Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Theives' Guild ❯ Chapter 10

I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters. Everyone else, however, belongs to me.

Chapter Ten

Hiei shot up from his sleep. He felt a vague sensation of pain, but it didn't belong to him. Kiev had explained to him that the two gems they'd absorbed were connected. Strong emotions or feelings could be transferred through them, even without the person's trying to send it.

She would try to restrain this. It must be terrible if, even through that, the sensation was enough to wake him up. He was up and halfway out of the tent before he remembered he'd promised to leave her alone for this. He considered for a moment before deciding he would just go check on her. She didn't have to know he was there.

It was an odd feeling, trying to track the sensation. The only thing he could do was walk and see if it got stronger. It took him several tries, but finally he ended up walking in the correct direction. She wouldn't' have gone too far right?

Apparently far enough. He'd been walking toward her for nearly ten minutes when two figures blocked his way. He immediately fell into a defensive stance before he realized it was Youko and Kuronue.

“Hiei? What in the world are you doing out here? You should be asleep!”

“I wanted to see Ayume.” He replied easily. Youko and Kuronue exchanged a look. “What's that?”

“It isn't a pretty sight Hiei. She won't want you seeing her like that.” Kuronue began. “It's a painful process.” He added, seeing Hiei's determined face.

“I know. I can sense her pain.” That startled Youko.

“She actually let some of it slip through? That's odd. It should be finally subsiding by now. It's nearly dawn already.” He pondered.

“Maybe the pain subsiding a bit made her lose her grip.” Kuronue put in. “It's bad enough to restrain it at its worst. When it starts getting better, who would want to keep holding all that pressure.”

“I'm going to go see her.” Hiei informed them.

Youko sighed. “I can't really blame you. And as you are her family, I can't really deny you either. But keep in mind Ayume doesn't want you seeing her like that, and if you can sense her nearby, then she can sense you too. You won't be able to fool her, you know.” He warned Hiei before motioning for the boy to follow.

Ayume bit down on the fist she'd shoved in her mouth hours ago to keep from screaming as another wave of pain struck. It was getting better, a little. The waves of pain had more time in between, and didn't seem to last nearly as long. Still, for the entire night it had felt like someone had taken a red-hot poker and twisted her insides around with it.

Something on the edges of her senses tingled. Hiei is awake, she noted as the pain subsided again. As her mind shifted to pay more attention to him, she noted that her sense of him was getting stronger…clearer…closer.

No way in hell. He was not going to see her like this. Hoping she had the bouts of pain timed well by now, Ayume uncurled herself and staggered to her feet. She stumbled out of the small clearing she had chosen, making it well into the darkness of the tree line before sitting back against a tree for the next wave of pain. She repeated the process again once the pain faded again, ever moving away from her little brother.

Of course Youko and Kuronue couldn't really stop him. She hadn't expected them to even need to. Hopefully by the time the three of them caught up with her she would be more thoroughly in control of herself. Thankful that they weren't speeding up at all, she continued stumbling, eventually turning enough so they were headed back to her small clearing.

“You're leading me in circles!” Hiei complained once he realized what the adults were doing.

Youko and Kuronue both looked back at him. “That, dear Hiei, is because Ayume is moving away from us in circles.” Kuronue replied.

“She doesn't want you to see her.” Youko added. “I warned you that you wouldn't be able to fool her.”

“So why don't we speed up? She can't be going that fast.”

“Because if we speed up, she will too. It's dangerous enough for her to be moving right now. I don't want to think of what it would do to her body if she were to go any faster.” Youko answered.

Hiei stopped completely. “So I'm hurting her?” He demanded. Both adults flinched.

“Rather, causing her to hurt herself.” Kuronue replied hesitantly, not really able to lie. Hiei stopped walking abruptly.

“So-.” Both adult demons snapped to attention, interrupting Hiei's thought. “What is it?”

“Something is near Ayume.” Kuronue explained quickly as Youko took off. “Youko is going to protect her, since she is…indisposed at the moment. You are going to head back to camp and wait for your sister like a good, patient little boy, even if I have to drag you there myself.”

“But-.”

“No buts. She doesn't want you near her and is jeopardizing herself to make sure you aren't, both by moving in her condition, and by distancing herself from the two of us who are protecting her. You'll just have to wait.”

“I can't help protect her?”

Kuronue held him with a look that clearly stated he already knew the answer to that.

Ayume was not quite sure what kind of demon this thing was, but it had pretty rotten timing, showing up as another wave of pain hit her. Thankfully, whatever attack it had tried to use went, quite literally, right over her head as she rolled herself onto a painful little ball.

“You smell delicious, little morsel,” it laughed in a very grainy voice. “I will enjoy eati-,”

Curious as to why she wasn't dead, Ayume waited the few more seconds it took for the pain to fade before looking up to see what had cut it off. She hadn't really entertained the idea that cutting it off was literal until she saw its head and limbs separated from its body.

“You are unhurt?” Youko's silky voice demanded.

“Not by that.” She answered shakily. As she attempted to, again, rise to her feet, she found herself scooped up, gently, into Youko's arms. “Youko-sama?” she squeaked.

“Stop moving. Kuronue is making sure Hiei leaves you alone for the duration of the change. I cannot and will not be persuaded to leave you alone again until you are able to defend yourself.” He stated already walking back to her clearing.

Seeing it would be pointless to argue, Ayume settled down and enjoyed the unique sensation of being handled as though she were a kitten. “Won't be too long now.” She replied sleepily.

“One would assume not. It has lasted nearly five hours already.”

Youko was surprised when she jerked in his grip. “Five hours?” She demanded. “It seems like it has been a lot longer than that. How long does this usually take?”

“There aren't many examples to go off of…” He tried to answer, but her body tensed and curled in his arms. He knew to stop moving, for even as gently as he was walking it would have increased her pain. He counted in his head until she relaxed again. Twenty-two seconds. Damn good in comparison to the eleven minutes she'd started at. And there had been nearly three minute hang time whereas at the beginning there was only a few seconds. “At the rate you are improving, I would say it should be complete within the hour.” He informed her.

Her only response to him was a tired smile.

True to his word, once they arrived in her clearing and he set her down again, he didn't bother to remove himself from the area. He watched in silence as the bouts of pain grew less potent, and farther between. Ayume was thankful for the silence. She wouldn't have responded to much of anything he said anyways.

Nearly an hour later, once the waves of pain had nearly dropped off, the worst one hit. Quite the finale, it felt like every cell in her body was on fire. No, even worse than that. A small part of her mind registered that she hadn't held in the scream of pain this time, but she didn't care.

Youko was startled out of his trance when she let out a strangled scream. She was writhing in pain as he hadn't seen her do all night. What in the world was wrong? Had something actually gone wrong with the change, or was this just the end of it?

Were he human, his heart would have stopped when hers did. She stilled completely, as abruptly as her heart had stilled. For a moment all was silent in the clearing as he strained his ears to hear something -anything- to say she was alright.

Then, to his relief, she turned her head and opened exhausted eyes to peer at him. “Is it over yet?” She demanded sleepily.

Barking out a laugh fueled both by his relief and her comment, he strode over to her and picked her up again. “It's over, Love.” He told her. “Go to sleep.”

For the first time since he'd met her, she was both quick and willing to obey.