I'M NOT DEAD! –Looks around-

Not yet anyways. So here's an update that's been sitting around on my computer for the past oh- 6 months. So here you are. Because I love you…

Disclaimer: I somewhat own Lakota, Ginny wishes she owned herself and Catrin and Loretta are owned by the vampyres in their closets. Kinda makes me wish I had some of those….

STORY!
Back to where we left off, Mac and Jeff.

"You know, Mac…I'm starting to think we're going in circles…"

"What makes you think that?" Mac asked while trying to wrestle a quarter away from Bloo.

"Well…I've seen that tree four times." Jeff said scratching the back of his head. Mac looked up at him then to the tree.

"Yeah…now that I think about it, it does look kinda familiar…" Bloo grabbed the quarter back from Mac and bounced over and disappeared behind the tree. Two high-pitched squeals followed.

"AHA! FOUND YOU!" The red head jumped out and tackled Jeff to the ground.

"Huh? Wha…I thought I was…"

"Kaoru wait! Didn't we just agree like five minutes ago that we were the stalkees not the stalkers?" The brunette asked chewing her gum and fixing her hair.

"Yeah well, I changed my mind. I mean they walked by like four times so…I thought maybe we got confused with the whole who's-who in the stalker game."

"It's called hide-and-go-seek." Mac stated helpfully. The red head nodded.

"RIGHT! So now that I'm a seeker not a hider, LETS GO FIND OTHERS!" She proclaimed enthusiastically. Jeff nodded his agreement.

"But you know that would be sooo much easier if we a) had a map and b) knew how to get out of this circle." The four –well five including Bloo who was really not helping since he was busy being enthralled by the shiny-ness of a quarter- stood pondering how to get out of the situation.

"oO! I GOT IT!" The red head shouted.

"What?" The three looked at her expectantly.

"Well…what way were you turning when you got to the end of that hallway?" They looked at her confused.

"Uh Kaoru I don't think that's going to help much…"

"Sure it will Kate…see if they turned right, then we simply turn left! Voila! The route d'escapee!" Jeff, Kate and Mac stared blankly before the information sunk in.

"Heeeeyyyy, I think that might actually work." Jeff smiled and adjusted his shinobe headband.

"Well then lets get on with it! I wanna find the kitchen I'm starving!" Mac declared marching off towards the end of the hall.

"Hey! Wait up!" And thus, the four – five- reunited friends continued on their journey.

Back with everyone's favorite red head!…and spiky.

"So, let me get this straight… you're a demon…you've lived alone pretty much your entire life until recently and you've never had an imaginary friend?" Catrin frowned at Hiei trying to understand.

"Hn."

"Oh come on! That does not count as an answer!" Catrin prodded. Hiei ignored her.

"How can you not have a friggen imaginary friend? I mean honestly! You can't say you've never been lonely and wished for company!"

"…"

"What?"

"How do you get one of these 'friends' anyways?" Hiei asked hoping it would shut her up.

"oO well…first you get lonely. Then you wish for a friend and someone to talk to. Then you start talking to yourself. After sometime, a voice starts answering you and talking back to you. Then you name the voice and…Voila! Imaginary friend!"

"…"

"Yes I have one."

"…"

"No you can't rip them apart in a psychotic rage I'm sure only you and Lakota are capable of."

"…"

"Whatever."

"Who are you talking to?"

Youko and Loretta…who is surprisingly not dead yet.

"So…can I have an official affair with your ears while still being married to Clouds pants?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pwetty pwease?"

"NO!" Youko yelled covering his ears protectively. Thank Inari she didn't care about his tail.

"Awww, you suck!" Loretta pouted and crossed her arms looking at the floor. Youko shrugged. He really didn't care what she thought of him so long as his ears were safe. After about two minutes of silence he realized that it wasn't really silent. The blond teenager beside him was mumbling incoherently to herself while elaborating with slight hand movements.

"What are you mumbling about?" He asked hoping she wasn't secretly plotting an attack on him or his…appendages. Flattening his ears to his head he hoped they were camouflaged enough for her to not notice and possible forget they were even there.

"Stupid Sephiroth stealing my cloud and his pants…. stupid Lakota for tricking me into giving up the pants…stupid fox and his sucky-ness…STUPID FROGGY McFROGGINGTON THE SLY! YOU STARTED THIS YOU KNOW THAT! YOU! ARE THE CAUSE OF ALL MY PROBLEMS!" Youko looked like a dear in headlights for a minute after she stopped screaming.

"Uh…" He was seriously staring to doubt the sanity of Keiko's friends. He loved the girl dearly but this was putting him into a state of doubt. 'Maybe I should make her therapist appointments…'

"Loretta dear, that would be called the bane of your existence, not the cause of your problems. That's what you blame your parents for!" Youko looked around searching for the source of the new voice.

"Over here!" A tall black haired boy swung down from the rafters. He was tall, almost as tall as Youko, and had deep brown eyes that were at the moment twinkling with amusement and looking him over.

"Hello. I'm Riley, I live with Loretta." He held out his hand and after deciding the new boy didn't have any strange ear or tail obsessions he shook his hand.

"Youko Kurama. I'm a friend of Keiko's." Riley lit up.

"Really? Awesome! So you knew her before when she was all goody two shoes like?" Youko looked at him.

"She isn't anymore?" Oh God. He really needed to get in touch with that therapist.

"Nope! She helped us blow up the football field last year! It was awesome man I'm telling you!" Youko nodded weakly. Well, so much for having deep heart to heart study sessions while taking a break from the Reikai Tantei.

And finally, Keiko and our beloved half demon…

"A rabbit!"

"Grey Hare actually, but it's still a type of rabbit." Keiko shrugged offhand like it was no big deal.

"And the cook is a lama, duchess is a cat…type…thing…I don't know what she is but she like shiny things and sunlight!" Yusuke stared at his best friend. 'Man, am I ever going to have to convince Kurama to get me that therapists name.'

"Say Yusuke…"He shook himself out of this thoughts.

"Yeah."

"Do you…" She took a deep breath. "Do you have an imaginary friend?"

Blank stare.

"…"

"Yusuke."

"Maybe."

"That's not helping me."

"Why do you need to know?"

"Because!"

"Why do you need to know if I talk to myself or not!"

"Yusuke! Answer the damn question!"

Elsewhere….where we're not quite sure yet….

"So, we take a left at the pond, a right at the giant tree the we can't distinguish from any other tree in the forest, go straight for three days spin around twelve times, jump twice, click our heels together and yell Open Sesame, and we'll magically end up back where we started?"

"Uh huh, that's what the creepy guy with scales and the orange colored eyes said."

"Well, doesn't sound too, too hard does it?"

"No, not really."

"So shall we give it a try?"

"Sure! What have we got to lose? Other than our sanity?" With that, the two teens dressed in arctic camouflage pants, tops and hats, with black boots and ice blue paint stripes on their faces headed out on their new journey. The dog tags jangled merrily, the silence only broken by loud off tune singing and the sloshing of liquid in bottles. Needless to say, it wasn't very quiet. These two boys are known as John and Jesse to their friends and 'the two morons in the back' by their teachers.

John was tall with blonde hair and green eyes, while his companion was slightly shorter, with brown hair and brown eyes. Both were strong, lean and tanned, and possible the dumbest people you will ever meet. However, for once the boys were on the right track, instead of being lost and disoriented in the middle of Makai, they stopped and asked for directions from a shady looking scaled person. So now, they were only disoriented losers, with a small sense of direction in the middle of Makai. Neither of them was smart enough to turn on their walkie-talkies and radio Mac, who had the other one, or Kaoru, who had the last one.