Strange Love

(I know, you must hate Kuwa-chan, but then why are you reading this?! If you are reading this just to flame me for liking the idiot, don't. Get something else to fill up the time in your life.)

"Kazuma! Wait for me!!!" Gun ran up the steps to catch up to the boy she loved. Kuwabara smiled and grabbed her hand.

"Come on, Gun! We're almost there!" he said and ran.

Gun forced her legs to keep up. They reached Genkai's temple and saw crowds of men and boys.

"Wow, what's going on?" Kazuma asked. He looked around and spotted Yusuke.

"URAMESHI!?" he yelled and gave a wave. The dark haired boy looked over in surprise.

"Kuwabara!?" he yelled back and forced his way through the crowd.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"He's here because his sixth sense is screwing with him." Gun said and came out from behind the tall orange haired boy. Yusuke grinned.

"Long time no see, Gun." He greeted. Gun grinned back.

"Too long, Yusuke." She replied. Kuwabara felt a bit of jealousy, but shook it off. He didn't like her in that way, did he? No. SO, jealousy wasn't needed.

"Why are YOU here, Yusuke?" Gun asked.

"Genkai is gonna teach whoever wins his tournament!" he replied.

"And a demon wants it, so I have to win and stop Rando." He said softly.

"So you're the new Reikei Tentei?" Gun asked amusedly, eyebrow quirked. Yusuke started.

(Reikei Tentei-Spirit detective)

"How did you know?" he asked.

"Training in the mountains, you meet up with a lot of demons. They're all scared of the little king of hell's new boy." She replied. (Little king of hell is Koenma. Enma means King Of Hell and Ko is usually put as a smaller version of. Like inu is dog and koinu is puppy) Kuwabara was confused.

"Demons? Reikei Tentei?" he asked. Yusuke explained and Kuwabara looked in shock at Gun.

"You met up with demons?! You coulda been hurt!" he cried. Gun giggled and blushed.

"I'm flattered by your concern but I can take care of myself." She replied. Kuwabara nodded but still looked worried.

"I was fine before I met anyone, I'll be fine now. I've been training since I was 6 for goodness sakes! In fact, good guy showed me some tricks. Name of Kurama. Girly guy, obviously gay, but I liked him." Gun said. Yusuke's eyes were bulging out of his head.

"You know Kurama!?" he asked. Gun nodded. Suddenly an old woman with faded pink hair walked out.

"Hello. I am Genkai. Time to start the competition." She said. All the guys were staring wide-eyed.

"Isn't Genkai a boy??" they muttered confusedly. (In the originals, they all thought Genkai aka Spirit was a man.)

"Please line up and draw papers to see who's in the tournament." Genkai replied and everyone face faulted.

"Open the packets. If your paper is red, you're in. If your paper is white, you'll be leaving."

'Really it's if they're red they have a substantial amount of spirit energy and if it's white they're weak.' She thought.

Yusuke and the others pulled out their red papers. He and Kazuma said, very unenthusiastically,

"We're in." Gun however was thrilled.

"YEAH! I'm going into the tournament!" she squealed. Two burly men disrupted the rejoicing or disappointment and walked to Genkai.

"You old hag! Let us enter!" they bellowed. She forced them back with her energy.

"Those with the red papers, follow me. Those with the white papers, get off my property you losers." She said simply and walked away. The winners followed her to what looked like an arcade/karaoke room.

"Play this with your energy, not just your muscles." Genkai instructed and watched Yusuke, Kuwabara, and the only female (Gun) in the competition closely. They and three others were pretty strong. Gun was scoring in-between Kuwabara's and Yusuke's scores, but did nicely in the karaoke. You had to have enough energy to make it work, and enough to project your voice through the microphone and make the music work and such. She projected beautifully and had fun dancing along. (She's in her white training gi if you're wondering) The song she sang was Silver and Cold from AFI, she'd always liked them.

"But now, it is silver and silent. It is silver and cold." she sang.

When that was over, Genkai called for a race to start.

"Let us begin the race! Meet me by the large tree and let your spirit sense guide you. You have one hour. Hajime! (Start! Begin! Go!)" Genkai said and sped to the tree. Gun started running through the forest.

"Well, the fastest route is always a straight line." She said. When she made it out she saw Kuwabara already rejoicing on being the first there. She ran up behind him with two others.

"HEY KAZUMA!" she yelled in his ear. He yelped and ran into the tree. She giggled but ran to see if he was okay.

"Sorry –giggle- about that!" she said and giggled more. She helped him up and blushed as he held her hand after that.

"You can let go of my hand." She said softly. He blushed and did so.

"The time is up." Genkai said. Kuwabara started and looked at her.

"NO! Urameshi isn't here!" he yelled. Gun gasped.

"That's right! Damn!" she said. Genkai shook her head.

"Time's up. Too bad for your friend." She replied. Yusuke came running up the hill.

"Hey! I'm here!" he called happily.

"YOU IDIOT! THE TIME'S UP!" Kuwabara yelled. Yusuke's eyes widened.

"WHAT!? It's not my fault! A giant bat guy held me up!" he cried. It was Genkai's turn to be surprised.

"You defeated Messenger?" she asked. Yusuke nodded arrogantly.

"He was real weak!" he said. Genkai shook her head and smiled lightly.

"C'mon you idiots, let's start the competition. You too, delinquent." She called. Yusuke and Kuwabara grinned and hugged each other until Gun broke in.

"So, when were you going to come out of the closet with this?" she asked sarcastically. The boys broke apart and started denying.

"I just saw the beginning and end of a beautiful relationship." Gun said mock sadly.

"Let's just go." Yusuke muttered and ran off to follow the others. The fights continued and Gun clapped in delight when Kuwabara made his spirit sword. She tried it and it became a green spirit staff.

"Yeah!" she jumped up and down in delight, holding her staff to her chest.

"Now why did I get stuck with a gun?" Yusuke grumbled. Gun and Kuwabara knew he wouldn't have any other weapon though. Soon it was only Yusuke, Shorin and Kuwabara. (Gun had pitted against Yusuke and he's stronger than her.) As Shorin shrunk Kuwabara, Gun giggled and said,

"Now you can have your favorite wanna be punk, Kuwabara, pocket sized! Carry him anywhere. If you squeeze him, he rants about Urameshi." Yusuke and Botan had to laugh at that, until Shorin/Rando started to crush Kuwabara's arms.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!! YOU'VE ALREADY BEATEN HIM! LET HIM GO!!" Gun screamed.

"How much pressure can your arm take until it breaks? Let's find out." He said twistedly. Gun heard Kuwabara's anguished scream and his bones snap and she screamed.

"NO! KAZUMA!! LET HIM GO YOU MONSTER!!" she shrieked and got a mad gleam in her eyes. She started to run onto the scene when Yusuke held her back.

"LET ME GO!! LET ME GO YUSUKE!! I'LL KILL HIM!! LET ME GO!! KAZUMA!!" she cried in anguish. When Yusuke did let go, her knees collapsed and her anger crumbled into sobs.

"Kazuma!" she cried weakly. Botan looked sympathetically at her. She crouched down and rubbed her back. She had taken a liking to the tough and energetic female and hated seeing her like this.

"I know it's painful, but it'll be okay. Yusuke'll get Rando and Kuwabara will be okay." She said. If only she could believe her own words. It was then that Rando threw the mini Kuwabara into the grass for the others to find. Gun almost threw herself into the grass searching for him. When he grew back to his regular size she lowered herself onto his chest gently so as not to hurt him. She heard his heart beat and sighed with relief.

"Botan! Don't you have any healing powers or something!?" she asked. Botan shook her head.

"I'm afraid not strong enough to help." She sighed.

"As long as he still lives! As long as he doesn't leave me! As long as......as long as...." She crumbled and sobbed into the torn remnants of his school uniform shirt. Yusuke cracked his knuckles.

"I'm gonna kill him!" he said lowly. A shaky hand went onto Gun's back and she looked into Kuwabara's dark chocolate eyes. Her hand softly touched his cheek.

"Kazuma." She whispered.

"Don't cry anymore. I don't like to make you cry." He said softly and shakily. His voice was cracking, but it had never sounded better to Gun's grateful ears.

"Tell, Urameshi, he'd better win this." He choked and coughed up some blood. It ran down his chin until Gun wiped it away and onto her torn shirt.

"You need to rest, Kazuma. Save your strength! I couldn't bare to lose.....you....." her lips quivered and a waterfall of tears came again down her cheek. Kuwabara raised his unsteady hand and wiped away the tears.

"I'll be fine, so don't cry. I'm, so tired, I'm gonna take a nap, wake me when Urameshi celebrates his victory." He said and went limp. Gun yelped and put her ear on his heart. She could hear its steady beat and feel the rise and fall of his chest, signifying his breathing. So soothing and reassuring it was she felt her eyes start to close. She fought to stay awake until Botan crouched near her and put her coat over them.

"Go to sleep. Genkai and I will try to heal him." She said softly. Gun nodded slowly and her eyes slipped closed.

'Kazuma, all I can say is you had better get through this. You're too strong and I love you too much to lose you.' She thought.