I woke up the next morning with the most killer headache. Plus, I was super hungry. Since my hunger was more important that my headache, I sat up. Not a good idea, I fell back down with a groan. I placed the heels of my hands against my forehead to try and get rid of the stabbing pain in my head. Thankfully it was night out and my lights here off. I sighed before looking down at myself. My blanket had fallen down to my waist when I sat up, so I was able to see that I was still in my swimsuit. It's nice to know that the guys were gentlemanly enough to not try and change me into some fresh clothes.

Seriously in need of food, I shut my eyes tightly before trying to sit up again. My muscles weren't sore so I was able to make it to my dresser to change into shorts and a shirt. When I opened my door to go downstairs, I noticed Yusuke sitting against the wall across from my door. It looked like he was deep in thought before he noticed me standing in my doorway.

When he finally saw me, he stood up. "Hey, you're up. How are you feeling?"
I shrugged slightly. "Okay, besides this killing headache."

"I'm sure we have some painkillers somewhere. Let's go."

Yusuke started to head towards the kitchen, so I followed. When we finally got there, I noticed that all the guys were still up and talking. I guess they couldn't sleep. Hiei quickly looked me up and down as if to make sure I was okay before quickly looking away. Kurama stood up when he saw me.

"How are you feeling?" Kurama asked.
"Surprisingly well," I said as I started to rub my temples. "But I do have the worst of headaches."

"Here." Kurama went to go and get me some pills while Yusuke took a seat at the table.
He handed me two pills and a small glass of water, which I practically yanked out of his hands. "Thanks," I muttered as I quickly took them. As I put my glass away, Kurama went to the fridge and pulled out a plate of food. Must have been left overs from dinner. He handed it to me as I muttered another thanks then I went to go sit next to Yusuke. "It's a little late for you to be up, isn't it?"
Yusuke let out a small, half, laugh. "It's ten o'clock."

"Oh," I said, feeling kind of stupid. Way to assume that it's two in the morning just because it's dark outside. "Well, then."

Kurama smiled softly. "So you're alright?"
"Yeah," I said as I rolled my shoulders. "I don't hurt or anything. I just have a headache."
"Hmm, I wonder what that means."
I frowned at Kurama. "What do you mean by that?"
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"Being placed on the sand, I think." I tried my best not to look over at Hiei. "I got a nosebleed." I quickly wiped my nose and looked at my hand. There was nothing there.
"I have a guess as to why that might be," Kurama said as he took a seat across from me. "You had gotten a pretty bad nosebleed right after you collapsed from your fire demon," he paused as if to trying to find a good word, "explosion." I nodded for him to continue. "If I were to take a guess as to why that happened, Aly-Jay, it almost looked like your body isn't ready to handle your powers."

There was a pause before I heard myself say, "What?" I didn't see how that could make sense.

"I think this is becoming more than just a matter of gaining control of your fire side. Your body can't handle this power because you're simply not strong enough yet. Until you can unleash you inner anger, I don't think you're going to get very far."

I had to let that sink in for a second. "So you're saying... I'm screwed."

"I wouldn't go that far," Kurama said, as if to try and offer me some comfort. "I just think that the situation has changed a little. It's just a little more serious than what we thought in terms of the effects it has on you. Your fire side is doing much more than just absorbing all your energy. The need for you to control your powers has gotten a little more important."

"A little?" I said. I tried to push down my frustration. "You're sugar coating isn't working, Kurama." He looked away as if a little embarrassed. "No offense or anything." Yeah, Aly-Jay, I'm sure that would make him feel better...

It looked like Kurama wanted to say something else, but I held my hands up to stop him. "You know what? It's fine. It only means I need to work harder, and I'll do my best. As for right now, I think I need to lie down for a bit."

While I knew this wasn't something I should be brushing off, it was a bit to take in. I needed to think about it for a bit. Or better yet, not think about it. Here I thought that this was going to be a little adventure to Genkai's place, spend a couple months figuring out how to control my powers. And then after all that, I would be able to go back home and spend the rest of my life with my friends, trying to be normal. This whole thing was a lot bigger than I was expecting...

I got up and started to head back up to my room. I didn't miss the fact that Yusuke had gotten up to follow me up. As I opened my door, Yusuke got settled on the floor.

He caught me staring at him. "Don't mind me, it's like I'm not even here."

"You know," I started as I crossed my arms, "I thought I'd be okay with this whole 'protecting me' thing, but knowing that you're literally just outside my room makes me feel a little awkward."

Yusuke just brushed me off. "You don't have anything to worry about. I don't plan on going in there unless I hear some kind of struggle." I frowned at that, not finding that to be anymore comforting. He tried a different approach. "Besides, after all my years of skipping classes, I've gotten used to sitting around, doing nothing."
There was a slight pause as we looked at each other. "You know what?" I said, turning to head into my room. "I'm just going to... go... inside." With that, I went inside and closed the door behind me.

I wasn't sure if Hiei planned on hanging out with me tonight, so I decided to stretch for a little bit to make sure that my muscles weren't too tense for tomorrow. I was close to finishing when I heard my window open. Surprised, and a little scared, I quickly faced my window and prepared myself for an attack. It was only Hiei. And he was letting himself in... I tried not to smile so I raised an eyebrow instead. Both eyebrows came up when I saw Mizu come in right after Hiei.

"You really shouldn't leave this window open like that," Hiei said as he jumped down.

I got up and dusted myself off. "But I have you to keep me safe," I said jokingly. He narrowed his eyes at me so I just gave him a huge, exaggerated, grin.

We started the night off by playing cards, but I started to get a little restless. Sure Hiei touched my hand but did that mean anything? Hoping conversation would help moves things along, I started to ask him about his experience at the Dark Tournament. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama would tell me stories during our meals—which often lead to teasing Kuwabara and fits of laughter—but I never heard anything from Hiei's point of view. Or on what he was thinking during his fights. He was surprisingly rather open towards his stories. Talking about his strategy, what he thought of the other fighters, he even poked a little at Kuwabara; the poor guy. We played as I listened to him. But when he started to talk about his fight with Bui, I barely realized I had stopped playing and had even moved closer to him. I was completely focused on ever word.

All I could do was shake my head when he was finished. "That's... intense," I said. "I couldn't imagine going after people like that... Even to be able to come up with a strategy or something. It's... intense."

He simply shrugged. Both of us reached out to the deck of cards sitting between us. Our hands touched, causing us both to freeze. I looked up at him while he looked down at our hands. As I watched him, I could tell that he was deep in thought. This was my chance, should I do it? If I don't, will I get another opportunity? Neither of us pulled our hand away so I decided to take it a little further. Hiei didn't seem like the type to make the first move, ever, so I figured I might as well give it a shot.

I slowly moved my hand forward so I was touching him even more. He continued to stare at our hands but showed no sign of pulling away. I took that as a good sign so I linked my fingers through his. It was refreshing to not have my hand be over powered by someone else. I looked down at our linked hands. Our fingers fit together perfectly. His hands were rough from battle and hard work, but they were also warm and strong. It made me feel protected some how. I realized we must have stayed like that for a couple minutes. I looked back up at Hiei to see him staring at me. He looked back down at our hands before slowly rising them so even our palms were touching. With our hands raised between us I couldn't help but think of Disney's Tarzan. Not wanting to ruin the moment, I forced down a giggle.

Hiei closed his eyes before I felt him squeeze gently. I let out a long breath; I hadn't even realized I was holding it. Nervous and encouraged at the same time, I decided to take it even further. I took a deep breath before moving forward, making sure to not move our hands. When my cheek came in contact with his chest, I felt him tense. Again, he made to sign of moving. I started to press myself closer to him, then I felt him move. Worried that I had taken things too far, I froze and felt my body tense. He surprised me by uncrossing his legs so I could fit between them. My nerves finally started to go away, so I moved to the point where most of my side was against his chest. I could tell that he was still tense and unsure. Holding my breath, I gently started to push him so he was leaning against the wall.

We stayed like that for a while, both of us tense and nervous. Then I felt Hiei placed his free hand on my shoulder. I waited for him to finally push me away but he just rested it there as if making an attempt to hold me. While I couldn't hear any kind of heartbeat, I found myself relaxing to the gentle rise and fall from his breathing. I hadn't realized just how tense Hiei was himself until I felt him relax soon after. Giddy and tired at the same time, I bent my knees upwards so I was curled into a little ball between Hiei's legs. I looked down at our hands—which were still linked—when I began to feel his thumb gently rub my hand. He really surprised me by doing that, but I soon found it to be relaxing.

Curious as to what he might do next, I pretended to fall asleep. At first it felt like he was waiting for something. But he just continued to move this thumb back and forth and have his other hand on my shoulder. Just when I was beginning to actually fall asleep, I felt him tilt his head to the side. I focused on keeping my breathing even and my face relaxed as Hiei double checked that I was sleeping. I waited to see if he would either do something else or decide to leave. The hand on my shoulder twitched before he lifted it, then I felt his fingers run through my hair; which I had put up into a pony tail. It felt shockingly gentle. It wasn't long until I fell asleep, to the feeling of Hiei's fingers in my hair.

I woke the next morning alone. I wasn't surprised but I was a little shocked to see that I was under the covers, tucked into bed. That caused me to flop my head back onto my pillow with the hugest grin on my face. Maybe Hiei really did like me. I quickly dressed and went downstairs to eat.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were sitting in the living room. Confused, I sat on one of the couch's arms and noticed they were watching some kind of action movie. I got bored rather quickly so I turned to Yusuke and asked, "Is there no training today?"

"Nah," Yusuke said, waving me off. "We can all see that you've been working really hard and improved a lot. Besides, you slept in a little late. You deserve a break."

"Alright," I said, getting up. I couldn't help but feel like it was a lot more than that. Did they think I should rest after what happened? Was I too weak to get back into training so quickly? I forced myself to push down the annoyance.

I had a quick breakfast then decided that I wanted to spend my morning being lazy. If I wasn't in bed reading, I was playing around with my water demon side, testing out some small techniques. But the more I worked on it, the more intense the burning in my chest became. I had to give up on that and go back to reading.

After lunch I decided to practice my dancing. I was on my way to my usual dancing room when I bumped into Yukina. As I waved my hand to say hello I realized I haven't talk to her at all since I passed out in front of her. I hope she isn't worried.
"Hello, Aly-Jay," she said with a soft smile. "You look well. I was so worried about you the other day."

Well damn... I waved her off. "Yeah, I'm fine. I don't even have a scratch."

I was just about to suggest hanging out sometime when she noticed the pointe shoes in my hand. "Oh," she said, "do you dance?"
"Mhmm," I replied with a little smile. "Since I was three."

"I've always wanted to learn how to dance."

Perfect! "I can teach you if you like. Give you a few pointers or something."

"That would be great!" She started to walk with me. "Can you show me some kind of dance?"

"Of course," I said, as I opened the door to let Yukina go in first. I looked around the room and thought of a good dance to show her. "Would you happen to have a fan?"

"Yes. Should I go get it?"

"If you don't mind," I said as I sat down to put my shoes on. "I need to warm up anyways."

By the time Yukina came back, I was ready to go. I even had the music ready. She handed me the fan, which I thanked her for, and went to go sit against the large mirror. The fan was perfect for my Kitri variation from Don Quixote. When I had finished, Yukina got up and clapped gently.

"That was amazing," she said sweetly. "You're really good."

"Thank you," I said. I could see a little bit of envy flash through her eyes so I held my hand to her. "Come. It's your turn now."

"Oh no. I can't." I would have believed her if she didn't let me pull her to the centre of the room so easily. "I've never danced before."

"So we'll start with the basics." I went over to my iPod and made sure that only fun, fast paced, songs played.

I started off with getting her to simply step side to side. She got it rather quickly but I could tell that she was kind of embarrassed. Time to break out the big guns. I took a step away from her and started to dance around the room, coming up with weird, awkward, moves. Yukina laughed at me softly, which reminded me of being back home. My friends would always laugh at me when ever I started to dance randomly like this. Jessie was always baffled on how I, a ballerina, could look like I didn't know how to dance at all.

Half way through a turn I saw Yukina just standing there, watching me. "No!" I said with a giggle as I danced over to her. "You have to dance with me. Feel the music. Dance like no one is watching!"

Both of us were laughing when I grabbed her hands and twirled her around. We danced none stop for an hour, so it wasn't long until we had flopped down to the ground, out of breath. It didn't help that we didn't stop laughing either. Yukina and I bonded so well and it was refreshing. I needed some girl time.

"So," I started as I tried to catch my breath, "what brought you to Human World? You're a demon, right?"

She nodded. "An ice apparition. I first came here looking for my twin brother."

"You have a brother?"

"Mhmm. I had met Kuwabara, Yusuke, and Hiei previously and I had hoped they might be able to help. Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck. But when Hiei left for Demon World I had hoped he might have a better chance at finding him, with his Jagan eye and all."

We were silent for a few seconds as I gathered the courage to ask, "But he never found him."

"That's what he told me, but I think I already know who it is."

"Oh?" My curiousity raised.

"But I don't think he wants me to know, otherwise he would have told me already. It wouldn't feel right to take his secret away from him."

I turned my head towards her. "You're a really sweet person, Yukina."

She looked at me and smiled, then she looked down at herself. "I should go change. Dancing can be a real work out."

"Oh yeah," I said with a giggle. I sat up to start taking off my pointe shoes. "I should shower before dinner anyways."

There was still a lot of time left before dinner when I got out of the shower so I decided to take my time getting dressed. I made the effort of blow drying my hair, and given the length, that alone took half an hour. Since I took the time with my hair, I left it down and loose.

After dinner, I watched a bit of television with the guys before going upstairs to read before bed. Hiei didn't come up to my room right away, which didn't surprise me. I think he was waiting for the others to go to bed, and for whoever was on guard duty to settle outside my room. My window started to open and when I looked, Hiei was coming inside. I put my book aside and sat up.

He looked at the book. "You read a lot, don't you?" I raised an eyebrow as he went to go pick it up. He frowned at the title.

"I love reading. It's a good escape from reality. It's in English by the way."

"English?"

I nodded. "It's my first language."

"What book is it?" His questions shocked me. Hiei has never talked to me so openly like this, I like it.

"It's called Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips. It kind of has to do with Greek mythology. I like to study it as much as I can." I saw a weird look in his eyes. It almost looked like he was curious. "I can read some of it to you, if you like. You just might not understand any of it."

I waited to see what he would do. It looks like me making the first moves was working. After a few seconds, Hiei looked over to the side wall, avoiding eye contact, before holding out the book to me. Smiling, I grabbed it before crawling to the other side of the bed. I motioned for Hiei to sit where I just was. Before he had the chance to cross his legs, I crawled back to sit between them. I felt him tense but he relaxed when I got comfortable and ready to read. With the book up, in front of my face, I allowed myself to grin.

When I finished the first paragraph I asked Hiei if he understood what I was reading. He shook his head but wanted me to continue anyways. I wasn't sure if I should be shocked, confused, excited, or down right happy that he seemed to be opening up to me. All of that turned to happiness when I felt Hiei start to play with my hair. At first I could barely feel it, it was like a soft tickle at my neck. I snuggled a bit closer to him, hoping it would encourage him to be more open with it. He did. While he didn't completely run his fingers through my hair, he did grab a lock of it and twist it around his fingers. From the corner of my eye, it looked like he was testing it's softness.

We spent most of the night like this. The last thing I could remember was feeling the book start to fall out of my hands as I started to fall asleep, mid-sentence. I could have also felt Hiei grab the book before it fell and put it next to the bed before adjusting me so I was laying on my back. He gently placed my blanket over me and tucked me in. His fingers paused, holding the ends of the blanket, before gently running them over my forehead.

I woke up the next morning alone... again... but this time I felt warm when I woke up. Well, I usually wake up warm but this was different. It was like someone slept with me. I turned my head to the side, so I was looking at the wall. And that's when I could smell Hiei's scent on my pillow. Did he lay with me after I fell asleep?

This morning Hiei was up with the others in the kitchen. While he wasn't eating anything, he did have a cup of coffee in front of him. After grabbing a bowl of cereal and my own cup of coffee, I took a seat next to Yusuke. Conversation seemed to be at a minimal until Yusuke pointed at Hiei with one hand, and placed his index finger and thumb from his other hand against his chin in a thinking manner.

"You've been here for at least a couple months, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Hiei said, narrowing his eyes at Yusuke. "Your point?"

"Well, I'm sure Mukuro is missing you right about now," Yusuke continued with a teasing laugh.

I looked over at Yusuke with a confused frown. Mukuro? Who's that? Why did that name sound familiar? When I looked over at Hiei, he still had his eyes narrowed at Yusuke, but he looked tense. I took a sip of my coffee, waiting to see where this was going.

"Mukuro?" Kuwabara asked. He thought it over for a couple second. "Oh right!" He laughed and pointed at Hiei as well. "Hiei's girlfriend from Demon World! Yusuke told me all about your little romance during the Demon World Tournament."

Both of the guys laughed. I, on the other hand, choked on my coffee.

Yusuke pat me on the back. "Jeez, Aly-Jay, you dying over here?" He chuckled at me.

Trying to hide my emotions, I joked with him as well. "Yeah, I think so." I patted my chest a little. "Phew, sorry. It just went down the wrong tube."

"I hate it when that happens," Kuwabara muttered.

"And you would know, wouldn't you, Kuwabara?" I said, trying to keep my mind off Hiei.
Yusuke laughed at that but Kuwabara tried to steer the conversation away from himself.
"Now that I think about it, Hiei," Kuwabara started. "Yusuke stayed in Raizen's territory, and Kurama was in Yomi's, where did you stay, Hiei?" He paused to laugh. "Hiei has a girlfriend. Priceless!"

"I'd stop if I were you, Kuwabara," Hiei said, completely tense.

I couldn't take it anymore. My chest started to hurt and I knew it had nothing to do with the regular burning. Avoiding all eye contact, especially from Hiei, I grabbed my half eaten cereal and coffee to put it away. I could feel Hiei's eyes on me the whole time. Needing to be alone, I started to head up to my room.

Hiei? Involved with someone else?