Disclaimer: The apocalypse will occur before I ever manage to own Yu Yu
Hakusho.
Quote of the Week: "You have less common sense then God gives a retarded clam." -Mr.V (I miss school...)
KKC: Well, to all those who were wondering whatever happened to our favorite samurai, he's... well, he's alive for starters... ::looks over at Shishiwakamaru:: uh... yep, he's alive...
Shishi: ::sitting over by flower garden, with an all-too-honest look on his face, his pink eyes sparkling brightly:: Oh, how fortunate am I, to witness such a show of beauty, where I am naught but a lowly being whom does not deserve to see this day... :: ...and so he continues... ::
Touya: ::sighs and shakes head:: How many times have I told you not to toy with the emotional stability of others?
KKC: Oh, go back to fighting your porch. -.-
Touya: ::grumbles, but leaves::
KKC: On to the chapter!
Note: Is it just me, or has FF.net been screwing up the spacing lately? I checked last chapter, and where I had started a new section (where I skip about 3 lines to signify it), there was only one space. Sorry if anyone got confused about that, or when the asterisks were cut out for some reason. Until I find out about that asterisk problem, I'm using a different symbol.
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Peace... it was all he asked for at this time of the day. He was up in a tree, as usual, comfortably splayed out in its ancient branches, the shade providing the prefect temperature for a noonday nap. Of course, only a few months ago Hiei would have chided himself for letting his guard down, but now was one of those few times where the world was at rest and everything slowed down to a crawl - even him.
A bird hopped from twig to twig above him, chirping and singing, then suddenly stopped for a second; at that time the Jaganshi felt something warm and liquid land on his face. Brushing it off with his wrapped right arm, he gritted his teeth and focused his power upon the little chickadee above him. There was one last squawk from the tiny bird, and then feathers fluttered down around him, charred black.
Bye bye, birdie.
"Shorty? What are you doing out here?" The fire demon sighed, then sat up to identify just who had dared interfere in his nap. It was Kuwabara, much to his displeasure, and the demon saw a familiar grinning skull just a few feet behind the orange-haired teen. "Well, if it isn't Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum," he drawled, too lazy to get up and mouth off to Kuwabara properly. "If you don't have anything better to do than stare at me like the complete idiot you are, why don't you go find Kurama for me and tell him I'll be a bit late coming back." The three-eyed demon smirked in satisfaction as Kuwabara tried to find a good comeback, and disappeared from view.
Green eyes stared up at the seemingly harmless object that bobbed in the water, whickers twitched, and a black tail slowly waved in the air. Kyuro cocked a head at the egg, and turned back to the little bird that was perched on a food dish that was well above his reach. "Are you sure that it's starting to hatch?" The kitten-like familiar cringed at Salvatore's shrill explanation that, yes, he was sure, and the cat had better get his head out of his rear and look closer.
Well, the above was a rough translation, since what the little lovebird had actually said was much, much, more degrading and descriptive.
"Fine, featherbrains! Just shut up so I can get this done with." Kyuro sniffed at the parrot, and jumped up on Lyra's bed, then leaned forwards, his nose nearly touching the glass. His eyes widened, the pupils becoming mere slits in the bright sunlight, and there was a white gleam as his mouth opened in astonishment, showing off his particularly sharp fangs. "Whoa, Feathers... I can't believe it. The egg, there's... there's..." Salvatore fluffed his feathers, and appeared to be smiling in satisfaction (if that was even possible, considering he had a beak).
"There's nothing wrong with it." The cat replied flatly, narrowing his eyes and baring his teeth, his black snake of a tail whipping back and forth testily. This, of course, brought on a barrage of furious shrieking from Salvatore, the little bird seeming to shrink as the green feathers flattened to his body, and Kyuro cringed before burying his head in a pillow to dull the painful noise. "Alright, alright, you win. I did see a crack - one." He waited until the lovebird quieted down, then unsheathed one claw from his raised paw to emphasize his point. "It's too small to really tell, though. For all we know, it cracked open when it bumped against the glass." Insert more enraged shrieking here. "All in all, it's not big enough of a deal to wake me up from my nap to come check it out - unless you're willing to pay for a visit." Kyuro hopped down from the bad, and looked up at the parrot hungrily; the bird narrowed his black eyes and fluffed up again, then began to growl. "Or... maybe I'll just take a rain check. See ya." Tail held low, the cat trotted down the stairs and out the open door.
"Oh, uh, Laird?" Kuwabara stepped into the clearing, cautious so as not to trip any traps or wards; the teacher had a strange sense of humor, if you could call leaving a student alone in the middle of the woods, then forming a betting pool on how long it would take for the student to escape, humor.
Right now, however, the Laird was hard at work at the small wooden workbench outside his tiny, two-room cabin. The teen quietly came up to the teacher's side, his skeleton dog at his heels, and looked at what Laird Michealangelo was doing. "Making mud pies, sir?" Kuwabara joked, with a goofy smile on his face; his teacher continued to work, molding the clay with his hands, and didn't even look up. Sensing that maybe the Laird wasn't in the mood for jokes, Kuwabara stepped back quickly. Michealangelo sighed and turned in his seat, looking at Kuwabara through the black hair that hung over his eyes.
"It's a golem," he finally said, breaking the silence and pointing to the little sculpture behind him. "In case you don't know, a golem is a being made out of non-living material or decaying flesh, and is animated with spirit energy donated from the creator."
"Cool... but why make one?"
"I'm bored."
With that said, he went back to sculpting the clay; from the shapeless body came a neck, long and thin, with a sharp, ending in a perfectly sphere head; extra lumps of clay formed thin ribbon-like structures that connected the twisting, curving body to the head; spiraled cords were melded onto the virtually smooth surface, and arched out from the creature's supposed back in looping, lattice-work wings that had no real end or beginning from where they attached - like a celtic knot. Sadly, however, Kuwabara was not awake to watch the entire creation of it. As he looked at the delicate, fragile creature his teacher had spared hours to create, his opinion was a simple: "It's nice... but what the heck is it?"
And, of course, his good-humored teacher gave a good-humored rebuke; within seconds, the tantei was wiping clay from his eyes. "That isn't the point. I want a five-page essay on the construction and uses of golems, in size twelve font, typed, double-spaced, and in my mailbox by Thursday."
"Yes sir." Kuwabara sighed, and wrote the assignment down on his palm, squinting through the growing shadows as the daylight became dim. "Now get going; I still need to get this thing in the kiln. Bones," the skeleton dog lifted his head, the firefly eyes bursting to life, and wildly wagged his whip-like tail at mention of his name. "Make sure he gets home safely." Bones nodded n reply, and clambered to his feet, happily taking his place at Kuwabara's side. "Hey, I can take care of myself! I wouldn't be here if I couldn't."
"I'm sure you can. Just leave before Rachel has a heart attack because you're out so late; it's almost four-thirty." The teen was about to complain, but the thought of a seriously upset Rachel was enough to make him (or anyone else, for that matter) think twice. "Er... right, I'll see you later."
With a rustle of undergrowth, they were gone. Laird Michealangelo smiled in satisfaction of having the woods to himself, and carefully picked up his yet-to-be-born golem, then went out back to the large outdoor kiln/oven that dominated the five-by-six patch of grass and weeds.
"Tha's enough bruises fer a lifetime..." Jin grumbled, rubbing his sore arm. The paintballs, which seemed totally harmless at first, had stung horribly on contact. To be blunt, the demon was a mess, with orange paint spattered in his bright red hair, and contrasting with his bluish-purple bruises; he was still wearing the same hooded sweatshirt and jeans as earlier that day, and was sprawled out on the couch. Yusuke, just as much of a mess, was leaning up against Kurama's armchair (or so it had been dubbed), too tired to get up off the floor. "I'm too tired to even go take a shower..."
"...much less change clothes..."
"...Or get up..."
"But..." the two boys shared a wicked grin, and said in unison, "that means we get to skip out on chores!" As they feebly tried to high-five each other, despite the foot-and-a-half of airspace between them, a familiar voice cut in. "Well, you could always try my physick; that'll give you plenty of energy."
Jin almost turned green at the thought, and fell off the couch in a pitiful attempt to escape, too exhausted to even create a wind cushion; Erika stood behind them, the innocent-looking jar in hand, and a smile on her wrinkled face. Yusuke, face pale, struggled to get up, and, miraculously, succeeded. "Actually, I think we'll be just fine, really. In fact, I might just go and... um... do some extra homework..."
"Yeah, m-me too..." The wind master pulled himself up using the couch armrest, and stumbled to the basement staircase. "Better finish that math paper... heh-heh..."
"Okay then, boys. Just let me know if you don't feel well." The elderly woman continued to wear her blissfully happy expression as Yusuke and Jin staggered off to their respective rooms, and continued to stand there after they had disappeared from view. Kyuro, curled up on the kitchen island and hungrily watching the can opener work its magic, looked up and allowed an evil smirk to grace his normally adorable features.
"Erica, my dear," he commented, " You are good."
"Well, that's that... nothing new, nothing wrong, and I need to get home before Chuu rips another hole in the roof." Yukimi finished writing down the new data in the small spiral-bound notebook that she'd been recording in ever since Christmas, and collected her things. Lyra, her homework shoved aside to a corner of her bed for the moment, got up and looked closely at the mermaid's purse floating in the tank. "You think it might've hatched by now."
"Hey, give it time. I mean, it's only been, what, five, almost six, months?"
"Yeah, I suppose... but from what Cecilia had said, she's had that egg for well over a couple of centuries." Lyra leaned back, and gave a warning look to Salvatore, who was shrieking up a storm about something. Yukimi raised an eyebrow, and looked at her notebook again. "It has been developing since we brought it here, and that is a good sign, but I'm a little worried about the data from February and April vacations; it barely even grew, not until everyone was back."
"Do you think maybe it feeds on energy, or uses it to speed up the incubation?" the water manipulator leaned back on her bed, legs curled up and her black hair spilling across the comforter as she pulled out the elastic that kept it tied in its traditional braid. The dragon specialist looked over at Lyra, and slowly nodded. "We-ell... it could... but how did you find out about it?"
"Textbook," was the quick answer.
"You were studying?"
"Slacking."
"That's new."
"Hey, I need to take a break, too." Lyra started to pull apart the braided strands of hair, wincing every so often as her fingers got caught on a knot, and waited for Yukimi's answer. "I suppose so. Look, I really need to go, but I'll be back on Friday. You know the drill - call me if anything happens, and if I'm gone, either leave a message or get in touch with your mythical creatures teacher. Erm, what was her name..?"
"Ms. Hisagawa."
"Right." Yukimi stood up, swinging her backpack up onto her shoulder, and started down the stairs out of Lyra's room, past Salvatore's cage. The parrot was still screeching, as if determined to break the eardrums of everyone in the room, and Yukimi pointed to him. "Oh, and when you have the time, try and find out what's bugging him - it could be important."
"'Kay, I'll see you later." The young woman waved as she disappeared down the staircase, and Lyra kneeled over by Salvatore's cage, her long black hair framing her face. "What is up with you, handsome? Hm?" The lovebird hopped down from his perch and ran over to his owner's face, and started to sing a quiet melody; well, at least he tried to sing, but when heard by human ears, his beautiful voice was nothing but squawks and screeches - it was a pity really. But, if just for a moment, Lyra had listened hard enough, without the curse of non-animal hearing, she would have heard a child's lullaby.
"Hey, dinner! Come on, get down here!" Rachel rapped a wooden spoon against the lid of one of the dirty pots that were piled in the sink. There was no answer from any of the teens, and the agitated teacher lifted the lid of a serving tray, letting the aroma of roasted pork and apple stuffing waft up towards the multiple bedrooms.
As the basement door, and the one to the boys' bedroom, creaked open, Rachel couldn't help but let her lips curve into a smile. "Just like a cat and the sound of an electric can opener."
"Hey!" Kyuro mewled, getting to his paws and stretching his back, a motion that lifted him up on the very tips of his toes and made every vertebrae in his spine give an audible crack. With a wide yawn, he shook his head to clear out the lull that sleep brought and twitched his whiskers, his green eyes windows to an emotion that was a mix of wry humor and false hurt. "I think you owe someone an apology." The familiar sniffed in Rachel's direction, and immediately started to groom himself - a process that could take hours if done correctly. "I'll be sure to give that apology if I find someone worthy of it." The familiar hissed in reply, and jumped down from the kitchen table, making sure to send the napkins of two of the table places flying; with a reproachful stare, Kyuro skulked over to the couch and made himself comfortable on the cushy pillows and armrest.
It wasn't long before everyone - minus Hiei, as the elusive demon hadn't thought dinner was worth coming home for - was crowded around the dining room table, pausing for Rachel to recite a quick prayer in the name of the Goddess before digging in.
Nothing was an obstacle for him, as his body melded into the shadows, allowing them to guide him up the wall and onto the third-floor balcony with no effort whatsoever. Soundlessly, he reemerged from the shadows of the tree, springing from the floor of the balcony in a flash of purple fire; cocking his head to track down the inhabitants' auras, his sightless eyes rolling back in their sockets, his wolf-like body trembling in anticipation. He had been called, rather hastily, to his displeasure, from the lower astral realm from which he roamed freely, given enough power to take on a physical form, and ordered to come to this dwelling. The creature who had summoned him, a human by the particular energy signal that it gave off (his summoner had taken extreme measures to remain anonymous, even going so far as to erect an aura shield so powerful, even he could not hope to breach its walls of black energy), apparently wanted something in this house destroyed.
Well, that would work out fine; he had always liked to cause destruction and mayhem.
He raised a horribly clawed, misshapen paw to the doors, grinning in satisfaction as the glass pane melted under his claws, and stuck an arm in through the hole, turning the handle open. As soon as the door swung inwards, an enraged barrage of screeches and the sound of something banging against metal bars; his ears lowered in an effort to block out the noise, he slowly slunk over to the glowing tank and gazed lovingly at the floating mermaid's purse. It was beautiful, pulsing with sheer energy, and it held infinite possibilities as how to harness that power; what a pity that it needed to be destroyed.
Raising a paw to the glass, his dark eyes glazed over in greed; he might be in control of his direct actions, but, with a brief touch of the little silver loop that was pierced through one of his shaggy ears, he reminded himself that even thinking about completely denying orders would cause his master, the one who summoned him, to turn him into a wisp of cosmic material; nothing more than microscopic dust and gas as his body imploded.
But surely his master wouldn't mind if he decided to bring it back to the secluded garden, if only to test the potential of this living storage vessel?
A small crack resounded through the room, lighting every dark corner for no more than a millisecond as electricity arced through his body. With a simpering moan, the creature fell to the floor; smoke wafting through the air with the scent of burning fur and electrical energy. The weakness swiftly vanished, and he was back on his paws in an instant, rearing up on his hind legs as he fished around in the tank, trying to unwrap the cords that had knotted themselves around a rock that jutted out of the tank floor.
A tiny pinprick of pain sunk into his furry skull, than another, and another, until it was a constant drizzle of never lasting hurt; a bizarrely low-pitched growl came from the little bird that was trapped in the cage behind him, and he swished his tail in annoyance. The pest wouldn't stop, and seemed to be doing everything in its power to distract it from uncurling the tendrils that were holding resolutely onto their stone perch. With a short bark, he snapped his jaws at the bird, and yelped as the action had set him off-balance; with his paws still wrapped around the glass tank, he fell to the floor, landing amidst shards of glass and seawater as the tank shattered under him with an insanely loud crash.
Down below, about to reach out for the doorknob, a cloaked figure heard the panicked yelps and the tiny sounds of broken glass being moved; with his hand hovering centimeters from the brass knob, he looked lingeringly up at the third floor, where there was undoubtedly trouble brewing, and sighed before disappearing in a fraction of a second, too fast for the eye to follow.
"What the hell?" Yusuke tilted his head back, listening to the mysterious crashing and shattering noises from upstairs for a second, then, his brown eyes wide, dashed from the table. "My PS2!" The rest of the table stared after him for a moment, then looked at each other, and got up from the table at the same time; Holly grabbed her broom, snatching it from below Kyuro's head as she jumped on it and zoomed upstairs, kicking off the landing wall to make the sharp corner, and Jin followed, his with most of everyone else at his heels. When nothing was damaged on the second floor, it was Kurama who first grasped the urgency of the situation.
Running to Lyra's bedroom door, he flung it open and stormed up the stairs, preparing himself for the worst, with Lyra following. Still struggling to disengage the egg from the rock that was glued to the fish tank's floor, was a wolfish-looking creature, only much lankier, with almost hand-like paws and numerous cuts and gashes along its belly. "I thought as much..." the wolf creature looked up at Kurama through nearly black eyes, and let a fierce growl escape from its muzzle. Putting an arm out, the fox cut off Lyra, who had just come up and noticed the wild creature was currently trying to make ribbons out of her room, and she built up a tiny sphere of condensed water - not that it could really do much damage, but perhaps she was hoping she could frighten it off.
Kurama had barely gotten a seed out from his red hair when the balcony door burst open, wreathed in black and purple flames, and Hiei stepped through, his black cloak whipping around in the wind that the fire had ushered. The wolf looked at both the swordsman and fox, then frantically tried to leap out onto the balcony, one of his paws still entangled in the egg's tendrils and his tail blazing with fire; it had judged its jump a bit inaccurately, as its head was bashed against the balcony railing and it spiraled, end over end, through the tree branches and towards the ground. With a single silent look from Kurama, the Jaganshi gave a slight sneer and vanished, reappearing on the ground with the egg in his grasp and the wolf lain on the soft ground, blood trickling from a wound on its temple.
"Now, what have we here..?" Hiei gave the seemingly lifeless corpse an unemotional kick in the ribs, and looked up to where his roommates watched from the balcony, Lyra leaning a little over the railing. "Hiei, don't hurt it," the water manipulator called down, frantically trying to come up with an excuse to persuade him to listen to her. To her surprise, Kurama nodded in agreement, then added his own opinion.
"Yes, it might know how to return to whoever might have dispatched it."
"It's a dog; nothing more."
"Just don't set it on fire! Oh, and while you're at it, you might want to put out it's tail..." Hiei glared at the appendage that Lyra had mentioned, and promptly stepped on it, smothering the fire under his boot. "Happy now?" the fire demon ground the heel of his boot into the smoldering tail, and Lyra sighed. "No, not really, but I guess it'll have to do..."
Hiei grunted his usual "hn" and leapt up into the tree next to the balcony, the egg in hand, as Holly and Lark climbed into the room, the latter almost tripping on the last step and slicing her hand open, and joined the elder sister and Kurama out on the balcony, which now had spatters of blood on the railing and floor, and spurts of dying flame near the doorway (or where the door had been... it had since burnt down to nothing but ashes, and the black fire had gone with it).
"Wow... what happened here? It looks like our favorite little pyro was enjoying himself..." Lark brushed her hair out of her face, sending a smug little smile at the fire demon, who was comfortably settled in the tree. His blood red eyes meeting Lark and Holly's own, he quietly and matter-of- factly replied, "I just got here, so I'm not the one to blame." Lark and Holly just shared a glance at each other, one almost sent them into amused sniggers, and the demon "hn"-ed again, turning away from the chatting roommates; with an annoyed glare, Hiei started to try and disentangle his fingers from the egg's four tendrils, which had latched onto his digits stubbornly.
He finally managed to unwrap three of them, which let most of his fingers get oxygen, but just as he started on the fourth, the three loose ends once again fought for a handhold; within a matter of a few seconds, he was back where he had started, only now both his hands were tied up. Muttering a few curse words to himself, Hiei tried to unwrap the egg again, but failed miserably... come to think of it, the last time he had seen the egg, it hadn't tried to latch onto anyone and had been quite still.
"Holy... hey, that dog's alive! It's moving!" Lark had joined her sister near the balcony, and was now charging up a sphere of water while she pointed with her free hand. The wolf-creature that had broken in Lyra's room was now stumbling to it's feet, its tail tucked between its legs and its grizzled head lowered. It stepped forwards, painfully picking its way across the yard, and took off at a run towards the house, the muscles in its legs tightening like a coiled spring. It leapt up at the tree, kicked off of it with its hind feet, and landed lightly on the railing; blood was still dripping from the wounds on its head and belly, and the wolf was panting, giving a small shudder every now and then as the ring in its ear gave off a faint glow.
The seed in Kurama's hand sprouted, the tiny green shoot growing ever higher, much like the fox's adrenaline, and Lark took aim, shooting the water blast point-blank in the wolf's face - the pressure of that one shot comparable to that of a fire hose. The wolf shuddered again and was blasted from the railing into the tree, leaving gouges in the railing; its claws dug in, and the animal clung to the bark of the tree, slowly climbing up onto a branch that could support its weight. That done, it looked around wildly as if it had lost something, and then spied the egg in Hiei's hands. The Jaganshi had drawn his sword with his left hand, his right entangled by the egg, and held it out threateningly; with a whimper, the animal lunged out, snipping away bits of the egg's tendrils with its teeth, and Hiei's hand snatched down to catch the leathery object as it fell from his fingers.
"Catch." Kurama fumbled for a second, then grasped the egg securely in his grasp, with a surprised expression. He was about to get a firmer grip, when a dizzying memory surfaced, from when he was last in possession of the object in his hands.
Fox football...
Green eyes wide, he tossed it immediately to Holly, and she would have dropped it if the egg hadn't wrapped a delicate tendril around her finger; the witch held her hand far from her body as the egg slowly secured itself once more. Hiei grunted in satisfaction, and cautiously stepped between the girls and Kurama, katana at ready, then attacked, the blade leaving a faint red line across the animal's gray cheek as it leapt to a different branch. Gathering strength in its legs, the wolf leapt forwards, front paws latching onto the demon's shoulders, the dangerous claws digging into his skin, and used its back legs to kick out, shredding Hiei's shirt and leaving red gashes on his stomach; the three-eyed demon brought up the hilt of his katana up, blocking the wolf's jaws from his throat, and twisted the blade upwards, spearing into its stomach.
With a faint whine, it rolled off of him, mouth agape, and lay on the ground below, twitching madly. Holly peered over Kurama's arm, as the fox had tried to block the scene from the girl's view, and rushed to the railing, leaning out in an effort to get an idea of the damage that had been done to Hiei. "Oh... god... I-I'll go get some bandages!" She turned back, then paused and looked over at the demon, who was leaning against the trunk of the tree, breathing hard and wiping the blood off his blade with what was left of his ruined shirt. "Do me a favor and hold this for me!" She tossed the egg over, as it had released itself without trouble, as if wanting to latch onto the fire demon once again, and disappeared from view, her voice echoing through the hallway below.
Hiei looked at the egg, his eyes showing genuine speechlessness, and growled softly despite himself. All that work to protect it, and here the damn thing was, trying to cut off circulation to his hand. "Stupid piece of junk..."
"Now, now, Hiei... just don't move while I prepare something to disinfect that wound." Kurama was already busy coaxing another seedling to life, and gave a pacifying smile. With a "hn", Hiei stayed still, glaring at the problem-causing item that had his lower arm in a death-hold, and slid his katana into its sheath; sighing, he leaned back and closed his eyes, ignoring the slight prickling sensation that crawled along his skin.
There was a deafening crack, and everyone jumped, Hiei instantly alighting his free hand with black and purple flames, his hair bristling, but when they looked down at the spot of the fallen perpetrator, there was nothing but a charred mark on the ground. There was no stench, no remains of flesh, just the feeling of incredible static electricity in the air and a tiny silver ring lying on the blackened grass. From his hand, the egg trembled, and as Hiei looked over, trembled again. A short spurt of blinding light came from burst from it, and everyone on the balcony was faintly aware of the door to Lyra's room opening as Holly came back with the bandages, with Yusuke, Jin, Rogerik, and Kuwabara in tow.
Without his meaning to, the jagan on Hiei's forehead burst into light, and the leathery skin of the dragon's egg started to dissolve, illuminating as far as the jagged cliff edge despite the nearly total darkness of the night.
All light faded, and wrapped around Hiei's arm was not a quadruplet of tendrils, but one pure white snake-like tail, light fluffy fur running down its spine, tiny claws pricking at his skin and the delicate body flawlessly soft, with crumpled wings was attached to its back; the head, fine boned and delicate, turned up towards his face, and, framed by long, white lashes, deep pools of blue looked into Hiei's blood red eyes.
The moment was special indeed, but then the little dragonling, curled ever so comfortably on the demon's shoulder, opened its mouth and chirruped. "Maaaa..."
"What?" His eyes narrowed, Hiei moved his arm away from his body, stupefied at the look of absolute love in the hatchlings eyes. "Maaa..!" the sound was sweet and innocent, filled with happiness. Rogerik, grayish-green eyes wide, almost started laughing, but, after Lark stomped hard on his foot, decided it would be better not to - for his own health, of course. Totally ignorant of his own well-being, however, Yusuke laughed out loud, tears nearly at his eyes.
"Hah! That's too much! Hiei... a mother!"
Every stared at Yusuke, then looked over at the Jaganshi, who was seconds away from setting the spirit detective on fire. "Maaa..?" the dragonling, looked over at its adopted mother, then whipped her head around and bared her fangs at Yusuke, letting loose a small spurt of flame that leapt three feet from her lips. Yusuke recoiled away from the fire, and lowered his voice. "Yeah, that's Hiei's kid, alright... adopted or not."
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KKC: smiles widely Aww...now isn't that cute? Hiei's a mommy!
Hiei: -.- ::twitches sword arm:: Shut. Up.
Dragonling: ::looks around from Hiei's shoulder, confused:: Maaaa..?
KKC: Aww, its adorable! ::picks up dragonling and cuddles it:: Can I keep her?
Hiei: No.
KKC: I thought you didn't like babying it?
Hiei: I don't have a choice now, do I?
KKC: ::sighs:: Fine... review folks! Ciao!
Quote of the Week: "You have less common sense then God gives a retarded clam." -Mr.V (I miss school...)
KKC: Well, to all those who were wondering whatever happened to our favorite samurai, he's... well, he's alive for starters... ::looks over at Shishiwakamaru:: uh... yep, he's alive...
Shishi: ::sitting over by flower garden, with an all-too-honest look on his face, his pink eyes sparkling brightly:: Oh, how fortunate am I, to witness such a show of beauty, where I am naught but a lowly being whom does not deserve to see this day... :: ...and so he continues... ::
Touya: ::sighs and shakes head:: How many times have I told you not to toy with the emotional stability of others?
KKC: Oh, go back to fighting your porch. -.-
Touya: ::grumbles, but leaves::
KKC: On to the chapter!
Note: Is it just me, or has FF.net been screwing up the spacing lately? I checked last chapter, and where I had started a new section (where I skip about 3 lines to signify it), there was only one space. Sorry if anyone got confused about that, or when the asterisks were cut out for some reason. Until I find out about that asterisk problem, I'm using a different symbol.
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Peace... it was all he asked for at this time of the day. He was up in a tree, as usual, comfortably splayed out in its ancient branches, the shade providing the prefect temperature for a noonday nap. Of course, only a few months ago Hiei would have chided himself for letting his guard down, but now was one of those few times where the world was at rest and everything slowed down to a crawl - even him.
A bird hopped from twig to twig above him, chirping and singing, then suddenly stopped for a second; at that time the Jaganshi felt something warm and liquid land on his face. Brushing it off with his wrapped right arm, he gritted his teeth and focused his power upon the little chickadee above him. There was one last squawk from the tiny bird, and then feathers fluttered down around him, charred black.
Bye bye, birdie.
"Shorty? What are you doing out here?" The fire demon sighed, then sat up to identify just who had dared interfere in his nap. It was Kuwabara, much to his displeasure, and the demon saw a familiar grinning skull just a few feet behind the orange-haired teen. "Well, if it isn't Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum," he drawled, too lazy to get up and mouth off to Kuwabara properly. "If you don't have anything better to do than stare at me like the complete idiot you are, why don't you go find Kurama for me and tell him I'll be a bit late coming back." The three-eyed demon smirked in satisfaction as Kuwabara tried to find a good comeback, and disappeared from view.
Green eyes stared up at the seemingly harmless object that bobbed in the water, whickers twitched, and a black tail slowly waved in the air. Kyuro cocked a head at the egg, and turned back to the little bird that was perched on a food dish that was well above his reach. "Are you sure that it's starting to hatch?" The kitten-like familiar cringed at Salvatore's shrill explanation that, yes, he was sure, and the cat had better get his head out of his rear and look closer.
Well, the above was a rough translation, since what the little lovebird had actually said was much, much, more degrading and descriptive.
"Fine, featherbrains! Just shut up so I can get this done with." Kyuro sniffed at the parrot, and jumped up on Lyra's bed, then leaned forwards, his nose nearly touching the glass. His eyes widened, the pupils becoming mere slits in the bright sunlight, and there was a white gleam as his mouth opened in astonishment, showing off his particularly sharp fangs. "Whoa, Feathers... I can't believe it. The egg, there's... there's..." Salvatore fluffed his feathers, and appeared to be smiling in satisfaction (if that was even possible, considering he had a beak).
"There's nothing wrong with it." The cat replied flatly, narrowing his eyes and baring his teeth, his black snake of a tail whipping back and forth testily. This, of course, brought on a barrage of furious shrieking from Salvatore, the little bird seeming to shrink as the green feathers flattened to his body, and Kyuro cringed before burying his head in a pillow to dull the painful noise. "Alright, alright, you win. I did see a crack - one." He waited until the lovebird quieted down, then unsheathed one claw from his raised paw to emphasize his point. "It's too small to really tell, though. For all we know, it cracked open when it bumped against the glass." Insert more enraged shrieking here. "All in all, it's not big enough of a deal to wake me up from my nap to come check it out - unless you're willing to pay for a visit." Kyuro hopped down from the bad, and looked up at the parrot hungrily; the bird narrowed his black eyes and fluffed up again, then began to growl. "Or... maybe I'll just take a rain check. See ya." Tail held low, the cat trotted down the stairs and out the open door.
"Oh, uh, Laird?" Kuwabara stepped into the clearing, cautious so as not to trip any traps or wards; the teacher had a strange sense of humor, if you could call leaving a student alone in the middle of the woods, then forming a betting pool on how long it would take for the student to escape, humor.
Right now, however, the Laird was hard at work at the small wooden workbench outside his tiny, two-room cabin. The teen quietly came up to the teacher's side, his skeleton dog at his heels, and looked at what Laird Michealangelo was doing. "Making mud pies, sir?" Kuwabara joked, with a goofy smile on his face; his teacher continued to work, molding the clay with his hands, and didn't even look up. Sensing that maybe the Laird wasn't in the mood for jokes, Kuwabara stepped back quickly. Michealangelo sighed and turned in his seat, looking at Kuwabara through the black hair that hung over his eyes.
"It's a golem," he finally said, breaking the silence and pointing to the little sculpture behind him. "In case you don't know, a golem is a being made out of non-living material or decaying flesh, and is animated with spirit energy donated from the creator."
"Cool... but why make one?"
"I'm bored."
With that said, he went back to sculpting the clay; from the shapeless body came a neck, long and thin, with a sharp, ending in a perfectly sphere head; extra lumps of clay formed thin ribbon-like structures that connected the twisting, curving body to the head; spiraled cords were melded onto the virtually smooth surface, and arched out from the creature's supposed back in looping, lattice-work wings that had no real end or beginning from where they attached - like a celtic knot. Sadly, however, Kuwabara was not awake to watch the entire creation of it. As he looked at the delicate, fragile creature his teacher had spared hours to create, his opinion was a simple: "It's nice... but what the heck is it?"
And, of course, his good-humored teacher gave a good-humored rebuke; within seconds, the tantei was wiping clay from his eyes. "That isn't the point. I want a five-page essay on the construction and uses of golems, in size twelve font, typed, double-spaced, and in my mailbox by Thursday."
"Yes sir." Kuwabara sighed, and wrote the assignment down on his palm, squinting through the growing shadows as the daylight became dim. "Now get going; I still need to get this thing in the kiln. Bones," the skeleton dog lifted his head, the firefly eyes bursting to life, and wildly wagged his whip-like tail at mention of his name. "Make sure he gets home safely." Bones nodded n reply, and clambered to his feet, happily taking his place at Kuwabara's side. "Hey, I can take care of myself! I wouldn't be here if I couldn't."
"I'm sure you can. Just leave before Rachel has a heart attack because you're out so late; it's almost four-thirty." The teen was about to complain, but the thought of a seriously upset Rachel was enough to make him (or anyone else, for that matter) think twice. "Er... right, I'll see you later."
With a rustle of undergrowth, they were gone. Laird Michealangelo smiled in satisfaction of having the woods to himself, and carefully picked up his yet-to-be-born golem, then went out back to the large outdoor kiln/oven that dominated the five-by-six patch of grass and weeds.
"Tha's enough bruises fer a lifetime..." Jin grumbled, rubbing his sore arm. The paintballs, which seemed totally harmless at first, had stung horribly on contact. To be blunt, the demon was a mess, with orange paint spattered in his bright red hair, and contrasting with his bluish-purple bruises; he was still wearing the same hooded sweatshirt and jeans as earlier that day, and was sprawled out on the couch. Yusuke, just as much of a mess, was leaning up against Kurama's armchair (or so it had been dubbed), too tired to get up off the floor. "I'm too tired to even go take a shower..."
"...much less change clothes..."
"...Or get up..."
"But..." the two boys shared a wicked grin, and said in unison, "that means we get to skip out on chores!" As they feebly tried to high-five each other, despite the foot-and-a-half of airspace between them, a familiar voice cut in. "Well, you could always try my physick; that'll give you plenty of energy."
Jin almost turned green at the thought, and fell off the couch in a pitiful attempt to escape, too exhausted to even create a wind cushion; Erika stood behind them, the innocent-looking jar in hand, and a smile on her wrinkled face. Yusuke, face pale, struggled to get up, and, miraculously, succeeded. "Actually, I think we'll be just fine, really. In fact, I might just go and... um... do some extra homework..."
"Yeah, m-me too..." The wind master pulled himself up using the couch armrest, and stumbled to the basement staircase. "Better finish that math paper... heh-heh..."
"Okay then, boys. Just let me know if you don't feel well." The elderly woman continued to wear her blissfully happy expression as Yusuke and Jin staggered off to their respective rooms, and continued to stand there after they had disappeared from view. Kyuro, curled up on the kitchen island and hungrily watching the can opener work its magic, looked up and allowed an evil smirk to grace his normally adorable features.
"Erica, my dear," he commented, " You are good."
"Well, that's that... nothing new, nothing wrong, and I need to get home before Chuu rips another hole in the roof." Yukimi finished writing down the new data in the small spiral-bound notebook that she'd been recording in ever since Christmas, and collected her things. Lyra, her homework shoved aside to a corner of her bed for the moment, got up and looked closely at the mermaid's purse floating in the tank. "You think it might've hatched by now."
"Hey, give it time. I mean, it's only been, what, five, almost six, months?"
"Yeah, I suppose... but from what Cecilia had said, she's had that egg for well over a couple of centuries." Lyra leaned back, and gave a warning look to Salvatore, who was shrieking up a storm about something. Yukimi raised an eyebrow, and looked at her notebook again. "It has been developing since we brought it here, and that is a good sign, but I'm a little worried about the data from February and April vacations; it barely even grew, not until everyone was back."
"Do you think maybe it feeds on energy, or uses it to speed up the incubation?" the water manipulator leaned back on her bed, legs curled up and her black hair spilling across the comforter as she pulled out the elastic that kept it tied in its traditional braid. The dragon specialist looked over at Lyra, and slowly nodded. "We-ell... it could... but how did you find out about it?"
"Textbook," was the quick answer.
"You were studying?"
"Slacking."
"That's new."
"Hey, I need to take a break, too." Lyra started to pull apart the braided strands of hair, wincing every so often as her fingers got caught on a knot, and waited for Yukimi's answer. "I suppose so. Look, I really need to go, but I'll be back on Friday. You know the drill - call me if anything happens, and if I'm gone, either leave a message or get in touch with your mythical creatures teacher. Erm, what was her name..?"
"Ms. Hisagawa."
"Right." Yukimi stood up, swinging her backpack up onto her shoulder, and started down the stairs out of Lyra's room, past Salvatore's cage. The parrot was still screeching, as if determined to break the eardrums of everyone in the room, and Yukimi pointed to him. "Oh, and when you have the time, try and find out what's bugging him - it could be important."
"'Kay, I'll see you later." The young woman waved as she disappeared down the staircase, and Lyra kneeled over by Salvatore's cage, her long black hair framing her face. "What is up with you, handsome? Hm?" The lovebird hopped down from his perch and ran over to his owner's face, and started to sing a quiet melody; well, at least he tried to sing, but when heard by human ears, his beautiful voice was nothing but squawks and screeches - it was a pity really. But, if just for a moment, Lyra had listened hard enough, without the curse of non-animal hearing, she would have heard a child's lullaby.
"Hey, dinner! Come on, get down here!" Rachel rapped a wooden spoon against the lid of one of the dirty pots that were piled in the sink. There was no answer from any of the teens, and the agitated teacher lifted the lid of a serving tray, letting the aroma of roasted pork and apple stuffing waft up towards the multiple bedrooms.
As the basement door, and the one to the boys' bedroom, creaked open, Rachel couldn't help but let her lips curve into a smile. "Just like a cat and the sound of an electric can opener."
"Hey!" Kyuro mewled, getting to his paws and stretching his back, a motion that lifted him up on the very tips of his toes and made every vertebrae in his spine give an audible crack. With a wide yawn, he shook his head to clear out the lull that sleep brought and twitched his whiskers, his green eyes windows to an emotion that was a mix of wry humor and false hurt. "I think you owe someone an apology." The familiar sniffed in Rachel's direction, and immediately started to groom himself - a process that could take hours if done correctly. "I'll be sure to give that apology if I find someone worthy of it." The familiar hissed in reply, and jumped down from the kitchen table, making sure to send the napkins of two of the table places flying; with a reproachful stare, Kyuro skulked over to the couch and made himself comfortable on the cushy pillows and armrest.
It wasn't long before everyone - minus Hiei, as the elusive demon hadn't thought dinner was worth coming home for - was crowded around the dining room table, pausing for Rachel to recite a quick prayer in the name of the Goddess before digging in.
Nothing was an obstacle for him, as his body melded into the shadows, allowing them to guide him up the wall and onto the third-floor balcony with no effort whatsoever. Soundlessly, he reemerged from the shadows of the tree, springing from the floor of the balcony in a flash of purple fire; cocking his head to track down the inhabitants' auras, his sightless eyes rolling back in their sockets, his wolf-like body trembling in anticipation. He had been called, rather hastily, to his displeasure, from the lower astral realm from which he roamed freely, given enough power to take on a physical form, and ordered to come to this dwelling. The creature who had summoned him, a human by the particular energy signal that it gave off (his summoner had taken extreme measures to remain anonymous, even going so far as to erect an aura shield so powerful, even he could not hope to breach its walls of black energy), apparently wanted something in this house destroyed.
Well, that would work out fine; he had always liked to cause destruction and mayhem.
He raised a horribly clawed, misshapen paw to the doors, grinning in satisfaction as the glass pane melted under his claws, and stuck an arm in through the hole, turning the handle open. As soon as the door swung inwards, an enraged barrage of screeches and the sound of something banging against metal bars; his ears lowered in an effort to block out the noise, he slowly slunk over to the glowing tank and gazed lovingly at the floating mermaid's purse. It was beautiful, pulsing with sheer energy, and it held infinite possibilities as how to harness that power; what a pity that it needed to be destroyed.
Raising a paw to the glass, his dark eyes glazed over in greed; he might be in control of his direct actions, but, with a brief touch of the little silver loop that was pierced through one of his shaggy ears, he reminded himself that even thinking about completely denying orders would cause his master, the one who summoned him, to turn him into a wisp of cosmic material; nothing more than microscopic dust and gas as his body imploded.
But surely his master wouldn't mind if he decided to bring it back to the secluded garden, if only to test the potential of this living storage vessel?
A small crack resounded through the room, lighting every dark corner for no more than a millisecond as electricity arced through his body. With a simpering moan, the creature fell to the floor; smoke wafting through the air with the scent of burning fur and electrical energy. The weakness swiftly vanished, and he was back on his paws in an instant, rearing up on his hind legs as he fished around in the tank, trying to unwrap the cords that had knotted themselves around a rock that jutted out of the tank floor.
A tiny pinprick of pain sunk into his furry skull, than another, and another, until it was a constant drizzle of never lasting hurt; a bizarrely low-pitched growl came from the little bird that was trapped in the cage behind him, and he swished his tail in annoyance. The pest wouldn't stop, and seemed to be doing everything in its power to distract it from uncurling the tendrils that were holding resolutely onto their stone perch. With a short bark, he snapped his jaws at the bird, and yelped as the action had set him off-balance; with his paws still wrapped around the glass tank, he fell to the floor, landing amidst shards of glass and seawater as the tank shattered under him with an insanely loud crash.
Down below, about to reach out for the doorknob, a cloaked figure heard the panicked yelps and the tiny sounds of broken glass being moved; with his hand hovering centimeters from the brass knob, he looked lingeringly up at the third floor, where there was undoubtedly trouble brewing, and sighed before disappearing in a fraction of a second, too fast for the eye to follow.
"What the hell?" Yusuke tilted his head back, listening to the mysterious crashing and shattering noises from upstairs for a second, then, his brown eyes wide, dashed from the table. "My PS2!" The rest of the table stared after him for a moment, then looked at each other, and got up from the table at the same time; Holly grabbed her broom, snatching it from below Kyuro's head as she jumped on it and zoomed upstairs, kicking off the landing wall to make the sharp corner, and Jin followed, his with most of everyone else at his heels. When nothing was damaged on the second floor, it was Kurama who first grasped the urgency of the situation.
Running to Lyra's bedroom door, he flung it open and stormed up the stairs, preparing himself for the worst, with Lyra following. Still struggling to disengage the egg from the rock that was glued to the fish tank's floor, was a wolfish-looking creature, only much lankier, with almost hand-like paws and numerous cuts and gashes along its belly. "I thought as much..." the wolf creature looked up at Kurama through nearly black eyes, and let a fierce growl escape from its muzzle. Putting an arm out, the fox cut off Lyra, who had just come up and noticed the wild creature was currently trying to make ribbons out of her room, and she built up a tiny sphere of condensed water - not that it could really do much damage, but perhaps she was hoping she could frighten it off.
Kurama had barely gotten a seed out from his red hair when the balcony door burst open, wreathed in black and purple flames, and Hiei stepped through, his black cloak whipping around in the wind that the fire had ushered. The wolf looked at both the swordsman and fox, then frantically tried to leap out onto the balcony, one of his paws still entangled in the egg's tendrils and his tail blazing with fire; it had judged its jump a bit inaccurately, as its head was bashed against the balcony railing and it spiraled, end over end, through the tree branches and towards the ground. With a single silent look from Kurama, the Jaganshi gave a slight sneer and vanished, reappearing on the ground with the egg in his grasp and the wolf lain on the soft ground, blood trickling from a wound on its temple.
"Now, what have we here..?" Hiei gave the seemingly lifeless corpse an unemotional kick in the ribs, and looked up to where his roommates watched from the balcony, Lyra leaning a little over the railing. "Hiei, don't hurt it," the water manipulator called down, frantically trying to come up with an excuse to persuade him to listen to her. To her surprise, Kurama nodded in agreement, then added his own opinion.
"Yes, it might know how to return to whoever might have dispatched it."
"It's a dog; nothing more."
"Just don't set it on fire! Oh, and while you're at it, you might want to put out it's tail..." Hiei glared at the appendage that Lyra had mentioned, and promptly stepped on it, smothering the fire under his boot. "Happy now?" the fire demon ground the heel of his boot into the smoldering tail, and Lyra sighed. "No, not really, but I guess it'll have to do..."
Hiei grunted his usual "hn" and leapt up into the tree next to the balcony, the egg in hand, as Holly and Lark climbed into the room, the latter almost tripping on the last step and slicing her hand open, and joined the elder sister and Kurama out on the balcony, which now had spatters of blood on the railing and floor, and spurts of dying flame near the doorway (or where the door had been... it had since burnt down to nothing but ashes, and the black fire had gone with it).
"Wow... what happened here? It looks like our favorite little pyro was enjoying himself..." Lark brushed her hair out of her face, sending a smug little smile at the fire demon, who was comfortably settled in the tree. His blood red eyes meeting Lark and Holly's own, he quietly and matter-of- factly replied, "I just got here, so I'm not the one to blame." Lark and Holly just shared a glance at each other, one almost sent them into amused sniggers, and the demon "hn"-ed again, turning away from the chatting roommates; with an annoyed glare, Hiei started to try and disentangle his fingers from the egg's four tendrils, which had latched onto his digits stubbornly.
He finally managed to unwrap three of them, which let most of his fingers get oxygen, but just as he started on the fourth, the three loose ends once again fought for a handhold; within a matter of a few seconds, he was back where he had started, only now both his hands were tied up. Muttering a few curse words to himself, Hiei tried to unwrap the egg again, but failed miserably... come to think of it, the last time he had seen the egg, it hadn't tried to latch onto anyone and had been quite still.
"Holy... hey, that dog's alive! It's moving!" Lark had joined her sister near the balcony, and was now charging up a sphere of water while she pointed with her free hand. The wolf-creature that had broken in Lyra's room was now stumbling to it's feet, its tail tucked between its legs and its grizzled head lowered. It stepped forwards, painfully picking its way across the yard, and took off at a run towards the house, the muscles in its legs tightening like a coiled spring. It leapt up at the tree, kicked off of it with its hind feet, and landed lightly on the railing; blood was still dripping from the wounds on its head and belly, and the wolf was panting, giving a small shudder every now and then as the ring in its ear gave off a faint glow.
The seed in Kurama's hand sprouted, the tiny green shoot growing ever higher, much like the fox's adrenaline, and Lark took aim, shooting the water blast point-blank in the wolf's face - the pressure of that one shot comparable to that of a fire hose. The wolf shuddered again and was blasted from the railing into the tree, leaving gouges in the railing; its claws dug in, and the animal clung to the bark of the tree, slowly climbing up onto a branch that could support its weight. That done, it looked around wildly as if it had lost something, and then spied the egg in Hiei's hands. The Jaganshi had drawn his sword with his left hand, his right entangled by the egg, and held it out threateningly; with a whimper, the animal lunged out, snipping away bits of the egg's tendrils with its teeth, and Hiei's hand snatched down to catch the leathery object as it fell from his fingers.
"Catch." Kurama fumbled for a second, then grasped the egg securely in his grasp, with a surprised expression. He was about to get a firmer grip, when a dizzying memory surfaced, from when he was last in possession of the object in his hands.
Fox football...
Green eyes wide, he tossed it immediately to Holly, and she would have dropped it if the egg hadn't wrapped a delicate tendril around her finger; the witch held her hand far from her body as the egg slowly secured itself once more. Hiei grunted in satisfaction, and cautiously stepped between the girls and Kurama, katana at ready, then attacked, the blade leaving a faint red line across the animal's gray cheek as it leapt to a different branch. Gathering strength in its legs, the wolf leapt forwards, front paws latching onto the demon's shoulders, the dangerous claws digging into his skin, and used its back legs to kick out, shredding Hiei's shirt and leaving red gashes on his stomach; the three-eyed demon brought up the hilt of his katana up, blocking the wolf's jaws from his throat, and twisted the blade upwards, spearing into its stomach.
With a faint whine, it rolled off of him, mouth agape, and lay on the ground below, twitching madly. Holly peered over Kurama's arm, as the fox had tried to block the scene from the girl's view, and rushed to the railing, leaning out in an effort to get an idea of the damage that had been done to Hiei. "Oh... god... I-I'll go get some bandages!" She turned back, then paused and looked over at the demon, who was leaning against the trunk of the tree, breathing hard and wiping the blood off his blade with what was left of his ruined shirt. "Do me a favor and hold this for me!" She tossed the egg over, as it had released itself without trouble, as if wanting to latch onto the fire demon once again, and disappeared from view, her voice echoing through the hallway below.
Hiei looked at the egg, his eyes showing genuine speechlessness, and growled softly despite himself. All that work to protect it, and here the damn thing was, trying to cut off circulation to his hand. "Stupid piece of junk..."
"Now, now, Hiei... just don't move while I prepare something to disinfect that wound." Kurama was already busy coaxing another seedling to life, and gave a pacifying smile. With a "hn", Hiei stayed still, glaring at the problem-causing item that had his lower arm in a death-hold, and slid his katana into its sheath; sighing, he leaned back and closed his eyes, ignoring the slight prickling sensation that crawled along his skin.
There was a deafening crack, and everyone jumped, Hiei instantly alighting his free hand with black and purple flames, his hair bristling, but when they looked down at the spot of the fallen perpetrator, there was nothing but a charred mark on the ground. There was no stench, no remains of flesh, just the feeling of incredible static electricity in the air and a tiny silver ring lying on the blackened grass. From his hand, the egg trembled, and as Hiei looked over, trembled again. A short spurt of blinding light came from burst from it, and everyone on the balcony was faintly aware of the door to Lyra's room opening as Holly came back with the bandages, with Yusuke, Jin, Rogerik, and Kuwabara in tow.
Without his meaning to, the jagan on Hiei's forehead burst into light, and the leathery skin of the dragon's egg started to dissolve, illuminating as far as the jagged cliff edge despite the nearly total darkness of the night.
All light faded, and wrapped around Hiei's arm was not a quadruplet of tendrils, but one pure white snake-like tail, light fluffy fur running down its spine, tiny claws pricking at his skin and the delicate body flawlessly soft, with crumpled wings was attached to its back; the head, fine boned and delicate, turned up towards his face, and, framed by long, white lashes, deep pools of blue looked into Hiei's blood red eyes.
The moment was special indeed, but then the little dragonling, curled ever so comfortably on the demon's shoulder, opened its mouth and chirruped. "Maaaa..."
"What?" His eyes narrowed, Hiei moved his arm away from his body, stupefied at the look of absolute love in the hatchlings eyes. "Maaa..!" the sound was sweet and innocent, filled with happiness. Rogerik, grayish-green eyes wide, almost started laughing, but, after Lark stomped hard on his foot, decided it would be better not to - for his own health, of course. Totally ignorant of his own well-being, however, Yusuke laughed out loud, tears nearly at his eyes.
"Hah! That's too much! Hiei... a mother!"
Every stared at Yusuke, then looked over at the Jaganshi, who was seconds away from setting the spirit detective on fire. "Maaa..?" the dragonling, looked over at its adopted mother, then whipped her head around and bared her fangs at Yusuke, letting loose a small spurt of flame that leapt three feet from her lips. Yusuke recoiled away from the fire, and lowered his voice. "Yeah, that's Hiei's kid, alright... adopted or not."
########################################################################
KKC: smiles widely Aww...now isn't that cute? Hiei's a mommy!
Hiei: -.- ::twitches sword arm:: Shut. Up.
Dragonling: ::looks around from Hiei's shoulder, confused:: Maaaa..?
KKC: Aww, its adorable! ::picks up dragonling and cuddles it:: Can I keep her?
Hiei: No.
KKC: I thought you didn't like babying it?
Hiei: I don't have a choice now, do I?
KKC: ::sighs:: Fine... review folks! Ciao!