CHAPTER 7

Explaining

Hiei kept on running until he was sure Noda wasn't following them. Finally he sighed and stopped. He set Minoly on the ground and sat down on a rock at the base of a tree.

The girl stared at him a moment before she asked. "Hiei-san?"

The fire/ice demon looked at her without moving his head.

"Who was that?" she inquired when she saw she had his attention.

His eyes roved away again. "His name is Noda."

"Noda?" she said. "Why was he attacking you?"

"He's an old enemy of mine," he replied, resting his right arm on his knee.

"He is?"

Hiei closed his eyes and nodded. "A few years ago I got into a fight with him," he explained. "He had something I wanted and was trying to get back. At the time I fought him I didn't realized he had been injured before we even fought but he was. Even so; I had a hard time fighting him. I almost lost but the instant he would have killed me he collapsed and I was able to get away." He dropped his head slightly. "I also discovered he didn't have what I was looking for."

"What was that?"

Hiei didn't reply.

Minoly crawled toward him and sat down beside him. (He'd dropped her a few feet away from the tree where he was sitting). "Was it important to you?" she wanted to know.

He opened his eyes again and looked at her. "Yes," he admitted. "In a way, it was."

She nodded and smiled slightly. "I see." She pressed something to her chest. "I'd probably do the same thing if someone tried to steal this from me."

The fire/ice demon saw that it was that book she always carried around with her. The Rabbit's Dandelion. (A/N Not sure how to spell 'dandelion') "Your book?" he inquired.

"It was the last thing my father gave me before he died," she explained.

He went out of his way to ask. "How did he die?"

She shook her head. "I don't know," she said looking sad. "He told me and my Mother that there was something he needed to do. It involved getting rid of terrorists or something." Her eyes brimmed with tears. "Six months later we recieved word from his friend, Len, that he'd been killed by an enemy weapon of some kind."

"Hmm," he said.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing."

She stared at him a moment. I wonder what he's thinking. "Fine," she said. She got up. "I'll go collect some wood for a fire."

"No!" he said grabbing her arm.

"Why not?" she asked looking down at him.

Hiei stopped. He couldn't tell her. The truth was; he was afraid Noda might be in his shadow form somewhere in the forest lying in wait for one of them to tred foolishly. He didn't want the shadow demon grabbing her.

"I'll do it," he said getting up.

"You can't do it!" she proclaimed.

"Why not?"

"Your face."

"My face?"

"It's all bloody," she replied pulling him back down. "Noda must have broken your nose or something."

"He has razer sharp brass knuckles," Hiei explained. "They probably cut my face open." (Actualy his brass knuckles are kinda shaped like the ones Wolverine had on the Xmen).

Minoly got closer. "Let me see," she said putting her hand up to touch his face.

He grabbed her wrist. "No," he said pulling her arm down. "It's all right. I am fine."

"Let me see," she insisted.

"No."

"C'mon I just want to-"

"No!"

"Stop acting like a big baby!" she scolded.

"I'm not acting like a baby!" he snarled.

"Then let me see!"

"I don't want you touching my face!" he yelled.

"Well if I don't look at it I won't be able to clean it out and it will get infected!" she said. "Do you want an infected face?"

"It won't get-GAH!"

Minoly had leaned over him so far she'd knocked him and herself onto the ground. Hiei landed on his back, Minoly landed on his chest. For a minute the two stared at each other their faces so close it almost looked like they were kissing.

Minoly was the first to say something. "Um... sorry!" she exclaimed sitting up, her face a bright red.

He smirked.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said looking away. He chuckled.

She glared at him. "It's not funny!" she yelled. "Stop thinking dirty thoughts!"

"I wasn't," he told her. "But you must have if you thought I was."

Her face flamed.

His smirk got bigger. "See," he said. "You're blushing."

"How can you tell?" she asked.

"I can see it," he replied sitting up. "and by saying 'how can you tell?' you are admitting it."

"Oh," she said. Then she changed the subject. "So now that you know I was blushing can I please take a look at your face?"

He hesitated. Then he realized that if he didn't let her, she'd keep on insisting. If he let her keep that up, something worse might happen.

"All right," he muttered annoyedly. "Do what you want. You're already on my lap anyway."

"Oops!" she gulped climbing off of him and sitting beside him. "Uh.. thank you."

"Whatever."

Without another word she reached up and touched his face. He flinched. "Sorry," she said.

He didn't converse. He just let her explore his face with her fingers. He discovered they were real soft. Almost like an angel's feathers or something. It felt nice...

Stop it! he scolded himself.

"Well," she said after a moment and she removed her hand. "It's probably not as bad as it looks. We'll have to clean it out..."

"There's a stream over there," he told her pointing.

She looked where he pointed. She saw water glimmering in the moonlight. How had he seen that but I hadn't? "Okay," she said standing. "Let's get your face cleaned up."

He nodded. He stood up and followed her.

A/N

So now you know a little more about the 'Incident with Noda'. But that's not the full story. There's more too it which will be revealed later. :D. I'm sure you all know what he was looking for so I won't have to tell you. I'm trying to get Hiei to start liking Minoly, but slowly since he's kinda the person who doesn't like showing his emotions. I think I'm doing a pretty good job but I could get better I think... I'm working on it! I'll try to make it better I promise! I hope you liked this chapter. If you did, feel free to tell me. I love reviews! Sorry for any grammer, spelling, or character personality errors. If I got something wrong help me out okay?