In the Wake of What Follows
Chapter Five: Cold Fire
It was surprising to Terra how quickly she picked up on the skills Genkai taught her. Yes, she danced and hiked and occasionally hit the gym, but she had never trained like a true athlete before. Despite the extremes Genkai pushed her to, what she was doing felt natural. She was nowhere near a master, but if you put her in a fight with another human with more training, she might have stood a chance.
While she was proud of her achievement, it was a bit unnerving. She didn't think people were supposed to grow this quickly. Change took time. Her physical advancement seemed impossible, much like the way Genkai could jump heights like a goddamned tree frog. Terra reasoned it to be her newfound spirit energy. Though she was still unable to mold it into a force outside of her body, during meditation she had found a way for it to course through her and not only rest in a pocket in her chest. This, she figured, lead to the higher endurance and quick progression.
"Why do you want to train me?" Terra asked once over their midday meal. "You seem hell-bent of making me as strong as possible as quickly as possible. It's not like I'm training for anything, right?" Terra suspected the atmosphere around the temple would be very different if they were preparing for a battle, even with a wedding on the horizon.
"Why did you return?" Genkai countered. She gave Terra a stern look, their gazes locked for some time. "We all have our reasons. All that matters is our interests align."
On most days, Terra was pushed until her body began to cry of its own invention – and then pushed some more. On others, her muscles would be so sore she could hardly move and Genkai would work with her solely on mastering her spirit energy. It wasn't going as well. A second week of training and Terra still couldn't mold it outside herself. She couldn't even identify any energies in the temple except Hiei's. Even the demons in the forest didn't blip on her radar because his was so loud and angry.
"It's only been two weeks," Terra complained after one of Genkai's pissed off rants. "Isn't this stuff supposed to take years? At least months. I mean, give me a break!"
"You're beginning to sound like Yusuke," the woman barked. "Even Kuwabara had managed his spirit sword by the time he was physically your level."
"Kuwabara is so much more naturally spiritually aware than I am and it took him months – "
"It took Kuwabara until he was up against a real threat. With less training than you. And he did it in minutes!" she snapped.
"Then you must be mistaken as to what physical level I'm at because I'm pretty sure I'm still weaker than Yusuke's kid!" she snapped.
While this was an obvious exaggeration, Terra was certain Tomio would be far stronger than her as soon as he was old enough to fight. Keiko had left the day before to buy groceries and came back with her son in tow. It had come to the end of Tomio's stay with his grandparents, but Keiko was more than happy to have her baby back in her own arms. Tomio was only one, but he was going to be strong like his father.
As Genkai and Terra continued to yell at each other, Yusuke and Kuwabara came to watch. It was amusing to see Genkai so riled up and not at them.
"And I keep telling you that it. Doesn't. Want. To!" Terra screamed, referring to her spirit energy and her inability to mold it physically.
"Maybe Terra's energy isn't meant for fighting," Kuwabara said. He hadn't meant to speak out loud, but as soon as he did, Genkai's attention turned to the two boys.
"Nice going, dumbass," Yusuke said, punching Kuwabara's arm.
"Ouch. Urameshi!" he whined.
"Spirit energy," Genkai began, a dangerous undercurrent to her words, "is just that. Energy. We are able to mold that energy into a physical reality, and with that – create an extension of ourselves to use as a weapon or a shield. It doesn't have a predilection for defense or attack. It simply exists as a force to manipulate."
Kuwabara shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she's got a territory like Kido or Mitarai."
"Territory?" Terra asked.
Genkai shook her head. "A psychic territory is its own manifestation. Those psychics are tied to their territories so thoroughly, they can't manage any other form of manipulation." She looked Terra's way. "I can feel your energy, kid. I know you don't think you're ready, but it's swimming right beneath the surface, ready to break out."
"Maybe she's a healer?" Yusuke threw out. "You can do that, right Genkai?"
"Yusuke, use that pea-sized brain of yours for second and think about all the healers you know."
"Well, they're all girls," he offered.
Genkai slapped the back of his head. "No, you idiot. Yukina is a demon. Botan is a spirit. And I developed the spirit wave only because I had such mastery of my powers that I could use it to target only things that were dark and wrong in a person. It's not healing; it's cleansing. Maybe it's something Terra can do one day, but for now she needs to learn the basics."
Terra was done being talked about as if she weren't there, and she was done trying to fight against her own energy for Genkai's wishes. "Whatever," she mumbled. Without waiting to be excused, she made her way past the two boys and headed to her room.
Kuwabara caught her later as Terra took her clothes to the wash. Genkai was right in some ways. He could feel Terra's energy growing stronger every day. If she could manifest it, she'd be a match for D class demons. Her growth in just two weeks had been rapid.
"It's like you're brimming with energy," he said, "and it's just about to spill over."
Terra wanted to ignore his words. She felt like a failure. As much as she tried to rationalize that she hadn't been training very long, the heavy feeling wouldn't shake.
"You'll get there. Promise."
Terra quietly thanked Kuwabara for his encouragement and headed to the laundry room. Being almost there wasn't any consolation. She came here to become stronger, to be able to take care of herself in the world if faced against demons. She never wanted to be weak again.
It was just past four in the morning when Terra woke up. After a few tries of closing her eyes and waiting, she sighed and sat up. I miss sleep, she thought as she put her contacts in. Since coming to the temple, Terra hadn't had more than a few hours a night. She was scheduled for morning sessions with Genkai starting at six, so at least when she was startled awake there wasn't too much time on her hands.
Often, Terra would just listen to music or make an early breakfast. Her appetite had come back, thanks to Genkai's training. She was working so hard her stomach craved food despite her brain's apathy to it.
Sometimes she would go outside. After that first numbing night, Terra hadn't tried sitting on the rooftop again. There was a swamp out back that had frozen over and it was surprisingly quite pretty under the stars. From that side of the temple, the city lights glowed in the distance. Terra never left the porch, though, so she wasn't sure if you could make out the skyline at a different angle. Regardless, it was the dead of winter, and she never stayed out long.
Today, Terra was restless. Unlike her last few months in the city, where the heat had made her sluggish and unwilling to get out of bed, being at the temple filled her with a kind of anxiety that forced her to keep moving, even after Genkai's training. Terra plugged her headphones in and stuck her iPod into an armband. For a few moments, Terra stared unseeing out her window as she listened to her music. Finally, Terra took off the necklace she wore to bed and tucked it safely in a pouch she left next to the kamidana.
She headed to the dojo that had been her inhabitance for the last two weeks. The itching under her skin wouldn't let her go. Terra hadn't danced in over two years, and barely the two years before that, but her tired brain and anxious body yelled at her to do just that. Anything to let go of everything she had pent up for so long.
In the dojo, Terra felt an overwhelming rush in her heart as she took in the open floors. Unsure how to start, Terra stretched some. Then, after pulling up a classical playlist, Terra went through her old warm-up. Despite the years, the routine was still engrained into her muscle memory. Relevé, plié, tendu front-side-back-side, switch legs. When she got to the floor work, she got lost in the movements. Chaînés spun her into a tombe pas de bourree, jeté- jeté, brisé. She landed in fifth and transitioned into a battement before pushing with her standing leg and whipping around in a fouetté. After two spins, her balance shook, and Terra landed unsteady mid-turn.
Her dancing was choppy and sloppy and full of pauses. Her body remembered better than Terra had been expecting, but her mind was full of blanks that caused her pause from time to time. Each move came with a little hesitance, building movement and confidence as the music sped and swelled. The current piece slowed to an end, and Terra drew her leg up into a high arabesque and held it for a few beats.
A chill ran down her spine and her balance faltered. With a snap, she was standing. She turned to the door with wide eyes and a wildly beating heart. Hiei stood there, his burning red eyes boring into her as she froze like a deer in headlights. Terra tried to tell herself that demons weren't inherently evil. Hiei was a friend of Yusuke's and everyone else at the temple. This didn't calm her. His energy felt so dangerous that it triggered the gut sensation which screamed at her to get away.
Hiei looked past her and walked to the back of the room. He opened one of the equipment closets and eyed the contents before pulling out a long pole and tossed it over to Terra. She clamored to catch it, still confused and weary of his presence.
"What are you-" she began to ask, but his glare shut her up.
"Genkai's sick," he said. "She asked me to train you today. Don't be mistaken. I'm only doing this because I owe the old crone." His voice wasn't so deep, but it gave the effect you were listening to someone much stronger than he looked. And he looked plenty strong to begin with. His words were even and smooth, but somehow light. Were she only listening and not seeing, he would have come across as bored. The expression on his face betrayed his cold displeasure of the situation. "Now, take that infernal contraption out of your ears and prepare yourself."
In stunned silence, Terra took out her headphones and unwrapped her armband. The iPod confirmed that it was six o'clock. Terra had been dancing for nearly two hours without even realizing. She could have used a break first, maybe some breakfast. When she turned back to Hiei, he held another pole. It was obvious he wouldn't delay this for her own comfort.
The two poles were about her height with painted rings on each end. Terra looked between her pole and Hiei, confusion evident on her face.
"Now what?" she asked.
"Hn." The dark-haired demon took a stance and smirked. A sharp eyetooth poked out between his teeth. Terra gulped from a fear more desperate than Genkai had ever managed to rise. "Now we spar."
He blurred forward, and Terra only just managed to pull her wits together and lift the pole to defend in time. From the low chuckle that escaped him, Terra was confident he could have made the hit if he wanted to.
With her heart in her throat, Terra made it through Hiei's attempt at a training session by the skin of her teeth. He made it clear that he was stronger, that he was toying with her. Sometimes he would even move slow enough so she could see him coming. Most of the time, he was just a blur, a shadow that darted around the dojo.
Terra collapsed to the ground, biting back a scream. Her leg was searing in pain from Hiei's latest swipe at her.
"Pathetic," he sneered, red eyes blazing with malice.
"Just because you could kill me with one swing of that," Terra spat. Hiei didn't make a response. Terra pressed herself up onto her elbows and stayed there, too tired and bruised to continue. "Can we call it lunch?"
"Get up," he said, tossing her pole back to her. She caught it with one arm but didn't move to stand. "Now." When Terra didn't move, Hiei squatted so that their eyes were level. They stayed that way, studying each other for what could have been an eternity. His fire-red eyes made knots in her stomach. Coupled with the blue-black hair that fell over his face and the pointed eye teeth he bared in a snarl, her senses screamed that this man wasn't human and that she should run. Still, she couldn't move. "You may be weak, but I don't trust you intruding on our lives," he finally said. Hiei stood and tossed his pole to the side, already taking his attention off her. It clattered against the wood floor, the sound echoing in the large room.
"That's fine," she responded from her spot on the floor, "because I don't trust you either."
He didn't give her the grace of a reaction before walking out the door.
When she was sure he wasn't coming back, Terra pushed herself to standing. Her bruised leg protested, but she couldn't stay on the dojo floor all day. Her stomach complained its hunger as Terra collected her iPod and put away the poles Hiei had discarded.
It was early still for lunch, but Terra found Yukina in the kitchen preparing meals for the others. Tired as she always was, it was a blessing to know she didn't need to cook for herself while at the temple. Terra had offered to help a few times, but Yukina always turned her down. While Keiko, Yusuke, and Kuwabara were readying the temple for the wedding, Yukina did her part in making sure they were fed. And, as she restated, she quite enjoyed the task. It was easy to simply make a little more for the rest of the household.
"Oh, Terra, you're limping," Yukina said, turning off the stove and wiping her hands on a dishtowel. "Here, let me help."
"Thanks," Terra said, easing into one of the seats at the small kitchen table that none of them ever usually ate at.
Yukina's hands made Terra's skin freeze, even through the fabric of her yoga pants. It wasn't the first time Yukina had healed her after a training session, usually only relaxing her sore muscles rather than fixing harsh bruises. Once Yukina was done with her leg, Terra directed the ice apparition to her shoulder, and then Yukina curved her hand over Terra's jaw, healing a bruise she hadn't known she even had.
"There, all patched up."
Other than Yusuke, who had grown up as a human, the only two demons Terra had spent any real time with were Yukina and Hiei. While her exposure to the latter was only a few chance encounters and the morning's sparring session, she was intimately familiar with his angry frozen energy. The two of them couldn't be more different despite their similarities. Her hair was a nearly white blue, while his a blue so dark it looked like ink. His eyes burned a deep blood red, while hers were more like maraschino cherries. Terra could hardly pick out Yukina's energy, even as she stood right in front of her. Only when it passed through her chi could Terra feel the demon's power. Meanwhile, even from the other side of the complex, Hiei's energy attacked her with its strength and brutality.
She had come to terms that not all demons were evil. Yusuke had been right. Demons were just like humans in regard to their ability to hate or love, to give or take, to care or dismiss. Perhaps Hiei wasn't evil, which she had to believe when the others spoke of him like an old friend, but he certainly wasn't good. Terra had known plenty of people in her life that weren't complete pieces of garbage. But that didn't mean she wanted anything to do with them.
Yukina placed a bowl of rice in front of her with a promise that the chicken would be ready soon. Terra thanked her again and began to eat. She hurried, wishing to check on Genkai as soon as she had her fill. Once the meat was served, Terra scoffed it down before Yukina had finished plating for the others. Terra rinsed out her dishes as Keiko, Yusuke, and Kuwabara passed to the dining room.
"Oh, Nakashima!" Keiko smiled, Tomio on her hip. "You're not joining us for lunch?"
Terra shook her head. "Not today."
"Hey, how come the new girl isn't helping out with any of the preparations?" Yusuke grumbled, scooping Tomio out of Keiko's hands. He blew a raspberry on Tomio's arm, making the baby giggle in delight.
"Because she's a guest here, Urameshi," Kuwabara said, pushing his friend's head in good nature, not strong enough to do any damage.
"I'll see you guys later," she told them as she set her dishes on the drying rack. "Maybe I can get out of my afternoon session. I'd gladly clean over dealing with Hiei again."
"The pipsqueak's training you?" Kuwabara asked with obvious surprise.
Terra shrugged. "Genkai took the day off and asked him to substitute. I'm going to go check on her now."
The small group all frowned at one another.
"She is well," Yukina told them all. "She merely needed a day of rest."
It was clear Yukina's observation did little to ease their worry. Yukina was able to distract them with the lunch she had prepared, and Terra slipped down the hall with another round of parting words and the plate Yukina had made for Genkai.
When Terra entered Genkai's room, she hadn't known what she was expecting to find. Genkai was seated upright in her futon, an X-Box controller in her hands and a first-person shooter on the TV. Terra set the lunch down next to the pot of tea on Genkai's nightstand. Steam still poured out of the teapot, so it had likely been brought to her just before Yukina started making lunch.
"Really? Hiei?" Terra asked, kneeling next to Genkai's futon. "Not Yusuke or anyone, literally anyone else?"
The old woman smirked as she continued playing her game. "I figured it would teach you not to argue with me," she laughed.
"Very funny," Terra said bitterly with a roll of her eyes. "Yukina healed the worst of it, but I can still feel bruises forming pretty much everywhere. And I have another session in a half an hour, if we're sticking to the same schedule," she hedged, hoping Genkai would let Terra take the afternoon off. Even from the confines of her bed, Genkai's word wasn't something Terra could easily ignore.
"He was being soft on you," she assured, pausing her game. Terra noticed how Genkai's breath was a little more ragged than normal when the old woman picked up her cup of tea.
"Why do you expect so much from me, Granny?" Terra had picked up Yusuke's nickname for Genkai. It wasn't uncommon for people to call any older woman "grandma," but Genkai should really be called "sensei" as she was a master of her field and a teacher to both of them. Still, this wasn't like an ordinary dojo. They were all family, in a way, and even Terra slipped into the familiarity they shared with each other.
"I expect it because it's there." Terra mulled that line over in her head a few times before Genkai continued. "Hiei thinks you're growing too fast, but you're not. You've had the foundation for what I've been teaching you for a long time, and your spirit energy has been increasing naturally since you came back to life two years ago, although at a gentle incline. As soon as you became aware of it, it began to grow more. What Hiei doesn't see is how much you push yourself. I would say you're harder on yourself than anyone I've ever trained."
"I don't like being weak," Terra said, more to herself than anything else.
"You're becoming stronger at the same rate Yusuke did," she remarked with finality. "Only difference is that you're starting further behind the mark, so you have further to go." Genkai took another sip of her tea before setting it down and picking up her game controller. She didn't say more on the matter.
Terra sat with Genkai and watched the gameplay. They talked of trivial things until Terra had to leave for another round of Hiei's gruesome attempt at training.
Terra groggily looked at her clock and moaned. It was 1:38 in the morning, and Terra couldn't sleep – but not for her usual reasons. The few precious minutes she had dozed were free of nightmares, and she had gotten used enough to Hiei's energy in the past few weeks that she could ignore it enough to rest. What kept her awake this night was the nonstop crying of one Urameshi baby. She couldn't even drown it out with her music.
Keiko was doing all she could at the moment to calm her son, but sometimes with children nothing worked. One of Terra's college friends had been a nanny, and oh, the horror stories that came with it. She couldn't blame the kid for crying, but dear lord did she need to get away from it. A splitting headache was forming at her temple, and if she couldn't get it to stop now, she'd be crying in pain in an hours' time.
With a groan, Terra pushed her glasses onto her face and bundled herself in warmer clothes and a blanket. Her steps shuffled across the wood floor as she made her way to the front room, where she pulled on her boots. The noise was less prominent outside, and for almost a minute, Terra contemplated falling asleep on the porch. The thought of someone finding her like that in the morning turned her mind against the idea, however, even if it was only Yukina coming out to feed the birds.
Not wanting to go back inside, Terra climbed the roof again. There wasn't much snow, but Terra laid her blanket down so she could use the layer of fluff as a cushion. For a while, Terra just stared out int the distance, her eyes threatening to close more than once. Sleep had been trying its best to creep up at her when a chill went down her spine that had nothing to do with the winter air. The feeling woke her up quick enough.
"Hiei?" she questioned in surprise.
"You can differentiate energies now?" he asked, his skeptic voice coming from behind her.
She paused for a moment, not realizing he knew that much about her training. Terra shook her head and kept her gaze fixed outward. "Not really, but we live next to each other, and yours is particularly… loud."
She looked back at the sound of footsteps nearing. With each crunch of snow came a slight sizzle.
"You're melting the snow." She had sounded more confused than she meant to.
"I am a fire apparition," he said, annoyed.
This made Terra even more confused. Hiei's energy always felt cold. Even when they had been sparring earlier, it was as icy as Yukina's healing hands. Any heat Terra felt back then, she had registered as being from the exercise, but as he came and stood next to where she sat, Terra could feel a slight warmth radiating from him in stark contrast to the night air.
Rather than dwell on it, Terra shook her head and asked why he was there.
"Same as you," he said.
"The baby?"
Hiei didn't respond, so Terra assumed she was right. Terra looked back out onto the horizon. The sea of trees trailing down the mountainside looked like pitch-black ocean waves falling off the end of the earth. It was haunting in its beauty. The temple felt like it was the only thing in the world. The last time she had been up here, that endless sea of trees gave her comfort. This time, she felt trapped as Hiei stayed standing by her side.
After everything he had put her through that day, she hadn't expected to share her roof time with the silent maniac. Terra tried to ignore him as best as possible, but the heat that rolled off him only warmed one side of her body while the other was firmly stuck in winter. It made his presence persistent in her mind.
"What's on your face?" he asked after some time.
The question threw her off guard. "My glasses?" Terra reached up and pushed them higher up on the bridge of her nose. She looked up at the demon with a furrowed brow. He looked down at her with a similar expression. "I can't see without them. Even your face would be a total blur from this distance." He continued to stare without word or movement. Terra began to squirm in discomfort. "I usually wear my contacts, but it's not good to sleep in them, so I take them out at night."
Hiei looked out to the tree line with a hmph.
Despite her nerves at his sheer existence, Terra figured if there was ever a time she could ask Hiei a question, it was now.
"You must care about them," she said, not looking at him. "Whoever it was that gave you those cuts." It was something that had been on her mind on nights she woke up by the sheer weight of Hiei's aura. She often found her thoughts trailing back to her mysterious neighbor when she was unable to do much more than ignore his energy in order to fall asleep.
"Why do you say that?" he growled, a menacing roll to the back of his words.
Terra flinched. "What? Sorry," she apologized instinctively.
"That I must have cared about them."
His words demanded a response and Terra racked her brain to provide one. She had lost the reasoning she had only moments before; all her thoughts vanishing into a mess of anxiety at Hiei's intensity. With a long exhale, Terra rested her chin onto her bent knees. She gave a little shrug before responding as if to say her words didn't mean much of anything.
"If what Yusuke says is true," Terra began, "you're one of the strongest demons out there. So, you're not likely to be wounded that easily. But, from the few seconds I saw the cuts, it looked like you had tried to get them healed. So, they must have been pretty bad. And someone like you," she said, thinking of his haughty superiority and Kuwabara's retelling of some tournament they had been in a long time ago. Apparently, Hiei was still threatening people even as he went into hibernation mode after sustaining too many injuries. "If you got injured in a fight, you aren't likely to have someone else heal you. You seem like the type to prove yourself stronger than needing help. So, I figured, if you got them healed, you probably didn't lose out on pride because it wasn't a real fight. You let whoever hurt you do it." She left it at that. Terra had met a number of abuse survivors. Even people as strong as Hiei could be manipulated, could care for someone who hurt them, could let themselves be hurt because they thought the one they loved wasn't hurting them on purpose. There was always an excuse. Hiei would bite her head off if she related Genkai calling Hiei's troubles a lover's quarrel.
Still, something of what he asked struck her oddly. "Why did you put it in the past tense? Have cared."
Terra looked up at Hiei to find him glaring at the night sky.
"She's dead," he seethed.
"Oh." Terra looked away at that. It was too personal.
For someone who had experienced the death of others all too often and in extreme ways, Terra was still struck by how awkward it was to discover someone else was in mourning. She didn't know how to treat them, least of all Hiei.
"I try not to care anymore," she said when the heavy silence became too much. "Death seems to follow me. Everyone I've ever cared about is gone. So, I try not to care anymore. Everyone dies eventually, so there's no real point in getting too attached."
It felt wrong to admit it. Her words sounded like some cheesy new year's resolution she had been too embarrassed to tell anyone. She hated the truth of it. You couldn't just make a conscious decision to not care about people. Caring isn't something you can turn off with a switch, no matter how much she tried. Regardless, she tried.
Terra startled when Hiei sat down next to her. She chanced a look at him. One of his legs was bent, with his arm resting on it. His other hand rested on the tile, snowless around him, to prop himself up. His eyes stayed on the horizon, though, like hers had when she talked to him.
"You must find this wedding business as foolish as I do, then," he said.
Her eyes trailed back out to the distance as she reached a hand to the front of her neck. Terra had worn a silver chain to bed every night, the charm a token from Jeremy. Her last birthday present. During the day, she left it in her room, not wanting it to distract her from her training. As Terra toyed with the necklace, she could feel the charm nudge against her chest under her clothes.
"No," she said softly. "I don't find marriage foolish."
"Why?" he sounded surprised, although he was good at hiding it.
"Purely idealistic," she said as she continued to play with her necklace. "I know most marriages don't work out well. People get lost in the pressure of being together, sometimes, I think. Even the good ones can crumble. Half of all marriages end in divorce. The number of marriages with an abusive partner nearly matches it. Statically speaking, it's dumb." Terra sighed and dropped her hand from her throat. "But, I can't imagine anything greater than having someone love you so much that they want to spend the rest of their life with you. And, more than that, to prove it to the world."
Terra hadn't been raised Shinto. Her mother was Catholic, and while they had attended church, Terra never went through confirmation. Even still, it wasn't the religion she was raised on as much as all the romantic comedies that ended in weddings that made her think 'til death do us part.
She felt hollow, confessing that. Terra clasped her hands together around her knees, squeezing so tight her knuckles went white. Her vision began to blur with tears and she closed her eyes against them before they could spill. All of it was harder to talk about than she had expected.
"Pure fantasy," she said after collecting herself. "Your objections are more about it being Yukina's wedding, though. Right?"
A sudden wave of cold washed over her. The energy was so strong it negated Hiei's natural heat. She shivered against the force. That was clearly the wrong thing to say.
"Why should I care about Yukina?" Hiei scoffed.
Terra frowned. "I mean, it's pretty obvious that you're related."
"Obvious?" he growled, that low rumble to his voice making Terra shiver again.
Terra hadn't looked his way since stopping herself from crying. Now, she didn't dare look up at all. She could practically feel his glare on her back. It wasn't clear what she had stumbled onto, but this topic had obviously triggered Hiei. Terra hoped she could navigate her way out of it.
"You're like two sides to the same coin," Terra said. "Blue hair and red eyes, but one dark the other light. She's ice. You're fire." She had only discovered that within the last hour, but it only added to her observation. "I've only seen you together once." Terra had entered the kitchen to help Yukina bring dinner out to the dining room and Hiei had been there with her. She had placed a hand on his arm, and he had let her. "You care for each other. Different than either of you care for the others. And it's not romantic."
It was clear from the way Yukina sometimes spoke of Hiei that she was fond of him. When Kuwabara and Yusuke were retelling stories of fights they once had, Kuwabara would often complain about Hiei being selfish or mean spirited. Yukina would always admonish her fiancé for "giving Terra a bad impression." Meanwhile, Yusuke had once managed to drag Hiei out of his solitude. She hadn't known where they went or what they did, but she had been right next door during the persuasion process. They acted like brothers – but brothers made by blood. It was a deep bond of their shared experiences that added Hiei to their group of friends. It was a different deep bond that let Hiei actually thank Yukina for providing him with a meal before disappearing back to his room to eat. Keiko had confessed to Terra once that Hiei never even bothered to talk to her before, and they had known each other for years. Hiei wasn't nice to just anyone.
"I figured that meant you were family. Didn't realize it was taboo."
"She doesn't know."
Terra lifted her head and looked at him despite her better judgment, but she was too surprised not to. "Doesn't know? Of course she does. You treat each other like siblings. That wouldn't happen if only one of you knew about it."
His eyes bore into hers like poker rods. Suddenly she was as frozen as the icicles that hung from the roof's edge. "Where do you get your information," he demanded in a tone that didn't betray his anger the way his eyes and energy did.
For a second, it was all Terra could do to just breathe. "Nowhere," she finally got out. "I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but it's not that hard to read people if you know what you're seeing."
"I don't believe that," he spat.
"Well, you don't have to," Terra said, annoyance lacing her words.
They sat in silence for a minute. Terra tried her best to shake the cold that had rooted itself in her while Hiei continued to glare daggers her way.
"No one is that observant unless it's for their livelihood," he said as some kind of accusation.
"It was, sort of," Terra said. She again looked at him. His bright red eyes still held malice and demanded an explanation to her words. "I studied psychology," she told him, skipping over all the actor business. "It's a field of science that deals with how we function as people," she explained when that didn't seem to quell his need for answers, "how we react to certain stimuli or develop relationships. Some things we do are culturally derived, but a lot are universal – even among animals. I did a field study and an internship my last year of school. You get pretty good at picking up on small details, I guess. So maybe it's not so obvious to other people, but I would still bet the house that Yukina knows that you're related."
Terra had gotten into a master's program. After the events of that summer, she had withdrawn. Terra idly wondered where she would be now if she had simply gone back to school instead of hiding away until snapping and leaving for a temple full of demons.
She certainly wouldn't be having this weird-ass conversation, that's for sure.
"The level at which you analyze us makes you sound like a damned spy."
Of all the possible things to come out of Hiei's mouth, Terra thought that had to be the most absurd statement she had ever heard. She tried to suppress her initial reaction, but the feeling built until she let the sounds out. Such amusement lightened her face as her shoulders heaved in fits of laughter. Her outburst was so sudden, Hiei didn't know how to react. Terra hadn't so much as smiled since coming to the temple.
"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard," Terra wheezed. She wiped tears from her eyes and tried to put her breathing back to normal. "What a great idea. Let's take the weakest, most emotionally unstable girl we can find and have her infiltrate a temple where a bunch of superhuman men reside that could kill her in a second so she can, what? I don't even think there's something anyone would want to know!" Terra laughed until the headache she had earlier throbbed at her temples in a not so gentle reminder that it hadn't entirely gone away.
Throughout her laughing fit, Hiei's expression never changed. He growled as he stood. "I still don't trust you," he snapped. Then, in the span of a blink, he was gone.
Terra sighed. Although Hiei's energy was no longer giving her the chills, she felt oddly cold now that he was gone. Terra decided she should go back inside and at least try to get some sleep before the morning broke.
The next day, Genkai was back to training her. Terra was eternally grateful. After her heart to heart with Hiei, Terra wanted to pretend it had never happened. That was easiest to do if she could also avoid him for a while.
This wish was granted.
Terra and Hiei didn't cross paths for the whole next week, but by then, Terra had bigger things to worry about. The guests that were staying at the temple for the wedding had begun to arrive.