Sterotypes

Altar of Wishes: Sorry, I meant that I really had no intention of making Kuwabara a jerk at all, and that's why I had to rewrite it, I apparently did something wrong as the writer for you to have misunderstood it in such a way. Oh, and I do make Kuwabara a dumbass a lot, but that's mostly because when you see him he's either drunk or thinking about Yukina, and well, Kuwabara isn't the most intelligeble man when he's around the girl.

To bunny_no_hoogle: I LOVE pocky, and I would love my Hiei plushy if I had one, but I woud need a Kurama one at the same time so they could make out... I'm going to stop talking about that right now...

*****

Chapter 3: Friends?

*****

“That’s a good question,” Kurama nodded thoughtfully.

“You want to be friends?” he asked incredulously.

“Sure, why not? It’d be nice to have someone who doesn’t tell me more than what they think I want to hear.”

“How do you know that I haven’t gone through that in my mind, and know exactly what you want to hear?”

“Because I highly doubt that you would be able to think that far in advance,” he smiled.

“You’re such a cocky bastard,” he scowled as hard as he possibly could, but it didn't seem to have the same effect on the redhead as it did most.

“If that’s how you want to see me.”

“You try so hard to be a perfect little angel, but you’re a cold hearted asshole, aren’t you?”

“I believe so, and you’re nothing but a thick headed football player because you think that you are nothing more than that yourself.”

“What hell does that mean?”

“That you don’t like to be yourself because it’s not who everyone wants you to be, but you’ve been doing it for so long that you don’t know where you end and this persona that was created over time has started.”

“I don’t think I like you anymore.”

“I didn’t know that you liked me to begin with,” he raised a fine eyebrow.

“I didn’t, but it was a tolerable thing, at least,” Hiei lied heading for the door with a redhead hot on his tail.

“So what do you and your friends usually do after school?”

“Besides practice? Nothing really, I don’t really hang out with them too much,” he shrugged.

“I’m not big on being surrounded by people.”

“But they’re your friends, shouldn’t you want to see them everyday?”

“You don’t have to see a person everyday just to prove that you like one another. Besides, my friends prefer to spend the night half drunk, and I only like that every now and then.”

“Oh?” he fell in step next to the shorter boy, “Why do you like to get drunk anyway? What is the purpose of you losing your inhibitions?”

“It can make you feel better every now and then, and I don’t lose my inhibitions.”

“If you say so,” Kurama shrugged.

*****

“Shuichi!” a shrill voice nearly screamed from the other line, “How could you?”

“How could I what, Maya? I don’t understand what you’re so angry about?” the redhead explained smoothly as he settled at his desk in his pristine room.

“You left me for another man.”

“I did what?” he nearly choked, dropping his school books.

“I saw you leave the school with that short football player. You were supposed to pick me up from the library, but I look out the window two hours after school and I see you walking out to the bus stop with him.”

“I’m sorry, Maya, but I thought that I asked you not to wait for me.”

“No, I told you to pick me up after you were done with your tutoring.”

“I guess I was in a hurry to get back to help mother I had forgotten, please forgive me,” he sighed, bored.

“… Well, since you asked so sweetly… Do you want to walk to school together in the morning?”

“Yes, sure,” ‘Do I really have a choice?’

“What’s wrong with you Shuichi? I just want to spend time with you and you’re making it seem like I’m giving you the death sentence.”

“I’m not doing anything of the sort.”

“Yes you are. You’ve been ignoring me for the past week, trying to get away,” she sounded so sad on the phone, but Kurama just didn’t care anymore.

“I assure you that I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Shuichi, don’t play dumb with me. You know how I feel about you, but you keep pushing me away.”

“Maya, we’ve been going out for the past three years. How do you think that I feel about you?”

“Apparently you’re bored of me,” Maya sniffled.

“Where did you get that?” he sighed, even though it was the truth. He was tired of all his friends and all of their lies.

“You never want to see me anymore, and you forget when we have plans, and you leave with another boy. You looked too happy to be with him,” her voice was thick with accusations.

“I’m not gay,” he came as close to growling in his life as he had ever.

“Let me guess, you’re going to see that boy again tomorrow, aren’t you?”

“I have to tutor him,” now they were both shouting, “I don’t like men!”

“Why are you yelling at me?” her sobs became louder, but this did nothing to soothe Kurama's anger.

“I’m yelling because you’re yelling and not listening to reason.”

“I don’t have to listen to reason, I saw you with him.”

“We were walking to the bus stop. I didn’t know walking with someone was considered cheating.”

“You’ve never talked back to like this before. Usually you just apologize and we go out for a cup of coffee.”

“Maybe I’m tired of coffee. Besides, I don’t have anything to apologize for. I walked a friend to the bus stop. Are you angry that I made a new friend?”

“Shuichi, how… do you really not love me anymore?”

“…”

“Shuichi…” sobs were all that were heard from the other line.

“I’m sorry, Maya, this isn’t how I wanted to tell you…” he trailed off when the dial tone was his only answer.

Somehow he felt no regrets or sadness as he hung up the phone. One lie was finally over.

“Shuichi? Are you okay? I could hear you shouting at Maya from down stairs.”

“I’m sorry mother, but I believe that it was a break up long awaiting to happen,” he smiled up at his mother in the door way.

“How are you feeling?”

“Oddly enough relieved, and Mother?” he stood to greet her.

“Yes?”

“Could you please call me Kurama?”

“What is a Kurama?”

“It’s a nickname that I have taken to, and I would like it if you would call me by it.”

“I’ve never heard Maya call you by that name before.”

“Yes, well… it was better known around people who aren’t in my particular group of friends.”

“What’s wrong with your ‘particular group of friends’?”

“I just don’t feel that I belong in it anymore. I don’t think that any of them know who I am exactly. Actually, I’m not really sure who I am anymore either.”

“Why is that?”

“Mother? What would you say if I told you that Maya broke up with me because she thought I was cheating on her?”

“Shu… Sorry, Kurama, you wouldn’t do that, would you?”

“No, but the funny thing is that she thinks that I was cheating on her with another boy.”

“Why would she think that? Are you a homosexual? You can tell me if you are. It really doesn’t bother me.”

“No, mother, that’s not the point of the story. I was walking a new friend to the bus stop and had forgotten to pick her up on my way out. Now she hates me, and is saying that I like this new friend.”

“Oh, so she’s crazy?”

“Mother,” Kurama laughed, “she’s not crazy, okay, a little, but not because of this… well sort of, but… it’s just that she’s been getting very paranoid about me with other people, boys, girls, dogs. She’s getting a little weird and clingy, so, we broke up just now.”

“And you don’t feel bad about it.”

“That’s the thing, I feel bad because I don’t feel any remorse at all about it.”

“Are you glad you went out with her though?”

“Not particularly. I mean I did like her when we started dating, but… it doesn’t feel like we were ever meant to be anything more than friends.”

“And what about this new friend of yours?”

“He’s just someone that I have to tutor so I can get some extra credit for my history class.”

“Oh, really?”

“Why? You don’t think that I like him, too, do you? Because I don’t really think I can deal with so many people thinking that I’m something that I’m not.”

“I’m just teasing you. Dinner will be ready in about half an hour, do you think you’ll be done with your homework by then?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Good,” she smiled and walked out the door, closing it behind her.

*****

“So, how was your tutoring yesterday,” Kuwabara scoffed at his friends. He had been doing pretty well in all of his classes since Yukina, Hiei’s sister, had said that he was smart enough to get better grades than the ‘D’s and ‘F’s he had been getting before he started dating her.

“Shut up. Keiko’s my tutor, and she’s mean enough to me without her getting frustrated about trying to get me to understand the concept of General command from our past wars. I think she hit me at least six times last night.”

“Man, your girlfriend is crazy, Urameshi,” Kuwabara shuddered at the idea. Keiko was pretty hot, but she knew how to keep the bad boy Yusuke in line.

“What about you, Hiei? Who’s your tutor?” Yusuke rubbed his cheek where Keiko had hit him multiple times.

“I bet she got Mukuro to help him. She probably knows about that major crush she has on you.”

“Actually I have to deal with Kurama,” he grumbled, ignoring the name Mukuro as best he could.

Yusuke and Kuwabara smirked at each other, “Why are you sounding so angry, shrimp? I thought you liked him.”

“I did, but it turns out that he’s nothing like I thought that he was. He’s a complete jerk.”

“Sounds perfect for you,” Yusuke laughed, “You didn’t think that Kurama would be able to put up with you if he really were that perfect angel you thought he was.”

“Shut up,” the deep voice growled at the taller idiots surrounding him.

“Oh, Hiei, there you are,” a familiar alto voice called to the shorter boy happily, as a familiar redhead came into the side door from the stairway, “Are we still on for your tutoring today after school?”

“Actually, I think that I have practice today.”

“Okay, would you mind staying late? I have some projects that I have to finish anyway. I could wait until you’re finished with football.”

“…S-sure…”

“Great, I’ll see you then.”

“Oh, yeah, he seems like such a jerk,” Yusuke said sarcastically.

“You hate staying late for practice, now you want to stay even later just for tutoring?” Kuwabara raised an eyebrow.

“Shut up.”

“Oh, Hiei, I think that you’re blushing,” Yusuke laughed.

“I am not,” he growled.

“Oi, there’s the bell,” Kuwabara jumped up, and called out as he ran, “got to get to class.”

“Yukina’s in his first class, isn’t she?”

“The fool doesn’t even run that fast on the field, of course Yukina’s in his first class,” Hiei sighed. He didn’t really care for it, but it was obvious that his sister liked Kuwabara a lot, so, he allowed Kuwabara to live.

“So…” Yusuke eyed his short friend as they made their way to their first class, “When are you going to ask him out?”

“What?” he choked, his were eyes so wide that they almost seemed that they were going to fall out.

“You know, I think he was looking for you for a while, he seemed rather happy to see you especially if he just has to tutor you.”

“Actually, I told him I’d be his friend.”

“Really? Just a friend?”

“You’re really starting to bug me today.”

“If you’re going to be his friend, why not invite him out to drink with us sometime? Say this Friday?”

“You think that Mr. Perfect Student actually drinks?”

“Not necessarily drink, but if he wants to be friends with you, I’m sure he’d love to be friends with me and Kuwabara, right? Besides, I’m sure you’d love to spend time with him outside of school, right?”

“That’s beside the point,” he growled.

“Come on, it can’t hurt to ask.”

“Hn.”

“Alright!”

“What are you planning?”

“Nothing, I’m just glad that your love life will finally start to take off soon enough.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Oh, Hiei, I’m hurt, and after all I’ve done for you.”

“What the hell have you done for me?”

“… I’ll think of the answer later, time for class.”

*****

“You looked really good out there, Hiei,” Kurama greeted the shorter boy in the library. It was almost five and the library would probably close in about half an hour, but the boys decided to do what they could.

“You were watching?”

“I get bored, and I guess I do have a need for violence. Watching you guys try to pummel one another gives me a slightly… well, it calms me down a little.”

“You? Violence?” Hiei scoffed.

“Hey, I did take some fighting lessons,” he defended himself.

“Oh, really? What? Tai-Bo?”

“Haha,” he rolled his eyes, “No, I took real karate at some place near my house, but I only made it a few levels of belts before I had to quit so I could focus on my studies and clubs.”
“How were you?”

“I’d say I was decent,” he smiled, but Hiei knew that with Kurama's personality he was probably the best in his class.

“Hn.”

“Didn’t we talk about your grunting? Or are you a gorilla?”

“Ha, you’re very funny.”

“Minamino, the library is closing, so if you and your friend could take this outside.”

“Of course, Mr. Toguro,” Kurama nods, and leads his friend out, “So much for studying to day.”

“Oh well,” he shrugged.

“Should we try again tomorrow?”

“I still have practice.”

“That’s fine, I’ll just take out the books that we need and we can work at my place, okay?”

“That… that sounds fine,” he was being invited over to Kurama's house…

“Great, so we’ll meet here after you’re done, and head over to my place.”

“Yeah… sure…”

“Okay, would you like me to walk you to the bus stop again?”

“If you want,” he shrugged.

“You want to know something funny?”

“Hn?”

With a heavy sigh to ignore the grunt, “This is what got me into trouble with my girlfriend yesterday.”

“So it’s true that you broke up?”

“You heard, huh?”

“The entire school knows, and every girl think that they’re the reason why.”

“What do you mean?”

“They think that you broke up because you wanted a different girlfriend.”

“Oh, that’s interesting considering we broke up because of you.”

“You what?” a coughing fit started in his throat.

“Are you okay?” he rubbed Hiei’s back, leaning over to see if he was okay.

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No… it’s not like that…” he regained his ability to breathe, “I just never thought I’d be the reason of someone’s break up, especially that life long relationship you and Maya had.”

“It wasn’t life long. It was only three years, and our relationship was ending when it started.”

“If you say so.”

“It’s the truth. Why does nobody believe me?”

“My bus is here.”

“I don’t like guys!” he suddenly blurted out.

“… What?” Hiei stared at the redhead as his bus stopped in front of them.

“It’s… it’s nothing,” he swallowed hard, “Um, your bus is here.”

“Hn, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he boarded jerkily.

“Okay,” he waved and headed home on his own. It was weird finally having peace and quiet while he walked, but it was nice. He could get use to looking around the scenery by himself with no one to distract him from the beauty of the world. Unfortunately there was nothing to keep his mind off of what he had just told Hiei. Where did that come from? Why did he feel the need to affirm his sexuality to him...? Uh-oh, what if Hiei was gay, and he had just completely offended him.

*****

~TBC~