Day 03: "Bicep"
Midway through my nightly yoga routine, my bedroom window opened with a clatter. It was only Hiei, though, who crawled in from the nighttime dark. Like a living shadow he pooled his cloak-clad form atop my bed, uttering not a word as I maneuvered back into a handstand. Hadn't even greeted me, that jerk. But two could play at that game. I said nothing back as I cycled from one pose to another, eyes trained carefully on the floor and away from him.
The tactic worked, as patience has never been Hiei's strong suit. Only a few minutes later his harsh voice barked, "What exactly are you doing, Meigo?"
"Exercising." I didn't break form, feet pointed dutifully at the ceiling. "Gotta keep up my strength, ya know?"
Even in my upside-down stance, I saw him glare, that heated glower both easy and difficult to read at once. The first time he'd shown up out of the blue during my yoga routine, I'd felt self-conscious of that stare. But Hiei had never criticized my exercises, even if he seemed unduly skeptical of them (to the point where he pretended not to know what the hell I was doing each and every time he saw me doing yoga; taciturn alley cat, that Hiei). I didn't allow my nerves to take root. I just kept rotating through inversions one by one.
"You look different."
Midway through scorpion, I dropped my head forward, scalp facing the ground. Hiei's mouth sat pursed below his livid scarlet eyes. He looked silly from my upside-down position, but I didn't allow myself to smile as blood rushed to my head. I just lifted a brow, hoping the expression translated my confusion. And apparently it did.
"You look different," he repeated, "from how you were before."
I gave a grunt of exertion; tough to talk and concentrate at once. "Before as in…?"
Hiei gestured toward me with his bandaged hand. "I've seen your old face, Meigo."
"Oh. Right." Bending my arms until my head touched the yoga mat, I let my body fall until my feet hit the ground. "Well, no shit I looked different," I said as I rolled onto my heels, back facing Hiei in his spot upon my bed. "I was a totally different race, for one thing—"
"That's not what I mean," he snapped. "It's…"
I looked over my shoulder. He gestured at me again, from top to bottom and back up. Ah. So he wasn't talking about my face. Spinning on my toes, I flopped into lotus pose so I could stretch my hips until they gave a satisfying pop.
"You mean my weight?" I asked, self-conscious for the first time that evening. "I know I was… well, bigger in my last life." I hated the heat of shame in my cheeks, knowing it was irrational. "I was—"
"I'm not talking about your weight," Hiei said with a sneer and a shake of his head. For a third time, he gestured at me. "I mean your muscles."
Oh. Now that made much more sense for a warrior like Hiei to notice. Feeling better about the whole thing, I said, "Well, you're not wrong." I curled an arm and flexed, proud of the definition that rippled along my bicep. "I'm definitely stronger in this life than in my last."
"Why?"
"It hurt my old body to exercise much. Had to be careful, or else I'd break." Another flex; a smile and a laugh. "Keiko's body doesn't have that limitation, though. It's strong. And since I'm grateful to it, I gotta take good care of it."
Hiei scoffed. "You'll never get strong like that, though."
"Aww, you offering to train me, Hiei?" I teased. "That's nice of you."
He scoffed again. "Don't be ridiculous," he snapped, and with a giggle I rolled forward onto my head, swinging my legs up into another handstand.
"This might be the first time you've brought up my past, now that I think of it," I said as I waved my feet around, trying to find balance. Talking was neither easy nor impossible, resting somewhere in the middle. "Normally it's me volunteering shit."
"Is being curious a crime now?" Hiei said, mockery dripping from each word.
"No." I grunted again as I settled into a pose. "Just trying to understand it." Dropping my head down to look at him, I smiled, certain my reddened face resembled an overturned tomato. "I don't mind that you don't ask, for what it's worth."
Hiei said nothing. He just looked at me.
"In fact, I kind of like it." It was impossible to shrug in a handstand, but I did my best, head waggling at the end of my neck. "It's nice to know there's at least one person who won't interrogate me, I guess."
He said nothing. He said nothing for a long time, watching me in silence as I finished up and rolled my yoga mat into its carrying case. Face sweaty and cheeks flushed, I fussed with my hair in the mirror hung on the inside of my closet door, but it was no use. I looked terrible, like I'd stuck a fork in an electrical outlet after running a marathon. Hopefully Hiei didn't think I looked too—
"I know the feeling," Hiei said.
My fingers stilled, hand held unmoving near my brow. In the mirror I caught Hiei's eye. He looked away again after a second, but too late. I'd already seen the quiet in his eyes, that fleeting look of contentment he so rarely showed to anyone.
Aw. So we had something in common, then. But he'd get mad if I tried to read into it, so I didn't. I just grinned and spun, hands alighting on my hips.
"Hungry?" I asked, pretending I hadn't seen a thing. "Want something to eat?"
Hiei settled into the act with aplomb. "Why else would I be here?" he demanded to know, all bluster and bark once again.
"I dunno." A beat, and then I pasted on a smile most saccharine. "Warmth and love and companionship, perhaps?"
"Not a chance, idiot."
His words were harsh, but I knew better than to believe them. I just brought dinner up for us without a word, and together we ate in companionable silence until Hiei slipped into the darkness and vanished, once again, into the night.
Just a fun little scene about two people content with their mutual silence. Many thanks to the reviewers of chapter 02: cezarina, cestlavie, ladyofchaos, C S Stars, Kaiya Azure, xenocanaan, QueenHobo, and guests.