Disclaimer: Don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

"This is it Yoko," said Kaori as they approached an enormous purple palace. Two long months had passed. With Yoko's plants Kaori had made a complete recovery. Yoko's heart however hadn't. This knew 'mock bloodlust' as he called it would not be shrugged off no matter how many times he stole kisses while she slept.

"Just stick with the strategy," he replied curtly, currently in a terrible mood over his 'bloodlust'. Kaori nodded. She walked up to the side of the palace and began to climb it using her claws like a mountain climber would his ropes to haul her up. Yoko followed.

They were up a good fifty flights before Kaori stopped and opened a window. She peered inside and when she saw that the coast was clear climbed in. She helped Yoko up and walked toward a bookcase. She stopped in front it and drew a bow and arrow from the air. She pulled the arrow tight against the string, ready to attack. Yoko pulled out his infamous rose whip and walked towards the shelf. He pulled out a book, it's old and tattered leather binding bearing the golden title 'The Bubonic Plague'.

The bookcase swung open and there, almost waiting for the fox spirits, were a hundred or so soldiers. Together Kaori and Yoko sliced through them, neither receiving even a scratch. They didn't waste time looking at their prey but pressed on.

Yoko suddenly felt a stone move under his feet. "Duck," Kaori commanded calmly. Yoko immediately complied without thought or hesitation, like a well oiled machine. Just as he knelt down a huge arrow brushed the tips of his hair. Kaori caught it and broke it in two.

"Don't move," she said. She jammed half of the arrow into the wall next to her then threw the other end so hard that it stuck into the wall next to Yoko. "Now when you move your foot jump on the arrow," she instructed.

Yoko nodded. He picked up his foot and jumped onto the arrow. Kaori did the same. Where Yoko had once stood more arrows shot from the walls. So many that it would have been impossible to dodge them all. Kaori jumped from her arrow to the top of a statue of a lion covered in hundreds of years' worth of moss, algae, and vines. Yoko followed her lead on the lion on his side.

"Don't-" Kaori didn't get to finish her sentence. A horrible cracking sound came from the walls as they slowly began to close in. "Run!" she yelled. She jumped from her statue and bolted, Yoko at her heels. The walls were getting terribly close when they spotted a part that was not moving in. The problem was that just before it was a huge pit. They kept running and just when it looked like they were about to either be crushed or fall into a seemingly bottomless pit they jumped. Yoko easily cleared but Kaori caught the edge. Her fingers were beginning to slip when Yoko caught her hand and pulled her up. She smiled at him briefly in gratitude.

Then the hissing started.

They looked around to find that black cobras surrounded them from all sides, black hooded heads reared in preparation to attack. The foxes backed up against a wall. "Now what?" Yoko asked turning his head to Kaori but still eyeing the snakes.

A determined look came to Kaori's face. She arched her back and jumped into the middle of the snakes. She landed in a space just small enough for her foot. A cobra reared up and snapped but only caught air as Kaori jumped to another space. A few more spaces and she had reached the other side. She proceeded by climbing up the wall.

Smiling, she waved for Yoko to follow. He nodded and jumped almost getting his ankles nipped several times. He climbed the wall and followed Kaori as she climbed higher. "These people aren't going to give us a break," Yoko grunted as his foot slipped.

"Well we are stealing the most precious jewel in the three realms. Did you think it would be easy?" Kaori questioned with a smirk. She took an arrow that seemed to materialize from the air jammed it into a crack in the wall and jiggled it from side to side. She finally pried open a small space and climbed in. She beckoned for Yoko to follow. To his surprise it was fairly large even though he had to crawl to fit inside.

"It's amazing that we've gotten this far so quickly," Kaori commented, "Last time it took me days to do this plus I was bleeding horribly already." She laughed at herself, "I think I hit every trap in this place." Yoko hadn't heard her words. He was too busy marveling at Kaori's skills. He was amazed at her ability to elude all of these traps. It would have been hard, nearly impossible, to survive by himself up to this point.

Suddenly a small click was heard. Kaori slowly looked down to find the stone that her hand was on had sunken in to the ground. "I see they've updated this place," she laughed nervously.

She took a deep breath. "Okay don't panic," she said more to herself than Yoko. "When I move roll over and to the side," she instructed. Yoko nodded. "Now!" she yelled thrusting herself to the side. Yoko did as well. Steel spikes shot up from the ground where Kaori had been. One was so close to her it scratched her stomach and her blood tricked to the ground. She winced but began to try and wiggle herself away from the spike.

"Stay still," Yoko commanded. As gently as possible he cut away the spike with his rose whip. "Thanks," she smiled, sitting up and resting her back on the wall. She tore off the bottom half of her shirt and wrapped it tight around the cut to keep the blood from dripping. Yoko stared at her bare waist.

"What?" she asked following the trail his eyes were taking to her stomach. She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you staring at me? It's not like you've never seen my waist before." Yoko's face went blank and he pushed in front of her to hide the accursed redness that he knew was creeping up his face and neck. Kaori tilted her head to the side but smiled and followed him. "You shouldn't go so fast. You're going to get us caught in a trap," Kaori said.

Suddenly her ears twitched and she shoved Yoko out of the way of a cage that clattered down. Spikes protruded from its roof. "I… told… you," she huffed.

"Hn," he grunted as he crawled forward more cautiously than before. Kaori shook her head. 'He's such an arrogant creature…' she thought with a sigh as she followed him. At last the fox spirits came to a space large enough for them to stand. It was a square room with the only openings being the one they had just come out of and one across the room. Kaori put her hand in front of Yoko to keep him from walking further.

"Why are we stopping?" he asked slightly annoyed he still hadn't gotten his diamond. She plucked one of the hairs from her head and gently blew it from her gloved hand to the floor. The second it touched the stones the ceiling from that point on crashed down in a solid rock column.

"That's why," she answered tersely. She walked over to a wall and started feeling around the stones, leaving Yoko in his speechless state. Finally one stone sunk in and the wall swung open to reveal another tunnel. Kaori went inside and Yoko followed. The tunnel was long and dark. The foxes were quiet all the way through it, keeping on their toes in case of more surprises. The tunnel finally ended in a stone wall.

"I'm going to tell you right now that this was as far as I got," Kaori said as she pressed several stones that glowed a bright green as her fingers lifted. The wall swung open to reveal a blinding white light. The foxes shielded their eyes until the light was bearable. The only thing inside the room was a small stone pillar.

Nothing was on it.

Yoko had grown to expect things like this and he looked at Kaori. She smiled and walked over to a wall. She inserted one of her slender fingers into a hole that Yoko hadn't seen before. She pressed her ear up against the wall and worked her finger until she heard a click. She smiled. From the middle off the pillar lifted a glass container. Inside of it was their prize.

Suddenly red beams of light shot out from various sections of the room. Kaori seemed unaffected by this and jumped right in. She did a back handspring and a summersault eluding most of the beams. She stayed in a crouching position as she looked back at Yoko.

He was waiting patiently for her to come back. 'Good' she thought. The last thing she wanted was for him to follow her and get hurt.

She went back to her work and did a round off and crossover to finally get to the diamond. Its flawless beauty glittered and reflected in her eyes as she ungloved her hand to reveal sharp nails. With the nails she carved out a circle in the glass. She re-gloved her hand reached in and picked up the diamond from its red velvet cushion. She looked at it realizing that she was holding the ultimate prize and smiled in satisfaction.

Spikes abruptly shot out of the pillar and one sliced open Kaori's stomach. She bent over and clenched her teeth in pain gripping the spike and letting the diamond clatter to the ground. "Kaori!" Yoko yelled as the diamond hit a red beam. The beams disappeared and an alarm went off.

Yoko ran over to Kaori and cut her away from the spike. He picked her up as guards seemed to come out of every wall in the room. "That way Yoko," Kaori said weakly, pointing. "There is a way out." Yoko ran where she pointed and felt around with one hand still holding Kaori with the other. The wall opened and Yoko ran like the wind keeping Kaori pressed up against him so that she wouldn't bleed so badly.

The corridor was long and dark but it finally ended at a stone wall. Kaori weakly raised her hand and an arrow appeared from the air. She put it into the wall and tried as best she could to open the door that she knew was there but failed.

Yoko finally opened the wall and rushed out into the night. He ran deep into some woods and finally stopped at a lake. He laid Kaori down on the soft grass. She moaned and willed her eyes open. Over her stood Yoko, his golden eyes filled with worry. "Yoko… you forgot… the diamond," she whispered. "It doesn't matter," he said, brushing some stray strands of hair from her face. Kaori looked up at Yoko, confused.

"But… It's what we came here for."

"It doesn't matter anymore. You're hurt," he quieted her.

She finally gave him a small painful smile and her stunning dark eyes glittered with tears. "I wish… I wish… that I had told you before. I think love you," she said tears streaking down her face.

Yoko gathered Kaori in his arms and kissed her forehead. When he lifted his mouth from her forehead Kaori pulled him down to her lips. She kissed him deeply and lovingly with more passion than she had ever presented towards anyone before.

"I love you, Kaori," Yoko said when she had finally stopped. "I… love you too, Yoko," she said as she began to feel darkness creep over her.

"Kaori don't leave. I love you and I just found out…" Yoko pleaded. Kaori again willed her eyes open. Death was calling her but Yoko was too and she would do anything to stay with him. She closed her eyes as pain shot through her body. Yoko's face again became worried as he laid her back down. He pulled some floralite berries from his shirt and told her that it was going to sting.

"You would be the one to know," she whispered. She bit her lip until it bled to keep from screaming when he put the berries' juice on her wound.

"Don't do that. I don't need you losing any more blood than you already have," he chastised as he wiped away the blood that had trickled down her chin. He took off his shirt and used it as a makeshift bandage as he tied it around her waist. Its white material was instantly dyed a crimson color by Kaori's blood. The girl's eyes slowly opened and closed by turns as she slipped in and out of consciousness.

"Kaori, don't leave me," Yoko pleaded again, his golden eyes misty with unshed tears. "I'm… trying," she whispered. Yoko again gathered her in his arms. Kaori's head rested perfectly on his chest as if she had always been meant for that purpose. He buried his face in her long black hair and breathed in deeply. The smell of orange blossoms mingled with the metallic smell of blood filled his lungs.

The salty smell of his tears was quickly added. His chest suddenly felt moist and he looked down to find Kaori crying too. "Don't cry," he said kissing the tears from her face. "We're just being fools. You'll be fine and then we can be happy together. I'll even let you tag along on raids."

Kaori nodded and slowly pulled something out from under her clothes. It was the red scarf that she had danced with when they first met. "Yes one day we will be together but until then I must ask you to be patient," she said tying the scarf around his wrist. Yoko began to protest but she pressed her finger against his lips.

"I thought we had already been through the no arguing policy," she smiled.

Yoko's golden eyes became misty once more as she dropped her hand. He nodded, "I'll wait for you Kaori. Forever I'll wait," he said choking back tears. "I love you," Kaori said as she closed her black eyes for the last time.

"I love you…"

The End! I think... Please tell me if I should continue... I don't know...