A Glint in the Snow
By: Abby Ebon
Kuwabara eyed the other boys who were gathered around them. Yuusuke, Kuwabara could tell, was tired.
Yuusuke had stayed up all last night, had to act as if he was wide-awake and had answered the others questions. But being the stubborn idiot he was Yuusuke would never admit to being tired.
No way in hell was Kuwabara going to trust Yuusuke to send them home.
"Urameshi, give me the stones."
Yuusuke turned to look curiously at Kuwabara.
"Why?"
"Your part demon, your tired, and you have no idea what you're doing."
"And you do?"
"More of an idea then you do, you don't 'just brake them', now had the stones over."
"Alright."
Grumbling a bit Yuusuke pulled the bloodstones out of his pocket and handed them to Kuwabara.
The stones were now a crimson black, Kuwabara knew that they had little time left.
Kuwabara narrowed his eyes and forced his spirit energy into the stones, which seemed to shimmer in and out of reality leaving a sick feeling in Kuwabara's gut.
Ripples seemed to form in the air, as a stone thrown into a lake would. Then the Ripples faded and nothing seemed to have happened.
"What'd you do?"
The stones were gone.
Kuwabara opened his mouth to retort when suddenly reality seemed to snap at the sound of a whip and the seven boys had disappeared.
Back in Genkai's temple, everything was unusually quite. Hiei was in a tree outside a shrine window and sitting, arms folded, on a tree limb. Kurama was half-siting and half leaning against the window.
Genkai had gone out, they hadn't asked where.
Hiei stiffened and trained his eyes in the middle of the room. Kurama half smiled while he sat up.
If an ordinary person had blinked they would have missed the seven appearing out of no-where, the person would have probably then written it off as being unobservant or seeing things.
Kuwabara snapped his mouth shut and smirked in triumph at Yuusuke who rolled his eyes.
Kurama cleared his throat, and carefully eyed the five strangers. Hiei was attempting to glare at all five at once, and was doing remarkably well.
Yuusuke turned his head to Kurama and tilted his head.
"Yah Kurama?"
"It's good to see you two are alive."
Yuusuke nodded giving him an ironic smile.
"Good to be alive."
"Who are they?" Interrupted Hiei.
"Heh, funny story that."
Hiei didn't look amused.
"Well best I can figure is one of them is your half brother, and the others just…followed?"
"I see."
"Um…we had to make a deal with them to get them to come."
"Really."
"Yap, when we have to return them, we're going to help them win a war."
"Fascinating."
Kurama sighed softly as Hiei looked between the strangers and Yuusuke. Kuwabara just looked like he wanted to be anywhere other then near Yuusuke, or Hiei.
"Well what are their names?" Questioned Kurama.
"Right, Well the one with the braid is Duo Maxwell, the blond is Quatre Winner, the tall one with brown hair is Trowa Barton, and the one with black hair is Chang Wufei, finally we have Heero Yuy who shot Kuwabara."
Hiei smirked and Kuwabara glared at him.
"They can't seem to understand me, but they understand Yuusuke just fine."
Kurama raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting, can they understand us?"
"Duh." Duo interrupted before Yuusuke to say anything to the pilots.
"All demons can speck with humans no matter the language." Hiei said softly.
Yuusuke shrugged. "Makes about as much sense as anything else I guess."
"I assume your going to make me provide rooms for these boys?"
The pilots jumped and Kuwabara gave a little twitch, but Hiei, Kurama, and Yuusuke didn't seem surprised to see Genkai.
"Well considering we don't have any other options…" Yuusuke muttered. Genkai snorted.
"Idiot. Kuwabara give them the rooms in the hall that no one uses." Kuwabara looked uneasy.
"Alright."
Kuwabara started out of the room but none of the pilots had understood so they had stayed put. Genkai narrowed her eyes in annoyance.
"Yuusuke tell them to go with him."
While Yuusuke spoke to the pilots, Kuwabara waited outside the door. When the pilots appeared Kuwabara was glad to get away from what was sure to be a 'interesting conversation'.
Duo was annoyed. Anyone who had known Duo for less then three days knew not to annoy him. So while Kuwabara led the pilots away from the two mysterious demons (as 'Hiei' had let slip) Duo separated from the group and went back to the room they had arrived in.
"What are we expected to do? Even if we try to honor your promise to help the humans with their war Hiei and I couldn't possibly go with you."
Duo frowned that voice was soft but loud enough to get the owners point across. He hazarded guessed that it belonged to 'Kurama' who Yuusuke had first greeted.
"Even if we could, we only have one gateway left. No one could help us and Koenma may not provide an exit."
Duo knew that was Hiei. The older women who Yuusuke had called 'Grandma' murmured something that Duo couldn't understand.
"I will not take back my word. Even if Kuwabara doesn't. I have to."
"You are being foolish." Warned Kurama.
"Keeping a promise is one thing, practically committing suicide is another."
Duo scrunched up his brow, this was a new voice, a new girl's voice.
"It wouldn't be suicide." Yuusuke sounded unsure but firm.
"Could you in the other world, control you demon side as well as you can here?" Questioned Kurama intently.
"No, I couldn't." Replied Yuusuke in a resigned tone.
Yuusuke's answer had Duo worried and horrified. 'Grandma' said something in a harsh tone.
"Even if we went with you and somehow managed to get past the barrier. We might not be able to keep clear minds." Kurama warned in a harsh whisper.
"We'll talk about it later alright? But I do intend to keep my word."
With his head full of questions Duo quietly slipped away to rejoin the other pilots, he doubted they had gotten too far ahead.
After some frantic searching Duo found the pilots and Kuwabara (who looked a little lost) a few halls down. Just as Duo rejoined the main group Yuusuke appeared nearly crashing into a startled Kuwabara around the next corner.
'Most be a trap door or something….' Thought Duo in surprise.
Yuusuke grinned sheepishly at the pilots and motioned them down the hall he had came from.
"Urameshi-san, was Kuwabara lost?" Inquired Quatre curiously. Yuusuke chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.
"I guess, he's not here nearly as much as me and some of the others."
"Ah." Quatre looked puzzled but Yuusuke hadn't noticed.
"What is this place?" Wufei asked looking around the plain wooden hall, so far they hadn't seen any decorations or symbols.
"It's Genkai's shrine, but we use it to-mhmph!"
Yuusuke's mouth had been covered by Kuwabara's hand.
Kuwabara laughed idiotically while Yuusuke glared at him and bit down very hard. Kuwabara shrieked and waved his injured hand around; Yuusuke made a face at him.
Wufei looked had an irritated feel about him, from his tense shoulders to the pinched look upon his face; Duo only hoped Wufei didn't take out his annoyance on him.
Something told Duo that doing something like that here wouldn't be welcomed, and would likely get them in trouble with Genkai.
Yuusuke finally stopped in a hall that looked just like all the others they had been through.
"These are your rooms. There are five of them so you won't have to share. I'll come pick you up later, or feel free to wonder about."
With a wave Yuusuke strolled off. Kuwabara shrugged and still cradling his injured hand said something to Yuusuke, who started laughing and didn't stop till he was well out of range of their hearing.
AN: Thank you all so much for the reviews!