(A/N: Hi all, sorry I haven't updated in so long: combo of writer's block and starting up a new relationship. At any rate, here's the next chappie! Enjoy!)
Upon parting ways with Kamiyama-sensei, Yoru stormed over to her VAIO and immediately logged onto IMVU to offload her stressful day on an anonymous pixilated ear.
After checking her messages, a pop up appeared, letting her know that someone wanted to chat with her and, she instantaneously double clicked on the invitation, ready to vent.
While waiting for her avvie, Bokusatsu, to load on screen, she absentmindedly drummed her fingers until her speakers made the all too familiar pong-ing noise indicative of an IM that seemed to startle Yoru no matter how often she'd heard it before.
"Hey. How goes it?" the stranger asked her.
Yoru peered to the male avatar on the monitor. It was dressed in Shinobi garb, Cloud Strife hair and a naginata and it's screen name was LinKuei.
"Bad." she typed in quickly, feeling rather foolish as she re-thought her plan, making her avatar shake it's head, "Never mind. You'd think its stupid."
"Howdyu know that?" LinKuei asked, shrugging his shoulders on screen, "I mean, you haven't even told what happened yet."
"…alright. But I'll only tell you if you swear not to laugh, or breath a word of this to anyone." Yoru typed quickly, feeling apprehension twist her insides.
"Who would I tell?" LinKuei asked, the avatar shrugging it's shoulders, "I don't know you. Why would I do something like that?"
"Good point." Yoru typed, making her avatar nod in agreement, "Alright then, as long as you promise, I went on an omiai today, and I went in expecting it to be horrible and awkward."
"And it wasn't?" LinKuei asked, "That's why your day was bad? Because it wasn't tense and unpleasant? That's a bit strange don't you think?"
"No, no, no!" she typed, wanting to remove her fingers from the keys long enough to yank at her hair, "My omiai not only lied and said he forgot my name, but he was my teacher!"
"Now the teacher thing I can understand being weird, especially if he's an old fogey." LinKuei nodded, "But howdyu know this guy lied to you? Maybe he just forgpt out of nerves."
"…well he says he couldn't remember his omiai's name." Yoru typed, feeling an embarrassed heat fill her cheeks, "…I couldn't remember my omiai's surname…but I remember his first name at least."
"And that proves he was lying how?" LinKuei asked, "Maybe the guy honestly forgot."
"I don't know." Yoru typed, feeling more and more embarrassed with each keystroke, "I guess...he could have been telling the truth."
"You really aren't the trusting type, are you?" LinKuei stated, the avatar laughing lightly on the monitor, "Was admitting you were wrong so painful?"
"Well, yeah." Yoru sulkily made her avvie reply, "As if you don't have a shred of pride in your body."
"Of course I do." LinKuei replied evenly, "But I try my best to not jump to conclusions like that. I mean really, Evil Knievel couldn't have made that leap."
"I DIDN'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS!" Yoru typed quickly, feeling more embarrassed and frustrated with each passing second.
"Then why did you assume this guy lied then?" LinKuei asked, not allowing her anger of being found in the wrong to draw him into a pointless argument, "What are you so afraid of? That you might actually enjoy his company? That you migh actually start to like him or something?"
Yoru logged out so fast she nearly snapped the key board in half.
"Jin, stop hitting Kuwabara." Keiko begged as the little boy chased the now sobbing Kuwabara around the room, whalloping him over the head with a pillow.
Shizuru, while not the most proactive usually, to the initiative in this instance…by grabbing Jin by the ear, pulling him to the ground and pinning him there with her foot as Kuwabara continued to bawl into the left leg of her new Tsubi jeans.
"Shishi took my banky!" Suzuki wailed mournfully, performing his best impersonation of a boneless baby as he flopped backwards on the floor, "UWAAAAUUGH!"
"Children." Hiei muttered irritably, watching the whole situation from the safety of the stairway as Kuwabara and Suzuki suddenly returned to normal, "Glad I wasn't one for very long."
Kurama's keen hearing picking up on the koorime's statement, and being in a rather foul mood from Hiei's staunch refusal to help when Yusuke and Chuu had turned (his hair would never be the same), Kurama decided enough was enough.
He stormed to the closet where the Idunn Box had been temporarily stored (he had planned on giving it to Ayame so it could be stored in Enma Daioh's Treasure vault) and strode over the expedient youkai with his green eyes glittering with ill intent.
Summoning up vines to hold the koorime in place, he quickly opened and shut the box, making sure Hiei got a good lungful of the potent smoke that poured out.
"You may not have been a child before…but you certainly are now." Touya remarked as Shishiwakamaru and Jin returned to normal.
"Gentleman, and ladies, may I introduce you all to Hiei-chan." Kurama said coolly, lifting up the toddler with the tiniest of smirks dancing on his lips.
That smirk however was quickly wiped off his face as Hiei kicked him square in the jaw…with all the force of his former adult self.
"DA!" he crowed, burbling happily as the kitsune hissed in pain and came millimeters away from dropping him.
"Well, well, woodja looky 'ere!" Chuu said with a grin, extracting the chibified Hiei from the agonized Kurama, "Lil' buggah's preedeh cute when 'e was lil'."
"Bwee!" Hiei babbled gleefully, wiggling in Chuu's hands as the youkai took a seat on the stairs, situated Hiei on his knee and bounced him, which made the little youkai squeal in delight.
"How's your face, Kurama?" Shizuru asked calmly, not caring if his family allowed smoking in their home or not and lighting up right there.
"Do you really need to ask?" Yusuke said blandly as Keiko hurried into the kitchen to make an ice pack, "Hiei maybe a bit smaller than usually, but he's hasn't gotten any weaker because of it."
"Next time I see Ayame, the Idunn Box is going to Enma's vault." Kurama scowled, wiping blood from his lip, "In the meantime, Suzuki, work on someway to…sort everyone out please."
"Of course." Suzuki nodded, dusting himself off and wiping a few stray tears off his face, "I'll get right on it."
"What was that all about?" Yoru mumbled, no where near awake. After her online chat, she had been unable to sleep and had stay up the entire night, mulling over the converastion with growing irritation and so much focus that she failed to notice that she was running into people.
"I don't know what that guy was on." she scowled, narrowly avoiding a lightpole, "I'm not sc-"
-WHMP-
-FWSSHHHH-
"OHMIGODI'MSOSORRY!" Yoru cried, seeing nothing but a flurry of scattered papers and hurrying to help gather them, "I wasn't paying attention."
"Don't worry about it." came the familiar voice, startling her out of her panicked frenzy.
"K…Kamiyama-sensei." She mumbled dazedly, feeling unwanted heat flood her face as it finally registered in her mind how close she was to him.
"Are you alright, Yaminade-san?" he asked, waving a hand in front of her face startling her into dropping the papers she had managed to gather.
"Of course I am!" she muttered irascibly out of a mixture of sleep depravation and irritation that her attempts to will the unwanted flush away were met with little success, "Why wouldn't I be."
As Yoru stomped angrily away, Kamiyama Kouta tossed around the idea of letting her know that a block of PostIt notes were adhered to her posterior…but thought better of it.
He really was tired from staying up last night, pondering his online chat with one Bokusatsu, who, oddly enough, had had a unpleasant omiai experience that afternoon as well (the boy's a might slow, ne?)
Kouta found to his surprise, that despite the unpleasantries exchanged later into the afternoon, he had had a rather enjoyable time, and despite it all, found himself thinking about that evening how it might of turned out if the whole omiai business had gone the way of a candy wrapper caught in an updraft.
Maybe they would've gone to get dinner, perhaps talk about themselves…but the fact that he caught himself thinking that way about a student, worried him greatly.
Shaking his head to clear it, he gathered the rest of the scattered papers and hurried on his way.
"Where did he get to now?" Yusuke cried, gasping for breath as he ran about the house, searching for Hiei, who appeared to be thoroughly enjoying his new found chibification immensely.
"I thought I saw him go into the basement." Kuwabara wheezed, pinching a bloody nose shut from where Hiei had chosen to smack him across the face.
"Good. We'll corner him." Kurama said, shooting a piercing glare at the back of Chuu's head; he's refusing to help on the grounds of child endangerment.
"Too bad th' wee lass 'ad t' go shoppin' eh?" Jin said cheerfully, ignoring the bite throbbing on his ankle from when he had tried to grab the fleeing Hiei moments before.
"Yes, and too bad the fool's sister decided to go with her." Shishiwakamaru said blandly, eyeing Kuwabara with disdain and moving a step to the right as Suzuki took a half hearted swing at his head.
Going ahead with out them, Yusuke cautiously made his way down the basement stairs…and let loose a wild laugh that startled everyone else into flying down the stairs.
What they saw took their minds a few moments to register – Hiei, back to normal and nude, sitting atop his clothing with a trashcan on his head…a trashcan that, by all appearances, seem perfectly content where it was and had no intention of coming off no matter how Hiei wrenched at it.
Finally, tho, in a moment of brilliance it seemed, Hiei caused fire to flare up around his palms and melt the plastic waste bin...into his hair.
Everyone was laughing to hard to help him as the plastic hardened, freezing his hands in place against his skull.
(A/N: The mayhem continues! What will happen next? Well you'lll have to R&R to find out )