Kiyoshi-neko - Dude...that's very scarey. I tried to go for a natural reaction to the whole demon thing; I didn't want her to be a valley-girl. >.
"Not."
"Too."
"Not."
"Too."
"Don't you get tired of this?" Yusuke asked in exasperation. We'd been arguing for nearly a half an hour now.
I snorted. "I have a blonde sister. What do you think?"
"You never told us you had a sister."
"You never asked. I win."
Yusuke growled. "You just have to get the last word in, don't you?"
"M-hm."
"So your sister. Is she younger or older than you?" Kurama asked.
I mentally hit myself. I didn't want the conversation to be about me. "Younger. Two years."
"What's her name?"
"Katie."
"What's she like?"
"A ditzy, annoying cheerleader."
"Do you miss her?" Kuwabara asked.
"Huh?"
"I don't miss Shizuru, and I was wondering if you missed her, just to show all these only-children that siblings are annoying."
I thought. "Not really." A little. Maybe...a little more than that.
At about that time, we approached a clearing with a waterfall. Kurama led us up the rocky cliff. It was fun to climb; I loved climbing rocks. I flew up behind Kurama as easily as the demon-fox, while Yusuke and Kuwabara struggled piteously. He reached a ledge, turned around, and started to find me. He smiled and offered a hand, which even though I didn't need, I took. He pulled me up, and I looked around.
Of course.
It was a cave behind a waterfall.
"We'll be staying here tonight," Kurama said to me over his shoulder.
Uh-oh.
That night I got a little bit more sleep because I didn't wake up as much, but I was still tired the next morning. I sighed when Kurama woke me up and sat up. I didn't feel like playing games this morning. A few minutes later my reason was clear. I sneezed a snotty sneeze, then fired off three more. Kurama handed me a soft leaf with a slight frown. "I 'ope you 'ave more," I sniffed after I blew my nose. He frowned harder, and seconds later I let off another row of five sneezes. I blew my nose, sniffed, and kept sneezing. Shaking my head, I stumbled out of the cave and sat on a ledge, coughing and sneezing like...well...it's hard to find a comparison, but it was bad.
"Are you okay?" Yusuke asked, coming out and staring at me incredulously.
"Will be. 'S just allerg-sneeze-ies. They'll clear ub in a few hours-" I sneezed violently, effectively ending my sentence.
"If you say so," he said uncertainly. He put a large pile of more leaves down beside me and went back into the cave.
I continued so hard and bad I couldn't eat breakfast. Everyone was worried about me but me. I was used to it; it happened a lot in my summers in America. There it was the humidity and pollen; here it was the musky odor of the cave.
Kurama came from the cave nearly an hour later and handed me a cup. "It's an herbal antihistamine," he explained.
"'Anks." I took the cup, found it wasn't warm, and chugged it down in two gulps. "Will it make me drowsy?"
"Maybe a little," he relented.
One thing I hated most in the world was a drowsy side effect in medicines. I nodded, then continued to sneeze.
If you take two nights of practically no sleep; two days filled with running, walking, and excitement; and add a slightly drowsy side effect, you get one very tired girl.
My head was bobbing, and my mind was popping, something it only did when I was deader than dead tired. I was shuffling so bad I was barely moving. Voices blurred a lot, and I hardly realized when someone picked me up and carried me, for I was fast asleep.
"Kurama, are you sure giving her medicine like that was a good idea?" Kuwabara asked as he carried the girl in his arms.
"She's hardly slept at all these past couple of nights; she won't make it through another full day of walking," Kurama said, glancing at her.
"Are you sure about the whole not-sleeping thing? She's always got her eyes closed when I'm on shift," Yusuke asked.
"She fakes sleeping and wakes up so much when she does it defeats the point," Hiei replied flatly.
"She doesn't trust us, then?"
"I don't think that's it," Kurama said quietly, looking at her again. She was fast asleep, left arm dangling in front of Kuwabara's leg. Her right was wrapped loosely around her waist, and she looked perfectly content.
"Then what is it?" Kuwabara asked.
"I don't know."
I opened my eyes. Someone was fixing food, and the sun was rising. "Morning," a soft voice called. Kurama.
"Morning," I mumbled, then bolted upright. "What happened?"
The boy cocked his head slightly. "You fell asleep. The medicine knocked you out cold for a day." I blinked. "We'll be arriving at the temple sometime this afternoon."
Rebecca Wallace does not sleep for a day because of side effects, especially with her recent sleeping pattern! I frowned slightly. Kurama was supposed to be a demon fox. Well, aren't foxes tricky? What if he gave me a sleeping draught instead? Well, I decided, whatever it was, I wasn't sneezing and coughing anymore, and let it be.
An hour and a half later we were off again. My feet still ached, like they had on my trips to Chicago and New York City. We'd played so many games of genkan, rhymes, I spy, and connections that all I wanted to do was walk in silence, but Yusuke kept insisting on playing connections.
"Tree," the boy said.
"Leaf," Kuwabara replied.
"Fall," Kurama supplied.
"School," I mumbled.
"Detention."
"Time."
"Bells."
"Night." I rolled my eyes as they stared at me. "It's a book about a Jew in the Holocaust who dreamed of a world with no bells."
"Day," Yusuke decided.
"Sun."
"Light."
"Heat."
"Shade."
"Shadow."
Kurama looked around. "Hiei."
I smirked. "Weird."
Somewhere an annoyed voice answered, "Humans."
"Oblivious."
"Botan."
"Reikai."
"Ghosts?" What did I know about the spirit world?
Yusuke chuckled. "Powerful."
"Me!"
"Dense."
"Density."
"What?"
"Question."
"Answer."
"Test."
"Evil."
"Dark Tournament."
"Fight."
"Pain."
"Here!" Yusuke yelled.
It took us a second to figure out that he was pointing at a temple.