These are from 2022? HiBo week on Tumblr. I'm not sure which year they are from, I just found them on the tag and went with it. Some are longer and some are shorter and may not be connected to each other. The AU prompt isn't exactly an AU I guess, I'd say it is more of a cannon rework lol

Chapter TW: Suicidal ideation mention in the last prompt (brief and contained to a single sentence) and of course Hiei is OOC and an anxious gremlin


Day 1: Gift

Gift giving was something that eluded him. As a thief, he knew it was purely practical to just take what was needed, when needed. And as someone who chose to remain outdoors the majority of his life, it simply didn't make sense to possess more than what one could carry. He was not like the others in this regard. While he did have goods stashed away in hidden places throughout the city and surrounding forests, he could not imagine having a stockpile of his own sentimental objects that served little practical use. Still, it piqued his curiosity and he always watched from the corner of his eye whenever an offering was made from one member of their group to another. It always brought smiles, and accelerated heartbeats, and sometimes a huge laugh about some joke he clearly wasn't acquainted with. The girls were the most thrilled when it came to gift exchanges, especially in the winter when they would force everyone into the temple near the solstice for a feast worthy of his and Yusuke's appetite. They did the same with birthdays as well.

It wasn't unheard of within a few clans of demons to find reason to celebrate at least some birthdays, especially reaching their respectable adulthood, but Hiei went most of his life only knowing he was born during winter time and he found little reason to celebrate since it involved being ceremoniously flung off a floating island far above the tallest of peaks. The bandits who raised him weren't interested in celebrating much of anything unless they were about to leave for a more dangerous bounty, so the entire concept was lost to him.

But here they were, it was winter at the old hag's temple. The ferry girl had surprised Yukina some years past with her official birthdate, according to Reikai records. His twin had a birthday. That meant he did as well. It was certainly during winter. The winter solstice of all days, actually.

Since that business with Sensui, the group made more effort to gather frequently. More often than the shadow would have liked, but he knew not to voice such a preference. Having one of your own die does that, supposedly. They are here for Christmas, but a few days before the blasted holiday that had too many customs for him to care to remember. This was to give everyone time to celebrate the day without stealing each other from their outside families and to celebrate Yukina and her unknown brother's birthday as well. The detective's girl once called this merger 'killing two birds with one stone' and he couldn't argue with such logic.

So he watched from a spot in the window that he wouldn't let anyone close, and he saw the girls finish up some strings of popped corn and dried citrus to hang on the dead tree adorned with a rainbow of lights. He saw Genkai hit Yusuke over the head for saying something utterly stupid. He saw Kurama and the ferry girl argue over what to mule first.

Said ferry girl pulled an entire cake out of the fridge covered in chocolate frosting and raspberries and plopped it down right by the open window then proceeded to threaten anyone who wasn't Hiei to not even look at it. Claiming no one ever knows what to get him while also sneaking him a handknit scarf and fingerless gloves later that night. She also whispered to him that his sister spent all of yesterday ensuring the food to be to his liking.

He didn't know what to say, he could only focus on the sickening hole growing in his stomach.

While this would probably be the moment Kurama would jump out and tell him it's time he thought about giving in to human customs a bit more, simply for the sake of his sister and secret lover (damn that noisy fox), the shadow could only come to the conclusion that maybe he should spare these fools the burden and just leave permanently.

If only he had the will.

Day 2: AU

His mothers are shipfolk. Or, they might have been.

Their island had once been pulled by giant beasts that flew with no wings, but rather fabric that caught the wind and allowed them to flow through the air as if it were water. They had long been released of their harnesses, so the island floated mindlessly.

He travels the great salt waters and every river he comes across with the sail they had stitched for him and when there is no wind, he rows with the oar the mother of his daughters had once flown upon.

He wonders what a father is meant to do in this world of mothers, which is why he always sails ever onward. Perhaps if he sails all of the three realms he might find the fathers that compliment the mothers. Maybe the lost beasts would hold some answers. If he found them, would the island be led to the fathers?

No one remembers where the beasts had been steering the island, or if they had ever had a master to guide them.

He feels like a glitch within his bloodline and hopes the curse does not pass to his daughters, but maybe he was meant to accomplish something for his people. He found the source that airlifts the island, but cannot apply it to the wood he carved out for his boat.

He sails through the spirit realm, the first home of his mate, and see's the palace that lost her to another demon before him. He does not mention her to the two humans and fox he meets, but they mention her by name several times with grief. He could have offered the knowledge of her being alive in exchange for any information about the island's steeds or his own father, but he remains silent and allows their time together to naturally drift apart.

He sails until he remembers it's probably been long enough for his youngest to have reached maturity, and returns home without answers once more.

Day 3: Family

It was their mutual sacred mission to protect all they considered family. So when each new member joined, she watched as he fell apart at the seams, and lost him to the madness that is to have too much. When, to her, it was never enough.

Day 4: Secret

"Share one of your secrets, just this once. What's going on behind those rubies?"

"I don't want to be a good person."

"Being a good person is really hard."

"You make it look effortless."

"My, that's a big compliment coming from you… You make choices that show you care. That makes you a good person in my book."

"I make those choices because you usually harass me until I do. You or the fox."

"No one has done that since Sensui. That was a decade ago."

Day 5: Injured/Healing

She was there to check in after one terrible mission. They had avoided each other up until this point since they had last touched and agreed not to again. Kurama couldn't heal him due to his own injuries and his sister was occupied with the other casualties. He didn't look at her, as was usual, but when she went to wipe the dried blood from his broken jawline, he made the mistake of looking into those amethyst eyes.

She must have seen what he hoped she never would.

When she climbed over him and undid her kimono, he thought he would never breathe again.

He promised himself not to let her go this time.

Day 6: Nature/Tournament

She returned from ferrying the masked fighter and kept to herself out in the forest surrounding the hotel. It was dark, and most of their team had joined in the boys' room to collectively mourn.

He was in agony, and didn't wish to be seen, but the gloom radiated off of her. Like a moth to a flame, he found his way to her.

They had only ever spoken unless necessary until this point, so he felt awkward.

"You should go inside, who knows what could be lurking in the trees." He tried to sound apathetic, but the nervousness sneaked in. Hopefully she was too distracted with her distraught to notice.

She turned to him and looked up from where she sat on a fallen tree, and with watery eyes she spoke with a hoarse voice "I'm pretty sure it's just you tonight. You scared away anything else that goes bump in the night."

She managed to say this with a smile and a sniff.

He wasn't familiar with the human idiom, but it made plain enough sense and he supposed he should take it as a compliment.

"I don't want to face them."

The admission was personal and unlike their dynamic's norm, he really couldn't find any words to say that would improve the situation or get her inside where she belonged. He told himself this was for the benefit of the others, and more their problem than his, but they likely believed her to still be in the spirit world.

"Sorry…" She broke the silence that he could not.

"You see, oh this is silly, but being outside after harder jobs helps me calm down. I think.. Everyone might be… What if they're m-m-mad at me?! What will…Oh, I'm so sorry Hiei, I really don't know what to say or feel r-right now."

As she spoke her nose started to ooze and more tears came. She was practically drowning in her own fluids by the end of her confession and he felt the uncontrollable urge to bolt, but he couldn't find it in him to move his feet and he thought him leaving would bring her more uncertainty. He supposed this was a member of the team, the self appointed trainer, but he felt his jaw tighten at this entire encounter he walked himself right into unnecessarily.

He could understand finding solace in nature, he guessed. The hotel was stuffy and too luxurious for his tastes. All walls holding up a roof were.

She wouldn't go inside, he was certain he didn't want to put the effort into convincing her to go somewhere safer, but he couldn't exactly let one of the more vulnerable members of his team be left unguarded. She didn't know what to say and neither did he.

She was also starting to shudder. It wasn't terribly cold tonight, he wasn't the best judge on what too cold was to a spirit occupying an artificially created human body, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to assume since she seemed to be just as delicate as any human would normally be. He'd seen plenty die after only a few hours in the cold. And maybe she was more upset than he initially believed. Women crying was too foreign for him. Something about it snuck in between his ribs and he made a mental note to scold himself for that fact later.

He was left with what he was good at. Protecting.

He sat down on the tree next to her and raised his body temperature just in case. He ignored how this flared up the burning on his right arm.

"Then don't say anything." He said as neutral as he could manage.

She quieted for a moment and looked at him with puffy eyes, they were nothing but slits of amethyst lined with pink and water. Snot was falling into her mouth.

"Oh… k-kay." Her voice cracked on the last half of the word and he faced forward fully to give her some level of privacy.

They sat in silence for nearly an hour as she worked through her pain.

Her eyes and nose were still swollen when she looked at him again. Her face looked like his after getting hit one too many times, minus the blood. He tried to imagine her with a broken nose, but something stopped the image from forming.

"Thank you, Hiei."

He didn't know what she was thanking him for, so he just stared until she spoke again.

"Would you like to go inside now?"

"No."

He stood, but didn't leave. She stared at the ground for a few moments before wiping her face with the sleeve of her kimono. He took the patched scarf out of his pocket and held it out for her to use instead, he refused any thoughts that questioned why he did this to fully take shape.

She looked at it like she had never seen a piece of textile in her life. The era that it took for her to take it from him left him jaded and more exhausted than when he had summoned the darkness flame. She didn't even use it to clean her face, she just held it and stared until he shifted in place, breaking whatever spell it had cast upon her. She stuffed the thing right into her own sleeve pocket. He was robbed.

"Thank you. I think I'll head back inside now."

She started walking and after a few steps turned and looked back with a sad smile, he stared. She turned back around and kept walking.

He followed her without a word until she was safely back inside the girls' shared room.

Day 7: Free Day

He was sent on a mission alone. The prince had said this was an act of trust and that he hoped Hiei would return without anything needing to be sent after him. Of course, the prince had failed to say that the artifact was several months worth of travel outside any part of Makai that Reikai had any authority in.

The uncharted.

The three kings ruled the parts of Makai that the spiritfolk had explicit details of. The rest was free to be as they were without interference and it's residents, while few and far between, thought the other realms to be nothing more than myth. There were no portals, and Reikai hadn't tried to create one outside of the Three Kingdoms within recorded history.

So Hiei ran, and ran, and ran. He could easily make several months worth of travel into only a handful, but with no leads and little trail, he was stuck waiting around until he found more information.

He was currently in an evergreen forest along a mountainside, much the same as the lands he spent his childhood wandering, waiting out a storm. He hated to admit it, but it eerily felt like a former home.

The small compact in his hand was snuck into his pocket just before he set out to leave the old hag's temple. The ferry rider had smiled at him innocently when he stared her down, but she simply pecked his cheek and walked off, leaving him frozen in place for what felt like the remainder of the night. He wondered now, after avoiding the object for the better half of a year, if it could work this far into the unknown.

He recognized the ringing. It sounded correct.

It rang.

Rang.

Rang.

And rang.

There was no end to the ringing.

Perhaps, the shadow was beginning to feel something building inside his ribs, if he could not reach her, could Reikai not reach him? He doubted that she had purposely given him a device that was malfunctional. He also had doubts about the artifact's existence. He wasn't exactly interested when the toddler had explained the job, just needed to know the who and what and where and everything else reverberating beyond the pacifier was unimportant. Details.

It wasn't unlike him to believe those around him were planning on dropping him the moment he became a moot point. It certainly was to be expected, eventually. He wasn't unaware of his difficult nature and Kurama had been giving him more warnings lately that he needed to calm down or face consequences. His sister had come dangerously close to discovering the truth on her own on more than one occasion, maybe this was their lazy way of aiding him? Making her 'dead brother' appear as he claimed himself to be.

He didn't want to believe he had been sent on a fool's errand.

He was never explicitly told to return if he came to a complete dead-end.

The ferry girl gave him the compact for a reason. Whatever that reason was completely eluded him.

He tried once more.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring…

He snapped it shut and huffed, and breathed until he felt the tightness in his chest clear. if he really wanted to see her, he could make it happen in an instant.

Hn.

The sound of the rain growing stronger gave his mind a break from the chaos building within his skull. He would continue his search. Give it a full year, if his calculations were correct, then return home.

It was home.

They'd have to tell him it wasn't to his face.

He knew these thoughts were not natural, he'd been told by these people several times over they were not, he was the odd one to have them.

He needed to forget them, really. He knew better, but they prevailed nevertheless.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture ones that were more crystal in nature.