The Shotgun Approach

Chapter 37: You're My Type

A/N: I literally rewrote this chapter 3 times. 3 grueling times. But I'm finally happy with this one…mostly xD.

Also, this fic is officially fully uploaded to AO3. I'm getting fed up with this site and will be posting to AO3 first in most cases from now on.

. . .

Three Weeks Later

Hiei's hand slammed down against Yusuke's dining room table hard enough to make it creak. I didn't give him the satisfaction of it making me jump. He wouldn't win this argument with force.

"This isn't a negotiation. We made a deal."

I couldn't deny that. It was signed in our blood. Sealed away in Spirit World. Impossible to forget.

"We made a deal that I would act as your guide, which means you need to listen to me."

We were in the middle of a strategy meeting, but it had quickly devolved into an argument between Hiei and me, with Yusuke piping in every once in a while, so we wouldn't forget he was there. Kurama sat at the table, clearly listening in to the drama but not weighing in, and Kazuma gave up trying to intervene ages ago. Now, he just sat as far away from us as he could get. Koenma sat at the head of the table with a tub of popcorn he'd pulled out of thin air, enjoying every second.

Hiei scoffed, using his palm still pressed to the table to lean closer and glare at me hard enough I was afraid he'd have an aneurysm. "You're nothing but a map that can talk. I don't have to listen to shit."

His tone and the words burned. They made me want to turn away, to reveal they'd stung, but I didn't want him to think he held that kind of power over me. Not yet.

We'd only established a tentative...relationship between the three of us. But the relationship between Hiei and I was rocky at best. I wasn't making it easy, but Hiei's effort was basically nonexistent. Yusuke grew more fed up by the day, and even now, I could see him grinding his teeth in frustration at the two of us.

"Hiei." the sound of Kurama's voice cut through their petty fight like a hot blade slices through lard. "I have to agree with Ettie on this one. Even Reikai has minimal information on the level of Makai she comes from."

The nasty look Hiei shot Kurama could have flayed skin. But he couldn't disagree, so he turned back to me with the same look of loathing. "You will guide, as agreed. Leave the rest to us."

I stared at him, hard and deep in the eye, trying to convey what he wasn't understanding by my words alone. But he only stated back, not comprehending or refusing to altogether. There was no man in the universe more aggravating than Hiei. I didn't understand why that simultaneously turned me on and pissed me off.

So, brushing aside the fact there were witnesses, and we all agreed that keeping our little experiment under wraps would be for the best, I played dirty.

"Hiei, I only ask that you allow me to take the lead because I care about your wellbeing and the wellbeing of the rest of the party. If I lost you...if something horrible happened...I wouldn't be able to live with myself afterward. Do you understand?"

There were far too many emotions behind the words. It was far too open and honest, and it made my breath quicken. I was anxious...afraid more so of what Hiei would think than the people around them.

In the three weeks since our mutual agreement to try a polyamorous relationship, I'd shown little to no warmth to either of them. Yusuke was especially concerned by this because he was the one who often initiated touches or kisses. Hiei was just as distant, only coming to me on one occasion during the second week, so drunk I wondered if he even remembered it. And even then, he only crawled into bed beside me and slept it off, disappearing sometime before dawn.

I didn't know if he was closer with Yusuke. It wasn't often I spent the night in Yusuke's apartment, no matter how much he asked.

Instead, I salvaged what I could from my apartment building, which was, unfortunately, one of the ones targeted during the raid, and lived out of one of the abandoned apartments in Yusuke's building. Close, but far enough away, I felt I had some privacy.

There was no balcony for my plants, and it was on the ground floor, which made it heavily trafficked by people that needed minor healings, herbal pick-me-ups, and salves, as well as a variety of other things I could offer as an ex EMT. I didn't mind, and my plants found a new home in Kurama's garden, his property outside of the city proper and safe from the carnage.

The ones that could remain indoors, however, were everywhere. I asked Kurama to regrow any that I'd lost, and now the apartment was filled with fragrant herbs and spices. Vines crawled up walls, and pots laden with color and greenery rested on most available surfaces.

Even the bathroom was home to several.

What this apartment had that the other lacked was a spacious bathroom with an old-fashioned clawfoot tub—a unique feature for an apartment in Japan in this era.

And, of course, there was all the space. My last apartment was small, convenient, but small.

This one came fully furnished, but the decor was quickly taken over by my work as a healer. From plants to medicines to medical gear, there was little space left untouched by my lifelong profession.

Yusuke told me it lacked something.

He didn't know that was purposeful.

My words must have shocked Hiei into silence because the room grew awkwardly quiet for a long moment, only the sound of our harsh breathing filling the space.

I wondered if his pride would allow Hiei to reply at all.

When he did, it didn't lack any of the heat from before. But the words came out on a low growl. "Do you think I do not want the same? That I wish for things to fail and end up in tragedy?"

"Of course not!"

"Then you will listen to me, Etternia. You will trust me."

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Yusuke interjected, standing from his seat and looking so tired I felt a strong twinge of sympathy. "And I don't give a fuck what either of you wants anymore. I'm making an executive decision."

"Detective— "

"Don't detective me, dickhead. You're talking to King Urameshi right now, alright."

Hiei's mouth snapped shut, but he looked angrier than I'd seen him in a long time. Yusuke didn't often use his authority as king over them, not unless it really counted.

"Good." Yusuke placed his palms on the table, giving everyone a final once over before he decided to proceed. "We go in as a team of 4. Reconnaissance only—" he empathizes, looking pointedly at Hiei " —so we know exactly what we're up against. The team consists of me, Fox-boy, Three-Eyes, and Ice Princess."

"Are these code names?" Kurama asks, trying and failing to hide a grin.

"Shut up, Kurama," Yusuke says without missing a beat, continuing like he said nothing at all. "Ettie leads us to her brother's little war camp; we break in, steal what info we can, and find out what they're up to. Bing, bang, boom. Done. We go home, gather up a goddamn army, and kick some ass."

"It isn't going to be that simple," I tried again, still thinking they aren't grasping the gravity of it.

The worry I held in my chest dug deeper, spreading, and infecting as it went, making my thoughts run through every horrible scenario they could imagine.

"Let's adjourn for the day," Kurama said, the group weary from a day of continued cleanup efforts and now a meeting that has stretched well into the evening.

Even Koenma had propped up his feet on the table and dozed off.

Yusuke took the opportunity to kick them off and ultimately startled Koenma enough that he toppled over the chair.

Not waiting around to listen to Koenma's angry sputtering, I slipped out of the dining room and shut myself into the bathroom. I left the water at the sink to run, pulling a pill bottle from the pocket of my cargo pants. The label was worn, from me continually checking to make sure they were still there, safely zipped up. I took out two and swallowed them with a palmful of cold water.

I cupped my hands beneath the stream again and brought some up to wet my face. I didn't hear the door, once locked, creak open behind me. I did sense the intruder's energy, however. So I took my time washing my face, letting him wait.

When I was finished, face and hands dry, I rested my palms against the ceramic of the sink. I didn't turn around just because I knew it would irritate Hiei; I merely stared at him via the mirror and waited. If he planned to continue the fight, he would be shit out of luck. What little mental fortitude I still had was crumbling by the second. I couldn't take another minute of Hiei trying to tear me down. Only to turn around and sneak into my bed every time the whim took him.

When he refused to speak, staring back with emotionless eyes, arms crossed and lips thin, it was all I could do not tear out my own tongue. "What?" I finally snapped.

Hiei's eyes dipped closed, and I watched him take a steadying breath. "I'm still finding it hard to trust your intentions."

The admittance came as a shock, and one of my palms slipped off the edge of the sink. Hiei caught me, though I hadn't needed his help, one arm wrapping around my back, the palm of his hand a burning weight.

"So you decide to start a petty fight during a council meeting?" I sniped, trying and failing to ignore how close he'd gotten. Why wasn't he moving away?

Hiei looked ashamed, red eyes darting off to the side, unable to look at me. He lifted a shoulder in a shrug, "hn."

I rolled my eyes, wondering if the fire demon would ever mature or remain a petulant teenager until the end of his days. I wasn't even sure how old Hiei was, but I'm sure the age difference between him and Yusuke was quite a gap. I was far less confident about our own differences in age. And it didn't matter. He was old enough to speak with me plainly.

"So, you're admitting that you still don't trust me?"

Hiei's arm slid away, and my skin felt like ice afterward, a cold that generally didn't affect me. He still wasn't looking at me, and I stared at him now, turning from the mirror to cross my arms defensively over my chest. I didn't have a good reason to feel hurt by this. My plan was always to use them. Yusuke primarily was meant to be just a means to an end. I thought myself heartless enough that I could keep them separate from my life...that it wouldn't matter once they figured it all out. I would just move on, as I always did.

But that was a lie. A blatant lie I told myself time and again. Yusuke was the first to whittle down my defenses...then Hiei...then the rest. I cared for each of them, to one measure or another, but Yusuke and Hiei...

They were special.

Hiei had every right never to trust me again. That didn't mean the thought didn't sting.

Words only did so much. Actions always spoke louder. But I would spend a lifetime trying to regain Hiei's trust. I broke it...and wasn't sure I could ever repair it. If I'd even ever had in the first place.

When he didn't reply, I sighed and asked, with no lack of bitterness, "Why did you agree to this relationship then?"

Hiei cringed at the word 'relationship,' like it was something vile, but dragged a hand over his face and moved away to lean against the opposite wall. "It made Yusuke happy."

My pulse stuttered, and my core turned icy. "That isn't a good enough reason. And that wasn't the deal when we started this."

It was meant to be all three of us. Not just one person's happiness a priority. And I made it very clear from the get-go that if Hiei wasn't in it for the same reasons, I wanted no part of it.

"What would you have me say?" It came out quiet, a contrast to his familiar growl or pure sarcasm. It was almost...ashamed. If Hiei was even capable of that emotion at all.

"I would have you care for me as I care for you!"

"Care...?" This time...it came from between his teeth. "Do you think I give my energy—my life force—to just anyone who walks down the street? Have you once seen me use it on a dying patient or even any of our allies?"

Hiei uncrossed his arms, pushing off from the wall to crowd me into the sink with a glare so searing I could almost feel the burn of it.

"And yet, I have given it to you, willingly, time and time again. I have saved your life at the cost of some of my own, more than once. And you repaid those acts with betrayal."

Hiei was spitting mad now, so furious I could see the flash of his small fangs as his lips contorted into a snarl, eyes cold and hard as tempered steel.

Lost for words that I took too long to search for, a knock at the door startled us both. But I was the only one who moved to end our conversation. Hiei, ignoring the knock entirely, pinned both his hands to the edge of the sink and caged me between them. "What would you have me say, Etternia?"

What I wanted him to say was so far out of reach that even thinking the words ashamed me. He was right. Of course, he was.

I didn't deserve either of them.

And yet...

Reaching up, I placed cold palms against skin hot enough to make them sting. Hiei jerked back, but my hands followed, thumbs brushing across his cheeks and taking a bit of vindictive pleasure when some color rose there.

The knocking got louder and more insistent, and I could hear that it was Yusuke on the other side. But this moment was necessary, and it needed to be just Hiei and me. And Hiei knew it, too.

"I'm worried, Hiei. I didn't argue with you today just to piss you off. But even the terrain where I come from...the wildlife...it could kill you before any of us even noticed what happened."

"I spent many years in Makai alone, do not underestimate me. Do not underestimate Yusuke."

I could feel the words rumble from between his lips, watched as his eyes dipped for the briefest of seconds, long dark lashes shadowing the red. It was enough for me to surge forward and place a chaste kiss against his mouth, all the more shocked when he quickly reciprocated, as if this was what he'd wanted all along.

His hands left the sink, digging into my hips instead and pulling me taught against him, rough and unforgiving. The kiss burned and turned into something much deeper, almost filthy, hungry.

That was when Yusuke finally got fed up and snapped the useless lock on his bathroom door. It swung open, and I'm sure the look on his face would have been priceless, but Hiei's desperate kisses never stopped. Didn't he notice the king standing in the doorway?

I heard a strangled, "shit" leave Yusuke's mouth before the door was gently shut behind him, the gesture almost sheepish. I'm sure this would take a bit of explaining later, but for now, he'd chosen to respect our privacy, and Hiei took immediate advantage of that. Proving that he had, in fact, noticed Yusuke and not given a single shit. He lifted me, placing my ass on the sink and never once stopping his frenetic, insistent kisses.

I ripped away from him to breathe, hands now fisted in his shirt, and went to say something—anything—but Hiei delved right back in. His lips were searing, and the tiny bathroom was far too hot and crowded for this, his body heat making the space warm enough I could feel sweat dripping down my back.

He pushed into me further, parting my knees so he could place himself firmly between my thighs. He was too short for this to be a good position for anything other than a heated make-out session, but he made good work of it anyway.

Hot hands found their way under my top, fingers skimming over a muscled stomach and torso, reaching up to thumb beneath my breasts before they traveled south again. I could feel him mapping out the scars; his touches were not exactly gentle but not harmful. A breath shuddered from my lungs when he finally drew far enough back to allow me some air, mouthing at my neck instead.

I didn't know what to think. If I was even capable of a rational thought right now was beyond me. This wasn't the first time Hiei'd kissed me...but I wasn't expecting him to take it so far as if he were a man starved.

I let his shirt go, testing the waters as I ran my hands through his thick hair, down the back of his neck to his shoulders. He stiffened at the first touch to his back, but when I wrapped my arms around him and drew him in as close as possible, he fell limp. His face was still buried in my neck, but his lips no longer sought to make me fall apart. The wandering hands shifted, still beneath my shirt, to the bare skin of my back.

For a long while, we held each other in silence. And I understood then what Hiei truly wanted. Perhaps something he didn't even want to admit to himself.

He was hungry for a touch that wasn't given in violence. Even one as simple as a hug.

Touch starved. Probably from the day he was born.

Humans always had this mindset that demons were pure malice, all things evil and bad rolled into a dysmorphic inhuman shape. And yes...we haven't been known to treat humans as equals. Many demons looked down on them as weak or even as a food source. But the vast majority...weren't like that. We were people, too, who had emotions and needs of our own.

Hiei wasn't any different. Underneath the facade that he beat into himself after years of living alone, even as a child, Hiei wanted just like anyone else. He was just far too proud to ever admit it.

Hiei swallowed thickly before drawing away, stepping back to give me space. The skittish look in his eyes told me he'd come to his senses and wanted to be anywhere else but stuck in this cramped bathroom with me.

"You should go find Yusuke," I said. An obvious out that he took without a second thought, fleeing through the broken door.

Hopping down from the sink, I turned the water as cold as it would go and dunked my head under the stream.

. . .

"First stop is Gandara, and we need to try to fly under Yomi's radar, here, guys. We don't need him butting his horns in where they don't belong."

We all stood in an abandoned parking lot deep in the parts of Sarayashiki that were mostly still rubble. The reconnaissance team—Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke, and me—were laden with packs full of supplies and gear for the long trip ahead of us. Extra weapons were strapped in empty spaces, ax at my hip, daggers strapped to my thighs. There was even a kit hidden deep in my pack filled with poison darts and a blowgun. Hiei and I also carried enough medical supplies to hopefully last the four of us the entire journey.

The portal was slated to open at precisely six AM. Kuwabara, Yukina, Shizuru, and Koenma were there to see them off, but otherwise, they aimed for secrecy.

Get in and get out with them all alive was my only goal.

I shifted my feet nervously, kicking up dust and dirtying my well-worn boots even further. The bag on my back might as well have weighed nothing compared to the pressure in my chest.

The anxiety made my skin crawl, and I stopped myself from scratching at my arms as if I could claw out the feeling. A hand landed on my shoulder, and I looked up into the smiling face of Yusuke. He was the only one not carrying any extra weapons. Some things would never change, and Yusuke's brawler fighting style was one of them.

"Everything's gonna go according to the plan, Ettie. You don't gotta worry so much."

My brain flashed back to a week ago when he'd caught Hiei and me in a heated battle of tongues in his bathroom, and it took a lot of willpower for my face not to burn. The conversation that came afterward was awkward, to say the least, for everyone other than Yusuke.

Yusuke, of course, wasn't offended in the slightest. In fact, he'd made sure to inform us that it was "one of the hottest things he'd ever seen in his life."

But most of all, he considered it a significant step in the right direction if this relationship was ever going to work. Yusuke told me that right now, it hinges on Hiei and I getting along, or at least not chomping at the bit to chew each other out.

I didn't have the heart to tell him we didn't actually work anything out and did what we always did—let instinct take over.

The sexual attraction between us was undeniable at this point. But I couldn't attest to much more than that. So, for now, I allowed Yusuke to think what he wanted and lied by omission.

"Nothing ever goes according to plan, Yusuke. So, don't bet everything on it."

"You need to learn to be more optimistic."

"And you need to be less naive."

"Ouch. Sorry I bothered," Yusuke murmured and then walked away to join Hiei in double-checking his pack.

I sighed, frustrated with myself. I was angry with Hiei for not trying, but I wasn't any better. I kept pushing them away…

"Any minute now, guys," Koenma said, checking the fancy watch he was wearing on his wrist.

I checked mine as well, counting down the seconds I had left before all hell broke loose. Traveling through the first level of Makai would be easy. No one would cross Yusuke, or if they did, they would suffer greatly for it. But it was the rest of the journey I was worried about.

You couldn't get to my homelands by merely traveling through a portal.

First, we must cross the ocean and find the exact location where the portal will open. It only opens at specific times of the day, like clockwork. And if we didn't make it by one of those times, we would be stranded in the middle of the ocean until the next one came around.

At least this time of year, there wasn't as much of a chance that we would freeze to death.

But drowning was still on the table.

Electrical charges filled the air, the hum of energy and smell of ozone heavier by the second. Soon, what started as a tiny pinprick on the battered blacktop, became a gaping howling maw.

"It's time," Kurama said beside me, and I nodded, offering him a small smile. I handed him a tiny pouch, the strings tied tightly so none of the small seeds inside would escape.

"For you," I said. "Some are medicinal, but many are deadly, so be careful."

Kurama smiled, almost vicious, and took the pouch with a nod of gratitude. "I will put them to good use."

Kurama tied them to one of his belt loops and then tucked them into the pocket of his cargo pants, so they were out of sight.

With a nod to the others, Kurama stepped through the portal first, both hands fisted in the straps of his pack, his face grim. He wasn't looking forward to this any more than I was. Hiei went next, casting me a sidelong glance just before he phased through.

I urged Yusuke forward when he hesitated, stopping in front of me as if to say something. "Go, I'll take up the rear."

He pursed his lips and nodded, quickly walking through the portal.

I turned to Koenma when they were all through and out of earshot. "We are still in agreement?"

"What we spoke about a few days ago still stands. I won't go back on my word."

Nodding, I turned from him. "See you in a few weeks, then."

Then I was stepping through the portal, crunching my prescription between my teeth, one hand wrapped around the hilt of my ax.

Before becoming so profoundly involved with Yusuke, I would have thought nothing could break my vow against violence. I hadn't wanted to fight anymore, just heal—fix things. Atone for something I could never atone for.

There was no place for that vow now. I broke it ages ago—another failure.

But I would make it worth it.

I clenched my other fist, muscles across my shoulders pulling taught, my eyes and mind sharper than it had been in years.

Yes…at any cost…

I would protect them all.

. . .

A/N: I had such a hard time with this chapter. The next chapter will have more action, so stay tuned.