A/N: Hello once again, Fellow FanFiction Fanatics!
This chapter consists entirely of interactions between Hiei and Shikiyoku. Akari's doing boring work and Kurama is also doing...boring...work. Heh.
Symbols Guide:
* : Written by CM; She writes for Akari and Hiei
3 : Written by Star (supposed to be the 'heart' symbol, but FF doesn't like the 'less-than' sign, so it's a 3 instead); She writes for Toriko/Shikiyoku and Youko/Kurama
~!**!~ : A universal transition between scenes or characters, sometimes used to indicate a passage of time, but most often used to transition between major scenes that are happening. As the story progresses, this will evolve into mainly separating the (usually two) scenes happening between authors/characters.
As a general rule, anything in italics is thoughts.
Unless it's used in a sentence like this, which merely indicates emphasis.
[Anything written in italics inside square brackets is Youko speaking to Shuichi/Kurama inside their mind and is private conversation, unable to be picked up by telepathy.]{Anything written in italics inside curly brackets is inner dialogue by Shuichi/Kurama to Youko, and is also private conversation, unable to be picked up by telepathy.}
"Quotations are usually reserved specifically for telepathic dialogue being transmitted from one being to another, but sometimes this can also mean a character isn't being careful about what they're thinking and anyone with telepathy in the nearby vicinity can listen in without taking any effort."
The only exception to that last rule is for the Shiba Inu dog, Nabu. All of his "spoken" dialogue will be in italics and quotations, but is communicated through body language or dog-like noises, so unless a character is able to translate those they are unlikely to pick up on what he is saying any more than the average person might understand his general moods like aggression (bared teeth, ears back) or excitement (wagging tail).
Previously on Yu Yu Hakusho!
Kurama and Akari discuss a distant point in the future when they will venture out into the unified world together,
the both of them agreeing that no matter how much time has passed they will definitely do so.
Akari ends up kissing Kurama on the cheek in thanks for putting up with her.
The both of them eventually fall asleep side-by-side in the meadow,
though they're given a rude awakening by a colleague of Akari's.
After the conversation, Akari pretends to fall back asleep in Kurama's arms,
but slips away once she thinks he's slipped back into slumber.
Kurama is of course aware of her departure and he leaves for his home soon after she is gone.
~!**!~
Though she is still struggling to remember who she is,
Shikiyoku remembers the Niiro Kaga, or rather she remembers "Ogre's Blood," the drink,
and Hiei leads the way down to the Ninth Layer.
Once there, a waitress eventually sets a drink near Shikiyoku,
but before she can notice, Kafu the bartender snatches it up,
drinks it, and glares at the other patrons.
A few minutes later, a drink is set down near Hiei,
and this time it is Shikiyoku who notices,
though her reaction is much more severe than Kafu's.
Such drinks mean something, and Shikiyoku turns to the rest of the room,
whom she had heard gossiping about The Cursed Child when she and Hiei entered,
and decimates the clientele under the indifferent eye of Kafu.
The attack exhausts her, so much so that it is a struggle to get into her chair,
and she nods off in her seat while still seething with irritation at the demons she just killed...
Hiei hadn't been paying attention, really. Hadn't been listening to the room around him in any way. He'd simply been lost in a couple of thoughts, one running right after the other and demanding his attention, such as what to do next. Now that he found Shikiyoku, what would he do? How would she remember him and everything else she'd forgotten, however much that may be? Was it even a possibility? How had she gotten sick in the first place?
What was she sick with?
That last one had his eyelids sliding open, his irises turning to her to inspect the definitive lack of color in her skin, lack of energy she seemed to have when it came to moving about too much. Even sliding into a chair had been quite the effort, he'd noticed.
Enough so that she was…
...
...sleeping. Sitting upright at the bar, chin in hand and eyes closed, mouth slightly ajar. Sleeping.
The fire demon turned to Kafu with a calm expression. He seemed to have found himself in need of… a room and a bed. And he just so happened to be near one such thing.
"It seems we require more than drinks." he commented casually, almost allowing his amusement to flash in his eyes. *
"So it would seem." Kafu acknowledged, letting his eyes slip a peek at the sleeping form of the demon who had changed so very much since the last time she had darkened his door.
He noted that the sheen of sweat she had worn earlier was gone, though he could feel the heat from her fever radiating from her body still, even though she shivered occasionally as if cold.
The ashen-grey skin, the scars...the absence of shining luster from her hair...he knew these things came from the change within her, knew that Hiei no longer sat next to her as her Champion. And he wondered briefly why the Champion had still decided to sit next to her.
"The same room you used before is unoccupied. Perhaps it will...help to restore her mind."
"Mm, don' push yer luck, old man." Shikiyoku mumbled, her words very steeped in slumber, besides being partially garbled by her hand, and coming from her as if she simply spoke to Kafu in her dream and the words happened to leak out between her lips.
"I wouldn't dream of it, lady." 3
Hiei didn't move for a moment, still simply sitting there as if indecisive about moving her, her reaction to such a thing being inconclusive to him. While that was indeed a part of the reason he stayed, it was not his entire reason for hesitating. For waiting and listening to the very brief conversation between demon and demoness.
It was not his job to care for her anymore. It was not his duty to ensure she was well, unharmed, even… happy. It was not his responsibility to look after her anymore.
And yet, here he was. Unable to walk away, unable to extract himself from her presence.
She was fully capable now. She had displayed her ability to take up for herself mere moments before. She didn't need him as she had before.
He lingered on that thought, that fact for a minute longer before he shifted in his seat, setting his feet on the floor and, without further hesitation, making easy work of sliding Shikiyoku from her own seat. He was met with absolutely no resistance, surprisingly enough to him.
Actually, he was surprised when Shikiyoku wrapped an arm behind his neck and over his shoulder, her other hand simply laying on her stomach once she was settled in his arms. He glanced briefly at Kafu, gave a nod of appreciation, then turned and wordlessly meandered his way towards the stairs, feet carrying him almost mechanically up each step and through the hallway, as if he'd done this hundreds of times before.
In reality, he was following a path he remembered clearly, almost expected Shikiyoku to be leading him to the room she'd stormed into the previous time they'd been there. He could almost just smell the scent he'd followed that night, hear the heavy steps of irritation she'd stomped around.
It was easy to extend a hand to the doorknob of the vacated room, easy to push the door open and then gently nudge it shut with his foot. It was easy to move towards the mattress across the room, to stand over it and map out the easiest way to lower her so that he may leave without her knowing.
But what wasn't easy was actually laying her down and taking his leave. Instead of settling down as he'd thought she would, she kept a firm hold on his cloak with one hand, her other arm even tightening around his neck as if afraid to release him.
You don't need me, fool. He gave a small twitch of his brow as she resisted further, her fingers not even budging from his cloak when he pried, her entire body shifting when he made an attempt to uncoil her arm from his shoulders.
After another moment, she grumbled incoherently and shifted again, and he simply gave in. He wouldn't be able to leave her without waking her first. And, as much as he felt she didn't need him…
"...affection.."
He gave an inaudible sigh and hooked his arms under her again, lifting her and turning until he was able to sit on the small bed, shiting until he was in just the right position that when he leaned back, he was reclining with his shoulders against the wall and Shikiyoku laying into him, arm still curled around his neck and hand still holding his cloak.
So much for that.
Then again… what damage could this do anyway? *
~!**!~
Kafu stoically continued to clean the mug in his hands as the fire demon carried her away, but as soon as the pair disappeared up the stairs he stopped, staring blankly at the rag and cup in his hands and finally lowering them to the preparation counter he stood over when he realized he wasn't drying anything.
He let them go and leaned into his palms, still not really seeing the red-wood underneath his hands.
"Problem, Kafu?" The other waitresses had disappeared again now that the Niiro was empty of...patrons, and the mess looking to have never been there, so only the one with her lone tray walked up and leaned onto the counter. "And you're not allowed to say 'no' this time. Because I know that face." She looked pointedly at his expression.
Kafu let out a huff of amusement, but remained with his weight on his hands.
"You can go home, now."
She blinked at him, studying his features, then finally gave a shrug and a sigh, standing back up, "How long have we known each other and you still won't talk to me?"
"Not long enough." Was his amused reply.
"Fine, fine. I'll be here bright and early." She gave him a wave as she started to walk out, tossing the tray up towards the shelves behind him where, as usual, one of the invisible hands easily caught it and set it up high where it belonged.
He waited until even she had left before looking over to his left arm, standing up and lifting the edge of his rolled-up sleeve to reveal a tattoo that had not been there earlier that day.
It was just a heart, lightly embellished with a few curving swirls, and in black ink, but as he lowered the sleeve back down he let out a noise akin to a sigh and rubbed his fingers across the bridge of his nose before putting his face in his hand.
Problem indeed.
~!**!~
She let out possibly the most contented sigh she ever remembered releasing in her entire life.
Funny how it happened while in the arms of someone who was no longer forced to be her Champion. She would never have considered being able to exist without one.
...and never would have wanted to exist without one if she had a choice in the matter.
But when it had come right down to it, between life or death, when she had so many times before wished to be free of the mortal coil...she'd chosen life. And at the time, she hadn't really understood why.
It was clearer now.
She only shifted slightly, enough to let go of the cloak and slide her hand up to his shoulder, enough to let her forehead bury itself in his neck and smile.
And then she actually fell beyond her own awareness, into nightmares of the unknown where her memories started haunting her, where she did not understand them. She ran through red forests with faceless creatures. And she ran alone. 3
Hiei had become comfortable after just a bit more shifting, both from himself and Shikiyoku, and instead of closing his eyes and waiting for sleep, he took to watching Shikiyoku as best as he could, his eyes trained on her from the corners. He felt rather than heard the sigh she released, noted the momentary release of tension in her entire being.
After a few minutes, he was aware of the tension returning to her muscles, which occasionally twitched with the dreams that plagued her mind. Dreams he decided were likely the very same as the ones she'd been having the night before.
He thought for a moment, rifling through his own memories until he found a simple one that was of nothing more than he himself and Shikiyoku settling down for a calm night between cities on the Second Level, having agreed to take a few hours' rest before finishing the trek to the First Level.
And as he accessed his Jagan, goaded it to transfer the image from his own mind to hers, he realized that while she may not need him for protection, she very likely needed him for other reasons. And probably didn't even know it.
So he let his eyelids slide closed, watching the quiet memory of the two of them sitting in front of a fire, saying nothing but not uncomfortable with the silence. And he too would find himself falling into a calm sleep. *
~!**!~
"Do you ever sleep, Kafu?" The brown-haired demon made quick work of the distance between the door and the bar the bartender stood behind as he always did, though Kafu's hands seemed preoccupied with something other than cleaning the countless glasses.
"Do you ever think of coming in while we're open, Taka?" Kafu replied without looking up, rolling the sleeve of his left arm back down to match the location of the other.
Taka waved a hand dismissively as he slid into the seat that Shikiyoku herself had been in not a few hours ago, "It's never stopped me before."
"I can't argue with that."
Taka leaned onto the counter and waited expectantly, but the barkeeper did not oblige him in the silence, instead turning to lift a rag from the prep counter and beginning to dry a glass as usual.
"Are you gonna serve me a drink?"
"Are you going to ask me for one?"
"Ice Wind." Taka provided without prompting, beginning to watch the ingredients coming down towards them.
Kafu apparently couldn't be bothered with even mixing the drink as it did so for itself in mid-air before landing neatly in front of the other demon.
Taka threw back a large gulp and then let the other half of the drink set declaratively back down on the counter where he took to staring at its sea-foam colored contents. He absently lifted a hand and rubbed at the right side of his neck, a move which did not go unnoticed by Kafu, though the bartender did not have to look up to notice it peripherally.
"You've got one too?" Kafu spoke up mildly, unsurprised.
"Hm?" Taka's eyes focused back in on the bar around him, and he blinked once before actually seeing Kafu again.
His grin grew sheepish, "Noticed it, huh?"
On the exact spot which Taka had been rubbing was a tattoo which Kafu very much recognized, though the black ink did not stand out quite as much on the bird-demon's darker-brown skin.
"It...it showed up about a month ago." He reached up to touch it again, and his voice lowered to almost an incoherent mumbled, "I-I hadn't even so much as thought about her in decades."
Kafu's eyes shifted briefly to the stairs, but with his head down, Taka did not see, preoccupied with his thoughts.
"Then you know what it means." Was all the bartender said.
Taka raised and lowered one shoulder, "I...not really. Just have suspicions about it."
Kafu let out a breath from his nose that could have been a 'hm' if he'd wanted it to.
Taka peered forward, trying to catch the other demon's eyes, "What do you know about it?"
"Nothing that you won't figure out yourself." Kafu lied with as much ease as ever.
The points of Taka's ears twitched, but he knew that tone and knew he wouldn't get anything else out of the old demon, so he leaned back, working his tongue around in his mouth before deciding to stay quiet, finishing his drink and standing up.
He hesitated before turning away, "How am I to figure it out?"
Kafu stopped what he was doing and lifted his head, meeting with Taka's gaze for a pause, "Patience. You'll know."
Taka grumbled and kept moving towards the door, "I hate waiting."
~!**!~
It wasn't until she woke up that she realized she'd slept peacefully, and when her eyes slid open to find who she'd slept peacefully with it-
Well, it didn't seem to bother her.
The first time he had reached out to her, she had been uncomfortable, because who in their right mind would want to, after all, knowing what she could do, what the scars meant she could do. But he'd done so seemingly without hesitation-twice? three times now?-regardless of how 'repulsive' he had claimed her to appear. Without thinking of how whatever disease she had might pass along to him.
She desperately hoped it would not.
And he was warm.
Warm enough that he kept her chills at bay, even though his neck felt uncannily cool compared to her forehead which pressed up against it.
...what was his name again?
In a moment of desperation, she frantically scoured her mind, wondering if she would perpetually be take two steps forward and one back until she found it again and her eyes closed in relief.
Hiei.
There was something else too. Something else she had called him.
Flame-boy.
Fire-prince.
The first amused her, as the memory of the name was usually tinted with annoyance. The second seemed more...well whatever it was, it was kinder. ...perhaps the first had evolved into the second, as perhaps their relationship had, in the same manner, changed from 'annoyance' to...fondness?
Hm. 3
Hiei wasn't sure when, but sometime in the middle of the night, he'd taken to dreaming up old dreams, old memories and his mind rifled through them one by one, slowly. Each one held a different element: irritation, calmness, anger, desperation, fondness..
Silence.
His eyelids twitched as if to open, but really, he wasn't awake. Instead, he was traversing layer after layer, following a lead he'd gained and was heading to the seventh. He was running, eyes set forward as a demon evaded him after having found out the cursed child had learned of her intel.
And when he'd caught the female who'd been rumored to have seen the one he'd been hunting, Hiei found himself once again disappointed. Angry. She'd simply thought it would be fun to gain the attention of the champion, not having realized said champion was a cursed being.
He'd let her live, but she was very likely to never forget the encounter.
And the tenseness of the memory had his mind waking, his eyelids sliding open to stare at the wall across from him, the muscles in his face twitching for several different reasons.
"I bet she doesn't even need you anymore. She's likely dead."
His eyelids slid shut again. *
She had felt, somewhere in the back of her mind, a strange tautness to muscles she did not own, even lost in her thoughts trying to sort through memories she could not find.
As she neared slumber again, lulled back towards the sleeping world by the quietness of the moment, from within her memories welled up what felt to her like another demon entirely, filled with everything that was the antithesis to herself, but one that she gave into gratefully if it meant escaping her fears and misunderstandings for a while.
"What is it that troubles you, my prince of fire?" She murmured, the words coming out softer and warmer than she had ever thought her own lips capable, and she found herself carried off somewhere, body relaxing as if at any moment she could drift off to sleep. 3
Hiei didn't jolt, wasn't even remotely surprised by the voice that floated to his ears, the question voiced in a manner that sounded much more like Shikiyoku than she had since he'd found her. His eyelids stayed shut and he drew in a calm breath, his muscles forced to relax as he became more aware of his surroundings, eventually remembering where he was and who was with him.
She was warm. Too warm, he noted.
But really, there was nothing he could do about that.
So instead he decided to bat away her question. Less worry meant less stress, right?
"Nothing of consequence." *
She let a gentle noise hum against her lips, which smiled even at her negative response to his dismissal.
Shikiyoku shifted a little before speaking again.
"I am more troubled that you would not tell me than I would be should you simply do so, Hiei." 3
"Hn."
For a few moments, that was Hiei's lone response. He gave no indication that he would continue, gave no hint that he was even considering telling her of what had plagued his mind for months at a time. The singular thought that had driven him to continue his search even when he felt as if doing so would end fruitless.
Sure, he'd realized at the time that when the bond broke, it had not been due to her demise. After a week or so, he'd realized that the bond would have warned him of such a dramatic thing, would have screamed at him if her life had been on the line, no matter the separation.
But that meant nothing for the time after the bond broke. And it had drove him almost insane lingering on that possibility.
To this day, he still wasn't exactly sure why it had- no, while it still mattered. And it occasionally lead to moments like this, where he'd forgotten someone had spoken to him and he was left contemplating his own thoughts over the matter.
Only when he shifted a bit did he remember her presence, her question and her prompting for his answer. And he continued to contemplate anyway, not really sure what to say on the matter. So, he said the simplest thing he could think of:
"Dreams of old travels that mean next to nothing now." *
In his own way, she understood, he was still dismissing her, but...he had tried, and that is what kept her smile on her lips as she accepted his response this time.
Her grip on his shoulder tightened briefly as a thought crossed her mind, and she had trouble saying it, her brows furrowing together and the smile disappearing.
"I-" She swallowed the lump that had somehow come to rest in her throat, and her words came out hoarsely as if she could just barely manage to say them, "I thought I had been cursed to walk the layers alone, to never see you again-"
Her voice broke and she fell silent, her fingers at his shoulder pulling part of the fabric of his dark cloak into her grasp for a tense moment before it passed and she released her hold, if only slightly. 3
Hiei finally let his eyelids slide open and he turned to glance at Shikiyoku from the corners, expression calm and collected as she spoke. Normally, he would have given a glare for that word, would have said something against it and… well, he didn't even know. It was a word he loathed.
But at the same time, her words did not bring on the ire that normally would have erupted at the very beginnings of the word she'd said. And he supposed it was because he understood. On some level, he realized he'd felt… similarly to how she admitted to have felt.
Even when she'd fallen silent, and stayed that way for a moment, he didn't seem to have anything to say. His eyes shifted to the wall across from him again, staring blankly at the surface. He understood.
Because he'd missed her too.
He opened his mouth only slightly, as if to speak, but found no words on his tongue and shut it again. He took in a breath through his nostrils, eyelids sliding shut again.
Finally, he found something to say.
"Seems you were wrong." *
It was too weak to be a laugh, but the breath that came out her lips, cold air that brushed across his neck, released the emotions that had been gathering over her face.
"I have never been more thankful to be wrong in my entire life." She finally managed to say. "I thought I'd lost you. Forever."
She snuggled closer to him, enjoying the moment that she knew would not last: one where she could remember. 3
Hiei felt his lips twitch just slightly, not in amusement or ire, but… cheer? He released a calm breath through his nostrils and took to staring down at her in calm curiosity, though he did not voice his curiosity over what had driven her into this state, into breaking their bond. He didn't ask why she'd severed their connection after they'd already been separated by the worlds.
He didn't ask what she did to keep busy for ten years, because really, her scars held answers to that unvoiced question.
Instead, he shifted about again, lowering himself the rest of the way down until his head touched down on the pillow he'd been leaning on previously, having no immediate plans to extricate himself from her or the room itself any time soon. *
He may not have asked it of her, but her mind lingered on the events that brought about her power over pain, even as she move her legs to lay down next to him, placing her head over his chest where she could feel the energy pumping through his veins from his core.
The desolation of being separated from him, knowing that she could either die to bring the three worlds together or live and remain stuck in the Ninth Level for eternity, or at least until the Kamis saw fit to let her die, had led her steps to Renai, and even then, when presented with her death or her other option, why had she chosen to sever their connection and save her own life?
Because of this moment right here. The one you'd never truly stopped hoping for.
The door to the room slammed against the opposite wall and in an instant, before it even hit, Shikiyoku had shot up, eyes black and an unfocused wave of dark energy in the hand that did not hold her up.
"Iro!" The figure at the door announced with unhidden consternation after the entrance had shook the walls of the room and stomping inside and over to the bedside.
With the light shining in from the hallway, she couldn't make out the demon until her eyes adjusted.
"Remove this...this mark from me at once!" The short demon's brown hair was frazzled, the matching red slices of color on either cheek drawn downwards in the frown that plagued the demon's lips.
"Shubou?" She asked kindly, her eyes softening as their darkness melted away, finding that still her memories-for the moment-remained intact.
"I have been unable to get you out of my mind for weeks, and I know it has to be related to this ridiculous mark you've somehow seen fit to bestow upon me." Shubou stood inches from the edge of the bed with arms interwoven together, feet apart and expression cross.
She almost laughed, but it had been so long since her muscles had done so that it only came out as an amused sigh that hummed from her lips.
"And where is it, pray tell, this mark you seem to think I have given to you?" She asked him, eyes dripping with innocence.
Shubou only made an angry noise at her, barely containing ire as a growling from the throat.
Of course...there was a heart-shaped 'mark' staring at her from Shubou's forehead.
"You know perfectly well where this mark is." The demon seethed through clenched teeth. "Now take it off!" Shubou's eyes squeezed together, hands dropping down as a single tiny foot stomped in a miniature temper-tantrum that appeared to suit the child-like size of the demon before her. "As if it isn't hard enough for the rest of the clan to take me seriously, now you've gone and-"
Once Shubou had his eyes closed, Shikiyoku calmly moved over to the edge of the bed and sat cross-legged with her hands in her lap, head tilted just a little to consider the little demon.
"What." Shubou had stopped upon realizing she stared and bluntly questioned her.
She hesitated, lips parting, "I can..." She actually appeared concerned, "I can certainly try, dear one. But I cannot make any promises that it will work."
I've never done this before.
Shubou's eyebrows met together in a deep frown, arms crossing together again.
"Well...try anyway, woman!"
Shikiyoku let out a sigh that seemed to travel the entire length of her body, her back sagging from the weakness she felt traveling along by the disease unchecked.
"Come closer, then." She reached out a hand, voice tired and low.
Shubou's eyes grew wide, pressing right up against the bedside and feeling Shikiyoku's hand move to the demon's chin.
Tilting Shubou's face up towards her gently, Shikiyoku leaned down and put her lips upon the mark, pulling away again to see the demon blinking at her expectantly.
She regarded the mark with guarded eyes, and as she opened her mouth to say something about having tried, the black outline glowed softly, changing to yellow and causing little shafts of same-colored light to further outline the heart until the color seemed to lift right off Shubou's skin and dissipate into nothingness in the air.
"Better?" She asked hoarsely, dropping her hand which had suddenly felt very heavy.
"Much." Shubou said without pause, turning to go. Upon reaching the door, the demon hesitated in mid-step, hand on the door frame.
"Thank you, Iro." Shubou quietly murmured before reaching over to close the door while stepping back out into the hall.
In the silence, Shikiyoku lifted her hand, reaching into the place in the air where the light had disappeared. 3
Hiei hadn't moved even when Shubou stormed into the room, hadn't even twitched a single muscle as if he'd been expecting someone to come barging in. He merely lay there, glancing at Shubou, the mark on his forehead, then let his eyelids slide closed to keep from staring at it. It was an odd thing, the tattoo on the other's forehead that was painstakingly obvious.
He was curious, to be honest, what the mark meant and how Shikiyoku was involved. What it meant for her to see such a thing.
A heart, no less.
What? He wasn't incompetent when it came to things like that. Simply didn't care for them.
The air seemed to become charged for a moment, causing the fire demon's red gaze to fall again upon the demon who'd entered the room and created a scene. The one who'd effectively ended their peaceful moment, who was now without the mark on his forehead and was taking his leave.
Hiei turned his head away from the door again even as it slid shut, taking to staring at Shikiyoku with an unblinking gaze.
Though, he didn't voice his question about what had just happened. *
Strange. She thought.
She stared at the place where she had last seen the bit of yellow.
I never knew a piece of me was missing. ...but why do I feel worse somehow, now that I have it back?
Without a word, she shuffled herself back around and made as if to lay down next to Hiei again.
Before lowering herself down, she leaned towards him and pressed her lips briefly against his cheek in a similar gesture to the one she had just made upon Shubou's brow, settling her head onto the other pillow maybe a foot or so from the one he lay on.
"...thank you." She murmured sleepily to him. 3
Hiei let his eyes follow after Shikiyoku as she shifted around, settling next to him again after a small, gentle and warm kiss to the cheek. One he took note of, this time. He raised a brow at her, confused. What was she thanking him for?
"For what?" he finally inquired in a quiet murmur, as if unsure if she were still awake.
If she wished to sleep some more, he wouldn't stop her. *
She had her answer, but floating inbetween waking and sleeping, it took longer to get it out of her mouth.
"I...know it's you."
Another pause.
"...in my dreams. ...helping me...sleep." She faded off, the last word coming out as a mumble, and as if she struggled to say something else.
"...but I can never...remember." 3
Hiei turned his head away from Shikiyoku as she spoke, eyes turning to the ceiling over their heads. He felt his expression shift, turning to one he didn't recognize, mirroring an emotion he felt well up within him for which he had no name.
Odd, how this one person could cause unnamed emotions to come forth in him. Emotions he didn't understand.
He let his eyelids slide closed, his lips turning upward in the very slightest way as a small breath left him in a very soft, almost inaudible hum.
He wouldn't say it aloud, but he'd do it a million times, whether she remembered or not.
"Go back to sleep, woman." *
She smiled sleepily at him.
"Only if..."
Her smile started to fade as her muscles relaxed further.
"...I get to dream with you." 3
Hiei felt his lips twitch even more, and he didn't even have to look at Shikiyoku to know she was smiling too. It was in the air around her; she seemed much more relaxed than she had since he'd found her again.
Of course.
That would have been his answer, had he said it aloud. Instead, he merely wracked his brain for another memory, searched for something else to show her that he thought would be of use, would be worth remembering if she chose to deem it as such.
And he knew the perfect one.
His mind's presence brushed hers calmly, his own eyes sliding shut as he relayed the memory of his hands on her cheeks, his eyes staring directly into hers as blood dripped from her nose, as her energy began to spazz against what she'd wished to do.
It was probably the most powerful moment- no, the first- powerful moment they'd shared, when their energies had intertwined for the first time. And it had been the moment he'd recalled a million times before now, and would continue to recall a million times in the future. *
"Don't move." She managed to tell him, her breathing labored.
She did not even get a chance to fall far enough into sleep to find herself among blurred visions of red trees, instead finding a memory from a time that seemed so long ago floating across her dreamscape.
Wordlessly, face in his hands, she recalled what she had shown him, what she hadn't the strength to say.
The Palace. On the Ninth Level. Where they would go after that, and where she met her fate later when he was not there.
Visions of Renai passed over her mind, knowing now as she did that he and his mate had been the source of the attack on her family.
Her mother whisking her away to a back room, opening one of the many hidden tunnels that went underground and came back up way out of their lands.
"Look at me, Princess."
She hadn't wanted to.
"You will run. And you will hide. You must stay away from everyone, or you will die."
"You are hereby exiled from these lands." Her eyes shimmered again. "And you may never return."
"Go! Now! Run!"
She had been mesmerized by her mother's bright green eyes, a spell placed on her that in her mind was forgotten somewhere along the way between dancing for her first Champion and that moment when she'd been knocked out of the tree at the edge of her former homeland.
...and that remembrance, where she had needed to just be still. To have a chance to fight against her own mother, centuries later.
He had been with her. Enveloped by the warmth of his hands, of his mind. She remembered what it felt like, his wrists beneath her fingers, her eyes gazing into his own.
...-useless...
...not useless…
What she needed, what she desired with every fiber of her existence was standing before her in the form of a fiery demon. In the form of her Champion.
In the form of this fire demon who had come back for her.
Companion.
The realization that he embodied...everything for her had brought such a release, one that she would only replicate later when he finally came to tell her that the one thing she wanted of him...was the one thing he wanted of her.
But in that moment, for her, standing in the tree...the spell had been broken. 3
Hiei allowed the memory to play through, watching it with Shikiyoku as if he were reliving it from his own perspective again. He himself did not fall into sleep as he had considered, since he did seem rested enough to not need more sleep.
Instead, he let the memory play through, and by the time it came to the moment where they'd dashed away, towards the castle again, he let the memory fade, transition smoothly into the night when she'd danced for the Northern Tribe, starting at the very beginning when she'd emerged from the flames, allowing her to see her from his view. *
Somewhere not quite at the forefront of her dreams, she remembered thinking how odd it was to see herself from another's eyes.
And while he was indeed entranced, he was also able to think clearly, assess her state and read her expression. After a few minutes, he could see the sweat glistening in the glow of her energy and the fire, and while her eyes were closed, he could sense the tension behind the lids, see the tension between her brows as she obviously struggled...
And his own energy slowly, discreetly, began to seep from his body and move through the crowd, unseen, unnoticed, and towards her. It stretched enough to allow it to just brush her skin, inviting and warm should she have need of it soon, but not demanding. Calm, warm and only meant for reassurance. For now.
The moves came back to her, surrounded by his energy in a calm and self-assured bubble.
These were steps she had done a thousand times, a thousand times a thousand.
And suddenly, it was not the fire demon in the crowd, but the other one. The first one. And he was not out in the circle looking in and watching her, but at her feet, seated on the ground.
She danced around him, movements steady and true, and as he played the instrument in his lap, his energy, brown like the earth, came whispering from his fingers, came to coil around her.
She tried not to shy away from it, but it felt sickly and nasty to her skin and she shivered.
"Pay attention, Iro." He had sneered under his breath to her, using her name as he always did, as an insult. As a jab at the control he exerted over her. "You will never find someone with that look on your face. Who would want you, lover?"
He began to sing once she released the tension around her shoulders, a feat considering how he goaded her onwards, as much as she wanted to run from the tendrils of his power that looped around her long and lithe arms and legs of her true demonic form as she moved through and with them. The strings of energy left her skin feeling dirty as they sensuously curved about her. His song empowered the air as always, the words ones he himself had arranged as always, but these not for entertainment, instead meant for weaving their power together, so that she might draw all there together under his rule.
It did not take long for her to tell it wasn't working, even as her energy, entwined with his, left her to loop around the ones who had come. Her stomach convulsed inside her as she could not stop, could not tell him to end it, her power being sucked away, out of her control.
And then the screams started.
Her eyes were forced open.
The circle was in turmoil.
And she could not stop.
Brother was fighting brother. Sisters were killing fathers. Demons were on the ground, eyes wide with death, and she could not so much as wipe the blood from her bare skin, did not even shudder as her Champion's mouth opened and words did not come out, but blood hit her bare skin when she passed him by.
She could see clearly the bones of his fingers where he was being forced to pluck at the strings, and she suddenly realized she had no idea how long they had been at it. His blood streamed down the instrument that had served him so well, and still he played.
It was only when the spell had finished that she stopped moving to dance, frozen in place and barely alive, but able to see the atrocities the demons gathered there continued to commit to one another as her energy, as the ritual, had mistakenly driven them mad.
She could hear the battle around her, the fighting, the ripping of flesh, and even louder were the noises her Champion attempted to make, himself unable to move, his throat gurgling with blood that seeped from his eyes, his lips, his ears.
The fighting continued, but a few of the demons had spotted her, and though there were tears falling down her cheeks at the destruction the one called Lover had caused, in their own gazes was no mercy nor pity. Nothing but rage.
She finally cried out when she felt the swipe of claws down her back, the abrupt physical pain collapsing her knees and then dropping forward onto the ground, feeling now her own blood beginning to seep out from the deep wounds to join the blood of others that stained the ground.
A shadow fell over her and she wished for death, but the death that came was not her own, only given to all those who tried to come close.
The last sound she remembered hearing was that of her Champion's head falling with a thud to the grass and her mind screamed within the bond that had been so viciously and abruptly severed.
A large, rough tongue began running itself up her back, over the claw marks that cut into several layers of skin.
She could feel the air vibrating with speech, but she was lost in her own head, weeping over the scene and the absence of the bond.
The last thing she remembered feeling was soft fur underneath her, strong muscles carrying her on its back away from the smells of sweat and battle.
And even as she relaxed into the darkness of unconsciousness that graciously enveloped her, she stained that dark fur with tears that did not stop flowing for a long time. 3
Hiei's energy linking with Shikiyoku's in front of the Northern Tribe had been one of his favorite moments. If he had to choose, it would likely have been his top favorite moment. Which was probably the main reason he'd decided to show her his view of that night.
But he hadn't expected it to take the turn it did. He hadn't expected that he himself would not have control over what images were being passed along, what the Jagan accepted to be relayed between the two of them. He hadn't expected to witness what he could only describe as a massacre, a ritual gone wrong.
She'd told him that she'd lost a champion in this fashion, but he hadn't quite been able to picture what she meant. What she'd been afraid of at that time.
But as he blinked the image away and he was able to see the room he lay in again, he came to realize just how afraid she had been that night, and it completely explained why his pushing her to do what he wanted her to do had made her react the way it had.
He turned a glance onto Shikiyoku briefly before his eyelids slid closed. His way of doing things didn't work for her. More harm than good came from it, not that he'd realized he'd been aiming for the good in the first place.
His eyelids came open again to stare at Shikiyoku, and really, he wasn't surprised to see the tears that flowed in rivers down her face and into the pillow.
But instead of asking the Jagan to lend its power again, instead of sifting through memories as he had been doing, instead of chancing the Jagan allowing her to see another memory like that instead of the peaceful ones he'd meant to show her…
He simply reached over with his left arm and wiped at her face, removing a few tears from her cheeks that had fallen in the meantime before he turned away again and took to staring blankly at the ceiling.
If there had been any chance of him going back to sleep, it was long gone now. *
Darkness at first, and then a voice called to her.
"Do you still trust me?"
When she opened her eyes, he seemed almost afraid of her answer.
As in the dream, she reached out to him, but here pulled herself closer until she lay up against him, head buried in his arm.
"There will be a time when you go along with a decision I make, and you will be hurt, and I will almost kill myself with guilt because of it, much as I think you have this time."
And he had gone along with it. Except...not exactly by choice. She had thought he'd been lost forever for her, chose to break the bond-instead of by her death which would have ravaged his mind-in what turned out to be the most discreet way possible.
...and she did almost kill herself with the guilt for the answer she chose. 3
Hiei didn't dare to even so much as move a single muscle, his eyes still up at the ceiling even as the Jagan allowed Shikiyoku the ability to show him one of her own memories. For some reason, he couldn't exactly recall at the moment what had brought about the conversation he now heard again.
Perhaps it was because he wasn't really paying full attention to the memory itself, as if afraid that if he did so, it would shift again.
But it didn't, and even as Shikiyoku pulled herself up next to him, to lay against him, he still didn't even move aside from the closing of his eyelids. *
"But you did what you thought was right, what you thought was best. How could I not place my trust in you for even just that reason alone?"
Had she really said that? How profound it seemed.
And how idiotic from the other side of it.
She watched with interest as the fire demon moved and eased himself into the water that her legs dangled in, then turned and held out his arms, making a small smile come onto her face as she reached out with her good arm and planted it firmly on his bare shoulder, letting him lift her down and into the cold spring. 3
After a moment, the image in his mind became clearer than it had before and he found that he was watching himself.
Which was quite an odd thing, since he'd never been able to do something like this before.
Through her eyes, he seemed much calmer than he remembered being. Had something like this been shown to him before he'd met her, he would have scoffed and likely beheaded the poor fool who thought Hiei Jaganshi would ever extend his arms out to another, ever ask another if he was trusted.
It was odd that he also found a sense of warmth from this perspective, as if it were his own.
He remembered what he'd been thinking here, what he'd been refraining from saying at the time. The internal battle he'd been fighting.
And every single bit of it had been about the being he now lay beside. He hadn't realized it until now. *
Her vision shifted, blurring as if passing through time until it landed on something she had never once thought about, never once knew had in her mind existed...
He coughed and glared at the bowl as if it had in some way offended him, then he turned those same smoldering-gorgeous-crimson eyes on her person.
Her hair was up in a bun, her glasses thick, and her ears were twitching with the tiniest bit of aggravation at the response she had just seen the fire demon give her.
"If you don't like it. I'm eating it." She made no hesitation in reaching over to take the bowl from him.
He possessively scooted the bowl farther away, and she noticed his eyes darken, daring her to try.
She tried not to smile, and since she still felt a little irritated with him, it was easy to resist.
"What is this ridiculous substance?" He had demanded none too kindly of her.
It seemed more like a statement than a question at the time.
"Ice cream...but it always seemed more like 'sweet snow' to me." 3
Hiei had… I'd done that?
The fire demon watched the new scene with curiosity, as if he didn't even recognize himself or what was going on. It was as if, somewhere along the way, he'd forgotten moments like this, where he hadn't been too far from the way he'd been before, but not exactly who he was now. He'd forgotten, somewhere along the way, that Toriko had been a factor somewhere. He'd forgotten how irritated he'd been with the human side of Shikiyoku at times, how he'd thought he hadn't cared at all, and then promptly took to pulling pins from her hair or glaring at her over a bowl of sweet snow, as he was doing in the image here.
How had he forgotten those things? How had he forgotten the beginning of it all? *
She stomped down the stairs, unsure of what had her in such an uproar of emotions, until she found herself thinking about the fact that she tried not to use her powers around Kurama because it was the first time she had a friend that wasn't being nice to her because of her energy.
She came into the kitchen and practically ripped the drawer with the silverware from its hinges, snatching a spoon, then directly tromping over to the refrigerator where she flung the freezer open, unceremoniously grabbing the plastic container within and dropping cross-legged to the floor. She ripped the lid off and promptly began drowning her anger in the cold, sweet treat, which stung at her teeth and head with her first large bite.
"Is this how you cope?"
She refused to look up at what had been the source of her anger, her lips twitching down at the container before her.
Her answer was to fling the spoon at his face, following it with a heated, "You should try it."
"How ridiculous."
He must have caught it, but she only reached over and grabbed another spoon, balancing the tub on her knee as he slid down to the floor next to her to help her demolish the chocolate ice cream within. 3
Another Toriko moment. Not a Shikiyoku memory, but one from the counterpart she'd created within herself for protection, self-preservation. At the back of his mind, he wondered what this meant, if perhaps the two beings had become one whole being again, but at the forefront of his mind was amusement.
He remembered plucking the spoon from the air with ease, even fighting the slight amusement that had bloomed from her gesture at the time.
But that amusement held nothing to the amusement he felt now, his lips twitching upwards and his throat humming out a sound he hadn't made…. for as long as he could remember. *
Even in her sleep, she felt a smile peeling back her lips and her head shook back and forth a little against Hiei's arm.
Stupid girl.
As if to show her how 'stupid' she herself had once been, her vision shifted again...
She was hungry.
Starving in fact.
Had that scrawny weakling never fed their body?
It wasn't hard to discover the secret of the white box in the kitchen, but only because it had handles that she instinctively pulled at, surprising herself with how easily it came open.
Nothing.
She crinkled her nose in disgust as she peered in and pronounced everything within sight inedible, even though she flung a few things in plastic containers at the floor after checking them to make sure.
Defeated by the lower thing, she let go and stood up to open the upper one, the other door swinging shut silently when she released it, but banging against her legs as she stood in the way.
She pushed past a heavy plastic container with a hand, but knocked it out onto the ground as she tried to rummage further.
Curious, she closed the white thing's doors and sat down on her feet, towel wrapped around her torso coming further up her thighs.
She tilted her head first one way, then another. She lifted it up in both hands, finding that the same chill that struck her when she opened the place it had been sitting was inherently held within the plastic, and she rotated it a bit as the cold stuck to her hands.
It smelled good, once you got past the plastic. Which she had no idea how to do.
She tried gnawing at a corner, but her teeth were not sharp enough any longer to make much of a dent.
She growled at her human form.
Confounded, she plopped the container back down on the floor and crossed her arms over the towel covering her chest, glaring at it as if it could be intimidated into revealing the secret of its contents.
"It's upside down."
She'd nearly scoffed, thinking 'and what do you know about it?' until he promptly came over to flip it, pick it up, and pop the lid off to the amazement of her wondering eyes.
"Sweet snow." He'd provided, holding it out as if for her inspection, which she obliged by sitting up a little straighter to peer over the edge at the contents. "With bits of...strawberry."
"Straw...berry." Her tongue and lips curled around the strangeness of the word. "And you eat it?" She sounded incredulous at that thought. "How?"
"With spoons."
He'd tossed her one.
Duh.
She watched him carefully, intending on replicating his every movement as he showed her 'how,' tilting the tub to her once he had his spoon in his mouth.
Her lips were drawn together, waiting for him to fall over as if poisoned, but the smell was too great of a temptation and she relented, mimicking the manner in which he had dug some of the substance out and after scrutinizing what was on her spoon, putting it in her mouth.
She coughed and glared at it as if it had offended her person, turning that same glare up to Hiei as if he had something to do with it, sticking her tongue out as if that would warm it up faster.
"It burns." She declared accusingly after drawing her tongue back into her mouth, eyes narrowing slightly at the amusement she caught gleaming in his stoic gaze when he looked back at her.
He had not told her that. 3
Another one of those hums of amusement left Hiei's lips, this time a little louder than before at the accusation he'd heard declared in her mind. For a moment, he compared her reaction to his own, noting that they were very similar in the initial reaction, both accusing the other of not having warned.
He knew that after the initial reaction, they'd both come to enjoy the frozen substance of Sweet Snow. He also remembered their escapade after the sweet treat had been consumed entirely by the both of them, the trip to the store they'd taken.
Briefly, he wondered what the others would think of him if they knew of that escapade. However, the thought was gone in an instant, replaced again with his growing amusement. *
The memory faded, jumping again, and when it came back into focus, she was glaring at him in her former rooms at Rae's palace.
"You-" Her eyes narrowed further at him as she held back almost painfully her initial desire at Hiei's destruction of the clothing, which had been to throw her arms about him and kiss him soundly, "-have just earned my undying devotion. And if you don't burn as many things as possible like that while we're here, I'll consider it a slight upon my very person."
Her eyes flickered towards the last of the tiny ashes that seemed to disappear into the air, trying very hard to keep under control the smile twitching at her lips.
...
Her stomach had lurched frightfully when the sudden realization dawned that Hiei would have had no training in court arts whatsoever.
And yet, he had surprised her, continually, that night.
"Clever demon." She murmured to him, lips pursed coquettishly as she settled into his arms once he had expertly taken the lead.
He had pulled her close-much too close for proper dancing in public-whispering in her ear.
"One must be as clever as the person leading them, no?"
His breath had moved across her skin, setting it tingling and rendering her speechless at his 'audacity,' which in truth pleased her somewhere behind the blush that had crept up her neck.
"I've learned from the best."
There was another lurch in her stomach, but this...was not from fright.
"I think," She was breathless, cheeks burning, barely able to form a thought in her mind, left completely off-guard in his arms by his previously unprecedented actions. Something like that had not...had never happened before. "At least in this case, your cleverness far surpasses my own, flame-boy." 3
Hiei blinked as he saw himself through her eyes this time, and thoughts that were not his own seemed to float through the memory Shikiyoku had begun to shift through. Memories he'd thought of continuously, but not… not the way she did, it seemed. His initial reaction when he thought of Rae and Ballrooms and dancing was irritation, ire at its peak because he'd been forced into it. Forced to play another's game and abide by their rules, for her life had been, the way he saw it, in danger. All he'd been ready to do was get out of there, destroying everything on the way out if he had the time.
But the thoughts Shikiyoku had, ones he now had access to as she replayed the memory from her standpoint, were very different than his. Instead of anger, as he'd been displaying, or even mild irritation, she'd spent her time enjoying the things he'd done specifically to keep them out of trouble, to keep her out of trouble that he himself would not have been able to handle.
While he'd been searching for ways out, she'd been wrapped up in him, content to spend that time with him.
And her narrowed eyes at him that day had been for an entirely different reason than he'd suspected that day.
Which, by the way, he didn't know how to take. He didn't know what to think, because really, he'd never met someone who'd ever had thoughts like that towards him, no one who'd ever actually cared about him and not his status as a 'cursed' being. Not in such a way as she did, any way. *
In the midst of her slumber, she moved her head over his shoulder to meet her nose gently with his cheek to nuzzle at him sleepily before pulling away, breathing softly out her smiling lips.
This time, the memory was clear, the emotions raw...because this time the memory came from the most recent of events, where she stood daring every last demon in the room to come at her...
"You wish to stare?"
Her eyes narrowed into slits, unable to see anything but the drink that had slid onto the counter at Hiei's elbow.
Within an instant, in spite of the disease that clouded her mind and disrupted her natural thought, she remembered exactly what that drink meant, what the intricacies of each ingredient stood for. And it made her angry.
"Then I will give you something to stare at."
She had heard, when they entered the bar, the whispers about the Forbidden Child, the Cursed Child. But it was not until this very moment that she became enraged, for their whispers had not been meant to insult her-which she had at first assumed and would withstand- but were about him-which she would not.
He was 'forbidden' by Koorime law, birthed out of a union the Ice Maidens had banned long ago by restricting their interaction with the outside world. But they also called him 'cursed.' As if they had ever been cursed; as if they knew what the word actually meant.
The fury of that moment had her, outside the dream, beginning to growl low in her chest, recalling her anger and starting to pull herself inadvertently back towards the waking world, stirring where she lay.
"You want to talk?"
He was not cursed, it was they who were cursed. Cursed with idiocy. Cursed with foolishness. Cursed blind by their unwarranted hatred. Any of them-all of them-who saw him as somehow 'less' of a demon simply because of the circumstances of his birth-when the truth was she knew him to be a demon greater than any of them could ever dream of aspiring to, and knew also that he was not yet done achieving his greatness-made her furious.
They were cursed with jealousy.
Or they should have been, if they could see past their stupidity.
"Then I will give you something to talk about."
The drink.
That drink.
It infuriated her beyond reason.
The demon wished to use him-not even simply mate with him-not keep him. Never keep him. Never become his life-mate. Throw him away. The contents of the glass made it perfectly clear that he was not worthy, off-limits, of being anyone's 'mate,' even a prospective one, due to the conflicting elements in his blood. He would have been nothing more than a moment of a thrill, to thumb her nose at everyone by having had the bastard child of an Ice Maiden in her bed, nowhere near valuable enough to have as a companion. She was proud of her strength, wouldn't want to 'risk' watering it down with his questionable background, for surely any offspring of their mating would be weak.
Because after all who would risk their power-the one thing all demons covet-with one of both fire and ice; who would jeopardize any children with one like him.
Nonsense. Utter nonsense.
Why the hell is that an issue? Could they really not see how infernally attractive he was? Did that one thing alone, that by itself not make them as frustrated as she had been at times-blasted bond-for not getting to bed him herself?! As if it hadn't been bad enough that she could not at that time mate with him, that she had been forced to restrain herself, now they dare insult the demon who was her former pact-mate? As if she wouldn't have chosen, if given the choice, anything less than the picture of perfection that he was!?
She saw within that one drink the entirety of Demon World mocking him, attempting to lay a true curse on him, and the worst curse of all. A curse that he should wander the lands alone. Too dangerous even to innocently share in his company.
"You desire to see cursed?"
May the Kamis damn you all.
And if they won't do it...
I will.
"Then I will show you which one of us is truly cursed!"
And she did. By offing every last one of them.
Their opinions wouldn't matter much when they were dead.
Why the hell did their opinions matter anyway?
I dunno, but it pisses me off. 3
It's kind of an aside/moot at this juncture, but I did want to point out a little thing that was extremely intentional on my part: If you go back and look at Hiei and Shikiyoku's interactions since he's found her, you'll notice that I never actually use the word 'Shikiyoku' to describe what she is doing. It's always just simply 'she.' This is happening because Shikiyoku doesn't identify herself as 'Shikiyoku,' since she's lost her memories. You'll notice that anytime it does actually say 'Shikiyoku,' it's in a moment of clarity when she is able to remember.
Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off! -Star