Hiei made the first move. He stormed over to them, saying maliciously "get off her."
Jin did as he was told. He scrambled up, bumping the coffee table, splashing some of the unused hot water out of the bowl, and backed away from Hiei. Hiei reached out and grabbed the sash that ran diagonally across his chest. Hiei pulled Jin by the sash to the door. He opened the door, said "get out," and shoved Jin through it. He shoved Jin so hard he hit the opposite wall. He then slammed the door shut and shook violently. He clicked the lock shut. Nanashi was frightened still, breathing heavily. Hiei looked over at her, eyes blazing. She felt herself cower as she curled up on the couch.
He walked over to her and asked, "what do you think you doing?!" He reached her and pointed to the door. "That is the enemy! What are you doing with him?!" Nanashi could hardly breathe, let alone answer him. "Well?" he pressed.
She could not look at him. Nanashi swallowed and said, "he's not the enemy."
Hiei furrowed his brow. "Oh really?! He almost killed the detective! And not even 48 hours later, the two of are-" he stopped himself. He could not finish his sentence.
Nanashi took a deep breathe and said again, "he's not the enemy. He lost anyway."
He looked down at her right hand. He grabbed it and asked, "what did he do to you?"
The wind serpent came up and went to bite his hand. Nanashi caught it by the neck with her left hand before he could strike. He snapped his jaw an inch from Hiei's hand. Hiei let go of her and took a step back. Nanashi put the serpent back around her neck. The wind serpent hissed at him, but stayed put.
"Slut," Hiei called her.
That crossed a line. Nanashi jumped off the couch and slapped him across the face with her left hand. He stood still, head staying turned by her slap, and a wounded look in his eyes. "I'm not a slut," she said harshly. "How dare you call me that. Again." Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them away. "You don't even know me. What I've been through." The wind serpent hissed at him again, but Nanashi closed it mouth with left hand. "What's your problem with me anyway? You haven't spoken to me for weeks and now you call me a slut." Nanashi gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. "Oh. The kiss. It wasn't, it was. I did..." She could not explain it or lie about it. She was not sure what it meant to her. She did it as a trick, but had felt something and thought about it since then. How could she explain what she could not explain to herself? Desperately to say something, she asked, "what's your problem?"
"You," he replied. He still was not looking at her. He sniffed the air and then, what he thought was gentle, grabbed her right hand. She hand to pull it away, but he would not let go. The wind serpent did not move or make a sound, but watched him closely, fangs bared. Hiei brought bandaged hand to his nose and sniffed. He sighed inwardly at the scent of her blood. He finally looked up at her and said, "he didn't clean it. It's infected. If it's not cleaned, it will get worse. Possibly fester." He let go of her hand and pushed her by her back down to the couch. "Stay there." He left the room.
When he came back, first aid kit in tough, he caught Nanashi sniffing her own hand. She blushed and said, "I don't smell anything."
He sat down on the coffee table across from her. She could not even look at him while he worked. An awkward and tense silence hung in the air. The wind serpent watched him intently from its perch; keeping visible just in case Hiei harmed her purposefully. Nanashi felt increasingly uncomfortable.
Hiei took her right hand and ripped the bandages off. Roughly, he took an antiseptic wipe from the kit and pressed it to her raw skin. She gasped at the burning that felt slightly good. He rubbed it roughly over each wound. Once each wound was clean, he smelled her hand again and his noise wrinkled in disgust.
"I don't like the smell of this stuff, but it's clean now," he told her. He put his hand on the side of the water bowl. It began to steam. He then grabbed the washcloth and dipped half of it in the water. He rang it out and used it wash off her hand of the residual blood. Then he used the dry half to pat her hand dry. Lastly, he took fresh bandages and wrapped her hand up again; better than Jin had even. "There, I did that right." He stood up and began to walk off.
Nanashi grabbed his left hand with her left hand. "Wait, your right arm. What happened to it? The dragon...?"
He half tried to shake her hand off his, but it a way where she could easily keep her grip. Nanashi wondered if it was just for show. "It's fine."
Nanashi furrowed her brow. "No it's not. Let me see it." She squeezed his hand; purposefully doing a tiny 'slut's trick.' To her surprise, it worked.
He sighed and took his hand away. He unwrapped part of his bandages. At the sight of the burns, Nanashi thought she was going to be sick. She covered her mouth and looked away; trying not to gag. He wrapped it back up. She had thought maybe she could care for his wound like he did hers, but it was too much for her to look at, let alone tend to it.
Not knowing what to do next, Nanashi cleaned up the first aid kit, bowl, water, and wash cloth. She was aware of Hiei, but tried to ignore him. Not sure what to make of him. When that was done, she went and got a book from her and Yukina's room, and sprawled out on the couch in the common room. Hiei was there, staring out the window, but Nanashi pretended to ignore him. Even if she succeeded, which she had not, she could not concentrate on her book. After a few minutes, she realized she had grabbed a cook book and not a novel as she had intended. She grumbled and debated going back and grabbing the novel, but did not want to look like she was leaving because Hiei made her feel uncomfortable. Instead she came up with a plan that could potentially be noisy and annoying.
She went the kitchen with the cookbook in hand. While the team could easily just order room service for every meal, Nanashi could cook and play the whole thing off like she meant to grabbed the cookbook. Nanashi laid the cookbook, dug through the fridge and cabinets and decided on making green tea cheesecake. While preparing the recipe, she made sure to be as loud as possible. Once she placed the cake in the oven, she began to clean up the dishes as loud as possible; incidentally splashing unnoticed amounts of water on the floor.
Until she turned and made to check on the cake; instead she slipped and started falling to the floor. Instinctively, closed her eyes and pulled her right hand into her chest so not to damage it more when she hit the ground. However, she never made contact with the ground. When she opened eyes, she saw Hiei had caught her in his arms. His face was way to close for her comfort. She pulled her face away.
"Idiot," he stated, and then grabbed her chin roughly, pulled her face up to his, and kissed her. Nanashi was shocked, but kissed back. It took her breath away for a second. He pulled away, dropped her on the ground, and stood up. Looking down at her, he said "point proven. Two men in one hour?"
She kicked at him, but made minimal contact with his shins. He chuckled and walked away. Tears pricked her eyes and she could only blink some of them away. She wiped at the other ones. "Bully," she choked out, mortified as her voice cracked on the word. 'He's so mean,' she sub-vocally whined to the wind serpent. 'Kissing him doesn't count anyway, I was caught off guard. Tricked.'
'You're not a slut,' the wind serpent comforted in her mind. 'Now, if you slept with them both in one hour...'
The idea caught her off guard and she laughed out loud. 'They can try,' she joked silently. She stopped crying.
'The wind mage is kindred. And sweet on you. The other one is a son of a bitch who would meet my fangs if he tried.'
Nanashi sighed, stood up, grabbed a hand towel, and mopped up the spilled water. 'What fangs?' she teased. He thought to her an image of him having huge, sharp, glistening, holding them around Hiei's wrist. 'Point proven,' she commented sarcastically.
When the floor was dry, she threw the hand towel in the sink and sighed. The cheesecake needed five more minutes. While waiting, she and the wind serpent continued joking around mentally at Hiei, and a bit at Jin's, expense.
'You're a bit of a bully too,' she teased the wind serpent.
'I bet I'd kiss better than the short bully,' he retorted.
Nanashi grimaced. 'We may be bonded my souls, but we're not bonding that way. And no, the "short bully" kisses better than Jin.'
'Jin was that bad?'
Nanashi felt embarrassed. 'Can we talk about something else?'
'Fine. How about how amazing I am?'
Nanashi and the wind serpent continued to banter in her mind while taking the cheesecake out to cool. Nanashi switched to teasing him in all his 'glory.' Little did they both know, Hiei had his bandanna off and was listening in on their conversation while sitting in a chair by the closed balcony door.
Hiei heard Kurama coming by the jingling of a key in the lock, and put his bandanna back on. Kurama came in with Kuwabara. Nanashi heard them come in and played pleasant. "Hey guys!' she called, poking her head out of the kitchen.
"Hey, what smells so good?" Kuwabara asked.
"Green tea cheesecake," she said, carrying it out to the coffee table. It had not cooled off quite yet, but Kuwabara did not seem to mind. After Nanashi had brought out plates, forks, and napkins; Kuwabara had three slices. Kurama ended up having two while the three of them ended up playing cards. Nanashi sat down next to Kuwabara since she still felt uncomfortable about the public intimate moment she had with Kurama.
Before his first bite, Kurama asked, "Hiei, would you like a slice?" Nanashi clenched her jaw and tensed up. Hiei remained silent.
Kuwabara called to him, mouth full, "you deaf? This is delicious Nanashi." Hiei ignored him as well. Nanashi felt like she should ask him as well, but opted not to. She gloated inwardly about not having to share with him.
"Nanashi?" Kurama asked. She thought he was prompting her to offer Hiei some of the green tea cheesecake. "What did you do to your hand?"
Nanashi breathed an inward sigh of relief. "Nothing much," she replied coolly. "I scratched it up." Louder, she added, "Jin cleaned it and wrapped it for me."
"Jin? Isn't he the ginger Yusuke beat?" Kuwabara asked.
"Yep. That's him," she answered. "He left before you guys got here."