Sterotypes

To YuehKitsune: Yeah, I don't really see Hiei as a football star, but I saw a drawing somewhere of the group as football players, but Kurama was a cheerleader(I wasn't going to go that far), but yeah, that was my inspiration, and if anyone knows where I saw that I feel that I should give some sort of Thanks to them...

*****

Chapter 4: Bloody Knuckles

*****

“I don’t like guys!”

Why had he said it so suddenly? Did he know how Hiei felt?

“Shit,” Hiei cursed under his breath as his bus pulled up to his stop, and he made his way toward his and his sister’s small apartment building. What if Yusuke had told someone, and they had told Kurama? Oh, Yusuke was going to die.

*****

“Yo, Hiei, what did your crush say about the party tomorrow?” Yusuke slapped Hiei hard on the back the next morning.

“Hn, guess I forgot,” he shrugged, rubbing the new sore spot, completely annoyed.

“Yeah, forgot, right, you chickened out didn’t ya. You’re a wuss,” he laughed.

“Right, whatever.”

“Oh, Hiei,” Kurama approached shyly, “Um, can I talk to you for a little bit?”

“What is it?”

“Well… it’s a little private, so…”

“Hey, no prob, Hiei’ll tell me everything later anyway,” the chipper teen laughed and walked off quickly.

“You… you won’t actually tell him will you?”

“I don’t tell that idiot anything other than my name and age, and even then he still thinks I’m twelve.”

“Oh… okay, well… about what I said last night… I wanted to apologize if I had offended you in anyway. I didn’t mean anything by it… It just sort of came out.”

“I wasn’t offended.”

“Oh, good, I really wouldn’t want our friendship to start off on the wrong foot.”

“Don’t give me that.”

“W-what?”

“You just don’t want it to spread around that you’re homophobic.”

“I am not a homophobe,” Kurama nearly screeched, which caused a few people that were passing by to stop and stare at them both, “Oh, no… I hate when I do that.”

“What? Create a scene that makes you look like an idiot?”

Emerald eyes narrowed, “Even if I was gay, I don’t see why Maya thought I would go out with you.”

“Hn,” Hiei smirked, “because I’m dark and mysterious.”

“There’s nothing mysterious about you, and the only thing dark is your hair and horrible sense of fashion.”

“At least my mother doesn’t dress me.”

“At least I have one!”

“…” Hiei stopped talking, his eyes going wide for a second before he snarled at the redhead.

“Oh, Hiei,” he shook his head, “I’m so sorry, I … I didn’t mean.”

“You wouldn’t have said it if you didn’t mean it.”

“I don’t… it… it just slipped. Please, I really didn’t mean anything by it, I’m so sorry.”

“Hn,” Hiei shoved past, and headed toward his first class.

*****

“Stupid! Mother! Fucking! Bastard!” Hiei slammed his fists into the innocent punching bag. He had been holding in his rage for the past two classes, but now was his chance to make peace within himself by creating on the outside.

“Hey, um, Hiei, maybe you should at least put on some gloves,” Kuwabara tried to calm his friend.

“God! Damn! Ass! Wipe!” his skin began to rip against the coarse texture of the large bag.

“Hi-Hiei, uh, Hiei, your hands are bleeding… maybe you should stop, now,” he suddenly lifted the smaller teen away from the bag.

“Let me go, god damn it! Put me down!”

“Kuwabara, what’s going on over there?”

“He needs to go to the nurse,” he kept a tight grip of the kicking and screaming boy.

“For what?”

“He busted his knuckles,” he nodded toward the blood covered bag.

“Shit! Get him downstairs.”

“Right,” the orange haired boy kept as firm a grip as possible on the short boy as he made his way downstairs with Hiei squirming to get free, only to end up punching a wall. “Hiei! Stop it!”

“Hiei,” a soft alto nearly cried from the top of the stairs, his eyes wide with surprise, “What are you doing?”

Hiei suddenly stopped to glare at the redhead then down at his knuckles before going down to the nurse’s office.

“What the fuck?” Kuwabara looked at the odd expression that was still plastered on Kurama's face.

“Sorry… I heard him shouting… and… wanted to see if he was okay… I guess he’s not?”

“No, not really… why do you care?” Hiei had told him what had happened.

“I…” he sighed out, “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“Hmph, Hiei’s right, you really are a jerk.”

“Can you tell him that I’m sorry?”

“That’s not my business, right?” Kuwabara headed back to gym class.

“Darn it,” Kurama sighed out, and ran down to the nurse’s office, “The nurse isn’t in today.”

“So I found out,” he ground through his teeth.

“Let me see,” he held out his hand, which Hiei continued to just glare at, “Please? Let me help. I’ve taken first aid. I can at least clean it up a little, and wrap it decently.”

“Hn, I’ll be fine,” he huffed, continuing to look for rubbing alcohol.

“You’re going to hurt yourself even…”

“Ow, damn it!” he pulled his hands away quickly.

“Sit down,” Kurama sighed, and started pulling out bandages and gauze and hydrogen peroxide. “What in the world did you do to your hands?” he lifted one to pour hydrogen peroxide on the knuckles.

“Worked out some aggravation by rubbing them against a cheese grater.”

“I believe you.”

“Hn.”

“Look, I really didn’t mean anything about what I said this morning,” he stared at the blood that was finally slowing.

“I’m amazed that you care what I think or feel.”

“I’m not heartless. I just… I’m tired of everyone calling me a mama’s boy.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Well… yes, but that doesn’t mean I want to be called that. I was teased for years about it until high school, when Maya and I started dating. I guess when you get the most popular girl as your girlfriend, nothing else really matters.”

“Hn.”

“Will you tell me what you mean by that?”

“It’s usually just to let people know that I’m listening. Yukina got annoyed with the fact that I would just sit there and she would keep talking without any response from me.”

“Oh, so you’re listening?”

“There’s not much else to do when the other person won’t shut up.”

“Oh, sorry…”

“I’m not talking about you.”

“Heh, who then?”

“Mostly Yusuke and Kuwabara. They go off on random tangents all the time.”

“Tangents?”

“Mostly to girls, or some popular movie or porn or something that just came out, I don’t really know or care.”

“What do you like to talk about?”

“I’m not one for much chit chat.”

“There you go,” he put on the final bandage, “How does that feel?”

“… Much better,” he looked down surprised to see that both his hands were already set.

“Good, we should get back to class,” Kurama stood smiling, “I told my teacher I was going to the bathroom almost a half an hour ago.”

“Hn, Mr. Perfect, in trouble?”

“I am not perfect.”

“If you say so.”

“I do, so, I’ll see you after school, alright?”

“Yeah, sure…”

“Hey, you’re not mad anymore, are you? I really am sorry about what I said.”

“Hn,” Hiei looked down at his hands, “I think I’ve worked off my frustrations.”

“Good, and please find another way to work off your frustrations.”

“Better the wall than your face. The girls might try to kill me if I ruin the great Shuuichi’s beauty.”

“Please, don’t call me that. Well,” he sighed when the bell went off, “so much for class.”

“What do ya got now?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s my lunch break, but I prefer to work in the library.”

“No wonder I don’t see you. I have lunch, too… Um, do you want to join me and my friends?”

“That’s a very nice offer, but I don’t think that you’re friend likes me very much.”

“He’s stupid. He’s probably forgotten why he was mad at you anyway.”

“Look, that’s really nice, but… I’m sure that we would all be rather uncomfortable. If you want to study during lunch, I’ll be upstairs in the library, okay? Be careful with your hands. I’ll see you later.”

“…” Hiei stared after the redhead who was going to hide away in the library.

A heavy hit came down on Hiei’s head, “Are you stupid?”

“Urameshi, you idiot, what are you doing?”

“I’m not the one who just an invitation from my crush to study with him… alone… for the next hour… alone… with your crush… for an hour… alone…”

“I get it!” Hiei clamped a hand over the loud teen’s mouth, “I’m going, okay?”

“Great,” Yusuke smiled through the rough fingers.

“Hn, idiotic friends and their stupid ideas,” he grumbled as he made his way up the stairs to the library doors.

“Come on, Shuuichi, we should get back together. I’m sorry about what I said before, I was feeling jealous that you had forgotten about me to walk some boy home.”

“…I’m sorry, Maya, but I meant what I said. I can’t be with you.”

“Do you actually like him?”

“He’s just a friend. Nothing more.”

“Hmph, right,” she snorted, pouting annoyed.

“Look, Maya, I am truly sorry if I hurt you, but I don’t feel anything for you anymore, and I have to go and finish up some studying with.”

“With him?” she scowled at the shorter boy standing behind the redhead.

“Ah, Hiei, you will be joining me?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Great. Look, Maya, you can think what you want and tell your friends what you will… I don’t care anymore.”

“You’ve changed too much, Shuuichi.”

“His name’s Kurama.”

“He’ll always be Shuuichi to me, no matter how hard he tries to be anyone else. It’s all a lie. This is fake,” she stated sadly before walking away.

“Actually I’ve never felt more real in my life,” Kurama smiled proudly to the retreating girl.

*****

This is my favorite chapter title, the rest of the story on the other hand... I'm pretty sure that this will get rewritten, at least that last part. I had originally planned to make her more human, and then lost focus, and that's what came out, so, until I get around to rewritting it, here ya go!

~TBC~