Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Never have, never will.

"Hey, Yukina," I said in greeting, crouching down in the grass beside the ice apparition. She was on her knees, steadily pulling weeds from one of Genkai's flower beds. Kurama worked just a few yards over and Genkai was inside, preparing drinks for the three gardeners.

"Hello, Shyle. How are you feeling?" I frowned slightly, studying the small girl. The way Yukina spoke always made me feel slightly uncomfortable. She was so polite, her words always carefully picked. Every time I had a conversation with the apparition I was left feeling like an unsophisticated slob.

"Actually, that's what I came to talk to you about. As I'm sure you can guess, I feel sore. Incredibly, incredibly, incredibly sore. And I was wondering if you would mind working a little of your healing magic on me. So…" I trailed off unsurely. How was I supposed to go about asking her to heal me? She probably didn't know why I wouldn't let her heal me the last time, that I'd kept my bruises because I had been scared of her, but I couldn't help feeling guilty anyway.

I wasn't even sure what had changed. It wasn't that I knew her any better than I had before moving into Genkai's. I've known Yukina for as long as I've known Kuwabara, two weeks under the same roof weren't going to change how much I trusted her. On the other hand, two weeks were long enough for me to learn to trust demons in general.

Yes, Yusuke was part demon, but he was also part human, and I tended to forget that he wasn't just like Kuwabara or Keiko. Being around Kurama and, more importantly, Hiei had helped me adjust to the idea of demons. I'd known about demons for years, but I'd never had any real contact with demons.

My encounter with Mecca had been formative. It awakened me to the threat that demons can present, but Hiei and Kurama had taught me the exact opposite. Some demons were dangerous, some weren't. The same could be said for humans.

As for why I wanted by bruises healed, there was more to it than wanting an end to the soreness. If I was going to be dating Hiei, I wanted to at least look somewhat attractive and I doubted he found bruises sexy.

"Shyle?"

I shook my head, pulling out of my thoughts. "Sorry, I got a little distracted."

"I'd be happy to heal you."

"Awesome. Whenever you're done here works for me. I'll be inside."

She glanced at me. "I can take a break right now, if you'd like." Turning her gaze to redhead working a few feet down the flower bed, Yukina said, "I'm going inside, Kurama. Would you mind telling Genkai if she asks?"

"Of course not," Kurama answered.

Yukina stood up gracefully, brushing off her knees, and I followed suit. We headed inside together, wordlessly deciding to go to the kitchen. "Where do you want me to sit?" I asked.

"On an elevated surface, please."

"Does the counter work?"

"Yes."

I pushed open the kitchen door, but didn't move into the room. "Would you mind some company, Yusuke?"

The hanyou was seated at the table, stuffing his face with a sandwich. Looking up at us, he said, "Yukina can come in, but you kind of annoy me."

"The feeling's mutual," I replied, grinning at his indignant glare. "Oh yeah, I went there."

"You'll need to take off your shirt," Yukina murmured, causing Yusuke's eyes to widen in alarm.

"What exactly is going on here?"

"I asked Yukina to heal me and she said yes. She needs access to my back. Did you know that being thrown into a tree can do serious damage to one's back?" I asked.

"I do now," Yusuke answered, returning his attention to his sandwich.

Rolling my eyes, I tugged my shirt off, leaving me in my sports bra and running shorts. I'd gone to see Yukina right after fixing things with Hiei, which meant I'd yet to shower or change after my run.

"Why are you shirtless?" I started in surprise and my gaze darted to the windowsill. Hiei jumped down from the sill and studied me, clearly trying to figure out what was going on. His gaze flicked over me, coming to rest on my arms. I watched as he grew pale, his jaw tightening. Puzzled, I was about to ask him what was wrong when realization struck me. Kurama had told him he was hurting me, but Hiei hadn't realized that he had squeezed me hard enough to bruise.

"You didn't know? Shy likes to strip for fun," Yusuke said, glancing at the fire demon. "Are you alright?"

Interrupting before Hiei was forced to answer, I snapped, "You're an ass, Yusuke. Yukina is going to heal me and she needed me to take my shirt off. No biggie."

Yusuke glanced at me for the first time since I'd taken my shirt off and his eyes widened. "You really got banged up, huh?"

"I'll bang you up," I muttered in annoyance, hoisting myself up onto the counter. Yukina stood at me side, reaching out to press her fingers against the bruises on my right arm. I watched as her fingers glowed softly and shivered slightly at the strange tingling her powers caused. I'd experienced the feeling before when Yukina healed my ankle after a few sprains, but I never got used to it.

"What's this about banging?"

Turning my gaze away from Yukina, I saw that her fiancé had joined us. Kuwabara grinned from his seat at the table and leaned forward to slap Yusuke a high five. "Nice, my friend, very nice," Yusuke said, chuckling.

"Kuwabara, we've had this conversation before," I scolded.

"What conversation?"

"The one about keeping your head out of the gutter."

"Ah, right. I hate that conversation. It's a major downer," Kuwabara sighed, hanging his head and pretending to be upset.

Yusuke frowned and shook his head. "I disagree, Shy. The gutter is fun. The more time spent there, the better."

"Spoken like a man," I muttered as Yukina switched to my left arm, leaving my right completely unmarked. Risking a glance at Hiei, I saw that he still looked troubled. I'd have to make sure he knew I wasn't mad. He had been upset and I understood that.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You find references to 'banging' funny. That's clearly guy humor."

"Are you saying that there is something wrong with that?"

"Nope, but it did remind me of something."

"Oh, it did, did it?" Yusuke asked, sounding as though he was talking down to me.

"Yeah, jackass, it did. Where's Keiko?"

"Are you calling my girlfriend a guy?"

"Nope. Now answer the question."

"Don't tell me what to do," Yusuke snapped.

Shooting him a dirty look, I directed my attention to Kuwabara. "Do you know where Keiko is?"

"She's still asleep in your room, right Urameshi?"

"Don't ask me questions!"

"Is he three?" I asked the room at large. "Because it really seems like he is." I was vaguely surprised that Keiko was still asleep. Glancing at the clock, I raised an eyebrow. Normally Keiko was awake by eight, yet it was almost ten and she was still sleeping. "Is she okay?"

"I think she's just a little frazzled by what happened yesterday," Yusuke answered, no longer pretending to be angry. "You put yourself in danger to protect her and she's feeling guilty."

I sighed. "She shouldn't blame herself. You were right when you said I put myself in danger. That was all me."

"Yeah, but Mecca was after her. He only attacked you because you got in his way." I didn't bother arguing with Yusuke. It wasn't the hanyou I had issues with anyway. I needed to talk to Keiko, to reassure her that she had nothing to feel guilty for. When Yusuke saw that I wasn't going to respond, he asked, "So, why'd you need her?"

"Shyle, would you mind turning around?" Yukina asked. Murmuring my assent, I swung my legs up on the counter and twisted around so that I was facing the wall, sitting with my legs crossed. Yukina pressed her fingertips to my back softly and the strange sensation of being healed commenced.

"Well," I said, ignoring how awkward it felt to be talking to the wall, "before all this craziness happened and we were forced to move in here, Keiko and I had a date planned."

"A date?" Kuwabara asked, grinning. "My mind has officially returned to the gutter."

"Are you insinuating that you and Keiko are romantically involved?" There was a mischievous twinkle in Yusuke's eye.

"Of course I am. Why else would we go on a date? We were going to tell you, but Keiko was afraid that it would cause you to spiral into depression."

"She knows me so well," Yusuke sighed, feigning sadness.

"You know what's hilarious about all this?" Kuwabara asked.

"Feel free to go ahead and tell us," I said, grinning at him.

"Urameshi turned Keiko gay, that's what."

"You're aware that it isn't a real date, right?" I asked, eyeing Kuwabara strangely. "We have a movie date, as in two friends going out as friends…"

Rolling his eyes, Kuwabara said, "Yes, I knew it wasn't real. I'm not stupid."

"Just checking."

"Do you see what I mean though?"

"Yeah, it was hilarious," Yusuke said dryly. "Anyway, why does this 'date' matter so much?"

"I think Keiko and I should go into the city and a have a girls' day. Just the two of us." I raised my hand to prevent any of the guys from interrupting. "You guys need to chaperone us, right? To make sure we don't get attacked by demons. I get that and I'm okay with it, but I think that you guys should follow at a distance or something."

"I don't see why we can't come with you two," Yusuke said. I could sense the frown on his face.

"Because your presence would prevent it from being a girls' day."

"My presence would make it awesome."

"I disagree. Look, I know you feel that you need to protect us, but you don't need to do so from right beside us. When I went to my parents, Kurama and Hiei protected me from a distance. Why can't we do the same in this case?"

"You were in one place when you were at your parents. It will be much harder to protect you two when you're in the middle of crowded public areas."

"You really think we'll be attacked in a movie theater. Maybe by some creep who thinks he's going to get lucky, but not by demons. If we are in the middle of a large crowd, no one would be stupid enough to attack us."

"I still don't get why we can't come with you."

"You won't want to be with us. Trust me," I said, grinning at the wall. "Would you like me to list the reasons?" Rather than waiting for a response, I continued without pause, using my fingers to tick off the reasons. "We will be seeing a chick flick, having girl talks, giggling. I could continue, but I'm sure you get the point."

"You're right," Yusuke admitted. "I most definitely don't want to be with you for chick flicks and giggling. Although, being able to hear your girl talks might prove interesting."

"You won't be listening to anything," I replied.

"Nope, but Hiei will."

"What?" I asked, barely resisting the urge to turn around and look at Yusuke. "What are you talking about?"

"If we let you two go places on your own, then Hiei will need to keep track of you to make sure you're alright."

I frowned, not sure how much I liked that idea. "Keiko and I are going to be having conversations we won't necessarily want someone else to hear." Out of the corner of my eye I was able to see Hiei, who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. It was extremely likely that I would want to talk to Keiko about him, although, now that I thought about it, we hadn't discussed if we were dating in secret or not.

Hiei smirked at me. "If you told me to stop listening, I could do so. That way you would be able to have your conversation."

"How would I tell you?"

"All you would need to do was think it and I would hear it."

"Oh," I said, realizing how stupid my question had been.

"That sounds great," Kuwabara said, "except, how is Hiei supposed to know when he can start listening again?"

Frowning, I tried to figure out a way to ensure our privacy. "If I tell him to stop listening, then he can wait half an hour and then start again. Does that work?"

"Hiei?" Yusuke asked.

"Hn."

"Would you please get off the counter so that I may heal your neck?" Yukina requested.

"Sure," I answered, hopping down from the counter. Yukina pressed her fingers to my neck and I closed my eyes, trying to ignore how uncomfortable being healed felt. I listened as Yusuke and Kuwabara started talking, discussing the best place for them to hang while Keiko and I had our day.

Yukina pulled away from me after what felt like ages. Smiling she said, "All done. You should be fine now. If no one else needs me, I'm going to go back outside to help Genkai and Kurama."

"I'll come," Kuwabara said, moving forward to wrap his arm around Yukina. Together the two headed back outside. Hiei muttered something about going to train and disappeared out the window, leaving me and Yusuke alone.

Tugging my shirt on over my head, I took the seat at the table that Kuwabara had occupied a few minutes earlier. "Alright, we need to talk," I told Yusuke. He looked up at me, brushing the last crumbs of his sandwich off his fingers.

"About?"

"I know you and Kurama talked to Hiei," I said, putting it bluntly. "And I'm not mad or anything. Actually, I kind of wanted to say thanks. But," I said, continuing before he could say anything, "I was kind of hoping you wouldn't do it again."

"Why?"

"Because I'll never know if Hiei is doing something because he wanted to or because someone else told him to."

"So you two are dating?"

"I didn't say that. I just want to make sure that the things Hiei does aren't influenced by anyone. Okay?"

"Yeah, I guess. We were just trying to help, to protect you."

"I know and that's why I'm not mad. Just in the future, could you stick to protecting me from the bad guys and not friends?"

"Sure," Yusuke answered, grinning ruefully. "Whatever floats your boat."

I shifted nervously from foot to foot, standing before Hiei's bedroom door. Taking a deep breath, I reached up and knocked on the door. "Hiei? It's Shy."

"Come in."

Smiling, I pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing it behind me. "Hi," I murmured. He was in the process of taking off his shirt and I watched as his muscular chest came into view. Blushing, I looked away and moved to take a seat on his bed. "So, um, I wanted to talk to you about some stuff."

"Hn, go ahead."

"Well, for one thing, you never told me if we're a secret or not," I said.

He turned to face me and smirked. "I've decided that there is no need for secrecy. As you know, I was considering you safety when I wanted to keep our relationship a secret. Since then I've decided that there is no danger in others knowing about us. Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara have promised that they will help me protect you when I can not."

"Okay, so how do we tell everyone or have you already done that?"

"The others are not aware that I am courting you. They only know that I have intentions of doing so."

"That still leaves the question of how we tell them."

"I'm sure they will notice."

"I'm glad you have so much faith because I doubt that Yusuke has the ability to notice something like that."

"He will notice."

"What makes you so sure?"

"You sitting with me on the train tomorrow will make it pretty clear." I raised an eyebrow. I'd talked to Keiko and we decided that we would go into the city tomorrow with the guys as our bodyguards.

"It's supposed to be a girls' day. You and I sitting together would kind of prevent that."

"It will only be on a train. You may have your girls' day after that."

I sighed. "Alright, that works for me. Now, on to the next issue. I'm not mad at you about when you grabbed my arms. I saw your face in the kitchen today so don't try to deny that you're upset about it. It doesn't matter to me. You were angry, still in battle mode, so don't worry about it. Okay?"

"I shouldn't have hurt you," he growled, turning around and beginning to pace. "I was so concerned about protecting you from others that I forgot about protecting you from myself. I will have to be careful. You're human and I should never forget that."

"Don't treat me like I'm fragile. I'm a big girl, Hiei."

"Hn." I sighed, but let it drop.

"And, um…" I trailed off, not sure how to broach my next question. Finally, I decided to just come out and say it. "Why is Yukina so important to you?"

He stopped his pacing, jerking around to face me. His eyes studied me intently. "Why do you ask that?"

"I won't get mad, no matter what your answer is. I just want to know. I've seen the way you react when she and Kuwabara are together and Yusuke said you think your past will drive her away. I'm not even asking about your past, you'll tell me that when you want to. Please just tell me."

There was a long silence, during which I stared at my hands, trying desperately to ignore the way Hiei was watching me. He spoke after what felt like ages. "Yukina is my sister."

My gaze snapped up to meet his. "Your sister?"

"She doesn't know and she never will. When I got my jagan I swore I would never tell her."

"Don't you want her to know?"

"So that she may be horrified by my past? No thank you."

"Maybe it wouldn't matter to her." I didn't add that I wouldn't mind if he told me. It wouldn't change how I felt about him. Yukina had told me on more than one occasion how much she wanted to meet her brother, how much he mattered to her.

"Regardless, I am unable to tell her. I won't go back on my word."

"What would you do if she guessed on her own?"

"Hn, I will deal with that if it happens."

After hesitating a fraction of a second, I asked, "Are you ever going to tell me about your past?"

"In the future, yes, I will. Maybe on our date."

Grinning, I stood up and moved toward him. "When is that date?"

"Friday?"

"Sure," I answered.

He closed the distance between us, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me to him. He pressed his lips to mine, entangling his free hand in my hair. When he ran his tongue over my bottom lip, I opened my mouth, granting him access.

I could seriously get used to this.

AN: Another filler chapter. I'm sorry about that, but it was needed for progression. Next chapter they'll be going into the city, which means there will be a lot of Keiko and Shyle interaction.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. That being said, I have a request of people who favorite the story. If you favorite it, there must be something you like about it, so could you leave me a review and tell me what that is? Anyway, that's all till next time.