Typing a chapter on the train on the way home. :( don't wanna go, but I gotta. Anyhow, don't own the YYH characters, I'm just borrowing them. Pyro and the contingent of original characters are mine tyvm. Thank you thank you thank you to all the reviewers, alerts, and faves. Arigato! (b/f and I have been watching subbed anime this week. I recommend Rosario and Dual... er, Dual's not subbed, its dubbed, as in, they speak english. Mammoru isn't bad either.)

wolvesrain17: thank you!

rainbowdragongirl101: thank you thank you thank you. Welcome to the story sweetheart, but please, playing with hiei's cat demon girlfriend's ears is a big bad no-no. (-hiei glares and starts to draw his katana- onna, if you value your hand, you will back off.) pyro says thanks about the hair.-pyro goes to drag her koibito to where he can't harm a reviewer.-

LostCause6661: I know you are there to kick my arse. Just a few more chapters, then a sequel. Yes, a funeral, I can't give away details. And I can't answer your question, dollface, that would give away a plot point! Yes, evil cliffies are fun sometimes. SOMETIMES. -hint hint- oh, I would have reviewed your last update sooner, but my phone hates me, and only let me read half the chapter. :(

reviews are love my darklings. Please to drop me a line plzkthx.

The girls decided it was time for a females-only reunion on the other side of the temple. I followed where they dragged me, an amused smile on my face at their antics.

"You have to spill, like, now. I heard Hiei tell Kurama that you said you love him." Keiko said when we'd gone about a third of the way down the insanity staircase that led to the temple proper.

I nodded and smirked. "I told him the morning of the fight. Hiei was trying to get me to leave him, again."

Yukina's twittering giggle broke through the stunned silence. "My brother has some strange views of the world."

I giggled along with her. "Yup, its part of why I love that little bastard." I poked the ice apparition's side. "You ever tell Kuwabara?"

"Two days ago. He was so happy, he cried." Yukina got a faraway look, like she was remembering.

Keiko sighed. "Yusuke is just hopeless. And we're married!"

I hugged the brunette. "Don't you doubt him, that idiot loves you. He'd destroy the River Styx to bring back your soul from Koenma's."

"It would still be nice to hear it." she muttered.

"I told my oni-san he doesn't have to tell me." I giggled a little at the memory of the fire demon's face when I said that.

"I heard about that too." Yukina and Keiko gave me odd looks.

I grinned broadly. "I expect him to tell me in the next few days."

Botan suddenly had a lightbulb-in-the-head-switched-on look. "By telling him he doesn't have to tell you, you took the pressure off him to reply."

I nodded at the blue-haired reaper. "Bingo, Bo." I snapped my fingers. "Oh! I had so much going on, I forgot to e-mail you! I got jumped the night before the fight."

"Jumped? Like, mugged?" Botan asked.

"Are you ok? Did Hiei kill anyone?" Keiko asked.

I shook my head. "It was three human boys. I was out by myself, and they grabbed me. I told the one that I'd make it so he couldn't use his arm again if he didn't let me go. Lotus got halfway out, and I flipped the guy over my head and bent his elbow the wrong way." I demonstrated on the air. "She stopped and went back as soon as Hiei spoke to me, so that's part of how we knew she was safe."

The other girls cringed. "I don't think even my powers could get that kind of break to heal properly." Yukina said, a proud grin on her face.

"I did give fair warning." I shrugged, then I grinned at them. "Hiei saw the whole fight, and said it was sexy as hell to watch."

"He's such a freak." Keiko giggled.

"Speaking of, he's asking for me." I bolted toward where the boys were.

I barreled into Kurama, knocking the fox on his ass. I wasn't used to demon speed yet. At least, that's what I will always swear was the reason.

Hiei, as always, knew better, but didn't directly call me out for it. "Stop fooling around, onna." He looked like he was about to laugh.

"You," I poked the fire demon's chest. "are no fun."

He grew very serious. "A portal opened, and it is not Koenma."

Kurama chuckled as he dusted himself off. "Yusuke and Kuwabara have gone to look after the other women.

"Such a worry wart!" I threw my arms around Hiei's neck.

"I do not trust the detective when his woman is in danger. My sister and Botan are quite capable of their own protection." Hiei shrugged.

I shoved the fire demon playfully. "I do believe it was me who had to protect your surly ass last time."

Hiei smirked at me. "I called you over here, didn't I?"

I snickered as Kurama tried to hide his grin behind his hand. He failed.

Yusuke rejoined us. "The girls kicked me out, said I'd be of more use out here. They also expressly forbid Kuwabara from fighting."

Hiei crossed his arms and nodded.

"Hiei! There had better be a good reason I have to come to this disgusting place. You said you'd be back by now!" A rough, feminine voice called.

The voice seemed to set my fire demon's nerves on edge. He fairly bristled in anger. "I said I'd be back when I was ready." He shifted his stance just enough so that I was mostly behind him.

A form came into view. The figure was all female, but the gait was mannish and uneven. As she got closer, the reason became clear. She was badly disfigured, and the limbs on her right side had been replaced by a mechanical set. She looked kind of like Seven of Nine before she was fully un-borged. "You've never gone off like this for so long. I was worried."

"I'm a big boy now, Mukuro, I can take care of myself. Besides, you were the one who told me to get the fuck out of your fortress and never return." Hiei snapped. The anger between the two was thick enough to cut with a butter knife.

"We still have things to discuss." She glared like it would get her somewhere with him. It didn't.

"You ended the discussion by telling me I was a heartless bastard and throwing me out. And that was a full six months before I was approached with this assignment." Hiei's voice was dead even, but that didn't keep me from knowing that inside, he was conflicted.

"You were being unreasonable."

"I was being completely reasonable!"

"So, what? You were so dead set on having an heir of your own to raise, you decided to sire one on that little weakling? Oh yes, I can see her behind you." Mukuro leaned slightly to fix her glare on me.

I almost flared my power, just to scare her a little. Hiei turned and gave me a hard look. 'My fight.' So I settled for returning her glare with my most evil glare.

"You leave my onna out of this. Had she remained human, I would have stayed until her death and come back to the fortress." Hiei growled like he did every time I was threatened.

But I didn't notice. I was busy feeling like I'd been slapped with a day-old fish. All his words about not leaving, and he was planning a return. I started running. If that was how it was, I didn't want to be there for the rest of their fight.

'Good gods, how could I have been that stupid? Of course I'm not more than a freaking temporary fling. Of course he fully intended to leave my human ass and go back to that bitch. Stupid stupid stupid.' I railed at myself as I fled.

I ran till I reached the end of a cliff. I could hear the waves crashing at the base. The sun was setting behind me, but I chose to sit on the edge and watch the dark of night creep up the sky.

'The cliff is not stable.'

Damn bastard oni. 'Where I come from, going over a cliff into the ocean is considered a sport. Humans do it every day and survive.'

'I want to talk to you before you go get reckless. Clarify something.'

I looked over my shoulder. He leaned against a tree about 20 yards away. I looked back at the darkening sky. 'What is there to discuss? You saw me as temporary and had a back up plan.'

'I only saw your body as temporary. The way I feel, that will never fade. I would have to return to Mukuro eventually, I am her heir, even though she hates me. I was to mate her, because, well, she felt it looked weak to keep an heir, but not have that strong demon as a mate.'

I stood carefully and dusted off my butt as I walked toward where he stood. I stopped right in front of him. "What about your plans to have little mini fire demons, and whatever the hell she is, with her?"

He looked me straight in the eye. "As a mated pair, I could no longer be her heir. We would need an heir, and obviously, only a child I had sired would be strong enough to take the role. She threw me out, told me never return."

"Like calling off the wedding, but refusing to end the engagement?" I asked, searching him for any signs of falsehood.

"Something like that. I never intended for this to happen." He looked away. He shouldn't have bothered, I could feel the sad remorse.

"She's going to challenge me." I told him in a soft voice.

"I never wanted the two of you to fight. When Koenma told me you were a demon, I almost forgot I hate him and nearly hugged the bastard."

"Ok, let me sum this up, you would have only gone back to her if I was dead, and now that I'm a demon, that unhappy instance is potentially a very long way off, right?" I backed up half a step to create some distance, his emotions were boiling more than they had the entire time I'd known him.

"What I'm trying to tell you is that, since you are no longer doomed with a human lifespan, and had Mukuro not shown up today, I would have taken you aside at some point and asked you to join with me in a demon mating." He stepped closer again and brushed the hair away from my neck.

"And that you see life without me as nothing but duty and power struggles?" I shivered at his touch.

He nuzzled my neck. "I see life without you as very bleak. I have never felt like this, and, if you had stayed human, would likely never feel this again." His words were whispered right onto the junction of neck and shoulder, like he was preparing to mark me right then and there.

He never got the chance, because something grabbed and threw me at the edge of the cliff. I had just enough presence of mind to call up the wind to catch me.

Mukuro tore into Hiei. I couldn't hear her words, but her intent was cast around her like crime scene tape. And I felt every hit and scream as he did. That pissed me off.

I flew into Mukuro as fast as I could get the wind to propel me. "Bitch! Lay off my oni-san!" We tumbled about 75 feet downhill, punching, kicking and pulling hair, like a proper girlfight.

I gained the upper hand and straddled her, pinning her arms with my knees. "Do" punch, "not" punch, "EVER" punch, "treat him" punch punch, "like that" punch, "again!" punch punch punch.

She shifted and threw me into a tree. "Why should I listen to a weak bitch like you?"

I started to power up. I laughed when she got a shocked look when I didn't stop at the level she was expecting. "I may be a weak bitch, but I have more than you will ever gain in your life."

She powered up as well. "I don't need anyone else. I thought that Hiei felt the same, and we could just, watch each other's backs when necessary."

"Baka. Everyone needs what I got. Friends who have their back no matter the cost, and a lover who doesn't give a crap that you're more scarred on the inside than the outside, and would gladly kill anyone who had hurt you to make you that way." I pushed a little when the edge of my aura met hers. It was like pushing aside a beaded curtain.

"And what happens when they turn on you, use you for what you can gain for them?" She tried to push back, but my years of keeping a demon's energy contained caused her to keep losing ground.

"I don't know you, I don't know what you've gone through, but I can tell you that they were not worth your time or any of the emotions you wasted on them then and now." I pushed once more, then set a lightning bolt at her. I had learned it during the battle in the park, one more thing I had to thank those bastards for.

It caused a massive short in her borg bits. She fell to the ground, unable to stand. I hit her with a second, to truly fry the circuts. I wouldn't kill her, not if I could help it. She twiched as the shorted circutry sent shockwaves into her more normal parts. "Finish me."

"Fuck you." I turned my back on her and walked a few steps.

Hiei was in front of me. "No one has ever fought for me like that."

I smiled and caressed his cheek. "Nobody treats MY oni-san like that."

He nuzzled the crook of my neck. "I want to mark you so badly right now."

I nuzzled him. "Then do it. I want you to."

"We mark as equals. You bite me at the same time as I bite you." he licked at the spot he'd be biting.

I spoke the first half of the binding words. "I bind me to you and you to me, from this day until we cease to be."

His teeth slid into my neck and I bit down on him. His blood seeped onto my tongue. It tasted of campfire smoke and ice. I pulled away when he did.

"Where you go, I shall always follow, even to death's door." He seemed to whisper the second half of the binding as if he'd just run three marathons in a row.

"This is all lovely and romantic, but you should really finish me off now. Its not like I'll live very long as crippled as I am." Mukuro sounded like she'd finally stopped zapping herself with her fried parts.

I turned and growled at her. "Excuse me, I don't remember saying you could intrude on my moment with my mate."

She scoffed. "If you didn't want me to interrupt, you should have killed me first."

there, happies. Have you figured out the funeral? Sorry mukuro fans, even after rewatching the end of the series again, I still don't like her. She strikes me as kind of possessive and such.

Wish me luck, I'm interviewing at bartending school tomorrow. (the luck is not for the school, its for the bus and train ride to get there.)