Wow, it's good to see there are people out there who write this pairing and write it well.
I've read a lot of your Yomi/Kurama stuff today, and you really have their characterization down.
I really enjoyed this fic. :)

Wow... this is the first time a short /anything/ made me cry.

So beautifull. Perfectly built up tension, culminating in a feeling of emptiness and then... that last line. It touches something deep.

Thanks for writing this.

One thing I absolutely love, that you do with all your Yomi and Kurama things, is how you focus the dialogue around gestures. Not even movements, but just little hand gestures, head gestures. It's so detailed, and works so very well, and especially added so much to this one. You paint wonderful mental pictures, and great atmospheres.

"You're alive, you shouldn't be chasing after ghosts."
Best line ever...right there. I can't elaborate more on that one, it just...worked miraculously.

This entire thing is great...it's good to see Yomi get a little taken off his guard. I'm basking in the wonderful. :)

Excellent fic, as always.

TTFN

Katia-chan

Up front with it: saw that thing on LJ about seeing if you could make people cry and went ahead and read it.

And cried.

But now, having read it over several times, I am sufficiently desensitized to make a coherent review.

“I’m sorry.”
- That just sets it up so perfectly, what with the apology being repeated through the fic, and being the first and last thing said, sort of thing… And setting right up with Yomi being a demon and uber-everything, while Kurama’s… well. Uber-everything, but to a lesser degree, physically. Sort of leading up to that about their hands, for one thing, and then just… because Yomi thinks all that’s missing is the body. No big deal.

“…as if trusting that one way or another, Kurama would divulge all his secrets in due time…”
- Because of course no one ever really gets there with Kurama, to all his secrets, and something about Yomi being so calm about it… Like all he has to do is wait, like with a normal person. Anyone else…

“Kurama bowed his head until it rested against the door, his hand still splayed across the wood curling into a fist as he continued.”
- That image is just Yes.

“It hides nothing else from me, so why wouldn’t it betray this?”
- Because… minds and bodies and everything, and this is such a wonderfully contradictory ‘I love you and respect you and am obsessed with you in general… and I can tell it’s still you because look at that pathetic human body. Couldn’t hide a black cloth at midnight in the woods.’

“Are you still blinding yourself to truths you don’t wish to hear?”
- More Yes. Low blow. And sort of a reassertion of power, too. I was the leader, I got your eyes snicked out. ME. [Only not.] Plus… something about it and Yomi’s reaction reminds me of the moment where Yuusuke was, ‘Remind me never to say to Kurama that he’s letting his fox half down.’

“Of the people close to me now, you are the only one who knew me then.”
- Because it at least throws the ‘you’re close to me’ bone, and gives him the benefit of the one whose opinion holds the most weight - except for Kurama’s own, and Yomi is just wrong, so…

“I’m trapped like this.”
- “Yadonushi.” And I shiver.

“His hand enveloped Kurama’s, an adults long fingers curling around a child’s fist. He stroked the back of the fox’s hand gently for a moment, a remorseful caress. Then he squeezed, tightly enough to feel the muscles protest their abuse, though Kurama’s stoic face never changed.”
- That moment… MAKES the fic. The epitome of all the tension and power play and all the old grudges and other emotions and just yes. Although it’s not my FAVORITE, because that’s the part that made me start crying, it is my second-favorite.

“I know you used to be… very fond of me.”
- Because of all the words he could choose, he chooses “fond.” That… just does me in. So wonderful.

“And grief, Kurama thought privately, is not the emotion one feels after being frustrated in their lust.”
- Just yes.

“You can’t revive Youko Kurama from the dead, no matter how much you force me to act like my old self. You’re alive, Yomi. You shouldn’t chase after ghosts.”
- ‘Fred’s dead, Wesley. You’re not. Start acting like it.’ I have a deep love/hate relationship with this kind of dynamic… and they have more in common than I realized, these to situations, though in an oddly opposite way.

“I’m sorry, Yomi. I used to be very fond of you as well.”
- THAT is my favorite. And made me cry. And it’s all, all, all about the past tense. Because they lost it, they’re too different now, and just… I think I have a really serious problem with change. That is such a perfect open/tragic ending…

So. Yeah. Kudos. Sadist.

very well-written. I can imagine what regrets Yomi would hold with Kurama being changed so much.

NICELY done...like very much...:)