Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Summer Time ❯ Chapter Thirteen ( Chapter 20 )

Chapter Thirteen: The Forlorn Hope

The next day after lunch...

"I'd forgotten how noisy it was in here," I stated, covering my ears as Kurama and I walked into the bar and dance room. The music was very loud, and it hurt my ears.

"You'll get adjusted to it soon," Kurama replied, putting an arm around me. "Or you could just flatten your ears back like any cat does."

I looked up at him for a moment, feeling surprised and stupid. "Oh. Yeah." His suggestion was nice, but I wasn't quite sure how to flatten my ears. I concentrated for a moment, trying to figure out how to get the muscles in my ears to move.

Kurama laughed. "Don't you know how?" he inquired, shaking his head in disbelief.

"No, I don't," I responded, bowing my head, embarrassed. The noise level instantly decreased.

"Your ears just went back," he told me suddenly.

I jerked my head back up. "Huh?" The noise level increased.

"When you bowed your head, your ears went back, probably because you were embarrassed. When you looked up again, your cat ears went back to their normal position," Kurama explained.

"Ah... okay," I replied. I still didn't know how to move them of my own free will.

"Did you feel anything up here," Kurama asked, touching my ears, "when you looked down at the floor?"

I thought for a moment. I had felt something, but it had been different from what I was use to. Was that what Kurama was talking about?

I nodded my head, and Kurama continued. "Then all you have to do is try to find out what you did to cause that feeling."

Biting my bottom lip, I did as he had said. A moment later, the noise level had lowered again.

"You did it," he stated simply. "Now let's go find a seat."

I looked around, spotting Hiei sitting alone in a corner. "How about there?" I asked, pointing to where the fire demon was.

"Sounds fine by me," Kurama replied. "I would like to talk to him."

"Not to mention that he needs to be updated on the situation," I added as we walked over to Hiei's table. "Unless you already have."

Kurama nodded his head in response. "I have." He then turned to Hiei. "Hello, Hiei."

Hiei looked at the both of us, his face neutral. He didn't seem to be very interested in what was going on, but he did give Kurama and me a slight nod in greeting.

"Good afternoon, Hiei," I told him brightly as Kurama took a seat across from Hiei. I remained standing for the moment

"Hn," Hiei replied, crossing his arms. He was being very rude at the moment, and I wasn't about to let him get away with it.

"Don't you know that you're suppose to be nice to pregnant women?" I asked, my tone serious. A devious smile was threatening to appear on my face as I talked.

"I thought Koto had been joking!" Hiei exclaimed, eyes wide. He seemed to be in shock. His mouth was even hanging open.

Kurama just laughed at his friend as he pulled me down onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my shoulder. "Just between you and me," Kurama told the fire demon, a grin on his face and his voice very soft. "Kaline's not with child."

"Do you honestly think I would do something like that?" I protested very quietly. I didn't want anyone to overhear me. "Even after I told you that I wouldn't do anything like that until I got married?"

Hiei physically recovered after I said that. "Hn. Whatever," he replied, calming down and shrugging his shoulders.

I smiled and shook my head, trying hard not to laugh. "Someday I'm going to have a camera so I can get a picture of your shocked face." It was hard to surprise Hiei, but it seemed that I had some strange ability to shock him. Perhaps it was because he kept thinking that I was going to do something... immoral with his best friend.

Hiei gave me a doubtful look. "I don't think so. There's no way anyone's ever going to take a picture of me."

"We'll see," I told him, a playful glint in my eyes.

"Hn," Hiei snorted. He looked like he was about to laugh at me.

Unbelievable. Hiei... laugh... at me.

"Kaline, weren't we suppose to be celebrating something?" Kurama inquired, pulling me a little closer and kissing me on the cheek.

"I believe so," I replied flirtatiously, smiling.

Hiei looked away, mumbling something very quietly. He also was acting a little squeamish. Finally, I caught a few words that he was saying. "Go... mumble, mumble room."

I giggled, feeling no pity for the fire demon. "Something wrong, Hiei?" I asked him teasingly.

Hiei didn't turn to look at me "Do you two really have to act like that?" he demanded to know, his tone gruff.

"Just wait till you get yourself a girlfriend. You'll think differently then," I replied, moving Kurama's arms so they were wrapped around me tighter.

"I highly doubt that," Hiei retorted, finally turning his head to glare at me defiantly.

"Hmmm... It seems that Hiei is in an unsociable mood," Kurama commented. "Perhaps we should leave him be for a while and go dance."

"What a wonderful idea," I responded, turning my head so I could kiss him on the cheek. "C'mon. Let's give Hiei some much needed alone time."

Kurama and I got up and went onto the dance floor. The music was louder there, but I didn't mind as much. My hands went to the back of Kurama's neck and buried themselves in his silver hair. His arms went around my waist and pulled me closer to him until our bodies were touching.

"Comfortable?" Kurama asked me as we began to dance.

"Yes, of course," I answered, smiling There was no reason for me not to be comfortable. Although, Kurama's concern for me was very nice. It was amazing how he was always so sweet to me. "You?"

"Very," he replied, putting some meaning behind the word. I couldn't figure out what the hidden meaning was. Kurama seemed happy though, so I didn't worry too much about it. In fact, he looked like he was in total bliss.

All of a sudden, Kurama's lips were on mine. He was kissing me passionately, his tongue even finding its way into my mouth. I kissed him back equally as we occasionally came up for air.

Kissing and dancing was turning out to be the perfect way to celebrate, at least in my mind. Both were fun and interesting, and they were something that no one even dared to interrupt.

As we were dancing and kissing, people began to laugh and cheer from somewhere near the center of the dance floor. Something or somebody was riling everyone up, and I wanted to know who or what it was.

Kurama broke off the kiss, practically reading my mind. "Would you like to go have a look at what's going on?"

"Yes, I would," I replied, gently tugging him along beside me as I wormed my way through the crowd.

Many of the people had stopped dancing, and they were all gathered around whatever it was that was so interesting.

After much pushing and shoving -most of it not caused by me- Kurama and I found out why all the people were cheering.

Kuwabara was standing in the middle of a big circle, dancing his heart out. He wasn't all that bad, but he wasn't anywhere near as good as Kurama. Of course, every so often, the carrot-top had to pull some kind of scary, snapping fingers move that he had pulled on Yukina once before. He had scared me then, and he was scaring me now.

It wasn't scary as in terrifying. It was scary as in spooky that someone could actually look so dumb and not even notice. I hadn't even thought that people came that stupid.

"Someone save us," I whispered, bowing my head in embarrassment that Kuwabara obviously did not feel. When the human did the snapping fingers move again, I shook my head sadly. "Please," I pleaded, my voice so soft that only Kurama could hear it.

"It seems that he is having a good time," Kurama commented, about ready to burst out laughing.

"Yeah, and at the same time, he's humiliating everyone that's watching him," I countered, sighing sadly. "Can we go get something to drink and sit back down?"

"You don't want to watch him anymore?" the fox demon teased.

"No, I don't," I replied, giving him the I'm-going-to-get-you-later-for- that look.

Kurama laughed. "Come on then," he said, helping me force my way back through the crowd.

By the time Kurama and I got to the bar, ordered our drinks, and carried them back to Hiei's table, we were more than ready to sit back down.

Kurama chose the seat he had been using earlier, but I decided that I needed my own seat.. at least for the moment. Hiei was still in his seat, sipping his drink.

I tasted my drink, and I found it to my liking. The bar tender hadn't been happy that I had ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri, but one angry look from Kurama had silenced all his protests. I hadn't heard what Kurama had ordered, but I knew that it had been alcoholic. Watching the kitsune take a drink from his glass, I prayed that demons could not get drunk. I really didn't want to see a drunk demon.

"Of all the things you could have ordered," Hiei began, "you just had to get something non-alcoholic, didn't you?"

"Of course," I replied, giggling. "I am only seventeen."

"Hn. You're a demon," the fire demon reminded me. "The stupid rules of your country do not apply to you."

"They don't, huh?" I countered, taking another sip of my drink. It really was pretty good. "Well, then I suppose that I could kill you. After all, the law that says I'm not suppose to kill doesn't apply to me."

"That wasn't what I meant," Hiei snapped at me, obviously not happy at being outsmarted.

"I know, but you did ask for it," I told him as Kurama chuckled at his friend's foolishness.

Hiei began to grumble and mutter words very quietly so that I couldn't hear.

"Didn't Kaline tell you to be nice to her?" Kurama asked Hiei, smirking. He seemed to enjoy teasing Hiei just as much as I did.

"Hn."

"I think that he forgot, Kurama," I said. "Perhaps we should remind him."

"Well, Hiei, just in case that you did forget, you need to be kind towards Kaline because," Kurama began, but Hiei decided to interrupt before the kitsune went any farther.

"Enough. I know the reasoning," Hiei replied, shaking his head sadly. "My memory is not as poor as the idiot's."

"Are you talking about the guy dancing over there?" I wondered, pointing towards Kuwabara who had just emerged from the dance floor... still dancing and doing the scary move. I shuddered when I saw that. Kurama laughed, and Hiei just stared in disbelief.

"What a fool," Hiei commented, hanging his head slightly in embarrassment. I had a feeling that it was going to be a long time before Hiei would even admit to himself that he knew the carrot-top.

"Um... yeah," I agreed, finishing off my drink and looking over at Kurama. "May we please leave here now? I want to get away... far away."

"Would the deck be far enough away for you?" Kurama inquired, setting down his empty glass.

"Yes, I think so," I answered, smiling.

"Let's go then," he replied, standing up right as I did.

"See you later, Hiei," I told the fire demon as Kurama and I left.

"Hn," he responded, waving very slightly.

Waving back, I left the dance and bar room with Kurama.

Kurama and I spent as much time as we could on the deck, but eventually I had to go officiate the matches. I wasn't thrilled about that, but at least it gave me something to do that didn't require any thought.

Since the challenges had begun, I didn't know who was fighting until a mercenary got into the ring and named the demon he or she wanted to challenge. That made things a little more interesting, especially when one demon would challenge more than one person at once.

Even though the matches were more interesting than usual, I still was happy when they were over. Of course, since they were over I had to go back to work.

It was time for me to start on the Forlorn Hope.

Kurama and I went to our room where I promptly sat down on the bed and he got changed into his school uniform. He changed into his human form, then gave me a quick kiss.

"I'll be going now," he stated.

"I've got one question before you do that," I said very quickly. "I need to know if the Forlorn Hope was ever fixed."

"It was. Koenma's father King Yama repaired it a week or so after he discovered it broken," Kurama replied. "Now try not to wear yourself out too much." After giving me a kiss on the cheek, he was gone.

Man, Kurama was sure leaving a lot quicker than he use to. Of course, he was also coming back sooner. He was still exploring because he wanted to be 100 percent sure that there were absolutely no human slaves on the yacht.

Knowing that I had a job to do, I got to work forming the Forlorn Hope. It was a large drain on my spirit energy, but I knew that it was well worth it. As always, the second item was harder to form than the first item. I was forced to work slower when dealing with the mirror. First off, I had trouble gathering up enough spirit energy. Second, reflective surfaces were hard to do. I wasn't sure why, they just were. Not to mention that the mirror was rimmed in very decorative metal work.

By the time Kurama came back, I hadn't really gotten anywhere with it. He had to force me to put it away and get some sleep because I very much wanted to get more work done. With his arms wrapped tightly around me so I wouldn't try to get back up and keep working, I feel asleep.

I worked on the Forlorn Hope for the next few days, which left me feeling very tired and a little irritable. I didn't once snap at Kurama, although a few human girls nearly got decked by me when they began to flirt with my mate. The kitsune had pretty much dragged me away from them.

Thankfully, I finished the Forlorn Hope on the fifth night with some time to spare. I stared at the mirror for a while before I finally went and tossed it into my suitcase with the special word.

With my extra time, I took a nice, long, hot, luxurious shower. After my shower, I got into my pajamas, grabbed my brush, and proceeded to sit on the bed as I worked all the tangles out of my hair.

Long after all my tangles were gone, I was still brushing my hair. I had all my hair over one shoulder in gathered in one of my hands while I used the other hand to brush out the long, golden brown tresses. I was very surprised when I felt someone appear behind me and plant a kiss at the base of my neck. Flaming red locks fell into my line of vision. Kurama was the one behind me, much to my relief. In reality, it really couldn't have been anyone else.

"Still no signs of slavery," Kurama commented as he continued to kiss his way up my neck. "The three objects haven't been moved either." He finally made his way to my ear, which he nibbled gently for a moment. "And no one saw me, even though I was practically right in front of them." He worked his way down my jawbone and then to my lips where he lingered for a few minutes.

When Kurama finally stopped kissing me, I got to tell him my news... once I had gotten my breath back, of course. "I finished the Forlorn Hope," I reported happily, going over to the closet to get my little project out of my suitcase. I handed it to him. "What do you think?"

"It's an exact copy," he replied, examining it from all angles. "You did a very impressive job."

"Yeah, but if you weren't here to help me, we probably wouldn't be so far along," I told him. "If it was just me, then I would still be trying to get through all the spells in room one."

"I'm not sure," Kurama said, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind me. "You're a lot stronger than you think."

I scoffed. "I haven't had over a thousand years to work on my breaking and entering skills," I countered. "You have. That's why I'm no where near as good as you when it comes to dealing with trap spells."

"My, my," he stated, chuckling. "You are argumentative tonight."

I blushed slightly. "Sorry about that. You must be tired, just like I am."

Kurama laughed. "I forgot to mention silly as well," he teased, lightly tickling me in my stomach.

"Oh, so that's the way you want to play it, huh?" I retorted playfully, twisting so that I was facing him. With one of my nails, I just barely touched his skin as I traced his jawbone, his neck, and then his collar bone. During that process, he fought back his laughter with success.

"How about I go get rid of this fake?" Kurama inquired, easily escaping from my tickling hand. He picked up the imitation Forlorn Hope, and then he was gone.

I looked up at the ceiling and began to count to five out loud. "One... Two... Three... Four... Five." Right as I said five, Kurama came back.

"Those guards aren't too bright," Kurama stated, giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Now I'm going to take my shower. Be good while I'm gone."

I laughed at him as he gathered up his things and went into the bathroom. I just crawled into bed and began to drift off to sleep. I woke up enough just once to find Kurama pulling me close to him. Sighing happily, I went back to sleep as I listened to his heartbeat steadily.