Yo!! I am BACK!!!

TO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW WHO SHAZAGEN IS!!!

Well, if you want to get all technical (greeeaaat grammar there, Nagem, great grammar) about it, Shazagen would be an OC. I like to think of him as a random youkai that Hiei fought and beat, but didn't kill, that I gave a name and face to (hang on, that is an OC, isn't it? Dang it! I hate putting OC's into a story!) The thing is, bringing someone like Toguro or who knows who is a little cliché (I know, I know, I've done it before) and Hiei doesn't have that many enemies that would want revenge on him that badly (at least I don't think he does. Let me know if I'm wrong there.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

                The house was quiet, for the most part. There were a few shuffling sounds as youkai or human turned in their beds, but nothing more. It began to rain, one drop after another striking the ground, thunder rolling overhead, and brief lightning flashes lit up the sky.

                Kuwabara lay in his cot, not even halfway asleep, and glanced over to where Yukina was sleeping on the couch across the room. He shivered at the thought of something happening to her. 

                KA-BOOM!!!

                Kurama sat straight up in bed when he heard the thunder crash overhead. The storm had been going on for a while; he had woken to the thunder about an hour earlier. He sighed, and decided to roll over and go back to sleep. There was one problem though; he rolled right off the bed instead.

                "Oomph!!"

                "Yow! Who's there!"

                "Someone's attacking me!!"

                "Nonsense, I'm not attacking you!!"

                "Kurama?"

                ". . . . Jeroun?" Kurama managed to reach up and turn the lights on. Jeroun was staring at him fearfully. "What are you doing here?"

                "The thunder scared me," Jeroun said, curling up into a ball clutching his blanket to his chest. Kurama was forcefully reminded of a child with his teddy bear. The kitsune smiled and sat down next to Jeroun, who was wincing slightly. "You're not going to kick me out?"

                "No," Kurama replied, shaking his head. "I don't mind having a little bit of company during a storm." He pulled the blankets off his bed and set them up next to Jeroun's.

                "Kurama?" Both Jeroun and Kurama looked up to see Kuronue standing in the doorway, clutching his sheets and pillow to his chest, as Jeroun had. "Can I-?"

                "Come on in," Kurama said, flopping onto his pillow. What in the world had he done to deserve this? Kuronue came in and set up on the other side of Kurama. Kurama sighed.

                "I'm going to bed now," Kuronue announced, burying his face in his pillow. "Wake me when it's morning."

                "Morning, chimera."

                "Aaaah!" Kuronue scrambled away from his bed, where Karasu had appeared. "What are you doing here?"

                "Ah, I heard voices and came to see why I'm not a part of the party, too," Karasu said, grinning as he watched Kurama out of the corner of his eye. The kitsune backed away from him.

                "Well, guess what, it ain't a party!" Jeroun said suddenly. He got up and began pushing Karasu out of the room. "We decided we wanted company, so we came in here!"

                "Isn't that a party?" Jeroun opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by a loud boom, followed by a flash of lightning cracking outside Kurama's window, a brief warning before the lights went out and the room was thrown into darkness.

                "Ah!"

                "Eeep! It's dark!"

                "Where is everyone? I can't see!"

                "None of us can, Jeroun."

                "Shut up, Karasu! Kuronue, Kurama? Where are you guys?"

                "I'm over here Jeroun, just follow my voice."

                "Okay, Kurama, just keep talk-AH!!" There was a loud CRUNCH followed by an eerie silence.

                "Jeroun, please don't tell me that was one of my roses."

                "Uhh . . . oops? Hey, why do you keep roses on the floor anyway?"

                "Oh, dear." Kurama didn't answer Jeroun's question.

                "I like roses."

                "What in the-Karasu! Get away from me!"

                "Nani?"

                "I said get away!"

                "Hey!! I think I can see now!!" Jeroun yelled as a lightning flash lit up the sky. "Yuck! Kuronue, Karasu's groping Kurama!"

                "Tattletale."

                "Pervert!" There was a loud WHACK followed by a grunt.

                "Kuronue, that wasn't Karasu."

                "Gomen, Kurama."

                "Was that actually aiming, chimera?"

                "Shut up!" There was another loud WHACK.

                "Kuro . . . that wasn't Karasu either."

                "Gomen, Kurama." (A/N: I know that whole thing was pointless, but it was just begging to be written.) Suddenly a flashlight shone in their faces. Shiori stood in the doorway holding the said flashlight, watching them.

                "What's going on here?" She demanded. "You boys have been making enough noise to wake the entire neighborhood!"

                "He started it!" Jeroun whined, pointing at Karasu.
                "I did not!" Karasu whined.

                "Shush! And go to sleep!" Shiori said, throwing Kurama a flashlight and turning away from them to walk down the hall. Once the light had completely vanished, Kurama turned on his own flashlight and looked at the rest of the group. Kuronue opened his mouth, but was cut off.

                "Kurama? Yo-you in here?"

                "Kuwabara?" Kurama flashed the light on the human in the doorway. "What are you doing here?" He got up and pulled the human into the room.

                "Something's up," Kuwabara said. "And I have a question I think you guys have the answer to." When no one else spoke, Kuwabara continued. "Is . . . Yukina's brother . . . Hiei?" Kurama, Karasu, Kuronue, and Jeroun looked quickly of one another-all had been forcefully reminded of the relationship by Hiei in one of the fire youkai's attempts to keep the secret.

                "Well . . . there's no use in lying," Kurama said. "Yes, Hiei is Yukina's brother." Kurama looked down at the ground, fiddling nervously with a strand of red hair as he spoke. "I'm sorry, Kuwabara, Hiei doesn't want to tell her, and he figures that the less people know, the less likely Yukina is to find out."

                "Why doesn't he want to tell her?" Kuwabara demanded.

                "He . . . I think the main reason why is because Hiei doesn't want to ruin Yukina' image of her brother because of what he is," Kurama said. Kuwabara thought for a moment.

                "I can understand that," Kuwabara said. "But he still has to tell her! She's in pain! The only thing she ever wants to talk about is her brother, and how she thinks that he hates her, and sometimes she cries! If Hiei really cares about her that much, then why does he let her go through so much pain because of him?" There was a stunned silence in the room. No one answered Kuwabara's question. "Fine. If none of you have anything smart to say, then I'm leaving."

                "What got into him?" Karasu asked once Kuwabara had gone. "That's not at all like the big, bumbling idiot I remember from when we first met."

                "I suppose even Kuwabara has something smart to say every once in a while," Kuronue said. "Too bad Jeroun can't be more like that." The aforementioned youkai stuck his tongue out at Kuronue. Kurama, however, stayed silent, deeply contemplating what Kuwabara had said.

                "Kazuma?" Kuwabara rolled over in his cot to face Yukina, who was sleeping on the couch in Kurama's living room.

                "What?" Kuwabara asked, still slightly ruffled by the conversation that had taken place moments before. He winced-he knew he sounded rude. "Sorry. What's wrong?"

                "What were you and the others talking about up there?" Yukina whispered. "You looked angry when you came back."

                "It's nothing," Kuwabara said, rolling back over. With that, the occupants of the house fell into a restless, worried sleep.  

Okay, so this was a kinda pointless chapter. But that's okay! At least the plot moved along a little bit. Well . . . how'd you like it? Please review!