Well, I'm back. This was incredibly quick...wow. Thank you SO much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one as well! Sorry, it's pretty thick. I hope everyone can get through it.

Hiei/Kurama is an interesting pairing. Yep, I can't wait to get to the complex parts of their relationship.

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Chapter One

He didn't have to set off the alarm. In fact, his job would have been a heck of a lot easier if he hadn't. But where was the fun in easy money?

Sirens sounded in the distance, and he sped up a little. There was a fine line between confidence and carelessness, and Hiei was anything but the latter. The owners of the house were dashing about in a panic, their every movement loud to his sensitive ears. It simplified things when people panicked; it meant he didn't have to listen as hard to know exactly where everyone was. Silence meant something was wrong.

It was a tribute to his skill that, so far, there had only been two cases like that in his career. One was not really applicable—the inhabitant was deaf—but the other he still considered his greatest mistake.

Hiei padded down the richly carpeted hallway, senses on alert. He knew exactly what he was looking for, and had a pretty good idea about where to find it. He paused before a heavy wooden door, locked and chained with shining steel rings. He snorted softly. What idiots. A door like that practically shouted hidden treasure.

Gaining entrance was a simple matter of melting away the chains. Quite a challenge for a fire demon. Creeping into the room, he glanced around for something to prop open the door with. That was basic: never ever cut off your escape route. The gold embroidered velvet armchair would do nicely.

That taken care of, he took in the room completely. At first glance it was simple enough, plain white walls covered with various works of art. An ordinary person would have questioned the reasoning behind locking it so ostentatiously. However, to Hiei's trained eyes their worth was obvious. These were multi-million dollar paintings; original Monet, Vermeer, and Picasso. Too bad he hadn't come prepared for those.

Instead he turned his gaze to the floor. Trapdoors had become popular lately; people seemed to think they were safer. So he rapped lightly on the paneled wood with his knuckles, pressing an ear to the floor. Nothing. A thin layer of wood covering only solid concrete.

So, the walls then. He ran expert fingers along the sides of the room, searching for any ridges or crevices. When the walls came up blank as well, Hiei began to get irritated. All that was left were the paintings then, and various pieces of furniture that clearly didn't belong in such a room.

He found what he was looking for almost immediately, wiping away any previous thoughts of annoyance. There was a false back on the Renoir. A simple cloth bag was all that came through as he slit the cardboard, but he could tell this was it. Peering in he caught a glimpse of sapphire. Jackpot.

He smiled slightly, but allowed himself nothing more than that. This was the most dangerous part of the job, when most amateurs made a mistake that ended their careers. The worst thing a thief could do was relax with the prize in their hands.

However, Hiei wasn't worried. He didn't bother to patch up the painting, or relock the door. There wasn't time. The police were there, which meant he would soon not be. He could hear the voice of the cop trying to reason with a woman of the household from the tree outside the house, where he'd stationed himself to watch the fun.

"Look ma'am, we're sorry for your losses but we're doing all we—"

He was cut off when the woman began to wail incomprehensibly. Apparently, the policeman had understood because he said,

"No, lady, we don't know who did it. We just got here." The guy was beginning to get pissed. "And sorry, we're not authorized to give out guesses. I'll have my men run a fingerprint check and get back to you when we have some solid information. Goodnight."

The woman snapped a sarcastic rejoinder and slammed the door in his face. Hiei snickered. The cop entered into his line of sight, running a hand through his greased black hair. He walked a few steps before stopping and turning toward the tree.

"Why do you have to trigger the alarms?" he whined, "All its doing is running me ragged."

Hiei blinked slowly, and leapt down from his perch, landing lightly in front of the young officer. "Yusuke."

The man called Yusuke shook his head as they started down the street together in companionable silence. No one who saw them would have guessed they were arch enemies—a cop and a robber.

"You're getting faster," Hiei commented, breaking the silence, "I was expecting to have at least five more minutes."

Yusuke snorted, "Yeah, but you didn't need them. Besides, this recent streak of crime has got your fans down at the station excited. They weren't as lethargic as usual when I rounded them up about ten minutes ago."

They were nearing Yusuke's house now, and Hiei prepared to take off. Yusuke couldn't let him go without one last comment, "Do a guy a favor and make the next few excursions silent ones, will you? I'll tell Keiko you said hello."

"I'd rather you didn't." And with that, police and thief parted. The thief didn't go far, however, opting to examine his acquisitions by moonlight on the roof of an abandoned warehouse. He twirled the gems idly and watched them sparkle as he thought about the one time he had bungled a burglary.

It had been sort of a joke, one of the jobs he did for pleasure rather than profit. It would have been ironic, really, if he had pulled it off. How could the law enforcers intend to prevent others from being burglarized if they couldn't even keep their own possessions secure?

Unfortunately for him he picked the wrong cop to mess with. It still irked him whenever he thought that, had he chosen any other target, he would still have had a spotless record. And probably wouldn't have met one of the only people he truly respected either.

His reasoning had been sound: Yusuke was a new recruit, fresh out of high school. A rookie cop, with reasonable potential and an incredible amount of confidence. The arrogance had probably been the deciding factor; Hiei enjoyed knocking the cocky down a peg or three.

The usual surveillance had not shown anything out of the ordinary. The first doubts hadn't started until Hiei was inside the house. The boy wasn't in his room, and there were no other lights on in the house. Neither could he hear movements anywhere else. Strike one.

He'd started getting really uneasy after he'd finished checking the entire top floor and there wasn't any trace of the owner. Strike two.

Yusuke had tackled him at the foot of the stairs, and a fierce fight ensued. It must have lasted nearly a quarter of an hour. Hiei was taken aback by the boy's incredible strength, but soon found out why. The cop didn't have a pulse. Yusuke was a demon.

Much to Hiei's disappointment, Yusuke proved stronger. For that time, at least. Hiei expected to be tied up and carted off to the police station, but the dark haired demon surprised him once again by reaching out a hand and helping him up instead.

"You're just as good as they said you were." Yusuke's voice was admiring, "But you sure took your time in coming."

Hiei was rendered speechless. Why am I just standing here listening to this man?

Some of Hiei's thoughts must have shown in his expression because Yusuke quickly backed off and offered him a cup of coffee. The two of them made an astonishing picture, seated together in the small dining room. It was a while before Hiei managed to sneak in a question during one of the rare pauses in Yusuke's babble.

"What are you doing?" He asked flatly, deciding to get straight to the point.

Yusuke blinked. "Doing? Drinking coffee."

Hiei resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Duh. "No, I mean this." He gestured toward the two of them sitting together. "When are you going to turn me in?"

Yusuke laughed out loud. "I'm not. I'm looking forward to fighting you again. Besides, it's not like you couldn't get away if I tried. Anyways, I like you. Even if you don't talk much."

"Hn." Hiei ignored that last part, deciding to make a quick getaway through one of the windows behind his head. What a strange boy. And after almost two months of knowing him, Hiei's opinion hadn't changed in the slightest.

The bright glare of the sun was what finally woke Hiei from a light doze. He stretched, glancing around. He had fallen asleep on the warehouse roof with the gems tucked safely away under his cloak. His surroundings didn't surprise him; he slept somewhere different every night.

He did have an apartment, but that was used only as a last resort. A place to recover when injured, though that hadn't happened yet. Now, however, the time for resting was over. He needed to go deposit the jewels at the bank, and probably withdraw some cash too while he was at it.

His odd appearance drew curious looks, but no one bothered to comment. You saw too many crazy things in big cities to let just an odd fashion sense pique your interest.

He only ran into a little bit of trouble at the bank when the new teller had told him he couldn't borrow money without his mommy's permission. The poor woman had no idea how close she had come to being decapitated on the spot. Luckily for her one of the regular members of the staff had seen what was happening and come to her rescue.

"I'll handle this Ayame," He told her, adjusting his tie and turning to face Hiei. "Good morning Mr. Urameshi. How may I help you?"

The use of the unfamiliar name startled Hiei, before he remembered his cover and adjusted his expression. Clamping down hard on his anger Hiei handed over the cloth bag, signed their papers, and withdrew enough money to pull him through the rest of the month. After slipping the man a few bills he pocketed the rest of the cash and exited.

George—the male teller—watched the small man leave. Quite a character, that one. Always coming in around midday once a month and leaving extremely valuable gems or trinkets. It was very suspicious, if you wanted George's real opinion. But no one ever did. Still, the man seemed to rich to be unknown. Maybe he was just a middleman for a paranoid business star or something…but George would never ask. He slipped the money into his back pocket. Mr. Urameshi was a good tipper.

Hiei was happily unaware of all the thoughts centered around him at the moment. In fact, he was seated in a Starbucks ordering a cup of coffee as he flipped the newspapers for any word on last night's theft. He scanned the articles in disappointment. Nothing. The main column featured an interview with the heir of a very successful software company. That man was worth more money than Hiei had ever seen in one place before, over a billion dollars.

For lack of anything better to do, Hiei began to skim through the article. Minamino Kurama was the richest man in the world, as of December 2007, and was expected to remain so. He was also extremely high on the list of nominees for 'Sexiest Man Alive'. He enjoyed..blah blah blah. Who cared about this stuff anyway?

One phrase in particular caught his eye, probably because it had his name in it.

'You mean Jaganshi Hiei? No, I'm not worried. Why should I be? I'm sure his reputation must have been built on something, but I suspect it's been greatly exaggerated. Besides, I am very confident that my manor is completely secure…"

At that point, Hiei stopped reading. He was too busy fuming. Greatly exaggerated? He thought viciously, slamming the newspaper down onto the table and nearly knocking over the now cold cup of coffee. Well, he was in no mood to enjoy it now.

Leaving money for the drink under the saucer he stalked out of the café, muttering to himself under his breath. Usually Hiei waited at least a week between hits, but this was outrageous! His reputation was at stake, damn caution to hell and back again!

This meant war. In the figurative sense, of course.

Forcing himself to calm down and think rationally, he decided the best thing to do would be to learn all he could about his next victim. That word made him smile. It sounded…very nice. So off to the library it was then. And after that would come the best part.

He was getting excited about it already, and it wasn't even dusk.

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Phew! Congratulations, you made it to the end of the first chapter! I swear to you all that there will not be another one this boring ever again. The serious lack of dialogue bothers me too. But don't worry, next chapter we'll see the wonderful Kurama.

Please review, it motivates me to write more.

Thanks again, and I love you all. But especially the reviewers.