This is a chaptered story. It carries the same title of my one-shot. They're related in a sense, but they both could stand on their own.

I do not want to give a plot summary (yet) until the story is completed. But my mind is basically Kurama-centric, and this story is about him. Rating might change to M. This is not particularly very romantic and the relationship between Kurama and Hiei may appear more platonic than shounen ai. But this will still have a shounen ai theme. And angst. Anyway...

Story will revolve around Kurama, Hiei, and the Black Chapter.

REMNANTS 2

Part 1

The video tape sat cold on the table despite the fiery gaze it received from Hiei. He found it in the morning while rummaging for clean clothes. It was a brief 'a-ha!' moment of finding an expensive nonetheless uninteresting item.

The Black Chapter.

To think that once upon a time mankind almost met its doom just because a man of morally high principle watched the tape, and that exact tape was before him—suddenly insignificant after the whole save-the-world ordeal—Hiei felt sick.

Inside that tape was supposed to be a whole 'nother level of human cruelty towards demons; revolting events that were enough to encourage defection.

If he were to watch this, would it drive him to rebel against humans? But that would be hypocrisy; after all, he never thought highly of humans in the first place. Also, weren't they demons who first mistreated him?

If he were to watch this, would it change his opinion of his comrade?

Hiei blinked inquisitively.

But most of his comrades, at least those who mattered, were not human anyway.

"This is bull," Hiei whispered, and shoved the tape back in his clothes trunk.

So what? Mutilation? Rape? Torture? Massacre? Only humans cared because they were easily scared. They'd scream from cigarette burn and wince from papercut; turn red when they stumbled and get depressed for accidentally flashing their genitals. If they couldn't protect themselves and nobody could save them, they felt offended by fate. Their life was suddenly unfair.

On the other hand, you were already lucky to survive infancy as demon.

"Tell her I'll be gone," Hiei instructed a passing guard, and had swiftly left Mukuro's moving fortress before the lower demon could snort in nonchalance.

Part 2

Kurama found it funny how some trivial human activities proved very taxing. School was a never-ending process. One was taught complex things that only few truly appreciated. If he failed, he'd be stigmatized by society when the truth was he could live by doing very few redundant things.

Like what he was doing: tending to email correspondences.

Kurama supposed it was because of their short lives that they set norms. Either they break rules and exceed limitations only to find out they failed and wasted their precious years, or follow the society and live comfortably only to realize their time was not enough to have actually lived.

What was the quote again?

"That they live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived."

Kurama pronounced the words meticulously and nodded approvingly to himself. He continued reading.

"What the fuck was that?" A familiar voice asked without any trace of interest.

"Oh, Hiei. Good evening. Would you like to talk about philosophy?" Kurama joked. He spun his seat to face his visitor who comfortably occupied the window sill, and smiled amiably.

Hiei flatly ignored him and scanned the room. "What are you doing? Are you busy?"

"As a matter of fact, I am busy. If you're gonna ask me out, I have to say sorry." Kurama feigned a disappointed pout.

Hiei simply rolled his eyes, hopped inside, and approached the television. He tapped the black rectangular box that was neatly placed on the table. "Is this what you use to watch videos?"

His friend's actions piqued Kurama's interest.

"Hm, yes. Do you want to watch anything?"

"Yes," Hiei immediately responded and Kurama did not bother hide his amusement. "Really? What would you like to watch?"

"Anything."

Kurama pondered for a few seconds before answering, "Okay," and proceeded to turn off the computer. "But by anything, you probably meant comedy is for idiots, horror and action are lame, and that romance is definitely not your thing."

"Whatever, Fox." And Hiei comfortably invaded the bed.

"And two grown men watching porn should be too awkward (not that I watch them)."

"What the fuck is porn?"

Kurama raised both hands in surrender. "It's not so rewarding to use humor on you," he sighed, "I'll be quick to rent some videos from the store. Feel free to empty my fridge." He grabbed a very loose fleece jacket and left the room.

Part 3

"Good evening! Shuu-kun," a middle-aged lady greeted as Kurama modestly entered the store. Her hair was tied in a neat bun. She wore a knitted vest and two more layer of clothing underneath. She looked young and lively, but the dark bags under her eyes revealed her fatigue. "It's very rare to see you here."

Kurama smiled and offered a polite nod.

"And it's very late now. Is it very cold outside?"

"Ah, yes, very much so, Ma'am. And the coffee machine also appeared broken."

The lady seemed upset. "Yes! Some middle school kids kicked it and even smashed it with a baseball bat! I was so upset! This young man here is never around when I need him!" Her voice went a pitch higher, but she still spoke softly and Kurama immediately understood why no kids feared her. Kurama smiled almost apologetically.

"Nouzumi!" She called out facing the stock room, "Nouzumi! Come out here and assist Shuu-kun!"

"It's alright, Ma'am." And still with the same gentle smile, he moved towards the video racks.

"We recently re-arranged our shelves and some videos may have been misplaced."

"Shuichi is here?" The man called Nouzumi hastily emerged from the stock room. He had the same height and physique as Kuwabara, but the shape of his face was softer. He tied his light frosted brown hair in a slicked back ponytail. Dust was all over his white apron, but his clothes were barely unkempt.

Kurama gestured a quick hello and proceeded to check out the titles. He specifically paid attention to the new release.

Nouzumi lightly tapped Kurama's shoulder. "Hey, it's been so long since I saw you!"

"Yep. Since my younger brother moved back to our home, I hadn't been compelled to rent videos." Kurama's finger absentmindedly browsed the titles.

"Oh? Then what compelled you this time?"

Kurama thought the movies wouldn't interest Hiei one bit. Romance was out of the question. Action was generally a man's genre and human stunts were usually amusing, but Hiei was a cynic. Comedy was nice, but Kurama doubted Hiei would get the humor. Horror could be interesting, but if it proved effective, Hiei would take the easy way out.

How about something that threw in some hot girls. Kurama sneered.

"But it might turn out interesting," was Kurama's sudden afterthought. Completely oblivious of Nouzumi who was quietly observing him, Kurama grabbed a title that showcased two women in sexy fitted evening gown beside an Asian martial artist—an action-comedy, the summary said.

"You're with your girl?"

Kurama looked up instantly and was confused. It took him a few minutes of blankly staring at the young man before answering, "No."

"You're with guys?"

"Hm, yeah. I'm with a guy friend," he politely answered and resumed scanning the video rack.

"Then how about this?"

It was a CG film of fighting animals and Kurama thought it was a promising title. There'd be no humans to make fun of and action stunts that Hiei couldn't possibly criticize (hey, they're animals), and there'd be no need to throw some realism because it was CG.

Although Hiei would probably spend most of the time exclaiming, "What the eff is that? Why the hell would humans want to watch this? Why can't they just teach animals to like kick a dude's crotch or something?"

Yep. Most probably.

Then Nouzumi laughed. "Wow, man, I haven't seen anyone contemplating this seriously in choosing a movie title!"

"Oh."

"Anyway, I've already watched that and it's really funny."

Kurama smiled. "Yeah. I think I'll be getting this, too, then."

It took him a few more minutes of small talk before he finished paying for the rent and some snacks, and left the store. It grew even colder and Kurama decided to pick up his pace. He figured that soon snow would fall.

Part 4

"Took you goddamn long!"

Hiei returned to sitting on the window sill. He was looking outside and had seen Kurama leaving the corner store about a hundred meters away. Hiei found it excruciating to watch the redhead feign a normal run when in fact he could risk a few leaps and be back home within seconds.

"Sorry. Small human niceties," Kurama answered as he picked up bottles of energy drink, barely drank, and a crumpled sandwich wrapper. "I brought you beer."

"What the hell are those?"

"Energy drinks."

Hiei wasn't interested anyway and he appreciated that Kurama kept his answer short. It smelled very disgusting—the energy drinks—but human beer smelled disgusting as well so Hiei figured it was worth the shot. But no. They tasted like exaggeratedly sweet piss. Not that he tasted piss before, but he assumed the taste would be close enough to blood; after all, they were both liquids coming from the insides.

Licking blood was cool. Licking piss was… just plain gross.

Kurama proceeded to setup the video and Hiei plopped down the floor and attentively watched the redhead pressed a button, inserted the video, and pressed another button.

…And then Kurama grabbed the remote control, repeatedly pressed a button and the TV switched to blank channels until it found one that had a picture. He pressed another button and Hiei finally heard sounds increasingly getting louder.

Hiei's mind went blank.

"I'm not sure you're gonna like this movie, but deal with it," Kurama said as he sat beside him. He was given a tiny plastic cup that Kurama identified as pudding. It tasted good—better than the sandwich he ate earlier. He glanced at Kurama to check what the other was eating and nodded contentedly knowing that it was the same cup.

"I've a few more in the bag."

"Okay."

Hiei couldn't understand why he was watching baby animals playing chase happily, but he got to conclude that humans were more open-minded by assuming that animals could actually talk. Perhaps meeting demons wouldn't be so shocking.

He glanced at Kurama who looked mildly amused and was gently smiling. He smirked.

"You're such a fox."

"He-ey…"

But Kurama was still smiling.

"You're cold?"

Kurama's ears were pink and so was the tip of his nose. His lips went slightly dry and the tiny hairs on his nape were standing up.

"Slightly. It's about to snow soon."

"Humans are so fragile." Hiei took off his white cloak and carelessly draped it over his friend's shoulder.

"Hmm… even as a demon, I disliked the cold. Thanks."

"Props for creativity, but I still think this is shit." Hiei opened his second can of beer.

"Next time, you should come with me, then. You choose the title."

"No longer interested."

"Hmm…"

After five cans of beer and three cups of pudding, the credit rolled and Hiei was relieved. It definitely looked like the end, he thought, for there were no more pictures of animals pretending to be fighting. Kurama asked if he wanted to watch another and Hiei flatly refused. He watched as Kurama crawled towards the TV set and fiddled with more buttons.

"Come over if you want to watch the black chapter," his friend offered calmly, just as natural as he offered him the beers and the puddings. "Save yourself from any more of these hassles."

Hiei emptied his last cup of pudding, licked the spoon clean, and downed the last drops of his beer. Then he stood up and sniffed his friend's head before retrieving his cloak. "Okay," he said, and was swiftly out of the room.

...to be continued