Chapter 5: New house look, do you like?
"Do you think he's still mad at us?" Jai whispered to Kyan as they slowly walked down the block.
Hiei was in front of them by about 20 feet away and had warned them not to go anywhere near him than the distance that he placed between them. Jai and Kyan were walking slowly behind him in fright and the cameraman (who is now designated as cameraman #4 since the last cameraman was no where to be found) walked behind them.
Kyan looked at Hiei's back and the way Hiei walked. It was the type of walked that said 'Don't mess with me' and a 'Don't go near me' mixed in one.
"Just a little."
"I hope that Thom is done painting Hiei's apartment by now," Jai said thoughtfully.
"I'm pretty sure that he should be done by now. It's only what? 3:55? Six hours was plenty of time for Thom to decorate his apartment," Kyan answered.
"That is very true. I wonder what color Thom used this time. Brown?"
"Nah. I didn't see him bring over his special brown paint."
"But he did buy that lovely wall paper yesterday."
"The one with the little bear prints on it?"
"That's the one."
"Oh I love that one! Think that he used it on Hiei's apartment?"
"Thom was excited to use it after he bought it. So he most likely did."
"What color were the bears again?"
"Pink. And it has little hearts on it too, remember?"
Hiei, being a demon, had a very good sense of hearing, heard what the two were talking about. His apartment was going to look like a little girl's room. A HUMAN little girl's room. He would not stand for it. He WILL not stand for it. He should do something. Like right now. So he hastily ran to his apartment, leaving Jai and Kyan in the dust. When they noticed what Hiei had done, they too ran after Hiei.
They wanted to be there when Hiei got back to the apartment and they also wanted to see his face on how good looking it was going to be. So with this in mind, they ran like the wind, quite fast surprising for two guys that got beat up by a little man and all the running they had done before.
---------- Hiei's apartment -----------
"It's almost time!" Ted said with anxiousness. He jumped up and down in excitement.
"I know. I know. I'm almost done," Thom said. He got out of the bedroom and threw out what it appeared to be some scraps of pink wallpaper that was used.
"I hope Hi-chan will like it," Carson said. He clapped his hands as if getting rid of dirt on them.
"Me too. I did a lot of work on his apartment. So he better like it," Thom said. His hands were formed into fists and he dramatically looked up, while on top of a rocky hill in the middle of a splashing ocean.
"I thought that I was supposed to be the drama queen," Carson pouted.
"Don't worry, you'll get your chance with the next straight guy," Ted said and patted his back. Carson smiled in response.
"So anyway, are we all done here?" Thom said as he took a last minute look at the living room that was now filled with stuff.
"Closet is filled with new clothes, shoes, and boots. There will finally be some color in subject's bleak life," Carson said sternly. It was all about fashion to him.
"The kitchen has pots, pans, more than one eating utensil, and the frigid actually has food in it besides the ice cream. I especially stocked it up on energizing foods and health foods," Ted said in a military-like voice and even saluted to Thom who saluted back in return.
"Good. I have done the bedroom, living, and Kyan has done the bathroom before meeting up with subject. All that is left for us to do it wait upon subject's arrival."
Operation make new life for Hiei was almost complete.
----------- back with Hiei and others ----------
'Just two more blocks and I'm there' Hiei thought to himself. To say that he was scared was almost an understatement. He didn't not want his apartment looking like a little ningen's room. He reluctantly admitted to himself that he had grown attached to the place and had no desire to see it in any other way. But he rather hug the oaf than admit that to Yusuke. Much less thank him.
Half a block and he was there. But of course, Hiei couldn't just be left alone for ten minutes without someone getting in his way. Or on him. Which ever comes first. So with unbelievable speed, Kyan and Jai had managed to catch up with Hiei and jumped on him and brought him to the ground before he could get inside the small apartment complex. Their secret for getting there so fast: car. Diver: cameraman #4. Owner of car: unknown even to the ones who drove/ride in it.
Hiei was not happy.
"There you are!" Kyan said hugging Hiei from atop him. He was on Hiei's back while the front side of Hiei, including his head, was kissing the ground. "Don't you ever scare us like that again! What if some evil demons kidnap you! Then I wouldn't know what to do!"
Jai got up from his position on Hiei and had a rolled up magazine in his hands and swatted Hiei on his head just as he was trying to bring his head up to glare at them. "That was very mean Hiei-kun. Running off like that without a word to us. Do that again and we'll take away your sword privileges."
Hiei growled and roughly push Kyan off of him and glared at the two of them. Then he stalked into the building with Kyan and Jai skipping merrily behind him. In the elevator, the two men sang happy tunes such as Mary had a little lamb, O'MacDoneld, and Bingo was his name Oh. It was the longest elevator ride Hiei ever had. Why didn't the elevator reach its destination already! He only lived on the 6th floor!
Then a thought hit him. He smirked. The two men were holding each other's hands while going in circles with Hiei in the middle and singing Ring around the rosy for the second time. "Do you know what the rhyme Ring around the Rosy really means?"
"No. What does it mean?" Jai asked curiously while he and Kyan stopped and unclasped their hands. Ring around the rosy was a favorite childhood song of his.
"It really describes the bubonic plague."
"The what?" Kyan asked confused. What did a plague have to do with such a merry song?
"Ring around the rosy is about the bubonic plague. Or the Black Death as it is more commonly know," a sinister smile was on his lips.
"You're lying!" Jai announced. No song of his was supposed to be about a bad thing! Not such a happy song!
"Oh but it's true," Hiei smirked. "'Ring around the rosy' means the rings that the people with the disease have on their rotting bodies. Black spots. 'Pocket full of poesies' meant that they all had their pockets full of the flowers poesies, in hopes of curing their illness. Of course that worked like a charm." Heavy sarcasm was in his voice for the last sentence.
"Stop! I don't want to hear anymore! You're lying!" Jai had his hands covering his ears and his eyes closed tightly shut. "Lalala. I can't hear you and if I can't hear you then it must not be true. Lalala."
Hiei's smirk grew bigger. "But you should hear what the last part means."
Jai cracked open one of his eyes. "What does it mean?"
"Well you do the math. How many people do you know survived from the Black Death? Ashes, ashes, they all fall down." Hiei half sang the last part and laughed with menace at Jai's horrified face and Kyan's shocked one.
"NNOOOO! It can't be true!" Jai cried. "I loved that song!"
"Believe it."
"NNNOOOOO!"
"It's okay Jai," Kyan said reassuringly to the crying man and patted his back. "I'm sure that Hiei-kun was just teasing. Right Hiei-kun?"
Hiei only smirked.
"Ne? Hiei-kun?" Kyan asked again hopefully.
"Sure I was." Jai looked up hopefully.
"But then again, I'm not a teaser," an evil smirk.
"WAAAA!"
Then the elevator finally opened to the 6th floor with a ding.
----------- at Hiei's apartment -----------
"They're almost here! They're almost here!" Carson exclaimed.
"No more dust. There's no more dust right?" Thom said while holding onto a feather duster and looking for any dust.
"No dust. No plain clothes. And no empty space. We're done," Ted announced.
A knock came from the door. The three of them ran to the door and quickly opened it to find dusty, dirty, and one torn clothe men. Excluding the cameraman of course. The three inside the apartment gasped in shocked. Hiei's clothes were covered in dust and dirt from the galumphing. Kyan and Jai's clothes were dirty and dusty from way before. Mainly from all the running that they did. Jai's clothes were also torn from banging in sidewalk and hanging onto Hiei's shoulder.
"What happened to you?" Carson asked. Hiei scowled and pushed pass him into the apartment, leaving Jai and Kyan to answer him.
"What happened to Hiei-kun was that his body was having a hot steaming affair with the ground," Kyan answered. "Then the ground's husband, Mr. Magazine, came home."
"But that doesn't explain you two," Ted pointed out.
"We just had an educational affair with a katana," Jai said. He was clearly over the fact about the Ring around the rosy. Then again, he still wasn't sure if Hiei was making it up or not.
"Oh really? What did you learn?"
"Never have an affair with a katana. You'll only end up getting hurt."
"That is so true," Thom said.
They all began walking farther into the apartment and then stopped because Hiei was looking at his apartment with shock. To which he tried to hide when he noticed that there were people looking at him. His once white, empty apartment was now a colored, filled one. Instead of the white walls, it was a light blue with a lighter brown wood frame. There were two long couches in the living room and a loveseat that were all black. A low coffee table was in between the long couches. It was a dark brown, oak wood. In front of the coffee table was a large, flat screen TV. A rocking chair was near the window. There was a table next to the entrance of the kitchen that could sit six people.
"So? What do you think?" Thom asked excitedly. He really wanted to know what Hiei thought of this. The others looked at his face with anticipation. Sweat was rolling down their foreheads. Hiei's face was blank. Then, the tinniest of smiles ever to have been made, hardly even a smile at all, was formed from Hiei's lips.
"Yeah!"
"Alright!"
"Hiei-chan likes it!"
"YAY!"
"He likes it! He really likes it!" the Fab Five celebrated by slapping each other's backs, hugging, and everything else expect touching Hiei.
"Bakas," Hiei said looking at them while they celebrated. He went into the bedroom, wanting to know how it looked like now.
It was a dark red, almost like the color of his eyes. And there was a bed there. A large bed with red sheets and a large black dragon embroider on the center. Hiei went up to the bed and traced the dragon with his finger tips. It almost looked like his Dragon of the Darkness Flame. It was beautiful. He brought up his head to look around the room. There were two lamp tables on either side of the front of the bed with a lamp on each table. On top of the bed, hung a large painting of a dragon with flames all around it. On the wall opposite to that, was his katanas displayed on the wall.
"Do you like it?" Thom asked excitedly. "I had a feeling that you would like dragons. So I had this especially made just for you!" He gestured towards the dragon on the bed and on the wall.
Silence.
Hiei stared.
Thom coughed expectantly.
"Hn."
"The least you could do is say thank you," Thom said.
"Whatever," Hiei walked to his closet, interested in knowing what was in there. Carson bounced in after him.
On one side of the closet, was like a rainbow. There were so many different kinds of shirts that were colorful. It gave a whole new meaning to the word color. Hiei squinted at the brightness of it. On the other side of the closet was like a black blob.
"Do you like?" Carson questioned and went to the rainbow section of the closet. "You didn't have a lot of color in your clothes, so I took the liberty of buying you non-black ones. And the black clothes that you so love are on the other side of the closet. I arranged this just for you. You could wear this green shirt for a casual party or this yellow one if you want to. And there's this light red one that would bring out your eyes that you wear for everyday use. And this one too. And this one..."
Carson kept drowning on and on and on. This shirt for this event. That pants for that event. This shirt paired up with that one but not with those pants. Hiei just blocked Carson's voice out of his head. He really didn't care how to dress sharp. And this continued on for a while until Carson finally stopped talking and pushed Hiei out towards the kitchen where Ted was waiting for him.
The kitchen was different too. It was still white, but there was a toaster oven, pots, and the other kitchen stuff that wasn't there before. Plus some ingredients out and in front of Thom who was waiting expectantly for Hiei.
"Now, for your guests tonight, you're going to make-" Ted began but was interrupted by Hiei.
"Wait. You mean that I have to make the food for the stupid party that I didn't want in the first place for the guests that I don't want coming?" Hiei asked.
"Well, yes."
Hiei should be angry at that. He really should have. He was being made into a servant for people like that likes of Kuwabara. He was cooking for them. For him. The baka. For him to eat. And for Yusuke. He should be mad. He really should be mad. He should glaring at Ted and muttering evil plots to get revenge. But he wasn't. Hiei smiled evilly and paid close attention to what Ted was saying.
Hiei went to the bathroom where Kyan was waiting a few minutes later. The bathroom was basically still the same expect for the red and blue towels and a shower curtain. There was also some stuff on the sink that Hiei didn't recognize.
"Okay, these products right here is for your hair," Kyan said picking up one the bottles.
"My hair?" Hiei asked confused. Why did he need several bottles of whatever that stuff was on his hair?
"Yes, you hair," Kyan pointed to his gravity defying hair. "This one is to keep you hair staying soft." Hiei growled. "This one is to help you hair stay strong. This one is to help you hair become shinny. And this one is to help bring you hair facing towards the ground."
"I don't want that one."
"Why not?"
"My hair is fine the way it is."
"But it might look cute when it's all down," Kyan pouted. This was so déjà vu.
"No."
"Fine, be that way," Kyan huffed at Hiei. "But you're using this deodorant." He tossed Hiei a small blue deodorant bottle thing.
Hiei looked at him with a raised eye brow and then at Kyan. "Are you trying to say I smell?"
His words may seem like they were meant in amusement, but his tone and facial expression was anything but. Kyan made a noise that sounded like whimpering before answering.
"No. NO. Never. It's just that..."
"That?" Hiei's cold voice made Kyan step back a step.
"You know, when you go to the gym or dojo, you wouldn't want to smell. And that's not good for trying to get the attention of someone special in a good way. And since you didn't have one, I thought that I'd buy one for you," Kyan smiled uneasily.
"I see," Hiei mused.
Kyan stood awkwardly. He really didn't know what to do next without causing him more pain and beatings from the shorter person. Let's see, the hair products were already done and explained, the skin products he didn't need, so that left the bath products!
"I almost forgot. Kyan snapped his fingers then he open the new shower curtains and took out some more bottles. "This one is for your hair as well."
"More hair stuff?!" Hiei yelled.
"Yes! This one is shampoo for you hair. And this one is for conditioner. This one is body soap to revitalize you body if you're doing a quick shower. And this one is for when you take long bathes, which I suggest that you do more often since you seem to have a temper problem. It's supposed to help relieve stress."
"The only thing that causes stress is you."
"Well I'm glad that you think that I had such an impact on your life."
"And I would gladly impact a punch to your face."
"But that wouldn't be right."
"Who ever said that I cared if was right or not?"
"Me. And besides, you got any hot Asian friends coming to your house warming?"
Hiei stared at Kyan oddly. Then he walked out of the bathroom muttering bad things about gay ningens under his breath. Next up was Jai who was waiting for him at the living room and sitting on one of the long coaches. Jai patted the seat next to Hiei, indicating that he should sit there. Hiei sat back on the opposite coach across form Jai.
"So, are you excited about tonight? Are you nerves?" Jai asked excitedly.
"You have more than enough feelings of excitement for the both of us," Hiei said indifferently.
"That's it? But aren't you nerves that you're going to ask the person you love for a date?" Jai asked confused.
"I WHAT?!" Hiei sat up straight. "Who ever said that I was going to attempt the first step in the mating ritual by courting her?!"
"Mating ritual? Such barbaric terms for this day and age. But Yusuke said that you would tell this someone special that you love her."
"Yusuke," Hiei growled. Yusuke was defiantly going to pay.
Jai looked at the growling man with dark eyes. No doubt planning evil plans against Yusuke. He instantly felt sorry for Yusuke. But better Yusuke than him. Then his eyes lit up in realization.
"I almost forgot," he went to where a backpack was lying on top of the table and took out something from it. He gave it to Hiei. "I know that most people have trouble telling the ones they love how they feel. So I thought that this would help you."
What he gave Hiei was a small black bear holding an even smaller heart that said "I love you" in beautiful calligraphy.
"You're joking right?" Hiei asked but was still looking at the bear.
"Nope. Cute isn't it?" Jai grinned happily.
"Hn," Hiei put the bear down and set a look of indifference on his face. But in his mind he was actually considering the possibility of it.
"Are we all done here?" Ted asked with high spirits and sat down next to Hiei. The rest of the Fab Five followed suit.
"Oh. What a cute bear," Carson said and picked up the bear.
"It's for Hiei's someone special," Jai explained.
"She is one lucky girl," Thom commented.
"Let's hope that she's a strong enough girl to handle you Hiei-kun," Kyan said and they all chuckled.
Hiei just looked to the side. "Hn."
"Well, it's time for us to go. Let's go boys!" Carson gave the bear a hug before getting up.
"Good luck Hiei-kun."
"Don't forget to shower!"
"Oh and we'll be coming to the party as well. You know, just because we've never been to a Japanese party before and because we want to see some of your other friends in person."
"Nani?!"
"See you later Hiei!"
And the door closed. Leaving Hiei and the black bear alone in the apartment. And cameraman #4 filming Hiei.
'Must not kill,' Hiei thought to himself. 'Killing would put me in Renkai prison. Mukuro's heir or not. Must not kill. Maybe tortuor, but not kill.'
Sudedenly, Hiei couldn't wait for the party to start.