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Hiei watched as once again Kurama attempted a conversation with Yusuke. The tournament was over and they would all be leaving within a few hours. Yusuke hadn't spoken since he got up this morning, though they all knew what was on his mind. Genkai's death, it weighed the room down in every corner. Hiei shook his head, 'Kurama should just let Yusuke be, we won't get thought to him,' Hiei thought grumpily, 'If anyone could it would be Genkai herself or maybe...' Eyes widening slightly with an idea Hiei left Kurama and Yusuke going out into the hall.
Like he hope he found Shizuru hanging outside her room smoking. "Where is your brother?" Hiei asked sharply, the much taller woman glancing at him after taking a long drag on her cigarette. "Facing some demons," She answered, exhaling smoke. Hiei raised an eyebrow, surprised, and snapped, "What the hell is he doing that for? Did he not get enough at the tournament!"
"Not those sort of demons."
Hiei went quiet at the tone in Shizuru's voice. Her brow knitted with anger and concern, "No doubt you've come to get Kuwabara to talk with Yusuke, to help Yusuke face his torment, anguish and shame. Those demons." Shizuru flicked her cigarette on the carpet, and looked cooly at Hiei, "If I went in there, and brought him out he'd come almost peppily and talk with Yusuke, and the two would come out, Yusuke looking better then he does now."
Shizuru pulled out another cigarette and lit it, "But I won't do that until you go look at Kuwabara before I call him..." She looked back down at the stunned, and silent red eyed man and jerked her head towards the door, "He's in the bathroom, I know you can spy on him and not get caught...so go."
Hiei was not one to be ordered, but what Shizuru had said put something in Hiei that could be described as curiosity. He snuck in and found the bathroom door open, and carefully peaked in. He saw something that he wasn't expecting, and caused his curiosity to grow. He stepped in the bathroom, in plain sight, but Kuwabara did not see him, did not even move.
He fully dressed sat on the toilet lid looking at his white coat, hung on a hanger, which was hanging in front of the shower curtains. His eyes were fixed on the white cloth, or at least what used to be white. This coat could not be called white, or clean anymore. It had more then twenty rips in it, and blood stains splashed, and splattered all over it. Most of the stains were dried, dark brown and hard. And from when Kuwabara had fallen, dirt and grime had collected on the coat, adding to the blood spots.
And it was this ruined jacket that Kuwabara had his eyes fixed on. Hiei looked from Kuwabara to this coat, and after a long moment, when he finally decided to say something, Kuwabara beat him to it. "Strange isn't it, Hiei?" Kuwabara reached out and caught the arm of his jacket, "This was so...white...so pure when I first wore it...but in less then a day it came back...ripped, torn, bloody." Kuwabara shook his head sullenly, Hiei staring at him unsure of how to react.
Kuwabara turned to look at Hiei, and pointed at his clothes, "And look at you...barely anything wrong with your clothes." Hiei looked at himself, and the outfit he wore for the entire tournament. Kuwabara was right, it was a little dirty, ripped up a bit, but what ever Kuwabara was troubled by, and talking about, it had nothing to do with their wardrobe.
Hiei took a cautions step towards Kuwabara, "Hey," he began, "Human wh-" Kuwabara rose, and caught the cloth in his hands, staring at it. Hiei glanced at both the man and ruined jacket, "Kuwabara why don't you throw that away." Instead of answering him, Kuwabara pushed past Hiei, his soiled jacket in hand. Pressing "Urameshi needs me right? I'll go talk to him." Kuwabara left tossing the jacket in his bag, and exiting the room.
When Hiei left the room, he felt a hand on his shoulder, "So...did he seem strange to you Hiei?" Shizuru asked a calm aggression deep in her voice. Hiei looked at her, and then turned away, heading towards the room where Yusuke, Kurama, and now Kuwabara were.
/ABOARD THE SHIP/
Hiei had told what he witnessed to Kurama, and the two silently sat together whispering about what to do. "Kurama," Hiei finally sighed, "It started out with me finding him like that, let me...try. You just make sure Yusuke doesn't walk in on me talking to Kuwabara." Hiei got up to leave, when Kurama caught his arm, "Are you sure :you: want to talk to him...You and Kuwabara don't exactly get alone. Maybe Yus-"
Hiei silenced him with a look, and whispered, "There was something in his eyes that isn't sitting well, and what he needs isn't Yusuke, in fact he needs anyone else :BUT: him right now. His guilt is tied with Yusuke, talking to him might send him spiraling further into depression instead of freeing him from it. Let me do this."
With that said Hiei found the room Kuwabara was staying in, and without knocking, barged in. Kuwabara was in a very familiar sate, the same way he'd be in the bathroom, but this time something seemed worse. His room was, in a way redecorated. Kuwabara had pushed all his things, including everything in the ship's room to the end closest to the door. Kuwabara now sat alone, staring at the jacket which lay draped over a chair, the only object near Kuwabara.
The man's face was filled with torment, and his hands were tangled in his hair, as he stared at the jacket. Hiei Looked around the room, he hadn't expected it to be this bad. "Kuwabara?" Hiei whispered approaching the man and putting a hand on his shoulder.
"How old are you Hiei?" Kuwabara suddenly asked, as soon as the man's hand was on his shoulder. " Hiei didn't respond but let Kuwabara speak, "I'm fourteen years old...and you're well into your thousands aren't you?" Hiei nodded, and thought about the two numbers compared to each other sided by side. Hiei was beginning to think he knew what was making Kuwabara lose it. "Your clothes...they're probably old too...they still remain fine...my jacket over there..." Kuwabara pointed smiling, his eyes filled with tears, "it's a month old...and look at it...worn once and it's useless. That's all it takes you know...One day and it's gone..."
Hiei took in a breath, and whispered, "Kuwabara...you didn't get killed, you're alive." Kuwabara looked at Hiei, but then let his eyes dropped to Hiei's clothes, "You're outfit could have probably done much better, done much more before it got in the state like me jacket over there..." Hiei roughly grabbed Kuwabara's shoulders, "Kuwabara! This is not about outfits lasting during a fight! What is this about! Kuwabara!"
Kuwabara shoved Hiei off and rose grabbing his ruined jacket, "LOOK AT THIS!" Kuwabara glared down at the jacket in his hand, and began ripping it to shreds, "Look how easy it is to destroy this! To make it into nothing! When it's really needed, you can't count on it, it'll just fall apart on you! AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE ANYONE CAN KILL HIM, BECAUSE HE'S WEAK!" Finishing his ranting, and dropping the shreds, Kuwabara collapsed, and laid on his side.
Hiei sat next to him, placing his hand on Kuwabara's face. Hiei wasn't one to comfort people, he wasn't very good at that sort of thing, but from the looks of things he really needed to try. "Kuwabara...you did your best against Toguro...he's strong...stronger then anyone you...or I've faced. You weren't meant to stop him, that was Yusuke's part."
Silence echoed Hiei and then, "Hiei...I was chosen to be killed because I'm so pathetically weak, I can be killed so easily...why am I friends with him?" Kuwabara let out a low sob, and Hiei sighed, Kuwabara finally revealed what was wrong. "Kuwabara...Toguro did not choose to kill you because you're the weakest link on the team...You're...Yusuke's best friend...at that point in time the most important person on our team was..." Hiei cleared his throat, "You."
Kuwabara glanced at Hiei, disbelief in his eyes. Hiei sighed, and began again,"Kuwabara if I was killed, Hiei would have been angry and gotten back up, same with Kurama, and Koenma, but it could have only been you that made him get to victory like that. Beyond the both of you being best friends...I don't think you have realized, or noticed, that the both of you, you and Yusuke, are woven from the same cloth...both fragile, and more breakable. But he has noticed that you are teh closest to him out of all of us...both of you are human. And you're strong just like him...but he figured out early on, and finally took it seriously that he is stronger then you...and will in all honesty, proably outlive you. But he tried to ignore that, and Toguro so that and exploited it."
Hiei sighed, finally realizing that he'd been stroking the top of Kuwabara's head this whole time. He looked down at Kuwabara who has calmed and readily waited for what Hiei had left to say. Hiei sighed, and finished his speech, "So you see Kuwabara...it's not because you are the weakest of the group, but it was because you are the most important person on this team...at least to Yusuke. Even worse then losing you, Toguro knew if you were gone, Yusuke would have nothing to hold on to...got it?"
Kuwabara nodded, and sighed, relief making the pain in his face vanish. "Hiei...you better move, I think I'm gonna puke." Hiei rose just in time, for that was what Kuwabara did. Hiei pressed his hand to Kuwabara's brow, "DamX..."
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After fixing up the room, Kuwabara lay in his bed, his bandages undone, and Genkai piercing five needles, coated in an antibiotic, into Kuwabara's chest wounds. Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke hovered over, the others having to remain outside, being as their was no more room for them. Genkai looked at the three worried men, and shook her head, "You think you can shove a bare hand through your chest and not get an infection?" Genkai sighed annoyed, "I can't believe you, you just bandage the boy up and assume he's fine! Hands have all sorts of germs on them, you should have checked for infection right away! We're just lucky this infection didn't make him delusional, and sink into a depression or something!"
Hiei and Kurama glanced at each other.
Genkai pushed the last needle in, and puss seeped out onto a rag she held. "There...i'll remove these needles now...re-bandage him...and...we're done!" The old woman sighed, "We'll arrive back home in four days, by then he'll be able to get out of bed, but he won't be well, so don't bother him-And I mean that in your direction dumb asX." Genkai warned pointing at Yusuke who smiled smuggly at her. "It's Kuwabara! I won't have to do anything for that idiot to want to try and get up on his feet again! Nothing brings that oaf down!"
"Or so it seems..." Hiei stated catching everyone's attention. He said nothing, just walked off, a piece of Kuwabara's shredded jacket deep in his pocket.
end
i think i might do a sequel...hmm...