Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Vacation Time ❯ Chapter Twenty-One ( Chapter 21 )

Chapter Twenty-One: Warnings and the Hike

 

Kaline's POV

 

I came out of the sun room, hoping to find a much calmer Cassie running about and causing the usual amount of trouble. The smile she had given me before I had left her alone had been dangerously devious. Whenever Cassie got that look on her face, I knew that I needed to run far away because more often than not she dragged me along in her little schemes.

 

When I walked into the living room, I found Cassie sitting in one of the chairs, looking rather pleased with herself. The twinkle in her eyes told me that she was up to something, and her little smirk didn't make the picture look any better.

 

"Hey, Cassie," I greeted her, knowing better than to comment on the fact that she had changed clothes since I had last seen her. "Are you still in a good mood?"

 

"Yes, I am," she replied cheerfully. "I was a little sad when Hiei cut our discussion short, but I kinda figured that he really needed some time to himself."

 

I just stared at her for a moment, unsure of how to respond to a statement like that. One thing was for sure, I certainly had an insane friend. "I'm glad that you didn't let yourself remain sad." I paused, trying to think of something to say. "Oh, by the way, Cassie, why did you ask me abo-"

 

The sound of a slamming door cut me off, and then a very unhappy looking Yusuke stomped into the room, muttering darkly. He was rubbing his nose which looked like it was starting to bruise.

 

"Oh, my dear lord, Yusuke!" I exclaimed, surprised at him. He had actually gotten into a fight while on vacation. "What happened to you?"

 

He waved off my concern. "Don't worry about it. It'll just be sore for a little while," he told me. "Though I do have a piece of advice for you: don't mention to Hiei anything about problems. He decked me for asking if he had one."

 

Cassie burst out laughing, her eyes full of mirth. "Hiei decked you, huh?" she asked, wanting clarification. Yusuke nodded his head. "Well, that certainly must have hurt."

 

I instantly knew something was up. Cassie usually wasn't the one to laugh at someone who had just got hit. Okay, maybe if she had laughed at Kuwabara it wouldn't have looked so strange, but something just didn't seem right. My friend was hiding something from me.

 

"Oh, Cassie," I said innocently. "Do you think that I could talk to you in private for a little bit?"

 

"Sure." She shrugged, then waved a quick good-bye to Yusuke as she followed me to my room.

 

My room was empty, as Kurama was out with some of the guys looking for a map. They wanted to go hiking to a nearby beach.

 

"Well, what do you want to talk about?" Cassie asked me, sounding very curious.

 

I gave her a calculating look. "I want to know what's going on. You're not telling me something, and I think it has to do with that question you asked me earlier." I paused for a moment to let that sink in. "So, why don't you first tell me who's eyes you saw glow."

 

She smiled secretively for a moment, then shook her head. She wasn't going to answer me for some reason. "That's classified information."

 

"Listen, Cassie, I don't think you fully understand what it means when a demon's eyes glow." I sighed. "It's a little dangerous because it means that the demon's instincts are taking over. Common sense, decency, and such fly at the window. The demon can't quite control his instincts, which isn't a good thing."

 

Cassie watched me, taking in everything I had said and analyzing it from every point of view. She was, thankfully, taking me serious. "Okay, I understand that pretty well."

 

"I need to know who's eyes glowed," I told her. "I know that it wasn't Kurama's... or Touya's. The only two demons left are Jin and Hiei." Taking a breath, I studied her face for any reaction. "And if you don't tell me, I hope you know that I can read your mind and find out." It was a threat, one that I would never fulfill, but I hoped that Cassie would just give in and tell me.

 

"It was Hiei," she said after a few minutes.

 

I thought about that for a while, and things suddenly began to click in place. "Have you been... teasing Hiei?" Normally, I would never have even asked that, but I had tossed my naiveté out the window for the moment.

 

Cassie nodded her head, a smile tugging on the corners of her mouth. "Yes, I have. It was okay though. Nothing happened, and I wasn't too hard on him." She giggled. "I think he enjoyed it."

 

"Oh, my," I said, sitting down on my bed, hard. I almost couldn't believe it. Hiei actually did care about Cassie, probably even loved her. It would take a lot to get him to desire a human, and love was most likely the only thing that could do that to him. "Cassie, you must be careful around Hiei, alright? I'm afraid that if you torture him too much he might just jump you."

 

Cassie laughed at me in disbelief. "I highly doubt that. More than likely he'll just run off like before."

 

I sighed. "Please, Cassie. Just consider my words? Kurama almost jumped me once, and I hadn't even done anything to entice him. It does not take much to cause a demon's instincts to emerge in full force." I frowned suddenly. "I sound like a mother."

 

My friend laughed even harder than before. "You do!" Soon, we were both laughing at my strange seriousness.

 

"Alright, Cassie. I'm gonna go outside for a few moments and chat with one of the guys. While I'm doing that, you might wanna go find Yukina so she can fix Yusuke's nose."

 

"Sure thing," she replied and we both left the room.

 

I went outside and began my search for Hiei. The fire demon was going to listen to a few things I had to say, and he was going to remember them. I was not going to let him do anything bad to Cassie.

 

Luckily, it didn't take long for me to find him. He was sitting in a tree, watching the sky lazily.

 

"Oh, Hiei!" I called up to him sing-song like. "Why don't you come on down out of that tree? I need to talk to you."

 

"Hn." He looked down at me for a brief moment, but quickly turned away to look back up at the sky.

 

"If you're not coming down, I'm coming up!" Glaring, I teleported to the branch Hiei was sitting on, my body facing his. He looked surprised that I had done that, but he didn't argue. "Now listen here, fire demon. You'd better not hurt Cassie, alright? If you hurt her, I'll kill you. If you think about hurting her, I'll kill you. If I even think you're considering hurting her, I'll kill you." I paused to make sure that he had understood every word. "Have I made myself clear?" I was protective over my friends; it was an established fact. No one hurt my friends if I had any say in it.

 

Hiei gave me one of his dark looks, but he did nod his head. "Yes."

 

"Good boy," I said sweetly, giving him a bright smile. "Now, I do hope that you're up for a hike because the rest of the boys are planning on walking through a part of a forest to get to one of the nearby beaches."

 

Waving good-bye, I teleported back to the ground and went to get ready for the hike.

 

An hour later, I was walking on a trail through the forest with Kurama beside me, his hand intertwined with mine. He pointed out different plants, and even used some of his powers to make a few of them bloom for a moment. It was beautiful, and I ingrained the vision of the flowers blooming into my memory so I could draw them later.

 

Cassie, I believe, was watching the blooming flowers as well. She was walking right behind Kurama and me, with Hiei farther behind her. The rest of the people were in front of me. Yusuke was in the lead, and he had the map. Botan and Koenma were up there with him, trying to make sure the raven-haired spirit detective didn't read the map wrong.

 

Jin seemed to be avoiding Cassie, which I really didn't blame him for. My friend looked dangerous when she was angry, and anyone in their right mind would know to stay away from when she was in that mood. Of course, she wasn't angry anymore, but the wind demon was probably just being cautious, which was a really good thing.

 

Kurama gave my hand a squeeze as he smiled at me. He was wearing his swim trunks and a t-shirt with tennis shoes. His towel was slung around his neck, and red hair was tied back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck.

 

"How much farther do you think we have to go, Kurama?" I asked him, looking at all the trees and plants around me. There had been no change in scenery in about half an hour.

 

"We should be getting there soon. The smell of salt is getting stronger," he replied, then he went on to make another plant bloom for me as he explained what it was. He even told me its medical properties. The fox demon certainly knew more about plants than most botanists did. With 1,000 years of study under his belt, and a demon's extra knowledge of things, his level of expertise was to be expected.

 

It was fifteen more minutes before the trees began to thin out, and Yusuke finally shouted that he had found the beach. The leading spirit detective's shout was followed by a shout and a giggle.

 

I turned around to find Hiei scowling at the ground where a wreath of pink and white flowers lay. There were petals still in his hair, and Cassie had another wreath in her hair. She continued to giggle as she brushed all the petals out of Hiei's hair.

 

"They seem to be getting along well," Kurama commented, gesturing towards the two people at the back of the little line.

 

I nodded my head in agreement, adjusting the bag on my shoulder that held all of my beach things. "They do make a cute couple," I admitted, admiring the adorable scene that I would never had expected to see. Hiei was having no problems putting up with Cassie, and he let her get away with more things that I would have originally thought possible.

 

"When I asked Hiei if he liked her, he nearly bit my head off," Kurama told me smirking. "I think he might be coming out of denial finally."

 

"I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing." I giggled, then I started tugging on his hand. "C'mon, Kurama. Hurry up. The other are leaving us behind."

 

He shook his head at me, chuckling. "Well, if you're in such a hurry..." His smirk turned into a devious grin as he swept me up into his arms.

 

"Kurama!" I protested half-heartedly, laughing. "Put me down, you big goofball."

 

"I will in a moment," he promised, continuing to carry me until we had reached the beach. The whole way there, he ignored my joking protests.

 

"Ooooh, black sand," I commented as I dropped my bag to the ground. Then, I grabbed Kurama's towel from around his neck and used it to pull him into a kiss. Afterwards, I tossed it on top of my bag.

 

"Aren't you gonna set her down now, Kurama?" Cassie asked, coming up to stand by him, a white flower tucked behind her ear.

 

"Just watch. I will in a few seconds." Then, still carrying me he strode out into the ocean until he was waist deep in water.

 

"You wouldn't dare..." I said, narrowing my eyes at him. Surely the red head wouldn't let me fall right into the cold water with all my clothes on.

 

"Oh, yes." He nodded his head and dropped me, clothes and all, into the water.

 

I came back up, sputtering and swearing vengeance. I was half-tempted to use my magic to lift him up ten or twenty feet in the air and drop him, but there were too many people around to do that. Of course, I could take revenge on him later. I knew where he slept at night. All I needed was some help thinking of something, and Cassie was the perfect person to talk to for that. She always came up with the best ideas.

 

Wiping the water out of my eyes, I walked back to where my things were and stripped down to my swimsuit. Then, I headed back towards the water, passing Cassie as I did so. "I need to talk to ya later."

 

Cassie nodded her head in acknowledgment, and then she went back to whatever she was doing before, a small smile on her face.