---I don't own YuYu Hakusho---

Ergh… need sleep…long chapter...

All the Christian People in the area moved Halloween to Saturday cause Halloween is the Devil! Even though its origins have nothing to do with Satanism… but I'm not saying anything. Anyway, you know an old man checked me out while I was in my robin suit? I was kinda freaked…

Dark chocolate is good but the best… those little Hershey kisses with the white and milk chocolate… Now those are good! :::sighs dreamily:::

:::ear next to a bunny:: Wow... they really do make funny squeky noises!

W----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------w

There was a crisp layer of snow crunching beneath her feet. It seemed loud compared to the quite whisperings of the night. For a moment, Julie thought she had just stepped out of the wardrobe, that she was no longer in Japan but in Narnia. She'd never been in the park at night and the section she was traveling in was the remotest. Now all she needed now was to find a light post and a fawn.

She was close. She could sense Hiei's significant Spirit Energy signal moving at lightening speeds in the farthest section of the park. She was surprised he hadn't sensed hers, yet.

Julie peered around a tree, finally glimpsing the person she'd been searching for. Hiei was dodging and swooping around a birch tree. Most of the branches were broken off and huge pieces of bark were missing. Ribbons of smoke were rising from black burn marks dotting the tree, swiveling into the night air. You could smell the burning wood.

She stepped out into the small clearing. The remains of the branches and tree littered the ground. Hiei finally noticed her or decided to notice her. He jumped on the ground, fist balled and panting. His eyebrows were stitched together.

He must really be upset about something.

For a moment, he just stared at her, like he was considering something.

"Why are you here?" he finally demanded.

She ignored his fierce tone and took his jacket off her arm, "I was wondering the same thing. You left this. I thought you might be cold." She couldn't see how he wasn't. He was barefooted and shirtless.

Hiei considered her a moment, then darted off and grabbed his shirt from a nearby branch. He appeared in front of her and grabbed his jacket, then put them on. She noticed his knuckles were bleeding.

"Hiei, let me bandage that." She gingerly grabbed his wrist.

He stiffened. "Leave it." He began pulling his hand away.

Julie frowned and gripped tighter. "It'll only take a moment," she said while fumbling in her pocket. Over the months of training, she'd learned to keep a roll of bandages with her.

Hiei stopped pulling against her grip, but he did show his displeasure with a scowl.

She smiled at his scowl, "O, it's not like I'm killing you."

"Die monster!" The words eoched inside his brain. He flinched against all of his will and pride.

Julie's face turned to worry, "Am I hurting you?"

Hiei pulled his hand away, embarrassed, and finished bandaging them himself, cursing himself mentally.

"Sorry."

"I'm not a frail human," he murmured from the side of his mouth. The bandage was clenched in-between his teeth.

He observed her as he wrapped his hand. She looked so different from the Julie from his dream. Could he even place the two together? Could she ever hate him like that?

"I don't mean to insult you, I just, I just want to make sure you're o.k."

"Funny, I'm the one babysitting you."

"Demons get hurt, too. Demons can have someone worry about them."

"How would you know?" Why couldn't he hate her? It would make things so much better for the both of them. Maybe if he told her, she would hate him and it would do them both good.

He finished knotting his bandages and began walking away from her, towards the tree. He needed to clean-up his mess.

Julie watched as his fist began to glow a dark purple. A moment later, he gave a sudden yell, blasting it away with his Spirit Energy.

When he was done, she walked up next to him, looking at the broken remains of wood. "Are you worried about the tournaments?" she asked. What was upsetting him badly enough to have caused him to barely use his Spirit Energy and more his fist to pound that tree?

"They can't scare me." He turned around and faced her, observing her once again. She seemed worried about him, but why? He normally would have felt annoyance if it had been someone else, disgusted that they thought he needed help. Her worry seemed more of a relief than an annoyance.

"Hiei, are you mad at me for coming out here?"

He watched as the wind tugged at a lock of her hair. "No," he struggled with finishing the sentence, "I'm just…confused." Why couldn't he just ignore her questions? Why did he have to answer them?

"Do you want me to leave?"

No. That was the last thing he wanted, but he didn't like being in the open like this. He didn't like how his words seemed to stretch beyond Julie, out into the world beyond. It was bad enough she was hearing them.

He wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Hiei, what are you-" Before she could finish the sentence they had bounded up into a old, large cherry tree. He set her against trunk, in the fork of the branch, so she wouldn't fall. He sat a few feet across, his arm propped on his knee.

"I guess that's a no," she murmured to herself.

He smirked slightly. He felt more secure up here, even though the tree's foliage was gone.

Julie gave a mental sigh of relief. He was finally acting like the Hiei she knew. "So what are we doing out so late?" she asked and sat down.

"Persistent, aren't we?" He smirked.

"Alright, then. If you won't tell, how about we play a game of Truth or Dare? Without the Dare?"

He raised his eyebrow.

"We ask each other questions and we have to answer them truthfully. If we don't answer, we have to pick the alternative."

"And what's the alternative?"

"Name something."

"Sparring."

"We're suppose to be resting for the tournament. Name something else."

He rolled his eyes. "Alright," he chose the only other half-way decent option. "Drop our mind blocks." She didn't know how to mind read, so he didn't have to worry. Besides, the Jagan would only allow what he wanted her to read.

"Mind blocks?"

"Most with higher Spirit Energy have mind blocks. It's a sheild."

"O.k. How long do we have to keep them down?"

"Five seconds."

"Only one problem left, I don't know how to mind read."

He smirked, "I guess you'll just have to learn how before five seconds."

Julie rolled her eyes, "Sly. Shall we begin?"

"Who's first?"

She decided to get even for him tipping the alternative in his favor.

"Let's decide with rock, paper, scissors." She balled her right fist up and used her left as a platform. He did the same.

"Humans have such frivolous games." He noted she picked the one he always lost in.

She smiled, "1...2...3... Shoot!"

Hiei had scissors and she had rock, which was no surprise.

"Looks like I won this frivolous game," she teased. "Alright," she thought a moment. "What woke you?"

"A dream. My turn." He smirked, "What woke you?" He would probably regret agreeing to this game.

She smiled, "A dream. About what?"

He didn't answer for a moment. "The past," he finally said

A nightmare. She would have been upset, too.

"Yours?"

"My mom." She remembered something she'd been wanting to ask. "How do you know that girl?"

He raised his eyebrow, a little off guard by her random question.

"The ice apparition." After that day, they'd never really talked about it again.

Hiei looked off in the distance, "Yukina is my sister." Yusuke, Kurama, and Koenma were the only ones that knew and that was already too many.

She blinked, taking in the information. Questions whirled along with the clicking of finally understanding.

He looked back at her, "Do you dream about your parents much?"

Julie brought her attention back to his question. "I use to have nightmares but since I moved here, they've gradually stopped. Why don't you ever talk about Yukina?" Maybe she shouldn't have asked that.

"She doesn't know I'm her brother."

"oh."

"Why did you still love that demon that was your mother even though it treated you so badly?"

She shrugged, "I kept reminding myself how my real mom use to be. I thought there was something left of that." She waited a moment then asked her question, "Why don't you tell her you're her brother?"

"It would complicate things too much." Hiei was trying not to ask what was on his mind. "Do you regret Japan?"

Julie smiled and shook her head, "No. Do you regret having to baby-sit me?"

He smirked, "Unfortunately, you're tolerable. Why do you listen to that screeching music so horribly loud?"

"That screeching is rock and that's the only way you can enjoy rock. Why don't you listen to music?"

"I don't waste my time on that trivial junk. Why did you follow me out here?"

"I was worried… and I guess curious. What's in your cassette player?"

"Tapes. Who was that human you were hanging around after school?"

"You're avoiding the question and that was Norihiko. What "tape" was it?"

"Learning English." He found it more embarrassing than telling her about Yukina. "What were you and Narihiko doing?"

"Talking about computers. Why do you want to learn English?"

"I want to know what you are saying." Most of the music she sang was in English.

She smiled, "Someone's paranoid."

"Hn. Why do you sing with a brush and dance up and down the stairs?"

She blushed, "I forgot you saw that."

He smirked, "You're avoiding the question."

"Me and Suiichi were dancing. It's fun. You should try it."

"I'd rather die first."

"How do you know how to drive a car?"

There was another smirk, "That was my first try."

"Do what?"

"Koenma informed me how to operate one. Why were you laughing when you were writing that letter?"

Julie's mind wandered to the first letter she wrote to Anastasia, "I…," she started giggling.

He glared.

"I was describing everyone, and I was comparing you to a bunny." She bit her lip, "So why do you like ice cream so much?"

"Sweet snow?"

She nodded.

"I have no reasons. Why do you always eat my sweet snow?" He gave her a fierce look.

"I never see your name on the box. It's not like I don't leave you any."

There were no more questions she wanted to ask or felt comfortable asking. Over the months, she'd learned a lot about Hiei.

"Well this is rare. You're silent."

She stuck her tongue out. "I really should start slipping stuff into your drinks," she teased.

He watched as her gaze fell to the ground below. She was watching the snowflakes fall.

Hiei suddenly found himself staring. There were small, delicate ice flowers caught in her hair and the moon was gleaming softly on her skin, making it appear like porcelain.

A protectiveness welled in his chest. All he found he wanted to do was hold her.

She looked up and found him staring at her.

"Hiei, are you…o.k.?"

He grunted and stood up on the branch, "Come on, onna. Let's go back."

She glanced at him again, then prepared to jump down herself, only to find that Hiei's arm was around her waist. Just like last time, before she could say anything, he jumped with her.

When they landed he released his grip. She turned and faced him, trying to piece what was going on inside his mind.

Why did he always act so cold? It wasn't who he was. In moments like this, there was no act. He was… kind.

Her mind whirled.

Koenma had said that Yukina had been imprisoned for years. All that time, Hiei had been looking for her.

His sister… that day. He'd been scared.

If he loved someone that much, why did he bottle it up?

Her mind jumped back to the day when the demon attacked her in the hallway. His face had that same look.

They just stood there, staring at each other in the snow, letting the snowflakes wisp past them.

"What is this look, now?" she asked herself.

"We should get back. It's too cold for humans," his voice broke their spell.

Julie nodded, "Ya, it's late."

"Get on my back. You're too slow."

She studied him for a moment, "You sure?"

"Would I ask?"

She gave a small smile, and he knelt down so she could climb on his back.

"Ready?" he asked. His arms locked around her knees.

"Hai."

She rested her chin on his shoulder to help block the sudden, cold, rushing wind as the world flew past them.

Moments like these, there were no acts.

W-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------w

I carved a pumpkin, yesterday, and I made him were he was stoned and smoking a joint. It's cute! (yes, you are insane) (hush up! I need sleep!) Crap… I have to do aerobics, tomorrow, in P.E. ::cries:: I don't wanna dance to Richard Simmons!!!

Am I babbling? I think I am… darn I need sleep. I'm going to make this quick. Good thing tomorrow is Election Day.

I pick: a. puny chickens who gets eaten by us, because everyone knows Chickens Rule!

And I agree about the glare from the computer screens. I have to take breaks from typing cause my eyes start hurting so much, lol. See? Bill Gates is evil. Darn you Bill Gates!! One day, I shall get you!! Well, actually, my screen is made by Optiquest… whoever that is, but I still blame you, Bill!!

Fortune cookies are funny cause if you put "in bed" after whatever they say, you can make it so perverted. (Dork) (Don't pick on me…)

And yes, next chapter is the beginning of the tournament.

I'm Jack Daniels, and I approved this ad! (ß We have a billboard that actually says that, lol)

Nightey Night!

Sincerely,

Queen Chad

:::falls asleep on keyboard::