"We set out to change the world and ended up…just changing ourselves."
—Curt Wild/Ewan McGregor, Velvet Goldmine
Alex sighed, rolling her eyes. "You're worse than Ducky with melodramatics."
Eris glared at her, little red electricity-like bursts snapping around her, reflective of annoyance. "I already died once, and unlike Yusuke I don't have a guaranteed back into the living world." Huffing, she pushed the black hair out of her eyes, cursing the wind that could make her fall or fly. "The splattered-on-the-ground look isn't so pretty either!"
Four days after Eris awoke as a full phoenix demon, Shina had made it Ducky and Alex's responsibility to oversee the girl teach herself how to fly.
"If she gets injured, she'll revert to pure instinct and tear anything she doesn't recognize apart," the old woman had smiled as she said this, as if talking about the beautiful weather they'd been having. "It's best you two are there; she trusts and knows you best."
Needless to say, they'd found it less than heart-warming and honorable. Eris may love her best friends, but they weren't so keen on the idea.
"If you chomp my hand off and I bleed to death, I'm getting Koenma to let me come back as a ghost and haunt your ass." Alex was obviously getting friendly with the Spirit World prince. It was a good investment. With all the crap Shina was putting Eris through to 'act like a proper phoenix,' she was ready to snap anyone's neck.
"What is with old ladies and their joy in torture?" Eris huffed, peeking over the edge of the overhanging cliff she was standing on. Snippets of her fledgling days had been attacking her the past few days. Eris described it as a constant déjà vu.
Now at the top of the cliff, she was particularly adamant and whiny. "I can't believe you're going along with this! I can't fly! Are you all insane?"
Ducky rolled his eyes. He and Alex gave identical heaving sighs and crossing their arms. "You have wings, moron! Use them!" Alex shouted up at her from below the cliff.
"They're there for something, obviously!" Ducky was beginning to get irritated. "They're fucking huge. I'm sure they work just as well as a parachute."
"I hate heights…" Eris growled to herself.
"Come on you big chicken!"
"Chicken?" The demon cocked a hip out to the side and set a hand with attitude on it. "Excuse me, but I am a phoenix 'kay thanks."
The two humans smirked at one another.
"Nah, I think they got the species wrong, what do you think Ducky?"
"I think yer right, Alex. We've got a big ole chicken demon on our hands. They can't fly y'know."
"I'm related to a chicken demon. Wonderful."
"Hey Elf! You think you'll lay eggs? That would be pretty sweet."
"We'll have to change her nickname."
"Ooo! Ooo! I know! CHICKEN LITTLE!"
"ALRIGHT that's IT!" It was one thing to rip on her cowardice, but a double whammy to touch on her height. Eris was pissed. So pissed, in fact, she leaped right off the cliff lip. "You're both DEAD!"
"…Demons are obviously a lot touchier than humans…"
"And a lot faster," Alex pushed the dazed Ducky and fled the pursuing demon. "RUN YOU IDIOT!"
"I'll show you 'chicken'!"
It was a splendid sight really, when you weren't fleeing in terror. Eris' wings were huge—and beautiful beating against the air. Strong and powerful, they made their own brisk breeze that made tree branches tremble and leaves swirl.
"We're sorry!" Ducky yelled, shrieking as he looked over his shoulder. Eris was gaining on them. The back of his neck was getting hot, and not from the sun; her anger was singing everything. Loose feathers were even bursting into flame!
"Christ, we were kidding!" Alex darted past her friend, pulling him as she went, and ran towards the koi pond behind the temple.
"That won't save you!"
They were almost in reach, her fingers so close—! But she hadn't counted on anyone from the temple being outside. Suddenly, Eris found she could no longer go forward. Literal whiplash socked the wind right out of her, and into the pond she went, an enormous splash blowing out her fire.
"Kuraaaammaa!" Eris whined, pouting with a lily pad on her head, and a green vine wrapped around her ankles.
The red-haired demon was shaking his hand and wincing a little. "Rope burn…"
"Serves you right!" Her wings were sopping wet. "Help me up, jerk. These things retain water like-whoa."
Kurama stooped down to cool his hands in the pond. "You're a strong, independent female."
Eris' mouth dropped. "Kurama!" A wave of water came at him. She chucked a fish at him for good measure.
"Helloooo…!" A muffled voice came from a shaking bush nearby. "Is psycho lady demon on her leash now?"
Eris glared at the vine around her leg. "Yes. You can come out now, if you're done making fun of me."
"Hey!" Alex came storming out of the bush, twigs in her hair, and stood at the edge of the water. "It worked didn't it? And you almost fucking killed me for helping you!"
"Obviously my temper comes from your side of the family and I have the delight of having it magnified. Rule #1! Don't do anything that might piss off the demon!"
"I'm not walking on eggshells around you, if that's what you mean." Ducky appeared, spitting dirt out of his mouth. His t-shirt front was brown with it.
"You won't have to," Kurama cut in before things got out of hand again. "Eris has to learn how to control herself. Which means—"
"Oh no…" Eris plopped back on her rear with a splash and a slightly scared look on her face. "No no no! As much as I think Genkai is the coolest old person ever—"
"You have to. There's no negotiations, and the fact that you're being adamant about it will work against you."
"She doesn't look like one to take a lot of shit," Alex looked smug.
"Who's giving shit!" Eris threw up her hands in exasperation, and crawled out of the pond.
"Where are you going?" Ducky asked as she passed.
"To dry off. That alright with you?"
Ducky blinked, slightly hurt. "Good luck finding a towel in the woods."
Eris did not respond. Alex shook her head, watching her cousin disappear among the trees. "I'll hate to see her when she's PMSing…"
It felt good, being high up; the view over the immense stretch of land that was Genkai's forest made the head spin. As the land dipped, it looked like a wave of rolling green that became turbulent in a wind. A burst of birds through the branches and released into the sky were breaks and splashes, settling back into the surf after a few moments of recollection and the find of a strong tree with good perching.
Eris was a tsunami. Her size and ferocity of breaking through the canopy scared a wave of other birds to flutter for miles. The dispersal of air from the massive flaps of her wings stirred more disturbance to the trees below. Though her demon energy no longer crackled, the life around was wary and watchful.
What was she to do? Things were blowing up everywhere, no matter how she tried controlling them. Maybe she should have listened to Alex in the first place and just stayed home. A yearning pang went through her at that thought, though not for home. Eris wouldn't have been able to leave Kurama, and she couldn't now. They were…tied somehow. There was a thick bond connecting them, and she had no idea how it had formed so quickly, or why.
Sighing, the girl dropped down into the cover of the leaves to hide from the harsh sun. As marvelous as flying was, it took a large amount of energy and muscle use she did not posses yet. Eris disliked that she could not rouse up any excitement for the fact that she knew how to fly. It felt like she'd been doing it for her whole life. Were new born birds like this also, after the mother pushed them from the nest to their impending doom? Maybe she'd just been through to much doom to be attuned to anything but fear and uncertainty. She wrinkled her nose, feeling a large branch bend under her feet as she squatted into a perching position. How sad, that she should come to a cynical look on life…with a small, wry grin, she thought of Hiei. That must be his influence.
Still, as Eris looked about, her raptor-like vision picking up small movements and twitches of the smallest creatures from unbelievable distances, she found she wanted her old outlook back. When she could find something to smile about in everything. Had this transformation changed her so much? Was it really the physical change, or what the people who had surrounded her in infancy molded her into? There were happy, nice demons around, like sweet Yukina, so it wasn't the demon thing. Sigh. Why did life, in any form, have to be so complicated and confusing? Why was growing up so hard?
The wind picked up, giving Eris a face and mouthful of hair. Spitting it out in disgust, her irritability at the elements mocking her, Eris almost missed a very different sort of change happening around her. A shift, of something, not large or small, but of imperceptible size like it had none at all. Throwing the black mass back over her shoulder, the winged girl sat very still, listening, feeling.
A swirling of something different than energy, more like…being? Some sort of state of being? What sense did that make? But that's what her senses told her it was, and it felt very, very familiar. Like an old friend who had been gone was now back, filling up an empty space.
She gasped, and nearly fell out of the tree. "…You!" And it answered! Not in words or feeling, but in mind. Like those little nudges, and déjà vu, and other curious ways they'd communicated. Eris just knew what he was saying.
"Oh God, Will!" Grey-blue eyes were wide and watery as she moaned and felt like crying. "I missed you! Everything's different!" A scary thought hit her then. "Was I only me because you made me how I was? Could I only be happy because you whispered in my ear?"
She'd never been this sensitive of that presence which had haunted her those many years, but those strange things that happened around her that couldn't be explained, the sudden sense of calm of a flare of anger (or quite the opposite), or the habit of talking out loud to some other thing when she'd been the only person in the room. Oh of course she knew he was there, something had to be! And there were times, when Eris, Ducky, and Alex were their happiest together, she'd feel that smile. The same smile of the little boy who had saved her life. That was how she knew.
The spirit's reply was an infinitely long one. Eris watched the flickering patterns of light through the leaves turn dusky orange as the sun passed through the sky. It was music playing to her soul, calming, and soothing the wrinkles that caused her so much grief. With her back to the trunk, Eris relaxed more and more, slowly feeling a semblance of herself return as Will spoke to her. Funny, how only the otherworldly could make Eris feel normal when she herself was now otherwordly and out of sorts. But Will was a comfort now; the piece she'd lost had returned, if only for a moment.
But things were not as they seemed anymore. Ha! As if they ever were. There was always something out there, a problem to be seen and overcome. Well. It was good she was living with a team of people familiar with that sort of thing.
Eris, faced set in stony seriousness, fluidly maneuvered on the branch back into a crouch, eyes looking below, her ears tuned to footsteps and a soft voice calling out to her. A flash of indignance and anger appeared for a second before being wiped clean like a slate in a blink.
"I knew it. That wasn't a dream. Ooh…yes, I remember. All too well…" A pink tongue swiped over her lips, and pointed teeth caught her bottom lip. "I'm fantastic at holding a grudge, right?" Eris' lip curled, and she laughed through her nose and throat. "We don't like it when people pretend to be nice, do we?"
The mien of danger suddenly dissipated around her, and the birds started chirping again. Eris sat up, hands on her hips, and talked over her shoulder. "Which is why I don't understand why this Hiedi girl pisses you off so much. She cuts the crap out and tells it straight. You've been around Alex for how long, I don't see a problem."
She snorted, grinning behind the hand that came up to hide it. "Bullshit! Ghosts, or…whatever you are, can have crushes too. I think two you like each other. It's like grade school, you beat up the person you fancy—"
"Eriiiis!"
Her attention was grabbed by the melodic voice of a familiar woman. She chewed the skin on the inside of her mouth, thinking.
"It is rude to not answer someone's call."
"GYAH!" Startled violently, Eris nearly fell out of the tree. "Christ! What the hell are you doing here?" She glared over her shoulder at Hiei.
He reclined comfortably in Hiei fashion, a foot or two below her own branch in the opposite tree. "Christ? No, I don't think so. Your foolish human belief systems are just that: foolish. But if I was, I wouldn't be happy with a greeting like that."
Eris rolled her eyes to heaven, asking for patience. "Good thing you're not. We'd all be fucked." The woman's voice came again, but the girl made little movement towards going down to meet her. Hiei peeped open a red eye, looking at her feathered back with veiled interest.
"I think I should be insulted that you would let yourself be startled into a near fall."
"I was distracted, alright?" Eris snootily answered, annoyed that he was breaking her concentration. "Lay off."
"Attitude won't get me off your back." He closed his eye, scowling. "Kill me if I ever reproduce."
"You'd probably eat your babies and take care of the problem yourself."
"To think I did such a vile thing as change your diaper."
"Eww!"
"My sentiments exactly. I'm having trouble deciding which is more foul, that or your pissy mood swings."
Eris turned on the branch, on hand on the wood and the other her hip. "Did you want something?"
"Perish the thought. As if I'd sink so low as seek thanks for all that I and the rest have done for you."
"Of course. That would be too human a thing to do. Kurama sent you after me then?"
A tiny change in Hiei's energy surprised Eris. There was a subtle twitch to his mouth that confirmed the thought. Eris' eyes widened marginally. "Oh wow, you actually just came to talk, didn't you?"
Hiei moved one leg to rest over the other, but otherwise did not move or change his nonchalant mien. "Hn."
Eris sat her bottom down and began swinging her legs, leaning forward a bit. "I'm impressed."
"Don't be."
"Right, right." She smiled a bit, slitting her eyes and scrutinizing Hiei closely. He shifted, feeling it.
"What?" He snapped, one eye glaring up at her.
"Now who's got the attitude?" Her voice was irritatingly smug.
That may have been a sneer she received from the viewpoint of anyone else, but she knew it was a grin he was trying to hide. Eris opened her mouth to further comment, but the voice interrupted again as it traveled along it's route back to the temple.
"Damnit! What does she want?"
"Your soul. A few feathers for a quill maybe. You're worth quite a lot, you know."
Eris' mouth set in a grim line as she looked down on the black-haired head looking about and calling for her. "Mm. So what else is new?" The sudden absence of Will, who'd been quite silent in Hiei's presence, made her blink and pout. "Hey!"
"That pet spirit of yours seems to agree."
That made Eris frown set deeper. "Yeah, well he's a good source of information. I know you feel something's up as well." She looked at him seriously before leaping off the branch. "Keep an eye out!"
Hiei sighed, re-situating himself, and grumbled. Really, were the eye jokes necessary?
Eris let herself drop to the forest floor, wings cocooned tightly about her body to shield from the leaves and branches. It made a lot of noise, but it was faster than climbing down, and she was too tired to fly. Mid-call of her name, Eris landed in a crouch in front of the woman, wings neatly tucked behind her.
"Yes?" she asked a little testily.
Shina smiled at her. "There you are!"
"And so I am," Eris folded her arms. "I assume there was something you were calling me for?"
"My! What a testy thing you've become today!" the old woman laughed lightly, as if the demon girl didn't look capable of burning her to an ashy pile on the forest floor. "Come, you have lessons to learn yet, and the temple is in a tizzy worrying about you."
Eris sighed, relenting, and dropped her arms. All right, so she did feel guilty for making them worry, not to mention being a grade A bitch. Her attitude wasn't anyone's fault but her own. "Lead the way."
Shina gave an affectionate pinch to her cheek. "That's what I'm here for. Shinsa! Where is that boy?"
Eris put a thumb and forefinger to her mouth, and with a sharp exhale, emitted a loud, calling whistle. Moments later, a crashing through the brush could be heard coming upon them not far off. Soon, the bouncing form of Shinsa halted next to the two women.
"Hello, Shina, sister," he smiled, black hair mussed with twigs and coming loose from it's tie at his neck. There were smudges of dirt on his cheeks, but the happy glow in his yellow eyes was enough to make it adorable on him.
"Hey kid," Eris grinned, giving him a light punch on the shoulder. She still found it creepy that she now had a twin brother, but it was so hard not to like him. He was always happy, and lit the place up like a burst of light wherever he went. Apparently being human was great when you weren't originally born as one. Pulling a leaf from behind his ear, Eris rose a brow as a thought hit her. Maybe she could—ha—take a leaf out of Shinsa's book.
"Bathtime for you when we get back, dear." Shina turned, leading the two teens back to the temple, as if either of them really weren't able to do it themselves.
If Shinsa still had wolfy ears, they would have drooped, but somehow he pulled the look off anyway, which absolutely made Eris' lower lip stick out in a wibble at how cute it was.
"I hate baths."
"Don't we all?" Eris laughed and put an arm around her—what was she going to call him? Friend? Doppleganger? Brother? Son? He was made out of her DNA after all. Or at least part. Hmmm… "Have a nice run?"
Shinsa nodded, instantly perking back up and smiling at her with white teeth. "Uh huh! I saw you flying earlier. You learned fast. Will you take me sometime? I always wished I was a bird."
Eris looked at him with surprise. "Well…" Oh how could she say no to that face? Geez, no wonder Kurama always smiled a little more when he looked at her. Oh weird, was she admiring herself? Geez, this was so confusing!
"Yeah, sure, why not?" She tweaked his ponytail. "Maybe when I get stronger and I can lift us both."
"Kay!" The boy laid his head on her shoulder and nuzzled her a bit. Eris relaxed with his comfortable weight bumping against her side as they walked. Yes, brother would be a wonderful title…
"Aaand where have you been?"
"Burning down buildings and generally wreaking havoc over the countryside." Will ignored Heidi's glare, and everything else about her as he made a round of the room, checking security. He really hated playing the warden. Kenmei really wasn't such a bad guy if you looked past the laboratory torture of animals and whatnot.
"You were hanging around the girl, weren't you?" There was a smirk in her voice. Sigh. The second bickering match of the day was about to begin, he was sure.
"Maybe I was. What's it to you?"
"That's a breach of our duty, and you know it. We're only here to keep an eye on the lizard. Koenma's going to—"
Will turned around, crossing his arms and leaned against a dense patch of air. "What? What's he going to do, kill me? Deny my passing on? I have immunity, in case you've forgotten."
"How could I? You gloat about it every chance you get," she sneered, and mimicked his posture. "You could have jeopardized what we're trying to do here. The Prince is going to flip when he finds out."
"If he finds out," Will pointed a threatening finger at her. Geezus did she test his nerves. Or his memory of nerves. Another bad thing about being a free-floating soul was that something could still annoy the piss out of you, figuratively speaking of course. "I know this is hard for you to comprehend, but she needed me. This isn't easy for her."
"Oh boo-hoo. I'm drowning in tears. No really."
"You don't even know what it's like to cry," he shot back, silently gliding across the room to check the adjoining one.
"Fuck you!"
"That's the third time you've said that to me today. Try using eternity with a better purpose in mind, like improving your insults. Or develop some social skills that don't suck quite so badly." Will disappeared through the wall, narrowly avoiding Heidi's angry whiplash of manipulated space. That was one of her nastier tricks. It took him hours to detangle himself from it last time. Good for catching rogues, however.
Will squeezed back through the wall, a hint of worry about him. "Besides perfecting your emo-istic attitude to it's pinnacle of 'poor me, I don't know what it's like to suck air,' what have you been doing all morning? Kenmei's not anywhere around here."
Heidi sneered at him, tongue hanging out in a not so charming way. How the hell could Eris even think they even remotely liked each other?
"I can't hold him by myself. It takes both of us to keep him bound to any one place, remember?" She crossed her arms, regarding him unpleasantly as if it were his fault, which for once it may be was. "You disappeared, what the hell was I supposed to do? Yell for Koenma when he's probably only snuggling up to his wife or something? Nuh uh. He'd fry my ass."
Will sighed in exasperation, hitting his forehead. "I can't believe this. Fine. We'll track him down, it won't be that hard."
Heidi rolled her eyes and made for the ceiling where once above the temple they could get a single reading on the whole estate and find Kenmei quickly. "Whatever. Warn me next time you find a fancy to play deserter so I don't get completely screwed over."
"Shut up! Eris needed me. Unless you want her to set fire to the entire forest and bring about a whole new set of problems?"
"Yeah, yeah. You saved the day, blah blah." Heidi rolled her eyes again, taking a second for her essence to resituate itself after moving through so many corporal layers of the building. She thanked Koenma that she hadn't been made a ghost. It was difficult enough as a free-floating soul to move through things; TV and movies always made things looks easier than they were.
"What do you want me to say? Good job? Fat chance. You still could have fucked things up either way. Now give me your hand before I tangle it to a koi."
Such a nice girl. Sighing, Will let the argument go for now, and linked hands with Heidi. Focusing together, they scanned Genkai's temple in a rush of images, sounds, and energy patterns for the one they were looking for.
"Left wing garden," Will intoned with a flat voice before breaking the link and heading off that way. "He's playing catch with Shinsa."
"I saw. Yukina's around there too, and your girl isn't far off with the wife. Good, he's at least behaving himself then."
The bad thing about being in a place crawling with people sensitive to otherworldly things was that they knew exactly where you were, or at least had a pretty good idea you were in the vicinity. It made being sneaky hard, and their job harder.
The fine hairs on the back of Kenmei's light skin shivered as the two souls neared him. A frown turned his pink lips down, but his annoyance was otherwise well hidden as he continued throwing a stick for Shinsa to snatch out of the air. The way his adopted son looked so joyful and happy set him better at ease. Shinsa could always put him back to rights.
"Yes?" Kenmei's tone was clipped, having less patience for his invisible wardens. "I'm not being an evil mastermind at the moment, you can relax."
"That's not what we're worried about, and you know it." Will crossed his arms, though no one could see him do it besides Heidi, who wasn't looking all too pleased and planned on making sure the chameleon knew it.
"Apparently you don't value your family as much as you like everyone to believe." She sneered a grin as the shiny demon's scales fluctuated in a rainbow of colors, a sign of his anger at her words. "We have a deal, or don't you remember? Pull another stunt and you'll be sorry."
A controlled stream of air left his lungs as Kenmei counted backwards from ten to calm himself. He broke a branch off a nearby tree with one hand, ripped off small twigs and leaves, and hurled it into the air for Shinsa to go after. "You're a very nasty young lady."
"Thanks. Nice to know the effort is pulling off." Heidi looked quite pleased with herself. Will rolled his eyes.
"Okay, so we have wolf boy and his master. Now where's the wife and angsty bird woman?"
Both Will and Kenmei glared at her for that one, though Kenmei's was more in her general direction. She laughed.
"They are meditating by the stream. Disturbing them would not be the wisest choice, and I may not tolerate this harassment much longer."
"You and me both, man," Will agreed.
Heidi blew their threats off. "Please. Like either of you could do anything about it."
Will's eyes narrowed as he grinned faintly. "Oh I don't know, I might forget my duty again and go running off to frolic in the woods somewhere with the angsty bird woman."
Now Kenmei may appear the loving husband and father and all around sensitive nice guy, but he was a demon and capable of some very nasty things. Many of which he really wanted to do to the misfit female soul lately. His eyes flashed in the sun and a sneer of sharp, pointy teeth made his deep chuckling quite frightening.
"And I may do more than simply run off, little girl." A vague threat on the surface, but the man's demeanor spoke volumes. No one was quite sure what Kenmei's breaking point was, and he sure was playing off that rather well. No one wanted to take a chance with him.
Heidi had the rare grace to back down, but not without a roll of the eyes and a 'whatever' thrown in his direction before settling on a nearby rock to glare at everyone in the immediate area. It was her way of pouting.
"Kenmei-san, are you alright?" Yukina's sweet voice drifted to them from the back steps of the temple, birdseed dripping from her fingers. She looked wary, but her nature was too good to not enquire politely after the demon.
The pearly again chameleon gave a short bow of the head towards her. Will noticed the grin on his face and tried not to snort. Obviously he wasn't the only one who got a kick out of getting the best of his reluctant partner.
"HEY! You little rugrat, get back here!"
They both turned towards the shouting to see Shinsa bolting across the garden, giggling madly, and soon followed by a flying Eris. Shina came running after them.
Kenmei went to intercept his wife. "What's all this?"
Shina looked harassed and gave a huffy sigh. "Your son thought it fun to interrupt us by pulling Eris' feathers!"
The demon was trying very hard not to look amused. She saw it and poked him stiffly in the chest. "Oh shut up, you!"
"Can't catch me!" Shinsa giggled, ducking behind a peony bush. Sure enough, a bright red, six-inch feather was clutched tightly in his hand, and he waved it above his head to tease her.
"Oh you just wait!" Eris banked to the left, smirking to herself. She wasn't upset, well not anymore, since the pain hadn't been that bad. The kid had actually saved her from Shina's boring meditation crap. Wasn't meditation supposed to revitalize you? Huh. She always felt more tired afterwards.
But now, Eris was in playful predator mode, and dive-bombed her twin. Shinsa shrieked, abandoning the bush in a flurry of leaves and flowers, but was too slow this time. His sister got her arms about his chest and lifted him a good four inches off the ground, both of them laughing.
Shina, however, did not think it so funny.
"Put him down, this instant! You're going to hurt him!" The woman chased after them again, waving her arms. Kenmei looked after them with a wide grin.
"You're not going to do anything?" Will asked.
"Nah. You learn things being married to a human female. Number one: do not come until called in times of hysteria."
Will's brows went up. "Riiight…"
Eris scoffed at the woman running after them. "Oh come on mama bear. He's stronger than I am! Ain't that right kid?"
"Higher!"
"Ugh…speaking of being stronger… Fire Bomber to Black Trickster, ready for landing, do you copy?"
"Loud and clear, rodger dodger Fire Bomber!"
"What—where on earth did you learn such language? Do not DROP him!"
"TV of course," Eris was having more fun than should be legal; sending the sickeningly sweet woman over the edge was too good to pass up. "He's a boob-tube head. Don't worry, he's only up to eight hours a day, but then you put in the horribly violent video games—getting ready to drop!"
"NOT IN THE ROSES!"
With his wolfy flexibility, Shinsa just barely avoided the impending doom of thorns. He bounced right back up with a slight brush of his pants, and waved to his mother, a big smile on his face.
Shina fainted.
Luckily Kenmei had seen that coming, and caught her just in time. He shot the two a snappish look, but his lips were pressed together to avoid a grin. "What have we discussed about pulling dangerous stunts like that in front of your mother, Shinsa?"
Shinsa shuffled his feet, looking very much like a puppy who knows he's been naughty and hopes the cute factor will win the master over. "Wait until she takes her medicine?"
Kenmei half-rolled vibrantly amused eyes, and shifted his wife into his arms. "Close enough. Come along then, we'll put her to bed."
Eris stood with crossed arms and a hip jutted out to the side as she watched her brother loyally follow the gentle-natured demon. Kenmei definitely reminded her of Kurama in some ways. Though the tension between the two was hard to miss…and she wondered why. It was a shame, really. Kenmei was still a mystery, but there was just something about him that made her instantly know he was the one to go to if something ever went horribly wrong. Like a father figure of sorts. Judging by the way Shinsa was fairing so far in his new way of being, Kenmei was excellent in that area. Adopting someone so unique as Shinsa so easily was an extraordinary thing in itself.
And he was one hell of a husband. Of a mortal woman no less. The chameleon was racking up points left and right in her book. So what the hell was everyone else's problem?
Heidi smirked, nudging Will sharply with the toe of her foot. He turned from his position inside the doorway to the temple to glare at her. "What is it? You're holding me up." The look never boded too well, and served to dampen his spirit. "In case you hadn't noticed, our charges have moved on."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not sensory retarded, thank you. Check out big bird over there."
Despite his urge to retort against the jab at Eris, he glanced to where the winged demon stood, looking at them, or rather the door, in thought. Against his hopes, Heidi was indeed not sensory retarded. The emissions from Eris' thought patterns was not good, in simple terms. Of course they couldn't tell exactly what she was thinking, but guessing was easy by adding emotions and snatches of extra things the brain gave off that only those on other planes could pick up.
"She could compromise us if things got heavy," Heidi was grinning again. If Eris did indeed get in the way of them doing their jobs, she would have to be removed. That of course would tickle Heidi pink. She had no doubt Will would go with her, and that meant no more partner work.
Will told himself that 'removed' could mean anything. He scowled at Heidi and dragged her by the arm into the temple. "Don't get your hopes up."
Internally, Will hoped that Eris would keep in mind their meeting. If things came to a head, a lot of choices were going to have to be made. He wasn't so sure who would have the strength to pick the right one.
AN: Goodness, how long has it been this time? My deepest apologies, really! Life is demanding, and if you don't put it first it'll kick you in the ass. I would like to thank all you lovely darlings that have continued to review in the off months! I always am tickled pink when I see a review notice in my inbox.
Hopefully this chapter is to your liking, and Muse won't be so slow during summer. HEY! Guess what! Nefus is graduating on the fourth! How weird is that? I started this story when I was a sophomore. Oy…I'm getting old…
