When you come back to kill us like we all deserve, kill me first. It's the least I can do for an atonment for what I'm about to do. Those words echoed in Hiei's mind as he sat in a tree in a park. Stop thinking about that, Hiei commanded himself. He hadn't been able to get a good sleep in days since Rui died.

"Hiei?" Kurama said.

Nearly jumping out of the tree from shock, Hiei looked down and saw him looking up at him. "How do you keep finding me?" Hiei demanded. I've been concealing myself here but he still found me, he thought.

Kurama said, "Yukina's having a hard time. What happened between you and Rui?"

"I'd actually like a straight answer from you for once," Hiei demanded as he looked away.

"I'll tell you, if you tell me what happened," Kurama replied, "this is obviously eating at you from the inside out. That's hardly healthy."

Hiei asked, "My health is the reason you care?"

"Us being friends is the reason I care," he replied.

Friends, Hiei thought to himself. They had been through a lot together for multiple years at that point. He looked over at Kurama and asked, "Will you leave me alone if I tell you?"

Kurama answered, "I can't promise anything."

Figures, Hiei thought, but if I don't tell him he definetly won't leave me alone. He jumped out of the tree and stood in front of Kurama. "You sure know how to get on my nerves."

"Let's go somewhere else," Kurama replied.

Hiei sat on his bed and leaned against the wall to the point where his legs stuck straight out. Kurama turned the chair at his desk around and sat across from him. "To be honest, I'm surprised you didn't ask more about this earlier," Hiei confessed, "since my sister Yukina's an ice maiden and I'm a fire demon."

"I did consider it," he replied, "but I also considered that kind of information would come eventually."

Or you'd decide when to force it out of me, Hiei thought as he explained, "I could see and hear before I was born and I remember everything that happened just after it. The ice world is females only. They reproduce asexually once every 100 years and once my mother reached her 100th year that's what was supposed to happen. When they get with men in they can have boys instead. They consider all men evil, so I wasn't allowed there while Yukina was, just because she was born a girl. Rui was told to take me out of my mother's arms and drop me from a cliff to my death and that's exactly what she did."

"I'm sorry."

"Do not pity the beast."

"Rui I beg of you, please don't! My baby! No!"

Kurama said, "I see. Once your mother passed away Rui was the one that raised Yukina until she left the ice world."

"Out of all of the dreadful women on that island," Hiei said, "why did they choose her? They could have chosen someone else."

Considering how aloof Hiei is, Kurama thought, I knew his past must not have been the best but I never expected this. "I can see now why you didn't want to help her," Kurama replied.

"How do you keep finding me, even with my energy concealed?" Hiei demanded.

He explained, "One of Yusuke's detective items can track demons," he pulled down his sleeve to show the demon compass, "I stole some of your DNA before and now I can track you from anywhere." He opened the compartment that had Hiei's single strand of hair circled inside.

Hiei glared at him and said, "That's it? Give that to me!"

Kurama hid it and said, "No. You're much easier to find now and it comes in handy. Besides, it's better than that whistle." He examined the bags under Hiei's eyes and saw his skin was getting paler by the day.

"Anything is better than that noise," Hiei said, looking away.

"Does Yukina know all of that happened?" Kurama asked.

"I don't know," Hiei replied, "it's not like it matters."

Kurama insisted, "Talk to her. She's been a wreck ever since Rui died." I can tell you have been to, he thought.

Hiei thought, Maybe I should visit her.

Hiei stayed within the trees outside of Genkai's temple and used his jagan to look inside. Yukina was sitting on the floor of her room, crying, alone. She really is depressed, he thought, what am I supposed to do about that? He leaned against a tree and tried to fall asleep again. Only to have the same dream from before. He glanced over at her room again.

He couldn't stop himself from getting up and jumping onto the porch outside of her room. It was almost like his body was moving himself forward. He knocked on her door. "Genkai if you're here to tell me Kazuma's here tell him I'm sleeping," Yukina said through the door.

"Has Kuwabara been bothering you that much?" Hiei asked. She should know the truth, echoed in his mind again. Shut up! he told himself.

The door opened and Yukina stood on the otherside. "Hiei?" she asked, "What are you doing here?" He looks terrible, she thought, I wonder if he's thinking the same about me.

"Kurama told me you were a wreck and thought you needed company," He replied. That's right, blame him for why you're here, he thought.

"I'm not really in the mood," she said sadly, "you can stay if you want. I just didn't expect anyone, especially you to come here." I wonder if he's blaming himself for her death, she thought, maybe that's why he's here and looks so terrible. She motioned for him to come in.

Hiei closed the door behind himself as he walked in. He saw her stone tears covering the floor as she kicked them out of the way. "You're crying over her death?" he asked.

"Well," she explained, "even if she did try to kill my brother, she still raised me."

"How do you know your brother hasn't been dead for years?" Hiei asked as he sat down across from her on the floor.

A few tears fell and hit the floor as she said, "I don't, but at least this way I can pretend I'm not alone in the world. Rui was sure he survived the fall but now I'm wondering if she was just trying to make herself feel better." She put her head in her knees.

Hiei felt his heart breaking as he moved to sit beside her and watched her cry. If she doesn't learn the truth, he thought, she's going to end up like our mother. She'll kill herself. "I've met Rui before," he confessed slowly.

Yukina raised her head as more tears fell and looked at him. "What are you saying?"

"The first time I met her," he explained painfully, "she took me out of my mother's arms and wrapped me in a sacred cloth, then dropped me off of a cliff. The next time I met her I returned to the ice world, looking for my mother but she had already killed herself by the time I got there."

"Hiei?"

"Yukina you're not alone," he insisted, "and Rui deserved what she got in the end."

"That's why she saved you!" Yukina nearly shouted, "I've been wondering that for days. Not that you're not worth saving. I just wondered why she'd end her own life to save someone she didn't know. But she did know you."

Hiei said, "I'm your brother, Yukina."

"It all makes sense now," she said, "why you saved me from Tarukane. Why you saved me in the dark tournament. Why you look so terrible right now. Why everyone acts so strange when I bring up my brother. It's because you're him! How long did you know I was your sister? Why didn't you say anything?" She hugged him tight.

Why didn't you say anything? Echoed in Hiei's mind. "I just thought I'd watch you from a distance. Did you just say I look terrible?" He pulled away from her.

Yukina replied, "You haven't slept in days, have you?"

Kurama could have said something, he thought. Then he remembered when he said, Us being friends is why I care. "Hn."

"Do you really think Rui deserved to die?"

"Yes."

"Then how come you haven't been sleeping?" Yukina asked as she looked into Hiei's eyes.

He answered, "I've been remembering my past and what happened to me right after I was born."

"I'm sorry Rui did that to you Hiei," Yukina whispered, putting her head on his shoulder, "I wish our lives would have been different."

"Sometimes I do too," Hiei confessed as he closed his eyes. For the first time in days he didn't feel haunted by the past.

The End