One Day Left

Me'ran has gotten to know Kuwabara and Yuusuke, and she's met Kurama enough to know that he's in love with her, even if he hasn't told her, yet. Hiei's left, but the two can't even look at each other without fighting with each other.

The other three boys have decided to go wandering to look for food. They're all hungry, but both Me'ran and Hiei are fully aware of the fact that there is no food down here. No sun means no plant life means no bugs means no herbivores and no carnivores means nothing for them to eat. Kurama knows, too, but since she called him "creepy", he has been more reluctant to be around her without an incentive to not stare at her. Plus, Kuwabara and Yuusuke pleaded him to come along, since he can smell, hear, and see better than they can. They tried to get Hiei and Me'ran to go along, since both of them see in the dark better than the three, but both of them refuse the exercise in futility.

Me'ran's pretty sure they're lost. It's been a while. It feels like a while.

Hiei is sitting in a crevasse between two large rocks that he and Yuusuke created during a sparring session, and he's almost out of sight. Now and again, a weird glow can be seen in her peripheral vision, but when she looks, it's gone. It's just like being at home again, only she's surrounded by rocks and tunnels. The holes in the walls are familiar, though.

"God, what's taking them so long?" she finally whines.

"The Detective should have given up long ago," Hiei agrees. "It's not common for him to care for more than a few minutes at a time."

"So, why didn't you go with them?" she asks him, looking over at his crack in the wall. She can sort of see his face and his cowl, and the light off his eyes, so he looks pretty creepy.

"Do you think I wanted to get lost with those idiots?" he barks. He moves in his little hole, hiding everything but the cowl from her.

"No, but they're your friends," she says complacently. "Most of the time, you follow them."

"You're an idiot."

"No, I'm not. You do, you follow them all the time. You followed them here. You don't even work for Koenma. Kurama told me."

"Kurama has a big mouth."

"Eh, if you think so."

Silence lasts as long as she allows it. This means until she can come up with another question, she and Hiei are quiet. She, while not especially talkative, does not like silence.

"What's that eye on your forehead do?"

He doesn't answer. She continues talking, mainly out of boredom, but she's also hoping to get under his skin.

"Well, I know it hurts like a bitch if you head butt it. You nearly cried when I got you before."

"It's my Jagan eye," he answers, probably hoping to shut her up.

"Oh. Is it yours, or did you get it put in?"

"I don't see why this is any concern of yours, human," he snaps, glaring at her.

"It's not. I'm curious," she says, looking back at the hole to watch for a chance to run. She can feel his eyes on her, and murderous intent leaks into the "room".

"It's implanted," he admits.

"What's it do?"

"It gives me the power to zombify weak-willed humans that happen to displease me."

She knows that was meant to threaten her into shutting up, but she knows he can't kill her, and she wants to see what happens if he tries. So she continues to ask questions. "Anything else it does?"

"Don't you ever get tired of asking questions?"

"Well, the only thing I know about it is that it's intelligent on its own. Since it's implanted, your body shouldn't have been able to heal it, and it knew what it was doing when I gave it the energy to heal it with, so it's got a mind of its own. You use it, but it's intelligent."

"It can find anything I want it to. It gives me power. It allows telepathy. I'm sure there are other things it can do, but I have no need for it."

She smiles a little. Well, he's opening up at least a little.

"Your name is Hiei, right? Do you get family names?"

"I didn't," he says. He says "I" like it was only him. She doesn't ask. He seems put out, now. So, daunted, she scratches at her teeth for a minute.

"You always this mean to new people?"

"You're the first new person we've had."

"Ah. You always this mean to people?"

"I don't see why I should show any kindness to an annoying human girl."

"Because I saved your eye from needing replacement and I'll probably wind up saving your life."

"Shut up, or I'll force you to figure out how to heal yourself."

"Ooh, did I prove myself right?" she says with a grin. She's not sure if she means that maliciously or not. "Every time you've told me to shut up, I was right."

"Shut up," he says again.

"Did it again," she gloats, now. "What the hell's your problem anyway?"

"What?"

"You're a fuckin' bastard! It's like I did something to you! I haven't, and I know I haven't because I haven't gotten the opportunity to piss you off, yet. So quit being such a son of a bitch."

She's not real sure what happened after that, but it hurt, whatever it was. She opens her eyes and she's on her feet, but only just, and her face hurts. She tries to figure out what happened. She looks at him. He's standing on the ground with his feet braced and one fist clenched, so she guesses he hit her.

"Ow," she whispers, putting her hand to her cheek. She tastes blood, and her teeth are much looser than they started out.

"Do not insult me," he spits.

She's not sure why, but she's just overcome with rage at him for hitting her, and she runs at him and slugs him in the face for slugging her. He catches her fist, but she feels his grip slip a little, and she throws the other fist at him, using her body torque to put more pressure behind her punch. He catches that one, too, but she's stronger than him (physically) and he basically winds up backhanding his own face. He sends a foot up to kick her in the stomach anyway, but she blocks by picking up her leg and putting his back down, and she puts her foot in his ribs. It's normally harder for her to kick people in the ribs, but he's pretty short. He winces, and she knows she hurt him, but he doesn't let her know it. She feels a strange surge of energy, and another impact, and then she feels the ground under her back. She wasn't even aware she was falling.

"Damn you!" she curses, getting back up. He smirks and goes after her again, but this time, she catches both his arms, and she rolls onto her back, throwing him over her head. He lands, and she hears him skid a little bit as he slides, then rolls to get up. She's already back on her feet and she leans forward and picks her back foot up to kick him up over her head again. ((Genkai told her that she'd never gotten to teach anyone tricks like that because all of them were male and not that strong when made to move like that.)) He hits the ground in front of her, and she swings the leg that she just kicked him with around and up, then down at him to heel smash him. He rolls, and the ground crunches under her foot, but then he moves away and moves to prepare another attack. "Son of a bitch," she growls at him, pissed off at the fact that he's still trying to hurt her. It's what set him off last time, and she's aiming to just piss him off again.

The two stand there for a second, but then she feels not only one impact, but a whole bunch, and her back meets the wall. The pummeling doesn't stop for a minute, but then something else happens, and the force that was hitting her stops, and she falls down onto her knees, then back against the wall. It hurts to breathe, and she's vaguely aware of how much her back hurts, too, and her head.

"What the hell were you doing?!" shrieks Yuusuke's voice. Oh, nice, they saved me. There's a hand on her back, patting it for a second, and then they pick her up by her shoulders, and she puts her hands down and coughs for a second. Apparently, she stopped breathing while he was hitting her.

"Stupid human bitch," Hiei growls. He did that thing with his voice that makes it just sound like he just said the most awful thing in the world, like he absolutely hates her.

"Fucking bastard," she answers, looking up at him. For an instant, his red eyes burn into her blue ones, and she has to fight back the urge to hit him again. It helps that Kurama's got his hands tight over her shoulders, holding her back. She sees Hiei start to move for her, but Yuusuke throws his arm in the way, and Kuwabara catches his cowl.

"Back off her, Hiei," Yuusuke demands. His voice did something weird, too. He sounded just damn leaderly. Hiei moves again, and she almost jumps up, though to attack or defend, she's not sure. Kurama holds her tighter, and whispers a plea. She's not sure what he says, but she knows he's pleading with her to stay still.

Hiei finally steps back and storms off with a derisive "hn", and she hears him go down the tunnel towards the lake.

"Jeez, what'd you do?" Yuusuke asks. She's recovering. It still hurts to breathe, but that might be the bruising.

"I called him a son of a bitch. Twice. The second time was deliberate," she groans as she sits up. Yuusuke rubs the back of his head.

"Uh, that's not. Uh. You're an idiot."

"You watched me, you know I piss people I'm fighting off on purpose. Even if I can't hurt them, I'll certainly do what I can to piss them off."

Yuusuke grins and rubs the back of his head. "Well, apparently, Hiei doesn't appreciate people calling his mother names."

"No, no, apparently not," she agrees. She moves away from the guys and picks her shirt up. His fist-prints are all over her chest and stomach. She half wants to go chase him down and eat his brain out of his skull, or smash that third eye in, but she decides against it, and she lies down on her preferred rock, her so dubbed couch.

hr

It's nighttime before Hiei comes back. Kuwabara's sleeping soundly, and Yuusuke and Kurama are just nodding off. Both of them look up when Hiei comes in, but they dismiss it, apparently. She closes her eyes to fake sleep, but she knows he knows she's faking.

He goes back to his crack in the wall, and her faking sleep almost becomes real sleep as she drifts into a dream, but then something in the dream world touches her ribs, and she jumps up and nearly cries out. She looks around in the pitch blackness, looking for motion, to see if she's awakened any of the boys. Nothing but Kuwabara's mumblings, which he does pretty frequently. She kind of wishes the moon wasn't half- at least then she could see at little through the hole.

"Did you finally wake up, Healer?"

She nearly jumps out of her skin when Hiei's sardonic voice breaks the silence. She fights down the urge to scream or wet herself. "'Finally'?" she asks. "Was I sleep talking again?"

"You make more racket than the bigger idiot does," he confirms.

"I'd apologize, but it's probably my sleep-rock's fault."

She hears him grunt, and she sees a little motion in the dark, Hiei, and she braces herself. She's waiting for a blow to come, because it's so dark in here tonight that if he tries to hurt her, there's no way the boys would be able to see well enough to help.

"I can see where I hit you," he says. She sees the weird glow of his eye again, and she scowls.

"So it can see in the dark, too, can it?"

She hears him laugh, sort of. It's a lot colder than most laughs, but it's more than that grunt. "You're already over that grudge you were holding against me?"

"I don't hold grudges," she grumbles. "You're about to piss me off all over again, though."

He moves towards her and she gets up, but he doesn't make a false move. She can see his face, now.

"You should have broken at least a little," he says, looking at her more carefully. She pushes him back. "I'm stronger than that. I've killed demons with punches like the one at your face."

"It bruised," she points out, touching it lightly with her fingertips. "You like me better now that you know you can kick my ass or what?"

"You may be useful," is all he says, walking to his crack in the wall and vanishing back into it. She grumbles quietly and puts her head back down to sleep.