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

"Whatever it was that Kurama made you soak in smells really good."

I shot Keiko a look and rolled my eyes. "So says the one that didn't have to sit in cold water for thirty minutes."

"The ritual called for a cleansing bath. You can't be mad at Kurama for that," Keiko admonished.

I chose not to respond, wincing as she pulled particularly hard on my hair. Keiko was French braiding my hair, not because it was necessary for the ritual, but because she had wanted to. When she suggested it as a way to pass the time while we waited for Kurama to be ready for me, I had been excited by the idea. My feelings had already changed significantly and she wasn't even halfway done with the first braid.

The bath we were discussing had been part of the ritual. Kurama had claimed that it was for cleansing purposes, but I thought he got sick pleasure out of making me get all pruny and wrinkled in a tub of water that barely passed for lukewarm. Still I had to admit that the leaves he had crushed and dropped in the water smelled rather nice.

It was currently Hiei's turn to suffer through a very similar bath, while Kurama prepared the next step of the ritual. The redhead was in the kitchen with Yusuke and Kuwabara, who both found the whole ordeal hilarious.

Sighing, I shifted my position on the floor, trying to find a more comfortable way to sit. "Stop it," Keiko scolded. "It's hard enough to braid your hair without you wiggling around."

"Feel free to stop at any time," I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest moodily.

"You complain like you're two years old."

Rather than starting an argument, I changed the subject and said, "Do realize what this means for all of us?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The ritual. You do know that it can fix all your worries about mating Yusuke, right?"

"I've been meaning to talk to you about that," she murmured, looping a hair elastic around the end of the braid she had just finished. I expected the sharp tugging to begin on the other side of my head, but it never did. Twisting around, I saw Keiko sitting with her hands in lap, her eyes squeezed closed.

"You okay?"

"Better than," she answered after a second. She opened her eyes, meeting my gaze, and added, "After Kuwabara left your apartment yesterday, he rushed over to the diner and told Yusuke everything. Yusuke waited till that night to tell me about the ritual. And then, well, he proposed. Again."

"And?"

"I said yes."

I whooped and lunged at her, wrapping her in a tight hug. "Congratulations. You're finally engaged."

"You're going to suffocate me, Shy," Keiko managed to choke out. Muttering apologies, I let her go and returned to my position on the floor. I felt her take a hold of my unbraided hair and I frowned, allowing myself an exaggerated sigh. "You're the first person to know."

"Really?" I asked elatedly. "Well then, thanks for telling my first. I'm honored."

"Must you be dorky and ruin the moment?"

"Oh, I must."

She gave my hair a tug and I yelped, attempting to pull away. Waiting until I'd calmed down, Keiko started braiding once more. "Aren't you going to ask any questions? I thought I was going to be facing an inquisition."

"What do you want me to ask? You told me everything important. If you want me to squeal girlishly and ask you about every little detail, you've come to the wrong girl. Might I suggest speaking to Botan? I'm sure she can give you the reaction you were hoping for."

"Your sarcasm is entirely unappreciated," Keiko informed me, no doubt glaring at the back of my head.

"That's a shame."

"Aren't you wondering what I'm going to tell my parents? Since, you know, they might notice if I stop aging."

"You've brought up an interesting point, which I honestly hadn't been wondering. But do not fret because you have officially aroused my curiosity," I replied cheekily.

Ignoring my obnoxious behavior, Keiko said, "I'm going to tell them the truth, tell them all about demons and the Makai." She paused to take a deep breath before continuing. "Yusuke and I are going to go see them together. We'll tell them about the engagement and then we'll explain everything else."

"I'm proud of you," I murmured, finally acting serious. "You finally said yes to Yusuke and you're going to tell your parents." I smiled. "Hiei would be pissed if he knew he was helping so many people."

"Yeah," Keiko agreed, giggling at the idea. "He even ended up helping Kuwabara. I think you traumatized the big guy by telling him that he would kill Yukina. He can't wait for Kurama to help him and Yukina perform the ritual."

"He's such a loser."

"Shy," Keiko snapped, but the reprimand fell flat since she was still laughing.

She finished the second braid and tied it off quickly. I leapt to my feet and headed for the mirror, eager to check out my hair. Running my fingers over the smooth, tight braids, I smiled. "Can you believe that this time tomorrow I'll be Hiei's mate?"

"I'm just glad you guys were able to work this out. You were miserable ever since you two broke up."

"Sorry about that," I apologized, turning around to face her. "I didn't mean to be a downer or anything."

"Don't be silly, Shy. If you'd been happy, I would have been worried. You had told me you loved Hiei. I knew better than to expect you to be your normal self after breaking up with him, which only served to make me even more thankful when you held it together while we were captives."

"If you thank me again, I swear I'll beat you up. Or better yet, I'll get Hiei to beat you up," I threatened, grinning despite my words.

She shook her head and stood up. "Somehow I doubt that'll happen. But, just to make sure, I won't thank you, alright? Happy now?"

"I'd be happier if I knew what this ritual entailed." Kurama and Hiei had both decided to keep me in the dark about the specifics of the ritual and all the waiting was starting to aggravate me, not to mention make me nervous.

"Don't be so impatient." Keiko walked to my side and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "I never would have thought you would want to rush into something like this. Sometimes it's good to wait."

"Oh, shove off," I snapped, slipping out from beneath her arm. "I mean, seriously, every second that passes is a second that I age faster than Hiei."

"Twenty minutes won't make a difference and, even if it did, the difference would be almost impossible to notice."

"So when's your wedding?" I asked.

Keiko frowned at the out of the blue question. "We don't have an exact date yet, but hopefully within the next few months."

"Why so soon?"

"We don't see the point in waiting."

"And that is how you prove a point without saying a word," I said smugly, smirking at her.

"I'd just like to point out that you did say a word, quiet a few in fact." She dodged my half-hearted slap and dove onto my bed in the midst of a giggle fit. "What's with the violence?"

A knock at the door prevented me from answering. I turned to the open doorway and beamed when I saw Kuwabara. "Nice hair," he said, raising an eyebrow at the braids. He moved into the room, joining Keiko on the bed. "Kurama's almost ready."

"It's about freaking time," I growled. "I'm going to go crazy if I have to wait much longer."

Kuwabara shrugged carelessly and flopped backwards, staring up at the ceiling. "If I had realized what would happen once we introduced you to Hiei, I would have done it way earlier."

"What do you mean?" Keiko asked.

"Well, it's only because Shy and Hiei started dating that we learned about this ritual. I would have gone ahead and mated Yukina without ever realizing that I would end up being the death of her. At least this way we can fix it. The ritual will allow us to bind my lifespan to hers and prevent her untimely death."

"That's kind of what I don't get about all this," Keiko said. "Hiei must have known about the ritual already, right? I mean, how else could he have found that book as fast as he did?" She glanced at me uneasily and continued, "So why didn't he tell us about it years ago?"

My eyes widened and I realized that Keiko had just raised a very good question. "Um, I'm not sure."

"The answer to that question is very simple." The voice came from the doorway and my gaze snapped to the speaker. Hiei stood in the open door, leaning against the frame, a towel wrapped around his waist. Keiko blushed and looked away, obviously uncomfortable with the fact that he was clad only in a towel. "I had only heard of the ritual in passing and was not sure that it truly existed. I saw no need to get your hopes up."

Pushing away from the doorframe, he walked quickly to the bureau, grabbed clothes from within the drawers, and headed back into the bathroom.

"Well, that was odd," Kuwabara whispered.

I snorted and started laughing, lying down on my already crowded bed. "I don't think Keiko will ever go back to her normal color. Look at her," I commanded, jabbing Kuwabara in the ribs. "She's the color of Kurama's hair."

Keiko reached over Kuwabara to whack me lightly on the arm, but didn't argue with me. "I can't believe he came in here wearing only a towel."

Her astonished words sent me into another bout of laughter. When I finally calmed down, I said, "Tell Kuwabara your big news."

"You have news?"

Keiko sighed. "Well, um, last night Yusuke proposed to me again and I said yes."

"What?" Kuwabara yelled, jumping to his feet. "How could Urameshi not tell me that?" He bounded into the hallway and disappeared from my sight. A fraction of a second later, there was a loud thump followed by a groan of pain. "Sorry, Kurama. I didn't see you there."

"That's quite alright. No harm done," Kurama replied.

I raised an eyebrow at Keiko, who shrugged in response. Kurama appeared in the doorway a few seconds later, rubbing his butt, and I realized what had happened. "He knocked you over?" I asked, barely containing my amusement.

"Plowed may be a better word," he answered, smiling ruefully. "I'm ready for you if you'd like to begin."

"Heck yeah, I do," I said, jumping to my feet. He chuckled and turned back to the hallway, returning to the living room. Keiko stood up and looped her arm through mine, towing me after Kurama. Excitement rolled over me, causing my pulse to quicken and my heart to pound in my ears. Smiling like an idiot, I practically skipped down the hallway.

The guys were waiting for us in the living room. Kurama stood beside the coffee table, on which sat the concoctions he'd spent the last hour preparing. Yusuke and Kuwabara were sitting on the couch, bickering over the fact that Yusuke hadn't told Kuwabara about his engagement.

I spotted Hiei last. He was standing at the window, facing out in a position that reminded me of the night he had dropped off the book. As Keiko and I entered the room, he turned to face us. I pulled free of Keiko and joined him at the window.

Resting my head against his shoulder, I wrapped an arm around his waist. Smirking faintly, he pulled me to him and leaned down to kiss me roughly. Yusuke whistled from his seat on the couch and Hiei broke the kiss, shooting the hanyou an annoyed look. I rolled my eyes, but otherwise ignored Yusuke. "Are you ready?" I asked.

"Hn, as ready as I'll ever be." He glanced once out the window before returning his gaze to me. "You're sure you want to do this?"

"Don't ask me that again," I warned. "Of course I'm sure. I wouldn't be so excited to do it if I wasn't."

"Come here, you two," Kurama interrupted. "I need you over here for the ritual."

Grinning, I tugged Hiei to the coffee table and stood before Kurama. "Okay, now what?"

"Drink this," he instructed. Kurama picked two glasses up from the table and handed them to us. I wrinkled my nose at the smell coming from my cup, but put it to my lips and drained it anyway. Gagging and choking, I slammed the glass back down on the table.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded.

"That will cleanse your system in much the same way as the bath cleansed your body," Kurama answered. "We will have a ten minute wait while the drink does its job. Feel free to take a seat until we can continue."

I groaned but let Hiei pull me to the armchair, where he settled me in his lap. "Ten minutes is not so long," he murmured in my ear. "You can wait."

Yusuke grinned at me and wiggled his eyebrows teasingly. "Is someone impatient? I thought you would have more patience than you do." He paused for a second, apparently thinking. "Although, maybe you're just so impatient because you're eager to get Hiei in the sack."

Hiei's chest vibrated against my back as he growled, his irritation getting the better of him. "Watch what you say," he snarled.

"You pissed off the shrimp," Kuwabara said, speaking as though he had just made a world changing discovery. "I'd sleep with one eye open if I were you."

"Nah, Hiei will be too busy to waste time trying to kill me," Yusuke replied, smirking wickedly. "After all, he and Shy have some business to take care of. Under the sheets, if you know what I mean."

"Is it necessary for you to be so immature?" Keiko asked. "I apologize for his behavior since he certainly won't apologize for himself." She huffed and eyed Yusuke disapprovingly.

"Aw, babe, don't get angry," he whined. "I was only kidding."

She ignored him and grabbed the clicker, turning on the television. It was only after she began surfing the channels that she realized Kurama might not want the television to be on. "Do you mind?" she asked, gesturing toward the screen with the clicker.

"No, it's not a problem. But enough time has passed for us to continue with the ritual. Hiei and Shy, would you please join me once more?"

"Sure," I answered, leaping from Hiei's lap. Stopping at Kurama's side, I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet and studied the table, trying to figure out what we needed to do next.

Hiei stood at my side and rested a hand on my shoulder. "Relax," he reminded me.

Rolling my eyes, I asked, "So? Now what?"

Kurama chucked. "May I see your right hands?" Hiei and I each extended our hands palm upward to Kurama. He picked a bowl up off the table and, using a small brush, smeared a thin layer of clear paste across our palms. After returning the bowl to its previous spot, Kurama instructed us to wash our palms in a bowl that seemed to be filled with a similar mixture to the one we had bathed in.

"Dry your hands and then hold them out once more," Kurama said, handing me a hand towel. I dried my hand quickly and gave the towel to Hiei. When he was done with the towel, Hiei dropped it on the table and extended his hand, which I took as a cue to do the same.

My eyes widened as I watched Kurama pick up a sharp looking knife from the coffee table. The redhead plucked a piece of hair and pressed it to the blade lightly, testing its sharpness. The hair split in half almost immediately upon contact with the knife.

Needless to say, the knife was sharp.

"This will sting," Kurama warned. Without giving me a chance to respond, Kurama drew the knife across my palm in two quick slashes, one from my pointer finger to the left side of my wrist and the other from my pinkie finger to the right side so that the two crossed in the middle of my hand. I bit my lip against the quick flare of pain, knowing that it was nothing compared to my broken ankle.

Kurama repeated the process on Hiei's hand and then guided our hands together, instructing us to entwine our fingers and press our palms tightly to one another. The contact increased the stinging pain in my palm, but I continued to ignore it.

I met Hiei's calm gaze, letting his strength reassure me. I could hear Kurama talking, but his words were nothing more than a buzz in my ears. A drop of blood leaked from between our palms, making its way down my forearm. Even as I watched the droplet, Kurama laid the hand towel on the floor between our feet in order to catch any blood.

The time we spent standing there, our hands clasped, felt endless. At last, Kurama's hand was on my wrist, guiding my hand away from Hiei's. His words finally filtered through and I was able to make out the last of a sentence, "– long enough."

"What?" I mumbled, staring at my blood smeared hand.

"That's long enough," Kurama repeated. "There are only two steps left." He picked up yet another bowl, this one filled with a strange, purple ointment, and used a new brush to cover each of the cuts on my hand.

I frowned when he placed the bowl back on the coffee table without using the ointment on Hiei. "Wait. What about Hiei?"

"This is what binds your lifespan to Hiei's. If I were to use it on him, it would counteract what I did to yours, negating the entire ritual."

"Oh."

Kurama smiled and picked a roll of bandages. "Now all that's left is to wrap your hand."

"But it's covered in blood."

"Yes, it's meant to be," he answered, beginning to wrap my right hand. "The effects of the ritual will take some time to set in and the ointment needs to remain untouched for a little while. Don't worry; you can take the bandage off when you go to bed."

"Who says she's going to bed?" I had forgotten Yusuke was even in the room until he spoke. "I doubt Hiei plans on letting her sleep." The fire demon in question swore and lunged at Yusuke, who leapt over the back of the couch, barely avoiding Hiei's fist.

Unfazed by their antics, Kurama said, "Hiei on the other hand is free to wash his hand immediately, though he appears preoccupied."

"That was it?" Kuwabara asked, voicing the question I'd been thinking.

I'd expected something a bit more extravagant, something involving weird chanting and strange black mage. At the very least, a show of demon energy. But there had been nothing of the sort. The most exciting part was watching Kurama slice a piece of hair in half.

"That's it," Kurama replied. He began to collect his assorted bowls and brushes, bringing them into the kitchen and washing them in the sink.

"It was rather anticlimactic," I muttered, dropping into a seat on the armchair after deeming the couch unsafe. Yusuke was using it to keep Hiei at bay, always staying on the side opposite the circling fire demon.

"The dramatics aren't important," Kurama said, sounding far wiser than I had ever heard him. "The effect is all that matters."

My eyes fluttered open slowly and I rolled onto my back. Sitting up, I slid out of Hiei's grip and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. It was only once I was standing that I realized I was completely and totally naked.

I grabbed the first piece of clothing I could find, which happened to be Hiei's shirt, and tugged it over my head. The shirt fell to just under my butt and I deemed it enough covering for me to wear to the bathroom. After all, the apartment was empty except for me and the still sleeping Hiei, meaning that there was no one to see my partially clothed body.

I slipped across the hall into the bathroom, padding softly so that I wouldn't wake Hiei. Forcing myself to go about my normal routine, I refused to look in the mirror until I was done with everything else.

After nearly ten minutes of self-induced torture, I glanced at my reflection. I took my time studying my face, looking for any changes other than my slightly swollen lips and mussed hair. Satisfied that I looked exactly as I always had, I reached up to pull down the collar of Hiei's shirt, exposing my right shoulder and, more importantly, the juncture of my neck and collarbone.

Letting out the breath I hadn't realized I had been holding, I traced the mark on my neck with my free hand. It was a simple bite mark, nothing spectacular, but I stared at it until I was sure I'd memorized it perfectly.

I then turned my attention to the palm of my right hand and the fresh scar there. The 'X' that the ritual had left behind was already fading to a faint pink whereas the night before it had been a vibrant red. Before leaving, Kurama had told me that it would become so faint that someone who wasn't looking for it would never know it was there.

Smiling faintly, I took one last look in the mirror and left the bathroom. I returned to the bedroom to find Hiei sitting up in bed, waiting for me. My smile widened and I said, "Good morning, firefly."

"Morning, Shy."

AN: I find the end of this chapter incredibly fitting. Many times in this story I ended a chapter or scene with "Goodnight" so I like that this is ended with "Good morning." I think it's kind of symbolic. I like it so much that I don't really want to write the epilogue I'd been thinking about. Do you guys want me to write the epilogue or leave it as is?

Anyway, no one guessed Hiei's noteworthy action. Honestly, it wasn't very fair to ask you guys to pick it out. In fact, I only even mentioned it because one reviewer picked up on something I had been doing. Up until last chapter Hiei had never referred to Shyle as Shy. Ever. But that changed with the last chapter. Again it was meant to be somewhat symbolic. Up until last chapter Hiei had still thought that he could never love Shy, so calling her by her nickname was a sign of him realizing that he could indeed love. Calling her Shyle had been a way to keep her at a distance; calling her Shy shows that he finally let her into his heart.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys are awesome. So, since this is the last real chapter, I was wondering if you guys would be willing to do something for me. The most reviews for a chapter I've received is thirty-five (which is an awesome amount) and I was hoping you guys would try to beat that. If you beat thirty-five, I'd be willing to consider writing a side-fic of your choice (by side-fic I mean a few Hiei-POV chapters or some related one-shots).

Remember to tell me if I should write the epilogue. Also, regardless of the epilogue, I will be adding a chapter that will explain all of the chapter titles so look forward to that.