By Die Before I Wake
(Whoops o_O)
Hiei sighed with relief and laughed at himself a little. He reached his arm under the bed and poked the small, silvery-grey form that was taking a nap there. After a few seconds, she lifted her head up and turned it around. Her tail started wagging when their eyes met and she stood and stretched. Then she toddled out from her hiding place and licked his cheek. He sat up again and picked her up.
“I thought that I had lost you,” he muttered as he held her on his lap and scratched behind her ear. She looked up at him and wagged her tail. She hung her tongue out of her mouth, smiling and laughing in the traditional wolf language. Hiei couldn’t help it. The corner of his mouth raised in a small, half smirk.
Fine, he thought. I admit it. I like this wolf. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because she reminds me of Yukina. Defenseless, innocent, harmless. He looked down at her again to see her looking up at him.
“Or maybe because you remind me of someone I couldn’t help before,” he muttered. “Myself.”
She whimpered a little and his acute hearing picked up the sound of her stomach growling. He reached up onto his night stand and pulled the plate with the now stale and room temperature ham sandwich. He pulled a piece of the ham from between the two slices of bread and held it out for the pup. She happily took it and ate it.
Several minutes later, the sandwich was gone, bread and all. Hiei and the pup had finished the pack of Pocky and he was letting her lick the condensation from the outside of the Jolt can. A strange noise came from the laptop on his desk and he turned to look at it. One of the window notices was up on the screen. He placed the pup on his bed and the Jolt on his night stand and walked to the laptop to see if he had accidentally broken it somehow.
Songs copied to device: Hiei’s iPod, Hiei read. Does that mean it’s done? Am I supposed to take it out? He clicked the little red X in the corner and the window went away. I’ll ask Kurama about it later, I suppose. He studied the iTunes window and saw the horizontal triangle symbol that Kurama had told him stood for “play”. He also remembered the kitsune telling him that he had put the iTunes play settings on “shuffle” and explained that the songs would come on randomly and not in alphabetical order.
Not wanting to scare the already napping pup, Hiei just walked away from the laptop and locked his door. He closed his curtains and walked over to his desk. Turning his lamp on, he pushed the laptop to the side. He opened the drawer to his right and took out the plain, black and white composition notebook that he had bought when he was first transferred from Koenma’s palace to the team’s mansion. He had been using it as a sort of journal, daily log, whatever you want to call it. He’d been neglecting it for weeks. Maybe even a month. He opened it to the next blank page, which was hardly halfway through, and picked up a black-inked, white ballpoint pen.
I snuck out again last night, don’t remember the time. I just know that I couldn’t sleep. When I got out of the tree outside of my window and walked for a few meters, I smelled blood. My mind was telling me to leave it alone, but I guess my instincts and body won that battle. Again.
I followed the scent and found what I thought was a dead wolf pup. For some reason, I began using my katana to dig a grave for her. I thought that she had died alone and deserved it. But then I heard a whimper and looked to see that she was still alive. The wounds looked worse than they really were, I suppose. The same thing that possessed me to follow the scent told me to take her back with me. I did, thinking that I could have at least made her not feel like no one wanted her if someone was with her when she died. I cleaned and bandaged her and made a little “den” for her in my closet.
This morning I woke up ready to take her body outside and bury it. Then I heard the same whimper again - she had survived the night. I gave her bacon and water. Then... the idiot came into my room to take me to the “mall”. He tried to force me into going, but I ended up pushing him down the stairs. I wish I would have stayed to see him fall... Oh well. I had to go anyway. I was told about some stores that I actually... liked. There, I got clothes, and Yusuke showed me how to get the cheapest music for the iPod that Kurama finally got me to use.
Then when we came home and I put my stuff in my room, I thought that I had lost the pup somewhere in the house. The closet door and my bedroom door were both open. I was walking all across the second floor, sniffing the air and trying to find her. For the first time in my life, I guess I was genuinely worried about someone other that my sister.
After a while, I had to come back in my room. After Kurama showed me how to use that iPod thing, I opened the box of Pocky that he left in my room for me. I dropped a piece, and when I went to pick it up, I saw the wolf napping under my bed. I laughed at myself a little for not checking in the easiest place for her to hide in.
Well, the last thing I have to write is that... I like keeping this wolf around. For some reason, having her here makes me feel less alone. I don’t know why, but... it just does. Is this what that word “friendship” means? If so, then I’m glad that she’s my “friend”.
Hiei closed his journal and put the lid on his pen. He placed both items back in his drawer under
the stack of white “printer paper”, as Kurama called it, and an empty sketchbook. Then he took his shoes off and turned off his desk lamp. He walked over to the bed, laid down, and fell asleep next to the wolf pup, his first friend.
