In the Wake of What Follows

Chapter Fifteen: Shifting Dynamics

"You're better than I expected," Yusuke jeered from the open doorway. "I'm impressed."

Terra wanted to take off her blindfold and head over to the two boys. Kuwabara's heavy footsteps had accompanied Yusuke down the hall. Unfortunately, Hiei had a tendency of knocking her over when she let an interference distract her. Despite the days away from training, she had learned that much and kept it with her.

More sounds hit her: a patter of footsteps, a rustling of cloth, the swish of a pole as it cut through the air. They were working with the practice weapons again so she didn't lose the skill. Terra blocked her left just as Hiei reached her. He backed off and dropped his pole onto the floor with a clatter. Terra took it as a sign their session was over. She tugged off her blindfold and headed to the boys, stopping to get her glasses first.

"What's up?" she asked, a little out of breath.

"Surprised to see you back at training so soon," Yusuke said with a slight grin. "But I'm not lying. You're getting good. You could probably hold your own in the Dark Tournament, if it were still going on. We could have used you as our fifth member!"

"Genkai was still more valuable," Hiei said. "Maybe in place of Kuwabara."

"Hey!" Kuwabara yelled, challenging Hiei to a fight, which the demon ignored.

Terra looked back to Yusuke and narrowed her eyes. "Weren't you, like, fourteen at the time?"

Yusuke grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, sounds about right."

"So I'm as strong as a middle schooler. Lovely."

"Well," Kuwabara said, coming back to the conversation instead of antagonizing Hiei, "you couldn't exactly call us average."

Yusuke swung his arms to stretch them out. "Maybe we should join you." There was a dullness to his eyes as he said it. Terra recognized that look. Self-destructive and numb. "Keiko won't let me near the booze after the other night. Punching something might help."

"Hn." Hiei's sound of disapproval cut through their conversation. "If you trained at her level, you wouldn't gain anything."

Terra rolled her eyes, irritated at Hiei's constant disdain of her abilities. "Yeah yeah, whatever."

"Maybe I should train under the great Hiei, then!" Yusuke badgered. "We could have an all-out fight and show Terra what her goals are." He headed into the dojo, intent on Hiei and not much-paying attention to the rest of them.

"Jeez, Urameshi," Kuwabara huffed, "even I can't make it to your level. I don't think Terra should put her goals so high."

"You calling me weak?" Terra smirked, knowing it would rile Kuwabara up.

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" he pouted.

She laughed and turned back to Yusuke and Hiei, the former nagging for a fight. "Come on, Hiei. It would be great! We could use it as training for the tournament. It's this October, after all!"

"Urameshi, you have a kid," Kuwabara reminded him. "I doubt Keiko would like for you to become the King of Demon World on top of that."

Yusuke shrugged, not letting something as trivial as fatherhood get in the way of a good fight. "I should still participate!" he grinned. "No one deserves to rule over demon world unless they're at least stronger than me. Right, Hiei!" The fire demon stared back blank and motionless. "No need to get too excited," Yusuke told him.

"While this is a lovely conversation," Terra interjected, "I'm starving. I'm calling for lunch." Terra wasn't actually very hungry, but it was almost noon and she should probably take the break the boys provided.

She made her way to the kitchen alone. After staring at her options for perhaps too long, Terra grabbed some leftovers from the night before and headed to the tea room where all of her study materials had been left. Her meal was cold, but that was okay. She knew she'd forget it for a long while anyway. As if to prove her own point, Terra was ten pages into her latest medical journal when someone slid open the door behind her. Her lunch break was probably almost over and she had yet to touch her meal.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Kurama asked.

"Kitchen full?" Terra asked, motioning Kurama to sit.

"And dining room too empty," he added. If the girls were about the kitchen and the other boys still in the dojo, she could understand Kurama wanting to seek a quiet company for his meal. Kurama ate delicately, like how one might imagine a nobleman in a feudal era would. Even in his modern garb, he felt out of time.

Kurama never said what time period he had found himself in the human world, studying the stars to be a better thief. He said he'd been a scholar at Oxford, but that was the oldest institution running. She wondered if his looks stood out, or if the genetic makeup of England wasn't so white as television always portrayed it. Then again, while Doctor Minamino was Japanese, Kurama was a kitsune. In this body, there wasn't anything particularly fox-like about him. Maybe when he studied in the past, he glamoured himself like the demons she met in Tokyo, and looked more Euro-centric than East Asian.

He caught her staring. "Yes?"

Terra blinked rapidly, lost in thought. "Sorry. Just thinking." He waited expectantly, almost as if he could tell there was something itching just under the surface of her consciousness. There was something she wasn't seeing, but she couldn't figure out what. "You're a fox."

"Yes."

"But there's nothing particularly fox-like about you," she said, parroting her own thoughts.

"Not like this, I suppose," he humored. "Why the interest?"

Terra almost waved it off, but then realized what had been nagging at her. "There was someone I missed. When we last talked about my energy reading. I listed you, like flowers. Hiei, like temperature. The horned demon, like lightning. Maybe the dream I had about the demons in the forest. But there was also a kid. He played outside my window. He smelled like wet dog, and when I looked and saw past his glamour, he had canine-like features. But he was just a little kid, playing with his human friends. I wasn't in any danger, or near someone powerful and in a bad mood. I shouldn't have had a warning for him." Terra looked down at her notes and shoved them aside. Her mind swam with the current issue and wouldn't let it go for book work. "My theory has to be wrong. It's not some kind of alert system."

"Perhaps," Kurama said, nodding sagely. "Perhaps not. It's just as possible that this boy, you said he was outside your window?"

Terra nodded.

"It's possible he was in what you would consider your territory. And after the attack, your spirit energy was on high alert. If you passed a demon on the street who was calm and meant no harm, you may not have been given this extra sense, but a demon in your space without your permission may have been flagged as a possible threat."

Kurama set aside his dish and looked her over. "I believe, if anything, this gives more validity to your theory. The one common thread between these demons, ruling out the horned demon because we do not know for certain, is that you're not sensing the demon's strength but the demon's powers."

Terra frowned. It made sense, in a way. "Wet dog for a canine demon. Dead flowers for a plant manipulator."

Kurama nodded. "The demons you encountered in the woods slipped through shadows, strongest in the dark of night. You said, even when we first asked you, that it felt as if the shadows weren't just shadows, as if they were watching you. The dream you had was telling you they were too close."

Terra still had that dream sometimes, a faded memory version of it, not quite as strong as the night it happened, but the details were the same. Those hands and yellow eyes came out of the dark so fluidly. She hadn't stopped to think they were the dark itself.

"And Hiei?"

"As to why his energy has been so cold while still being a fire demon?" Kurama asked, amusement flitting between his eyes. "I know you are already aware of Yukina."

Terra nodded. That was as far as her knowledge went, though. Yukina and Hiei were like two sides to the same coin, but it wasn't an explanation.

"You see, Yukina is a breed of demon called the korime. The ice apparitions are an all-female race. Hiei was never meant to be born, but their mother had twins when she shared a bed with a man. Hiei is a fire demon because he cannot be a korime, but his people are all ice." Kurama relayed this information quietly, most likely gauging how well residents of the temple would be able to hear.

Terra did her best to process it all and store it away. "When he's calmer," she said, pulling her own bowl closer, "he's warmer, I think. At least, not as cold. When he's angry, he's like ice."

"Then it would be high levels of emotion. Anger, malice, fear, pain, hunger, anything that could make a demon lash out," Kurama contemplated. "These would all be cause for your senses to pick up on the demon specifically."

"Seems likely." Terra speared her cold fried rice. "I feel Yusuke," she admitted. "His energy is about as overpowering now as Hiei's was when I came here a couple of months ago. His mourning." There was a reason Yusuke was so pushy with Hiei. If Terra was subconsciously seeking out demons who were unstable and might lash out, Yusuke fit the bill.

"What does his energy feel like?" Kurama asked.

Terra sighed and ruffled her hair. "It's hard to describe," she said. It was almost as tasteless as her own energy, and yet it was so obviously there. "Out of everyone, I think I might just be sensing his power level the way a psychic is supposed to." She laughed a bit dishearted. "What that says about him or me, I don't know."

"His transition from human to demon could have affected your ability," Kurama offered. "Or the mere fact that Yusuke doesn't have a special predilection with his powers. He uses his energy as a beam and nothing more. Regardless, your skill of gauging threats in tune with the individual could be very useful if you learn to hone it."

Terra nodded and took a bite of her cold meal. "Enough about me. I'm sick of it. No one talks to me unless it's about my weird-ass powers."

"Then what would you wish to discuss?" Kurama prompted.

Terra pushed around her food and sighed. "Have any book recommendations? Despite all this reading," she said, waving her arm across her pile of study material, "I finished my personal stack."

Kurama smiled. "I'll be sure to bring you something new upon my next trip to the temple."

Terra made her way back to the dojo, not wanting to miss the afternoon session incase Hiei wanted her train instead of study. In her time away, Yusuke and Hiei had started to spar. It was something she had never seen the likes of before. They moved beyond her comprehension of sight.

"He really is going easy on me," Terra murmured to herself.

For what felt like an eternity, Terra watched the two boys try their best to beat the other to a pulp.

"Pretty intense, huh?" Kuwabara said, slipping next to her.

Terra nodded slowly, not taking her eyes away. "I can barely make out what they're doing," she said in disbelief.

"Me too," Kuwabara admitted bashfully. He rubbed the back of his head and laughed lowly. "It takes practice. I can catch about half their movements."

"Well, shit," Terra muttered.

Kuwabara laughed and clapped her on the back. "They're probably not gonna be done for a while. How about we go into the other room and start our own fight?"

"You really think you can take me?" Terra teased. She knew she had a long way to go before reaching Kuwabara's level, but he was the easiest to joke with about it.

"I can take the challenge," he laughed.

The two of them headed over to the smaller dojo space. "Maybe I should put in my contacts. You wouldn't hit a girl with glasses, would you?"

"I wouldn't hit a girl," Kuwabara said, swatting her arm slightly.

"Oh, that's it, this is on!" Terra exclaimed. She pushed her glasses firmly onto the bridge of her nose and prayed she didn't lose them in the fight. Then she paused and looked at Kuwabara with a bit of a sheepish grin. "Although, I'm not very good at the whole attacking part of fighting."

"Well, hopefully, this will make good practice," Kuwabara laughed. "I'll go easy on you, promise."

"If you say so." Terra stuck out her tongue at him, and that apparently cued him to begin.

As they started to spar, Terra was blown away by how differently Kuwabara and Hiei fought. It should have been expected; their personalities were so wildly different, but even still. This is what training should be. While Hiei adjusted his speed for her benefit, he always took every opportunity to knock her down if she left herself unblocked. He scolded her afterward and she was just supposed to learn.

Kuwabara took the time to explain what she was doing wrong, pointing out her weak points and how to cover them. "You're a good teacher," she told him when they paused for water.

"You think so?" Kuwabara asked, a rosy blush staining his cheeks.

Terra nodded. "Hiei's going to be in for a surprise when I manage to stay on my feet for longer than ten minutes."

Kuwabara looked out the door. The spare dojo had two entrances, the one from the south hall and the one from the courtyard terrace. The door to the courtyard was open to let in a cool breeze during their workout. Terra herself had never been in the courtyard before then, sticking instead to the roof and the outside porches during her sleepless adventures. There was something about the courtyard that felt a little claustrophobic, as if someone could be watching her from all sides.

As Kuwabara looked out now, it was clear there was something heavy on his mind. "I was thinking, and I've talked to Yukina about it. I've been thinking about opening this place up to students." He turned back to her, a nervous pull of his cheek screwing up half of his face. "The two of us stay here, ya know, and we're going to have to start funding ourselves."

Keiko had said something once about them not being able to work due to the commute. "Kuwabara, that's a great idea," Terra smiled.

"You think so?" He sounded so nervous and unsure of himself. He looked around the small dojo and chewed his bottom lip. "When I first came here, I was going fucking crazy, man. I'd been sensing spirits my whole life, but it had gotten a whole heck of a lot worse. I didn't even become Genkai's student because Yusuke won the tournament, but," he shrugged. "I learned so much control, thanks to her. I want to give back somehow."

It was easy to see what was worrying him about his idea. "You're filling big shoes," Terra said, nodding her understanding.

Kuwabara laughed, a wet sound cloying the back of his throat. "Big shoes for such a tiny lady."

It still hurt. Of course it did. It was only a few days since they had gotten piss drunk in grief. Terra could only imagine how much worse Genkai's death was for those who knew her so much better than Terra had. She knew that time didn't heal all wounds. Pain would always be there; guilt and worry about not being good enough would always be there. It was admirable that Kuwabara was thinking of the future. He had a plan, if a rough one, on how to live his life and to honor Genkai's at the same time.

Terra was in a cycle of depression and it was getting dangerous. "That's really exciting, Kuwabara. You should think about it seriously. You have the skill to help people. And if there are a lot of budding psychics like me, some cross between territory and traditional? You're the best to teach them how to understand what they have. You're the first to have both, right?" His dimensional sword was a territory power, after all.

"Yeah, you're right," Kuwabara said, taking in this new perspective. "Oh, man. There's probably a buncha people who need help navigating their introduction to the three worlds."

Terra clapped him on the arm. "Okay, big guy. What more can you show me."

The visiting members of the gang left that night after dinner. Keiko made sure to invite Terra to join Yukina the next time she went to get groceries. The three of them could have a fun day off together. Terra hadn't had a chance to get to know Keiko as well as she maybe should. Terra promised she'd join them. "Maybe we can even catch a day Shizuru has off work from the salon! It can be all four of us!"

"Or maybe it's a day I am working, and I can clean up your cut," Shizuru said, eyeing Terra's hair. It was overdue for a trim, unless she was planning to grow it out again. Either way, it should maybe be reshaped.

"Sounds like a deal," Terra said.

Yusuke was still in low spirits, but he seemed lighter with all his cuts and bruises he gained from fighting Hiei. He leaned on Kurama, tired from using so much energy, and ordered "Foxy" to bring him to the bus station.

Keiko rolled her eyes and adjusted Tomio on her hip. "Yeah, Kurama, I can only carry one baby at a time."

Yusuke blew a raspberry her way and Keiko stuck her tongue out in return. Their relationship was founded in knowing each other since childhood and it was clear when they teased each other. It was sweet, in a way.

Hiei was nowhere to be seen for the goodbye, unconcerned that his friends were leaving for some time. She supposed he was probably fast enough to reach them in a moment's notice if he chose to, so they weren't really that far away.

Terra waved goodbye as the four of them headed down the stairs. Looking over to Yukina and Kuwabara, she wondered how this new dynamic would change things. A newly married couple, the bride's secret brother, and a stray. Terra didn't doubt that Hiei would have fled by now had he not promised Genkai to train her. The tension of being Yukina's brother would have pushed him away without any buffer to keep the temple a safe space to recover from the incident that brought him here.

It was clear within one week of the four of them that her worries weren't unfound. Terra would sometimes catch Hiei in the kitchen as Yukina prepared a meal, but he would immediately leave if Kuwabara entered. He couldn't make himself be rude to Yukina, though. How he thought he was hiding his relation to her, Terra would never understand.

"If you don't approve of their relationship, you should have said something long before they got married," Terra said as they began their afternoon training. Hiei had made a rather loud point minutes prior about Kuwabara's failure as a psychic if he couldn't even tell when his food was burning. A kitchen fail really shouldn't be the cause for such a violent reaction.

"She shouldn't have marked him," he spat, tossing her a pole. So it was that kind of day. Hiei was a sadist who loved to hit at her ankles with the practice naginatas.

At his words, Terra realized she never did get a chance to speak with Kurama about how marks worked. She pushed that spike of fear down for now and focused on Hiei's boiling frustration. His energy wasn't cold, at least, so he couldn't be too upset.

"It's not really your place," Terra snorted. "Not your life."

"It's foolish," he snapped, aiming for her stomach. "Marriage is one thing, a pointless human tradition. But she will live to see his death and live ten more lifetimes."

They clashed sticks a few more moments before Terra had the time to speak again. "So what? It's her decision."

Hiei went for her ankles and she just managed to dodge in time. She would have gloated had he not spun back around at her other foot, faster than he knew she could possibly catch. Hiei knocked her to the ground and Terra had to roll out of it before he pressed the stick to her neck and declared her dead.

She didn't make it.

From his vantage point, Hiei seethed his anger about his sister. "Marking is no thing to take lightly."

The smell of smoke stung Terra's nose and she noticed small ashen plumes curl up between Hiei's fingers. "You're burning the stick," she said, pushing it away from her throat and sitting up. Hiei tossed the pole aside, the familiar clatter echoing throughout the dojo. His grip was seared into the handle.

Perhaps Hiei was angrier than his energy let on. "Why is this bothering you so much?" she asked. Their training was going nowhere when Hiei was in this state. "From what I've been told, Yukina took a very long time to make her choice. She's weighed the pros and cons. She still chose to be with him."

"Attaching herself to him like that means she will carry him long after he is gone," Hiei spat. "It would be torture, to feel a part of yourself that is dead."

Terra didn't understand the implications of that. She couldn't, without learning more about what these marks were and how they operated. It didn't matter. Even without the necklace, Terra reached for where the stone would otherwise lay. Terra knew what kind of torture came with carrying the dead in your heart. She also knew what kind of comfort having any part of them could give you.

She thought back to their first conversation on the roof. The revelation that someone Hiei cared about had died had been difficult for Terra to handle. So lost in her own grief, she didn't have the means to comprehend someone else's. After getting to know Hiei somewhat, all his previous drops of information carried new layers of insight.

"The demon you lost," she started, still gripping her shirt where no diamond was hidden. "Did you mark her?"

Hiei's eyes snapped to her and Terra felt the shiver of his energy. "No."

"Do you wish you had?"

Hiei stared, unblinking. Terra swallowed on reflex, as if pushing down the words she had already spoken. This wasn't her place. She was pushing a line Hiei hadn't invited her to near.

"And be like you?" he said eventually, voice low and threatening.

It hurt, the way he looked down on her as if how she grieved was wrong, or if his was perfect. "As if you're any better," she said, her own voice dripping with anger. Hiei always brought out the worst in her. "You take your aggression out on me because I'm an easy target, but what are you really so upset about? Are you angry you lost someone so soon when you should have been together forever? Or that you too have aligned yourselves with humans and are realizing that all your friends who were left this temple will die before you?"

Hiei looked like he'd been slapped, a similar expression as when she accidentally pushed her energy into him and poisoned his chi. The friends at the temple had all done their part, again and again, to remind Terra that Hiei wasn't a bad person. They all had stories of their friendship and how it was built around Hiei's prickly nature. But friendship like that went both ways. Genkai may have been old, but she was human and, yes, younger than Hiei who was in his prime.

He cared for Yusuke, who may have been a demon now, but they didn't know if it had changed his lifespan. He cared for Kurama, who may have been a demon before, but now chose to live fully in his human body and would likely let old age finally take him after his two thousand years. He even cared for Kuwabara, as much as Hiei was loathed to admit it. And one day, all his friends would be gone. Worse, choosing the demon world over humans hadn't worked in his favor either. He still lost the woman who sliced him open before he came to the temple to recover.

Hiei, for all his faults and his aggressive nature, for how much Hiei sniveled at others and kept to himself, he was someone who wanted precisely what this group of friends gave him. A home. A family. Hiei may be accustomed to death, but he wasn't accustomed to losing someone the way Terra was. It was very possible that Genkai's passing was a burden he didn't know how to deal with.

Just as Terra was beginning to worry Hiei would actually cut her down despite the rule against killing humans, they were both shaken from their stare-off by the arrival of a strong and mournful energy. Terra gasped as if the breath was stolen from her lungs. The sting of harsh wind whipped against her skin while the air in the dojo remained perfectly still.

"Jin?" Terra guessed, already turning on her heel and speeding towards the front entrance. Maybe she should have confirmed with Hiei that the angry wind she felt was, in fact, that of their wind-master friend and not some foreign demon who might cause her harm, but the emotion the wind carried was so distinct it nearly begged Terra to come comfort it as if it was possible to hold air in place.

As Terra slid the door open, Jin made his final descent and touched the ground, a small gust by his feet picking up dust. His shoulders melted down his back, and his head hung low, a little horn poking out of his matted red hair. His long, pointed ears dripped down, even as he tried to muster up a grin for her benefit. Terra could see very little of the upstart sprite she had met at the wedding.

"Sorry ta be disturbin' ya," he said, words strung together in rapid succession. "Jest, I heard 'bout Genkai."

Terra nodded her understanding. "The shrine's out back," she told him. Genkai had been cremated, and her ashes buried in a small grave plot west of the swamp where the ground was rockier. The kamidana had been kept in Genkai's old room, but the gravestone was set up for incense and other gifts to the dead. "Do you want anything?" she offered.

Jin shook his head. Kuwabara came out and stepped around her. "Come on," he said, nodding his head towards the temple, "I'll walk you there." It was better than Terra handling it. She hadn't gone to Genkai's grave since it was set up, afraid it might set her back again. Besides, Jin was Kuwabara's friend, not her's.

Hiei was gone when Terra made it back to the dojo. She waited for him to return, going so far as to speak out loud to the empty room for him, but he never came. With too much frazzled energy after their argument and Jin's aura pushing at her skin, Terra wouldn't be able to use the time to study. She got her iPod from her room and danced until the sun set and Jin left and her stomach finally called for dinner even though mealtime was long past. She still couldn't sleep, a nervous thrum keeping her senses alert, and chanced the roof. Either Hiei would continue to avoid her, or they would settle things for now.

Terra didn't have to wait long.

"I only had fourteen years with her," Hiei said as his feet landed softly on the roof tile. Terra released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Someone who was my equal, who knew me as a killer and understood that part of me. But she went insane and grew weak and was killed once I stepped down as her second in command because her subordinates knew she was no longer fit for the position as leader."

There was more to that story. She was sure Hiei would be willing to share now that he'd already started talking. "What was her name?"

Hiei came and sat by her, like he did most nights they were on the roof together. His warmth was less startling now that the air outside wasn't quite so freezing. "Mukuro." Terra waited. He'd speak when he was ready. "She was a powerful demon. A former King in the demon world before the tournaments were set in place. I trained under her for some time, rose in her ranks, granted her position as successor."

Again, Hiei took a long pause. Terra wondered if Hiei had ever spoken about this before, if anyone had ever offered to listen. She took her role as confidant seriously. Despite their differences, Hiei trusted her with this information, with this vulnerable side of him.

"The tournament changed her," he finally said. "It changed both of us. I do not wish to tell Yukina of our relation, but I'm no longer plagued by the fact that our people abandoned me. Mukuro, too, was chained by torments of her past. Chains she had been using for centuries to fight with, to fuel her anger and worth and command. We broke each other out of our self made prisons, and while it made me stronger, the calm didn't settle well for her. Her peace was her poison.

"She'd become weak enough in recent years that members of her clan began to challenge her for leadership. The latest, I advised her against accepting, or to let me fight in her place, give things over to me as her second. She didn't want to admit her time had come to an end. You were right. I let her cut me when we fought. Then I left demon world to get the wounds treated, knowing full well she would lose her title. And I gave up mine by fleeing."

His words were methodical, void of emotion. He was protecting himself by not dwelling on the memories of his story, sticking with just the facts. It was a tactic Terra knew well. With the number of times she's retold the story of her parent's death, she had it by route so it couldn't crack open her heart. Terra was lucky she never had to tell others about what happened to Jeremy and Conner in the same manner.

"I'm assuming she lost the challenge."

Hiei nodded. "I felt her die the day you arrived."

That was a surprise. Genkai had once called what happened between Hiei and this Mukuro a lover's quarrel. She might not have known about Mukuro's death, or at least not when it happened. "You felt her?"

Hiei tapped his forehead for explanation.

She felt the weight of Hiei's story and felt they had created an imbalance in their relationship. It was an answer she begged of him when Terra had been keeping her own pain to herself.

"You asked why I thought I was cursed," she said, bringing up a long past conversation. "Everyone I've ever felt really close to has died."

There was a beat of silence between them. "Tell me," he said, voice a tad softer than she'd ever heard it before. The genuine, almost innocent quality with which he asked her helped shake the anxiety of the conversation.

"I had this friend growing up. She was probably the only one I was truly friends with and not just someone I spent time with because we were all stuck in the same class." Terra remembered Heather fondly. A tall girl with a laugh like sunshine. She always wore her hair in fishtail braids, and her skin was tan from spending so much time on her uncle's ranch. These were details that Hiei wouldn't care to know, but Terra couldn't help but remember. "She killed herself."

They were as thick as thieves until Terra began middle school in Japan. They kept in touch as best they could, but had to wait until summer to see each other again. Terra remembered that year feeling magical - coming back to Perth, taking trips to the beach with Heather, a week at theater camp they did together. It had been so great to have Heather back again. But it would be the last time they ever got to hang out.

"She was my best friend, even out of all the friends I had made in Japan, Heather was my best friend. I abandoned her, in a way. And then life became too much without me there as support. I didn't even know she had relied so much on me until afterwards. There was a letter she wrote." Terra still had it, stored with the rest of her belongings in the unit near Tokyo.

"It was a few years later my parents died. I died." Hiei knew that part, but it still freaked her out that her heart had stopped for so long. "The crash was so bad they had to tear the car in half to get us out." Terra's relationship with her parents was probably normal. They loved each other, but by college, Terra was ready to spread her wings. "My mother had been a ballerina. Her ankle broke when she was about my age, so it was a short-lived career, but she was the one who got me into dance. And my dad. He worked for Sony, doing who knows what, but he used to take me camping all the time. I learned a lot from both of them. They shaped me into who I am, and then all of a sudden, they were gone, and I was supposed to be gone, too, but I wasn't.

"The only reason I was able to get better at all was because I had Jeremy and Conner. And then two years later, they were ripped from me, too."

She nodded her head, a curt, abrupt motion to signal the end of her story. She didn't know if she could go more into what had happened that summer.

"So you came here to recover from that, only to lose another anchor in your life," Hiei concluded.

"Yeah." She cleared her throat. "Once I'm done here, I have nowhere to go."

It was a reality she was trying to ignore. What laid ahead of her was like a thick fog, and she didn't have the faintest idea of where to step.

"I don't have a home, either."

Terra turned to look at Hiei, confused.

"I was banished from my birthplace simply for being born. I was a wanderer ever since, always rejected. And now I've left the clan Mukuro used to lead."

Terra mulled it over. "You came back here, didn't you?"

"Hn."

They sat in silence for some time; the only sounds the hoot of owls and the chirp of crickets. Terra could have fallen asleep like that. Warmed by Hiei's side and lulled by the gentle call of night.

"You should go back inside," Hiei said, cutting her out of her reverie. "You'll fall off the roof if you sleep here."

Then he vanished. Terra wondered for a moment if he had just read her mind.