The battle was fought and there was only one thing left to deal with: the infamous tape, Chapter Black

You may be a good influence on him

"Hiei's been trying to get his hands on it for years, you know…"

Yusuke looked at the shorter figure standing next to him. Small and slender, the top of his head barely crested his shoulders, and that was only if you included the flame of black hair on the fire demon's head. He usually had the appearance of a rather youthful young man but when pushed… now, Yusuke would never say this to Hiei for the prospect of an early death but… he made him think a little bit of a leprechaun. He was short and green and had this crazy drunk smile (leprechauns drink, right?), if you ignored the many eyes that would pop up on his tiny frame…

Yusuke blinked. Now was not the time to think about leprechauns… Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how one looked at it, Hiei was the one holding Chapter Black.

"Well, you've got your hands on it… what are you going to do now?" Yusuke asked.

The smaller man raised ruby eyes to Yusuke's and the teen found himself hard pressed not to suck in a rattling breath at the stare.

"I must confess, there was a time when I wanted to see it myself."

"I heard you wanted it…"

Hiei frowned slightly. Had he known Kurama had such a loose tongue he never would have mentioned it to him… After all, one look with the Jagan eye and he knew that was the person who let that slip to the Detective.

Strangely honest chocolate eyes stared back at him. This human fighter who always acted so tough, this idiot who was so trusting of someone who should never be trusted, who, according to his spirit beast, was really not more than a lump-of-fluff-pushover… He was waiting on him to make a decision about such a dangerous thing. He really was too trusting.

He didn't even need to glance behind Yusuke to know that the others were tensed and ready to grab the cassette at a moment's notice… without Yusuke even realizing what would happen.

Sooooo trusting…

Hiei smirked.

"I heard it was very provocative…"

Yusuke licked his lips in anticipation unconsciously. He had seen the smirk that had crossed Hiei's face and he tensed, knowing his sometimes partner was about to act. He watched as Hiei raised the tape to just above the demon's slight hips and raised his other hand to pull off the cloth wrapped around his forehead. The bright eye opened and turned its stare to the tape. Brow furrowed in concentration, a small flicker of light, a black flame, enveloped the hand holding Chapter Black, seeming to swallow and slide along the hard plastic case and move inside the cassette.

The film melted.

Well, not melted, per say, but more like disintegrated. It turned into fine black ash and, as the flame retreated, leaving the hard plastic case intact, the ash turned gray and then white… Yusuke had never seen film act quite like that.

"Here, Detective, I'm sure that boss of yours would like some evidence back," Hiei tossed the now useless cassette at Yusuke and, turning, disappeared into the shadows.

"Ah… right," Yusuke grinned weakly. He felt slightly confused.

"You may be a good influence on him."

"I'm sure Koenma will not mind so much about the tape…" Yusuke blinked in surprise and glanced over his right shoulder to see Kurama smiling gently at him. "It's certainly better than one of the many alternatives that I could think of…"

"Eh, it's mutilated," Yusuke grinned. "Good old Hiei, always full of surprises."

"Not really," Kurama shook his head in amusement. "I really should have known he'd try pulling something like that. After all, you were here."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Yusuke glared, the same glare he had given Kurama before at the mention of his prior interest in the infamous tape.

He looked a little like Hiei like that…

Kurama beamed. "I've told you he likes you. If Koenma was here, he might've tried running off with it just to spite him."

"Well, who likes taking orders from the toddler jerk, eh?" Yusuke laughed.

"Hey guys, let's go home now, okay?" Kuwabara sighed and stepped over one of the other psychics that was currently taking a "nap" on the ground. "We should probably get these guys patched up… and I want to check on Eikichi."

"Sheesh, you and your cat…" Yusuke started in a teasing voice, stepping lightly with a bounce over to the taller red head.

"Wanna make something of it?" Kuwabara stuck his chin out in defiance.

Kurama shook his head, trying hard to quash his laughter as the two friends started roughhousing in the middle of the battlefield.

In the shadows, Hiei rolled his eyes.

"Mortals," he sighed. "What a nuisance…"

AN: Hey there, Mikki here… I know, I know, I'm not working on the stories I'm supposed to be working on… Oh well. I'll get to them in a bit.

…Is the PG rating too much for this ficcy? I dunno, but I'd rather be on the safe side.

Ack! So many errors! Sobs I really should've written this down when I first thought of it…

The title, to put it mildly, sucks. I must admit, I can't think of a single really good title for this piece so I guess this will have to do.

This popped up in my head last night (10/13/2004) and it wouldn't get out so when I woke up this morning and… whaddya know, it's still there …I figured I might as well type it up. I'll just check my last two quotes a bit then put it up. If I get that pic that's also floating in my head (rather silly, but…) drawn out, I'll post it to DA as well. I think the idea for that pic was rather influenced by this poster where the four guys are smiling and Hiei looks particularly happy (especially compared to how he always looks) with Yusuke's arm slung over his shoulder. For some reason it just seems very funny to me (maybe because of Buu(? – Yusuke's spirit beast) and the water floating in the air? Maybe…)

I don't recall where but… I'm pretty sure that either in manga or the anime Kurama said to Yusuke concerning Hiei these lines: "That's his way of saying, 'You're welcome'" and "He likes you." (Uh… no, not shonen ai or anything… I always interpreted the "He likes you" line as "You amuse him"… Heh, but that's just me…) Is that line correct? There was an extra line in this story related to the "He likes you" quote but since I wasn't sure about the accuracy I took it out. Too bad though… that line was the whole point of the story.