Hiei met me outside of the gates to the temple. He didn't say anything, barely made any indication that he noticed me. But he started walking, and when my pace would slow, he stopped so I could rest. I really wondered what he thought about Yukina's words. I didn't think it proper to ask him. But, the suspense was killing me…!
"Hiei," I said hesitantly, "About what Yukina said…"
Hiei whirled, turning around to face me. He was burning (not literally) with anger. "Why did you have to ask her that?!"
I bristled. "What? It's not like she figured out who her brother was! Don't yell at me!"
"It's none of your business!" Hiei snarled, before turning away from me and beginning to walk, quickly. I followed him at a slow jog.
"The hell it isn't!" I snapped. "Yukina's my friend, just like you are! I'm concerned for the both of you!"
Hiei stuck his face dangerously close to mine, almost as if promising horrible pain if I kept arguing with him. "Whoever said I was your friend, Tera? Yusuke may be, and Kurama too, but not me. Don't make that mistake."
I froze in my steps. "If you're not my friend, why are you being so kind to me? Why aren't you just leaving me here to die?" Maybe that was an over exaggeration, but my point got across. Hiei seemed at a loss for words.
"I don't know," he said simply. He began to walk again, but this time at a much slower pace, obviously so I could follow. But I stayed where I was.
"I'd rather you be honest that you hate me, instead of lying and pretending to care," I hissed through clenched teeth. I had no idea why his words hurt me so much. Normally I wouldn't have been this bothered.
Hiei lunged at me, and I thought he was going to hurt me, but all he did was pick me up and throw me over his back in a fireman's carry.
"Hey!" I protested. He didn't say anything else, nor did he put me down. He instead began to run, much faster than I thought possible. Watching the scenery zip by made me feel ill, so I closed my eyes for the duration of the trip. Quite soon, we had arrived back at Yusuke's apartment complex.
"Here," Hiei said, suddenly dropping me a little brutally. I glared up at him from the ground. He paused a moment for offering me his hand to pull me to my feet.
"Just so you know, I don't hate you," he said softly before vanishing right before my eyes. I felt confused by his words. He was going to be hard guy to figure out.
**************
Considering I didn't have a key to the apartment yet, I knocked on the door quietly, hoping Yusuke was already awake. A few moments later, the door was pulled open, but not by Yusuke. A woman.
I glanced up at the number above the door to make sure I had gotten the right apartment. I had, so…
"Miss Urameshi?" I said cautiously.
She looked drunk. "Puh-lease! Call me Atsuko." She stood back so that I could enter the apartment. "You must be Tera. Yusuke told me about you."
"I don't know if that's a good thing…" I said. I wasn't sure what Yusuke thought of me. My mind was still reeling from my little trip with Hiei.
"Well, from what he told me, you don't seem bad. You sure have pretty eyes. You hungry?" Atsuko didn't wait for an answer. She just walked into the kitchen. For the first time, I noticed the beer bottle dangling from her hand. Atsuko may be a drunk, but so far, she seemed like fun.
"Kuwabara came and dragged Yusuke out a little while ago," Atsuko called back to me. "A mission, it might be."
"Shame to miss it," I replied casually. I wondered how much Atsuko knew about her son's connection with the paranormal.
"You're a psychic, right?" She asked a moment later. Ah. So she knew everything, then.
"Mmm-hmmm," I responded. I looked at the food set on the table. Cereal and other easy-to-make items. Although my body was starving, I myself did not have much of an appetite. I forced myself to down a bowl of cereal. My thoughts wandered off, thinking about everything that had happened lately. Before I knew it, I was lost in a premonition.
I was me, but at the same time I wasn't. I could see everything through this person's eyes, but it wasn't me. I was perched in a tree, peeking through a window into a room. It was dark, but I could still dimly see a slender silhouette enter the room. The silhouette didn't turn the lights on, but instead took a brush from the desk and began to brush its hair. A moment later, it paused, and turned, walking straight to me. I wondered what it was doing, before it threw open the window, startling me. I lost my balance, falling down through the branches of the tree straight to the ground.
I blinked, coming out of the vision, wondering what I had seen. Something about the room had looked familiar, but I didn't know why. I thought about it for a moment, before shaking it from my mind. When it came to pass, I would understand it.
**************
Yusuke returned hours later, when it was nearly time for dinner. It hadn't been a mission after all, apparently. It was just Kuwabara challenging Yusuke to a video game tournament at the arcade. And Yusuke wasn't the type to refuse.
I was in the small kitchen, cooking dinner. Atsuko wasn't the chef-type, and I felt like I ought to repay her and Yusuke for their kindness. I was well used to cooking, considering my brother, Susano, had never been that good of a cook back when we lived together.
After dinner, I washed up in the bathroom and walked into my room. The dark of the room comforted me, and I felt no desire to flick on the lights. I picked my brush up off the small desk I had, and began to pull it through my wet hair.
Suddenly, this situation felt very much like déjà vu, and I remembered why. I set the brush cautiously down, and walked to the window. I could see a shadow on the tree outside the room. I opened the windows, and heard violently swearing as something crashed down through the branches to the hard ground below.
Shocked, I ran down the stairs of the apartment complex, sprinting out the door. I saw someone sitting up where they had fallen, and a moment later, I recognized Hiei's spiky hair.
"Hiei!" I gasped in surprise, running to him. I threw myself on my knees in front of him. "I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"
"Alright enough," he snapped dryly. Well, at least now he actually had a reason to hate me.
"What were you doing up there?" I asked curiously.
"Watching you to see if you were still upset with me," he replied short. Wow. I hadn't expected that blunt reply.
"I'm not," I said. "Now come on inside. You're scratched all over."
He refused my offer. "I'll live." He looked as if he was about to walk away, but I knew very well that he had no home to go to.
"Where will you go?" I called, as endearingly as I could.
He shrugged. "Kurama's, probably." It sounded like a place he often stayed.
"You could stay here," I said, knowing I would regret my forwardness later, "My room is big enough."
Hiei paused, considering it. Finally, he turned and walked back to me. "Fine. But I'd prefer no one else knew."
I smiled. I may not be on fantastic terms with Hiei yet, but I definitely could see friend-potential. "Done."