YAY!!! This chapter is done!! Yayness!! It took me forever to write, I think I'm coming down with writer's block again. I had a presentation at school today, and my braces were tightened yesterday, and I am in pain.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Oh, and this is a little strange at first, but keep reading. Everything clears up in the end.

"Kurama?"

The kitsune looked up from his book as he heard his name called. Yukina stood in front of him, hands clasped in front of her, eyes downcast, looking at the ground. Kurama folded a page to mark his spot, and gave the koorime his attention.

"What's the matter, Yukina?" Kurama asked. It had been two days since Shazagen's defeat. Everyone, excluding Hiei, had taken refuge inside Kurama's house to wait out the rest of the ice storm. They were still waiting-the power hadn't even come back on. At the moment they were in the living room, bundled up with a large fire going to keep them warm. Kurama had been reading on the floor, reading. Kuronue and Jeroun were asleep on the couch, and Shiori was feeding the fire. Karasu, Yusuke, and Kuwabara were playing the crow's version of hot potato. There was a noticeable yet soft boom as the potato blew up in Yusuke's face. He huffed, threw the ashes into the fire, and went to get another one. Karasu had a large grin plastered across his face.

"Kurama," Yukina said, sitting down next to him. "What did Hiei mean when he said, 'Forgive me'?" Kurama bit his lip. He had two options-he could lie, or he could tell Yukina the truth. Yukina longed to find her brother, and Kurama wanted to help all he could, but he would never betray Hiei by saying something the fire koorime didn't want him to. Hiei was Kurama's friend, that and the fact that if he did tell Hiei, there would be one very dead youko as soon as he found out.

Why does everything have to be so confusing? Kurama thought, wondering if Hiei would actually kill him. For all the trust that they shared, Kurama wouldn't put it past him.

"Kurama?" Yukina asked softly.

"He meant . . . so many things Yukina," Kurama said. "He meant so many things that I can't even begin to explain."

"He told me that he knew where my brother was," the koorime said softly, staring at the carpet. "He told me that he knew my brother, but he wouldn't tell me where he was. Kurama, why does he do that? Does he not want my brother to find me?"

"He wants. . . ." Kurama would have finished the sentence, but the lights came on, and there was a whoop from the couch, belonging to Jeroun. The youkai bounced around the living room, experimentally turning the lights on and off. Kurama and Yukina stared, and Karasu, stunned at the sudden outburst, made the potato blow up in his own face.

"Damn it!" He cried, rubbing ash out of his eyes while Yusuke and Kuwabara laughed at him. Yukina smiled at her friends, and looked at Jeroun, who was forcing Kuronue awake and then trying to dance with the groggy chimera. She heard Karasu curse the day he and Jeroun met. Yukina smiled when she remembered the day that Kurama had introduced them all to Jeroun. Her mind wandered over the details as her friends celebrated the return of the power. The corners of her mouth turned down as a certain memory crossed her mind.

*****flashback********

Yukina stepped through the front door of Kurama's house, wondering where the others were. She had a bit further to travel than the others, so she was a few minutes late. Bursts of laughter suddenly came from the kitchen, and Yukina followed them.

"I DO NOT, YOU DAMNED NINGEN!!!" she heard Hiei yell suddenly. Yukina paused-what didn't he do? There were muffled words coming from the kitchen for a few moments, and she stepped in.

"Is there something I missed?" Yukina asked. Everything paused-everyone looked at her-including the new face in the corner who had to be Jeroun. She felt Jeroun's eyes take her in for a few seconds before he opened his mouth.

"Hey, ma'am," he said, obviously talking to her. "You and Hiei look very much alike. Are you two-mmmmmmmffffff!!" Kurama had thrown his hand over Jeroun's mouth before the youkai could utter the last word. Yukina tilted her head in confusion, but let it slide.

************end flashback**************

Yukina frowned, her eyebrows knitting together in the center of her forehead. She and Hiei did look very much alike-the same height, the same eyes . . . Yukina could swear she felt her heart stop. Hiei had told her he knew where her brother was-but didn't want to tell her where. Whenever he had done something to hurt her, she had always seen guilt and self-loathing cross his face. He had saved her life many times, and hadn't killed Tarukene (A/N: I know I didn't spell that right, but you know who I'm talking about . . . the evil ugly dude who kidnapped Yukina before) when she asked him not to. There was no way he could be. . . .

Her brother, Hiei thought. She knows. She must have heard Shazagen say it. He gasped and stumbled as the cut on his chest burned. He had been careless, and within two days it had become infected. It hurt beyond all hell-now he knew why he had never let a cut get infected before.

"Damn it," he mumbled, stumbling through the trees of the Ningenkai. For two days he had been running through the Makai, killing anything unlucky enough to get in his way. But he had come back to the Ningenkai, just to know . . . "I need to see what she thinks of me," Hiei mumbled to himself. "I need to know how much I've hurt her, to see how much more I want to die after I see my sister's heart broken." The only thing he could see was the dim outline of Genkai's temple in the horizon. He let out a breath-his long journey was over-and passed out.

Hiei woke when he felt hot water splash onto the cut on his chest. He gasped and sat up, looking around, ready to kill the first thing he saw. It surprised him that he was in a bed with soft sheets. When he looked over, he saw Yukina, quietly wringing out a wet rag into a steaming bowl of water. She put the rag onto the bedside table and set the bowl down next to it. When she looked at Hiei, she was smiling.

"I hope you don't mind the older ningen methods of healing," she said. "I was almost out of energy after I had to heal everyone else, plus the cut is infected-I would have had to use extra energy to heal it."

"It's all right," Hiei said, looking down to the slash across his bare chest. "Thank you, Yukina."

"Hiei . . . can I ask you something?" Yukina's voice was soft. Hiei winced. This was it.

"Hai," Hiei said. "About your brother?" Yukina nodded.

"Why don't you want my brother to find me?" she whispered. "Do you hate me?"

"No," Hiei said slowly, unsure of what she was talking about. "Didn't you hear Shazagen?" She looked up.

"What does Shazagen have to do with all of this?" she asked. Hiei looked at her face and saw traces of confusion. He felt the exact same way.

"Then you didn't hear him?" Hiei asked.

"Iie," Yukina said, shaking her head slowly. Hiei smiled, sure his secret was safe. "Why are you so happy? You do hate me, you don't want me to find him, to be happy!" There were tears at the edges of her eyes.

"No," Hiei said. "Not at all." There were a few seconds of complete silence. "Would finding your brother really make you that happy?" She nodded.

"It's you, isn't it, Hiei?" Yukina asked. "You're my brother. I'm not stupid enough not to figure it out. Did you really think I was?"

"No," Hiei said.

"Hiei, I need to hear it from you," Yukina cried. "Tell me, tell me that you're my brother."

"Yukina, I am . . . I'm your brother," Hiei said, closing his eyes and waiting for her to tell him to never come near her, that she hated him. Even if she burst into tears; it would be better than the eerie silence that was slowly consuming them. Instead, the koorime did the most unexpected thing; something that Hiei would have never thought would come from her.

SLAP!!!

Yukina slapped him hard across the face.

"Yu . . . kina," Hiei muttered, backing away from her and gently prodding the small handprint on his cheek. Who knew his sister could be so violent? "You hate me then, right?"

SLAP!!!

"Baka!" Yukina cried, taking a moment to survey her handiwork-a red mark on each of Hiei's cheeks. The fire koorime turned his head away from her. Yukina saw two hiruiseki fall gently onto the bedsheets, and did what she meant to do all along; she threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. "I can't hate you," she mumbled. "Not when you've saved me, not when I've been looking so long and hard . . . onii-san."

"I'm . . . sorry," Hiei murmured. There were a few awkward moments of silence before Hiei returned her embrace. It took him a few moments to realize that there were hiruiseki rapidly falling into his lap. "D-don't cry Yukina," Hiei mumbled. Yukina looked up at him.

"I'm . . . just so happy," she said. "That we're finally together. Hiei . . . why didn't you tell me?"

"You . . . you looked up to your brother-me," Hiei hastily corrected. "I didn't want to ruin your image of me by letting you see that I'm just a criminal, a murderer." Yukina squeezed him tighter.

"I don't care," she said. "You've done so many good things since I met you, I didn't think about you that way."

"You didn't?" Hiei asked. "The first time you saw me I was about to kill the bastard who kidnapped you."

"You stopped when I asked you." Hiei opened his mouth to reply, but thought about it, and closed it, falling into a thoughtful silence.

"YU-KI-NA!!" Kuwabara's voice rang out through the temple, surprising Hiei and Yukina out of their embrace. Hiei cursed the ningen-Yukina smiled. "YU-KI-NA!! My love, my sweet, where are you? Are you here? Call to-" An abrupt crackling sound interrupted Kuwabara. "Eep! Don't throw that thing at me!!"

"Then shut up." Karasu's voice was soft, but it could still be heard.

"Hey, this is Genkai's temple, then?" Jeroun's voice was louder than Karasu's, but quieter than Kuwabara's. "At least it used to be-Kurama said she died of old age a few months ago."

"Heeeeeeey, that looks pretty nice. Wonder how much it's worth?"

"Kuronue," Kurama's voice was tinged with a warning tone.

"Gomen," Kuronue said. Yukina stepped into the main hall to greet them, Hiei following silently in the shadows. She smiled at them, and Kuwabara stepped forward, presenting her with another boquet of roses.

"That's three times this month!!" Yukina squealed happily, but took the roses anyway. She could tell from the look on Kurama's face that they were grown by him-all the store-bought roses Kuwabara got her died quickly, which eventually led to asking for them from Kurama. "You really shouldn't, Kazuma!!"

"It's nothing!!" Kuwabara said. Yukina turned around to face the shadows that Hiei was hiding in.

"Aren't they pretty, onii-san?" Yukina asked, smiling. She felt everyone freeze behind her. Hiei-who had found his cloak, stepped out with a , "hn".

"Hai," he said slowly. As he glanced around and saw the shocked looks on everyone's (Kurama, Kuronue, Jeroun, Karasu, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko, Botan, and Koenma) faces, he grunted, "Yes, I told her. What does it matter to you?"

"It . . . doesn't," Botan said. "I just thought that you'd never say it."

"Hn," Hiei replied as Yukina began to usher everyone into the living room. (A/N: Must . . . keep . . . going . . . almost done. . . . *faints* That was completely random.)

"Why does the shrimp have to be here?" Kuwabara complained. "He's such a stiff, he'll ruin all the fun!!"

"Baka ningen," Hiei muttered. As they sat down around the "living room" (A/N: I don't know if temples have a living room, but you get the idea), Kuwabara complained loudly about Hiei's presense.

"Shut up," Karasu said, calling a bomb into his hand. As the crow muttered threats, Kurama realized something and jumped to his feet.

"Hang on!" he shouted, pointing at Karasu. The crow almost dropped the bomb, but saved it at the last minute. "When you came back to life, you said you didn't have enough energy to use your bombs!! How can you use them now?"

"I . . . er, lied," Karasu said with a sheepish grin on his face.

"NANI?!?!?!?!?!?" Kurama shouted.

"Relax, Kurama, he's already told you he's not going to hurt you!!" Jeroun shouted.

"Here we go again," Kuronue mumbled as everyone laughed at Kurama. Even Hiei had a bit of a smirk on his face. "Ah, well, at least there aren't any more evil youkai out for revenge on Hiei."

All right then!! That's the last chapter of this story . . . I think. There's not any more I can really do with it, now that the plot's all resolved. Yell at me all you want, but this IS the last chapter. Mwahahaha. That whole line was completely and utterly useless. Oh, well, two things before I end this once and for all.

Due to certain circumstances, I'm not giving out plushies for this story. I lost my list of reviewers halfway through the story. T.T

Also, there will be a story that comes after this; "When bamboo attacks" (I need to put that up on my bio-I renamed it.) It's not a sequel, rather a cute little story that needs these events to come before it. So, if anyone's interested, I'm hoping (key word; HOPING) to have it up in the next two to three weeks.