AN: I have been away from this story for over a year and it's been eating me raw. I want to thank all of you who have been waiting, to those who have left reviews and sent DMs. I got bogged down with this story, finetuning details for later events and it locked me up for enjoying writing the current chapters. I think about this fic literally every day. I plot for it all the time.

I've rewritten some scenes a hundred times in my head, plucking at the threads of story to figure out how to best weave everything together. I don't have much to show for this absence or for the effort, but I do know that I love this story and I'm not giving it up. I know the last year as been a lot for all of us, some of us carrying more of that weight than others. I hope you all know that even the strongest of you need to give yourself room to breathe. You need to take a break and remember to allow yourself some grace. We've just lived through at least four major historical events in the last twelve months in the US. Being worn through and exhausted is natural.

Gods know I have been.

Let's face the next year with more optimism and power than ever.

This chapter is short but it's sweet, to me, and it's a good way to step back into the fic. I'm already 4k into chapter 14 and we are on our way! Also, I started a tiktok where I have yet to find my feet. But if you guys ever want me to verbally answer questions, let me know and I'll post a video there! I can double post them to my tumblr as well. As usual my handle is WistfulSin.

Adore you all, darlings.

A raven on her shoulder, sharp beak gently plucking at strands of hair trying to steal the leather tie from her braids, Shinpi stood with her feet shoulder width apart tracing the patterns Aishling's bark made over it's trunk. The usual bustle of the city was gone, replaced by a warm silence that felt like a summertime nap. Her fingers reached forward and traced the empty veins drawn between sections of bark. The shadows within pulsed like a heartbeat under her touch.

The tree inhaled and so did she.

The branches rustled and blue eyes closed to better listen.

With a shrill cry the raven tugged at her hair, talons gripping tightly against the meat of her shoulder.

"He can feel it. History is shifting again. Look." Hichirou directed and Shinpi followed his lead, looking down at her feet where the roots of her family's legacy ran through the earth. The ground was shifting, crumbling away. One of the roots was darker than rest, rotting but still growing. The leaves whispered more secrets, the raven shifted uneasily.

"I've never seen the roots before." She remarked quietly, realizing it was true as she spoke. "I've never been this deep before."

Her grandfather placed a hand on her shoulder, sending the raven to the air with a strong flap of black feathered wings. "Every family has it's mistakes, Amon-Shinpi. We all have memories we'd rather not face, things that bring us pain and shame. You're not the first of us to lose-"

The leaves, wind rushing through them with purpose, spoke louder than Hichirou could manage. His eyes crinkled, his mouth forming words drowned out by something more fervent. There was an urgency in things that Aishling cried out. The tree needed her attention, it needed her to listen, to understand.

You are not alone.

Shinpi startled at the warm weight of a palm pressing to the middle of her back, the gentle touch rousing her from her sleep. The sound of something hitting the floor drew her fully into consciousness. Tensing for a moment she relaxed quickly, inhaling. Wiping at her eyes to get the sleep out of them she straightened herself from her awkward sleeping position slung over the small desk she'd drug down into her little hideaway so she could more easily study the texts curated there without moving them. Hiei's crimson eyes took her in for a moment, his silence comfortable as he brushed some stray hairs from her cheeks.

"Yukina made food." He gestured to the entrance above them. "You should come up and eat at the table, breathe some fresh air. You've been down here for two days."

"Have I?" She hadn't realized. "I was having the strangest dream. It was about Aishling."

A chill crept down the back of her neck as the final words snuck up on her. You are not alone. Those words should have been comforting, a gentle reminder that she had her roots in place. But the urgency, the flurry of the leaves demanding her listen to the message it hadn't felt very soothing.

It almost felt like a warning.

Hiei hummed to let her know he'd heard her, but his hand was busy pushing her notes around on her desk. He tapped the passage of her grandmother's journal she'd been reading before falling asleep. "Maybe this is why. You've read this a hundred times if you've read it once."

"I don't think that's it." She argued quietly but gave up trying to explain. It was such an intangible thing to put words to. "Grandfather was there."

Her hand stretched toward the sword she'd leaned against the side of her desk only to find it gone. Frowning she looked down to see it on the ground near her feet. Ah, so that must have been what had fallen.

"Come eat." Hiei demanded lightly. "I'd like to see your face in the light of day."

"You're welcome to be down here with me." She reminded him with a smile.

"I don't like it down here. It's claustrophobic and full of too many old memories. I'd rather be surrounded by fresher things. Like sheets that smell like both of us." He drug his eyes down her to make his meaning clear and the expression forced the remnants of the dream to flee. Of course she wasn't alone.

She knew that already.

She had Hiei, whose familiar callouses brushed over her cheek before his hot fingers gripped the back of her neck to keep her still for a kiss to impress his point on her. The taste him reminded her that dreams were dreams and this was her reality.

"Is she coming? Food is getting cold." Kurama's voice called down to them so clearly he must have been standing just above the hidden doorway Hiei had left open.

"She's coming." Hiei spoke without hesitation. Then he lowered his voice, releasing her to breath against the cup of her ear. "Stay with me tonight, Shinpi. These ghosts have had enough time with you."

"I adore you." She told him, meaning every warm syllable. "I hope you know that, Hiei."

"You talk too much." He huffed, walking away toward the ladder that would take him back to the real world. "Say less and do more, Shinpi. Like eating with me."

"I'm on my way." She stood up, making her way to the ladder herself. The door closed behind her and she slid the tile above it into place to once again conceal the entrance from prying eyes.

"Are you expecting a fight? I promise I made enough for everyone." Yukina giggled at her when she walked into the kitchen.

"Hmm?" Shinpi blinked at her, confused. When the ice maiden pointed at her hand, blue eyes dipped down to study the scabbard of her sword clutched so tightly in her fingers. When had she grabbed it? She didn't recall carrying it. "Oh. It fell downstairs. I was so distracted by the scent of good food I forgot I was carrying it."

Green eyes watched her, saying nothing, but seeing the fleeting confusion on her face and making note of it. Kurama averted his attention before she passed him to take a seat across from Hiei. It placed her between himself and Hayato who fussed at her gently for spending too much time in the dark by herself.

With a glance Kurama confirmed the answer to an unspoken question.

The sword was still held in her hand under the table as though she were afraid it might run off. He'd never seen her cling to it so closely. A pair of red eyes caught his attention, Yukina's gaze moving from him to the other woman. Quickly she pressed a smile onto her face and served the food she'd made but he felt seen. More than that he felt questioned.

Shinpi's shoulders pressed down into the fresh sheets Hiei had put on the bed. She loved it when he did household things without being asked.

She loved what he was doing with his mouth between her thighs even more though, and her lips parted in a moan that spoke more than words could in the moment.

"If you keep that up I'm going to need to stop." Hiei muttered playfully, cheek pressed to her inner thigh. "You'll wake the whole house."

"Don't stop." Shinpi warned him, fists balling in the material under her.

He grinned and she felt it in every nerve ending all at once. Or maybe that was sweep of his thumb over her tantalized bud as he watched her with a gleam in his eye. God, she could never get enough of this man. All of her sins, all her mistakes, every bad choice in her life had somehow led to Hiei and despite all the pain she still carried she was left breathless and amazed. Her head fell back to the pillows as she bit her lip to keep herself contained when he went back to torturing her, trying to coax the very sounds he'd chastened her for back into being.

"I'm feeling unappreciated." He stopped once again to inform her, though his tone suggested otherwise.

"I'm scared to talk." Shinpi breathed.

"Oh?" He shrugged her legs off of his shoulders, crawling his way over her exposed body with the languid movement of a predator hunting easy prey.

"I'll end up screaming." She couldn't focus on his face as he straddled her hips, sitting on his knees to look down at her. No, his chest and it's scars caught her eyes then the lines of his stomach and the hair that traveled from his navel downward. With satisfaction and want she made a throaty noise when she realized his pants were partially undone. Enough to tease but not to reveal.

Torture.

Such a sweet, painless act of violence against her.

Her tongue swept over her bottom lip, pulling it to be caught between her teeth. "Gods, I want you so bad right now Hiei. I want to hear you struggling to keep your voice down too."

His teeth flashed in a grin that was as menacing as it was promising. Without a word he dropped to his hands and knees over her, mouth colliding with hers in a hungry mash of lips, teeth pulling at flesh, tongues tasting each other like the other were made of ambrosia. She wrapped one arm under his, hand curled against the muscles of his back. Her other hand finished undoing his pants, wasting no time finding the flesh inside and cupping it. He growled against her, hips moving into her touch.

Shinpi couldn't place why they were both so heated tonight.

Sex was good between them on the worst days, great on good days, but this was a different sort of passion. It was like they'd been denied each other and were finally getting to release the tension.

It felt good to be wanted so badly for no discernible reason.

With a twist of her body she reversed their positions, taking the top so she could kiss down his jaw, neck, chest. Run her nails along his flesh until his skin broke out in goosebumps and he uttered barely contained warnings. She tugged at his pants until they were gone, cast across the room without a thought. The feeling of strong hands taking hold of her hair as pressed her mouth to the side of his erection and listened as Hiei's breath rushed pasted his lips in a quiet moan. When she cast a look over the length of his body to meet his eyes she could hardly make out the color for his swollen pupils and heavy lids.

She loved those eyes.

She loved the man they belonged too.

The words threatened to spill from her mouth and to keep them in place she took him in driving the sentiment to the back of her throat before it could cause trouble. In their years together she'd never said it, neither had he. She wasn't risking changing that tonight.

Hiei's grip on her hair tightened as he hissed her name, hips lifting to match the rhythm of her movements. She dug her nails into his left hip in response, her right hand wrapped around his shaft with that pressure he preferred. Intentionally she slowed knowing the madness she was baiting. Pulling back she panted, heat lighting her up from the inside. Her cheeks had to be rosy with it, her eyes dark.

"Are you feeling appreciated now?" Shinpi asked him, rising to her knees so she could look down over him.

He moved too, sitting with his legs spread in front of him. "Come here."

"And if I don't?"

He offered her a scant shake of his head, chest heavy with breaths. Shinpi couldn't help but smile at him, crawling forward until their lips met and she straddled his lap. They swallowed each other's moans as she lowered herself onto him, arms around his neck while his palms press against the backs of her ribs. His hands traveled down to her hips, her moving into his hair as they started moving and neither of them dared to raise their voices. Foreheads pressed together, tongues wetting lips, mouths colliding and breaking apart to gasp for air before falling together again. Her eyes fluttered closed as Hiei's hand found the back of her neck then cupped the back of her head, his lips pressing to her throat, teeth grazing with the threat of finding purchase.

"Do it." She begged and he bit down on the side of her neck with more force than he'd ever used before.

His palm pressing to her mouth, fingers gripping her face, suffocated her scream of pleasure. Everything blurred for her then, eyes rolling up as she let herself go easily into his hands.