Note from author: For all of you that have read thus far: yes I know that the memory is... not right. I don't want to copy and paste stories so I changed it up a bit and did it from Kuronue's perspective instead.-ROSEY

Chapter 8

"What can any of you tell me about a mind controlling demon that went after Grandmother Hiromi?" Hika asked, squaring her shoulders. She could feel the presence—a comfortable, supporting presence—of Charlie at her right shoulder. Before the girl stood the others—Inane, Kuronue, and her family.

As she looked at the people that were her friends and family, Hika noticed that Night and Takji were exchanging unhappy, even worried, glances. It was no secret to anyone that looked that they knew exactly who she was asking about.

"Aye, we know the demon you speak of," Takji finally said in her formal way—the way that she only used when she was trying not to break an order given to her by someone higher up but one that she thought she needed to break. "But we should go inside. This isn't something that should be heard by the wind."

Hika was very worried now, and glad that she now had people to back her up. Not many things made Takji nervous. One could find Takji speaking about her latest heist in the open. She did not fear demons that could listen to the wind.

"Inane, Charlie, Kuronue," Hika's father said, unintentionally bringing attention to himself and the three other students. His face was guarded and his arms were wrapped tightly around his wife and mate.

"I understand you want to help. I commend you all for that, especially you Inane for being able to keep a mind when before noon demons were nothing but legends. But I must insist that you leave this to us demons. I've heard the story. I knew Hiromi personally, though I was but a child when it happened. It isn't something for high school students to hear."

Charlie was the first one to speak after this. "I do not think your concern for me is well placed, sir. You are a bad demon, so you must be able to feel my powers," he said, his blue eyes dark as the moon rose over the horizon to light up the yard. "I am more than capable of protecting myself and anyone under my protection."

To demonstrate this, heat began to collect around Hika and himself. The heat, as Charlie half-closed his eyes to concentrate, grew into a pillar in the sky and then with a blink of his eyes caught on fire from a lamp nearby.

Hika gasped in surprise and looked around her. The fire licked at her skin but it wasn't hot—it was like a cold river licking at her skin, trying to get her to go further in to relax. Even the tree that was near her wasn't on fire. Hika turned amazed eyes on the fire elemental and saw him smiling at her, his eyes still half-closed. Their eyes locked and he moved in. The heat was getting to them. Their lips met as the fire licked at their arms and faces.

He smelled of a fire burning pine needles. It felt as if she was being washed clean by a fire. This, she decided, would be her first kiss. There was no way she could count the forced one of that afternoon as her first kiss. It had been hard and all together horrible. This one—this kiss was all that her romantic side could ask for. It was sweet, gentle. It lit a fire in her that no other male had in all her years.

But at the same time the body was all wrong. He should be six foot eight, a bad demon with a mischievous side. He should bring her presents like a flower for human world, or horses.

Horses? Hika thought as they pulled away from each other

Charlie coughed as the reality of the situation hit them. They could hear exclamations from outside the pillar as someone ran into it, trying to bring it down. They shared a quick, shy smile and then separated from the embrace that had begun at the onset of the kiss.

The fire pillar disappeared slowly, the flames licking up at the sky and then floating away like a bunch of fire-colored butterflies. He had done that just to impress the young bat demon that was still staring at the fire pillar that had protected them and then given them the opportunity to share such a wonderful kiss. Takji, the one who had tried to brave the fire, stumbled forward as the shield vanished. She stepped back and stared at the young man that she had simply assumed had high spiritual powers. The two people that they had feared had been eaten by the fire stood there unscathed. Charlie had not told them he was anything more than a human with high spiritual powers. His shirt covered the binding tattoo after all.

Everyone was too busy coming to terms with the fact that he was a fire elemental to notice the blush that mantled both Hika's and Charlie's cheeks—except Kuronue. He didn't know, like at lunch, why it irked him that Charlie was getting a chance at the young bath demon. As if to prove it to himself, he stepped closer to Inane and looped his arm around her lips.

"Young man," the male bat demon said as he watched Charlie carefully, "What are you?"

"We should go inside first," Tyali said, looking around, seemingly uninterested in just 'what' Charlie was, which wasn't true. She wanted to exactly what he could do in order to protect her daughter, but she wasn't going to let it overwhelm her. "Dear, we have spent more time in the air than we should have with that display. We should let the humans decide after we tell them who we are facing. Night, please lead them into the living room. I must go and try to find something."

"Yes, Lady," Night said, glad to do what the daughter of Hiromi wanted for she had started to feel nervous. With that said, she ushered the 'children' into the house. For all her worry and nervousness, she didn't dare touch Kuronue. Instead she ushered the others forward and gave the reincarnated form of her old boss a wide birth.

It was tem minutes later that everyone was sitting (or standing as with the case of Takji who hovered behind Night's seat, comforting hands on the demon's shoulders) in the living room awaiting Tyali's return.

Hika sat on the couth that had been delivered a week before to make the house a little more comfortable for the demons. They had yet found a way to safely convert the living space into a more demon friendly space. They knew too many people with wings, tails, or wet bodies to allow a meeting space to be unfriendly to demons.

Next to her on her left was her 'father'; on her right an empty spot for her mother. On a bench to her left sat Inane and Kuronue, both who had refused to leave when given the option again once they were seated.

"Charlie is going to help! I can help some way too!" Inane had said indignantly when given the option.

"I have grown up with Charlie. I'm friends with a fellow called Kurama. As he has said, I'm a reincarnation of a demon. I had enough spiritual power to destroy a sensor that Hika had put up yesterday during lunch. And besides, if my girlfriend will help, then so will I. 'Can't let her get hurt after all. I'd never forgive myself." Kuronue had sad after smiling fondly at Inane's absolute dedication to the 'mission'.

Sitting against the wall on the floor, directly across from Hika, though refusing to look at her at all, Charlie thought of the incident of the fire pillar. Her lips had been so warm against his own lips. He, had they had the time and opportunity, might have tried to fid a way to go further and express verbally his feelings. Now he wasn't sure what those 'feelings' were. He was shy again—not sure of human emotions like he had been since he had first opened his eyes as a child. He had known the moment that he'd seen his human parents that this was not what he was supposed to be like. At the time though it had all been so right. Now, he wasn't sure. What if—

He snapped out of his thoughts when Tyali entered the room carrying a dust covered box. His magical senses exploded as a barrier was placed around them. No one among them had created one, and anyone that could feel spiritual powers was also looking around with confused or surprised looks. That is, everyone but Takji, Night, and Tyali.

Tyali ceremoniously placed the box on the table in front of Hika, pulling the lid off as she stepped passed her daughter to sit on the couch. Her black and slightly purple wings folded gracefully as she sat on the couch, making sure not to sit on her daughter's wing that had just recently been healed.

"Has my daughter told you why our family abandoned this house? For that is the true start of this story," Tyali asked as she relaxed back.

"That an ancestor had a half-demon girl child and was spirited away by a fox spirit and female warrior demons," Inane piped up, her gaze on the box like the rest of the company was. Takji and Night exchanged humored glances, unable to keep a small smile from flitting onto their expressions.

The box held a pair of earrings. They leaked energy. They lay on a pile of silks. Silver moons with small stars glittered on the dangles. Hika's and Kuronue's eyes were locked on the 'ear dangles', each having a blast from the past moment at seeing them.

"It's my fault that the children were killed. If I had known how to shield my mind they would be alive," said a young woman, her long black hair pulled back into a braid. She smelled of horses as she should since she had just been riding her own horse like a hell fury in the ring that he had had made her.

"It isn't your fault. That demon made you do it." Kuronue said, towering over the human without meaning to. He held the present he had gotten her behind his back, waiting for the right moment. Sighing he pulled the box that held them from behind his back and held them out to her. "Here, it is almost the New Years."

She took the box and pulled out the pair of earrings and gasped. He could see that she liked them from her gaze. He had spent so much time trying to figure her out that he almost knew all of her facial expressions, having watched them every chance he got. He was about to ask her if her ears were pierced when she brutally shoved the earrings through her half-closed ear ring hole. He stepped forward to stop her from repeating the process but she had already done it. He couldn't help it he smiled. The look of realization on her face was so beautiful and awestruck.

"You will never be victim of a demon with mind controlling powers as long as you wear them, I promise." He told her. And then she was crying against him, everything coming down to that point in which she realized that she wasn't fully at fault. The woman demon that had made them had told him to except some reaction like this because it would clear the mind of the guilt so that she could see the reality of what had happened.

The next few minutes were filled with crying, confessions, and then he was pushing the girl up against the wall, his lips locking with her. A cough from the direction of the doorway brought them back to the barn and away from the heaven area that they had been entering. Audra, Kuronue's mind provided.

"Yoko wanted me to remind you that there is a demon downstairs that needs to be tortured. He may after all have the name of the Demon. Lord Yoko also wants to know if Hiromi would like to join so that she may find the name of the demon." The demon warrior asked…

"Hika?"

Hika blinked out of the memory and looked at her father who had broken through to her.

"Sorry, they are just so beautiful I lost myself in it." Hika said hurriedly before looking away. Sadly, her gaze landed on Kuronue and that only made it worse, especially when their eyes accidentally met. They both remembered the kisses and the reason behind it, but they couldn't believe that it had to do with them. At least, Hika refused to think that. Kuronue was simply confused.

"Yes, Inane. Basically that is the story. Hiromi, my mother, was that human. Takji and Night were two of the women that as you said, spirited us away when I was but ten minutes old." Tyali said with a fond smile at the two other female demons.

"But, the demon that went after Mother Hiromi was before the birth of little ol' me. In fact, it actually caused in a roundabout way m birth. These earrings are the ones that protected my human mother's mind from the Demon for the rest of her life after my father died. But sadly, it was only after the initial attack that these were made for my mother."

"Hiromi was a wonderful human. Strong for a human as well. She wouldn't take any crap from Lord Yoko or Lord—" Night said before pausing and looking from Kuronue to Takji. She wasn't sure if she ought to say it or not. It might just ruin their plans for Hika and Kuronue.

"Lord Kuronue. He was the one that actually captured Lady Hiromi, and if we are not mistaken, was reborn into you boy. It's odd that you go the same name as before, but it was definitely convenient." Takji said at the shocked Inane and mildly surprised Kuronue. She wouldn't elaborate however on why it was convenient.

"Anyway," Night said quickly after a moment of silence, "Lady Hiromi was with us maybe three months when she was taken over mentally. The demon was powerful and very smart. It waited until Kuronue had gotten Hika angry to attack. She was made to watch from inside her own body, unable to control anything. He… the bastard killed all the infants in the castle. They were no older than two or three months." Night's eyes were scary. They had gone pitch black and a black spider had started to appear on her lap.

"Night, we don't need to let Roger out just now." Takji said, soothingly, running a gentle hand over Night's hair. Night snapped out of her hate filled mind and the spider vanished slowly.

"Lady Hiromi was never the same after that. She could scarcely sleep a whole night after it had happened. Not until Lord Kuronue found these earrings. They, when worn, produce a barrier that blocks mental attacks. When not worn they produce the barrier you felt when I entered the room," Tyali finished, looking at the earring cautiously.

"Wait, who was your father then? Another demon from were Hiromi lived?" Inane asked, stilling the room.

Why couldn't these humans not be as curious as cat demons? Hika wondered. The other demons in the room exchanged glances, not wanting to say it. Hika had heard the stories far more often than she would have liked to admit and so, she felt not need to hide the information from the people that wanted to protect her.

"My mother is a half bat demon. Kuronue was a bat demon. Kuronue was Hiromi's lover." Hika finally blurted out, interrupting the silence. "He was killed while on a heist with Yoko. He left my grandmother with child."

The silence grew again for a while as the humans comprehended the information. Once again it was Inane who asked the question that needed to be asked.

"But if this demon that controls minds was after Hiromi, and this demon Kuronue," she seemed incapable of putting wings on the back of Kuronue and realizing that they were the same person, "Then why would he go after Hika? I mean, she is Hiromi's granddaughter, but… wouldn't he have gone after you Tyali?"

"That is a good question, I wish—" Tyali started to lie.

"Don't act like you don't know," Hika snapped, anger getting the better of her. She rose from her seat between her parents and turned to glare at her mother. "I heard you talking with Aunt Night and Aunt Takji last night!" Her mother paled. "And He told me yesterday afternoon when He visited me during lunch. You all—Koenma, Kurama, you, Night, Takji—couldn't just leave well enough alone! Did you ever wonder what would happen if Kuronue hadn't been reincarnated until I was an old demon! I may have Hiromi's soul, but I am not her. I don't want to be her. I want—I want to be able to fly again!"

She could feel hot, angry tears welling up in her eyes and she dashed them away from her eyes angrily. When they continued to grow she sprinted from the living room, stamping up the stairs to her room. She winced as her wing slammed into a wall on her way up before she crashed into her room. She kicked the bedding that still lay on the ground out of the way.

"Get out!" she yelled as her door opened to admit someone. "I just want—" she paused as her eyes landed on Charlie. With his orange hair and blue eyes, he could very well have been a human. He looked as fragile as one as he stood there watching her. But then one would have noticed how sure of himself he was as he slid close the door behind him; how confident he was as he rested back against the door, making sure that no one else came in. It was if he knew that she wouldn't kick him out.

"So, bat, what are you going to do now that you know what you do?"Charlie asked in an uninterested way. Hika found herself moving over to lean against the wall next to him. On the way over, she noticed that the clock read 8:47 pm. It had really been that long since she had awoken? Where had the time gone?

"I don't know. So, fire, what are you going to do now that you know what you know?" Hika asked with a grin. She couldn't help but feel connected to him. They were so similar. They were both kept from what they truly loved—flying and being a part of a fire.

"I'm going to kiss you." Charlie told the girl as he pushed himself away from the wall to stand in front of the girl whose grin had fallen as she watched him near. Their lips met and everything around them disappeared. They weren't in her bedroom or in a world with demons threatening their lives. They were in a life surrounded by a fire pillar that would not let anything hurt them; this world revolved around a heat filled, gentle, sweet kiss. When it ended, Hika's body slumped a bit against her wall. Her eyes slowly opened to meet Charlie's.

"So, bat," Charlie asked. He was a tad bit out of breath, which caused his accent to become more pronounced. "What are you going to do?"

Hika couldn't help it. She laughed, rolled her eyes a little, and pulled him into a kiss that left them both flushed and out of breath. She was backed up against the wall, his body pressed against hers. His hands rested on her waist while hers had looped around his neck. They were about to go at it again when a vibrating sound came from Charlie's front pocket.

Hika jerked as she felt the buzz on her leg. Charlie jumped, for a moment afraid of having been found pressed up against the young woman by her father or mother. That was not something that he wanted to experience. When he realized that it was his cell phone, he dug his phone out and answered.

"Oh, gosh, Mom, I'm sorry! We are hanging out at a friend's house. She got hurt at school buy a guy that wouldn't take no for an answer… Yes, she's alright now… Kuronue and I found her—No, she wasn't violated." Charlie answered, unable to keep from smiling. Quietly he mouthed '20 questions' at Hika who was trying not to laugh or giggle.

"I'll come home in a little. She's the new girl from the family that just moved in… If you want I can get their phone number and then you can check with them to see if they will vouch for me… I'll ask her Mom, talk to you later. Yes Mom. Bye Mom."

Finally he closed the phone and smiled down at the girl that hadn't moved from the place where she had been pushed during their lip locking session not even a foot from Charlie's body.

"You should head home. So should the others." Hika said as she looked shyly at the ground.

"Would you and your family like to come for dinner 'when you are feeling better'?" Charlie asked, wondering if the kisses had meant anything or if it had been just that moment again? Would he ever figure it out? Would he ever truly feel confident in his human emotions?

Hika blinked, surprised, "Why would your mother want to invite us?"

"Well, her logic is that you fed me tonight, so she must feed you and your family sometime." Charlie explained with a small smile.

"I'll see when I can get my wings back into the brace. That'll be when 'I'm feeling better'." Hika told the young man, who nodded in return.

"Hika, if those kisses—"

"You stole my first kiss Charlie. And my second and my third. If you are going to say anything, you can say goodnight and that you will visit again. And that those won't be the end of the kisses—should we both feel the same later." Hika said, a mischievous smile growing on her face. "And maybe give me another before you leave to join the others?"

Charlie grinned and did as she asked. Then he went downstairs, leaving a breathless Hika to smile dreamily ahead of herself. Two days and she had already started to like someone. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad…

Maybe.