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Disclaimer: Whatever anyone else owns is theirs. Please don't sue me; I'm penniless, and, unfortunately, lawyers don't work for peanuts. (Most of 'em are democrats!! Yuck yuck yuck!! Yeah, I know it's corny...so sue me. No, wait, I didn't mean that!!) So what's mine is mine and what's not mine is not mine (obviously). By the way, any characters that I create and don't kill off before the end of this fic are free for use in other fics. I really don't mind; that means that people are actually reading this!! Wow!!
I just got done with a Fushigi Yugi marathon!! Ai shiteru, Tasuke-sama! Kill Miaka! Kill Miaka! Kill...uh...oops. I...uh...really hope no one out there likes Miaka all too much...
Author's note: Am I doing okay with the yaoi? I'm not making this a lemon (sorry) 'cause I don't know enough about male sexual habits...yet...
Chapter 4
Kurama entered the room where the others were sleeping, after slowly backing out of the room and away from Hiei's extremely foul temper, and cringed when he heard the awful rumbling noise coming from Kuwabara. The redhead sighed and lay down on an empty futon, making sure that it was as far away from the snoring Kuwabara as he could get. (Unfortunately, that wasn't very far, since everyone else seemed to have had the same idea and, therefore, all the futons furthest away from the orange-haired boy were taken.)
The redhead closed his eyes and totally relaxed his body, trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep. Kuwabara's snoring grew even louder (even though Kurama hadn't thought that it was possible), making the roof shake threateningly and sleep totally impossible.
As a last resort, Kurama turned over onto his stomach and put a pillow over his head in a futile attempt to block out the horrible noise. It barely muted the sound.
After a while of laying in that position, Kurama sat up, his now-tangled hair falling into his face. He shook his unruly hair back and sighed. He'd been trying to sleep for nearly an hour. Obviously, he wasn't going to get any sleep here. He rose and silently slid open the door to the other room.
Hiei, to Kurama's surprise, was still there in a half-sitting position in a corner of the room. His eyes were closed and he was breathing deeply, evidently asleep. Gone from his face was the hard, angry expression that he normally wore. He looked almost...innocent. Kurama smiled softly. People looked totally different when they were asleep, especially Hiei when he was exhausted. Kurama knew that first-hand...especially since he usually had something to do with causing that exhaustion. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case tonight.
Kurama padded noiselessly across the room and into the shadows where he had meditated before. He lay down on the wooden floor, using his arm as a pillow. With the silence, he fell asleep in minutes...
...And awoke a few hours later with the feeling of cold metal against his throat. He opened his eyes, then stiffened as he saw a dark figure standing over him. It took him a few moments to find his voice. "Hiei..?" he whispered, hoping desperately that he was right.
"Hn." The katana blade was withdrawn. "What do you want?" The fire demon demanded sourly.
Kurama sighed. "I was asleep, but I heard a noise. Probably Kuwabara's snoring." The redhead grinned as Hiei grumbled something about "damned noisy monkeys" and turned to leave. Kurama's smile disappeared beneath a frown. "Hiei..." The fire demon stopped, waiting for the kitsune to continue. But Kurama had no intention of talking. He sat up and pulled Hiei to him, holding him tightly. The fire demon struggled briefly, then relaxed against Kurama's chest.
The half-youko gently kissed Hiei, who turned away. Kurama frowned again. "Hiei...are you okay?"
Hiei didn't answer. He pulled away from Kurama and had begun to walk away, when they heard the sound of a twig snapping. Kurama and Hiei moved to the center of the room, standing back to back. Hiei threw off his cloak and brandished his katana, while Kurama changed into his youko form and called on his Rose Whip. They stood there, waiting. For a moment, the only sound in the room was their breathing.
Then the wall collapsed and a band of six demons jumped in, surrounding Hiei and Kurama and brandishing a variety of weapons. They attacked immediately. Blow after blow was directed at the two fighters, and blow after blow was deflected.
Eventually, the two were forced to move to the sides of the room, each fighting off three demons.
Hiei slashed at his opponents, and dodged the blows directed at him. Unfortunately, his opponents had at least some fire-demon blood in them, since they managed to dodge most of his blows. He wasn't having an easy time of dodging all of their blows, considering that there were three of them and only one of him.
Eventually, his katana was knocked from his hands and he was caught. Two of the demons held him suspended a few feet above the floor. His eyes widened as he saw the third demon closely. He remembered, years ago, seeing this same demon rip the life force from a traitor in Hintoshu's gang...The `traitor' who had warned him against joining. The small youkai struggled fiercely against his captors, to no avail.
The pink-haired demon grinned at him and put a hand on Hiei's forehead. Immediately, pain tore through his body as he felt his energy being ripped from him. He screamed in pain. Seconds later, everything went black.
Kurama was doing well, considering that one of his opponents was already wrapped in a cocoon of vines, and another was well on his way to becoming a green mummy as well.
The silver-haired fox spirit glanced over at Hiei to see how he was faring as he sent a mass of vines toward his last opponent. Evidently, the enemies that Hiei was fighting against all had at least a little fire-demon blood in them, for they easily dodged Hiei's blows.
Kurama turned his attention back to his fight as the last demon somehow managed to evade his vines. He sent more vines out, totally surrounding and capturing his opponent. Kurama smiled as another green cocoon settled to the floor, then turned to help Hiei.
He gasped as he saw that his lover had been captured and was struggling fiercely against his captors. One of them placed a hand on Hiei's forehead. A pink glow engulfed the strange demon's hand. Kurama sent out his vines as the small fire demon cried out and went limp in their grasp. The demons dropped Hiei unceremoniously to the floor and burned the vines away before they reached them.
Kurama sent out more plants, trying to capture them.
Yuusuke awoke as he heard the sound of cracking wood. He then bolted upright as he heard metal clanking against metal. "K'so!!" He jumped to his feet and ran over to Kuwabara. "Kuwabara!! Wake up!! We've got company!!"
Kuwabara snorted, then sat up straight. "What?!" He bolted to his feet and they ran to the door leading to the other room.
They burst through the door and saw Kurama backed against the wall, trying desperately to send out enough plants to hinder the demons' progress. Hiei lay motionless on the floor on the other side of the room.
Yuusuke growled as the demons burned through the last of Kurama's plants. "Rei gan!!"
Kurama was losing. The demons had burned through every plant that he had thrown at them. He was backed against a wall with only a few plants separating him from the demons. He glanced worriedly across the room at Hiei. He didn't know what they had done to his lover, but the small fire demon had not moved from where they had dropped him. The demons burned through the last of his plants.
At that moment the door to the room burst open and a bolt of blue energy hit one of the demons, vaporizing it and part of a wall. Kuwabara cut the other two down with his rei ken.
"Geez! Don't these jerks know how to use a door?!" Yuusuke grumbled as he saw the remains of the wall scattered on the floor. He glanced at Kuwabara, who was across the room, beating the shit out of the three green mummies on the floor, and grinned ruefully.
"Probably not," Kurama replied, changing back into his human form and smiling a bit as Kuwabara kicked one of the moaning masses of vines. He walked to Hiei's collapsed form and gently shook his shoulder. He frowned when the fire demon did not respond, and gently turned him over.
The redhead gasped. Hiei's face was nearly as white as the starburst in his hair. He frantically felt for a pulse, noting with shock that Hiei's skin was freezing, and found a weak one. He concentrated and saw that the fire demon had been totally drained of ki and cringed as he saw the horrible condition of his life-force. The youkai's fire aura was completely gone.
The other two ran over, concerned by the look on Kurama's face, and stopped short as they saw Hiei's pallid face.
"What did they do to him?!" Yuusuke asked, kneeling beside Kurama, with a concerned look on his face.
Even Kuwabara looked worried. "Is he...?"
"He's alive, but completely drained of ki. They even drained some of his life-force..." Kurama trailed off.
By this time, Koenma and the girls had entered the room. Midzuho immediately rushed over to Hiei.
"What's going on?" Koenma demanded, surveying the totally destroyed room.
"We were attacked again." Kurama replied softly, lifting Hiei into his arms.
Koenma looked at the fire demon. "He's nearly dead. What happened to him?"
"I don't know. Some kind of demon drained all of his ki and part of his life-force." Kurama sighed. "It's going to take a while for him to regain all of his strength. And with Hintoshu on the move, there isn't going to be much time." Kurama walked past them, into the other room, and placed the fire demon on a futon.
The others followed, Yuusuke and Kuwabara dragging the three battered and bruised, still-mummified captives along.
Koenma stepped forward and placed a hand on Hiei's forehead. His hand began to glow with an electric-blue light. After a few minutes it faded, and Koenma stepped back. Hiei's eyes opened and he began to shiver. He blinked a few times, then closed his eyes again and fell asleep, still shivering with cold. Kurama wrapped a heavy blanket around him. The fire demon's shivering gradually disappeared.
Yuusuke looked worried. "Why's he shivering?! He's never cold!"
Kurama glanced at him. "He doesn't have any power left...and that includes his fire aura." He turned toward the three vine-covered figures on the floor and removed some of the vines from one to the captive's mouth. "Where is Hintoshu?" The youko asked coldly.
The demon didn't answer. In fact, it wasn't even breathing. Kurama swore. "He's dead. Probably a fast-acting poison."
Kuwabara and Yuusuke checked the other two prisoners and came up with the same result. Yuusuke's eyes flashed. "Now we can't even question them!! K'SO!!" He ionized the bodies of the prisoners with a blast of his rei gan.
Kurama calmly crossed the room to sit on the floor near the window, then extended his ki so he would be able to feel the presence of any unknown demons. "You all can get some sleep. I'll keep watch."
The others nodded and lay down on futons. After about an hour, Kurama moved to sit next to Hiei. He ran a finger lightly down his lover's cheek, tracing the youkai's cheekbone. The fire demon sighed softly in his sleep. Kurama smiled softly, leaned over and brushed his lips over those of his lover. He then sat back and waited for morning.
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