[overjoyed smile] I got my first 'or else' threat! [Hangs up review in Hall of Firsts] Whee!
Starling: -.-! Ah, yes, our creator. Easily amused, easily cheered up. [watches as Niana bounces around] I guess I'd better do the review replies.
No, no, I'll do them! [grabs keyboard away from Starling with a really big smile]
Pleeai: Thank you very much. It's actually my best try at ookie-bad foreshadowing! (Starling: 'ookie-bad'? Hon, you need to get to bed earlier.)
Sasami Tombo: I do try hard to keep my spelling and grammar neat. Some of the fanfic and quiz writers these days sound like they've never gone to school. [sigh] And thank you for my very first 'or else' threat! [hug]
Jerry Unipeg: You are my most loyal reviewer. Domo arigatou gozaimasu! [bow]
Before we begin I'd like to mention this chapter has some strong language in it. Reader discretion is advised. Now! On to the story!!
Chapter 19: Illusions Are a Fragile Thing
==============
It's just about a half an hour after Ryoga met up with his sister and the silent Hiei, the sun is starting to set, and Rei is being carried piggy-back [Author laughs] by Ryoga, since she is asleep and Ryoga is taller. Before they'd started walking, the boys had given her a chance to change behind some bushes, so now she's back in her school uniform and shorts instead of the leg-binding yukata.
Ryoga sends the occasional sideways glance at Hiei, who seems not to notice, merely walking in complete silence no matter how many dry leaves they walk over. Finally, the fanged martial-artist breaks the silence, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb his passenger. "I can't remember if I did or not, but I wanted to thank you."
"Why?" is the reply, indifferent as usual but with a hint of surprise and curiosity.
"For helping that time against those men with guns." Hiei cocks his head to the side and looks straight ahead, accessing his memory banks for any mention of armed human Triad men. The memory bank gives him the correct entry, and understanding lights behind those slanted garnet eyes.
"Merely leveling the playing field, as I said," is the short reply. "If someone has to fight with a weapon that gives next to no chance of defense, then they aren't warriors, and do not deserve the chance to fight with one." Ryoga looks surprised at the roundabout compliment, and lets the subject drop into thoughtful silence for a few moments.
"I'd also like to thank you for keeping an eye on Rei-chan here when I'm not around. Much as I'd like to be," he adds wistfully. Hiei gives him another considering look, raising the boy up about half-a-notch in his respect. He's observant, moreso than most of the others around here.
"I have few allies, and fewer friends. The ones I do have I make sure to keep in one piece," is the shockingly frank explanation on the part of the normally reticent fire apparition, who is firmly looking straight ahead, a tiny bit of blush staining his cheeks red. Or that could be the sunset breaking through the trees as they reach the edge of town. Ryoga gives him an understanding smile and once more falls silent.
Hiei, on the other hand, is thinking about a few irregularities on Rei's behalf, and he's decided he's curious enough to ask. Using his mental skills, he politely 'knocks' on Rei's outermost mental shield. There is the sensation/sound of a lithe body being stretched, of feathers and fur being settled back into proper place with a good shake. The body on Ryoga's back never even twitches. The shield's 'door' opens a crack and the mind's image of Rei peeks out, and blinks sleepily at him.
"What's up, Hiei? Why'd you wake me up?" she asks, only half-awake as she slides the 'door' open further, allowing him inside. Hiei takes a moment to observe her mental image of herself, something he does not have much occasion to do. She appears as her youko form, but with one very obvious addition: huge grey wings, currently drooping and dragging on the 'floor' of her mind. Threads, shining silver in his Sight, wrap around her arms and up her calves, even form an intricate circlet around her head, sending tiny sparkles of light reflecting onto the loose sleeveless peasant blouse that is so long it acts as a nightshirt, stretching down to her knees.
"I have a couple of questions, and then you can resume hibernation."
"Peachy," Rei yawns, flopping down on air and doing her best to stay awake. "So, shoot."
"The boy, Ranma. You've told me about him twice, and it is only after the second time that he remained in my memory. Why?"
An enigmatic shrug. "He is a Chaos Card, Hiei. Hell if I can predict anything around him. If you have a complaint of having his chaotic aura messing with your memory, then take it up with the Meddler himself, there's nothing I can do about it." His reply to that is a monosyllabic grunt. "Anything else, or can I sleep again?"
"One more. You told me at Genkai's temple that you knew about Kurama and his past. Yet when we discovered your bloodlines you were totally shocked about it. Was that you being that featherbrained, or acting?"
"Acting," she says promptly. "We foxes are allowed few illusions, and those we get we tend to guard very carefully. I didn't want to hurt his feelings because I knew his secret. Besides, the looks on your faces were priceless." Hiei's reply to that is short, pithy, and succinct. Rei just laughs and shoos him out of her mind again, firmly closing the shield around her thoughts again. Content with the answers he's been given (and he only asked because he stood a good chance of getting answered) he walks the rest of the way to the Kenobishi Dojo alongside Ryoga in companionable silence. Rei's physical body hasn't even so much as stirred the whole time.
And how's that for multitasking? Hiei asks himself, casting one amused, mildly exasperated glance at his openly declared friend.
====
"Anybody want to lay odds on how much longer she's gonna sleep?" Kalerian questions the others, standing around Rei's bed where the girl sleeps, sprawled on her right side, curled like a cat sleeps. She hasn't moved from that position for several hours.
"Are we even sure it is sleep?" Kohaku pokes her friend warily on the shoulder, fully expecting an arm to thwack her in unconscious reflex. Rei doesn't even so much as twitch. Everyone starts to look a little worried; even at her most exhausted, Rei is a restless sleeper and tends to toss and turn for most of the night, making her an uncomfortable companion in a small tent.
"Well, what else could it be? Her ki's still here, so she hasn't gone 'wandering' or anything," Masaya points out logically. "And there's no sign that anything's eating her energy. Resealings wear you out too, Kaze."
"Yeah," Kohaku admits, "but even then I don't sleep for nearly two days straight, afterwards."
"Point."
"So what are we going to do?" Kalerian sighs. "We can't wake her ourselves, and all of us are certain this isn't normal sleep. So now what?"
"How about Yusuke's teacher, what was her name…?" Masaya's face scrunches up in concentration, and Kohaku sighs.
"Her name's Genkai, bakayarou. Which you'd know if you were paying attention when Yusuke introduced us to her before he sparred with Sleeping Beauty here."
"Hey, I was too paying attention."
"Yeah, to that pretty little slip of an ice maiden. You do know Hiei's her official watchdog, right?"
"So?"
"So, o thick one, if you mess with her he's going to take a personal interest in you."
"Oh. Right. Not a good idea."
"Soul-bonds," Rei mutters distinctly, in the tone of voice everyone recognizes as her lecture/studying mode. Attention is jerked back to her, as her lips move in silent conversation. "Soul-mates are…" she adds a few minutes later, and then, "Get it?"
"I don't get it," Masaya sighs. "Where does this girl get her dreams?"
"Same place we get ours, I imagine. I heard you talking about soup bowls just the other night," Kalerian comments as they all raise their hands and snap out.
Several minutes pass, and Hiei materializes on the windowsill, sliding the glass open and slipping inside, frowning and walking over to the still-soundly-asleep Rei. "Where's your soul?" he asks sharply, Jagan eye blazing awake behind the white headband. "Where have you gone off to?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" is the lucid answer, but the tone's all wrong. Instead of the usual teasing, mocking sound such a comment is flavored with, Rei speaks it with almost hurt disappointment. Hiei's gaze gets even sharper, and he pulls up her desk chair next to the bed and settles himself as comfortably as he can.
"Yes, I would," he says calmly. He crosses his arms across his chest, katana held ready in one hand, ankles crossed, body slouched, chin tucked on chest. His ruby eyes shut, and Hiei sends his soul a-hunting on the wings of the Jagan's power.
Two minutes after that, the other three Elementals snap in, with Genkai in tow, Yukina a concerned pale shadow (not to mention a slightly taller shadow) beside the aged psychic. Genkai takes in the sight of the comatose Rei and the shell of Hiei's body, and starts frowning very hard, pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand, the other tucked against the small of her back.
"Hiei, you idiot," is her only comment.
======
"Really, Kami, I need to thank you for those priests of yours," a voice that sounds like Rei, but older, comes from the thick silver mist swirling around him. Hiei blinks, takes in his insubstantial form, and wills himself to move towards the place her voice came from. Nothing. He seems to be good and stuck. "They do a marvelous job with wards and they don't ask a bunch of nosy questions."
"My pleasure, Fortuna," a warm, baritone voice replies from a place near the older-Rei's voice. "It is nice to just do what you need to get done without being pestered. I am glad you found a use for them."
"Fortuna-chan," a voice that raises the non-existent hackles on the back of Hiei's neck insinuates itself from the fog, "You haven't told us what you're planning for the event coming up."
"Mind your own business, Chaos," older-Rei snaps back. "I need tell you nothing, since you're already playing merry-hell with my Threads."
"But they're my Cards," the aluminum-on-teeth voice retorts. "I want to know, we all do. Tell, tell."
"Get bent, you annoying random insect."
"Fortuna. Chaos. Control your tempers here," a calm, powerful female voice commands, and Hiei shivers despite having no body to move. "We are here to discuss and debate, not turn this meeting into a free-for-all back-biting competition."
"If I were going to back-bite I'd use my sharper teeth," both mutter at the same time, and the mist crackles with the force of their glares. That's what the pinioned fire apparition is betting, anyway. He's starting to regret trying to find Rei so quickly. This sounds like a council way over his head and abilities. He recoils in surprise when a massive awareness brushes against him, and reaches a tendril of power out to taste his own.
"Hey, who are you?" the awareness questions in a male-melting contralto full of startlement. "I don't recognize your signature."
Hiei quickly regains his composure. "I am looking for a friend. We are getting worried, since her soul is not where it is supposed to be."
"Ohhh, you must be a mortal! How pleasant! And a user of the Jagan! That's makes it interesting! I'm Fortuna's counterpart for the world of Naringall, Lonka. What's your name?" The voice is surprisingly cheerful, and reminds him strongly of Botan.
"I am Hiei Jaganshi."
"You're Hiei??" it squeaks in excitement. "Oh, my goodness gracious! I have to go tell the others!" And the awareness is gone, but the mist is disturbed by its passage. Several new awarenesses follow the first back within a couple of breaths, all chattering animatedly about him. He isn't certain when the last time was that he felt so damned popular.
"You're the bond to--!"
"You've mastered the--!"
"You use the--!" And the disjointed comments begin to run together, as the others vie to have their comment or praise heard over the others. Several supremely powerful consciousnesses approach swiftly, two amused, one indifferent, and one extremely annoyed. He thinks he recognizes that last one, but only by the particular taste of the anger displacing the mist. It parts, and finally gives him sight.
He stands a few inches above a marbled floor veined in gold and a glittering black. An open-air amphitheater rises above him, supported on graceful, fluting columns with fantastic images carved into them. He is surrounded by faintly-glowing people, many of them not even close to human, and some not even humanoid. But it's the one standing in front of him, flanked by an old man and two impishly-smiling women, tapping her faintly-illuminated foot on thin air that holds his attention.
"Hiei, you really, really need to start working on controlling your cat side or I'm going to do it for you," an older-looking Rei tells him flatly in extreme exasperation. "Do you have any idea how big a gap this is going to put in your memory?"
"Oh, why not let the boy remember, Fortuna?" This is one of the two women, ruffling the irate redhead's hair. Surprisingly, she permits the affectionate caress.
"Because he's not supposed to know, damn it!" she almost wails the response, as though Hiei isn't ten feet from her. "I've had to blank his memory three times because of his cat-demon blood! None of the others beyond my circle know!"
"So over-write it, and quite whining," a very, very tall man with jet-black hair and gold eyes says, not unkindly. "You can't expect a bearer of a Jagan Eye to just sit there when a companion's soul goes wandering."
"I didn't go wandering," she mutters savagely. "I went to the be-damned Council meeting that someone," she glares at an unashamed older male who just shrugs, "set for less than a day after my resealing and forgot to tell me about until the very last friggin' second!"
"He is your friend, Fortuna," one of the others points out, the various appendages that Hiei can't even name undulating gracefully. They kind of look like a fan coral.
"He's Hiei," she snarls back, her youko side beginning to show in the line of hair following her spine trying and failing to stand straight up, her aura beginning to spark. "He should know better!" Far away and very faintly, Hiei can hear with his mortal ears someone exclaiming, "Geez, what the hells is going on?? She's going off like a Roman candle!"
"Someone," this voice is heavy with sarcasm, "must've pissed her off. Hiei, most likely." The fire apparition identifies it as Genkai, and he briefly wonders why she's with his body.
"No, no, absolutely not," Rei snaps at the same black-haired man from a moment ago, the conversation having continued without the mildly confused fire apparition. "None of them know, and none of them are--Hiei, are you using the Jagan right now?" Hiei blinks into the eyes of Rei, inches away and narrowed in concerned suspicion. He nods once, slightly. "Crap. Get your ass back to your body before you dissolve, stupid. You're burning yourself out, and fast."
"And if I don't care to?"
Rei lets out an aggravated sigh, straightening and turning to a earth-colored human-looking male. "Kami-san, if you would please?"
"Certainly, Fortuna. Just don't try and shred him until he recovers from this use." And Hiei is abruptly thrown out of the amphitheater and into his own body, to be swallowed by darkness.
=====
"YOU BAKA!" Whampf. Everyone watches Rei jerk upright and chuck a pillow straight into a sleeping Hiei's face without bothering to open her eyes first. Everyone had sensed when he'd returned, about an hour ago, and when he'd fallen into an actual, heavy sleep less than a breath later, occasionally twitching with an unpleasant dream. He tumbles off his chair with a pained grunt, wide, startled eyes staring at her. "Do you have any idea how close you came to fucking up nearly eight hundred years of treaties in five fucking seconds?????"
Her three soul-sibs stare at her in disbelief. For Rei to use such language, he must've done something spectacularly stupid. She's already off the bed and standing over him, bent over, hands on her hips, fox ears flat, tails (all six) bushed to their fullest, hackles raised, fangs flashing as she rants at him. "And to use the Jagan Eye to go dimensional hopping to boot!! Are you fucking insane??! WELL????!!"
"Um, Rei--?" Kalerian flinches when that murderous glare is directed at him.
"What?" she asks in a deadly calm voice.
"Before you rip him to bits, you might want to let us charge him, first," he says meekly, pointing down at the almost cowering Hiei. Frankly, even Yusuke wouldn't be able to blame him at this point. Rei in full fury is a very scary thing. To have her that mad at you, well…Rei glances down, actually using her total attention, and softens. Hollows underneath his eyes are dark purple bruises, cheekbones standing prominent beneath ashy flesh. The Jagan is nearly shut in his forehead, and even his hair--which as we all know always seems to defy gravity--is drooping. "He's near drained."
Rei subsides and stalks back to her bed, flopping on it with none of her usual grace, mutters ill-temperedly, "Gomenasai."
"Rei, you need to remember to think before you go off like that," Genkai chides in her raven-harsh voice, and Rei blinks, readjusting her senses to register the presence of the legendary psychic.
"Oh, hello, Genkai-sensei. I didn't see you there."
"You know how she is, Genkai-sensei," Kohaku sighs from where she, Yukina and the two boys kneel around Hiei, channeling badly needed ki into him. Already his hair is beginning to fluff up again, and his skin is regaining his normal, healthy light tan. "One-track mind."
"Behhhh." Rei sticks her tongue out at her friend and scowls. "I am not happy with you, Hiei. Not in the very least. You recklessly endangered yourself without even bothering to check my vital signs, didn't you?"
"Your soul was not where it should have been," Hiei mutters defensively, struggling to sit up, and glaring slightly when Masaya helps him upright. "How was I supposed to know where you went?"
"You could have waited until the others came back and asked, you know."
"For all I knew I didn't have the time. Your soul could have been stolen, so there." Rei blinks at the childish words, startled. And starts to laugh, sprawling back on her bed, entire body shaking with merriment, tears streaking down her face, arms wrapped around her ribs as though to hold herself together. The others are grinning as well, though Genkai keeps it to a tiny smirk. Rei finally sits back up after a minute or two, wiping her eyes and chuckling weakly.
"Oh…hahaha…I haven't laughed…hoohoo…that hard since Mizu got himself…hahahaha…dyed blue. Thank you." And her personality switches again, this time to the perfectly calm, serious side that makes everyone pay attention. "However, ahem, I am still going to have to alter your memory, though thank the heavens, I won't have to totally blank it this time. After all, you did interrupt my meeting with my compatriots--" Kohaku mutters to the others, "So that's where she went!" "--and once again uncovered my hidden identity. For the third time." A reluctant smile. "Something you seem to have quite the talent of doing." A gesture, and that familiar purple-black cord is once again in her hands, as well as a gentle cream cord for Yukina, who by this point has no idea what Rei's talking about but is starting to get one. "You will remember only what I want you to remember until the time comes that my geas is lifted." And those graceful hands move in a familiar gesture…
===
Crap. Now he's got another gods-be-damned foggy spot in his memory. At least this one's only blurred a bit. Something about finding a bunch of Tarot Card representations in the Void…
===
"Hey, Rei-chan!" Akane calls, and walks up to her friend outside of class. The red-head stops and waits, smiling cheerfully at the short-haired girl with bottomless blue-gray eyes. "How've you been? I hear from your other selves that you got into a spat with Hiei."
"Yeah. He went and did something totally stupid, and nearly screwed up something very important quite badly. He doesn't remember much about it, though." Rei shrugs in a fatalistic manner and the two walk into the class. Kalerian and the others wave from the seats they've claimed for the group, since this is one of the few teachers that allows free seating, and other groups snag favored places quick.
"Ano, Rei-chan," Ranma questions politely, something he's been working on lately, "I keep forgetting to ask. My Tarot Card is Chaos, ne?"
"Hai."
"Well, do you mind if I ask about yours?" Rei gives him a dazzling smile that has no effect besides the boundless cheer in it--he's only got that kind of attention for one girl, and it isn't the red-haired girl.
"Of course not." And without even looking, she reaches into the pouch on her hip and pulls out a single card. On it a woman has been drawn, with crimson hair spilling in gentle waves down her back, seated at a giant loom against a background of an hourglass. She wears a green velvety gown that is slit from shoulder to wrist, with only thin strips holding the sleeve together at elbow and the lowest curve of the shoulder muscles. Gold paint has been used to highlight the embroidery at wrist and collar; stylized spider webs. A rose-shaped clip holds the sides of her hair away from her face; rose earrings shine in her earlobes. At the very top of the image, a regular spider web is drawn, a small grey spider sitting in the middle and looking down at the woman. In bold letters of black ink, the words 'The Weaver' is written.
"How come you got this? It's the Fate Card, right?"
"Right. I not sure why this one represents me the best, though. Maybe because I like meddling with stuff." Ranma and Akane miss the amused glances the other three send at each other as Rei tucks the card away. "So. Anybody get the answer to question fifty-nine?"
===
It's now after school, same day, and the two living at Tendo Dojo have already gone their own way. Rei walks along the fence, lost in thought, while the other three whisper among themselves. Finally, Masaya looks up at her and clears his throat. Rei jumps a little, but turns her attention to him.
"We didn't get a chance to talk about it yesterday, but you were talking in your sleep again."
"Oh?" One thin red eyebrow goes up. "What was it this time?"
"Something about soul-mates and soul bonds."
"Oh, that," she says with a dismissive wave of her hand. "It was a vision, actually. And if the three boys who are hiding badly and the boy doing a good job of it care to come where we can see them, I can actually re-enact the damned thing." Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama appear from somewhere off to the side, and Hiei merely materializes directly in front of them. Rei grins and hops down from the fence. "Much better. So, I'm guessing you're all curious, now. Even those who don't want to admit it." Everyone rolls their eyes at Hiei's noncommittal 'Hn'. "Thaat's what I thought."
"So, come on, Rei, spill already," Yusuke prods, actually reaching over and poking her in the arm. In a flash, she grabs the offending hand and expertly twists, flipping the unlucky Yusuke over her shoulder and onto his back on the asphalt. Rei just smiles sweetly at the angry boy and prances ahead, turning to watch him rise to his feet.
"Oopsie-daisy. Reflex, sorry."
"No, you're not," Yusuke mutters crankily. Everyone just laughs a bit before turning their attention back to Rei.
"Now then. Soul-bonds. Tell me what you think when you hear those words." Kuwabara instantly goes all starry-eyed and clasps his hands under his chin.
"The magical bond Yukina-chan and I share," he gushes, and Hiei looks positively sickened. "We're bound by the red thread of Love forever and ever."
Rei coughs to keep her laughter under control. "Yes, well. That's one kind. There's well over a dozen different kinds of soul bonds, and different degrees for each one. The 'twin' bond is another well-known one, sometimes reaching a consciously telepathic level if it's strong enough. Even enemies can have a form of soul-bond, one that recognizes when the other is within a certain physical distance. What you're thinking of, Kuwabara--" everyone sweatdrops when they notice Kuwabara's still off in his own little world, a couple of feet away and surrounded with sparkles, flowers, and little hearts, "--Kuwabara! Hey! Blockhead dreaming of Yukina! Snap out of it and pay attention if you want to learn something!"
The orange-haired boy wakes up from his daydream and looks around. "Huh? What'd you say, Rei?"
"What does Yukina see in that blockhead?" Rei hisses at Hiei, who shrugs in disgust. "Anyway," she says more loudly, "What you're thinking of, Kuwabaka, is soul-mates. Even that has a few variations on it, and only one of them has the kind of relationship you're probably thinking of." Hiei seems to be contemplating the removal of Kuwabara's head, or something possibly lower.
"So what are some of the other kinds, huh?" Yusuke questions in curiosity. Rei smiles like he'd just given her the straight-line for a joke.
"Soul-mates are people with extremely close relationships, when you get right down to it. One of the other and equally popular versions is the one from the Greeks. They believed that a soul-mate was someone who essentially did have the other half of your soul, but you'd be far too alike to ever even think about being lovers. In the past, to fighters, people like that were known as shield-sibs, because the pair would always know when the other was in danger and would move to protect them.
A third kind is simply one where souls would continue to find each other in every life, no matter where they are, what gender, alignment, or orientation. Sometimes they'll be actual sibs, sometimes they'll be parent and child, sometimes they'll be cousins, particularly good friends, or actual lovers. That's the spectrum kind, and it's one of the most common." Rei grins at everyone, while they try and wrap their minds around such a broad concept. Kurama is the first to recover, and shakes his head with a smile.
"Where do you learn so many things, cousin?"
"I told you, Kurama. You'll find out only if you are very, very unlucky. Got it?" Her cousin shrugs as if to say it was worth a try before sighing and looking at his watch.
"I'm afraid I need to be going, Rei-chan. It's my turn to cook dinner tonight." Kohaku eyes him appraisingly.
"You cook?"
Rei grins. "Very well. He makes this great won-ton soup/pot-stickers dish for my birthday every year, and sometimes I can get him to make it just because." Hiei's smirking at Kurama's blushes.
"Rei, please. I'm not that good."
"Says the guy who makes the food I can eat five helpings of. You need to stop underestimating yourself all the time, at least in the culinary department." Rei playfully pokes him between the eyes as an added reprimand. Kurama rubs the spot and gives her a half-hearted glare, then gives up and smiles.
"I'll try, Rei-chan. Ja!"
"Ja!" And the crimson fox darts off. Yusuke and Kuwabara make their own good-byes and head off in another direction, leaving the Elemental Quartet and Hiei to walk through the Kenobishi front gate. Kohaku drags the boys inside before they can try to use training as an excuse to stall on homework, leaving a bemused Rei and Hiei to watch the boys squirming to get loose until Kohaku closes the door behind her. Hiei glances up at Rei, the nearly-constant curiosity getting the better of him yet again.
"Did you mean all that, or were you just making it up?" Rei gives him a sideways smile full of mischief.
"Heh heh heh. Wouldn't you like to know?" He just keeps staring at her until she chuckles and ruffles his hair. "All right, it was all true, actually. You'd know if you bothered reading as many books on myths and legends as I do." She starts walking towards the dojo, where the sounds of a class in full swing can be heard coming from inside. "And I'll bet you want to know what kind of bond you and I share, right?"
"Hn," is the cool-toned response. Rei just turns her head as she walks, looking hurt.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Hiei gives up and sighs, catching up with her and falling into step.
"Yes, I would."
He's rewarded with a bright smile. "You and I, Hiei, we share a sibling's soul-bond." The smile grows wider. "Or the Greek's version of soul mates."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Come on, Hiei, we've both saved each other's asses more times than I can count. And I don't know about you, but you're way too much like a mirror for me to ever want you for a lover." Hiei considers this, and reluctantly agrees with his trademark 'Hn'.
"We are not perfect reflections of the other," he adds, stopping to look the few extra inches up into her face. Rei stops too, and returns the gaze with full sobriety.
"No, we're not. There is no such thing as a perfect reflection, Hiei, because there's no such thing as perfection." Rei smiles sadly at him and resumes walking, but at a slower pace. "But you and I are alike, we can't deny that. I just have more practice at showing my lighter side." She flashes him a cheerier smile.
"Too much practice," Hiei agrees sourly, and Rei laughs, that golden cascade of sound that has Kuno chasing after her with as much enthusiasm as he does Akane and Ranma-chan. ("My crimson vixen! Thou art so fair that my heart doth beat only for thee!")
"That's why I told you 'annoying-pain-in-the-ass' works just fine!"
"And it suits you so well," Hiei retorts with a tiny smile on his face, walking with her into the brightly lit dojo.
================================
Awww! [gets chased by Hiei] Eeeeeeeeeee--[takes a breath]--eeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Starling: You really need to stop antagonizing Hiei, shug.
[Running past] But why? It's fun and I get exercise!
Apollo: Is she getting chased again, sis?
Starling: Yup. [the two wolves watch for a minute or two]
Apollo: Okay this is boring. I know! Hey, Hiei! Kuwabaka's making google eyes at Yukina again! [Hiei stops and chases after Kuwabara, hitting him with a bamboo pole] Much funnier.
Aw, you two ruin all my fun. Oh, well. Read and Review, thankies!