Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Feigned Innocence ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

~Kurama's POV~

The next day I walked wearily to school, exhausted and half asleep. After my nightmare, I hadn't been able to get back to sleep, and had spent the rest of the night doing homework. I was now about six chapters ahead in every class.

I sighed, running a hand through my long crimson hair as I walked. I could barely keep my eyes open, and was sure that I had to look absolutely terrible.

"Stop trying to fix your hair, fox. It looks fine."

I jumped, surprised to find Hiei beside me. He didn't usually walk to school with me in the mornings.

"What are you doing here, Hiei?"

He shrugged and said, "You looked miserable." As if that explained everything.

"I am," I mumbled, my feet scuffing against the concrete.

"Why?"

Hiei was being unusually talkative, and I wondered if I should take the opportunity and vent. But no. I didn't need to lay all of my problems on Hiei, especially not when it was something as stupid as nightmares. He would probably just laugh at me, anyway.

"It's nothing. Just a long night."

As I said that, I remembered the presence that I had sensed watching me the night before. "By the way, did you sleep in the tree outside of my window last night, Hiei?" I asked casually.

"No," the little demon answered, distracted as he glared menacingly at a passing human walking innocently down the sidewalk. "I slept in a tree outside of Genkai's temple. Why?"

If Hiei had been at Genkai's last night, then that couldn't have been him that I had sensed watching me. I felt a shiver run up my spine, but hid my discomfort and simply answered, "No reason. Just curious."

"I hope you were a better liar in your other life."

I looked up quickly, my eyes wide as they met Hiei's own bright crimson stare. "What?"

"You're lying," Hiei said evenly.

How did he do that? My skill in lying was what enabled me to so easily pass for human in this world. Why couldn't I lie to Hiei?

I nodded. "You're right." There was no point in trying to deny it.

"But you're not going to tell me what's wrong."

It wasn't a question. He was merely stating a fact, but I felt a need to respond, anyway.

"I would tell you if I thought it was important," I said seriously.

Hiei didn't answer, which I took as acceptance. Things were quiet for a while, until I could no longer resist the urge to tease him just a little.

"What makes you so concerned, anyway?" I asked, grinning as I nudged him with my elbow.

"Hn," Hiei grunted, not the least bit fazed. "If you took that for concern, then you're more of an idiot than I thought. I just don't want anything to get in the way of your fighting. I won't have an ally of mine losing focus, especially not when it could mean the difference between life and death in a battle."

"Your death or mine?"

"Mine, of course."

"Right. You're obviously not worried about me."

"Obviously."

I wondered at how easily Hiei brushed off my teasing, when anyone else would probably be laying on the ground, missing essential body parts after messing with Hiei the way I often did.

We arrived at school all too soon, and Hiei made a quick escape into the branches of a nearby tree, not wanting to meet up with my fan club.

"Coward," I mumbled under my breath, before wading through a crowd of girls to get into the school building.

When I got to class, after a quick trip to my locker, I was surprised to find a small crowd of girls gathered around my desk. This wasn't all that unusual, but normally I was in the desk when they were crowded around it, so I was understandably confused.

When they saw me, the girls scattered aside, giggling and whispering. I looked at them questioningly, and one pointed to my desk and said, "Someone's left you a card, Suuichi."

I sighed and sat down at my desk, picking up and examining the small white envelope that had been left there. My human name was written in neat writing on the front.

I carefully opened it, and unfolded the paper that I found inside.

I felt another chill as I smoothed out the paper and found… myself. It was a careful drawing of me, sitting at my desk, writing. The desk in my room.

"Fox, what's your problem?"

"I'm so sorry, Hiei!" I said as I ran into my bathroom to get the soaking fire demon a towel.

"Do you know how long I was waiting out there? Since when do you close your window?" Hiei yelled from my room, and I hurried back, shushing him.

"You'll wake my mother!"

Hiei glared, not looking a bit remorseful as I handed him the towel, which he snatched from my hands.

"I'm sorry!" I said again.

I had closed my window and lowered the blinds as soon as I got home from school, the picture I had received that morning and its implications still fresh in my mind. I didn't like the idea of anyone but Hiei watching me, and only him because I knew he did it out of a sense of protectiveness for the only real friend he had ever had, not because he got some kind of sick pleasure out of it.

I had been in the shower when Hiei had arrived, seeking shelter from the storm raging outside. He had apparently been banging on the window for several minutes before I had returned to my room.

Hiei dried off, still looking very annoyed, and I sat down at my desk.

"What's with you lately?" Hiei asked as he roughly toweled off his hair. "You never close the window."

I wondered if I should tell him. Whoever my stalker was, they were obviously human, so it was nothing to worry about, right? But I was still letting it get to me for some reason.

"It's just… well, apparently I have a stalker."

"So? Aren't you stalked by ningen girls every day?"

I almost laughed at that, but nodded. "Well, yes, but…"

I opened a drawer in my desk and pulled out the picture, barely glancing at it before handing it to Hiei. I didn't want to look at it again.

Hiei unfolded it slowly, not looking very interested until he saw what it depicted. "Whoever drew this was looking in through your window," he said quietly, a bit of anger seeping into his voice.

"That's what I thought, too. Which is why I closed my window."

"Is that why you couldn't sleep last night? You could sense them?"

I looked at the ground, remembering what had happened during my conversation with Hiei that morning, and the fact that apparently, I couldn't lie to him.

"Sort of."

It wasn't a lie, at least. But he would also know that it wasn't the whole truth.

Hiei stared at me skeptically for a few moments before losing interest. He refolded the picture and tossed it back to me.

"Stop worrying about it, stupid fox. It's probably just some pathetic human with nothing better to do. And I can live with you keeping the window closed for a little while."

I smiled in relief. Hiei was trying to reassure me in his own way, even if it was carefully hidden behind an insult.

"Thank you."

"Fox!"

My eyes snapped open, and I shot forward into a sitting position, the shadows of nightmares fading to reveal my dark bedroom, and Hiei standing beside my bed, his expression somewhere between worried and annoyed.

I was breathing heavily, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the memories of my latest nightmare. Unfortunately, that only made it easier for the images to resurface in my mind's eye.

"You were screaming," Hiei said sternly. "Woke me up. What were you dreaming about?"

I blinked back open my eyes and focused on Hiei sleepily.

I was dreaming about a psychotic crow that wanted to kill me… among other things.

"Nothing."

That skeptical look reappeared on Hiei's face, and he said, "That's strange."

"Why?" I asked, slightly nervous.

"You did an awful lot of screaming for someone who was dreaming about nothing."

I glared at the nosy little demon and said, "Well, I was obviously having a nightmare. I just meant that it wasn't about anything important."

"At one point you screamed `Karasu.'"

His words were blunt, but filled with barely suppressed fury. I wasn't sure what that anger was directed at, but I was hoping that it wasn't me.

Nodding, I did my best to hide my unease as I said, "That makes a lot of sense, since the nightmare was about Karasu, if you must know."

I didn't mean to sound as sharp as I did, but Hiei's prying was beginning to annoy me. Any other time, I would enjoy the youkai's barely disguised concern, but this was one occasion in which I did not appreciate it. The issue with Karasu felt very personal, even now, and I felt strangely ashamed about the entire thing. A demon being drawn to me because he wanted to kill me was one thing, but having had one that was so obsessed with me, and had wanted to kill me for the perverted reasons that Karasu had was… embarrassing. And the way he had made me seem like the poor victim through the entire thing hadn't helped any. The fact that I had killed him was hardly consoling.

Hiei was still watching me, covering his concern with a mask of annoyance. "The crow's dead, Kurama."

"I know he's dead," I snapped. "But try telling that to my subconscious."

Thankfully, I did manage to get back to sleep, though it took a while. I awoke to find Hiei gone once again, and smiled to myself as I remembered his feeble attempts to comfort me the night before.

"Suck it up and go back to sleep, fox."

That was about as close to comforting as Hiei ever got, but I was grateful for the effort.

The day passed normally; I received no new drawings during school. I felt my tension ease as I walked home, beginning to think that maybe this whole thing would blow over. In a week or two I might even be able to open my window again.

I climbed cheerfully up the stairs to my room, calling down to my mother that I would be ready for dinner in a moment. I pushed open the door to my room and set my books down on my desk before walking over to my closet to pull out a change of clothes. I was about to start undressing when I noticed something.

There was a small, white envelope on my pillow.

I walked over to my bed and picked up the envelope, my hands shaking a bit despite my best efforts to stay calm as I opened it.

It was another drawing, this time of me asleep in my bed.

A light breeze blew in through my open window as I stood, staring at the picture.

Wait…

My open window?

I hurried over to the window and slammed it shut, suddenly feeling sick. I had shut that window yesterday, as soon as I got home. I had shut it!

"Suuichi?"

I stiffened as my mother's voice drifted up the stairs. I stuffed the picture hastily under my pillow before hurrying out of my room, slamming the door shut behind me.

My mother was worried about me. I didn't eat much that evening. Of course, it was difficult to keep an appetite when I had another mysterious stalker, and my Karasu nightmares were beginning to resurface.

That night, I had another nightmare. And when I awoke, my window was open again.