Ficlet #13: Entangled
Prompt #7: Tangled Up
A/N: I took several bashes at this one and couldn't get it quite right, so I had to settle for good enough. Please bear with me on my long-shots, I'm hard at work on both of them but both of them are at extremely important/difficult chapters. And in the meantime, enjoy a flurry of hug ficlets!

Hiei woke to an all-too-familiar sensation, that of his bedmate kicking and clumsily hitting him. It was so familiar that he only woke halfway, just far enough to issue a growl and shove the other body away.

But for tonight Kurama seemed not to care about the growl, and the next thing Hiei knew the life was nearly being squeezed out of him as the only person in all three worlds who could get away with it grabbed him and hugged him with near suffocating force, nuzzling his face against Hiei's chest.

This was far from usual, and Hiei could do nothing but blink stupidly at the fox for a moment. When the temporary insanity did not pass Hiei deduced some sort of action on his part was necessary. But what kind of action was required? What was happening? He'd assumed that Kurama had just been experiencing his regular nightmares, and would deal with them on his own like he always did--but judging from his current reaction, maybe they were worse tonight than he had ever let on to them being.

Cautiously, aware that he was also one of very few people who could do this without losing his hand at the wrist and wanting to preserve that status, Hiei laid a calming hand on the crown of Kurama's head. When this failed to get a reaction, Hiei tried moving the hand down and combing it through Kurama's hair.

The desired effect had been for Kurama to calm down, and thus disentangle himself from Hiei, but instead Kurama pressed closer, close enough that Hiei could feel him trembling. Damn.

Reacting with instincts he hadn't known he possessed, Hiei brought his other hand to Kurama's back and pulled him closer, still stroking his hair, and bent his own head to rest his cheek gently on Kurama's hair. Then Hiei had to stop for a minute and figure out why he'd reacted like that. A fleeting analyzation of his own movements concluded that he had probably been trying to offer comfort, to suggest that he was somehow protecting Kurama. Ridiculous. "Tell me what's wrong," he said. And he had meant that as a directive, a command only; but had a hint of concern, of cozening, snuck into his voice?

"Karasu," Kurama said, the word muffled from speaking against Hiei's chest.

"Karasu's dead," Hiei replied calmly.

"That doesn't stop me from dreaming about him!" There seemed to be a world of pent up rage and frustration and fear in that one sentence, and Kurama bit the end of it off as if afraid of what more he might say.

Hiei switched tactics, though he replied in the same calm tone. "It's just a dream."

"That doesn't stop it from frightening me." Less anger this time--more defeat.

Hiei paused. "I'm here," he said, softly.

Kurama also paused. And then the tension fled from his body, but he didn't pull back. "Don't leave."

"I can't at the moment," Hiei pointed out, as the fox was still draped over him. "But I won't. Just straighten the damned covers out before you fall back asleep."

Kurama did as requested, freeing the twisted bedsheets from around both of their legs; and when he lay back down with his head still on Hiei's chest, Hiei put his arms around him, shrugging his acceptance of their new sleeping arrangement. It was, after all, Kurama's bed.

When Hiei woke up an hour before dawn to find Kurama twitching in nightmares again but not yet awake, he tried repeating the combing action he had taken through Kurama's hair earlier. "Shush. I'm here."

He couldn't have been more surprised when it worked. Kurama quieted, and fell back into a peaceful slumber without having woken up. Hiei had not been expecting that to happen.

He did not go back to sleep himself, but stayed up looking at the fox for a few hours, thinking uneasy thoughts. But when Kurama's alarm went off at the usual ungodly hour of the morning, Hiei displayed his normal response of growling and yanking a pillow over his head, giving Kurama no sign that he'd already been awake. Kurama, as usual, stumbled out of bed and got dressed in the dark, moving quietly so as not to disturb Hiei. When Kurama was gone Hiei tried to get a few more hours sleep, but eventually gave up and flitted out the window.

That night, as usual, Kurama was already asleep when Hiei got there. The window was always unlocked, though, and Hiei let himself in and tried not to wake Kurama as he got into bed--it was generous enough of Kurama to let him sleep here without Hiei waking him up at all hours of the night. Sometimes, though, Hiei would "accidentally" wake him anyway just so that Kurama would ask about his day, like a friend, like someone who cared. But tonight wasn't one of those nights, and Hiei just let himself drop into the bed for some much-needed rest.

He woke in the middle of the night, sweaty and entangled in both the sheets and Kurama, and realized from his own harsh breathing and the fox's state of slumber that it had been his own dream, and not Kurama's, that had awakened him. He stared at Kurama for a few minutes, licking his dry lips and considering. It would be so easy. So very, very easy to turn his dreams into a reality. After all, they already slept in the same bed. How much easier would it be to just reach out and touch him--

But Hiei only looked, and did not touch. The reason they slept in the same bed was that Kurama trusted him enough to let him in, and that trust was not yet unbreakable. If Hiei tried to change things, tried to bind them tighter, move them closer, the trust might shatter.

And that was not a risk Hiei was willing to take. No matter how enmeshed in each other's lives and psyches they accidentally became--if Kurama ever wanted more, he would have to ask for it.