Disclaimer: Okay, I took the number of stories and then broke it down into how many chapters I have and counted up the number of Disclaimers I've done so far.

56 posted disclaimers.

57 including this one.

And that doesn't include the seventeen more that I haven't posted.

Are you seeing my point here?

No, probably not. I don't even see my point.

Note: Bit of a depressing chapter. Funny, I was so happy when I wrote it. Anyways, this chapter does not put Youko as a very optimistic character, so I hope you can all hang in there with me.

Second Note: Don't kill me or Hiei as you read this. Hang in there for a little while longer.

I've yet to lead you astray, right? Trust me.

Third Note: Happy when I wrote it, not so when I posted. This chapter is for KyoHana, for sticking with me. I owe you a lot.

-o-o-o-

Memories of the Lost

Chapter 12

Memories Unwanted

-o-o-o-

Youko Kurama had finally figured something out.

He didn't need Hiei.

He was very satisfied with Ben and with Jerry instead; they treated him far better.

The fox demon sighed as Genkai slid open the door to his room, or what apparently had been claimed as his room in this world; though he knew none of the clothes that hung in the closet nor the scarce pictures around the room.

Genkai had to pry the pint of ice cream out of his hands, though he didn't give much of a fight. He'd already lost one love of his life; what did the other two matter?

With a silly little thought of waving off his two new lovers, he curiously shook his head, confused at the giddiness he felt and the buzz between his ears

Genkai called it a sugar rush; he called it some sort of rush.

The truth of the matter was that it did not cure him of his pain nor his sufferings, but rather just made everything so much worse. The ice cream had helped as the old master had promised it would, but she had neglected to mention that the temporary satisfaction was only that; temporary.

He sighed again, though this time inaudibly as he shifted on the bed, climbing slowly off of it. The old woman who was making her way towards the door, the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream in her hand turned as he moved to follow her.

"You've had enough, kitsune," she all but commanded as her hand circled around the pint almost protectively but the youko only shook his head.

"I don't want any more." When he spoke his words were calm and thought out, but still stressed with the need to speak them. "I need to get out of here; out of this temple."

Genkai frowned slightly but when Kurama's eyes darted around slightly she slowly understood; Hiei was everyone in this temple.

His scent was in every room if you searched hard enough, his picture in almost every one that Genkai owned (which was about a total of four, maybe,) his presence there no matter where you went.

Hiei was everywhere and it was killing the fox to be constantly reminded of his pain. He needed an escape to wherever the fire demon was not.

Slowly, the old master nodded. However she needed to make sure the youko was very clear on the only subject that mattered. "You may leave but don't go far. The man that we have warned you about is still out there, looking for an opportunity to strike again."

Youko nodded and headed for the door but Genkai blocked his way once more, her arm spread across the space, bracing against the old Japanese wood. Green eyes that constantly reminded her of how they should be gold glanced down to stare at her in an almost sorrowful disdain.

She ignored it.

Afterall, she didn't do pity and the Youko wouldn't have accepted it.

"You are not as strong as you remember being," she replied curtly. "You have a different strength now; one you will not be able to summon without practice, which you won't bother doing, so be more cautious."

Slowly, the kitsune nodded in a more accepting manner and Genkai had the feeling that her words had finally hit a little deeper within that egotistically thick skull of his.

"Good. Just remember something, Youko," she added as she removed her hand, clearing his way and he started forward almost hesitantly as the old master continued, "you may not care for your life much right now, but others here certainly do."

He left with silent footsteps but one last quiet response before disappearing into the dim light of dusk.

"Thank you."

-o-o-o-

The kitsune once more found himself on the stony beach where disaster had found him the night before. Why he chose here, he'd never know; in seeking a place that would not remind him of the fire demon, he had found the opposite.

In just a few hours he could call it a one day anniversary of the biggest mess-up he'd ever done right.

He couldn't truly call it a mess-up without adding on that he'd been right to do it, however. It may have been the most painful thing in his life (well, second to Kuronue's death currently) but he had been right in doing it; it needed to be done.

Like he had told the diminutive fire demon; love was pointless if kept bottled up inside.

If he had left things like they were, the Kurama that he was now would be in twice the pain in the near future.

A small sigh escaped him as his eyes sought out the slowly brightening moon, higher in the sky this night than it had been the night before. The waterfall seemed slower, somehow, the water less pure, the rocks all the sharper on his hands.

Though he knew it all to be in his head, he wondered why this location was more uncomfortable now than it was yesterday, when he had been far more anxious waiting for Hiei to approach.

A rustle in the trees behind him immediately alerted him to a second presence that he had felt long before it decided to make noise.

Slowly turning his head enough to stare out of green eyes over his shoulder, he took in the fire demon standing at the very edge of the forest, close enough that his back was probably brushing the leaves and trees.

Without a single word or anything more than that unreadable look, which contained neither surprise nor care, he returned his softened orbs to that beautiful white light in the sky that was the only thing he could rely on anymore; his only sanctuary.

Moments passed in absolute silence but for the impatient shifting of black boots on the ground. The fire demon was obviously waiting for the fox to be the first to speak, which was an idiotic thing to hope for, considering that, despite what Hiei might believe, Kurama had nothing else to say to him.

He had said everything needed to be said the night before.

And he had received his answer.

Finally, obviously sick of waiting on a youko that believed the rest of the world to be nonexistent and therefore did not care who waited for him to notice, Hiei gave an annoyed grunt in pretense to capture Youko's attention.

In pretense, that is.

"Does Yusuke know you're out here?" The voice was cold and unlike the emotionless gaze that Kurama had mastered in seconds of being in this body (he noticed that this Kurama used a mask a lot for it had been easy to slip it in place once he located it) and Hiei's crimson orbs glared fires and daggers at the fox's back.

"No."

Once more there was neither emotion nor care in those tones and he never once even twitched from his currently location, legs spread out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, propped up by outstretched arms behind him, less pressure on his injured, wrapped wrist.

Hiei's eyes narrowed at the careless response that he could call reckless. A frown caressed his already angry features and his scowl deepened ever so with it. "Do you think that wise?" he asked as he shoved his hands in his pockets, determined not to care what the youko did with his life, only what he did with Kurama's.

But if the fire demon was being honest with himself at all and truly paying attention to his own thoughts, he would realize that he was just bull shitting himself in his own contradictions.

Not care about the Youko but care about Kurama? They were two of the same; you could not have one without the other, it wasn't possible. The fox that he was allied with today would not be who he was without the youko buried within him. And in that right, he had no need nor desire to hate the kitsune before him as he did.

Perhaps, instead, what was truly bothering him was the fact that Youko now stood where he desperately wanted his friend back. Maybe it was the fact that Youko had the guts to tell Hiei what Kurama didn't.

Or maybe it was because Youko had the courage to say what neither he nor Kurama could bring themselves to admit.

But that was if the fire demon was being honest with himself which, frankly, he was not.

"Do you think I care?"

That answer got Youko a glare that he could feel through the temperature rise caused by the angry heat that radiated off of the fire demon. With a very low growl, warning Kurama of the anger soon to come if he didn't correct that statement immediately, the fire demon clenched his fists.

And for all the care, he found it coyly funny that the fire demon should propose a conversation about his safety, using Yusuke as a focal point when it hadn't been the detective that sought him out; it had been Hiei.

"I don't know what the fuck your problem is," the hiyoukai began coldly, his chest almost heaving in anger. How dare this youko slut risk Kurama's life. "But you'd better get over your love-sick mourning, already. Syunsuke could attack at any moment!"

There was a long silence in that statement as Youko thought about those words.

It was obvious Hiei cared for this ningen body and new combined soul of his; otherwise he wouldn't have followed him sense he left the temple. He wouldn't have approached him to ask why he was out here (despite the rude way he found how to do so, as earlier noted in his thoughts.) He would not have sounded so concerned with his last statement.

Something about how he reacted to everything so far stuck out in Youko's mind. It was almost as if…Green eyes widened with possible recognition. It was almost as if Hiei loved Kurama, but neither knew it nor knew how to handle it.

And the fox had a very curious thought then; what would happen if he could prove the fire demon's own emotions?

After all, what else did he have to loose, really?

His life?

Hiei wouldn't take it from him; not when he was in the fire demon's precious Kurama.

And if he could get him to realize it, maybe he could patch together the remains of his, and Kurama's, life.

So, with the quick, mischievous thoughts that the sly fox was well known for, he gave a careless shrug of his shoulders and replied nonchalantly, "Let him attack."

The immense anger that he had been warned about through multiple signs flared with that statement, almost boiling over the top of the pot.

It was exactly what Youko needed; the fire demon to be enraged enough that he would slip and admit what his heart knew before his mind could rationalize it. He would have to push it further, however. Hiei was not nearly mad enough to cause a slip, not when he had such amazing mental power to begin with.

So he slowly stood, staring at the moon all the same, never taking those forest green eyes away from the glowing silver orb. A light, ghost of a smile traced his features as he was basked in that very moonlight.

"After all," the youko added on, making sure his tones were perfectly uninterested to create the greatest anger he could possibly think up, "he probably only wants this body for a good fuck, and then he'll send Kurama packing back when he tires of him."

His tones were so convincing that he himself had to pause and wonder if he truly didn't care about what he was saying. This was his supposed future body, at least in his mind and he had to take care of it all he could, right?

That didn't matter, the fire demon would never let whatever-his-name-was take Youko. His body meant so much to Hiei anyways.

However, despite his previous assumptions (of which he was getting a lot wrong lately,) small but harsh hands were suddenly on his slightly sagging shoulders, spinning him around roughly on the stones beneath his feet, causing a wince as his already twisted angel was pushed more so.

Why had he been so stubborn against Genkai healing him?

Oh yeah, he really didn't know her. And you don't let people you don't know touch you.

Demon Knowledge 101.

Which was why he had a fire demon he barely knew gripping both his shoulders.

Right.

He briefly wondered where that thought had come from, not knowing what the "101" exactly meant, but when he had thought of the words "demon knowledge" that odd little remainder popped up.

Perhaps it was as the old master had said; Kurama was still deep within his mind, buried but not gone. Maybe this was some human thing he had picked up over the years.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Hiei screamed out loud enough to bring him back to the present. He shoved him roughly back and Youko had to keep a very conscious mind of his injury lest he worsen it.

Without conscious thought the fox shoved Hiei back in reply, his own anger suddenly piling up, half of it coming from an unknown source (most likely his forgotten self know buried within his subconscious) and he used it to all his desire, letting words flow from his mouth before he could even contemplate what he was saying.

"Me? Why don't you go interrogate yourself? Are you sure you're not a bat demon, because you certainly are as blind as one!" He was screaming back at the fire demon now, fists clenched at his sides and mirroring the black-haired one before him. "Well, at least your koorime blood can be seen through your icy heart!"

Youko wasn't sure what happened next, but one second he was screaming his mouth off before his mind could catch up and the next he was stumbling back, his jaw stinging like hell. He tried to balance himself out but ended up twisted his already bad ankle between two rocks and he fell to the stony ground, landing on his bottom with a pained hiss.

"Don't you ever speak of my heritage again!" Hiei screamed, and Youko had to pause once more to wonder how exactly he knew the fire demon was even part Koorime…or part fire demon for that matter, but he had always just referred to him as the fire demon.

It didn't make much sense, but then again, nothing did these days.

"What are you going to do, kill me?" Youko asked with an almost calm voice but for the slight sneer in his tones as he wiped a small trickle of blood away from his mouth. A second shout-out that seemed to be warning him of what might happen were he to push the fire demon too far was screaming danger. It was brought on by the fact that Hiei had punched him; punched his precious Kurama's body.

What else would he do, then, if he had no objections to hurting him?

And once more, that small voice in the back of Youko's head, the one that was normally his sense of logic and normally was ignored in order to go steal more stuff, was whispering the first thing that he'd ever listened to.

'What have you got to loose anymore?'

And for the first time, it was right.

Hiei, however, had gone far past rage and entered a state where nothing mattered but silencing that youko before him; that liar, manipulator, the one who was trying to take his Kurama away from him.

Youko's eyes widened as he was tackled in the blink of an eye, either wrist pinned painfully to the harsh rocks beneath him. Hiei's knees were on either side of his waist, the fire demon straddling him in order to keep him from getting up.

Despite the diminutive size of the hiyoukai, his strength was immense and Youko didn't bother trying to fight against it in his weak human form. Perhaps he could get the fire demon to confess this way, though he had the suddenly sinking feeling that this was going worse than it should.

But once more; he had nothing left to loose and neither did Kurama.

"Do not tempt me," Hiei whispered in pure malice, a voice which had not escaped those lips since he had located the Koorime Island and returned.

But even there he had given up caring and returned to his nonchalant rudeness, leaving without harming a soul on the island.

It hadn't mattered then; was this any different?

He shook his head mentally from the thoughts, dispersing them. Of course this was different; this was incredibly different. This was an enemy; a sly fox just trying to bed him to rid himself of the pain of Kuronue's loss.

Just a lusting Youko who needed release, and could care less if it ruined Kurama's purity and innocence in the meanwhile.

"I wonder what he sees in you," Youko whispered softly, staring straight up into those blazing crimson eyes. "Kurama, that is. He must see you through rose-colored glasses, fire demon. All I see is a cold soul hiding behind a mask."

Hiei's anger had never reached this point before and a red haze fought around the edges of his vision. Voices echoed through his mind, whispering, whispering, never ceasing. Kill him, kill him, kill him.

But he shoved his primal angers back enough to restrain himself from slicing the Youko's head from that thin neck.

He couldn't, however, control the fire that burned through him with such ferocity that it didn't stay only within him. Youko winced as the skin on either of his hands began to heat to the point of burning.

However, he dare not squirm; he would not loose this fight. As skin began to blister and sizzle with the smell of burning flesh slowly floating through the night, he simply stared into those cold red eyes, unwavering in his own determination.

"What would you know of souls?" the hiss formed through clenched teeth. Kurama's arms began to shake from the burn, but he paid no heed nor notice, only curiously wondered what Hiei would think when he realized that he had harmed his Kurama.

Always his.

"You're nothing but a worthless youko who steals from one half the Makai and sleeps with the other!" the accusation had been rising to its crescendo until Hiei was growling it out to keep from shouting in the fox's face.

Green eyes narrowed and, had the fire demon been a little more focused on what was right, he would have noticed the flash of gold that left streaks slowly fading like an ore of bullion in an emerald gem.

But he didn't notice and he didn't care and he kept right on hissing those accusations that he didn't really mean and he didn't really want to say. "And now," his eyes furrowed in pure hate and burning desire to end the life before him for no reason that he could correctly claim to, "you're claiming that all of this is because you're 'mourning' the loss of a fucking boy-toy."

Something within Youko almost snapped.

Almost.

But before he could summon his own energy from anger alone, rather than knowledge of how to do so in this new body, a slow realization came to him.

No matter what happened to him under Hiei's hands, this was how he could make the fire demon see. Make him see what he didn't want to see.

The guilt of hurting his fox would eventually catch up to him and force him to see the pain that it caused himself in guilt and horror.

The blistered, bleeding flesh beneath small, childish hands would always be a reminder of what had passed when the fire demon refused to admit his own feelings.

And so the fox backed his anger down, shoving it to the side where he could later discard of it against a harmless rock or wall. The pain on his knuckles would feel good against his fading hold on reality.

With softening eyes, he stared up at the fire demon in a sort of pitying sorrow as he shook his head in disapproving disappointment. "You really are nothing," he whispered out, softly enough to barely be heard over the trickling waterfall into the lake.

He expected pain.

What he got was metal.

The presence of a sword at his throat was not what he expected and it surprised him, but he schooled the emotion away, looking slowly up into those furious crimson eyes. Hiei's bloody orbs had something to prove in them, but neither demon seemed to know what and both came to fear what they didn't know.

"And you think you're any better?"

The youko didn't need to answer that question aloud. No, he wasn't. He'd been so consumed in his own grief over Kuronue that he had wanted any escape from it, including the relief of telling Hiei of his ningen body's feelings.

And through that he had ruined his future; a future he had never believed in to begin with.

But now he knew it was real; it was so real and he had ruined all of it.

What did it matter now what he thought of himself? There was nothing more that could be done to make it worse, and he only hoped now to make it better.

He had nothing left to loose but his life.

But now, now he had everything to gain for Kurama. Not for himself, but for the Kurama who'd ruined his life to the recklessness of a mourning Youko.

"Go ahead, Hiei." His tone had dropped to nothing above a whisper, and the fire demon truly did have to strain to hear the daring voice of the Youko. "Go ahead and find out what it's like to watch one you care for die. Watch as their life force drains from their body in crimson streams to litter the forest floor."

The remaining hand on his wrist was tightening unconsciously and he could feel the pressure building. Despite the growing pain the youko ignored it; what good would it do to back out now?

A snap drowned out by his ever flowing voice signified the breaking of bones but he didn't choose to feel it.

"Watch the hot blood run over your fingers as you try desperately to pull their deaths away, free them from the burden. Let it taint you for all eternity, engulfing you in the beating guilt of every pulse. Let it wash away your soul, eating at your mind with every day.

"Let it consume you," Youko continued his long line of whispering as Hiei's face drew more and more horrified as he released the second, broken wrist to grip the katana's hilt with both hands. The fox demon slowly lifted his fingers, no longer consciously thinking but once more only doing what he knew, somehow, was both right and wrong.

And for Inari's sake he no longer cared.

Two long, narrow fingers pressed against the blade, cutting it into his skin as he reached up and pressed his lips against the shocked, horrified fire demon.

Crimson red eyes widened and Hiei pulled away immediately, jumping back from the fox as he released his last wrist. A thin, red line appeared on that thin neck from the sudden movement and blood dripped from the small wound on the fox's throat. Blood lined the very tip of the sword as well.

Horrified at what he'd done, Hiei looked down at the crimson gathering at the end of his blade in a single, thin trickle.

"Can you feel it, fire demon?" Youko whispered slightly as the minute amount of liquid slowly pooled at the cut to form a single drop, sliding down his neck. "The blood running down your skin, erasing every happy memory, destroying ever link of emotion? Can you feel it taking over?"

"Hn," he grunted in attempt to save his last shred of dignity, sheathing the weapon and backing away. "You really have lost your mind."

With a flitter of a cloak and a small gust of wind from the displaced air, Hiei had disappeared from the beach shore and back into the forest, his presence growing farther and farther away with every second.

The fire demon wanted to get as far away as possible. He couldn't see that cut on Kurama's neck, not knowing it was his blade that had created it.

Not on his Kurama.

Slowly, Youko sat up, keeping pressure of his left, broken wrist. He raised his right, blistered and bleeding, arm to gently run across the barely pierced skin of his neck, wiping up a small drop of blood that had begun to find its way down his neck and to his collarbone.

"Haven't most who've fallen in love?"

The small whispered reply fell on deft ears of a quiet forest. No one was there to hear him and no one was there to care.

But it didn't matter anymore; nothing seemed to matter anymore.

Hiei hated him, Kurama would hate him, and Youko already hated himself.

Exactly what was there to live for in the first place?

What hell had he stuck himself in as a replacement for going to the original when he was supposed to?

With a sigh the Youko put gentle pressure on his wrist, trying to climb to his feet without irritating his ankle any further.

A sickening crack echoed loudly enough to be heard over the falling water and the fox bit back a scream, containing it to a very anguished yelp as he fell back to the rocks, catching his wrist protectively in his other hand.

There was no doubt; his bones had been all but shattered by the fire demon's rage.

It wasn't surprising, really. He hadn't been suspecting it but he should have seen that it would happen; the fire demon had so much rage pent up inside from his entire life that something one day had to make him snap and stop trying to hide it inside.

Youko was just the lucky one to find that particular someday.

Cradling his wrist in his somewhat good (albeit burned) hand, he began walking back in the direction that was the temple, knowing that he needed healing, despite Demon Knowledge 101 or whatever the hell he had thought earlier.

There was one thing he could take comfort in, though.

Genkai would be right down pissed at him.

Actually, that was two things.

She'd be pissed, but she'd let him have more ice cream.

That thought somehow brought movement to his tired legs and he headed to the temple in hopes of meeting Ben and Jerry once more before succumbing to the painless sleep that could not guarantee a lack of nightmares, but for which he prayed.

A snap of a branch, the crack echoing through the dark but silent forest, caught the fox's attention, and he turned immediately alert eyes to the surrounding, ominous trees.

'Stupid, stupid stupid,' he cursed himself. He had let his guard down, his thoughts much more concerned with his two boyfriends waiting for him at home with fish food which was, for some odd reason, spelled funny with a "ph."

Youko shook his head mentally, cursing himself still but switching languages unconsciously. He could feel someone watching him and he knew right then and there that he had no choice.

But what did it matter?

Like every other answer that night: it didn't.

With a mental sigh he turned and took off running at a speed impressive for a half human with a sprained ankle.

Impressive indeed, but not to the exceeding speed of a full-fledged and unharmed demon.

Before Kurama had made it halfway to the temple, ducking branches and trees, hopping fallen logs and running with light feet through the undergrowth of the forest, he was tackled easily from behind, just as he knew would happen all along.

And if he knew it had happened, why not run for the fun of it. There was no thrill if you simply let the things known to happen just happen without any hitches.

And Youko concluded that his sense of humor had all but taken a morbid turn towards extinction.

He gasped out involuntarily as a think hand wrapped around his throat, spinning him and slamming him into the trunk of a tree, knocking the wind from his lungs. As he tried to regain it, the slowly squeezed windpipe being a definite handicap to the situation, he opened green eyes to stare at the demon before him.

Long bluish-black hair, dark blue eyes, blue robes, yada yada yada. Yeah, this had to be the one that everyone warned him about so much. He didn't seem like all that much but, then again, the weak girly ones liked to come after him a lot.

Yes, he had been correct in assuming his sense of humor had gone twisted.

"You must be Syunsuke," he said without much care and certainly without fear. After all, just like everything else, what good was fear when you already knew it was going to happen?

"Ah, the famous Youko Kurama," the demon before him whispered, running his thumb over the pale skin of his neck. The fox could feel his new wound there bleed a little more at the agitation of his skin.

"In the flesh," he began to say but closed his eyes and shrugged past the lack of oxygen. "Well, mind anyways."

A hand slowly crept down his arm to his oddly bent wrist and green eyes still laced with gold flashed open at the fingers running over bleeding and blistered skin that covered fractioned, splintered bone.

"Hmm…" Syunsuke mumbled to himself, those eyes never taking off of green ones that stared right back, the farthest hints of pain only beginning to flash through them. "This looks broken."

Nails dug into the skin quite suddenly and Youko's eyes widened. The scream that filled his throat came out partially muffled as he tried to block it the best he could, but being unprepared for the sudden treatment shot waves of increased injury through his nerves.

"Yes, most certainly broken," Syunsuke had moved closer to whisper against Kurama's ear, hot breath tickling his human senses and he briefly shook his head, not enjoying the feeling of that breath on skin (nor human ears at all for that matter.)

"You should take better care of yourself," the soft, taunting voice continued on and for some reason, the kitsune found himself shivering at the tones and the words. "You'll have to come with me so I can wrap that up for you."

Green eyes blinked open to look down as Syunsuke released his wrist and drew into his own robes for something. Youko wiggled beneath his grip, trying to get away out of futile suddenness as a knife was drawn from those blue cloths.

"Now, now, don't fight, dear Youko," the demon lightly scolded. "I only need a little of your blood."

-o-o-o-

Chapter 12

End

-o-o-o-

I can see the Matterhorn out my bedroom window!

The real Matterhorn, not the stupid imitation at Disneyland! Shouldn't call it stupid actually…I love that ride.

Anyways!

Author's Notes:

…Demon Knowledge 101… Proof that the real Kurama is still in there, and has awoken somewhat at the revelation of having told Hiei the truth and having been rejected.

…see you through rose-colored glasses…My mom once accused my dad of seeing the world through "rose-colored glasses" and his angry response back was "Yeah, well yours are cracked!"

Don't worry, they divorced a long time ago and it's all much better.

But ever sense my dad told me that, the phrase "through rose-colored glasses" has become my own personal motto. Because I do see the world through Rose-colored Glasses.

And it's such a beautiful world.

Hiei's Anger: Once more, will be explained in following chapters, but has also been explained in prior and this chapter. Look, he's angry at himself for not knowing why he's so damn angry and it's only making him angrier (ooh, surprising.)

He loves Kurama but won't admit it and, subconsciously, the pain and annoyance of not knowing nor admitting has made him angry and Youko is just standing right there with a target painted on his forehead.

So Hiei's releasing that anger without really thinking about what he's doing first.

Youko's decision: Youko knows that he's ruined Kurama's life now. With telling Hiei everything, he's ruined his future in ways he couldn't at first even imagine, let alone prepare for.

So now, even though there is nothing but life to loose, he wants to gain everything back if he can. To repent for hurting Kurama's life.

He's hoping that if he can get Hiei to realize his emotions then the fire demon will eventually accept them and Youko will have improved Kurama's life rather than ruined it.

Youko's realization of Hiei's feelings: like noticing that he loved Hiei, it just took him slightly longer to see that Hiei loves Kurama.

When you're an outsider of a relationship, it's a lot easier to notice the feelings others broadcast. As a member of a relationship, there's always doubt and insecurity that clouds the ability to see what the other is showing so easily.

As Youko, he wasn't a part of that relationship yet and so he could see the love in Hiei's actions, words, and eyes without the fog of doubt.

End Author Notes

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed; maybe Youko and Hiei weren't too bad.

Please Review.