Part 24: Closer

I awoke some time later to find myself still in my clothes from earlier and tucked beneath my sheets. I sat up with a slight struggle and looked around. I noticed that I was alone, but that I was hungry. Very hungry. I struggled to crawl out of bed and stand, righting my balance, before slowly walking down the hall to the stairs and then slowly and very carefully made my way down those.

~x~

Hiei watched the onna as she made her way down the stairs. He would not intervene unless she started to fall or something of the like. He did not want to be that close to her; for one, her wings were a pain to move around without hurting her; and secondly, he didn't like how his body reacted when she was in his arms. It left him with a feel of unease. Mukuro (who had been very close to Hiei near the end of her life) had not caused these feelings to stir within the short fire demon, and it startled him more than he would care to admit.

Kimiko paused at the bottom of the steps to catch her breath. She had worn herself out. She stayed in her place for a minute or two before she turned her head to the side and glanced over her shoulder. Hiei knew that she was looking for him, but because he was concealed in the shadows she didn't see him and started to slowly move again. She got about halfway from the stairs to the kitchen and had to pause, leaning on her knees—her body started quivering as she stood still. She was panting, trying to calm down, but her body didn't want to cooperate. She made a disgruntled noise before taking a single step forward.

~x~

I was determined to get to the kitchen by myself, even if I hurt myself in the process. And seeing as how I didn't sense anyone near, I didn't think there would be any help for me for a while if I did manage to fall and not be able to get back up on my own. Imagine my surprise when I started to fall and ended up in a strong pair of arms and the familiar scent of a certain fire demon suddenly enveloped my senses. "H-Hiei. W-what are you doing down here?" I whispered in shock.

"What does it look like Onna? Keeping you from hurting yourself because of your own sheer stupidity, and you woke me up when you were on your way down the hall and stairs." I blushed a deep crimson as I realized that I had sensed Hiei in the room (but because I hadn't seen him, I had thought that I was just imagining things) and he had watched me struggle to get to the kitchen. I was interrupted from my thoughts and self-berating when a cold, solid object was felt underneath my butt. I snapped to attention and looked around in confusion. Hiei had taken me to the kitchen. I looked to the side where I had felt a presence standing and saw Hiei looking at me. I had to admit he was quite handsome, even in the dark. His eyes seemed to glow in the dark. The urge to lean down and kiss him passed over me, but I resisted. The last thing I needed was to get Hiei mad at me; he had caught and carried me…multiple times even. And during the whole thing, he never showed one ounce of interest. The moment I realized that, impossibility set in and I realized that the likeliness of any relationship forming between Hiei and myself was unattainable and unlikely. So I thought it best for me to gather all my feelings and thoughts for said fire demon and pack them and lock them away in a box labeled 'Hiei' in the back of my mind. I had just selected the last of the thoughts and was just about to lock it away forever, but I was suddenly on my feet and something warm was covering my mouth. I froze in shock. 'No way in hell…'

~x~

Hiei was frozen in place. He couldn't believe what he just did. He was supposed to be trying to keep the onna away from him, not encourage her by kissing her! He didn't know what came over him; she had been thinking about it being impossible to have a relationship with him and had started locking him away from her thoughts and feelings, and some urge overwhelmed him and before he knew it, he had given into the urge and pulled her down and kissed her. She was frozen in shock; he didn't blame her. Hiei was frozen himself. Kimiko started to slowly relax in the kiss and started to close her eyes and started kissing Hiei. Hiei was still frozen in shock.

~x~

I started kissing Hiei, but I received no response. I was just about to pull away, when he started kissing back. A small smile slid across my lips before I wrapped my arms around his neck and deepened the kiss ever so slightly. But just as quickly as the kiss started, it ended. I gasped as looked around confused until a light overhead turned on, and I saw a very tired looking Yusuke standing in the doorway. 'That explains why Hiei just up and left.'

"Kimiko, what are you doing up at this hour? And did you walk here all by yourself?" His voice was tired and groggy, but he was starting to come out of the haze of sleep.

"Hey Yusuke. To answer your questions: I woke up and was hungry and yes, I did come down here by myself." I figured I'd spare Hiei by not telling Yusuke that he had helped me. "It took me a while to get down here, and now I can't seem to gather the energy to get my food." My tone was sheepish as I ended my statement. Yusuke chuckled before he walked over to the fridge and asked me what I wanted. "Well, what is there?"

"Let's see…" He then told me about there being stuff for sandwiches, some things for omelets, leftover pancakes from that morning's breakfast, and a few other things. I told him that a sandwich would be fine, and he grabbed all the things that would make a sandwich and pulled them out. I laughed at him.

"Yusuke, I don't need that much stuff on my sandwich." He grinned and said that some of it was for him, that I had gotten him hungry. I laughed again, and before long, we were sitting down at the table enjoying our sandwiches. We ate our sandwiches in silence for the most part, aside from the small-talk that was issued here and there. After we finished, Yusuke helped me back into my room before I fell back asleep, thinking about everything that had happened that night.

~x~

Hiei sighed as he rested from when he was attacking the innocent tree that had gotten in his way. Hiei couldn't believe that he had allowed the onna to kiss him…again. And to make it even better, he had kissed her back…but he had technically started it…but that didn't matter! It was her fault that he was now confused and irritated. This was seriously getting ridiculous. Didn't Hiei want to keep Kimiko away from him? Not let her get too close? So why had he kissed her and then allowed her to kiss him, and then kissed her back? He blew out a breath of annoyance and ran his hand against his forehead and into his hair. Kimiko was utterly confusing Hiei, and Hiei did not like to be confused. Not in the least. Hiei sighed through his nose as he noticed that the sun was starting to rise. He needed to get some sleep, even if it was just a little bit of sleep. Hiei grabbed his cloak before he ran back to the house and jumped up into his window. He knew that tomorrow was going to be a very interesting day. Hiei just wanted to kill something he was so excited about it.

So, why is Hiei acting so weirdly? Will something come of this kiss, or will it just fall to the floor like the last one? Just wait and see next time on Tamer of the Dragon!

So, did you like it? Did you hate it? Did you see anything that needed to be improved? Let me know via review! ^-^ Also, sorry that the chapters have been so short. D: The Writer's Block Fairies have been attacking and it was all I could do to beat them, even just a little.

~Selli