Well, hello. It's midnight! What better time than now to write a Mukuro/Hiei fic while the fear of my insomnia is still fresh in my mind. Anyway, I usually hate long introductions to stories but whatever. This will be based around the anime because I can't actually read haven't read the manga. I'm fairly new to this game so helpful reviews are encouraged. Although I did get 10/10 for writing a story about a fat girl and a unicorn in year 5. So I'm pretty confident as it is

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!

eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

eehhhhhhhhhhhhh aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh

eeehhhhh aaaahhhhhhhhhh

eaaaahhhh…

The cheers and the screeches and the moans of the crowd fade into a gentle murmur just as the fight closes with one.

"I am defeated…kill me, please. It is the only honourable death."

The crowd roars up again at the mere chance of blood.

"No." A calm and checked voice replies. The screen showing the fight zooms on the woman's face and the more queasy of the crowd flinch in mild disgust. I do not move a muscle.

She lowers her arm and relaxes her fingers from the knife-point clench which defines her favourite attack. This mystery woman, I know nothing about her yet at the same time, I know enough to fill a thousand libraries. I have a feeling about her and when she looks at me or speaks to me in that steady, constant tone I get the feeling again. It runs through me, deeper than anything I could see with my Jagan eye. Deeper than the cuts her Kūkan Kirite made to my skin. Deeper than the breaks I made on her chains. Deeper than the sweet unconsciousness that I fell into afterwards.

"Maybe I would, if you hadn't of begged. Killing the weak is no honourable feat." She turns to face us all. The crowd cheering, her enemies frowning, and me in the pews, resisting the medical attention I desperately need. The fight didn't last long. I just needed to see. "Honour is the only reason Yusuke Urameshi suggested this method of electing a new King. Maybe it was because he didn't want the burden of Demon blood on his hands. Maybe it was just because he enjoys the freedom of it." She chuckles. I get a feeling.

"Wow, ol' bandage-face is actually catching on." The boy standing to my right smirks. I spare a few moments to watch him from the corner of my eye.

"Yusuke, if you call her that to her face I wouldn't expect to be spared when you end up in the same position as that pathetic fool." I motion to the crumpled heap at her feet.

"Ah, whatever. Go get some rest Hiei. You've been standing there ever since you finished your fight with ol' ba- I mean er, Mukuro. My fight with Yomi is soon and I don't want you to miss me beating his ass." He grins and strolls away with his hand held up as a gesture. One day, his cocky behaviour will get him killed. Permanently.

I head inside as the next fight begins. I'm drained. I stumble into the medical area and things blur into a haze as nurses rush around me like piranhas flocking to their unsuspecting prey. Babbling, ordering, beeps. Everything is a mush of colour and noise.

I pass out.

'For my entire life I have never experienced the feeling of being loved.' A swift kick, a slash of my sword. 'And like you, I tried to purge the pain of it through blood.' I take a stab at her half-covered face. 'Perhaps that's why I feel you understood me. After all, we're both only capable of expressing ourselves through our violence.'

At this, she takes up the offensive with ease, I was never a match for her anyway. Her powered-up punches are dealt with desperation rather than malice. Does she want to prove me right? I barely dodge a right-hook to my temple, and yet she isn't even trying. Why does she not try? Am I not a worthy enough opponent for her? What a fucking insult. When an opening in my defence appears, she pulls her fist short and moves to stand motionlessly in front of me. Now I'm pissed. Who the hell does she think she is?

"You coward." I'm not talking to her through telekinesis anymore. This kind of insult is best heard with all the spitting rage it deserves. "Why didn't you hit me when you had the chance? I was under the impression you were a ruthless killer. The kind that shows no mercy. Why should your tactics change so dramatically because you happen to be fighting against me?"

.

.

.

"Don't you know."

She says it not like a question, but like an accusation. And that's when I get a strange feeling in my stomach. It reminds me of being stabbed all the way through with a warm knife. Past flesh, past bone. And it feels like home. It feels like welcome death. Peace and blissful darkness. Suddenly I'm reminded of Itsuki and Sensui drifting off onto pseudo-space together. Peace and blissful darkness. And I feel sick. I feel weak.

"That kind of gesture is wasted on me". I feel sick. "I refuse to be insulted by these half-hearted attempts." I feel weak. "Now attack me like you can!" I feel angry.

She moves so fast, even I have trouble keeping up. One second she's behind me and the next she's blasting blinding red fury and frustration into my stomach, staring into me with her one unmottled eye. The next moments are a blur as I feel my body being tossed around, the wind through my hair one moment then my flesh being scraped off my back like soft cheese down a cheese-grater the next.

I struggle to pick myself up off the floor and tear off the ragged remains of my shirt. "Now it's my turn." I raise my bandaged arm and clench my fist. I feel every sore nerve pop and sting and every barely-healed bone creak. A black flame-like smoke eases out in the crevices between each finger and it begins to take life in my hand, urging me to let it free.

Mukuro doesn't move. "Your flame technique. I find it strangely ironic that you were born a fire Demon even though your mother's people were all ice Apparitions."

I relay to her my only mantra. "My curse. To be born with a nature in direct opposition to my breed. With no choice but to consume everything around me with the flames of my hate." It's almost like some kind of twisted bedtime story for me. It's my past, my present, and will undeniably be my future. My curse.

"Your hate? Now don't make me laugh. If it were hatred you would have destroyed the glacial village long ago." She knows me. And with that, I release the Dragon of the Darkness flame.

She counters with an energy punch, and our two attacks meet head on in the middle. Black against red. "Ugh, it's not hatred. It's longing. You just want to belong to something!" Through the struggle of maintaining my attack I wonder why the fuck she even cares. "You know in your soul that I'm right, Hiei. Admit it."

We both hold our ground until our attacks fade into nothing, and the only sound to be heard for miles is my heavy panting, my defeat. I hate it when she's right about me. Her still posture only seems to say 'I told you so.' I reply with my fists.

She dodges every punch. "If you're having so much trouble trying to hurt me with two eyes Hiei, why don't you try opening your third? Unless of course you're the one fighting half-assed?" I swear she enjoys frustrating me. "Confront it now. You've obviously got the Jagon for a reason. All I want you to do is to use it for what you've really been looking for." I aim a kick to her face. And another. And another. "And find yourself!" She aims her Kūkan Kirite at me and it grazes my shoulder. I wince in pain and move quickly to dodge every other deadly slice she makes. Her face is expressionless, but I can tell that inside she's smiling. It's already too late by the time I realise she's created a third-dimensional cage using her technique. She's fucking trapped me.

Mukuro can't possibly understand fully what she's asking for, for I know there is only one way I can find myself now. Maybe if she'd have asked before this fight had begun, my reply would have been different. Part of myself was already hers when we looked into each other's minds during my healing in the tank. I bared my soul to her, and in return she bare hers. And it was beautiful. After I came out, things greyed to a set routine of training and discussing tactics. But we were bonded somehow. Like her mind was still inside mine and mine was still inside hers. I knew when she was near and I drew comfort from it, although I'd never admit that to anyone. Did she experience the same comfort, the same bond? I never knew, and it angered and frustrated me. I was too prideful to ask. I never knew. Until she made the simple mistake of sparing my life. That energy punch would have blown my brains to pieces if she hadn't have stopped inches from my nose and pulled back. "Don't you know." I did know. I felt a bond to her and she felt it back. We both found a small comfort in one another. And when you've lived the lives we have, even a small comfort is one worth protecting. The feeling of being wanted. Like a warm knife in my stomach. Like home. There is only one way I can find myself now. And it is through her.

"Yes. You're right about me. There is something I can't avoid." I tear off the bandage hiding my Jagan eye. "Just remember you asked for it." I unravel he bandages on my arm, ready to release the Darkness flame to its fullest extent. "Just remember when I release this kind of power, there's no turning back for either of us."

"Trust that I have absolutely no illusions about what's to take place. In fact, I welcome it."

"Very well. But believe there's no other way for me to know." I feel the Dragon begging to be let go. But I know that I can control it now. I need to be able to control it now. I open my hand. "Dragon of the Darkness Flame!" My lungs hurt. The Dragon leaps from my palm. I don't think I'll ever get used to the rush of pure power it fills me with. The Dragon bursts forward, and I narrow my eyes in concentration. Control. It hurtles on to Murkuro with speed and power I never knew it had and lifts her up into the air with ease. The Dragon hits its target and I try to get it into control once again. But to no avail. Mukuro struggles to keep the Dragon's jaws from closing around her as I begin to panic. I try to leash the beast but the pure darkness of the technique consumes me and I realise what this means.

'Mukuro!'

'Hiei!'

Mukuro's eyes widen and she clenches her jaw. Red beams of energy emit from her hands in a desperate attempt to get free of the Dragon's jaws. But it holds on tightly. Just when I think she has no energy left, a second wave of energy bursts free, this time stronger than before. It burns down the Dragons throat and I look on, shocked, as her energy continues to split the entire body of the Dragon, turning darkness into red ashes, turning my Dragon into nothing. Her beams continue their path all the way back to my palm, and the full force of her attack hits me, sending me stumbling back and over several meters.

By the time I get to my feet, she's there. Standing as if she had never moved at all. "Now I am satisfied. Thank you. In truth, every time you've summoned the Dragon you weren't strong enough to control it consciously. It could only feed off the intentions of your soul." I don't say a word. "You've lost. Your flames couldn't hurt me."

I almost laugh because that's all I ever wanted to hear. The Dragon was never summoned to kill you, Mukuro. "Hn. I accept that. And all that it means."

We regard each other in silence for a few minutes, me hunched over in pain and her still, with a slight smile. "Please, Hiei. Don't tell me that the only purpose you have for living now is someday defeating me. I don't think that I could bear it."

"No, Mukuro. You've missed the point." I look down to the chains encasing each of her wrists. The chains which have been there for thousands of years, reminding her of her past and her pain. I have no doubt that she has enough physical strength to break them. She has just never had the emotional strength.

It's at this moment they decide to finally split open. Mukuro lifts her wrists and looks at them with shock and slight elation. She gasps. Ha. Got her. "Now you can leave your hatred in the past where it belongs. Now you don't have to be shackled to it anymore." The chains break as if on cue. The metal crunching sounds like music to my ears. They fall to the ground, shattered. I feel elated.

We are both free.

I stagger forward, but lose my footing. I am more worn out than I thought. Just as I think I'm about to hit the dirt, she catches me, and I let her hold me because I know she needs it as much as I do. We stay in comfortable silence for what I could have easily let be eternity. I suddenly understand what Itsuki was getting at, the fool. I can almost hear the crowd cheering and moaning for blood and pain. I can feel their eyes on me, shocked and disgusted at our embrace. Something beautiful in a sea of ugly. But their hearts don't beat like ours. They burn in the light of truth because they are all afraid, like I was. We close our eyes to the world, comfort overcoming me. And it feels like home.

I slip into peace and blissful darkness.

This fight scene was so hard to write. I never really understood it, but I hope what I've done actually makes sense to you guys as much as it does to me. Btw:

Italics = dream

Kūkan Kirite = Mukuro's third dimentional cutting technique.