Feh, is unhappy with last chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own it. I swear. –dead-pan serious- TT

Chapter three: With absolute uncertianty.

"Hiei and I will take first watch," said Yusuke once they had settled into their hotel room. They were very near Tokyo but not even close to where the next murder was, according to Kurama's diagram, supposed to take place.

Kurama and Kuwabara agreed, gratefully as both were very tired and climbed into their own beds.

Yusuke led Hiei to the balcony where he waited until he was sure Kurama and Kuwabara were both sound asleep before speaking with Hiei.

"I know how you feel," said Yusuke. "Well, kinda. Not the whole 'my god someone I love has gone ape-shit' thing but the 'wanting to die because life sucks' thing."

Hiei didn't respond.

"It's a bad idea. I think Kuwabara is clueless as to what is going on with you and Kurama is traumatized-"

"So, you feel it is your duty to 'save' me?" Hiei inturupted snappishly.

"No, Hiei. Not my duty." He leaned over the edge of the balcony to look down at the city below. "It's not even my place to say that you shouldn't do it. I'm no therapist, afterall. My motives are almost entirely selfish. IE: I don't want to lose you. It's scary, Hiei. It's really scary."

"Life is scary, get used to it."

"Here's the thing, Hiei. I've been dead. And I gotta tell ya, it's not any fun."

"You didn't die. You're heart merely stopped beating and you became a demon."

"Not that time. I was hit by a car and died when I was fourteen. Koenma brought me back to life to save the world or whatever. But when I was dead, I was a ghost. I had to go around watching all the people I cared about try and get on without me. Which they didn't do too hot at. I'm just saying…"

"Come away from the edge," said Hiei.

"Why? Are you afraid I'll fall?"

"Just come away from the edge."

Yusuke backed away from the rickety railing and leaned against the wall next to Hiei. "Are you going to come away from the edge too?"

"I don't know."

"If you don't, I won't either."

Hiei stayed in shocked silence for a minute. "It's your life."

"Damn it, Hiei. I'm trying to help."

"Threatening to follow me into death is no way to lift my spirits. I never said I was going to kill myself."

"No, you're right. You didn't. But you didn't have to. I can see it in your eyes. You're not dead yet, Hiei. You've still got a couple centuries to see before you go to the Great Beyond. Demon life-span, it's a trip, huh?"

"I wouldn't call it a trip."

"What would you call it?"

"A cruel joke. What point is living for a thousand years when you have no one to share it with?"

"You could share it with me. I'm not going to leave you."

"Do you promise?"

"As long as Mukuro doesn't kill me, I'll do my best not to die before you do. But if she kills us both, this conversation is pointless."

"Detective, you've just given me a reason to live." Hiei smiled, it was small but it was there.

"Good." Yusuke threw an arm over Hiei's shoulder and squeezed the smaller demon. His friend didn't mind at all.

- -

Kurama didn't sleep that night. He couldn't. The smell of death was all-incompassing. He couldn't smell anything else. It wasn't just the smell. As an Empath, Kurama is able to feel what others are feeling, the 'gift' was intensified at the passing of his mother. His Empathetic reach, therefore was extended.

All around him were people mourning for their loved ones, just as Kurama mourned. He felt their tears and broken hearts, he felt it all. He was drained by death, it filled his every being. Contradictions such as these ran through his head. I am living dead, he thought. I am alive yet not living.

If not for Kurama's strong religious beliefs and his morals, he would be planning to end it the way Hiei was. But suddenly, he felt a wave of a new emotion coming from his friends outside. An emotion that he could not name. It was like nothing he had ever felt before.

The best he could come up with was that it felt like home. Tears fell from Kurama's eyes, not tears of pain, tears of relief. Hiei won't die of his own hand, he thought. That, at least, gave him comfort.

In comparison to the last two chapters, this one was… I think calling it short would be exaggerating it's length a bit. Eh, side-plots are hard to lengthen.

Argh, this was fluffy and angsty and… SWEET! My teeth are rotting just reading it.