"Yusuke, what are you doing?"
Yusuke turned around and Kurama had to duck to avoid being clobbered by the large panel of wood that swung at him. Yusuke smiled.
"Hey Kurama. We're building a tree house for Hiei."
Kurama's eyes widened. "We?"
"Yeah, Kuwabara's here too. So is Hiei but he's pretty useless."
They made their way to the backyard, where Hiei was busy yelling at Kuwabara.
"I said I don't need a stupid house in my tree! Baka, clean out your ears!"
Kuwabara ignored him and waved to Kurama."Hey Kurama. Thought we'd do something nice for the shrimp."
"Nice? It would be NICE if you listened to me!" Hiei argued. Yusuke set the boards down at the base of Kurama's tree. Kurama staggered a bit and took in a sharp breath. His side hurt...
Hiei left Yusuke and Kuwabara and made his way over to the redhead. "You alright?"
"Not really. I need to recover."
"From what?"
"My stupidity."
Kurama sat down tenderly on the picnic table. Hiei joined him, still looking confused. "What happened?"
"Is it considered a weakness to ignore a fight? To just take a punch and walk away?
Hiei's ruby eyes narrowed. "You let some stupid humans hurt you?"
"Yes." Kurama looked down at his hands.
"Kurama, you're a youko for God's sake! Why do you let humans have their way with you? Why don't you teach them a lesson?"
Kurama looked at him with sad eyes. "I'm not you."
Hiei, not knowing how to respond to this, looked away. Yusuke waved to them. "We're almost done, Hiei! No more sleeping in the rain. No more worrying about falling off a branch."
Hiei groaned. "Do they think I spend all my time here in your tree? bakas..."
Kurama looked up into his tree. there was a nicely put-together tree fort nestled in the branches. "Aww. Hiei it's great. You don't have to use it all the time. It's a gift from them."
"Hn. I didn't want the 'gift' in the first place."
"Can you at least PRETEND to like it? For them?"
"Ch'."
There was a loud shriek from across the yard and Yusuke hopped around holding his hand out and yelling curses. Kuwabara laughed at him, spitting out the nails in his mouth in the process. Hiei frowned. "What happened to him?" Kurama snickered and hid his face in his hands.
"He missed the nail. Poor guy."
"Baka FRICK'N HAMMER! Shimatta!!" Yusuke was mad as all heck and Kuwabara offered to get him some ice. "It's in the kitchen. Go ahead." Kurama told the orange-haired teen. Yusuke came and sat on the picnic table next to Hiei and stuck his thumb into his mouth, whining.
"You bleeding?" Kurama asked him. Leaning across Hiei, Kurama pulled The Reikai Tante's hand from his mouth and examined the red thumb. "That's gonna leave one helluva bruise, Yusuke." He told him. Hiei leaned back on the table.
"Baka. I told you I didn't need a tree house. Now you look ridiculous; hurting yourself for no reason."
Yusuke shot him a dirty look. "You had better use it, Hiei."
Kuwabara came out of Kurama's house with a cloth and ice. "Here." he handed the injured teen the cloth. Kurama took a deep breath, painfully got off the table and walked towards the house. "Excuse me. I must go inside." It was rude to leave his friends like that, he knew. But he still had that annoying nausea to contend with and he needed to lie down before he threw up. Making his way up the stairs to his room, Kurama carefully slipped off his sweatshirt and t-shirt and crawled slowly onto his bed. The beginnings of a headache throbbed at his temples and he curled himself up under the sheets, closing his eyes. A tapping at his window made Kurama open the again. Hiei was crouched on a limb of his tree, peering in at him.
Kurama opened the window, letting the youkai inside, and flopped back onto the bed. Hiei jumped down from the windowsill. "Hn. Figures you'd leave me with the idiots."
Kurama closed his eyes. "Gomen, Hiei. I'm not feeling that well. I'm not much of a host at the moment."
Hiei folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the bedroom wall. "They got you that bad? Bakas...Want me to kill them?"
Kurama's eyes flew open. "Hiei, no!"
Hiei smirked at Kurama's reaction. "I know, I know. No killing humans. Heh, I was just teasing you."
Kurama relaxed once more. "Well don't. I don't think I can take any more teasing." He rolled onto his side, facing away from his friend.
"Kurama?"
"Hmm?"
"What did they do to you?"
Kurama pulled up the covers and narrowed his eyes, remembering the boy who'd kissed him. For a weak species, humans were cruel.
"I don't want to talk about it."
Hiei frowned. "I'll go then."
Kurama heard the slight youkai leave the room via the window. he wanted to reach out and tell Hiei to stay but he didn't. he felt bad enough for letting those thugs get the best of him. He would have to deal with this on his own. His body was weak from the after-effects of the previous adrenaline rush and it didn't take Kurama long to fall asleep.
Author's Note: Please R+R! I need reviews, if I don't get any for this one, I'll either stop writing it or cry. ;; -Saku