Future Talk
Chapter 53:
"Ice, Ice, Baby"
Imagine, if you will, a lake. In this lake are two islands, a smaller one above a bigger one. Hardly anyone goes to these islands, a fact that can be attributed to how most of the lake runs at a brisk, bubbling boil. Swimming is impossible, boats would melt or burn, so air is the only real option when it comes to getting to the domain of the Sisters—a domain that extends not only to the islands, but also to the essential air above them. They have mastered the art of getting to those islands using a combination of natural gouts of steam off the boiling lake and the abilities of the massive flying squirrels living in a forest on the nearby mainland, soaring high over the boiling waters in ways other demons can't. They live in seclusion thanks to the water, and also to the river a few miles away from the lake. The river is hard to traverse, too, and the Sisters have several glide-points along the river's shore so they can cross it without angering the gigantic, mindless demons dwelling in its depths. Air truly is the only way to travel in that country, unless, of course, you have a deathwish…
… in which case, there's a way for you to travel, too.
Remember those islands I mentioned? Yeah, you may have figured this out, but the lower one is the one the Sisters had their town on. The upper one is the one with the hall of the Bright Ones, and if you walk to the northernmost tip of that island… well, it gets colder and colder as you go. Kurama explained as we walked that the Salamanders live underground in caverns beneath the lake, hence the boiling, but the caverns don't go all the way from one end of the lake to the other. They stop somewhere between the two islands, and the natural chill in that area of Demon World quickly comes back in full force.
It wasn't surprising, therefore, to see massive chunks of ice floating in the waters to the north.
Kuwabara stopped dead when we cleared the trees and came in view of the water, breath frosting out of his open mouth as he stared, swallowed, and said: "You've gotta be kidding me."
"And me, too," Yusuke said.
"Ice, ice, baby," I muttered. "Dun-dun-dun-dunuh-nuh-nuh…"
Kurama studied the scene before us with a critical eye. "It's… going to be difficult," he said, voice schooled into a polite, mild, and comforting type of thing that I thought was totally at odds with the situation. After all, it wasn't every day you saw a lake covered in a film of ice, with icebergs that looked like fallen tombstones embedded in the layer at random. It looked like some sort of cold, barren desert, and in places the ice had frozen in the shape of tall waves, like something had stirred up the water and it had frozen an instant after being disturbed. It seemed as easy to cross as, as… I don't know what, but whatever it was, it wasn't good.
"I don't think Lauren's going to be warm enough," I fretted, going over to Kuwabara so I could take a look at her. She was wrapped head to toe in the Grand Mother's heavy cloak, and Kurama had used all of his fireflower seeds to keep her warm besides, but still… I was fine, but what about her? My staff buzzed with warmth in my hand, and my tattoo had spread a slow glow over my entire body, and even though I couldn't help but shiver I realized that the cold was almost (but not quite unless Hiei was standing next to me) bearable.
"I think that suit of hers will provide some protection," Kurama said.
I lifted the hem of the cloak away from Lauren's arm, looking at the little silver nodules and the webbing of wire that connected them. We had learned, upon further inspection, that a fine membrane of clear something connected everything at once and covered every inch of Lauren's skin from the neck down, and since Lauren's unconscious body wasn't turning blue or shivering with cold, we assumed it provided her a degree of insulation.
"I hope so," I murmured, carefully tucking her back in. When I pulled away, gripping my staff as my teeth worried my bottom lip, Kuwabara caught my eye and smiled.
"She'll be fine, Dani," he said, jerking his head at the woman sleeping on his back. "She didn't come ten thousand years into the future just to die of hypothermia."
I chuckled. "She used to say she'd only die if the event involved an explosion, an act of heroism that'd get her a statue, or biscotti."
He blinked. "Biscotti?"
"Yeah. She's got a bit of a sweet-tooth." I looked to the others. "So… are we just going to walk across the ice, or what?"
"It seems that that's our only option at this point," Kurama said, but rather than just start walking he turned to Hiei. Then Kurama's eyes flickered to me and then Hiei's did the same, and something unsaid flickered between them. Hiei let out a low laugh—one marked by disgust, annoyance, and odd undercurrents of regret—before turning back toward the trees.
"All of you, go on ahead," he said, voice soft as the wind rushed by and set my hair to spinning. I stared at his back with my mouth open, confused as he added: "I'll follow once you're across."
"Hey, we can't get separated!" I said, walking toward him. He spun to face me as I reached out to touch his shoulder, but something flashed in his eyes and I pulled back.
"Dani," he said, voice low and eyes blazing a very clear warning to stay away, don't touch me, keep back.
I ignored the look and what it meant. "Hiei—" I said, reaching again despite the way he'd seemed to gather himself up like a snake waiting to strike, and just as my fingers brushed his arm he let out a short, quiet growl. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and my tattoo twinged with heat and alarm.
However, it was his words that made my alarm truly rise. "Don't touch me," he snapped, vicious and lacking any room for argument. His lips curled back over his teeth, sharp white canines on full display. "Just don't."
I froze, his startled name—"Hiei?"—surging out my mouth before he jerked himself away and stalked into the woods without a backward glance.
"…did something happen between the two of you, Dani?" Kuwabara said, sounding timid.
When I finally managed to peel my eyes away from the trees (because what just happened what did I do why is Hiei acting like this I thought we'd finally gotten somewhere) I turned around, feeling my lower lip tremble before I bit down on it to stop the stupid act in its tracks.
"Define 'something,'" I finally said, looking at Kurama. "What the hell was that about?"
Kurama, infuriatingly enough, shook his head and turned to face the ice-waves lapping motionlessly at the shoreline. "We'll discuss it later, Dani," he said, taking a ginger step onto the ice. It held his weight without trouble, and it wasn't slippery thanks to the dust and grime coating its solid surface. "For now, we need to move."
I didn't press him for answers, because at the moment I was too busy replaying Hiei's harsh words and fierce looks through a haze of hurt and confusion and what-the-fuck-ery. Kuwabara shot me a sympathetic look or two as I tried not to let just how offended I was show on my face (I must have failed considering how he felt the need to approach, clap a hand to my shoulder, and assure me "Hiei will come around eventually, you'll see.")
Eventually the four of us (five if you count Lauren, but I don't) went out onto the ice in a single-file line, with Kurama in the lead and Yusuke on the end. Kuwabara went behind Kurama and I went after him. The wind on the bare ice was agonizing, making all exposed skin sting and burn from the dry force of it, and I kept my hood pulled so tight around my face that all I left exposed were my eyes (and those watered with every gust and the tears froze on my temples, which was incredibly annoying but what the heck was I supposed to do about it?). The wind had a wonderful added bonus—sarcasm—of nearly knocking me off my feet more than once, and it was slow going for all of us considering that Kuwabara had to carry someone and I had enough trouble walking to slow even his double weight down.
Kurama chose a rather round-about path across the ice, not going straight across but winding in and out amongst the ice formation and bergs—I wasn't sure why until he walked over a section of the ice and it gave way under his feet, and then he made us backtrack until we found a safer route.
No wonder Kurama's leading, I thought. I'd never be able to do this by myself.
It also helped that every time we veered from our course, Kurama would pull a small glob of phosphorescent algae out of a jar he carried, set it on the ice, and use his energy to grow it into an arrow-shape that pointed in the new direction we'd taken.
"Won't Seishou or Ryu be able to follow that?" Kuwabara yelled over the wind the first time Kurama did this, but Kurama just shrugged.
"Seishou can fly, and Ryu can use the squirrels with Hogosha. It's a moot point."
I was about to open my mouth to say yeah, and Hiei needs a way to find us even if he is being a major jerk-off, but right as the words were about to come out the wind blew in a ferocious gust, one even worse than the others I described a little while ago. Everyone braced themselves against it, hunching shoulders to minimize wind resistance, but I felt myself slide and then I fell hard on my side. I let out a shriek, gloved hands scrambling ineffectively at the ice as I tried not to get blown away and lose my grip on my staff, but before I could even fathom what was happening the wind caught me and swept me almost ten meters across the ice in a mad, slick slide.
Before I got too far, however, I slammed against something warm and solid. Yusuke had shot forward and caught me with all the expertise of a veteran hockey goalie, arms scrambling around my torso as he pulled me to my feet and shielded me from the wind with his body.
"I'm gonna stick with Dani!" he yelled as he wrapped his hand around my wrist and tugged us back toward the others. "She's gonna blow away if I don't! That OK, Kurama?"
Kurama looked at us both, eyes narrowed beneath the fringe of fur lining his coat's hood, and then he called: "The two of you together weigh less than Kuwabara and Lauren; we'll be fine!"
"Sweet!" Yusuke yelled, and we started walking again. This time, however, I walked at Yusuke's side, alternating from his left to his right whenever the wind changed direction. The going became much easier after that, and we walked in silence for a time before anything of note happened.
Well, I say 'of note' in the loosest sense, because the only thing that really happened while we crossed the ice was a conversation between me and Yusuke.
It was right after I nearly got blown away the second time that he spoke to me, raising his voice high enough to be heard over the wind. I walked in front of him since the wind was coming from his back, so I heard him well enough before the air snatched his words away.
"So what's up with you and Hiei?" he asked.
"Damned if I know!" I called over my shoulder, because after the snap-at-Dani incident I really had no clue. First we'd kissed each other and basically solidified all the stuff I had suspected lay between us, and then he acted like my touch was the most repulsive thing in the world, so what the hell was I supposed to think?
"Because you two seemed cozy before we saw the Grand Mother and junk!" he said. My blood ran a little colder, and not because of the atmosphere. "All up in a tree and stuff, you know?"
"I didn't think trees were usually considered cozy," I told him, and he did not reply right away because the wind changed direction and we had to reorient ourselves. I stood to his left, and he shot me a knowing smirk.
"Birds make nests in trees, so why can't people make love nests, eh?" he joked, and I stopped walking long enough to poke him in the ribs. His thick coat, however, rendered my poke basically pointless; Yusuke just laughed at me.
"You're terrible," I said, grateful that my hood covered most of my face and obscured my blush from his oh-so-judgmental view. My ears and cheeks burned; I'm sure I'd taken on the complexion of a tomato.
Yusuke opened his mouth, grinning, to reply, but then he stopped. His eyes narrowed and his mouth pressed into a thin line, and he raised a hand to his ear, listening for something.
"Don't move," he said, voice low and dangerous.
I went rigid in alarm. "What is it, Yusuke?" I asked, was Seishou coming or something?, and he looked at me with an expression that said we were in for something bad, possibly bloody, and—
"I hear…" he said, and then his lips twisted. "I mean, I don't hear you denying it!" His head tipped back and he let out a bark of laughter. "Oh my god, your face right now! You're so gullible!"
My jaw dropped and I slugged him in the arm before storming forward. The wind nearly knocked me over again, but I pressed on and Yusuke trotted to catch up.
"Oh come on, Dani, it was a joke!" he said, pleading with his eyes and tone for forgiveness.
"Well it wasn't funny," I snapped.
"Maybe not for you, but for me it was hysterical!" He laughed again, smiling a smile so fun-loving I couldn't help but feel my anger fade away. "I didn't mean anything by it, I swear!"
I did not reply, choosing to think about what I wanted to say before yelling: "It's just kind of confusing right now. Between me and Hiei, I mean."
He raised an eyebrow. "You two've liked each other for a while now—what's confusing about that?"
My head whipped toward him. "You mean you knew?" I said, because I didn't think it had been too obvious, but Yusuke just sighed, grabbed my arm, and pulled me back in front of him. The wind had changed direction again, and it blew his words right into my hood-covered ears.
"I might not be too smart," Yusuke said, "but I think I know liking someone when I see it. You two aren't exactly subtle."
Horrified, I asked: "We're not?"
"Um, duh!" Yusuke said, laughing again. "Hiei hates touching people, but he's all over you." He paused before correcting himself. "I mean, he's all over you by his standards. And you tend to look at him a lot, too." He snorted. "Hell, Hiei's downright helpful when you're around. Normally he'd just laugh and tell you you're an idiot, but with you he does things without being asked, even. It's creepy. Not bad, but… creepy."
"Oh," I said, because what else was there to say?
"Yeah, oh," said Yusuke. Once again the wind changed, and I had to stand on his right. He smiled down at me, friendliness overriding my embarrassment long enough for me to smile back with my eyes. "You want some advice?"
I nodded, unsure of where he was going with this.
"If you want to keep you and Hiei a secret, don't tell Botan anything." He laughed out loud at that one. "She's been saying how Hiei needs to get set up with a nice girl for years. If she figures out you two are an item, she'll plan your wedding and the nursery and you'll never get any privacy ever again."
"I'll keep that in mind," I said. Then I very cautiously asked: "So, when did you, um…"
A roguish grin. "I started suspecting something back at Ryu's hotel. Was walking to the bathroom when you were getting drunk in the living room."
"You saw that?" I gasped.
"'Hiei, girls don't like the boys they like to think they're cute!'" he simpered, trying to mimic me. "And then he carried you to your room and aw, isn't that just so sweet?"
"Screw you," I said without much conviction.
"Is that what you say to Hiei?"
I punched his arm again, appalled and blushing and unable to speak a coherent sentence. Yusuke just laughed uproariously and smacked my back right in the middle of my tattoo, and the shock of it made me let out a small scream.
"What, the tat still stings?" he asked. "Sorry, girl. Didn't mean to hurt you."
"No problem," I said, breathless and in pain, but I didn't stop walking because I could get through it, I knew I could. When I recovered, I looked at Yusuke out of the corner of my eye and said: "So, if you knew at the hotel, do you think anyone else…?"
Yusuke looked thoughtfully at the sky, which had lightened considerably and now looked like a grey blanket that had seen one too many washes. "Well," he said, "I know Kuwabara knows, if I'm reading him right, and if I know and if Kuwabara knows then Kurama sure as hell knows, because nothing gets past that guy. Oh, and Genkai's gotta know. She and Hiei are actually kind of close; she's one of the only humans he's ever gotten along with."
I winced. That was basically everybody but Botan!
Yusuke went on without noticing my worried face, looking pensive. "But I think the only reason I noticed was because we've been in close quarters lately, but even after the hotel-thing I wasn't going 'Oh wow, Hiei and Dani are an item' or shit like that. I just noticed you were closer to him than anyone else, except maybe for Kuwabara but he's nice to everyone so I didn't think much of that."
"Oh," I said.
"I really started to think you two had something fishy going on when you, um… " He paused, blinked, then laughed so loudly it hurt my ears. "Oh wow, pun totally not intended, but I realized something fishy was going on when I saw you right after you turned into the fish at the temple and walked past me with your clothes all wet! Ha ha!"
I snorted. "Funny, but what made you think something, uh, fishy was going on?"
It took him a while to calm down, but when he did he said: "Hiei walked out after you, sopping wet, but he looked kind of… happy. Which is weird for him since he's a grouch and shit, but whatever—he seemed happy. Anyway, since you were soaked and he looked like someone had popped a water balloon over his head, I'd figured the two of you had been together or something and since he was all happy in that I'm-smirking-but-really-smiling-you-just-can't-tell-because-I-like-seeming-stoic or whatever…" He shrugged. "Two plus two makes a lover's quarrel, I guess." A lightbulb-moment made his eyes widen. "Speaking of which, what was up with him being all weird before we got on the ice?"
"I have no idea!" I all but wailed, frustrations running over me in a sudden tidal wave of stress. "I thought we'd actually gotten somewhere good tonight, after we kis—"
OH SHIT.
I bit off the word 'kissed' at the last second and turned it into a hacking cough, but Yusuke's eyes widened and he stopped walking and his jaw dropped and—
"That bastard," he said. "Oh my god, that bastard! When did he put the moves on you? Was it in the tree and stuff, it was wasn't it, I can't believe that bastard—"
"You can't tell anyone, Yusuke!" I said, grabbing his sleeve to keep him from outpacing me. "Hiei would kill me!"
"No he wouldn't, he likes you!" he chortled. "Oh man, this is just hilarious. Hiei's the most asexual person I've ever met—"
My jaw dropped in disbelief. What about Hiei wasn't sexual? That heat of his—
"—and what's he doing as soon as my back is turned? He's kissing people! Goddamn it, I wish I coulda seen that!" He leaned in close, conspiracy written all over his face in bright neon lights. "So tell me Dani, how is he? Good, bad, too much tongue, what?"
"I'm not telling you anything!" I hissed, turning on my heel to follow after Kuwabara and Kurama. The wind, however, nearly knocked me down and Yusuke had to grab me by the arms to keep me upright.
"Aw, c'mon Dani, it's just a joke!" he wheedled, helping me walk forward again. "I was only mimicking the way Botan would've reacted so you'd know just how bad telling her would be, and oh hell, I won't tell anyone, I promise!"
"Damn right, you promise!" I said, wrenching my arm out of his hand. "And you know why? Because if you do tell anyone, you're right, Hiei won't kill me—he'll kill you, and slowly!"
His eyes darted to one side in reluctant acceptance of this fact. "Jeez, chill out!" he said, but without much conviction.
"Um, have you seen the weather lately?" I asked, gesturing at the ice around us. "If I chill any more I'll turn into a Yeti."
Yusuke giggled, but then his face went serious. "I won't tell anyone, Dani," he promised. "Hell, I know what'd happen if you and Hiei went public. Koenma'd pitch a fit—"
I winced. He had no idea how right he was.
"—and Botan would never give you peace again. It'd suck. New relationships don't need that much pressure."
My mouth opened, then closed. "You know, you're smarter than you think you are," I told him. "That's good advice."
"Heh, thanks." A pause. "Why do you think he seems so mad at you?"
My shoulder slumped as we trudge along, ever moving forward. "No idea. Maybe hearing about my past made him hate me." My throat tightened, a sure sign of budding tears, but I swallowed and pushed the urge back. "Maybe he thinks I've been lying to him, but I swear, Yusuke, I don't remember anything about the Bright Ones and I had no idea Lauren and my mom were involved in all this. You've gotta believe me!"
I could've hugged him when he grinned, ruffled the top of my hood, and said: "Hey, Hiei read your mind. He knows better n' any of us that you don't remember being in those pods, and if I'm a-hundred-percent sure you're innocent, then he's gotta be at least a million."
"What could I have done wrong, then?" I asked.
"I don't know, Dani. But I do know that Hiei'll come n' talk to you about it when he can. He's like that. You can't force him into anything unless he wants you to." A grin. "Though with you, maybe he'll do things he doesn't want to. He already does to an extent, and that's not something he did even with Mukuro."
I froze, looking at Yusuke with wide eyes.
"Oh, um," Yusuke said, and he suddenly looked as uncomfortable as I felt. "Mukuro is Hiei's old, uh, boss. Ask him about her; I don't know the details."
"Her?" I said, shocked, because why hadn't I thought about Mukuro this whole time, were she and Hiei still together, what did this mean for us, why had Hiei kept her from me, what—
Yusuke saw the panic in my eyes and hurried to fix it. "Aw shit, Dani, she's in the past, all right?" he said, pleading with me (but for what I didn't know). "Don't feel threatened! All I know is that they used to be really close, we thought they were together and stuff, but then they had a massive fight or something and I don't think he's seen her in a while, and—" He sighed, cursed, and smacked his head with his fist. "Dammit, I'm digging a deeper hole!"
"It's fine," I somehow forced myself to say. "I… I should have known I wasn't his first. That was stupid of me." I tried to smile and failed. "It's no big deal. People can date anyone they like."
He didn't buy my act (not that I was doing a great job of it to begin with). "Are you sure you're OK?" he asked.
"Yeah. Just jealous, I guess." I laughed harshly. "I keep forgetting that not everyone's like me."
"Like you?"
I looked away, biting my lower lip behind the hood. Damp fabric chafed my lips when I said: "Don't make fun of me, but I've never really been in a relationship before. This thing with Hiei… it's confusing. I've never had to deal with these sorts of things and feelings and crap before. I don't know how to handle myself in this situation."
He seemed sympathetic, and my pride silently thanked him for that. "I feel ya," he said. "Keiko's the only one I've ever been interested in. Every time she threatens to break up with me or talks about getting a new boyfriend I feel like the world's collapsing, you know?"
"I do now. Thanks, Yusuke." My breath came into my lungs with a tremble; Yusuke and I were more alike than I'd thought, it seemed. "Makes me feel better to know it's not just me."
"No prob, Dan," he said, and paused. "Can I call you that? 'Dan,' I mean. I heard Lauren do it and I like the sound of it better, so…"
He pronounced her name funny, like 'Raulen'. I supposed her name would be confusing for Japanese speakers, since they can freely interchange 'l' and 'r' sounds in their language with no difference in meaning, and if they had trouble with my simple name… Lauren's was in for a butchering.
"It's fine," I told him, mind racing as I sought to dispel future confusion. "And you can call Lauren… Ren, if you want. Isn't that a Japanese name?"
"Yeah, it is." My change of her name seemed to please him. "Ren, then. I like it. It's prettier than her real one, I think."
"If you say so," I said, glad that the conversation had shifted, and then the wind shifter direction as well. I shuffled behind Yusuke and pushed between his shoulder blades. "Let's go, OK? We're wasting energy talking."
"Sure thing," he said, grinning over his shoulder before heading resolutely after the others.
I was glad I had to stand behind him right then, so he couldn't see the look in my eyes. I'm sure, had he seen it, that the confusion, hurt, tears, and shock would have thrown him for a major loop—though it would be one only half so big as the one I had been thrown into.
Mukuro.
The name left a foul, hot taste in my otherwise icy mouth.
It took a little over an hour to cross the ice, and when we ended up on the lake's shore (remember, we had left an island in the middle of the lake to go to the lake's true banks) it felt like heaven to get off the cold wasteland. The shore was rocky and we camped out in the lee of a boulder, huddled around one of my illusion-fires that cast real warmth. Kuwabara and I both needed rest before we got moving again, and I kept Lauren's head in my lap while Kuwabara popped his neck and back and recovered from carrying her.
"Rauren, Lauren, Raulen, whatever her name is—she's sure heavy," he complained, but in a good-natured way.
"Dan said we could call her 'Ren' for short," Yusuke said.
Kuwabara smiled. "That's better.
"She's, uh, one-hundred-and-eighty centimeters tall," I said, hoping I was calculating that correctly. "You don't get that tall and still feel like a feather."
"True," Kuwabara said, looking at Lauren as I stroked her cheek with my thumb. She was still wrapped in the cloak (Yusuke had used some string to bind it tight to her body) but her face was exposed, serene, and pale beneath her usual tan.
"Yusuke, could you take a look around?" Kurama said, and the detective didn't respond verbally. He just hopped to his feet and made a massive jump, all but flying atop the boulder we had been sitting beside.
"Something's glittering about two miles off!" he yodeled down to us. "Long thing on the horizon—probably the river?"
"Thank you, Yusuke," Kurama said, and Yusuke joined us on the ground again. "If my understanding of the geography in this region is correct, we are about parallel with the icy patch on the river." He looked to me. "It's the one we found while you slept. We would have used it to reach the Sisters had they not found us first."
My mouth went a little dry. "Do you really think we can cross it?" I asked. "There won't be any, you know, giant tentacle monster like last time?"
"It seemed fine when I found it the first time," Yusuke said, stripping off his gloves so he could run his hands together over the fire. "When's Hiei going to catch up?"
Kurama smiled. "I called for him as soon as we set up camp. He should be here—" He paused, head cocking to one side, and then he stood up and walked to the ice. He did not step onto it, but green eyes glared at the field like he could freeze it even more solid with the coldness of his demeanor.
Yusuke stared after Kurama in confusion, and then his eyes snapped open.
"Did you hear that?" he said.
My eyes rolled. "Not again, Yusuke!"
"No, I'm serious," he said, standing and jogging to Kurama's side. I gently set Lauren's head on the ground and exchange a 'What's happening?' look with Kuwabara, and together we walked to the shore as well.
"He's coming," Kurama said, and as his words fell away in the wind I heard a sharp, deep cracking sound. It echoed from the ice field and reverberated in my bones, and I was about to ask what was going on when a network of hairline cracks burst across the ice at our feet. Black water splashed up between the cracks and froze in an instant, but then more cracks broke the new ice and the process repeated itself, making the ice look like it was growing and twitching and changing and alive as it inched up the shore until it all but brushed the toes of my boots—
"Top of the rock, now!" Kurama said, and before I could protest he had picked me up and jumped to the top of the boulder. Had we delayed even an instant the ice would have covered our feet, but I hardly cared because—
"Lauren's down there!" I shrieked struggling as Kurama touched down on the rock. "Let me go, I have to get her she's going to freeze I—"
Yusuke appeared on our left, arms filled with the backpacks we'd left sitting around my forgotten fire, and just after he showed up Kuwabara did, too. I sagged against Kurama when I saw Lauren sleeping on Kuwabara's back, and with a quick apology for freaking out I pushed away from him and turned back to look at the river.
The horizon bucked in the distance, those loud cracking sounds making my ears ring as I saw the icebergs frozen amid the ice layer bob up and down like rodeo bulls. I squinted, trying to see what was going on even though it just looked like a huge, bumpy white blanket getting shaken and plucked at by unseen hands. Then, however, a touch of black caught my eye when it smudged the top of one of the icebergs, and the black jumped faster than I could follow to another iceberg, which dipped and shuddered before the black shape hit the flat part of the ice. It sped along the ground, threads of black cracks following in its wake, and then in front of the shadow a huge section of the ice fell through and disappeared into the black water beneath. I let out a little cry of alarm, but the shadow merely jumped (the ice under it fell through from the force of the leap) and hit the top of one of the icebergs.
The ice had crept forward on the shore, and with a pang of regret I felt it hit my illusion-fire and snuff it out. It started to creep up the boulder, inch by inch and menacing.
"Go Hiei GO!" Yusuke called, cupping his hands around his mouth so he could whoop and holler at full volume. "You teach 'em who's boss!"
The shadow, Hiei, didn't appear to hear as the iceberg fell beneath him, and he hit the flat ice and started running again. As he drew closer and closer to the shore I began to see the lines of his body instead of a black blob, and as I watched I realized that Hiei moved with a grace, intention, and efficiency that was, for lack of better phrasing, beautiful to behold. Every move he made was sure and smooth and fast, and when he finally did leap from an iceberg very near the shore to the boulder we were standing on, there came a great roar from the ice and many of the icebergs fell or lurched or screamed as they scraped against one another. They froze back into silence quickly enough, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the ice for a few moments.
The sound of nothing but slow, insistent wind made my ears ring.
"Sometimes," Kurama said, softly breaking that silence, "the landscape of the Demon World will react to who walks through it. In a sense, this place is alive, and it holds a delicate balance with the fiery Salamanders who live nearby. However, ice dislikes fire and Hiei is fire. He creates an imbalance with his mere presence. That is why Hiei had to remain behind." He smiled down at me, eyes comforting and regretful all at once. "You see now?"
"I think so," I murmured, slowly turning to look at Hiei. He was sitting on the boulder behind us, touching the bottoms of his shoes. The ice crusted on them melted in a shower of steam, which promptly froze again and snowed down in a fine powder. He did not look at me.
"Welcome back, buddy!" Yusuke said, walking over with a grin.
"Shut up," Hiei snapped, standing. He glared at Yusuke, and then his eyes ghosted in my direction before turning back to the detective. "If my memory serves, we have another ice field to cross. This isn't over."
"Are you rested well enough Kuwabara, Dani?" Kurama asked.
I swallowed and gripped my staff tighter. "Sure," I said, and Kuwabara hefted Lauren a little higher.
"Let's roll," he said.
And so we did.
We reached the banks of the river to discover that we weren't right next to its icy portion. We had to walk downstream for about a mile to find it, trailing in a single-file line down its banks (Hiei did not offer me his usual warmth, and that made my stomach flutter with uneasiness). None of us spoke, not that I was interested in speaking at that point—Hiei's act of ignoring me made me too edgy, hurt, and prone to tearing up to relish the idea of starting a conversation.
I'm kind of ashamed to admit how girly I was feeling, but hey, let's be honest: having your not-quite-almost-boyfriend look at you like you're a roach isn't the best feeling in the world.
Anyway, Kurama lead the way again and I walked after him. Kuwabara and Lauren walked in the center of our line, I guess so they had the most defense, and Yusuke walked behind them. Hiei brought up the rear, and when I looked back at him to see if maybe, maybe I could get a smirk out of him or something, he either stared everywhere but at me or schooled his face into an expression befitting a dead fish. I didn't look at him more than twice, because after each rejection I felt like a million bees were stinging the inside of my stomach.
What is his problem? I thought after a time, because I was tired of feeling guilty for something I didn't know I'd done and had moved on to being angry. Screw me doing something wrong, Hiei's just being a jerk!
I had just resolved to give him the silent treatment in revenge of his own behavior when we reached a (comparatively) narrow part of the river, and on it lay the ice. To my horror, this ice seemed only half as solid as the first ice field had. After all, the behemoth of a river was a rushing beast, and though the ice seemed thick enough in the shallows it grew thinner and thinner the closer you got to the center of the stream until all there was was cold, running water.
Oh no, I thought when Kurama signaled for us to stop. My anger toward Hiei abated a bit in the face of a threat to his safety. How the hell is Hiei going to get across this?
"Damn," Yusuke said, walking out onto the ice. The rest of us started to follow, but Hiei hung back a nice distance. "We're going to have to jump it in the middle."
My hand shot into the air. "Problem!" I chirped, voice muffled behind my hood.
"Don't sweat it, Dan—I can jump with you, I think," Yusuke said. He looked at Kurama. "Think it'll hold us both?"
"It will have to," Kurama said. "I weigh more than you, so I can't carry her. Hiei can't, either. And if you and Dani can't cross, then Kuwabara and Lauren wouldn't be able to, either."
"I could try to fly across," I offered, thinking of my bird form.
"Have you mastered flight in that form yet, Dani?" Kurama asked.
I sucked my lips into my mouth, then admitted: "Well… not really. But I could try!"
Kurama chuckled. "Thank you, but I'd rather not have you killed when we're so close to success."
"Yeah, and the last time you wanted to try using one of those weird forms of yours to get across this river, you nearly died," Kuwabara said. He jiggled around, putting Lauren higher on his back. "Kurama, you should try crossing first. If it can hold you, then Dani and Yusuke should go. If it can't hold them then it sure as hell can't hold us."
"But won't that weaken the ice?" I asked.
"It's a risk we have to take," Kurama said. "I need to find the best route across, and then we need to test it for weight."
I thought about that for a moment, and then I said: "I still think I need to take my bird form."
"Why?" Yusuke asked.
"My bones go hollow when I do it," I said. "I'll be lighter." My eyes lit up. "Ooh, ooh, I have an idea!"
"I don't know if your ideas have the best history of working, Dani," Kuwabara said, but I shushed him with a grin.
"You weigh the most, right Kuwabara?" I said. "I already weigh the least, and if I go birdy then I'll weigh even less. It makes sense for you to take me—equal balance and all."
"Yeah, and if I take Ren, I'll weigh less than you and her put together, Kuwabara!" Yusuke said, liking my idea of the gleam in his eye was any indication. He walked over to Kuwabara and started to pull Lauren off of him.
"I suppose this can work," Kurama said slowly. "But Yusuke, Ren is taller than you—will you be able to handle her?"
Yusuke had just managed to get her on his back, and though he could, apparently, handle her weight well enough, he looked dwarfed by her to some extent. "I'm OK," he said, jogging a few steps. Her legs flew everywhere, head jouncing from side to side. "Yeah, yeah, this is OK. Couldn't pull anything fancy, but running and jumping—yeah, no problem."
"Fine, then," Kurama relented at last. "But after I go and scout out our route, Ren and Yusuke should follow." He looked at me, then at Kuwabara, and he smiled. "You're right. There's no sense risking the ice making Ren and Yusuke go first, though I am sorry you must take that risk yourself."
"Aw, we can take it, can't we Dani?" Kuwabara joked, patting me on the shoulder as he came to stand at my side.
"Sure thing," I said, shooting a look at Lauren. "So long as she's safe, I'll do anything."
Kurama dipped a nod, then looked out at the river. Its low silver glitter reflected the grey sky above; everything looked drained of color, from the rocks on the pebbled shore to the white-dusted ice to the silver water snaking through the middle. Everything was grey and gross; we six living beings provided the landscape's only color, and looking at my friends gave me the strength to not cower before the task ahead.
"I'll go now," Kurama said. "I'll come back once I find a way across, then you will go, Yusuke. Kuwabara and Dani will come after, and then Hiei." He smiled, green eyes beating back the grey around us and making it look ever greyer. "Stay warm, and keep a sharp lookout."
"Will do," Yusuke said, and he sat down on the ground with a thump. Lauren's chin rested on his shoulder, and she let out a snorted snore and smiled in her sleep.
I giggled, and when I turned back to Kurama to wish him luck I saw that he had walked out across the ice, gracefully, with his hood pushed back and hair floating in the wind behind him. It was like seeing blood on snow, and a chill that had nothing to do with the sharp wind made me shiver.
"You OK?" Kuwabara asked.
I tugged the lower part of my hood down beneath my chin and smiled. "Sure," I said. "Just… nervous, I guess."
"Oh, don't be!" Kuwabara chortled. "Yusuke's the strongest fighter I've ever met and he's as fast as the wind, too, so if you're worried about Ren you should just look at his face and remember that he's—"
Kuwabara looked over his shoulder at Yusuke, who was pinching Lauren's cheek and giggling at how she didn't flinch or react or anything at all.
"Um," said Kuwabara when I raised an eyebrow. He scratched absently at the back of his neck. "Um, you wanna… sit down and make a fire, or somethin'?"
The laughter bubbled out of my mouth and shot the air like a Gatling gun. I doubled over, drunk with humor because his face had just been hysterically funny, and the sheer tension of the situation made every last drop of humor precious and worth laughing at large about. When I was finished, tears of mirth frozen on my cheeks and the corners of my eyes, I straightened up and looked at the what-the-heck expression on Kuwabara's face, smiled, and said: "Let's get that fire, hm?"
We set it up by Yusuke and Lauren—well, I set it up. I told everyone to sit in a circle, and I stood in it, too, and set about making a fire with Yusuke and Kuwabara watching with muted interest.
I tried not to think about Hiei, who sat many meters away with his back to the river.
I cleared my head with a small smack to the face, the heat of the pain focusing my mind. Instead of making fire like I always had, however, I tried experimenting a little bit. I didn't close my eyes and drift into theta, not like normal, and I stripped off my gloves, gripped my staff in both hands, and visualized all of my power and energy flowing into it. I wasn't sure anything would happen, of course, since I had never done anything like that before and I wasn't really sure what I was actually doing, but the intensity of the results surprised me. As soon as I started pushing my power into the staff it started to vibrate and ripple against my fingers and palms, and I felt in my gut that I was creating some sort of, of, some sort of wellspring of my energy in the staff.
When I gathered what I thought was enough, I did the only thing I could think of: I whistled the firesong.
The ball on top of my staff burst into flame, and then a great gout of fire rocketed out of it and hit the place in the center of our circle. I was thrown back onto the beach in a shower of pebbles, head smacking against the ground so hard I saw stars, and Yusuke and Kuwabara fell over backward and scrambled to get away. The breath got knocked out of me. I lay there gasping, hardly hearing the way Yusuke was laughing his ass off and Kuwabara kept saying 'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' over and over again, and then a shadow fell over me and I found myself staring into twins spots of brilliant grenadine.
Dazed, I mumbled: "Hi, Hiei."
"Hn," was his oh-so-eloquent (not to mention trademarked) reply, and by the time I managed to sit up he was walking away from me down the beach. I vaguely saw a nicely contained fire burning away on the beach, vaguely saw Kuwabara and Yusuke staring at me, vaguely noticed the way Lauren was lying forgotten on the ground, but for once I didn't care about making her comfortable and I lurched to my feet, woozy but indifferent as I stumbled after Hiei.
"Wait!" I said, then yelled: "Hey, WAIT!"
Hiei stopped walking, but he did not turn around.
"What's up with you, Hiei!" I called, head still swimming. "What's wrong?"
He started walking again.
And so I stumbled along after, half-shouting half-formed thoughts until I tripped and fell and landed hard on my knees. My staff thawed the frozen tears on my cheek, so I clutched at it and shut my eyes and tried not to cry and undo its soothing work. My head ached something fierce, my knees hurt from where I tripped, I was suddenly so tired I felt like my head was floating—
"You're an idiot."
I blearily opened my eyes. Hiei knelt in front of me, elbows braced on his knees. He was frowning, eyes narrowed and lips pursed, and he'd never looked cuter. Or was that just the bump to my head talking?
"Hi," I said, and I grinned goofily. No, it wasn't the bump. He was just nice to look at, that's all.
"You hit your head," he said, and he tugged off my hood. Then he reached out and cupped the back of my skull. I let out a little sigh when his hand blazed with sudden heat, and the pain there melted away. My eyes fell shut. Having that heat there felt right, and comforting…
It ended almost as soon as it began.
I opened my eyes when I heard feet crunching over pebbles, and the heat left me and Hiei was walking away. I stared after him, feeling blank until words fell out of my mouth without my consent: "Did I do something wrong?"
He stopped walking. Turned. The cherry of his eyes seemed to glow in the all-grey world, seemed to make the world bleach out until all there was was his eyes, staring at me, glowing with fury and—
Contrary to the set of his eyes, he claimed: "I am not angry with you, woman."
I took a deep breath. "Then why," I breathed, "won't you come anywhere near me, Hiei?"
He growled, lips twitched back to show off his sharp teeth.
"Don't say my name," he snapped.
"Hiei, why—"
"Don't!"
I went still, mouth gaping open until I felt something freeze on my tongue, and then I closed my mouth again. Hiei's hands clenched tightly at his sides, shaking as lean fingers ground into his palms, and as I watched a trail of bright red blood slicked out from between those fingers and fell in a patter to the stones beneath his feet. He wore all black, and that blood and those eyes of his made the whole world center down onto him, because he was the only thing with color and it was beautiful and I couldn't look away.
"I am not," he said, voice shaking with barely-contained emotion, "angry with you."
"Then who are you angry with?" I asked.
He did not reply, breath rushing out of his nose as his head tipped back, eyes closing. His shoulders seemed as taut as steel cable when he said: "Me."
I stared at him. His eyes opened.
"I burn because of my nature," he said, voice still shaking with that suppressed emotion I couldn't fathom. "Your touch only makes it worse."
"Hiei," I said, and he glared at me with such heat I nearly thought I'd catch fire. My tattoo came to life and screamed—
"Do not say my name," he hissed, eyes blazing. "Just looking at you right now is shattering what little control I have on my nature; can you at least try to make this easier on me by not calling for me in that voice?"
"I'm not trying to—"
"I know," he said, cutting me off. "You have no idea what you're doing." He turned on his heel again, looking back at me over one shoulder. "That's the worst part of it. Had I more time, pushing past your influence on my body would be simple." He chuckled; I burned. "Too bad, though—we don't have more time."
I took me a minute to process what he'd said, and the implications, and the mysteries. Then: "What can I do?"
Eyes closed; lips turned down at the corners. "Just don't talk to me until we're across the river," he said. "If you do, I can't promise you that I'll be able to make it across the ice at all."
When he started walking again, I didn't try to stop him. Kuwabara and Yusuke didn't look at me when I went to sit with them around the fire (I'd wandered far when I'd tripped along after Hiei) and we warmed up in silence before Kuwabara finally asked: "So did you two make up, or what?"
"… I think we made up," I admitted, and no one said anything else. There just wasn't much else to be said.
Kurama came back a little while later and proclaimed: "The way is passable, but precarious. Yusuke, take Lauren and follow me across."
I looked down at Lauren and stroked her face one last time. Yusuke came over and I helped put her on his back, and with one last caress I let him carry her away.
"We'll be fine, so quit lookin' like you're about to cry, Dan," the ex-detective said, grinning as he skipped out onto the ice. He slid a little and managed to recover. "Whoops!"
"I'm not about to cry," I snapped, which wasn't exactly true but Yusuke didn't need to know that. "Just please, don't get yourself killed!"
"Have you met me?" Yusuke asked. "I've died twice and people still can't kill me!"
I laughed. "You've beaten my record, then. I've only died once."
"That's more than enough," Yusuke said, and he began to walk away. "Just don't go chasin' after my record, OK? I'd like to keep it!"
In his own awkward way, I knew that Yusuke was trying to tell me to be careful, too. I turned my back as he, Lauren, and Kurama began to cross the river, staring into the fire I'd made without expression. Kuwabara sat across from me, watching them go behind my back, and after a time he decided to speak.
"They'll be fine, really," he said.
"Everyone keeps saying so."
"They're serious. We don't want any tragedies on this trip." He paused. "So are you and Hiei really OK? You look preoccupied."
I was. I had been thinking about what Hiei said, about his lack of control and about my affect on him. Was it really all OK, if I basically made his life so damned inconvenient because of my mere presence? He hardly showed his 'lack of control' in his face at all, when my tattoo reacted with only a look from him. Was that fair? Was he exaggerating?
In the end, I said: "I think we'll be OK."
I just wasn't sure if I meant it or not, because I didn't understand anything.
Or was that just the bump on the head talking?
Before Kurama came back to guide us over the ice, I dipped into theta and pulled out the form of my bird. I clicked with it and Kuwabara let out a yelp when he saw the holes on either side of my nose and the wisps of blue feather poking out of my hood. I shrugged the garment off to let the feathers fly free, and my claws grasped my staff with a series of small clicks. I had loosened my bra straps before changing form, but I didn't take off my coat because it was far too cold to justify not smashing some of my feathers by keeping it on. Rumpled feathers I could deal with; hypothermia I could not. Anyway, I asked Kuwabara to shut his eyes when I undid my fly to release my tail, and when the wind hit my feathers I was once again overcome by the urge to fly.
I didn't, though. I didn't know how.
Not long after I finished changing was when Kurama returned.
"Did they make it?" I asked, bouncing a bit in agitation. Kuwabara had spotted Kurama coming, so we had extinguished the fire and gone to meet him before he got within shouting distance.
"They're waiting on the other side of the river," he said, but his face appeared drawn. "We need to hurry, though. Leaving them undefended put a bad taste in my mouth."
"Let's go right now, then," I said, eager to see Lauren safe at last, and I took my first step onto the ice (my taloned feet felt a little cramped in my boots, but not terribly so). Looking down revealed that reeds—reeds similar to the ones I had hidden in when I swam across the river the first time—had been frozen in the ice, making it as speckled as a Dalmatian who had rolled in ink. The ice wasn't terribly slippery, either, because it had frozen in little waves and dips that provided traction for our feet, so Kuwabara, Kurama and I were able to start moving without much trouble.
I looked back over my shoulder once. Hiei was standing, watching us go, and even though I knew he probably didn't want me to, I raised a hand in momentary farewell.
It surprised me to see him raise a hand right back.
I turned back toward the task at hand with a small smile behind my hood, and I used the warmth of Hiei's recognition to power me forward. We walked for a time, the brighter ribbon of rushing water growing ever closer, and the farther out we moved I noticed something, something buzzing and growing and shaking the ice beneath our feet. A quick look revealed that the ice appeared much darker, and I could hear water lapping at the ice ahead of us and at the ice under our feet.
"It's getting thinner," Kurama said, raising a hand so we'd stop behind him. "We jump from here."
I stared forward and swallowed, nervous, because open water lay about fifteen feet ahead. The stream of it was also fifteen or so feet across, and could Kuwabara jump that far with me on his back?
"I think I can make that if I pull out my good old spirit sword," Kuwabara said slowly. He smiled at me, but I could see the nerves in his look. "Let's back up a bit."
I nodded. "Sure."
What happened next was basically every Kuwabara-fangirl's dream. Kurama marked the farthest place on the ice it was safe to walk on, and Kuwabara helped me climb up on his back ("Dude, you hardly weigh a thing!" he told me). When I was settled, staff tucked into my backpack's straps and clawed hands hooked into the front of Kuwabara's shirt, he held out his right hand, took a deep breath, and willed his spirit sword into being.
It was my first time seeing it, and let me tell you that it's actually rather pretty. I mean really, really pretty. I couldn't tell if it was his dimension-cutting sword or if it was just a normal one, but the golden plume of energy burned white-hot in the center and made the air around it sparkle nonetheless, and oh wow, my music didn't look half so cool next to it. His fingers clenched tight around the light like it had physical weight, and after nodding at Kurama and smiling at me, Kuwabara started to run. I held on as tight as I could, teeth grit as I bounced around and the wind rushed by (my avian eyes did not dry out, thank god), and a few long paces before we reached the spot on the ice Kurama had marked as 'safe', Kuwabara opened his mouth and yelled: "SPIRIT SWORD, GET LONG!"
The sword shot up and out of his hand like a bottlerocket, and with a bellow of effort Kuwabara plunged the sword's tip down into the ice ten feet ahead of us. It bent in a gentle 'c' shape as he ran a few more paces, the 'c' growing less and less gentle with every step, and then it lifted us off the ground and for one terrifying moment we were flying, arcing up and over the water as Kurama watched us through narrow green eyes that flashed next to the grey ice—
Cold water splashed my face, and we barely missed falling in when we hit the ice on the other side of the river. We came apart on impact, sliding across the slick ice and away from the river, and somehow Kuwabara managed to grab hold of my wrist so we didn't get entirely separated. Panting from fear and triumph and the jar of hitting the cold ice, I struggled to my hands and knees as Kuwabara did the same.
"We made it!" he said, elated. "We made it, Dani!"
"Ten points for execution!" a familiar voice bellowed, words thin and far away. "Two for landing! Ya need to work on that, Kuwabara!"
"Oh shut up, Urameshi!" Kuwabara yelled back, glaring the shoreline. A small waving figure—Yusuke, of course—flipped us off, and Kuwabara said: "You punk!"
"Get your asses over here!" Yusuke yelled. "C'mon! I want a fire!"
"Coming up!" I called, using my vocal training to project louder than Yusuke and Kuwabara could ever hope to, and when I looked at Kuwabara he had dropped his jaw. "Voice lessons," I said by way of explanation, and I shut my eyes long enough to let go of my bird form. Pants sagged around my hips when my tail retracted, but I fixed them when I stood up.
"Hiei and I will be along shortly!" Kurama called. I turned; he was waving across the water, and after an exchanged grin he marched back the way we'd come.
"Let's go," Kuwabara said, and we slid and skittered across the pock-marked ice toward Yusuke. It took a little while to reach him, but when we did we collapsed on the shore. Yusuke urged me to my feet so I could build another fire, and I had just finished up and settled Lauren's head in my lap when Kuwabara let out a low whistle.
"Kurama jumped that good," he said, and we watched the redhead run across the ice like some sort of mutant gazelle. He skidded to a stop next to us and immediately looked back at the ice.
"Hiei's coming," he said.
My heart leapt into my mouth, and I put my hands on either side of Lauren's face to calm myself. I could barely see Hiei's black figure through the glare coming off the water and ice, but I tracked it as best I could—not that it was hard. Hiei didn't try clearing the ice with any fancy maneuvering or flips like he'd done on the first ice field; he just ran flat out, straight ahead, almost too fast for me to follow, and in his wake came thousands of sharp cracking sounds. The ice buckled and caved in behind him. He jumped when he got near the water and soared across, landing lightly on his heels before rocketing ahead once more, and almost immediately the ice started to fall away behind him. I'm not sure how he managed to beat it to the shore, but he slammed onto the rocks in a black blur that didn't look anything like Hiei until it froze quite still some twenty yards behind us, chest rising and falling with quick breath and eyes that said triumph and satisfaction and buried relief. Chunks of white ice bobbed in the black water before slowly freezing back into place, erasing marks of Hiei's passage as if he had never been.
"Good going, man!" Yusuke said, walking over to clap the fire apparition on the back."You're getting to be a real pro at this."
Hiei recoiled, taking a step to the side to avoid further contact. "Too bad I don't want to have to do it again," Hiei growled, and he looked at me for a second.
I smiled, heart fluttering. "We're just glad you're back," I said softly, and he held my eyes before looking to Kurama.
"We need to get to the forest. There's movement behind us."
Tension broke over us in a wave, all joviality gone in a nanosecond. Kuwabara dashed toward me and together we put Lauren on his back, tying her hands around his neck with my own shaking ones as he adjusted her knees over his elbows. Yusuke had to shoulder both his and Kuwabara's backpacks but he did not complain, and he even held mine when I threw it at him so I could concentrate on snuffing out my illusion-fire—shivers set in as soon as it was gone, because on this side of the river it was even colder. Once I was done I grabbed the pack and put it on, readying my staff for the long walk.
"Where to now?" I asked, fighting back the urge to let my teeth chatter.
Kurama pointed away from the river, downstream. "The forest is that way, and the gate to Human World is inside." He paused, looking me up and down. "But we need speed. Dani, you will have to be carried."
A beat of stillness, and then I stuttered: "Oh, um…" I looked at Yusuke. "Are you—"
"I'll do it," said Hiei, and the next thing I knew I had been scooped up in warm arms that banished my chill within an instant. I yelped, trying not to hit Hiei in the face with my staff because it was a bit too long for us both, and he swatted it away as he said: "Arms around me, now."
I did as told, shifting my staff to behind him and out of his way as I twined my arms around his neck. He had one hand around my back and another beneath my knees, but I didn't seem to slow him down as he turned on his heel and started to pelt out across the plains.
I closed my eyes, cuddling closer to him to both keep warm in the newly-rushing wind and to keep from falling to my unfortunate (second) death. Shouts from the others let me know we were being followed, and I cracked my eyes open to catch a sickening glimpse of the world rushing by. We were back on the hilly plains outside the forest, the same ones we had crossed to reach the river the first time, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything too important by keeping my eyes squeezed tightly shut.
After a minute or so, shouts of "Wait, Hiei, slow down!" faded behind us.
Hiei didn't try to talk to me and I didn't try to talk to him until shadows started flickering on the inside of my eyelids, and then Hiei's sprint slowed to a deliberate, long lope. I opened my eyes to find us surrounded by greenery and velvet darkness, and I was about to say that we should stop and wait for the others when Hiei stood still. The arm under my knees eased me slowly to my feet, and I was about to take my arms off of his neck when his hands caught my elbows and held them there. He twisted me, face to face for an instant before he bent his head and kissed me, and this kiss was everything that first one was not: all heat, urgency, sex, and dominance that made my tattoo start shrieking in response, flooding me with heat and electricity. I gasped against his mouth and his hands pressed tight into my back, fingers twisting my coat so I pulled flush up against him and he growled at the contact, chest rumbling low and deep and hot, and he used everything to kiss me, all teeth and lips and tongue and nothing went untouched, untasted—
I couldn't breathe and my lips stung like honey when he pulled back, but he did not pull away entirely because instead his face dipped low, lips skimming along my jaw line with breath hissing over skin, and my knees gave out but luckily he seemed furiously against letting me go. I slumped and moaned when his mouth ghosted over my ear, breath and heat making my hair stand on end and my skin simmer, and then his head dipped lower and his mouth fastened on the juncture of my jaw and throat, boiling hot and wet, and then he slid even lower and a hand came up to shove my bandages to one side so he could get at more skin—
Hiei froze, heat dissipating in little more than a snapped second. I could hear my gasps in the air because that was all I could manage to do right then, but as soon as he spoke I knew—I knew—that something was undeniably wrong. Hands clamped around my biceps cruelly, pushing me away until we were nose to nose and his eyeteeth glinted with scarcely-contained rage.
"What," he said, cherry eyes ablaze, "is that?"
"What's what?" I somehow said, voice breathy, and Hiei went nuts.
"The thing on your neck!" he roared, uncaring that he was so close my eardrums rang from the force of his words. I'd never seen him so angry, had never seen him look like he was about to combust and take the whole world down with him. "What is it, Dani!"
"Ryu gave it to me!" I gasped. Hiei's eyes snapped open wider than I'd ever seen, and I said: "He tried to bite me, but, but my tattoo, it hurt him when he tried and that's how I got away, I—"
He let go of one of my arms so he could grab my jaw, force my head to one side, and stare at my exposed neck… no, not at my neck, at the bite on my neck. He was still snarling, still livid, but not at me anymore.
"Damn him," he said. "Damn that bastard of a psychic. Damn him!"
"Hiei," I started to say, but he didn't let me finish and instead jerked my face forward so he could kiss me again, once.
"Not now," he growled against my lips, and then he pushed me away and turned his back. "Cover that. I don't want to see it."
"What did I do?" I said, tugging the bandages into place again. "What did Ryu—"
"There you are!" Yusuke called, and the others burst out of the underbrush. "We gotta go, guys, we saw Seishou coming this way—"
"Shit," I said—what else was I supposed to say?—and then Hiei picked me up again. We started running through the trees for a few minutes, and then Kurama shouted for us to stop and we skidded on the cold ground. Hiei put me down, and when my eyes opened I saw that Kurama had knelt and pulled a small ball made of clear glass out of his bag. His hand glowed with green energy, igniting the ball from within, and then he lobbed it at the air in front of him. It shattered on nothing and trickled down in a rain of green sparks, sparks that coalesced into an oval six feet tall and three feet wide. It shimmered in the air, beckoning and unknowable.
"Home again, home again!" Kuwabara said, and he tipped us a wink before walking into the oval. He and Lauren vanished in a flash (relief made my stomach churn; Lauren was safe at last!), and Hiei pushed me forward to follow after.
Of course, that's when a voice from behind us thundered: "Give the Bright Lady to me, Spirit World dogs."
I spun, only a few feet from the oval but feeling more exposed than ever when I saw Seishou standing between two trees a dozen meters behind us, black cloak flowing out along the ground and cold metal mask betraying nothing of his emotion or face. He looked like Death itself, a grim reaper Botan in all her candied glory could never hope to rival, and his voice sapped me of my strength with a single syllable.
Yusuke didn't seem as affected by it, though, when he stepped forward, punching a fist into his open hand. "Too bad—she's long gone," he said, grinning. "How about taking me to the prom instead?"
Seishou's head inclined a little. "That gateway is still open," he said. "They won't close it without you going through, either."
"Yeah, but you'll have to go through us to get to it, now won't you?" Yusuke quipped. "Get ready, buddy. I've been wanting to tear into you for a long time."
"No, Yusuke," Hiei said, stepping between Yusuke and Seishou. "I will handle him."
My heart all but stopped. "Hiei, NO!" I shouted, lunging to go to him, but Kurama held out an arm and caught me in my tracks.
"He'll be fine, Dani," Kurama said, and I caught a smiling flash of bright green eyes just before his hands caught my shoulders and pushed me, really shoved me, and—
—and I fell straight through the green gateway, sparks swarming over my last glimpse of Hiei and the others standing strong before the devil himself, and then my back hit something solid and I gasped, because above me was a bright blue sky and white clouds and warm, gentle wind and—
"Dani!" Botan cried, helping me sit up. She stripped the pack off my back and laughed aloud, giddy with excitement and relief, and—
"The others are still in there!" I said… well, screamed. I got to my knees and used my staff to move back toward the portal, which was floating in the middle of Genkai's courtyard (it felt like I was dreaming when I saw it again) and just as I neared it, about to go back through to find the others and bring them home, dammit, Yusuke and Kurama jumped out of it and landed gracefully on their feet.
"Where's Hiei?" I demanded when he didn't follow after. Yusuke and Kurama exchanged looks, silent and grim, and I said: "Where the fuck is Hiei?"
"Fighting," Yusuke said simply. "He's fighting."
My panicked head assumed the worst: Hiei's gone suicidal, we can't be together, it's all my fault and he's mad and he's doing it to get back at me—
"No!" I screamed, lunging for the gate, but Kurama held me back. Desperation made summoning a surge of discordant music easy, and I let it burst out of me in a barrage of horrible sound. Kurama recoiled, crying out with shocked pain, and I slipped past him and hit the green portal with a slam.
Demon World welcomed me back with open arms and a rush of cold air and darkness, and with a 'whump' I landed on my belly on the leaf-strewn forest ground. I heard voices, but I was dazed and I couldn't understand them, so I just got to my hands and knees and looked up. Hiei stood just where I'd left him, only he'd cast his coat off to one side and his bare arm glowed with a black power the forest's green-velvet darkness could not rival. Everything seemed to get drawn into the shadow-light on his right arm, a shadow-light that glowed just as much as it simmered and jumped with dark violet sparks, and as I watched I saw an even darker blackness twined around his arm in a spiral at the core of the strange glow, the dragon-shape bursting out of Hiei's skin with a spray of blood before growing scales and claws and hunger and malice and coming to full life. It writhed and twitched and roared around him, eagerness for blood creating a wind that whipped through the clearing in a searing hot wave that melted the snow on the ground and made it boil.
"Dragon," Hiei said, and then he raised his hand, legs braced far apart and strong, and he bellowed: "DRAGON OF THE DARKNESS FLAME!"
The dragon roared into life, rearing its head back above Hiei with its great violet eye dominating everything in my vision, even though the dark around it threatened to tear my sight apart for forever, but the eye passed over me—my tattoo, it seemed to sing and burble, why did it do that?—and then it locked on the one thing that could, possibly, contend with its darkness.
Seishou.
The dragon roared again and shot forward, burning trees to a crisp and igniting the forest around us with bright orange flames of very real fire. But the black fire made the real fire seem pale and weak as it surrounded Seishou, forcing him backward and plunging him into the burning woods, and then the black streamed into the orange flames and out of sight.
Before me, Hiei fell to his knees.
I went to him without a care, not thinking about the forest-on-fire or the dragon-on-the-loose when I knelt at his side and tried to tug him to his feet. "Grab my staff, walk with me, Hiei, please, I can't lose you, not now, please," I babbled, and his eyes met mine and they reflected the fire all around us—
He touched my staff, took it in his hand, pulled himself to his feet as the staff thrummed and sang and called to me, called me to go after the Dragon amid the flames or the Dragon standing at my side, but I didn't listen to the Salamander's siren call and just concentrated on chanting to Hiei, "Just walk, just walk with me, please, let's just go, he's gone, he's gone, he's—"
Green sparks clouded my vision, and then I saw blue sky, red eyes closing, and light.
And after that, darkness.
NOTES:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FUTURE TALK! HERE'S A CLIFFY TO CELEBRATE!
This chapter and this day (January 10th) mark this story's one year anniversary. (*blows a party horn and tosses confetti*) Cake, anyone? It's hard to imagine that Dani died a year ago today, and it's even harder to imagine that I've been updating every single week for an entire year, but hey, this experience has been an amazing one. Thanks for sticking with me for so long, guys! You are all PHENOMENAL!
Anyway, yeah, action goodness with a little fluff. Good combo after last week's talking-chapter? I hope you liked it!
For some reason, whenever I talked about Kurama on the ice I thought about Legolas walking on top of the snow in The Lord of the Rings. Pretty, long haired, graceful, impervious to weather conditions… COINCIDENCE?
And we saw several new pieces of artwork this week—birthday gifts! Yay! LupinePhyre909 drew Dani freaking out over bad fanfiction AND Hiei and Dani together, and Tokyo Time Killer drew Dani looking super cute!
Also, I drew Lauren. Twice. Check out the devianART!
This is a very special thank-you session, because most of you have been with this story for the entire year of its life. So THANK YOU, because today of all days reminds me of just how much I love you all. I owe you all major favors. spiritfoxxx821, WorldsAngel, Angel of Randomosity, yumchaitea, Koryu Elric, DoilyRox, Dragon of Twilight, Kaiya's Watergarden, WishingWanderer, chocolateluvr13, j.d.y., MusicFiend666, TallyYoungblood, Kai-Chan94, DaAmazingMeepers, Willowleaf2560, mangotai, Mihakuu, Dreamehz, etowa-ru, Reclun, ephermal violet, LadyxAbsinthe, colbub, Wings of Silver Rain, Zetsubel, itsallaboutbob, AkaMizu-chan, Bi Gay Straight Who Cares, Foxgirl Ray, Akari Tsubasa, heve-chan, sicklemoon13, Yoko Kiara14, Anon, loser94, Reality Bores Me, rain chant, dude where's my spirit gun, The Tokyo Time Killer, Destinyswindow, Turtle Kid the Woolgatherer, Supreme Baka, ShadowFireFox13
