If he could he would have sliced –what Yusuke said was- the theme song of the film in half. Just too bad one cannot grace a memory no matter how much one might wish for it, and the melody did not seem to be leaving him alone anytime soon.
Kuwabara had looked straight out stunned and that obnoxious detective and his fellow fox had stifled a laugh to the best of their ability when Yusuke explained to him he had indeed got a song stuck on his brain. Afterwards he had assured him it was a rather common phenomenon and it would cure itself over time –but that of course did not make it any more bearable.
A bell chimed and bustled all the dozens multiplied by dozens of humans out enjoying the surprisingly warm sun, into the huge building. It was almost as if one could hear them groan in unison as one person as they got on their feet from wherever they were sitting or running about, and walked back inside with heavy feet.
Hiei shifted. The lesser part of five seconds later, he was up in a branch he had before. There were no leaves, but many enough branches to secure him from inattentive eyes when the area beneath was not crammed with people.
A rattle.
Across the few feet separating Hiei and the old, grey building a window was pushed open. Someone inside sighed, groaned, exclaimed something Hiei was too uninterested to catch onto, and during the next few minutes more arriving humans added to the noise inside.
When the last, after the other twenty-seven humans entered -which Hiei had made a bad habit of unintentionally counting each time- it became quiet and the fire demon could enjoy the calm wind silently stroking past, closing his eyes. It carried with it distant tales of a summer to return yet again one day –though if it kept up like this, snow would be gone by the end of the week. Or perhaps within the next two days more likely.
Hiei sometimes found himself amused –despite his efforts not to feel anything regarding these humans- that even after two weeks on the same branch; none of the ones inside had taken the slightest notice of him.
The voice of the one who last entered had been going on for a while, but was now replaced by another younger one. The demon recognized it, though he had not intended for it, there was really nothing to be done about accidentally gradually being able to distinct and recognize each of the twenty-seven voices from each other.
Fourteen days outside the same window would do this to you, regardless if you were indeed an unwilling, ignorant fire demon.
It was a male's voice. Hiei remembered the boy's name to be Taka-something. From inside the window laughter broke out. The boy must have answered wrongly to… whatever it had been.
Hiei snorted a brief smile –even though he probably would not have been able to answer the grown up human's question either-. Then his eyes popped abruptly open as the next voice to breach the air caught his ear. He straightened up a bit to look inside at the girl who had decided to substitute for the failing boy.
Out of what had become a reflex when this happened, Hiei shifted the position of the sword as well as he listened to the voice of the female human being he believed to go under the name "Maka".
When two hours had passed, the bell rung for the last time that day. He wanted to sigh, but stifled it with gritted teeth as he realized with great displeasure at himself he had not actually expected anything to happen anymore.
After fourteen days it had become nothing but an act of habit to come here, in loss of anything better to try.
He watched bitterly as the twenty-seven young humans and that one older one clear what Kurama once had said was a classroom at the other side of the open window. In the end only five remained. They moved slowly, smiling faintly at each other only now and then as they gathered their belongings.
"You look so pathetic, worrying like that."
It was the tallest of them who spoke. She was also the only one who appeared completely indifferent and seemed to only be hanging behind because of a significant larger amount of books to tuck away than the others.
A short, brown haired girl spun around. Her balled up fists trembled but the taller ignored her, and with a last glance at her stack of books, left swiftly without another word.
"Maka" put her hand at the short girl's shoulder gently. A moment it looked like she would break free, run out the door, exclaim something. But then the fists fell powerlessly to her sides, and biting her lip she grabbed the brown bag, so similar to all the others', to leave.
Two stories down could the fire demon see the tall girl escape the building, as her long, softly billowing hair danced in the breeze and half hid the hand lifted to her face as she quickly walked away from the grounds.
"You know her?"
Hiei jerked around. On a branch a few feet away Yusuke sat with a lopsided grin. "Or were you just mesmerized by her looks," he teased. Hiei glared -though it was only half meant for the detective. The other half he wanted to point at himself for being so lost in his thoughts he had not sensed him coming and therefore let himself be taken by surprise.
On the ground beneath two other males stood, one with red hair the other a strange orange. Both had their hands in their pockets and both had their eyes turned up towards him.
With a silent grumble to himself the fire demon jumped down before none of them could request it of him. He did not feel like adding unnecessary trouble to the load.
"I believe her name is Sakura," Kurama said once the two up in the tree had reached the ground.
"How do you know that?" Kuwabara asked surprised. Yusuke sighed and shook his head, but sniggered at his oaf of a friend all the same.
"Already forgotten we were babysitting Fai from the shadows not all too long ago?"
"Oh, right. I forgot."
Yusuke shook his head with a sigh, though in difference from usual he left the matter at that without making anything bigger of it. Instead, he asked what they should do now and Kurama proposed a visit to a bakery for the sake of their wet shoes from the melting snow and the knowledge of two in their group surely growing hungry soon.
All together three weeks had passed. Three weeks into the New Year with a seemingly endless rain that had already washed away most of the melting snow, making this the first day of proper sun.
During these three weeks Yusuke had spent most his time at the arcade, together with his money and Kuwabara. Even Kurama dropped by every once in a while when he appeared to have nothing better to do. Once -something that had surprised all three gravely, even Kurama- Hiei stood next to them, watching as they tapped the buttons and nearly strangled the consoles.
When they were not at the arcade however, they were mostly at Kurama's place, where even Hiei most of the time accompanied them. But when they were all in school none of them knew of exactly what he was doing.
-Though, according to Kurama, Hiei had begun visiting that school for the last two weeks, Yusuke recalled, watching as the fire demon silently took a seat by the table. But even after receiving this piece of information from the fox, none of them had really felt up to asking more about it from the person in question, as their fire demon had been in an extra quiet mood these last few weeks.
Kurama politely took care of their requests, before returning with a board filled to the brim with plates and drinks.
The questioning of the demon they had caught in the woods had not brought anything interesting with it either, and after days of different interrogations, it had been thrown in a prison cell.
They were silent for a while.
Listening to the bustling about them in the warm, small bakery, nothing to talk about coming to mind.
That was at least until Kuwabara mentioned something about Koenma and a case he had them do a while back and Yusuke, thankful to have something to talk about, threw himself mind and soul into the conversation. Kurama turned the wheel slightly and their lively chattering tilted over to circle the subject of whether or not to do another attempt on wriggling the truth out of the demon, and then to why some artists prefer play-back. What this had to do about each other was hard to tell, but that the magic about spirited conversations.
"Hey, this is the same café we went to with the girls during Christmas` present shopping, isn't it?" Kuwabara suddenly noted.
And they all fell quiet again.
The fire demon at the other side of the table had not moved a muscle from the endless stare he had kept out the window the entire time they had been there. His arms were loosely crossed and the part of the glass surfaced table in front of him was empty. He had not ordered anything.
"So Fai hasn't said anything?" Kuwabara muttered under his breath. The detective shook his head.
"Quiet as a sword for three whole weeks, literally."
The half-hearted attempt of a joke got no response. Not from the one who spoke it either. Yusuke buried the spoon into the remaining piece of his cake more forcefully than what must have been intended, for it hit the plate with a rather loud clink, mercilessly chopping the piece in two.
He stared in through the window. He had refrained from going here all this time, not even sure to himself why.
At the other side of the wide glass surface, he could see the shifting motion of a TV screen. Between the glass and it stood a beige sofa, a head with brown hair poking up from the back rest followed by a pair of shoulders. They were slim; implying the human sitting there was a female. A few minutes later the phone rang. Only once did it ring before she had it in her hand, nearly gasping the hello into it.
So, still after all this time of nothing, they were waiting. Hiei's hands sunk deeper into his pockets as he watched her face close more and more until she put the phone down and just barely gave a shake of the head to the male who had appeared in the doorway. He pulled her closer.
Koenma had not been able to come up with an explanation. Hiei had not expected him to either. There was little to be said when the facts were dyed in blood.
He moved smoothly backwards across the lightly snow covered grass and mixed with the shadows as the glass door was pushed open. She stood there staring out at the evening sky. The mild winter breeze stroking along her bare arms without being granted any form of response from the female.
"Where is she?"
Hiei jerked ever so slightly. A moment it had sounded like it was aimed at him, but her gaze was still at the clouds seeming to stand still at the flushed sky and it was apparent she did not expect a reply.
"Where is our daughter?" She turned to the male who softly had followed her, panic tugging more strongly at her words now. He brushed his big hands along her arms gently.
"She is okay," he said firmly.
"How can you say that?" there was no doubt about the despair and frustration blending with her voice this time.
But his eyes were firm and steady as she stared hard at him, her eyes craving a different reaction than the one he was displaying. Her hands trembled. Had he not soothed her arms the way he did the demon felt no doubt she would have hit him.
"We cannot help her," the male said. And before the female in his hands could interrupt he continued: "So all we can do is trust and believe in her. She is a big girl, and our daughter. She won't give up so easily."
"But what if she is dead?"
The garden was a little darker now, the shadows longer. The spots of snow being like lanterns spun of dreams, giving the illusion of the evening being lighter than it really was. And from a dark pit underneath one of the whispering trees the fire demon watched the two humans wrap each other into a shared embrace of a shared wish. They knew so little of how close their daughter truly was at that moment. Had they just known she was not farther than their own garden.
Their lack of sensing abilities made them look pathetic in the demon's eyes. However, somewhere faint and deep down, hidden beyond bitter years and behind layers of closed doors he pitied them. Felt sorry for them, as their feelings were not unknown to him.
-Though he would rather be found dead and devoured twice, than admit to this.
They did not leave.
As the dark night sky draped the world in bottomless shadows, they stayed in the doorway.
The amount of cars passing by on the other side of the red house had decreased, leaving only a few motorized vehicles to pass by. -Though the occasional signs of other living, breathing human beings in the world seemed to pass the two by unnoticed.
To them they were the only ones left, tucked into their own secure space of wooden floor, glass door and a starless sky surrounding them from everywhere above.
They could have gotten a blanket. The warmth from the sun had long since disappeared, but the demon felt sure had ice formed around their cold fingers they would still not have moved from the doorway keeping them in-between the safe warmth of their home and the unknown outside world.
No words were exchanged.
Nothing but the common wish, and hope it would be granted to them somehow. Had the detective been there he might have spun a joke about the small demon being their shooting star.
They could perhaps have fallen asleep where they slid down to a sitting position while the glass door reflected them in darker shades. Could. Had not the phone rung. And even though the male first seemed to give in to the female's silent plea of staying, he then got up with a breathed sigh.
A few muted steps later the ringing sounding all too high in the quiet air was replaced by the lower, calm voice of the male. It lasted for nothing but a few minutes. Upon ending the conversation he turned back to her with a gentle smile, and from the deep shadows the demon watched him walk across the floor again and help his woman up from her cold seat on the doorstep.
She muttered something the demon could not hear, smiled and closed the door. From where he was watching, the movement appeared reluctant and perhaps even slightly uneasy.
The words spoken between them could now only be heard as a dim murmur from the other side of the glass, until it died out entirely as they left the room. With the flick of a switch, the light which had slipped through the glass, no longer kept away the night and the garden was engulfed by darkness too deep for shadows.
He had to move. As the demon stirred his stiff muscles awake he scanned his surroundings for a new hideout.
It was but a slim opening, but nothing more was required for him to hear their voices through the window, and he found a secluded spot in-between branches on level with the first floor. He listened to their softly spoken words as they ensured each other everything would be all right and planned what they should do to make sure of this.
However, regardless of him having no problem hearing them, the one he hoped would be able to hear their voices as they slowly fell asleep cradled in each other's arms, showed no signs of even being conscious.
It began raining.
From the clouds hidden by the night's darkness tiny drops of water slipped from the starless sky. He pulled further back against the centre of the tree for better shelter.
There was a rustle in the bushes beneath him. The next second a cat jumped out. Its ears twitched in different directions of each other as the grey and black spattered tail beat slowly back and forth. It looked to reflect upon its options, then it scurried off with another jump across a spot of snow, slipped through the flower beds and under what in daylight was a white fence.
All feeling of time was lost as the fire demon stayed there in the tree, secured from the light drizzle by a network of thinner and thicker branches. The only sign of the humans being alive being the easy sounds of breathing just barely reaching through the sound of the rain.
Had he ventured into their room he would have spotted the digital clock on the night stand. But he did not, and fate had it so the clock was turned with its backside to the window, and so the fire demon never saw the neon coloured numbers shine the time at him. Thus was he not aware it counted two hours until it started raining harder.
Millions of hard drops welled from the sky. By the time the numbers could reach another half hour the fire demon was soaked to the bone, the sword resting between his back and the trunk of the tree, covered by his cloak. However, the demon did not give in to the cold water before another fifteen minutes had past.
Then he left.
The tree, the dark garden and the last small spots of snow he knew would be gone the next morning.
Running through the quiet streets and deserted gardens the small demon tried to keep out of the rain as much as the different covers he came across would allow him. –This even though it did no longer count any to or fro for his clothes.
He reached the desired destination faster and through short-cuts no human could have copied. Looking up at the seemingly dead windows he snuck closer to the walls, walked quickly around the house once and found what he was searching for: A small opening between a window and its sill. He eased it open with a gentle soundlessness any thief would be envious of, and slipped inside.
He took two steps, then stopped. Everything was quiet. Everything, expect- he jerked.
Sharp light blended him, his eyes used to the night; he blinked and willed the world back in focus in seconds. And in the doorway, with his hand resting in the switch, stood Kurama.
"Is there something wrong with our door?" despite the faked worry there was an unmistakable smile tugging at the fox` voice. The fire demon glared and at this the redhead chuckled. He then eased the light laugh into a soft smile and the two demons stood there in the light from a single roof lamp. In the end the redheaded fox spoke up again:
"The guest bed up stairs is free. So long as you stay quiet my mother won't think of looking in there before she goes to work tomorrow."
He watched as the smaller demon walked past him with a single hn and headed for the stairs without looking at him.
"Swords might rust in rain, right?" Kurama's causal note as he closed the window Hiei minutes earlier entered through makes the smaller demon stopped for a second. But then he continues up the steps without a sound.
There was a click from downstairs, followed by darkness and a silent sigh, before steps up the stairs.
"So I take it this means none of it worked after all."
But Hiei does not answer. Looking at him from his own doorway Kurama did not expect him to either. He lets his eyes travel over the smaller demon's soaked cloak, where he can guess a sword is well hid.
The door to the guest room slides shut.
The fox` gaze slides down to the floor as he too pulls back into his room. There is nothing he can do. With all his wits and knowledge, there is nothing he can do to help the smaller demon and the girl trapped in her own subconsciousness and he pushes the door silently close.
|Fai.|