Coming to a Decision
Coming to a Decision
Kazuma Kuwabara stood on the porch of Master Genkai's temple with his coffee as he watched the love of his life race across the mist shrouded ground. Yukina was determined to speak to the short, ill-tempered fire demon before he returned to the Makai. Hiei was heading back to border patrol duty after the team had completed their latest mission.
She caught up to him before he reached the forest. Kuwabara sipped his coffee as he watched them. He could see clearly in the early morning mist, but he wasn't close enough to hear their conversation. Hiei turned crimson eyes to the young koorime as she called his name. He had given her the same news last night that he always gave her when he returned from the Makai.
"I'm sorry. I have heard nothing about your brother. Perhaps he is dead after all." Every time he returned to the Makai, she always asked that he continue searching. He still carried her tear gem to give to him if he ever found him. It was nestled beneath his clothes with his own. He had hoped that by leaving so early today, he would avoid her pleading eyes.
"You didn't need to get up so early. I promised I would look for your brother, and I will. Although I doubt that I will find him after all this time." She paused to catch her breath. "You misunderstand. I am not here to ask you to look for my brother. I am here to tell you to stop." Hiei's eyes widened in surprise. "You finally believe that he is dead?"
She shook her head. "I don't know if he is dead or not. I do know that if he is alive and he hasn't come to me, or even sent a message that he is alive and well, then he is not a man I wish to know." Hiei looked at the ground. He reached up and removed her tear gem from his neck, careful not to let her know he had two. He placed it in her outstretched palm. "I am sorry. I know how much you wanted to find him."
She took her tear gem and lowered it over her head. "Kazuma asked me to marry him. I said yes. It is time that I moved on with my life. I couldn't do that if I continued to search for a brother that doesn't want me." Hiei had to close his mouth quickly. He didn't know which struck him harder. That she was going to mate the oaf, or that she believed he didn't want her.
He spoke carefully. "You can't know that he doesn't want you. Maybe something is preventing him from coming forward." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I have always had an image of my brother. Of the kind of man that he would be. That image doesn't fit a man who would abandon me." Hiei's heart was racing. That image certainly wouldn't survive the truth, and he felt even more justified in withholding it from her.
She smiled. "Kazuma was actually the one who suggested I stop looking." Hiei breathed a sigh of relief. He would actually thank the oaf for something, except that the oaf wouldn't know what he was being thanked for. "He reminded me that I have family all around me in the form of my friends. And that they all love me enough to make up for the lack of my brother's love."
Hiei closed his eyes. It wasn't true. He did love her. She was the only family he had and he did love her. She continued. "We decided that I could adopt a brother. He would have to be somebody very special. Somebody who could live up to the image of my ideal brother. He would have to be an honorable man. Loyal. Kind. Protective. Someone capable of great sacrifice for those he cared for."
He had known that those were the qualities she wanted in her brother. That is why he never told her the truth. Why he never allowed any argument to sway his resolve. "I know now that my brother could never live up to the image I've had these last few years. I've had a shining example of what I wanted my brother to be right here all the time."
He wondered who she had chosen as this perfect brother to adopt, and felt a little jealous. She put her hand in her pocket and removed a necklace very close in appearance to their mother's tear gem necklaces. He could see in the early morning light that it was one of her tear gems. His eyes widened in breathless wonder as she dropped it over his head. "I would be honored Hiei san, if you would be my adopted brother."
Kuwabara took another sip of his coffee. The look on the shrimp's face had been priceless. He had promised his love that he would find her brother for her. He smiled as he walked back into the temple. The great Kazuma Kuwabara was not as stupid as they all believed. It had just taken him a while to figure out what to do about it.
End