"Hiei-san, have you found my brother yet?"  I rush up to Hiei as soon as he drops into sight from the branches of a tree in Genkai's garden.  He has been sitting there for the better part of an hour, watching me feed the doves and tend the plants.

Poor Hiei.

He winces slightly, barely noticeably, before replying in a negative.  As usual.  I seriously doubt that he'll ever find the courage to tell me his identity.  Which is too bad, I guess.  It could make things even more interesting...

I mold my face into lines of disappointment.  Hiei squirms.  It is pure torture for him to face my sorrow, and more so in that he knows that he himself is the cause...

Poor Hiei.

I invite him in for tea.  He accepts, hesitantly, and I bustle about with the preparations, not giving him the chance to renege.  He has done so a couple of times before, much to my bitter disappointment.

He sits quietly while I pour him his special tea, the tea I make only for him.  I chatter on about the garden and my birds while he sips away.  He finishes swiftly, but I pour him a second cup.  He drinks that, too, and this time I let him go.

He flits away into the trees, and I wave goodbye with a joyful smile.

Poor Hiei.

I collect up the tea set carefully, isolating the items which held Hiei's brew from the rest.  After all, it wouldn't do for me to poison myself.

Hiei hasn't even noticed, after all our morning and afternoon teas together.  He hasn't noticed his paling skin, or the way his strength is starting to wane, his stamina to fade...

It's such a nice poison.  Very few visible side effects, and fairly common in the Ningenkai for those who know where to look for it.  Pity about the amount necessary to be fatal, but perhaps it is better this way...

It is so satisfying for me to see him suffer so slowly.  After the hell I have been through looking for him, he will not even acknowledge me!  He deserves to suffer.  He will begin to notice the effects soon enough, and that is when the real fun will start.

He will come to me for help.  I am, after all, a healer and the closest to him despite his unwillingness to acknowledge himself to be my brother.  And I will put on a good show of concern over him, to all appearances exhausting myself in my attempts to cure his 'wasting illness'...

Or perhaps he will go to Kurama first.  That is the one prospect that I view with some trepidation.  I have been very careful, though, and I doubt that even Kurama will suspect long-term poisoning as the cause for his love's demise.  But he already knows that something is wrong.  I have seen the flashes of concern in his eyes whenever Hiei is present.  They have been far more frequent, recently...

Kurama will be heartbroken when my brother dies.  He will have no-one with whom to share his pain; at least, no-one to whom Hiei meant so much - besides me.  I will be there to comfort him, and I will let him comfort me in return.

Together we will find a way through the sorrow my brother's death will cause; and Kurama will be mine at last.  I will appreciate his love far more than my ungrateful brother.  We will live happily together, thanks to the memory of my brother.

I may have to do something about Kuwabara, though...

Go to Evil fic 2