Disclaimer: Don't own YYH.

Yes, this is a longer chapter! I hope it makes up for the last one! And just to tell you, please be patient about updates, because "the dreaded school" has started for me. Please review and tell me what you think so far!!!

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Hiei sat there, staring out the window. He was tired, but he couldn't sleep. Each time he would try to close his eyes, there were those images again, flashes of his previous dreams, haunting him. Besides, he had to stay awake to make sure Kurama was all right. He had to stay awake. But even as he thought this, his eyelids began to droop.

"Burn! Feel pain as you've never experienced it! Burn!"

"AAHHHHHHHH!!"

"KURAMA!!! NOO!!!"

He jolted awake again with his own scream ringing in his ears. This was ridiculous. Why was he afraid of a mere dream?

Still, he had to stay awake.

He had to stay awake.

He had to...

Stay.....

Awake.......

He was walking along an earthen path through the forest. Soon, he came to a clearing. Kurama was lying there alone, looking up at the clouds.

Hiei walked over to his friend. "Hello, Hiei," the kitsune said, glancing in his direction, but then his gaze returned to the sky. Hiei sat down beside Kurama and looked upward. "What are you looking at?" the fire demon asked.

Kurama folded his hands behind his head. "Just the clouds," he answered. "Sometimes they appear to take shapes. Quite marvelous, really. Look there. What do you see?"

Hiei lay down on his back and stared up at the fluffy white clouds. One looked to him like a dragon, beating it's mighty wings. "It's a dragon," he remarked.

The fox smiled. "Is that what you see? I see a sparrow, navigating the winds with ease." Hiei looked closer, but couldn't see what his friend was talking about. His gaze shifted to another cloud. It looked like a person, a human-like figure, so perfect it seemed real. Every feature of his face, yes it was a man, and clothing was so defined, as if it could start speaking at any minute.

Then Hiei saw a flash of gold in the man's eyes, and his mouth pulled into an evil smirk. He gasped as he realized who it was. The man he was looking at was Ryton.

Before he could do anything, Ryton had leapt down on them, showering sparks everywhere. "So, we meet again," he sneered. "You will not escape me this time. Blaze of the Heated Storm!" Golden light shot through the air straight for Kurama. Hiei lay there, frozen. The energy absorbed into Kurama's body. The fox felt it get increasingly get hotter. Hiei felt it, too. Before long, they both began to burn.

Kurama shrieked, arching his back and jerking around in agony.

Hiei still couldn't move. Even though he was in excruciating pain, he didn't move an inch, except to scream in torment.

"KURAMA!!! NOOOO!!!!!!!"

Hiei jolted awake, panting, his body covered in cold sweat. He sat there, breathing heavily, trying to calm himself. But he kept remembering his dream. He couldn't get it out of his mind. The pain had felt so real...

"Hiei? What's wrong?" asked a worried voice.

The fire demon jumped in surprise. Kurama was lying in his bed, very much awake and staring at him, waiting for an answer.

"N-nothing. Nothing. I-"

Kurama narrowed his eyes. "Hiei. I know something's wrong because I can feel it. Just because I don't know your feelings as well as you know mine doesn't mean I can't feel them. Tell me."

Hiei sighed and, with a shaking voice and much effort, told Kurama all about the dreams he had had during unconsciousness, purposefully leaving out the ones about Ryton.

"Well," the kitsune said thoughtfully, "I have a feeling that those dreams were products of our feelings. The dreams where I was causing you pain could have happened because, at that moment, I was feeling guilty about hurting you in some way. Remember, you don't just feel my physical pain, you also feel pain from my soul. The dreams where you were tormenting me were probably products of your own guilt and despair."

Hiei nodded in agreement, but then said, "There were other dreams, too. Only two of them, but they seemed the most real, and the most alike. In both, we were in the forest, talking. Suddenly, Ryton would appear, and attack you with his Blaze of the Heated Storm. I would be frozen, helpless, while you were tortured and killed. I felt the pain, also, but I didn't die. I just watched as you were torn apart before my eyes. That's what woke me in time to save you."

Silence filled the room, and Hiei avoided Kurama's eyes. "Well, he's dead now," said the fox slowly. "Those must have just been our feelings combined."

Hiei shook his head. "No, that's the problem. Neither of us feel that way now, and I just had another of those dreams."

Kurama narrowed his eyes. "I don't understand. Could you explain it further?"

Hiei growled in annoyance. "Kurama! I just had a dream about-"

"Heh heh heh."

Hiei broke off suddenly and glanced around. What was that?

"What is it, Hiei?" asked Kurama.

The fire demon looked at him. "You didn't hear it?"

Kurama's eyes clouded in confusion. "Hear what?"

"That laugh..."

"Heh heh heh."

Hiei jumped and looked around wildly. "Hiei? What's the matter?" came Kurama's concerned voice again.

"You must hear it, Kurama. Stop playing games with me."

"I'm not playing games, Hiei, and I don't hear anything. Are you all right?"

Hiei glanced around again. "I'm not going crazy," he muttered to himself.

"Are you so sure?"

Hiei suddenly felt a searing pain in his Jagan. "AAAAHHHHHH!!!" he yelled, clutching his head in his hands. He fell off the windowsill to the ground in agony. He felt like he was being ripped apart, like his head was being spit in two.

He vaguely became aware of a muffled cry of "Hiei!" and someone trying desperately to reach him, but it was soon drowned out by his own screams and an evil laugh...