9.

"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.

"What the! There is only one being in all the three worlds and seven hells that would even think of calling me that. But how?! How the hell are you still alive, Bret! Koenma said you were sentenced to death by execution and even showed me the video of it! I watched him send you to the seventh cycle with my own eyes!" you question in disbelief and rage.

"However it happened, I'm not sure, but a man offered me a deal and now I'm back with a second chance in claiming your heart my lovely!" Bret pronounced as he entered the light of the setting sun.

"Get the f--k away Bret! I'm in no mood to deal with you! If you push me anymore than I'll brutally mutilate you myself! To hell with spirit world's jurisdiction. I could use a good stress reliever, though you aren't really much, it's definitely a lot better than nothing. And I don't see anything against killing what is supposed to already be dead," you spit out murderously as you crack your knuckles and a smirk comes to your face that means nothing good for Bret.

"You wouldn't do that to your dear friend now would you?" Bret questions as he shape-shifts into Hiei. Less than a second later, you have him held up by the throat up against a tree with a freshly formed blade held threateningly close to his neck.

"Just try me. I will have absolutely no regrets or second thoughts about killing you, you bastard. Just say one more word, one more sound that will further piss me off. Now, give me one good reason why I should spare your life," you demand and bring the blade dangerously closer to his jugular, unknown of the audience that arrived after Bret had already shape-shifted.

"Do not worry Lea, I am merely sent to deliver a message and a warning," Bret informed with Hiei's voice.

"Then speak it and leave immediately. I will determine whether or not to heed it after I've heard it," you reply sourly as you stare into his filthy and stolen red eyes.

"Heh. You will regret this. My message is, ' If you refuse my offer, you finalize your friends' fates. May you still wish to protect their lives afterwards, meet at the tournament's stadium at exactly midnight sharp, the night before the finals. Be sure to come alone and with the key you possess. Be even one second late and your friends' fates will be set. We will fight, and the winner will take home everything. Do not forget if you treasure the lives of everyone you know. –Naraku' Well, that's all my sweet. Shall we see each other again but for now, I must be off," Bret reported and darted off in a blur. You growl in fury and punch the ground out of frustration, causing a rather large crater to form, as you glare dangerously out at the sea.

"Naraku wants a fight huh? Oh, he'll get a fight. He'll have the fight of a lifetime. The recent bastard will get it as well as soon as I finish off Naraku! They're both going to pay for endangering those close to me!" you shout out at no one and storm off somewhere else. After you had left the figure that watched the last part of your encounter with Bret leaped down from the shadows of the tree.

Hiei looked at the tree where you had pinned 'him' and threatened to kill 'him.' He had no idea what to think of what he just saw. You had actually seemed genuinely mad, no livid, at Hiei for what had happened earlier and stated that you wouldn't regret killing him, or even giving it a second thought. His feline actually wanted to kill him and wasn't even able to tell that it wasn't him because you were so blinded by your rage. At least that's what Hiei's line of thought was.

You check your watch and the position of the moon as you storm off to the suites. You still had another couple of hours until midnight so you decided to try and get some sleep so you can just shut down and cool off. 'I sure hope Hiei's already asleep. I'd rather not face anyone until tomorrow after I've had a good night's rest and something to eat in the morning.' You thought as you stopped at your suite's open window. You narrow your eyes marginally at the thought of Hiei going to sleep with it wide open like that. Quickly, you spread out your senses and see that Hiei wasn't even in the hotel.

You cock your head to the side in confusion as you enter the room, wondering where Hiei could be this late at night. You shrug it off as him training and hope that he looks out for himself before changing your clothes and getting ready for bed. As you came out of the bathroom, you spotted Hiei walk into the bedroom quickly. You follow him and see him pull the covers over him on the far side of the bed, as if to fall asleep. You walk over slowly, as to not startle him and lay a hand on his shoulder. You feel him flinch ever so slightly at your touch and instantly become worried.

"Hiei? Are you alright?" You ask softly as your sky blue eyes examine what you could see of his back, seeing as he's facing away from you.

"I'm fine onna. Why wouldn't I be? Now leave me alone and let me sleep," Hiei replies coldly before roughly jerking his shoulder out of your grip.

"Hiei, I'm not mad at you, nor do I blame you for what happened today. If anything, I'm mad at myself for not being able to realize something like this could happen. Will you please talk to me about what's bothering you?" You try to soothe him while sitting on the edge of the bed and stroking his cheek. Hiei sits up and stares directly at you emotionlessly, seeming to examine you for the answer to something. Finally he spoke.

"You lie onna," Hiei states, staring directly into your now shocked eyes.

"What? What do you mean Hiei?" You ask confused at what he meant by you lying.

"You said yourself that you wouldn't regret killing me just a little while ago in the forest. Nor would you have a second thought about it. You lie onna," Hiei elaborates. Realization comes to your face and you try to correct him.

"No Hiei I wasn't mad at you, that's not who I was talking to. It was Bret, Hiei. Bret's back and tried transforming into you to stop me from killing him. Come on Hiei, you of all people know you wouldn't dare call my your 'sweet' or your 'perfect little angel'. I don't know how but it seems that Bret has returned and I think Naraku has something to do with it. Please believe me Hiei. I would never harm you or any of the others. Do you understand now?" You explain almost pleadingly.

Hiei gives off a small grunt of understanding and lays back down on the bed with his back facing you once again. You sigh in exasperation and relief before smiling gently at his back and climbing in bed and under the covers yourself for some much needed rest. You look at Hiei's back for a moment before propping yourself on your elbow and leaning over his shoulder to kiss his cheek.

"Goodnight Hiei, may pleasant dreams find your restless mind," You coo into his ear lovingly before backing off and turning your back towards him and the land of dreams took hold of you with a smile gracing your face.

-Hiei's POV-

You lay on the bed silently as you hear Lea fall into a deep sleep. You turn over to face her and see her back facing you. You gently wrap your arms around her and pull her back closely against your chest. You bury your face in her hair and inhale her scent as if you needed to in order to survive. You merely lay there with her, wanting to believe what she said was true but feeling that something was off. There was just something that you knew she wasn't telling you. Regardless, you just enjoy having her presence near you and fall asleep as well.

-Next Morning your POV-

You wake up groggily to feel strong arms gently wrapped around your waist and warm breath blown against your cheek. You turn your head to look over your shoulder to see Hiei sleeping peacefully behind you. You smile a little mischievously upon seeing him and carefully turn towards him so he wouldn't wake up.

You decided to play with him a little and kissed him at the base of his neck after making your ears more human looking. The response you got from him was a groan as you smiled in success and continued sucking and licking his neck while your hands ran through his soft, spiky hair. He continued to softly voice his pleasure as his arms tightened around your waist. You grinned at him and left a hickey of your own on his neck just as he had done to you the day before. "Onna," Hiei whispered in almost a moan, gripping you closer to him. You continued grinning as you raised your head up to his ear.

"Yes, love?" you whispered purposefully in a seductive voice. One of your hands continued to run through his ebony tresses while the other travels down to explore his chest.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asks, his eyes still closed from your torture.

"I'm giving my possible mate-to-be a pleasurable experience. What else would it seem like I'm doing?" you explain, trying to hide the mischievousness in your voice while your hands continue to tease him. You nuzzle your face into his neck again, missing when his eyes shot open in alarm.

"Who the hell are you, what do you want and what have you done to the onna? Where is she?" Hiei demands, releasing you and grabbing your arms to stop what they were doing. He pulls you both up to a sitting position in the bed and you keep your head down. You look at him from the corner of your eye to see his facial expression only to begin giggling as you pull back from him in a way that your hair keeps your face covered from view, your amber eyes practically glowing through your long, dark hair.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about Hi-chan, but your face is positively adorable whether you're sleeping or glaring," you inform him with your voice still full of amusement and laughter.

"Don't call me that. Answer my questions baka onna. Who are you and where is my onna?" Hiei continues to demand in a growl as he puts both of your hands in one of his and uses his now free hand to grab your chin and jerk it up roughly to face him. You look at him with wide eyes from hearing him say that you were 'his' onna. Hiei's eyes narrow when he sees your face through all the hair. They seemed to glint when he noticed your eyes widen and figured it was out of either fear of his anger or shock that he had someone.

"Are you another shape-shifter? Answer me!" Hiei threatens angrily, his grip on your chin tightening. You wince a little, losing your focus on your shape-shifting abilities and returning your ears to a cat's.

"Ouch. Hiei that hurts. You need to learn how to be more gentle around women don't you? Is this how you treat all females other than your sister?" You tell him with a grin to lighten the mood a bit, ears twitching.

"Onna? What the hell are you thinking?! I could have killed you!" Hiei scolds you angrily. You look up at him with big eyes to try and look as cute as possible with your ears drooping down on the side of your head.

"No you wouldn't. At least not until you got my location and health status. Then you would've found out it was me anyways. Now come on, let's get something to eat," you finish the conversation with a matter of fact tone and a hint of laughter and amusement still in your voice.

You go to jump off the bed and make something to eat when Hiei grabbed your wrist and jerked it towards him, causing you to spin on your heel and lose balance which, in turn, made you fall into Hiei. He caught you easily and pulled you in for a kiss that showed you just how much Hiei was worried about your safety. You return the kiss in a loving, apologetic way and wrap your arms around his neck. When you two release, you look up into his eyes and smile apologetically.

"I'm sorry Hiei. I didn't mean to worry you," you soothe and kiss him one last time on the cheek before getting up and heading over to change and make some breakfast.

I know this is a much shorter chapter than usual, but I finally got my first flame even if it was to continue and not leave you on the cliffy last chapter. I'm currently stuck in writers' block and I can't come up with anything for this story, or my other stories I'm working on before I post them. It doesn't help that I need to raise my grades in a couple of classes and we're being shoved with all this work for the Assessment Knowledge Skills Tests over here so I can exit high school with these last four tests and the college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT. I'll try to update the next one but don't expect one soon. I had to force myself to post this even though it only has five pages and not the usual 7+. Please leave a review as any ideas for future events and conflicts or just basic criticism would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and me and my friends plan on kidnapping my friend Jaidesu (nickname) this summer from her aunt on the eve of her birthday so her 'guardians' can't call the police to find her. If anyone has any ideas with that, send them in!