Once again its random disclaimer time. As if we didn't all know by now, I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, nor any of the characters therein. I own Pyro, Niyati and unfortunately I own Eoghan and Niroth as well. I swear I'll put the boys back the way they were when I'm done playing with them.
WARNING! There will be another super sappy scene at the end of the chapter. Why? Because I am a hopeless romantic, and so is my OC.
DarkRoseDragon: thanks. I thought that last scene was funny too. Massive giggle attacks.
We went back to our normal. They just added a few powers to the workout, and went on like nothing had happened. Hiei sparred me more often, but never let me win with that big a margin again.
I worked harder than ever. Lotus seemed to enjoy her new ability to share her memories with me as I slept, so I barely slept anymore. It didn't stop me from working beyond what was expected. It was probably too much.
After two months of this pattern, we all found out just how much I over did it. I freaking collapsed. One minute I was sparring Suzuka, and winning, the next minute I was staring at the sky. At least, I thought it was a minute.
"Hiei, you can stop trying to kill Suzuka. She's awake." I knew that voice, but could not for the life of me remember who it belonged to.
I slowly pushed myself to a sitting position.
"Easy," the voice's owner put a hand on my back to help me. "you took a hard fall. Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Just sore, and a little dizzy." I drew my knees up to rest my head on them while I waited for the world to stop spinning.
"Pyro, I need you to look up."
I lifted my head and saw a boy with impossibly red hair. He had his hand up.
"How many fingers?" he said. He had his hand wide open, like he was waving.
"Four, and a thumb." I answered.
He chuckled. "Humour's the same. Do you remember where you are?"
So I knew him. I looked around. "Coulda swore I was home, but based on your accent and the shit ton of bamboo, um, maybe Japan?"
His eyes went wide a second. They were pretty eyes, very green. But I wanted to see a pair of unnatural red eyes. "Do you know your name?" the red head asked.
"Pyro Feochadan. Or Phoenix... which alias do I know you in?" I replied. I looked around for the red eyes.
"She's fine, I think." The red head stood, and turned to people I hadn't been able to see before now.
"Really, dude. Who are you and which name do you know me as?" I craned my neck to squint up at him. "And where the hell is Hiei?" I could feel a panic attack.
Warm, smoke scented arms wrapped around me from behind. "Calm down, onna, I haven't gone anywhere." His voice was soothing, but worried.
"Well, at least she remembers him." It was another voice I knew but couldn't place, the owner had orange hair. This was getting freaky.
"I remember those voices, but I have no idea who they are. I mean, I should know them." I was now officially in freakout mode.
"But you remember me? Do you remember why you're here?" Hiei asked.
"Of freaking course I remember you! With a blade like the one you aimed at me, I won't be forgetting anytime soon." I laughed a little. "Mind telling me where exactly 'here' is?"
Hiei growled slightly. "If you're just messing with me..." His voice held a warning.
"I wouldn't do that oni-san." I turned to give him a shocked and scared look. "Where the hell am I, and how the hell did I get here?"
"Hiei, when was the last time she took a day off from training?" the red head was speaking again. I decided to let them talk like I wasn't there, maybe I'd get a clue about where I was.
"The last demon attack." Hiei replied, watching me for any sign of remembering.
That was one question answered, Lotus had gotten out again. I only get attacked when she shows up.
"And has she been sleeping ok?" the red head pressed on.
Another question answered, Hiei was in my room. Damn, she must be taking over in my sleep, if they have someone posted in my room.
"She likes to think I don't know, but she's awake long after I actually fall asleep, and awake long before I am. When she sleeps, she is plagued by nightmares." Hiei sighed.
I stood and brushed off my ass. "So how bad has the bitch in my head been misbehaving? You said there was an attack, right?" I wobbled slightly. Hiei had his arm around me in half a second.
"She's simply exhausted. And the concussion doesn't help matters. We should get her back to the temple." The red head moved to take my arm.
Hiei picked me up in a fireman's carry. "I will carry her, fox. Your touch might scare her."
It was a loaded comment I would ask about later. I threw my arms around Hiei's neck. "I knew you liked me!"
The pained look he shot me said more than the words that followed could. "More than you ever knew, onna."
"Did I miss another good fight?" A black haired boy met us in the back garden of a rather bland temple.
"I remember him, Hiei! He's the zombie!" I was proud of myself. Don't ask his name though.
"Yes, Pyro, he's the zombie." Hiei looked happier when he sat me on the raised porch area.
"You remember me? What the hell happened? Was it the clown? Did you kill him Hiei?" The zombie's quick-fire questions made my head hurt again.
"She collapsed from exhaustion during a fight. Her memories are, ah, fuzzy, at best." The red head put his hand on the zombie's shoulder, like he was making him calm down.
The fuzzy made something click. "Now I remember! You're the kitsune, Kurama!"
"Yes, but don't try so hard. That's what got you into this mess in the first place, thistle." Kurama shook his head like he was exasperated, but I could feel the surge of happy at being remembered.
I jumped down. "I need to remember! I'm missing something, and whatever it is is hurting Hiei. I can't keep hurting him!" I shouted. I wanted to get in the damn kitsune's face so bad, but glaring him down wouldn't help, so I started pacing.
Hiei got in front of me, grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look him in the eye. "Trying too hard will make your condition worse, Pyro, and that will hurt me more than you not remembering for a little longer." His tone was flat, but the undercurrent of emotions was way out of control.
I shook him off and punched a wall. "I need to remember!"
"Please, Pyro, calm down." Kurama reached out to touch my shoulder.
I dodged his hand. "I will not! I have put up with a lot in the past few years, and I will not just calm down."
Kurama blew some kind of dust at my face.
It must have been some kind of knockout dust. Someone caught me as I keeled, and I heard murmured apologies as the world faded away.
I woke up not seeing her memories for the first time in forever, it seemed. That should have been a relief, but it forced me fully awake and screaming. Smoke scented arms tightened around me, and a leg wrapped around mine, keeping me from thrashing around.
"H-Hiei?" I was hoping it was him, but I couldn't be sure they hadn't another fire demon around.
"I'm here, Pyro, you're safe." His breath tickled my neck.
I relaxed a little. "You might not be. I can't find her."
He tensed. "What?"
"Lotus is missing."
"Did you check the new place?"
"I moved her?"
"After she got out a couple months ago. Well, almost. I got you back before you killed Yusuke."
"Oh, I really only have memories up to meeting Rinku, and the mishap with Chu." I sniffled a little. I wasn't crying, really. My nose was runny. "And I remember Kurama and his weird pixy dust."
Since I was now calm, he started playing with my hair. "Can I look around in your head for Lotus? I swear I won't let her out, I'm just gonna make sure she's where she was the last time I looked." He pressed a soft kiss just below my ear.
I giggled. "While you're in there, if you could find the memory of what I did to earn such sweetness from my surly firebug I would be forever grateful."
"Hmm..." His arms left my sides, where they had been resting. I figured it was to take his bandana off.
I shifted so that I could look at him. I really liked the colour of his jagan eye.
"Right where you locked her." He leaned in a bit closer. "You sure you wanna lay like that for this memory?"
"Just please, Hiei. I don't want to not know what we did." I closed my eyes, so I wouldn't have to see the fleeting hurt look in his again, and hit my head on the floor. I knew it wouldn't help, but it would shake up the bane of my existence a little.
The memory floated up with a soft chuckle from Hiei. With it came all the tidbits I'd learned about his past. Still didn't remember the leading up to, or the afterwards. "Oh dear gods, how could I forget an experience that epic?"
"You're trying too hard, and not sleeping enough. The pixy dust, as you call it, is a pollen that works as a sedative." He sat up and tied his bandana back over his eye. "You remember more if you sleep."
"I just, I want to master what y'all are teaching me. If I do, then I can be pretty certain she won't get out before you can stop me." I sighed.
"But you barely remembered anything yesterday, just me, and that I made you feel safe."
"And your katana. Man, being at the business end of that thing is freaky as hell." I giggled, remembering seeing him across the burning demon's corpse.
"Kurama swore you'd forget that." Hiei sounded a little shocked.
"Kurama's a jerk, keeps lumping me in with the 'normal' people. Not normal, never have been. Thanks to Lord High Pacifier Mouth, I can't say that I might be in another life."
"Oh good, you remember Koenma." A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth.
"He's a jerk too."
"But he's only given you powers, not asked you to use them for him."
"True. But the way he made sure my human powers could counter the demon could have been handled better."
"Meh, the way it worked out made you just right to balance me." His voice was soft, and he looked me dead in the eye.
It was a soft, romantic moment. I smiled up at him. "But, Hiei, you are still unbalanced. And you always will be." I sat up briefly to kiss the tip of his nose.
He rubbed it furiously. "Why do you keep doing that?"
I shrugged. "Its there. Its kissable."
"You are a strange woman."
"And you love me, so what does that say about you?"
"Who told you?" His shocked look was priceless.
"You do. Every day. And you don't even know it." I winked at him.
He gave me a look that told me to talk.
"Its the way your hand lingers a few seconds longer after making my stance perfect. The way you always have a brainwave on me, no matter what, and show up in seconds. You are the first one to get in the way of anything trying to kill me. And how you talk with me like a normal person when we're alone, but you're still all surly and silent around the others." I pulled him back down to cuddle.
He grinned and pulled me as close as possible. "I had no idea I was being that transparent."
"Clear as glass, dollface."
He pulled back a little and made a face. "Do not confuse me with my sister, onna."
"Never! Honestly, I just don't want to deal with a weepy sister-in-law after I beat the crap out of her darling Kazuma for even thinking I want the female twin." I silently prayed to all the gods that he'd not notice the slip about Kina being my sister-in-law.
Conflicting emotions came out of the firebug. He wanted to be pleased, but at the same time he wanted to be offended for his sister's sake. "Okay.."
I propped myself on my elbow to look him in the eye. "Don't get me wrong, Hiei, I love your sister, she's a wonderful girl. But I'm not the kind of person who likes their, um, mate to be all demure and non-combative."
Confusion swept his features. Not as fast as it would have if we were around his team, but still pretty fast. "You like that I argue with you?"
"Pssht. Its not so much arguing as it is challenging me. I like that you can get me to think twice, or even three times, about things." I grinned at him. "You challenge me to be better."
He snorted. "Its not my fault you're soft, like a normal ningen."
I grinned. "As I now recall, you rather enjoy my softness." I winked.
He growled. "Don't bring that up now, onna."
"Fights are gonna be interesting in our future." I paused as my stomach tried to hug my spine. I got up and held my hand out to Hiei. "Come with me to the kitchen, my dear firebug, we both require sustenance."
He grabbed my hand and allowed me to pull him up. 'I think I'd rather stay here, but you're right.'
please to review? (my regs are disappearing, motivation is dropping... so please review!)