Wolfie: Wow I actually got a review on my last chapter…and Jazzy liked it so all is good in the world of fan fiction.

Yusuke: Where is Jazmen anyways?

Wolfie: I sent her out for some sweet snow…she should be out for a while.

Yusuke: You sent Jazmen…for sweet snow? Do you really expect her to bring it back and not be hyper?

Wolfie: …um…

Jazmen: *slams open the door and runs in at full speed* Hiiiii! I ate sweet snow!

Wolfie: *sweat drops* I guess we better start the story now and hope she comes off her sugar high.

Jazmen: Wolfie owns nothing! Especially Hiei because he's mine!

Wolfie: Uh…yeah…anyways…enjoy!

Chapter 4: A Day with Hiei

****Third Person POV****

Hiei watched as the two fighters exited the small building. Just before He could release his own attack on the male, Ebony stepped up next to Vegeta and effectively protected him. She shot him a look and kept him from flat out attacking face to face. Vegeta showed no visible sign of having noticed anything transpiring between the two. Hiei, still in her mind felt her reassurance that Vegeta had only meant good to come of the training. With a small nod Hiei settled down back into the tree.

"Is something wrong?" Vegeta asked quietly, sensing something was off but not sure what. There was a hint of a threat and now it was gone. Ebony just shook her head slightly. "Who is he?" He asked startling her.

She shouldn't have been surprised, after all she had sensed him and Vegeta's defenses were a hell of a lot better than hers. She wasn't sure why Hiei was there but he was content to stay in the background for the time being. "Just a friend. I promised to spend the afternoon with him and his friends once my training was done. I guess he just decided to show up early."

"Fine." Vegeta grunted. "Why don't you invite him in so he isn't lurking around my house."

Ebony suppressed a smile. She knew that was Vegeta's way of saying that he didn't like having anyone around that didn't just show themselves immediately. Do you want to come in and join us for lunch? Bulma is a really good cook. She asked the fire demon.

Hn. No thanks. I'll just wait for you out here. Hiei said startling himself at his own politeness…or at least as close as he gets to it.

Your loss then. She told him and went inside.

****Later after lunch****

Ebony was in her room attempting to clean her wounds. Vegeta hadn't either forced her, or offered, to check her wounds so she was left doing it herself. She wasn't about to ask her mentor for anything he didn't offer first. She was standing in her bathroom trying to pour some moderate cleaning medicine on her arm. She hissed and began muttering to herself. "Why the hell does it hurt more to do this yourself than if someone else did it?"

"Because when someone else does it you don't have to stare at the wound, therefore removing some of your focus from it." A voice said from the doorway. Ebony jumped, sending some of the liquid flying onto her chest and stomach irritating the stitching. She hissed again and placed her hand over the wound, closing her eyes.

As the minor pain subsided she felt the intruder's hand take the bottle out of hers and direct her into her room. She looked over to see Hiei's hand wrapped around her arm. They were standing next to the bed. "Sit." He commanded.

Ebony glared at him, but did as he said. Hiei examined the stitches. His voice betrayed his anger as he spoke. "These need to be thoroughly cleaned and possibly repaired. They're showing signs of tearing and possible infection."

"Great! Kami, why can't anything be easy for me? Just once I'd like to not have extra problems with something." she grumbled and Hiei chose to ignore her. He went back into the bathroom and came out with two small towels. Lifting the bottle of solution he frowned.

"This stuff isn't strong enough for this. I'd like to prevent a full blown infection if we could." He muttered to himself but Ebony had caught his words.

"What do you mean that it's not strong enough? That shit hurts as it is and you're telling me I need something stronger?." she demanded. She was not enjoying this meeting.

"I mean that this stuff was fine when your injuries were fresh, but we are passed that point." Hiei growled at her. "Now it's gotten to the point that your body needs help fighting this one off before it gets serious. Where's your first aid kit?"

Ebony directed him to the bathroom all the while muttering several good curses under her breath. Hiei went and rummaged through the excellently stocked kit with Ebony's name on it and found the items he needed, including some generic antibiotic pill he could give her. With her name on the case it was safe to assume that it was set up specifically for her needs without any allergic reactions to anything in it. Finding what he needed, he returned to the room.

"This will only take a few minutes." He told her and pushed her back into the pillows of her bed. With only a minor complaint she complied with his demands and let herself relax while Hiei worked on the damage. After a few minutes of her flinching she decided to ask the question on her mind.

"Why are you doing this? You can't truly be that concerned with my health could you?" She gave of a pained chuckle. "No, that couldn't be it. You're just like Vegeta was when he first got here. He didn't care about anyone but himself. Not until Bulma anyways and that in itself took more than a year."

'What is this girl talking about? I can do something for others without having alterior motive can't I?' Hiei thought to himself as he put the medicine and bandages aside. 'it's not like I haven't done it before, I just don't care for others to know how I feel is all. Caring for others will only get one hurt and I don't allow that to happen.'

"I find you interesting is all." Hiei said, vaguely answering her question. "If you can fight the way you do injured, I wonder how much better you would be fully healed up. I haven't had a decent challenge in a long time. Neither have I had anything to hold my interest in the past few years."

"You must be lonely then…that's sad really. You're too cute to be lonely." She mumbled in response, causing Hiei to stop what he was doing and look at her. It wasn't really like him to not only help someone, but to get into this in depth talking was far from normal for him. Yet he didn't seem to mind too much and that only confused and intrigued him more.

Closing her eyes to rest a little she continued on before he could say anything. "I know how it feels though to be alone. Outside of training with Trunks and Vegeta I usually am too. Everybody's always too busy to really spend time with me so I just adapted. Saiyans are supposedly good at that. Especially my family."

'What am I doing anyways? I could've just left her alone or even gotten the fox to care for her, but I didn't. Even with all her questions and talking, it doesn't feel the same way. Even Mukuro never made me feel this comfortable in her presence as this girl does.' Hiei thought to himself as he began to clean and sanitize Ebony's wounds. 'Mukuro was all but obsessed with power, this girl isn't. She fights because she enjoys it.'

"Easy Hiei, not so rough there." Ebony mumbled half asleep from exhaustion. Her workout had taken a lot out of her today. "That still hurts there you know."

"Just be quiet and sleep." Hiei responded with a small smirk. "I'll have you fixed up in no time. Get some rest you stupid girl."

"okay." Ebony breathed all but gone in dreamland. Hiei's smirk grew a little as he patched up this stupid girl he had taken an interest in. Though if the others ever found out he'd never hear the end of it. He used his mental abilities to make sure she slept through everything and again to awaken her when he was done.

"Hiei?" Ebony asked as she woke from her dream. She dreamt that Hiei had threatened Vegeta and the two of them started fighting. Then the dream had changed to her and Hiei walking through the forests near her grandparent's house. The dream again changed to Hiei leaving her in an unfamiliar part of the forest just as the sun was setting and the forest grew dark. The next thing she knew was being awake, in her bed and patched up. The sun had barely passed the noon mark.

"It was just a dream then." She muttered to herself as she sat up. Her wounds were cleaned and bandaged again. She couldn't even remember doing it. The events of the day swam through her mind. Training with Vegeta. Talking to Hiei. Falling asleep. Wait…talking to Hiei?

"That's right. Hiei was here. Vegeta even sensed his presence earlier today." She mumbled to herself as she got out of bed and dressed in clean clothes. "I wonder if he's still nearby."

She made her way out of the door and bumped into Trunks. The look he gave her had her blushing for no apparent reason than that her butt was sitting on the floor and he was still standing. He held out a hand and helped her up. She gave him a mumbled thanks and dusted herself off.

"So who was the guy in your room a little bit ago? Did he leave already?" Trunks asked grinning. "Sounded like you were having a good time. Lucky mom didn't hear, much less dad or Bra."

"I don't know what you are talking about Trunks." Ebony said trying to wave away the fact that Trunks had found out that there was a boy in her room. Who knows what he had, or hadn't heard, and how he'd interpreted it. From the look on his face it was all bad.

"You're acting weirder than usual. If you don't mind I have somewhere I need to be." She said pushing her way around him. He let her go sending teasing comments behind her. She shrugged them off and hurried through the building and out the front door.

Not quite sure where she wanted to go she just kept walking. Hiei hadn't said he'd wait for her to wake up and she didn't feel his Ki anywhere nearby so she figured he had other things to do than wait for her. 'Maybe I'll go to my secret place then. It's not like I have anything else to do today as it is.'

She took off at a steady run and released herself to the forest. She dodged, jumped, swerved and ducked as if the trees moved out of her way to let her run. Mentally she was completely relaxed, her mind completely blank as she ran, leaving everything up to instinct.

Finally she reached a part of the forest only a half mile downstream of a huge waterfall. The trees here were so dense and close together that it was nearly impossible to get through them if one doesn't know the way. Parting several branches next to an old, bent willow tree, she moved past the trees into a clearing.

All around her was a virtual paradise. Green grass with all kinds of beautiful flowers scattered among it. The trees provided the perfect protection from the sun and elements while still allowing light into the glen. The pool that settled in the very center of the area was merely a small branch of the main river and settled in this one area with only a small trickle of a stream leading on away from it. Small fish swam in the calm waters, adding to the beauty. This was Ebony's sacred place, no one else knew about it…Until now.

A slight rustle of leaves drew her attention to the entrance. It was completely impossible to enter the glen silently. Even flying in brought an odd sound from the trees, as if they didn't approve of intruders. Even the wind seemed controlled under a tight leash here.

Ebony turned to where she had just come and saw a black shadow moving away from the hanging willow leaves to the branches above. Pulling her swords, silently regretting spilling blood here of all places, she called out to the intruder who's Ki was suppressed beyond recognition. "Whoever's there show yourself to me now. I might just let you live if you reveal yourself. No promises if I have to hunt you down myself."

A flash of steel and the black shadow from her right drew her attention. She managed to block at the last possible second. Before she could see who was attacking, he was gone. Another flash from her left this time. Another block and gone. This repeated once more before she got irritated.

"Enough of this." She grumbled, energy forming in her hand. "You had your chance and you blew it. Now it's time for this to end."

A dark chuckle from one direction and another flash in the opposite. She blocked the attack and threw the energy into her attacker, hoping to hit something vital enough to stop her attacker in his tracks. It worked. The black shadow flew back several feet and stopped. Looking into the crimson eyes of her attacker, she could feel her own turning the same color. Figuratively of course. "Hiei have you lost your mind!"

"Hn, no." Was all he said as he stood up and sheathed his sword. He adjusted his clothing and added. "Not quite yet anyways. I was simply testing you."

Ebony could feel any sense of calm leaving her. She was all but pissed off. "Testing me? You're saying you risked your life for a stupid test that I would've given you without all the theatrics? I didn't think you were stupid, but I'm having to rethink all my thoughts about you."

Ebony grumbled about how stupid men could be as she sheathed her own sword in an attempt not to use it for real against the fire demon. She sat down next to the pond and took a sip of the clear, cool water. When that didn't suffice, she splashed water onto her face to cool her anger.

Hiei came up to stand next to her. "It wasn't foolish as you think it was. Had I announced myself you wouldn't have fought as well as you did. You would have hesitated or held back on every attack in an attempt to not cause harm to me. Now, tell me I'm wrong."

Ebony closed her eyes and bit back a rude comment, then thought about what he said. 'Hiei isn't an enemy, at least not that I've seen. Piccolo says that I hold back when fighting family and friends. If I considered Hiei a friend and Piccolo is correct then by logical conclusion…'

"You're right." She admitted, looking up at Hiei's crimson eyes. "Since you have not offered me harm in the few days I've met you, I've put you in the friend category. I would've held back in an attempt not to hurt you." She glared at him then. "but it was still stupid of you to attack like that. You're lucky I drew my sword, not my energy, first. I could've killed you."

"Hn, I was in your mind." Hiei told her and, giving in, sat down next to her. "If you had attempted to kill me with your energy I would've reacted accordingly. Neither of us was in any real danger."

'but still…' Ebony thought to herself going quiet, just relaxing and letting her paradise bring her comfort. "okay, you win…but don't every pull something like that again. I'd hate to kill you by accident."

Hiei gave a slight, amused smirk and laid on his back. Head resting in his arms, Ebony matching his position, the two of them drifted off into a light nap for the rest of the day. Little did either of them know, there was another being watching them from the shadowed branches of the willow tree. 'Soon, Ebony Son, very soon now.' It whispered and disappeared into the shadows.

Wolfie: Well…several hours later and Jaz is still on an uber sugar high.

Jazmen: *Bouncing off the walls*

Yusuke: Um…should she still be going like that? I mean, I've had some major sugar highs in my time but this is beyond that.

Wolfie: don't worry…3...2...1...and…*points to Jazmen*

Jazmen: Hieihieihieihiei…*Crashes to the floor asleep*

Kuwabara: Wow…she's like really obsessed with the shrimp…that's kinda scary ya know?

Wolfie: it's fine so as…

Jazmen: *shoots to her feet and glares at Kuwabara* Who you calling shrimp?

Kuwabara: Uh noone, especially not Hiei hehe…gotta go…*Runs out the door with Jaz on his tail waving a sword around*

Jazmen: Kill Kuwabaka!

Wolfie: Well, while I go deal with this mess please R & R. Until next time…ja ne.