AN: Well, they finally get to meet the little family Hiei put together. Long chapter I've ever written, just for you!
Something is not quite right…
Chapter 5: Twins (part 3)
'Isn't this Kairos' room?' Keiko thought to herself as Hiei opened the door to his bedroom and let everyone in.
The room was huge. It had lilac walls with a navy blue carpeted floor. There was Queen sized canopy bed in the far corner. To the right of it were two doors, most people correctly assumed these were dressing rooms. To the left of the bed was a large desk, covered in untidy papers. To the right of the door was a small kitchen-like set-up which had black crystal floor rather than carpet. In the vast open space of the room there were two couches and a coffee table. Across from the door there was a much abused, over-stuffed chair with a standing lamp next to it.
"Nice pad." Yusuke commented absently.
"Yup, everything one would need in an apartment all in the convenience of one over-sized bedroom." Kurama added.
"I live here." Hiei said simply. He motioned for everyone to take a seat on the couch.
"I believe you had the kitchen added on." Genkai said while looking at it.
"Yes, and it created a massive ordeal. All I wanted was something to cook my tea on in my personal time…." Hiei half-babbled.
"Wait! Kitchen! Are you telling me that we're about to eat your cooking?" Kuwabara was terrified.
"Yes, it's not that bad, or my wife would be cooking. It's not considered good taste to poison your friends right after you just saw them for the first time in twenty years." Hiei walked over to the kitchen and brought back some cups.
"Why don't you use your Jagan? Aren't you powerful enough to cook without your hands?" Kuwabara asked mockingly.
"Because some idiot," Hiei glanced at Kurama, "shinned enough light into to it to irritate it!"
"I'm sorry!" Kurama held up his arms in surrender.
"Wait! Do you mean that you would have otherwise?" Yusuke asked him in utter disbelief.
"Yes. And I would have been pretty damn subtitle about it too. After all it's the only way I can practice using my Yoki without freaking someone out." Hiei handed Keiko a glass as answered Yusuke's question.
"Sooo, where's this wife of yours?" Yusuke looked around. He leaned back and set his shoes on the coffee table.
"It was nice knowing you…." Hiei muttered absently.
"What?" Keiko asked, having heard him.
"Nothing!"
"Nothing?"
"Well, actually, my wife's gonna kill Yusuke for putting his shoes on the table, but that's just a minor detail, isn't it?" Yusuke took his feet off the table.
"My shoes never touched that table, right Kuwabara?" Yusuke turned to his oblivious friend.
"What?" Yusuke elbowed him in the side.
"Right Kuwabara?"
"Oh! Right…." Kuwabara didn't know what the hell was going on with that, but he just assumed that Yusuke would stop elbowing him if he said yes. During this time Hiei had ran over to the kitchen, grabbed a pitcher full of juice, and ran back. He began pouring glasses.
"Well, Hiei, since she doesn't appear to be around could you at least tell us her name?" Kurama looked up at his friend as he had his glass filled with the black juice.
"Is this stuff safe to drink?" Keiko eyed the glass full of black juice suspiciously. Hiei poured himself a glass and drank it.
"Do I appear to be having any problems?" He asked Keiko.
"No…."
"Then you can assume that it won't give you any problems ether." Hiei refilled his glass and turned to pour Kuwabara some.
"What is this stuff?" Kuwabara held up his glass of black juice.
"It's the juice from a Tapi Orange[1]. That was the fruit you had with your lunch." Hiei added the last bit so they would know what he was talking about. Kuwabara shrugged and took a sip.
"Wow! This stuff's great!" He commented. Hiei chuckled.
"It happens to be one of the fruits that children are ticked into eating and liking." Hiei explained.
"Are you avoiding answering the one question everyone's been asking?" Genkai gave Hiei a look.
"I just thought that could wait until she arrives…. What is taking her so long anyways?" Hiei thought out loud. "It's not like her to be this late…."
"Please tell us her name Hiei! It's gotten really hard to wait!" Botan was literally sitting on the edge of her seat. Hiei set the pitcher on the table and sat down next to Kurama.
"Well if you must know…" Hiei began absently playing with his wedding ring, which no-one had noticed he even had up until then, "her name is Kairos Skyeyes."
"What!?" Hiei was just about blown off the couch by the yell. Yusuke and Kuwabara gave Hiei the most intense look of disownment possible. Keiko and Botan looked freaked out. Kurama and Genkai sat back and waited for Hiei's logical explanation behind this.
"Blasphemy!" Botan gasped. Hiei stared at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What the hell is up with you?
"She said she was married to a guy name Etric!" Keiko yelled. Hiei burst out laughing at the miscommunication he had managed to stumble across.
"Hiei?" Genkai raised an eyebrow. Hiei managed to get control of himself.
"Etric is my public name. They can't say 'Hiei' here because they have no 'H' sound." Hiei took a few deep breaths to keep himself from laughing again. "She always calls me by my public name around officials, even if they happen to be old friends of mine."
"That does explain her accent…." Genkai remarked absently.
"Wait a minute! If you're Kairos' husband, then you're the father of her two children?" Kuwabara tied one and two together. Suddenly everyone was staring at Hiei.
"Yes, he is." Kairos said simply as she walked over, setting a bag down on the table. The little children behind her became startled and hide behind the couch, right behind Hiei. Hiei casually picked up one of his children by their shirt collar and pulled them around onto his lap.
"Oh look what I managed to catch…." Hiei said half-sarcastically as he held his squirming son in place.
"Hey! That's the kid from earlier!" Yusuke remarked. He was promptly bopped on the back of the head by Kairos.
"You lied!" She snapped in disgruntlement.
"How was I supposed to know that was your kid!?" Yusuke defended himself.
"His Jagan should have tipped you off.[2]" Hiei remarked. "Stop it now!" And the little boy squirmed harder.
"Perhaps he'd rather sit on Genkai's lap…." Kurama suggested jokingly. The boy stopped his squirming.
"Genkai?" The boy looked excited and surprised.
"I told you I was going to have my old friends come to diner tonight, this is not news!" Hiei bopped his son on the back of the head. Just then Hiei's daughter came out from behind the couch and shyly walked up to Keiko.
"It's a pleasure to meet you at last." She gave a little bow with a small smile.
"I'm Keiko, what's your name?" Keiko smiled at the polite little girl.
"Now why can't you be like that?" Hiei whispered to his son. Kurama snickered.
"Which one?" The girl wondered innocently.
"Tell her, both." Kairos confirmed for her.
"My public name is Olivia." Everyone nodded, understanding why she would need two names, like her father. "But my real name," she turned red and finished sheepishly, "is Keiko." The elder Keiko became surprised and looked at Hiei.
"I thought she should be named after one of the most respectable women I know." Hiei explained.
"Hey kid! What's your name?" Yusuke asked the boy sitting on Hiei's lap.
"My public name is Colin and my real name is Suichi!" With that he leaped unexpectedly out of Hiei's arms and landed on Kuwabara's lap. Suichi looked at Kuwabara.
"You're not ugly." Suichi remarked. Kurama looked at Hiei.
"I'm touched." Kurama remarked.
"Huh?" The little boy was confused. Kurama looked at with an expression that asked 'does he know?'. Hiei nodded.
"The human part of me is named Minamino Suichi." Kurama explained.
"Awesome!" The boy hopped off Kuwabara's lap and ran over to Yusuke. "Did you really believe Kuwabara had died when Tougro had attacked him? Daddy said you looked so depressed and your Reiki made everyone else as depressed as you. Is it true?" He was literally bouncing up and down. Yusuke sat there wide-eyed from over-exposure to the enthusiasm of little Suichi.
"Suichi, perhaps he needs a moment to breath; he has taken in a lot today." Hiei recommended as he pulled his son away, giving Yusuke a 'I'm sorry about all this' look. Suichi began to squirm in his father's arms with a vengeance.
"Hmm…. I would think that Hiei would teach his son how to get out of someone else's grasp…." Genkai commented with an evil twinkle in her eye. Hiei glared at her.
"Why would you think that Genkai?" Botan asked cluelessly.
"Ack!" Hiei cried as his son broke free. Suichi ran around the table, heightening the chance of knocking things over. Kairos picked up her boy who went limp.
"That's interesting…." Kurama remarked, observing Suichi's behavior. The little Keiko giggled.
"Don't you know anything? Woman are the rulers of the house!" She continued her uncontrollable giggling.
"I can't believe that! Not with someone like Hiei!" Yusuke remarked.
"Oh you can, you just need it translated into your type of terms." Kairos smiled.
"What do you mean by that?" Botan wondered.
"I'll translate." Hiei elected. "Yusuke, what hurts more? Getting slapped by Keiko or punched in the face by Kuwabara?"
"Keiko's slaps!" Yusuke gave him a look that said 'isn't that oblivious?'.
"Well if it's so oblivious then you can see why my son won't cause his mother any of the trouble he causes me!" Hiei glared at him.
"Non-Hiei phrase, yet a very Hiei look…." Kurama observed.
Kairos tapped Hiei on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. He looked her in the eye then shook his head.
"Later." He told her. Everyone stared at the two curiously. "I'll go make dinner now." Hiei said quickly as if that had been the true topic of their conversation, but that wasn't the case. Hiei picked up the bag Kairos had hauled in and began to walk over to the kitchen with it.
"Can I have a guarantee in writing that says eating your cooking won't kill me?" Kuwabara called over. Hiei spun around and snapped.
"Do you honestly think I'm trying to kill you!?"
"Yes!" Everyone responded.
"He's a better cook than me." Kairos commented. Everyone stared at her.
"I've had his cooking before and it was…. Let's just say I'd only eat it again if I had a death wish." Kurama said quickly.
"Daddy got formal lessons." Keiko explained as she sat down between Genkai and Botan.
Hiei began running about the kitchen taking out various pots, pans, and ingredients. He would set things on the stove while he would grind some herbs. Or he would be stirring the contents of a pot while frying something else on a burner. Well, Hiei was running about faster than the eye could trace and more often than not, doing two things at once.
"And the greatest part is that he does all the dishes afterwards!" Kairos said with a smile. She sat down next to Kurama.
"He does the dishes?" Genkai was stunned at this.
"Mm-hmm!" Suichi nodded vigorously.
"So Kairos, how long have the two of you been married?" Keiko was trying to make some simple conversation at this point.
"Fourteen years." She smiled and rubbed her son's head affectionately.
"I see…." Yusuke had a devilish look on his face. He opened his mouth to ask something very perverted, but his attention had a quick sift to the back of his head, where a pan of some sort had made a forceful contact with his skull.
"Don't you dare!!" Hiei bellowed from the kitchen. He went back to his cooking as if nothing had even happened.
"I think his Jagan stopped hurting…." Kurama sat there a bit wide-eyed at Yusuke. Actually everyone was a bit wide-eyed at Yusuke, who had swirly eyes. The pan that had been thrown levitated up and over to the kitchen.
"Me too." Botan remarked, a bit stunned.
"I've never seen him so vicious!" Kairos remarked.
"That's because he's never had a reason to protect you." Genkai explained.
"What?"
"The only weapon I've seen in the country is the sword at Hiei's side." Genkai began. "When I look at the Galen, they are not physically intimidating at all. Also, I've yet to see a guard around this castle. No-one around here wants to mess with you Kairos, you're a lot stronger than most of the young men![3]" Genkai pointed out.
Kairos was stunned. Hiei had told her time after time that she was one of the strongest people here. she thought he had meant that emotionally, or figuratively; but she never, ever believed he meant that physically as well. She looked at herself and then at the other women in the room. Keiko was nice and curvy, but she wasn't strong. Botan had a bit of muscle, but that was probably developed from running around after Yusuke as his assistant….
Now Genkai was strong. She was old, but she was one the fittest people Kairos had ever seen. but then again, Genkai did compete in the Dark Tournament on Team Urameshi. She won many battles, at her age. Thus explained her physical condition. Kairos wasn't as strong as Genkai, but she was a lot stronger than Botan.
'Hiei doesn't need to protect me from other Galen. But why did he hit Yusuke for my sake?' Kairos wondered.
: To protect you from his perverted mind. : Hiei answered her telepathically. Kairos remembered what Hiei had said about Yusuke: 'He's offensive and perverted.'. It sadly described Yusuke in a nut shell.
Suddenly everyone had a tray in their lap with a bowl of a purple stew, a glass of green juice, and a plate of some random meat substance. It smelled different but it was actually pleasant. Though no-one was particularly interested in eating it. In short: it looked too foreign. Hiei walked over with his tray hovering to his left and a tray of sliver wear in his hands.
He passed the utensils out to everyone. Kuwabara held the fork up and looked at it.
"What's this for?" He couldn't help but to ask.
"It's a fork, you stab it into your food to ether keep it in place or to pick it up." Kairos explained as Hiei handed her a set. "You something funny? Hiei asked me the same question, except he had a spoon!" Kurama and Keiko burst out laughing, knowing what a spoon was.
"Is this edible?" Genkai eyed the purple liquid like she would poison.
"Look, I'm not trying to kill you! This is an isolated land where there are rare plants and animals that don't live anywhere else, so the people use them for eating because they can't leave this place to get other ingredients. That's why it looks weird, but the tastes should be familiar. Besides this is my best dish!" Hiei gave them death glares.
The children were oblivious to their father's tirade and started eating their food. Yusuke looked at the children who seemed to be enjoying it, then at his own food. He did this a few times then he glanced at Hiei who was eating his portion while happily chatting with Kurama about baseball.
"So that's what he was doing!" Hiei remarked, then shoved a piece of the meet into his mouth. Yusuke turned to look at Kairos, who was talking to Botan and Keiko about dresses. Kairos would politely stick some food in her mouth while the other two exchanged their opinions about whatever part of the dress they where talking about. Hiei and his family were the only ones eating.
"Aw, screw it!" All eyes fell on Yusuke as he closed his eyes as he took a spoonful of soup and put it in his mouth. Hiei sat intently on the edge of his chair waiting for Yusuke's response. "If it's gonna kill me eating it; it was sure as hell worth it!" Yusuke began to eat like a mannerless pig.
Kairos was appalled by both his language and his manners. Hiei smiled at Yusuke's predictable behavior. The children stared at him for a moment then went back to their food as if nothing happened. Everyone else thought: 'Yusuke's outburst aside, the food is edible and tasty.' and went about consuming their dinner.
After everyone was done eating Hiei sent the dishes back to the kitchen, were they appeared to wash themselves. Kuwabara could barely sense that Hiei was manipulating his Yoki and he could not sense that he was using any to wash the dishes. He was right when he said was going to be subtitle. It was as if he wasn't even thinking about it. From the level Hiei was at, it took an obvious effort to move an object of small size and weight; now it was as if he wasn't even thinking about it.
"Hiei, how have you been training?" Kuwabara couldn't help but ask, even though Hiei was in mid-sentence while commenting on the Galen bureaucracy. Hiei turned and looked at him, his Jagan wasn't even glowing, but then, there was a sparkling white cloth over it….
"If you're talking about my telepathic abilities, I just do little everyday things with it while I'm physically do other things. And if you want to know about fighting abilities, that's what I do during the lunch hour." He turned back to Kurama and finished his comment.
But that was when Hiei remembered something.
"Yusuke! I need to talk to you!" Hiei called over and beckoned Yusuke. Yusuke was, a few moments later, standing behind the couch, looming over Hiei. Hiei signaled him to lean over. "Privately." He pointed to the door nearest the bed. Yusuke nodded.
The two men walked over and entered the room. It was an impressive sight. The far wall was filled with drawer upon drawer of clothes. The left and right walls were mirrors, angled perfectly so that one could see their backside and frontside at the same time. In the middle of the room there was a pillar with doors on all four sides (obviously the wardrobe) and to the left there was a little bench.
Snap!!
Yusuke's sixth sense was telling him that being shut in a room with Hiei was a bad thing. A very bad thing. Hiei had the world's most evil smirk on his face, something that he had never forgotten.
"Yusuke, you made a comment about my children that I'm not too fond of…." Hiei said this sweetly, his face now wearing a disturbing smile. Yusuke began to look about desperately for an exit. Hiei was between him and the only one, and Yusuke knew better than to try to go through him.
"W-when was t-that?" Yusuke was sweating bullets, knowing full-well when he had made the comment about how weird they looked. Hiei's face turned back to the smirk.
"You know, when a man starts stuttering and sweating profusely, that means that that person is scared." Yusuke opened his mouth to say something but was promptly silenced by Hiei's raised finger and advancement forward.
'I've heard this before, but not so intense….' Some remote part of Yusuke's mind thought.
"To a politician that is certain death for the one under control by fear-" Yusuke's mind interrupted Hiei.
'The classroom in Renkai! But why there?' Yusuke began to involuntarily back away. Hiei advanced.
"-And I am a politician. A very," step, "very," step, "very," step, "good politician." Hiei stopped advancing and stood up, putting space between himself and Yusuke. "Now, where do you stand?"
'The envoy classes! …Oh shit, I'm so dead….' Yusuke was crushed beneath Hiei's intimidating air.
"At death's door?" Yusuke stabbed in the dark. Hiei raised his eyebrows in mild surprise.
"You certainly got that right! Now you will earn my forgiveness…." Hiei gave Yusuke an unsettling smirk.
"Really?" Yusuke seemed to have forgotten the fix he was in.
THUAMP!!
Yusuke was on the ground, his eyes swirly and his cheek swelling.
"That felt good…." Hiei muttered absently as he left, examining his right fist, which had but moments ago been smashing into Yusuke's jaw.
After a while Yusuke came out of the dressing room and rejoined everyone with a swollen cheek. When Hiei was asked about it he looked away innocently.
'I wonder why….' Was all Kurama had to think on that matter.
The rest of the night passed with basic get-to-know-you conversation between everyone and Kairos and catching-up conversation between everyone and Hiei. The children sat there, ignored. And they quietly made comments about "the real thing" and "the stories". That was until Suichi cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention.
"Daddy, why don't you sing that song you sang to me earlier? Keiko wants to hear it." He requested.
"Ah! So the all-mighty music writer took a crack at lyrics! Let's see what kind of damage he did." Kuwabara taunted him. Hiei turned mildly red.
"You sing?" Genkai raised an eyebrow.
"Let's hear it, Hiei!" Yusuke and Kurama yelled. Keiko and Botan gave him looks that said they wanted to hear it, but didn't want to say anything.
"I don't-" Hiei began.
"You did?" Kairos' eyes lit up. "You're such a talented man!" She pretended as if he never sang around her, which he didn't, in public.
"I give up, you win." He raised his hands in surrender. "I'll sing it."
"Yay!" was the general response.
"Soft, white glow on your face, as we dance in the Crystal's embrace. The colors soft, and pictures blur, circles within circles; as the dance works miracles, we become something unreal.
"Under the night's warm cloak, the swinging clock's stoke. Midnight is tune-ly struck, dancers step beyond the world's muck. And so the circle spins 'round 'gain, as our souls melt into the dance by Crystal light.
"Old eyes watch youths circle 'round a peg, swirl of your skirt, swing of my leg. As the dance moves our bodies, emotions and thoughts become one; as the dancers run towards fun, weapons become decoration."
"Under the night's warm cloak, the swinging clock's stoke. Midnight is tune-ly struck, dancers step beyond the world's muck. And so the circle spins 'round 'gain, as our souls melt into the dance by Crystal light." He let the last note hang over the air as everyone sat quietly. It was impressive when Hiei sang for an audience.
"Wow…." Had escaped from Genkai's mouth. Hiei blushed.
"What the hell have you been smoking!? That was pretty, you don't do pretty!" Yusuke exploded.
"It came to me after waking up from a nightmare and being unable to sleep." Hiei explained. "I wasn't in the proper state of mind." Everyone nodded. Kairos stood up.
"I have something I'd like to share with everyone…."
[1]- A fruit native to Crystila. It's nutritious and tastes wonderful.
[2]- Hiei runs around with his Jagan covered, but nether of his children follow that example.
[3]- Because of the isolation the Galen have geographically and mentally, they are a surprisingly peaceful people. They have no weaponry because they have no war. Instead the Galen relieve their pent-up aggressions by yelling at one another when shopping, arguing when 'affection ally' chatting. They are also not particularly athletic.
AN: Another cliffhanger! I've gotten really good at these or something…. Review Responses:
Donamarine- Evilness is a big part of being an author! Learn it well young mantis!! (Have you ever noticed that they always use 'grasshopper'? I want to do something different!) I confess that the only reason why people can read my stuff is my spell check. So I'm sorry about those stupid errors, I normally look it over to attempt to get them, but I didn't do a really thorough job. I promise I won't do that again.
bakaonna2003- Hey! I do that all the time! I honestly don't mind as long as you use the same penname every time! And here's your beloved update!
KayHiei- Actually your little comment about that made me aware of the fact that Yusuke insulted them (and I'm the one who wrote it!). That whole punching in the dressing-room scene was your fault! Hope you liked it!
animefreak54- How could I not? Please don't send fuzzy bunnies at me, I'm already drowning in plot bunnies. Now if you sent some bunny-eating wolves….
SamiKismet- Ah yes, we are so very evil! -- points up -- See? Update!
MoonSilverEyes- Glad I can write for your enjoyment!
Bishounenlvr- Since you wrote two, I'll respond to them in the chapter order. Yeah, those are the ideas I get when I hang out with my perverted male friends for too long. And about those boxers, I as near as I can tell that never happened in the show, though if you want to use that in one of your fics, go right ahead! / Not just one, but two!! Actually they have a delayed reaction on that one…. You'll see.
Well, that warps up another chapter! I have a poll concerning this fic and you reviewers get to decide! Just type your voting letter at the beginning of your review.
Here's what you're voting on:
A- I write a small teaser for the next chapter at the end of every chapter.
B- I put 3 quotes from the next chapter at the end of every chapter.
C- I put 3 quotes from the next part/chapter at the end of every update.
D- I do absolutely nothing special and continue writing the fic as I always have been.
E- Something that I didn't mention above. It cannot be writing large teasers or teasers for the next part/chapter at the end of every update. (Here's my reasoning behind that: a- I'm too lazy to do that every update, b- I write sometimes parts that are barely two pages on my word processor, how am I supposed to write teasers for those?, c- I like to leave people hanging in odd ways)
Happy voting and reviewing!! R&R!!