A/N: Hello again, my awesome readers! Yuumi here again with another story for you. I'd like to apologize to those who're subscribed to me. Sorry for not updating my stories. College and my job gets in the way, so yeah...don't worry, though. I'll update them. I won't abandon them, I promise! I actually have a class where I can get some free-writing done so I take advantage of that to write these stories and write chapter drafts for my stories here. Yep. My professor's just that cool. Anyways, enjoy!

Protective

That Kurama really is a bastard – a sneaky, treacherous bastard. And to think he was one of his closest friends too! What a jerk.

Last time they spoke to each other (that being only three weeks ago) he said he wasn't interested in dating anybody. The next thing he knew, the redhead's ear was pressed to his older sister's belly because apparently she'd gotten pregnant—with his child!

What a huge bastard. And Shizuru, too! How could they have kept this from him?

Kazuma sighed in exasperation.

Then again, Shizuru's always had a thing for older men. During her last year of high school she had a brief affair with a yakuza member twenty years her senior. The asshole tried to rape her; as a result, she murdered out of self defense (he'd kept this a secret from their father of course, who was still alive at the time). As if that hadn't been enough to teach her a lesson, Koenma told him that some time during the Dark Tournament, she had been involved with Sakyo, the owner of Team Toguro. Now, it was Kurama.

Like her yakuza boyfriend, Sakyo was older than her. Kurama was older than her as well. Like her yakuza boyfriend, Sakyo was human. This was where Kurama stood differently from those two other men. Although he appeared human, he was far from being one. He was a 3000-year-old fox demon who had stolen a human's body in order to extend his life in the world of the living. He had died once. His life now was only borrowed.

Unlike the other two men, Kurama was a trusted ally – a friend. He had nothing against redhead, really. He actually liked someone for his sister for once. What angered him was the fact that his sister and the fox had kept their relationship a secret (if there ever was one in the first place). Had they not trusted him enough? Shizuru was his older sister. He, of all people, should be one of the first to know. How did their relationship even start? There was barely any interaction between his the two of them. Sure, they conversed everyonce in a while, but never had they showed any romantic feelings for each other. What, did those two decide to get drunk and have sex like those people on stupid clichéd TV dramas that Keiko and Botan loved to watch?

Kazuma shrugged at the idea.

No, they wouldn't do that. They weren't that stupid. They knew better, especially Kurama. But—what if that was the case? After all, it wasn't long ago when he'd teased the redhead about not having a girlfriend when so many women tripped over their own selves just to get a date with him. It wasn't long ago either when they had all drank quite a profusion of various types of alcohol during Urameshi's twenty-seventh birthday.

Wait a second—

Shizuru hadn't come home with him that night. Instead, she came home the next day, early in the afternoon. He remembered asking her where she had gone after she left; she never really answered him. Instead she nonchalantly replied, "I got tired so I left," headed to her room to get a few things, and headed out the door to go to work.

Of course! That had to be it. How else could that have happened, if they barely talked to each other at all until that night?

Kazuma paled at the thought.

How could they have done something so idiotic? Come to think of it, did they even harbor any feelings towards each other? Were they only staying together because of the baby? What if they grow tired of each other in the future? What will become of their child?

He never expected something like this to happen. It was too out-of-character, even for his sister. Perhaps he may never understand his sister and the fox, but one thing's for sure—he will protect Shizuru, even if it kills him.