Review and let me know what you thought! 3

Hiei ground his teeth in frustration but remained walking, fingers fiddling with his phone, mindlessly liking posts on Tumblr without even stopping to read them properly. His senses remained alert, though, gaze sweeping behind his shoulders every few seconds to make sure the stranger hadn't drawn any closer and ears cocked to detect even the slightest change in his footfalls.

This man had been tailing him for four days now. Ever since the break in.

He followed Hiei to school and then back from it, to work and then home, and probably to the hotels as well had Hiei gotten any clients. Hiei had noticed him the very first morning on his way to school, and his gut had screamed at him that something was wrong but he had kept his head down and gone his way. Once inside the campus, he had texted Yukina and Kuwabara to see if they were both okay. Satisfied by their responses, he had tried to put it out of his mind. Alarm bells had truly rung when school ended and he exited the building to see the same man standing across the street…

Gazing right into Hiei's eyes.

He had gone straight to work and been followed there and back on his way to home. The apartment door locked behind him, he had drawn the curtains on all their windows and told Kuwabara and Yukina in no uncertain terms that they had to be alert as shit every time they stepped. Yukina had frowned and demanded to know what was happening. Hiei told the two about his stalker and asked them if they'd been followed.

To his relief, they hadn't.

Over the course of the next couple of days, all three of them remained extra mindful of their surroundings and yet again, only Hiei was the one being tailed.

It had been difficult to keep himself from flying into a panic initially. The stranger, blonde, broad and around 5'10, never actually approached him but never tried to hide the fact that he was following Hiei either. Hiei didn't know how to react. Here in the States, he was completely cornered. He had no contacts, but also no enemies. When he had parted from his gang back home, he had done it cordially. There had been no running away. Once his last consignment reached its' destination he quit. He had had no enemies desperate enough to follow him all the way to America even back then, though and he had absolutely no idea what was happening. The man already knew where they lived so there wasn't a point in trying to lead him away. Confronting him was pure and sheer stupidity, considering Hiei had no idea whether the stranger operated alone or had others backing him up. This was a waiting game on both their ends, except only one party was aware of what they were waiting for.

On the fifth morning of being shadowed by the stranger, who walked brazenly with his shoulders squared and eyes digging into Hiei's back, he had realised something he should've realised the very first day.

This was just an intimidation tactic.

If this man had wanted to keep an eye on Hiei, he'd have naturally preferred to go about it more discretely due to fear of alerting Hiei. If he had wanted to rob or threaten Hiei in any sense, he'd have done it by now. If he had been looking to gather intel, he'd have never let himself be detected. If he had been a lookout meant to ensure Hiei didn't run away while someone else came to deal with him, five days was too long a window of time to have been left open.

The only logical conclusion Hiei could draw was that somebody wanted to send a message, they wanted Hiei to be aware that they had an eye on him, and they wanted him to be scared.

Naturally then, they assumed Hiei knew exactly why he needed to feel scared.

Which he didn't.

He had no fucking idea what was happening.

…

"Are you okay?"

When Kieko, who had been actively avoiding Hiei ever since the Kurama fiasco, bothered to come over and talk to him, Hiei knew he had to have been looking downright pathetic.

"What do you want?" He glared. It was pointless, a ditch effort at getting rid of her, but his nerves were shot and he felt absolutely harried. His right foot won't stop tapping against the floor no matter how hard he tried to control it. His nails dug into his palms, carving bloody little crescents in his pale skin and he really couldn't deal with her just then.

"Don't even bother, Hiei."

Hiei raised a mocking brow at where she slammed her hand against his locker. Someone else scoffed from the thick of the crowd loitering in the hallway. The bell for lunch break had just rung, and most people were on their way to the cafeteria, where Hiei, who'd been staring at his own shoes for nearly five minutes now, would have been headed if Kieko hadn't decided to give in to her urge of poking her nose in everybody's business just.

Also, why the fuck was everyone in the world trying to intimidate him?

Hiei watched Kieko's cheeks flush as she probably realised how ridiculous she looked just then, but never one to give up, she remained frowning down at Hiei, posture determined and jaw set. Hiei wondered exactly how stupid he could make her look by staying silent and saying absolutely nothing.

"You've been acting weird as all hell, weirder than you usually do and you need to tell me what's wrong."

Hiei rolled his eyes.

"I forgot my eraser today, mom." He intoned. "It has been a very frightening experience, my day was ruined. I might just cry."

"Sometimes I really want to slap the shit out of you."

"I'll break your fucking arm."

To Hiei's surprise, Kieko scoffed out a small grin and gazed at him with some measure of fondness.

"Now that you sound something like yourself, why don't you tell me what's bothering you and we can figure out what to do about it."

Hiei felt his jaw tighten as he stood glued to his spot, unable to comprehend the sheer audacity of the woman. Whatever in the world led her to assume she could help him out with something he was unable to figure out, he did not know. Whatever in the world led her to believe he would actually want her help, he did not want to know. Shoving her shoulder away from himself, Hiei straightened. Without another word, he turned to leave.

"Hiei come on, I am worri-…"

Unable to control his temper anymore, he twisted around on his heel.

"What the fuck is your problem?" His voice came out as a sharp, poisonous hiss that had Keiko stopping short in her tracks.

"We spent one fucking evening together and you've gone and gotten your panties in a twist already. What do you think is happening here, huh? Who the hell do you think you are?"

Keiko's eyes blew wide and Hiei knew he shouldn't have talked to her like that, but she didn't seem to be getting the hint and he wasn't feelings especially guilty so he muttered a far calmer 'stay the hell away from me' and went on his way.

If any of the kids who'd stopped and crowded around them to witness the drama unfold gave him heated looks behind his back, well… he had learned to brush those off when he was 8.

…

By the time last hour for Economics ended, Hiei was so worked up the only thing stopping him from snapping Harrison's neck when he told Hiei off for his inattention in class was the knowledge that he couldn't threaten his scholarship by landing himself in detention or piss off Koenma by coming in late to work.

He barely had money for his phone bill now, but he was hoping with the two clients he had for that night and one for the next, he'd have enough to pay the electricity bill. If they rationed a little till his salary from Koenma came in, he could pay in full for Yukina's field trip as well. It was Kuwabara's turn to buy groceries next, anyway.

Presently however, he couldn't stop fixating on his stalker. He supposed that was natural, it'd be weird if he wasn't worried. His head throbbed with a possible migraine and he kept his eyes trained firmly on the ground for the entire duration of the eco-dick's rant because he knew if he looked up at him he won't be able to control the expression on his face.

When he was finally allowed to leave, his ears were nearly ringing, his palms were sore from his nails biting into them all day and his mouth was stuck in a twisted scowl, teeth gnashed so tight together that his jaw hurt. His entire body felt tense, and when he exited the school building and came face to face with his stalker, he couldn't help the hateful glare on his face.

The man smirked.

Hiei felt an intense need to get his hands around the man's neck rush up his spine and some sore, neglected part of him keened in pleasure, a taste of wild and vibrant excitement curling in his gut. Tightening his fingers around his other wrist behind his back, he tamped down on the nonsensical feelings and tore his gaze away.

He let himself take a bus to the cafe that day.

…

By the time, Hiei returned home from the hotel, it was one in the night. His migraine had died down in the face of the nearly mindless tasks he had to perform during his shift at the cafe. His limbs worked on autopilot, brain taking a backseat to turn over and scrutinise every aspect of the situation. The abominable thrill in his gut was a wake up call. He needed to do something before he tripped down a well of trouble and dragged his sister and that buffoon along with him.

There was clearly something he had done to piss someone off and he had to find a way to fix it. Fast.

In the cafe, while he was drizzling chocolate shavings down someone's order of peaches and cream, he had decided he needed to call his people in Japan and ask them if they knew anything. As much as he wasn't expecting trouble to have followed him from Japan, he knew he would rest a little easier having officially crossed that off his list of possibilities.

He didn't get the time to do that, however, as he had left straight for the address Mukuro had sent him that morning. He had showered and ignored clothes because his client had requested he prepare himself and then wait on the bed, bare.

The man who had come in was dressed in a cheap looking pant suit. The jacket didn't fit him properly and the cotton of his shirt was scratchy and uncomfortable. He gave off the air of a busy man, however. He was quick and efficient, and wasted no time on pleasantries or a drink from the complementary bottle of champagne Mukuro always left in Hiei's rooms. He had been skilled however, and Hiei didn't have to pretend to enjoy himself as much as he actually did.

The man had been out in 45 minutes and Hiei had received a break of about half an hour. The next guy had been energetic, the sorts who wanted to pretend they had brought in a date instead of a whore. He had ordered them dinner which Hiei enjoyed a lot, then insisted on dancing which Hiei barely got through without choking his partner to death and the sex itself had been energetic and wholly unsatisfying.

Faithful as always, his stalker had met Hiei outside the gate of the hotel. Hiei didn't look at him this time and silently got in a cab.

Yukina was up waiting for him when he entered, and given their living conditions, if one person had a light on, nobody could sleep so obviously, Kuwabara was awake as well even as he kept his back turned to the siblings.

"We need to talk, Hiei."

Hiei's eyes narrowed, and for a second, he considered resorting to the age old tactic of screaming at her till she started weeping but inevitably shut up and left him alone.

"I am fucking exhausted."

"Of screwing with our lives?" She scoffed. "God, I could only wish."

"I am doing everything I fucking can-…"

"You promised this wasn't going to happen again! You promised you were going to steer clear of things like this!"

Yukina clenched her fists and shot to her feet, stomping closer to Hiei. Her eyes, flaming red to match Hiei's burned with anger and betrayal and Hiei felt his heart clench painfully in his chest.

"And I have! I fucking have! What do you want from me, huh? I don't know what is happening either, I don't!"

"Let's go to the police, then." She crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him and Hiei heard himself stutter.

"We can't do that."

"So, you do have something to do with this?" Behind Yukina, Kuwabara shifted uncomfortably and Hiei knew if Yukina was talking about all of this in front of him, chances were that she had already told him everything. He felt hot embarrassment bloom in his belly and he raised a hand to push his bangs away from his face.

"No! I mean, yes, like, I could-… I am not sure Yukina. I swear to you ever since we came here I haven't done a single thing that would get us in trouble." Like, prostitution was legal, he thought, and bit back a bitter grimace.

"I can't make you change your mind on this, obviously." He mumbled. "All I can do is tell you I have done nothing that could ever harm you in any way. It's your choice whether you wanna trust me or not, but whatever it is, I'll deal with it, okay? Just give me time."

Yukina was clearly not convinced even though she decided to let up, and when they would wake up in the morning, there would be a marked difference in how the two treat him in contrast to how they usually did. Hiei would curse himself and say nothing to either of them.

…

School hours passed by in a blur the next day, and after Hiei was done with practice, he gathered his stuff and exited the campus.

This time, he walked up to the stranger.

The man, though under 6 feet, towered over the already short Hiei. His grin was sharp as his eyes mockingly sized Hiei up and Hiei had to work to keep himself from punching his gut and proving his smug assumptions wrong.

"What the fuck do you think you're fucking doing?"

The man's grin widened. His jaw looked so heavy Hiei couldn't help but imagine moving it must be specially painful. His teeth were so dirty Hiei almost cringed.

"Oh you got some nerve, baby boy, don't you?" His accent was rough and slurred, choppy like that of a man who had never gotten used to pronouncing words whole.

A brand new thought presented itself to Hiei in that moment, that this man wasn't anything but a lust-ridden bastard who was stalking Hiei purely because the psycho thought that would somehow get Hiei to fuck him. It was a possibility Hiei hadn't considered for a second, but a very real one. Probably the most likely one as well, because he still couldn't recall having done anything to make any enemies in the state.

"Why are you stalking me?"

The man laughed, a loud raucous sound that had Hiei's nerves on fire.

"Did you really think you could get away?"

Hiei wanted to slap this man, but resisted purely because he clearly had information he needed. He crossed his arms across his chest and refused to let his gaze waver for a second.

"What did I even do to you?"

"How would I know? I was just told to keep an eye on you."

Hiei scoffed. He wanted to scream and demand to be told exactly what the fuck he'd done to deserve any of this, but he was just as unwilling to show any signs of weaknesses, so he kept his mouth shut and took a second to compartmentalise his thoughts and narrow his focus. He was in no way in control of this situation, even if he had been the one to decide to confront the man, and he needed to keep that in mind.

"Who sent you?"

"Now, you and I both know I am not gonna tell you that. But don't worry, you'll see him soon enough."

"How soon?"

"Soon enough."

Hiei pressed his tongue against his teeth and wondered if he was willing to take the chance. A quick sweep of the vicinity right before he had advanced on this man had revealed he was alone, physically at least. Hiei had no idea if there were bluetooth devices on him, listening to their conversation, but right then, right there he was completely alone.

Fuck it

"Guess we won't miss you then."

…

His knuckles and nose were bloody and the knee of his jeans had been scraped till the cheap denim gave way. Hiei could feel a wet spot on his scalp where his hair had been tugged too hard.

The man had not gone down without a fight and Hiei wasn't ready to give up till he was out cold in the alley right behind their school.

Should he have done it? Definitely not. These were people who stalked others to send a message and would no doubt look for symbolic value in this.

But he had had enough.

He was nobody's prey, and he was sick of acting like he was. If anybody tried to intimidate him… well, they had better be able to back up their threat and blondie hadn't. So he was taken out.

Let that be interpreted as it would.

…

When he returned home looking the way he did, Kuwabara immediately panicked and started interrogating him on whether he was okay and if he had been attacked. His body hovered between the cabinet their kept their first aid kit in and the sleeping bag his phone lay on, brain unable to decide what course of action to pick. Hiei lightly punched his arm to assure him he was okay.

His eyes found Yukina's across the flat and Kuwabara fell silent.

Neither of them said a word, but Hiei nodded and Yukina let her lips curve up a notch. A web of understanding spread between them, invisible to the eye of anyone else.

The threat had been taken care of.

…

Hiei showered, wrapped up his knuckles and iced his nose, which was thankfully not broken. In an hour he was out of the house again, in a cab to the address Mukuro had sent him, with a protein bar clenched in his fist. He wondered if his client tonight would be generous enough to buy him dinner again.

He was going to bring back the champagne at least. Mukuro could suck his toe.

"You look happy tonight." Mukuro had remarked when she met him in the lobby. She didn't usually come to see all of her employees each night before a job, but sometimes she's randomly drop in. Hiei really didn't like her but she had been his only source of any money back then, and he had latched on.

"Is that bad for the business?", he bit back.

Inside his room, Hiei sat back on the bed, more relaxed than he had ever been. His fingers clutched too tight around the stem of the champagne flute and he feared he might break it. He wasn't used to glasses like these. He didn't even know if this was the proper way to hold them.

He should be worried, he knew he should be worried. He had no idea what sort of trouble he had just invited into his life.

… but he had stood his ground.

Looking back now, it slowly became clear that the weird, choking feeling in his gut these past few days hadn't been fear or agitation, not for a single second.

It was frustration with himself for not being able to fight back.

He was used to power, used to putting up a hell of a fight and coming out on top at the end of it. When that man walked in and stole that away from him, Hiei had acted like a cornered dragon with his jaw ripped open and wings cut off, unable to take flight, unable to breathe fire, doomed to do nothing but cower and depend on his scales to block the first row of spears shot at him.

Hiei didn't know how to deal with that feeling.

Lashing out may or may not have been the worst thing he could've done in this situation, but something within him had been freed and it wasn't even the adrenaline junkie side of him that revelled in the sensation just then.

He found he felt ready to face whatever was coming next.

He had made his way through two flutes of champagne when he heard knocks on the hotel door. He was expecting no one else, but his client.

The moment he opened the door hands were grasping at his arms and dragging him back. Hiei tried to kick away from his captors, but they were two men, not one and had used his surprise to their advantage by securing a good grip above both of his elbows. By the time he had gathered enough wits to scream, the door to the room had been slammed shut.

Hiei growled and dug his nails into the face of the man holding on to his right arm, who was shorter than the one to his left. Even as Hiei felt his nails break skin on the man's face, not a muscle moved in his stony expression as he continued to drag Hiei towards the bed.

His distraction and shock had been taken full advantage of. There were more men in the room than just these two. Before he could get a handle on how many exactly, he had been thrown back on the bed with two guns aimed right at his head.

Hiei's eyes widened, and he froze, almost out of instinct. His brain still screamed at him, to run, to flee. He needed to leave. Heart pounding, he remained absolutely still, however, acutely aware of just how easy a shot he would be, a target these men just wouldn't miss.

"Hello, Hiei."

If someone asked him, Hiei couldn't explain the chilly wave that swept through his entire body at that voice. He looked up, face wiped blank of all expressions.

The man in front of him was dressed in a rich red suit, with flowers of a gorgeous maroon printed on the lapels to complement his maroon shirt, the cool, deep tone of which was just a shade or two darker than the man's hair.

The first thing Hiei's brain registered was he looked gorgeous in a suit, the second thing, that the cold malice Hiei had spied in those green eyes when he had first seen him hadn't been exaggerated by so much as an inch.

The man walked over, gait as calm and self-assured as ever, hands in his pockets and lips twisted in a cruel, mocking smirk. He perched at the edge of the hotel room bed and his eyes travelled down Hiei's hunched frame, pausing at his trembling fingertips. He licked his lips.

"Now," Kurama smirked "I believe there's something you owe me."