~Easier To Run~
. . .
Chapter Six: Adjusting
. . .
"Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you?" Came the soft singing of the occupant of the guest room as she opened the door and stepped into the hall. With the door open, the radio could be heard playing in the next room. The door closed, silencing the music, as she continued to walk down the hall.
Kurama was just barely waking up when he saw somebody walk past his room, heading towards the stairs. He turned his head slightly so that he could read the clock on his bedside table: 6:05.
"Why can't I speak whenever I talk about--AAHHH!" A short scream cut the song short, followed by loud thumping noises and finally a crash. Kurama bolted out of bed and ran out of his room, flying around the corner and stopping at the top of the stairs. Mare, lying in a heap at the bottom in her comfy plaid pajamas, looked up at him and gave him an embarrassed grin.
"Good morning," she sang.
Kurama couldn't help but smile back. "Are you alright?"
She nodded. "Don't worry, it happens all the time. Did I wake you up?" She asked him as she stood up and brushed herself off. "I'm sorry."
"Do not apologize, I was already awake," he answered kindly.
"Oh, good," she said, relieved, as Kurama came down the stairs. "I swear, I'm the biggest klutz you'll ever meet. I'm not completely used to walking on two legs yet."
"I can understand that. Would you like something to eat?" He asked.
"Sure, thank you. Did I hear your mother leave a few minutes ago?"
"Yes. She had to be at work earlier than usual today," Kurama answered as he headed into the kitchen. "Do you like pancakes and eggs?"
Mare shrugged as she followed him into the room. "I have never had that, but I'm not picky. Anything will be just fine. Do you need some help?"
"No, but thank you for offering. If you like, you can take a shower while you're waiting." Kurama began opening cupboards and pulling out the ingredients he needed.
"Okay." Mare nodded. Kurama had shown her how to operate the shower the night before, and his mother had let her borrow some of her clothes until she could get some new ones of her own. Mare left the kitchen and made her way to the bathroom, but not before fetching a clean set of clothes from the guest bedroom. She found that she thoroughly enjoyed using the shower--the warm water was very soothing, and the sudsy soap was so much fun! She used the "Jalopeno Herbal Essence" shampoo, lathering her thick hair and rinsing it just like the instructions said.
Fifteen minutes later (for she took an extra few minutes to play with the soap some more--so interesting! As a horse, she never had use for such a thing!) Mare exited the bathroom, refreshed and feeling clean. She caught a whiff of something delicious coming from the kitchen, so she went to see if Kurama had finished preparing breakfast.
"There you are," he said when he saw her. The table was all set and the food was ready; in fact, he looked as though he had been waiting for her. Mare felt guilty until she noticed him looking at her with an amused expression on his face.
"What?" She wondered.
"You still look very wet."
"Oh, it's my hair," she said. "I tried to dry it off, but it's still quite damp."
He nodded. "Have a seat, I will be right back." He left the room, and Mare sat down on one of the chairs around the table. In the center of the table was a vase with a single rose placed in it. She wondered where he gotten it from, as it hadn't been there fifteen minutes ago. Beside that was a large plate of scrambled eggs and another full of golden brown, round, flat things that must have been the pancakes. The sight of it made her stomach growl, but she waited for him to come back before digging in.
Kurama returned holding a white bath towel. "Allow me to demonstrate a useful human trick." He then proceeded to wrap Mare's hair up with the towel, creating a turban on top of her head. "There you are," he said when he had finished.
"Wow, thanks," Mare said. "That helps."
"You're welcome." Kurama sat down on another chair and reached for a plate. "Take what you like here, there is plenty."
She laughed. "You just may regret those words, Kurama. After all, where do you think the phrase 'you eat like a horse' came from?"
. . .
Shortly after breakfast, Mare and Kurama left for school. It wasn't that far, so of course they walked. It didn't take long for Mare to realize that Kurama was quite popular with the female humans; they hadn't gotten to the end of the block before cries of "Hi Suichi!" and "Wait for me, Suichi!" were heard from nearly a dozen girls. Kurama nodded politely to them all, but kept walking. A few girls glared at Mare, and she began to feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Why are they looking at me like that?" She wondered. "Do they think I'm your girlfriend or something?"
"Maybe," Kurama admitted. He continued to walk at a brisk pace, Mare at his heels. She watched the five or six girls who were trying to keep up with "Suichi", talking and giggling amongst each other while they stole shy glances at him.
Suddenly she started laughing, understanding the situation. "Well, I see somebody's the 'pretty boy' of the school, huh?"
Kurama shook his head. "Believe me when I say that I would rather not be. It can get quite tiresome at times. Some of those girls can run for miles..." Mare thought she saw him cringe slightly at this, but it may have been her imagination.
"You speak from experience?" She asked him with a sly smirk.
He bowed his head. "Unfortunately, yes."
"Suichi!" A girl shrieked.
Kurama stopped and turned around to see who had called his name this time, and his eyes immediately widened. "Oh dear...
"What?" Mare looked back as well, and spotted a girl of about medium height wearing a revealing skirt and top sprinting her way towards Kurama, a large grin plastered on her face. Her long blond pigtails bounced on her shoulders as her sneakers pounded against the pavement. Mare looked back at Kurama, who was wearing an expression of slight aggravation. "Who is that?"
"Kera," he said with a sigh as the said girl closed the distance between them and practically threw herself onto him.
"Suichi! You, like, didn't wait for me this morning, you bad boy!" Kera said, pulling away from him to waggle her index finger in his face. With a smile and a squeal, she wrapped her thin arms around his neck and hugged him.
"Er...Kera, I--" Kurama began, rather flustered. He was too polite to shove her away from him, and he certainly didn't want to hurt her feelings. He gave her back an awkward pat. "Would you kindly remove your arms from around my neck?"
Kera gave him one more good squeeze, and then let go, placing her hands on her hips. "Suichi, you like, really should have called me and told me you were going to leave early today! It's a good thing I decided to, like, go over to your house this morning and see if you, like, wanted a fresh blueberry muffin, or I would have never seen you leave!" She said with a giggle, and poked him in the ribs.
Kurama flinched at her touch, as if he had been subject to this type of wrath several times before. "You see, Kera, I have--"
Kera waved a hand, and tossed her golden pigtails over her shoulders. "Silly, there's no need to apologize! Like, you know that I love you Suichi!"
Kurama's cheeks turned slightly pink, and he gave Mare a desperate 'help me please' look.
Mare had been standing a few feet away, watching the amusing one-sided love affair. Then Kera noticed her.
"And just who is THIS?" She asked, a nasty snobbish tone replacing the cutesy, giggly one she had been using on Kurama. She glared at Mare.
"Possessive are we?" Mare remained calm as she crossed her arms. This girl wasn't a threat to her, not even close. "Well you have nothing to worry about. I am not--nor do I have any interest in becoming--his girlfriend."
Kera looked quite unconvinced, even though Mare had denounced any feelings she might have had for Kurama very plainly. "You'd better, like, keep off my man, you bitch," she said in an icy tone as she narrowed her eyes at Mare. "He is MINE."
Mare glanced back at Kurama, who had his face in his hands, clearly embarrassed. She shook her head, a bit bewildered at the girl's stupidity. She had half a mind to grab Kurama and kiss him right then and there, just because she knew it would infuriate Kera, but normally she didn't sink that low. After all, it was only a human's ignorance that she was dealing with--an issue that could easily be resolved with words.
Mare laughed. She tried to stop herself, to hold it back, but she just couldn't. Kera's scowl deepened as she watched Mare laugh, a little more than confused. "You can have him, Kera," Mare said, once she regained her composure. "I told you I'm not interested, but you didn't seem to understand that. So if you want him, take him--however, I don't think you're going to get very far considering he doesn't seem to be interested in you at all."
Kera stood there for a few seconds, as if trying to figure out the meaning of Mare's words using her incompetent little brain. Finally she seemed to understand, because her cheeks flushed an angry red and she stomped a foot on the sidewalk. "You're saying he likes YOU better than ME?" She growled.
Mare instantly threw up her arms and turned away. "Aye, I've had enough of this. Kur--um, Suichi, we're going to be late for school...are you coming?"
"Yes, of course," he said with a quick nod, and the two of them continued their trek to the high school, leaving a completely dumbfounded Kera to wonder what exactly had gone on just then, and whether or not Mare Makino was jealous of her good looks.
She shook her head. "She is, like, totally jealous of me!" She decided. "She wants Suichi Minamino all to herself, well, she's got another thing coming! That hottie is all MINE, and that girl is, like, going to have to learn the hard way!" With that, she flounced off to stalk Kurama the rest of the way to school.
. . .
Mare struggled with the combination on her locker. Why wouldn't it come unlocked? She was doing everything right! It was beginning to get irritating, especially since third period was going to start at any second. Everyone else was in class, save for the few other people who were also having locker problems. She tried again. The lock still refused to cooperate. Sighing, Mare tried once more, but failed yet again.
"Stupid thing," she muttered under her breath. She let her head fall onto the locker door with a hollow 'thunk'. She and Kurama had made it the rest of the way to school with little more interruptions, and had gone their separate ways when the first period bell rang. They would meet up again during sixth period--the dreaded Driver Ed class. Kayko and Kurama had both convinced Mare to give driving another shot. She had flatly refused at first, but both of them, she had found, were quite persuasive. As a result, Mare agreed to step into the "death machine" and test her skills once more; something that she was quite nervous about.
With a groan of frustration, Mare lifted her head, raised a fist and pounded on the locker door. "Open!" She commanded, however it would not obey.
"Having trouble?" A voice came from behind her. Mare turned her head to look at the owner of the voice--a tall guy with dark eyes and chocolate-brown hair. He smiled at her, revealing bright white, straight teeth and a dimple in his left cheek. Mare sighed and nodded. "Yes, I can't open this locker."
"Well, I'd be happy to help out," he said. "If you don't mind, what's your locker combination?"
"11-34-23," she answered without hesitation. She didn't care if anyone knew her locker combination, since the only things that she kept inside it were school books--and she would question the sanity of anyone who would want to steal those.
The young man set to work on the combination, and seconds later the door popped open. He stood back and grinned at Mare. "There you are. You were probably turning it the wrong way on that last number."
Mare smiled her appreciation. "Thank you very much!"
"Hey, no problem at all. I don't think I've seen you around here before, are you new?" He asked as Mare collected her books and placed them into her backpack.
"Yes," she answered, shutting the locker door and zipping up the backpack. She picked it up and heaved it onto her shoulder without much effort. "My name's Mare Makino. It's my third day here."
"Oh yeah?" He nodded. "I'm Nao Okuni. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand to shake, and Mare took it. "Do you like it here so far?"
Mare nodded as they let go of each other's hands. "It's alright...definitely something to get used to, but I've survived this long." She laughed and he smiled again.
"Well, what class are you headed to now?" He wondered as the third period bell went off.
"Chemistry," she answered.
Nao's cheeks went a little pink as he asked, "Would you mind if I walked with you? My class is right next to yours."
Mare shrugged. "Sure, I don't see why not."
"Great," he said, giving her another grin. The two of them walked towards the Chemistry classroom together, just as somebody else entered the hallway...
Kera watched them from the corner she stood in as they disappeared up the stairs. "So," she fumed, "this girl who claims to have my Suichi's love is off flirting with other guys, like, the second he leaves her! How totally rude! Suichi, like, deserves much better than THAT bitch. I'll totally show her who's boss! How dare she try to break my hottie's heart!" She tossed her head and cackled. "She'll be sorry she ever went after my man!"
Meanwhile, Nao and Mare had successfully made it up the stairs to the Chemistry classroom, and Mare mentally congratulated herself for not tripping even once that time.
"Well, this is where we must part ways," she said when they came to a stop outside the classroom door, exaggerating the drama for humorous purposes. She was hoping to have made a new friend--Nao seemed like a very nice person that she might like to get to know.
"Yeah," Nao nodded. "I hope I'll see you around, Mare." He blushed as he said her name, and turned to make his way down the hall to his own class.
"Sure! I'll see you later, Nao," Mare waved goodbye as she opened the classroom door and stepped inside.
Third period seemed to drag on forever. It wasn't because Mare was no good at Chemistry--in fact, she was, and had quickly become the top student in the class--but she was just dreading her Driver Ed class. She didn't want a repeat of the day before, and she didn't particularly like Mr. Broderick very much. She couldn't seem to do anything right in his eyes. During third period, Mare paid little attention to what she was doing and still somehow managed to receive an "A" for the day, which made her lab partner, a black-haired girl who either didn't seem to understand or refused to accept the concept of homework, quite happy. Eventually the bell did ring, and Mare brightened up a bit--she had fourth period with Kayko and Yusuke, something that made enduring the art class a little easier.
She arrived at the class room on time, and went inside, immediately spotting Kayko sitting at the regular table. Yusuke was absent from the room, and from what Mare knew about him, would probably either be late or not show up at all.
Kayko looked up when she heard somebody approach their table. "Mare, hi!" She jumped to her feet and embraced Mare in a hug. "I can't believe you came to school today! Yusuke said you were staying with Kurama...oh, I'm so sorry about your house!"
Mare smiled and hugged her back. "It's okay now. My family is alright."
"I'm so glad to hear that!" Kayko stepped back and looked up at her. "Listen, there was something I wanted to talk to you about...I mean, Yusuke mentioned something last night about you, and I've been wondering about it, you know, whether it was true or not..."
Mare nodded. "I know what this is about. And whatever you heard about me is probably true, but this is neither the time nor the place to be talking about it."
"Yes, I understand," Kayko said. "But...just so we're clear, you're saying that you ARE a--" she dropped her voice to a barely audible whisper, "demon?"
Mare grinned slightly and nodded her head. "Yep. ...Um...does that bother you?"
"Not at all," Kayko said. "I'm kind of used to hanging around with..." She trailed off, letting her facial expression finish the sentence for her.
"Our kind?" Mare laughed. "I'm glad you're not all freaked out about it. I'd hate to lose such a good friend."
Kayko beamed in response to the compliment. "Me too." Just then the bell rang, and all the students scrambled to their seats. Mare and Kayko sat down at their table, which was occupied by about three other teenagers and would have seated Yusuke as well, had he been present.
"Looks like Yusuke decided to skip class again," Kayko sighed. "I wonder if he even came to school at all today?"
One of the boys who sat at their table looked over to Kayko and gave her a sympathetic look. "I would come to school every day just to see MY girlfriend," he commented, and Kayko gave him a small smile.
Mare poked her and raised her eyebrows. {An admirer?} She telepathically teased. Kayko looked very surprised to hear Mare's voice inside her head, but immediately shook it off moments afterward. Seeing a flicker of curiosity in her eyes, Mare decided to say something more. {My telepathy is particularly sensitive, Kayko. You can talk back to me, if your thoughts are directed towards me.}
Kayko smiled and closed her eyes. A few seconds later, Mare heard a small, uncertain voice say {Like this?}
{You got it,} Mare answered. {Hey, how much did Yusuke tell you?} She asked as the teacher proceeded to hand out large pieces of art board.
{Well...he said that you were the horse that Yukina and I saw run by...and for a long time you used to work for another demon because your sister was held prisoner or something. You worked as an assassin and after 200 years you finally escaped when your sister was killed. Now you just want to live a normal life...is that right?}
Mare nodded. {Yeah, that's basically it. The story is a lot longer, but that's a good way to summarize it.}
{It sounds so sad...} Kayko took a sheet of the paper the teacher was passing out, and handed one to Mare as well.
{It is.}
The two of them were silent for a few minutes as they began sketching on the papers they had recieved. Finally Kayko asked, {You really loved your sister?}
{Yes. She was my best friend, and I think about her every day.}
{Was she as good of a person as you?}
Mare thought about this for a while before answering, {She was better.} She sent an image of Dagni to Kayko; a beautiful mocha-colored horse with a deep blue mane and tail, and intense maroon eyes. There was a calm, peaceful demeanor about her--yet in her eyes you saw a fire that could never be put out. Power, determination. The eyes of a very headstrong individual with a passion for life that had lasted until her death.
{My gosh, she's so pretty,} Kayko commented.
{She was, yes.}
{It must have been so hard for you, after she died.}
{It was the hardest thing I've ever had to overcome, that's for sure,} Mare agreed. {And I'm still trying to overcome it.}
. . .
AN: And I finally decide to get off my arse and update! Amazering, no da? Hehehe. I'm thinking that this won't be a romantical story after all...I'm thinking that Teilen and Hiei will just be friends. Something about Hiei/oc stories that I just dun like, I suppose. However...KURAMA/oc is an entirely different story... *cackles* ^^;; Tune in next time for the fantastical trip to the lunchroom and some other stuff, 'kay? Plus we take a look at whatever happened to Teilen and Hiei...maybe they're murdering each other -_-;; Anywayz, review please!
