[A/N: Happy Friday all! Thank you for your kind birthday wishes! Please enjoy and don't forget to review!]
Chapter 4: Now You're Just Somebody That I Used to Know
"It was great! Tatsuki said I was a natural," Yukina said. She'd spent the next afternoon at school in the Kendo Club with Tatsuki and she'd apparently really enjoyed herself.
"I'm glad you like it. Maybe before we know it, we'll be seeing you in their annual competitions," Kurama said as we walked to his house. "They get very serious."
"But think how much fun you'll have beating the crap out of people with a wooden stick," I said.
"Isn't that why you got kicked out of the kendo club?" Ichigo asked.
"It might have been one of the contributing factors in my outburst," I said. "But to be fair, Tatsuki beat the crap out of me afterward."
"She told me," Yukina said.
"She tells everyone," Ichigo said.
"Who wouldn't? It's not every day that you get to break a stick over Kairi's head," Kurama said as he unlocked his front door. "I myself have done it many times in my childhood."
"I remember," I said as we walked inside.
"Did you guys spend a lot of time together when you were kids?" Ichigo asked.
"A bit. Kairi was always here for school and when she wasn't with Trunks, she was with me. Ruining my life," Kurama said. "And now she sleeps in the room next door to mine so I'm obviously living the dream."
"I love you too, Cousin," I said.
"Snacks anyone?" Kurama asked.
"I would like-."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Kairi. Seeing as how you live here and your legs don't appear to be broken I think you can make your own snack," Kurama said.
"Okay, butt face," I said. "I'm going to change and then I'll be right back to make my own snack."
I walked upstairs to my room and pushed my bedroom door open. Sitting in my desk chair, was Hiei.
"Detective," he said.
"Nope," I said closing my bedroom door and standing in the hallway. So now that I was dating Ichigo and doing relatively well with my life, my grandfather decided to come back from the dead and now, unless I was hallucinating, Hiei was also back, and sitting inside my room. I took a deep breath and then reopened my bedroom door. Hiei was still sitting there. "Oh, I'm not hallucinating. Damn."
"Well, that's a courteous greeting," he said.
"Leave. Leave right now," I said pointing to my window. I did not have time for Hiei's tomfoolery today.
"I came here for a reason," he said.
"Because you're a life ruiner," I said. "Now please go because I am in no fit state to entertain today."
Hiei scoffed.
"Kairi, are you hiding the cookies again?" Kurama asked. He then stopped in the door way and stared into my room. And then he began to chuckle. "Hello, Hiei."
"Kurama," he replied.
"I'm going downstairs to let you two sort this out," Kurama said. "Don't take too long though. Ichigo might get suspicious."
"Fuck off," I said as he walked away.
"The soul reaper?" Hiei asked.
"Yes," I said crossing my arms and leaning against my door frame.
"And he'd be suspicious because?" Hiei asked.
". . . Why do you care?" I asked.
"Healthy curiosity," he said.
"He's my boyfriend and he's sitting in my living room," I said.
"Oh," he said.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said. "Just a helpful coincidence."
"Why?" I asked.
"I'm sure you've noticed the ghosts. The hollows," he said.
"So you came here looking for Ichigo?" I asked.
"I came looking for answers which I suspected you and all your infinite connections might be able to provide," he said.
I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I sighed. There was Ichigo.
"I wondered what was taking you so long," Ichigo said pausing in the doorway, staring at Hiei. "I didn't know you had company."
"Neither did I," I replied. All I could hope for right now was that Hiei, who seemed to get a kick out of irritating everyone, didn't piss off Ichigo, who was a hot head that had no qualms about hitting people in the face when irritated.
"This is Hiei," I introduced him. Hopefully I was going to be able to disarm this situation quickly.
"Oh," Ichigo said, a tone of surprise in his voice.
"What?" Hiei asked.
"Nothing, I just. . . You know," Ichigo started, with a shrug. "I just always thought you'd be taller."
I mentally face-palmed myself as I recalled that Ichigo also had the tendency to accidentally be an asshole.
"I'm-."
"I know who you are, Soul Reaper," Hiei said.
Ichigo looked over to me. "Isn't he just as a friendly as you described him?"
"Probably be friendlier if you didn't talk about his height," I said.
"So perhaps you have an explanation for all the madness?" Hiei asked.
"Madness?" Ichigo asked.
"The hollows," I said.
"Oh. We don't know yet," Ichigo said. "But the Soul Society hasn't said anything really. I think it's just residual energy from that tunnel thing you dealt with."
Hiei rolled his eyes. "Yes. That tunnel has been closed for weeks and yet all these problems we have been plagued with are getting worse. Your deductive skills are almost as remarkable as Urameshi's."
"All this activity started when the tunnel opened up and it hasn't dropped off. It's just the most logical explanation," Ichigo said.
"Well now the tunnel's closed and so is most it's residual energy, so it's more likely that the two have nothing to do with each other," Hiei said.
"Well if I'm wrong and you're right then what's causing it?" Ichigo asked.
"It's your job to know isn't it? I'm not the one with the Zanpakto after all," Hiei said. "Maybe you should be better at your job."
"Hey, I'm just a substitute all right. If something's going on I'm not going to know about it unless they tell me so don't go getting all huffy with me," Ichigo said.
"How about both of you calm down and no one gets huffy with anyone else. I would really like that a lot," I said.
"I don't want to bother you guys, Kurama made nachos and," Yukina paused when she popped up in the door way and then she smiled. "Oh, Hiei! Hi!" She walked past Ichigo and me and over to Hiei and gave him a hug.
A disaster was averted in my room as Hiei's entire face went red and he looked like he was going to vomit. Yukina let go of him and he seemed to relax a little.
"It's so nice seeing you! It's been such a long time," she said. "Are you doing well?"
"Fine," Hiei said, almost as if he wasn't sure he knew how to speak exactly.
"Good," she said.
"Why are you here?" Hiei asked.
"Oh, I'm going to school now with Kairi and Kurama, and Ichigo obviously," Yukina said. "What brings you?"
". . . Uh," Hiei paused.
Now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember Hiei ever having had a conversation with Yukina. Why weren't Kurama and Yusuke here to see this train wreck?
"Oh, that's right. Kurama did mention that you were all lying low because of your falling out with Spirit World. You must be staying close by. . . Except everyone thought you were the one following Kairi, so I doubt that," Yukina said.
"Following you?" Hiei asked turning to me.
"Kairi was being followed by some guy who turned out to be her dead grandfather who isn't really dead," Ichigo said. "You'd know that, but you're never here so who can blame you?"
Hiei rolled his eyes.
"Well, you're here now so it's fine," Yukina said. "You're coming on Saturday aren't you?"
"Huh?" he asked.
"Trunks' mother is having a party on Saturday. All of us are going and so are Ichigo and Orihime and all our new Soul Society attached buddies. We're gonna hang out and bask in the fact that we always save the world and nobody knows," I said. "You're invited even though Bulma and Trunks both kind of hate your guts and I also kind of hate your guts—when are you leaving by the way?"
"Look, how about Yukina and I go downstairs and you two can finish your conversation," Ichigo volunteered.
"Sure you don't want to stay and hang out?" I asked.
Ichigo looked to Hiei and smirked. "Nah. I'm sure you'll be fine and it's not like I've got anything to worry about." He kissed my cheek. "Let's go grab some nachos, Yukina and you can tell me more about kendo club."
"It was good seeing you again, Hiei. I really hope you come Saturday," Yukina said.
She and Ichigo walked out of the room and I took a deep breath.
"Well you have your answer. Soul society hasn't contacted him so he doesn't know what's going on, but he's keeping his eyes open for any new information," I said.
"Yes, I'm sure I'll sleep better knowing it's high on his list of priorities, probably somewhere between doing his school work and feeling you up," he said. I rolled my eyes. "You keep doing that thing with your eyes and they'll get stuck."
"I'm gonna smack you," I said. "Why are you still here? You were gone for six whole weeks and they were perfectly wonderful without you and now you are back and I don't know why."
"And I'm confused about your hostility," he said.
I leered at him, ready to scream, ready to smack him on the face for his blatant ignorance, but no. I was going to be calm about this because Kurama had asked me not to murder him. I closed my door and took a deep breath.
"Six weeks ago after we dealt with Sensui do you remember being here with me in this room?" I asked. He nodded. "Do you remember having a really long conversation with me where you were actually really nice for once?" He nodded again. "And then do you remember taking my pants off and then disappearing for a month and a half."
"I'm pretty sure you left something out there," he said.
I smacked him in the head. "And you think that I wouldn't be the slightest bit upset about it, like I just let every boy I like into my room to get to third base."
"Well I suppose two out of three of us isn't every boy," he said. I smacked him again.
"I am this close to committing homicide, Hiei, and you will be my victim," I said. "Don't test me. You have a lot nerve showing up like this without an apology. Now I'm going to go downstairs with my cousin and your sister and my boyfriend."
"Have a wonderful time," he said with a scoff.
"I will. I'm going to go downstairs and pretend to do homework and then Ichigo and I are going to walk Yukina home to Kuwabara's house where she's staying, and then we're going to go to his house and we're going to make out until we can't see straight. Then I'm coming back here to go to bed and when I wake up in the morning he'll text me to say good morning and then, in a crazy turn of events, I'll actually get to see him tomorrow because that's how relationships work."
"You expectations were sorely misplaced if you thought that anything that happened between us was indicative of a relationship," he said.
"You are unbelievable," I said. "You were in my room with the obvious intention of getting in my pants and you were mostly successful and you're chalking it up to me being naïve? Are you serious right now?"
"Perhaps you shouldn't assume, Detective," he said.
"I think I was well within my rights to assume after you took my pants off," I said. "But you know what, it doesn't matter because I have a fantastic wonderful boyfriend now and unlike you he is not an asshole."
"Congratulations," he said.
"Thank you," I said. "I'm going downstairs. Do not be here when I get back."
"Don't worry. I'll be gone," he said as I opened my bedroom door. "But I will see you Saturday." I turned and glared at him.
". . . I hate you," I hissed.
"No, you don't," he said.
888
"This is going to be hellish," I said on Saturday morning, as I ate breakfast. "It would've been fine initially if it'd just been us and my dad's old friends, maybe I might've even survived bringing Ichigo, but now everything is just complicated," I said.
"Kairi, lots of things weirder than your grandfather popping up out of the blue suddenly alive after forty some odd years have happened, and lots of things worse too," Shiori said.
Kurama's mother, my mother's younger sister, was well informed about all of the goings on in my family and knew essentially everything except that her son was a demon who was hundreds of years old. After his absences from school while dealing with the tunnel we sat her down and explained that Kurama did occasionally help me out as Spirit Detective, but that was about as in depth as the discussion got. Shiori preferred to leave my mother to play the active role in the weirdness she'd inherited when she married my dad and only when her life was threatened did we pull her from normal existence like when Majin Bui attacked.
Other than that, my aunt was as human and normal as they came. She was so uninvolved with the antics my family got into that it was pointless for her to even mention any of the oddities to her fiancé, though she obviously didn't talk about us much considering the living members of it were constantly in flux.
"Aunt Shiori, I am 15-years-old. Maybe you've forgotten this, but when you're my age, everything seems like the end of the world," I said.
"When your mom was about 15, the evil king Piccolo put out a hit on your grandpa and it was actually the end of the world," Shiori said. "Stop complaining. You should be excited."
"I certainly am," Kurama said with a smile.
Acknowledging the fact that Bardock was alive, having Trunks, Ichigo, and Hiei under one roof, introducing my parents and my brothers to Ichigo I bet Kurama was going to be having a swell time watching me slowly sink down into a hole of darkness and despair.
"Hurry and finish getting cleaned up in here so we can go," Shiori said. She exited the kitchen as I stuffed my last piece of bacon into my mouth.
"So, what are you least looking forward to today?" Kurama asked.
"You being a smug ass all day as I slowly descend into madness," I said.
"It will be fine. Goten said that he seems to think Bardock is a nice guy, Ichigo is a nice boy and your parents will adore him, Hiei is an ass, but he only really likes to harass you and usually doesn't like to draw too much attention to himself. You'll be fine," Kurama said.
"Yeah, I know Hiei doesn't like attention. It's confrontation he loves, and wouldn't you know it, but Ichigo's a hot head who is very aggressive and confrontational," I said. "If Yukina hadn't shown up when she had when Hiei was here they definitely would've started hitting each other."
". . . Did you know you have a type?" Kurama asked. I frowned at him. "I'm just being honest. And anyway, I don't know why you've developed this seething hatred for Hiei all of a sudden. You don't have to hate him just because you liked him and now you're dating someone else."
"I know," I said. "That would be silly."
"Did something happen between the two of you before he disappeared?" Kurama asked.
I nodded. "But I don't want to talk about it. Just know that my anger is warranted, even more so now after what he said yesterday. As far as I'm concerned Hiei's just a skeevy little snake in the grass."
". . . Now I'm concerned," Kurama said.
"Don't be," I said. "Hiei and everything between us is in the past."
Kurama nodded. "I suppose I'm glad to hear that."
"Really? Isn't Hiei your best friend? You were kind of rooting for him before," I said.
"That's true. He may be my closest friend, but I remember how you were after he left," Kurama said. "You're very brave and very strong, but I saw the way you'd stare out your bedroom window like you were waiting for him and it made sad to see you like that."
I shrugged. "It's not like I'm the first girl who's ever gotten blown off. I know I'm not the first girl Hiei's ever done it to."
"Still, friend or not, I would trust Hiei with my life, but not with you," Kurama said. "Not with your heart anyway."
"Sheesh, when did you turn into my big brother?" I asked.
"I'm not entirely certain, but despite being obnoxious and less intelligent than most, I do care about your well being," Kurama said.
"I'm going to ignore that dig you took at me and just say thank you," I said rolling my eyes.