Darkspirals: Thank you for not shaking, it's a rather disorienting feeling. And yeah, me'n Kohaku like our name for him, too, but Aislin still refuses to change over from 'porcupine head'.

Aislin: It's mildly more dignified.

Kitsune Kit: It's a good exercise. And it's so much fun poking at him!

Chapter 8

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"Koenma?" Aislin murmurs into her headset. A faint crackle and an affirmative squeak back into her ear, her eyes never leaving the scene below her. "I found her. And you won't believe what she's doing." A questioning sound. "She's training with Hiei." A dismissive squeak and she frowns. "That's not...oh, for aisu-kami's sake, Koenma, turn your monitor onto channel......nine-three-seven-five, I think."

There's a piece of silence, and then an awed crackle of static pops into her ear. Wincing, Aislin takes the headset off, shakes her head to say 'honestly!', and goes back to the intricate performance of strike-and-block being done thirty feet below her. She's always found it fascinating to watch Hiei spar against someone, even when he has to hold back like he almost certainly has to against the less-experienced Kohaku, and this time is no exception.

And then Kohaku startles the both of the apparitions by taking the match into the trees, catapulting off of trunks and lower branches to gain extra momentum to her strikes while dancing away from all of Hiei's. Aislin calmly catches a shuriken that Hiei unknowingly smacks towards her and examines it. Looks normal, but when she uses her reiki-sight, the little steel throwing star is saturated with the glittery purple-and-green light of Kohaku's spirit energy.

"Hmm," Aislin says to herself, thinking. With a wicked smile she launches the shuriken back at Kohaku and 'ports herself to another tree and branch, watching as Kohaku automatically snatches it out of the air and stares at it in surprise while continuing to block Hiei's strikes. Aislin had thrown it from behind, and there is no physical way Kohaku could know that it was coming.

/What are you doing?/ The koorime smiles at the accusatory tone to Hiei's annoyed thought.

/Giving her back her weapon, of course. And watching. She's pretty good, desu ne?/

/Hai. No more interfering./

/But she caught it without looking, porcupine head. I didn't know she could do that./

Grudging. /Neither did I./

/You're welcome, porcupine head./

/Shut up and go back to watching, snowflake./ Laughing to herself, Aislin watches while Hiei changes his attacks to things more ranged, adding in balls of reiki that he'd been practicing to create just for this purpose. Kohaku hits away or dodges the first dozen, but one finally hits her square in the chest and rockets her back into a tree. A cloud of dust and bark fragments rise, but the girl does not.

Anxious, Aislin sees Hiei dart over and touch Kohaku's shoulder gently. With a pleased roar of success Kohaku grabs his unwary hand in a steel grip, only to chuck him into another tree. "There," she pants as Hiei rises to his feet with a glare. "Now we're even!" The hidden koorime is laughing so hard at the discomfited kajihenge standing among the remains of the unfortunate trunk that tears are running down her face, falling to the forest floor as emerald gems. The soft sounds of the gems hitting the ground catches Kohaku's attention, causing her to walk over and search for the sound's cause. With wonder lighting her amber-green eyes, the wolf apparition picks up a couple of the gems and rolls them around in her palm.

"They're so pretty," she breathes, entranced with the way the filtered sunlight gleams through the round jewels. "Hiei, what are these?"

"They're my tear gems," Aislin chuckles from above her. Kohaku squeaks, drops the gems, and stares up at the ice apparition's branch with wide eyes. "That's what koorime are famous for, Kohaku-chan. Our tears become gems whose value is determined by color and clarity. Laughter-stones, like those you were holding, are very rare for me indeed." The frost-haired female manages to calm herself to a broad smile. "Though I must admit, such gems are becoming more common for me."

Regaining her composure, Kohaku smiles brightly up at her friend and picks up one of the gems she'd dropped. "How long've you been sitting up there?"

"Oh, a few minutes," comes the airy reply as Aislin swings her legs and drops off the branch, bounding from limb to limb down to the ground. "I have to say I'm impressed."

"What for?"

Aislin smiles over at Hiei, full of mischief and trouble. "'Cause you actually got Hiei to spar with you. It's not easy, you know. He's very private about his abilities until it's time to use them. Aren't you, porcupine head?"

"Hn."

"Come on, Hiei, I was worried about her. She went poof like she threatened to, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't because someone had come along and snatched her."

"I would not allow such a thing to happen," Hiei growls icily, and is captured in a sea-colored gaze.

"It already has happened once, Hiei. I won't let it happen again."

"Uh, hello? I'm still here." Sheepish, the two smaller apparitions break their locked stare and turn towards their charge, who is tapping her foot. "Look, Aislin, Hiei was training with me because Genkai doesn't feel like the right person to do it. I gotta get stronger somehow, and just training myself isn't gonna cut it. And face it, Hiei's probably the best with bladework around. Desu ne?"

"I'd like to argue," Aislin sighs, "but yes, Hiei is a shade better than me with blades. Only a tiny bit, mind, but yes. I'm better at speed, though, so if you care to improve in that department beyond what Hiei can teach you, look me up. And Hiei," she adds as she turns to leave, "don't forget to teach her how to use her reiki more thoroughly than what she knows now. That shuriken was soaked in her energy." And she springs upwards into the trees, vanishing in seconds into the thick canopy.

Kohaku bends down and starts picking up the dozen or so beads resting on the ground with a smile on her face. "I think I'll keep these," she says firmly, a sideways glance daring Hiei to object. "I might turn them into a necklace."

"Do what you want." Hiei's voice is indifferent as is the set of his shoulders. "Still feel like training?"

Kohaku takes out a kunai and tosses it skillfully into the air a few times. "Sure. Think I can practice my aim?"

A raised eyebrow, the male looking mildly intrigued despite himself. "Doing what?" And he stops the blade inches away from his right shoulder.

"Playing catch."

----

"What the hell??" Koenma gasps as Hiei helps a battered Kohaku into the living room of the Detectives' suite later that evening. The ruler had come here for a bit of quiet since everyone with a fully mortal life had gone home, only to find his newest team member limping into the room with a mildly-wounded Hiei beside her.

"Training," Hiei grunts, hardly bothering to acknowledge the child-king on his way to the bathroom and the first-aid kit. Koenma trails after them in teenage form, looking very distressed.

"What kind of training has two of my team coming in looking like they've been through different circles of hell??" he demands while Hiei sits Kohaku down on the edge of the tub and looks for the bandages and peroxide.

"The thorough kind," Kohaku replies wearily, slumped over with scraped elbows resting on equally tattered knees. "The kind that will keep me alive through the Tournament." Koenma sweeps his gaze over her, taking in the ripped and torn shirt, the equally damaged pants, the scrapes and cuts and bruises, and the few deeper wounds that look like they were made by blades much smaller than Hiei's katana.

"My question is, will you live that long to see it?"

Hiei makes a disparaging snort. "Koenma, none of these injuries are life-threatening. They'll be even fewer if she keeps improving as greatly as she did today."

"You really think I did good?" Kohaku asks, perking up at the unexpected praise. Hiei, in the company of people he (somewhat) trusts, allows himself to smile while he starts cleaning out one of the deeper cuts with a washcloth and peroxide.

"For a beginner, you did great."

"And suddenly, the whole day was worth it," Kohaku sighs, watching Hiei begin to wrap her arm in cotton bandages. "I have the feeling praise from you is a rare thing indeed."

"Rarer than laughter-gems," is the confirmation, Hiei moving on to her other arm and tearing off the ragged sleeve to reach the worst of the injuries. Despite an effort to keep it in, a yawn pries Kohaku's jaws apart and her bandaged arm reaches for air above her head. Hiei glances over at Koenma and frowns. "Instead of standing there, you could get a leg wrapped so we can get this wolf to dinner and bed faster."

Wordlessly the teen-bodied ruler moves to Kohaku's left leg and uses a pair of scissors to turn the pants-leg into half of a pair of short-shorts, before taking the proffered washrag and cleaning off the blood and bits of debris with gentle hands. Kohaku suffers in silence through all the ministrations, and only speaks again after Koenma has carefully pulled her to her feet and supports her slender frame with his own.

"Hiei, I lost count. How many of my kunai and shuriken did I catch?"

A proud little smile. "You caught nearly four-hundred in total, and got hit by..." he does a quick count of the slash wounds, padded with folded bandage and taped "...five. That's damned good."

"Yay." The exhaustion in her voice dampens the enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm's there. And then she falls asleep standing up, the only thing keeping her standing being the grip Koenma has on her upper arm. Before Koenma can do it, Hiei has scooped Kohaku up in his arms and firmly tugs her away from the anxious and sympathetic Spirit World ruler, carrying her to her room.

Shaking his head and chuckling to himself, Koenma poofs back to toddler-form and heads back to the couch for some much-needed R&R.

--

Meanwhile, Hiei carefully sets Kohaku down on her rumpled bed and moves adroitly out of the way when she automatically flings her arms out to claim the entire bed for herself. Settling into the chair beside her head, he crosses his arms over his chest and makes himself comfortable. Closing his eyes, he gently insinuates a telepathic thread through Kohaku's shields, dropping into her dream.

Kohaku is stretched out on a boulder in the middle of a grassy meadow, pretending to be a lizard and basking in the nonexistant sunlight streaming down. "You're supposed to be healing," he chides, striding up without disturbing a single blade of grass. Kohaku merely slits open one eye and beams lopsidedly at him, not even moving the rest of her.

"It's called a breather, Hiei." Her voice and words are as cheery as her smile. "Besides, I just have to take a nice stroll up that." 'That' is a decent-sized woody foothill covered in wildflowers. "And after the work we got done today, I feel like we deserve a break. Pull up a rock, my friend." A careless gesture and another boulder appears, this one made of granite instead of sandstone and shaped like a recliner.

A short bark of laughter bursts from Hiei, a sharp sound of amusement that cracks through the air like a gunshot. Kohaku starts, bolting upright to find Hiei stretching out on the rock she'd conjured for him with a contented sigh.

"Only in thoughts," the kajihenge sighs wistfully. "Only in thoughts do I get to relax like this."

"No wonder you're always so stiff, Hiei." Kohaku turns onto her side and props her chin in her hand. "Don't you get any fun time at all?"

"Only around Aislin and Kurama," Hiei admits, and is surprised when Kohaku bounds off her rock to start heading for the foothill.

"Well, hells! Then I'm going to put myself back together and take you out on the town! Nobody should go through life not having fun!"

"Do I get a say in this?" A thought suddenly places him beside her, matching the taller wolf stride for stride up the decorative path.

"Of course not!"

"I was afraid you'd say that."

She gives him a rather feline smile, smug and pleased with herself, confident that this is one 'argument' that she's going to win. "Hiei, you're talking to a raver. Our lives revolve around loud music, bizarre styles, and lots of glitter and dancing. When we want to do something, by the gods we do it. Dragging you off to have some fun is not going to be an exception."

"Hn. I'd like to see you try."

Kohaku laughs aloud, a joyous peal soaring into the recesses of her subconscious' mindscape. "You just watch me! I'll cover you in glitter!!" Hiei's death-glare just makes her laugh harder, bent nearly double as she walks. "I'll make ya a deal, Hiei! I'll race you up this hill. You win, I won't glitter-fy you. I win, I get to do whatever I want to you. Deal?"

"Hn. Sure." And his jaw drops when Kohaku takes off at top speed, flashing up the hill within moments. Belatedly he remembers this is supposed to be a race and sprints upwards, only to come face to face with a smiling Kohaku, perched atop a rock carved with the words 'nyah, nyah, nyah-nyah, nyahh'. And painted glittering purple.

"Guess what, Hiei?" she croons with a grin, baring a new pair of cute little fangs. "I get to take you partying. And you have to have fun."

"How did..?"

"This is my mind, Hiei! Of course I can distort things to suit myself, didn't you think of that?"

"Slipped my mind." The fire apparition smirks as Kohaku groans at the pun and reaches out to ruffle his hair. Startled at the sudden display of affection, Hiei submits, discovering that Kohaku knows exactly the right places to scratch. Kohaku also makes an interesting discovery.

"Aw, Hiei knows how to purr." Hiei interrupts the rumble for a grunt then goes back to melting under Kohaku's attentions, very close to falling asleep himself. Chuckling, Kohaku pats him on the head before curling up on her sparkly purple rock. "I'm gonna crash for another couple of hours, and then I'm dragging you off to Childe Demon for a good round of grinding!"

"Oh, Kami," Hiei groans. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"A date with a glitter-Goth!"

----

Later that night...

"Koenma is going to notice you missing," Hiei points out while Kohaku messes with his hair. Since she's got him sitting down and there's no mirror in sight, he's not really sure what she's doing but she keeps making pleased little noises. He hopes to Kami that she's not using glitter. Or pink. Gods help them both if she's using pink.

"Koenma is probably burying himself under mountains of paperwork," comes the wry response from the girl busying herself with Hiei's perceived lack of style. "There! You're decent."

"Define 'decent'." With an exasperated sound Kohaku hands him a large hand mirror she'd apparently had laying on the table behind her, giving Hiei the first chance to examine her work. Besides his natural starburst in his bangs, she's added brilliant blue and a couple of crimson streaks that somehow make his hair look even spikier.

Humming to herself, his companion hands him a pile of clothing with the unmistakable expression that tells him he'd better hope the random-item gods are with him as she grabs her own pile and sails into her bathroom. By the time she comes out, Hiei is clad in fairly tight jeans that were once black but are now a faded stone-washed gray. Over that is a white tank-top already scrawled on with highlighter and permanent pen in geometric designs. Leather cuff-bracelets decorated with silver buckles and spikes hug each wrist, a spiked choker circles his throat. Studs march up the edges of both ears, gleaming in the lamplight.

Kohaku has practically turned into a peacock. Her bleached jeans and another white shirt have been covered in green and blue highlighter and coated in a light layer of glitter. Hiei's not quite sure how, though. Her hair is streaked in purples and blues and has even more glitter sparkling from every strand. Shimmery green eye-pencil has been used as kohl to draw sweeping 'lashes' towards her temples; her bandages are nowhere in sight since the brief rest she'd had in trance has taken care of all reasons to wear them. Her jewelry consists of: several chains of varying lengths and thickness, a couple dangling pendants of stone; numerous bangles around both wrists with some painted different sparkly colors; small hoop earrings in each ear--only a couple, though, and a Celtic-knot thumb-ring. Her lips gleam with strawberry lip-gloss--Hiei can smell it when she whistles at his appearance.

"What the hell is this stuff?" he asks in a mild tone, tugging at one of his spikes. She gently swats his hand away and tugs the hair back into place.

"Washable dye. Think of it like face-paint for hair with a little bit of styling gel mixed in. Now come on! I don't know how late Childe's open and I ain't gonna miss a chance to party!" Making a face, Hiei allows himself to be dragged off towards the portal room.

A few minutes of walking after going through one of the handy portals has them entering the fluorescent-lit front door of Childe Demon with a jaunty wave to Brawn the bouncer. The taller demon male gives the smaller one a sympathetic smile at Hiei's unhappy grimace when Kohaku opens the door and the techno music pours out.

Eyes bright with pleasure, Kohaku pulls an unresisting Hiei towards the stage and hops up next to the drummer again. "Know how to drum?" she yells over the music. Hiei looks affronted and she laughs, the glitter all over her coruscating strangely under the blacklight. Begging two pairs of 'sticks from a couple of the drummers she hands Hiei a set then takes up a station at one of the larger paint-drums. A few seconds later she and Hiei are pounding away, the fire apparition having chosen to play at one of the smaller drums closer to the shadows, and the slender apparition finds himself actually beginning to enjoy the rhythm.

After his arms have grown tired, Kohaku materializes at his elbow and leads him off the stage and to the bar. A wave of her paint-coated arm catches the bar-keeper's attention and he strolls over, the epitome of 'keepers everywhere with a towel slung over one shoulder and another being used to dry a glass.

"What'll it be, childe of the dark?" he shouts over the music, Kohaku studying the menu hanging on the wall behind the gleaming expanse of wood.

"A couple of Cherry Bombs!" she shouts back, and within a few moments--and a fascinating performance--two tall champagne flutes are before the thirsty fun-seekers, filled with a clear red liquid that fizzes and is topped with shaved ice and Maraschino cherries. "Cheers!" she yells to Hiei, and takes a swallow of her drink. Taking a cautious sip of his, Hiei finds that the drink is fruity, smooth, and entirely nonalcoholic.

/Nice choice,/ he tells her, using a light touch of telepathy. She rolls her eyes and leans close so that she doesn't have to shout quite so loud.

"We're here to have fun, not get drunk, silly fluff-head!" A half-hearted glare.

"Stop calling me that."

"But why?" she giggles. "You make such funny faces when I do."

"Hn."

Downing the rest of her drink and leaving a couple of bills on the bar, Kohaku grabs Hiei again to drag him off into the surging flood of bodies undulating on the dance-floor. And just like before, he stands there when she lets go, refusing once more to stoop so low as dancing.

Giving him an exasperated smile, Kohaku grabs his arms and wraps them around her middle, tanned hands trapping his against her stomach. Hiei blinks when he realizes that somehow, he's the same height as her. When had that happened? That's before his attention is yanked back to the girl in his arms, and the movements she's beginning to use.

Time someone teaches you how to grind, Hiei-kun, reverberates through the link he shares with her, the thought flavored with gleeful anticipation. Just follow my lead! Uncertainly, then with more confidence and a growing sense of enjoyment, Hiei moves with the swaying, fluid motions Kohaku shows him by example, falling into a near-trance from the hypnotic techno blaring over the speakers.

This...is really nice. The realization is a lightning bolt from nowhere, striking him hard and leaving his knees weak. Kohaku cranes her neck to look into his face, concern coloring her eyes a deeper green at the abrupt change in the feel of Hiei's body pressed against hers. He gives her a raised eyebrow and a shrug which she accepts as an 'okay' from him, returning to the dancing and music.

Hiei goes back to his thoughts which are amazingly clear despite the pulsing music firing his whole body. He'd forgotten how nice it could be to dance with a fully-voluntary partner, with music that doesn't grate on his ears, in a place that doesn't recognize him or his reputation. The lithe apparition in his arms is most certainly willing, and this 'techno' music throbs addictively through body and bone. And since no one's shouting a challenge at him, it'd probably be safe to assume that these ravers do not know or do not care who and what he is.

For the first time in a long, long time, Hiei finds himself relaxing wholeheartedly into the simple pleasure of dancing. Kohaku feels the tenseness unexpectedly flow from her dancing partner, and unbeknownst to Hiei, a pleased, contented smile lights her face with a warm glow.

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Aww, more fluffy-ness! n,.,n

Hiei: Ah-HEM.

Eek! (jumps and starts running)

Hiei: Get back here, Niana!

Aw, come on, Hiei! You actually liked that part!

Hiei: Hn. Good point. I'll let you live this time. Besides, I have to go silence the buffoons. (Yusuke and Kuwabara take off running)

Phew.

aisu-kami: ice-god, Aislin's favorite oath

Koorime: ice maiden

kajihenge: fire apparition

desu ne?: right?

hai: yes

kunai: throwing dagger

shuriken: throwing stars