Inulover: Holy shit! It's been a month since I last updated? I lost track of time with my Latin projects, (schools a bitch). I was working on it though, just not typing it (laughs nervously).

Review responses:

Nightshadow131: Had to start throwin' my cliffhangers in again. I know, isn't it! I couldn't help but let Shiori find out ha-ha, poor Kurama. He-he, guess I did get slightly carried away… should have called the chapter, "Monday morning sex" lol, too damn bad its PG-13. yay! I love when people say my dialog is good (smile) I try and make it just right, if the dialog in a fic isn't good it throws the whole thing off for me,(more then a bad story line). Guess I didn't update very soon though, ne? lol, sry, like I stated previously, schools a bitch.

Dragonflyr: nope, she won't… cause she's already dead, lol. But really, I can't leave it off with "and she died… again" she has to provide more bishi torture (wink). Will it never end? Don't know, judging by the rate of my updates it could be going for a while, lol. Again, not very quick of an update, sry. And thank you for loving my story (smile).

Volpi Di Spirito: why won't she die? Cause she's dead, lol. (smile) that was rather cruel of me, having Shiori hear them in the shower, lol. Update soon? Ehh, hope this wasn't too bad of a wait. Hehe.

Inulover: onto the fic

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/(last time… it's been a while)

"You can here me, can't you?" Yukita's voice sounded smug.

'Why can I hear her? Is the charm weakening?' a pang of fear washed through him, turning his blood cold. 'No, I could hear her before as well, however, that was right before she took control,' he thought, nervous fear alive in his every nerve.

"Did you think you could get rid of me? You can't-" the laugh that he never wanted to hear again rang through his mind. "-You will never get away from me."/

Comforting hands shook the fox, pulling him out of his daze. He blinked a few times, shaking, realizing that Yukita's voice had faded. Hiei pulled the swivel chair out to look his lover in the eye, the movement making Kurama realize just how dizzy he felt.

"Kurama?"

Kurama slowly rested his head on Hiei's shoulder, burying his face in the warm crook of his lover's neck; hands clenching in the fabric of the borrowed shirt. Hiei wrapped his arms around Kurama, surprised by his actions. Hiei could feel the shivers running through Kurama's body and he held the trembling form tighter. Fear was practically radiating off of the kitsune.

Kurama mumbled wavering words into Hiei's shoulder that the demon couldn't understand.

"I heard her, just now," Kurama spoke louder, voice still quivering. Hiei looked curiously at Kurama and the fox seemed to almost sense the questionable gaze. "I heard Yukita, just now. She was talking to me. The last time that happened was right before she took control of me." Kurama huddled closer to the comforting body wrapped around him, enveloping himself in the quiet support his lover was giving. "I don't want that to happen again…" he added in a soft voice, "I won't be able to handle it."

Hiei stayed speechless, he had no idea what to do. As much as he would have liked to say that it was nothing to worry about, that everything was fine and she couldn't do anything more, he couldn't. No matter how desperately the both of them wanted to hear it said, they were not words of promise, just empty nothings that could turn out to be false, despite giving temporary reassurance. All he could do was hold the tremulous form closer and wait for the fear to pass.

Minutes later Kurama managed to compose himself enough so that he could remove himself from the warm embrace. There was nothing said between them as the doorbell rang, cutting their time short. Hiei scowled as he looked at the bedroom door, recognizing the Ki.

"What's the detective doing here?" he growled.

"Checking up on me, I would suppose. I am sure my credibility is not at its highest at the moment," Kurama replied somberly as he stood from his chair.

The very second the door was opened, Kurama found himself under probing russet eyes. Kurama backed away slightly, uneasy at the Reikai Tentai ('s?) proximity. A little vein pulsed on Hiei's forehead as he gritted his teeth, watching Yusuke circle the fox.

Chocolate eye's set on emerald and Kurama sweat-dropped, what exactly was the detective looking for?

"Yu-Yusuke, what are you doing?"

Yusuke gave a goofy grin and slapped his friend on the back, "Welcome back, fox boy." He let himself in, leaving a clueless Yoko at the door. He glanced at Hiei briefly, "Nice shirt, but isn't it a little big?"

"Shut up!"

Laughing, he sat down on a couch, making himself comfortable. Hiei followed him in warily, hands in his pants pocket.

"What are you doing here, detective?"

"What? Can't a guy come and visit with his buddies?" He asked innocently.

Kurama walked in, sitting opposite Yusuke, "Not when the visitor is leery about them."

"And we are not 'buddies'," Hiei added curtly.

Yusuke sighed, cocky attitude aside, and looked seriously at Kurama. "Look, Kurama, no one blames you for anything, alright? We just want to help.

"I'm actually here because the old bat wanted me to give you a message; she said that you should go and stay at her temple for awhile. Until things cool down, ya know?"

"What the hell for?" Hiei shot at the detective.

"How the hell should I know? I'm just the delivery boy here."

"In order to keep an eye on me, I'd assume," came the quiet tone. Hiei turned angry eyes on the youth across from him.

"Kurama doesn't need any babysitting."

"No, Hiei. It might not be such a bad idea." Hiei gazed at Kurama with the most taken aback expression. "Now that my human mother is back," Kurama continued, "I shouldn't take the risk of hurting her, should Yukita manage to take control of me again."

"And I will, too."

Kurama jumped slightly at the unexpected voice, closing his eyes against the mild dizziness, fists gripping the fabric of his jeans. Hiei watched sadly, knowing that he couldn't do anything.

Hiei reached over, loosening Kurama's iron grip from his pants, letting Kurama instead clutch at his hand. Yusuke raised an eyebrow at Hiei's "abnormal" behavior but the demon didn't give a shit about what the detective thought, all that mattered right then was his fox.

"Don't let that bitch get to you, Kurama, that's just what she wants."

"I know, Hiei," Kurama replied softly.

"Well, if you two are done flirting, mind if we get going?"

Both demons stared at Yusuke with blank faces at his comment. Yusuke grinned, "Maybe I should stay at the hags place too. It'd be great to see her reaction when she spots you two fucking like bunnies."

Not a second later Yusuke found a shiny piece of steel pointed at his face and he pressed himself into the couch. "Oi! I was only kiddin'! Calm down, Hiei. Kurama, don't you have a leash on him yet?" Yusuke gave a discreet wink in the fox's direction.

Kurama smiled back. There was no one in the world that could provide a better tension breaker then Yusuke Urameshi.

Kurama stood up, "Yes, I do have a leash for him, but I don't believe you'd want to see that. Sooo, this will have to do." Slender fingers grabbed Hiei's chin, soft lips descending upon the fiery spirits own. Kurama slid his arms down Hiei's chest until they found his hips, wrapping around his waist to pull the distracted demon away from the detective.

Yusuke took one look at the tamed expression of the demon and laughed, "Damn, why didn't I think of that?" he joked. Hiei glared at him.

"If you had even tried it I would have killed you."

"Aww, I'm hurt, Hiei," Yusuke smirked and stood up, "Grab your stuff and let's get outta here."

Kurama shook his head, "I can't do that, Yusuke, Shiori would wonder where I am if I left now."

"So leave a note," he offered as an easy answer.

Kurama shook his head again, "I will come later tonight, after Shiori comes home."

"Whatever. See ya later fox boy. Later, Hiei." Just as easily as Yusuke had entered he left.

"Hn. He's an idiot. You don't need any special watching over."

"Koi, you're more upset about this then me," Kurama pulled the fire demon to sit on his lap. Hiei leaned back, resting his head on his lovers shoulder.

"Why aren't you angrier? You said it yourself, it's only to keep an eye on you; they don't think you can be trusted!"

"I can't," he answered dejectedly. "Should this pendent stop working for some reason I'd-"

"Shut up!" Kurama gazed wide-eyed at the outburst, shocked at the pure rage that seemed to be ignited in the youkai by those simple words.

"Hiei," Kurama said softly.

"The pendent won't stop working. There's no reason for that to happen." Kurama held Hiei tighter. The smaller demon spoke with such certainty that he was right, had acted like he was almost insulted by the insinuation, that Kurama almost felt guilty for speaking the truth.

"Of course, but should it stop working, for some reason unknown, it would best to be around people that can subdue me… not my human mother."

Hiei relented, he knew once Kurama's mother was in the picture there was nothing you could do to sway his judgment. Not that people could sway his mind even if his mother wasn't involved.

Hiei relaxed farther into Kurama's embrace, enjoying the feeling of his warm body tenderly wrapped around him. He knew he should be the one doing this for Kurama, holding and supporting him, but it seemed the fox was just as content holding the fire demon. So instead of struggling he allowed the soft heartbeat and gentle breathing to lull him to sleep, contently warm.

Shiori returned home to find both her son and his lover fast asleep on the couch, the smaller one curled against her son's chest. Shiori smiled and put her purse on the table next to the door before sneaking over into the dark room and draping a blanket over the two.

Hiei stirred lightly, ruby eyes cracking open to meet the smiling face of Kurama's mother. The woman said nothing, just ran gentle fingers through his hair once and walked away. Hiei could hear the soft thumps as she made her way up the stair case. For some reason Hiei didn't feel mad that Shiori had touched him like she would a child. In fact, she didn't look at him like a child either, more like how she looked at Kurama, with that motherly expression.

Hiei shrugged off the feeling and curled back up, promptly falling back to sleep.

Kurama woke as the tiny youkai fell back to sleep. He heard his mother bustling around upstairs and suppressed a sigh. He felt lazy from his nap, perfectly content in just following his Koibito's example and going back to sleep. He knew he couldn't though, he'd promised to be at Genkai's that night, not the next morning which he would have been much happier with.

He placed a light kiss on Hiei's lips to rouse him enough to be unlatched from the fox's shirt, and then moved him to lie on the couch, wrapped warmly in the blanket.

Quietly Kurama made his way up the dark stair case, walking down the equally dark hallway, only illuminated by the soft glow coming from his mothers bedroom.

"Going to check in with your mother? How sweet."

The voice sent a wave of vertigo to pass through the fox and he stumbled, running into the wicker stand holding the telephone; the phone book sent crashing to the ground.

"What? Not used to this yet?" she cackled, sending more lightheadedness to wash over him, the room began to swim lightly.

He hated this; Kurama couldn't fathom why he always felt dizzy whenever Yukita talked.

"Shuichi? Are you alright sweetie?"

Kurama looked up to see the Dopple-ganger form of his mother walking towards him. Kurama mentally cursed, he loved his mother dearly but her timing could be awful at times.

The snickering died out, allowing the spell to pass and his vision to clear up.

"Shuichi? You're pale, are you feeling alright? What was that about? You looked ready to faint."

Kurama plastered a fake smile on his face and straightened up. "I'm fine, just a headrush after sleeping for so long." If the look on Shiori's face was any indication, she wasn't buying it.

A mothers intuition, adorable and endearing, but also a pain in the ass at moments like this.

"Really, Okasan, I'm fine."

Shiori gave him the classic look that all mothers had, that said, 'I-know-you're-lying.'

Kurama gulped, now this was going to be a tricky task, 'here goes nothing.'

"Okasan? I was invited to stay at a friend's house for a while, may I go?"

"For how long?"

"Maybe a week."

Shiori gave him "the look" and he backed down slightly.

"I don't want you missing school, Shuichi." Her tone was one that would have led any normal teenager to back down, but Kurama persisted.

Kurama mentally cringed, time for the lowering himself to an adolescent level. 'Thank god Hiei is not going to see this.'

"Please, Okasan, I won't miss any school, he is in my class." Kurama gave her the "pleading" eyes and slightly "childish" tone; Shiori faltered slightly.

"Your class? You're not talking about our little Hiei?"

Kurama tried to stifle a laugh; he could only imagine Hiei glaring heated daggers at the tiny endearment his mother had given him.

"No it's… Kaitou."

"Kaitou? You've never mentioned him before." Kurama kept quiet as Shiori thought it over. "Alright."

Kurama smiled and thanked his mother before going to pack.

Hiei was perched on the bed, waiting for his fox.. Dark rubies focused on their lover and Hiei said, "It was nice down there until you moved." Kurama smiled and moved to his closet.

"I apologize, Koi, I had to"

"Beg your human mother to let you go?" Hiei smirked as he finished off Kurama's sentence.

The red-head sighed, sitting back on his heels in front of the open closet and said in a sigh, "I'm only a human adolescent to her, I really had no choice… My little Hiei." Kurama threw a saucy smirk over his shoulder and watched Hiei glare daggers at him. Kurama laughed, "I thought you heard her." He pulled out a blue backpack and brought it over to the bed, Hiei smirked at the little fox tail keychain dangling off of the zipper.(1)

Five minutes passed and the fire demon rolled his eyes, watching his lover pack.

"You don't need so many clothes, fox." Kurama stood up and huffed, hands on his hips as he glared lightly at his lover.

"I put in three shirts. That is hardly considered a great abundance of clothes. Not everyone is able to live off of one outfit like you, Koi." The fox put in a pair of jeans and zipped up the bag. "Shall we go then?"

"Why the rush?"

"I told Yusuke I'd come later tonight." Hiei smirked.

"So you do want to do it at Genkai's?"

"Hentai!" Kurama growled and turned out the door, blushing, and a little black mouse on his tail.

"So are you."

"Shut up."

The shoji door to Genkai's temple opened, both demons being warmly greeted by the ice maiden of the shrine.

"Please, come in Kurama, Hiei," Yukina smiled as she stood aside to let the pair in. "I've already prepared a room for you." She paused and turned to Hiei and asked, "Will you be staying too?" She earned a nod. Yukina giggled lightly, "Will you be staying with Kurama?"

Hiei's normally expressionless features went wide-eyes as he stared at the giggling girl he knew to be his sister.

"How does everyone know?" Hiei growled as he glared at his equally stunned partner. "First the detective and now this! Next you're going to tell me the old hag knows as well!"

Yukina laughed and waited for the fiery spirit to calm down before leading them through the long, wood paneled hallway, alive with the faint glow of the oil lamps on the walls. Yukina slid a door open to reveal another, spacious, wooden room with a large Buddha statue against the wall. Genkai looked up from her place in front of the statue and walked over to the small group.

"Konban wa (2) master Genkai," Kurama said.

Genkai nodded and stopped before the fox and picked up the necklace that hung around his neck. She flipped it over, intensely studying the piece in all aspects.

"This is a fine piece of work, completely handcrafted; the design is interesting but purely for show." Genkai let the golden Kumo pendent fall back against Kurama's chest and stepped back. "The scriptures are very ancient though, I can't read them."

"Thyn own life be given

Thyn evil be sealed,

Evil anon, thy shant return…" The room fell silent as they all listened to Kurama recite the almost poetic words.

"I have looked over the scriptures myself, and you are right Genkai, they are old. When I was still a kit the form had already died out but thieves still studied it to unlock old treasures. As you see, I myself have studied it but Ayama is old; to do this fluently so that the spell would work he must be thousands of years old; to the point were he actually spoke it and used it himself."

Genkai perked up at this, "You mean to say it was a demon who crafted this?"

"Of course a demon, why would a human help us?"

"Why would a demon help you either, Hiei," Genkai countered.

"That has crossed my mind as well, but, I honestly can't think of a reason he would do this."

"Is he maybe an old acquaintance of yours?" Yukina suggested and Kurama shook his head.

"No, I would remember him if he was. My memories are quite clear."

"I don't think your should let your guard down with this Ayama character, Kurama," warned Genkai.

Invisible, clouded eyes watched over the assurances surrounding Kurama, Making sure to stay up to date.

So they do not fully trust me?" Ayama spoke to himself, watching and listening to the group in his mind. "They are wise to doubt me, for I, as a great thief myself, have my own reasons for helping the legendary bandit.

"He says that his memories are clear, yet he does not remember who I am? Are legends so easily forgotten?" Ayama's wrinkled mouth curled into a grin, "I fear I have been away for far too long if my reputation no longer precedes me."

Kurama stared at the ceiling, the moon playing restless shadows across the walls to match his thoughts as he lay under the light covers.

"You should sleep, fox. You're going to that building tomorrow, Right?"

Kurama sighed, rolling over to face his lover who sat in the corner, half hidden by shadows.

"I know, but I can't. There is just too much going on right now. Genkai brought up a good point; how do we know we can trust him?"

"There's more on your mind then that, isn't there?" Hiei moved next to Kurama and the fox sat up.

"If we can't trust Ayama then who is to say how long this will hold up? The pendent could stop working just as easily as it started if he wished it. And what about Aracnus? He can not be pleased about that devil incident, when will he strike?"

"I don't know, but we can bet that he is not going to wait to long before attacking. As far as Ayama goes, we have no choice but to trust him. That demon obviously has some scheme in mind if he's helping us and for now we should hope that doesn't change; at least until we can get rid of Yukita for good."

"And how do you think we'll do that? A human exorcist wouldn't work, you know as well as I do that it would remove my soul as well as Yukita's."

"We'll find a way, Kurama, don't worry about that, the shrimp will find someone that can perform an exorcism."

"I suppose you're right." Kurama leaned into the warm palm of Hiei's hand as he felt it gently brush his cheek.

"Go to sleep, Kurama. We'll talk more in the morning."

Kurama allowed his lover to push him back down on the thin mat and pull the covers back over him before Hiei returned to his spot in the shadows. Kurama smiled softly, "You are going to stay up all night, aren't you?"

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I don't fully trust this temple being the safest place for you. I was captured here, after all."

"True, but you were wounded then, Hiei."

The tiny demon detected the trace of sadness in Kurama's voice and mentally kicked himself for bringing up the subject.

"That won't happen to me, Hiei, so get some sleep yourself." Kurama curled up in the covers and closed his eyes, feeling the cold metal press against his warm flesh, promising to keep Yukita at bay.

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Inulover: That was a long wait but I made it a long chapter too. Hope that made up for the time. I'm already hand writing chapter 11 in my study halls and free time.

(1)Yes, Kurama does have a fox-tail keychain on his book bag… It was in the Show! In the three kings arc. Of course, his book bag was also purple in the show -.- I had to change that. Isn't the pink school uniform enough?

(2)Good evening. I'm hoping I used it right; all I had for reference was the English-Japanese dictionary I have. Gomen nasai if I used it wrong.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, please review.

Ja ne…review.