Hey guys!

I'm not dead. On the inside maybe, but not actually. School has started up again and I may have underestimated how much was going into a bunch of senior level courses. It's ok, though. Three psych courses and a research course are well worth it. Well, I say that now, but wait a month and we'll see.

Thanks to rosaangela16, blue-rae-1008, and twinkletin24 for following; Mariana Lestrange, Alaya Karangalan, SubjectiveLife, and trixiegluna for favouriting; and SakiHanajima1, backoff22, Mariana Lestrange, SubjectiveLife and DizyWillow for reviewing. (And erintunney.7 for PMing me a review :) ) You guys are amazing!

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

Damon had no idea what had happened to Finley. She had been missing since breakfast yesterday, and though he could feel her energy from her room, she hadn't left it. Hiei had come out the next day, but had been missing all day before. There wasn't a scent on him that implied that he had been in bed with her, so that was at least a positive.

The idea that they were both gone set Damon on edge, though. He knew how Finley felt about Hiei and he equally knew that she was prone to making bad decisions in the heat of the moment. That's how much of her bad decisions happened.

He wasn't much different, if he was being honest. Damon was only hiding his feelings for a certain grim reaper under the surface. It was hard to keep the shit under control with no one to take it out on. Damon was used to having sex to deal with his emotions. Smoking that shit Finley's grandma had made was easily the best coping method for when feeding wasn't an option.

Fuck, he and Fin were a messed up pair.

Damon took a deep drag of the herbs. They guys were out training, and Hiei had all but disappeared. He had left the second he ate and had been hiding his energy since. Yukina and Kuwabara seemed a little down and Damon couldn't figure out why, Keiko and Yusuke were fine, Ame and Kurama were on edge, clearly. Probably due to Hiei disappearing and Akira being a little over excited. It didn't help that Finley had almost been killed and it proved how intolerant the demons actually were of witches. Though why anyone was surprised was beyond him. She had put into the Tournament because she was a witch. Killing the demon was just a convenient excuse.

That incident just made Damon's project more important. Project Get-Fin's-Shit-Together. Starting it with the smoking of strange things may have seemed odd, but to be fair to himself she wasn't supposed to touch that shit until they got home. The plan just got accelerated. His plan didn't have to make sense, hell it didn't make sense to him, it just had to work. And hopefully, it would.

"You look stressed." Damon smiled at the blue-haired girl who had walked up to him. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Nah, thanks though." He blew out another puff of smoke. "You notice who was missing this morning?"

Botan nodded. "Yeah, Finley. Is she ok? I know Hiei was missing last night and he looked angry this morning. Do you think they had a fight?"

Damon shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe. Knowing her she probably just had a misunderstanding and Hiei didn't handle it well. As usual. I know she moved her shit back into her room though, she's been in there all day."

"Poor girl. She has feelings for him, too, I hope he didn't hurt her."

"Yeah… Don't tell her you know, though, she's convinced she's hiding it well," Damon said, dragging his hand through his hair.

The light laugh of the grim reaper filled his ears. "Well that's one delusion I'd like to live in. I wish I could ignore my emotions as well as she does."

"Trust me, you don't. They bundle up and coagulate and just make life a living hell til they eventually explode like a bursting aneurism." Botan gave him a weird look. "I've been reading some of her old Psych textbooks. Once you see a picture of the aftermath of one you never forget it."

"I see," She laughed. "Well, that's a fair opinion. I'm too used to letting them all out. I guess you're the opposite, huh?"

"Kind of had to be doing what I did and who I did. And do." He felt sick to his stomach admitting it, but he really wasn't going to treat her any different than he would anyone else. It wasn't going to get him anywhere. After all, Botan probably wanted kids and that was something that Damon wasn't willing to move on. Definitely not going to happen.

"True. It can't be easy on you though. Finley is a good friend, but this isn't something you've talked to her about, is it?"

"Botan, it's not something I talk about period. You have to get me very high or very drunk to get me anywhere near that subject."

"You told me."

"And do you remember why?" He tried not to frown as her face fell. He was such a dick, but it was the truth. He had so, so many issues. Arguing the opposite was useless. Even Fin hadn't heard his Tragic Backstory until the night before.

She just looked at him, a sad smile on her face. "But you still told me. I was the one you called, for whatever reason. And that means you at least think of me as a friend Damon. We're all your friends."

The cambion had little to say to that. What was he going to do, tell her she was wrong? He had more than friends now; it was an actual family. He just had no idea how to cope with having one. A real, loving family. It was a new experience for him. At least he had something.

"Is substance abuse really the solution here?" The disapproval in her voice hurt him a little, but he was just going to ignore it. Ignore how good she looked in the shirt she wore, ignore how her eyes looked at him in concern. It wasn't

Damon rolled his eyes. "Botan, this is Fin's grandma's recipe. If she used it, so will I. Apparently that old lady was tough as bricks." Not a real excuse, but hey, he needed something. Sex wasn't an option in the Makai. Not if he wanted to remain childless and unmated.

Well, unmated to a demon woman. If Botan asked, he wasn't sure he'd say no.

I had to do something. Anything.

Sitting under a pile of blankets for the last 12 hours crying was getting old, as much as I wanted to stay there. It was useless. Yes, Hiei had been a dick. No, moping wasn't going to fix anything. I needed to get off my ass and do something.

Pushing off the blankets, I threw my legs over the edge of the bed. The waterspots on my glasses blurred my vision. The hellhound looked up from the slab of meat it had been gnawing on. I also needed a name for him. I could figure something out. He deserved a good name.

I stumbled into the bathroom, legs still wobbly and stiff from inactivity. The person in the mirror didn't look like me. Mascara and eyeliner were smudged in haphazard racoon eyes. The skin was dull and dry. The hoodie was wrinkled, the leggings bunched in weird places. The bags under my eyes had always been there, they were just darker. I couldn't remember looking like that.

The shower roared to life and I quickly stripped. A hot shower was exactly what I needed. I would help short term. Long term, not so much. Focusing on the short term now. Shower, clean clothes, makeup. Then worry about what I was going to distract myself with.

Takuma was sitting on my bed when I finally left the bathroom. "You took forever in there."

"Beauty takes time," I said, shrugging. "What do you want?"

"You've been in here for 24 hours. It's time to come out." Only 12, but fair enough.

"And do what?"

The bat shrugged. "We have a library. You like books."

An idea hit me. "That I do. Sounds good." I wasn't going to be reading for pleasure though. I was going to get to the bottom of the rebellion. I could figure out at least a couple members and that was a good place to start. Maybe even get to the bottom of some of Yukina's issues while I was at it. No harm in looking. I certainly kept enough on me to make it work. I had two notebooks and some fun pens. Because I was a nerd.

Takuma stood up, stretching. "Cool, get your shit and let's go." Following instructions for once, I trailed after Takuma through the halls of the living palace. I still hated this thing. Made me extremely uncomfortable.

"Hey, do you guys have those big whiteboards on wheels here?" I asked.

"Um, probably." That wasn't the answer I was expecting, honestly. Takuma gave me a weird look. "Why?"

"I need one. Or two. Two to be safe."

"Finley, what the fuck are you thinking?"

I shook my head. "Just a thing I wanna try. You can just read, I won't bug you." He just shook his head and kept walking. It was fine. As long as I could do what I needed, I would have a worthy distraction that would last for a good while. Whether or not I went a little crazy while doing it was another story entirely.

The library was incredible. I wasn't sure why I was surprised, Mukuro was intelligent person with a desire to learn. It wasn't quite Beauty and the Beast level, but it was incredible. Massive dark wood desks ran the length of the room. The rows of books extended about 8 feet high, with a second floor that lined the walls. A cast-iron walk-way curved around as the second floor, with a spiral staircase in every corner. It was a work of art.

Takuma nodded at my awestruck smile. "She based it off of a few libraries from the human world. It has books from pretty much everywhere. Anything on almost everything you can think of. Entertain yourself, I'll go get your boards." He looked me over with narrowed eyes. "Still won't tell me why?"

"You'll see."

He just shook his head, sighing. I knew he thought I was weird, but it wasn't going to be a big deal unless he bothered me about it. I just needed a giant fucking distraction.

The second he left I started digging. I would need records of those who had been in trouble since the Makai Tournament, some book on demon biology (probably multiple considering how many there could be) and some sort of map. Anything else I found interesting would have to work. At least a few of the recent criminals had to be in the rebellion. It was just a matter of sussing them out.

Mukuro's library was surprisingly organized. It wasn't exactly a Dewey Decimal style, but then again I wasn't sure there was a designated section for demon reproductive habits or trends of human consumption among species in the human system. It took some working to find everything, but at least most things were kept together. I'll admit that the human cookbooks were more than a little off putting, though.

Once I had gathered the books and files, I made a little chart in one of my notebooks. All of the things that I'd need to take into account. Food supply, amount of known repeat offenses, type of demon and standing of that type. I'd also need general area they were known to be in and the food suppliers in that area. Maybe their stand on the Makai Tournament and if they had participated.

Takuma came back, rolling in two massive whiteboards and some markers. "You are lucky that Mukuro decided humans have cool shit." He looked over at the books I had chosen. "Why the fuck are you looking at records of our criminals?"

"I'm going to try and figure out if any of them could be part of the rebellion."

Takuma gaped at me. "How the fuck do you think you'll manage that?"

I shrugged. "Simple deduction. Match up the big traits of those who tend to rebel with the factors that would make them more likely to. I'm mostly interested in those who were affected by the new rules."

"And you think it'll work?"

"Dunno. But I need a distraction and this is a hard job that is going to do well enough to keep me distracted for at least a bit." It would be enough. Maybe not the best coping method, but I couldn't ignore him until we get home. Might as well make myself useful.

Takuma swore. "Well, let's fucking do this then. I know more about the Makai than you do." I nodded. Thank god. I hadn't expected him to get on board, but it was a nice surprise. The best thing about Takuma right now was that he wasn't going to ask why I needed a distraction. He didn't give a shit. He'd just help, especially since I was working on something that could affect him. "I'll get tea in. Anything you need that you don't have?"

"I wanted a record of merchants in the area. Anyone that would provide food to rebels, legal or otherwise. Any one who deals with human souls would probably be a good place to start."

The bat nodded. "Got it. Get started, I'll handle the books and food. I'll get some for him, too." I nodded absently, flipping through the books. The hellhound nudged at my leg. I scratched between his hears, smiling at him.

"Guess we need a name for you huh?" I asked. I wasn't good at naming pets. Not a virtue of mine. I had always wanted to name my imaginary dog Fluffy, because I had thought it was cute. It didn't seem appropriate for him. "How about…. Bane?" He had been the bane of some of the demon's existences, and if he was as loyal as dogs were in the human world he'd be the bane of our enemies. Plus he was named after a Sith Lord, like my father's dog, so could you really go wrong?

He barked, tail wagging. I wasn't sure he really understood that I had named him, but oh well. Maybe hellhounds were smarter than human world dogs. He hadn't walked into a door yet so it was a point for him above my dad's old dog. To be perfectly fair, though, Vader had been kind of a ditz at the best of times.

I started to prep the whiteboards. Takuma hadn't given me much to work with in terms of colours, but I'd have to deal. Three colours would work. Just needed to develop a system. I had little notes to flag certain people, so that was going to help organize the mess I was about to make.

One whiteboard had a large map on it. I was focused on the borders of the three countries. It was more likely that they'd be hiding in Gendara, considering that Yomi hadn't really done much to deter them, but they needed to be close enough to the others that they could pull raids not in the country they hid in. They probably weren't far from the capital, either. Far enough that they wouldn't get caught, but close enough that if Enki made any new declarations, laws, whatever; they would hear it.

The other whiteboard was going to be for possible leaders. Names in green would have to be likely candidates, red would be high risk. Black would be the basic characteristics I was looking for or interesting facts. Better to cover all the bases while I had the information available to me.

Takuma came back and looked over my board. "You realize that's a language I don't speak."

"It's my first language; I'm working with it. Especially since I know I'll end up forgetting a word in Japanese and it'll just slow me down. If I have to explain, it's fine, it'll help me think."

The bat demon just shook his head. "Alright. Let's get started." He flopped into a chair, feet on the hard wood. That didn't annoy me. Nope. Not at all. Totally fine with feet. On my desk.

"Ok, so we're looking at a mixture of traits to figure this out. I want to put priority over certain types of offenses. Main ones here are treason, trafficking humans or human souls, murders and assassinations and career thieves. Think Kurama but… less elegant. Also, connections to previously existing criminal organizations are helpful. Leaders or followers, but I'm leaning more towards leaders. They would provide a larger group of people to the rebellion. I'm not expecting them to be leaders of it, but you never know. The persuasive nature could get something this big together. Those who participated in the Makai tournament are also important. I want people that got knocked out either later on or against one of the main forces in the Makai. Think Enki, Yomi, Mukuro, Yusuke, Jin and co, the works."

"Are you interested in type of demon?"

"Yeah. I was thinking of focusing on more marginalized groups. Think mara, or half-breeds. Also those who feed on humans. Since their supply has been cut off they'd have a lot at stake."

Takuma nodded. "Fair enough. Add succubi, too. They're mostly prostitutes since they can't go feed off humans any more. If Damon doesn't want to have sex for money, I doubt they would."

I nodded. "Good idea."

"Is this going to get you anything?" I frowned, looking at him. "I mean results. Not helping you with whatever shit has driven you to this insanity."

"Oh. Hopefully? Not with the latter, probably, but that's fine. It will have to at least give us a narrowed idea of who we can follow. Though maybe don't send singles to do anything, groups would be better."

Takuma just shook his head, grabbing a notebook and a stack of files. "Ok. I'll read, you do your weird shit."

I took a stack of books, focusing on the types of demons. Fast referencing was going to be important.

"Ok, first guy is Akirogurinja, a dodomeki." He looked over the stack quickly. "Did you fucking alphabetized these… you loser. Anyways, he's a dodomeki. Huge hundred eyed things. Not terribly smart , but very strong." I flipped to the page about dodomeki, scribbling the name and other shit down into the notebook next to me.

"These guys don't eat humans, they're just cannibalistic," I noted, scribbling it down. "Might make them a little more difficult to work with."

"Humans can be a delicacy, though, and it should say something about how much they like to rip things apart for shits and giggles." Takuma shook his head, looking over the file. "I actually knew a few in my worse days. Most humans destroyed in an hour was a popular game with them." I made a note of that. Fuck, this wasn't looking good. "This guy, Akirogurinja, was arrested multiple times for extreme dissent and murder. So basically treason. One account says that he attempted to attack King Enki just after the Makai tournament."

I flipped through a record of the tournament participants. "Does it say if he participated?"

"Nope, not in here. Your end?"

I went down the list of everyone who had participated in the prelims. "Nope. Unless he was under a different name. Probably just didn't like the idea of regulation. Were there any laws passed directly pertaining to the dodomeki?"

"Not that I know of. Besides the 'don't fuck with humans' thing, most laws were mostly around immigration to the human world and trade laws. Enki wanted to establish a detailed economy and some base laws to make things easier in the future. He figured that a good base would make the later ruler's job easier if he didn't win the next tournament. That's what he told Mukuro, at least."

I nodded. That made a decent amount of sense. Rome wasn't built in a day, and in a society like the Makai you really needed a gradual approach to institutionalization. Lots of people wouldn't take kindly to the change, like the rebellion proved.

"Any connections to criminal organizations?"

"None listed."

"Last known area?"

"Southern border of Gendara, bordering on Tourin."

"Mark him as likely." I flagged his page, frowning. "That dissent charge is more than enough and them being big strongbodies makes him a good force for intimidation." He nodded, grabbing the same flag that I used and sticking it on the file.

Tossing that to the side, face down, he grabbed the next file. "Anzu Bessho. Ameonna. Rain bringer. Looks like her crime was illegal immigration to the human world. No crimes against humans while there." I flipped the page about ameonna. Looks like a cool ability. Might be wise for Yusuke to hire a few to work for Tourin. It was a pretty dry place. "Went there to be with her wife, who's a half demon. Explains why the half-demon got clearance and Anzu didn't right away. She's there now, though, Enki just fined her and helped her through the paperwork."

"Good job, Enki. Enforce the law and make sure that those who want to follow the law can. Does the punishment there vary depending on the crimes committed while in the human world?"

"Yeah. People who go in before their papers are passed just get fined," he said, tossing the file into a separate pile. "If you fuck with humans while you're there it's jail time. I think she's a safe out."

"Agreed. Human world and it's the only offense on record. Next please."

"Daiki, a furi. Monkey thing. Nothing too interesting there. Career thief and very good at it. Stole a few important artifacts. Nothing like Kurama though."

"Not many are. Define artifacts?"

"Um… a set of scythes that's supposed to trap the souls of those struck with them, a small set of untested poisons, and a tome of some sort of magic, among others." The last one struck me. That was important. I had heard of the magic of the Makai; it was pretty different from the stuff I did. Unless, of course, it was something that demons had taken off us when they were executing witch hunts. In which case, a demon getting a hold of it was a problem. The right abilities and magical talent could make some of those very dangerous in the wrong hands.

"Flag him."

"Why? It's just some sketchy artifacts?" Takuma asked. "Other's are worse."

"He's in the right area?" I asked. Takuma nodded. "Any connections to criminal organizations?"

"A few, but none more than a short time. Kind of skipped around." I didn't like the sound of that.

"Flag him." I scribbled it down in my book. "Anyone stealing shit like that is desirable, and that bouncing from group to group thing sounds like recruitment to me. Better safe than sorry."

Takuma nodded. "That tome sound interesting to you?" he asked. I nodded. "Doesn't give a title but it could be something from your kind."

"Exactly."

"Dangerous in the wrong hands?" Read my mind.

"Very." I sighed, scribbling off again. "Next?"

Takuma just sighed. "Goro. Nothing too interesting again. Basic rokurokubi. These guys were hit hard with the new laws, their main food source is humans. Not exactly popular among demons now because of how reckless they are."

"So, another Kuro?" I asked, sarcasm heavy in my voice. "Fabulous. Offenses?"

"Human trafficking and torture. Accused but escaped imprisonment. Openly hates the new world the Makai's become. I say flag him for the pure fact that he's a rokurokubi." I shook my head.

I stuck a flag next to Guro's page. "I agree that we flag, but that's not why. Human trafficking is a source of food for a good chunk of demons and if he had connections it's worth expecting he might know something about the rebellion even if he's not in it."

Takuma nodded. "Are you also looking at magic users?"

"Not really, why?"

"Well, the rebellion was in charge of the Dark Tournament we were all in. It's a problem. Magic users probably won't like you at all, which is why you'd be a good target. They seem to think witches stole their powers."

I shook my head. "We don't do shit like that. I don't even think there's a spell to transfer powers. Maybe to transfer energy, but even then that's a consensual spell from what I know. More of a 'save a life' kind of thing."

"So you transfer to others?" I nodded. "Wow. You idiots are too benevolent for your own good."

I shrugged. "It's you guys that made us out to be the bad guys."

"Human made us out to be the same."

"I know. It goes both ways. Human just couldn't stand up to demons so they picked the few that could to fight. Though when the few demons humans actually encountered were the ones who were going around eating them, I can't really blame them for the hatred."

"You know that most aren't like that."

"Of course I do. But with everything, it doesn't matter what's right. It matters who's loudest. If you're the loudest, then people automatically assume that most people agree with you." Takuma shrugged, not arguing.

"Didn't realize you were political." I rolled my eyes.

"It's nothing like you think. It's behaviour. Easier to study," I explained. "Anyways, back to this."

We went through the tonnes of files. The stack of flagged files was thankfully much smaller than the unflagged, but I wasn't done. In the some 250 files, there were leaders and important figures to determine. Takuma had thought that I alphabetized them, but really there were way too fucking many for me to care that much. I had a few names thrown up on the whiteboard and was currently going over files for them. One particularly interesting one was a tengu. A karasu-tengu to be exact. Basically crow demons that had an extreme affinity to magic. This individual, Kumorumaru, had apparently participated in witch hunts 80-odd years ago.

"You really think that guy is involved in this?" Takuma asked. "He's just a small fry magician."

"Who hates witches." I shook my head. "I don't know. I just don't trust anyone who hates witches in this. Remember that we were all forced into the tournament for very little reason."

The bat demon nodded. "True. You only did what you had to to survive; demons really can't judge for that. You hadn't killed any demons before that, had you?"

"Nope. Had barely encountered any. Most were kept away by wards. I used them back home to make me seem normal, but I hadn't thought to here. I knew Grandma's wards were still up so I didn't think it was a big deal." I shook my head, writing the name on my board. "I made stupid mistakes."

"They brought you here, though."

I smiled sadly at my friend. "This is true." But was it worth the heart ache? The nightmares? The constant paranoia that I had to actively ignore? I wasn't sure anymore. I knew now I wouldn't trade it for anything, but if I could go back? I wasn't sure I'd make the same mistakes. I loved them all, but I couldn't help but think about what my life could've been if I hadn't gotten messed up in the demon world.

"Would you change it if you could?"

"I don't know." There was no point lying. I wasn't sure that I'd do it all over again, but I wasn't sure I'd change things either. I had met my only friends and my new family through this mess. Yes, I had been rejected by someone I loved, but I had met him. That was still good.

Takuma just shook his head. "Doesn't matter, what's happened has happened and there's no changing that." I nodded. He had a point. No point in thinking about what couldn't be changed, after all. Just had to power through and deal with it.

Hiei had been avoiding everyone. Better than dealing with the aftermath of the previous night that he knew Damon would attempt to chew him out for. He had no doubt that she wouldn't have gone to him about it, but the cambion was more than capable of getting it out of her. She wasn't the best at saying no.

If getting annoyed about it was inevitable, he'd wait until long after the incident.

It was her fault, anyways. Who the fuck tells someone that that way? He had been picking at her, but still. She wasn't sure of her idiotic feelings and he was already consumed with other issues. They did concern her but not in that way. And that was not they way he wanted to be concerned with her.

As far as Hiei was concerned, they were friends. A friend he wanted to sleep with but still. Only friends. He had comfort from being around her, but he attributed that to her overall demeanor. After all, a person like that was the least threatening thing Hiei had ever been around. She thought the best of him at all times. It was a new feeling. That didn't mean he wanted this. He wanted to fuck her and that was about the limit of what he was willing to do.

She was just a witch and his friend. They didn't need this extra complication. Hiei hadn't the time or patience for her bullshit. Not if this was the result.

Another tree burst into flames. His anger was getting worse.

"Now what did the tree ever do to you?" He turned on the oaf, not sure why the fuck he'd come. Of all people to send, they sent Kuwabara.

"What the fuck do you want?"

"Well, the intent was to talk about Yukina, because she told me about you being her brother. Still not ok with the fact that I was the last to know, but at least she knew before I did." Kuwabara looked at the burnt trees, sighing. "But I think we might need to talk about why you're torching things." Hiei didn't say anything, just glared. First his sister, then the onna, and now this? What the fuck had he done to deserve this?

Kuwabara just shook his head. "Whatever. Look, I figured that if you had a problem with my relationship with Yukina, you would've said something before we were mated, but I wanted to make sure that you were ok with it now."

"Hn. I would've killed you earlier." While he didn't love it, he at least knew that Kuwabara's unwavering loyalty and respect for Yukina was stronger than anything. At least she'd gotten everything she wanted.

"I'll take that as a glowing recommendation," the oaf said, laughing. "So, why are you out here? You don't normally train alone in the Makai."

"I don't have to explain."

"When Fin's been missing for the past day, then yeah, you do. Especially when you were the last one to see her. You've been in a good mood the entire time and now you're torching trees."

"Why does it have something to do with the onna?"

"Because I know you and I know her. What happened?"

"Fuck off."

"Hiei, maybe I can help? Ever think of that?" Hiei paused. He would have a better insight to the onna than he would ever have. "Just tell me what happened."

"She loves me."

Kuwabara stared at him for a few moments. "And this has driven you to burn trees, ok." The ginger smiled at him. "Hiei, it's always a good thing to know that someone loves you. Fin wouldn't expect anything of you either. Hell, she knows you better than anyone here does. Why did she say it?"

"SHe was taking her things and I wanted to know why."

"You kept picking at it when she clearly didn't want to talk about it, didn't you?" Hiei didn't say anything. He knew what he had done, but for some reason the words she spoke afterward were the ones that rang through his head. "That explains that then. She probably even apologized to you after she did."

"She said she wasn't sure if she was in love with me or the fact that I help the nightmares and stress."

That stopped the oaf in his tracks. "Fuck… that really is bad timing. Poor girl. She's got so much going on already to have feelings like this tacked on top. I can't imagine you handled hearing that well either." Again, the fire demon refused to answer. "Course not. Look, I doubt she meant it in a mean way, Hiei. I bet you anything she was trying to avoid you so she could sort out her shit."

"What does it matter?" Hiei snapped. "I don't have time for such idiotic feelings from a woman that means nothing to me."

"Hiei, if she meant nothing to you, you wouldn't be so affected by this." The oaf was wrong. He didn't care. He just didn't need a senseless complication. He needed to fuck her. That was it. Nothing more.

"GUYS!" The two turned towards the yelling, confused. Yusuke appeared from the trees, a crazed grin on his face. "We found Fin and you have to see what she's been doing."

The group of them went back to the castle, following Yusuke to the library. Hiei had never really been in there. He supposed that after spending so much time with Finley her habits should've rubbed off on him, but he still found little interest in books. Even the ones she left in his room at her home for his entertainment. He only read them because she asked questions and always seemed to know when he was lying.

Everyone was in the library, gathered around the one of the large tables. Two large whiteboards were put up in towards the end, one covered in a large map of the Makai and the other with pictures of well-known Makai criminals. Words in a language he didn't understand were scribbled next to them and flags dotted different parts of the map. Books and papers covered the length of the large table that Finely had apparently been working off of.

Takuma was sitting across from a sleeping Finley, feet on the table and a cup of tea in his hand. The runt hellhound that she had adopted was at her feet, chewing on a large bone.

Heavy circles were under Finley's eyes. Her hair was tied into a small bun, held together with a pencil. Stands had fallen out of the haphazard mess to frame her face and fall down her neck Her glasses were displaced by her head resting on her arm. If it weren't for the frown and the mess of papers around her, she would've looked peaceful.

What the fuck had she been trying to do?

Mukuro answered his unspoken question. "She's been trying to figure out who might be part of the Rebellion." Hiei looked at the board. Without understanding the words he doubted he would be able to understand her thought process. It looked like a jumble of pictures and words with no rhyme or reason.

"Yeah, apparently that degree of hers made her damn good at research." Eyes went to the bat demon. "As far as I can tell, she's been taking the most influential members of our predetermined pool, as she called it, and taking key traits to determine who might be a rebel leader. We have a decent stack of people that are just likely to be in it. She was more interested in leaders."

Keiko looked at the work in awe. "Wow. Remind me to get her help on every paper I write, ever."

"Same…" Kuwabara agreed, looking over her work. "Seriously, it looks like she even had a methodology built up. This is straight up research and it's done well."

Damon had gone up close to the board, appearing to read the words. "And she said she wasn't interested in the research aspect of her field. Anyone wanna call bullshit?" He looked over the words. "She's got good ideas, though. I think tailing some of these guys would be a good idea."

"Nope." Takuma stood, joining Damon at the board. "Only the lower levels were to be tracked. She speculated that anyone higher up would have some serious guards on them. Better to just get the lackeys before we tackle the big guns."

"Exactly," Kurama said. "We can at least track the names of these individuals, however. If we hear them moving their words, it's easier to see what they're really looking for."

"They've already got Matt," Damon said. Hiei noticed the picture of the mara on the board, words scribbled in red next to him. "I wonder if she used him as a standard."

"Gave her the idea to look into marginalized demon species," Takuma said. The bat demon sat on the edge of the table, crossing his arms. "Believe it or not, she said she needed a distraction and this was it." A wave of guilt crashed over Hiei. She had exhausted herself like this because of him? He searched her mind cautiously, finding nothing but a lack of energy and dreams of him telling her to get out.

Ame's eyes found Hiei's. "I wonder what she needed a distraction from."

That was enough to drive Hiei out of the room. He didn't need their fucking judgement. She had been the one to fuck up and if she wanted to drive herself to breaking down then there was nothing that he could do to stop her. He wasn't he fucking keeper and he didn't owe her anything.

You're friends. He shook off the voice in his head. That was stupid. Being friends didn't mean her owed her love. She never asked for it. She did by telling him. That was that. He wouldn't be able to ask for her assistance during his heat. Not after this.

The images from his dreams came flooding into his mind. Finley, red faced, screaming his name. Finley, on all fours, begging for him. Finley, on her knees, still begging.

Hiei leaned against the wall, slamming his head back into it. He'd have to make up with her. If for his own sanity. She wasn't going to be able to escape him when the heat hit, so he had to put in an effort or he'd have to have Kurama lock him up.

He was going to have to deal with the aftermath of her confessions eventually.

Well, that was an interesting chapter. I thought this would be a good point to put some of Fin's research skills to good use. Anyone in Uni knows you gotta be able to get a lot of information together fast and sift through for important stuff. I know it's a little dry but she and Takuma needed some bonding time.

Damon got a little spotlight at the beginning there. Writing him makes me feel a little bad because of how much I beat him up, but he mostly does that to himself.

As always I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to comment and review, and have a great day!