Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Flux ❯ Chapter Fifteen ( Chapter 15 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter Fifteen
Kurama sighed as he watched Hiei. The fire demon still had not regained consciousness, and it had been two days since the attack. I'm starting to wonder if he's ever going to wake up . . . He quickly beat the thought down. He WILL wake up! I just need to have faith! The fire demon's body temperature was very low, as most of the ki he generated was going toward healing. The Doctor had replicated a blanket, which Kurama had covered Hiei with to conserve what body heat he had left. The redhead sighed, watching his friend worriedly. I hope he wakes up soon . . . He blinked as the Doctor materialized near him.

The Doctor checked Hiei's vitals, watching Kurama from the corner of his eye. He was getting worried about the boy. He had taken only a few breaks from watching his friend, and those had only been for a few minutes, and then very reluctantly. He had fallen asleep each night in the chair, holding his friend's hand. Even Tom had been concerned enough to tell Neelix, who had taken it upon himself to bring Kurama balanced meals and ensure that he ate properly. I hope Hiei regains consciousness soon--for Kurama's sake at least. He's so worried . . . Kurama shot him a questioning look and the Doctor smiled reassuringly. The redhead smiled back tiredly. Yes . . . very soon. He's going to develop an ulcer at this rate . . . or worse . . .

Kurama watched as the Doctor left the room, sighing softly. Gods . . . When is he going to wake up? It's been two days, and he's a youkai . . . He should have been awake long before now . . . He gently ran his thumb across Hiei's too-cool palm, holding his friend's hand gently to let him know he was there, even in unconsciousness. He wasn't sure Hiei would know, but the thought that he might, and that it might make him wake up, was reassuring to the fox. I need him . . . The youko tried to fight sleep, but sleep won the battle as Kurama yawned hugely and set his head down beside Hiei's. The sound of the respirator lulled him into a deep sleep--one without dreams, as one cannot dream sitting up (1).

The youko awoke much later to find himself laying on an examination table a few feet from Hiei's. He blinked, realizing that not only had they somehow moved him without waking him, but also that they had somehow broken his hold on Hiei's hand without him stirring. Kurama furrowed his brows as he realized how dangerous it was for him to be so tired. If the Meikai had attacked to finish Hiei off . . . they may have succeeded with me out of action like that. I need to be less careless . . . He rose and sat in his chair again, taking his unconscious friend's hand again. I can't allow that to happen . . .

He should be awake by now, shouldn't he? Kurama was beginning to worry. Hiei was a youkai, and he usually recovered quickly from injuries. The fox suddenly froze as he felt movement from the fingers in his hand. He looked at Hiei, watching for any sign that he was waking, then sighed in disappointment. I must have imagined it . . . Kurama ran a hand through Hiei's hair, disappointed by the false alarm. He was nodding off again when Hiei squeezed his hand. The fire demon gasped, struggling with the respirator that was shoved down his throat.

Kurama was vaguely aware of a beeping noise as he tried to calm his panicking friend. "Hiei, just let the respirator breath for you. Don't fight it." The fire demon obeyed, calming, then opening his eyes slightly and focusing on his friend. The fox smiled at him, fighting tears of relief.

The Doctor smiled from where he stood behind Kurama, then walked around the table. "I'm going to shut off the respirator and take it out. I want you to breathe out when I begin to pull the tube out." The Doctor shut off the machine and carefully removed the tube.

Hiei winced, coughing, then slowly turned onto his side, curling around himself. He left his hand in Kurama's position, curling this other hand loosely around the teddy bear. The youkai's eyes slid shut as he fell into a deep, healing sleep.

Kurama pulled the blanket around Hiei with his free hand, covering the fire demon's shoulders. The redhead sat back down in the chair, and watched the youkai sleep for a while. He yawned, then frowned. I just slept! Why am I still this exhausted?! The youko sighed. I need to take care of myself. I won't be much help to Hiei if I'm too tired to fight. Kurama lay his head on his free arm on the table, setting up a protective barrier with his ki that would alert him to anyone but the Doctor, waking him immediately. Then he followed Hiei into sleep.

Kurama was awakened by soft voices. He opened his eyes slowly to find himself staring into darkness. He frowned, then quickly realized that his face was in Hiei's hair. He sat up to see that Hiei was still sleeping soundly, in the same position that he had been when Kurama had fallen asleep. Somehow, Kurama had shifted in his sleep to a position that had brought Hiei's head under his chin. He frowned as he heard the voices come closer, then resumed his sleeping position, not really feeling like dealing with anyone at the moment.

He did, however, listen as Captain Janeway spoke. "We need to stop these attacks before one of them is killed. They're not getting to get time to recover, so we should just use the program that Hiei created and do it ourselves." Kurama cracked an eye open slightly to see that Janeway was speaking to the Doctor, Tuvok, and Tom Paris.

The Doctor sighed. "I agree. Hiei is in no condition to do much of anything at the moment, nor will he be for a while. While I'm against killing, it seems that it's going to be either Hiei and Kurama or the creatures. At this point, another attack would most likely kill Hiei. Kurama hasn't had real sleep in days, so an attack would be dangerous to him as well. He's slept sitting up, as he is now, and a mind cannot enter REM state when a person is sitting up (2). I was tempted to sedate him and put him on one of the examining tables, but that would have been unfair to him. He was worried, and still is. Besides, having him sedated would have been a problem if there had been another attack."

Tuvok nodded. "It would be easy to program multiple tricorders now that we have an example of the program needed. Hiei did a very good job creating it, and it seems to pick up Meikai youkai easily. I scanned them with the tricorder earlier and recorded the ki readings so we don't mistake them for enemies." The Vulcan paused. "In fact, on my way here, the tricorder picked up something following me. It disappeared before I could react."

Since when does Tuvok know Japanese? He just said 'demon' in Japanese. Kurama stiffened and extended his senses, concentrating on finding a ki signature from Tuvok or any of the others. That's not Tuvok! He jumped up, summoning his Rose Whip as he found one. "Get away from him!"

Janeway stared at him. "Kurama, what-?"

"That's not Tuvok!" the redhead hissed. Paris immediately took action, pulling his captain out of danger as Kurama struck out with his Rose Whip. The whip wrapped around the being posing as Tuvok, biting into its skin. "Show yourself!" The shapeshifter used Tuvok's face to sneer, then somehow changed into a gaseous form, causing the whip to fall harmlessly to the floor in an uneven coil. What the hell . . .? I didn't know shapeshifters could do that! Kurama cursed as it switched again, this time into a huge, muscled youkai. The half-youko swung his whip again, but the shapeshifter caught it and yanked him forward in a smooth motion. The youko winced as the youkai took advantage of the brawny form it was in and knocked him over an examination table. Kurama bolted to his feet as he realized that he had left Hiei unprotected and asleep. No! The youkai had switched forms again, this time to what was apparently its true form--that of an imposing youkai with dark greenish-blue hair. Kurama froze as he saw that the shapeshifter had Hiei by the collar. Hiei . . . Gods, no! I can't let them take him! "Let him go!"

The shapeshifter sneered at the youko, holding Hiei up by the front of his shirt. Amazingly, the fire demon seemed to still be asleep, the teddy bear clutched in one of his fists. "Now, why would I want to do that? We've been working on destroying this little half-breed freak for far too long. He's like one of those ningen cockroaches--he won't die. We've been attacking, and he somehow manages to survive every time. I was disappointed when that drug I gave him didn't work."

Kurama's eyes widened. He's the one who was posing as the Doctor! "You bastard!" he growled.

Hiei's captor laughed derisively. "Now we have him. We can finish him off--slowly . . . Painfully . . ." The creature grinned, swinging Hiei slightly back and forth. "He'll beg us for death before we're finished with him."

Hiei . . . "Hiei would never beg--especially not to the likes of you."

The shapeshifter laughed again, the sound cold and filled with malice. "We will break him . . ." The creature licked its lips. "And we will have so much fun doing it . . ."

Hiei's eyes snapped open, and he lifted his arms and dropped the bear, sliding out of the loose shirt and to the floor, then scrambling away as the shapeshifter lunged, claws slashing. They barely missed Hiei, instead shredding the teddy bear to pieces, sending bits of fur and stuffing everywhere. Kurama jumped forward and pulled the fire demon out of danger, gathering his friend in his arms. "Hiei . . . Are you okay?"

The little youkai in his arms blinked at him, then nodded groggily. "Bear's not, though . . ." Hiei then smiled slightly and closed his eyes, immediately falling back into his healing sleep.

Kurama jumped out of the way as the shapeshifter lunged, shoving Hiei into Paris' arms before attacking the creature with his whip. The creature turned to stone and Kurama smiled, throwing seeds at him that immediately grew into a plant that began consuming the rock through use of acid. The creature shrieked and changed forms again, writhing as it tried to rid itself of the acid plant. Kurama felt no sympathy as he swung his whip again, cutting the distracted demon in two. Bastard.

The Doctor ran a tricorder over the being's body. "It's not dead."

Kurama started forward, ready to finish it off, but stopped as Janeway shook her head. "I want it transported to the Brig and held under a level ten force field." She made the call to the transporter room and then turned to Kurama, who had taken Hiei from Tom. "Any idea what's going on?"

The redhead frowned. "That was the shapeshifter that posed as the Doctor and drugged Hiei. Evidently . . . they attacked Tuvok, meaning that they probably got the tricorder, and are probably holding Tuvok captive . . ." Kurama cursed. "And Hiei's in no condition to make a new program. I'll have to leave him here . . ."

At that moment, the door to Sickbay slid open and Tuvok limped in, bleeding green blood from a gash on his temple, but holding up the tricorder. "There is no need for a new program. This one is intact."

The Doctor helped Tuvok to an examination table as Janeway grabbed the tricorder. "We're going to put this into the computer. It'll reprogram all the tricorders."

Kurama shook his head. "Hang on a second." He grabbed the tricorder and scanned himself and Hiei, recording their ki signitures. "That way you know where we are and don't mistaken us for enemies." Janeway took the tricorder and headed for the console. The fox turned to Paris. "I need some sort of paper that will stick to a surface, and a pen." The ningen frowned, but got the items Kurama requested. The fox set Hiei down on an examination table and wrote some strange characters on the papers."

Paris frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Making wards. I'm going to ward this room so we don't have to deal with unexpected company."

Janeway peered at the papers, interested. "What do they say?"

Kurama sighed. "Something similar to what we put on the ship's shields. 'All those who have the motive of killing or hurting anyone or anything in this room go away' and 'all ki attacks against this room and/or its inhabitants are useless.' I need sleep, and so does Hiei. I can't be up protecting him like this anymore." He finished writing on a few more pieces of paper, then began setting them.

The Doctor nodded. "Good. You two need uninterrupted rest." He watched as Kurama pasted the wards to the bulkheads around the room, placing a few on the ceiling and the floor, and one on each of the doors.

Paris was running a tricorder over Hiei when Kurama finished. The human frowned. "His body temperature is dropping again."

Kurama cursed. "His ki is trying to repair the damage to his body, and it's taking everything he has. I'm going to have to transfer body heat to him." And maybe ki as well . . . I'm not going to give him up without a fight! The redhead grabbed the sweatshirt from the floor and carefully slipped it onto Hiei. He picked up the blanket, shaking bits of fur and stuffing from it, then lay on the examination table with his friend, wrapping both of them in the blanket. "Go ahead and program the tricorders. If there's a problem, wake me." He moved closer to Hiei, smiling as the fire demon moved even closer as his heat-starved body detected a source of warmth, then closed his eyes. He was asleep within seconds.

---

(1), (2) Concept from The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. I don't know if it's true or not. I suppose I could do research, but I'm too damned lazy to bother at the moment. Besides, I like the concept, so I put it in here. This is, after all, fiction.

This chapter was incredibly difficult to write. I got to the point where Hiei woke up and fell back to sleep, and my mind just froze. It felt like I should end the chapter there, but I decided it was too short and tried to figure out what to do. The idea came to me when I was working, swiping IDs at the dining hall. Since I was sitting there, and it was awfully quiet because it was Parents' Day (all the college kids blackmail their parents into taking them out to eat). So there was a pencil and a piece of scrap paper just sitting there, and I started writing. And I came up with the Tuvok idea. Really fun when your supervisor decides to check out what you're writing while you're taking a bathroom break. I come back, and he's reading it, and all I could think was "Thank goodness there's no yaoi in this part." I learned an important lesson. Never leave papers like that unattended at work. -.-;; Darned nosy coworkers.

I reread this and didn't like some of it, so I revised it, and I think it flows more smoothly now.