"Obligation and Duty"
Chapter 29
.oO{Kinenas are my property. And so is the other stuff.}
#Nokoru holds up Author's stamp of ownership#
#Author thinks# I think these last few chapters have been shorter... Weird. #Author shrugs#
*****
She was a human kinena.
"Holy crap!" Rei exclaimed, getting closer to the mirror. She opened her mouth and looked at her fangs. "Botan, tell me I'm dreaming...."
"Sorry, but if that scares you, you should look at your backside."
Rei turned around quickly and checked her butt. She had a big, bushy--and squirrelish-- tail like Chiba.
"Agghh!!" Rei sunk to the floor. "I didn't think it would happen like this. How do I change back?!"
"Not sure... I think it's cool!" Botan grinned. Rei glared at her and smoothed out her brown tail. She had brown, pointy ears that stuck out from under her hair and her eyes had changed. Instead of a bit of orange around the pupils, there was a LOT more orange than green. Her green was also a little more greyish now. And her pupils were slits, but she could still see the same.
Rei flopped backwards on her sleeping bag and groaned. This was not going to be fun to explain to the guys.
"Well, happy birthday! You're fifteen!" Botan hopped off the bed and handed Rei a gift.
"A gift? Wow, thanks. It's been a while since someone has actually done that for my birthday," Rei opened it. It was a compact thingy that Botan was always using.
"It's for whenever you need to talk to me or anyone else who has one. I'm thinking about giving one to Yusuke, but knowing him, he'd either lose it or break it."
Rei opened it and checked it out. "Thanks, Botan. This is really awesome," Rei gave her a hug. "But what do I do about this?" she asked, tugging one of her new kinena ears.
"Like I said, I'm not sure. You're going to have to figure it out. But for now, let's go see the guys!" Botan pulled her along. Rei tried to break free, but Botan had already opened her bedroom door. Just Rei's luck, Kurama was walking down the hall.
"Hoooolyyy shi-," Kurama gaped but caught himself before he said the rest.
"Agghh!" Rei's kinena ear twitched and she grabbed it. Kurama looked her over and asked, "What happened?"
"She has some kinena blood in her. Y'know, like Chiba. Since she's 15 now, she can turn into one," Botan explained. Kurama nodded and walked over to her. He reached up and tweaked her kinena ears.
"Hey, stop that..." Rei said, but without much force. She hadn't noticed that it felt good when her ears were scratched. Kurama was grinning wickedly and asked, "Why? You don't sound like you want me to stop."
All of a sudden, Rei started purring. Kurama broke out laughing. Rei blushed terribly and tried to go back to her room, but Hiei walked into the hall because of all the noise. His jaw dropped and he pointed at Rei.
"Bahh," she sighed and went back into her room. She sat on her bed for about an hour trying to figure out how to change back until Botan talked her into coming back out. They ate lunch and cleaned up, but the whole while Rei was being watched by Hiei.
"Dude, could you just leave me alone?" Rei asked, unsheathing her new, retractile claws.
Hiei shook his head, "Have you tried thinking of changing back? Or like powering down?"
Rei was about ready to say 'of course!' but then she remembered she hadn't thought of it really. She closed her eyes and thought hard for a second until she heard Hiei say, "See, I was right."
She looked at her reflection in the water. She didn't have the kinena ears anymore and her eyes were back to normal. She looked over her shoulder and her tail was gone too.
"Hiei! Thanks!!" she called after him as he walked out the door. He carelessly waved over his shoulder and took a drink from his pop. Botan came back into the kitchen and said, "Oh hey! You're back to normal now."
Rei smiled, "Yup. Hiei helped me."
Botan raised her eyebrow, "He did now?"
"Mmhhmmm... Get your head out of the gutter. What time are we having my 'party'?"
Botan sat down on the swivel chair and said, "Around 6, I think. It's not a huge party, just all of us hanging out."
"Yay!" Rei exclaimed. She was in a LOT better mood now that she wasn't a kinena. They finished cleaning the kitchen and then they went to the hot spring.
"Good thing I brought my swim suit today," Botan said. They hopped into the hot spring and Rei nodded, "Yeah, I don't mind skinny dipping, but you can never be too sure about those guys."
Botan agreed and they somewhat dozed for a few hours. It was around 5 o'clock when Kurama started calling for Rei.
"Hey, Rei, can you come here?"
"Coming, hold on!" Rei called back. They had brought towels this time too, so she got out and dried off. She dressed and walked through the woods. Kurama was sitting on the porch, "What do you want to eat for you birthday supper?"
Rei was surprised, but still happy, "Whatever you feel like making."
"Seriously?" Kurama's eyes questioned.
"Yeah, I'm in a good enough mood," Rei winked. Kurama was happy with that and called to Hiei on the roof.
"Hey! Come down, I need help cooking!"
Hiei stared at Kurama like he was crazy. "No."
"Yeah, come on!"
"No!"
"Why? Can't you cook?"
"NO!"
Rei bit her lip to stop herself from laughing, but Hiei could feel it. He turned to her and said, "Don't you dare!"
Botan had come out of the woods and said, "Haha! Hiei can't cook!"
"Go die."
"Sorry, it's kinda hard for the Grim Reaper to die."
Hiei glared and Rei felt a little sorry for him, "Don't worry. No one can be worse at cooking than me."
"Hey! I happen to like your biscuits and gravy!" Botan stuck up for her.
"But that's the only thing I can make!" Rei laughed.
"How about we all cook?"
They all looked towards where the voice came from. It was Kuwabara. Kurama waved and called him over. Kuwabara walked over to them, but they noticed that Shizuru was with him too.
"I have some food here," Shizuru said, holding up the basket she was carrying. "Kurama had invited Kazuma, so I came too."
"That's great! The more the better!" Botan clapped her hands together. Kurama and Botan had managed to pull Hiei into the kitchen, but he was standing there as if he had no idea of what to do. Rei giggled at him and he glared.
"You know, you do that WAY too much. You need to loosen up!" Rei nudged him. He shook his head and looked at the wisk Kurama gave him a little confusedly.
"Dude, just go sit down," Kuwabara teased. Hiei did that happily but Shizuru took his place.
"Botan, you mix up the batter. Kurama, you and Kazuma go into town and get ice cream. Rei, you get to help me," Shizuru automatically took control. Everyone went to what she had told them to do and soon they had a party!
***
Rei's birthday party was a blast. They had a chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for the dessert. After that, they all went into the yard and played football. Rei got to talk with Shizuru a little, and Rei found she was really cool. Not only was she an aspiring beautician, but she had a crazy-strong sixth sense.
After they played football, Kurama handed a note to Rei.
"I checked the mail when I was in town. This is for you," he said. She opened it and started reading Yusuke's writing.
'Rei, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to your party. Have a great birthday! I promise I'll make it up to you. Genkai wouldn't let me come, even though I just about beat her up for it. I'm thinking about you. Hope you're safe.--Yusuke. P.S.= I might not make it to the Christmas party either. I'll make it up to you! I swear!'
Rei folded the letter and shook her head. She had a sardonic smirk on and almost started laughing. She had expected it, but atleast he had told her that he wasn't coming. Stuffing the note into her pocket, she hopped up and started playing football again.
Shizuru and Kuwabara went back home the next day, so it was left to Botan, Kurama, Hiei and Rei.
"Man, I'm bored again," Rei flopped onto the couch. Botan was laying on the floor, "Ditto."
"We can start planning for our christmas party!" Rei hopped up. And that's just what they did.
***
"Omigosh!!" Botan exclaimed on December 24th. "Tomorrow is Christmas! And today we have the party!!"
"Yeah. I wonder how Yusuke has been doing?" Rei sighed. They were sitting at the kitchen table and the snow was falling outside.
"Hmm...I think he's doing well. Not sure with this snow though. It wasn't supposed to snow," Botan got off the table and looked out the window.
Kurama and Hiei were inside since it was too cold to stay out for long. Rei heard Kurama sigh from the living room, so she walked in.
"What's wrong?" she asked, smiling at the tree. She usually never put a Christmas tree up, but this time, she did. Kurama was lying on the couch and he said, "I'm bored. Let's go outside."
He stood up and grabbed Rei around the waist. Opening the door, he jumped out into the snow with Rei still in tow.
"Kurama! Come on! I don't have a coat on!" she laughed. He set her down and quickly made a snowball and threw it at her. It hit her on the shoulder but still went down her shirt.
"Nooo!!! Ooohh, I hate it when this happens!" Rei whined while trying to stop the snow from going into her pants. She pulled her tucked white turtle-neck and maroon vest out of her sage green pants and grabbed a handfull of snow. She ran towards Kurama and he turned to go, but Rei grabbed him by the back of the shirt and stuffed the snowball in it.
"That's--just--not--right," Kurama stuttered while trying to stop the snow as Rei had. Rei grabbed another snowball and threw it at him. Soon, they had a two-man war going.
"Hey! No fair! Ya'll didn't invite me to a snowball fight!" Botan yelled out the window, and she grabbed her jacket along with Rei's.
"Time out!" Rei called as she grabbed her jacket from Botan. Kurama smirked, "There is no time out!"
Botan grabbed a handfull of snow and threw it at him, "Go ahead, Rei. I'll keep him down."
Rei laughed and pulled on her jacket and gloves. She got them on and made a snowball just as Hiei came out of the house. She threw it at him, but missed.
"Aw, come on. My grandmother can throw better than that," Kuwabara called from the shrine steps.
"Kuwabara! Come help!" Kurama called to him.
"No, I think I wanna help the girls. I'm coming, snow bunnies!"
"But, but... I'm a snow fox! Help us!" Kurama tried to change his mind.
Shizuru hit Kuwabara in the back of the head as he hopped through the snow. "Stop that. I'm helping the girls, go help those sorry excuses for men."
"Yeah!! C'mon Shizuru! We'll show them!" Rei and Botan both said and laughed. It was 3-to-3. Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara on the Snow Losers{as Rei's team called them} and Shizuru, Rei and Botan on the Snow Bunnies. When it started getting dark, neither sides were close to winning.
"Hah! You will never win!" Kuwabara called to the girls. They shut him up with a barrage of a billion snow balls and Kurama and Hiei ducked behind their snow fort.
"The Losers win the war? Now that'd be a cold day in Spirit World," Botan scoffed. Shizuru nodded her assent and Kurama called from behind his fort, "We should go inside before we all die from hypothermia."
It was only 5:26, but the sun was already going down. They all changed out of their wet clothes. Rei and Botan had switched their pajamas, so Rei was wearing the green tank-top and red pants and Botan had the long, red, nightgown shirt with green shorts.
"You guys are weird," Kurama shook his head. Rei stuck out her tongue and they went into the kitchen. Rei pulled out the sugar cookie dough she had made earlier that day and Kurama came in to help them cut out the shapes. Shizuru helped too, but Kuwabara and Hiei stayed out of the kitchen the whole time; they had learned their lesson on Rei's birthday.
Shizuru showed the three cooks an easier way to getting the sugar cookies to cook right and by 8 o'clock, they were all eating sugar cookies and milk by the fire. Kurama was in his chair, Hiei was leaning against the fireplace, Shizuru had claimed a spot on the couch next to Kuwabara and Botan grabbed the other chair, so Rei laid on the floor by the tree. No one talked there for a few minutes, they all just savored in the cookies and dim light and then they spent the rest of the evening playing cards. Shizuru helped the 'Card Bunnies' win before they all had to go to sleep. It was midnight when the fire started to go out. Kuwabara was sleeping on the couch, Botan and Kurama had fallen asleep in their chairs, Shizuru had gone home by 10 and Hiei and Rei were still up.
Rei stared into the fire and sighed. She was going to have to get used to this. Having a great time and then seeing them leave again. She felt her sleeping bag against her shoulders and looked up at Hiei, who was holding it out to her.
"Thanks," she whispered. He nodded and sat down beside her, staring into the fire as she was doing.
"Are you coming with us?" he asked suddenly.
"I hadn't really thought about it," Rei shrugged, pulling the sleeping bag around her shoulders. Hiei nodded and looked back at Botan.
"I think she's coming. You can come with her," he suggested. Rei nodded, "I'll try."
Chapter 29
.oO{Kinenas are my property. And so is the other stuff.}
#Nokoru holds up Author's stamp of ownership#
#Author thinks# I think these last few chapters have been shorter... Weird. #Author shrugs#
*****
She was a human kinena.
"Holy crap!" Rei exclaimed, getting closer to the mirror. She opened her mouth and looked at her fangs. "Botan, tell me I'm dreaming...."
"Sorry, but if that scares you, you should look at your backside."
Rei turned around quickly and checked her butt. She had a big, bushy--and squirrelish-- tail like Chiba.
"Agghh!!" Rei sunk to the floor. "I didn't think it would happen like this. How do I change back?!"
"Not sure... I think it's cool!" Botan grinned. Rei glared at her and smoothed out her brown tail. She had brown, pointy ears that stuck out from under her hair and her eyes had changed. Instead of a bit of orange around the pupils, there was a LOT more orange than green. Her green was also a little more greyish now. And her pupils were slits, but she could still see the same.
Rei flopped backwards on her sleeping bag and groaned. This was not going to be fun to explain to the guys.
"Well, happy birthday! You're fifteen!" Botan hopped off the bed and handed Rei a gift.
"A gift? Wow, thanks. It's been a while since someone has actually done that for my birthday," Rei opened it. It was a compact thingy that Botan was always using.
"It's for whenever you need to talk to me or anyone else who has one. I'm thinking about giving one to Yusuke, but knowing him, he'd either lose it or break it."
Rei opened it and checked it out. "Thanks, Botan. This is really awesome," Rei gave her a hug. "But what do I do about this?" she asked, tugging one of her new kinena ears.
"Like I said, I'm not sure. You're going to have to figure it out. But for now, let's go see the guys!" Botan pulled her along. Rei tried to break free, but Botan had already opened her bedroom door. Just Rei's luck, Kurama was walking down the hall.
"Hoooolyyy shi-," Kurama gaped but caught himself before he said the rest.
"Agghh!" Rei's kinena ear twitched and she grabbed it. Kurama looked her over and asked, "What happened?"
"She has some kinena blood in her. Y'know, like Chiba. Since she's 15 now, she can turn into one," Botan explained. Kurama nodded and walked over to her. He reached up and tweaked her kinena ears.
"Hey, stop that..." Rei said, but without much force. She hadn't noticed that it felt good when her ears were scratched. Kurama was grinning wickedly and asked, "Why? You don't sound like you want me to stop."
All of a sudden, Rei started purring. Kurama broke out laughing. Rei blushed terribly and tried to go back to her room, but Hiei walked into the hall because of all the noise. His jaw dropped and he pointed at Rei.
"Bahh," she sighed and went back into her room. She sat on her bed for about an hour trying to figure out how to change back until Botan talked her into coming back out. They ate lunch and cleaned up, but the whole while Rei was being watched by Hiei.
"Dude, could you just leave me alone?" Rei asked, unsheathing her new, retractile claws.
Hiei shook his head, "Have you tried thinking of changing back? Or like powering down?"
Rei was about ready to say 'of course!' but then she remembered she hadn't thought of it really. She closed her eyes and thought hard for a second until she heard Hiei say, "See, I was right."
She looked at her reflection in the water. She didn't have the kinena ears anymore and her eyes were back to normal. She looked over her shoulder and her tail was gone too.
"Hiei! Thanks!!" she called after him as he walked out the door. He carelessly waved over his shoulder and took a drink from his pop. Botan came back into the kitchen and said, "Oh hey! You're back to normal now."
Rei smiled, "Yup. Hiei helped me."
Botan raised her eyebrow, "He did now?"
"Mmhhmmm... Get your head out of the gutter. What time are we having my 'party'?"
Botan sat down on the swivel chair and said, "Around 6, I think. It's not a huge party, just all of us hanging out."
"Yay!" Rei exclaimed. She was in a LOT better mood now that she wasn't a kinena. They finished cleaning the kitchen and then they went to the hot spring.
"Good thing I brought my swim suit today," Botan said. They hopped into the hot spring and Rei nodded, "Yeah, I don't mind skinny dipping, but you can never be too sure about those guys."
Botan agreed and they somewhat dozed for a few hours. It was around 5 o'clock when Kurama started calling for Rei.
"Hey, Rei, can you come here?"
"Coming, hold on!" Rei called back. They had brought towels this time too, so she got out and dried off. She dressed and walked through the woods. Kurama was sitting on the porch, "What do you want to eat for you birthday supper?"
Rei was surprised, but still happy, "Whatever you feel like making."
"Seriously?" Kurama's eyes questioned.
"Yeah, I'm in a good enough mood," Rei winked. Kurama was happy with that and called to Hiei on the roof.
"Hey! Come down, I need help cooking!"
Hiei stared at Kurama like he was crazy. "No."
"Yeah, come on!"
"No!"
"Why? Can't you cook?"
"NO!"
Rei bit her lip to stop herself from laughing, but Hiei could feel it. He turned to her and said, "Don't you dare!"
Botan had come out of the woods and said, "Haha! Hiei can't cook!"
"Go die."
"Sorry, it's kinda hard for the Grim Reaper to die."
Hiei glared and Rei felt a little sorry for him, "Don't worry. No one can be worse at cooking than me."
"Hey! I happen to like your biscuits and gravy!" Botan stuck up for her.
"But that's the only thing I can make!" Rei laughed.
"How about we all cook?"
They all looked towards where the voice came from. It was Kuwabara. Kurama waved and called him over. Kuwabara walked over to them, but they noticed that Shizuru was with him too.
"I have some food here," Shizuru said, holding up the basket she was carrying. "Kurama had invited Kazuma, so I came too."
"That's great! The more the better!" Botan clapped her hands together. Kurama and Botan had managed to pull Hiei into the kitchen, but he was standing there as if he had no idea of what to do. Rei giggled at him and he glared.
"You know, you do that WAY too much. You need to loosen up!" Rei nudged him. He shook his head and looked at the wisk Kurama gave him a little confusedly.
"Dude, just go sit down," Kuwabara teased. Hiei did that happily but Shizuru took his place.
"Botan, you mix up the batter. Kurama, you and Kazuma go into town and get ice cream. Rei, you get to help me," Shizuru automatically took control. Everyone went to what she had told them to do and soon they had a party!
***
Rei's birthday party was a blast. They had a chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for the dessert. After that, they all went into the yard and played football. Rei got to talk with Shizuru a little, and Rei found she was really cool. Not only was she an aspiring beautician, but she had a crazy-strong sixth sense.
After they played football, Kurama handed a note to Rei.
"I checked the mail when I was in town. This is for you," he said. She opened it and started reading Yusuke's writing.
'Rei, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to your party. Have a great birthday! I promise I'll make it up to you. Genkai wouldn't let me come, even though I just about beat her up for it. I'm thinking about you. Hope you're safe.--Yusuke. P.S.= I might not make it to the Christmas party either. I'll make it up to you! I swear!'
Rei folded the letter and shook her head. She had a sardonic smirk on and almost started laughing. She had expected it, but atleast he had told her that he wasn't coming. Stuffing the note into her pocket, she hopped up and started playing football again.
Shizuru and Kuwabara went back home the next day, so it was left to Botan, Kurama, Hiei and Rei.
"Man, I'm bored again," Rei flopped onto the couch. Botan was laying on the floor, "Ditto."
"We can start planning for our christmas party!" Rei hopped up. And that's just what they did.
***
"Omigosh!!" Botan exclaimed on December 24th. "Tomorrow is Christmas! And today we have the party!!"
"Yeah. I wonder how Yusuke has been doing?" Rei sighed. They were sitting at the kitchen table and the snow was falling outside.
"Hmm...I think he's doing well. Not sure with this snow though. It wasn't supposed to snow," Botan got off the table and looked out the window.
Kurama and Hiei were inside since it was too cold to stay out for long. Rei heard Kurama sigh from the living room, so she walked in.
"What's wrong?" she asked, smiling at the tree. She usually never put a Christmas tree up, but this time, she did. Kurama was lying on the couch and he said, "I'm bored. Let's go outside."
He stood up and grabbed Rei around the waist. Opening the door, he jumped out into the snow with Rei still in tow.
"Kurama! Come on! I don't have a coat on!" she laughed. He set her down and quickly made a snowball and threw it at her. It hit her on the shoulder but still went down her shirt.
"Nooo!!! Ooohh, I hate it when this happens!" Rei whined while trying to stop the snow from going into her pants. She pulled her tucked white turtle-neck and maroon vest out of her sage green pants and grabbed a handfull of snow. She ran towards Kurama and he turned to go, but Rei grabbed him by the back of the shirt and stuffed the snowball in it.
"That's--just--not--right," Kurama stuttered while trying to stop the snow as Rei had. Rei grabbed another snowball and threw it at him. Soon, they had a two-man war going.
"Hey! No fair! Ya'll didn't invite me to a snowball fight!" Botan yelled out the window, and she grabbed her jacket along with Rei's.
"Time out!" Rei called as she grabbed her jacket from Botan. Kurama smirked, "There is no time out!"
Botan grabbed a handfull of snow and threw it at him, "Go ahead, Rei. I'll keep him down."
Rei laughed and pulled on her jacket and gloves. She got them on and made a snowball just as Hiei came out of the house. She threw it at him, but missed.
"Aw, come on. My grandmother can throw better than that," Kuwabara called from the shrine steps.
"Kuwabara! Come help!" Kurama called to him.
"No, I think I wanna help the girls. I'm coming, snow bunnies!"
"But, but... I'm a snow fox! Help us!" Kurama tried to change his mind.
Shizuru hit Kuwabara in the back of the head as he hopped through the snow. "Stop that. I'm helping the girls, go help those sorry excuses for men."
"Yeah!! C'mon Shizuru! We'll show them!" Rei and Botan both said and laughed. It was 3-to-3. Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara on the Snow Losers{as Rei's team called them} and Shizuru, Rei and Botan on the Snow Bunnies. When it started getting dark, neither sides were close to winning.
"Hah! You will never win!" Kuwabara called to the girls. They shut him up with a barrage of a billion snow balls and Kurama and Hiei ducked behind their snow fort.
"The Losers win the war? Now that'd be a cold day in Spirit World," Botan scoffed. Shizuru nodded her assent and Kurama called from behind his fort, "We should go inside before we all die from hypothermia."
It was only 5:26, but the sun was already going down. They all changed out of their wet clothes. Rei and Botan had switched their pajamas, so Rei was wearing the green tank-top and red pants and Botan had the long, red, nightgown shirt with green shorts.
"You guys are weird," Kurama shook his head. Rei stuck out her tongue and they went into the kitchen. Rei pulled out the sugar cookie dough she had made earlier that day and Kurama came in to help them cut out the shapes. Shizuru helped too, but Kuwabara and Hiei stayed out of the kitchen the whole time; they had learned their lesson on Rei's birthday.
Shizuru showed the three cooks an easier way to getting the sugar cookies to cook right and by 8 o'clock, they were all eating sugar cookies and milk by the fire. Kurama was in his chair, Hiei was leaning against the fireplace, Shizuru had claimed a spot on the couch next to Kuwabara and Botan grabbed the other chair, so Rei laid on the floor by the tree. No one talked there for a few minutes, they all just savored in the cookies and dim light and then they spent the rest of the evening playing cards. Shizuru helped the 'Card Bunnies' win before they all had to go to sleep. It was midnight when the fire started to go out. Kuwabara was sleeping on the couch, Botan and Kurama had fallen asleep in their chairs, Shizuru had gone home by 10 and Hiei and Rei were still up.
Rei stared into the fire and sighed. She was going to have to get used to this. Having a great time and then seeing them leave again. She felt her sleeping bag against her shoulders and looked up at Hiei, who was holding it out to her.
"Thanks," she whispered. He nodded and sat down beside her, staring into the fire as she was doing.
"Are you coming with us?" he asked suddenly.
"I hadn't really thought about it," Rei shrugged, pulling the sleeping bag around her shoulders. Hiei nodded and looked back at Botan.
"I think she's coming. You can come with her," he suggested. Rei nodded, "I'll try."
