14.
"May I have this dance young lady?" Kurama asked. You reluctantly accepted and took his hand. He led you onto the dance floor like Touya had done earlier and began to dance to the slow song. He put his hands on your hips and you laced your hands on his neck. The position you were currently in was a bit awkward but you new that you had to put up with it because you knew that Hiei would never ask, and Kuwabara and Yusuke didn't even know how to dance to slow songs, which were the only types of songs that were suitable for asking questions without losing breath or having to strain your voice. Soon after you started dancing, Kurama began to ask his questions.
"Lea, why are you here with Brandon? And why is he saying that you're his fiancée?" Kurama began to question.
"Because Kurama, 'Brandon' as he goes by, is actually Bret. Oh and the fiancée thing, he really thinks that I'm agreeing to marry him by going along with this shower thing. I expect that Hiei told you guys what happened that night two weeks ago?" You reply without looking directly at his eyes. You knew that he was staring at you but you just couldn't look at him. It would only make you feel more awkward.
He nods and says, "Yes. Hiei said that Bret was a bat demon and that you sent him a telepathic message telling him that he knocked you out with a knock out anesthetic. Why did you send him the message? I wouldn't think that Hiei would really care whether any of us were kidnapped except for Yukina-oh!"
"It only seemed logical. After our little incident that evening, I couldn't send you the message. The girls couldn't really do anything except be concerned about it and then they would have a hard time to spread the message to the rest of you. And of course the bakas aren't exactly smart enough to figure out what I meant and they were probably fighting over something at the time. Besides, Hiei knows that Yukina would be heart broken when she found out and he could only make it easier on her by telling you guys sooner. Oh and don't worry Kurama. I already know about Yukina and Hiei being siblings. Hiei knows I know too…Wait, did you say that Hiei said Bret was a bat demon?" You explain.
"Yes. He apparently saw Bret fly off of your balcony with bat wings so he assumed that he was a bat demon. I still don't understand how Brandon is Bret. Hiei may have been the only one of us that saw what he looked like but he said that it wasn't him. Not even the aura was his," Kurama answered.
"That's because he isn't a bat demon. He's a shape-shifter. I'm guessing that that's why his aura signature is different too. The only thing is that I could sense some elemental powers too, and I don't know if he's a telepath so be careful with that. He's probably half and half of the elemental and shape-shifter. I've informed Touya of what I know as well, so we'll have them on our side too if and when we have to face him," You correct. You were now getting a bit more comfortable with talking with him. In fact, you started to see him as the older brother again.
"Ok. Lea, I have one more question ok?" he asked. You nod your head and he continued, "Well, I was wondering why you pushed me away when I kissed you. I'm sorry if I did something wrong by doing that."
You bent your head down to hide your face when he asked you that. You held back tears. You didn't want to hurt him, but you didn't want to lie to him either. You solemnly reply, "I-I'm sorry Kurama. I-I don't like you like that. I like someone else. You were always the older brother to me before it happened, now I don't know if we can ever return things back to where they were, but I hope we can still be friends. Is that ok? I understand if you don't want to."
This time it was Kurama's turn to hold back tears. How could he have been so stupid? He had just ruined a good friendship because he had a crush that wasn't even the real deal. Luckily now was his time to make things better between them. "That sounds nice Lea. I'll try and be that brotherly figure that you thought of me before-hand. Friends?" Kurama asked with a reassuring smile. You lift your head and wipe away the tears at the corners of your now amber eyes.
"Friends," you agree.
"Oh yeah. Lea, When I regained consciousness that night and came home. I saw Keiko and Yukina picking up some gray gems from the floor and asked what had happened. They said that Hiei had come running through the front door and into his room. Then that five minutes later you had come through and went to your room while leaving the trail of gems on the floor. I'm sorry that I made you cry but what do you suppose happened to Hiei that made him act like that?" Kurama asked before the song was over. You quickly thought it over, trying to figure out why. It suddenly came to you, he was upset because he saw you and Kurama kiss! Now you had to fix it before it got worse. Of course now it explains why he was so distant earlier.
"I think I have a hunch about why. Thanks a lot Kurama. I'll confront Hiei with it later this evening and let you know how it went ok?" you suggest as the song ends.
"Ok, but promise that you'll let me know what it was afterwards when you tell me. Got it? I'll try and convince Hiei to go ahead and ask you to dance later," Kurama insists. You smile and hold out your pinky finger before you two parted. He took it and the deal was set.
You left to go back to the corner you were at earlier and eat a bit more. You needed to get your strength up for when you faced Bret. You now really had full amber eyes since you were glad that Kurama and you were back to the way you were before. After about five minutes of how to confront Hiei with the matter you were currently dealing with, you saw a figure approach you and ask you to dance for the third time that night. This time it was 'Brandon' who asked. You took it, knowing that you had to play the part of the loving fiancée. He led you out onto the dance floor and signaled for the band to play a certain song. They immediately stopped and started to play something else. You recognized the music as 'Bad Boy' by Cascada.
'Of course. That's just like him to make the song the one I sang when he first kissed me. -.- I guess I'll go with it for now. I just hope that Kurama is able to convince Hiei,' You thought to yourself. Suddenly, while you and 'Brandon' were dancing, you felt a sudden pulse of unknown energy course through you when you took Bret's hand. You ignored it for the moment, since no one else seemed to notice, and continued to dance. The song finally ended and Bret walked you off of the dance floor and back to your table. Unfortunately, he decided that he should stay with you for a while so he took the seat next to you. You ate a few chocolates as he started to bombard you with questions.
"Laena, who were those two men that you danced with and why did you only dance with them?" He asked. You finished your chocolate and looked at him.
"Brandon, they were close friends of mine. Don't you remember when I took part in the student exchange program? They were some friends I made when I was over there. (that's only partially true. You did go on an exchange program and you did see Suichi/Kurama but you never really talked to him or anything. You knew that he hardly noticed you too, but that was no surprise considering he had all of those fan-girls and if they weren't around then his mother was. You thought that it was peculiar that he looked exactly like the Kurama in your book but thought it was just coincidence or he liked to cosplay as him. You never met Jin or Touya personally, you only saw them in your books) It's as simple as that, there's no need to be jealous or anything, they just asked why you were calling me Laena, who you were, and stuff like that," You explain with a smug smirk. Brandon's face became contorted with anger and embarrassment when you said that. This only made you smirk even more.
Before he started to ask things like 'what were you talking about with them besides that' and 'what was the pinky swear between you and Kurama all about,' you decided to add in, "If it's ok with you 'Brandon' then I would like to go talk to my friends for a bit so that we can catch up some. After all, the last one that I was able to visit didn't go too well since you came in and made that scene. See you later." With that you walked off and headed to where Kurama, Hiei, and Sabera were. You could see that Kurama was trying his hardest to get Hiei to ask you to a dance, but from what you could see it wasn't working. You used your sensitive hearing to pick up on some of the conversation they were having…
"Hiei will you please just go and ask her? I'll even give you some sweet snow when we get back to the mansion," Kurama persisted.
"Hn. No way am I going to ask that baka onna or any onna to a dance kitsune. Just save yourself the trouble and go away," Hiei replied coldly.
After hearing this you hurried over to them. "Hey guys. What're you doing?" You ask to make yourself known. They turn to you and Hiei just glares at you and grunts before turning away.
"Oh, hello Laena. We were just talking about you. Do you want join us?" Kurama asked with a knowing smile.
"Actually, Kurama, I wanted to talk to Hiei privately for a moment if that's ok with you," you reply with a wink. Kurama doesn't have time to reply with his agreement as he is soon bombarded with at least five demon girls. You see Sabera staring at you in the corner of your eye and you ask her, "Sabera, don't you think you should help Kurama? He looks to be in a bit of a fickle." She nods, knowing that it was really an order from her princess and not a request. She goes and helps to ward off the demon girls and then drags a willing Kurama away from you and Hiei.
"Hiei, we need to talk. Kurama told me what happened that night when I was kidnapped and what the others told him," You say and take a seat next to him.
"Well then, why don't you go and have your fiancée Brandon talk about it with you? Or you can go and have some other guy talk with you about it. I'm sure you could try and seduce them to where you can tell them. Why do you need to talk about it with me if you already talked about it with the Kitsune?" Hiei questions with icy bitterness in his voice. You sighed and knew that he would be stubborn and cold like this, but hey you were used to stubborn and cold, its how you were always able to put up with him and the idiots beforehand.
"Listen Hiei. According to him, the others said that you had burst through the front door and into your room about five minutes before me," You say in a slightly frustrated voice. You then said the next part softly, "You saw Kurama kiss me didn't you?"
You looked away and Hiei found himself now looking directly at you in shock. You saw his shocked face from the corner of your eye and knew that you had hit it dead on. "Hn. Why would I care what you and the kitsune did, baka onna?" he said and looked away again.
You were now getting a bit impatient with his stubbornness and the only thing that made it worse was that you knew why he was acting like this. "Hm. Well lets see. Why would you care? Oh, wait a minute…you were jealous weren't you?" you ask while trying to keep the smugness out of your voice. You just kept on hitting the bull's eye with Hiei. He once again had a shocked face but now he tried to hide it more than last time because you were looking at him.
"Why would I like a baka onna like you? I'm the forbidden child, I don't love anyone," he spat back.
"I don't know, you should know the answer to that. Just because you're the forbidden child doesn't mean that you can't ever love anyone baka. And besides, what else would your purpose for living in the first place be? Everyone has one that makes a difference in someone's life," you retort back.
"Hmph. Only you would say something like that," Hiei said and turned away. He then muttered under his breath in order for you not to here, even though you did, "That's one of the reasons why I originally fell for you in the first place." Your eyes softened when you heard this. You knew that you couldn't kiss him or even give him a peck on the cheek because of the situation you were in and Bret was watching your every move.
"Hiei, please understand. What you know about what happened that night, it-you, don't know about everything that happened. I can't tell you now because of the little fickle that I'm in right now but soon, very soon I will sit down and talk to you about everything that happened from when I made the clone that you decapitated, to when Bret kidnapped me. Murmurs to self God I hate shape-shifters like him. Useful, yes, but he's still annoying as hell," You say. What you said to Hiei didn't seem to satisfy him but it would have to do for now. Because it was about time that the main dinner course should start. That meant that you would have to take Bret out soon, very soon…