A/N: A quick thanks to Myara for the awesome reviews. Reviews are like a godsend, and encourages the creativity and muse in me so I can continue writing. This is the farthest I have ever taken a Fanfic, and you guys are totally helping the process. Let me know your thoughts, throw out ideas, anything. Give me one hell of a critique where I need to improve. As always, thank you for reading. -x0x0 Holding Onto Faith
It was late at night, the darkest hour just before the sun would peak to announce morning was near. Hiei stood with his back against the wall, his eyes closed to the world, but obviously did not give away the fact his vision was above par. They were in a room the ningen onna called the NICU.
Somehow Katsumi was able to convince her peers and leaders on duty Hiei was a part of her parents' organization to escort her from place to place. For security purposes. It was partly true. Since her parents donated to the hospital, and the fact that it was a legit reason, Hiei got to follow her around as she did her duties.
He did not want to understand the complicated ningen mechanics that he was surrounded by. Somehow, Katsumi was able to get him into a pair of black scrubs one of the male attendings was willing to let her borrow for him. Something about him owing her a favor. Obviously, it was more than that by the subtle looks and peeks of interest in his body language. Only way he was going to wear the hideous ningen material was if it was black, and Kat supplied just those.
When Hiei had observed the scene and how the ningen fawned over Katsumi, he shook his head at just how oblivious she was to it. That, or she didn't acknowledge it. He made note of how professional in fact she was with her relationships amongst her peers. It was more firm, and cold compared to how she interacted with Urameshi and the others.
At the moment, Katsumi was standing over a clear box with tubes going in and out of it. She had a stethoscope out and placed inside one of the holes in the box, listening tightly to the little one's heart beats. An infant lay inside, a rather smaller and delicate infant than he has ever seen, and with a small smile, Kat waved him over. Her anger from earlier in the night diminished, replaced by a warmed aura. He couldn't deny that the things she did weren't interesting, but a lot of them required a level of care he just didn't have, and would never want. Caring was a sign of weakness, he believed to the extreme.
"Do you know what NICU stands for?" She asked, setting the stethoscope back around her neck. Her hands were on her hips, her neck circling to crack it. It had been one hell of a night. While he peered at Janna, she had taken the time to notice their height difference, and was slightly alarmed as a tingle ran down her spine. Gulping lightly with embarrassment, she continued, her lips pursed as she gazed with him at the infant.
"It stands for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. These are where the infants go when they are not strong enough to go home to their parents."
"They would not have lasted this long in Makai, even if demon, if they were born like this," Hiei commented, stepping closer to the box, and his eyes narrowed together, obviously thinking about something else, and quite hard at that. "I have never seen an infant this small or… unhealthy. Even for a human." Katsumi couldn't hide her surprise. Usually he kept his words little to very few. She pushed back away the offended feelings she got sometimes when he spoke or belittled her kind.
"No, they would have not. I guess in a way, with our technology, it makes us more progressive than the Makai," she countered slightly, eyes not removing from the sleeping babe.
"There's truth to that," he admitted, before stating coldly as his eyes turned to her. "But unlike humans, demons don't give birth to unhealthy infants. We are not prone to diseases and ills of humankind. Which is one of the many reasons demons are the superior race." She shivered slightly, pulling at the long sleeve shirt underneath her scrub top to cover her icy hands.
"I suppose you are right. Humans are undeniably inferior to demons even with our advances to give us a better chance for survival." Katsumi ended with a quip, turning on her feet to leave the NICU with Hiei following suit behind her. She was heading to her small office, it was time to head home so she didn't max out on hours. Standing in front of her desk, shuffling through some folders, the night was finally wearing on her mind. Usually, it was her body that always gave up to tiredness before her mind. He could sense the tense muscles in her shoulders.
"Don't be an idiot. You misunderstand me." He spoke up, hands settling into the pockets of the scrubs with nonchalance, and Kat turned around to him with some files in her arm and an eyebrow raised at him. "Demons reproduce differently than humans."
"You mean, even sex is different?" Kat tried to hold back her humor, and he shot her a look of annoyance. She laughed lowly, and nervously.
"Hn, baka onna. That is all of the same concept, not that you would know anything of that," he smirked, watching her cheeks flare up and anger with embarrassment flood inside her.
"The demon mate of the pregnant demon is in charge of feeding his Ki to the child. So they will be strong, and to let the infant know who is in command." Kat absorbed the information, trying to dismiss Hiei's earlier comment.
She was amazed at herself for getting him to talk to her. With her free hand, she looped her purse over her shoulder and picked up his folded clothes from the chair against the wall, handing them to him.
"What if a demon mates with a human? Is it the same?" The question caught him off guard at her curiosity, accepting the clothes, he followed her out as she locked her office. It wasn't taboo, Yusuke's ancestor Raizen had mated with a human.
"It rarely happens, for obvious reasons," asserting his distaste before continuing. "But then it is even more crucial for the provider to give his Ki." Kat wasn't really sure what he meant by Ki, she was unfamiliar with the term, but she asked another question anyways.
"And if the other way around?" They walked down the flight of winding stairs and out the nearest exit of the hospital wing to the parking lot. Greeted with the cool air of the night, Katsumi brought her arms tight around her, clutching the folders to her chest.
The night sky was clear of clouds, and the moon shined bright down on them and everything it touched. It was serenity in the way it blanketed the sleeping world. Well, mostly sleeping world. She didn't expect Hiei to be a gentleman and extend any sort of jacket or anything, and there have been colder mornings, Kat could definitely bare the cold.
He walked in stride beside her, instead of behind her. It was a conscious awkward urge not to brush her arm against his by accident. In those moments, you become painfully aware of every little inch of movement your body made.
"I have never heard of a female demon mating with a ningen. In Makai, it is about mating the more powerful male demon."
Katsumi rolled her eyes at the classic male/female role. She tried not to blush at the thought of having a conversation with Hiei about pregnancy and intercourse, and she was slightly flattered he was carrying a conversation with her as quiet as he usually was. She wasn't even sure how he knew she had little to no experience in the bedroom.
Who had time for that? Not this one, not with how hard she genuinely worked, except for lately.
Hell, she even got a number while she was shopping with her mother and the girls at the department store.
"You need to talk about what happened, onna." Hiei commanded suddenly. Her small body tensed and she averted her gaze to him in silence. His crimson eyes seemed to reason the importance in this.
"You always seem to know what's going through my head, so why don't you pick it out," she grumbled tiredly to herself, unaware that Hiei heard her agitation as clear as day. He held back an amused smirk. They were now finally on the block her house rested on as they walked along the sidewalk.
"Onmyoji's eyes have been haunting my dreams. That was the first time he was haunting me outside of them."
There was a long pause as they grew closer to her house.
"Not that there's any say in the matter, but you are going to have to quit going to the hospital."
That same anger flooded through her as it did before she headed into her work shift, and she stopped in her tracks. He stopped with her and turned to face her anger which she didn't hesitate to turn his way.
"How dare you, after everything…" she seethed through gritted teeth.
"Since you cannot get your idiot mind around anything other than your pathetic job in ningenkai," and he even regretted calling it pathetic, because it held his interest a bit himself as he observed her work. He felt it even more as she flamed up beside him, but he stood unwavered.
Another wave of cold air whipped between them. "Let me dumb it down and simplify it for you, onna. Get your head out of your ass and listen closely," he added, seeing she was just about to attempt to interrupt him.
"That demon can track you. He can come at you when you least expect it. He is able to keep tabs on you at will. Until information comes from the Makai or Spirit World, killing an infant is not beneath a demon. This new information changes the circumstances."
"There are other ningens who can do this work that you do," he added. Expecting backlash from the insult, his eyebrow raised at the woman.
Hiei could smell the salt from the tears that threatened to break, and he watched as she blinked them away with ease. He became very annoyed at Katsumi, just wanting to deal with her as he would his subordinates. Averting her gaze, her fire of anger melting and withering away. The weight of reality sunk in, and she could not deny that she had not thought of it. She had not thought of the potential harm to the things in her workplace with Hiei watching out for her.
"So what am I going to do, huh?"
It had been three weeks since everyone was rounded up to form a camp site at Genkai's. Some of them had to double up on bedrooms, but Kat was sure to bring her video games, TV, and consoles for her, Yusuke, and Kuwabara to keep them entertained. Most of them packed a good sized gym bag of clothes and bathroom pleasantries, and planned when one needed to head back into the city, they would go in a group and make stops together to everyone's residence.
Keiko was able to take a leave of absence, Katsumi decided with thoughtful decision to put in a two weeks notice. As far as they knew, she was the only one who was being taunted and had been attacked, and until this situation was under wraps, she could not put anyone else at risk. A long conversation with her boss later, and they both agreed that when she could, she would return. Shizuru had the free time to stay at Genkai's anyways, and had finally sought out to train her spiritual awareness as her baby bro had. So this was just another means to stay at the temple longer.
"URAMESHI, BRING IT ON." Kuwabra roared at the back of the temple outside as Yusuke chuckled like a mad man, stealing the carrot top's dessert Yukina had made. The boy ran for it, while stuffing his face with the delicious lemon cake while Kuwabara chased after him. Once he could finally get ahold of Yusuke, they folded into a brawl far off into a field.
"Those two will never grow up," Shizuru laughed softly, shaking her head. "You would figure after all they have been through they would have grown up a bit."
"I think they have. At least, I noticed some sense of some growing up since I was last here," Kat mused, Keiko laughed with Shizuru, looking to the two woman with a smile. Yukina nodded softly in agreement with Katsumi, her Kazuma was not the same boy she first met. She followed the Genkai into the temple to share some tea with.
"Well if anything, Yusuke certainly misses less dates with me, but he's still the same young boy when we were back in middle school. Still a pain in the butt." Kat was thankful his fowl mouth never rubbed off on Keiko, she was always the good role model for him, and encouraged him to be the best.
It was close to sunset, and the air was surprisingly warm, the wind coming in from the south that week. Kat sat next to Keiko and Shizuru laughing, legs stretched out on the grass with hands placed behind her to hold her up. They all relaxed with what was left of the sunlight. Hiei couldn't suppress a smirk from the faded insults Yusuke and Kuwabara threw at each other, perched up on the tree and even though he looked sinister in a way, Kat gazed up with some kind of attraction. And a shiver raked down her spine.
Just then her phone buzzed and she pulled the blue cased iPhone from her pocket. It was a text from an unknown number, and she raised a brow at the message.
Dont b mad. Ur cousin gave me ur digits. We should get together 2night around 7pm. (;
Katsumi raised from her leaned position, the picture of the tall darkhaired green eyed boy from the department store picturing in her mind perfectly, legs pulling into a pretzel as she turned to her cousin, phone held out to display the text.
"Explain, Keiko!" She demanded almost savagely, her face crinkled with irritation. Keiko chuckled bashfully, her hand nervously behind her head.
"I think it's time you went on a date! Plus he is REALLY cute, and totally seemed into you."
"How do you know? I was with my Mom when he approached me."
"He was indeed scrumptious," Shizuru added before Kat scowled, falling back down onto the grass to look up at the sky. Arms folded behind her head.
"Yeah, and I was not too far away from him after you turned him down," she snapped lightly before winking playfully. Kat sighed, letting her agitation flood from her.
"I just… at the time I knew I did not have the time to make it work. I still can't, even being unemployed, I would just put him in danger, and I am thinking of moving out of the house."
"Oh please, Yusuke is covering that since this is probably partly due to us. If you weren't… you would still have your job at the hospital and probably would not have ever been attacked." Kat could hear the guilt that lay in Keiko as she turned away to look at Yusuke, who had Kuwabara pinned in a headlock, giving a noogie.
"How are you two going to afford that, Keiko?!" Kat's eyes narrowed at her. She did not want her cousin to be put in any debt because of her. It was already bad enough that her Mom completely furnished her apartment with their family's wealth. Katsumi liked to pay her own way, but she learned early on that she wouldn't be able to fight her mother when she wanted to put her money down. Kat never got enough of it, her mother even had given her a company card to use as she pleased, and was frustrated that she never used it. Not once.
"Do not worry a thing about that, Kat!" Botan's cheery voice sounded from above her and Kat scrambled with a surprised yelp as did Keiko, blinking up at the woman who soared on an… Broom… thing?
"Dear Kami, don't sneak up on us like that!" Keiko sighed, hand at her chest to try and steady her heartbeat.
"My apologies! Lord Koenma will be here to-"
"I am already here Botan."
Kat sat up and could not believe her eyes. He was about two feet tall, a toddler, with a pacifier. He was the Lord Koenma of Spirit World? How in the…
A sudden poof of smoke and what appeared as was a very much older version of the toddler. Brown mossy hair, a Jr symbol on his forehead, and he was dressed in blues.
"This is very strange." Kat said, still tilting her head… now up at Koenma.
"Strange times. It seems no one in Spirit World knows quite why a demon would want to attack you. We have no leads, but Spirit World is taking care of any and all financials. We were informed by Hiei that it was best if you did not continue work, and therefore because-"
"Because of you spirit idiots, another human is in danger and you have no information you can give us," Yusuke finished, hand slicking his hair back to straighten it out after his brawl with his dearest friend. Koenma twitched at the insult before hissing,
"That is the very reason the border control is put in place. To prevent things like this."
"Yusuke, do not be so rude," Keiko chided and gave an elbow as he plopped down beside her.
"Hn. Do not blame my subordinates for your incompetence. Spirit World has as much to blame." Hiei replied coldly, and Kat caught eye contact for a moment.
"Have either of you heard from the Makai? Or from Kurama?" Koenma, ignoring the fire apparition's retort.
"Nah, Kurama ain't been around since he left to Gandara. No word from Tourin, and I am sure if Hiei had any news he wouldn't have sat around not telling us."
"Detective has a point."
"Whatever, if anything happens, I'll be here!" Kuwabara piped in, finally regaining complete control of his breath after the wrestling match. "I'll protect the lovely Yukina and the ladies from any demon punk!" Hiei twitched at the mention of Yukina, and for some reason, Kat felt a slight twitch of jealousy. Immediately, she dismissed it, taking a deep breath.
"Hn, you couldn't hurt a fly if it was captured inside your closed fist."
"WHY YOU! Shrimp, I'll take ya on here and now!" Kuwabara puffed up, his fists brought up ready to go. Crimson eyes met his with boredom.
"Keep me posted. Yusuke, you still have that compact communicator?" Koenma asked the former detective.
"Hell no, that fucking thing looks like a girly make up device that fits awkwardly in pockets. I ain't keeping that on me."
"Well, I have come prepared then." Koenma reached into his pocket and began handing them out. Katsumi gazed out off into the distance, and couldn't help to feel out of control and trapped in this situation. She did not like feeling this way. Feeling like a defenseless animal that was hiding in camouflage, it was not her nature. She always was a fighter, and pushed back. She always had her freedom and freewill.
"Use these if anything happens, or if any information comes back."
After receiving hers, Katsumi slowly slipped up from the grass and began to wander off. She needed to think. For the first time this week she wasn't feeling so depressed about not working, but Koenma bringing the situation to attention… Well, that just brought everything back.
White tennis shoes tread carefully through the floor of the forest. It was dark, but just enough to see where she was heading. The dark greens around her of the trees weren't completely faded into the growing darkness.
Katsumi wanted to get some distance from the group. Thoughts of the consequences rang through her head, how it was so stereotypical of how bad things happen, but she just could not take it. Sharing a room with Keiko and being surrounded by all of them for the last three weeks had been nice… but now she needed some privacy outside of the bathroom.
Finally she stopped, finding a creek cutting across the ground in front of her. Large rocks were scattered in between the coursing water. Above, the trees were cut open in that part to let some light in.
"What are you doing onna?" Startled, eyes scanned everywhere for Hiei, but she could not see at all.
"Hn, if I had been another demon, you would have been dead… again."
Hearing a very small thump behind her, she pivoted to peer into those familiar crimson eyes. Hiei had expected some sarcastic reply, or a response in the least, but she just stared at him for a long hard pause. He stared back, and for a moment everything was still around them.
"Why do you care so much?" A smirk formed on his lips.
"You think I care about your pathetic life? It is as insignificant as the oaf's." His words cut at her, the warm breath of his words barely touching her. It was then she was realizing the night was not only bringing darkness, but bringing in the cold as well.
"Hm," she replied, rolling her eyes before turning her back to him. Her eyes widened as he had grabbed her arm and swung her body around roughly so her back hit the tree which was just beside her.
"It is not your fault you are human," he spoke out in a low whisper. "But however, you can learn and train to at least be able to defend yourself enough to stay alive."
"What if I don't want to learn?" She glared, her body jolting up, getting ready to shove him. She didn't even see it but she knew he had moved, because all she shoved was air. She turned towards where she felt him.
"Then I was wrong, and I will rescind training you to at least become half competent."
"Half competent?" She seethed, even though it was a question, she did not want an answer.
"Half competent to what, your standards? Who even said I would want to be leveled and appreciated by YOUR standards, hm? You are no one to me. Just some demon who saved me once from another demon. Congrat-u-fucking-lations on be a hero for a day."
Her words cut like ice, and Hiei growled before his hand shoved her back into the tree, a katana at her throat as his other hand now circled around her neck to keep her pinned to the tree. He could feel her fighting against him, but it was her eyes which challenged him the most.
"It would be idiotic of you to decline." He stated simply, completely detached. "It means after I train you, I won't be obligated to protect you, and I can be free to do as I wish."
"So what, a win-win for both of us, huh?" She snapped. "I am SO SORRY that I am taking up your precious time that you would rather spend with Yukina."
Sarcasm dripped from every word, and she gave another shove. She felt him tense up, and slight confusion she could read from his eyes until the unemotional mask returned to come back in place where he usually kept it. He hardened in a way she hadn't seen previously, a defensive nature surrounding him, and his attention seemed to be halfway somewhere else.
"You have one choice, onna." Hiei began to smirk; it was sinister and spewed goosebumps along her skin. A shiver, not the pleasant tingle from before, but one of fear raked her in a way she could not understand or comprehend. It was the feeling of fear that something was crawling all over you after spotting a spider in the corner of the ceiling. But instead, she felt the itch coming in three different places coming towards them.
"I will train you so I can be free of watching over you, or you can attempt to fight these low level demons heading your way solo." Three demons, she thought to herself. Why were they coming this way?
"I," she snapped, distracting herself from the fear. Katsumi glaring into him. Her hand came up and elbow went over his arm, bringing down her arm to remove his hand from her neck with all her body strength. He let go, not fighting the movement or using his own strength, his eyes widening by her boldness. Once free, she took a step closer, their bodies less than an inch distance between. Her lips barely touched his as she said with an unmatched fire.
"Do not need you," she finished, and he was gone before you could say Quidditch.
(bum bum bum... cliffhanger!)