the middle of a bloody riot. They'd gotten separated in the mêlée. From there it all went downhill fast. He heard her voice scream his name but couldn't see where she was, couldn't smell her in the midst of the sweaty, blood-drenched throng. He felt the surge of her ki. Then there was nothing._

_And when it was done, all that was left was an incomplete jewel bathed in miko blood and a kitsune driven half mad with grief. None, save he, survived. That was the riot that ended the civil war in Makai. As his legend grew and was embellished, he became known not only as 'The King of Thieves,' but as 'The Butcher of Reikai' as well. _

A loud clang had Kurama bolting upright in his chair. He frowned at the feel of dried drool on his chin. Wiping it off with his sleeve, he slowly came alert to his surroundings. Did he dream that sound? He supposed it was possible since it was so eerily similar to the sounds of that last battle. His whole body was wound up like a spring from that dream. The sweet memories and the terror and emptiness that followed clenched his gut and closed up his throat.

The clock on the wall above him read 5:12 am.

Straining his ears for any noise that could indicate he had imagined the sound, Kurama sniffed in every direction. There were no foreign scents in the air, just the scents of cleaning solvents, machinery, the familiar smells of the only two technicians allowed access to this part of the lab, and himself. He was prepared to pass it off as either a stress induced auditory hallucination or a remnant of his haunting dream when the sound hammered at his eardrums once more.

_Clang_

There it was again. There was no way he could have imagined that. The fox was pretty sure he was awake as well since his dreams always had a fuzzy quality and the colors were usually skewed.

Rounding a bank of computers and monitors that obstructed his full view of Kagome, Kurama stared at the scene that he was presented with in disbelief.

There was Hoko, hacking away at the chamber glass with the emergency axe. Obviously frustrated that she couldn't penetrate the impervious barrier, the next swing was aimed at one of the hoses leading into the tank that supplied a steady exchange of clean fluid and nutrients.

Galvanized by a sudden blinding rage, Kurama produced his whip in the blink of an eye and used it to rip the axe out of Hoko's hands. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"

Never having heard such a booming, harsh tone from the soft-spoken kitsune, and genuinely shocked by his unexpected use of profanity, Hoko froze mid-pivot.

Kurama gaped at her appearance. The disheveled tanuki hanyou was clearly out of control. She looked almost as wrecked as he did, standing there in her pajamas with her short black and tan hair all out of whack, and panting from exertion. Forcing down the urge to decapitate her on the spot for daring to so much as lift a hostile finger in his wife's direction, he felt oddly compelled to know why Hoko suddenly flipped out. "Explain yourself!" he demanded.

"Why do you do it? Why do you torture yourself every night over that…that human?! Why can't you see there are others that care about you and just move on?"

Kurama blinked. That's what this was all about? Jealousy? She was jealous that he was still devoted to his wife? _Unreal_. He never figured the normally sedate hanyou would flip out like that simply because she envied Kagome's place in his heart.

Well, it didn't matter what the reason, she could not be trusted and had to go.

Brandishing his whip, Kurama was about to open his mouth and demand she leave and never return when Hoko suddenly screamed in agony, surprising him that she could achieve such a high pitch. Her skin mysteriously started to sizzle and smoke. Pustules erupted on the exposed surfaces of her hands, face and bare feet. The tank was emitting an ominous pink glow that reached out and engulfed the female technician.

Hoko barely managed to hop away and dart for the exit, but Kurama hardly noticed her escape, for Kagome's eyes popped open and she began to thrash wildly in the fluid, hitting hard off the sides of the enclosure. Kurama raced for the chamber, frantically pushing buttons on the keypad and twisting valves at the base as his heart leapt into his throat and adrenaline threatened to make him sick.

With the whining sound of rusted gears in action for the first time in just over two decades, the mechanism that lifted the outer shell back engaged, dumping hundreds of gallons of goopy liquid onto the floor, and a waterlogged miko came tumbling out.

Quick as lightning, Kurama moved, catching her before she could impact on the vomit colored linoleum. She was so slippery he almost dropped her. Ecstatic, and truthfully a bit apprehensive, he sunk to the ground, cradling her as he slowly extracted the long breathing tube. He waited while she coughed and gagged, wincing in sympathy since he knew how uncomfortable that must be. Her throat was most likely raw. His heart threatening to pound right out of his chest and he struggled to keep it together.

Eventually the coughing fit slowed and she settled into a dry wheeze. Kurama carefully wiped her nose and mouth clear with his palm so she wouldn't unintentionally inhale any of the gooey, clingy residue which might cause her to choke all over again. At the touch, her brow furrowed and her eyes opened, causing his breath to catch in his throat.

Her irises were not their usual dusky blue-gray.

They were brilliant pink.

It took a few seconds to for her eyes to focus, unaccustomed as they were to light after years in a suspended state. She blinked up at him. "Ku…rama?" It was a raspy whisper that grated his sensitive ears, yet at the same time it was the most beautiful sound in the world. The smile that bloomed across his face radiated a joy he doubted he would ever feel again and he had to hold himself back from crushing her up against him.

Moving slowly, stiffly and with apparent confusion, Kagome glanced down at herself.

"Why am I naked…and covered in…," she held her hand up to her face and spread her fingers, looking baffled at the viscous that webbed between each digit, "…lube?"


	3. A Smaller Perspective

Sorry for the lag-time in updating. This chapter is a bit shorter, but Part IV is a little over half done, so hopefully it won't be such a long time before I update. Thanks all around to reviewers and to those who are giving it a spin around the block by adding the story to your story alerts. At least I know a few of you don't hate it. Extra special thanks to reviewers to follow at chapter end.

Though it kills me to admit it, they still aren't mine. Please see Chapter I for full disclosure.

_Part III: A Smaller Perspective_

Shrill alarms blared, bouncing ear-piercing sound waves off the nearly empty, sterile corridors and sending the all but forgotten installation into an uproar at 5:15 in the morning.

As usual, Hiei, owing to his speed and economy of motion, was the first to arrive on the scene, livid, cursing and positive that it was just another false alarm set off by one of the techs that constantly forgot their key codes.

_Five numbers, is that so hard? _

It never ceased to amaze him how such smart beings could be so dimwitted. Sleep deprived and functioning only on vast quantities of caffeine, there were a certain few usual suspects who regularly punched in the wrong numbers three times in a row which triggered the ancient automated lockdown response.

Very few that were alive knew how to bypass the obsolete security model this place was programmed with. Only Kurama and he were old and experienced enough to know how to circumvent the antiquated system. It was either a stroke of genius or dumb luck on Koenma's part to acquire such an outmoded structure.

Knowing Koenma, Hiei was inclined to believe that the latter was the case.

The undersized apparition expelled an uncharacteristic, weary sigh. If this old hunk of junk human installation was all that his comrade had to immerse himself in such tedious work to keep him alive and somewhat rational, then Hiei would remain supportive, to a degree. It was a degree that only Hiei and his red-haired companion truly understood, and one which probably did not seem supportive at all to those who didn't know him well.

Not much one for sentimentality, Hiei's idea of being supportive was more along the lines of antagonizing and sparring with Kurama just to keep his mind off his loss if only for a short time.

Though Hiei didn't hold his breath that the kitsune's endeavors would produce the results he desired, he dare not say it to Kurama's face. But if the kitsune was good for anything, it was pulling off the impossible. And Hiei hoped that he would succeed for both their sanities' sakes, for a good, long, relaxing vacation to Makai's lava pits would be nice after so many years spent babysitting a sullen and often violent fox.

On the flip side of that coin, it just seemed like a pipedream to the petite, pragmatic arsonist who reveled in destruction and knew little of creation. When Mukuro had reconstructed Hiei a little over three centuries ago, in a tank very similar to the one Kurama had his wife stashed in no less, she at least had a mangled body to work with. All Kurama had was an unfathomably miniscule scrap of Kagome's DNA lodged inside the crevasse of an incomplete jewel.

Granted, times change and technology evolves, as in Kurama's case where he waited for the necessary advances and studied everything he could get his hands on. But to spend so much money, so many years on research and development, and so much time and effort on trying to reconstitute an entire priestess from so little source material when the probability of it actually working was only a hair above nil seemed a little dippy to him.

Not to mention who knew what devilry the Shikon might throw into the mix considering Kurama hadn't wanted to extract her DNA from the fissure and replicate it separately, swearing on his life that he could feel a flicker of Kagome's energy coming from the jewel. That tiny spark led him to theorize that her soul was trapped inside it. It was of little comfort to Hiei that Kagome had apparently had complete control over the jewel way back before they met her and it was ripped from her body. He didn't trust that stupid rock.

As far as anyone somewhat versed in their history knew, the jewel was simply reabsorbed as the cloned priestess grew around it, melding the sphere back into the tissue it burst forth from so many hundreds of years ago. Hiei was skeptical, but if everything went the way Kurama planned after so much trial and error, his wife would be totally restored with her soul intact. Until that day came though, Hiei wouldn't hold his breath.

And so it was with his mouth hanging wide open and eyebrows practically hitting the ceiling that Hiei gazed upon the lovers of a bygone era completely wrapped up in each other on the ugly floor of an abandoned, top secret underground laboratory that once housed some of the world's most devastating known viruses, bacterium and highly classified genetic research on the outskirts of Old Osaka.

"He did it," Hiei muttered in total disbelief, "I don't believe it."

The couple glanced over at him. "Hi, Hiei," the priestess greeted him mildly, as if it had only been yesterday that they'd last seen each other. And as far as _she_ knew, it had.

Kurama, though he seemed a bit overcome, still had the presence of mind to tuck her nude body tight into his own, distractedly folding his lab coat around her.

Hiei raised his hand in a wave that was somehow both a salutation a question. Looking to Kurama, he reiterated, "You succeeded," rather unnecessarily.

To that the fox grinned enormously and the miko continued to look befuddled. Then Kurama seemed to come back to himself with a frown. "You doubted?" He actually sounded surprised, before scoffing and shaking his red head. "Oh, never mind. Look who I'm talking to."

Kurama quickly sobered as his eyes filled with a malicious red tint. "Hoko can no longer be trusted. She tried to destroy the chamber," he told his long time comrade.

Hiei nodded with a nasty grin. "I'm on it." He didn't really care for the raccoon bitch. In fact, Hiei hardly liked anyone, except for the couple before him and maybe handful of select others that hadn't made it to his shit list.

It was a rather long list.

"I can hear the others approaching down the hallway. You might want to get her out of here if you wish to spend some time alone before that idiot, Yoshi, starts in with the twenty questions and tries to shove her under a microscope," the little youkai didn't even bother with mincing words.

"Can someone please tell me what exactly…?" Kagome started.

All of Kurama's attention was redirected back to his wife, still curled up in his grasp. His hardened eyes faded back to their normal glistening green and softened considerably when they landed on her, and Kagome's mind came to a grinding halt as he turned those eyes on her.

From the bizarre goop covering her naked, _'Again, why am I naked?'_ form, to the strange behavior of her husband and his little youkai friend, Kagome gathered something major was up. But the dots were just too scattered to connect in her mind.

"I promise to explain everything shortly, but for now Hiei is correct. Let's go somewhere a little quieter where we can speak without interruption," he told her as he gracefully stood with Kagome closely secured within his arms as he made his way toward the rear exit closest to his personal quarters.

He almost made it when Yoshi came flying into the room like a hurricane force gale and careened into Hiei's back.

It was no secret that the fire apparition had little use for the eccentric monkey youkai, but he'd proven himself tireless and invaluable as a research assistant to Kurama. Hiei just thought the guy was a flake with too much energy to burn, a high-strung macaque to be precise. And if Hiei hated anything, it was a macaque.

"Wahoo! She's awake!" Yoshi cheered, darting around Hiei to latch onto the closest medieval-looking torture device, which happened to be a stomach-flippingly large hypodermic and moving to follow the pair trying to make a quick getaway.

Hiei stepped in between the youkai and his fleeing friends. "Leave them be. This is the first time in over three hundred years the man has been with his wife. He'll take care of her."

The words went in one ear and out the other as Yoshi peered over Hiei's shoulder at the retreating couple.

"Where is he taking her? We have tests to perform, scans to run, and need to find out of the jewel really did revert back into her body. If it did, then we have to remove it…and oh, the possibilities!" the tech prattled on with a disturbingly eager light in his eye.

_This twit enjoys his job just a little too much to be normal. _

It just figured that the only life form on the entire installation shorter than him had to be so annoying. What if the fools around here decided to link lack of height with obnoxiousness?

"As if Kurama would let any of you morons anywhere near his wife. Any tests or procedures required to assure of her _health_ will be performed by him alone. Not you," he replied, jabbing Yoshi in the chest with a firm finger to illustrate his point.

Yoshi frowned. "What do you know? You're just security around here anyway," he squeaked before skittering away in a very monkey-like hop and shuffle.

"Damned monkey," Hiei growled, "see how he'd like a Fist of the Mortal Flame crammed down his throat." What happened to the good old days when he could kill indiscriminately without repercussions?

Stuffing his hands into his pockets with yet another sigh, a sudden thought hit him while he set off on the task of hunting down Hoko. _'Kagome's back…that means I get to go on vacation soon! Makai lava pits, here I come. Ahh, no alarms, no annoying macaques, no double-crossing raccoon bitches. Just red skies, hot, bubbling lava, and even hotter bikini-clad youkai skanks!"_

The ancient but still working security camera filming the austere, white hallway suddenly burst into flames, dripping down the wall to end in a black puddle of melted plastic on the equally white tiles…but not before it recorded the frightening visage of a tiny youkai man sporting a devilish smile.

Next chapter will be longer and will get back to our reunited lovebirds.


End file.

Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Romance, Sci-Fi