Disclaimer: Still not mine. One day!

So here is chapter two of my lovely little YYH slash story :) I absolutely love Yu Yu Hakusho and I am saddened by the lack of fandom for it lately - and the lack of fiction that is not OC-themed. Not that all OC stories are bad, I just would rather read about the characters interacting amongst each other raher than a character I have yet to love. Its been an incredibly long time since I wrote any of these characters, and judging from my past writings, I was never quite able to write them down correctly xD So here's to hoping I was finally able to do so and they are all written well and in character.

I want to thank everyone for favoriting/alerting/reviewing the story so far. It's very encouraging to see that there is still a fanbase for this amazing series willing to give me their comments and constructive criticism. I hope you enjoy the latest chapter :)

Dancing by Firelight
chapter two

The train came to a halt at the station, jerking him abruptly out of his nap. Yusuke brought his hand to his mouth as he let a long yawn loose and stepped out of the car. He had spent more time than he had planned on getting everything in order for him to leave on his mission the night past. He smiled as he realized how differently he treated missions than he had only two years ago. Back then, he always just rushed in without a second thought – he never really worried about getting his business in order before running off to save the world. This time, he made preparations for Keiko to check in on his ramen stand while he was gone, and he had called everyone he felt should know where and what he was doing, at least to some extent.

He had spoken to Kurama over the phone last night as well. He didn't tell him that he was leaving, though he was sure the clever kitsune would find out far faster than Kuwabara. He just didn't want to leave without giving his friend one more wish for good luck. From what they discussed, his mother did not have a promising outlook. He sighed at the thought – he knew that Kurama was working harder than he ever had to find a cure for her, but she was suffering from an unknown illness of which there was no known cure. He also knew, however, that if anyone could find a way around it, it would undoubtedly be Kurama.

He could sense the fire demon's youki from where he was and began to follow it off the beaten path and into the woods. Yusuke shrugged to situate the straps rubbing against his shoulders. He had even packed a backpack with some necessities. He was sure he would hear about that from the snarky little fire demon he would be traveling with, but not everyone could make a fist full of fire at their whim to set up camp. And who knew if the two of them would be split up or not?

The morning air was crisp and cool against his skin as he yawned once more and made his way toward the gate they were to meet at that would lead them into the appropriate area of the Makai. He was honestly starting to feel excited about the trip, remembering the adrenaline rush previous endeavors had instilled in him. A grin spread across his face, a feeling that was oddly reminiscent of prior adventures, as stressful, tragic, and exciting as they might have been.

As happy as Yusuke was with his simple current life, he was and would always be a man of action. This was exactly what he needed and he was really looking forward to it. Even if it meant he had to deal with Hiei and his various attitude problems. It wasn't that he didn't like the fire demon – in fact, it was quite the opposite. How could he dislike someone he trusted with his life? There were just certain traits of his that Yusuke wasn't entirely fond of but was able to deal with.

Such as the glare he was receiving as he approached him. Hiei was never one to hold back his opinions on things he disapproved of, and the backpack must have fallen into that category. But it was strangely refreshing to see his friend's scowling face after so long, even if the first thing he saw was his displeasure. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he was glad to see him. And he had grown quite used to ignoring his friend's sour moods.

"Hiei!" He called out when he reached him and threw an arm around the smaller man's shoulders. If the fire demon's face could have held any more disapproval than it already did, it would have. He shrugged Yusuke's arm off and frowned, pointing to the backpack.

"The luxurious lives you humans must lead. Have you already forgotten how to survive without your human conveniences?" He said. Those were the first words Yusuke had heard from him in a couple of years, but he hadn't expected any warm welcomes on Hiei's part.

"Hello to you too," the spirit detective said, his grin still present. He decided to tease back, always an effective way of getting Hiei to change the subject. "I think I hear a little less venom in your voice. Don't tell me that working for the Reikai has made you soft?"

The fire demon snorted at this. "Speaking of soft, you're looking more flabby than usual. You must be very comfortable in your human life to let yourself go as you have."

Yusuke shrugged at this. He most certainly had not let himself go. He would go to Genkai's – as he still was unable to refer to it as anyone else's – temple regularly to train and keep himself in shape, just in case a situation such as this should ever occur. And partially because he would never live it down if he really did lose his muscle mass. "I see these past couple of years haven't blessed you with a growth spurt."

"Nor have they given you an attitude adjustment."

"I could say the same for you," Yusuke said back, but his smile was still present. He took the conversation for what it really was – hello, you haven't changed a bit, nice to see you after so long. This was probably the closest to such a conversation that the two of them would ever get and he was oddly all right with that.

"Now boys, do I need to separate you already?" Botan said as she floated into the cave.

Yusuke only smiled. He was somewhat surprised how easy it was to fall back into their routine. He could tell that Hiei's words held no real disdain and he knew his friend could tell the same about his. Generally when they were really arguing, there were more fists involved, after all.

"You know I hate to get straight to business," the ferry girl said as she landed on her feet in front of them, a manila folder in her arms. "But I'm afraid we must this time around."

Yusuke frowned at this – Hiei had already been frowning so there was no real visible change in his facial expression. "Why? What's going on?"

"We recently received some reports of strange noises and power readings in the Makai," Botan began, opening the folder and flipping through the few pages present within it. "Specifically in the Forest of Ages."

"I know of the Forest," Hiei said, and at Yusuke and Botan's prying gazes he sighed and elaborated. "It is an ancient, virtually untouched forest in a largely uninhabited area of the Makai. It is not protected by any power – it is just an unspoken rule that no one is allowed to enter. The forest has been there longer than anyone can remember, and its trees are said to be alive with spirits and as old as the Makai itself."

Botan nodded at this. "That is all our records show as well. I'm afraid that is all we know of the Forest because there has never been any pressing reason to further research it until now."

"So we're going to find the source of the power? Isn't that a little…" Yusuke hesitated to find the right words, "well, safe of a job to call us in?"

At his side, the fire demon nodded in agreement. "We might be detectives on file, but I'm pretty sure we're valued more for our strength than our investigative skills."

"Well, if you let me finish, you'd see why we called you," Botan said, shaking a finger at the two of them. "So eager to fight, aren't we? Men. Anyway, yes it was a 'safe' investigation. We sent in two other detectives employed by the Reikai to investigate the situation. Hours after entering the Forest, we lost all contact with them. We later found the body of one on the outskirts of the Forest, and the other is nowhere to be found."

"So we're on a rescue mission?" Yusuke asked, and Botan nodded.

"Officially, you are to find the missing detective and return him if he is alive," she said, though her expression read that this scenario was unlikely. Yusuke wondered what state the other body was in for her face to look like it did.

"And if he is dead?" Hiei asked, getting straight to the point as always.

"You are to find out how and why he died, as well as locate the strange power source," she said.

"You don't know how he died?" Yusuke asked incredulously. Usually death in the Makai was pretty obvious. Which meant it may not have been death by demon at all. He and Hiei exchanged looks – this could potentially be a little bit different than what they were used to.

Botan merely shook her head. She closed the file and tucked it under her arm, summoning her oar into her hand from thin air. "The moment you enter from here, you will be on the edge of the Forest. We have no methods of contacting you once you enter – the power is too raw and blocks out any signals from being transmitted. And I don't need to tell you boys that this forest is ancient and should not be harmed?"

Yusuke rolled his eyes. If he was getting in a fight there, the last thing he was going to worry about was whether or not his rei gun missed and hit a tree. He knew that Hiei cared even less about the situation.

She sat on her oar and floated in the air before them. This time, the look on her face was one of worry. Yusuke had grown used to seeing her concern for his life and the lives of his friends, but this one was different in a way. "This isn't part of your official order, but… your lives are the most important thing. If anything happens to really jeopardize your lives, leave immediately. You are both too valuable to lose in there."

The fire demon snorted in response to her words. "Too valuable because of our strength, of course."

She smiled sadly, but she knew by now not to take his comments to heart. "Too valuable as friends."

"I got it, Botan," Yusuke said, trying to find the right words to ease her mind. "We know when to come running back."

"I really hope you do," she said, but turned on her biggest smile in order to encourage them, though it was rather easy to see through. "Come back soon, we should all have an official reunion when you two get back!"

Hiei snorted again, and began to say, "As if I'd –"

Yusuke stepped in front of him and cut him off, wearing his very largest grin and holding a thumbs up. "Of course we will. I might even bring the ramen!"

"You better!" She said with a smile, and with that she flew off into the sky and was soon out of sight. Yusuke made sure to wear his smile for as long as it took until she could no longer see them before he dropped it in favor of a more serious expression and turned around to face the gate. He rolled his eyes and smiled a little when he saw that Hiei had already disappeared through without him. Some people just really do not change. Somehow, the thought was a little comforting to him. With that small smile still on his face, he stepped through the barrier.

The crimson skies of the Makai had once seemed menacing to him, a sign of the evil that occurred there on a daily basis. But Yusuke, of all people, knew what this world was really like. In a way, it was far more innocent than the world he had just left. It was raw and untamed, and it felt like a home away from home to him – though he had a feeling that might have been the demon blood inside of him.

He breathed in the fresh, unmarred air of the world he had just set foot in and turned his gaze upon the edge of the forest before them. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, his normal grin on his face once more. "When you said as old as the Makai, I thought you were exaggerating!" The trees – what were probably the thinner ones since they were on the outskirts of the forest, were thicker than he could have imagined. They were likely wider than six of him wrapped around from head to foot. They stood more than a hundred feet tall – and beyond them were trees in the distance that stood even taller. "Forests like this just don't exist in the Ningenkai."

Hiei scoffed beside him before stepping forward. "Of course they couldn't – humans are very good at killing their home, after all."

Yusuke held up his hands in mock surrender and laughed. "Hey, the half of me that's human is very offended."

The fire demon merely shook his head and ignored his companion, removing the bandana from around his forehead and opening his third eye. He closed his other two and held his breath, searching ahead.

"See anything?" The spirit detective asked, nudging a small pebble with his foot. Already, he was anxious to be on the move – to go on another adventure. Often times, he would rethink these feelings further along down the journey, but there was no way he could control them. Because no matter what happened, no matter what was lost or what was discovered, they never walked away empty-handed. Even if all they left with only a tighter bond, that was worth fighting for.

He couldn't guess how Hiei felt about that, but he was sure they didn't have the same line of thinking when it came to that. He looked at his silent friend, the third eye flitting about in search of anything that could help them. Hiei looked absolutely calm, no signs of anxiety or haste in him. The Jagan closed before his red eyes opened, and he looked at Yusuke. "I can't see anything. The Forest is so shrouded in ancient power that it obstructs even my view. There is no way any device, whether its origin be Makai, Reikai, or Ningenkai, could send or receive signals here."

"Is there anything at all, even blurry or whatever?" The spirit detective asked again, looking for any part of an answer before they stepped in.

The fire demon scowled and shook his head. "Just that it is a dark, deep forest. And one thing that I can't be sure of."

"What is it?" Yusuke asked, surprised that Hiei even felt it worth mentioning if he was unsure.

"A strange smell," the fire demon said, and Yusuke would have laughed and made some kind of remark about demons and their noses had Hiei not looked so serious about it. "I can't tell what it is because it is too faint, but it is coming through the trees."

Yusuke shrugged, adjusting his backpack. "Whatever it is, we'll find out eventually."

The fire demon nodded, his gaze fixed on the trees. He stepped forward, and Yusuke followed closely behind him. Hiei's steps became quicker the deeper in they went, faster and faster until they were at a sprint. Yusuke couldn't see – or in this case smell – what was bothering him, but he knew when to just trust his friend and follow. Especially since Hiei was deliberately moving slow enough for Yusuke to keep up – as the fire demon possessed an incredible speed that Yusuke would likely never be able to match.

"What's wrong? What are we chasing?" Yusuke shouted after what felt like ages of running in silence.

"You can't feel it?" His companion remarked, though all signs of hostility in his voice were replaced with pure concentration. When Hiei devoted himself to something, he did so entirely. "You can't feel it lingering in the air?"

Maybe Yusuke was less practiced than he had thought, because it took him a moment of concentration before he felt was his friend was referring to. And then he too, was beginning to smell what Hiei had already.

The air felt heavy, the aura felt wrong somehow. It was a complete change from the freeness of the world outside the forest's edge, and the spirit detective was surprised that he hadn't noticed the transition until now.

"It's death," the fire demon said. "I can almost taste it in my breath."

"It's wrong," Yusuke said, and the scent began to grow stronger and stronger as they continued deeper into the trees. The spirit detective knew by now what it was they were smelling, but he refused to say it out loud until he could confirm it with his own eyes.

And suddenly, they broke through into a small clearing, and the smell was overwhelming. Yusuke brought his hands to his nose in an effort to block the smell, and even Hiei crinkled his nose on sight.

"That would explain the smell," the fire demon said.

There was maybe thirty, forty of them all in one pile, not even concealed from view. There they all lie, littered amongst the ground like pebbles in the dirt. The rotting corpses of humans.