What Runs Deeper

a fanfiction by andrivette and psychoheidi

chapter two
"Rest For The Wicked"

Things had been difficult and confusing enough for Kirin for a long time, but the attack had just been icing on top of the cake.

In the beginning, it had all simply started with his replacement. At first Kirin was jealous—but with respect, because somehow that runt had managed to earn the position that Kirin had held for centuries and proved himself more suited to the role. And so Kirin made an effort to observe Hiei, to try to understand just how he was more suited.

And then he realized that he didn't understand at all.

Hiei was far less than the ideal second-in-command. He certainly couldn't be called dutiful, he had a knack for smart-assery, and he could more often be found napping than doing any actual work.

Kirin was, for a moment, irrationally angry at Hiei before reason took over and reminded him of the most important fact of all: that Mukuro, despite Hiei's obvious lack of qualification, had appointed him as her second anyway.

Then he was simply angry at Mukuro, though still it didn't make any more sense. Why, when Kirin had served her so loyally for so many years, would she willingly choose an unruly whelp?

But as time passed, Kirin's anger ebbed when he discovered that little had actually changed. Mukuro treated him as no less of her second than she ever had—and it seemed Hiei was only second in title.

After much deliberation on this concept, Kirin came to a startling realization that he briefly felt guilty for not ever considering before: that somewhere along the line, his Lord's meaning of second-in-command had changed from "person I want to rule under me" to "person I want closest to me."

And then suddenly everything made sense.

From the outside it seemed obvious enough to everyone that the only reason Mukuro had chosen Hiei was for his power, but Kirin knew better than that. Despite power, Mukuro did not let people close to her that she did not trust to some extent—and those that threatened her were quickly disposed of.

Kirin had done less than his best to understand his Lord, and that—along with the fact that he was now not the most trusted—pained him. At the same time, the idea that Mukuro trusted Hiei so much gave Kirin the strange feeling that he ought to trust Hiei as well.

And so Kirin effectively continued his duties as he always had and everyone in the fortress accepted—though perhaps not quite understood—the turn of events. Kirin simply decided that since Mukuro was no longer a king, it didn't have to matter so much what titles they all held, and it was a thought that everyone seemed to adjust to now that they could enjoy being on level enough ground.

But when Mukuro and Hiei both took off without so much as telling anyone their destination and leaving everyone to speculate and gossip, Kirin had become the strongest and most capable apparition left to run the patrol and, consequently, defend the fortress. This was a moment in which Kirin was proud of, because he could prove to Mukuro both his loyalty and capability.

But this, to Kirin's annoyance and disappointment, was a slightly heftier task than he could deal with when several of their men were captured and held hostage. It had only been—mercifully—less than a week when Mukuro and Hiei returned, and the problem was quickly, albiet messily, solved.

But then the very next day Mukuro and Hiei had both been attacked by a stark-raving mad man of their own ranks, and Kirin could not suppress a sigh at that news. There was no telling what his Lord would think of his managerial skills now, and the blame would surely have nowhere but to fall on his own shoulders.

So much for proving himself capable.

To perhaps salvage what was left of his pride, Kirin decided he would take it upon himself to check up on all the men and ensure that they were performing their duties satisfactorily, and so he now found himself roaming the halls of the fortress, aiming first for the training areas so that he could have something of a talk with the men there.

When Kirin rounded the corner, he first caught sight of Hiei standing over a bloodied corpse, sword in hand, and was about to assume the worst when suddenly, on the opposite end of the hall, a group of armed men—their own men—came from nowhere, their weapons fixed on Hiei.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath, cursing his terrible luck and wondering what the hell was going on today as he sped up the hall to join Hiei and, if he could, stop the slaughter that now seemed imminent.

"Hiei," he called, "get back!" Kirin allowed a brief moment for Hiei to obey, or disobey, his request before he conjured a wall of black, energy-sapping smoke between them and the oncoming attackers, and the resulting coughs and startled cries he heard told him his efforts had at least bought them time.

"What's going on here?"

"How should I know what would have led this gaggle of worthless heathens to believe that blindly charging someone who is both their physical and intellectual superior was a good idea?" Hiei said pointedly. "Perhaps you ought to introduce to them to more painless methods of suicide. Or don't. I really don't care."

And then he turned to leave, willing to let Kirin handle the aftermath. How typical.

But then Kirin heard the all-too-familiar splitting sound and sensed the fizzle of power that signaled his smog barrier had been broken through, and Hiei whipped back around to raise his sword in preparation to slaughter whoever came at him like the simple-minded brute he was.

Kirin would have to think fast. Unless he did, it was likely everyone on the other side of the smoke would be killed without a chance to explain himself.

Kirin darted ahead, balling his fist and slinging it into the face of the first attacker. Not only would he have the sight advantage, but it seemed none of them were aiming for Kirin at all—they seemed intent on harming Hiei alone.

As Kirin continued throwing his fists and wrestling weapons away, he called to Hiei, "Are you sure you didn't do anything to piss them off?"

"Are you sure you're not failing to acknowledge the idiocy of fools?" Hiei shot back.

As weapons began falling to the floor in a clatter, three of the attacking demons managed to stumble past their falling companions toward Hiei, and he casually sliced through each of them.

By this point, Kirin had actually managed to get the group of soldiers under control, most of them struggling to remain on their feet or having already fallen.

Seeing that his intended path was now clear, Hiei stowed his sword and began to stroll past the pile of weapons and groaning men when one of them somehow managed to stagger into his path. He easily avoided the punch that was sloppily thrown at his face and planted his own fist firmly in his attacker's gut, sending the demon inelegantly to the ground.

"What the fuck," he said, not bothering to phrase it as a question, and Kirin watched him disappear down another corridor—to Mukuro's room, if he had to guess.

At least only three of these guys were dead—the rest were disabled and disarmed. It could be worse, Kirin supposed. But it still didn't make sense.

In an attempt to clear up the situation, Kirin lifted one of the men he'd struck up from the ground by his shirt and demanded, "Why'd you attack Hiei?"

Instead of a coherent answer, Kirin instead got a gurgle that he assumed was meant to be a growl and a very ineffective punch that he easily dodged, and dropped the man back to the ground.

It seemed like fate didn't feel like making things any easier for Kirin lately.

Hiei busted into Mukuro's room without preamble and found her lying on her bed, presumably having been asleep.

But any notions of social etiquette were far from Hiei's mind as he began to tell her about just what bumbling buffoons the idiots in her employ had proven themselves to be.

"A large group of your men attempted to maul me a short time ago," he began, then added, "Unsuccessfully, of course."

Mukuro merely blinked groggily at him, and so he continued on.

"I don't know why you bother with them," he said. "It is obvious that their mental capacities do not exceed that of a small rodent or perhaps a flea, and unless today has all been some sort of morbid joke at their expense, they are suicidal as well. I fail to see how either of those qualities makes them suitable warriors or allies. But in the likely event that you do not exercise your rationality and decide to keep them here anyway, I would recommend providing them with chores or some sort of child's game for which to occupy their time, because as much as I enjoy slaughtering hoards of foolish simpletons, I would also like to keep the privilege of walking through the halls of this fortress without having my time wasted by petty, half-assed assaults."

Having a hard time believing anyone could not be swayed by that sort of logic, Hiei waited silently for Mukuro's response.

"What?" she said.

There was a moment in which Hiei stared dumbly back at her, that one-word question having wrecked his entire thought process. "'What?'" he repeated disbelievingly.

Hiei suddenly had a headache.

"If this is a poor attempt at humor, I am not impressed," he said, and when she neither confirmed nor denied it, he decided that it must be true, because she would have been just as delusional as her idiot peons if she thought he was going to repeat all of that.

But before he could yell at her, he caught himself and instead ground out, "I suppose your little investigation was a success."

Mukuro had finally taken to her room after long hours of interviewing men with plans to get at least a reasonable amount of sleep despite having turned up nothing to help quell her paranoia.

And so when Hiei barged in, she inevitably awoke, irritated at being disturbed and especially irritated because it was only him, and he immediately launched into a speech that was nothing but a vague drone in her ears and she found herself staring at him dazedly, feeling an odd stirring in her belly accompanying a desire that he would quit speaking to her and come lay with her instead.

Then suddenly he had finished talking, and at that point she realized all she could do was ask what that had been about.

It didn't work.

"If this is a poor attempt at humor, I am not impressed."

No, she simply hadn't heard him. Maybe she really was exhausted. . . .

"I suppose your little investigation was a success."

Mukuro shifted on the bed. "No. I don't know who came into the room last night, but something isn't right. Several," she yawned, "of my men have been acting strangely. I guess it's possible that the guys who tried to take over the fortress put some dumb ideas in their heads or something."

She looked at him again and the longing that he would quit bitching and come to her returned. She just wanted to lie there . . . pressed up against . . . digging into—

Mukuro buried her face into her pillow, attempting to dispel the thoughts as they came, now even more irritated.

"Did you want something in particular or did you just want to stand there and make it hard for me to sleep?"

The room was silent for a moment.

"Hn, fine," she heard him say. "Just try not to lie around all day."

The following afternoon, he returned to Mukuro's chamber after just having been attacked by another round of her men. The behemoth hadn't been around to mediate the situation this time, and so Hiei had ended up killing at least five of the bastards before he made his escape.

Hiei was aware that killing one's own allies was not considered acceptable behavior, but their intent did seem to be to end his life. Besides, he had still not found his sword, and the larger one he carried with him now was much more difficult to control. It was far simpler to just end their lives with it than to find ways to temporarily incapacitate them.

Considering the mayhem overtaking her ranks, Hiei expected Mukuro to be on her feet and prepared to handle the situation, but to his dismay, he found her in the same place he had left her the day before—in bed, her eye closed. He could not tell if she was asleep or not, but he did not really care.

"You've been lying there since yesterday, haven't you?" he said accusingly. "Are your legs broken or is the thought of me skinning and roasting all your subordinates really that boring to you?"

She opened her eye, glared at him for a split second, then shut it again and ignored him altogether. He promptly scowled and decided it wasn't worth another failed attempt at speech with her.

Kirin had managed to confine those men he had knocked out yesterday into a room of their own until he could get a rational explanation out of them—or at least further instructions from Mukuro, but it seemed that since yesterday she had not even come out of her room at all. In such instances, and especially in these circumstances, Kirin was not apt to test her, no matter how much he wished he could speak with her.

So he was left doing only what he knew to do—investigate the situation as best he could and hope he could sort it out on his own.

He asked one of the men he was more familiar with, Susumu, if he knew anything about what was going on, and was only met with irritation.

"Don't fucking ask me," Susumu snapped. "I think you should quit wasting your time."

Some similar discourse told Kirin that his efforts were going nowhere fast.

"You must be joking," were the first words out of Hiei's mouth when he found Mukuro still lounging in bed a day later. This time, rather than attempting to verbally rouse her through insults and promises of homicide, he approached her bed and peered down at her, frowning.

She appeared to truly be dozing—her eye shut, her chest rising and falling with each soft breath. Mukuro's body, however, was caught amidst a tangle of blankets, indicating to him that her sleep had not always been as peaceful as it was now. Her flesh arm lay splayed off to the side, the self-inflicted gash along the length of pale, delicate skin not yet completely healed.

For a second, Hiei felt a mysterious pang of guilt at having ever intended to wake her, but the feeling was swiftly snuffed out. The fortress was her responsibility, and he at least expected a little effort out of her, especially after he himself had been putting so much effort into not obliterating the entire facility.

And he still hadn't found his sword.

"Get up," he commanded, grasping her shoulder. Then he noticed the sheen of sweat coating her face. "Are you ill?"

Mukuro opened her eye, but just barely, and closed it almost immediately.

"Mm . . . no." She laid her hand on his and leaned into his arm, rubbing her face against the sleeve of his cloak, and Hiei allowed it, too confused to think of pulling away.

Soon she had stopped moving again, presumably having drifted back into sleep, and at this point he removed his hand and quietly left her to rest.

Today Kirin had to lock Susumu in the room.

He hadn't been expecting the attack, and surely not from Susumu. Maybe the guy could be irritable but he surely wasn't irrational. But today had proved him wrong.

There was no telling what was going on now, and it had begun to seriously worry Kirin. He had to find Hiei. That was his best bet at reaching Mukuro.

Hiei's arm tingled pleasantly as he made his way down the corridor. Perhaps this ordeal would work itself out without her help. And maybe if she had less men to deal with at the end of it, her job would be easier. Maybe—

"Hiei."

He turned, his expression souring at what he saw.

Presumably the pair of legs and torso standing there were attached to a head, but Hiei did not bother to look up at it. Instead he continued to walk, hoping that he wouldn't be followed and inwardly groaning when a large shadow fell over him and equally large footsteps fell into stride beside him.

"What do you want?" Hiei snapped. "And make it quick, I'm busy."

"I locked the guys that attacked you in a room," he summarized. "But things are just getting worse. I keep having to stick more of them in there. Something strange is going on, and we need Lord Mukuro."

Before Hiei could remark, he continued, "And since she's been in her room, you're the only one that can speak to her."

"You have a brain, don't you?" asked Hiei. "Surely you're capable of dealing with a bunch of worthless heathens by yourself. Now leave me alone."

Hiei was just about to pick up pace in order to lose him when another of Mukuro's soldiers, a deranged look about it and saliva glistening on its jaw, stumbled from the adjacent hall and fell flat on its stomach several feet in front of them. They both stopped and watched as it made one weak attempt to climb to its feet before collapsing completely and falling silent.

Hiei groaned, aloud this time.

The lumbering fool crossed his arms smugly. "That's exactly what I mean."

"Hn, they've always acted this way," Hiei said. "It's not my fault that you've been too unobservant to notice until now."

He strode past, but the demon on the floor suddenly reached out and grabbed hold of his ankle, making some sort of filthy gurgling noise as it looked up at him with distant, tired eyes.

It took all of his self control not to kick its face in.

With a frustrated snarl, Hiei freed his foot and stepped away from the pathetic creature. The truth was that he was at a loss. He couldn't make Mukuro deal with this until she was ready, and Hiei had no idea when that would be.

"Mukuro is sleeping," he finally said, staring at the lifeless body on the floor.

After a pause, the behemoth finally said, "Just do what you can," then picked up the still man with a sigh and walked away.

—.—

The halls were quieter when Hiei visited Mukuro the next day, and he hoped that it was because she had gotten her act together and resolved all the chaos amongst her ranks overnight.

He was disappointed at what he found.

Mukuro was still in bed, though both her eyes were open.

But even after Hiei walked into plain view, she did not look at him, only stared dazedly off at the far wall, a distant expression on her face.

He sighed. "Since my mental and physical well-being is not enough incentive for you to get out of bed, you should know that over half your men have gone certifiably insane and the bald mammoth is tired of looking after them," Hiei said. "He would appreciate it if you stopped being a lazy whore."

"I'm cold," she said in return. Then, "Hey, get me a blanket."

For the second time in recent days, something Mukuro said had completely shattered Hiei's thoughts.

What was worse was the abundant clarity that she was being utterly serious.

He scowled at her. "Get your own damn blanket."

Mukuro frowned but didn't miss a beat. "Come here and lay with me, then."

"And encourage your disgraceful behavior?" asked Hiei, something about the tone of her voice having irritated him further. "It's clear that you are well enough to walk, so stop being difficult, get up off your ass, and deal with your responsibilities. After that, you can piddle away the next thousand years lying around, for all I care."

"Fine, then. Go away. I'm tired." Mukuro turned back into her blankets, obviously intent on ignoring all further attempts at conversation.

As if that would work.