……… Who knew it would have gotten as bad as it did.
Somewhere around 20 rootbeers later…
"HIC! Y' know what…?" I asked, according to Matt anyways. I have no recollection of anything until I became sober again.
Matt stared at me with wide eyes. "What?" She asked.
"HIC! My wife's gonna kill me… most likely… Yeah… I'm not home yet… Usually I'm at home… HIC! … By now…"
Matt blinked. "Are you… okay…?"
"Yup! Why wouldn't I be? HIC!"
"You're—uhh--- drunk."
"I am? HIC!"
"Uhh… yah."
"Hmm…" I looked thoughtful as she stared.
"I don't feel drunk… nope!" I said, slurring my words. "HIC!"
"You're not suppose to be able to tell when you're drunk, doofus."
"HIC! I feel sleepy…"
"Okay…"
I leaned on Matt shoulder. "HIC!"
She blinked, blushing. "What the-?"
"I wanna go home now…" I whined. "I'm tired and I miss Naoko…"
"Aww…" Matt stroked my head. "You'll go home, soon."
"Pwomise?" I asked in what Naoko always called my 'chibi voice'.
"That's right, I promise."
"Okay… Can I go to sleep…?"
"Uhh… sure."
"Okay…" I laid my head on the counter and fell asleep.
That's when trouble decided to strike…
A thug walked over to Matt while I was asleep. "Hi pretty."
Matt growled. "Shut-it. I find that an insult, ugly."
"Oh? You're not very nice. You're friend looks drunk, how 'bout I walk you home?" He gave a stupid grin.
"I don't think so. Touch me, and you'll regret it. I'm happily married thank you."
"Really? Like I cared in the first place."
"Don't make me hurt you…" Matt warned.
The thug drew his gun. "You hurt me? I don't think so. See 'em over there? I have friends."
"Bring it, Thug." Matt drew her gun as well. "I don't miss."
The thug grinned. "Okay." He took aim.
Matt aimed as well. "I warned you." She jumped back, and fired.
A loud bang woke me. Complete awake and mostly sober I jumped up and put a hand on the hilt of my sword and saw a guy jump behind a table that was on its side. Trouble, I thought. A few more guys drew their guns and took cover.
Matt jumped behind the bar, dragging me by my scarf. I kicked for a moment, not being able to breath. "Perfect…" She fired twice. "You okay, Hiei-chan?"
"Fine… My head hurts… Damn rootbeer…" I un-sheathed my sword, ready for a fight.
"Okay! As long as you're fine." She stood up and fire more shots.
I put a hand to my head. "What happened…?" My words slurred a little and I knew I had more than 'one' rootbeer.
"Nothing I can't handle," Matt replied.
I peeked over the counter and ducked back down when a few bullets hit it. "What the hell!"
"Oh, sorry. I meant to say stay down." She fired a few more times without looking over the bar.
"Damn that thing's loud!" I shouted over the noise of the gun, covering my ears. The thugs returned fire.
"You'll get use to it—" She stood up and started to shoot rapidly. "I'm TRYING TO TALK TO SOMEONE, HERE!" She screamed at them. I focused on my Jagan eye, watching the fight for a moment to figure my situation out. Three of the thugs left, two remained.
"So… I'm bored. Wanna turn?"
"Me? Yeah sure." I disappeared, remembering where the last two where and in the time of a second I drew my sword, slamming the hilt into the stomach of one then turned with my sword drawn, I used my elbow to hit the other on the back of his neck then teleported back to Matt and sheathed my sword. No one would have seen what I did. I moved too fast for anyone here to see. Matt clapped her hands and grinned at me and I couldn't help but smirk.
"Humans are easy. They never expect that but I have to admit, you did pretty damn well."
"Me? Wow, guess I'm good… I never practice though… Maybe I should!"
"You don't practice?" I asked surprised. I only let it show on my face for a second.
"No. Am I supposed to?"
"I guess it depends if you want to. Can we leave? My head hurts like hell…"
"Sure! It's pretty late. I need to tuck my little girl in for bed."
That time I was ready to be surprised so it didn't show at all. "Fine." We walked out, Matt skipping behind me.
I looked at her as we walked back towards her house. "There aren't any trees around here are there?"
"Rarely. There are some surviving Geo plants, I think…"
"So if there aren't plants here then what were you talking about 'plants' earlier?" I asked.
"Silly… Plants are what they call our power source, like a power plant. Look." She pointed to something off in the distance that reminded me of a giant light bulb.
"Oh. So they're not like flowers or trees."
"Nope."
"Oh, Okay." I sighed and mumbled, 'now I have no where to sleep at the moment…'
Matt heard me. "Wellll… I do have a spare room at my place."
I remained silent, thinking. I really didn't have anywhere else to go at the moment. Maybe I could get information out of the idiotic blond guy, Vash.
"It's empty if it makes you feel any better," Matt offered. For some reason, it did.
"Alright." I stopped and waited for her to lead the way.
"Okay! Leeeeeeet's go!" She started skipping again and did a cartwheel.
I followed, my hands in my pockets and I shook my head, a small smile on my face. She seemed like so much like a child. I watched her.
"Lets see if I can do it this time…" She said and did a front flip. "Yesss! I got it!"
"Hn," I said more out of amusement than anything else.
"We're heeeeeeeere!" She called.
I started to think about my home again. "Hey…?"
She blinked. "Yesssss?"
I felt like I had to say it, so I did. "Thanks… for helping me."
"It was nothing. It's what I do. You're lucky I found you before someone else."
"Yeah…" I was too deep in my thoughts to care too much now.
"C'mon. You need some sleep." She grabbed my arm and pulled me inside the house and I had trouble keeping my footing.
"Let me show you your NEW room!" She said and took me to a room in the back, walking past a girl's room with the door open.
I glanced at the girl's room. She yanked my arm and pulled me into an empty room. "Here we are, empty room! Just, eh, ignore all the windows—and the door to Sora's room over there."
"Okay." I walked in and looked around.
"Well… I'm tired! G'night!" She said and ran to a room down the hall.
I sighed and leaned against a wall. The room wasn't much. I took my sword from my belt and leaned it against a wall next to the bed where I could easily reach it.
I laid on the bed. Suddenly I realized I started to take everything I owned back home for granted. Not by much but enough. I bit my lower lip, trying to get my emotions under control and toyed with the necklace Naoko made for me. It was made from black crystal and shaped like a dragon. It was used to help focus chakra energy. For some reason the door caught my attention and I stared at it, curios.
Matt yelled, "GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE!"
Behind the door I heard a girl's voice reply. "Goodnight, Mom…"
I didn't reply. I walked over to the door, checking to see if it had a lock. I didn't see any and stared at it for a moment.
Suddenly the door opened and a little girl stared at me. "You weren't thinking of opening it, were you?" She asked then smirked. For some reason the smirk made me un-easy.
I stared at her slightly surprised. "No," I answered.
"Oh and you were standing here, why…? Do you like staring at doors, or something?"
"No," I answered again.
"Okay, well…" She began to close the door.
I had the feeling she was curious about me, I wanted someone to talk with to keep my mind off of home for the night. I needed sleep so maybe if I thought about something else… "So, you're Matt's daughter, huh?"
"Mmhmmm. And you are…?"
For the third time that day I gave my name. "Hiei Jaganshi."
"Oh. Where'd she find you? I can tell you're different by looking at you."
"In the desert."
"The desert? Wow… That's a… odd place."
"Yeah, well, I don't know how I got here."
Sora stared at me. "Okay. You just got weirder."
"Hn." I tore a piece of my cloak earlier and used it and used bandana now so she wouldn't see my Jagan.
"If you weren't Mom's 'friend' I'd say you were a freak, so you know," she said boldly.
I held a smirk back. "Hn, night." I shut the door on her.
In the other room, Sora smiled and mumbled. "I think… I like him."
I had finally fallen asleep and stayed asleep through the night.
