A/N: Okay, you finally get the first hints of what's going on with Hiei and Kurama in this chapter--but only tiny ones. And a great big cameo from my favorite great big lug. :)

Chapter Six

The next day the two of them were outside the cave again, sunning themselves like lizards, when Yusuke saw Hiei sit a little straighter and focus his attention on the horizon. Yusuke tried, but he couldn't sense anything. A moment later Hiei returned to slouching, so Yusuke figured that whatever it was, it wasn't a threat.

A few minutes later Yusuke sensed the stranger for himself. He was strong, but he wasn't a demon. That was strange enough that Yusuke wondered if his senses were playing tricks on him; but to a demon, the scent of a human was almost unmistakable.

Yusuke and Hiei waited in silence for the stranger to either veer away or present himself, neither of them bothering to inform the other of what was clearly already known. Eventually a figure separated from the shadow of the forest, moving at an unhurried pace; then the features resolved into someone who wasn't a stranger at all.

"Oh, thank god," Hiei said, in tones of complete and utter relief.

Kuwabara laughed. "That's gotta be the first time you've ever reacted to seeing me like that."

Hiei stood and pointed at Yusuke like he was an object, without taking his eyes from Kuwabara. "You--watch him. Don't let him kill himself or anything else."

"Wait-where are you going?"

"Away. If I stay here any longer I'm going to kill him myself. Don't look at me like that, I'll be back. Eventually." And just like that, he was gone.

Kuwabara gaped at his afterimage for a minute. Yusuke took the opportunity to stare at Kuwabara. His hair was graying, a new development since the last time Yusuke had seen him, but there were still ruddy traces visible. He didn't exactly look old, but there was no denying he wasn't young. Yusuke couldn't recall when they'd seen each other last--it had to have been years. Snow had swallowed all the details beyond that.

"Isn't that just like that little squirt," Kuwabara muttered. "He could have said hello." Then he turned to face Yusuke. There were lines at his eyes; the smile was the same. "Hey."

"You look like a geezer." It wasn't true, but it was the only thing Yusuke could think to say.

"Well, you look like total shit, so we're even. Did someone beat you up?"

"You ever tried withdrawal?"

"Nah, I'm too smart to get hooked on that crap in the first place." Kuwabara settled down next to him in the spot Hiei had vacated, leaning against the sun-warmed wall of the cave. "Where's Kurama?"

"Not around. Did the two of them send out invitations to this little pity party of mine?"

"Kurama asked me to bring you these."

Kuwabara threw something at Yusuke, and Yusuke just barely reacted in time to catch it. He looked down to find himself holding a pack of cigarettes. "There's more in my backpack," Kuwabara said. "Kurama knew you'd run out sooner or later, and he says you should never try to break more than one addiction at a time." He shrugged.

"When'd you see him?" Yusuke asked, wondering if that was where Kurama had gone off to--human world.

"About a month ago. But he said to wait for awhile because you'd be wanting to kick the ass of anything that moved." Kuwabara grinned. "I guess he figures you're not up to kicking anybody's ass right now."

"Yeah, or I would be." Yusuke was busily breaking through the plastic around the cigarette pack; Kurama was right, both that breaking two addictions at once was twice as hellacious and that Yusuke had smoked his last smuggled cigarette days ago. "Plenty of asses to kick."

"You're not mad at Hiei and Kurama, are you?" Kuwabara asked incredulously.

"Didn't you see him?" Yusuke asked, equally incredulous, gesturing vaguely in the direction Hiei had taken off with an unlit cigarette. "Talking about me like I can't even hear him. Like I'm two years old."

"Well, don't be hard on him, Urameshi. You're kind of hard to deal with when you're sick. I remember this one time when you had the flu and--"

"I don't have the damned flu," Yusuke muttered. "I wouldn't be sick if they weren't doing this."

"Right...so, you'd rather go back to being so stoned you can't even recognize the people standing in front of you?"

Yusuke hated the casual confidence with which Kuwabara spoke, the security in the knowledge that Yusuke's answer, once he thought about it, would be no. They'd known each other too long to bluff at this level. "Well... I'm not going to thank them until later," Yusuke finally conceded.

Kuwabara smiled slightly. "Hey, at least they picked out a really nice place to do this at. It's beautiful here, and there isn't anyone around for miles. They did that much for you."

"Yeah, I'm touched."

"So... what's it like between them?"

"Hiei and Kurama?" Kuwabara nodded, looking eager for all the latest gossip. Yusuke shrugged, forcing an indifferent expression onto his face as he lit the cigarette. "They hate each other."

Kuwabara frowned; clearly this was not the news he'd been hoping for. "I had thought maybe the two of them working together meant they'd patched things up."

"No way. They keep threatening to kill each other--except they don't really mean it. But they're only teamed up until I get over this, they've made that very clear. They fight day and night."

"Then you must have heard what they're fighting about, right?"

"Huh?"

Kuwabara gave him a look that said he was being exceptionally dense. "Oh, come on, Urameshi. What the fight's about. Why they got pissed at each other in the first place, all that time ago."

"They don't bring that up." Kuwabara gave him a look of disbelief. "Seriously. I asked when it happened, but I never got an answer from either of them. And now, they fight about everything except that. They don't say anything important in front of me, like it's still some big secret. Like it could possibly matter anymore, if people know what it's about."

"You seriously don't have any clues? You're the only person who managed to stay friends with both of them when it happened--I kind of assumed you knew."

Yusuke shifted uncomfortably. "I guess I felt like it would be rude to keep asking when it was obvious they didn't want to talk about it. I mean, whatever it is, it's their shit, right?" Kuwabara shrugged. Yusuke hesitated. It felt weird to be talking behind Hiei and Kurama's backs like this--but at the same time, it had been a decade, and they were showing no signs of ever getting over it. And still no one knew why. "I do have a few clues, though. I mean, stuff that came up. But it doesn't make any sense."

"Like what?"

"Well... back when it happened, I mean like right after it happened, Koenma asked me to ask Kurama to talk to him." Kuwabara gave him a look that was half confused, half disbelieving. "I know, I thought it was weird too. Like, why couldn't he just talk to Kurama himself if he had something to say? Or why was he so tense when he asked me? But anyway, I did ask Kurama and he got really--you know that way he gets when he goes still all of a sudden and his eyes go cold and you know someone's about to die?" Kuwabara nodded. "He went still like that. And he said never to talk to him about Koenma again. So Koenma's got to be involved in it somehow."

"Weird," Kuwabara said fervently.

Yusuke nodded. "And I think it has something to do with Shiori too."

"What? Why?"

"Well--when she died and we were both spending so much time with Kurama, trying to help him get through it--you remember how bad it was. I kept wishing that Hiei would get over whatever the hell it was they were fighting about and come back. I thought that Kurama needed him. At the very least I thought he could pay his freaking respects and come to the funeral. But when Kurama overheard me say that to--to someone--" Yusuke couldn't get Keiko's name out. "He got angry. He said he didn't want Hiei anywhere near anything that had to with Shiori and that Hiei'd already done enough to her."

Kuwabara's eyes went wide. "You don't--you don't think... Hiei would be stupid enough... would he?"

Yusuke shook his head. "No, nobody who knows Kurama at all would be stupid enough to do anything to Shiori."

"He was never that pissed at Kurama. And it's not like him anyway, to not take it up with Kurama himself."

Yusuke shrugged. "I didn't say it made sense. I just said those were my clues."

"Something to do with Koenma, and something to do with Shiori." Kuwabara stretched his legs and leaned more heavily against the wall. "Your clues suck, Urameshi."

Yusuke lit another cigarette. "Never said they didn't."

They sat in companionable silence for awhile. Yusuke was surprised and pleased to find that Kuwabara's presence was just as comfortable as it had ever been. He was considering dozing off when Kuwabara asked, "So... how's it going? Whatever it is that they're doing to you, I mean."

"It sucks," Yusuke replied succinctly.

"Yeah, I figured that much. Other than that?"

"Hiei figures I'm done detoxing. I guess he's waiting for Kurama to come back before anything else happens, because Hiei's not trying to make me do anything. He just sits around looking bored. I guess they're going to try some sort of training."

"Why?" Yusuke glanced at him. "That crap didn't make you forget how to fight, did it? I thought all you needed was to get off it. You already know everything Kurama and Hiei could teach you, right?"

Yusuke hated having to explain; saying it, instead of having it said to him, made it that much more real. "Snow--that's the drug I was on," he clarified, seeing Kuwabara's look of incomprehension. "It feeds off your spirit power. That's how it makes you high. So you get weaker every time you take it. I still know how to hit people and stuff, but as far as my energy goes I'm pretty much back to square one."

Kuwabara thought about that for a moment. "Damn." He chuckled. "Man, I remember all those spirit-concentration and building exercises and stuff being the hardest part. And I bet you feel like crap from withdrawal, too."

"Yeah, and you forgot to add the atmosphere of brotherly love those two bring to the table." Yusuke contemplated the task in front of him for a moment, then said, "Say, you don't think you could smuggle me out of here, could you?"

"Fat chance."

"Aw, c'mon. I make a great houseguest."

"I'm not picking a fight with Hiei and Kurama. They're right to do this. You know it, too."

"Can't a guy get a little sympathy? At least admit that my life is gonna suck until I can fight my way out of here--and I mean literally fight my way out."

"I think that's kind of the point, Urameshi," Kuwabara said with a side-long glance. "They're going to make your life suck so hard that you'd do anything to get away from them; then you'll learn and get stronger so that you can get past them, and you'll all have gotten what you want. It's actually kind of cool when you think about it."

"So much for sympathy."

"You don't need sympathy. You need a kick in the rear."

Yusuke gestured around them with an incredulous expression. "Hello? I'm being kicked! Hiei keeps threatening to really do it, too," he added, grumbling.

"That's not what I mean. They've got you trapped out here, there's no escaping that, but you're attitude's all wrong."

"You're going the lecture me about my attitude?"

"Well, excuse me, but you're looking at this like some sort of prison sentence! It's an opportunity."

"To do what, exactly?"

"Don't be dense!" Kuwabara looked exasperated. "You are out here in the middle of nowhere with Hiei and Kurama, together. Talking to each other. Living together. So, get them to patch it up." Yusuke started to protest, but Kuwabara held up a hand. "At the very least, you could find out what they're fighting about. That should be easy. But I bet you can get them back together."

There was a definite challenge in Kuwabara's tone. It took Yusuke a moment to form a reply. He wanted to reject the idea right away, but couldn't come up with a good reason. "You must have missed the memo," he finally said. "I want to survive this boot camp of theirs. Not get eaten by a stray dragon while they duke it out because I stirred up the past."

Kuwabara was unimpressed. "It's not like you to just duck your head down and do as you're told, Urameshi. I would have thought you'd be dying for some way to get back at them for keeping you here."

"Making them get along would be getting back at them?"

"Well, it's not what they want to do, and it's not what they want you to be focused on doing. Isn't the great detective up to the challenge?"

The great detective wasn't up to tying his shoelaces, but he wasn't going to mention that to Kuwabara. "I don't think it can be done," he said instead. "You don't realize how pissed they are." But even as he spoke, brief images flashed through his head--of Hiei pushing Kurama out of the way of the spirit gun, then taking the flack it earned him without betraying a hint of concern; of Kurama offering an apology to Hiei for baiting him, offering his hand to end the argument. Of the wistfulness in Hiei's voice when he talked about Kurama hating someone.

It was possible that part of them didn't want to be fighting anymore. And if that was true, even if it was only a tiny part, it was Yusuke's job--as the only person stuck in a cave with them both--to beat them over the heads until they gave in.

An interesting challenge.

Kuwabara was watching him knowingly. To be more precise, he was smirking. "Oh, you think you're so smart," Yusuke muttered.

"Yeah, I do, actually."

"Alright, fine. I'll try. But you aren't that smart."

"Fine. I'm not that smart. I'll just dare you to do it, and then you'll do it just to prove to me that you can, and then our friends won't be fighting anymore so their lives will get so much better, and you won't be stoned anymore, and our whole group can finally be at peace for the first time in a decade. I'll let you take some of the credit, by the way, but I'm keeping most of it."

"Don't get too proud of yourself. I don't think I can do it."

"Yeah, well, I know you can."

Yusuke didn't reply. He was mildly stunned by Kuwabara's complete confidence; he wondered if Kuwabara would say that if he knew what Yusuke had been like the last month. Hastily, he sought to change the subject. "So...we've caught up on how my life's going," he said lamely, gesturing around. "How're things with you?"

"Can't complain. Well, actually I guess I could--people are starting to mistake Yukina for my daughter. That's really awkward." Kuwabara made a face. "But then, it's a small price to pay, y'know?"

Yusuke made some vague, noncomital noise. He really didn't want to hear about the old crew--the fact that the rest of them were all living relatively normal, peaceful lives in human world made the reality of the Makai hell that he, Hiei, and Kurama were trapped in much more stark. Still, he couldn't be a complete jerk. "How's Shizuru?"

"She got married a few years ago," Kuwabara said with enthusiasm. "I never thought she was going to. She's really happy. She was all adamant before they got married that she was never going to have kids, but now she's thinking about it." Kuwabara glanced at him. "I guess you'd want to know--Keiko's mom passed away last year."

Yusuke went rigid.

"Her dad's dealing with it pretty well," Kuwabara went on, oblivious to Yusuke's reaction. "But he can't keep the shop open anymore. He really should have given it up before this--I mean, he's not young--but I guess he didn't want to. But now he's--"

"Stop talking."

Kuwabara looked at him blankly. "I don't want to talk about them," Yusuke said through gritted teeth.

Now Kuwabara's face hardened slightly. "Don't you care? They're your in-laws."

Yusuke shot to his feet, managing a few unsteady steps before he had to lean against the wall of the cave. "I said, I don't want to talk about it."

Kuwabara also stood. He was angry. "Don't be an ass. Keiko wouldn't want--"

"SHUT UP!" Yusuke hit the wall of the cave; a few birds scattered from the nearby trees. Kuwabara was silent.

It was one thing to talk about their friends... to say how everyone was doing, to gossip about Hiei and Kurama's quarrel... but there was a reason, goddammit, that he had would up on snow in the first place, and here was Kuwabara pushing it in his face, suddenly way over the line of what Yusuke could stand to hear--"Don't tell me what she would have wanted," he said, breathing heavily. "Don't say her name. Ever."

Kuwabara was quiet for a moment before responding--Yusuke could practically hear him thinking. "Yusuke," Kuwabara finally said, and Yusuke nearly jumped to hear his first name come out of Kuwabara's mouth. "If you're going to start acting like a person instead of an animal again, then you need to deal with this. You can't pretend that she--"

Yusuke wheeled back around to face him. "Get out."

"If you can't even hear--"

"Get out!" Yusuke repeated at a roar, staggering a few steps back towards him, intent on causing pain if he had to.

"I--"

"I swear, Kuwabara, if you don't get out I'll make you," Yusuke said, raising his hand to illustrate his point--an empty threat, as he now knew from what Kurama had said, but Kuwabara didn't know the spirit gun wasn't an issue. "I don't care what Hiei told you to do, I don't need a goddamned babysitter and I'm not going to listen to that--that--to that."

Kuwabara stared at him. Neither of them moved for a moment; Yusuke threatening, Kuwabara disbelieving. Finally, Kuwabara cleared his throat, and bent to retrieve his backpack. "I'll leave," he said. "I hope you get some help, Yusuke."

He shouldered the backpack and left with admirable dignity, walking neither fast nor slow and not looking back. Yusuke watched him go, thinking, Well, that's two friends you've threatened to kill now. Keep up the good work.

He slowly sat back down at the entrance to the cave, wrapped his arms around his knees, and waited. It didn't occur to him to try to leave; he knew he wouldn't make it far. The only question now was what would show up first: Hiei, or something less friendly.

Though he kept his eyes trained on the line of trees that marked the edge of the forest, nothing moved until evening, when twilight had all but given way to night. Then, try as he might, he could see nothing but indistinct movement, sense nothing but that someone was there. He waited, tense, for the intruder to reveal himself.

They were practically in his lap before their images finally separated from each other, and he could see. It was Hiei; and with him, was Kurama.