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Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. They belong to Yoshihiro Togashi, Studio Perroit, and any other people who worked on the creation of this wonderful series.
Chapter 4: Flying High...Too High!
Kurama
It's been nearly an hour since Yuusuke and Kuwabara left, and I'm getting worried. Boton should be here by now. I pace restlessly around the small hospital room.
Hiei is still unconscious on the bed. I walk over and feel his forehead. His temperature is rising. Boton had better hurry up, or one of the nurses will notice. Then we'll have even bigger problems.
Hiei's head moves slightly as he stirs. I sit next to him on the bed, waiting patiently for him to regain consciousness. My lover moans weakly and opens his eyes, squinting in the harsh light. He stiffens as he sees me, but does nothing. His eyes are filled with a mixture of defiance and confusion as he demands in a whisper, "Who the hell are you?!"
I smile at the Jaganshi. "What's wrong, love? Don't recognize me?"
He relaxes slightly, relieved, and glances around the hospital room. "Where the hell are we?"
I sigh. He's not going to like the answer. "Um...We're in...um...a ningen hospital," I reply warily.
"Nani?!" Hiei's blood-red eyes widen, then narrow. "What the hell are we doing here?!" he whispers, alarmed.
I touch his cheek. His temperature is going up. I'll have to warn him about that. He pulls away from my hand, then winces and puts a hand to his head. "You had a skull fracture. Yukina couldn't heal you. You would have died without medical attention."
My lover is silent for a moment. "Well, at least that explains why my head hurts." I smile. "Have they figured out that I'm not a ningen yet?" He doesn't look at me.
I realize that he's afraid. He knows what ningens have done to other youkai that were unfortunate enough to be caught. "No. Koenma let us use reiki to shield your Jagan." He looks at me. "They don't know."
"How did you get me into the hospital? I thought that you need some sort of identification. I don't have any." He looks confused. "And isn't it hard to make fakes?"
"Not for me." I grin at him. "Just to warn you, if one of the nurses comes in, I'm supposed to be your mother. And your name is 'Taki'..."
He interrupts me. "What the hell?! 'Waterfall'?! You're joking, right?!"
"It was the name of the son of the man that we stole the identification from." He stares at me, amazed. "You didn't let me finish," I smirk. "Yuusuke is supposed to be your father, and Kuwabara is your older brother."
My fire demon looks disgusted. "You people are sick." I snicker at the look on his face. Hiei is silent for a moment. "How the hell did I get a skull fracture, anyway? The last thing I remember is beating the shit out of the little fuck who pushed Yukina."
I frown. "When you turned to help Yukina, the other guy kicked you in the back of the head."
"I'm going to kill that bastard!" He tries to sit up, but gasps in pain, and lays back down again.
"Take it easy. You just had surgery." He sighs. "Hiei?" The small youkai glances at me. "Don't curse. You're supposed to be nine."
"Nani?!" He glares at me. "This sucks!"
I sigh. "Just go to sleep. You need to rest." He growls at me defiantly. "Look, you almost died. You just went through three hours of surgery to fix a hole in your head."
"Fine!" he snarls, and closes his eyes. He turns over, onto his side, facing me.
"And Hiei?" He opens one eye. "Lower your ki, or they'll think you're running a fever. Then we'd never get out of here."
The Jaganshi growls disgustedly and closes his eye. I feel his aura being supressed. After a few minutes, his breath deepens. Leaning over, I kiss his cheek. He sighs softly. I smile and sit back to wait for Boton.
The blue-haired ferry-girl smiles sheepishly. "I had to help pick up some souls. There was some sort of disaster."
I sigh. "Fine. Let's just get out of here." I uncover Hiei, then smile as I see the white pajamas (complete with booties) that he's dressed in. I gently lift him into my arms, and turn toward Boton.
She snickers. "Love the PJ's!! I want a pair!!"
"Let's go," I sigh, as I jump onto her oar. We are immediately transported to the Reikai. About four hundred meters above the ground. "Oh, Inari-sama! We're gonna die. We're gonna die."
Boton turns her head to look at me, annoyed. "My flying's not that bad!"
I scream in fear as we head straight for the face of a cliff. "LOOK OUT!!" Boton directs her attention back to her flying and swerves just in time. We miss the cliff by about two inches.
Hiei stirs in my arms and tries to push away from me. Then he sees how far off the ground we are. "Holy shit!!" He grabs the oar and hold on for dear life. Then he glares at me. "You could've warned me, y'know!!"
We've experienced Boton's flying before. How she got her flying liscence is beyond me. The flying instructor probably gave it to her so he could get rid of her.
My stomach lurches as Boton turns sharply. "Um...Boton?"
"Hmmm?" she asks, obviously concentrating very hard on her flying. That's not very reassuring.
"Could you fly a bit more carefully? Hiei just went through surgery, and I'm quite sure that he doesn't need to go through any more trauma right now." Hiei grunts in assent. The blue-haired ferry-girl mutters something. Her flying doesn't get any better. "B-Boton...It might help if you slowed down..."
She slows down. About one meter per second. "I'm flying fine!!" she yells. "I'm the one with the license!!"
Finally, we get to the gate that will take us straight to Genkai's temple. In reality, the ride from hell only takes about five or ten minutes, but it certainly seems like more. We land in the forest near the temple.
Hiei tries to get up, but he winces and sits down, holding his throbbing head. "I never want to do this ever again!! I pity the poor souls that have to ride with her." I pick him up. "I'm gonna tell Koenma to sent anyone but you for me."
Boton looks outraged. "Hmph! I wouldn't want to pick you up anyway." She goes back through the gate.
I sigh. "Well, she's going to be pissed at you for quite a while."
My lover growls. "I don't care! Where the hell did she learn to fly?!"
I shake my head. "I don't know, but I would hate to have been her flying instructor..." I look down at him. "Go back to sleep." He sighs, closes his eyes and quickly falls asleep. I carry him toward the temple.
Yukina sees me and rushes over. "Kurama-san!!"
"Shhh...Hiei's asleep."
She nods. "How is he?" she whispers.
I smile. "He's okay. The only thing that bothered him was the ride that Boton gave us."
She smiles back. "I'm so glad he's okay! He got hurt protecting me from those horrible boys!" The little Koorime looks away from me. "I feel like it's my fault."
"Yukina, it wasn't your fault. No one could have known that would have happened." She nods. I carry Hiei inside and set him on a futon, covering him with a blanket.
Yukina kneels beside the small fire demon and places her hand on his forehead. A soft blue light surrounds her hand. She turns to me. "I healed him."
I nod and remove the bandages from around Hiei's head. They shaved part of the back of his head. I sigh. I'll have to make something to make it grow back faster. I carefully remove the now-unnecessary stitches.
Yukina watches me in silence. When I am done she looks at me. "Can we go outside? I want to ask you something."
"Sure, Yukina-san." We leave the temple. "What is it?"
"Kurama-san?"
"Nani?" I am curious. What does she want to talk to me about?
The little Koorime fidgets. "I...I want to get something for Hiei-san for Christmas because he's been so nice to me. Do you know what he might like?"
I think about that for a moment. I know that Yukina has no money. Whatever she gives him will be hand-made. "I'm not sure, Yukina-san." She looks disappointed. "But...You're really good at embroidery, aren't you?" She nods. "Maybe you could make him a headband with something embroidered on it. Or something else. I'm sure he'll like whatever you give him."
She smiles. "I know exactly what to do now! Arigato, Kurama-san!" She skips off happily, probably to get to work on whatever her gift will be.
I shake my head. I'll have to remind Hiei to get something for her. Or take him out to get it. Otherwise he'll just steal it. I walk back to the temple.
Yuusuke sees me and jogs over. "I didn't know you were back yet." I smile and nod. "When'd you get here?"
"About twenty minutes ago. Boton was late. Then she almost killed us with her flying."
Yuusuke snickers. "How did I know that was going to happen?" I glare at him. "Anyway...How's Hiei?"
"He's okay. Asleep. Yukina healed him the rest of the way."
Yuusuke nods. "Y'know, next time I suggest that we go roller skating, shoot me."
"Sure," I reply, deadpanned. "I'll shoot you." Yuusuke grins. "What are we doing for Christmas?"
The ningen scratches his head. "I dunno." He looks around. "If it'd snow we could go sledding..." It's very cold out and the sky looks threatening. It has all week, but we still have no snow. Yukina is disappointed, as are Yuusuke and Kuwabara. The two ningens are looking forward to the snowball fights. Hiei was only in the Ningenkai once when it snowed. He never commented on it, but he was here for only a day when Mukuro called him back to the Makai. He's never been here for Christmas.
I smile. "Good luck on that one." On cue, big, wet, snowflakes start falling from the sky. "Figures."
Yuusuke starts laughing. "Well, if you'd said that earlier, there'd be enough snow for a snowball fight!" I grin. The best part about snow: the snowball fights. Especially the ones with Yuusuke and Kuwabara. They can't throw.
Yukina comes outside. "It's snowing!!" she cries happily.
Kuwabara comes out as well. "Yeah!! We can have a snowball fight later!!"
I shake my head and go inside. It's cold out, and I still haven't changed from that green dress yet. I go to the closet where we keep extra clothes and change into a pair of blue pants and a long-sleeved, yellow shirt. I'll have to remember to take the dress back to my okaasan's house. I told her that I needed it for her size. Now I have to buy her a pretty dress for Christmas. Oh, well; she deserves one.
I quietly slip into the room that Hiei is sleeping in. Only he's no longer asleep. He sits up as I come in. "Hello, Hiei. Sleep well?"
He snorts. "Was that the idiot yelling a few minutes ago?"
"Yes. He's happy because it's snowing."
"Hn. Stupid ningen." He rubs the back of his head. And freezes. "What the fuck..?!"
I sigh. "I'll make something to make your hair grow back. They had to shave it to do the surgery."
He growls irritably. "Hn."
I sit down next to him. "By the way, what are you going to get Yukina for Christmas?"
The fire demon gives me a stange look. "Whaddya mean?"
"During Christmas, people get their loved ones gifts," I inform him. "So, what do you want to get her.
Hiei looks uncomfortable. "I...don't know." He looks at me. "I'm not sure what she wants..."
"Well, I'll take you out to get her something. You could get her a necklace or something." He nods. "How are you feeling, love?"
"I'm fine, fox. And don't call me that!!"
I smile at him. "Okay, love. Whatever you say." The fire demon mutters something highly uncomplimentary under his breath. "Now, love, that wasn't very nice."
"Shut up, Kurama." The Jaganshi glares at me. He's really getting pissed.
"Gomen..." I shut up. For a moment. "Do you want to go outside?"
"Hn." He gets to his feet. "I suppose..." He looks down at what he's wearing. "What the fuck am I wearing?!"
"Um...pajamas?" The small youkai glares at me. "The nurses dressed you in them...Let me get your clothes for you." I hurry from the room and am back in a flash with a pair of black pants, a black long-sleeved shirt, and Hiei's cloak and boots. He dresses quickly and we go outside. Already there is about two inches of snow on the ground, and it's falling fasted. Kuwabara and Yuusuke are engaged in a losing snowball fight against Keiko and Shizaru.
"Are they trying to lose, or do they really suck at this?" Hiei asks sarcastically.
"They really suck at this, Hiei," I reply, smiling.
Yukina joins us. "It looks like they're having fun." She looks up at me and smiles. "It's just like home!"
Hiei starts to walk away. "I'll be right back," I tell Yukina. "Hiei! Wait up!" I quickly catch up to him and walk beside him. "Hiei...come on. Let's go back." I know nothing that I can say will console him. It still hurts for him to think about how he was abandoned.
The Jaganshi ignores me and keeps walking. I figure that he wants my company; otherwise he could easily run away. I won't be able to follow if he runs. But he doesn't run. He keeps walking. I look back and see Yukina watching us leave with a confused, hurt expression on her face. "Hiei...Yukina doesn't understand why we're leaving. She thinks she's done something wrong."
My lover stops dead in his tracks and looks back at his sister. He stands there for a moment, the snow around him melting. Then he disappears without a word. Sighing, I walk back to Yukina.
She looks up at me with a hurt expression. "Why did Hiei-san leave? Did I do something wrong?"
"Oh, no, Yukina-san! You didn't do anything wrong. Hiei just had something that he needed to do."
She looks at me, confused. "But he...he looked upset..."
I don't know what to say to that.
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