Midnight had already fallen and by now everyone got their chance to get to shut their eyes.
The three members of Team Urameshi had already retreated to their own tents or tree by now while the siblings are sleeping in one room that had the needle beds and snakes. The brother was in a deep slumber, but his sister however was not. She was blankly staring at the ceiling while her mind again once again went for a race.
The training she went through that day sure left her completely destroyed, but Miyuki's brain refused to rest. Her lack of performance in fire-bending lessons really got to her in a bad way. It made her angry and disappointed with herself.
With an irritated sigh, she got up from her 'bed' and then left the room as quietly as she can.
'I need to work harder.' Miyuki thought to herself as she slid the door close and tiptoe her way through the hall. Eventually, she found the room where she and her brother's stuff are being held. She picked up her blue ribbon and tied her hair into a simple ponytail. With that, she left her the dojo, then walked down the long staircase.
In the forest, Hiei was sleeping on one of the tree's branches while his two comrades are down in their tent. However, his small nap was cut short when he sensed someone coming closer to the area he and his friends are. He got up to his feet and then closed his eye, letting his Jagan do its work. However, as soon as he found that person. . .
'Miyuki?' He asked himself as he watched the girl, wearing a white tank top and black short pants were going down the long stairs, heading to the beach's direction. 'What is she doing out here?' Without another thought or word, he followed the girl.
Meanwhile, Miyuki reached her destination. Her feet touching the sand while the waves of the sea gently rippling on the edge. The full moon was shining brightly at the water that reflects it's glory back. The girl took a deep breath from the fresh air as her feet carried her a little close to the water. the scent of the seawater freshened her up. The sound of the waves and the peaceful silence gave her a sense of security and calmness.
Then she stood into her starting position and began to once again punch the air, trying to make the smallest spark appear. Sadly, the only thing that came out was a small cloud of smoke, just like before.
Hiei watched the struggling girl's movements curiously. After like five minutes of trying to shoot flames, Miyuki finally reached her breaking point and angrily punched the ground, making the sand around her form jump up in a small ring. This surprised the Fire Demon, since he witnesses his mate do one of the sub-skills of earth bending for the first time after a long time.
'This is getting nowhere.' The girl thought to herself as she began to wipe the sand off of her fist, but then her eye lit up. 'Maybe Akio can help me.' With that, she sat down and then crossed her arms. Miyuki placed her fists against each other than closed her eye.
As the girl was meditating, Hiei jumped onto a cliff, getting closer to the girl and giving him a perfect view for him to see what his partner is up to. However, he wanted to also hear it clearly, so in that case, he closed his eyes and used the power of the Jagan eye.
'Akio, I need your advice.' Miyuki called mentally. On cue, a part of her soul began to reveal itself by going out of the girl's body. And sure enough, the Phoenix warrior himself showed up.
"Hello there, Little one." The young adult greeted the girl who gasped. While up on the cliff Hiei's jaw dropped as his eyes widened in disbelief, not believing what he is seeing or hearing.
"Akio?" The girl breathed out as she rubbed her eye rapidly, just to make sure she was not just hallucinating thing. Seeing this, Akio chuckled.
"In the flesh." He joked making Miyuki roll her eyes at him. "What's troubling you, Miyuki?" At that, the girl sighed heavily.
"It's my fire-bending." Miyuki went straight to the point. "When I was at Tarukane's I was able to create a small forcefield, but now I can even make a spark."
"I see. . ." The young shinobi said with a small nod as he looked into the girl's eyes with worry that reflected on her expression as well. "But your lack of performance is understandable since your fire mostly comes from the Phoenix of Light."
"So it means I can't use any more of that fire at all until I am ready to tame the Phoenix." Miyuki concluded with a serious tone. This made Akio sigh sadly before giving his successor an apologetic look.
"I know this is going to be hard, but even with this training, the time is still not right." Akio explained sadly. "Yes, I can feel the progress you're making, but you are still not ready for the real thing here."
"I know. . ." Miyuki replied tiredly and a bit distraught. "But if I want to survive this tournament and save everyone I know, I need to give it my all."
"I can understand that." Akio said. "Participating in the Dark Tournament is a one way ticket. You either let yourself crushed like a bug or stand up and fight."
"But when will I be ready?" The girl asked, now getting desperate. "How am I gonna know that I can even do it? Tame our Phoenix I mean. . . "
"You will see little one, soon enough." Akio replied calmly. "But for now, train yourself. Learn everything necessary and don't give up." With those words, he vanished into the thin air.
"Akio wait-!"Miyuki cried out, but too late. The Phoenix warrior was gone. "Great." The Urameshi girl groaned before letting out a defeated sigh. She rubbed her eye while suppressing her yawn. However, that was soon replaced with a small gasp when she felt her marked wrist warm-up a little.
The girl fell silent. She didn't moved from her seat as her ears caught the approaching footsteps behind her.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Hiei asked as he walked over to the girl's side. He received no answer. The Fire Demon shook his head with a small scoff then he took a seat next to Miyuki who hugged her knees and rest her chin on them.
"What brought you here?" Hiei tried again as his eyes stared at the night sky.
"Thinking. . ." Miyuki replied as she held back another yawn.
"Hn." The Fire Demon huffed out as he crossed his arms. Miyuki sighed but said nothing as she continued on to gaze upon the stars. An awkward silence followed the two, making the two of them uncomfortable, but they didn't dare to show it. That is until. . .
"So. . . ." Miyuki's words broke the silence and snapped Hiei out of the awkwardness. The demon turned to the girl and looked at her concerned filled eyes that are staring at the seawater still. "What do you think about this?" The black haired girl asked.
"If you're concerned about the Tournament, we won't lose." Hiei stated with his stern voice, making Miyuki snap her head toward him. "As long as you train you will be just fine. You worry too much." Those words and the snarky attitude annoyed the girl very much, especially now that she is super tired due to her lack of sleep.
"Jeez, are you always this 'encouraging'?" Miyuki's sarcasm slipped.
"Hn." Hiei scoffed. "Only weak people need encouragement. If you are so scared of this then you can leave. I am sure your brother and the others are enough for this." That comment set her off and as a result, she tackled Hiei into the sand. The Fire Demon was taken aback by this sudden attack, but that surprised look soon turned blank once more as he faced Miyuki's tired and angry expression.
"You're the one to talk." The Urameshi girl weakly snapped at him. "You, a man, a demon who knows how to fight, yet didn't have the guts to express his true feelings to a girl who he likes."
Hiei didn't like these words and it made him switch positions with his partner, meaning he was now on the top.
"Tsk, you are speaking nonsenses." The demon teen Miyuki, sensing that she is completely blinded by that small anger while her exhaustion was getting the better of her. The girl scoffed then kicked Hiei off of herself.
When the Fire Demon got on his feet, Miyuki already had an ice blade on each of her arms. With a battle cry, she sped over and slashed her sharp weapons at the demon. He barely managed to dodge the first one, because he didn't count the girl's new speed level, but after a few attacks, he managed to either dodged them or deflect a few attacks with his own sword. The girl was a glaring dagger at the demon who returned the favour.
"What?" Miyuki asked a little tauntingly as their weapon clashed and now they were facing each other with their hands pushing one weapon against the other. "Can't handle the truth? Or you just don't want to believe it?"
"Shut up!" Hiei snapped as he shoved the girl away, making her leave a long line on the sand. The demon was about to launch himself at the girl, but something made him trip. When he lifted up his face, he looked down to see the sand grabbing his feet like it was alive. However, when he turned back around he sees Miyuki jump up, ready to punch the demon with her icy fist. Thankfully he managed to roll away.
Once the girl's fist made contact with the sand, Miyuki collapsed onto her knees, breathing heavily and almost dropping down to sleep. Hiei took that chance and tackled the girl to the ground again. The pair's body collided and rolled onto the sand's surface. When they stopped rolling, they ended up in the same position like previously. Miyuki was on top of her partner with her head next to Hiei's ear.
The two groaned out before the girl slowly raised her upper body. When she did that, her eye got locked with Hiei's ruby ones.
"Are you done?" He asked the girl, the pace of their breaths matching one another. The girl just weakly nodded before turning her head away shyly and embarrassed.
Hiei can't help but finds her expression rather. . . charming and fascinating to just look at, especially when he catches emotions on it.
Through out his entire life, he never really bothered how emotions work, because he thought they would just get in the way of his fighting career. However, after he met his future mate. . . that mindset began to slowly change to something else, because . . . .after seeing Miyuki first smile and the other emotions that the female Spirit Detective had been revealing time after time. . . . Now he can't help but be drawn by emotions, because he never thought they would look so. . . beautiful to witness. . . Especially on the one person, who the Fire Demon got paired up with.
Once again, Hiei's ruby orbs found themselves gazing at the girl's facial expression. . . But slowly, the expression on the demon lover's face turned into a look of disbelief and admiration when he finally took notice of how Miyuki's ponytail is no more and instead, her hair was now down, framing her oval face perfectly.
Hiei didn't move, nor said a word. He just stared at the beautiful figure on top of him. Like the teen girl put him in some sort of trance.
"Do you have any regrets?" The Fire demon suddenly asked out of the blue.
"Regrets?" Asked Miyuki slightly taken aback but confused nonetheless.
"Regrets about. . . opening up to me. . . ?" Hiei corrected himself as he. . . . Turned away to avoid the girl's eye. Thankfully his partner's shadow covered his face that hides his pink blush on his cheeks.
"No. . ." Miyuki replied softly as her hand once again went up boldly to Hiei's face. "I regret nothing. . ." Those made Hiei turn her head back around to look into the Urameshi girl's eye deeply. "Nothing at all . . ."
They stayed in that position for a moment as if no one else mattered at the moment. . . . Just them. . .
The world around them stopped. While Miyuki's heart was racing, the Fire Demon's core came alive. The girl's face flushed pink as her eye reflected so much . . . affection. The Fire Demon took it all in with his own gaze, that were filled with wonder. . .
Miyuki's hand found the courage to trail down on Hiei's cheek and caressed it so carefully as if she was afraid that it would break with the slightest hint of a harsh touch. The Fire Demon couldn't help but close his eyes and relax under the girl's tender touch.
The girl's gaze then for a split second, looked at Hiei's lips. Then slowly, she bravely hovered over to her partner's face then carefully the Urameshi girl leaned down, her eye closing slowly. Seeing this, the demon did not protest. In fact, he leaned up as his own eyes began to close as well.
Their lips touched and soon they got into a deep kiss, sharing the fiery passion and love the two felt at that very moment, awakening their flame within them.
[Hiei x Miyuki on the beach. Art by me.]
Something, that made their marks on each of their wrist glow slightly as it began to burn up, but none of the lovers took notice of that and just enjoyed that small moment they both have while strengthening their bond and take the 'second step' of their relationship.
Morning came and by now Kuwabara and Kurama were up, ready for another training session for the day.
"Hey, where is shrimp boy?" Kuwabara asked as he looked around.
"That's interesting, because I remember him sleeping on the tree over there." The redhead observably said as he also looked around to find his friend. "Anyways, I'm sure he is fine. Let's just start the training without him."
Meanwhile, at the shore, Miyuki's eyes fluttered open. She then shut her eyes tight due to the ray of sunshine that almost blinded her. However, as soon as she got to her senses, she finally took notice of the sleeping form of Hiei. Not only that the Urameshi girl's head was on his chest while Hiei's arms were around her waist like snakes. The breath stiffed in the girl's throat as the blush crept onto her face, remembering the kiss, she experienced last night. She shook her head to snap herself out and then began to slowly get up.
Her attempt failed miserably because a pair of strong arms pulled her back down.
"Going somewhere?" Hiei asked Miyuki as she was facing him, their nose touching. The Fire Demon smirked victoriously as he saw the girl flush red in the face.
"Hn." The Urameshi girl huffed as she tried to once again wiggle out of Hiei's grip. "Hiei, we still need to train. Come on now." The demon rolled his eyes, but he let go of her as he got up to his feet and helped her up. But when Miyuki was up, her eyes looked once again into Hiei's crimson one.
The spark was still there and by the looks of it, it won't go out any time soon.
Coming to their senses, the couple turned away from each other fast, suddenly becoming shy and awkward.
"Well. . I guess I'll see you next time." Miyuki said after clearing her throat, then she nodded her head at her partner, and began to walk away while her hands began to tie her hair up-.
"You don't need that." Hiei told the girl. Hearing this Miyuki turned around with a look of surprise and confusion.
"What?" The Urameshi girl asked since he didn't hear him clearly. The innocent tone he hadn't hear before made Hiei's face flushed a little pink but then he turned his face to the side with a stern look.
"Train hard then you will become stronger." The Fire Demon said before turning to his 'mate' once more. "I know you will." This made Miyuki smile a little.
"Same to you. . ." Replied the girl as she turned around. "Shadow Lord." Miyuki heard a small scoff coming from Hiei, but she just silently giggled to herself as she and her partner went on their own separate ways.
_________________________________________________________
"Are you sure it's good?" Ruby asked worriedly as she and I were changing into out fighting clothes.
"It's convincing enough." I reassured her as I got my scarf mask around my neck and pull it up to cover my nose and mouth. "Are you ready. . . Scarlett?" I asked as I pulled my blue hood up also over my head while I watch my friend pick up her bag.
"Ready as I'll ever be. . . Phoenix." Replied my water-bender friend, now getting into her alter ego's voice, Scarlett.
"Impressive." I replied, but instead of my original voice, I mimicked Akio's perfectly, getting into my alter ego as well. . . Phoenix.