It didn't take Hiei long to locate the Detective. This was probably due to the fact that he had been in Yusuke's head more often in the last month than in the entire time they had known each other. The younger boy was breathing heavily, his body covered in sweat and blood, and his clothes hanging around him in tatters. His eyes were barely open, so when Hiei brushed against his mind, he at first couldn't see anything but blackness.
"Hey, Hiei. Welcome back," Yusuke greeted tiredly, and Hiei nodded in approval; the boy hadn't completely lost his wits yet if he could still acknowledge the fire youkai's presence. "You talk to Kurama?" he asked curiously, his voice weary.
Hiei grunted affirmatively. "The fox is reporting to Koenma. I'm supposed to…distract you," he admitted with a vague sense of disgust. Yusuke just chuckled tiredly, rolling his head back so that it pressed against the stones behind him.
"Distract me, huh? And how to you plan to do that? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're here," Yusuke admitted wryly, rousing himself a bit, "but it's a little hard to not remember that I'm back in prison. This is so lame," he muttered to himself, and Hiei almost chuckled at the plaintive tone. If Yusuke could still whine about his predicament, then there was still time. It meant that he hadn't given up yet.
Yusuke must have picked up on his train of thought, because Hiei felt a surge of irrational anger flow through the other boy. It took the fire demon a minute to realize that the anger wasn't directed at him. "Am I really that pathetic?" Yusuke demanded, and now the tone had turned to bitter disgust. Hiei refused to back down and just waited out the surge of emotions. As he had hoped, Yusuke was too exhausted to bother holding onto his anger, and he slumped back against the wall, the chains on his wrists clanking miserably in the dungeon cell.
"Not pathetic, Detective," Hiei answered at last, his voice steady and certain. "Reckless, certainly. Possibly even insane. But not pathetic." Yusuke absorbed this new information for a moment, his body still as he mulled over Hiei's words. Eventually, a trickle of wry amusement flowed through him, and Yusuke grinned.
"Aww…Hiei, I didn't know you cared," he chuckled. Hiei felt a brief flash of annoyance, which only served to further entertain the Toushin leader. Still smiling, Yusuke shifted, trying to find a comfortable position and wincing as recent injuries were pulled with the movement. "Damn, that's gonna hurt for a while," he muttered under his breath, scowling.
He hated to bring up the topic again, but he had to ask. "How long before Uragiri comes back?" he growled, his hands twitching with the urge to hunt the bastard down and spray the walls with the blood of his enemy. He let the thoughts wash over Yusuke as well, and the other boy didn't protest, his own desire for vengeance – for his people who had been slaughtered so senselessly, to prove a point – riding on the waves of Hiei's fury and determination.
"I don't know," he gasped out, his eyes focusing on the thin bars of torchlight that flickered out in the hallway. "A messenger of some sort arrived. He promised to come back once he was done dealing with whatever news the messenger brought. It could be thirty seconds from now, or thirty minutes. But he won't wait very long, I think." Hiei nodded reluctantly; no doubt Uragiri would cut his meeting short if it went beyond what he considered an acceptable time.
"Then we do not have much time," Hiei murmured. Yusuke just rolled his eyes, his thoughts quite clear. What good would it do to distract him now? Probably not much, Hiei realized. It would be much better just to give Yusuke something to focus on, something to anticipate for after his inevitable rescue. Because he would be rescued; there was no other option.
Hiei made a split-second decision that would either scare Yusuke away for good, or give him the focus he needed to make it out of here in one piece. "My offer from before still stands," he stated suddenly, the non-sequitur catching Yusuke by surprised. The Detective frowned as he tried to follow Hiei's line of thought. Once he caught on, his breath caught in a muffled gasp and his body tensed. Hiei waited him out again, very careful to appear open and non-threatening.
Yusuke was obviously having an internal struggle, but eventually, curiosity and trust won out over fear, and he nodded. "All right," he murmured. "But….not too fast, okay?" Hiei held back a smile by sheer force of will, and instead nodded approvingly. The Detective was willing to give it a go, to learn the difference between what did happen and what could have happened, and more importantly, he was willing to trust that Hiei wouldn't hurt him. At least, not more than he wanted to be hurt. Hiei was well aware that Yusuke had a slightly masochistic side, probably as a result of the way he'd been raised.
"That shouldn't be a problem, Detective," he replied after a moment, calculating his words carefully before speaking. "After all, we've already begun in a way." He flashed back to memories of the two of them curled up together after Yusuke had suffered a nightmare. Two bodies spooned together for warmth and comfort. The massage, a touch intended to soothe and relax, not to hurt. Holding onto each other, as much for their own benefit as for each other's. Hiei would normally never admit to having such a weakness, but just this once he allowed Yusuke to feel what he had felt; the touch had felt good, had been comforting, and it had soothed some deep ache inside of him that had torn every time he remembered wondering if Yusuke had been taken from them forever.
Hiei searched back further in his memory, to encounters with other youkai, both as the top and the bottom. He was careful to choose only those partners who had been gentle, and who he had been gentle with. It would do no good to show Yusuke what happened when your partner didn't care for your pleasure, or enjoyed your pain. Once Hiei had become strong enough, and deadly enough, to be able to choose, he had always been careful with his partners. Because he knew what it was like to be on the other side, and he refused to lower himself to such a level.
Yusuke's body relaxed, and Hiei was interested to realize that the other male didn't seem to mind that he'd had multiple partners in the past decades. Instead, he seemed to be more interested in studying certain features of his various lovers, whether wings or hands or hair or tails or claws. It was a vague, detached interest, as if his curiosity had more to do with the types of youkai rather than their skills or beauty as lovers. Hiei almost smiled; Yusuke was still young, and it would take him years to learn the majority of species among youkai. But for now, Hiei was content to show some of them to Yusuke, careful not to show him anything too graphic, but not really hiding anything about those encounters from him either.
A sudden creak made Yusuke start, his head snapping up as he stared wide-eyed at the approaching toushin. "Uragiri," he snarled, eyes narrowing as he bared his teeth, his body straining against the chains that held him. Hiei, for the moment, was forgotten.
Aware that it would probably be best for him to heed Kurama's advice and not stick around, Hiei was nonetheless loath to leave Yusuke to this man's torture. He growled deep in his throat, the sound dangerous and full of lethal intent. The Mazoku echoed him, and for just a moment, Uragiri hesitated, uncertainty flickering in his dark eyes as he watched Yusuke straining to reach him, his gaze promising nothing but death.
The chains held firm, however, and after a moment, Uragiri seemed to regain his confidence. Striding over to Yusuke, he casually backhanded him, snapping Yusuke's head to the side and splitting his lip open on sharp canines. Yusuke growled furiously, and when Uragiri went to backhand him again, he snapped, his own fangs barely grazing the traitor's hand, scraping skin. The toushin hissed, his eyes narrowing in fury. "You'll suffer for that, half-breed," he snarled.
Yusuke glared up at him. "Like I'm not already?" he demanded, and only Hiei could feel the cold fear that gripped him, rendering him unable to breathe, waiting for the first strike, the first tear of claws into unprotected flesh, or another touch that would send agony tearing through his body.
This seemed to have the opposite effect, however, and Uragiri paused, his hand stilling as he stared down at the trapped Detective consideringly. His hand lowered, and he smiled; there was nothing safe in his expression, and Hiei felt a thrill of fear creep up his own spine. "Very well. It seems that old-fashioned beating isn't going to work. And you've found a way to use your spirit energy to shield your body from anything more…invasive," he murmured, and Yusuke shuddered, swallowing hard.
This appeared to amuse Uragiri and he crouched down in front of Yusuke. Reaching out, he gripped the Detective's hair tightly in one hand, using the leverage to yank his head back, heedless of the sharp crack of Yusuke's skull against the stones of his cell. Hiei's vision blurred briefly, and when it cleared, he found himself staring straight up at a pointed claw. "So you are afraid of that, boy. I had wondered if you were a virgin." Yusuke tried to snarl back, but it came out as a muted whimper instead, and Uragiri laughed. "Pity that you managed to find a way to stop that brute. He would've broken you for sure," he chuckled. Yusuke didn't reply, and inside his head, Hiei seethed. Ten seconds, and that beast would be dead, his blood splashed across the cell from wall to wall.
Slowly, Uragiri traced his claw under Yusuke's right eye, leaving a small incision that welled up with blood. "Perhaps…I should take your eyes," he murmured. "After all, I really don't care for the way you're looking at me right now." He stared at Yusuke curiously for a moment, his clawed finger tapping against the Detective's cheek now, leaving small puncture marks in its wake. "Maybe, though, the way to break you isn't to hurt you," he said. "But what about your friends? The beautiful silver-tailed fox and the little runt of a fire demon? I doubt they have the same…protection…as you do," he smiled, and there was nothing sane in his eyes.
Sudden fury rose inside of Yusuke, and Hiei just watched in wonder. He knew Yusuke wasn't a coward, but he hadn't realized that what had seemed to him to be false bravado was actually nothing more than an overflow of anger that gave him strength. "Go ahead," Yusuke snarled. "Take my eye, if it damn well pleases you. And when I get out of here, you'd better take your own life. Because I swear I'll hunt you down. There will be no escape. Lay a hand on Kurama or Hiei, and I will annihilate you," he snarled. Hiei watched through Yusuke's eyes as Uragiri drew back slightly, his hesitation obvious as a flicker of fear flashed in his eyes. The fire demon nodded approvingly; even at a complete disadvantage, Yusuke's sheer determination was enough to make the other youkai cower.
Seeming to realize that he was in no real danger, at least not yet, Uragiri snarled and raked a handful of claws across Yusuke's face, from his right temple to his left cheek, careless of the claw marks he left across the Detective's right eye. Yusuke howled, jerking in the chains that bound him, and they creaked, stone sliding away in a small shower of dust. Still, the bolts held fast, and Yusuke remained where he was, glaring hotly up at the youkai from his good eye.
Convinced that he had the upper hand, the treacherous toushin crouched in front of Yusuke once again. "Tell me, fearless leader, where is your help now? Surely they are aware that having lost my hold on you once, I won't allow you to go again. After all, you know who I am. So do they. If I am to die, then I will at least make absolutely certain that you don't survive the encounter either."
Yusuke panted through the pain, his vision blurring as he struggled to focus on the youkai in front of him. "Then you had better kill me now, asshole. If you don't, you're gonna die and I'm gonna survive. If you have a point to prove, you'd best get to it." It was a challenge, and Hiei held his breath, unsure if that had been a wise move. After all, if Uragiri truly intended to kill Yusuke, then the only reason the Mazoku was alive was because he either needed something from the other boy, or there was something else keeping him from killing Yusuke.
Uragiri tsked, unfazed. "But if I were to kill you outright, how would I amuse myself until the revolt?" he asked, his amusement evident. Yusuke just gaped up at him in utter shock, his mind trying frantically to wrap itself around the new information. He wasn't talking about a revolt; he was talking war! Yusuke knew for certain that he had a significant number of S-class youkai on his side, and it was unlikely that either Yomi or Mukuro would just sit by and watch as Yusuke's people became embroiled in a civil war.
Yusuke was brought abruptly back to the present by Uragiri's touch, agony tearing through his limbs as the toushin sunk claws deep into his chest. Hiei held on determinedly; the other youkai had either not yet noticed his presence, or had decided that he would be safe for long enough that it didn't matter. The smaller youkai was hoping for the former, because now he knew what he was looking for.
A sudden push, and Hiei realized that Yusuke was trying to get him to leave, but his focus kept slipping, his consciousness slowly fading once more, only the pain keeping him in the here and now. Hiei didn't want to leave, but he knew that his presence no longer served any purpose. He had what he had come for; the best thing to do now would be to retreat and make his report, and then launch a rescue.
Regretfully, he pulled back, making a single promise. "His head is mine." As he left Yusuke in that horrible little cell, agony coursing through him, he heard a single answer.
"Agreed."