He woke up to a pair of hands on his shoulders, shaking him, and he heard his name being called in a high, raspy whisper.
"Kuwabara?" the voice said, "Hey, wake up."
The dream cleared away and Kuwabara noticed he recognized the voice. He opened his eyes Rinku standing over him. At first, he was confused, and thought maybe he was still dreaming. The last time he'd seen this kid was at the dark tournament, right? So what was he doing here?
He sat up in bed and looked over the kid who had woken him, in an effort to understand why he was here. Once the sleepiness cleared up, he remembered that this kid was supposed to be here. Him, his group, including Jin, Chu, and Touya, were here on mission in the human world. Something about a demon gang overthrowing the city government was what they told him. Kuwabara didn't ask for details. He wasn't sure he really wanted details. The last few skirmishes he'd been involved in relating to human and demon world politics had given him nightmares. Everyone had hoped that taking down the barrier would have few consequences. They shouldn't have gotten their hopes up. More than once, the presence of demons in the human world had ended in violence. Now it was a pretty regular thing for demons to come here and clean up messes so the public didn't go into a panic about what might be lurking in the darkness.
Kurama had contacted him to help with this particular mission, because at some point a barrier needed to be cut, and well, Kuwabara was the best person he could think of for the job. Kuwabara was always happy to help, but he just didn't feel as tough as he used to. Not after what he's seen over the years. He used to feel so confident, and now, sometimes, he had trouble leaving his house if it was dark out. He could sense all the things out there, and he knew many of them were stronger than him. After finally graduating high school, he felt like he had a future. He really didn't want to ruin it fighting a bunch of stupid demons.
"Kuwabara?" Rinku said.
Kuwabara suddenly realized he'd been silent for several minutes, staring at Rinku. "Yeah, sorry. What is it? More mission stuff?"
"No," Rinku said, "You were crying in your sleep. And shouting. Are you ok?"
"I was?" he said, scrubbing the final bits of sleepiness from his face. Sure enough, he could feel wet streaks on his cheeks, and sweat beading around his forehead. "How come you're waking me up? Where's Kurama?" Kurama would be more likely to come talk to him compared to this kid.
"He went out with Jin and Touya to do some scouting before we go out tomorrow. Chu got drunk and passed out. I don't think he's waking up for anything anytime soon."
"Oh. Well that makes sense, I guess," he said. He was slightly embarrassed. What could Rinku possibly think of him? This was the kid who kicked his ass with yoyos. As if that wasn't embarrassing enough. Now the kid was way stronger from training. And now he'd cried in front of him. "I, uh, sorry I woke you up too," he said.
"It's ok."
Kuwabara expected him to leave after he said that. Instead, he shifted on his feet and stared at the floor. Kuwabara took this moment to notice he was wearing slippers with little rabbit faces on them. He wanted to laugh, but Rinku seemed to be thinking hard about something. Kuwabara just looked at him expectedly.
Finally, Rinku said, "What were you dreaming about?"
Kuwabara opened his mouth to tell him about it, then closed it immediately. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell this kid, because Rinku would probably make fun of him later for it. Besides, he couldn't remember his dream, at least not completely. He knew right before he'd woken up people were getting swallowed up in a big gaping hole. He remembered screaming and reaching for his sister's hand right before she vanished. He'd been wounded. Bleeding. But he wasn't sure he wanted to share this, so when he finally found his voice he said, "I'm not sure."
"You aren't scared about the mission are you? All you have to do is cut a little hole for us," Rinku said. His voice was full of mock accusation. Kuwabara couldn't tell if he was really poking fun or trying to cheer him up. Usually he felt ready to proclaim the title of toughest guy in the room, but tonight he didn't think he had the energy. Nonetheless, he decided to try.
"Nah, I'm not scared," he said, mustering his best tough guy smile.
Rinku frowned, and scrunched his nose and eyebrows in a way that told Kuwabara that he probably wasn't buying the lie he just spat out. They both sat there in silence for a few minutes longer.
"Listen, Kuwabara, we have your back ok?" Rinku said.
So he didn't believe the lie, Kuwabara thought. "Yeah, ok. Thanks," he said.
Rinku nodded and left and Kuwabara went back to sleep.