Author's note: This is originally a reader insert, but I read the guidelines so... I got this idea because I love Yukina and Kuwabara as a couple. I thought about it and realized that would make Hiei the uncle of their child. Of course, I had to drag in some of the others to make it more fun. This was all done into the wee hours of the morning, but please review and let me know what you think! Thank you for your time. *Bows and swings my arm out to one side* On with the fluff!
From the moment Hikari came into the world, she was a very fussy baby. Her doting mother, Yukina, just smiled and held her closer, doing her best to soothe her each time she began to cry. Kuwabara didn't quite know what to make of Hikari. It frustrated him that he never seemed able to quiet her down. It often made him feel dejected. Though she did look a lot like her daddy with his orange hair and goofy grin in the rare moments she did smile in her mother's care. However, she had her mother's eyes, bright crimson and so full of joy.
Whenever the other members of the Team Urameshi gang gathered together, generally at the Kuwabara household, each attempted different ploys to get Hikari to laugh instead of crying so much. Botan tried to sing her songs with her overly playful voice, but no dice. Yusuke tried all of his silly faces, and nearly succeeded he thought, until Hikari threw a toy at his face. It bounced pretty hard from the middle of his forehead and tumbled to the ground at his feet where the others had all fallen over, rolling with laughter.
"You must be getting soft, Urameshi. My princess is already whoopin' your butt! You're the champ, Hikari!" Kuwabara declared, puffing up with fatherly pride. He scooped her into his arms and handed her back the toy with a huge grin, only to have Hikari take a swing at him repeatedly with it. He protested quite a bit, as the toy was hard and did actually hurt. This time, it was Yusuke's turn to howl with laughter while Yukina giggled a bit embarrassed and pulled Hikari onto her shoulder.
"Quite the feisty little one, indeed," Kurama piped in gently with a small smile of his own, enjoying the baby's shenanigans as well. He approached slowly, as if a tamer trying to calm a lion. Being as young as Hikari was, she wasn't drawn into his good looks and charm so easily. She only knew her primal instincts, which told her he smelled weird. Kurama's face contorted and he sweat-dropped as she reached out, taking a wad of his long hair and giving a good tug. Hikari was strong for her age, being half demon, so even Kurama had a little trouble getting her to let go.
Keiko went up to bat, clapping and trying to play peekaboo with Hikari, but Hikari refused to even acknowledge her for most of the time. Though she did wonder vaguely where Keiko kept disappearing to when she covered her face with her hands, Hikari opted not to pursue her curiosity. She stuck out your tongue a little and blue raspberries at the poor girl. Of course, everybody was amused at that and temporary relief settled around the room. That is until Hikari randomly started wailing.
Yukina panicked, rocking the infant side to side and bouncing her a bit. She rubbed her little back and patted it. The ice maiden tried offering her a bottle, but she shook her head away from the nipple and wailed louder. She checked the baby's diaper to see if maybe she were just fussy from needing a change. She was dry as a dessert. The now desperate mother even picked up one of the newest stuffed animals, waving it in front of her face and pretending it was talking.
"Please don't cry, Hikari! It's all going to be alright. Just play with me, okay?" she cooed softly, using the toy as her voice. She was getting a bit frantic as more and more tears covered her child's little cheeks. Suddenly, there was a flash of black and Hiei appeared in the room. He had a grimace on his face and had to resist holding his hands to his ears. He looked around for the source of the noise, seeing each of his comrades with discomfort emanating from their features. He spotted Hikari in Yukina's arms and strode straight up to her.
"Can't you shut that brat up? Takes after her buffoon of a father with all this incessant blathering!" he spat out, glaring over at Kuwabara. He would never really reproach his sister for something that idiot had done to her, whether she loved Kuwabara and had married him willingly or not. "Can't even hear myself think! Her screaming is so loud it's in my head, too" he muttered, peering into the face of the squalling infant. He gritted his teeth, eyes squinting at with so much irritation. Next thing anyone knew, he placed his hand palm up in front of the baby and produced a flame.
"Hiei! What the heck do you think you're doing with that?!" Kuwabara growled, moving closer to Yukina to protect his family.
"She's just a baby! I know it's super annoying, but she can't help it," Yusuke grumbled at the short demon.
"Now Hiei, please be reasonable and step back," Kurama said, a slight edge of real worry in his voice, despite being fairly positive that the gruff little demon wouldn't really hurt his niece. Hiei, stood still and only responded with a 'hn', not withdrawing the flame in his hand. He was the only one who noticed the sudden silence. Then, just to emphasis it, Hikari surprised them all when she opened her mouth and started laughing. She reached out towards the flame with a spark in her eyes that her parents hadn't seen in her until now. Kuwabara, Yukina, and the gang stared agape, Yusuke's jaw having dropped to the floor in shock.
"No no, sweetie! That's not something you should play with!" Botan chastised, all but exploding with apprehension and flailing about. Yukina gasped, realizing Hikari was getting too close. She turned to one side to shield her from Hiei's fire, the heat all too present near the back of Yukina's shoulder in the place where Hikari's face had just been.
Hiei, not wanting to scorch his sister and finally feeling a bit stupid for losing his temper at a mere infant, withdrew his hand. He turned away from his audience with a huff and a slight blush, angrily stalking to one corner of the room and leaning against the wall. The flame had already extinguished in the blink of an eye before he'd moved, and that was exactly the time Hikari had decided to start up her banshee shriek once more.
"Dammit! I thought she calmed down," Yusuke griped, giving up and sticking his fingers in his ears, making noises to drown everything out and even making mocking wah sounds. None of this had any effect on Hikari as she continued to cry more. Kurama, patient as he was, was slowly losing his cool and he knew something had to be done quickly if anyone was to get any kind of peace. He thought about it only a moment before his disposition brightened and his green eyes gleamed in that a-ha moment.
"I may have a solution to our problem," he said calmly, raising his voice enough to be heard. Botan and Keiko scooted over closer to his side of the room, away from the frantic parents, to hear what his plan was. Yusuke started making his faces again, pulling out every one he could think of, to no avail. Kurama spoke to the girls in a huddle, nodding towards Hiei inconspicuously. Hiei gritted his teeth, only unable to hear due to lack of being able to concentrate. The newest member of his relations was really pissing him off again, niece or not, and he was going to lose it for real. It took all he had not to singe the child into a tiny pile of ashes.
"Hiei, would you please come this way a moment?" Kurama gestured towards himself and gave a look of sincere desperation Hiei chose not to ignore. He appeared at Kurama's side instantly, looking at him expectantly, as he tried not to keep gritting his teeth against the howling cries filling the house. Kurama explained his plan and Hiei looked a bit disappointed. He had hoped the plan was to drop her out a window, or something like kicking Kuwabara's ass for knocking up Yukina. Nonetheless, he wasn't dumb enough that he couldn't see this was a reasonable plan. It was coming from Kurama after all.
He finally nodded curtly with a 'hn' and approached Yukina once more, this time with more caution that he had showed before. Yukina looked weary, backing away a step before stumbling a little into Kuwabara who had been arguing with Yusuke on why he should just kill Hiei for threatening his daughter. Kuwabara noticed Hiei's return and immediately stepped in front of the girls, practically growling at the short demon like the protective papa bear he was. Hiei glowered at him distastefully. He hated to admit that, even though Kuwabara was hindering him, the fool's protective nature over his loved ones was advantageous. After all, cannon fodder was a useful distraction against enemies…
"Step aside, fool. I intend to pacify her my way. Unless you intend to participate," he said with a smirk, relishing the idea of setting Kuwabara on fire. Kuwabara shook his head. The rest watched with unease. Those knowing the plan waited to see how it would pan out, while the others were preparing to help out if Hiei proved to be losing his temper again. Hiei disregarded them all as usual, his focus solely on Hikari and the idiot blocking his path to her.
"Kuwabara, I assure you that Hiei means no harm. Please trust me", Kurama spoke up coolly, trying to diffuse the situation before it escalated into a fight. Knowing Kurama, Kuwabara finally stood off to one side, but he stayed as close to his little girl as he could, watching with the eyes of a hawk. Hiei closed the gap, doing his best to control his growing irritation towards Hikari's screeching. Once again, he put out his hands palms up, letting flames dance across them in front of her. The tension in the room mounted, everyone holding their breath and watching closely.
As the heat caressed her cheeks like a hot towel, Hikari turned her tiny face towards the fire, watching the steady flickering of light. The room was so quiet, the sound of leaves blowing in the trees outside could be heard. The little hybrid reached out and flailed her hands around towards Hiei, giggles erupting from her cherub figure. Her whole body shook with the laughter and joy she was feeling as she continued to reach out, wriggling with glee. Kurama gave a small smile of triumph and the whole room let out a collective sigh of relief.
"I don't get it… Can someone explain how shorty's the only one to make our daughter stop crying?" Kuwabara scratched his head in confusion. Hiei began to form the flames into small balls, rolling them around in the air in circles as if they were hovering marbles. He wouldn't admit it, but they could all see that this was amusing him too. Seeing the little one's eyes light up so much made the fire seem dim in comparison. There was the sweet nature he knew from Yukina. Even he hadn't figured everything out yet about why he was to do this. All he knew was that Kurama had told him to be careful and 'play with fire a bit'. Kurama walked towards the middle of the room.
"Allow me. As you all know, Yukina and Hiei are twins born of a fire demon and ice maiden. Hikari shares some of their traits, being half demon herself. I wish I had thought of this sooner, but she may have gotten more traits from her fire demon heritage. Flames appear to soothe her and are pleasing to her. She may even share Hiei's temper…" Kurama trailed off the last part after receiving an intense glare from said fire demon, who was currently swirling the flickering flames through his spread fingers to the tiny carrot top's immense happiness. Luckily, another string of giggles from Hikari tore Hiei's attention back to her and the task at hand.
"Huh… so she's a lizard too, huh?" Yusuke said, unaware of how rude that had sounded. Kuwabara visibly bristled and stalked towards him, but Keiko beat him to the punch, or slap upside the back of Yusuke's head in her case. Yusuke whined and rubbed his head gingerly. "What the hell was that for, Keiko?"
"You shouldn't say things like that! Hikari is Kuwabara and Yukina's daughter, not some scaly thing with claws and a tail," Keiko huffed at him.
"All I meant was maybe she's like a mini dragon, ya know? Oh, Hiei!" Yusuke quipped, turning his gaze in that direction. He seemed to have thought something was funny, because he couldn't contain a bit of snickering. Hiei barely looked up until he heard Yusuke chuckle. What could that moron detective want now? He was busy entertaining this child he now fully intended to take under his wing, so to speak. Yusuke grinned as he joked, "I guess that makes you a dragon's uncle?" When Hiei and Yukina lifted one eyebrow in confusion, he explained.
"Like a monkey's uncle? Ah… never mind. It's a human phrase". He waved it off while Keiko, Kurama and Kuwabara sweat-dropped, Yukina tilting her head, still having no idea what it meant. She turned back to her little one and smiled warmly. She was just glad to see Hikari happy again. Truth be told, she wasn't sure how she was going to handle her without Hiei's help. It would be nice to have her, Hikari, Kuwabara, and Hiei interacting more as a family. She glanced up at Hiei and smiled wider.
"Hiei, would you like to hold Hikari? Without your hands on fire, of course," Yukina said. She held the baby out in Hiei's direction, just short of his hands, which extinguished immediately. He hesitated, discomfort at being put on the spot like that and uncertainty on how to handle a baby easily readable in his face. He even began to sweat a little, as if considering his next move in a battle against a fierce opponent.
"Come on, Hiei. You're not scared of a wittle baby are you?" Yusuke mocked in a cutesy voice, knowing a challenge of Hiei's manhood would push him into action faster. In response, Hiei narrowed his eyes at the detective and thrust his arms out, hands splayed, but still unsure how to grasp the infant without hurting or dropping her. Yukina made sure to set his posture in a way that was safe and set Hikari in his arms gently with a smile.
Hikari looked up at Hiei with her big, ruby reds, wonderment reflecting on both their faces. All present awed and enjoyed the moment. She reached a hand out and set her fingers on Hiei's cheek, signaling she felt close to him. He couldn't hide the blush painting his face at her touch and even held her a little tighter without thinking about it. He knew right then and there that they were definitely going to be close. It was new to him, but he vowed to teach Hikari all he knew and train her to be a kickass fighter just like him. He really was a dragon's uncle, and proud to be.
Author's note: I adored writing this and I hope you all enjoyed it. Again, please review and let me know your opinion's and constructive criticism. I was just really craving some Hiei, Yukina, and Kuwabara fluff. Mostly Hiei ^~^