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~~STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY!!~~
Chapter Four
Yukina looked up as Kurama entered the kitchen. "Hello, Kurama-san."
Kurama sighed. "Have you two seen Hiei?"
Yukina frowned. "He left here over an hour ago. I thought he went to find you."
"Then he's missing." Kurama sighed again. "Nobody else has seen him either. Could you help me find him?"
"Of course!" Yukina exclaimed. She rushed from the room. Kuwabara rose and followed her.
Keiko rushed toward Kurama as the fox moved through the darkening forest. The redhead had been extremely worried when Hiei had disappeared, especially since he couldn't feel his friend's ki signiture. According to him, the fire demon had many enemies who would take advantage of his missing memory to kill him. He had gotten more frantic with every hour that Hiei was gone, and that had scared Keiko. "Kurama-kun! I found him!"
"Where?" Kurama followed her back to the temple and into the shrine room.
The girl pointed at the statue. "He's behind it, sleeping. I didn't want to frighten him," she whispered.
"Arigato, Keiko. Could you find the others and tell them that they can stop looking?" Keiko nodded and disappeared. Kurama carefully crawled behind the statue, finally reaching Hiei. The fox gently shook his friend.
Hiei opened his crimson eyes tiredly. "K'rama?"
The fox swept Hiei into a tight embrace. "Gods, Hiei! I've been looking for you for hours! I was so worried!" Kurama pushed away the fear that he had felt when he couldn't feel the fire demon's ki. He had thought that one of Hiei's enemies had captured him. He had been terrified that they would find Hiei dead.
Hiei lowered his head. "Gomen..."
"Don't worry about it. Come on." Kurama helped the fire demon out of the small space. "Are you hungry?" Hiei nodded. "Let's get you something to eat then." He took the fire demon's hand and led him to the kitchen.
Hiei watched silently as Kurama fixed him a sandwich. "Arigato," he whispered as the redhead served him.
Kurama smiled. "You're welcome." He sat across from Hiei. "Why were you hiding?" The fire demon avoided the fox's eyes and shrugged. Kurama sighed. "Never mind."
The door to the kitchen slid open to reveal Yukina. The girl rushed to Hiei and embraced him tightly. Kurama could see that she had been having the same thoughts as him. "I was so worried! Where were you?!"
The fire demon looked at Kurama uncertainly. The fox answered for him. "Keiko found him in the shrine room, asleep."
Yukina smiled at the fire demon. "Are you tired? I can fix up a bed fore you if you want."
Hiei looked away, nodding. A strange thought popped into his head. A real bed? I've never slept in one before... He kept it to himself.
Yukina jumped up. "I'll go make you a bed. Be right back." She left the room.
Kurama smiled at Hiei. "Eat."
As the fire demon was finishing his sandwich, the door slid open to reveal a soaked, disgruntled-looking Kuwabara. The orange-haired ningen glared at Hiei. "So you were hiding here all along, shrimp?! I shoulda known you'd do something like that!" Hiei flinched and stopped eating. "Where were you?!"
Kurama glared at Kuwabara. "He got lost and fell asleep! Why don't you leave him alone?!"
Kuwabara glared at the redhead. "I wasn't talking to you! Besides, I bet he's faking the whole thing just to get some attention from Yukina!"
Hiei disappeared. Kurama stood, shaking with fury. "How dare you accuse him of such a thing!" The fox brushed past the stupid ningen. "Now I have to find him again!"
Kurama nearly bumped into Yukina as he stalked from the kitchen. "Oh, gomen, Kurama-kun." She looked past him into the kitchen. "Hello, Kazuma-san." She frowned. "Where's Hiei-oniisan?"
"Kuwabara upset him and he lef-" The fox did a double take. "D-did you just call Hiei your oniisan?"
Yukina nodded with a happy smile. "He asked if I would be his sister until he got his memory back." She frowned again. "What happened to upset him?"
Kurama glared at Kuwabara. "Ask him what he did. I need to find Hiei." The fox stalked off. He was soon stopped by Yuusuke.
"Oi! Keiko told me she found him. Where is he?"
Kurama scowled. "Missing again. Kuwabara upset him." He frowned. "And that's probably why he hid the first time!"
Yuusuke scowled. "What'd the moron say?"
Kurama sighed. "Kuwabara said he was probably faking amnesia to get closer to Yukina."
"What?!" Yuusuke yelled. "Where is that moron?! I'm going to kill him!"
Kurama smiled humorlessly. "I left him by the kitchen to explain himself to Yukina."
Yuusuke nodded. "If you hear him screaming, ignore it." The boy disappeared.
Kurama entered the shrine room, fervently hoping that Hiei was there. He crawled behind the statue to find the fire demon curled in a ball. The fox gently touched the boy's shoulder. Hiei flinched and scooted away. "Don't touch me," he whispered.
"Hiei, it's me." The fox flinched as the fire demon looked up, his face tearstained. "Oh, Hiei," Kurama whispered, pulling his friend into a hug and brushing away his tears. "I'm sorry."
The boy trembled against him. "I...I don't like it here..."
Kurama sighed. "Would you like to leave?"
"Hn." The fire demon shrugged, pulling away from the fox.
"If you want to leave, you can stay at my apartment with me." Kurama smiled at his friend reassuringly. "Away from Kuwabara."
Hiei frowned deeply. "Why does he hate me? I don't understand..."
Kurama sighed. "You two have always argued. You're actually friends-" kind of "-and he's used to you insulting him back. He's just acting stupid right now."
Hiei was silent for a moment, considering Kurama's words. Finally, he looked up. "Can we leave now?"
"Let's say goodbye to Yukina-chan first, ne?" The fox helped Hiei from behind the statue. Suddenly he remembered something and looked at Hiei. "Hold on. I'll be right back." He crawled back behind the statue, running his hands across the floor to find Hiei's tear gems. It wouldn't do for Yukina to find them the next time she cleaned back there. He frowned as his fingers felt only wet drops. Realization hit him and he cursed softly and backed out of the space.
Hiei blinked at him, somehow noticing the fox's worry. "What's wrong?"
Kurama smiled at him. "Nothing, Hiei. I need to speak to Boton and Yuusuke for a little while. You can talk to Yukina while I'm talking to them, okay?" Hiei nodded and followed him from the shrine room.
Hiei shuddered an moved closer to Kurama as they heard loud shouting. "Demo, Urameshi-" "No buts, you asshole! You know that's not true! You had no right to say something so stupid!"
The two rounded the corner just in time to see Kuwabara get KOed by Yuusuke. The raven-haired ningen grinned at them. "Yo." Hiei backed away as Yuusuke approached. "Oi, Hiei. You okay?"
Hiei glanced toward Kuwabara, who was lying spread-eagle on the ground, his eyes spiraled out. "Why did you do that?"
Yuusuke frowned. "He had no right to say what he said to you. We were all afraid that you weren't going to make it when you got injured. He's just jealous that you're getting all the attention from Yukina. Don't worry about it." Hiei still looked worried, and Yuusuke chuckled. "I've beaten him up worse for doing less. He should've learned not to be a dolt by now." Hiei smiled slightly at that.
Kurama looked grateful. "Yuusuke, where's Yukina?"
Yuusuke blinked. "Well, she was yelling at Kuwabara when I got here, so I waited until she was done before kicking his ass. You might try her room."
"Arigato. Yuusuke, I need to speak to you and Boton."
Yuusuke shrugged. "Okay." He took a deep breath. "Oi! Boton-chan!" Hiei winced as the loud shout hurt his ears.
Boton ran into the room. "Nani, Yuusuke? Oh! You found Hiei? That's great!" She smiled at Hiei, who looked uncomfortable.
"Kurama needed to talk to us."
Kurama smiled. "Hai. I'm taking Hiei to my apartment. It's calmer there."
"And Kuwabara's not there," Yuusuke added with a scowl.
Kurama motioned for them to follow him and led Hiei to Yukina's room. The fox knocked on the door. Yukina-chan, it's Kurama. Can Hiei and I come in?" The door opened and Yukina appeared, her face tearstained. "Yukina, I'm going to take Hiei home with me. Did you want to speak to him before we leave?"
Yukina looked at the youko for a second, confused, before understanding. "Hai, Kurama-kun. Come in, Hiei."
Kurama turned to Yuusuke and Boton and led them into another room. "We have a problem." The fox sighed. "Remember how we couldn't sense Hiei's ki when we were looking for him?" Yuusuke and Boton both frowned and nodded. "It's because he can't use his ki for some reason. He can't even access it."
Yuusuke frowned. "What makes you think that? He's a youkai, so he always uses ki!"
Kurama sighed again. "I shouldn't be telling you this, but when Hiei gets injured in the Makai, he comes to me. One time he was poisoned. Rare poison, and the antidote caused hallucinations. He must have been hallucinating about something really horrible, because he cried this." The fox showed them an perfect ebony tear gem. "The fever broke soon afterward, and he remembered nothing about the hallucinations, and I didn't tell him either."
Yuusuke glared at him. "So? What's that got to do with anything?"
"When I found him just now, he was crying. I was going to gather the tear gems so Yukina wouldn't find them, but there were none. He cried liquid tears! That means his natural, ancestral ki is gone."
Yuusuke shrugged. "So?"
Kurama glared at him. "First of all, if he opens his Jagan, he'll die, so we have to keep it warded. But Hiei has a lot of enemies who would take advantage of this to kill him, and he's as helpless as a ningen at the moment..." The fox trailed off meaningfully.
Boton paled. "I'll have Koenma strengthen the barriers." She hurried from the room.
Yuusuke watched her leave, then turned to Kurama. "So what're we going to do?"
Kurama shook his head. "Hiei doesn't want to stay here. He's surrounded by people he doesn't know here. Kuwabara's been an ass to him. You basically radiate power, so of course he's nervous around you. He knows Keiko and Boton's names, but that's about it. Genkai-"
"Sunakaki baba!" Yuusuke interrupted, grinning idiotically.
Kurama smirked, but ignored the comment. "He's only talked to Yukina and me." Kurama sighed. "And I promised to take him. I'm going to take him to my apartment, at least for the night.
Yuusuke nodded, now serious. "I'll keep watch nearby. Boton can help when she gets back."
*sighs* I really need to concentrate solely on one fic at a time...Oh well.
On to Chapter Five
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