Surprises and Strangers

By: Cece Williams

((Disclaimer: I don't own YYH, and I don't want to.))

Cece: Here's Chapter 5.

Yusuke: So, where are we at in this story?

Cece: Yusuke, I swear on everything Kurama-ish that you'll be in it next chapter. Along with Hiei-chan! (smiles)

Hiei: (rolls eyes) Hn.

Kurama: Read and review at the end.

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(Last Chapter)

Andrea hated the fact that she couldn't let his mother know, and the thought made her head ache more. "We can't tell her anything, though," she said, but as she blinked, she held her heart, which was now beating wildly. "But something really worries me."

Kurama looked at her. He had the very same feeling, and usually, it wasn't good. "Same thing that worries me?" he asked her.

Andrea nodded, fear gripping at her chest as she took another breath. "What if, during all this time, he knows where we both live?" she asked, her voice now concerned for Kurama's mother. If that were the case, then his mother would be in danger and not even know it!

(Now, on to Chapter 5)

Kurama noticed the concern creeping into Andrea's already squeaky voice and nodded in agreement. "Let's go and check out our theories," he said, walking to his house.

"Well, I'll hate it when it's right," Andrea answered, following him and praying to Enma that she was wrong and that it was only from the bump on her head. Though, in her mind, she had a sick feeling she was right.

Once they had arrived at Kurama's house, he knocked and opened the kitchen door. "Mother?" he asked, ushering a half-worried Andrea inside and closed the door.

Shiori looked at the door, seeing her son and a girl in the kitchen. "Oh, hi, Shuichi," she answered.

Andrea was mentally whirling about. Okay, think of the best lie in the world, she thought to herself.

But before she could think of a good story, Kurama answered, "Andrea was injured. I thought she could stay with us until she felt better."

Andrea felt like she was ten inches tall. "Oh, no, I'm fine," she answered, taking one step and nearly keeling over… well, faking it anyway, but she wasn't going to let his mother know that.

Kurama literally fell into his part and held her up. "Oh, no you're not," he answered to her. He looked back at his mother, hoping she would agree to his suggestion.

"Of course, dear," she answered her son as she looked at Andrea's slightly bruised face with increased worry. "What kind of person would hurt you?"

She wanted to scream, "Oh, just a psychotic ex-boyfriend trying to kill me!" but only looked at the floor, her hand in her pocket. She couldn't let her know what was going on; Kurama was already knee-deep in it anyway, so why involve his mother?

Youko, probably for the first time that day, was in high alert and gave Kurama a mental report. "Okay, he's definitely in the house. Time to think of way to get her out of the house."

Kurama shook his head. "Not going to be easy. She's making dinner. You know Mother and dinner."

"Well, offer to take over, genius."

"Just don't hurt her."

"Like I would."

"Maybe something like burnt supper or the like."

Andrea pulled out a small box about the size of a CD from her pocket and gasped. "I just remembered that there was something I wanted to give Keiko, but Shuichi wants me to rest and all..."

"Wow... better liar than you, Shuichi." Youko was impressed, but not before receiving a smack upside his head.

Kurama looked at her box and nodded. "Yeah, would you mind taking it to her, Mother? I'll watch dinner," he suggested.

Shiori looked at the package in Andrea's hands and took it from her. "All right, I'll take it to her," she answered as Andrea nodded her head. She turned to her son. "Thank you, Shuichi..." she said to him as she pecked him on the cheek.

Kurama mentally told his Youko side to shut up as he looked at his mother. "It's nothing at all, Mother," he answered; inwardly embarrassed that she did that in front of Andrea.

"I'll be back when I can," Shiori said to them. She looked at her son. "I love you, Shuichi."

Kurama smiled at her, literally a smile that could melt a block of ice. "You too," he answered.

"And get some rest, dear." With that, Shiori was gone.

Andrea was grateful that the charade was over and took a huge sigh of relief. "I will," she said, adding mentally, After this jerk gets what he deserves...

Kurama looked at her, knowing that what Andrea had feared was actually true. "Should we split up?" he asked her.

Andrea nodded, her shortened locks tickling her face. "Definitely."

Kurama was slowly heading out of the kitchen to the staircase in the living room. "I'll look upstairs," he said. "Be careful."

"Okay, I got down here," Andrea answered and nodded at Kurama, who started up the stairs. She looked around the kitchen, worry creeping into her body again. "I don't like my feeling," she thought to herself.

"You're telling me!" her other half answered as Andrea looked at a door. "Think he's in there?"

Andrea opened the door and peered inside. Shaking her head at herself, she realized that it was only the pantry. She couldn't help but feel concerned for the redhead. Maybe he was in this too deep, but she knew he could handle it… which made her worry more. Could he handle it, really? If Jason was psychotic, like her mind was thinking, then when was he going to strike?

Meanwhile, Kurama was upstairs in his room, his emerald eyes giving himself mental radar. Youko was looking around, too. "That feeling's really close," he said mentally.

Kurama slowly straightened himself, feeling a strange yet familiar energy. "It feels almost as if it's…" he thought.

"Right behind you," Youko said at the same time as Kurama blinked.

"Behind us!" Kurama thought, whirling around… and saw a familiar black-haired man… and it wasn't Hiei.

Jason smiled at Kurama's slight freeze. "Surprise," he said to him, a maniacal smile gracing his face and a crazed look in his dark brown, almost black, eyes.

Instinctively, Kurama swung his fist to his jaw. "Get out of my house!"

Downstairs, Andrea heard Kurama's demand, which made her eyes widen. "Kurama…" she said as she bolted up the stairs. "He found him." She heard noises, basically Kurama wrestling against Jason, and stopped in the hall. "Great," she complained inwardly. "Where's that…"

"Fire extinguisher!" her mind screamed.

"This isn't a fire!"

"Spray that son of a jackal!"

Andrea reached her hand into her coat pocket and felt the bottle. "Still there..." she thought as she raced down the hallway.

"Get… out!" Kurama trying to stop a psychopath wasn't easy.

When Andrea heard Kurama's voice getting louder as he told him to get out, she knew she was in the right direction. She raced into the room. "You heard him!" As Jason turned to face her, she pulled the bottle out of her pocket and smiled. "Surprise!" she said, spraying the spray in her ex-boyfriend's eyes.

Luckily, Kurama covered his eyes in time before any of the painful liquid entered his eyes.

Jason screamed as the peppery liquid filled his eyes. He grabbed the first person around, which unfortunately was Andrea herself, and started dragging the defending Tantei to the stairs by her neck.

Kurama went out into the hallway after them. He wasn't going to let Andrea get killed, not after she probably saved him. He kicked Jason in the knees, which made Jason let go of Andrea, who ended up only three inches away from the stairs, coughing. Making a mental note to check on Andrea after this was over, Jason and him played karate tango. /1/ They punched and kicked at each other, half of the time not even hitting the redhead.

Andrea had gathered her bearings together and looked around from the floor while holding her neck. Must be a good weapon around here... she thought, and it was then that she noticed something: a wooden broom.

Sensing what Andrea was going to do, her brain cheered her on as she went to grab the broom tightly in her hands. "Let's kick his sorry butt!"

Andrea focused her eyes on Jason. The pepper spray she had used was giving Kurama an advantage, but it wasn't enough. "I've got the one in mind..." she said mentally as her hands gripped the bottom half of the broom.

"Batter up!" her mind said as Andrea swung the top of the broom on the side of Jason's head, connecting and sending him tumbling down the stairs. She looked at Kurama, who had ducked in time to avoid her blow. "Home run, girl!"

Walking slowly to the top of the stairs, Andrea looked at the bottom floor, one hand on the broom handle while the other held onto her neck. She tried to stop her heart from pounding out of her as Kurama went down the stairs to check if Jason was knocked out. Andrea slowly took a step down the stairs. "Is he out?" she asked as Kurama poked him with his foot. The abused Tantei sat down on the stairs; she couldn't believe what she had just done.

"It appears that way," Kurama answered as he checked his pulse.

Andrea leaned her head against the railing.

"He's out," he said as he went to the phone, but as he picked up the phone to call the police, he saw Andrea look at the broom in her hands and noticed that she was probably stunned. "Andrea?" he asked, hoping to snap her out of her daze.

Andrea blinked; in her state, the voice sounded familiar, though to her it wasn't. She didn't know how long she was holding onto the broom and her neck.

Thankful that the phone was a cordless, Kurama relayed the information to the police, keeping a good eye on Andrea, who was frozen to her spot. While the dispatcher took care of some things, he looked up at Andrea's stiff form. "Are you all right?" he asked her.

Just the question snapped her back to reality. "Huh?" she asked back, blinking her eyes to snap out of it.

"Are you all right?" Kurama repeated. He wasn't sure if she was daydreaming or in shock; he had to be sure.

Andrea still held onto her neck and the broom. The hold on the broom was tighter than the hand on her neck. In truth, she couldn't say that she was all right. "I guess so..." she answered him.

After telling the operator about what happened, Kurama looked at Andrea from the bottom of the stairs. "It's okay, Andrea," he said to her reassuringly. "He's going to be behind bars now. Breaking and Entering isn't favored here either."

Andrea started to clench her fist but then realized that the broom was still clenched in her hand.

Kurama nodded his head and hung up the phone after the operator told him when the police would arrive. "Hopefully Mother won't be here soon," he said, looking at Andrea, who lowered her head to look at the broom. He walked up the stairs and sat next to her. "You did what you had to," he said to her softly.

Andrea blinked in confusion, her blue eyes still on the broom. "Was it really self-defense or assault?" she asked him.

"Self-defense," Kurama answered her. "You know that."

Andrea did know that, but what she didn't know was something that had been in her hand for about five minutes. "So, tell me why I'm not letting go of the broom."

Kurama noticed that Andrea's hand that was holding the broom was shaking. He now knew the reason why. "You've never attacked a human before, I expect," he answered.

Andrea blinked. She didn't mean for it to look so obvious. "How'd you know?" she asked him.

Kurama shrugged; he knew inwardly that as far as demons were concerned, she had no mercy, but with humans… well, until just then, she'd never attacked one before. "I just knew," he answered.

Andrea blinked, hearing a somewhat welcoming sound. "They're here," she said to him.

Kurama nodded his head, about to help her stand up. "Shall we greet them?" he questioned her.

"Uh, you go ahead," she answered him, still slightly shaken up over what had happened. "It's your house."

Kurama patted her shoulder. "All right," he replied, walking down the stairs to talk to the officers about what had happened.

Her mind was racing was saying to calm down. "He's not going to bother us anymore."

Although her heart wasn't doing any such thing. "I hope not."

"Still got that feeling?" her mind asked her as Andrea looked down at the broom still in her hand. "Yeah, me too."

Downstairs, however, things were calmer as Kurama explained what had happened. "This young man broke in the house," he said as the officers took notes. "There was a bit of a struggle between myself and him, before my friend came to my aid."

One officer, a man of about 40, looked at the girl sitting on the stairs. "That her?" he asked Kurama, who nodded.

"She's slightly in shock at the moment," the redhead explained. "She'll be downtown a little later, after she calms down a little."

The officer nodded to his protégés, who picked up the unconscious ex, cuffed and dragged him into the car. The officer then thanked the redhead for calling and left.

After Kurama closed the door, he now had to figure out a way to get Andrea to snap out of it. But as he sniffed, his eyes widened: in all of the danger, he had forgotten about dinner/2/ "Enma!" he said, racing into the kitchen, hoping he wasn't too late. Kurama breathed a sigh of relief as he turned everything off. On the bright side, he did like things well done.

He smacked himself on the forehead. What was he thinking? He really couldn't explain to his mother that the food was gone because of a fight. Finding some plates and some aluminum foil, he set the food in the plates and wrapped the plates up. After setting them in the refrigerator, Kurama sighed. Maybe take-out sounded like a plan.

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Author's Notes:

/1/ Karate Tango is something I made up. I was talking about the fight and how one-sided it was… well, kind of.

/2/ Poor Kurama… hope the fox can get out of this one.

((Well, Jason's gone, but for how long? Will things ever go back to normal? Will Andrea press charges against him? All that in the next chapter.)

Yusuke: I hope you weren't laughing at yourself, Kurama.

(Cece busts out in giggles)

Kurama: No. Unfortunately, she's had one too many fudge pops. Review here, please.