Hikari: Jus'ta reinforce the facts, I did model Rori after me a bit… well, a lot'a-bit. But anyways, I am not completely like her! Or is it the other way round? "Oo Oh-to-the-well. An' jus' for future reference, I don' smoke! '

Yami Kayko: ¬.¬

Hikari: SHUT UP "VEGITA MAN"!! I tried it once or twice, SO SUE ME!!!

Yami: I didn't say anything; you must have a guilty conscience, "Ruffle But".

Hikari: "Oo You swore you'd never call me that in public again!

Yami: I lied. My bad. XD

Hikari: TT

Yami: Hikari doesn't own YYH even though I totally just owned her ass! XD

--- --- ---

"Ugh," Rori groaned rolling over in bed. She was slowly coming out of unconscious being and boy did her head hurt! She'd just had the strangest dream where Suuichi and Hiei were demons fighting a bunch of other demons who were trying to capture her.

Then, of all the weird things to dream, Rori herself had suddenly began to glow a brilliant white and just when they were about to be attacked, had saved them by surrounding the three of them with some sort of dome of light that the demon attackers could not penetrate… Rori snorted at her own retarded sub-consciousness for making up such a ridiculous scenario and brought her hand up to make sure no one was hammering on her skull like it felt they were. A Sharp pinch in her elbow made her stop and her eyes slowly slid open.

"You guys, she's awake!!" She registered Kuwabara's overly loud voice somewhere to her left and suddenly Rori realized she wasn't in her own bed. Sitting up in the strange cot she looked around. There was Suuichi getting up from a chair by the far wall to come to her side, Hiei was sitting on a window sill further down the room (it was a long thin ward full of identical white framed beds) Urameshi and Kuwabara, a drip hanging by her bedside connected to a needle pushed under her skin and taped in place…

Rori shrieked at the realization of the needle and made a desperate attempt to remove it before Suuichi and Yusuke both moved in and pinned her shoulders down to the bed while Kuwabara held her hands in place.

"Rori, you're all right. If you just calm down we'll explain what happened," Suuichi tried to sooth her as tears broke free from her lashes while her eyes remained clamped shut.

"N –Needle!" She managed to gasp in her panic, still writhing in their embrace. "G –Get it off! PLEASE!" A nurse hurried over and assisted them and when she finally removed the needle from the frantic girl's arm all fell silent as Rori curled into her self and cried.

"I'll fetch Koenma-sama," The nurse said solemnly before marching off to find the prince.

"Rori," Suuichi asked placing a hand on the girl's shoulder after a moment of enduring her heartbreaking sobs.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!!" She demanded, terrified, proving that her voice could indeed reach a bone rattling volume. A burst of white light surrounded her for an instant and she shrieked even louder. Slipping off the bed she backed herself into the corner by the window where Hiei perched and pulled her knees close to her chest.

"What's happened? Where the hell am I!?" The boys around her looked pitifully on the small girl as she stared up at them wide eyed, holing her hands clasped in front of her as though she were afraid she would hurt someone or herself with them.

Suuichi sighed in exasperation, "You're in Reikai."

"Kurama! What happened to keeping it on the down low?" Yusuke asked, surprised that the kitsune had been the one to break the rules.

"Kurama… that's what that other…" Rori couldn't bring herself to use the word 'demon', "Man before called you."

"Yes, Kurama is the name of the Kitsune Youkai that possesses the human body of Suuichi Minamino," The red head explained in a calm, cool voice, kneeling down to look her in the eye.

" You… kai?" Rori stuttered completely confused. Then a short, harsh laugh escaped her lips. "You're off your rocker, Suuichi. There's no such things as demons, or spirits or…"

"Telepathy…" Hiei suddenly spoke from the window sill above and she glanced up to see the crimson eyed man looking down at her lazily.

"What?" Rori blinked in shock. Telepathy? Fuck, these guys are completely mental!! Either that or I'm still dreaming… why can't I ever dream about happy things like, flying, or fields of daisies, or sex!? Hiei's eyebrow shot up as though he'd heard her thoughts and a smirk crossed his lips.

"Are all Ningen teenagers so driven by hormones?" He asked to the room in general. Rori's cheeks were on fire as Suuichi looked quizzically first at Hiei then at her. No fucking way!!!

Way… The teen's voice echoed in her thoughts and Rori's mouth dropped open.

"That's it!" She suddenly proclaimed, then softer, "I need a cigarette." Standing up again and setting her face in a determined expression she continued. "I knew I shouldn't have listened to Koenma-san when he suggested that you lot protect me." Her voice had returned to its originally quiet level, but the soft quality was absent as she spoke. "You need professional help lads, and unfortunately I can't deal with a bunch of nut cases, as much as I'd like to see you recover. I've got senior exams coming up, I have a house, a company to run, a quiet life to get back to…"

"It won't stay quiet for long I'm afraid," Koenma appeared in the doorway she had just been heading for and barred her way, a girl with amethyst eyes and cotton candy blue hair in a pink kimono standing patently at his side.

"Get the fuck out of my way, Koenma-san!" A few people sweat dropped at the formal address with the curse mixed in.

"Rori, you have to listen to us. Your life is in danger if you don't trust us to help you…"

"I don't want to hear any more fairy tales!" Her voice shot up again, a growl almost present in her words. "I can't handle this! I can't take any more anxiety and action and constant commotion, I just CAN'T!" Her proclamation range through the hall with crystal clarity as those present remained silent.

"Rori if you don't allow us to help you I will be forced to persuade you in ways you will not like." Koenma's voice was soft and steady, though a threat lined his soothing words.

"Persuade me, huh? Well go ahead, not yourself the fuck out, because I'm not going to get dragged into this –this… whatever this is! Take your best shot!!! What could you possible try that I haven't already seen?"

Koenma sighed sadly and removed a polished oval stone from the folds of his robes and raised it up to eye level. "It pains me for it to come to this." He apologized to the girl who was glaring at him with intense silver eyes.

Instead of panicking as the boys had anticipated when the white stone began to glow and emit a low whistling sound, a small achingly sorrowful smile filled her face as her lips formed words in a low, powerful voice not accustomed to the mouth they issued from.

"You know nothing of pain." The rock shot a single hazy white beam at Rori enveloping her in a fog of dazzling starlight. When the illumination died away mouths fell open as they gaped at the newly reveled form of the angel standing before them.

Rori's long mint hair had escaped its tie to float over her shoulders and back, gleaming as though flecked with morning dew. Her silver eyes were aglow with inner light and her normally slightly tanned skin shone like moonstone. A pair of shimmering white feathery appendages stretched out behind her from her shoulder blades (from the exact spot Hiei recognized as the resting place of the horrific scars he'd glimpsed on her back before) each feather quivering with incandescent light.

Lonely tears trailed down her cheeks as Rori didn't see, but felt the man she had considered her friend rob her of the one thing she thought she'd never loose. Through the death of both her parents and all the hardship she'd experienced at the hands of others Rori had feared for her sanity, her health, and her life. Never in her existence could she have ever imagined she would loose this…

Her humanity.

--- --- ---

Rori sat in the lime green bean-bag chair in her workshop at home staring with dull eyes into the space between her bare, outstretched feet. She'd been sitting there for two days now which was an improvement seeing as she'd been in bed the four days previous to that.

After everything that those… people had told her last week she didn't feel she could function properly any more. Her whole life was a con, a lie. She wasn't even human. They had caller her an angel, told her she was special, powerful even. A pure being.

Yeah right. If they really knew me…not what I am but who I am, they would hate me, not praise me.

She winced as a sharp pain raked her stomach. She hadn't eaten in… how long had it been? She couldn't remember. She glanced slowly at the cup sitting on the floor next to her seat. Once a day (usually in the morning) Suuichi… no, Kurama would come in and set a cup of something resembling water with a thick, almost syrupy texture next to her. He said that if she wasn't going to eat then she should drink this instead.

The first two days she'd just fiddled with the rim of the cup before pushing it over to spill over the floor. When Kurama found out she wasn't drinking it he threatened to take her to hospital. After that she drank willingly. Anything to avoid hospitals and doctors and… needles. A violent shiver ran the length of her spine at the thought.

With painfully slow motions that told of her lack of strength, Rori picked up the cup and took a sip of the thick fluid. It didn't have a taste, but it had the consistency of hand sanitizer; not really solid, but not quite liquid either. She heard voices in the living room beyond the door and knew that Kurama and another, Urameshi by the sounds of it, were out there, most likely talking (or shouting on Yusuke's part) about her.

She ruffled her wings gentle fluffing the plumage to resettle it more comfortably. At first the appendages had frightened her and she had nearly broken one while struggling to get free of Koenma's palace. Some one had knocked her on the back of the head the second time she tried to escape and she'd reawakened in her bed the next day. Now she felt as though the limbs had always been there, always been a part of her body.

"What should I do? Just lay next to you as though I'm not affected? And who should I be when they're judging me as though I'm unaffected."

Rori smiled in an almost delirious fashion singing to herself. Her voice was weak and ruff from disuse and some words fell through without tune as she was barely even able to keep her head lifted. She felt so drained. What should she do? She didn't even know who she was. The words of the Reikai Tantei filtered through her brain from the week before when they had explained everything.

Her mother had died because the demons after Rori had accidentally hit her instead. She'd been told they were in a car wreck. She even had scared on her legs from the supposed crash. Another lie. Was anything she remembered from her past really what she thought? She felt empty, like she was living on fake memories and nonexistent meaning.

Rori looked up slowly as the door to her "sanctuary" burst open. "…Jesus Kurama, and you just let her stay there?" Yusuke was shouting angrily. Rori's head dropped back to the vigil of her duck-feet while more people entered the room. Kuwabara, Kurama, even Hiei stood just at the doorway.

"I couldn't force her to move Yusuke," The red-head sighed as though continuing an argument. Urameshi ignored the boy and approached the small angel determinedly. Three feet from her chair he collided with an invisible force that sparked and crackled with the contact sending white sparks ricocheting threw out the room forcing the boys to duck and cover. Once the noise had faded and the Mazaku had retreated to a safe distance Kurama sighed.

"Like I said, I couldn't make her."

The boys continued to argue for a moment but Rori tuned them out. Along with her anatomic additions, Koenma had also told her that her angelic abilities had been unlocked by the stone he had used to transform her. The strongest of which was empathy. Rori could feel everything, everyone. From the smallest blade of grass trodden on to the neighbors up stairs she could feel them all, their emotions, their anger and pain, their joy, their souls.

A small giggle rose in her throat until Rori was laughing openly raising attention from the bickering teens in the room. They stared as though she's gone mad while Rori fought to still her mirth.

"You four are the most ridiculous group of friends I've ever met," She said through continuing bouts of giggles. "Each one of you is so proud and confident on your own, but once you come into contact with each other you have no idea what the hell to do with yourselves." The boys blinked with astonishment as she accessed their entire characters in a few short sentences.

"Kuwabara's afraid that he'll be overshadowed, forgotten. Yusuke is afraid he won't make the final cut. Kurama's afraid he'll loose control over himself, not just the situation. And Hiei…" Rori's smile slowly faded as she looked up at the tangle of men and made eye contact with the shorter one. "Hiei's afraid that he'll never be able to make up for what he's done."

There was a long awkward pause before Kurama came to kneel in front of her, just outside of her defenses. He held out his hand with a gentle smile and Rori nearly drown in his emotions before she closed off the part of her that received the feelings, like closing her eyes, until it was only a faint murmur.

"Come with use Rori. If you let us, we'll help you." Rori stared from his hand to his face and back again. After listening to everyone else's emotions she was surprised to realized that hers were still in tacked when longing filled her. She wanted to trust them, wanted them to help her and help them in the process. But the fear of being hated, the fear of being rejected…

"Everyone's so afraid…" She whispered, reveling in the epiphany.

"We learn to live through those fears…" Kurama said just as softly. "Will you?" Rori tried to breathe evenly as her body trembled.

Am I strong enough to live? Strong enough to chase my fears away the way they do?

Slowly Rori lifted her small hand and rested it in the kitsune's who squeezed it reassuringly. She wasn't really sure as she let her emerald eyed protector lead her away from her solitude… but she wouldn't let the opportunity to find out slip through her reach again.

--- --- ---

A/N: Um… yeah. I feel kin'a depressed now… -- I get way too involved in my character's emotions… I totally want a bean bag chair now!!! If anyone would like to get me one I turn seventeen in exactly (checks calendar) seven days!!! (does the happy dance)

Peace, love and chicken grease!

HIKARi