Hello my darklings! i have returned from the grave... actually, just a really bad bad few weeks with my ongoing wrist issues. (cortizone shots SUCK)
anyway, new chapter. all copywrited things belong to their respective owners (dune, michael weston, brusters... did i mention micahel weston?) title of the series is, as always, property of apocalyptica, and all OCs are mine. (and i refuse to share Hill.)
and thanks and cred to The Dark Wyvern, my other eyes, and sounding board. without him, well, this story would have been a one shot.
No sooner had the door shut than the remaining Spirit Detectives and young god turned their collective attentions to Hillock. He stared right back at them, almost daring them to say something negative.
Finally Yusuke spoke. "What the hell was that thing you threw at Hiei?" The twice-dead demon looked impressed.
Hillock shrugged. "Just a Void/Water grenade."
Koenma coughed once, to cover an undignified squeak. "While that shouldn't really be possible, you've never been told it can't be done. He has mastered all five elements."
"Nah, his spirit energy reads at like, almost normal levels." Kuwabara said in an offhand manner.
Hillock rolled his eyes. "Not Spirit, Void."
Kuwabara gave him a blank look. "Uhhh, what's Void?"
Koenma looked at Hillock, who nodded. "Void is the little used, darker side of Spirit energy. To use it, you must be comfortable with both the good and the bad aspects of your psyche." the godlet explained.
Meanwhile, in Kurama's car, Hiei glared moodily out the rear window. He was the sole occupant of the backseat, which suited him just fine. He had no desire to speak with the annoying witch at the moment anyway. And he was NOT pouting.
"Hey, um, what did y'all mean when you said we need training? I thought we were pretty good." Pyro said after the awkward silence made her too uncomfortable.
"You are, but you need to get better if you're going to go up against demons." Kurama answered with a small chuckle.
"The demons in the woods seemed pretty pathetic to me. And even Hiei dropped what he was doing when I started raising my attack." Pyro shrugged.
Kurama chuckled again. "I was mostly interested in where you were pulling your energy from, not how much you were going to use."
"Say what now?"
"You pull from both your spirit energy, and your life energy. In a fight, you might win, but you'd be likely to die anyway." Kurama explained in a flat tone, almost like a science professor, or Michael Weston.
"Oh." The girl slumped in her seat for a moment, then asked, "You sure my plants are ok?"
Kurama smiled and patted the place the seeds rested. "Quite sure. Your need for growing things is a bit of a surprise, I must admit."
"Its just... they're a part of me, ya dig? They kinda feed my protections at night." she ducked her head and looked out the side window to cover her blush. "I mean, its not like I can leave a candle going all night."
Hiei began to take more of an interest in the conversation. The witch was also a Fire elemental.
"If I may ask, what are your elements?" Kurama asked.
"Um, so far, Fire, Earth, Spirit, and a little Void. Still working on it." She picked at her jeans so she wouldn't fidget around too much. "Majorly Fire though. Me and Water do not mix well."
"Well, the Fire and Earth energies feed each other, and blend rather nicely. Hiei and I have been working together quite seamlessly for many years, and he's a fire demon." Kurama replied.
"My green babies like you." Pyro said after another awkward pause.
"How can you tell, witch?" Hiei grumbled.
"He speaks." Pyro laughed. "They told me so, right before they got shrunk. While they're in seed state, I can't feel them, I can't pull from them, and I can't siphon extra energy into them. Which was what I was trying to do when you knocked em down, spikes."
"Which would make you more Earth than Fire." Kurama stated.
"Um, maybe..." Pyro bit her lower lip in thought.
"Either you are or you aren't, witch." Hiei growled.
"Dude, what is up your ass? I said I'm still working on it. I can pull form a lot of different sources." She turned to growl at the short demon in the backseat. her turn had her half way out of her seat.
"Such as?" he raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"Plants. Fires. The moon herself. Storms. Hill, when he lets me. The Earth her-bloody-self. I don't freaking know what I am." she was close to yelling. The demon was pushing her way too far, and she was already pissed at him for previous events. "What the fuck is your damn problem anyway?"
"You stupid humans are my problem!" Hiei growled. "I'm stuck constantly saving your pathetic asses."
"I didn't ask you to come here, you ass. Hill and I were doing just fine on our own, thank you very much." she tried not to yell as loud as she really wanted to, considering that they were in a small metal box on wheels, full of highly flammable liquids. "YOU didn't save my ass, Hill did."
It was Kurama's turn to growl. "Sit down and stop yelling in my car."
Pyro immediately faced front with her hands clasped in her lap. "Sorry K'rama." she mumbled.
"Hiei, you can wipe that smirk off your face, because you started the fight. Koenma asked you to come here, not Pyro and Hillock, and you'd do well to remember that." Kurama said, eyeing the man in the back through the rear-view mirror.
Hillock passed bottles of cream soda around. "So you really went and rented out the apartment next door?" He sat in the half-broken recliner by the door.
Yusuke was sat on the far end of the couch, Koenma on the end closer to Hillock. Kuwabara had opted to drag over a chair from the dining area and sat backwards on it in front of the coffee table.
"Yes, it is quite a charming little two bedroom like this one." Koenma replied.
Yusuke swigged the soda. "That's me and Kuwabara's place. Fox-boy and three-eyes have the apartment right across from yours."
Silence settled as the men drank their respective drinks and tried not to stare at one another.
"So," Hillock said, breaking the silence, "I'm pretty sure why I need trained, but why Pyro? She's had a lot of training with the magic stuff."
Yusuke leaned forward and held up one finger. "Its about her power-up. When I power up, its like this..." To those in the room with Awareness, his fingertip glowed blue.
Hillock shook his head. "Traded Astral Sight for protections. I can't see that."
"I'll want you to train with that eventually. Not right away, you have more pressing training, since you and Pyro almost always work as a team." Koenma crossed his arms and tucked his legs into a lotus position.
Yusuke sat closer to the edge of his seat. "So, before you torched them, what did the demons that attacked you look like?"
Hillock leaned back. "They didn't attack, they tried to kidnap my fiancee. Creepy lizard men with a serious hissing problem. Weak too."
Kuwabara smacked the back of the chair he was sitting on. "Dammit, not those jerks again."
"We've had to deal with these bastards before." Yusuke explained.
"Not very well, or I wouldn't have had to roast them today for stealing my fiancee." Hillock growled.
"They would've taken her if she was your wife. Demons don't get the whole mark by token thing humans do." Yusuke grumbled.
"Then they're bloody idiots." Hillock grumbled.
"Weak demons, like those slavers, they have really short lives in demon world. So if they're gonna take a mate, they mark em, no waiting, no ceremony. And the mark is usually in the form of a bite on the neck." Yusuke shrugged. "Some of the higher level demons do the token thing, but that's just cause they tend to live longer, and want to make sure their mate is strong enough to not get them both killed quick. Demons lifebond."
"The stronger the demon, the longer the life expectancy, and the more likely they'll have a waiting period before mating." Hillock condensed everything into a small sentence.
"Its stupid, I know." Kuwabara said to the only other human in the room.
Yusuke gave the orange haired man a glare.
"I know you and Yukina are demons, and I don't care. The way they do things there is still stupid." Kuwabara glared right back.
"Actually, it makes perfect sense to me." Hillock shrugged.
"Speaking of your little hell-cat, how do you think she's handling the car ride with three-eyes?" Yusuke started laughing.
Kurama finally found a space and parked. "Hiei, will you be joining us?"
The fire demon just opened the door and got out.
"We will stop for sweet snow on the way back." Kurama chuckled at his friend's scowl as he exited the car.
Pyro started laughing at the pair. "You two seriously act old and married. Its frikken hilarious."
Hiei glared and growled a warning at the girl.
"Do not make me pull this brace back off and finish what I started." Pyro went from laughing to glaring in half a second.
Kurama rounded the car to lightly touch her shoulder. "Please, ignore Hiei. He is simply still mad about the fight."
She rolled her eyes and headed inside. Both men followed her.
After a couple moments, Kurama began to muse aloud. "I believe we should get you a longer planter, or a small table to put in front of the window."
Pyro tilted her head in thought. "Longer planter. Hill's bookshelf is under that window."
"You could always move the shelving unit." Hiei suggested.
"Hmm," Pyro rubbed her jawline with her thumb and forefinger. "I don't know."
"I saw inside the rear bedroom, it would fit beside the one already there." Hiei said, very softly. "Or you can replace the shelving unit with one that has a flat top."
Kurama gave his friend a shocked look.
Hiei shrugged. "That is how the fox usually arranges rooms to allow for both his books and his plants."
The fox demon seemed to preen under the indirect attention his friend was giving him.
"You two go and do plant things. I will go and get the shelving unit and meet you back at the car." Hiei said when they reached the door.
Pyro turned to thank the smaller demon, but he had already gone.
Kurama chuckled. "You seem to have impressed him."
"Crazy redhead say what?" Pyro arched one eyebrow at the remaining demon.
"He has chosen to make amends with you, instead of continuing the fight." Kurama tossed his hair and headed for the cart rack. "So, either you impressed him, or your fiancee did."
Pryo nodded and rubbed at her ring with the thumb of the same hand. "It was probably Hill, his powers are stronger than mine."
He tugged at a cart a few times. It refused to budge. "I wouldn't say that."
She tugged at a different cart, which came free immediately. "I would. He's been working on his a lot longer than I've been working on mine."
"You both have a lot of potential power. Almost a demonic amount."
She nodded, then nudged him with the cart. "Plant stuff's down that way."
He followed her to the Garden Center. Because Spring was right around the corner, the aisles were full of decorative planters, soil and seeds. They wandered until they found the longer planters they had come for.
Kurama pulled a plastic tray off the shelf. He tossed it into the cart. "You might need that."
Pyro moved to kneel in front of the display of unfinished terra cotta planters. "If you don't mind standing back a bit, I have a process..." she trailed.
"Of course." He bowed and stepped back.
She ran her hand across the display, mere centimeters from actually touching the planters. Her hand slowed and stopped over a long rectangular planter decorated with raised sun, moon, and star images. "I think I need to paint this."
"We will also need sealant."
"Of course, or the plants will dry out too fast." She tossed her hair and rolled her eyes at him.
Kurama reached around her and picked up another of the same design, and a round pot. He set them very carefully in the cart next to hers.
She gave him a quizzical look.
"One of your plants wants more room to spread out." He gave her a small smile. "I also need a new home for my own plants."
They gathered up soil and sealant before making their way to the registers.
Hiei was sat on the hood of the car. "Witch, tell your annoying human to start clearing the bookshelf."
"I have a name, jackass." She glared at the shorter demon, and rummaged in her bag.
"Fine, Pyro, please tell your annoying human to..." He was interrupted by an annoyed 'zip it' gesture from the woman now on the phone.
"Hey baby... no, nothing's wrong... they are being perfect gentlemen. Yes. Could you please and thank you start pulling books off that shelf under the window in the living room? Is a surprise, not tellin. Love you sweetie, see you in a few." She stowed her phone and got in the car.
Hiei shook his head and slid into the backseat. He would never understand the ningen need to be verbally reassured of their mate's devotion.
Kurama drove in search of sweet snow.
"Bruster's." Pyro said out of nowhere.
"Huh?" Shock made Kurama less than eloquent.
"I'm going to assume sweet snow means ice cream. Best place for ice cream near here is Bruster's, and you are about to miss the turn." She laughed.
He yanked the wheel to turn the sedan into the shop's parking lot. "Yes, sweet snow is ice cream."
"She said what?" Yusuke gave the blonde man an odd look.
"She said to clear the books off the shelf. Don't ask." He stacked books on the floor behind his chair in front of the bookshelf.
Yusuke knelt beside the other end of the bookshelf. "And you're not even questioning it?"
"Nope. Its her place here as well as mine, as long as she doesn't try to throw things out without us talking, she can redecorate if she wants." Hillock shrugged.
Kuwabara moved stacks of books from the floor to the table on the other side of the room. He picked up a copy of Children of Dune. "Um, can I borrow this?"
"Sure, but," Hillock started looking through the books, "you'd be better off starting with this." He held up a copy of Dune.
read, review. all reviews are either read or forwarded to The Dark Wyvern, so, yeah, send them for him too.