I know I said chapter three would have some 3x4 action, but, I lied.

Yusuke groaned appreciatively as he popped his neck. His charge spared a second to flick a scathing glare at him before turning back to the window, where he was dutifully fuming while distinctly ignoring everyone. The bodyguard sighed. Normally the Senator's son was at least civil, but this was getting ridiculous. For two weeks he had done nothing but cause headaches for the staff. He had stopped counting how many times he'd tried dragging the little twerp from his funk, but with a longsuffering sigh he tried again.

"Hiei, this is ridiculous," he said, trying to reason with him. "You're only worrying your mother, and…"

"Mother never worries about anyone except for herself," the slight boy retorted. "Don't try to lie to me, Urameshi. It won't work."

Yusuke glared at him for a moment before conceding with a huff. "Alright, so you're not worrying Senator Mukuro, but you are getting to Yukina."

"My sister can complain to me herself if she wants to," Hiei snapped, sparing him another withering look before dismissing him from his attentions again. Yusuke growled in frustration, but he hadn't really expected anything else. Hiei was a stubborn bastard when he wanted to be, and right now he seemed to have no other desire than to make everyone's life miserable. Silencing his internal grumbling, he moved towards the door.

"Please stay here while I attend to other business," he told Hiei, not waiting for an answer before shutting the door behind himself.

Yukina idly plucked at the cuffs of her long sleeved blouse. Their bodyguard, Yusuke, had said he would try to talk sense into Hiei, but she knew it was a futile attempt. She wished that she could say otherwise, but even she probably would not be able to drag him from his melancholy right now. He was angry, and she was sure she knew full well why, though she doubted any others did. She heard the door to the study shut firmly and she turned to see Yusuke, silently storming as he tried to maintain a professional air. Silently she stood and made her way to his side, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder to help him ground himself.

"I told you it wouldn't work," she said softly. He let out an angry breath, but only nodded in reply. Smiling warmly she patted his shoulder. "Let me talk to him." He made to open the door for her, but she stilled his hand. "Alone." She needed to talk to Hiei and she had a feeling that Yusuke and the other's lack of knowledge on certain points was intentional on his part, and she was not going to be the one who let slip his secrets. Yusuke looked about ready to argue the point with her, but she shook her head firmly.

"Miss Yukina," he began to protest, but she held up her hand, sidestepping around him so he was unable to come between her and the door.

"You're being silly, Yusuke," she chided. "I'm his sister. The worst he would do is yell at me, and I'm a big enough girl to parry words. Now if you'll excuse me."

Quickly and quietly she opened the door and slipped in, shutting it soundlessly behind her before he could further protest. Steeling herself quickly, she turned to her brother, who had yet to look in her direction. Silently she approached him, determining how she would breach the subject she assumed he thought she was unaware of without angering him further.

"What do you want, Yukina?" he asked, never turning around or in any other way acknowledging her presence. She stopped less than a foot away from him, peering over his should a little to see what he was staring at. As she expected, it was nothing.

"I want you to stop acting like a spoilt child," she replied in a motherly voice. At this he did turn to her.

"Oh?" he said testily. "And since when have you become mother? Be careful, Yukina, or I just might start hating you, too."

"Hiei, stop it." She reprimanded. "Whatever the matter is, you're being childish about it."

"And I suppose you would know all about that?"

Yukina bit back on a retort, knowing it was what Hiei wanted. She sighed, diffusing what little anger had built up already and gave him a concerned look. "What's wrong, Hiei?" she asked gently. He turned back to look out the window angrily.

"Who said anything was wrong? Isn't it normal to brood when you're nothing more than a public image?"

"There haven't even been any press conferences lately, Hiei. What's really bothering you?"

When Hiei refused to answer her, Yukina decided to play her hand. She prayed that she was right in her suspicions: she didn't need Hiei any angrier than he already was by accusing him with false truths. In one step she was right beside him. Gently she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and leaned her cheek to his broad shoulders in an attempt to pacify him through her next statement.

"He hasn't called you, has he?"

Hiei tensed under her before she was abruptly pushed away. She looked into his storming eyes from arms length where he held her.

"What?" he asked coolly. She knew better than to believe the false air of control, though.

"You're distraught," she explained softly. "You haven't told Yusuke about whoever it is, so it's obviously not a woman, and you haven't told me, so it's also someone you think would cause objections. Am I right?" There was a flicker of panic in the depths of his dark eyes and she quickly moved to sooth it, stepping between his restraining hands to run calming fingers through his unruly bangs. "Hiei, I'm not mad at you," she reassured. "If he – for I assume it is a man – if he makes you happy, then I don't mind. Alright?"

Hiei stared back at her, his face slowly losing its hardness as her fingers moved feather-light through along his scalp. With a defeated sigh he closed his eyes and nodded. "You always were too good at coaxing things from me," he accused.

"Don't make it sound so horrible," she chuckled. "Now, if you don't mind me asking, who is it and how long have you two been together?"

Hiei looked at her through his bangs, almost pathetically. "You're not going to like it," he warned her.

"Try me."

He studied her for a few seconds before relenting with a sigh. "It's Kurama."

He was right. She didn't like it.

"Kuwabara, this is entirely unnecessary."

The orange hairs bodyguard went unfazed by the admonishment from his charge, shrugging it aside as he leaned against the wall of Kurama's bathroom. "Your father told me to watch you, so I'm watching you," he replied matter-of-factly.

"There aren't even any windows in here," the redhead objected from the shower where he bathed. Truthfully he had been done for at least five minutes, but he refused to step outside of the protective curtain with the burly guard in the room. "Can't you wait outside so I can at least dress?"

"Are you done?"

"No, but that's beside the point."

"Then I'm not leaving."

Kurama mouthed a curse Hiei had taught him months ago and he had recently taken quite a liking to. It had been like this ever since he got back. He had been banned from venturing outside, which was killing him, and he was unable to go anywhere without his bodyguard hawking over him. He was also not permitted to call anyone.

"Kazuma," he begged, trying to wheedle an agreement through familiarity, "Please. I'm not turning the water off until you leave."

There was a huff and then: "Fine. But you have five minutes before I come in here and drag you out, regardless of what state your in."

Kurama grinned to himself as he turned off the water and threw open the curtain to grab a towel. While he had no real dislike for Kuwabara, he needed his privacy. Not that he was going to get any between now and elections, he was sure, but he needed it, all the same. He should have put more thought into when he was running away. He would never have gotten in this much of a mess if he had waited until after the election campaigns. But he had ignored the facts and gone off as he chose. Now he was a prisoner in his own house, released only to appear at his father's side and give the bastard a good rep.

Quickly he slipped into the clothes he had brought in with him. He had been afraid Kuwabara would refuse to let him dress and had planned on clothing himself in the shower, so he had grabbed shorts and a tank top instead of his more preferred jeans which would have gotten soaked at the cuffs. And it was far too hot to wear normal shirts today, anyways.

A minute and a half shy of being barged in on, Kurama exited the bathroom, towel wrapped securely around his still damp hair. Kuwabara tried his best to hide the incredulous look he gave the turban-like affair, but Kurama caught it all the same, dismissing it like he dismissed so much that had been happening lately. It was getting harder, though. He moved purposefully towards his bed, unraveling his hair to give it a good rub down again and prepared himself to say what he had been thinking. The idea had come to him some time ago, but until this recent stint with the bathroom he had been tolerant of the whole situation. Kuwabara had been trailing him for two weeks like a badly trained spy, but he had never deemed to enter the bathroom with him. Kurama feared the next step would be surveillance of his other visits to the water closet as well. He shuddered as the though passed his mind and once again became resolute in his decision.

"Kuwabara," he began, trying to sound off-handed about the whole affair, but he could feel the bite of steel beneath his words. He could tell by Kuwabara's reaction that he heard it as well. "I was just thinking. This is really becoming preposterous. I know my father wants me under lock and key until the elections are over, but that's still six months. Are you planning on following me to the bathroom the entire time?"

"If I have to," he replied boorishly. Kurama noted with some satisfaction that he sounded even less thrilled about it than Kurama did. Kuwabara could be a supreme ass hole at times, but he had a good heart and a clear head. His father was just an idiot.

"Me and you both know that's beyond unreasonable," Kurama told him flatly. "Besides, how do you plan on playing big brother for me and attending to my father? Think, Kuwabara, you're only one person. You can't possibly be in two places at the same time. What my father is asking you to do is absurd."

"I'm still going to try," Kuwabara defended.

"I know you will," the red head assured, putting down his towel and smiling supportively at his guardian. "And you do a wonderful job, but there's only so much you can do alone."

Kuwabara eyed him suspiciously, seeing the set up but not the offer. "What are you suggesting?"

"Let Shiori take over for me. She knows me better than anyone, which means she knows better than anyone how to control me. She can be hear all the time, too. She doesn't attend to my father like you do."

All this was true, they both knew it. Of course, Kurama inwardly smirked, his old nurse maid also thought his father was an idiot and would be more than willing to bend a few of Kurama's house arrest rules. He just hoped Kuwabara had managed to forget those points since she had been reemployed as a custodian some years ago. Kuwabara's knowing grin told him otherwise.

"Yeah, and let you get away with God knows what?" he chided. Kurama tried to look impish in return, but inwardly his heart sank. So Kuwabara did remember. "I'll have her sent up by tomorrow."

Kurama stared at him shocked and then chuckled. "You know me too well," he murmured in triumphant defeat.

"What, you thought I agreed with you old man?" Kuwabara admonished jokingly. "Come on, brat, Yomi's been losing it for years now. He honestly thinks you're gonna try assassinating him."

"He's not worth the bullet," Kurama sighed. "Why do you stay if you hate him so much?"

Kuwabara shrugged. "He pays something unreal." He shrugged and patted him on the shoulder before heading to the door. "I'm gonna go arrange everything. Stay here. I'll know if you leave."

Kurama nodded and waited until the door had shut behind Kuwabara before flopping back on his bed with a sigh. He bit his lip indecisively as he stared at the door for a minute, then, convinced he wouldn't be interrupted, flipped over onto his stomach to fish under his mattress for the cell phone he had stashed there. The hiding place was childish, but he had reasoned that for exactly that reason Kuwabara would never look there when he had confiscated all of his forms of communiqué. He had disposed of his primary cell phone in Japan, but he had always kept a prepaid phone on hand after his father had thrown a fit some years ago and broken his first cell phone. Glancing once more at the door to be sure he would go undisturbed, he started to key in a phone number, but paused. If he was caught on the phone, Kuwabara would probably just take the phone away, but if he looked at the call number, then Kurama would be in trouble. Deciding calling was not a good idea, he deleted the numbers from the screen and instead began to enter a text message. Sending it with a speed formed from repetitive use, he once again turned off the phone and stashed it away before rolling back to stare at the ceiling. He hoped it was enough to pacify any built up anger his silence had caused.

"Hiei, you can't be serious," Yukina gasped. Hiei's eyes hardened again and he turned his attentions back out t the street.

"I told said you wouldn't like it," he accused her. The small girl bit her lip and silently berated herself for reacting so callously. Hiei was happy with Kurama, a thought that made her mind stumble a bit, she would admit, but she was unsure of whether that was because it really was a man who was doing this to her brother or if it was because it was Kurama. The implications were…

"Hiei, he's Yomi's son," she exclaimed quietly, not wanting to risk Yusuke hearing if he was listening at the door, which she was sure he was. "Do you understand what that means? Mother…"

"I understand better than you think I do," he hissed, turning back to her. The cold expression he usually reserved for their mother or Yusuke when he was being obnoxious firmly in place. Yukina felt sorry for him, berating herself again. It was hard to swallow, that was true, but Hiei wanted so much for her to just accept it. She could see that in the way he closed up immediately after she had admonished him. Reigning in her feelings she tried to see it from his stand point. He was in love and without support in that love. Open opposition to it, in fact. And now he had lost contact with his lover and had no one to turn to.

Better than you think I do… she wondered. Their mother and Senator Yomi were both very unsavory people behind closed doors. In front of the cameras, it would be impossible for them to be sweeter: family oriented, loving parents who wanted to make the nation better for all the citizens. Behind doors they were cold and uncaring unless it came between them and a shot at presidency. Yukina and her brother had met Senator Yomi and his son, Kurama, once at a formal dinner their mother had thrown for all the local chair people. It was a publicity stunt that benefited all of them without a single camera in view. That was when she realized none of the government officials had a single caring bone in their bodies.

Yomi had completely ignored his son, who had been nothing but charming the entire time. She remembered, now, that Hiei had offered to keep the other boy company about half way through the dinner. She recalled thinking happily that Hiei was beginning to be more social, though it was odd for him to be so open about it. Now that she though about it, though, Kurama was the one who had excused them. And Yomi had become upset when, a few hours later, he had realized his son was missing. The knowledge that he was with Hiei had not assuaged him at all.

"Hiei," she asked. "How long has this been going on?"

"A while," he replied vaguely.

"Since that dinner last year?"

"No," Hiei shook his head, looking out the window again, flooding through memories. "No. We began to become friends then, but it never became more than that until a few months ago."

Something was bothering Yukina, but the second she tried to pin it down in her mind it would flit off to a different recess. She was still trying to catch the illusive thought when Hiei's cell phone rang. She hadn't realized it was lying in his lap until he snapped it up in his hand, stopping short of placing it to his ear. He stared at the illuminated screen, his face trying to remain straight even as relief and consternation warred for dominance. Yukina stepped up behind him and peered over his shoulder. She couldn't help but smile a little at the message before Hiei flicked the phone closed, hiding the note from her eyes. She had read it all, though.

h im fine

luv u

sry

She was not going to pretend she understood what 'sry' meant, or why he had opened with 'I'm fine'. Or even why the writing had been so terribly clipped. But she really had no need to know. All she needed was in that second line of chat speak.

I love you.

"Aren't you going to reply?" she asked softly when he made no move to respond to the message.

Hiei frowned thoughtfully for a moment before shaking his head in the negative. It was not so much that he did not want to reply – because he truly did want to – as it was that he felt it unwise. There were many reasons for this, not the least of which being that Kurama, as Hiei knew very well, loathed chat speak. He had told Hiei in no uncertain terms that he felt it not only made people sound unintelligent, it was usually a sign that they were.

Not that there's any great intellect being lost in the youth of this nation, Kurama had continued after with a grin.

Hiei completely understood. The occasions on which he had felt infinitely wiser than his age group were anything but few, and besides his sister and Kurama, he doubted there was much intellect left in his peers. This being the case, it was a warning bell to Hiei that Kurama would use chat speak. It told him that the redhead had been in a hurry, and Kurama was not one to rush anything. He had also abbreviated Hiei's name. While there had been a few occurrences where the redhead had slipped into the clipped teenage lingo due to time constraints, he had only ever abbreviated Hiei's name once, and that was after…no, Kurama did not spare politeness unless he was deeply out of sorts.

All of this led him to assume that Kurama was disallowed from using the phone – a theory his lack of contact had supported so far – and he had somehow found a chance to sneak a call. If this was the case, which he was rapidly becoming sure was so, then he did not want to chance getting Kurama caught by messaging him, though he doubted Kurama would be thoughtless enough to forget to turn off his phone again.

But…

What if Kurama were waiting for him to message back? Or, even if he were not exactly waiting, he would at least expect some form of answer. He had absolutely no desire to sadden the redhead by making him think Hiei did not care about him. He did, and was curious as to what Kurama had to be sorry for, for that is what he was sure the third line meant. If it was an apology for not contacting him, then there was no need. Hiei's mother was a bitch and Kurama's father was no better, he knew that better than any besides Kurama himself. If it were for something else, he was clueless as to what and the lack of knowledge drove him insane.

And now he was second guessing himself as well as driving himself to fretting. He despised second guessing. He shook such thoughts from his head, frowning angrily at himself for acting like such a girl and turned to his sister, who was watching him patiently.

"Bring me your phone," he told her. When she gave him a questioning look he glared at her, though his normal heat was far from it. "Just do it."

Yukina shrugged a little and left the room to find her cell phone. If Hiei wanted to use her phone for goodness only knew what reason, she could care less. As long as he was doing so for reasons other than paranoia.

Kurama itched to retrieve his phone to see if Hiei had replied, but restrained himself with an anchoring sigh and closed his eyes. He really was being pathetic, he knew that. He had to wait until Shiori was in charge of his odd little house arrest before he could take the phone out again. Kuwabara could come in at any moment, and if he happened to enter while Kurama was holding a phone, all deals would be off for Shiori taking over. Mentally he cursed. Why were they taking so long, anyways? A glance at the clock told him that not even five minutes had elapsed and he rolled his head to look at the ceiling again with a restless sigh.

Maybe he could take a look before Kuwabara got back.

He growled at himself and rolled off the bed, heading for his wardrobe as he berated himself for acting like a love-struck girl. True he may look a little like one, but he was anything but a woman. But perhaps his looks had been what saved him in Japan. Inari only knew he would have never made it if he had not run across Heero in that bar. Then again, Heero had expressed no surprise at his being a man the next morning. In fact, he acted as if he had already known Kurama was male.

The redhead paused, a pair of jeans clutched in one hand as he frowned. How was Heero, anyways? The youth had seemed the same age as Kurama, yet he had his own house and worked in an office. A wave of guilt tickled him as he thought about how he had uprooted the poor man after only knowing him a few days and then abandoning him in America. Oh, he was sure Heero had managed passably, he spoke the language fluently after all, but that had nothing to do with him being torn from his life to try and fins another in an entirely different environment. However, there was no was he could have left Heero in Japan. When Hiei had called him that night, not long after Kuwabara had, he told him his father knew where he was staying; that he had to run, and fast. Kurama held no delusions of his father only taking him away back home: if he knew where he was staying it meant he knew whom with, as well. His father detested homosexuality, and at the first hint that Kurama had a male lover he would have had the other man murdered. Heero had not been anywhere near a lover to Kurama, but his father was also known for ignoring the facts when it suited him.

And this brought Kurama to another troubling thought as he dragged on a button down t-shirt and began tucking it into his new jeans. He had his suspicions that his father knew more than he wanted him to. Right before he had run away his father had begun monitoring him wherever he went. This worried Kurama. He hoped he was wrong, but it looked as if Senator Yomi knew his son had a gay lover, he just did not know who. He felt horrible that Heero was his unwitting scapegoat for his true affair with none other than Hiei, the son of Yomi's most hated rival, but at the same time he was glad his father was diverting his attentions towards the young Japanese and not still fishing for who Kurama's lover might be. He just prayed his father had not made life too difficult for the young man. Of course, knowing is father…

Senator Yomi was in anything but a good mood. He glared impatiently at his assistant's back as he moved about. The sound of papers shuffling was the only noise in the office. He sat like that for some time, waiting for the oaf to present something. Anything. He was beginning to wear on patience. If the idiot was only buying time, he swore he would have the man garroted. He rubbed his temples in agitation; it had been…he thought for a second…almost twenty minutes. This was ridiculous. He planted his hands firmly on his desk once more as the sound of busy work died down and shot a warning look at his assistant.

"Well?"

Erm… . I know next to nothing about Mukuro and Yomi. Hell, I don't even know what Yomi LOOKS like. Sad, but true. Anyways, I…forgot that Yomi was blind when I wrote this. I tried to go back and fix it a little after I remembered, but he still isn't blind. You will probably have noticed that physical appearance has altered a bit for these two characters, as well. Mukuro, because I'm not going to have a half metal human waltzing about the American government, and Yomi because I have no idea what he looks like, but even if I did, I doubt he looks very human. So, yes. Differences. Indiscrepancies. Call them what you will. And Yomi's not blind.