Hiei gazed at the sleeping red-head from his position on the windowsill. It traveled from the sleeping boy to the others in the room. A full day had passed and Shuiichi still hadn't woken up.
"Hey, Hiei?" Yusuke called.
He looked to Yusuke as he removed his cape and katana, placing them on the chair by Shuiichi's bed and sitting back in the windowsill.
"Watch him, make sure he doesn't do anything drastic."
Hiei nodded his head solemnly and stared out of the window again, but in the corner of his eye he stared at the sleeping red-head.
The others in the room departed and Shuiichi sat up again, quickly. A soft intake of breath escaped his pink lips when he saw Hiei. "W-why haven't you left with them?"
"Because I was told to watch you." he answered the boy.
Hiei turned back to the window again, a soft frown on his lips. Why couldn't the boy just stay asleep when he was in the room with him? Then he wouldn't have to answer all of his questions.
"What's wrong, Hiei?" Shuiichi asked, now standing next to the black haired man.
"Nothing."
A pale hand ran across his cheek. "Something's wrong. Why won't you tell me? Don't you trust me?"
"No lately."
His words visibly stung the red-head. But, the boy pulled it off as if it didn't after a minute. "Then what's the matter. Tell me, please Hiei."
Hiei gazed into his emerald orbs. The boy's eyes held him in his spot, he couldn't turn his gaze away, fearful that the boy might disappear if he did.
"Please move." came Shuiichi's voice as his hands slipped to Hiei's shoulders. "I don't want to have to hurt you, Hiei."
"You can't hurt me." Hiei said, more to himself than to Shuiichi.
"Then come with me, if you won't move." Shuiichi said, his hands leaving Hiei's shoulders to rest on the boy's hips.
"I can't."
"You'll still be watching me, just in a different place." Shuiichi said with a small, somewhat mischevious smile gracing his handsome face.
"But-"
"They never specified that you keep me in here." he said, cutting Hiei off and waving a hand around in the air to accentuate the room.
Hiei sighed and jumped out onto the tree branch that was outside of Shuiichi's window. A light weight was added to the branch behind him announcing that Shuiichi had jumped onto it with him and then jumped back off onto the ground.
He followed shortly.
"Where are we going?" Hiei asked the other boy.
But, Shuiichi had his headphones, or whatever they were called on his ears. His c.d. player was clipped onto his belt as he jogged down the street with Hiei following him absently.
"Stomp to ma' beat, stomp-stomp to ma' beat!" Shuiichi sang softly. His head was bobbing up and down a bit, but he wasn't really jogging anymore, more like dancing his way down the street.
One of Shuiichi's headphones were placed over Hiei's ear. "Listen, isn't it fun?" Shuiichi said with an amused smile playing on his porclean face.
Hiei stared blankly at Shuiichi before a small grin appeared on his face as they continued walking with an earphone on one of their ears.
"Ejo, Captain Jack! Ejo Captain Jack!" Shuiichi said louder, "Bring me back to the railroad track!"
"Left, right. Right, left." Hiei sang in softly.
"Forward march!" Shuiichi laughed and wrapped his left arm in Hiei's right.
The two marched/danced to the electronics shop Shuiichi worked at. Hideto was in there bickering with who was probably Absolam. "Ohayo!" Shuiichi called out happily to the whole shop.
"This is Shuiichi Minamono?" 'Absolam' asked in a cold voice.
"Hai." Shuiichi said with a small smile. "You must be Absolam."
Shuiichi extended his hand and waited for Absolam to take it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Absolam-san." he said once the other man had shaken his hand.
"Thank you for allowing me to work here."
Absolam walked back to the counter and shrugged, "We needed more help anyways."
Shuiichi nodded and handed Hiei his c.d. player, "Here you can listen to these."
"Is that your buddy?" Hideto laughed, and with a girlish voice he added, "He sooo KAWAII!"
Hiei growled venomously at the pink haired man. "Don't call me that--" Shuiichi smiled and put his head phones over Hiei's sensitive ears to stop him from talking.
"He has a foul mouth." Shuiichi said with a apologetic smile. "Sorry, sometimes he can't help himself." he motioned for a chair by the dvd rack, "Go sit over there, Hiei."
Hiei left reluctantly but obeyed Shuiichi's command. "Now, what do you want me to do?"
"Well, you're about a half-an-hour early, so why don't you just sit around and listen to music, or somethin'?" Hideto said with a grin.
"You two can go out somewhere, just tell me what to do!" Shuiichi said with a determined face.
Absolam thought about it for a minute, "Just clean the place up and if you're done, just lock up around six. Or, if you want to leave early. There must be no customers for at least twenty to thirty minutes. Understood?"
Shuiichi nodded his head happily. "Hiei's going to stay here with me so you two can just enjoy the time off!"
"You're a life-saver Shu-chan!" Hide said with a laugh as he ruffled Shuiichi's hair playfully and dashed out the door tossing over a 'I bet I can get to the coffee shop down the street faster than you Abby!' to Absolam, who gratefully accepted the other's challenge.
"See you later, Minamono."
Shuiichi waved goodbye and watched in amusement at Hiei's antics of trying to get the head phones off of his head, without choking himself in the process.
"Here," Shuiichi offered, "Let me help you with that."
He gently turned off the c.d. player and pulled off the head-phones just as gently. "I had to get you to stop talking, Hiei. Which is a major shock on my part as well."
"Hm?"
"You rarely ever talk, so I never want to shut you up." Shuiichi said with a chuckle as he walked into the back of the store and came back with a broom and a dust-pan.
Or whatever those ninjins called that damn contraption.
Shuiichi 'sweeped' the place clean, then dusted all of the racks, after he arranged the c.d.s aphabetically. He refused to all Hiei to help him. This was his job, nobody else's.
Besides Hideto and Absolam's.
After everything was done, Hiei had listened to the whole 'c.d.' four times and still hadn't grown bored of it. Shuiichi plopped down next to him in the empty chair beside his. "Well! That's all done."
He laughed triumphantly. "And it wasn't that hard at all!"
Hiei eyed him suspiciously, "I would've helped."
"But, I wanted to do it by myself."
"Stupid fox." Hiei muttered with the hint of a smile playing on his lips as he returned back to his music. His finger moved over the 'fast forward' button and switched it to 'Captain Jack'. That one was his favorite, along with 'Samurai 2000' which Shuiichi had told him was now called 'Butterfly'.
Though, he didn't see why 'they' had changed it.
Shuiichi separated the head-phones and took one for himself. "What? Youko and Kurama want to listen to it too." he said, sticking his tongue out impishly.
Hiei couldn't hold back his laughter.
Shuiichi joined in, but the sound of the bell ringing brought them out of their reverie. The red head stood up and started to greet his first customer. His smile fell from his face instantly.
In the door stood the other three people he wanted to see least of all that day, but now they had drug Keiko in with them. "What the hell do you want?"
Yusuke grinned, "Just here to check out c.d.s Shuiichi, chill out. Won't ya?"
Absolam and Hideto walked back in, "Oi! Shuuuuu-chan!" Hide whined. "Abby won't let me play with his prettty pretttty hair!"
Shuiichi laughed, "Why won't you let Hiiiiiide-chan play with your prettty pretttty hair, Absolam?" he continued laughing with Hideto.
A deep blush spread across Absolam's face. "Because the last time I let him, he put bows from the top of my head to the bottom!"
Shuiichi winced. "Ouch. That must've hurt to get out."
Absolam stroked his hair lovingly. "Ofcourse it did. I'm not letting that idiot get a hold of my baby again!" he cursed and stormed off into the back room.
"See how mean he is to me?!" Hideto said just loud enough for Absolam to hear him.
"I wouldn't let you play with my hair either if you did that to me." Shuiichi said, edging away from Hideto with his hair in his hands.
Hideto began to mock cry, "You wound me, Shuuuuuu!"
Hiei burst out laughing, startling the others.
Hiei's ring of laughter followed through to Shuiichi and into Hideto. "What's so funny?" Kuwabara asked the others.
"IN THE NAVY!!" Hiei laughed out.
"We want you!" Hideto said with a deeper voice.
"You can sail the seven seas!!" Shuiichi laughed out, in a girlish voice.
Shuiichi shook his head as he laughed with the other two. "I have no idea why they put that on that particular c.d...." he laughed, "It's ridiculous!"
"That's what I thought!" Hideto said with a smile.
Hiei nodded and hummed with the song. "I like 'Captain Jack' and 'Butterfly' better than this one."
Hideto sat down where Shuiichi had once been sitting and looking around the shop. "My, you've out done yourself with cleaning this place, Shuuu."
"It's nothing really."
"I couldn't have done this in a week of nonstop work!" he cheered as he looked at the alphabetized c.d.s, "Wow! They're in order!"
Shuiichi smiled, "Well I have to go now, my friends have come to take me and Hiei home."
Hideto returned his smile. "Go on ahead. Abby and me'll lock up today."
Hideto returned to looking at all of the cleanness of the shop he had worked in for several years. "Woah! The floor's LIGHT blue!"
Shuiichi grabbed Hiei's arm and pulled him out of his sitting position and they left the shop, but not before Shuiichi said to Hideto. "Tell Absolam I said bye."
Hideto nodded and said that he would, and they left the shop.
Heading for his home.
END CHAPTER FOUR
A/N: R&R!!