TheHeartsPath: Hi everyone! This is my first fan-fiction that I have ever written so please be gentle. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I've had writing it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.
"Talking" Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~
Chapter 1: Ayla Natura
Hey there, my name is Ayla Natura, age seventeen. I'm your average human girl dealing with life and all its bullshit. I'm the average height of five foot three inches, with light auburn hair that's cut short in a style that's just a bit longer than pixie. I have freckles and wear glasses. Average looks basically, well except for one thing.
My eyes. They aren't what most people would call average. Most people would call them either "freakish" or "unnatural." You see most people have just one eye color or one eye is one color while the other eye is another color. My eyes are two colors at once. They are a medium sage green on the outer part of the iris while the inner part is a bright amber brown. Needless to say this has caused me a lot of grief growing up.
I grew up in America and am now moving to Japan with my family. My family consists of my mom Natala, my dad Aya, older sister Gwen, older brother Sinclair, me, younger brother Haku, and my younger sister Kira. Both my older and younger siblings are twins. The reason we are moving to Japan is because my dad got a job offer from some electronics company in Tokyo.
My older siblings and I will be attending high school together. Seeing as how Gwen and Sinclair are seniors and I'm a junior. Haku and Kira will be attending a nearby elementary school.
I am not looking forward to this new school and it's not cause I hate school. I love school actually. The reason I'm not looking forward to this new school is the uniforms. The blasted things are pink! Ok, not "pink" pink, but a rose-like pink. Which in my opinion is not that much better. Sinclair isn't too happy about the uniforms either. At least Gwen likes them, calling the uniforms 'cute.' She just better not call me cute when I wear the uniform.
The name of the school is Meio Academy. While the elementary school is called Fuji Elementary. No idea why it's named after Mt. Fuji. We start school tomorrow and I'm so glad that I know how to speak Japanese from Dad...otherwise things would most likely go badly.
"Alright kids lunch is ready!" That would be my mom, she's pretty cool.
The replies of my siblings and I are heard throughout the house.
"Coming!" Sinclair shouts.
"Just a sec!" yells Gwen.
"Working on it!" I holler.
"YAY, LUNCH!" Haku and Kira bellow in unison.
A few moments later all of my siblings and I come into the dining room to eat lunch. Although Haku and Kira ran into the room, while us older ones walked in at a normal pace.
"Haku, Kira." Mom says, "What have I said about running in the house?"
"To not run in the house." is the simultaneous reply by the youngest twins.
"That's right. Now, go back out of the room and then come back in while walking. Go on." They sigh and do as she says. "Alright now everyone get comfortable while I dish up lunch."
We all sat down at the table and immediately started talking.
"So what's for lunch today Mom?" Gwen asks.
"Yeah, I'm starving!" says Sinclair.
I laugh and say, "What they said."
Mom doesn't look at us as she replies. After all she's busy dishing up the food. "Lunch is spaghetti. And after lunch I want to introduce you all to Mrs. Minamino and her family."
"Who's she?" ask both sets of twins.
"She's the neighbor that lives next door to us, with her husband and two sons." I reply.
Haku looks at me and demands, "How is it that you know her and we don't?"
"Simple," I state, "yesterday when you guys went with Dad to get some lunch for everyone I saw her coming home. She was trying to get her groceries inside by herself and I offered to help. She took me up on my offer and we talked while getting the groceries inside. She wanted to meet everyone, but I told her that Dad and you guys went to grab lunch and that Mom was the only one home at the time besides myself. So I introduced her and Mom. They started talking and decided that the rest of y'all would meet her and her family tomorrow after lunch the next day. Which is now today."
"Hmph."
I roll my eyes my little brother's version of 'Fine, I get it, you win.' Seeing as how he hates to admit that to anyone in actual words. Course he's not the only one in the family. I think it's some weird genetic trait.
"Hang on a second." Gwen says, "Tell me you were wearing your contacts."
Everyone turned to look at me with that question asked.
"Yes, I was wearing my contacts. I'm not stupid you know." I reply back with a glare. It had been decided by my parents that I should start wearing colored contacts to hide my real eye color. That way I could try to fit in without people giving me shit about my eyes all the time. So now when I'm out of the house I wear brown contacts. I hate the blasted things.
"Glad you had them on. Although even if you hadn't and someone saw your real eye color and said something that upset you, I'd have beaten them up real good as punishment." Sinclair states calmly, but with a smirk on his face.
My eye twitches at him saying that. "You know that's part of why I agreed to these blasted things. To keep YOU from getting into anymore trouble." I say looking at my troublesome brother.
He smiles, "Aw, worried about me Nymph?"
I roll my eyes at the nickname that my family has for me. Gwen started it when she said that my eye color made her think of a forest nymph. Needless to say it stuck. "Of course I'm worried about you, you nitwit. What sister in her right mind wouldn't be worried about her big brother?"
"Hey! Who you calling a nitwit?" he squawks indignantly.
"Let me think. Hmm. Oh that's right! You, you nitwit."
"Don't call me a nitwit!"
"It's either nitwit or twerp. Take your pick."
"...Tch." Sinclair grunts as he looks away.
I shake my head and smile as Sinclair used his version of 'Fine, I get it, you win.'
"You gotta show me how you do that sissy." says Kira.
Confused I look at her and asked, "Do what?"
"Make our brothers give up an argument so easily without hitting them like Gwennie."
"We don't give up that easily!" yell the boys.
Gwen and I roll our eyes at our brothers' denial.
"Yes you do." says Gwen.
"Agreed." I say.
Smiling and watching all of us with amusement, Mom then says, "Alright now calm down and eat your lunch younglings. You all still need to meet the neighbors."
We all look at her and then down at the table. Yet again Mom had gotten all of our plates of food placed in front of us without any of us noticing. It's times like this that we all think that she's secretly a ninja.
We all replied to what she said before in order of Sinclair, Gwen, Kira, Haku, and me.
"Ok Mom."
"Right Mom."
"Yes Mommy."
"Sure Mom."
"Kay-da-kay."
We all finished lunch and my siblings went to get ready to meet the neighbors.
"Ayla, could you help me out with the dishes?" Mom asked me just as I was about to leave the room.
"Sure thing Mom." I replied, turning around and heading for the sink.
We worked on the dishes for a few minutes in silence. I broke it since there was something I wanted to ask her. "Hey Mom?"
"Yes?"
"...Why are my eyes so different from everyone else's?" I ask with a amount of sadness in my voice.
My mom stops cleaning the dishes to look at me. "I don't know sweetheart." she sadly says, "I know that's not the answer that you wanted. But I don't know."
I nod my head sadly. I had already figured that would be her answer since I've heard Sinclair and Gwen ask Mom that question before. I'd just needed to ask it myself for some reason.
"But you know," she started, "when you were little I first noticed..."
"Noticed what?" I say with a questioning look when she stopped.
"Well, ever since you were little you have always had a way with animals and plants."
"Mom other people have ways with those things too you know." I respond with just the tiniest bit of sarcasm in my voice.
She rolled her eyes at me, "Not like that you ninny. I mean a way with them that other people don't have. Remember that Great Dane the neighbor had when you were five? You used to play with it all the time."
"Yeah, why?" I was wondering where she was going with this.
"Well, when you played with that dog you would talk to it, like it was a person. Having conversations with it for hours sometimes. One of the times you went to play with it, it was sick. So the neighbor said that you couldn't play with it that day cause he didn't know what was wrong with it. You asked 'If I can't play with him can I talk to him?' The neighbor knowing that you would do just that since he saw you do it all the time said 'Ok, but only talk. Don't want him to get riled up.' You promised and went to the dog and started talking to it. You asked the dog how he was doing and what was wrong. Then you told the neighbor that the dog said that its' chest hurt on the left side cause it broke two ribs yesterday from when it got caught by the front door when it was closing."
"I sorta remember that. Didn't he say that I was lying?" The memory was fuzzy but it was there.
"That's right. He didn't believe you. But I told him you wouldn't lie about a person or animal being hurt. I then told him that he should take it to the vet to have its' ribs checked. He wasn't going to until your father said that if there was nothing wrong with the dog's ribs that we would pay for the vet appointment. So he took the dog to the vet and it turned out that you were absolutely right." Mom finished.
"That must have been a fluke. Seriously, I mean a person can't just say something like that and be right. After all, I'm not Dr. Doolittle." I state.
"It wasn't a fluke because you have done similar things several times since then Ayla." said a male voice from behind us.
I turned around with a yelp, "Don't startle me like that Dad!"
He chuckles while smiling.
"Hello dear, how did work go?" Mom asks.
Dad sits down at the table before answering. "It was alright. Mr. Kibito hasn't let me actually start working just yet."
"Why not Dad?" I ask.
"He wants me to start my actual work starting next week since we just moved her. So for right now he's had me getting familiarized with everything at work."
"Oh." Oh? That's the best you can come up with as a reply? Geez, I'm lame. I think to myself and shake my head to get my thoughts to quiet down.
I suddenly realize what my dad had said when he came into the room. "Hang on a sec. You said that I've done similar things several times? And been right too?" I ask with some disbelief.
"That's right. And not just with animals." Dad answered.
"Huh?" was my oh-so-brilliant response.
Dad then started to explain what he meant. "You've also been able to know what was wrong with plants just by either glancing at them, smelling them, or touching them for a second. There's also the fact that you seem to be able to get plants to grow in any environment. Even when they're not 'supposedly' able to."
"So I have an amazing green thumb, so what?" I look back and forth between my parents confused with what they are trying to get at. Cause so far the answer is not coming to me.
"What your father and I are trying to say sweetheart is that we think your eye color might reflect your connection with nature." Mom said with a serious face.
I blink a few times while I digest that theory. Not sure I get why they think that but it does make sense...kinda...I guess? "Huh...well that's one I never would have thought of before. Doesn't explain the empathy or telepathy though."
That's another thing that's gotten me into trouble before. I can hear the thoughts of the people around me. I can also, what's the best term? 'Sense' the emotions of people as well. I've learned to keep my thoughts and others' separate, so that I don't go crazy. Emotions can't be blocked out though for some reason. Hell if I know why, but the best I can do is sort of tone them down. Like closing a door to a room with loud music playing in it. You can't get rid of the noise entirely, but you can muffle it.
My parents look at each other with strange looks on their faces. I wonder what they're thinking...I could find out but I'm not going to. I've never wanted to hear what everyone was thinking to begin with and I DEFINITELY don't want to know what goes on in my parents' minds. Might get scarred for life. I mentally shuddered. I'd learned the hard way to not listen to people's thoughts if I didn't have to. I try my hardest not to listen in to people's thoughts unless they were going to do harm to me or my family. I mean everyone deserves privacy you know?
"Ok, what's with the looks?" I demand.
My dad looks at me about to say something when suddenly there's a yell from somewhere upstairs.
"SINCLAIR! HAKU! I'M GOING TO KILL BOTH OF YOU!" Gwen bellows from what I would guess to be either her room or the bathroom.
There's also some yelps from the boys, signifying that they are now running for their lives. Great...now what have those two done to piss her off? The sound of running and someone (either Sinclair or Haku) having a meeting with the floor with their face.
Kira comes into the kitchen all cleaned up and ready to meet the neighbors. She hugs Dad before sitting next to him at the table.
"Hey Pixie, what did our two loveable, yet dim-witted brothers do this time?" I ask her using the nickname I came up with for her when I was dubbed Nymph.
She shrugs, "I don't know. But I do know that Gwennie was in the bathroom when she yelled at them. Are you going to look in their heads to find out what they did again?"
"Again? Ayla, what does Kira mean by again?" my father asks with a rather stern look.
I groaned, I so didn't want to explain this. "I don't do it all the time Dad. Just when I'm trying to find out who did what to whom, so that I can stop whoever had whatever done to them from killing the one or ones who did whatever to them."
Kira and Mom both giggled after I made my little speech.
What are they laughing about? I raise my eyebrow while looking at them questioningly.
"You sounded just like Daddy." Kira says with a grin.
I did? "Hn."
My mother rolls her eyes at my reply while my father snorts in amusement.
"So basically only when you're trying to keep your siblings from killing each other." Dad summarizes.
"Uh, yeah, basically." I guess I'm not in trouble. Cool.
"Well then by all means go ahead and keep the peace in the house, Peacekeeper." he says with a smirk.
I sigh and shake my head. Really, I should know by now that he was gonna pull something like that. Great, just what I wanted...ANOTHER nickname.
I then take a peek at what is going on in my brothers' and older sister's heads starting with Gwen.
~When I get my hands on them they are so dead! They are gonna be hurting so much that they won't be able to move for days...wait. Not such a good idea, cause then I have to do their chores. ARGH! Stupid brothers! Ok, maybe I'll just hurt them enough to where they're gonna be sore for a few days.~
Oh yeah, that was so helpful. I sarcastically thought.
I sigh and look into Sinclair's mind next.
~Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. I'm dead if she gets me. Must run to live. Shit, shit, shit.~
I roll my eyes at Sinclair's one track mind. His thoughts were even less helpful than Gwen's. This means that Haku is my last chance of finding out what they did that ignited Gwen's wrath.
I hope Haku is thinking about what the hell they did. I go into his mind and find just what I'm looking for. What I hear causes me to smirk and chuckle.
~Drat, why did I let Sinclair talk me into this? This is all HIS fault! This is the last time I help him put food coloring in her lotions!~
"What happened and who did it?" Mom asks.
"Both Sinclair and Haku put food coloring in Gwen's lotions." I answer, shaking my head at their stupidity. No wonder she's trying to kill them. Seeing as how she is so damn touchy about anyone messing with her makeup or skin care products.
Mom shakes her head as well and sighs as she stands up. She must have sat down while I was listening to the idiots upstairs. "Well, I better go stop her from trying to murder the boys." she says as she goes to leave the room.
"Kira why don't you go help your mother?" Dad says.
Why did he say that? It wasn't like Mom actually needed help.
"I can help?" she asks. She sounds just as confused as I feel.
Mom speaks from the doorway, "He's right sweetie, you can help me."
"How?"
"By being your cute, little self. All of your siblings calm down when you hug them."
"Ok, I'll come help you Mommy." Kira says as she follows Mom out of the room.
Dad watched them leave and as soon as they were out of earshot he looked back at me.
"So," I start, "what were you going to say before chaos erupted upstairs Dad?"
He sighed, "It's about your grandmother, my mother."
"What Grandma Genkai? She's not sick or anything is she?" I asked worriedly.
She was the one who helped figure out what the heck my abilities were when my parents couldn't. Not to mention train me as best she could to control them. She's one of the best psychics in the world according to Dad. That's gotta be the biggest understatement of all time. As far as I'm concerned she is THE best. I feel more connected to her than anyone else in our family since we're the only ones with abilities. Well, with strong abilities anyways. My parents and siblings just have really good sixth senses at the most.
"No, no, she's doing fine. She just wants to talk to you about some particular things that your mother and I can't." he quickly reassures me.
What could there possibly be that Grandma Genkai wants to talk to me about? Does it have something to do with my abilities? Or is it about something else? And why did he want Kira to leave the room before he said anything? And why the hell am I only asking myself these damn questions when I should be asking Dad out loud?!
"Like what?" Oh that's real specific...
"Well, you see I'm not quite sure about what exactly." Dad hedges.
"Right and I'm a normal person with no abilities and a normal eye color." I sarcastically reply.
Rolling his eyes he says, "Alright, I know what she wants to talk to you about in general, but not in detail."
I nod letting him know that he can continue.
"She wants to talk to you more about your abilities and some other things that I'm not sure of."
I raise an eyebrow at that short statement of his.
He puts his hands up to keep me from saying anything. "That's all she told me when I spoke to her on the phone this morning before I left. She wants to meet with you this weekend to talk."
I nod, "Alright, I'll go and see her this Saturday first thing in the morning." He starts to say something when I cut him off, "Don't worry I'll call her after we're done meeting the Minaminos to let her know when I'll be over there."
He nods then stands up. "Good. Now let's see if we can get the others out of the house in one piece. What do you say?"
Chuckling I say, "Sure thing Daddy."
We left the kitchen to find the rest of our happy family to go meet the neighbors.
