Chapter Two
"The Visitor"
"Why the hell are we down here Kurama?" Hiei asked as Kurama sat down on the couch next to him in the living room.
"Yusuke has some news to share with us this afternoon. He asked everybody to come down here so he could talk to us." Kurama explained quietly as everybody was making their way into the living room.
"I don't think I can take anymore of their surprises." Hiei smirked.
Kurama gave him a slight grin happy to see his friend's normal attitude was coming back. Their attention met Yusuke as he entered the room and stood up in front of everyone.
"Hey guys, thanks for coming down here. Listen I have some really good news." He began.
"Are they going to be TWINS!!?" Botan shrieked in excitement.
Yusuke's eyebrow raised, "Uh… no, Botan." He shook his head as he tried to get back on subject. "We've got a visitor coming tonight who is going to be staying with us for the holiday. Now she's bringing a hell of a lot of luggage so she's probably going to be here a good while."
Hiei rolled his eyes as soon as he heard the words. A visitor. He could not take anymore souls in this house than he had to. Especially if it was a girl who was all hyper and perky and shrieked and yelped with Botan all the time and-
"What visitor?" his thoughts were broken with Kuwabara's question.
"Her name's Jenn Takagi. I can't really give you too much detail on her but she actually worked with me while I was in Makai for a long time. She's a fire demon like Hiei and well, she's been through a lot… she wants out of Makai for a normal life. She didn't enjoy it over there and she's searching for something better. And whenever I heard that she was coming to Ningenkai I invited her to stay with us for the holidays."
Hiei suddenly wanted to be interested in this bit of information; however, he could not bring himself to care. As interesting it was that it was going to be another person from Makai living here, he still wished that she could have went somewhere else. This house was getting crowded enough as it was.
Botan started to jump up and down. "OH yay! Another woman in the house, this is going to be exciting!"
Yusuke crossed his arms and laughed. "I'm glad you think so Botan. Because you're going to have to share you room with her."
Botan shrugged. "No big, that's cool."
"When is she supposed to come in today?" asked Kurama.
"She'll be here by 6:30 and Keiko and I are going to go pick her up at the airport." He answered.
Hiei sank into the couch and wished with all of his might, that he were somewhere else.
- - - - - - -
"WHAT? You're LEAVING me here?!" Hiei yelled at Kurama.
"It's only for a few hours, Hiei." Kurama said as he gathered his car keys. "Keiko and Yusuke just left to go pick up Liz. They'll be here soon. The gang and I have to go grocery shopping so we can have some food to eat while she's here. And Botan wants to pick up some Christmas decorations while we are in town."
"What the hell am I supposed to do when she gets here?" Hiei raged as he flopped down onto his bed and watched his friend prepare to leave the house.
"Work that charm you have that we love so much." Kurama winked at him and walked out the door of his room.
Hiei growled under his breath and stood up from his bed. He did not like the situation he was in. Kurama took everybody into town while Keiko and Yusuke made their way to the airport leaving him here alone to greet the little bitch whenever she got here. Well, he really wasn't in the mood to be hospitable. He walked over to the coat rack over his door and grabbed his coat, slung it around him and walked to the balcony doors at the edge of his room. He opened up the doors and automatically felt the cold November air. Stepping out onto the balcony slowly, he shut the door behind him. He walked over the railing around the parched balcony and sat himself up there as he looked over the gorgeous view that waited for him everyday outside his window.
It was the only house in 60 acres, and right here on Hiei's balcony, you could see all 60 acres. In the far distance he saw the mountains that faded into the dark winter sky. There were tall green trees everywhere covered in snow from the previous days of constant snowfall. He took a deep breath and took in the scent of pine that lurked among the balcony and his room. He definitely had the best room in the house. His room was on the third floor and the only rooms on the floor was his room, his bathroom and a storage room that Yusuke put God knows what in there. Whenever they first bought the house, Botan and Kuwabara and Keiko argued over it. It was definitely popular among the others. However, Yusuke and Kurama agreed to save the room for Hiei in case he ever came back. They gave him the best room because it was isolated from everything else and they knew that it was the room Hiei would feel most comfortable in. But lately, it's as if he was becoming too comfortable in there. Most days, he stays in the room and sits on the balcony looking over the trees and upon the mountains until his cold body can't handle the weather anymore. It wasn't snowing right now and the wind was barely blowing. Thank God for that, Hiei thought. But it was definitely the coldest November he had ever experienced. And it was still in the very beginning of the month. But at least it wasn't snowing again. He was sick and tired of the snow. Literally sick. The sight of it used to comfort him. Every time he saw snowfall he thought of Yukina and it gave him peace. But lately it's almost as if God is shoving it into his face forcing him to think of painful memories. He looked down at the ground and wondered if he would ever find the strength in him to pick up again and leave. God knows he wants to more than anything. But pick up and leave for what? Live for what for that matter? As far as he was concerned, he no longer had a reason to live. He no longer had a purpose in this place. His love for Yukina was what kept him alive and now he has and felt no more love for anything or anyone. He sighed and watched his breath in the air fade away into the cold slight wind. He was almost certain that nobody felt that way for him either.
After a few moments of admiring the scenery, he slipped his hands under his bottom and tossed himself off of the railing of the balcony. He walked back into the room quietly and slipped his heavy coat off his shoulders. He placed it on the bed, not bothering to hang it up. He walked over to the door, opened it and headed to the bathroom down the hall. He opened the door and turned on the lights and squinted his eyes. These damn light bulbs were always brighter than the other ones in the house. He waited for his pupils to totally dilate from the bright light and shut the door behind him. His bathroom wasn't the biggest bathroom in the house but it was plenty big for one person, and he was the only person who used it. The walls were pastel blue colors and it was one of the few rooms that didn't give him a headache, but actually kind of relaxed him. He figured it was because of the pastel blue. The color blue always soothed and calmed him for some reason. There weren't very many rooms in the house that were painted, and if they were it was a soft pastel color. Most of the other rooms were white, like Hiei's room. He hated white rooms. But his room was always dark with very little lights on so his didn't bother him
He reached below and opened the cabinet under the sink, grabbing a towel and threw it over the shower curtain. He walked over to the shower and turned the knob on allowing the water to shoot through the showerhead. While he waited to it to get warm, he started to strip his clothes off. First his sweater, then his pants, his white under tank top, underwear, and socks. Naked, he walked over to the shower and pushed the curtain to his right allowing him some space to step in. Once he did, he felt the hot water shoot him in the back. For some reason, the water pressure in his bathroom was the hardest. He liked it though. He spent a lot of his time in the shower. Mostly because he was always cold in the house and the shower was the only place he could warm up at. He ducked his head and felt the hot water splash his scalp and drip over his shoulder and collar bone down his naked body. The high pressure in the water massaged his cold back muscles and he breathed in and out the steam that came from the high temperature of the water. He closed his eyes and just relaxed in the cleansing shower and tried to not think about his life during the past three years.
- - - - - - -
"Here we are!" Yusuke burst through the door with two large luggage bags in his hands. Keiko, with a smaller duffle bag in her hand followed Yusuke into the front door.
"I sure hope you enjoy your stay with us, Liz." Keiko smiled happily as she entered the house with the long haired brunette next to her. Jenn looked around the main room and a smile came upon her face.
"You sure did a good job with the house shopping, Yusuke," she commented.
Yusuke was already going up the stairs putting her luggage in Botan's room.
"Ah it was a heck of a deal!!" he called out from upstairs and Jenn chuckled at his sheering voice. She turned to Keiko and touched her shoulder.
"Congratulations, by the way, I'm so happy for you guys," she said. "Yusuke always talked about you in Makai."
Keiko's eyes beamed towards her. "Well, thank you. We're really excited."
"I bet."
Yusuke came down the steps, looking like he just got done running a marathon. Keiko laughed at him.
"You're out of shape, sweetie!" she said poking his stomach as he gathered the rest of Jenn's luggage to take upstairs to the room. He laughed back, mocking her.
"I'm not the one who's gonna bloat up like a fat cow here in a couple of months." He said as he made his way back up the stairs.
Keiko's mouth dropped. "FINE then. Whenever I'm sitting there eating my ass out on bonbons and sugar cookies weighing a hundred and eighty pounds just remember this. YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!" she yelled at the end of the stairs to him.
Jenn laughed at the couple and shook her head. They were exactly as she pictured them. And Keiko was exactly how Yusuke described her to be. Naggy, uptight, Clingy… but she liked her. She liked them both. And they liked her very much as well. She was indeed much classier than Keiko had imagined. A demon from Makai, she expected to be ugly and basically a girl version of Hiei. She brushed off her irritation at Yusuke and watched Jenn walk around the living room and check out the place she would call home for a good amount of time. She thought she was quite lovely. She didn't really say all that much, and sometimes it would come off to other girls as ignorant, self-indulged or rude. But Keiko did not see any of that in Jenn. She had a softness about her that made her believe that she was a deeply caring individual.
"So, does the place pass for ya?" Keiko asked walking over to her.
Jenn looked up at Keiko with a small smile on her face. "The place is beautiful. It is. I wanted to thank you guys so much for allowing me a place to stay. You have no idea what it means."
Keiko threw her hands up. "It's our pleasure. I can't wait till the others get here so you can meet everyone! And wait until you meet Botan, your roommate. She's so thrilled to have another girl in the house."
Jenn looked at her with a concerned look on her face. "How many guys are staying here?"
"Well…" Keiko began hoping that she would not be offended by all the males in the house. "There's four guys and two girls. Well, three, now that you're here. It's you, me, Botan and the guys are Yusuke, Shuichi-"
"Kurama, you mean?" Jenn corrected.
"Oh, yes…Gomen. Kurama," Keiko said, forgetting that this girl was from Makai. "And then there's Hiei and Kazuma." You'll meet them all whenever they get back from town. Kurama took them to buy some groceries because frankly, the fridge is ridiculous."
Jenn shot a smile at her, finding her statement humorous. "Well I look forward to when they get here…. Do you mind if I take a look around?"
"Oh heavens, no! Look all you want! I'll be upstairs with Yusuke if you need anything." Keiko said as she excused herself from the room.
"Thank you!" Jenn called out as Keiko marched upstairs to her and her husband's room. Jenn took a deep breath and looked around the house. She really did love their house. She was taken aback by its size, it was rather large than Yusuke described it would be. However, she was unaware that they had so many people living there. Nevertheless, it was a cozy house in the mountains and it was even better than she was expecting it would be. She glanced over to the stairs and decided to see the rest of the house. She walked over to the staircase and walked up the thirteen steps. She came around the corner and saw a rather large hallway. She heard Yusuke and Keiko talking in one of the closed doors and realized that was their room. She giggled at the fight they had a few minutes earlier and walked on. She saw the other three rooms down the hall. They were all different sizes and styles. One of them had a bouquet of roses on the nightstand and a maroon red bed comforter. She nodded and assumed this was Kurama's room. She turned again towards the hallway and continued her way onto the house. She peeked into the next room on the left and saw two beds, one blue and one green. Although it was a simple room with very little decoration she knew that it was her and Botan's room. She wanted to step in and check out her new room but she continued on.
The next room she came upon had the door shut. Remembering that nobody else was here, she walked up and slowly opened the door. Inside was a room that was semi-messy. The bed wasn't made and there were a few clothes on the floor. Nothing to go nuts about but it definitely was a room of someone who was really laid back. Curious, she stepped in and checked it out and realized that this room had the most windows in the house. There was a large window that overlooked the front driveway of the house and the road that was off of it. She looked to her left and saw many pictures. She walked over to the dresser and looked at the pictures. There were all pictures of the same person. A pretty girl with long aqua hair with dashing red eyes. She looked and saw one picture of her on the beach in her bathing suit smiling radiantly with the sun shining brightly over her. There was another of her and a tall guy kissing under mistletoe at Christmastime. She reached in the back and picked up the picture that popped out to her the most. It was a close-up picture of her outside in the snow. She had on a bright purple scarf and red earmuffs. She was smiling at the camera. Her smile wasn't as big as it was in the others. It was more natural and less posed as if she were admiring the person taking the picture more than posing for it. Jenn smiled at what she thought was the most adorable picture she had ever seen.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps above her. She sat the picture down where she found it and walked outside the room. She turned into the hallway and turned around the corner and saw another staircase. This probably leads up to the third floor, she thought. She took a deep breath before she proceeded to walk upstairs.
