A/N: Hi. Here it is. I am able to update quickly between chapters because I am on Christmas break and have nothing else to do. Also, the story was already finished before I started typing it. I wrote it during exams at school. On that subject, my friend would like me to tell you that you had better enjoy this story because it is the reason I was "being boring" and was too busy to talk to her during exam week. I hope you do enjoy it, and, as always, please review!

Disclaimer: I still do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Journey of the Magi

Ch. 3

Hiei had gone above and beyond his own expectations and found gifts for everyone he knew. Except one. The most important one.

If Hiei had been nervous about finding Kurama a suitable gift, it was nothing to how he felt about Yukina's. This was his chance to give something meaningful to the only family member he'd ever known.

He walked from store to store, searching through shelves and display stands, finding things that were nice, things that would have made good gifts, but nothing that he felt was worthy of Yukina.

When he left the last store, still empty-handed, night had fallen outside. He must have been searching for hours. He wandered back to the now- familiar fountain and sat down with a sigh. What was he going to do? He had to give something to Yukina. She meant more to him than anyone else in the world. But he also could not give her something inferior. It had to be perfect.

"Son, are you waiting to see me? I'm off duty."

Hiei looked up. A large, fat man was regarding him with concern. "Are you lost? Did you get separated from your parents?"

Hiei, too tired to register the unintentional insult, took in the man's red suit and hat, and his long, obviously fake silver beard . "I thought you weren't real?"

The man blinked. "Oh, jeez, did someone tell you that?"

Hiei nodded. The man sighed. "I'm getting less and less business every year. Parents have started telling children at younger and younger ages that Santa is a hoax."

"So who are you?"

"I dress up as Santa and let the kids sit on my knee and tell me what they want for Christmas. Kind of a discreet way of letting the parents know what the kids want while still letting them tell 'Santa.'

"How delightfully cynical," Hiei murmured.

The man looked at him sharply, then sighed. "Yes. I suppose." He gestured to the space next to Hiei. "Mind if I sit here?"

Hiei shrugged imperceptibly. The man lowered himself with some difficulty onto the fountain, took off his hat, and loosed his beard so that it hung around his neck. He then reached into his pocket and extracted a pack of Camels and a lighter, which he flicked twice to get a flame. He slid the cigarette into his mouth. lit the tip, took a long drag, and exhaled with a sigh.

After a while, the man glanced at Hiei, who was watching him. "What is it, son?"

Hiei looked away, embarrassed. "I don't know what to do," he said abruptly after a few minutes.

The man said nothing, just took another puff on his cigarette.

"There's a girl--my sister--and I need--I want to give her something special because I've never had the chance to that before and there's nothing here--there's nothing anywhere--that's good enough for her."

"Son, if she's your sister, anything you give her will be special."

Hiei was sick of that speech. He got it all the time from Kurama. "You don't understand," he snapped, hands clenching into fists. No one seemed to understand how he felt. Yukina was pure, an angel, a lily. She was genuinely compassionate and trusting and kind. She had been kidnapped not long ago, tortured mercilessly by men who'd wanted nothing more than to see her cry, and still, she had not lost her innocence, her faith in the world. That day, that day Hiei had saved her, when he had grabbed the mob boss by the throat and squeezed till the man gagged and choked and pleaded, When he had drawn his katana back, fully intending to plunge it into the man's heart, wanting to see his lifeblood for what he'd done to Yukina, and Yukina had thrown herself onto his arm and pulled back the sword, begging him not to kill the man who'd tortured her, saying it would only make things worse, she had actually cried for the man, cried as she begged Hiei to stop, and Hiei had felt so filthy standing there next to he, his sword already dripping with the life of every other syndicate agent in the building, along with that of their wives and children, the outcome of his rage on Yukina's behalf, and wasn't that the story of his life?

Hiei was breathing hard. "I don't deserve her," he muttered finally, getting himself under control.

"Well, obviously." The man blew a cloud of smoke into the air.

Hiei looked up sharply, taken by surprise. "What?"

The man looked at him like it was obvious. "Of course you don't deserve her, boy! If you did, it would be meaningless, wouldn't it?"

Hiei looked at the man uncertainly. "I don't understand."

The man took a long time to answer. When he did, he removed the cigarette from his mouth, holding it to the side, and looked directly at Hiei.

"If you ask me, this Santa thing has given people the exact wrong idea about Christmas. According to Santa Claus, you're rewarded if you're good and punished if you're bad. Well, I can tell you, I've held enough bratty, spoiled kids on my knee to understand the fact that no one actually deserves Christmas. It's sad, but no one is 'good,' or deserves to be put on the 'nice' list, no matter how hard they try to convince people otherwise. Nah, if you ask me, the point of the Christmas season should be to give people what they don't deserve. And maybe if you do that, well, maybe they'll start looking at things a little differently, eh?" He leaned in closer. "Give the girl something that shows her what she means to you because you don't deserve her. You don't deserve her and she keeps you anyway. But listen to me going on and on. It's really none of my business." The man stood with a groan and ground out his cigarette on an ashtray sitting on a trash can near the fountain. "Merry Christmas to you, boy, and I hope it works out for you."

****

Hiei walked slowly down the slush-covered sidewalk, deep in thought. Something that showed her what she meant to him. What did she mean to him, exactly? He knew his feelings, but it was so difficult to describe in words. Unbidden, the image of the three travelers following the star flashed across his mind's eye. Hiei scowled. It was Christmas Eve, and he still did not have a clue as to what to give Yukina.

Hiei stopped suddenly and did a double take. There was that picture, the picture of the three travelers and the star, on a sign outside a building. Hiei walked closer, curious. He could hear singing from inside, and it looked as if there were candles in the stained glass windows. He pressed his face up against the glass pane in the door, after wiping away the frost. There were people singing in there, and more pictures of the star. Hiei hesitated. The image was really troubling him; he felt that he would have at least some peace if he found out what it meant. On the other hand, what if he wasn't allowed in there? Who knew what this gathering was for? Still, the sign out front did say Welcome...

Hiei snorted. He wasn't about to shy away from a bunch of ningens. He quietly opened the door. A few people looked around at him. Some looked disapprovingly at his hair and clothing, but most smiled at him.

Hiei chose a seat in the back and waited for something to happen. After the song ended, a man walked up to the podium at the front, and the lights dimmed so that the only light in the room came from the candles in the windows. The man opened a book and began to read aloud:

"They went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then, they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, and of incense, and of myrrh."

The man sat down. Hiei blinked as he thought about this. The three travelers, then, had followed the star over the wilderness until it led them to this child. To these three travelers, the child had been a symbol of an entirely new life for them, one with hope and purpose. The star had led them there. Perhaps--and Hiei knew for certain that he had been around Kurama too long when he started thinking in symbols like this--perhaps Yukina...

The people were singing again. The vaulted ceiling echoed with each note.

"We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts, we travel afar

Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star

Oh, star of wonder, star of light

Star of royal beauty bright

Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us with thy perfect light."

And he knew.

He knew, suddenly, with a clarity so absolute he could nearly taste it, what the image meant to him. What Yukina meant to him. And what he would do for her.

Hiei stood up and quietly slipped out the door into the frigid Christmas Eve night, where a few white snowflakes were beginning to make their way down from heaven to the earth below.

****

Okay, there. How's that? The next chapter will be the last, I think. Did I write this one well? Was I too dramatic or forceful with my point? I hope not, but please tell me if I was. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed already. I will update as soon as I can!