WARNING: Not responsible for any cases of shortness of breath, constipation, heart attack, blindness, AIDS, cancer, deftness, ADD, ADHA, loss of erection, stunting of growth, broken bones, dry skin, water eyes, thinness of blood, dyslexia, loss of hair/baldness, death due to shock, loss of bladder control, premarital sex, an erection that lasts more then 4 to 7 hours, heat stroke, gas/flatulence, D.U.I, Murder, herpes, sleep deprivation, nausea, a sudden urge to dance like a white guy, heart burn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea, crabs, yeast infections, warts, acne, pimples, zits, puberty, unexpected pregnancies, and any other sexually transmitted diseases.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the YYH characters mentioned here because they belong to Yoshihiro Togashi-sama.

I own nothing, but the non-YYH characters mentioned and the all around plot. Everything else is strictly borrowed for mere entertainment.

~Cue Opening Theme Song!~

Waking a little before dawn, you carefully get out of bed. By now Hiei is wet and you quickly rush to change him before he wakes up. You do your best considering you've only seen Kurama do this once before. Having his pjs off, you take the opportunity to dress him in a clothing set that was purchased the night before. It was a simple and black one piece with long sleeves and legs, perhaps a little too long. You had to roll up the ends to find his hands and feet, but the end product worked well. Hiei wouldn't complain because it was similar to his normal attire. Once he was completely dressed, you shake him a little to wake him.

"mmmmmh… what do you want? Who in Makai gets up this early?"

You took the baby talk as a sign of life and carried the half asleep demon to the kitchen. With Hiei securely on your hip, you open a container of baby food and add some warm water to it. After stirring, you place the dish on the table and take a seat. You position Hiei in front of you, sitting on the table with his little legs hanging over the edge. By now you had a plan. You would let Hiei try everything out himself, and when he fails, he will allow assistance. You take Hiei's right hand and place the baby spoon in it and you hold out the bowl within his arm's reach. Hiei understood and was grateful to have been given this small amount of autonomy. He didn't even care what the goop would taste like as long as he could do it himself. Sticking the spoon in the food, Hiei tried to pick up a large spoonful, but it just kept falling off. Over and over again, the food would not remain on the utensil long enough to reach the demon's mouth. Frustrated, Hiei throws the spoon.

"Do you need some help Hiei?" you ask as you get another spoon.

Hiei looks away.

"Ok, you can keep trying if you'd like." you smile.

Hiei frowns and looks you in the eye. He takes the second spoon and pushes it back in your hand.

"Oh, so you do want my help?"

Hiei doesn't move.

"Hiei, I am trying to not treat you based on your appearance alone. I know you understand everything perfectly well, so if you need help with something, you are going to have to forgo your pride and try to communicate." you explain.

Hiei lets out a sigh.

"So do you want me to help you?"

Hiei hesitated for a moment, but finally nods his head. You count the victory and take a small amount of the oatmeal and raise it to the demon's mouth. Without further hesitation, the demon open's his mouth wide. A few spoons later, Hiei ends up wearing most of the food. After the bowl is empty, you look at Hiei and ask him if he is still hungry. Thinking about it for a minute, Hiei shakes his head no. You wipe his face clean and wash the bowl and utensils. Turning around, you notice that Hiei has a distressed face and is holding his tummy. Picking him up, you put him on your shoulder and copy what Kurama did; patting his back gently. Hiei was not as surprised as he was the first time he was burped, but it did relieve the pressure. Taking Hiei into the other room, you sat on the two seated couch and turn to the demon,

"So what do you want to do for the rest of the day?"

Hiei shrugs his shoulders.

"I wonder where Kurama is. Stay here, I'm gonna get the communicator." you say as you leave the room.

It took you a little time to find it amongst the piles of new things, but finally you were able to grasp it. Pressing the correct numbers, you were about to dial Kurama, when you heard Hiei scream. It wasn't his usually pissed off scream, one more of terror. You drop the communicator and run back only to find a demon leaning over the couch. Instinct takes over as you tackle the beast to the ground. For a moment, the youkai gains the advantage by pinning you to the floor; the demon was lower class and you easily overpowered it, but not before its tail swung around and struck you on the back of the neck. Snapping its spine, you quickly killed the monster before any more damage was done. Pushing its body off of you, you stand and tend to the terrified baby. Fear was all over Hiei's face and for a moment, you didn't know what to do. Never before had Hiei looked like this.

"Come on Hiei; let's get you out of here." Hiei pulled his face into your shirt, crying, "Shhh. It's ok, he's gone now."

You take Hiei out of the room and place him on the bed. You strip as fast as you can and put clean clothes on. You pack a few things, put them in a satchel and swing it onto your shoulder. There was no time to clean up the body, so you send a distress signal with the communicator. Picking up Hiei as well as a weapon, you left the apartment. The poor child clung to you as he continued his soft crying and you felt pangs of your own. It took some time before Hiei was once again composed, but even then his eyes were still red, fresh with tears. You took the bus to the rural side of town and went to a more wooded and concealed area. The sun was shinning and if not given the situation, it would have been a pleasant day. By now Hiei was quiet and docile. He looked up to you and you replied that you wanted to come here to train anyway. Hiei agreed to the idea and the two sat on a blanket spread on the warm grass. You place Hiei in front of you. His eyes listlessly look over to see his katana by your side, craving the feeling of its cold blade.

"So how much mobility do you still have?" you ask, trying your best to refocus Hiei's mind on something else.

"I haven't really thought of that…" He mused. Looking at his arms and legs, he moved them a little. He could flex his arms and bend them, and he could bend his legs.

"Are you able to stand up?"

Hiei's face was deep in thought.

"Do I remember how to stand?" Wriggling on the ground, Hiei was able to roll over onto his stomach. He then pulled his knees in and had his hands out, but that was pretty much it. He had neither strength nor the memory of how to stand or walk. If he tried really hard, he did what looked like a poor crawl, but that was it. You pick him up from under the arms and help his feet go in the right place. Holding him there, Hiei smiled. He felt some freedom standing upright, even though most of his body weight was on you. While standing, Hiei bent his knees a little and tried to adjust so that he could stand by himself. Taking the message, you loosen your grip on him until he is freely standing on his own. He wobbles and teeters for a bit before he falls backwards on his butt with a little gasp. You waste no time and pull him up again from under the arm, standing. Slowly, you again let go. This time, he quickly takes a step forward before falling with a little thud. You both smile. "Progress starts off small, but is progress nonetheless." you say as Hiei is already raising his arms to be lifted onto his feet again. You oblige him and with each attempt, Hiei gets farther and farther then the step before. Hiei's little body could only handle less than an hour of "training" and was quickly tired out after the fiftieth plop to the ground. You look at the sky and the sun is at the pinnacle of its path. Looking back at Hiei, you watch as he gives a little yawn and then followed it with a sigh. You reach an arm into the bag and pull out an empty bottle. You take a container of formula and pour the off-white colored liquid into the bottle, finishing by tightening the lid. The directions listed how often and how much a child should be fed based on age and weight. Drowsily, Hiei opens his eyes and sees the object in your hands.

"Watch your actions woman; do not think I will allow you to humiliate me any further." Hiei tried to say.

You ignore the baby talk and pull Hiei into your lap. He regains some energy lost from his fit of sleepiness and swings his arms and legs in an attempt to smack the object out of his path of view.

"Don't be difficult now, you were acting so well today." you mumble as you try to hold down Hiei's flailing limbs. The demon resorts to frowning and holding his mouth tightly shut, so you retort by dirty means. Using a free hand, you pinch the boy's nose shut. After less than a minute, Hiei is forced to open his mouth and gasp for air, so you take the opportunity and insert the bottle's nipple and release the child's nose simultaneously.

"How dare you treat me like this if I were not…" Hiei tried to speak around the nipple, but when his lips moved, he was greeted with a mouthful of formula. He choked for a minute, but was forced to swallow the substance so that he could breath. Eventually, his infant instincts took over and he continued to suckle form the bottle, all the while keeping his meanest scowl on his face.

"Do not blame me, I am only following directions." you say as you close your eyes still propping the bottle so the milk was flowing into the demon's mouth. You eyes opened only when you noticed that the sucking sound had stopped. Hiei was fighting dearly to keep his eyelids separated. His frown had easily melted with the warmth of the sun. You remove the bottle and notice how much milk is left behind. "Strange, you finished the other bottle entirely and yet you didn't even get to half of this one." Another yawn escapes the youkai. The sun was shining warmly on everything it touched and the wind had a fine scent to it when it gently traveled. You lie on you back and place Hiei on his stomach onto your chest. Hiei proves too tired to combat you and decides the position is indeed comfortable. A lone hand wandered to the child and gently strokes the little demon's head. Although the act in itself might have seemed embarrassing to Hiei in his regular form, you were greeted with the satisfaction of a soft purr that emanated form the child on top of you. For an instant, you realized just how awkward everything had become. Like a distorted dream that once awoken from seems fuzzy and unfamiliar. You tried to picture yourself in the same position only with Hiei not as a baby. Your face flinched for a moment. You then tried to imagine feeding and caring for Hiei as an adult and the idea made you wince even more. All of this time you had tried to treat Hiei the way you normally would, but you knew that Hiei would never let you pet him as you were now, he wouldn't dare let you feed him, and he would kill you at the very proposition of changing his soiled diapers if he was in his full form. So why had you accepted the change, when Hiei obviously hadn't. Why did you care so much for him now, when before you separated yourself from everyone else? You had no experience as a mother and yet here you were, trying to raise Hiei as your own kin. You knew that both you and Hiei possessed similar childhoods in that fact that you were both tortured and abandoned, left to fend for yourselves. Did seeing Hiei in this state remind you of the pains that you both had endured? Perhaps, unconsciously, you wanted to give someone who suffered like you the opportunity to reclaim that lost part of himself and in doing so, rectify a piece of your own lost past? You accepted that it was true and although you recognized that there would be negative consequences, for now, you just wanted Hiei to be happy in whatever form he was in. Only later on would you understand the impact that this decision truly had. Finding little else to keep your mind occupied, you also felt yourself melting into the warmth of the sun.

~Cue End Theme Song! ~