Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Awake and Unafraid ❯ Christmas and Captivity ( Chapter 5 )

Tama: Chapter five! I absolutely promise this one will be better than the last! I wanted to get further in the story than I was able to in that chapter, and I deeply apologize for that.

 

Nori: And I apologize that my awesomeness was not able to make it better…

 

Tama: -raises an eyebrow-

 

Nori: Haha jk, I'll do the disclaimer today.

 

Tama: Be my guest.

 

Nori: Tama doesn't own YYH or any of its characters, but she does own all the OCs and ideas.

 

Tama: Read like the wind!

 

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One month passed at Genkai's temple fairly quickly. It was Christmas day. (AN: Ayano's birthday was November 24th, and one day had passed when the last chapter ended, so a month from then would be December 25th. See? I didn't just make this stuff up. ^_^) It had been decided to do a Secret Santa type thing. No one knew who was buying for who, with a few exceptions. Ayano had freaked out when she drew Kuwabara's name, so she told Saya so they could try to figure out what to get the socially challenged teen. They had all gone shopping the week before in pairs, so each person knew who their partner had, but other than that, they tried to keep it a secret.

 

Yukina and Keiko went shopping together. Yukina had Ayano and Keiko had drawn Saya. Their trip went fairly smoothly; they were back within an hour.

 

Yusuke and Kuwabara had a more…eventful time.

 

“Hey, Urameshi,” Kuwabara asked. The spirit detective turned to look at him.

 

“What?” he asked.

 

“What about this for Yukina?” he asked. He held up a dark blue Goblin City t-shirt, grinning psychotically. Yusuke rolled his eyes.

 

“No, Kuwabara,” he said and turned back to what he was doing.

 

“What?! Why? It's awesome!” Kuwabara protested.

 

“'Cause, you dumbass, chicks don't like that kind of stuff,” Yusuke explained. “They like make up, and clothes, and…stuff like this.” He held up a gold necklace with a diamond pendant in the shape of a heart. He grinned. “Perfect for Keiko.”

 

“Ugh, great, you've got a gift for Keiko, what should I get Yukina!?!?” Kuwabara asked, exasperated.

 

“Get her a bracelet or something. Like that one,” Yusuke suggested. He pointed to a gold bracelet lined with sapphires.

 

“Hey, that works,” Kuwabara said and picked it up. They walked up to the cash register, paid, and realized that those two gifts just left them completely broke.

 

“Damnit, Urameshi, how are we supposed to go to the arcade now!?!?”

 

Kurama and Saya went together, even though Saya had drawn Kurama's name. They just split up after Kurama had found a present for Hiei, which turned out to be new tools for sharpening his katana. Saya had a lot of trouble shopping for Kurama. She had no idea what to get him. What could she possibly get him? She knew she liked him, but she couldn't get him something that screamed that. It's not like they were together or anything. But she couldn't get him anything too casual either. That would seem like she saw them as just friends, which she definitely didn't. She was stuck.

 

`Jesus, he shouldn't be this hard to buy for,' she thought to herself as she wandered the stores aimlessly, knowing she wouldn't find anything. Kurama was too good for material possessions. `Hm, what to get him, what to get him…'

 

Then it dawned on her. Oh, she had thought of the perfect gift. He would love it. She smiled to herself.

 

`One problem, I hope I can actually find one…,' she thought to herself. But she knew it would work.

 

Later, when she met up with Kurama, she noticed he had two bags in his hand, while she had none.

 

“Hey, how come you have two bags? I thought you were just buying for Hiei,” Saya asked, playfully accusing him.

 

“Well, I had to get something for my mother, too,” he said and smiled. Saya nodded. Kurama breathed a sigh of relief and they left the mall.

 

Perhaps the most interesting shopping trip was the one with Ayano and Hiei, mostly because it involved Hiei…at a mall…in public…with people…

 

“Hn, what the hell are we doing here, baka Onna? We have better things to do,” Hiei muttered to himself as he and Ayano walked into a sports store. Ayano knew this was dangerous, but she really didn't have a choice. She did, however, make him leave his katana at the temple. She realized that if he got pissed off, just being with out a weapon wouldn't stop him from causing serious damage, but at least it was something. She sighed.

 

“I told you, Hiei, we have to get gifts for Yusuke and Kuwabara,” she said, rather annoyed. She had argued with him for three hours to get him to come, and it resulted in a broken lamp, two broken windows, and lecture from Saya the next morning about angry sex.

 

“I know, I meant, why the hell are we wasting our time on them?” he stated simply. Ayano sighed again. This was going to be a long day.

 

It was pretty hard for Ayano to keep her cool that day. Usually, especially when she was with Saya, she was the one that needed controlling. She realized that it was hard work trying to keep someone else in line and prevent deaths to innocent bystanders. Actually, that experience made her feel kind of guilty that she had done that to Saya all these years….kinda.

 

Surprisingly though, Hiei wasn't that hard to handle. She had to tell him what to do most of the time, but for the most part, he listened to her. Over the past month, the “thing” between Ayano and Hiei had grown from a physical attraction to them actually caring about each other. Hiei was a lot less distant around her than he was with other people, although he was beginning to get better. He still hated Kuwabara with a passion, and pretty much only tolerated everyone else. And of course, he was still completely bloodthirsty. But his social skills were improving…very, very slightly.

 

Eventually, they left the sports store and went into FYE (AN: don't own), a store for cds, DVDs, and video games. Considering Hiei was no help whatsoever, Ayano decided to get Yusuke the movie Fight Club (AN: don't own that either…a fact that makes me cry) since he was so into fighting. Plus, it was a great movie. She knew he would like it, although everyone would know Hiei wasn't the one who picked it out. Ayano smiled to herself. Yusuke was out of the way. Now came the fun part.

 

Kuwabara's gift.

 

She had already picked up tons and tons of bandages for him, because he got hurt so often. So that was one part of his gift. She had talked to Saya the other night, and they brainstormed gag gifts for the orange haired teen. Some included guy on guy porn, tampons, and digitally edited photos of his and Hiei's heads edited onto the girls' bodies from Baywatch (AN: I don't own that either…but that, I'm somehow ok with…). But all had too many consequences. What they eventually decided on was equally as good.

 

Ayano dragged Hiei into the toy store and towards the back. As she stopped to find what she was looking for, Hiei leaned against the shelves. A small boy, about five or six, walked by and looked up at the hanyou. Hiei noticed, hned, and glared at the boy with such intensity. The boy's eyes went wide in terror. He screamed and ran off crying.

 

Hiei smirked.

 

“Got it!” Ayano said and held up the gift. Hiei raised an eyebrow.

 

“Onna, Kuwabara will hate that,” he stated. He paused. “What is it anyway?”

 

Ayano grinned one of her crazy grins and skipped away to the cash register. Hiei just shook his head and followed.

 

By the time Christmas eventually came, all were anxious to give their gifts, some for different reasons that others. They gathered around the tree in Genkai's living room on Christmas morning that Saya, Ayano and Yusuke had begged her to get.

 

“How are we gonna do this?” Saya asked. “One at a time or all at once?” They all looked at each other, looked at the presents in their laps, looked back at each other, and began ripping the wrapping paper to shreds.

 

Ayano was done first. She had gotten a really nice sketchbook with a black leather cover and colored pencils from Yukina. She ran over and hugged the ice maiden. She knew her too well.

 

Yusuke was next. He thanked Ayano, because he had always wanted to see it. From the way she and Saya talked about it, it had to be good.

 

Keiko unwrapped her golden necklace and gazed in awe. She couldn't believe Yusuke had actually bought that for her, it must've cost a fortune! She tackled him to the ground.

 

“Oh, dear Kami, Yusuke, I love it!” she screamed in his ear. He grinned. He was completely broke, but it was worth it to see Keiko that happy.

 

Saya opened her present from Keiko: journals, pens and a silver bracelet with purple gems, the same color as her necklace. She couldn't stop thanking her, she loved it all. Finally, she could begin writing again.

 

Next, Yukina opened the bracelet from Kuwabara. She thanked him over and over again. She was always polite, but she genuinely loved this.

 

Hiei received tools for sharpening his katana from Kurama. He hned as a thank you.

 

Kurama was close to last, mostly because he was slightly confused as to why there were holes poked all over his present. And it seemed to be moving. He knew the gift was from Saya, so he looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

 

“Eh…heh…just open it,” she said and bit her lip. He smiled and did as he was told. Underneath the wrapping paper was a cage, and inside was a little fox pup. It was orange with white tips on its ears and paws. Its black eyes looked up at Kurama in confusion, then it barked and began clawing at the cage. He growled and started gnawing at the bars.

 

Kurama's jaw dropped. “Saya…what in the world…”

 

“I didn't know what I should get you, and I was getting really frustrated. Then while I was at the mall, I remembered seeing this little guy alone out by the training grounds. He doesn't have a family, and I figured you would be great at taking care of him, plus he's absolutely adorable…,” Saya explained quickly. Kurama smiled at her and opened the cage. The fox jumped up into Kurama's arms and cuddled up against his chest. Saya smiled. “I think he likes you.”

 

Kurama grinned. He reached over, hugged Saya, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you,” he whispered in her ear. He couldn't have been happier with his gift.

 

Saya got butterflies.

 

Kuwabara had a very hard time with the wrapping paper, but that was because Ayano and Hiei purposely made it extremely difficult. They used duct tape, cardboard, and three roles of wrapping paper.

 

Once he finally got to his first gift, his jaw also dropped, but not from joy.

 

“WHAT THE HELL!?!? A FREAKEN KEN DOLL!?!?!?” Kuwabara yelled at the top of his lungs. (AN: I don't own Ken dolls either. Sorry guys.) “Ayano, what the hell?” He began to whine. Ayano was cracking up. Hiei was smirking, and everyone else began to laugh.

 

“Don't worry Kuwabara, there's something else for you too,” Ayano told him once she had calmed down a bit. He sighed and unwrapped his second gift, while everyone watched in anticipation. Once he saw what it was, he was dumbfounded.

 

“…bandages?” he asked. Ayano nodded and grinned her crazy grin again.

 

“For when the rest of us kick your ass,” she explained cheerfully. Kuwabara just stared at her in amazement. Then, he sulked. For a long time.

 

This put everyone else in a good mood.

 

For once, everyone just got to sit back, relax and hang out. Kurama and Saya played with Kurama's new pet. They had a long debate on what to name him. They finally decided that whichever he responded to first would work. It turned out that he felt he was a Niichi, because Yukina sneezed and he ran over to her. When she sneezed, they all said that it sounded like she said Niichi, so the fox's name became Niichi.

 

Yusuke and Keiko were getting along for about twenty minutes before Yusuke yet again screwed it up. Since then, it was nonstop arguing. But occasionally, they would flash each other a smile. Ayano was beginning to see that they had a relationship that was a lot like hers and Hiei's. She smirked.

 

After he finished sulking, Kuwabara spent all his time flirting with Yukina, who still seemed very uncomfortable with the whole thing. Hiei spent his time glaring at the ningen.

 

Ayano, when she wasn't making jokes about Kuwabara, spent most of her time observing. Her main observation involved her best friend. There was no way Saya and Kurama could deny it much longer. Both were too shy to admit it, but they had each fallen in love with the other. Anyone could tell, simply by the way they looked at each other. Why couldn't they see it themselves?

 

She also noticed that even though it had only been a month, she couldn't imagine her life without these people. Every single one of them, even Kuwabara. They were family now. It would break her heart if she ever had to leave them.

 

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It was after lunch when Saya stood up.

 

“I'll be right back, it's getting kinda hot in here. I'm gonna go outside for a minute,” she explained. They nodded and she went out the back door towards the training grounds.

 

A thick blanket of snow covered the ground. The only reason Saya knew she had reached the training grounds was because she tripped while stepping up onto the slightly raised cement flooring. It was snow covered, so when she reached down to break her fall, her hand plunged right into the snow.

 

“Ugh, great,” she mumbled as she pulled her freezing cold hand out of the snow. Not only was she not properly dressed for weather like this, but now her hand was freezing cold.

She wasn't even sure what dragged her out there in the first place. She just felt like right then, she had to be there. She began to think, and realized that her birthday was only six days away. Six days until she got her powers and her training could really begin. She was still worried about the fact that she was going to be far behind Ayano in the preparedness category. She knew that she was going to have to work her ass off if she wanted even the slightest chance of surviving in the battle against Daeva. She sighed. She felt as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders right now.

 

Suddenly, she heard a twig snap behind her. She spun around and looked, but there was no one there. Hoping it was just an animal, she tried to ignore it. But that was impossible. She knew she wasn't the only one outside right then.

 

Before she could even realize what was going on, a hand had covered her mouth from behind. She tried to scream, but she was so scared that no sound came out. She heard whispers from behind her, and she didn't recognize the voices. Other than a sharp pain in her head, that was the last thing she remembered before she became unconscious.

 

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Tama: Cliffy!!!

 

Nori: Yea, you like cliffhangers don't you?

 

Tama: -grins- Yupp.

 

Nori: -nods- Me too.

 

Tama: I think this chapter was better than the last. Not great, but better. Read and Review please!

 

Nori: No flames!