'Who's that?' Yoh asked, although he already had that figured out. He simply hoped he was wrong. His brother stood silent for a moment before answering:

'Eliot.'

The next morning…

'What's that noise?' Yoh asked blinking a few times. He was sitting with the others in the kitchen, having breakfast. The only missing was Ren. And from very early in the morning there was some strange noise coming from backyard. In the beginning he tried not to pay attention but soon the sounds became more and more weird.

'Oh… Mmm… I think Ren's training in the backyard.' Vlad explained and took a sip from his cup 'He's in bad shape… Didn't use much of his powers, yet got tired yesterday.'

'He wasn't that tired.' Destiny objected, a small blush appearing on her face.

'Sure. For you he's never tired.' Jun added a trace of jealousy in her voice.

'Don't get all moody, Junny.' Hao patted her on the back 'My bedroom doors are always opened, and I'm never tired as well…'

Jun glared at him and removed his hand, which was now tracing small circles on her back.

'Dream on, Asakura!'

'Fine! I will. And you will as well.' Hao calmly replied and concentrated on his sandwich.

'You're one big bunch of kids, you know that?' Dracula announced and shook his head. The kitchen suddenly went quiet as everyone was now silently glaring at the host.

'What? It is true?' Vlad insisted. Before anyone could start arguing with him the next very disturbing noise was heard from the backyard. It sounded like explosion. At that point all the "kids" ran out to see what had happened, Horo still holding a salt-cellar. Dracula sighed, now absolutely convinced that he was right and followed them without hurrying.

'Ren, are you all right?' Destiny asked as she first reached the Tao and hugged him. He was just standing in the middle of the yard, a very disturbed expression on his face. She pulled away and looked at him up and down.

'Well, I am fine but… I accidentally made that tree explode…' he explained, nervously scratching the back of his neck 'You can.. you can fix it, right?'

Destiny followed his gaze. There was a small black crater in the right, a few meters away.

'That… was a tree?' she asked, raising an eyebrow. 'You… BLEW UP A TREE!'

'I didn't mean it!' Ren immediately said. 'It was an accident! You know… I got distracted while using my gift…'

'Someday you're going to blow up someone's head this way.' She answered, then walked towards the crater and stretched her hand over it. A second later the ground fissured and a nice little sapling popped out of it.

'I'm in bad shape. That's why I made the stupid tree explode!' Ren argued, folding his arms. She turned around, a frown on her face.

'It's not stupid! It's a living thing! Just like you and I.' She snapped, putting her hands on her hips.

'You and I aren't living things anymore!' Ren noted as a matter-of-factly 'We should've died centuries ago.'

'Oh, shut up. That's not the point!'

'I blew up a tree. Big deal!'

'Well, it is big! You have to take it seriously.'

'I am taking it seriously! That's why I asked you to leave me alone to train!'

'OK! That's quite enough, you two.' Yoh broke into the conversation and hurried to Ren's side. Horo followed after, leaving Vlad (who couldn't stand sunlight) and Jun and Hao, who were arguing about who was more "dreaming" about the other inside the house.

'What's up, Ren?' the Ainu asked, still holding the salt-cellar.

'I'm training. Do you want to show you?' Ren asked and the salt-cellar flew by itself in the air towards the vampire. The lid was removed the same way, without anyone touching it, then it turned upside down, letting some of the salt fall in Ren's hand.

'Careful, Ren.' Destiny warned, slightly displeased with what he was doing. He just shrugged, glancing at her stubbornly and closed his palm. When he opened it, a beautiful white and black butterfly flew out of it.

'That was nice…' Horo commented, as he watched the former pinch of salt making its way to some flower.

'Yes, but totally useless.' Ren answered, then sat on the grass, in a position of meditating 'Though right now I need to train my concentration, not to make useful things. And turning some object into a creature needs a lot of concentration…'

'Yeah? How many hours are you doing this?' Yoh asked, sitting beside him. Ren thought for a bit, before replying:

'Four or five, I think.'

'Well, it was about time for some accident to happen, then.' Yoh noted wisely, that stupid grin of his appearing on his lips 'You need some rest… Let's go inside.'

'Yeah, you're probably right.' The Tao admitted, running his hand through his inky hair. He stretched his arms, then stood up, dusted off his clothes and walked towards the house. Yoh followed him happily.

'So it's story time, huh?' the Asakura asked and Ren looked at him oddly.

'I didn't say that.' The vampire said, as they passed the still arguing Jun and Hao.

'It doesn't matter. You still have to tell us the rest.'

'This is getting annoying, you know.'

'Yeah… I know. But you are going to tell it, right?' Yoh smiled innocently 'Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right?'

'Fine! Just shut up!' Ren rubbed his temples as he entered the living-room and sat on the coach. In less than a minute everybody was there as well. Almost as if they had smelled the fact Ren was going to tell some more of the story again.

Flashback:

The noise was getting really disturbing… Ren had just come back from his walk and was quite surprised that Hao and Destiny were still talking. No, wait. Talking wasn't the right word… More like the girl was shouting and the pyro was desperately trying to calm her down.

"He can't handle a tied up lass… I wonder how he's planning to kill all the humans. The girls are going to rip him apart." Ren thought, then shook his head and sat on the sofa. He tried really hard to relax, but the noise that the two guests were making didn't let him. After a while he just gave up with a sigh and waited patently for Jun to come back. At least then he was going to be able to talk with someone…

The minutes passed but nothing happened. Hao and Destiny didn't calm down and Jun didn't come back as well. He tried to read a book, but it didn't work out.

'This getting really irritating!' he hissed to himself, then stood up and walked upstairs, where the noise came from. He was just two meters away from the door, when it suddnelly opened and Hao stormed out of it.

'DAMN IT, WOMAN! YOU'RE SO FUCKING STUBBORN!' the pyro yelled and shut the door so hard that for a moment Ren thought it would breake.

'Um…' Ren started but the words suddenly flew out of his head, leaving him to stare stupidly at Hao. The shaman looked at him with expectation and when he got no sensible sentence in return, just threw his hands in the air and walked passes the vampire.

Ren stood still for a moment then turned around and followed him.

'God, that woman!' Hao shook his head 'She just doesn't know when to stop.'

'All the women are like this…' Ren murmured, remembering his sister's obsession to turn useless men into demons that shortly after that got killed or roasted… or killed themselves. 'Don't worry about it. She'll calm down and then I'll try to talk with her.'

'Don't bother.' Hao waved his hand absently 'I'll come after a week or so and try again. Though… I'm not really sure I can handle another screaming session like this one. Oh, damn… my ear-drums are aching like hell…'

'Do you want something to drink?' Ren offered. He was feeling quite sorry for the guy…

'Something strong… A bottle of it.' Hao asked, rubbing his eyebrows. Ren hesitated for a moment, then handed the pyro a large bottle of rum.

'I have some more if you want.' The vampire said watching the shaman take a big sip from the bottle and frown after that.

'She's really getting on my nerves, you know…' Hao sighed 'But that makes her… an animal in the bed.'

As he heard that, Ren suddenly choked with his own breath..

'Are you ok?' Hao asked and the vampire nodded. 'Well, anyway… I' gotta be going now. I'm already terribly late. Can I take the rum? Thank you.'

And with that he was gone.

A week later…

Ren was walking down the busy street, thinking about Destiny. They were getting along pretty well. He had even let her walk around the house… of course, after making her swear like fifty times that she won't make any trouble, won't break anything and won't try to escape. But deep inside he didn't believe she wanted to escape at all. She had nowhere to go, she was a traveling thief. No house, no friend, no nothing. Besides… he liked having her around. Jun did too. The girls had become good friends for a short time… Sharing things, giggling, whispering secrets to each other…

As he walked pass a group of men, he suddenly stopped dead in his track. He could swear he just heard Hao's name.

With the years he had become used to the supernatural hearing and he usually ignored the sound-wave that hit him every time he walked down a busy street. But now, he really did catch the word "Hao".

He leaned against a wall nearby and listened carefully to what they said. After a word or two he realized they were shamans and were talking about the tournament.

'I can't believe this is over!' one of them said 'It took so long to kick that maniac's ass! I was already starting to think that it's impossible.'

'Yeah, same with me… But now Hao's dead and everything's back to normal.' Another one answered.

'I doubt he's completely gone. He'll be back. After a few generations he'll be back, trying to win the crown once again…' a third voice objected.

'Let's not think about that, ok? Just… go and celebrate. I know a great place.'

And with that the three walked pass the vampire, leaving him to stare blankly into the space. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Hao was kill? When did that happen? And how was Destiny going to take it? Was she going to leave when she found out?

He turned around and ran towards his home.

End of flashback.

'You know you want me! Just admit it!' Hao insisted walking after Jun down the long hall. She growled, then turned around harshly and snapped in his face:

'What's wrong with you? Stop following me around! I don't want you! Now leave me alone.' She once again continued to walk to her room.

'But you're lying! I know you are!' Hao stubbornly ran after her. 'Just say it!'

'Shut up!'

'I have no intention to do that.'

'Yeah, BIG surprise!' Jun murmured sarcastically. At that point they passed Destiny and Ren who were walking in the opposite direction.

'Come on, Destiny! I've heard people getting mad because of stupid things… but a tree?' Ren almost whined, though she didn't seem to listen, just continued walking forward.

'Similar situation.' Hao whispered as the couple disappeared somewhere behind.

'They'll be fine.' She smiled a bit 'Actually I'm pretty Destiny's doing it on purpose. She once told me her best nights were always after a fight...'

'That little vixen...' Hao nodded, but then they reached her room, she stormed inside and locked the door behind her. The pyro stared miserably in front of him, then started knocking and shouting: 'JUUUN! Lemme in!'

'No way in hell!' the vampire shouted back and threw herself on the bed. She was pretty sure he wasn't going to leave her alone.

"This is going to be a looooong night…" she thought with a sigh, then put a pillow on her face.

Hmmm... Not my best chapter... Anyway. I'll update as soon as I can. And I don't have to tell you that I haven't read it.