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It wasn’t often that Kaito decided to take the long way home after completing his classes for the day. Often preferring to get home as soon as possible to read, study or complete other tasks. But the warmer weather as the season shifted from winter to the warmth of spring made him want to stay out and enjoy the pleasant weather a little longer before going home to start on his assignments.
As he walked down the street taking in the scent of an oncoming spring,he stopped when a flash of red caught his attention. Looking to scan the area his eyes landed across the street. There on the park bench in front of the local park was Shuichi Minamino, not far from the park's gardens staring at a piece of paper.
Since the Sensui incident the two had talked more than before. Even after all this time and knowing now who Shuichi truly was, a demon fox with a talent for plants and thievery, he was still Shuichi. Kaito crossed the street towards his old classmate. As he got closer he noticed that Shuichi had his eyebrows knitted and a frown on his face. Raising his own eyebrows he got close enough to look over the other boy's shoulder to look at the paper.
It was an exam paper. Clearly Shuichi had gone through one of the exam periods at his own college and Kaito could now see the reason for his frown. The score on the paper was a point less than a perfect score.
Kaito could only think of one other time Shuichi had scored less than a perfect mark on a test.
“Less than perfect Shuichi? Don’t tell me the world is about to end again.”
He watched as the red head jumped before looking over his shoulder at him and internally smiled at how he managed to not only startle calm and collected Shuichi but sneak up on him.
“Ah Kaito. No, thankfully things are peaceful at the moment. The new demon king so far has kept things that way, or well...his wife has.” Shuichi folded the exam before sticking it in the bookbag he had next to him on the bench. “How about you? I heard the last essay you published was well received.”
“I’m researching for another essay I’m working on. I’m thankful my editor can keep up with my writing speed.”
“The girl with the glasses?”
“Yes”
“Hmmm” Shuichi looked ahead, crossing one leg over the other, hands resting on his knee as his fingers laced together.
“What?”
“Oh nothing, it's just.” Shuichi leaned back a bit “The time I met her you both mentioned you were living together. I thought she was more than just your editor with how close you both seemed.”
Kaito felt a blush start to burn his ears. True they were indeed, more than just writer and editor. Kaito just preferred staying professional when discussing or focusing on work.
“I’m caught then. Guess you can’t hold to the position of being the one of the two of us with someone we care for anymore. I’m a little surprised, you're so focused on your grades I didn’t think you’d ever enter a relationship, at least not until you finished school.”
He watched Shuichi raise his eyebrows.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you're talking about Kaito.”
Shuchi’s voice and expression was what he knew as an attempt at hiding something. Before the two of them really spoke, before the Sensui incident, he had noticed that it often felt like the other boy was hiding something. A mask to hide what was hidden underneath the perfect honors student that was Shuichi Minamino. But during the time when Master Genaki has requested him, Kido and Yanagisawa test Uramseshi and his friends and Genkai revealed to him Shuichi’s true nature. He saw that mask crack.
“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.” Oh, Kaito grinned as he crossed his arms and leaned back on the back of the bench. “The one with the black cloak and bad temper? Hiei correct? If I remember correctly you threw quite the nasty look at me when his soul was taken.”
Kaito remembers clearly the moment when that brash little demon broke the taboo of his territory. While Kuwabara and the reaper girl Botan leaned over Hiei’s stiff, soulless body, Shuichi had looked from where Hiei laid before turning his attention to him as he held the flickering violet soul in his hand.
He had wanted to make a joke about a fire demon not being able to take the heat or being thwarted by the word “hot” of all things. But well, the look Shuichi had given him in that moment was downright terrifying and didn’t hold a candle to the scary look he got when he revealed he knew about Shuichi’s demon abilities. It had taken all he had to keep his expression calm to continue his act and decided goading further would be a mistake at that moment.
“I have known Hiei for far longer than the others. It is only natural that I would be less than happy at him being put in possible danger. Hiei wasn’t the only one I became angered about as you remember.”
Kaito clearly remembered Shuichi’s threat of what he’d do if he so much as scratched the souls in his possession. But Hiei was obviously something more to Shuichi than the others.
“Shuichi please, I noticed you looking at Hiei’s soul more than once when you thought you could hide it. Yes you were indeed upset by your friend and the reaper girls capture. But I could tell, Hiei’s hit a nerve with you that the other two did not.”
“Merely because it was an unnecessary loss. I warned him that you were tempting us and yet he still challenged the matter.”
Kaito can agree that was true, but that didn’t explain what came shortly after that…
“Then would you care to explain what I walked in on back in the House of Four Dimensions?”
“Master Genkai had decided we would all eat supper before we left to return to our homes. I don’t recall a group of friends sharing a meal counting as anything else other than sharing company.”
“I was referring to when I caught you both together before we ate.” Kaito had been walking down one of the corridors to the kitchen, having been tasked with collecting what was needed for the hotpot out of the food they had brought. As he walked he heard strange sounds coming from down another hallway.
Worried their enemy had possibly decided to hunt them down and attack then and there, he had quietly walked down the hall to the room the sounds were coming from and carefully peeked inside.
He quickly clamped his hands over his mouth to stop any noise coming out and hid outside the door frame before slowly looking back in the room.
The moon was illuminating the room just enough to make out the pair of demons huddled in one of the corners closest to the windows. He had to blink twice to make sure to confirm what he was seeing. The image of the polite and calm Shuichi would be shattered for any of their classmates if they saw what was transpiring. Shuichi Minamino with one hand wrapped around the smaller demon he now knew as Hiei’s middle while the other twisted into black spiky hair. Kissing the other with a fever that suggested he was trying to reclaim the soul that had just been returned to the body he now had pinned to the wall. Both wrapped up in a kiss that was returned with equal intensity. Kaito could just make out a string of dark purple bruises along the smaller man's neck, his black cloak and scarf thrown off to the other side of the room as he remained trapped against the wall and looked more than happy to remain there. Both were too preoccupied with the other to notice that they had been caught.
Kaito decided to leave then, deciding not to push his luck. Shuichi might have calmed since everything had been cleared up. But Hiei had made it clear from the start that he was not opposed to violence when angered and he didn’t want to be on the wrong end of the fire demon's sword while not in the safety of his territory.
It was definitely a challenge not to stare or look over at the two during dinner that night. He definitely caught the outline of a dark shadow following Shuichi in the trees as he walked down the street to his own home.
“You both really were so involved with each other that you had no idea I was there?" Kaito really couldn't help how humorous he found the situation that Shuichi truly had been too caught up in the moment to notice the presence of another when he was clearly the type to play things carefully. "Or are you still trying to keep up the charade that nothing is going on between you and him?”
Shuichi’s expression kept its schooled appearance before he sighed and turned away.
“We try to keep everything between us on a need to know basis. For safety reasons to avoid unnecessary trouble from our enemies.”
“I take it your other two friends are aware then?”
“Yes, though Yusuke figured it out on his own during the time we were fighting in the Dark Tournament.”
“I see.”
“Though to answer your earlier question, my score is not from Hiei distracting me from my studies. Though he has tried in the past to do so and managed it a few times.”
Kaito let out a breath that turned into a laugh “Yes that sounds like how I remember him. Impatient and stubborn from the start I take it. Though I have to say you're a good match for each other.”
“You would not be the first to say so.”
“He definitely is as protective of you as you are of him. He partially attached himself to your hip after our match with that kid.” At that he watched Shuichi’s mouth twist into a hard frim line. Even after all this time and the kid in question being brought back to life it looked like the memory still stayed with him.
Tsukihito Amanuma, the boy with the territory power to turn his treasured games to real life. Kaito could relate on some level with the boy. Both were highly intelligent for their age and spent their time engaged in fictional worlds as a result of not feeling like they related to others due to their intelligence. Both of them had used their abilities to recreate a world of their choosing. The only difference was their age and the fact that unlike him, he had a master to help him get a hold of his new abilities and was old enough to mature beyond childish bravado. Tsukihito was arrogant and immature and had run into someone who had every intention of using him as a tool to take advantage of their enemies' sympathy that they wouldn’t kill a child.
Kaito was sure that in Shuichi’s old life as Yoko Kurama he had spilled plenty of blood. He had been a thief and he was sure that Spirit World, as over controlling as they used to be of Demon World, wouldn’t go sending their best defences to hunt down and kill someone stealing from other demons. No, his crimes had to be much more severe for that.
But his taking of Tsukihito Amanuma’s life, and the reason for it, had clearly affected him. Kaito wasn’t the only one besides Urameshi to notice.
Kaito saw Hiei had gotten up from his napping spot from the corner of his eye as he stood with the others discussing their next course of action. He watched those sharp red eyes look from the child laying on the floor, then to Shuichi who had his back turned to everyone. Shuichi’s body was stiff, hands clenched into tight fists hard enough to possibly draw blood. He watched those same eyes, that up until that point only expressed anger, annoyance and stoicism, softened with genuine worry and his mouth form a frown from something other than irritation. With how he had seen Hiei react to others getting emotional up to that point, it was a stark contrast to how Shuichi’s current mental and emotional state at being forced to kill a naive child had managed to pull a more sympathetic and pure concern from the vitriolic little demon.
As he and the others left to allow Urameshi, Shuichi, Hiei and Mitarai to continue on. He noticed that Hiei was walking closer to Shuichi than before, his head turned just enough to keep an eye on the other demon.
“I also heard you stayed with Hiei after you returned from Demon World after he went into some sort of hibernation state as a result of using one of his attacks. Urameshi said the last time that happened he was out for six hours. Yet not only did you stay with him then you did it again knowing he could be out for just as long.” Kaito got up from his spot on the bench.
“I’d rather not leave him alone in such a state.”
“I’m sure it's for reasons other than the trouble he’d get up to when he woke up” Shuichi laughed at that as he picked up the bag and stood up as well.
“He does tend to get himself into trouble, though not always on purpose.”
“I’m sure you enjoy every moment of it.” Kaito put his hands in his pockets to study the other in front of him. “In your old life you were a talented thief from what I was told. If the mythology of fox demons is correct I’m sure you had no end of fun figuring out every puzzle and lock you came across and laughing at your victims when they realized their treasures were stolen.”
“What does that have to do with Hiei?”
“It has to do with the fact that as a human, that old trait is still there. You love a challenge and the more difficult the better. I saw it more than once in our high school days. So of course you end up with an ill-tempered demon who clearly has more walls up than there are people in this city.” Kaito couldn’t help the smirk that spread across his face “I imagine the challenge and accomplishment of catching him was quite the thrill.”
The smile Shuichi gave was a warm one, but underneath it Kaito could just make out a hint of something more heated that he wondered if Shuichi knew was allowed to surface.
“Who said the challenge ended with that?”
“An endless source of surprises I guess then, even more proof you two match each other.” Kaito checked his watch before shifting one leg in the direction of his own home. “I think I’ll be going now, I’m sure your friend is somewhere around your apartment sulking that you aren’t back yet.”
With that Kaito headed in the direction of his home before turning around and calling back.
“Shuichi?”
“Yes?”
“I hope the next time you get a less than perfect score it's because that little trouble maker distracted you.”
With that Kaito turned and headed on his way home.