I know it's been forever since i updated. i deeply apologize for that. but now this is the longest chapter i've written. yay )

Chapter 24

The lady dabbed at her food. "I do miss Hila. But how did you end up in the kitchens? I thought you were working down at the stables." A genuinely confused tone sounded in her voice.

This made Kuwabara lower his guard around the Lady a bit, but she had to be an extremely good actress to trick Hiei. "How did you know where I've worked?"

"Oh! I guess I never mentioned it, but I always check up on new servants. Just to make sure they are comfortably settled in, you know. I met with Hila and went down to the stables to meet you, but I saw that you were already working hard, so I didn't want to bother you. I should've greeted you too, but you seemed like you had a lot of work."

"I see. Well, umm… I heard that your husband put you down here. Why?" Kuwabara asked without thinking. He winced when a flash of pain fleeted across the Lady's face.

"Well…it all started when Hila came into the castle. I…I think I might've told her something that I shouldn't have. I hope she's all right." The Lady paused for a moment, seeming to think. "I told Hila about something I found out about my husband. It was a major secret, but the events that secret brought me were too painful. I couldn't hold it in any longer; I had to tell someone. Hila was there, she listened to my sorrow. Now I wish I hadn't told her. She disappeared right afterwards and I think it might've been my husband's doing. He locked me up right afterwards. His only explanation was to keep me safe from harm. But really, I worry about him. With that new power enhancer he's been taking, I'm scared of what it may do to him."

"What power enhancer?" Kuwabara blurted out. This confession of the Lady seemed to become more unnerving each second. It was suspiciously weird because Hiei and Koenma had already deemed this Lady a liar and a scheme-plotting demon. However, what the Lady said here in the cell seemed truly sincere.

The Lady's eyes grew wide as she realized what she had said. "Oh, my! I've said too much already. If my husband finds out, I can't guarantee your safety, Kuwabara. Now just let us finish this dinner and not worry about such things." She picked up a utensil and began eating.

Kuwabara kept his mouth shut for once and watched as the Lady ate. After the meal was done, Kuwabara rang the bell and left quickly. He had something to ask Koenma.

Yusuke wasn't surprised when Narako led him into a bedchamber with the largest bed he had ever seen. It was a deep royal blue color, covered with what looked to be silk sheets. "Uh…is this my room?"

Narako smiled seductively. "No, it's our room." He walked Yusuke to the bed and leaned closer to the boy, whispering in his ears. "Please sit."

Yusuke didn't like this situation at all, but the whispered words sound more like a demand than a request. Yusuke sat. "So…you're a Lord huh?" The detective edged closer to the bed as Narako positioned himself over Yusuke.

"You already know, my spirit detective. Yes, I know your secret, but do you know mine, little one?" Narako's lips were dangerously close to Yusuke's making the boy want to turn and flee.

It wasn't that the demon was unattractive. In fact, it was just the opposite. The demon looming over him was gorgeous, but Yusuke had Kurama. He couldn't betray the one he loves. "Why don't you tell me? Since you already know mine." Yusuke asked, half afraid that Narako would attack him then and there.

"What do you have to offer for that information, my lovely?" Narako held onto Yusuke's wrists as he gently grinded against the boy, making his intensions quite obvious.

Yusuke started to pull away, but the demon's weight on top made it rather difficult to even move. All the boy could do was to stare defiantly. "Let go of me."

"And why should I? Technically speaking, you are my enemy, and as enemies, I think I have treated you very well."

"I never asked to be treated well by you."

"You're quite right, my pet. I don't have to be nice to you." A malicious glare came from the demon's eyes as he spoke. "Are you asking that I not be nice to you, Yusuke?"

"I-I didn't ask for you to be anything to me!" The boy responded with confused words. Yusuke knew that the demon was fond of him, but he didn't want to push his luck this time.

"Hmm… how about we make a compromise, Yuuske?" Narako lifted himself off of the smaller boy. He watched as Yusuke sat up, trying to smooth out his dress.

Yusuke raised his head to see what the demon was up to. He knew he had to pay attention. Dealing with demons could be tricky. "Depends on what it is." He said with a loud and clear voice, trying not to sound intimidated.

The violet-eyed demon smiled sweetly against Yusuke's glare. "I promise to let your partner live…if…"

"Don't you dare touch Hiei!" Angry words spilled out of Yusuke's lips. 'How dare he threaten Hiei just to get to him? What a coward!' Just as those words came out, Yusuke saw a pleased smirk from the demon's face. "Shit." He cursed himself. 'Damn it Uremeshi. How can you let Hiei's name slip like that? Baka Baka Baka.'

"Hiei…you mean that short guy with the temper and glare is your partner?" Narako leaned in closer to Yusuke and whispered. "Thank you, love, for telling me this valuable information."

"You better not hurt him…I won't forgive you." Yusuke was still scolding himself for making such an awful mistake. It was fine if he did anything that would endanger himself, he does it all the time anyways. But to put Hiei in danger…if that short demon got injured, Yusuke wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

"Your friend will be fine, if you agree to this proposition, Yusuke."

"I'm listening."

"I'm not going to deny the fact that I want you in my bed. You're a beautiful human, full of vitality and energy. Your expressions, the way you laugh, the face you make when you're angry, or being sad, your hateful glares, I want to see all of that. Do you know why Yusuke? Even this confuses me to no end." Narako flipped a strand of hair out of his face, pausing in his confession.

"Are you saying you want to trade the safety of my friend for my body?" Yusuke bit his lips. He knew he'd give into Narako if that was the case…but…Kurama.

Narako smirked at the comment. "Is that what you think I want? An unwilling bedmate? You must think lowly of me, Yusuke."

"Huh? That's not what you want? Hey! Don't give me that look, I barely know you!"

"Exactly. I find that quite depressing, my love. My proposition is that in exchange for your partner's safety, well, at least until he acts harmfully towards me, you will give me the chance to get to know you better. I want to show you that Kurama isn't the only one for you out there, Yusuke."

Yusuke was at a lost for words. He had expected this demon to be more vulgar and well…evil. But he was not.

"And I don't want you to agree and dismiss me either. You have to truly give me a chance."

"I…agree."

Koenma's face became a scowl as he listened to Kuwabara.

"I know I'm not the smartest one on this team, but it's weird, don't you think, that the Lady was put into the dungeons? I mean the way she still talked about the events, it sounds like she was telling the truth!" Kuwabara reported his situation with the Lady Sayaka.

Koenma took his pacifier out of his mouth as he began to speak. "If your suspicions are indeed correct, it will mean that they had known that we were there, spying on them. This is not good news. Someone had either switched the drugs or removed them before Hiei reached the lab. The carnage Hiei described before…"

"But why would they kill their own guards and then remove the drugs? That sounds like a lot of useless trouble to me." Kurama's voice came in on the other line. "Unless…it's not Shikosume's men who did this. Maybe someone else found out about this besides us and wanted their hands on it?"

"Hmm… that sounds possible. But can we really conclude that there is this third party involved?" The toddler flipped through files of paper, searching for more evidence.

"There really isn't enough to make certain of this, but we can't dismiss the possibility of someone else having the same information as us either. Koenma, do you know who else has the power to get this information?" Kurama asked.

"I have two possible leads, but… " Koenma trailed off.

"But what?"

"Nothing. It's just that one of them kind of reminds me of you, Kurama. Yes, flaming red hair and such a polite attitude, just like you." Koenma drifted off to some distant memory.

"What?" Kurama nearly shouted. It couldn't be… The redhead remembered when Yusuke had asked him about his mother. It had to be the same guy who took Yusuke's mother away. Then there must be a third party involved. 'This is all falling into place.'

"But you know, it couldn't be him. Why would he show his face now, when he's avoided me all this time? No, it couldn't be him." Koenma mumbled to himself, ignoring both spirit detectives.

"Who's him?" Kuwabara asked rather loudly.

"Yes, let's hear about this person, Koenma." Kurama said coldly.

Koenma bit his lips. He didn't want to talk about him, the man who had caused him so much pain and heartache. But as he stared into the piercing green eyes of another redhead, he knew he had to. "Where do I start? Lets see…his name is Akira and he was my… rival. It was a very long time ago, when I was just a child. I was still in schooling, learning about the spirit world and the demon and human worlds. Akira and I met at a young age, when our spiritual powers were just developing. I still remember when we both wanted to be the most powerful students there, trying to advance so we could beat each other in class."

"So who's better? You or him?" Kuwabara asked, interrupting the story.

Koenma smiled slightly. "Well, in the long run, I'm guarding here and he's overlooking the demon world. Does that answer your question?"

"Um, no, not really." Kuwabara looked and sounded baffled.

"If he's 'overlooking' the demon world, how come I've never heard of him?" Kurama asked.

"You've never heard of him because he does not want to be known, not anymore anyways. He just observes and records now." Koenma sighed. "He used to be such an ambitious person, always striving to beat me and everyone around him. He wanted to be famous, to have people speak of him in awe and respect."

"Wait, so he just watches the demons? No fighting, no action? Does that mean you're more powerful than him?" Scratching his head, Kuwabara made a face. "He isn't weak is he?"

This comment made Koenma laugh. "Just because he chooses not to flaunt his power does not mean he is weak. In fact, his job to observe without being noticed at all in the demon world says how much strength he has. Think about it, Kuwabara, even the strongest of demons remain unaware of his presence."

"So he's stronger than you?" Kuwabara blurted out.

"Indeed he is, but we don't fight about it anymore, so it really doesn't matter now. He's been uninvolved for hundreds of years. What gets me worried is why he would act now, after such a long time?" Koenma bit his lips in worry, thinking to himself. 'Is it because that this case is more serious than I thought it would be, that it would be out of my league?'

"He is on our side right?" Finally Kuwabara had asked a useful question.

Koenma nodded. "He is."

Kurama silently thought about the events this Akira had supposedly done. "It seems that both you and Akira are working for the same side, so the question is… why is it that he interferes without even informing you? Why keep himself in secret when we could just work together? It would be easier, less work for both sides, and not to mention less danger."

Kurama was surprised to see a dark look on the toddler's youthful face. "I don't expect him to contact me, even if we are both working towards the same thing."

"Why?" Kuwabara didn't notice the bitterness in Koenma's voice.

"We had a bad history. But whether I like it or not, I'll have to contact him and ask is he really involved." Koenma looked at the giant clock on his wall. "It is getting late. I'll let you two get some rest."

"Yes! I mean bye, Koenma sir." Kuwabara muttered as his link faded out.

Kurama was just about to say his goodbye when Koenma halted him. "Wait, Kurama. I didn't want to spill my personal past to Kuwabara yet, but I think you need to hear this. I've watched over all four of you for quite a while now, and it seems that I've grown to care about your well beings."

Kurama let the smile settle on his face as he continued listening to the small child in front of him.

"You three don't fool me a bit. I know about your love triangle, Kurama. No, I'm not afraid that it may affect your work, but more about your personal feelings. You see, Akira and I, we were once lovers. Don't give me that look. I don't always look like this you know. I only take this body so my energy could transfer into this pacifier more efficiently. Otherwise I'll look like my teenage form."

"I didn't know." Kurama said.

"Well, I chose to take this form. Have no one to impress now. But, back to what I was saying. Akira and I were once in a triangle much like yours. The only difference between us was that I wasn't in your position. It was Akira who had loved more than one. It was incredibly difficult to feel happy when you had to share the person you love with another. I would feel insecure about myself, questioning Akira's love for me much too often. Even when I believed him when he declared his love for me, every time he was with her, it made me jealous to no end. It made me feel worthless, that I couldn't satisfy him so he had to find another. At the time, I didn't even try to become friends with her; I simply despised her with all my heart. Finally, I made him chose between us because I couldn't stand it anymore. We were both young and foolish, him with his tempers and me with my insecurities. I called her vicious names, unaware of his protectiveness of her. I had always thought he loved only me, and that if he had to chose, he would chose me. She was just an infatuation that will pass in time. Maybe he would've picked me, but his temper got the better of him and he, in a fit of rage, chose her. I was too proud and stubborn to even apologize for saying such malicious things about her, or to go back to him. Even when she died only a year after, I was too proud to go to him, and he was lost in his grief. That was when he had lost his lust for fame." Koenma gave a deep sigh and closed his eyes for a moment. "He didn't show me why he loved her. He only wanted us to accept the fact that he had another whom he also loves. Do you see the fault in that, Kurama? If I had seen the spark in her eyes when she laughed, the way she cared way too much for everyone and everything, that she had a huge heart, maybe I would've accepted her love, and we would've been together now."

Kurama felt a tear slid down his face as he imagined the scenario, replacing Koenma with himself. 'I must never let that happen to Yusuke and Hiei, never.'

"I know that they seem cold to each other now, but I'm observant. I can tell there's a spark between Hiei and Yusuke. I think they can get along pretty well if you give them a chance to know each other better."

"Is that why you separated the teams like this?" Kurama eyed Koenma suspiciously.

Koenma gave the redhead a playful smile. "I'm not telling."

"Just a thought. You described Akira as having flaming red hair and a polite attitude. Do I remind you of him?"

"He's only polite when he has to be. And to answer your question, he's nothing like you, Kurama. Well, maybe the hair, but he's definitely not quite so feminine."

Kurama narrowed his eyes. "I am not feminine."

Koenma laughed.

Yusuke was brought to his own room, complete with a bathroom and bathtub. He was quite surprised when Narako actually kept his promise and didn't decide to capture Hiei immediately. Also, he was given clothes. Yusuke was pleased to discover there was at least one pair of pants in the bundle. He squealed in joy when he finally unzipped the stupid dress and got into comfortable slacks. Of course, he would never admit that Yusuke Uremeshi, spirit detective and all would actually squeal in joy for anything.

"I wonder where Hiei is," he mumbled to himself as he stuffed the rest of the clothes into a dresser.

Narako had given him a just small peck on his lips before letting the boy go, although he made Yusuke promise to join him for dinner later that night.

All in all, it was a pretty harmless deal they made, Yusuke thought to himself. The spirit detective would never betray Kurama. The only thing Yusuke had to worry about was how to get the violet-eyed demon to confess his involvement with the Lord Shikosume.

A knock on the door made Yusuke stop in his thoughts. "Yes?" He asked as he opened the door.

A scowling face met with a smiling one. Hiei stood at the door glaring. "Uremeshi."

"Hiei! How did you find me? You know I was just about to look for you, to make sure you're all right and stuff." Yusuke was relieved that the demon was really unharmed.

"I sensed you when they brought you here. My room is right across from yours." Hiei said emotionlessly as he walked into Yusuke's room without further invitation. "We need to talk."

"Yeah, come on in why don't you?" Yusuke said sarcastically as Hiei was already sitting comfortably on his bed.

"First, how do you know Narako? Second, what did you do with him? His scent is all over you." Hiei asked coldly. He was not going to let Yusuke get away with cheating on Kurama.

Yusuke closed the door and locked it. He sat next to Hiei and smiled. "I didn't do anything with him that will result in cheating on Kurama. Don't worry about that, Hiei. You know I would never do that to him, at least not willingly."

"You didn't answer my first question." Hiei stated.

"I was just getting to that." Yusuke paused, thinking of where to begin. He didn't want any more distance between him and Hiei, so he can't sound too bitter about seeing him and Kurama in bed. "You still remember the night Kurama changed to Yoko?" Yusuke saw a small blush creep up on Hiei's face as he mentioned that night. 'He looks better that way.' Yusuke thought as Hiei stopped his glaring.

The small demon nodded, his cold expression seemed to soften as he considered Yusuke's feelings. He didn't want to rub it in the human's face that he had slept with his lover. Hiei noticed Yusuke's smile was gone. The human was biting his lips and fidgeting with his fingers. 'He does look quite young, and innocent, like a child. But compared to me and Kurama, he is a child.'

"Well, I knew that Kurama told me not to go to him that night, that it was important that I stay away. So I went home, thinking I would at least get a good night's sleep. But you know someone somewhere up there must hate me cause a frantic Keiko knocked on my door, telling me that my mother was in the hospital, injured with a stomach wound. I went to the hospital as fast as I could. She was bleeding and losing blood fast. I had to give her blood, so I was feeling kinda woozy. Obviously I couldn't stay at the hospital all night. I didn't feel like going home to an empty house, so I risked ignoring Kurama's words and went to his house instead."

Hiei felt something he had not felt in a long time as he listened to Yusuke, guilt. Yusuke had almost lost his mother and was looking for comfort when he found out his lover was sleeping with someone else. "I'm sorry." The words escaped his lips before Hiei had a chance to think about it.

Yusuke paused in his story. In all the time he had spent with Hiei, he had never heard the demon apologize, ever.

"Don't take me wrong, Yusuke. I'm not sorry about sleeping with Yoko. I just never wanted to cause you pain." Hiei said, trying to get some of his cold attitude back, but failing miserably as tears started to run down Yusuke's face. "I- ," Hiei paused. "Don't cry, Uremeshi. Didn't I just say I didn't want to cause you pain?"

Yusuke almost laughed through his tears as Hiei's face was stricken with panic for a fleeting second. Deep in his heart, Yusuke knew that Hiei wasn't a bad person at all. "It's ok, Hiei. You can stop pretending that you don't care, because I know you do. And for that, I forgive you a little. But I have to know. Why were you at Kurama's house, even though he made it clear he didn't want anyone there?"

Hiei was relieved. He didn't think he could handle an emotional Yusuke. "It's not like we plotted this alright? I saw you with Kurama. It was unexpected, so I went to ask him what was going on. Instead of finding Kurama, Yoko was there." Hiei said quickly, refusing to elaborate any further.

"I see." Yusuke scanned his partner's face.

Hiei had put his guard up again, making his face cold and emotionless. "You've stopped with your story."

"All the doors were locked and I heard a scream." Yusuke noted that Hiei also blushed at this comment. "I thought Kurama was in trouble so I climbed up to his window. You know what I heard. I guess… with the blood loss and the shock, I fainted. It was Narako who caught me so I didn't crack my skull. When I woke, I was with him."

"We lost your spirit energy for a few hours." Hiei stated.

"Yeah, apparently he brought me over to the demon world. Then he said that he liked me and then I asked to go back to my world and he brought me back." Yusuke said rapidly. Hiei gave him a look that said I know there's more than what you're telling, but decided to not say anything.

"We have to report to Koenma soon." Hiei was just about to take out the communicator when there was a knock on the door. The demon scowled as he walked over and glared at the servant who disturbed him. "What?"

"I-I'm just here to t-tell you that dinner is ready." A small girl stuttered and cringed at the look Hiei was giving her.

"Hiei, don't scare the servants. It's not their fault for accidentally interrupting you." Yusuke turned to the girl. "Hello. Don't worry about him," he pointed at Hiei, "He's always in a bad mood. Did you say something about dinner? Because I'm starving!"

"Y-yes. Lord Narako said to invite Mr. Uremeshi and Mr. Hiei to his dining chambers."

Yusuke was surprised at the fact that Narako had invited Hiei as well. Then another thought popped into his head. He had not told Hiei that Narako knew about him being the other spy. 'I hope Hiei won't be too upset about it.'

"Please follow me." The girl said meekly as she turned and started walking down the long corridor.