dont own YYH


Chapt. 32

Hiei's Story and Smiling Lessons

"Hey Hiei," I smile, turning to a nearby tree.

"Hey," he smirks, jumping from his tree and landing softly beside me.

I continue walking to the hotel; Hiei treads softly a little behind me.

"I'm sorry," he says weakly, stopping.

I stop and look at him. "For what?"

"For the other day. I knew you were scared, but...I just didn't..."

"It's ok, Hiei. I knew you were scared too. I was just scared because I haven't been held like that for two years. And coming from the you I knew, I didn't know how to react to such a gesture."

He stares at the ground.

"I forgave you the moment you let go."

He looked up at me. Such sadness he showed. Worry etched his face, distorting the tough mask he wears. His eyes sparkled in the moonlight from invisible tears. This man never showed human emotion to anyone. Why was I special? Why did he only show them to me? This feeling he showed was new to him too. What was racing through his mind, I don't know. He looked so helpless and I knew he hated it.

"What were you and that old man talking about?" he asked quickly, changing the subject and his expression.

"His life when he was younger," I answered simply, accepting his want to talk about something else.

"Why?"

"When you get older, you want to feel needed once again. This man wanted to feel like a hero once more."

"Didn't look like a hero to me," he snorted.

"Looks aren't everything, Hiei. He used to be looked up to; then he lost. Now no one cares about an old man running a store on a nameless street in a nameless city."

"Then why did you?"

I smiled at my youkai friend.

"Because Hiei, I like to hear stories. Even if I've heard them a thousand times, I'll listen to them a thousand more. I could go back right now and hear those tales again and again all night."

He looked at me like I was a baka onna, but I didn't care. Maybe I was, but I liked to hear stories. They had always fascinated me. True or made up, I didn't care, they were always different each time I heard them. The same words were never used; the same descriptions altered themselves in the slightest; and the dangers always had new twists. Stories weren't like a written book, those never change. Stories changed, but they always held the same ending, no matter how many times told.

"You like stories, huh? I got one for ya," Hiei said, thinking for a time.

"Really?" I said, setting my stuff under a tree.

Hiei disappeared into the branches above; I sat at the base of the tree.

"Yea, I know one you've probably never heard," he began. "It's about a boy, now a man, who wanted to be the greatest. He was tired of being hurt and pushed around. This boy didn't understand the meaning of greatness, and I suppose he still doesn't."

His words floated on the breeze; cold and bitter at times, while others were vanilla sweet. Such description he used to describe everything; the characters, the forests, the singing of the birds, the smell. It was almost like being there. I could feel the boy's pain, I could hear his cries of anger and pain, I could taste and smell the blood, and I could see his heart become tainted with malice.

But this story seemed vaguely familiar. I'd never heard it before, but some of the stuff was known to me. Was it possible that I had heard a similar story? Kurama told me a story about a similar boy, and saidthat I knew him. Some of the details were the same. Could it be that Hiei and Kurama's stories were the same ones just told differently? And who was this boy, really?

"Even today he searches for the power. Even today he doesn't know what greatness is. Well...he didn't," Hiei finished.

I thought for a moment.

"Who is he, Hiei?" I ask quietly.

He says nothing. I can sense something strange from him, something I've never felt when I'm around him.

Something hard hit the top of my head. It bounces off and I catch it. A black and red marble. Shiny like glass, but smooth like silk. It held a distinct shape – though it still looked like a marble – that I knew. I pulled out the team gem Yukina had given me and compared them. Same size and shape! I looked up into the dark tree branches.

"He's you, isn't he," I say weakly, standing up.

Again, silence.

"Ok, I'll leave ya alone." I pick up my stuff and start to walk down the walkway.

"Don't...go," Hiei's voice whispers weakly from within the trees.

I stop and turn to the tree. The leaves rustle and my black clad warrior slips down. He sits beneath the tree, staring at him knees. I sigh and walk over to him. Once again, I set my stuff down, but this time I sit next to Hiei.

We stay like that for a while, silent as a tomb. What thoughts were running through his mind I could only imagine. His face was a blank slate that I couldn't make into a masterpiece. But how I wanted to! To create a work of art on that blank face would be amazing. A simple smile, that's all I wanted to create.

"Hiei?"

He looks at me.

"Smile?" I give a weak grin.

"Why?"

"Because I want to remember that you can."

He stared at me like I was crazy.

"Please?" I beg.

The corners of his mouth flicker violently. Did he not know how to really smile?

"Smirk for me."

He did that in an instant.

"Now the other side."

He switched.

"Now both."

One side went up, slowly followed by the other. He looked like a crazy child abuser. I couldn't help but laugh.

"What?" he asks irritably.

"You, can't you smile?"

He glares at me.

"Think of something really funny. It doesn't have to be my definition of funny, but it has to be really funny to you."

He continues to stare at me. Then his face slowly softens and a small smile appears. It grows and grows until he's laughing.

"What's so funny?" I ask, kinda scared by this gesture from Hiei.

"Swear on your life you won't tell?" he threatens, still laughing.

"Yea."

"I remembered your expression while we were watching the movie. How you practically hid yourself in my shirt. You tickled me without knowing it. I held it in until I could laugh at someone's death, but how I wanted to laugh; tears were coming to my eyes. You were so scared; you made me laugh while hiding."

I made Hiei laugh. The guy was ticklish, go figure.

"You know, you should never tell someone you're ticklish," I say slyly.

"Why?" he asks, calming down.

"Because. . . ." I leap at him, my fingers crawling up and down his ribs. His face was turning blue from holding in his laughter. I poked a rib lightly and he burst. He rolled over, out of my fingers, and tackled me down. It was my turn to almost die from holding in laughter. I didn't last as long as Hiei did.

We did that for a few minutes.

"Hey guys! Look at this! Hiei can laugh!" a voice calls.

Hiei and I fall apart and lay in the grass, panting and laughing at the same time. My sides hurt and my stomach ached.

"I be! 'E can laugh! An' 'e can turn red!" an Irish man exclaims happily.

"That's really creepy," a female says. "Darkfire's laughin' too."