A/N: Thanks again for the reviews!! It's Christmas in Brooklyn, New York. So what all will happen today?...


"Wakey wakey! Naiiiiimaaaa wake up!" I heard a voice all of a sudden say early Monday morning. I slowly opened my eyes to see that Tarei was hovering over my bed, shaking me in order to wake me up. It was finally Christmas morning. "Good you're up!" she squealed.

"Tarei?" I asked a little confused.

"Li said that we couldn't open our presents until you got up. So come on!" I groaned as I smiled at my sister's overly enthusiastic ways.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming," I yawned as I threw my covers back. I climbed out of bed and followed my baby sister down the stairs.

When I got down there, I saw that I was the last one up. Li, her tiger demon fiance, Katsu, and his son, Haikaru, were already downstairs sitting around the Christmas tree. "Good morning Auntie Naima!" Haikaru said to me with bright eyes as he ran over to me to give me a hug.

"Morning baby," I replied as I huged the seven year old boy back.

"Glad to see you're up," Katsu said with a smile, "now I can see what all your sister bought me." I smiled back as I went over by the tree and sat down too. Almost as soon as I sat down, Tarei and Haikaru tore into their gifts.

"Ohhhh wowwww! The Transformers play set! Thanks Auntie Naima!" Haikaru squealed when he opened the gift I bought him. I laughed out loud. It made me feel good to see him happy.

"You're very welcome," I warmly said.


After all of the gifts were open, I went into the kitchen with Li in order to help her make breakfast. "So Naraku is going to try and patch things up with his father?" Li asked as she stirred the eggs.

"Yeah. I think he's tired of fighting with him," I asked, lining the skillet with bacon.

"I hope that you didn't get offended by what I said about him yesterday. I know he's your best friend and all..."

"Please," I said, cutting my older sister off, "let's not start this today. This is all I've been hearing for the last couple of months. Naraku this, Sesshoumaru that. I don't want to talk about men today." She chuckled as she cracked another egg.

"Alright, little sis. I'll respect your wishes." I could feel her eyes staring at me. I slowly turned my head to meet her gaze.

"What is it?" I asked a little freaked out.

"It's nothing. I'm just admiring at what a strong, mature, beautiful young woman you have become," she said, "I think that father would be proud that he raised such a wonderful girl. That goes for Tarei too." I smiled at Li's sweetness.

"And I think that he would also be happy that you're going to become a mommy soon," I said as I bent down by her stomach. "Wouldn't he huh? Wouldn't he?" I cooed at her stomach while rubbing it. After a few more seconds of bothering my niece or nephew, I stood back up. "So do you know what you're having?"

"No. We don't want to know."

"Well, I hope that it's a boy. Because at least with a boy, he won't be all up in Auntie Naima's business like his mama and his other auntie." Li laughed at my comment.

"Well I hope that it's a little girl, because we already have Haikaru. I just hope that whatever it turns out to be, he or she is as sweet as him." I nodded in agreement.

As we finished up cooking breakfast, the door to the kitchen swung open. Tarei walked in with my cell phone in her hands.

"It's Kagura," she told me.

"Thank you," I said as I took it from her. "Merry Christmas girly."

"Merry Christmas to you too. Have you talked to Naraku today?"

"No. Why is there something wrong?"

"You might want to call him. Uncle Onigumo called my mom earlier today, but mom won't tell me everything that happened. All I know is that you might want to give him a call, because he isn't answering any of mine."

"Alright. Thank you girl."

"Bye."

"Bye." I hung up the phone and immediately dialed Naraku's number. It when straight to his voicemail. I tried again. Still no answer. So I decided to call Bankotsu to see if he had talked to him.

"Hello?" he asked after two rings.

"Hey. Have you talked to Naraku today?"

"No. I tried to call him and wish him Merry Christmas, but he didn't answer."

"That's funny, because Kagura said she couldn't reach him either and I couldn't get him. I hope he's not hurt."

"When's the last time you talked to him?"

"I just saw him yesterday. We went to the Jets vs Giants game together. He then went home after that. He said that he was going to work things out with his father."

"Oh. I see." His last statement concerned me a bit.

"What do you mean by, 'I see'?" He was quiet for a few moments. "Bankotsu? What is going on?"

"Call Muso," was his simple response.

"Why would I call him? I don't even have his number."

"I'm sure that Koga has it."

"Bankotsu, I'm not playing with you. You need to tell me what's going on right this minute," I sternly said into the phone.

"Naraku didn't tell me much about it, but all I know is that he and his dad have been having some extra problems lately. That's all I know. I swear. That's why I said call Muso."

"Hell no. I'm not calling his ass. I'm going to go find Naraku myself. I'll talk to you later." I hung up the phone without giving my good friend a proper goodbye. I grabbed my coat off of the chair in the kitchen and the keys to the Charger Katsu lent me.

"Where are you going?" Li asked me with a confused look on her face.

"Something happened to Naraku and I need to go find him," I said before closing the door.


I rode down the busy Brooklyn streets, looking desperately for any signs of Naraku or his F-150 pickup truck. I check his apartment, his job, all of the places around campus. Still no signs of Naraku. I began to get really worried when he still didn't answer his phone on my fourteenth time of trying to reach him. After about an hour of searching, I pulled over on the side of the road and just sat in the car, thinking of all of the places he could be. 'Think Naima, think. Where would Naraku have gone to?' I drummed my claws on the steering wheel, fighting back tears of anger and fear. Fear because I was worried about him, for I had no idea where he was and anger because I was pissed that he made me worry. After a few more minutes of thinking, it finally dawned on me as to where he would be. In the park near our old middle school. That's where he used to always go in order to clear his head and he would sit on a big hill towards the back of the park. I cranked my car back up and began to drive off to the unnamed park.
When I pulled up in the park's parking lot, sure enough, Naraku's truck was there. I let out a sigh of relief as I saw him sitting in his truck, looking half asleep. Wearing the same clothes that he had on yesterday. I jumped out of my car and went by his window and tapped on it. He slowly rolled down the window as I had my hands on my hips, giving him a very pissed off look. "Naima?"
"Don't Naima me. Why the hell haven't you been answering your phone? You had me worried sick about you. Do you know wh..." I stopped my rant on him for I noticed that something was different about him than yesterday. I noticed that he had a big bruise on his right cheek and a small cut over his right eye. Something that definitely wasn't there yesterday. "Naraku? What happened honey?" I asked, very concerned.

"Don't worry about it dear," he said, forcing a smile.

"It's a little too late for that now isn't it? Come on. Let's go back to the house. I bought you some clothes for Christmas, so you have something over at the house." He began to protest, but he stopped when he saw that I wasn't going to let him say no to me.

"Alright," he said as he cranked up his car. I walked back over to my car and let him lead the way back to my house.


"Now what happened?" I asked Naraku after he had taken a shower and put on the Rocawear sweat suit I had bought him. We were sitting upstairs in my bedroom. He was laying on my pillows and I was sitting with my back against the head board. He sighed deeply.

"It doesn't matter dear," he said, obviously trying to keep something from me. I reached down and grabbed a lock of his hair. I gave it a threatening tug.

"You better tell me and you better tell me now," I snarled at him. He let out another sigh as he began to tell me what happened.


Naraku's POV

After I had finished dropping Naima off at her house, I drove back to the house that I grew up in, in order to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with my father and brother. When I walked through the door, I saw that my handicapped father and brother were sitting down at the dinner table, eating a late dinner. My father was injured during the Persian Gulf War and lost his left leg. He had a prostetic leg put on instead. "What are you doing coming in so late boy?" Onigumo, my father asked me. I looked at him confused.

"It's only nine thirty," I said.

"I thought that you were planning on spending Christmas Eve here with us," he said.

"Dad, you should have known that he wouldn't have time for you," my older half brother, Muso, said with an evil smirk. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Where were you son?"

"I told you that I would be at the game with Naima."

"Is that panther demon more important to you, than your own family?"

"She's practically family, father." He fell silent for a few moments.

"So what are your plans for tomorrow Naraku?"

"I'm going to spend the day with Naima before dinner. She wants me to come over."

"You know, Naraku," Muso said as he ate some of his food, "I don't think that Tsubaki would appreciate you spending all of your time with Naima. No, in fact, after all of the goodies that she gave to you, I think that she'd be quite pissed." I glared at Muso, warning him to shut up.

"Is that how you've been spending my tuition money Naraku? Sleeping around with girls?"

"No father. I've been doing well in school. Plus, Tsubaki is my girlfriend. I don't randomly sleep around as Muso would have you to think."

"So what are you majoring in?"

"Sorcery." My father put down his fork and glared at me.

"Sorcery? What kind of major is that? I thought I specifically told you to major in either combat or swordsmanship. There are no sorcerers in the spider demon clan."

"Kagura's majoring in sorcery too."

"I know. I don't know what my sister was thinking when she allowed Kagura to do that, but no son of mine will be a sorcerer. No, you will be a fighter just like your old man."

"And like me pop?" Muso asked, obviously sucking up.

"Yes son. Like you."

"But father, I'm not interested in a fighting or swords career. I'd rather be a sorcerer."

"Dammit Naraku, as long as you bear the mark of the spider on your back, you will live up to the clan's reputation and learn how to be the best damn fighter in New York!"

"But that's not what I want to do father."

"You know Naraku, I've had this problem with you ever since you were a little boy. When you played football, you didn't want to play defense like the rest of the clan, you took up art as a hobby, and you spent all of your time hanging out with that damn panther girl instead of boys your own age." I began to get a little angry by his comments.

"So what are you trying to say father?"

"I'm saying that you are an absolute disgrace to the spider demon clan. God, I wish I never slept with your mother. Maybe then my marriage wouldn't have been broken up."

"Do you honestly still think that I'm the reason why you and Muso's mom broke up?" I asked, getting angrier by the minute, "I'm not the one who cheated on my wife and slept with my secretary, just to satisfy my own sick desires. That was you who did that father. Not me." As soon as those words left my lips, I felt a fist go across my face. I turned to see that Muso had hit me.

"Don't speak to father like that!" he snapped as he grabbed me by my shirt collar, "it's not his fault that your bitch mother got pregnant. Your existence is a total accident! You hear me?! You are total fucking mistake! It's all your fault that my mother and father broke up!"

"Get off me!" I snapped as I pushed Muso off of me, with him hitting the wall behind him.

"That's enough!" my father yelled, "sit down! Both of you!" I obeyed and sat back down in my chair, seething with anger. "Naraku, why do you continue to defy your father's wishes? I told you when you came back to Brooklyn, that I would pay for your tuition, if you take up combat or swordsmanship and you didn't obey me. Did that panther demon talk you out of it?"

"What's she have to do with any of this?"

"Don't think that I'm an idiot Naraku. Those panthers have a nasty habit of sticking their noses where they don't belong. Have you forgotten that Naima's father was the one who went to court for you and demanded the judge that I take you in after your whore of a mother left you at the hospital. Just like I'm sure that Naima was the one who persuaded you to take up sorcery. What a bothersome bitch. Just like her father." His last statment made me very angry.

"Leave her out of this!" I yelled at my father.

"Or what?!" my father yelled back, "you dare try to go against me?! Naraku don't you know that I hold your entire future in my hands and I could crush it in a blink of an eye?! Don't try me Naraku! Now you have one last chance. Either you take up a fighting major, or I'm not paying your tuition anymore!" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Sorry, but no can do." As soon as I turned him down, my father's cane flew across the table and hit me in the same cheek that Muso hit me in.

"GET OUT MY HOUSE NARAKU!! As far as I'm concerned, I have no other son! Get the hell out!!!" I could feel my eyes beginning to glow red as I got up from the table.

"Fine, Onigumo. You never did care about me anyways. You just took me in because the courts made you. So don't expect me to be too sad about this!" I snapped as I slammed the door behind me.


Back to Naima

"Are you alright Naraku?" I asked, stroking his hair as he finished telling me what happened.

"Yeah. I'm fine," he said, "I don't know why I even tried to patch things up with him in the first place." He sat up in my bed and slid back until he was right next to me. "I don't know how I'm going to pay for school though. My father paid for pretty much everything and I'm not close enough with my family for them to help me. Hell, I probably don't even have a family now. I'm pretty sure that Onigumo told everyone to blacklist me, except for maybe Kagura and her mom. This whole weekend has been shot to hell."

"No, no, no," I said as I laid my head on his shoulder, "you can't be sad on Christmas. I mean, it's Christmas. Things will be okay. Maybe you can apply for a grant or scholarship."

"The deadline's already passed to do that for the new semester."

"Well...you can always work more hours."

"That still won't be enough to pay for my truck, my rent, and school. I might...I might just have to drop out."

"Oh now you're just talking nonsense. You can't drop out now. You just got back."

"Well, what else can I do?"

"I'll help you." He looked down at me with a crazy look on his face. I just smiled at him. "You said that you don't have a family, but you're wrong. You have me, Bankotsu, Suikotsu, Renkotsu, Jakotsu, Tarei, and maybe even Li will come around after she's done with her pregancy issues. I'm sure that all of them will be willing to help you. Hell, I'm even sure that Tsubaki will try to help you. So what if Onigumo and Muso don't want you around. They're not a real family to you as far as I'm concerned. A family is people who love you just the way you are, and that's what you have in me, Bankotsu, Tarei, and the others. We all love you Naraku and we'll do all we can to help you. Especially me. I mean, I just got you back. I don't want you to have to leave again." I lifted my head off of his shoulder in order to look at him. As I stared into his red eyes, I saw a little glint of hope in them. It made me sad to see him going through such a hard time and I hated to see him upset like this. All his life he had to put up with this shit. How he did it, I'd never know. I reached my hand up and ran it over his cheek, trying to console him more. He reached up and put his hand over my hand.

"You're such a good friend, Naima. I don't know what I would do without you." I smiled as I could see that he was feeling a little better. As we stared at each other, I began to feel butterflies in the pit of my stomach. I was confused as to why they were there. What was going on with me? As I thought this, I noticed that Naraku was leaning over towards me. I screamed in my head for I knew that he was planning on kissing me, but my body refused to move so I could avoid it. It was almost like it wanted him to kiss me. But my mind regained control over my body as soon as I felt Naraku's bottom lip brush against my own.

"Uhhhh..." I said, pulling my head away, "ma...maybe we should go downstairs."

"Alright," he said. We both got off of my bed and went downstairs. All the while, I still felt a little guilty for actually wanting him to kiss me.


After a late morning breakfast, Naraku and I spent the rest of the day playing video games on Tarei's new Xbox that Katsu and Li had bought her. After a while of doing that, we decided to go outside and toss around the football for a few mintues until it was time for me to go to Sesshoumaru's father's house in an hour.

"So where are you going to stay for the rest of winter break?" I asked as I threw the ball at Naraku.

"I'm pretty sure that Bankotsu's family will let me stay with them," he replied, throwing the ball back.

"Good because I can't have you sleeping in cars. It's not a good look. Speaking of which, why didn't you just come over here after your fight with your folks. You could have slept on the couch."

"Ummm you do remember what happened the last time we slept at each other's place right?" I laughed to myself, remembering what we told each other about how Sesshoumaru and Tsubaki reacted to me spending the night with him.

"Hey, you might have almost gotten cut, but I got some," I joked.

"Oh don't you just have all the luck," he sarcastically said. I laughed again.

"Let's play one on one," I suggested.

"Alright," he said as he made a line in the snow with his foot, "this is my endzone." I copied him and made a line where I was. I threw the ball back to him.

"Ladies first," I said. He smirked as the threw the ball at me. I caught it and began to run toward his endzone. He was able to tackle me before I reached it. I sighed as I walked back to my own endzone. I chunked the ball at Naraku. He caught it with ease and began to run to my endzone. He juked left and right and ended up crossing my endzone. "No fair. You play football for real," I whined as I crossed my arms. He just laughed.

After a few minutes of playing, Naraku was beating me 17-4. "Alright Naraku, this is the last run before I have to go get ready to meet Sesshoumaru," I said as I stood on my endzone.

"Fine by me. You've already lost. Just like your Jets." I narrowed my eyes at him which caused him to laugh.

"Just throw the ball." He laughed again as he launched the ball at me. I caught it and ran as fast as I could to his endzone. I juked left and right, but Naraku still ended up catching me. I giggled as he grabbed me by the back of my shirt and pulled me to the ground with him. I laughed as I stared up at him while he now sat on top of me.

"I guess I win," he said with a smirk. I smirked back.

"Hey. You can't say that I didn't go down without a fight."

"A rather pathetic fight." I snarled at him.

"Okay okay. You win. Now let me up." Naraku gave me another smirk as he shook his head no. "Come on Naraku, stop playing. I need to go get dressed."

"I let you get away once today. I can't let you get away again," he softly said as he shifted so that he was hovering over me on all fours. His hands planted by my head. "I never really thanked you properly for coming to look for me today." My eyes widened for I knew what he planned on doing.

"Naraku no. I'm with Sesshoum..." My statement was cut short as Naraku leaned down and covered my lips with his. Oh no he was doing it again! He was kissing me! And just like before, even though I knew it was the wrong thing to do, I couldn't help but enjoy it. For some reason...kissing him just felt so...right. But why?! Why did I feel this way when he kissed me?! I didn't love him anymore. I couldn't love him anymore. But I soon found myself beginning to kiss him back and I was actually the one who deepened it. I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought him closer to me. 'Stop it Naima this is wrong! You can't do this to Sesshoumaru!!' , my mind screamed as I passionately kissed the spider demon on top of me. I finally listened to my brain and turned my head, breaking the kiss.

"Naima?" Naraku whispered as he tried to recapture my gaze.

"Get off, Naraku," I said, my voice cracking. I felt overcome by guilt right then. Guilt because I had enjoyed the kiss and guilt because I didn't even try to stop him until now. Naraku obeyed and climbed off of me and sat in the snow looking at me with question in his eyes. "Naraku," I began as I stared at the snow, "we can't do this to Tsubaki and Sesshoumaru. They love us and we're supposed to love them."

"I never said that I was in love with Tsubaki."

"But I'm in love with Sesshoumaru. And I can't hurt him like that."

"Naima. Please. Don't tell me that you didn't feel anything from that kiss."

"Whether or not I felt anything isn't the issue. We are both in committed relationships and it doesn't say much about us if we continue to act like this. Let's just let the past be the past. Okay?"

"But I love you. I love you so much. Please Naima."

"Don't make this harder than it already is Naraku. I got to go. And I think it's best if you do too." I got out of the snow and began to walk back to the house, with Naraku still sitting out in the snow. Man. What kind of mess did I get myself in to? I had just passionately kissed another man, knowing that I was going to see my boyfriend in a half hour. I felt like complete crap right then. How was I even going to look Sesshoumaru in the eye after what I did?


A/N: Hee hee, sneaky Naraku, lol