Disclaimer: yada yada yada….

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Eino grinned ruefully at his friend. "Sorry about this, Mido, but I've really got to stop by here before we go over to my house."

Mido grinned back, giving his friend a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. You would have done the same for me, right? Take your time. Today's a Friday after all, we can always get together tomorrow or something."

"Thanks, man," Eino told Mido sincerely, his eyes softening at the sight of his best friends kindness.

Mido turned away to look at the city below the road they were walking on, whistling a merry tune that he made up as he went. Eino studied his friend thoughtfully. The two looked like complete opposites, with Eino's short, black hair, and small body, with skin as copper as a penny. Mido on the other hand, had wispy, light brown hair and a medium height, and skin as light crème as Eino's was coppery. Mido claimed that he was a quarter American, that his Grandfather on his mom's side came over in the 1950's for some sort of business thing, but after he met his Grandmother, fell in love and never left, not even to get his stuff. "Ironic what love can do to a person," Mido had said thoughtfully when he had told Eino the story.

As far as personalities went, the two weren't quite as different, but not as similar as they could have been. Eino, as was easy to tell, was loud and tough, while his friend was quiet and polite almost to a fault. Both of them were extremely smart, but while Eino was constantly cutting school out of boredom, Mido found school fascinating, ancient history being his favorite subject. Whenever asked why, he would simply shrug and reply, "because it's gone and it won't ever happen again. We don't have to worry about barbarians or samurai anymore. Swords and weapons are a thing of the past. The world was so warlike back then, it makes me have a high respect for the peacefulness we have now."

Their home lives on the other hand, were literally opposites. While Eino's father was dead, his mother loved him very much, and his sisters, while more often then not they drove him insane, were Eino's life. Mido's home life, was the worst imaginable. His mother had abandoned him when he was four, and it had driven his father to become drunk more often then he was sober. And although Mido would deny it all he could, it was obvious his father would beat him when he became angery. Eino had often seen his friend come to school with bruises and black eyes, although the brown haired would laugh it off and say things like he had fallen down the stairs, or out of his bed. He couldn't fool Eino, though. Mido never messed up and was much too graceful to ever fall off a stool. But Eino had always been told to keep his nose out of other people's business and his figured that when Mido was ready, he'd do something about it. Perhaps this was not the wisest course of action, but Eino was never one to do things the normal way.

"It's right up here," Eino stopped, pointing up a set of long stairs by the road.

Mido stopped too, looking up the stairs skeptically, "A temple? Eino, don't take this the wrong way, but you never striked me as the religious type."

Eino rolled his eyes, grabbing his friend's hand to pull him up as they started their way up the long temple steps. "Ha, ha, ha. I'm not going there to PRAY, you idiot, I was supposed to meet some people here."

"Ah," Mido knowingly nodded, in a mocking manner. "And why, exactly, do you have to meet them at a temple?"

"Iamtakingsomelessonshere," Eino slurred together, reluctant to reveal the truth due to embarrassment.

"Lessons?" Mido asked, raising a brown eyebrow delicately. "What kind of lessons? Self defense?"

"Kind of," Eino said, still blushing, trying to avoid Mido's interested gaze.

"Ah. You'll have to let me know how they go then. I'd be interested in taking some myself." But Mido let the subject drop, knowing his friend's embarrassment, and concentrated on the stairs.

After a few minutes of silence, Eino heard a call from the top. "Eino!" someone cried. "Over here!" Eino looked around, and spotting a body lying in the shade of a overhanging tree, strolled over, Mido in tow. Yusuke was lying with his back against the tree, and as Eino looked up, spotted Hiei high up in a tree branch, looking down at him speculatively.

"Where's Kuwabara?" he asked Yusuke as the young man stood up, brushing off his jeans.

"Couldn't make it today," Yusuke told him. Then, noticing Mido standing behind the other youth, asked, "who's this?"

Eino stepped side-wards, allowing his friend to take a timid step forwards. "This is Mido," he said motioning. "Mido, this is Yusuke, and that," he pointed up at the smaller of the two, "is Hiei."

Hiei "hn"ed, that could only be taken as a greeting, but Yusuke stepped forward and extended a hand to the brown haired. "Hey, Mido."

Mido smiled at Yusuke, grateful for the kindness. "Nice to meet you," he told Yusuke quietly.

"I tried to tell you last time that I had plans today, but I left so quickly, I didn't have a chance," Eino told Yusuke.

The older blushed slightly. "Sorry about that."

Eino smiled, trying to soothe the other's embarrassment. "That's fine, but can we get together another time?"

"Sure," Yusuke said, grateful for a way out. "How about tomorrow at two?"

"Sounds good. See you later!" Eino said, turning around and starting back.

Mido gave a little wave, and cried up into the tree, "bye, Hiei!" who nearly fell out of the tree in surprise.

The demon and the human watched as the two boys walked away, trotting down the stairs, chatting happily.

"Oh well," Yusuke said, leaning back against the tree again and closing his eyes. "So much for today's lesson."

Hiei continued to watch the two though as they left. "There's something weird about him," he said quietly.

"Well, YEAH," Yusuke said sarcastically, not bothering to open his eyes. "He's a human and he's got youki."

"No, not him," Hiei said, shaking his head thoughtfully, still staring off to where the two were once standing. "The other one, Mido. There's something odd about him, too."

This caught Yusuke's attention. "Really?" he asked, looking up. "What?"

"I don't know," Hiei said. "But I'll keep an eye on him. We'll find something out."

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Hello again!

New chapter up! Another will probably be up on Friday the 27th, give or take a day.

I keep telling you guys, don't assume that Eino's Kurama! Things aren't as obvious as they might seem!

-Dream Fox