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Entry tags:

(no subject)

WHO:

soldieringblue
WHERE: Hiei's warehouse*
WHEN: tonight-night-night (5/12)
WARNINGS: sparkles and darkness SMASHING TOGETHER but not in a faito way in a bromance way
SUMMARY: The quiet and mysterious Bluechan traverses the city to meet up with his sparkletherapy partner, the short and sort of evil Grumpychan.
FORMAT: om nom paragraphs

After being home in demon world, Hiei just couldn't take the open air of the living world. It was too...fresh.

So he settled into his warehouse for the night instead, relaxing in the rafters. The air was just musty enough to feel a little like home.

*Hiei doesn't actually own a warehouse he just sleeps and fights there yeahboy

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The aura pulse wasn't what roused Blue and sent him out into the air, but it was what kept him from returning to the tattered building he and Jomy spent their evenings. It was far out of the way, but...the Mu had a troubled feeling. A troubled feeling that only worsened as he drew closer and could pin the familiar notions to something--someone he knew. Intermixed with a stronger, darker sensation, that spurred him on, settling to kneel on the roof of the warehouse.

He hesitated, pressing his palm against the concrete, listening and looking with the mind's eye inside to only find...Just Hiei. He frowned. What had happened-? The atmosphere was different.

Blue drew breath before teleporting inside, rising to his feet where he stood, craning his neck upward to look. "...Hiei."

Hiei glanced over the side of the rafter he was reclined on, saw Blue staring up at him...

...and then he was on the ground, the intermediate having been nothing more than a vaguely-Hiei-shaped blur.

"Blue," he said, tilting his chin in his usual manner. His original aura remained, but it was buried deep underneath (and, to an extent, mixed with) the far more powerful aura of the Dragon.

The conversation quickly lapsed into silence as Blue regarded the demon in front of him with large, attentive eyes. "...Changed," he said aloud, more to himself as he looked, his fingers curling and uncurling against himself. "Yusuke changed, and now so have you..."

"Changed for the better," Hiei said sharply. The absence of the Dragon had been driving him mad, and it's presence in the City left him swimming in relief.

"Ah," he blinked, changing his focus. That whole instance, Blue seemed to be looking at something near or around him, but with his words, the Mu looked down directly. Better...Maybe. The agitation wasn't there anymore, or...it was greatly quieted and overshadowed by that new presence. "Yes. It seems...better.

"I apologize," he added after a moment, lowering his head slightly. "I'd thought something had happened--something worse."

"You would. Humans always assume misfortune at the first sign of something different, don't they?"

Of course, as Blue was no doubt learning, Hiei was a master of casual cruelty even in the best of moods.

"Human--" Blue's head lifted, surprised by the word. A bit wounded, too, that the assumption of difference would...Well, it did apply to him, didn't it? From the moment he'd arrived, he'd...

"It's true enough," he relented quietly, frowning.

"Don't look so surprised." Hiei scowled in return, though there wasn't much heat behind it. It wasn't so easy to ruin his good mood.

"I only..." He paused, gaze low and contemplative. "I don't remember ever being called human before." There would hardly be a need for anyone to refer to one another as human before he'd realized his powers, would there? Even without remembering his childhood, he was certain enough of that. That was the first time the Soldier was called human.

"Well, that's what you are."

Despite the sadder things the notion brought up, Blue ended up smiling, catching it late and turning his head away. "Ah. That's true."

Hiei did not in any way understand the smile that came to Blue's face. As far as he was concerned, humanity was an insult unto itself.

"Yes, we've established that it's both true and obvious." Hiei raised his chin once again, working himself up to a conclusion.

"Which brings us to why, exactly, you felt the need to seek me out."

"It's as I said," Blue looked back, straightening. "I had thought something had happened; your presence was here, but it was different than I remembered. It wasn't something I could look away from."

"That's it." It was obvious that Hiei didn't believe there wasn't an ulterior motive; no one ever sought him out just to check on him.

He gave a faint nod. "Yes. That's it."

Hiei's face twisted, briefly, into an almost...longing expression.

But it passed just in the blink of an eye, leaving him looking as dubious as ever. "You're an idiot."

Blue watched him a moment, his own expression a placid and hard to place one itself. That, too, passed; he bowed his head. "I apologize for disturbing you. I shall leave you be, if that's what you wish."

Hiei huffed, raised and lowered one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.

"Do what you like," he said. 'I'm not bothered by your presence', he left unspoken.

Unspoken but understood. It gave Blue pause, watching him with that same mild consideration. After a moment, he tried his luck. "This change...for the better, you said. How did it happen?"

It terms of risk and reward, Blue's gamble was going to win him the lottery; Hiei was intensely proud of the Dragon, so much so that it was probably palpable.

"I spent many years mastering a certain technique." Funny how he was capable of going from indifferent to smug in so little time.

A smug color was better than a scornful or irate one, as far as Blue was concerned. It was a chance to learn, perhaps, and the Soldier had a dire need to learn as much as he could, whenever he could. "Technique...what kind of technique, then?"

"The purpose," Hiei said slowly, clearly enjoying this little bout of story-telling, "is to summon a creature from the fires of Spirit World."

He paused, mostly for dramatic effect, then let out a snort of amusement. "Of course, anyone can do that."

Blue let him relish; there was no urgency or hostility in the air. Conversation was...a nice change of pace this city had come to offer. And in any case, the things Hiei spoke of were very new. "I've never heard of a Spirit World before," he admitted, shaking his head. "If there's such a thing where I am from, there's been no evidence. The creatures...what do they do?"

"Eh, humans have other names for it. Heaven, hell, limbo...things like that." He shrugged; the ignorant naming habits of humans were none of his concern.

"Devour whatever the summoner sets it upon, of course." Many people found Hiei's enthusiasm for that particular subject disturbing.

The enthusiasm tied into the likelihood of such a thing's use in Hiei's hands was disturbing. Blue frowned faintly, trying to visualize such a thing with little luck. No such things existed before this place, and even now, trying to grasp all the powers present was a challenge. Moreover...Why hadn't he loosed it already? It seemed like something he would do, for all Blue knew. But that wasn't something he was eager to provoke.

He nodded faintly. "A formidable power, then."

"Oh yes." Hiei had such fond memories of unleashing the beast...but that was rather unimportant to the current conversation.

"And I have mastered it."

Memories that only flickered passing, confusing images in Blue's mind deepened the contemplative frown. "It's colored you differently," he said. "Darker."

"Surely not much darker," he said dismissively. "It's evil, as am I. Couldn't you tell?"

Hiei had a somewhat skewed self-image that Blue had already seen glimpses of, but as far as he was concerned he was telling the truth.

"It's...significant." Blue doubted saying it aloud, but supporting illusions wasn't something he was too keen to do, either. He shifted where he stood, holding his arms around himself. "That's why I came to look. I'd thought it someone different entirely."

"Its presence is stronger than mine," Hiei conceded. It was obvious that he took comfort in it rather than begrudging its presence.

He hesitated, then, eyes flickering from side to side as though he was working himself up to saying something he'd rather leave unsaid.

"You...have no need to fear it."

Something that was a bit surprising to hear aloud. Blue tilted his head slightly, downcast gaze brought right back up to full attention. "Because you've mastered it," he supplied. "It only acts out if you wish it to?"

"It does my bidding," he confirmed, pride creeping back into his voice. "And mine alone."

Blue smiled faintly. Nothing to fear, then... "I'm relieved to hear that."

Hiei was nothing if not a loyal ally.

"Tch! You talk like I'd attack you on a whim."

"You're a demon," Blue said mildly, a tone reminiscent of those early, uneasy conversations, "from another world entirely. Your intentions can change just as your own atmosphere did. I would not take a person like you lightly." A kind of subdued compliment, he figured.

"A wise decision." Blue was apparently very good at putting Hiei in a good mood. "But I told the Detective I would look out for you, and I'm not a man who goes back on his word."

Whether he had actually told Yusuke such a thing was debatable, but either way the statement was a promise in itself to Blue.

"Yusuke-?" A faint pang of guilt changed to worry quickly. He didn't need to wonder if his leaving had offended him; Yusuke was easy to read, hard to offend. Still...

"It's not something you have to do," Blue said.

"Every time you start to display an iota of intelligence, you say something stupid. It's annoying."

At least Blue could take heart in the fact that Hiei always told it like it was?

Blue frowned, casting his glance aside. He didn't doubt Hiei or Yusuke handling their own against someone like Keith Anyan, but all the same...It was a Mu problem. "I wouldn't think to tell you what you can or can't do, but for something like that to be an obligation..."

He shook his head, looking back. "But you'll do as you will, one way or the other."

"I don't choose to do things that inconvenience me without reason," Hiei scoffed.

Still, Blue's reluctant acknowledgment earned him a semi-approving smirk.

What am I to make of this? Keeping company with demons...Things were not so strange and complex as they were when it was just a matter of us versus them, but. Isn't this better? Stranger, but better, perhaps.

"I will hope there'll be no reason to unleash those powers for my sake, Hiei." Blue bowed his head in acceptance. "But I'm grateful to know that they are there."

"Don't get so worked up about it." Ah, awkwardness. Hiei's constant social companion.

"Such things are valuable. And rare." And unexpected. Something to consider greatly, but perhaps not so extensively with this one. A thank-you was a press of luck, it seemed. Blue shook his head, straightening. "I must return. Jomy and I have much to discuss."

Hiei waved dismissively. "Go on, then."

It was, after all, his warehouse.

Blue nodded, stepping away. No flourish, no flash; teleporting was tiresome. He saw himself out without another word, wondering.

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