A/N: Thanks again to everyone who is reading and especially to those who endured my extended absences.
"But then I was followed by a fox, a flea and a pervert..."
Chapter 27: Teamwork Needed
Hiei dropped to his knees and began clawing through the leaves and loose dirt around the base of the hollowed out tree in the forest by the temple steps. Botan was running after him, half-dressed, calling out his name desperately, but he intentionally ignored her cries. He finally had his full strength and powers returned to him, and, disconcertingly, he also now knew that none of the visions that had been haunting him were the result of illness-induced delusion.
Botan joined him as he uncovered the first chunk of silky-soft sea-green hair.
"Oh my goodness, Yukina!" Botan wailed, stumbling over to Hiei's side.
Hiei continued swiping aside the leaves, uncovering two large chunks of Yukina's hair and then all of her clothing – her hand-stitched blue kimono, her red yukata, her dark blue obi, her sandals and her tabi socks. There were bloody fingerprints strategically placed over her clothing: at the opening of her kimono, the tops of her socks, the heels of her sandals and the fastening of her obi.
"Romanticide!" Botan gasped. "I was right all along!"
"It's lucky that you have other, ample talents, woman," Hiei sharply replied. "Because you're a damn awful detective. Yukina's not dead."
"But her clothes are bloody and she's cut off all of her beautiful, beautiful hair!" Botan sobbed, clutching her hands by her chest as tears began to spill from her eyes. "All this time, you told me she was safe! Why did you lie to me like that?"
Hiei shook his head and stood up. Botan stood up in front of him, glaring at him angrily.
"Yukina hid herself underneath Yusuke's pet pigeon and overheard Koenma talking about the problems in spirit world and demon world," Hiei explained. "She also heard them talking about me. She heard Kurama say that I was in a healing chamber in Mukuro's basement. She wanted to help me get better and she wanted to be sure that no-one else would contract the illness. So she took the sword from the temple and she came out here, to this point in the forest."
"And she stabbed herself with the sword!" Botan said, pointing at Yukina's stained clothing.
"Not quite," Hiei replied. "She's been training with a sword recently."
"…What?"
"She wanted to learn how to fight. She's been doing it in secret. I didn't try to stop her because I didn't think she would ever try to put her learned skills to use. She used the sword to cut the length off her hair and to draw blood."
"So she did stab herself!"
"No, she just broke the skin on her fingertip. She needed the blood to seal the wards. She used that book you gave her from spirit world to find the correct talisman combinations to protect herself. She wrote them on cloth in her own blood to strengthen them and bind them to her soul and to her powers. The bird tried to stop her, but she contained it behind a barrier. She has learned how to create a sound-proof barrier, the bird couldn't even call for help."
"Magic evil bubble!"
"What?"
"The magic evil bubble you made me see! It was the sound-proof barrier trapping Puu!"
"…"Magic evil bubble"…?"
"That's why Puu kept attacking me! He took Yusuke to this exact point in the forest, and this is the exact place where he pushed me out of the sky when I came here with Keiko! He was trying to show us that Yukina's clothes were here! He was trying to tell us what she had done! And those runes you were showing me in my mind, they were the ones she used to disguise herself!"
"…Now you figure it out… Anyway, Yukina mixed up a cloth dye in two mixing bowls, she painted it onto her hair, she dressed in clothing that was not her own, and she did the most stupid thing she possibly could have done."
"…What's that?"
"She went to demon world with the fox, the fool and the pervert."
Botan tilted her head, her eyes rolling up towards the sky in thought.
"Why would Yukina go to demon world with Koto, George and Lord Koenma?" she eventually asked, frowning at Hiei curiously.
Hiei started to growl in frustration, but before he could respond, they were joined in the forest by a dull and plain ferry girl. Botan gasped, pointing at her in amazement.
"All ferry girls have been ordered to return to duty," she told Botan. "King Enma's orders, there is a backlog of lost souls to be gathered, we're all working double-shifts for the next seven days."
"The virus must be under control!" Botan said to Hiei.
"Well at least that's one less complication," Hiei said. "But now we need to get to Yukina."
"Right!" Botan said, holding up her oar. "You know, this is a lovely oar, and I am terribly grateful to Princess Mukuro for commissioning it for me, but it's just not as nimble as my usual oar."
"Why not?" Hiei asked. "Do you need you own oar specifically, or would any oar from spirit world work?"
"Any oar from spirit world would work," Botan replied. "It's the type of wood used, you see."
"Perfect," Hiei said, snatching the dull ferry girl's oar from her hand. "For once spirit world did something useful in a timely manner."
He pushed the oar into Botan's free hand and then took her makeshift oar from her, throwing it down at the other ferry girl's feet.
"Let's go," he said to Botan.
She looked over at the other ferry girl warily.
"I-I am sorry," she said, climbing onto the stolen oar. "I'll give it back, I promise. But right now, I have a much greater need of it than you."
"I'm trying to collect a backlog of lost souls!" the ferry girl argued. "What could possibly be more important than that?"
"I'm going on an adventure!" Botan cried gleefully as she rocketed up into the sky before Hiei was even fully seated at her side.
Hiei cursed and righted himself as they burst through the clouds.
"To demon world?" she asked him.
"No," he said. "To spirit world."
Kurama rubbed his fingers through a handful of dirt. What had become of the spirit world orchard was quite devastating, and, as he looked around the pitiful remains of the once bountiful trees, Kurama could not help but wonder if he had wasted the last week in demon world. It seemed as though the days the team had spent rescuing and hiding the ice maidens would have been much better invested in fighting the problem in spirit world. In fact, he thought to himself, they should never have left spirit world after they had first arrived there upon finding the portal there from demon world.
He stood up and wiped his hands together to clear away the excess dirt. Kuwabara was trying to replant an uprooted seedling, Koenma was walking between the trees with his head down and his hands in his pockets and Yusuke was sitting on one of the few flat tree stumps, looking up at the sky. Kurama started towards Yusuke, but stopped after just one step when he heard a twig snap. He turned in time to bring up an elbow to catch the fist flying towards his head. With the other hand Kurama reached into his hair and retrieved a blade of grass, swinging it around towards his attacker. The blade doubled in length as he brought it around and sliced open a bloody gash in the mid-section of the demon before him, who cried out and leapt back. Yusuke punched the demon in the face, sending him to the ground before ducking down as a second demon leapt at his back.
Kurama glanced back to see Kuwabara cutting down a third demon with his spirit sword and Koenma fleeing from a fourth attacker.
"Where are these bastards coming from?" Yusuke shouted as he kicked down the demon who had tried to attack him from behind.
Kurama took out his Rose Whip and brought it down over the two demons before him. He and Yusuke turned to see that Kuwabara had disposed of his assailant, but Koenma was still trying to out-run the smaller demon chasing after him. Yusuke groaned and started towards Koenma, but Kurama grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Wait, we should make this one talk," Kurama advised when Yusuke turned to him questioningly. "He might be able to lead us to Fumio and Rui."
"Right," Yusuke agreed.
Yusuke ran across the orchard and grabbed the little imp up by the throat, holding him up in the air and squeezing until his flailing limbs weakened.
"Where the hell is Fabio?" Yusuke yelled at him.
"Not quite what I had in mind…" Kurama muttered.
"I'll never tell you anything!" the imp screeched, clawing at Yusuke's hands in an attempt to break his hold.
"Tell me or I'll turn you into lunchmeat!" Yusuke threatened.
"The River of Dreams," the imp choked out. "He sent us here to stop the four of you… But he told us one of you was small and weak. He lied to us!"
Yusuke threw down the imp and turned to Koenma, who was cowering behind Kuwabara.
"Where's the River of Dreams?" he asked.
"In the Valley of Courage," Koenma replied.
"Oh yeah, real funny," Yusuke groaned. "Seriously, where is it?"
"In the Valley of Courage, beside the Mountain of Faith, before the Forest of Truth and after the Spring of Joy!" Koenma insisted.
Yusuke's face dropped.
"Wow, everything in spirit world really is dumb, huh?" Kuwabara asked.
"It is not!" Koenma snapped.
"Well that's one of our two problems solved at least," Kurama said. "Now we knew where Fumio is; but does anyone know where Hiei is?"
The others all looked around themselves before shrugging and shaking their heads.
"He was moving real slow, he fell behind us back on Justice Road," Kuwabara said.
"We have to find him before we go any further," Kurama said. "He may be instrumental in our fight against Fumio."
"Oh my look! It's Kurama! And he's in his foxy form!"
"That's not Kurama, that's Fumio!"
"Who?"
Botan screamed as Hiei leapt from her oar. She quickly shot down after him as he fell towards the gathering of demons below them, but she halted abruptly when he ripped out his sword and began cutting down bodies before his feet had even reached the ground. He was quickly surrounded, but he seemed to be holding his own well enough, and so Botan turned her attention to the silver-haired fox demon, who was backing away from the scrimmage and dragging a bewildered woman in a pale green silk kimono with him. Botan drew out her trusty metallic baseball bat and arced around to approach the fox from behind, inwardly reciting a small prayer that he was not actually Kurama before smacking him over the head with her weapon.
"Quick, come with me!" she called, grabbing the woman's hand.
The woman did not hesitate, clambering onto the oar and tightly keeping hold of Botan's hand as she started to make her escape.
"My name's Botan," Botan said to her cheerfully.
"Oh thank you so much, Miss Botan," the woman said breathlessly. "My name is Rui."
"Why do I know that name…" Botan muttered, frowning in thought.
Before she could figure out why Rui was familiar to her Botan found herself suddenly airborne as her oar was jerked out from under her. She fell into the river, fortunately landing near the middle, where the water was deep enough that she narrowly missed colliding with the rocky riverbed. She fought back up to the surface in time to see her oar and Rui tangled up in a plant and the fox demon glaring across the water at her. She saw a shadow moving beneath the water's surface and then noticed that the same plant that was holding Rui and her oar was reaching tendrils into the water towards her.
Botan took a deep breath and dropped below the water, swimming over to the opposite bank and stumbling out of the water. One green vine began to reach out after her but it stopped short as the river suddenly turned white. Botan looked across at the other side, seeing Rui with one hand on the water's surface.
"Oh, she's Yukina's friend!" Botan whispered out loud as the memory finally returned to her. "Well, that was lucky!"
The fox demon – who Botan assumed was Fumio, as Hiei had suggested – stepped onto the frozen over river but almost immediately slipped and fell down. Botan laughed at him, leaping onto the ice and gracefully sliding her way across with ease. As she reached the other side she leapt onto the bank beside Rui, greeting her with a smile.
"You're very proficient on the ice, Miss Botan," Rui greeted her.
"I love ice skating!" Botan replied.
Rui grabbed her arm and pulled her onto the ice again. Botan started to ask her why, but as Fumio fell at her feet she realised why. They started to move away from him but he grabbed one of Botan's ankles and pulled sharply, bringing her down onto the ice. Rui managed to slide out of his reach, but he was on Botan's back before she could even lift her head, pinning her down to the ice.
"Hey, your fight's with me, Fumio!"
Fumio and Botan both turned their heads to see Hiei leaping from the riverbank. Botan groaned as Hiei hit the ice and promptly landed flat on his back.
"Shouldn't you be good at moving on ice?" Botan yelled at him. "You're from the ice village!"
"Hiei?" Rui gasped.
"From the ice village?" Fumio said. "Well that makes sense…"
"I hate ice!" Hiei roared, placing his hands onto the ice at either side of him.
"Hiei, no!" Botan squealed.
But Hiei ignored her, using his fire powers to rapidly melt the ice. As the ice turned back into water and the river began to flow again, rushing faster than before as the body of water that had been building up behind the ice came rushing through, Hiei, Botan, Rui and Fumio were swept away downstream. Botan fought to stay above water and to get control of her oar whilst Fumio and Hiei began fighting with each other.
"That's not helping!" Botan snapped at them.
"You punched her in the face!" Hiei snarled at Fumio. "This is for Yukina!"
He punched Fumio hard in the face, sending the fox demon under the water.
"Hiei, get over here!" Botan called out to him.
He ignored her, instead diving under the water and dragging Fumio back up. As they broke the surface Hiei made to punch Fumio again, but the fox demon slapped something into his face, and an instant later Hiei's body went limp and disappeared beneath the water.
"Hiei!" Botan screamed.
She turned and tried to dive under the water after him but Fumio caught her. Using one of his plants, he caught onto the riverbank and pulled himself and Botan from the water, throwing her down on the ground and climbing out behind her. She tried to dive back into the water but another plant burst out of the ground at her feet and quickly tangled up in her limbs, holding her in place.
"Let me go!" she cried.
She looked back over her shoulder, seeing one last glimpse of Rui's head before she too disappeared beneath the water.
"It's alright," Fumio said as Botan turned back to him. "Hiei is of no use to me, and the ice maiden expired her use a long time ago. Now you, on the other hand, could still be useful."
Botan screamed indignantly as he stepped up to her and thrust his hands into the folds of her kimono and began rummaging around. She squawked and squirmed in outrage, only slowing her struggle when he finally stopped and took a step back.
"Ferry girl notebook," he said, holding up her notebook. "Useless."
He flung it over his shoulder into the river and Botan wailed miserably.
"Some sort of whistle," he said, holding up the Mystic Whistle. "What does this do?"
"I'll never tell you!" she snapped back.
He cautiously blew into the whistle, stopping abruptly as a terribly offensive noise stabbed at his ears.
"Definitely useless," he concluded, throwing it into the river. "Stickers?"
He held up a handful of Mejiru Shiiru labels, but Botan turned her head from him and refused to tell him what they were. He shrugged and flung them into the river, along with a few other items, until all he held was the Concentration Ring and the Psychic Spyglass.
"This is made of fake gold and therefore worthless," he said, flinging the ring into the river. "And this eyeglass…"
He held it over one eye and slowly ran his eyes over the length of Botan's body, a smile gradually spreading across his face as he did so. Botan began trying to struggle free of her bonds, wriggling her shoulders desperately, which only made Fumio's smile grow.
"Yes, keep doing that," he said darkly. "It makes for a lovely show."
Botan froze as she realised exactly what he was looking at.
"Give me that back, it's not meant for dirty boys like you!" she said.
"This could be useful," he said, waggling the Psychic Spyglass in the air. "As could you. You're coming with me."
He pushed the stolen spirit world item into his hair and then stepped towards Botan again, leaning over her. He paused there, sniffing tentatively at her neck.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, leaning as far away from him as the plant holding her would allow.
"Why do you smell like cherry-vanilla flavour syrup?" he asked. "Not cherry flavour, not vanilla flavour, but cherry-vanilla flavour syrup?"
"Well, not that it's any of your business Mister Nosy Fox, but it happens to be Hiei's favourite!" she snootily replied.
"You're Hiei's lover?" Fumio asked, his top lip curling in disgust.
"So what if I am?" she said.
"Well if you've been rutting with an outcast like that, you're really not any use to me."
Fumio stepped back and his plant unfurled from around Botan and shrunk back into the ground, releasing her completely.
"I-I'm free to go?" she asked.
"I'm not interested in someone else's leftovers," Fumio replied.
"Hey!" she yelled.
"Nor am I particularly interested in listening to your voice any longer."
Fumio threw a powder at Botan's face and she flinched, sneezed and then felt her entire body become heavy. She collapsed to the ground unconscious and Fumio turned around, looking back upstream at what was left of his gang after Hiei had slaughtered more than half of their number. The captain of the Special Defence Force was still unconscious and tied up in their midst, so all was not lost, he thought. He hurried back over to rejoin his group, approaching a toad demon clutching a telescope.
"Where are the others?" Fumio asked him.
"There are four of them," the toad replied. "And Koenma is with them."
"There are four including Koenma?" Fumio asked. "The human, the mazoku, Kurama and Koenma?"
"No, it seems Hiei is on his way back to join them."
"What? That's impossible! Give me that!"
Fumio took the telescope from the toad and looked into it for himself, seeing Koenma with Kurama and the two idiots who had attacked him in spirit world a few days earlier. They were still by the orchard, and, panning across towards Justice Road, Fumio saw a smaller figure, dressed in black, moving towards them.
Fumio snatched the telescope from his eye and looked down the river. He had heard that Hiei was fast, but that seemed ridiculously, impossibly fast – surely Hiei had not awoken, swum to shore and run all the way back to the orchard already. He looked into the telescope again, but again he saw what appeared to be Hiei hurrying towards Kurama's group. Fumio slowly retrieved the Psychic Spyglass from his hair, lifting his head just far enough to allow his hand space to lay the spirit world lens over the eyepiece of the telescope. He then peered through the telescope again, his eyebrows slowly rising at what he saw.
"Change of plans," he said, lifting his head again and turning to address the rest of his gang. "You are all to remain here, and make sure that soldier doesn't wake up, and that nobody takes him from you. I'm going hunting."
"Hunting, Sir?" the toad asked him as he passed the telescope back to him.
"Yes, hunting," Fumio replied with a smile as he stuffed the Psychic Spyglass into his hair again. "I've finished with my last prey, it's time I captured some fresh meat."
He smiled darkly and, without another word, he ran upstream.
"Hiei!"
Kurama dropped to his knees at his friend's side.
"I-I'm fine," Hiei insisted.
"You don't look fine," Kurama sighed. "You look exhausted. Where have you been?"
"Justice Road is quite long, and running all the way was…"
"You look like you've run all the way back to living world and back here again! Why are you so wet? Is that just sweat?"
"Um… There was a rain-cloud."
"I didn't see any rain."
"It was localised rain."
"Localised to you specifically?"
"…Yes?"
Kurama smiled and stood up again, offering his hand to Hiei. Hiei smiled awkwardly and put his hand into Kurama's accepting his help to stand up again. He looked out across the remains of the orchard before looking up at Kurama.
"It looks like the trees were killed with frost crack," he concluded.
"We think that is what happened," Kurama replied. "This is, apparently, one of the reasons Fumio needed your friend Rui. He probably thought that if he took fruits from the trees he could grow his own orchard back in demon world and bribe spirit world with the results. With no trees of their own, they would be at his mercy."
"Can you restore the trees?" Hiei asked.
"I'm afraid not, no," Kurama said. "But Koenma believes that he has the seeds to grow back what's been lost. And even if he doesn't, I'm sure Fumio will, and we can take them from him when we defeat him."
When Hiei did not answer him Kurama looked down at him expectantly, but found Hiei was looking down at their hands, which were still joined.
"When this is over, we need to talk," Kurama said in a low voice.
"Do you promise?" Hiei asked quietly, keeping his head down.
"I should be asking you that," Kurama replied. "You're the one more likely to run off and deny your feelings."
"I don't think you will want to talk to me when this is over," Hiei said softly.
"I need to talk to you when this is over. I need to know that you understand where we stand and how we can move forward."
"I see."
Kurama released Hiei's hand.
"Come on, let's keep going," he said.
Together they walked on in silence until they caught up to Yusuke, Kuwabara and Koenma, who were in the midst of an argument.
"I am right, and the two of you prove both of the points I was trying to make!" Koenma insisted.
"You're wrong!" Yusuke argued.
"I don't know, I think he's mostly right," Kuwabara said. "It probably won't be true about a guy like you, but it's true about most guys."
"Kurama'll agree with me," Yusuke said as Kurama and Hiei joined them. "Hey Kurama, is it true that guys who talk about sex all the time never get any?"
"Absolutely it is," Kurama agreed.
"Damn it, Kurama!" Yusuke snapped.
"It's not true about you though, right?" Kuwabara asked Kurama. "You've never had a girl in that body, but you don't talk about it all the time like Urameshi does."
"But I'm not over-compensating for a shameful lack of experience and understanding," Kurama pointed out.
"Hey!" Yusuke protested.
"So you see I was right," Koenma said. "Those who talk about it all the time, never get it, and those who never talk about it, get plenty."
"What the hell would you know anyway?" Yusuke snapped. "You've never slept with a girl!"
"He's a child," Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei all said in unison.
"But he's still a pervert and he still talks about it all the time!" Yusuke countered.
"He talks about it all the time for the same reasons that you do," Kurama said quietly.
"…Shouldn't we be trying to find Fabio?" Yusuke growled.
The others muttered in agreement and they all started to move on again.
"I'm not supposed to be all the way out here," Koenma said as they walked. "My father would be furious if he knew I was this close to the fighting. But I know exactly where the remaining soldiers of the SDF are stationed, and I want to make sure that you reach them. If we all combine our efforts, it should make getting rid of the invasion faster and easier. And we have to remember that they have two hostages."
"Right," Yusuke said. "They caught the stupid one with the moustache and another miserable ice bitch."
"Yes, indeed," Koenma said.
"How far is it from here to the SDF's stronghold?" Kurama asked.
"They're operating from a dugout near the base of the Mountain of Faith," Koenma replied, pointing to the mountains by the horizon. "On foot, it will take us the best part of a day to reach there."
"Another day?" Kuwabara groaned.
"At least the situation isn't getting any worse," Koenma reminded him. "The virus is under control now in demon world, the ferry girls have been able to return to their duties, and the invasion isn't moving any further into spirit world. For now."
"For now?" Yusuke repeated.
"Well, as long as they don't over-power the officers in the dugout then the situation won't get any worse," Koenma replied. "How could it?"
"You shouldn't say things like that," Kuwabara muttered, shaking his head.
"Why not?" Koenma asked.
"Because whenever someone says things can't get any worse, or any weirder, or whatever, then things always do get worse or weirder or whatever," Kuwabara replied.
"I'll try to bear that in mind, Mister Brightside," Koenma grumbled.
Botan awoke with a groan, pushing herself up and looking about to get her bearings. She was still lying by the banks of the River of Dreams, but Fumio and all his henchmen were gone. She looked up at the sky and saw that it was early afternoon, and she silently hoped that she had only been unconscious for a few hours and not a whole day. She stood up and summoned her oar, flying straight up until she had a decent view of the length of the river. She hovered on point for several minutes as her eyes searched for any traces of any bodies by the riverside – she was hoping to locate Hiei – and, after some time of looking, she eventually noticed one lone figure walking upstream.
She clutched onto her oar and started downstream and downwards towards the ground again, following the flow of water until she was afforded a front view of the person walking towards her.
"Rui!" she called out.
The ice maiden stopped abruptly, looking frightened at first: but, as she spotted Botan, her expression neutralised and she gave a small, meek wave of her hand. Botan shot over to her side, stopping in a hover in front of her.
"What happened to Hiei?" Botan asked her.
"I'm afraid I don't know," Rui replied, shaking her head. "I pulled him from the water, but once he had woken up he ran off and left me behind. He didn't say where he was going. He… He's Yukina's brother. Do you know Yukina?"
"Oh, of course I do!" Botan said brightly. "Yukina is one of my very best friends!"
"Oh that's wonderful news," Rui said, touching a hand to her chest and sighing. "I was so worried. You see, Fumio, the fox demon who was holding me prisoner, he came to the ice village a few weeks ago, and he found out about Yukina. He found out that she was residing in living world, and I feared he might send for her. I tried to do everything he asked of me without complaint so that he wouldn't have a reason to go after her. But if she's safe that's good news."
Botan chewed at her lip awkwardly.
"She is safe, isn't she?" Rui asked nervously.
"Well, that depends what you mean by "safe"…" Botan said slowly.
Rui gasped and fell to her knees. Botan hopped off her oar and knelt down in front of the ice maiden.
"Oh but don't worry!" she said hurriedly. "She's not in any danger, either! Well, at least, I don't think she is. She's not alone at least: she's with a fox, a fool and a pervert."
Rui's breathing began to become ragged, and Botan frowned as she watched her pull a brown paper bag from the sleeve of her kimono and shake it open.
"The best thing to do now is for me to get a communication mirror," Botan said, trying to ignore how bizarre it looked when Rui began breathing into the paper bag. "That way we can call Lord Koenma and Yusuke. They'll be able to help us. So, if you come with me on my oar, I'll take us back to the temple and we can get a new communication mirror, okay?"
Rui nodded, but did not remove the bag from her mouth.
"Okay…" Botan muttered, shuffling forwards and hooking an arm through Rui's.
Botan stood up and helped Rui up at her side. She summoned her oar with her free hand and together they sat down onto it.
"Don't worry Rui!" Botan said, squeezing Rui's arm at her side. "Yukina will be just fine. She's in very good hands!"
The SDF officers, Koenma, Kuwabara and Yusuke were gladly devouring a meal they had managed to scrape together, but Kurama had barely touched his food. His eyes were on Hiei, who had chosen to sit far away from the campfire with his plate, and had not eaten a single morsel. He was sitting in a hollow recess in the side of the mountain, a small smile on his face, his entire being bathed in the pale blue light from the glow-bugs inside the cave with him. His boots were off and sitting beside him and his feet were dipped into the shallow puddle of water in the centre of the cave. Kurama glanced around the others to make sure that they were all suitably distracted before quietly slipping away from them, leaving the welcome warmth of the campfire and making his way into the almost uncomfortably cold cave. Hiei's head snapped around as he entered the cave, his smile vanishing and his eyes widening, the whites of his eyes almost glowing in the unusual lighting.
"Hi," Kurama said, sitting down on a rock by the cave entrance.
There was still a substantial distance between them, but Kurama did not feel that he could move any closer to Hiei, and not just because it was slightly warmer to sit by the mouth of the cave.
"Hi," Hiei replied. "A-are you alright?"
"Yes," Kurama said, holding up his plate of food. "You should eat up."
"So should you," Hiei said, nodding at Kurama's plate.
Kurama nodded and bit the top off of an unpleasantly chewy mushroom. He used the stalk to push the rest of his food around the plate as he chewed before dropping it down and looking over at Hiei again.
"I know it's frustrating that your friend will be a prisoner for another night, but at least by this time tomorrow it will all be over," he said.
Hiei lowered his eyes to the puddle, watching his feet as he wiggled his toes beneath the water.
"Yes…" he said slowly. "Tomorrow it will all be over…"
"And we can all return to normality, right?" Kurama said, smiling awkwardly.
"Yes, I suppose so…"
Hiei moved his eyes to Kurama, watching him from the edge of his vision.
"We can all just go back to normal," Kurama said, his voice lowered to a whisper.
"What if we can't?" Hiei asked.
"Can't what?" Kurama asked.
"Go back to normal."
"Why would we not be able to?"
"I don't know. Maybe something might happen between now and then that could possibly change everything a little bit perhaps."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, I was just thinking that something could happen."
"It sounded like you were thinking about something quite specific happening – though you seem to be skirting around the subject somewhat."
"Why would I do that?"
"I don't know, why would you?"
"You were the one who said things haven't been normal lately."
"Well they haven't been."
"Why?"
"You."
Hiei nodded and Kurama bit the top off of another rubbery mushroom, only remembering how foul they tasted as he began to chew. He lifted his plate to his mouth, intending to spit out the half-chewed remains of the mushroom cap, but stopped when he noticed Hiei watching him intensely. He forced a smile and begrudgingly swallowed the contents of his mouth, lowering his plate to his lap again.
"I'm not what you expected me to be," Hiei said quietly.
"No you're not," Kurama replied, moving his plate down onto a nearby rock.
"I was talking about me, but I know I'm not what you expected of Hiei either," Hiei said.
"That's… A little too philosophical for this time of night and for you, Hiei."
"It's not philosophical, it's literal."
"Right…"
Kurama stood up and picked his way around the puddle before sitting down at Hiei's side.
"It's very cold in here," he said, turning towards Hiei. "And you just don't seem to be getting any better."
He touched a hand to Hiei's head experimentally, expecting to feel that he was overheating with a fever.
"I know it's cold in here," Hiei said, crossing his eyes to look up at Kurama's hand on his brow. "It's cold in here because of me."
"Yes, usually you generate a lot of heat," Kurama said, pressing the tips of his fingers against the strip of bare skin between the top of Hiei's bandana and his hairline. "But since you fell ill, you always seem to be cold."
"There's a reason for that. Kurama, there's something I have to tell you. Something very important. You'll find out tomorrow anyway, but I want to tell you myself and I want to tell you now because I'm scare–"
"Please don't."
"What?"
"Please don't say it. I don't know that you'll like my answer."
Hiei searched Kurama's eyes desperately, as though trying to read the answer directly from his mind without using his jagan eye.
"You-you already know?" he asked softly.
Kurama nodded.
"Are you sure?" Hiei asked. "Because I thought you knew last night, but you didn't."
"We'll always be friends," Kurama began.
"We will?" Hiei echoed.
"Please Hiei, don't make this any harder than it already is."
"But that's what I'm trying to tell you, I'm–"
"I can't return your feelings."
"Oh… Wait, my feelings or his?"
"We've been friends for a long time and I value our friendship, but I don't think I could ever really see you as anything else now. I didn't think you would ever see me as anything other than a friend either – in fact, the thought of you thinking of me as anything other than a friend didn't even occur to me. I had no reason to even think about thinking about such a thought."
"Maybe you think too much sometimes."
Kurama smiled.
"Maybe I do," he admitted. "And maybe you think too little sometimes."
Kurama did not notice that his hand nearest Hiei was stroking the side of his hair until Hiei lowered his head slightly and his fingertips tripped over the jagged ends of his hair. Kurama slowly retracted his hand and turned his head away, trying to keep his mind focused on the task at hand.
"I'm not gay," he said, turning to look directly at Hiei again as he spoke.
"Oh, neither am I," Hiei replied, lifting his head to meet Kurama's eyes.
"There's nothing wrong with being gay," Kurama added. "But I personally prefer women."
"A lot of my people prefer to be with women," Hiei said. "A lot of them are gay."
"But not you?" Kurama asked.
"No, not me."
"Okay."
"Okay."
"So we're okay then."
"I don't think so. I still have to tell you about who I really am."
"I already know who you really are."
"No you don't."
"No I don't."
Hiei frowned.
"Wait, what?" he asked.
"I did know who you are, but lately you've been like a completely different person," Kurama replied.
"That's because lately I have been a completely different person."
Kurama frowned and Hiei shook his head.
"No, I mean I'm a different person from who you think I am," Hiei corrected himself.
"You're confused," Kurama told him.
"Yes, I am," Hiei agreed. "But so are you."
"Yes, that's true. It's because you've been behaving so differently. I don't even feel that we're communicating the same way we would usually do."
"No we're not. We're talking a lot more than we ever have done before."
"Yes we are."
"It's wonderful."
"Yes, it is."
"Really?"
"What? No."
"Oh."
Hiei hung his head low and Kurama then realised his mistake.
"What I meant was that it's unusual," he said. "And confusing."
"But I like talking to you, Kurama," Hiei said, his head still dipped low.
"I like talking to you too," Kurama replied. "And it's been pleasantly easier to talk to you since you caught the virus, but we both know that this current change in you won't last."
"No, it won't. Which is why I have to talk to you now, tonight, before tomorrow comes and everything goes back to the way it was before."
"Isn't that a good reason not to talk about it now? It will only make things more awkward between us tomorrow."
"But this is my only chance to tell you."
"I can't love you back."
Hiei froze, and, although he could see that Hiei was upset, Kurama continued.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I have to be honest with you, for both of our sakes. You're not my type."
"Is this because of Botan?" Hiei asked.
"No," Kurama replied.
"Yes it is. You've fallen in love with her. I waited too long. I was just so scared, of my feelings and of being rejected or ridiculed, that I said nothing. I should have acted sooner."
"I don't think I understand. How long have you felt this way?"
"It wasn't love at first sight."
"Right. Well, no, it wouldn't have been, not under the circumstances in which we met. You were hurt and confused and only in living world by circumstance, and I was still trying to live as a human back then, trying not to get involved with demon world or spirit world affairs."
"Yes. I never really started to think of you fondly until the Dark Tournament."
"The Dark Tournament? Why the Dark Tournament?"
"Honestly, it was when I saw your full demon form. I'd never thought of you as a fox demon before then, you'd always just seemed human, like Yusuke and Kazuma. But seeing you that way, seeing you as the sort of demon who usually hunted my people... It seemed dangerous to even be around you after that, and yet somehow I couldn't stop thinking about you. I guess grandma was right, I am just like my mother, seeking out danger even though I'm not fit to handle it when I find it."
"Wait, the Dark Tournament? But that was years ago!"
"Yes. Like I said, I've waited too long to act upon my feelings."
"All this time you've...?"
Hiei nodded.
"So long..." Kurama muttered.
Hiei nodded again.
"I thought it was just since the start of this mission?" Kurama asked him.
Hiei shook his head.
"Silly of me not to say something sooner, wasn't it?"
"Silly of me not to notice something sooner."
"I hid it well. I was terrified of you ever finding out."
"But now you're happy for me to know, even though you know that I will reject you?"
"I had to try. I had to know for sure."
Kurama nodded.
"Well, take heart, you're very young, you will surely meet another like me before too long."
"I don't think there is another like you. Not now and not in the future."
"It might feel that way now, but give it time."
"Have you ever loved someone who didn't want you? It's..."
"It's okay, I understand."
"No, you don't."
"Yes I do."
"You don't want me."
"No, I do want you."
Hiei's head snapped up and his eyes met Kurama's even more optimistically than before.
"What I meant to say is that you're very important to me," Kurama corrected himself. "I enjoy your company. I find you easy to talk to because you know what it's like to be a demon living in living world."
"I–" Hiei began.
He stopped abruptly as Kurama leaned over him, reaching an arm over his shoulder to brace himself against the cave wall.
"I see you're very close," Hiei said awkwardly.
"I see that too," Kurama muttered.
"Do you know that you have little sparkles of gold in your eyes?"
"I don't know that. Why do you know that?"
"I don't know. I just see it when I look into your eyes."
"Do you know what I see when I look into your eyes?"
"No, what?"
"I see... I, um..."
Kurama leaned closer to Hiei, his eyes drifting shut, and for the briefest moment their lips touched. When he opened his eyes again, Kurama found Hiei's eyes already open wide and staring at him.
"You-you just kissed me," he said.
"Yes, I thought so too," Kurama said. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice."
"Wh-what?"
"That was supposed to be a joke. I'm just trying to forget how awkward this is."
"It didn't feel awkward to me."
"No?"
"No."
Kurama nodded.
"Do you want to do it again?" he asked.
"Yes," Hiei instantly replied.
Kurama leaned closer and this time Hiei tilted his chin up, bringing his lips up to meet Kurama's.
Next Chapter: One fox is confused as fox, the other is just foxing evil. After his shared awkward moment with Hiei, Kurama is left questioning his own sexuality: but not for long, when he receives a call from Botan that is at first confusing but then quickly becomes very enlightening. Angry that he has been lied to and betrayed, Kurama refuses to go anywhere near the source of his ire. Elsewhere, Botan plans her very own adventure and drags Rui along with her, and elsewhere again Fumio finds a new plaything to amuse himself with. Chapter 28 – Tenth Night