|Fai.|

|After all you put us through, are you just going to cower away when it gets a little too tough for you? Did you not promise you would grow stronger, regardless of what I thought of it? But that was perhaps nothing but the words of a naïve child caught in the moment, and nothing you planned to keep.

If that is so, then I suppose you really are a foolish human. A stupid, weak, little human girl, who I do not feel entitled to waste any more time on.|

The fire demon had been in quite a dilemma.

Thinking he might as well use it when offered to him, he had attempted to enter the bed. However, he did not get further than to lean one knee against the soft material before a big, dark spot grew under him.

His clothes were –after all- completely soaked.

He must have left quite a trail through the house as well. Wrinkling his nose, he hoped the fox had thought about that and would do something about it. Not like it was his problem if the fox` mother found out anyhow.

But what to do about his clothes though, was a different matter entirely. He might have been a demon, and whether the bed got wet or not was not really any concern of his. However –believe it or not- even though the possibility was small, demons were and are to some degree able to catch such things as colds, and other unnecessary, waste of time things that come with staying in cold, wet clothes. And he was indeed not interested in catching any of that.

First he thought to wring out his clothes as much as possible through the window. But since it was still pouring down out there, that would do more harm than good.

So after thinking about it for a while, the little fire demon braved the hallway and then slipped into the bathroom. It might not be his problem if some of the other residents of the house found out he was there, but then again he was not up for any troublesome trouble that, with some caution, could be avoided. After all, moving silently enough not to wake humans was not really much of a challenge to a hundreds upon hundreds of years old demon.

Without trouble or disastrous consequences he had managed just fine to wring out his clothes in the bathroom, and hung them from various free spots in the guestroom to dry. -Though the cup of tea Kurama had made and left for him the next morning had been more than unnecessary.

Nevertheless, he still drank it.

It smelled sweet. Sweet, blended with a strange feeling of nostalgia. He took a sip, staring out at a gray weather hanging heavily outside the window. It was the same tea Fai usually preferred when she was here.

He sighed, without really meaning to.

The heavy breath of air swirled the calm steam from the tea everywhere, making it vanish for a few moments before it slowly raised toward the roof again, in that same endless, calm manner.

It took him all day to finish off the hot drink; that somewhere along the way of course turned cold. And when a car pulled up outside and the unmistakable redhead came walking minutes later, there were still some remaining drops at the bottom, swirling slowly as the demon's hand moved ever so slightly.

He drew himself away from the window and decided to slump back onto the bed, as there, after all, really was nothing better for him to do right now.

He listened as more humans arrived and from the scents arising from downstairs he guessed dinner was being prepared, and the better part of half an hour later he heard the chatter indicating they were all gathered around the small, wooden kitchen table.

Hiei turned onto his side from having stared at the roof the last hour.

The sword lay next to him, half hid underneath the soft covers. He sighed, almost soundlessly and in spite of himself. He had begun sighing a lot more after she entered their group. Looking at the dimly glinting metal he frowned. She was nothing but a bunch of trouble and source of boundless annoyance. Honestly.

There was no watch in the guest room, so the little fire demon could only guess it had passed another five more hours before a red haired figure entered the room quietly.

He walked the entire distance between the door and the window without saying anything. Once there, he looked out, seeming as if he was looking for something for a moment, but Hiei knew he was only looking at the clouds for next day's weather, so he didn't bother turning around or getting up.

Finally the red haired one inhaled with that distinct sound that always comes when someone after a longer or shorter period of quiet decides to share what they have on their minds.

"Are you hungry?"

Hiei jerked and the exhale of a brief, breathed chuckle sounded from the window.

"Not what you expected?"

Hiei did not reply, though the fox knew he had hit right. But he spoke nothing of it. He knew Hiei had grown tired and weary to the point of anger from all the questions of how he was doing and how Fai was doing and if there were any new signs or not. Not that so many dared to actually ask how he was doing, but the air was always there, the question at the tip of everyone's tongue as they exchanged rapid, unsure glances, and in those eyes that would linger on him when they thought he did not see. However, -and this even surprised Kurama himself a little- the fire demon had kept from giving his anger an outlet and getting all up in a fit regarding this matter.

"You have stayed in here the whole day, have you not? A mere cup of tea can't possibly have been a satisfying meal. I can bring something up for you if you like?"

Hiei sat up, peering over at the fox and Kurama smiled back at him. "I will take that as a yes then," he said and added an "anything else you would like?" before closing the door behind him –when not receiving any reply to the latter.

It took Kurama only ten minutes down in the kitchen before he returned to Hiei with a decent amount of food to satisfy any hunger the fire demon refused to mention. Then it took another short hour until the house had fallen completely still.

Hiei was staring up at the roof again. Outside light rain drops hit against the window, though the demon knew they would cease in a twenty minutes time. The air and the sounds told his senses so. Had humans only had the senses of a demon they would never again need to listen to the words of a meteorologist -and even they were not right all the time.

|Fai.|

It was warmed than I remembered. The world. Or maybe had winter just come that much closer to summer while I had been gone.

My eyes fluttered opened, gradually stirring to life as it felt like my body opened up to all the impressions of the wake universe. A moment I thought I had forgotten how it was done.

My eyes, tucked safely in the dark for so long, felt sore to the light slipping through the lids as I slowly regained knowledge of how to part them. But when they were finally open it took me longer than I remembered it should take to make sense of what I saw around me, and to distinguish light from shadow.

Everything was nothing but a blur and a mix of things I did not understand. It must have taken minutes, a whole hour maybe, before my surroundings stood clear to my eyes. But when they finally did, I could not recognise where I was, and I wondered in silence if this was my room.

For a while I simply sat there, all the while blinking gently every other second in a weak attempt to soften the light burning an aching through my eyes into my head and settling there.

But it was dark out. Was that night perhaps?

I recognised a window. I recognised what it was and that the light searing open wounds in my mind came from the street lamps out there. Streetlamps. I knew what they were too.

Two crimson red eyes were looking at me. From my left. They did not stare, just observed. Somewhere inside I knew he had been asleep half a minute earlier. I sensed it while not in human form, if you will. He could not have slept very deeply.

Took you long enough.

I jerked a little. The simple movement sent a dull ache through my muscles. But he had not spoken the words. His mouth had not moved the slightest. Nor had he thought it. It had just been the feeling of the words. It was the feeling of that thought, shared in a connection I had not noticed had been maintained.

My lips parted.

How long…? But no sound came from them. Instead a sting rushed through my dry mouth, my tongue and down the muscles of my throat. Not pain exactly. But not comfortable either.

"Don't bother. After three weeks it would be a wonder if your muscles worked as they used to. You should sleep."

He had sat up while saying this, and while I perhaps normally would have been surprised at him apparently actually sleeping indoors and on this thing, that was nothing but the feeling of a faint memory. Like a dull tug at my arm that this was how I should have reacted, how I would have reacted. The me from three weeks ago. But thinking back now, that me was as distant and unknown to me as the millions of lights glinting in the black night sky.

Three weeks.

Shrouded by a hazy mist the memories of that distant life lay at the outer border of my consciousness, right out of reach to closer observe who I was. Or am. Or am supposed to be.

All the while those eyes watched me. And when I felt a movement in the soft things surrounding me, hugging me, I turned to look at him again. He had left the soft surface, the name for it I could not recall, and was straightening out the layers covering it.

The he looked at me. Long. He was thinking it over. Though I suppose reflecting upon whether to do one thing or the other is quite a waste when the opposite person was as good as a part of your own mind.

He came around the bed. Then he helped me lie down and tucked the soft layers around me. All the while I watched him, no real feelings or expressions surfacing in me. Only faint echoes, whispers, of what I think I would have felt, once upon a time.

"Sleep," his gruff voice ordered me softly, emphasized by his thoughts.

Was I supposed to feel surprised at this? At the tone in his voice?

He frowned.

The demon frowned as the girl lay indifferent on the bed in front of him. The girl who was empty and neutral regardless what happened around her. He bent down, slowly, leaning his forehead to hers.

|Sleep,| he demanded again.

And it was not hard. To make her drift into sleep, that is. With the state she was in she did not have much will for herself at all. Then, as her main conscience faded he gently fed her impressions, conversations, memories. Small things from life, the ordinary things. But he was careful so it would not be too much. There would not be much required to send her frail mind back to the depths of the bottomless black.

Lost in the contact linking their minds and the memories flowing between them, one hand slid up along the girl's neck to rest at her chin. Fingers distantly brushed stray hairs from her face, soothed across the skin gently as fingertips tangled with her hair.

"And I suppose you intend to keep insisting this girl means nothing to you?"

Hiei spun around. He had already been about to gently end the flow between them, though now this was cut short and all his attention was abruptly flung toward the other end of the room.

Kurama smiled as he stood casually leaned in the doorframe, his arms loosely crossed. The crimson eyes glaring at him did not make him flinch by the least. Instead he unwound his arms and pushed off the frame with a sigh. "I had hoped this would not happen," he admitted, letting his gaze slide along the sleeping form under the covers. "But it is no surprise either. She has been bound in darkness without any form of impressions reaching through to her for three whole weeks. It's a wonder she is even this much aware of who she is."

"That only goes to prove-" Hiei started, but was sharply cut off by the redhead:

"Goes to prove what? That she was never strong enough to join us?"

The fire demon glared again, but said nothing as he passed the fox to head for the stairs. As he had already motioned to leave the room but without any particular goal in mind, he had nothing better to do than go see what these humans kept in their kitchen and whether or not it was edible.

Kurama watched Hiei leave, hands in pockets, dressed in Kurama's own trousers and a t-shirt several sizes too big. The fox smiled a little at this. Even though it had been one of his older ones, it still did not fit his tiny friend. Then his face fell silent again and he let his voice reach through the air once more before retreating to his bedroom for sleep:

"Or that we should have taken better care of her?"

Down in the kitchen the demon went through all the cupboards and the refrigerator just to close them all again and return upstairs without a word. And without a word he entered the guest room and closed the door behind him. Without a word he crossed the few feet separating him and the bed, looking at the creature sleeping there.

She had not moved. Not an inch. Had he not heard her quiet breath she could have been mistaken for dead.

The fire demon reached out a hand, fingers gently touching the girl's forehead, brushing along the soft line of it, before resting against the smooth skin. He frowned. Her body was still not producing the proper warmth for a human being.

She didn't look like she was dreaming. Her form simply lay there on her back on the bed which was only slightly wider than a regular single bed. Her long, brown hair lay draped across the pillow, like wild rambler plants. But that was also the only aspect by her form that could hint to the spirited and eager person she once was. The rest of her was calm, borderline to emotionless. The fingers slipped from her forehead and the demon retreated slowly to the window sill.

That night he did not sleep.

There was a racket by the door. The demon's head snapped in that direction. Kurama had left one and a half hour ago, so this could only mean trouble.

In the time it takes to turn a handle the fire demon had jumped off the sill, grabbed the still sleeping girl and in a moment of extraordinary insight, slipped under the bed. Which was, for the record a rather narrow place for two people to stay hidden. And that meaning narrow both in space between floor and bed-bottom and the width of the bed in question. However, in said moment of insight he had realised that if Kurama was not at home, that meant one of his family members wanted to come in, and as they knew nothing of the current people occupying the room, it could only mean they needed something from this particular part of the house. Conclusion: To hide in the closet at the other side of the bed which could provide them with better space, would only endanger their chances of being found as humans normally stored things in exactly that; inside closets.

And he had been right. Had the –who in the demon's eyes would have the word "idiot" in front of it- detective been there, or any member of their little group really, he –or they- would have been thoroughly surprised with the hot-blooded, stubborn demon's sudden wit.

Though this did not pass Hiei's mind as he watched feet dressed in neat, light green socks, pass by their little hiding place, heading for the closet. While this happened and he listened to the soft sound of female feet against the wooden floor, the female pressed close to him due to their lack of more space was coming to.

Hiei moved his right hand to rest it behind her head to prevent her from making any unnecessarily bothersome sounds by hitting the wooden bottom of the bed located less than half an inch from her, and the left hand he pressed against her mouth. And all the while he glared warningly, his mind only adding to it.

She looked fairly confused, and Hiei was in one minute afraid she would try to break free or make a sound in her throat at being awoken like this, then again, considering the state she had been in when she was awake last time, he was not really sure what she would do.

The female, whom Hiei figured to be Kurama's human mother, appeared to have all the time in the world. At least she did not exactly hurry while rummaging around and taking out and putting back in what the demon from the sounds guessed to be different kinds of fabric sewn to fit different areas of use.

Fai shifted ever so slightly in his grip and he watched with slight horror as her eyes widened and her back arched as all her muscles suddenly tensed up.

He put more pressure on her mouth. But this did not keep her mind quiet and quarter of a second later her thoughts burned into him like hot iron into wood. And that only goes to express some of the mixed feelings rushing loudly through her. On the bright side though, she wasn't as much of a living dead as the last time she had awakened.

It was a miracle they were not discovered and that Kurama's mother could leave as peacefully as she entered. Though the time before she did, had felt like eleven life-times to the demon in hiding.

As her steps faded Fai pushed herself up on her hands, but could regrettably not obtain more than half an inch of space between her and the demon underneath her.

Exactly, underneath her. That's the keyword right there. And here comes the second: She was naked.

(an: It's been ages since I last updated, the former chapter beeing the first after I don't know how many months, and so I would like to dedicate this capter to "Crazy anime chick since 1993" who was so kind as to review the last chapter. I know I didn't reply to your review, but I hope this makes up for it -at least a little. ^^' Thank you so much.)