Hi, guys!

Holy hell is Canada hot. I know that's an oxymoron to a lot of people but I am dying and it's only +20. Don't know what I'll do in +40. I am a creature of winter, clearly. This weather does me no good. It's nice to go outside for runs, though, since that's one of my main stress outlets.

Thanks to Sassasaurus and Eternal Wanderer for following and KiraKelsay and Leachcar-Soutaichou for reviewing. You guys are awesome!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. I only own Finley, Damon, any characters you don't recognize and the plot.

Hiei started to become a regular guest at the house. I felt like it was purely to piss off Damon after that interaction of theirs, but either way it was a way for me to get to know the standoffish demon. We didn't talk much, but it was a nice quiet friendship.

I snuggled into a thick knit blanket, sitting on the little window seat in my living room. Outside rain came down hard. It wasn't quite a typhoon, but I'd been sure to cover all the plants outside that were easily affected. It was white noise and the harsh pitter-patter that I loved, but my plants hated.

To me, it was the perfect weather to sit by the window with a cup of iced tea and a good book while wearing a giant sweater and knit socks. Even if I was a little warm, I was cozy and that's what really mattered. A hard copy of Dracula completed my little corner of happy. Damon couldn't have quiet like that, but that was fine. He needed sex and coffee, I needed books and tea. Lots of tea to keep me awake.

A knock on the front door pulled me out of John Harker's tale. Frowning, I got up, setting the tea and book down on my seat. It was raining cats and bloody dogs, who the hell was going to be visiting in this weather? Damon had a key and was busy in the city, so I knew it wasn't him. Maybe Hiei, but I couldn't imagine him being out in that weather. I couldn't imagine a fire demon drenched in water.

Opening the door, however, proved me wrong. There was Hiei, soaked to the bone and glaring at me. "All your windows are closed." I stared at him for a moment before rushing him inside.

"Of course they are, it's pouring!" I exclaimed. "Stay there, I'll get you a towel." I darted off to my bathroom and grabbed the demon a fluffy blue towel. He was standing in my entry-way dripping water and I wrapped him in piece of cotton. "Seriously, Hiei, you're gonna get sick."

"Demons don't get human illnesses." I rolled my eyes. It didn't matter to me what he thought. I rubbed the towel over his hair, shaking my head. What an idiot. My caretaker instincts took over and he didn't have a say in that.

"Let me be concerned for you," I said, walking into the kitchen. "You're having a cup of tea; you much be freezing." I ignored the muttering of protests that I heard and poured him a hot cup of black vanilla tea. He preferred everything sweet, it turned out, and it helped that all my weird teas that I bought online catered to every tea taste. I went for teas that weren't overly sweet and it was nice to have someone drain the sugary shit out of my cupboards. Though when I had told Damon I preferred tea 'as dark and bitter as my soul' he had made me a cup of the sweetest, tooth decaying vanilla tea I had. I was only slightly offended.

I shoved the mug into Hiei's hands, looking him over. "If you want, I can grab you some of Damon's clothes and we can put yours in the wash." He nodded. "Ok. I'll grab them and you can change in the bathroom or something."

Footsteps followed me up to Damon's room. On my top floor, there wasn't really much to see. There were pictures of my family, mostly my father, myself and my grandparents. Mom was never featured too heavily, but grandma had never liked her much and the feelings had been mutual. There were plants in the corners, where I knew some of the old wards were hidden in the soil. Aside from that there were four doors. One lead to my room, which had been my grandparents as one point. Another led to Damon's room, though the guest room separated us. We both agreed that was for the best. At the opposite the guest room was the door to the bathroom. There was an en-suite in my grandparent's old room, which was why I had chosen it. Damon and I didn't need to share a bathroom, and it was easier for me to do spells in my own room. That way Damon never had to pee while I was doing a bath spell.

It wasn't heavily decorated by any means, but it worked for Damon. He had a few books, some porn magazines, a little box that I'd never seen the contents of. On his nightstand there was a picture of Shoku, Takuma, Damon and I, along with a picture of just two of us. His bed sheets were a plain navy, the walls were a pale grey. He had a little desk that was almost growing dust, if not for the one candle that was sat on it. It had been a while since I had gone in the room, but the lavender-chamomile candle he had implied that he too was having trouble sleeping. Could have just been here, but I didn't know how often he slept at his apartment. I made a mental note to add a plant or something to the room for a little color and air. Plants had always helped me sleep.

Looking into his closet, I pulled out a pair of dark grey sweatpants and a black tee-shirt. Damon was taller than Hiei, so the clothes would be a little baggy, but it would work until his clothes were clean. I tossed them at Hiei. He gave them a dirty look and left the room to go to the bathroom. It would have to work until his were dry.

I waited outside the bathroom until Hiei came out. He looked ridiculous in Damon's clothes, they were too long and ill-fitting. He would have looked great if he had human-style clothes that fit him properly. Not that he didn't look amazing in anything, it was just comical to see him in too big clothes.

He glared at me, shoving a ball of dirty black cloth at me. "Stop that."

"Stop what?" I asked, turning to walk down the hall.

"These clothes are idiotic. No need to study it." I rolled my eyes.

"Sorry, sorry," I said. "If you're hungry you can go eat." I walked down the stairs and into the laundry room through the kitchen. Laundry was almost an automatic action for me. I had done it far too often before the tournament. Damon went hard and the constant scrapes and bruises meant that along with the sweat there was blood on my clothes, too. I did all I could to get it out but some were still binned by the end of it. All the clothes I had during the Tournament had been donated to charity. No one else would have the memories with them that I had. There were also turtlenecks gathering dust in my closet, but that was because things touching my neck were a no-go. Little triggers set me off and I hated it. I couldn't even wear chokers anymore, and being hipster trash like I was, I was missing a substantial part of my wardrobe.

It hadn't been without trying. The second I tried to put one on after the tournament I had seen flashes of yellow eyes. It wasn't quite as bad as when it had happened in the tournament, but I had still torched a little knotweed plant by accident. After that I avoided anything getting close to my neck.

A shudder went up my spine. No time to be thinking about that. Returning to the kitchen, I poured a new cup of tea. Hiei's eyes followed me. He had picked up a plate of chicken curry from the night before and had microwaved it.

Somehow it was the only piece of tech in my kitchen he knew how to use.

As my tea was steeping, I grabbed my cold cup from the living room. No good now, cold steeped tea was the worst. Unless it was meant to be freezing there was no excuse for lukewarm tea. I put the empty mug away and removed the tea bag from the new mug, setting it aside. I guess it was back to reading. Hiei never said much when he visited, I'd stopped trying to have any meaningful conversations with him. Both of us were ok with silence. Any conversations we had were usually brief and impersonal. I hated it, but that was just how things were.

"I'm going back to my book," I said, grabbing my cup of tea. "If you need anything let me know. Your clothes should be done in about an hour." I went back to the window seat and settled back under the knit blanket. The pouring rain was the only sound as I once again dived into Stoker's world. I liked rain, save the thunder nowadays, because it provided white noise. It was a subtle static undeath the harsh drops on my window. The static numbed out the small noises to the point that I barely noticed them The anxiety and paranoia hadn't left me completely, but I could get some peace for a bit longer with the rain.

The neighbourhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of the headlines as "The Kensington Horror," or the "Stabbing Woman," or the "Woman in Black." The books words were so familiar to me that I was less reading them and more playing a scene in my head. The number of times I had read that book rivaled childhood favourites like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and Vampire Kisses. Keanu Reeves hadn't done my Harker justice, at least not in my opinion, but Gary Oldman had become Dracula in my mind. Easier than imagining him as Takuma, which I still couldn't wrap my head around.

The time era wasn't something I romanticized, as I likely wouldn't have made it very far, but the style and literature of the times was something I loved. The 17-1800s were romanticized by the authors of the time and living in that world was something I did in my head when I read them. Dickens being the exception to that rule. I could never stomach Dickens. He was painfully boring and drawn out, but if I had gotten paid by the word I suppose I would have been as well. Good thing I had witchcraft to tide me over.

Hiei entered the living room about 50 pages later, sitting on the couch. I could feel him watching me. There wasn't much else in the room to look at, honestly. Most of the books on my shelves were in English and I suspected that he wasn't interested in crystals and bones.

"What is that?" I held up the book at his words, not saying and just showing him the title. Then I remembered that he didn't speak English.

"It's called Dracula," I said. "Have you ever read it?"

"No. Human literature isn't interesting enough."

I set my book down in my lap, staring at him in horror. "You take that back. You've never read any human literature?" He shook his head.

"Philosophers. No fiction."

I rolled my eyes. "Ok, what have you read?" I figured it would take less time than what he hadn't.

"Dante, Aristotle, Plato, More," he listed. "I read Beowulf."

"Ok, if I suggested something, would you give it a shot?" I asked. He glared at me. Ignoring that, I got up and grabbed a copy of Lord of the Rings off my bookshelf. It was one of the few books my grandfather had in Japanese. My personal copy was in English and no one touched it. I rarely let anyone touch my books. I handed the book to Hiei, a wide grin on my face. "Here. Try this."

He studied the cover for a few moments. "What is it?"

"Lord of the Rings. Classic fantasy, brutal wars, angsty heroes," I said. "Give it a shot."

"Why would I do that?" Hiei was so stubborn.

"Because it's a fantastic book and a gateway to realizing that humans have created some amazing literature over the years. It's not like I'm making you read a romance. Or Twilight." He gave me a confused look. "I'm never letting you read it, it'll turn you off from books and no one needs that. Books are great."

He made a little "hmph" and stood up, taking the book from me. He sat on the other side of the window seat and opened the book. I was floored. He settled into my spot, leaving enough room for me to sit as I had been before. Hesitantly, I joined him with my cup of tea. I snuggled back into the blanket Keeping my knees tucked close to my chest, I tried to dive into the book world again.

It was hard when I was so hyper aware of Hiei's leg stretched out next to my thigh.

It was weird to be so aware of another person. Especially one like Hiei. I felt relaxed around him, his energy sunk into the room and warmed me more than the tea and blanket ever could. I was safe with Hiei. I needed him in my life, just as a friend. Someone to sit with and not have to talk about my problems or tiptoe around them like I had to with Damon. Hiei and I respected each other's boundaries and I needed that.

And yet I was on edge. Like I was being watched and every move I made mattered way more than it actually did. THe sensation was familiar, like an old high school feeling but even stronger. Even if I knew Hiei didn't care, it was like I had to impress him. It was so strange, but I kind of loved it. It distracted me everything else I was experiencing, the anxiety switched to him instead of noises that my mind blew out of proportion. I couldn't focus on my book, though and that blew.

That silence sitting with Hiei lasted until he got hungry again. "Onna, make food." I rolled my eyes, looking at him over the top of my book.

"So charming, truly," I said, my voice heavy with sarcasm. What are you hungry for?" He shrugged. So helpful. I got up and went to my kitchen, book and mug in hand. I cleaned the mug and poured myself a mason jar of iced tea. Stir-fry would last a few days, at least for Damon and I. Hiei could eat a lot.

I got my stuff together, starting the preparation. I was passable at cooking, I always had a few things on the backburner that I could make and stir-fry had gotten me through Uni. That and easy ways to make instant ramen better for you. I couldn't make a burger to save my life, but I could sure as hell make curry and stir-fry.

Hiei followed me into the kitchen shortly after. The rain was still pouring and the book was still in his hand. He had gotten a good chunk of the way in, though from what I could tell he wasn't the fastest reader. I finished books in a matter of hours, Hiei was still only around 100 pages in. Not that I could blame him, few people practiced as much as I did.

"Why do you want me to read this?" he leaned against my counter, tossing the book on my kitchen table.

"Do you not like it?" I asked, mixing together the stirfry sauce and tossing the beef into the wok. "I was sure you'd enjoy it."

"It's… interesting." I nodded, grinning at him.

"Good or bad interesting?"

"Good."

"Well then I'm glad you're enjoying it. No greater pleasure than a good book," I said. I handed him the wooden spoon. "Stir this, I'm going to switch over your clothes." It only took around two minutes to get his laundry all moved, but when I came back he was just staring at the wok doing nothing. Just holding the spoon in his hand. I rushed over, taking it from him and moving him out of the way. "Hiei! I just asked you to stir!"

"I've never cooked." I looked at him in shock.

"Never?" He shook his head. "How have you survived?"

"I shot fire at meat." Of course, he did. Naturally. Because that was just normal. I just shook my head, stirring the meat.

"How are you ever going to live on your own?"

He watched over my shoulder. "We have a cook at the palace. No need for me to learn." I gave him a confused look, starting to add the vegetables and noodles. "I'm going to be Lord of Alaric when Mukuro finally gets bored." I smiled at him.

"Think that'll happen anytime soon?"

He shrugged. "Not with the rebellion. Stability is important now, we can't waver." I didn't understand politics very well, though I wagered I understood human politics better than Hiei did, but I took his word for it. He knew the Makai and its inner workings better than I ever would.

"You guys are going to have to explain how all of that works to me," I said, shaking my head. "Some of it is heritable, some of it is decided by a giant fuck-off fighting tournament. I don't get it. I mean, I'll give you diversity, cause I know you have one who's a girl, one who's a guy and one who's… well Yusuke. But other than that, I'm lost at your governmental system."

"And you're saying that your human governments make sense?"

I nodded. "To me. Because it was a big deal to learn about them in school. I've known how mine have worked since I was a kid, just like you with yours. It's all about learning and asking questions." I gave him a careful look. "You should try doing that more; you'd learn a lot."

He huffed. I shook my head, shoveling the finished stir-fry onto two plates for us. Damon wouldn't try to come home in this weather. I sat a plate down in front of Hiei, along with a pair of chopsticks. He immediately dug in. As reserved as he was, he lost that calm demeanor when eating. That boy tore into his food.

I watched him eat for a moment before beginning my own. The nervousness was still there, though it had lessened when we stopped touching. I shook my head, banishing the thoughts from my head.

It was probably nothing.

"So, you'll call me, right?" Damon resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The man he was kicking out of his apartment was another that had clearly not listened to his when he said he would do no such thing, but that was his problem. He hadn't been that good of a lay anyways. Nor the woman before him, or the woman before that, the man before that. It went back as long as he could remember. None of them had been satisfactory recently.

"Yeah, sure," the cambion muttered half-heartedly. "Get home safe."

"You don't have my number-" Damon slammed the door in his face. "-Ok. Bye." He sounded defeated, but Damon knew it was for the best. Incubi couldn't really have healthy relationships, not with the amount of sex that he needed to keep himself alive. Even being a cambion, Damon found it difficult. Not for lack of trying, but for lack of a partner able to keep up.

It didn't help that he was a reclusive bastard that didn't know how to open up. It caused a host of problems whenever he wanted to start a relationship with someone. Girls wanted to talk and that caused problems. Boys wanted to compare and that caused problems. He found some of each that wanted the other, or both, but he never gave in. If his best friend could keep from pushing him, so could they.

Sometimes he wondered if taking on a demon would be the way to go. He liked humans, their understanding, the culture. Damon was a huge video game nerd, leaving that behind wouldn't be an option. But no human could stand his secrets or his appetite for long. It let to loneliness for the cambion, and he hated it. But demons could. Everyone in the Makai had their fair share of secrets, and all of them fucked like bunnies (though rabbit demons were tamer than he had expected.) It didn't change that they wouldn't understand his human side, at least not all of them would.

Then there was the issue of children.

Damon didn't want to procreate. Like at all. Children weren't in the cards for him, more out of self-hate and a lack of paternal instinct than a desire to not deal with the screaming. They were all well and good when they weren't his and he didn't have to take him home. He'd be a damn good uncle to Finley's kids when the time came, but he never wanted any of his own. He'd just fuck them up. Humans, or at the very least the ones who he ended up with, wanted children at some point. They didn't realize that Damon would outlive them and the children. Demons wanted to make as many offspring as possible, to keep the power growing. That left him with limited options.

The only baby he wanted was a puppy. Which most demon women would kill for taking up his attention, and most demon men would kill because it pissed them off. It was easier to be alone.

He sighed, pulling a bento box that Finley had made out of the mini fridge. His apartment looked nice, but there was little effort put into it. He'd hired a decorator with the money he'd gotten from his last American job and made sure his house would get most people into bed with him. If it weren't for Fin, there would never be food there. He banged and then kicked whoever it was out. Nothing there was supposed to invite them to stay.

It bugged him that he was like a half-demon Barney Stinson, but what could he do? At least Damon made it clear that nothing could ever happen. He just didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea.

Flopping back onto his leather couch, he turned on his stupid flatscreen. He'd eat and then kill some shit in COD. There hadn't been many offers for jobs lately, but that was the way of the world, wasn't it? He bet that the people who usually contracted him knew he was in with the Urameshi team and they had to be huge targets. Contacting Damon would be like suicide. It wasn't like he had given them up yet; he was going to ask around for some jobs first and gauge their responses as he went.

Anyone suspicious was getting dragged back to the temple in pieces, no questions asked. He wasn't about to play with Finley's safety like that.

He tried to push out the thoughts of her getting hurt. The torture, the pain, how they'd no doubt burn her at stake like demons had done in the past. The humans had to get it from somewhere. He couldn't lose another person he loved and this one was hardly stable enough to keep herself alive. Damon would do anything to keep her alive.

It was his fault his mother was dead, he wasn't going to add Finley to his list.

I did up the guest bedroom, prepping it for Hiei. There was no way he was going out in the storm, and ever since I had caught him crashing in a tree on the property I demanded that he sleep inside like a good little demon. He grumbled about it, but didn't argue more than that. Having a dry place to sleep with an actual bed was better than sleeping in a tree in the pouring rain. Hiei wouldn't argue against that.

He stood at the doorway, waiting for me to finish. I kept my gaze as far away from him as I could. The problem with Hiei was that he had no problem being shirtless, among the many other problems with him. Being attracted to the fire demon was difficult, and it didn't help that he was shirtless and had abs that rivaled Ryan Gosling's. The fucker was photoshop in real life and I both loved it and resented it.

Turning back to him, I grinned. "All done. I'll be in my room if you need me." I didn't want to say 'If you hear screaming don't run in, I'm just reliving hell,' but it was still lingering in my mind. He had never stayed the night before. As far as I knew he didn't know about the nightmares. I didn't want him to know.

I left the room, shutting the door behind me. I opted not to play guitar that night. Hiei had better hearing than most, I didn't want to annoy him with my talent or lack thereof. Instead I turned on my laptop, put on a Dreamworks movie and decided to try and let sleep take me when it eventually did.

Though an angry Scottish ogre wasn't the best thing to go to sleep to. At least it held off sleep as long as it could.

I got up around 9 am. I had woken about three times during the night, all three times to nightmares and images of the Shrek series playing Netflix. At this point, I wondered why I even tried. If Damon was home, sleep wouldn't have been a issue. I just would've shoved as much caffeine into myself as I could reasonably handle and hoped for the best. But around Hiei, seeming normal was oddly important to me. He didn't need to know how bad I really was.

Concealer could hide the bags under my eyes.

Making breakfast was routine. I decided on pancakes, since Hiei liked sweet things and I assumed he was going to be there for food. Not that I had bothered to check. I was too used to having him around and still felt the blazing blanket of his energy.

Footsteps entered the kitchen. I could hear the slight sound of the demon sniffing the batter over my shoulder. He nodded and moved away from me. Weird ass fire demon.

I had gotten more sleep the previous night than I had in months. Part of me thought it was Hiei sleeping so close to me, the energy kept me warm and safe even if the nightmares eventually got through. I hated that I relied on him, but it wasn't all bad.

He was a good friend. If stoic.

Hiei got a plate of pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup. The real stuff, not table syrup. I had too much Canadian pride. I also provided butter and Nutella. Damon was convinced that Nutella on pancakes was the only way to go. Butter and maple syrup was the only true way to go, but if Damon went to pancake hell that was on him. Hiei just tore into the pancakes with nothing on them. I sat across from him, putting the fixings on mine. Freezing mid-bite, red eyes watched my every move.

"It's good this way. You should try it." I resisted smirking as he made up the remainder of his pancakes the way I had mine. His eyes lit up upon taking a bite. I giggled. He was kind of adorable. "Have you never had pancakes, Hiei?" He shook his head. "Fuck, you have to make up for a sad childhood, my friend." A slight flinch told me that I struck a nerve. "Sorry."

He glared at me. "Don't."

"What?"

"Apologize. You don't know and I'm not telling you."

My teeth sunk into my bottom lip. "Ok. If you ever decide you want to though, you can. I'm not the type to judge based on your past." He pretended he didn't hear me. Just went back to eating.

I don't know what I had expected. Everyone we knew had issues talking about their pasts, and Hiei still barely knew me. I couldn't expect him to talk about his problems if I tried to hide mine from him. All the nightmares, the paranoia, the constant thoughts of how fucking terrible I was. There was really nothing I could expect him to tell me. We weren't that close, even if I wanted us to be.

We all had our secrets and it would take a long time for most of them to come out.

That's it for this chapter!

I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'll be honest, getting into Damon's head is so much fun for me. I like getting into Hiei's as well, but he's more of a struggle to write from. Gotta get into the swing of it, though, because he's a fun guy to write as. We will be moving into more fun stuff, so I'm personally excited.

I hope you guys all enjoyed the chapter, and as always feel free to leave any comments or reviews. Have a great day guys!