Chapter 14
"All right, girl, spill it. You have to tell us everything." Large magenta eyes bored into Rin's.
"Botan, please move," Keiko said as she turned to them, sewing kit in hand. "You're in the way."
The blue-haired ferry girl huffed but scooted aside as Keiko knelt and took her needle and thread to the rips in Rin's skirt. When asked why she had brought a sewing kit, she had said, "For Yukina, of course. Someone needs to have one at a wedding, and you know it wasn't going to be Yusuke!"
Rin craned her neck, watching Keiko put neat stitches in her dress hem and envying her friend's tidy needlework.
There was a tug at her hair as Shizuru said, "Stay still." The elder Kuwabara wielded her curling iron and brush like swords, faintly smoking cigarette clamped firmly between her lips as she wrestled with Rin's wild, tangled hair, somehow producing shining waves and curls. Shizuru was a highly paid and sought after stylist for a reason, Rin supposed.
After the fight with Nokawa had ended (Rin didn't want to think about how it had ended), Botan had taken one look at her, grabbed Keiko and Shizuru, and whisked her into Shizuru's hotel room for a quick clean up.
"Can't let a certain someone see you all dirty and sweaty," Botan had said, winking lasciviously.
In the present, as the girls fussed over her and made her fit to be seen, Rin asked innocently, "Tell you what? We won the fight. Nokawa's dead." She stared at herself in the mirror above the desk where she sat, watching Shizuru make miracles with her hair.
"We don't care about the fight, silly! We've seen enough of those boring old things," Botan cried from her perch on one of the hotel beds. "Spirit World sent a security detail and everything is hunky dory - no more crashers tonight. I knew we should have done that in the first place, but did anyone listen to me? Of course not." She waved a hand dismissively. "No, I want to know what happened with Hiei. I know a certain little kitty-kitty who saw you two together on the patio, nyah." Botan clawed her fingers and meowed, then gave a broad wink. "You two lovebirds were very close, in my opinion."
Rin watched a rosy blush rise on her cheeks in the mirror and tried to duck her head to hide it. A firm pull on her hair reminded her to stay still.
"Nothing happened," Rin said, avoiding Botan's gaze. "We were just talking."
"You two were quite close for talking," Botan said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
"I was cold, that's all," Rin said. When Botan's eyes lit up, she wished she could take the words back.
"So you're saying Hiei's hot?" Botan's expression turned positively sinful as she rushed forward to take Rin's hands in hers. "Or do you mean he warmed you up? Our Hiei doesn't do things like that for people he doesn't like, you know." Botan tapped the side of her nose knowingly, then said with a giggle, "Or do them at all, I suppose."
Rin was sure that her face had turned the color of a ripe tomato - she didn't want to look in the mirror to check.
"Botan, you're in the way again," Keiko said, looking up from her work exasperatedly.
"Why don't you do something useful," Shizuru said as she wrapped another lock of Rin's hair around her curling iron. "Heal her. She's got scratches all over."
Grateful for the change of subject, Rin pointed to her scalp. "It's my head that really hurts. That asshole demon tried to pick me up by my hair."
"Oh, you poor thing!" Botan cried, distracted from her quest for the latest romantic gossip. Soon, the ferry girl's hands were emitting soothing white light, sending rivulets of cool Spirit Power over Rin's sore and abused head. It was like standing in a cool shower after working in the hot sun all day, Botan's healing power taking away all of the tight heat and pain of her skin.
Rin closed her eyes and, for the first time in that long, long day, relaxed.
After the girl squad had finished patching her up, they trooped back to the reception hall. Lines of people snaked over the dance floor, laughing and breathless as they stamped and hopped in unison to the Cupid Shuffle. Rin glanced at the other girls and smiled, thinking of the near disaster they had helped prevent. After a quick discussion, they had decided to wait at least a year before telling Kuwabara and Yukina about the whole Nokawa ordeal, and Keiko swore to hold Yusuke - the one most likely to blab - to the promise.
As she was leaving the bar, drink in hand (a double), a slow romantic song came over the speakers. Rin looked around, curious about who would couple up. Shizuru and her mysterious lady strode onto the dance floor hand in hand, which gave Rin the warm fuzzies, while Keiko half-dragged a protesting Yusuke, but he settled down and smiled down at her once she was safe in his arms. Kuwabara and Yukina spun dreamily in a world of marital bliss of their very own, oblivious to anyone but each other.
Hiei stood against the far wall in the same spot from earlier in the evening as though he had never moved, a black crow glowering at everyone. Rin caught his eye, raised a brow, and motioned to the dance floor teasingly, but he blanched and looked away as she chuckled. She sipped her drink and watched the happy couples wistfully.
"May I have this dance?" Kurama's silken voice came from behind her. She turned to see him bowing over his proffered hand.
"Of course," Rin said uncertainly after a short pause, trepidation dogging her reply. Why in the world would Kurama of all people want to dance with her? She downed her drink in one (for courage) and set the glass on a nearby table. "I apologize in advance if I step on your feet."
"Not at all," Kurama said, leading her onto the dance floor and into a slow waltz. "You and I are some of the few without partners, and I suspected that you might like to dance."
Rin nodded and made an agreeing noise, then looked away. The silence between them was mostly comfortable, but Rin found she didn't really know what to say. In her quest to look at anything but the fox demon holding her, she accidentally caught Botan's eye from the sidelines. The ferry girl's face was an absolute picture - wide, shocked eyes, drink hanging loose in one lax hand, and mouth hanging open in an O. It would have been funny in any other circumstance, but Rin was not looking forward to the interrogation later.
Taking in Rin's distraction and 'oh shit' expression, Kurama asked, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, but I think Botan might be having a heart attack." Rin tipped her head in the ferry girl's direction.
Kurama found Botan in the crowd and snorted, perfect nose wrinkling. "She does love her gossip, and I expect the two of us dancing together has inflamed her passion for it." He searched Rin's face, then said, "By the way, I also want to apologize for my suspicions earlier. I should have had more faith in you."
Rin blushed again and looked away. It was so hard to make eye contact with Kurama's knowing green eyes, not to mention his perfect bone structure and silky hair; he was like a marble statue of a person, damn him. Since she hadn't seen him in so long - half her life, she shuddered to think - she had fallen out of practice with coping with his preternatural beauty and acting like a normal person around him. Frankly, he was intimidating, and that was without considering his demon powers or Youko Kurama lurking beneath the surface.
"No, no, I totally get it," she said, waving away his words. "I would have been suspicious too. I mean, I just showed up after fifteen years with Hiei of all people."
Green eyes scanned the room, then cut to hers. "Speaking of our friend Hiei, I believe he may want to talk to you."
The song ended and Jorge switched to a nostalgic, upbeat party song from the 90s. As Kurama released her, he pointed to Hiei; the fire demon was watching Rin with arms crossed, posture expectant. Rin imagined Hiei's foot tapping impatiently and had to smother a slightly hysterical giggle.
"Good luck," Kurama called coyly after her.
The dance floor flooded with party goers as she made a pit stop at the bar and grabbed them both drinks - definitely not an effort at placation! - and approached Hiei in his darkened corner. She had no idea what he could want, but she took a long sip of her cranberry-vodka as she came over.
Handing him his drink, she asked, "What's up?"
He stared down his nose at her, red eyes smoldering in the shadows, only occasionally catching the brief rainbow flash of Jorge's party lights. Though how Hiei managed to be imperious and stare down at her when they were basically the same height, she had no idea. He looked over her shoulder, and when Rin turned and tracked his gaze, she found Kurama on the dance floor.
"What? Kurama? What about him?" She paused, thinking. "You can't be… jealous?" Hastened by the haze of alcohol, the words dropped out of her mouth before she could stop them. Rin covered her mouth with a hand. Fuck.
The fire demon considered her for a long moment as her brain sent off incoherent 'SOS' and 'abort mission' signals. But before she could turn tail and run, he said, voice low and charged with something Rin couldn't put her finger on, "I don't care about that pretentious fox. You've forgotten your promise."
That was not the response that Rin was expecting, and her poor overtaxed brain just couldn't deal with it. The only thing that came out of her mouth was, "What?"
Hiei tossed his head, his unruly blue-black hair highlighted with colorful light from the dance floor, then said, "Typical. As I thought, a human's promise is worth very little, especially if she forgets it an hour later."
Rin was totally at a loss. "What promise?"
Ruby eyes cut to hers, spearing her in place. There was an intense fire in his eyes that she had never seen before as he studied her. He blinked and looked away, breaking the spell, then said, "Tch. Come with me."
Hiei led her out onto the patio and over the cracked and broken tiles where Kurama's plants had sprouted. Clouds scudded by over the coin-bright moon, sent sailing by the ever-present cool breeze. The patio was empty as ever, and Rin wondered if it was the chill night air or the subliminal traces of demon energy that kept the Kuwabaras' guests inside. But she wasn't cold. As soon as they had passed through the doors, a wave of heat like a summer's day radiated from the fire demon. She thought back to Botan's comment about Hiei only doing that for people he liked, and a warmth that had nothing to do with his demonic powers flooded her body.
They stopped at the edge of the patio overlooking the surrounding forest. Rin leaned against the railing and rolled her glass between her hands in a nervous fidget, wondering what Hiei wanted. And why he had taken her all the way out here again, away from the people and noise of the party. Not that she didn't trust him, or that she was scared. It was more that she knew that she had forgotten something important.
His shoulders were tense, held up by his ears as he stood with his back to her. Then he took a deep breath, looked over his shoulder, one red eye glinting in the dark, and said, "Does it mean so little? The promise you made?"
Rin hesitated, then said, "Hiei, I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about."
He sighed, scrubbed a hand over his face, and turned to her, his fiery eyes burning with that same strange light, like he was begging her to understand without words. Then he said, "Your promise," gifting the words with extra emphasis.
When no recognition sparked in her eyes, he paused, gritting his teeth as though he was dragging the words from deep inside. "To… stay with me tonight."
She stared at him in shock. Oh. That promise. That whispered comfort as they held hands under that same moon, a few hours before. She had meant it, perhaps more than she realized at the time, but she hadn't thought it mattered that much to him or that he would take it quite so literally; it was something to make him feel better. It must have been excruciating for him to admit that to her. Hiei was a wild thing. Emotions were unwanted items to be buried deep inside and never, ever dealt with. But with this promise, with her… things were different. A blush rose to her cheeks.
"Hiei, I…" she said, unable to continue. She set her glass to the side, not sure what to expect.
He stalked closer, his heat becoming almost too much to bear, until her back was pressed against the cold, hard railing. She could see the spray of freckles across his nose, the thick fall of his long eyelashes when he blinked those mesmerizing red-orange sunset eyes, the white streaks in his hair shining with silver moonlight, the curve of his lips. He gripped the railing on either side of her, boxing her in. But she wasn't afraid. No, not afraid at all.
"I expect a promise made to be a promise kept, human girl," he said quietly, his face only inches from hers.
The husky sound of his voice sent a bolt of lightning singing through her veins, followed by the thunderous crash of her heart. Somehow, she blushed even harder, but she couldn't look away from his sparking eyes. It was like staring into the heart of a roaring fire. She wanted… what did she want? A fire burned low in her belly to match the heat of his gaze, stoked by every encounter they had had that night and the week preceding, every touch of skin on skin, every teasing word and lingering glance. Enough of waiting. She wanted.
Throwing caution to the winds, Rin leaned forward, closing the small distance between them, and kissed him. He stiffened in surprise, his lips soft and warm against hers in the chaste kiss. Her eyes fluttered closed and her hand came up, just daring to graze his cheek in a feather light touch, but he was as still as a statue, like he was frozen in place. For a long, horrible moment, Rin wondered if she had presumed too much.
Then he growled and pushed her against the railing with his body, hot hands running up her bare arms and tangling in the hair at the nape of her neck as he deepened the kiss, biting her bottom lip as though he wanted to devour her whole. She gasped against him at the bright spot of pleasure-pain and then his tongue was questing in her mouth as his calloused hands roamed her naked shoulders and skimmed her face. The smell of woodsmoke enveloped her. She sighed as he trailed kisses and bites up her jaw, sending flaming bursts of pleasure all the way down to her toes.
Hiei nibbled her ear, earning a breathless gasp, then turned to her neck. He clamped his teeth on the sensitive place where her neck met her shoulder and she gasped again, knees weak and hands clutching at his muscular back of their own accord. As he paused in his attention to her neck, his warm breath misted over her cooler skin, giving her goosebumps. She held her breath.
"Do you remember now, human girl?" he asked finally against her shoulder, his fangs scraping lightly over her skin. One hand was fisted in her hair, the other around her waist, crushing her to him.
"Yes," she sighed into the cool night air, and just like that she was lost.
He pulled back suddenly, leaving her cold and breathless, his gaze hot as a raging wildfire. Hiei bared his teeth in a feral smile and said, "That. That is how I expect you to keep your promise, Rin."
Her name. Her name on his lips, spoken for the first time ever from his mouth, electrified her, even more than his touch.
Author's note: At long last, we finally have some kissing times! Originally this was quite a bit hornier, but I actually scaled it back, if you can believe that. Tune in next week for more adventures of Rin and Hiei at the wedding! And again, a thank you to all my readers, and to RedUniCamel for the favorite! *A few edits - sorry if it notified some people twice!
