Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Artemis, the American Girl ❯ House Or Home? ( Chapter 5 )

House Or Home?

His hands rushed down her cheeks, spreading tears and mopping up her worries. He didn't like it when she cried. He didn't like it when she was scared. He hated to see her like this, her heart broken in two, with jagged egdes that refused to help her.

"So, Hiei knows now?"

She nodded. He used his sleeve and whipped away her tears. "Apollo, when will he understand? When will he know we care? When will he?" Her black tear gems fell to the floor.

"In time, he'll see." Apollow rested his hand on her shoulders and gripped them tightly. "I'm glad he know, though. You just have to prove yourself to him. Master's coming tomorrow, OK? I've got buissness to attend to, and Sakyo's, well, you know where father's going." Smiling, he left Artemis's room. She flopped down onto her white linen bed, her body feeling like it was being ripped apart. The white ceilings and white room, where what she had wanted, but she had wanted to see Hiei, standing above her, like in her dreams, offering her time to stand and he would drag her off to meet his three friends. She closed her eyes.

"Hey, you!" She fell off the side of the bed and sat up. She gasped and looked up, meeting red with blood. "I want to talk to you, now."

"About what?" Artemis tried to stand, but he shoved her back down. "Hey! Let me up!"

"No, I want you to tell me what you remember of Hina, your supposed mother. I wish I had known Hina. She was my mother."
She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. Then she felt the tangles in her black, sky blue, and white hair. "Oh," she said softly, trying to yank her fingers free of their hair prison. "Rr." She tugged harder. She flet gentle rough hands slowly drag the hair free. "Thanks, Hiei."

"Well?"

"Hina, right, well, let's see...."

~@~

Hiei was woken at the crack of dawn. To his shock, he was sleeping in Artemis's bed. On the other end of the room, the girl was taking a pillow and a blanket from the couch and tossing them onto the bed.

"Oh, good morning, Hiei." She crawled up to him and poked his foot. "I thought demons don't wake at the crack of dawn?"

"Well, we aren't heavy sleepers either." He kicked her.

"Hey! Sorry!"

"I don't like Nigen's touching me."
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I hope you don't mind me saying so, but you don't seem to happy about being this high off the ground as you sleep."
"Where'd you sleep?"

"On the floor, seeing that you had taken the bed, and if you woke, you might think you raped me or something. Anyhow, my training masters gonna be here any minute now. He's a human, but he's about, say, 110. And he still can break three sheens of metal with one finger! Ok, you can either sleep or wa-"

"Artemis?" Something rapped on the window.

"Luigi! Just a sec." She hopped off the bed and vanished, then appeared at the window. "Master, you made it!"

"Of course I did. Ah, you must be the demon, Jaganshie Hiei, right?"

"Uh, yeah." Hiei got out of the bed. His cloak was resting on the chair near the bed. He put it on. "So, what do you do when you train her?"

"We meditate, then I try to attack as much as posible. I've struck her a few times, but nothing serious." He walked out the door. There was a shreik and Artemis started laughing.

She doubled over and laughed until she was out of breath. She inhaled and exhaled. "Sorry, he just has a habbit of scaring Maria when he walks out the door."

~@~

Apollo thrust the door open, it slammed open and bounced lightly on the wall.

"What in blazing life is wrong now, KoEnma?!" he said, slamming his hands flat on KoEnma's desk, causing a few papers to fly off of it. "What's so imortant that you have to drag me from my daily job to do my other jobs?!"

"I want you to check something. It's Sensui's gang. They've diguised Itsuki as one of the servants in your house. You need to find him before tomorrow at sunset. If you let him stay longer, she might get attatched, I still don't see what they need her for." KoEnma looked up into Apollo's bright red-orage eyes. "Do you know why?"

"Have you ever heard of the Power-up called Chorus Of A Thousand Skulls, right?"

"Shishi's power-up. What about it?"

"She has something similar, but the mother of Hiei's Dragon is owned by her. Her right arm has that dragon, and several other power houses. Her left arm has got tatoos on every inch up to her elbow. Her power-up is like Shishi's, only she uses the Darknesses Dragon as the center, but this Dragon's head is about twice as large as Artemis is tall." Apollo sighed. "They want to manipulate her into using it, and, she can reabsorbe the creature and have all the power she lost from slinging it out." He slammed his hands back onto the desk. A few papers flew up. He snatched them before they fell past him. "Look, if you want me to help my sister, she can fend for herself just fine." He tapped them square and gave them to KoEnma. "Oh, and don't bother me again like that." He stormed out, the door slamming behind him.

"Well, hope you don't mind me telling the Urameshi Team."

~@~

Artemis picked the phone up. "Hello?"

"Artemis, may I speak to Yuske?"

"Just a sec." She put the reciver down and turned to the stairs. "Yuske! Phone!"
"Got it!"

She put the reciver down on the phone. She walked into the kitchen and was shocked to see more people in he house. One was a light brunet, tall, slim, and pritty. Another was blue-haired with bright eyes and was hyper. There was another brunet with darker hair cut shorter, almost to her shoulders, just a bit longer, she had chocolate eyes. A mucle-built man with flaming red hair and a blue baseball cap had bright azure eyes with dancing lights, he wore a white muscle shirt and loose fitting blue jeans. One of the other two men was dressed in all black. He wore only a black jacket with red lining, a silver-grey mask, and had black hair and indigo eyes. The other was grey-haired with what looked like blue tints, he was pale with golden-yellow eyes.

Artemis took a breath, and they noticed her.

"Hiei, what'd you do to your hair?" the blue-haired woman said. She yanked at the blue strands in her hair. "It's rad, Hiei!"

"I'm not Hiei! Let go!" She struggled to get away. The dude with the cap grabbed her hand and pulled her closer. "Hey!"

"I's no' 'Iei. I's a girl. Be' she knows where 'Iei is."

"Uh, could you put me down, please?" Artemis asked, her hand twisting to get the blood flowing.

He put her down. "Do ye know where 'Iei is? Is 'e 'ere?"

"No, not right now. He wnt out to see my master's temple." Artemis rubbed her hand. This man, if that was what he was, was very handsome, with little fangs and a burrly build, he was more cute than handsome.

"Ah, well, tha's OK. We'll jus' wai' for 'im. By the way, Ah'm Kaze Jin. Ye can call me Jin."

"I'm Talon Artemis. Nice to meet you, Jin." She held out her hand and shook his. She was shorter than him, but she wasn't to short where she couldn't see his kind smile. "You can stay in the living space or in his room that he shares with Kurama and the others."

"Who're you talking to?" Hiei walked in with a cloth bag slung over his shoulder. "Oh, hey guys." He threw the bag at Artemis. "He gave that to you. Botan, where's KoEnma?"

"Who are all of them?" Artemis asked, peeking into the bag.

"This is Kuwabara Shizuru, Botan, Karasu, Tugoro Ani, Kaze Jin, and Yukimura Keiko." Hiei walked over to her. "Are you sure your my sister?"

"We are twins."

"Don't belive you."

"Well, belive what you want, Hiei, she's your sister, and I need to talk to you."

"Hn. Yeah, I'm talking to a guy who's almost a teen and is the size of Yomi."
"Get over here now, Hiei."

"I'm not beiliving either of you are related to me, Apollo! Besides, you two have different last names! How am I supposed to know if I'm related to you?!" Hiei was waving his hands around.

"Well, if we kept the last names Valor, we might get killed. Sakyo's been accused of things he didn't do. For one thing, he never raped Hina. He wasn't responsible for Yuske's first death. He's not responsible for anything he's accused of." Apollo leaned on the door frame. "I want to talk, and I want to talk now."

"All right, I'm comin'." Hiei left with Apollo, who was making it easy on Hiei, hard on Artemis.

"I don't get why he's so bossy, especially like this," Artemis said, hands on hips. "It's like life's easier when he knows I'm not in trouble, but that was somewhere between panic and playfullness. Uh, Jin, what're you doion'?"

"Uh, jus' crusin', tha's all." Jin was seated on the counter, leggs dangling off one end as he leaned back and watched one of the chef's cooking. He started to float off the counter and hovered over to another cheif. "Ye go' a big house, ne?"

"Well, it was built to keep me safe here."

"No' safe enough," Jin mummbled to himself floating out to listen to Apollo's lecture. "And ye don' know wha' yer brother do when 'e ain' home. Thank ye, lord KoEnma fer keepin' tha' much hidden.... ACK! 'EY!" Apollo had shot Jin in the butt.

"This is not glomp my sister time! You and Karasu are glomping the girl! Cut it!" He shot Jin in the butt again. "Get over here."
"Gee, I wonder if she's got a thing where she can knock someone's lights out?" Genkai asked, as Yuske started to go stary-eyed thinking of Artemis. "YUSKE!"

"Aie! I'm listening!"

"KoEnma says Itsuki's in the house...."