"And when the answer that you want
is in the question that you state,
come what may…"

—"Blood Red Summer"; Coheed and Cambria


"Life is like a box of chocolates. Especially when all the chocolates are eaten, and suddenly the world decides you've been having it too easy and wants the chocolates back. The passion fruit truffles just aren't the same when they come back up."

"…I find it disturbing when you monologue."

"Hey." Ducky frowned and stuck his tongue out at Alex. "Talk to Eris. She'll tell you it's true."

Eris, on her back with her past life friends, burped loudly and moaned. "I'm feelin' it."

"Figures." Keiko, lip twitching up (or down from their vantage point) in amusement, was a dark shape above them with her arms crossed and a halo of sun as she blocked the light. "I told you not to eat so much bento at lunch."

"You're such a nag, Ko-chan."

Keiko's mouth fell open, brows drawn together in indignation of the truth, and huffily put her hands on either hip. "You little—!"

Eris rolled onto her stomach and giggled. "Chill, I'm joking! You know I love yooouuu!"

"I see you're picking up words from Ducky and Alex yet." Kurama strode over to stand next to Keiko, hands buried in his pockets to disguise the nervous fiddling of his fingers. It was scant more than a few twitches, but the kitsune was not one to reveal himself openly despite the slightness.

"The corruption has yet to begin!" Ducky raised a fist in the air, not moving from the relaxed position on the ground, the other hand was a comfortable pillow beneath his golden head.

"So where were you, Mr. Disappearo?" Alex opened an eye and turned her head to peer up at him. It wasn't that she minded, at least not so much now as her annoyance at him leaving them without a word had faded, but that he acted so nonchalant about it now irked her.

"Looking." He didn't elaborate, nodding to Keiko as she opted out of the conversation to head for the public bathroom in the grocery store across the street.

Alex rolled her eyes at the attempt for secrecy. "For your mom? We already know why you wanted to leave the temple. What's the big secret?"

Kurama felt a twinge of irritation towards the black-haired teen. His business and means of behavior were of no concern to her. It shouldn't matter. "Nothing you need busy yourself with. It would have been a bore for you anyway."

"Bullshit. You ditched us. I don't appreciate being dumped in the middle of a foreign city, especially when things could turn ugly faster than I can comprehend." Alex sat up and twisted around to give him a glare; her anger was quick returning in the wake of Kurama's indifference. "Sticking Keiko with the responsibility of explaining to the locals why a little girl has real wings popping out of her back is pretty shitty of you."

"I wouldn't walk around flaunting them!" Eris huffed, latching onto the fact that Alex had just insulted her intelligence rather than acknowledge her beloved Kama really had left them alone.

"So says the one who had to be threatened with duct tape." Ducky muttered from the corner of his mouth. Eris punched him in the shoulder.

It was, of course, true. Kurama had more or less snuck off to do the errand on his own. But there had been no other way around it. He didn't trust the trio not to make a scene, even a minor one. Keiko, however, was more than capable of handling a situation. She did date Yusuke after all.

"Maybe he just wanted to see her on his own, right Kama?" Eris titled her head back, arms spread-eagle, and gave him an upside down smile. "I know I would."

That shut everyone up. Kurama felt a rush of…something for her; it was a jumble of emotions. She'd pegged him correctly without effort. He just wanted…to see his mother. It had to be done; a private sort of reassurance that not everything had been flipped and molded itself anew while Kurama wasn't looking. He was away so much, and never heard his mother complain past a sigh.

Eris abandoned her playful laze on the grass for a spot in Kurama's arms. The kitsune returned the hug gladly, and whispered a thank you in her ear. "I'm sorry I left."

He felt her shrug and burry her head further into his stomach. "I knew you'd come back."

Acceptance without question…years ago it was something the bandit king had come to expect and demand from everyone. But Yoko was not the same thief, and Kurama was not the same Yoko. Now it just felt like he'd kicked her in the stomach. Faith and loyalty were virtuous, and he appreciated the phoenix for the trust, but it was true that too much of a good thing could turn bad.

"What's the matter? What's wrong?" Keiko returned from her trip to the restroom, finding a much less at ease mood hanging about. Frowning, she looked questioningly from the odd embrace to Ducky and Alex. Alex shook her head; spots of red in her cheeks only slightly faded from her temper attack, and went to find a tree to sit under.

Ducky sighed, biting the inside of his lip. "Don't ask."

Kurama shook the hair from his eyes, dropping an apologetic smile at Keiko, who seemed to guess the situation, and smiled back. "Don't worry about it," she mouthed silently.

Eris must have felt the tension alleviate in her Kurama, and sidled to his side, clutching a hand. "Are we going home now?" she asked, looking up with Mr. Mumpy dangling from her other hand.

Kurama nodded. "I think so."

"Yeah, I've had enough sun for one day." Ducky gingerly scratched a bug bite on his pink neck. "Or maybe a week…"

"Remind me about that aloe when we get back," Keiko told him, suddenly remembering his earlier complaint about sunburn.

"Righto." Ducky forced back a hiss. Despite his precaution the scratched area stung, sending a very uncomfortable feeling through every nerve and down his spine. "C'mon, Alex! I wanna get back before I completely fry!"

"Stuff it, you're fine ya big baby." She made to slap him innocently on the neck as she left her tree, but was put off by a flick at her own tender ear. Clapping a hand over it, Alex swatted at Ducky. "JERK!"

"Would everyone stop hitting me please?" Not pulling off the originally intended pout, Ducky ducked behind Keiko and stuck out his tongue.

The walk back was uneventful. Conversation varied from what things were called in Japanese, what was for dinner, to why you said 'geese' instead of 'gooses.' Alex chatted more than civilly, her earlier anger almost completely dissipated, which Kurama was thankful for. His apology may or may not have brought her opinion of him back up. Eris was unusually quiet, only asking a few questions.

"Did you see your mom?" something was niggling at the back of Kurama's mind; he gave a slow nod.

"Yes. My brother is faking a cough to avoid school tomorrow. She's less than fooled." He smiled wryly, yet the niggling didn't disappear. Instead of a smile or possible giggle, there was a slight tug between their connected hands.

She was beginning to lag. Little droplets of sweat that had no business being there collected on her skin, yet she seemed unconcerned…aloof even…

Alex and Ducky's speculation about the fading light was hazy in the background music of the street sounds, like bees humming over the same flower. Darkness was started to bleed into the day, pushing the sun down in the west. Will we make it back before the streetlamps came on? Yeah, probably, we passed that tree earlier. The sentences were stuck between each ear, bouncing back and forth and slipping off the haze that acted as a barrier keeping them from anchoring in her thoughts. Eris' legs were on auto-pilot, this strange feeling of detachment only affecting the immediate mind.

Someone was questioning her, worried; she recognized the emotional quality change from casual to a sharp uptake, tickling the pit of her stomach.

The old, dark stone that was the first step up the steep staircase came under Eris' view. The temple was at the top. I'll be all right then. Grandma Genki will know what's wrong, and Nina'll give me tea.

It felt as if she'd moved, but she was no nearer to the step than before. Eris was curiously stuck, seemingly by the volition of her own body. Kurama's hand was cold in hers (Cold? Why? Am I making him sick too?), and she tugged on it for the first time known to her.

"Kama…" Eris frowned, a child's confused pout. The simple syllables sounded weak to her ears. Something was wrong. "I can't move."

Concerned voice, a palm on her brow, cold and soft against worrisome weeping skin. So much worry, Eris could feel it, thick and heavy in a cloud.

Black. A cloak. Disdain, annoyance, grumbles, indignant yelling, help, please, and suddenly it was clear. Clear, dusky sky, light flashing like cameras with twenty-watt bulbs where it filtered through the trees and sped by, the cloud of cold hands and emotion personifications at her back.

The body beneath Eris moved like liquid silver over glass: swift, silent (except for the inevitable cloak flap), steps delicate and powerful, and at the same time seeming to barely brush a single blade of grass or displace a leaf. It seemed so easy to the eyes (if one's eyes could follow), but the muscles working and sliding against one another told her otherwise; it was experience, ability. It would be years before she could ever hope to move like this on her own.

As if the efforts put forth were her own, Eris' head drooped in exhaustion. Scents of mossy trees, rain, and the color of dark midnight filled her (perceptive, strong for a human, yet weaker for a demon) nose. Something along the lines of an early morning shower, and the smell of how lightening looks; strange, how sights could have smells, but there they were: mixing and tumbling in her nose and all at once she knew who's back bore her. Funny, she could never do that before.

"Yay," Eris could get nothing stronger than a sigh out. "I think I'm sick."

"Shut up," was the snarled reply. "You're about to cook yourself to death, of course you're sick! Stupid girl."

All at once, the world stopped whizzing by. A few muddled thoughts and Eris found herself being whisked away from the fire demon. Setting sunlight bathed the rafters of the temple in a soothing red shadow. Red. She decided she liked that color as it she watched it darken above her until a lamp was lit. Red, yellow, and black shadows danced on the ceiling. Who's ceiling? Whose arms had carried her to this room?

The coat was gone, and it was blessedly cooler. For a moment. A breeze fluttered in through an opened window; the door was left open. But now she couldn't feel it anymore. There were no more breezes. It felt like a fan blowing hot, dry air on her during 100-degree weather. Hands pressing against her skin that were once cold, now turned rapidly warm and made her feel sick.

People rushed about, looking like blurs to Eris. Her eyes were moving avidly, trying to catch the comforting sight of their faces, but they couldn't keep up. In defeat, she closed them.

And all the world turned into a blazing heat.


"Section nine's clear."

"Did you take out the trash?"

"No."

"Then it's not clear."

Will gave a grumbling sigh deep in his throat. If he knew being properly dead would stick him with a worse job than any on earth, he'd have clung to Eris and permanently fused himself to her. Irritated, he tapped a few keys, hard, on the console and pushed through the door that was unfortunately closed.

It was ridiculous to be irritated with simple things, like doors and floor tiles and light bubs that were too bright, but Will let his self be angry. There were few things in the afterlife that could bear his silent rages; better it be an inanimate object than a poor passing ogre. Even the bodiless ghosts and spirits passing by shivered as if he'd walked through them.

Being dead sucked. More so with an ethereal body. He couldn't float through walls, no amount of concentration could make him visible to a living being, he couldn't think straight sometimes when passing between worlds, and most of all…he missed Eris, Alex, and Ducky.

"Hurry it up, will you?" Heidi's face blipped onto the tiny screen of his communicator, eyebrows arched and puckered, as was the norm when she was impatient and feeling particularly superior to him. "I could have been there and back twice now."

"Well then, princess, why don't you walk your ass down here and do it yourself?" Will snapped, couldn't help it, and turned the blasted contraption off.

And then there was Heidi. Oh, Heidi. The epitome of 'disgruntled spirit.'

Now, Will liked to think of himself as a patient guy, nice even. It was hard to tell where his temper came from, whether it was his own or developed with Eris' help, but if there was ever a person who could demolish the safety wall, Heidi was it.

Thinking about her was a trial, but being around the older girl was enough to make you wish she were alive just so you could kill her. Heidi and her up turned nose, flippy blonde hair (always in a pony tail; Try some variation!), and green eyes scrutinizing him. Her mouth and eyes were a deadly team. When his mistakes were spotted, the mouth was quick to make it known. Usually in the most derogatory way possible.

"What's your business?" A bored, monotone voice asked over the intercome as Will came to a locked door. The screen over the security code keypad bore a green ogre's face, black eyes blurry with sleep.

Will grinned and gave a little wave into the camera next to the screen. "Heya Joe. Working late again?"

"That you William?" Joe rubbed his scabby face with a beefy green fist, and spoke with a gravelly voice. "Yeah I'm stuck in overtime. You here for pick up?"

Will liked Joe. He was a bit grungy, but reminded him of the friendly, teenager garbage man with the long hair that used to playfully flirt with Eris and lived next door when she was a kid. Joe was gritty, brash, and the only one who could match Heidi's stubbornness with his own. An all around good guy.

"Nope. Disposal."

"Aw man. That one they split this morning?"

"That's the one."

"Geez…" Joe flicked something crusty off a claw, shaking his head. "It's a stinker. That room's going to be smelly'rn a phantom skunk come morning. Good luck, Willy! And hey, don't let that ball buster get to yeh. The pissed off look doesn't suit you."

Will laughed and sighed. Yep, definitely a good guy. "I'm trying, Joe. Lord knows I'm trying…"

With a buzz, the door shuddered open admitting him to the Section 9 Splinching Wing. Not everything that came through here was splinched, but it was hard enough to split conjoined souls apart that the success rate was very low. Pristine white linoleum and stainless steel stretched the corridor, reflecting the brightness of the overhead lighting almost blindingly. The cleanliness was a farce; what happened behind each steel door was less than a clean and pure process.

I wish there was a proper crew for this sort of thing, Will brooded, a small frown turning his lips down. He stopped to slide the plastic card attached to his communicator through the specific lock outside Room 68. I'm a field worker, not an undertaker.

The same twinge of squeamishness and shameful cowardice of the task squeezed his stomach like it always did. God, to think he and Eris could have come to this. They may have been put in the very same room, body splattered or burnt or twisted, and someone else (maybe Heidi) would be disposing of the remains with the same feelings.

Taking a deep breath, Will pushed open the door and the smell instantly disoriented him. If he'd been able to consume food, it would be all a-puddle at his feet.

"A burner." Will gritted out the word with his lips moving over clenched teeth. With one hand on the wall for support and the other pressed to the side of his head, the ghostly nausea lifted enough to let the tall boy make his way to the blackened body on the table. Tufts of burnt hair and wires still clung to charred skin. The machines stood dark, white and silent against the wall, ready for the next lucky pair of souls to make them whirr to life again.

The muzzle was open in a silent scream, teeth black or melted, and the eyes, now opened windows where the souls had ripped themselves away, were radiantly blue and open. Even with nothing left in them, Will always got the distinct impression the corpses were still pleading for help against the pain. He sighed again and winced as a digit broke off from the paw he briefly touched.

"Could be worse, I guess." Will muttered sullenly, and softly, the blue glow from his hands ate away at the empty animal shell until nothing but black dust floated in the air. "Sometimes I wonder if being splinched is worse than surviving."

"What sort of nonsensical arrogance is that?"

Anger, swift and quick, pulled at the tension already strung between Will's shoulders. On the outside, he appeared to calmly close his eyes. On the inside… One day, I ask, one day without her harping me!

"Nothing you would care to understand." He said harshly, brushing himself clean, reluctant to turn around and face her.

"Nah, let's make a game of it," Heidi's smirk could be heard in her voice. "If I prove you wrong, I win. Vice versa if you're right."

Will's hand hurt from clenching in on itself. Roughly brushing past her, he broke into the fresh hallway. "I'd rather not make fun of life, thanks. Just because we're dead doesn't give us the right to mock."

"That's the problem with you," she caught up and fell into the brisk step beside him. "You're still attached to it."

"We work for the living, it's a little hard to be detached."

"Correction: we work for Koenma and Spirit World, we serve the living. Or at least try to."

Will could see Heidi shaking her head in his peripheral vision, and none too humbly. "You'd at least be decent if you'd detach yourself."

"And be a cold hearted imitation of a real soul like you? Pass." He knew he'd struck a nerve with that one if the nervous tick her nose made was anything to go by.

"Screw you."

"Come off it," Will scowled at the exit. "You don't care what I think of you."

"Glad we agree on something." Walking back to the Soul Separation Unit headquarters was anything but comfortable. Still seeing red, Heidi's muttered thoughts came close to breaking Will's last grip on himself.

"I'll admit, you've got some useful tricks." The compliment, if that was what it could be called, was almost painfully given. To say that Will was surprised by it would be an understatement.

"When you're actually able to get your act together and ass in gear."

"What the HELL is your problem!" That last bit had just enough smugness and spite to it to add the last straw to the camels back. Will stopped just inside the spacious monitor room to fully rear on her.

"Problem?" Heidi looked over her shoulder, a smile barely on her lips. "I don't see a problem. Just giving you my assessment, not that you care what I think."

"You are UNBELIEVABLE." Will was about ready to tear his hair out. "One day! I wish for one day that you could see how you come off! God, it's like you were never even in the living world."

Heidi's eyes flashed briefly, her mouth spoke a tight-lipped answer. "I wasn't. Don't ever cross that line, boy."

"I'm not about to trade sob stories with you." He blew her off, turning his back and stalking across the room to resume his previous position at the computer console and start the motions for shutting everything down for the rest hours. "Twenty years on earth," Will muttered, punching keys. "At least something should have stuck."

"What did you say?" Heidi's voice was surprised and dangerously low. Her brows pinched together in mounting rage. The back of Will's hips slammed into the opposite switchboard as she spun him around by a hard grip on the shoulder. "You son of a bitch! You went through my file!"

He shook her hand off and gave the seething girl a hard look in the face. "Like you never stole mine off Koenma's desk!"

"At least I never hacked into the Spirit World mainframe! IDIOT! You know how dangerous that is!"

"Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same to me if you could have!"

Heidi loosed a frustrated growl. "I told Koenma you were nothing but a low life punk! Who the hell do you think you are just taking liberty like that?" She poked her finger in chest. "Nothing! You and that host! You and your beloved Eris; neither of you knew how easy everything came! That girl practically pissed on whatever was given to her!"

"No, you're nothing! You have no idea who Eris is! No one knows her better than I do! No one!" Will was livid, absolutely fury shaking his tensed limbs as he struggled to draw the last reserves and keep his voice normal. "I would never have chosen to stay with her if Eris had not grown into the person I knew she would. How dare you have the gall to insult either of us! We're young, but damned if we didn't try hard to live a good life! You didn't even try!"

"And how, pray tell," she spat. "Would you know, William?"

"Were you even conscious during those years? No, wait," Will made a rotating motion with his wrist. "Just being here for five minutes in your presence answers that question. You know what?" he stepped abruptly around her. "I actually pity you, Heidi. You have this fucked up view of everything and blame it on your host. That's unbelievably pathetic."

"Shut up!" Heidi screamed, voice ragged in fury. "Don't talk about what you don't know!"

"Why?" Will challenged, blue eyes electric and arms crossed over the back of the plastic chair he straddled. "Because it's easier to avoid facing what you feel you failed at? This snarky bitch mask you put on is bullshit to make everything easy for you. It's not me you're mad at, and you don't deserve to be righteously angry with me just because I had a caring host and easy split. FYI, I didn't want to be split. And it wasn't easy. I did it so she could live."

"You're wrong, newbie," she snarled, as if the name could insult him any further. "That's not it at all. You've been here for a week and a half (1), and you think you can prance around preaching at me?"

"Someone's got to! Thirty years." Will shrugged, lip curling slightly in a 'so what?' face. "That's how long you've been stuck without anyone to kick you in the ass and tell you you're wrong. I'm sitting here, talking to a spoiled brat."

She ignored the brat comment. "I am not wrong—"

"Yes, you are! You're saving grace is that it's only half your fault. Your host was a doctor at an abortion clinic, to put it sweetly. So what? Your mother aborted you? Big deal!"

"Fuck you!" he felt a sorry tug seeing the shine on her eyes. If they'd been alive, really alive, tears would be forming in those eyes.

"Now you care about life," Will lifted his head in mini triumph. "When it's you being talked about. It doesn't matter millions of others suffer each day and die without so much as an 'Are you okay?' whispered in their ear."

"That's not true! It's not my fault humans torture each other to death—"

"How many have you worked with begged Koenma for a transfer to another division? You're doing the same thing in death Heidi!"

"YOU WEREN'T THERE!" Heidi stomped her foot like an angry child. "You never heard his thoughts through all those operations!" Her fists were clenched at her sides, face twisted in hate. "He didn't want to hurt those babies, and it was me that convinced him he didn't want to! When I learned to talk, he changed. But when Jacob finally got out of the clinic…"

"He didn't see the truck." Will said flatly, face devoid of anything, carefully neutral.

Heidi shook from all the suppressed emotions. "He didn't want to see it. I was asleep when it he walked out, but his last thought woke me. Sort of a startled shock that pinned him to the spot; he went 'Oh!' all surprised, like he'd just discovered the sky was blue instead of green. He didn't bother to move."

Will nodded, biting the inside of his lip, knuckles white against the chair. He looked up as she continued.

"If life could be disregarded so easily, what was the point of it all? The world is so full of murder and abuse and hate and addictions and tragedies…it chokes you until your body is alive, but your mind is dead.

"I just never understood. I still don't. You think I'm cruel, and maybe I am, but you couldn't hear their screams." Heidi's arms were crossed, eyes almost crazy in their sockets as they stared at nothing and she chewed the nails of her left hand. "My mother destroyed me. Through my host I helped destroy others like me. What viewpoint on life am I supposed to have?"

Will did not have a chance to answer. The prince of the Spirit World came through the doors, blue robes and cloak billowing. His pace was broken with a minute half step as soon as he internally named the aura of the room. Coming to a complete stop between the two souls, wary like a referee between to blood-lusting hockey players, Koenma slid his slanted golden-brown eyes from one to the other.

He spoke hesitantly in a smooth voice, but the words did not betray his thoughts and he continued to act as if nothing was amiss between them.

"We have a problem."


Four days had gone by since the little phoenix had fallen asleep in the flames. Hiei still sported black burns from placing Genkai's seals and wards around her; a portion of the temple was also charred, curious scents of sapling trees and spicy peppers wafting from the blackened room. Hiei himself was acting strangely since binding Eris' inferno, refusing to speak about the ordeal. His bandages rarely needed changing, and always smelt not of burnt skin, but rich myrrh. It was certainly a mystery; nothing touched by her fire was as it should be.

The occupants of the temple were still stumped by what had transpired. One minute Eris had been joking, playing, and the next she was near fainting and spontaneously combusting. It had taken seemingly forever to calm Ducky and Alex down, such as it is a traumatic thing to see your best friend and family member catch fire. Their loyalty, however, was unrivaled. The room Eris resided in was constantly attended to; her favorite CD's were rotated through regularly, childhood storybooks read nightly before bedding down, Mr. Mumpy was propped up with her yellow cotton baby blanket, and they reminisced frequently in her presence.

There was no doubt she was alive, curled and burning in her corner. (For one thing, her body had yet to reduce to ashes.) They swore the silently flaming invalid had mood swings. The room would become warm sometimes, a warm that elicited a degree of coziness, twitchy annoyance, or raging ADD to the atmosphere. Sometimes at random moments and during the strangest or perhaps unique times, the slumbering phoenix peeped open an eye or two. It scared the whole of them, the pupiless dwarf-star white so different than the expressive grey-blue. But the wheels were turning in that waving, black-haired head, and that inspired excitement, a surge of anticipation. She would survive whatever this change was.

Indeed, it was most definitely a change, if nothing more than a physical one as far as they knew. Her skin wavered and moved like the flames licking her body. She was made of the fire, searing white and blue with the hottest body heat, and then orange red, and everything in-between. Her lips were black, as if someone had colored them with soot. Charcoal eyelashes lay delicate and pronounced like fine pen strokes against fiery cheeks. Eris' wings were nothing short of magnificent in their blazing blood-red grandeur, tucked close to her body in a soft and powerful cocoon.

Kurama sat now, in that room, quietly wondering about the girl in the corner. Her white eyes were open, staring at the usual nothingness. In a few minutes or hours, (it was never known how long Eris would play the waking game), she would calmly close those hot eyes as if she'd never opened them. He wished she would snap out of this trance, or phase, or whatever this was. Kurama missed her terribly; the days never seemed full of the bright colors she possessed in her fireful reverie without the constant banter, spurts of irritability, or stubborn arrogance. That, of course, was the first Eris he had come to know. Sixteen years old and five-foot-two wandering the halls and falling on floors after bumping into longhaired demon boys. She floated on well-projected self-confidence, but was secretly unsure about her actions and the right thing to do. Like Yusuke, Eris talked now and thought later. There was so much he found fascinating about her; the levels and layers and unexpected reactions and opinions and ideas and ideals and smiles and tears and laughter and yelling and punching and screaming…

How foolish he'd been. So unlike Kurama to take anything at face value, and yet he had. Was it still because he still thought of her as a human? Stupid, that! Humans were even more trouble than demons; Eris was no exception whatever form forced itself upon her. Eris was, and would always be, Eris.

Kurama sighed in the revelation, content and at peace somehow. "And me? What am I?" his voice was soft, barely above a whisper and quite mystic with his thoughts focused elsewhere and not on forming the words. Eris sat still and silent as ever, a slow, glowing blink like a light gone out and then rekindled was the Kitsune thief's only answer. His face broke into a euphoric smile; he wasn't sure why he felt so happy all the sudden, but a sigh of relieved and breathless laughter flowed past his lips.

"I am me. The same as you. A thief, a bandit king, a spirit, a fox, a kitsune, a demon, a human, a man, a teenager, a friend, a brother, and a son. I am all that, but none of it at all. I am, purely, Kurama."

From the spot where he stood, half blocking the sun washing through the east window, Kurama felt a thrumming warmth that was neither born from Eris (though she may have inspired it) nor the sun resting on his back.

It's beautiful, this feeling…like rain on puddles when the sky is purple and depths-of-the-ocean blue…but silly enough, I know that's not right. It's changed. Kurama closed his eyes in bliss, reveling in the waves of this oddity, an amused furrow between his red eyebrows and a delighted smirk playing his mouth. Mm, millions of minute grains of sand falling on the once glassy pond surface: beautiful, peaceful, and gracefully destructive…like so many things I can't describe, or even hope to name. Am I dreaming this? Will I wake up to my mother's voice calling the human in me to breakfast, or maybe Hiei knocking on my window like a door?

"Hey," a voice woke him from the dream with a jolt. Ivory eyelids lifted over opaline-jade eyes. "You alright?"

Kurama turned his head slightly, still smiling. "I must be going crazy." He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, flushing slightly at being caught at such an inopportune moment.

Ducky, lifting a blonde eyebrow at the fox smirked a little and shook his head. "Then it's a good thing I came to check on you." He patted Kurama's arm and prodded him encouragingly to the door. "Go on, take a break. This is supposed to be my shift anyway." Ducky waved a book in the shorter teen's face; the corners were battered and rounded into stubs, and the sheen on the cover was long gone.

With one last look to Eris, eyes now closed, Kurama nodded and went off to tidy his own room. He'd be returning to school soon, and would have to do some heavy cover up with a few administrators as to why he had not been seen on the holiday.

Ducky watched him leave, snorting to himself. Life could not get any weirder. The beanpole of a human sat under the window, crossing his long legs, and opened the book on his lap. I'm reading to a demon vegetable, complete with her personal grill, who's supposed to be my best friend. Nope! Definitely could not get any weirder.

With a sigh, Ducky flipped to the first page and began to read aloud. "In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf…" He must have read the story a thousand times before in his own childhood alone, but the repetition struck a fond note of nostalgia. The boy didn't mind; soon he'd be able to recite it line for line, but the trio had always loved the bright colors and chunky art style. Not to mention the pop ups and multiple paneled pages there were to flip.

Halfway through the book, the window no longer provided enough light. Using his finger as a bookmark, Ducky reached up to use the sill to help him to his feet, both knees cracking. He turned his nose up at the noise, absently thinking he'd steal Alex's calcium pills. Osteoporosis or something might sneak up on him if he weren't careful!

"What's that you're reading?"

His stretching startled into a jumping halt, Ducky blinked and spun around a few times before spotting the other fire demon sitting on the very sill he had been reading under.

"TheVery Hungry Caterpillar…?" he answered uncertainly. Geezus, how long has he been there?

Not concerned by the edgy teen in the least ( which was a considerable turnabout that was both irritating and curious to Ducky since the sealing). Hiei sniffed not so disdainfully as he would have liked. A breeze pushed his overhanging bangs to tickle closed lids; the demon looked most relaxed. "Continue."

Ducky made sure he was well on the other side of the room; this was starting to vastly creep him out. With no other option, he sat, and with the book propped upright on his knees (peering over the edge of the book now and again), he began to finish the children's reader.

"Nice story." Hiei complemented (sort of) in a deadpan tone.

"It's better when you can look at the picture and play with the pages." Ducky shrugged, and blushed for some reason when the koorime slid a red gaze his way.

"Really." The single word sentence said a lot, but Ducky felt awkward, not having the means to decode it. Instead he averted his own eyes to Eris who was "awake."

She would be laughing at me right now, he thought, absently toying with the warped cardboard book in his hands and completely at a loss for words. Hiei would be gone when he looked up, he was sure. The short demon was as mysterious in his coming and goings as Eris was in her current entirety. And Hiei talked. Sometimes.

So when Ducky heard "Why do you and the loud girl keep reading that same book over and over again?" he was more than a little surprised and taken aback. The two of them hadn't swapped two words, let alone engaged in a conversation, since their brief exchange those four days ago. Of course, he'd learned enough by the others that when Hiei wanted to talk, you talked back or be damned to his silence.

"Because Eris loves this book," Ducky found himself saying. "It always brings things back from when we were kids."

"So it draws up memories?"

Ducky shrugged again with a light affirmative nod. "Yeah, sometimes."

He assumed their "talk" was over, judging by the unruffled silence, and fully intended to turn from the uncomfortable scrutiny and escape to the kitchen for Yukina's rice balls. Hiei surprised him a second time.

"Why are you trying so hard to make her what she is not anymore?"

"What?" Ducky had no idea what Hiei was saying. Why? Why wouldn't he? The question's implications were not settling well. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Hiei draped his legs inside the room, hands and arms supporting his weight as he sat forward. Ducky thought he looked ready to pounce. "The Eris here is not the Eris you know from memories."

"Soo…you're wondering why we're molding her to be the 'memory' Eris?"

Hiei smirked, genuinely impressed. "You're not as much of as air head as you let on."

"Thanks. I guess." Ducky frowned, now increasingly uneasy. The room actually seemed smaller; claustrophobia had never been a problem, but faced with Hiei like this made him really want to get away as fast as possible. "Look, I don't know what you want to hear from me, but Eris is the same. What makes you think she isn't?"

"Common sense." Hiei wasn't backing off. "The girl died, don't flinch, and resurrected herself. Simple reincarnation. A reincarnation is never exactly as the previous life was."

Ducky's fists found purchase on either hip. He was not happy, and maybe it was his response to being cornered like an animal. "Who made you Mr. All-Knowing on phoenixes? And who says Eris didn't carry her former self over?"

"Who says she did?" Hiei countered.

"Do you have to be so goddamn pessimistic?" Ducky snapped, abruptly standing. "I believe Eris will come back!"

"Then you're really a fool I gave too much credit to."

He threw the book down. With a dull slap on the floor, it slid a few inches. "How would you like it if any of this had happened to your sister? What would you believe then, huh tough guy?"

The demon's demeanor instantly changed with a sharp twist. "I'd love nothing more." This wasn't true, not anymore, but it had the desired effect on the teen. It was fun to put Ducky on edge for once; Hiei wondered how far he could be pushed.

"You asshole!" Ducky was indescribably angry, going so far as to rush the koorime like a bouncer. He didn't get very far. His hands were met with a wall, or what felt like one anyway.

The teen stood, bare feet slipping from where he planted them on the floor, and both wrists caught in unbreakable grasps. He stood seething with hitched breath, and glaring for all he was worth into Hiei's eyes.

"It's like she's dead, but I can still see her! I know she's there! I know she can hear me! I want her back! I WANT MY FRIEND BACK!" Ducky's cries cracked in his throat. "I can't even touch her! Why would you wish something like that not only on Yukina, but yourself? Why?"

"Keep in mind," Hiei grunted, twisting Ducky's arm slightly (if the demon had known he'd be an outlet for suppressed rage he would have shoved the kid in Kuwabara's direction!). "I could snap your little arm easier than ripping wet paper."

Ducky tried wrenching away, only successful in earning a shooting pain to the shoulder. "Calling me little," he ground out in an angry scoff. "I'm bigger than your leg!"

"Which doesn't say much for you!"

The heavier teen fell to his knees, still in the clutches of the demon, and at first, Hiei thought he was sobbing. A snort and escaped laugh proved that wrong. He rolled his eyes and let go.

"You know you just insulted yourself too, right?" Ducky snickered loudly, hands fisted on his knees, head down and still shaking.

Grumbling, Hiei hopped from the window and hauled Ducky like a laughing rag doll to his feet. "What are you? Bipolar?"

Ducky shook his head, biting his lip in a white grin. "No, just a slave to my perverted mind."

Hiei took in the blotchy cheeks and stray drops of tears "Unbelievable."

"Shut up," Ducky tried rubbing the smile away. "I'm still pissed at you."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am. That was a horrible thing to say." He wiped his face and stooped to recover the discarded book. "I'm right. You'll see."

"Keep your hope then, human." Hiei reclined in the window again, arms locked behind his head.

Ducky let out another stray laugh, stopping inside the doorway. "Same time tomorrow then?" No response. That was a yes. "It's Harold and the Purple Crayon tomorrow."

"Hn."

In more disarray than he had been when entering, Ducky yawned a "'Night," and left, exhausted. Hiei on the other hand, noticed a lingering laughter-like feeling in the air. He peeped open an eye.

"And what are you laughing at, runt?"


AN: YAY! One more chapter down! And might I say this is my favorite so far? All the love/hate was fun. Muse really helped me out on this one. I wuv my Muse, awww! Even though he can be a right bastard. A lot. Much love to Neko Tsuin too, who knows what I'm talking about. She is teh roxorz!1!one

Footnotes:

(1)"You've been here for a week and a half, and you think you can prance around preaching at me?" – My concept of time was blown to bits and I have no idea what day they should be on. Eheh…guessing works. I'll bust out the Creative License on this.

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