A//N: hey everyone! Sorry I've been taking so long to post. My classes have been slave driving me like crazy. Here's chapter seven now and chapter 8 will be up at least by Monday. After Christmas, when classes are over, I should have more time to write the rest of this story. I'm planning on finishing this story sometime next year at least. So until then you are just going to have to bear with me.

All disclaimers are in chapter one. Don't be lazy and try to sue me for something I already told you I didn't own. I don't own anything of value and I hardly have enough money for college. You will just be wasting your time and mine and the people you go nagging to.


TO EVERYONE WHO IS READING THIS FIC, SORRY BUT I AM HAVING A BIT OF A HARD TIME GETTING CHAPTER WHATEVER IM ON, ONTO MY COMPUTER. FOR SOME REASON MY LAPTOP WONT LET ME UPLOAD ANYTHING AT ALL. NO PICTURES, NO VIDEOS, NO DOCUMENTS, NOTHING. AND IT IS SERIOUSLY GETTING ON MY NERVES. AND I FINALLY FINISHED THE CHAPTER ON TIME TOO. THIS SUCKS BUT THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW. MY BOYFRIEND IS COMING DOWN FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR AND I HAVE ASKED HIM TO BRING HIS LAPTOP. I WILL RETYPE IT ON HIS LAPTOP AND POST IT ON FFN A FEW DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. NOT ONLY THAT BUT I WILL ALSO BE CONTINUING ON TO THE NEXT CHAPTER, SO BY CHRISTMAS I SHOULD, AND WILL, BE POSTING TWO CHAPTERS INSTEAD OF ONE AT A TIME. THIS TIME. WE'LL SEE HOW IT GOES FROM THERE. MY BOYFRIEND HAS VOLUNTEERED TO HELP PITCH IN FOR A NEW LAPTOP, SO THINGS SHOULD BE GOING SMOOTHLY SOON. AGAIN, SORRY EVERYONE AND PLEASE BE PATIENT. THANK YOU AND THANK YOU TO ALL MY READERS FOR STICKING WITH ME THROUGH MY SNAIL-PACE UPDATING. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

AND FOR THOSE WHO ARE ALSO READING TWO STRANGE CHILDREN AND AN ODD DEMON, I AM ALMOST DONE WITH IT AND WILL ALSO BE POSTING THE NEXT CHAPTER BEFORE CHRISTMAS. AGAIN, THANK YOU SO MUCH.


Chapter Seven: Now What? (title subject to change)

Yusuke and Kuwabara managed to get back to Kurama's house without any more fits of laughter. Kurama entered his home to find his mother sitting in the living room watching television. She turned her head in the direction of the front door and smiled.

"Oh, hello Shuichi, dear." Shiorigreeted. She got up from the couch and gave Kurama a quick hug.

"Hello, Mother." Kurama said, hugging her back and keeping Hiei hidden at the same time. "We'll be up in my room working on our homework if you need us."

"Oh, okay. Hello, boys." She said, greeting Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Will you two be staying for dinner?"

"Um," Yusuke looked at Kurama, who nodded, and then back to Shiori. "Sure, we'll stay, if that's alright."

"Of course it is, otherwise I wouldn't have asked." Shiori said with that kind motherly smile. Then she glanced behind them, as if looking for another person, then turned to Kurama. "Where's Hiei, dear? I haven't seen him in a while. He's not with you?"

Yusuke and Kuwabara shifted nervously but Kurama, being the quick thinker that he was, shook his head. "No, he had some things to take care of out of town and said he wouldn't be back for a few days."

"Oh, that's too bad." Shiori said with a worried expression on her face. "I hope he's alright."

"I'm sure he's fine." Kurama said quickly. He didn't want to upset his mother, so he added, "I just spoke to him this morning. That was when he told me he would be back in a few days."

The worried expression left her face and she smiled. "Oh, that's good. Well, anyway, I will have dinner ready in about half an hour. Make sure to wash your hands before coming down."

"We will. Thank you, Mother." Kurama turned and lead the way up to his bedroom. He hated to lie to her but he couldn't very well tell her the truth. Telling the truth about Hiei would require revealing everything about him as well. And that he could not and would not allow.

As soon as the three entered the room and Kuwabara closed the door, Yusuke let out a sigh of relief and flopped down onto the bed. "That was close. Good thinking, Kurama. Like I would ever actually do homework."

"Yeah, I never would have thought of that." Kuwabara said, sitting on Kurama's desk chair.

Kurama walked to the window, sat down on the ledge, and took a closer look at Hiei in his hand. The doll was unmoving and Kurama could barely feel Hiei's energy, even though he was right in his hand. He turned the doll over and examined it from every angle, being careful not to flip it over after realizing that the little girl had completely removed the little cloth that had covered his genitals. There was nothing other than the small amount of energy that told him that Hieiwas still alive.

"So, now what?" Yusuke asked, watching Kurama examine Hiei. "Is he alive?"

Kuramanodded. "Yes, he is alive. However, his energy is very faint. I'm hoping it's because of his size and nothing to serious. We'll know more when we get him back to Koenma."

"But what do we do for now?" Yusuke asked. He glanced at Hiei, wondering what he must be thinking about this whole thing. "I don't think we should go now. It's late and I'm starving."

Kuwabara nodded in agreement. "Yeah, do you think we can wait 'til tomorrow?"

Kurama nodded as well. "Yes, we should, indeed, wait. It's late and I don't want to worry my mother if I leave the house so late. But first…"

Kurama stood up and walked across the room. He gently placed Hieion his desk and walked to the door. Before exiting the room, he turned and gave them both a hard look. "I will be right back. Don't break anything and leave Hiei alone. You two have had enough experience with Hiei's temper to know what he would do to you if you mess with him." At that last statement, he glanced at Kuwabara, who winced. Then he turned and left the room.

After Kurama left, Yusuke stood up and walked over to the desk. Carefully, he picked Hiei up and looked him over. He gazed down at his face, examining it, and then finally set him back on the desk.

"His eyes look like regular doll eyes but I have a feeling Hiei can see." He told Kuwabara. "I think Hiei is still able to see and hear everything that's going on, even though he can't move or talk."

Kuwabara looked at Hiei, motionless on the desk, and back at Yusuke. "That's creepy; a doll that watches you and can see and hear everything and you not even knowing it. Gives me the chills." He glanced at Hiei again. "But how's it possible?"

Yusuke shrugged. "I'm not really sure, but I just have a feeling that he can. But first thing we need to do, if he can see and hear, is figure out how to get him to start moving again. Maybe if he were to start moving again, he could tell us how he ended up this way without talking. Like miming or something."

Kuwabara glanced down at Hiei, thinking about the demon he had met earlier. Nothing the guy said told him how he had turned Hiei into a doll in the first place. He just said that he had created the house, not even mentioning a doll at all.

As Kuwabara sat thinking, Kurama reentered the room, carrying a small box the size of a shoe box in one arm and the other arm full of different colored pieces of cloth. Without speaking, he walked to his desk and set the pile of cloth down and then put the box on top.

"Hey, Kurama, what are you doing?" Yusuke asked as he and Kuwabara watched him. "What's that stuff for?"

Kurama ignored him for the moment and opened the box. He grabbed a small measuring tape, regular scotch tape, a pair of scissors, a small red ball full of pins, and a small pack of sewing needles. Then he moved the box to the side and started sorting through the pieces of cloth. Most of them were dark colors such as black, blue, green and red.

As he sorted through the fabric, he paused and glanced down at Hiei. Then he pulled out a piece of black cloth and set it aside. Grabbing the measuring tape, he carefully measured the length of Hiei's legs from hip to ankle, then around his waist, marking down the measurements on the fabric as he went. Finally, when he was finished, he set the tape measure down and carefully, he marked all of the measurements onto the fabric until he had drawn pants. Then he took the red ball of pins and wrapped the strap around his hand with the pincushion set on the back of his hand. Then he carefully wrapped the cloth around Hiei's legs and pinned it to the shape he wanted. When he had finished, he grabbed the scissors and cut along the outer edges of the fabric, making sure not to jostle the pins out of place. After finishing that, he reached into the box and pulled out a smaller, clear box full of different colored thread. Selecting the black thread, he threaded it through a needle and sewed the fabric together along the inside of the pins. After all of this was done, he removed the pins, returning them to the pincushion he still wore, and cut off the extra cloth before pulling the whole thing off and flipping it inside out and putting it back on him. "There, that takes care of that."

Having felt that he stayed quiet long enough, Yusuke asked, "Where did you learn to sew? I didn't know you knew how to sew. And I guess it would be decent to get him out of those clothes, huh? Actually, that's not bad. They almost look store made."

Kurama looked at him. "Well, first of all, most clothes aren't made in stores but rather, they're made in factories and shipped to stores to be sold. Unless the shop is family owned, of course. And second, I learned to patch my clothes up on my own in order to survive the different weather conditions in Makai. However, to make clothing in general from scratch, my mother taught me. It's simple though, nothing fancy or anything, just enough of a form to be considered clothing. But I still need to make a shirt and perhaps a belt, since these pants might be a bit loose."

Kuwabara shrugged. "Well, it's better than whatever I could have done, which isn't much. I can't sew for the life of me, Shizuru is usually the one to do all that stuff."

Kurama nodded and turned to leave the room. "I'll be right back. Don't touch anything."

Yusuke glanced down at Hiei and lifted the skirts of Hiei's dress. "He didn't do such a bad job. But I wonder what he's going to do about Hiei's *ahem* chest."

Kuwabara glanced at Hiei as well, eyeing the bulge on his chest. "I wonder what that's made of. I hope that girl didn't decide to be an Augmentation specialist or something and make them permanent."

Yusuke looked at Kuwabara in surprise. "Wow, Kuwabara, I'm surprised you actually knew such a big word. What does that mean, anyway?"

Kuwabara blushed before mumbling an incoherent word.

"Huh?"

"I believe he's trying to say 'breast implant'." Both boys looked up to see Kurama standing in the doorway with a small cup of foggy-looking water in his hand. "And no, that's not what happened. Judging from the texture and color difference, I'd say the girl used some sort of clay or putty."

Kuwabara went even redder. "What do you mean 'judging from the texture'? You didn't pull a Urameshi and groped him, did you?"

"Hey!" Yusuke shouted in offense. "I didn't grope anyone."

Kuwabara glared at him. "You did too. Remember that one guy when we first met Toguro in that mansion? The one that turned out to be a cross-dresser?"

Yusuke thought about this, then his face lit up in recognition. "Oh, yeah, I forgot all about that guy, uh, girl… whatever."

Kurama walked to his desk and set the cup down. He pulled a small wad of Kleenex from his pocket and placed them next to the cup. "By texture," he said without looking at them. "I mean yes I did touch that area but no, I didn't 'grope' him. I merely touched his skin from the neck to the top of the dress until I was able to feel the texture difference where his skin met the 'new chest'. You can feel the difference and that is how I was able to figure out that it was fake. However, it's possible the girl used glue or something similar to keep it in place, so I brought a cup of warm water mixed with a bit of soap to help get it off just in case."

Yusuke nodded in understanding. "I get it."

"Of course you do." Kuwabara said sarcastically.

"Hey!"

Kurama ignored them and went back to working on Hiei. He took a letter opener from his desk and slit open the top of the dress down to the waistline. Then he folded the cloth back and felt around again until he was able to locate the crease between his skin and the putty. Gently, he tried to peel the putty off with the tip of his fingers and nails without tearing the skin. The putty remained stuck to Hiei's skin. Kurama grabbed a piece of tissue from the wad, dabbed it in the water and wrung it out a bit before gently rubbing it along the crease. After a few wipes, the putty started to peel and stick to the tissue in small chunks. Kurama put the piece of tissue aside and grabbed another, repeating the rubbing motions several times in different places until more and larger chunks started to peel off. Finally, with the tissue wad nearly disappearing, Kurama managed to peel off the putty, leaving Hiei's natural, smooth skin exposed.

"Right." He muttered to himself as he pulled the dress off. He set it in the small trash next to his desk and grabbed another piece of cloth, this one a dark blue. He followed the same steps he took when making the pants, this time aiming for a shirt-shape. After he had finished making the entire shirt, sleeveless since he was still unable to make a decent pair of sleeves, he flipped it right side in and put it on him, careful not to jostle the headband from Hiei's forehead. Then he took one of the small scraps of the blue cloth and cut off a single long strand and wrapped it around Hiei's waist, tight enough to keep the pants from slipping but not tight enough to hurt. "That should do it."

"Again, nice work, Kurama." Yusuke complimented, observing Kurama's handiwork. "At least the girl left his shoes on, because I would expect shoes to be hard to make."

Kurama nodded in agreement. "I've never made shoes. I'd imagine the process being very difficult and time consuming. It wouldn't have seemed worth it to try to make all that when Hiei might not even be like this for very long."

"Okay, so now that that's done, what do we do now?" Yusuke asked.

At that moment, there came a knock on the door. "Come in." Kurama called.

Shiori came in with a smile. "Dinner's ready. Wash your hands before coming down, okay?" As she was about to leave, she spotted Hiei on the desk. "Oh, what's that?"

Figuring it was too late to hide it or play dumb, Kurama showed it to his mother. "It's a doll." He said needlessly.

"Yes, I can see that, but where'd you get it?" She reached out and took it from him. "It's so cute. It looks just like Hiei."

"Um, well," Kurama said, wracking his brain for an explanation. Before he could give one, however, Yusuke spoke up.

"It's Hiei's." He said. "A girl made it for him 'cuz she likes him but Hiei doesn't know that. So she asked us if we could give it to him for her with a message. She said that she wants to know if he would go out with her and to give her his answer as soon as he can. I guess we'll just have to wait until he gets back though, before we can give him the doll and the message." Yusuke paused, and then added. "I wonder how he'll react?"

Shiori smiled. "That's so sweet. Ah, to be young again." Then she handed the doll back to Kurama and walked out of the room, calling behind her, "Don't forget to wash your hands."

After she had left, Kurama and Kuwabara turned with identically shocked expressions to Yusuke, who was smiling with a smug grin. "What?" he asked cheerily. "I can make up a good story too. It was perfect and I'm actually surprised that I was able to keep a straight face through it."

Kurama was the first to recompose himself. "Um, Yusuke, you do realize that if Hiei can really hear you, then he just heard your explanation for the doll and will most likely kill you."

Yusuke's expression quickly changed to horror. "Gyah, you're right. I'm screwed." He turned to the Hiei doll with a nervous chuckle. "Uh, Hiei, you know I didn't mean that, right? You know, about the whole girl wanting to go out with you and making the doll for you, right?"

"Come, Kuwabara." Kurama said, picking up Hiei and pointedly ignoring Yusuke plea. "We should hurry to wash our hands and get downstairs before the food gets cold."

Kuwabara snickered and followed Kurama out the door. "Right, wouldn't want to let the food get cold after your mom was so kind to make it for us."

"Hey, guys, wait up." Yusuke said, following behind.