Chapter 9

I open the door and walk out. No one tries to stop me. Well, at least now I know. I head down the mountain, and soon Hiei joins me. "I don't think badly of you, Kurama."

"I know." I take his hand. "Thank god for that."

He suddenly stops. Since I am holding his hand, I am forced to stop as well. I face him, and he takes my other hand. "Let's go back," he says.

"Why?" I don't want to go back. It hurts to lose friends because they don't like what you are.

"When I left, Keiko was shouting at Yusuke." He shakes his head. "I thought I'd heard her shout before, but that evidently wasn't full volume. Shizuru had a few choice words to say also."

"But why go back?"

"They were starting to look a bit guilty about how they treated you. But nowhere guilty enough to come after you."

"I don't want to go back, Hiei. I told them something important about myself, and they said it was wrong, unnatural."

"Kurama, you need to go back. They're your friends. You can't have it end this way. You'll always regret it. And then I'll have to put up with it." The last part is tacked on at the end, almost an afterthought to make it sound like he's doing this for himself. But I know better.

I lean forward and kiss him. "Okay. You're right."

We turn and walk back. He doesn't release my hand until we're in sight of the temple.

When we walk back in, they all look shocked. Keiko runs up and hugs me. "Thank goodness," she says. "I didn't know if you were ever coming back. I thought you might be gone forever."

Yusuke and Kuwabara look awkward, somewhere between ashamed and defiant. After a long silence, Kuwabara mutters, "Sorry, Kurama."

Yusuke nods. "Just one question…have you ever thought…us?"

"Do you really want to know?" Do I even know the answer to that question? He doesn't respond in the negative, so I say, very slowly, "Kuwabara…I was never attracted to you." He looks relieved. "Yusuke…I've…appreciated your looks but never seriously contemplated anything. I know you're straight, and you're in love with Keiko on top of that." Yusuke looks slightly horrified.

Then Kuwabara asks, "Does this mean the person Botan walked in on you with was actually a guy?"

"Ummm…yes." I would have thought that was obvious.

"Who was it, Kurama?" Yusuke asks.

"Not your business."

"I just want to make sure I don't try to set him up with anyone," Yusuke says innocently.

Keiko punches him in the arm. "Not funny, Yusuke!"

"Sorry," he says, rubbing the place she punched him. "I'm just not used to the idea yet. So Kurama, who was it?"

"He's asked me not to tell anyone." I can barely keep from looking at Hiei.

But then Hiei says, "Just tell them, Kurama."

"You sure he'll be okay with it?" I ask. Is he being serious?

Before he can reply, Yusuke says, "You already knew about this? Why didn't you tell?"

"I didn't exactly ask him to tell me." How true. Neither of us knew I was going to start kissing him like I did that night. "And, unlike some people, when I learn a secret, I can keep it."

His pointed reference to Yukina and Yusuke's inability to keep the relationship a secret shuts Yusuke up. I look at him. "Are you sure he won't mind?"

"He'll be fine with it. If any of them give him a hard time, he can just come up here and kill them all. You know he's not above doing that."

Really? Is he serious? Or is he just testing me to see how well I will keep the secret? When I still hesitate, he says, "Oh, screw it." He stands, walks over to me, sits down and kisses me. When he pulls away, he whispers, "I told you he'd be okay with it."

"I believe you, Hiei," I say, looking into his eyes. "But I thought I told you not to kiss me not for me ever again."

"This was for you. You wanted to be honest with them. I don't care what they think. If they have a problem with it, they can go—"

I stop him from saying anything else, kissing him. "Thank you, Hiei."

All around us is a silence in which you could have heard a pin drop.

Hahahaha. I don't know if you guys liked this chapter, but it was a lot of fun to write!
On to reviews!

jennifer100: I am happy you enjoyed Kurama's reaction.

Alexisminamino: I am not sure why Yusuke reacted so strongly. But I think I gave him ample punishment in this chapter. :)

ardentes: glad you think I know what I'm talking about. That makes one of us. I am happy to see you enjoyed their reactions.

Moogle23: Actually, I don't remember what I wrote their reactions to be. I guess we'll both see when I next update.