Aislin: I have a damned good reason, okay? (beats something off-screen) Just keep--'scuse me! (WHACKWHACKWHACK!!!) And it's Aislin, not Alison. (WHACK!) WHY WON'T YOU DIE, DAMN IT??
Spring's Fire, Chapter Five--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiei opens his eyes to find himself in the hospital ward at Koenma's palace in Reikai, a harried Aislin leaning over him with several thick strands of hair falling over one shoulder. "Oh, thank the ice god!" she says wearily at Hiei's glare. "We need your help, Hiei! Demons are storming the palace gates and the only people currently here and able to fight are the boys, me, and you."
"What about the fighting crews Koenma usually employs?" the spike-haired apparition demands, levering himself out of his chair and looking around for his missing katana. Aislin grabs it off a table and tosses it to him before replying.
"They're all in Demon World flattening a level-wide uprising of scum and low-lifes." The two start running down the hallways in perfect synchronization, reversed mirrors of each other in color and gender. "Even Yusuke is having a hard time driving them away."
"Why?" Hiei snorts.
"'Cause while he's shooting and fighting one group, another is sneaking up behind him with lots of poison-laced weapons." They reach the end of the hallways and burst out into a scene of pure chaos. Demons, D-class for the most part, swarm over the landscape and the bodies of their slain compatriots, aiming for the three boys struggling to bring them all down. The only things holding them at bay are Yusuke's Spirit Shotgun, Kuwabara's extended Spirit Sword, and a constantly-hacked-at hedge of unfriendly plants courtesy of Kurama.
With twin roars the two elemental apparitions light into the ugly masses, blades flashing in the bright light, leaving dismembered bodies in their wakes. Very quickly they have cleared an area around the beset Spirit Team, buying the tired boys some breathing space.
"Too many of them," Yusuke shouts over the din of fighting, numerous cuts healing before their eyes as he staggers from exhaustion. "None of my attacks'll cover all of em!"
The two smaller beings just give each other a look and without using telepathy they know what the other is thinking. "Get inside the castle, Detective," Hiei commands, pointing towards the gigantic gates. The two human boys begin to protest--Kurama has wisely already begun to sprint for the doors--and are silenced by a second, louder command by Aislin and the reinforcement of a mild telepathic shock from two minds.
"Move your ass, Urameshi!" Casting doubtful looks back over their shoulders, Yusuke and Kuwabara follow in Kurama's footsteps and haul the huge doors shut behind them on the growing hordes. Before the intruders can begin to focus their attention on the two elemental apparitions, the pair rapidly clears a circle of space just a foot or two bigger than their outstretched katanas.
Stepping apart a few feet the two turn to face each other, clanging their blades together before yanking them away on a line at shoulder-height, pivoting around as though the blades are magnets repelling each other at high force. A spark leaps into life and balloons outwards from the second the two blades meet and part, growing to a diameter of nearly five feet and burning with red and white flames. The ground below the sphere is shoved downwards into a concave maze of cracks from the sheer force, and as the pair completes the turn they shout three words before their blades sink into the sphere and slice it in half. "Fire and ice!!"
Even inside the building the three can feel the shockwave shaking the castle to its foundations and hear the abrupt cessation of battle sounds from beyond the massive entrance. "What the hell did they do??" Yusuke demands of Kurama, who shrugs as he pushes at the smaller, human-sized door set into the much larger panels, making his way outside. Complete devastation meets his eyes and the eyes of everyone else--the two human boys and a few ogres who had been left behind for paperwork duty--who follows him out.
Where there had been cloud-formed hills there is nothing but a surface blasted flat and crazed for hundreds of feet like a dragon-sized pane of glass that rides the edge of breaking. There are no bodies, only a thin dust that rapidly disperses on the odd wind blowing across the scene. In the middle of it all Aislin and Hiei rest on one knee, bracing themselves upright with the help of their blades sunk point-down into the ground, hands laced over the pommels, breathing raggedly as they regain their strength.
"Whoa," Kuwabara manages first, as Kurama rushes over to his beloveds and kneels beside them, unconsciously forming a triangle as he examines them to assure himself that they are unharmed. Aislin waves him off and wobbles to her feet, reaching a hand out to Hiei and hauling him to his, the matched beings staggering off towards the palace.
"Gonna lay down for a while," Aislin rasps with Hiei nodding once in agreement, Kurama rising from his knees to trail after them with an exasperated expression that is obviously meant for both of them and their stubborn pride. With a shrug to each other, Kuwabara and Yusuke settle in for a vigilant watch against another such attack.
----
Warm bronze eyes fringed with almost ridiculously long lashes open and blink in confusion at the sight of an unfamiliar roof above her and the strange bed she's lying in. She remembers thinking she was dead, and beginning to cast off the ties of soul and body, allowing her soul-image to revert to the approximate age in reference as to how long her 'self' has existed and beginning the process of making a list of things to know in her next life before Hiei had appeared.
She'd never seen him so frightened before. Honestly, he didn't seem the type to be frightened of anything. And then he'd informed her in no uncertain terms that she was still alive, so she'd dropped into the trance she uses to heal everything from bad scrapes to broken bones and high fevers and began the metaphorical climb back to health. She'd almost fallen once or twice, and once she'd lost her footing and slid several yards back down, but she'd finally made it to the top and broke her trance. Now if only she could figure out where she is...
With a grunt she levers herself into a sitting position, glaring at the IV tube feeding a steady drip into her bloodstream, seriously considering yanking it out while examining her surroundings. It's a hospital room. Or what a hospital room would look like if someone with a heart had designed it. The walls are an attractive pale blue trimmed in a darker shade with morning glories painted in white on the trim, the window looking out onto a landscape covered in frothy plants and framed by the blue-green sheers tied back to let sunlight pour in.
A couple of comfortable chairs are set against the far wall, hers the only bed in the room. A single, Kohaku thinks appreciatively, nice. A more conscious look at herself reveals her clothing to be a simple green cotton yukata bound with a plain obi of silvery-gray. She spares a thought for the hope that whoever changed her was a girl. But considering the state her old clothes had to have been in, she's grateful that, in any case, she's clean.
Her attention focuses on the sound of a door opening, a white head peering gingerly around the doorframe and smiling to see a startled Kohaku sitting up and staring at her. "Ah, you're finally awake! We were beginning to think you'd sleep forever, you know."
"I'm sorry?" Kohaku says, uncertainty turning the statement to a question and making Aislin's smile grow bigger.
"That's all right, not many youkai-blooded survive a dose of demonsbane to tell the tale about it," the koorime tells her with good humor, opening the door the rest of the way and stepping inside with a tray covered by a napkin. Kohaku perks up, the tantalizing scent of beef wafting past her nose and making her stomach rowl.
"Oh, tell me that's mine and there's more where it came from," begs the girl, never taking her eyes away from the tray. "I'm starving!"
"There's more, and it's yours," Aislin reassures her, setting the tray in her lap and walking around to the other side of the bed. "And I'm not surprised you're hungry--you've been in a healing trance for nearly a week and a half."
Kohaku chokes on the mouthful of rich broth and barely saves it from becoming a spit-take, staring wide-eyed at the shorter girl. "A week and a half??" she demands after she hastily swallows. "My parents are going to freak out!!" One of Aislin's earlier statements registers, making her blink . "Uh, youkai-blooded? 'S far as I know, I'm human."
"Well, what you know is only half right," Aislin says not unkindly. "We'll let your parents explain after you go home; we told them that you'd been kidnapped and we were keeping you in a secured hospital until you'd recovered from the drug-cocktail they'd doped you with."
"So this place is a hospital?" Kohaku queries in doubt, the bowl already empty before Aislin had finished speaking.
"Of a sort," is the cryptic reply. "It's quite a few things, actually; palace, office, court of justice, training area, refuge, punishment facility, hotel and hospital. That's just for starters."
"Where am I?" Kohaku asks in wonder.
Aislin grins. "Welcome to the Spirit World and the palace of Prince Koenma, pro-tem ruler and a protector of the Human World."
"You're joking," Kohaku says in disbelief. "How the hells did I get here??"
"Kikan-kun brought you, of course."
"Kikan?"
"Oh, sorry, that's our nickname for each other. I mean Hiei brought you here after those damned demons kidnapped you. And I'm sure you're curious and have a lot more questions, but I need your help first."
"With what?"
Aislin shrugs. "Ever since I called him out of your mind--you do remember that, right?" She waits for Kohaku's nod before continuing. "He's been absolutely paranoid about another swarm of scum like the one that made me call him out in the first place. He's also refused to eat, drink, or really do anything but guard the palace or you the whole time you've been out. Admitted, porcupine-head doesn't need to eat much, but we burned off a lot of energy in the fight and he hasn't eaten anything to replace it. That's where you come in."
Kohaku looks doubtful. "But why me?"
Aislin smile turns elfish and she looks very amused about something. "Kohaku-chan, you got Hiei to sing. If you got him to do that, a meal won't be any trouble."
----
They find the apparition curled on the Spirit Team's living room windowsill, chin on his knees and fast asleep, looking utterly woebegone and baleful at the same time. Kohaku is dressed in a fresh yukata, this one a sapphire blue with a spray of pinkish-white spider mums decorating the bottom panel. In her hands is a tray full of food, some of it for her, some of it for her 'patient'. She casts another of those eloquent doubting looks at Aislin, who is hiding by the door and gesturing for the girl to go ahead.
"Um...Hiei?" Not even a twitch. Kohaku sighs and shifts the tray to balance on her hip, looking mildly annoyed. "Hi-iei." Hiei's only reaction is to curl up tighter and mumble faintly. Kohaku gets an idea. "Wake up, silly fluff-head." And just like the last time she'd called him that, she is rewarded with an eyetwitch from his subconscious. "Hiei, don't make me have to do this again. Hiei. Hiiei. Hiiei. Hiei-Hiei-Hiei-Hiei-Hiei-Hiei-Hiei--" The male starts scowling at the third repetition of his name and his eyes fly open at the seventh, glaring indiscriminately around him and lighting on Kohaku just as he did at the karaoke bar.
"Um..."
She plunks the tray down in front of him, picks up one of the green bowls (Hiei's has been designated the red) and a pair of chopsticks and begins eating. "Stop staring and start eating, fluff-head," she tells him with her mouth full. "'S a waste to let good food go uneaten." Going back to her meal, she starts grumbling under her breath. "Honestly, stubborn male not eating even though he knows he's damned well supposed to just 'cause he's worried about someone who can take care of herself thank you very much and me getting roped into baby-sitting him 'cause he's so damn stubborn!"
"Do you even breathe when you talk like that?" Hiei asks acidly as he picks up a red bowl filled with rice and glances at the tray. Without even looking she flips him his chopsticks with her own and pops the next bite into her mouth without missing a beat.
"When I feel like it."
"Hn. And I think last week proved you aren't so strong as you'd like to think you are."
"I know I'm not the best fighter in the world or even close to it, thanks. And I think I did pretty damn good in my first real fight with beings who could have had bodily harm on their minds." Hiei's eyebrows go up as he watches her practically slather wasabi on nearly everything in the green bowls, the fried rice being the only exception.
"Need your sinuses cleared?"
"I like spice." And she takes a defiant bite. Hiei starts snickering when her eyes go wide and she hastily spits the mouthful into a napkin, grimacing and pulling many faces as she takes several bites of her rice to rid herself of the taste.
"Too hot?"
"No," Kohaku growls, "too old. It's almost rancid."
"And to think you spread it on almost everything."
"Eh, just the top layer. Scrape it off it'll be fine." At that point two strange boys walk in, both wearing uniforms and both looking startled to see her. One is a few inches taller than her and has his short ebony-black hair slicked back with hair-grease, rich brown eyes virtually glowing with life and energy. The other is significantly taller than the first, very lanky, and wears his carrot-orange hair in a swirled 50's 'do. Kohaku's fanboy radar goes on yellow alert. The black-haired boy, wearing a green uniform, just grins and gives her a thumbs up.
"Nice to meetcha while you're awake. Name's Yusuke Urameshi. This baka here," a jerk of the thumb indicating the taller boy, "is Kuwabara. He's kinda a pervert, but harmless, really."
"Kiss my ass, Urameshi," the taller boy snarls angrily, turning on his companion only to be stopped by Kohaku's snort of laughter.
"Oh, please! I have some friends back in the States that wouldn't kiss you. Then again," she adds thoughtfully, tapping her lower lips with her chopsticks--too damn cute for her own good, Hiei sighs internally--"The ones I'm thinking of only chase after bishies, so you're probably safe after all."
"Who're these friends of yours?" Yusuke is obviously sincere and curious, so Kohaku yanks the rug out from under him, figuratively speaking.
"Their names are Craig and Luke, to name the main two," she informs him sweetly, and both Yusuke and Kuwabara pale. "Of course, there's always you, Yusuke. Luke likes the bad-ass types, which seems to be your category." Yusuke pales, Kohaku relenting with a pleased smile. "Then again, they are stuck back in the States, so I doubt you'll ever get to meet them. And they only chase the willing."
"Oh." Yusuke and Kuwabara regain their normal coloring and smile weakly back at the cheerful girl. "Hey, Kohaku, wanna go out with me?" Kuwabara blurts a second later making Hiei bristle.
"Not even if you were the last man on Earth, Kuwabara." The boy wilts with the firmly spoken negative and turns red at her next statement. "Besides, I can smell a girl's perfume on you, so you probably already have a love interest. I don't help guys two-time, so nyah." Hiei quickly takes a bite of food to keep himself properly serious-looking and to muffle the chuckle-snort attempting to escape.
Yusuke doesn't bother; he guffaws and slaps Kuwabara on the back. "She's got ya, Kuwabara! It'd hurt Yukina if ya tried datin' someone else."
"Yukina-chan, bless her little naïve heart," Aislin interjects mildly, "is too dense to know a crush when she sees one." Hiei starts to take umbrage, but the slender jewel-eyed girl holds up a hand. "Mind you, she knows healing like nobody's business, but romance is simply not in her vocabulary. So she might feel disappointment and not know why, but I doubt she'll be crushed. To her, Kuwabaka is simply a silly, sweet-natured boy who is her friend."
"Thanks a lot for killing my dreams, Aislin," Kuwabara grumbles, and Aislin smiles wickedly.
"It's called wishful thinking, Kazuma-kun. It does you no good unless you act on it." She spots Kohaku scraping off the top layer of each of her bowls onto a napkin, and blinks. "Um, Kohaku? What are you doing?"
"Wasabi went bad, and I didn't know until after I covered everything with it and took a bite."
Aislin chuckles. "Oh, sorry! I'll let the cook know to freshen the condiments." Kohaku thanks her with her mouth full--now that the bad wasabi is gone, half of her bowls are already empty and the rest of them aren't far behind. The two human boys are staring as the new girl packs away food at a polite blur, chopsticks hardly visible and everything being neatly eaten. Yusuke actually whistles as she sets the last bowl down with a happy sigh and leans back on the windowsill, patting her stomach with a second happy sigh.
"I think she eats more than we do," Kuwabara declares in amazement, eyes wide as he stares at the ten empty bowls that had been filled with food about thirty seconds ago.
"I'm a growing girl and I just finished a massive healing," Kohaku tells him firmly, wagging her chopsticks with a frown. "You'd eat a lot too, if you were me."
The fact that you're half wolf might have something to do with it, too, Aislin and Hiei think to themselves, having decided not to mention their guest's bloodline to the Detective and his rival/best friend.
"I don't eat quite so much in a normal sized meal, for your info," Kohaku continues. "For serving sizes like this, I'd eat about six bowls on a regular basis per meal." Yusuke and Kuwabara gape.
"How??"
"Fast metabolism and getting trained every single day. My dad is serious about making sure my brother and I know how to defend ourselves."
"Not that it did much good." This is from Hiei, who doesn't bother to glance up from his own food.
"Hiei, I successfully fought off three weirdos and would have gotten away from that tiger-guy if he hadn't snuck up behind me and half-suffocated me trying to knock me out with an inhalant. Which reminds me. Does anyone know about Baka? I heard snapping bones and a yelp just before I passed out the first time."
"Who's Baka?" Yusuke asks.
"Baka's my dog. He's overprotective but we've had him since I was seven." Everyone else shrugs.
"I dunno, but I'll bet Koenma can tell us. C'mon, we'll take you to him." Yusuke beckons and she leaps from the windowsill, somehow managing not to knock either the tray, Hiei, or herself over in the process, landing lightly beside the taller boy and nodding.
"Lead the way, Yusuke-san."
----
"Just so ya don't freak out or nothin', Koenma ain't gonna be what ya might expect," Yusuke warns her with a smile as his punk accent gets a little thicker, leading her down hallways bustling with ogres whose skins are all the colors of the rainbow and more. Kohaku is just about willing to swear that she just saw a plaid one running past with his arms full of paperwork and his expression that of the stressed, overworked intern.
Before she can ask him to clarify that statement, Yusuke shoves open doors about seven feet high and struts into the office beyond, hands tucked in his pockets and an expectant smirk on his face. "Yo, Koenma! Kohaku's got a question for ya."
"What is it, Yusuke?" A youngish, rather scholarly voice demands from behind the mountain of paperwork. Kohaku takes a defiant step forward with her head held high.
"I want to know how my dog Baka is doing. I haven't seen him since I was attacked and he was fighting alongside me." She thought she was prepared for anything this 'Koenma' might look like but she thought wrong, for her eyes widen in surprise as a toddler dressed in khaki pants and a light violet shirt trimmed in a rose pink steps around in front of the desk. A little blue binky is clamped between his teeth much like a cigar would be in an adult, and his eyes show an age far beyond his physical years.
"Oh. So Yusuke wasn't lying. What?" he adds with no little surprise, "You aren't going to poke fun?"
"You're obviously no normal toddler, since you can walk and talk and carry on an intelligent conversation. I'm not going to say a damn thing unless and until I know you better. Now please let me see my dog." Looking gratified at her mature response (something he was hoping for from Yusuke, but we all know how that turned out) Koenma pulls a small remote from within his shirt and clicks the big red button. The infamous 'big screen' is revealed by the concealing panels sliding back and clicks on automatically.
Koenma flips through a few channels, finally stopping with the camera directed at Kohaku's home just in time to see Koryu walking out the front door with a bandaged but cocky Baka clicking along behind him on a leash. "Baka only gets a fifteen minute walk, Koryu!" Kohaku's mother calls from inside the house. "And don't let him run!"
"Hai, okaa-san!" Koryu calls back, Baka visibly deflating and beginning to sulk. "Aw, come on, Baka. You did the best you could and you kicked serious monster butt in that fight. It's not your fault they snuck up behind you and walloped you a few times."
Baka gives him a 'but-I-coulda-done-better' look and sighs heavily as the two begin walking. "Look at it this way, Baka. You get some neat new scars to show the ladies, and all you have to do is to make sure the hurts making those scars don't reopen. So no running until the stitches come out."
Whine. Whine. "My poor Baka," Kohaku sighs in relief. "At least he's okay."
"He's actin' like a wimp." BAM! "Ow, geez, what the hell was that for??"
"Don't call my dog a wimp, Urameshi! He helped me take on three demons and he totally kicked ass until they cheated! Insult him again and I'm gonna make sure you get a visit to a doctor's office to get my shoe removed from your ass!" Her hair is trying its best to fluff out in anger, but being trapped in a braid makes things difficult so it settles for turning spiky at the tip. Yusuke shrinks back from the furious girl, raising both hands in a defensive gesture.
"Okay, okay, he ain't a wimp! I'm sorry!"
"You should be," Kohaku humphs, giving Koenma a quick bow and stalking indignantly out of the office-- immediately getting lost.
----
"Well, crap, this place is a fuckin' maze," Kohaku grumbles over an hour later, looking around her in confusion at the rough walls with fierce-looking ogres just standing at attention and watching her walk past. She could almost hear the chain of thought repeated in every single head as she approaches and goes by without challenge. Small. Female. Unarmed, mildly tense. No sign of aggressive posture. No threat. She tries asking someone for directions, but only gets stared at by the couple ogres she tries. "You'd think they could give a girl directions back to the damned hospital wing."
A wolf-whistle draws her attention to a grey-skinned and fairly handsome male being led past her by a muscular ogre in armor. "Hey, baby! Wanna go on a spree together?"
"Wanna breathe through a hole in your throat?" she retorts, turning on her heel and walking down a convenient hallway on her right. "Perverted scumbag."
"Hey, sugar-wolf!" She turns, startled as someone calls her nickname, frowning at the sight of a lizard-like demon waving at her from a cell. "Looking for a good time?"
"Looking for a broken nose?" Pouting, she finally sits against a wall and props her chin in her hand. "Okay, temper under control?" She pauses, head tilted, eyes lifted towards the stone ceiling. After a second she shuts her eyes and straightens her head. "Yes. Good, no explosions. Okay, seriously lost, again. Damn, but the kamis must love watching me getting lost." Absently she punches a demon that had wriggled out of his low-security cell and had tried to approach her, eyes gleaming with anticipation. He slinks off again with a whimper and crawls back into his cell, figuring that it is much safer than random girls who can punch like a pile-driver.
Kohaku continues muttering to herself under her breath. "Let's see, I took a right, a left, passed three corridors and took another right...or was that a left after five? Then it was left, right, right, left, right--or was that left, right, left, left? Damned Yusuke. If he hadn't opened his big mouth I wouldn'tve stormed off. I gotta punch that idiot for real the next time I see him." She stretches her legs out in front of her and laces her hands behind her head, unwittingly kicking another prisoner that had tried escaping and knocking it unconscious. It gets turned into a footrest. "Guess I'd just better sit tight until someone figures out just how lost I am."
Absently she starts humming, then singing to herself, her sweet voice with the slightly rough, furry undertones echoing down the hallways. "I'm waiting on the bridge, I'm standing in the dark--I thought that you'd be here, by now. There's nothing but the rain, and the footsteps on the ground--I'm listening but there's no sound. Isn't anyone trying to find me? Won't someone come take me home? It's a damned cold night, trying to figure out this life. Won't you--take me by the hand take me somewhere new? I don't know who you are but I'm...I'm with you. I'm looking for a place, I'm searching for a face--is anyone here I know? 'Cause nothing's going right, and everything's a mess--and no one likes to be alone. Isn't anyone trying to find me? Won't someone please take me home? It's a damned cold night, trying to figure out this life. Won't you--take me by the hand take me somewhere new? I don't know who you are, but I'm...I'm with you. Why is everything so confusing? Maybe I'm just outta my mind. Yeah-yeah, yeah-ye-ah-ah, yeah-ohhh! It's a damned cold night, trying to figure out this life. Won't you, take me by the hand take me somewhere new? I don't know who you are...but I'm...I'm with you..."
"Then open your eyes and stand up, baka onna." An irritated voice breaks in with a huff. "You can't go anywhere with me if you just sit there." Eyes snapping open, Kohaku stares up into the face of a rather annoyed-looking Hiei--who actually looks annoyed instead of the faintest hint of a frown on his indifferent mask, what he usually shows to the world.
"Hiei!" Kohaku cries gladly, bouncing up and giving him a lightning-quick hug before sidling back and looking at him through her thick bangs. "You're not mad at me, are you?"
Hiei lets out an exasperated sigh as he grabs her hand and begins to haul her unresistingly after him. "No, baka. I enjoy hunting after girls who don't have the directional-sense of a flea." (note the heavy sarcasm!)
"Oh, good!" she chirps, trotting obediently after him. "For a second there I thought that I'd ruined your whole day!" Hiei's incredulous stare at her over his shoulder only reveals a cheerful smile on the girl's face.
"You're hopeless."
"Oh no," she bubbles, "I've got lotsa hope! I just have to dig it out of a closet somewhere!" Groaning at the joke, Hiei just keeps pulling and in less than fifteen minutes has her walking through vaguely familiar corridors. He pauses by seven-foot doors and sticks his head in long enough to growl "Found her" before continuing on.
"How the hell did you end up in the prison wing, anyway?" he inquires gruffly as they enter the entryway for the team's quarters, Hiei pausing long enough to take his long cloak off and hang it on a peg.
"You're asking me like you think I know the answer." Hiei just stares at her, so she shrugs and attempts to elaborate. "I never know where I'm going when I'm lost. I just sorta...end up somewhere."
"You mean you had no intention of entering the restricted sector?"
"I tried leaving," she says defensively, a couple of tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "I really did! And these stupid demons kept hitting on me! Every turn I took just kept leading me deeper!"
"Okay, okay," Hiei relents, "so you didn't mean to wander in the direction of the high-security detention facilities. You have no need to get upset."
"I am not upset!" she snarls at him, temper suddenly flaring and making the light-bulb above them explode. "I am seriously frustrated! None of those ogres would say so much as a damned peep and just when I think someone's finally come to rescue me and get me to where I actually wanna go I get the bloody third-degree! I'm going to bed!" And she starts to walk away. Hiei's arm snakes out and steers her towards the other door.
"Bedroom's that way."
"Oh," she mumbles, face bright red, "thanks."
"Thank Inari!" Kurama exclaims as the two walk in, Kohaku still blushing about her blunder, leaping up from the comfy couch and practically sprinting up to them. "You found her!"
"Of course I found her, fox," Hiei grumbles. "She was in the prison wing, in case you're curious."
"What??" The slender red eyebrows go shooting upwards in shock. "How??"
"I don't know!!" Kohaku snaps, only to be interrupted by Kurama.
"No, no, that's not what I meant. I meant, 'how could you get that far?' Security's pretty tight around the entry to the wing; you shouldn'tve been able to just walk right on through."
"Then tell Koenma to tighten it, 'cause they just let me walk right past them. Which one's my room again? I'm bushed." Instantly Kurama goes from shocked boy to solicitous host, bustling her off to her room and making sure she's settled before making a polite retreat and returning to the living room, where Hiei has already reclaimed his perch on the windowsill.
"I'm glad she has you looking after her, ryu-kun," the fox-ningen tells his love quietly with a tiny smile tugging at his sensuous lips. "I don't know how she got along without you."
"She got lost a lot." Kurama, startled, chuckles heartily as he resumes his seat on the couch and picks up his abandoned book, something he'd been unable to get into because of worrying for Kohaku's safety. She is a good fighter, admitted, but so are a great number of the prisoners and other beings in the palace. If she'd angered one of them...He shudders at the thought. Hiei picks up on the motion, for concerned mulberry eyes are instantly riveted on the crimson-haired male.
"Just an unpleasant thought, koi," Kurama assures him, the kajihenge's only response being his infamous 'hn'. Abruptly the spike-haired demon rises to his feet and heads for the hallway leading to the bedrooms.
"I'm going to go check on her."
"You do that, Hiei-kun."
About five minutes later the rest of the gang--including Botan--file in with varying expressions of relief. "Koenma-sama told us that Hiei found Kohaku," Botan states. "Is that true?"
Kurama nods, not rising from his seat, the picture of utter serenity. "Hiei brought her in not more than five minutes ago, everyone. She told us she was tired so I put her to bed and," he says, forestalling the outbursts with an upraised slender hand, "she was fast asleep the second her head hit her pillow."
"Oh," is the general response. Yusuke looks around, curious. "So where's the shrimp now?"
"Out, I believe," Kurama says, the lie slipping easily off his well-practiced tongue. He'd had nearly seven centuries to practice lying as Yoko Kurama, and by damned he ought to be good at it now! "And don't go pester Kohaku-san. She's had a trying time of getting lost and I don't want anyone waking her up. Understood?" Getting various reluctant agreements from everyone, the fox-turned-human turns his attention back to his neglected book while everyone else goes back to whatever they had been doing before Yusuke had sent out the distress call of 'I lost Kohaku!'
Kurama notes Aislin slipping into the hallway as Yusuke and Kuwabara sit back down in front of the large flat-screen television and turn their interrupted video game back on, while Botan vanishes into the kitchen to make lunch. Aislin slips back out again a few moments later and curls against Kurama on the couch, a secretive smile curling her mouth upwards, apparently absorbed in the fascinating spectacle of the two human boys playing and fighting at the same time.
When Kurama nudges her, she glances up with merry turquoise eyes and 'taps' on his uppermost mind-shield. Lowering it, Aislin sends him an image that makes his lips, too, curve into a cat-in-cream smile. Kohaku is curled fast asleep in a tangle of blankets, wearing a gray tee-shirt and sweat-shorts, her long chestnut hair tumbling all over the place having been freed from the braid. In a chair beside her sleeps Hiei, head pillowed on one arm on the edge of the bed, the other hand still outstretched as though to brush the renegade locks out of her eyes.
/Aww,/ the two coo to each other in their minds, sharing a conspiratorial smile at the sudden tenderness their third is showing to their new friend. Truly, a better guardian for her there could not be.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reikai: Spirit World
Kikan: mirror
Yukata: a light cotton kimono
Wasabi: green Japanese horseradish sauce. Extremely potent and very spicy even in small doses.
Okaa: mother
Kami: god
I love fluff. I have the feeling Hiei's going to kill me when he reads this, so I'm just going to...
Hiei: Niii-aaanAAA!
Oopsie! See you later and remember to review! Thanks! (Runs off with a pissed Hiei close behind)