Ok, quick note for those of you who have read ch8 and noticed that I failed to explain the star. I have, but I'll just give a brief summary, so you don't have to go back. The reverse hook kick delivered by a tae kwon do sensei... true story. Took three days to get it back in place.

White Rose Fox: thank you for your well wishes! And for being the only aww to the super sappy ch7.

DarkRoseDragon: aw thank you! reviews like yours and miss WRF's are the reason i'm still typing.

Random reminder: I own the plot, and the OC's. Everything else belongs to whomever holds the copyright to YYH. I am unfortunately not making a profit, so yeah, is all good.


The little guy wasn't the only demon to come visiting that day. All total, there were five demons added to our little training camp, apparently specifically requested by Yusuke. He thought they all had powers that I should learn.

Rinku, the little one, introduced the others as they showed up. Shishi, a pretty boy who's real name is very long and hard to remember, let alone spell. Touya, a blue haired, ambiguously pretty being, not as conceited as Shishi. Jin, a red headed Irish sort of fellow who flew about instead of walking. Suzuka, a rather effeminate thing with clownish makeup who INSISTED I call him beautiful, which meant I would do everything in my power to not call him that. And Chu, who showed up drunk and wobbly.

"Hn, the detective has odd choices." Hiei said to me as we led the way to the temple.

"I don't understand." I replied, keeping my voice low.

"You will not be able to replicate Rinku's attack, and I'm not sure that the clown has anything useful for you to learn." he replied.

"I don't just learn special moves anymore, Hiei."

The dragon stopped suddenly and looked shocked.

"No, I don't learn life histories. I will most likely fight very similar to Kurama the next time I spar." I laughed at the completely open expression on the little fire demon's face.

"Good. There are things you do not need to know about me, onna." He recovered quickly and continued on.


Yusuke and Kuwabara were waiting in the courtyard when we returned. Genkai was nowhere to be found, so it was left to them to sort out the rooms.

"We didn't plan for you guys to all show up at once, so there's going to be some shifting going on. Two of us are going to have to share." Yusuke held up two fingers to emphasize his point.

"I don't mind sharing." I said after a long pause. "I spent most of my life sharing a room, I'm used to it."

"I will sleep wherever I find an open spot." Hiei said in his usual DILLIGAF way.

I grabbed his arm before he could run off. "You can have the second bedroll in my room. You will not sleep outside, especially since winter is almost on us."

"Hn." He didn't even look at me, just shook me off and disappeared again.

"Just you wait! You're gonna zip off often enough and I'll learn how and follow your demon ass just so I can slap you upside your head!" I yelled into the air.

"I'll share with Chu. I'm used to taking care of him anyway." Rinku said.


After we sorted out rooms and food for the evening, the newly arrived demons, Hiei and I sat around talking. Well, they were talking, I was asking questions, and Hiei was watching me, and just being Hiei.

"So you're human..." Shishi sneered at me, like being human was kinda like being a fly.

I met the insult with one of my own, I was itching for a good verbal spat. "So you're a girl who pretends to be a guy..."*

The looks I earned from the other four newcomers were priceless.

"I am not." Shishi crossed his arms and huffed.

"That's ok, we can't all be perfect." I laughed.

"If you were not a woman under the Jaganshi's protection, I would demand a duel." Shishi went from a huff to a full on pout. What was with all these powerful demons pouting at me?

Touya put a hand on the pouter's shoulder. "You would not want to fight her for real even without her being in Hiei's care. Mere human, but with all the power of an A class demon."

"And Yusuke would fry your ass." Chu hiccuped and waved his sake bottle at them.

I could feel Hiei bristle beside me. 'Chillax man, its just talk and warnings against his intent.'

Hiei turned red.

I draped my arm around the fire demon's shoulders. "You're my knight in a black cape, but you take this too seriously." I giggled.

Obviously disturbed by my sudden PDA, Hiei just rolled his eyes and said, "Onna, please."

"Blame Chu for being drunk in the same room as an empath." I giggled some more. Chu had to be exceptionally wasted for me to catch that big a contact drunk off him.

Chu laughed. "Can't help it, I'm a drunken master. Alchihol enhances my powers you see."

"That's just the downside of being me, thanks to Lord High Pacifier Mouth." I muttered.

"So that's how you tracked me!" Rinku exclaimed like a light bulb just clicked on in his brain.

"Damn skippy." I giggled again. I guess I'm a giggly drunk.

Hiei stood and dragged me to my feet. "Nice as it is to see you get along with your new teachers, its time to leave the room now."

I didn't put up a fight as he led me away.


Hiei led me all the way to the porch on the far opposite side of the temple. And proceeded to glare at me.

I endured several minutes of his intense gaze before I couldn't take it anymore. "What the hell did I do?"

"When Chu's inebriation began to affect you, I had to contain your thoughts from the others." he said as blandly as possible.

"Oh shit... Please tell me you didn't see anything." I searched his face for some flicker of sympathy, and failed.

He shrugged.

"You did see something. Remind me to not be in a room with Chu anymore." I slid down the wall, wrapped my arms around my knees and hid my face in the hollow that was left.

"Hn."

I looked up. "It must have been bad if you're back to answering me with 'hn' when we're alone." No, I really don't remember all the thoughts that go through my head, there are too many, and I'd run out of space to store them all.

"It wasn't so much that they were bad, as it was that they were starting to get graphic." Hiei smirked.

Yusuke just so happened to walk over just then. "You let his antisocialness influence you too much, Pyro. I thought you were all about meeting our guests."

My head was down on my knees again, so I mumbled louder than usual. "Caught a contact drunk off Chu, cuz I'm god like that. Shields slipped, and now I'm mortally embarrassed by it, and will most likely die of it later."

'If you die because of the way your powers make you feel, I will be forced to kill Koenma, and possibly Chu.' Hiei's mental voice was quickly becoming the most calming sound in the world to me. And that is a scary thought all by itself.

'I'll have to help him with that.' Yusuke's mental voice piped in.

I looked up just to glare at the offending boy. "A and B conversation jerk, C your way out of it."

He laughed. "She won't really die, Hiei, we just have to piss her off and distract her."

I shot several rude gestures from several cultures at his retreating back.


Eventually I moved into my room to hide in a corner. Corners are highly defensible positions, one's back is protected at all times, which is why I always sulked in one when I do something stupid with my powers. And letting my guard down around a drunk was extremely stupid.

Late that night, Hiei walked in and started setting up the bedrolls about a foot apart. I made a note in the back of my head that I would be the one to put them both away in the morning.

He didn't speak till he was done and had the corner of the blanket flipped down. "You gonna stop sulking now? Or am I going to be forced to pick you up and put you in your bed?"

I answered his question with a glare. I got myself into bed and faced the wall. He'd had me close to the wall when I was sick as well. Yes, he had camped out in my room. He put me against the most defensible wall, and put himself in front of the door. This set up was a little more normal, but he was still closer to the door, and I was still closer to the most defensible wall.

"So I'll take that as you're still sulking. I thought women from your country went out and partied all the time." Hiei said. It sounded closer than his bed, but I didn't feel like looking.

"One, I'm not most women, don't lump me in with the tramps. B, I'm mostly embarrassed that I acted like that in front of your friends."

He laughed a short bark of a sound. "You are strange. They are friends of the detective, I tolerate them. Their opinion does not matter."

I sat up and looked him in the eye. "You saw the craziness in my head. And if my thoughts were getting graphic enough to make you uncomfortable, then it was entirely too close for my comfort."

"We had a meeting after you crawled in here to hide. It seems that I am now the expert on the subject of you, and told them that Lotus was a possible downside to letting you learn from Chu. He and Rinku will be leaving first thing in the morning."

"So we're gonna pretend you didn't see anything going on in my head, right?" I gave him a hopeful look.

He shrugged.

I glared again, then laid down facing the wall.

The light went out. It was the only indication that he'd moved at all. "I never said I objected to your thoughts, onna." His breath was on the back of my neck as he spoke.

"Don't freaking do that!" I swung my arm to try and hit him for startling me.

He grabbed my arm and brought it gently down in front of me. The move both held me still and made it so that I was wrapped in the smoky scented embrace that was starting to mean safety. "Relax, if I really wanted to try anything, I would have done so." He laughed at my attempt to free my arm. "I just wanted my crazy ningen onna back."

"Been meaning to ask, you slipped up the day we got here, when the hell did I become your female?"

"Its a demon thing. I fought over you, I killed for you, all my instincts say you're now mine, and if you die, its ultimately my fault."

"Is that why you threatened the cat? I mean, it was before you killed Niroth and all, but still..."

"That beast had it coming, it pounced on everyone."

I giggled at his lame protest. "You know Kurama most likely heard your slip, and proposed the bet because of it."

"I was hoping neither of you noticed."

"His hearing's better than mine, and its kind of hard to not hear someone standing right next to you as close as you tend to stand to me."

He swore in Japanese.

"Meh, I thought it was kinda cute."

He started to get up.

"I thought I told you no sleeping outside."

"Just going to my own bed."

"You can stay, if you want. I wouldn't mind."

"Didn't want to assume." He moved a bit closer, and draped his arm over my waist instead of holding my arm down.

"Unless I say otherwise, after I've sulked, always assume I wanna cuddle."


*i have nothing against female impersonators or male impersonators or drag queens of any kind. RuPaul is one of my favourite artists, and I wanna be a drag queen just like her when I grow up. {btw, I'm 28 and a girl}

yes, I know, another sappy ending. But they're so cute when they're alone! And the 192 hits this month and 150 last month are making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you so much for that!