Kurama looked back up at the sky.

"Your reaction after witnessing that is understandable. And there is nothing wrong with wanting to grow stronger either. But it is possible to over do it." He took a brief pause for the words to properly reach me. "Yusuke is correct; you have improved tremendously during these few past days. But sometimes taking things one step at the time and give oneself enough time is a more effective way."

I knew he was right. I knew, but if I did as he said, the pictures would come back. They still lingered at the back of my eyelids, however, as long as I had a manner of occupying every thought, they would not catch up except for in the dark hours of night.

"And though I am gravely impressed with your rapid improved, you are still only able to transform fifty percent of your tries and you still wince if Kuwabara points a sword at you."

I bit my lip.

"We will all try our best to help you and support you. We will be here for you. And I am positive Hiei too will offer you his assistance if need be, but the final decision you have to make on your own."

Kurama stopped. A smile spread on his face and in the blink of an eye it would seem like the earlier conversation had never taken place.

"Good night Fai, good work today. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, good night Kurama," I copied his smile and gave a short wave. On the inside I was still biting my lip.

"Be careful on your way home," he said.

"I will," I assured and watched him turn the corner in the direction of his home. My teeth poked a hole in the fragile skin. I wanted to throw up as the iron taste leaked into my mouth.

Kurama had been right: Hiei was not the least thrilled by the over sized flower bouquet we handed him the day after. Had it not been for the healers' strict order for him to stay in bed, he would have killed the three boys on the spot. -Maybe except for Kurama, since I doubted he would be able to. But at least Kuwabara and Yusuke, who just wouldn't stop laughing. They fell over on the floor, clutching their stomachs and laughed until they cried.

Normally I would have been joining them: A colourful –not to mention gigantic- bouquet in Hiei's arms was just wrong. I would have been laughing had it not been for the fact I was barely able to even look at him. I remained right by the door and licked the inner side of my bottom lip where I could still feel the tiny, open wound from the night before.

Closer to the bed, Kurama was starting to have a tough time keeping his chuckle down to a minimum thumb-biting one as Hieh threw his breakfast plate at the two morons, proceeding to follow it up with the bouquet next. However, what he hadn't expected –none of us would have– was that Kuwabara grabbed it –caught it mid-air actually, really quite impressive– and threw it back.

It hit Hiei square in the face and with flower petals raining about him and his puzzled look to top it off not even I could keep from laughing.

"Finally," Yusuke grinned.

"What?" my laugh quieted down as I gave him a confused look.

"No no, nothing," Yusuke smiled lopsidedly, waving his hands lazily. Not moving in on the subject any further and completely disregarding my puzzled stare, he walk over to stand by Hiei's bed, joined by Kurama and Kuwabara, asking how the little demon felt and filling him in on news from the past five days.

At some point Hiei was close to setting fire to what remained of the flower bouquet, but all in all it was a successful visit: No one had died. On the way out Yusuke sent Hiei one last teasing grin and Hiei swore he was going to kill him as soon as he was released from the spirit hospital, so perhaps I spoke too fast.

I was the last one to leave the room, grabbing the handle I hesitated, looking down at my own hand clutching a gold coloured round door knob. I didn't turn as I pushed the door close. I could do nothing but stand there, staring at my hand leaning on the pale pink door.

"Hey..." I said slowly. "Are you really okay?" I didn't really dare to turn, but did anyway, forced my feet about. I stared at the white pillow supporting his back, not letting go of it as I stepped closer until I stood right by his bed. I cursed mentally at my shaking hands and pulled in a deep breath.

"I'm s-"

"Hnh. How pathetic."

I jerked at his words, my eyes ripped from the pillow to stare at him. His crimson ones gazed back at me and in his dark pupils I could see my own reflection: A speechless, wide eyed, scared, pathetic little girl. Perhaps a little hurt too.

"You think too highly of yourself." His voice so callous. "If you think these wounds were because of you, then you truly are a stupid human." Hiei looked out the window at the eternal clouds of the spirit world. "Don't make the mistake of believing you're so great that this was all because of you."

I stared at him. There was no clock in the room to count for how long, but it was no less than a millennium, I was sure. At long last Hiei turned, maybe to deliver another lemon sharp comment, though I do not know. For he was kept silent by the sight that met him. I was smiling.

"Thank you."

His eyebrow twitched.

"I have decided," my gaze softened. "I will continue training and grow stronger. I understand that it might be more than I can take. But I have these powers and I- ...I want to use them."

To tell the truth I didn't expect him to answer, and couldn't help but smile wider when he did.

"Hnh."

How much you can call that an answer depends though.

None of the others had asked me any questions when I returned. They had waited for me by the portal that would take us back home. I had greeted them with a smile, ran the last few steps and flung one arm around each Kuwabara and Yusuke's shoulders.

The following two days I just barely managed to stay awake at school as the entire evening was spent training and I thus had to catch up on homework during the night. And even if my transforming was not back on its feet yet, I tried not to push it.

«Hey Fai, Koenma said he wanted to speak with you.»

I looked up at Yusuke. «Okay.» I expected to get one of the communicators or something but the detective didn't hand me any. A little confuse I added: «Like, right now, or...?»

«He said he'd put up a porta-»

A shimmering hole appeared between us. Yusuke stared.

«That was fast,» he whistled.

«He's never that fast with us,» Kuwabara sulked. And I wasn't completely unimpressed by the baby ruler suddenly being so on time either.

«Don't you know it's unpolite to keep a lady waiting?" I stuck my tongue out at him, quickly stepping through the portal before he could come up with any sort of physical or verbal retort. On the other end however, I faced the last person I expected right then.

«Hn,» was his greeting.

«What are you doing here?» I wondered, catching my balance after the portal-journey. He shrugged.

«Ask Koenma. He's the one who brought us here.» As Hiei said this the gigantic door into Koenma's office opened.

"Wonder what he wants with us -what the...?"

An enormous wave of sheets and paper welled through the doorway.

"What the-?" I was long buried in paper before I got to finish my sentence. Hiei on the other hand had escaped the paperslide (landslide - paperslide, get it?^^ ...okay, I suppose you get it).

Hiei hn-ed, smirking slightly and ever so teasingly. He stood by the wall completely unscathed by the paper. I glared back and pushed my way free from the gigantic heap. -Or rather; I tried to, but found it more difficult that what I had expected. I looked up. Somewhere behind all this was the little spirit world prince buried alive.

The imaginary picture made me laugh and the shaking of my body made the paper slide a little bit more so it threatened with covering my poor face. So however much I hated it, I looked to Hiei. "Help?" I asked. His eyes narrowed and glinted and I'm sure his smirk widened, but thanks to a sheet half blocking my view I couldn't be sure. That was perhaps for the best.

"Koenma!"

Both Hiei and I jerked in the direction of the voice. And what we saw was Botan rushing through the hallway on her oar. She slid to a stop – if that is possible in the air – and first now she spotted me.

"Fai? Oh my, are you alright?"

"I don't know, let's see," I said sarcastically as the worried grim reaper got off of her oar and hurried to my rescue. "I feel terrific," I concluded, as she began shovelling sheets of paper away from around my head. "Just like lying on a warm beach with a nice soda in my hand."

Botan smiled at my joking and after a ten minutes time she had freed me from all the paper.

"Thanks Botan." I breathed my lungs full of air and felt like I had been reborn, like the world had cleared up its colours and I felt oh-so light.

"I'm glad you're alright," Botan said, eyeing me up and down to make sure there were no injuries.

"Yes, thank you -" I smiled an overly polite nod at the grim reaper "-and it's all thanks to you, Hiei." poison dripping from my every word. Hiei stood with his arms crossed at the receiving end of my glare, and as the skilled antisocial jerk he was, he coldly shrugged it off without difficulty.

After this I chose to ignore him as we somehow cleared up a path into the room and found Koenma. We cleared the area around his desk and were all four soon standing in a paper-cave, with a small tunnel to lead the way out. And if we look past the fact that we all knew the paper could cave in at any minute, it was rather nice.

However, it didn't stay nice, because now Koenma began talking. And what he told us was not very pleasant. Perhaps some of the reason to my over reacting was due to... actually I wasn't sure. Regardless of what was the reason I was in growing danger of become the reason for the paper to collapse again:

"And how do you plan we do that?"

"You'll have to figure out that yourselves," Koenma sighed, braiding his fingers with each other.

"There's no way-" I breathed in deeply "-I'm gonna let him into my head willingly!"

"He'll have to let you in too," Koenma pointed out. Not that that really helped.

"Even so, it's impossible. Like hell I'm trusting that guy," I pointed at Hiei. The fire demon had his arms crossed – I had a feeling he had stayed like that the whole time from outside the room and until now – and he was demonstratively glaring at some random document in the wall.

But even though my words were angry, my stomach began churning uncomfortably. I was reacting more on habit, than actual feelings. Hiei had save my life back then, and I owed him for that. And after the visit at the hospital I had even felt like we somehow had gotten a tiny bit closer. Now my stupid auto-pilot anger was ruining it all.

Biting my lip to silence myself, I stared at the floor, not sure whether I wished to kill it or sink into it.

"Fine," I muttered. "I'll give it a try."

"Good," Koenma nodded. "Hiei?"

The fire demon snorted. "With her?" he gave a short laugh.

"Hey, just swallow your pride for once and say you'll give it a try," I snapped. He smirked. Apparently I was the only one who thought we had gotten closer. So much for my bad conscience.

"You will remain the only one stupid enough to do that."

"What?" I glared at him. "Do you believe I'm doing this because I've started to trust you? Think again Three Eyes. I'm doing this for the sake of growing stronger."

He looked at me. "If I team up with you I will become weaker rather than stronger."

My face was one big, red tomato of fuming anger.

"That's it. There's no way I'm cooperating with this guy," I pointed so rashly to Hiei that I hit him in the head. Not caring the least I left the room. Botan squealed as all the papers shook dangerously as I slammed the door shut. -Though I didn't hear it. I was too busy walking down the hallway to find someone who could make me a portal and send me home.

Turned out I couldn't find anyone in the end. So I had no choice but to return and held my head high as I pretended they were not there and jumped through the portal.

I did notice the office being back to itself though, before I returned to my own world. Sadly enough, Hiei had been dropped off at the same place as I.

And the place was not the same as the one I had left from.

"Where... the hell are we?"

In a snap I had forgotten all about being annoyed and ignoring. Hiei didn't look any wiser than I though. In addition he also looked more and more pissed at the fact that Koenma had not been able to put him -well, where ever he wanted to end up.

"Argh, you got to be kidding me!" I groaned. Looking around a little more I decided we should get moving and that sooner or later we had to end up somewhere. And I was double crossing my fingers for sooner. Hiei gave off the feeling of wanted the exact same thing. But hey, what do I know? Perhaps he enjoyed being lost in some random forest, and that cold and dark aura shooting out of him was just his way of being happy. Like I said; what do I know?

"I'm giving up." I slid down onto the nearest stone – which was too small to sit on so I slid further down to the cold snow covered forest ground - "I may have withstood the cruellest training ever, but even my endurance has a limit. And it's freezing cold!" I kicked up a small snow cloud, watching the damned snow flakes dance back down to the ground. And if the cold itself wasn't enough, there was another matter that was starting to get rather pressing too.

Hiei glanced at me. He looked to think it over for a second, but even he had to be tired of walking aimlessly around for so long. He hesitated a second before jumping up in the closest tree – a lot of snow almost hitting me as a result –, an action which he had repeated frequently since we got here. He stayed up in-between the branches for a minute or two before returning. He shook his head once and I sighed.

"You still can't reach Kurama or anyone either?" I asked. He shook his head again. "Too far away," he answered.

"And I who thought you were so strong and skilled."

He glared. I grinned and raised my hands. "Just kidding, just kidding." I wriggled a little in the snow, scanning our never-changing surroundings, a small groan humming through my throat. Except for that, I didn't say anything more and neither did Hiei.

"Let's go," I muttered. "Before my feet freeze to ice and fall off. -It's not funny," I glared at the fire demon and knew he turned away to hide a smirk. Normally I would have got him for that, but right now I was too cold to do anything other than walk. Besides that, this matter was starting to get really urgent to. I struggled up from the snow, and must have been frowning or something, for Hiei was looking at me.

"What?" I said, a little harsher than intended, but who were to blame me? Hiei shrugged, looking away again. Okay, so he obviously knew something was bothering me, and he didn't even bother to comment on it. I stared at him. Glared. He kept on looking awa- oh. Guess this was his comment on it.

I'll admit I had to battle an uncomfortable blush when realising he already knew what the problem was. Well, I tried to tell myself. It was not like it was anything to get all sheepish about, but still. I excused myself, saying I'd be right back, and wandered quickly off among the trees. Just too bad there were no leaves to make for a better place to hide. So instead I walked until I had obtained a fair distance between me and him before I did what all of nature's beings have to every once in a while.

Meanwhile I humoured the thought of whether or not he wouldn't have to go soon, but decided not to dwell on it as I finished, and halting a bit, stuck my hands in the snow. It was painful behind comprehension as I rubbed them against each other a little, each snow flake a tiny needle, but at least I felt a little better as I ventured back to my waiting fellow team demon.

And so we walked on, not really talking and not really looking at each other.

"We're gonna freeze to death," I commented hours later. It had grown dark, and we had found and seen nothing but snow, snow –and guess what? More snow. "And I'm gonna catch a serious cold -if I don't die first." I looked at the miserable little heap of twigs I had collected. It had been a helpless attempt in making a fire, and the few, naked branches we had sought shelter under did not provide much cover either. I shivered and froze on the little spot I had cleared of snow with blue hands earlier. Hiei stood next to me, leaning against the tree trunk without a word. He looked out through the naked fingers of the sleeping trees. None of us said anything and small, white dots began falling from the sky. Like a blanket they wrapped the already white layered world into a heavy silence. What life could survive out here?

In envy I thought of the bears and the other animals sleeping deep under our feet, warm and secure. And as I thought of them I felt even colder, wrapping my arms around myself to gather as much warmth as possible. My clothes, rather thin for the season and the sweat from the training earlier in the day, made this a real challenge. And then there was the snow. The white snow, turning blue in the dark. I stared at it. The thousands and thousands of small flakes melted together to make this thick, cold blanket covering all, putting a lid on the world.

We had tried to build a fire yes, but the time of year being winter, the wood wasn't exactly dry. Though the fire-building was after we had walked and walked and walked, and Ifinally had said we just had to face it; we wouldn't find anything or anyone, and if we wanted to survive the night we better try make some sort of heat source. Thus we had spent the last hour not looking for houses or any other sign of life, but for function fire wood.

And so Hiei had climbed the trees, and I stood underneath and caught any branch or stick he broke off and threw down. This activity had gotten me both a little warmer and wetter at the same time:

We had run –I had run, Hiei walking came after- from tree to tree, finding the ones we thought to be most suitable. Hiei climbed and I stretched my arms up, catching all the wood, and after a while this brought very welcome warmth to spread in my legs and arms. It was slight, but it was there.

Then of course Hiei had climbed a tree with a dormant squirrel in it. Neither of us aware at that time, he had found an especially dry twig, breaking it off, but in the process making enough disturbance to wake the tree-occupant. Surprised, Hiei let go of the twig, jumping to another branch. Cold as I was, and therefore not really paying proper attention, tried to catch the stray flying twig, tripped, and landed face first in the snow.

My head had popped up again with a loud gasp, and Hiei had helped pick up all the wood I had lost. He had waited as I brushed off, and with a strange sort of frown on his face he had slowly opened his mouth.

I on the other hand had grinned widely, "apology accepted," breaking him off before he even began. "Now let's make sure we don't die from the cold."

And so here we were, under a tree with a pathetic excuse for a fire at our feet.

Hiei noticed my shivering before I did. -Not that I hadn't been shivering already, but it had gotten a lot worse and I hadn't said a word of complaint for a while. It took too much energy to say anything, and my stiff lips didn't really feel like parting.

His mouth pulled a little, and a small "hn" reached my ears. I jerked startled; something fell over me. "You weak human girl," Hiei muttered. He had pushed off from the tree bending down by the miserable heap of twigs; he examined them for a second.

What had fallen over me had been his jacket-cape and scarf.

He reached a pair of strong hands out and I realized that instead of the normal upper part of his clothes he was wearing a similar style sweater. That made me smile. So even he made some changes for the winter.

Hiei muttered a few words I didn't quite catch. A few more seconds followed before a small, red flame spread across the frozen wood. Soon a warm fire gnawed at the cold twigs. In the red light spreading long shadows about us the fire demon glanced at me with his equally burning red eyes. And for a second I wondered if the fire dancing in them was really just a reflection or if it came from somewhere deep within him.

Hiei sweatdropped. "You really are pathetic," he commented. I was too cold to bite back and had to feel satisfied with a simple glare. "Not my fault I can't feel my fingers," I retorted. Hiei watched me struggle with his clothes, but no matter what I did I couldn't quite figure them out. Finally he got up with a sigh, moved over and said "Sit still or you might tear it, idiot."

I didn't answer. Just obeyed silently. And Hiei stuffed me into the jacket the proper way, finishing off with wrapping the scarf securely around my neck.

"You're being awfully nice," I commented as he pulled away to sit down. I wriggled a little closer to the dancing, warm flames, receiving an "hn" in reply from Hiei.

"If you freeze to death I will be the one to hear about it," he grumbled.

"Aw," I grinned, feeling my fingertips melting slowly. "And here I thought you cared about your new partner."

Hiei glared. Then sighed. He shook his head slowly, staring into the fire, leaving me puzzled at to what that reaction was supposed to mean. But I decided to leave it be.

"What're we gonna do if we don't find the way home tomorrow?" I yawned. Starting to feel warmth spread in my limbs and I was getting dizzy with sleep. The walking – not to mention the training from earlier – was starting to take a serious toll on my body. I yawned once more before Hiei replied.

"Either Koenma or Kurama realizes something is wrong, or we keep walking until we get back." He fed the flames with some more wood to chew on.

"I'll be hoping for the former then. And I hope it will happen fast, 'cause if this weather keeps up, the only transformation I will be able to do is into a snowman."

Hiei glanced at me as I cuddled deeper into his warm clothes. And first now, while I watched a small heap of snow melt by the fire I came to think of it, feeling stupidly guilty for not noticing before: "Won't you be cold Hiei? Now that I have your clothes?"

He hn-ed again and looked dryly at me. "Where was I born?" he asked. I didn't answer. "And besides, I am a fire demon, or have you forgotten?" he added. Those two facts added together would give him quite the resistance to snow, no doubt.

Yet I still didn't say anything.

The picture from a long ago past not belonging to me refused to disappear from inside my eyelids. The freezing cold from the memory gnawed at my bones. My toes curled up in wet socks and shoes.

"Could you make the fire bigger?" I asked quietly. And Hiei didn't point any comments at me or ask any questions. He did as I asked without a word, much unlike his usual self.

"I'm tired," I added after a few minutes of wishing I could sit in the middle of the flames. Though I had to admit that actually doing so would be too warm, even for me right now.

Hiei didn't reply to that either. Not that I expected him to anyway.

He watched as I watched the fire. He watched as my eyelids slid further and further down. He watched as I nodded sleepily. He watched as my head sunk forwards, he watched as I became heavier, he watched as sleep finally took control of my body and pushed it slowly out of balance.

And he twitched as the human girl wrapped up in his clothes tipped to the side, to sink down onto his lap. He stared for a moment at her sleeping face. His lips pressed together. Then he let out a slow breath.

"Stupid human," he muttered, throwing another twig at the fire.

"What the hell?"

Yusuke and Koenma jumped behind Kurama for protection. The fox demon sweatdropped with a nervous laugh. Hiei stood in the background and watched as I tried my best to kick the living daylights out of Koenma. Hiei did not plan on stopping me. Normally because that's just who he was, but this time he would very much like to second my action. Though for his image's sake he had to stay cool of course and therefore he was watching with his hands in his pockets. -Or that was my theory, anyway. Not that this was really what went through my mind as Kurama struggled to keep me off of Koenma's throat, but it would have been if I had heard the exchange of words between Hiei and Kurama after the fox in question had finally stepped out of my way.

"Hiei, she is your partner. Don't you think you should do something?" he suggested with a smile. Hiei snorted.

"For your information; snow-covered forest wandering is not one of my hobbies." A wicked smirk entered his face, widening into a grin as he watched Koenma use Yusuke as a highly protesting shield.

Kurama chuckled and Hiei watched with a pleased expression in his eyes.

What had happened thirty minutes earlier was this:

Hiei and I had awakened -or I had. He looked like he hadn't slept at all. We had walked about in the forest for another two hours (after a rather awkward moment of me staring up into his face from my place in his lap, but let's not get tangled up in the details). Then out of the blue a portal had appeared, and the two of us had jumped through it in perfect unison the very second. -Guess Hiei was just about as fed up of walking around there as I was – and on the other side we had found ourselves face to face with no other than the little baby ruler and the spirit detective with what was left of his crew as we had been missing.

Happy as I was to be back in the warmth I had thanked them for fetching us. After calming down and getting something hot to drink from Botan I had said: "My mom must be worried out of her mind."

To that Yusuke had grinned and told me that I didn't need to worry. "We told her you slept over at Kurama's place."

And that's about when I had realized the truth.

"You... you would not happen to have..." I had slowly scanned every member in the room, ending at Koenma, "...done this on purpose?" I had stared disbelievingly at the baby with his blue pacifier forever stuck between his lips.

"I did not think you and Hiei would be able to cooperate as partners right away, so I thought I would give you a little push in the right direction." Koenma had looked like he thought himself a genius. Too bad I wasn't of the same opinion.

"And you knew about it?" I had stared at Yusuke.

"Well, not to begin with. We got to know it after you had been talking with Koenma. He needed us to cover for you after all."

And that's how the third world war broke out.

"I better not get a cold, or you should really be praying for your life, sucker breath!" I had glared so fiercely at Koenma that even Yusuke and Kuwabara who had currently been standing safe and sound on the sidelines had gotten scared and had backed away.

Holy heavens, that took quite some time to upload this chapter. XD Especially since this part of the story was already done (I still have some chapters left that are done before I have to really start writing again, since this is a re-upload from another site), but there were some things that needed to be changed, and then we cannot ignore the whole school-issue, now can we? But FINALLY all my exams are done :3

Anyhooooow, r&r, pretty please? :D