Hi guys! I hope that you are staying safe and that you like this chapter. I might need to take a week or two break because of personal reasons, but I will do my best to continue to update soon!

Hiei remained quiet for most of the evening as the others got more obnoxious with each game played. He was leaning against the wall in the corner, directly behind a tilting Hikari. Yusuke and Keiko had been sidling closer to each other with each drink they both consumed, and now Keiko's head lolled on Yusuke's shoulder. The Detective had a deep blush on his face, and he remained frozen as her pillow.

Atsuko and Botan kept grinning at the two and cackling. Kuwabara, as usual, was much louder than was necessary, trying to show off for Yukina, who was more sleepy than anything. Was she still regaining her energy, or was she just a sleepy drunk? Hiei wasn't sure. The hot springs seemed to have restored a little of her strength, at least. Kurama, sitting next to Shizuru, watched everyone's shenanigans with a gentle smile while he won card game after card game.

Jin was clearly a sloppy, friendly drunk, his accent had becoming so slurred that many of his words were no longer discernible. Toya, who was much more moderate in his drinking, even while playing the ridiculous games, kept catching the wind-master as he tumbled about in the air. Still, though, Toya was only so sober and had dropped the imp more than once on his fathead. Hiei couldn't help but smirk each time it had happened.

The wind-master was resilient and would only whine for a moment before repeating the process. He had started to float exclusively near Hikari, whom Hiei was quickly learning was a friendly, bubbly thing while drunk. She giggled very easily in this state, and so Jin had taken to try and make her laugh as much as possible.

Hiei found himself irritated and torn. He didn't mind hearing her laugh. If he was completely candid, it was a pleasant sound, but he was annoyed with the antics of the imp.

"Hey!" Kuwabara half-shouted, his face flushed. "We should play spin the bottle!"

Jin and Yusuke were quick to jump on that train.

Sigh. I'm surrounded by idiots.

"What are we, in middle school?" Atsuko guffawed. "Oh wait, like half of you are kids. I forget sometimes."

The others laughed at her sincere statement. Toya and Yukina hadn't heard of the game before, and Botan explained the concept.

"But if it lands on someone you're related to or don't wanna kiss, you have the option to kiss them sumplace else! Sound fair?" Yusuke slurred as he gently roused Keiko to play.

Everyone echoed an agreement. How annoying.

First round, Botan was paired with Toya. Blushing furiously, the Spirit Guide kissed the Ice Master roughly on the lips. Toya maintained a passive expression, but he couldn't quite prevent the reddening of his face. Toya landed on Shizuru, and mindful of both Kurama's and Kuwabara's eyes on him, gave the human woman a polite, modest peck on the lips. His eyes narrowed as she pulled away. Shizuru got Atsuko, and without hesitation, kissed her briefly on the lips to hoots from Jin and sounds of disgust from Yusuke and Kuwabara. Next, Atsuko got Kurama.

"Ahhh, you are so pretty but wayyy too young for me!" She slurred before giving him a loudly and exaggerated kiss on the cheek. The others broke out into laughter. Even Kurama was laughing and having fun. Kurama landed on Jin, who snickered and offered a hand. Kurama, smiling, kissed his hand in a princely fashion, making all the women giggle uncontrollably.

Next, Jin got Yusuke. The two laughed uproariously, and then Jin floated over. Yusuke playfully tried to push him away, but the wind-master kissed the top of his head anyway. Hiei didn't miss the way the imp's eyes floated wistfully to Hikari. His eye twitched. It was obvious the shinobi wanted to land on her.

Yusuke went next and did land on Hikari. Hiei's eye twitched even harder. Keiko watched with a disappointed look, but Hikari offered her cheek. Instead, Yusuke grabbed her face and blew a raspberry against her forehead, again sending them all into howling laughter. It was a full minute before Hikari composed herself enough to take her turn.

The bottle landed back on Hikari, and she was about to take another spin when Botan screeched for her to wait, startling them all.

"What's wrong, Botan?" Hikari asked with a quiet hiccup.

"Hiei's behind you!" The spirit guide answered, pointing at Hikari while giving a hiccup of her own.

"… and?"

"So, you can't kiss yourself, so you need to kiss Hiei!"

Everyone froze. Hiei blinked. Hikari had become stone, her face frozen in a disbelieving smile, sweat drops running down her head.

She took a peek back at him, blushing furiously before whipping her head back around.

"Um, I don't think he's playing, Botan..." She said quietly.

Damn straight, he wasn't.

"But he's here!"

Hiei scoffed, and Botan turned a drunken glare on him.

"You need to have fun at some point in your life, Hiei."

Hiei glowered back at her. No way was he participating in this stupid game.

The seconds ticked on, the tension growing, as Botan and Hiei were engaged in a glaring contest.

After a couple more seconds, Kuwabara broke the tension by grabbing the bottle and declaring himself the referee of the game, as he had been the one to initially suggest it.

"I say Hikari DOES kiss herself!"

"Huh?"

"She landed on herself, she should kiss herself."

"I'm not doing that stupid arms around yourself, fake makeout shit," Hikari said, causing Jin to snicker.

"Awe, fine, kiss your knee or something then." Hikari smiled mischievously at the suggestion. She then made them all laugh as she proceeded to "seduce" her own knee. Heh, it was a little amusing to watch even for Hiei. The kid could be funny when she wanted to.

After Hikari had finished making out with her own kneecap, Kuwabara declared his turn and spun the bottle so it landed on Keiko. Now it was Yusuke's turn to glower. Kuwabara teased Yusuke for a minute, causing Keiko to go tomato red.

Hiei rolled his eyes as both the Detective and his girlfriend protested. It's not like their relationship was any sort of secret.

Finally, Kuwabara asked for Keiko's hand, and kissed it prince style, copying Kurama. Yusuke visibly relaxed.

Keiko took her turn and landed on Yukina. Smiling, she kissed the Ice Maiden playfully on the cheek. Yukina giggled, making Kuwabara's eyes starry. Yukina took her turn, landing on Yusuke. Keiko looked worried for a moment, but then she snorted. Kuwabara was absolutely disconsolate. Yukina also kissed Yusuke on the cheek.

Yusuke took his second turn but reacted with repugnance as he landed on Kuwabara, who matched his facial expression. The others began to tease them.

After a minute of gentle ribbing, Yusuke proclaimed, "Fuck it!" and proceeded to try and kiss Kuwabara jokingly. The two were grappling, Yusuke not far from Kuwabara's face. Everyone laughed. Atsuko got a mischievous glint in her eye, and stuck out her foot, tripping Yusuke. Yusuke fell onto Kuwabara, clacking their teeth together.

The others howled as the two sprung away from each other, holding their mouths.

"Dammit, Urameshi, that was my first kiss! I was saving it for someone special!"

"Oh, like anyone but your mother would intentionally kiss your ugly mug!" Yusuke retorted, anger marks on his forehead. Their squabbling soon devolved into a fistfight while the others continued to laugh at their expense.

Getting tired of them fighting, Botan smacked both of them on the back of their heads to get their attention.

"Next game!" She said bossily. "Let's play Truth or Dare!"

The others readily agreed between giggles at the antics of the two oafs. Once again, Botan had to explain the rules of the game to Toya and Yukina.

Hiei sighed. It looked like they weren't going to calm down anytime soon. They had returned to the rooms around 8, and these fools had been drinking since then. It was now almost midnight.

About an hour later, and they were all wasted. Hiei had also become lightly buzzed, as a dare from Yusuke to Yukina and then Kurama to Hikari had them plead with him to take shots- one from Yukina and two from Hikari. He hadn't been able to refuse their big-eyed requests. God-damned fox and fucking Detective, they knew how to play to his weaknesses.

Hiei wanted to remain vigilant, but part of him wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps Kurama at least had somehow sensed that in his perceptive ways, and this was his way of helping Hiei out? Eh, it was possible. Yusuke was just a moron.

Some of the other highlight dares included having Yusuke run around the snow in his underwear, having Toya and Yukina, who had definitely regained some energy, compete in rock paper scissors using ice materializations, and Atsuko enduring a piggyback ride on Jin as he zipped through the air outside. Atsuko had gotten sick after returning to the ground from all the spinning. She called it a night for herself. Jin watched her go with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry 'boyt dat miss, Oi didn' mean ter make ye shuk…" He floated behind her to the hall.

Atsuko merely waved him off and went to the bedroom, clutching her stomach. Well, at least one of them was down, though Hiei was surprised that Atsuko had been the first to turn in.

None of the few truths so far had been pivotal, most of it was silly, juvenile questions- Who was your first crush? What is the most illegal thing you have ever done? What is your most embarrassing secret?

That one had perked Hiei's ears, as it had been asked of Jin by Atsuko immediately before Jin had dared Atsuko to let him take her for a ride. The Windmaster simply blushed, smiled, and said that he was a fan of cute things, once again, his eyes wandering to Hikari. Perhaps in vengeance, Jin had turned and asked Atsuko for her choice next. The human hadn't been prepared for what had followed.

"I'll go for Atsuko!" Botan announced loudly as Jin turned back to the group. She was perhaps the drunkest of them at this point.

"I dare all the girls, including myself, to kiss the guy sitting closest to them!" They all looked at her and blinked. The positions of some of the girls had shifted throughout the game. Hikari, no longer able to sit upright, was leaning against the wall next to Hiei. Yukina had moved next to Toya for their dare against each other, with Kuwabara on her other side. Shizuru had scooted next to Toya to judge their rounds of rock-paper-scissors. Botan was next to Kurama on the loveseat. Only Keiko had remained unmoved, her head still resting on Yusuke's shoulder.

Botan stood still, one of her arms still raised in excitement as she waited nervously.

Finally, letting out a small snicker, Keiko leaned in and gently kissed Yusuke, who turned so red Hiei wondered for a moment if he was truly human at all or a weird-shaped tomato. Heh. Damn Detective looked like he was on cloud nine. Disgusting.

Noticing their stares, the Detective quickly put on a haughty expression that fooled no one.

Shizuru raised her eyebrows to Toya, who smirked and turned to her. Kurama's eyes narrowed a fraction. Hiei was the only one to notice.

Shizuru leaned in and met Toya halfway, who didn't seem to mind the attention. Kuwabara was distracted from his glowering at the two by Yukina, gently tugging his shirt to get him to bend down. He did, with sparkling eyes, and Yukina gently kissed him. Hiei suppressed a growl. He had to restrain himself from running his sword through the idiot's head- though he really wanted to. Kuwabara's soul left his body in pure bliss as Yukina pulled back. Ick.

Botan turned to Kurama, roughly grabbed his face and kissed him hard, catching the typically composed fox apparition by surprise.

"Och, dat's no fair!" Jin complained as Botan came up for air. "Ain't no doll to pogue ol' Jin…" He pouted, a river of tears running down his cheeks.

Botan giggled out a quick apology as Kurama fixed his mussed collar. "Sorry, Jin. If Atsuko hadn't gotten sick, you would have had a partner."

The wind-master continued to whine as Botan's attention turned to Hikari.

"Come on, Hikari! Your turn!" The spirit guide encouraged the girl, her face flushed. Jin stopped his whimpering but pouted even more. He was glaring daggers at Hiei.

"You did this on purpose, didn't you?" the girl rolled her eyes, looking at Hiei with an amused but exasperated expression. "I'm pretty sure anyone who kissed Hiei would be either punched or stabbed." She said, winking at him. He just stared back.

Botan continued to needle at Hikari, who just laughed with each refusal. Hiei's eye twitched. God, this was getting annoying.

"Enough." He growled. "If you continue to whine like that, I'll remove your tongue so you have something to actually whine about."

Botan squeaked in fear, sweat drops running down her head. At least she had finally stopped talking.

"That was a bit much, don't you think?" Hikari looked at him by tilting her head backward, an eyebrow cocked. Her silver hair pooled on the ground.

Heh, he kept forgetting she didn't know or appreciate how truly dangerous he could be.

"Awe Hiei, don't spoil the fun!" Yusuke had taken over where Botan had failed. Hiei scowled at him in disdain. He stood and flitted to the kitchen to get a glass of water. The alcohol he'd consumed was making his head less focused than he liked. He walked to the edge of the kitchen area, leaning against the open door frame.

"Well, if yer gonna be dense enoof ter refuse de gran' 'ikari, Oi'll glad take yisser place!"

Hiei nearly spat out his water at Jin's declaration. The imp grinned gleefully and floated over to Hikari. He smirked roguishly at her as he came closer. Hikari gazed up at him, blushing. She didn't look afraid, nor disinviting. She stood up with a gentlemanly hand from Jin and looked at him from under her lashes. Did she want to kiss him?

Hiei's eyes narrowed.

What was this feeling churning in his gut?

Maybe it was the alcohol or the petty temptation to take away something Jin wanted, but Hiei flashed to stand in front of Hikari. He smirked at the startled wind master.

"Sorry, imp, but I think I'll accept her offer after all."

At first, Jin looked surprised, and then for a moment, his eyes narrowed in anger. However, his expression quickly turned to one of irritated disappointment.

"Wait, what?" Hikari said in surprise behind him.

Hiei peeked back at her, She was staring at him, mouth agape. The others were also staring at him, just as equally shocked. He returned their looks arrogantly. It was rather amusing watching the imp struggle with his jealousy.

"I don't like having an audience, though, so let's go outside." He raised an eyebrow. "Unless you want the others to watch."

Hikari twitched, her face becoming annoyed. She raised her nose and strode to the front door, leaving him to follow. As soon as the door closed behind him, Hiei heard the others in an uproar. No doubt, they were gossiping about his strange behavior.

He turned to a fidgeting Hikari, who looked at him with a suspiciously raised eyebrow.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" She asked. Hiei didn't answer.

An anger mark appeared on her forehead.

"Don't ignore me." She pouted.

Heh.

He wanted to tease her a bit longer. He smirked. Looks like he was an asshole while buzzed. Well, he was an asshole anyway, but he didn't normally troll others like this.

He intentionally ignored her now, taking a few steps away from the door, knowing that the rest of their group was probably listening against the wood.

"Tch." She tsked. She still followed him. "Fine, don't answer me, asshole."

Hiei's lips almost twitched into a smile.

When they were a few feet away, closer to the ruined part of the inn, he paused and turned around. Hikari flinched at his sudden stop. Whoops, he had probably done that at a higher speed without realizing it.

She still looked annoyed. She gazed into his eyes, searching. The pools of silver didn't seem to be able to find what they sought, as after a moment, she closed them and sighed.

"You aren't going to stab me for this, are you?"

"Heh, if it had been anyone but you, I might have." Fuck, did he just say that out loud? What the hell. He frowned at his rash words as Hikari looked at him again in surprise. He coughed. "I mean, we don't even need to actually kiss, we could just tell them we did."

"So, you don't want to kiss me?" She tilted her head. Her sincere question caught him off guard. Her silver eyes were again gazing at him, and for the millionth time, he wondered if she could actually read his mind… or rather, her eyes made him feel like she could read his soul.

"It doesn't matter to me. A kiss doesn't mean anything." Hiei looked away haughtily.

"I see." She said, dipping her head a little. Her eyes weren't visible. Was she… disappointed? No, there was no way.

After a moment, she lifted her head back up and smirked at him.

"Still, though, I want to at least have some sort of grain of truth there." She stepped closer to him. The girl was lit from behind by the safety lights of the inn corridor. It made her look otherworldly. "Give me your cheek, you asshole."

Hiei caught himself staring as she got closer and closer. He couldn't look away. Finally, she stopped in front of him, gazing at him expectantly from under her long lashes. How odd- her eyebrows matched her hair, but her lashes were dark.

"I believe I asked for your cheek." She tilted her head at him, that damn smirk still on her face.

Hiei narrowed his eyes but lowered and turned his head. She leaned in and brushed her lips against his face. Heat flowed from her lips to his skin, and Hiei immediately jerked away.

"What's wrong?" She asked, flinching back.

Hiei remained silent. He had thought for a second that the white flames were imminent, but now he could see he overreacted. The place where her lips touched still tingled, however, and he couldn't stop the blush that deepened across his face.

"Nothing, let's go back in." He strode past her, doing his best to remain aloof. He tried to calm his racing pulse. Had he been afraid? The white fire had incinerated the enemy as he held her arm. Perhaps that was the secret to the deadly side of her powers. Wait, she had been touching him that first evening in the snow. Maybe it had to be skin to skin contact? Yes, that was plausible…

At any rate, his awe and a healthy respect for her power must be why his heart beating so rapidly in his chest now.