Disclaimer: See prologue.

Notes: To anyone who is concerned about this being Shounen ai, I wouldn't worry too much. If you can believe it, I'll never put up so much as a citrus warning. And lemons do not officially exist on this site. I do follow the rules if I can help it.

Chapter 2

As it turned out, I did not get to sleep at all that day. I went home to see a note from Shiori on the counter requesting I take Shuichi out to run errands that day. Had anyone else made such a request, I would have politely refused. But… Shiori. I never could say no to her. And she did not ask much of me that summer, so it was the least I could do. At least Shuichi was pleasant company.

Kuwabara was understanding about it. By four the next morning I was ready to drop. Kuwabara took one look at me and volunteered to wake me should anything happen. He even suffered a numb arm because I fell asleep leaning against it. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened while I slept. Kitagawa was in bed and never got up before seven-thirty—half an hour after our shift ended, which was how we got away with our meetings every morning. Even the most oblivious of men could not be continually unaware of four people outside his house every day. We made certain he was still asleep. If he woke early, we shifted our meeting place a block further down.

Naturally, I did not expect to get a great deal of sleep. Even assuming I slept solid—which, incidentally, I did. Thank you so much, Kuwabara—the shift ended at seven, which left only three hours. I honestly expected nothing to happen. Kitagawa had thus far proven himself impotent as far as demons go (and no, that was not intended as a pun), so I did not think Kuwabara would be waking me to go chase after a homicidal demon. If it had been necessary, of course Kuwabara would not have been to blame. He did his job properly (mostly).

Kuwabara did not wake me that morning. It was Hiei, the little dick. There I was, caught in relatively peaceful dreams, when he came along and suddenly decided he was suicidal. Don't laugh. It was the only plausible explanation at the time. Had he been in his normal state of mind, he would have gone straight for Kuwabara. Instead he decided to attack me.

Of course, attack is a little strong a word for it, but when one is wrenched from slumber by what might be perceived as a violent force, attack is the first thing that comes to mind. It was the first thought on my mind when he grabbed my arm and the back of my shirt (not to mention a good chunk of my hair) and hauled me over the back of the bench where we had been sitting. Truly, who does that kind of thing? Even in the Demon World I never did that, at least, not to anyone I particularly liked.

Actually, the first thought I had was not attack, but what the hell! After that, it was attack. Had I been awake before Hiei decided to play toss-the-fox I might have realized there was no danger. His words, while angry, apparently were not directed at me. Being as I was still chasing through flowery meadows after a floating bowl of rice (don't ask, I'm no expert in dream interpretation) I was a little startled. The anger I heard. The words flew right past me. And I still think Hiei deserved to be thrown into that tree.

He should not have been surprised. There was no excuse for that shocked look on his face. However, it seemed the moment of insanity passed quickly. His apparent indignation faded as soon as our eyes met. For all his speed, Hiei was not the quickest student when it came to judging situations, but he was smart enough to know when he was beat. His mouth shut before anything worthless came out.

Unfortunately for him I was not letting him off quite that easily.

"Holy shit!" Kuwabara had finally gotten a grasp on the situation. I'll give him some credit. A normal human would have taken longer, and he had only taken a few seconds to understand a little of what had passed. "What the hell was that all about?"

"That's what I'd like to know." I rubbed my back and winced. It was bruised from Hiei's attempt at manhandling me over the back of a wooden bench. I hoped he ached from his collision with that tree, but I doubted it. It took more than that to cause Hiei any damage. But hey, the day was still young. After that awakening I was a little cranky. He could have dumped a pail of ice water over my head but no, he had to go primitive on me. So I glared at him and dared him to offer a stupid explanation. "Did I do something to upset you?"

Hiei's mouth opened and shut a few times, and he turned an unusual shade of red. He had never blushed quite so deeply to date that I was aware. Finally, he set his jaw and adjusted his glare to include both Kuwabara and me.

"What were you doing?" he asked. It sounded close to his usual coldness, but he never could fool me. There was a nervous dip to his question. He was well aware of his blunder.

"Watching Kitagawa!" Kuwabara retorted indignantly. "What's it to you?"

Such a response should not have fazed Hiei, but it did. He stopped dead, his mouth snapping shut against his angry reply. If anything he looked less angry than startled. His mouth opened again, but he jittered in place for a moment before cursing softly and disappearing. I was not positive, but it looked as if he had merely retreated to a tree a short distance away (not the one he had recently collided with). Even with his state of agitation, he had a solid sense of duty. The job of watching Kitagawa might not have been the most exciting of tasks, but when Hiei set out to do something, he finished it.

"Yo, Kuwabara!"

Yusuke had arrived. We turned to greet him, both still baffled by our latest misadventure. Grinning broadly, Yusuke clapped his hand into Kuwabara's in greeting, the latter responding out of habit. Kuwabara was still looking dazed. Yusuke never noticed.

"Hey, Kurama!" he greeted belatedly. He blinked and tilted his head at me. Squinting and leaning forward, he made an elaborate show of studying me. It was very uncomfortable. Finally, he glanced at Kuwabara, who still had a shell-shocked glaze to his eyes. His grin faded. "You guys look funny. What happened?"

"Uhhh…" Kuwabara was obviously incapable of finding an appropriate answer to that one.

"Hiei's morning manner leaves much to be desired," I offered. Yusuke's anxious stare changed to one of pure bafflement. Not caring much about that but more curious as to what had tipped him off, I added, "Why do you ask?"

His eyebrows shot up, and he made a poor attempt at not smiling. Eventually he gave up. He grinned and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Your hair is all messy," he stated.

My hand immediately went to my head. Messy? My hair? Surely not. My hair was never messy. Well, it sometimes got tangled during… well, during certain strenuous activities, but that's why one keeps a brush by the bed, is it not? Even when I fought, it never got messy. A little disheveled, maybe, but that windblown look was always attractive, so why complain? Hey. I pride myself on keeping up good appearances. Blood, bruises, cuts. Fine. But there was no excuse for messy hair.

My fingers caught in a knot near my nape. Wincing at the sharp pull against my skin, I set to work at untangling the offending clump of hair. Sure enough, it was sticking out oddly, which was probably what Yusuke had noticed.

"Hey, no big deal," Yusuke laughed aloud at my plight. Kuwabara was laughing too. I glared at them for their audacity. "You're going home anyway, aren't you? Get some sleep? Some rest so you don't look like someone gave you two black eyes?"

If this was his way of telling me I looked like shit, I did not appreciate it. Between Hiei and Yusuke, my self-confidence was decreasing at a startlingly rapid rate. And it was all Hiei's fault. If he had just woken me like a normal person does, he never would have twisted his grubby mitts in my hair, and I would still look semi-human. Maybe I'd punch Yusuke a few times and our eyes would match. He wouldn't be making anymore snide comments then.

"Anything happen last night?"

"Nah," Kuwabara took over answering while I improvised a small forked branch for a comb. A morning jogger looked at me oddly, and I edged closer to Kuwabara. He was big enough to block the view from the road. "Same old deal. Kurama didn't get to sleep yesterday, though."

"That the reason behind the whole bed-head?" Yusuke asked. He laughed when he saw me yanking at a particularly nasty knot. I had a few choice words for that, but I kept them to myself. There was no need to make the situation worse. I knew quite well what kind of response there would be if I said anything.

"Hiei tried to play catch with Kurama," Kuwabara explained. He grinned. "But Kurama threw him into a tree. You should've seen the pipsqueak fly."

I smirked to myself at the mental image that provided. I did not actually see Hiei until he hit the ground several feet away from me.

"It was awesome," the boy added, and Yusuke was laughing. Thank you, Kuwabara. I always liked you best.

"Man, I would've paid to see that!" Yusuke remarked. To his credit, he sobered quickly and nodded toward the house. "Well, I'm off to my shift. He'll be up soon."

"Yeah," Kuwabara clapped a hand against my shoulder, causing me to drop my makeshift brush. It was just as well. I had done the best I could without the benefit of an actual brush. I would have to fix it when I got home. "I'll make sure Kurama doesn't fall asleep on the train and miss his stop."

That one deserved a derisive comment, but I was too tired and annoyed to be bothered with it. If anything, at least Kuwabara's presence would keep Hiei at bay. After that bizarre display a few minutes ago, I was not in the mood to deal with him. Certainly not unless he came up with an extremely good excuse. 'I was possessed by a demon hell-bent on eating your heart out' would have been a start. Granted demons were not known for possessing other demons, and any demon powerful enough to possess Hiei would have stayed to finish the job because I probably—and Kuwabara certainly—would not have been capable of defeating him. Therefore, Hiei was acting out of his own harebrained volition.

I should have cared, but I was all for going home and getting in bed. So I looked at Yusuke and offered him some advice to pass on.

"If you ever see Hiei today, tell him he'd better come clean with me." Someone else might have added an 'or else…' and some threat, but it was an unnecessary thing. Hiei knew full well what I was capable of doing to him. We both knew that where he would hesitate, I would not. And that put him at a terrible disadvantage. Never let it be said that I'm a nice guy. At least, not to people who have been hell bent on making a fool of me these past several days. "Let's go, Kuwabara. If we hurry, we can make the seven-forty-five."

"Right!" Lucky Kuwabara. He did not catch my threat. But Yusuke knew. Yusuke was looking at me with a contemplative stare that seemed to pry into me. It was a demand, and it took quite a bit of effort not to answer it. He wanted to know who I was—he always wanted to know that. And I loved him dearly, but I never told anyone that. "Later, Urameshi."

"Yeah," Yusuke nodded solemnly. Ooh. I had ruined his good humor. If I was not so tired I might have cared. "Later Kuwabara… Kurama."

And, by the smiling fates, we made the seven-forty-five train. I was in bed by eight-thirty.

XXXX

The cycle repeated. Seven o'clock that night Kuwabara and I met Yusuke in the coffee shop across the street from Kitagawa's place of employ. Fully rested and much more content, I had nearly forgotten my quarrel with a certain demon who would remain nameless. (Yes, but we all know who it is, don't we? Shares a name with a mountain? Begins with H? Yes, him.) Okay, so my quarrel was not completely forgotten. In fact, I was immensely relieved that he was not in the coffee shop, not that I expected him to actually enter a human-run establishment of his own free will.

Yusuke was there and had already ordered tea for me and a juice for Kuwabara. Neither of us were big coffee drinkers. We left that to Yusuke, who, at that moment, was making notes on his napkin. I should have given him his privacy, but curiosity always was my weakness, so I looked at it. There were only a few notes: flowers, movie, dinner, poetry.

Seemed he was still trying to figure out how to get on Keiko's good side. Heaven only knows why he thought he needed to go to such extents. Keiko would have walked through fire for him no matter how much of a jerk he was. Wait a minute—she had walked through fire for him. The point is, she knew he cared for her more than his own little life, so all that spouting poetry was unnecessary. Granted, I had only ever held a girlfriend for a few days in a row, so I might not have been the expert in long-lasting relationships. Back in the Demon World the only thing most of those girls were good for was… well, nothing that's suitable for polite company.

We sat across from Yusuke, Kuwabara kindly taking the inner seat. Call me fussy, but he was quite a bit larger than me, and I hated being trapped between a wall and his bulk. Made me a little claustrophobic.

Yusuke was contemplating his napkin, barely aware we had arrived. He tapped his pen against the napkin a few times, as if it would help him produce more ideas, but all he produced were a few extra blue dots.

"Nothing happened," Yusuke said finally, speaking to the tabletop. He shoved the pen and his napkin into his pocket as he stood. Grinning widely, he added, "Have fun," and then left. Just like that.

"Uh…" Kuwabara and I exchanged curious looks. I never had any idea what went on in Yusuke's mind. Kuwabara was usually better at figuring our leader out, but judging by the blank stare, he was no better off than I was. "Okay…"

I moved to Yusuke's recently vacated seat and looked out the window to the restaurant across the street. Kitagawa was inside serving a plate of something to a customer. I was thrilled already. Fortunately, Kuwabara launched into a conversation about the latest gossip on the street and the next movie to come to the theaters. Oddly, I was starting to grow accustomed to—and even begrateful for—his constant chatter.

XXXX

One might say we got lucky that night. No, I am not referring to sex. Well, I guess you could argue I am, but it's stretching it a little. What I mean is that Kitagawa chose that night to finally do something more naughty than view pornographic websites.

It started out normally. Kitagawa waved good-bye and went home as he did each night before. Kuwabara sensed something was wrong before I did. He had a powerful gift for empathy, one that surpassed even Hiei's talent for it. Hiei's empathic talent came from his Jagan, though, while Kuwabara's was completely natural. It only made sense that he would have a better handle on it, especially since he had worked at honing his gift in more recent years.

"Something's not right, Kurama," he told me while we quietly tailed the man to his little shack. "There's something about it… just wrong."

I believed him, of course, but neither of us knew the source of the problem. It made things difficult when it came to solving the issue. You can't answer a question you have not yet heard. Not unless you're a mind reader. Neither of us was.

"What do we do?"

"Keep following him," I suggested, since that seemed to be the only option. "Wait and see if he does anything."

It took two hours, but I finally felt what had Kuwabara so edgy. Kitagawa must have cranked up his power because Kuwabara shuddered and groaned, and I had the sudden need to be in that house. Thankfully I could repress that urge, but not before I was on my feet and half a dozen steps forward.

Let me just mention now how much falling on your knees hurts. I scraped up my palms and tore my pants in that fit of clumsiness. The darkness hid us from view, or I might have been more embarrassed at my sudden compulsion to rush forward. Kuwabara had not moved, so why had I?

Remaining half collapsed on the sidewalk lest my traitorous feet decide to launch me at that house again, I tried to pinpoint the problem. Several feet away Kuwabara was sick in the grass. Poor guy. Such was the luck of being a powerful empath. He was hit harder than I was, maybe even knocked off his feet, which would help to explain why he had not moved.

"Oh my god…" Kuwabara sounded as if he would throw up again at any moment. "What is that? It's like… it's pulling me and beating me down at once."

He had described it almost exactly. More precise, what I felt was not a beating so much as a strong press—an awful desire to prostrate myself before anyone who chanced by. But it was merely physical, and that could be overcome. I knew better. Kuwabara knew better. And this would not defeat us. This…

"It's a pheromone," I realized with some shock. Of all the—we had a pheromone-releasing perverted youkai on the loose. It did not take a genius to figure out what he had planned. "The girl!"

"A fair-what?" Kuwabara groaned. "Who…?"

I left him alone because she had shown up right on time. No sooner had I thought it, Daddy's girl (the daughter of the restaurant owner) arrived in a cab. She paid the driver and chased him off with an angry shout before running to Kitagawa's front door. She had to chase that driver away. He probably would have gone inside with her. Unlike Kuwabara and myself, it was doubtful that either of them noticed anything was amiss. They both simply wanted to be in that house, however filthy or dubious, and with whoever was inside. Or whatever.

That girl would never survive if Kitagawa was unable to control himself. She was only human, and I knew what demons did to each other. Demons could heal. She would die before she ever reached a hospital.

It occurred to me for a moment—just a moment—that this was completely consensual. The girl knew full well what he wanted, and he loved her enough to know the extents of her fragility and compensate for it.

I threw the thought away before it could develop into a more plausible excuse not to go into that house. If this girl truly wanted Kitagawa, he would not need that pheromone. He was getting desperate, and she was easily accessible. That damned porn should have been a sign of what he was. God, I hated youkai like that. They never used their heads. Their brains were mysteriously placed between their legs, a sick aberration of demonhood if there ever was one.

"Kuwabara!"

He did not look good. His face was gray, his eyes glazed from the sensory overload. He would probably collapse halfway to that house. Which left me in a very uncomfortable situation. I really did not want to go into that house, and certainly not alone. But if we waited until the pheromones faded, or even until we retrieved Yusuke and Hiei, that girl could very well be dead.

"Damn!" Through some force of will I turned away from the house and made it to Kuwabara's side. He was not a light person, and trying to yank him off the ground when he obviously wanted to remain there was not an easy task. I did manage to get him to his feet, though, and I sent him away from the house with a hard shove.

"Kurama!"

"Go find Yusuke!" I ordered. I avoided looking back at the house. It was almost as though just to look at it would have me in it against my will, and I would only go into that place under my own power.

"You getting Hiei?" Kuwabara asked.

"I'm getting that girl out of there," I shook my head, doubting my own ability to do this. Kitagawa looked like a pushover. In fact, he probably was outside of this disturbing little ability. If I hit him, it was very likely I could knock him out. His strength came from leaving his enemies so confused as to what they wanted to do with him that he could escape. No wonder he lived in the Human World. He would have been slaughtered in the Demon World.

"Are you crazy!" Kuwabara grabbed my arm as if he thought he could drag me along with him. I shoved him away easily. "You can't go in there!"

"That's why you'd better hurry," I hissed. He grabbed my arm again when I turned to go back to that house.

"Kurama!"

I doubt my punch really fazed him. Compared to Yusuke, my blows were like a child's slap. Still, he let go, probably more surprised that I had hit him than anything else. When he looked at me, I glared at him.

"Get Yusuke and come back," I said. Then to really stress on the urgency I felt, I added, "In fact, if you don't come back and that guy somehow manages to hurt me, I'll blame you for being too slow. Fair enough?"

He stammered and stumbled back a few steps. I sent him running with a snarled, "Go!" Certain he was going to do everything he could to get back in time to help, I threw away all sense of self-preservation and ran toward that house.

TBC…

Notes: Pheromones. Somehow I managed to throw this story into the gutter, let it soak, and then pull it out before any of our four main characters could be really affected. Unfortunately, the weaker, created and thusly less important characters suffered for it.

Next Chapter: Who's to say whose blunder is worse?

Kuroya: Thanks for the suggestions for the breaks. I was ready to tear my own hair out for frustration.

Serenader (Agent Green): Hiei OOC... he's supposed to be that way. It'll make sense in awhile. And yay for good grammar! Nothing makes me dump a story faster than painfully bad grammar.