DMG: Sugoi! Nice response to the last chappie, ne? Just the usual, I don't own anything except my geometry homework, but you can have that if you want to. *holds book up hopefully* No? Bummer. *throws it away.* Oh well! Hey, IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!! Well, only flurries, but still, ^_^!
kisa(): No, not in THIS story. But if you want someone for Kurama, please check out my other fic, (actually it's the sequel to this one) Aspen Rea. I'm glad you like Kai/Hiei. Arigato!
asian princess 61(): hehe! Yes, it wasn't nice of Yusuke and Kuwabara, that it was not. But it was pretty fun to write! ^_^ Thanx!
Chihiro(): 0.o? NO! The rating will NOT go up on the story! *yelps and blushes* *coughs* Yeah, I won't write anything that will make the rating go up… but, I am going by the rating where I live, which is, well, a lot of stuff fits under that rating. 0_o Last chappie is about the closest I get to citrus/lime, though. Thanks for reviewing my humble little story! ^^
Toxic Tears1: Yes! Fluff! Fluff is GOOD! I like fluff. I will write more, hopefully some in every chapter. But not TOO much. I wouldn't want you readers to get smothered. Thank you!
Raine Takanaka: Thanks for reviewing! ^_^
Kaida: I'm so flattered! And here at home they say I don't have a sense of humor… Thanks for the review!
Miss Anime Luver: Here it is! Hope it hasn't been too long… I made you laugh? That's great! Thanks for pressing the pretty little button and telling me! ^-^
YaJiRuShi: Yes, hopefully more H/K fluff from here on in! *throws confetti* Thanks!
kay-chan(): Hehe! I'm glad you like! Oh yes! I had LOTS of fun writing that scene! ^_~ Thanks for reviewing!
Midnightdream51: No, don't worry, I won't forget them! They just don't really fit at this point. And I know it's been more on the pointless humor side than anything lately; that's because I've been stuck at home with mono for a month now, so the only place I get to be hyper is on the keyboard! *coughs* Not that I'm making excuses or anything. Don't worry; (hopefully) deep stuff will be coming soon!
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"Sooo…"
Kai and Hiei were utterly bored. Well, actually, Kai was bored and Hiei was trying to ignore her inane ramblings.
Even someone who entered the room at the moment would have become bored out of their sanity just looking at them. Kai was sprawled with one leg over the arm of her smallest couch next to the windowsill, tracing lines in the air with her finger. Hiei was sitting in the windowsill, staring out blankly over the dismal view. It was not raining, and the sun was definitely not shining. A hazy gray glare seemed to hang like a dense cloud.
"Typical Makai day, ne?" Kai drawled, still tracing invisible patters.
"Hn."
"What do you want to do?"
"…"
"Fine. Be that way."
A pillow came sailing over from the couch and whacked Hiei in the back of the head. He didn't move.
"Stop being boring."
"Hn."
"I think you're just trying to annoy me. Or is the only word in your vocabulary really, 'hn'?"
"Took you long enough, onna."
She rolled her eyes. They lapsed into blessed silence for a while.
(One hour later.)
"What do you want to do?"
"What did you do when you lived alone?"
The cat youkai shrugged. "Whatever I felt like…"
Hiei sweatdropped. "…"
"Hey! We could… nah, that's no fun… or we could… no, we did that yesterday… What did you do when the detectives weren't around?" Kai rolled over to face the fire demon, who was still sitting in the windowsill.
"… I sat in a tree."
Kai face faulted. "That's IT?!" she exploded. "You're even more boring than I am!"
"Do you have a better suggestion, onna?"
"…Don't call me that!"
"Then I'm leaving."
"Where are you going?!" Her eyes got very big as she leapt off the couch.
"To train," he said simply.
"Oh… Would you mind if I went with you?" she asked, her green eyes hopeful. Hiei really was stronger than her, and if he thought she was getting in the way…
"Iie," he said, and headed out the door. "Do you know any good clearings?"
"Actually, I know several. But we can go to the closest one." She took a dulled practice katana from a lesser rack on her wall and threw another to Hiei. "I don't know what you usually train with, but this will do."
Hiei and Kai stood poised across the clearing from each other with their hands in a ready stance at the sword hilts. A drop of dew slipped off the petals of a Makai flower.
(A/N: Think Kenshin's fight with Soujiro in RK)
Their katana connected with a metallic 'ping' and deflected each other. By the time the drop hit the springy forest floor, the two youkai were kneeling on opposite sides of the clearing, inspecting their weapons.
Kai watched the light reflect her katana's cutting edge with bated breath. It was whole.
Hiei feigned disinterest as the sunlight flashed on his blade. There were no cracks. He heard Kai's released breath.
(A/N: Just to say, I drew heavily from Rurouni Kenshin for this. I think the battou-jutsu is really cool.)
They whipped around and charged in for another attack. This time their hilts locked in a body-to-body stance. Kai had the clear disadvantage in this position because she was physically smaller. She broke away and rolled, breathing heavily.
Hiei was privately impressed at how long Kai had been able to hold him off. She was stronger than she appeared at first glance.
Kai wiped a small bead of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. She grinned and flew at him again.
The sharp clashes of metal on metal rang through the still Makai air, causing several birds to take to the skies in alarm. Trees crashed to the ground in a ring around the 'battlefield,' accidentally sliced by the downward sweep of a sword or felled by the shockwaves of ki emanating from the ferocity of the mock battle.
The two youkai skidded backwards, creating deep furrows in the soil. With a yell, Hiei initiated the final attack. Both he and Kai had excellent stamina, but the strain from fighting all-out for so long was beginning to tell. They were bleeding from many minor cuts and bruises, though if they had been using sharp katana the story would be much different.
Kai brought her sword up to defend Hiei's oncoming blow. She gritted her teeth with determination, gleaming fangs drawing crimson blood to stain her pale lips. She pushed him back.
Hiei was not about to give up. He clenched his jaws and shoved more power down onto the neko's katana.
It snapped cleanly down the center. The tip flew over his shoulder and buried itself in the trunk of a tree.
"Shit," Kai muttered. "You win. Again." Still holding the hilt of the broken katana in her left hand, she wiped the blood away from her mouth with her free right.
(A/N: Did I forget to mention that Kai is left-handed? I did, didn't I? *looks through other chapters* Shit. Oh well, you know now.)
"You've gotten better," Hiei observed.
"What?"
"I said, you've gotten better," he said calmly. There's nothing like a heated sparring match to take your mind off stress, after all.
She snorted. "That's what I get from watching you guys fight, I guess. I couldn't even do that much the first time I fought you."
"That's true," he agreed. "You were rather pathetic then."
"HEY!"
"It's the truth."
"I know it's the truth, baka. But you're supposed to make believe it isn't."
He looked at her from the corners of his adorable almond-shaped eyes. "Why would I do that?"
She smiled slightly at him. It was really hard to stay angry at someone who had eyes like that. His eyes were kind of…innocent…in a way. Hmmm…
"Nevermind," she said aloud.
'Women are strange,' he thought. 'Especially crazy cats.'
'Adorable or not, I'm going to beat him someday…'
Kai woke from a catnap about an hour later. Blinking to clear her eyes, she noticed Hiei sitting a short ways off, obviously brooding over something. She suppressed a groan as she stretched her tight muscles. She was definitely going to feel this tomorrow. Hiei still hadn't acknowledged her. Maybe he was so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn't notice her ki, which was by now familiar.
Grinning evilly, she sunk into her true cat form.
Hiei turned sharply when he felt a warm weight spring onto his back. It was growling… playfully? Then he noticed the ki. It was Kai's, though considerably lower than he was used to.
"Get off me," he growled. Then he was aware of a purring close to his ear. She had her baka tails wrapped around his neck!
She jumped off and regarded him with a tilted expression.
He had never seen her full cat form before. Her coat was a deep, dark, reddish color, that reminded him a little of blood. Her ears were tipped in black and her face had a mask-like look, with black patches covering her eyes, which were mostly amber shot with green. Her paws were black, with stripes on her legs. The tips of her two tails were also black, like they had been dipped in ink. He knew why she was so small in her human form now. In her demon form, she was no larger than a house cat.
In the blink of an eye, the humanoid Kai sat cross-legged in front of him. "Hello? Is anyone there?" She raised a hand to swat his face.
He caught her hand.
"Just checking," she grinned. Kai stretched. "There's a real nice hot spring a few miles from here. I'm going. You can come, if you want."
A tiny, almost undetectable blush crept up his face at the thought. "No. You go."
"Suit yourself. Oh, and thanks for watching me while I slept."
"I wasn't watching you," he said indifferently.
"Of course not."
Kai carefully placed her dry clothes and katana on a nearby easy-to-reach rock and gently slid into the welcoming steamy water of the hot spring. Nobody bothered her here; it was her favorite spot to sit and think. Kai didn't even think anyone beside herself knew the location of this particular spring. It was all hers to share with whom she will.
The steaming heat always seemed to have a calming effect on her mind, invoking a thoughtful, pensive state. She'd been doing a lot more thinking than she was used to these days, it seemed. The youkai sighed. She knew why, too. All her musings were somehow connected to that mysterious fire demon, Hiei Jaganshi. He was so… distant, but not in the way that Kurama was distant… he had grown without family, without knowledge of love… The Koorime weren't to blame, she supposed, nor was it any fault of Hiei's that he was the Forbidden Child, born of an unknown fire demon…
Yukina was all he had left. And she didn't know it. Hiei still refused to tell her, thinking himself unworthy of her love. Yukina abhorred killing, of all kinds. He was guilty of murder, theft, and probably of violating most other Makai laws. (Not that there were many.) A felon. That's how he saw himself, nothing more.
They were so different, she mused, he and she. He had been cast away and unwanted by the Ice Maidens, she had set off away of her own free will. She didn't really understand his pain, had not experienced it herself. She had no right to try to comfort him…
Oh, but how she wanted to! To tell him, to make him believe, that he was more than he thought… It suddenly occurred to Kai that she had never seen Hiei smile, truly smile. Her heart set in determination at this thought. She would help him smile, someday…
She sank deeper into the water with a heavy sigh. It seemed so hopeless sometimes. With a soft gasp she submerged her head completely in the steamy spring.
Shaking the wet droplets from her long hair, she let out a deep sigh. She wasn't really cut out for this kind of thinking…
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DMG: Gomen! Gomen nasai! I was on vacation for a while, and then I went back to school after a month or two, and I am completely swamped with homework! Besides, I'm not in the mood for deep thinking, which is why this chapter is shorter and not as good as the others. Once again, gomen ne!
PLOT in the next chapter! YAY!! Isn't that good? Well, okay, so it's not much of a plot, but storylines have never been my forte anyway. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but don't expect too much! *grumbles under breath about stupid make up tests and Renaissance projects*
