Arranged Love

Arranged Love

Chapter 2
There's No Fighting It


Kuwabara moaned in agony, rolling over to see the silhouettes of his subordinate gang members. Indeed, Kirashima, Komada, and Okubo were leaning worriedly over their fallen leader. Komada had elected to poke the redhead's prone body with a bit of stick to see if he was still alive.

"G'off me," the fighter growled exasperated. The gang members obeyed stepping back while Kazuma struggled to his feet. He brushed off his school uniform as though he had merely tripped. That _was_ kind of what it had looked like. Though, Kuwabara's best friends exchanged looks of disbelief, affirming the brawler had flown six feet horizontally before skidding half a block. And there was another problem...

"You...ok, Kuwabara?" asked Komada, nervously running a hand over his buzzed hair.

"Do I look ok to you?" The fighter snapped, beyond seething. He began to limp around a little to assess damage. His head had taken a good thwacking, and there would be bruising all along his legs and arms. He could walk off the bruising, and even the blow to the head. But for some reason, his lower back was aflame with pain. The redhead began to worry whether he might have a serious injury in his back. He turned to his friends, who looked especially horrified.

"What's the matter with you guys?" He asked gruffly, turning towards his team. He noticed they all took another step back, and his stomach sank.

"Come on guys," Kuwabara tried to sound lighthearted. "You're lookin' at me like I'm a ghost!" The fighter's voice had broken over the word 'ghost'. He'd met a few ghosts that wandered, unaware they were dead.

"You might as well be," came the deeply pained reply. It was Kirishima who spoke this time, eyes hidden in his bronze bangs. The gang leader gaped at his followers completely confused, as his stomach sank deeper into an unnamed pit.

"You have 'the mark,'" Okubo whispered finally.

Cold realization dawned on the redhead as he reached to touch his burning skin. A ghost could never have knocked him that far, and he'd heard that 'the mark' burned like cattle brand. He hissed when his fingers traced the imprint that left his skin so sensitive. Anyone with half a brain cell knew, that when this happened to you, your life as you knew it was over.

~~~~----~~~~----

Hiei strode down the winding hallways of Mukuro's fortress. The castle was something of a labyrinth of stairs, doors, trapdoors, and hallways, set in a natural labyrinth of a demon forest. It had once been school for ninja of the demon world, but somehow Mukuro had procured it.

Hiei well knew the way to Mukuro's private office. It was a small, secret room in an easily forgotten corner of the compound. Modest hallway, lead him through modest door, to the most modest, and difficult to open door he had ever come across. Apparently, the door had a mind of it's own, for it only opened when the visitor had permission from someone on the other side.

Stopping he stated his name. Moments later the door swung slowly open, revealing Shigure and Mukuro deep in conversation. Immediately Hiei frowned. Shigure was smiling, and a smiling Shigure always meant something bad was about to happen.

Hiei bowed respectfully before taking a seat and glaring squarely at Shigure, who only grinned wider. Before the fire demons could trade insults Mukuro interrupted them.

"None of that now, gentlemen." She waved her hand impatiently, drawing both of their undivided attention. "Now Hiei," She began in a business like tone, "you are wondering why I called you off patrol."

Hiei nodded, feeling a tension in his gut building. When his master took that tone, she wanted him to do something she knew he wouldn't like. Usually he had to do it anyway, which could be one reason for his comrade's grin fit.

"The fact of the matter is," she continued with candor, "I have chosen your mate." Hiei gaped, completely taken aback. It was early for him to be taking a mate, let alone a mate chosen to be his partner. He was old and experienced enough as demons went, but usually a demon had a few partners and children, before being tied to an heir-bearing spouse. This was highly unusual, unless...

"You don't have to worry about me dying anytime soon," Mukuro assured him with a little sarcasm. Hiei returned to his aloof expression. "However, there is little time for you to hesitate with this mate." She presented him with his mate's formal file.

"His name is Kazuma, Kuwabara," she said with finality as he looked down at the folder.

"That sounds like a hu-" Hiei opened the folder to the cover page which read.

'Name: Kuwabara Kazuma
Age: 16
Race: Human'

Hiei looked up at the two sharply.

"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" He demanded.

"Do I seem like the joking type?" The demon lord's face darkened with seriousness, as she stared her heir down. She looked at the smoking folder in his hand before adding, "If you incinerate that, you'll write ten thousand more copies by hand before you leave this room." Hiei growled, throwing down the folder furiously.

"What is the meaning of this?" Normally the fire demon would not have tested the demon lord's patience, but he was out of his wits right now. "Mating me with a human." The short demon stood knocking over the chair.

"You might as well mate me to a damn ape!" Indignation clear in his voice, Hiei turned to leave.

"I can arrange that," Mukuro said with a tone that froze the room and the demon in place. Hiei turned slowly to face his master, a sobering dread washing over him. "If you would prefer," She added, ever more sweetly.

Hiei slowly turned and took his seat more humbly before his master. He had promised to obey any order given, up until his succession, and her threat was within her power. Mukuro let a moment of punishing silence follow Hiei's tantrum before continuing.

"You will read the file, and study your bride-to-be." Mukuro commanded in a voice that brooked no more argument. Hiei nodded, though he neither looked at her, nor picked up the folder. The demoness could imagine the seething rage he must be feeling, but it mattered little to her. Hate for humanity was his issue, not hers.

"Shigure has taken the liberty of 'marking' the boy for you," she said, while Hiei shot his fellow assassin a death glare. "Therefore, all you need to do is retrieve him within the next three weeks." Hiei made acknowledgement of the command with a small nod.

"This is the contract I have written for his guardian to sign," she said sliding a scroll across the table. "Once there is a signature on it, no one in the human world can break the contract. Make sure you get his guardians signature." Hiei nodded, but for good measure she added "I don't need spirit world breathing down my neck over kidnapping a human. You know how sensitive they are about that."

"After you have retrieved your bride, we will talk about your wedding date," she said, finishing the conversation. Hiei carefully rose from his seat, and gathered the paperwork, with barely contained rage. He waited silently for Mukuro's dismissal, which was finally granted.

The door to her office swung open, and then closed again, before a string of curses rang through the fortress. The demon lord and her conspiritor listened for a moment before returning to normal conversation.

"That could have gone better," Shigure commented carefully. As she had mentioned, Mukuro did not have a teasing personality. With the mask across her face, it was hard to tell whether she found this situation amusing or not, though the assassin found it hilarious.

"Yes." Mukuro hissed, apparently at Hiei's back. Shigure nearly jumped out of his seat at the intensity of her reply. His master was naturally intimidating, but when angered could be downright frightening. It was clear, at least to one of her subordinates, that she would either have her way, or kill someone trying.

"Ah," Shigure's curiosity got the better of him. Mukuro had settled back into her papers. "What is the point of making him mate with this human," the assassin gestured to the paperwork that no doubt had to do with the orange haired boy he had tagged this morning.

"Hiei isn't suited to lead until he can figure out how to put this misguided hate behind him," she said, rifling through papers she hadn't filled out in years. She looked at Shigure when she said, "The road to the future will run through Hiei, or _over_ him."