Flames of DeceitChapter 2-
Brief summary of last chapter-Keiko forced Yusuke into going on a "triple date". When Yusuke couldn't get Kurama to go with the new girl, Hiei took his place. Tonight, both Neko and Hiei will get more than they bargained for.
Disclaimer-Sorry don't own the show.
Yusuke glanced up at the list of movies. "This selection sucks," he said bluntly. Kuwabara nodded in agreement. Keiko didn't seem to care and was explaining all of the movies to Yukina, though all Yukina did was nod her head. Neko stood to one side watching them discuss which was better. Again Yusuke felt as if she could see something that the others couldn't. Her eyes seemed all knowing. He glanced over at Hiei who was now leaning against the building with his arms crossed. He was about to say something to him about lightening up, when Keiko interrupted him.
"This is the movie we're going to watch," she announced. The rest of them looked up at a poster that had a boat and a couple depicted on it. On it was the word Titanic. Neko's face became sour and the boys groaned in protest, well at least two of them, the other wasn't even paying attention. "Stop whining. It's only a movie, and besides we can watch this movie for free. They brought a whole bunch of old movies in and are giving out free tickets for them." Yusuke groaned even louder, Hiei finally noticing them, found this entertaining. "Yusuke quit being a brat, besides this is the movie that Yukina wanted to see." To the others it looked like somehow Keiko had talked her into it. She held a confused look on her face.
Kuwabara wasn't that keen though, "Well if that's what my Yukina wants to see, then we'll see it." Yusuke slapped his forehead and mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like stupid. Before Kuwabara could acknowledge it, Keiko had already grabbed Yusuke's hand and dragged him inside. "Hey wait for me guys!" Neko followed them shortly after giving a discouraging look at the poster. Hiei didn't follow until he remembered that his sister and the idiot were out of sight. That gave him enough motivation to move away from the wall and enter the building. He still would have preferred the light drizzle outside to the brightly-lit theater. People milled around entering and exiting. A loud hum of noise and talking reached their ears.
"Six tickets," Keiko stated. Yusuke was still scowling when they received their tickets. Hiei noticed it continued until a certain girl stomped on his foot. He also noted the Neko was still keeping her distance from the group. For a moment he thought he saw a look of despair in her eyes as she looked at a family laughing, but that had nothing to do with him, so he ignored it.
Yusuke had noticed it as well and gave her a concerned glance. Neko must have seen however, and turned away from him.
After purchasing whatever snacks they could find, the group finally made it's way to their seats. Ads were still playing on the screen when they entered, and it seemed an eternity until the lights dimmed. Even then they had to put up with the usual previews. Hiei had never been in a theater before but was already starting to dislike it. All of the previews looked pointless to him. He muttered again and Neko thought she caught the word stupid.
Yusuke nudged Kuwabara and pointed over at Neko and Hiei. They both had their arms crossed and looked quite sullen. Yusuke started imitating them. "They could pass for identical if one wasn't a girl," he said. Kuwabara laughed and nodded in agreement. He shut his mouth very quickly when he noticed that Hiei was staring daggers at them. "You know, it doesn't help that he's a telepath," Yusuke commented.
Keiko punched him in the arm, "Shut up the movies coming on." Neko watched without interest, though she was sure she heard snoring coming from Yusuke's direction within the first five minutes of the movie.
Neko stretched after they came out of the theater, she seemed quite glad that the movie was over. She glanced over at Hiei, who was intently watching Yusuke. She diverted her attention to him as well and suppressed a smile. "Yusuke, how could you go to sleep like that?!? You missed over half of the movie!" Yusuke laughed nervously and tried to explain himself.
"Well, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I was really tired. Honest! Besides, American's make stupid movies anyway." He gulped as Keiko drew her hand back, a split second before she could hit him, he took off running.
"Come back here you jerk!" She took off running after him yelling unpleasant words in his direction. Yukina held a bemused look on her face and followed the two, unsure why she did. Perhaps she didn't want to get left behind.
Kuwabara joined in on the chase as well. "Hey guys, wait for me!" He muttered something about not being left out. Neko watched them round the corner, leaving her and Hiei alone. She let out an exasperated sigh.
"They ditched us," she commented. She sat down on a nearby bench and looked up at the night sky. The sky had cleared; the only evidence of rain was the damp ground. That and the smell of wet grass.
"I was going to leave the movie anyway, and then finally people started to die." Neko looked over at Hiei and smirked. He returned the glance and then walked off in the other direction. She watched him curiously until he vanished. She was unsure of what to do now that she was alone, so she waited. It all seemed so quiet, she closed her eyes and listened as bugs chirped. People looked at her strangely, but she didn't care. She couldn't them after all. She heard faint footsteps they stopped and she knew they were stopped to look at her.
Amazingly after ten minutes Hiei had returned. Neko opened her eyes and turned to look at him. He looked at her for a moment and finally said, "I had to check on someone. Hmmm, I guess you need to eat." Hiei pondered on why the hell he had suggested that. It was not at all like him. Neko held a similar puzzled look on her face; she shrugged after a minute. If he wanted to get her food she might as well accept it.
Neko sat quietly eating her food watching Hiei drink a glass of water, which he did only to fit in with the crowd. She noticed that he had deliberately put distance between them. Probably to divert attention away from him. She didn't care though. A hazy layer of cigarette smoke hung in the air lazily. It stung Neko's eyes, but she had become used to that sometime ago. Waiters shuffled past her busily and idle chatter of customers could be heard. Aromas of different types of food filled the air each time a server passed, though she was quite content with the smell of her own. She had barely touched it though. She took a sip from her own glass and caught sight of Hiei sitting across from her.
He kept looking around him as if someone was watching them. It was either that or he was extremely bored. After a while she started to wonder why he was wearing a black robe. She was also curious about the bandana. She decided to ask to make conversation. " How come you're wearing that bandana?"
Hiei looked at her warily, somewhat annoyed at the question. Why did he have to get stuck on this stupid date? He was going to kill Kurama when he came back. "I just do." Neko seemed disappointed in the lack of length in the answer. She looked down and picked at her food. She looked over at the family next to her and smiled sadly at them. Hiei became curious at her interest in other's families. He quickly asked a question when she looked as if she would cry. That was something he wouldn't be able to stand. "What the heck kind of name is Neko?"
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "That was really polite," she said. He thought she was about to yell at him, when instead she smiled; though it was a hollow one. One that held no happiness, but sorrow. As did her eyes. "It's my nickname. Someone very close to me gave it to me a long time ago. They told me that I was as curious as a cat. That's what Neko means, cat, from then on that's what I've been called." She looked up for a moment and then laughed uneasily. "Kind of silly isn't it?" Hiei looked at her for a moment wondering if he should answer that. He decided against it and leaned back in his chair. Cat huh? I suppose she does kind of resemble one, mostly her eyes. I just wish she would quit looking so damned depressed. Wonder what the reason is, not like I care though.
Neko jumped back when suddenly his glass of water exploded. A cold splash of liquid flew in her direction, but most of it missed her. She wiped the small amount of what had hit her out of her eyes. She looked up and saw a giant bouncy ball in Hiei's glass. A woman nearby yelled, "Alex get over here right now!" A young boy with sandy hair, presumably Alex, ran over and removed the ball from the glass and ran off. Neko would have watched the young boy, but she saw Hiei covered in water and she jumped up to help wipe him off. That was until he removed his bandana. She quickly realized why he kept it on.
She watched with interest as Hiei's third eye opened. That was something you didn't see every day. Its bright blue contrasted with the reddish brown in his other two. She quickly realized he looked extremely angry. In fact she thought she saw flames in his eyes, then she noticed that is was a reflection of the fire he held in his hand. How the hell could he hold fire? He suddenly rose and tossed a handful of fire at the restaurant and it became enveloped in the flames. Explosions in the kitchen sent debris flying every which way. The fire licked at anything in its path. Everything was now in a reddish tint. The smell and taste of smoke soon filled the air, causing several people to tear at the eyes involuntarily. Panic was snaking through the crowd rapidly and shrieks from women and children overpowered the roar of the flames.
Neko looked slightly bewildered as the people around her screamed and ran for cover. That didn't happen a lot either. "This is a great thing to tell people about. What did you do on your date? Well my date attacked the restaurant because he got wet," she thought she caught a glint of something in the corner of her eye. She glanced around at the flames and saw a man surrounded in a glowing aura. At least it looked like a man at first, she noticed that it had pointed ears and deep crimson eyes. The same color as the energy he was surrounded in. The flames greedily edged towards him but seemed to disintegrate within a few feet of the creature. Neko's eyes were glued to him in amazement. He had obviously noticed and turned to look at her as well. He gave a yellow toothed grin at her. Dirty thoughts probably running through his mind about her. She shuddered and looked back over at Hiei who seemed quite pleased with himself until he noticed the figure too. He gave a frown and narrowed eyes at him.
Neko realized she was probably in a dangerous position and she started to back away, only to be confronted by the fire. Very quickly she remembered that humans burn when touched by fire. The smoke stung her eyes and they began to water. She turned away from the inferno back to the only ones still there.
"So you found me. Good for you. Too bad I'm not finished with you yet Hiei. Perhaps I should play with your little female friend too." Another grin confirmed that he was having fantasies that Neko didn't care to indulge. She took another step backwards trying to put distance between the two of them. Hiei seemed perturbed by this nuisance. He shook his head and his eyes narrowed. Even a human female being violated disgusted him. He watched his opponent, trying to assess how best to attack him. He saw the youkai moving his hands awkwardly. He brushed the thought aside.
"Heh, So you lived. I'll soon remedy that." Hiei grinned with some arrogance. He was confident he would win this fight. Neko watched as he drew a sword and got into a fighting stance. This would be too much for a normal human to take in, however she never had been like anyone else. She also noticed the youkai's odd hand movements, like he was manipulating something. That was also the time she noticed a bluish ball of energy speeding towards Hiei from behind. Damn dirty bastard.
"LOOK OUT!" Her warning echoed but reached the intended person in time. Hiei spun around and quickly dodged the attack. "So that's why your hands twitched like that." The youkai flashed a crooked grin at him before launching itself at Neko. She gave a look of terror and tried to get out of the way. Unfortunately the fire had been sneaking up on her. She let out a surprised yelp as it bit at her ankles. She had no way out. Burn or be attacked.
Suddenly Hiei blurred away and grabbed a hold of Neko's arm and tossed her into the air, so she would not be a distraction. Though part of his mind told him that he had done it to save the girl as well. The youkai watched with amusement as the girl screamed from both surprise and fright. Normally humans didn't do these type of acrobatics unless they were in the Olympics. He didn't notice Hiei blurring away again.
Neko watched as the ground below her spun around, the wind knocked out of her. The wind whipped around her as she twisted and turned abnormally. She caught sight of the demon below her who was laughing. Or he was laughing until he spit up blood. An agonized look melted away his grin. Neko realized the ground would soon meet her face, and she almost missed the creature fall apart to the ground in twitching chunks. She heard a loud THUD, and noticed that Hiei had caught her in midair. He landed on his feet and set her down. It took her a moment to recover; after all she was quite dizzy. "Well, that was new." She risked a glance at the pile of charred body parts that was burning into ashes. "Did you do that," she asked with uncertainty.
Hiei looked down at her with a smirk. "He should never have let his guard down, I only got him 21 times." Neko simply sat there looking shocked. Hiei seemed to enjoy the look of surprise on her face, then he noticed the red on her outfit. "Are you injured?" Why he felt compelled to ask why was beyond him. It just seemed to be the right thing at the moment.
Neko shook her head; "I don't think so." She attempted to stand, but a burning sensation went through her leg and she collapsed into Hiei's arms. "Well then again, my ankle hurts a little bit." She looked down and noticed that there was a gash in her arm as well, probably from a shard of glass. The blood was trickling down her side. She noticed that her hair was in disarray, tussled all over the place, she looked up Hiei. "Um, sorry about that," she said noticing that he seemed bewildered at holding her like this.
His face quickly cleared. He picked up his discarded bandana and bent down to Neko. She grimaced but did not scream as he wound it tight around her arm. He was slightly impressed that the girl had control over her pain like that and that she hadn't run like a fool when he blew up the restaurant. He looked back down to her ankle that looked swollen, probably sprain as well as burned. "Well I guess that means I'll have to carry you home." And so he did avoiding looking at her the whole time.
When they arrived at her doorstep he set her down, careful to avoid eye contact. He placed a barrette in Neko's hand. "Here, you dropped this." Neko looked it over looking grateful, both for that and his assistance with her wound. She thanked him and kissed him on the cheek quickly, not really sure why she did. Somehow she felt drawn to him. He resisted the urge to hold his face from astonishment.
"Um, I-I have to go now," he said looking shocked. He turned to leave, but gave one final glance and smirked. "Wash the blood out of your outfit. It clashes. And remember, none of this ever happened." Neko nodded and would have waved, but Hiei was gone before she even thought of it. She pocketed the barrette and unlocked her door and entered her house. She quickly changed and crawled into her bed. She thought of the night's occurrences. It had all seemed to go by so fast. She wasn't even sure it had happened at all. She closed her eyes and let darkness over come her.
That night Neko slept uneasily for she had a nightmare. One of a land of flames and ice, for a fleeting second she thought she recognized the place. But the feeling of familiarity soon vanished. The place had an eerie feel to it, much like a graveyard after dark. Suddenly she felt as if she was being chased, so she ran. A foreboding essence of darkness seemed to over come her, but still she ran. She kept looking back, only to see shadows. No tangible beings, just the creatures of darkness that loomed over her. The cold and heat that were driving into her didn't help.
Some objects started to come into focus. Ridges in the ground that she had to dodge. She was snagged by several of them and dragged down. She kept fumbling with her footing as she was pursued by the unseen danger. Behind her darkness threatened to swallow her, in front of her the ice and fire clashed, creating an impressive, but dangerous display of fireworks. She dodged the flames that licked at her clothes and the shards of ice that came hurtling towards her. A feeling of fear and terror ripped at her insides, threatening to drive her insane.
Then she heard voices. Not very clear, muffled. As if they were far away. She was sure they were angry with her, they wanted to kill her. A figure stepped before her and reached out with a gnarled hand. It tried to grab her put she pulled away, only to meet more of the robed figures. They towered before her, all reaching out. She let out a scream and awoke with a start in her own home.
She realized she had fallen out of her bed and was lying on the cold hard wood floor. Her clothes and sheet clung to her from the cold sweat she was soaked in. Her mind was still rattled and terrified, and she was still trembling with fright. It had seemed so real, like a memory from someone's past. Could it have been hers? She closed her eyes as she tried to regulate her erratic breathing. She took a deep breath and turned on the lamp that was within her reach. Even if she was tired, she didn't think she wanted to sleep any time soon.
Ok, and review. That was kind of a weird chapter I think. Oh well, it had to happen in order to make the story move, you'll see how in the next chap. I wonder if Neko, or Tsuki, if you want to call her that, will forgive the rest of the gang for leaving her alone? What do you guys think of Neko by the way? I tried to give her a bit of an attitude; she'll need it later on. Well see you guys next chap
Power surge
