Rain and Fire

Chapter 5

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Rain never expected Rydia's home to be in the territory of the ookami, the wolf demons.

It was a small cottage, with tan, crumbling walls that reminded her of the mud cakes that she and Rin used to make as children. Its thatched straw roof was also a bit shabby, and clutter of various items most would deem as 'junk' were piled up around the tiny home.

She carefully stepped over a bunch of herbs growing out in the front, and looked over at Sesshoumaru, wondering how the immaculately clean youkai ever managed to befriend such an obviously sloppy person.

However, the silver lord walked right up to the door, and raised his hand to knock on its wooden surface.

But before his fist and the delicate wood ever made contact, the door was flung open, and a pink-and-white blur launched itself at him.

He fell back onto the ground, with a light, "Oof!", as the wind was presumably knocked out of him.

Rin, Rain, Hiei and Jaken looked on curiously - though Jaken was more horrified than curious.

"Milord!" He exclaimed.

The thing that had launched itself at the fallen demon was a girl. She was very small compared to him, and Rain figured that she was also probably taller than her.

She grinned at Sesshoumaru, and exclaimed, "Sesshoumaru-chan! I knew you'd come back to me, koishii!"

Hiei and Rain raised eyebrows at once, and Jaken looked as though he were about to have a heart attack.

"Rydia, get off of me." The demon lord growled in a dangerous tone.

He then pushed the girl off, and she gave him a confused look. He started to brush off the seat of his pants, and he looked none-too-pleased.

The girl stood as well, and Rain took in her appearance.

As she had thought, Rydia was definitely short. And that was saying something, considering Rain wasn't the tallest girl around, either.

She had the strangest hair Rain had ever seen, flaunting the fact that she was far from being human. It was cropped extremely short, and framed her face in a childish way, and it was the most intense shade of hot pink that Rain nearly had to squint to look at it.

Her eyes were red, and they seemed to dance with happiness at the sight of Sesshoumaru.

She wore a baggy white tank top, and a pair of equally baggy pants, and they engulfed her petite frame in a none-too-flattering way. Her boots were black - though it was nearly impossible to tell with the amount of mud that was caked onto them.

Crawling up her arms were two black strings, and white ones followed them. And around her neck was a thick black band that reminded her of a collar.

Rydia grinned, and asked, "So, Sesshoumaru-chan, what brings you here?"

"I have a question to ask you, Rydia." He said, seeming to emphasize that there was no friendly -chan at the end.

She flushed, and giggled happily, putting her hands on her pinked cheeks.

"Sesshoumaru-chan, of course I'll marry you, darling! You know I love you!"

He sighed, and narrowed his golden eyes. "Not that kind of question."

She pouted. "Oh…"

"Listen, onna." Hiei said, bringing her attention to him. "We need to know what Yakumo is up to."

She looked over at Sesshoumaru, and smiled. "Well, those things can wait, Sesshoumaru-chan! I want you to meet the others!"

Hiei's eye twitched, and he nearly growled at the girl who was so obviously smitten with Sesshoumaru that she could not process what other people were saying. There was no other way to explain why she had just so blatantly ignored him.

Rain smiled. She personally thought that it was cute that the girl had such a big crush on Sesshoumaru - she thought that he needed a girl like her to cheer him up a bit.

She blinked when she felt someone's eyes on her, and she slowly turned around.

A boy was standing right behind her.

She gave him a curious look, and took a step back to get some extra room.

He was handsome, and about two heads taller than her. He had pointed ears, and long black hair pulled into a high ponytail, and questioning dark blue eyes. He had a headband, and wore the typical armor of the ookami, and his tail didn't do anything to hide the fact.

He sniffed curiously at her, then looked confused once more.

"Um…can I help you?" She asked.

The others turned around to see who she was talking to, but he kept his eyes locked on hers.

"Kouga-chan!" Rydia exclaimed.

His eye twitched, and he glared at her.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" He growled.

She looked down at her hand, and started counting on her fingers.

"Let's see…one, two…four, five…about twenty or so times." She answered, looking back up at him.

He sighed, and then looked back down at Rain.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"My name is Rain." She said.

Hiei stepped up beside her, and narrowed his crimson eyes at Kouga.

"What do you care, wolf?"

The boy called Kouga blinked in surprise, then smirked. "Well, if isn't little Hiei. Come back for another round of ass whipping?"

Hiei snorted. "Baka. I was the one who won that fight - not you."

He blinked again, and said, "Oh…"

He shook his head, and then looked back at Rain. "Oi, onna, are you human?"

Surprise flashed across her face, but she covered it with a quick smile. "Of course! If I smell like a demon, it's because I've been…I've been living with one for all of my life."

He stepped up right in front of her, and grabbed her shoulders, making her tense. He drew close to her, and closed his eyes, lightly sniffing her hair.

Hiei noticed that she looked quite scared, and said, "Oi, wolf, get off of her."

"Just living with one, huh?" He asked, stepping away from her and letting her go.

She frowned, and nodded. "Just living with one."

He nodded, though he didn't seem to believe her.

"Kouga-chan, what are you doing here anyways?" Rydia asked, having already forgotten his reminder not to call him that.

He sighed, not bothering to correct her.

"You're our resident healer. Ginta's mate is in labor." He said.

She grinned. "Oh, I'll go see her right away!"

Rydia then closed her eyes, and was completely engulfed in roaring flames that matched her hair. When the flames disappeared a few seconds later, nothing was left.

Rin and Rain seemed amazed.

"Sugoi!" Rin exclaimed. "She just…disappeared out of thin air!"

"What did she just do…?" Rain asked, her brown eyes wide.

"Flame teleportation. Common for fire apparitions." Hiei answered.

The girl suddenly tensed when a strangely familiar tingle ran down her spine, and she shivered, despite the fact that in that particular area, it was quite warm.

"Rain-chan?" Rin asked.

She forced a smile to appease her sister. "I'm fine!"

"Well, I guess you guys will be spending the night, seeing as how Rydia's a bit busy…" Kouga said. He smirked down at Rain, and said, "I don't mind."

Hiei narrowed his eyes at the ookami, and nearly growled, but stopped himself when he saw Sesshoumaru looking at him curiously.

"As long as Milord gets only the best housing!" Jaken exclaimed.

"Keep dreamin', toad." Kouga snorted.

He turned, and started heading up a path that wound its way up to a steep cliff, over which a waterfall was thundering down. The others followed him, minding their step so that they wouldn't fall into the rushing water.

If they did, it was almost surely death - at least, it would be for the two human girls.

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Kouga slowly opened one eye, and then the other. He was laying on his mat, and he looked curiously over at the sleeping form of Rain on the other one, right against the wall.

She was curled into herself, and her pretty raven-colored locks were hanging in her face, in what he personally thought was a very flattering way.

They had had some difficulties when deciding on sleeping arraignments, mostly because Hiei kept refusing to leave Rain or Rin by themselves, without either he or Sesshoumaru in the room.

So, after about fifteen minutes straight of arguing, they called a truce, and decided that Rain, Rin, Sesshoumaru and Hiei would all sleep in the main cave of the lair, and the other wolves would just have to stay in the other caves for the night.

The only reason that Kouga could come up with for the koorime's protectiveness would be because he had feelings for the girl.

She was pretty though, he noted, but she didn't seem entirely human to him…

She had said that she had been living with a demon for her entire life, but that didn't matter, because it was her very scent that wasn't all human…

"Oi, wolf, what the hell are you looking at?" Asked a calm voice, though he wasn't so dense that he didn't notice the underlying anger.

He looked over at Hiei, his crimson eyes glowing in the darkness of the cave.

"Huh?" Kouga asked.

"Why were you looking at Rain?"

The wolf snorted, and propped his head up on his hand. "What do you care? She'd never go for a guy like you anyways, you know."

Hiei growled. "I don't give a damn about her. She's Sesshoumaru's problem now."

"Then why are you here?" Kouga asked.

Hiei didn't reply, and instead closed his eyes once more. Truthfully, he didn't know how to answer…

Kouga smirked at his triumph, and then let his blue eyes drift back over to Rain's still-sleeping form.

She was perfect…she was far from being homely, and she seemed to have that kind of fire that marked an independent woman.

Yes, she was perfect to be his mate…

The wolf rolled over, and got settled once more. He would ask her the next day, and he wouldn't let her leave until she accepted him.

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When Rain awoke the next day, the morning sun was just starting to peek out from behind the mountain range, and the others were all still asleep.

However, she was used to waking at that time, so she decided to go ahead and get ready for what she thought would be quite a long journey.

She remembered that there was a quiet river at the base of the waterfall in front of the lair, and decided that she could wash up there.

She crept past the others, and noted with a small smile that Hiei actually looked rather cute while he was sleeping.

She then slowly made her way down the steep rocks, and finally to the base of the roaring waterfall.

She smiled and kneeled down beside it, dipping her hands into the cool water and splashing it on her face, ridding her of any sleep that had still lingered.

She then dipped her hands in once more, and got ready to bring it to her mouth to drink.

However, she saw something in the rippling reflection that made her stop.

Something…silver…?

She turned around slowly, and let her chocolate brown eyes trail up the form of the silver-haired man standing behind her.

And then, her eyes widened, and she screamed, stumbling away from him, and thus into the river.

The man chuckled, and said, "Yes, I'm a bit surprised to see you as well."

She started trying to reach the other side of the river, but stopped when he merely leapt to the other side, cutting off her escape route.

He crouched down, a slow smirk spreading across his face.

"I thought you said that the next time you saw me, you would kill me?"

A black blur suddenly flew down from the top of the cliff, landing beside Youko Kurama. The fox didn't have a chance to block the sword slash across the shoulder that Hiei gave him.

The kitsune rolled to the side, and drew his rosewhip, returning the favor and slicing Hiei across the chest.

"Koorime! Well, I never expected to see you here, either." He said sarcastically.

Hiei smirked. "We really can't keep meeting like this, fox."

They started fighting again, at a demonic speed that Rain's eyes couldn't keep up with. Another blur, brown this time, leapt down into the water beside her, making her jump.

Kouga crouched down beside her, concern evident on his face.

"You okay?"

She just stared at him blankly for a second, before nodding shakily.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine."

He helped her up, and was surprised when he thought he saw her eyes flash a different color.

"Rain…?" He questioned.

She snapped her gaze up to him, but her eyes were still that same deep brown. "Hm?"

He shook his head, and looked back over at the battle between the two demons.

Hiei's concentration was solely on Youko, and visa versa. He just kept hacking at the fox with his katana, and the gingitsune was attempting to strike the koorime with his rosewhip.

As usual, they were pretty evenly matched, and both were extremely intense.

Youko quickly summoned his plants, and thorny tendrils shot up from the ground, striking Hiei. The fire demon was caught by suprise, and thus couldn't block the attack. He received cuts on his stomach, arms and legs, but managed to destroy the plants with his katana before they could reach his head.

He then countered the fierce attack with his own, by using one of his more favorite attacks - using his sword to channel the Jaou Ensatsu Koko Ryu Ha, otherwise known as the Dragon of the Darkness Flame.

He dived at the kitsune, slashing him across the chest with the flaming sword, and smirked in satisfaction at the cry of pain that resulted.

In fact, the only thing that stopped the fighting was when a flame suddenly erupted between them, causing both to jump back.

And then, neither could move…

Rydia stood, and narrowed her crimson eyes at the both of them. She placed one hand firmly on her hip, and put a finger to her lips.

"Shhhh! The babies are sleeping!" She hissed.

Youko growled at her, and tried to break the spells that bound him to the spot. He couldn't even summon any plants!

Hiei struggled too, but settled for just glaring at the hot pink-haired woman.

Rydia then sighed. "Well, I can't let either of you go until you promise to be quiet."

Rain and Kouga blinked in unison, then the latter started laughing. Rain would've, if the murderer of her entire village wasn't standing there.

The girl turned around and saw three more demons running towards them - a male with black hair, a male with red hair, and a girl with silver hair.

"Youko-chan! Why didn't you wait for-" The girl cut herself off when she saw what had become of the silver-haired fox, and started laughing.

The redhead blinked in surprise when his crimson orbs met Rain's chocolate ones, but it was only there for a brief second.

"Oi, Kurama, what's wrong?" Kuronue called.

Youko growled deep within his throat, and Rydia put a hand on her hip.

"Are you going to stay quiet?"

"Sturir rich." He growled out from between his teeth, since he couldn't move his mouth.

She narrowed her eyes. "What did you call me?"

"Rine, ri rorise." He said, sounding quite agitated.

She smiled sweetly, and waved her hand, and the fox fell flat on his face.

He grumbled something into the dirt, and Rydia turned to Hiei.

"Do you?"

He tried to glare at her, but when he couldn't, he just said mentally, Fine. I promise. Now let me go.

She waved her hand, and he only stumbled a bit.

Youko pushed himself to his feet, and wiped off his face before growling at the girl.

"Damn you, you stupid bitch!" He exclaimed.

She turned to him, her crimson eyes narrowed. "I don't think my Sesshoumaru-chan would appreciate you calling me that."

The kitsune looked slightly surprised. "Your Sesshoumaru?"

"A silly little fantasy that Rydia seems to want to pursue." Came a calm and cool voice from behind them.

Youko turned around and came face to face with the silver lord.

"If it isn't old dog breath." Youko said, a bored expression on his face.

Rin peeked out from behind Sesshoumaru, and blinked curiously at the kitsune before her eyes widened in surprise and realization. She then quickly hid herself again with a small whimper.

Sesshoumaru didn't seem to notice, or he was just ignoring her.

"So, Kurama, I presume you're here to know about Rain?" Sesshoumaru said.

"Actually, I want to know what Yakumo is up to." The fox corrected.

"I see." The inu lord's face didn't change, and he said, "I believe we all need to sit down and talk. You may be able to help us."

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Author's Notes: I was rather sad when the last chapter didn't get many reviews, and I'm thinking that people are losing interest (LOL! Probably my problem for writing a lame chapter). Oh! I'm sooooooooooo sorry! I thought I had posted this chapter, then I realized that I hadn't!!! Sorry!!!!!!!!

VERY IMPORTANT!!: I need a vote: Do you want Sesshoumaru and Rin to get together, or not? MAJORITY WILL WIN!

I need this because I'm torn - I like Sess/Rin (when she's at an appropriate age), but I don't know....


Anyways, there was a bit of fighting in this chapter, and there will be more and more now that Youko and Hiei are in the same area. LOL.

miyako14: Thanks! I'm actually doing quite well with my finals, thank you.

hieis only 007: Thanks! I just adore Sesshoumaru, and I wanted him to be in the fic.

Seiyo-san: Yea, I really like how Aura came out!

Story Weaver1: Unfortunately, as of this chapter, the bat only has lust. I might make it something more, depending on what people say.

DarkVixenNisha: Ah. That's actually kinda funny.

Chibi Lady & Chibi Crab's Koishii: Actually, I'm thinking I may change my mind yet again! I'm going to take a vote and see if everyone wants that couple or not...hope for the best!

FluffysBijin05: Thanks!

TPM-girl: Gotta love the old bat!

slave2anime: Here's your update!

Kaija Katake: I read and I reviewed! It's really coming along nicely!