"Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out." - Anton Chekhov

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In a palace deep within the Makai, a tall, regal taiyoukai sat quietly at his desk contemplating the letter he was writing. The letter addressed a situation he had not considered in nearly five centuries, and his hand was shaking slightly in the writing of it.

If someone had told him five hundred years ago that he would even write such a letter, let alone find it difficult to do so, he would have taken their head off with a swift swipe of his Toujikin for their audacity. And yet, here he was, doing such a thing and fumbling over the words.

He had felt her return – how could he not? He was intrinsically sensitive to the energy of the barrier, since a part of it was from his father. And he was not so foolish to think that his brother – half breed though he may be – had not felt the ripple as well.

He had not known how… poorly Inuyasha would have taken the splitting of the realms, nor did he understand the depths of attachment the hanyou had to both the dead miko and the miko from the future – both who were abruptly taken from him once the realms had been split.

He should have expected the mutt to go feral in his rage, given his inferior blood, but at the time he honestly thought that Inuyasha would have appreciated the opportunity given to him by the miko's acquiescence to the taiyoukai's will. Sesshoumaru was nothing if not good on his word, and so he had approached the hanyou as well as the kitsune in the aftermath. The kitsune immediately acquiesced, whereas the hanyou crudely told him what he could do with his land and his title.

Sesshoumaru had quirked one eyebrow ever so slightly in astonishment. Never before had a hanyou been offered title and status amongst the youkai lords. Of course, instead of seeing the new and vastly superior life he was being offered, the idiot hanyou went crazy with grief, claiming that he was once again betrayed.

And after 500 years, he had gone feral. There was one thought on his mind, and it was that of revenge – revenge against the one girl who had taken everything from him.

It wasn't that he was particularly concerned with the miko's welfare one way or the other. It was just that if the hanyou should happen to get to her first, he'd have access to a power that none – himself excluded, of course – should have.

And there was no way that he was going to let that happen. Therefore, it behooved him to do something he really hated and usually avoided at all costs – he needed to ask for the assistance of the other Makai lords; one of which (he knew not whom) was rumored to have unfettered access to the Ningenkai.

Sesshoumaru dipped his quill in the ink pot and began to write.

'To Lords Yomi, Mukuro and…' his pen trailed off as he wracked his brain to remember the name of the upstart who replaced Raizen.

"and Urameshi…"

---

A soft, hesitant knock on the wooden door of his room drew him out of his very light sleep. It was early in the morning, and he'd been in a state of half-wakefulness for quite some time now. This was unusual for Yusuke – in fact, if he were in his normal human form, someone intent upon waking him would likely need to using a jackhammer on the door, since the term 'sleeps like the dead' could have been invented for Yusuke Urameshi. However, this particular morning he was in his demon form, since he had just marked Keiko as his mate the very pleasurable night before, and thus was left too exhausted afterwards to transform back. Marking Keiko as his mate was something he had been putting off for nearly a week, since he was afraid that he would lose control of his demon, and hurt Keiko as a result. But Keiko was a strong woman – not that he hadn't known that since, well, forever – and had insisted upon being brought into his palace in the Makai on the last night of their honeymoon together, desiring to bind herself to him in every possible way. Her insistence wore away what little resolve he had left – all of which stemmed from his unwillingness to harm her. She was an amazing woman, and his demonic instincts had been screaming at him to mark her for years now. Now, the willowy beauty beside him was his completely, and nothing save death could tear them asunder.

With a yawn and a somewhat languorous stretch, he sat up in the bed they shared and pulled his fingers through his unruly, and irritatingly too long raven locks. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he turned to look at his wife and mate sprawled out besides him. A half smirk appeared on his face as his noted with male pride his mark upon her shoulder and the small, satisfied smile she wore upon her face. She was sleeping like he normally did, and he smirk only grew wider when he realized just how thoroughly he had worn her out the night before.

The knock on the door went from being light to a little more insistent.

Yusuke groaned and sat up in the bed, careful not to jostle Keiko too much and inadvertently wake her.

"Hold your horses for a minute, for cryin' out loud!" He grumbled sleepily, as he threw his heavily marked legs off of the side of the bed. Blinking his eyes several times in order to clear the sleep out of them, he grabbed his boxers that were haphazardly tossed in a heap by the side of the bed along with the rest of his clothes and tugged them on.

By the time he reached the door, his hair had receded back to its normal length and the markings that covered his body from head to toe faded, until he was no longer in his demon form.

Whoever was on the other side of the door continued to knock even more insistently.

Irritated, Yusuke pulled the door open with more force than was necessary, sending the small bird youkai – a servant of the palace who had been specifically given instructions to ensure the King's privacy the night before – into a face plant on the floor. The servant immediately recovered and jumped to his feet.

"What the hell do you want?" He demanded in an irritated tone of voice. The small youkai shook in fear and crawled backwards slightly, thinking that he was about to meet his demise at his lord's hands. Lord Urameshi was scary.

"Forgive me master, but… you see… its that…"

"Hurry up and spit it out beak face, before I start to get testy." Okay, he knew that antagonizing the petrified little bird was admittedly juvenile, but the sooner the youkai left, the sooner he could get back to more important things… like finding new and interesting ways to wake up his wife.

The bird scrambled to his feet, the soft feathers that covered the skin of his forearms ruffled in fear.

"Begging your pardon master, but I have to give you this." He finally said, the words coming out quickly and all together before he dropped a parchment in Yusuke's hands.

Yusuke looked at it bemusedly, and started to ask the bird youkai what it was all about. But before he could, the frightened messenger had already disappeared. In fact, he left in such a hurry that he had lost a number of tail feathers which had gently fallen to the rug in front of Yusuke's bedroom door. Absently, Yusuke picked up one of the feathers and looked back over to Keiko with an evil smile. Not even bothering to look at the parchment in his hands, he closed the door and made a beeline for the bed, feather in hand. He ran it down her back a few times and at the same time placed a few light kisses around his mark.

"Keiko…."

Unfortunately for him, his dear bride was now awake and more than a little curious about the letter he was holding. She giggled softly and rolled over, gently pushing the hand holding the feather away from her as she reached with her other hand for the letter.

"Stop, Yusuke. Did you even see how frightened the poor creature was? I bet if it wasn't something important, he wouldn't even have bothered to knock on the door."

"But... but… Keiko!" He stammered, more than a bit frustrated. "This," he said, indicating with one hand his current state of arousal, "is something important! I'll read the damn thing later!"

But Keiko just shot him a stern look, one that he knew all too well. With a grimace, he tore the letter back out of her hands and sat down on the bed with what she swore was a growl.

One of Keiko's eyebrows rose in amusement and she fought to suppress a giggle at the look on Yusuke's face, as she sat up, gently pushing the covers down to her knees.

One would think he was a child just informed of the true nature of Santa Claus.

Smiling, she wrapped her arms around his back and leaned her chin on his shoulder, so that she could read the letter. The elegant calligraphy was rather old fashioned, written vertically in the traditional manner as opposed to the more modern horizontal right to left. And at the bottom of the letter was a great red seal containing the character for the west and also the character for the moon. As far as she could tell, being that she had some difficulty deciphering the ancient and archaic writing – god knows how Yusuke was managing – the letter was an invitation of some sort. Keiko squinted her eyes slightly. No, not an invitation; an order to appear in the western lands of the Makai for some sort of meeting of great importance. And it was dated for the next morning.

Yusuke's mouth was settled in a hard line, his eyes intent on the parchment. Keiko was seriously impressed – she had a hard enough time with the archaic script; she didn't think that he'd understand but one word of it.

"Ah-hah! This character means moon, right Keiko?"

And, apparently, she was right. With a patient smile, she translated the letter for him – and soon wished that she hadn't.

"Oh, hell NO! I don't care who this guy thinks he is… some asshole with a superiority complex, apparently. What did you say his name was? Lord Sasquatch? Sessionmary? Shemoron? Never heard of him, so he can't be anyone of any importance. Besides, it's obviously a matter of state, and I've already announced that for the duration of my honeymoon, Lord Urameshi is officially OFF DUTY."

Keiko, knowing Yusuke perhaps better than anyone and knowing how much of a trouble magnet he was, frowned.

"Maybe you shouldn't dismiss his request so lightly…"

But Yusuke was adamant; so much so that he tore up the letter and tossed the remnants in the air, allowing them to flutter down all around them like so many paper snow flakes before smiling at her, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. He lunged forward and pinned her down before planting a long, heated open mouthed kiss on the side of her neck.

"Too late, Keiko. I've already forgotten it."

Keiko allowed Yusuke to draw her back into the bed, but with an uneasy heart. She couldn't shake the feeling that Yusuke's stubbornness was going to land them all in a heap of trouble. And that thought kept nagging at her for the rest of the morning, despite Yusuke's talented tongue and hands and efforts to make her forget everything but him.

---

Shippo fingered the parchment in his hands with a sense of astonishment. He honestly didn't expect his request to be approved, and yet it was. He could only wonder if the Reikai prince was in his right mind when he signed it, and it wouldn't surprise him at all to find out that he was stone cold drunk at the time and had pretty much signed every transfer request sitting on his desk before teetering off to bed. If he knew that, it would certainly explain to his befuddled mind why the signature read 'King Enma Jr the Magnificent, Lord of the Underworld and the Overworld and every world in between, and George, could you kindly fetch me a bucket? I think I'm going to puke.'

Shippo shook his head. Puking gods aside, permission was permission and he was glad to have it, especially now since his momma was back and he couldn't wait to see her! He pulled his dark red locks back into a queue and examined his reflection in his mirror. The last time Kagome had seen him, he had been a child. Now, he was a full grown kitsune, and quite a handsome one if he didn't say so himself. Gone were the flamboyant shirts and colorful bows that he used to wear as a child, having long been replaced with a white kimono embroidered with the symbol of the House of Moon in gold silk thread. The kimono was a gift from Lord Sesshoumaru, and advertised very clearly that Shippo was under his protection. He only wore it for special occasions, and he figured that seeing his momma for the first time in five hundred years was about as special an occasion as they come.

Shippo winked at his reflection. He looked good and he knew it. With one last approving glance at his reflection – 'Yes, you are a handsome fox and you know it' – Shippo gathered the box of chocolates he had specially made for Kagome and head for the door. The chocolates were of a quality far beyond anything that Kagome had ever brought him through the well, although he still had a soft spot in his heart for Pocky. Still, no ningen confectionery could possibly compete with the skills exhibited by the pastry chefs employed at the House of Moon.

He looked enviously at the box.

Well, maybe he could have just one. After all, he needed to make sure that they were as good as he remembered... they were for his momma, after all.

---

Kagome was feeling a little stir crazy. With the well closed, she felt as if there was nothing exciting in her life anymore. And since she has been home, her mother and grandfather have been watching over her like hawks, leaving her little to no time to herself. In a way, she supposed that was a good thing, since she had a heavy helping of guilt and dismay to deal with which would no doubt overwhelm her if she was giving sufficient time to wallow in self pity, like she very much wanted to do.

So she spent the time healing and trying to avoid conversation, even though she knew her mother really wanted to talk to her. When she did have a moment to herself, she would often spend the time sitting on the bench in front of the Goshinboku. She took comfort from the old tree, since with the well inert, it was the last link she had to the past. The Goshinboku had given her Inuyasha, and she was thankful for that even if it was painful to think about.

She tried to keep her thoughts from wandering to Inuyasha, because that always resulted in questions that she had no answers to, like 'where is he now?' and 'does he hate me?'. But her efforts were fruitless, especially when she was sitting under the Goshinboku like she was now. Everything about the old tree reminded her of him, and she sighed to herself, the regret that she felt almost overwhelming.

She wondered when the Reikai prince was going to visit her, as Midoriko had indicated. It had been nearly a week since she'd been home, and she hadn't heard anything from anybody. The only non-human presence she had been able to detect had come from the wedding party that had visited the shrine last week. But as a full week had now passed and she hadn't seen or sensed anyone else, she began to wonder if she had been just seeing what she wanted to see last week.

Still... she couldn't shake the sense of the familiar as she thought about the good looking red haired man who met her eyes as she watched him from her window. She had the strange feeling that she had known him from somewhere, even though she had never seen him before in her life. Kagome had a good memory, and someone who looked like that wasn't easily forgotten anyway.

She had grilled her mother about the wedding party, but her mother wouldn't share any information with her.

'You shouldn't worry yourself over a group of strangers, dear. Focus on healing.'

'But mom! They were youkai!'

'Kagome honey, they were no such thing. No, go get some rest.'

Except that the more she thought about it, the more she was sure that they were youkai, and that she wasn't deluding herself... but it was pointless to linger on it, since they weren't coming back anyway... or were they?

She sensed the youkai before she saw him; red hair, green eyes in a white kimono. He was leaning against the side of the red archway that framed the entrance to the shrine. And the smile he was giving her was radiant.

Although the resemblance was uncanny, this wasn't the same youkai that she saw a week ago. This one wasn't bothering to hide his demonic nature in the least. His ears were pointed, and there were three fluffy red tails curling around the back of his legs, giving him an otherworldly appearance. Even without the tails, she would have known he was a demon. There were very few humans who looked that good.

'He's beautiful,' she thought absently, feeling a stir of attraction and suddenly very aware of what she looked like in her ratty old jeans and oversized Tokyo University sweatshirt. She self-consciously patted down her hair as the youkai approached her and handed her a half eaten box of chocolates.

She looked at him, bemused. 'A kitsune,' she realized, remembering with a flush her last encounter with a strange kitsune. She wondered if this one would try and kiss her too. She took another look at him and decided that she certainly wouldn't mind if he did. Of course, when the kitsune did speak, after throwing his arms around her in abandon, her shameless thoughts ceased at once.

"Hello momma! I've missed you!"

---

From the branches of the Goshinboku, a small red-eyed demon watched the miko and the kitsune with some confusion. The kitsune was dressed as a youkai noble, wearing the seal of the House of Moon.

Hiei had met the Lord of the House of Moon at one point, and thought him haughty and egotistical. He was sure that any member of Lord Sesshoumaru's household would consider conversing with a ningen beneath them. But bestowing affection upon one and calling them 'momma' when it was clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that the kitsune was centuries older than the girl? It only added to the puzzle that was the miko Kagome Higarushi.

The kitsune was looking up into the branches of the Goshinboku with a frown, and Hiei realized with a start that in his distraction, he had forgotten to completely mask his youki. Well, it didn't matter – he learned enough for today anyway. He jumped out of the tree, faster than their eyes could follow, and within seconds he was away from the shrine and its curious kitsune.

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A/N: I know, I KNOW this chapter has been very long in coming, and I apologize for that. Lets just say my mused jumped on the bandwagon of another fandom, and hadn't come back to this one until now. But I do plan on continuing this story, and hopefully updating it MUCH more frequently than I have been.

Japanese Words:

Kitsune – fox
Youkai – demon
Miko – shrine maiden
Inuyoukai – dog demon
Taiyoukai – great demon
Sengoku Jidai – Japan's feudal era
Reikai – spirit world
Makai – demon world
Ningenkai – human world
Ningen – human
Goshinboku – 'Old god tree.' This is the ancient tree that Inuyasha spent fifty years pinned to.
Baka – idiot; moron
Toushin – 'war god'
Kami – god