Gourry-Gabriev: Your wish is my command. n.n
Spring's Fire, Chapter Three
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"Hiei! What are you doing back here??" Kurama asks him, startled to open the door and find his beloved on the front porch with his hands in his pockets. "You're supposed to be watching over Kohaku," he continues in a whisper, glancing over his shoulder to check that his family is not listening.
Hiei shrugs and allows one wicked smile to briefly curve his lips. "Shuichi, if someone were to actually attack her, they'd have at least twenty different packs out for his blood." Confused, Kurama steps out onto the porch and closes the front door behind him before crossing his arms over his chest.
"Please explain, Hiei."
"Kohaku's mother is a wolf demoness named Mei, my fox." Those emerald eyes widen.
"Wolf??"
"Wolf. And you know what happened the last time some stupid fool messed with the wolf-clans."
"A massacre," Kurama breathes, remembering. It was when the current Thief-King, the lightning-wolf Ikazuchi, had just joined his thief-gang when he'd been living as Yoko Kurama. Some tiger demons thought that if they'd kidnapped the boy--at that time the barely-teen age of forty-two--they'd be able to get a ransom from his family and possibly Yoko. What they'd gotten was a long painful death at the hands of four other packs of wolves and Ikazuchi's family. The news had been all over the black-markets of Demon World, and the few remaining bits and pieces of the tiger demons' bodies had sold at a high price for collector's items.
"Just so. Let the baby know I'm still keeping an eye on her, just in case." And as silent as he always is, the fire apparition slips away into the finally-fallen night.
----
He returns to the tree from before in time to catch the teen climbing into bed, a laptop blinking a stream of anime pictures sitting on the desk next to the bed. The kajihenge feels a fleeting breath of relief that he hadn't returned earlier, for then Murphy's Law might have taken effect and she might have spotted him just as she was changing. That would not have been good.
Hiei watches as Kohaku, now comfortably settled, reaches over and grabs the laptop, pulling it onto her crossed legs and giving Hiei an excellent view of the screen. Curious, he watches as her fingers fly over the keys and a 'chatroom' logo appears. The slender fire apparition has been curious about the 'Internet' and technology in general since Kurama had brought home a brand-new computer and showed both Aislin and himself how to work it.
He also notices her screen-name and his mouth turns up in an ironic smile. 'Lonewolf' is very appropriate, and the fact that she seems utterly unaware of her non-human heritage just makes it more amusing. Settling himself more comfortably on his branch, he starts to 'eavesdrop' on her conversation. He's about to get an interesting surprise.
Lonewolf: Ah-woooo! Anybody here yet?
Aussieboy has entered the chatroom.
Crystalspire has entered the chatroom.
Hawkflyer has entered the chatroom.
Celticknot has entered the chatroom.
Amberleaf has entered the chatroom.
Bishieluver has entered the chatroom.
Shonen-Ai has entered the chatroom.
Snowcat has entered the chatroom.
Songbird354 has entered the chatroom.
Lonewolf: o.O
Aussieboy: Sorry I'm late, sheila. Somebody had a problem getting away from my computer again.
Celticknot: Little brother?
Aussieboy: I swear one of these days I'm going to install an electric shock on my baby's keyboard and mouse to 'persuade' him to get off like he's supposed to!!
Bishieluver: And the fact that you have a whole lot of :ahem: naughty things on your comp makes no never mind, right?
Snowcat: ° laughs ° I pray he never finds your collection of Ranma-kun, Craig. At least until you've let me copy all of it.
Aussieboy: What about your collection of 'Adonis'-ness, Ally?
Snowcat: Passworded, and I ain't telling what the password is.
Hawkflyer: T.T Damn. No peeking, then.
Songbird354: Myahahaha...
Crystalspire: Uh-oh...
Lonewolf: She's doing that crazy laugh again...
Amberleaf: ° sigh ° Okay, I'll ask. Why are you in evil-mode, Cassie?
Songbird354: I got my new shipment in.
Lonewolf: o.O Of artbooks and manga??
Songbird354: Bingo.
Lonewolf: I hate you.
Songbird354: Aw, and here I was thinking of airmailing these extra copies of everything to you...
Lonewolf: I take it back!! You're the bestest friend a lonely wolf can have! ° shiny puppy eyes °
Shonen-Ai: Come on, Cassie, don't make her beg. It took us hours to clean up the mess the last time. ;)
Songbird354: Okay, it'll probably be there in about two weeks, our sugar-wolf.
Lonewolf: ° bouncing around ecstatically °
Amberleaf: Sigh. --
Celticknot: 3...2...1...
Lonewolf: Thankyouthankyouthankyou! You're the best at getting everything that isn't even available here in Anime-Land yet!! n.n
Songbird354: ° preens °
Snowcat: So, Kohaku, Craig and Luke were telling the rest of us Anime-Pack members about the new badass bishie-boy you met the other day.
Lonewolf: Frag, not this again. Don't you people ever give up?
Shonen-Ai: When it concerns bishies?
Bishieluver: Hell, no!
Celticknot: The day I die, maybe.
Aussieboy: Not me!
Lonewolf: You boys are all about as straight as bagels.
Aussieboy: Worse, thank you.
Bishieluver: Bishie report, four-foot. Spill!
Lonewolf: Oh, fine. But I will not be doing this again! Twice is enough!
Hawkflyer: Bishies!!
Lonewolf: --! Someone get Luke his meds. Okay, for the second and last time. One badass type bishie rescued me after five cold, hungry hours of me trying to find my way back home. He's gotta be good in martial arts 'cause he didn't budge when I auto-flipped him.
Shonen-Ai: Why'd you flip him?
Lonewolf: 'Cause I was sleeping in a tree again and he woke me up.
Hiei hopes very hard that they aren't talking about him. But then again, how many other boys had gotten her home after a five-hour lost-streak in the last couple of days?
Songbird354: And he didn't budge? O.O
Lonewolf: I know. He was unfairly cute, too. Raven-black hair spikes, cross between a Mohawk
and a pineapple. (Hiei sweatdrops) Really cool white-outline, like a starburst in his bangs. Eyes the color of old blood. About three inches shorter than me and dressed all in black.
Shonen-Ai: A bite-sized badass bishie? Oooh, I'm so jealous, wolf-girl! You get all the luck! What was the name of your gallant-yet-so-bad-ass bishie-boy?
Lonewolf: Hiei.
The aforementioned fire apparition has read enough. Cheeks burning red, he flees into the night to sort out the conflicting emotions tumbling around in his head. From the shadows of the back porch a shaggy figure rises to all four feet, watching him leave with wary, guarded gold-brown eyes.
----
"What are you doing up there, Hiei?" Genkai queries when she comes across the fire apparition during her final perimeter check of her temple's grounds for the night. Hiei is currently brooding up on a very high treebranch nearly sixty feet off the ground, curled up with his knees to his chest with his arms wrapped around his shins. His hair-spikes are fluffed up, though whether it's from nerves or from temper it's hard to say.
"Thinking."
"Anything about the girl you're supposed to be guarding?" Wide, startled maroon eyes stare at her from the darkness. "The blockhead and the idiot came by earlier to ask me about being a guard for her. I told them I'm too old to keep chasing after energetic teenage girls who think about nothing but boys." Hiei is very thankful that it's so dark this high up; Genkai hopefully can't see the blush that's heating his face up.
"You should see her dance, old woman," he says in a strangled voice, wrestling his control back into place with sheer force of will mixed with desperation. "She should have been born a fox, not a hanyou wolf."
Genkai raises an eyebrow in curiosity, but drops the subject and the discussion and continues in mercurial silence on the rest of her rounds, leaving our favorite ice-born fire apparition to deal with his arguing thoughts.
She likes me! one part exults, only to be shouted down by others.
I love Kurama, not her! another part wails desperately, with another unhappy voice crying after.
She's half-mortal!
She'd hate me if she knew...The voice that he's tried so hard to fight, the depressive, self-destructive voice that had grown much louder and more persuading over the centuries whispers into the darkest parts of him.
Yukina doesn't hate me, that exulting voice points out with perfect logic.
Yukina doesn't know.
And whose fault is that?
Mine. I'm the one who made a deal with the demon who gave me my Jagan. I can't tell her until he's dead, and I can't find him.
She said my hair resembled a pineapple.
All of her friends were interested in you.
I don't want them to be!
What am I going to do? She's a wolf, and a mortal. She's my charge; the one I am to defend until she is deemed capable of fighting for herself.
Why not love her? She's not Kurama, but she thinks you are interesting for your own sake.
/Why not, Hiei?/ His head jerks up and a thin growl trickles from between clenched teeth.
/Do not dare to trespass in my mind, Aislin./
Her mindvoice is acidic but with a faint current of sympathy. /When you are practically shouting in my head, it's rather hard not to listen. I promise I won't tell our beloved until you've gotten yourself sorted out a bit more, but at least remember your shields, soul-sib. And if you want to talk about muddled feelings, I know them all too well myself./ And the faint feeling of a snowstorm occurring outside a cozy house vanishes from the back of his mind, leaving him alone once again.
An involuntary whimper escapes the tormented kajihenge as he curls up tighter and shuts his eyes in an effort to find sleep. When the sun rises, turning the leaves amber and gold, a pair of sleepless wine-red eyes watch it climb.
----
"Well, damn, you look like hell ran over you with a couple of semis before backing up and doing it again." Hiei jumps at the amused voice tinged with concern piping up behind him. His sword is out and held to the speaker's throat before he has time to countermand the action, and he actually cringes when he sees Kohaku blinking at him over the silvery length of the blade. "And one hell of a hello."
"Sorry," he mumbles, resheathing his sword in one fluid motion, unable to look her in the eyes.
"It's okay. My mom sometimes jumps like that, too. So what're you doing? It looks like you're trying to run without making it seem like you're running."
Damn it, why does she have to be as perceptive as Kurama? Hiei asks himself, anguished. That is exactly what he's been doing, though he can hardly admit it even to himself. After the long night in Genkai's forest he'd come into the heart of the city, hoping the cacophony of other people's thoughts would drown out the voices echoing in his skull all night. But no luck. The ones that had been trying to persuade him to start feeling for this girl have now gotten stronger at the sight of her, making his head throb. "Hn."
"That bad a day, huh?"
He manages a half-hearted, bleary glare. "You have no fucking idea."
"Bet I do," she replies firmly before looking behind him and smiling. "Hey, Shuichi-san. Hey, Aislin-san. Were you looking for Hiei-san here?" Hiei feels a shiver of guilt ice its way down his spine and he turns to find his beloved and his soul-sib coming up behind him, both looking tired and frazzled.
"Yeah, we were," Aislin replies, grabbing him by the shoulder of his human-made sweater and beginning to haul him off. "We're late for work thanks to this guy."
"Oh, dear," Kohaku says with genuine sympathy. "Will your boss be mad?"
"Furious, but we'll live. Hiei may not if I decide I want to kill him for this. See you later, Kohaku-san. K-Shuichi! Come on!"
"Coming, koishii," Kurama sighs as he jogs to catch up. Kohaku blinks at their retreating backs, shrugs, and resumes grocery shopping for her mother. She's got about a seven-mile radius memorized out from her house, so getting lost won't be a problem. Trying to find plain iceberg lettuce might be.
"Baka," Aislin sighs as she changes her grip to an arm around Hiei's shoulder to better steer him with. "You look like shit. Get any sleep at all last night?"
"No," Hiei mumbles, suddenly tired beyond belief. He stumbles against the koorime, nearly knocking them both off their feet with the force of it. Gentle hands suddenly lever him up onto someone's back; he opens his eyes to find Kurama carrying him piggy-back and walking smoothly down the street much faster than they had been going before.
"So your enemies have begun their attempts?" the fox-ningen asks quietly, Hiei shaking his head.
"No." Aislin gives him a knowing look leavened heavily with sympathy but says nothing, knowing the cause of his distress.
"Then what has taxed you so greatly that you can hardly stand?"
I'm falling in love with a mortal! part of him wants to cry, but he firmly muffles that thought behind his ultra-heavy shields and keeps his mouth shut, saying nothing. Now he knows how Kurama had felt when Aislin had reentered their lives last year, and the fox had discovered that he still was in love with her, and then-now in love with him. Hiei had been very afraid that his fox-human's love for the koorime would drown the unfurling emotions Kurama was feeling for him, very afraid that he would be left alone again.
So many people had left him alone. First his mother and almost his entire race, then the bandit gang that had found and raised him, contacts and friends that he'd made despite trying not to, then Aislin. He was tired of being alone. Come to think of it, he was just plain tired...
Aislin glances up and sees Hiei fast asleep on Kurama's back, cheek pressed against the muscled shoulder, hands limp on either side of the red-haired boy's neck. "I don't think Hiei should be part of this mission, my heart," she says quietly in Kitsune so that the ningens around them would not understand their conversation. "He's worn himself to a wraith in a frighteningly short amount of time."
A wicked smile tinged with worry for the male asleep on his back blooms across Kurama's face. "It is a simple clean-up mission," he replies in the same tongue. "I'm sure Yusuke and Kuwabara can handle it."
"Hooky?"
"Hooky."
----
Ding-dong. A tall, raven-haired woman answers the door of Kohaku's home twenty minutes later, smiling in surprise to find two demons and one...indefinable...standing on her front porch with expectant smiles. Well, Aislin and Kurama are smiling. Hiei's still asleep on Kurama's back. "Can I help you?" she asks with caution, hand drifting to the dagger tucked into the waistband of her pants at the small of her back.
"Is Kohaku-san home? We're from her school and we're wondering if she wanted to karaoke with us." Aislin's winning smile does nothing to soothe Mei's nerves.
"Karaoke??" a voice demands from within, a grinning Kohaku coming up to the door and practically vibrating with excitement. She'd gotten back only minutes before, having given up on plain Iceberg lettuce and just grabbing some Romaine. "Oh, Mom, can I, pretty please??"
"Well..."
"Come on, Aislin, Shuichi! Help me out here!" Blink, blink. "What happened to Hiei?"
"Long night," Kurama sighs, resettling his beloved a bit more comfortably and stretching his arms at the same time. "He passed out walking to work with us."
"Well, that sucks. He could always bunk in my room while we go out. My little brother could be convinced to keep an eye on him, with the right incentive."
"Kohaku," Mei sighs, tapping her foot. Kohaku turns pink and the two apparitions standing on her front porch can almost see wolf ears tilting down and to the sides in a sheepish expression.
"Sorry, Mom. But please, can I go? I haven't really gone out since we moved here, and I'm bored."
"Homework?"
"Finished!"
"Room?"
"Clean!"
"Daily routine?"
"Done and done! I've also walked Baka twice and memorized two city blocks. Please, Mom!" Sighing in resignation, the woman nods and Kohaku cheers, racing back inside. A few moments later she's back down again, dressed in a russet-red knit sweater over blue-jeans, beaten-up boots on her feet. She grabs Aislin and Kurama and hauls them down the front walk to the street, muttering to them, "Come on, before she changes her mind!" Bemused and amused, the two let themselves be dragged. Hiei hasn't so much as twitched the entire time.
----
Music. Why is he hearing music? He figured on waking up to the sounds of battle or to the infant howling at him. "I brushed against the freckles that I hated so and life goes on and I heave a little sigh for you..." Whoever's singing has a pretty voice.
"Ai-ai-ai, I'm your little butterfly!" That one sounds like Aislin. But she doesn't really sing, does she?
"Hiei? Come on, Hiei, it's your turn! Wake up, silly fluff-head." He can feel his left eye twitch. Fluff-head??
"Hm, it seems to have no effect, captain," Aislin's voice laughs. "Perhaps another tactic?" Two voices share laughter and suddenly he feels someone staring very intensely at him, though it doesn't feel hostile. It feels...expectant?
A sigh. "I didn't really want to use this, but he doesn't leave me with much of a choice, does he? Hiiiei. Hiiiei. Hiei Hiei Hiei Hiei Hiei Hiei--"
"What, baka onna??" He snaps his eyes open to glare at the person chanting his name so happily and freezes at the sight of a smiling Kohaku inches away from his nose, perched on the end of a table. Behind her is a very large, colorful screen that is languidly shading through the colors of the rainbow. "Um..."
Abruptly Kohaku thrusts a microphone under his nose and gives him a smile equal to that of Aislin at her most wicked. "Come on, sleepy-head, it's your turn to sing. All of us have done a couple sets each, so it's only fair we get to hear you at least once."
The glare returns full force, the stunned kajihenge finding his old shell and quickly ducking beneath it. "I. Don't. Sing."
"Aw, come on, Hiei-kun!" she begs, eyes glowing. "Pretty please with sugar on top?" Another eye twitch. Too...damn...cute. Must resist ruining his reputation. Must resist cute female...Crap. She's turned on the puppy-dog eyes, and no male has ever been able to resist one of those, especially from a wolf-blooded female who actually seems to like you. "Pleeeeease?"
"Resistance is futile," Aislin laughs, sitting next to him on his left. He risks a glance to his right and finds Kurama there, smiling at his beloved's discomfiture. "She's just going to keep weakening you. Might as well give up now while you still have your pride."
"Hn!"
"Stubborn male," the white-haired female chuckles. "Kohaku-chan, take it up another notch. If he's going to be stubborn about it, might as well see how much he can take."
"Hai!" Crap. Damn pride has done it to him again. Why oh why does he keep letting his pride have all the say? His attention is caught by the brown-haired girl scooting a bit closer--just enough that Hiei can't really look anywhere without having her in his peripheral vision. And then turns the cuteness on full force with the sparkly, puppy-dog eyes, the tiny little pout-smile and the honey-sweet voice. "Hiei, please sing for us? Pretty, pretty please?"
Kurama hides a smile as Hiei visibly wilts, caving in to the adorable girl begging him for a single song with a heavy sigh. "Fine. But only one song, and I refuse to sing anything like what I've been hearing for the past two hours."
"So you were catnapping," Kurama chuckles as the shorter male rises to his feet and takes the proffered microphone like it's a venomous snake. Aislin and Kohaku are bent over the binder filled with the various choices, discussing which song they should get Hiei to sing. Kurama has to smile. Kohaku really is just like Aislin was when the kitsune had first met her, only without the centuries of hard life behind her. The two complement each other quite nicely, though, with matching streaks of wicked humor. He hasn't seen Hiei this off-guard for centuries.
Finally the two girls agree on the song and Kohaku reaches a slender, muscular arm to the pad of numbers sitting by the microphone equipment and punches in a quick combination. An American song's title pops up on the prompt-screen and the screen behind the reluctant fire apparition turns shimmering blue. Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.
Kohaku sits back with one knee pulled to her chest, fingers curled around her calf and watches avidly as Hiei takes a deep breath and begins to sing. He really does have a lovely voice, she thinks dreamily, I wonder why he seems so unhappy, though.
"And I don't want the world to see me..." I don't "'cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's made to broken..." like me "...I just want you to know who I am." Hiei sings as if he's done this song hundreds of times before, though Kohaku sincerely doubts he's ever heard it before in his life. "And you can't fight the tears that ain't comin', all the moments of truth in your lies. When everything feels like the movies...yeah you bleed just to know you're alive." But something...something is off to her sensitive ears. This should just be a song to him, yet he sings it as though he means every single word, like every word's been carved from his experiences. "And I don't want the world to see me, 'cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's made to be broken...I just want you to know who I am." When Hiei lowers the microphone, the screen flashes a perfect score behind him but the spike-haired male isn't paying attention to it. It hurt to sing that song, and if he'd known what the lyrics were he'd have refused to sing it no matter how much either of the girls had begged him.
He blinks as his world abruptly becomes a fuzzy russet red color and a pair of arms encircles his narrow shoulders. Kohaku is...hugging him? Why?
"I'm sorry, Hiei," she murmurs so that only he can hear her, "if I'd known it would hurt like that, I'd've never asked you to sing it." All three youkai blink. Of course the canine-eared pair still on the couch had heard her, and they are surprised at the depth of her empathy. Hiei is shocked as hell because she'd just repeated his thoughts nearly word for word. He tenses and she pulls away, backing out of the common-theory of personal space (three feet at all times, thank you very much) with her hands where Hiei can see them. "Sorry, you probably don't like hugs from near-strangers."
"You're not..." Everyone is surprised at his voice; calm, soft, and gentle. "You're not a stranger." And here his mouth quirks in a flash of his old humor. "Strange, most certainly, but not a stranger." The startled blush that stains the half-blood's cheeks bright pink is almost worth spending a night tossing and turning in a tree to the kajihenge.
Kurama has to smile, although he does feel a twinge of pain at the sight of Hiei being drawn irresistibly to this uniquely-tempered girl, a moth to a flame. /I think he may be truly falling in love with her, Kurama,/ Aislin says behind his other thoughts, and he glances at her from the corners of his eyes. She's looking amused at Kohaku blushing and Hiei smirking a hero's smile having won a battle he didn't think he'd win; she shows no sign of having 'pathed him. /A painful thought for all three of us, but what are you and I able to do about it?/
/He deserves someone wholly devoted to him,/the fox-ningen admits after a breath, when Kohaku had shooed Hiei away from the stage and reclaimed possession of the microphone. The bantam kajihenge resumes his seat and presumably his interrupted nap, for he tucks his chin against his chest and closes his eyes once ensconced in his place between Aislin and Kurama before breathing a heavy sigh and then dropping into silence.
Kurama had always known it was unfair to both of the elemental apparitions for him to keep them bound to him with the strength of their emotions, but he'd never been able to choose between the fiery ice apparition and the cooler fire apparition. He'd hurt both of them by his indecision, but now it would appear that destiny has taken a hand and not given him a choice. The red thread binding the fox-human and the male sleeping beside him is slowly being untangled and the first tendrils are winding their way irresistibly around the hand and heart of the girl singing playfully up on the low stage.
"All dressed up to go out on a Sunday, sky is blue sun is bright it's a date day! Not gonna say it, can't make me say it, no way gonna let you have your way!" The seemingly-human girl bounces with the enthusiastic beat of the song, winking playfully towards the oblivious Hiei. "Even though I don't want you to hate me, when you say it's okay and it's the fact that the love don't faze me, it's the word that's crazy, is somethin' that I gotta work on!" She grins pridefully, head held high with an arrogant tilt to her chin. "You know, here's how it goes: you and me we meet on the street and then, I say 'outta my way' I don't know how you can confuse me so. But hey, maybe today, with the waves so blue I can be true with you! Who knows? Maybe I'll say the word 'love'..."
Aislin smiles despite the thoughts troubling her heart, listening to the vibrant tones of the happy Kohaku singing vigorously away on the little karaoke stage, remembering a bit of supposed myth that one of her band had once told her when Ikazuchi had first joined them as a wet-behind-the-ears amateur. 'No matter what mood they're in, wolves are contagious. Natural Empaths, every one, and most of 'em don't even know it. If you want a riot, get one pissed in an angry crowd. You want lotsa calm? Dope one up on happy-juice. You want a good time? Get one bouncing and you'll have a hard time stopping yourself from bouncing, too.' A grain of truth, Aislin muses, applauding as Kohaku finishes and sweeps off the stage with a score of ninety-three. She hasn't felt this cheerful since she'd first found out Kurama was still alive in the guise and body of a human boy. Now if only Hiei can get himself sorted out...
----
Kohaku is in an extremely good mood that night as she finishes getting ready for bed and climbs between her comfy black sheets printed with the kanji 'anime' randomly over and over in pale grey. After they'd finished with karaoke (she'd made certain she'd gotten a tape of their session, including Hiei's only performance), they went to an ice cream parlor and then to an interesting club where the bouncer at the front hadn't even bothered looking at their id's. The really big man with shaggy brown hair streaked in blue had just taken a careless sniff at each of them and gestured them in without saying a word. He'd given her an appraising look, but it was too much like the fanboys' looks that she simply gave him a sardonic lift of an eyebrow before walking past.
Inside had been loud music, lots of flashing lights, and many bodies crowded on a busy dance floor. Her eyes had instantly lit up with excitement at the sight of the band playing fluorescent paint-flecked instruments underneath a bunch of blacklights. A RAVE CLUB! Yatta!! Yanking off her sweater--revealing a sporty white tank top--and pushing it at a startled Shuichi she had instantly bounded up to the stage and gave the drummer a questioning look. A jerk of the head had given her permission and she'd leaped fearlessly up beside him and accepted the extra pair of padded drumsticks he'd tossed at her, getting into the rhythm first before joining in.
She'd seen her three friends staring at her in disbelief as she pounded away at the drums, getting splattered with paint and turning into a speckled mess but loving every second as the rock-techno song had pulsed into her bones. After the third song she'd surrendered her sticks to another kid wanting to play and had bounced offstage, weaving her way through the crowd to the tables where Hiei had sat by himself, guarding a couple of drinks and her sweater.
"You're a mess!" he yelled at her over the music, and she'd just grinned back, lit with blues, pinks, yellows and greens that glowed under the scattered blacklights.
"So what?" she'd yelled back, plopping down in one of the drinkless chairs and propping her feet on the table. "Where's Shuichi and Aislin?" He'd jerked a thumb at the dance-floor to indicate that they were somewhere in the confusing sea of bodies. A careful scan had revealed Aislin's white hair shining that neat violet-blue color that only white under blacklight can be, swaying in the intoxicating beat. A wicked grin blooming on her face, Kohaku had turned to Hiei and lifted an eyebrow in inquiry. She'd received a flat glare in reply.
/Not. On. Your. Life./ Blink. Huh. He hadn't shouted. She wasn't even sure she'd seen his lips move, but oh, well. With the knowledge that she had been courting certain death she'd actually grabbed him by the arm and hauled him onto the dance floor. She'd had to laugh when she'd turned and let him go after dragging him into the middle, and he'd just stood there and glared at her. She'd stuck her tongue out at him, starting to dance the way Craig had taught her to dance at her first rave, where she'd met him and a good number of her US friends. Hiei's eyes had nearly popped out of his head!
With a laugh she flops back onto her pillows and wriggles until she's comfy, remembering what had happened after that. After giving him a challenging stare that had lasted for two songs he'd finally relented, slowly beginning to sway to the techno throbbing through the air. When Kurama and Aislin had worked their way over they'd worked in tandem with her, and finally they'd gotten Hiei to start dancing like he was actually enjoying himself instead of being stick-still. The other dancers had actually pulled back to watch them, all nodding their heads in time to the steady beat of the bigger drums as the four of them had gyrated skillfully until they'd run out of breath at the end of five songs.
It had been then that Aislin had remembered to check the clock and had found that it was nearly midnight already. They'd left the club reluctantly, covered in Day-Glo paint and happily exhausted, fully prepared to face a lecture from her mother that hadn't actually happened. Frankly, Kohaku is glad that it hadn't. Her mother's scoldings could peel paint from the wall at a hundred yards, easy.
Something starts playing 'Butterfly' somewhere under her pillows. Sleepily Kohaku reaches and pulls out her special cell-phone, the one she'd paid for with her part-time job back in the states and flips it open. "Moshimoshi?"
"Hey, sugar-wolf!" a male voice chirps back, and she sits up with a smile, sleep forgotten.
"Craig! Geez, I thought you'd lost this number!"
"Nah. Well, yeah. I got it from Ally. Did I wake you up?" His voice turns anxious.
"Iie. I was just bunking down for the night. Oh, gods, Craig, I just had one of the best times of my life!" She can feel his social-butterfly mode coming online even over the long-distance connection, and grins wistfully.
"Oh, really? Well, my sugar-wolf, do spill the juicy details!"
"You remember the two bishies I was telling you about?"
"Oooh, you went on a date with one of them?"
"I karaoked, ice creamed, and raved with both of them and Shuichi's sweetheart, Aislin. Honestly, though, I think that somehow both Hiei and Aislin are both Shuichi's sweeties. They certainly act like it."
"Ah, my dear Kohaku, I have taught you the relationship-sense well! Congrats on your first real whirl with a couple of real bishies. Did you get our little bad-ass to actually dance?"
She giggles. "Oh, Craig, you should have seen him! He didn't even want to do it at first, but we all ganged up on him and changed his mind. He's really good! And you should hear him sing!"
"You got Hiei to sing? Oh, my little pup is growing so fast!" She rolls her eyes at the sounds of his drama-sniffles.
"Oh, go chase an invisible stick, Craig. I was thinking of sending you a digital of our session so everyone could get a real look at them, but if you're going to be such an ass about it..."
A laugh that even the cell-phone can't disguise the richness of. "All right, you win, alpha-wolf! I want to get a look at these wonderful bishies of yours."
"A couple of the straights in our group might like to see Aislin. She's a real knockout."
"A shoujo, too? Hon, I envy you so much, you know that?"
"Trade ya places for a couple weeks. It's kinda lonely out here with only three people to call friends. Oh, and I might not do more than send a couple of still-frames of Hiei. His song...I don't know, Craig, it's just too personal to make public."
"Whatever you like, gemstone. I'll let you go before our p's catch us chatting; it's one a.m. over here just like it is there, so..."
"Good night, Mr. Bagel."
"Night, sugar-wolf." Flipping the phone shut, she stuffs it back into the safety of her giant mound of pillows and resnuggles down into their plushy-ness, sighing in contentment. Come what may, this is one day she never wants to forget.
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kajihenge: fire apparition
hanyou: half-blood; rude term is half-breed
Shonen-Ai: boy love
Kitsune: fox
Ningen: human
Shoujo: short for bishoujo, pretty girl. For males the term is bishonen.