Disclaimer: Don't own Hiei, Yukina, Kuwabara, Kurama or Yu Yu Hakusho.
A/N: Random thoughts, nearing midnight. Don't ask. One-shot.
She Will Be Loved
"So, what's this about?"
Kuwabara appears to issue the demand to the boughs of a pine tree. The shadows shift slightly, and red eyes blink slowly open. Most humans would be frightened by this, but Kuwabara knows those eyes and they do not make him tremble as they once did. He crosses his arms and glares at the eyes, wondering vaguely why he thinks he catches a hint of worry or fear from a demon who has never displayed either emotion openly.
Hiei stretches slowly, as though he is trying to rid himself of those very emotions, and drops to the ground.
"I am going to tell you something," he says. Kuwabara would call it hesitant, but he hasn't heard 'hesitant' on Hiei enough to know if this is it, or something else. "But you must tell me something, first."
Kuwabara snorts. "Sounds like a raw deal to me. How do you know I want to know whatever you have to tell me in the first place?"
The smaller figure looks briefly annoyed, and answers shortly, "It has to do with Yukina."
Instantaneously, Kuwabara is all ears.
"So what do you want to know?"
It's almost sickening, to watch the brute's eyes shining so. Hiei wonders if he feels disgusted, or relieved.
"I want you to tell me why you spend so much time around Yukina."
Kuwabara's eyes become puzzled, as though the answer to this is something everybody knows. "Because... well, because she's pretty and kind and... and I love her." He says the last somewhat defiantly, as though daring Hiei to laugh at him.
The demon does not laugh, though. He nods once, thoughtfully, and seems to think on this quite hard for a few moments.
"And... is there anything, do you think, that would make you stop loving her?" He glances upward, eyes grave. "Think carefully before you answer, fool. I am not playing games."
Kuwabara is already shaking his head, a grin worthy of the nickname Hiei has bestowed upon him spreading across his face. "Nope. Not a chance, shrimp. Doncha know true love is eternal?"
Hiei's lips tighten briefly. Kuwabara is not sure if it is a smile or a grimace, or some bizarre Hiei-only combination of the two.
"Then you must make me a promise before I speak."
Kuwabara raises his eyebrow at the apparently abrupt change in track. "Oh, yeah? Seems like I already gave you more answers than you bargained for in the first place."
Hiei's face is still. "Just promise, fool. Give your honest, stupid, human word to me that you will never stop loving her, no matter what. Through anything. Everything."
Kuwabara didn't know Hiei could be so poetic. Half of him wants to rib the guy mercilessly; half of him is spellbound.
"I, Kuwabara Kazuma, swear this to you," he whispers, almost without conscious thought. "That I will love Yukina, forever, no matter what."
Silence follows this signing away of his heart, and Kuwabara feels oddly at ease. He hadn't realised how simple it really was.
Hiei glares at him. "Oath accepted... and witnessed." He glances away into the trees, and suddenly Kuwabara knows that somewhere, Kurama is watching.
The limbs of the pine wave slightly, as though in response to this thought.
"So, what did you want to tell me?" Kuwabara demands, a little grumpy to know that he couldn't sense the red-headed half-human. "It better be good after all this."
Hiei's face remains carefully blank. "I am Yukina's brother."
Silence.
Kuwabara feels that he has tumbled into some strange, off-shoot world. He has lost control of his jaw. "Hhwhaaa?" His tongue as well, apparently. "You're- you're what?"
Kuwabara feels a headache coming on.
Hiei turns back towards him, meets his dumbstruck gaze head-on. "Does it change what you feel towards her, knowing she is related to one as despicable as myself?" A smirk and a raised eyebrow do not quite disguise the smouldering certainty of rejection beneath the crimson pinpoints in the darkness. Kuwabara gulps.
"O-of course not! What does that have to do with anything? Why haven't you told her?"
Hiei looks, for a moment, surprised. Then, his eyes narrow and his lips curve in what may be the first true smile Kuwabara has seen on the demon, without the provocation of battle.
"Then, you will continue to love her, despite this?" The words are cool and serious.
"Didn't I say so?" Kuwabara blusters hotly. "You'd better have a damned excellent reason for not letting Yukina-san in on this, shrimp-boat!"
Hiei turns calmly away, seeming relieved despite the simmering temper of the human at his back. "Others do not take the relationship as lightly as you seem to." He speaks almost airily, dismissively. "Yukina..."
Kuwabara lunges forward, and Hiei allows himself (for how else could Kuwabara hope to match his speed?) to be caught by the scarf and held up to eye height.
"Yukina would give anything to know her brother for five minutes." He hisses, furious. "And you're telling me you've kept her in the dark this long because- because you think she might care that- "
Kuwabara pauses, takes a deep breath, and lowers the shorter demon back to the ground. Hiei catches his balance easily, but Kuwabara's next words seem to rob it from him again.
"You're an idiot, Hiei."
He narrows his eyes and rocks back on his heels defiantly, upper lip curling. Kuwabara rubs a hand over the back of his neck and looks exasperated.
"She knows her brother's a Forbidden Child, you know? And she's still looking for him. She's still looking for you. She's heard all the stories, about how dangerous he - you - are, and how many people he's killed. And she's still looking for you."
"Trying to tell me something else, fool?" Hiei spits, cold fire back in his eyes. "I've thought on this longer than you've lived!"
"And you're still an idiot," Kuwabara sighs. He knows Hiei will only let him get away with this for so long without breaking a few ribs, but when he thinks of the crushing weight of Yukina's fruitless search for her brother, when he thinks of the tear-veil that cloaks her eyes on so many occasions (though she has grown so used to refusing them passage down her cheeks), he doesn't really think broken bones are anything to complain about.
"I'm saying, she doesn't care what you are. You're family, and she loves you. More than that, you saved her. You're her friend. She loves you for that, too."
Hiei's fists clench at his sides. He glares off into the darkness, glowers at nothingness.
Kuwabara wonders how hard the life of a Forbidden Child must have been, to make Hiei so staunchly disbelieve in the existence of love directed toward him, familial or otherwise.
A small weed by Hiei's left foot twines gently about his ankle, stroking the boot soothingly with its featherlight touch. Hiei knows Kuwabara will not notice
"All I wanted to know was that you would continue to love her," Hiei says, tonelessly. "And now I know."
He flickers away into the night.
Kuwabara is briefly puzzled by the spray of dirt from the plant's roots as it is pulled away with the demon, but turns toward the darkness of the forest, squinting.
"Kurama?"
The branches part, and the redhead steps out from the obscuring foliage, nowhere near where Kuwabara was peering. His hands are stuffed in his jacket pockets; the night, Kuwabara agrees, is cold.
Kurama offers him a smile.
"I think he was very impressed with you," he offers. Kuwabara shrugs.
"Doesn't matter." He stares thoughtfully into the trees, and opens his mouth to ask a stupid question. Kurama stalls him with a raised hand and a shake of his head.
"Talk to Hiei before you do anything. He has his reasons." A sad edge to the lovely smile, now. "Though I admit, I find them as foolish and cold as you will. Perhaps I would have thought differently, once, when I was more like him."
Kuwabara nods a couple of times to this, as though to cement it into his mind. He won't speak to Yukina, yet. He'll talk to Hiei before he talks to Yukina, because... because it was important, he knew, that what he knew was true... was true, after all.
With a toss of his head, and a soft murmur of, "Good night, Kuwabara-kun," Kurama melts back into the shadows of the forest. Not so much as a dead leaf rustles beneath his soft step.
Kuwabara tilts his head back and looks, briefly, at the stars. After a fashion, he supposes, it has been.
A/N: Completed at midnight, and I have to work in the morning. But I knew if I left it I wouldn't be the same... damned if I do, damned if I don't, I suppose.
Please review; your comments and criticism are appreciated.
Start 20/04/05
Finish 20/04/05
Final Edit 21/04/05