If You Only Knew

Chapter 5 illustration is go!!! When I was working on this one I realized I forgot to include Kuwabara in the character sheet I had made. I guess I should draw another picture of him to make up for it. I really had fun drawing Bob-san (the laughing Buddha statue). Also you're probably wondering about the weird giant brown part behind them...think of that as a blank space (ok it's really just my laziness).

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I liked the temple right off the bat. It was something about the atmosphere of the place—the peacefulness and the way it seemed frozen in an era long since forgotten—that drew me to it. A patch of tall flowering grass near me partially concealed a small statue of a jolly monk with wide cheeks, a round belly, and hands clasped around a rosary in prayer. His bald stone head gleamed in the sun, having seen many years (or so I amused) of weathering. I smiled back at him, ears intent on the sound of anyone approaching, but I heard nothing.

"I think I'll name you Bob," I said in English to the statue, more to amuse myself than anything. "A nice, non-Japanese for you, Mr. Monk. How do you like that?"

His smile was an encouragement, and I stretched my arms high over my head. Satisfied to hear my tendons pop and crackle, I let the arms fall. That was when the door behind me opened with a clatter. I turned my head so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash.

Kurama came out first, of course, and before I could see the source of the pounding feet behind him he had pulled me into his arms and bounded off the porch. My teeth clacked together when we hit the ground, and with one arm pulled tight around my thighs and the other wrapped around my waist he held me off the ground against him, my face pressed into his rich hair. My cane was lost in the fray. I faced away from the house after he rounded the patch of grass hiding the little monk, so I heard (rather than saw the owner of) a low, gravelly voice as it growled what could only be a threat.

"Hey!" I squeaked, pushing away from him so I could see his face. "Put me down!"

He glowered up at me. "Stay still," he hissed, and he put me on the ground at his side. One arm stayed tight around my shoulders, fingers pinching me in a most uncomfortable way, and with a grumble I turned to face Kurama's pursuers.

The growler was Hiei, of course, and the anime had gotten many things about him wrong. First off was his height—they had vastly exaggerated it (or under-exaggerated it; my thoughts were muddled). He wasn't the pitiful 4'10 I expected, but rather a short (although not unheard of ) 5'3 or 5'4. He was still a smidgen taller than me, however, as my frail body had never quite made it past the 5'2 mark (although that was incredibly tall for someone of my physical disability, my doctors were fond of saying). And his hair! Well, the anime had certainly done a good job of mucking that up. The white portion at the front looked a lot more natural that it did in the anime, taking the form of pale streaks that did not form a perfect starburst, and when I saw them I almost thought the marks to be signs of aging. And the blue at the tips—oh, there was blue all right, but it was everywhere, not just on the edges of his wild, up-in-all-directions spikes. Every time a strand caught the light it would reflect a brilliant sapphire blue, and the result was a totally inhuman barrage of unnatural color. No one could ever mistake Hiei for a human with hair like that, but what really took the cake were his eyes.

The anime had absolutely nothing on his eyes.

I tried not to stare (but I know I hopelessly failed) at those incredibly large eyes that reflected a red so intense that I might as well have shoved a maraschino cherry into my socket if I were inclined to mimic that incredible color. Long lashes made those huge eyes seem even wider, but they were currently screwed up tight with rage, and I recoiled unconsciously into Kurama's side. Hiei looked like a wild boy, a veritable Peter Pan with his well-worn cloak, scuffed boots, and tanned skin When he opened his mouth to speak I caught the glint of delicate and pointed eyeteeth, and the result of combing all of his inhuman features together was an absolutely feral portrait of a man at one with his animalistic tendencies.

"Shit," I muttered as Hiei barked something at Kurama. "Holy crap."

Three other people burst out of the house at that point, and I recognized them all. Genkai was there, of course, and she was not what I had expected. Small, stoop-shouldered, with beady eyes of an undistinguished color, her hair was more gray than pink until the light caught it and bubblegum burst forth in a sparkle of incredible pigmentation. I had been expecting a bit more craziness out of her, but she just looked like an old woman with a strange dye-job. She looked... well, human, and I wasn't sure if this disappointed or relieved me.

And then there was Kuwabara. Oh, Kuwabara. Carrot-colored hair that overshadowed narrow brown eyes and a long face, a strong jaw, arms that looked like they had seen many, many hours at the gym... he looked absurdly human standing next to the otherworldly Hiei and the pretty-as-a-picture Kurama. I didn't find him ugly, not necessarily, but I could see why the anime portrayed him as such. He was just so plain next to the others, and for a minute I felt a little sorry for the big guy. In the same moment I liked him, empathized with him, understood his reason for acting overly cocky and confrontational around his teammates. I had been feeling pretty insecure next to Kurama, myself.

Being close to a guy who's prettier than you does a number on your self esteem, I reasoned sourly as I looked at the last member of our party.

Yukina.

If I had had any reason to wonder why Hiei was being so territorial, her presence was the thing that made it all make sense.

Earlier I mentioned how Hiei's eyes are commonly (and mistakenly) referred to as 'ruby' in color. The gemstone metaphor, however, suits Yukina like a tailored glove. Her eyes have a velvety sheen, like fresh rose petals, and their dark red color is a far cry from Hiei's maraschino screamers. I had always wondered how the hell the anime version of Yukina was stupid enough not to recognize Hiei as her brother, given the similarity of their eyes and all, but seeing them in person put a whole new spin on things. They both had red eyes, yes, but that's like saying that I'm related to Audrey Hepburn because we're both brunettes, and that's so far from the truth it's laughable.

And her hair, too—oh, wow. For a moment I thought it was a wig. No one can have hair the color of wintergreen chewing gum, right? But the strands were lustrous and full and shiny, like silk spun by spiders, and it suited her pale, snowy (ha!) skin so well...

I that's when I realized, as I was staring at the unknowing objects of many adoring fans, that everyone was looking right at me.