Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies…

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"Thank you for dinner, Mother," Kurama said, standing up and piling up a few plates and bowls to carry them over to the sink.

He was in a little bit of a rush to get back upstairs before the injured, currently unconscious demon would wake and make enough of a racket to draw his mother's attention. But, polite as always, he wanted to wash the dishes for Mother before seeing to his charge.

Mother though, equally polite, told him as he brought the dishes over and started to run water over them, "oh that's alright, Shuichi dear! You go upstairs and rest. I'll take care of the dishes tonight."

"Thank you, Mother," he told her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before heading upstairs.

It was true he was very tired. He was unused to channeling energy, let alone the large amount it had taken to activate the weapon he had now dubbed "rose whip." The energy was actually very little for a demon as powerful as his demon form, but for a normal human, the power was enormous.

Kurama sighed as he got to the top of the stairs. 'And not only can I not rest,' he thought, 'but I have a bleeding demon lying in my bed. This is going to be one long night.'

He pushed open the door to his bedroom and closed it quickly behind him. Suddenly, a flash of red caught his eye. The black haired demon was staring intensely at him from his bed.

The demon opened his mouth, probably to loudly demand something, but Kurama silently hushed him. "Mother doesn't know you're here. I'd have a lot of explaining to do if someone else started yelling from my room. Explaining your presence would not be an easy task." That shut the demon up.

Then the demon, fought to sit up from the bed. Kurama rushed over to his side and pushed him back down. "You have a lot of bad wounds," he told the demon. "I don't think it'd be a good idea to do lots of moving."

The demon, although obviously annoyed by his handicap and weakness, looked off towards the wall with a, "hn." Kurama smiled and pulled a medicine box out from under his bed, and slowly and gently began taking off the bandage on the demon's arm.

As he was doing so, the demon looked back over at him. "Who are you?" the demon asked him.

"Kurama," he told him without a second thought, than winced inwardly. 'Damn, I shouldn't have given him my demon name. If he finds out my situation, then I'm in trouble.'

They drifted back into silence. "What is your name?" Kurama asked the demon, more trying to start a conversation then particularly caring.

The demon starred at him. "You don't even know who I am?" he asked Kurama shocked. "And you still helped me?" Kurama shrugged indicating a maybe, but no real definite answer. The demon, who after a minute of analyzing this fact, finally said, "Hiei."

"Hm?" Kurama asked distracted.

"My name is Hiei," the demon snapped at him, starting to lose his patience.

"Well," Kurama said, smiling a little from the demon's quick temper, "Hiei, you'd better just stay here until you're better. Some of those wounds are pretty bad.'

They sat like that for another couple minutes in silence, as Kurama worked his way from the demon's arm cuts down to the gash on his leg. Suddenly, Hiei sat up and banged his fist on the bed.

"Damn it," he growled annoyed, staring at Kurama in frustration. "Just what are you, human or demon? Your body is clearly that of a human and you live in a human house, but your ki defiantly has traces of a demon. Just what the heck are you."

This sudden outburst greatly shocked the kitsune, but after realizing what was the matter, he laughed. Hiei, annoyed by his laughing and feeling mocked, growled at him. "Sorry," Kurama told him, brushing a loose strand of hair out of his face. "But I keep forgetting how odd I must look to a ki reader. You could say," he said with a slight smirk, "that I'm a slight mixture of the two."

"A half breed?" Hiei asked in surprise.

"Well, something like that," Kurama told him shrugging.

"Besides," the fox said, continuing with the re-bandaging, "you're a bit of a odd mix yourself, aren't you? You defiantly have fire powers and it's unquestionable that fire is your main element." Then Kurama frowned. "But you're not totally fire demon either, and I'm not entirely sure what the other half is."

Hiei looked away. Kurama, sensing this was obviously a sensitive spot to a generally insensitive demon, let the matter drop.

The fire demon, probably trying to search for a change of topic, asked, "and how old are you anyway? You look like a kid, but you certainly don't act like one."

 Kurama winced again. 'We certainly do have a knack for bring up the things we don't want to talk about, don't we?' he thought, than sighed.

"I'm eight in the human world," he told Hiei. "But in the demon world, I'm much older."

"How old?" Hiei asked him suspiciously. 'He probably knows that I'm not your typical demon,' Kurama thought.

Then, to side step the question, said, "Pretty old."

Hiei would not be led off, however. "Exactly how old?"

Kurama sighed, not liking to lie and so forced to tell the truth. "I'm not exactly sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say about 1000 years or so."

Hiei's eyes widened at that. 1000 years was a lot for a demon and only the most powerful survived to hit the 800s or so. Kurama was a rare demon, indeed.

"And exactly what kind of demon are you, anyway?" Hiei asked as Kurama started to put away the medicine box.

This was starting to get dangerously close to revealing who Kurama actually was, but the last bit of information wasn't terribly bad. "Kitsune," he informed the fire demon as he pushed the box back under the bed.

Hiei snuffed at his answer. "A plant wielder, then," as if this were somehow inferior to a fire demon.

"Hey," Kurama said irritated, his demon pride getting the better of him. "It was this plant wielder who saved your life."

Hiei shrugged, wincing a little from the sharp pain in his shoulder. "I'll be leaving then," he said, standing up.

"You just got seriously injured! You should rest before you go get into trouble. Stay here for the night at least!" Kurama told him, trying to push in back down again.

Hiei, though, just pushed him off. "No," he said, going over to the window and opening it. "I'd rather just leave."

The fire demon stood up in the windowsill readying himself to jump off. Then, as a last minute thought, he looked back at Kurama. "Thanks," he said simply. And with that last word disappeared before Kurama could even give him a simple "you're welcome."

'Well, at least this solves the problem of sleeping arrangements,' he thought, lying down on his bed. It was a little warm from the fire demon's body that had just lain there.

And as Shuichi Minamino, other wise known as Kurama, lay on his bed and looked up at the ceiling, he realized something. 'Maybe it's not worth it to give up hope of gaining control of my demon self. Perhaps I've just been looking in the wrong place.'

'When I saw Hiei, I remembered something. Demon's are much better at all forms of fighting then humans will ever be. Maybe it's just that I'm looking in the wrong place for some to teach me self-control. Mayhap I should turn to the demons instead of the humans.'

It was this thought that first caused him to regain contact with his true world- the world of the demons.

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Hey again!

I'm so, so, so, so sorry! I said I'd have my new chapter up on Tuesday and I didn't! I beg your apology! I had a huge play to do Tuesday night, and I couldn't get my computer over to a computer with internet access! I'm really really sorry!

Now I just had to reply to a few reviews…let me see…

First of all, to Meheira, I'm sorry I didn't make it clear which Tuesday I meant, and with me being late, I'm sure that just confused you even more. I'm sorry, I'll try and add in the date from now on also.

And to the review that really crushed me, Dragonet of Flame. I'm really sorry you don't like my story, and I'm replying even though you probably aren't continuing to read this. I don't know what "non-cannon" is, but this story DOES mostly focus on Kurama. Hiei doesn't see Kurama for a while after this. Also, I'm sorry that you don't like how I don't keep characters in for long, but that's how these characters just turned out. Sorry once again, but as my fellow YYH crazed fan, Lugiamania would say, "If you don't like it, then don't read it." Although, I must say that the flame you sent was pretty kind, which I really appreciate.

And last of all, I have a new story up, that everyone who reads this will probably like! It's a parallel story to this one, more or less, but in Hiei's point of view. It starts about when he meets Kurama, but it doesn't focus on their relationship. Anyway, it should be up in a few hours, so I hope you all read and enjoy.

I think that was it. I know this is a long message, but bear with me. I'm not sure when my new chapter will be up, because I'm having some trouble writing it, but I hope it's up by Sunday, so I suggest you check then!

Thank you all for your kindness!

Dream Fox