"What are you doing here?" Miyuki asked as she looked at her so-called friend with a small hint of suspicion since she doesn't really know what to expect from the fire demon who just came out of nowhere. In fact, she didn't even count on Hiei's sudden visit.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" Retorted the demon boy back, his voice stern and blunt as usual.
"Hn." The black-haired girl scoffed out as she turned her head away from his figure and look at the tree's crown, now finding them a little more interesting than the view that she previously witnessed.
Hiei rose an eyebrow at the girl, as she got those gaze of her that soon turned into a longing look. He turned in the same direction, but all he saw was the tree branches and the green leaves that the wind was swinging back and forth.
'Man, I wish I can jump and climb up over there right now. . .' Miyuki thought to herself as her stare remained on the tree. 'At least I can get away from this freak-!' Her thoughts were interrupted when her hand and bare feet sensed the ground's vibration which soon followed by loud people.
"MIYUKI?!?" Kuwabara's raspy voice cried out worriedly as he and Yusuke looked around the place. Apparently, they wanted to check on the girls after he and Yusuke fetched up Kurama from the city.
"Come on Sass Queen, I think you're a bit too old to play hide and seek. Don't you think?" Said the male Spirit Detective right after it as he and the other boys began to look around the area.
Miyuki let out a small groan and was about to reach for her crutches, but suddenly was picked up by Hiei.
"What the-? What are you-?!" The black-haired girl stammered, but before she can finish her sentence or get an answer from the fire demon, he jumped up to the tree and hide behind the branches and leaves with the girl in his arms. At first, nothing happened but after a few minutes later the gang arrived.
"She should be here somewhere. . ." Ruby said as she leads the boys to the garden's area. "This is where she would mostly be."
"Oh yeah, I remember." Yusuke laughed a little. "She would be covered in dirt and water after master Yara kicked our asses." He rubbed the back of his neck as a nervous sweat drop rolled down from the back of his neck, remembering about those training events very clearly.
"I think it's a perfect place to relax." Kurama can't help but comment as he eyed the many colourful and magnificent plants that surrounded them.
"You got that right." Ruby agreed with a small smile.
"Hey, look." The orange-haired teen exclaimed as he pointed a finger at the crutches that are lying on the bottom of the tree where Hiei and Miyuki are on. The fire demon was covering Miyuki's mouth, to keep her from letting out a single sound.
"What are those doing here?" Yusuke asked curiously as he approached them. "Some new decorations? Is it Halloween already?" The boy joked as he picked up the item.
"I put them for Miyuki since the damage on her body forces her to limp of getting out of balance." The water-bender girl said as she got closer to Yusuke along with the redhead and Kazuma. "She shouldn't even be out here." She added the last sentence like a stern and concerned mother.
"I'm sure she is not that far away." Kurama said calmly and soothingly as he placed a comforting hand on Ruby's shoulder, making her flinch slightly right before turning into a blushing mess.
"Can't you sense her energy Mr. Sensitive?" Yusuke asked. Usually, Kuwabara would snap at his punching buddy for the stupid nicknames, but this time, his body went stiff instead.
"What?" The male Spirit Detective asked a little annoyance in his voice.
"I can't. . ." Kuwabara finally answered.
"What do you mean you can't?" The brother figure asked.
"I honestly don't know how, but for some reason, I had never been able to sense her energy at all. " Kazuma began explaining it. "Like she is hiding it all the time. . ."
"You're joking, right?" The Urameshi boy asked with a tone of disbelief.
"Actually, it's true." Kurama confirmed his friend's words.
"There is no big surprise there, really." Ruby suddenly spoke up. "Benders tend to have a different type of spiritual energy that is hard to detect even with the person who has the highest level of awareness. The main reason being is that it's all connected to like our level of emotions."
"Is that so?" Kurama asked intriguingly, earning a small nod from Ruby as her answer.
"Mine is sensible since I am open with my emotions." Ruby continued on with her explanation.
"But in Miyuki's case, however, it's barely sensible since she is still closed up."
"Well, that's her alright. . . " Yusuke sadly sigh. "But now how are we going to find her?"
"Beats me." Kuwabara said, his hand brushing his orange locks. "Hopefully she is not with that mouse."
"With who?" Yusuke questioned. The two began to talk about it for a while, but it soon turned into a huge fit of argument when Kuwabara accidentally slipped his plan of 'asking out Miyuki for a hang out'. Yusuke of course didn't like that at all and jumped into action.Kurama and Ruby looked at the two with amusement while sweat dropping.
"Should we stop them?" Ruby asked as she let out a small nervous chuckle.
"It's fine. Let them have their fun." Kurama said with a small chuckle as he watched the show in front of him unfold. As his eyes kept looking at them the redhead couldn't help but raise his respect toward Yusuke for the fact that he deeply cares about his sibling that much.
As a brother figure himself, he knew the feeling of being overprotective over his family. In fact, he would have done the same thing since he sees his little Phoenix as a little sister figure to him.
A small sound of someone sneezing made him snap out of his thoughts. He looked around, but none of his friends was the one that let out that small strange voice.
Then he heard it again, but it came from above him this time. Kurama looked up with his brows furrowed together curiously, but he found nothing.
"Is something wrong?" Ruby asked out of curiosity.
"Oh no, it was probably nothing." Kurama said with his soothing as he shook his head dismissively.
Eventually, a small group of friends began to leave the garden area. However, Kurama took one last glance from the huge tree before leaving the garden area. But then he suddenly saw the Water-bender girl watering the small bouquet of lavenders and white freesias that are in a small vase.
Once the girl left in another direction, Kurama took a good look at the flowers. A small smirk danced upon his expression as a small idea popped into his mind.
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"I'll tell her you were looking for her then." I told Yusuke reassuringly as I escorted the boys toward the gate after a long-long search that we did after my favourite dummy, but had no success.
"Thanks, and make sure she won't do anything stupid, ya dig?" The big brother figure said before he and Kuwabara began to climb down the stairs.
"Until next time then Ruby." Kurama politely said as he waved a hand toward my direction. I waved back as I closed my eyes and stretched my lips to a wide smile. Once they were gone, I went to the Healing room's direction, hoping for the third time that Miyuki would be there, but when I passed the table that was decorated with my small flower bouquet I froze on my track.
My eyes were glued to that one single flower that stood out of them all.
A single purple rose in the very middle.
How did that get there. . . But then for some reason, one person's name popped into my mind. . .
Kurama. . .
And from then on I felt my whole face burning while my brain was trying to deny the fact that my heart is racing after the fox demon's heart.
Ruby, calm down. It's just probably a friendly gesture. I mean, Kurama gave colourful roses to Miyuki before.
So. . . he is just trying to get close to me as friends. . . right?