BACK WHEN WE FIRST MET written by HieiKitty

Written on July 16th, 2005

Chapter Thirty-Four: It Got Worse

After being teased by Botan for a while, Rei joined the others outside, Botan following her like a stray cat and she was still grinning that cat-like grin. Yukina was healing Kari's injuries which turned out to be about as serious as the ones she got when she first fell down the stairs. Kuwabara worked on getting Yusuke to come around while Toga and Kurama were having a conversation about something at school. Kari saw Rei coming towards them and smirked. "Hey, Rei. Nice hair! Get into a fight?"

Rei stopped in mid-step and just looked her weirdly. When her mind finally processed what Kari had said, Rei quickly re-did her ponytail after she combed her fingers through her hair then she glared at Botan who just shrugged and laughed nervously. Kari snickered then wiggled her eyebrows at her sister. "So, how did your talk with Hiei go?"

"Hmph, he was a jerk like always. What did you think?" Rei asked her, trying to make sure that she didn't blush or do anything that would give her away. Yukina was finally done with healing Kari's injuries and Kari quickly stood up from her spot on the ground. She muttered a thanks to the ice apparition then walked over to Rei and began to drag her away from the others. "We got to talk. NOW."

"Okay...we'll be right back." Rei said to the others as Kari dragged her away. Kari took Rei to the other side of the temple before letting go of her. She crossed her arms and gave Rei a look of disapproval. "What were you thinking? Have you forgotten what Hiei did to you earlier? How could you forgive him so easily after he said something so hurtful? And then you're acting like the whole thing never happened and the two of you are friends! I thought you had more common sense than that, Rei."

"What are you talking about, Kari?" Rei asked her sister cautiously though she had a pretty good idea of what she was referring to. Kari scoffed and glared at her. "I'm not stupid, you know! I can put things to together and figure out what happened! You come out here, your face flushed, your hair's messed up, and not to mention that you have a huge red mark on your neck! You kissed him, didn't you? You kissed Hiei!"

"Why does it matter to you! Stop trying to act like you're older and you know what to do! You don't understand what it's like! You don't always know what's best for me!" Rei yelled at her angrily. Kari did exactly what she thought she was going to do, she yelled back. "Don't you get it, you idiot? I'm trying to stop you from doing something stupid! Something that you will regret! Almost any guy's better than that bastard! I rather you see you with Kurama than him!"

"I can make my own decisions, Kari! You're not my mom!" Rei yelled back at her then stomped away, obvious angry with her twin sister. Kari cursed loudly and kicked a nearby rock into a tree. "Damn it! Could this day get any worse!"

"It just did and it's going to get even worse. You have train with Hiei today." Genkai said as she walked around the corner. Kari groaned and kicked another rock in frustration. Genkai just sighed and gave her a look. "You shouldn't push your sister so hard. Both of you have already been through so much anyways. She's only doing what her heart is telling her and you do what yours tells you which is to act like the older sister. It's only natural."

"Hmph, still! Even Kuwabara's better than that cold hearted bastard! He'll just end up hurting her again and this time we won't know if it will be just emotionally. He really does have a sick mind." Kari said with a scoff. Genkai sighed again. "Look at it this way. In your eyes, Hiei's the worst thing that can happened to your sister but to Reina, Hiei's up with the best. You both have known Hiei before, correct? Well, it's possible that when Hiei altered Reina's memories to make her forget him, a void was created inside Reina's heart. Now that Hiei's back in her life again, that void is steadily being filled again."

"I still don't like it no matter how it's explain to me. Something about him makes me think that he's going to hurt her again." Kari said as she crossed her arms again and looked away. Genkai shook her head and began to walk away. "And he probably will. You will need to be there for her when that does happen though. Just try to support her and her decisions as much as possible. The two of you are going to need to rely on each other very soon, trust me."

"After you're done training with Yukina for today, Kurama will teach you the uses of different plants in healing. Both of these will be important if you want to be successful in healing." Genkai told Rei as Kuwabara stumbled into the room that she, Genkai and Yukina were in. Rei nodded in understanding and Genkai left the room without another word. Yukina smiled at her as Kuwabara sat down. "Kazuma was kind enough to allow us to practice on his wounds. They're not that bad so it should be easy enough."

"Great! This is a lot better than training how to fight. Good thing Genkai's letting me learn this other than fighting. This is way more useful!" Rei said happily with a sigh of relief. Yukina showed Rei how to gather her spirit energy and then transfer it to the wound. The spirit energy sped up the body's natural way of healing and soon Kuwabara didn't have any scratches left on him. Yukina nodded in approval and stood up. "Good job, Rei. You're already doing quite well for your first day of training. I'll go get Kurama so he can train you as well."

"I'll come too!" Kuwabara said excitedly as he followed Yukina out of the room. Rei let out a sigh and laid down on her back with her eyes closed. She wondered how she was suppose to act around Kurama after all that he had said while they were in the park. It was obvious that Kurama liked her but she had also told him that she liked Hiei. She admitted to herself that it felt almost natural when she was with Kurama but it also felt that way when she was with Hiei. Rei was also not quite sure what that kiss had meant to Hiei. Did it mean as much to him as it did to her?

"Rei, sorry to say this but you can't sleep yet. I still have to teach you the basics of the healing power of certain plants." Kurama's voice reached her ears. Rei's eyes shot open and she saw that Kurama was standing over her. She quickly moved to sit up and yawned. Rei hadn't even heard Kurama come into the room. Another yawn escaped her. "Sorry. I guess I'm a little tired. School and training are taking a lot out of me."

That's quite alright. Let's begin..." Kurama sat down in front of her than laid down a variety of plants. He taught Rei the names of the plants, how to recognize them, and what exact healing powers they possessed. Most of the ones he showed her were used for minor injuries, to help the swelling of injuries, or to lessen the pain of an injury. Kurama was halfway through his explanation of one of the plants when he noticed that Rei had fallen asleep. She was resting her head in her hand and she had pulled her knees up to her chest. "Rei, are you listening? In fact, are you even awake?"

"Five more minutes, Mom..." Rei muttered in her sleep and Kurama sweat dropped when he heard this. A blush came on to Kurama's face as he noticed something about Rei's sleeping position. She was still wearing her school uniform, which meant that he could now see up her skirt. He coughed and quickly looked away though his body seemed reluctant to. "Rei, you need to wake up."

"Meh..." Rei muttered again in her sleep. Kurama forced himself to look back at her. She had tilted her head to the side to make her sleeping position more comfortable to her but now Kurama could clearly see her neck. A low growl came from his throat as his eyes narrowed and flashed gold. He quickly stood up and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Rei awoken with a start and fell over on to her side. "OW!"

Rei looked around the room to see that she was now alone but Kurama's plants were still there in front of her. Deciding to be nice since she fell asleep during his explanation of the plants, Rei gathered the said plants in her hands and then stood up. Making sure that she didn't leave any of the plants behind, she looked around the room one more time. It was at this time that the door opened. Rei quickly turned to see who had opened the door. "Kari?"

"Yo! Kurama told me to come wake you up. What'd you do? He seemed upset or something." Kari told her then raised an eyebrow when she saw all the plants in Rei's hands. "Er, what are you doing with all those plants?"

"They're Kurama's. He left them in her. I must have fallen asleep when he was explain one of the plants. So I'm going to take him his plants." Rei told her and the two of them walked out of the room, now in search of Kurama. "So, does this mean that you're not mad at me anymore?"

"Hmph, I can't say that I think Hiei's the best choice for you and I stand by what I said earlier, but if you really want him then I say go for it! If I don't support you, who will? No one's going to support a mental person besides me." Kari joked. Rei smiled then the two of them burst out into laughter. They finally spotted Kurama outside with the others. The two twins made their way over to them. As they got closer, they saw that Koenma was with him and everybody was actually quiet. Not thinking that there was anything wrong, Rei and Kari walked up to them with smiles as their face. "Hey, what's with the group meeting? And why wasn't we invited?"

"Kari, Rei, I'm sorry. Kai's been taken to the Makai by a demon." Koenma said immediately. Their smiles faded off their faces and they froze on the spot. Kari stared at Koenma as if waiting for him to say that he was only joking but he never did. Rei's grip on Kurama's plants loosened and they fell to the ground one by one. "How?"

End of Chapter Thirty-Four

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