Takes place shortly after chapter 13 of this collection (AKA shortly after Sailor V left after meeting Hiei and Kuwabara).

Day 26: "Something big"

From the shadows Hiei watched, silent and surreptitious, as Kurama crossed the hospital roof and entwined his long fingers in the chain link fence at its distant edge. No one followed the fox. Yusuke's energy pulsed a few floors below, unmoving but agitated in the hospital waiting room. Kuwabara's aura flickered a few blocks over like a candle in a squall—brighter than it had been in a month, but still dim with anxiety and fear. Kurama's energy alone held as steady as the glow of the crescent moon that slashed the sky above, radiant and purposeful, a burn Hiei felt on his face even at a distance in the darkness.

Kurama's fist tightened in the chain link, metal singing with the faintest of creaks.

"You can come out now, Hiei," he said, chin inclining against the light of the moon. "I know you're there."

Hiei's boot clicked against the roof's hard surface as he emerged from the gloom to join Kurama by the fence. Below them stretched a sheer drop to the unyielding pavement; above sprawled the sky, stars drowned to the barest of pinpricks by the insistent city lights. Kurama's green eyes stayed firmly affixed on the moon, however, that watchful crescent of smiling silver against deep black. Kurama's mouth pointed the other way, a scowl that carved dark furrows around his mouth and between his eyes.

Hiei understood that scowl, of course. He'd been scowling all night, himself, and not simply because that's the way his face fell (as Meigo so often put it). His hands itched, especially his right arm beneath its tight wrappings, flesh crawling with restless energy that sent sparks skittering across his skin. The Dragon writhed inside his muscles, eager for something, anything, to mangle and rip and tear. Hiei wanted to lash out and destroy something with all of his and the Dragon's combined being—but he couldn't. Too close to too many humans, many of them hard at work on saving a certain human girl from—

Agitated, Hiei joined Kurama in looking at the moon—silver instead of the gold he'd glimpsed upon that odd masked hero's crescent-emblazoned forehead. The interlude with Sailor V had provided him a little distraction and stress relief, but not enough. Not nearly enough. He had remained on the roof long after both she and Kuwabara left, stalking about and seething until Kurama slunk onto with roof with foxlike stealth. Hiei had wondered for a moment why Kurama had come to the roof, but when Hiei saw the look on his face, he knew exactly why the fox had come.

They were there for much the same reason, after all.

"I know what you're thinking," Hiei said, still staring at the moon.

Kurama chuckled, smooth as silk and just as deceptive. "Your Jagan Eye must come in handy, Hiei," he said in light, musical tones that belied the tension in his tight shoulders. "I confess I'm envious."

"I didn't use the Jagan," Hiei spat. "I didn't have to." A beat before he admitted: "I'm thinking the same thing."

Kurama's eyes slipped sidelong, a green flash in the dark night.

"Are you, now?" he murmured, lips barely moving as he spoke. "Are you truly, Hiei?"

"Yes," said Hiei. "No doubt you're planning something. Something big. And whatever it is, I want in."

Verdant ventured back to the moon. For a moment, Hiei thought Kurama would deny his allegation. He thought Kurama would say no, he wasn't planning anything. He was reformed, after all. He was a member of the Detective's team, indebted to Spirit World and docile, a pet domesticated after years of wild running.

But Kurama was no one's pet.

"Even if my plans involve stealing from Spirit World?" he asked with casual indifference—indifference Hiei did not believe even for a second. "Even then, Hiei?"

"Feh." Hiei tossed his hair, looking at Kurama down his nose. "What do I care about ripping off that fool, Koenma?"

"You'd care about the consequences, I imagine," Kurama mildly intoned. "We'd certainly be thrown back into Spirit World jail if we attempted another bout of breaking and entering."

"You think I fear Koenma's wrath? At a time like this?" He bared his teeth. "If you underestimate me, you're an even bigger fool than Koenma."

Hiei almost wanted Kurama to lash out at the insult, to initiate the fight he so desperately craved, but Kurama didn't balk at Hiei's jibe. His scowl only relaxed a fraction, some of the lines around his mouth turning shallow like a river running dry.

"Good," was all Kurama said. "That's what I hoped you'd say."

They stared at the moon for a while longer—and when Kurama mopped a hand down his weary features, eyes fixed unblinking on the heavenly body above, it clicked. The pieces fell into place, and Hiei understood.

"I see." His fists clenched harder, nails biting into calloused palms. "But if your aim is the Forlorn Hope, the moon isn't full. We can't use it. At least, not right now. Not when it matters."

He didn't mean to spit that final word—but he did. He spat the word into the damp night air like blood from a wound, raw and viscous and hot. Kurama eyed him askance, but he looked away again just as quickly. Good. Hiei would not tolerate Kurama's scrutiny that night. They had other things to worry about.

"There are other objects of power within Spirit World," said Kurama, with the same mild tone as before. (The fox was infuriatingly calm, Hiei thought, but that was Kurama for you.) "Ones I doubt Koenma would be amenable to simply lending any of them out like a book at the library."

Hiei looked at him with sharp eyes. "But there are ones you think could help…?"

Kurama nodded. His fingers gripped more tightly into the fence, metal groaning under his hard hand, bending beneath the fox's deceptive strength.

"Yes, Hiei," said Kurama. "I do."

The unspoken hung between them on the air. They both knew what they would do with that object of power. But neither of them said it—what was the point, when they both knew the truth?—and soon Kurama looked back up at the watchful moon.

"It may not come to that, in the end," he said—perhaps more to himself than to Hiei. "Kei is nothing if not a fighter." And yet, his eyes narrowed, gold glimmering amid deep green. "But in moments like these, and should her strength begin to fail, I'd be remiss if I didn't craft a contingency plan."

Hiei's chin ducked toward his chest, and a chuckle bubbled beneath his ribs. Kurama's scowl returned in full force as he turned Hiei's way, a single brow arched delicate and high.

"What's so funny?" Kurama asked. "You aren't usually one for laughter, Hiei."

But Hiei continued to chuckle, teeth bared in a delighted snarl. "That's why I teamed up with you in the first place, Kurama," he said with aggressive, unsettling glee. "You and your cunning plans." Hands itching for action, skin alight with eager fire, he asked: "So what do we do now, fox? What's our next move?"

"We wait," said Kurama, a smirk of his own forming on his lips. "And if it appears the worst should happen… we will do what we must."

Hiei's teeth gleamed in the night.

"Perfect," Hiei said.

Although waiting did not please him, Kurama's ruthless scheming quelled the flame of malcontent burning so brightly in his chest. He turned with a flutter of black cloak toward the moon, standing beside Kurama to watch that crescent of silver trace a path through the midnight sky—teeth still bared, fists still clenched, but mind facing forward toward the promise of action to come.

Many thanks to C S Stars, cestlavie, Kaiya Azure, ladyofchaos and tammywammy9 for their reviews of chapter 25. You mean the world to me.