Fire & Ice  I



Chapter 1 : Beginnings



It was snowing. 


The little fire demon was feeling a tad more bad-tempered than usual as he 
trudged along with the rest of his team mates through knee-deep snow. Just so 
that none of them would irritate him more by including him in their cheerful 
conversation, he scowled fiercely at the swirling snow flakes, the trees and 
just about everything else in general. There were several reasons for his ill 
humour. 
One of them was the clumsy, overgrown oaf who walked in front of him. It had 
come to his notice that the idiot human had been paying more attention to his 
sister lately. There was a gleam in his eye whenever he saw Yukina that made 
Hiei’s hand itch for his katana. The worse thing about it was that Yukina did 
not seem to mind Kuwabara’s attentions. 
With narrowed eyes, Hiei considered the human’s throat - just within reach. His 
hands twitched slightly. 
" Look, Hiei, a bird!" Kurama’s voice distracted him from his murderous 
impulses. He turned to glare at the youko-human and momentarily forgot about the 
Kuwabara problem. 
Kurama - youko, human, thief, dutiful son…and friend. He had given it a lot of 
thought, maybe it was paranoia, but there was something different about Kurama 
since their last mission. The change was so subtle he doubted the others had 
noticed. After all, among the four of them, he was the one who had known Kurama 
the longest. 
" Is something wrong?" the object of his thoughts asked him. " You look 
worried." 
" Hn." Despite the discouraging answer, Kurama grinned and shortened his steps 
so that they walked side by side. 
" You haven’t been to my home for quite awhile now." 
" I don’t have the time to baby-sit you. I have other things to do." He returned 
to glaring daggers at Kuwabara’s back. That seemed safer that considering his 
kitsune friend. 
Kurama’s smile grew wider and his voice dropped so that only Hiei could hear 
him. " Are you watching over Yukina now?" Seeing the dark look his friend threw 
him, he laughed. " I don’t believe it. You’re jealous of Kuwabara." 
" Baka!" Hiei hissed. " Me? Of that stupid ningen?" " You haven’t denied it," he 
noted. " You know, this would be much easier if you just told her who you are. 
At least, you wouldn’t have to sneak around so much." 
" Keep out of it, Kurama. This doesn’t concern you or your busybody ways." 
They were interrupted by a yell of greeting. From the top of a steep hill, 
Yuusuke waved frantically. He had a sled in his other hand. 
" Yuusuke, be careful!" Keiko shouted back. 
" Don’t worry. When I was young, I was the best in the district. Ask Kuwabara, 
if you don’t believe me." 
" Am I the only one with a bad feeling about this?" she asked them. 
With battle cry, they watched as Yuusuke launched himself down the hill at a 
breakneck speed. He yelled out something unintelligible as he and the sled 
disappeared into some bushes. Moments later, Yuusuke emerged from the other side 
but without the sled. Kuwabara winced in sympathy as Yuusuke rolled down the 
remainder of the hill, groaning at every rock he hit on the way. 
" The best, huh?" his fiancee asked as she looked down as his crumpled form. 
Yuusuke merely moaned in pain. 
" Oh, alright." Sighing, she and Shizuru helped him up, brushing the snow off 
his clothes and picking twigs from his hair. " Come on, let’s go back to your 
place. The snow is getting heavier." 
As a group, with Yuusuke slung between them, they made their way back home. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Nuryko watched them with greedy eyes. It had been so long…almost a century since 
she had seen anyone in her mirror that interest her. She touched *his* 
reflection in the cold surface of her looking-glass and sighed. 
" So warm…" she murmured in her chilly voice. " …like fire." 




Chapter 2 : Snow




By the time they had arrived at Yuusuke’s apartment, Hiei’s temper had not 
improved. Icy water had seeped into his clothes and boots and every step he took 
was accompanied by sloshing sounds. The fool Kuwabara had laughed, of course. 
Even now, as he pulled his boots off, he silently wished the vilest curse he 
knew down on the human’s head. 
" I hate snow," he muttered. 
" Of course," Kurama replied easily, " you’re a fire demon. I guess this means 
you don’t want to come with us to ice sculpture exhibition tonight." 
" Hn." Leave his young, pretty twin alone with Kuwabara…NEVER! 
It was as if the damned kitsune could hear his thoughts. 
" I’ll see you there then, Hiei." He reached out to ruffle the youkai’s spiky 
black hair while Hiei half-heartedly evaded his hand. 
Then, the strangest expression crossed Kurama’s face. He suddenly jerked away 
from Hiei like the fire demon carried some highly infectious disease. Amazingly, 
a deep flush spread across his face until he was almost as red as his hair. 
" I’d better be going…Just remembered, ’kaasan is probably waiting for me." He 
did not meet Hiei’s puzzled eyes but instead hurried away. 
" Stupid fox," Hiei growled. What in all of the Makai was wrong with him? He 
hoped Kurama was not reconsidering his offer of friendship to the ‘ forbidden 
child’. After all these years, he had come to depend on the kitsune more than 
anyone else in his life. 
" Hiei," Yukina’s lovely voice asked him, " are you coming with to the 
exhibition?" 
He let his gruff voice softened as he answered his unwary twin. " Sure." 
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kuwabara give him a suspicious look that 
was liberally laced with jealously. *Well*, he thought, this is interesting. 
" Thank you for including me, Yukina." He gave her one of his rare smiles and 
watched as a green-eyed demon appeared on Kuwabara’s shoulder. 
Suddenly, he felt much better. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The others were already there waiting for him when Kurama arrived. He made his 
apologies as they moved to the exhibition grounds. Yuusuke bore the wounds of 
his earlier mishap bravely but grimaced each time anyone pounded him on the back 
- which everyone tried to do at least once. 
On the very edge of their little group, Hiei stood with his arms folded across 
his chest. He had changed out of his wet clothes but still wore his 
characteristic black. Unless Kurama was very much mistaken, the fire demon was 
looking quite smug. 
The reason for this became apparent as soon as they began the tour of the 
grounds. Hiei stuck so close to his twin that he practically became her shadow. 
Every time Kuwabara opened his mouth to say something, Hiei would step in 
smoothly and distract her. The truth be told, Kurama had *never* seen him acting 
so…nice. 
In the ice castle, Kuwabara grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to a discreet 
corner. Desperation was clearly written into his features. 
" Kurama, you have to help me," he whispered, looking around to make sure no one 
was eavesdropping on them. " That little shrimp is chasing after Yukina and I’m 
sure he doesn’t like her - not as much as I do anyway. I would have pounded him 
earlier but I don’t want to give her a bad impression." 
He had always been a fool for wounded animals and the love stricken. Besides, he 
knew Hiei was not interested in Yukina in *that* way. He was just doing it to 
keep her away from Kuwabara and to pay him back for the various insults they had 
exchanged. " Alright, I’ll try my best." 
The direct method, especially where a fire demon was concerned, always worked 
the best. He walked up to the pair and firmly snagged Hiei’s arm. 
Smiling brightly at his twin, he said, " I need to speak to Hiei - outside." 
" It’s snowing." If looks could kill, Kurama would be a cinder. 
" I know." With a whisper to the struggling demon, he murmured, " Stop 
squirming! You don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of her." 
Hiei scowled as Kuwabara moved in almost immediately. Muttering a few choice 
words under his voice, he glared at Kurama. 
As soon as they were out of sight, he shrugged off the half-youkai’s hold. 
" You stupid fox…" he broke off suddenly as he felt a stabbing pain in his right 
eye. The entire world blurred around him as he blinked rapidly. " There’s 
something in my eye." 
" Let me see," a blob of red with Kurama’s voice told him. Gentle hands cupped 
his face and slowly tilted it upwards. He blinked as two green spots came 
closer. " I can’t see anything." 
" This is all your fault." Slowly, the blob of red cleared to became Kurama’s 
fiery locks and the two green spots, his eyes. Was it his imagination or was the 
fox looking at him like he was some juicy morsel? 
" Hiei," he drawled the youkai’s name in a way that made him increasing nervous. 
" I - ." 
" Guys, where are Yukina and Kuwabara?" Shizuru came up behind him, smoking a 
fresh cigarette. There was a knowing look in her eyes that made Kurama flush. 
Not quite sure what was going on, Hiei just glared at both of them. 
The kitsune sighed resignedly. " In the castle." 
" Thanks." Sauntering away, she started to laugh. 
" What was *that* all about?" 
The red-headed kitsune was grinning. 
" One day, when we’re alone, I’ll explain it to you." 
" Hn." He looked around at the gently falling white flakes. " I hate snow." 




Chapter 3 : Learning How To Fly





The seed had been planted; the spell had been cast. Nuryko hugged herself in 
anticipation. It was only a matter of time before he came to her. Even as she 
danced at the thought, the sliver of ice was already in his heart, coiling the 
spell around his spirit. He would come here - to the icy, frozen tundra that was 
both her home and her prison. 
And then, she promised herself, she would steal his memories of his pathetic 
ningen friends and that insipid twin of his. Without them, he would never leave 
her. He would be hers…forever. 
She would never be cold again. 
Fire and ice. 
He could not avoid it. This was her - *their* - destiny. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Minamino Shuuichi led two lives. The first was that of an ordinary human - the 
one everyone knew and expected him to be. The second was that of youko Kurama, 
former thief turn Reikai detective. In the past, he had often tried to keep both 
lives separated. It was hard to talk to ordinary humans about your previous life 
as a fox spirit without getting some strange looks. 
He knew that he was blessed in many ways. His human mother loved him and he had 
three great friends he could always count on. Most importantly, they did not 
think he was weird if he occasionally had a tail and furry ears. Therein lay the 
problem - how do you tell your friend, namely a certain bad-tempered fire demon, 
that you would like to be *more* than friends? 
He had tried to broach the subject with Hiei on numerous occasions, but had 
always been interrupted by the untimely arrival of someone he knew. He had come 
*that* close just a few nights ago at the exhibition and then…well. 
Now, he was not quite sure if he had scared Hiei off. No one had seen him for 
the past few days, and Kurama had assumed that he had either gone back to the 
Makai or was avoiding him. 
Apparently, it was the latter. Just a few moments ago, he had felt the brush of 
familiar youkai as he sat at his table, poring over some work. He had rushed 
out, muttering some inane excuse to Shiori, grimly determined that this was 
going to be it. No more evasions, no more interruptions and certainly no more 
teasing looks from Shizuru or Keiko. 
He was going to ask Hiei out on a date. 
The elusive fire demon was at one his favourite haunts, the roof-top of the 
ten-storey Hitosi commercial building which offered an impressive view of most 
of Tokyo. He had taken off his bandanna and was scanning the city with his 
Jagan, looking for…what? 
Kurama hopped onto the ledge beside him, not interrupting him. He had waited 
weeks, so he could last another few more minutes. 
Finally, the unnerving purple eye closed and Hiei retied his bandanna over it. 
He was frowning thoughtfully as he murmured a name, " Nuryko…" 
Kurama sighed - it was now or never. " Hiei, I…" He reached for the fire demon’s 
shoulder. 
Hiei’s arm shot out in a black blur and caught a handful of the front of 
Kurama’s shirt. The red-head found himself being lifted until only the toes of 
his feet were in contact with the ledge. Then Hiei spun around still holding 
Kurama, dangling him from the edge. 
It was the shock that numbed his reflexes. " Hiei, what in all of Makai are you 
doing?" 
The familiar crimson eyes were cold and hostile. 
" Who are you?" he snarled, baring his fangs. " Why are you following me?" 
" This is no longer funny. Put me down or I’ll…" 
Then Hiei did the last thing the fox expected him to do. 
He let go.