Thank you to all my readers. I love you guys, I really do. Please please send me reviews so I know you're not just clicking on, reading a sentence, getting bored and leaving. Plzkthx.
Title for this chapter also comes from the song Sidewinder by Avenged Sevenfold. Title for the story comes from the song Humanoid by Tokio Hotel.
And a big HUGE thank you to my absolutely wonderful boyfriend. He has been my sounding board and fact checker for the entire writing process of this story. His input has helped me fix ages, get unstuck when I was stuck, and let me know that it is ok to make Abby work for her happy ending. His handle is The Dark Wyvern, and if he ever gets around to writing, I will plug his work shamelessly.
I do not now, nor have I ever owned any of the YuYuHakusho characters. I am borrowing them.
Weeks later, her powers no longer needed her to use verbal clues. She still used gestures most of the time. Suichi said she was progressing.
Abby switched classes at the dojo after she learned that the class Hiei attended was mostly either demons or very powerful humans, so she wouldn't get in trouble for going all out against Hiei. She was the only one in class with the guts to spar Hiei anyway.
She also managed to avoid being followed to work by any of her supernatural babysitters. Sue thought she was funny.
"You should try being babysat by demons. See how you like it." Abby snapped one day.
"If I was being babysat by those demons, I wouldn't mind." Sue gave her friend a wink and sauntered to the end of the bar to wait on a customer.
Abby lost herself in several complicated drinks, involving lots of flair.*
Off to her right, at the very end of the bar she heard clapping. A familiar voice spoke. "That was awesome. Now I know why you don't want us to know where you work."
She turned. Yusuke sat there grinning at her. "Actually, I was expecting you to show up here soon. You've been kicked out of just about every other bar around here."
Yusuke blushed a little. "You know about that?"
"So will Suichi if you tell him I work here before I'm ready to tell him. You know he's pretty over protective of me." Abby grinned.
The suddenly pale black haired boy held his right hand to his chest. "You have my word."
"Dammit, Suichi! Must you really keep sharpening the damn rose petals?" Abby made a flinging motion in the fox's direction. The air between them filled with sharpened blades of grass, speeding toward the red head currently chasing her around the small yard.
He barely managed to flip over the attack. "I will sharpen them until you learn to block or dodge all of them." He snapped his rose whip at her. "You need a lot of work still, kit."
She flipped up into a tree to avoid the end of the whip. "You get very bitchy when I manage to counter your attacks." She crooked her finger, and a chunk of earth lifted up right in front of Suichi's running feet.
The red head fell flat on his face. Before he could turn the fall into something more graceful, Abby had sat on his back, effectively holding him down.
"I still need work, hey?" she laughed.
Suichi raised his head a bit. "Maybe not." He pushed himself higher up on his elbows. A pair of sharpened blades of grass followed the motion to remain pressed menacingly on his throat.
"Maybe?" she asked in a sugar-sweet tone.
"If you kill me to prove your point, you will get deported and without the ability to fully control your demon form." the red head growled.
The girl laughed and got off the fox's back. "Trust me, I wasn't trying to kill you. Merely, distracting." She tugged at the hem of her, now shredded, shirt. Several of the slice marks had blood on their edges.
Suichi looked down and saw his shirt was now in the same condition as hers. He laughed when he saw the blood on his shirt in nearly the exact same areas as hers.
"Blood for blood, like Dad taught me." Abby grinned.
"You think like a demon, then." The red head laughed more.
Abby tossed her head in the direction of the tree she'd just been in. "Ask Hiei over there how our first sparring match really went, if you think this was bad."
Hiei landed on the ground at the base of the tree, glaring at the girl a bit. He had been enjoying the show the foxes had been putting on. "Had the blades been real, we'd both be dead." He moved closer and smirked at the girl. "Though, she didn't have to be cut by my blade."
"You pissed me off, spikey." Abby grinned at him.
"I will remember that next time we spar with blades." Hiei nodded. "And then you will be the one on the ground."
Suichi gaped at the pair. "You mean Abby put you on the ground, in public, and you managed not to kill her?"
Abby grinned and nodded. "On the ground, on his back, with my naginata at his throat. His was pressed into my stomach."
Suichi's eyes nearly fell out, his eyes were trying to open that wide in shock. "You actually bested him. I've walked away from fights with that kind of wound. Some of them from Hiei's blade."
Abby arched her eyebrow at the smaller boy.
Hiei simply shrugged in reply. "You live because you are a stubborn bastard."
Abby giggled. "Hey Suichi, I have a really burning question that I probably should have asked a month ago. How in the hell are you old enough to know Mum? You look 20."
"My body is thirty." Suichi grinned.
"Vain little fox." Hiei grumbled.
"Exactly my point." Abby waved her hand at him. "If you're thirty, and I'm something like 122, then how the hell did you know Mum back in demon world?"
"Only my body is thirty. My soul is actually that of an ancient kitsune, Yoko Kurama. I was dying, so I managed to put my soul into a human woman's dying unborn son." Suichi explained.
"Oh! I think Mum told me about you! On one of her good days." Abby turned so the boys wouldn't see her sneer at the mention of her mother.
"Mai Lin was a gorgeous black kitsune vixen. She suddenly disappeared about two months after we started our affair. I tried to find her, then I gave up and tried to move on." Suichi made no move to hide the wistful longing that crossed his face.
"So her mother probably told her what a bastard you were for knocking her up." Hiei smirked at his old partner.
Abby shook her head. "Mum, when she wasn't going crazy and cursing fate, told me she always regretted her decision to run away, and how she wished Yoko could meet... his... holy crap." She looked at the fox with a shocked look.
"His what, Abby?" Hiei asked.
"His kit." Abby whispered. "Yoko Kurama is my dad."
Suichi chuckled. "I knew who your mother was the minute you told me your name. I almost thought we'd never find you."
"You're the sixth demon who has suddenly gone parentless in the last two years." Hiei told the girl. "All of them around your age, usually one each semester in this country."
"So? You've been following me since before my parents died." Abby poked Hiei's chest. "Don't tell me you weren't, because you are the only weird goth boy with white in his hair and a green headband."
The fire demon shook his head once, to clear the shock. He thought he'd been careful. "I have personally been watching you since you started using your powers at the beginning of this calendar year."
::Hiei, what did you expect? She is my offspring.:: the fox's mental chuckle made Hiei growl a bit.
"Koenma brought us all here after you had enrolled in the dojo, when he was sure you had the signs of being the next target." Kurama explained.
"Ok, so, you're traveling around the country training demons who suddenly become orphans? But you're not stopping whatever it is killing their parents?" Abby glared at the two demon males. The air around her became charged and volatile.
"When we finally manage to figure out the next mark, it is always too late. Believe me, kit, I wish I could have saved Mai at the very least." Suichi held his hands up in a non-threatening gesture.
"Every last one of you orphans have been clueless about your true natures. When the parents are killed, it is usually right before or right after their powers stop being put in a damper. We are usually only able to prevent the target from harming themselves and others from their wild powers." Hiei explained.
Abby glared at them. "So, why haven't I been overrun by mad plants and earthquakes?"
"Because you are the fox's offspring." Hiei chuckled. "We suspect Wheeler. He never changes his name."
Abby arched her eyebrow at him. "Seriously? He's so... dorky. A little creepy, but I wouldn't think he would..."
Suichi held up a hand. "He showed up here at the beginning of last semester, when your powers started manifesting. He was extremely upset that I got the last open seat in his Botany class. He started teaching Herbal Lore at the bookshop because of that. And he has been most displeased that I now attend that class with you." He ticked off his points on his fingers as he spoke.
"Sometimes, when I'm in tune with the powers, he smells like fur and dirt." Abby rubbed her chin. "Kinda like the wolves at the zoo in Philly."
"He's a known wolf demon. Only a mid-A class demon." Hiei scoffed.
Abby just gave him a look. One that clearly stated she was not impressed.
"Hiei and I are what is known as Super S class. Yusuke is as well." Suichi explained.
"He is?" Abby gaped at her new-found father. "He's such a dweezil."
"His strengths are not in the class room." Hiei chuckled. "This situation will be interesting tomorrow."
"I will not be calling you dad, Suichi." Abby glared.
"I don't expect you to. Just, lets make up a good reason for Sue to not try and get us to date." Suichi sighed.
Hiei gave the foxes a disgusted look, then flitted off.
"Eww, she tried to hook us up? Nasty!" Abby's nose crinkled in disgust. "No offence, but I didn't like you like that before I found out who you really are. Still gonna call you Suichi."
Suichi nodded. "I will have a plan by morning. Go get cleaned up, Yusuke made curry tonight."
*flair=bar flair. It is the art of flipping bottles and mixing tins without spilling the liquor inside. I've taken a class in flair, it is difficult and painful, but it looks really effin awesome.
If I haven't said before, a naginata is a long handled sword. I suggest doing a google image search for them, because they are really gorgeous blades. My current fave.