• Disclaimer: yeah… er, I mean no. I don’t own them. Nope.

    Unknown Reason


    Kurama and Hiei were lying in a small clearing. It was night, and the sky was as clear as crystal. Every star was visible, and the full moon illuminated everything it touched.

    They were barely touching, only the tops of their heads (or, in Hiei’s case, his hair). The two demons had been planning this for awhile, waiting for the perfect night. And it was finally here.

    Sighing happily, Kurama stretched, pushing his head further up into Hiei’s spiky hair. The shorter demon caught on to his friend’s mood.

    “You’re cheerful this evening,” he noted softly, as if speaking any louder would disrupt the peace of the night.

    Hiei could hear the smile in his voice as he answered, “Of course. We finally got out to do this. It’s been… two months?”

    “Two months,” he confirmed.

    “Mm. And then Yukina’s little picnic she packed for us… I’m glad I told her.” He laughed quietly.

    Hiei said nothing.

    “… At least I told her something,” Kurama hedged, pushing to see how far his friend would let this go.

    The dark one was still silent.

    Pushing up to rest on his elbow, Kurama turned around and then flopped down on his stomach. “Hiei?” he called.

    “I thought you wanted to watch the stars. That’s why we came out here, is it not?”

    “Don’t change the subject.”

    “There was a subject?” He spoke as innocently as possible.

    “Yes.”

    “Enlighten me.”

    Kurama sighed, in irritation this time. He rested his chin in the palm of his hand, staring down at his friend’s head. “Hiei… you can’t keep dodging this. And you know I’ll keep bringing it up.

    “Why?”

    Hiei didn’t answer, still staring up at the dark, glittering sky. He looked to be contemplating something. The Jaganshi knew what he was referring to, of course, but he wasn’t sure if he should tell—

    “We’re friends, Hiei. You can tell me anything. You know that.”

    Letting out a sigh of his own, Hiei turned as well. He flipped around and rested his head on his folded arms, looking away from the redhead in front of him.

    “I told her already, Kurama.”

    “Eh?” That threw him for a loop. “When?”

    “Long before your human body was even conceived,” he replied. He chuckled, “Hell, even thought of.”

    “Then why…?”

    “I erased her memory of the meeting,” he answered quickly, not needing to hear the rest of the question. “I had already known her for a short time, very short… at first, I didn’t know who she was. But then, she began to tell me about herself. She knew who and what I was. I could tell she was afraid of me.

    “I had found her, with a band of demons. They were beating her, trying to make her cry, predictably. I killed them, and would have left her there, but…” He paused.

    “But…?” the fox prompted. After telling him this much, he wouldn’t allow Hiei to quit unfinished.

    “But… I’m really not sure. She was unconscious, easy prey for the next person to come along, tear gems littered the ground in plenty of places… and I just decided to take her with me.

    “When she woke up, I had just gotten back from a fight. Covered in blood. She was afraid, naturally. Asked me what I wanted with her.” He snorted. “I told her she was in my home, and that I had brought her there. I’d only patched her up a little. I wasn’t knowledgeable in healing back then.

    “She must have been awake briefly then, because she remembered me. Slightly. Still scared of me though she was—I could practically smell it on her—she relaxed a bit. Then she asked me who I was.”

    He paused again, but this time needed no prompting to continue.

    “‘Hiei Jaganshi,’ I’d told her. She visibly cringed. Back then, I was well known for my murderous ways.” Kurama even nodded; he remembered the stories well from his life as Yoko Kurama. “She replied politely with her name, her voice still trembling, ‘Yukina’. I asked about her, wanting to know where she lived, maybe, get her out soon. She was sleeping on my bed,” Hiei added irritably.

    Kurama laughed lightly.

    “She said she was a Koorime, from the floating island in the north. Once she told me she was out looking for her brother, I just… knew. Especially when she showed me her tear.” Hiei toyed with his own gem, resting next to Yukina’s against the hollow of his throat. “It just… came out. I told her.”

    “What did she say?” Kurama asked quietly. Hiei had stopped again, staring hard at the ground.

    “She—as Yusuke would most likely say it, and for lack of a better word—‘freaked’. She screamed at me, saying I was a liar. She backed up against the wall and… she cried.” He shook his head forcibly. “So, I knocked her out—don’t give me that look, Kurama—and took her close to home. Or, as close as I would go myself. Then, I erased her memory of me: meeting me, what I’d said, what she’d said… and that was that.”

    Instinctively, Kurama placed a hand on Hiei’s shoulder. Hiei stiffened, looking up at him.

    “I’m… sorry,” he whispered, meaningfully. “Yet… don’t you think that, knowing the you of now, she would react… differently?”

    “I will not risk that.” Hiei rejected the idea immediately. He sighed, resting the side of his head on Kurama’s hand.

    Kurama smiled. “You’re welcome,” he replied happily, squeezing the shoulder he held, just a bit.

    “Hn.” A small smile came over his face. “You’re missing the stars.”

    “I see two in front of me,” he retorted, “and they are the brightest, most beautiful I’ve ever seen.”

    “Ch’. Sap.”

    “Your fault,” he said brightly.

    Fin


    Gosh, you don’t know HOW MUCH I wanted to make Hiei’s ‘story’ a flash back. It would have been so much easier. But I forced myself not to. xD

    Yay for corny endings! Wow, these are getting harder and harder to come up with!

    I hope you liked it!

    And please, if you are going to fav the story, PLEASE review, as well.