Kurama yawned loudly and pulled Hiei closer, spooning with the fire demon, "I won."

"Yeah, whatever." Hiei grunted.

"I did," he chuckled. He trailed his fingers along the muscles in Hiei's abdomen.

Hiei shifted to roll onto his back, watching Kurama, "Fox," he asked softly.

"Hm?"

"Is this going to work?"

"I don't know Hiei, but I know I'm sexually attracted to you too, and I know I've felt very close to you ever since you came into my life." He reached up and ran his fingers through Hiei's hair.

"Maybe we can get off this damn island," Hiei touched Kurama's shoulder, drawing designs on it.

Kurama watched his finger, curious what he was drawing, "We'll get off of here one way or another Hiei, of that, i have faith."

"Good." Hiei smiled, "But next time we get you drunk, one of us is not getting drunk."

Kurama laughed, "There's nowhere else like this in my past Hiei." His smile fell and he sighed heavily, "It's not very often I feel this way either." He rolled onto his back staring up at the thatched roof.

Hiei followed him, half laying on his chest, playing with his hair, "Do I need to get you drunk?"

Kurama wrapped his arms around Hiei's waist, lacing his fingers together, "No, I just need time with it."

"Alright Fox." Hiei rested his head against Kurama's shoulder and sighed, closing his eyes.

After about an hour of Hiei feigning sleep, listening to Kurama's heart, he felt his breathing shift into quick inhales and pauses before he exhaled slowly. He felt some of his muscles twitch and tense as the fox struggled with himself.

"Fox?" Hiei opened his eyes, "Fox, I'm here." He looked up at him and saw how wet his eyes were, and the distraught tautness of his face as he tried to bite back the pain.

"I shouldn't have thought about it," he whined, letting Hiei go. He pushed him away and sat up turning his back on him and digging the heels of his hands against his eyes, folded over.

"It's alright Fox," Hiei sat up and touched his back gently, rubbing at his shoulders.

The fox's tail wrapped around his waist and he let go of his breath, gasping for a bit as his lungs filled with air again.

Hiei sighed and rested his cheek against his back, wrapping his arms around Kurama, "It's okay Fox."

"She's gone Hiei," Kurama broke, crying. "She's gone."

Hiei nodded, "I know Fox, I know she's gone," he tightened his grip.

That didn't help stop Kurama's tears, but he did grab onto Hiei's arms with a death-grip.

"She's gone, but she wouldn't want you to dwell on it, she'd want you to be happy," Hiei frowned, he'd seen someone do this, and it had seemed to work, but he was skeptical with Kurama.

"I know she'd want me to be happy but how can I be!" Kurama snapped loudly. "I miss her. I miss her so much Hiei."

"I miss her too Fox." Hiei squeezed him.

"I know, I know you do. I just, I feel like someone's gutted me like a pumpkin and then taken a bat to me and left me out in a storm."

"Wherever she is Fox, she's at peace, and she's thinking about her smiling son."

"Stop trying to sound like a condoling human," Kurama snapped. "We know what's really happening Hiei. We know what happens when we die. She doesn't have any crimes to pay for so she is going to be reborn, tossed back out onto this world in some body that will never know us, and could never remember."

"But just remember what she told you, before she passed away." Hiei winced, "It hurts, but," Hiei sighed, "I don't know how to help you Fox. I can't, tell you it's better."

"You don't need to, Hiei. You don't need to help me. I need to just, just get it out of my system. It's an emotion, and it's going to be there for a while."

Hiei nodded against his back, "But Fox, I do think, for whatever time she spent at peace, she probably just thought of you, if that helps."

He sighed, "It doesn't. You remember," he frowned and sat up enough to look over his shoulder, spying Hiei's hair, "You remember the first time I almost lost her?"

Hiei nodded.

The fox dragged Hiei out from behind him and lay across the bed, pulling Hiei down with him so they were laying together. "I was so, upset, so frustrated that inevitably she would die before me. I just, couldn't take it. I had to find something that would fix it."

"Fox, any human parent thinks their child needs to live longer, and not die first."

He sighed, "I know, but I wasn't thinking like a human. I was thinking like a demon, caring for this fragile girl who barely knew the shadows."

"She lived a long life Fox."

"I did everything I could to make it longer," he swallowed and met Hiei's eyes, wrapping his arms around his stomach. "Everything. I tried everything I could think of that wouldn't outright turn her into a demon. This time, just like last time, I couldn't give her up. Eventually, I nearly turned her, but Yusuke caught on to what I was doing. He stopped me, beat some sense into me." Kurama sighed heavily.

"I don't think she'd be happy as a demon," Hiei shrugged.

"No, she wouldn't have been. I was just so, so deep in denial that I couldn't imagine a life without her. I couldn't grasp her mortality."

"It's hard," Hiei agreed, "I've been thinking about when the oaf will die, what Yukina will do."

"She's trying to convince him to take the Makaiko root."

"I don't think he will, some kind of stupid honor code of his." Hiei huffed, "Or Keiko. Shizuru," he sighed.

Kurama sighed too, and reached for the little fire demon. He slipped his arms around his waist and shifted over so they were closer. "I know Shizuru won't take a Makaiko Root, she's too headstrong."

"Shame really, she'd make a great demon, strong enough to kick Enki's ass."

Kurama chuckled, "I've offered it to her, she just, believes in generations."

"Stupid girl." Hiei sighed.

"Well she does have children."

"It'd be hard when they died, but she'd get so angry she'd take over Demon World."

"She might just do that for fun. I've considered just infecting her with it anyway, see what happens. Brew a special tea."

Hiei chuckled, "I want to see that."

"I offered it to her lineage too, her, her husband, her kids," Kurama shrugged. "She said 'The reason I'm so strong is because I'm mortal and you bastards get lazy after about twenty years.'"

"It's hard to imagine such mortal things can have such strong souls." Hiei mused.

"Yeah. Yusuke and Keiko are resigned. Yusuke sees her death coming, and so does Keiko, and Keiko, I don't know, she's just, accepting it. She keeps setting Yusuke up with things, like making him spend more time here, forcing him out to join us."

"That'll be painful to watch when she dies."

"Yeah. I think, the hardest thing about mortality is that you see it coming. I mean, here, in Demon World, you could die at any time. Any movement you make is a risk, so it's easier to just keep moving because even if you don't move, you could die. There, there the enemy is time. There's no chance to it. After a certain point, you die, and you know that's going to be between seventy and a hundred years."

Hiei sighed and shifted, leaning up to kiss Kurama, "Maybe you should just infect the oaf, Keiko, and Shizuru so we don't have to go through all of this again."

"I don't know if they're strong enough to take the transformation any more Hiei. I'm afraid Keiko's last pregnancy was too much for her, and Shizuru, despite her strength of will, is already growing frail in her bones and body. Kuwabara," he sighed, "His younger days have started really catching up with him."

"That's depressing."

"Yeah." Kurama stole a kiss.

Hiei sighed and nuzzled into him, "Let's go to sleep Fox."

Kurama sighed, "Alright, and when we wake up what do you want to do?"

"Eat breakfast?"

"Well we don't exactly have eggs here. I'm afraid the hen-house is empty."

"Find breakfast."

Kurama chuckled, "Yeah, that will probably be on the agenda."

"You can make breakfast."

"Yeah, it looks like the plants in the garden survived well."

Hiei frowned, "Was this your place?"

"Hm? My, uh, my place?"

"You were here before, was this your place?"

Kurama swallowed nervously, "Um, yes. Yes it was. It's not quite how I left it though. Apparently there have been some other foxes on the island."

"Other people probably took it over. It's a nice place."

"Yeah, I had it all self-contained and everything for a long time."

Hiei yawned loudly.

Kurama laced his fingers through Hiei's hair.

"Night Fox."

"Goodnight Hiei."

Kurama woke to Hiei's lips teasing at his neck, and a stinging every time they touched. He groaned and peeled his eyes open, his throat felt rather raw, and strained, so he just shoved Hiei back with a hand on his shoulder, and glared.

"Morning Fox," Hiei grinned down at him.

Kurama yawned, "I'm not getting up yet." He turned over, groaning as he felt the tenderness in his legs and stomach.

"Why not? We need breakfast."

"I'm going to make you fat if I keep feeding you all the time."

"I like food Fox."

"Then go make yourself something. I need more sleep." He pawed about for a blanket, and pulled it over his sore body.

"You want food?"

"No, I need to recover more. You were really rough with me last night. I ache."

"I thought you liked pain."

"I'm not a masochist Hiei. I enjoy a little, challenge, but that's about it. I don't enjoy it being easy, but I'm not a fan of recovering from sex because my body's black and blue."

"Hn," Hiei got off the bed, "You seemed to like it."

"Tch. I'm going to have to teach you to recognize that better." He cuddled with a pillow and fell back to sleep.

He woke up to the fire demon trailing a fingernail down his shoulder. "Hiei, if you're leaving more welts I am not going to be happy with you," he huffed as he pulled his eyes open.

"Mm, no Fox, no welts."

"You know I have a name, right? It'd be nice if you used it once in awhile." He sighed and sat up, He felt mostly better. That was too snippy, he needed to amend the statement, but he couldn't decide how. He know it was a pet-name, an endearment, but Hiei had always used it like he used 'oaf' and 'detective' and despite those two being his friends too, he wanted the respect that 'Mukuro' got because he didn't call her by some nickname, just, 'Mukuro.'

"Fine, Kurama," Hiei licked at a bite mark on his arm, nibbling at the skin there.

Kurama yelped when when Hiei hit a tender spot and pulled away.

"God Fox, if you do that again I might have to bite you more." Hiei grinned.

"Hiei," Kurama said warningly, "that is not my desire."

"No? You really don't like it?"

"No, but apparently me yelping gets you horny, and that is going to be a problem because I only yelp when you've hurt me. It's supposed to convey that I don't like that, and I trust you enough to share that I don't like it."

Hiei sighed and leaned back, "I like your taste Fox."

"Well then, by all means, we can kiss, but, you're …, you've got to be gentler."

"I like it rough Fox."

"I like it sensual."

"I like that too, but I also like the roughness."

"Once in awhile, I'm fine with that, like when I'm really frustrated or I've not had sex in a while, but, I mean, I don't see that being very often."

Hiei sighed and licked at his lips, "Hn."

"Yeah no kidding," Kurama sighed, "It's a bit of a conundrum that we don't match up."

Hiei shrugged, "Yeah, it is. I'm self-evaluating when I say this, but I think my lack of age and experience make me like the rough."

"Probably in part." Kurama reached out for his hand to pull him closer, "I mean, you are a fire demon and you've been rough all your life. It's understandable that you like the control."

Hiei took it, scooting closer, "It's sexy watching you squirm Fo-Kurama."

Kurama smiled and wrapped his arms around Hiei cradling him against his chest, "And I think it's sexy as hell to see you vulnerable side." He sighed and stroked Hiei's cheek gently.

Hiei sighed, "Fox, as much as I like you, I don't know if this will work."

"Looking at our sexual desires, probably not. I mean, I love you, Hiei, but if we don't match up with what makes us get off, we probably will end up fighting too frequently to enjoy each other after about half a decade."

Hiei nodded, "Do you want to go back to Asagi?"

"No, I'm afraid not. She gave me up for you, and I'd rather have someone who had the desire to fight for me rather than the compassion to let me go. Maybe if I don't find someone else, I'll go back to her and let things play out, but," he shrugged, "There are two other people on this island my tribble thinks I would pair with."

"Yeah? I think I have two people too."

"The damn things are probably rigged to pick the top four most likely candidates."

"Probably, or our writers are cruel as fuck."

"Well we know that they are," Kurama chuckled.

"Yeah, pft, fucking writers."

"Yeah." Kurama kissed Hiei's cheek. "Well, let's go find the next ones." Kurama tried to get out of bed and groaned, "Okay, maybe not today." He sighed heavily and lay back down on his stomach.

"Want a hot bath Fox?"

"A hot bath, a massage, and some energy, yes please. Freaking sadist."

Hiei got off the bed with a chuckle to start a bath.

Kurama held up his tribble, listening to it's purrs. He'd mostly healed from his adventure with Hiei, but he still had a few lingering bite marks and scratches. He found the loudest purr direction, inland on the island, and headed that way after confirming with Hiei.

"There must only be four or five towns for so many to have a girl for each of us," Hiei commented as they came to the edge of town. This one had to be the town which produced electricity. It was laid out around a waterfall with a turbine and wires from all sections of the island leading up to it. It also had the most built-up infrastructure and stable looking buildings.

"Probably, this seems like a more industrial town. Whomever we meet here will probably be some kind of demon that can build things, earth, electricity," Kurama shrugged, "Could get interesting."

"Are we going to split up again?"

"I think that'd work to our advantage, we can meet back here like last time."

"Alright, sounds good to me." Hiei held up his tribble to check which side of the city he needed to go to. He jumped off once he caught a direction, and made his way to the western outer edge of town near the entrance to a cave system. He landed at the entrance and looked about for whomever it was he was supposed to be seeing, but he couldn't see anyone nearby. Confused, he moved towards the building, but the tribble quieted, so he moved towards the mine entrance, and again, it quieted. Going back to the courtyard, he tried other directions, only to find that the center of the courtyard seemed to be the loudest place, and yet, no one was around.

Eventually a woman appeared from the mine, "Are you the one making the noise?"

Hiei glanced at the woman and frowned, "The tribble noise, yeah." He backed off a step to give her space without marking her.

"Huh, who are you?" She was his size, covered in dirt and sweat with her boobs nearly falling out of the corset she wore as she shifted in her spot.

"Hiei, I'm newly stuck."

"Ah, Armorda Ray," She offered. She went over to a sink that ran out into rock pile, and started rinsing off the dirt.

"Are you willing to get marked with me?" He called out.

"Sure." She nodded.

He stepped over to her. "Alright. You're a miner?" He didn't see any tools, but she could have left them in the mine, or she might be a demon that could pulverize rock with her hands.

"Yes, a metal demon."

Or just suck the metal straight through the vein, he amended. "Oh, I haven't met one of your kind before. I'm a fire demon."

"I've met plenty of your kind," She chuckled, "We're not too common." She turned to face him, her boobs shiny with water.

"We are," He offered, stuffing his hands in his pockets and examining her eyes. They were an odd purpley shade.

"You are. So, did you track me down with that damn beast?" She pointed at his tribble.

"Yup. I have a friend who's tracking someone else down in town too. We're supposed to meet back up in an hour or so if you're willing to come with me."

"Yeah, I could use a break."

"Did you run the cables on the island?" Hiei asked as he began to lead her away at a walk.

"Most of them, yeah. I've had some other people help out who were knowledgeable with it."

"You do good work. You'd be valuable as an asset to set up communications with Human World off the island."

"Yeah? When I get off the island."

"Hn, I'm getting off one way or another even if I have to kill every last tribble instantaneously."

"Good luck with that," She chuckled.

"I don't need luck, I have the dragon."

"Oh, hey, you're that Hiei," She nodded.

"Yes, I'm that Hiei." He huffed.

She chuckled, "Sorry, I meet so many people it just," she shrugged, "A lot of people get jewelry from me, you might've seen some of it in Market Town."

"Well if it was in Market Town, the Fox might have stolen some of it."

She growled, "Damn foxes."

"No, he's that fox."

"Oh! That Fox," she sighed, "Well, he can keep it," she laughed.

Hiei chuckled too. "What does it look like, I can tell you if he thought it was good enough quality to bother stealing."

"Depends, I've done some different series."

"I guess you'll just have to ask him." They reached the meeting place first and Hiei leaned against a tree watching the town from their place on a cliff.

"So, how'd you manage to get stuck here?"

"Drunken stupidity, you?"

"I was chasing after someone who stole an expensive item from me and got here. I found them and trapped them in a metal sphere and killed them," She shrugged.

"Hn." He crossed his arms, debating how they might be able to use that to escape.

"So, Hiei, what are you into?"

"Getting off the island. I haven't been here long enough to demean myself to a hobby."

"Mm, well, burning tribbles?"

"A good pastime."

She chuckled and pushed her long dark hair back, "Yeah? I like smashing them."

"Hn." This girl was chattier than Trisha, but quieter than Daisy and decidedly not Kurama.

She glanced at him and sighed, "So, any luck so far, are you just finding your matches or what?"

"I've had three matches and here I am?" he wasn't sure what she was talking about.

"Mm," She nodded.

"You?"

"Tch, ten?" She shrugged, "Most of them stayed for awhile but didn't like me after some time."

"Why?"

"I have a bit of a masochistic streak and they didn't like it."

"Hn."

She glanced at him and chuckled, leaning against the tree with him.

"My last mark got a bit peeved that I liked to hear him scream," he commented quietly.

"Ooh," She grinned, "I like screaming."

"Hn." He wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that.

"So, how long you think this foxy boy will take?"

"Probably not much longer."

Kurama followed the purrs from his tribble quickly, making his way through the town to a clean white building. He sighed and opened the door, stepping into a waiting room. He frowned and glanced around, no one else was in the room, so he flared his energy, holding his tribble up to ensure this was the place. It was, with the loud purring answering him. "Hello?" He called.

A strawberry blonde woman stepped out of an office and smiled, "Well hello there," She held up a fluffy white tribble that was purring. "Come on in." She left the door open and retreated inside.

"Are you okay with being marked?" He followed slowly.

"Yes, of course." She took a seat in a plush chair beside a couch and gestured to the couch, "What's your name?"

He took a seat, "Kurama, Youko Kurama."

"I see, that gives you some anxiety to tell me that." She commented.

"I'm not here for help, I'm here because I'm trying to get off the island."

She nodded, "Aren't we all? My name is Rose. I'm an empath here on the island."

"I figured as much when you said I had anxiety."

"Well I don't like keeping people in the dark for long about my abilities."

"Apparently."

"It tends to lead to resentment," she leaned on the arm of her chair, studying him closely.

"Uh huh. So Rose," he smiled, "Uh, what's up?"

"Oh, same old same old, you?"

"Healing," he chuckled.

She frowned, "Healing? I mean, I can see that you're deeply wounded, but that seems to be rather well buried right now."

"No, like, physically." He sighed, "I don't want to talk about those wounds, the mental ones."

"I can see that, and that's fine. I'm sorry I brought them up, I was just a bit confused about your purpose of saying that."

"So, what do you do here?"

"I help people with emotional problems and mental pain. There's a lot of rape on this island that damages people's self-image, and emotional torture since they can't torture them physically." She leaned forward on her crossed legs.

"Heh, if you say so," He crossed his arms, "So you can rape people here? Huh."

"Oh most definitely. The tribbles actually seem to cultivate that sort of environment."

"Beasts."

She nodded again.

"What are your pastimes?"

"Aside from helping people? Oh lords, um," she sat back, "You know, I don't have much but that."

That was discouraging, "Uh huh?"

"Before I came here, I used to do all sorts of things, but this has been rather all-consuming."

"I see."

"It would be nice to get out of here and just be able to enjoy a day alone, honestly," she laughed.

"I need to meet up with a friend soon, would you like to come with?"

"Sure." She stood and tucked her tribble into a pocket.

Kurama stood as well and offered his hand to her with a soft smile. He lead her out of the office and sighed when they were on the street, "So," he offered.

She kept close to his side, "So indeed, where are we meeting him?"

"Near the edge of the town, on a cliff." She wasn't one for conversation apparently.

"You feel like you're, um, may I ask why you're still on the island?"

"Well, the person I love is a little too rough with me so we split it off, he's the person we're meeting." Kurama pulled up a sleeve to show her a bite mark.

"Oh, ouch, that looks like it hurt," she frowned, "It's interesting. I wonder if… hm. Actually that explains something for me. The tribbles must be much more empathic than they are telepathic. I mean, obviously they feed on love, but I always figured it was thoughts of love rather than the actual emotion."

"It did hurt," Kurama huffed, "The tribbles can go to limbo."

"Agreed. I've been trying to determine the best way to infect their food source and kill them through poison."

"I knew someone who was also trying that, or, really, Hiei knew her."

"I'm not talking about a physical food source, I'm talking about their love food, the stuff they're really after."

"Oh." Kurama frowned.

"I've tried a lot of different experiments with manipulating the emotions towards the tribbles, but it's been difficult because their collective mind is closed to me."

"I wish rather than squeak they'd scream when they die," Kurama offered, giving his tribble a squeeze, making it squeak, "I'd expect they're hard to crack."

"Yes, they are," She sighed.

"Have you cracked one? Like, just one?"

"No, unfortunately not. I haven't managed to crack any of them."

"There's a girl over in the market town that bred a white and brown tribble, maybe her breeding experiments can help you?"

"Actually," Rose sighed, "The closest I've come to cracking this conundrum is by removing all emotion from a patient at one point because they asked me to, in order to see what it would be like. Their tribble, reacted oddly, but I wasn't able to continue the investigation because I can't exactly remove my own emotions or I might not put them back and that would be bad."

"Did their tribble free them?"

"Well, no, not exactly, but it started squirming and moving about like it was trying to search for them."

"What if you tried near the edge?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. I'd like to try withholding someone's emotions for an extended period of time to see what the tribble does."

"If it'd help people get off this hell I'd be willing to help."

"Alright, we'll try it later."

Kurama nodded as the cliff neared and he led her up it, "I don't know who he's found," he told her quietly.

"I believe her name is Ray something, like Ray Iron or something."

"Huh," Kurama frowned.

Hiei heard them approaching and they met together closer to the way down than the meeting spot, "Kurama, this is Armorda Ray."

Kurama examined the woman for a moment and chuckled, "This is Rose."

Rose nodded, "It's a pleasure to meet you Hiei. I've uh, heard a bit about you," she glanced at Kurama and smiled.

Hiei frowned, "Why?"

"I told her you bit me," Kurama chuckled, "She might be our key to getting out of her without falling in love with someone," He offered.

"I'm an empath."

"I'm a metal demon," Armorda grinned, placing her hands on her hips.

Kurama chuckled, "Always the fancy ones Hiei."

Hiei rolled his eyes, "Are we going to plan how to keep in touch or just talk about the obvious?"

"Do you two know how far away you live from each other?" Kurama asked Rose.

"You live out by the mines, don't you Miss Ray?"

"I do," She agreed.

"Then pretty far. I live close to the center of town, actually where you found me Kurama."

"Hm. We could meet up once a week or so," Kurama offered, "Maybe twice?"

"That won't be an issue for me," Armorda shrugged.

"Sure, I don't mind getting out of the house for a while."

"Good, so that's settled." Kurama nodded. "Where will we meet?"

"Well, my place is rather compact, so it might be best to meet elsewhere." Rose declared.

"We can meet in my place, I can make it as roomy as I want." Armorda shrugged.

"Alright, what days?"

"Hn, It's not like you're going to be interrupting anything Fox, just come over."

"Alright, we'll work it out on our end then." Kurama nodded.

"Is that all we needed to talk about?" Rose asked softly.

"I don't know, Hiei, any outstanding questions?"

"No."

"Then we're probably good."

Hiei nodded, "Alright. I'll see you when you stop by, Fox."

"Alright Hiei," Kurama smiled, "I'll see you later."