Chapter three:
A week later, during the bright shining hours of a summer's day, Kurama moved all of his things into Hinansho's apartment, all too willing to forget the past and focus on the present—so far he told no one about him moving in with another guy, all anyone knew was that he and Akiko had broken up. During the week after Kurama ran into Hinansho he had told Hinansho everything about his life and prior relationships—Hinansho listened intently as Kurama told him all about him being a demon, about how he came to live as a human and about his work for the Spirit World. Hinansho found it surprising to a point, but he was not as shocked as Kurama thought he would be.
"Somehow I knew you were different, Shuuichi, I didn't know how, but I could sense you weren't like the others. I mean, you were the only person I was ever attracted to, male or female. It was like it was destiny, you know?"
"Wha…right." Kurama replied after telling Hinansho about him being a demon, his gaze flitting from Hinansho's face to the sky absentmindedly while Hinansho looked at him intensely curious. However, Hinansho kept silent not knowing if what was bothering him was something Kurama wanted to talk about, he kept silent about many things.
Meanwhile, as Kurama lugged his suitcases into Hinansho's apartment, Hiei, who was in the mountains around Genkai's, stood on the bank of a river, right at the edge where it turned into a waterfall in deep thought. He knew about Kurama's new friend Hinansho and was highly suspicious that they were lovers or would soon become so. However, he still waited, still waited for the right time, which never seemed to come.
Silently Hiei stared at the rushing river water shining brightly as the sunlight shined down on its surface in intense concentration not moving a muscle. Suddenly, snapping like a viper at the water, Hiei plunged his hand through the water's surface and grabbed a squirming fish with his right hand, pulling it out of the water and tossing it onto the riverbank shore. After catching two more fish, Hiei used his fire-demon powers to heat them up, eating them even before they cooled down, some parts of them burnt, but Hiei did not care—being used to his own cooking the taste of the fish did not matter. Besides, his thoughts were not on food as he ate, they were on memories of this riverbank three years ago.
Three years ago, at this same clear blue river, Hiei and Kurama had first become lovers, consummating their union on the green bank under an early summer sun. Hiei could still feel the touch of Kurama's lips on his, moist, tenderly soft lips that kissed him all over, causing his skin to tingle with pleasure. Lying on the deep green grass cooled from the closeness of the river water, Hiei remembered all the feelings and sensations that day, moving his hand to his lips then under his cloak imagining that it was Kurama's soft, sweet scented, delicate hand.
"Fox." Hiei moaned, closing his eyes, remembering that day, how Kurama had kissed him gently yet passionately all over, leading down his chest as Hiei caressed Kurama's long, red locks of hair. Moving his hand to touch Kurama's face, Hiei had brought the fox-demon's lips to his again, pressing down hard and passionately with his other hand exploring Kurama's body. Oh, how glad he had been to have had a lover with a virgin body but an experienced mind, Kurama knew exactly what to do and how to do it, his Youko self having had plenty of lovers before him, while his new human body bore no blemish or deviation from the virginity it had been born with. How enjoying it had been to be Kurama's first in that human body of his, how amusing to feel Kurama squirm underneath his body and be in the fire-demon's power.
"Fox…ur…." Hiei groaned, turning onto his stomach as he felt his skin burn with pleasure as he reminisced about Kurama, all of his pent-up sensations frustrating him as though his whole body burned with heat and sensitivity. "Urr…." Hiei groan-growled, relieving himself with his hand, releasing some of the desire those memories of Kurama brought back—his body telling him of his need to have his lover back, to have Kurama back.
Nine minutes later, after cleaning up himself and having a quick dip in the cool blue river, Hiei jumped from tree to tree appearing a blur as he dashed through the mountain forest, heading past Genkai's to the city, desperate in his purpose to quit waiting and take action—he wanted his lover back now. On and on he traveled, arriving at the city only twelve minutes after washing himself in that river, a trip that would have taken a human at least twenty minutes—the thought made Hiei smirk, appreciating that he'd never have to put up with such weakness.
Automatically Hiei headed for Kurama's mother's house, remembering halfway there that his fox no longer lived there, that his fox had stopped living there since four months ago. Silently Hiei changed direction, heading back to the busier section of the city, focusing his Jagan to track down on Kurama's demon energy—realizing after a few moments that Kurama was impressively suppressing his demon aura so that Hiei's Jagan could not sense him.
Unable to locate Kurama with his Jagan, Hiei stood silent on top of one of the city's many buildings trying to figure out where Kurama would be—realizing then that Kurama may be with that new human pet of his. Focusing his Jagan on tracking the spirit energy of that human Hinansho, Hiei again searched for Kurama, hoping that by finding Hinansho he would find Kurama. While he searched for Hinansho's spirit energy another energy signal caught his attention—a powerful demon, S-class by Hiei's estimate of the energy signal, was sneaking around the city getting closer every second.
"Damn it." Hiei mumbled focusing now on the approaching energy signal temporary abandoning his search for Kurama in order to face this new threat. Expecting many things, Hiei lost his focus when he realized that the demon, coming closer and closer every second, was seeking him out—the damned beast was heading right for him.
Deciding not to wait for the demon to reach him, Hiei headed toward the energy signal determined to meet this threat head-on. However, as soon as Hiei moved, the demon's energy signal vanished, causing Hiei to stop abruptly in midair and land on a building's rooftop. Searching for the demon who must have realized that Hiei had sensed him, Hiei jumped down to the street unable to detect the demon with his Jagan.
"Hn." Hiei searched around for the demon with his eyes standing still as he waited for any clue to where the demon was. Preparing himself for the demon's attack, Hiei stepped onto an empty street away from any humans who could get in his way. "…."
"Looking for me?" A voice called from the shadows behind Hiei a split second before striking him, hitting Hiei's back with a well-timed, powerful punch. Without waiting for Hiei to recover himself, the demon rushed at him this time kicking him before he touched the ground. "Heh heh." The strange demon laughed before striking again, hitting Hiei head-on with a strange spirit energy attack.
"Urr…." Hiei struggled to get up and face this enemy, but that last attack seemed to have drained his own energy causing him to collapse on the asphalt of the empty street.
Elsewhere at Hinansho's apartment, Kurama stared out the window wondering what happened to the powerful demonic energy signal he sensed—it seemed to have vanished as soon as he'd sensed it, as though it had been only Kurama's imagination. While Kurama paced in front of the apartment window, debating if the strange aura was anything to worry about, Hinansho entered the apartment having just returned from the store with a bag of groceries. Seeing Kurama pacing anxiously, Hinansho placed down the grocery bag and greeted him.
"Did you miss me that much, Shuui-chan?" Hinansho teased, smiling at Kurama, who stopped pacing when he heard Hinansho's voice, but the smile faded from Hinansho's lips when he realized that Kurama was still worried. "What's wrong, Shuuichi? What is it?"
"I…it's…." Kurama faltered, suddenly overwhelmed and thankful that Hinansho was safe, but still that didn't reassure him, it didn't cleanse away the dark feeling in his demonic heart that something was wrong, that something was terribly wrong.
"Shuuichi?" Hinansho stepped toward Kurama, gasping when the fox-demon wrapped his arms around him, clinging to Hinansho as though life depended on it. "Shuuichi, what's wrong?" Hinansho asked staring worriedly at Kurama as the fox-demon held to him tightly cringing as though in pain. "Shuuichi…." Hinansho put his own arms around Kurama, at a loss as to what to do, his hand accidentally brushing across Kurama's cheek. "Holy shit! You're burning up, Shuui-chan, I'm taking you to the hospital."
"Hi…Hi…." Kurama gasped, feeling intense pain sweep throughout his veins to every inch of his body, seeming as though an overwhelming acid-fire burned in place of his blood. It seemed almost as though he was dying, as though he was finally succumbing to what he avoided numerous times before—but he couldn't, not now, not when his lover needed him—his true lover "Hiei…." Kurama muttered that name at a whisper, falling limp and unconscious afterward.
Meanwhile across the city on an empty city street, Hiei regained consciousness, clutching his pounding head as he stood up, remembering what happened before he fell unconscious. Glaring around him, Hiei, wondering why the demon hadn't finished him off when he was unconscious, took a step forward, falling back down to the asphalt.
"Wha…what the…?" Hiei muttered, staring at his legs incredulously, the legs of his pants were extra baggy as though they were ten or more sizes too large for him, as was his cloak, which reached the ground dragging along the black-top. Gaping at his ultra-large clothing, Hiei tried desperately to figure out what had happened, hoping that his suspicions weren't correct, his bandana slipping down his face to his neck. Grabbing the white bandana from around his neck, deep in thought, Hiei absentmindedly brought his other hand to his forehead expecting to feel his Jagan—but it wasn't there.
"What…the hell?" Hiei swore in surprised shock, preparing to jump up and head over to Yusuke's, however he ended up tripping again, this time rolling down the side of a short cliff, coming to an halt at the water's edge. Staring intently at his reflection in the water, gaping at what he saw, Hiei realized, appalled, just how much of a change the strange demon's attack had wrought. "I…I'm…human! Impossible!"