-1Doi Co Bao Lau

Summary: Name's taken from a Vietnamese song (which rocks, find the band Cardin and listen to it) and it means 'To Be Alone.' Or something like that. Anyway, onto the actual summary. Kuronue, wandering around Ningenkai, learns of Kurama's kidnap by Yomi from listening to Yusuke's conversation with the others. Of course, he didn't believe that Youko could still be alive, but his curiosity got the best of him and he heads off to find Yomi and Kurama. However, what he finds is not what he was looking for.

Category: Yu Yu Hakusho

Genre: Angst. Romance. Crap like that.

Rating: M/NC-17

Couples: Karasu/Kurama (forced)[mentioned, Yomi/Kurama (forced)[mentioned, Kuronue/Youko, Hiei/Kurama

Warnings: Look at my couples section. Don't ask questions like that. I will fill this in as I go along, however.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Kurama: Why are you rooting for Youko and Kuronue to win this little tussle over who keeps the body?

KuroSakura: Well…I love you and Hiei, I really do-

Hiei: What a fine way to show it.

KuroSakura: -but Youko and Kuronue are drop-dead sexy! I can't help it! Honestly, I can't!

Youko: We tend to have that effect on people.

Kuronue: Yep. (grin)

KuroSakura: See? It's not my fault! By the way, Inikus, thank you for responding! I know what it's like to be extremely busy (I have college apps to finish) so I don't mind. I'm just glad that someone responded to my call!

[Hiei

His eyes were closed, but he was not sleeping or unaware. In fact, he was keeping more awareness on his surroundings by shutting out the distractions sight can bring. That was when he felt it.

Youko Kurama's signature.

Only with his death-grip on his emotions did he manage to keep from opening his eyes and betraying that the kitsune was near with his surprise. After all, having Yomi and Karasu sitting in the same room, though tormenting the Detective as they were, and doing so would've wrought disaster. Especially since he felt five other signatures with the kitsune, four of them familiar. The fifth was strange yet seemed to be coming much more frequently sensed these days. It could only belong to the kitsune's partner, Kuronue.

That damn bat seemed to be bent on making his life a living hell. Just showing up in the first place was disastrous. If Kurama had been there when the bat had fallen out of the tree, Youko probably would've seized control and run off then. Even without Kurama having been there, this turn of events still sucked major ass. If that damn Botan hadn't told the bat who was holding the kitsune, there was a good possibility that he and the Detective would've been able to rescue Kurama with fairly little effort, judging by how simple it was to sneak in and make their way to the dungeon.

Well, that was in the past now. Instead, he now had the difficult jobs of escaping (with the Detective, of course), making sure that Kurama didn't get himself killed, and managing to recall his mate from the depths of the older kitsune.

'Somehow,' he thought to himself, 'dealing with Yomi seems far easier.'

He sighed inwardly and set himself to the task of tracking Youko's movements. They seemed to be coming closer, much to his annoyance. The damn kitsune was barely out of the dungeon and now he was wandering back? Clearly Youko lacked Kurama's common sense. Though, it did make things simpler in that he wouldn't have to traverse all of Makai to find him. Now it was just a matter of keeping Yomi in the dark about their little visitors. And escaping. Yes, escaping was definitely high on the list of priorities.

He could feel his lip curl as he studied Youko's signature. Silver with purple twisting and turning inside of it. Kuronue's signature was purple with silver throughout it. Meaning they were mated. This was going to open a wholly different can of worms. Since anyone who looked at Hiei's signature could see the emerald coloring cutting through the black and it was obvious that within Kurama's emerald signature was black, forever tying him to Hiei.

There was going to be no easy way to solve this problem. Someone was going to lose his mate, no matter what. And it wouldn't be him.

"What the hell are you sneering at?" Karasu's voice broke his concentration and he lost most of the hold he had on Youko's signature. Now all he could claim was a small pressure in the back of his mind, telling him of the kitsune's movements.

He opened his eyes to glower at the yokai in front of him. He could feel what this bastard had done to his mate while holding him in captivity. The gods have mercy on Karasu's soul if Hiei ever managed to get loose from his bonds to show his 'thanks' for the hospitality shown Kurama.

"The knowledge that I would soon have to open my eyes to see your hideous face." He retorted, gratified by the look of fury which appeared on Karasu's face.

"Calm down, Karasu. You must be patient with our guests. After all, you mustn't harm your guest needlessly." Yomi's forever calm and smooth voice floated over to them. The yokai himself hadn't moved an inch from where he sat, listening, yes listening, to the Detective. Not his words, but more the inner workings of him. A rather creepy experience that Hiei had yet to endure. Yomi was much more interested in Yusuke.

Yomi was another one that Hiei wished he could kill for his time spent with Kurama. He could feel the remnants of Yomi's aura mixing with that of Kurama's in the dungeon. And not in a good way. That either of the yokai had dared to lay a hand on his mate angered him to no end.

"Tch." Karasu frowned and turned away from Hiei, marching over to a chair and flopping into it, in a rather ningen fashion. "I still don't see why you're offering them to the yokai masses. If you just broadcast it a little more, Kurama'll come running to save his mate."

"Unless he's already with his mate." Yomi replied calmly. "You don't seem to understand that Youko Kurama and his little red-headed ningen are two completely different people. They're both mated with two different yokai, too, which should be proof for you."

"Well, Youko Kurama has always been rumored to be fickle, Yomi. You never know if he'd randomly show up to save his other half's mate." Karasu said bluntly.

"Actually, I do. You forget that I knew Youko Kurama personally. I even knew him when Kuronue still lived, hence how I know that he'll never risk his happiness with his mate for the mate of the ningen sharing his body." Yomi's voice took on a cold tone that said without words that Karasu was treading on extremely thin ice.

Karasu apparently took the hint, for he stood, running an agitated hand through his hair. "I'm going out to get some fresh air. It's getting boring in here." Yomi did not acknowledge Karasu's comment, who took the ignorance as a 'What do I care?' and left.

Once the annoying cretin was gone, Hiei again closed his eyes to concentrate on Youko's signature. It wasn't hard to lock onto, with his tie to Kurama working against Youko. Though he hadn't noticed it at first, there was a slight bit of emerald in the silver aura, probably meaning that Kurama had been fighting Youko's control. Good. Maybe things would be simpler now. Slowly, a thought occurred to him. Perhaps he could reach Kurama with telepathy…Well, anything was worth a shot.

'/Kurama?/' Hiei felt Youko's surprise at the easy intrusion of his mind.

'/What the hell do you think you're doing, Forbidden Child? Get the hell out of my mind!/' Youko responded, a snarl evident even though these were only thoughts.

'/I'm not trying to talk to you, Kitsune. I want to talk to Kurama./' Hiei thought coldly.

Youko nearly hissed in response. '/Shuuichi is beyond your reach. Be thankful the little brat pestered me enough to come and save your dumb ass./'

Hiei nearly lost his concentration at that. Kurama had pestered the Great Youko Kurama into helping his mate? Though, if that were the case, that meant that Kurama wasn't buried as deep as Youko made him out to be. It meant that he could be reached, if Hiei tried hard enough.

Oh, Youko was in for a surprise.

Hiei could feel Youko relax as he withdrew his mental touch from the kitsune's mind, only to feel him basically scream in protest as he drove the mental touch deeper, deeper until he was swallowed by an emerald aura.

'/Hiei?/' Oh yes, this was his mate's sanctuary.

'/Hn./'

'/Hiei!/' There was a brief moment where Hiei felt a sensation quite like a hug from his mate's side of the link. '/How did you get through Youko's barriers?/'

'/You left me an opening by fighting with him. Also, the idiot happened to mention that you 'pestered' him into coming to the rescue, which insinuated that you weren't buried as deep as he wanted me to believe./' Hiei could feel as Kurama chuckled, amused.

'/The Great Youko Kurama has never tangled with someone as formidable as you, obviously./'

'/Hn./' He may not have sounded it, but he was pleased with the praise his mate had given him.

[Kuronue

When Youko howled in rage, he had no idea what had caused it.

When Youko grabbed his head in both hands, he was still clueless.

When he saw the spear of black aura piercing Youko's silver, he was pissed.

Someone dared to mess with his Youko's mind? They were going to pay.

He quickly reached out through the link he shared with Youko to follow the black spear of aura into Youko's mind until he ran into a wall of emerald green.

The Forbidden Child. That was the only person who'd be able to sink through Youko's defenses like this to reach the ningen. He should've seen it earlier, since it was obvious that the ningen's aura had black swirls within it. They were mated.

That made things a hell of a lot worse.

Clearing his thoughts of the two being mated, he wrapped himself around the black spear, yanking back on it. There was no way in hell that he would allow this intrusion to continue. He could feel as Youko joined him in the pulling and slowly, they removed the Forbidden Child's spear of thought from the ningen's sanctuary.

Kuronue blinked as he caught a glimpse of livid red eyes before they expelled the spear from Youko's mind. That was not a happy Forbidden Child.

He slowly removed his mind from Youko's, though he let his aura mix with Youko's, offering comfort. Youko reached out, grabbing onto his arm and setting his head against it.

"What happened?" the Spirit Agent demanded worriedly.

"I felt Hiei's aura…" the ningen said slowly.

"The damn Forbidden Child decided to take a stab at Youko's mind. I'm slowly considering this rescue mission as a complete waste of time." Kuronue growled at the four they traveled with. "Especially since I will kill him for doing that when we do save him."

"He was probably only trying to talk to Kurama-"

Kuronue bared his fangs at the ningen, cutting him off from his comment. "I would feel the same way if he were a king of Makai: He had no right to dive into Youko's mind. And in case you didn't notice, the ningen is not in control anymore! This is Youko's body."

The ningen opened his mouth to argue, but the ice-yokai stepped forward. "Enough, Kuwabara. This is not the time to spend on petty arguments. You know that these two are only coming along for completely personal reasons, as most yokai would."

"And what is your reason, Touya?" Youko questioned, his eyes like ice. "What reason do you claim to come on this mission?"

"It started as a mission to save Shuuichi, my friend. Now it's a mission to save Yusuke and Hiei." The ice-yokai shrugged fluidly in response.

"Koenma ordered it, I'm sure. Isn't that the only way you and Jinn can stay in Ningenkai: by following Koenma's orders?" Youko's voice took on a scornful tone. "Why you would want to stay there is beyond me…but I suppose that everyone has their preferences."

"Stop!" The Spirit Agent shrieked out. "Let's just finish the mission! We don't have time for all this bickering!"

Youko and Kuronue glanced at each other, shrugging. They didn't care. They weren't going to stick around once the Detective and Forbidden Child were out of Yomi's hands.

A/N: Whoo-hoo! 'Nother chapter down! And what do you all think is going to happen with this new development? (Evil Grin) Preview:

[Kuronue

He watched as Youko deftly picked the locks on the Forbidden Child's manacles. He'd already released the Detective, who was being checked over by the Agent while staring at he and Youko.

Youko stepped back, the manacles being released. The Forbidden Child found his feet quickly and stared up at Youko, who was retreating back to Kuronue's side. Before Youko could make it to the safety of his presence, however, the Forbidden Child seized his hand, pulling him forward and into a kiss.

Oh, he was going to die.

There ya go! R&R, please! See ya next time!

Oh, I was wondering, have any of you heard of a website called If not, allow me a moment to tell you what it's about. It's kind of a role-playing website where you can be anyone you want to be. I was wondering if any of you wanted to become either a Kuronue or a Youko and hook up with me on there? It's not difficult, but if you want to be more than one person, you have to have more than one e-mail, which isn't uncommon these days. At any rate, just thought I'd run it by you guys!

-KuroSakura-chan out!