another horrific phenomenon brought to you by the Baby Sun

[ugly-old-hat.livejournal.com]

Throughout history, many strange and sinister rains had been recorded. Rains of blood, of meat, of frogs. Rains of locusts. Rains of fire and brimstone.

But had there ever been a rain like this?

The grounds of Hogwarts were splattered with a viscous pink goo. Between the falling drops of pinkish sludge, the malevolent Baby Sun's rays continued to shine.

It was a rain of Tubby Custard. The stuff was liquid enough to be drinkable through the straws built into Tubby breakfast bowls, yet thick enough to be called a custard. And it was truly vile. Even Teletubbies, who lived on this pink goo, had been known to experience deep upset and dismay upon witnessing a Tubby Custard mess. There was something about the prospect of uncontrolled Tubby Custard that struck fear into the heart-approximating organ of a Teletubby. How much more should a human fear this glop?

The Baby Sun cooed its delight. Plants, animals, centaurs, buildings, all acquired unsightly splotches of Tubby Custard. The rain continued sporadically as the day wore on, and would not cease until the Baby Sun set for the night.

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[serrulata.livejournal.com]

The corridors, false walls, and various byways of the school were a maze within a labyrinth, but this area at least Kurama had down (thanks, in no small part, to his childhood (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1757654.html?thread=95622358#t95622358) adventures (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1758488.html) ) and could navigate easily. If Kuronue kept on in the same direction, he'd be able to cut him off from above once the halls let out into the moving stairwell.

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

So. Kuronue kind of...barrelled over Kurama when he did suddenly drop in from fucking nowhere and had too much momentum to stop them, even with his wings.

So they flew through the air and slid along the floor for a good while before hitting the stone barrister. The stone cracked and grumbled, just shy of breaking off and sending down a well of moving staircases. With the wind knocked out of him Kuronue gasped and clutched at his stomach, coughing a little. He forgot about getting away from Kurama for the moment, probably a stupid thing to do.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama would have made a grab for Kuronue, and probably would have had enough time to get a vine out as a makeshift rope, but the collision didn't knock the wind out of him. It knocked his skull against the stone whatever it was he'd hit hard enough to make his vision go black. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Now, however, he was having more than a little trouble moving, what with coherency being an issue and Kuronue wheezing almost on top of him.

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

Eventually he gained the ability to breathe normally, and looked down at Kurama. "Whoa, hey. Kurama?"

He shifted, placing a knee either side of Kurama so he wasn't laying on him and cradled his head with one hand, slapping at his cheek lightly with the other. "You alright?"

One of his wings ached terribly, but he ignored it. It had been a pretty hard hit, even for them.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

A reply was nearly impossible right now, for more than one reason. It took a moment, but then his coping mechanism kicked in and worked all four cylinders full force.

Kurama began to laugh. Not hysterically (not yet, anyway) but a breathless, gasping laugh as his brain forced him not to think of Kuronue almost on top of him, of being in pain, but of A. Of A chucking a durian fruit at Kuronue's head. The mental image was hilarious.

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

Kuronue frowned. And he'd almost thought he'd get away with not being laughed at. Apparently not.

"Man, you're a dick," he muttered and scooted back a little, moving to prop Kurama against the wall and leaning over his to tilt his head back so he could look at his eyes. "If you have a concussion and throw up on me, and I don't notice the signs because you're laughing, I will personally steal all of your clothes and burn them."

Ignoring his laughter he tilted Kurama's head forward, looking for blood in his white hair.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"What... what..." he gasped, trying to get a grip through his hysterics. "Oh, gods, Kuro, I wish I'd seen it." He didn't know if he was bleeding, but he certainly felt concussed. Or at least, he would have diagnosed such if he hadn't been hit so hard with the goofy stick.

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

No blood, just what would be a hell of a bruise in the morning. Kuronue sat back. Noticing with amusement that the pink shit was still in Kurama's hair. Ha. It made him feel a little better. "You know I'm kind of glad you're in pain already. Serves you right."

He realised he was still in Kurama's lap and made to crawl off and sit beside Kurama. He'd have to keep an eye on him because he wasn't about to hand him over to Kusuriyuri and deal with the questions that might pop up over the injury.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

That only served to make Kurama laugh harder, until he was out of breath. gradually, the laughter died to a few exhausted chuckles. "S-so," he said finally, trying to sit up, with little success. "Having fun yet?"

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

Kuronue waited out the latest round of laughter by looking up and watching the stairs above them shift. He looked back to Kurama when he spoke. "Oh yeah. Exploding objects, giggling sun and all. This place is fucked up, Kurama."

He smiled. "But yeah, I like it. You feeling alright?"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that's not even the half of it. Wait 'til you meet Lezard." He snickered again, his head aching furiously. "I have the thunder God's own headache," he said, suppressing a groan of pain.

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

"Think I already have, he didn't seem too bad." The guy dressed weird, but the name matched the face. Kuronue stood and tentatively stretched his aching wing. It was fine, just a little tender from its scrape along the stone floor.

He leant down and took one of Kurama's arms, then helped him stand while letting him lean on him. "Can you walk or do I have to carry you, princess?"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama made a sound that was both incoherent and questioning, shoving away and completely failing at standing on his own. His legs buckled and he had to grab onto the cracked banister to remain upright. "Lezard," he laughed breathlessly again. "Lezard the nerdboygod."

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

He sighed heavily. "You really did hit your head."

He took a step closer to him and wrapped Kurama's arm over his shoulders again, then wrapped his other arm around his waist. At least like this he could drag him a long and Kurama wouldn't bitch at him later for the indignity of it.

"I'm taking you to Slytherin until you're better. I don't want to deal with Kusuriyuri right now," he said, heading towards the dungeons. He supposed he could set Kurama up in one of the chairs in the common room, but decided against it. He didn't want people seeing Kurama while he was out of it and was sure Kurama didn't want it either.

So he dragged Kurama, who giggled all the way, to his room in the Slytherin dorm, and sat him on his bed. "Do not throw up here, okay?"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"What," he sniggered a little, still feeling terribly loopy. A side effect of the loopiness was that it completely murdered his sense of tact. "what exactly do you have against him anyway? I mean, I know why, but did he do something?"

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

Kuronue moved about, opening small boxes of things he'd gotten the elves to bring him. He pulled out some pills (one of the first things he'd done with his free time was go to the library and then make use of what he'd learnt in the advancement of human medicine) and poured a glass of water then sat beside Kurama on the bed.

"Take them, you're not in a condition to heal yourself, and you know how bad I am at herbal shit." He tried to ignore the question, mainly because it didn't make sense. He didn't want to face his replacement just yet. It was as simple as that. Kurama knew that he'd need time to get his head around it, he must have.

He held out the pills to Kurama, but wouldn't let him hold the glass completely. He didn't want him to end up dropping it.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama took the pills with an unsteady hand, still trying to focus on what he was doing. It had been a long time since he'd been whacked that hard, and it was difficult to deal.

He popped the pills and gestured for Kuronue to hand him the water, curling his hand around Kuronue's and the cup when it didn't come quickly enough. He drained the glass and squeezed his eyes shut for a few minutes. He had to, had to grab on to some sanity, quick.

It took a few, long moments of silence, and he realized he still held the glass, and Kuronue's hand. He let go, his hand falling to his lap.

"You lose all sense of self in a place like this," he said, breaking the quiet. "Everything that you were before doesn't matter any more. No one cares about reputation, or your history, who you've killed, who you love, who you hate. It's all..." he wheeled his hand through the air, gesturing broadly. "All new. And I... I'm so confused."

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

Kuronue placed the glass on the table by the bed and returned to sit next to Kurama. "They're strong, not necessarily legal for me to have. They should kick in soon." He resisted the urge to pull Kurama's hair back from his eyes. To touch him.

"I can see that it would be easy to go crazy here...but you haven't changed. You've...calmed. Found peace, I think. You were never happy in Makai, Youko." Calling him Youko now seemed...odd. He rarely used to in the past as well, only when he was being serious. It drew attention to who he was though. The Legendary Youko Kurama, and not Kurama, the kitsune turned human turned...wizard teacher.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I hated it there," he murmured, surprised by his own honesty. He pressed against his eyes with the heels of his hands, the pain already starting to ebb to something more bearable. He still felt like laughing, but knew that going down that path would just lead to more shoving things under the rug instead of dealing with the issue at hand.

"I really did. You were the only worthwhile part of staying." Considering he'd fled from Makai after Kuronue's death, spiriting around the human world until Reikai had him hunted down... well, it was no wonder how much he hated the place. he was silent another moment. "Don't call me that."

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

Kuronue tentatively placed a hand on the back of Kurama's neck, holding his steady as much as offering comfort without being overly touchy. "Just Kurama now, hm?"

Kuronue's eyes were sad. He was beginning to realise that this wasn't the Kurama he'd loved. He had changed. In a way it made it slightly easier to begin excepting that he'd lost him, even though he'd never really had him in the first place.

"Youko died with me," he said quietly. "Kurama lived on."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

That hurt. Like a cold knife in the back, but it was true. Kurama nodded miserably, not bothering to move much any other way. "Youko was only alive when you were around. After... what was the point? Why go on doing the same old thing if there was no one to share it with?" He sighed, bringing up one leg, resting his chin on the knee. "And then, being human... well, that was fun, and then Yomi had to screw it all up." he grimaced, the medicine was starting to make him feel muzzy, grayness was seeping into the corners of his vision.

Absently, he reached into his back pocket, pulling out a much loved, battered, and mostly empty leather wallet. There was no need for money here, but he kept it for the picture. It was of the old gang, Yuusuke and Kuwabara and Hiei and himself. He handed it over to Kuronue, tapping a finger next to his human form. "You never saw... that was me."

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

He felt guilty in a way, that Kurama had to go through it all. All because he died. It was hard to hear that Kurama had suffered while Kuronue spent time in Netherworld. And Netherworld, with its inhabitants unable to die again, was utter chaos. Demons loved it, it kept them occupied until they were reincarnated. But Kuronue hadn't forgotten Kurama. Even then.

It took effort to grin and take the picture from Kurama to examine it closer. "Red hair again," he said, amused. "And very human."

He looked over to Kurama. "If you liked being human...then why are you back to your demon body?"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"Eugh," Kurama made a face, half embarrassed, half just plain ill. "That's actually kind of embarrassing. Inari... er, requested it. She... he... well, Inari wanted me to work as a fox again. Conniving omniscient thing managed to back me into a corner and accept full duties of a ranking kitsune a little over six months ago. Before the next year is up, I'll be an earth-bound kyuubi acting as Inari's personal envoy." The only good part of this arrangement, in Kurama's reckoning, was that he only had to work four weeks out of the year, and the rest of the time he was allowed to stay at Hogwarts (mostly) unmolested.

"Inari... doesn't like my human shape," he finished lamely. That was an extreme understatement. But, once his probationary first year of service ended, he could change shape as he pleased. That, at the very least, was one freedom allotted a nine-tailed fox.

[prettypendulum.livejournal.com]

Kuronue snickered. "Yeah, leave it to you to get called on by a god. Goddess. Nh."

He shifted on the bed, leaning back on his hands and stretching his aching wing a bit. "But at least it's only four weeks of a year, right?" He balanced on one of his arms as he looked at the picture once more then held it back out to Kurama. He didn't bother to ask about the others Kurama was with.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

He took the wallet back with a little smile, replacing it with something akin to reverence. "Yeah, it's only that, at least. And being constantly watched to see if I break any more rules." He glanced over at Kuronue's wing critically. "You didn't get any medicine for yourself."