He was warm, comfortable, and wrapped up in something soft that smelt of pine needles burning under heavy snow – his scent. Had he gone to sleep here? Or had he been moved? Normally he slept in a tree, or occasionally Kurama's bed if he was in the human world. Red eyes and amethyst jagan eye still closed, sealed with the sands of sleep, Hiei breathed deeply of the pillow under his head. Only his scent met his nose there, but another drifted gently around him: one of fur and a dry den in soft earth and leaves. He knew that scent, it was the fox's scent, when he wasn't covered in blood anyway. So Kurama was around, that made sense. This felt like his bed. Turning his head and peeling one eye open slightly when it was struck by a greater abundance of light, he saw the familiar tree just outside the window where he had perched so many times before.

Kurama was nowhere is sight though, and Hiei used the silent moment to try and remember how he had gotten here. The lazy, foggy feeling left behind by a deep and fulfilling sleep had fogged his memory, but as the fire apparition yawned, stretched, and sat up, it came floating back.

He'd met up with the detective along the border, and they'd been catching up on the things that had been going on in the three worlds when Yomi and then Mukuro showed up. Both apparently intended to remove Raizen's heir from the realm of the living. They still seemed unable to escape the shadow of the dead demon and understand the detective for his own character. The effect Yusuke had on competitors during the Demon Tournament – which was coming around again in just a few weeks then – was not one that these two demons wished to see again. Naturally, they had fought, but contrary to all expectations, Hiei had fought beside the detective, though that hadn't saved him from close encounters with the occasional rogue energy-bullet. Hiei recalled beheading both Yomi and Mukuro with his sword before slinging the detective over his shoulder and leaving the demon world.

Mukuro he had killed, not only because of her dishonourable intentions regarding the competition, but also because her insistent advances were becoming so much that Hiei did not dare to sleep in her castle. If he did, she either had him moved to her bed, or decided that she would cling to him in his. He may have helped her to move on from her past, but apart from maybe ruling her land, he had no particularly great interest in anything regarding her future. As for Yomi, the arrogant bastard, Hiei had seen the way he got to Kurama, the expression on Kurama's face when he had to deal with Yomi, when Yomi's name was even mentioned. Perhaps a little extreme as far as friendly favours went, but Hiei did care about Kurama, however little he showed it.

Hiei nodded, so that was it. He'd taken Yusuke to the house the man had with Keiko, and then come here, where he had settled himself in the empty bathtub – being too tired to be able to work the taps without breaking them – and gone to sleep while he waited for Kurama to come home. Kurama had then presumably found, undressed, washed, and re-dressed him before settling the fire demon on his side of the double bed Kurama now had. Hiei felt it reasonable to presume that much as he was now clean and wearing a pair of soft black sleeping pants rather than his usual attire.

Looking over to the clock on the further bed-side table, which stated the time to be 5:30pm, Hiei decided that the best thing would be to get up and make some food for when Kurama would be home from his human job in about half an hour. He'd eat something himself while he was at it, he decided as his stomach growled when he stood.

Not bothering to seek out his own clothes, Hiei walked down the stairs to the kitchen in only the sleeping pants Kurama had bought for him the second time he had stayed over. He knew how to cook just as well as any creature that lived alone and enjoyed hot meals, and finding that the fox had left out a plastic-wrapped half-chicken to thaw on the sink, Hiei set to finding herbs, vegetables, rice and a little bit of flour – the flour was for the gravy – and began to cook.

~oOo~

When Kurama walked through his own door a little bit after 6 o'clock, it was to find his nose bombarded by the delicious smell of poultry cooking. His family had all left some time ago, giving him the house while Shuichi went to university and his parents started over as just the two of them, so it couldn't have been any of them, and he'd left the door locked, so it must have been...

Kurama smiled as he entered the kitchen to find Hiei finally awake, and looking almost domestic as he stood there stirring something on the stove top.

"Welcome home Kurama," Hiei said, not looking up.

"Thank you Hiei. It's good to see you awake at last," Kurama answered.

"I take it that I slept long then," the shorter demon said, turning down the heat under the pot and turning to look at his friend.

"A couple of months," Kurama answered with a nod.

"I don't feel stiff enough to have slept that long," Hiei said, surprise laced into his voice.

Kurama chuckled. "I exercised your muscles for you in the mornings before I left for work, and in the evenings before I went to bed. I'm glad the stretches worked."

Hiei nodded. "Thank you Kurama," he paused a moment, unsure if there was anything else to say. Deciding that there probably wasn't, the dark apparition moved to check the rice.

Kurama accepted the silence with a small measure of uncertainty, but moved through the kitchen and up the stairs into his room. He had a quick shower and changed out of his suit into less severe jeans and top before descending once more just in time to see Hiei plating up the food and pouring gravy over the meals.

"Thank you Hiei," Kurama said, accepting the plate Hiei handed to him. "You didn't have to do this."
"I know that fox," Hiei answered, a little sharply. "It's just a small thank you for taking care of me," he added, returning to his usual tone. "As much as I invade your home, I know that you have no obligation to care for my body when I'm in that state," he continued, taking up his plate and chopsticks and moving to sit at the table, where two glasses and a jug of water were already waiting.

"Can I ask what happened this time?" Kurama asked, sitting down with Hiei at last.

Hiei nodded and, taking up then swallowing his first mouthful, explained everything that had happened as they ate together. The explanation did not last as long as the meal, but that did not mean that they ate in silence when he was finished speaking. Kurama supplied Hiei with news of what had been going on over the past two months that the apparition had slept through.

They cleaned up after together, having at last fallen into a comfortable silence, though Hiei was certain that Kurama was thinking over what he had told him. It made sense; hearing it confirmed that Mukuro and Yomi were dead was shocking enough, even with all the rumours that had been flying around the Demon Tournament. To learn that Hiei had eliminated them for the reasons that he had was enough to set the yoko thinking for a week.

Rather than returning to the demon world immediately now that he was awake, and Kurama had presented his cleaned clothes and sword, Hiei decided to stay with Kurama in the human world. His main reason for being in the demon world was his duties to Enki, border patrol. Now however, as he had slept for two months, and clearly having slept through the most recent Tournament, he no longer had any such duties. If he had managed to wake up in time for it, he had no particular interest in pursuing that power this time. The little work he had been required to endure involved too much exposure to idiots, and due to Mukuro and Yomi's death, he would have been more likely to fight against one of his old allies, or rather, the detective's old comrades. Better to just ignore the whole thing, particularly when he felt he was now able to be content in the human world, at least, as long as he could remain here with the fox.

"Hiei?" Kurama asked as he put away the last of the dishes in the cupboard. "Why did you kill Yomi?"

"I told you already fox. I disliked the way his mention caused you discomfort, and his existence made you tense," Hiei answered, leaning against the bench, resting on his elbows.

Kurama just took a moment to truly enjoy the sight of Hiei. Strong, beautiful, dark Hiei, utterly comfortable in Kurama's habitat. It was a sight the ex-thief had been growing steadily more fond of over the two months he had enjoyed the warm, if unconscious body sharing his bed, and that face that was angelic in sleep. He smiled to himself as he recalled that Hiei still said the occasional word in his sleep, and a doting softness settled into his green orbs as he remembered the number of times those rare words had been his name.

"I'm honoured Hiei, that you think of me so much that you would kill Yomi for so little," Kurama said, attempting to cover the way he was drinking in the sight of the fire demon's bare chest and handsome face.

"Think of it as a general thanks for all the things you're always doing for me then," Hiei suggested, turning his head away, hiding the hint of a faint blush as he felt it heating his cheeks.

Kurama smile a small, hopeful smile. "Just getting to see you is thanks enough Hiei, and doing all those things for you ... it makes me happy to know that you trust me so much as to let me close enough to be able to do them," the red head explained, taking a tentative couple of steps closer to try and see Hiei's face.

Hiei turned his head further, trying to keep his increasingly warm face out of sight. He was beginning to question his actions now, and he did not like second-guessing himself. Why did it bother him if Yomi was a thorn in the fox's side? He knew the answer, but he had been denying the possibility of such a reason for anything within himself that he shunned it automatically, burying the thoughts deeply and only glancing them when the troublesome emotions somehow dragged themselves out of the hole he had shunted them into and confronted him once more.

Kurama held back a sigh, aware that he wouldn't be getting any further with Hiei on this subject right now, and decided to change the subject.

"Well, I'm afraid you slept through the Tournament, so you'll have to wait a few years if you want to compete again."

"I figured I'd missed it," Hiei murmured, willing his cheeks to cool as he decided to look up at Kurama once more. "Did you compete?"

Kurama shrugged. "No. I couldn't leave you here by yourself while I was in Demon World. I listened to it on the radio."

"Why?" Hiei asked, curious. "I find it unlikely that anybody would have found me in your house to attack me while you were gone."

"I'd have worried regardless of likelihood," Kurama answered. "And if I'd fought while worried, distracted, I'd have ended up dead or severely injured. Besides, if I hadn't won, then I'd be tied to Demon World for another three years. Being a liaison between the Three Worlds for Enki the past three years has been quite ... trying."

Hiei nodded in understanding. "So who did win?"

"Souketsu. He's a smart fighter, fast, and another one of the demons who was friends with Raizen. I wonder if that group aren't just taking turns," Kurama said.

The two friends chuckled at the idea, content to entertain it for a while. It was possible.

~oOo~

"Hiei, why do you stay in Human World? I know you think of Demon World as your home," Kurama asked one day, almost a month after the fire apparition had woken, as they were cooking together in Kurama's kitchen.

Hiei ignored the question. It was possible that Kurama would drop it if the fire demon didn't offer any answer. He knew it was a slim possibility however; that the red head had waited so long to ask the question clearly meant he had thought about it a lot since they had returned to the farce of a human-like life.

"Hiei, please, I would appreciate knowing."

"My own reasons Fox. Do you need to know more than that? Or are you simply asking politely for me to leave?"

Kurama shook his head. "No, I don't want you to leave, and I suppose I don't need to know either, but I would still like to."

"I might ask why you have let me stay in your house for so long," Hiei returned, passing a chopping board loaded with sliced bok-choy to Kurama.

Kurama was silenced by that, knowing that he would not dare to ruin his most precious friendship with an admission of his deeper emotions. Could he risk not telling though? Could he really pass by this opportunity to hint at his emotions to Hiei, and possibly receive some kind of acknowledging response from him?

Hiei just returned to chopping ingredients for their supper, in his mind the conversation over, though his thoughts and emotions churned within him.

"Well," Kurama's voice interrupted Hiei's internal struggle. "You look beautiful when you sleep, peaceful," he said.

Hiei froze mid-motion, knife on the board. Kurama watched him as he slept? Thought he was beautiful? Hiei put the knife he was using down and turned to look at Kurama, who was smiling at him as he absently stirred the vegetables that were in the wok.

"You let me stay because you like to watch me sleep?" Hiei questioned, stunned.

"Among other things," Kurama answered, smiling at the shorter demon before returning to the meal.

Hiei sighed in resignation. He had no reason to reciprocate the exposure of information, but Kurama had volunteered one of his reasons, and did not ask much of Hiei even though he gave so much. Could a few small words really be so troublesome?

Yes. Yes they really could.

"I find being in your company preferable to any alternative option," Hiei said. "That you choose to be in Human World rather than Demon World is my reason for being here rather than there."

Kurama looked up at Hiei, surprise written plainly across his perfect features. "Hiei..."

"I'm not tied to Demon World with duties any more, so why should I stay when I would rather be somewhere else?" Hiei pointed out, returning to chopping, his sharp face schooled to into a calm visage. "And if you are going to ask me why I like your company -"

Kurama abruptly left the food and pressed himself against Hiei's back, slipping his arms around the fire demon's chest and resting his cheek against the other's soft, gravity-defying hair.

"Hiei," Kurama sighed, relishing in this moment of touch, the most contact he had ever shared with Hiei while the dark apparition was awake – and really, bathing and dressing him when he was unconscious wasn't as fulfilling as this moment.

"Fox?" Hiei questioned, putting down the knife and laying his hands over Kurama's arms as they were wrapped around him. "Is something wrong?"

Kurama shook his head, humming in the negative. "I just ... I love you so much Hiei," he had said it. At last. He gently squeezed the dark apparition in his arms and hoped he had not frightened off his best friend by declaring a romantic inclination. Hoped that he had not ruined forever his relationship with the one creature he cared about more than any other – he held the fire demon's friendship as even more precious than his human mother's love, as she loved him as her son unconditionally, but Hiei was almost exceedingly tentative about trusting another being.

"Why do you love me Kurama? What about me could possibly cause you to feel any kind of endearment?" Hiei asked quietly, though his hands tightened slightly around Kurama's.

"I don't know," Kurama admitted gently. "Your smile, your trust, your touch, all the things about you that you never give freely to anyone, but that you give me for reasons I may never know, but am eternally grateful for. It's harder to breathe when you're away too, and I have nightmares, worrying that something terrible might be happening to you when I don't know where you are, even though I know how capable you are," Kurama admitted in a soft, earnest voice.

"Hn," Hiei carefully pulled Kurama's hands down, away from where they were clinging to him. He forced himself to breathe deeply. He knew Kurama deserved a response, and a reasonable one rather than just that little he had grunted out. He lay the taller demon's hands on the bench on either side of him, and then turned around to face the red head, still trapped within his arms.

"I guess, if that's what love feels like, then I love you too Kurama," Hiei said, whispered, ruby eyes fixed on the edge of the apron that Kurama was wearing.

Kurama moaned a sigh of relief, drawing Hiei into a fierce, desperate, fulfilling embrace. He couldn't say anything, even if he had known what to say, it would only have lodged in his throat and gotten stuck, forming a lump that would become tears. When Hiei's arms came up around him, clinging to him in turn, Kurama shuddered out as gasp, and couldn't help the small beads of moisture that gathered at the corners of his eyes, happiness filling every fibre of his body and spilling out anywhere it could because he was unable to contain it completely.

"Damn," Hiei's voice came, muffled against Kurama's chest. "Damn, damn, damn. I swore I would never allow myself to feel this attachment to anyone," he growled softly, a sniffle interrupting his voice. "Ever, ever again. I know about pain, I should know how to guard myself against it more effectively!" his hands dug more desperately into Kurama's clothes and back as the smaller apparition spoke, his dark head shaking furiously as he wiped at half-formed tears, refusing to let them truly exist. He wasn't about to find out if his tears crystallised like his sister's did.

Kurama cried openly at that. While he had been hiding his feelings, it seemed that Hiei had been fighting them, desperately. He could understand that, he could understand that very well, but it broke his heart to hear. Kurama held tightly to his love, to the one who held his heart.

"I won't ever hurt you Hiei, I swear. I never, ever want to hurt you, or see you in pain," Kurama said hoarsely around the lump that had formed in his throat without his permission.

"Thank you Kurama," the jaganshi whispered, finally looking up at his old ally, his only comrade. "We need to get back to the meal before it's ruined."

Kurama nodded and released the demon in his arms as he felt the arms around him slipping away, kissing the black hair lightly before turning back to the stove.

~oOo~

Kurama smiled as Hiei pushed him down on the bed, their evening meal completed and the remains cleaned up. They had been sharing the bed for so long, and Kurama had spent many of those nights dreaming of their nights being spent more intimately, their bodies pressed together, rather than with always two feet of empty space between them. The grief a large bed had caused him.

Hiei claimed the red head's lips, pressing his mouth against the soft petals, pulling gently at them with his own, nipping lightly, and relishing in the moan his ministrations had elicited from his victim, his lover. Sneaking his tongue out, he tickled Kurama's upper lip, causing the fox's mouth to open, and another moan to issue forth as Hiei invaded, first spreading his tongue over Kurama's teeth before delving into his dark cavern, tracing over every part systematically, as though memorizing, teasingly avoiding Kurama's tongue, which was actively seeking his own, before attacking the moist, hot muscle.

Kurama accepted the attack eagerly, moaning wantonly and trying to pull more of Hiei's tongue into his mouth, sucking on it, tugging and nipping, not always gently. His hands wound their way into Hiei's hair, tugging him closer and pulling him down on top of his body across the bed, relishing in the feeling of hard, toned flesh pressing against his own, the barrier of clothing frustratingly in the way, but in no way dampening the pleasure he was feeling to finally have Hiei all to himself in this way.

Hiei carefully, reluctantly, removed his lips from Kurama's, though he did not stop kissing the red head. He kissed Kurama's bottom lip, the corner of his mouth, his cheek, nibbled on his ear lobe and nibbled his way down Kurama's jaw to his chin. He pulled at the skin of Kurama's neck with his lips, sometimes laving at spots with his tongue, only pausing when the collar on Kurama's shirt stopped him.

"D-don't stop..." Kurama begged, gasping with pleasure.

Hiei smirked, and started nipping his way back up the other side of Kurama's neck as his nimble fingers undid the buttons of Kurama's shirt, pushing the cloth aside with his nose as he latched onto the juncture of Kurama's neck and shoulder, mouthing and biting and sucking and lapping against the flesh there, causing the red head to groan and shift beneath the shorter demon, stretching his neck out so that Hiei had easier access to the flesh there. He gasped, flinching in surprise when Hiei's fingers brushed against the skin over his ribs, pushing his shirt off his body so that it was only caught around his arms. He quickly pulled himself free and returned his hands to Hiei's body, moaning in pleasure, delighting in the sensations being inflicted upon him by the shorter apparition's clever hands and sinful mouth. He started tugging at the shirt beneath his fingers, clawing at it slightly, quickly becoming desperate for the feel of Hiei's bare body against his own, driven even faster by the feeling of Hiei nuzzling his way down to start licking and kissing and biting at one of Kurama's pectorals until his lips brushed deliberately roughly against a nipple.

Kurama gasped, his hands pulling Hiei closer without conscious thought, one hand pressing against Hiei's still frustratingly clothed back, the other clinging to the nape of his neck.

Hiei chuckled darkly as he lapped at the perfect dark-ivory skin laid out before him, moving from the first peaked, abused nipple across to the second, where he continued his adoring abuse of Kurama's body, absorbing himself in his ministrations as he felt Kurama begin to tug his shirt away from his body. Barely aware of his own movements, he shifted as required so that his shirt could be removed as quickly as possible, and they both moaned in pleasurable relish when Hiei's bare torso made contact with Kurama's at last.

Hiei moved to kiss his way down Kurama's chest, between his pectorals and along his stomach until he reached Kurama's navel. The soft skin, drawn over tight muscles, flinched as Hiei breathed and brushed his lips against it, Kurama panting heavily. Hiei smirked and undid the zipper of Kurama's pants, then licked down over the red head's skin, and nipped at his underwear before climbing back up his body once more.

Red eyes locked with green and lips crashed together once more. Hiei once again urged Kurama's mouth open, pushing his tongue inside, while his hands worked on sliding down pants and boxers by their waistbands. Kurama raised his hips to make the task easier, grinding his hard, bared length against Hiei's still clothed one with the same action. They both gasped at the sensations, parting only briefly before smashing their mouths together again with an even more desperate hunger than before.

Kurama's hands stroke down Hiei's flesh, lingering over some of the muscles and digging in, loving the feeling of the skin, warm under his hands and the moans his touch is calling forth, the moans he gladly swallows, even as Hiei is swallowing his own. At last, Kurama's hands reach the waistband of Hiei's pants, and he is grateful that Hiei had recently taken to wearing jeans in the human world – he did not have the patience at that moment to consider any of the belts he would have been wearing with his regular pants. It was an easy matter to pop the button, draw down the fly, and push the pants down Hiei's hips, dragging his underwear along with the black denims. Hiei groaned in relief as his shaft was freed, and they moaned together when the two throbbing heats touched each other, their sensitised tips brushing against one another.

Kurama rolled them over, nestling between Hiei's legs before sliding down, dragging his lips along perfect, tanned flesh as he went. When Kurama reached the crux of Hiei's legs, he unhesitatingly lapped at the base of the dark apparition's substantial thickness, turning his face to rest against Hiei's thigh as his tongue worshipped the hot length that rose erect from dark thatch. His hands massaged Hiei's thighs as his mouth worked.

The fire demon moaned in intense pleasure, panted in rapture, and rasped out Kurama's name, roaring in ecstasy when the red head's hot mouth took in his complete length at one time, sucking on the entire shaft as lips tickled the root and he felt his tip against the back of the fox's throat. Without thought, his hands flashed to grip at Kurama's hair, clinging to him as he wantonly writhed in mind-shattering sensations. It kept him barely grounded, and he wrenched his lover up to his lips before he lost all of his control to Kurama's clever tongue, and the way it had lapped, stroked, sucked, and lavished his sensitised hardness with incredible attention in his hot, moist cavern.

Hiei groaned at the mere thought and drew his bare hand up to slip his fingers into Kurama's mouth while the other, bandaged palm massaged the red head's pale seat, sometimes moving forward to grasp at the beautiful length that rose proud and engorged from a bed of soft, dark red curls.

Kurama groaned as he greedily lapped at the fingers in his mouth. He knew what was coming, he relished in the knowledge, pressing against Hiei's hand eagerly and wanting him to move just a little faster towards their union. He released Hiei's fingers, now slicked, and rolled off the apparition, spreading his legs wide and invitingly, a hungry smile on his face and a desperate, lusty, loving glow in his green eyes, focused singularly on Hiei as the fire demon looked at him, the same emotions reflected in his ruby orbs.

Hiei slipped the first of his slicked fingers into Kurama's tight, puckered entrance, kissing a pale thigh as a perfect mouth cried out at the wanted, but unfamiliar intrusion. He pumped it a few times, beginning the delicate process of stretching his lover. When the first finger moved freely, he added a second, carefully, while his mouth greedily lapped at Kurama's sack, stimulating and distracting from any discomfort or pain with hot, demanding pleasure.

"Hi... ei... Uh... AH!" Kurama moaned, pushing against the fingers that had just found a particularly sensitive bundle of nerves.

"Kurama? Are you alright?" Hiei asked, drawing himself up to look at the sweating, slightly delirious face of his partner.

"Do that again, or I won't be," the red head answered fiercely, his face flushed almost as red as his hair.

Hiei smirked and slipped a third finger in with the other two, concentrating on Kurama's prostate, massaging it as he stretched the tight passage.

"Hi-" Kurama's breath caught as Hiei slipped in his fourth finger. "Hiei! Ah, I – 'm go-" he panted, his hips rising and his insides pushing against Hiei's fingers, seeking for release desperately from deep within his throws of pleasure.

Hiei growled softly and wrapped his free hand around Kurama's base, preventing his release, and earning a desperate whimper. Hiei also removed his fingers from Kurama's passage, smirking down at his love the whole time.

Kurama needed his release, he had been so close, and then Hiei had stopped him, and taken those wonderful ministers of pleasure away from his prostate as well. He felt frustrated and empty, his green eyes closed tightly, refusing to cry in his need. Feeling heat against his hole, Kurama could not suppress the sob of want that shuddered through him, knowing what it was.

"Hiei," he begged. "Please, I need you Hiei..."

The fire demon's lips crashed down upon the fox's as he snapped his hips forward, thrusting in sharply. It was almost too much sensation for them both, but Hiei still held Kurama's base, and the hand that had been put to use stretching Kurama now held him up, over his love in support, bunching up the sheets in an attempt to grasp at his own self control.

"Damn Fox," Hiei growled tenderly, nipping at Kurama's jaw and ear as he began to withdraw slowly, only to thrust sharply in once more.

"There! HIEI THERE!" Kurama cried as Hiei's tip struck his prostate solidly.

Hiei withdrew and slammed in, staying there and rolling his hips, stimulating his partner's prostate mercilessly, suckling on his earlobe at the same time. Lowering himself to rest against Kurama, held up only by his knees and that but slightly, Hiei rubbed their entire bodies together as he thrust in and drew out, tormenting Kurama's sensitive tip as his abs moved back and forth across it.

"Please Hiei, please... please let... let me co-AH! Let me come!" Kurama begged, matching Hiei's thrusts, bearing down as Hiei bore up, taking in as much of the short demon's impressive shaft as he could, taking it to the root so that he could feel his sacks against his cheeks.

Hiei kissed Kurama fiercely, possessively, nipping at his lips and thrusting his tongue against Kurama's in imitation of their other activities, stroking his hand up Kurama's length as he released his base, toying with the tip a moment before repeating, gripping the base firmly and drawing up, toying with the tip.

Kurama's vision was dotted with black stars, and his ears heard only the rush of his own blood as, at last, he was permitted his release. He came hard, a fountain of thick whiteness, his entire frame shaken by the intensity of the feeling Hiei had built up in him.

Hiei was gripped firmly by Kurama's body, and shuddered himself as he came on that feeling, of the sensation of being held fast by his beautiful partner and not wanting to be let go.

The feeling of Hiei releasing within him spiked another fit of pleasure in the fox, and his mouth opened in a silent scream of ecstasy until his body finally relaxed into post-orgasmic bliss, completely boneless and utterly content.

Hiei, in the same state, fell upon Kurama, not inclined to pull out yet, interested only in holding – and being held by – his lover. He smiled at that. Kurama, his lover.

"Love you Kurama," he mumbled softly, kissing the red head's shoulder.

"Love you too Hiei," Kurama answered, brushing his hand over black, sweaty hair and rolling only slightly so that they were snuggled up together more comfortably. They could clean up in the morning, or whenever.