Warning: Alcohol use. Don't drink, and don't listen to Shizuru.

-- This Chapter was updated 9-1-2008 --

Huminshou

By Zelia Theb

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

Yusuke cleared the coffee table of the empty cans, and noticed that he had picked up five cans from Hiei's 'spot.' The demon had moved, and was actually conversing with the others near the window (or in Hiei terms, actually tolerating the conversation going on around him). Yusuke sighed heavily, wondering when the impending doom for everyone was going to strike. He muttered, "Who keeps handing Hiei beer? He said he wanted pop from now on…" Shizuru, Kuwabara's fair-skinned brunette sister, ashed her cigarette in the tray Yusuke was in front of. She smirked at the boy, signaling that she might be up to no good.

"The kid's gotta lighten up. He's always shielding himself from everyone, so knocking back a few should ease him up," she stated indifferently. "It's the only reason that my baby bro's so hard on him all the time."

Yusuke angrily dropped the empty cans in the kitchen sink, then returned to the coffee table. He argued in a whisper, "Did you take a stupid pill or something? What if he's an angry drunk!"

"What's there to be angry about?" the elder Kuwabara asked.

"We're talkin' Hiei here," Yusuke answered. "What isn't there to be angry about?"

"Nothing really," she remarked. "Baby bro's being pretty good since he found out about the situation. The only thing that could really bug him is the way that Kurama's been eyeing you all day." Yusuke swallowed hard; she had noticed? What else was this super-sensor aware of? She interrupted his thoughts, and added, "But don't worry about it. I don't think he's a mean guy deep down, and that's why I think that if he opens up, he'll be pretty cool to be around." That's two points on the 'Drug Hiei' scoreboard.

"Oh Yusuke!" Botan called from the congregation near the window, "Come here! I have to show you something!" Shizuru quirked an eyebrow while observing Yusuke's face contort in fear as he slowly made his way to the group.

The happy girl told everyone to gather around, and she stuck her hand deep into the inside of her brown jacket, hesitating just enough to create suspense. A bead of nervous sweat rolled down the back of Yusuke's neck. She wouldn't dare reveal that picture in front of everyone, especially Keiko, for no good reason, would she? The girl pulled out four small silver discs which fit nicely in the palm of her hand.

"They're brand new communicators! Only smaller! Neat, isn't it?" she giggled, handing them to their respective new owners.

"Cool," Kuwabara stated, stuffing it into his pocket, "no more girly make-up thingy!"

"Thank you, Botan," Kurama said. "It's time for the old devices to go into retirement."

"Damn it, another stupid thing I have to carry around," Yusuke complained. "At least this thingy is smaller."

"Thanks Botan," Hiei remarked. The rest of his teammates were shocked; did Hiei just willingly thank someone? Another bead of sweat formed on Yusuke. Surely this was the beginning of the end!

"Oh!" Botan exclaimed, happy for the surprising thanks. "You're so welcome Hiei!" She patted him on the head, and he didn't exactly smile, but he didn't exactly cringe away or kill her either.

The detective was nudged hard in his ribs. He uttered a statement of pain, and turned to see Shizuru. She smiled cockily and said, "See what I mean?" He rubbed the sore spot on his side and gave her an evil side glare.

After the group broke apart into various different places, joking, teasing, and just talking amongst each other, Kuwabara convinced Yusuke to find a deck of cards so that they could play a game. He brought two new poker decks from his mother's room. The question of which table to play the game at was brought up.

"How about right here?" Kurama suggested, sitting down on the sofa behind the coffee table. Everyone nodded, and was ready to sit down. Kurama patted the space next to him and grinned, "This seat right here is empty, isn't it Yusuke?" Yusuke gulped again. That fox-demon was playing poker with Yusuke's life! He tried to resist, but Kurama flashed him a sad pair of green puppy-eyes (or in his case, kit-eyes). The brown-eyed boy reluctantly sat down on Kurama's left, leaving a foot of space between them.

That's of course, when Hiei's jealous side came out (though the demon wasn't coherent enough to reveal exactly what, rather, who he was jealous of). He purposely placed his hind in that one foot space, fitting perfectly like a puzzle piece. He grinned evilly, then leaned way too close to Kurama and noted, "You did say that this spot was empty." Kurama's left eye wrinkled up, slightly agitated at the small demon. The heartbreaker redhead could swear that he heard the tallest of the bunch whisper something about a bet on the relationship between he and Hiei, but he shrugged it off.

Yusuke, on the other hand (literally, Hiei's other hand), was growing rather tense at the fact that his leg and his hip were pressed next to Hiei's. What was worse was that he couldn't move, because Keiko squashed in, filling the last space. On top of that, or rather, Yusuke's leg, was Hiei's leg, because for some (alcohol-induced) reason, he had decided to sit cross-legged, gripping his ankles like handlebars on a bicycle. Well, the demon never did like to have his legs dangling.

"Since we're playing with a double deck, let's play something like Hearts!" Kuwabara offered up. Being the honorable man that he was, he was seated on the floor, allowing Botan to take the chair. His sister was a different story, though she didn't really care all that much anyway.

"How about a good old game of poker?" Yusuke suggested. Poker faces would be the perfect way out of Shizuru's radar.

"Sure," said girl remarked, lighting a cigarette, "five card stud. I'll deal." She began shuffling the cards together like she had worked in a casino her entire life, playing a magician's assistant on the side.

"Stud?" Hiei perked up. "Is that the one where you bet your clothes?" Everyone giggled, not at the naïve nature of the statement, but because they genuinely thought that it was a joke.

"That's strip poker, Hiei," Kurama reminded him. Out of male instinct, the four guys at the table instantly pictured what a fun game of poker that could be. Of course Kuwabara was weary about his sister, but figured that she was too good to lose any clothing.

"That's risky," the demon shifted his eyes down to study his ankles. "Risk makes everything more fun." Yusuke choked on the air loudly. His foot was kicked under the table by Shizuru, who winked at him. He froze; she wasn't just rubbing her correct guess in, she knew!

"Let's just stick to this game," Keiko said with a slight laugh. Her face was pink due to her own private thoughts about Yusuke.

They set the rules; no money or clothing bets. The stakes were far more hilarious. In each round, the absolute loser had to accept a dare given by the winner. In the event of a tie, the winner had to give each of them the same dare. Shizuru was unclear about the consequences of not accepting a dare, but everyone in the room was certain that she would make sure that there would never be such a case, and they didn't want to test that theory out.

Kuwabara triumphantly won the first round. He dared Botan to eat a spoonful of dried rice mixed with ketchup. It wasn't all that disgusting, but he didn't exactly want to play evil with her either. The next round, Botan was the winner (how she made a miraculous comeback was between she and Shizuru), and Yusuke had lost. She tossed Yusuke a strange look that threatened to reveal 'the photograph' if he didn't comply with the dare. It was to kiss Keiko on the cheek, and he did quickly, inviting a pinkish hue to his friend's face, and spurring an 'Aww!' from both Kuwabara and Botan.

"Aw, come on!" Yusuke whined after seeing his hand in comparison with everyone else's. He had tied with Kurama, and the winner was the evil dealer.

She lit up another cigarette, and asserted, "I dare you two to go the rest of the night shirtless." Oh, she was certainly evil, and she loved every minute of it. She exhaled a satisfying cloud of smoke as she watched Kurama quickly remove his shirt and toss it neatly over the back of the couch. Naturally, she and the other two girls were ogling the flawless chest, but she had at least expected Hiei or Yusuke to look too, and they didn't. Yusuke, after sighing for what seemed like hours, finally followed suit (again, no poker pun intended) and took his own shirt off. Being a lot less tidy than Kurama, he just tossed it on the floor behind him.

"You all must be jealous of me," Hiei muttered, his remark directed at the girls. They laughed at the joke, trying to hide their embarrassment.

The fourth round was finished. This time the drunken demon was the victor, and his friendly rival Kuwabara had the poorest hand.

"Hehe," Hiei cackled. He placed his elbows behind his knees and propped his face up with his hands, staring Kuwabara down in his strange new position. Kuwabara sunk into the floor (which didn't work, it wasn't all that gelatinous). He knew that he was in for it. Hamster legs always had it out for him, after all.

"I…dare…you…" Hiei stated in a hushed murmur, "to tell the detective's neighbor that you love them…"

"Seems easy enough," Kuwabara let out the breath that he was holding. He figured that they probably wouldn't be home.

"In your underwear," the short one finished. He sat back, brushing shoulders with the boys next to him, adding. "And they are home."

"Come on! That's not fair! Do I ha…" He was punched in the arm by his sister. He cursed under his breath, making sure that the ladies didn't hear him, and performed the dare. The woman next door gasped and slammed the door on him, sending him darting back into the apartment and slamming the door behind him. Hiei and the others let out deep cackles, which the kid vowed revenge on (once he redressed himself).

So the Universe bestowed upon him such an opportunity. It did prefer him to Yusuke anyway. Kurama was to receive his second dare of the night.

"I'm gonna get you, anklebiter," Kuwabara grimaced. He turned to Kurama and said, "I dare you to kiss Hiei." That would bring him out into the open once and for all! Plus, Koenma had offered him some side money if he helped him win his own bet.

"Hn…" Hiei snarled, leaning in to Yusuke. Yusuke was trembling; it would answer some questions for him, but did he want to see that? Well, sort of, but in the lesbian-porn-is-hot-to-all-men way. He stood by his newfound belief, due to the fact that Hiei was pressing into his side, afraid of what was going to happen.

"Oh, that's not a big deal!" Kurama remarked as if…it weren't a big deal. He leaned over and placed his lips quickly on Hiei's right cheek then leaned back into the couch and crossed his arms victoriously. There wasn't anything that the great Kurama wouldn't do.

Hiei quickly wiped off the small damp feeling on his face and growled at Kuwabara. Meanwhile, Botan and Shizuru were busy using body language to communicate about how hot they found that small bit of male on male love. Yusuke shrugged, it must be a girl thing. He was more concerned about his own feelings, and how they were confirmed as the night progressed.

The next round of poker began, but it was interrupted mid-deal by Koenma, who had decided to put those new communicators to good use.

"What's up, Koenma" Botan asked perkily, flipping open her silver disc. The four boys gathered around her, allowing Shizuru the chance to take a seat on the couch.

Hiei tried to push his way passed the dullard, who was blocking his view. He popped in next to the still shirtless Yusuke, and said, "Hi, Koenma."

The toddler in blue made a strange face at the rather out of character greeting from the normally pre-menstrual demon. He figured that it must be some sort of ploy to get out of his punishment. He would have none of that! He had to win that bet!

"Well, it seems that we have a troublemaker on our hands," Koenma began.

"Yeah, duh, why else would you be bothering us?" Yusuke interjected. "To invite us over for cookies?" The baby glared at Yusuke, which soon turned to a look of flattery, brought on by the next comment.

"You look better when you're older," Hiei muttered, a slur on his first word.

"Uh, thanks, Hiei," Koenma stuttered. "Getting back to business, this guy is running around, claiming to be Shuichi Minamino. He's committing random and small petty crimes, possibly in an attempt to get Kurama kicked out of school."

Kurama stepped forward, also without a shirt, and asked, "But what could be their motivation?"

Koenma was about to answer, but the only thing that he could see on his end was two shirtless boys, Botan, Kuwabara, and an overly flirtatious Hiei (who was poking curiously at Yusuke's side for no apparent reason). He strayed from the topic to ask, "What the heck is going on over there?"

"Apparently I am not very good at poker, sir," Kurama answered.

"Ah. Well, his objective is to reveal your human cover, Kurama. There is nothing to worry about, his threat is low. Not as low as the previous demon, but this is a minor case."

"So what does the fake flower boy look like?" Hiei questioned, indirectly insulting Kurama. He was angry about the way his face had been treated a few minutes earlier.

"He looks like Kurama!" Koenma replied. He was nervous, as Hiei had just openly insulted Kurama. Perhaps he was going to lose his wager?

"I'm going to find him," the demi-demon said, "it should be fairly easy."

"I'm comin' too!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "I ain't lettin' some jerkface ruin things for that really nice mom of yours!"

"Well, Yusuke, for once, you don't have to solve this case," Koenma informed him.

The detective thought about it for a moment. He didn't exactly want to get hot and sweaty with Kurama, as strange as that might sound. He did, however, want to let Hiei out of his sentence for a little while. He agreed to tag along too, but surprisingly, the demon that he was looking out for spoke up.

"I don't want to go," he remarked.

"If Yusuke goes, you have to go," Koenma declared clearly. "Good luck, guys." The toddler made a peace sign and smiled, "Peace out, homies!"

"What the hell?" Botan cursed out of nowhere. No one was as bewildered about her remark as they were about what she was cursing about. Koenma's 'trendy' choice of words made him appear foolish.

Yusuke watched Hiei retrieve his sword from its position against the kitchen wall. It struck him then; how did the guy have his sword when he didn't have his cloak to conceal it? He decided not to question the fact. He was already inducing anger from Hiei by forcing him to do something for himself.

"Well, come on, kiddo," Shizuru turned to Keiko. "I'll walk ya home." The other brunette nodded and the two girls wished their boys good luck as they prepared to leave. Kurama made his way to the couch and picked up his shirt. Shizuru stopped in her tracks and said, "The rest of the night." The green-eyed boy sighed, protesting that it wasn't conventional for guys to walk around Japan without clothing, but Shizuru broke his tirade by announcing, "Fine. Forget that Keiko. We're going with them." Beads of sweat were now rolling down Kurama's neck. Both he and Yusuke took their shirts anyway, but had to keep them tucked in to the back of their pants.

Kurama had figured that the first place to look was in his neighborhood. His suspicion was correct. Botan had pulled out one of the many Spirit World devices (the demon radar), and they were currently walking in the direction of the false Shuichi. Yusuke was dragging several feet behind everyone, trying to keep an eye on Hiei, who was straggling. The normally dark demon was actually dragging his feet, much like a small child would in protest of food shopping with its mother.

"Come on, Hiei," Yusuke prodded. "I only came so you could get out of that building."

"I don't want to help Kurama," he stated dejectedly, his eyes locked on the sidewalk.

"Why not? Is it because of Kuwabara's dare?" Yusuke asked. He realized that starting some sort of heart-to-heart talk with Hiei was a bad idea. He had only really asked the questions out of human habit to console.

"I'm tired," Hiei responded, inching closer to Yusuke. The detective should at least know that alcohol makes a person sleepy. He should have tried to stall the mission for the next day.

"You need to say these things, Hiei. I can't read minds." The boy blew some hair out of his eyes; his gel was losing strength. "You said that you could handle it."

"I'm going to tell Botan that we're leaving," Hiei said, picking up his stride and joining the second wave of people, the three girls. After a minute of conversing and one evil chuckle from the abnormally optimistic detective assistant, Hiei returned to Yusuke with a pale face and said, "Nevermind. I'm not tired." Had Botan used the picture as leverage? Either way, it didn't matter, because Hiei slumped into Yusuke, unconscious and asleep. Yusuke quickly caught him and then hoisted him up into his arms, carrying him like a cradled newborn infant. He called for one of the girls to pick up the sword, which had fallen to the ground in a clank. Botan obliged the request.

"It's a good thing that Koenma doesn't pay Hiei…" Kuwabara murmured to everyone, somewhat afraid that Hiei wasn't sleeping on the job.

"I should prolly take him back, guys," Yusuke apologized, adjusting Hiei in his arms. "Sorry."

The boy rested his back against the wall behind his bed. It was nice to rest after carrying Hiei eight blocks, even though he still had no rest from the actual burden. He was sort of mad that dirty shoes were in his bed, but he didn't see the need to remove any article clothing without the demon's consent. Plus, the thought of where Hiei's shoes have been terrified him more than a night alone in the Demon World did.

He brought a blanket up to cover both of them before moving Hiei by the back of his neck. The demon's jawbone had been rather uncomfortable in its former space; grinding into Yusuke's collarbone. He smiled when he noticed that Hiei had left a tiny smudge of saliva, most likely formed due to his slumber. Hiei drooling in his sleep? It was an adorable concept. Plus, now he knew that demon fluids weren't acidic, at least this particular one's weren't.

He still wasn't certain. Perhaps it was his curiosity getting the better of him. He brought his finger to the damp spot, then to his lips for a taste. Nothing, just like water. A foreign idea crossed his brain at that single moment, one that could result in the painful tearing of his head from his body, but also a pleasant sensation. He could steal a kiss from him right then, and Hiei may never know it.

That was absurd! Hiei? Why couldn't he explain his desire to touch their lips together? It seemed as if everything was happening so fast, or maybe it already was there, unlocked by their new arrangement. He tossed the thoughts out the window (they weren't too happy about that; they preferred the door), and decided to stick with Urameshi philosophy. I'd rather regret doing something then regret not doing something, he thought. If he liked it, he could know for sure that it was always there; if not, then he could rest assured that such conceptions were brought on by the decree of Koenma, and nothing more.

Yusuke looked at him, leaping into the pool with both feet, and softly pushing his closed lips to Hiei's unaware mouth. He held them there, taking in the feeling, warm, yet cold, and most definitely unchapped (a surprise due to Hiei's usual choice of harsh words). Anxiety attacked him as he identified the brim of the mouth; what if Hiei woke up? It was no secret that the small framed demon abhorred the dare that Kurama had so boldly carried out earlier in the night. He released the imprisoned lips and nuzzled Hiei absent-mindedly. Hey, it wasn't as if they weren't going to wake up that way anyway.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note

Thanks to Tsuname, ShadowDragon, Kittengrl39, FluffysBijin05, Parariillusion, Yoko's Babby, Umi no Oni, Averon, and Black Angel of Destruction (aka MK! ) ).

-Zelia Theb