Kurama had a habit of staring, I noticed as we faced each other on his bed. I thumbed through a book of his for a quick distraction, while he was silent across from me. Every now and then, I would see his hand rise and pull some rogue hairs behind my ear.

It was soothing though. Not sure how he knew combing through my hair was like chamomile tea to me, but he did. Him and that Aurora sense of his. "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me, Aurora. I've done very little." Kurama responded, with his usual slice of humble pie. I almost want to thrash him, you know?

I snorted, marking my page before closing the book shut. "Not only have you been my emotional throw pillow but you've gracefully taken on the role of my perfect little punching bag, so yes, you've done more than your fair share of friendship heavy lifting. You should let me help you sometime."

He paused, his elegant fingers pausing behind my ear as our eyes met. His green held my gaze with care, as if hesitant, like I was some ancient artifact balanced between his fingers.

"If you ever want to talk, if you ever need, or want anything from me," I tell him putting the book aside so he knows he has the whole of my attention, "You only have to ask, Kurama. That's it. It's yours." I snapped my fingers with a childish grin, "Just like that."

He closed his eyes, his lips quirked into a strange combination of amusement and restraint. His fingers found my hair again, pulling the long strands over my shoulders. With every stroke, I felt his cool hands brush my skin. "You shouldn't make such an offer to me…I may be tempted to take advantage of it."

I nodded my head, my eyes looking left and right, Kurama and his weirdness. "Yeah…that's what I want. We can't be friends, if I'm a complete leech all the time—not that I mind, as you know. But, let me do something for you, okay? Here, how about you go on vacation with me and my friend Katie? She'll be here next week so, we're going to be off. You should come. I'll pay for everything, okay?"

With that he opened his eyes, quirking his eyebrow in that way I hated to love. "Would that make us even?"

"Nope. It's a start though. From now on, you tell me stuff, I listen, and I will be the pillow and punching bag, okay? But, don't hit me too hard, or I'll hit you back."

His laugh rung throughout the little room, and I noticed for the first time, how thin the walls must be. Huh. Could anyone hear us?

"What would you want to know?"

I give him a shrug, "Anything you want to tell me. I won't pry, but I want us on equal footing here. No tom-foolery from you. If you're irritated, I want to know. If you're sad, tell me and I'll make you laugh. If you're happy, tell me and I'll make you happier, or sad, depending on my mood. If you hate someone, they're dead to me."

He smirks, his pretty eyes glowing with a hint of gold. "That does sound enticing…"

"Doesn't it?" I lean forward and give him a push, "I can do all kinds of things for you."

He blinked at that, a hint of mischief on his lips. "Can you?"

I pause, replay my words in my head, and smack him on the arm, "Oh, shut it, Kurama, you know what I meant!"

Kurama and I joined the others sometime later.

"Where did you guys disappear off to?" Botan asked as we came into the room. There were several other new faces there as well. Six new faces to be exact, including Jin. One actually looked like a little kid, but I knew better. Another had himself a lavender mohawk, another wore an elegant purple ponytail, this other shorter more reserved guy stood next to a blonde who seemed to regard himself pretty highly. Yusuke played host along with Genkai, chatting it up with them.

I'd told my cousin Kyoko I was coming, but she said she wouldn't be back in time to wish me luck. She did, apparently, leave me a fighting outfit. I'd found it on my bed when I got in. I was excited to see how it would look. Maybe its fireproof too? Who knows?

"Aurora and I have a test when we return, so we decided to go ahead and begin preparing for it," Kurama said, lying so smoothly, I would have believed it too if I hadn't spent the last thirty minutes crying like a spoiled child. Kurama was cool about it. He had to change his shirt, but he was cool.

Thankfully, I had enough time to erase all that crud from my face, so I looked bright eyed and bushy tailed. "Yeah, you can never be too careful."

Keiko and Shizuru wandered over, followed by Kuwabara who gave me a sad look. He didn't say anything, he didn't have to, but I knew. I knew he knew.

Cue instant mortification. Thanks a lot, Hiei.

"I hope you ace that test," He said instead, pushing a smile on his face. From what I knew about the Kuwabara family, both of them were so in tune with awareness they could sense things without even trying. The way Shizuru suddenly hardened her gaze when I felt that familiar spirit energy let me know she was no fool either.

I'm super good at avoiding people, so I found it no problem to keep my eyes on the current company in front of me as Darkness waltzed into the room and towards the back corner. Yukina spared me a smile, before she followed after him. She's a sweet sister.

"Yeah," Shizuru drawled. "Study hard, you'll be fine. You're a smart girl."

I put my hand over my heart and laughed, "Aw, you guys are sweet!"

Shizuru chuckled. Keiko gave her a weird look, then set her eyes on me. "How are you feeling? Are you nervous?"

"Yes." I say with little hesitation, "But I'm positive these jerks know what they're doing. They haven't gotten me killed yet."

"If they give you any trouble, let me know and you better believe I'll kill every last one of them." Shizuru put a hand on my shoulder, giving me a squeeze. "By the way…I'm sorry about that terrible advice I gave you. About how to study? I was never any good in school anyway. Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. I really put my foot in my mouth."

I put my hand over hers, looked right into her tawny eyes. "No harm done. You never know unless you try. I know now that study method doesn't work for me. We're good, but look—doesn't my energy feel amazing?" like a child showing off an Easter outfit, I held my arms out to my sides and give them a little spin.

Her eyes widened, "It does actually. You're way stronger than you were a few days ago."

Botan snuck her head into the conversation, "Yes. That's simply unheard of, what did you do?"

"A great deal of hard work." Kurama said politely, a hand on the small of my back, right against the skin.

"Yeah, you've worked really hard, Aurora." Kuwabara gave me a genuine smile this time, and I wanted to ruffle his hair, so I did just that.

"Thanks, buddy."

"Alright, alright, enough of all that." Yusuke marched over to us with a fat grin. For some reason, I'm glad Yusuke doesn't know. He's not the kind of person I want to see me sad. "Come here and meet these guys."

"You could have asked nicely, Yusuke," Keiko murmured with a shake of her head. I followed them over, making sure to keep my eyes from looking somewhere it shouldn't.

Yusuke turned and gave her a wink, one that made her blush, but continued toward the group he'd gathered. "This is Aurora, the girl we're about to risk our necks for—"

I sucked my teeth, "I hope you slip and fall."

Yusuke just laughed, "Be nice to her, because she's a little on the savage side." I shot him the bird, but he continued on, having too much fun, "Anyway, you've met Jin already. Here's Rinku and Chu," he pointed to a kid with a rather large hat on his head and regular jeans. He stood next to the mohawk guy, who gave me a friendly grin.

"You didn't say she was a looker, Urameshi," Chu, oh, yes, the guy who thought anything with legs was attractive. "You've been holdin' out on me. Not very friendly."

Rinku folded his arms behind his head, "Even if he told you, it's not like she'd be interested—ouch! Hey!" Chu slammed his fist down on the kids head for the slight, but it was obvious he didn't hit him that hard.

Chu turned from his friend and sent me a sparkly smile. O…kay. He seemed nice, but the messy, bearded look didn't really do it for me. Not to mention, he sort of smelled like alcohol…or at least someone did. "It's nice to meet you both."

"I can't help, but agree, Sheila." Who? "How about after all this is over me and you get a drink, whatcha say?" he lumbered toward me, and, since the dude was a mountain, he had to lean down to look me in the eyes. This close I could see he had, clear, friendly eyes. A good sport, too, I think.

"I say no thanks," I tell him with a smile, "I have a strict no-mohawk policy."

"Aww, come on, is that all?" he whines with a pout, making me laugh.

"If you're done striking out," Yusuke cut in, "I'll introduce the rest of them."

All together they were Jin, Chu, Rinku, Touya, Shizuka, and Shishiwakamaru. Jin and Chu were my fast favorites, mostly because we had one thing in common.

"You speak English?" I immediately switched over, and almost give both Jin and Chu a shove. "Hey! Me too. I'm from America, actually."

"Yeah, what you doing here?" Chu asked with a hint of interest.

"School. I'm actually studying abroad. I just happen to be extremely reckless, that's why I ran into these guys." I gestured over my shoulder, then asked Chu. "Are you Australian?"

"I've spent a while there, picked up the accent." He shrugged with this cool kind of confidence. "I can't even hear yours."

"My mother's half Japanese, but she'd go days where she would only speak to us in Japanese." I say sheepishly, "She wasn't satisfied until we sounded like native speakers. She won't stand for anything less than perfection. Plus, Banriyu helped me a lot too." I kissed my bracelet and he issued out of it and greeted them kindly. "He lived here…many, many years ago."

"Whoa, it sure is nice being able to communicate like this, yes it is." Jin was through the roof, floating a little as he talked. "I haven't spoken English in years."

"Hey, you need a language partner," I pat myself on my shoulder, "I'm your girl. I may even let you call me Sheila, Chu."

"You're alright," He tapped me on the shoulder playfully.

I heard Yusuke say, "My English isn't that great, so I'm not sure what's going on over there. But it looks like Aurora's making friends."

"She is very skilled at that," Kurama commented, as if we weren't in the same room.

"Hn." Hiei grumbled darkly, I'm surprised he's still in the room.

"They really grow up, so fast don't they?" Yusuke says, and I take that moment to turn and attack him. "Hey, now! What happened to you being all mature?"

"Screw you, Yusuke!" He takes off at a run, and I chase him around until I start laughing and can't continue. "You suck!"

I know why I don't want him to see me sad. He's this light, reckless energy, not someone you really want to burden, you just want their light to lift you up. And it does, every time.

"My Sheila's got a fiery spirit," Chu commented proudly.

I turned to him, "Yeah, don't call me that anymore."

Jin burst out laughing. The rest of us, save for Hiei, joined in. I was alright. Everything was just fine.

()()()

I stand in front of my mirror and check myself out. The outfit, Kyoko left me shows how much my cousin knows me. The pants are white, linen and tied by a pink sash at my waist. My shirt is cropped, as I like, but since I was technically going to fight…not sure how helpful this shirt was, but anyway. The top was a lot like Kurama's forest green and petal pink getup, except my top was pink, trimmed with green, an opposite of the fox's.

"You look stylish, my dear." Nike tells me. "We will kill at this gathering." Luckily, her comment could be taken both literally and figuratively.

Banriyu seethed, trying to pull my top lower to hide my exposed abdomen, "This is no gathering! It is a place of battle and carnage, not a fashion show!"

Nike ignored him, settling into the pendant around my neck. "Sure, mortal, sure."

Banriyu huffed, but gave up trying to fix me when I walked from the room and he chased hurriedly after me.

I stopped dead when I found Hiei leaning opposite my door. When our eyes met, I could see his mouth open, words poised on the tip of his tongue, but they don't meet air.

"Princess, you—" Banriyu straightens up behind me, crosses his arms and glares at the fire demon before deciding to go back into my bracelet. He is obviously put out with Hiei. In fact, I doubt he'd be forgiving him any time soon. I think about apologizing for Banriyu, but that would be acknowledging the elephant. I got all my feelings out in that humiliating cry with Kurama, and put my notebook to good use, wrote some words down to exorcise them from my soul. Still, I don't really want to dredge up those feelings again.

He meets my gaze after a pregnant pause, he attempts to speak again, but can't seem to find the right words. Strictly speaking, it's bizarre and freaky. It's like watching a child trying to learn how to walk the first time. They're wobbly, nervous, their hands are everywhere but where they should be. They need a little encouragement to keep walking forward. And honestly, that's a fitting description for Hiei. You can't walk unless you're ready. I can't wait for him to be ready. And that's okay. Neither of us are bad people for our problems, we're just two people who met at the wrong time. We both need to grow. Him more than me—naturally, but I need it too. We just can't grow together.

We require different patches of soil, various amounts of water, and maybe different degrees of sunlight. I obviously liked mine directly overhead, and perhaps, Darkness liked his at an angle? I'm not his angle. I don't even really like angles. I'm an overhead light. I like to beam right on you—consume you. I want it—everything. I'm not sure what he wanted, if he even wanted anything at all, but perhaps he only thought he wanted me until he saw clearly what I was, how much I was and found he couldn't pay the price.

I mean, a girl like me is expensive. Slight brag.

Hell, I'm priceless. Full brag.

There was no mistaking that he felt something, it's clear from the way he keeps trying to talk to me, but can't. It's crystal from the way he looks at me, even now. He has yet to look at anyone else like that. Oblivious though I am, I'm not a complete idiot. The entire time I talked with those friends of Yusuke, his eyes were on me. When I laughed and giggled with Botan, Shizuru, Keiko and Kuwabara, he put his attention in my direction. I behaved similarly. Although, I enjoyed myself, I was acutely aware of where he was at every moment, because I wanted to be. We're physical creatures, he and I, and we should count ourselves lucky too, otherwise we'd be pretty fucked up about our situation instead of mildly bruised and winded. If we had allowed ourselves to delve into something other than our physical attraction to each other…we wouldn't even be able to be in the same room.

With that realization I laugh, surprising Hiei and making him shoot me a questioning look.

That's how it started with us, didn't it? With a touch. Thinking back, hell, he probably let it bother him before it bothered me. He was the one unused to it, wasn't he? And then, to have a girl invade your space so much, what else could make you feel something? How could he not? I was the only one doing it, probably the first to do it, ever, and maybe I wasn't really fair to him. I made him think things, feel things, he wasn't ready to feel. Damn.

Oh, well, having made me cry and having embarrassed me twice, I'll count us even. I want to tell him my findings, findings that Kurama had managed to calm me down enough to realize, but I don't. There's nothing between us anymore, but still it's not how we do things. Now as real friends, it still will never be how we do things.

I take a deep breath and expel it from my nose. I put my hands on my hips and grin at him, "If you're here to tell me not to be crazy and get myself killed, I don't want to hear it. I've already decided not to be crazy, okay? I like living too much to be crazy. Okay, Darkness?"

I know he gets where I'm going with this, because for all the crap we pulled, we know enough about each other to understand. His smirk comes at me slow, and he closes his eyes briefly before they pop open again. All arrogance. "Heh. Somehow I doubt that."

I roll my eyes at him, and adjust the backpack on my shoulders. "Never doubt."

"What's in that?" He asks, falling into step beside me, hands in pockets, there's a foot between us.

"A change of clothes for Hydra." I tell him, patting the leather bag, "I figure they haven't exactly been giving him the royal treatment. But I won't have him face the humiliation while he's with me."

He eyes me, his voice low. "You care for him a great deal more than he deserves."

I frown at that. "I disagree, but I get what you mean. He's my friend. Whatever he does, as long as he doesn't kill anyone I love, I'll always love him. When you agree to be that close to someone, it's like signing a contract. It's in the fine print."

"No matter what they do?" Hiei asks with a strange sort of interest.

Oh, you mean ditching and embarrassing your ass? Yes, that is included. Lucky you.

"No matter what." I say and then wave my hand, "Besides, I can't hold grudges. I'm too lazy and they get heavy after a while." I then cross my arms with a sigh, "It sort of helps that I'm a sucker for sob stories and misguided little boys."

I grin at Hiei and wag my eyebrows at him, hoping he gets the dig. Sure, I won't outright bring it up, but I will sure as hell hold it over his head. Hey, I need to even us out.

He drops my gaze, and glowers at the floor as we walk as if to say, "I'll let you have that."

I throw my head back with a laugh. Let's see how long I can make this last.

He doesn't respond, but judging from his silence, he'd probably let me say all kinds of things for a while. Heheheheh.

Well, Karma, you did alright by me. The title of bitch has now been stripped away.

Hiei and I walk outside to where the others are already gathered, Yusuke is doing some unnecessary stretches while Keiko talks softly to him. Kuwabara is flexing to sweet Yukina while Botan giggles and Shizuru smokes. Genkai is conversing with the new guys, and lastly, Kurama faces us as we near them.

He wears a pleasant expression, but I don't miss the tightness around his eyes. I want to tell him not to worry, that we're good. But, the expression fades, and he puts his gaze on Hiei and comes back to me.

"We're all set. Are you prepared?"

I nod, "Yep. I just need to give Banriyu over to Keiko and I'm all good."

I do just that, making sure they're done being all cute before I had over the bracelet. Banriyu finally comes out and hugs me. "Be strong, Princess."

"Ditto." I say, allowing him to kiss my forehead. I turn to Keiko. "Thanks."

"No problem," she says, and she squeezes my hand briefly before lowering her voice. "I'm sorry about…the study thing." Ah, I give Shizuru a look, but I'm not mad. At least now I don't have to hide it from her. "I sort of helped, didn't I?"

"I wanted you to help. I wanted you all to help, but I promise you, I'm glad you helped when you did. I sort of get everything now." I say, meanwhile Yusuke's looking on with a fat question mark on his face. "That method and I are all square."

"Good. The method…seems to be feeling better." Keiko struggled, I laughed.

"I'm glad about that too. It doesn't work for me, but that doesn't mean I hate it."

"Okay," Yusuke crossed his arms, "Why are you two talking about homework at a time like this?"

Keiko rolled her eyes at him and we both laughed.

The group starts off to the nearest portal to Demon World, which isn't very far by the way, and we are off to the races.

()()()

I had a pretty good idea of what Demon World would look like. Hiei was pretty good at giving all the gory details. Still, it was…shocking to see in person.

My eyes took in the pinkish sky first. It was a lot closer to the color of grapefruit than the color of a rose. A pinkish sort of red. Although I'm sure it was day, and it wasn't exactly dark, there was a sort of darkness and chill to the air. It felt like having a fever, being hot and cold at the same time. I didn't shrivel up by breathing though, so I guess it was all good for me to be here.

Also some of plant life was freaky looking, like something you'd find in a science fiction movie…or anime.

I sneezed.

"Alright, Hiei, where are these bastards." Yusuke, although still lighthearted, had taken on this semi-serious countenance, like he was ready to react at a moment's notice. I admired that, I didn't have it in me, but I admired it.

"It's not far from here." Hiei reached toward his headband and snatched it away. The slit appeared, and then the lilac eye glowed to life. "Keep your energy contained until we can enter their base. If they feel all of our energies coming at once, they'll flee."

I wasn't completely sure he was talking to me, but I did anyway.

"Aurora and Kuwabara should travel at the center of our group." Kurama said, "Yusuke and I will lead with Hiei."

I gave him a nod when he set his eyes on me. This was their world; they knew what to do. Jin stood on my left, and Chu took Kuwabara's right. I knew he didn't like the idea of being protected, but he didn't say anything about it. He only gave me a reassuring look. "Don't worry, Aurora."

I wasn't, not even a little bit.

Author's Note: Guys, the reviews, as always, were awesome. Thank you to all those who read, favorite and follow too, you are the unsung heroes.