The Puppet

By TheDyingSamurai

Thanks for the reviews!

:D

He felt calm and safe all of a sudden. The stinging reminders in his wrists and arms had finally ceased. Kuwabara concluded that he was either dead or had lost feeling in his limbs, neither of which were calming. Without thinking he forced his eyes open and was welcomed with a bright light.

'Oh shit,' he thought and shut his eyes as tightly as he could.

Kuwabara didn't want to die anymore. He didn't want to face any one of his friends again, either. The depressed feeling in his brain was starting to fade away, as if being erased with his memories. Kuwabara didn't want that either.

Then what did he want?

"What..." he couldn't finish the question he was asking himself since someone (or perhaps something) was calling his name. It was a calm voice, and whoever it belonged to seemed be a woman.

"Kuwabara..." it repeated for the tenth or eleventh time. He opened his eyes once more, relieved that the bright light was gone. Now he was surrounded by weird grey/blue swirls that seemed to carry a appealing insence. The red head looked about for the owner of the voice, but in his condition settled on shouting.

"Hey? Is anyone there?" he called and gripped his sore arms.

Botan appeared before him.

Her pink kimono and oar were present with her, as always, but the cheery smile on her face had been replaced with a sad frown. She looked ready to cry, which made Kuwabara look around him. There was nothing but darkness and a glimer of light in which he was standing. It reminded him of a spotlight, which made him remember school plays, which led him back to Yusuke...

'Snap out of it.'

He cleared his voice.

"Botan...?"

She wiped a few tears away from her face.

"Kazuma Kuwabara, you, as a human, have a choice right now: either continue your way to the Spirit World with me, or...go back to Earth. The only reason you are being the second choice is because Koenma sir believes it is really not your time."

He froze up.

"I'm...obligated to tell you what will happen to you no matter what path you take. Please consider this decision and contact me when you are done."

The ferry girl dissapeared immediately.

"...What should I...do...? Wait, how am I going to contact her...? Damn it..."

Death was confusing.

Yusuke held Kuwabara close for at least five minutes before leaving his side. He stumbled on and off the walls until he was back in his room. The phone had no one on it and the young man figured both Shizuru and Kurama had figured out that something was wrong.

"Just stay calm. Calm. Everything's fine. Fine. J-Just call the damn ambulance..."

He dialed '9-1-1' and waited for someone to pick up.

And waited.

And...waited.

"What the fuck? This is a friggin' emergency!" he yelled and slammed the phone against the wall. Almost immediately his body began to shake violently. It was due to his panic, he decided.

"Pick up! Pick up! Pick up!"

Yusuke was in a frenzey now. As he sprinted back to the bathroom he noticed the door (which he had broken himself) had propped itself up and was sealing him off. Angrily he slammed his body over and over again into the wooden structure, crying and screaming the whole time.

He didn't understand why Kuwabara had done this to himself or what exactly was happening, let alone why the door was acting as a barrier. What he did know, however, was that the door was preventing him from seeing his boyfriend. It was his enemy right there and then.

Yusuke didn't like that an inanimate object was causing this new pain to over take his reactions.

Was he over reacting, though?

"Damn it! Kuwabara, if this is some fucking j-joke I'll...I'll...!"

Tears continued to stream down his face while his body started to shake again. "Please open the door! Please? P-Please...?" As he slammed his fist this time he noticed the stinging and blood begining to seep out of the cuts. His legs were starting to hurt too. His hands, he could see clearly, were bruised and bloody, as where his legs, from trying to repeatively open the door. Whatever the force was that was holding him back was going to pay.

"Kuwabara!"

His voice was becoming hoarse.

Yusuke backed up to the begining of the hall and charged once more.

"Open...up!" he yelled and prepared himself for impact.

"Kuwabara?"

He opened his eyes again, not sure how they had shut themselves. He was in Koenma's office now. The toddler, Orge, and Botan were all behind his desk. Botan was on Koenma's left and Orge was on his right. All had stern looks on their faces, which scared Kuwabara.

'I'm dead... Great,' he thought and sat down in the chair they offered him.

"Now, Kuwabara..." Koenma began. He looked down at a piece of paper before continuing. "Do you wish to return to the Human World?" The red-head blinked and sagged foreward, the tears returning.

The three spirits waited paitently for him to calm down.

"I...I don't know, really I don't... I don't think I should... I'm destined to die, right? You must know that."

Koenma sighed and slammed his fist angrily on the desk. Papers of all kind flew and floated to the floor. Kuwabara, surprised by his outbrust glanced at his furious face before glaring at the ground, cursing everything.

"You don't know? You don't know? Look what you've done! A simple assumption and you commit suicide? What kind of a person are you? How weak can you be? God, Kuwabara! Think about what you're leaving behind!"

Botan tried to reason with junior, as did Orge, but Koenma continued anyway.

"You're not a man; you're a coward! A sham! A loser!"

Kuwabara kept his head down, tears dribbling onto his knees. Koenma was right. He was a loser. He had thrown everything away. But for what? Was he completely sure that Yusuke was having an affair?

'I don't deserve to go back...' he thought and looked glassily back at the three spirits.

"Kuwabara...your decision?" Botan asked as Orge covered the toddler's furious mouth.

He looked up.

"I...want to go home."

All three friends let out a long relieved sigh. Botan smiled like crazy, Orge...grinned toothly and began to rant about his trench coat, but Koenma, also happy, suddenly frowned.

"Because of this attempt, Kuwabara, I am forced to put you on probation. For a total of four months Botan will be watching you-"

"Twenty-four seven?" he asked uneasily. He didn't like the thought of the bubbly girl on an oar watching him make out with Yusuke or take a shower. He wasn't sure if she would like to watch him have sex, either. ...Or maybe she would. It was a known fact that for some odd reason girls enjoyed two attractive men together... Well, it was the same with guys watching lesbians make out.

"No. She will check in with you once a week at a location you pick. You will...tell her about your week and she will report back to me. If there is something wrong, she will console you and try to prevent further harm on your body..."

"A shrink, then?"

He hated shrinks.

"Yes, Kuwabara. If that's a problem you can march yourself to limbo and rot there."

The red head winced.

"Once a week is fine."

Yusuke had charged a little too hard into the door on the count that it had been broken in two. The shattered wood layed everywhere, even in the bathtub and through the cabinet (in which they kept their towels). Kuwabara was fine, though. He sat at the edge of the bathroom, his back against the tile wall.

The red marks on his arms and wrists had some how faded.

"K-Kazuma...? What the fuck...is going on?" Yusuke asked in a confused and almost desperate voice. He limped over and sat down in front of the other man. His hazel eyes were full of rage and fear, while Kuwabara's were full of...nothing.

Absolute nothing.

"Kazuma!" Yusuke cried and slapped him angrily. "You asshole! I knew it was all a fucking joke! I hate you, do you hear me? After all I've...all we've done together... How could you pull such a cruel j-joke? It's a dick thing to do, you bastard!" Yusuke screamed and slapped his lover as hard as he could. That 'slap' (more of a punch) seemed to drag the other man back to reality. He growled in response and gripped his face, glaring like mad.

"What'd you do that fo-"

Yusuke flung himself ontop of him, clutching his body tightly.

"You bastard...You fucking bastard... I-I-I...hate you..."

"Yusuke," he whispered. "I... Forgive me."

Wow.

Mushy gushy much?

It'll get heated up the next chapter, I promise!

:D

Thank you for the reviews again!

-TheDyingSamurai