By Die Before I Wake
(Part 1 of 5 of the batch fanfics.)
The next morning, Hiei woke up on his windowsill. He yawned and wondered why his clothes smelled of mud and blood and wolf, having forgotten the events of the last night due to an unusually deep sleep. He awoke fully and his acute demon hearing picked up a high pitched squeaking noise. The last night came back to him soon after that. The pup... Did it survive? Hiei thought. He quietly walked over to his closet and opened the door. He saw a little grey head looking at him from the safety of the cardboard box.
Hiei knelt down and tipped the box over slowly. The pup was looking at him, her blue eyes wide and her entire body trembling. Her whimpering grew a little louder. Hiei reached over and let the pup sniff his hand. Her small, wet nose quivered and she opened her mouth and sank her sharp puppy teeth into his hand. The fire apparition gritted his teeth and the pup let go. She looked at him fearfully, unsure of what this furless, two legged creature was.
Hiei looked at his hand and saw that there were only small imprints from the small pup’s teeth. They had not broken the skin. Either they weren’t sharp enough, or she didn’t have enough strength to bite down hard enough to defend herself. He saw that she was still trembling and whimpering. How was he to calm her down? He tried hard to think of what to do. He then remembered that Kuwabara had a pet cat. He also remembered Kuwabara talking to it to keep it relaxed or to help it fall asleep. I have to talk to her? How the hell would that help? Hiei thinks. He sighs and shrugs. It’s worth a shot. But what am I supposed to say to her? Do I give her a name or something? I am definitely not talking to this wolf as Kuwabara talks to that poor cat.
Hiei shuddered as he thought of when Kurama convinced him to go to movie night at Kuwabara’s house. As soon as that poor calico cat, Eikichi, came out, with the silver bells on her collar jingling, Kuwabara scooped the cat up and started talking to it in the most disgusting tone Hiei had ever heard. The sounds and words haunted him through nightmares. He could have sworn that his ears had been bleeding. Luckily, he hadn’t eaten anything that day that he could have thrown up.
Okay. He decided not to talk to the pup like a pet. He didn’t want to end up like Kuwabara. Then what was he supposed to do? With my luck, she’ll start howling for her mother and father and the rest of her pack, someone will hear her, and then I’ll get a lecture, and Kurama will resort to “euthanasia”. That word...Why does it sound so...Horrible? What does it mean? Do I even want to know? He looked at the pup again and saw that she was trying to chew through the bandages on her right foreleg.
“Don’t do that,” he whispered. He put his index finger under her chin and lifted her head away from her leg. Her eyes widened and she looked at him. Her ears perked up and then went back down against her head. So, talking to them like people is the best way to go? he thought. He then remembered all of the movies that he was forced to watch on movie night. In all of them, people talked to their dogs and cats. They would consider something out loud and look at the animals and then ask what they thought. He looked at her once more and saw that she had begun to tremble again. He put his hand out again and rubbed her left ear with his thumb and index finger.
“Am I supposed to feed you now?” he asked. For some reason, he didn’t feel like an ass talking to something that couldn’t talk back. He supposed that it was only natural to try and communicate with a living thing. The pup was looking up at him again. This time, though, she didn’t look away. She sat there and stared at him. She wasn’t trembling anymore. Perhaps him talking to her had calmed her? Or was she confused and scared?
What do I feed her, anyway? Hiei thought. Is she even old enough to eat solid food? He gently opened her mouth and saw that her baby teeth were fully grown in, rather than just popping through her gums. That must mean she can eat, right? If not...I’ll grind some meat up with a rock or something. Kurama usually cooks bacon or sausage or some form of meat or egg in the morning. I don’t normally come down for breakfast...I suppose I might just bring it up in here. They might not be suspicious if I “eat” alone.
Hiei looked at his clock. It was eight thirty six. Everyone else was probably just getting up. He put the box over the pup again and closed his closet door after turning the light on for her. He walked out of his room and downstairs. Yusuke and Kuwabara were sitting on the couch in the living room, arguing over which channel to put on. Kurama, of course, was in the kitchen cooking. How a man could put up with cooking, Hiei would never know. Sometimes the fire apparition swore that Kurama’s human body was meant to be female until Youko’s soul inhibited it. He had decided to keep that comment to himself whenever it came into his mind. He sat on one of the kitchen chairs and tilted it back. He heard a soft thud as the top of the back of the chair hit the wall. Kurama looked back after he turned the stove off.
“You’re up later than usual today, Hiei,” the kitsune said.
“I was taking a walk from one until three thirty or so in the morning.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Hiei replied, placing the chair back in its normal position.
“Do you plan on eating today?”
“Maybe. If I do, it won’t be out here.”
Kurama sighed. He had always been concerned with Hiei. He never seemed to eat. The only things he could get Hiei to eat or dink were energy drinks. Hiei didn’t care about the caffeine, sugar, or vitamins. He didn’t even take the “energy” part of it literally. Kurama nearly laughed to himself at remembering when he, Kuwabara, and Yusuke had convinced him to go to the mall. The poor demon had thought that they were going to see a human be mauled by a vicious, crazed beast.
After everything was put out, Yusuke and Kuwabara came in the room. Hiei went up to his room, a small plate of bacon in his right hand, and two cherry Jolt energy drinks tucked under his left arm.
