Hiei stepped through the threshold and a heavy smell of sweat, blood, and more importantly, impending death hit him. A sardonic smirk curled his lips as he surveyed the scene before him. A woman was in the process of giving birth.
How unfortunate, he thought dispassionately, that death would grace her child instead. He could already feel the wheels of fate moving, quicker and quicker as the hour approach. The child was going to be a stillborn and it'll enter his realm. That much, the ruler of Underworld was certain.
Except it was as Botan had said. The soul of the child was unusually stubborn, unusual because it should have no reason to be willful about leaving a world it has never even entered, and therefore, didn't have any attachment to.
So what was this? Each time Hiei thought the soul was at the verge of letting go, it would quickly prove him wrong by annoyingly latching on once again. An hour had passed already. The wasted time was nothing to an immortal god, but the soul was quickly proving itself to be a nuisance.
The stench of death filled the dingy house as more time passed and Hiei got more and more annoyed. As a result, the midwife and the woman giving birth also appeared more and more fearful. They cannot see him, not unless he willed it, but even mortals can sense death perfectly.
Hiei shifted as he became aware of a change in the infant's soul. A glance told him that the child's body was out, but from the midwife's frantic movement of the child - the silent child- it seemed like it wasn't breathing.
Its hold on the living world slackened.
Finally, Hiei thought, approaching the child. He had waited long enough. So it wanted to see the world before leaving, huh. Hiei extended an arm out, ready to help the child along its way, to bring it to where it was fated to be, even if it was delayed for weeks. That unusual occurrence, plus the fact that Hiei was undeniable bored, was the only reason why he was doing the work a grunt of the Underworld would normally do: collecting dead souls.
Hiei was ready to call the job done when the strangest thing happen. The infant's eyes, glassy and welled with tears, abruptly landed on Hiei, as though it was actually seeing him instead of looking through him, even though Hiei should have been invisible to mortals' eyes. Surprised, Hiei's hand stopped mere inches away from touching the infant's soul and the two of them locked gaze for a moment.
Hiei felt it before hearing it.
He felt the soul, inches away from his finger, tremor and saw the infant's lips quiver, shaking almost violently. Those lips parted then, and for a beat, there was silence. Then, a loud cry rang throughout the room as liquid spew from the child's mouth. Hiei watched in shock as the midwife smiled, congratulating the mother over the cries of the infant and how glad she was that the child coughed out the liquid in his lungs so it could breath and how even a moment later may have resulted in undesirable consequences.
She went on rambling about something else, but Hiei could no longer hear her. His attention was entirely focused on the bawling child, whose pitch just seemed to rise with every cry, signaling it was undeniably alive.
What. Was. Going. On?
The wheel of fate was turning then, and undoubtedly changing. Hiei could already feel the child's soul stabling, its life extending because it somehow saw Hiei, which sent it in a fit of tears and in any other situation Hiei would have blatantly ignored it except didn't it mean that Hiei unintentionally saved the child's life? And that, Hiei wouldn't accept.
Hiei took a menacing step forward, and as though the child recognized the ruler of Underworld's intention, it redoubled its tears and volume. The women in the room took turns cooing at the child, trying to calm it down but Hiei could hardly care. The child needed to die, was fated to die, and fuck Genkai for suddenly changing her mind. Just because she was Lady Fate didn't mean that she could do whatever she wanted.
Except that she could, and she already did. Hiei's expression turned furious as he felt a string of his soul, untouched until then, was tied to another's. Both strings were equally red [1]. Following the line of the becoming-invisible red strings, Hiei's dark eyes met the infant. Enraged wouldn't have been nearly enough to describe what Hiei was feeling then. He would have gladly killed the infant right there and then, rules or not because he was the ruler of the Underworld and very few was willing to cross him, but the entangled strings were already taking effect.
Any ill feelings Hiei held towards the infant was quickly evaporating, leaving behind nothing more than an empty cask readied to be fulled with love.
Love. Hiei scoffed at the thought with more than just a little bitterness. Only fools love, and string or no string, Hiei would not be the fool to experience it yet again.
Hiei swept out of the little house, and if his sneer became a little more prominent at the thought of anyone growing up there, and if his eyes became somewhat softer as he gazed one last time at the infant who's mother Hiei coincidentally overheard named him Yusuke, it was surely only because of his immortal condescension and nothing else.
[1] Red String - Also known as Red Thread of Fate. Those connected by this string are said to be soul-mates.
Thank you for reading! It has been a while since I've written (wow, more than half year since Little Things) and I'm afraid I've gotten rusty.
Warnings: There may be ooc, boys love, gods and goddesses, switch of POV, pairings that will be revealed as the story goes, slow moving plot, and a story that occurs within the span of a month or so.
Updates: There will be an update approximately every other week, maybe sooner if I have time.