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Kurama noticed that he was losing his clothes with increasing frequency since his partnership with Hiei began. More than once, an outfit that he’d been careful to pick out and interested in wearing the next day was disassembled by the fire demon’s wandering hands. He’d been incredibly patient the first few times and Hiei was unashamed and unassuming in a sense, looking at him with a neutral expression when he hovered over the remains of his clothes. Sometimes a jacket would be missing, other times a shirt, on occasion pants. He didn’t understand the last bit, Hiei was shorter than him even if it was by a bit, the pants would’ve been a bit too long for him unless he hemmed them.
And the last thing Kurama wanted to think about was Hiei hemming his pants himself just to steal them. The kicker was that he couldn’t understand where the fire demon hid them. When he wasn’t in Kurama’s home, wandering the halls or sleeping in his bed, he was often wandering the Ningenkai. Kurama even saw him sleeping in a tree in broad daylight as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Of course, it would’ve been difficult to find him if you didn’t know where you were looking but he was used to Hiei’s peculiarities and his youki signature was easily identified amidst the auras in the city.
The mystery of his clothes disappearing continued and Kurama took to taking his clothing with him to the bathroom, wary of the fire demon’s nimble fingers, and the deceptively innocent look on his face when questioned.
Today though, he’d forgotten after a tiring day at school. The Sports Festival was one of the days that he had to show the most restraint. Enough power so that he wouldn’t lose but not too much that it would raise eyebrows. Coming home somewhat disheveled, his mother ushered him upstairs to take a bath and he’d been quick to comply. Gathering his clothes and setting them on his desk, he was waist deep in the bath before he remembered.
Hiei.
Coming back to his room after his bath was done, he opened the door and found that once again, an article of clothing was missing. A pink shirt in fact. And when he looked over, his eyes widened in surprise.
It wasn’t the fact that Hiei had stolen his shirt. It was the fact that he was wearing the shirt. Lying on his back, reading one of Kurama’s textbooks, stripped down to a pair of shorts he’d stolen and Kurama’s pink t-shirt which fit in certain places and was looser in others. Slowly, the fox blinked, trying to make sure that he was seeing correctly. Yet no matter how many times he opened and closed his eyes, Hiei was there all the same, resting in his bed in casual clothes without a care in the world.
“I was going to wear that, you know,” Kurama said, raising an eyebrow.
“Wear what?” Hiei asked, flipping a page in the book and settling his hand over his stomach.
He couldn’t understand Hiei’s reasoning for wearing his clothes. Though he could say that he looked appealing in it. Cute even, the pink softened his features and complimented the color of his eyes. Walking over, he gestured to the shirt that the fire demon wore and Hiei looked up at him before glancing down at the article of clothing in question.
“Hm. Were you?” Hiei said, not sounding quite thoughtful or apologetic in the slightest, returning to his book with a small smile twitching at his lips. “I didn’t notice.”
Kurama folded his arms, and he had to admit with how casual Hiei was being, he had to wonder if he didn’t know but he knew that he was lying. The smile that he was fighting down said it all and like always, Kurama decided not to fight about it. It was odd. In the past, he was never this lenient with others taking his things. Even the thought was enough to incite his ire but this was amusing and even cute .
And he had to admit that he felt a little foolish. Standing in his boxers, chin-length red hair dripping onto the towel draped around his shoulders, looking down at the fire demon with a mixture of annoyance and fondness before he gave up to go find another shirt to wear.
“If you say so, Hiei.”
He sorted through his closet, finding a shirt that he would’ve been comfortable with wearing while doing his homework. Perhaps he could finally get a straight answer out of Hiei for where his other clothes had disappeared to.
“You look handsome regardless, fox. Rest assured.”
Kurama’s eyes widened and he replayed the words in his mind. Glancing over his shoulder, he met Hiei’s eyes, the fire demon smiling at him with a flicker of amusement in his eyes. He could feel his face heating up, knew that he was likely growing red in the face.
“I…” He curled his fingers in the shirt that he was holding, pulling the towel aside with his free hand. It was easier not to look at Hiei, focusing on drying off his hair, the white fluffiness of the towel obscuring his face enough that he felt confident enough to let his smile show. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Hiei said, and the sound of him flipping another page before the book snapped shut was muffled as Kurama pulled his shirt over his head. “Though you don’t have to thank me for stating the obvious.”
Head free of the insides of his shirt, Kurama caught a glimpse of Hiei passing by him, stopping short to look at him before he left.
“Obvious,” he repeated, the door clicking shut behind him.
Kurama tried to fight down a smile. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to let him borrow his clothes now and again.