Author's Notes
I've been playing around with this idea for approximately two weeks ever since I started re-watching the series. It will use certain plot mechanics from an already existing storyline (think Chapter Black) but it'll add to it in the most logical way possible to keep it realistic. I dislike the Hiei and Mukuro pairing, but the story calls for it due to their involvement in the manga, hence why you see the mention of her wearing his Hiruseki stone. But I guarantee that this will be purely yaoi in essence and will eventually play out like so.
Have fun!
Important: The sequence in italics is a memory!
In the dead of the night, a young student dashed across an empty road. She fiddled with the hem of her skirt and tightened her grip on the school bag as she looked over her shoulder, prey to her own paranoia. She reprimanded herself for caving in to her peers and staying at study group so late. Preoccupied, she bumped into a lean man.
"Oh, I'm so very sorry, Sir." Her bangs shrouded her eyes as she bowed her head apologetically. After a moment of silence, she curiously peered at the man's face and inspected his attire while furrowing her brow. "You're dressed weird." Unaware of his gaze closely trailing after her, she continued walking, "Must be some sort of cosplay thing in town."
The male hummed, channeling his energy and pressing both of his palms together, "Atollo Vigor."
The girl spun on her heel in horror, she emitted a gasp as she was forcibly lifted above the ground with her limbs individually ensnared. Her bag sprung open upon hitting the ground and a pencil rolled out. He stopped it with his foot, maliciously grinning at her as she strived to free herself from the flickering energy binding her ankles and wrists.
"What do you want from me, you monster?"
He stepped towards her while augmenting his energy past the radius of his body, producing a wind vicious enough to dishevel his ponytail, "My master has great need of your abilities."
"What are you talking about? Let me go! My mom and dad are probably worried, please!"
He closed the distance between them, and she grunted in disgust vying to get away, "Your pupils dilated. You're lying. Also... did you think I wouldn't notice your fragile little fingers trying to grab a strand of my hair so you could expand your territory, psychic?"
Brown eyes widened, before welling up with tears, "How could you possibly know that?"
Still seething from his argument with Kurama, Hiei ran through the forest with immense speed, merely a blur amidst the foliage as he whizzed and ducked under several stray branches with ease. He chastised himself for humoring him by giving the subject more thought than he should've at Kurama's behest. From the moment he was dropped into the abyss by his mother's people, Hiei had purged his pain by indulging his lust for blood, rather than wallowing on feelings of longing and the resentment he felt for being both abandoned and exiled.
He hid behind rules he had crafted out of hatred to ensure he never established any bonds, so as to never be rejected or alienated again. But Kurama had never abided by those rules and even took it upon himself to expertly pry for details that exposed the facade, whereas his alliance with Mukuro had been forged by common pain, rather than because she coveted his vulnerabilities. He reveled in the simplicity of their dynamic, the climax of their match having been the complete assimilation of their suffering with no romance needed to substantiate it. He allowed her to keep his Hiruseki stone as a bargaining chip for her companionship, which was uncomplicated and sensible. It was easy to coexist under the guise of practical gestures, such as when they'd lay back to back, spines barely grazing, indulging their constant need to be mindful of their surroundings if any threat presented itself.
Kurama, however, had a knack for physical contact. A type of contact that served to convey a sort of intimacy that often breached the very walls that Hiei had methodically erected around himself. Something Hiei attributed to his human condition, a part so innate to human beings. A thing so foreign and incomprehensible that it almost intrigued him despite his determination to distance himself. He had only catered to him once, and the insatiable hunger that it produced, one that Kurama could only sate, frightened him.
Hiei reeled to a stop, steadying himself against the trunk of a tree before closing his eyes and waiting for the train to arrive at the station.
"The intimacy that murderer and victim share is unparalleled - witnessing their spirit separate itself from their body." The susurration reverberated in Kurama's head, it numbed his body and congealed the blood within his veins. His lesions pulsated, causing him to recoil into himself from sheer agony. Instinctively, Kurama spun on his heels to inspect his surroundings, half expecting the slender demon to be looming over him. Finding refuge on the bench of the empty locker room, he proceeded to nurse his migraine with two trembling hands, mindful of the fact that he was still very much under Karasu's influence. He struggled to compose himself under the guise of having disposed of him, but quickly resigned upon playing back the encounter in his head.
The trepidation in his own screams as he staggered backwards amidst the collision of Karasu's bombs and his body, the dark abyss his sanity spiraled into, the numbness, and the dismayed audience. Kurama was jerked out of his reverie as nimble fingers coiled around his neck, and a set of lips nuzzled into the curvature of his shoulder. Déjà vu. Emerald eyes widened, and he gyrated towards his attacker with a hardened fist, "Get away!" In a single movement, the demon relocated himself elsewhere, a smirk fastened onto his lips and red eyes transfixed intently on Kurama's.
"That buffoon rattled you up so much that you didn't even sense my energy."
Kurama's gaze drifted downwards, "I admit." He continued with a subsiding whisper, "I am unsettled."
Taking a confident step forward, Hiei spoke, "You've made a mockery of yourself, King of Thieves."
"Is that contempt I hear in your voice?" Kurama countered, glowering.
Hiei cackled tauntingly at the query, while under the scrutiny of the fox, who remained vigilant of his slow stride towards him. "Look at you, taking the time to carefully calculate my every step." In the span of a second, he flickered away and rematerialized behind the drained demon, his warm breath titillating the fine hairs along the outer shell of Kurama's ear. "You study your prey, barely altering your usual dynamic before you even so much as learn theirs." Grabbing a fistful of the red head's mane, he skillfully threaded it around and between his curious digits, and yanked back to expose Kurama's neck, "You've grown complacent," Hiei breathed as he grazed the supple flesh with his lips. "And the first fool to dispute it is the one to traumatize you."
"I have not," Kurama muttered, containing a gasp through clenched teeth as the fire demon flicked his tongue once to lap the area over his jugular. "Hiei, don't."
"I'm tired of your habits," His remaining, but formerly idle, hand navigated down the expanse of the fox's chest, "I'm tired of your naiveté." He buried it within the slit of Kurama's tunic, "I'm tired of you teetering between life or death." Hiei crooned, suppressing a grin upon seeing the red head's face contort with pleasure as the fire demon palmed his growing erection above his pants.
"Please stop this." Kurama groaned, his resolve quickly deteriorating due to Hiei's fervent efforts.
Inspecting the fox's closed eyes, quivering bottom lip, and the urgency at which his chest rose, Hiei uttered, "You're pathetic." Hand embedded within the red head's pants, he formed invisible patterns onto his thighs, steering away from Kurama's buckling hips to grip at his buttocks. "Prey to your own mind games."
Kurama reached up and interlaced his fingers through the fire demon's hair, anchoring his hand to his scalp as he pulled with hunger. "Is there, uhn.. a lesson somewhere in this, ha... monologue, or do you just like to hear yourself speak?"
"Watching you wither away excited him," Hiei extracted himself from the fox's grasp, repositioning him upwards and bent over the bench as his hands ventured away from his buttocks, then sensually up the length of his spine. "But he wasn't in love with you."
"Perhaps," Kurama breathlessly wagered, "Despite my mental training, I was unable to thwart him."
"You're weak, Kurama." He slowly, albeit deliberately, grinded his groin against his companion's backside, releasing a grunt due to the delicious friction it created. Hiei's own collarbone had become flushed from the heat that emanated from their combined cores. "A disappointment."
"Don't patronize me, Hiei." The red head coolly stated, leering over his shoulder with a look of defiance. Promptly managing to outmaneuver Hiei; the fox slammed the fire demon against the wall, captivated by his challenging stare. Kurama's demon energy began to simmer, before flickering and eventually tapering off in his weakened state. "I've complied with your every wish," Kurama trailed off softly, running the flat of his thumb across Hiei's bottom lip in quiet contemplation, "But I've failed to find something of value in your coercion."
"Shut up," Hiei hissed, mollifying Kurama's lips. A bewildered Kurama quickly regained his composure, and reciprocated with a voracious mouth.
Disheveled and out of breath, the red head broke the oral tryst in favor of gulping large amounts of air and resting his clammy forehead against the Jaganshi's. "You were always inclined to do everything backwards." Kurama mentioned with slight mirth, "Just as I'm inclined to put myself in harm's way."
"Kurama...," Hiei sought his eyes, "Karasu was a fool eager to see you wither away. I am not."
The fox impassionedly held his smaller companion's face between his hands, "Hiei, I..."
"Don't." Hiei interjected with a quivering voice, reappearing by the exit. He was visibly shaking, his compact body tense as every muscle constricted, his pupils dilated and erratic as he staggered backwards.
A moment later, he was gone.
The chime of the train arriving at its station distracted Kurama from his reminiscing. He queued up at the scarce line that had assembled to exit the compartments, and barely managed to catch the last bus out of city.
"Excuse me...?" A timid voice squeaked, paired with a finger tapping on his shoulder. "Are you... Shuichi? Shuichi Minamino?"
Kurama inhaled sharply, lifting his head to acknowledge her. Her auburn hair was pulled into a loose bun and her eyes sported a quizzical look. A dull ringing overwhelmed his ears, the scene before him growing increasingly blurry as he gawked at her. The stream of sentences that escaped her mouth came off as indistinct, and the sharpness of her next statement pulled him out of his trance.
"Helloooo!," She waved her hand a mere two inches from his face, "It's Maya. Maya Kitajima."
Coincidentally, the bus stopped. "You must be mistaken," he feigned ignorance, stepping off the bus.
She quickly gathered her things and tossed an apology at the bus driver as she squeezed through the doors and took off after the red head, who had merged in with the crowd. She spotted him and seized his shoulder, "Wait, please. I know you remember me." She flinched and quickly drew her hand away, electricity had surged through her, and something within the recesses of her mind resurfaced. "You carried me home that night..." She fell to her knees, "Please, my entire childhood is a blur. And your face is the only thing I've held on to."
Several bystanders had congregated around them, murmuring among themselves quietly. Kurama gently pulled her up by the elbow, positioning his mouth near her ear, "Please, let's discuss this elsewhere." Maya nodded absentmindedly, weakly clutching her possessions as he led her forward. "We're not too far from my house."
Thank you so much to the few that took some time to review the story. It inspires me to write more and faster!
Next chapter soon!