Chapter 6: Stolen

Botan had come to pick me up early this morning to return to Spirit World so I could pack my belongings. I still wasn't happy with Koenma for leaving me in the Ningenkai, and I let him know that when I arrived. However, I have to hand it to the toddler. My apartment wasn't that bad. It had two bedrooms and one bath. Koenma must have refurbished it, because it was already filled with furniture, electronics, utensils, and food when I got there. I had left a note with Atsuko to give to Yusuke when he awoke. I couldn't help but chuckle at the memory of meeting Atsuko Urameshi. It would definitely be a first impression I would not forget.
After yelling and chasing after Yusuke for a while, we slowed down to walk as he led me to the apartments. We chatted and joked the rest of the way there.

"Well, there it is. Home sweet home," said Yusuke while pointing to a tall apartment building. It was a pale green and white and was four stories tall.

"Which floor are you on?"

"Eh, the top." I laughed at his sulking figure.

"Sweet! We're at the very top!"

"Yeah, but all the stairs get annoying real quick," grumbled Yusuke. I laughed again and poked him in the side.

"Ah c'mon Yusuke, look at it this way, at least you get exercise and keep off the fat!"

"Fat!" yelled an indignant boy. I raised an eyebrow as he pulled up his shirt and started poking his own stomach. "Do you see any fat here? This is all muscle!" he said while puffing out his chest in pride. I started bursting out laughing uncontrollably, and his pride deflated.

"Hey! What are you laughing at?" I pulled Yusuke's shirt down and chuckled at his childish pout.

"I'm laughing at you," I said. He just grunted and I smiled.

"You're toned for your age, I'll give you that," I said while smirking at his grin and watching his ego inflate," but I've seen better." And pop went the ego balloon. I chuckled and started making my way up the stairs to the top floor of the apartment.

405 was platted in gold on a white door.

"Well this is my apartment, but which one is yours," said Yusuke. I looked to the right at 406, and then to the left at 404. I glared at the door as Yusuke started snickering next to me. There was a piece of paper taped to the door and it read:

WELCOME HOME SELINA!

BE READY TOMORROW AT 4,

AND YES I MEAN IN THE MORNING

SO GET YOUR ASS UP!

I growled and ripped the paper off the door. Yusuke was laughing aloud now. I shook my head at him, then crouched down and lifted up the black doormat that had a white 404 on it.

"What are you doing?" I stood up and showed him the key.

"Ah, that would be important." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ya think," I replied sarcastically. He smirked and followed me as I opened the door and entered into the apartment. We took off our shoes and went to look around. It wasn't bad. It had white walls and chestnut hardwood floors in the main rooms, and black carpet and light blue walls in the bedrooms. 'At least he got my room right,' I mentally grumbled. It was already furnished, and overall I couldn't complain. Yusuke had left my side some time ago and I went off in search of him. I rolled my eyes to see him digging around in my refrigerator. 'Of course he would go right for the food,' I shook my head,' boys.'

"Find anything interesting?" I called to him. Bam!

"Shit!" I snorted.

"You alright?" He tried to glare at me and stood up from bending over inside the fridge while rubbing a spot on his head. I smirked at his expression, because his glare looked more like a pout.

"That wasn't funny Selina," he said in a dry tone.

"I wasn't laughing Yusuke," I retorted, not being able to control a large grin. "So did Koenma leave me any food, or do I have to go grocery shopping?" He turned back to look in the fridge and bent down again to grab something. I caught the flying soda pop as Yusuke closed the refrigerator door.

"Yeah! You have everything in there! I'm so staying over here." I laughed and lifted my pop up in the air to him as a salute.

"Well, since it's not my money I'm using for groceries, then I say knock yourself out." He smirked. I sighed, opened up my soda, and took a gulp of the bubbly goodness.

"There's only a couple things missing that Poopy Pants forgot to bring."

"What's that?" questioned Yusuke snickering at my nickname for the little prince.

"My videogames! I can't live without them!" I wailed pathetically. Yusuke snorted at me.

"That's no problem," he said waving his hand," I've got plenty. You can come over and play them." I grinned and whooped.

"Let's go then, I want to see what you have," I said in excitement. I hadn't played in a while and had been dying to get my hand on a controller. Yusuke laughed.

"Alright, let's go!"

We left my apartment after we finished chugging down our sodas and then went next door to his. He opened up the door and we walked in.

"Mom! I'm home!" yelled Yusuke. I walked inside the apartment, which looked a lot like mine, except mine was a lot cleaner. I could smell stale smoke from a cigarette, and I heard some voices, which meant the TV had to be on.

"I'm in the front room!" A woman's voice yelled from somewhere down the hallway. I followed Yusuke into a large room that must have been his living room because there were some couches, a coffee table, and a TV. Yusuke's mom, Atsuko, stood up from the couch. She looked the same as the last time I saw her, except the tear stains were gone and replaced with glazed eyes, rosy cheeks, and a huge grin.

"Yusuke! You're home!" Yusuke's eyes got big as his mother quickly drew him into a hug. She must have been squeezing hard because Yusuke grunted and his eyes were bulging. I couldn't help chuckling at the ridiculous site.

"Mom, let go," said Yusuke, as he managed to escape her grasp. Atsuko must have heard me laugh, for she let go of Yusuke and turned to me. Yusuke was wheezing behind her.

"Hello, who are you?" slurred Atsuko. I smiled and bowed to her.

"My name is Selina." She giggled.

"Yusuke I didn't know you had a girlfriend. I always thought you liked Keiko." Yusuke's and my eyes nearly popped out of our heads as we both started denying the drunken claim from the drunken woman.

"Mom! She is not my girlfriend, she is a friend!"

"Yeah, I'm your new neighbor. I just moved in next door," I said hoping that our words would get through her alcohol-soaked brain. She just giggled again and walked closer to me. My eyebrow rose as she approached me.

"Oh, a new neighbor! I'm Atsuko Urameshi. It's so good to see Yusuke making friends!" I didn't realize why she was walking up to me until she abruptly caught me up in the Hug-o-Popping-Eyeballs. All I had time to do was let out a little squeak as I was lifted up off the floor.

"Awe you're so adorable! Are you sure you're not Yusuke's girlfriend?" I looked over her shoulder at Yusuke who was just standing there with his eye's wide open and a gaping mouth.

"Uh, no ma'am. I'm 17. Yusuke's a little young for me," I wheezed, knowing how Yusuke felt now.

"Oh, well that's ok. Keiko and Yusuke make such a cute couple, don't they?" Yusuke snapped out of it and started trying to hide a light blush with an irritated expression. He walked up to his mom and pulled on her arms to let me go.

"Mom, let her go, you're gonna kill her."

"Oh!" Atsuko finally released me and set me on the ground. I coughed and tried to suck in as much air as I could.

"Mom, maybe you should go take a nap, ok?"

"Ok! It was nice meeting you Selina!" said a chipper Atsuko, who skipped down the hall to her room acting as if nothing had happened. Yusuke and I shared disbelieving looks.

"You alright?" Yusuke said while shaking his head at his mother's behavior. I groaned.

"Yeah, I'm used to it." He looked at me with a questioning gaze. "Remember Mariko?" He laughed.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Our attention was suddenly directed down the hall as we heard a feminine voice start singing loudly, obnoxiously, and quite off key. We both sweat dropped. I turned to Yusuke.

"Well, your mom is very…um…"

"Drunk," said an annoyed teenage boy. I shrugged.

"I was going to say jubilant, but that works to."

I laughed at the memory. It was hilarious how overly happy Atsuko was. She was one of those funny drunks. I shook my head and folded another pair of pants to put in my last suitcase.

It didn't take long for me to pack my clothes and toiletries. Now I just needed to pack my videogames and some books. However, for that I would need boxes, which I didn't have. 'To the storage room I go,' I thought with sarcasm. I ambled out of my quarters and started making my way down the labyrinth of halls that made up the palace. I was strolling around in my black short shorts, a dark blue sports bra, and ankle socks, when all of a sudden…

EH. EH. EH. EH.

"Son of a monkey," I yelled as I nearly jumped a foot off the ground as an alarm sounded throughout the hallways. I put a hand to my chest and tried to calm my racing heart as a voice cut through the annoying alarm.

"Code red, emergency, code red! There has been a breech in the security system of the royal vaults!"

"Huh?" A breech in the royal vaults? That could only mean one thing…thieves.

I'll admit that sometimes I get in trouble because I act before I think, and this was one of those times. It didn't cross my mind that I was unarmed and had little clothes on as I ran down the hallways. I just wanted to get to the vaults and try to stop the thieves before they could get away with anything dangerous.

I pushed myself to go faster as I neared the royal vaults. I turned a corner and stopped in my tracks as the other figures did the same. 'These must be the thieves.' I did a quick assessment of them, and it seemed they did the same to me. There were three of them. The tallest one looked like a huge, muscled, ugly human with short brown hair. The second one looked around 5'7", had long red hair, and deep emerald eyes. He looked like he was a teenager, but that could be because demons aged differently then humans. The third looked to be around my height, maybe a little bit taller. My eyes were instantly focused on him. He had long black spiked hair. It reminded me of fire. He also had a white starburst near the front of his hair, but that's not what stunned me, it was his intense crimson eyes. They were beautiful.

"Well, well, look what we have here. I guess they had more treasures than we thought," said the ugly tall one. His comment brought me out of my daze and I instantly glared daggers at him. I growled.

"Thieves, relinquish whatever items you have stolen or suffer the consequences!" All three of them raised their eyebrows. The shortest one scoffed.

"Ha, pathetic ningen onna. You can not hurt us."

"Wanna bet?" Light blue locked with crimson.

"Code red, I repeat, code red! All guards to the royal vault. They've taken all three of them!"

"Please miss, we do not want to hurt you," said the red head. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Hm, I think we should take her with us," said ugly. Shorty growled.

"We don't have time for this." I barely had time to dodge as he ran at me with his katana in hand. (I just realized my weaponless predicament.) I spun around him and sent a kick to his back, making him stumble forward. I crouched into a defensive stance waiting to see what he would do. I heard a bark of laughter from behind me.

"Ha, did you see that! She got Hiei!" I could tell it was ugly who said this by his deep and scratchy irritating voice. 'So crimson's name is Hiei.' Said male, turned around quickly to glare me in the eyes. His gaze was so intense as it swept up and down my body that I shivered and took a step back. 'Great Lina, piss off the guy with the sword. I'm so stupid, running off without a weapon. Stupid, stupid, stupid.'

"Oof." One minute he was standing there, the next he had me pinned against the wall with his sword to my neck. His free hand had one of my mine shoved against the wall above my head, while my free hand was wrapped around the wrist of the hand with the sword. He growled lightly and put a little more pressure on the katana. I gasped and tried to pull his hand away and wiggle free. However, I found out with a small blush, that he had his body so pressed up against mine, that I could not move an inch, and what a warm body it was especially since I wasn't wearing much to begin with. I mentally slapped myself. 'This is not the time to be thinking like that Selina! For Kami's sake, he's a thief. Bad mind, bad mind, stupid hormones.' Of course, it didn't make it easier when his face was friggen two inches away from mine! I furrowed my eyebrows as a smirk appeared on his lips. 'What the…?'

"Hiei, we have to leave now." I'm guessing that was Red. His voice was a soothing light tenor.

"Heh, unless you want to take her with us?" 'Ugh.' That would be Ugly.

"Leave her be Hiei, she does not pose a threat." I didn't know whether to be thankful or insulted by Red's comment. Hiei slid his gaze to his companions and then back to me. He growled and then removed his sword from my neck.

"This isn't over," he whispered to me. I growled back at him while he just stared back at me with those intense blood eyes. I felt his hand release mine and then go to the back of my neck. I stiffened at once, but then quickly went limp and succumbed to darkness, crimson eyes being the last thing I saw.

Whoop! Hiei and Kurama finally appeared!!! YAY!!! Well hope you enjoyed chapter 6 of Forbidden Love. Angel