Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Sandman	By : YoursAlways Category: InuYasha Crossovers > Het - Male/Female Views: 2261 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor YuYu Hakusho and make no money from these writings.

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Sandman

Chapter Five

The sun had already gone down as Hiei slid open Kagome's bedroom window. His movements were soundless as he stepped onto the plush pink carpet and gently closed the window. Looking around, he saw that the room's occupant was missing...again.

'She's never ready for bed on time,' Hiei thought with a small growl. Determined to find the woman who had been forced into his daily routine, he headed for the door to begin his search.

Almost as soon as he was in the hallway, Hiei heard the rolling wheels of Souta's computer chair before the teen's bedroom door opened. "Hey, Hiei," Souta greeted with a small wave. "Mom saved you some dinner downstairs."

As was becoming usual, Hiei didn't answer the boy but only gave a short nod before continuing on his way. He'd been coming to the Higurashi home every night for a little more than weeks, and the family had gradually worked him into their regular lives. He'd never wanted to be a part of their lives. He'd even tried to discourage them for a while. But despite his less-than-friendly disposition and the fact that he rarely spoke to any of them, they had all found a rhythm around his evening visits.

While his days were spent patrolling the border between the two worlds, he would arrive at the Higurashi home sometime after the sun had set. Within only a couple of days of this, Risa had begun to set aside an extra plate of food just for him. He had refused the offer for about a week, but it turned out that the woman was a damn good cook; not that he would ever tell her. Even the old man had stopped trying to purify him, but they still avoided each other.

But then there was Kagome. The first week or so of dealing with her hadn't been all that bad. She was weak and was often too tired to argue with him when he ordered her to bed. But it was amazing what a few weeks of good rest could do. Now that she was gaining her strength back she had started showing an annoying willful streak. It turned out that she was naturally stubborn and didn't like to be ordered around.

Sometimes it seemed like she enjoyed making him angry. They constantly butted heads, and on a couple of occasions he'd been forced to pick her up and put her in bed himself. When they had first started this arrangement she had begged for sleep. Now she fought him every step of the way. Why did such a childish woman have to fall under his care? almost every step of the way.

Hiei entered the kitchen and saw that it was only occupied by Risa. She was washing the dishes from their dinner, but she turned to greet him when she caught his reflection in the window above the sink. “Oh, good evening, Hiei!” She smiled at him as she turned off the water and dried her hands. “Are you hungry?”

Answering in his usual silent fashion, Hiei removed his sword from his hip and leaned it against the edge of the table before taking a seat. He watched as Risa turned off the hotplate keeping his food warm before setting the evening’s dish before him along with some chopsticks. Without needing to ask, she took a glass from the cabinet and filled it with ice water. Hiei ate silently as she went back to washing the few remaining dishes.

“Kagome is taking a bath,” Risa eventually provided. “She spent most of the day helping her grandfather with chores around the shrine, so she should be ready to go to bed by the time she gets out.”

Hiei made a small grunting noise to acknowledge what she’d said, and continued with his meal. He watched Risa as she finished washing the last dish and began drying them to be put away. He would rather die than admit it, but part of him had come to enjoy watching the little things that this family did and how they interacted with each other. The closest thing he’d had to a family while growing up was a group of bandits, and they hadn’t exactly been familial to each other. His life had always been blood and violence and power. The normalcy of the Higurashi’s was definitely a change of pace, and it was somewhat refreshing. Even though he was sure there were differences between human and demon families, it made him wonder what kind of life he could have had if he’d been raised with his family instead of thrown off of a cliff.

The thought of his stolen childhood brought up a bitterness that he tried to keep buried. His grip tightened on his chopsticks, and he had to put them down before he broke them. Hiei had just picked up his drink when Souta came trotting into the kitchen. The teen crossed over the the refrigerator and looked around inside before finding what he’d come downstairs for.

“Souta Higurashi,” Risa chastised without turning around. “You put that soda back. It’s too late for you to have caffeine when you have school in the morning.”

Souta sighed as he put the can back and grabbed a bottle of apple juice instead. Sitting down at the table with Hiei, he asked, “So are there any demons that can see behind them or is that just a mom thing?”

Hiei picked up his chopsticks again before he answered, “I can.”

“Really?” Souta asked before he started laughing. “Because I was totally joking, but that’s pretty cool! Do you have more eyes back there or something?” He asked as he leaned around to examine the back of Hiei’s head.

Hiei watched the boy and smirked slightly as he said, “Sometimes.” Out of the family, Hiei liked the youngest Higurashi the most. Not only did he often help convince his sister to cooperate and go to bed, but he was observant and intelligent for a human. He usually thought several steps ahead. It suddenly dawned on him that these were the same traits that he admired in Kurama. If the boy ever showed himself capable of becoming a ruthless killer in battle, Kurama might just have some competition as Hiei’s best friend.

He could smell her before he saw her. The apple-scented shampoo that she used wafted into the room just as he heard her bare feet pad against the kitchen’s tiled floor. “Hi, Hiei,” Kagome greeted as she, much like her brother, went to the refrigerator.

‘I wonder if this could be a learned behavior on the boy’s part,’ Hiei thought as he watched Kagome rummage.

“Aha!” Kagome cheered as she came away with her prize. Grabbing a spoon, she sat down at the table with her brother and Hiei before she opened her blueberry yogurt.

It hadn’t escaped Hiei’s notice that she’d started to gain back some of her weight. She didn’t look nearly as bony as when he’d first seen her, but she was still very thin and lacked any real muscle mass. He continued eating as he examined her snack choice. The label said that it was “low fat.” ‘She complains about being too thin, yet she eats food that won’t help her gain weight,’ he thought with a mental eyeroll.

“So,” Kagome started as she caught Hiei’s gaze. “How was your day? Actually, what do you do during the day?”

“It’s unimportant,” Hiei answered as he finished his meal. “Finish your food and prepare for bed.”

Kagome glared at the demon before dropping her spoon into her yogurt cup and standing up. “You know, I think there was a special coming on TV tonight that I wanted to watch. I’m going to see if I can find it.” With that, Kagome marched out of the kitchen and towards their living room.

As Hiei glared at Kagome’s retreating back, Souta laughed. Turning back around, he noticed that Risa was also trying to hide a smile as she took his plate to the sink. “I can’t believe you haven’t figured her out by now,” Souta remarked. When Hiei glared at him, he continued, “She’s trying to be your friend.”

“Why?” Hiei asked.

Souta shrugged. “That’s how she is with everyone. And most people are happy to go along with it and be her friend. But you’re not responding to her, so she’s fighting you in the only way she knows how; passive-aggressively,” he explained.

Hiei stared at the boy in silence. There was no way that she was making him miserable because he wouldn’t be her friend.

“Now that I think about it,” Souta added. “She probably doesn’t even realize what she’s doing. This is almost exactly how she and Inuyasha fought, only with less yelling. It’s a conditioned behavior!” Souta began laughing again but eventually calmed down enough to say, “Look, she’s my sister so I’m biased, but as far as friends go, Kagome is pretty great. If you just make even a little bit of an effort and giver her what she wants, I’d be willing to bet that your life would get much easier where she’s concerned.”

“Friends?” Hiei asked skeptically. He had never wanted the friends that he currently had. They had just sort of happened. He certainly wasn’t looking to make any new friends.

“Okay, look,” Souta said as he turned in his chair to fully face Hiei. “Before she left, she asked you what you do during the day. Go give her an answer instead of an order, and see what she does. If it doesn’t work, just go back to what you’ve been doing.”

Hiei was hesitant, but he figured that he didn’t have anything to lose (accept for a little pride) by taking Souta’s advice. Standing and picking up his sword, he made his way towards the living room. When he stepped through the threshold, he saw Kagome seated on the couch flipping through channels. He walked to the couch and perched himself on the arm at the opposite end from Kagome. The room was quiet except for the TV and neither of them looked at the other. Finally, Hiei spoke, “I patrol the border between Human World and Demon World during the day.”

Kagome turned her head sharply to look at Hiei. He wasn’t looking at her, but she was certain he had spoken. She had tried to get him to open up to her for weeks, and now that he finally had, she was at a loss of what to say next. Turning the volume down on the TV, she carefully started, “Um...did anything exciting happen?”

“No,” Hiei answered. He wasn’t exactly practiced in the art of small talk, and he was unsure if he would be required to say more on the subject. But he felt a small amount of relief when he glanced over to Kagome and saw her smiling at him brightly. Without a word she turned off the TV, stood with her empty yogurt cup and spoon, and took several steps closer to him.

“I’m actually pretty tired from helping Grandpa today,” she told him. “I’m sure I can find that special as a rerun later. Let me go throw this away, and I’ll meet you upstairs.” Smiling, Kagome left a stunned Hiei in the living room as she made her way to the kitchen.

“You look happy,” Souta said as she passed by him to place her spoon in the sink.

“I am,” Kagome replied with a bright smile.

As Kagome told their mother goodnight, Souta stood and left the kitchen. He made his way upstairs and stopped by Kagome’s room to see Hiei waiting for his sister. Hiei didn’t say anything to him, but Souta gave him a knowing smile before saying, “You’re welcome.”

Hiei gave the smug boy a small glare as the teen retreated to his own bedroom for the evening. It wasn’t long before Kagome walked into her bedroom with a bounce in her step. She had changed into her pajamas after her bath, so she simply slipped under her covers and waited for Hiei to complete his part of their routine.

Hiei stepped to Kagome’s nightstand and lifted the glass dome that sat over the potted flower that Kurama had grown for them. They had to keep it under glass so that it wouldn’t release its pollen into the house. When he had first dropped it off, Kurama had told them that the flower would be able to feed off of Hiei’s demonic energy just by him being close. The flower appeared to be thriving and Hiei never felt any effects from it, so he rarely gave the red flower more than a passing thought.

Placing the flower close to Kagome’s face, Hiei blew on it and Kagome inhaled. She was out like a light before he even placed the flower back on the table. Hiei covered the blossom once more before he took his usual seat beneath the window and removed his bandana. He left the Jagan open as he closed his eyes and entered Kagome’s mind.

It was dark and quiet. He could feel Kagome’s mind hovering just beneath consciousness and reached out to take hold of it. Doing anything inside a person’s mind without doing damage was a delicate procedure. Even if he wasn’t physically touching her, if he was too rough he could disrupt her brain’s function. It could do anything from drive her insane, to make her never regain consciousness, or even kill her. The last thing that he needed was Koenma on his back over an accident, so he was sure to use the utmost care with Kagome’s mind.

It was difficult, if not impossible, to tell time when he was doing these sessions. Kagome’s mind wanted to sleep and dream. It’s what it was naturally programmed to do. All his really did was help it do what it was meant to do. When she fell asleep he could feel her mind struggling to go deeper, and he lent his assistance. There were pauses between the different sleep cycles, and he would wait and keep her mind in place. When it was time to go deeper, it was something he just felt and would assist with.

He could always tell when she started dreaming though. The dark and silence persisted, but Kagome’s mind became much more active. To Hiei, it felt like there was something vibrating in the darkness just beyond him. In all these sessions, he had never looked in on her dreams, but this night his curiosity was beginning to get to him. Several sleep cycles and dreams passed by before he felt a particularly large vibration wave, and he made up his mind.

Hiei envisioned a door in the darkness. Using the simple wooden door, he entered Kagome’s dream.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t what he found. He had stepped into a thick forest. Judging by how little light there was, Hiei assumed that it was nighttime in her dream as well as reality. His ears picked up a noise, and it didn’t take long for him to decipher it as the sounds of battle. His interest definitely piqued, Hiei worked his way through the trees towards the sounds.

The sight that greeted him was that of a bloody battlefield. Trees were broken and splintered all through the clearing, and pieces of low-level demons littered the ground. And there, surrounded by gore and chaos, was Kagome. She was standing tall despite the tremor that he could see travel through the bow and arrow that she held. It looked as though she was about to fire when the surroundings began to slow until everything eventually stopped.

The only movement in the field came from Kagome as she turned around to face him. This Kagome was much younger than the Kagome that he knew. Her eyes were still wide and innocent and filled with a fear that she was trying to hide. She stared at him for several long moments before her brow furrowed and she said, “I know you.”

Hiei watched as the girl grew into the woman he knew to be in bed, pajamas and all. “Hiei?” She asked. “What are you doing here?”

Glancing around the battlefield again, Hiei said, “I’ve been wondering what such a supposedly pure priestess dreams about. I never would have thought that your dreams would be as bloody as mine.”

Kagome looked around the battlefield and shook her head. “This isn’t a dream,” she told him. She slowly stepped towards him and the younger version of herself remained behind, bow and arrow raised in battle, frozen with the rest of the scene. “This is a memory,” Kagome corrected as she reached Hiei’s side and time resumed around them.

There was silence between them for a moment before Kagome spoke again. “I never realized how horrible these battles were. I guess I just blocked it out.”

Hiei hummed as he watched the younger Kagome unleash an arrow that left a trail of blinding light.

“And I remember this fight,” she continued. “This wasn’t even the worst battle we had. I doubt it cracks the top ten.”

Unlike their exchange before bed, fighting and battles was something that Hiei had experience in. “If the legends about the jewel are true, you were in the middle of a war. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a minor skirmish.”

Kagome laughed a little, but there was little joy behind it. She turned to look at Hiei as she said, “I don’t know what the legends say, but it was definitely a war. I didn’t realize it at the time though.”

The next thing either of them knew, a weakened tree was coming down on top of them and they were awake once more in Kagome’s bedroom. Morning light was already streaming in through the window.

Kagome sat up and placed a hand over her racing heart as she waited for it to calm down.

Hiei retied his bandana quietly before standing to check on Kagome. She pushed the covers off of her legs and moved to sit on the edge of her bed. When she looked up at him, he noticed just how much older and wiser her eyes were than those of who she had been. This was a woman who had seen battles and death.

“Please don’t tell my family what you saw,” she requested softly as her eyes pleaded with him.

Hiei nodded once in answer and watched her get up and leave the room to start her day.

This was a woman who had seen battles and death and kept it to herself.
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Sandman