-- This Chapter was updated 9-2-2008 --

Huminshou

By Zelia Theb

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

Yusuke racked the cupboards of the kitchen, searching for something to make for breakfast. He was wearing black sweatpants, because he had neglected to do laundry for quite a few days. After washing up he had taken all of the laundry to the basement, hoping that after he made breakfast some clothing would be available. Hiei was left with nothing; Yusuke didn't want to take any chances and just took everything off of his floor.

It was the morning after their second night of… whatever they wanted to call it. Yusuke still couldn't believe it himself; he never thought that everything would come to the surface and work out. He was actually surprised that Hiei didn't spaz out and go crazy in denial.

Knock knock knock. Yusuke went to his door, pondering how his apartment had become the most popular place in the city over the past few weeks, and opened it up to see the Kuwabara siblings.

"This is…odd."

"Let us in, Urameshi!" the taller boy said, pushing his way into the place and seating himself on the sofa. Shizuru lit up a cigarette, watching Yusuke drool as she inhaled.

"So why are you…"

"Baby bro said that you didn't go to school today, so we came over to find out why," Shizuru explained. Okay, so it was more like dinnertime, but Yusuke had just gotten out of bed…

"Yeah, Keiko was mad because you've been doin' so good lately, and for some reason Botan insisted that I come over and find out what was wrong," Kuwabara said. "She seemed pretty mad at you and I know Botan, she doesn't get mad that often."

The door to Yusuke's bedroom opened slightly, and the corner of a bedsheet poked itself out into view quickly. The door quickly closed. The elder Kuwabara offered Yusuke a cigarette, lighting it and all for him, then remarked, "Seems like she's mad that you're breaking Keiko's heart." Yusuke choked, not because of the suggestive words, but because he hadn't had a smoke in a long time.

"Urameshi! What did you do?!" Kuwabara began flailing his arms wildly at the shirtless boy, asking various follow up questions which were all synonymous with each other.

"I didn't do anything!" Yusuke lied nervously. The bedsheet had gotten stuck in the door, and was trying to wiggle itself out.

"That's why you didn't go to school! You're seeing someone else! You don't have the balls to face Keiko!" the taller one accused him. "You've even got a love bite on your collarbone! Man, Urameshi, where'd ya find a girl that wasn't afraid of ya?" He brought his hand up to his chin and mused, "Well since we found out, I guess I don't gotta be here anymore. Catch ya later, Urameshi!" He slipped his shoes back on to leave, but not before he added, "Oh and, expect me to pound ya later for this! My kitty has a vet appointment so I gotta go!"

Shizuru raised an eyebrow. She was evil; Yusuke was starting to think that she was sent by the Universe to catch him. She smirked and said, "So, Yusuke, I didn't take you for a demon lover." Yusuke choked again. Same reason.

"What are you talking about?" She answered him by freeing the sheet from the hold the door had on it and revealing a naked Hiei who was trying his hardest to be sneaky by tugging at the sheet that he was wrapped in. Yusuke almost dropped his smoke. "Oh. Um, yeah."

"Tch," Hiei scoffed, emerging from the room still wrapped in the sheet. "If you…"

"Tell anyone, you'll kill me. Yeah yeah," Shizuru shrugged the threat off. "It'll be you guys that tell everyone anyway. It was so obvious the last time I saw you, I can't imagine how bad it's gotten since then."

"We were obvious," Hiei scoffed, taking a seat on Yusuke's lap (the boy had just sat on the couch in defeat), "yet Kurama's persistent come-ons to the Detective were unnoticed? This is absurd."

"I didn't say that his weren't," the brunette shot back, "but Yusuke didn't return them."

"Fine, whatever. You can leave now."

"No need to get your sheets up in a bunch, kiddo," Shizuru said to Hiei, "I just felt like being observant. I'll leave you two alone." She kept her word. Hiei's face was scrunched up angrily. Kiddo? KIDDO?

"Hn. Where are all the clothes."

"Getting washed, Hiei," Yusuke answered. "Why are you complaining?"

Hiei smiled and straddled the boy. "I'm not complaining."

"Did you just smile?" Yusuke questioned, a smile coming to his own face at the thought of Hiei being happy for once in his lifetime. He allowed his hands to explore underneath the sheets. The demon smiled again instead of replying and kissed him, starting another strange and unexplainable session of sensual groping and passion.

Meanwhile…

"Oh, hey Keiko! What's up Botan?" Kuwabara called as he descended a flight of stairs, crossing paths with Yusuke's friend and the apparition.

"So was Yusuke home guys?" Keiko asked. Her brown hair was long enough to tie back, and she had done just that, tying it into two low pigtails.

"Yeah, he's a big jerkface though, so I wouldn't talk to him."

"Oh, we'll talk to him alright! Come on Keiko!" Botan yelled in the stairwell, grabbing the girl's wrist firmly and racing up the steps. They bumped into Shizuru on the floor Yusuke lived on, who was about to make her own way down the stairs.

"Uh, hey girls, where are you going?" Shizuru asked nervously, knowing full well of the events that transpired last night.

"They're going to Urameshi's to yell at him! And I wanna see it!" her little brother announced.

"What about your 'kitty-cat,' baby bro?" She flicked some ashes off the end of her burning cigarette.

"Oh, that thing's not 'till tomorrow, I just didn't feel like staying there anymore," Kuwabara explained. "Everytime I go there lately I get this creepy vibe." She rolled her eyes at her sibling. He really was dumb.

"Creepy vibe, huh?!" Botan growled. "Let's go!" She continued to drag the shortest brunette down the hall, and the Kuwabara's followed.

"Guys, I'm not sure that's such a good idea…" Shizuru protested. Botan pounded on the door, and there was no answer. Keiko tried her hand at it (double meaning), and it was no use. No response.

"Oh, he's so full of crap!" Kuwabara grumbled. "I just talked to him! He's in there!"

"Well, when all else fails, use the devices that you're given!" Botan declared.

"You mean Spirit World invented a door opening thingy?" Kuwabara then prepared to ad-lib a spontaneous infomercial to introduce the device.

"No! The door knob!" she resolved. She twisted the knob and burst in with the other two, too angry to take in the sight of the apartment until her feet came to a stop.

Shizuru lurked behind in the hallway, rolling her eyes as she blew smoke out of her mouth. After hearing a loud and piercing shriek echo throughout the floor (courtesy of her brother), she had to inform the neighbor that poked their head out of their own place that everything was fine.

"You know, Hiei," Yusuke whispered into his lover's ear, "I didn't expect you to stick around our first time." He moved his hand along the demon's back, causing the sheet to fall and only barely cover up Hiei's lower portions.

"What did you expect?"

"That you would have freaked out because you did it with a human and the great Hiei could never admit that he had human emotions for a being he hated with every fiber of his own being."

"I already did that a month ago, Yusuke," Hiei informed him, not realizing that he had just said that he had done such an act with another human being a month ago (although Yusuke did and it caused him to utter a minor giggle). Hiei didn't talk much, so he had an excuse to mess up the wording of his statements occassionally.

"And I don't really care," he continued, "you said that you weren't exactly a normal human being yourself."

"Ah…so that's your justification," Yusuke deduced. He kissed Hiei quickly again.

"Hn. One of many," Hiei remarked, not really caring for conversation and indulging the two of them into another long liplock. Because of their compromising position and barely covered 'limbs,' it was obvious what the Universe had in store for them next.

The door opened, and in stormed Botan and Kuwabara, looking especially emotional, with Keiko trailing behind. The smoke that lingered from the hallway was a sign that Shizuru was there as well. Kuwabara screamed rather loudly once he realized what was going on, and Botan gasped. Keiko just cringed a bit, unsure of exactly how to react.

Immediately, Yusuke gripped Hiei tightly, not to show that he was taken, but because he knew that Hiei was going to literally, kill them all, and end up losing his sheet. Hiei's threats of death were muffled by Yusuke's shoulder, fortunately for the rude intruders.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?!" Botan (yes, Botan) yelled.

"I could ask you the same question!" Yusuke shouted back, still holding a struggling Hiei down. "Except make the two into a three or a four!"

"We're here to make sure that you aren't doing this!" Botan returned. Keiko uttered a rather feminine grunt to interrupt.

"Um, actually we came to see why you didn't come to school today, Yusuke…" the meek girl corrected. Her eyes were still somewhat averted, trying to stare at the coffee table which housed candy wrappers and empty pop cans. And a black video cassette box which read Omon-kuu and the Adventures of Seiyuugi, a rather cryptic title. She wondered if she had ever seen any advertisements for the film, but figured it was some sort of foreign art film.

"Well, I actually slept in," Yusuke curtly replied. "I'm so happy to see that Kuwabara explained that to you." He shot a rather nasty scowl at his friend, and it would have killed him if eyes could shoot emotionally based projectiles.

"You're going to die, you useless meathead!" Hiei shouted. Into Yusuke's skin.

"Oh, who cares what you're saying, Hiei! How dare you two do this to Keiko!" the spirit guide ranted. Her hands were placed angrily on her hips, contemplating whether or not they should create a giant oar to hit the two with.

"Uh…I'm right here," Keiko reminded everyone, raising her hand a bit. Kuwabara placed his palm on her shoulder and dragged her back a few spaces, warning her that things were probably about to ugly. He did not forget to add a Hiei punchline in there, prompting Shizuru to tell him to 'shut up' from the doorframe.

"Damn it! What's your problem, anyway?" Yusuke exploded, glaring a hole into Botan's face, "Is it that I'm the Spirit Detective and I'm supposed to do as I'm told? Is it it because Hiei's a guy? Because he's a demon? I mean, what the hell! Keiko probably doesn't give a crap anyway. She'll get over it because she knows that I'm happy!"

During the argument, Hiei settled down and decided to keep quiet. He figured that he would find his place to speak. In all honestly, it was the happiness comment that had cooled his boiling blood, but he couldn't dwell too much on that now.

"Gah! Is he naked under there?!" Kuwabara let out in a gargled and disgusted voice.

"SHUT UP!" the human, the demon, and the apparition cried out in unison.

"So you're going to throw all of that away for him?!" Botan retorted, looming closer and closer over the two of them. "He's on probation! You have school! You grew up with Keiko!"

No one loved Hiei (as the Botan remark proved). That's why he lived the life that he did.

"There's nothing to throw away."

Botan began to rant again at the churlish statement, and Hiei had just about enough of keeping quiet.

"If you had such a problem with it, Botan," Hiei said, lifting his head from Yusuke's comfortable shoulder, "then you would have shown Koenma the photograph you took of us the first night I was under that sentence. You had the power to stop this." The girl fumbled for a comeback, but couldn't find anything decent.

"It's still your fault!" she exclaimed, an accusing index finger directed at Yusuke.

"It's not anyone's fault, stupid!" Yusuke shouted. "You can't help who you fall in love with!"

Hiei and the air around him tensed up. It was at that precise moment that the Universe bestowed upon him a revelation.

Living life purely on the instinct of survival and revenge is eternal suffocation. One needs to breathe the air of another to truly live.

Pissitivity could just be a passing phase.

"So…Urameshi's in love with a guy demon…" the tallest said, breaking the strange silence.

"Quiet, oaf," Hiei emotionally spat out. "You're in love with that guy demon's sister so how is that any different?" The teen's jaw gaped open, but Hiei quickly closed it by adding, "Don't you think that there's a good reason I haven't told her? If you know what's good for you…" He continued the threat. "And good for her, you'll keep quiet."

There are simply no amount of words that could describe the superfluous thoughts in Kazuma's head at that moment. To randomly choose one, he came up with a few good reasons that Yukina would need to be kept in the dark for, and decided to silently give Hiei his word that he wouldn't tell, no matter how much it ate him up inside.

At least everyone was distracted from the small amounts of water in Hiei's eyes (not that they would be able to understand his crying enough to acknowledge it was happening anyway). He merely pulled himself closer to his lover in an attempt to conceal them further.

"I think that you all need to leave," Yusuke demanded sternly, yet softly. He was too angry to figure out exactly why his skin was slowly becoming damp, but he knew that Hiei would disappear if everyone else saw him upset.

Luckily for both of them, the group complied with the demand. Angry, but they left nonetheless.

"Hiei…what's wrong? You okay man?" Yusuke murmured into the demon's ear, stroking the hair on the back of Hiei's neck.

"I love you too, honey bumpkins!" Hiei suddenly shouted, throwing his arms around him.

Not really. But that passing thought suddenly burst into the boy's head as he awaited an answer. His smile faded when it dawned on him; he had admitted that he loved Hiei! Yusuke scolded himself, he should have known better. Any ordinary person would have been overjoyed at the words, but Hiei…

Hiei would just fall apart, and he was.

So Yusuke Urameshi spent the remainder of the day keeping Hiei together. He cradled him in his lap, speaking no words and only waiting for the subtle tears to subside. It did not take long. He would never ask why the words struck the demon harder than any beast summoned from the pits of Hell ever could.

But if Hiei ever told him…

Yusuke would never tell a soul.

The End…?

Author's Note

Yes. The End. Sayonara Bye-Bye.

Yeah right.

Click my bio and read Awake. That's the sequel! Named after a Dream Theater Album, but also named because Huminshou is pretty much translated into a sleep illness, aka insomnia.

This chapter transgressed into a more serious aura to set up the mood for the sequel.

Author's note update (9-2-2008) – As of yet, I have not determined whether or not I will be finishing Awake.

-Zelia