Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Bugs ❯ Bugs - Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

A/N-Okay, I guess I'm not too tired to edit and post tonight...Warning: Violence, shonen ai.

And I still don't own them!

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Kurama stood at the sink, rinsing the dishes off. He loved his family, really he did. He would die for them in an instant. But after four days of being cooped up with them, he was actually hoping for the opportunity to do so! When his stepfather had announced at dinner that the exterminator needed to re-spray the house with a stronger chemical, and it would be another week before they could go to their home, he had naturally invited them to stay longer. It was the only polite thing to do. In light of his stepfather's acceptance of his offer, he was seriously considering going back to Yomi's castle. Needless to say, his nerves were shot, his body was exhausted, and he felt like he was hanging onto his sanity by a frayed string. Under almost any circumstances, Kurama was always composed. Very few things would cause him to unravel as he was. His family was at the top of that list. For his mother, he had almost given his life on several occasions; the Mirror of Utter Dark, the Dark Tournament, the Makai Tournament. When she remarried, he had accepted his new family with (almost) the same devotion. While he may be unwavering against an enemy, or a blood thirsty fiend, against those he chose to call family, he was jell-o, and he knew it. They were his single greatest weakness, no matter how much he loved them. When his stepbrother volunteered to help with the cleaning, he wasn't sure whether to be happy, or to run and hide.

He wished he had chosen the latter when Shuuichi-kun started the conversation. "So, Shuuichi, how long have you and Hiei been together?" The dish Kurama was holding fell from his numb fingers, to shatter on the floor. Swallowing heavily, Kurama could find no reply to the boy's question. Shuuichi-kun continued, oblivious to the older boy's discomfort. "I think you got together right after you got that apartment. I mean, he moved in with you what, less than two weeks later? I know Dad doesn't want you to talk to me about these things. He's trying to protect me, I guess. He really thinks I don't know about things like this! I mean, really! It's obvious! Two guys living in a one bedroom apartment. Then when you guys moved here, you have four bedrooms, but you share. It's not that hard to see. So when did you know? When did you realize you were gay?" Kurama just stared at the younger boy. He did not realize that his step brother had even paid attention to his life that much.

In a feeble attempt to deny the obvious, he could only reply, "It isn't like that, exactly."

"Oh, I get it! You're bi, aren't you?"

"Um, yeah, I guess..." Kurama replied weakly.

"What about Hiei? Does he know? Is he bi, as well?" The rapid fire questions were starting to make Kurama dizzy. After the past week, he didn't think he could handle this.

"Yes..." was all the fox could manage to say.

When they heard the crash from the kitchen, Hatanaka and Shiori looked at each other worriedly. "I'll see what it was." Hatanaka said softly, and headed toward the source of the sound. He missed the beginning of the conversation, only hearing from `So when did you know?' on. Furious, he stepped into the kitchen, and cleared his throat. Shuuichi-kun turned abruptly towards the door.

"Oh, Dad. Hey..." but he stopped when he saw the look on his father's face. Kurama didn't even turn. He could well imagine the rage evident in the older man's expression.

"Shuuichi-kun, please go to your room and wait for me. I would like to talk to you. I need to talk to Shuuichi, first." the man said.

"Dad, I..." Hatanaka just held up his hand, silencing his son, and pointed towards the stairs. With an apologetic glance at his older brother, Shuuichi-kun left the kitchen and went to his bedroom.

Hatanaka waited until he heard the bedroom door close before he started to speak. Keeping his voice low enough not to attract anyone else, he spoke with a voice full of venom. "While I appreciate your hospitality, you are, were, well aware of my views on how much my son should know about your lifestyle. That is why I bought you that apartment. That is why I do not allow him to visit here without me. That is my decision to make, not yours."

"Hatana..." Kurama began, but was cut off.

"You have said enough tonight, Shuuichi, or whoever the hell you are. You didn't mention that little abnormality to my son as well, did you?" Kurama shook his head, finally raising his gaze to meet that of the human before him. The man was seething, radiating anger from every pore. For once, Kurama felt truly afraid. Not that this man could hurt him. Even if he tried, Hatanaka could not do much damage to the kitsune physically. It was the emotional damage that he was feeling the most. He knew Hatanaka was angry enough to strike out at him. He also knew that he could not, under any circumstances, strike back. One blow would easily kill the ningen. Kurama was also terrified that the family he so cherished was about to be ripped from his life. Shaking slightly, he stood there, waiting for Hatanaka to continue.

"Why do you disregard my will for my son? Despite my explicit intention to protect him from your ways, you drew him in. Don't you even give a damn about what I have to say? What his father has to say!" By this time, Hatanaka was stalking forward, advancing on the red head. Kurama sighed.

"I didn't invite him into that conversation, Hatanaka-san. He started it. He figured it out without any prompting from me." he replied in a whisper. Hatanaka narrowed his eyes to slits, clenching his fists.

"You expect me to believe that my son, my young and innocent son, would even know that such abominations existed if you didn't flaunt yourself before him?" It was clearly the anger talking now. Hatanaka had never referred to Kurama's preference as an abomination before. Kurama knew the man cared about him, and that Hatanaka was genuinely trying to overcome the prejudices he was raised with to accept his stepson. This week was having the same affect on the man as it was having on his stepson, and it seemed he had finally cracked.

In a sudden move, Hatanaka took Kurama by the shoulders, and started to shake him roughly. "Why? Why do you insist on disrupting our lives? Our NORMAL lives?" As he was being shaken, Kurama had to adjust his footing to compensate. He didn't even notice the pieces of shattered plate beneath on the floor as they cut into the soft soles of his feet through his thin socks.

Finally, Kurama felt the dam holding back his anger starting to crack. "I am not disrupting anything!" he hissed. "You are here, in my home, disrupting my life! I don't flaunt! I didn't draw your son into anything! I didn't even start the damn conversation! He did...." Kurama said no more, as Hatanaka balled his fist and slammed it into Kurama's stomach.

"Shut up! You corrupted him!" Drawing his arm back, Hatanaka struck again, this time to Kurama's face. Reeling backwards, Kurama grasped the counter, looking at his stepfather in shock. Only when he saw the hurt look in the green eyes before him, did Hatanaka realize what he had done. Although he hated himself for raising a hand to his family, his anger was far from gone. His anger with himself just fueled the fire. He stopped striking the boy before him, but he did not back down. Kurama just looked at the human for a few moments before he fled the kitchen.

Kurama was not running away from his stepfather, he was running away from the opportunity to fight back. His control was so tenuous, that he truly feared he would hurt the man before could stop himself, just as the human had done to him. Kurama fled right into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. He stopped for a few minutes, leaning against the door, panting. It was then that the first waves of nausea overtook him. Running through his bedroom, he entered the master bathroom and purged himself of the contents of his stomach.

Hiei had just returned from his nightly flit. (similar to a walk, but much faster, utilizing treetops, roofs, and telephone poles) He landed on the terrace, and slid open the glass door just as a red-topped blur flew past him into the bathroom. He heard retching, and quickly went to investigate. He did not fail to notice the spots of blood left behind on the carpet. As he entered the bathroom, he was distressed to find his fox hunched over the commode, shaking violently, with tears running down his face. The blood spots led to the kitsune's crumpled form, and the source was apparent. The bottoms of Kurama's socks were soaked with red. The fox lurched forward as another heave wracked his body.

In an instant, Hiei was beside his lover. Wrapping one arm around the hunched shoulders, he used his right hand to hold Kurama's forehead. When the spell passed, Kurama all but collapsed onto Hiei, still shaking. "What happened, Fox?" Hiei whispered softly, brushing the red, sweat-soaked bangs from the youko's face. Kurama tried to speak, but ended up heaving again.

After a moment, he simply replied, "Hatanaka." Hiei's face became devoid of all emotion.

"I'll kill him." he stated calmly, as he began to rise.

"No! Hiei, stay here!" Kurama called, clutching Hiei's hand to prevent the hiyoukai from leaving. "Please. He is under just as much pressure as we are. I was just thinking earlier that if this continues, I will crack. He just cracked first. Please don't make it worse."

Hiei sank back to the floor, and held his beloved in a warm and comforting embrace. "Tell me what happened." he said to the fox gently.

Hatanaka stood in the kitchen for a few moments after Kurama left. When he lowered his gaze, and saw the tracks of blood across the floor and up the stairs, his anger melted immediately, replaced with disgust and self-loathing. Raising a shaking hand to his lips, his asked himself, `what have I done?'. Slowly, he turned and made his way to the den. He needed to talk to his wife.

Shiori looked up as the door opened. "What was the crash about?" she asked. When her husband stepped into the room, the expression on his face told her something was terribly wrong. "What is it? Did someone get hurt?" she asked, getting up from her relaxed position.

"I need to talk to you, Shiori." Hatanaka said softly.

"What?" she asked. He slowly approached, and sat on the love seat next to his wife.

With a sigh, he decided to start at the beginning. "Shuuichi-kun knows about your son and Hiei." Shiori was not as devastated by this revelation as Hatanaka had been.

"You knew it was only a matter of time, Honey." she began.

"Wait, Shiori, there's more. I heard the two of them, the Shuuichis, talking in the kitchen. I sent Shuu-kun to his room, so I could talk to Shuuichi alone. I....I just started accusing him. I never really gave him a chance to explain. I was so mad that my little boy was exposed to this lifestyle, that I just accused Shuuichi of defying me, and of interrupting our lives. I was cruel. I called him an abomination." Hatanaka found that he could not make eye contact with his wife at this point. Shiori felt her heart rise to her throat. She bit her lower lip, and stayed quiet, knowing that her husband was not done. "I....I got so angry when he denied telling Shuu-kun. I couldn't hold my anger in anymore. All the anxiety of this past week, all the anger at the exterminator for botching the first treatment, everything just rushed to my head. I hit him, Shiori. I hit Shuuichi." he confessed. Shiori stiffened at this news. While she certainly understood her husband's anger, she never dreamed he would strike her son.

"We need to talk." she said, her tone not quite cold, but not warm and concerned, either. "We ALL need to talk." She rose to her feet, and pulled her husband up to join her before leading him to the living room.

Shiori drew a breath to call to her son and stepson to come downstairs for a family talk, but her voice died in her throat when she spied the tracks of blood leading from the shattered dish fragments in the kitchen up the stairs. She turned to her husband, her displeasure apparent on her features. Taking the hint, he cleared his throat.

"Shuuichi-kun, Shuuichi, would you both please come downstairs? We need to have a family discussion." Shuuichi-kun was out of his room in a heartbeat, and down the stairs immediately. He stopped when he saw the blood on the floor.

"Woah, Dad, what happened?"

"Your brother and I had an argument. We need to come to terms with that." Shuuichi-kun looked at his father.

"Dad, Shuuichi didn't tell me anything. I already knew. I figured it out long ago. I just finally asked him about it today. I didn't really even give him a chance to respond properly. I know you wanted to shelter me, but honestly, he didn't do anything to disobey you." Hearing his son's confession almost broke Hatanaka's heart. Shuuichi was telling the truth, and Hatanaka had called him a liar.

When the red head did not emerge from his bedroom, Hatanaka called again. "Shuuichi, we're waiting for you."

In the bathroom, Kurama had just finished relaying the evening's events to Hiei, who was wiping the kitsune's face with a damp washcloth. When the first call echoed up the steps, Kurama just shook his head. "I can't do it, Hiei. I can't deal with this right now. My family is about to fall apart, and I am the reason."

"Shh, Fox. That won't happen. Even if your stepfather walks out of your life right now, Shiori will never leave you. Just relax." Taking a closer look at his lover, the hiyoukai continued, "You need to calm down, I've never seen you this agitated before. You're going to collapse if you don't calm down." When the second called reverberated upstairs, Hiei gave his kitsune a squeeze. "We need to have a family talk, alright. Get yourself cleaned up. I'll go down and shut him up for a few minutes."

"No bloodshed, Hiei." Kurama warned. Hiei looked into the emerald eyes before him.

"I know. I love you, Kurama. You know that, right?"

Kurama smiled weakly. "Of course I know. I love you, too. And Hiei, thank you."

With a confused expression, Hiei gazed at the fox. "What for?"

"For being you, the real you. For being the you who will sit here and hold me, and share your feelings with me."

"Hn." But Hiei was smiling when he said that. With that, the fire demon stood and left the room.

The bedroom door opened and closed in a quick movement, and a barely perceivable blur descended the stairs and came to rest directly in front of Hatanaka. With a glare that could crumble stone, Hiei regarded the human before him. "Stop bellowing." he commanded.

Surprised to be confronted by an angry demon, Hatanaka's fear made him raise his voice. "What are you doing here?" he blurted out. Hiei's glare grew even darker.

"It's my house. I live here. And you will stop bellowing this instant. You have caused my chosen mate much pain, and for that I should kill you where you stand. Do not tempt me further." Hiei spat with undisguised disgust.

Hatanaka shuddered at the threat, knowing that the demon would have no trouble carrying through on it. "I don't know what there is to like about you, demon." he muttered, not realizing how far his voice would carry in the tense silence.

"Demon? Who's a demon?" Shuuichi-kun asked excitedly. "Hiei? Are you really a demon?" Hatanaka closed his eyes as he realized what he had just let slip.

Kurama had just made it to the top of the staircase when he heard Shuuichi-kun's overzealous questions. Feeling his head swim, again, his last thought was `I can't handle this' before the world went bright white and then faded to black. Hiei was facing Hatanaka, with his back to the stairs, when Shiori's slight scream alerted him that something was wrong. Turning, he saw his fox collapse at the top of the stairs and tumble forward, hitting his left cheek on the steps as he fell. The limp body tumbled over once more, and its nose was heading towards the hard wood as strong arms grasped it, and held it inches from impact. Hiei held the slack body close. "Kurama?" he asked softly. "Kurama?" he repeated, slightly louder. Gently, he turned the kitsune over, careful to support his head and neck. Kurama was out cold. The stress of the lack of sleep, being discovered, being hit by his own stepfather, being sick, and now having his demon nature revealed was too much. Gingerly, Hiei lifted the body he held, and carried it down the stairs to the couch.

Setting Kurama gently on the sofa, Hiei brushed back the thick, red bangs to assess the damage. Kurama's left cheek had already been red and swollen from being punched, but the fall had injured it again. It was already bruising, and swelling at an alarming rate. Carefully, Hiei probed the bone beneath the reddened skin, finally determining that it was not broken. Quickly, Hiei arose. He snatched the blanket off the nearby chair and covered Kurama. In the space of a few heartbeats he had gone into the downstairs bathroom and collected a few hand towels, and carried them into the kitchen. He quickly filled a large bowl with cool water. He folded one hand towel and dipped it into this. He then took out ice, and wrapped it in the second towel. He placed these items on a tray, and carried them to the coffee table. Kneeling on the floor beside the comatose kitsune, he laid the wet towel across Kurama's forehead, and very gently applied the ice pack to the injured cheek. As he held the ice in place, he gently stroked the fox's unafflicted cheek with the fingers of his free hand.

The Hatanaka family stood in silence as Hiei did all of this. Finally, Shiori found her voice. "What happened?" she asked, slowly approaching the couch.

"He collapsed." Hiei answered, in a voice so soft, it was hard to believe it was from the same throat that had just issued a death threat. "I told him he needed to relax, or this would happen. You have no idea how badly this past week has affected him." The fire demon repositioned the ice gently, dipped the now warm damp towel back into the cool water, and replaced it on Kurama's forehead with a care none of the humans had ever seen from him before. "Tonight was the last straw. He couldn't handle it anymore. I have never seen him get this upset before. I have seen him face demons and apparitions the likes of which would drive most humans insane with fear. Through all of that, he never flinched. But this week, faced with his own family, he collapsed."

Looking for a change of subject, Shuuichi-kun latched on to Hiei's last statement. "You said demons. Are you a demon, Hiei?"

Without even looking up, and not caring what Hatanaka thought anymore, Hiei simply replied, "Yes."

"Cool. My brother is dating a demon." Shuuichi-kun commented, obviously impressed. Hiei let the matter drop. Although he could not have cared less what the boy's father thought, he would not make life more difficult for his fox by revealing the youko's true nature without the human father's permission.

Hatanaka sighed. They had wanted a family discussion, and it seemed that now was the time to bare all. "Shuu-kun, Shuuichi is a demon as well." he admitted. With a startled glance, Shuuichi-kun looked at his unconscious stepbrother in a new light.

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A/N-well, it's not a comedy anymore, I guess. Please review.