So last we left off, Hiei was freaking out and Yukina wasn't far behind. Let's see how this works for them.

"NOOOO!"

Hiei shrieked in fear as he barreled down the halls of the shrine, trying desperately to get away from the ice maiden who was mere steps behind him, casting his ruby gaze over one shoulder the child released a small yelp as he increased his speed "NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

"Hiei, please!" Yukina begged as she chased after the boy "I promise I'm not going to hurt you!"

"You're a liar!" he returned as he shot around a corner "All ice maidens are liars and mean! You just wanna throw me off another cliff!"

"NO!" Yukina insisted as she tripped over the hem of her kimono only to stumble and barely manage to regain her footing so to keep running "I know that it seems that way, but we're not all of us like that!"

"Another lie!"

Two pale fists grabbed clumps of her kimono lifting it higher so that she would have better liberty for running "Why won't you just stop and listen to me?"

"Because I don't want you to catch me!" Hiei pouted turning right so to run right back into the living room only to slow when he saw Yukina slow down and stand with trembling hands clutching her legs as she panted and wheezed roughly.

The child refused to stop, his small legs pumping as he once again began to sprint but this time towards the door and the freedom found in the treetops. Yukina watched his escape seemingly in slow motion as he streaked towards the outside, and her mind blanked with stark terror as the thought that the exorcist may very well still be waiting outside to finish his job.

"HIEI, NO!" the ice maiden screamed as she flung out her hands and conjured a wall of ice that completely blocked the door and winced as the child slammed into the cold blockade smacking his head hard enough to make it bleed.

The tears immediately began to flow as small hands clutched his scalp and he howled in pain and the tapping of dark crystals hitting the floor accompanied by strangled sobs echoed in the space making the ice maiden scramble over to the child and attempt to hug him. Hiei however, thrashed and wriggled doing his very utmost to escape the demoness, all the while crying his poor heart out.

"See!" he shouted "You're just mean! And you wanna hurt me!"

"P-Please, Hiei," she gasped as she struggled to catch the writhing boy and force him to sit quietly on her lap "I p-promise, I-I won't…hurt you."

"You hurt my head!" the child shot back as more thick tears dripped off his face and fell to the floor.

"I didn't mean to!" Yukina cried finally getting a grip on him strong enough to pull him against her chest in a fierce hug "I was so scared you'd get hurt because the exorcist is still out there and I don't want him to hurt you again, so I made the ice wall to stop you from going outside."

Hiei assessed the young woman from where he sat unsure of what action to take due to the fact that she wasn't trying to attack him but instead seemed to be content with merely holding him on her lap "I don't believe you," he murmured "all ice maidens are evil, they only know how to kill and hurt people."

Yukina felt a pang slice through her heart making her draw in a slight breath at the pain from the accusation and tears welled up in her eyes. Heaving a sorrowful sigh, the maiden bent down and caressed Hiei's bleeding head with tender lips, kissing the cut gently feeling the skin knit back together as she pushed healing energy into it making the bleeding stop and the wound close up. Hiei's eyes were wide as he watched aqua pearls drip from her eyes and tap onto the floor so to roll next to his own, and a shuddering breath stuttered from his chest.

"Why are you crying?" he asked.

"I'm crying for you," Yukina wept "because you never cry for yourself."

"But wh-why are you crying f-for m-me?" he whispered shock shooting through his system making hot tears press into the corners of his eyes.

"Because," Yukina quavered "I'm so sorry that you had to go through something so horrible to create such a low opinion of people, especially at such a young age."

"But…" Hiei's bottom lip quivered as his chin began to wrinkle up and small fists flailed as he struggled to scrub away the liquid flowing freely down his chubby cheeks "I'm the emiko, the forbidden child…the one that everyone hates because…I-I wasn't supposed to be born!"

A sob caught in the ice maiden's throat causing her shoulder's to convulse as she hugged the boy closer and rocked him back and forth "I don't care," she sobbed "I don't care if you're the emiko, I don't care if you're a thief or even a cold hearted killer, you were hurt by my kind…our kind…and that just wasn't fair to you! I will fight for you, and stay by your side, and love you no matter what because I've seen you the way you were truly meant to be, I've seen your sweet giving heart, and your protective loyalty as you fight to protect your friends, and I've seen you go against your nature because you wanted to do the right thing. THAT is what you are, and that outweighs being the emiko every second of every day!"

Hiei couldn't understand what she meant by most of the things she said, after all, he was only five and surely he wasn't old enough to fight yet. Somehow though he didn't feel the urge to argue because her words, despite coming from an ice maiden, resonated deep within his core. He couldn't explain it, but in a way Hiei felt connected to this strange girl, and he couldn't summon even the slightest motivation to deny what she was saying. Leaning further into her embrace, the child allowed her to rock him and she would every so often take the sleeve of her kimono to tenderly wipe his tears away all the while murmuring soothing whispers to the child held so tightly in her arms.

The two sat that way for well over half an hour, Yukina thoroughly enjoying finally being allowed to snuggle the uncharacteristically cuddly fire demon, until Hiei eventually broke the comfortable silence with his usual sarcasm.

"You're really weird, for an ice maiden,"

Yukina chuckled the sound traveling from her stomach all the way up to her mouth in a joyful tinkle of bells "I'll take that as a compliment,"

"Hn,"

…..

"I'm worried,"

Kuwabara and Kurama glanced at the pouting former detective as the train they were riding clattered down the tracks back towards the temple "Oh?" the fox smirked slowly "Are your big brother instincts tingling?"

Yusuke shot a glare at his friends noting the way the two of them were snickering before rolling his eyes "No, it's just…" the teen raised his hands gripping the air as he scrambled for the words that would accurately describe his feeling "we know Hiei doesn't trust ice maidens, or girls for that matter, is it really ok that we left him with Yukina considering he hasn't decided whether he trusts her yet?"

"Don't worry, Botan is there," Kuwabara waved dismissively as he returned to his Cat Life magazine "besides my sweet Yukina wouldn't hurt a fly, who could possibly hate her?"

Yusuke's brow furrowed in thought as he considered the carrot top's words "Yeah, we know she's harmless, and so does Hiei…but only when he's older. We saw how he freaked when he first met Yukina after getting turned into a kid, and then this morning the kid was really on edge when we bumped into each other in the kitchen. I'm just worried about him, is all."

"Aw," Kuwabara cooed "is someone getting protective of his baby brother?"

"Shut up moron!" Yusuke snarled bopping Kuwabara over the head with a plastic wrapped roll of paper towels "You're just as bad and you know it!"

"All three of you are," Genkai muttered from where she was meditating on the train seat.

The trio chuckled good naturedly before continuing their discussion "I understand your apprehension," Kurama smiled softly "but I believe that Hiei is in perfect hands."

"I know that!" Yusuke ground out making a fist and thumping against the armrest in aggravation "But the exorcist is still out there, and even though he's after me, I don't like leaving Hiei alone when he's injured and vulnerable."

Kuwabara nodded shrugging apologetically when he turned to the long haired red head "I have to agree with Urameshi on this one, there's something about this that makes me really uneasy, and I can't figure out why."

Kurama sighed "I have to admit to feeling some reluctance as well."

"Tell me this feels messed up," Yusuke practically pleaded "tell me that you feel the weirdness?"

Kuwabara turned curious eyes to the red head as they waited for the fox to answer "I think," Kurama began "that you might be correct. There's something about all of this that does not bode well. I know exorcists, even faced down a few of them myself and barely lived to tell the tale."

"So? What can you tell us?" The former detective pressed.

Kurama leaned back, intertwining his fingers and placing them delicately on the knee of his crossed legs, looking for all the world as a casual and composed young man. However the two other teens could see the anxiety that screamed in the corners of his eyes and clenched in the barely perceptible lines on his face.

"Exorcists," the fox began "generally work in packs. Much like wolves, they rarely hunt alone, and if so it is normally due to extreme cases where the exorcist had been cast out of their guild. This exorcist targeting us was alone. That is what scares me."

"If he's alone, what do you think his goal is?" Yusuke asked "I mean, he doesn't really have the motivation to hunt anymore if he's been kicked out, right?"

"Actually, I think he has an even greater motivation," Kurama turned serious green eyes on his leader.

"Oh God," Kuwabara's jaw suddenly dropped as his eyes lit with comprehension "you think that he's trying to take down the Mazoku as a way to buy his way back into the guild?"

Kurama opened his mouth, paused, and then closed it while giving a slight nod "It may very well be so."

Yusuke groaned "Great," he sighed "you think we'll be lucky enough that that is all there is to it?"

The fox merely shrugged "I'm not saying a word, because knowing our luck, it will immediately turn against our favor as soon as I make a hypothesis."

….

Within the next two hours the small group made it back to the shrine, Yusuke practically vaulting up the steep staircase two steps at a time, when they were greeted by the sound of giggles and feminine laughter. The three teen boys stopped, their arms burdened with copious amounts of grocery bags as they watched the scene before them.

Not too far ahead, the open living room door showed an idyllic moment with Yukina using her power to make larger than normal snowflakes flying through the air while Hiei danced across the floor. Ruby eyes were wide and small arms lifted high, his childish voice giggling madly as he attempted to catch each snowflake "So pretty!" he cried "more, more!"

"Hey, having fun without us?"

The boy looked away from his game and a bright smile that none in that group had ever seen before stretched his mouth "YUSUKE!"

Bursting forward, the boy sprinted towards the trio "You're back!"

Yusuke fell back a few steps, dropping the grocery bags as he caught the small body flying into his arms "Hey kiddo," he laughed "miss me?"

Hiei paused in his hugging, leaning back so to give a careless shrug "Maybe, but I was too busy to notice."

"Hey, you little brat," Kuwabara cried in an indignant squawk stealing Hiei from Yusuke's grasp and tickling his ribs "you better take that back!"

Shrieking laughter and squealed giggles were the carrot top's only response as Hiei threw his head back and wriggled away from Kuwabara's fingertips making said teen chuckle warmly "So, you gonna admit defeat and say you missed us?"

Hiei shook his head, until his ribs and stomach were once again mercilessly targeted "I missed you!" the boy finally giggled "I missed you!"

"You better have, because we brought you presents."

"PRESENTS?!"

I think I will leave it there for now. So you got fluff, plus the story advances. So, what do YOU think the exorcist is up to?"