Chapter Six

Mostly Painless

Hiei was where he was supposed to be at seven in the morning on Saturday. Ashley had texted him with a smiley face the day before. According to the fox, smiley faces were usually good signs from females. Smiley faces usually were often used to ease tension, lighten the mood, show the other person meant well, or flirt. He doubted it was the latter.

For whatever reason, more than what he could fathom, the girl actually seemed excited about the prospect of helping him with this thing. Of course, he didn't quite care for her reason and neither did he ask, but it entertained him to see her so excited, even if her constant excitement was annoying. It was almost like being around Kuwabara, but the oaf occupied his own level of being annoying by himself. Hiei couldn't put up with Kuwabara for too long. The girl, however, at least provided entertainment in her annoyance.

The morning, he knew, was a chilly one. It wasn't as if he never got cold. Certainly, he was aware of cold and could become cold, but on the chilly morning that was Saturday, it wasn't even a bother for the fire demon. The humans, however, wore a layer or two, usually with sleeves and perhaps a scarf. So, Hiei had dressed in his usual black cloak and white scarf, if only for appearances' sake.

This world, especially in the last two years, had ceased it's good natured relations with demons. Almost everywhere demons tread these days was dangerous for them, even for demons, such as himself, who possessed such strength that no human could ever fathom. If any demon were to fatally hurt a human at this point, whether on purpose or by self-defense, it would mean an all-out war.

To be able to blend in with humans was a good thing, as much as he hated to admit it, and although he hated that he could blend in, he did so out of necessity. It was a conversation he could easily elude. The color of his eyes was usually the only thing that gave people pause around him. Even the girl, whenever she saw him she would look at his eyes just a few moments too long, and then glance away, embarrassed. Crimson. The color of blood. The color wasn't natural among humans. Different, they knew.

The state of the world as it was was something that he was working to ease, however he could.

He heard her coming before he turned. "Good morning," she said. Hiei turned to see Ashley holding a cup of something between gloved hands, steam rising lazily from the lid.

"It's not that cold out here, you know." He observed, watching her. She was much more subdued than she had been last week. Hell, even earlier this week when he'd spoken to her on the phone she had been much more chipper. She glanced away from him for a moment, beyond his shoulder.

"I get cold easily," she replied dryly. Her steel eyes held a defensiveness that he didn't try to cross. It was something that he always hated Kuwabara for doing when he felt less than pleased to deal with people. "It's easier to just bundle up now and remove layers later. But there's Yukina and Kuwabara/" Her expression lit up, and even though she obviously tried to hide her discomfort, wherever it came from, it didn't quite work. "Let's try to get along today, shall we?"

She turned away from him, still clutching her tea and cried, "Yukina! Kuwabara!" They both greeted her; Kuwabara greeted her much more loudly than Hiei would have liked for so early in the morning, but they were doing this because he wanted to get back at the oaf. The most he could do was be near, and at least try to play a convincing role. Boyfriend. Never thought he'd hear that word described toward him, even as false a statement as it was.

A bus was supposed to take them over to the national park. Yukina and Kuwabara had boarded first and sat in a pair of seats about halfway toward the back of the bus. Ashley took the lead and led Hiei back as well, sitting just opposite from where their friends sat, and hurried to sit, slipping on something and landing haphazardly in the seat in the process.

"Are you always this clumsy?" Hiei asked, his tone sharp. Mentally, he chided himself. The fox said he needed to speak more softly towards Ashley since she was technically his "girlfriend."

"Try not to be so…" Kurama had said, trailing off and trying to find the right word to describe Hiei's manner of speaking. The fire demon had consulted Kurama for all this mess days ago. While Kurama hadn't had a great many romantic encounters towards demon or human, he had had more than Hiei.

Hiei had leveled his gaze at Kurama, daring him to speak out against his pride. "Terse." Kurama finally decided on the word.

Even though he didn't like it, Hiei couldn't argue with the fox.

Ashley, however, if she noticed Hiei's tone, didn't have any physical or emotional reaction. At any rate, she was the one to offer herself for whatever this was. She at least had an idea of what he was like. He shouldn't have to change for her idea of who he was, or anyone else's idea of what a relationship should be like.

"Well, I wouldn't say I'm clumsy, but I'm definitely not graceful," she snarked back, not looking up as she righted herself in her seat. "A fish out of water is more graceful than I am," she admitted.

The driver made some sort of announcement over the speakers of the bus as the final people boarded the vehicle and took their seats. In a moment, the doors hissed shut, locking them in and lurched forward as he began driving.

The sense of being trapped was nearly overwhelming. Every one of his senses launched into overdrive at the same time that the bus pulled away from the curb. It wasn't as if he'd never been in a small moving automobile before. He certainly had, especially with Yukina as she adjusted to life in Human World. But having so many people around him, all talking and existing at the same time definitely set him on edge. The walls seemed to grow closer together, shrinking around him, and even though a window showed the world outside the bus rushing past on Ashley's other side, the world seemed to cave in on him. Having grown up and spending nearly all of his days in Demon World outside, those experiences had done nothing to prepare him for the cramped spaces that humans seemed to enjoy so much. He restrained the urge to rip himself out of the bus, and rush back to open sky and the safe cover of trees.

As if sensing his unease, Ashley tapped him on the shoulder, holding out one of her earbuds. Hiei merely stared at it, confused as to what Ashley wanted him to do with it. "Do you want to listen?"

Listen. Music. It was a past time that humans seemed to enjoy. He always saw someone with the devices in their ears, blocking out the world around them.

Watching Ashley place the left bud in her ear, Hiei followed, mimicking her motions and placing his bud in his right ear.

The effect wasn't loud or blaring, but rather a soft, playful melody that climbed higher and higher in an arching, hopeful, sweeping sound. There was only one instrument playing for him, and although Hiei had never seen one in person, he knew immediately that this was a piano that he listened to.

From the corner of his eye, Hiei watched the female scroll through the different tracks with her thumb, pausing on each one individually. At the end of the track they listened to, she selected the next one.

The following track was much slower and its notes much deeper, the emotion behind each note slowly staining through the melody like ink. Longing ripped through his soul, reminding him of-

Hiei quickly removed the earbud from his ear and held it back out to Ashley, preferring the anxiety the bus brought to reminders of those memories that accompanied the emotion.

"We can listen to something else if you prefer," she murmured quietly, trying to be respectful to the other passengers on the bus. "I didn't think to ask, I'm sorry." She said quickly, taking the earbud but still searching through her music directory.

Hiei, instead, shook his head. "Don't bother," he muttered. Talking on a human train was never polite, and often frowned upon. Apparently not talking on any mode of public transportation was the preferred cultural norm. Even though they traveled by bus that day a few members of the older generations shot him a glare that clearly said, "Stop talking."

He obliged, and when he spared a glance down at Ashley, she had already placed the earbud in her right ear, but stared at something between them.

Silently following her gaze, he realized his sleeve had shifted, allowing her to glimpse at the Dragon of the Darkness Flame's markings along his skin.

To someone without any knowledge of what he was capable of or any knowledge of the dragon, the marking would look like one of the humans' tattoo sleeves: a dragon set against a smoky background.

A hint of panic slipped through his mind, making his stomach drop as he quickly pulled down his sleeve. No human could possibly know about that, except his human teammates or any human who had helped put together the Dark Tournament years ago when he had competed for the first time with Urameshi's team. As it were, he couldn't be too careful.

Ashley glanced up, meeting Hiei's gaze in question before turning away to lean on the window, gazing out at the blur of green and blue beyond it.

Hiei recognized that gaze immediately. It wasn't one he had ever seen her wear, of course, but her meaning behind it was clear that she would ask him about it later.

The ride was a short one from Tokyo to Nikko National Park. It was a place Hiei had heard of, definitely, but having gone there before? Never. Visiting the "must-see" places in Human World wasn't high on his priority list by any means. After buying entrance into the park, Ashley clutched a map between her hands as Yukina looked on and they discussed what to do first.

"Hiei!" Ashley called, glancing up and catching his eye. Unlike on the bus, and before, when it was just the two of them, Ashley's strange demeanor disappeared, leaving behind a curious, excited girl. For whatever reason she wore the mask for Yukina and Kuwabara, he didn't dare comment on it. "Do you have a preference what we do first?"

Why was she asking him? He remembered as soon as Kuwabara glanced up for his answer.

"I think this is both of your first times," Kuwabara muttered, scratching his head as he looked over the map in thought. "Yukina and I have been here before and the way we took back then seemed to do okay."

Ashley made a little noise of surprise. "You should have said something! I wanted this to be an adventure for all of us!"

"Well, it is fun for us to get to do things with you, so this was fine," Yukina stepped in, smiling softly towards Ashley.

Ashley merely offered a half smile, somewhat crooked in it's execution. "What path did you take last time?"

"Well, we did the waterfall first and then the shrine. We could do that again today, but I can't guarantee there won't be tourists."

"You realize I'm a tourist, don't you, Kuwabara?" Ashley asked with a laugh, and folded up the map into uneven squares to stick in the curve of her back pocket. "I don't think there's a way to avoid the other tourists that are here, though.

"Is that okay with you, Hiei?" Ashley asked, glancing back toward Hiei, who stood at the edge of their little group watching the crowd like a hawk.

"Whatever you prefer," he replied, about two steps up from growling the words. This didn't interest him at all; he was just here to get back at Kuwabara.

Kuwabara looked like he was holding back words that were painfully funny at the expense of Hiei. After noticing Yukina's pointed glare - a warning to her husband - Hiei decided he did not want to prod the oaf into spilling whatever it was that he was trying so hard to keep to himself.

"Well, why don't we go up to the waterfall first-" Ashley turned back to Yukina and Kuwabara, her words falling away.

The National Park was definitely out in the middle of a forest, with no urban life anywhere near the park, which both set him at ease, and increased his diligence in keeping an eye out. If any enemies were here, it would be easy to hide from him under the cover of a human tourist.

"You know, I want you to enjoy it, too," A gentle voice appeared next to him. She fell into step beside him. "Not just to 'fully convince' those two," she tipped her head forward in a small nod to the two leading them several feet away, "But also, if we're going to do this then we might as well enjoy ourselves anyway."

She didn't give him a chance to respond and immediately changed the subject, "So that guide I picked up at the entrance says that there are monkeys out here."

He glanced sidelong at her. The way she said 'monkeys' held a gasp of awe in her voice, one that he couldn't tell was wonder or fear. The way she watched the edges of the forest around the little path, however, indicated it was the latter.

Hiei, however, saw an opportunity and took it. "You're not scared, are you?"

She shook her head vehemently. "Not at all!"

"Have you ever seen a monkey up close?" He asked, smirking at her nerves.

Her hesitation followed by a, "No?" was all the confirmation he needed.

"Was that a question or a statement?"

Ashley glared daggers at Hiei. It was almost as frightening as his glares toward Kuwabara when they were messing with each other. A laugh at her very non-threatening glare tried to bubble up to his lips, but he kept it inside. Oh, how she would hate him for that. "It was a statement," she covered instead, matter-of-factly.

Hiei was a few steps short of being convinced. Continuing to walk, he shot her a disapproving glance with a brow raised. She caught his look and rolled her eyes so hard, Hiei could have sworn they should have gotten stuck in the back of her skull.

"Look, okay, a zoo is probably the closest I've ever gotten to a real monkey." There it was. The answer that she'd been dancing around.

"Having never seen a monkey before is nothing to be ashamed of," Hiei said, taking in the forest around them. In truth, his eyes never stopped scanning the path and the area around them. Trees were so overgrown on either side that they made a sort of natural tunnel that barely allowed light from the sun above to filter through. Truth be told, it set him on edge, much like the bus did or any building without much of a window to the outside: it was another way to trap him, but more than that, it allowed camouflage in case anyone wanted to ambush them, and using the Jagan out in public in Human World was a great way to get jumped. However, the only beings that he sensed out there, even without the Jagan, were just normal creatures: some deer, squirrels, even curious monkeys.

Ashley didn't seem to notice that they should be expecting company until the closest creature landed on a tree branch next to her, causing the poor girl to stumble into him as a shriek of fright tore from her lips.

Gripping her shoulders on either side, Hiei gently grasped her and moved her off of him so she could stand on her own again, with a muttered, "Not clumsy, huh?" Her legs didn't seem to want to work, but she at least was able to stand when he released her. If a breeze came by, however, he wasn't sure that she wouldn't end up in a pile on the ground, but at least for now she was standing.

The monkey on the branch regarded them curiously.

"Well, you shouldn't be rude," Hiei finally ground out. Ashley jumped in surprise at his sudden words, which pushed Hiei closer to his frustration limit. Was the girl scared of literally everything? With a raise of her brows, he gestured to the monkey. "Say hello?"

Ashley turned back to the forest creature tentatively, but inched closer just the same. She moved slow as a snail, likely not to frighten the creature, or maybe so she wouldn't frighten herself. Five minutes passed and she had only just reached the monkey, reaching out a hand to try to pet it. By this time, another had joined it's friend on the branch to ogle at Ashley as she ogled at them.

The urge to snap at the girl to hurry up filled him, the only thing stopping him being Kurama's words from three days prior. Instead, he ground his teeth in frustration, and let loose a little of his spiritual energy, if only to intimidate the girl a little.

Usually the effect was immediate. A cold sweat would break out on his foe's upper lip and the hairs on the back of their neck would stand at attention, sending the age-old instinct to the brain that something was wrong.

Ashley, however, if she noticed anything adverse around her, gave no indication of it.

Fully aware of his surroundings and Kuwabara and Yukina several hundred paces away - who would wonder what was going on if they suddenly felt any bit of his spiritual energy - Hiei let a little more loose. There was no way Ashley was this dense to anything spiritual.

He waited, three seconds, then five. Then fifteen. Finally after a full minute and all Ashley was doing was playing with the monkeys in delight, completely oblivious to Hiei's experiment, Hiei shut off his spiritual energy like one would shut off water at a tap.

No, Ashley was as clueless to anything relating to spiritual awareness as a rock would be.

The waterfall wasn't as magnificent as others he had seen in photos located around the world, but it was still a sight to be seen.

Truth be told, it was rather small and narrow, but it still reached maybe four hundred feet high, and they stood about in the center of it. A little outcrop had been built with a railing for tourists to take photos of themselves with the waterfall without anyone having to worry about taking a misstep and falling to their death. What a depressing vacation that would be. The stone outcrop was slick with spray, and a few people lost their footing, nearly taking an unexpected tumble when they weren't careful.

Ashley's mouth did not hang open like most of the tourists' did, but her eyes were as wide as saucepans as she took in the sight and the deafening roar of the water.

Out of the corner of his eye, Yukina and Kuwabara snapped a photo on Kuwabara's phone, using one of those ridiculous selfie sticks as they called them. With a roll of his eyes, Hiei stepped up next to Ashley. "Want me to take your photo?" he asked, holding out his hand for her phone.

That brought her out of her reverie. "What?" she asked, turning toward him.

Trying not to huff, he repeated his question, but Ashley pulled at the skin around her thumb's cuticle thought. "Why don't we take one together?" she asked instead, pulling her phone out of her pocket and swiping for the camera. She turned her back away from the waterfall and wrapped a hand around his bicep, the gentle pressure of her hand a surprise, but not a terrible one. She held out the camera and framed the photo.

"You've got to smile," she chided, sneaking a glance at him from the side of her eye and a sly smile. Without warning, the camera clicked at the phone showed a copy of the photo for a moment before the image disappeared again. "That wasn't painful, was it?" she asked, her voice high and teasing.

"Only barely," he replied evenly, pulling away from her.

Yukina decided to approach, then, asking Ashley for a picture of the two of them together, so Hiei used that moment to slip away from the mindless chatter of the girls to an edge of the cliff that wasn't protected by the railing. No one dared come out over here, especially with the stone being so drenched, but it was here that Hiei found he was able to take a full breath again.

It filled his lungs, refreshing him and clearing his mind, until a familiar presence stepped up behind him.

"Having fun?" Kuwabara asked. The sheer height alone should make any humans' head spin. Kuwabara, however, was not any normal human.

Kuwabara's words pushed through Hiei's thoughts of freedom and fresh air. Great. Now he had to entertain the oaf while Yukina and Ashley did whatever it was that girls did when they were left to themselves.

"Yes," Hiei replied evenly, staring out at the forested hills and valleys in the distance.

"You sure?" Kuwabara asked. Hiei didn't bother turning toward him. Perhaps if he ignored Kuwabara he would go away. The most recent words they had shared back at the house still haunted Hiei's thoughts when he had nothing else to ponder on. "You seem a little… tense."

Hiei didn't move, letting the wind push against him. From this high up and the waterfall just feet away, a steady wind was constant and acted almost like a bully to anyone who was unsuspecting.

"What's your point?" he snapped, his patience wearing thin.

Kuwabara huffed, obviously broaching a subject that wasn't his idea to begin with. "Does Ashley know…?"

It clicked, then, what this was about. As much as he loved his sister, sometimes she went about getting information in a roundabout way. "About Yukina I don't know what she decides to divulge and what she doesn't," his words cut, aimed toward the oaf next to him and his frustration towards the situation, "but of me, certainly not."

"Do you think you'll tell her?"

A resolute, "No point for her to know," nearly slipped passed his lips, but he caught it before it could be fully formed.

"At some point, I'm sure," he said instead. "Now? No. We barely know each other."

Glancing back over his shoulder, Hiei could see Yukina and Ashley through the sparse lower branches of the trees that separated his little haven from the outcrop next to the waterfall. Yukina had stepped closer to the waterfall; Ashley remained where Hiei had left her and she stared straight through him, a question clear as day shining in her eyes.

"You know," Kuwabara said, bringing Hiei's attention back to him. "She's got demons as students. I think she'd take it pretty well. Plus, that'd be a great way for you two to break the ice."

It occurred to him, then, that everything that he and Ashley had been trying to convince Yukina and Kuwabara of hadn't actually been working yet. His sister and her husband still saw them as this strange pair that were still awkward around each other.

How right they were, but Hiei would never admit to such a thing. "I'll break you if you don't cease your mindless ramblings that you know nothing of."

Kuwabara pursed his lips, clearly taking the hint that he wasn't welcome in Hiei's presence any longer, and slipped back to the outcropping. From there, Hiei picked up on him greeting Yukina with a, "I tried."

Hiei, instead of pondering further on Yukina and Kuwabara, looked back over his shoulder at Ashley, who hadn't moved from her spot on the outcropping. The way she studied him when the waterfall was right behind her - the whole reason they had come out here in the first place - sent chills up his spine.

There were few moments he was truly nervous. Afraid wasn't the right word, but nervous was. Yes, he was nervous that she would find out he was a demon. This particular 'nervous' emotion was one he had never experienced before. He had always been proud to be a demon, but at this point if she knew, she would have power over him. And with the precarious position demons were in across the world, unable to defend themselves without sparking an all-out war, that was control that he was not ready to give her at all.

No, it was better for her to believe that he was like her.

Their staring contest reached an end when she decided to pick her way across the outcropping and step up next to him near the cliff. She still kept a good five feet away from the cliff, and therefore from him, but she had definitely lessened the distance between them, as she always seemed to try to do. Whether her intentions were to try to convince Kuwabara and Yukina or whether she wanted to be closer to him was on her own volition, both were a mystery.

"Do you enjoy brooding on cliff sides?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest against the slight chill that the persistent wind created. "You're very good at it, you know: brooding."

Hiei didn't bother turning back around to face his view as he would have if Yusuke, Kuwabara, or even Kurama were behind him. Instead, he remained motionless as the wind tore through his hair and pushed against him. Even Ashley, standing several feet away from the edge of the cliff, took half a step backwards to catch herself as the wind tried to knock her over.

Behind her, Kuwabara and Yukina watched them, speaking softly to one another.

Kurama had mentioned something about holding hands in Ashley's culture. Was it polite or impolite? Yes, they were in Japan where prolonged physical contact was frowned upon, but right then, at the waterfall, there were people from every corner of the world, all practicing their cultures of holding hands or walking together, or talking loudly. Right then, it didn't matter quite so much that they follow normal expectations of a couple in the Japanese culture. Especially since she was not from the Japanese culture originally, and neither was he.

He reached out a hand toward her, eyes probing her own, searching for what he could have sworn was suspicion against him. Did she know he was a demon?

When she hesitated, he quietly explained so that only she could hear, "They're watching."

With a sly grin just for him, Ashley took his hand and let him pull her up to him, their hands slick together from the waterfall's errant spray.

"You're not planning on pushing me off, are you?" the trembling words caught Hiei by surprise, so when he glanced up to check her expression, he was even more surprised to see her brow raised skeptically, the question only half a joke.

"Some people call me an ass," he said as he pulled her gently to him and gripped her hand tighter. Let the oaf chew on that. "But I won't let you fall."

"How can you be so confident?" Ashley said, laughing around her nerves. "You're human, too! And it's like a five hundred meter drop!" It was obvious she tried not to let him see her panic, but try as she might she wasn't as good at hiding her emotions as she clearly thought she was.

It was good she didn't think of him other than a human, and he tried not to let his relief show on his face. However, it could have just been a turn of phrase, to which he didn't let his guard drop at all. When Hiei caught Ashley's eye again, her steel blue eyes glimmered with an idea behind them.

Before he could convince himself he should ask, she turned away, trying to focus on anything except the sheer drop beneath her feet. "This is, um, quite peaceful."

The sarcasm was not lost on Hiei. He nearly choked on a snort. "With that attitude, I might just let you fall."

"You wouldn't dare!" Ashely raised a hand to her mouth, which had formed into a little 'o' in mock-shock.

At that moment, Kuwabara decided it was the opportune time to break the easy nature between them by yelling, "Hey! You two! Are you hungry yet? We can go grab lunch before heading to part two!"

Part two of the day was supposed to be the village and shrine, according to the little map that Ashley had been clutching all morning. But as they turned away from the cliff, Hiei stepping in front of her to take the lead, Ashley's hand slipped out of his as she lost her balance and her footing on the slick stone beneath her.

- End of Chapter Six -

Thank you to WistfulSin and KHandFF7fanforever for reviewing! I always love to see what people thought of a chapter, so if you like it let me know!

This chapter is definitely my longest since the first one. I originally thought it would be longer, but I've written about 80% of the chapter in the last two days even though I gave myself two and a half weeks to write it, so I decided to cut it short. But that means more cuteness than I originally planned will be in chapter seven! Also, chapter seven will be out on October 15.

If anyone is participating in NaNoWriMo this year, look me up! I'm username Olivia_wat928. On Dating a Demon will be my project during NaNo.

I do not own, in any way, the characters, places, or ideas of the Yu Yu Hakusho universe created by Yoshihiro Togashi. I only own my own characters and plot.