Disclaimer and warning applies to all chapters.

You've already won me over
And don't be alarmed if I fall
head over feet
And don't be surprised if I love
you for all that you are
I couldn't help it
It's all of your faults
(Alanis Morissette, Head Over Feet)

Warning: Sort of a filler-ish chapter.

Turn Out the Lights

"It does not concern me!"

Kurama was sipping tea quietly inside his room, contemplating, and analyzing anything that could possibly explain to him exactly why his body was fading within mirrors, but Hiei's suspiciously dark voice ripped him from his concentration all too keenly.

He sighed. "We've been over this countless times, my friend. I'm quite tired Hiei, and don't wish to discuss it further." The fire demon wouldn't quit their argument, and he insisted vehemently that his person problems had nothing to do with Kurama. Somehow, the fox didn't see it that way.

There had to be a connection.

"No, you will not abandon this subject while I have blood in my body, fox. How could my changes possibly affect you? It's highly improbable." The Forbidden Child crossed his arms with a slight glare, and glanced to the window, frowning.

Kurama stood, and walked to his love, touching his soft cheek with tenderness and drawing their faces close. He felt extremely deviously, but seduction would seem to be the only way Kurama could get a wink of sleep around here. He smiled.

"If you truly want, we'll talk in the morning. You must be tired tonight, are you not? Would you like something?"

Hiei snarled and pushed Kurama's hand away, raising his head up, and snorting. "You will not use your persuasion on me, not this time. Leave me alone, if you wish."

"Stop it!" Kurama hissed, clenching his fist. "Arguing is useless, and it only leads to anger and pain. I promise, promise we shall talk about it, and discuss it properly. And if you desire it, I suppose now would suffice."

"Just go to sleep," Hiei whispered, face softening at the dead look in the redhead's usually vibrant eyes. "I. . . I want you to sleep."

Kurama smiled thoughtfully and leaned down, placing a small kiss on the fire demon's frosty lips as thanks. "As I will. Sleep will claim me all too easily this night, my love."

Hiei nodded, but said no more, returning his gaze to the starry darkness beyond the glass of the window.

And all was silent.

o-o-o

"Yuusuke," a soft voice murmured from behind the spirit detective. He turned around from his position on the couch, and smiled at Keiko.

"Will you tell me what's wrong with Kurama now?" she pleaded. "You promised. He's my friend too."

"Well, it's his business for one--"

"That you butted in on!"

"--and two, he hasn't told you--"

"He didn't tell you either you jerk!"

"Plus," Yuusuke continued with a smile, happily letting everything Keiko was saying in one ear and out the other. "You're under too much stress as it is." He stood.

Keiko looked down, almost guilty before shaking her head. "I'm not fragile, Yuusuke. I'll be okay--"

"Eventually," the other teen finished, and took her arms, pulling her close. "Yeah, but right now, I'm not going to let you worry, no matter what. Understand?"

"Yuusuke!"

He silenced her with a gentle kiss.

o-o-o

One, two, three, four.

Kurama woke, and blinked, and hissed through his teeth.

Five, six, seven, eight.

He counted, and bit his lip. Eight shadows arose in his dream, surrounding him and choking him with their presence, the darkness they gathered had proved to be too much.

But what was strange, was that he was Youko, in a forest. His breathing soon returned and he sighed, gently laying back into the plush pillows, before glancing at the sleeping Jaganshi out of the corner of his eye. He was quite pleased to find Hiei sound asleep, bottom lip tucked between his teeth. A nasty habit he had developed, Kurama decided.

Rubbing the sweat from his face, he was glad to find his eyes close willingly, although sleep did not claim him. But that was fine, he thought, because he wasn't planning on sleeping again.

He brought his palm up and inspected it. One of the shadows had managed to grab him in his meaningless run to escape, and the force applied seemed to break his wrist, and the pain was very real, in his opinion.

The strangest thing, however, was the end. The fox could handle having a dream about being chased or captured, it wasn't new, but before he awoke, the voice of the Youko whispered in the wind to him, soft and deadly, as usual.

I will have my body back for good, Shuuichi, and you will know what it feels like to be merely apart of me, instead of whole. The time has come.

Kurama shivered, blinking quickly to try and clear his head.

And suddenly, like thunder striking, it hit him hard. The Youko talking through him, Hiei's mood swings, him disappearing. Why didn't he connect it before?

It was so maddeningly simple.

The Youko was somehow able to take him using Hiei's moods. But that, however, was far more complicated. "Damn!" Kurama hissed, clenching his fist. He both hated and loved this. The mystery was interesting, but the danger and confusion outweighed it by far.

Perhaps he's using Hiei's ki as a means, and because we're one, and Hiei. . . loves me, he can use. . . me in some way. It's all so complicated! But I must think. Calm yourself Kurama. He's manipulating Hiei somehow, and that is what I've got to work with.

And so, Kurama thought, there must be something that connects Hiei and I, for him to tap into that. The love we feel for each other must run deeper.

"Kurama?"

Hiei's soft voice reached his ears and he looked up, into deep ruby eyes. He smiled and leaned foreword, taking Hiei's small waist in his arms. "My love," he whispered gently. Youko could not use Hiei for his plans, Kurama would protect the Forbidden Child with his life.

"You were humming. I have never heard you hum."

Blinking and realizing that indeed, he must have been humming, Kurama blushed. He liked to sing, yes, but surely the fire demon would think him silly. Or worse, give or take. Hiei shocked him with a rare smile, and wrapped his arms around Kurama's neck.

"I liked. . . it," he admitted, almost guilty. "Your voice is naturally soft, and beautiful."

Sitting back against the pillows Kurama laid Hiei into his lap, giddy with the feeling of the soft body on his, warm and comforting. He ran a hand through Hiei's soft black hair, and closed his eyes once more.

It was some time later that he opened them again, and blinked away the sleep, confused. "I feel asleep," he muttered, brushing stray red tendrils from his face carefully. Hiei had curled against him. His eye caught something quite odd between them, a connection of ki, it would seem in the darkness. He followed this path down to Hiei's chest, where his heart was located, and found that the aura seemed laced between them there, too.

"Our hearts. . . ?" he questioned to himself. "This. . . Youko is trying to do something, I feel it." A heaviness laid in his mind, strangely painful. He felt like collapsing.

He is taking me over!

Kurama found his hands quickly losing their color, taking his strength with him as well. The dull pain was moving now, coursing throughout his body at an alarming speed and a voice was mocking him, quite deeper than his own.

I told you little Shuuichi! Now you must suffer!

Everything was going black, but he could still see the connection between himself and Hiei. He looked down at his body again, and saw it disappearing and Youko's pale white flesh and clothes replacing his own.

"Hiei, awaken!" he rasped weakly, his own voice sounding horribly different and serene to him. The fire demon to his great relief began twitching and slowly, his ruby eyes opened.

He gasped and moved, reaching for the fox tentatively. "Kurama!" he shouted, fear lacing his words.

And just like a spell, the fading stopped. The pain lessened until it was a mere throb, as it too vanquished and everything seemed like his, again.

"H-Hiei," Kurama hissed, almost afraid of his own voice. "My. . . help Hiei!--"

"What happened!" The Forbidden Child soothed him gently, and lace their hands.

He blinked, chest heaving. "I don't know. . . but Youko. . . I saw him. . . --"

"Youko," Hiei murmured, taking the shaking redhead into his arms and cradling his face. "What do you think it means."

"Again, I do not know. But there was a connection when I awoke and he was taking my body!"

Hiei shook his head. "Then it is not some random demon who has been doing this. But how? All we need to do is put together the pieces--you're shaking!" Hiei exclaimed.

"It. . . it was frightening. . . " Kurama admitted, and Hiei could barely catch what he said. His hand never faltered in soothing Kurama's hair.

"I would believe it would be."

"No. . . no Hiei, it was cold. There was a chill being produced throughout me, as I began to disappear!" Kurama's deep emerald eyes were completely wide, and he hugged himself close, teeth chattering together noisily.

Hiei held him tightly. "A chill? Perhaps it was the Youko's coldness coursing through you?"

Kurama nodded. "I think you're right. I could feel his emotions so clearly through the pain."

"Were they all negative?" Hiei asked, narrowing his eyes.

"No, no not all of them. He was happy, happy to have his body back, I suppose."

Hiei got up, carefully setting his fox back against the bed. "Rest," he muttered. "I'll get you water. Try and stay cam."

When Hiei left the room, Kurama sat up, eyes ablaze with fire. "You will not get my body, Youko, no matter what you try to do!" he hissed to the blackness.

Oh, I think I will Shuuichi. You must sleep sometime, and in the darkness I shall bind you!

Another shiver took over the fox, and he didn't dare close his eyes. He knew what he would see, or perhaps find.

The fire demon reentered the room with a glass of water, the liquid looking cool to his eyes and he found his throat completely dry all of a sudden.

"Here," Hiei whispered. "Drink."

And Kurama did just that, without questioning and downed the whole glance in what looked like one gulp. He smiled.

"Thank you."

The room eased into a comfortable silence as Hiei sat down, until, "I know what we have to do," Hiei said distantly.

"What?"

"Yukina."

Kurama frowned. "What will she do?"

Hiei turned to him sharply. "She will help you, Kurama."

"But how?"

"Ask no questions now, fox, we must leave."

With that, Hiei forcefully took Kurama into his arms, which looked like a very awkward situation considering Kurama's long legs, so he decided to just put him on his back, and grinned.

"Let us go!"

o-o-o

TBC...

Zomg! One chapter left, guys. I feel the need to cry.

It's also amazing! Thank you all for the feed back, very much appreciated. Heehee!

And sorry for the delay, I've been quite obsessed with Lord of the Rings lately. I'm horrible. And I'm lazy!