A/N: Pulled this from my WIP folder to flesh it out/polish it up for the 'Go Through Me' square of my Bad Things Happen Bingo card. :'D
Bothersome Intuition
Hiei wakes up, and immediately he jerks away from whatever the warm, solid thing along his front is. His feet hit the ground with a little less finesse than he would have liked, but at least he's standing again.
"Woah – hey!" the thing says as Hiei dismounts, and he's able to see that it's less of a thing and more of a Kuwabara.
Kuwabara, of all people, had been carrying him.
By the time Kuwabara turns himself around with a stumble, Hiei is already glaring up at him.
"Don't look so grumpy," Kuwabara says, glaring right back down. "You fell asleep, and that demon's uglier partner was still on our heels. Someone had to get you out of the way."
"Tch." Hiei resents being ferried 'out of the way' – as if he wouldn't recover in time to be of any help – but even he recognizes that now would be a bad time to get even. He whips around, scanning the area with all three eyes. Judging by Kuwabara's explanation, Hiei managed to put one bad guy out of commission, but as for the other….
"You could say 'thank you', y'know," Kuwabara is grumbling.
Hiei almost rolls his eyes, but the oaf isn't worth him losing focus, however briefly. "Why would I thank you for almost stashing me behind a bush?" he asks instead, tone flat.
Behind him, he can feel Kuwabara bristling. "I wasn't gonna just leave you here!" he says hotly, his energy pulsing and indignant.
"Hm," is all Hiei can muster. He's only just woken up, but he must have expelled more power than he thought during that final assault, because already his eyelids are heavy again. Focusing takes all of his effort, and maybe he should spend more time resting, but he can't. There's danger out there – close.
Kuwabara heaves a sigh. "You should rest more," he complains, "you can't be back to one hundred percent already, short stuff."
Hiei wants to hit him and knock that bothersome intuition of his right out of his skull. "As if you could handle this attack yourself."
"I'm perfectly capable! I –"
"Sure you are. That's why they sent you to run away," Hiei snaps. Their enemy is getting closer, he can tell – but Kurama and Yusuke are keeping it at bay for now. It won't hurt to be ready, though, just in case. He can feel some last dredges of power, and hauls them out from the depths to the surface, preparing.
There's a frown on Kuwabara's face, Hiei notices on a quick glance, and it definitely doesn't do anything for his looks. "I did that to protect –"
Hiei whirls back around, and there's a little bit of black fire on his fingertips as he snarls at the too-tall-too-stupid human. "I don't need anyone to protect me, especially not you!"
If anything, Kuwabara just looks disappointed – at least until his eyes widen and he goes pale, and Hiei is about to cast out again with his Jagan (because damn it all, he must be really tired if his focus is slipping this easily), but Kuwabara is faster.
Hiei, for all his speed, has no time to react before he's shoved to the ground, and all of his senses are smothered by that too-tall-too-stupid human. He barely has a half-second to register that this is because Kuwabara is on all fours, hovering over him with arms and legs forming a barrier around him, before there's a choked off scream of pain from the human.
Warm, wet blood drips onto Hiei's face – and then Kuwabara's hulking frame goes slack, collapsing. For a moment, Hiei can't breathe under the weight. The scent of blood-human-danger is overwhelming, and he isn't looking for it, but he can feel a steady heartbeat against his being that must belong to Kuwabara.
He's alive, for now.
"Kuwabara!"
That's Yusuke, his shout frantic enough to jolt Hiei into motion. He shoves Kuwabara off of himself and slips out from under him, sitting up only to come face to face with a mouthful of teeth. Each one is individually the length of his arm, all of them sharp as knives.
At least I'm not feeling the exhaustion anymore, the thought hits him as he zooms out of harm's way and up a tree. From this vantage point he can finally see, and that demon certainly is uglier than the first one he took out. It's more beast than demon, to be fair, and its entire being can best be described as nothing but spikes – the impressive teeth being the least threatening of which.
The demon-beast (maybe not so much sidekick as pet, now Hiei thinks about it) is clearly on a blind rampage – otherwise it would have had the presence of mind to climb his tree. Currently, it's growling up at him, all possible fangs bared and dripping with saliva as it claws at the trunk with its front legs (arms?) in an attempt to topple it.
And as for its hind legs…
…One foot is harmlessly digging grooves into the ground, while the other is firmly planted on the back of both of Kuwabara's legs, pressing down and drawing more blood under pointed claws.
Blood from Kuwabara, who, upon closer inspection, is already bleeding heavily from a deep gash that covers half of his back.
Kuwabara, who very much isn't moving.
Hiei sees red, and then black as fire thrums through him at a steady build. Maybe this creature isn't powerful enough to warrant his full force, but Hiei doesn't care, too busy summoning every last scrap of flame so he can shove it into that hideous, gaping maw.
x
"What happened?!" Kurama asks, already on his knees, dark red blood oozing between his fingers where his hands are pressed to the wound on Kuwabara's upper back. His cool façade is cracked, a few hairs out of place and a few cuts on his cheek, green eyes wild and clothes torn here and there.
Hiei sways on his feet, but stays upright. "You guys are slow."
"Shit, dammit, fuck!" Yusuke is eloquent as ever as he tugs his shirt off, shoving it on top of Kurama's hands and throwing all his weight into applying pressure. "That bastard got in a lucky hit, and I – we –"
It's then that Hiei notices Yusuke's ripped pant leg, dried blood crusted at the edges and soaked into the surrounding fabric. There's a hastily improvised bandage tied around it, made from Yusuke's jacket by the looks of it.
"Dammit!" Yusuke says again, spitting off to the right and hitting the smattering of ash that, fortunately, is all that remains of their foe.
"As soon as we stop his bleeding, we need to get out of here," Kurama says, a slight tremble in his voice. "Those flowers I planted can only mask this scent for so long."
Hiei's vision is blurring, but he's got enough energy left to spot the only intact piece of evidence from the fight: a tapered spike jutting out from a thick tree trunk in front of him. It's stuck in about as high as his waist. There are sharp edges all over it, one of which is coated in gore that reeks of a certain human.
Idiot, he thinks.
He's asleep before he hits the ground.
x
Perched on the edge of the roof, Hiei glowers at the serene garden below him, and then the unnervingly blue sky around him. Everything is peaceful and quiet and normal, but he feels on edge. He's already run the property three times, until Genkai griped at him to stop ruining the landscape and Kurama bullied him into resting.
Really, he should just leave. It's been two days. Despite what anyone says, he doesn't need this long of a break.
There's nothing keeping him here, after all – no reason to stick around.
"He's awake, you know."
Hiei looks down, locking eyes with a pair near identical to his own.
"Kazuma-san. He asked about you almost first thing," Yukina says, voice soft as ever with a small smile to match. "He wanted to make sure you were alright."
Frowning, Hiei vaults off the roof and takes off at a run, landscape be damned. "He's stupid," he grumbles to himself, the scenery a blur. Because Kazuma Kuwabara is the very definition of the word – in fact, he's probably the reason that word exists.
And Hiei isn't about to join his welcome-back-to-the-land-of-the-conscious party.
x
By the time he returns to the house, it's long past dark out, nighttime in full swing. There's no one around to see him slip in through a window, and almost no moonlight to illuminate his path, anyway. Careful and quiet, he steps up to this room's only occupant and stares down.
Kuwabara is fast asleep, on his stomach with his arms flat at his sides. His back is heavily bandaged, and each of his legs is wrapped tight as he lies oddly stiff and still. But his fingers are twitching, and somehow he doesn't look nearly as lifeless as before.
The restless edge that Hiei hasn't been able to shake is dissipating. Just a little.
"So y'are okay…" comes a voice, whispering down by his feet. "Thought y'were hidin'."
Wordlessly, Hiei sits down so he can better see Kuwabara's face to give it the glare it deserves. "You're the dumbest human alive."
The laugh that Kuwabara breathes out is nowhere near the obnoxious guffaw it should be. "You're welcome," he mumbles, but it's mostly swallowed by his pillow.
"Idiot," Hiei seethes.
"Mm," Kuwabara acknowledges. Then he grunts and brings his arms up to push at his futon, teeth visibly grinding against the pain as he forces himself onto his hands and knees. He pauses for breath, and then twists sideways, settling into a seated position with a grunt. "Geez…" he wheezes, frowning at his long legs and rearranging them with his hands.
Hiei stays quiet, watching.
"Yukina and Genkai did what they could," Kuwabara explains, still trying to position his legs in a way that doesn't aggravate the puncture wounds along the backs of them. "But there was a lotta muscle damage, or something…and most of their power went into fixing broken bones…Kurama gave me stuff for the pain…"
"You really are dumb," Hiei mumbles again, unable to stop himself. His eyes are still trained on where Kuwabara's hands are gingerly supporting his legs in a bent position, so they don't touch the floor. "That spike wouldn't have killed me."
There's a crooked grin on Kuwabara's face – all of his grins are crooked, Hiei thinks. With a face like his, none could ever sit straight. "It certainly did a number on me," he says, lighthearted, as if Yusuke and Kurama hadn't had to wash his blood off their hands and scrub it out of their clothes.
As if Hiei hadn't had to –
"It was unnecessary," Hiei continues, "you're hurt much worse now than I would have been at all."
Slowly, that crooked, kind of dazzling grin slips off of Kuwabara's face. "Maybe," he says with a shrug, "but you didn't see it coming – it would've impaled you."
"I told you, I don't need anyone to –"
"You're my friend, Hiei."
Eyes widening just the tiniest bit, Hiei goes perfectly still, and somehow all he can do is stare. That's…that's… "That's the dumbest thing you've ever said," he grumbles at last, "and you've said a lot of dumb things."
Kuwabara's eyes are soft and shining, but Hiei can't bring himself to break eye contact. He doesn't know why.
"Just because we don't get along – and I don't always like you, even – that doesn't mean I was gonna let you die."
For a very, very long moment, neither of them so much as blink.
"I heard you burned that thing to a crisp," Kuwabara says at last.
"Idiot," Hiei hisses, yet again. Because that's really the only word that can properly define that goofy smirk that's spreading across Kuwabara's face right now.
"Thanks for avenging me."
"I will knock you out again."
A/N: I'm rusty at writing YYH, but Kuwabara still holds my entire heart,
(and I still love Kuwameshi, but I, couldn't resist this,)
Thanks for reading!