Yay! Hello. (: Nah, here's a HieiMukuro story from the infamous Ruka Jaganshi. At first I wanted it to be a HieiYouko fanfic, but ah well. There are too many HieiKumara and HieiYouko fics anyway. It starts to bore me slightly. So here is a Mukuro romance. After this, I will definitely write a MukuroRaizen too. Please read that one too! (:

Hiei let the tears flow down his face. Clear, crystal-white tears were those; they did not transform into beautiful jewels worth several lives and worlds, and still they held the magnitude of pain in themselves.

Heavy tears were those; the wind, so strong it attempted tear the white scarf off the jaganshi's shoulders, was not able to steal them away.

His form was so stooped. So sad. So small. The wind was tearing his dark cloak so forcefully. He still looked small, and he himself was not moving an inch, despite the fact that his clothes made him appear as if he was tugged at mercilessly.

He was terribly cold. He heard his teeth, if not his other bones chatter violently. Was it really from the chilling atmosphere? Or was the reason something else, which made his nails dig into his palms painfully? Was it because he was wounded?

Because he was. The scar was quite fresh, and it was bleeding intensely. Somewhere around his heart. Maybe this closeness, and also the enormous loss of blood made him weaker and weaker every minute.

How he received the wound, he did not remember. How he could be so incautious was a mystery as well. It was there. Since when? It must have happened a short while ago. Someday. On a day full of sunshine, birds, bees, flowers, spring.

The storm came suddenly. The rain was not here yet, but it would arrive soon. The air indicated it; it was about to split his head.

And the human couples turning around, afraid of getting soaked, running to search for hiding from the approaching hail.

And that girl. That girl who was with him. They were walking under the cherry trees like the other couples. Hiei followed them, hiding his ki from meta-humans who could sense him without having anything to do with him, waiting for the girl to leave Kurama finally alone, so that he can talk to him, tell him he came back from Makai; that Mukuro is here, too, that she came after him, he had no clue why.

But the girl did not appear to have the intention of leaving soon. In fact, they were chatting merrily under the shadow of the trees. Either she was an extremely sticky fangirl or Kurama had something to discuss with her, that is what the fire demon thought.

Until the kiss.

Kurama kissed that human girl. On her lips. Gently, only for a moment of breath.

It was cruel; the cruelest of all pains the jaganshi had experienced. He could endure pain well. This one was strange.

He did not have the strength, nor the courage to check the wound under his cloak heavy as if it was soaked.

Right.

It was raining.

Again: since when…?

"…the hell are you still doing out here?" Mukuro asked behind him, walking closer, taking a look at the humans, then the fox. Her endlessly dark eyes widened slightly, but a moment later her stare found the jaganshi again. "You're freezing. Come."

Hiei's lips tightened as he lowered his head, not responding to the urging touch on his shoulder. The woman lifted her eyebrow. "You won't? Alright. Then it's a command. We need you on the board."

The red orbs gazed towards the fox demon one more time before Hiei let Mukuro take his arm and lead him away.

Walking was hard, and it was freezing cold, and his body was heavy like lead. He heard Mukuro's voice talk to him through some kind of a mist in his brain. She was talking to him all the way; about this damned rain, about the stupid human weather with hail and such; about that they have to reach the gate to the demon realm before the storm really arrives. About how cold he was. She even asked if he was wounded to move like a thousand year old gaffer.

Once in the dark, warm, dry room, he let his wet clothes slip down from his limp body.

"To hell with you." Mukuro retorted in the meantime. "I really believed you had a wound. Why were you babbling about that stab in your chest? See, it's nothing there; you're fit as a fiddle."

There was no wound…?

Was he talking…?

Hiei felt his body fall on the pillows where Mukuro indicated him. He felt really, really heavy. And sleepy. Hardly did he realize that a warm blanket covered him before he doze off, the throbbing of the invisible wound fading away along with his consciousness.

Mukuro surpassed as she stood up next to the bed.

"It's cruel." she said almost soundlessly.

TBC (;