A Most Dangerous Game

Wounded and Running

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or it's characters. 

Author's Note:  Back by absence of homework, another Kuwa/Hiei fic.  This one will hopefully be done by next Sunday.  Hehe… wishful thinking I know…  Please R&R!

            Hiei wanted to run, he wanted to run so much, but he wouldn't.  He had worked hard over the years, and learned to control his emotions.  He could feel Kurama watching him skeptically, as he walked slowly away.  Fighting the intense urge to bolt, Hiei did his best to swallow his humiliation and take it in stride.  He made it three blocks before the powerful instinct to hide began to make him shake.  Just slightly, but those strings of sanity began to quickly fray, and snap against the feral fear beating in him.

            So intent was he on binding his feelings, that he didn't notice as a familiar redhead slowly gained on him.  He barely kept himself from jumping ten feet, when Kuwabara called out to him.

            "Where ya headed, runt?"  He called tonelessly.  Something about the fire demon caused the hairs on the back of his neck to rise… more than usual.  This dimmed his courage a little as he hackled his familiar foe.

            "None of your business, Moron," Hiei snapped.  His fear and humiliation being pushed somewhere in the back of his mind while he dealt with the oaf.

            Kuwabara stiffened, pursing his lips in a less than amused fashion.  Hiei hadn't been so biting in a long while.  A little voice that warned 'danger!' was still niggled at the back of the taller boy's mind.  He snorted, then ignoring his better judgment remarked, "Just askin', humph.  Don't get your panties in a bunch."

            Despite popular belief, Hiei was no stranger to human culture.  He was after all, at least a couple of centuries old.  Most recently he'd developed a particular fluency in human insults.  He shot Kuwabara a withering glare, "Do you want to die stupid?"

            Kuwabara huffed, the hairs on the back of his neck sticking up again.  Seeing the human's discomfort brought Hiei mild amusement.  Now walking side by side, the two exchanged less than friendly barbs. Kuwabara carefully softened the insults aimed at the disturbed demon.  The sun was starting to set, bringing Kuwabara's mind back to his initial question.  "So," Kuwabara started in a more conversational tone, "Where are ya off to?"

            "Hn," was the emotionless reply.  The wound that had been momentarily subdued, resurfaced, and began gnawing ferociously at Hiei again.  He quickly hid his troubles under the usual detached mask.  "Nowhere," he muttered searching for an escape.  Relief temporarily flooded his being, when he spotted sanctuary in a small neighborhood park.  Without a word to Kuwabara, he jumped into the park and disappeared.

            Kuwabara stopped shortly, growling to the now absent, Hiei before continuing on his way.  Part of him was grateful to be free, of the dangerous aura surrounding the demon.  The other part however, was still nervous about what caused that aura, and what the effect would be.  Pushing the thought from his mind, he whistled tunelessly, resuming the walk alone. 

            Ten yards away, Hiei bounded up a tree, into a familiar protected crevice.  He checked quickly, but thoroughly for any sign of an enemy.  Finally sure of his safety, he settled into the crook of the tree, and at last allowed himself to drop his mask.  While he had too much pride to allow his front to fall completely, the weight of what had just happened to him tore at his restraints.  He trembled ever so slightly, as he relived the most humiliating moment of his long life, in his head.  Each detailed memory, seemed as though it were etched with acid into his being.

            Hiei was searching, combing his mind for any sign that he'd had this coming.  While he inspected these details, the sun fell lower over the horizon.  The shadows of the serene, friendly park deepened, stretching out sinisterly as night came to rule.  Still the only answer Hiei could find was that he should not have trusted Him.  He should have listened to his first impulses, to his past experiences, and not trusted.  Now the fire demon lie in the coming darkness, cursing yet another scar forming on his heart.

            ****End Chapter 1****

Author's Note:  I Will finish this one before May comes around!  I don't know how long it's gonna be, but by… whatever, I will.

            Also, I'm pretty sure you know who the one who hurt Hiei is.  The sneaky fox, Kurama.  I give credit for the idea to Rose Thorne, because it had never occurred to me before I read her fan fic, Suicide.