Kurama looked over his shoulder from his position at the stove. "He's a little frustrated right now." Finishing with the tea preparations, he joined the others in the living room and placed the tray within easy reach of the group.
Pouring himself a cup, Kuwabara inquired, "Why would the little twit be frustrated?"
"Well..." Kurama hesitated and looked over at the youkai, who was pointedly ignoring them, then lowered his voice discreetly. "You know Jenn and Amparo, the two girls who are writing that crossover with the universe of the Four Gods?"
"You mean the one with the Seishi and that mess in the Reikai?" Yuusuke clarified.
Kurama nodded and continued, "Um...let's just say that Jennifer left off at a key point in a particular scene, and it's been several days since she's even tried to add to it."
Hiei suddenly interrupted by flitting over to join them. Despite the redhead's attempts to keep the conversation from his notice, the youkai had heard every word.
"Several days?!" the fire demon growled. "It's been *three weeks*. Twenty-one very long days filled with very long hours and even longer minutes that don't pass quickly when you are about to--"
Kurama forcefully broke into his teammate's tirade. "*Anyway*, we're just waiting until she decides how she wants things to proceed."
Kuwabara looked puzzled for a moment, then asked, "What kind of scene is it? A fight scene?"
The redhead blushed slightly at the vulgar word the fire demon muttered under his breath. "Um, not exactly, Kuwabara-kun."
"How come we only get to be in *one* of the fight scenes?" Yuusuke demanded, taking off on the tangent. "I mean, they just write us in when it's convenient and then forget about us. Why don't I have a cool scene with Keiko?" he griped.
Kuwabara developed a silly smile on his face and asked hopefully, "Is Yukina-san going to be in any more of it?"
"You stay away from my sister, human," Hiei spat at the tallest member of their group.
"Yeah? Are you going to *make* me, shrimp?"
Before the fire demon unleashed his pent-up aggression on the hapless fool, Kurama reached out and tugged the youkai back away from temptation. "You know Jenn will never forgive you if you lose all of your...passion. She expects you to save that for later."
Yuusuke looked suspicious. "For what?"
The green eyes silently pleaded with Hiei to behave, then turned to regard Yuusuke. "That's what I started to tell you before. She had just written about our bonding ceremony, and..."
"Your what?!" Kuwabara yelped.
"Our *bonding* ceremony," Hiei replied helpfully through clenched teeth. "Why? Does that *bother* you?" He smirked at the fish faces the obviously flustered man inadvertently made as he tried to come up with something coherent.
"You mean... The two of you are... This is a joke, right?"
Yuusuke cuffed his friend on the back of the head. "You should know about that already. Weren't you paying attention?"
"Well, how can I keep things straight when Amparo is working at least one whole storyline ahead of Jenn, and the blonde keeps coming up with excuses to procrastinate?" He paused for a moment. "You know, she gets rather creative with them, too," he added with admiration.
Yuusuke nodded in understanding, "Yeah, okay. I can see how it's hard to keep everything in order. Do you know how many times Jenn has asked her roommate about the sequence of the plot?"
Kurama shook his head in despair. "I've lost count. I guess I can't blame her. Amparo's writing jumps around so much that one minute I'm in a tree with Hiei and the next I've been devoured by a dragon."
"You'd think she'd write the sequence down or something," Hiei grumbled.
"She does," Kurama informed him. "Have you *seen* that notebook of hers? I'm convinced that if you look through the contents hard enough, you might just find the meaning of life."
"Speaking of which, there is that plot about Botan coming up," Yuusuke interjected, pouring himself a second cup of tea.
"Yeah, what is going on with her?" Kuwabara asked. "Do you think the girls will actually write about Death having a boyfriend? Who would they get?"
"Hmm, there's always Amiboshi," Kurama suggested, taking the empty tea tray back to the kitchen. "I thought those two seemed pretty close during the whole reincarnation issue."
"I think we should warn him about how deadly she is with a baseball bat," Kuwabara put in. When the others all turned to stare oddly at him, he said defensively, "Hey, a guy should know these things about his girlfriend, especially if it gets serious." When that failed to gain any agreement, he added weakly, "You know, in case he pisses her off?"
"Ch, *that's* a thought. Death married." Hiei curled his lip in disgust at the implied happiness of that development.
Kurama walked back into the living room and flicked the fire demon. "*You're* married. Do you have something against it?"
Hiei considered his answer thoughtfully. There was that unfinished scene, after all. "Only when *someone* keeps putting off writing the wedding night." He glared meaningfully at the redhead.
"One of them is going to write a *wedding* night for you guys?" Yuusuke asked enviously.
Hiei's smirk returned. "The blonde tried to get Amparo to do it, since she had already written the last scene--but she refused to write the 'good parts,' as Jenn put it."
Kurama leaned down to whisper, "Yes, but you *like* those 'good parts,' don't you?"
"Ch, it's *your* tail that's making her stall so long."
"What's wrong with my tail?"
"She doesn't know what to do with it when..." he trailed off. "Stupid fox."
"You know, I think I'm getting a *little* tired of being called stupid. How would *you* appreciate it if I called you something like..."
Hiei jumped in, "Don't even *think* about calling me 'woolly worm'!"+
Yuusuke looked over at Kuwabara and shrugged. "I guess Kurama's feeling the tension, too."
While the two demons squabbled in the background, Kuwabara speculated about future stories. "What do you think they'll write about us next?"
Privately hoping for some "quality" time with Keiko, Yuusuke rolled his eyes. "With our luck, we won't be in the story until there's another battle to win. Like I'm just a rei-gun on demand."
"Well, what about me?" Kuwabara cried. "Just when I was right where I wanted to be with Yukina-chan, Amparo writes that I volunteer to go off and take the Seishi on a tour." He flung his arms wide in disgruntlement. "I ask you, would I do that? When I was so close to getting my *own* hurt/comfort scene!"
Hiei paused in his argument with Kurama to glare at the tall human. "I can give you all the hurt you want. *Forget* the comfort!"
"How do you know that they won't write us living happily ever after with a dozen kids..." Kuwabara broke off hurriedly as the small fire demon started stalking toward him.
"Because unlike you, moron, they're too smart to do that," Hiei stated with cold assurance.
Personally Yuusuke thought the fire demon's faith was slightly misplaced, but he wouldn't risk saying it out loud. Instead he decided to bring the conversation back to the real issue at hand. "Hey, Hiei. Do you think you can talk to Amparo and get her to write more about me? She seems to like you best."
The fire demon shrugged. "Fine. But *after* Jenn finishes the wedding night!"
Kurama noticed Kuwabara's beseeching looks in his direction and sighed. "Yes, Kuwabara-kun, I'll put in a good word with Jenn."
Both Yuusuke and Kuwabara grinned delightedly.
The redhead looked at Hiei and offered, "Maybe she'll get to it tomorrow."
The fire demon eyed Kurama speculatively. "Hn."
[We now return you to your regularly scheduled fanfic...]
[Year's End, Part 3] [Year's End, Part 4] [Fox and Phoenix page]
Note: Any seemingly anachronistic knowledge on the boys' part is due to the fact that "There Comes a Child, Book I" was written prior to "Year's End."