Okay, time for the next installment! *screams excitedly* This is the special chapter that was supposed to have been posted Monday, but I discovered that I don't have school on Monday, so I sorta crapped out of luck there. Sorry, people!
Chapter Eight: Her Fears and Family Feud
He awoke and saw the most entrancing and lovely sight in his life.
Mychela was lying beside him, hair tousled, eyes gently closed, worry lines erased from her face.
There was a knock at the door.
He sent out a tendril of thought, trying to identify the person. He managed to discover that the person was female and human before the worst possible scenario came true.
"Cover up, mes amies!" Grace shouted, bursting in. Immediately, she took in the conditions of the room and grinned.
She is not Venezuelan. I can tell that much. What is she? Kurama thought as she gave a sophisticated Gallic shrug as if seeing her best friend in bed with a demon (especially an obviously naked demon) was no more of a concern than a CD breaking.
"Ah, Kurama, we've been scheduled for a fight today. You might want to get Mychela, lazy bum, out of bed. Even though I am sure you would prefer it otherwise."
Eyes wide, Kurama watched as the girl left.
Youko, though, was chuckling. Okay, that is one cool chick. I doubt she'll talk. She's Mychela's friend.
Kurama rolled his eyes. That blasted girl didn't even give him enough time to stop her or identify her.
Mychela stirred in his embrace. She popped her neck and opened her eyes.
"Konnichiwa, koishii," he greeted when her eyes met his. Her eyes widened and she pinched herself.
Not dreaming. Wow, she thought.
"Good morning, love."
He knows I love him. He'd never take advantage of that. He cares about me, she realized, remembering bits and pieces of the night before.
"What's wrong?" she queried, once she saw the worried expression on his face.
"We have another fight today."
She cursed, quite inventively. Especially when it came to telling the Committee members where to shove theirs.
"Sakyo's a Committee member," he told her.
"Oh, I thought he was. I wasn't cursing him, though. He's cool."
Kurama felt an inexplicit flash of rage wash over Youko. :What's wrong?:
Nothing. the demon snapped. Then, gentler, I'd much rather spend the day here. Like this.
:You and me both.:
-x-
Another easy team, this time from the koorime regions of the Makai. Hiei kicked most of them from one end of the ring to the other. He did allow Mychela one good fight, though.
Hiei and Kurama had left early, being mysterious, as usual.
Though Kurama was a lot less enigmatic now than he had been yesterday.
"You haven't helped her at all, kitsune! Any demon with a half decent sense of smell will smell you all over her!" She heard Hiei's yelling half-way down the hall of the suite that Team Urameshi was staying in. She stopped and listened.
She heard Kurama reply, but couldn't make out the words. The tone, though, was placating.
"I know! That's what's wrong!"
Another placating reply. It seemed to make Hiei angrier.
"Shimatta, kitsune! You're more of an idiot than our missing baka!" Hiei proclaimed, storming from the room. He glared at her and whispered, "If he gets hurt because of you, rest assured that I will kill you, hybrid or not."
He left.
She looked at Kurama, knowing that he didn't know she was there. He was troubled and it was her fault.
She ran.
"MYCHELA!" he cried, hearing the sound of her footsteps. She was running away. Immediately, he grabbed his coat, slipped it on, and snatched up hers.
-x-
She reached the ocean, as turbulent as her emotions. Her ningen grandmother had taken her to the beach several times, pointing out the tide pools.
"Little worlds of sex, politics, and scandal. Often, they make more sense than the big world. Our world. They have their own rules, laws, and codes," she had said often.
She sat beside one and watched it, captivated by it.
Kurama, her aisuru, was endangered because of her.
She transformed and wondered if the cobra poison that was a part of her could work on her, ending Kurama's danger.
"Mychela!" she heard Kurama call, sounding panicked.
"Over here," she whispered.
Immediately, he was beside her, covering her shoulders with her coat. Then, he sat on the rock and pulled her hands into his left hand, making her feel small and delicate.
"What's wrong?"
He knew that she was afraid. He just didn't know of what.
He slid his hands down to the itchy place where her wings began. Kuroune's wing joint had always itched. She sighed, leaning into the scratching.
"Scared."
"Of what?"
Everything. The feelings you've awakened in me. Feelings I thought I didn't possess. Your power over me. The power you possess to hurt me.
"Ah."
She looked at him in concern, knowing she hadn't spoken aloud, nor had she lowered her mental shields. The carress on her itchy wing joint stopped and she glared at him.
"You're scared of being emotionally hurt. Physical pain doesn't bother you, but you can't stand betrayal."
She sighed. Her silence had spoken for her. "That's the gist of it."
"Have I ever given you reason to fear me?
Her mood abruptly switched from gloomy to playful. "Actually, yes. On two occasions."
He looked down at her, startled. "When?"
"One, the first day we met." She saw his disbelieving look. "You wake up with a stranger's hand over your mouth! Two, the day you followed me to the ridge. I didn't know who was there or if I was in any kind of danger."
"Both of those were accidental. I never meant to scare you. But besides those?"
She shook her head, hair flying.
"Do you think that I would ever deliberately harm you, emotionally or physically?"
No, but you are. You're ripping something out of me, my heart, that I can't afford to lose if I'm going to somehow manage to walk away from this tournament whole.
She shook her head again.
"Take this walk with me. We may not go at the same pace or choose the same path, but we have the same destination." He held out his hand.
She took it, nodding. She knew that she would never have the strength to deny him anything. He was growing to be a disturbingly essential part of her life.
My immortal, she thought, realizing that she had started falling for him the moment she had seen him.
"Why were you and Hiei fighting?"
"He and I have a differing point of view."
"On what?"
Oh, she was like a dog with a bone in it's mouth. She wasn't going to let go.
"Our relationship."
She pulled away. "I don't want to come between the two of you. You're such good friends. I don't want to force you into a position where you would have to choose-"
He interrupted. "-the two of you?"
She nodded.
"Don't worry," he said, squeezing her delicate hand. "If it comes to that, you are my choice. Hiei can either accept it or go away. Aishiteru."
Her eyes watered, though he had said the same to her last night. "Aishiteru, Kurama."
He pulled her close again and she was content to sit on 'their' rock on the beach, ocean spray soaking the both of them, and be held.
-x-
He was highly pleased.
Team Urameshi was about to fight his team, Team Crimson.
He handed the captain, a 'human' boy named Urameshi Yuusuke a list of whom was fighting who.
Kurama against Naoru, who would probably walk away missing a limb. Yuusuke against Jail, which would result in a tie. Hiei would fight Seirra and Arelia would battle Rocky.
However, he would fight Mychela. If she were a truly worthy heir to the Rolle Kingdom, she would kill him, efficiently handing herself the crown.
Urameshi nodded and handed the sheet to Juri.
He walked off the platform and Naoru came to him. "Lord Karei, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"She is my daughter. It is time."
-x-
Yuusuke approached them.
"Mychela, you're up against the team captain, a guy named Karei, so you fight last. Normal fight rules. Kill, maim, disable, so long as they're down for ten counts."
Everyone nodded.
-x-
Kurama and Hiei won flat out. Both opponents managed, by some miracle, to walk away from the fight. Yuusuke, with his hard head, was able to tie with Jail. Arelia had, against her will, killed Rocky due to his threat against her life, but brought him back because she was gracious and kind.
Kurama had held her for the last three matches. Now, she ran a hand through his hair, nicking several seeds.
Two Rose Whips, one Death Plant, and one of her favorites: the Native's Paintbrush.
Kurama had developed this, with her help, from an old hybrid that he had kept at his hide-out from his Youko days. Native's Paintbrush was ridiculously simple. All one had to do was get close enough to swipe at their opponent. Native's Paintbrush poisoned them to the point they fell out in less than a minute.
All one had to worry about was that minute. The counter effect to the Native's Paintbrush was that it gave the victim super-strength for that minute.
Right, Mychela. What do you do now? You don't need to worry about that weapon for the moment. Dual Rose Whips until you get close enough to use the Native's Paintbrush, an experimental weapon? What are you going to do?!
-Good luck, koi,- she heard Kurama say. -You will win. You are more than capable. That is your advantage. You are of the Forbidden Lineage.-
She glared back at him and sent, -I didn't need to be reminded of that.-
-Sorry?-
She rolled her eyes, knowing she couldn't stay mad at him. If she did, who would rub her itchy joint?
-Excellent reason to forgive me,- he replied. -That joint is highly sensitive.-
-Oh, shut it.-
Popping in her headphones, she decided that she would toy with Karei before killing him. He rubbed something in her the wrong way. She wouldn't dispute that he was evil.
She transformed.
"Good, my daughter," said Karei. "My beloved daughter."
-x-
Oooh, Mychela's daddy's here! Uh oh! Plus, it gets better in Chapter Nine: Reasons for Hatred and Abandonment