Chapter 10

FOUR DAYS LATER….

It was late afternoon when Sam finally woke from her four day sleep. She was lying in a bed in Marija' s house. A small circle of relieved and smiling faces surrounded her.

K: " hey, good morning"

He smiled at her sweetly. She blushed slightly then she remembered what had happened, Takashi,

Yomi, Kurama and the others, the huge chi-ball, the pain then total darkness.

S: " what…what happened?"

Y: " don't worry, Takashi's dead."

Ku: " yeah, he killed himself when he found out he couldn't beat us!"

H: " Hn. Not thanks to you."

S: Hiei! He's here! I always thought he hated me….well I don't think he's here for me anyway

Hiei was giving side glances to Marija at the other side of the room, she seemed not to notice the extra attention Hiei was giving her.

S: " so, Hiei…any new news lately?"

He understood immediately what she was talking about but the others seemed stunned by the question. He looked extremely embarrassed and at that moment Hiei would have given anything to be with her here alone with his katana.

A sweatdrop formed on Sam's head as Hiei's rage seemed to be growing bigger every second, he was about to explode when…

M: " Hiei, is anything wrong?"

H: " Hn. No"

He turned round and left without saying another word.

Ku: " what is the matter with him? I'll never understand!"

Sam had an idea, it would be a good thing if they left Marija and Hiei alone for some time.

S: " emm…Kuwabara…could you tell me how did you beat that monster?"

S: oh, dear this is the better I can come up with! I think I'm still under the effect of whatever they did to cure me. At least I hope so!

But it seemed enough for Kuwabara who started acting every single part of the 'terrifying battle' as he called it. Yusuke was occupied as well disagreeing with Kuwabara' s every word. Keiko and Yukina seemed somehow slightly interested and for Shizuro and Kurama…well they understood what's going on.

S: " hey Marija, could you come here please?"

M: " mm…what?"

S: " why don't you go and talk to Hiei?"

Marija blushed.

M: " emm….why should I?"

S: " you're not fooling anyone you know!"

Kurama was listening to their little chat and as polite as ever he tried to encourage her to go without her noticing.

K: " Marija ?"

M: " yes?"

K: " do you know at what time the plane leaves tomorrow?"

M: " emm…yes…at 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning I think."

S: " Talk to him, or you'll regret it."

M: this is probably my last chance!

Kurama smiled to himself, Marija had understood the message.

M: " I'm leaving for a bit ok?"

S: " sure, take as much time as you need!"

M: " yeah, right"

She left and headed towards her back garden, Hiei usually liked there. And in fact he was sitting on a branch of a tall tree at the back of the garden staring at the cloud-less sky above. Marija went over there and sat at the foot of the tree. There was complete silence for a couple of minutes.

M: " it's beautiful, isn't it?"

H: " yes."

Silence again.

M: " Hiei, I have something very important to tell you."

Hiei didn't answer, actually he didn't even pretend at least to be hearing what she's saying. She stood up and changed position till she could at least see him. She blushed slightly.

M: " you know Hiei, I'm gonna miss you a lot when you go away!"

No answer. Her patience was finishing if he doesn't do something, anything, she was thinking about turning him back into a kitten.

M: " will you?"

She was really embarrassed, she had never said anything like this to anyone before, but after all Hiei was special. Still no answer. She sighed, maybe he wasn't interested in her, which means it's of no use declaring her feeling for him. She started walking back towards the door, when suddenly she changed her mind and decided to risk it. She will never know if he loves her or not like this! She turned round to face him again.

M: " Look, Hiei I-"

Hiei had cut off whatever Marija planned to say by pressing their lips together in an awkward kiss. She wrapped her arms round his neck but suddenly he was gone again and she found herself with nothing but air. She remained there shocked for a little while then she entered inside extremely happy.

The others had left and only Kurama was left inside Sam's room. She was in bed while he was standing up near the window.

S: " how did you know?"

K: " know what?"

S: " that I was at Yomi's castle."

K: " oh, well we had some outside help for that."

S: " what do you mean?"

K: " well, after he went away and left you alone in the castle, Yoruki decided to come back here to the Ningenkai to tell us what's going on."

S: " WHAT? Are you saying that practically he saved my life?"

K: " yep. It's thanks to him we found you in time. And it's also thanks to him that you discovered that Yomi was not guilty of your mother's death."

S: " Kurama…what happened to Yomi?"

He gave her a small smile.

K: " he's fine. After the battle he took you to the regeneration tank and didn't move away from there not even to sleep. "

She didn't speak for a while.

K: " are you ok?"

He moved closer to her bed sitting down on an empty chair.

S: " Kurama, was he hurt?"

K: " no, not really but…"

S: " what?"

K: " after you fainted your power had no more affect on him."

S: " so, he's blind again?"

K: " yes…Sam don't mind too much about this but are you planning to ask hundred questions in an hour or what?"

S: " oh, sorry but it's just I have so many things to ask and well you're here right now!"

K: " I was just joking don't worry. Your family should be arriving soon."

S: " my family?"

K: " your ningen family"

S: " oh, right"

She looked outside the open window. Her expression was sad, probably she had been expecting to see Yomi. He decided on changing the subject, he hated to see her in that state.

K: " Sam, why did you risk your life to save mine?"

She stared at him partially blushing, partially surprised. She desperately thought about a sensible answer to give him but failed.

S: " I shouldn't have done that? You preferred to die?"

K: " if in that battle you had died, I would have never forgiven myself for that!"

S: " Kurama what happened wasn't your fault!"

K: " can't you understand? If 4 days ago you had died then I would have died as well cause I can't live without you!"

S: does that mean exactly like it sounds?

K: " I love you"

At that moment words failed her, she stared at him unable to talk, unable to move a single bit. Her brain screamed to her to answer him at that very moment but her mouth seemed temporarily to have lost any connection with her brain. He looked at her hopefully but his expression changed when she looked down and didn't answer back.

K: I knew it! She doesn't love me!

K: " sorry, I shouldn't have said that!"

And he disappeared.

S: " Kurama, I love you too"

But of course Kurama couldn't hear her confession of love now, it was too late. She knew she had hurt him a lot and the image of his eyes full of sorrow, somehow telling her how much she had broken his heart, never left her mind not even when her family came to visit her or when all the group was doing a party in her room because it was their last day there.

Kurama was not there. He couldn't face her at that moment. He was walking around the garden trying to find some sort of consolation from his beloved plants. But there was just nothing to do about it. His love was not returned.