Where True Love Exists

By: Magel C. & Jo-san

Okay, this is NOT my usual style of fic. I have a slight tendency for what I call 'fluff'... kinda sweet, kinda sappy, so on and so forth. This is considerably darker than that, though I doubt it would qualify as a darkfic. Well, it didn't count, really, until Magel came in (ain't she great? ^_^.)

Minamino Shuiichi sat quietly at his desk, carefully going over his homework so he could pretend he didn't notice the open staring of his classmates. It was like this every morning. And afternoon. And evening, too. The only time people weren't staring at him was when he was alone... and he was quite sure most of his classmates drooled over yearbook photos of him in his absence. It was really quite tiring by now.

His sensei called the class to order and took attendance. Then she smiled, though a fair portion of it was directed straight at Kurama as usual, and motioned to a figure in the doorway. "Class, we have a new student today. This is Mimiroku Yomi." The boy entered the room slowly, tapping a cane before him. He was blind. "I hope you'll all make him feel welcome. Mimiroku-san, you may sit next to Higurashi-san here."

Kurama wasn't listening. He had turned dead white the instant the blind boy entered the room at the sound of his name. Yomi. It couldn't be... Yomi was one of the three lords of the Makai, ancient and powerful, someone the Reikai would never let slip into the Ningenkai. The boy looked nothing like Yomi, though he was blind, and Kurama shook his head. Of course it wasn't Yomi. There were probably lots of people named Yomi. Okay, so 'Mimiroku Yomi' was an unheard-of coincidence, but still...! No, Yomi would be safely back in the Makai, far, far away from Kurama. Then the boy passed Kurama's desk.

A sharp blow knocked Kurama to the floor. Shocked protests from his classmates were cut off with a sharp raising of Yomi's hand and a blast that knocked the desks and students to the side of the room. Another blast from his other hand as Kurama struggled upright, and desks on the other side careened into the walls, as did the teacher.

"Urusei!" Yomi snapped at the few conscious, crying students, before turning back to Kurama. "It has been awhile, Kurama."

"How...?" Hiei, help, it's Yomi!

"Oh, it wasn't easy, pet." He slowly stepped forward, Kurama backing away. He couldn't fight here, couldn't just pull out his Rose Whip in school, in front of everyone! "You're a cunning little fox... I would've never found you if you hadn't had to join the Tantei. I had no idea any demon would have the guts to weaken themselves with a human body!" He leered appreciatively. "And such a lovely one, too. Not that it compares to your youko form, of course, but it's a far more colorful beauty. I'm going to have such fun trying it out!"

"Iya!" Kurama spat the word.

"Never? I'm hurt. I'm so hurt, I just might have to kill of a few of these pathetic ningens to cheer myself up." Kurama froze. "Oh, did that upset you? Why? They're only ningens... you never cared about them before. You've gotten weak, Kurama."

"Hardly. But you wouldn't understand it."

"Oh, I understand. I understand that you're so soft now, you stole the Mirror of Utter Dark to trade your life for a ningen woman's... the one sitting in my kennels as we speak."

"Kaasan...!" Kurama gasped.

Yomi sneered. "Perhaps I could be convinced to spare her my attentions. If you behave nicely, of course." Kurama's shoulders slumped, and he stared at the ground in understanding... and defeat. "Good boy." He grabbed Kurama by the jaw in a vise-like grip, his appearance shifting to the ancient demon's true form with the momentary shimmer of unraveling illusion. Then, to the sound of terrified/horrified shrieks, he pulled Kurama to him and thrust his tongue into the redhead's mouth brutally. Kurama forced himself to remain still as the demon lord violated his mouth, but he was unable to prevent tears of shame from running down his face. Finally, Yomi released him.

"Bad pet. Stop crying." he snapped. When the tears continued to flow, he raised his cane and struck Kurama violently, tearing a pained grunt from the youko. "I said stop! When I tell you to do something, you do it!" Another blow, this one accompanied by a sharp snap... the sickening crunch of bone. Kurama fell to the ground. "Have you forgotten everything so easily, toy? Must I remind you who you belong to?" The cane struck yet again. The mad lord was practically foaming at the mouth. "You are mine, Kurama! Mine! Say it, Kurama!"

"No..." He bit through his lip as the cane broke yet another bone.

"Say it!" Yomi screeched. "Say it! Or I'll kill your ningen mother!"

"Kaasan..."

"JAOH ENSATSU KOKURYUUHA!!!!"

The outer wall of the classroom exploded inwards, propelled by a dragon crackling with energy: a living blue-fire weapon sheathed in inky black. Four impossibly long necks supported four sleek reptilian heads, four sharp-pointed muzzles, four sets of razor-edged teeth in mouths shrieking in fury; all of which were focused directly on the demon lord. Yomi's own shouted words carried the same sentiment as the dragon's voice.

"The runt can not always use Kokuryuuha, Kurama! I will have what is mine!" He vanished as the four blue-fire snouts snapped at the space he'd stood in. All four roared, their prey lost, and turned away, shrieking and fighting as they coiled and shrank away to become no more than a black tattoo on the arm of a boy who stood near the ruin, unnoticed until then. When the last bit of ink became immobile once more, the boy swayed in place, then collapsed... right into Shuiichi's arms.

"Hiei!" he cried, the limp weight obviously more than his injured body could handle. He fell to the ground, rolling the unconscious form over and off him. He could feel the stares of his few conscious classmates as he finally managed to get to a sitting position, but none came over, thankfully. They were probably all frightened half out of their wits. A demon lord and Kokuryuuha all in one morning... it was amazing any were still conscious. But now what was he supposed to do? Besides watch over Hiei... beautiful, powerful, caring Hiei... he let himself stare at his friend's sleeping form as he took the long strip of warding cloth from Hiei's left hand and slowly wrapped it around the fire demon's arm. It was a terribly painful process after the beating he'd recieved at the insane demon lord's hands, but letting Kokuryuuha slip loose would be far worse.

Finally, Hiei stirred. "Hiei? How do you feel?" Kurama asked.

"Better than you." Hiei stood and glared at the youko. "Kitsune no baka. You didn't even try to fight back."

"He's... got Kaasan." he murmured. Somehow saying it made it all seem worse, and he sagged against Hiei's chest, hurting too much to fling his arms around the Koorime, and sobbed. "Kaasan... he's going to hurt Kaasan..."

"Cut it out!" Hiei pushed him away. "He was lying, Kurama."

"L... lying...?" Hiei glared at him.

"Stupid fox. You actually believed him."

"I don't exactly have a Jagan to tell me when someone's lying, Hiei!"

"Hn." He knelt and began pressing carefully at Kurama's torso, the youko hissing in pain. "Bastard broke bones, dislocated your shoulder, left bruises all over..." He whipped off one of his belts and had it doubled up and before Kurama's mouth in an instant. "Bite down." One hand went to Kurama's shoulder in an unmistakable gesture, and when he took the heavy leather into his mouth Hiei's hand went to the other one. A swift, solid push, and the shoulder popped back into place, the repair more painful than the injury. Hiei held the kitsune steady as he swayed, then gently took the belt from him.

"Hn." The toothmarks imprinted in the thick white leather went nearly all the way through. "You've got plenty of ki, fox. Grow something for those bruises." While Kurama was occupied with that, Hiei flitted off and snatched his cloak from a branch outside: the one he'd watched from with increasing frustration as Yomi beat the crap out of his friend's weak ningen body, knowing that with Shiori captive neither of them could do anything. He remembered the flash of Yomi's aura when he'd threatened to kill Shiori, the flicker of color that screamed to the three worlds that the aura-caster was lying... the sudden freedom to attack, death-hot fury bringing Kokuryuuha raging from his arm, the dragon more under Hiei's control than ever before...

Hiei shook off these distracting thoughts, returning to Kurama with his cloak and it's contents: bandages and warding cloths, the latter good for Jagans, magic tattoos, and broken bones. Of course, if Genkai had been joking about using them on broken bones he'd rip the baabaa's skinny throat out. Again he had to shake off these thoughts, as well as the slight fluttering he felt in his chest when he returned and that damn fox actually managed to smile at him through the pain. He knelt before the redhead again, piling the bandages beside him before pulling on his cloak, and motioned to the fox's shirt.

"Hiei!" Now what was Kurama's problem? Green eyes flicked to the wide-eyed ningens huddled near the edge of the destroyed room. Mostly girls, Hiei noted with a faint annoyance.

"Hn." He flashed his most severe 'stupid fox' glare. "Just dump the stupid shirt."

"But..."

"Do I have to rip it?" Kurama sighed and reluctantly undid the buttons, whimpering in pain. The cloth slid to the floor to the sound of adoring sighs from the ningens by the remaining walls. Hiei bit down on his anger when the pale skin was revealed, red welts already darkening with the purples and blacks of the worst type of bruise. The perfect curve of the chest was marred by two obviously unnatural angles where rib bones were cracked in two. Hiei carefully manuvered the sleeves from Kurama's arms: here, too, the elegant shape of one arm had been distorted with an extra bend just below the elbow.

"Shit, Kurama..." Hiei muttered, studying the various Makai plants growing next to him. The youko pointed at two, picking the berries from one and fleshy leaves from the other. Hiei crushed them in his hand and mixed them to make a paste, which he then spread liberally over the bruising at Kurama's approving nod. "...sic my dragon on him again..." he muttered.

"What was that, Hiei?"

"Nothing. Stupid fox." He finished with the salve and went for the warding cloths, again holding out his mangled belt. Kurama looked blankly at it. "I have to set the bone. Bite." Kurama obediently did so, then continued to hold the leather firmly with his teeth as Hiei bound his ribs tightly.

"Hiei..." Kurama murmured to catch his attention. "Arigato, Hiei."

"Hn. Put your shirt back on." He watched Kurama struggle with the garment for a moment before growling and snatching it from the fox. "Baka. Just say when it hurts to put the damn thing on next time!" He flung his cloak over the slender, shivering form, draping the shirt over his arm.

That idiot youko smiled gratefully at him... ignore it ignore it ignore it damn... and pulled the heavy black fabric tighter, his hair even more brilliantly red against it. Apparently those annoying ningens weren't hurt too badly... he could still hear appreciative sounds from their general direction. When he shot a normally-silencing glare that way, the murmurs only increased.

"They're looking at you, Hiei." Kurama chuckled at the little youkai's surprised statement.

"Ch. Don't be ridiculous, Fox."

"I'm not. They're practically drooling over you."

"Why?"

"You're kawaii."

"I am NOT!" he hissed. Kurama merely smiled. ".... Baka."

"Hiei... we are going to Genkai's , aren't we?" He looked down at the youko, whose perfect features were still twisted in badly-disguised pain. Then, with a disdainful grunt, he lifted Kurama easily (though a bit awkwardly, due to the height difference) and flitted away.

You're kawaii... still whispered in the back of his mind.Finally, they reached the temple. He carried Kurama to a spare room that Yukina showed them. Yukina told Kurama to sleep to help him recover more quickly but Kurama wasn't feeling a wee bit sleepy.

You're kawaii...he actually said you're kawaii.../shut up! He was just teasing you/...was not you saw his aura...it was the truth!/ shutupshutupshutup! go away i don't need you, Hiei told himself. Hiei didn't realize that he was staring at Kurama while this little debate inside his head was going on.

"Hiei? Hiei? Are you alright? Hiei?" Kurama was getting worried about his friend. Hiei was not the type to daydream...at least he wasn't...a theory about Hiei falling in love started forming in Kurama's mind and for some reason he was feeling jealous. Hiei broke out of his reverie and realized that he was staring at Kurama for quite a while now. He didn't even hear Kurama call him...

"Hiei, is there something wrong?" Kurama asked.

"Hn. None of your business, stupid fox," he growled. Kurama couldn't help but tease Hiei.

"C'mon, Hiei, what's wrong? It's a girl isn't it?"

"Iie! Just go to sleep, kitsune," he grumbled. Kurama ususally ends up smiling everytime he just teased Hiei but this time it was something different. Thinking about Hiei falling in love made him feel like his heart was being being squeezed and he didn't like the feeling one bit. He couldn't understand why he felt that way but decided to just sleep and

resolve it some other time.

Meanwhile, in Yomi's palace, the youkai lord was devising a plan to get Kurama into his hands.

"Dorei, come here." he said.

"I want you to get me this ningen," Yomi said as he held up a picture of a teenage girl.

"Hai. Ryokai." the slave replied. He left at once for the Ningenkai, carrying with him the picture of the girl.

"Now, Kurama...you will be mine and you won't even know it...you won't even know it." Yomi muttered to himself.

Kami was slowly walking home. Ruby eyes glittered nervously, angrily: someone was following her. She could hear faint footsteps and the rustle of grass as the stalker moved. She sped up her pace in hopes of losing this presence. But it didn't go away. It somehow came even closer. And Kami felt it. She was getting more scared by the second. Hoping to catch her pursuer off guard, she suddenly burst into a flat-out run, her jet-black, white-streaked hair streaming out behind her as she ran. It was no use. She stopped abruptly when a dark-haired, blue-eyed man stood in front of her. The man was tall, nearly twice her own 130 centimeters, and he had a build of a soldier. He had a very serious face, one that would make most who saw it realize that messing with him would be a very, very bad idea. Kami started to back away, her every step trembling, when the man began to advance on her.

"Wh--who are you?" she said, her voice trembling even more than her body.

The man didn't answer but instead continued to approach her at his steady pace.

"Pl---plea--please do--don't hurt me." She'd barely turned to run when she felt the cold bite of steel plunge into her back. The last thing she saw was his face, smiling at her proudly. Mission accomplished. He'd now bring this girl to his master, and Yomi... Yomi would turn her into the ultimate weapon against Kurama. This girl would be the one to make Kurama his.

The weekend came and went. Kurama recieved several healings at Genkai's, so when he went to school on Monday his injuries were all but gone. The awed staring had a different quality this morning; apparently the story of what had happened last Thursday had spread throughout the entire school. Unlike most stories, though, he doubted this one had grown with the retelling. It was a little hard to top an insane demon assulting the most popular student in the school and a dragon ripping a classroom to shreds.

A low murmur caught his attention. "... four dragons and this little boy was controlling them and made them eat the guy..."

Okay, maybe not. But it was pretty close to the truth. He calmly opened his locker. The door wavered before his eyes. What the....?

A wild lurch made him grab at the locker door in a panic. What was going on? The floor rocked beneath him, colors swirled in his vision, and the door was suddenly slippery and writhing under his fingers. A cool, flat surface met his cheek. The floor? Or was it the wall? Hiei... Hiei...

Black wavered before his eyes, a flash of white cutting into the mass, and a single shape emerged momentarily from the chaos. A glittering ruby eye. "Hi...ei..." Bare skin touched his, and he passed out.

Hiei... Hiei... the world spun, almost causing him to fall from his perch. Hiei cursed, and the mental contact vanished, taking the vertigo with it. Shimatta... now what had that crazy fox gotten himself into? The little youkai blurred from sight.

There he was. Kami rubbed her hands together, feeling the lotion still wet upon the palms. Nearly scentless, completely colorless, tsuta oil was harmless to ningens and most youkai. Youko, on the other hand... well, she wasn't even within earshot yet and the lovely redhead was holding himself up with his locker door. A little closer... yes, there, he lost his grip. The metal slid from his hands as she walked even closer.

"Minamino-san?" Sound worried, act worried, follow orders, forget. Right. "Are you all right, Minamino-san?" He slid to the ground. "Minamino-san!"

"Hi...ei..." Damn. He shouldn't be able to talk. He shouldn't even be conscious. All right, let's see how he stood up to direct tsuta oil. She clasped his hand in hers, and his eyes rolled back in his head. Much better.

"Help! Minamino-san!" A crowd gathered, mostly girls, all eager to help her carry the beautiful youko. "Let's get him to the nurse, quickly..."

With several dozen helpful hands, Kurama was shortly lying on a school cot in the clinic... invisible oily handprints keeping him there, of course. All Lord Yomi had to do was follow the traces of tsuta, and he could find the fox within minutes. Kami went to the girl's room, washed her hands, slid the small bottle of lotion to the bottom of her bag, and promptly forgot she'd had any role in Kurama's sudden collapse.

A dark blur flashed past the doorways of the various rooms in Meiou High, resolving itself into a short, black-cloaked man at the entrance to classroom 2-A. Orange tape and a matching barrel blocked casual entrance to the room, and a computer-printed sign hung at a normal eye level... that is to say, slightly higher than the small man would've wanted, if he'd been able to read it in the first place. He grabbed an unlucky student running messages during his study period. "Where has this class gone?" he growled.

The student had heard all about the 'little boy who controlled the dragons', and correctly concluded this was him. "Uh... uh... I... uh..." A quick glance to the sign gave him the information. "Room 12... down the stairs, two lefts, third door on the right!" He fell backwards at a shove from the boy, and when he looked back up, he had vanished.

Hiei paused outside the door to Room 12. He couldn't sense Kurama's ki inside. Shit. He threw the door open, seeing the ningens within jump when it hit the wall with a sound like Yuusuke's Rei-gun. "Where. Is. He." Hiei stepped into the room, and the students shrank back in their seats, though the girls seemed less afraid than most of the boys. Stupid ninge... he sniffed. There was a very faint scent infused with youki in the room. "Tsuta." he snarled.

He slowly prowled the room, looking for the source of the scent-ki. Stronger, weaker, stronger again... here. He grabbed a girl's bag, ignoring her angry protests, and rifled through the contents. Books, papers, pens and pencils... a tiny bottle. He snatched it, flipped the lid open, and sniffed at it. "You have tsuta."

"I... what? It's hand lotion."

He glared at her, blinking at the near-exact mirror image of himself the girl was, right down to having a faint mark on her forehead. Shaking it off, he yanked her to her feet by her wrist and scowled directly at her. "This is full of tsuta, ningen. Did you give him any of it?"

"No..." He bent to the captured hand, sniffing it carefully.

"You're wearing it. Did you touch him?"

"He... he collapsed... I helped carry him to the clinic..."

"Baka!" He pushed her away from him in fury. "You just poisoned him!" Shrieks sounded throughout the room at this announcement. "URESEI!" The clamor immediately silenced. "You, girl..."

"My name is Kami."

"I don't care. Who did you get this from?" She blinked.

"I..." The girl paused. "I don't remember..."

"WHEN did you get it, then?"

"This weekend. I think."

"Where." A helpless shrug. "Damn you, girl, you can't grow this... stuff... here..." Suspicion flickered in his eyes, and with an unseen movement he had the girl's shirt in his fist and had pulled her to her knees. "You got it from Yomi, didn't you, bitch." She shook her head, no recognition of the name in her eyes. "You're working for Yomi, and he gave you this tsuta lotion to knock my friend out so he wouldn't fight back when Yomi came and got him."

"I don't know what you're talking about! I haven't used the lotion! I only helped carry him when he fell!" Tears started to stream down her face.

"Ch." Something occured to him. "What did you do this weekend?" Kami stared blankly at him, so he repeated the question, slowly and forcefully.

"I... don't..."

"You don't know. You don't remember. Ch." Dragging her along behind him, he threw her into a chair near the front of the room. "Close your eyes. Or else."

The girl was too frightened to disobey. First good thing that had happened that day, Hiei thought. He leaned in close and lifted the ward from his Jagan, careful to make sure no one saw the eye, then proceeded to examine Kami's surface thoughts. At least her claims of innocence weren't lies. He then probed a bit deeper. "Hn. Someone's been tampering with you, ningen. Memory block." He slid the ward back into place and stepped back.

"You can open your eyes now, ningen." She obeyed, looking completely confused. "You've got a psychic block in your mind. I can break it, but it'll hurt. A lot. Choose."

"Choose...?"

"If you want it removed or not, idiot!" His patience was getting very thin... in fact the only reason it hadn't snapped yet was that the girl was overwhelmed by all this.

Or was she? Her eyes shot up, glittering rubies disturbingly familiar with her anger. "Break it." she snapped. "No one messes with my head."

He moved in close, a hand on his headband. "No one look at me without this ward on, or Enma himself won't be able to save you." Announcement made (and ningens frightened), he directed his next words to Kami. "Eyes closed." One last check to make sure no one was looking at him, and he removed the cloth from his forehead and touched Kami's lightly with two fingers.

"Is this where you say 'my mind to your mind'?" she quipped.

"Shut up." he muttered, and slipped past her rudimentary ningen defenses. He carefully examined the block, looking for the best place to either lift or shatter it. Searching... searching... ah, here. A weakness. He pulled his 'fist' back, and struck.

Pain blossomed in his Jagan, the force of it knocking him away from Kami. Damn, damn, damn.... he peered up from under his hands, clasped instinctively to cover the Jagan, into the face of the girl who had moved to stand over him.

"Aren't you the naughty little runt?" Yomi's voice issued from her mouth. "I see you've found my tool. Of course, you've also found one of the little surprises I've left to discourage the theft of my pet." Kami took a small vial from her pocket. "Here's another one. Give my regards to Koenma when you next see him... in the afterlife!" A shrill, insane laugh burst forth as she uncorked the tiny bottle. The strong, choking scent of dragonsbane enveloped him. She tilted the vial over him.

Before a single drop of the strong poison fell, Hiei slapped it from her hand. It crashed against the wall, the liquid scorching the paint and floor vinyl. Kami shrieked in outrage and pounced, but even a controlled ningen was no match for Hiei, no matter how injured the youkai was. A few kicks knocked her to the opposite wall, where she fell stunned. Hiei got to his feet, one hand still hiding the Jagan, and replaced the ward.

"So." Hiei said as he watched the blood trickle from the corner of Kami's mouth.

"It doesn't matter, runt. Kurama is now mine!" The words came from Kami's lips, but the voice was still Yomi's. The Makai lord's presence then slowly faded from Hiei's senses. He had vanished as quickly as he'd arrived, leaving Kami sitting on the floor not knowing why she was there or why there was blood on her face. She glanced around the room trying to comprehend the odd looks on her classmates faces.

"Something... I can't... remember... Minamino-san... the clinic... boy in black... bottle... poi...poison! Oh my god! I poisoned Minamino-san!" she wailed.

"Ningen. Stand up." Kami jumped at the sound of a voice so familiar yet so dreadful to her ears. She stood up, afraid for some unknown reason.

"Look at me." Kami glanced up but looked away at once.

"I. Said. Look. At. Me. Ningen." Hiei said, his tone dangerously low. Kami looked up and stayed that way in fear that the boy in black would hurt her. Hiei held Kami's gaze and slowly his Jagan began to glow under the ward.

::Wha...? I feel so light... like I'm floating...::

"You will take me to where Yomi is keeping Kurama."

"Hai."

"Yomi!" Hiei thundered as he entered Yomi's hiding place. Kami was walking in front of him; he had his sword in his hand, unsheathed. He was pointing it at Kami's back, ready at any time to pierce her slim body.

They'd been walking through the uncharted forestlands of the Makai. Yomi had hidden Kurama away in the deepest parts of the Makai wilderness but they had finally found it, found Yomi's fortress in the woods. Now, Hiei was very determined to get Kurama back no matter what it takes.

I must save him. I WILL save him. Wait for me, Kurama... wait for me...

***FLASHBACK***

"Where are you going?"

"Wha... oh, I'm going over to study... with Kami." Kurama answered woodenly.

"Hn."

The fox had never studied with any of his classmates, especially not one-on-one. With his centuries of experience, he was well aware of how easily a ningen study date could become a real date, and smart enough to avoid the situation. Usually. But that night, he not only had studied with Kami, but he had flirted with her, unaware of the shadowy presence spying on them: Hiei.

After a few hours of stalking the kitsune, Hiei tired of seeing the fox flirting... flirting!... with the ningen, and went to rest in his usual perch at Genkai's Temple.

'Hn. What do I care if he's with that ningen girl?' he thought. 'That's none of my business. But the problem is I do care... but why? Kurama... why do I care so much about you?'

"Kurama... what have you done to me? Why do I... feel... so...?"

"Oniisan?" Hiei was startled at the voice of his sister. At her quiet gesture, Hiei followed her into the temple and sat down after she did.

"You heard." he stated bluntly.

"Hai." He fixed her with a sharp glance, daring her to continue. She did. "Oniisan... I'm going to be rather direct about this. You're restless whenever Kurama-kun is around. He is your best friend, and among all of us, including me, he's the one who knows the most about you... the one you've allowed to know the most about you..."

"And?"

"It's just that what you said proved what I was thinking."

"Which is?"

"I think you're having what ningens call a... crush on Kurama-kun."

"Hn. I don't think so."

"Then why *do* you care?"

It was exactly what he'd just asked himself, and he had as much of an answer as he'd had before: none. He sat there quietly, considering what Yukina had said. All at once, it dawned on him.

"I don't have a crush on him, Yukina. I... I think I... love him."

The small woman beamed.

***FLASHBACK ENDS***

Hiei pushed Kami before him as he stalked the halls of the fortress, though it was rather unneccessary: every step she took spoke of towering, although merely ningen, fury. "Yomi, you bastard!" Hiei bellowed. "Get your ass out here so I can turn you into sashimi!!"

"Yeah, you ugly motherfucker, get your ass out here!" Kami screeched. Hiei noted the term... a fairly good insult, even if it was ningen in origin... and filed it away for later use.

The eerily matching pair barreled through an ornate set of heavy double doors... and froze in identical horrified outrage.

The room was large and dimly lit, a lone beam of light providing the only illumination. It shone like a spotlight over the room's sole feature: a large, low bed. Kurama lay motionless amidst the rumpled sheets, his limbs spread and tethered with warded leather straps. The normally wide, vibrant green eyes were open, but just barely, and were flat and unseeing. They were almost invisible in the slackened, bloodless face, which itself was encircled by a halo of tangled red silk that seemed to be fading almost before his eyes. It was impossible to tell if he was conscious or not, but it was most definitely NOT possible to mistake what had happened already. Reddish stains on the white sheets... the color obviously chosen specifically because blood showed so well on it... filled Hiei's vision.

"Kisama..." he snarled, clenching his fist as he stared at his friend... his love, dammit... lying there as limply as a rag doll.

"Oh, don't you like it?" The soft, mocking words came from a point on the other side of the bed; Yomi stepped from that point into the spotlight. He gazed down at the violated boy, smiling faintly. "He's so lovely like this... though he's far sweeter in the throes of passion."

"You sound like a cheap romance novel, you know that, ugly?" Kami scoffed. "And you're nuts, too... even I can tell he had no 'throes of passion'." She spat Yomi's words back at him.

Yomi shrugged, the gesture somehow malicious, and leered. "I didn't say HIS passion. His screams were as delicious as his body."

"DIE, KISAMA!!!" Hiei thundered as he swept his sword out and slashed violently at the place Yomi stood. Had stood... the demon lord somehow evaded Hiei's blade. He snarled and spun to launch another attack, and again Yomi dodged, still making snide comments. Within moments the insane lord sliced Hiei's top away with a swipe of his claws as he attempted to rip the Koorime's heart out. His mad eyes widened.

"Well! Who knew the runt looked so good under all that cloth? I just might have to add you to my collection!"

Hiei's lips twitched upwards in a horrible parody of a smile. "Dead men have no need for... 'collections'." Again he attacked and failed.

"A spirited runt! I'll have fun breaking you... I can already see your childlike frame under me, begging for mercy just like my fox does!"

"The HELL he did!" Swipe. "Kurama..." Thrust. "... doesn't..." Parry. "...BEG!"

The pair flickered at impossible demonic speeds through the room, kicking off the vaulted ceilings and pillars as they fought. Hiei's fury made him an even match for the demon lord, matching every cut he recieved with another on Yomi's body. Then the mad lord made a single mistake: he landed next to Kami. Quickly as any youkai, she'd latched onto his arm. The sudden weight knocked him slightly off-balance, just enough to prevent him from leaping away again. He glanced up to see Hiei speeding at him, all his weight behind his sword blade, and yanked his arm up before him, Kami still hanging from it, too late for Hiei to stop.

The blade slid cleanly through both bodies.

A slight breeze rustled leaves in the woods around Genkai's temple. Hiei sat stoically in one of those trees, his usual one in the temple garden, and pondered the past few hours.

Yomi had died instantly, his heart sliced completely in half within his chest. That had been almost odd, that he'd had a heart. Some youkai didn't. But he had, and a single sword stroke had destroyed it. Not so for poor Kami, though; Hiei's katana had missed her heart, but it had gone into her right side and out her left, collapsing both lungs. She smiled up at him with her blood flowing from her mouth, and had spoken softly.

"We got the bastard, didn't we?" she'd said, spitting a mouthful of blood in the direction of Yomi's carcass before thinking of something. "Ne, "runt"... what's your name?"

"Hiei."

"Hiei... I like that." The life started to fade from her eyes. "Hiei... tell him."

The tone had cut through his shell, and he'd knelt and asked her gently, "Tell him what, Kami?"

"I really did care for him... and I see that you... do... too..." A human wouldn't have caught the next words. "Tell... him..." At that point the blood loss and lack of air had caught up with her, and her eyes had rolled back in her head and she'd gone limp.

He'd laid her out, as he'd seen humans do, and said what he could remember of human rites for her before wrapping Kurama in the blankets and carrying him back to the Ningenkai.

And now... he puzzled over her last words. Tell him that she'd cared... or that he did? Both options disquieted him. To tell Kurama that Kami had really cared, even though she'd been under Yomi's influence during the study date... she'd told Hiei so on the way to find Kurama, as well as informing him that she'd been using another of Yomi's Makai pheromones to make the fox flirt... the idea of upsetting the youko with that was distasteful to him. As for the second, to tell the fox of his own feelings... impossible. That settled, he jumped lightly from the branch to go check on him.

Kurama was curled up into a fetal position and showed no signs of coming out of it when Hiei silently entered the room. Hiei allowed himself the luxury of staring at the lovely fox, observing how much more vibrant his long red hair was even this soon after Yomi's death. A pity the mad lord had died so quickly and neatly.

"Hiei."

The soft alto murmur startled him. Bright green eyes, not as bright as usual but far better than before, peered out from under the flowing mass of red. The youko remained curled up on the futon. "Daijoubu?" Hiei managed to keep his normal sharp tone in the distinctly abnormal question.

"I'm... alive." The redhead's voice was half surprised and half accusing.

"Hn." Those brilliant green eyes seemed to pin him to the wall, and he cast about for something, anything, to change the quality of that gaze. "Yomi's dead." No change, and the silence stretched out and made him more uncomfortable. "So's Kami." "Kami...?"

"She grabbed him and he pulled her into the way It was too late to stop."

"Oh." Another long silence made Hiei squirm.

"Say something, dammit!" Kurama flinched, and Hiei immediately felt like a jerk. Fine, so he was a jerk, this lifeless silence was nerve-wracking. "That bastard's dead and so's an innocent girl... would you quit lying there like it doesn't matter?!"

"It doesn't."

"The HELL it doesn't, Kurama! She cared enough about you to give her life to make sure that bastard got what was coming, and all you can do is lie there and shrug it off!"

"Why do you care, Hiei?" Kurama said listlessly. "She was just a ningen."

Hiei forced his ki to settle: now was not the time to burn the place down. "She saved your ass, fox."

"No she DIDN'T!" Kurama shot up out of his protective ball. "She DIDN'T! He TOOK it..." he sagged. "He took me... oh Inari-sama he took me..."

I-am-not-going-to-hear-I-am-not-going-to-hear-I-am-not-going-to-react-I-am-not-I-am-not-I-am-not... a tinny clatter echoed softly from the floor near his feet. Both he and Kurama looked at the source at the same instant: a perfectly round, black gemstone, rolling across the floor. Mechanically, Kurama picked the teargem up, looking at Hiei with confusion in his eyes.

"She saved your ass, fox, and you are going to hear exactly what she told me before she died for doing so." Kurama looked away. "Stop that and look at me." He waited until those eyes were focused on him again. "She said 'tell him'. I thought that meant to tell you that she cared, but that wasn't it." He leaned in close so that his gaze bored directly into Kurama's. "She knew exactly how I feel, and that's what I'm supposed to tell you." Leaning in closer to the redhead, he whispered into his ear. "Ai shiteru, Kurama."

When he leaned back, Kurama's emerald eyes were wide. "But Yomi... he..."

Hiei put a finger to Kurama's mouth. "Is dead. He hurt you and now he's dead."

"But how... how can you..."

He'd said his bit, let his defenses down, and now they began to slip back into place. "Baka. I do. So deal." He started to get up to leave, but Kurama threw his arms around him tightly and sobbed in relief against his chest.

"Don't go... stay with me, please, I love you..." Hiei stiffened momentarily at that, but then melted into Kurama's arms gladly as the fox clung to him.

"Baka." Hiei said. "I'm not going anywhere." He curled himself around the youko's taller body and held him close until the fox had cried himself out and fallen asleep, still keeping Hiei held tightly to him. The little youkai relaxed.

I don't know what to do with this, but... Thank you, Kami... for everything. He almost heard a girlish "you're welcome" before he, too, followed his fox to sleep.

OWARI