Sorry it took so long everyone! I've been caught up with a bunch of stuff including a major writer's blockage. I hope you all who've waited so long enjoy this.
8.
After a few minutes of Hiei carrying you through the trees, you two arrive at the hotel and go into your suite. Hiei sets you down gently on the couch and disappears from your sight for a moment. Soon enough, he reappears in front of you, holding a first aid kit and a blanket, and takes a seat to your left. You blink toward him curiously as he sets the items on the coffee table."Umm…What are you doing Hiei?" You ask dumbly and cock your head to the side.
"What does it look like onna? I'm going to bandage your wounds, and then you are going to sleep. You were poisoned and regardless of you taking that antidote, you are still too weak to be moving around. Now relax and stay still while I treat your wounds," Hiei explains without looking at you, keeping his eyes glued to the wounds and medical supplies. Your brows furrow in slight confusion as you watch Hiei work intensely, he never even looked you in the eye once.
When he finishes bandaging the little scratches covering your arms, he went to grasp the hem of your shirt. You blush immensely, but help take it off of you anyways so he could reach your stomach and shoulder wounds. Hiei raises an eyebrow at the sight of the bloody bandages around your chest secure enough to hide every bit of cleavage you had.
"What? Did you honestly think that I was going to put on a bra and turn into a guy to fight? That's just plain weird, Hiei. Obviously I'm going to wear bandages," You explain with a roll of your eyes. Hiei shrugs and gets to work on cleaning your stomach wound. Both it and your shoulder hadn't stopped bleeding yet, making you feel slightly dizzy from blood loss, apparently the poison also slowed down the victim's healing abilities.
As Hiei works on your wounded stomach, he again avoids all eye contact with you, all he focuses on is your injury. When he finishes, he tells you to turn your back to him so he can work on the wound in your shoulder blade. You comply and slump over, leaning forward with your arms propped against your knees. You jump and squeak slightly when you feel Hiei untying the bandages around your chest. You blush immensely while glaring behind you and reaching back to grab his arm.
"What do you think you're doing Hiei? Seriously," You ask slightly threateningly.
"You need to change these bandages anyways due to the blood from both of your wounds and I need to be able to see the wound past these things. At the moment, they are nothing but a nuisance that is getting in the way of you and proper treatment. Don't worry, I have no interest in looking at your chest baka onna," Hiei replies indifferently, removing his hand from your grip and still refusing to look at your face, before returning to undoing your bandages. You pout a bit and furrow your eyebrows before turning back around and helping him with removing the bandages on your chest.
After a while, your wounds are finally all dressed and you're wearing a shirt that Hiei had brought in with the blanket for you. You were now laying down on the couch and under the warm blanket, just watching silently and deep in thought as Hiei put away the first aid supplies. You noticed Hiei glance your way for a millisecond before returning to what he was doing, stating, "Rest, onna. You've used up too much of your energy and need to sleep so the antidote can take effect more efficiently. You continuing to fight after just having taken it didn't help any either, you only used up all of what energy you had left with your stupid flying and creating that arrow out of fire." With that, he stood up, grabbed the first aid kit and walked out of the room to put it up.
'What's up with him? He's certainly acting different compared to this morning. Whatever, might as well get some rest like he said,' you think and drift off into a deep sleep. What must have been like several hours later, you felt someone turn you onto your back and hold you down firmly with their hand on your shoulder. Your eyes shoot open to see who it was. You're shocked beyond belief when you see none other than Hiei holding you down with his left hand while his right hand is raised high and holding his katana, poised to strike and pierce your heart.
Your frightened cloudy blue eyes dart from Hiei's poised katana straight into his own eyes. Your eyes widen even more and fill up with tears as you see that his eyes are emotionless pools of crimson and seem out of focus. You watch as Hiei smirks in triumph and pulls his katana back a bit, about to make the kill. Your eyes widen more ever so slightly as you snap out of it and quickly slap his left hand away from your shoulder and sit up to get him within arms length.
"Hiei what the hell are you doing?!" You shout and grab his cloak by the collar, bringing his face closer to yours.
"Getting rid of a nuisance. What does it look like I'm doing baka?" Hiei replies blankly, staring straight at you.
"It looked like you were about to kill me in my sleep Hiei! What do you think it looked like?! You were gently nudging me awake from my slumber?! What is this so-called nuisance that you were getting rid of?!" you shout at him desperately.
"That nuisance is none other than you baka. What else would it be?" Hiei states in a 'matter of fact' tone. Those two sentences stunned you.
"What the hell has gotten into you?! First, you get all lovey dovey emotional on me this morning, continue this act for the entire day while hiding it from the others for obvious reasons, and then you go off making a joke about how I dreaded in explaining to you and the others about my issue with Naraku and my stupid little hickey you made! Then you sprint here impatiently and tend to my wounds without making any eye contact on purpose! Now you're trying to kill me in my sleep?! What next?! You're gonna make me a five-star, three course dinner and slip food poisoning into all of it?! Seriously, I know you are anything but a coward that would resort to this. This just isn't you!" You rant off in a pissed and confused mood.
"What the hell, are you rambling about onna? You're giving me a headache. What did I do to you to deserve this?" Hiei mumbled, closing his eyes tightly and holding his head with his free hand. You blink twice in blank confusion, when a flash of Naraku in your dreams pops into mind, stating how Hiei was being controlled or something. You let go of Hiei as your eyes widen once again and tear up while you stare into space in fear that he was being controlled just now.
'No, please no. This can't be happening. But, which one would have the power to do this. The young boy seemed to be able to do the same as Naraku, nothing more, while the girls, Kahna and Kagura, controlled wind and used a mirror to redirect attacks. It has to be that other man with them. Why? Why does this have to happen to me?!' You think desperately.
"What the hell did I ever do to deserve any of this?! I'm gonna f—king kill that bastard's entire team!" you shout out and finally collapse on the ground in tears furiously. These sudden actions startle Hiei as he is now crouching down beside you asking what was wrong.
"Onna answer me damn it! What the hell is a matter with you?! What are you so damn afraid and angry about?!" Hiei shouts, shaking your shoulders when suddenly he lets go as if burned by the darkness flame and backs up a little as your energy suddenly swirls around you violently in tendrils of black and rainbow. Your eyes are closed tightly as your tears pour out in waterfalls and form a pool of colorful gems around you.
Slowly, you opened your eyes and lifted your head only to see Hiei sitting on the ground in shock as he stared at you and your violent energy as you noticed it unleashed. 'How long was I asleep exactly?' you wondered as you stared at how much power you were currently emitting as it shrunk ever so slightly because of your sudden mood swings. You're suddenly snapped out of your trance like state when the door burst open behind you. You turn around and just barely make out all of the others in the doorway staring at you through your swirling energy and tear filled eyes.
You close your eyes and take several deep cleansing breathes, trying to calm yourself and control your energy. Once you were sure that you could control your emotions and keep them from showing in your voice, you opened your eyes and saw everyone still standing where they were, at the door, and Hiei still sitting in front of you, the shock completely wiped from his face. You quickly look away from him and begin to focus on picking up your tear gems. As soon as they were all picked up and stored away, everyone had more or less been knocked out of their state of stupor. You immediately grabbed your music player and headed out the door, not giving a care that you rudely pushed past everyone and anyone in your way, including Kurama, Kagome, Sabera, and almost Yukina. You never even looked a soul in the eye.
"What's everyone just standing around for? Don't you all have something better to do than gawk at such an everyday scene? You've all broken down and went into denial at one point or another. Now leave if you wish to live. I'm in absolutely no mood for this," you state frighteningly calmly as you walk away from them.
"Wait Lea, what's wrong? What could have possibly made you like this? Tell us, would you?" Kurama pleads making you stop and just stand in the hallway, back facing them. After he had caused you to break down emotionally beforehand, he wanted to do anything and everything in his power to comfort you like the older brother you had seen him as.
"There's nothing for me to tell. You can just ask Hiei, he was there and I guess you could say he's partially the cause. Whatever, catch ya later when I'm in a more tolerable mood," you explain simply and continue walking off with your hand lifted in a reluctant half-hearted good-bye. After you had disappeared from all of their sights, it was then that Kagome finally walked into the suite and looked Hiei dead in the eye, proving to be quite frightening to her friends and teammates.
"What did you do to Lea? She's never acted like this for the entire time I've known her. She never seemed like one that would get very close to people easily to begin with, but she was never like that. What did you do to put her in that mood?!" Kagome threatened. She was very protective of her friend at the moment. After all, Lea had been the only one she could go to in her time to talk about things like demons: how to handle them, things to be wary about, special attributes in their species' general character, even ways to slay them. She may not have actually told her about Inuyasha and the others and the well but it didn't mean she didn't care for her.
"What the hell did I do onna?! One minute I'm coming back from training, the next she's awake and screaming my ear off about something and when I ask her what she's talking about, she looks shocked before breaking down and crying like the idiot she can be," Hiei responded in a slightly offended tone.
"I know you did something to her! What was it! You are the only person who has ever affected her like this, now tell me what you did!" Kagome shouts at him before Kurama and Sabera step in to prevent her from becoming physically violent.
"Please calm down Kagome-san. Shouting will get us nowhere in figuring out why Lea is acting like this. Look, she has left us a letter here," Kurama reasons, pointing out the letter on the coffee table near by. It was folded in half and on the top it read 'To everyone. Read this for a more in depth explanation of what I have found out. Lea'
Kurama picks up the letter and opens it, reading the contents out loud as everyone else filed in and sat somewhere in the living room of the suite to listen.
'Dear everyone,
I'm sorry I seemed so pissed before I left you all a few minutes prior. After you've read this whole thing, at least some of you should understand a little about why I'm like this. First off, don't go interrogating Hiei for answers on why I am like I am. He won't be able to recollect what happened to possibly cause this. Remember, I stated he's partially the cause. He is nothing more than another victim in this twisted game of 'deal or no deal.' If you must know what started all of this, I had woken up and found Hiei standing above me and poised to kill me in my sleep.'
Everyone looked quickly over at Hiei who was now in the window seat. Many were giving him glares though he didn't find any of them very threatening, until he spotted Yukina giving the wall in front of her a tear filled death glare. That one and Kurama's gave him the shivers even though he hid it. Kurama looked back at the note and continued reading out loud.
'Don't believe me Hiei? Do you remember that dream I told you about? Before we left for the tournament? I know you do. It was practically the same thing as what I told you about happened between you and me in that dream. The name of the person causing all of this, you all know the name of and saw him during team Inuyasha's recent fight at the dark tournament, it's that bastard demon Naraku.
Now the basic reason on why I said that it was a game of deal or no deal with me and Naraku. He pretty much wanted me to give him something and help him with something (you can probably figure out what) and I refused, remaining loyal to friends of course. I may be a demon, but I lived my life as a human and thus care more about friendship and others' well-being instead of power and pride. If you have questions and/or wish for a more elaborate explanation from me, just try and wait until I have returned to the hotel suite in a better, much more tolerable mood. I just need some time to think to myself at the moment.
Thank you for your concern everyone, Lea
P.S. If I find any of you trying to find me I will kill you ruthlessly, dead serious everyone. Don't follow me. Oh, and does anyone know how long I was out? The amount of energy I lost control of seemed too much for it to just be a couple of hours.'
When Kurama finished reading everyone the letter, no word could describe the amount of shock and other emotions that were laced into what everyone was feeling. Hiei, who was normally calm and self preserved, stared at Kurama tensely and in shock at the realization at what had transpired during the time period he had no recollection of had actually occurred.
It took several minutes for everyone to soak in and process this new information through their shock, and by the time they had, Hiei was nowhere to be seen as the sun started to set. It also appeared that only Kurama had noticed that both Hiei and Cammi had both left after he read the letter. Kurama's brows furrowed together as he thought about what you said.
It was still hard for him to grasp that Hiei would actually try to kill you. True, he had pinned you against the wall with his katana against your throat before, and he has threatened you a couple of times, but even then, even while he was enraged at you and seemed to wish nothing but your demise, it didn't ever seem like he would actually and truly go through with it. The only reason he had 'injured' you one time was because it wasn't really you, merely a clone made of water.
Meanwhile, you were sitting on the cliff that you had visited a few times beforehand in this tournament. You just sat there on the edge with your knees pulled towards your chest and your arms wrapped around them while you looked blankly at the sea before you. You were doing exactly as you had written you were doing in the note, thinking things through until you felt a little better. You were thinking about everything, your reoccurring dream, the recent occurrence with Hiei, your encounters with Naraku, everything. Yet at the same time, you thought of nothing. You were completely devoid of any thought or emotion yet your mind and heart were jumbled with all the different emotions and all the memories causing the emotions.
You couldn't help it, it was as if you didn't even trust your own feelings anymore. In truth, you supposed that was true. It wasn't as if you felt that Hiei had betrayed you in any way, but you still thought that he wouldn't have actually been controlled. In order for him to be controlled in a way to attack and hate you, he would need to have that feeling towards you to begin with so that whoever was controlling them could use that to strengthen it and manipulate him using it. Not only that, they would have to get past Hiei's mental barriers which are strengthened due to the jagan.
"It's not like I expected him to just flat out trust me without a single doubt. He's him, he just doesn't trust others easily. I'm no exception, but still, I guess I just never thought that he would have that slight inkling in him to hate and want to kill me that others could use to possess him. Argh! I sound like some pathetic prissy that expects everything will turn out how she wants it at the snap of her fingers! What the hell is wrong with me?!" you shout and make two small craters form on the cliff where your fists connected with it in your rage and practically pull your hair out.
"Absolutely nothing is wrong with you my dear. How could anything be wrong with my perfect little angel?" came a familiar voice from the shadows of the forest's edge.
And that wraps up that chapter. What happened to Hiei? Why wouldn't he ever make eye contact in the whole chapter? What will happen? And more importantly, who's that guy at the forest's shadowy edge? Ok that last one might be a little obvious but still. I hope you all remember that bluish-green energy beam from chapter 4 because that'll come up soon, kinda.