The Shotgun Approach

Chapter 32: You'll Pay by Iron

A/N: This is a Yusuke POV chapter!

. . .

Cigarette smoke curled towards the ceiling, the tip lighting up as I drew in more poison and laughed when I thought about how it didn't matter. Fate sure had a funny way of doing things. Being a demon came with some benefits.

We couldn't get cancer for one. Or die of lung disease.

And forget about fucking heart attacks. Couldn't die from clogged arteries when your heart was non-existent.

The sound of my door opening and closing had me rolling my neck back on the arm of the couch, so I could watch Hiei shuck his shoes upside down. He was here a lot these days. Not that I was complaining.

It was just weird.

Kind of like what I did to Ettie weird.

We slept in the same bed together, ate together, spent time sitting in silence together.

But that was as far as it ever went.

Things got even weirder a couple weeks back after Hiei came home soaked one night and wouldn't say a damn word. Not even a "fuck off" when I started throwing insults at him just to try to rile him up. He ended up ignoring me entirely and going to take a shower, where he spent over an hour while I bitched about him racking up the water bill.

The next day it was like nothing happened.

He ate breakfast with me, sniped at me to get some actual work done, and then went on his way.

I thought maybe he just had a bad night while on duty. But then I remembered the paper print out of his schedule hanging on my fridge (posted for my soul benefit) and the little red boxes blanking out his days off. That night was one of them. Which meant it left me with one conclusion—Ettie.

I knew he loved her, in his own twisted kind of way, and her leaving was just as big a blow to him as it was to me. Really explained why he was around all the time lately. I was the only one that got it. He knew I would understand without him having to say a word and somehow it was always like that with us. We used our fists to do our talking and emotions were for babies.

Most of the time.

But at some point, I grew up a little more than I wanted to. Ignoring shit was unhealthy and counterproductive, or so Keiko was always telling me at any rate.

Asking Hiei if he wanted to talk wouldn't get me anywhere other than an early grave.

So without any of my usual options to fall on—fighting, mostly—I didn't really know how to handle his odd change in attitude. Not to mention him being around all the time...in my bed most nights...

It was really doing a number on me if you caught my drift.

"Hey man, rough day at the office?" I joked when he wandered into my kitchen and came strolling back out with a beer in hand.

"Hn," he grunted, shoving my legs off the couch to make room for himself. "The last call was a drug overdose. They didn't make it."

He wouldn't look at me, and his words hit a little too close to home. From his face, I would say the feeling was mutual.

I cleared my throat and sat up, mumbling out a "that sucks," before we lapsed into an awkward silence. Man, I hated this shit. I was never this uncomfortable around Hiei before and didn't understand why he wasn't feeling the same. He just sat there, drinking his beer, his dirty ass feet propped on my coffee table and said nothing.

The thought of leaving with Ettie's brother Erri once again came to mind.

It would be like running away, but if I learned some shit in the process, I would consider it a win in my book. The only reason I didn't leave with Ettie's dumbass brother right off was because of Hiei's weirdness.

Or, at least that was what I told myself.

"You've been here a lot lately..."

Hiei sipped his beer and cast me a sidelong glance. "Are you saying I have overstayed my welcome?"

"You know I don't give a shit how much you stay here. I've got enough money to wipe my ass with, I'm not concerned about you mooching."

"I'm not here for your money."

I sat up a little straighter, indignant. "That's not what I said."

Hiei drained his beer and leaned forward to set it on the coffee table with a sharp clunk. I noticed the slight indents in the glass where his fingers had gripped, hot enough to melt, leaving near perfect molds of his fingerprints behind.

"Do you want to know why I am here?" he asked, keeping his eyes carefully trained on his empty bottle, his hands folded in his lap.

I wanted to tell him it didn't matter, to forget I said anything, but the way his hands shifted to grip his thighs changed my mind. His gaze never moved, his lips set into a tiny frown and long dark lashes nearly brushing his cheeks. When the hell did I start noticing things like that? Why would I even care?

Hiei was...pretty. No. Not pretty...

"Sexy," I mumbled accidentally.

"What was that?"

I jolted in my seat and stared at him with eyes a little too wide. "Nothing, you're hearing shit man. Better get those ears checked." I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck.

Hiei sat up finally, and the mood shifted and shattered, whatever he was going to say long gone.

"There's nothing wrong with my ears."

I cleared my throat and rose from the couch as casually as I could. "Think I'll give Kuwabara a call and see if he wants to go to the bar. You interested?"

Hiei eyed me for a long moment before he shook his head. "No."

"Okay, then."

Planning on calling Kuwabara on the way (and going to the bar whether he answered or not), I pulled on a pair of sneakers that'd seen better days and called over my shoulder to Hiei. "Don't wait up."

I left after hearing his grunt for a response and regretted not grabbing my coat on the way out. It was nearing the end of November, and I could smell winter on the air. It reminded me harshly of a certain someone, and now I wanted a stiff drink more than ever.

Pulling out my cellphone to ring Kuwabara, I paused with it halfway to my ear. Keeping my back turned I slowly raised my other arm towards the sky as well.

"Drop the phone," said the voice behind me, more firmly pressing the barrel of his gun into the small of my back.

I licked my lips, grinning, and did as I was told.

The second it hit the ground I spun, kicking his ankles out from beneath him and tearing the gun from his hands. I bent it in half over my knee, tossing it aside where it skidded away down the sidewalk, and punched the man in the face. He went flying into a lamppost and slid down it with a drawn-out groan, blood already flooding his face.

Dumbass shouldn't have used such a long gun. Left the guy with too many openings.

I stalked up to him and kicked him in the ass for good measure. He toppled over, swearing.

"And that was me holding back, asshole."

Spinning, I held out my arms. "Anyone else wanna piece of me?!" I hollered.

The street was strangely deserted this time of night, minus the two of us. If I wasted any more time here, the bar would be closed. Moving away from the loser still whining on the ground, I plucked up my cellphone and cursed when I saw it was broken, tossing the useless metal and plastic into a nearby trashcan.

"The mayor...isn't going to give up...you know."

I turned to cast the guy an unimpressed look. "He sent one guy this time. He doesn't have a fucking clue who he's dealing with."

He struggled to sit up against the pole again, pinching the bridge of his broken nose. It did nothing but make him wince. "The mayor wants you...out of this city."

He was breathing heavy, and I wondered if his impact into the pole broke some ribs. Good.

"I don't give a shit. This was my city long before it was his."

"You don't belong...here."

"You aren't the first to say that and won't be the last. What the fuck do you want?"

The man laughed, his face scrunching up in pain. He slumped back and dug in his pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. I was there with a lighter the second he put the cigarette between his lips. For his credit he didn't jerk back or look surprised, he took the light with a confused frown and offered me the cig after he'd taken a drag.

I sunk down on the ground beside him and we passed the cigarette between the two of us until it was gone.

"I don't work for the mayor," the guy said. He coughed a few times, laughing again. "Sorry to mislead you."

"Who the hell are you then?"

If he didn't work for the mayor, then who? Giving him a better look, I didn't notice the first time he wasn't wearing an official police uniform or any other telling piece of clothing. He wore tactical gear as if he were in the military, but no badges or pins or ribbons declared what or who he was. The fact he'd managed to sneak up on me was also something else I couldn't explain. He smelled, looked, and had the energy of a regular human.

So how?

I was quick to wrench down the collar of the guy's shirt.

He jerked away, but not before I caught a glimpse of exactly what I was looking for.

"You're one of them."

"Ay, I am," he said, smirking.

The square lit up in blazing light, red hot flames engulfing the street and creating an impenetrable barrier between me and freedom. Outside the fire, I watched as shadowy figures gathered, ten..twenty...thirty or more. They made a ring around the flames, and it was about this time I realized I was stuck in a trap I never even sensed coming.

This guy was meant to be a distraction.

And here I was smoking a cig with him and having a grand ole' time.

Idiot.

The tip of my finger lit up brighter than the fire, my power drawing the wind towards me and creating a cacophony of sound so loud I could hear it even over the snapping of the flames. I was sure they could too.

I would blow the fire away...and take half of them with it.

But then I remembered where I was. Remembered the little old lady that owned the run-down convenience store across the street. Remembered the kids from the building beside mine and how they liked to play in the stream from the fire hydrants and build snowmen in the winter only to knock them down with baseball bats days later.

I put my arm down...and let the light of my reiki fade.

"Take me to him," I said. "I want to talk to this asshole face to face."

A small split in the flames allowed several of them to enter, chains clutched in their hands all prepared to lock me in and throw away the key. This was probably one of my stupider ideas. But I grinned in their faces and held out my wrists, all mocking.

The sound of screams drew their attention away, and I watched with an extreme lack of surprise when several people were cut down just outside the fire. Soon, chaos erupted, and the men trying to shackle me drew weapons, and I cursed Hiei under my breath because this might have been my best chance to meet Ettie's son for my goddamn self.

I joined the fight anyway, using my fists without energy to minimize the damage to both foes and city. There was enough destruction already...they didn't need my help.

When Hiei's sword stabbed through the chest of the final man standing, I remembered the guy behind me. Whirling around, I was met with a pole smeared in blood and lacking a body. Goddamn it. None of this made any sense and every single day felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff just waiting to be thrown off it. Ettie was the only one who knew what was going on and I couldn't bear the sight of her. Couldn't even take the thought of her most days.

Hiei was on me in an instant, sheathing his still blood covered blade and stalking up to me like a man walking towards the gallows, but not to be hung—to do the hanging.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He barked, reaching to twist a handful of my blood-spattered shirt in his fist.

There was nothing to say. No good explanation.

So I didn't say anything at all.

Pressing my lips to his, the kiss fumbling and inexperienced but hungry, I made damn sure he would have nothing else to say on the matter. His hand fell from my shirt like a dropped stone and instead buried itself into the flesh of my hip as he wrenched me closer. Hiei tilted his head to slip his tongue between my lips and lick the inside of my mouth, and I felt fire pool in my stomach and dip lower and lower until I knew there was no hiding what I was feeling.

Hiei chuckled, the sound rumbling through my mouth and down my throat, his other hand reaching up to smear someone else's blood across my cheek as he cupped it in a firm palm, thumb brushing across my jawline, and I melted into him.

Why the hell had I waited so damn long?

All thoughts of Ettie and brothers and secret organizations run by abandoned sons fled my mind. All that was left was Hiei, and I wanted to drown in him. Just like this. Forever.

. . .

"You're tellin' me...you and Hiei...uh..."

"I made out with him. Yeah."

Kuwabara blinked a few times, and I watched as his cheeks literally reddened like ripe tomatoes.

"Cripes, Urameshi, are you fucking with me?"

"No." I sipped my coffee and eyed him, waiting for the explosion or the name calling or the fighting. When Kuwabara just sat there looking like I'd just hit him with a taser, I said, "So, does that gross you out?"

The idiot started guffawing, drawing the attention of everyone else in the coffee shop until I was forced to slap him upside the head to shut him up. "What's so goddamn funny, huh?"

"Never thought the little man would grow a set, is all," Kuwabara said, wiping away the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" I demanded, coffee forgotten.

Kuwabara just shrugged, leaning back in his seat with a shit eating grin still plastered on his face. "Why don't you ask him."

"So you don't think it's weird?"

"Oh, it's weird alright, but not for the reasons you're thinking."

"Weird cause of who it is?"

"Yeah," he agreed, smiling. "And also because I was sure he had a thing for Ettie too."

"He does," I said automatically, spinning the wooden stirrer in my coffee idly and trying not to look at him.

"He told you that?"

"Didn't have to," I mumbled. "It's the way he looks at her."

"Same way he looks at you, I bet," Kuwabara said, and I sputtered on a sip of coffee taken at the worst possible moment.

"Shut up, you sound dumb."

All laughter aside, Kuwabara's face turned somber. "Hiei gonna get in any trouble for killing those humans?"

"Nah." I finished my drink, pushing the empty mug towards the edge of the table. "They're a bunch of fanatics and Koenma isn't gonna fault him on it. He was doing his job as one of my Hands."

Kuwabara nodded, humming. "Good, good. I still don't get why such powerful demons have a bunch of humans doing their dirty work."

"Cannon fodder. They're testing the waters."

"But, why?"

I shrugged, shoving a piece of pastry in my mouth from the plate between us. "Dunno. Why do bad guys do anything they do?"

"Urameshi...do you really think now is the time to be all...willy nilly about this?"

I got up from my seat, tossing a few coins Kuwabara's way to pay for my half of the meal, and patted him on the shoulder. "Awe, good to see you so worried about me, ya big softy."

I swung my coat up over my shoulders and grinned at him as I walked out doing my damnedest to ignore his disapproving eyes as they followed me through the doorway.

. . .

The gate was wrought iron, large and old and easily broken. Dead vines crept up and up and curled around each bar like the skeletons of fingers. My breath misted from my mouth and made me long for a cigarette, but I didn't reach for the pack stuffed into my back pocket. I just stood and watched, looking in all the windows in the vain hope I would catch a glimpse.

She was never there.

I didn't know if she was inside or dead in a ditch somewhere. I just knew she never left the human realm and my spies assured me this was where she was last seen.

This place...it looked like a fortress more so than a type of hospital. Sure, the outside looked sterile and neat and orderly. The building was made of stone and mortar just like all the rest. But something about it made my skin crawl. I knew I shouldn't feel that way, I should be proud of her. She took the toughest step any addict ever needed to take.

I just wished I knew why.

Why spend months upon months locked up in this place? Would it even do her any good?

I supposed I should just be happy. I knew Ettie was alive and fuck the rest.

Yet even as I thought it, a raven cawed above me to remind me she was still watching...waiting. Maybe she was just biding her time until one of her brothers decided to finally come to kill me. Maybe she wasn't really getting clean at all and just wanted to make it look that way.

I sure as hell didn't know.

And standing out here every few days wasn't doing much to help me.

Staring up at the raven with its many glowing red eyes, I cocked my finger and pointed a shining tip towards the sky. I shot off a weak spirit gun, watching the blue whiz past the bird and startle it. It flew off, cawing indignantly and I hollered back for it to go fuck its mother.

Stuffing my hands into my coat pockets, back hunched and face set in a scowl, I contemplated where I wanted to go. I couldn't stay here and going back home didn't sound all that great either. I was avoiding my apartment like the plague these days, mostly because of...

Well...

Shit.

Hiei. Hiei was the reason.

Mainly Hiei and his kissable lips and tight ass and muscular, compact body that made me hard as a rock in all the right places.

I was in love with Ettie. Even now. I couldn't forget what she did...didn't know if I could forgive her either, but I still loved her. So these new feelings for Hiei...they were confusing the fuck out of me. And I didn't want to use him.

He was my friend. One of the best a guy could ever ask for.

He wasn't a replacement and I sure as hell wasn't gonna be one for him either.

So where did that leave us? Friends with interest? Friends with no benefits? Cuddle buddies? Friends who mutually wanted to fuck but didn't want to destroy whatever the fuck there was between them?

I sure as hell didn't know. Didn't wanna know.

So I avoided. I was always good at avoiding shit—school, work, home—I just turned my back on it and walked the other way. It was simple, less stress and less to deal with. No bitching, moaning, or whining. Just me and my two feet and a cigarette.

I stood outside the rehab center for a long time, across the street and leaned up against the pharmacy across the way. The irony wasn't lost on me, the location of the pharmacy was a poor one, but no one looked twice at me when they walked by. Maybe they thought I was a druggy too and it was always best to ignore things like that less they sully their fucking eyes.

Half a pack of smokes gone, the sun starting to set and a chill in my bones, I finally bit the bullet and began my long trek home. With any luck, Hiei wouldn't be there, and I could just pass out in peace.

When I first slipped silently through my front door, I thought I'd hit a stroke of luck. Hiei's boots were nowhere to be seen, and neither was his coat. His scent still lingered, but he was here so often it was hard to distinguish how old it was. I sighed in relief at the sight of the dark apartment and flipped on the light.

It was towards the bedroom when I finally smelt it.

No indication before, just the overpowering metallic tang of fresh blood as I approached my bedroom door.

I flung it open without thinking, knowing whose scent it belonged to and feeling fear spike through my chest. At first, the scene didn't register, my mind didn't understand the mess my eyes were seeing, and I stood there effectively blindsided for a rock solid thirty seconds. When I forgot to breathe was when I realized I needed to move.

He was slumped on the floor in a heap, laying in a pool of his own blood. My windowsill and bed beneath it were covered as well, hand and footprints and small pools of the stuff covered many of the surfaces in my bedroom. It reeked of metal, and I wondered how the hell I didn't smell it before I got closer to the door.

If it wasn't for the energy I could still feel pulsing weakly from him I would have thought he was dead.

I fell to my knees beside him and rolled him over, eyes skimming over the blood soaking his chest and stomach, seeing it smeared across half his face and arms. His chest was flayed open, a clean cut but a deep one, and he was so pale..so goddamned pale.

"Hiei!" I shook him as gently as I could, pleading. "Wake up! Oi!"

When his eyes didn't so much as flicker, I gathered him up into my arms and ran. I didn't bother with shoes or a coat, I just ran, blindly out into the dark and cold and kept running even as I felt his blood soak through my clothes, wet and warm.

I was outside the rehab center and ringing the buzzer on the gate before my brain even caught up with me. Why the hell did I run here? I should be taking him to a fucking hospital.

What hospital? My mind supplied. Which one would take a demon now after all my colossal fuck ups?

The gate was buzzed open, and I shoved my way through it and rushed up to the front door. An orderly was there to greet me, and he took one look at Hiei in my arms and started hollering for help.

"Etternia," I begged, "I need Etternia! She's a patient here!"

His eyes lit up with recognition and he, along with several other staff members, hustled me inside.

Hiei's blood leaked to the tile floor as I waited. Each second that ticked by felt like a century. And I knew this was a long shot—Ettie had no powers, but she was my best bet. She was the only one I knew who worked almost specifically in combat medicine for years. Ettie was familiar with demon biology, with demonic energies, and Hiei's especially. She would fix him. I knew she would.

The sight of her marching down the hall behind one of the nurses took my breath.

Her hair and face were dull and just as tired looking as she was, she wore a set of the rehab standard issue pajamas, but her eyes were bright and clear and determined. She marched up to me without a word and directed us towards a room with an available bed. The nurses retrieved first aid kits and suturing material, and I stood in the corner watching on in some kind of stupor.

Why the hell were they all so eager to help?

Why didn't one of them call the goddamn cops?

But the longer I watched, the more I understood. As Ettie's hands became stained red with Hiei's blood and the nurses and orderlies helped her without question, I knew. She stepped in here an addict like everyone else and somehow managed to make a name for herself. She would always be a healer, to her very core, and that didn't change when she chose to lock herself up in this fucking place.

Hell, she was probably a huge relief to the staff, another helping set of hands working on the inside—able to assist with things as mundane as a few stitches to diagnosing illnesses. It's just what Ettie did, and she did it well.

Hours passed, and I eventually sunk to the floor and fell asleep. I wasn't any use to anyone.

Sometime later a gentle hand shaking my shoulder woke me and I was greeted with hazel eyes and blood tipped fingers. A cloth stained a deep crimson layover Ettie's shoulder, and she was just as pale as the body lying in bed, her natural skin tone gone after months and months of suffering.

I shook the sleep off and went to rise, but Ettie pushed me back down. "He will live," she said, "but he will need much rest to regain the blood he has lost."

I swallowed, throat thick and eyes watery. "Thank you."

She passed her gaze over me, from the top of my head all the way down to my toes, but not a single thing about it was intimate. "Do not thank me. In the morning, take him home. He will not wake for several days. Protect him...as he did for you tonight."

"Excuse me?"

Her eyes turned downwards, lashes brushing her cheeks, but her jaw was set in anger. "Can you not see it? The danger you are in? The people out to get you, day and night? Your men work tirelessly to ensure your safety...and Hiei paid the price of iron tonight."

"The price of iron...? You tellin' me someone used a sword on him, and he lost?"

"A sharp blade of some kind, yes. Nothing else would have made such a clean cut."

"What about energy?"

"No burns," she said. She rose from her crouch and returned to Hiei's bedside. "This was done with a large blade—a sword or an ax, perhaps some type of bladed pole-arm, but a blade nonetheless."

For the life of me, I couldn't think, couldn't pick out a face I could personally beat to hell and back out of the hundreds of enemies who wouldn't think twice about killing me given a chance. Someone in the mayor's arsenal? Someone from the Makai? One of Ettie's numerous family members? One of the fanatics from The New Dawn? The list went on and on. Any number of them could use a bladed weapon, it would be impossible for me to figure out any particular one behind this whole mess.

"He'll live?" Even though she'd already answered this question, I couldn't help but ask again. I needed to be sure. Needed to know I wouldn't fall asleep and wake up tomorrow and find a corpse lying there instead of a man.

"Yes," she said empathically. "He will live."

. . .

Later that night I found myself wandering the visitors' area, a lukewarm paper cup of bitter coffee in my hand. I sipped from it, eyeing the TV that played in the corner with no sound, but subtitles ran across the bottom of the screen, and I was able to read every damning word of it.

A video—an unusually well shot one—was playing behind a newscaster who spoke of it like it was the latest celebrity scandal. I supposed it was in some ways. It wasn't the first time one of us was on television and probably wouldn't be the last. It was what I was seeing that really made me confused.

So confused in fact that I lowered the arm holding up my coffee cup and let it tip mindlessly...the liquid sloshing to the floor. I stood in the puddle, just watching...frowning. My stomach did an odd little flip that wasn't really queasiness or excitement...kinda a mixture of both. This was...interesting. Should I be angry? Should I demand an explanation? Obviously, he was never planning on giving one.

I bet this was the same night he'd come home soaking wet.

Laughing, I turned away, tossing my now empty cup in a nearby trash bin.

I never thought Hiei had it in him.

I should have known. He kissed me too, once. Just for the hell of it.

But he sure as fuck didn't put as much emotion behind that one as the one I saw on the screen. The way he seemed to want to melt into her—to live inside her. Never mind the argument I was sure came beforehand...to push him to that point.

Ettie's got balls of steel.

But Hiei's were made of diamond.

I marched back to Hiei's makeshift hospital room, pausing in the open doorway to stare at Ettie who stood at his bedside like a watchful statue. Her stance and demeanor made some sort of instinct swell in my gut and up to my throat, and I shifted ever so slightly into a more defensive posture.

Ettie noticed, her head cocking and lips twisting into some fake ass smile that had no right to look so goddamn wrong on her face.

She licked dry lips and swallowed, bending to check Hiei's stitches, and the moment was broken.

"How much longer do you need to be here?"

She ignored me, turning to pick up a bowl of clean water and a fresh cloth. Ettie cleansed Hiei's skin, wiping away old blood and gently rubbing some foul smelling salve into the wound.

"Come, help me," she said, gesturing for me to come over and lift him so she could wrap fresh bandages around his torso.

She worked in silence, and I just stared at her the whole time. I hadn't seen her in months. Hell, it might as well have been years. I wanted to reach out and touch her, to take what I wanted just like Hiei did. But I knew she would reject me, she would back away and act like my hands were poison. That was what she always did.

"Yusuke." Her voice startled me, something in the tone making me instantly snap to attention.

She didn't look any different. Hell, she wasn't looking at me at all, but concentrating a little too hard on making sure Hiei's bandages were wrapped just right. Her fingers lingered on the cotton, and I wondered how she would get rid of me this time.

Finished, she covered Hiei with a sheet up to his shoulders and sunk into a chair opposite his bed. She left me to stand on the other side, waiting.

"I don't plan to leave this place," she said, and for a long second, I was lost as to what she was saying.

"You're not leaving?"

She took in a deep breath and kind of lifted herself up like she was preparing to break some bad news.

When wasn't there lousy news?

"I'm sure you've heard about many hospitals turning away demon patients. It was the reason I set up the clinic at the soup kitchen. And it is the reason I've chosen to stay here." She crossed her legs, resting her hands in her lap, the tips of her fingers just a little sharper than was normal for human standards.

She smiled at me, the chipped fang just as endearing as the first time I saw it. "They have come here in droves, for safety, medications, and a bed to sleep in. Many are trying to flee the country or even go straight back to the demon world. And even more show up sick or wounded almost daily."

"That's why the staff here's helping you because they're sympathetic towards demons?"

"Some weren't...I've watched several staff members come and go in the past so many months. But this facility turns no one away, not for any reason. The woman running the center is...very against such prejudice."

"You can't hide out here forever, Ettie, you know that don't you?"

"Why not? You have no need of me. I'm not allowed to leave the human realm, let alone Japan. I might as well be as useful as I can, I'm no good otherwise."

I wanted to tell her that I did need her. That she was a fucking idiot for thinking I didn't. But then I remembered all the burnt bodies lining the streets of Sarayashiki's biggest shopping district, and I felt sick. She might not have been the one to set off the bombs, but she joined the bastard who did. The overpowered piece of shit that used dirty tactics to fight his asinine war and controlled people with weird tattoos and lit off bombs instead of using his fists to fight. A coward. Her brother was a goddamn coward.

"Do you even get why we all fought so hard to save you from execution? Do you even fucking care?"

"As I recall, Hiei was more than willing to be the one to chop off my head. So, not all of you."

"Hiei wanted to give you some fucking mercy, and you know that! If they chose to execute you, do you think it would have been quick and painless? Do think they would have given you that luxury?"

She shook her head, huffing out a quiet, cynical laugh. "You sound like him," she said, waving her hand towards the fire demon who was none the wiser. "You sound just like him right now, do you know that?"

I stopped, snapping my mouth closed and letting my eyes dart over to the man in the bed.

She was right.

When the fuck did I become so serious all the damn time?

When did the fun and the life get sucked out of me?

The day I became king?

The day I was reborn a demon?

The fucking day I was born, period?

I drew closer to the bed, staring at Hiei whose skin was ghostly white and wondering if he rubbed off on me or if I rubbed off on him.

Ettie rose from her chair, only stopping to place an ice cold hand against my shoulder and cast me a look of sympathy that made my blood boil.

"I'm going to sleep," she said. "You should try to get some rest yourself."

The door closed with a soft shick behind her. I ran my hands through my greasy hair, hating the crusty feeling of my shirt now covered in dried blood but not wanting to leave Hiei's side in case there was some chance he would wake up tonight.

I didn't blame him for kissing Ettie.

I would have done it too.

I wouldn't say I wasn't jealous though.

"Must have felt great, you lucky bastard," I mumbled as I sunk into Ettie's abandoned chair. "She actually kissed you back, what the hell was that all about?"

But of course, there was no answer.

Just the sound of our breaths and the reassurance in the air that Hiei would live through the night...

Thanks to Ettie.

. . .

A/N: Long chapter is long. And I'm totally on the fence about this one. I just don't know my dudes...

Also, that's one less life's debt Ettie owes Hiei ;)

I was surprised at the lack of response last chapter. Guess it sucked, lol. My bad.