I hope this chapter was worth the wait! Thanks for being so understanding!

Thank you to all my reviewers: Jessica (Thanks! XD), phoenixfirekitsune (Thanks:hugs:),KyoHana (hehe thanks! XD), Mae Rose (thank you!), hieiyamimoya (Haha! Thanks! By the way, a review is never late and always welcomed :hugs: XD), and Alexisminamino (:blushes: Really? Thanks a lot!)

Alright here's the next chapter! Please read and review! XD

Chapter 7: Who's Being Played?

The car stopped, the jerk forward waking the sleeping redhead with a start.

"Calm down baka," the older man instructed as he got out and went into the back seat.

After blinking away the sleep, Shuichi noticed he didn't know where he was, "Hiei?-"

"Hn. It's not safe for you to go back to Suki Complex being in the state you are in. I have a spare room you can sleep in for the night," he lifted the sleeping brown-haired baby and took the diaper bag out before walking over and opening the passenger's door, "Come on baka."

"Nice shirt there Hiei!"

The man rolled his eyes and looked over his shoulder, "Kitshu's quite the artist, don't you think Tay?"

The woman giggled, "Whose your friend here? He doesn't look too well."

"No one to worry about," he called before the elevator closed.

"Thank you again Hiei..." Shuichi softly murmured while rubbing his eye.

"Hn. Let me just put Kitshu in his crib then I'll help you out."

Hiei walked back to his living room only to find the redhead had fallen asleep on the couch. For a moment he had thought to just leave him there, but having to deal with a stiff and sick Shuichi in the morning changed his mind.

The man growled after his efforts to wake the other turned out useless.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say he was dead..." he laughed silently to himself before deciding to just lift him and bring him to the guestroom.

"Hn...Too light..." he shrugged it off as he carefully set Kurama down and pulled the covers over him before flicking the lights off and leaving to his own room.

Light flooded through the opened blinds and spread to the dark haired figure in bed. Reluctantly, he rose from his warmth and blinked away the sleep before looking around the room and back out the window. It was then he froze and took a double take.

"Kitshu! Shit, where are you?" He jumped out of bed and fumbled around before seeing the ajar door and all but running out it.

The redhead stuck his head out of the kitchen doorway when he heard the noise, "Hiei? Is something wrong?"

The man slid to a stop and put two and two together, "Why did you take Kitshu out of my room?"

"Well, I heard him fussing and I didn't want him to wake you up. He was just in need of a diaper change. Kitshu's fine. If you don't believe me then look behind you; he's in his play pen."

The father turned slightly and saw his child basically drooling as he watched the televison.

Shuichi chuckled, "He insisted that the t.v. be on."

Hiei shook his head and sighed, "You almost gave me a damn heart attack."

"Oh, I apologize. Now, Hiei, there's just one thing I want to know."

"That would be?" he yawned slightly before going into his kitchen to make coffee.

"Well, I would like to know why you put that drug in my drink last night, but knowing you as much as I do, you won't answer that. So I'll just ask why, if you're not working for the police anymore, do you need to know about my background?"

Hiei glared at Kurama's reflection in the silver coffee pot, "Well, you have your first question answered by the second, for the most part, so at least you can say I answered one of your questions."

"Hiei, don't be difficult now. Just answer me. It's not like I'm going to kill you."

He turned around to look indifferently at the younger one, "And why should I answer? Just so you will be content? Tff. To think I have a criminal so close to my son. It was a wonder why you didn't kidnap him and ask for ransom."

Kurama's eyes turned cold and face just as impassive as Hiei's, "So, that's your reason?"

He nodded to himself and folded his arms over his chest, "Alright, so you know that I did steal a few times, but I bet no one ever considers why. Then again, that's not the police's job to understand."

"That's because it doesn't matter. The fact is you stole. They might not arrest you now because it was too long ago and the case died, but they will put it on your record. There's always counter actions that could have been taken to take care of your mother's hospital bills and your education-"

Shuichi barked a laugh as he grabbed his coat that hung over a chair, "So you think that was the reason...Sounds sensible, go ahead with that."

"Well then smart-ass, what was the truth? Did you just want to?"

"Now Hiei, it's quite rude to make assumptions. You know how the saying goes, 'Don't assume, it makes an ass out of you and me,'" the other smirked but was grabbed when he went to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Shuichi looked down at the hand holding him before looking up at the man, "I think the question is, what gives you the right to stop me from going?"

"I think you should sit down and explain yourself. After all, I'm not just going to let you keep being my assistant if I don't trust you. You need the money, don't you?"

"Now you're trying to blackmail me?"

Hiei shook his head, "No, I am. Now sit."

Slowly the taller one did as told as he watched with careful eyes the other man.

"Coffee?"

"No thank you."

He shrugged and sat himself across the table from the redhead, "So, what was your reasons?"

"Why would you care to know?"

"Well, you said police don't care. I'm not a policeman anymore, so I guess that I could, ne?"

"Just because you care doesn't mean it's your business."

"Then how am I suppose to understand why you did this?"

"You're not suppose to, as they say, once a cop always a cop."

"So I guess I can say, once a thief always a thief to you?" he sipped at his coffee and leaned into his chair, "Although, I can somewhat tell you were forced into the deal, weren't you? Well, so was I. Now cut the crap and tell the truth."

"Okay, well there was this guy and this guy told another guy that he knew a guy that could pick locks."

"Well the guy that knew the guy that picked locks told the other guy who he was. The other guy then called the guy that knew how to pick locks to tell him to steal this one guy's treasure. This one guy held it within a safe surrounded by tons of guys and the guy that could pick locks had to find a way in-"

"So the guy that knew how to pick locks called the guy to get more guys to help, etc, etc. I know that bullshit story. Why are you so fixed on trying to confuse me baka? Either way I'm going to get my information, so if you want to state your side of the story you best do it now."

"Now honestly, why is this any of your business? If I remember correctly, when I tried finding out a bit about you, you flipped, so why should I tell you anything? Another thing, you're 'going to get' my information? How?"

"Baka. Mukuro gets all your background information no matter how difficult it is. The last thing she needs is for her company to have a spy."

"A spy...for these porn products. For some reason I find that disturbing... Anyway, that goes against my privacy-"

"Hn. Once you have a smudge on your record you'd be lucky to have any privacy."

Shuichi remained silent seeing that talking was getting him nowhere.

"Listen, I'm just warning you now that you best not try any crap with all of us. Now I heard that you haven't spokento your mother for over eight years now; Your only family and you abandon her...Pretty pathetic no matter what the cause was."

"Just like you don't like me speaking of your sister, I don't like you speaking of my mother. So shut the fuck up or I'll do it for you."

Hiei smirked behind his mug, "Have I ruffled the fox's fur so early in the game?"

"Fox...?"

"Youko Kurama was a fox demon, was he not? Anyway, why is it you left your mother defenseless? You once said that she once worked herself to death for you, yet here you go leaving her to instead kill herself over finding you, correct?"

Kurama's silence led Hiei to speak more, "Of course you don't care though, do you? I mean you seem like you care, but you also seemed like an innocent boy who's never even sipped champagne without mommy's permission."

He downed more coffee and smirked at the man across from him, "I bet that you ran because you knew mommy would be disappointed that her perfect little boy was now a man with a knack for thieving, right little Shuichi?"

"Whatever you hope to be doing, Hiei, is not working. I'm use to be talked to like this, my patients, as well as my professors, made sure that I would sooner crack from lack of food than abuse of the mind. Trust me, you can't crack me that way."

"Sure I can, I just have to find your weak point. Everyone has one no matter how hard they try to conceal it. It's usually the thing they care of most or the thing they fear most...I know a touch of psychology and guess what, I never went to college, Youko Kurama."

Shuichi refused to twitch when that name came up, but his stiffness gave Hiei proof that he had found what he was looking for, "Oh, so your thief alias?"

Kurama rolled his eyes, but, yet again, said nothing.

"Hmm...If I'm not mistaken, Youko Kurama was known for more then just his slight of hand...I believe it was for his many lovers and toys," Hiei rose the mug up to his lips again to sip from it, "Can you say the same?"

The redhead's face glowed red, "W-What! Are you trying to imply that I'm some type of– some type of whore!"

Hiei sneered at the other's reaction, "If I am, would I be mistaken?"

"Y-Yes!"

A small chuckle left the dark haired man's lips, "A bit too quick to answer. It leaves me to assume that what I say is true..."

Hiei actually didn't know if it were true or not but it got the wanted response, a frustrated and unable to think Shuichi.

"Stop it...It's not true I say. From what I take from you, you're just a lonely old hermit who is only alive at this moment because of the child your wife beared."

The dark eyebrows knitted together to be followed up be a deep scowl, "I won't lie, you're correct in that I probably would have killed myself. But only because, unlike you, I've lost the love of my life and that is something no one can ever replace."

Burning red-brown eyes singed through emerald, awakening a touch of clover that was soon swept away when the redhead turned his head.

"Hurts, doesn't it? Well think of that pain tripled...Then you'd perhaps understand why I do not speak a name, a reason, a cause..."

Hiei analyzed the sorrow in the voice but it didn't stop him from erupting, "Nothing can be worse than that pain so stop your lying, prevaricator!"

A deep breath was taken in before the redhead decided to speak, "Be glad that this is not a contest of one's emotional pain. For when it reaches that point, it's no longer pain but an act of attention, wanting to be pitied, helped and so forth."

"Tff...We're getting off topic now.." Hiei mumbled before another sip at his quickly depleting coffee.

The silence stretched on as Hiei collected his thoughts and put them back in order, "You took it quite seriously when I asked if you've had multiple partnerships. It does lead one to believe that it was true-"

He paused when the redhead went to protest yet again and gave him a stern look before continuing, "Or you've indeed never committed such acts for you have had your sights on one in particular..."

"Was it your mother that you didn't want to further disgust or was it simply an infatuation with another?"

Still nothing would be said by the one the questions were directed at.

"Perhaps both...Is that why you think that, that pain is threefold mine?"

The dark haired one leaned forward onto the table so to be slightly closer while he told something most already knew, "Your mother housed you for all those many years before your run, correct? Well if you call that hard try considering how I had to manage school, a job, a house, and a sister with no parents to back me up from the summer before freshman year through four years after highschool. Not only all that, but also put my sister through a four year college."

Hiei pulled back and blinked indifferently at the nonmoving young man, "Can you say you've been through things more difficult then that? Huh?"

"Can you imagine in the least how much stress, hardships, and breakdowns I've had?"

"Yet, I didn't complain about it because others had it worse. Others lived on the streets, others were not even given the chance to go to school...Hn. Feel lucky for what you have; If you're not, you'll never get the chance to grasp it again."

It seemed to Hiei, at that moment, he had broken through some of Shuichi's inner turmoil for a sniffle was heard followed up by a shake of the head and a slight cough.

With a puff, Hiei raked a hand through his hair before gravely saying something he never thought would escape his lips to any criminal, be it old or new, "Hn. I'll be fair to you. Satisfy my curiosity and I'll tell the cops something like you were forced to do it or be killed, 'kay? They always fall for that shit."

A chill passed noticeably through Kurama as his eyes stayed downcast, "W-what if...What if what you said wasn't entirely a lie...?"

"Then I'd be telling them half-truths? So, spill it, what's your reasoning?"

Harden emeralds cast themselves towards the speaker. The face held nothing of fear, sadness, sorrow, or resistance, in fact in was also as impassive as a brick wall, "Why...should I trust what you say...?"

"I'm your boss, if you're going to stick with that statement saying I'm untrustworthy, then you're going to have problems in the future if you pursue this career for a great amount of time."

Still the face remained unmoving as the head bobbed up and down in a nod, "Alright..."

He gulped lightly, the only thing that gave off his uncomfortableness, "It was senior year...and since about sophomore year, my mother was in and out of hospitals and the visits increased as these years past...Well, this year was the time in which things turned for the worse...She was dying..."

He cast his eyes down for the umpteenth time, "My mother had cancer and being that our medical coverage didn't cover treatments of that kind, we were forced to do nothing about it...So it was slowly spreading..."

"Hn. So when you sold the Forlorn Hope you banked the money into your mother's account and when she found out about it you told her that it was your father's life insurance finally paying out, right? Well how did you even get in the field, you'd need high connections to pull something like that off."

Startled green eyes gazed at crimson, "Did she get in trouble for the money when I left?"

"Hn. No. Yusuke knew that your mother thought it was your father's insurance. I just put two and two together."

"Oh, okay...well this person, actually an old friend who had dropped out of highschool while he was in his junior year...Anyway...he tried to talk me into something a while back and one of the things he mentioned was they made money...and fast."

"And so it happened, first with smaller tasks such as picking locks and safes and it evolved into shops and...lastly the Museum."

"Who's this friend?"

Kurama coughed and shook his head with a very slight smile, "I don't believe that is your business. You've gotten your answer, can I now leave?"

"Hn. Not yet. Question, you get paid well and such so why do you live in that shitty apartment?"

"I've other things to pay for..."

"Oh?" by this time Hiei's mug was off to the side, finished, so it left his smirk open to all.

"Yes. I have other things I need to pay for, okay? This has nothing to do with your case, so I'll be taking my leave."

Hiei snorted, "If you could, would you want to live somewhere else?"

"Of course. I'm no fool; I realize where I live is a dump and dangerous," the emerald eyes rolled, followed by a sigh.

"Three thousand a month."

A hand rose to massage a temple below the red tresses, "What are you talking about now?"

"You pay me three thousand yen a month and you can stay here."

Kurama's jaw all but dropped to the table as his eyes widened to their maximum, "W-what? No!"

With a shrug Hiei got up to get more of the caffeinated beverage, "Whatever. Go back to that rat hole in the wall. But I know for a fact you pay more then three thousand a month for that. Oh yeah, I probably should mention that Yusuke will have to inform your mother that you're back..."

He turned back and leaned against the counter with mug in hand and an indifferent look upon his face, "Nothing will happen to me. I'm just doing this because Yukina will nag me otherwise."

"But Yusuke wouldn't give my mother my address!"

Hiei rolled his eyes, "If she asks, he has no other choice but to. It's his job as a detective."

"No, that's the investigator's job and-"

"Tff...Baka. Thought you were smarter then that..." he yawned before gulping down another bit of coffee, "Yusuke was tracking down Youko Kurama, your alias, he found you and you also wound up being a missing person, no real surprise there though. Anyway he found you, he has to tell your mother."

Teasers! hehe

"No more nuts then you talking to yourself or was I meant to hear that?"

"You must have been a good thief. Didn't even wake me when you took Kitshu out of my room."

He hummed to himself before an idea struck him. With a smirk of his own, he quickly shoved the orange 'food' into the unsuspecting father's mouth.