(A/N: This story will mostly be in Hiroki's POV with short sequences involving Hiei)
"Any defining qualities?" Kurama asked as he wrote in his moleskin notebook. It was two days before we departed and he had to make sure we had everything we needed.
"Explain qualities...," I repeated, I learned forward a little and narrowed my eyes.
"Special strengths, powers, things that you excel in," he explained.
"Um, I'm good at following directions, can work well in a group setting, and I'm punctual and reliable," I tried to pull out what I wrote in my resume under additional talents. Now that I thought about it, I don't think I ever got a call back from that retail position.
"So no supernatural qualities," he wrote down in his notebook. This felt eerily like a job interview that I was in the process of failing.
"Some people told me I'm really good at soccer, like freakishly good,"
I was shit at soccer.
Kurama just peered at me as if he was trying to make sure I had a brain.
"My dad was a pretty good fey and my mom had some type of non human blood in her, but it was dated a while back that by the time the bloodline trickled down into her generation, no one in her family had powers. And from what I know, I don't really think I have anything inhuman in me, the only thing that separates me from everyone else is my knowledge about the supernatural. I used to hunt with my dad, but I don't really think those talents would really apply since Makai is a completely different place," I sighed, feeling oddly disappointed in myself.
"That's okay, I didn't expect you to have any," he smiled reassuringly. "I just need to make sure so we can make this mission run as smoothly as possible. We have to make sure everything goes according to plan and to do that I need to know what you can and can't do, it would help greatly when it comes to safety measures."
I could feel Hiei's glare behind me as Kurama kept scribbling down things that made me an inefficient human being. God, listing all my weaknesses was harder than I ever thought it would be, but that might be because the main person that was in charge of my safety was probably the person that wanted me dead.
Kurama figured that Hiei was probably the most suited when it came to my protection, and out of my many protests that involved groveling down to my knees and begging, Kurama was adamant that this was the safest option. He would be leading the group while Hiei specifically set an eye out for me. Kuwabara and Yusuke would be stationed behind us in case anything were to attack from the back. He tried to assure me that Hiei was in fact, not out to kill me, but every click from Hiei's tongue every time Kurama wrote down one of my inadequacies made me think otherwise.
"So you basically can't do anything," Hiei sat up from the chair he was brooding in only to have that same look directed towards me.
"I wouldn't say I'm completely useless," I shrunk back into my chair as Kurama shot him a warning glance. He ignored Kurama and advanced towards me.
"Look, I am not going to risk my abilities for an insufficient excuse for a living creature who can't even protect herself," the way he said it was oddly casual, like he was talking down to a child instead of giving me a verbal slap in the face.
"You don't have to be the one looking out for me Hiei! Christ, if it bothers you that much, then I'll get someone else to do it!," I could feel the anger boiling inside of me as I stood up, standing on the balls of my feet to try to tower over him.
"You idiot! You don't understand do you? Yes you are pathetic, and yes you are weak, but I don't think you understand how dangerous of a place Makai is. No average human could walk in there and come out unscathed, I'm doing you a favor by telling you to let us handle this and save you from killing yourself," he raised his voice at me but not quite to the level of yelling. I, on the other hand, was screeching.
"I don't care if I fucking die! I just need someone to take me there and you can all ditch me in the middle of the forest for all I care!"
"Believe me when I say that I don't give a damn if you die or not, I'm just telling you that I won't be too keen on helping some selfish girl kill herself just for a chance to see her father's abandoned legacy," his voice was calm, but every word felt like I was being gutted slowly.
"You fucking—" I raised my hand to try to punch him, but he quickly grabbed it, lifting my arms over my head. Yusuke or Kuwabara made a comment, but the only thing I could really hear was the angry buzzing and my short huffs of air. Hiei made it seem like we were the only two people in the room, a gesture that would seem so intimate if it weren't for my heightened need to inflict pain on him. He watched me struggle as I did my best to break free, but he just tightened his grip. I probably looked really stupid and I thought he had some type of smirk, but he just looked perplexed.
He let go of my wrists as I fell, ass first onto the floor. "I may be weak by your standards, but at least I'm more alive than you'll ever be," I rubbed my wrists, there were definitely going to be bruises in the morning.
He sneered down at me. "What do you mean by that you stupid girl," he tried to act like my comment didn't affect him, but by the way his fists were clenched, I could tell I was getting some type of reaction from him.
"You may physically be stronger than me, but you're the pathetic one. At least I have something to live for, better yet, I have something I'm willing to risk my life for, and what do you have?" Hiei looked surprised, and I could swear he took a few steps back when I got up. "You probably have some fucked up inner turmoil shit you have yet to deal with since you always seem to have a stick up your ass. The difference between you and me is I'm working through it while you've just allowed yourself to turn into some jaded douche. So that's why I won't let some angry, selfish, and bitter imp tell me I'm not worth anything."
Everyone in the room was suddenly slack jawed, probably from Hiei's reaction rather than my words. He looked completely mortified, and for a moment I thought he was going to use that katana of his to cut me up into pretty little pieces, but he just stood there, wide eyed and mouth open.
I was breathing pretty hard at this point, wondering how my anger could get me so exhausted. "I'm going to go now, it's late and I think it's better if we finish this in the morning," I turned to Kurama who agreed in return.
The room was silent as I left the scene, the only sound being the resounding creak of the door as I closed it behind me.
Hiei's POV
"Woah," the spirit detective leaned back on his chair, far enough to tempt me to run over there and push him off.
Kurama chuckled as he looked at me in almost a pitying way. "Hiroko sure has quite the backbone doesn't she Hiei?"
"Yea, it's pretty weird actually. We were speaking to her the other day and she seemed scared of you," the stupid one mentioned.
"You pretty much had her completely terrified. It's pretty surprising how she shocked the hell out of us with that speech," Yusuke laughed. "I specially loved the part when she called you an imp."
I made a mental note to kill Yusuke during his sleep. But he had a point, that girl was really something. She was a simple human by normal standards, but her determination had no bounds and that look in her eyes made me question everything I drew her out to be. She had spirit, I'll give her that, but spirit can only do so much on the battlefield.
"I kinda like her," Yusuke grinned as he turned around and pointed to me. "Hiei, take my advice and be nice to her. You probably might never find a girl who's shorter than you," he snorted.
I stepped out of the room, remembering to knock the spirit detective off his chair before I left.
Hiroko's POV
In the morning, Genkai's place looked like the lovely traditional Japanese style home that it was created to be. At night, I felt like I was in the middle of some Korean horror film. Everything made a sound, and the walls were far too thin to block the ghostly whistling of the night air. That little debacle with Hiei just got me irritated, and I fell asleep early only to wake up thirsty and disoriented.
I calmed down a lot after that, and stupidly realized that I let my mouth run before my head again. Of course I wanted to get rid of that potion, but seeing the world my dad left behind was probably the most important thing to me, and knowing that Hiei read my thoughts straight on only further annoyed me. But no matter how suicidal I seemed about this whole mission, I didn't want to die, and I knew my best chance of survival was if he helped me.
With a loud and angry groan, I hopped out of bed, annoyed at myself from what I said to Hiei. What if I completely fucked up this time? I mentally laughed at the thought of Hiei trying to kill me before I even stepped foot onto Makai.
The kitchen was pretty far from where my room was, and I didn't know the area well enough to know where the light switches were. I contemplated on asking Yukina to come with me, since her room was only across from mine, but I didn't want to look like a scared idiot, so I reluctantly felt my way along the narrow hallways of Genkai's house.
"GAHHMMUTFFUCK," were the words that so eloquently left my mouth. I believe it was the mixture of "gah oh my god mother of fuck" but it all came out in a mess of words and screams as something shattered. I swore I felt something run over my foot which led me to jolt and knock that unknown piece of furniture over. In my defense, it was around summer time and insects are fucking terrible this time around.
I heard a rustle of fabric and my skin suddenly crawled, knowing someone was in the room with me.
"What the hell do you think you're doing," a familiar voice asked me. The lights flickered on to show me that I was near the front of the house, far from the kitchen. Not even close Hiroko, not even close.
Hiei stood near the light switch, shaking his head in disapproval.
"I wanted a glass of water, but I didn't know where the light switch was so I accidentally knocked into something ," I mumbled, leaving the part about the bug out. I looked down to see a shattered vase, hopefully inexpensive from the look of it. I was going to ask Hiei what he was doing here, but I remembered that basically everyone I met the last couple of days invited themselves in here like it was their own freaking house.
He stared at my arm which felt strangely wet now that I thought about it.
"Your arm..." he trailed off, looking back at my face to see if I noticed. Blood dripped from my elbows down to my hand, trickling in a slow and straight motion. I honestly didn't even realize it was there, I was too busy screaming my head off.
"Oh, I'll me fine. It's just a little scratch," I waved him off, looking back down at my arm.
Yea, fuck. It wasn't little.
As soon as he said it, I felt a searing pain in my arm. The gash wasn't huge, but it was deep, and the blood was making it's merry little way back into the wooden floorboards. I suddenly felt ill, blood on wood was just too fresh of a memory right now.
I expected Hiei to make some snide remark, after all, now was the perfect moment. But to my surprise, he wordlessly grabbed my good hand and led me down the hall to the front of Yukina's room. For a person who had such a cold exterior, he had the warmest hands I'd ever felt. He knocked lightly until I heard a shuffle as the lights in her room turned on.
Yukina, bright eyed and wonderful Yukina opened the door in confusion. Even with her hair mussed up with sleep, she looked adorable as she rubbed the tired out of her face. Her crimson eyes widened as she stared at the bloody gash on my arm.
"Ahh, Hiroko, what happened!" she squeaked. Oh god, even her terrified expression was cute.
"Uh. I wanted water and I tripped and fell," I answered sheepishly. If anyone saw me with any type of injury with Hiei in tow, they would probably put two and two together and blame it entirely on Hiei, but Yukina seemed like the type of person who had a hard time blaming anyone.
"Hiei, could you hand me a tray of water and the bandages in the bathroom?" she asked him, motioning for me to sit down while she tenderly inspected my wound. I expected Hiei to scoff and refuse, but he just nodded and came back a few moments later with what Yukina asked for. I was going to make a comment on the water being dipped in cyanide but I thought better.
She cleaned the blood off of my arms while Hiei took his designated spot in the corner of the room. Having him here felt off and I didn't like the constant worry of wondering if he really hated me or not.
"It doesn't look as bad as I thought," Yukina sighed in relief. She was right, after everything was cleaned up, the scar looked considerably less menacing, but the pain was still there, and the cut was still pretty nasty.
"Since the wound is shallow, I'll be able to fix most of the damage," I felt such a warm and comforting energy emitting from Yukina as she concentrated on my wound. I watched mesmerized as my skin started to stitch itself up until it was only a pink scar. The pain was still a bit there, it was a little stiff as she placed her fingers on it, but it was a lot better than a couple of minutes ago.
"Woah..," were the only words I could really muster as I stared at Yukina in awe. "Are you a goddess?" I asked, completely serious. She only smiled as shook her head. In books and countless of stories passed down from person to person, demons were always depicted as cruel and evil creatures, but meeting demons like Yukina made me think otherwise.
"Oh! I should get that water you wanted!" she got up from the floor and dashed out of the room before I could tell her that it was okay. I almost forgot Hiei was in the room until I heard him shifting from the corner, standing a few feet away from me.
I put my head down in shame, not really ready to talk to him. "I'm sorry about today," I forced myself to look at him, expecting a scathing look. He just stared at me inquisitively, his eyes zoning down to my arm. At first, I thought he was staring at my scar, but his eyes were locked on my wrists, which were now a dark purplish color.
My eyes met his and he turned away almost guiltily. "It's okay really, it's not as bad as this motherfucker right here," I grinned, pointing to my newly healed scar. "And.. and I was being stupid. I'm sorry I called you an angry, selfish, and bitter imp," I whispered those next words rather fast as I felt Hiei tense up. "You were just trying to put me in my place and I wasn't listening, so I'm sorry. And I really need you for this mission, so please don't leave because of my minor fuck up."
"Just don't die. The clean up is messy and I don't want to be responsible for your death," he said after a while.
"You know Hiei, your friends were right," Hiei stopped before he reached the door to stare down at me, this time, with no trace of that usual scowl. "You may be all boorish and moody at times, but you really aren't half bad," I shot him a stupid grin. He just clicked his tongue and walked away.
He left, leaving me with only that warm feeling on my hands from when he led me to Yukina's room.
(A/N: I was initially going to name this "A Piece of Hiroko" as a play on words, but I didn't really think people would get it. )
Also fun fact from the last chapter! In real life, Hiroko Ogawa IS a real pastry chef and there really is a cake tart made after him.
Shiningheart of ThunderCan: I always pictured Kurama as the type of person who would be prim and proper in a normal setting, but would probably be pretty playful around his friends since he always seemed to get a knack off of teasing Hiei. And, come ooon, we all know Kurama has his sassy moments.