Jack sat curled up next to the door to his father's study, listening to the voices within.
He heard his father's rough, tired voice emanating from the room, "God, I wish I had never come here to America."
He heard his mother's forlorn sigh, and heard her when she said, "You're not the only one." Jack cringed, hating how exhausted his mother seemed.
"Hah! Like I'd believe that, you know I was the best thing that could've happened for your future."
His mother's voice was bitter, angry, when she spoke again, "You think I wanted to be married to you? You think I wanted to have a kid so young? I don't care how much money you have, you still screwed up my life just as badly as you did your own."
Jack listened to their bickering, wishing he could've never come home from Aunt Shiori's house in Japan. She was his dad's sister, even though she seemed way too nice for that to be possible. Shuichi, his cousin, might not like him very much, but being around him was better than being around his parents any day. At least Shuichi didn't yell at him, he only ignored him.
Jack loved his Aunt Shiori. Aunt Shiori was at home every day, and she told him she loved him, and she read him stories when he went to bed. She even took him to the park and played with him. She cared about him. Jack wished she were his mom. Then he wouldn't be lonely.
Jack didn't know if his mom actually liked him, even though she made him cookies and bought him toys. Maybe she did, but it was hard to tell when she got mad at his dad and they started yelling. Sometimes they just yelled about him. Jack didn't know what he'd done wrong, but he must have done something for them to be so angry with him and about him all the time. He just wished he could fix it.
Every time he tried to show his dad he was good, he'd just get angry or pretend he wasn't there. When he tried to show his mom, she'd tell him he hadn't done anything wrong, and try to distract him so she could leave. Once he'd followed her, but he'd heard her crying, and he knew he must have done something wrong. He didn't follow her again after that.
He knew she loved him (and he loved her, no matter how guilty he felt for making her sad all the time), because sometimes she said it, but he didn't know if she actually liked him. He was pretty sure she didn't want him, at least.
He heard his mom's rising voice from inside the room, "Maybe you shouldn't have come here as an exchange student then! Or maybe you shouldn't have taken me to that stupid party! Don't blame everything on me."
His dad scoffed, "Well I'm not the one who got pregnant, now am I?"
"Well, you're certainly the one who couldn't keep it in his pants!"
He heard his mother slap his dad, and he ran away, scared she'd be mad if she found him next to the door again.
-==1==-
The spirit detectives headed back to their current home base, their investigations proving to be futile. However, when they arrived, it became quickly obvious that something was wrong. The front door stood agape, and when they entered the building, they could not find Jack anywhere. Kuwabara was unable to find his spirit within the house, and while there was also a distinct lack of malicious intent, there was still reason to worry.
Adding to their distress, the kitchen had been vacated in a manner that suggested that Jack hadn't been prepared to go, and had left in a hurry. The food was uncovered on the table, the cabinets were thrown open, and the remnants of half-cleaned dishes were in the sink. None of this promised anything good.
They didn't know how Jack had acquired his injuries- if he was willingly in some sort of dangerous group or if they had goaded him into going along with them. There was no telling what sort of trouble he could be involved in. Or what people were willing to cause him harm.
Their worry growing, they left the house in order to search out the surroundings for a hint at Jack's whereabouts. They soon found the trail he had left when he had hurriedly escaped the house.
-==2==-
Kurama burst through the foliage, his feet taking him swiftly after his cousin's scent. Behind him, he could sense his companions- Yusuke was keeping up fairly well, but Kuwabara was having a little bit of trouble. However, Kurama didn't know if they could afford to slow down at this point- they had no idea where Jack could be and what danger he could be in. Hiei was up ahead, moving swiftly through the branches above, presumably checking out whatever laid before them.
There were so many possibilities, and he didn't want to even think about them. Jack could be in any sort of horrible situation, and thinking about it would only serve to make Kurama more concerned. Trying to bite back his worry, he continued to follow his cousin's trail, and hoped that Jack would be all right.
-==3==-
Jack flew away for the wu swiftly, his propellers sputtering a little from his weight. A journey that would've otherwise been boring became a bit nerve wracking when it meant that he would have to face the Xiaolin losers at the end of it. He did his best to pretend that he didn't feel jittery at the idea of fighting them again, and continued his flight.
Eventually, he landed in a clearing in the woods, not all that far from the hill his home rested upon. He landed a bit roughly, his nervousness getting the best of him for a moment, before beginning his search for the shen gong wu. He dug his hands into bushes nearby, making sure to keep an eye out for a certain brightly colored flying lizard.
-==4==-
Jack couldn't believe it- he was going to lose again. He and Kimiko raced over dirt platforms on the way to a final platform, which held the wu. He had chosen to use his monkey staff, and while it was good for the racing, it sucked for the long range combat. Kimiko wasn't really using her own wu, and just kept sending fireballs his way. Sure, he could dodge them, but there was no way for him to counter attack. All of his Jack Bots had been destroyed at this point.
He focused on moving forward as fast as he could, choosing to ignore the attacks in favor of trying to get to the wu. That's when it happened. A ball of fire slammed directly into his abdomen, knocking him down. He got up, panting heavily as he fought off the nausea that accompanied the pain and the smell of charred cloth. He bit back a scream as a fire blasted against his arm.
Gasping, he finally managed to get on his feet. However, luck was not on his side- he only got up in time to see Kimiko's graceful fingers incase the wu. He had lost. He felt exhausted- the lack of food this morning and the energy that he had exerted since then making him dizzy. The burns were, of course, not helping the situation.
'God, please don't let me pass out in front of these losers.' he couldn't help but think.
Fighting to keep both his breathing and balance steady, he managed to yell, "I'll beat you next time!"
"Hah! You're barely standing." Kimiko called out playfully, her voice jovial, "You don't stand a chance, why don't you give up all ready?"
The banter that they always exchanged just didn't seem all that appealing at the moment, and Jack scowled at her, biting back his pain. Kimiko seemed to notice, her face suddenly melting into an expression of worry. "Jack? Jack are you okay?" she said. Jack hardly heard her, he was so tired and his body hurt so much. He didn't manage to say anything before he passed out.
-==5==-
Kurama breached the trees, his feet landing him solidly in the clearing. His heart beat frantically in his chest as his eyes found his younger cousin. Jack lay still on the forest floor, seemingly lifeless, and something caught in Kurama's throat- not quite anger, not quite worry. It was something else, some sort of unholy mix of the two, leaving him with a churning stomach and a burning throat. He wasn't close to his cousin in any way, but at the same time, Jack was just a child and something about him spread out in the grass, so utterly still- so vulnerable- set something off within him.
His eyes locked onto the girl running towards Jack, and he snarled.
