Author's Note: Hello. Here's another installment. I finally got inspiration for this one again. Anyways, I was really just wanting a feel good happy moment with this one, so, that's probably why it seems a bit sappy towards the end. But you know what? Who cares. Anyways, this is also what I think SHOULD have happened between the whole Mukuro/Hiei thing. I didn't agree with her becoming his purpose for living, despite coming to terms with his feelings for Yusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara, and decides to pretty much part ways with them. I think of that, and it makes me put on my sour face. ._.

So, without further adieu.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Seriously, stop making me repeat myself.

The Crow and The Butterfly

Prompt Title: Higher
Timeline: Takes place after Kurama and Hiei's fight in the Makai tournament.
Point of View: Kurama
Word Count: Doesn't Matter
Notes: The final part in the Vulnerable and Something More prompt. Just a note, this will probably go over my 1000 word limit. But I've been good so far, so I don't care if it goes over on this one. xD.

I wasn't accustomed to feeling like this. I sat on the bed in the hospital wing of the stadium, letting the nurse finish up her job before finally turning to face the window, ignoring anyone else around me. I stared at my reflection in the window pane for a moment before scowling. How could he? I felt an odd sense of betrayal in the pit of my stomach, and it made me mad. Once more annoyance fluttered inside of me. I wasn't accustomed to feeling like this. I was over three thousand years old, I was a legendary thief, I was Youko Kurama. And who was he? Just a two hundred and fifty year old adolescent. I was Youko Kurama, and I didn't let people make me feel like this. I closed my eyes and willed the pain in my heart to ease. I felt like a child, something else I was really unaccustomed to feeling. I could feel Youko inside of me, shifting. I wasn't worried about him coming out though; I had taken care of that problem. But he was still there, as he always would be. And he was just as annoyed as I was.

"What are you sulking about?" He asked from the doorway. I clicked my teeth together and pointedly ignored him, keeping my eyes on my reflection, and refusing to look at his. "Hmm," He voiced thoughtfully, slowly walking into the room. "And here I am thinking I was the young one." He finally said, stopping to stand just behind me. I couldn't stop the anger inside of me then.

"If you have something to say, then say it. If not, then just leave." I snapped. I finally looked at his reflection, and he was staring straight back at me. He seemed oddly relaxed, and totally calm. Was he really just okay with what was about to happen? Well, if he was okay with it, then so was I. I finally turned to face him, and his eyes immediately found mine. I swallowed, unsure of what to say. I hated when he looked at me like that. His eyes were just as red as ever, only now they seemed to be smoldering. It was probably just me, but still. I felt unnerved by the penetrating look in his eyes. "Well?" I asked, breaking his gaze and staring at his chest instead, where his stone hung free.

"Well, what? Do I have to have a reason to come and see you now?" He asked, sounding a little confused. I looked up at him with wide and angry eyes. Did he really have no idea what he did? I stared at him for a moment and then shook my head. No, apparently he did not.

"Forget it." I said hotly, about to turn around when his hand gripped my shoulder. Heat seeped into my shoulder and gave me goose bumps, and I shoved his arm off. He offered a brief hurt look before he covered it up and stared at me, confused. "Why are you trying to make this harder on me?" I asked him. He blinked a few times.

"Kurama, what the hell are you talking about?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Your priorities have clearly shifted, and that's fine. In the end, I really shouldn't be upset. The important thing is now you've got someone who can help you with your issues in ways that I never could. So, why don't we stop dragging this out and get it over with?" I asked him. He looked like he was about to interrupt me, but I held my hand up and silenced him. "It's obviously over between us, yes? Well, I don't want to harbor any bad feelings, and I'm sure you don't either. So, no hard feelings. I think it's just best if we part ways as mutual acquaintances." I said quickly. Hiei's mouth fell open, something that I had only seen happen very rarely in the past, and he was staring at me like I had just run over his puppy. What the hell was wrong with him. I narrowed my eyes. "What?" I snapped. He closed his mouth and swallowed.

"You…you don't want to be with me?" He asked, his voice incredibly soft. I offered him a bewildered look.

"What are you talking about? You're the one who doesn't want to be with me!" I said angrily. Hiei stared at me for another three seconds before his eyes narrowed and he growled, pushing me backwards onto the bed. I yelled out in alarm and tried to shove him off of me, but the growl that came out of his mouth stopped me from moving. I had never heard Hiei make that noise before. He pinned my hands down to the bed, and the now alarmed nurse stepped up to the bed, unsure of what to do.

"Uh, excuse me?" She said, her voice small. Hiei's turned a heated glare towards her and his lips pulled back over his teeth, and he let out something that was a cross between a hiss and a deep growl, his canines showing. My eyes widened. Hiei had definitely never made that sound before. "Get out!" Hiei shouted at her. The girl, now wide eyed and terrified, did as she was told.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" I shouted. Hiei's eyes focused back on me, and he frowned.

"Shut up. You're pissing me off." He said. I gaped at him, bewildered.

"I'm pissing YOU off? Hiei, you're the one who wants to drop everything and go be with your new reason for living. I already said I was okay with it. It's good that you have someone who understands you. I'm sure Mukuro will make a good mate. You don't have to do this." I told him. Hiei's remained on top of me but straightened up and released my hands like I had burnt him, a look of pure disgust crossing his features as he stared at me.

"What? Mukuro?" He asked, confused. I nodded. "What in the hell are you talking about? Why the hell would I want to mate with Mukuro?" He asked, sounding disgusted. The fight drained out of me and I let out a breath of air, staring at him.

"Hiei, I'm not blind. I'm not stupid. And I have ears, as well as eyes. It's pretty obvious what your little fight meant to you. What she did for you, and what you did for her. That you all but admitted she was your reason for living. And I can't live up to that. So just what was it supposed to mean?" I asked him, holding back the pain that threatened to come forward. I really didn't want to have this conversation. Hiei was staring at me, his mouth open again. He snapped it shut after a moment, and the stare turned into a glare.

"You know, for someone who's supposed to be a genius, you sure can be dumb." He said curtly. I glared at him. "What is it? Is it jealousy?" He asked. I growled at him.

"No, Hiei. This isn't just simple jealousy. This isn't like someone who's hitting on you in a way that I don't like. This is different. Don't pretend to be blind or ignorant of what happened between you two." I said hotly. He shook his head at me.

"You don't know anything." He said quietly. "I'm not going to say that our fight didn't mean something, because it did. But it didn't mean what you think it means." He told me. I scowled.

"Really? You're going with the 'this isn't what it looks like' routine?" I asked stubbornly. He glared at me.

"In case you haven't noticed, I had a very difficult time in expressing myself." He said with a monotonous voice. He looked down at my chest for a moment, and then he sighed, looking back up to my eyes. "I could never figure out why. You always tried to tell me, but you were too close to the problem. Whenever anyone gets close to me, I run in the opposite direction. I can't help it. I hated the way you made me feel. I hated the way Yusuke made me feel. I even hated the way Kuwabara made me feel. Damn, especially Kuwabara." He said, closing his eyes for a moment and shaking his head. I stared at him, curious, and not wanting to say anything less he stop talking. "You guys were too close to me. I couldn't hear the problem and fix it with you guys there, it just wasn't going to happen. You were too close, especially you." He said, staring at me again. He frowned then, trying to think of something, before he growled in frustration. "Kurama, I really didn't want to have this conversation like this. May I?" He asked, raising his hand to touch my temple. He wanted to access to my head, so that I could get access to his. I thought about it, unsure. If I said no, he wouldn't do it. He swore to me he wouldn't, and I know he wouldn't. I didn't know if I wanted Hiei in my head at the moment. But then I looked at his face, and it was totally open and clear. He wanted to show me this.

"Okay." I said softly. With his left hand, Hiei pulled the bandana off of his head, his other hand gripping the side of my face. The Jagan opened and glowed a purple color, and focused intently on me. And then I was immersed in a world of black. It was very rare for Hiei to share anything with me this way. And even then it was always heavily guarded. I could only see what he wanted me to see, and then he would shut me out. But this felt different. There were no restraints on my mind. I could see and feel everything. A rush of emotion came over me so strong that I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't tell what it was. And then I realized that was because it was a swirl of many emotions. Emotions that I didn't even know Hiei felt.

Shame for being in the same company with Kuwabara, shame for himself. He associated Kuwabara with a white knight, someone who couldn't do any wrong. And the shame Hiei felt in being tainted in blackness and death. The complete and utter respect for Yusuke, and a fierce loyalty. The hollow and black anger he felt at the fear of losing him or Kuwabara. He would follow them to the death if he had to, something he was never willing to do before. Not even in fighting Sensui. The love and adoration he felt for Yukina, and a strong urge to do everything in his power to protect her. The feeling of suffering through the Jagan surgery for the sole purpose of finding and protecting her showed through, and I gripped the back of Hiei's shirt, only half feeling the hot kisses raining down on my temple and jaw. And then something about me started to surface, and Hiei finally took control.

'Not yet, Koi.'His voice said, gentler and stronger than I had ever heard it before resounded inside of my head. Koi, a pet name shared between mates. He had never called me that before. His mind guided us to his fight with Mukuro, but first came the emotions. Gratitude, mostly, and an over whelming sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. He had gotten what he needed from that fight, and he felt satisfaction from helping Mukuro with her problems as well, from releasing her from her binds of hate as she had done for him. But it wasn't the way I thought it was. Mukuro was an outside force with a similar past to Hiei's. She too felt this way for very little people, but her problems weren't quite the same as Hiei. Whatever binds that were holding Hiei back from feeling emotion had been unwound, and because she wasn't as close to him as we were, she could make him clearly see that running from his relationships was only going to make it worse.

We were coming to the end of this, and I once again started to surface. And this time, Hiei didn't stop it. I felt for it with my mind, eager for it, too curious to even try to be patient and stop myself. Wave after wave of several different emotions swirled around in my head, and it took me a moment to make sense of them. Protection, loyalty, need, admiration, respect, lust, a rocky beginning with a completely stable ending. The last wave that fell over me left me breathless as Hiei's mind lingered a moment longer, and then pulled back, quickly placing the bandana over his closing Jagan. He laid back down on top of me, brushing back strands of hair from my face as I tried to catch my breath, my own fingers curling into his hair.

"You love me." It was a statement, not a question. It sounded even strange to me, but the look on his face never changed. He was completely calm and at ease, although a little nervous to what my reaction might be. "You love me." I said again. The corner of his mouth twitched up into a smile, before a serious look came over his face.

"I still don't know if I would call it something as stupid as love. Sounds too…." He trailed off, I smiled a little, a blissful happiness settling over me.

"Ningen?" I asked softly. He smiled a little, curled his other hand into my hair, and then kissed me so hard I felt breathless again. He pulled the shirt away from my neck and stared at my pulse, seeming to think about something. He leaned down slowly, lightly pressing kisses over my neck and pulse. I wondered if he was going to mark me, as he liked to do from time to time. Instead, he pulled back and stared at me for a moment.

"Feel free to say no to this, although I'd really prefer if you didn't." He said, leaning down to kiss my pulse again. His lips lingered, and I understood what he wanted. But I was shocked, to say the least.

"Hiei?" I asked. He sat up with a smirk on his face.

"I want to do it officially." He told me, the smirk never leaving.

"You want to become mates, by demon standards." I cleared up. He blinked slowly a few times and nodded.

"A little slow on the up take, aren't we?" He asked, teasing. I smiled at him and even laughed a little, shaking my head. He waited patiently for me to answer, but I was totally speechless.

"I don't know what to say." I said honestly. He narrowed his eyes at me and pouted.

"You could say yes." He said curtly. I smiled again.

"Of course." I answered honestly. He sat back a little, satisfied with my answer, and leaned in to kiss me once more. "When?" I asked, after he pulled back once more. He thought about it.

"After we both heal properly." He answered with a shrug. He finally got off of me and stretched, letting out a yawn.

"You're so cute sometimes." I said off handedly. His head whipped around to look at me so fast I thought he was going to break something. He had a heated glare on his face.

"I am not cute." He said with determination. My smile widened.

"That's not helping. In fact, that's making it worse." I said, standing up to and standing in front of him. His glare never lessened up and I chuckled a little. "I'm not kidding. I think you're getting cuter by the second." I teased. He growled and was about to say something, when I pushed his back onto the bed, keeping my weight up with the bed and bending down to kiss him again. We stayed like that for a while until we heard a coughing at the door, and I looked over in slight alarm. Hiei, on the other hand, a lazy look on his face. Yusuke was standing in the door way, with his arms crossed and a glare on his face.

"You two going at it again?" He asked with an unbelieving voice. I was about to move when Hiei wrapped an arm around my waist.

"Well, we were trying to. Until someone decided to come and ruin things." He said, playfully glaring at Yusuke, who gaped at him and then gave him the finger.

"Hey! I was coming to see how my friends were doing with their...ahem…injuries. But I see you two were obviously faking it so you could get some alone time together. Jerks. And here I am in an actual amount of pain!" He said, ignoring the bandages wrapped him as he stalked into the room. I laughed then and Hiei finally released me, a ghost of a smile on his face too. With Hiei and I both standing up, Kuwabara walked into the room then.

"There you guys are! I've been looking everywhere for you guys!" He said, crossing his arms and glaring at all of us. Without missing a beat, Hiei spoke up,

"Is it just me, or do you sound stupider and stupider every time you open your mouth?" He asked, though it was easy to tell he didn't mean it.. Kuwabara, apparently, didn't get it. His mouth fell open and he stalked into the room, making a show of rolling up his sleeves.

"Listen here shorty, don't think that just because you're hurt that I'll take it easy on you." He said. Hiei grunted and stepped forward, not afraid to take on the challenge with an amused smirk on his face.

"Please. I could take you on and defeat you while I'm half asleep." He said. Kuwabara's face turned slightly red as he actually stomped his foot. The two carried on as they normally did as Yusuke laughed and sat on the bed.

"What are grinning about?" He asked me. I looked at him, a little shocked. I didn't even notice. I laughed a little and shrugged.

"Just happy." I told him. He smiled and nodded, seeming to understand.

"Hiei seems a little different." He offered. He was a lot sharper than everyone gave him credit for. We watched the two continue with their banter and light attacks on one another.

"He is a little different. But, it's in a good way." I reassured Yusuke, who nodded with a smile.

"Good. I'd hate to think that my little group is changing and going off, ignoring one another." Yusuke said. Kuwabara finally managed to get out of Hiei's headlock and he stared at Yusuke with a serious look.

"Of course we're not! We're friends. Friends don't do that, right?" He asked. Yusuke nodded, as did I. Even Hiei nodded, which earned him an odd look from Kuwabara. Hiei went on the defensive right away.

"What? You want me to be the bad guy? Fine, I'm the bad guy. I hate all of you." He said, turning and stalking out of the room. Yusuke fell backwards onto the bed, laughing and Kuwabara looked stunned at Hiei's retreating figure.

"What just happened?" He asked, confused. I controlled my own laughter and shook my head.

"Absolutely nothing, Kuwabara. Everything's just fine." I said, knowing for the first time that it was really true.

Final Author's Note: Now that you're finished, I just wanted to point something out. There's obviously something different with my timeline here. xD. Yusuke was unconscious after his fight with Yomi until the end of the tournament, and Kuwabara wasn't even there.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? WHO CARES? lol.

I just wanted a happy feel good moment with the whole gang. So, I messed up with the timeline.
Bite me. :3
Anyways, let me know what you think? I loveth you. Now, loveth me back, and send me a review. (:
And while you're at it, GO FREAKING READ MAYUSHII'S SAISEI PROJECT, FOOL.

Finally, the prompt was sort of inspired by the song Higher by Creed.
Herp derp.