Yusuke made it up to me by paying for the ten hot chocolates I drank during our Christmas shopping.

We had all gathered, a whole of nine people, a mix of boys and girls, demons and humans, with and without powers, a Saturday morning three days after the incident. Our intention: To finish all our Christmas shopping in one day.

Dream on, yes I know.

"Everybody has money?" I asked.

"Packed," Kuwabara's big sister assured and lit a cigarette.

"Aren't you guys overdoing it a little?" Yusuke asked, hands stuck in his pockets. "It's only Christmas presents, no need to get all-"

The detective found himself attacked by five extremely provoked girls before he could finish.

We glared at him, all five, though Yukina smiled sweetly -probably just scaring him even more. Kurama chuckled, finished the tucking of his scarf and advised the detective not to pursue the matter any further and just enjoy the day instead.

"I am certain you have someone you wish to buy presents for as well," the redhead smiled. "So this is a perfect day to get it all done."

Yusuke sighed, shook his head helplessly, then grinned and grabbed the lead and dived head first into the sea of shops waiting with all kinds of alluring offers.

What followed is that part of a TV series which would have a lot of moments shown meanwhile a song or tune played merrily in the background, as we ran and cheered our way from shop to shop -not always just looking for presents; there were more than enough sidetracks as well.

It was during one of these that Yusuke got the splendid idea of Kurama trying out the dress Keiko and I was currently obsessed with. Being the polite demon he was, he backed away with his hands smilingly lifted, and sweatdropped when Yusuke commented he would surely look nice in it.

"That could be interpreted the wrong way," I noted dryly, making Kuwabara laugh at the detective who in return whacked him hard on the head.

Shizuru came up with the ingenious idea of having Yusuke dress up too, seeing as it was his idea. Kuwabara laughed even harder and Botan threw him into the cross-dressing group too. Shizuru even tried to get Hiei in -somehow she was immune to that aura of his that would send most people running for their lives- and that's when it got dangerous.

Luckily everyone escaped alive and with all limbs intact. Hiei had been close to drawing a spare long knife –which he kept in replacement for his broken katana at the time being- he had under his coat, and hadn't it been for my jumping onto him, and nearly tackling him to the ground in the process, we would have had a major problem with the security tape and shocked sales staff.

The three other males didn't escape though, and by the time we left I had in my possession a camera full of pictures perfect for blackmailing, if need be.

I grinned widely as the three other girls and I exchanged a couple of laughing and giggling glances, watching the mumbling and frowning boys follow after us. Only Kurama had been able to shake it off, or at least he was good at hiding it if he indeed was bothered, and shook his head with a smiling sigh at the two boys with their hands glued deep in their pockets.

"Look over there," Yukina suddenly pulled at my arm. I looked in her direction and spotted a cute looking café at the end of her index finger.

"Good idea," I lit up and soon all nine of us had crossed the street and entered the café. Pushing the door open sweet air filled our noses, made our stomachs growl and wallets nervous.

"By the way," Yusuke broke off our informing Kurama of what to get. "Why is Hiei here?" The fire demon dodged the detectives questioning look. "I never thought this was your kind of thing," Yusuke grinned.

"And it isn't," Hiei replied, arms crossed firmly and an icy stare to match his voice.

"Here you go," Kurama handed everyone what they had ordered and by the time Hiei got his hands on his snack he seemed to forget about us all together, as well as Yusuke got the answer to his question.

He-and the rest of us with him- stared at the fire demon as he began to eat. Then we slowly pulled our eyes to ourselves and found a table to sit at. Yusuke snickered.

"The powers of sweet snow."

I got up. "Where are you going?" Yusuke looked up from his loud conversation with Kuwabara.

"Toilet," I replied. Yusuke lifted a brow questioningly as I took my half eaten gigantic chocolate bun with me. I ignored him, winked at Kurama who smiled back and I left.

Behind the curtain to the small hallway containing the door leading to the toilet, a sharp turn and a sprint through the kitchen later I escaped the premises. The outdoors felt cold after the sweetly smelling warmth of the café. I pulled my jacket closer around me, stuffed what remained of the bun into my mouth and hurried down the street. I tried to ignore all the weird looks at my bun-big cheeks, and by the time I finally finished chewing and could swallow the big lump and breathe fresh air once again, I had reached my destination.

I did what I came to do, using more time than intended and wondered what kind of explanation to give to Yusuke when I returned. "That was one long lasting potty break," he would say and I would need a quick answer to render him harmless.

The bags in my hands jumped up and down and here and there as I began running. My brain worked at top speed; I'm sure the people I ran past could hear the machine tick and buzz. Small clouds of snow beat up from the ground, and swirled around my heals. A small pond of ice surprised me. It sent me skidding and sliding surely several meters. If someone by some unknown reason were searching for me at that moment, they wouldn't need any advanced or special equipments: My scream reached all the way to the North Pole, scared the pole bears and back again.

"Ah! I'm-" I yelped surprised as I crashed straight into something. "I'm- I'm so sorry," I gasped apologetically, looking up.

"What are you doing?"

"Hiei?" I stared. "What are you doing here?"

"That's my sentence," he replied, staring ba- glaring back. I stared back up into his eyes. Red, intense, yet so cold eyes. Like moons tainted red. The ice still beneath me made my stance a wobbly one, the reason to which I noticed the two strong hands holding onto both my upper arms.

"Just a small visit to the toilet, was it?"

My heart skipped a startled beat, I jerked in the direction of the voice.

Yusuke.

He grinned widely. And I snatched my hands away from Hiei's chest. I-

"Idiot," the fire demon growled condescendingly. However, when I looked up I found him smirking. The red eyes twinkled and he looked highly amused.

Well, of course I had seen his evil amusement play across his face before -when Kuwabara burned his fingers and on top of it dropped the cake, for example.

But this was different. It was almost as if-

"You okay?" Kurama offered me a hand due to my wobbly-ness. Yusuke on the other hand was too busy laughing, he didn't have enough breath to cough up the question to be expected in such a situation in-between his gasps of laughter.

I sent him a freezing glare, almost managed to shut him up, even.
When Keiko had managed to slap Yusuke back in respectful shape, Yukina wondered what I had bought. I smiled at her.

"It's for Hiei's Christmas present."

"You're giving Three Eyes a present?" Kuwabara asked surprised.

"Why not?" I shrugged. "It's Christmas and I've got the time, so one present to or fro doesn't really make that much of a difference." I rearranged some of my bags to make it easier to carry. "Besides, he's supposed to be my partner."

"I won't give you any," Hiei said, making the entire group look at him.

"I know," I replied point blank.

Yukina smiled. "I got Hiei a present too," she said.

"Me too," Keiko added with Botan close behind. Hiei stared at them and for a second not even he could hide his shock.

"That's girls for ya," Yusuke sighed. "So soft-hearted."

"You calling me soft-hearted Yusuke?" Shizuru blew smoke rings at his face with a teasing grin. Yusuke didn't have any quick retorts to that.

"Anyway, I got you one too kid, so deal with it," Kuwabara's big sister added, swinging a plastic bag in front of the fire demon's face.

Hiei was speechless. He stared, wide eyed, at us.

"Didn't see that one coming, huh?" Yusuke commented, though that clearly went for him as well.

"What, you didn't get Hiei a present?" Keiko asked. Yusuke was suddenly very busy counting snow flakes on the ground. "What have you been doing the whole day?" Keiko's voice was getting scary. Yusuke sensed the danger stronger than anyone, but there was no escape for him now.

I watched him walk with a nervous grin and hands in pockets as he was attacked by Keiko's lecture, and from every free spot on his arms hung bags. Nine out of ten belonged to Keiko. Kuwabara, walking next to his comrade, was even more packed. He had happily offered to take Yukina's bags who thanked with a smile sending Kuwabara to heaven on pink clouds. Shizuru then meant he should carry hers as well since she was his big sister and watched him with an amused smile struggle under all the bags. She had taken two of them back, but let him carry the rest. The two heaps of bags on walking legs were accompanied by a chuckling Kurama. First now did I discover he had his hands full as well. Right after the beginning of the shopping tour he had politely offered to take care of all Botan's bags. And he carried them in addition to his own. However, true to his fox nature, he had been wise and finished a lot of his Christmas shopping early, so I hadn't bought so much himself this time. The same did not go for Botan.

Even so, the elegant fox demon made the tons of bags look like nothing and like a much smaller and of a more modest size. What else to be expected of the redhead?

I took a few long steps to keep up with the others and grimaced at the pain in my strained hands and wrists under the weight of my own bags. I shot a brief stare at Hiei. Blaming him a little. I knew as well as anybody he would never ever, ever offer to carry anyone's bags. Even so, I still felt a little envious of the four other girls.

With a sigh I had to run to catch up with them, looking forward to coming home and a warm, soothing foot bath.

I didn't get home. But I did get a foot bath, and a probably much nicer one than I could ever have pulled off: Kurama had made it for me. Therefore it also had a calming, sweet aroma rising from it.

We were at the fox' place. His mother was out, and he had just finished preparing tea and cookies for everyone. After that, and a while of chatting, Keiko stumbled across a chess board on her way to the toilet. Thus the boys watched us play on the white and black board in turns, frequently playing with us.

In the end Kuwabara challenged Yusuke to a match. The orange haired goof actually managed to put up a decent resistance, but Yusuke won after a short battle and of course felt the need to rub it in afterward.

He was safe in the victory spot all until he -still in champion mode- uttered the words: "No one can beat me in chess, I'm just that good," with a satisfied grin. Kurama smiled and with light-hearted words challenged him.

Yusuke had stepped dead on a land mine. And even with his talking skills he couldn't get himself out of this one.

"You're such a coward," Kuwabara snickered.

"Would you perhaps like to switch?" Yusuke snapped back, but had to sit down by the square patterned board again. The detective fought bravely, but needless to say the fox beat him and made it look like child's play at that. The four girls and I teamed up with the two boys, but even with the seven of us we couldn't beat the master mind. "Don't look so pleased," Yusuke complained.

"I'm not," the redhead replied and we all knew he lied.

"Come play with us, Hiei!" Botan abruptly exclaimed.

"That's right," Yusuke turned to the glaring fire demon. "You're the only one who hasn't given the game a go yet," he grinned.

"I have no interest in your stupid human games," Hiei growled back.

"Right, I forgot," Yusuke sighed in defeat -however, the spirit detective's eyes were quickly searching for a way or object in the room to force the stubborn miniature demon to play.

"Either you play, or Fai will dance naked for you," Yusuke suddenly said.

"What?" I exclaimed, jumping in my seat at his words. "That's evil, you're making it sound like a bad thing!"

"What's up with him?" Kuwabara broke in, staring at Hiei.
The demon in question was already getting seated by the opposite side of Yusuke by the time I said my last line.

"Hey! You guys're so evil," I pointed an angrily blaming finger at the two of them -mostly the fire demon. He didn't even bother to glance at me.

"What? Did you want to dance for him?" Yusuke sniggered.

I sent him a death glare, trying to suppress a certain burning feeling in my cheeks. "No," I snapped in annoyed protest. "But it's just-!"

"Right," Yusuke pulled at the "i", breaking me off, and watching my beat red cheeks with amusement he broke out laughing.

I glared at him and Hiei in turns, and wanted to glare at myself too for being so contradicting, and letting him get under my skin that easily.

Yusuke's laughter had reduced to his trademark snickering.

A few bloody daggers in the detective's back later I wanted to stomp out of the room and slam the door off it hinges. But I didn't. For once my after-wisdom-voice spoke before I did what I shouldn't. You know, that voice that always says "you shouldn't have done that" or "you should have said or done that or that instead of that" when it's already too late. So I had to make do with taking a seat in Hiei's window sill.

-Besides, normally, storming out of a room after that kind of scene would only give birth to an awkward silence, pauses and glances when finally deciding to return.

So therefore I was forcing myself to ease down sitting in the window, staring out at the dark night sky, ignoring the others to the best of my skill. –Knowing very well Hiei was most likely staring, if not glaring, at me out of the corner of his eye for stealing his sill. Too bad for him.

"Then let's start, Hiei," Yusuke said. Finally recovered from his snickering, I noticed.

"Go easy on him Yusuke, tactic is not one of Hiei's strongest suits," Kurama said, a small but sly smile hid somewhere in his gentle voice.

"Do you wish to loose that precious voice box of yours?" Hiei growled. He really did growl a lot. When I thought about it, he rarely did anything else. Wonder if his throat ever hurt from all that growling?

"Well, tactics are not one of Yusuke's strongest sides either," Kuwabara answered.

"Hey! At least my tactic skills are better than yours," Yusuke protested.

"Oh yeah?" Kuwabara was most likely puffing up his chest at the shouting detective.

"Who won when you and I w-" Yusuke began.

"Then this should be an interesting game," Kurama said as, breaking the two off.

As a "follow-uper" after the check-match (with a rather annoyed loser almost setting fire to the briefing victorious one) we picked up on training again.

And even though I know I have spoken of their training methods before as cruel, cold hearted, evil, inhumane, grotesque and straight down murderous, I take it all back: What they put me through now was way worse than anything I had gone through before.

Even so, they still let me take some small breaks to bake gingerbread men every once in a while. -Might have had something to do with Kuwabara and Yusuke who enjoyed eating them all up before they even made it to the Christmas-biscuit box. And somehow, even if I tried to point out how unimportant that was compared to the training ("you're the ones who want me train this often, remember?") they manage to make it sound like a matter if life or death baking those gingerbread men.

We were also forced to take some breaks due to the up-coming Christmas exams, and as promised Kurama helped me out with the studying.

And in-between all the training, the baking and the reading –and few hours of sleeping- Christmas and Christmas' eve closed in on us with surprisingly quick steps. I couldn't remember a single winter where December had passed by that quickly before.

How I squeezed in time for school in-between it all, I do not know –I didn't even have time to wrap in all the presents I had bought – . Even how I made it to the classroom in the morning was a mystery to me most of the time. I rarely left my seat during breaks, ignoring the weird glances I got for staying in the classroom, giving over to sleep those few extra minutes I had.

"Hey, Fai? Are you okay?" Ichigo sat down next to my desk. She looked worried, staring into my tired face. I smiled back up at her. Or I tried to. Or I think I tried to. I could see the others watch us from a few feet's distance, most likely not to over-crowd what must have looked like a half unconscious, ready to collapse, Fai.

Someone put a hand on my shoulder. Turning around I saw Maka bend over me. "You haven't been yourself lately," she pointed out and Sakura broke in, saying it as it was:

"You look like a half dead rat and if you don't do anything soon, your face will be nothing but big, blue eye-bags." Ichigo and several with her stared annoyed at our pretty friend. But she ignored them, knowing I didn't mind her way of showing concern anyway.

"Why, thank you," I still said sarcastically with a lopsided grin.

"What have you been doing lately?" Maka asked. I shrugged.

"Exam preparations," I said. It wasn't a lie. Not entirely. I just didn't tell the whole truth. There's a big difference there. Big. It's one of my principles to lie as rarely as possible. –I gravely fail most of the time, but well, I get points for trying, no?

Maka sighed. "I see. Well, let's just hope you get a good grade then, so all your hard work doesn't go to a waste."

But just then the unnecessarily loud bell shred to threads any conversation going on, and scarily on time –as always – our history teacher entered the room to begin the last lesson of the day. And history being true to the subject it was… that I managed to stay awake was a true work of art and nothing less than a miracle. Nevertheless I must have been on the brink at some point for a sudden sound sent me in a sky high jump almost across half the room.

"Get down here."

The sound that was not a sound, but rather in my head made me jerk in surprise. -Or as anyone else is the classroom would say it; more like "jump across half the room, tip my chair, and tumble a few steps in the process due to my foot getting caught in the chair" in surprise. It was just barely I kept from exclaiming "Hiei?" out loud on top of it all.

Maka, who sat closest, sent me a sideways lifted-eyebrow-glance.

"Is there something wrong… Miss Fai?" Mr. History teacher's oh-so calm calmness just barely fooled everyone. However, all could see the invisible steam escaping his ears and nostrils; the bomb was set to explode at any moment now for this most rude interruption.

I had to tread carefully, watch my every step and word did I want to escape my doom and leave unscathed from this, with all limbs intact. And right then and there, staring up at my teacher there was not a doubt in my mind that no demon could ever compare to this human being.

Well, except from perhaps Hiei. And being of the not very patient kind, and therefore a constant distraction for my concentration he made it all a lot more difficult than it already was.

I threw a glance at the watch above the door. Fifteen minutes.

Can't you wait fifteen minutes? I wondered. I could just as well have asked the express train to Hong Kong to wait for my tip-tip grand mother in law to get out of bed. And before I could even get close to the door my doom fell heavily upon me:

Detention.

I cursed the very day I got to know Hiei, watching all the others leave the classroom in a hurry. And some of them, sending me small, pitying or grinning glances, didn't make it any better.

When the door finally slid to a close behind them, I reluctantly turned my eyes to the teacher. He, on the other hand, stood calmly by the blackboard, most likely grinning behind the lifted history book; I know I caught a glimpse of pure joyfulness over my misery in his eyes. -But only for a second. Then he pushed his glasses up and preceded to hand me a dozen sheets and tasks and whatnot that I knew we hadn't been working on during class, and after five minutes he declared he was going for a cup coffee.

I was perfectly aware that this was one of his trademark tricks. He would leave the classroom, then stand outside or be in the classroom on the opposite side of the corridor with the door open. But I had no plan of walking right into his trap, and wisely I stayed in the classroom. Not like I had any other choice anyway; there was no other way out of this room on the third floor except the door.

I sighed, muttering to myself as I grabbed one of the sheets. "Just look what you got me in now, you dim-witted fire d-"

"What?"

My chair crashed to the floor for the second time that day. Hiei sat in the window sill next to my seat. He looked at me, the blackboard, the door, the tower of sheets on my desk.

"What are you doing?" he asked rudely mostly toward the heap of paper.

"What does it look like?" I grumbled in reply as I motioned to pick up my poor chair. Before I got that far, Hiei put the sheets afire.

The red, hot burning air ate away at my punishment, and I could just stare. This was a hallucination for sure. How funny, hallucinating and being aware of it at the same time. And if I reach out to touch the sheets now, nothing will happen to me.

I didn't reach out, and as I finally got to the step of which in an incident like this one yells at the guilty one, I found myself too shocked, surprised and stunned to scream.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed hoarsely.

"We need to leave, and those things were keeping you here," he explained simply and – if I'm not mistaken – a little annoyed. But who the hell was he to be annoyed?

"You can't deal with school work the same way you deal with enemy demons," I wheezed at him and hissed with pain as I tried to put out the fire with my bare hands.

Hiei hn-ed as I succeeded in putting out the small fire –and without too much damage to the desk at that. Hurray. Even so, there were still some burns visible here and there and I stared at them as shivers ran down my spine imagining the consequences.

"I'm seriously gonna kill you, Hiei." I said dead-pan serious. And he had better believed it, for his own sake. Roaming the room with my eyes I looked for a solution. And found one: I swapped mine and one of the guys' desks, deciding not to think of the consequences it would bring for him, being both desperate and annoyed already anyways I needed some kind of outlet –however odd or beside the point it might have been.

Even so, my heart still pounded away at the thought of my own consequences; shoving desks all over the place was not one of the most silent things to be doing in a classroom meant for detention to be going on.

Glancing at the door every third second I gritted my teeth and knew I'd stay true to my threat. Nevertheless, I got through it all and could slide back down on my chair with a relieved exhale.

"Are you done?" Hiei asked. I turned around to give him a real piece of my mind after unnecessarily putting me through all of this, but Hiei was faster: "Now let's go," he growled.

"Go where? My teacher's guarding the door."

Hiei lost his normal glare for a second to stare completely baffled at me. And it would have been funny was it at another time, another place.

"Stupid human," the fire demon rolled his eyes, tapping the glass.

"Oh." I looked out the window and down at the ground three storeys down. My stomach twisted a little at the thought of jumping down. "I think Kurama scheduled the 'jumping down from third floor'-training for next week. I've only done the 'jumping from the second floor' part."

"This is why I say humans are weak," Hiei snorted and I would have hit him real hard for it, had it not been for a sound at the door right at that moment and the unmistaken voice of my teacher talking to someone. I grimaced painfully.

"Look," Hiei sounded suddenly a lot more serious. "Do you want to stay here?"

I shook my head, and that was the only thing I had time to do. In the next second the world was upside-down and blood poured to my head and when all I saw was asphalt some several feet away I wanted to scream -however, the strong air resistance choked away any attempt at that.

Hiei landed lightly on the ground and kicked off; moving faster than the average human eye could ever hope to keep up with. I dangled as a useless sack on his back.

"You know," I said when I had managed to get a firm grip of his shoulders and could tell left from right and up from down again. "You never quite were the saviour type of guy."

"And never will be," he retorted, but the air thudded so loudly in my ears I couldn't tell in what manner he spoke. "I don't like the kind that 'rises to the occasion' when someone's in trouble," the demon added.

"In other words: you don't like Yusuke and the others with a good head on their shoulders," I commented. "Well, how 'right' that head is, can be discussed," I added after a short pause.

And for the first time, Hiei hn-ed a short laugh in my head.

The wind hissed and howled in my ears as we headed toward Kurama's house. Or at least that's were I suspected we were off to in such a hurry. After all, we rarely met up anywhere else (by some strange reason), and I could not imagine Hiei whisking me away from the classroom window on his own accord. So the rest of the ride I spent contemplating what could be the problem now, for a meeting to be called together.

Hiei went in for landing again, ran across a roof and jumped off the edge. I could feel his muscular arm tighten its firm grip around my thighs as he kicked off.

«Mind your head.»

«Wh-?»

A wall. It appeared without warning. I didn't have time to even gasp before my head banged straight into i… …t? There was no pain. Had the demons' training made my skin strong as armour?

"Idiot."

I opened the eyes I had closed without noticing. Hiei looked back down at me. An eyebrow lifted, a smirk hidden in the corner of his mouth. He must have swung me down from his back in the last second before I ended up as a squashed bug against the white wood framing the window.

"You..." I said slowly, realising he had actually taken consideration of my well-being.

"If you had lost any more brain cells you would not be smart enough to understand everyday speech," Hiei cut me short. My brain had been programmed on saying "thank you" and I was already half smiling. Then his words broke through and my expression froze. For a second or two I wasn't sure of what to do, but then I glared at him and snorted offended. It didn't help to realise that the small smirk was still hang lightly on his lips.

"What?" I grumbled.

"You are allowed to let go, human," he replied.

That's when I noticed I was clinging onto his black clothes. The fire demon cocked an eyebrow at me. And that's when I fumbled to let go, found no floor to step on, fell and hit the floor seriously hard. And first then did I also realize I had been in his arms and from a fall all the way up from the window sill it was no wonder my head felt like it had been split in two.

From a doorway on the other side of the room someone laughed. And that was when I killed Yusuke Urameshi once and for all.

Kurama served tea. On the other side of the table Yusuke kept a sharp eye with me. It seemed like I had actually really scared him for a change. And it had resulted in him being a little more quiet than usual, so I was as happy as could be. Though I suspect I would have been feeling even better if Kurama had not felt it to be his duty to patch Yusuke back up in shape after I was done with him.

"So, what's happened? Is a powerful demon lose on a rampage, the spirit realm palace under heavy attack or what?" I blew the steam off my tea and looked expectantly from Yusuke to Kurama. The two boys in turn lifted their eyebrows questioningly.

"I am not quite sure I know what you mean," Kurama said slowly, seating himself.

"Well, Hiei seemed in a hurry to get me… here?" by the time I reached the last part of my sentence I was suddenly not so sure of what I was saying anymore. No one looked to be in any particular hurry or worry. And glancing at the fire demon I finally realised it had not been the gathering of the spirit world top gang that was important; but that staying outside my school in longer portions of time was something he absolutely refused to do.

I groaned. Kurama had probably just sent him to fetch me after school for a spirit-un-related pre-Christmas evening.

Kuwabara tipped his teacup just then and getting up with a squeal I quickly offered to go get some paper towels from the kitchen. Kurama thanked, trying to save the table cloth. Walking past Hiei I let my opinion slip: "you could have just slept in a tree or something until I was done. Never seem to bother you at other times" and disappeared into the kitchen. Hiei had completely ignored me, of course.

"Well," Kurama said upon my return and I handed him some towels. "-thank you- there is actually something I would like to ask you." He dried off the bottom of the teacups that had been so unfortunate to have been standing near Kuwabara's, before putting them down again. "Would you like to celebrate Christmas' eve with us?"

I blinked surprised. By unknown reasons I was dumbstruck for two seconds. Then- "Sure, why wouldn't I? That'd be great!"

"Good," the fox smiled. "Then that is settled. I hope your family won't mind-"

"I'm sure they won't."

"-then we will all gather here then. My mother and her husband, as well as my brother, will be out eating dinner and decided to celebrate with a couple of friends-"

"So we will have the place all to ourselves!"

"-very correct Yusuke, and-"

"Could we have a sleep over?" I suggested. Poor Kurama never got to finish his sentences. Yusuke and Kuwabara looked like they liked the sound of my idea quite a lot by the way they lit up.

Kurama gave up trying to finish whatever he was saying, smiled and nodded. "Yes, why not."

And thus this year's Christmas picked up to be the best one yet. So when Kurama asked if we'd like to stay for dinner I was the first to eagerly say yes; with Yusuke and Kuwabara hot on my tail. As the fox looked at the too boys one could practically see his delicate brain spin to calculate how much more food would be needed to satisfy their gluttony. Seconds later he must have found the answer for he got up and headed for the kitchen.

"Where're you going?" Kuwabara wondered across his teacup.

"To prepare dinner," Kurama answered. "Fai, perhaps you would be so kind and go down in the store for me?" He scribbled something on a note. Following he surprised us all by folding it and sending the note as a paper airplane before disappearing into the kitchen.

The airplane landed neatly in my hands.

"You got to hand it to him; he got skills," Yusuke said, whistling a long, low tone.

"No kidding, what a show off," I grinned and grabbed my jacket, scarf and Yusuke's ear and marched out of the house; I needed some carry-power. -All the while the detective in question protesting loudly.

First when we got everything we needed and was on the way back did Yusuke feel it fit to blurt out something I had long forgotten and he obviously just came to think of; "Why are you so cheerful anyways? Aren't your exams starting in two days?"

He could just as well have stuffed my head in the snow and left me there to die.

"You need to calm down," Yusuke sighed, throwing a tennis ball to the wall and catching it as it bounced back. He was lying upside-down on the couch with his legs over the back of it, throwing a glance at me every now and then; Kurama had been generous enough to borrow me his books.

Yes, I had already red on this. Yes, Kurama and I had already been through this a thousand times. And yes, a few days ago I had felt like it was not all entirely impossible- everything taken into consideration (training and what-not). Yet forgetting and being suddenly reminded had made my mind go blank. And upon realizing so I had panicked. And would have known that would not help by the least- had I not been beyond all help already.

Yusuke heaved around on the couch. "Hey, Kuwabara," he said, arms dangling down and leaning on the floor. "Didn't Kurama say something about having Ludo upstairs?"

"Ludo?" Kuwabara said surprised. Yusuke got up.

"Yeah. C'mon, let's play a round. I bet you five lunches I'll beat you." Kuwabara was immediately encouraged.

"Ludo? Wait a minute, you can't plan your way to victory in Ludo. It's all chance," I tried to remind the so victory-sure detective. Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't seem to be listening. "And chance has always been Kuwabara's talents more than yours… -And when did you become such fans of Ludo?" I added in a confused hurry as they were about to leave.

"I'm not, but anything beats watching you freak out," Yusuke grinned, stuck his tongue out and disappeared before I could bite a mark in what he said.

"Hey!" By the time I finally did get up one could already hear the battle starting above. "That's not nice, Yusuke," I complained even if he couldn't hear me. "Yusuke!" I harped on just for the hell of it. I was already feeling depressed, so who was there to stop me? Though by the time I reached the doorway I discovered there indeed was someone there to stop me; someone had grabbed my wrist. Bending it around and up I was stopped dead in my tracks.

"Calm down."

Hiei's low, growling voice. His breath tickled my ear. He had a thing with opposing my inner opinions. His other arm slid around my neck, forcing my back against him.

"It's annoying even having to listen to you, so quit it." A short pause. I could feel the muscles in his chest and shoulders move has he bent even closer. "And besides," he said slowly, as if not sure whether to say it or not. Perhaps he had decided against it. He didn't say anything for another short moment. His arm tightened a little around my neck. Not good. To top it all off, my heart had went racing on for unknown reasons. My back felt all warm and sensitive. His breath brushing along the nape of my neck, his clothes, his muscles, his warmth. His eyes could stare so coldly, yet his body was so warm.

-I stumbled a few steps, having to grab the doorway so I wouldn't stumble straight into it. Hiei had abruptly pushed me away. With a snort he looked down at me (after all, he was taller than me, by a tiny bit).

"Besides," he said again, the all too familiar annoyed, cold tone back in his voice. "If Kurama thought you wouldn't be able to handle-" there he halted for a second "-that exam, then he would have taken more time off to teach you." His eyes narrowed slightly and he turned away. "Really, still after all he did for you; you don't even have that much fate in him. Humans," he scoffed.

However, even before he reached back to the precious window sill and the chance to sit down and enjoy his newly acquired peace and quiet there was a terrible racked by the top of the stairs: The next second Yusuke and Kuwabara came thundering down them.

"You cheated! I saw you!" Kuwabara howled, pointed an accusing finger, stumbled, and avoided a wall by an inch. Yusuke just laughed.

"Where's your proof? You're just angry because I can beat you at whatever I want." He dodged a couch pillow, jumped across a chair and sped off in direction of the kitchen. Halting briefly in the doorway he looked back. "Chess, Ludo, combat, you name it, I can beat you blindfolded," he grinned. Kuwabara let out a roar and galloped after him. The kitchen door slammed close after them with such force I could feel it in the floor.

Then: "Yusuke, what- Kuwabar! Please, stop th- Oh stop it!"

Mere seconds later Yusuke and Kuwabara came flying. Kurama's head popped out the door after them. "I am trying to cook, so please do excuse my rude dismissal," he smiled charmingly. The kitchen door slammed shut for the second time in less than three minutes. And for a second the two morons at the floor forgot their quarrel looking at it.

But then Kuwabara hurled around and proceeded to body-slam the unprepared Yusuke into the floor. There was really just no end to it. Hiei glared with bloodthirsty eyes as they continued loudly around and around the living room.

Unfortunately for Kuwabara he didn't notice the eyes watching them, or Yusuke and his exact location in the living room, and came to knock Hiei down from the sill. Entirely by accident of course, but that was never a good enough excuse for Hiei. With anger fuming as a dark cloud around him he walked after the goofs who scared sprinted off toward the stairs.

I watched them, still standing by the doorway where Hiei had left me some minutes earlier. Slowly shaking my head I went back to the books. But I never sat down, for in the last moment I turned to the kitchen door instead.

I hesitated; didn't want him to mistake me for one of the others. Then I pushed the door open ever so gently and peeked in. "Do you need any help?"

"No, I'm fine, don't worry," the fox looked up from the several kettles and pans boiling on the oven and smiled.

I was about to turn back when I came to think of something else. "Hey, Kurama?" I poked my head back in the kitchen door.

"Yes?" He replied, mixing something in one of the pans.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked, taking a step into the room. Who else to ask than him, right?

"Of course," he sent me a quick, warm smile. Luckily I had developed some sort of resistance through the weeks I had known him, so I was not melting on the floor like so many others I knew would have.

"When someone has one arm tightly around your neck so your back is forced against them, does it count as a hug?" Kurama turned away completely from his kettles to look at me. His green orbs glinted in surprise mixed with a certain amusement.

"As long as it wasn't and enemy, I suppose," he said. "Why?"

"Does it still count if that person uses their free hand to have one of your arms bent behind your back and up to the point where it hurts so much you can't move?" I continued. Kurama's red eyebrows lifted curiously.

"Well, I suppose that depends on the person and whether or not that special someone intended to, or broke your arm." He finished with a smile.

"Right," I said, did a slow 180 degree turn on the spot and walked away.

Pausing one second outside the now closed kitchen door I couldn't help but wonder. What exactly did he mean "depends on the person?" With a drop of the shoulders I realized asking him hadn't helped anything at all. What kind of person is Hiei anyhow?

Flopping down by the books I shot a glance toward the stairs. Hiei was returning and there was no sound to hear from the floor above. Shaking my head a little I had to feel slightly sorry for them. I glanced at the fire demon again and stiffened. "calm down" he had said. "If Kurama thought you wouldn't be able to handle that exam, then he would have taken more time off to teach you." My eyes widened.

Had he actually tried –in his own, awkward way- tried to comfort me?

Haha, that sure took some times before I got around to update. x) Anyhooo, I'll follow the tradition of so many other authors here at ff and say "reviews are love", so go do your thing ;D