Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from the Yu Yu Hakusho series. I only own the story line, and maybe a few original characters along the way. But that is later, in the meantime, our favorite little fire demon is stuck in prison, in solitary confinement and he is stuck with too much time on his hands. What will happen next? Without any more delays... I give you Chapter Two: Unwelcome Feelings.
))_))_
Hiei sighed heavily as he paced around his too small cell. He hated this. He understood why he was here... he just hated that he wasn't even allowed to have books for another six weeks. He groaned at the thought... six more weeks of the same old thing every day. Pacing around the cell, thinking about stupid stuff, and pacing some more. He wasn't even allowed yard time with the other inmates. That was a relief, considering the solitary confinement was located closely to the rest of them and they had already thrown threats his way. Hiei smirked looking through the bars, let them throw all the threats that they wanted... he was only here for a short time, unlike most of them, who were serving multiple life sentences. He smirked as he walked back to the bed. He needed something to do, otherwise he was most likely going to go stir crazy in here.
It had been two months, and he was counting the days by little notches that he was putting in the wall next to his bed. His fingernails were sore from the task of counting days, but hey... it gave him something to look forward to each morning. The task was a tedious one, for using a fingernail to scratch into rock wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. Several of his fingers were red and raw from the last couple of days. He looked at his hand and smirked. The pain was gone, but the redness wasn't... he frowned... that red reminded him of Kurama. His gorgeous red hair that always seemed to blow in the wind.
Hiei shook his head.. What the hell? He shook his head again and sat back against the bed. He was starting to lose it. "Get it together, Hiei." Hiei sighed as he looked up at the ceiling. He wished that he at least had one little thing to occupy his time with, even a bouncing ball would satisfy him right now! Ooo the thought of a tennis ball to bounce around his cell seemed like a joy to him at the time. But he was still on probation watch here and had to prove that he could behave himself before he started to gain any perks here. He still had three months to go before he could have visitors, although he knew that list was a short one, and it was still six months before he could start having letters and sending them.
Hiei wasn't much of a writer, but if he could just have the pen and paper right now, he was sure that he could write a million pages before the end of his sentence. He sighed again, god the time seemed to drag on in here. No wonder why so many inmates ended up hanging themselves with their own bedsheets. He looked at his sheets and sighed heavily. Unlike the others here, he had a reason to get out. He had to survive this place so that he could get back to his life, the one that he was living before the fateful night that he had ended up working for Koenma...
_Flashback_
Hiei smirked darkly as he watched the humans running around the village. The Makai was a perfect place to practice using the Dragon of the Darkness Flame. He knew that Koenma's men were getting close, and was just waiting for the moment to unleash the demon spirit within his arm. The men here were weak and the dragon would kill them quickly, evaporating everything that they were, including their souls. He enjoyed terrorizing people. But this wasn't something that he was expecting. A mere human walked up to him one night and he could have passed for a woman. But the deep voice that reverberated from those pale lips confirmed him wrong.
"I know who you are," the man said. "You can help me. And I am sure that I can help you."
Hiei smirked. "If you value your life, boy, then you should leave while you still have the chance."
The boys chuckled lightly as he stuck his hands in his pocket. "And if I don't?"
Hiei growled at the boy and turned on him, drawing his sword and bringing it down on his opponent. However, the boy barely moved as he simply caught Hiei's sword blade in between his two hands. Hiei looked at him and he was simply smiling back at him. "Do I have your attention now?"
Hiei growled lightly as he sheathed his sword. "What do you want, human?"
The boy smiled. "My name is Kurama. And I know of a weapon that could make you twice as deadly as you are now... one that can change a mere human into a demon..."
Hiei smiled. "Now you do have my attention, Kurama," he said as he watched the boy step up next to him and pointed to a building in the distance.
"That is Koenma's castle," Kurama said. "Inside the vaults of the castle lie three powerful artifacts. One can suck the souls out of a person and all they have to do is touch it. One is a mirror that will grant you one wish, trading something to give the user what he or she wants, and the other is a sword. A banshee sword once used to create a demon army in the human world. A sword that one of your status would deem a worthy weapon."
Hiei smirked. "And how do you expect to get into the vault?"
Kurama smiled. "I can handle the entrance," he said and turned to his companion, "The exit is what I need help with."
))_))_
Hiei and Kurama had broken into the vaults and gained the artifacts that they had gone to acquire. After using them both, Koenma sent his spirit detective, Yusuke after them, one by one and then they were caught and brought before Koenma.
"I can use both of your skills," Koenma said to them. "Instead of sending you both to prison, I will make you a deal. Protect the humans that are under my watch and you will walk free among them. Refuse and you both will spend the next fifteen years in prison. Do we have a deal?"
_End Flashback_
Hiei smirked as remembered how he had met Kurama. The thought of him back then, how cocky he was, how smoothly he was able to pull him into something so juicily evil. But the outcome was something neither had thought about. They were both too cocky to believe that they could get caught, and neither would have ever imagined that it was a human that was born with the blood of a battle demon coursing through his veins that would catch them. Yusuke was good, Hiei had to admit, but he was still a fool. But then again, Yusuke had stood up for him on several occasions and that was something that had shocked him more than anything else. He could consider the man a friend... but that oaf... no, never. He hated that foolish boar of a human. He was the most ridiculous member of the team, and though he had his strengths, he was more of a pain in the ass then help.
))_))_
Kurama walked into Koenma's office with a new found hope. He had been thinking about the contract and how they had been repaying their debts. He stood at Koenma's desk. "Koenma, I must speak to you."
"If this is about Hiei again, then forget it," Koenma said as he glanced up, but frowned to see the bright smile on the fox's face. "What do you want?"
Kurama sat at the chair that was in front of the desk. "Our contracts that you have put into place for us... you said that we were to work off our sentences... right."
"Yes, and you have been, that is why there was only four years left on his sentence," Koenma said and folded his arms across his desk. "I told you Kurama..."
"Please, let me finish," Kurama stopped him. "You gave us one wish once we won the Dark Tournaments. I am willing to trade you."
"Your wish for what?" Koenma asked.
"The end of Hiei's sentence," he stated. "Even if I use my wish, it will be the same."
Koenma pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "I CANNOT do that, Kurama. I really wish that I could... but if I do, I will lose my position, the borders to the Human World will be closed and the Demon World will suffer if I let one person go early."
Kurama frowned. "Koenma please... at least make it so that he has a chance for parole soon."
Koenma looked at the fox, there was something in his plea that made him stop. "Why is this so important to you, Kurama?"
Kurama looked down. "Because I hate to see my friend suffer because of something that happened to me. I could have fought back to mugger, but I chose not to. He was only defending me and I hate to see him punished for a decision that I made in fear."
Koenma sighed heavily. "It has only been two months, even if I did set something up... it would still be at least a year before he went against the parole board. And they are not gentle, Kurama. They do not like it when someone that is in prison for treason comes before them. They don't look too kindly on them."
"But you could give him a recommendation, couldn't you?" Kurama asked. "Surely you could."
Koenma shook his head. "That is something that I cannot do. I have never been allowed to even know when the parole hearings are, let alone give a letter of recommendation. The parole board must believe that he has learned his lesson and turn around and be reentered into society. They cannot believe for one second that he doesn't regret what he has done, and they cannot believe that he is a risk to those that are around him."
Kurama sighed. "Can you at least grant him visitation or something?"
Koenma smiled lightly. "He is up for visitation review in the next few weeks. I am sure he will be fine until then."
Kurama looked down, damn, he was hoping that he was going to do something to help his friend sooner. But with a heavy sigh, he stood up and thanked Koenma for listening to him. But before he could leave, Koenma called to him.
"I do not condemn him for helping you, Kurama," Koenma said softly. "But I just wish that he could have hurt him instead of killing him. I condemn him only because he took a life, and a scumbag like the one he did take, still it was a life."
Kurama nodded and looked down. "I appreciate you telling me that, sir."
"Make sure that Hiei knows that when you see him," Koenma said, knowing that the moment he got word, Kurama would be up there visiting him as often as he could.
Kurama nodded with a smile as he turned and walked out of the building. He had gone in there hoping that he could use his wish to turn the sentence around... but instead, he got info that he wasn't expecting. He smiled to know that Koenma felt as bad as he did about sending Hiei to prison. To know that he did in fact praise him for making the choice that he had, but still Kurama could see that he simply couldn't overlook it. He walked through the portal to the Human World and thought about how Hiei was doing, hoping that he wasn't so bored that he was banging his head on the walls. The thought made Kurama smile. Poor Hiei, he wished that there was a way that he could check in on him, but he had tried that and been denied.
Shiori looked at him as he walked into the house and smiled. "Hello, dear. You are home early tonight."
Kurama smiled. "I got bored at my friends. So I came home."
She nodded and watched him walk up the stairs to his room. She shook her head and knew that he was hiding something, but just wished that she knew what. Upstairs, Kurama shut his door with a sigh, his eyes instantly going to the windowsill where Hiei had always visited him. Oh how he missed the startling sight every time he would come into the room, not expecting to find the fire demon sitting on his sill. The fire demon was such a regular sight, it was sad to come to his room, knowing that he wouldn't be there. He walked to the window and ran his fingers over the curtains blowing lightly in the cool breeze. He could still smell Hiei's scent on them, and the smell was unnerving. It had been two months, and the smell was still as strong as ever, blowing a spicy scent through the room. Kurama smiled and leaned against the sill. Oh how he missed the little spark plug of a friend. He missed their playful banter and their serious conversations, he even missed the way Hiei could go from friend to pissed off foe in the blink of an eye.
"I hope you are okay in there, Hiei," Kurama said softly staring out the window. "Please be strong."
Shiori was standing at his door and frowned at the sound of the longing in her son's voice. She knew who Hiei was, and she was nervous around him. He was dark, and his eyes, they were an unnatural color. She didn't like him hanging around her son so much, but her son defended him with every fiber of his being... and a sickening thought crossed her mind. She frowned and stepped away from the door... no... her son wasn't gay. She took a calming breath and knocked on his door.
Kurama looked at her and smiled lightly. "Yes, mother?"
"Are you alright, son? You seem kind of down," she said, probing for information.
Kurama nodded and stood up straight. "I'm fine mother, just a little restless, that's all."
She frowned, her son was never restless. Ever since that friend of his disappeared a few months ago, her son seemed depressed. "Restless about what?"
Kurama sat on the edge of his bed and cursed her sense of curiousity. "Nothing... everything... I don't know..."
She came in and sat down next to him. "Upset that your friend left?"
Kurama flinched. She did notice. "A little. But he said that he had things to take care of out of town. I can't blame him for leaving so quickly."
Shiori frowned and probed deeper. "What type of things?"
Kurama knew his mother was fishing now. She never asked so many questions unless she was digging for something. "I don't know, mother. He said it was a family matter. I didn't question him."
"You miss him," she stated. Kurama sighed and nodded.
Kurama shook his head. "I mean... we still talk every now and then, but its not the same. You know that I hate phone conversations."
Shiori decided to push the line and ask the question that was unnerving her the most. "Do... do you have feelings for him, darling?"
Kurama blinked and turned to her. "What?!"
She shrugged her shoulders and lifted her arms in defense. "It seems like you do, that's all. I mean, ever since he left you have been down, spending less and less time with your other friends. And the way you sometimes stare out the window makes me wonder... just how much you really do miss him, and WHAT you could miss about him so much."
Her son shook his head and chuckled lightly. "Mother... he is just a friend. There is nothing going on between us! I have a girlfriend."
Shiori stopped, this was the first time that she had heard that. "Since when?"
"About six months now," he replied and knew that he was going to get a lecture about that. "And before you ask, no, she isn't some stranger that I just met on the street. We have known each other for about two years and six months ago, I asked her out on a date, and we've been together ever since."
"Why on earth haven't I met her yet, then?" she asked. "You know that I want grandchildren! But, wait... how old is she?"
Kurama shook his head, he really stepped in it this time. "She is the same age as me, and you are gonna have to wait for grandkids, mother. We aren't that far along in our relationship yet."
"Oh, come on, Shuiichi," she said. "I know better than that."
"I am serious mother," he said solidly. "We haven't been intimate together. She wants to wait and so I will wait until she is ready."
"But you have been with someone before," she stated, giving away that she had heard the girl before this one. "I know for a fact that you have."
Kurama blushed. "I knew that I should have taken her somewhere else."
Shiori smiled. "I know what it is like to be a teenager, son. I know how it feels to have..."
Kurama stopped her and waved his hands. "Ahh.. mom! Not the way a conversation between us needs to go!"
Shiori smirked and stood up. "Alright, but I would like to meet this one. The other one... well her voice seemed to be the only meeting we ever got."
Kurama felt the blood rush to his cheeks. "MOM!"
Shiori snickered lightly as she walked out of the room, that ought to give her son something to think about for a while. Kurama shook his head, standing up to close the door behind his mother. She could still be heard laughing as she walked down the stairs. She was sneaky. He had said it before. And now... he was getting annoyed with it. He turned back to the window and sighed lightly. What had made her think that he had feelings for Hiei? Yeah, he was upset that he wasn't around... but...
The afternoon rolled on, and Kurama just laid back on his bed, occasionally texting with his girlfriend now that she was off work. He would chuckle about her complaints that the patrons of the restaurant were jerks. He shook his head as he replied that she should talk to the manager about it. He laid the phone on the bed and sighed lightly as he folded his hands behind his head. He heard the ringer go as she texted back, but he decided to give it a minute as his thoughts drifted to when he tried to teach Hiei how to text.
_Flashback_
Hiei growled at the phone as he tried. Kurama sat across from him and chuckled lightly. "Just type in the letters and hit send. It's easy."
Hiei looked at the screen and tapped several words out. He hit the send button, but nothing happened. He frowned and tapped it again, a bit harder than the first time. This time a little window came up and said sent. Kurama's phone dinged as the message came through. He opened it and chuckled as he read the message. "I hate you." Kurama shook his head and replied. It was just a lesson to teach him the ropes, and he was managing better than either of them had thought.
Hiei looked at his phone and read Kurama's reply. "No you don't." Hiei frowned and looked up at the fox. "You are wrong, Kurama. This is stupid."
Kurama sighed lightly as they sat their phones down, Kurama folding his legs beneath him on the bed. "It's a quicker way to talk to someone when you don't have the time to call them. It's not stupid if you knew how to do it."
Hiei shook his head. "What happened to the times, Kurama? When I was growing up, if we had something to say, then we picked up the housephone and called someone up. We didn't have cell phones then."
Kurama nodded and shrugged his shoulders. "Time changes everything, Hiei. Look at me. I am the perfect example of what time can do."
"You were born a human, therefore more easily manipulated by Human ways," Hiei snapped.
"Perhaps, but my true nature still shines in everything I do," he said to him. "There are things that I do, that humans don't. And there are things that humans do that I do not. I am still as selfish as I was in the past, just more about things that are important to me, and not glittery objects."
"You are a fox," Hiei stated blandly, "You will always be attracted to shiny objects."
"Not true," Kurama defended.
Hiei smirked and pulled the string from around his neck. He held out the tear gem that his mother had given him. It swung side to side in front of Kurama and his eyes were instantly drawn to it, watching it sway from side to side. He frowned as Hiei took the gem away and put it back under his shirt. "Told you."
"That's not fair, Hiei," Kurama stated and crossed his arms. "You can't bring out one of the rarest jewels in the world and expect me not to look at it."
Hiei snickered lightly. "Only a fox would be drawn to it the way you just were. A normal person would have just looked at it and smiled, you stared at it as if you wanted to take it from me. You wanted to touch it, and when I took it away, you frowned. Only a fox would do that."
Kurama stuck his tongue out at him. "I wouldn't take something so close to you, Hiei. I can't believe that you would even think that."
"I didn't say that you would," Hiei said and stood up. "I simply said that the fox in you wanted to."
He turned and flitted out the window. Kurama stared... the fire demon was right... he had wanted to touch it. Just to see if the legends were true about it. If it was given out of love, it was warm to the touch, but if given out of hate, it was colder than snow.
_End Flashback_
Kurama was snapped back into reality when his phone rang beside him. He picked it up and frowned to see that his girlfriend was calling him. He pressed talk and lifted the phone to his ear. "Yes..."
"Are you seriously going to ignore me when I ask you a question like that?" the voice on the phone snapped.
Kurama frowned and looked at his phone and seen that there were four missed messages. "Sorry, I was downstairs helping my mother with something."
"I can smell bullshit on you, Kurama!" the voice snapped again. "You are a terrible liar."
He sighed lightly. "Well, now that you have my full attention, what did you want to know?"
The voice growled at him lightly and then there was a pause. "Read the damned messages, and then you will know why I am about to do this."
And with that, she hung up the phone, making Kurama actually sit up on the bed and frown. "Hello? Trish?"
He pulled the phone from his ear and ended the conversation. He opened his messages and frowned.
Message one: I have talked to the manager, and he simply says to ignore them. What else am I supposed to do? I already have two strikes on my record...
Message Two: I was wondering about something, Kurama. I have the house to myself tonight and was wondering if you would like to come over for dinner tonight?
Message Three: So.. about dinner? Is that a yes or a no? I need to know, babe...
Message Four: Kurama! If you want to spend more time with me like you said last week, I am giving you the perfect opportunity! You said that you would wait until I was ready... well... dinner has a bit of dessert if you still were serious about us... but if not...
Kurama frowned, shit. He hadn't heard his phone going off, nor had he figured that she would ask him something like that over text message. He groaned and let himself fall into the bed. He lifted the phone up and messaged her back. "Trish, I am sorry. I am worried about Hiei. I was trying to think of something that I could do to get him a lighter sentence and the thoughts overtook all my senses. I am sorry that I didn't hear the phone going off and hope that you will reconsider..."
He sent the message and knew that he was just being a kiss ass. He doubted that she would forgive him, and now he knew that he was in trouble. He was thinking about Hiei again, wondering what advice the fire demon would give him about this. He smirked and shook his head, covering his face with his hands, "What is wrong with me?"
He heard his phone and smiled. He lifted it to where he could read and frowned as he read her message back to him. "I know that you are worried about Hiei. But lately all of your thoughts are about him. I cannot compete with this. If you want to just be friends with me so that you can go after what you truly want, then I think I can live with that... But I will not be the one you keep around just in case things don't go the way you want."
Kurama blinked. He sighed heavily. "I don't have feelings for him!" He tossed his phone on the bed and rubbed his face again. He shook his head and sat up. He was going to have to prove to them all that his feelings for Hiei were ones of friendship, not of love. Kurama stopped. They had never once said love... where had that word come from?
))_))_
End of Chapter Two: Unwelcome Feelings. Hope you are enjoying. Please leave your comments and reviews. I look forward to reading them. Ta Ta For Now.
