Sterotypes

Stereotypes
By: CrimsonFox

Warning: Shonen-ai, possible yaoi
Disclaimer: Not mine, that's all you need to know.

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I wanted to thank everyone who left reviews and apologize for taking so long to update the blasted story, I had no intention of it taking over a month to get this chapter done with;

Lady Aqualyne
shiorifoxiesmom
Everqueen
Shuichi Shindou
darkrosedamael
minion
Fuzzy Eared
phoenixfirekitsune
BlueUtopiah
Jessica Yanes
LoversPastForgotten
moony_lex
Kei
YuehKitsune

Yay! Thank you all so much!

*****

Chapter 9: Confronting the Enemy

*****

Kurama sighed as he left the long winded meeting. The teacher had gone on and on about… oh, no, he should know, shouldn’t he? Argh, the president of the senior class had no idea what was going on in the school.

Loud noises from down the hall warned Kurama that the football team had just let out and the rambunctious teens would soon be running through the halls to finally get out of the school. Steadying himself, Kurama took a deep breath and prepared to see the short football player. Of course… he never came…

“Yo, hey, Kurama,” Yusuke approached the slightly taller teen slowly.

“Um, good afternoon, Yusuke, why is everyone giving me a strange look?” he caught eyes with the fourth guy in a row to suddenly look away quickly.

“Well… ya see, uh, Hiei and I kind of got into a fight over you,” he scratched the back of his head, which was soon pounded into by the much taller Kazuma.

“The idiot told Hiei that you guys were fucking around last night.”

“What?” Kurama gave a very confused expression.

“Hiei threw him across the locker room,” Kuwabara stated annoyed.

The redhead bit his lip, “Where is Hiei?”

“Ah, he ran off before practice, and asked us to tell the coach to fuck off… we left that part out, of course,” Yusuke sighed, still rubbing the back of his throbbing head.

“I wonder where he went,” Kurama crossed his arms sadly.

“He likes the park,” Yusuke noted, “Goes there to work out every now and then, but be careful if you’re gonna go there, ‘cause that’s when he plays with his sword.”

“Sword?” Kurama's eyes grew wide.

“Yeah, he likes sword fighting,” Kuwabara nodded as the three headed out in to the fading sunlight.

“Hm… Okay, thank you both very much, I think I’ll go find him right now,” he bowed his appreciation before running off into the nearby park to look for his short tempered crush.

*****

Soft footfalls and heavy panting drew Kurama deeper into the large forest. He had no idea how he had found Hiei so quickly, but he felt as if something were drawing him closer to the boy with the smoldering kisses and strong, loving hands. As silently as he could manage, Kurama slid between branches and bushes, stepping over twigs and stones.

The sight was glorious. Hiei was shirtless… sweaty… delicious. He was beautiful. Kurama bit his lip. He had no idea how strongly Hiei effected him until just now. Why did Hiei have to do this without a shirt? The boy was fast and strong. His sword was moving with such grace and sure stroke.

Kurama stood there for almost five minutes, not realizing that he had been staring the entire time when Hiei suddenly stopped and shoved his sword into the ground roughly.

“You can come out, I know you’ve been there for a while,” his deep voice growled loudly.

Kurama's breath hitched. He didn’t think it would be that obvious. He had been so quiet, and so sure that he…

“You know I can’t resist watching you,” another redheaded female came out from the opposite side of the clearing Hiei had been working in.

“Ah,” Kurama let out a soft yelp as he realized that he had bitten his lip so hard that he was now bleeding, ‘Oh no!’ he looked up, but the two were currently engrossed in one another so they hadn’t noticed his little sound.

“I hate it when you watch me,” his voice growled.

“Oh, but it’s so alluring. I like to think that it’s a little dance just for me,” Mukuro smiled, leaning in closer.

“Stop that!”

Kurama had to hold himself back to keep from jumping the girl. He had heard about the two, and knew that Hiei had no interest in her, but that didn’t mean that he had to put up with the damn woman hitting on his… crush…

“Do not touch me,” Hiei said roughly.

“But that one night at the party, you were loving the feel of me against you,” she continued to move in closely.

“One night! At a party! I barely even remember this party,” he snorted, pulling his arm away from her. Kurama let out a sigh of relief, at least Hiei had no interest in her. He didn’t have to worry about that… too much.

“I could show you exactly what happened,” she smirked.

“Go away, I don’t want to hear about it. I’m not interested in girls,” he nearly jerked at his own confession.

“You? You’re gay?”

“… No…”

“You just said that you have no interest in girls, so you’re interested in boys?” she scoffed.

“A boy,” he corrected, “It doesn’t matter. Just leave me alone, I should tell you that I have no problem shoving this thing through your heart.”

“Then go for it,” she puffed out her chest for a better target.

Hiei smirked as in one quick move he pulled his sword from the ground and thrust it in the girl’s direction.

Kurama almost cried out for him to stop, but Mukuro fell backwards, staring up at the short boy with large eyes, “You- you were really going to do it…”

“No, I noticed the time it usually takes you to react and calculated it into the speed of my sword,” he shrugged, the sword still in place above Mukuro, where her heart was set when she was standing.

“Y… you’re such an asshole!”

“Hn,” he put the sword over his shoulder and walked away.

A minute passed as the two redheads remained silent while Hiei walked away, “You’re in love with a maniac,” Mukuro stated suddenly, “You can come out now. I know you were watching, too.”

Silently, Kurama emerged from the thick brush and bushes.

“Did Hiei know?” his hands started to twist, his head bowed low, too embarrassed to actually face the girl.

“I don’t think so… God, I’ve been after him from the first day we met, and you… you come out of nowhere, and have his heart in your hand…”

“I didn’t really come out of nowhere… I was here before him, and we just sort of ran into each other.”

“So, that’s all this is based on?”

“An accident in the hallway, not exactly the greatest of love stories,” he sighed.

“Of course it’s the greatest love story… Hiei’s in it,” her voice quivered slightly, but she remained strong.

“Why do you love him?”

“I… don’t know. I’m not sure if I even love him anymore. I’ve never felt this way before, but I don’t know what is it.”

“Is it just lust?”

“It could be, but even after that time in the party… I was never sated… I want him… plain and simple, I want him.”

“I’m sorry,” he nodded, understanding how she felt.

“Don’t pity me, Mr. Perfect,” she scowled.

“What is with that name?”

“You have everything. You have your looks, your brains, and your future.”

Kurama took a step back as he was soon being enclosed upon by the slightly shorter girl.

“You and he are nothing alike besides your anatomy. What is it that you have that I don’t besides a goddamn penis?”

“I-I don’t know…”

“You’re just a spoiled brat. You don’t know what it’s like on our end of the world.”

“‘Our end of the world’? What does that mean?” he found that he was at the edge of the clearing, being forced into the shrubbery.

“Hiei and I live in the same neighborhood. He’s worse off than I am. At least my parents are still here to support me.”

“He really doesn’t have any parents?”

“No, someone from both his mother and father’s sides of the family are giving the twins just enough money to get by, Hiei is here due to his football and Yukina is one of your competitors for top ranking.

“I can’t believe he fell for the preppy brat.”

“I don’t believe that you have the right to call me that.” He was sick of this girl saying that he wasn’t good enough for Hiei. Actually, that didn’t seem to be what she was saying, it was more like, he was too good for Hiei. Kurama didn’t want to hear that. He knew that he and Hiei had almost nothing in common, and didn’t need another person to point out the flaws in their relationship, which, by the way, didn’t exactly exist at the moment.

“You think I don’t have the right? What right do you have to come into Hiei’s life and mess with his heart? Hiei should be mine!”

“No! Hiei is mine! You have no idea what he wants or you would have learned that he has had no interest in you from the very beginning. Hiei loves me, probably more than I can ever understand, but I know that I care for him as well. I don’t quite understand it myself, but I know that I want to be with him… I… I …”

“You what?” she demanded.

“I… have to go,” he quickly slid into the surrounding forest and headed toward the marked pathways for park pedestrians.

*****

Hiei finally managed to get home, amazed that only one person had cursed him out for no reason. The streets were dark, and only one street was working as usual. Broken glass sounded almost every step. He had hidden his sword in the trunk of one of the trees in the park so he didn’t have to keep carrying it back and forth, but now he felt as if he were unguarded in his rather untrustworthy street.

“Welcome home, big brother,” a soft and gentle voice called out from the kitchen.

“Hello, Yukina.”

“How was your day?”

“… Fine…”

“Is that all?” she asked suspiciously.

“Hn, I got into a fight with Yusuke over something stupid that he said to me… again,” he rolled his eyes,” locking the door before he did anything else.

“Oh… did you break his arm this time?”

“No, just tossed him into the lockers.”

“Ouch.”

“Eh, he’s thick headed, he’ll be fine,” he shrugged, “What’s for dinner?”

“Aunt Hina sent us some casseroles.”

“Damn her fucking husband,” Hiei spat.

“Please, Hiei, calm down. You know Aunt Hina had no intention of marrying that man, but she finds her ways to help us when she can.”

“I know, I know. Our stupid family forced her,” Hiei growled, his mother’s sister had been the only one to care for them, but her husband was very strong about the Koorime side of the family since he married into it after setting a deal with Hiei and Yukina’s grandparents.

“Dinner will be ready in a little bit, did you send in the bill payment?”

“Yeah, it’s all set,” he plopped in the couch to watch some television, cracking his neck and back before getting comfortable, “How was your day?”

“It was good, Kuwabara made me his famous strawberry short cake for lunch,” she giggled softly from the kitchen, “And after tutoring I came home to clean up a bit. Please try to get your dirty clothes in the hamper and not around it.”

“Hn,” Hiei chuckled softly.

“What’s going on with you and Kurama?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” he raised his eyebrow. He wasn’t used to Yukina being so blatantly curious about his love life, or lack there of.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t confess your inner most turmoil to your twin sister,” she insisted.

“Hn, there’s not much to confess, and not as much turmoil as you might like to think,” he assured.

“Oh, come on, Hiei, make something up to entertain me then,” she smiled as she set the large dish on the dining table just behind the couch Hiei was settled on.

“You watch enough of those horrible soap operas.”

“And watching homosexual porn is so much better?” she giggled innocently.

Hiei’s eyes went wide and his cheeks turned bright red, “It’s called wrestling.”

“You can call it whatever it is that you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that the men roll around with the men and the women roll around with the women, trying to rip one another’s clothing off.”

“Hn,” Hiei glared at his sister, but there was nothing serious behind the normally deadly glare.

“Come to dinner, big brother,” she continued with her act of purity.

*****

Kurama was once again curled up into a ball on the sill of his window. He couldn’t believe what he had… almost… done. He had figured that he… cared deeply… very deeply for Hiei, but it was odd to actually say such a thing out loud, even if it wasn’t to the recipient of that… devotion? No, that made it sound even worse.

“Kurama?” a knock at the bedroom door called the teenager’s attention.

“Yes, mother?”

“Are you feeling okay?”

“I am fine, thank you mother.”

“Are you sure? We haven’t talked all day.”

“I’m just busy with some homework,” his gaze fell on the pile of untouched papers and projects he had to finish for the next day.

“Okay, what would you like for dinner?”

“Hm… spaghetti sounds good.”

“Okay, I’ll get started on that.”

“Thank you, mother,” he gave his best at fake enthusiasm, but felt the tinge of disgust in himself at the end of it all and the fake smile hurt his face. His mother couldn’t even see him, but he felt the need to fully pretend his usual happiness.

“Oh, and sweetheart…” she sounded too motherly all of a sudden, “Don’t let this get you down. It’ll work out in the end, okay?”

Kurama stared at the door where his mother should have stood on the opposite side. He had no idea how clairvoyance worked, but his mother had apparently figured things out as if reading a book through the door.

“Dinner will be ready in a little while,” she stated before he heard her soft footsteps down the hall and stairs.

Chewing on the tip of his tongue, Kurama finally moved to make good on his word about the homework in progress.

When he was half way through with his homework, his mother called him to the telephone. That was odd, he hadn’t even heard the phone ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey… Shuuichi…”

“Maya?” that was obviously not who he had been expecting.

“Yes, how have you been?” she asked sheepishly.

“I’ve been fine, and yourself?” he replied out of polite habit.

“Not so great, actually… Look, can I see you tomorrow? I’m not trying anything funny, I swear, it’s just that you’re the only one I ever felt that I could talk to.”

“…” he swallowed hard. She sounded so sad, “Yes, I’ll see you during lunch.”

“Thank you so much, Shuuichi. It mans a lot to me,” Maya’s soft voice answered, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” and hung up.

He put the handset back in its proper cradle before going over what had just happened in his head. It was all over so quickly. He felt pity for his ex-girlfriend and her current condition, he had been very cold according to Hiei, and he needed to make some things right before he could officially move on with his life. He wanted to have a solid ground to look back on when he was older and hopefully a well known biologist or famous brain surgeon.

“Kurama, honey? What was Maya calling about?”

“I’m not really sure yet…” he was still standing with his hand resting on the phone.

*****

Red hot anger and sharp painful jealousy filled all of Hiei’s senses as he saw his redhead sitting in the lunchroom corner with a familiar dark haired girl curled in his long lithe arms.

“Hey, Hiei, if you keep staring, you might be able to get the couple to set on fire,” Yusuke patted the captain’s shoulder, “But I don’t think that you want to hurt your precious redhead.”

“He’s obviously not mine,” he snarled with amazing hatred.

“Poor Maya,” Keiko sighed as she sat down with her tray.

“What do you mean poor Maya?” Kuwabara raised an eyebrow, but was soon distracted as his girlfriend settled on his other side.

“You didn’t hear?” a set of innocent ruby eyes stared up at the much taller orange haired man, “Maya’s father was killed in a car accident a week ago. She hasn’t been to school because they couldn’t find him, but they just received word.”

“So why is she in school?”

“It’s probably for the best. You can get more distracted when you’re outside the house,” Keiko nodded.

“See, Hiei? There’s no… Hiei?”

The boy’s eyes were wide, and there seemed to be a slight blush on his cheeks.

“You alright, man?” Yusuke tried to shake Hiei back into reality, but he refused to move, and following his line of sight, the delinquent saw why.

Bright emerald eyes were staring across the lunchroom, directly into the rare garnet colored irises. Even though his smooth hands were still working on the girl’s back in gentle circles, Kurama's focus was obviously only one person in the packed room. There was no obvious emotion in those normally passionate eyes. Kurama seemed content to continue his staring contest.

Hiei now knew why he never had an affinity toward bugs. Apparently he had had butterflies waiting in his stomach to hatch at this very moment. What he didn’t know was that Kurama knew exactly how he felt.

*****

~TBC~

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