Kurama cocked his head, expression light but something about the line of his lips screaming displeasure.

"You have what, a month to live and this is what you decide to do with it?"

Hiei would have flushed crimson if he hadn't long signed away all sense of shame, anyway.

"What? Have some good sex?"

Kurama's eyes narrowed.

"No. Barter yourself for information I won't mind giving you as it is."

Hiei immediately shut his mouth, despite not letting his hand drop from where his fingers rested delicately in the dip of his collarbones. Kurama looked dead serious, but then again, Hiei had failed to get an accurate read on the man once before and he wasn't keen on making the same mistake again.

"Dude, I just wanna get off. I get your husband is ugly enough to permanently put you off of the idea but others still have needs, okay? If you don't want me just say it."

"Really? Not only are you okay with degrading yourself like this, you are actually dumb enough lie about it. Right to my face."

Hiei frowned.

"Listen here, you hare-brained manchild, whatever twisted credos of honour and righteousness you are projecting on to me to make yourself feel better about the awful person you are will need to be put aside for a while now, okay? Just come here so we can pick up where we left off."

Kurama shook his head, his brilliant green eyes somehow becoming duller and duller. Hiei didn't understand why that irked him so.

"I am not going to cheat on him."

This time, Hiei laughed.

It was a full-bellied laugh, at that, not an incredulous scoff meant to mock Kurama. His apparent inability to understand anything about Kurama aside, Hiei was pretty fucking sure this last part was a joke.

"You seemed all too eager last time I checked." Hiei remarked, voice carefully nonchalant. He didn't do well with rejection in general but this one just left him feeling humiliated, like a two-bit home wrecker even though anyone with an eye could see there was no love between Kurama and Yomi. It was more than obvious every time Kurama spoke about him.

… but the man's sharp green eyes, dull and disappointed, made Hiei feel dirty and stupid, like he was beneath the redhead for even thinking of this, which was an incredibly frustrating feeling to deal with.

Hiei had been pushed into a corner though, by this very, condescending man, and he wasn't going to feel ashamed for trying to escape.

"That was for a mission. This is different."

Hiei blinked.

"Who are you supposed to be trying to convince?"

"Don't get me wrong, Hiei, please. I am not loyal to him, never by choice, at least but I am also not stupid and I know what he will do if he finds out. So no, for my own safety, I won't cheat on him. You can button your shirt back up now."

Once again, Hiei found himself flabbergasted. He was getting extremely good at compartmentalising now, though.

"He is not here. How will he find out?"

Again that glance, like Hiei was an idiot. Hiei gritted his teeth and glared at Kurama in return.

"He will. He finds out everything."

"Tried your luck before?"

Surprisingly, (and this was starting to become a word Hiei was considering throwing out of his vocabulary when Kurama was concerned) Kurama smiled. It wasn't a bitter smile, or a happy one. It just was, impossible to read but holding enough weight behind it for Hiei's heart to clench.

"I did. And somebody had to die for it."

"Who?"

Very few things scared Hiei, really. Kurama, however, did, all too easily at that.

The way his eyes grew glassy was scary, the way his smile grew fonder was scary because now it was like even though he was looking in Hiei's direction, Kurama wasn't seeing him at all.

"You're just as insensitive as him, you know? It was strangely charming."

"Kurama!" And Hiei won't deny that he barked the name out loud, way louder than he had to because this entire meeting had taken a completely unprecedented turn, and he didn't think he wanted exactly who the fuck Kurama was comparing him to.

Kurama didn't exactly 'snap' out of it, but awareness pooled into his eyes little by little, sharpening his gaze and clenching his mouth. Kurama looked away, as if he couldn't bear to be looking at Hiei anymore.

"So, no point in seducing me. Can't believe you took all that time, and this is the best plan you came up with."

That infuriating, taunting, exciting smirk was back on Kurama's lips and Hiei found himself welcoming it, despite the heartless reminder of the failure his only plan had met that it brought along.

"It wasn't a plan." He insisted anyway because he could no longer be sure how much he could safely give away to Kurama. He couldn't understand where the man's allegiance lay. All it seemed like, was that the only person Kurama was actually loyal to, was this Karasu dude which would've been interesting if it hadn't been impressed upon Hiei, time and time again, that he couldn't wait till Karasu arrived. He had to get out before that. He just had to.

If this Karasu truly ran everything around here, then Hiei couldn't afford to be caught by the man.

"You're not a very good liar, you know that?" Kurama cocked a brow. "Or maybe it's just me. I am way too good at seeing through frightened, pathetic kids like you."

Hiei felt anger flare in his chest. He would more than appreciate it if they could just drop this back-and-forth but Kurama didn't seem to share the same opinion.

"Aw is that why Karasu bothers to keep a tramp like you around? To manipulate people, to break them down for him? Just some good old outsourcing, huh?"

Kurama left. Hiei cursed.

…

He hadn't even fully processed the epic failure of his desperate plan when Kurama returned again.

Hiei didn't try to hide his suspicious confusion as two men followed Kurama in, setting up a table in the middle of Hiei's 'room' and a chair that Kurama promptly occupied. Another man entered, wheeling a cart of food in front of him. Hiei sat and watched as an elaborate meal was laid out in front of Kurama, and then Hiei was graced with his meal as well.

Considering the bread, soup and water that had made up of the entirety of his meals in captivity, the delicacies on his plate immediately made Hiei's mouth water. He tried to hide the subtle licking of his lips that followed as the thought of eating good tempura and sushi for the first time since he had left Japan entered his mind, but failed.

In front of him, Kurama smiled a warm, happy smile. Hiei merely rolled his eyes but he wasn't stupid enough to throw a tantrum before he was done licking every crumb off of his plate, anyway.

The men left them alone and Hiei tucked in. Kurama followed seconds later.

They ate in silence, mostly because Hiei didn't want Kurama to ruin the taste of this admittedly, absolutely incredible food with his bullshit. He was going to chew in to Kurama, later, of course and Kurama would return the favour, with interest if he was feeling up to it because that was their thing now, apparently.

All they did was try to get a rise out of each other. Hiei couldn't help but think it was because this place had sucked him dry of all emotions. He felt so much of nothing that Kurama's frustration, his anger, almost felt cathartic. The more time he spent talking to Kurama, the more he became convinced that the other man felt more or less the same.

As one they laid their chopsticks down, gazes snapping to each other a second later, as if it was all synchronised right down to the very moment they finished their meals. Hiei decided to bite the bullet Kurama so clearly wanted him to.

"Why are you here?"

Kurama sat back, folding his hands across his chest. It prompted Hiei to do the same, childish as it was.

"I don't much like anyone around here except you."

"No friends?"

Kurama scoffed.

"Hating me might as well be a part of his men's job descriptions."

"Really keeps you isolated, doesn't he?"

"Where do you think I gained such expertise in breaking people down?"

Hiei almost grinned. Almost.

They lapsed into silence again, pointed, expectant. Hiei took the time to figure out exactly what he wanted to say to the man.

He sighed, knowing he had to take the risk. He couldn't sit here and do nothing. He could worry about Kurama being planted there to psychologically torture him later, he was in enough trouble as it was. For now, he just needed answers.

"You said you'd tell me whatever I wanted to know?"

Kurama nodded.

"I presumed you were looking to draw out information about the lay-out of this building, guard shits and all of that. Figure out a plan of escape."

"Let's run with that assumption of yours. Tell me about this building."

Kurama smiled.

"Not until you acknowledge you tried to use me to gather intel."

Hiei felt his mouth fall open, eyebrows climbing up his forehead in clear disbelief.

"Really? That- that is your thing? I am literally a prisoner here, probably gonna die and you wanna be mad that I had ulterior motives behind trying to sleep with you? And just to make sure, wasn't that exactly what you did to me? Like, right down to the t?"

"Well, given how much time you spend preaching to me about how awful I am and how much better you are, I didn't think you would stoop to that."

Hiei growled, literally. He couldn't help himself, couldn't believe the audacity of this fucking man.

He wanted to punch Kurama.

"What world do you fucking live in?! How are you this entitled, this insensitive?! Are you like actually insane?!"

"I don't like being used." Kurama said, for the first time, sounding somewhat unsure of himself. Hiei counted that as a victory.

"Look, I don't know what you think I owe you, but in reality, it's nothing. I just wanna leave and I will do whatever I can to make that happen. I have a sister waiting for me. I have a life, something you clearly do not, so I don't expect you to understand, narcissistic bastard that you are, but this isn't about you, Kurama!"

"Yes, okay, I got it!" Kurama cried, voice louder than Hiei had ever heard it be before. The redhead ran a frustrated hand through his hair and bit his lip, eyes clenched shut.

"Sorry, that was callous of me. I am sorry."

Hiei sat there, unable to find words to spit at the man, still seething with rage. He didn't pretend to understand Kurama, he never would, but this made littler sense than anything the redhead had said ever before.

"I guess in my head I still can't separate you from this image I had of you, when I first came to know about you. When I was jealous of you… when I wanted to be you."

Hiei frowned, unwilling to fall for anymore of Kurama's mind games.

"Be… me?"

Kurama nodded.

"Yeah, you. Free like you."

"So you grew so bitter you kidnapped me again."

Kurama shook his head.

"Hiei I have told you I had no choice in this."

"Yeah well maybe it's difficult for me to separate you from this image I had of you, that of a sociopathic kidnapper, you know?"

Kurama clenched his jaw.

"Don't act like you haven't done worse."

Hiei scowled at him.

"Yeah, I have but I left. I was trying to give myself and my sister a new shot at life before you came along. Now that I think about it, it was overly convenient, wasn't it? You being friends with my sister's friends, knowing where we lived, all of that? You still want to act like you are innocent?"

"I have never claimed I am innocent! You're the one who seems intent on proving to me that just because you left this world you have been absolved of all of your past crimes!"

"Oh, and that matters how? What is this, punishment? Am I being punished for being an orphan trying to make ends meet even if it meant putting a poisoned needle through a rich asshole's arm? Is that what you use to convince yourself this is okay?"

Kurama shot out of his chair, frowning, agitated.

"I don't think this is okay but I can't-…"

"Oh yeah the same old poor helpless Kurama routine! You do love playing the victim, don't you? 'I had no choice!' 'It was either my life or yours!' You sound pathetic! You can't even handle the weight of your own fucking actions! Why do you keep saying these things to me?! What do you want from me?! Sympathy? Is that it?! You want me to comfort my fucking kidnapper?!"

"You're taking this entire thing completely out of context!"

"I am? What context is there apart from the fact that you brought me here, you keep me imprisoned here where I can't leave and then you come in here, expecting god knows what of me, and I am somehow the villain for trying to escape?!"

"I never said-…"

Smack

Hiei hadn't realised when he had stalked so close to Kurama, gotten right up in the other man's face. He hadn't even been conscious of lifting his palm and hitting Kurama, really. All he knew was he couldn't hear another fucking excuse, another justification, another reason why Kurama was the one who was suffering actually, like what he had done to Hiei meant nothing.

The anger he had been unable to find the night before came thrumming up his nerves again and Hiei realised he was panting, expression twisted in an ugly scowl.

Kurama remained frozen in his spot, face downturned from the impact of Hiei's hit and fingers resting disbelievingly on his smarting skin.

"You know what the worst part is? That I understand you. I get you, Kurama but, lord help me, sometimes I hate you all the more for it."

Kurama stood motionless, eyes refusing to lift from the ground. All of a sudden Hiei felt way taller than he actually was, towering over Kurama. His gut instantly rejected the feeling.

"I don't care what went wrong in your life. You are not the victim, here. So I don't wanna play your silly mind games, I don't wanna do whatever the fuck you think we are doing here. I just wanna get away. So either you help me, or you stay the fuck out of my way. Because I am going to leave, with or without you."

When Kurama began talking, his voice came out shaky.

"They were going to set a hit on you a little more than a month after you left Japan. I was the one who convinced Yomi to wait, to worm steadily into your life, retrieve the bracelet and leave. Yomi stuck his neck out because I made him, and don't for a second think it was easy on me. Yomi has never gone easy on me. So yeah, the friendship with Yuusuke was convenient. It was meant to be. I chased it with one singular design in mind, to keep you from ending up here. Serves me right that in the end I was the one who had to drag you here and now you'll always hate me for it."

…

Kurama didn't return for long enough that Hiei's anger began to fade. He realised he didn't regret slapping Kurama in the least. It had been a long time coming.

The thing was, Hiei wasn't lying when he said he had had enough of these mind games. The rush of endorphins that he had begun associating with… activities like these wasn't coming, maybe because this was all too real, all too dangerous. Even the adrenaline junkie part of his brain had seemed terrified from the get-go. So he didn't want Kurama to barge in through that door every day and say whatever he wanted, leaving Hiei in a mess of emotions that he didn't have the time or energy to sift through on a normal day, far be it from him to be able to sort them out in his present abode. He was curious about why Kurama had decided to protect him, of course, but he didn't know how much of that was even true.

Fact was, as much as the lines always seemed to be blurring- Kurama was the enemy and the past day or so had made Hiei grow sick of pretending otherwise.

He sighed, left alone to stare at his ceiling yet again. He didn't know what to think, so he had decided not to. It was as he had told Kurama. He had to leave and that was what he was going to focus on. Gorgeous, sad, enigmatic redheads weren't going to put a wrench in his plans be it by confusing him or frustrating him.

What was troubling him, though, was that he may or may not have alienated his only possible ally in this entire place and that too before he could get any useful information out of him.

Hiei cursed himself.

Did he absolutely have to snap that hard?

He couldn't have let the other man yabber away like he clearly loved to, gotten what he needed and probably figured out a way to leave by tonight? No, he just had to run his big fat mouth and ruin everything.

…

Imagine Hiei's confusion then, when the next morning, after being forced to take a bath and a dump he was served breakfast while a table and chair was set up in his room, yet again.

Hiei felt himself go on the defensive, despite knowing there was nothing he could do in this situation unless all of these guards around the place just magically dropped dead. However, as yesterday had been, he would rather expect Yomi or even the Karasu-dude than Kurama.

He truly shouldn't have been surprised though, when Kurama proved him wrong yet again, walking through the door with a cool, detached grace that almost made Hiei wince for some reason.

He shut the door behind him and moved to take a seat at the chair set out for him. The only thing even more startling that that, was the gun in clear display, strapped into a holster on Kurama's belt.

The man sat down, all airy charm and light movements.

Hiei remained breathless, waiting for him to speak.

"Well, I am here to tell you whatever you were trying to learn by seducing me. Go ahead, ask me what you want."

Hiei frowned.

He would have been speechless again if he hadn't spent the entire night drilling it into his skull that he wasn't going to let Kurama's infuriatingly unpredictable ways catch him off-guard ever again. He had to leave, for Yukina.

He decided to not think too much, and just go with it. What was the worst they could do to him, after all, that they weren't already doing?

"How many guards are outside my door?"

"Two. Any given time of the day."

Hiei frowned. Kurama's clipped tone made it seem like the information was incomplete.

"So if I was to break out of the room, I would only have to deal with two guards outside?"

"Of course not. The two guards are the ones permanently stationed outside your door. The rest of the floor has twenty other guards in station all through the day. The patrol changes every few hours but the floor is never unguarded."

"Okay and are the rapists still on patrol duty?"

A tiny wrinkle edged on to Kurama's brow but he didn't let his voice waver.

"The rapists?"

"Yeah the guards who tried to rape me in the bathroom that day you came in."

"I wasn't told about any of that. All I knew was you'd assaulted some guards."

"Yeah, that's not what happened."

"Starting from today they won't be stationed on this floor. Their actual dismissal is out of my hands."

"Hmm which floor are we on?"

"Eighth in a sixteen floor building."

"I have seen other rooms in the hallway when I go to pee. Who lives there, other prisoners?"

"No. Nobody but you resides on this floor. All twenty-two of these guards have been stationed here to watch over you, essentially."

Hiei felt his heart sink.

"Where exactly are we?"

"In your room?"

Hiei dug his nails in his palms in order to avoid snapping at Kurama, who, despite his outwardly stoic appearance still must be intent of deriving some entertainment at Hiei's expense.

He took a deep breath and tried again.

"What type of a house is this? Is this where you and Yomi live full time?"

"This is just a building, really. I suppose it is built in the way a hotel would be. Floors with tiny rooms. I don't know what it was originally used for. I am living here for the first time and Yomi said that we will be here for a bit, even after you… have been dealt with."

"Okay, are we in Japan?"

"No. How would we ever fly an unconscious man out? We are still in the States. Some ninety miles south of your own town."

"Wow that is closer than I would put us."

"The police aren't searching for you."

Hiei drew to a halt. Kurama was venturing information by himself without being explicitly and directly asked for the first time, after all.

Then he registered what Kurama had just said.

"What?"

"They are in Yomi's pockets. Your sister did complain. She doesn't know they aren't doing anything, of course. Kuwabara doesn't let her push it too much. He cares more about her than you. Probably doesn't want the authorities to realise both of your visas and passports were fake."

He had always known that buffoon had to be good for something.

"Okay, so if I manage to leave this building I have an actual, real chance."

"To go where, do what? The police will sell- Actually, it's not my place."

"Don't start this again." Hiei warned.

"I am not starting anything."

"Tell me what you were saying then."

"The police are a sell out. They will hand you to him the moment they find you. They don't care about a nobody like you. You will have to disappear, virtually, to escape Karasu."

"Disappear where? We ought to be in the middle of nowhere here."

"I won't put it exactly like that."

Hiei frowned.

"Where are we then?"

"If you were to, say somehow, miraculously, manage to break out of here, you could keep going on to some other town or village instead of returning to yours. That is assuming you can stay low-key enough to slip under the radar permanently and remain that way. As far as I know there are no networks on the inside of the police department down there, and it's only logical to assume the town will be combed for you if you were to disappear but if you somehow manage to slip away and find a hiding place, or a layover, or means to move on from there as well in this time pocket before the realisation and the inevitable combing begins, I suppose there's a fair chance that you can leave."

"But all of that depends on every trace of me as Hiei disappearing from thsi world forever."

"Essentially, yes."

"Nevermind the twenty-two guards problem."

"There are more in the rest of the building."

"And there's absolutely no way to sneak out?"

"Not that I know of."

"I am fucked."

Kurama remained silent.

Hiei stood up, shoulders climbing to his ears and hands to his hair as he began pacing in front of Kurama. He turned abruptly.

"When is Yomi returning?"

"In two weeks."

"Where is he gone?"

"He said he had business and that he was then going to pick up Karasu and fly him out to here. I am not sure where either the business or the meeting will be taking place."

"So, whatever has to happen needs to happen in these two weeks."

"That would be ideal, yes."

All of a sudden, an essential detail he had neglected to confirm came to him, then and Hiei nearly snapped his neck, he turned towards Kurama so fast.

"How many guards out there know me by my face?"