Chapter 19 - The Second Date
Screams came from all directions. Rin was surrounded by strangers, a crowd of bodies that pressed in against her on all sides, a mixture of pungent body odor and the smell of something sickly sweet invading her nostrils. She needed to get out, get away, but she couldn't move in any direction. Trapped. Someone grabbed her wrist and yanked, dragging her into open space.
Kazuma Kuwabara had pulled her out of the flow of traffic and into the lee of a gigantic wooden roller coaster and its safety railing, where it was relatively quiet. Except for the several-ton trains passing by every few minutes, filled with screaming adrenaline junkies.
The auburn-haired giant of a man worked his chiseled jaw, eyes dark with concern, and asked, "You okay, Rin? You looked like you were sort of freaking out a little bit."
"Thanks for the help, Kuwabara," Rin said, sighing and mopping a hand across her face. "I have trouble with crowds."
Hiei caught her eye. She knew that he could sympathize. The fire demon crossed his arms and glared outward at the milling crowd with his fiery red gaze, daring any of the passerby to invade their space.
Rin saw a flash of teal farther down the path; Yukina materialized in the press of bodies, bearing bottles of water for them all.
It was a month after the Kuwabaras' wedding, and Yukina had invited Rin to an amusement park 'with everyone.' Rin had assumed that 'everyone' meant Yusuke, Kurama, and the usual crew; she had gone to the meet up spot at the front gates to find only Kuwabara, Yukina, and a reluctant, very quiet Hiei.
A double date. Damn Yukina and her innocent smiles.
In the weeks since the wedding, Rin had gone back to her regular life of work, hobbies, friends, and only occasionally thinking about Hiei. Scratch that, if she was being honest: make it very regularly thinking about Hiei. Like an infatuated teenager, which was embarrassing. She was too old for this.
She had seen the demon only once in the intervening time, when he had knocked on the sliding door to her balcony, totally coincidentally while she was in the middle of making dinner one evening. She had made them dinner, then asked him to do the cleanup after. The bemused fire demon had stood at the sink like a crow with its feathers all ruffled and out of place, rinsing dishes and putting them in the dishwasher per her instructions. Had he even touched a dishwasher before? She didn't know, but he could obviously learn. Rin did have to rearrange the dishes afterwards to make efficient use of the space, but at least it was progress.
There had been no romance but lingering glances; Hiei had left soon after, leaping into the night from her balcony with barely a goodbye, leaving Rin off-kilter and confused. She had hoped for more. But she promised herself that she wouldn't chase him; she knew from painful experience the futility of trying to change someone set in their ways. And she didn't mind making him dinner every so often, even if he didn't seem to be interested in taking things between them any further.
So this revelation that the amusement park outing was not a group activity at all, but rather a double date covertly arranged by Yukina, was a complete surprise to Rin.
Kuwabara had joked that he had wanted to make Hiei go to Tokyo Disneyland and wear a pair of Mickey Mouse ears, which earned a particularly poisonous look from the fire demon.
"Oh, everyone else had to cancel," Yukina had said with a twinkle when Rin pulled her aside to ask about the circumstances of the 'accidental' double date. There was a mischievous glint in Yukina's rose-petal eyes that said she knew exactly what she was doing. Rin suspected that someone - Kurama or Botan, most likely - had blabbed about (almost) everything Yukina had missed at the wedding, including Rin and Hiei getting reacquainted.
In the present, the four of them drank thirstily from the water bottles Yukina had procured - it had not occurred to any of them to bring water and the day was already sweltering - while the nearby roller coaster train roared by with a maelstrom of wind.
"What shall we do next?" Yukina asked, smoothing back the locks of hair blown in her face from the coaster's passage.
Upon arrival at the amusement park, they had scoped out some of the attractions and looked at a map, then chosen to start with an old-fashioned merry-go-round. Or rather, Yukina, Kuwabara, and Rin had ridden carousel horses while Hiei silently refused to ride and watched from the sidelines, arms crossed, like a frowning black omen of disaster. He had been even more taciturn than usual, not saying more than a few words since they had arrived, and Rin wondered if it was because he was totally out of his element in a crowded theme park - not to mention that he was surrounded by hordes of humans. It reminded her of when they had first met; back in the day he had refused to even speak to her for weeks.
"Let's do a roller coaster," Kuwabara cried with boyish excitement, pointing towards the other side of the park. "There's a new one I really want to ride. We've got to get there early if we don't want to wait - it's got a launch start and a 95 degree drop and three barrel rolls…" He regaled them with an exhaustive list of the coaster's features as they entered the line winding beneath the red and black steel structure, which rose a hundred feet in the air like an alien monolith.
Hiei, who had followed dutifully behind the three of them thus far, balked at the arched entrance to the line with his feet planted. Rin was the first to notice his absence behind her. Hiei looked like he could stand there all day if he had to. Passing guests stared at him sidelong as they squeezed by him and entered the line, but he ignored their curious glances with a lifted chin.
Yukina turned back and trotted back the wrong way through the ride entrance, grabbing her brother's wrist and ushering him out of the path of traffic. Rin and Kuwabara followed with apologetic looks to people getting in line behind them, bemused.
"Are you all right, brother? You've been very quiet today," Yukina said, gazing up into Hiei's face. "You don't have to ride if you don't want to."
"Oh, I know what the problem is," Kuwabara said, throwing a meaty arm around the fire demon's slender shoulders. "He's scared, aren't you, half pint?" He put on an exaggerated expression of sympathy, his narrow eyes held wide and doe-like, while Hiei glared at him.
Hiei muttered in Kuwabara's ear, "I am more than happy to make my sister a young widow, you abhorrent oaf." He stepped neatly away, letting Kuwabara's arm drop like it was a venomous snake.
Yukina ignored her husband's jibing at her brother and either didn't hear or pretended not to hear Hiei's threat, her gently concerned expression not faltering in the slightest. She continued, "I know this is a lot of people for you. We can go somewhere quieter, if you like? Or we can leave."
Then Hiei announced, louder, ignoring her question, "Nothing is the matter. I agreed to come here and that was all. I never said I'd get on one of these metal death traps. I'll wait for you there." He pointed at a nearby bench.
Her stomach dropped in disappointment, and Rin realized suddenly that she absolutely needed to see Hiei on a roller coaster. She would use any means necessary to get him to ride.
Clapping a hand on his shoulder, she leaned on him and said with a grin, "Oh, come on. It'll be fun. Just one? If you don't like it, we won't make you try any more."
He glowered at her, jaw set. He clearly wasn't going to move unless there was nothing less than an act of god. Or perhaps, a sufficiently tempting offer…
"Or, we could make another deal," Rin mused, drawing the words out and tapping her chin like she was thinking hard. "But this one doesn't have to be a life debt." She flashed a grin, but he just watched her, his eyes dark with suspicion, and waited for her to finish. "If you ride the coaster with us, I'll make you dinner for a week."
His brows furrowed together as he considered for a few moments, looking for the catch in her suggestion, but his face eventually cleared and he jerked his chin in assent. Hiei could almost always be bribed with food. Rin grabbed his hand, accustomed this time to the burning heat of his skin, and pulled him through the ride's entrance arch before he could change his mind. Out of her brother's line of sight, Yukina looked delighted, which confirmed Rin's suspicions that the ice demon had planned the double date entirely on purpose.
"I don't understand the point of these metal contraptions," Hiei said as they got into line behind a group of rambunctious teenagers. "Why you humans enjoy being tossed around like leaves in the wind is beyond even my comprehension."
Realizing belatedly that she was still holding his hand, Rin let go when she saw Yukina grinning.
Rin's heart sped up as they got closer and closer to riding the steel behemoth. It was always like that with the first coaster of the day on an amusement park trip: almost unbearable anxiety and intrusive thoughts of the train flying off the rails until she actually rode the thing, and then she would be fine. But even Hiei was on edge as the line slowly wound closer and closer to the front. His lips were pressed together into a thin white line, a sure sign that the usually stoic demon was not as indifferent as he wanted to appear.
Kuwabara kept up a stream of chatter about his favorite rides and bucket list coasters all over the world as they wound through the endless lanes of metal railings, his hand sometimes straying to Yukina's back or shoulder. When he thought no one was looking, Kuwabara would gaze at his wife like he was dying of thirst and she was a desert oasis, like he expected her to disappear like a mirage, like he was the luckiest man in the world. Yukina listened intently and asked him follow-up questions, which of course Kuwabara was delighted to answer.
Finally they were next in line on the crowded ride platform; a full train left the station with a roar and another one disgorged its passengers soon after. The train cars were red with black trim, with red seats two by two underneath black over-the-shoulder restraints. The four of them lined up near the middle of the train. Yukina and Kuwabara were in the row in front while Rin and Hiei were in the row behind them. Rin wedged herself in the far seat with Hiei close behind; he sat down gingerly next to her, staring straight ahead, jaw held tight, teeth clenched. He followed Rin's lead when she pulled the restraints down onto her shoulders, but almost snapped at the ride attendant when she came around for her safety check.
"It's okay," Rin said, awkwardly patting his hand over the bulky restraints and giving an apologetic look to the uniformed teen. "She's just doing her job."
Hiei grunted, face set in a 'let's get this over with' scowl, his hands clutching the black rubber over his chest in a white-knuckled grip. Rin gave him a worried look. Hopefully he would be okay. Maybe this would be too much for him, but it was too late to back out now. She took a shaky, excited breath, then held her own harness and waited for the ride to start, heart pounding. One second. Two. Three.
A vibrating roar, a rush of wind, and they were launched down the track like a fighter jet off of an aircraft carrier deck. Rin screamed involuntarily, an adrenaline-fueled mix of joy and terror. It was hard to hear anything with the wind rushing in her ears, but in the seat in front of her Kuwabara put his hands in the air and bellowed with joy, his auburn curls flying. Hiei was totally silent, his crimson eyes narrowed against the cutting wind. She couldn't tell if he was enjoying the ride, having a panic attack, or just waiting for it to be over.
Later, after the ride's three barrel rolls, zero-G inversions, and whatever else Kuwabara was still talking excitedly about, they stopped at the coaster's photo station to check out the on-ride photos, Hiei trailing behind. When they finally found the photo of the four of them, Rin, Kuwabara, and Yukina couldn't stop laughing.
Yukina and Kuwabara were in front, the ice demon screaming with her eyes shut and her husband grinning wide enough to split his face, his hands in the air. Behind them, Rin was screaming and holding on for dear life, while Hiei was glaring directly at the camera, red eyes glowing from within like he was trying to burn a hole in the lens.
"Oh, we have to get that one," Kuwabara cried, thrusting his credit card at the attendant.
The group walked out into the amusement park thoroughfare, Yukina carrying the bag containing the precious photos and hanging on Kuwabara's arm, Rin following, and Hiei stalking moodily after them. Rin hung back and fell into step with the fire demon, letting the two lovebirds get a few paces ahead.
"So," she said, nudging his arm. "What did you think of your first roller coaster?"
When their train had screeched to a halt at the station, the wild ride finally over, Hiei had stumbled as he disembarked. If Rin didn't know him so well, she wouldn't have noticed the hitch in his step. She had instinctively steadied him. At her touch on his shoulder, he had almost snarled but stopped himself, instead huffing in annoyance. But he didn't shrug her hand away, so Rin knew he wasn't entirely unaffected by the experience.
"Tch," Hiei said, thrusting his nose in the air as they passed people with windblown hair and families with excited children. "It was," he paused, searching for the right word for several moments, "fine."
Rin burst out laughing. Yukina and Kuwabara turned to look back, but she waved them away. Yukina winked - actually winked! - at her as she pulled her husband away to look at something in a shop window, confirming Rin's suspicion that the ice demon was certainly not nearly as innocent and guileless as she pretended to be.
"Come on, it's gotta be more than fine," Rin said, bumping Hiei with her shoulder teasingly. "I bet you they don't have anything like that in Demon World."
"That's because, unlike you humans, most demons don't have a death wish," Hiei retorted, sounding more like himself than before. Maybe the roller coaster ride hadn't been so bad after all.
"You know that's not true," Rin replied with a grin. "I've been to the Dark Tournament. Now, the real question is: do you want to try another one?" She speared him with her gaze, fully intending on staring at him until he answered.
He looked away, hiding his expression with the fall of his bangs, then glanced at her sidelong, a sly red twinkle in his eye.
"Make me dinner for a month, human, and I'll ride anything you want."
A thrill went up her spine. She got the feeling he wasn't just talking about roller coasters. Grinning cheekily, she said, "Well, that's a lot of work for me, so you've got to promise to do the dishes."
"If I must," he replied, one corner of his mouth lifting in a slight smile to show a bit of fang.
"Deal."
Author's note: Welcome to the second arc of Shall We Dance! This second date will not (should not?) be as many chapters as the wedding arc, but it should still be a lot of fun. There will be lots of fluff, but I promise there will be plot too. Thanks for staying with me!
Edit: I forgot to thank two new readers - sorry about that! Thanks to TheEmpressOfWhoAskedYou and Italxa for following my story!