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Stuck-in-a-tree wrote (and if the name wasn't great already) and I quote, "the horror"

Dude, I LOVE long reviews, but that...that was just mastery. I loved it, you had me laughing for an entire four minutes. Yes, four minutes. That's rather sad over two words but...well, I'm the kind of person who finds amusement in the little things.

Thanks for the laugh and the review.

-o-o-o-

Memories of the Lost

Chapter 10

Memories Rekindled

-o-o-o-

Yusuke gave a worried glance back towards the temple before he returned to Kuwabara, who was saying some gushy, lovey-dovey something-or-another about his sweet Yukina.

The raven-haired detective turned his head to give another worried glance.

Turning back, eyes preoccupied with the emotion, he noticed that Kuwabara had stopped talking and was now staring expectantly at the young man.

"Hm?" Yusuke jerked back to reality upon noticing this. "Sorry, Kuwabara. What'd you say?"

The orange-haired teen gave a sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm worried about him too," the teen said softly, "but what more can we do? He obviously doesn't want to talk to us."

Yusuke gave an apologetic look to Kuwabara, his friend having realized immediately and without any doubt, what he was so worked up about. "I know but...He hasn't left that room since we got back two days ago! I just can't help but worry..."

Both boys' eyes focused back on the temple yet again.

-o-o-o-

Youko curled closer in on himself, knees tucked up to his chest. He sat in the corner of the futon once more, pressed against the two walls of his room. The furthest point from the door, one might casually notice.

A light, but large and somewhat puffy (in lack of a better word to describe) comforter was gripped in human fingers, pink and awkwardly chubby to the fox that possessed them. Dark red hair, spread over a face laid against raised knees, was shining in the slivers of morning light, casting golden streaks into the otherwise dim room.

Green eyes modeled after the colors of the most exotic jungle plants and shaped with an emerald's cast but a diamond's care, were opened to partial slits. A watery surface caused shimmering pools to form beneath thick, long eyelashes.

Yet no tear fell, though threatened.

A hard rapping knock on the door brought the fox's deep green eyes focused back from the spacey delusions of memories that he had dwelt on. He blinked lazily, picking up his head as Hiei stepped into the room, red eyes staring at him emotionlessly.

"Go away," Youko whispered, laying his head back down on his knees, arms wrapped once more around his legs.

Hiei scowled. "You can't just sit here all day, Youko."

The kitsune did not reply and the fire demon's scowl grew deeper in effect. His eyes flashed with anger that had not often been aimed at the redhead. He moved over in a blur to stand in front of the forlorn kitsune.

"Get up."

Youko looked up to him with an emotionally angry gaze, a stare that almost matched the fire demon's in ability and control. "Go away, demon." His voice was aggravated but dulled by thick pain and sorrow that refused to fade.

"Get out of that damn bed, youko," Hiei demanded in a growl, his tone losing its patience. "If you ever want to return to your normal self, get the hell up!"

"To normal?" Youko repeated in an empty, shocked tone before he narrowed his eyes, brow furling in anger. "You call being human normal!" he shrieked, raising to balance on his knees. "Why would I ever wish for that!"

A yelp ran through the room as Youko Kurama suddenly found himself yanked from the corner by the collar of his loose tunic.

"Shut up!" Hiei screamed out, his small and childlike hands fisted in Youko's human clothing. "Kurama is a better person than you could ever be! So get out of this damn room and get over your grief!"

Youko's emerald eyes widened as he stared at the demon in surprise. A second passed before he blinked, still in shock, but gently took hold of Hiei's wrist. With this signal, Hiei released him and the kitsune climbed off the bed without a word and headed for the door.

By the time he got there Yusuke and Kuwabara, who had responded to Hiei's yelling, had already slammed it open, nearly forcing it off its track. Youko walked straight past them, not pushing by but avoiding their gaze with his emerald one, focused on the floor just beyond their feet.

"Hiei?" Yusuke asked in confusion as the fire demon strode after. Hiei just gave his usual one-syllable response, voice more annoyed than normal. He was almost out the door when Kuwabara grabbed his elbow, halting him.

He turned with a low growl, daring the oaf to continue his hold, but the orange-haired teen did not release him. "Hiei, what did you do to Kurama?"

"That," he spat out, gesturing with his gaze in the direction that the fox-turned-human had disappeared down. The sound of light conversation floated down the hall between Genkai and the kitsune. "That is not Kurama."

"Hiei..." Red eyes turned to burn their angered glare through the raven-haired detective. His patience had died over the last two days. "I know it's frustrating. He doesn't want to go back to the way we know him, but he's in serious mourning right no-"

"Kitsune don't love, Yusuke," Hiei bit out angrily, pulling his arm from Kuwabara's surprised grip. "They take what they want from their bed partners and then rid themselves of them. This 'Kuronue' is nothing different and no excuse to cry over for two days, wasting our precious time!"

Both boys' eyes had widened significantly with Hiei's raged claim, and Kuwabara lowered his hand, not even thinking through the numb surprise, to try and grab the fire demon once more.

"Hiei," Yusuke started, trying to keep his tone reasonable, but knowing that he wouldn't get through to the youkai. "Youko loved Kuronue. Even Koenma admits to it. They were soul mates, you were there when Koenma explained why Kurama is mourning!"

"He. Is. A. Demon!" Hiei's voice was as sharp as the edge of the sword he carried at his hip. "Demon's don't fall for pathetic human emotions, Yusuke. You would know, if you'd listen to that little voice in your head telling you how ridiculous they are."

With that, the fire demon turned and fled in a blur of black and a slight whoosh of displaced air. Kuwabara sighed, closing his eyes and tilting his head back in exasperation, rubbing the back of his neck.

"This is going to be a long week, isn't it?" he asked and Yusuke gave a somewhat shaky smile.

"Nah, it'll be okay," Yusuke said but his eyes had darted to the ground and Kuwabara noticed easily. He dropped his arm to lightly land on his best friend's shoulder.

"What's wrong, man?" Kuwabara's voice was comforting and Yusuke's glanced up, noticing once more what he had earlier missed.

Kuwabara had grown in strength through this. As soon as he realized that it wasn't just him Kurama didn't remember, as soon as things had gone from bad to worse, he had held the others together better than any glue could have.

He had, essentially, picked up Kurama's ability when the fox couldn't handle it, and Yusuke had been somewhat astonished to finally notice that Kuwabara had done it all along.

Even when the detective had acknowledged his best friend's ability to pull everyone back from the edge, he still hadn't noticed how badly the team needed Kuwabara, especially without Kurama.

Both of them acted as the glue that held everyone, not just the four tentai, but everyone together when they needed it most. And while slightly weakened, Kuwabara had picked up almost every inch of what had become slack when Kurama was taken from their support.

Yusuke glanced up at him, already feeling the comfort being sent in waves through the simple, friend-to-friend look that Kuwabara offered to him. "Sorry, man..."

"It's alright," Kuwabara replied. "But we have to hold together. It's hard, especially with Hiei's sudden short fuse, but we've all got to hang together and get Kurama through this."

Yusuke nodded, though his look of annoyed sorrow returned. "I was just thinking...with Kurama mourning like this...We might not have to worry about him confessing to Hiei anytime soon."

Kuwabara frowned slightly but, after he gave it a moment's thought, he had to agree. It wasn't likely that Youko would be able to so quickly get rid of the pain the loss of his lover and closest friend had caused him.

"Well, at least that's one less thing we have to deal with for now," Kuwabara replied helpfully, giving Yusuke a mock shove. That got a small smile on the teen's face.

Five minutes later they were both grinning ear to ear in an all out fistfight in the middle of Genkai's temple.

-o-o-o-

Youko glanced towards the hallway as the sounds of fighting erupted, but he didn't pay it much heed as the small, teal-haired girl identified as Yukina set a small bowl of soup before him.

He stared at it for several moments, blinking emotionless, crystal green eyes before he glanced back up at her with the same blank stare. She seemed lost at what to do, giving Genkai a small, pleading look when her soft smile didn't seem to win the Youko's trust.

"You could try saying, 'thank you,'" Genkai reprimanded as she stared at him from across the counter. Those jade eyes turned to her in slightly surprise, followed by a touch of the coldness once rumored to be there.

Yukina waved her hands in a feeble attempt to stop Genkai. "N-no, that really isn't necessary, Genkai-s-sensei!"

"Thank you."

Surprised red eyes turned to Youko Kurama, who was staring at her with an unblinking jungle green stare. That voice, while not weak, had had a broken sound to it that only an innocent creature such as Yukina could really hear for what it was.

It was a heart crying with pain and sick with exhaustion of dealing with life.

A light tint brushed her cheeks as she folded her hands in front of her lap and bowed to him. Youko stared throughout this movement before he bowed his head ever so slightly in a return gesture.

When this little formality had passed, green eyes found themselves once more staring down at a bowl of an oddly tinted, slightly cloudy liquid with small, pale yellow and unmoving fat worms within it.

Knowledge of humans was enough to tell Youko that they weren't worms, but a form of grain transferred into something the ningens called a "noodle." He stared at it with emotionless eyes, though his face was slightly tinted with disgust. "This is human food."

Genkai raised an eyebrow at him as Yukina bustled around quietly behind her, cleaning up the dishes used in making the small meal. The old master gave Youko a steady stare, emerald eyes rising to meet it. "Yes, it's human food for a human body. And you have one, whether you are willing to accept it or not."

Yukina's eyes widened slightly, fearing an actual fight might break out. She, too, had heard small legends of the kitsune that sat before her now, and none of them ever spoke of forgiveness for the tongue.

But the response that permeated the silence wasn't one of anger, but more of a final acknowledgment of despair and hopelessness. It almost broke Yukina's heart just to hear the tones float through the air from that cold, beautiful creature sitting before them.

"Yes...I suppose I do."

-o-o-o-

Youko stared at the fire demon that parried back and forth with himself, sword out and held between two tightly clenched hands. A light layer of sweat had slowly coated the smooth, tan skin of the youkai.

Muscles well toned stood out in sharp contrast with his smaller, almost child-sized body. His headband was slowly soaking through with the proof of his workout, but he never stopped or faltered in his step.

Crystal emeralds took this in with an emotionless gaze that followed each of Hiei's sharp, blur-worthy movements across the temple grounds. The kitsune knew that Hiei was aware of him, and knew he was watching.

But then again, Youko didn't care that the fire demon knew.

An expression as blank as his eyes was used to face all of Hiei's ignoring glances his way. Youko knew that the fire demon before him was uncomfortable with him there.

It was obvious that Hiei did not care for the kitsune very much.

A softly cleared throat beside him drew green eyes that longed for gold towards a certain raven-haired teen, staring quietly at him.

"Yes, Yusuke?" Youko asked as he turned his gaze back to Hiei. The movement and the fact that it had been ongoing for the last hour and seventeen minutes greatly worried the detective.

Yusuke was pretty sure that Youko's mourning would leave him completely turned off to the idea of focusing on emotions stirred by Hiei's presence.

He was beginning to doubt that inference.

"Youko...Um, I was just thinking that maybe we should head back inside," the teen started, trying to think of a plausible cause to drag Youko away from Hiei.

Most unfortunately, it didn't even pull the kitsune's gaze away, and Youko was no idiot. "Why?"

"Well," Yusuke drew out his response, his eyes tracing Kurama's gaze to watch Hiei duel. An occasional red glance would light upon the two before vanishing once more as Hiei convinced himself not to look again.

"It's just that you haven't eaten much in the last few days. You should probably try to get some more into your stomach." It wasn't a complete lie: Youko hadn't been able to keep much down over the last day and a half since he had finally emerged from that room.

And where as, before when we had locked himself up for those two days, crying silently to himself until he fell into restless, nightmare filled sleep, now he didn't sleep at all.

"You don't want me near the fire demon." A green stare turned on him and held a coldness that, for the first time in three and a half days, finally broke the emotionless barrier.

Yusuke's eyes widened slightly, though not necessarily in surprise. He glanced back to Hiei before looking slowly, almost wisely into Kurama's eyes. "No, I don't like you near Hiei, Youko."

That green glare penetrated his very being as the moments of the stare dragged out until Youko finally turned back to look at the fire demon training. Muscles contracted with every swing and the fine tuned body glistened in the afternoon sun.

"You don't understand it, do you?" Yusuke hadn't taken his gaze off of Youko, and only turned it quizzical at the new puzzling riddle that the fox had spoken.

Moments of silence stretched before that green stare left Hiei for the last time, locking with Yusuke's and staying there. "Kitsune are a race of playful and pleasure seeking demons. We hardly settle down in our lifetimes and if we do...that mate is for life. We will never love another."

Yusuke refused to take his gaze off of the kitsune and one of his best friends. "You and Kuronue were mates, weren't you?"

That fixation didn't change and the coldness, though still present, did ebb away with the mention of his lover's name. A small amount of sadness filled the empty pool left behind in those eyes.

"Yes...Kuronue and I were mated." Those green eyes fought to look away, but Youko kept them locked on the young man beside him. This raven-haired detective, this boy seemed so intent on protecting him.

It was almost like feeling loved again.

"Yes," Youko repeated as he finally drew his gaze away, but not back to the fire demon, who was trying and failing to hear what they were talking about. The jungle-green stare turned, instead, to the crystal blue sky, white and fluffy clouds making their way peacefully by. "And I will never love again."

Yusuke followed his eyes once more, but only briefly before he looked back at Youko's face, serene and almost peaceful in his sorrow. When he spoke, his voice was full of a conviction that no one could fight against without seriously thinking twice about their argument.

"I don't believe that."

Surprised eyes looked back to his as Kurama slid his hands in the pockets of his white, ningen slacks. "And why is that, Yusuke?"

"You wouldn't have found another way of living if you didn't think you'd love again," he spoke softly, but solidly. Green eyes frowned, but more in curiosity and surprised admiration than in anger. "You wouldn't have saved that babies life and been born a human."

"Only Inari-sama knows what went through my head then," Youko replied with a hint of disgust as the topic once more reverted to his now-human blood. Yusuke gave a short snort of anger at his reply.

"You were thinking that you didn't want to die," he replied almost demandingly, ordering the kitsune before him to believe it. "It was impulsive, I'm sure. Your single thought was that you weren't done living. You weren't ready to give it all up. You wanted to remember what it felt like to be loved."

Jade eyes the color of the deepest jungles stared at him, wide with surprise and recognition. They were filled with a surprise at the maturity of the man before him, as well as the ability to delve into the kitsune's heart, to delve into depths he himself had not yet conquered.

A silence swept through the temple, broken only by the sounds of Hiei's sword chops, now retreated towards the stairs, and the soft twittering of birds in the trees. Even the sword swipes ceased as the silent murmur of their conversation drew to an end.

Piercing red eyes stared at the two from across the temple, trying to discern why they were staring at one another, Yusuke in content demand, and Youko in surprise. He frowned and was about to move over when a smile graced Kurama's lips.

It shocked the hell out of Hiei, enough for the sword in his hand to slip to the ground with a soft thud. With widened eyes, he bent over, picked it up, and resumed his training lest anyone notice his slip.

But that smile had been one he hadn't seen on the fox in four years. That smile was one that he had only seen once in his lifetime of knowing Kurama, and one he had known, deep down, that he longed to see again.

It was a pure smile; not faked, not filled with any other emotion. There was no happiness in it, no sadness, nothing but a smile.

And it was Kurama's alone.

Green eyes that should have had a golden tint glinted in mischievous merriment and turned back to stare at Hiei. His thin lips pursed together in that smile, and it only widened when he noticed that the detective next to him had just lost his breath.

"You're not so bad, Yusuke," he said as he continued to watch the fire demon train. "And you may be right...I might have just figured out why I chose to live as a human."

The detective, who was recovering from the shock of that smile, never having seen Kurama with such a pure emotion on his face, smirked, completely missing what was most dire to his situation. "Glad to hear it."

A long silence filled the temple, but this was one of a contentment for nature's stillness and completely induced by the two men. That was, of course, before Yusuke turned back to the fox beside him, whose smile had slowly decreased back to his emotionless mask.

"But I still need you to come inside," Yusuke finally broke the quiet peace, his hands tucked behind his back as he watched Kurama watch Hiei, both a pang of regret for the two lost souls but also a pang of fear at what might happen if Youko were to figure out what it was he was feeling.

"You don't want me near him...He does not like me." The statement was one of absolute ironic pain, considering the situation of things, and Yusuke resisted the urge to hide his stare from that of Kurama's.

"Hiei cares deeply for the Kurama we know," Yusuke replied without answering Youko's question. He didn't want to have to answer that question, and wasn't actually sure he could.

"He wants him back." Yet again, this statement was emotionless but Yusuke thought he could sense something hidden within the folds of those words. But whatever it was, pain or anger or happiness, he could not decipher it.

"Yes..." The reply was reluctant and he could no longer keep his chocolate brown eyes locked on Kurama, so he switched them to the wooden floorboards. "Hiei wants the Kurama he knows back. He is the only one to understand him."

Youko slowly turned away from the fire demon and his sword, and Yusuke and his chocolate brown eyes. He stared at the temple's door, five feet away, before he slowly made his way towards it, leaving the detective with one final thought.

"You mean...he is the only one to love him."

-o-o-o-

Chapter 10

End

-o-o-o-

And this is where Yusuke says "oh shit" because yes, Youko has figured it out. That was fun! Wrote it all in a night, and was quite enjoyed by it!

I love doing psychoanalysis on fictional characters! Why do they do the things they do! Too much fun, too much fun.

Author's Notes:

Have you noticed that I completely avoid the actual conversations of Kurama learning about his memory? Yeah, I do that on purpose...-sheepish smile- because I can never quite write what I think would happen, and I always end up throwing away what I've written when I try.

One of the minor reasons this story is slow to update.

...Hiei's ignoring glances... This means that Hiei was trying to ignore Youko's stare, but kept glancing, while trying to ignore. Rather unsuccessfully, I'd say.

...green eyes that longed for gold... Fun way to say that his green eyes should have been gold, since all he remembers is Youko now.

...Yes...Kuronue and I were mated... Come on, people, I'm sure you can see where this is going. p

...red eyes stared at the two...trying to discern why they were staring at one another... Can someone say Jealous?

End Author's Notes

Hope you guys enjoyed. Please be so kind as to drop a review on your way out.