Chapter 21! Things are going to progressing a liiittle bit faster, I hope. Sorry to everyone who expects a lot..

MAJOR NOTE: I'm not sure if I've wrote this before, but I realized that Hiei's house, being right at the top of a rich apartment, should naturally need some kind of extra security measure since he's a big shot. Lol. I'm going to make it the type where you have to dial his house number and there's a camera and if Hiei recognizes the visitor he'll press a button and the doors to the lift are unlocked.

Chapter 21 : Silent Portrait

"What's taking Kurama so long?" said Shizuru, glancing at the clock. Already half an hour had passed since they left the restaurant and Kurama went home to put away some of his things which Yukina and Hiei had carried along with him the previous night. Yukina looked up from where she was working with her flowers.

"You're right," she said thoughtfully. "I think he's okay, maybe he's cleaning up or something."

"Ne, Yukina, don't you realize? It's only been awhile, but already we've become fast friends. All of us," said Shizuru, exhaling a puff of smoke.

Yukina smiled briefly, but she had to ask.

"Do you consider my brother as your friend?"

Shizuru blinked. She had never exchanged many words with Hiei. Though she was certain that she was not the only one; that words spoken to Hiei bounced back off of him into your face.

She opened her mouth to say this but was interrupted by a very gloomy-looking redhead who entered the shop.

"There you are, Kurama, we've been wondering what's happened ---"

Shizuru's words trailed off when she saw the small luggage Kurama was carrying.

"Kurama... what happened...?"

He thrust a piece of paper into her hands, sinking into a nearby chair.

"Evicted...? What?"

Kurama nodded blankly. He was still in a numb shock, that once again he had found himself with no place to stay and nowhere to go.

"Kurama, stay with us tonight," urged Yukina.

Looking into her pleading and tearing eyes, he was sorely tempted to accept the offer, for he was certain Yukina regarded him as a friend. But Hiei...

"Wait a minute..." said Shizuru, interrupting Kurama's line of thought. She narrowed her eyes at the piece of paper she was holding, skimming through its contents. There was something fishy here ...

"Kurama, this is wrong. They can't evict you just like that, it's against the law."

The redhead in question blinked. So what if it's against the law? I still don't have any place to stay.

"Why not, Shizuru-san?"

"There should be at least 30 days notice, and if Kurama pays the rent within that time, then the landlord can't do anything to him... Also, if I'm not mistaken, the landlord can't throw out his stuff."

Kurama hadn't really read the notice properly; he took one look at the words NOTICE OF EVICTION and that was enough to shut down his mind. Now, however, he took the letter from Shizuru and proceeded to read carefully.

"Kurama-kun, at least stay with us for one night..." pleaded Yukina again.

"She's right, Kurama, you need a place to stay while you look for other places."

With two women against him, add to that the disadvantage of having no voice to protest, Kurama succumbed to Yukina's teary-eyed look and Shizuru's stern face. And fervently prayed he would survive the wrath of one Jaganshi Hiei.

Kurama paced about in the lift, nervous. True, it was not the first time he had entered Hiei's apartment, nor was it the first time he had stayed overnight, but he was still nervous. And he was pretty sure it had something to do with those darn feelings of his.

"Don't worry, Kurama-kun," said Yukina gently, as if sensing his inner turmoil. "If Oniisan gets angry, he'll have to face me."

Kurama doubted very much that Yukina could match her brother's anger, then reminded himself that she was his beloved sister and would do anything for her.

It did not appease his feelings one bit; for the two closely-knitted siblings to argue over him would make the situation much, much worse.

The lift came to a halt, and Kurama cringed. He made up his mind then. If Hiei showed displeasure, he would leave and find a temporary room elsewhere. Maybe Yusuke might be willing to take me in. Or Kuwabara. If all else fails, go home, right?

...Home.

He fought back the bitterness in him at the very thought.

"Oniisan!" Yukina called as she entered the house, slipping off her shoes. Her voice jolted Kurama back into reality, into the present, and he stood at the door of the house, uncertain if he should go in or not.

"Kurama-kun, don't worry, just come in," she said softly, putting her bag down on the table.

"Okaeri nasai, Yukina," said Hiei as he came out from his room. He stopped short in his tracks when he caught sight of the redhead at the door.

"Kurama? What are you doing here?" he asked, puzzled. Kurama winced and took a small step backwards. The only consolation Kurama gave himself was that Hiei wasn't angry or irritated. Yet. He bit his lip worriedly and looked at Yukina.

"Oniisan... Kurama-kun... he got evicted."

"Evicted?" repeated Hiei, his eyes narrowing and glancing over to where Kurama stood as still as a rabbit.

"That doesn't explain what he's doing here," said Hiei slowly, and the look on her face told him exactly what was coming.

"He... can he stay here for awhile? Until he gets some money to rent out another place," said Yukina tentatively. Inside Kurama's mind, he was berating himself for accepting Yukina's offer in the first place.

It was a very long silence that came upon the house Kurama and Yukina waited for the approval. Hiei busied himself by pouring himself a cold beer, his mind going through a very complicated series of jumbled up emotions.

He made his way to his own room, but not before answering to the wall: "...Do whatever you like."

Yukina breathed a sigh of relief.

Kurama did not know what was there to be relieved about. Here he was, standing in the house of a person he might have some feelings for, and he wasn't feeling welcome at all.

"Come on, Kurama-kun. We have an empty room, I'll just clean it out a bit," said Yukina cheerfully, tugging his sleeve toward the hallway.

He grabbed her by the sleeve and shook his head, gesturing to himself.

"You want to do the cleaning?"

He shook his head again.

"There's no need to clean?"

He nodded.

She gave him a sweet smile. "Nonsense. The room is so dusty, it has to be cleaned up at least a little. Now put your things there, and I'll get a mop and some bedsheets."

There was no use fighting the demure little woman, thought Kurama absently as he dumped his things on the mattress. He cleared the assorted mess and junk on the bed and around the room, doing his best not to touch anything he deemed slightly personal.

When Yukina came back with a mop, he gently pried it away from her hands despite her protests and cleaned the room up by himself. Yukina frowned, and set to work with the bedsheets.

So busy were they that they didn't realize Hiei was watching them.

Is it so hard to just... go in there and help a bit?

Why did I let him in?

Is it so hard to help a friend?

Kurama's not my friend.

Liar.

Mentally aware that he just called himself a liar, he stepped into the room, clearing his throat slightly.

"Oniisan! What is it? Do you need anything?"

Yukina, thought Kurama, really needed to stop being so polite to her brother.

"I.. just came to see what you were doing."

"We're just cleaning up. This room looks like it hasn't been cleaned for ages!"

"You cleaned it last week," said Hiei, puzzled.

"Well, I started going to Shizuru's, remember? I haven't had time to clean this room."

Hiei watched in silence as they finished up the last of the cleaning. Kurama's heart was hammering furiously against his chest, but on the outside he looked calm as ever, if not a bit worried as he kept searching Hiei's face for any sign of disapproval.

"Oh, Oniisan. Kurama has to share a bathroom with you. You don't mind, do you?"

Hiei would have loved to hiss a vehement 'NO' but then he would have to share a bathroom with Yukina and he did not want that at all.

"I suppose."

"You must be wondering why we don't have a guest bathroom, right Kurama-kun?"

Kurama gave a faint smile to Yukina and nodded. He remembered searching for it just a few hours ago.

"We don't have many guests, so Oniisan renovated it slightly. The guest toilet is actually Oniisan's, they just broke down a bit of the wall and changed the door."

Kurama nodded understandingly.

"Why don't you freshen up, Kurama-kun, I'll go and make dinner," said Yukina happily, taking the mop from his hands and leaving the room.

The tension seeped in quickly as soon as she disappeared. Kurama took care to avoid his eyes.

"I think I'm fine with you staying here," said Hiei. "I don't think I need to warn you that if you do anything to Yukina, you will pay."

It was said as casually as Hiei could sound, and Kurama forced himself not to wince at the not-warning. He nodded and gave him what he thought was a reassuring smile.

To Hiei, however, it was a rather disarming smile, and made him think about ... things he did not want to think.

He shook his head and left Kurama to unpack what little belongings he had.

Dinner was not so much of a subdued affair, but it made Yukina very excited to have a 'guest' staying with them for awhile. It didn't matter to her that her guest could not talk, on the contrary she kept the chatter going so as to not let the silence get to them. Silence, she'd discovered over the years, made her want to break it so badly. And to her twin, silence was absolutely golden. To Kurama, silence was ... life.

Or was it?

He enjoyed listening to her talk to Hiei, who also listened and gave his opinions on the matter sometimes, but most of the time Yukina did the talking. At one point Yukina asked Kurama to sign something so that she could test her knowledge on sign language. Sure, spelling out words letter by letter seemed a very taxing way to talk, but for now it was the best they could do. So he signed, "Thank you for dinner," which was the polite thing to do.

She laughed and said, "You're welcome!"

Then, she turned to Hiei and said, "Now it's your turn! I'm sure you know some sign language too. You're a very fast learner, after all."

Hiei did not reply. His eyes remained fixed on Kurama's own.

Gulping, he signed, "Thank you for letting me stay," which was longer and possibly harder to read but he could not think of anything else to say. Neither could he break his eyes away from Hiei's.

Hiei's gaze never wavered, even as he replied softly, "You're welcome."

Later that night, after Kurama had used Hiei's bathroom in record time, he tossed and turned in a fitful sleep. No doubt he was still uncomfortable with staying in the house. Yukina slipped into Hiei's room quietly.

"Oniisan?"

Hiei gave a grunt in reply, focused on the paperwork in front of him, tapping his pen on the table.

"Are you mad at me?"

"When have I ever been?"

"I thought you were mad at me for bringing Kurama back."

"I am, but only a little bit."

"Then..."

"I let him stay because of you."

What happened next would forever shock Hiei everytime he looked back on it. He'd never heard his sister sound like that before. Ever.

"So you let him stay because of me? He's a friend and you don't want to help him?" said Yukina, her voice suddenly cold. Hiei tensed up, turning to look at her.

"He is a friend. I've just... never been close to anyone but you."

"Don't you think that's bad?"

"...No?"

Yukina sighed.

"You do not symphatize with him?"

"If I were him, I would not want sympathy," said Hiei flatly, turning back to look at his paperwork.

He felt Yukina's presence move away.

"You don't know what it's like, Oniisan. To feel helpless."

With that, she closed his bedroom door, leaving him with his thoughts. Determined to ignore the exchange between him and his sister, and the sudden melancholy he felt, his mind looked around for something to distract him.

A familiar, very faint scent hung around the room, but Hiei couldn't tell what it was.

Word Count - 2071 (w00t)

Author's note : I debated long and hard whether Hiei should allow Kurama to stay without objection, or draw out a sibling argument. And the end result is this, which is somewhere in between so that the chapters don't go up to a hundred. xD Don't worry if you think Yukina is slightly OOC for standing up to her brother, I think so too :/ Oh well. She's as stubborn as him at any rate, cept she does it mostly for the right reasons xD

Oh, and for those who don't know, OKAERI NASAI means WELCOME HOME, I think. It sounds very odd, doesn't it, when we non-japanese say it. We just say hi, or wave like a madman. Lol. Oh well. I'll try not to use so many Japanese words, I know how annoying it can be. (edit: SORRY! All the anime I've watched, and I managed to confuse tadaima and okaeri nasai... it's been changed, thanks to all who've pointed it out...)

Is the word "signed" correctly used? I didn't want to write "he moved his hands, "thank you for dinner"" LOL.

With that done, thank you for reading! Review please! The end is still far, far away!!! (And seems farther if I continue to update like this ... sigh... maybe I do need a beta reader)