In Time, Death
By Alesyira
Summary: If they're going to try tackling the problem(s), some basic rules might need to be laid out, just in case.
New Place, New Rules
Hiei considered the two of them with a long look, then peered around her room. "We should not, however, attempt anything further in such a small location."
Her brows furrowed. "In my room?" She couldn't imagine what he thought might happen that her room wouldn't be sufficient space.
He pointed at the fresh crack in her closet door before he clarified, "In this house."
Her eyes widened in dismay and she looked at Shippo with a growing sense of unease. "We should take this exercise outside?"
Hiei shrugged, not bothered by the idea.
Shippo slumped a little. "My place has a much bigger floor plan. We could go there."
Hiei glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Are you willing to have belongings broken?"
Shippo shrugged. "I don't keep my treasures there."
She hummed and tapped her lip in consideration. "Should I bring anything?"
Shippo turned toward her, looking for any hint of understanding in her eyes. She either had no problem with what they might end up doing, or she had no idea what might happen. He swallowed, feeling a sinking sense of trepidation.
*Why do you assume things will go in such a drastic direction? She will be safe.*
He sighed, finding it difficult to think of anything other than the worst scenarios. "Just bring your regular gear. If something comes up and Reikai returns your vesper early, you'll have everything you need." He sighed. "No telling if you get to pick the next time you travel."
She packed her bow and quiver into a carrying case and stuffed her outfit into her pouch before slipping it over her shoulder. She paused outside her house, closing her eyes to check the status of the shrine's protections before tweaking it with a tiny boost. "Is it far?"
"Nah, we can walk." Plus, it would give him time to think. He looped her weapon case over a shoulder and threw his free arm around her back. Hiei vanished from their side. Shippo figured he'd follow them from a safe distance and mysteriously appear in the right place.
She glanced at him as they strolled slowly down the shrine steps. "I meant what I said a while back. If my magic causes you so much distress, I should take it back so you can live without that trouble."
His heart fell. "It's not like that." She might not ever truly understand how much he treasured keeping this piece with him, always. "Even if it brought me pain, I don't think I'd want to let it go," he muttered.
He noticed her slowing and tugged her to keep up beside him. "The only reason I'd give this back willingly is if it would save your life," he grinned down at her. "Just let me have my troubles. It brings me peace."
"You're so weird."
He shrugged. "It's my normal."
He skipped ahead a few steps and turned to face her, walking backwards along the sidewalk. "I need to stop in a store up ahead. Would you like a snack or a drink?" She shook her head. "I'll be right back, then."
He returned a few minutes later with a small paper package.
"Oh, what did you get?"
He shrugged. "Just something little that I've been out of for a while." He tucked it in his pocket and put his arm around her shoulder. ‟Your vesper, do you remember how many tasks it had listed for you to do?" Shippo surreptitiously drew her attention away from the curious store clerk staring out as they passed, especially the ridiculous thumbs up the idiot human flashed in his direction.
She sighed. "I don't remember. I don't even want to think about what I might be encountering next. The listings were so vague."
‟I thought they'd have brought it back by now. Maybe Greg discovered something new and exciting."
‟New and exciting," Kagome parroted with a very unenthusiastic cheer.
‟Aw, c'mon Kagome, technology can be fun!"
‟Yeah, especially when you manage to come up with some dirty way to use it within five minutes of seeing what it can do."
He pointed at the building on their right. ‟This is the place." He held the door open for her and she felt a tingle as they entered a sparse lobby. ‟Small deterrent spell," he explained. ‟Makes burglars think that very protective animals live in these apartments." Her eyebrows rose. ‟It's not exactly a lie," he winked.
They took an elevator to the top floor of the somewhat subtle six-story apartment complex. She toed off her shoes after they stepped through the front door, admiring the length of windows that gave an unhindered view of the surrounding neighborhoods.
"My kitchen is pretty bare right now. I'll put in an order for some food. Any requests?"
She shook her head, then noticed Hiei standing on a balcony beyond a set of glass doors. She let him in with a friendly smile. "You found us!"
He seemed amused but didn't comment as he placed his sword by the balcony door and knelt to remove his shoes.
"Is this whole floor one apartment? You weren't kidding about the floor space." She poked her head through the few doors she could find. ‟You don't have much furniture."
"Yeah, I don't often come here, especially since you've been back. I just have enough stuff to get by in case of emergency."
"What kinds of emergencies?"
"Rain, mostly."
She looked at him over her shoulder. "What's wrong with rain?"
"Conflicts with the fire. Makes me tired. Hiei probably has the same trouble."
Kagome turned to Hiei to see what kind of input he had about mundane things like rain. She watched as he shrugged out of his cloak and folded it before carefully setting it atop his boots.
‟Rain doesn't bother me. I'm half ice." He casually flopped onto one of the couches with a hefty sigh. ‟Gregory apologized for the delay with your device and expects to return it in the next day or two. Almost forgot until I heard you talking about it on the street."
"Oh." She hadn't known Hiei long, but this behavior of his seemed off. He didn't seem like the type that would cuddle or flop. She glanced at Shippo, who gave her a half-frown and a lifted shoulder as he held his phone to his ear.
She sat on one of the chairs near the couch and looked at him. "Are you sure you feel okay?" she asked, watching him carefully.
He hummed, tilting his head back against the top edge of the furniture with closed eyes. "Feel great," he muttered.
Shippo dropped onto the couch next to Hiei and eyed him warily. ‟Groceries are on the way. I also ordered some takeout from a local joint."
Kagome bit her lip and leaned back into the cushions of her chair, watching Hiei's uncharacteristic behavior. He seemed more like someone who would prefer to stand or sit against the wall in some uncomfortable position, always on guard and ready for anything at a moment's notice, especially in an unfamiliar location. She glanced at Shippo. ‟How safe is this place?"
He shrugged. ‟A nice couple lives on the first floor, but they're out of the country on some business venture." He closed his eyes and focused for a moment. ‟No one else is around, so if we end up bringing down the building, we shouldn't have to worry about collateral damage."
Kagome laughed nervously. ‟Come on, whatever happened last night barely dinged one door. How much worse could this possibly get?"
Shippo cocked an eyebrow at her.
‟Anyways, I didn't mean if the building was safe to destroy," she said, rubbing her forehead. ‟I meant, should we put up a barrier around the place like we have at the shrine?"
He shook his head. ‟No, nothing big like that. It'll draw too much attention if anyone walking by passes too close. It makes sense on a shrine, but not so much at an apartment. We'll do a small one later around my floor before we try anything."
She hummed, fingering the edge of her shirt. ‟So, we're here because… my room did not have enough space?"
Shippo slouched back against the couch. ‟That, and I'd rather not make the next attempt in the middle of the courtyard at the shrine." He sighed and added on in a vague mutter, ‟I can just imagine how that would look when your mother comes back from her errands."
Kagome bit her lip, trying to think of anything that might make him a little less stressed. ‟So, what are we going to do, play Keep Away From Kagome? The world's first game of sexy tag, and I'm 'it'?"
Shippo laughed. ‟Nah, it wouldn't be the first time sexy tag has been played." He winked before adding, ‟Trust me, I would know."
Kagome rolled her eyes with a smile.
Hiei sighed. ‟It doesn't matter. Depending on what's actually wrong, you might attack either one of us in any number of ways. Maybe your reactions to him are due to the circumstances surrounding the magic. In another situation you might try to murder one of us, instead."
Kagome cringed and glanced at Shippo in dismay. If she'd tried to kill him instead of kiss him, things might have ended up a little worse. She felt a little better about the craziness of the whole ordeal.
Shippo scoffed and leaned forward in his chair with a wide grin. ‟She couldn't murder me even if she tried."
Hiei shrugged. ‟We'll figure this thing out, one way or another."
She frowned at his nonchalant response. He was there for the end of their last attempt the previous evening, but he hadn't been present for what felt like the worst of the tries. "But what if it's more of what we've already gone through? Do you realize what you're asking us to risk?"
Shippo leaned into her view. "Do you?" She blushed at his intense look. "You said things and behaved completely out of control when that madness took over. You're asking me—" he paused, glancing at Hiei, "—us, to try and keep you from doing something that at least one of us will regret in the morning. Do you realize what that's like?" He leaned closer, his gaze dropping briefly to her lips. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the most you've experienced is kissing, and very little at that."
She averted her gaze so that she couldn't see either of them.
He stood and crossed his arms, his lips pressed together in frustration as he stared her down. "What are you asking of us?"
She turned back to look up at him and shook her head. "I don't know what you mean. I'm not asking for anything from either of you."
Hiei sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose. ‟I think he wants to lay down some ground rules to avoid stepping over any lines."
Shippo waved his hand at Hiei with an angry look. ‟He doesn't think it's helpful to keep you tied up in case you go all crazy. I don't exactly relish the idea of giving you free reign to do whatever you damned well please."
She got to her feet and glared at him with her hands on her hips. ‟But you said it didn't bother you that I'd tried to jump you!"
He rubbed his hands down his face in exasperation. ‟It doesn't bother me that you'd wanna do whatever. It bothers me that you aren't in your right mind! The worst part is that anything I go along with is like taking advantage of a drunk girl who can't say no. In every moralistic society or court of law, that's also known as rape."
She instantly deflated and dropped into her chair, staring up at him in shock. He knelt at her feet and took her chilled fingers before turning his emerald gaze up to hers, willing her to understand his dilemma. He would do nearly anything for her, within reason. "Whether this ends up being another moment of you being crazy for kisses or trying to murder me with the closest thing you can get your hands on, I need to know. Now, before you lose your damned mind, what you absolutely do not want to do."
‟Well, I obviously don't want to kill anyone."
He shook his head. ‟Let's think in the other direction."
The other direction? Crazy for kisses?
What did he expect to happen? She thought back to how quickly she'd been ready to throw all caution to the wind with a complete stranger.
She froze, realizing that such a thing could easily occur again, especially when she was with people she trusted. She blurted the first thing that came to mind, "I can't get pregnant."
Shippo couldn't help himself and laughed aloud, the heavy atmosphere lifted by her blunt (and somewhat extreme) response. He looked up at her with glowing eyes. "Kagome, there are a thousand things we could do that wouldn't result in that. And anyways, I dunno about him, but kitsune frequently use sex as a tool to get what they want. We don't have kits until we want to have them." He wiggled his fingers. ‟Magic."
(He didn't bother to bring up the sheer number of adorable kits that would have taken over the world by now if it were any other way.)
Hiei sighed and answered with clinical boredom. "Supposedly fertile only during mating cycles, once per decade. Still about three years away from my next."
'Supposedly, Hiei? That's confidence inspiring.' Hiei ignored his thought. Shippo rolled his eyes and then had to bite back a grin as he noticed her glowing pink cheeks. "Got anything more specific?"
She swallowed, staring between the two males. Hiei didn't bother to look at either of them. His arms were thrown along the top edge of the couch and he looked completely at ease. If he hadn't just spoken, she might have guessed he could be asleep. What the hell had she gotten herself into? "Um, clothes stay on?"
Shippo smirked and shrugged. "Alright, anything else?"
She clasped her fingers in front of her, staring at him with wide eyes. "I don't know what else to say," she whispered. "Is there anything you don't want from me?"
He watched her for a moment, the budding joy at the idea he might get to play slowly fading as the gravity sunk in. ‟I don't want to hurt you."
‟He says that but he means something else," Hiei muttered, his eyes still closed.
Shippo growled in irritation, shooting him an angry glare.
‟I'll tell her everything," Hiei threatened, but it lost a measure of seriousness as he punctuated with a yawn.
‟Why do you keep doing this to me?" Shippo demanded, standing suddenly.
He shrugged with a sigh, finally opening his eyes to look at the fox with lazy indifference. ‟You owe her the truth, just as you must stop lying to yourself."
‟Lying to myself about what?" he demanded, feeling about two seconds from throwing the rude little youkai from the balcony.
An image of bare skin and tangled limbs flashed in his thoughts, just a mere flicker, but enough to make him take his seat and shut his mouth in surprise as he stared at the floor.
*You want to be yourself. You want everything that makes you happy, but you're afraid she might give you what you want even if it's to her own detriment.*
Shippo squeezed his eyes shut. 'She's always so damned giving. It's not fair to her. She deserves her own way in life.'
*She has found her own way in life just fine. Aren't you the one always spouting that bullshit about time finding a way? If it's not meant to happen, lightning will strike. Maybe I'll decide better of it and eviscerate you. Or I might throw you over the fucking balcony. I'm exhausted watching you agonize over what this girl might want.*
Kagome watched the two of them as Shippo glared and Hiei stared in silent communication.
Shippo broke eye contact with a sigh and rubbed his face. ‟I'm sorry. Look, you've heard me joke about this more than a few times. The stuff about playing, teaching you stuff, whatever? It's not just an offer to keep you from making dumb mistakes."
With everything that had happened once Hiei had released her the night before, she'd nearly forgotten what Shippo had told her before he'd fled through her window. His various expressions of misery from the last few nights flicked through her thoughts as he continued, looking sheepish. ‟It's what I do. It's normal for me."
He watched her turn his words over in her head for a moment, pink flushing over her cheeks as the thought began to take hold. He leaned closer, nearly off the edge of his seat in anticipation. "I don't want to hurt you," he repeated, ‟but I want to be myself. I want to play."
She absently tugged the pillow from her chair and pulled it to her chest as she stared at him, unsure how she felt or what to say.
Hiei sighed and sat up, pinning the two with a serious look. ‟This has been a whole lot of talking for not very much accomplished." He stood and stretched, reaching high with a casual flick of his shoulders.
He didn't spend much time without his cloak, and Kagome found her eyes drawn to the bare skin revealed by his sleeveless shirt. A pale scar circled his bicep, the only evidence he'd briefly lost his arm some weeks ago, and she was interested in the jagged black pattern curling around his forearm. Was it a marking like Shippo's hidden stripes, or was it a tattoo?
He looked between them for a moment before he crossed his arms to pace the length of the room. ‟You've both laid down your rules. Let's get to the problem. The timing indicates that the issue stems from either the weird little human or the bastard desert kitsune. Are there other parts to the story that you have neglected to tell him?"
She glanced away, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
‟Parts that matter," he clarified.
‟Maybe all the parts of the story matter…" she murmured. ‟I just hadn't gotten around to it, yet."
‟We'll get to that soon enough. Your magic seems to do a halfway decent job to fight off the effects, once you're of the mind to do so." He rolled his head to stretch his neck, then shrugged his shoulders in wide movements before he sat on the floor with crossed legs. "This is going to take some time." He looked up at her and held out his hand. ‟Sit with me. Let us explore your mindset as the magic takes over."
She placed her hand in his and sat in front of him, distracted by something that had just caught her attention. "Hiei?"
He had already closed his eyes to turn his attention inwards, but he hummed to indicate he was listening.
"What's wrong with your eyes?" He looked at her with confusion. She'd had plenty of time to gaze at and admire the various shades of red that made up his irises, but…
Shippo leaned over and took another look. "Yeah, I noticed that this morning. You're going grey on us, man." The color had seemed to leech out of his eyes in narrow streaks, perhaps not very noticeable unless you were sitting within a few feet.
He blinked, and then he vanished.
"I think he just went to go peek in a mirror. Kagome, your fingertips..."
She glanced down and saw that her left fingers were greying again. "Shippo, I'm really worried that this is a thing."
Hiei returned a moment later, looking a little disturbed. "It's not just my eyes. My hair, too." He fingered the strands near the starburst pattern. "There is more white than there was before."
Kagome held up her fingers to show Hiei what they'd been talking about. "There's something wrong."
"Do you feel ill?"
"No, but…" Her power flared brightly and her hand looked like it briefly caught fire. She winced. "It feels like I'm purifying myself, and then the grey is gone for a while."
Hiei narrowed his eyes. This is like those cult members. An odd coloring. Reports of strange behaviors. "We'll need to keep a close eye on it. Have you noticed anything amiss?" He looked at Shippo with a critical gaze.
"Nothing."
‟Any strangers near the shrine since you've been back? Near you?" he asked, looking into her eyes for any matching symptoms.
She shook her head.
If the madness she experiences and the illness that's begun popping up in Makai are related, perhaps finding a way to beat it here will prove beneficial. And if he now suffered from the same thing, then discovering what triggered the insanity might help avoid a very messy incident.
Shippo claimed Kagome couldn't kill him even if she tried, but he didn't want to find out if the same could be said about him.
Author's Note: I've been feeling pretty uncertain about this chapter. original drafts went in a completely different direction, but in the last three months, the relationship threads have shifted quite a lot from where I'd anticipated they would be at this point. As things come together, my uncertainty fades, but still...