I know, I know, it's been so long! Thank you all, you guys who have been so patient and have waited so long. Just, all this stuff came up. I hope you like this chapter. At this point, I've got three things I need to do with the story right now: develop the relationship between Kurama and Hiei, with some added drama, of course; train Megumi for the Dark Tournament (we forgot about that, didn't we?); and develop backstory around our little demon triangle: Megumi, Karasu, and Yanami. So, that's the main arc for the next 3 chapters at least. Have fun, leave me some juicy reviews, they're wonderful incentive to work harder and do more and guess what? I have a lap top now so I'll be able to update my crap way more because I'M NOT GROUNDED ANYMORE! woot! okay, done with the rantiness, enjoy.

Chapter Eleven

Blue Fire Kindled

Megumi glared daggers, and Kurama was shaking with exhaustion when somehow, finally, for just a moment, a tiny, flickering ball of blue and green flame appeared in the child's outstretched palm. She gasped, and the tiny ball, about the size of a large marble, winked out of existence. The youko felt his mouth drop open when his little sister burst into tears.

"Megumi! Megumi, Megling, darling, no, don't cry!" He lifted her into his arms, and she curled up against him like a snail, pressing her face into his chest. He supposed he should've seen this coming. For weeks, now, he and the other Reikai Tantei, along with Megumi, had been training for the Dark Tournament. The others, they had access to their spirit energy, they could manipulate it into weapons and fight with it. But his sister, she had never tried to form her reiki into a physical form, into a weapon, except once, she'd said, with "the Raven in chains of honor," whoever he was, and she couldn't do it again. She had tried, tried and tried so very hard to form even the tiniest flicker of spirit fire, and when she'd finally managed it, it had winked out of existence in a moment, as if all the effort she'd put into it, the weeks and weeks of effort, were now for nothing. No wonder she'd burst out crying.

"Shhhh, hush now, hush now. It's all right, Megumi, it's all right. You've done wonderfully well, especially considering how old you are and how little training you've had-"

"NO!" She jerked away from him, scrambling to her feet and backing away. "Kama, no! No! I'm not… just because… you… Angel… NO!" She cried, tears rolling down her cheeks. She tripped, fell back on her butt, but when he reached for her, utterly bewildered, shocked, she leapt up, turned, and ran blindly into the forest around the Temple.

"Megumi! Megumi, wait!"

She didn't heed him. She couldn't. She knew he didn't understand.

oo8oo8oo8oo8oo

Hiei felt a twinge somewhere in his chest, and cried, "Hold." Immediately, Kuwabara lowered his spirit sword. Confused, the Jaganshi turned toward a spark of reiki he felt to the west, coming slowly closer. Sheathing his sword, the fire demon cast a quick glance at the human boy and ran to meet the familiar spark. He could taste her distress, and it bit at him like a gnawing rat.

When he saw her, he planted himself directly in her way. So blinded by tears was she, that she didn't even see him. She ran into him so hard, she fell back onto the ground with a cry of "oomph!" Slowly, gingerly, she sat up, and held up her hands in front of her face. They were dirty, and scraped from her fall. But Hiei was more than a little unnerved by the way she just sat and stared at her tiny child hands until finally, right when he thought the leash on his urge to scream from the oppressive silence was about to snap, she looked up at him, and he felt as if he'd been punched in the gut.

It hadn't occurred to him just how upset she'd have to be to project to him so strongly. He had tight shields, and usually didn't allow emotion through. Malice, evil intent, spirit energy levels, but not emotion. For her to just blast through his shields like that should have told him just what she was feeling… but like a fool, it hadn't. Like a fool, he had missed what Kurama had missed: just how fragile she was.

"Little one…."

"I can't do it," she whispered. She held up her hands, almost beseeching. "I-I tried and I tried, I honestly, really tried, but I can't… I c-can't…."

Reaching down a hand, he clasped her forearm near the elbow and replied, "Then I will help you, my little one," and he pulled her to her feet. "But first, I must see to those wounds. Come along."

I have her, fox, Hiei called telepathically to the kitsune. He could sense Kurama's relief at the message. I'll take care of her for now. Was that a tiny flare of hurt from the fox? No, merely Hiei's imagination, surely. And in his mind grew the words Try to find out what's wrong with her, would you?

oo8oo8oo8oo8oo

He settled her down fairly easily, though he could sense her tears boiling just beneath her calm surface, ready to spill over and carry her away in a flood of anguish. Setting her down at the stone table outside Genkai's Temple, and gave her a glass of the sweet, bubbly, brown drink Kurama called "coke." Sipping it seemed to calm her.

"Now," he said briskly, sitting across from her, "what's all this about something you can't do?"

"Kurama's trying to teach me how to make spirit fire," she said softly. The fact that she didn't call her brother "Kama" told him again just how upset the child was. She almost never called him Kurama. "I did it once, when I was with him," no need to ask who he was, she always talked about the Raven with a particular intensity, "but that was different. He was in trouble, a shadow demon attacked us. I had to fight her…."

"You never told us that!" Hiei cried. "What demon?"

"Someone from my past, it's not important. But it was only that once. It was a lot, a huge fireball, bright blue like the sky. But it didn't last very long. And I haven't been able to do it after that except just now, and that was only for a second. It wasn't even that big. Smaller than a shooter marble. It was completely worthless."

"No, Megling," he murmured. Reaching out, he took one of her tiny hands in his. "No advance in power is worthless. You need better control, that's all. You've got shields around your power so tight, you've locked all your power away. It's a natural survival mechanism for demon children if they've been traumatized by using their powers. Has something bad ever happened because of your powers when you were young?"

She scrubbed a hand over her face, sighing. Something in the fire demon's chest tightened. She looked so old, so tired, so worn out suddenly. Not like the little foxling he knew at all. She nodded, and told him several stories of nightmares, of powers out of control because of the terrors she'd had as a toddler. Only her brother had been able to stop it all, but once, just once, her brother had not been enough, and had been engulfed in flames, and though he hadn't been burned, the flames had had a strange effect on him, rendering him nearly powerless and actually almost killing the fox demon. It was after that, that her powers had stopped working. The fear of hurting her brother kept her cobalt fire at bay, trapped inside her mind.

At the end of her story, after describing the state Kurama had been in, nearly comatose, the little girl was again reduced to tears. But this time they were silent, crystal drops etching meandering trails in the dirt on her face. Hiei sighed, then held out his hand, palm up. In the center of his outstretched hand, a lick of jet black flame appear.

"Match me."

"I can't," she whispered. The half-Koorime shook his head and snapped, "I don't believe you. You are your brother's sister. I know what you can and cannot do. Now, look at the flame. You see it?" She nodded, eyes shadowed. "Do you feel it?" Again with her nod. "Embrace that feeling. The fire in you is blue, and can burn either furiously hot or frigidly cold. But to you it will always feel sweet, and cool as a breezy spring day. It's a good feeling. Don't be afraid of it. Now, hold out your hand to the fire, and I will kindle your fire with mine. You don't have to create flame to fight with it."

Hesitantly, she reached out and gently touched her fingertips to the black tongue of flame. Suddenly, that feeling a warm, soft kitten rubbing against her palm made her smile, almost laugh. This was the feeling she'd felt briefly before the tiny blue ball of fire had flickered out. She glanced up at Hiei, green eyes shining like hunter green glass, and he grinned down at her when she gasp in delight as the flame leapt up to dance along her knuckles, almost like a coin, a coin made of brilliant blue fire.

"You see?!" He cried, grinning down at her. She kept glancing from him to the flame and back to him, back to the flame, back and forth as if she could not believe her eyes. "There is nothing you cannot do, my little one."

"I did it! I'm doing it!" For the fire was still there, now dancing like a will-o-the-wisp in her palm. "I'm keeping it!"

"You did it, Megling, you did it!" She set the flame on the table, where it sat, waiting patiently, and she ran around the table and threw her arms around the fire demon.

"Thank you, Angel," she murmured, and kissed him on the cheek.

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aren't they precious? just so you guys know, I have OTHER fanfics out there. lord of the rings, ghost rider, criminal minds: those are my babies right now. They even have matching blankies!!! -- yes, yes, I know, I'm weird. Anyway, check out other stuff of mine if you'd be so kind. kisses!