You're not gone yet? Ok, take this and have fun, I hope it makes you
smile too.
***********************************************************************
Chapter3 "Cute Hn?"
Magujie's eyes flickered open. The sun was rising. Gurennu was pressed against her back and Marushi's elbow was in her stomach. Carefuly she de-tangled herself from them and pulled on her windbreaker pants. She tied her hair in a knot and walked out the door. Soon she
found herself in the garden, barefoot. She stretched her stiff muscles in the warm sun light. She felt good.
"Sleep well?" A soft voice floated on the breeze.
"As well as I ever do, I have insomnia. Are you always up so early Kurama?" She didn't bother to turn and look at him.
"No, I don't, but today I was. I feel like...Oh, never mind." He stopped himself in mid sentence and chuckled.
"Hn? You are a strange." She finally turned and found him inches away. "Today is practice, can I watch?"
"Sure, want to take a go?"
"Oh no, I'm not a fighter. I can do the moves for karate and the same with a sword, but I've never used any of it."
Kurama fingered his scratched cheek, "Are you really that modest?"
"No, I was freaked and I just went nuts. You scared me. I'm sorry about the bruises and cuts." She frowned at her feet. "I could never do that again."
"Don't under estimate yourself." He turned and started in doors. "Hungry?"
They ate with Gienki and Magujie made the woman smile as she complemented everything and when Marushi wandered in and bowed politely
with good morning on her lips Gienki beamed.
Soon the others wandered in and ate. Yuusuke suggested that practice get under way.
Marushi looked at the guys workout, "Umm, kawaii." She had a dumb little smile on her face.
Magujie shot her a surprised expression, then pressed her lips together repressing a smile. Finally she lost it and spazzed out, face red as a tomato. Trying to stop a loud squeak escaped her and she laughed harder. "Mar...Marush-sh-shi! This...is...Japan!!! They all
speak Japanese!" Her eyes brimmed with tears as she fought for air.
Marushi looked embarrassed then annoyed. "It wasn't that funny!" She protested and folded her arms across her chest. By now Kurama had begun to chuckle. Finally she cracked a smile. "Maybe it was that funny..." She giggled.
Magujie finally got a few breaths in and sat back up. This made Marushi fall over laughing, "You look terrible!!!"
Magujie sniffled as she wiped her eyes. "Hn, someone hasn't looked in the mirror lately." She took another breath and started laughing again. "Female! Stop making me laugh!!!" She stood up and staggered out of the training room holding her middle.
Kurama finally gave up his mock fight with Yuusuke and flopped down to get the laughter out of his system. Yuusuke just rolled his eyes,
Kuwabara just stared at him, and Hiei made his usual comment, "Hn." Then he looked at the giggling girl and almost looked intrigued, "Cute hn?"
Marushi pealed herself off of the floor and finally quit laughing. Then she decided that she didn't want to stand in front of the men anymore, so she went to find something else to do.
The guys resumed their training.
"Strange chicks." Kuwabara commented as he kicked in Hiei's direction. Hiei side stepped easily. "They are from America though. Maybe they are all like that."
"I think they're cute." Kurama grinned as he tapped Yuusuke on the shoulder. "Focus, Yuusuke. Anyway they seem to be a lot of fun.
Maybe having them around won't be half bad."
"Maybe not." Yuusuke agreed. "Has anyone seen that boy?"
"Not sense dinner. Why?" Kurama ducked a fist.
"Well, maybe we should try and teach him something. I mean he is a lousy fighter, and we're going to be dealing with him for a while." He
Kicked Kurama across the small of his back, sending him tumbling. "It would be easier to teach him something now instead of protecting him in a battle."
"Yes, it would. Are you volunteering?" Kurama stood and brushed off his sweaty hands on his pants.
"Not really." Yuusuke replied.
"What about the chicks?" Kuwabara wanted to know.
"They can defend themselves pretty well, and you have the black eye to prove it." Kurama reminded him.
"Hn...I'll teach him." Hiei spoke up. Everyone stared at him. "You talk to much, shut up and fight." He growled menacingly and Kuzuma smirked at him, power sword appearing.
"You want a fight? I'll give you one!"
Gurennu slept soundly on, oblivious to the world around him. "Gurennu, wake up!"
He opened one eye and looked at Magujie, "Blah...Go away."
"Get up, it's nearly lunch time."
"Aru?" He opened both eyes and yawned. "Ok, I'm up." He sat up and stretched slowly, "Wait, where am I?" He looked around the unfamiliar room.
"Marushi's and my room. You fell asleep during my story." She gave him his shirt. "I let you stay."
"Thanks." He stood and pulled on the shirt.
"Oh yah, um. Oh...Oh, O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z! Now what was it? Hn. Ah yes, Hiei offered to teach you a little self-defense. What do you think?" She straitened out the bed covers and looked up at him as he did the last button.
"In other words give me a crud beating! No way."
"Nah, he will teach you, not kill you."
"I guess." He ran a hand over his hair, then shrugged. "Yah know what? I'm hungry."
"Then come on and we'll eat." She started out the door. He followed her.
Marushi came in to the room and sat next to Magujie. Magujie pulled a leaf out of her hair. "Who've you been having fun with?" She whispered in her ear.
She frowned at her playfuly. "Nobody, but a girl can dream, can't she?" She replied quietly. "I found a really neat path, want to explore
later?"
Kurama looked up when she said it more loudly then the first part. "You shouldn't wander around in the woods. You could get lost, or hurt.
Stay near the temple." All of his usually jolly tones were gone and he was very serious.
"Ok." Marushi replied, but Magujie knew that he had just made it a must do on her list by ordering her not to go. They ate and then Gurennu approached Hiei about his crud-beating lesson.
They went into the training room and Hiei showed him things and he tried to copy the movements. After a while Hiei was sending slow attacks to him and he could block them. He was enjoying himself. Suddenly Hiei did a sweep at his ankles, and he managed to jump it. "Hn, good." Hiei commented, then knocked Gurennu flat on his butt.
"That was dirty!"
"Nobody plays by rules when fighting, just win or die." He pulled him to his feet. "You need a rest."
"Tell me about it!" He wiped sweat out of his eyes. He drank the water he was given gratefully.
Magujie sat on the grass in the garden, drawing the landscape around her. Marushi sat across the yard writing furiously with a mechanical pencil in a notebook. Magujie penciled in her friend and moved on to a tree. "That's very nice." A shadow fell across her sketchbook. She looked up in surprise. Kurama smiled down at her. "May I look at them?"
She was use to people asking to look through her book, even ones she had never been introduced to. She handed it up to him automatically. He sat delicately beside her and turned the pages slowly. She took the opportunity to study his face. His narrow face made him look feminine, she decided. Most men had broad jaw lines. He stopped on a page and looked shocked, "That's _me _!"
She smiled at him, "Yah, I drew your anime picture. Can I draw you, like you look now?" He nodded slowly, then started to hand back the book. "Aren't you going to finish looking first?"
He laughed at himself and turned the page, Hiei glared up at him. Yuusuke was behind that page and Kuwabara was the last. Then there were some people he didn't know. Last he found a page with Yukina, Botan, and the other girls. The next page was of him as a Youko. This was the most startling thing he had seen in a while.
She pried it from his fingers and sat back. "I told you, we saw you before the day we met." Then she started to draw quickly. He shook his
head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Hold still, would ya?!"
"Sorry," He gave her an apologetic smile. Then he sat still for a little while. Soon he started wiggling.
"Oh, you can move now. I'm almost done." She glanced up at him, then went back to the paper. He tried to glance at the book, but she moved it out of eye range. "Hey, wait till it's finished! No peeking."
Kurama sat back on his heals, examining Marushi as she wrote down the lined paper. She stopped and giggled to herself, "That's funny!" Then she went back to scribbling away, oblivious to the others in the garden. Abruptly she threw the notebook with a growl, "Un uaa! I'm stuck, heeellp meeee!"
"Stop with the fly Marco! I'll help you in a sec." She ran her pinky finger across the page. She looked up at Kurama, then back at the page.
"Hn...I guess it's as good as it's gonna get." She turned the page for him to view.
He sat and stared for a long time. "It...It's wonderful." He murmured something else, but she couldn't hear. "Could I borrow it?"
"Give me an hour and I'll make you a copy." She detached the page and sat it next to her to copy.
"Oh, thank you. You're amazing."
She laughed and shook her head, "It's just a gift of mine, like you can control plants, I control pencils."
"Hey brat, you're suppose to help me! Get over here!" Marushi commanded.
"Yes Scorpion, coming master." Magujie tossed down her paper pad and walked over to Marushi. "Please forgive me!" She did a teasing bow.
"This is your last chance, if you fail me, I'll be forced to take extreme measures. Do I make my self clear?" Marushi teased back.
"Yes Queen Beryl! Clear as mud." She took up the story and read it for a minute. "Hurah! How did you come up with that, chick?"
"The frog made me do it!" Marushi blamed last years biology experiment for the problem. They blamed the frog for everything. "Hey, do you think our moms will buy that, 'Oh, we've been gone for days because of the frog?"
"Um...No. Nice thought though. Ah, brain cell is working!" She took up the pencil and wrote a few sentences. She handed it back to her friend and went back to her drawing.
Gurennu hit Hiei in the shoulder and ducked the return swing. "Oh my God..." He Jumped a sweep and ducked another punch. Then he kicked, hitting Hiei on the inside of the knee. He staggered, but saved himself and punched Gurennu in the stomach. He didn't hit hard, so only a little air was forced out of the boy's lungs. "That was just wrong! Actually, it was pretty cool...Show me how to do that!?"
Hiei obliged and was surprised that the human picked it up so fast. A sharp blow to his abdomen made him react on automatic. Gurennu was hit in the solar plexus and went flying backwards. He sat in the floor trying to breathe. Hiei walked over and squatted in front of him, "You will live." He put a hand on the boy's shoulder for a moment.
Gurennu nodded, he had the air knocked out of him before. When he was able to breathe again he got up. "Can we stop for a little while?" He rubbed at his chest trying to make the ache go away.
"Yes." Hiei nodded and gathered up his shirt. Then he started to walk away.
"Wait, want to talk for a little while or something?" Gurennu pulled on his shirt and watched as Hiei froze. He turned and looked at him with
a look of surprise. Then he nodded slowly. Gurennu smiled, maybe he would at least have a friend that was his age and gender while he was in the temple.
Kurama slandered over and peered over Marushi's shoulder. The page was filled with strange squiggles, loops, lines, and dots. They all looked the same. "What _are_ you doing?!"
She looked up at him, "Writing a story, what does it look like?"
"Scribble scrabble a little kid would do that can't write." Kurama wrinkled up his nose at the mess on the page.
"Hey, my writing's not _that_ bad!!!" Marushi, despite herself, smacked Kurama with the book.
Magujie looked up at them, then smiled, "Toss me the paper Marushi." She caught it easily and turned to a blank page and wrote in large letters. "Ok, Kurama, what do you see?" He said basically the same thing he had said to her friend. She turned the paper back around and wrote something beneath the first word. "Marushi, what about the second line?"
"What second line, that's just some marks."
"Fine, read the first line."
"Different. What are you getting at?" Marushi frowned at her.
"Kurama, please read the second line."
"It says language." He read it easily.
"See? You both read different languages." She smiled. Marushi smiled at her with an `it figures` look. Kurama laughed and apologized for insulting her penmanship.
"Shall you go to tea today?" He changed the subject. Marushi nodded. "What are you frowning about?"
"Well, I've never been part of one before, I've only seen them on TV."
*********************************************************************
Does anyone actually read author's notes? Well, if you do, good for
you! Azusa Wariko Maxwell :) lodoss_elf@yahoo.com
smile too.
***********************************************************************
Chapter3 "Cute Hn?"
Magujie's eyes flickered open. The sun was rising. Gurennu was pressed against her back and Marushi's elbow was in her stomach. Carefuly she de-tangled herself from them and pulled on her windbreaker pants. She tied her hair in a knot and walked out the door. Soon she
found herself in the garden, barefoot. She stretched her stiff muscles in the warm sun light. She felt good.
"Sleep well?" A soft voice floated on the breeze.
"As well as I ever do, I have insomnia. Are you always up so early Kurama?" She didn't bother to turn and look at him.
"No, I don't, but today I was. I feel like...Oh, never mind." He stopped himself in mid sentence and chuckled.
"Hn? You are a strange." She finally turned and found him inches away. "Today is practice, can I watch?"
"Sure, want to take a go?"
"Oh no, I'm not a fighter. I can do the moves for karate and the same with a sword, but I've never used any of it."
Kurama fingered his scratched cheek, "Are you really that modest?"
"No, I was freaked and I just went nuts. You scared me. I'm sorry about the bruises and cuts." She frowned at her feet. "I could never do that again."
"Don't under estimate yourself." He turned and started in doors. "Hungry?"
They ate with Gienki and Magujie made the woman smile as she complemented everything and when Marushi wandered in and bowed politely
with good morning on her lips Gienki beamed.
Soon the others wandered in and ate. Yuusuke suggested that practice get under way.
Marushi looked at the guys workout, "Umm, kawaii." She had a dumb little smile on her face.
Magujie shot her a surprised expression, then pressed her lips together repressing a smile. Finally she lost it and spazzed out, face red as a tomato. Trying to stop a loud squeak escaped her and she laughed harder. "Mar...Marush-sh-shi! This...is...Japan!!! They all
speak Japanese!" Her eyes brimmed with tears as she fought for air.
Marushi looked embarrassed then annoyed. "It wasn't that funny!" She protested and folded her arms across her chest. By now Kurama had begun to chuckle. Finally she cracked a smile. "Maybe it was that funny..." She giggled.
Magujie finally got a few breaths in and sat back up. This made Marushi fall over laughing, "You look terrible!!!"
Magujie sniffled as she wiped her eyes. "Hn, someone hasn't looked in the mirror lately." She took another breath and started laughing again. "Female! Stop making me laugh!!!" She stood up and staggered out of the training room holding her middle.
Kurama finally gave up his mock fight with Yuusuke and flopped down to get the laughter out of his system. Yuusuke just rolled his eyes,
Kuwabara just stared at him, and Hiei made his usual comment, "Hn." Then he looked at the giggling girl and almost looked intrigued, "Cute hn?"
Marushi pealed herself off of the floor and finally quit laughing. Then she decided that she didn't want to stand in front of the men anymore, so she went to find something else to do.
The guys resumed their training.
"Strange chicks." Kuwabara commented as he kicked in Hiei's direction. Hiei side stepped easily. "They are from America though. Maybe they are all like that."
"I think they're cute." Kurama grinned as he tapped Yuusuke on the shoulder. "Focus, Yuusuke. Anyway they seem to be a lot of fun.
Maybe having them around won't be half bad."
"Maybe not." Yuusuke agreed. "Has anyone seen that boy?"
"Not sense dinner. Why?" Kurama ducked a fist.
"Well, maybe we should try and teach him something. I mean he is a lousy fighter, and we're going to be dealing with him for a while." He
Kicked Kurama across the small of his back, sending him tumbling. "It would be easier to teach him something now instead of protecting him in a battle."
"Yes, it would. Are you volunteering?" Kurama stood and brushed off his sweaty hands on his pants.
"Not really." Yuusuke replied.
"What about the chicks?" Kuwabara wanted to know.
"They can defend themselves pretty well, and you have the black eye to prove it." Kurama reminded him.
"Hn...I'll teach him." Hiei spoke up. Everyone stared at him. "You talk to much, shut up and fight." He growled menacingly and Kuzuma smirked at him, power sword appearing.
"You want a fight? I'll give you one!"
Gurennu slept soundly on, oblivious to the world around him. "Gurennu, wake up!"
He opened one eye and looked at Magujie, "Blah...Go away."
"Get up, it's nearly lunch time."
"Aru?" He opened both eyes and yawned. "Ok, I'm up." He sat up and stretched slowly, "Wait, where am I?" He looked around the unfamiliar room.
"Marushi's and my room. You fell asleep during my story." She gave him his shirt. "I let you stay."
"Thanks." He stood and pulled on the shirt.
"Oh yah, um. Oh...Oh, O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z! Now what was it? Hn. Ah yes, Hiei offered to teach you a little self-defense. What do you think?" She straitened out the bed covers and looked up at him as he did the last button.
"In other words give me a crud beating! No way."
"Nah, he will teach you, not kill you."
"I guess." He ran a hand over his hair, then shrugged. "Yah know what? I'm hungry."
"Then come on and we'll eat." She started out the door. He followed her.
Marushi came in to the room and sat next to Magujie. Magujie pulled a leaf out of her hair. "Who've you been having fun with?" She whispered in her ear.
She frowned at her playfuly. "Nobody, but a girl can dream, can't she?" She replied quietly. "I found a really neat path, want to explore
later?"
Kurama looked up when she said it more loudly then the first part. "You shouldn't wander around in the woods. You could get lost, or hurt.
Stay near the temple." All of his usually jolly tones were gone and he was very serious.
"Ok." Marushi replied, but Magujie knew that he had just made it a must do on her list by ordering her not to go. They ate and then Gurennu approached Hiei about his crud-beating lesson.
They went into the training room and Hiei showed him things and he tried to copy the movements. After a while Hiei was sending slow attacks to him and he could block them. He was enjoying himself. Suddenly Hiei did a sweep at his ankles, and he managed to jump it. "Hn, good." Hiei commented, then knocked Gurennu flat on his butt.
"That was dirty!"
"Nobody plays by rules when fighting, just win or die." He pulled him to his feet. "You need a rest."
"Tell me about it!" He wiped sweat out of his eyes. He drank the water he was given gratefully.
Magujie sat on the grass in the garden, drawing the landscape around her. Marushi sat across the yard writing furiously with a mechanical pencil in a notebook. Magujie penciled in her friend and moved on to a tree. "That's very nice." A shadow fell across her sketchbook. She looked up in surprise. Kurama smiled down at her. "May I look at them?"
She was use to people asking to look through her book, even ones she had never been introduced to. She handed it up to him automatically. He sat delicately beside her and turned the pages slowly. She took the opportunity to study his face. His narrow face made him look feminine, she decided. Most men had broad jaw lines. He stopped on a page and looked shocked, "That's _me _!"
She smiled at him, "Yah, I drew your anime picture. Can I draw you, like you look now?" He nodded slowly, then started to hand back the book. "Aren't you going to finish looking first?"
He laughed at himself and turned the page, Hiei glared up at him. Yuusuke was behind that page and Kuwabara was the last. Then there were some people he didn't know. Last he found a page with Yukina, Botan, and the other girls. The next page was of him as a Youko. This was the most startling thing he had seen in a while.
She pried it from his fingers and sat back. "I told you, we saw you before the day we met." Then she started to draw quickly. He shook his
head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Hold still, would ya?!"
"Sorry," He gave her an apologetic smile. Then he sat still for a little while. Soon he started wiggling.
"Oh, you can move now. I'm almost done." She glanced up at him, then went back to the paper. He tried to glance at the book, but she moved it out of eye range. "Hey, wait till it's finished! No peeking."
Kurama sat back on his heals, examining Marushi as she wrote down the lined paper. She stopped and giggled to herself, "That's funny!" Then she went back to scribbling away, oblivious to the others in the garden. Abruptly she threw the notebook with a growl, "Un uaa! I'm stuck, heeellp meeee!"
"Stop with the fly Marco! I'll help you in a sec." She ran her pinky finger across the page. She looked up at Kurama, then back at the page.
"Hn...I guess it's as good as it's gonna get." She turned the page for him to view.
He sat and stared for a long time. "It...It's wonderful." He murmured something else, but she couldn't hear. "Could I borrow it?"
"Give me an hour and I'll make you a copy." She detached the page and sat it next to her to copy.
"Oh, thank you. You're amazing."
She laughed and shook her head, "It's just a gift of mine, like you can control plants, I control pencils."
"Hey brat, you're suppose to help me! Get over here!" Marushi commanded.
"Yes Scorpion, coming master." Magujie tossed down her paper pad and walked over to Marushi. "Please forgive me!" She did a teasing bow.
"This is your last chance, if you fail me, I'll be forced to take extreme measures. Do I make my self clear?" Marushi teased back.
"Yes Queen Beryl! Clear as mud." She took up the story and read it for a minute. "Hurah! How did you come up with that, chick?"
"The frog made me do it!" Marushi blamed last years biology experiment for the problem. They blamed the frog for everything. "Hey, do you think our moms will buy that, 'Oh, we've been gone for days because of the frog?"
"Um...No. Nice thought though. Ah, brain cell is working!" She took up the pencil and wrote a few sentences. She handed it back to her friend and went back to her drawing.
Gurennu hit Hiei in the shoulder and ducked the return swing. "Oh my God..." He Jumped a sweep and ducked another punch. Then he kicked, hitting Hiei on the inside of the knee. He staggered, but saved himself and punched Gurennu in the stomach. He didn't hit hard, so only a little air was forced out of the boy's lungs. "That was just wrong! Actually, it was pretty cool...Show me how to do that!?"
Hiei obliged and was surprised that the human picked it up so fast. A sharp blow to his abdomen made him react on automatic. Gurennu was hit in the solar plexus and went flying backwards. He sat in the floor trying to breathe. Hiei walked over and squatted in front of him, "You will live." He put a hand on the boy's shoulder for a moment.
Gurennu nodded, he had the air knocked out of him before. When he was able to breathe again he got up. "Can we stop for a little while?" He rubbed at his chest trying to make the ache go away.
"Yes." Hiei nodded and gathered up his shirt. Then he started to walk away.
"Wait, want to talk for a little while or something?" Gurennu pulled on his shirt and watched as Hiei froze. He turned and looked at him with
a look of surprise. Then he nodded slowly. Gurennu smiled, maybe he would at least have a friend that was his age and gender while he was in the temple.
Kurama slandered over and peered over Marushi's shoulder. The page was filled with strange squiggles, loops, lines, and dots. They all looked the same. "What _are_ you doing?!"
She looked up at him, "Writing a story, what does it look like?"
"Scribble scrabble a little kid would do that can't write." Kurama wrinkled up his nose at the mess on the page.
"Hey, my writing's not _that_ bad!!!" Marushi, despite herself, smacked Kurama with the book.
Magujie looked up at them, then smiled, "Toss me the paper Marushi." She caught it easily and turned to a blank page and wrote in large letters. "Ok, Kurama, what do you see?" He said basically the same thing he had said to her friend. She turned the paper back around and wrote something beneath the first word. "Marushi, what about the second line?"
"What second line, that's just some marks."
"Fine, read the first line."
"Different. What are you getting at?" Marushi frowned at her.
"Kurama, please read the second line."
"It says language." He read it easily.
"See? You both read different languages." She smiled. Marushi smiled at her with an `it figures` look. Kurama laughed and apologized for insulting her penmanship.
"Shall you go to tea today?" He changed the subject. Marushi nodded. "What are you frowning about?"
"Well, I've never been part of one before, I've only seen them on TV."
*********************************************************************
Does anyone actually read author's notes? Well, if you do, good for
you! Azusa Wariko Maxwell :) lodoss_elf@yahoo.com