Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction / Witch Hunter Robin Fan Fiction ❯ Reunited ❯ Chapter 11

Kurama'sFoxyMiko: I didn't mean to make you cry. Sorry about that. Still, I'm glad you still like it. I'll update again sometime during the week since I'm on Spring Break. Long live the vacations!

 

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Kagome woke up way after everyone else. The sun had not yet reached her, but no one else was in the room. She stretched and sluggishly got up. Time to work, I guess. I wonder if Kaede needs me?

 

She meandered into the main room, where she saw that Hiei was still dead to the world. He looks so much like my baby, only grown up. She walked over to his sleeping form. He did look like her Hiei; it was eerie how much they resembled one another. Maybe they are related, like he said.

 

Realizing her friends hadn't left her any food, she sighed and started making her own breakfast, forgetting she was just feeding herself and making too much. Again. She watched it heat, sitting by the unconscious Hiei. She started to drift off, not completely awake, and wasn't aware of the food reaching its right temperature.

 

~*~

 

Hiei woke up to the smell of cooking food. How can there be someone this close? People aren't supposed to create fires in this forest, he thought, confused, thinking that he was in his customary tree in a park in Tokyo. He opened an eye to a slit, and saw Kagome, just about asleep, not paying attention to the food on the fire.

 

“If you don't remove that, it'll burn,” he said, his voice hoarse from disuse.

 

She started, and pulled the food off the hot flames. “Thanks,” she said. “I didn't know it was ready. I didn't wake you, did I?” she asked in a worried tone.

 

“No, it was the food that was calling me back.”

 

“Oh, I'm sorry,” she apologized, looking sincerely upset that she woke him.

 

“It's fine.” He glanced outside, and his eyes widened. “I didn't know it was so light outside.” This is still a dream, or the illusion is better than I thought. “I had best get going. I don't know where the next village is, and I have a lot of traveling to do.”

 

“You said last night that you didn't know where you were going,” said Kagome, her face mirroring her confusion.

 

“I don't, but I won't get there any faster if I just sit here all day.”

 

“Stay,” she pleaded. He was shocked that she would ask a stranger to stay, and he could tell that she was just as shocked. “It won't hurt to stay until you find out where you're going next.”

 

It's not like I have anything better to do. I have to try and break this illusion, if that's what this is. If it's just a dream, then I should wake up sometime. He nodded. “Okay, I can do that.” If I'm patient, the illusion will wear away. Of course, that's only if I fail to break it.

 

Kagome's smile lit up her face. She looked like she was glowing. She always did make the room shine when she smiled.

 

When offered some food, he declined. “I can't take your food,” he said, turning his head away so he wouldn't have to smell the deliciousness of it.

 

“It's no trouble. Besides, there's too much for me to eat. I'll have to throw out what I can't eat since there's no way to save it.”

 

Seeing that she was serious, he accepted her offer and dug in. He was a growing demon, after all. At first, she watch him eat like a speed demon, which he was, she just didn't know that. Then she shrugged and started eating her own meal.

 

Finished, Hiei put his chopsticks in the bowl and asked her politely, “Where do we wash these?”

 

Looking up, she said, “You don't have to wash those; you're a guest. Just leave them with me, and I'll clean them.”

 

“No, I couldn't do that. I'll just do it if you'll point me in the right direction.”

 

She indicated outside the door was where they washed their dishes. “There's a well near here, and a bucket beside it. Take the bucket and draw water from the well. Then bring it back here, and use the fire to heat the water. That's just how we do things here,” she said, her tone saying that back in this time, most people didn't heat water to clean things. “It's a lot of work, so that's why we normally do the chores, and not guests.”

 

“It's fine. I'll just go get the water,” he said, standing up and walking out the door. He located the well without much difficulty, and used his demon strength to pull it up. What is this bucket made of? Rock?

 

Pulling it up, he saw it was made of just plastic, which was what normal buckets were made of, except that in this time, there was no plastic anything. It hadn't been invented. And this bucket was more like a tub; it was way too big to be a normal bucket from this era. He got it off the chain and lugged it up to the hut where dirty dishes awaited him. Reaching his destination, he asked Kagome where he was supposed to put it. She couldn't hide her astonishment that such a small person like him could even lift the bucket out of the well, much less carry it here.

 

“Um, just put it over the fire,” she said, putting a stand over it so that the flames would warm up the water. “It'll take a while, so there's nothing else to do except wait.”

 

That was one of the things that Hiei wasn't good at. He glared at the fire again, and it roared up, much hotter than it normally would have been. It wasn't enough to melt the plastic, but one degree more and it would be.

 

Kagome leaped back when the flames rose up on their own. “What's going on?” she asked aloud.

 

“It wasn't moving fast enough, so I made it hotter,” he responded.

 

“You did that?” she asked.

 

“Yes. I'm a fire demon.”

 

She was astonished that Inuyasha hadn't picked up his scent. Well, he did have one massive headache last night, and I don't know how he was this morning, he “heard” her think. “I'm not here because I want to hurt someone. I'm just passing through; I told you that.”

 

Warily she nodded. “You did say that.”

 

He took off his shirt (it's more like a tunic, but I prefer shirt), not wanting to get it wet, and put his chopsticks and bowl in. “Do you have soap, or something?” he asked her, not looking away from the boiling water.

 

What is with this guy? He heard her think again. He knows to wash with hot water, and then he asks for soap? Where is he from? “I'll go get some,” she said, standing up and going into the room where she stayed. Returning, she didn't see her dishes anywhere, and Hiei was waiting for her. “Where are my dishes?” she asked.

 

“I put them in with the rest of them. Soap?” He held out his hand for it.

 

She handed him the Dawn dish soap. He looked at it for a moment, thinking. Now how did Kurama do this? He opened the top like that, then poured a little bit into the water. He tried to do it from memory, but somehow couldn't figure out how to open the top. Kagome, watching his antics with amusement, finally took the soap from him, saying, “I'll do it.” The lid came up and she carefully approached the fire. Pouring a little into the tub, she quickly backed away from the fire. “Okay, um, if you could take it off the fire…” Hiei was already sticking his hands into the boiling water and washing the dishes with a cloth she had given him with the Dawn. “Doesn't that hurt?” she asked, curious.

 

“Temperature doesn't bother me,” he said. “Because of my fire demon blood, I'm immune to heat, and my Koorime blood allows me to not feel the cold.”

 

She was getting distressed from all the reminders of her baby. Not wanting to upset her even more, he remained silent, finishing the dishes, taking them out, and cooling the fire so the hut doesn't catch on fire. Putting his shirt back on, he exited the place and walked outside into the sunlight.

 

~*~