Inspiration: Painting Flowers by All Time Low (Almost Alice)
Welcome! Please enjoy the story! And as with all disclaimers, I do not own YYH. There. Last time I say it.
I bounced to a stop, breathing deeply in the summer air. I reveled in the quiet city streets. No one was up this early, except for businessmen and they stayed out of my way. Most people did. I was an… eccentric creature. But my friends loved me regardless. Pulling out my phone, I examined the call that interrupted my run. "What, Yusuke? Couldn't it have waited 'til later?" I bit the words out into the phone, hoping my irritation came across.
His voice came out tinny from the handset. "Nope. You home? Cause we're going to Genkai's and we need an eighth." Of course. He needed me to be there to buffer Keiko. Not that I minded, but he was rather irritating so sometimes we tag-teamed him instead. "No, Ur-a-dope-i. It's 5:45 in the morning. I am most definitely on my loop." I heard him mutter a curse word under his breath. He didn't catch Ur-a-dope-i? That's the most obvious one in my arsenal. He must be distracted. "Tell me what's up, Yusuke."
"Well," his voice came out hesitant, "there's a powerful demon in the area. He's a mercenary, and we're just rounding up everyone so that we can protect you guys." He spoke quietly, as if hoping I wouldn't hear him. "Oh. Well, fabulous. But I'm 3 miles from home, and without a car. Give me an hour? That way I can shower." I heard him talking to someone in the room with him. "Nope. We're gonna come get you. Where are you?" Uhm…. Damn, where was I? Oh there's the sign. "Okinawa Park. You know, the one across from your old junior high?"
"Where in the hell are you, Shay? We need you right now!" I heard the loveable voice of my second best friend, Kuwabara blast into my ear. "Thanks, ZUMA. I'M DEAF NOW! CAN YOU LOWER YOUR VOICE?" I shouted back, garnering a few more stares than normal. Hell yeah bitch. I'm the crazy girl screaming into the phone. Now move your short ass right on by. "I'm by Okinawa. When are you gonna be here?"
"I think we're gonna send Kurama after you…." Yusuke's voice came back on the line. "Just go into the park and wait."
"Aye aye captain," I snapped off a salute, even though he couldn't see me and hung up on him. I quickly looked both ways and jogged to just inside the park. But when I was there, I spotted a small boy crying. "Aww honey, where are you parents?" He sobbed and pointed into the heart of the park. "Okay, we'll go find them." I picked up the boy and placed him on my hip. He couldn't have been more than three. What the hell were those parents thinking? Leaving a little boy all alone out here. I pulled my phone into my hand just in case, but I was sure I didn't need it. "So what's your name?" I asked him, as we traveled in the direction of his pointing finger.
" I'm Genro." He looked up at me, his soft brown eyes so grateful. I just wanted to keep him. And cuddle him. He was just so damn cute! "Well, Genro, are we getting any closer to where your parents were?"
He grinned evilly, and I swear he flicked out a snake tongue. I dropped him on the ground and he landed on his feet far too easily.
He began transforming before my eyes, and that's when I knew I was in deep shit. I pressed the button that led to Yusuke's speed dial. Pressing the phone to my ear, I turned and hauled ass right outta there, going back the direction I came.
"Shit Yusuke, answer!" I finally heard his voice as something wrapped around my leg, knocking me to the ground. A tail? A snake tail? Really? Can't you come up with anything more original? "YUSUKE! There's something attacking me! Hurry up! I don't care what you have to do, but get here NOW!" A foot crunched down on my wrist, shattering my phone and the bones in my hand. "Damn. That was an iPhone! Now I'm going to have to get it replaced!"
My brain was acting very odd. I didn't feel pain. I was noticing things like he still wore clothes. He just looked like Medusa in that new Clash of the Titans movie, but with legs. So like, a lizardman/bald Medusa. I really liked that movie. I wonder when it's gonna come out on DVD. Wait… creepy snake thing's gonna eat me! I cradled my right hand to my chest. "Get off me slimy bastard!" I lashed out with the foot that wasn't trapped and connected with his nose/face. There was a bright violet light surrounding the bashed part of his face. His grip slackened and I ran. Wasn't gonna stay there thank you very much. I like my face. As I ran, I saw a red and black blur shoot past me, towards the monster. But what was most relieving was that I collided straight into a friggin' mountain. I fell back on my butt and looked up. "Zuma! You're here! Oh my God am I glad to see you! And you even brought Ur-a-dope-i. Boy am I glad to see you two. Cause that snake thingy was gonna eat my face, and I like my face. I mean, not to sound vain or anything, but I don't wanna walk around with a skinless face." As my mouth chattered on, it seemed my brain was free to look around, sort of an out-of-body experience. As I saw Hiei and Kurama approaching, Hiei looked almost disappointed.
I snapped back to reality, hearing what my mouth wanted to say. "And that's why the platypus is my favorite animal. " I clamped my hands over my mouth, puzzled when my right one wouldn't behave like I wanted it to. It looked kinda flatter than it used to, and a lot more purple. I shook it up and down and it flopped uselessly on the end of my arm. I stared at it while Kurama gave the report.
"It was a lowest E demon. A bottomfeeder, a bloodsucker. However, since that park is rarely used anymore due to the reports of haunting, it was weaker than normal. What Shay did to it had killed it."
Hiei gave an indifferent, "Hn. The woman killed it. I'm not surprised." My hackles went up. "'Scuse me Mr. High-and-Mighty Hiei. But you are a powerful demon and I almost got my face ripped off. So I'd say I'm pretty damn pleased with myself for killing a demon." I huffed and tried to cross my arms, but my hand folded uselessly against my chest. And then the pain hit. "Oh goddamn shitfuck. Damn damn damn damn hellbitch." I continued in this vein for another few choice words, as I cradled my hand to my chest. What I wasn't prepared for was Hiei's face to be directly in front of mine. "Shut up woman. Or I will make you." My mouth gaped like a fish's, stunned into silence. Yusuke and Kuwabara fell to the ground laughing, while Kurama chuckled and sat down on the ground on front of me. "May I see please, Shay?" I offered him my hurt wrist, flinching even when his delicate touch passed over the appendage. "It's completely broken. Your carpal bones are shifted out of place, and the metacarpals are all snapped in half, not to mention that both your radius and your ulna are broken."
"So what does that mean?" I asked him, dreading the answer I knew was coming.
"You need it set and a cast on it. I'll take you myself." He took my hand that actually worked and pulled me to my feet. "Hiei, you coming?" The fire apparition didn't offer a response, only that of walking on my other side, almost as if he were guarding my hurt side. Did he care? Does he know how I feel about him? I was placed in the car, and we drove off, leaving instructions with the boys to meet back at my apartment. I told them the location of the spare key, and reminded them to put it back, please. Last time I got locked out and they had put it where only Kuwabara could reach. I had to call them to come get it down. But as I was thinking, Kurama's voice drowned out my thoughts. "We are at your home. Perhaps you wold like to clean your face? It is bleeding a little and rather dirty." That was good ole' Kurama, always taking care of everyone else. But I knew a secret that Botan liked him. She wanted to take care of him for a change. I shook my head.
"You guys can come in." I left the door open and headed straight for the bathroom, to check out what other damage had been done. My hair was fine (Thank God. Dreadlocks are so damn expensive. Especially half ones like these.) It was still pinned back from my run so I took out my hair tie and shook out my bangs, letting the bleach blond sweep over my forehead. The rest of it was a mixture between the light blond and the dark brown color that was naturally my own. Brushing out my bangs, I fluffed up the back and the crown, giving it sort of an indie mullet appearance. I mentally catalogued all of my piercings. Eyebrow, tongue, seven on the left ear, three and the bar on the right ear, both of my snakebites. I've got 15… we're good to go. But I needed to slap on some makeup, especially if we were going out later. So I managed to do it decently with my left hand, only irritated with the mascara. The eyeliner went fine, I used my left had to apply it sometimes when I got bored. At least the colors of my eyes stand out. Caribbean blue-green. My best feature. I puffed myself up proudly after thinking that, but I needed to get changed. Managing to wrestle my way out of my running shorts, I stood there wondering how in the hell I was going to do this. So I pulled out my denim cutoffs and was bound and determined to get them on by myself, which I did. GO me! The shirt proved no more difficult, but it did jostle my wrist. I grabbed my favorite red hoodie and my neon Converse and went out to meet the two boys in my home, ready for the hospital. Yikes. "Can we just get this over with? I don't want to have to spend too much time there." I followed them out to the car and settled in for the ride, still holding my hand.
A few minutes later, we pulled in. Ah the joys of living in a big city. Kurama took me in by himself, Hiei stayed outside, presumably to protect us. Whatever, he was pissier than a woman on her period. So we stepped foot into a hospital, the first one I had entered in about 10 years.
"Sooooo. Kurama!" I sang at him. "Are you aware that you're beautiful?" I giggled and brushed my hair back. The doctor had put a bright purple cast on my hand, and loaded me up with morphine before I left. And he gave Kurama the rest of my meds to dole out as I needed them. I giggled again and tripped. "Whoopsie!" Thank God he caught me. Otherwise I would have been even more bashed up. "So are we really going to Genkai's? Cause if we are, I need to pack."
"You have things there Shay. You don't need to pack. We're going to your apartment to gather Yusuke and Kuwabara, then we're picking up Keiko and Botan." Hiei growled quietly as he got into the front seat next to Kurama. "Hey, Hiei! That'shhh my seat!" I slurred and laughed. He gave me an odd look, but it made me crawl into the back anyways. He didn't look angry, just exasperated, and a little worried. The Great Hiei was worried about me? Awwww how sweet. "Well, then can you hand me my…" My sweater smacked me in the face. "Thanks!" I struggled to put it on, pushing the sleeves up just past the end of the cast. I hated having sleeves down by my wrist. They were so annoying.
As I sat in the car, the gentle movement lulled me to sleep.
When I woke up, we were at the apartment. I walked up to the door and opened it with my keys. Well tried to open it. "Damn cast." The pain meds were wearing off, and everything began hurting again. And lord knows I'm a bitch when I'm tired, hungry, or in pain. God have mercy on you if I am all three.
I tried again, but my swollen fingers did not cooperate. So I didn't quite see Hiei take the keys from me, but I did see him opening my door. "Uh…. Thanks….." He 'Hn'ed' and went inside, straight for my freezer. I always kept my kitchen stocked with everyone's favorite foods. My apartment was in the middle of everyone's, so I t just made sense to meet here and do whatever. As I walked in, I was attacked by Keiko and Botan. I could barely think over their harpy shrieks of anger, worry, and anger at Yusuke. So I pulled a Hiei and bolted for the kitchen. I saw him standing by the counter with a tub of mint chocolate chip. Ooooh, my favorite. So I snuck a bite with my spoon before he could react. He just looked at me, and tilted the tub in my direction slightly, offering it to me again. "Thanks, Hiei." I sat on the counter next to him leaning and we shared the ice cream through Yusuke's shouts of pain.
Oh Shay and Hiei are cute. They're just alike, except for she's more of an in your face excited puppy, and he's... Hiei. But they're both snarky and mean and downright funny. And to clear up everything, Shay has known Yusuke for almost longer than Keiko. They have been best friends and she was the one who introduced Kuwabara to Yusuke. Then she met Kurama on accident coming out of Yusuke's house, and has been their friend ever since. She knows about demons, yes, but only has known for about the last seven years. By the way, this story happens five years into the future.