Disclaimer: Duh.

A/N: Oh, the joys of having people review my fics. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside... Ok, enough of that crap, I was just wanna thank everyone who reviewed, whether you reviewed 'cause you liked "All the Way'' or you just stumbled across this, because getting reviews makes me feel loved in this cruel, uncaring world (How tragic...). And with that, gomen it took me so long to update, but things distract me (like depression, maybe?). Well, here ya go!

Thorns

Chapter Three

Knock, knock.

"Kura–I mean, Shuichi?"

There was no answer. Tama knocked again.

"Kur-Shuichi! I know you're in there, so open up!"

Again, there was no answer.

"Shuichi! Open the damn – err, darn door!"

Tamahome was now pounding (as politely as he could) on the door.

"Shuichi, I have to talk to you! Let me in already!"

Slowly, the front door opened. Mid-knock, Tama blinked, and peered inside. He saw Kurama trudging back through the living and down the hall, with shoulders hunched and eyes glued to the floor.

"Shu-''

"Don't call me that. Mother's not here,'' Kurama firmly ordered as he disappeared around a corner. [A/N: Shiori's on vacation 'cause I said so.]

"Well, sorry," Tama said semi-sarcastically, but glad that now he didn't have to watch his mouth as he shut the door behind him and took off his shoes in the genkah. "Why haven't you been at school for the past two days?"

Silence. Tama sighed and followed Kurama's lead down to his bedroom.

"Look, I'm really sorry I didn't stop by yesterday, but Shiozaki-sensei gave me detention and...well, you know how my mom is. By the way, did you write..?"

He trailed off, staring wide-eyed into Kurama's room.

Kurama sat on the floor, hugging his knees and leaning against the window seat, gravely staring at the carpet in front of him. His hair was unkempt and he was still wearing his pajamas, even though it was the middle of the day, which was unheard of for Kurama.

What was also unheard of was the condition of his room: the floor was cluttered with used tissues and wadded up pieces of paper (more so than before) that he hadn't bothered to properly dispose of. Books from his bookshelves were strewn everywhere that he hadn't bothered to return to their correct places. The blankets from his bed lay in random piles on the floor. A half-eaten bowl of food sat on his desk. Behind him, the window was open, pouring in sunshine (the only thing even slightly cheery in the room), casting dark shadows across his face.

"Kurama…"

Tama crept over all the mess on the floor and knelt down beside him. Kurama had obviously been crying – his eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and Tama could tell that deep inside them lay pain and suffering. His pale face looked tired, but didn't seem as though he wanted to sleep (or rather he couldn't). He didn't seem as though he wanted to do anything, really, but stare at the floor or cry.

"Kurama, what's wrong? Is it…your mother?"

It didn't seem as though Kurama heard the inquiry and didn't know to reply or at least acknowledge that he did in fact hear it. So Tama repeated the question and received the same response, which only augmented his fears that something had indeed happened to Kurama's mother. But much to Tama's relief, Kurama finally shook his head "no".

"Well, what is it then?"

Kurama didn't answer; instead, he held out his hand and pointed to the scattered pieces of paper on the floor next to Tama, who then suspiciously eyed both Kurama and the papers.

"What, did they say you were fat again?" He jokingly questioned, hoping to get a laugh or at least a smile out of Kurama.

Kurama didn't do either, but continued staring at the floor. Tama watched him with growing concern, shifted his weight to sit on the floor, then picked up one of the papers and unfolded it. It was a copy of the letter he had told Kurama to write. Most of the writing was scratched out, rewritten again, and scratched out a second time. The writing was sloppy in comparison to the beautiful characters he always made in his classes, and some of the characters weren't even completed all the way.

Tama turned his attention to Kurama.

"So, you have writer's block-''

He glanced around the messy room.

"-and out of frustration, you decided to do this to your room?"

Kurama turned his stare from the floor to Tamahome with obvious anguish in his eyes, and then suddenly burst into tears. What was left of Tama's smile faded away as Kurama buried his face in his knees and cried. Tama moved closer beside Kurama.

"Kurama, it's okay. You know I was only kidding," Tama whispered gently, rubbing Kurama's back in attempt to comfort him. "But, please, tell me what's really bothering you."

Kurama lifted his head a little to speak.

"Hi-Hiei c-came over," He managed between sobs, his voice cracking and barely audible. He dropped his head back down after he finished.

Tama hesitated before speaking again, not sure as to why this was making Kurama cry, unless these were tears of joy.

"Well, what's so bad about that?"

There was a pause.

"H-he left…"

Tama smiled and laughed a little.

"So, are you crying because you miss him?" He said, teasing a little, but glad it was nothing serious that had happened.

"No! I mean he left! I excused myself out into the hall and when I returned he was gone!" Kurama sobbed painfully. "He left without explaining why or even saying goodbye! I had finally forced myself to attempt to tell him how I feel, but before I could he left…"

Once again, Tama's smile faded.

"Oh, Kurama, I'm so sorry...Do you know why he left? Maybe he had a meeting or something…"

Kurama scoffed.

"Demons don't have meetings, Tama...All they ever want to do is kill or hunt or find some way to increase their powers so they can be the strongest. They don't fall in love like this, and they don't care about other people's feelings, either. Hiei is no exception. In fact, he's the standard..."

He sighed painfully.

"He doesn't want me, he never will, and neither will anyone else. I'm not good enough for anyone, and I'll die alone. So, until then I'll just spend my time with my mother…deceiving and lying to her...Then when she's gone...I...I..."

Kurama's tears were uncontrollable now. They streamed down his cheeks with occasional choked sobs in between, and showed no signs of stopping.

Staring at the floor, Tama thought about what needed to be said to Kurama, who sat sobbing beside him. Tama's heart ached for Kurama as he listened to his best friend, but he couldn't think of anything, so he slid his arm around Kurama's shoulders to let him know that he was here for him. They felt warm, meaning he had sat there for in the sun for awhile, probably crying like he was now, which made Tama feel worse.

Tama was not used to being the one to give advice. Usually it was Kurama, who was so brilliant and sympathetic. He was kind and genuine and cared about everyone and everything. He was always willing to help someone out and never, ever asked them for anything in return. And now it was Tama's turn, and he was drawing a blank. But how could Hiei act this way? He concluded that Hiei was either blind or completely stupid, that he couldn't see how wonderful Kurama was or that he didn't possess the abilities of realizing it.

Or he has to be toying with him...No one can cause this much pain on accident...

Just as Tama was about to speak (he decided that saying anything was better than nothing), the sunlight that poured over them disappeared and they sat in shadow, a shadow that almost looked like a person's shadow. Tama immediately turned around to see who was there, but they, or whatever it was, had vanished as quickly as they had came, and the sunlight had returned. He stared for a couple moments, and then turned back to the sobbing Kurama, who hadn't seemed to notice the change.

"Kurama..." Tama began. "Uh...How can you say that no one loves you? I love you, your mother loves you, and so did your father...I honestly don't know what to tell you about your mother, but she does love you. It, uh...It has to be hard keeping all this from her, but I don't really think there's anything you can do, besides telling her or not, so there's no use crying about it.

"And there's no way you're gonna die alone. I'll always be here for you like you have for me. You are the best friend I've ever had in my entire life and you are the most caring, gentle and intelligent person I have ever met. Anybody would be lucky to be with you, be friends with you, or even know you. And if Hiei can't see that, and if he would even consider being so rude to you, then he's nothing but a lost soul who's missing out on so much. He's a huge idiot for treating you like this, and you are too for not getting over him already. You're wasting your time, and-"

Kurama cut Tama off by pushing him away from him.

"He is not an idiot. He's not aware of what his actions are doing to me."

"...Now you're defending him?'' Tama asked, staring at Kurama.

"Yes, because it's true," Kurama answered. "He has no idea how I feel, and I'm sure that if he knew-"

This time it was Tama's turn to cut him off.

"If you know how he'd act if he knew, then why do you keep putting it off?"

Kurama didn't answer, but stared back at Tama.

"Because you don't know. You just don't want to be wrong is all. Just get over him. And weren't you saying a little earlier that he doesn't care about other people's feelings?"

Kurama's voice rose.

"This isn't a contest of who's right or wrong, Tama! I...I can't be sure about everything concerning this, because it's one huge contradiction and I can't even think properly! All I know is that I want all my pain to go away!"

Kurama was now yelling, his stress mounting.

"And right now, your assuming that I need to be right about everything is NOT helping me! You have no idea how this feels!"

"How can I not know how it feels, Kurama?! I know because I can see your pain in your eyes and I can feel your pain in your words and I can sense your pain in your actions."

This time the tears were in Tamahome's eyes.

"I'm trying my very best to help you! Don't forget, you're the one who came to me for help, so you have no right to complain about my advice! You know it hurts me to see you like this, to be so caught up over one little boy! You're smarter than that! Why do you let him get to you?!"

"Because I'm in love with him! It's that simple – I love him and I probably won't ever stop! I can't help it, he's perfect in every way and I want to spend the rest of my life with Hiei and no one else!" Kurama explained, silently crying. Anger and hurt resided in his eyes.

Tama stared in disbelief at his friend, trying to figure it out how Hiei could hurt him and Kurama would still love him. It didn't make sense; being in love was supposed to be an overwhelming feeling of happiness, where the only thing you could do was smile because the most wonderful person in the world was in love with you, and you were supposed to feel invincible as long as your lover was nearby. But here, there were no overwhelming feelings of happiness, no smiles, no feelings of invincibility…Instead there was depression, heart aches, tears…

"You say he's perfect? If he was, then wouldn't he be with you right now?! Wouldn't you be happy then?! But no, he's not here and you're not happy, so he's not perfect!!"

Tama was on his feet, heading towards the door to leave, not wanting to speak with Kurama anymore.

"Oh, and another thing..."

Glaring, he turned back to Kurama to scream one more thing at him.

"If you want to spend the rest of your life with him, then just fucking tell him already!!"

Kurama stared up at Tama, surprised at the outburst. His instincts told him to remain calm, shouting would get them nowhere, and to explain as gently as he could why he disagreed with Tama. Kurama ignored these instincts, and screamed right back at him.

"What would be the point?! To be humiliated? Crushed? Devastated? To live the rest of my life in complete misery because he rejected me? Is that what you want? Do you want me to have more things to cry about, you sadistic little prick?!"

Tama was truly taken back from Kurama's words. Eyes widened, he stared in surprise at him before finally speaking.

"Kurama...you already are living in complete misery," he said through clenched teeth, trying to stay calm, but it was difficult because Tama had never heard Kurama insult anyone, and he had just chosen his best friend as his first victim.

"Rejection would be a hundred times worse than this could ever be!!"

"Dammit, Kurama, what if he loves you back?"

"He doesn't!!" Kurama shouted.

"Prove it! Prove to me that he doesn't love you, or even like you!"

"Prove to me that does!!"

"How can I prove it when I don't even know the fuck-face?!"

"Then stop advising me on how to deal with someone whom you've never met!!!"

Kurama's eyes were flashing madly of anger, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. His chest was heaving, trying to catch his breath. Tama stood across the room from him, much in the same manner, and finally accepted defeat. He could not change Kurama, he could not change how Kurama felt, and he could not change how Kurama saw both the situation and Hiei, no matter how much it hurt the both of them. There was nothing that Tama could do.

Finally catching his breath, in a quiet voice he replied, "I suppose I'll just leave then. Good luck…I guess."

He glared at Kurama one more time, and slammed the door, deeply angry at his best friend.

Kurama sighed, and began sobbing again.

Across the street, a figure sat on a tree, his back to the house. He sat, holding a letter in his trembling hands. Big, tear-filled eyes stared into the distance trying to put to words what he had seen in Kurama's room.

Someone was...holding him...Holding my Kurama...

A/N: Thank God this chapter is over! Finally! Took me FOREVER to write. You better like it, because I put a lot of work into it. -.- I think I can prolly squeeze one more update outta here before school starts (on the 7th of next month, I think), and then after that updates will be scarce, because I won't have the luxury of having the house to myself all day long. Can't very well be typing a shounen-ai fanfic when my family's home, can I? Nope. I cannot. So I'll prolly just skip school a couple times to update for y'all. So you better review and tell me how much you liked it, 'specially if I get caught. (Don't worry, they always believe me when I pretend to be sick. Aren't I sneaky?)'Till then, buh-bye!