Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Love Between Brother and Sister ❯ Catching Up ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 2: Catching Up

“What are you doing here?”

Hiei innocently looked up from the plate Yukina had set before him and was taken aback at the old master’s appearance.

She was old, Hiei had known that when he first met her, but now she looked absolutely ancient. Her skin was pale, her eyes sagged, her hair was thinning, and more wrinkles littered her face than before. Hiei could even see a few strands of gray among the pink curls.

Despite all this, she was still the same person: a smart mouth with a cigarette handy.

“Genkai-sama, isn’t it great?” Yukina asked with a wide smile and sparkling eyes as she set a place for the aging master, “Hiei-san has come to visit.”

“To visit, eh?”

“Hn,” Hiei replied to the old woman’s question and she chuckled at his bad mood.

“I thought I had sensed your youki around here a couple nights,” she added as she looked at him pointedly.

Hiei ignored her and went back to the food his sister had prepared for him.
----
“How long do you plan on staying, Hiei?” Genkai asked slyly during a moment when Yukina had left for the kitchen.

“Until I can get away,” he replied earnestly, “Not a moment longer.”

“The dimwit is stopping by with the others today,” she stated, “They always come Saturday afternoon.

“I will have to leave before they arrive then,” Hiei replied simply.

The two sat on the same side of the table, staring straight ahead. They had yet to make any eye contact since Genkai had come into the dining room earlier.

“Do you really think Yukina will let you leave so easily this time?”

Hiei had no answer for that, or at least no answer he liked, so he remained silent.

“Her grief over your news that her brother was as good as dead had consumed her, allowed her to let you go last time,” Genkai continued, “But now she feels a deeper connection with you, a sisterly affection you may say, and she will not release you so easily.”

Hiei growled.

He knew the old woman had worded her sentences that way for a reason.
He knew what she was hinting at.

“You should tell her.”

Hiei looked over to where Genkai sat to see that the spot she had previously occupied was vacant.
----
Kurama smiled wanly as he watched Kuwabara run up the stairs, excitedly shouting declarations of love for the koorime they would soon see.

He had used to find these moments entertaining, but that was when Hiei had been with the group and he had been able to watch his reactions.

“Everything’s different now, isn’t it?” Yusuke asked solemnly as he fell into step with Kurama, arm in arm with Keiko.

“Yukina-chan, your beloved is here!” they heard Kuwabara cry as he reached the top step.

“Not everything,” Kurama said humorously.

Shizuru joined them, a cigarette in her hand as she shook her head in disapproval of her bother’s actions, “He just doesn’t get it.”

“Doesn’t get what, Shizuru-san?” Keiko asked curiously as she released her hold on Yusuke’s arm, allowing the two boys to wander off on their own conversation.

“As a psychic I am gifted with an ability to sort of sense the future,” Shizuru elaborated, “He should have it too, but he doesn’t concentrate enough. Anyway, I don’t sense a future connection between the two of them, at least not anything like the one I sense between you and Yusuke.”

Keiko blushed at her comment but brushed it off, “So are you saying there is no future for them?”

“No, not at all. They could get together, it just won’t be through love and it definitely will not be permanent.”

The four had made it a quarter of the way up the stairs when they heard a surprised yelp.

“Wha-what the?! Hiei?!”

The four on the stairs looked at one another before they each took off at their own speed, Shizuru preferring to just keep her previous pace as the others broke out into a sprint.
----
Hiei sat brooding in his old spot on the windowsill.

He had not been able to escape.

In fact, his sister had stayed right next to him the past eight hours, and while he secretly enjoyed the chance to be so close to her, he dreaded the upcoming reunion.
He had been in the same position for the past hour, gaze directed to the outside world, when he first heard Kuwabara.

He growled menacingly. The baka still went on and on about his sister. His sister. He owned her, albeit in secret, and he would not let just any male have her.

Hiei flinched as Kuwabara made his way to the temple’s living quarters, calling out to Yukina all the way from the entrance gate.

Yukina stood up next to him and smiled.

“Isn’t this great? The others will be so surprised to see Hiei-san here.”

Hiei’s scowl only darkened.

“Hiei-san, please don’t be mad,” Yukina pleaded sadly.

Hiei looked up at her and muttered incoherently before firmly telling her, “Not mad.”

Yukina’s grin at her small victory turned into a smile as Kuwabara suddenly rushed through the sliding door and into the living room.

“My dear Yukina-chan!” he exclaimed, and was about to continue when a sudden depression in the air and a threatening growl of disapproval left him shaking in fear. He had not sensed anything like this since...

Kuwabara turned his gaze to the window and stood in shock.

“Wha-what the?! Hiei?!”
----
When Shizuru finally joined the entire group in the living room, she found herself in a flurry of questions, surprised exclamations, and many different emotions - the strongest being annoyance, happiness, anger, surprise, and, one that shocked her, nervousness.

“I must say, Hiei, that this is quite the surprise,” Shizuru heard Kurama say as she walked up behind him and everyone else, “It has been a year since we saw you at the Makai tournament and four years since you left the Ningenkai. I don’t think any of us expected to hear from you again, let alone see you here.”

“Yes, well, some things cannot be helped, Kurama,” Hiei replied as he allowed his gaze to stray to Yukina who was doing her best to pull her hand from Kuwabara’s grasp and make her way over to the window where everyone else had gathered. He growled angrily, possessively.

Kurama chuckled. Had he not just been reminiscing about these moments?

“Hiei-san came by earlier this morning,” Yukina offered happily as she finally stepped up next to Keiko, “We have been catching up since then.”
“Catching up?” Kurama asked curiously, a sly smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Hiei scowled and returned his gaze to the window.

“You sure haven’t changed much,” Yusuke muttered as he rolled his eyes. A moment later he grinned toothily and slung his arm around the fire demon’s shoulders, “Still the same old Hiei we know and love!”

Hiei grimaced and then growled as he glared dangerously at the old Spirit Detective, “You would do best to remove your disgusting appendage from my person.”

Yusuke laughed nervously and carefully did as asked, tucking it back at his side.

“Look at that, the dimwit’s learning,” Genkai teased as she walked into the living room to greet her guests.

“Grandma!” Yusuke cried from his newest spot on the couch, “How’s it going?”

“Same as always, Yusuke,” the old master replied with a smile, “And I see Yukina has shown you her surprise guest. I think all the time he spent in Makai has addled his brains. He showed up on the grounds at around one in the morning, I believe. Don’t know what time it was that Yukina invited him in.”

“I found him a little into the forest at three o’clock this morning,” Yukina replied cheerfully and the others looked at her in shock.

“What were you doing outside at three in the morning, Yukina-san?” Kurama asked politely and concernedly.

“Looking for Hiei-san, of course,” Yukina giggled, “I sensed his youki when something woke me up so I went to go find him because I had not seen him for so long.”

“Sneaking around a temple in the middle of the night? What were you planning?” Kurama teased.

“Hn,” Hiei responded in annoyance before leaving his post at the window and walking outside to escape the people he had not wanted to see in the first place.
----
Hiei sat in a deliberately chosen tree that, although not the most comfortable, gave him a clear view into the living room so he could carefully watch and examine his old teammates’ and friends’ interactions.

He remembered when he had been a part of the lively banter - a small part, but a part all the same.

Yusuke pretty much shared one cushion on the couch with Keiko now. Hiei smirked; those two had gotten quite a lot closer since he last saw them.

Kurama, Shizuru, and Genkai all sat talking about something or other. Probably something that only pertained to human adults such as those ‘bills’ or ‘rent’ things Kurama had once tried to explain to Hiei. It was either that or something about psychic powers; Kurama was well learned in the area and both Genkai and Shizuru had strong psychic abilities.

Kuwabara was guffawing over some stupid joke he had just told to Yukina, who was doing her best to keep a smile on her face although she did not understand what the joke meant.

For a moment Hiei considered reclaiming his spot with the group. He should be on the window seat, basking in the warm, friendly feelings and words that the others found so easy to express and share; and cutting into the conversations with biting, sarcastic, and witty remarks. Yukina would be her caring self and try to draw him completely into the conversation. She would not succeed, of course. At least, not for long anyway.

He shook himself out of the fantasy, closing his minds eye to his sister’s loving face and caring voice.

He should be leaving now.

He jumped to the ground and turned to leave, but it seemed fate was against him.

“Leaving without saying goodbye? Yukina will be so disappointed.”

“Go back to your friends, Fox,” Hiei responded bitterly.

“They are your friends too, Hiei,” Kurama responded softly. His tone changed, however, as he switched subjects.

“Why did you come if you just planned on sneaking off again?”

“I was never supposed to be found,” Hiei replied, still facing away from his old ally.

“You and I both know that is not completely true,” Kurama argued in annoyance, “You cannot be found if you don’t want to, so some part of you must have wanted to be caught.”

“I came by to check up on her,” Hiei stated angrily, “I tried to get away before she found me, but I knew she would just keep following me considering how far she had already gone into the forest. Any farther and she could have gotten herself in trouble. She’s remained at my side ever since.”

Kurama sighed before deciding it was safest for the both of them that he change the topic.

“You were quite famous in these parts for a while,” Kurama said with a slight chuckle.

Hiei turned to his friend with a questioning face.

“One of the humans you brought back to the Ningenkai must have remembered your face because a drawing of you, all three eyes open, was in a newspaper with an article about how he had seen a space monster, an alien. Keiko and Shizuru found it.”
“Aliens,” Hiei snorted, “Fictitious creatures.”

“And isn’t that what humans believe us to be?” Kurama asked teasingly, “Yet I am pretty sure that I exist.”

“Are you saying that you believe in all that junk?” Hiei asked in disgust.

“Of course not,” Kurama chuckled, “I am only stating the fact that not all fictitious creatures are mere myths.”

“I never questioned my own existence,” Hiei muttered.

Kurama just smiled and walked to where Hiei stood facing the tree line.

“Why don’t you come back in? It is obvious that fate wants you here for the moment.”

“I have places to be,” Hiei replied, his shoulders as squared and set as his resolve to leave.

“Your sister was worried about you. I came out here to bring you back for her,” Kurama added and watched in amusement as Hiei’s shoulders slowly slumped.

“It seems you have found my Achilles Heel,” Hiei stated before turning back to the temple with Kurama.

He stopped and watched the group enjoying each other’s presence, the warm acceptance almost exuding a sense of calm throughout the entire temple grounds.

He watched as Keiko smacked Yusuke for some lewd comment or action and the others laughed. His eyes reached his sister’s form and he stood there for a minute, just watching her; she turned to Shizuru and said something to draw the beautician into the conversation everyone was in.

Kurama leaned in toward Hiei and smiled as he looked him in the eye.

“You can experience the acceptance of friends and family just as much as they can, Hiei,” he softly told his friend before walking toward the sliding door.

Hiei soon followed.