Standing next to an old oak tree towering over every other tree, Hiei stared ahead of him, numb and oblivious to everything around him. What did he care if all around him nature grew and bloomed a manifold of colors, the wind blowing gently through petals and leafs—each petal on each flower reminded him of his fox, who had died a week ago to a curse that proved a curse even in death. Because of that curse, Kurama couldn't be revived—there was no guarantee that the effects of the curse died with him, and to revive him might just place him back where he had been—dying from that curse's illness.
Even that wretch demon, Karai, couldn't revive Kurama, Karasu had stolen the majority of Karai's power, and now the auburn eyed demon couldn't even revive a human and a demon revival required quite a bit more power than a human one. Unable to figure out a way to revive Kurama, no one warned the fox's human family not to, so Kurama's human body was cremated—so nothing could be done now.
To make matters worse, Hiei's voice hadn't returned, and he refused to let Genkai heal his ravaged right arm or any of his other wounds—he also wouldn't let anybody comfort him. Nowadays he preferred solitude more than ever before, wanting to stay away from anything that reminded him of Kurama—but even standing alone in nature, surrounded by various plants and trees, Hiei was reminded of the fox.
Damn it, why couldn't he have been the one to stop Kurama from being hit by that car? If only he'd prevented the fox from meeting Hinansho—then Kurama wouldn't be dead. Some other foolish victim would've fallen victim to the curse, but Kurama would not have died from it. It was his fault Kurama was dead, even if he hadn't gotten to the fox before Hinansho, Hiei could've went to get Kurama back sooner, but he had been too proud to do so. Now it was too late.
Slowly, ignoring everything around him, Hiei walked through the forest, silent and uncaring about anything until he reached a mountainside cave, the entrance partly obstructed by rock and ruble. Without a word Hiei leaned against the rock wall of the outside of the cave opening, sliding to the ground slowly, numb. Memories of this cave whelmed through the fire-demon's mind, memories of when he and Kurama had come to this cave for shelter from the rain.
Flashback:
It began raining suddenly, the grey, dark storm clouds filling the sky, lightning flashing brilliantly, thunder rumbling through the air and the rain cascading down soaking the two demons thoroughly.
"There's a cave up ahead, we can get shelter there." Kurama spoke, motioning toward the small cave, racing Hiei to the entrance. Reaching the entrance (it was a tie) Kurama sat down just inside the cave, gazing wistfully at the outside, sniffing the rainy air.
"Fox…." Hiei knelt down beside Kurama, moving closer to him so that their lips were only an inch apart. Staring into the fox-demon's green eyes, Hiei ran his fingers through Kurama's long red hair, damp from the rain, bringing his lips to the fox's. Such a sweet, soft kiss, changed into a long intensely passionate one.
"Hiei…." Kurama whispered, feeling the fire-demon's lips on his slender smooth neck, putting his arms around Hiei's neck slowly moving his hands down the fire-demon's back, Kurama gasped as Hiei embraced him with his lips all over, his pale, tender flesh trembling under the fire-demon's wet, hungry lips. End flashback
They made love in that cave, to the rhythm of the pounding rain, the thunder their love song, and the lightning their witness, sealing their union with a demon love bite on both of their left shoulders. But even that great, unbreakable symbol of a demon's love's bond couldn't keep their union solid or whole—Hiei hadn't been ready for a life mate at the time, and so when the pull of the demon world sent for him, Hiei answered the call without a second thought of his union with Kurama.
But now he regretted his actions—if he had stood, Kurama wouldn't have died, nor would he have tried to kill himself before his untimely death a week ago. Hiei blamed himself for both events—for it was his fault—at least partly. Kurama tried to kill himself because he thought Hiei didn't care about him—and if Hiei had shown how much he did think about the fox, Kurama would never have despaired so much over his absence. And now Kurama was dead because Hiei couldn't swallow his uncaring pride long enough to take Kurama before he became Hinansho's lover, the fox would've came back to him—at least Hiei believed he would've.
But parting from the fantasy of 'what ifs' Hiei found himself in the cold, dark reality of life without Kurama—and the poor fire-demon couldn't bear it. Strange, he had lived the majority of his life alone, never relying too heavily on anyone but himself, and never allowing himself to become attached to another, but here he was, unable to envision a life without his fox.
Sitting on a rock outside of the cave, Hiei unsheathed his sword, glaring at the sharp, clean blade, his eyes fiery with intense pathos. No future existed without his fox, he couldn't live without Kurama being there with him—it had taken him over three years to figure it out, but Kurama was his true mate, not just a lover, but the one the fire-demon cared about the most, the one he…loved. And to think it took Kurama's death for him to figure that out.
Removing his cloak, Hiei placed the blade of his sword to the skin of his abdomen—he could no longer have his fox in life, so he'll join him in death.
'No, don't do it.' A silent voice called to Hiei, causing him to gasp and lower the sword—it was Kurama had called to him somehow, someway. However, listening intently for another message, Hiei was disappointed, everything was silent and still, not a thing stirred, and Hiei trembled from quashed hope—it must've been his imagination.
Raising his sword again to kill himself, Hiei winced from a sharp pain from his ravaged right arm and swung on reflex at what touched his wound. The blade sliced through the flesh of a woodland creature, reddish brown fur and lavish full tail, fluffy and elegant. Sheathing his sword Hiei observed his victim, taken aback when he realized what it had been—a red fox, now cut in half by his blade, blood covering the ground where it laid. Numb, Hiei stared at the animal corpse lying at his feet, barely hearing the soft whimpers coming from the underbrush behind the dead animal. Not knowing what he'd find, Hiei pushed away the bush's branches, gasping shallowly at what he saw.
There lying on the ground, whimpering from cold and hunger, was a fox cub, only a few days old by the looks of it and very frightened. Enchanted in some way by the little cub, Hiei continued to gaze at it, realizing that it must have been its mother he had sliced in half—the dead fox must've thought the fire-demon a threat and had attacked Hiei's arm because of it. Whimpering, the small fox cub shivered in a passing breeze, and Hiei took off his cloak and wrapped it around the baby animal before realizing what he was doing.
Watching the fox cub, Hiei sat down on the grass, wondering what would happen to the little one now that its mother was gone—he'd never paid much attention to the lives of the animals living in the forest, and didn't know what would happen.
Faintly Hiei thought about helping the baby animal, remembering when Kurama had rescued a litter of a wild cat that had been killed by hunters from starvation and death, when a sharp pain jolted through his right arm. A pain more intense than anything he ever felt before whelmed through his body from that arm, Hiei could focus on nothing except the throbbing torture—absentmindedly crawling inside the mountainside cave, dragging his cloak along.
Rain began pouring down, beating in a rhythm upon the ground, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Hiei held his right arm with his left, trying to focus on something else other than the pain, realizing after a moment that he had dragged the fox cub with his cloak into the cave. Numb from pain, Hiei studied the fox cub that slept silently wrapped up in the fire-demon's cloak, ignoring the rain pelting down outside the cave.
Feeling a sudden, intense pain pulsating through his body from his injured arm, Hiei flinched, a wave of tiredness washing over him trying to engulf his consciousness. Fighting weakly against the tiredness, struggling to remain awake, Hiei winced from another wave of pain, collapsing into unconsciousness on the floor of the mountainside cave.
Awakening from dark unconsciousness Hiei found that the rain had stopped, and a few rays of sunlight shined through the cave's now blocked entrance—some time during the rainstorm rocks from above the cave had fallen, accumulating up outside the entrance blocking it completely. Realizing where he was, Hiei struggled to sit up, noticing then that he couldn't move his right arm. Turning to look at it, Hiei realized the feeling in that arm was nearly gone—his arm was semi-paralyzed, covered in blood where his wounds had reopened during the storm. These bloody wounds seemed unable to clot and heal, blood kept oozing out, zapping strength from him, and Hiei realized disdainfully how weak he was.
Weakness filled his body—a familiar weakness, the same lack of power that he'd felt around ten days ago when Karasu had temporary changed him into a human. Then Hiei remembered what Karasu had told him about the mark when the fire-demon was his captive—Karasu hadn't undone the spell that changed Hiei into a human, he had only cast another one to restore the fire-demon to his demon form. Karasu was dead now and it appeared the spell had worn off—it took a week and had happened at the worst possible time.
Cursing his luck, feeling it too hopeful to expect the spell that changed him into a human to wear off soon as well, Hiei fell back down onto the cave's floor, barely aware of the voices in the near distance outside the cave.
Unable to call out since he'd strained his vocal cords shouting the night Kurama died, Hiei waited silent in the darkness, hoping to be found, but knowing that there was low chance of that happening. Just as he thought, the voices didn't come nearer to the cave, only stayed where they were, the words indistinct to Hiei's human hearing.
Just when Hiei was about to fall into despair's snare, the fox cub awoke, nuzzled against him for a second, then began whimpering, softly, then louder, yelping incessantly.
'Idiot. Like anyone would hear….' Hiei thought, and then gasped when he heard footsteps heading closer to the cave. 'It couldn't….' However second later, another wave of tiredness his him and Hiei fell unconscious, listening to the incessant cries of the fox cub.
Delicately, light fell upon the sleeping Hiei's face, awakening him from his slumber. Groggy, unsure of where he was, Hiei sat up, noticing that he was on a futon, and that his wounds were healed. One look around the room told him where he was—Genkai's temple; those voices he heard must've been Yusuke's and Kuwabara's and they must've rescued him.
"Had a nice nap, shrimp?" Kuwabara asked entering the room carrying a tray of food in. "It was about time you awoke, everyone was worried about you, you know."
"…." Hiei kept silent, staring at Kuwabara, vaguely remembering what had happened, and wondering what happened to the fox cub.
As though responding to Hiei's unasked question, Kuwabara placed the tray of food down and turned to him, taking out the fox cub from inside his jacket, grinning.
"This little guy was worried about you. He kept yapping until Master Genkai healed you, then he wouldn't leave your bed for the two days you were unconscious. Genkai has been feeding him, and says he might make it—even without his mother." Kuwabara yapped on, surprised at Hiei not telling him to shut up or go away. "Genkai healed your vocal cords too, so you could yell and tell me to leave…Hiei?"
"…." Hiei remained silent, staring at the fox cub, wistful and curiously, and before realizing what he was doing, Hiei took the cub from Kuwabara cradling the youngling in his arms.
"It was lucky this little guy was with you, if Urameshi hadn't heard him yelping we wouldn't have found you." Kuwabara sat down beside the futon, observing Hiei strangely. "Do you know you have a human body now? Was that some spell that…?"
"Kuwabara, I told you to just bring Hiei the food tray, not to annoy him with yakking." Genkai spoke, entering the room and gazing at Hiei with interest, smiling when she saw him holding the fox cub. "I see you're as fond of that cub as he is of you. That little guy saved your life, you know." Pause. "Karai has recovered enough of his power to restore your demon body if you want him to."
"…."
"So what are you going to do with the fox cub? You can start taking care of it yourself if you wish."
After a long pause, in which Hiei looked from Genkai to the cub in his arms, and then back to Genkai, Hiei nodded, petting the youngling gently. Seeing this Genkai chuckled, then stared into Hiei's eyes knowingly.
"So what are you going to name him?" Genkai asked bringing Hiei a container of milk and an ear-dropper to feed the cub, waiting patiently for Hiei to respond.
"…Kurama…." Hiei whispered, kissing the small cub softly on the head.
So what do you readers think of this story? Should I add more chapters to this story or should I create a separate story that continues this one?