Welcome to HFBF : HTLWMY - Chapter Seven - Missing Those Golden Eyes
Hello there. Wow Its taken me days and days to write this one... It was really hard to try to... What's the word I want... Progress it?... Ah well. I am naturally adverse to doing any work what-so-ever
Let's get on with it on that note shall we? Yes, Good.
Koenma is possibly the most relieved the next morning in a mission briefing when Kurama enters, all red hair, emerald eyes and far shorter than his Youkai counterpart, but Mayoke is quiet, not distant nor unresponsive, just missing her old friend, and Yusuke frowns when he realises just how upset she seems.
"Mayoke, are you alright?"
"Hai. Fine" Mayoke states with a flash of a smile which fades instantly after forming and Kurama moves to sit beside her before all five of them look towards Koenma and Mayoke listens to the steady heartbeats of Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama, and the odd pulse from Hiei, which is quieter as he is leaning against the wall beside the door. Koenma speaks to Yusuke with Kurama listening attentively, which means that Mayoke pays no attention, because she does not have too, and she doesn't perk up until they are leaving when she hurries to walk beside Kurama and he glances at her before uttering almost shyly.
"Good morning Mayoke"
"Kurama… Are you aware of how long you've been locked inside while Youko's been free?"
"He gave me some information, nothing detailed. Said I'd been asleep within his mind for a week, he said you might be a little down this morning and asked me to make sure you cheered up"
Mayoke smiles slightly at the request but she shakes her head and walks beside Kurama quietly while Yusuke and Kuwabara argue over how they should find the Youkai that they are after in the Ningenkai and finally Mayoke gets fed up, untying her obi and pulling off her haori before she walks past the pair and through the Ningenkai portal and they all hurry to follow.
Mayoke's unspoken plan doesn't take long, and the male Youkai is so preoccupied with her that the boys do not even get noticed until it is far too late and Kurama's vines are the ones that bind the Youkai while Mayoke winks at the male and then she flicks her tail and states swiftly.
"That's how you bring down a male Youkai that is trying to attack girls all the time. Honestly" Hiei almost laughs and Kurama just blinks, within him Youko is growling jealously, after all Mayoke is very rarely flirtatious and for him to have been unable to see it with his own gold eyes is very, very annoying to him, and even more annoying to him is that Shuuichi has seen exactly that flirtatious Mayoke that Youko has only seen three times in all his years of knowing the Cat Youkai.
Within minutes their mission is over and even Hiei is a little stunned by how swiftly it was finished, having thought that they would be in for a big fight, none of them had even imagined using Mayoke as bait of some sort even though she is female, and if they had thought of it they would never have asked her too, nor made that their plan.
Over the next few days it becomes clear that Mayoke has been affected by the loss of the ever presence of her old friend, she starts spending allot of time out in the grounds on her own, drifting aimlessly but mostly staying near the Sakura trees, and Kurama watches this with more and more unease, even Youko is worried about the way Mayoke is acting. Then finally she snaps one late evening while with the boys and once again Hiei is the cause, Hiei has been making little snide remarks for days about the way Mayoke has been acting and now he has finally gone too far, Mayoke with her icy gaze hard, and her tail almost thrashing back and fore behind her.
"How would you feel if you got what felt like only moments with the oldest friend you have who wasn't some servant merely trying to curry favour with a young heir to a territory?!"
"I would deal with it in a much better fashion than you have"
"Funny. Asahi once said to me that you were even worse than some of the most isolated thieves and assassins of our youth. That means you could never comprehend my relationship with Youko, let alone know how to deal with the way I feel! You are nothing but a pathetic child trying to act like a cold blooded killer! Well I've been there and I've done that! It isn't a path I would have taken for all of my long years. It gets tiresome and lonely"
Mayoke then leaves the room, storming out and Hiei just stares after the female Cat Youkai, unable to comprehend how she had gotten the upper hand, let alone the last word of the entire argument. Kurama looks concerned and Yusuke shakes his head before he utters with a deadly quiet tone.
"You have to stop winding Mayoke-san up Hiei. She's liable to kill you!" With that, Yusuke leaves, heading for bed, and Kuwabara soon follows, not particularly wanting to be the next target for Hiei's temper and Kurama frowns before he mutters softly.
"I bet she's gone outside again... Hiei. I think you should find a way to apologise to Mayoke-san"
Then Kurama too leaves, but he heads for his own room, of which the window faces the Sakura tree grove, and that will be where Mayoke would go if she had gone outside, leaving Hiei on his own in the common room to think and he decides that Kurama is right, and so he begins to try to think of what he could find Mayoke in order to apologise to her.
Kurama glances outside as he passes his window to change, and there is Mayoke, sat below one of the Sakura Trees, her ears held low and her head down as she stares at the ground, and the Sakura blossoms are falling all around her, aimless and beautiful, settling on her hair, her shoulders, her haori and her lap. He pauses on seeing that, and the overwhelming urge to rush out there and confort the beautiful platinum haired Youkai is not quite purely Youko's, although it is his part of the urge which makes Kurama move a full step before holding himself back. Mayoke would want Youko not him, and he wouldn't dare to go down there without delivering Youko for her comfort and happiness, and so he shifts his gaze away from the window and goes about his routine so that he can settle down for sleep during the night.
When Kurama wakes at dawn, he glances out of his window again and thinks he sees Mayoke still out there, but when he rubs the sleep from his emerald gaze and looks again, there is nothing down there but the hazy falling of Sakura blossoms and dark grass as the sun has not yet risen. When Kurama heads down to the canteen, there is Mayoke, half way through a piece of toast, with an empty plate on the table, although her ears are still down, and now he can see that her pale gaze is somewhat glazed and hazy. Kurama forsakes his breakfast for the moment as he walks across and settles beside her, but Mayoke doesn't even flick an ear in his direction.
"Good morning Mayoke-san. Are you feeling a little better today? I know that you miss Youko but you cannot be like this..."
Mayoke barely nods in reply and Kurama frowns but he gets up to go and get his breakfast, wondering what exactly he will choose, and Mayoke shifts her head to allow her gaze to follow him, her left ear flicking slightly, and she decides suddenly that Shuuichi could be as good and as close a friend as Youko, and so it is time to start letting his host get close to her. So she focuses her sharp hearing on his heartbeat, being that she had settled herself close to the self serving area and when Kurama comes back, she offers him a smile warmer and more genuine than he has ever seen from her, being that Youko was the one who produced all her genuine smiles.
"I'm sorry Kurama-kun. I've acted like a spoilt kitten not getting her way. I am feeling better this morning. Thank you for being so concerned about me"
"There's no need to apologise. You hadn't seen Youko for hundreds of years. It was natural that you should rediscover how close you were, and how much you miss him again when he had to leave"
"That is not a worthy excuse and I should have remembered that. I was brought up to be a queen not a spoilt brat" Mayoke states, before they both turn their heads to watch Hiei walk across to the two of them, his hands deep in his pocket and he sits down beside Mayoke silently, glaring at Kurama, whose words had lost him what little sleep he usually gets, then he looks at Mayoke who is looking at him, her ears cocked, listening to his slow pulse of life.
"Mayoke-san... I apologise for the way I've been acting"
"Nani?"
"I realise now that I should not have been provoking you and so thought long and hard about how to make it up to you. My only idea was this" Hiei produces a pure white piece of cord, which he offers to Mayoke as he states quietly. "I hope you'll accept this as my apology to you for acting like a brat"
"I... Anou... Arigatou gozaimasu Hiei-kun. I've been struggling without having a string so that I can concentrate on my thoughts" Mayoke takes the string off Hiei carefully and he says swiftly.
"It should be tougher and more durable than your last one. I figure you really need it if you're gonna be staying anywhere near the four of us, although Kurama will be the one least likely to make you need that string" Mayoke just smiles slightly and then with her breakfast finished she stands then bows to the two of them before she leaves the canteen and the two boys staring after her before Hiei coughs.
"Are you happy now? I apologised"
"Quite content yes Hiei. Thank you" Hiei then gets up and goes to find his own breakfast. Neither the Youkai nor the Ningen who hosts a Youkai could ever imagine what is about to come.
