Asylum
Asylum(n.) - 1. A place of safety; refuge 2. An institution for the care of mentally ill, aged, or poor people: a term now rarely used (Definition taken from Websters New Compact Desk Dictionary and Style Guide)
Curiosity
"... my bedroom is off limits to you unless I give you explicit permission to come in. You must ask before getting anything out of my refrigerator. I will arrange where you are to sleep. And if I say you can't do something, then you can't do something, do you understand?"
"Hn."
Ayana wasn't too pleased with the answer but then again, she shouldn't have expected anything more from him. With a roll of her eyes, Ayana focused on driving rather than the moody demon seated not but a foot and a half from her.
The rest of the car ride was spent in tense silence, both occupants brooding over the current situation. It didn't take much longer to reach Ayana's apartment, saving them from their silent tormenting.
The two entered the building and Ayana strode over to the set of elevators, pressing the "up" arrow. Without turning, the woman knew that Hiei still stood a few good yards away from the shimmering brass doors. The elevator finally arrived and, as the doors slid open, Ayana turned to Hiei, barely containing her frustration as she said, "Come on, Hiei. I'm tired. Don't be difficult."
"Hn. I'm not getting in that thing."
Ayana didn't even try fighting him on it. As she stepped into the spacious compartment she replied, "fine. You can meet me on the sixth floor then."
The woman waved a farewell to the demon as the doors slid closed, but Hiei never saw it; the six flights of stairs beckoned. With a smooth burst of inhuman speed, Hiei ascended with a swift silence.
When the demon hit the sixth floor and entered the hallway he brought his pace down a few notches although still retaining his quick and powerful strides. Hiei easily reached the elevators, passing by just as the doors slid oopen to let Ayana exit.
Hiei was still walking down the hall albeit at a more leisurely pace. Ayana gave the demon's back a funny look before she said, "I do believe you're going the wrong way."
Hiei stopped, gave a grunted 'hn' and turned to head the way he'd just come from, his eyes never making contact with Ayana's smirking face. As the kajihenge strode past the young woman, she fell in step with him.
Neither of them exchanged words as they traversed the hallway until Ayana finally stopped.
"Number 612," she pronounced.
Hiei said nothing and Ayana didn't wait from it. She brushed past him to reach her door and with a soft click, admitted Hiei into her home.
As the wonderful host, Ayana automatically turned to Hiei as he crossed the threshold and snapped, "All rules are enforced. I'm taking a shower then sleeping. Good night." She then took off in the direction of her bathroom.
And as the silent observer, Hiei paid Ayana's words no mind and began to take stock of his surroundings.
The foremost feature that was dually noted was the immense congregation of plant life. Something strongly impressed the thought of Kurama into his mind. Not only moments within registering the greenery, Hiei's mind succumbed to the earthy feel. The floors were of polished maple and the colour scheme in every room he traveled through bore the shades and soft hues of earthy browns and golds, forest greens, and soft splashes of feathery blues. Strangely, the rooms each smelled distinctly different, but all of which would have come from a wood or glade.
Hiei was perturbed, however, by Ayana's home. It wasn't its obvious woodland feel-that almost making him comfortable-but the permeating aura that centred strongly around the multitudes of odd room accessories and decorations. The plants themselves seem to thrive off of this aura, as if the aura was the alternative to carbon dioxide. Why did this aura perturb him so?
It was neither human nor demon and yet was almost identical to the foreign aura surrounding Ayana herself.
Hiei walked into the den just as he heard the shower turn on. He walked over to a glass faced oak cabinet that was full of twisted wooden figurines and objects, all with faint auras. Many of them couldn't be defined but some looked like dragons, trees, and there was even a small carving of a dagger. They were strange, foreign and yet, oddly beautiful.
There was still another room he hadn't looked into – besides Ayana's off-limits bedroom. The door was closed but Hiei ignored that first forewarning, sensing a large corrugation of that strange unknown aura. As the door swung inward, Hiei was staring into what used to be a guest bedroom, now transformed into a small library of scrolls and text. The kajihenge's curiosity was suddenly peeked and he entered in. The first thing that quickly caught his attention were the vines and leaves carpeting the floor, along with ivy crawling over the wood-paneled walls. He carefully walked over the leaves and next noted that the leaves weren't dead, which they should have been if they weren't connected to a source of sustenance. The entire room was strange and strongly focused on nature. Even the wood paneled walls were rough, as if they were still covered in bark. Hiei walked farther into the room and finally took a closer look at the large collection of books and pages. He walked over to one shelf and slid a book from its perch, flipping it open. Immediately he realized he couldn't read the words. It was scripted in another language that look nothing like Japanese or any other language he knew of.
"What the hell is she?" he muttered to himself as he slid the book back onto the shelf. Now Hiei was curious about Ayana beyond reason even if he wouldn't openly admit it. There had to be something in this house that could tell him something. He would have to find out on his own because he obviously knew that he wouldn't get a straight answer from Ayana ... as if he'd ask her in the first way.
Just then the sound of the shower stopped. Hiei quickly decided that his presence in this library probably wouldn't go over too well with Ayana if she found him there, so he exited and walked into the living den and stood there, looking indifferent and possibly a little peeved.
A few minutes later, Ayana came walking in, drying her wet hair, wearing a white spaghetti strap top and dark green sweats. "You aren't hungry are you?"
Hiei didn't answer her, which let her assume that he wasn't. She gave a small shrug and said, "You can sleep here on the couch," she chinned at the long sofa Hiei was standing next to, "and you can use that blanket too."
"Hn."
"You use that a lot, you know?" Ayana said, placing a hand on her hip. "Are you capable of saying anything else now?"
"You have a horrible sense of design," Hiei spoke.
Ayana smirked. "Like you really care. Since you aren't hungry and you have a place to sleep, I'm going to bed. Don't try anything stupid."
Again, Hiei said nothing and Ayana left, entering her own bedroom and closing the door behind her. Hiei stood there for a good few minutes before heading into the kitchen. He may not be all that hungry but he was strangely to know what she had stocked up in her fridge. He opened it up and glanced inside ... and wasn't all that surprised to see that there was nothing but fruits and vegetables; no meats. For some reason, with all that he'd seen already, Hiei had almost been expecting the woman to be a vegetarian. He still wasn't clear to what she was but he was starting to understand that with this obsession with nature must also bring a resentment to killing animals for food.
There was nothing else to do here. Hiei shut the refrigerator and glanced at the clock glowing from the stove. 11:57. Hiei decided that the smartest thing to do now would be to try and doze off. He headed back into the den and stared at the large sofa with slight apprehension. The thing looked like it would suck him up and never cough him up. There was just no way he was sleeping on that thing.
Hiei turned away from the sofa and walked into the small dining room that branched off from the kitchen. There was a large rectangular table almost in the centre of the room. One end rested against the wall, making it the perfect sleeping place for him. With ease Hiei climbed up on top of the table and rested his back against the wall, his legs crossed in front of him. After a few minutes of silent thinking, reminiscing over everything in general–including Ayana's odd behaviour at the institute–Hiei finally dropped off into a light sleep.
X-----X-----break-----X-----X
"What the FUCK!"
Hiei's eyes immediately snapped open and narrowed onto the sight of Ayana standing, wide-eyed in the doorway to the dining room. "Can you be any damn louder?" he hissed.
"What the hell are you doing, sleeping on my table?" the woman snapped, fists pressed against her hips.
Hiei slid off the table as he answered, "Sleeping, like you said."
"But why?"
"Hn." Hiei walked into the kitchen and then asked, "When do we leave."
"Uh ..." Ayana forgot about Hiei's choice of beds and looked down at her watch. "SHIT! Now!"
Ayana ran back into her bedroom as Hiei walked to stand by the front door. As he stood there he could here Ayana cursing and rushing around. Finally she came down the short hall, coming toward Hiei.
"Back to the White Building of Hell," Ayana muttered as she went out the door, followed by an indifferent Hiei.
X-----X-----break-----X-----X
"Hiei."
The kajihenge and Ayana had just entered Tokyo Health Institute when Isabella called the black-clad demon over to her. Ayana looked toward the small woman with apprehension before heading for the back room where she would have to get prepared for a day of crazy patients and sharp commands from that same black-eyed witch.
Hiei slowly walked over to where Isabella was standing and finally stopped as she looked up at him blankly.
"What do you want, witch?"
"How did things go while you were with Ayana?" she asked.
Hiei raised an eyebrow and didn't answer. Isabella sighed and then asked, "Did she and you talk at all?"
An almost imperceptible shake of the head in the negative.
"No? You two didn't say anything? Nothing about what happened between her and me?"
"She went to bed almost immediately after we entered," was Hiei's clipped answer.
"Well then," Isabella muttered as she began to walk away, "I guess I will have to take matters into my own hands."
X-----X-----break-----X-----X
The breaks are still being damn fussy. This was basically a filler because when I was writing chapter five and I was nearing the end, I never initially intended for Hiei to be diverted from the asylum to Ayana's place so this chapter gave me trouble. Now does anyone have any guess as to what exact Ayana could be?
Chapter seven will be much better, I assure you. I plan to posted it on the fifth which is the first day I go back to school.
Tata, luvs.
.Bloodrunner.