"At least she reacted this time, that's a positive change. And that is more than she did when she woke up the first time."

Hiei gave a mere half grunt in the reply and the redhead shook his red haired head slowly.

"Honestly, I must say I am quite relieved. When she did not react by the least to being in that state of undress the first time I was really worried-" Kurama stopped himself, looked at the girl in the couch wearing another pair of his older clothes than the fire demon already wore, and slowly corrected himself: "-frightened. There is no saying what that kind of state in three weeks can do with a human mind. –And a demon's too, truth be told."

Hiei's left eyebrow twitched ever so slightly at Kurama's change of word. "Are you sure you are not the one with most care for her?"

"Oh, what is this? Is it the first hint of admittance that I hear?" and the fox' eyes glinted. Not in a mean way, just teasing, but still with that gentle touch they always seemed to have. Hiei glared briefly in the green-eyed's direction, but then turned to look at the girl occupying the couch with a book in her hands, again.

"Should we add that she was raped?" Yusuke tipped his head from one side to the other, thoughtfully crushing a potato chip with his front teeth.

"Yusuke," Kurama said with that faltering, oddly twitching 'that's-going-too-far' voice of his. "We do not want to terror her parents more than necessary. They have already been separated from her for so long."

Yusuke shrugged. "Just a suggestion," then a sly grin slid into the corners of his mouth, to then take full possession of it. "Then how about they planned to sell her as a slave?"

"And they had been following her for days already?" Kuwabara suggested. Yusuke sat more upright with a jerk. "And they had body visited her to make sure she was good merchandise, so she has been sitting naked most of the time in a cold store room."

"With blind folds," Kuwabara pitched in. The detective nodded.

"And there are two corrupt policemen who were in on it, who were the ones to help cover up their traces."

"And one of her school teachers."

"But she is too traumatized to remember which."

"Should we cover her in blood before delivering her to the police?"

"How about she-"

"Kuwabara. Yusuke."

The two boys clamped their mouth shut. Kurama kept his eyes on them for a few seconds to make sure his warning had been taken properly in heed, then sighed and shook his head. "However much you may find making up stories entertaining, we will stay with the first version."

"Aw, you're no fun Kurama," Yusuke sulked with a pouting lip, but at another reprimanding glance from the redhead a wry grin popped up on the detectives face.

"Well then, do you have any trouble with it so far?" Kurama looked at me. This whole conversation and planning and discussion had lasted for the better part of an hour, all possible flaws or blank spots filled in and fool proofed several times. There were no holes in the cover-up story anymore. And most of the work was Kurama's doing. No great surprise there, really. And not once had I spoken my opinion. It didn't seem like that came as a surprise either.

I shook my head and then shrugged. "It sounds okay," I said.

It was rather simple. They would place me in one of the deserted store houses at the outskirts of the city, call the police and then those people in uniforms would come get me and I would be reunited with my parents. If the police asked, then all I had understood was that they had planned to cut me up, ship my parts out of the country and then sell my organs.

I had gotten up and walked over to the exit door. It was then that Kuwabara pointed out my clothes –Kurama's old ones- looked rather new in comparison to what I was supposed to have gone through according to our story. After that Yusuke had fetched a kitchen knife and Kurama asked if I was okay with it. I shrugged again, and Yusuke cut my clothes to mere shreds. Even if Kurama's mother were to see me she would not have recognized her son's clothes. And that, Yusuke had remarked, should speak enough for itself of how they looked.

So that's where I am. Sitting on a cold, hard and rough concrete floor, hands tied behind my back and blindfolded. It was a little colder than I had expected. Even though I was indoors, there was no real difference on the inside or outside of this building, and cool breezes brushed against me every now and then and right through my sad excuse for clothes.

But it did not really bother me.

Kurama was the one who had placed me here. He had asked many times over if I was comfortable, and I had replied with a lopsided smile that that was sort of a rhetorical question regarding the substance I was sitting on and the condition of my clothes. However as this appeared to make a worried frown grow between his brows, I hurriedly added that I did not mind and that it would only be for a short period of time after all.

He was back home now, probably welcoming home his family. Family. My mother's eyes were brown. Kuwabara was the one who had called the police, they would probably come soon. Or were my mother's eyes green?

Hiei was about five hundred yards away. Take or give a few yards of course.

It was all a matter of "of course", the evening's earlier events as well. Of course that foul mouthed, hot blooded fire demon had had nothing to do with it. –I mean, come on.

And of course it was understandable that I would forget about such a thing when transforming back after such a long amount of time. But that did not ease the embarrassment by the least.

The space between the floor and the bed bottom was regrettably narrow. I could not obtain more than half an inch between the fire demon and me. To be found in this position would be bad. Very bad. And we were not in my home –something which did not make much of a difference, as being found like this would be really rather bad no matter who were to find us. So regardless of how much I wanted to scream at him, I kept quiet and had to make do with glaring at him and shooting as many searing thoughts into his annoying brain as possible. However, when whoever was in the room had left, nothing kept me from trying to push myself as far away from him as possible.

would you quiet down, idiot? We will never get out if you keep on squirming like that.|

I did not want to quit. Nevertheless, there was a regrettable truth in what he thought and I tried not to look at him as I let my body lower from pressing against the bed so we would be able to squeeze past the small brim at the edge. I tried not to look at him as my chest rested against his. I tried not to look at him as I felt his legs move as he slithered and wriggled us out from under the bed. Legs which had been intertwined with mine the entire time.

And I was naked. Let's review: Naked. Legs in-between each other. Naked. A male demon. It couldn't get much worse.

|Would you see to quit that endless flow of thoughts?|

Despite my best efforts of not looking at him, his thought made me stare briefly at him. My glance was returned and right then that little, stupid fire demon closed a part of his mind from me.

I was no longer sure what frustrated me the most; the naked part or the fact that Hiei just closed part of his mind from me while I remained an open book.

I can understand you don't like this either, but you don't have to go to such lengths to show it,| I growled silently, and as soon as free space was once again obtained I practically dived back in bed and hid everything up to the bridge of my nose with the flower patterned cover, glaring at Hiei from across it.

There were more than just the police and my parents who came to find me. As I was supported out of the building, faking a wobbling unsteadiness on my half, I was met by a blintz and a tape recorder stuck up in my face. Both police and my dad stepped in the way at the same time. And like this I was led to a car, protected by my father and the police, and all the while my shoulder was wet. My mother would not stop crying.

It was all over the newspaper the next day. Well, maybe not all over it, but half of it was covered by a picture of a weak looking girl, half hid behind one woman and two men's figures.

My dad put down the paper the very instant I sat foot in the kitchen, and the two grown-ups looked like they would tackle me to the ground if they could. But my mother kept it to a gentle brush of my cheek with a warm hand and a soft smile imprinted with the three weeks now put behind her little family.

The phone called, and my father was just cut off from giving me what I supposed would be a hug. Instead he sighed then groaned annoyed. "It must be those reporters again. Either it's the police, or some newspaper. They really never know when to stop."

I watched him as he left for the living room to find the phone and give the person on the other end a piece of his mind. Politely, of course.

The police had asked me some questions yesterday, and with the calculated voice fitting that of an exhausted and scared girl, I had told them in as few words as possible what I and Kurama had agreed on. But it was no surprise they wanted more information; it was understandable they wanted to catch these criminals to prevent them from ever doing this to anyone again. If only there were any criminals in the human aspect of the word for the police to catch.

As my father returned with an annoyed frown, I felt a little sorry for the clueless police only trying to do their job.

Another thing about all this was that I was staying home from school. And my parents were staying home from work as well. I don't know if they had been allowed to, seeing as I never asked. But I do not think they would have cared anyhow, whether or not their bosses would allow them to stay at home.

And so those three first days all three of us stayed at home. I think my parents tried to live like normal. At least they talked more or less like normal, laughed every once in a while and did not once even get in on the subject of where I had been, or what I had gone through. Neither did they ask the question "how are you feeling?" straight out.

When they were in a different room or not looking, I would walk around and look at all the small and bigger objects, decorations and furniture of our house. And sometimes, when touching or casting eyes upon something in particular, a new memory would pop up in my mind and be added to the puzzle of who I was. Were. …Had been.

Even though I did not say anything, I knew my mother would wake up many times each night to peek into my room. And when she quietly crossed my floor to gently kiss my cheek and stroke the hair from my face, I pretended to be asleep.

All the while, through these three days, the newspapers and police would not leave us alone. At the third day however, I finally put a gentle hand on my raging father's arm and shook my head with a gentle smile.

"It's okay," I said.

And following those two, simple words, both two police officers and two representatives of a newspaper came by our house that third day. Of course at different hours, otherwise there would be no telling how we would have survived a cross-interrogation that it would have most likely turned into.

On the fourth day my friends came by.

Not the demons and humans with weird powers that would freak out any news reporter on TV, but my other friends. My normal friends. From school. Maka, Sakura, and the others stood at our doorsteps, and the moment I turned the knob to open the door for them and they realised who it was, it only took one and a half second before I found myself in the middle of a big, mass-hug.

They stayed at my place for five hours. And during these hours Maka told me they would have come here the minute the news spread, but they had restrained themselves, understanding that my family most likely wanted to have me for themselves for a while first. And I smiled at them and thanked, as polite was.

However, as they stayed here I got to know something else. It was not something they told me, or showed me. But I re-experienced it, like was it for the first time: The stomach ache that follows with a hundred per cent heart felt laugh.

Perhaps I was out of practice. At least it hurt quite a lot. More than I could recall was normal. But it didn't bother me. Right then nothing could bother me.

"I'm glad to hear you're feeling better." Kurama smiled, taking a sip of his tea and shifting slightly for a more comfortable seating on the couch. My parents had retreated to the kitchen.

About fifteen minutes ago, a quarter of an hour, there had been a knock and a buzz at the door. Twenty minutes before that again, the phone had rung and it had been Kurama in the other end. It had been my father who had answered, and as the phone was in the living room where I had been seated, distantly flipping the pages of a book, I had had no trouble overhearing their conversation.

Kurama had been ever so polite and had made sure with my father many times again it would not be a bother to the family if he and some friends came to visit. He had made quite the convincing act of worry, and had really sounded like he hadn't seen me for three, -now almost four- weeks. Then there was the knock on the door twenty minutes later, where the four guys plus four girls met my gaze when I opened it. One day after my friends from school had been standing at the exact same spot.

So here we were. Drinking tea in the living room while the radio was distantly turned on and this day's edition of one of the city's newspaper lay folded on the coffee table.

Kurama looked at me thoughtfully. Then his eyes slowly shifted to rest on Hiei, who in turn shifted uneasily and gave a sort of annoyed, but questioning snort. Kurama continued to look, chin gracefully rested in hand. -Though the word "look" would barely do it justice. He more like examined us thoroughly with green x-rays.

Yusuke flicked a potato chip from a bowl my mother had offered us ten minutes earlier, up in the air and caught it with his teeth. That's what I would call skills. Or at least I would have before, when I still knew what it f- No, I really felt impressed now. And even though I did not notice it myself, a look of puzzlement and a strange, unsure joy crept across my face.

"About time."

"What is?" I spoke aloud, forgetting myself, and was thereby granted three pairs of tilted-headed glances.

"You're starting to react like normal to what happens around you."

Without thinking, a lopsided grin took control of my mouth. "What's that Hiei? You saying you're glad to have the old me back?" And the teasing sound in my voice was not to be mistaken. Hiei sent me a short glare followed by an 'hn'.

"That pa-"

"I kno-"

"So do somet-"

"Afraid I ca-"

"H-"

"You'll just have to live with it."

Kuwabara's eyes were round, and Yusuke was not far behind. Kurama on the other hand chuckled into his thumb, a look of great amusement on his face.

"You're freaking me out," Yusuke said, looking slowly from one of us to the other. I shrugged, grin widening.

"We can't help it. Thought travels faster than words, so by the time I've formed the first letters into proper sounds, the thought is already done."

"Then why do you even bother using words?" Kuwabara asked.

"Old habits die hard," I and Hiei said in unison. Now this even surprised me. For a split second we stared at each other, and even Hiei showed signs of surprised shock.

"Now that was weird," I said. But Yusuke and Kuwabara however broke out laughing. They must have recovered from their "freaked-out" state quite fast, I noted dryly to myself.

"Old habits, huh?" Yusuke snickered. "Not a choice of words I'd imagine coming from you."

Hiei glared at him and I tilted my head. "I think that was me," I said. "It almost felt like I was talking through him. Like our minds were really-"

"And I think we'll stop there," the detective broke in, hands lifted to signalize a proper stop "there is too much to be confused about with these mental things, and if we dig more into it now, we will all just go crazy and end up at the psycho ward."

"If that happened, then who would beat the bad guys' ass and protect the good?" Kuwabara said, received a glance from Yusuke and exclaimed a "what? I'm just sayin'!"

"That was just too goofy. And if we really did end up there, what walls do you think could hold us back anyway?" Yusuke continued before Kuwabara could come with some sort of goofily exclaimed agreement. "But putting that aside, I propose we make a toast. To Fai, who finally turned back to her old self."

"What?" Whatever expression was on my face right then vanished, and back was the blank, neutral face.

"Well, four days ago you would never have put up that grin you did, three weeks and four days ago, it would not have been anything unusual," the detective explained with a wide smile and tea cup lifted.

Two other cups met his, and Kurama look the liberty of lifting Hiei's cup as well, so three cups would clink into Yusuke's.

"My old self?" I watched them smile at each other and drink the hot tea, Kuwabara wincing a little at the latter. He let his tongue hang out of his mouth with a grimace and Yusuke laughed at him. A small smile began forming on my lips. "I suppose," I said. Then the smile drained away again. "Then..." I said slowly, and the two goofs joking around with each other glanced over at me, at my voice hanging in the air. "Then how about the one I am now? Will I disappear and become someone else? Will my current conscience disappear?"

They fell quiet.

"No," Kurama said. "I understand your train of thoughts, but I don't think that is possible. Think of it as the same way as when you learn something. For instance, if you bike past a house every day on your way to school, then one day you learn the real history behind this house. Maybe a murder happened there. Now you will be different, and the bike ride to school will be a different experience than before, you will think a little differently, but you will still be you."

I looked at him. The fox with red hair and gentle, green eyes. But the sudden uneasy feeling did not leave.

"Think of when you were little," Keiko tried. "Then you might have yelled and refused to eat a certain type of food, even though you were a visitor in another person's home. However, now that you are grown, you would never have dreamed of behaving like that, even if you do not like the food. Regardless, you are still you, are you not?"

"I suppose," I said slowly.

Yusuke sent me a big grin. "Besides, if you changed and became someone else, don't you think we'd notice? And as far as I know, it's still Fai I'm talking to."

Yukina rested a hand on my arm, but it was Shizuru who spoke: "Don't worry so much kid. As long as you've got these dorks around" –and she pointed to the guys, whereas Kurama sighed for being labelled part of the "dorks" and Yusuke and Kuwabara blurted a simultaneous 'hey'- "you'll be okay."

"And speaking of being here for people," Yusuke said when he had to accept it was impossible to get revenge on Shizuru, "you and Three-eyes have remained in that telepathic contact all this time right? How come? Normally you would take first chance possible to break it o-"

"Look what I found!" Botan fell onto Yusuke, squeezing him into the couch while waiving a square, flat box around. "Ludo," she beamed and thus proceeded to pour all the pieces and the dice and the extra dice on the table.

And so the following hours we spent playing Ludo. Playing on teams of two, Hiei watched without participating. He wanted to sit in a window, but I stopped him from carrying out that wish as we after all were in an ordinary house on the ground floor, and I did not want to attract unnecessary attention by having a guy with gravity defying black hair sit in the window sill, staring at by passers like he would jump through the glass and kill them. We did really not need that. So the poor fire demon had to make do with a seat on the couch.

When we started the third round, Shizuru had to leave. She said something about meeting a couple of friends, and a possible job she might want to accept. But then we were one participant down, and one of the four two-man teams would have to be a one-man team.

"How about you play with us?" Kurama tilted his head at Hiei. Hiei glared in the opposite direction. An obvious refusal. However the fox did not feel defeated. "Come now, just one round. We need another player. Or are you perhaps afraid of losing?"

Hiei tried to hide the twitch of the corner of his mouth which we saw all too clearly anyhow.

"Come on," I said suddenly, and without thinking twice, grabbed his arm. His head jerked around to stare at me. I returned it with a smile. "Come on," I repeated. "We two'll play together. Don't be such a wet towel." And we stared at each other, my eyes not faltering the least from his annoyed glare. As I continued to smile at him with dancing eyes I knew he was about to refuse again. But then- even to my surprise he sighed and nodded.

"Just one round," his gruff voice grumbled.

It's because it's comfortable.

He was sleeping in my window again. I normally leave it open while in the bathroom, so that the air in my room is fresh when I go to sleep. Then I half close it and let it stay open like that for the rest of the night. And so, sometimes, when I return from the bathroom, or wake up in the middle of the night, I find Hiei sleeping there.

He's only been doing so for these last five nights since I returned, but I have already gotten used to it. How my mother never takes any notice of him though, is a mystery to me. But then again; he is a demon after all, so that much should only be expected of him.

I never ask him why, and every morning when I wake up he will be gone. But he knows I know he was there. And now he was here again, just like yesterday after the others had left after the visit.

I smiled and instead of heading straight for the bed like I used to, I sat down in the chair by my desk. Cupping my cheeks to rest my head in my hands I watched him. He really looked peaceful where he sat, neither inside nor outside of my room.

We're a team, aren't we? The dim light of the half-moon traced soft shadows across his face. That's why you come every night to watch over me. That's why we continue keeping this connection. I closed my eyes. But it also feels comfortable, doesn't it? A soft, cool breeze brushed along my cheek, and across my closed eyelids. It just took us a while to realize.

I pulled in a deep, slow breath and let myself fall deeper. A team.

Memories. Memories of different kinds. Both mine and his. They floated into each other, the border between them almost erased, blending together as a whole. Delightful memories, memories that would make me laugh, but also harsher ones.

Then there was suddenly one I had never seen before. He was sitting in the darkness of a movie theatre, a sword resting in his lap and against his shoulder. Funny. I could not remember him ever going to a movie theatre, or even wanting to. What little he remembered of the movie itself didn't seem so bad, it was a film I would have enjoyed watching. I followed the memory. It ended up outside a school. My school. Now this was really strange. Had he not made it perfectly clear before that he did not want to stay outside that building a single second longer than necessary? I could not remember a single day where he had waited for a long time for me to join him to wherever we had to go. I could not understand when this was supposed to be from. Had he spied on me?

Then I saw my friends. However, I was not among them. And slowly, slowly I understood what was going on.

This was the three weeks I had been transformed, when I had been gone. After first having thought so, it just appeared more and more to be the truth as I continued to watch closely. Watched as he for a change said yes to a cup of Kurama's tea, watched as he sat in the dark of a movie theatre, watched as he spent long hour after long hour, long day after long day outside my school. Watched him as he returned to my home, watching my parents sit there in the doorway, for hours later to go to bed. Watched as Hiei stayed outside their window until he was soaked to the bone.

All these things he had done. These things he normally never would have agreed to under any circumstances, he had done out of his own free will. All these things he had done, he had done in hope that some of it would somehow reach through to me and pull me back to the world.

Hiei.

I lost myself in the pictures and memories, and floated further and further away, until-

"To grow stronger was your wish, was it not? When you stole the Conjuring Blade of The Three Dark Treasures from the underworld?"

I jerked. Even though it was nothing but a memory, and therefore dim as all memories are, it still sent a chill through me.

"And so if I did?"

That was Hiei. But I could not see the person he was talking to as the fire demon was standing with his gaze resting out a window the entire time.

"Therefore you should be able to understand that teaming up with her will not slow you down. Rather it will give you the power you desired, and that with interest."

"That so? And why should that change anything?"

"Because I know you are the type to stop at nothing to obtain what you want, and what you want is power."

(an: Awright, that was yet another chapter. Now be kind and good readers and review, okay? *^^*)