Kurama moaned softly. Kazuma turned his head to look; the youkai curled into a tight ball, twisting the blankets around him. Kazuma reached over and pulled the covers straight, felt a pang at the thought of his daughter going to bed without a kiss from her touchan.

He felt Yukina's reassuring thoughts in his mind, and his heart was soothed a moment; he closed his eyes and savoured the contact he shared with his beautiful little wife. It always amazed him that she would have chosen _him_, of all people; but he was not about to question her choice. Not for one moment.

She was pregnant again, this time with twins. One of them, she assured him, would be a boy, and almost identical to himself. The other, a girl, identical to Yukina and to their daughter.

He was looking forward to meeting the two little ones. He felt a smile cross his face as his eyes grew distant.

"Hiei," Kurama sobbed, breaking his reverie. "Hiei." Kazuma leaned toward his friend, frowning.

"He's not here, Kurama," he said.

"...kudasai..." Kazuma sighed. He'd been sensing strange things from Kurama since he'd come back; Hiei was constantly on the youko's mind, causing conflicting emotions that Kazuma could not understand.

Kurama subsided, and slept. Kazuma allowed himself to doze, and dreamed of his beautiful children.

Where the hell was Juei?

The projection had dissipated after about ten minutes, after Reikaze had thrown it into the cell. It had talked with Hiei, terrified, unaware that its existence was to be so very brief; indeed, unaware that it was anything other than Juei.

If he'd been able to, he would have sighed. But the wards prevented him from gathering you-ki and his you-ki was gone, and with it most of his strength; and so he couldn't inhale deeply enough to sigh.

So he turned his thoughts to Kurama, and planned how best to help his youko lover to heal. He knew well how Reikaze could destroy one's sense of reality; it had taken him two years to learn to deal with the --

He cursed himself.

He had spent two years in this cell while Reikaze had performed her magical experiments on him, in an attempt to create a three-eyed child between himself and her. Two years of pain and hunger and need satisfied with only more pain.

It had been impossible to bear, and so he'd learned to suppress his memories, to replace them with other memories, ones that were more easily dealt with. And then he'd suppressed those memories.

And the two youkai who had spoken words he'd heard in the past had unravelled the outer block and he'd remembered being repeatedly raped by Reikaze over a period of about a month.

Reikaze had removed the inner, stronger block, had forced him to remember the truth, everything she'd really done to him, and if he'd been able to cry he would have, because he was sure that Kurama had suffered the same torture in the year since he'd proposed to Hiei. Kurama -- sensitive, sweet Kurama -- would never be able to shut himself so completely off, the way Hiei could, the way he had. Kurama would feel every ache, every sorrow, every moment of each day he'd spent here.

No wonder he'd turned away from Hiei when he'd touched him.

Where the hell was Juei?

She stood from her bed, stepping into her slippers, and pulling her robe around herself. She tiptoed into her son's room, and smiled; Kazuma, the brave, sweet boy, had fallen asleep beside the bed. She knelt by him, touched his cheek. He blinked, opened his eyes.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Kazuma-kun," she smiled. "Your wife must have been lonely last night."

"Hai," he said, stifling a yawn.

"Arigatou," she said. "I didn't mean to sleep so long."

"You needed it, Shiori-san," he assured her, taking her hands and helping her to stand as he stood up. "Gomen nasai, for falling asleep."

"He seems to be all right," she murmured. "I'll make you some breakfast, and -- "

"Iya," he shook his head. "I should go home." Shiori stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek in thanks. He blushed, and left; she could hear him speaking with Yuusuke and Keiko, and then there was silence downstairs as they all left. Shiori sat where Kazuma had been and reached out to stroke Shuuichi's head. He did not move, made no sound; if it were not that she could see his chest move with each breath, she might have been afraid he'd died during the night.

She leaned down and kissed his forehead, and noticed the tear- stains on his face. She reached over to touch his hand, and his fist closed tightly on her fingers as it had done the day he was born and knew only the warmth of his mother's arms.

She lifted a hand and closed her eyes and focused her you-ki. The metallic wall shimmered, melted, parted enough for her to pass through. She grabbed her father's ankle and with an effort hauled him out of the cell; then she dissipated her spell and the cell wall reformed, seamlessly. Juei smiled. Just in time; her you-ki had been tapped, even in that brief moment.

She leaned down and removed the wards on Hiei's body. Then she removed the ward on his Jagan, and leaped back as he bounded to his feet, snarling, ripping away the other wards. "Sh," she warned him. "This way." She led him away from the cell.

"Did they get him away safely?" he growled.

"Hai," she murmured. "He's...alive."

"That's all I need." She was surprised that he followed her so willingly; for all he knew she might have been leading him right into Reikaze's arms. She was _pleased_, of course, that he trusted her so; but still surprised.

With the help of four well-placed, weak projections, they were out of the palace and the Makai and into the Ningenkai in less than fifteen minutes.

His soul ached.

Shiori was with him; she sat on the bed and held him in her lap the way she had when he'd been little, and she sang him soft songs and told him stories --

-- not as good as Hiei's stories --

-- and when he felt stronger she made him some broth and helped him to drink a bit of it. He threw it up; she cleaned him up and kissed his nose and gave him a little more, which he kept down.

"How long," he croaked, his throat burning, "was I gone?"

"Only a few hours," his mother murmured. He shook his head, weakly.

"It was more," he insisted.

"Hiei-kun told Yuusuke-kun that for you, it was a year," she said softly. "But for me it was only a few hours." She pulled him to lie on her shoulder. She was warm and soft and she stroked his head where he once had long, beautiful hair --

-- Hiei had cut it off, laughing, had sprinkled it around the cell --

He clung to his mother's arms and shook, cursing his weak Human body, Human emotions.

"I don't care what you do," he replied. She nodded once, fell quiet.

They reached Kurama's home, and Hiei ducked inside, not bothering to check if Juei was following. He was up the stairs in a flash and into Kurama's room, where the youko was sleeping on his mother's breast.

Hiei crossed the room silently, stood beside Shiori. She looked up at him and smiled, gently. "How is he?" he asked.

"Very weak," she replied with a sigh. "I managed to make him eat something, but -- "

Kurama woke at that moment, stared up at Hiei. "Yaa," Hiei greeted him, lifting his hand. Kurama pulled away, desperate fear suddenly lighting his eyes.

"Get away from me," he gasped. "Get away -- " Hiei blinked, startled by this reaction; Shiori made a small distressed sound and reached for her son. "Get away," Kurama repeated once more, before fainting again. Shiori gathered him up in her arms and rocked him, sobbing softly.

Hiei turned and left the room, left the house, left the Ningenkai, barely noticed that Juei was following him.