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Chapter Ten

Liebe Erobert Alle

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One kiss turned into many. The two sudden lovers grew desperate for each other, exploring such a terrifying new world with only each other to lean on. Fingers reached past cloth, touching skin with an amorous anxiousness, as if each were afraid the other was merely a dream and one wrong move could dissipate it entirely. It was a frightful ecstasy, to finally be able to release what had been welling up inside of them. Coming to terms with their own feelings was like laying down an immensely heavy burden, or overcoming a great obstacle; it left them awed and breathless.

But as quickly as it had started, it had ceased. There was still the feeling in the air that more was to be done; yet all was still, save for the labored breathing of two kindred souls. The red-eyed fire youkai lay next to the orange-eyed kiyone, his calloused sword hand resting on her bare stomach; shirts had been discarded during their feverish dance with each other's bodies.

Her gaze shifted from his piercing red orbs to his naked chest, straying to a mark on his shoulder that had previously caught her eye. Now she gazed at it, admiring its golden beauty. Her hand moved hesitantly, slowly, from the side of his cheek down to the print, until she had covered the imprinted hand with her own. She was forcibly reminded of that day during the thunderstorm, when they had held each other similar to this, and when she had laid her hand upon his shoulder like so. Now, her small hand fit the print - the mark - perfectly.

She removed her hand from the mark - her mark - and let her hand travel still, down her mate's muscular arms and to his wrists, where she almost dared not look. She swallowed hard to prepare herself and looked for what she knew, deep in her heart, would be there.

They were all there, all the scabbing self injuries in the exact way they were on her own wrists. Her heart grew heavy with realization.

Hiei watched her through all this, drinking in her expressions and how they played out the emotions from her heart. A frown was almost distinguishable on his face, however, when he saw her reactions to the marks on his skin.

She suddenly turned her face towards his, absentmindedly tracing his wounds with her soft fingers, a desperate gleam in her eyes. "Please tell me you did this, please..."

He was silent, eyes calculating and mind spinning. He remembered back to when Rhys's father had told him about her special mark, and wondered if Rhys knew the same information. He found himself hoping she did not...but the look in her pleading eyes said otherwise. He retracted his hand from her grasp, slightly turning his body away from her. "I...did not," he admitted, lashes sweeping downwards, not wanting to witness her face falling like he knew it would.

She swallowed again, only this time it was to keep herself together. 'That's why he thinks he loves me, because of the mark,' she thought before she was able to stop herself. It was against his will, a fact only proven by their matching wounds. She didn't know what to think. He said he loved her, he had let her into his heart...but she couldn't help but wonder if she had almost physically barged in when she unexpectedly marked him. She said the only thing she could think of. "Hiei, I'm so sorry...if I had known this would happen, I..." she trailed off forlornly, fingers playing with the edge of the blanket that covered the two of them.

The fire demon finally turned towards her again, propping himself up on one elbow. "You're father's information must have been false. We share wounds because of a connection, a deep connection - not for some other half-assed excuse like he was trying to pull to catch me off guard," he told her.

Rhys tried to smile, but almost immediately it broke and fell like train derailing. He had misunderstood the meaning of her apology. She shook her head ruefully, and it was her turn to avert her eyes from his gaze. "No, Hiei," she said in a low tone, as if confessing the truth quietly would soften the blow. "I'm sorry...that I marked you. I made you love me."

He gripped her arm forcefully, but not painfully. "What are you talking about?" he asked fiercely, fangs beginning to show. When she didn't answer, he gave her a shake. "You aren't a witch; you can't make people fall in love. Explain yourself!"

She gave him a fearful glance, unable to hold his intense gaze. He seemed so stubborn, so unwilling to believe her. In any other circumstances, she was sure she would have been elated...but now was entirely different. "That day - in the tree - during the storm - I didn't mean to mark you. I didn't mean it. I didn't even know I did, until now, but it seems the only logical time I could have. Hiei, I barely knew you then. And I'm only just getting to know you now. I don't know..."

Hiei was silent for a moment, regarding her with his demonic, red eyes, looming over her still. "Do you regret me?" he asked suddenly, emotionlessly.

"What do you --"

"Do you regret marking me...mating with me? Do you regret me?" he repeated in that torturous monotone that made it sound like he cared not for the situation at hand.

She frowned. "That's not a fair question," she protested. "I regret none of my actions. But if it means that, because of them, the feelings in your heart are not true...then I think I may regret the effect of some of my actions."

The youkai finally released her arm, only to cup her face with his hand and kiss her passionately; after a moment he withdrew. "Tell me you felt nothing," he said.

Rhys gazed up at her mate. To say she felt nothing would be a complete lie. But if she confessed to him how much she felt when he kissed her would only give him the idea that they were in real, true, unquestionable love...when deep in her soul, she knew their love was somehow untrue, faintly forced.

She knew that she loved him, as sure as she knew the color of the sky, but the conflict rested in his interest in her. If she had not marked him, would he still have developed these feelings for her? Would they have committed themselves to each other like they had just now?

"Well?" he prodded, none to gently. Rhys opened her mouth, but no sound came out. The fire demon scoffed. "It's not a difficult question. Yes or no. Come on."

The kiyone bit her lip, raising her eyes to look into his crimson eyes that were fixed so intently on her. Locking gazes with him, she shook her head, trembling with suppressed emotion. She felt as if she was being held underwater, that she would die while constructing the greatest lie she ever had - the lie that bound her heart from the one person she allowed in.

The look he gave her did not make matters better in the least, either. A window behind him glowed with dawn's warmth, making his outline appear to glow also...but the light around him was anything but warm and comforting. His very presence in her room suddenly seemed to give it an unreal chill, as if winter had set in far too early. She couldn't bear it anymore, turning her whole body away from his stone cold mask.

She heard and felt the fire demon next to her shift positions. From his shadow on the wall, she could see he had sat up and was still looking to her. 'Dammit...even his shadow is beautiful,' she thought bitterly to herself.

"I refuse to believe that," he stated, still in that frustrating monotone. When Rhys didn't comment, he continued. "I cannot believe that you feel nothing for me. Why would you have done this in the first place?" he said, motioning to her mark.

"When I lived with my father, I knew a boy named Tomoru," she said, trying to imitate his monotone; her shaking voice didn't quite capture the desired effect, however.

"What has that got to do with anything?" he replied in an acidic tone.

"His demon form looked exactly like you. Perhaps I felt some sort of tie to you because of that, and I thought you could be like him," she said dully. "I used to date him, you know. Until his family forbade us from seeing each other and he moved --"

Hiei grabbed her shoulder roughly, turning her body back to face him. "I repeat," he said slowly, his eyes gaining a menacing glint, "what has that got to do with anything? What should I care about your past lovers? You are mine now. I don't want to hear about anyone else!" He gave her a shake for emphasis.

Her eyes narrowed up at him. "You are mine," she said, imitating his deep voice, then continued in her own mocking tone. "Ha! As if I'm a prize to be won!"

"Trust me, onna, you're no prize," Hiei said dryly moving his scowling face closer to hers. "But I have you now, regardless."

"Excuse me," she interrupted loudly, poking the gold hand print. "But I marked you."

Instead of looking enraged like she had assumed he would, he looked almost smug. His fingers swept over the juncture between her neck and shoulders and she let out a cry of unexpected pain when he touched a sensitive spot. "Ow," she whimpered, immediately bringing her hand up to pull his away from the source of pain. But once their hands touched he held onto her fingers, moving them over the most painful point. Rhys's breath caught in her throat when she felt two punctured points only centimeters apart.

He smirked demonically when he saw her reaction. "Who marked who?" he taunted in a low voice.

She looked up at him with disbelieving doe eyes. She moved her lips as if trying to say something, but she didn't seem able form anything comprehensible at the moment. In her silence, Hiei moved his lips to the spot where he had marked her his own way, and pressed a small kiss to the bite.

The kiyone whimpered again, shutting her eyes to will the hurt away. "When-?" she was finally able to say, the word wrenched from her throat in half a gasp. "When did you...?"

She could feel him smirk on her neck before he tilted his head up to speak into her ear. "During our small moment of passion earlier. It's the best time, when the submitting mate will feel it the least. You didn't even notice."

Rhys couldn't help but feel betrayed, his warm breath on her ear sending contrary shivers down her spine. Had he pretended to give himself to her for that reason only - to catch her in her most vulnerable moment and use it to his benefit? She narrowed her orange orbs. "How dare you," she said.

His smirk only deepened, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Do you think it unfair that I marked you while you were not expecting it? When you didn't ask for it?" he asked in his taunting, deep voice.

"Is that the only reason you came back - or even the reason you left? You needed time to plan out your revenge on me, so you fled. And coming back here like this, pretending to open your heart to me, it was all a fabrication --" she said in a voice thick with unshed tears at the betrayal she felt.

She was certain that, if he had access to it, his katana would have been biting into her throat. Instead, he gave her a violent shake and a hard glare. "You should know me better than to think I would play with emotion so foolishly."

She knew exactly what he meant, but his words still stung her heart. She wanted to cry. "I'm sorry," she whispered to him in a shaky voice. "But I've already apologized. What more do you want?"

The glare held in his eyes morphed into something else, something unidentifiable. He moved so close that his naturally heated skin touched hers in places that made her blush, even though this was the second time he was making contact there. They both knew she would have attempted escape, had he not been pinning her to the bed. She grimly wondered if escape had ever been an option.

"You," he said against her neck, making her grimace in suppressed pain. She noticed his tone seemed lower, huskier. "Not you apologizing. Not you angry. Just you."

She shut her eyes tightly, swallowing the lump in her throat. With him so close, she had trouble denying him, or even herself. This amorous feeling coursing through her veins, was it a result of the strange sequence of events that had transpired after she had met Hiei? Or did she really want this, all of it? She suddenly didn't want to think anymore, pushing all thoughts out of her head and half-moaning, "Yes...Hiei."

She knew this time would be incalculably different from their previous encounter. A diaphanous black ki bled from his very skin into the air around them, blocking all the light of the young, dawning sun from the space around them. The entire room was soon engulfed in the manifestation of the fire apparition's power, crackling and snapping in midair like an inferno...

- - - -

Red.

The color of her imprisonment, of the walls that bound her.

A bloody color, like the fiery orbs of her captor. She was kept in crimson chains in his eyes, chains too heavy to ever hope of breaking free from. Half of her loathed the captive feeling...

...But the other half of her felt like she had helped fashion the very bindings that held her helplessly so.

That color, the red in Hiei's eyes, was the last thing the kiyone remembered seeing before she had let her eyes close and finally allowed herself to sleep under his gaze. His arms, extensions of his chains for her, were wrapped loosely around her as they shared her bed. They had long ago fallen asleep, but she had woken before he. The darkness enveloping the room was no longer charged with energy, signifying that night had already fallen and they had slept the day away.

After a yawn, the golden haired demon patted her empty stomach. She slipped out of her mate's loose hold and picked up her shirt and pants from the floor, putting them on quietly. Careful not to wake her slumbering mate, she tip-toed out the door.

A few minutes later, she was in the kitchen, preparing herself a snack to satisfy her hunger at least until the sun came up. She was about to bite into the second half of a sandwich when she heard someone yawn and enter the room.

"Oh, hey Rhys," a black-haired said sleepily. "What are you doing up?"

The kiyone motioned towards her sandwich. "Just felt like a midnight snack, Yusuke. And you?"

The teen smiled as he moved towards the fridge. "I can smell food any time, any place. And it made me hungry." He finally retreated a minute later with a stack of leftovers in his hands. He set the food on the table and was about to sit down when his previously sleepy eyes suddenly went alert and wide. He stared at her incredulously, seemingly frozen in shock with his mouth agape.

She gave him an odd look as she stood and deposited her plate in the sink. Still aware of his eyes following her, she started washing her dish. "What, Yusuke?"

Behind her, Yusuke could be heard stuttering incoherently for a moment. Finally, he burst out with, "Are those Hiei's pants?!"

Rhys froze, the plate she had been holding falling noisily into the sink; she made no move to retrieve it. Instead, she turned the faucet off and dried her hands, taking a long look at the pants she had thought were hers. But...these pants were black, had two or three belts wrapped around the waist, and were looser than the jeans she was used to. How had she not noticed that?

Blushing fiercely, she turned around to face the astounded teen. "Yeah, I guess they are," she admitted, looking at the floor.

Yusuke let out a low whistle. "Whoa, you're a sly cat! How'd you get those?" he asked innocently, though a perverted gleam lit his chocolate brown eyes.

Rhys was saved from having to answer when a tall carrot-haired teen lumbered onto the scene. "Hey, guys. Who has food?" he asked through a yawn.

"There's some on the table, Kuwabara. I'm sorry we woke you," the kiyone said, crossing her legs and extending her arms over her legs in an attempt to hinder anyone else from seeing what she was wearing.

"Nah, it's all right. I only woke up 'cause I was hungry. I think I was dreaming about breakfast or somethin'. I'm cravin' some waffles," Kuwabara said, obviously still half asleep. "You want any of this?" he asked Rhys as he and Yusuke began dividing the food on the table.

Yusuke answered for her. "No, she already ate. Besides, she has to get back to the naked fire demon in her bed." Rhys's blush deepened.

Kuwabara wrinkled his nose. "What d'ya mean, naked fire demon? The only fire demon we know is --" Here, the tall teen stopped chewing immediately. He looked from Yusuke's grinning face to Rhys's red one, then looked as though he was turning green. He quickly got to the garbage and spit out his food. He pointed an accusing finger at Yusuke. "Ew, Urameshi, you made me lose my appetite! What were you thinkin', giving me a nasty mental picture like that??"

Yusuke shrugged. "Well it's true. He can't be wearing much else if she's wearing his pants," he said casually, motioning to the short demon still cowering near the sink.

Kuwabara turned to look at the girl in question so fast his neck cracked. His eyes bulged as he took in the fact that: "You're wearing Shorty's pants!"

She sighed tiredly, walking across the room to the doorway and trying to fight down her blush to regain control of the situation. "Yes, these are Hiei's pants. I put them on by mistake. Now, if you'll excuse me, we're going to have a very angry fire demon on our hands if I don't get back before you wake him or anyone else up. Good night, boys." Her leave was followed by the stares of two teenage boys who were now, at three in the morning, unbelievably awake.

"So, Hiei's back," Yusuke said after a moment of silence, picking up a piece of left over chicken and taking a bite. "I guess."

Kuwabara turned back to stare at his friend. "Does this mean what I think it means?"

"That those two probably just had sex the whole day? Yeah," the black-haired teen said nonchalantly.

Kuwabara stiffly sat down. "And..."

"They're a couple now? Yeah."

"And..."

"They probably don't want anyone else to know? Yeah, but everyone else will want to know."

The orange-haired teen cradled his head in his hands as if trying to comprehend the situation. After a moment he turned to his best friend, asking, "And you're just sitting there, enjoying all of this?"

Yusuke grinned evilly, nodding. The next second, he attempted to bite into his tall sandwich.

Kuwabara stood, his appetite apparently gone. "I'm going back to bed. Maybe I won't remember this in the morning," he said, drifting out of the room.

- - - -

Before returning to her room, Rhys slipped quietly into a small bathroom. How could she have been so stupid as to go out wearing Hiei's pants? It wasn't that dark in the room. Perhaps she was just overwhelmed with all that had happened in the last two days. After all, she had gone from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly, and she was still reeling. Reeling, spinning, falling, letting go...but simultaneously holding on.

Holding on to what, exactly? Her past, still? Her present? Her...future?

Oh, god. What was in store for her now that she was mated to Hiei? He was frighteningly intense and unpredictable, the way he tossed her thoughts around with a simple look.

And he had eliminated one of her only means of escape: She had told him that the cutting would stop. How was she going to accomplish that? Maybe she could ask the others for help -- NO. Then she'd have to tell them that she had been hurting herself all along! They would think she was a freak...like Hiei had. Was that why he said she could stop? Because he didn't want to be forever branded to an unstable psycho?

No, she almost laughed out loud, that wasn't the reason. He was still receiving her wounds. It was no wonder he wanted her to stop! Well, she'd just have to make him pay for being so selfish.

With narrowed, determined eyes, she swung open the door of the medicine cabinet and quickly located a pair of tweezers. They were easily and quickly bent open...one sharp point was lowered to the sensitive flesh that lined the inside of her lower right arm...it was time to add to the scars. Without thought, she gouged into her skin to leave deep, angry, screaming marks.

Blood quickly came to the surface, breathed in oxygen...and suddenly it was not blood, but fire pouring from her veins. Fire that twisted and fell like poured water, that was hot but didn't burn. She stared in fascination as it dropped to the floor, but didn't grow larger or ignite; it merely burned, and burned, and burned...

Her eyes, which had been dilated and unblinking, suddenly retracted and watered; she was returned by some unseen hand to her right state of mind. Now it wasn't fire, but merely the scarlet red of her young blood that she saw seeping from her once more self-inflicted wounds. And now, even though it wasn't fire, she felt a somewhat burning sensation where the wound was, one that brought tears to her eyes.

Pain?

Yes...something in the back of her mind registered the feeling as pain, something one encounters when one is injured.

Should she be happy? She had never before felt pain while harming herself - it usually came after - and the nonexistent reaction was something that had spurred her to cut more, to feel more...because if she couldn't feel pain, was she alive at all?

Was she alive now?

A laugh bubbled forth from her lips, only to turn into a sob. This feeling was what she had been trying to attain? Despite the tears now rushing down her face and even though she had to clench her teeth to do it, she smiled and her eyes shone.

It was over.

With the misshapen tweezers still clutched in her hand, with her arm still dripping life - life! - freely, she rose from the floor. (When had she sunken to the floor? Did it matter? She was rising now, nevertheless.). Her feet led her to her room, to where her mate lay sleeping...but not for long. She had to show him...explain to him that she had somehow stopped. He would never say it, but he would be so happy for her... .

She was pushing the door to her room open...taking quick steps to the bed where she had left her mate...smiling and crying at the same time...telling him, "It's over...it's over...it's over...it's --"

"Onna!" he said harshly, loudly, breaking her from her chant.

"Hiei...Hiei, look. Just look - it hurts!" she said, shoving her bleeding arm under his face. "It's never hurt before..."

His gaze switched from the tweezers clutched in her hand to her blood-soaked arm . "Did you do this?" he asked quietly, taking the bent piece of metal from her and letting it drop to the floor with a clang.

"Yes, but it's the last time. It hurts!" she insisted.

"That's what it's supposed to do," he said forcefully. "I thought you wanted to stop?"

"I did - I do! Hiei, why don't you get it, it hurts!" she said impatiently.

"Quiet!" he said harshly. He sat up in the bed, the covers falling to his waist, and sat the now-silent Rhys in front of him. "Breathe," he ordered while tearing a strip of cloth from the blanket. While she did as she was told, he took her arm and wrapped it methodically around it, similar to his own bandages surrounding the Black Dragon, noticing that she did indeed wince in suppressed pain when he pulled too tight on the make-shift bandage.

He had just tied the wrappings off when she let out an, "Oh!" and turned to face him fully. She reached for his right arm and felt its underside, seemingly searching for something. "I can't tell...these are in the way," she muttered to herself, fingers fumbling with the wards protecting the world from the terrible Dragon on his arm.

His fingers came quickly to meet hers and stop them. "If you remove those, this room and the entire temple will be destroyed," he warned. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking - it's supposed to be here - it has to be there - the cut. Like the one I have. You got it, right?" she asked, searching his face for an answer.

He frowned. "No."

Her brows creased in confusion. "But why not? It's supposed to --"

"'It will continue to hurt you as she continues hurting herself,' " Hiei interrupted, recalling the words of Rhys' father. "That's what I was told."

The confused look didn't leave her face, and her fingers fought against his, still trying to find signs of recent injury on his arm. "That still means --"

She was interrupted again when he used his free hand to cover her mouth. In the absence of their voices, an incomplete silence took the room. Crickets and other creatures of the night buzzed softly outside the confines of the temple; the distant hoot of an owl sounded. During this time, Hiei roamed his red eyes over his mates face, taking in all of her features.

"Until I want it to be there," he finished, locking eyes with her. Those crimson orbs said what he did not - or could not - say...and where they had, in other occasions, burned in anger or revulsion towards her, they now were lit with something entirely new...

She stopped fighting him, instead intertwining their fingers and giving his hand a squeeze. He removed his hand from before her lips as his own twitched upwards into something resembling an upside-down frown.

And they were both free.

-- The End --

The title of this chapter, "Liebe Erobert Alle," is German for "Love conquers all." Because it does. (Note: Translation was found on-line, so it may not be perfect.)

So this is is. The end is finally here. What did you think? I personally feel that this chapter is the best of anything I've ever written. Did you like the ending? Was anything left unclear? Tell me!

It's satisfying to know that my first fic is finally complete and posted. It was probably obvious that I have personally dealt with some issues in this fic - like the cutting. I'm happy to say that that part of my life is in my past, and I have learned from it and grown. But in that time period, one of the only things that made me somewhat happy was writing this fic. I felt relieved to pour out my emotions and even create a story around them and share it with others. This story can be seen as a testament to that, and as an encouragement to others who are struggling with it: I got through it. Rhys got through it. You can get through it as well, and you are never alone.

I would like to dedicate this whole story to all authors who are just starting out, who have just posted their first story and are nervous and excited about how well it will do; we've all been there.

I'm not sure if I am going to post any more stories under this penname; I have no plans to as of yet, not stories waiting, no ideas even jumping to get written. If you are interested in some of my other stories, I have another penname on here, everto, with a big story in the process of being written and posted. It's dark, and as of now going nowhere, but the first two or three chapters are up if you would like to check them out.

I'm more active at under the name of femba; there I post reader-insertions. Currently up is a complete YouxKurama fic; it's sequel has four chapters already posted; a YouxEd FullMetal Alchemist fic is also being posted there; some random poetry is also there.

I would like to thank everyone who has read this fic and followed it to it's end and, especially, reviewed it. You encouraged me to keep writing, and there are no words that I know that can thank you for that. And if you decide to read some other things of mine, thank you for that, too. Until next time, goodbye.