Kamusta! :)

Here's part 10 of my sis' fanfic!
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Ten.

        It struck only too close to the youkai heart.  Kurama fell on one
knee, then on two.  His right hand lay lightly on the dagger as if wanting
to take it out, but being too weak to do so.  His head bowed over again so
Hiei could not see how it hurt him.
        Hiei, in a fluster, looked out at where the projectile had come
from.  His searching gaze came across a sniggering goblin fighting for
breath, looking no saner than the sordid creature that, a while ago, he had
reduced to dust.  He knew all at once that the true controller of those
vines, that grass, those projectiles, were in fact, that one survivor, and
not the one he had come to hastily blame.  And the survivor was getting
quite angry…
        The wrath of an opponent alone has never been enough to stop Hiei.
Suddenly finding the strength to charge, he lunged for the creature.  Its
blazing stare steadily matched his own.
        The creature slowly raised its stout arms.
        "Ah!  Hiei!" Kurama cried.
        The sparse blades of grass beneath Hiei shot up, and would have
impaled him had he not been able to foresee it.  He leapt high into the air,
to bring the Ensatsu Ken down hard upon the offender.  It did not even have
time to twitch.
        Hiei stood for a moment beside the crushed skull of the little
creature who, in death, seemed little more than another carcass destined to
be ravaged, alone in the wild.  There could be no doubt that the thing was
dead, but still Hiei watched. It was some time before he found the
inclination to rejoin Kurama at the edge of the wood.

        The bandaging was not clumsy, but neither was it first-rate.  Hiei
was no healer.  Most of the task had to be done by Kurama himself.
        "Do you expect me to be temperate?" Hiei scoffed.  "You’ve always
been the lifesaver."
        Kurama smiled sadly and shook his head.
        "I’ll heal quickly enough," Kurama assured him.  "My real problem is
explaining the tear and the blood on my vest to Shiori-san when I get home."
        They had torn off strips of Kurama’s undershirt for the bandage, and
the whole thing went to pieces, eventually.  Shiori may not look for the
undershirt, but Hiei understood Kurama’s concern for the favorite fuchsia
vest, which he would have to procure.
        "Tell her you accidentally stabbed yourself over the heart," Hiei
said flatly.
        "That wouldn’t work.  I’ve tried it as a six-year-old."  Kurama took
one last wistful glance at the torn and bloodied vest, then cast it aside.
"And I’ve discovered that you can only get away with it once."
        Hiei’s restless fingers plucked a stone from the forest floor, and
dropped it again.  Its gentle clicking echoed.  "So which way do we go?" he
asked.
        "Wait," Kurama instructed.  "I think I remember this maze, and the
only way out."  He looked away from Hiei’s face so he could think properly.
Unconsciously, his arms folded across his chest.  Before he knew it, he was
hugging himself, shrugging off the cold.
        And even before Kurama could anticipate it, Hiei removed his cape
and threw it around his comrade’s naked shoulders.
        Kurama watched Hiei sprawl back in front of him as if nothing had
happened, as if the two of them shared so much everyday.  But the cape was
valuable, for it was the only comfort Kurama could afford.
        "Thank you," he said quietly.  Hiei inclined his head once, and
briefly, but that was all his answer.
        "I think I remember now.  Three left, three right.  That’s the pattern."
Hiei frowned.  "Which road?"
        "Why not the one we’re on?  We can always reverse the pattern and
return to where we started from.  We’re both here.  What’s the point in
separating again?"
        "Hm," Hiei mused.  "This road, then."
	Kurama had regained most of his strength.  When he stood, Hiei stood.
"We’d best be going now."
	Hiei’s cape felt like warm arms about his shoulders.  The silence and the
stillness suddenly became drowsy, weak.  There was no wind, but the black
cape billowed with Kurama’s every step.  And Hiei, in his turn, did not seem
cold, or bothered.
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BFN!
:***LYN***:
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|Ma. Aileen Arcega|Surfing from Bulacan, Philippines!|lyn@tridel.com.ph |
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|      	    Akin si Kurama/Minamino Shuichi of Yu Yu Hakusho!           |
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