As usual, I don't own the story or characters in YYH

Also, I promise I will not make this a bunch of chapters about people getting kidnapped by kurama. This was just the second loudest story in my mind. It'll be something different next time.

"What is wrong with you?" the silver haired kitsune asked, his ears twitching in irritation.

What indeed. Well for one thing, I'm terrified. I'm sure that's not a surprise to Youko Kurama. Lots of people are probably terrified of him, especially the people he kidnaps and holds for ransom. I'm sure what he's commenting on is not the fact that I'm scared, it's just my reaction to it.

I'm frequently terrified. Of everything. I assume this is due to the fact that my job, as assistant manager to a weapons manufacturer, is quite stressful. First of all, there's weapons. Lots of sharp, pointy, serrated, things lying around. Some are attached to chains, some contain stored youki, some have minds of their own. I am constantly surrounded by things that could kill me, and my job is to actively engage with them, and maintain them. Secondly, I have to deal with people who, when displeased, were quite fond of picking up said weapons and using them to kill any employees we had to express their displeasure. Not only was the act itself terrifying, it was extremely stressful to have to clean up the bodies and reorganize the weapons afterword. Our business may be a little sketchy, but if I had any say in it, it would be clean and organized. I'm not sure my boss could run his little business without me.

You might say I've got a Type A personality.

You might also say that Type A personalities generally don't do well when confronted with demonic higher-ups and shady underworld clients. And you would be very correct.

So naturally, given that my personality is a liability in my job, I've developed coping mechanisms when I'm under stress, most notably, doodling. I kept a little notebook and pen on my person at all times, so if I feel anxious, I doodle. It's nice. It's a situation I can control. I can make it as neat or chaotic as I want to. Unfortunately, when this spirit fox and his merry band of thieves came crashing in, messing up my inventory, cluttering the place up, and eventually kidnapping me, I dropped the notepad. I suppose that's what I get for picking a pencil skirt with tiny pockets to wear to work. Anyway, now I have nothing on my person to deal with this… well… traumatic situation. We've been sitting in a cave for three hours, and it was explained to me in no uncertain terms, by the merry band of thieves, that I was to do what I was told or they'd kill me. They also pointed out that they were going to ransom me, and if my boss didn't comply, they'd kill me and send my head back to him. It may have been sarcastic. I don't know, I've stopped trying to logically analyze these people. My boss is a shrewd man. I wasn't sure he'd actually pay up. Hell, he could probably find another demon hanging around with my organizational skills who wasn't so stressed out all the time.

And now here we were, the Youko standing up on a rock across from me, arms crossed, staring me down while I tapped my fingers continuously on my thighs in an effort to contain my emotions. And he was asking me what was wrong. I didn't know what to say. It was a very long list at this point.

"I've sent one of my men out to talk to your boss about what he's going to pay to get you back," he said. I suppose it's logical that he would assume I was upset about being kidnapped. I was; but then I was also very concerned about the state of our shop. It was in such disarray when we left. I snuck a glance at the thief. He was eyeing me curiously, smiling. Wonderful. I couldn't tell if this was meant to encourage me or not. I continued tapping my fingers. He hopped off the rock and landed in front of me, studying me more closely. I tapped my fingers more rapidly. They were cramping with effort.

"You seem unusually stressed about this," he said, noting my fingers, "we haven't decided to kill you."

Was there anyone who was less stressed about being kidnapped? "Unless my boss doesn't pay you, and really, he may not," I said.

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Well, I don't think I'm really all that important. I'm sure he could find someone else for the job. He's very miserly. I wouldn't be surprised if he hired someone else and paid them less than me."

"Hmm. Well, we were hoping to have him pay us in weapons, not money." He said. His voice implied a question. I figured he was likely probing to see if my boss would pay that way. I didn't know, so I didn't say anything. My fingers got tired, so I tucked them under my palm and switched to tapping my whole hand up and down on my leg. This seemed to surprise Kurama. He pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows.

"Still, with him, who knows?" I said, tapping away.

"Interesting. Well, we may be able to work something else out," he said.

At this point, I was no longer making eye contact. I couldn't. Another quirk of mine. I can't look people too long in the eyes. Instead, I focused on the pattern of taps I was making with my hands. I'd probably kill for my notepad right now. Probably. Or I'd get very angry and persistent about getting it back.

The attention in the room suddenly turned to the entrance of the cave. A man, who couldn't have been more than four feet tall, covered in scales, came leaping in. He landed just a few feet from us. He looked at me and flashed me a grin full of sharp, jagged teeth. I cringed and scooted away from him. I was immediately reminded of a possessed hacksaw we kept in aisle six. We had to chain that thing down. When we first got it, we left it unattended, and the second day on the shelf it randomly flew up and cut the arm off of the stock boy. Then it went for his head. It missed, but it took us three hours to subdue it.

We did manage to sew that boy's arm back on, thank goodness. He'd hardly be useful for stocking aisles if he only had one arm.

The man turned his grin to the youko. "Our weapons dealer, it seems, has locked himself in a safe room two miles away from the shop. I could not reach him to make a deal." He smiled at me again, and I looked straight at the floor. I imagined it becoming quicksand and sinking into it, away from these people. I could feel the youko's eyes on me, still, I didn't dare look up.

"Well then, the weapons are unattended, perhaps then we go claim them," Kurama said. That was met by a cheer from the merry band of thieves. "And you,"

I assumed he meant me, but I still fought the urge to point at myself and ask if he did in fact mean me.

"You will come with us, there is something I am looking for and you will help me find it."

Great. I'll probably get fired for this.

Scales man walked over to me and grabbed my arm, hoisting me into the air. He then threw me over his shoulder, and everyone in the cave seemed to take off at once. It was alarming, being attached to the shoulder of someone so short. Every time he landed a jump I thought my face was going to hit the ground because I was so close to it.

When we arrived at the shop, he tossed me off his shoulder. I was disoriented, and ended up stumbling and falling flat on my face. He pulled me up to my feet, and pushed me towards Kurama, who caught me by the shoulders. I watched him take off into the shop. I say I watched him, because I still couldn't make eye contact with the demon fox. It felt like he was looking into my soul. I also couldn't bring myself to turn away from the destruction.

I spend hours doing inventory, keeping the place organized. Just yesterday, before this kidnapping business, I'd organized the spear rack, the axes, the swords, reorganized the knives. I arranged them by blade length. It looked better that way.

Kurama spun me around, so he was walking behind me with his hands on my shoulders, and pushed me into the chaos. Scales man was picking up the knives, investigating them, and then putting them back in the wrong places. Another guy picked up one axe to steal, and knocked over all the other ones. One guy was literally sitting on a pile of the swords I'd so diligently hung on the walls yesterday. I found myself whimpering at the sight. I also secretly hoped someone unchained the hacksaw and got decapitated.

I noticed then that Kurama had let go of my shoulders, and walked around in front of me. He had his hands on his hips, and seemed to be watching my face. Then he looked into the chaos. Then back at me and smiled. It was not a pleasant smile, in fact, I was very concerned. He looked around the room, tapping one of his fingers on his hips. His eyes lit up like he found what he was looking for, and I watched him as he walked purposefully towards the spears. They were all upright on a rack. He made sure he caught my eyes before he grabbed the furthest spear on the right, and with a flicker of youkai toppled all of them like dominoes.

I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. He laughed. Then he kept laughing, like unnecessarily hard, doubling over and slapping his knees. I picked an arrow off the archery shelf and hurled it at him like a javelin. He dodged, I assume, I didn't see him move before he appeared right in front of me.

I thought he might kill me on the spot, or perhaps whip out one of his plants, he's famous for that. Instead, he went back to grabbing my shoulders, spun me around and started walking me towards the back. We were clearly headed towards are special weapons. I glanced down aisle six and saw the hacksaw was still chained to the shelf. Damn.

He stopped in front of the special collections door. It had a nice, neat sign in the middle of the door. Kurama leaned down, right by my ear, and whispered "open the door please."

I grabbed the handle, turned it, and pushed the door open. There was a noticeable pause in his demeanor.

"It's not locked?" he said.

I sighed. I kept telling my boss we should invest in locks for the special collection. But he deemed them too expensive. "No. My boss didn't want to spend the money. Besides, most people make the assumption that it's locked, or that it's guarded somehow, so there's never really been a need to actually lock it. People just stay away from it."

I expected a chuckle, or at least a smile, but instead he walked around me and cautiously eyed the door. Apparently even the King of Thieves can be paranoid. After thoroughly investigating the door, and correctly deciding it was actually unguarded, he tugged me in the room.

"The weapon I'm looking for contains youkai from a fire demon," he said, looking at me expectedly, "you are going to tell me where it is."

I knew what he was talking about. It was a tiny little dagger. It spouted flames when you cut things with it. For all intents and purposes, it was useless. It did look very nice though. The iron was a nice, burnished red. The handle had some gems in it. Kurama was eyeing dangerously. It was the look you give someone before torturing them, and enjoying the process. At least, that's how I felt about it. I didn't make him wait for the location. "That little thing? It's in the corner, over there," I said, pointing on the back shelf. "What do you want it for anyway? It's not very useful."

He walked over to it, plucked it off the shelf and smiled. He turned it over in his hands, studied it. He slashed it through the air. Predictably, it spouted some flames. Also predictably, some of the other weapons responded to it. "It has its own uses. Besides, it looks nice, and it is a weapon of legends."

He was referring to some quaint story about the alleged fire demon who put his spirit into the sword. He was like a genie, you could call him out of the sword. But it was just a story. I sighed again. "If you say so." There was a crash behind me, plus screaming. Someone had unhinged the hacksaw, I could tell by the sound. It went whizzing by the door, and thankfully didn't come into the room we were standing in. Kurama strolled over to the doorframe and pulled a seed out from his hair. He flicked it at the hacksaw on its second pass, and tiny roots exploded from it. Eventually, they reanchored it to the ground.

I looked around the store. It was a disaster. I had the urge to start cleaning immediately, followed by the twitching beginning in my hand that told me to start scribbling a picture. "I am so getting fired for this," I mumbled.

The fox demon turned around. He smiled again. I felt terrified all over again. He pulled another seed out from his hair, this time, he flicked it at me. Vines burst forth and grew towards the floor, cracking the concrete and rooting into the earth. They tightened around me and caused me to collapse on my knees. I glared at Kurama.

"Seriously? I gave you the stupid dagger."

"No," he said, "You watched me take it, stuck inside a mass of vines."

Oh. I get it. He's covering for me. Before I could ask why, he disappeared out of sight, and all I could do was listen as they all left.

I sat alone for three hours before my boss showed up and freed me.