Okay, Hiei might be a leetle OOC in this chapter. To tell you the truth, he might not be. He's never been in this situation before, so I wouldn't know. Just don't come flaming me about how Hiei's out of character wah wah blah blah... yeah yeah, I get it. I would never make any of the characters do anything outragious, especially Hiei, cause his character is best in character. Sometimes, you have to bend the rules tho. -winks at Shade-

RR please!


Chap. 12- Chances

Natsuki lay on the ground. She had no idea what was going on. She tried to get up, but her arms wouldn't move. She felt a sudden cold rush over her body. It must be snowing. She thought to herself. I wonder if Hiei knows. Then her thoughts faded into darkness.

Shadowflame froze. She ran into the bedroom where her old pile of cloths were. She began digging through them wildly. She came across the belt she had on when she first came to the human world. She yanked of the locater she had on it and began pressing a few buttons. Kurama came in.

"What's wrong? Why did you run in hear?" he said looking at Shadowflame. She was sitting on the ground looking at the locater. Her face was as white as a ghost.

"Natsuki's hurt. She's…she's about to die." She said.

It was a cold morning on January first. Not cold enough to snow, but cold enough for someone to freeze to death. Hiei stood five feet away from the small crumpled mass that was Natsuki and the thing that had stabbed her. His breathing was very shallow, his eyes open wide trying to take in the image in front of him. Was she…?

The thing laughed. Hiei looked at it. His eyes full of bloodlust. The thing just took its foot and kicked Natsuki in the side. She rolled to the side. Hiei's hands clenched into a tight fist, he reached for his katana. The creature bent over and picked up Natsuki by her shirt.

"Move for that sword and I'll cut her head off." He said holding his long, spiked sword up to Natsuki's throat. Hiei sheathed his sword slowly, watching the creature intensely. It laughed.

"It seems I have found your weakness." It said, its eyes glowing. Hiei growled deep in his throat. The creature smirked.

"Ooh, that's a scary noise. I'm trembling in fear." It held Natsuki up to eye level. "Not a bad looking broad, maybe after I beat her up a little, I can have some fun." It licked its lips. Hiei's fists were trembling with rage. The creature raised its fists and punched Natsuki. Her shirt ripped where it had been holding her and she flew off to the side.

Hiei saw his chance. He whipped out his katana and lunged for the creature. In a matter of a second Hiei was on the other side of it, re-sheathing his sword. The creature turned around and laughed.

"I think you missed. Now your little girlfriend is going to die…" it stopped. The top half of its head slowly began to slide off the side. The rest of its body began to fall apart, leaving it in several little pieces on the ground. Hiei turned to face it.

"I don't miss."

Hiei ran over to Natsuki, coming to a sliding stop at her side. He bent down and listened to her heart. It was still beating, only slightly though. She made no movement or reaction of any kind. Hiei slid his arms underneath her and picked her up. She was so light. He began to walk back to the guest house. Shadowflame and Kurama came running into the clearing.

"Oh my gods, Natsuki!" Shadowflame yelled running at Hiei. She stopped short, looking at the pale Natsuki gently held in Hiei's arms. Shadowflame looked up at Hiei, her eyes full of hatred.

"What did you do?" she whispered menacingly. Hiei was taken aback.

"I believe you'll find the culprit over there. Now if you don't mind, I need to get her back to the house." Hiei pushed past Shadowflame. She looked over at where Hiei had said the "culprit" was. She saw the sliced figure, and was at once filled with regret. She had blamed Hiei! What the hell was she thinking!?

Hiei walked into the house. He walked past everyone, not hearing a thing anyone said or the screams that came from Keiko. He walked into Natsuki's bedroom and lay her down gently on the bed. He then proceeded to the bathroom to get the bandaging kit. Once back by Natsuki's side, he began to bandage the place where the sword had entered her, having to lift her off the bed to wrap all the way around. Kurama walked into the room.

"Hiei…" he said softly.

"Just shut up right now." Hiei said sternly, continuing to wrap Natsuki's wounds.

"You shouldn't be so upset…" Kurama continued.

"I said shut up!" Hiei snapped.

"It's not your fault!" Kurama said louder,

"AND WHAT IF IT IS!!?? Hiei yelled. Kurama said nothing else. Hiei looked back at Natsuki. "What if it is my fault? Because she was worried, she followed me. If she didn't care so much…" His hands became fists again. "DAMN IT NATSUKI! WHY DO YOU CARE?" Hiei screamed at the unconscious girl. He relaxed, laying his head on her chest. His voice turned soft. "No ones ever cared. Why are you so different?"

Kurama left the room, closing the door behind him. He had never seen Hiei like this before; he had never heard him use that last tone of voice before. He just needed to leave him alone. Shadowflame tried to rush past him to Natsuki's room, but Kurama put his arm out to stop her.

"Don't go in there." He said calmly.

"Why the hell not!?" Shadowflame yelled.

"PLEASE!" Kurama said, louder than Shadowflame had ever heard him speak. Shadowflame's eyes got wide. That was unexpected. Kurama kissed her lightly. "Just leave them be."

Natsuki could hear people talking, no, yelling. What was going on? Why couldn't she see anything? All she could think about was Hiei. I wonder if Hiei knew it snowed? I wonder if he's okay? She drifted back off into that sleep again; totally unaware of everything that had just happened.

Hiei sat in a large armchair across the room from Natsuki's bed. He was looking at her, his face tightened with a scowl. Everyone had gone home, except for Kurama and Genkai, after being told what had happened. Well, as far as they knew. Hiei hadn't said anything since his little fight with Kurama. He had just sat in that chair, watching, waiting for her to wake up.

The moon flooded through the windows of Natsuki's bedroom, casting a pale blue light across the room. It made Natsuki's skin look like porcelain. Hiei remembered that night, the fists night. He had gone in the check on her and the moon was almost shining in at the exact same angle. He wanted to make sure she wasn't a porcelain doll. He tried to recall what her skin felt like. He couldn't.

He slowly rose from his chair and walked towards where Natsuki slept. He knelt down beside the bed making him at eye level with Natsuki. He slowly reached his hand out and ran two fingers down her cheek. Her skin was so soft. He moved his hand to the other side of her face, cupping her cheek with his hand. He just looked at her, having no clue how much time was passing. Finally, his eye lids began to get heavy, and he laid his head down on the bed, crossing his arms. I'll just rest my damn eyes. Hiei told himself, frustrated that he was getting tired. But he soon drifted off to sleep.

Natsuki woke, her eyelashes fluttering wildly. Where was she? She looked down to se Hiei's head lying next to her. She was startled at first, the realized it wasn't just his head. He looked so uncomfortable. She pushed herself up off the bed. There was a sharp pain in her lower abdominal muscle. She looked down to realize it wasn't a muscle. The spot that had hurt was carefully bandaged. She looked back at Hiei and smiled.

She slipped her hand under his chin and raised his head up off the bed. His slowly eyes began to open. He looked at Natsuki for a moment, confused.

"Did I die?" he asked bluntly, in a normal tone. Natsuki laughed. She bent forward.

"No, actually, you didn't" she said getting closer to Hiei's face. He was just allowing it, after what had happened last night; he didn't care, just as long as she was alive. She was very close now. Her eyes were closed. Her lips shyly touched his.

Hiei's eyes got wide; he still wasn't used to this gesture. Natsuki was nervous, remembering the last time she had tried this, Hiei wasn't so willing. To her surprise, she felt Hiei relax ever so slightly. She moved her hands around to the back of his neck, beginning to kiss a little harder, but she still wasn't sure of how Hiei would react.

Hiei wasn't sure what to do. Last time, he had held himself back. He wasn't going to do that this time. He rose to sit on the bed with Natsuki, still kissing her. He wrapped his hands around her waist and closed his eyes. Natsuki was shocked. Hiei had just…don't think about it too hard. She could tell he wasn't good at this so she began to kiss him harder. Neither one of them knew how long they sat there kissing. Neither one of them cared.


Hope you liked this chapter! Will update soon!