TheHeartsPath: Whew! Ok, here's chapter 4! This one gave me a bit of trouble. Writer's block tried to take over. But I found a way around it...drinking sweet ice tea! The caffiene gets the brain working. Which I guess is why this chapter is longer than the others. Anyway hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.

"Talking" Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~

Chapter 4: Sweet Snow and Questions

Ayla's POV

Dinner went well, amazingly enough. I figured that Sinclair or Haku (or both) would totally do something extremely stupid. But they surprised me by actually managing to act civilized. Everyone had laughed when I asked them who they were and what they had done with my brothers. Well, everyone except said brothers, they just glared at me.

The dinner was amazing. Turned out that our mothers were an awesome team in the kitchen. I ate twice as much as Sinclair and he eats a lot. Kokoda had asked where I put it all considering how small I am. Needless to say Shiori started to scold him about asking a girl something like that. I came to his rescue saying that I didn't mind, seeing as I've been asked that question before and I'd probably be asked it again by someone else.

I told him it was cause I have an extremely high metabolism and that I'm also hyperactive. Poor Kokoda had only looked more confused at my explanation.

Shuichi explained it to him as "Her body burns up so much energy, so fast, that she needs that much food in order to not run out of energy and end up sick."

All he could come back with was "Oh." He cheered up when Sinclair mentioned that he didn't understand it either. Sinclair then said that I was just weird that way, to which I responded by glaring at him.

After dinner we all ate sweet snow aka ice cream. Well the majority of us ate it anyways...Kokoda, Sinclair, and Haku literally inhaled theirs. I was amazed that not one of them ended up with brain freeze. Of course this requires a brain to freeze, which I was certain neither of my brothers had. Since I wasn't certain of Kokoda having a brain or not I decided that he simply had a good resistance to it happening. This of course resulted in all the ice cream disappearing just like I thought it would, leaving none for Shuichi to save for Hiei.

We stayed long enough to help clean up everything from the cooking and eating of dinner. It was nearly ten o'clock when we were done. We said our thank yous for having us over and our good nights and went back to our house.

As we were walking back to the house I noticed someone in the tree near my window. So Hiei's already been waiting on me to give him sweet snow. I'll need to hurry so that he doesn't have to wait too much longer. Oh dear, just how long HAS he been waiting? I hoped that he hadn't been waiting in the tree since before dinner, since dinner took awhile to be eaten, but I already knew he had. So I decided to contact him telepathically. ~Hiei?~

~What onna?~

I couldn't help it when my eye twitched. I seriously couldn't wait until I had his respect and I could get him to stop calling me that. ~I'll be up there as soon as I can to get you some sweet snow ok?~

~Hn. Fine.~

I couldn't help but feel bad for having him wait so long just to get sweet snow. ~I'm sorry.~ I closed the connection after that since I couldn't think of anything else to say. I went into the house to call my grandmother about this weekend and to also get to my room as fast as possible.

Hiei's POV

~I'm sorry.~

I was about to ask her what she was apologizing for when she closed the connection of our minds. Growling I cursed her for closing the connection like that. I watched her walk into her house while trying to figure out what she was apologizing for. I decided to look in her mind using the Jagan for some answers to my questions.

I took my bandanna off and focused on entering her mind. What the hell? Instead of finding a wall, or some kind of shield like most telepaths use to keep others from invading their minds, I found trees. She uses a few trees as her shield? No, she's using a whole damn forest to shield her mind from intruders. Hn, pathetic. It'll be pitifully simple to find answers. Closing my eyes I concentrated on getting past her so-called mental shield.

But for some reason the more I tried to get past her shield the more I started to get lost in the forest in her mind. Whenever I got past some of the trees, more would appear. Now I was annoyed. No one could keep me out of their mind when I used the Jagan. Yet that was exactly what was happening with this human girl's mind. Apparently I'll have to get answers from her in another way. I thought as I put my bandanna back over the Jagan.

The lights in her room came on and I could see her through the window closing the door. She leaned against it, closing her eyes for a moment, sighing. Standing up straight she walked over and opened the window. "You can come in now Hiei." she said.

"What took you all so long to leave and come back to your own house?" I asked.

She raised an eyebrow at me, "I don't know about other people, but me and my family like to help clean up messes that we help to make."

"Hn. Where's the sweet snow onna?"

Her eye twitched. "I'll get it so relax and sit Hiei."

While she got the sweet snow I sat down at the window and took the time to look around the room. It was a decent sized room, even with the ceiling being slanted considering it was originally meant to be an attic. There were a couple of dressers, a trunk, desk, some kind of chest, a bookshelf, and a bed. A miniature fridge and freezer were in the corner by the desk. There were so many books that the bookshelf couldn't hold all of them, so some were on one of the dressers. Another dresser had what I remember the detective calling a stereo system and Cds on it. The desk had a laptop on it just like Kurama did at his place.

I noticed two more doors besides the one she had entered the room through. So I assumed one was a closet while the other led to a bathroom. The bed had bedding that was a mix of black, sage, and lilac. I smelt the scents of sage and lilac as well. The combination of those two scents is rather pleasant. Not so strong that it bothers you and yet not so weak that you imagined smelling it. I wouldn't have expected this of a female her age. Heh, she's surprised me again.

"Here's the sweet snow I promised." she said.

I looked at her and saw the pint of sweet snow she had in her hand along with a spoon. She had some for herself as well and went to sit at her desk while she ate it. I realized that she had given me the flavor I had asked her about earlier. Chocolate fudge brownie. I didn't think she'd remember. I smirked and started eating the sweet snow and glanced over at Ayla.

She was eating her own sweet snow but was also reading a book. "Is that the book Shuichi let you borrow?" I asked, remembering to use Kurama's human name.

"Sure is. I haven't had a chance to check out the bookstores around here yet, so I haven't gotten to buy any history or mythology books. It was really nice of Shuichi to let me borrow this, even though we've only just met." she replied still reading.

I found her choice of books interesting. I wonder if that's all she has on that bookshelf? Speaking of only just met, she only met me a couple of hours ago and yet she allowed me to come into her room. She is way too trusting for her own good. Just thinking that was enough to get me annoyed and for some reason I couldn't explain slightly angry. Because I couldn't figure out why I was angry I ended up only getting more annoyed.

I growled in frustration which caused Ayla to glance at me with a questioning look. "What are you angry about Hiei?"

"I'm not angry about anything onna." I snapped at her.

Sighing she closed the book she had been reading, turning to look at me fully. "That's bullshit and you know it." she said staring me in the eyes.

"Hn. Clearly you're mistaken."

Raising an eyebrow she asked, "You don't know do you?"

"Know what onna?"

"That I'm an empath."

Damn. I forgot about that. I stayed silent.

"Besides the obvious signs that you're angry, such as the glaring and growling. Anger's melody is coming out of your heart loud and clear. Though judging from its' particular rhythm it's a mixture of protective anger and confused anger." she said with a confused look on her face.

What the hell did she just say? Anger's melody? I was wrong, she HAS lost her sanity. That was the only thing I could think of for the crazy words coming out of her mouth just then. "Anger's melody? Do you have any idea how insane you sound?" I asked.

She blinked and then glared at me. "Insane? Do you have any idea how patronizing you sound?" she replied back indignantly.

I tried to fight the smirk that was caused by my amusement to her turning my phrasing back at me. I gave in and smirked, which made Ayla growl. This only caused my smirk to grow with more amusement.

"Why the hell are you smirking?" she demanded.

"For a telepath and empath you are rather clueless aren't you?" I asked just to annoy her more for my amusement.

She glared at me for a few moments more before sighing and closing her eyes. When she opened her eyes I noticed she was calm for the most part, her annoyance not gone but pushed aside. "Let me tell you a few things Hiei." she said, then started holding up fingers, "One: I try not to pry into people's thoughts and/or emotions since everyone deserves their privacy. Two: I may sound insane but I'm not. I'm just being me. And three: I don't recall telling you that I was a telepath."

"That's because you didn't." I replied.

"In other words Shuichi told you?" I nodded and she sighed, shaking her head. "Guess that's to be expected, seeing as how he did say that you were a telepath too. Which explains why your energy is different from other people, well, partially explains anyway."

"And what the hell do you mean by that?" I demanded.

"Well your energy feels totally different from other people compared to Shuichi. I mean his energy feels like a mix of energy like mine and energy like yours." she blinked, "Ok...I don't think that made any sense whatsoever."

So she knows that Kurama's not like most humans, yet also isn't like humans similar to herself. From the way she spoke I guess she doesn't know about demons.

I thought it was time to change the subject from energies to something else. Remembering her talking about anger's melody I decided to question her about it. "Earlier you said that anger's melody was coming from my heart. What did you mean by that?"

Sighing she said, "You know how thoughts come through as words, right?"

I nodded letting her know I did.

"Well, people's emotions don't come through as words. They come through as more of a melody, like you hear in music. Every emotion has a certain rhythm, with variations not only for each emotion, but also for each person. So what I 'hear' from a person's heart is what I call their Heart's Song. And I have to muffle the emotions of other people by keeping all the Heart's Doors closed unless I want to know exactly what they are feeling." she said.

I could tell she was telling the truth with how serious her tone was when she spoke. I was now curious about why she muffled other's emotions. "What happens if you don't muffle other people's emotions?" I asked.

She grimaced, apparently not even liking the thought of what happens. "I become unable to tell my own emotions apart from other people's and start to get overwhelmed by the amount of emotions. It's the same way with thoughts. Basically if I don't keep my guard up against the two at all times I end up trying to go insane." she said with a bit of sadness in her voice. She was looking at the floor by the time she finished.

What she said about having to keep a guard up at all times was true. I knew from my own experience. I'd had to learn early on after getting the Jagan to block the thoughts of others from bombarding my mind. So I figured that blocking emotions completely shouldn't be that different or hard. "Then why don't you do more than muffle them? Why don't you completely block them out altogether instead like you do thoughts?" I asked.

Her head shot up and she looked at me with something I hadn't been expecting to see on her face. Fear. I couldn't hide my shock when she looked at me. Suddenly I wanted to protect her from whatever it was that had made her so afraid. Why is she so afraid all of a sudden? And why do I feel this need to protect her?

"Why? You ask why I don't completely block them out? I tried doing that when I was younger! And do you want to know what happened? Doing so almost killed me! When I blocked them out I ended up getting sick so badly that I had to stay in the hospital!" she said. She had gotten loud for a moment there near the end.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it, she then spoke in a quieter tone as she continued, "I was only seven when it happened. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. My parents and siblings were so worried about me too. When the doctors said that I wasn't going to last a week my parents called my grandmother to come and see if she could figure out what was wrong with me. She came and used her abilities to check me and talked to me. She asked me all kinds of questions about if anything different had been happening to me lately. If I was having trouble with blocking thoughts, or if something else was happening."

"I told her how it wasn't just thoughts I was hearing, but that I was feeling things that I knew I wasn't feeling. That these feelings came to me like a musical tune, but all of the tunes were getting mixed up and too loud. To the point that I couldn't take it anymore. I had decided I didn't want to feel or hear or whatever it was I did that allowed me to receive these things. So I did what she had taught me to do with thoughts. I blocked them out. It had been less than a day later that I started getting sick and just kept getting worse."

"Grandma Genkai then told me to stop blocking them and let them in. Since she had been the one to teach me to deal with people's thoughts when I was only three years old, I didn't question her and did what she said. Almost immediately my health started to improve. The doctors were amazed at how fast my health was improving. Grams had me stay that way for the rest of the time I was in the hospital. A few days later when I was well enough to go home she came with us and explained what was happening to me."

"She said in addition to being a telepath I was also an empath. And that I wasn't allowed to completely block the emotions of others ever again. That I had to learn to tone them down so that I still received them but wasn't overwhelmed by them. So that's what I did, I learned to muffle them and have been doing so ever since. Apparently I'd always been empathic but only being able to tell the most basic emotions that people were feeling, not the different types of each emotion like I can now. My powers suddenly got stronger when I turned seven years old. Grandma Genkai said that my powers hadn't been fully awakened before. Turning seven was apparently the age when my powers truly awakened." After saying all of that she looked at the floor once again.

I could only stare at her in shock. Finding out that she had almost died when her empathic powers had awakened was not something I had been expecting. No wonder she was so afraid when I asked about blocking emotions completely. She'd done it once and almost died as a result. When I thought about her almost dying I pictured her laying on a bed hooked up to different machines. I shuddered and forced that image from my mind. It disturbed me greatly to even imagine her like that.

"So that's why you looked so terrified when I asked you that." I said.

She nodded still looking at the floor.

"I still don't understand how blocking emotions almost killed you though."

"An empath needs to be in contact with emotions at all times. Not always in full force, but to an extent. I think empaths draw something from emotions. Like some kind of energy or something else that only emotions give off. Otherwise..." she trailed off.

"Otherwise what?" I asked.

She looked me in the eye, "Otherwise the empath will die."

An empath will die without emotions? Here I had thought that I couldn't be shocked anymore...turns out I was wrong. I had thought that empaths only sensed the emotions of others, nothing more. But never had it crossed my mind that they might actually need to be exposed to emotions in order to survive. It was my turn to look at the floor. I decided that changing the subject would be a good idea. Unfortunately I was having trouble thinking of what to talk about now.

"Sorry." Ayla said.

I looked at her confused, "What are you apologizing for?"

"For the way I reacted to your questions. I just totally freaked out on you. So I'm sorry."

My eyes narrowed, "You have nothing to apologize for onna. Your reaction was natural after what you went through when your empathic powers awakened."

A smile appeared on her face, although it was a small one. "Thanks Hiei."

"Hn. Just don't get used to it." She chuckled and surprisingly I didn't get annoyed. I was just glad she was in better spirits now.

Suddenly I remembered her apologizing earlier when she was coming back from Kurama's. "Earlier when you were walking to your house you contacted me telepathically and said you were sorry. Why?"

"Huh? Oh. I was apologizing for making you wait so long to get the sweet snow I offered to share." she replied.

She apologized for that? Shaking my head at her reasoning I asked her, "Why the hell do you have a forest as the shield for your mind?"

She had a shocked look on her face for a moment before saying, "So that was you trying to get inside my mind. I was wondering who it was. As to why a forest, it's because using a wall doesn't work to keep thoughts out for me. With a forest for the most part the thoughts of others don't invade my mind unless I want them to. Since they usually end up getting lost in the forest. Occasionally someone else's thought will come through on its' own, like a small breeze blowing through the branches. But that rarely happens."

"The point of a mental shield is to keep others from invading your mind." I stated bluntly.

She smirked, "It worked quite well with you didn't it? I mean after all, you wouldn't have asked about the forest shield I use with so much annoyance in your voice if you were able to get into my mind, now would you?"

"Hn." Her smirk only grew from my response.

Turning away from me, she glanced at the clock. Her smirk disappeared, "Oh hell! It's eleven o'clock! My first day at a new school is tomorrow. I need to finish getting my books together and go to bed and get some sleep."

She got up and threw her empty sweet snow container into the trash. Next she went to the dresser that had books on it and started taking certain ones, placing them into a book bag. It was like the one I used to see Kurama use when he went to that human school. "I'm not trying to rush you or anything but did you finish your sweet snow yet Hiei?" she asked looking at me.

I nodded and got up, throwing my container into the trash as well. Walking back to the window I got ready to leave when she spoke to me again.

"Hey Hiei? Where do you live?"

I looked at her, "Not anywhere around here."

"So then you live quite a distance away?"

I thought about that for a second. "As a matter of fact I do." Which is true, though not quite the way that she's thinking probably.

"If that's so then where are you gonna stay while in town? A hotel or something?"

Shaking my head I answered, "No. I'll be staying at Shuichi's like I do on occasion."

Raising her eyebrow she asked, "If you only stay at his house on occasion, where do you stay normally?"

"At the park, in a tree."

"You stay in a tree? What about when it's raining or snowing?" she asked incredulously.

Shrugging I said, "If Shuichi is home I stay at his place until it stops."

Her eyes narrowed, "And when he's not home?"

"I find a tree to stay in."

"That's it. From now on when you're in the area, if it's storming and Shuichi isn't home you come here to get out of it. You got that?" she said crossing her arms with a stern look on her face.

"Hn. And what if you aren't here? Then what?"

"My grandmother taught me how to put barriers up and have a word for setting it up and a word for taking it down. I use one on my window and I'll tell you what the words are. This way if neither Shuichi or I am home you can get out of the storm and not have to stay in a blasted tree." she said with a smirk.

"You are too damn trusting for your own good, you know that?" I deadpanned.

Shrugging she said, "So I've been told. But I can tell from your Heart's Song that you are a trustworthy person. If you hadn't been I wouldn't have invited you over to have sweet snow."

"Hn. Whatever."

After she told me what the words were for taking down and putting the barrier back up on her window I left. I went to the tree outside of Kurama's room and thought about what I had learned. I had been planning on asking her what other abilities she had but I ended up only learning more about her empathic powers.

When she had told me about what had happened to her after her powers awoke, I could tell it was hard for her. As she spoke I had seen the distant look in her eyes. She was reliving it while she talked about it. From the way she spoke I don't think she's talked about what happened to anyone outside her family. So why did she tell me all of that? She could have simply said that she had tried blocking emotions before and it went badly. But instead she told me everything when she didn't have to.

I decided that I'd tell Kurama what I found out about her empathic powers tomorrow. However, I was not going to tell him about what happened to her when they awakened. I didn't have the right to tell anyone, that was Ayla's right, and hers alone. If she chose to tell him or anyone else she would do so. But until then I would keep what she said in confidence.

Her offering to let me stay in her room when it was storming had surprised me. Though by the end of the conversation it was more of a demand that I stay there when I needed a place to get out of a storm. She wasn't going to take no for an answer on that. I thought with a smirk.

I could see how she was related to Genkai in that aspect. If either one said that a person was going to do something, they were going to do it, no questions asked. And nothing would change their decision.

Since she lives next to Kurama I'll probably end up talking to her whenever I visit him. Maybe next time I can find out if she has other abilities beside telepathy and empathy. And maybe I'll figure out what it is about her that seems to draw me to her. With that thought in mind I knocked on Kurama's window. He let me in and we both settled down for the night.

Ayla's POV

After Hiei left I finished getting ready for school and got in bed. As I laid there trying to go to sleep I kept replaying our conversation in my mind. I had been surprised when he'd gotten angry after asking me about the book Shuichi let me borrow. I was even more confused by the types of anger he was experiencing. Protective and confused anger, an interesting mix. I was going to ask him about it but I completely forgot about it when he started to get patronizing and then amused.

I scowled, for once I had actually wanted to listen to a person's thoughts and find out what the hell he found so damn amusing. I recalled that he had also been amused by my embarrasment earlier at Shuichi's place. He finds my reactions amusing! Why that little...I ought to punch him for that! I growled, I wasn't a person who liked to be used for someone's amusement. Not that I thought anyone did.

I sighed and thought back to the part of our conversation where I told him about my past. Why did I tell him what happened back then when my empathic powers woke up? I've never talked about that with anyone except Mom, Dad, Gwen, Sinclair, and Grandma Genkai. Although Gwen and Sinclair haven't talked to me about it in years. Haku and Kira were too young to remember me ending up in the hospital. Thank goodness for that. I thought with relief. They had both been only a year old when it all happened, so they had no memory of what happened. At least none that I knew of.

Why? Why did I tell him so much? I barely know him and yet I trust him more than I've trusted anyone outside of my family in a long time. I sighed as I remembered how I had stopped trusting other people when in the end all they did was stab me in the back.

But he's different. I thought staring at the ceiling. Something about him draws me to him, makes me trust him. His heart is good, though I could hear an echo of dark emotions from his past. There was hate and loathing, but also sadness. The type that comes from being alone all the time...from being shunned.

I certainly knew how that type of sadness felt from my own experience. I was shunned because of my eye color being unnatural and saying things about people's thoughts or emotions on accident. I wondered why he was shunned, what people were so afraid of him for to shun him. I have a feeling that whatever happened to him in his past was painful and hard. For those emotions to only be an echo now means he must have met someone who helped him. Someone that showed him there were people that wouldn't betray or shun him. I wanted to know what exactly had happened to him in the past, but I knew that he wouldn't tell me unless I had his absolute trust.

I don't just trust him. I realized, my eyes widening. I trust him wholeheartedly. How the hell did that happen?

I shook my head and looked at my alarm clock on the small dresser next to my bed, which also served as a nightstand. Midnight, that's just wonderful. I'm gonna have to figure out why I trust Hiei so much at another time. If I don't get some sleep tomorrow is gonna be hell. Well, for me anyways.

I closed my eyes to go to sleep, smirking. It's already going to be hell for the teachers. They're so going to have a fit when they see what I'm wearing tomorrow. I chuckled, I couldn't wait to see the reactions I'd get. Imagining what the teachers' reactions could be I fell asleep with a smirk.