Chapter 21: Feelings Unmasked

Amaranta sat as Kurama slowly and carefully bandaged her finger. She didn't think it was a big deal, only a small cut, but Kurama insisted it should be attended to. "I feel I should be apologizing for Hiei running out on you," Kurama said, concentrating on binding her finger, "but you know how he is."

Amaranta nodded and looked down. "Why did he do that?" she asked lightly.

"Well I believe he must have been extremely embarrassed. As you can guess, Hiei doesn't get embarrassed often. So the only way to deal with it must have been to run out." Kurama finished with the bandaging process. "There. All done." He turned away to put the supplies he used back into their set places.

"No," she replied quietly. "Not that." Kurama stopped and Amaranta looked slowly up at his back. She thought she already knew the answer to this question.

"Well I would have assumed it might already be somewhat apparent, but then again we are talking about Hiei here. He isn't good at expressing his feelings that don't have to do with hate or anger."

Kurama sighed and turned slowly around to face the demon.

"He likes you, that's why," he answered, a pang of sadness seeming to glint in his eyes and hover in his voice.

Amaranta opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Kurama. "And he isn't the only one," he said, looking down at the ground. He was relieved that Botan and Yukina were still in the kitchen so they couldn't witness his pathetic display.

"But . . ." Amaranta couldn't say anything else. She didn't know what to say.

"I know you probably don't care and have no idea to react since your powers and just the type of demon you are don't allow you to feel these things," he said quickly. "I just thought it might be better to let you know then to just keep it from you." Kurama looked at her and gave a weak smile.

She looked him right in the eye, making him take a step back. "It seems Hiei isn't the only one who can mask his feelings, though. You seemed to do a pretty good job yourself."

Kurama gathered himself back up a little. "Well when I realized Hiei liked you, I knew that with his determination it would only lead to a conflict should we both unmask our feelings. So, I kept them inside until now." He paused. "It seems a trivial thing to fight over, no offense."

"None taken." Amaranta slowly got up then and walked out of the room, leaving Kurama alone to think about what consequences could result from the information he just spilled to her.