Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the shows they are from, just the concepts and story written here. Danke schön for not suing :
-1-
"Something is really wrong with your cousin,
"It's pretty goddamned obvious that someone's been attacking him." Yusuke said.
Kurama looked uncomfortable, even as he nodded.
Kuwabara gave him a studying glance, "What's wrong?" he asked.
"It's not bad to be worried," He said, "But jumping to conclusions right after meeting him probably isn't a good idea."
This time when Kuwabara looked at him, his face was oddly grim, "You've seen the way he acts too, don't pretend you haven't noticed."
Kurama's eyebrows furrowed together, "Kuwabara, I don't know what you mean."
Yusuke looked exasperated, "Kurama, he acts like we're going to hit him."
Kurama gave him a chagrined look.
"No, look," Yusuke interrupted as Kurama opened his mouth to speak, "We're not going to hit him, and you aren't either, but you've seen how he flinches just as much as we have. Whenever we move too quickly, whenever we talk too loud, he reacts like he's trying to dodge a fist."
Kurama continued to look unsure, "We can't just decide to-"
He was cut off again, this time by Kuwabara.
"Kurama," he said, "He has bruises everywhere. He has cuts too, and it looks like someone purposely burned his wrist. That's what we can see. He moves like he doesn't notice he's hurt at all." He said, "If this were infrequent, then he would be cringing in pain whenever he moved."
He leaned forward, "Someone is hurting your cousin. We don't know why. We don't know who, and frankly, we only met your cousin today, but I don't think this is something that we should just sit back and let happen either."
Kurama gave a nod of acknowledgement, and sighed.
"I know what you both mean, I've noticed it too. I'm not saying we should do nothing. I just think we should wait a while before interrogating him." He said finally, "If it looks like things are getting worse, then we'll ask him about it, alright?"
The other two nodded, looking appeased, and Hiei dipped his head forward in a shallow nod.
"For now, let's just focus on what we were sent here for."
-2-
Jack set the soup and mashed potatoes out on the table, and sent a Jack-Bot to go retrieve his visitors. He sat at the table, feeling pleased with the meal he had created, and thought about his cousin and his friends.
He hadn't seen his cousin in years, not since he was around five actually. He didn't remember Shuichi very well, only recalling when his cousin had called him a fool and thrown one of his toys at his head. He rubbed at his forehead with the memory, wincing. It didn't matter all that much though, and besides, Shuichi seemed pretty nice now that he was older. He certainly had friends to show for the years that Jack hadn't seen him.
Something loudly being crushed upstairs causing him to jump, hitting his knee on the table and rattling the dishes. He stood up hurriedly, hopping towards the stairs while trying to rub away the pain pulsing in his leg with his fingers.
"Everything alright up there?" He shouted up the stairs as he tried and failed to stumble up them.
"No, nothing!" Yelled Kuwabara quickly, while not really answering the question. That itself was enough to rouse Jack's suspicions.
Jack finally made it up to the top of the stairs, and blinked at Kuwabara blankly.
Kuwabara looked at him sheepishly, holding to door to the hall closet closed nervously. Jack looked at him with skepticism.
"What's in the closet?"
"Nothing!" Kuwabara lied badly.
Jack tried to look around Kuwabara, into the small opening of the closet door, which wouldn't completely close, but Kuwabara was big enough that he couldn't see inside. He approached Kuwabara and the mysterious closet, trying to be intimidating as he moved to stand at his full height.
He came to a standstill before the older teen, trying to ruffle him to the point where he would stand aside, but Kuwabara stood unflinchingly. Suddenly, Jack moved, shoving Kuwabara aside and pulling open the closet. By now everyone was peeking out from Kurama's door.
Jack blinked down at the contents of the closet, staring into it uncomprehendingly as Kuwabara moved to pull him away from the closet. Jack looked at him in confusion, stopping him in his tracks.
"Why did you destroy this Jack-Bot?" He asked, before suddenly narrowing his eyes, "Did it malfunction and attack you?"
"Wait," Yusuke said, "You know what that thing was?"
Jack blinked at them, a look of comprehension washing over his face.
"Oh," he said, "Oh. I didn't… tell you about my Jack-Bots, did I?"
They shook their heads (Well, not Hiei).
"Well," Jack began, "This was one of my robots, I sent him up to tell you guys that dinner is ready."
"You mean you made that thing?" Kuwabara asked, sounding mildly alarmed.
"Yes."
"Um… Sorry I broke it then." Kuwabara said, shaking his head slowly as he stared down at its crushed remains in the closet.
Jack sighed, but then nodded at the apology.
"Hey, did you say dinner's ready?" Yusuke called.
"Yes."
Yusuke and Kuwabara ran at the stairs, trying to beat the other to the food. Kurama shook his head after them, laughing lightly as he too headed downstairs, Hiei following close behind.
Jack stared after them for a moment before calling up another Jack-Bot to clean up his brethren from the closet and salvage his metallic corpse for parts that could be reused. He then went down into the kitchen, there he found the group eating already, talking companionably. He smiled and sat down with them to eat.
Later, when dinner was done and the dishes cleaned, Jack settled into bed and wondered if it felt so nice to have a family around the table as it did to have his cousin and his friends around. They had actually involved him in their conversations, and had treated him… normally? He wasn't sure, really, what it was like to be treated normally. He decided that he simply liked the way they treated him, and it didn't really matter if they treated him like a normal person or not. It was the best dinner he'd ever had, even if his mashed potatoes tasted a bit funny.
-3-
Jack woke with a yawn, rolling over to burrow into the blankets- and landed on his wooden floor on his bum for his efforts. Grumbling, he stood and threw the blanket that came with him back onto his bed tiredly. He stumbled over to his closet and snagged an outfit.
He shuffled into the hall, headed to the bathroom, and ran into someone. He looked up, blearily staring at Kuwabara, who was giving him an oddly concerned look. Deciding he didn't particularly care to deal with the bigger teen's antics, he walked around him and continued on his way.
Kuwabara stared after him, frowning lightly. He had seen all of the cuts, bruises, and burns all over Jack's chest- it was concerning, to say the least. He continued down the hall and plodded down the stairs to go talk to Yusuke.
-4-
When breakfast had been eaten and cleaned up, Kurama and his companions had headed off to take care of their own agenda.
Jack went down into his basement, getting to work on one of his new altercations to his Jack-Bots. He was working on some new methods for waterproofing them with the vague hope that it would protect them from Omi. After spending roughly an hour on his project, he slipped away to go repair some of his slightly damaged creations.
As he was walking to the small room in the back of his lab, where all of the slightly damaged robots were, he froze, sensing a presence he knew all too well saunter towards him from behind. Arms wrapped around his torso, and he forced himself to remain still at the touch.
"When did you get here?" He asked.
"Oh, a while ago…" A sultry voice murmured to him.
He broke away from his living restraint, and turned around swiftly.
"What do you want?"
"Hmm… Well, now that you ask, I could use a couple of new outfits; Chase absolutely refuses to buy anything for me."
"You know what I mean, Wuya."
She slunk over to him, "Oh, is widdle Jack cranky?" she asked, resting a hand on his shoulder, her visage filled with amusement.
He smacked her hand away, snapping angrily, "Either tell me what you want, or get out!"
She lifted him suddenly by the front of his shirt, shaking him as she snarled, "Don't tell me what to do, weakling."
She tossed him on the floor with casual effort and Jack glared at her, one hand rubbing at his chest lightly, as he stood.
He stuck his tongue out at her back, only for her to turn around and look at him with disdain. He settled on pouting instead.
"I was just coming over to check on you, but you're obviously just being a brat, as usual."
He frowned harder, but refused to give a reply.
She paused for a moment, as if just noticing something. Her head tilted and she looked upwards, toward the house.
"It seems you have some… guests." She murmured.
He froze, feeling very nervous. He didn't like that tone of voice; it always meant she was about to do or say something unsavory.
"Hmm, you know, that red head looks almost as sexy as me," she hummed, "Maybe I should see if he wants to go out some time."
Jack's face went red as he glared at her, "You stay away from Shuichi!"
"Oh, is he yours?" She leered, looking hungry.
He spluttered angrily, "What? No! He's my cousin!"
"Then what's the problem?"
"J-just stay away from him and his friends, okay!"
"Ahhh," she grinned smugly, "Little Jacky just wants somebody to himself who actually pays attention to him, right?"
His face was completely red and he was shaking with anger.
"Well okay, big mean Wuya will leave your playmates alone." She laughed.
She turned away, rolling her hips with her usual air of seductiveness.
"But I will be telling Chase about your new 'friends'." She tossed in casually.
In the next moment, she was gone, leaving Jack alone and frustrated. All thoughts of repairing his Jack-Bots forgotten, he stomped out of the lab in a fit. He made some lunch in flustered rage; left it covered on the table, then stomped upstairs, throwing himself into his room angrily without eating.
-5-
When Kurama's group made it home, they were startled to find lunch on the table with no Jack. Kurama guessed that he must have eaten already and wandered off, so they all sat down and ate. Kuwabara was done first, and excused himself.
He wandered through the house looking for Jack, he was pretty sure Jack hadn't eaten, the food hadn't been touched before they got here- maybe Jack had eaten something else, but he didn't think Jack would bother with making something extra if he didn't like what he was cooking.
Kuwabara wandered upstairs and down the hall. He tried to open Jacks door only to find it locked- bingo.
"Jack?" He called.
No one answered.
"Jack, are you okay?" He asked.
"Go away," He vaguely heard Jack call from behind the door.
"Is something wrong?"
"Go away!" Jack yelled, muffled by the door.
"Fine, fine," Kuwabara said, "I'm goin'."
He heard a sniffle from the room as he started to walk away. He stopped, looking back worriedly, but heard the others calling for him downstairs.
"I'm comin'," He yelled down the stairs, giving one last look to Jack's room before he went.
-6-
After a while, Jack stepped out of his room, feeling tired and still a little bit angry. He went downstairs as quietly as he could manage, even knowing no one was in the house with him. He found the leftovers from lunch in the fridge and grabbed some.
He ate what he could and then cleaned up after himself, before going back downstairs. He worked for a little while on his bots. A while later he went back upstairs and made dinner. He was getting ready to set the table when he heard the shrill alarm telling him there was an active wu.
He ran downstairs, pulled on his heli-pack, and took a battalion of Jack-Bots, then left to face the monks hurriedly.
When Kurama and friends came back they couldn't find Jack anywhere. They didn't eat dinner.
-7-
AN: Hello guys, it's been a while I know, but I hope this chapter was worth it. Thank you for reading!
