CHAPTER 5

On The Way Home

Minoly felt herself falling. It only took a second for her to realize it. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed closing her eyes. "We're going to die!"

Suddenly she felt someone's arms go under her body. The next instant she didn't feel the rush of air anymore. The rush of air that would have told her she was falling.

Huh?

"It's okay," a voice said. "you're fine."

Huh? What? Minoly opened her eyes. She looked around. She wasn't in the tree anymore. She wasn't on the ground either.

Somebody was holding her.

She looked up and blushed. Ohmigod! she thought.

Hiei held her in a firm grip.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

He looked away. "Just be glad I did," he told her. "You don't have to know... Miss Akari."

"Hey!" she exclaimed realizing what he'd said. "You know my name!"

He looked down at her. His crimson gem eyes held contempt. "How could I forget it?" he asked her. "You've been bothering me so much the past three days that it's burned into my mind."

Her face flamed. "I..."

"There you go again," he said. "When will you ever learn to finish a sentense?"

"I..."

"And could you please stand up," he said. "You're heavier than you look."

She was no longer blushing now. "Well thanks a lot!" she said offended.

"Hey, I'm only telling the truth."

"I'm not fat!" she yelled. "You're just mean!"

"I tell it like it is."

An anger mark appeared on her forehead. "How dare you say I'm fat!" she screamed. She started kicking and pushing. "Put me down, you jerk!"

He shrugged. "Fine," he said closing his eyes. "You're pulling my arms off anyway."

He let her go.

"Woops!" she shrieked, falling on the ground and creating a cloud of dust. "Hey, what did you do that for?" she demanded standing up and getting in his face.

He turned sideways and folded his arms. "You told me to put you down," he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "I was just doing what you asked." He started to leave.

The anger mark got bigger. "You didn't have to do that!" she yelled after him as he walked away.

"Whatever," he said. "I don't really care. Just be glad I didn't let you kill yourself by falling out of that tree."

That stopped her cold. He had saved her life. Now she felt stupid. "I'm sorry," she said. "Uh... thank you..."

"Don't thank me," he said still not looking at her. "I didn't do it for you. I just did it because I wanted to do it... and I thought I'd let you stay alive so you would have time to go on a diet." he added.

The world shattered. "Fine!" she yelled at him. "Take me home, you meanie!"

He stopped walking and turned to stare at her. "What?" he said.

"You heard me!" she said clenching her fists. "Take me home."

He turned around. "You walked here," he said, his eyes full of contempt. "You can go home yourself."

She walked up to him. "You were rude to me!" she growled. "You take me home."

He scoffed. He wasn't afraid of her. "And if I don't?" he asked.

SLAP!

Hiei found himself on the ground holding his aching face. He looked up at Minoly who was staring down at him angrily. She'd slapped him!

The two stared at each other a moment. Neither blinked. It was a match of endurance now. Whoever looked away first would lose.

Minoly held her ground. Even though his eyes were freaky looking she refused to look away. She wasn't going to lose to him. He'd been rude to her. He'd deserved it.

Finally the fire/ice demon sighed. "All right," he said closing his eyes and looking away.

Her face held no expresssion. She closed her eyes halfway and folded her arms. "Thank you, Hiei-san," she said not sincerily.

The demon didn't really notice. He got up and walked by her, grabbing her arm as he went. He jerked her along and didn't stop to apoligize when he knocked her over, causing her to skin her knee.

"Ow!" she screamed, feeling him still pulling on her arm. "Let me go!"

"Fine." he dropped her arm.

She stood up and looked down at her skinned knee. It was bleeding but no too badly. "Why did you do that?" she demanded. "I just wanted you to walk me home! You don't have to be a bastard about it!"

"Me a bastard?" he said turning to glare at her. "Well, you're an annoying bitch!"

"Don't bitch me!" she yelled, grabbing the collar of his black shirt. "Just because you're arrogent and hate the world because of what your past freakin' life was like doesn't mean you can be rude to me! I know how it feels to lose a parent! My Dad died when I was three years old!"

He stared at her a moment. "Is that suppost to mean something to me?" he asked.

She glared at him. "Why you no good son of a-"

Suddenly he shoved a hand over her mouth. "Shhh!" he hissed.

She wanted to argue with him farther but something in his eyes made her stop. She fell silent.

They listened for a moment. Minoly had no idea what he was doing but she felt something. Hiei felt it too. It felt like something. Something that didn't belong...

The feeling stopped abrumptly. Hiei removed his hand.

"What was that about?" Minoly asked when she could talk again.

"I thought I-nevermind," he said. "Let's go."

The girl was surprised by his sudden change of mood. "O..okay," she said, following him down the sidewalk.

They hadn't gotten much farther when Hiei once again began to feel the wrongness in the air. His senses screamed for his attention.

He listened.

Something was out there, they said. and it was following him and Minoly.

Hiei stopped and looked around himself. He didn't see anyone but he felt them. Minoly walked into him, she hadn't realized he'd stopped.

"Ow!" she said, holding her nose and taking a few steps back. "Don't do that."

"Shhh!"

She gave him a Look. "What's wrong now?" she asked. "If you're lost just tell me."

He shook his head and turned to face her. "It's not that. It's-" He saw something glitter dangerously behind the girl.

"Look out!" he screamed diving at her.

A/N

Well what do we have here? Heh. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I like some parts of it but some parts I don't. At least we get to see how Minoly acts when she gets mad. And this chapter starts the more interesting parts of the story. Okay, that's all I wanted to say.

Sorry for any grammer, spelling, or personalitly errors. Oh, feel free to review but please don't flame or be mean in your critisism. Please and thank you.

Oh one more thing; thanks everyone for the reviews so far. I am very happy that you all like the story so far. THANKS!