"Ms. Minamino? I'm terribly sorry, but I have bad news. The test results are back. It would appear that your son... sometimes, we're just called away for reasons we can't understand. It seems that God has called in your son earlier then most. Technically, his brain is being eaten away from the inside by a swiftly multiplying bacterium. There is nothing we can do but ease his pain. He has a month to live." Kurama's mother sat down heavily. Her face was mask-like: there were no emotions on it other then shock. It did not move. Then, her husband touched her hand, and it was like a volcano erupting with tears. She broke down, turning into his shoulder and sobbing so strongly that her entire body was shaking violently. Her husband looked to the doctor.

"May we see him?" The doctor nodded.

"You may, but he is still in a coma. I do not hold forth much hope that he'll awaken before he passes. His brain is not functioning, but there is a slight possibility despite all that that he will know you are there and hear what you say." The doctor spoke the truth plainly. These people deserved no comforting lies.

Hiei stood by the window, not looking at the humans. He was watching the wind go by, playing just outside the glass. It had not a care in the world. It did not know that his heart was breaking silently inside of him. Unlike Shiori, he had no one to turn to. Well, no one that wasn't currently in a coma. As Kurama's mom and stepdad left to go see their son, th fire demon remained at the window. He thought.

He thought on the past, where he had first met Kurama. Where the fox had been a true demon, and cost him his necklace. The little excursion to the warehouse. Then even later, when they had met again, as partners. Their relationship had changed a great deal since then.

He thought on all the kindnesses that Kurama had given him. Small ones like a place out of the rain, or a treating of his wounds. And the big ones like giving him a person who would love him no matter what. Gifts like that don't arrive every day. And neither do the people who give them.

He thought on the past few months. A bit over a year, really. They had been the happiest of his life, though he had only shown it rarely. He had finally accepted Kurama's offer, and the two had become a pair. The first night in Kurama's arms. They had done normal couple stuff at the kitsune's insistence, like going to the mall and getting their picture taken. Then they had done stuff normal people wouldn't dream of doing together, like facing down a horde of powerful demons, fighting at each other's side.

He thought on how through it all Kurama had stuck by his side, even though there was something missing, and the kitsune knew it as well as the fire demon. Something that was just a little off, getting in their way.

He thought on how much pain was in his heart now. There were three levels of love, really. The level that was in your head, where you consciously acknowledged that you were in love. To know it without admitting it, even to yourself, is to have your hearts linked, the next level. Then, there was the infamous soul bond... Hiei hurt on every level, pain increasing as he felt the ties weaken and die with his other half as the son went down before his eyes, oblivious. Kurama was not much longer for this world. For any world. Even Youko wasn't going to make it through this one. A month.

He thought on the moment this agonizing ordeal had begun. Everything had been normal, okay. Kurama had been laughing, and even the fire demon had joined in. He could not remember now for the life of him what they had been laughing about. The kitsune had turned those big emerald eyes on him, had been about to say something - and had fallen to the floor instead. Lifeless but for the very shallow breathing. Not showing a single sign of response when the Koorime had said his name. To the hospital.

He thought on what his life was going to be like after Kurama passed. Anguish in every step, surely. Pain with every breath. Dying with every thought. All that was definite. No way to avoid it. Except to die himself.

He thought how it was almost an irony that the thing Kurama prized - his mind - was what was killing him. And that it was Youko too, who was dying of this completely ordinary disease that any human could catch. All the ways he had ever envisioned Kurama dying, illness had not been one of them.

Hiei left the hospital. He exited through the window, launching himself into the setting sun. Lengthy goodbyes were not his sort of thing. The fire demon would be back, when he was needed, and when he was in control of his emotions again. When he knew what to say.

When tears shining in his eyes were no longer a new thing.

A month passed, and no one seemed to know where Hiei had gone. The Koorime seemed to have dropped off the face of the universe. He was nowhere to be found. No one had seen him at Kurama's bedside this whole time. Or anywhere else for that matter.

Far and away, a very disheveled Hiei snapped out of his trance in the cave. It was time to go and see Kurama. This was it.

He waited outside the window until all the people were gone. Some, like him, had sensed that not a lot of time was left, and had come to pay their final respects. Yuusuke and Kuwabara were there. Kuwabara was crying and pleading with the young man to wake up; Yuusuke said nothing, merely gazed at the almost too pretty face. Finally they were all gone.

The Koorime snuck in, and moved like a silent shadow over to the bed. His partner lay there, looking much the same as when he had been brought in, unlike Hiei, who had become even skinnier, and had let himself become very dirty within the month. The fire demon touch one limp hand, and leaned close to Kurama's ear. That something that had remained between them: it had to go.

"Hn. Stupid fox. I love you." Hiei kissed the kitsune's cheek lightly, rested his head on the unfeeling shoulder for a bit. But it wasn't the same. This wasn't his fox, who had been full of life and love and warmth. This was only a shell. Kurama's mind didn't even exist any longer. But Hiei knew more. The fox's soul still lingered. It heard. It let go.

Kurama died. Hiei closed his eyes, but it did not stop a tear from getting past. Oddly, this tear did not become a solid gem, but remained a crystal clear liquid. It splashed down on Kurama's brow, sparkling as it streamed down the smooth skin. Hiei was gone by the time it crashed to the pillow below. By the time a doctor arrived to fill out the death certificate, there was nothing left of the tear at all.

Except for a tiny black heart, out of which grew a dazzling red rose. It was a tiny crystal, and was thrown out with the bed sheet the next time the maid changed it. It was too small for her to see. It skidded to the floor, where passing feet soon crushed it.

To his friends, once he cleaned up and rejoined them, Hiei seemed normal. Unfeeling, cross, and rude. Nothing unusual. They had no idea that he had cried his heart out.

Literally.

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WritingWoman: Yeah, I know. I'm not so good at angst. Ask me to do a torture scene, though, and I'm your woman. Anyway, I hoped you liked my little waste of space, and if you didn't that's just too bad. I wanted to put this down, though, because it was such a strong image in my mind. Ahem. Yeah.

Disclaimer: I know these are supposed to go at the beginning of fics. I didn't feel like it. I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters, trademarks, or anything affiliated with it. The only connection I have is my poor writing skills that I use in an attempt to perhaps interject a bit of myself in it, and the ideas that I write about.