Disclaimer: Need I urge you to look up "Fan-fiction"? I don't own Yu Yu
Hakusho.
Quote of the week: "Oh my god! WE'RE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!" -Kuwabara
KKC: Wow, reviews from both Hies2dreamer AND Babydeathearthdragon. Thank you Kathy; Now that you've reviewed, we can work on that short-term memory loss problem you have.
Yusuke: What took you so long?
KKC: Not only did the fifteenth chapter get erased *glares at Chris and Sean, who are trying to look as innocent as possible* But I was . . . busy.
Yusuke: Busy?
KKC: *coughs* yes. Now, let's get this over with.
Yusuke: No, I'm interested. What possibly separated you from your computer-
KKC: MOVING ON! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yusuke balanced his chair on two legs and boredly tapped a pencil on his homework. Sighing, he glanced at Lyra, who was still sound asleep in a pitiful little puddle, the small fox she had found was curled up next to her. The kit was wide awake and sat next to its companion in a snug little ball. "So . . . read any good books lately?" Yusuke asked, not even expecting an answer from the quiet fox. Green eyes glared and the Japanese teen was suddenly staring at the kit's furred back. "Didn't think so. Man, this sucks. There goes my date with Kayko . . ."
The annoyed fox growled and snapped at Yusuke. "What? Like you even know how to deal with girls. You animals have it easy in the companion department, I'll tell you that." Kurama sniffed and hopped down from his soft bed, trotting past Yusuke on his way downstairs. "Mutt . . ." Yusuke muttered, not noticing the small kit swerve towards the chair and bat at one of the two teetering legs. Within nanoseconds, Yusuke sprawled out on the thick, sea-blue carpet and watched the fox's retreating back. "You little shit! Wait'll I get my hands on you!"
Rogerik sighed and flipped a page in his notebook, then continued to furiously scribble down notes for his Plant Science class for the next day. "Hey, want something to eat?" The blond glanced up at the bowls of steaming rice Jin had brought up from the kitchen and nodded. "Uh, yeah. Put it over there." He pointed to a hastily cleared spot on Holly's writing desk and finished another paragraph before grabbing the food and a pair of chopsticks. Jin leaned back in the chair next to Holly's bed and toyed around with his own chopsticks for a while before finally asking his friend, "So, what're you doing?"
"Homework. Plant Science. Due Tomorrow."
"Not one for multi-tasking, eh Rogerik?"
"Nope . . . don't you have anything to work on?"
Jin blinked for a moment, then apparently tried to recall any homework he might have missed. "Uh, no not really . . . Oh Crap!" Rogerik jumped and put down his dinner. "What?" he testily answered. Jin glanced at the clock and groaned. "I'm in deep shit, that's what. Its eleven o'clock already and I have a five-page report on this stupid weed called "glimroot" due first thing in the morning!"
"A little slower there, Jin. Who's it for?"
"Rachel! Of all the luck, damn it all!" Rogerik pulled his assignment notebook out of his backpack and started to flip through it. "Uh, we don't have anything about Glimroot for Rachel's class. See?" He tossed the book to his demon roommate, who caught it and flipped it back. "Yeah, I know. It's a make-up paper."
"For . . ?"
"The paper I missed on Rainforest herbs."
"But we didn't have one on Rainforest herbs . . ." Rogerik started looking through his notebook and carefully read the small, messy writing under each day.
"I know you didn't. It was a make-up paper for that test I missed."
"You mean that test on how to prune Purple snipers?"
"Er . . . yeah. That was it." Jin grabbed a pencil from Holly's desk and snagged his notebook from the floor. Grimacing at the fuzzy purple pencil, he put it back and picked out a more normal writing utensil. "But that was back in October!" Jin shrugged and opened to a new page, clean of doodles and chicken-scratch notes. "Whatever . . . Think she'll fall for five pages if I made it up?"
"Five pages of Bovine Scatology? Doubt it."
"Nice title . . . what's it mean?"
"Five pages of Bull Shit. Fits it, ne?"
"Definitely." The two students glanced at each other and burst out laughing, stopping only when the half-conscious Lark drenched them both in a wave of ice-cold water before falling back asleep.
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Hiei scoped out the view in front of him, ignoring the irritating crashes in the underbrush below him. Finally, eyes narrowed, he jumped back down and ran over to Kuwabara, appearing at the human's side in a flash. "What are you doing? Can't you send that thing away?" Kuwabara shrugged and clutched even harder onto Bones' collar. "At least he knows where he's going. I still say we're moving farther away from Kurama."
"That's why what you say doesn't matter. Now have that "dog" of yours find his trail." Kuwabara glared, too tired to reply. Finally, he managed to call the skeleton dog over and get Bones to concentrate on finding the fox. Bones immediately straightened up and, in true pointer fashion, struck out due North. "He went thataway." Kuwabara helpfully said, ignoring the demon's glare for the time being. "You're trusting that dog to pick up the scent trail?"
"Why not? He has some bloodhound in him."
" . . . somewhere in Japan, a village is missing its idiot . . ."
"Bite my ankles, shrimp." Kuwabara swung at Hiei, who leaped up into the branches above. The demon plucked something long and silvery from the sap- covered branch and leaped back down, the shimmering strand of Kurama's hair in hand. "He was here, recently too." Kuwabara snagged the hair from the demon's grasp and held it out to Bones, who took a good look at it and ran up the trail. The skeleton turned around and clacked his jaws at the two tantei, an obvious sign that they should follow him.
The twisting path led to a shimmering lake, in the most unimaginable shade of blue. A cozy cottage was tucked away on the Eastern side and the trees were tightly clustered, their now bare branches sweeping towards the sky. "Wow. This is beautiful . . ." Kuwabara looked around at his surroundings, totally ignoring the splintered path of pine trees to the far west. Hiei, however, was feeling quite antsy. Something big was waiting underneath the calm water, and it had almost the same energy signal as the creature last night.
"Idiot, don't get too close to the shore. Something's not right-" The demon was cut off by Kuwabara's fall into the pond and sighed. "Wha-? Arghh! Its after me!"
"What is, you fool?" Hiei sneered and watched as the red-head struggled to his feet and ran to the shore. "Something tried to grab me! It was all scaly and stuff . . ." Kuwabara shuddered at the thought, but suddenly grabbed Hiei by the shoulder and pointed to the quickly submerging fin. "See? I bet it's that thing that attacked Kurama last night! Maybe it's still hungry." The fire demon glared at Kuwabara and stuck his katana into the shallows where the fin had sank, impaling a small perch on the sharp blade. "See? It's just a fish. Now lets go find Kurama." Kuwabara nodded, then dumbly gaped behind them, towards the center of the lake. Hiei glared at his less-than-brilliant companion, then asked, "What is it now, baka?"
"Water . . ." The two students turned and looked out towards the center of the spring. The water was bubbling and frothing; suddenly it erupted into a giant spout of swirling water, eerily blue and hypnotizing. The torrent dispersed and out stepped a petite woman. Her long black hair continued past her ankles and swirled in the water of which she stood upon, wavy and glossy. She opened her eyes, which were a bright azure color, and smirked.
"I'm not into eating demon flesh, its too tough and chewy. Humans however . . ." Kuwabara gulped and scuttled away from the shore, not at all anxious to get near the strange woman. She strode across the water, smiling that odd little smirk of hers and stopped in front of Hiei. "What did you do with Kurama, wench?" The demon growled. The woman shrugged and glared right back, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Let's just say he's gotten a new leash on life, along with a new collar and water dish."
"You mean that furball Lyra brought home?" Kuwabara called, from the treeline. The spirit nodded, her masses of wavy hair rippling in the water with every movement. "Yes. It's a test, but I seemed to have forgotten what to do in order to accomplish this task. Lets see . . . I need something original, but not overly scandalous." She chewed her thumbnail and hummed a small tune to herself, obviously deep in thought. Hiei strained to listen her incoherent mumblings, and managed to catch some syllables of her extensive thinking process. She was singing the lyrics to "Broadway" by the Goo Goo Dolls; Unbelievable.
'This woman is insane.' Was all that Hiei could think of while she repeated the chorus under her breath one more time, and then straightened up. "I got it! Kurama has to go recover a dragon's greatest treasure; a simple task for the little kleptomaniac. Go tell him what his test is, I'm in no mood to do any dream messages tonight." She flipped the two boys a peace sign and disappeared below the shallow water.
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Kurama curled up on his favorite armchair and sighed. 'Finally, some peace and quiet.' The silence was short lived, however, as Kyuro trotted in, looking for someone to bug. "So, Kurama. I heard that this is a test, am I right?" Kurama rolled his eyes and nodded, too tired to ignore the cat. Kyuro sat down on his haunches and started to clean his paws. "So, what is your test?" Kurama cocked his head in thought for a moment before the sudden realization that the spirit had forgotten to tell him what the test was dawned on him. He sighed in exasperation and dejectedly hung his head. Kyuro smirked and silently left the living room for the kitchen.
He was still a fox, with no known way to change back, Christmas was in almost two weeks, and he still hadn't gotten a gift for his mother or friends. Maybe he could just send himself, gift-wrapped with a bow and typed letter? He shuddered as he remembered the terrarium Yusuke and Kuwabara had worked on in environmental studies; and despite their standings on rules and directions, air holes weren't something you left out of a cage. Ever.
The door swung open and Bones bounded in, pacing eagerly by the door for his owner to come in. Kuwabara cautiously stepped around the skeleton dog and shook out his jacket before bending down and unclipping Bones' leash. He pointed to the fireplace and commanded, "Go to bed, bud." The dog nodded his head and bounced over to the brick fireplace, collapsing in a heap upon the rug. The green orbs dimmed to a very faint glow and the dog's skull sighed, unhinging the jaws and leaving them detached.
Kurama stretched his short legs and yawned, exposing his sharp little teeth. He was all set to go to sleep, it was almost midnight anyways. He curled up into a tight ball and was about to doze off when Hiei roughly grasped him by the scruff of his neck. "We need to talk, Kurama."
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The next morning . . .
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Holly blinked, and tried to lift up a hand to block the bright sunlight. "What the?" She mumbled and tried to lift up her arm again. Glancing down, she noticed that Jin was half-way sprawled out on her comforter, contentedly snoring and drooling while he slept. Sighing, she tried to push the sleeping demon off of her torso, and failed to do so. She did manage to get one arm out from under Jin and started to absent-mindedly flick one of his long ears as she tried to figure out a way to get him off.
The red-head mumbled something in his sleep and unconsciously tried to shoo her hand away. Amused, Holly flicked his ear a few more times and snickered as Jin woke up with a start, falling with a thud to the hardwood floor as his chair slid out from under him. Cursing, the youkai rubbed his sore head and balefully glanced at the wind witch. "Why'd ya have ta wake me up fer? I was having such a nice dream, too . . ."
"You were crushing my ribcage, and drooling all over my bed." Holly pointed to the wet spot on her comforter, and Jin blushed. "Sorry 'bout tha'." He mumbled as he floated above the floor, sitting indian-style. "Want anything fer breakfast? You've been sleeping ever since you passed out at the tournament yesterday." As if on cue, Holly's stomach loudly growled. She smiled a little and sat up in her bed. "Yeah, a little toast, maybe?" Jin nodded and zoomed downstairs, almost crashing into Kuwabara on the way down.
"Hey, Jin! Watch where you're going!" He yelled, still yawning. Kuwabara was already dressed and had his back pack slung over his shoulder, which he tossed on the dining room table before sleepily stumbling into the kitchen. Yusuke was over by the sink, grumpily cleaning up the piles of tuna-fish cans that were scattered around the counter. Kuwabara blinked and asked, "What happened?" Yusuke glared at his friend. "Oh, you know how cats are . . . stealing your food when you're not looking, getting fur all over your clothes, LEARNING HOW TO USE THE CAN OPENER!" Yusuke directed the last part of his sarcastic comment at Kyuro, who was hiding out of reach on top of the refrigerator.
"It wasn't me, It was that stupid mutt Lyra brought home yesterday!" he hissed, arching his back and puffing out his silky, black fur. Kuwabara glanced up at the familiar, then back down at the mess that covered the kitchen counter. "Nah, Kurama would've been neater. He also would have unplugged the can opener when he was done."
"Er, Kuwabara, Kurama has been missing for two days now." Yusuke said, tossing an armload of empty cans into the trash barrel. The taller boy shook his head and answered, "Nuh-uh. The spring spirit-person said that he had to complete this test or something." Yusuke raised an eyebrow at Kuwabara. "Yeah, right. What makes you think I'm buying that?" Jin shot in and started to make himself a batch of toast, just noticing the conversation Yusuke and Kuwabara were having.
"Hm? What about Kurama?" He asked, his speech a little muffled as he held the twist-tie to the bread bag in his mouth and popped the slices into the toaster. "This idiot-" Yusuke jerked a thumb in Kuwabara's direction, "- Thinks that Kurama has been hanging around here for the last two days he's been missing. "He's not lying, Yusuke. That fox kit is Kurama." The three students turned towards the kitchen doorway, where Hiei was leaning, dressed in black jeans and long-sleeved shirt. "Kurama as a wee kit?" Jin asked, smirking all the while. Hiei nodded and all four of them stared as the groggy fox trotted into the kitchen.
Yusuke scooped the kit up, ignoring his surprised yelp of protest. Staring the fox straight in the eye, he cocked his eyebrow again and shrugged before putting Kurama back onto the linoleum floor. "The eyes look familiar, but that's about it."
"No shit, Sherlock. If he was changed into an animal, you wouldn't really recognize him, would you?" Hiei sarcastically stated.
"Yeah, and I wouldn't recognize you either if you were a pile of ashes right about now . . ." Yusuke muttered, glaring right back at the shorter demon. Surprisingly, it was Kuwabara who came to Hiei's defense. "Hiei has a good point, Urameshi. Besides, that fox is way too smart to be normal." Jin quietly snuck back upstairs to Holly and Lark's room before the arguing could get any worse, the tray of food floating behind him.
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Salvatore screeched, beating his wings furiously against the bars of his spacious cage. It was far too late for Lyra to be sleeping, and he wanted out. Joyously, he shrieked as his raven-haired owner stumbled out of bed and pulled open the curtains, letting in the bright winter sunshine. Still half-asleep, she opened Salvatore's cage and held out a hand so the little parrot could climb up, onto her shoulder. "W-what time is it . . ?" She mumbled, picking up her digital alarm clock and dazedly staring at the bright green numbers. Seven thirty. Classes started in a half-hour and she was too tired to even go downstairs and get breakfast.
"I'm staying home today . . ." she whined, slumping down on a chair out on the balcony. She watched Jin and Holly joke around over breakfast in the girls' room and picked up her notebook from its spot under her chair. Pulling the mechanical pencil out of the binding, she started to sketch her two friends from her spot at her balcony.
There was a soft knock at her door, and Lyra grumbled as she put down her pencil and sketch book to answer the door. Kuwabara was standing by the doorframe, balancing a tray with her breakfast on it. Graciously, Lyra mumbled a "Good morning" and took the tray from his hands. Before she could close her door, Kuwabara tried to strike up a conversation. "So, are you going to class today?" he asked. Lyra shook her head. "No, There's no way I could stay awake in class. But, maybe could you pick up my homework ad test results from my teachers? And Lark and Holly's too? I don't want to fall behind a day."
"Uh, sure. Wait, they have the tests graded already?"
"Uh-huh. The teachers pull all-nighters correcting the tests during the tournament weekend." Kuwabara nodded, and called over to Jin, who was leaving Holly's room with the empty tray. "Hey! Jin, class starts in thirty minutes. We better get going." The shinobi did a double-take at the clock and ran downstairs to get ready, cursing all the way down to his basement bedroom. Lyra bowed her head to Kuwabara and nudged the door shut a little with her foot. "Have a nice day!"
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KKC: *in headlock* No, I'm not telling!
Yusuke: Out with it, KKC! What was more important than typing your fic?!
KKC: *turning red* Okay! I'll tell you! Just go a little easier on the wind- pipe, eh?
Yusuke: *releases headlock* now tell all your readers what you did during the weekend.
KKC: *mumbles* wenttoaconcert . . .
Yusuke: Louder!
KKC: *glares* I went to a concert! Are you goddamn happy now?!
Yusuke: A concert? You would rather go to a concert than write about me?
KKC: Normally, no, I wouldn't waste an opportunity to type. But . . .
Yusuke: But . . ?
KKC: It was Mixfest! They had Train and the Barenaked Ladies playing! How could I not go?!
Yusuke: Watch it on on-demand?
KKC: *smirking* They also had Duran Duran.
Yusuke: 0__0 Duran Duran? In concert? After twnty years they've gotten back together?
KKC: Yep! And they're releasing a new CD soon!
Yusuke: -_-* I hate you . . . *whining* I wanted to go see Duran Duran . . .
KKC: I know. But, who cares? I got to see the Barenaked Ladies! Whoo-hoo! By the way, please review. It lets me know that people would rather read my fics than sit around and go to concerts.
Yusuke: Stop rubbing it in!
KKC: ^ ^;; see ya!
Quote of the week: "Oh my god! WE'RE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!" -Kuwabara
KKC: Wow, reviews from both Hies2dreamer AND Babydeathearthdragon. Thank you Kathy; Now that you've reviewed, we can work on that short-term memory loss problem you have.
Yusuke: What took you so long?
KKC: Not only did the fifteenth chapter get erased *glares at Chris and Sean, who are trying to look as innocent as possible* But I was . . . busy.
Yusuke: Busy?
KKC: *coughs* yes. Now, let's get this over with.
Yusuke: No, I'm interested. What possibly separated you from your computer-
KKC: MOVING ON! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yusuke balanced his chair on two legs and boredly tapped a pencil on his homework. Sighing, he glanced at Lyra, who was still sound asleep in a pitiful little puddle, the small fox she had found was curled up next to her. The kit was wide awake and sat next to its companion in a snug little ball. "So . . . read any good books lately?" Yusuke asked, not even expecting an answer from the quiet fox. Green eyes glared and the Japanese teen was suddenly staring at the kit's furred back. "Didn't think so. Man, this sucks. There goes my date with Kayko . . ."
The annoyed fox growled and snapped at Yusuke. "What? Like you even know how to deal with girls. You animals have it easy in the companion department, I'll tell you that." Kurama sniffed and hopped down from his soft bed, trotting past Yusuke on his way downstairs. "Mutt . . ." Yusuke muttered, not noticing the small kit swerve towards the chair and bat at one of the two teetering legs. Within nanoseconds, Yusuke sprawled out on the thick, sea-blue carpet and watched the fox's retreating back. "You little shit! Wait'll I get my hands on you!"
Rogerik sighed and flipped a page in his notebook, then continued to furiously scribble down notes for his Plant Science class for the next day. "Hey, want something to eat?" The blond glanced up at the bowls of steaming rice Jin had brought up from the kitchen and nodded. "Uh, yeah. Put it over there." He pointed to a hastily cleared spot on Holly's writing desk and finished another paragraph before grabbing the food and a pair of chopsticks. Jin leaned back in the chair next to Holly's bed and toyed around with his own chopsticks for a while before finally asking his friend, "So, what're you doing?"
"Homework. Plant Science. Due Tomorrow."
"Not one for multi-tasking, eh Rogerik?"
"Nope . . . don't you have anything to work on?"
Jin blinked for a moment, then apparently tried to recall any homework he might have missed. "Uh, no not really . . . Oh Crap!" Rogerik jumped and put down his dinner. "What?" he testily answered. Jin glanced at the clock and groaned. "I'm in deep shit, that's what. Its eleven o'clock already and I have a five-page report on this stupid weed called "glimroot" due first thing in the morning!"
"A little slower there, Jin. Who's it for?"
"Rachel! Of all the luck, damn it all!" Rogerik pulled his assignment notebook out of his backpack and started to flip through it. "Uh, we don't have anything about Glimroot for Rachel's class. See?" He tossed the book to his demon roommate, who caught it and flipped it back. "Yeah, I know. It's a make-up paper."
"For . . ?"
"The paper I missed on Rainforest herbs."
"But we didn't have one on Rainforest herbs . . ." Rogerik started looking through his notebook and carefully read the small, messy writing under each day.
"I know you didn't. It was a make-up paper for that test I missed."
"You mean that test on how to prune Purple snipers?"
"Er . . . yeah. That was it." Jin grabbed a pencil from Holly's desk and snagged his notebook from the floor. Grimacing at the fuzzy purple pencil, he put it back and picked out a more normal writing utensil. "But that was back in October!" Jin shrugged and opened to a new page, clean of doodles and chicken-scratch notes. "Whatever . . . Think she'll fall for five pages if I made it up?"
"Five pages of Bovine Scatology? Doubt it."
"Nice title . . . what's it mean?"
"Five pages of Bull Shit. Fits it, ne?"
"Definitely." The two students glanced at each other and burst out laughing, stopping only when the half-conscious Lark drenched them both in a wave of ice-cold water before falling back asleep.
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Hiei scoped out the view in front of him, ignoring the irritating crashes in the underbrush below him. Finally, eyes narrowed, he jumped back down and ran over to Kuwabara, appearing at the human's side in a flash. "What are you doing? Can't you send that thing away?" Kuwabara shrugged and clutched even harder onto Bones' collar. "At least he knows where he's going. I still say we're moving farther away from Kurama."
"That's why what you say doesn't matter. Now have that "dog" of yours find his trail." Kuwabara glared, too tired to reply. Finally, he managed to call the skeleton dog over and get Bones to concentrate on finding the fox. Bones immediately straightened up and, in true pointer fashion, struck out due North. "He went thataway." Kuwabara helpfully said, ignoring the demon's glare for the time being. "You're trusting that dog to pick up the scent trail?"
"Why not? He has some bloodhound in him."
" . . . somewhere in Japan, a village is missing its idiot . . ."
"Bite my ankles, shrimp." Kuwabara swung at Hiei, who leaped up into the branches above. The demon plucked something long and silvery from the sap- covered branch and leaped back down, the shimmering strand of Kurama's hair in hand. "He was here, recently too." Kuwabara snagged the hair from the demon's grasp and held it out to Bones, who took a good look at it and ran up the trail. The skeleton turned around and clacked his jaws at the two tantei, an obvious sign that they should follow him.
The twisting path led to a shimmering lake, in the most unimaginable shade of blue. A cozy cottage was tucked away on the Eastern side and the trees were tightly clustered, their now bare branches sweeping towards the sky. "Wow. This is beautiful . . ." Kuwabara looked around at his surroundings, totally ignoring the splintered path of pine trees to the far west. Hiei, however, was feeling quite antsy. Something big was waiting underneath the calm water, and it had almost the same energy signal as the creature last night.
"Idiot, don't get too close to the shore. Something's not right-" The demon was cut off by Kuwabara's fall into the pond and sighed. "Wha-? Arghh! Its after me!"
"What is, you fool?" Hiei sneered and watched as the red-head struggled to his feet and ran to the shore. "Something tried to grab me! It was all scaly and stuff . . ." Kuwabara shuddered at the thought, but suddenly grabbed Hiei by the shoulder and pointed to the quickly submerging fin. "See? I bet it's that thing that attacked Kurama last night! Maybe it's still hungry." The fire demon glared at Kuwabara and stuck his katana into the shallows where the fin had sank, impaling a small perch on the sharp blade. "See? It's just a fish. Now lets go find Kurama." Kuwabara nodded, then dumbly gaped behind them, towards the center of the lake. Hiei glared at his less-than-brilliant companion, then asked, "What is it now, baka?"
"Water . . ." The two students turned and looked out towards the center of the spring. The water was bubbling and frothing; suddenly it erupted into a giant spout of swirling water, eerily blue and hypnotizing. The torrent dispersed and out stepped a petite woman. Her long black hair continued past her ankles and swirled in the water of which she stood upon, wavy and glossy. She opened her eyes, which were a bright azure color, and smirked.
"I'm not into eating demon flesh, its too tough and chewy. Humans however . . ." Kuwabara gulped and scuttled away from the shore, not at all anxious to get near the strange woman. She strode across the water, smiling that odd little smirk of hers and stopped in front of Hiei. "What did you do with Kurama, wench?" The demon growled. The woman shrugged and glared right back, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Let's just say he's gotten a new leash on life, along with a new collar and water dish."
"You mean that furball Lyra brought home?" Kuwabara called, from the treeline. The spirit nodded, her masses of wavy hair rippling in the water with every movement. "Yes. It's a test, but I seemed to have forgotten what to do in order to accomplish this task. Lets see . . . I need something original, but not overly scandalous." She chewed her thumbnail and hummed a small tune to herself, obviously deep in thought. Hiei strained to listen her incoherent mumblings, and managed to catch some syllables of her extensive thinking process. She was singing the lyrics to "Broadway" by the Goo Goo Dolls; Unbelievable.
'This woman is insane.' Was all that Hiei could think of while she repeated the chorus under her breath one more time, and then straightened up. "I got it! Kurama has to go recover a dragon's greatest treasure; a simple task for the little kleptomaniac. Go tell him what his test is, I'm in no mood to do any dream messages tonight." She flipped the two boys a peace sign and disappeared below the shallow water.
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Kurama curled up on his favorite armchair and sighed. 'Finally, some peace and quiet.' The silence was short lived, however, as Kyuro trotted in, looking for someone to bug. "So, Kurama. I heard that this is a test, am I right?" Kurama rolled his eyes and nodded, too tired to ignore the cat. Kyuro sat down on his haunches and started to clean his paws. "So, what is your test?" Kurama cocked his head in thought for a moment before the sudden realization that the spirit had forgotten to tell him what the test was dawned on him. He sighed in exasperation and dejectedly hung his head. Kyuro smirked and silently left the living room for the kitchen.
He was still a fox, with no known way to change back, Christmas was in almost two weeks, and he still hadn't gotten a gift for his mother or friends. Maybe he could just send himself, gift-wrapped with a bow and typed letter? He shuddered as he remembered the terrarium Yusuke and Kuwabara had worked on in environmental studies; and despite their standings on rules and directions, air holes weren't something you left out of a cage. Ever.
The door swung open and Bones bounded in, pacing eagerly by the door for his owner to come in. Kuwabara cautiously stepped around the skeleton dog and shook out his jacket before bending down and unclipping Bones' leash. He pointed to the fireplace and commanded, "Go to bed, bud." The dog nodded his head and bounced over to the brick fireplace, collapsing in a heap upon the rug. The green orbs dimmed to a very faint glow and the dog's skull sighed, unhinging the jaws and leaving them detached.
Kurama stretched his short legs and yawned, exposing his sharp little teeth. He was all set to go to sleep, it was almost midnight anyways. He curled up into a tight ball and was about to doze off when Hiei roughly grasped him by the scruff of his neck. "We need to talk, Kurama."
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The next morning . . .
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Holly blinked, and tried to lift up a hand to block the bright sunlight. "What the?" She mumbled and tried to lift up her arm again. Glancing down, she noticed that Jin was half-way sprawled out on her comforter, contentedly snoring and drooling while he slept. Sighing, she tried to push the sleeping demon off of her torso, and failed to do so. She did manage to get one arm out from under Jin and started to absent-mindedly flick one of his long ears as she tried to figure out a way to get him off.
The red-head mumbled something in his sleep and unconsciously tried to shoo her hand away. Amused, Holly flicked his ear a few more times and snickered as Jin woke up with a start, falling with a thud to the hardwood floor as his chair slid out from under him. Cursing, the youkai rubbed his sore head and balefully glanced at the wind witch. "Why'd ya have ta wake me up fer? I was having such a nice dream, too . . ."
"You were crushing my ribcage, and drooling all over my bed." Holly pointed to the wet spot on her comforter, and Jin blushed. "Sorry 'bout tha'." He mumbled as he floated above the floor, sitting indian-style. "Want anything fer breakfast? You've been sleeping ever since you passed out at the tournament yesterday." As if on cue, Holly's stomach loudly growled. She smiled a little and sat up in her bed. "Yeah, a little toast, maybe?" Jin nodded and zoomed downstairs, almost crashing into Kuwabara on the way down.
"Hey, Jin! Watch where you're going!" He yelled, still yawning. Kuwabara was already dressed and had his back pack slung over his shoulder, which he tossed on the dining room table before sleepily stumbling into the kitchen. Yusuke was over by the sink, grumpily cleaning up the piles of tuna-fish cans that were scattered around the counter. Kuwabara blinked and asked, "What happened?" Yusuke glared at his friend. "Oh, you know how cats are . . . stealing your food when you're not looking, getting fur all over your clothes, LEARNING HOW TO USE THE CAN OPENER!" Yusuke directed the last part of his sarcastic comment at Kyuro, who was hiding out of reach on top of the refrigerator.
"It wasn't me, It was that stupid mutt Lyra brought home yesterday!" he hissed, arching his back and puffing out his silky, black fur. Kuwabara glanced up at the familiar, then back down at the mess that covered the kitchen counter. "Nah, Kurama would've been neater. He also would have unplugged the can opener when he was done."
"Er, Kuwabara, Kurama has been missing for two days now." Yusuke said, tossing an armload of empty cans into the trash barrel. The taller boy shook his head and answered, "Nuh-uh. The spring spirit-person said that he had to complete this test or something." Yusuke raised an eyebrow at Kuwabara. "Yeah, right. What makes you think I'm buying that?" Jin shot in and started to make himself a batch of toast, just noticing the conversation Yusuke and Kuwabara were having.
"Hm? What about Kurama?" He asked, his speech a little muffled as he held the twist-tie to the bread bag in his mouth and popped the slices into the toaster. "This idiot-" Yusuke jerked a thumb in Kuwabara's direction, "- Thinks that Kurama has been hanging around here for the last two days he's been missing. "He's not lying, Yusuke. That fox kit is Kurama." The three students turned towards the kitchen doorway, where Hiei was leaning, dressed in black jeans and long-sleeved shirt. "Kurama as a wee kit?" Jin asked, smirking all the while. Hiei nodded and all four of them stared as the groggy fox trotted into the kitchen.
Yusuke scooped the kit up, ignoring his surprised yelp of protest. Staring the fox straight in the eye, he cocked his eyebrow again and shrugged before putting Kurama back onto the linoleum floor. "The eyes look familiar, but that's about it."
"No shit, Sherlock. If he was changed into an animal, you wouldn't really recognize him, would you?" Hiei sarcastically stated.
"Yeah, and I wouldn't recognize you either if you were a pile of ashes right about now . . ." Yusuke muttered, glaring right back at the shorter demon. Surprisingly, it was Kuwabara who came to Hiei's defense. "Hiei has a good point, Urameshi. Besides, that fox is way too smart to be normal." Jin quietly snuck back upstairs to Holly and Lark's room before the arguing could get any worse, the tray of food floating behind him.
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Salvatore screeched, beating his wings furiously against the bars of his spacious cage. It was far too late for Lyra to be sleeping, and he wanted out. Joyously, he shrieked as his raven-haired owner stumbled out of bed and pulled open the curtains, letting in the bright winter sunshine. Still half-asleep, she opened Salvatore's cage and held out a hand so the little parrot could climb up, onto her shoulder. "W-what time is it . . ?" She mumbled, picking up her digital alarm clock and dazedly staring at the bright green numbers. Seven thirty. Classes started in a half-hour and she was too tired to even go downstairs and get breakfast.
"I'm staying home today . . ." she whined, slumping down on a chair out on the balcony. She watched Jin and Holly joke around over breakfast in the girls' room and picked up her notebook from its spot under her chair. Pulling the mechanical pencil out of the binding, she started to sketch her two friends from her spot at her balcony.
There was a soft knock at her door, and Lyra grumbled as she put down her pencil and sketch book to answer the door. Kuwabara was standing by the doorframe, balancing a tray with her breakfast on it. Graciously, Lyra mumbled a "Good morning" and took the tray from his hands. Before she could close her door, Kuwabara tried to strike up a conversation. "So, are you going to class today?" he asked. Lyra shook her head. "No, There's no way I could stay awake in class. But, maybe could you pick up my homework ad test results from my teachers? And Lark and Holly's too? I don't want to fall behind a day."
"Uh, sure. Wait, they have the tests graded already?"
"Uh-huh. The teachers pull all-nighters correcting the tests during the tournament weekend." Kuwabara nodded, and called over to Jin, who was leaving Holly's room with the empty tray. "Hey! Jin, class starts in thirty minutes. We better get going." The shinobi did a double-take at the clock and ran downstairs to get ready, cursing all the way down to his basement bedroom. Lyra bowed her head to Kuwabara and nudged the door shut a little with her foot. "Have a nice day!"
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KKC: *in headlock* No, I'm not telling!
Yusuke: Out with it, KKC! What was more important than typing your fic?!
KKC: *turning red* Okay! I'll tell you! Just go a little easier on the wind- pipe, eh?
Yusuke: *releases headlock* now tell all your readers what you did during the weekend.
KKC: *mumbles* wenttoaconcert . . .
Yusuke: Louder!
KKC: *glares* I went to a concert! Are you goddamn happy now?!
Yusuke: A concert? You would rather go to a concert than write about me?
KKC: Normally, no, I wouldn't waste an opportunity to type. But . . .
Yusuke: But . . ?
KKC: It was Mixfest! They had Train and the Barenaked Ladies playing! How could I not go?!
Yusuke: Watch it on on-demand?
KKC: *smirking* They also had Duran Duran.
Yusuke: 0__0 Duran Duran? In concert? After twnty years they've gotten back together?
KKC: Yep! And they're releasing a new CD soon!
Yusuke: -_-* I hate you . . . *whining* I wanted to go see Duran Duran . . .
KKC: I know. But, who cares? I got to see the Barenaked Ladies! Whoo-hoo! By the way, please review. It lets me know that people would rather read my fics than sit around and go to concerts.
Yusuke: Stop rubbing it in!
KKC: ^ ^;; see ya!