Note: This fic has been cancelled.

APRIL FOOLS!

Heheheheh. Scared the crap outta some of you, didn't I? Ah, oh well. Truthfully, I waited until April 1st to update just so I could pull that joke (I know-the actual update date is the 31st, but if it was put up on the first, hardly anyone would read it at the right time!) Anyway, I hope that this chapter is all right-I didn't have as much time to revise it as usual.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Oh, and there might be a little more humor than drama usually allows in this chapter, I'm sorry, but put up with it.

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"Kurama, I want you to repeat what you just said."

The kitsune sighed. "Yusuke, it's just like it sounds," he said, voice weary. "I was caught and grounded last night." Yusuke and Kuwabara stared at their friend in shock. "Please, it's not that big of a deal." But the tone in Kurama's voice told them it was.

"Yeah it is!" Yusuke said. "You've never been grounded in the whole time we've known you." Kurama winced at the words-they were true, but he wasn't about to let Yusuke know that it bothered him. If someone knew, then it would eventually leak its way to Yuki, and Kurama wouldn't let the other boy know he bothered the kitsune.

"He wanted to get me into trouble," Kurama said slowly, making sure Yuki didn't sneak up on them. "He heard that we were sneaking out, and it was his one chance to get his so-called 'revenge' on me."

"I'd say it's pretty good revenge," Yusuke said. "Geez, man, you can't hang with us for a month!"

"That's a bad thing? I bet the fox can do just fine without your harebrained advice."

"Hello, Hiei," Kurama said, tilting his head back to look into the trees. The fire youkai glared down at the three of them. "How are you?" Hiei didn't reply, but looked past the other tantei. Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara followed his gaze. There stood Yuki, long hair taken down from its ponytail, staring into the sky. His shirt was unbuttoned, and they could see the black shirt that he wore underneath it.

"Wonder what's up with him," Yusuke mumbled to the other tantei. Hiei stood as motionless as ever, and Kuwabara shrugged. Kurama, however, walked toward the boy. Yusuke caught up to him and grabbed his shoulder. "Are you crazy?"

Kurama shook his head. "No," he said, brushing Yusuke's hand off. "He looks depressed. What kind of brother would I be if I didn't try to see what was wrong?" Yusuke stared at Kurama in astonishment, and the kitsune gave him a small smile before walking off.

"I will never understand him," Yusuke said to Kuwabara, who had joined the Reikai Tantei as Kurama walked off. "One minute he's bugged out of his mind by this guy, the next he wants to help him!"

"What you said, Urameshi," Kuwabara said, watching Kurama join Yuki.

Kurama took a deep breath as he watched his future stepbrother stare into the sky. "Yuki?" he asked, tentatively resting a hand on the other boy's shoulder. Yuki jumped up, startled, and turned to face Kurama. The kitsune was startled as he was-Yuki had red-rimmed eyes, almost as if he had been crying. "I-is there something wrong?"

"Nothing," Yuki said, rubbing his eyes. Kurama raised an eyebrow, questioning Yuki's words. "Really! I am just fine!" he insisted. Kurama blinked and let it go as Yuki sighed. "Shuichi-kun. . . . " Yuki's voice was tired, and the tone wasn't teasing. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"It's hard to when you look as if you were crying," Kurama pointed out gently, trying to avoid getting into another argument. If Yuki took the words as an insult, he didn't show it. "Yuki-"

"Shuichi?" Yuki's voice was still weary, and the tone wasn't teasing. "Can I . . . ask you something?"

"Anything," Kurama said, still trying to avoid an argument.

"Have you ever. . . . " Yuki hesitated slightly here, and his tone turned bitter, as if he didn't want to say his next words at all. "Ever done something, played a pratical joke on someone?" Kurama opened his mouth in slight surprise. Shuichi the goody-two-shoes would never even think about playing a practical joke on someone, and yet here Yuki was, asking him the question as if they were fellow punks. Kurama shook his head, confused as to where the conversation was going. "I should have known."

"You have." Kurama didn't ask the question, he spoke the statement that he knew was true.

Yuki nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I did it to scare the crap outta a friend of mine."

"They didn't take it well?"

"He . . . ran off," Yuki said. "I never got to speak with him again." Yuki's voice was hoarse, as if he didn't like to talk about this but had to. A thousand emotions flowed freely in his voice-pain, anger, self-loathing, and regret. "I was just . . . just thinking about that."

"I'm sorry," Kurama said. "Is that the reason you became a goth?"

Yuki's eyes flashed. "Do you have to ask me that question every time you see me, or do you forget you ask it every time?" he hissed. Kurama was taken aback. Just when he thought he was going to see Yuki's gentler side, the other boy flashed out in anger. "Come on, prep, we'd better get home so dearest 'kassan doesn't get worried about her poor little goody-two-shoes." He stalked off.

"That could have gone better, couldn't it?" Yusuke asked from behind Kurama, his voice holding an, "I-told-you-so" tone. "Although, it could have been worse. I'll have to tell him what really pisses you off-you know, that one comment made about the teddy bear we found the other day-?"

"Shut up, Yusuke."

Kurama's month of confinement passed quickly. Shiori and Keiichi were wed, and only a few secretive fights between Kurama and Yuki really marked the passage of time. After a month had passed, Koenma held another meeting for the Rekai Tantei, this time during a bright Saturday afternoon, to keep previously mentioned kitsunes out of trouble.

"Kurama," Koenma said as the kitsune walked through the door, about ten minutes late. "Glad you could make it." Kurama shot a glare at him, still worn-out by his latest fight with Yuki that had kept him the ten minutes. Koenma shrank away.

"I hope this is quick," Kurama said, not sounding like himself at all. His voice was raspy-almost as if he had been yelling. The room winced at the sound. His patience was worn thin by the numerous fights he had with Yuki-ever since the teen had almost shown a sensitive side to Kurama he was doing his best to make the fox forget about it. "I have to go help 'kassan with the gardening today."

"Someone's in a bad mood," Yusuke muttered to Kuwabara. Kurama, who heard the comment despite Yusuke's caution, shot the pair of them a glare. "I was joking!" Yusuke yelped, putting his hands in the air for mock-self defense.

"All right, enough!" Koenma shouted from his desk. "I just wanted to let you know about Yierugan." Everyone stared, and Kurama narrowed his eyes, making the demi-god nervous. "We can't get anything on him-other than he thinks that you're dead, Kurama."

"Then why can't we get anything?" Kurama hissed in a dangerously low voice.

"If we have too many people watching him, he could get suspicious," Hiei growled, providing the answer to Kurama's question-mainly because he didn't want to hear Koenma blubbering over some half-cooked story that he knew nothing about-which Koenma was sure to do. "If he gets suspicious, he could find you, Kurama, and kill you like he did Kuronue." Kurama bristled at the bat's name, but said nothing.

Yierugan has reason to find me, Kurama thought. Over the past week he had been sending out a ki signal towards the Makai as a challenge to Yierugan. Several smaller youkai had come, but Kurama had killed them off easily. Yierugan had yet to answer Kurama's challenge.

"Kurama?" Yusuke asked, waving a hand in Kurama's face. The kitsune jumped-he had gotten lost in his own thoughts. Yusuke grinned stupidly as Kurama tried to regain his composure. "Sorry." Yusuke said as Kurama ran a hand through his hair-a sign that he was nervous.

"It's all right," Kurama said, walking towards the door. "Good-bye, everyone." Yusuke and Kuwabara waved, while a small sound between a grunt and a word emerged from Hiei's mouth. Kurama smiled at his friends' varied behaviors and left.

When Kurama arrived home, he knew something was wrong. Shiori didn't call out a greeting to him like she normally did, and there were muffled sounds coming from her room. As Kurama bounded up the steps, he heard sobbing.

He knocked on the door. "'Kassan, is there something wrong?"

"Shuichi!" Shiori's voice was thick. The door opened and her face appeared. Red-rimmed eyes looked over Kurama before the kitsune was pulled into a hug. When he finally pulled away, Shiori still held him by the shoulders.

"'Kassan!" Kurama cried, startled by her actions. "What's wrong?"

"Yuki's gone!" Shiori cried. Kurama opened his mouth in surprise.

"Why?" he asked, putting an arm around his mother in an attempt to comfort her. "Why would he leave?" Shiori shook her head, not knowing anymore than Kurama did. Keiichi walked out of the room after Shiori. Kurama eyed him.

"I don't know," Keiichi said. "He went to his room and when we went to see what he was doing, he was gone."

"He might come back," Kurama offered halfheartedly.

Keiichi shook his head. "Last time Yuki pulled a vanishing act like this he was gone for a month," he said. Shiori turned away from Kurama to look at her husband. "I'm sorry, Shiori, but it's the truth."

Why does she even care? Kurama wondered, watching his mother swipe at the tear trails running down her cheeks. It's not like Yuki has given her any reason to care about him.

"Well," Kurama said. "How do you think . . . how do you think that we can find him?" Truthfully, he had no desire to look for his stepbrother-he just wanted to make his mother feel better. "Any friends that he might have run away to?" Kurama winced as he said this statement, remembering his conversation with Yuki one month ago.

"No," Keiichi said. "There's no one he would run to." Kurama nodded slowly, and went to go to his room as Shiori muttered something about making dinner and went down to the kitchen. "Shuichi." Kurama turned to look at Keiichi once more. Keiichi waited until Shiori was out of sight, then said, "Please don't go out after Yuki. I don't want to see what Shiori would be like if both of her sons were missing. And Yuki can take care of himself."

"All right," Kurama said, retreating into his room, wondering if he should tell his friends about his stepbrother's sudden disappearance.

"Kurama?"

"Hey, do you think he's even awake?"

Kurama felt something jabbing his side. He swatted at it impatiently.

"He moved!"

"Don't poke him."

Kurama opened his eyes slowly and saw Yusuke standing over him, pencil in hand. Kuwabara stood just behind Yusuke, peering at Kurama and grinning stupidly. Hiei was seated on the windowsill, his arms crossed, eyes narrowed into slits in a glare. Kurama grabbed the pencil fro Yusuke's hand, surprising the tantei. Kurama tried his best to glare wearily at Yusuke before scribbling down an answer on his homework-what he came to Kuwabara's to do.

"Okay, Kurama, tell me how you do that again?"

"Yusuke, you take that fraction. . . . " Kurama paused, his pencil hovering over Yusuke's paper. "Gomen nasai, Yusuke. I just can't concentrate." Kurama put his palm to his forehead, closing his eyes and rubbing his head hard against his hand. He looked up when he felt Yusuke's hand on his shoulder.

"Any reason why?" the tantei asked.

Kurama sighed. "Yuki," he said. When three pairs of eyes looked at him, he sighed again and continued. "He went missing a few nights ago. Even though I don't care, 'kassan does, and I can't sleep listening to her pace late at night, waiting for him to come home."

"Why does Shiori-san care?" Kuwabara asked. "Yuki was really rude to everyone."

"I don't know," Kurama said. "I was thinking about the same question when she told me he was missing. I'd go and find him-if only to make 'kassan feel better." The room blinked at him, wondering how he could talk about Yuki without any bitterness in his voice.

"And why can't you?" Yusuke asked.

"Keiichi-san said it was a bad idea," Kurama said. "He said that it would be worse for Shiori if both of us are missing versus just Yuki gone. That and the fact that apparently Yuki's vanished like this before and was just fine."

"Really," Hiei said from his windowsill, his first words since defending Kurama from Yusuke's pencil-attacks. Kurama nodded. "Hn. Baka ningen teenager." With that, Hiei fell into deep thought, leaving the rest of the room to wonder why he had suddenly decided their conversation was worth joining for two seconds. After a few seconds Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama fell back into the task of doing their homework with only Kurama's occasional explanations breaking the silence that Hiei had created.

"Yusuke! Kuwabara! Kurama! Hiei!" There was a rapping at the window. Kurama jumped to his feet, being the person most accustomed to window-entries, and opened it, letting a blue-haired, oar-riding female into the room. "It took me long enough to find you all! Koenma-sama's going to be furious with me for taking so long!" Botan put away her oar and flapped her hands in distress.

"Gomen, Botan," Kurama said, taking his seat at the table once more. "Kuwabara called and asked me for help on his homework-and then Yusuke came. . . . " Kurama's voice trailed off, the story completely obvious. Botan nodded. "What seems to be the trouble?"

"Koenma sent me to tell you that if he doesn't get any information on Yierugan soon, he's going to send you guys out to see him," Botan said.

"Hey," Yusuke said. "Last time he told us something like this, he called us in. Why just send you now?"

The blue-haired girl frowned. "Last time, he had some free moments that he could use," she said. "Now, however, there seem to be increasing problems in the Makai, mainly robbery." She eyed Kurama as she said this, and the kitsune held his hands up in the air in a mock-innocence gesture. That seemed to frustrate Botan. "Kurama, we never said it was you."

"I know," the kitsune said, putting his hands on the table. "I just think that you can't get over the fact that you work with Youko Kurama." He fell silent, picking up a sheet of paper and looking over it. Botan blew her breath out in frustration, nodded to the rest of the tantei, pulled out her oar, and left.

"Hey," Yusuke said in the silence Botan's abrupt departure had caused. "I think you pissed her off, Kurama." When the kitsune didn't respond, Yusuke turned his head to watch the red-haired bishounen continue to scan the paper in front of him. "That doesn't bother you at all?"

"Not right now," Kurama answered, his usually soft voice carrying a cold tone. He said no more, leaving his teammates to wonder what had happened to the usually polite kitsune.

Hm, a bit longer this time, but still kinda short. Oh well. Please review!