Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything from Yu Yu Hakusho
Blooded Kin
Chapter 4: "They're Alive . . ."

WindEmpress: School is back in session, Firestar is back, and I've got a hundred more story plot ideas for my fanfics and stories!
Firestar: As if you needed anymore, you've still got a hundred more to finish! Why don't you FINISH them before you think of anymore?
WindEmpress: That's just me, I can't help it.
Firestar: Oh boy . . .

"Where do you two think you're going?" Kurama asked as he found them stepping out the door. It was around noon but the sun was nowhere to be seen and the sky was a profound, shadowy blue illuminating up more towards the east; a thunderstorm was on its way. Few birds were singing off in the distance, a kingfisher, a skylark, and a redwing, making the area full of sounds of life.

Leanna smiled her guiltless smile, which had gotten her out of a few appalling messes when she was younger, "We were going off to be girls and find some clothes to wear instead of these bloody, threadbare, soiled kimonos for something better and maybe a little more contemporary." There was a bit of a malicious tone to her voice; she had been a bit troubled to find that she hadn't taken anything with her from her former home. "We really didn't have much time to figure out what was going to happen to us, so we don't have anything else to wear." Both Keladay and Leanna had done their best to make their kimonos look a little less outlandish by taking fabric from the sleeves and sash; it still looked peculiar, but it was better than before.

Kurama had heard the unpleasant tone to her voice, flinched as she spoke in that tenor. "I'm sorry," he said he could only imagine what they had been going through (and yet they were still happy), "We're just worried about these demons that are running around and your safety. I think someone should go with you . . ." He turned around but stopped up as he felt someone grab his arm, he turned to find Keladay holding him back, he was taken by surprise that her once nails had turned to talons of a demon.

"Don't," Leanna said with another tone in her voice (maybe trepidation?), "We'll be fine, we can take care of each other, and we are demons you know." Did Leanna appear apprehensive, or was it just the light in the area? Her muscles seemed rigid, almost ready to take action if anything transpired them to peril. Leanna was more mature and accountable than her cousin might be during this time, not to mention, she'd probably know what to do if they were in any danger. "Please, we've decided that maybe we should go unaccompanied, due to all that's happened these passed few weeks; our kin is dead, we're in an unknown world, and we erudite that we are demons: we need time to talk to each other."

Keladay looked at Leanna, still holding onto Kurama, with a perplexing look of confusion, "Wow!" she said, "I didn't understand anything you've said the entire day!" She tried to smile, but established it hard to do so; she gave in after her fifth challenge to stare at the ground. They both seemed so distraught it was problematical to think they would ever be happy once more.

Kurama sighed, "Alright, Leanna, I trust that you will alert us if you are in any danger and Keladay...stay out of trouble." Keladay let go of Kurama's arm to stare up at him with a face that said she wouldn't generate any calamities.

"Thanks, Kurama, if they ask where we are, just tell that that we taking care of incomplete business and not to worry about us, that's the last thing we need right now," Leanna said as she stepped out the entry with Keladay following closely behind; as soon as they were outside, they bolted down the road. Kurama blinked, that was eccentric, he thought.

Leanna and Keladay ran down the road until they came to the downtown area of the city, never even breaking a sweat as they raced through the streets, away from idiots, and practically everyone. They stopped at the entrance of a building they had not yet looked at to look at each other. "What was all that about?" Keladay asked her cousin after a few seconds of time.

Leanna looked at her, "Last night I had a dream about a little girl who looked like...me and you, and a dragon and a phoenix. I'm losing my mind! I don't understand what's going on anymore! We've lost everything we once cherished..." Leanna sank down next to the wall and began to cry, she didn't care that people were watching her, nor did she want to care about the people she'd met during this time. She wanted to go back home and live life as it should have...or is this how life was supposed to be for them?

Keladay had been taken by surprise as her cousin sank down and cried, and this dream...she had had the same exact same dream about the girl, the phoenix, and the dragon. Without thinking, she slapped Leanna across the face as hard as she could manage; Leanna was stunned into silence and immobility, "What the hell, you've gone into an emotional break down; I thought you were brave and strong and here you are crying? What happened to Angel, the girl who wasn't afraid of the basement when we heard strange noises in the middle of the night when we were little? What happened to the Angel that was always ready to find an adventure in the reeds where snakes flourished and god know what else? You're not losing your mind; I had the same exact dream!" Suddenly, she had a plan to get Leanna back to her typical self; she started giggling only to break out in laughter, "Oh God . . . this is hysterical!" she said through her laughter.

Leanna glared at her through her tears, "What are you laughing at?" she asked amid sobs; she sounded so dejected and piteous as she did so and that only caused Keladay to laugh harder.

"Oh, this is awesome; I wish I had a camera to show the guys back at the apartment: Leanna in an Emotional Break Down! This is hysterical!" she stole a glance at her cousin and found that the tears had vanished to be substituted with an immorality glower by Leanna. She stopped laughing to offer her hand out to Leanna, "It's good to have you back," she said as Leanna took her hand and stood up. "I was afraid you'd stay like that for the entire day...we'll talk about this later."

Leanna nodded and whipped the last of her tears on her arm to smile, "Yeah, right now let's go have some fun." They walked into the building, still ignoring the sign, pushed the doors open and found themselves in the one and only place they liked to shop. Leanna jumped up and down saying "Yea, Hot Topic, Hot Topic, Hot Topic!" and raced forward with Keladay following closely behind. They both split up to seek out their own clothes.

"Hah, check this out!" Leanna said as they walked out of the store with huge bags of clothes, Leanna pulled out a black choker with spikes around it, much like a dog collar. She had forgotten her emotional break down and had been as hyper as ever, Keladay was happy that she had slapped her like she did, otherwise they wouldn't have had such a superb time together. Leanna put the choker on her neck and smiled at her cousin, who laughed.

"It suits you, it looks like a dog collar!" she said laughing; Leanna joined her shortly after. Keladay pulled out her own black choker with a cat hanging down on a minute, slim chain. "This fits me too, doesn't it?" she asked with a smile.

Leanna nodded, "Yes, I think it fits you rather well." They both began to walk down the road, still in their soiled kimonos, talking and laughing elatedly as though nothing could change that. They went into a three story mall and found much more clothes for sale. Leanna found herself in a Harley Davidson store buying a few clothes while Keladay went to JC Penny buying some interesting clothes (Leanna even followed). Amazingly, they still had $200 left (right now, I'm too tired to try to convert) by the time they went home with a great many bags together. Both of them were laughing as they walked in.

"Did you see the guy staring at you where what's-his-face's sword stabbed you? His face was white as a ghost because he thought you were dead!" Keladay said laughing as they went up the stairs and into their own rooms. Kurama looked up from the book he was reading to listen to their approach, Yusuke was sleeping, Kuwabara was staring at the wall (no surprise), and Hiei had been meditating only to look up and watch the two girls.

Leanna smiled, "You think that's bad, there was a guy staring at your . . . chest." Leanna made a face as she spoke, "That was so wrong, he only turned away when I caught him."

Keladay stopped dead, "Whoa! That's wrong and gross." She began walking again when something else hit her, "Oh, there was also a guy checking you out, he was giving you the eye." This time, Leanna stopped dead.

"What? Ahh! This is bad, let's stop talking about this!" she followed Keladay up the stairs to go into her own room. As she unloaded her clothes from the bags, she began to decide which ones would be best for demon fighting and sparring and which ones would be good for everyday things. Keladay came into her room saying, "Don't tell me you're organizing your clothes too?" Leanna only nodded at her comment and began to hum a tune. Keladay followed only to start singing the song.

"Who can say where the road goes?" they sang together, "Where the day flows, only time. And who can say if your love grows as your heart chose, only time." They sang the rest of the song; only when they ended did Leanna find another.

"Love . . . Emotion . . . Feelings . . . Emotion . . . Don't be afraid to be weak. Don't be proud to be strong, just look into your heart, my friend; that will be the return to yourself, the return to innocence."

Keladay joined, "The return to innocence. And if everyone starts to laugh, if you must then start to cry, be yourself, don't try, just believe in destiny. Don't care what people say, just follow your own ways. Don't give up and give it a chance: the return to innocence."

They both stopped and started laughing again at their sudden happiness: songs were the only thing they had to make them smile now a day and they used them a lot. Leanna finished putting her clothes on the hangers she had been endowed with and placed them in the closet; she began walking out of the room with her cousin following her once more. As they went down the stairs, Leanna suddenly stopped causing Keladay to run into her saying "What'd you do that for?" Leanna turned around and put a finger to her mouth asking her to be silent. She pointed down the stairs where the others were: it was dead silent. "They've been listening to us," Leanna whispered as quietly as she could manage.

"OH GOD!" Keladay said but stopped short as Leanna put her hand over her mouth saying, "Shut up, you idiot!" Leanna was cut short when Kurama said, "Its alright, we already know your there." Leanna dropped her hand to say, "Figures," in a submitting voice.

"Figures, what sort of figures?" Keladay asked, jokingly, only until she realized what she'd just said, "Figures! Ah, figures as in those naked figures!" She put her hands onto her head and shook it madly as though trying to clear the image from her head.

"It's a figure of speech!" Leanna said trying to get her to calm down.

"See, see, see, see! You are talking about those kinds of figures!" She pointed to her cousin, who was now glaring wickedly at her, as she spoke. Keladay's chastisement was a strike to the cranium by her dearest cousin to be knocked down to the next step on her bum with a thud. "Serious brain damage here!" she said to Leanna.

"Oh, right, as if you don't already have brain damage?" Leanna said with a smile as she helped Keladay up. She started laughing as she spoke, "I guess we have to laugh at each other's pain to keep living, huh?" Keladay smiled and nodded in agreement. They both went down the stairs, together, to look at the people who had been listening to them, "Dare I ask why you were listening to us?" Leanna asked the group.

None of them spoke at first, then Kurama spoke up, "Kind of hard not to hear you, its been rather quiet since you left and it was rather boring because of that."

"I might add that you two have very nice singing voices," Yusuke said with a matter-of-factly voice.

Leanna and Keladay turned to each other, both of them had a look of worry on their face. Kurama changed the subject, "Did you two have fun?"

They both nodded, "Yes," Keladay answered, "We found a lot of people staring at us and it was funny to see their expressions because some of them looked worried and other looked funny because we looked like ghosts carrying bags." She stopped and thought about that representation, she laughed. "That would be funny to see; a ghost carrying shopping bags," she laughed harder this time; Leanna gave a bit of a hidden smirk. Keladay suddenly stopped laughing and Leanna looked up; both of them turned to the window. "You felt that, didn't you?" Keladay asked Leanna.

"Yeah, that force like thing? What the hell was that?" she asked Keladay, who could only shrug her shoulders. "Oh, well, maybe it was just one of those unexplained things."

Keladay turned back to the guys, who were now all staring at them, and blinked, "What did I do this time?"

"Isn't it strange that the two of you can practically feel the same thing without telling each other?" Kurama asked in an apprehensive voice.

Leanna blinked, "Why do you say that? We've always had that, its just something that happens to us."

"Only when the two of you are together it seems to happen," Hiei asked, "sounds odd to me."

Keladay looked at the faces of them, "What are you trying to say?"

Leanna began to see where this was going and laughed, "That's good, its almost funny, Kurama, but that is highly doubtful."

Hiei looked at her, "Oh, then why do the two of you know what the other is going to say or have the same comment each time you speak or why the two of you felt the same 'force' at the exact same time or why the two of you look alike?"

"This is ridiculous! Its practically impossible! How the hell did you come to that conclusion: just because we look a bit alike, because we finish each other's sentences, because we felt the same 'force'?" She ignored the fact that they both shared the same dream last night.

"Then tell me why the two of you shared the same dream?"

Leanna was dazed, "How do you know about that?"

"I'm telepathic, remember?"

Keladay began to see where this was going, "Wait, you don't mean that you think . . ."

"It seems that way," Kurama replied.

Leanna and Keladay looked at each other, could it be true? The force came back again, but it was stronger this time, causing both of them to fall to their knees and clutch their heads. Everything was black, but both of them saw something fiery off in the distance and a black outline of something black and a sound . . . wing beats. Once the vision was gone, Keladay woke up to find that Kurama was standing over her, She jumped and moved backwards to hit her head on the wall, "Ow, as if I needed anymore brain damage."

"Are you alright?" Kurama asked apprehensively.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. That was so weird . . . Leanna? Where's Leanna?" she asked looking around. Kurama pointed towards where she was at, she was still out.

"Come on, wake up!" said a voice next to her.

She was too tired, too sick actually, to get up and see this person. She wanted to see this person; she was very close to them and was the only person she wanted to see. "I can't . . . I'm too tired . . ."

"Come on, don't you know how much I risk coming here? At least look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Leanna didn't see anymore; why did those voices sound so familiar? The vision shifted again, she had already seen the dragon and the phoenix, to a clearing in the forest . . .

Leanna leapt awake and clutched her head with a scream; she had broken out in a sweat with tears running down her face. Everyone turned to her, but Hiei moved to her first, "What happened."

"Everywhere . . . death was everywhere . . . blood, bodies, heads, arms, and screams . . . they want me to stop it . . . make it end . . . pain, fear, anger . . . burns, slashes, bites . . . someone called to me . . . a familiar voice . . . in distress . . ." She stopped and looked at Keladay, "They're alive . . . they're both alive . . ."

Keladay's eyes were wide, "You mean . . ."

"I know where they are . . . we have to go now."

"Now?"

Leanna nodded, "Now."

WindEmpress: I'm working on the next chapter right now!
Firestar: Now things will get REALLY interesting.
Both: Till then!