Title: Directions: Apply Pressure and Hold
Author: Waxie
Rating: PG13; may go up in accordance to my whim
Pairing: eventual Hiei x Kurama
Spoilers: none
Warnings: angst, AU (alternate universe), character death (don't like, don't read), YAOI (don't like, don't read)
Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho is not mine; I'm merely borrowing the characters for awhile. I'm planning to return them eventually.
Summary: AU Dr. Jaganshi is a small town doctor living with his sister Yukina. Shiori Minamino, one of Hiei's patients, is a very sick woman on the brink of death. Her death will cause more destruction than one may think; Hiei is ready to give up his profession and Shuuichi is ready to pick it up, eager to save lives. Can the two find meaning in their chosen professions, accept the good with the bad, and at the same time learn to accept life and cherish it for all it has to offer? Eventual HxK
Status: 1?
Author's Notes: Talk about a stubborn plot bunny that refuses to be put down. I figure writing this sucker will give me some peace of mind. This fic is dedicated to nyahhh who pestered me about it enough to give me a permanent eye twitch (and who probably fed this plot bunny behind my back to keep it alive). Oh, and anyone who is still waiting for an NE update, it's coming. I'm currently half way through the fourth chapter. Sorry for the long wait.

02020202

A small town slept peacefully through a heavy snowstorm. The hour was late and no sensible soul was about; the snow had quickly blanketed the ground and left the town half-unearthed, like a stick jutting out of the sand. While no sensible soul was about, there was a desperate one, panicked and running blindly through the streets, tripping and falling with a painful consistency. This young man, shivering from a completely soaked shirt and equally matching trousers – perhaps from all his slips – ran madly, and must have forgotten a coat and lamp in his hurry. The dark night and the thick snow were the devil's agents, of this he was sure; how much time had he wasted running in this maze of a pathetically tiny town? A voice in the back of his mind reasoned that if he were to stop and think for a moment, he might be able to find his way in this snowstorm, but he quickly shoved such thoughts back. Moments of extreme urgency leave no room for intelligent thought, only foolish action. And when one's mother is dying, there is neither time for coat, nor lamp, nor shred of rationality. There is only time (and really, one cannot be too sure about that) to take to one's heels and rush out in search of the doctor.

The young man – he really couldn't be a day over 22 years of age – had been to the doctor's on several occasions, and on this emergency of utmost severity, his subconscious sense of direction should have kicked in. But…well.

The boy tripped again on some unseen sidewalk curb and it was with difficulty that he was able to struggle back up. This cycle, falling, getting up from panic and fear, tripping and falling once more, continued until the lady of good fortune mercifully at last threw a look in his direction. Shuuichi tripped – perhaps a rock this time or maybe his legs were simply shaking too wildly to provide any type of stable support – and ran full onto a door, sliding down into a defeated, slumped position in which he, found to his dismay he had not the strength to move, stayed in. He was tired. He was hurt. He was cold. He knew he couldn't possibly be lost, but with the panic and now increasingly freezing temperature sinking past his bones, his already sluggish thoughts were making it so that thinking was beyond his reach—yet, his mother's life depended on his. She was home, dying, and he was here, on the verge of giving up? That wasn't fair, to either of them. He couldn't fail her, dammit, especially now of all times! He reached up blindly and with frozen fingers found and grasped the metal handle of the locked door. He pulled himself up and rested heavily on the door, taking several breaths to try to pull himself together. It was then that he realized something vaguely familiar of his current location. If he didn't know any better (and by god, he did), he had finally stumbled onto quite literally the doctor's office. Letting out a string of curses that stemmed from absolute relief at having some good luck, he found the will, and therefore the strength, to pound at the door with a renewed sense of purpose. "Dr. Jaganshi!" Shuuichi cried out as much as his poor state would allow. "Dr. Jaganshi!"

02020202

Dr. Jaganshi wrapped his coat tighter around himself and braced for the coming icy wind he knew existed just beyond the door. He had just finished looking over sick triplets – triplets he lamented were sick beyond help and would probably not live to see the end of this week – and gave the distressed mother a curt nod before beginning his thankfully short walk back to his home that he shared with his sister. He briefly wondered if Yukina was awake waiting for him, then promptly decided that knowing her instinctively worrisome nature, she was. With the thought of keeping his sister up (and a mug of hot cocoa he was bound to receive upon his arrival), he picked up his already brisk pace and hurried along.

02020202

Her brother was right; Yukina was up and about regardless the time, waiting to make sure her brother arrived home safe and sound. It was winter in their tiny town and now 'twas the season (more than Christmas and Yuletide treasures) of colds and the flu and battles with the enemies of immunity. Thus, for her brother and for herself, winter was the season of home calls and dying children, frost bite, and the occasional broken bone from a misguided step on the icy floors. It was now well past midnight and nearing the second hour of the day and while she did not want to worry for her older brother (after all he was quite capable of caring for himself), he had been known to be a little careless (which was silly; he was a doctor, after all.). It was in the middle of a small reminiscing coma where Hiei had ignored his busted ankle and continued walking on it – thus making it worse – (what a stubborn brother she had!) a few years back when she was snapped out of her reverie by pounding that fluctuated from loud knocking to diminishing soft, weak knocking back to loud pounding as if it had been injected with renewed vigor. Yukina jumped up from the stool she had been sitting in whilst waiting for the water to boil (she was preparing hot chocolate) and quickly crossed the living room she and her brother had converted into a doctor's office. She threw open the door and yelled in surprise when a young man fell in and collapsed on the floor. The young man's face was pale, his eyes sunken, and his brilliantly red, limp hair stuck to his face and back. "Shuuichi!" Yukina's reaction was impulsive from years of practice and a simple touch confirmed that this boy was chilled to the bone. Dismayed to know she could not carry the boy, she turned him onto his back, then slipped her arms under his armpits and proceeded to drag him further into the doctor's office (or living room if you're much more inclined to call it that) where she miraculously succeeded in lifting him up just long enough to land him on the couch.

"M-mother…" Yukina looked at him in worry before rushing off to find warm blankets to cover the shaking red head in. "Ngh…mother…"

02020202

The door to his house flew open before he even had the chance to fish out his keys. Yukina pulled her brother into the house and closed the door behind him, spilling the events of ten minutes ago in a rapid torrent of words. Hiei had to admit even he could not catch all his sister was saying, but by now he had mastered the art of 'getting the gist of things' and thus he caught all the important words that were suffice. Shuuichi. Here. Not well. Mother. Hiei was well aware of Shuuichi's mother's deteriorating state; the poor woman had been one of his patients for years now. He knew all about her sickness, knew about the Minamino family's low income since the death of the main money maker, Shuuichi's father. He knew the family could not afford his services for two people, but this by no means made him heartless. Hiei made an effort to seem detached, this was his policy, and only few knew the severity of the impact his patients' deaths had on him. Therefore, upon every visit to the Minamino residence, he studied how Shuuichi's health fared. The young man worked two jobs to keep their economic stability afloat, he cared for his mother ceaselessly 24-7, he had thinned terribly, and had virtually permanent bags under his eyes. It was obvious Shuuichi was under immense stress (and he may not be a shrink but he was sure the paranoia of his mother dying, just like his father did, kept him up too many nights to count.). Under such poor state of health, Shuuichi should not have been running through town in a bloody snowstorm without proper measures. However, now was not a time to issue a scolding only a doctor could get away with. Addressing a few words to his sister, he rushed out of the house, headed towards the house with the dying woman. If it hadn't been snowing, he could have at least gotten there faster by means of automobile, but nature doesn't exactly bend to the will of anyone, much less an inconvenienced doctor.

It was days like these that made Dr. Jaganshi regret having chosen his profession. There was too much death he could not prolong, too much sickness he could ever dream of overcoming, and such realities made him feel inapt. Shiori Minamino grew closer to death by the day and it was becoming increasingly harder to deny this truth. What a horrid day to be a doctor, Hiei thought bitterly as he dug half his face into his thick scarf and ran as quickly as he could without tripping.

02020202

Author Note: So there's the beginning. Was it any good? I'll try to hurry on the update. Heh.