Summary:

Hiei has to play house husband for a day since Yarika has to work. He and Kuwabara face off as future brothers in law.

Notes:

Warning: contains a depiction of sexism, an incident of racism (as Yona is not pure Japanese) and some sexual content.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Before Hiei could take them to the floating glacier he and Yukina were born on, Yarika had to finish a project she was working on. A few weeks after he had last visited, he had a lull in his own work. Mukuro ordered him to go visit his family. It seemed that his boss was in on the plot to turn him into a family man.

Avoiding the neighbors, he showed up at the door. Yona let him in.

"Where is your mother?" asked Hiei.

Yona pointed up the stairs. "Getting dressed."

Yarika padded down the stairs wearing a skirt suit, her hair in a bun and wearing makeup.

"Hiei, great timing. I have to go to a meeting of a board I'm on. I was going to leave Yona with Mrs. Watanabe down the street. Since you're here, you can stay with her. Yukina can't take her today."

A cold sweat went down Hiei's back. He was not expecting to be left alone with Yona. He didn't know anything about taking care of a child.

Yarika grinned, enjoying the squirming. "There's nothing to it. I'll write down what you need to know. You just have to make sure she gets her lunch, a snack, a nap, and enough exercise. You don't need to make anything, just take her down to Yusuke's food stand at lunch time, he'll put it on my tab."

She wrote down a few things on a notepad. "Just stick to this schedule. If she makes a mess, help her clean it up. She knows where the cleaning supplies are. And don't let her have too many sweets, it's not good for her."

Hiei frowned. "You really trust me to do this?"

Yarika smiled. "Of course. I believe in you. You would never allow harm to her or to Yukina." She thrust the notepad and a house key into his hands. Before he could object, gave him a peck on the cheek and did the same to Yona. "Mind your father, Yona. I'll be back in time for supper." She slipped on a pair of heels and hurried out the door, leaving father and daughter alone.

Hiei silently mouthed a few curses and looked down at his small charge.

Yona smiled up at him. "That's your key! Mommy had it made just for you. So you can come and go whenever you want."

Hiei looked at the tag on the key, it had his name on it. "Your grandfather is okay with this?"

Yona nodded. "He thinks you're all right."

Hiei put the key into his pocket. So Kenji didn't dislike him. The human had surprised him, much like Yusuke and Kuwabara had years ago by accepting him as one of them. It almost felt like he was a member of the family. He looked at the notepad. Yarika had written approximate times and what to do. First was the note that Yona had had her breakfast and that she liked to watch her children's television shows before going to play.

Hiei thought human entertainment was mostly mindless. Mukuro had made him watch Yarika's movies and serials with her, he had to admit they weren't bad. Even the one aimed at teenagers where she had made her debut. He noticed that she was often cast as the antagonist, or an action heroine. Rarely was she cast as a sweet ingénue or a Yamato Nadeshiko, but the contrast between that and her actual devious strong minded personality proved that she was indeed talented as an actress.

Yona turned on the television set. Hiei grunted, but it wasn't his place to object to how Yona was being raised unless it was detrimental to her. He became invisible to the child as she watched the preschool oriented programs that were on. At least the child wasn't watching mindless saccharine drivel, this seemed to be some sort of educational show.

Yarika had mentioned that children in this human country all went to school for nine years of compulsory education and had the right to go on to further education. Hiei didn't object to this, since it was a greater degree of formal education than a lot of apparitions had access to. His own education had been limited: the bandits who had raised him had only taught him to read, to write, and to do basic arithmetic, (all the better to find the good loot, count it, and write ransom notes with) along with the basics of survival, fighting, banditry, and a general criminal lifestyle. The rest he had taught himself.

After Yona had finished watching her programs, she informed Hiei that it was time to go to the park. Hiei checked the schedule, and indeed, playtime outdoors was listed. He had seen women and their small children doing this. While he didn't feel like playing with her, making sure she didn't tumble off the playground equipment and split her head open was doable.

Hiei pointedly avoided the stares of the mothers who had brought their small offspring to the public park, keeping his eyes on Yona and scanning for any possible threats. Zenjiro, the leader of the splinter group that had formerly been in the Sei-Sei Shinto sect had abducted her at a playground while Yukina had her. He kept tabs on anyone and anything that could possibly harm or abduct his daughter. Thankfully it was mostly women and children here at the moment, with men in coveralls tasked with clipping the new grass and picking up stray litter or fixing things nearby. The only threats were older children who picked on the small ones, but Yona seemed more than able to handle them. More than once, she knocked over a bully intent on interrupting the games the small children were playing with a large ball.

"Little Halfie!" sneered one bigger boy with bandages on his knees and cheek.

"Get lost," said Yona, with a cold expression she had clearly inherited from Hiei. She pointedly turned her back on him. He made a start to yank her pigtails and with a swift motion, she turned to face him, then jammed the heel of her palm into his belly, sending him backwards and knocking him onto his butt. "I said get lost." The boy started blubbering and his mother came to intervene and scold Yona.

"How dare you hurt my baby, you vicious girl!" said the coddling mother.

Yona stated the obvious. "He was trying to pull my hair. Mommy said I'm allowed to protect myself."

"Where is your mother?" glared the woman.

"At work, but Daddy is right over there."

"No wonder you're so ill-behaved. Your father is a bum and your mother isn't around to raise you right."

Hiei cleared his throat and the woman turned to look at him. His cold, murderous look silenced the diatribe that she was about to hurl at him. She gathered up her son and rushed out of the park. Hiei smirked. His sweet little girl was not one to endure harassment. Yarika was raising her well. Perhaps he would teach her a thing or two about fighting in due time. That would be a good bonding activity, one that he was perfectly suited to do. This domestic stuff was hard.

After Yona had played to her heart's content, Hiei took her to Yusuke's food cart as directed. Yusuke looked ridiculous in his food cart vendor outfit, but he looked happy spooning ramen into bowls. He looked up, and after a second, broke into a grin.

"Hiei!" beamed the part-time spirit detective, part-time ramen vendor. "Never thought I'd see you here. And look at you, doing the daddy thing."

"Shut up and serve us," growled Hiei, lifting Yona up onto a seat. He left out the threats, because young ears were listening.

"Put it on Mommy's tab, Uncle Yusuke," said Yona.

"Certainly, kiddo," said Yusuke. "You'll have to give me some pointers about the daddy thing soon, Hiei. Keiko is expecting a mini me."

Ah, that was right, thought Hiei. He had been invited to the wedding but he had ignored the invite. Now Yusuke had spawned offspring of his own. He scoffed. "What makes you think I'm the expert?"

"You seem to be doing all right there, the kid obviously likes you," said Yusuke, putting Yona's favorite dish of his down in front of her. He made a guess as to what Hiei might like, and gave him a bowl.

Hiei studied it before trying it, he didn't think Yusuke was one to poison him intentionally. It wasn't bad, but he liked Yarika's cooking better. "Hn," he said, thinking that over. Yusuke was right. Yona was fond of him, or so it seemed. That and he hadn't screwed up watching her so far.

Yusuke made small talk during the meal and made some of his silly faces to make Yona laugh. He stopped after Yona choked and Hiei glared after a swift slap between her shoulder blades to clear her airway. Yusuke didn't say the thing he was dying to say until after the two demons had eaten.

"I wonder what Kuwabara's kids are gonna be like," he said with a sly grin.

Luckily for Yusuke, Hiei was on his best behavior in front of Yona or he'd be sporting a pair of chopsticks sticking out of his eye.

Hiei breathed a sigh of relief when Yona took a nap. This fatherhood thing was exhausting, although he knew he was getting off easy. As Yona was no longer an infant, he didn't have to do anything but make sure she minded him and had food, water, and exercise. After a patrol of the house and a scan of the perimeter around the house with his Jagan, he took a short nap of his own.

That afternoon mostly consisted of Yona chattering to him as she worked on some messy painting at the kitchen table. He found the prepackaged snacks Yarika had written to give her, some rice crackers and a juice box. He was extremely thankful when Yarika came home, clutching a bagful of groceries.

"The house is just as I left it and so is Yona. Looks like you did a good job, Hiei," she said. "If you stick around tonight, I'll make sure you're rewarded for this." Her tone suggested the reward was something she'd be giving him in private.

"Did you get 'em today, Mommy?" asked Yona.

"You bet, kid," said Yarika. "Once we're all done with the charity event we're planning, we'll be able to go away for a while. You, me, and Daddy."

"What's that?" asked Hiei, for once dropping the pretense that he didn't care. Clearly this was important to Yarika and was an obstacle to their trip.

"It's an event where celebrities and local bigwigs pretend to care about the less fortunate, eat an expensive dinner, and raise money for a charitable cause. This one is for paying for schooling for kids in orphanages and foster homes. A lot of them can't afford to go to high school or college."

Hiei looked surprised, he didn't know she was one for philanthropy.

She noted his surprise. "Dad is big into charitable causes and instead of going on many expensive vacations likenmy classmates, he used to drag me all over serving food to the homeless and things of that sort when I was a kid. He insisted I take his spot on the board while he's working on showing his successor the ropes before he retires."

Kenji came home at his usual time, while Yarika was cooking supper. He greeted his granddaughter and his daughter's lover.

Hiei was a shade less tense than last time, as the man had no interest in shouting at him or forcing him to do things he wasn't ready for.

Yona chirped that she and Hiei had spent the day together and she'd had a good time. Kenji smiled with approval. He could tell that while Hiei's moral compass wasn't pointed north, it seemed to point more in the general direction as he got older. Hiei seemed to value his family and was reluctantly willing to do the right thing for them. That was a good starting point. Kenji could trust Hiei to protect them when needed.

Hiei found out another unpleasant fact during supper. It seemed that Kenji had chosen Kuwabara to train up as a member of his practice. He paused eating his second helping of deep fried pork cutlet to exclaim: "You hired Kuwabara? Are you crazy? He couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions written on the heel."

Kenji was aware of the rivalry the two had and that Kuwabara's fiancée was Yukina, Hiei's sister. "He's not the most brilliant man I have hired, but he has a good instinct and he works very hard. He also has the sort of morals I want in an employee. I am confident that he will be able to do a fine job once he has the feel of it and experience." Hiei shook his head, not having that faith in Kuwabara. He was not delighted with the prospect of being related to him.

The promised reward was worth the wait. While Hiei hadn't yet decided to make things official with Yarika, he still couldn't resist an obvious advance. When Yona was asleep, Yarika insisted that he accompany her. Where to was a mystery until they got there.

"This is a good place for privacy," she said. Inside the nondescript building was a lobby, but there were no staff, just a display with pictures of rooms with buttons under them and prices for a rest or a stay. Yarika put money in the slot and pushed a button, which dispensed a key.

The key was to a room with a bed, a bathroom, and a vending machine with various kinky implements. By then it was obvious what she had in mind. Not that he minded. Unless she ended up pregnant again. He was going to make sure that didn't happen again. One surprise was enough. He had ceased thinking of Yona as a mistake after meeting and bonding with her.

Yarika was as usual not shy when she wanted something. What she wanted right now was a good dicking. But first, his reward.

"It's been years," she said, tugging at his pants. "I've really missed this... and you, of course.

Hiei didn't have a chance to reply, she started to go down on him. It seemed that she was a woman of many talents. He groaned and tangled his hands in her hair.

When she had finished with him and left him to recover while she rinsed out her mouth, he put more thought into their relationship status. He didn't want anyone else to get this treatment from her, and he certainly didn't want Yona to have a half sibling. It would irritate him even more than the thought of Kuwabara with his slimy human hands over his sister. It was tempting.

She exited the bathroom and crawled into bed next to him. She had the same opinion as him about another surprise baby, she held up a condom. "Ready for round two?" she purred.

Very tempting.

Hiei had to wait until Yarika was ready to go to Demon World with him. Meanwhile he would check in with Kurama as insurance against another "accident" Kurama might arrange. He needed to plan his tactical wedding sabotage anyway. Kurama was easy to find. The eternal momma's boy was still working for his stepfather's company and living at home. His stepbrother was off living somewhere else.

Kurama was more amiable than last time they had spoken. "I heard you were in town. Did you go visit your family?"

Hiei nodded. "I assume you have heard about Yukina?"

"Yes. I hope you're not planning to kill Kuwabara."

"No, but I will put a stop to it if at all possible."

Kurama shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea. Yukina will not be happy. Yukina is a lot more stubborn than you think, if she wants him, she will have him."

"He's all wrong for her. They won't have long together... and think of the children they might have."

"Don't be a hypocrite, Hiei. Your own daughter has human in her."

"And just like her mother, she gets picked on for having mixed blood. I saw it with my own eyes. I don't want that for Yukina and her children."

"You do have a point with that… but when you love someone, you take the good and the bad. Humans pack a lot of meaning and passion into the short lives they live. Yukina is not a naïve child, she has likely thought of all this: Kuwabara is entirely devoted to her and her happiness. As long as he is alive, he will put her before himself at every opportunity."

Hiei had to admit that was Kuwabara's only positive as a future brother-in-law.

Kuwabara was home the next time Hiei went to see Yukina. The two men sat glaring at each other while Yukina tried to defuse the situation.

Kuwabara turned to Hiei and resumed their staring match. "How could you not tell her you were her brother? A real man won't do that."

"For reasons I do not wish to share with the likes of you," growled Hiei.

"You abandoned your own kid, too," said Kuwabara.

"I didn't even know about her until several months ago," said Hiei. "So get off my back!"

"Hiei! Kazuma! Stop this fighting right now!" said Yukina in an uncharacteristically fierce voice. The two men looked shocked and ashamed at this.

Kuwabara switched tactics to annoy Hiei. "Thank you, my loving sweet pea," he cooed after Yukina got them refreshments. Hiei wanted to gag. He could never act like that with Yarika, or he'd die of embarrassment.

Yukina giggled demurely. "You're so sweet, Kazuma."

Hiei's sword hand itched to grab at it, but he refrained.

With great difficulty he ignored the sappy human. "Yukina, I've decided to go back to the glacier and visit Mother's grave. Do you want to come with?"

Yukina collected the empty cups. "Not at this time. Do lay some flowers there for me."

Hiei promised he would.

Yarika finished her charity event in due time and began packing for their trip to Demon World. Since she and Yona were plant demons, they needed warm winter weather gear to comfortably visit the glacier. Yarika also packed some food rations, some camping gear and most importantly, some toilet paper. She had remembered how much she had missed that in the remote areas of Demon World. Yona was excited to go see the place she had heard about, excited to go put the origami flowers she had made with Aunt Yukina on Hina's grave, and spend time with her parents.

Hiei was waiting downstairs. Kenji had taken the morning off to see them all off. He had told Hiei in typical father fashion to take care of his child and grandchild and see them safely home. Hiei gave his word that they would return safely.

Kenji went with them to the nearest portal to Demon World. He slyly slipped Yona a few pieces of candy for the trip. He waved to the trio until they had all disappeared. Kenji signed, already missing them. He'd already started to see Hiei as a member of the family, the smartmouthed young man was beginning to grow on him. This would be a lonely wait for their return.

Notes:

In Japan (especially before the 2010s) men taking care of the house/kids was rare and working mothers are frowned upon. The husband works and rarely sees his family, usually.

Hiei doesn't give a rip about human norms or gender roles. But he does not like anyone picking on his child or insulting him. He's a criminal, NOT a bum.

Yarika is unusual in that she does not care either. She does what she wants, Japanese society be damned. For those of you new to this series, Yarika became an actress in the previous story as mixed race Japanese have difficulty being hired for conventional careers. Although in her case she's not only mixed race, she's mixed species.

The place they went to is a love hotel (a place for couples to get busy in privacy) since they do not wanna do it with Yarika's dad nearby.