Okay, so the good news is that I do have some 'net here =] Even so, I'm not posting like my normal crazy self cuz I'm with my ENTIRE family which is HUGE and LOUD and terribly, terribly busy. Why? Because half of us are full-blooded Italians =P But I will post a few chapters as I get the chance, sorry for all the back-and-forth stuff now LoL.

And I still don't own YYH :'(

No Patience

"Oh, she's waking up! That must've been a long dream! Hey, Dayne, be careful when you sit up, okay?" The voice was quite clearly Sagaku's, but it sounded a lot different, like it was coming from a tv. When Dayne's eyes began to focus, she realized it was. There was a screen, suspended on nothing but air, hovering above a desk. And at the desk sat a toddler who was looking at her with much interest.

"Dayne Ippin. I am Koenma, prince of the Reikai!" He introduced himself expectantly. Dayne hesitated, wondering at the talking toddler, and then bowed slightly. It was during that bow that she caught sight of Kurama, leaning back smugly in a chair.

"You!" She whirled around, ignoring the 'prince.' "You conniving, thieving, lying son of a mother!" She snarled. Her mother's voice in her head was telling her to stop, to calm down. Being angry was unseemly. Being openly furious was worthy of disownment.

"Wow, she's got you pegged." This voice came from a stranger, some man leaning against the doorframe with a shorter girl behind him. The girl was looking at Dayne curiously, but the man just grinned at Kurama. "I don't think she likes you too much, fox."

"Fox?" Dayne shook her head, ignoring the nagging thought, and then glared at Kurama again. "What gives you the right to take me from my home? Especially after what happened? I have stuff I have to take care of, things I need to do!" She could feel the tears tingling, wanting to form. She held them back. If open anger was worthy of disownment, tears in public were a sight worthy of death. Her mom had sent her daughter away rather than see her mourn at the news of cancer.

"We need you to tell us what happened." The voice was Sagaku's, earnest and also a little hoarse with grief. "Kurama told us some of it, but…look, I can help, a little."

"You can't help. Someone you liked died and you ran off to be snatched up by two freaks." The man at the door muttered. The brown-haired woman behind him smacked him.

"Fine, you want to know what happened? Some black-haired freak sucked…something out of him. But first he tried it on me. So what does that tell you guys?" She settled on glaring at Koenma. He was the one who was apparently in charge of this madhouse.

"How did that happen?" Sagaku asked from the screen. Dayne frowned, but looked up the screen shrugging.

"I don't know. He bent over my dad…and…just breathed in. These weird wisps were coming from my dad's nose and mouth, kind of a grey-blue color. He breathed them in and they disappeared and then my dad was dead. It was…freezing. But the demon wasn't breathing the entire time he was there. I didn't see any puffs of air at all." Dayne trailed off, frowning.

"I wonder if he was absorbing the soul? Maybe that's what killed your father." Koenma mused out loud.

"Koenma!" It was Sagaku's voice, outraged. "Even I have more tact than that!"

"Regardless, we need to find somewhere safe to keep Dayne. I'm going to have to do some research." The toddler paced back and forth, almost knocking down a giant stack of paper.

"She can stay with us!" Sagaku offered from the screen. Then she shot a furtive look off screen where a growl came from. "Well…I thought she could. Hiei seems to think otherwise." She offered an apologetic half-smile to Dayne. It was oddly touching.

"We both reek of demons. It's gonna take months to wipe the smell of the buggers off. She won't be safe with us." The man at the door shrugged. "Sorry, girl, but I have to be honest." Dayne didn't reply, but she certainly wasn't insulted. If they wanted to keep her away from demons, that was totally fine. Their safety was at stake too.

"I'm not staying with anyone. I'm going home." Dayne lifted her chin, daring them to contradict her.

"It's not safe." Koenma said. "You have to be protected."

"I don't want to be protected." Dayne just wanted to be home, alone, where she could cry without shame.

"Stop being stubborn." Kurama said calmly from his chair. Dayne refused to look at him. "You just have to put up with one of us until Koenma gets it all figured out."

The man at the door snorted. "I feel like every time someone says something like that we get stuck with someone else." He looked pointedly at the screen. Sagaku glowered at him.

"Dayne, I know it's hard. Trust me, I do. But it will get a lot worse if you don't let us help you." Sagaku's eyes were dark and serious, hinting at sadness Dayne could only hope she wouldn't reach.

"I just want to go home." She said softly, her blue eyes scanning for any ally among the people surrounding her. "That's all I want."

"I'll take her home." Kurama stood from the chair, standing with graceful ease. "I'll stick around for a few days, and as soon as it's safe or she's made up her mind to accept our protection we'll make new arrangements." His voice left no room for argument. Dayne opened her mouth to argue anyways, but Koenma began shuffling papers on his desk.

"Perfect, perfect! I'll get people started on the research right away! OGRE!" Koenma yelled, nearly bursting Dayne's eardrum. He swept his hand sideways, and a swirling mass began opening up. "You guys go on ahead. Yusuke, you and Keiko can go through, too. I think it's close to your apartment."

Dayne, however, had other ideas. She remembered seeing that swirling mass of terror in her dreams before, and she was not setting one foot through it. No way, no how. Her face was set in a blank expression, and she fought to keep it that way.

"If you want to get home, that's the way to go." The man, Yusuke, grinned at her. He stepped into it with Keiko and promptly disappeared. What on earth was that stuff?

"I am not touching that." Dayne stated in a carefully controlled voice. There was an impatient sigh behind her, and all the sudden she was lifted into the air by her waist, and headed right at the portal she had just declared she wasn't going to touch. It opened out onto a road, close by to where she lived. She was trying too hard to fight back the rush of blood spreading across her face to tell Kurama what she was yearning to snap at him.

"Wow, Kurama, I've never seen you act so mean." Yusuke commented. "You're going to have to come see us soon, but right now I want to get Keiko home." He clapped the redhead on the shoulder and then walked away with his arm around Keiko. She waved over her shoulder, and he whistled jauntily.

"You have –" gasp for breath, "no right to touch –" another gasp, this time with air actually reaching her lungs, "me like that!" Dayne glared into the bright green eyes of the friendly face.

"You said you wanted to go home." Kurama shrugged, sticking his hands into his pockets. "I was sick of everyone trying to convince you of everything. Come on, let's get inside before any demons pay us a visit." He began striding down the street, headed for her house. Dayne felt the anger sear up in her, but it was quickly quashed down by the sobering thought of where she was headed. Back into the house. Her father had been lying there, dead, just hours before…

"I never agreed to you staying here." Dayne said, standing in front of the door as Kurama waited for her to open it.

"You don't really have a choice, I'm sorry." He gave her that damn little smile, the one that looked too practiced to be real.

Dayne didn't know what to do, hovering over the crying demon. She was sweating, but not as badly as Sagaku. She had never had medical training past learning CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. Neither one of those would be helpful.

"Get out of the way," the redhead didn't waste time with any niceties and pushed her aside. The black blur that was Hiei was dodging this way and that, protecting the three of them from danger. Demons were burning left and right. Sagaku wouldn't stop crying.

"What's it like, getting those dreams?" Kurama asked once her eyes started coming back into focus. She brushed by him into the house. He followed and closed the door. The lock slid into place. Dayne wondered if the lock had been in place the night before.

"There are blankets and extra pillows in the closet in the bathroom. Help yourself. There are two guest bedrooms on the right side of the hall. Take your pick. As long as you clean up any mess you make, you can use anything in the kitchen." Dayne tried to keep from being downright rude, but somehow she couldn't master the energy. She wanted to be rude, she wanted to cry, she wanted to scream…she did not, no matter how much her mom wanted it, want to be emotionless and suck up every ounce of hurt that was tearing her apart.

"Thank you." Kurama said politely. Dayne didn't respond, hurrying to her room. She couldn't deal with this. But she had to.

The number she dialed was long, an overseas number, but it was the only call she could think to make. She couldn't even remember what time it would be in America. The line rang at least four times before anyone picked up.

"Hello?" The voice rumbled. She couldn't tell if it sounded tired or not.

"Uncle Riley?" Dayne swallowed the lump of pain in her throat, trying not to whimper.

"Dayne? Missing us so soon?" He asked in his impeccable southern accent.

"I have some bad news." She couldn't help it if she whispered.

"Dayne, what's wrong? Did something happen to you?" He was starting to sound worried.

"Dad died." She said it, and finally the dam burst. The sobs were coming and she couldn't stop them. At least Uncle Riley wouldn't judge her.

"Shit." He swore a few more times, words that would have made Dayne giggle when she was younger. "Shit. Dayne, I want you to get on the first plane you can to here. You just tell me the time and I'll be there to pick you up. You can't stay there."

"Uncle Riley, I can't leave. They say I have stuff I need to take care of first, for the investigation." She tried to say between hiccups and tears.

"Well screw that! Dahlin' you can't stay there alone. And investigation? Was it a hit-and-run?" He sounded like he knew it wasn't a simple accident.

"No." She left it at that. She didn't think Uncle Riley would understand if she started talking about the wisps of colored…something.

"I'm sending Jonathan to you if you're not coming here. We'll call you with the time. Call me if anything else happens, the second it happens." Uncle Riley demanded, and then he hung up. Dayne put the phone back on its charger with shaking fingers. The tears wouldn't stop coming. They just wouldn't stop.