Ficlet #25: A Petulant Pillow
Prompt #4: Teddy bear
"Stop. Laughing."
The words were hissed out at a barely audible level, but Hiei's glare spoke volumes--as a matter of fact, his glare was so intense that a spot on the wall next to Yusuke's head had already caught fire, and Yusuke'd had to smother it as quietly as he could, muffling his laughter in his sleeve the whole time. He knew the only reason Hiei had refrained from actually setting his hair on fire was the same reason Hiei was whispering--he wasn't willing to wake the others up. And that put Yusuke at a distinct advantage.
But in order to take full advantage of all the opportunities for harassment the situation provided, Yusuke would have to stop laughing. And he wasn't sure he could manage that.
The only reason he had come back inside in the first place was to make sure the lack of noise didn't mean that Hiei and Kurama had killed each other. Their last mission had been a very trying one, with kidnappings and separations and emotions running high; and somehow, even though Kurama had spent the majority of his time protecting Yukina--was a bloody wreck, in fact, from protecting her--Hiei had wound up monumentally pissed off at him. Maybe it had something to do with Yukina's having found out in the course of the whole muddle exactly who Hiei was, but that hadn't been Kurama's fault. Yusuke had tried to elaborate on this point, but had found himself summarily evicted from the small abandoned cabin they were resting in--everyone had been evicted, except for Hiei and Kurama and Yukina who couldn't be detached from Hiei's arm, so that Hiei and Kurama could duke it out.
Yusuke had expected Kurama to come out in a few minutes and invite them all back in, but instead there had been a brief explosion of incomprehensible yelling, and then a long, long silence. Neither of these things was in character. Yusuke had never seen Hiei and Kurama lose so much control as to yell at one another, and he also knew that when they fought they made a point of resolving it quickly. When he checked his watch and realized it had been over an hour, he decided to risk their wrath by poking his head in.
He had already thought that Hiei's restraint with the dealing the fact that Yukina refused to stop clutching his arm was remarkable--but now it was even better. Yukina, apparently exhausted from the ordeal, had fallen asleep still attached to him. Hiei was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, and Yukina was out cold with her head on his shoulder and her body cuddled up to him like some sort of oversized teddy bear. As if this wasn't enough material to torment Hiei with for the rest of his life, the absence of shouting was apparently due to Kurama's also having succumbed to exhaustion--he, too, was making himself comfortable at Hiei's expense. His head was resting on Hiei's lap, and both his arms were threaded through Hiei's right arm. Hiei was completely incapable of movement without waking one or both of them.
Worthy of laughter, certainly. But the best part about it, the part that had sent Yusuke into silent hysterics, was Hiei's expression--the sheer bewilderment, laced with a little panic, as he looked back and forth between the two as if not quite sure how either had gotten there and definitely unsure what to do with them. There was practically a visible speech bubble hanging over his head with "Help?" written in it. That was, until Yusuke had started laughing--then it had vanished to be replaced with the usual You-Will-Die glare.
"Having some quality family time?" Yusuke finally snickered through the laughter.
"They fell asleep," Hiei growled quietly, as though wanting to disclaim all responsibility for their having done so.
"And it's so sweet of you to be their pillow."
"If you ever refer to me as sweet again I--"
"Careful, Hiei. They need their rest."
"You--just--" Yusuke grinned, thoroughly amused by Hiei's fast and furious battle between the need to let Yukina and Kurama sleep and the need to flay Yusuke alive. "Not a word to the oaf. Not one word."
"My lips are sealed."