Kiyoshi-neko - So many questions! #.# And you'll have to wait to see what happens to poor Becca. I think you'll like it. *bows* Why, thank you! It's to hear from SOMEBODY that I'm perfect. Well...okay...you didn't say that...but it's close enough. ^.~ Bangs...bangs...damn...I explained that...didn't I? Crap; maybe I'll just put here and let live. I compared them to my own bangs. My hair was mid-way down my back when I decided to let some of my bangs grow out because I had a crappy hair cutter when I was little and therefore had waaay too many bangs. So I pulled them back and let them grow, calling them my baby bangs. Well, they're to my shoulders now, so they're not exactly babies, even though I call them that. Hope that explains it a bit better...And thank you for the advertisement! Did you really think it was Hiei/Becca? Or was it someone else? LOL, thanks tons for the review!
Shannon - The shirt said 'Smart Alec University, Attitude Department,' and I could've sworn I put that in there. @.@ Glad you like it!
Nobody - Thanks! Like I said, I liked it a lot. It's probably one of my favorites, and I like this one too.
Bold words are English. Honestly, if I were in another country, I'd speak my own language when talking to myself. (Which I do.)
Umm...I think that's it.
"We'll have to stop for the night; we won't make it back to the temple today," Kurama said, looking up at the sky.
Yusuke scratched his head. "Now?" The other boy nodded. "But it's still light out." I pretended I didn't notice when Kurama looked pointedly at me, then back at Yusuke. "Fine, fine. But Keiko, Shizuru, and Yukina will be there by then and are expecting us back early tomorrow."
"They can wait," Kurama said patiently.
Once it was made apparent we were stopping in an extremely small clearing for the night, Kuwabara and Yusuke collected firewood. Kurama said something to Hiei, the woodpile suddenly exploded into fire, and the short demon was out of sight.
So, this is the Demon World. Yippity-skippity-do, I thought flatly, looking around. Sure, this was a totally different world, but we'd been walking all day, and after a while the trees had all started looking the same. I slipped into the forest and looked around. Lots of underbrush, lots of foliage...hm. I bent over and stared at a strange yellow-blue flower. It was pretty, but I couldn't really smell anything. I nudged it with my shoe, and it bent towards me. I inhaled sharply and jumped back, then crept forward again. I blew on it, and it rose towards my face. I hummed lightly, and it curved towards my throat. I stepped away.
I turned to my left and looked closely at the green plants. The leaves were oddly shaped, and the green was so deep it was practically purple. In fact, I noticed, a lot of them were. Small white flowers littered the ground in a line, and I wanted to go after them but stopped myself. I noticed a mushroom-looking thing to my right and took a step closer. It suddenly grew and lunged at me. "Holy crap!" I snapped, darting away. I peered around a tree and saw it had shrank back down. I picked up a stick, crept over to it, and beat it into a mushy pulp. "Take that, nature," I muttered, taking the flat of my left pointer finger and thunking my hand against my chest a couple of times, before throwing the stick back into the woods.
"I see you're not quite a flower-girl," a voice commented dryly, but I swear I heard amusement.
I stopped breathing momentarily and whipped around. "I don't like things that try to eat me."
"Then you won't like this world."
"I like it so far. Imprisonment and all."
I could feel eyes staring at me, but for the life of me I could not find Hiei. "They went easy on you."
Ow. I'd hit a chord. "I never said I liked imprisonment. I said I liked mine." The best way to shut a person up? Confuse them!
I heard him snort. "You are a weird human."
"I'd bow, but I'm afraid I'd get attacked by a leaf," I replied, walking back towards the campsite.
Hiei, as it turned out, returned with three dead pheasants. Kurama gutted and wrapped them in an assembly of leaves after adding other herbs. Yusuke and Kuwabara started up a rhyming game that somehow got me involved.
"Grape," Kuwabara continued.
"Late," I replied.
"Great," Yusuke shrugged.
"Slate."
"Bait."
"Take."
"Break."
"Snake."
"Tape."
"Eight." Kuwabara held up eight fingers.
"Ate."
"Crate."
"Tape."
"Shape."
"..." Kuwabara and I looked expectantly at Yusuke, who was deep in thought. "Hmm..." Even Kurama was looking at him. He made a face. A few seconds later he threw up his hands. "I don't know!"
"Cake!" I cheered seconds before Kuwabara yelled "Shake!", which made me the winner.
"That's the third time she's beat you two," Kurama chuckled, turning the pheasants.
"Beginner's luck," Yusuke grumbled.
I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Let's play genkan!" Kuwabara said enthusiastically. I lifted an eyebrow. "Rock, paper, scissors?"
"Paper, scissors, rock." I nodded. "Sure."
Yusuke, Kuwabara, and I stuck our hands into a circle. We shook our fists three times, and Kuwabara won. Well. I was usually good at this game. I frowned as we did it again. The tall boy won again. This was embarrassing.
Ten times later Yusuke had given up, but Kuwabara and I were still at it. He had won every freaking time, and I was the type of person who didn't give up until they had what they wanted, and I wanted a win. I lost. Eleven. I lost again. Twelve. I lost. Thirteen. I lost. Fourteen. I lost. Fifteen. I lost. Sixteen. I lost. Seventeen. I won.
I won?
"Boo-yah!" I declared, drawing my wrist back in triumphantly. I crooned to myself as I did the cabbage patch. If a laughing Kurama wouldn't have said it was time to eat, I might've gotten up and done my version of the Digorno dance.
Kuwabara was still sputtering about his loss when Hiei interrupted. "Nobody wins forever, you oaf."
"But I'm the king of genkan!"
"Who just got beat by a girl," Yusuke snickered.
While they fought, Kurama handed me half of a pheasant. I smiled and told him thanks, and he sat beside me. It was then we noticed we really didn't have any utensils to eat with. He glanced down at his bird, then at me, and laughed softly as he used his hands. I couldn't help from smiling again as I did the same.
Almost in unison, we yelled, "Hot!!" and spit the food back out. Yusuke and Kuwabara looked at us, Yusuke's mouth still open to fire another insult at Kuwabara. Somewhere I heard Hiei snort.
Mentally bad-mouthing pretty much everything, I stuck my tongue out and went cross-eyed trying to look at it. It stung like no one's business, and I could feel my pulse when I touched it to the roof of my mouth. "Dahm..." I hissed, then glanced up as Yusuke started to laugh.
It was going to be a long night.
I stayed leaning against the tree I had eaten my supper against even as Kuwabara and Kurama settled down. There had been no sign of Hiei since dinner, which had ended nearly an hour ago. Yusuke was walking around since he had first watch. They had talked about this, and it was decided that since Kuwabara had lost to me, he wouldn't have a watch this night. Apparently only three of them could keep watch all night.
I was tired and my feet hurt, but I didn't sleep. It was an unfortunate habit of mine. Whenever I slept somewhere unfamiliar, I stayed up late and once I fell asleep, woke up periodically all through the night. Yusuke kept glancing at me as he walked by, so after awhile, I let my head drop and my hair fan around my face so he couldn't see my open eyes. I took special care not to move.
Well, let's just say I was still awake when Yusuke woke up Kurama. I fell asleep sometime after that, because I woke up twice when it was still his shift. The second time I woke up, I pulled a I'm-still-half-asleep move and shuffled a foot closer to the greenish-tinted fire(1) before lying down. I woke up four more times during his shift and again when he called softly for Hiei. Hiei said something that sounded like 'here,' and Kurama laid back down to sleep.
I snuck a glance at my watch; it was three o' clock in the morning. Unless we were getting up at five in the morning, Hiei had the longest shift. It had been nine at night when we had laid down, and even though I should've had six hours of sleep by now, I knew I'd had less than half of that. Tomorrow is going to suck. I shivered slightly and inched closer to the fire, so close in fact that I was an arm's length from the stones that surrounded it. As I stared at it drowsily, it seemed like the fire got warmer, like someone had added fuel to it. I sighed softly and knew I was loosing it.
When I woke up again, something was on me. I almost flipped out until I realized it was a cloak. I mumbled something and pulled it off of me. My sleepy hands wadded it up into a ball, then cuddled it against my chest like a stuffed animal. "Thanks," I whispered in my half-awake state, perfectly unaware that someone was listening. I fell asleep.
1 - Hiei started it and kept it fueled with his own energy. So there.
Please keep the reviews coming! (After getting viciously attacked by a wheelbarrow two days in a row, it would make me very happy.)