Disclaimer: Nope, still only own Syunsuke and thirteen cents. Look, a Penny! Fourteen cents!

Notes: Again, I would like to thank all the wonderful reviewers!

-o-o-o-

Memories of the Lost

Chapter 3

Memories Lost (pt II)

-o-o-o-

Hiei stared balefully out into the white world that was Genkai's temple grounds. His stony red eyes were focused on nothing, staring into the snow-covered forest as his mind settled over his more troubling thoughts.

If Kurama was Syunsuke's main target, or ulterior motive, granted the amulet, then he would not give up until the fox was back in his possession.

This was purely unacceptable.

After having heard rumors of Youko's more...extravagant love life back when he was only kitsune, Hiei was not surprised that Syunsuke would want Kurama back. However, he had no idea how much the mind manipulator would go through to do so.

Perhaps he was approaching this wrong.

How desirable could someone be that a demon would go through all that trouble to get him back? Hiei dwelt on this thought for several, brief seconds. That is, until an image of long, flowing black hair and masochistic violet eyes flashed before his memory.

Right. Scrap that question.

Hiei scoffed the idea. Karasu was a psychotic demon that lusted after Kurama. Karasu had never even had the fox before, so he was a poor basis of judgment.

The fire demon's thoughts turned to those of revenge.

Syunsuke may not want Kurama back for sex, at all. He may just want him back for the purely satisfying feeling of having the blood of a betrayer slip through your fingers.

Like silk on skin.

Hiei shook his head. That thought had certainly come from the part of him that was still a cold-hearted murderer. The fire demon quickly drew away from those thoughts and weighed the possibilities.

Of course, there was always the option that he was reading Syunsuke's movements completely wrong and that the mind demon only wanted his amulet. Perhaps the demon had not had time to kill off Yusuke, and was planning to do so after killing the fox and retrieving his amulet. Only, Yusuke had had more strength than he had reasoned.

But then why bother taking Kurama's memory? Perhaps it had been painful on the fox, but he had lived through it. Obviously, that had not been a move to kill Kurama.

Hiei growled. The options only circled around back to the problems, helping him with nothing more than the development of a headache.

'Damn it,' Hiei cursed to himself. 'Kurama's the strategist, not me!'

Sighing, the demon weighed the possibilities in his mind. The likely hood of Syunsuke taking Kurama's memory when only wanting his death looked highly improbable.

Scrap option one.

The chance of having Syunsuke simply wanting Kurama for revenge seemed much more likely. Revenge had always been a strong basis of killing throughout all three worlds. It made up over half of the foundation for murder in the Makai alone.

Hiei nodded, finding the probabilities of the second option to his liking. Until he thought more in dept about the means of revenge.

Syunsuke would want revenge on Kurama for betraying him. Kurama betrayed Syunsuke by stealing his amulet. Kurama stole his amulet by seducing him...

That meant that the most striking, painful means of revenge would be rape. Which led to option number three; that Syunsuke wanted Kurama back for sex.

Scrap option two.

Option three...Damn it all, was unacceptable!

Hiei cursed vividly to himself, drawing his gaze back inside the small room he sat in. Or, to be precise, he sat halfway in the room, halfway out, as the window was quiet comfortable and his leg was hanging on the outside of the temple.

"You sure are making some funny sound combinations over there."

Hiei turned to see Kurama's head sticking out of a doorframe about ten feet from him. The fire demon raised an eyebrow.

"You done yet?"

"No," Kurama replied and, with a shrug, ducked his head back inside the adjoining room. The fire demon shook his head and turned his attention back to the outside room.

"Hey, Hiei?" Kurama's voice echoed out from the room, followed by the sounds of sloshing water as Kurama sank into the bath. The wooden slats on the ground creaked as the fire beneath the tub warmed them, drying any moisture that they held. Flames crackled beneath the fire as Kurama sighed, leaning his head back against the side.

"What, Fox?"

"What am I like? The nineteen year old me, that is." Hiei turned to look at the bathing room. His ruby red eyes observed it with an unidentifiable mix of emotions.

"You are...different," he answered, saying nothing. Kurama rolled his eyes and pulled himself up into a sitting position, exposing his bare chest to the humid but still-chilly air.

"You know, that never would have occurred to me at all, Hiei. Thank you. I feel...fully satisfied that I've learned everything I could ever need to from this conversation."

"Hn." Hiei resisted the urge to shake his head but he could not hold back a smirk. If someone had been in the room, he might have. His smirk turned, though, as his thoughts focused on the Kurama he had grown to consider a best friend. It took on a much sadder tint.

"You don't...do that a lot, anymore."

Kurama frowned in the tub. "Do what?"

"Joke," Hiei answered as he looked down at the wooden ground of the temple room. Inside the tub, Kurama sunk his head down to his mouth, soaking in the warmth of the water. Something about the way Hiei had said that had suddenly brought a feeling of insecurity, of depression.

"You're polite to everyone, but you're not like you were. It's forced. You don't really smile much...not a real smile, anyways." Kurama felt like sinking lower as what started as a small feeling in the pit of his stomach grew to spread through his body. "It's a lot harder to figure out what you're thinking; how you really feel. You wrap yourself in a mask that's impossible to penetrate."

"I...I'm not sure I like the new me," Kurama whispered just loud enough for Hiei to hear. The fire demon's eyes wavered slightly. One would, if there was one to see him, certainly confide in another that the fire demon looked downright sad.

"But you care about everyone deeply. You hide your own pain, always putting yourself second to everyone else's needs. It's...not a bad quality, but you never think about yourself anymore," Hiei continued. Something painful was ripping him apart. His mind was practically screaming at him, questioning why he was delving into this conversation, why he wouldn't stop.

But he couldn't. He kept talking as those annoying pings of strange emotions returned to stab him when he least expected it.

"I think that you aren't truly happy, that you're hiding something, some pain that you're not willing to show," Hiei continued, his voice dropping to a quieter level. Kurama was now so low in the water that he was threateningly close to not being able to hear the fire demon through the water covering half of his ears.

"It's not like you were when you were sixteen; how you are now, Kurama. You, the sixteen-year-old you, joke at me, laugh and smile...smile for real, instead of hide something away from me."

"Why would I ever hide something from you?" the fox finally replied after a brief silence. The fire demon kicked himself for talking so much, but Kurama didn't hear.

"I don't know why, Fox. But you hide it from everyone."

Kurama suddenly laughed, the feeling of depression driving him to do something about it. Hiei's head shot up as laughter echoed from the bathing room.

"What is so funny?" he growled out, appearing, quite suddenly, at the doorframe.

Kurama shook his head; small fits of laughter ripped through his sides. He managed, however, to get a sentence out in between, "You are! ...I've never heard you..." another fit of laughter "...being so philosophical!"

The fox finally got his laughter under control, grabbing his side lightly, merry green eyes smiling in there own at Hiei. "You've changed, too, Hiei. You're not as cold as you used to be."

Hiei looked surprised for a minute before he schooled his face and turned to the side, staring at the wall of the bathing room. "Hn."

Kurama smiled, a small giggle escaping him. "I like you like this."

The fire demon glanced at the fox, who had, by then, ducked his head under the water, scrubbing at his hair. With his eyes shut under the murky water, he never did see Hiei with that small smile gracing his childish face.

-o-o-o-

"So...let me get this straight," Kurama began, brushing his hair behind him. He pointed at himself. "I work for the Reikai now...and you," he looked at Kuwabara and Hiei, "work with me as a team... and you," he pointed at Yusuke, who walked beside him, "are our leader?

"Yeah, that about sums it up!" Yusuke replied enthusiastically, his arms locked behind his head as they walked down the streets of the city. Kurama shook his head.

"Wow, I never would have imagined..." he gave a small paused before continuing, "that I could ever convince Hiei into joining a team of ningens..."

Yusuke frowned suddenly, as did Hiei and Kuwabara looked to the side. Kurama did not miss this and stopped walking. "What?"

"You..." Yusuke didn't finish his sentence, but just shook his head, waving it off. Hiei looked up at the detective as Kurama shrugged and continued walking, Kuwabara engaging him in another conversation.

"He's different," Yusuke finally said and Hiei snorted.

"This is how he was before he met you, Detective," Hiei answered and Yusuke looked down at him, surprise written across his face.

"In front of humans, he acted like a human, and, leading up to when he met you, he was more kind, but he still let his youko traits show through his opinions. He had only begun to understand what feeling loved meant."

"What..." Yusuke couldn't quite figure out what he wanted to say. How could Kurama have been so different before he met Yusuke?

But he was definitely different.

"Kurama is more cold-hearted than you could ever imagine, Yusuke. Deep down, he is still Youko Kurama, the ruthless thief of Makai. Until he met you, he still held himself mostly superior to most humans."

"He isn't like the Kurama I met at the hospital, Hiei...he's different," Yusuke reasoned and the fire demon only shrugged as the two started walking again.

"When you met us that day, Kurama was beginning to realize the seriousness of the changes going through him," Hiei continued, eyes focused on the redhead several feet ahead of them, who was nodding at Kuwabara. "It hit home that he was about to give up his life because he finally understood that he was not superior to his mother, or to other humans.

"The Kurama you see now has not fully undergone that change, and may not unless he goes through a similar shock of feeling loved." Hiei glanced at Yusuke. "Starting to miss the old Kurama, Detective?"

The hanyou looked down at him. His deep brown eyes were filled with a confusion that bordered on anger at the fire demon's nonchalant question. "Yes. I miss the Kurama that cares for his friends."

The fire demon watched Yusuke as his voice grew dangerously low, close to anger. Hiei smirked, which caught the detective slightly off guard.

"Good, because so do I."

-o-o-o-

Chapter 3

End

-o-o-o-

-sigh- I know, the chapter was short and all talk. I apologize.

I also apologize if the gang began to seem slightly out of character. I have an excuse for Kurama, but a weak one for Hiei. Kurama's is explained below...and Hiei is just because he misses Kurama and is beginning starting to develop but not realize his feelings.

Heheh, want to know something funny? This mostly applies to Agent Dark Moose...I said before that I had this entire story planned out? Yeah...well this chapter was NO WHERE in those plans...I don't even know where it came from! I just started typing...I knew this was going to happen...Damn blueprints... .

My whole thought on this chapter is still iffy, though, but it was based around the fact that at the time when Kurama was sixteen, a major turning point began for the fox.

He went from thinking he was superior, to realizing that he wasn't. Without going through that, he still thinks that he's mostly superior. –shrug- that was all that was meant by it.

More is explained in the author notes.

Author notes: (that was slightly redundant)

...Karasu had never even had the fox before... Ah, yes. This is referring to the fact that I think Karasu (and it is basically said in the anime) lusted after Kurama.

Hiei was wondering who the hell would really go to all the trouble just for lust. He then remembered Karasu and decided that that question need not be answered.

Secondly, the actual line above is referring to the fact that Hiei then mocked his own logic as Karasu, unlike Syunsuke, had never slept with Kurama, and therefore was a poor judge of what someone would go through to get Kurama back.

In a round about way of avoiding mentioning it, Hiei is basically thinking: I have never slept with Kurama so I have no clue if he is good enough to do anything to claim him back again.

In a round about way... .

...as the fire beneath the tub... Please remember: they are in a temple. The baths would be old style baths where a fire warms the water from below and the tub is not ceramic with running water.

...the way Hiei had sait that...brought a feeling of insecurity... This was concerning what Koenma warned the others of: Kurama will remember things he shouldn't or vice versa along with see and know things he doesn't understand. It will make sense later on, but Kurama is beginning to feel things that he would have felt were the real Kurama (fully memoried (not a real word) and everything) were hearing Hiei say this to him.

...I think that you aren't truly happy... About this: Hiei is, of course, referring to what many-a-fan girl write about: Kurama hiding behind a mask as thick as Hiei's.

This is a theme that I enjoy writing and, in this story, Hiei is inadvertently talking about Kurama hiding his feelings. Hiei just doesn't realize that he's hit home and is actually referring to Kurama hiding the love he feels for the fire demon. See! The paring is coming! ...Eventually!

...This is how he was before... Again, to describe this as best as possible: I see the story going that Kurama was cold and heartless to his mother and everyone else, but slowly warmed up as time went on.

At 16, I believe he was still thought himself superior to humans, but not in public. He acted sincere and yada, yada, around others but, when he was around Hiei and what not, he was much more like his Youko self.

Now, I know this can be dis-proven (not a real word -.-) with a secret chapter of how Hiei and Kurama met in the manga, which you can see in the Shoujo JUMP magazines, but anyways! Doesn't matter, I like my version more, MY STORY! --' (heheh)

So, at the point where he realized he was going to loose his mother, he grew almost depressed and finally realized why he was depressed, and how much he was wrong about being cruel. Now, granted, he probably figured this out slightly before he met Yusuke, but it couldn't have been more than a week before. Assuming this (which most likely is all wrong), Kurama without his memory would most likely not remembered having fully gone through that change and is mostly denying it.

But don't worry, he will go through the change as he slowly begins to realize things...And I'll try to describe it better in the next chapter...T.T

...Good, because so do I... This quote is very OOC for Hiei, but I figured that it fit and I really like it at the end of the chapter. All though I feel that it fits with how he really feels, I know he would most likely never tell this to Yusuke. But it really did fit as a good ending so leave me alone! O.O

End Author's Notes

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Sorry that it was mostly talk and nothing more, but the next chapter will be coming out pretty soon. There will, inevitably, be more talking, but I will be sure to include some action as not to bore you all!

Please review, if you'd be so kind!