I can't stand it anymore! Sweet Jesus Chrysler! My thoughts on how Kuwabara would handle the same situation I'm in. And then I just kept writing and writing. Kuwabara owns this now.
"I am gonna stab someone in the throat," Kuwabara hissed.
The four for them had just finished up a brutal mission. Other than everyone's spirit energies being pretty much depleted and a deep exhaustion settling deep in their muscles, everyone was fine. The girls were twittering about Yusuke and Kurama, trying to make them comfortable as the two relayed a condensed and more censored version of the mission. Yusuke, lacking any sense of restraint, was sprawled across several stairs. Kurama, who had centuries of control at his disposal, wasn't doing much better, but at least he was still upright.
Kuwabara saw a flicker of black in the treetops of the forest several yards out followed by a few leaves drifting to the ground, so he knew Hiei was lingering about too. Probably to watch over Yukina in one of the few opportunities he got without the act seeming to be some kind of a stalkerish fetish. Personally, Kuwabara thought Hiei would have a better time bonding with his sister if he'd just tell her they were siblings.
Kuwabara sat away from everyone, thighs barely squeezing through the railing as he dangled his feet over the side of the porch. He gripped the bars in from of him as he felt another wave of intense itching pass over him. Taking a slow breath, Kuwabara leaned his head against the railing and closed his eyes, trying to will away the consuming need to scratch at the bites littering his body. The one just on the inside of his thigh was bugging the shit outta him. It was also the hardest one to get at, which pissed him off even more whenever he did decide he wanted to indulge and scratch at himself. Kuwabara growled in frustration, the need to strike out at someone swelling inside him again. He thought of what he'd said just moments ago.
"Hiei! Come here a minute. I need to show you something," Kuwabara yelled out, causing everyone to pause in their discussions and glance over at him.
Hiei appeared before him just as he finished speaking.
"Do not even think you could possibly give me a paper cut let alone land a fatal on me," Hiei said in a wickedly bemused way. Kuwabara could just bet Hiei was finding Kuwabara's discomfort hilarious. But it wasn't just discomfort! Goddamnit, he had huge welts and bleeding sores all over his body.
Kuwabara glared up at Hiei, briefly realizing this was the perspective Hiei was used to having, and quicker than Hiei could ward off he threw his arm through the bars and grabbed Hiei's hand. With a great yank, Hiei's face collided with the railing with a resounding thunk! In the background Kuwabara could hear Yukina let out a soft, worried gasp. Everyone else was frozen at Kuwabara's unexpected behavior.
Blood was beginning to gush outta Hiei's nose. But what really pissed Hiei off, and also sparked a hint of admiration, was the bead of blood welling up from where Kuwabara had a miniature spirit sword pointed directly over his jugular. Yusuke was shocked that he would go so far in provoking Hiei since he was so used to Kuwabara's playful nature. Kurama's eyes were narrowed in suspicion, knowing something must be afflicting the normally peace-striving man for him to exhibit such aggression.
"Don't test me, Hiei," Kuwabara said calmly, eyes staring steadily into Hiei's own red ones. "'Cause I think I just passed with flying colors." He empathized his point by giving his minisword a squeeze, making it crackle with deadly spirit energy, before it flickered and disappeared.
Kurama watched in growing concern as Kuwabara seized up, before flinging himself backwards and scratching himself furiously, going from one area to another at a frenzied pace. Squeezing his eyes shut, mainly to stop the tears of frustration from flowing, Kuwabara flipped onto his stomach, curling in on himself. He bit at his arm to stop the urge to continue his actions.
Kuwabara had the misfortune of being one of those people bugs swarm around. Normally this was no problem. From an early age he'd been able to just concentrate real hard and the bugs trying to come at him would sizzle and drop dead. It was kinda like he was a humanoid bug zapper. Later he realized his bug zapper ability was actually a crude barrier of spirit energy. He contributed the near constant use of spirit energy for years on end to how he was able to so suddenly materialize his first spirit sword and, later, his dimensional sword. Ripping through barriers was second nature after creating so many in his youth.
That was the norm. At least here in the human world. It didn't really work the same, or at all, in the demon world. Considering their mission took place in the Makai and lasted a total of 10 days, Kuwabara was very much surprised he wasn't eaten alive by the damn demon insects. It wasn't lack of trying on their half though, Kuwabara thought, remembering how he'd woken up from a half doze to find a creature looking to be the cross of a scorpion and a mosquito. The fucker was the size of a cocker spaniel and had been attempting to gnaw a hunk of flesh from his side. Oddly enough, that was the only insect he noticed biting at him the entire mission, so he had no idea why he had so many marks.
A shudder of relief left him in tingles when he felt a pair of hard hands softly rubbing up his arms then down his back. Expecting to see Yukina helping him in such a gentle and understanding way (that was so like her, he thought), Kuwabara instead found her twin above him.
For a moment, Kuwabara literally could not breathe. The experience alone had a misting of tears tugging at his black eyes. Hiei sat next to him helping him yet still steadily ignoring his own good natured action. Just that would have pulled at Kuwabara's heart. But what had that blood pumping organ of his going through a series of gymnastics was the look in Hiei's averted eyes. By no means where Hiei's bloodied eyes anything but the constant steely hard they always were. No, there was no tenderness where Hiei was concerned. But the touch of fondness and concern swimming in the depths of his eyes was basically a declaration of love from the fire demon. Hiei's eyes snapped to Kuwabara's, the emotions Kuwabara thought he was seeing shining all the more.
"Next time you will not take me by surprise," Hiei said, licking at the blood drying around his mouth. Kuwabara gave a half smile, falling into the soothing rhythm Hiei was setting as he massaged the upper parts of his thighs and further down to his calves.
"Wow. That's gotta be the queerest thing I've eva seen," Yusuke's voice cut through their shared moment. "And I've seen hardcore gay porn."
Kuwabara peered around at Yusuke with a blissed out look on his face. Keiko snorted next to her boyfriend and asked the question everyone was thinking, "What were you doing watching gay porn?"
Yusuke shrugged. "Just curious. But then Mom walked in."
"Oh, I bet she was shocked to find her baby in such an activity," Botan said scandalized.
"No, she just grabbed a sit next to me and we had a mother/son bonding experience," Yusuke explained like it was the most normal thing in the world for parents to watch porn with their children.
"So many things are starting to make sense," Kurama murmured, settling next to Kuwabara's side. Craning his head down, Kurama lifted a corner of the drowsy man's shirt to look at what seemed to be irritating him. Kurama managed to quail the startled gasp that wanted to escape at the sight of Kuwabara's mangled, festering skin, but everyone else could clearly see the look of alarm apparent on his face.
"I think we may have to consult with Koenma on this matter," said Kurama. His eyes were wide with worry. Oblivious to the situation, Kuwabara nodded in agreement just as he was drifting to sleep, the babble of the groups concerned conversation carrying on into his dreams.
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Kuwabara woke in a fevered state. Sweat slicked up his skin, the mattress beneath him was soaked in it. Minutes passed as Kuwabara groggily lay there. His gaze was unfocused, his face flushed a bright red as he drew in breathes on a shallow pant. A low whine leaked from his parched lips. He made a move to itch at the side of his neck, but his hand only gave a twitch in response. This weak action seemed to drain what little energy he had left and he fell back into a daze.
From his place on the windowsill, Hiei sat observing Kuwabara. Since the rendezvous at Genkai's after their last mission, all Kuwabara had been doing was slipping in and out of a restless sleep, only to wake up enough to claw at his own skin. Instead of regaining his spirit energy like the rest already had, Kuwabara's had plummeted dangerously low and persisted to hover just above his life energy, sometimes even taking that dip into his reserves. This has been going on for three days. And it was progressively getting worse.
Hiei moved to Kuwabara's side, leaning over to retrieve the warm, dry washcloth atop his forehead. It took a mere thirty seconds for Hiei to dash to the bathroom, soak the rag in ice cold water, and race back to Kuwabara's side. Still, in that time Kuwabara'd managed to make a weak attempt to follow after Hiei. A bite riddled arm and his head dangled from the edge of his bed. Kuwabara let out an appreciative moan as Hiei settled him back into the center of the bed and placed the cool rag on his hot head.
With a silent sigh Hiei gingerly sat down next to Kuwabara, careful not to jostle him as the man fell into a deeper sleeping state. Blood red eyes roved over Kuwabara's nude figure. After the first few hours of Kuwabara's extreme fever, Kurama'd recommended Kuwabara be left with as little on him as possible. Hiei made sure Kuwabara remained naked and greatly enjoyed having to dose the weakend man with cold water every so often. With his body fully exposed, Hiei could see the marks scattered about Kuwabara's body. Most were swollen to the size of a silver dollar and all were a deep, angry red. A great many of them were split open, glistening with caked blood in a half scabbed over form. The wounds alone were not a major issue. But they kept springing up.
And they were being incredibly resistant to healing.
Yukina'd already tried to beat back the spread of the bites with her healing hands, but her treatments seemed to have the opposite effect. The various concoctions Kurama brewed up with his plants failed as well and were actually the cause of his fevered state.
With the dire condition Kuwabara was in, it was Koenma's prerogative to send both Yusuke and Kurama on a top priority mission into the demon world to find the cure for the ginger's aliment. The young God's fear was that this was a disease that could hop to other humans at any time (The next human pandemic wasn't scheduled for another fifteen years). For that reason, Shizuru was forced away from her brother, leaving behind nothing but a large vat of her homemade chicken noodle soup to help him get better.
The stuff tasted terrible. Hiei had a suspicion that it was mainly used as a motivational tool to get Kuwabara feeling better faster so he could have actual edible food.
It was the only thing Kuwabara would keep down, though, proving the man had a stomach of pure steel to handle the toxic shit Shizuru fixed.
As a shudder ran through out Kuwabara's form, Hiei wanted so badly to sooth Kuwabara's pain with his hands as he'd done a few days prior. With Kuwabara's temperature already steadily pass a hundred Fahrenheit, Hiei feared prolong exposure to his own normally high temp would push Kuwabara into the danger zone. Already Kuwabara was tittering on the edge of cooking the organs inside his body. Kurama'd said something about enzymes denaturing, which he then explained in long scientific terms. Hiei had a feeling Kurama was skirting around saying Kuwabara was fucked if his temperature got much higher and that he had a serious chance of dying from the fever alone.
Kuwabara's orange hair was plastered all across his drenched face. A meek moan sounded from deep inside his chest as Hiei smoothed his stray hair back with the quickly drying rag.
"Kurama. You better get back here quick. He's already on his last leg," Hiei murmured to himself as he sensed Kuwabara's spirit energy fluctuate between the last remnants of his life energy and nothing at all. The man's breathing was now a long, drawn out process, long pauses filled in the space between each breathe. This scared Hiei far much than the rapid breathing earlier. He could only imagine Kuwabara's heart was slowing just as much as everything else about him was dwindling, with the exception of the bites.
The door to Kuwabara's room was kicked open. Yusuke stumbled pass the threshold, landing on his knees. Kurama's figure was draped over Yusuke and the both looked like they'd gotten into a tussle with a gang of badass cacti; their bodies were covered in what seemed to be a thicket of thorns, each being several inches in length.
Trembles racked Yusuke, from both exhaustion at spending the last several days straight running around the Makai and having to drag Kurama back. In a breathless tone, Yusuke asked, "He dead yet?"
"No, you idiot!" Hiei snapped hotly. Leaving Kuwabara's side, Hiei stalked over to Kurama. "Have you got it?"
Kurama couldn't seem to even lift his head, weak from blood loss and sleepy from the sedative effect of the cacti needles that in no way affected Yusuke (sonofabitch). Shakily, he reached into his matted red tresses and pulled from them several seedlings. Feeding a small amount of his spirit energy into one, it bloomed into a long stalk of a plant. The top fanned out into a multitude of long leaves, much like a papyrus. In the center of the leaves lay a small turquoise blossom, giving off a soft light and filling the room with the smell of charred wood.
Hiei handled the plant carefully, terrified of injuring it and ruining Kuwabara's chances of survival. He listened intently to the slurred instructions Kurama was relaying to him.
"Take the leaves and place 'em ova 'is insect bites. One petal of the flower hasta be placed in 'is mouth. Rest needsta be boiled in water, then pour the water ova the affected parts of 'is body."
Yusuke slowly lend the groggy Kurama against the wall, trying hard to avoid further pushing in any of the needles. A pained grunt from Kurama told him he hadn't succeeded. Kurama blinked owlishly after Yusuke as he moved out the door.
Clanging bangs drifted into the bedroom from the kitchen as Hiei went about ripping every leaf from the plant. He arranged the leaves to cover Kuwabara's bite marks, Yusuke limping back in to help place the last few over the ginger's body. Taking one small glowing petal from the now bare looking plant, Hiei pried open Kuwabara's mouth and laid it under his tongue so he wouldn't swallow it.
The moment Kuwabara's mouth closed his body began to emit a soft teal light from within, just as the petal had. The smell of charred wood intensified. A sizzling sound was rising from each of the leaves covering Kuwabara, as if his fever were cooking them up like bacon in a skillet.
Both Yusuke and Hiei stared in wonder. Kurama smiled form his place on the floor, mumbling the remedy was working. Tearing his eyes from the odd sight in front of him, Yusuke gathered the remaining petals and headed back to the kitchen.
He returned with a large pan of bubbling water. The flower, instead of actually boiling in the water, lay suspended an inch over top the burning hot water. A small, but steady trickle of the fluid was flowing up and around the flower, catching the blue green light and falling back into the pan. The smell of clean water thickly wafted from the pan, combating with the burning smell coming from Kuwabara.
Yusuke looked over at Kurama. The worry etched on his face disappeared at the confirming nod Kurama gave. Resolved, Yusuke held the pan above Kuwabara's glowing face. The water sloshed about wildly in Yusuke's shaky grasp. The hand Hiei place over top of his own calmed his nerves. With a careful control Yusuke didn't even know he had, he poured a steady stream of boiling hot water evenly across Kuwabara's radiant body.
Steam instantly rose up in think columns. Before the watchful gaze of his friends, Kuwabara's skin blistered and bubbled, the leaves sizzling furiously until they just melted into his skin. As the leaves disappeared they swallowed the marks that plagued Kuwabara. His skin returned to normal; the teal light fading away and only the faint odor of spring water lingered in the air.
Beside him, Hiei heard Yusuke let out a huge breathe as Kuwabara's spirit energy flowed as usual again. Kurama let out a soft snore, having fallen asleep the instant Kuwabara's safety was assured.
With a quite groan Kuwabara's face scrunched up in confusion, throwing a heavy, but flawless arm over top his tender eyes.
"Welcome back from the dead," Yusuke said gruffly. Without warning, he collapsed on top of the freshly healed ginger. Kuwabara yelped in pain as he was stabbed by Yusuke's cacti needles.
Hiei was of no help. He was already gone from the room, leaving behind a black tear gem of relief that'd rolled into its new home under Kuwabara's bed.
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"Stop looking at me!" Yusuke snapped. Turning away, he muttered, "It's starting to creep me out."
Kuwabara's gaze was quickly obscured by his downcast look. From atop of his head, he flicked a pair of oversized sunglasses onto his face to better hide his eyes. The sunglasses he wore were nice enough on their own, but one could tell they belonged to a woman. After noticing Kuwabara's discomfort (with both his eyes and Yusuke's continual freak out about them), Keiko'd been kind enough to loan off a pair of shades for Kuwabara to hide behind. Though Kuwabara appreciated the gesture ( especially since his own sister refused to let go of her own pair for his sake), he couldn't contain the occasional grumble about the little rhinestones embedded all along the frames.
Settled side by side in front of the glowing television, the two men grappled with each other's game controllers, trying to get the other to mess up and lose the virtual fight they were locked into. It was harder for Kuwabara to see the screen with the sunglasses on, but whenever he took the things off Yusuke would become unnerved and have the compulsory need to point out the change in color of Kuwabara's eyes.
Instead of their usual deep black, Kuwabara's eyes were now a turquoise color. He'd been told it is the same exact color as the flower that had saved him three weeks prior. The spontaneous change in color was freaky enough on its own, but his peepers had also taken up glowing. Made sleeping a helluva lot harder when you have two nightlights plugged into you head.
The glowing wasn't a continuous thing, though. It usually happened with intense shows of emotion; like when Kuwabara was thoroughly kicking Yusuke's ass at Tekken 3. Usage of any amount of spirit energy also set his eyes to neon mode.
By far the most alarming affect of his recovery was the strange turquoise light having taken over his spirit energy. No longer was it a vibrant orange to match his hair, but something that was closer to Yusuke's own spirit coloration. When informed, Koenma was unable to explain for this phenomenon. Nothing like this had ever happened. People were born with one spirit energy and while there were changes to it throughout a lifetime nothing as drastic as Kuwabara's should occur.
Hell, Yusuke died twice and had a demon heritage kickstart and his energies stayed that same constant blue.
Kurama took it as his personal mission to solve the mystery. He felt mildly responsible for the change in Kuwabara, but really it was pure curiosity that drove him. For the first week Kurama practically lived with Kuwabara in order to monitor the man for any unusual signs of distress; besides the obvious. Mainly he did this because he was living with Kuwabara for that first week.
Turns out the cacti needles pin cushioning Yusuke and him were actually poisonous to fox demons. Yusuke got off with suffering through some major tweezers action to remove the needles, while Kurama had to have a complete detox of his body courtesy of Yukina, who had been glad she could help someone. His human side was the only thing that had prevented the poison from killing him right off.
After his full recovery, Kurama disappeared back to the Makai for answers and Kuwabara hadn't seen or heard from him since.
Yusuke's venomous curses were drowned out by Kuwabara's loud victorious warrior cry. On the screen was Kuwabara's character shoving his hand through Yusuke's chest and pulling out his heart.
"Oh, I see you two are finished with your game," said Keiko. Clutched to her chest were three mugs full of hot chocolate. She took small, careful steps to the coffee table before bending awkwardly down, setting the mugs on the table. A bit of the chocolate sloshed over the rim of the cups. Absentmindedly she shook the sleeve of her shirt over top her hand and wiped the spill away.
Yusuke snorted at his girlfriend's comment. "Please! That right there's life."
He and Kuwabara gathered around Keiko. Smacking each other's hands outta the way, neither of them were able to get at the fullest mug of hot chocolate that Keiko took for herself.
"Yeah," Kuwabara agreed, settling for the nest fullest as flashed Yusuke his eyes overtop his sunglasses, "I once had a hand shoved through my chest. You were there!"
Curling up on the couch, Keiko took a gulped of the scalding hot liquid, burning a good portion of her mouth in the process. Yusuke settled to one side of her, Kuwabara on the other.
"Yeah, yeah. Didn't get your heart ripped out, though. And you were only pretending to be dead to get to Yusuke!" Keiko said with a small sip to her cooler drink. Kuwabara chugged down his and wiped away the chocolate mustache with the back of his hand.
"Asshole," Yusuke muttered, following Kuwabara's lead and drain his cup.
"Hey!" Kuwabara cried in indignation, "You were letting Toguro suck out everyone's souls and eat 'em up! I had to do something!"
Yusuke leaned towards Kuwabara across Keiko. "I wasn't just lettin' him do nothing! The guy was a homicidal maniac! I took him down in the end!"
The glowing emanating from behind Kuwabara's bedazzled sunglasses showed his bristled emotions, playful annoyance winning out overall.
He was opening his mouth to snap back at Yusuke when a black blur shot into the room and landed to rest on top of the coffee table. Though he'd managed not to knock over Kuwabara and Yusuke's empty cups, Hiei glared down at Yusukes's and nudged it over the edge where it landed with a dull thunk on the ground and rolled in a complete circle before ending up resting against Yusuke's foot.
Hiei smirked evil at Yusuke's gaping face before disappearing as fast as he'd arrived.
"Help yourself to the ice cream, Hiei," Keiko call after him.
Kuwabara gave a jump as Hiei spoke up from right beside him on the armrest. "I did. And it's sweet snow. No other name suits this wonderful treat better."
"Ah," said Kuwabara holding his mouth open wide. Hiei took a spoonful and plop it into the man's waiting mouth. Lunging across both Keiko and Kuwabara, Yusuke did the same as Kuwabara. Instead of a mouthful of delicious like he'd hoped, Hiei gave him a hard whack on the nose with his chilled spoon. Disgruntled, Yusuke retreated back into his corner of the couch and sulked with his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his cheeks puffed out in a pout.
Keiko cleared her throat and politely asked, "So Hiei, what have you been up to?"
In reply, Hiei reached into his cloak and pulled out a small, softly mewling ginger kitten. He roughly dropped to furball into Kuwabara's lap, who promptly swept the thing up into his large hands and started fussing over it. Keiko leaned over and squealed in delight with Kuwabara at the small sneeze the kitten let out.
"Ahhhh, he's so cute! What are you going to name him?" said Keiko.
"I don't know. It took me forever to pick out Eikichi's name. What you thinking bout?" said Kuwabara, petting at one of its soft ears with a finger.
"Hmmmm. How about….Nobu?" said Keiko. She picked put the frail kitten and cuddled it against her chest. Kuwabara reached over and lifted up its tail.
"Perfect! He's a boy," Kuwabara confirmed.
"Let's go get him some milk," Keiko suggested. The two of the jumped up and headed into the kitchen.
Yusuke glared at Hiei from across the couch. Hiei smirked back, red eyes flashing as he took another bite of his frozen treat.
"I know what you're trying to do. Stop it!" Yusuke growled.
Hiei continued on eating the last of his ice cream. "All you will ever be is his playmate, never his bedmate."
"So what if you got him a kitten!" Yusuke bit out, pausing as a wave of awe sounded from beyond the kitchen door. "I took him and Keiko on three dates since his eyes got all crazy on us," Yusuke jabbed a thumb into his own chest. "And I paid for all of them."
Hiei glared at mention of Yusuke's chivalrous acts. With a shit-eating grin Yusuke leaned back into the cushions. "Plus I got Keiko on my side. Who do'ya thinks in there wooing him now?"
Whirling around, Hiei stared wide-eyed at the door, unbelieving that the human woman would agree to the arrangements Yusuke was gunning for. Human woman weren't supposed to enjoy the company of multiple men in the same way demonesses did. Hiei'd underestimated Keiko's involvement in the matters and hers was not competition he was prepared for. How could he compete with the gentle love and warmth she so easily expressed?
The grip around his empty bowl tightened as Hiei quickly strode over to the closed kitchen door, determined to tip the scales in his favor with one Hell of a ballsie move on his part. Pushing the door open, Hiei came up short seeing Keiko'd already beaten him to his plan.
Kuwabara was hunched over, mouth moving gently against Keiko's as she stood on her tiptoes. Each had one hand placed on the quietly purring kitten snuggled in between Keiko's breasts. At hearing Hiei's entrance, Kuwabara and Keiko broke apart a turned to stare at the fire demon in the doorway. Kuwabara had a brilliant blush to his face. Behind him Keiko stuck out her tongue at Hiei, pulling down the lower lid of one of her eyes.
With a snarl, Hiei marched back out into the living room where he was met by Yusuke giving him two thumbs up and a smug smile.
Not knowing what else to do, Hiei flew out the window, racing along the rooftops towards Genkai's shrine and his dear sister who always managed to cool him down when he was pissed.
Yusuke lingered in the living room, waiting to make sure Hiei was gone. Then he burst out laughing. He charged full tilt through the kitchen door and threw himself at Kuwabara, knocking the orange hair man to the ground.
"I knew you'd pick us!" Yusuke yelled right in Kuwabara's face. Yusuke yanked the sunglasses from their haphazard perch on Kuwabara's nose and threw them behind him. Teal light lit up the room as Kuwabara stared between Keiko and Yusuke.
"What? You think I was just gonna forget about you just cause short stuff thinks he's got a crush on me? Nuh-uh, I've been worming my way into your love nest for too long to throw it all away on a whim."
"Well Hell! We've been subtly seducing you for months now!" said Yusuke, planting a kiss on Kuwabara's lips.
The smile that broke out on Kuwabara's face was dazzling, but nothing more so than the glimmer of his neon eyes staring first into Yusuke's eyes then into Keiko's as she jumped on top of Yusuke, thoroughly flattening Kuwabara to the ground with their combined weight.
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"….So what's that supposed'ta mean?" Kuwabara asked in confusion.
Kurama sat across from him in a booth at the Yukimura ramen joint, trying, and failing, to explain to his friend the reason behind the strange turquoise light about him. It was rather hard to accomplish this task because Yusuke had taken in upon himself to hunt down a pair of sunglasses just like Cyclopes in X-Men for Kuwabara to wear. Kurama felt very much like the people eating around them (who were also staring quite rudely) saw him as the Jean Grey to Kuwabara's Scott Summers.
"It means that- Oh, for God's sake, Kuwabara! Will you take those ridiculous things off? I can't take you seriously!" snapped Kurama.
Kuwabara frowned slightly. "I don't know. Let me ask Wolverine."
Both red heads turned to the side, looking up to where Yusuke sat on the countertop. Instead of being gelled up in his usual fashion, his black hair was done up like Wolverine's. A pair of dog tags dangled from the necklace he wore. Between each of his fingers was lodged a large knife the middle of which pierced through a cigar Yusuke was taking puffs from.
"Sorry, Bub," Yusuke said in a clipped voice, blowing a cloud of smoke in Kurama's direction, "The shades stay."
Kurama and Kuwabara turned back to each other.
"You guys put entirely too much effort into this," Kurama sighed.
"I'm surprised you didn't see it coming with you telekinesis, Jean," said Kuwabara, shades flashing dramatically.
Kurama glared into Kuwabara's unseen eyes. "Telekinesis is the ability to move things with your mind."
"Yeah. You moved my thoughts into your head," Kuwabara said without missing a beat.
Despite his annoyance at being put into a female role, Kurama burst out laughing at Kuwabara's idiocy. He was used to this kind of statement from Yusuke, but Kurama could see that the newly formed three lovers were already adopting traits and speech patterns from each other.
Calming down from his laughing fit, Kurama asked Kuwabara, "Could I not have been Hotstreak? He has red hair and he is a male character."
Kuwabara peered at Kurama over top of his sunglasses with a look of disgust, his eyes casting a faint glow across the table top.
"Dude, what the fuck's wrong with you?" Yusuke said as he came to sit next to Kuwabara and grill Kurama.
"Hotstreak's a Bang Baby, not a mutant!" Kuwabara explained, sliding his glasses in place.
"You disgust me!" said Yusuke. "How can you not know the difference between Static Shock and X Men!"
Kuwabara nodded in agreement while Kurama sat across from them looking a bit miffed (again) and confused. "Besides, you'd be Gear in the world of Static Shock. You're the only one smart enough."
Touched by their words of praise (even though it was at the end of a load of bullshit) Kurama again attempted to explain Kuwabara's circumstance.
"Alright, this is the simplest I can explain it to the two of you," said Kurama. "Yusuke, you remember how your demonic heritage was activated with your death?"
At this Yusuke nodded, holding up two fingers to show that it had been his second death to do it.
"Well, it's similar to what has happened to Kuwabara. Bu-"
"Holy shit, I'm a demon?" Kuwabara exclaimed, freaking out. He jumped in his seat and upset the table. A mixed look of intrigue and suspension graced Yusuke's face as he placed his ear to Kuwabara's chest, listening for the lubb dubb of his heart.
"Nope. Your ticker's still a going."
"Yes, if you would please refrain from further interruptions, I can finish explaining everything," Kurama said in a strained voice. He waited until both boys were settled back down and listening in anticipation.
"The commonality between your experience Yusuke, and yours Kuwabara, is that you went through a sort of a metamorphosis. Just as the Mazoku in Yusuke was awaken with his death, your renewed life unlocked a possible part of you."
"What part's that? The polygamist?" said Yusuke. Kurama glared at Yusuke for his interruption. Kuwabara glared at Yusuke for his stupidity. Holding his hands in front of him, Yusuke mouthed a sorry.
"Judging by the affect to your eyes and your predisposition to spiritual awareness, I would assume the quality of a Seer is now dominate in your blood."
With a thoughtful look, Kuwabara rubbed at his chin. "So that would explain why I've been having those visions ever since."
"What visions?" Yusuke asked excitedly.
"Huh?" said Kuwabara, lost in thought. "Oh, just random images. Yukina pregnant, Hiei in love. That's why I knew he'd be okay about the let down." Kuwabara smiled secretly at Yusuke as he reached across the table to grasp Kurama's hand. "Kurama stealing a twenty from his mom's purse."
Kurama gasped. "I was five! And the need to steal was so overwhelming. Five years without a single pilfered treasure!" Kurama tried to explain his past acts before pulling up short.
"You see into the past as well as the future?" whispered Kurama.
"Yup! I'm all powerful now!" Kuwabara said. The glow behind his shades, prominent will looking into Kurama's past, flickered and faded.
Yusuke snorted and punched Kuwabara's shoulder. "Hardly."
"Kuwabara, your gifts are great. Always remember to use them wisely and with moderate restraint," cautioned Kurama.
Yusuke rolled his eyes at Kurama's words. "You're such a buzz kill, Jean."