He was gone in the morning. It was always like that. But this time it felt different. I was all alone in my own head again. And sitting there on my bed, staring at the window I realised I had almost forgotten what it was like, to be the only one in my own mind. For anyone who has never shared their minds, they might never understand. But it could perhaps be compared to first travelling the world and then suddenly being confined to your own home and its four walls only.

I bit my lip. I had no right to complain now; after all, it was I who had broken it in the first place. The connection, that is. But how could I not?

He had been using me. Everything he had said and done, it had all been for the power the link between us could grant him. His memories had told me. One could not get a cleaner evidence or confession,

So why did I still feel so empty?

"I thought it would be too much on her to let her friends visit as soon as they did." The father's arm wrapped tighter around the female. "But it appears they did more than we could ever do. She's a lucky girl."

I had gone back to school. One week after the visit paid by the gang, I was walking on the pavement in the direction of my school. I knew my parents were worried. They thought it was too soon to return to school life; it had been easy to see it on their faces. However, I needed to get moving. To have something to do, something to occupy my mind with, so that I would not do any unnecessary thinking. So I told them I felt just fine and really missed going to school and meet my friends on a daily basis. Of course they let me go when I flashed them the widest grin I could muster without looking fake.

Other people with faces as open books, apart from my parents, were the hundreds of students in my school. The way they sort of quieted a little when they saw me, refrained from walking any closer but at the same time could not pull away, spoke louder than any words ever could. And who were to blame them? I had supposedly been kidnapped and mistreated for three weeks, thinking I would die. It was only a natural reaction on their part.

My friends, my normal, human friends, on the other hand had a much more composed posture. They had after all visited me, and that many times during my week at home too, so they knew what to expect. Regardless, they still seemed a little worried how school would affect me. Clearly, they too were of the opinion that only one and a half week was a little too short a period for the psychical healing required after what I supposedly had been put through.

I felt sorry for them as I watched them trying to mask their worry with ordinary everyday talk, it made me want to laugh a little at them. Not in a mean manner, but thankful and strangely adoring. Like the way one does if a child offers you their half-eaten ice cream after you lost yours own on the ground.

I guess some of the me after the weapon-transformation still remained within me. I still felt a little like I was on the outside of the situation, looking in.

"Did you see the new teacher?"

"Yeah, where on earth does he get his tie-fashion from?"

"I have no idea. Fai, we got this new math's teacher; he is the strangest thing I've ever seen."

See? Ordinary, everyday talk.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I jerked. Maka had put her hand on my shoulder, and now my little gang of friends had turned their faces toward me. They showed an expression in a mix of fright and honesty, as they cast the superficial act of worriless talk aside.

"Yeah," I flashed a smile. "I'm fine."

They didn't look exactly convinced, but didn't want to press the matter so they continued their discussion of the teacher instead. –This time however, a little slower and calmer than before.

After going through the entire school day, Yusuke and Kuwabara had come to pick me up. "The entire school day" mostly consisting of teachers going through about the same scale of expressions as the rest of the student body, -but perhaps a tiny bit more amplified as they were forced to face and converse with me if I raised my hand. They might be grown-ups, and educated teachers, but they had no experience in how to handle this kind of thing. Obviously the teacher's education had a serious glitch in their curriculum.

Yusuke and Kuwabara had been standing by the gate, causally leaning against it, sending a couple of suspiciously staring teachers a mean glare. I sighed. "Don't tell me, you ditched school just to come get me?"

"Nah, just the last period," Yusuke replied, stretching his arms behind his head. I could almost hear the crackling sound of his joints.

"No matter how touching that is, I doubt Keiko will be very pleased about that," I pointed out, and that started a long debate of whether or not to tell Keiko they had dropped school that lasted the entire way to Kurama's house.

I pushed down the handle to the front door. Yusuke commented on something Kuwabara had said and I laughed. I pushed the door open, lifted a foot to step from outside to inside, turned my head away from the two boys to see where I was walking and-

"So you're here too, after all," Yusuke grinned from behind me. "Hiei."

Hiei stood on the other side of the threshold. What he had been doing moments before, I don't know. But he was there, on the other side with the door opening separating us. My foot had stopped midways in the stride, less than an inch from the threshold. I could not put it down.

"Hey, something wrong?"

Next thing I knew, Yusuke had bumped me in the back and with my one foot placed as it was there was no surprise my balance was non-existent. I stumbled through the door opening, past Hiei and inside. Turning around and catching myself with a hand to the closest wall I laughed at Yusuke through a wide grin.

No, there was defiantly nothing wrong.

"There is one thing I have to ask," Kurama said as he followed Yusuke who had set a course for the kitchen the very second his shoes were off. Kurama's speed was a little faster than his ordinary. No wonder though, as whatever food the room held was doomed to last less than three minutes in Yusuke's tender hands.

"How come my home automatically seems to end up as the place for everyone to meet?" -Yusuke was rummaging through some cupboards at this point- "That I would very much like to know," Kurama sighed, as the detective he was talking to did not seem to pay him any attention.

Yusuke came back to the living room with a box full of cookies in his hands, to Kuwabara's great pleasure. And while opening said box and placing it on the table –a slight bit closer to him than the rest of us, of course- he replied smoothly:

"Easy: Because your kitchen holds the most food."

"-And the best," Kuwabara added, cheeks swollen with cookies. Well, to be fair that is actually a tiny bit of over exaggeration, but its close enough.

The poor red-haired fox sighed, and I had a feeling he was considering getting rid of the cupboards' content right that moment and for the rest of eternity. I smiled lopsidedly at him, receiving a light chuckle in return twitching through the corners of his mouth.

Behind me Hiei sat in the window sill. I was very much aware and never once turned my head through the entire evening. He didn't try to come in contact with me either –neither verbally nor telepathically. There was not a single sound of movement from him when Yusuke asked how our connection was doing. He did not say anything when I laughed and lied to the detective. He did nothing but sitting there.

He didn't try to ask.

And I had my bottom lip pressed down upon by my teeth for the most part of that evening, until Yusuke and Kuwabara had finished the box of cookies, talked their hearts out and felt inclined to let the hospitable fox get his beauty sleep. As Yusuke said at the door; "And you obviously make great use of it. Too bad you're not a girl, or I'd've had you ages ago." And he stuck his tongue out and ran off before Kuwabara –and I- could slap him across the head on Kurama's behalf, as he himself just sighed and shook his head.

"Yusuke."

After this followed six more days -the weekend making out two of them- with doing homework at Maka's place in three of those days and dropping my Kurama's place in one. Hiei had not been there. Kurama said he probably had a lot of his own business to attend to as he hadn't been getting much to doing that the past weeks. And it was not like it was much of a surprise, as Hiei would always wander off on his own if we did not need him for anything in particular. But knowing this did not keep me from being overly self-conscious the remains of that day. Yet at the same time, I knew deep down I was bitterly relieved.

Human nature can be a bitch.

It was Monday. Statistics say there are more people who die of heart attacks on Mondays compared to the other days of the week. I think any student understands why.

I was in the north-west wing, the part of the building containing the rarer classrooms of the school. And now I met even fewer people here than I usually would, as most of the student body was outside enjoying the sun-filled early –very early- Easter weather. My friends were also out there somewhere. I had told them I would be okay on my own and was therefore here alone, as my locker happened to be located here in the more seldom used part of the school.

It would only be down here, around the second corner and then-

My head was almost dislocated as I was yanked roughly to the side. My vision spun a short second as I lost my balance, stumbled, only faintly noticed the hand around my wrist, and then felt the wall against my back.

In front of me, with crimson eyes locked with mine, stood Hiei. I stared blankly back at him. My mouth fell open. It was too much of a surprise.

"Why… are you in my school?" Outside was one thing, but inside?

"There was no other place to get a hold of you, as you have been doing quite the good job of avoiding me."

I didn't like how right he was. I had somewhere along the way managed to trick myself into believing it had just been because I did not have any errands at those particular areas, but in truth I had thoroughly avoided any spot in the city where I knew there was a possibility of bumping into Hiei.

I couldn't help a soft snort.

"Appears the roles have been reversed, huh? This time it's me being the anti-social freak and you doing the seeking-out. Who would have thought?" Though it had been nothing more than bitter words mumbled sarcastically to myself, he still heard it. And I supposed somewhere in the back of my mind that had been my real intention.

"I have tried to be patient with you."

Then, before I could properly catch up with what was going on, both my wrists had been caught in strong hands and forced against the wall. My eyes widened only to clench shut as I winced in spite of myself as I was forced against the brick surface. A faint moment I thought I could feel breath tickle against the nape of my ne-

There was a sound to my right. My eyes shot open, I jerked in that direction. Around the corner came four students. Glancing to the side with my heart skipping a nauseating beat, but nothing but the opposite wall met my eyes.

Hiei was gone.

"Hey, are you okay? You look a little bleak."

It was one of the students. They must've been second or third years. It wasn't easy to tell. After all my school consisted of about one thousand students, so one can't really expect to recognise every single one. The one who had spoken looked to have short hair, as it was mostly hidden beneath a cap. But it was clearly a girl.

"I'm fine," I said and faked a smile.

"You sure?" Half her face was in the shade of the cap's brim.

I nodded and the four glanced at each other, smiled at me and walked past me to attend to each their locker. First now did I see where I had been pulled off to: I was in one of the dead-end hallways, crammed with locker-rooms and only three doors leading into three different classrooms.

I didn't notice that the capped student had asked the others to go on without her before she was standing in front of me, eyeing me up and down. "If you want to talk, I don't mind," she said with a smile. This made me laugh a little.

"I'm really okay. Don't worry," I said.

"No, I defiantly think we should talk." And puzzled I did nothing to protest as she took my hand and pulled me into one of the earlier mentioned classrooms.

"He was just here, wasn't he? -Oh, what was his name again…

…Hiei?"

"Wha-?"

I stared. Her back was toward me, her facing the windows closing out the sounds of the outside world. I couldn't move. She flipped the cap off her head. Long, purple hair flowed down her shoulders.

"You two really don't seem to get along very well, now do you?"

There had to be some kind of mistake. The temperature of my body must have dropped drastically. I couldn't even feel my fingers.

"Do correct me if I'm wrong."

And she turned; her lips curving a smile with the head titled at her last words. Waiting. But I didn't say anything. Her rich brown eyes bore into me, sending shivers down my back, having my every hear on an end.

"But I have to admit you have an interesting set of powers. And it's not like you have anyone to wield you right now, do you? How about just giving them to me? It will rid you of quite a lot of problems, don't you think?"

Almost unwillingly, but unable to stop it, I thought of the fire demon. On my wrists bruises were starting to show in dull blue. A sudden feeling of rebellious carelessness cradled my mind; my hand was already half lifted toward her before I realised it myself. I opened my mouth-

But what I was planning to say I never got to know, for at that moment a sharp, shattering sound made me jerk and on a blanket of scattered glass Yusuke landed. And I found myself dumbly staring with wide open eyes and a jaw no longer attached to the rest of my face.

"Geh." Was all I could say: You just don't get much more action movie-like than that. Yusuke dusted off glass from his green uniform. How he himself, in resemblance to all other action heroes, looked completely unscathed would remain a mystery.

"Not the most elegant entrance ever made, but sure packs a cool impact," the detective in question grinned and stuffed his hands in his pockets. But then his face fell serious. "I don't know exactly what's going on, but whatever she told you; don't listen to her. She is one of the bad guys who appeared to have faked as a grim reaper apprentice for inside information." He sighed and tapped the toe of one shoe to the ground as if to fit it better on the foot. "Just heard from Koenma."

And behind him Kurama came elegantly through the window, offering up a greeting smile when he saw me, Kuwabara following not fully as easily behind.

"I'm sorry we had to barge in on your school day like this Fai, however when we heard from Koenma she was and have been attending your school for quite some time, we saw it necessarily to inform you right away." He looked from me to the 'grim reaper' with calm, green eyes. He seemed completely unaffected by the whole scene and said with an easy voice: "And it appears we arrived just in the nick of time."

Yusuke stared at the purple haired girl whose eyes narrowed as she returned his gaze. "What are you doing here?" the spirit detective demanded in a casual sounding voice, just barely letting the threat slip through. She titled her head, chin up and a smirk tugging at her mouth.

"It sounds like your boss is pretty up to date these days; don't tell me you didn't hear from him? I suppose he's not so great after all, huh?"

Yusuke glared. Yet even so, he still remained calm. Standing in a causal pose with hands resting in pockets, the glare was only to detect as a cold shimmer deep in his eyes. And as I watched I knew these were the moments that proved why Yusuke was the leader of Koenma's elite group.

Suddenly the tense air fell. The girl laughed light heartedly. "There is no reason to create a scene here. The window you broke will already cause the school more troubled heads than necessary," and she nodded to the glass covering desks and floor around the three boys. She turned and motioned to leave the room.

Passing by me she patted my shoulder softly. "Fai here is quite the kind-hearted girl, wouldn't you say?" And she closed the door behind her.

A folded, yellow post-it note fell to the floor next to me. On it stood simple words written in black ink that made the blood boil through my veins.

Yusuke himself explained his actions to me later with a grin, that he had always wanted to come barging in through a window, and that what better window to choose than one of a school where he wouldn't have to pay for it (though I also had a feeling he chose a school in general, because of his fundamental distaste of them). Needless to say, the broken window caused quite the commotion and gave birth to more than one rumour –seeing as Yusuke and the others of course didn't get caught. Regardless, no one seemed to speak many words of it as something else had happened simultaneously and of a much graver character:

Maka was missing.

The broken window and her disappearance were, of course, immediately linked together by the teachers, but other than that there were no clues. Then again, she could just be out on a walk to clear her head, -'had she for instance gotten back a test with bad results or something of like?' was one of the explanations the teachers offered each other. But by the end of the day, with no one being able to get in touch with the missing girl, none of them were really put at easy with that.

And less than anyone, her parents.

I could see them by the gate. It was swarming with teachers about them and two police officers. At the first glance I caught of the pair I looked to the ground. It was not my fault. Of course no one was going to say it was my fault. Yet I did not want to risk meeting their eyes. Koenma had contacted us only an hour prior and that I already knew the object of our new mission had surprised him. But he did not have many details to come with yet to lift the grim expression that had grown on my face. All we knew was that demons were involved.

Moving past them with rapid steps I could hear the loud, high pitched voice of a furious, desperate woman. "How could you," I heard her scream.

I bit my lip.

"How come our daughter was the only one missing? How come it took you so long to notice? How come the teachers did not noticed anything?" Out of the corner of my eyes I could see the male holding onto his wife's shoulders. But he was not holding her back.

How could I let this happen? My hands gathered in fists.

He was just as angry as her. His hands were trembling, clasping tightly onto her smaller frame.

I walked away with lowered head. They must have hurried from work. I broke out into a run.

All out if breath I reached the front door of my own home. My home. My front door. My parents were not home from work yet. I gasped for breath. My eyes stung from the long run. I fumbled for the key. Somehow it was difficult getting a proper hold of it and it jingled and rustled violently in my hand. Why did I-

-I was turned around, a hand on my shoulder. My heart skipped in the back of my throat, but it wasn't my parents.

My lips pressed together. I bit the inner side of my cheeks. I hit him. Fists against chest I gritted my teeth and hit him. "It's all your fault!" I slammed my fist against him again. I must have been in a seriously bad shape after three weeks as weapon, for my eyes continued to sting violently from the run. That had to be it.

Tears started rolling down my cheeks; I tried to force them back, but to no prevail. In the back of my mind I could hear my own mother's voice from a memory not belonging to me. She too had asked questions, she too had been furious; she too had had the dangerous quiver of a suppressed cry in the back of her throat, gathering into a thick lump. Now there was someone else, another mother who felt just like she had. And that just because I had failed to pay attention for a short moment of time. If only I had asked my friends to accompany me to the locker-rooms. If only I had decided to drop by my locker at another time. If only-

I pounded my fists into the black clothed chest. The owner grabbed my hands. Yet still I tried desperately to continue, incapable of anything else. "Calm down. Calm down, you little idiot."

"This is all your fault!"

My voice hiccupped; tears flowed into my open mouth. They tasted salt. My hands struggled in his. But my body trembled beyond control now, there was no strength left, and like that my knees gave in.

But I hardly even noticed.

He caught me, a release of my hand and then a quick arm around my waist kept me from hitting the ground hard. He slid slowly down with me. Then my other hand was also released and his free arm grabbed around me. Around my back and around my arms. It prevented me from even attempting hitting him any further as he held me so close, muscular arms keeping my body still against his, my chin resting powerlessly on his shoulder. My eyes stared forwards, not seeing anything but an endless white.

And I cried. Cried for Maka's parents, cried of bottomless anger at myself for allowing this to happen, cried for having being used all this time by him without knowing, cried for how I could let someone innocent get involved in this part of my life. And I cried in endless frustration for actually crying in the arms of this bastard demon who had done nothing all this time than use me for power.

(an: Sorry it took so long. ^^; Hope you enjoyed it though. And if you did, don't hesitate to tell me! (aka, review :3 ) And if you didn't like it, then sitll don't hesitate to tell me. Thankies. :D )