Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown, but if I did the romance would be more obvious.

I apologize for not up-dating this much sooner. But, this has earned some reasonable reviews and attentions, so I decided to give it a whirl again. Forgive me if this is a little slow, I'm rusty in this area of fanon.

We're playing for the fight's emotional game,
I'm turning off my eyes
I'm hiding my shame.
-Cascada

"Why exactly do those two want to even have a baby?"

Jack, paying close attention to only give Kimiko her own maximum amount of Strawberry Swirl—two small spoonfuls worth—turned only his eyes towards where she sat rather miserably upon the counter of the kitchen, ears flat against her back as her head sunk in-between her shoulder blades. She was getting heart burn or something and she really wanted this whole thing to just be a bad dream. It wouldn't happen, but one could hope.

Sighing, red eyes closed and reopened as Jack simply plopped the spoon into the sink, put the ice cream back into the freezer and set the treat before the Xiaolin, thoughts gathering and then resetting themselves into sentences for explanation. It wasn't fair to put a girl like her into a situation as bizarre as all of this without an explanation. It wasn't right.

"Well, I think that they might actually be lonely," the albino started, watching as Kimiko nibbled at the frozen food, "They're so old and I think that they just want something good, even if they won't admit it. All they say they want is someone to take over the Heylin if they're destroyed in battle or by Bean, but that doesn't really fit since they've known each other forever. I think they like each other, on some basic level stemming from their time at the temple during teen-hood."

The burning in her throat was getting worse, even with the food, but she tilted her head cutely, earning a pat on the head without Jack really thinking about it until it was too late. He moved his hand away and she resisted the urge to jump and latch onto it, instead speaking up again while simultaneously pushing down the urge to get sick in the hall again.

"That seems very deep. Coming from you, anyway."

"Hey, I actually have to live with them," Jack joked a little, poking her in the forehead, "Deep thoughts come with the sounds of them knocking themselves against their bedposts."

That image sent her eyes shutting tight, like windows in a rainstorm, and her little body jumping off of the counter and underneath it, "I'm gonna be sick!"

"Oh, come on! You said Rai and Clay did it and they're probably just as obnoxious!"

"Not that kind of—Oh, God…"

Her head hit the bottom of the counter as her chest puffed up horribly, fur rising with the motion to make her look for a moment like a rooster about to get in a fight with another much larger species of bird. Bile filled up her throat and she felt some dribble onto the floor in little drops before something else came into existence. A licking through her chest and across her tongue, so cold it burned horribly in her nose for a quarter-second before flame—FLAME— and something solid and unpleasant popped in a short spurt out of her mouth like a little coal skipping stone and almost burnt the edge of Jack's leg.

"Whoa! What the hell!" Jack jumped from his spot of leaning against the counter, very surprised at fire almost setting him up for a trip to the ER and then got on his hands and knees to look and see what was going on. His red eyes widened to find Kimiko's front paws covering her mouth and her blue eyes stretched open wide, frightened and scared at what had just happened.

Flying two miles above the ground, nose pointed down and sucking up as many scents as he could, Dojo was looking as put-out as the boys along his back felt. They had already been to where they had lost their mutual friend and tried to follow the trail of her own unique smell, but had turned up around the mountains near the temple. It was…confusing and altogether disheartening at the same time.

"I don't get it," Dojo muttered, thinking some talking would lighten the mood, "Why would the trail lead back here? Chase couldn't be down there in a million years, but I keep smelling Kim."

"It's been hours, Dojo!" Rai spoke, leaning forward and grabbing the dragon's ears like a horse's reigns, "If you smell her down there, we should at least take a better look!"

"Whoa! Easy with the tugging, wind boy, I agree!" Dojo snapped tilting his head up and down and then finally started to descend to the forest, belly and tail and hands touching some of the foliage. It tickled him, but he dared not to laugh with how things were going.

Leaning back as his own element swept through his hair and through his clothes, Rai sighed despairingly and was met with a large, heavy hand laid comfortingly against his back. Clay kneaded his boyfriend's spinal column and Rai couldn't help but slant into the much larger, barrel chest behind him, eyes downcast and sad. They didn't like feeling like this. Powerless and scared was not something Shoku warriors should feel in respect to one of their teammates.

"It's only been a day or so, Rai," the Earth Shoku warrior said, hugging Raimundo for a short moment as Dojo reached the forest floor, leaves and other organic debris kicking up as his sinewy body glided to a standstill and he allowed his boys to climb off. Clay gave the Wind warrior one last squeeze before stepping down and Rai helped Omi to the ground, grabbing the butterball by the scruff of his robes, his little arms flapping about like a confused bird and amusing Dojo even as he shrank down to travel size.

"Well," Dojo spoke, slithering up Omi to rest upon his shoulders, tiny claws pointing up to a particular mountain, "The trail leads up that way for some reason. Lead on McDuff."

"Who is this McDuff?" Omi questioned, taking the lead as the other two groaned. Neither of them could remember who the Scotsman exactly was, only that it was in relation to Shakespeare and it would be so tremendously difficult to convey to Omi in words he could understand.

Rai, thankfully, could do so while maintaining his dignity, "A really old, really dead Scotts detective; now move your little squirrel legs!"

"I have no such legs of vermin!"

"…I-I-I-I-I-I…I-I'm s-so, s-so sorry…" Kimiko stuttered, still scared and now keeping out of Jack's reach from under the counter, eyes wide and scared and her entire body shaking as her nausea had gone completely only to be replaced by this whole new ball game, "…I-I-I d-didn't mean t-to…"

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down," the red haired genius shushed, reaching as far as he could on his hands and knees until his hands wrapped around Kimiko's body, her shaking, suddenly very stiff body, and pulled her delicately out and back onto the counter, ice cream completely forgotten. Rather, but not completely forgotten like the still bright orange coal Kimiko had spat out, setting and sitting and turning colder just beneath the fridge door.

Her little black furred body, rather involuntarily, pressed up into Jack's belly. This entire ordeal seemed to really be sinking in and she felt like her head and the rest of her body was going to break down or fall to pieces. Followed there and by the rather irrational to the point of quite humorous thought of her possibly blowing up into tiny cinders because of this thing that had come up from some unknown in her body into the Heylin's kitchen. She gave half a laugh and half a sob into the albino at the image and she bit her tongue.

"It's not your fault," Jack consoled in a rather half-assed sort of way, patting and rubbing the back of her head and ears, "It's probably just your abilities manifesting as a result of your transformation. Nothing to be frightened about."

"How can you be so sure about that?"

"I'm a genius, remember?" Jack smirked, bringing her pretty blue eyes up to his level, "I just know. And hey, maybe you can use this to get those worthless furballs to stop glaring at you when you have to "do your duties", eh?"

Something in the way he said such a thing didn't make her offended, or angry, but lightened her spirit and she found enough energy to laugh at his suggestion. It was true, anyway, which made it funny and made her a little less afraid of spitting fire again.

"Small chance of that happening. I may not like the things, but I won't light them on fire, Spicer."

"Oh, I know that. You're a Xiaolin, you won't light anything but Heylin on fire, not cute little animals that could eat you," Jack chuckled, setting her back onto the counter before she actually realized he had bothered to become worried about her well-being and onset panic attack. Or that he had spent the last few moments petting her affectionately.

"Hey, I only ever lit your coat on fire, remember?"

He raised an eyebrow, and was about to speak back with a sarcastic bite and a witty comeback, but above their heads there came a light noise. It was echoing back on itself, but it was clear to not only him, but to her. Her ears flopped down against her body and she seemed to sulk in realization that the noise was the collective tinkling of bells. In every room of the house.

Chase and Wuya were calling. Go figure.