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Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho but I do own Yuka and Rara.

He woke to the feeling of tiny hands tugging his hair, more like trying to pull it out along with its roots. He could also hear people snickering.

Snickering… people … where was he?

He groaned at a particularly vicious tug and shifted only for the pain to increase two-fold.

"Careful child, you're hurting him," said a voice that he knew he should remember and found he couldn't place it anywhere from his memories. The voice, definitely that of a female. He felt small hands in his hair and something wooden passing through the said hair.

Memories… does he even have them? What were they?

"But if I don't pull hard how can I get the tangles out!" cried out the voice of a tiny child. How did he know that the child was tiny?

Child? Why is a child near him? How did he even know her to be a child?

"Don't worry, Child, I'll teach you how to do it. Yusuke, Kazuma, if you're quite done with laughing your behinds off, I'd like some help," stated another person with the quiet voice- the calm to it so very familiar.

He heard the movement of feet. Two sets, one quiet, almost as quiet as his own and the voice of the calmer person- how does he know that? And the other, the very opposite of the word calm. It was almost painful to listen to such loud footsteps. He then felt larger hands on his shoulders, three sets to be exact- though how he knew that was a mystery.

The hands were urging him to move but he couldn't find it in himself to actually move to their desired position. The hands grew more insistent and a noise escaped his throat that sounded suspiciously like a growl. He could feel something stir in the air, heating the room and felt safe in the heat even as someone yelped and the hands on him immediately retracted.

"Geez, Hiei, no need to burn us man. Oww, that hurts," grumbled a voice to his left.

"Listen here, Shrimp, we're tryin' to help ya. So shut up and actually let us help, you damn pyro," grumbled another voice to his left. There was chuckling to his right and giggling not far away.

"Hiei-sama is always cranky in the mornings. So cranky that even Mukuro-sama gave up trying to beat 'some sense into him in the morning' as she says it," said the child's voice again.

There were four names in the conversation he's heard so far, names he knew which held some sort of meaning to him. Obviously his name was Hiei. Mukuro was some sort of leader, Yusuke or was he known to him with another name? There was also that Kazum-

Soft, small hands?- no these weren't hands- all his thought processes were cut off and a strange feeling passed over him, clouding his already dazed mind. He could feel a sharp sting at the center of his forehead and a groan escaped his lips and no sooner that happened he felt a very familiar presence in his head, washing over him and holding him anchored to the other world.

'Sleep Hiei', said the first female voice he heard at the beginning of the dawn of this strange world.

'Who are you?' he asked resisting the very same thing, clinging to the anchor that held him in the sea of darkness.

'A friend and a well-wisher. Sleep before you worry the child even more,' she said.

'Child? Who is she?'

'Sleep, you stubborn fool and when you wake up, you better get things under control,' and these words were followed by a feminine growl that resonated in the strange world with voices and he could feel the other voices' anxiety as the heat increased around him.

'Hiei,' growled the female voice and the pain in his forehead went up a notch. He could feel his fingers twitching, shoulders shake with the effort to do something to stop the pain but he didn't know what to do. He could hear ragged breaths coming out of his mouth and tried to stop or at least quiet them, but that only increased the heat in the room and the voices were getting louder and he could no longer comprehend them at all. That scared him more than ever. He couldn't seem to control anything and loss of that control was unforgivable.

Suddenly a door slid open loudly and there was hushed grumble of the word 'Yukina'. And then there was a rush of cold into the room. Cold that seemed to welcome the heat into its arms and soothe it in a way that reduced the harsh burning heat into warmth that warmed parts of even his blackened, burning soul.

He felt the pain reach a crescendo when small soft hands touched his forehead and even smaller, softer hands touch his shoulder. And abruptly the heat vanished and he felt his mind turn even more sluggish. Numbing cold spread through his body and he relaxed further. The voices merged together and most of them seemed far away. The only presence near him was the voice that gently whispered in his ear.

A voice that said, "Go to sleep Hiei-nii. I'll be here to look after you and things can go back to normal after you wake up again. But until then I will take care of you and the Child you've taken under your wing."

That simple reassurance from that person, even though he knew something was wrong with that statement, was what he needed to hear- that person who was a part of his being, the lighter part of his soul.

And just as suddenly the anchor to the world of voices vanished leaving him to float in the darkness. And yet this time there was a familiar cold to it, a cold that set his heart at ease and he let himself fade away with the feeling of gentle fingers running through his locks.

! #$%^^%$# !

It had been eight days 14 hours and twenty seven minutes since Hiei first fell asleep, not that she'd been counting, thought Keiko. And the near burning down of the temple had happened three days ago. But ever since that day Keiko noticed that Yukina had been a lot more distant than normal. She still played with the child, helped her understand the customs of the Human World, tucked her in, played with her and held her. But without Yuka-chan around Yukina's nature turned colder. And the thing all the girls involved with the Reikai Tentei had discovered was that the deeper her thoughts were, the colder her nature became. This coldness was unlike the usually cheerful apparition.

Now too, Keiko watched Yukina go about chopping vegetables mechanically. Her mind seemed far, far away from this large kitchen. Keiko even without the ability to sense the supernatural, unlike most people of her group, could definitely feel the spikes in her energy every now and then, and the room would freeze for a few split seconds before warming again. Whatever had her friend so deep in thought could not be any good. But for some reason she was sure it had everything to do with Hiei's continued deep slumber and the incident from three days ago.

That had been scary, Keiko thought. She had seen her boyfriend and the rest of the guys fight on several occasions but never had she felt such high amounts of self-preservation kick in as opposed to that day. It all started with a small joke of how unmanageable Hiei's hair would get when he finally woke up and Yuka-chan being the sweet loving child she was decided to help her Hiei-sama and the result of the help had been Hiei very nearly burning down the temple. Those black fires…..

But apparently that wasn't the reason either. Rara had explained the details to them after Hiei finally fell asleep. The reason apparently was that there was a change in Hiei's energy composition. That kind of change would be fatal from what she's heard. Hiei's Jagon had been trying to restore a balance in the Fire Demon's body by taking some portion of his energy away, which caused more problems since Hiei couldn't get back to his full strength without all of his energy. This was such a huge mess. She knew that everyone who heard the explanation understood perfectly what had happened and it sucked that she couldn't understand this. Even the child had understood. But everyone made a unanimous unspoken decision not to bring this little incident up with Hiei.

After the fire incident everyone in the Temple grew very wary. They would not talk about it but Keiko knew they were worried for their friend. They would get this tiny little wrinkle in their foreheads whenever Yuka mentions her Hiei-sama. Keiko knew for a fact that Kurama and Genkai were expecting trouble in the future because there was increase in number of protection wards all over the temple and in the forest. Kurama and Yusuke had even taken up training seriously again. Not only were they training they also seemed to train little Yuka; though the child would quickly walk away from the training. Rara would often accompany them and tell them that only person who could get Yuka to train seriously was the sleeping Fire Demon. Normally that would be an insult to the veterans. But Yuka' shrill crying session when she accidentally hurt Yusuke-enough to make him bleed- was enough to deter them. She hated to hurt other people, was what Rara mumbled as she continued to pet the child's head in a complete role reversal.

Sigh….

Keiko suddenly got a reality check when she very nearly burned the broth she'd been stirring. She quickly added more water diluting the broth and hopefully cooling the temperature of the thing.

"Yukina-san," came the very concerned, sharp cry of Yuka-chan and I immediately turned to see Yukina. Yukina's finger was bleeding and yet she didn't seem to care for that. Everything happened in slow motion after that. Rara dashed forward to knock the knife out of her hands and immediately Yuka-chan's hands wrapped around the ice apparition healing the damaged and bleeding finger. All through this Yukina merely stared at the finger.

Keiko thanked the gods when she saw Yukina coming back to herself and apologiz for causing them to worry but Keiko heard nothing of it. She caught the eye of the child and they both gave identical determined nods to each other- an unspoken conversation happening between and Yukina was all the more ignorant of the situation.

'Take her to Kuwabara and cheer her up Yuka-chan.'

'Of course, Keiko- san.'

The usually observant Yukina was none the wiser about the conversation. Yuka-chan was all arms and legs dragging Yukina out the door even though Yukina was nearly back to normal and started to protest. Keiko very quickly reassured her that it would be fine and she could finish it up in the kitchen. A reluctant Yukina gave her one more apologetic look before getting dragged out of the door. Keiko then chuckled at how strong the little child was- managing to drag a willing demon away from a place was a hassle and dragging off a reluctant demon was even more difficult.

Keiko added a little more seasoning to the broth and added the vegetables to the broth and dumped the minced meat into it too. As she stirred she could feel her thoughts drifting towards the newest ball of sunshine in their lives. A small red haired, blued eyes angel name Yukari.

Yuka-chan was cute and she looked even cuter in the dresses Hiei bought for her; the nice little Human World outfits suiting her sunny personality. She was by no means slow. Keiko and the others had taken up teaching her kanji and math, and needless to say she took to it like fish to water. She could already do basic math, could read Katakana and even write. (She wrote up a letter to 'Mukuro-sama' as she calls her). She was charming and her innocence regarding most things was mesmerizing to watch; most of the time Keiko even forgot that the child was a demon child. But to learn that she had once been a part of slave group was so devastating. But it brought hope to Keiko knowing that Yukari still had all that innocence. And her innocence drew people to her like a moth to a flame. Even Kurama wasn't spared. And Yuka-chan had Yusuke wrapped around her little finger. It was so cute to watch Yusuke scramble to do the child's bidding. Their video game battles were of such high comedic value that Keiko couldn't even find it in her to scold yusuke for getting her attached to video games. If this was how Yusuke was around kids she couldn't wait to start a family with- no Keiko education first, she chided herself. She already knew that Genkai would tell all the stories she could think about instantly making Yusuke's nickname for her to hold a true meaning. Keiko did not know how Hiei behaved around the child but considering how the child would fawn over him saying 'Hiei-sama this' and 'Hiei-sama that' Keiko knew without a doubt that the grumpy fire demon was just as entranced with her as the rest of them. But the most astonishing display of affection for the child came from Yukina. She seemed to consider the child family. It was amazing to watch the usually affectionate Yukina take on a stern role even with the child. Keiko was pretty sure that Kuwabara seemed extremely happy whenever he sees Yukina with the child, just as she was.

Thinking about Yuka brought Keiko's thoughts to the talking cat. Rara was intelligent, sly, very quick to insult and 'a damned pain in the ass' for people like Yusuke. It was funny to see her run circles around Kuwabara with the poor man taking it in silence mostly out of his love for cats; most of the time he never even knew that the cat was making fun of him. But Keiko doubted it. But the fun itself was harmless. The cat like royalty would just saunter over to Kazuma and settle into his lap and demand to be petted. Kurama and Rara would often talk in the garden of things she had no idea about. They would hold conversations that seemed serious enough to warrant a yell from Genkai. Genkai would merely ask them to cross the bridge when they got to it, although what that was, was anyone's guess.

But now that the food was completely prepared Keiko said goodbye to her thoughts and quickly went about setting the kotatsu with Kurama's help. (He'd come into the kitchen at some point not that Keiko had noticed). He gave her a small smile which she returned and she knew that whatever the future had in store for them all, they would certainly be able to overcome it. For now she resigned herself to a very loud dinner.

! #$%^&&^%$# !

It took two more days for Hiei to wake; two more days in which the child had gotten significantly closer to the rest of them at the Temple. The second he'd opened his eyes, every single person in the living room stiffened to the point Keiko had to very carefully hold the child against herself so that if anyone did snap, she wouldn't be in the direct line of fire. But to their surprise the child merely grinned and skipped away from her, into the hallway and into Hiei's room. They slowly followed her and came to a stop outside of the room, where they could hear the child's excited chatter. Rara merely smiled and entered the room telling them all telepathically to leave them alone for an hour or so, so that the child could make him acceptable to having company. Kurama was the first to nod and walk away and the rest of them soon followed with Yukina being the last of them.

So this chapter is merely a filler. I can't say I'm totally happy with it. Inspiration struck me and this was how it turned out. I would love to read what you thought of the chapter, criticism is appreciated. So tell me what you think.