AN: Hey there everyone! I was pretty happy with the number of reviews I got. Actually I'm amazed...So a big thank you to everyone! As promised, I have responded to all your reviews.

OJaganshi: You think my writing's amazing? ::is almost in tears:: Thank you so much! I always think my writing is lousy...Oh, and about who's stalking Kurama...0.o guess you'll have to read to find out...

Ish: Wow, you think I write good too? Shippo-chan is right, I must be blind or something...Yes, well, my favorite pairing is Hiei and Kurama. I like Kurama/Karasu pairings too though. I'm glad everyone thought the first chapter was suspenseful. I haven't really written a fic like this before...

Saria19: Arigatou! I will try to update often, but I'm a bit of a slacker. If you people keep reviewing, I tend to update faster though...(hint, hint).

Katyfoxdemon2: Thank you and I will try to update ASAP. Please excuse my occasional laziness...

Shippo-chan4: 0.o Wow Shippo, you really need to be...well, less paranoid. Tis not good for you. Oh, for those who don't know my niece who is being stalked by Karasu and his crows(u.u), say hi.::points at shippo:: Yeah...

angelbird12241:Thank you, and what do you know! Here it is!

Kurama's Luv: 'Allo Kanna! Your review made me laugh. I know what you meant, but when I was looking at the story, the first line of the story was "Winner of the Dark Tournament, Team Urameshi." I said out loud, "Wow, hooked on I line I didn't even write!" Then I read the first actual paragraph and went "oh..." Yeah, I know, that's pretty sad. Anyway, Hiei's Wish was kinda put on hold because::Hiei and Kurama in the background::She's lazy! ::glares:: Yeah, what they said. When I write chapter 7, I'll post chapter one. I promise this time.

Wakajini no Shijo: Hm..You like it? That's good. I always think my work is awful. But oh well, it's the reader's opinion that counts. So, thank you very much! Your writing's great too, really! ::Mutters::better than mine...

Well, that's it for reviews. Thank you again for reading! Now, onto the fic!

Disclaimer: Don't think for a second that I said I owned YuYu Hakusho, cause I don't. You'll have to find another excuse for me to get sued...

Dark Lust

Chapter Two: Prelude

"Don't touch me!" I screamed as I backed into a corner. Black rose petals covered the floor, accompanied by black feathers. I suddenly fell backwards, desperately reaching behind me to get away from him. He was not more than a shadow in the dark room. He came closer, drawing nearer to my fright-stricken self.

I reached back again, dragging myself from him as I caught the feathers and flowers in my hand. I fell on my back against something soft. I rested on clean, white sheets, strewn with the black amalgamation. I slowly looked back up to meet with him eye to eye. I was paralyzed as he harshly pressed his lips upon mine, forcing me down hard against the bed. I felt his hands working to do away with my clothes. When at last I got a chance, I yelled final, futile scream. Then he...

I sat up straight in bed, sweating dripping down my face. I fought to regain control over my breathing, finding it to be difficult. It was only a nightmare. But it had felt so real. I folded back the covers and sat on the side of my bed. The incident clearly had me rattled. Upon glancing at my clock, I saw that it was now 1:45. As much as I needed my rest, I had no desire to experience the dream again.

I instead sat wondering who exactly it had been in my dream. I believed it to be the same dark figure who had been in my house last night, but who was he? I got up and walked down to the kitchen. The house was silent except for the constant ticking of the downstairs clock. I pulled a glass from one of the cupboards and turned the kitchen faucet on. After taking a few sips of water, I decided to lay down on the couch.

I laid down and rested my head on the throw pillow. I had never had a reason to be afraid in my house before, but that had been stained. I found the emptiness of my sanctuary unsettling. It only worked to exhaust me more and I found myself drifting off into uneasy slumber. I fought it as long as I could, but sleep came whether welcomed or not...

"Shuichi, what are you doing on the couch?" I glanced up at my Mother who was looking worriedly down at me. I sat up and stretched, trying to work a kink out in my neck.

"I couldn't sleep well last night. I came down to get a drink and must have passed out on the couch..." I rubbed my shoulder and shook my head out.

"Do you think you'll be alright to go to school? If you're sick, you're welcome to stay home." I thought about it a minute. It seemed like a good idea, but then I remembered my plans with Hiei. If I didn't go to school, my teachers would think I was skipping.

"I'm fine mother." I stood up and trotted upstairs. After retrieving my uniform, I went to the bathroom to get ready. I felt the now familiar chill run up my spine as I entered, remembering the scene I was greeted by during the night. I quickly threw off my pajamas and started putting my school clothes on. I checked the window and saw that the curtains remained drawn. I sighed in relief and finished buttoning up my jacket.

I ran downstairs when I was finished in the bathroom, grabbing an apricot from the fruit dish and heading toward the front door. "Good bye, Mother!" I yelled as I rushed out.

"Good morning Shuichi!" I choked on my fruit as Amaya spoke. She ran over to me. "Are you okay?" I coughed and nodded.

"You just cough startled me is all..." She gave an apologetic look and we started walking. The thought of ditching class was becoming more and more appealing as I walked in silence and Amaya used every last bit of breath to go on and on about anything and everything. I didn't even bother listening, really.

As we reached the school, I more or less told a quick goodbye and parted for the door. I looked to the tree outside the entrance and was sure that I spotted Hiei's figure laying in wait. How nice. He'd already shown up and was going to wait for me all day...

By the time I had made it to Mr. Owanaga's class, I found myself plagued with an awful headache, not to mention a stomachache from not eating. In my haste I had forgotten to bring neither lunch nor money. I kept getting worried glances from my teacher as I placed two fingers on my temple. Everyone in the class seemed to notice my poor condition as well. A few so much as dared to whisper to one another. I almost jumped from my seat when the bell finally rang.

I was about to walk through the door when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder. "Shuichi, are you feeling alright?" Mr. Owanaga said with an air of concern.

"Yes sir. I just put in a rough night last night. I promise I won't let it happen again." I tried to leave but he did not remove his grasp.

"Shuichi, listen. You are by far the most intelligent, hardest working student I have ever had. But everyone needs a break now and then. Now, I don't know what you did in your absence, but if you're finding you're not up to coming here, I could set up to have your assignments brought to your house. You could work from home until you feel up to coming to class."

"Sir, it's all right. I don't need to work under special circumstances--"

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist, Shuichi. I want to see you succeed, but you can't do that if you kill yourself in the process. Now, I want you to take the day off and rest. You are to stay home until Wednesday. If you feel better by then, you may return to school."

"But sir--"

"There's no more to discuss, Shuichi. Now go on home."

"Yes sir..." I muttered. I actually liked the idea of getting a few days to just rest. At least, that was if I could rest. What if Hiei came over? I would feel a lot better if he was there. Surely whoever had been at my house would not come after me if someone else was there too?

"Hiei!" I said, remembering that the little demon had been waiting in the tree before school began. I rushed outside and looked up. Sure enough he had waited all that time. When no one was looking, he jumped down from the branches and landed close to me.

"Hn. Have fun?" He said sarcastically. Without thinking I reached up and rubbed the side of my head. "You have a headache?" Hiei? Concerned? Or was he being sarcastic again?

"Actually, yes I do. A very bad one." He looked at me seemingly sympathetic. I smiled back without thinking. "Maybe if we get a bite to eat, I'll feel better." He nodded and we started off on our afternoon walk.

That's when I recalled that I hadn't any money to my name. I sighed, placing my hands in my pockets. Oddly enough, there was my money. "That's just great..." I accidentally spoke out loud.

"What's just great?" Hiei said with glancing at me.

"Oh, nothing..."

As we headed into town we passed every kind of store imaginable. I finally found a small restaurant I was familiar with. Hiei looked questioningly at me. I told him that this would be a good place to go and he nodded again.

We were greeted by the pleasant smell of fried rice. A young lady walked up to us and smiled. "Two?" I nodded. "This way please." She walked to a small table by the back wall, placing menus on the table. Both of us sat down and she left. Hiei looked as though he were going to make a remark but never said anything. Instead, he picked up his menu and began to look it over. I watched him a moment before picking up my own menu.

Nothing in particular caught my eye, so I decided a bowl of fried rice would suffice. Hiei, on the other hand, was still looking his menu over. "Can't decide, Hiei?" He looked over his menu at me.

"No..." He muttered. He almost seemed ashamed.

"Well, why don't you just get what I'm having. It's the house specialty." He gave an approving nod and set his menu down. Seeing that we had decided, the young girl came back.

"What can I get for you gentleman?" Hiei slumped down in his chair at this. I had to stop myself from chuckling. He was acting so embarrassed!

"We would both like an order of fried rice please."

"And for your drinks?"

"Tea is alright for me? Is that alright with you, Hiei?" He nodded meekly. "Two teas then, please."

"Alright then. Your food should be out in a few minutes." She said and walked to the front counter. She came back with a teapot and two tea cups, which she delicately poured the amber liquid into.

"Domo." I said as she set it down and went to wait on another table. Hiei eyed his tea with curiosity. Finally, he reached out and picked it up, blowing on it gently and then taking a sip. His expression didn't change. He blinked once or twice and then set it back down. I found his behavior to be quite amusing.

"So, Hiei, did you have anything you wanted to do today?" He timidly shrugged. "Oh, well--" I thought about suggesting the gardens, but I didn't think Hiei would really look forward to that. A movie perhaps? No, I doubt he'd like that...Shopping didn't seem like an appealing idea either. Maybe the arcade? Surely he might like that... "Hiei, would you like to visit the arcade? I'm sure you'd have a good time."

"O-okay." He gave a half smile and I saw a faint blush cross his face as his eyes met with his table setting. I didn't know what to make of it. I was about to say something when our dishes were brought to our table. We both took our rice bowls from the cook. We both whispered a quick thank you and picked up our hashi. Hiei started right in, not wasting a second to devour the delicious rice. I ate more slowly and watched him out of shear fascination.

He suddenly paused with his chopsticks still in his mouth and looked up at me. Our eyes locked for a second before he swallowed the bite of food. "What?"

I blinked. "Nothing." I said and continued eating my food. He did the same, much slower than he had earlier.

I stared at the rice and vegetables in my dish as I ate, but slowly brought the hashi to rest on the edge of the bowl, my hands still. I felt Hiei's eyes upon my unmoving self. I was deep in thought, trying to make sense of everything that had been happening lately. The strange flower, the feathers, the dream. But for some reason, I couldn't make heads or tails of anything. I finally took the last bite of food and set my dish on the table. Hiei had just finished his.

I'm not going to spoil today by worrying. Today is a day for Hiei and I to have fun, and nothing's going to change that. I suddenly smiled and looked up at Hiei. "Are you ready to go, Hiei?" He nodded and stood as I did. Then we walked to the counter, paid our waitress, and left.

I could see the flashing neon lights dancing in Hiei's eyes as he gazed ahead of him. His mouth was just barely open in wonder. "Come on! Let's go inside!" I said as I took up his hand and led him through the glass doors. Lights flashed all around us, accompanied by every sound imaginable. There were people everywhere, and the clink of coins were abundant. "So which game would you like to try first?"

He looked around nervously. "How many games are there?" He glanced left and right, then left again.

"I'm not really sure. I never bothered to count, but there are a lot. Why don't we head over here?" I walked and he followed. I soon came to stand in front of an elaborate game. Two people were competing fiercely. Hiei eyed them suspiciously.

"What are they doing?" He asked.

"Dancing, of course." I looked back.

"Oh...And that's the whole point to the game?" I nodded.

"It's called Dance Dance Revolution. See the arrows? When they hit the outlines on the beat, you step on them. The better your timing, the better the rating you get. If you chain good ratings, you get more points. However, miss too many steps and you lose."

"I guess that's simple enough..." He said as he put his hands in his pockets. I heard the music end.

"No one can beat you man!" A blonde kid ran up to the first player and hit him on his back. "You're unstoppable, Kyo!" The chocolate haired boy turned and grinned.

"There's no point tellin' me something I already know." His eyes found his way to me. "What the hell you lookin' at, pretty boy?" He sneered. Hiei started to move and I waved my hand behind me. He stopped.

"You have quite a talent. It's rather impressive." I had seen this boy once before. He was trouble and I thought many a times of teaching him a lesson. Lucky for me I could beat him at his own game, literally. After all, I wasn't a normal human...

He smirked at his friend and mocked me. "I have quite a talent. It's rather impressive!" The both of them laughed. "So, is that some kinda challenge?"

"Don't waste your time, Kurama." Hiei said. I almost thought about walking away.

"I think your boyfriend's right. It'd pretty embarrassin' to come up 'ere and make a fool of yourself!" That was it. I was going to show this kid up no matter what.

"I believe you will be the one who will be disgraced." I said, stepping onto the machine. Hiei stood behind me frowning. "Don't worry, this will only take a minute." I looked at the boy. "One song. Whoever gets the high score wins. Fair enough?"

"Whatever. You're gonna lose either way."

"Well now, since you seem so confident, why don't I pick the song?" At this the boy seemed a bit more concerned. His pride obviously got the best of him though.

"Feh, why not? Like I said, you haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of beating me."

"I've faced worse odds..." I muttered. I quickly slipped 150 yen into the machine. "This game will be on me." I said with an hint of condescension in my voice. I quickly set the mode to two players. The difficulty selection screen came up. I watched Kyo hesitantly set the marker to Heavy as I had. The song selection screen came up after this. "Well now. You seem to be knowledgeable of the game, so it doesn't matter what I pick, now does it?" I said as I scrolled through the songs.

"Naw, not at all." His eyes widened as I stopped at Max Unlimited.

"Oh that's good. I wouldn't want to pick a terribly hard song, after all." I grinned. Hiei stood behind me, seemingly lost. Kyo just stared blankly at the screen. "Shall we begin?" He gave no response. "I'll take that as a yes." I hit enter before he could protest.

"Are you crazy?!?" Kyo shouted as he shot a desperate look at me.

"No, just confident." I smiled brightly at him and he turned back to the screen with his previous look. The arrows suddenly began to flash across the screen. I followed them with perfect precision, stepping on the arrows with grace. Kyo's eyes could barely discern what he was seeing. He clumsily stomped on what he thought to be the correct arrow.

I just smiled and kept up, my hair rising and falling with my smooth footwork; each step being followed by the word "Perfect" in yellow letters. My specialty was watching for patterns and memorizing them. I had memorized the steps to this song long ago. I looked back at Hiei, who was still watching in sheer amazement. He caught my look and I winked and smiled at him. I suddenly heard a loud thump and turned my head to Kyo. At least, Kyo should have been there...

"Daijabou?" I said innocently at the boy who was now lying on the ground. He laid there swirly eyed and I opted to ignore him until the song came to a close. After receiving my perfect "S" ranking, I stepped off and walked over to him. "Serves you right, you know." He was still too dizzy to reply, so I turned to Hiei. "Shall we go?" Hiei seemed to be in a trance. "Hiei?" He stood staring at me then suddenly snapped to attention.

"Y-yeah." He caught up to me as I started to leave. Hiei and I walked side by side down the street. To my surprise it was already beginning to get dark outside. I sighed, saddened that the day had gone by so fast. Thoughts of last night drifted back into my mind. Then I remembered my idea. What if Hiei stayed at my house?

"Hiei?"

"Hn?"

"Would you--" Kurama, be realistic. Hiei won't want to come to your house. He'll just think you're being weird. Besides, you don't want Shiori to know Hiei that well. The less she knows about your life, the safer she'll be...

"Kurama?"

"Huh?"

"Would I...?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just, uh, thinking about something." He looking inquiringly at me. "H-hiei?"

"What, fox?" He said more patiently then normal. Odd...Somehow it made me feel more audacious.

"Would you care to come over to my house? I mean, if you don't have anything better to do, I'd really enjoy your company." He looked pleasantly at me and spoke less hesitantly than he had the rest of the day.

"Sure."

I almost mistepped at his response. Yet at the same time, I was a little expectant of it. Something strange had come over me at his words.

So we walked, side by side down the street in the fading, evening light. The sun drifted lazily to the west as the moon made its presence aware of in the young night sky. The stars began to make themselves discernible across a navy blue backdrop. All that mattered was the stars, the moon, and my best friend walking next to me.

My hand found its way into his and we held on tightly. He wasn't afraid; neither was I. And we walked in satisfying silence, under the stars, under the moon, under the fading twilight.