Promises of Fate

Chapter Two

It was fifteen minutes later when Viviana realized that she was crying on a person's chest. She looked up. It was a boy. A boy with soft green eyes and red hair. There was nothing but compassion in their eyes, and his look suggested that he was worried about her.

She noticed that his uniform was now wet. Those were her tears, and she had just poured out her entire heart to a boy that she didn't know!

"Are – are you alright now?" the boy asked tentatively.

Viviana didn't answer. She looked down on the ground. Her knees hurt from when she broke down. She wanted to cry out loud some more, but she found that her voice was stuck to her throat.

"Miss – are you –"

"I'm alright," she croaked, standing up. The boy stood up too. He was only a little bit taller than her, and his eyes hasn't lost the worried look he was giving her earlier. She pointed in his soiled shirt. "I'm sorry," she said.

"That's alright," he said, waving it off. "It will dry."

She walked past him and sat by the door, her back resting on the wall. The boy didn't follow, at first, then looked tentatively at her. "Er," he said, "do you mind if –"

"I won't stop you," she said, thinking that he was about to go.

But the boy walked to her and sat next to her.

"Oh," she said, her voice returning fast, though it was still croaky. "I thought you were leaving."

"I can't possibly leave you in that condition," he said, handing her some tissue.

"Thanks," she replied, trying to give him a small smile but couldn't. She did, however, held out her hand. "I'm Viviana."

"Minamino Shuiichi," he answered. "Viana?"

Inwardly, Viviana managed a smile. Japanese people had always found her name difficult to pronounce. "Vi-vi-ya-na."

"Vi-vi-ya-na," he repeated, "Viviana."

"Perfect."

This time, she managed to give him a small smile. The first smile that she had shown in the past two weeks.

Silence reigned for a few minutes, then –

"I'm sorry for your loss," said Kurama (A/N: For the purposes of making things easier for all of us, Minamino Shuiichi will be known as Kurama, okay? Thanks!), looking sideways at her, as if hoping that he wasn't invading any type of privacy.

This didn't surprise Viviana. The loss of her brother had been talked about for the past week in school. Everyone was giving her condolences. The teachers didn't mind even if it was completely obvious that she wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention in classes. Her friends had found it hard to talk to her, because they were always complaining about their families, and they didn't know how she would take it. They just stop talking when they see her coming.

They have families to complain about, I can't even do that now.

A new river of tears came flowing down her face, but she managed to control herself this time. Kurama, Minamino Shuiichi to her, was rubbing her back soothingly in circles. The wind had died down now, and she wondered whether the wind died along with her brother.

"Thank you," she finally managed to sputter. "Thanks for pulling me back too." She had finally realized that it was his arm that wrapped itself around her to stop her from falling off the building.

"Think nothing of it," he said, then, "here."

He produced a single red rose, in it's peak of beauty. Beautifully bloomed, he handed it to her, with a small smile in his face. "For you," he said. "I thought that it might cheer you up a little bit more."

"It's – it's beautiful," she breathed, sniffing whiletaking it. She was not about to let anything fall down from her nose.

"Careful," he said, "it still has thorns."

She knew that. She smelled it, and it smelled just as wonderful as it looked. It was easily the most gorgeous rose that she has ever seen. "Where did you get it?" she asked.

Kurama smiled a mysterious smile. "I have my sources."

A week after his first encounter with Viviana, Kurama found himself spending more and more time with her. They were not in the same classes, but they always had lunch together, or in the roof at times, and he had developed the habit of walking her home after school.

The search for the assassins has so far not been very good. They were good, clever and cunning. They didn't kill every night, maybe three times in five days, and each time they would kill in a different way than the one before. The police would never connect the murders to just one person.

He was sure that they were the ones who killed Viviana's brother. The fact that they were close and it happened to someone that he is connected to one of his friends, angered him, almost making him transform him back to his wolf self. But he managed to control himself. It would be very unwise to lose control here, especially in front of many human eyes.

His classmates has also started to take the mickey out of him. They were teasing him about Viviana. Yusuke and Kuwabara had also heard about her, and had congratulated him, though Kurama wasn't exactly sure what he had done.

The only one in their group who was not happy with his new found friendship with Viviana was Botan. She refused to talk about her, to even listen when she becomes the topic of conversation. Kurama found this still disconcerting and confronted her with it.

"You were there, Kurama," she said in a pained voice, "she hates me. I know it."

She was referring to her picking up Javier's soul. "The look she gave me," she said, almost to tears herself, "I wanted nothing more than to give him back to her, but I couldn't! I don't have that power! I wish I could've, but there was no way –"

"She'll understand, Botan," said Kurama calmly, "she's starting to move on. She won't hold it against you."

"Hey, hold on," said Yusuke standing up and glaring at Kurama. They were in his – Kurama's - home, discussing what their next possible mode of action. "How the hell did she see Botan anyway?"

"Hey yeah!" realization has also hit Kuwabara, then frowned. "But Keiko can see Botan too, -"

"I suspect that Viviana has very strong energy, much like you, Kuwabara," said Kurama. He would've said like Yusuke too, but then he reminded himself that Yusuke had some demon blood in him. "When her brother's soul appeared to her for the final time, her cry shook the entire school. I'm not sure if she felt it, but the rest of the school sure did."

Hiei chose this time to make a sound. "You fools sure are slow," he snapped. "The girl is powerful. I don't think she knows that she has power. I felt that earthquake type shake too, and it was powerful."

"Okay, she has potential to be a Rekai Tantei, but –"

"- She's not aware of her power," finished Kurama, then turned to Botan. "Don't worry, I'm sure that she won't hold anything against you."

"Yeah," added Yusuke. "With any luck, she'll never see you again."

Botan still looked extremely worried.