A/N: Hi Readers! I'm so happy that everyone loved the house on fire scene. For those of you concerned about your smoke detectors, make sure they are Photoelectric! Ionizing detectors have been shown to take up to 30 minutes to go off.

When I was a little girl, I wandered a little too far from my front porch and was toddling around in the tall grasses. My father - a tall, strong man - had warned me many times in a forceful voice to avoid tall grasses in North Carolina. I, being younger than six, had a hard time remembering direct instructions. That area was well-known for snakes in the grass.

I explored the area for a while, picking wildflowers, and barely taking care to watch where I tread. The moment before I was about to step on the head of a sleeping Cottonmouth, my father appeared from nowhere and whipped me right off my feet and into the air.

Where normal children would cry at being so violently yanked into the air, I started giggling, even as my father began berating me for ignoring his warnings.

What does this story all mean? I didn't usually react strongly to strange and unexpected circumstances. But when Hiei appeared on my doorstep, I had an almost visceral reaction. Last time Hiei had showed up unexpectedly outside my door... nothing good had happened. Before I had enough reason in my mind to speak, I grabbed Hiei's arm and yanked him inside, slamming the apartment door shut.

"Did anyone see you?" I hissed.

Hiei paused, but replied. "No."

My mind raced for further words, but couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation for why Hiei would be in my apartment. No contact had been a pretty clear condition from Kurama.

"Has something happened? Is everyone okay?"

"Nothing's happened." He replied, without further comment.

"I need a drink." I muttered, turning to go my little kitchen. It was after five o' clock, so I felt no guilt in pouring myself a glass of white wine. I stood in the kitchen, leaning on the island, mind churning. "I'm not supposed to be in touch with anyone. You're going to get me in trouble."

"No, I won't." Annoyingly, he again refrained from further comment.

"Why is that?" I asked shortly.

"Kurama did this at my request."

Hiei threw out that fact without any opener, and as a result it took me a few beats to process that. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"It was meant to keep you safe."

"How is exile keeping me safe?" I flung my hands up in the air as an alternative to punching Hiei and risk hurting myself.

"The temple is a magnet for demonic activity."

Even as I prepared to scream in outrage, there was a knock at the door, robbing me of a cathartic scream. My head whipped around so fast I almost got whiplash. Oh... shit.

"Kichi - I totally forgot."

"Who is Kichi?" Hiei snarled.

I started pushing him towards the bedroom. "I need you to hide!"

Hiei didn't need to dig his heels into the ground to be an immovable object. "I do not hide."

I stopped trying to push him, and instead tried begging. "I need you to go to the bedroom and stay there very quietly!" I clasped my hands together in a begging/prayer visage. Hiei eyed my piteous figure with an odd look, and took the slowest steps I had ever seen towards the bedroom. Or maybe it just seemed slow because I wanted to shove him through the door.

Ten long, slow steps later, I gave him a final shove through the door with a "please, please, be very quiet!" and shut the bedroom door.

I looked around the apartment frantically, making sure there was no evidence of a demon appearing at my doorstep, grabbed my glass of wine, and jogged to the door. I took a moment to catch my breath, and double-check that the bedroom door was closed. No signs of the angry fire demon.

"Hi, Kichi!" I greeted Kichirou with far too much enthusiasm.

the poor boy looked at me like I was still ill. "Are you okay? How many cups of coffee did you have today?" Kichi produced his usual bouquet of daisies - yellow daisies today. "For you, and Eiko."

"Only four cups - no big deal - and thank you, they're beautiful." With daisies in one hand and wine in the other, I invited him in. I put the bouquet in the sink, resolving to put them in a vase later.

Kichi took off his coat, draping it on one of my two dining chairs as he did at every visit. "Can I get you a drink? I started already." I offered, already reaching for the fridge door. Kichi liked red wine over white, but he wasn't about to turn down free alcohol. I swung it open as Kichi chuckled.

"Sure, I-" Kichi started, but, to my unending horror, I heard the bedroom door open at the other end of the apartment. My view was blocked by the fridge door, but the sound was impossible to miss.

"Who's this?" a voice purred - I did not know Hiei's voice could make that velvety sound.

The rising, flaming blush in Kichirou's face told me it was not an innocent scene. I really, really didn't want to, but I peeked around the refrigerator door, and almost had a heart attack.

It would have been difficult for me, up until that moment, to describe Hiei's rather muscular nature. However, Hiei had disrobed almost entirely, leaving on only his pants, and those were barely hanging on at all. He was leaning in the frame of the door in a GQ-esque pose (not that Hiei would know what GQ was or how to pose like one of their models) but damn if he didn't look sexy doing it.

Focus, Aria.

Hiei didn't need to move from the doorway to command the room. The fact that he looked like a well-fucked master of the bedroom probably had something to do with it.

But back to our story.

My poor, poor Kichi turned as red as a turnip. With the fastest apology I have ever heard - something that sounded like "ohmygoshwhydidn'tyousaysomethingI'msosorrycallmetomorrow!" - he snatched his discarded coat and zipped right out the apartment door.

The first thing I could think to say wasn't that great, and it was shouted from behind the refuge of the fridge door.

"Put some clothes on!" The man's abs are distracting as hell.

Hiei of course had to be a wiseass. "I am wearing clothes," he replied.

"You know what I mean!" I shouted back. There was a moment of silence where I thought I was going to have to force-dress the man, but the jingle of metal signaled Hiei had at least re-fastened his pants.

Another moment or two later, I peeked out from behind the fridge. A surly - and mostly dressed, save for his cloak - Hiei was standing just outside the kitchen, arms crossed over his chest.

Safe from the distraction of his muscles, I let the ranting engage."What were you thinking?" I yelled, slamming the fridge shut.

Hiei ignored the question entirely. "Why did you have a man here?"

I gaped for a moment, trying to switch gears that fast. "Kichi is my friend, Hiei. He has been here for me!"

Hiei walked slowly into the kitchen. "And this... 'friend' brings you dying plants?" Hiei plucked the bouquet out of the sink, the cellophane wrapping crinkling merrily.

"It's a human gesture, Hiei, and-" Hiei's hand and Kichi's daisies burst into flames. Hiei looked unfazed, and within only a few seconds the relatively contained inferno had reduced the flowers to a light layer of ash on Hiei's tightly clenched fist. I barely had time to notice at all that they vanished. Hiei wiped the ash off his hand with one of the dishtowels.

"Why would you do that?" I asked, my voice quieter than I had intended.

Hiei tossed the dishtowel on the counter. "Get your things; we're leaving."

It was so dismissive and disdainful it made my blood boil.

"Like hell I am. You dumped me here, and I think I kind of like it now." I'm sure that if I had been a demon, my head would have been on fire. That's how mad I was.

I really couldn't believe that after three months of radio silence, Hiei had the gall to saunter into my home, kick out my friends, set fire to my flowers, and still expect me to follow him around like a little duckling. It was certainly making it difficult to remember what I had found pleasant about his company before now.

Hiei's eyes narrowed. "Don't force me to make you leave." he threatened.

"Is that what you want? You know what, I don't care." I turned quickly to leave, and Hiei gripped my shoulder to stop me.

Of course he happened to pick my bad shoulder.

The flesh was still sensitive, and as his fingers dug into the wounded flesh my vision swam. My knees buckled and I sank to the kitchen floor. It's a miracle I didn't slam my head against a counter on the way down. If that burn hadn't been a few days old, I probably would have passed out completely.

Burns hurt, folks.

Quick as lightning, Hiei had ripped open my sweater at the shoulder seam, and pulled back the clean cotton gauze. Damn, I just changed that.

"What happened?" Hiei demanded, his warm hands thankfully not poking the screaming skin.

"I had an accident." I murmured, shaking my head to clear the woozy feeling. "Thanks for ruining my sweater." I sat up slowly, trying to tug the ruined fabric back over my bandages, but Hiei's hands kept getting in the way.

"Tell me the truth, woman!" If I hadn't been so mad, I probably would have been touched by the concern wrapped in the fury of his voice.

"You don't deserve it!" I snapped back, finally yanking the fabric over my arm. I got to my feet a little faster than I should have, and had to grip the counter for balance. Hiei watched me carefully, and the concern I could see only made me more angry, given that only a few moments before he had been willing to physically drag me out of the building.

I went postal.

"Did you know that Kurama changed my name? Did you know that I'm Jessica Smith now? Jessica is a very interesting person - you should get to know her, Hiei! Jessica likes getting tattoos, and running into burning buildings!" I had turned into a raving lunatic of a woman, talking about myself in the third person. Hiei and I were strangers, and I was describing this terribly interesting person that he really needed to meet.

But beyond the introduction, I finally got back around to the first question I had asked, and he had never really answered.

"Why are you here? Why now?"

He was silent for a long time, and I didn't think he was going to answer me. I brushed past the demon, tugging my torn sweater higher. "I'm going to change, try not to ruin any more of my life for five minutes." I mumbled.

The bedroom door clicked loudly in the silence of the apartment. With great difficulty I tugged off what remained of my sweater. I poked my bandages back into something resembling their original placement - I would have to change them again later - and grabbed another sweater. Hopefully this one would escape the night unscathed.

As I turned to leave, I spotted Hiei's cloak, draped on the footboard of my bed. I remembered for a moment that it had been soft, last time I touched it.

I shook my head roughly to clear the thought, and opened my bedroom door.

Hiei hadn't moved from the kitchen.

"Why are you here?" I asked, a little calmer.

Hiei replied instantly.

"Because I found a way to fix you."